Chapter 3: Memories Forgotten
There was silence.
Complete, whole silence that coated everyone and everything. Until
"Um come again?" Joey asked.
Kaiba glared at him. "You heard me, dueling monkey."
Joey breathed steam. "Dueling monkey! Ooo, you dunnit now! You couldn't win a card game if all da best strategy guides were up your ass, you smelly old baka!"
Kaiba sneered elegantly at him as the color in Joey's face rose. Yami, feeling a fight coming on, hurriedly butted in.
"Erm, what do you mean, girlfriend, exactly?"
Kaiba shifted his attention to Yami. "What?"
Yami repeated the question.
Kaiba sighed, "oh, that?" sigh, "prepare for a flashback."
PAUSE
STOP
PLAY
RECORD
Niwatori Rea, age 12, leaned back in the chair she had chosen at the diner. Her friend (Sira) had set her up with a blind date, noticing her sudden boring behavior. Sira's excuse for setting a date for Tori (her nickname) behind her back was that she needed to get out more. And the bad part about that was she was right.
She didn't even know the name of this boy. Sira said that she would have to be surprised; otherwise she would have just backed out without even trying. Tori scowled. Sira could see right through her.
Fed up, Tori checked her watch. 8:50. This date was five minutes late. Super.
Then a figure loomed in the lamplights. Tori watched it get nearer and nearer, noticing how tall it was, about her height; this must be him.
As the features of his face sharpened, Tori gasped against her will. It was Seto Kaiba, a year older than her and one of the most popular guys in Domino Middle School. The ironic thing about it was that he seemed to not notice he was popular. He had no clique, no band of friends, just himself, the hot and cool Seto Kaiba. Nah. This couldn't be her date. It just couldn't. How could Sira hook her up with him? Impossible.
However, it seemed it wasn't. As he reached the diner, Seto's eyes roved the outdoor seating until they landed on her. Then he began to saunter towards her. Tori felt her cheeks grow hot.
As Seto neared the table containing his blind date, he couldn't help wondering if he imagined not wanting to go or truly did. At this very moment, he felt like he never wanted to leave. This girl's black hair lined with thin gold highlights shimmered it the lamps, her jade green eyes sparkling like light glancing off the surface of a lake. And she was tall; she matched his height centimeter to centimeter. However, he bottled up his raging feelings. He was supposed to be Seto Kaiba. Seto Kaiba shouldn't even be feeling these feelings. Sighing, he sat down across from her.
"Hello," he said.
"H-hi," Tori stammered. Maybe this date wasn't going to be so bad after all. Or maybe, she would make such a big fool of herself she'd never be able to show her face again. Ah, who cares? At least she could truthfully say she went out with Seto Kaiba.
Seto glanced at her thoughtfully. He was not one to beat around the bush, so he spoke up.
"You didn't expect me, did you?"
Tori was startled. That was quick. So she answered, "No, not really. I thought I was gonna be hooked up with a midget like Yugi." She laughed.
Seto smiled, his brilliantly white teeth flashing. Tori thought she was going into a coma. "Nah, just me." Then his expression changed, and he narrowed his eyes. "What do mean, hooked up?"
"My friend hooked me up with a blind date. You, it seems. Why do you ask?"
He leaned back in his chair. "Because you left a note in my locker telling me to be here."
Tori gasped in indignation. "I never!" then she growled, "Sira."
Seto glanced at her again. "Your friend?" Tori nodded. Seto abruptly changed the subject. "Are you sure this is the best place to meet? I don't know about you, but I like pizza better." Tori nodded her agreement again. She picked up her purse and the two left the diner to a pizza parlor, where the atmosphere felt much lighter.
Tori noticed how interested Seto was in the decorations of the parlor. It was messy, and yet showed a warm welcome to anyone who entered.
"You don't come here a lot, do you?" Tori inquired.
Seto shook his head. "No. Do you?"
Tori nodded energetically. "Oh, yeah. All the time! It's the best! The pizza is really good, but their not that expensive. What do you want? It's on me."
