CHAPTER 23: The Impending Nightmare, Act 2

Seto wanted to scream from the pain that was threatening to overwhelm him.

Noa wanted him to scream; his sadistic smile was as unrelenting as his grip on his katana.

"Man; I already got a free stab off of your carelessness," Noa hissed with glee. "I could easily take your arm off. It'd be quite entertaining watching you writhe about shrieking under the excruciating pain over the loss of your arm as you bleed."

"I would be...entertained if for once...you'd shut the fuck...up..." Seto growled through his grimacing face.

Noa sneered. "This is just disappointing. I honestly believed that you'd be something of a decent fighter since you're a Kaiba, but all I have seen is you having to rely upon that blond friend of yours to help you in your fights. And now that we're alone, you let your guard down so that I could get away with taking a stab at you. I'm really going to have make you suffer for this."

"Good for you." Seto suddenly lunged forward, releasing the sword from his shoulder. As he lunged, he turned on his right foot in a counter-clockwise motion, swinging his left leg out and catching Noa in a leg sweep attack. As Noa tripped, Seto thrust his right foot back, striking Noa on the chin with the back of his heel.

The force of the blow forced Noa to recoil backwards as Seto stepped back three paces, his hand clutching his shoulder tightly.

Noa immediately slumped forward, his eyes glaring hatefully at Seto. Blood was dribbling from the corner of his lips.

Desipite his own, more serious injury, Seto raised and bent his right leg in Right Flamingo Stance, in case Noa attempted another attack.

Noa stared at Seto, until he suddenly turned his head to the side and spat. A small object bounced along the carpet, stopping beneath one of the downed pillars. It was a tooth.

Noa wiped his hand across his mouth. "You son-of-a-bitch..."

Seto smiled. "I told you to shut the fuck up."

"All right; I'll give you that one, smart-ass. Tch, you won't be walking away from this anyway," Noa promised as he sheathed his sword.

Seto slowly advanced. "Hn. If defeating you means having to crawl away, then you're right. I won't need to kill you to defeat this and make you understand, especially since there's still a lot about you I have yet to learn."

Noa smirked. "Not comfortable with the idea of someone knowing more about you than you know about them?"

"I find the idea of someone being a step ahead of me very unsettling."

"Then, you're really going to hate what I'm about to do next." Noa tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword, motioning as if he intended to unsheathe the blade and attack Seto with a single strike.

He feinted; instead taking a quick step forwards then stepping to the side, and made a fist with his left hand and thrust it upwards, hoping to catch Seto on his ribs with the punch. However; Seto moved just as fast as Noa and grasped Noa's wrist, interrupting the elder Kaiba's attack with a parry. As Noa tried to regain his footing from the unexpected maneuver, Seto bent his right arm, stepping forward for added momentum, and drove his elbow into Noa's side, sending him crashing against one of the pillars.

Seto winced as his left hand immediately clutched tightly onto his injured right shoulder as he could feel blood seeping from the wound. Noa, his left hand gripping his side, smiled.

"It's okay if you smack me around for a little while...Ha; won't be able to keep it up forever...if not from that condition of yours, then certainly from the blood loss."

Seto's face grimaced from both the pain and realization that Noa was right. "Then that's all the more reason this should be finished quickly."

Noa laughed as he slowly removed himself from the pillar. "Quickly?! I want to have fun here, Seto! I want to have fun enough that this will be a battle worth remembering!"

Seto appeared disgusted. "You think that murder is fun?!"

"This isn't a murder; it's a justifiable homicide," Noa clarified as he assumed his sword-drawing stance. "Or better yet, 'blood for blood'."

"I didn't kill your father," Seto seethed.

"He was your father too."

"No; he was just a waste of skin that I thought would make a decent father."

Noa relented from his stance, standing still. "So you were desperate for love, were you? Sad, pathetic little boy, mommy didn't want a blue-eyed kid so she dumped you off too?"

Seto answered with an attempted knife-hand strike to Noa's throat. Noa caught Seto's wrist.

"So, it's seems that disparaging remarks about mother pisses you off," Noa observed.

Seto swung his arm backwards, breaking free of Noa's hold and flicked his left leg up in a quick toe-kick attack, striking Noa on his chin. The successful attack also gave some distance between the brothers.

