Story: Afternoon Memories||Chapter: Searching For Mokuba
Characters: Mokuba, Yami no Bakura, Seto, Bakura
Chapters: 2-3||Words: 4,574||Total: 9,344
Genre: Family, Friendship||Rated: PG-13 Summary: Mokuba is stuck alone waiting for his brother to come get him. The Spirit of the Millennium Ring has plans to use that to his advantage.
Mokuba sighed as he closed his cell phone and put it away. Seto was going to be in a bad mood all evening because of this, he just knew it. And there wasn't anything he could do to fix it. That really got to him more than anything else.
Well, there really wasn't much else he could but sit here and wait for Seto to get there. He wanted to find one of his friends and talk with them, like his brother had suggested, but there was one problem with that: all of them had already left by the time Seto had called.
Now what? He leaned against the most convenient tree he could find and watched as the teachers and other staff got their things together and left. He was certain one or two of them had looked at him, probably wondering why his brother's limo wasn't there already, and his suspicions were confirmed when one started over: his own teacher.
"Mokuba?" She bent over him, kind brown eyes full of worry. "Is something wrong? Usually you're already gone by now."
"No, not really wrong, Ms. Fujii," Mokuba smiled back a little at her. She was one of the nicer teachers he'd had in the last couple of years, but he wasn't really feeling like talking to anyone. At least not anyone he didn't know. "Seto is just a little late. Flat tire, and some traffic."
Her worry increased, and he began to curse himself inside for spilling that. It wasn't really her business, after all. "How long is he going to be? Maybe I should stay with you..."
"No, I'll be all right!" Mokuba liked his teacher, but hanging out with her? If any one of the rest of his class saw him, he'd never live it down, no matter who his brother was! If he stayed with anyone, he wanted it to be someone he actually knew, and who preferably wasn't too weird. Somebody like Jounouchi would be great! All kinds of fun things tended to happen when he or Yuugi were around. Not to mention it would probably get on Seto's nerves enough so he'd forget how annoyed he was with being late.
"If you're certain." Ms. Fujii only wanted to help, Mokuba was sure of it. But he was a Kaiba. He didn't need this kind of help.
"I am. My brother won't be that long. He never is." He hoped she got the hint. Apparently she did, as she bid him farewell and headed to the nearest train station.
Once she was gone, Mokuba sighed softly and leaned back on the tree again. He hoped no one else like that tried to 'help'. If I didn't think Seto would kill me for it, I'd go on home. He knew the neighborhoods that he had to go through weren't exactly the greatest, but he figured he could make it. Facing up to Seto after that wouldn't be worth it, though.
At least if he stayed here, nothing very much would happen to him, except potentially becoming nearly comatose from boredom. His school's grounds weren't exactly like Duelist Kingdom, with all kinds of goons around every corridor, just waiting to grab him for some kind of plot.
Just to be certain, he looked around, trying to see if there was someone hiding in the bushes. After all, no one exactly knew what had happened to Pegasus, besides the fact he'd dropped out of sight since the finals. Mokuba really had no idea what it was that had happened, but the thought of someone else popping up from nowhere to drag him away from his brother was one that had disturbed his sleep quite a while in the last few weeks. He was fairly sure he was getting over them, though. There'd only been two the previous night. That had to be a good sign.
No one else seemed to be in the area right now, though. At least not anyone who would bother him. There were one or two older kids walking by, on their own way home, he presumed, and one girl he vaguely recognized as being in the year below his ran out to meet a taller girl who came down the sidewalk to meet her. From the faint hints of conversation he could hear, they were sisters and relatively new to the area. He wondered vaguely if either of them were into Duel Monsters or Capsule Monster Chess at all. It had been a long time since he'd had a really good game of Capmon, after all. At least one that he'd won. He flushed slightly just remembering how Yuugi had trounced him so darned easily at the game he'd been the unquestioned master of.
The other Yuugi, really. He wasn't really sure if he should believe there were two Yuugis, but he also wasn't sure if he should believe there weren't. He'd seen the differences, and there was some kind of weird thing going on with Pegasus, after all. Being trapped inside of a card wasn't something you could easily forget. Unless you were his big brother, who seemed perfectly happy to consider at least part of that a rather nasty dream or bit of mental trickery on the part of the American.
