Chapter 9

We hit a detour. Not like it was a bad detour, it actually was quite helpful. I noticed earlier that the sky was darker than normal and a few lightning bolts crackled.

"Since when does it get dark during the day?" Keke asked me.

"It doesn't. Something's going on here." I declared.

"I hope Yugi didn't get himself into trouble."

I looked at her. "That must be it. Come on, we better go help him." I walked off and she followed.

As we got closer to where the darkness was coming from, a giant red dragon could be seen. It had a long snake-like body with sharp scales on it's back and tail. As soon as I got to a decent spot where I could see both Yugi and his opponent, I began to shout. "Get up, Yugi!"

He looked up from his fallen position. "Kaiba?" His voice was barely audible.

"Since when do you bow down to your opponents?"

"Never."

"Then get up! If God stops you, then defeat God and keep moving ahead!" Yes, I did just insult religion… Bad me.

Keke was silent for the time being, standing next to me.

"I understand, Kaiba. Wait for me! I will defeat God!" Yugi replied, standing up.

"Wow. Seto can actually be a good influence." Keke said quietly.

"Yes I can, but more so when I want to be." I nodded.

She leaned up, getting close to my face. "Aren't you just altruistic."

"I know." I rubbed my nose on hers.

"Ahem." I heard Yugi cough. He was staring at us.

"Humph." I pulled back, crossing my arms.

"Oh Seto." Keke said, touching one of my arms softly.

I was just glad she didn't say it in a seductive way. Great, now I'm going to cause a bulge in my pants because of these thoughts. Just watch!

I realized that she was staring at me. "What?"

"Nothing. I don't know." She backed off, gazing at the ground.

"I just don't like it when people stare at me." I explained, dropping my arms.

"You should be used to it by now." Keke mumbled.

"People DO stare at me a lot, don't they?"

She lifted her head and looked at me. "It's because… um." She trailed off.

"I'm nice to look at?" I added for her.

"Yes. And… You're tall." She blushed very slightly.

"Maybe I should be better short. Then people wouldn't notice me as much." I commented.

Keke embraced my waist. "Don't say that. You're better tall."

I felt faintly uncomfortable with her pressed against me. Certain 'bad' thoughts crept unwillingly back into my mind. I swallowed, feeling myself stiffen. I gently pushed her back before something worse happened.

"Is something wrong?" Keke asked concernedly, wondering why I was neglecting her.

"Not really. I'm fine." I replied hesitantly, covering it with my duster.

"Is that a 'yes' or a 'no'?"

"It's a 'I'm not going to tell you right now for certain reasons'."

"What kind of reasons?"

"Number one, I'm not going to talk about it out in the open where everyone can hear me and two, I've never been open about this sort of thing in all my life!"

"Okay. Sorry if I made you angry."

"You didn't make me angry. I needed to get my point across." I said, Yugi and his opponent were staring at me angrily. I added, "And I'll shut up now."

Who cares about the duel anyways? I'll just skip it. So Yugi defeated Slifer and won the damn duel, actually winning Slifer the Sky Dragon because of the rules I made up myself.

Keke and I approached him. "So Yugi, do you want to duel for Slifer right now?" I asked, hoping he would say yes.

But that wasn't the case. "Not until I find Joey, Kaiba!" Yami shouted gently. Then he added, "I have to make sure he's safe first, then you will get your duel."

"Alright, fine. Be that way. But I will get my duel eventually." I came very close to growling.

Yami turned and ran off saying something about Malik is going to get to his friends before he can. I was quiet for a moment. "I don't see why he cares so much about that blond idiot."

"Seto!" Keke shouted swiftly.

"What? I was only being honest about my opinion." I turned around. I knew I was supposed to remember something very important…. But I couldn't think of it. "Was I supposed to remember something?"

"Un.. What about what happened between you and Malik?"

The memory from the duel clicked in my mind. "Malik said he had something of great value to me. But he didn't say what it was." I pondered. A flashback entered my mind briefly. There are only two things in this world Seto gives a damn about: His dragons and his little brother. Those were Set's words from a while ago.

Keke watched me curiously.