Seto shook his head again. "Nuh-uh, I'm paying, I'm the guy."
Tori glared. "I'm paying or when you buy that pizza I'm gonna shove it in your face."
Kaiba matched her glare with a cool glance. "What a waste of good pizza."
Tori seemed ready to burst until she suddenly calmed down and laughed. "I can't believe we're actually arguing over this. How bout this we each pay for each other's pizza. Sound fair?"
Seto nodded as Tori flushed and made a mock bow.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you very much."
After they ate their pizza and exchanged phone numbers and that sort of thing, the pair left the parlor and walked aimlessly down the road. They were finding out how much they liked each other very quickly, and agreed to go to a movie. At the theater, as they waited for the movie to begin, Signs (I dunno, maybe they show movies 2 years earlier in Japan? . ), their conversation turned to families.
"I live with my little brother, Mokuba, and my adopted father, Gozaburo. I like Mokuba all right, but Gozaburo…"
"Yeah?"
"He's just not right. No, no, no, he's dead wrong. The only reason he adopted me was because I beat him in chess when I was eight. He doesn't like me, you can tell, he only wants me to run his stupid company when I get older. And he completely ignores Mokuba, which really pisses me off. Sometimes I feel like I wanna sock him in the face."
"Wow. That must be tough. And I thought I had it bad," Tori sympathized.
Seto looked at her. "So tell me about your house."
Tori blushed. "Well, I live with a younger brother too, Teki, and my step dad. He's a real bum. At least he pays attention to us, though. But a little too much. Every little thing I do is monitored. I feel like I have to develop eyes in the back of my head to have some privacy. And he drinks a lot, sometimes. So I have a job, every weekend and an hour after school, to make money for everyone."
Seto stared at her. "Well at least I'm rich. Damn, we have it bad."
Tori looked at him with a scrutinizing expression. "Tut, tut, there are children present, so let's keep this rating at a down low, k?"
Seto glanced behind him and saw lines of children dotting the seats. He scowled. "I'll think about it. Anyways, what are they doing in this movie? It's supposed to be
PG-13."
Tori, also puzzled, peered at the screen and cursed loudly, causing kids to stare at her in delight and parents to glare at her. "We're in the wrong theater! This is Barney's Magical Mysteries."
Seto moaned. "We have to watch the gay dinosaur for two hours?! Nuh-uh, no way, lets get out of here."
Tori practically shoved Seto off his seat in her haste to get out. "C'mon, c'mon, hurry up before the misguided sexuality of that prehistoric piece of purple crap shuts down our brain and ultimately destroys our system!"
"You have a very creative imagination, don't you?" Seto asked playfully as they rushed out the doors.
Tori flashed a sparkling grin. "I passed Language Arts with flying colors and pissed off my teacher because of it, and that's all I can tell you."
Seto offered to walk Tori home later. She had agreed energetically, but both of them had overlooked one small detail.
"Um, Seto Where are we?" Tori asked uncertainly as they passed another corner.
"Uh Uh oh great, I don't think I know where your house is."
"Wow, what a prediction. Don't take that the wrong way."
Seto smiled. "I won't oh, now we're at the park. Do you know your way home from here?"
Tori nodded and said, "Yeah, I can go home myself, its oh my God, its 11:30 and a school night, I am so dead"
Seto grinned again. "Then I'll explain it to your step dad, ok? Show me the way."
"Nah you don't have to"
Suddenly he slipped an arm around her waist. "Come on" he persuaded, pulling her close.
This was a surprise. Tori raised her eyebrows. Hmm. Did he order a beer at the parlor? Nah. She could get used to this straightforward side of him. However, first she wanted to play hard to get, so she pointed at his chest.
"Are you coming on to me?"
He winked. "If that's what you want."
She tapped him on the head lightly with her fist and pulled away. "Maybe, but not now. I have a major math test tomorrow, if I fail, I won't get into eighth grade. You have to admit, this date was one good example of first impressions."
"Ohhhhh yeah."
She smiled at him shyly. "Call me."
Seto nodded. "Don't worry. I will. See you tomorrow at school, I guess."