A few soft whispers from several feet behind him sent chills up his spine for a few moments, til he realized what he was really hearing. They really shouldn't be doing that here. He flushed brilliant red and took a few steps away, not wanting to overhear them, and definitely not wanting them to realize he was there.
There were few times he was actually grateful Seto was not like other teenagers, obsessed with romance and finding someone to snuggle up with after school. This was one of them.
Unfortunately, there weren't all that many places he could go at the moment. Seto was expecting him somewhere around there, and wandering around wasn't really something he was in the mood for. There were a few gangs that liked to bother some of the kids here every now and then, mainly made up of a few dropouts, and some from the nastier schools, such as Rintama. He'd heard rumors Jounouchi had belonged to gangs like that once when he had been his age, or maybe a little older. The way he and Honda could fight sure made it look that way.
He'd done all he could to avoid those gangs since starting school here, and he didn't really want his record broken. I'm surprised they haven't tried hitting me up for my lunch money or something. Thinking about it, he was pretty sure why they hadn't. When your big brother was Seto Kaiba, you got out of a lot of normal childhood trauma. And into a whole different level of it. He could accept the difference.
"Well, what do we have here?" Oh, this was not good. One of the gangs he'd been thinking about was standing right across the street from him. The one who had spoken cracked his knuckles a few times, and Mokuba rolled his eyes. This guy looked like he's gotten his outfit and his lines directly from the most popular gang movies. "Looks like it's the littlest Kaiba."
Mokuba couldn't believe his luck. Or lack of it. "Glad you can recognize me." He hoped the idiot got the implied threat of his big brother's punishment if anything happened to him.
"You know, I don't see his big brother around here anywhere," the leader looked around at the rest of his gang. Mokuba took a quick look at them all and wouldn't have classified any of them as having the brains it took to put a school uniform on in the first place. That probably explained a lot about them. "Guess that means we can have some fun."
"Um, Matsumoto, he can probably tell his big brother what we do to him," one of the others pointed out. Mokuba decided he just might be smart enough to put his own uniform on. If he had someone to guide him. "This probably isn't a good idea."
Matsumoto shoved his lackey roughly. "Don't you tell me what's a good idea and what isn't, Koga. I make that kind of decision for us, you got it?"
This somehow wasn't turning into the kind of day that Mokuba had hoped it would. Was there some kind of curse on the Kaibas today? As the gang started across the street to him, he began to wonder.
Sticking around there started to look very unattractive as the idiots got closer. Deciding he'd explain things to Seto later, Mokuba started to back away, keeping an eye out for anyone who might be cutting around to the sides. Matsumoto and his pals just kept coming closer, with Matsumoto himself looking as if he were about to start pummelling the smaller boy as soon as he got close enough.
Mokuba had heard a few things about this gang leader, and none of them were good. Matsumoto's personal hero was Hirotani, the leader of one of the more powerful gangs in the city. There was some kind of history between Hirotani and Jounouchi, but he'd never cared enough to really dig into the details. It was just things he'd heard whispered about in classrooms and lunchrooms and the occasional playground gossip session. Matsumoto hoped that when he was old enough, Hirotani would've heard enough about him to want him in his gang. Mokuba was all for hero worship, but some things were just stupid.
"What makes you think Hirotani's going to want you if you get yourself beaten up because you messed with him, Matsumoto?" Koga tried again to get his leader to see sense, but got shoved back even harder for his pains.
"Are you kidding? Kaiba's not here, and this little brat's not going to say anything about what I do to him, if he knows what's good for him." Matsumoto made a quick gesture, and two of his thugs started to move faster towards Mokuba. "Isn't that right, little Kaiba?"
"You've gotta be joking!" Mokuba wondered just how many bad movies this guy had been watching. There was no way he wasn't going to let Seto know what had happened, if anything actually did. He hurried back, taking a quick look behind to see what he was backing himself into.
That proved to not exactly be the best choice of action, as his feet caught on the edge of a large sandbox, and he windmilled his arms quickly, trying not to fall into it. He didn't, but not because of anything he himself had done. The two goons that had been motioned forward grabbed onto each of his arms and pulled him forward, closer to Matsumoto.
"So, littlest Kaiba, looks like there's nowhere for you to go. Don't pass out from fright, now. That would really put a damper on my fun." The leader smirked, obviously thinking his dialogue was the absolute height of cleverness. Mokuba just snorted.