I snapped right when I thought of it. "Mokuba!" I shouted, shaking the first thing my hands came in contact with.

It was Keke. "Seto! Calm down!" She yelled in return to my actions.

My shaking of her was reduced a bit until she put her hands on my shoulder, causing me to stop completely. "Now put me down." She commanded calmly.

I didn't even realize I had picked her up until then. "It was right in front of my face the whole time and I was blinded to it…" I dropped my head in depression, standing a few feet away from her.

"It's not your fault." Keke's voice soothed.

"I'm such a fucking dumbass," I covered my face, "he was gone for at least a day and I didn't even give it a second thought."

"Do you know why?"

"It was either my ego or my obsession with you." I turned to her, gazing at her face.

"You have an obsession with me?" She asked, surprised.

"Kind of. I've never been obsessed with anyone in my life before. I've never liked anyone before you." I admitted, running a hand through my brown locks.

She came up to me. "I've never been with anyone else besides you, either. So I guess we're even." She hugged one of my arms.

I dropped the other one to my side and brought her in my arms. I kissed the top of her head.

"Do you have that tracking device on you?" Keke inquired, looking up at me.

I pulled it out of my coat. "This?"

She took it from me and looked it off as if trying to figure out how to work it. Her eyes glowed when it looked like she found what she wanted. "Let's go help Yugi, Seto." She said it as more of an order than a suggestion while tugging on my shirt collar.

When I made no response, she added, "What about Mokuba?"

How could I have been so forgetful? "Mokuba…" I repeated, letting go of her.

"If we help Yugi find Joey, it could lead us to Mokuba." Keke commented, touching me softly. She took my arm.

"I wonder why no one ever takes you away from me." I mentioned while we were strolling through the street.

"Probably because no one knows how much you care about me?" She said it as more of a question than a statement.

"Maybe." I answered.

"Is that a good thing?"

"I never really thought about it before." I said, stopping for a moment to think.

She kept walking, but paused when she realized I wasn't following. "Seto?" She asked unsurely.

I jogged up to her. "Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts."

She looked at the device in her hand. "Don't think twice about it." She turned and ambled away, expecting me to follow.

Soon we were in this long alley and I spotted Yami talking with two rare hunters. The pair seem to be arguing over who was going to duel him first. That was the part where I interrupted.

"What if both of us duel against you?" I cut in.

"Since when do you like to be helpful?" Yami asked.

"Since I'm choosing to. Or I could just go back to minding my own business and you'd have to take on both of these fools all by yourself." I stated, crossing my arms.

"On second thought, just forget what I said. I'd really appreciate your help right now, Kaiba." Yami rephrased.

"Oh, I'll do more than just help. I'll defeat these two on my own without any need of assistance."

"Be my guest," was all Yami replied.

"Since it's against the rules to have two versus one, you're going to at least play a part in this duel. But I'll do all the work, you can watch." I claimed.

"Alright. Then let's duel!" Yami shouted, activating the duel disk on his arm.

I rolled my eyes. He still has to say that….

Okay time to fast forward. So I summoned Obelisk and destroyed their life points, basically. And the impact knocked both rare hunters out cold. We took their locator cards.

"If you want to find Joey, then stick with me. I'll be able to find him with my satellite." I said, taking the tracking device from Keke. I punched in a few numbers and the device gave me his location. "All right. Follow me."

We walked around for who knows how long until we got to the aquarium.

"Joey! Where are you?" Yami yelled, strolling around the aquarium.

"Damn it! Wheeler's not here." I concluded, looking around also.

Yami came back over and linked my arm with his, dragging me out of the building…. and all the way to a phone booth.

"You stay here." The spirit commanded, leaving me right in front of the booth while he went in it.

I leaned against a telephone pole right across from the booth, crossing my arms. Keke ambled up to me slowly.

She smiled slightly. "Oh, Seto." She paused. "I guess your not always right."

"I wasn't wrong. Wheeler just must've went somewhere else in the time period that I didn't look at his location." I corrected stubbornly.

She tugged on my arm gently until my arms fell to my sides. "You look stubborn when you have your arms traversed like that."

"But I am stubborn." I partially laughed.

She slid her hand down my arm and took mine. "You think I don't know that?"