Noa had recovered quickly and closed the distance between them even more quickly, swinging his sheathed blade as if he were striking at a baseball. Seto ducked to the side, his left leg swinging upwards. His heel struck Noa's wrist, forcing the adversary to release his hold on the weapon. He then thrust his palm forward, hoping to slam it onto Noa's chest, but Noa, having apparently anticipated the follow-up attack, intercepted Seto's wrist, thus breaking off the incoming attack.

Seto struggled as he attempted to free himself; Noa frowned and turned, shoving Seto against a wall and placing as much pressure on the wounded shoulder as possible in order to ensure that Seto would not get away.

"NnnnN...!" Seto bit down on his lower lip as hard as he could to prevent himself from crying out in agony from the intense pain.

"I'm being quite serious, little Seto," Noa stated sternly, "Every time I say something negative about mother, you become quite angry. So explain to me why she's so important to you, or else you bleed an agonizing death. And to show that I'm not fucking around—"

Seto's eyes widened as he felt another sudden, sharp pain. He looked down and saw that Noa had pierced his left leg with a rather large shard of the stained glass.

Noa smiled rather innocently, his hand still pinned down on Seto's shoulder. "You didn't think that I'd let you bleed to death from just one wound, did you? The more you refuse the more holes I'm going to stick into you." He leaned closer, his voice hushed to a whisper. "I may just go and scar that pretty face next—or better yet, pluck out one of those pretty blue eyes of yours. What do you think?"

Seto looked away as Noa's clamorous laughter rang in his ears.

Although it happened years ago, I thought I'd talk about my mother.

Most anybody would have considered her to be a beautiful woman, though she had features that would not have been accepted amongst her own people. She had deep sienna eyes, but her hair was white. It was stark white, long and straight. She often let it remain in the way of her face, as I liked to play with it whenever she held me.

I know little of her own past, though I possess her diary. I have not read it as it is currently in a secret place that HE doesn't know about. I hope that I will get a chance to someday soon so that maybe I could understand...

What was she like? Looking from her photos, I have the impression that in her younger years she was a rather solitary woman, and not necessarily by choice. Despite this, however, she was a very kind and gentle woman who cared deeply for me. I can't really recall a time that I angered or stressed her; either because I was that well-behaved or she coddled me. Perhaps it was both.

She was always smiling whenever she looked at me. Her smile was always full of energy and promise of something great to come. She often spent her time reading her novels to me and if I fell asleep she would let me sleep on her lap—she nicknamed me "Hira-Kitty" because I was as playful and adorable as a kitten, and slept like one too (these were her own words). I don't know why I included that; it just happened to come to mind.

Anyway, Mother was not the healthiest woman in the world...she often appeared sickly and weary, though she did her best to gather enough strength to take care of me. I wish I could have been able to tell her that it wasn't necessary and that she could rest and take it easy. She wouldn't have listened anyway I think; she would have made sure that my well-being was top priority. Unfortunately, it caught up to her.

It all started when she got knocked up by this lowlife she had been seeing, who only seemed interested in her because he could exploit her kindness to the fullest extent—I bet he harboured a sort of wariness over her physical appearance. I hated him, and I began to hate mother for allowing herself to be treated this way by him. I wish I could have told her that I loved her enough that she didn't need someone like him. Anyway, she had been knocked up, and they decided to marry but not until their child was born.

However; the birthing process was too hard on her body, and about four days after my half-brother was born, she died. I was there when she died; the charismatic vigour that she often carried with her seemed to have dissipated, but she was as gentle as ever. I was the last person she ever saw, and when she died, I refused to leave her side until one of the nurses came and took me out of the room. The last I saw was that of the doctor pulling the sheet over her face.

It's been nine years since her death, and I'm still angry about it. I'm angry that she had to go and die like that. Call me selfish, or even childish and naïve in that respect, but I don't think I can ever forgive mother for dying; for bestowing all of that kindness upon me only to leave me in a hateful and inconsiderate world that would betray that love she showed me. I think that last one is the biggest reason why I may never forgive her, because she was indirectly responsible for what has happened to me.

Jounouchi looked up, his head resting against a wall.

...he saw her die.

He closed his eyes as the thought settled in.

She sounded like a nice an' kind lady...God; I can't imagine what it must be like to lose someone that loved ya like ya were the most important thing in the world. Especially when ya see it happen.

He slowly opened his eyes, the written words in his view.

No wonder he's so...fucked up. His mother died in front o' him, his father was killed and his adopted father killed himself... an' what did Mokuba also say? Somethin' like how his step-father's relatives wanted to dump 'im off in an orphanage...