"You guys are nuts. What makes you think I'm scared of you?"
Matsumoto laughed raucously, leaning back with his hands on his hips. "You were just trying to run away, you know. I think you're scared, and too scared to even admit it!"
"Wrong." Mokuba smirked up at them, kicking as hard as he could on Matsumoto's beefy leg, wrenching his arms out of the goons' grip. They were tough, but they weren't all that much compared to Pegasus' hirelings. "I just didn't want to stare at your ugly faces all the time." Without waiting for a reply, he darted into the woods, hoping he avoided the couple he'd heard earlier, as well as the gang that was now hot on his heels. Though if he had to choose, interrupting someone's little makeout session was a lot less painful. He hoped.
Bakura frowned slightly as he came up to the school, looking around. He didn't think Kaiba's car could've been fixed this fast, not with the way he'd been reacting at school. So that meant Mokuba should still be here.
Which he was not.
There wasn't any one there at all, to be perfectly precise. He'd never made a practice of going by here, but he'd always rather assumed there'd be someone somewhere. This kind of emptiness unnerved him.
And it still didn't answer what was the important question of the hour: where was Mokuba?
He almost jumped as he felt the Spirit's presence moving closer to the forefront, and could sense him looking through his own eyes. It was one of the more eerie feelings of his life to feel those eyes moving and know that he wasn't the one doing it. It was bad enough when it was a hand or a voice, but his eyes just had an entirely different level of weird to it.
He was here. Those are his sneaker tracks. The Spirit's attention was on one particular section of the ground, with several different shoe markings going here and there. Bakura had no idea how his dark other could figure it out, but it seemed pretty accurate. So, where was he now?
He could definitely feel his eyes being rolled in exasperation. Use the Ring. You can do that much. You've done it before. Bakura flushed slightly, remembering how his Item had guided them to the underground labyrinth dueling arena once before. He had no idea how it had done it, but maybe now...
Taking the Ring in both hands, he concentrated, forming the mental image of Mokuba. Where is he, Ring? Show me where he is. He waited, keeping the image firmly in his mind, and the need to find the boy. His dark side was also concentrating, and Bakura knew he was forming conclusions that he himself wasn't right now. The Spirit knew something, something else that was being kept from him.
Before he could ask the other what it was, the Ring began to glow slightly, and one of the pointers lifted to direct him to the nearby woods. It wasn't a very big stretch of trees and underbrush, but it was something someone could hide in, if they weren't all that big. Mokuba was roughly about Yuugi's size. There would be plenty of places for him to get lost in, or worse, get in trouble in. Bakura shivered faintly; it had been quite a long time since he'd ever worried about someone other than himself.
So don't get started now, host. The Dark Spirit snapped sharply. We have to find him for my reasons, not because we 'care' about him. Understood? Unspoken was the certain threat if Bakura didn't understand, he would be removed from the situation entirely.
"I understand." Bakura started following the Ring's pointer, trying to ignore the small ache that came from the exchange. He liked Mokuba. The younger Kaiba was so much unlike his brother, so full of life and dreams. Maybe he reminds me of me, a long time ago. Before the Ring had entered his life, before his mother and sister had died, before everything had become cold and distant in so many ways to him.
He didn't need the Spirit's admonishment to keep his mind on what he was supposed to be doing, though. He could feel sorry for himself later, when he was safe at home. For now, he just had to find Mokuba.
"Hey, Koga, don't you want to help find him?" A nasty voice rose from ahead of him not long after he entered the strip of woods, and he frowned. He didn't recognize either voice or name, but just the tone set the hair on the back of his neck up. He'd heard enough bullies in his time to recognize one, even if he hadn't seen them doing anything.
"Sorry, I'm not going to get involved with this. You guys are on your own. I'll come visit you in the hospital, though. If you get that far." A few laughs were heard, then Bakura saw a tall, dark haired boy coming through the trees towards him. He was sloppily dressed, with a hard sort of look to him, and he stopped the second he saw the pale-haired boy. "What are you doing here?"
"Looking for Mokuba." Bakura responded without thinking, and almost at once flinched from the scorn heaped on him by the Spirit for revealing his purpose so easily. You never tell anything to anyone! That's madness! The Spirit was on the verge of taking over, when the boy spoke again.