"You know I can't read minds." I smirked, leaning down.

"But you can read facial expressions." Keke remembered, caressing the bottom of my chin.

There was evidence for that statement. In fact, that happened two times. One was the Joey incident, where I figured out that he fell asleep on her and the other was when Set was standing and she was making this I-feel-so-short-when-you-stand-next-to-me face.

She continued, "you do it to me sometimes."

Keke dropped her hand when Yami came out of the phone booth.

"Kaiba, the rare hunters have already gotten to my friends." The pharaoh stated.

She stepped to the side of me, still holding my hand.

"Well, let's check Wheeler's homing signal." I complied, taking out the tracking device.

The satellite wasn't transmitting a signal… I punched a few buttons. Nothing. Yami must've been watching my face. "Having troubles?"

"Hn. Someone's blocking the signal…. or my satellite has a glitch." I concluded, shoving the locator back in my coat.

We all went for another walk, until Mr. Rare Hunter showed up, blocking our path.

"What the hell do you want!" Yami and I shouted together.

Keke pressed closer to my arm. The Ghouls member seemed to look me over for a moment. "Ah, Kaiba and Yugi. I've been looking for you."

That made us both glare at him.

The hooded figure persisted, "so hostile. I was going to suggest we make a deal. You give me what I want and I'll give you what you want."

He was planning something. He wanted our Egyptian God cards.

Yami stepped forward. "How about you give us back what is rightfully ours?"

It was kind of funny, because of the fact that Yami was taller than the rare hunter. The hooded man was so short; he only came to slightly below Yami's shoulders. Yami's hair came to my shoulders if we were to stand right next to each other. So this shorter man would only come to about my waist. I just found it faintly humorous.

I felt Keke adjust and let go of my arm, almost like she didn't want to. And I didn't want her to, either, but it was probably for the best.

"I guess there's only one way to settle this." The rare hunter said.

Why the hell did he keep looking at me? I swear he did!

Some of the short man's "friends" showed up, coming from behind him. There were four men total, all which were carrying metal bars. Oh, and the other hooded figures were much taller than the short rare hunter, some were maybe even as tall as me.

"Oh, this is just great. Thanks a lot, Yami." I praised sarcastically.

"Well, I didn't know shorty had friends." Yami replied.

We both stepped back, while Keke got in a position between us. I planted my feet on the ground and got into a fighting stance. Two men charged at me. I tripped one so he fell on his face and the other stopped in front of me, swinging the bar. Ducking, I kicked a leg and he fell. The first man got up and swung at me, which I jumped back to dodge. In the process of that, I knocked the bar out of the guy on the floor's hand. I grabbed it up, dodging another swing of metal. I smashed the bar I had at the man's arm and he fell on top of the other figure, onto ground. I threw the bar at the two men, not caring were it landed.

Keke was having a bit of trouble. She landed on the ground after the hunter had swung at her. I ran over and blocked the next blow with my wrist. In return, my wrist ached after he had hit it decently hard. Keke suddenly wrapped her hands around my wrists and pulled me backwards, causing me almost do a back flip. I ended up kicking a man who was right behind me, knocking him down. I actually landed on my feet, but then I realized the man in front of me still had the metal bar. Right when my world was about to come crashing down, Yami came up behind him and slammed a pole into his head.

I helped Keke up gently. Yami threw the pole down. "Are you okay?" He asked worriedly.

"I'm okay." I assured, "my wrist just hurts." I rubbed it.

She reached for my arm, but I jerked it away. "I'm fine." I repeated stubbornly.

Keke shook her head at me. I turned around, noticing that three of the idiots were coming back for more.

Two of them ran at me, grabbing my arms and slamming me into a nearby wall. I struggled continuously, which in return got me rammed into the side of the building some more. I gave up after a period of time, attempting to kick their legs out from under them so they fell. Every try missed as they stepped out of my reach, but they still had the indestructible grip on my arms.

Now how was I going to get out of this one? Two guys were pinning me to a wall… I couldn't, exactly, tell what happened next. My vision was beginning to go blurry and hazy. I could tell that a figure was walking up to me and then I blacked out.