"Yeah."
They stared at each other for half-minute longer, then abruptly turned around and headed their separate ways home.
As Seto walked in the huge doors of his mansion, Mokuba instantly waylaid him. They tumbled around on the couch until Seto pushed him down and pinned his arms to his side so that he was now on top of his little brother. Mokuba's soft eyes stared up at him in wonder and curiosity, weakening him a bit (but only a bit). Mercilessly he bore his fingers down, tickling him to his doom.
"Ahh-ah-ah, stop, no Seto, n-no, ahahahahaha!!"
"No! You're still awake, now you have to pay! Now what's my name?" he growled in a mock tone, tickling faster.
"Ahahahahaha! Un-uncle! Uncle!" Mokuba only squirmed and squealed more as tears started to form in the corners of his eyes from laughing so hard.
"Wrong!" Seto eased up a bit, then bore down again. "Now, for the last time what's my name?"
"SETO KAIBA!" boomed a familiar voice.
"Damn," muttered Seto under his breath as he instantly halted his torture. Mokuba looked slightly disappointed, like he wanted to be tickled to death for the rest of his life. (That didn't make sense, did it?)
Seto looked up at Gozaburo's face. It was a long way up. Craning his neck so that he felt it was gonna break, he smiled stiffly.
"Hello, honored father," he said haltingly, as if he really didn't think Gozaburo was honored. He clambered off his brother and bowed shortly like a stick that couldn't break. Mokuba landed next to him and copied. He did anything Seto did.
Gozaburo glared at them for a while, Mokuba squirming, Seto matching his glare with one of his own defiant ones.
"Mokuba, go to bed," Gozaburo ordered. Mokuba ran. "Seto" he started to pace. "Where were you?"
Seto scowled behind his back. "I was on a date." He instantly fixed his face back to expressionless as Gozaburo turned to look him.
He glowered darkly at his son. "A date?" he asked dangerously, as if it were a crime. "With whom, may I ask?"
Seto stared at him rebelliously. "Niwatori Rea, and you can't do anything about it." Long experience had taught him Gozaburo would do anything to set him apart from everyone else.
Gozaburo smiled deviously. "You'd be surprised. Now, go to bed, we'll talk tomorrow after school." When Seto didn't budge, he roared, "GO!" Seto wheeled around and walked deliberately calm to the stairs. Just before he started to go up, he fixed his adopted father with a hard sapphire glare that would one day become famous.
"One day, everything you do to me and Mokuba will send you to hell and you'll regret it all. But by then, it will be too late. Far too late," He snarled softly, and then dashed up the steps.
Tori got home with no mishap. Everybody knew where she had gone, so they where asleep. Sitting down in the study, the girl scribbled out some bills, set them on the rack to be sent out the next day, then got up and left. On her way to her room, she squeezed into her brother's and tucked him in nicely. Teki blearily opened one eye and held up his hands for a hug. Tori obeyed, kissing him on his head and saying, "Do you know Mokuba?"
Teki nodded groggily, muttering, "Yeah, he's my friend."
"Yeah, well I know his brother. Good night, kid."
He scowled sleepily. "What was the point of waking me up then? Ah well. G'night, si-hi-is yawn." And with that, he tumbled into his pillow and snored. Tori shook her head and backed out of the room, where she met her stepfather.
"So, Tori, how was your date? Who was it?"
Tiredly, she blinked up at him. "What?"
Mr. Rea patted her back. "Yeah, yeah, I know you're tired, go to sleep, it's-baka! 11:45! Go, we'll talk tomorrow."
"Roger that, Dad, g'night." She stumbled off to her room and collapsed into her bed without changing. What a night
The next day, Tori met up with Seto at his locker. Leaning against the locker right next to his, she smiled and said, "Hi, Seto. I just wanted to say I liked last night, and when do you think we can go out again."
Seto slammed the locker and leaned his head against it. Looking at Tori with worried eyes, he quickly spoke, "Tori, watch your back, Gozaburo is going to do something to stop us from seeing each other, and he might get a little extreme. He doesn't want me to see anyone, he wants me to be alone, like him."
