Chapter 14.
Kaiba had returned to his office after they had checked the cat out, and besides the normal mal-nutrition due to the hair growth, it seemed to be perfectly and physically fine. Tonight, they had planned on having a volunteer from the science group to be tested. He was promised a hundred thousand dollars, and full insurance coverage for him and his family for the rest of his life, incase of serious injury or death. The only thing he had to do was be changed, rest for the night at the office and be changed back by morning. They would test him out, he would probably have to stay at their private medical facility inside of Kaiba Corp for a few days, and that would be it.
The reason being was because every time this machine was used on a person, it seemed to put a greater strain on their physical being. That was why the first time Kaiba was affected, he was merely weakened by the machine....then the second time, he became hospitalized. Then again, that was their theory. There were other things thrown in with Kaiba's condition after all, like after the first time Kaiba was put into this machine, they couldn't guarantee that Charujin did anything to help him make up for the loss of nutrients in his system. If he was already lacking when he went in again, that may have caused the greater strain. They would find that out soon enough.
At that moment, the secretary paged him, saying, "Sir, Mai Valentine is on line 2."
"Again?" He said to himself out loud. He was still thinking of that fight he had with Joey last night. It actually made him feel bad, and considered breaking it off with her. But he shook his head, saying, "If he can't understand....fuck him." Kaiba picked up, saying, "Hello, Mai....Mai?"
Mai was laughing on the phone in hysterics, saying, "Seto....you're not going to believe this!"
"He said what? He did what??" Kaiba asked, feeling rather uncomfortable, as he heard Joey's reactions towards Mai, when he approached her.
"Yeah, can you believe it? He said that you....and him...." Mai couldn't finish, and began laughing again.
"He must be pretty desperate." Kaiba answered her, covering.
Mai said, "I know, that's what I said. But, it was the cutest thing....he was trying so hard to prove he was telling the truth, he started pretending to get all protective about you, like you're his boyfriend or something! Is that the most hilarious thing you ever heard....??"
"Hilarious." Kaiba said, finding no humor in it at all. "I'll remind myself to send someone to have him committed later. I'm really busy over here Mai, so I'll call you back." Kaiba got off the phone, and rubbed his head from the tension.
Joey knew this would certainly not help him, at all. But if he broke it off with her now, it would make even Mai suspicious. "You idiot!" He said out loud.
This was not working. He had expected after the agreement with Joey, to get atleast a good month away from him, to see if he could fix the problem he had been having. Now it seemed like the problem with Joey was even worst than before.
'Did the Mutt realize what this incriminating gossip could do to me....did he care?' Kaiba thought. He was going to have to try and figure out a solution to this soon, but at the moment, he had no answers.
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It was night time. Since Kaiba had not come up with an answer, he simply decided to sleep on it. That night, he had another dream....a very sensual dream of himself and Joey together, doing things he'd been wanting to do and had been keeping pent-up in him for awhile now, and unable to do because of his resistance. He woke up with a start, crying out Joey's name....and making a mess in his bed. Cursing to himself, he cleaned himself up, putting on a new pair of pajamas, and tried to go back to bed. Yet, his thoughts on Joey would not stop haunting him.
Finally, very early in the morning, he gave up and got showered and cleaned up, leaving for work....never noticing Mokuba's door a crack open, as the younger Kaiba watched his brother leave, after being woken up last night from Kaiba yelling out Joey's name. Mokuba wasn't exactly sure what to think, after that.
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The next day came before anyone knew it, and Kaiba was back at work early. The volunteer was now going back into the machine, after having a nutrient drip stuck to him all night, and he was ready to go. They once again started it up, and returned the scientist to the way he originally was.
They asked him questions, making sure he was all right. The man was indeed quite weak, but he could still stand....which was more than Kaiba could do, that day. Then again, he also forgot to throw another equation in to that time. That day, Kaiba was also practically in range of a helicopter explosion, that went off with such ferocity, it knocked the entire machine over. To this day, he still didn't understand how his face wasn't charred from the blast....but he didn't look a gift horse in the mouth. He came out relatively unscathed, and was grateful.
"Sir....he's all right. He's in fact more than all right. He might even be able to work today." The scientist stated.
"Good. That means the next step is here. I want this thing tested on an emotional level. Maybe Charujin didn't care, but I want to know how it effects the person it changes, and in what way." Kaiba stated.
"Well....to do that, we would need someone to actually be changed for a longer period of time. I don't think there's anyone here willing to do that!" The scientist explained.
Kaiba nodded, "I know...." Looking equally troubled at that.
He realized, he may actually have to put the project on hold, until he figured out how to go about doing this. Trying to find someone they could experiment on for a long period of time, who wouldn't tell this to the media later, and wouldn't incriminate him, or his company was not going to be an easy find. At the moment, his answer to this was as clueless as how to deal with Joey.
Kaiba's normal answer would be to volunteer himself. After all, it saved in liability, and he usually felt he was responsible for his own inventions. But this time, he just couldn't....he couldn't put himself through that again. And what frightened him the most was that it wasn't that he was afraid of the machine, it was that deep inside he was almost too anxious to want to use it on himself again. To do what he had done with Joey as a woman....he had to use all self-control and remind him of his past talk with Mokuba to not jump at the idea. Besides, if he did that and it leaked out, once again he'd be having the media all over him, which he was trying to avoid.