"Well, good luck. He's back there somewhere. Matsumoto wants to get his hands on him. I think he's crazy to mess with that kid, so I'm out of here." Without another word, the kid headed past Bakura and out of the woods, muttering to himself about how stupid his friends were.
Well, that didn't go too badly. The Spirit groused, and Bakura could almost feel the disapproving eyes on him. Don't think you can get away with that every time, though. Now, let's find the brat.
Bakura concentrated on the Ring and Mokuba again, taking careful steps forward. He didn't bother worrying about the bullies stalking Mokuba. If they bothered him, he knew what their fate was going to be. As much as he didn't want that for them, they could avoid it if they left him alone. Not that they would know that, though. It was hard to figure out how he felt about this kind of thing. No one knew harassing him could wind up being four different kinds of fatal, so he shouldn't be expected to be any more spared than anyone else. But he still occasionally...
"Bakura?" He stopped in his tracks, the Ring's pointer going straight to the side, and looked over to see a pair of gray eyes looking back at him. A flash of Pegasus' castle came back to him, being there when Mokuba had opened his eyes after his soul had been returned to him. He himself had just awakened a few minutes previously, after whatever it was that had knocked him out (he was still unclear on all the details of that, just that it somehow involved Honda and the Spirit of the Ring, and that neither of them were saying anything to him about it.), and one of the first things he'd really noticed had been Mokuba's revival.
"Yeah, it's me." He smiled a little, casually tucking the Ring back under his sweater. The Spirit had told him that Honda thought he'd gotten rid of it, and if he did anything to let them know otherwise, Hell would be preferable to pay. He doubted Mokuba was the type to spill anything like that, if he'd even noticed, though.
"What are you doing here?" The small boy squirmed his way out of the small hiding place he'd been in and brushed himself off quickly. "You haven't seen my brother around, have you?"
"No, I haven't. He was still at school when I saw him last. In fact, that's kind of why I'm here. I'd heard you were going to be here by yourself, and I thought it might be a good idea to keep you company. There's all kinds of bad elements around here, you know." Bakura glanced to where he could hear voices coming closer, and turned back the way they'd come. "In fact, we should probably get out of here right now."
Mokuba was clever enough to get the hint and nodded. "Yeah. Thanks for coming, Bakura. I guess having someone around to watch me isn't that bad of an idea." He made a slight face as they headed back to the formal school grounds. "Seto would probably say that he told me so. Or that he's the only person watching me that he needs."
"That's usually true. He takes very good care of you." Bakura could almost feel the Spirit watching the miniature gang out of the corner of their eyes. He could hear them whispering to each other, but he was too far away to hear them right now.
I can fix that. The Ring glowed faintly under his shirt at the Spirit's words, and moments later their conversation filled his ears clearly.
"I don't believe it, the wimp's got a friend!" Thick anger and stupid stubbornness filled the words. As gangs went, this probably made him the leader. "We don't want a witness!"
"He doesn't look all that tough," someone else said. Bakura could feel the contempt curdling in the Spirit's mind at that, as well as a hint of anticipation. His foes underestimating him had always amused him. "We could probably take him."
A third voice spoke up, with something Bakura had never much thought he would hear. "Are you nuts? Do you know who that guy is?" After negation from the others, the third continued. "That's Bakura Ryou. My cousin told me about him. He used to go to school with him before Bakura moved here. People who get too close to him wind up in comas. No one knows why. They just do."
Well, now that was interesting. He'd never run into someone who actually knew of the things that had happened before he'd come to Domino. There would be something else to think about once he got home that night, it seemed. Would this be fame? Infamy? Just bad luck?
"Weirdo. Come on, let's find Koga and get out of here. I don't have time to waste on two wimps when we could be doing some tagging." Ah, the busy schedule of the modern bully. Bakura had no idea how they kept up with their social lives with such pressing problems.
Sarcasm. You're improving, host.
Bakura made no response to that, letting the Ring's glow fade away. He was lucky Mokuba hadn't noticed anything, especially since he would have no idea how to answer any of the questions the preteen would be certain to have. Somehow he thought 'this is a magical Item from ancient Egypt which houses the soul of a thief and stealer of souls who takes over my body pretty much whenever he wants and told me to come hang out with you until your brother gets here or else' wouldn't go over very well. He felt a rumbling sort of assent from the Spirit and decided now was as good a time as any to work on the small talk.