Tori watched his face. "I can handle it, don't worry."
Seto stared at her. Such foolish bravery
"Tori, you don't know Gozaburo, he'll probably even threaten to kill to keep me like his pet. Last night I got a little extreme with him over you, and that wasn't a very good way to deal this out with him. Just watch yourself, ok? If he gets to you, nobody can stop him."
The girl sensed his worry and gazed at the floor. "All right, Seto, I'll watch myself." Then she raised her head to match his eyes. "But I'm not saying I'm not going to wait for him to come to me. I might have to hunt him out."
Seto leaned over and lightly kissed her head. The other students in the hall jeered or sighed dreamily. "I know," he said softly, then glared daggers at the other people, causing them to shut up on the dot.
Tori blushed. "Okay then bye oh great, bell's gonna ring, gotta go see'ya later!" she rushed off, trying to balance her books.
Seto half-smiled, then set off for his own class.
At lunch, Tori caught up with Sira, grinning, "Thanks for the blind date, Sira, I can't believe you manipulated Seto Kaiba!"
Sira wrinkled her nose as the lunch ladies slapped glop on her plate. "No biggie. I just copied your handwriting, it's not that hard, all I had to do was make my writing horribly illegible."
Tori smacked her head. "Shut up! That's not true!"
Sira grinned deviously and threw out the glop.
"Why did you buy that if you weren't going to eat it?"
"Hey, when I ordered this, I thought it was actually food for a change," She said defensively. "Sometimes I wonder if the lunch ladies are trying to poison us in their attempt to bring geeks to power and take over the world. Or something like that."
"Geek? Like him?" Tori indicated Yugi, sitting quietly at his table next to Tea. Sira sighed. "Aw, c'mon, he's no geek, he got detention last week for forgetting his homework again. And those idiots, Joey and Tristan, they're always hounding him; the only friend he has is Tea, and look how popular she is! Super popular!"
"Yeah, but she didn't get Seto Kaiba."
"Mmhmm. Yeah. Considering I hooked you up."
Tori stuck her tongue out at her and Sira winked.
Seto hardly picked at his lunch. The previous night still very much in his head, he mulled over what Gozaburo could possibly do. His mind came up with a thousand reasons. No, wait-a thousand-one. Oh, he couldn't think, the boys roaring around him bothered him more than before. Usually, he could sit here and ignore them, but today their noise was almost deafening. What really set him off was when the guy sitting next to him whispered in his ear, "You know, you and Niwatori look great together."
Then Seto did a most unexpected thing. He smacked the boy upside the back of his head, which launched his head straight into his sandwich. Thankfully for the boy, his abnormally large nose saved the rest of his face, by getting all the sandwich necessities on it instead.
The other boys cheered Seto on. "Yeah, you go, man!" They instantly returned to their previous engagements as Seto glared at them with a look that could cut through stone like butter. The guy next to him sheepishly wiped the sandwich off his nose and asked, "Hey, why'd you do that?"
"Keep your words to yourself, slimeball," he snarled. The boy, sensing the danger in his voice, hurriedly picked up his lunch and moved to sit somewhere else. Seto watched him go with an air of satisfaction. Hmph. Such idiots inhabited this world (I should know).
Then his mind returned to Gozaburo. Half-heartedly, he jabbed at the glop in front of him with his fork. Ugh. It smelled horrible. Glad to have something to do, he stood up and dumped it in the trash. As he turned go, he saw Tori sitting at her table playing the new game Duel Monsters. It wasn't a big hit yet, but some people had taken to it with a passion, including Seto. But he kept his stash of cards from Gozaburo, who would more than likely throw them out. And he couldn't practice with the staff; they were all informers for Gozaburo. Sometimes he played with Mokuba, but it was too risky in the mansion. So he mostly dueled online. He had to admit, he was pretty good.