Jounouchi leaned his head back against the wall as he reached for his pack of cigarettes.

An orphaned little outcast, an' he wasn't even ten...shit; this is startin' to make some sense, blue-eyes...is that why ya hate yer past so much? Perhaps there's more t'read...

Seto's eyes were fixed onto the floor; he was in disbelief over what he was forced to explain. "Are you satisfied now that you know?"

Noa shook his head. "How could she have been so nice to you, but left me to be cared for by someone else? Now I'm even angrier than before."

Seto raised his head. "So you're going to dig her up and stab at her remains until you feel better?"

Noa narrowed his eyes. "Very funny...I think I'll just take it out on her favourite little boy...that means you, little Seto."

"You were going to try to kill me regardless."

Noa shook his head. "Nope. I'm not going to try this time. I'm going to just do it."

Noa jerked Seto by his wrist, forcing the brunet to stumble towards the side, his back facing Noa. Noa kicked up his sword, catching the sheathed weapon in mid-air; his grip tightly held around the sword's hilt--

--Seto suddenly felt something slicing across his back; he let out a shuddered gasp as he fell forward against another pillar left-shoulder first. His right hand reached around to feel for the source of his newfound pain. He felt a wave of nausea threatening to overwhelm him as his fingers came into contact with a familiar feeling of a warm and rather sticky liquid.

Noa smirked. "First your shoulder so that you can't properly defend yourself, then your leg so that you can't run away so swiftly...and now your back so that you will weaken at an accelerated rate. This certainly is working out very well for me."

Seto had said nothing as he stared at the blood on his hand.

Noa sheathed his sword as he approached Seto. "This outcome was so easy to forecast...my only regret is that you weren't a more competent fighter. But hey; I'm fulfilling father's last request, so you'll have to forgive me if I'm not regretful for very long."

Seto glared over at Noa. "Well; aren't you just so fucking special because you're making your father happy? What if it were reversed? What if he asked me to kill you?"

Noa scoffed, his smile still intact. "You...kill me?" He stared at Seto in a dumbfounded manner, his lower lip trembling.

Seto smirked as Noa began to chuckle.

Suddenly, Noa burst out into a fit of laughter and Seto joined in almost immediately after. Their laughter resonated off of the walls, though Seto's laughter drowned out Noa's own.

Noa suddenly cut his laughter off with a frown. "Please. Knowing you, you'd never want to imagine yourself as being in good graces with father. And even if he chose you over me...I'm more than a match for you."

Seto continued to laugh.

Noa narrowed his eyes. "Are you listening, little Seto? You were a failure from the start! Father probably only kept you around because he wanted to show me what would happen I became as disobedient and disrespectful and ungrateful like you!"

Seto's laughter began to dwindle.

Noa arched a brow. "Are you finally done with your little giggle-fest? I can't believe you can laugh for that long without pausing for air."

Seto finally stopped. "It's a talent."

Noa smirked. "Apparently."

Seto smiled. He suddenly thrust his head forward, knocking his forehead directly onto Noa's own forehead. The impact of the attack surprised Noa and forced him to reel back to the point that the he nearly fell backwards.

"Ow! What the hell?!" Noa cried as he grabbed at his forehead and spread his feet apart in an effort to maintain his balance. "Oh, that just tears it—!"

Noa removed his hand, immediately noticing that Seto was no longer standing in front of him. He exhaled an exasperated sigh.

"Okay, this isn't cute anymore. I'm not in the mood for a game of hide-and-seek! You're dishonouring yourself by playing the coward's card!" Noa called as he continued to massage his aching forehead. "Shit, that really hurts! Where did you learn such a ruffian attack like that?"

Seto could hear Noa's rants from the pillar that he took refuge behind as Noa reeled from the pain of the surprise attack. He smirked briefly before hastily wincing and grabbing his forehead.

Ow! Ow! God-damn! How the hell does Jounouchi pull a headbutt without giving himself a migraine...maybe that's why he's a little slow on the uptake. Shit; I'm surprised I didn't knock myself unconscious.

Seto felt his forehead. Feels a little warm...

Seto shifted so he could remove the pressure placed on his wounded back, and replace it instead on his left shoulder.

Damn...that wound on my back is painful enough to slow me down badly...if I hadn't dodged at the last second, Noa would have cut me into two...he probably expected me to dodge the attack enough so that he could torture me some more.

