Daily
by Lethe Seraph
Entry Eleven: Cachinnate
9.2.04
Hopefully, I'm back on a roll now. ::sweatdrops:: Hopefully.
See, um, there was this vacation, and school, and … yeah.
The first word that came up was 'pederast'. I don't really want to change this fic's rating to R, so … I had to look up a new word. Sorry about that.
Oh, yeah! Random note to Fire Dragon of Darkness: Really? You grew up in Thailand as well? Dude. That's awesome. International or Thai school? I was a NIST kid.
I watched the Yu-Gi-Oh! movie recently. Am I the only one who thinks that Kaiba's personality was horribly corrupted? I mean, telling other people to think of a strategy for him? What is this world coming to? Kaiba thinks of his own strategies! Kaiba ………
…………….
Shutting up.
cachinnate (vi.) to laugh loudly or immoderately
-Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, p. 152
"Everyone does it, ya know? I mean, why?"
"Well…" Anzu said thoughtfully, setting down a tray of burgers before sitting at the booth herself. Honda and Jou grabbed at the largest of the burgers eagerly. "Maybe it's an ego thing."
"Nah," said Jonouchi, smirking as he took his first victorious bite. "If that were true, I'd do it too."
"But Kaiba does it," argued Honda, "and he's the biggest egomaniac around!"
"One doesn't make a trend," commented Bakura. He paused to take a bite of his own burger before speaking again. "…What were we talking about again?"
"The laugh," said Jonouchi ominously. "That laugh. You know, the evil I'm-so-kicking-your-ass-with-my-diabolical-plan one."
"He knows a word with four syllables! The end of the world is coming!" said Honda under his breath.
Anzu tilted her head to one side, regarding Bakura. "Come to think of it, wasn't your other half like that?"
Bakura blinked. "Well, yes, I suppose. He did have a tendency to do that."
Inside of Yugi's Millennium Puzzle, Yami Bakura pouted. I did not.
Inside of Yugi's Millennium Puzzle, Yami Yugi snickered. He so did.
"And Kaiba's is definitely the worst," said Jonouchi. "I mean, jeez-" He stretched his mouth into a huge, foolish grin using his fingers to demonstrate. "His mouth goes all wide, right? How do you do that?"
"He does!" laughed Honda. "It takes up half his head!"
"Guys, you aren't being very nice…" said Yugi.
"He's Kaiba," said Jonouchi, as though it made everything all right.
And, for him, it did.
"Malik's other half did that as well," realized Bakura. "My, but it is a trend, isn't it?"
"Yeah! His was nasty!" agreed Anzu. "His eye was always twitching and stuff."
Bakura shivered and nodded in assent. Honda, sitting next to him, patted his shoulder. "It's okay, man. You're all right."
"Thank you, Honda," said Bakura in a small voice.
"Can't they just laugh like normal people, though?" said Jonouchi, returning to the subject. "It's not like their dueling will suffer if they don't!"
"Unless it would," said Yugi. "Maybe it's some kind of strategy."
I don't think so, partner.
"Not a very good one," said Anzu. "They all lost."
"To Yugi," said Honda. "Yugi's the super-duelist. But they didn't lose to many other people, did they?"
Yugi blushed and waved a hand around awkwardly. "Well, uh…"
"It's true!" said Anzu. "You're great."
"Th-thanks."
"Malik and Kaiba were quite unstoppable before they dueled Yugi," said Bakura.
"And they both did the laugh," added Jou.
"Anyone else?"
"Insector," said Yugi immediately.
They all shivered.
Honda sat up and pounded his fist on the table. "But! Mai doesn't do the laugh, and she's really good."
"Anzu beat her," said Jou bluntly.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Anzu grabbed the empty tray and hit Jou with it. He laughed and shielded himself with his arms.
"Fine, fine," he conceded. "There's one awesome duelist who doesn't do the laugh. But she's a woman. All of the good guy duelists have a laugh. Like, a capital 'L' laugh."
Honda pounced. "So, you're saying that you aren't good!"
Jonouchi glared. "I'm good, and I have sense. They don't have sense."
Honda raised an eyebrow. "Jou," he said, "why won't you let me go out with Shizuka?"
"B-because!" sputtered Jonouchi, caught off guard. "No way! You aren't good enough for her! You and your … your …!"
Honda turned to the rest of the group with a smirk. "And here we have Jonouchi Katsuya, contradicting himself."
They all laughed.
Except for Jonouchi, of course, who was busy fuming.
Kaiba stood in the middle of the smoking wreckage that had once been his simulation room, hands on hips as he surveyed the damage. A slow smile began to creep up on his face. The attendants at the observation window glanced at each other nervously. They hated it when he got into one of his moods. And, for that matter, so did Mokuba. He sighed.
"With this strategy…" His smile became wider. "I'll beat Yugi once and for all! I'll show him who's the real King of Games!"
He slid the cards in his hand back into his Duel Disk with a kind of vindictive pleasure, as though Yugi himself were the Disk. "The cards in my deck are unstoppable! Unstoppable!" Kaiba spread his arms wide, turning his face to the ceiling, and it began.
The laugh.
That laugh.
Mokuba winced. "Hey, Seto?" he called.
Interrupted mid-laugh, Kaiba turned to regard the observation window darkly. "What is it, Mokuba?"
"Um, are you almost done? You're going to be late for-"
"Right." He swept towards the enforced doors, jacket billowing behind him. "Meet me at the exit, Mokuba."
"Okay!" Mokuba disappeared from behind the window.
And he had had such a good laugh building up, too. A shame.