Seto walked over to their table and peered at Tori's cards and the life point count on a piece of paper. Tori1100/2000 ???1600/2000. Tori had no monsters on the field or m/t cards, while the other had Doma the Angel of Silence in Attack mode, ATK 1600, DEF 1400, and one facedown m/t card. It was Tori's turn. She drew. A Curse of Dragon! She was about to slap it on the field when Seto stopped her. She looked up at him, puzzled, when he smiled and put one m/t card facedown and then put down Lord of D. in attack mode, ATK 1200, DEF 1100. The other girl smirked.
"I attack your Lord of D. with my Doma. Bye bye 400 life points."
Seto's lip curled. "Wait, she put a card facedown, remember? She activates Reinforcements, raising her Lord of D.'s attack points to 1700. Your angel is done. 100 lifepoints gone. Her turn. Now she plays the magic card Flute of Summoning Dragon. She summons Curse of Dragon, ATK 2000 DEF 1900 and attacks your life points directly-,"
"No, wait, I activate my trap card, trap hole!"
"That won't work. Curse of Dragon was special summoned, and trap hole only works with normal summon. And even if it could do that, Lord of D. protects all dragon types. In any case, you lose."
Tori gaped up at him in surprise. "Where did you learn to play like that?" she asked in awe.
"I duel online," he answered with a satisfied grin as the other girl collected her cards and sulked.
Tori blinked. "Wow."
Seto stuffed his hands in his pockets, gazed at her, and then left on a somewhat happier note than when he arrived.
After school, Tori caught up with Seto just outside the door. Before she could open her mouth, Seto grabbed her arm and pulled her under the cover of some nearby trees. He knew his car was here, and the guards would be waiting for him. And if Gozaburo really had something up his sleeve, he might have just told them to keep an eye out for Tori as well. When Tori faced him, baffled, he quickly explained.
"So what do you want?" he asked quietly.
"I want to know if we can go out again tomorrow."
Seto stared steadily at her. "We can't, not until we find out what Gozaburo is up to."
"I'm not afraid of him."
"Neither am I. There's no point in being afraid of him. We just need to be wary. Very wary." He looked intently at the ground. "We have to stop seeing each other anymore. Not until the old geezer dies or goes into a yearlong coma. Or when he lightens up." His lip curled angrily. "That'll be the day."
Tori's eyes shook. "No, no, this can't be the way, c'mon, we'll-we'll confront him, or something" tears welled in her jade orbs.
Seto impatiently brushed them away. "That won't do anything! He's more stubborn than a mule, not even a threat to his life will faze him! I'm telling you, we need to break up. Maybe, when he dies or something, we'll get back together, but if we stay together, I'm worried he'll even stoop so low as to kill. He cares more about how cold and arrogant and isolated the president of KaibaCorp is than how well they can run it. Or how their social life is going. He'll try something, Tori, to get me to be that, and I'm afraid he'll kill you."
At this, Tori froze. Then she began to tremble slightly, closing her eyes. The light in them seemed to have gone dead. She leaned her head against Kaiba's (it would've been his chest if she was shorter), saying, "I don't want to do this, I don't even think we have to, but if you say so then yes, we'll break up, but I'm not going to accept that. Never. Goodbye, Seto." She turned to go, struggling to hold in her tears, but was held back when Seto seized her arm. He pulled her back again, kissed her softly on the lips, then let go and shot out of the privacy of the trees. Tori stood dumbfounded for a while, then shakily touched her throbbing lips and wondered at its new use.
Tori slammed the door after she came home from work. It was terrible. She couldn't hold a plate right at all day, and her tears had been pushing at her eyes so she had trouble seeing where she was going. She stomped bad-temperedly over to the kitchen, hoping for a bite to eat.
"Hiya, Tori!" exclaimed Teki joyfully from his position at the kitchen table, the ingredients for a P&J sandwich literally scattered around him (hmm I wonder if he likes to chunk up his peanut butter with kitty litter). Tori simply nodded at her little brother's mess, her mind still giving her no rest over Seto's brisk dismissal. Teki, sensing his sister's sadness, slid off his chair and stood next to her, grasping her hand with a pea-nutty-jelly type mixture. She grinned half-heartedly, detaching her hand from Teki's and rolling the ick around with her palm. Deciding it was useless to act sadly in front of her little brother, she widened her smile and washed her hand in the sink. Then Tori lifted Teki up and washed his hands too, telling him he better pick up the mess he made. He agreed with a scowl.
