Chapter 6 Work Together
Hugh had finally returned an hour after the time limit had been broken. By then, it was seven o'clock. He had no need to explain himself because he arrived at the same time as a larger group of people: Mai, the German, and Honda.
"Did Rishid ever return here?" were the first words from Honda's mouth.
Yugi looked puzzled and then worried. "No."
The three looked at one another grimly.
"We have something to tell you," they began.
Several minutes later, everyone was caught up with the happenings. None of them were pleased at all.
"Isn't there any way Rishid could be lost in the castle?"
"It seems unlikely. Plus, with what Ishizu seems to have seen, it makes me think he is in the dungeon." Anzu looked worriedly at Honda. "Should we tell Malik?"
Isis lowered her head. "I think we all need to come back together and have a small chat." She closed her eyes and sighed. "Perhaps, now, everyone will want to work together. It is needed."
She was wrong, of course. Until certain other people were abducted, none of them were interested in changing their tune. Some of them would never want to work with the others because they had no one that could be abducted.
But, the main one she was thinking about actually agreed to work for that very reason.
"Mokuba's gone."
Kaiba walked over to the group of people. His hands were clenched by his side as he looked at all of them standing there so innocently.
"Where's my brother? He said he was going to stand with you to watch for the others. Now, he's gone, and I reckon you have no idea what happened," he finished sarcastically.
Yugi blinked. Now that he realized it, the boy was missing…
"Oh, no! What do we do now? People are vanishing all over the place!" Anzu looked at the others. "We'd better have a count."
Glaring around at all these fools, Kaiba strode off to check places for his brother. Mokuba could not just have vanished. After all he had done to keep Mokuba safe, this is what happens: his brother goes off with the others who could care less if he were alive, and no one notices he vanishes.
"Did you ever think that if you just cooperated all the time your little brother would have no need to be taken?"
Ceasing his movement to leave, Kaiba whipped around to glare at Isis. He knew Rishid was also missing, but he felt no pity for her. "I can't believe you're trying to blame me for his disappearance. People kidnap my brother because they're cruel idiots out to ransack my company and steal my hard-earned paycheck. Why should I just do whatever anyone wants me to?" He shook his head. "Then they would have no need to use my brother, maybe, but I would still be worse off for doing what they said. Mokuba knows; he wouldn't want me to jeopardize anything for his sake."
Isis did not comment, but she still stood by her observation.
"So, just the two people are missing." Honda finally finished counting up everyone, including Bandit Keith in his room and Hugh hanging detached from the edge of the crowd.
"I don't think those people can just go missing on their own," Bakura began.
Otogi glared. "Don't even think of blaming Pegasus for kidnapping people. He wouldn't do that. It just doesn't make sense with what he wants us to accomplish! With more people it would be done quicker."
"Oh?" Kaiba chuckled softly, lethally. "With more people, there's more argument. Besides, if you think it isn't in Pegasus's character to kidnap people, maybe you forgot my saying he kidnapped my brother before just to get the key to my company from him. Wise up or I'll be sure you're the next to go."
The flashing of the Puzzle was hardly noticeable in the light from the decorative wall-lamps. Bakura noticed it, however, and hid a small smirk behind a chunk of his hair.
"We need to get along," the Spirit of the Puzzle said. "And as you just said, with more people, there's more argument. But that plays right into his hands. So stop bickering. We need to go to this room the others found and search for the next clue before more people are taken."
After one more scowl in the other Yugi's direction, Kaiba went off to search for his brother alone. No one volunteered to go with him because he would not have agreed anyway.
The boy was nowhere. Not at the bathroom, not in the rooms, not at that staircase he had been mesmerized by. Nowhere.
He went back to the others and silently listened as they began discussing the plan of action. Right then, everyone was going to go over to the new room and look for the key. It was all they could begin doing, really.
Keith laughed, but he came along. "Just for kicks," he said.
Hugh did not want to go anywhere, but Kaiba, who was now limiting his suspicions of kidnapping to merely Pegasus, grabbed the man's arm and refused to let it go. After all, Hugh had returned with the other three. It was possible he had something to do with his brother's disappearance.
"You're coming everywhere with me until I find my brother. If you touched him at all, you'll be sorry from now until forever," he said lowly. "I can't wait until I find the letters and can incriminate you."
The other man scowled right back at Kaiba, but he said nothing, which was just as well. Kaiba was liable to snap at any moment.
Leaving their rooms behind, the three attempted to lead them to the found room. Honda and Mai got into a little argument over which way to go, but the German mutely walked by them. It was with his help they made it through the castle without losing themselves.