"Seto! I'm going to find you anyway, so why don't you just come out and face your demise already?"

Seto shut his eyes. I can't keep going with these injuries. If I can just rest for five minutes, maybe...just maybe I can muster up enough strength for an effective counter-attack that will weaken Noa down enough for me to defeat him.

"Maybe I'll just cut down all these pillars until I see your head rolling by my feet, huh? How about that?"

I could only be so fortunate.

I discussed my mother. Perhaps I should discuss my father.

..........

He's a corpse.

He was apparently killed in some sort of accident long before I was born. I'm not sure how my mother was able to have me by him if he died as early as mother claimed; He apparently left a little of himself behind in some bank and my mother simply used the artificial insemination method. At least, this is what she told me. I'm not sure what to believe.

Jounouchi blinked as he glanced over at the pages, a disappointed frown on his features when he found that was all there was to be written about his father.

Well, that told me absolutely nothin'.

Jounouchi flipped the pages of the book, his eyes staring at the blurred texts.

Maybe if I find somethin' in the section about his stay at the orphanage, it might tell me somethin'—wait, what was that?

Jounouchi hurriedly flipped backwards through the book, his eyes searching for the words that had stood out to him, that made him curious enough to investigate it.

There was somethin' there in real big letters...I bet that's real important...

He found it.

NIGHTMARE.

"'Nightmare'," Jounouchi repeated aloud. He glanced over at Seto's nightstand, taking notice of the empty glass that rested by it.

I am kinda thirsty. Jounouchi put the book down and sprung up, jogging towards the bedside furniture. As he reached for the glass, he noticed a small amber bottle, the label bearing Seto's name.

%"Hey blue-eyes; what's with the bottle?"

Seto glanced over at Jounouchi as he popped the small pill into his mouth. "It's a medication I have to take."

"You? On a med? Get outta here."

"Jounouchi, are you familiar with my condition?"

Jounouchi stared for a moment. "Yer condit—oh, right. That helps fight that?"

"Yes." Seto made a bitter face. "I hate taking it, though. You're not telling anyone about it, either. Enough people think I'm weird as it is."

"Relax, blue-eyes. Ya got nothin' to worry about."%

I wonder if he knows that it's empty, Jounouchi wondered in his thoughts as he placed the bottle back onto the table. He grabbed the glass.

I doubt that he'd care if I drank outta this glass anyway. Jounouchi turned the faucet in a counter-clockwise motion, and a stream of cold water rushed into the glass. As the water quickly reached the rim, Jounouchi reached over to the faucet and turned it in the opposite direction, shutting the water off.

He quickly returned to his seat by Seto's dresser, sipping from the glass before setting it down on a nearby rug and picking up the book to resume reading the chapter that piqued his curiosity.

NIGHTMARE

The following that you are about to read won't be pretty. In fact, it's very gruesome.

I had decided not to take my medication today...

Seto clutched at his head.

[You remember that nightmare, don't you...]

"Don't..." Seto whispered through ragged breaths as he carefully glanced over the pillar.

[...it's going to happen again.]

Seto shook his head. "No it won't."

[You're getting a fever, aren't you?]

Seto moved his hand downwards and briefly felt his forehead; it had become hotter since he had felt it moments ago; he also noticed that he was starting to sweat.

[You know what happens next. And there's nothing that you can do about it.]

"Shut up; you're wrong..."

[I don't want this to happen, either. But face it...]

"Don't say it...

[You're going to kill again.]

Seto shook his head as if doing it often enough would make the problem disappear. However; the more threatening problem had remained and he made sure to remind Seto that.

Noa sliced at the pillar, taking off the top of the pillar. He smiled maliciously as he saw Seto crouching behind the pillar, having ducked from his attack.

"At last I found you. Actually, it wasn't all that hard—you're bleeding. Badly, I might add; frankly I'm surprised you're still conscious. I almost missed the trail that you left as you scrambled to your hiding place ..." Noa rested the tip of his blade beneath Seto's chin, forcing the brunet to look him in his midnight blue eyes.

"It's over, Seto. I'll allow you a quick, clean kill. I'll even deliver you to your own home where they can find your dead body, and give you a nice little funeral. How does that sound?"

Seto forced himself to look away, his breath becoming heavier, and his vision becoming blurry.

[Seto....]

The pace of his breath increased.

[Seto, you can't let it end here.]

His hands trembled violently.