When she dropped Teki on the floor, a white paper taped to the fridge caught her eye. Tori ripped off the fridge and read it:
I'm off to see Gozaburo Kaiba about your date, I think you should rethink going out with the Seto kid (wait a sec, did she ever tell her dad who she was going out with?), but don't worry, you still might be able to. I'm coming home at 3:30.. And don't forget to clean your room!
Tori's eyes widened. Off to see Gozaburo Kaiba bad thoughts and possibilities raced through her head. She instinctively looked at the clock; 4:30. Oh no
Her eyes swiveled back to the paper. What should she do? Then it hit her. Duh. Seto!
She dropped the note and hurriedly dialed in Seto's room number. The phone rang for a while, and then Seto's voice said, "What are you doing, calling me!? We have to stay apart, my calls could be monitored-,"
Too panicked to wonder at how Seto knew it was her-he probably had caller id or something-she cut him off quickly.
"It's too late, my stepdad already went out to see Gozaburo!"
There was silence on the other end. Then a soft, "Oh no, this can't be happening" Seto rapidly collected himself and hissed, "Well, he's not here anymore, Gozaburo is coming up to my room right now, I'd recognize those footsteps anywhere get out of your house, take your little brother, and look for him, I have to go-," there then was confusing moment where a loud pounding and a deep voice booming, "Seto, open the door!" sounded from the other side of the line. Then it went dead.
Tori slammed the phone back on its slot and grabbed Teki. She pulled him outside when the distinctive noise of a speeding car reached her ears. Tori hastily retreated into a clump of bushes, dragging the bewildered Teki along with her, covering his mouth with her hand. A car pulled up in front of her house and out tottered Mr. Rea, smiling drunkenly.
The car raced off again, and Tori shot out of the bushes as soon as her stepfather collapsed. His eyes fluttered open and closed, his breath rattling in his throat. Tori could tell he'd been drinking way more than was good for him. In a panicked tone she ordered Teki, who was standing quietly behind her, to get the cordless phone. He did so in a flash, and Tori hurriedly dialed the hospital. They came swiftly, bore Mr. Rea on a stretcher and ushered the children into the ambulance, where Tori held her brother tightly in her arms. She did not want him to witness a dying man.
By the time they got to the hospital, it was to late for Mr. Rea. He was marked DOA-Dead on Arrival-of a heavy overdose of alcohol. Teki and Tori cried into each other's shirts, knowing just what would happen. They had no guardian now. They would be sent to live with their mother, who had divorced their stepfather. They would have to leave Domino and live in Tokyo.
Pause
Stop
Play Back to Present Time
Again everyone was silent. Tea sobbed quietly into the plastic bag she had once wrapped around Yami's head. The rest (except for Yami) looked dumbfounded and stared at the floor. Then Yami spoke.
"So what happened after?"
"They had a quiet funeral and then they left for Tokyo."
"What happened to Gozaburo?" Yugi/Bakura asked.
"The old fool died of a heart attack a few months later. That was, of course, because I threatened to push him out a window. I told him he'd be sent to hell." Kaiba's eyes flickered, as though he relished the memory of that day.
Yami, after thinking deeply for a while, wondered aloud, "Is it possible we can contact this Sira? She seems to have known Niwatori closely. Your story was all very informative, but we need to know where she is now, and how she acquired such power to kill he way she did." Then he quickly related the story of what happened to the man in the hospital parking lot in answer to Kaiba's questioning look.
Kaiba closed his eyes as he digested this information. Then he slowly opened them again. "Even if you ask Sira or anybody in the world about her, you'll never find out where she is. There's one problem that'll hook you all just like it hooked me."
"What?" everybody asked, clearly wishing to know what could possibly hook them.
Kaiba kept his eyes lowered as he said flatly, "She's dead."