Group one glanced up at the others arriving, and it was obvious they had discovered nothing new. Their faces were hopeful, however, over what news the new people could bring for them.
Needless to say, as soon as the events were described, no one cheered from the presence of the others.
"The little guy's gone? Great. That makes two." Jonouchi turned to the newcomers and welcomed them to begin helping in the search.
New minds usually bring new ideas. But, this time, there was little they could do. There were no keys to find in the room at all, and no letters either.
In his frustration, Honda called out, "Why don't you help instead of just watching, Kaiba?"
Jonouchi took up the rest of the bait. "Yeah, it might help find your brother."
"I'm still not certain about who took my brother," Kaiba said lowly, looking over at the man in black. "But as for my help, I was just waiting for all of you to give up." He closed his eyes and leaned back. "You see, I can tell what it is from here."
"What!" Jonouchi strode forward waving a fist. "Why, I'm going to throttle…"
Kaiba picked up an unlit torch and a funny-looking wooden stick. "This is all I need."
Muttering, Jonouchi, Honda, and even Otogi said how they could not stand Kaiba's arrogance.
"You know where to go, then, Kaiba?" Anzu asked, almost like a test.
"Why else would I take it?"
The others stared at him, wondering if he was serious. But, when Kaiba walked out the door dragging Hugh, the other Yugi was the first to follow. After that, everyone fell into line.
"This is why we should always work together, Kaiba. One of us may know something the others don't."
"Heh. As soon as I find my brother, I am out of here. We're leaving if we have to swim."
The line of people wound all the way back to their rooms as Kaiba led the others to a winding staircase. It was not very long, and at the bottom was a door with an odd way to open it. He lit the torch with a lighter from Keith and had the Spirit of the Puzzle hold it as he wedged in the length of wood into the contraption on the door in place of a knob.
Then, straining, he began rotating a wheel device that the wood had become the handle for. Slowly, the big door creaked open.
"Mokuba had better be down here," the CEO muttered to himself, though in reality, he could not have any hope for that. He had just performed the needed maneuver to enter the place.
The cobwebs melted away under the light of the torch, but the musty scent of stuffiness combined with mildew made him screw up his nose. The rest of the room was shadowy and empty but for a large table.
There, sitting on the desk, was a folded piece of paper. Kaiba snatched it up and read it at once. Then, because the others were scrambling to get a look at it, he handed it off to the other Yugi who read it aloud.
"Hand over your greatest treasure, or I'll let everyone know what you did on Duelist Kingdom. You know, stealing souls, kidnapping boys, and cheating in your duel. Your company will fall!"
There was a small silence. "That's it?" Anzu asked. "We have to decide who it is by that little message?"
"Not just the message," Rebecca pointed out. "We have handwriting, paper, language, and a lot more to go by."
Suguroku stifled a yawn. The night was catching up to some of them. It was getting close to midnight in Japanese time, anyway. Otherwise, it was around eight.
"I bet Pegasus didn't even give us some time to sleep! He expects us to just keep working." Suguroku turned to Professor Hopkins and blinked slowly. "Shouldn't we separate into teams again?"
So, they did. All those requiring rest were able to go off and get some. Later, they would change places. Of those still awake, they divided up to look for the next clue and to look over the letter for any indication of whom it was referring.
As the room was small and mostly bare, the next clue should not have been very difficult. Then again, in the last room where the objects had been in plain view, no one had taken them because they had not known what to use them for.
"I thought Pegasus was going to have the letters in the same room."
"Well, I guess they're not. Now keep looking," Jonouchi said to Honda.
Another set of people were trying to work on identifying the writer of the letter. Rebecca, taking charge, sent someone to find out if anyone brought paper. That way, they could write down ideas and notes without harming the original.
"Oh, I did. I can give you a piece." Bakura returned shortly with his piece of paper.
One thing that stuck out from it instantly was the type of paper. While the message had been done with cut-out letters from a magazine, they had been glued to a piece of stationery paper. The exact same kind of paper Bakura had just brought to them. The people sitting around glanced at the teen, looking from paper to paper.
"Bakura, did you know this is the same paper as the threatening letter?" Anzu was trying to be nice about it. After all, she completely trusted her friend. It was the other Spirit within him she did not trust.
"Oh, dear. I had no idea. I guess that means I did it?"
"Not necessarily," Rebecca said. "This kind of paper is extremely cheap and found everywhere. Even I used it for—"
She cut herself off. But someone else was quick on interpreting the silence.
"Oh? What did you use it for? Why were you invited, Rebecca?"
She glared at the speaker, Mai, before sitting back and preparing for a confession. "All right, I'll tell you. I wrote Pegasus a threatening letter before, when I wasn't invited to his first tournament. But that's it! After one nasty letter I stopped! After all, I had schoolwork to keep myself busy with. College exams." She looked around at everyone else. "Why were you invited?"