[Seto! ]

Noa raised his katana high over his head. "Quiet, huh? That makes it easier on me. It's too bad we didn't know each other for very long...but them's the breaks, little Seto. Besides, you proved yourself to be rather weak, and, well; in our family there's no exceptions, not even mercy."

Seto closed his eyes tightly as Noa swung the blade downwards.

[No!!! ]

Seto's eyes shot open, but instead of the intense azure eyes that he normally possessed, they appeared to be an odd, inhuman gold colour.

As Noa noticed the abnormal change in Seto's eyes, Seto caught the katana's blade between his hands and gripped the weapon tightly, blood trickling from between his fingers as he tightly gripped the blade's edge. Seto then pushed the katana forward, its hilt smacking Noa against his chin.

"Impossible!" Noa cried through clenched teeth as he reeled back from the blow. "Now you're really going to—!?"

Noa stood frozen in the midst of his movement, his eyes staring straight forward.

"Oh shit..." Noa gasped as he tasted the iron tinge of blood on his tongue.

The book fell from Jounouchi's hands.

He remained seated on the floor as his arms fell to his sides. A distressed expression was frozen onto his features.

He...he had...Oh my God...Seto.

Jounouchi's eyes slowly rolled downwards, focusing on the fallen book.

Ya gotta...You have to come home. Please come home.

Noa was unable to express his shock and amazement into words.

Until thirty-four seconds ago, he had control of the entire battle. He had Seto right where he wanted, his sword raised and ready to deal the final blow--

--but then he gazed into those cursed golden eyes, and suddenly found himself literally on the receiving end of his own blade—his "Holy" blade--having been turned Judas by the devil's hands--was driven through his abdomen.

He had to speak. He had to try, anyway.

"S...Set..."

Seto continued to glare at Noa, his grip on the blade unrelenting.

"Im...Impossible...what has..." Noa sputtered; blood began to trickle down the corners of his lips. "What has...happened to you...?"

Seto continued to stare with an intensity Noa had never witnessed before. The boy's eyes were clearly inhuman; even his hair appeared a trifle wilder. Noa could swear that he could see streaks of green among Seto's sienna tresses.

Seto finally retracted the blade from Noa's abdomen. Noa shuddered as he dropped onto his knees, his midnight blue eyes gazing at Seto's golden pair before he fell over face-first onto the floor.

Seto dropped the blade and turned around, limping towards a leaning pillar. He blinked rapidly as his eyes faded back to its true azure colour.

"Kat...su..." He crashed onto the ground, his hand sliding down the pillar, leaving behind a crimson trail.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Seto's got a dark secret, a secret Jounouchi now knows. It seems there's something wrong with Seto, something that has caused him to kill Noa. The truth behind this strangeness with Seto will be explained, but I will tell you this out of the gate: Seto does not have a Yami. Remember, in order for that to be possible, there'd have to be Millennium Items, but in Contrast there is no such thing. So this is something entirely different (hint: think King of Fighters.). The truth behind his "nightmare" will also be revealed very soon.

Regarding Seto's entry about his mother: The nickname that his mother gave him as a toddler would best be read as "HiraNeko". However, since it is assumed that the characters in this story are already speaking Japanese (hence why Amelda speaks in brackets whenever he's talking as he speaks English), it would have been redundant to say it that way, hence "Hira-Kitty". I know; the former sounds better, but I have to stick to my guns on this one.

Also regarding: Noa's line to Seto, "Are you finally done with your little giggle-fest? I can't believe you can laugh for that long without pausing for air." Is a bit of an inside joke, referring to how long Kaiba tends to laugh in the Japanese language version of the Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duel Monsters anime. Of course, I love Tsuda Kenjirou, and I think he is just an excellent voice for Kaiba—that laugh just gets me in a good way.

And finally, to a reviewer by the name of BlueAngel0104: Thank you so much for reading my fan fiction. I try to update this as frequently as possible since as you said, there are people that want to see this update as often as possible. I'm very glad that you enjoy my characterizations of Jounouchi and Kaiba—I try to take their more "human" traits (though Kaiba's could be something of a stretch, eh?) and build their personas from that. It makes them easier to write if I try to see them as real people. I'm glad you find my fight scenes inspiring! It gets harder and harder for me to write them as the series goes on as I have to come up with new strategies each time...I'm sure you can relate.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to read, and to those who leave a review, thank you very much as well—I enjoy reading your thoughts on the latest episodes. Please stick around, as there's going to be much in the way of drama to come...