"So, where did you want to wait for your brother?" He waved one hand around the expanse of space in front of them as they emerged from the strip of forest. "He probably won't be too much longer." He checked his watch briefly, frowning. Had he lost some time somewhere? It shouldn't be quite this late should it? He wouldn't be surprised if he had. That alleyway...
"Over here's good." Mokuba settled down not too far from the road, crossing his legs underneath him. "Thanks again, Bakura. You know, you always kind of seem to be around when I need someone to watch over me. Like back at Duelist Kingdom."
This conversation would have been so much easier if the Spirit wasn't laughing in the back of his head the way he was. "Well, I was just in the right place at the right time I guess. It happens." He shrugged a little, grinning. "Maybe I should ask your brother for a paycheck for watching out for you."
Mokuba laughed, shaking his head. "I don't think he'd pay up. He's not really cheap, but ..."
Bakura figured out what the younger boy was talking about right away. "He'd probably think it was some kind of insult, as if I were trying to say he couldn't take care of you himself. And that's wrong. He does. He takes incredible care of you."
"I know. I'm lucky to have him." Mokuba stared downward for a moment or two, a serious look in his eyes. "I mean so much to him, I guess I can't be that surprised that people have tried to use me. Like Pegasus did, I mean. Seto's really young to do what he does, and a lot of people don't think he can do it, so they want what he has, and..."
"And they see you as an easy way to get it." Bakura said softly, watching the other boy intently. Mokuba nodded, and Bakura winced to himself. He knew the feeling of being used for what you were, or what you were to someone else, quite intimately. "It won't be that way forever, Mokuba. People will figure out that hurting you won't do anything but get your brother angry. And an angry Kaiba Seto isn't something to toy around with."
Mokuba jerked his head up, grinning at him. "I know. That's what I was trying to tell those idiots back there." He glanced back to the woods briefly. "I don't think they got the message though. Wonder why they headed off."
"Who knows?" Bakura shrugged casually, wondering for a moment what Mokuba knew about his past. If it was anything at all, it didn't seem to bother him. "I'm just glad they're not trying anything. I don't think they'd like the results." For a moment, he wondered if his dark side had taken over, as Mokuba seemed to be staring at him pretty strangely.
"Bakura, are you feeling all right? You sounded kind of...mean for a second." The boy looked more curious than scared, nudging the Spirit into a kind of amused approval. That in and of itself made Bakura more and more nervous about what his other side could want with this whole situation.
Idiot. He asked you a question, don't draw too much attention to yourself. Bakura tried not to show that anything unusual had happened as the Spirit mentally poked him. He smiled a little ruefully at Mokuba, trying to look as if this were normal. "I'm fine. I just don't like people trying to hurt my friends."
Mokuba blinked, gray eyes full of surprise. "We're friends? I mean...I guess we are, but I just never thought about it. You know how Seto feels about Yuugi's friends and everything..."
"Mokuba, this may just be me, but as much as you adore your brother, it's permissible for you to think differently about people. I doubt he'll disown you just because you like someone he doesn't. He wouldn't be that good of a brother if he did, after all."
The smaller boy digested that carefully as he looked back up at the pale-haired teen. "Did you ever have a brother, Bakura?"
Now what had brought that on? "No, I didn't." He looked away briefly, images of letters that never had an answer going through his mind.
"Oh. You're so good at giving out advice, I figured you must've been a big brother."
Bakura smiled faintly. "But I was once. I just didn't have a brother. I had a sister once. Amane." He ran his fingers through some of the grass thoughtfully. "It's really been a long time since I thought about her. It's been a long time, but I still miss her."
Wide eyes stared up at him, in the manner of all children who want a story. "I never heard you had a sister." Mokuba hesitated for a moment. "But I never really heard that much about you, anyway." He flushed a little, looking down for a heartbeat or two. "That was very rude, excuse me."
"I don't mind. If you'd like to hear about her...it should fill up the time until your brother gets here anyway." Bakura wasn't surprised that Mokuba nodded quite eagerly, and he made himself as comfortable as he could. "Well, a long time ago, about five or six years ago, and very far away...a few towns over...there lived the Bakuras, with two children: Ryou and Amane."
To Be Continued