Bakura was the first to begin to answer. "I'm sure I had nothing to do with it. It had to have been"—here, his voice changed so subtlety that no one noticed—"a mistake by Pegasus." What he had truly been going to say remained a secret.
The others were skeptical, but as he was their friend, they said nothing. It was as Pegasus had described before. Everyone had a reason for being here that could include either losing a soul (Suguroku, Mokuba, Kaiba), losing to him in a duel and/or being humiliated by him (Kaiba, Keith, Rebecca, Jonouchi), having a Millennium Item and perhaps looking for more (Malik, Bakura, Yugi, Isis, Rishid?), doing business with Pegasus's company and going to the island—so they could know the threats to use (German man, Australian man, British man, Johanna, Hugh, other business man, Otogi), or simply being on the island and knowing his secrets and knowing someone whose soul was stolen (Yugi, Anzu, Honda, Jonouchi, Bakura, Kaiba, Mokuba, Mai, Keith). Others had not been invited who were at the island, and the best explanation for this was that they would not be smart enough to threaten Pegasus. Or else, they did not know the circumstances to blackmail Pegasus.
There were a few who had no motive that they could see: Hopkins, Shizuka, and Rishid, unless Pegasus really did think the other man had the Scales.
"Then it is my surmise that Pegasus included some people in his invitations so that he kidnap them and therefore use them to make us work harder." Kaiba finally had to admit that Hugh had not taken his brother. What was the good in that? The boy did not know how to escape and Hugh would just be getting into more trouble that way. So, despite his misgivings, Kaiba had to believe Hugh innocent of that alleged crime. He still had his eye on the American, however.
"If all these people are suspects, there is no way we will ever find out who it is!" Anzu sat back on her heels and moaned.
"Then why don't you look for the next clue instead of wasting your time?" Jonouchi asked peevishly. He had been looking for the next clue for so long his eyes and back hurt. "There were supposed to be two letters, and I should think so; that first didn't say anything about getting the money or whatever they wanted. The person was probably so stupid they forgot and had to send the second letter!"
"Oh, you mean like you would have to do?" Honda asked.
"Honda!"
Everyone had grown tired of the search. Honda and Jonouchi had left the room, and now only the Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle remained in there.
"If you're holding back to make a big discovery…" Jonouchi let his threat hang in the air as he glared at Kaiba. Then, on sudden inspiration, not that he liked her any more than Kaiba, he said, "Rebecca, you're a genius, so why don't you go find the next clue before something else happens?"
The girl stood up. "I'm glad you are so receptive to my abilities. I think I will go find the next clue, if it won't slow down identifying the author of this letter."
No one protested her going, so the American started going into the room. The first thing she noticed was the guttering of the torch. That was not good; Rebecca had no doubt it was meant to stay lit for two hours. This showed their time was running out once more.
The other Yugi was in the room with a thoughtful expression on his face. Actually, it was his aibou who had pointed it out to him. Having to cope with craning up his head to look at people every day, Yugi had wanted to check out the ceiling. Now, the Spirit was investigating a small line in the ceiling. What he needed was what he would never ask for: a boost.
Rebecca noticed him staring at the ceiling. Then, with a gasp of delight, she ran back out to haul in someone taller.
"Come quickly! We need to investigate the ceiling."
Jonouchi, puffing out his chest said he would do it, but he was bypassed by Kaiba smirking. Growling, the others had to hold him back yet again as they politely admitted Kaiba was taller than he was.
"I bet I'm taller than you, Jonouchi," Mai said with a wink.
"That's not funny, Mai!"
"Well, with those shoes…" Anzu let the sentence fall.
"Calm down, Jonouchi. Height really isn't that important." Bakura tightened his grip on his friend. "Besides, I'm sure you aren't finished growing yet."
In the other room, Kaiba was following the line with a finger. Then, spreading out his hands so they were somewhat evenly proportioned, he lifted the ceiling. For some reason, the ceiling in this room was not stone at all, but only a mockery of it. The plaster was not heavy and moved with little urging. That just made it more evident it had been moved recently.
"Do you feel anything?" the other Yugi asked as Kaiba moved his hand around.
Right then, the room went completely dark. The torch emitted a rank smell as smoke drifted over everyone. From nearby, Rebecca's calm voice said, "It appears like we ran out of time."
There was a soft rustle, then a new piece of paper came down in Kaiba's hand along with something else. "It looks like they were in the same room after all." He moved to where a faint stream of light was coming from above and climbed back out of the room. The others followed.