Disclaimer: If they were mine, Seto's birthday present would be a lifetime of slavery in my possession. Fortunately for him, he, Yami, and Yu-Gi-Oh in general do not belong to me.
Seto: Whew.
Yami: Double whew.
Author's Notes: Well, this is part two of "End of the End". As some of my reviewers have been pointing out, there was no physical crown awarded at the end of Battle City. This is true. However, I decided to create one for this story to help emphasize Seto and Yami's similarities and differences—for example, though both agree that a crown means nothing without an achievement behind it, Seto duels for the thrill of the win, while Yami duels for the thrill of the game.
With that in mind, understand that this story will NOT accurately follow the current storyline in the Dartz Arc. It's quite possible that there will be some significant differences between what I write and what you see on TV, so don't go nuts trying to figure out where this story fits in. I'll probably follow in the general direction of the current arc, but the events that happen here are most likely my own creations.
Here we go with part two of "End of the End"...and a very happy birthday to Seto Kaiba, who inspired this whole thing.
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I really should be working.
I have fourteen projects that need to be done in an hour. I should be working. I have to work to maintain my company to keep earning money to support Mokuba. If I don't work, his standard of living will go down. I won't allow that to happen.
So why, then, am I sitting in this hard wooden chair at my coffee table, staring blankly at a chessboard while Yami Mutou contemplates his next move?
He showed up at my office this morning, carrying a box with this chess set in it. I'd left express orders that I didn't want to be disturbed, but Mokuba apparently saw him and let him in. Life would be so much easier if I could just bring myself to yell at him for that, but I can't. I could never bring myself to scold Mokuba for my own stupid problems.
I wish Yami would hurry up and move already.
Apparently, this is the game he decided upon for our rematch. That stupid crown is sitting on the corner of the table, glinting in the overhead lights. There's a strand of his multicolored hair clinging to it; I can tell he only brought it here to mock me. He knows I can never win back what I lost, no matter how hard I try. And I'm not just talking about my title, either. The sheer symbolism was completely lost the day he was crowned winner of Battle City.
Now that crown's back to being nothing more than a piece of metal.
Yes, I got the better of him that day. I still relish that moment. But that's the only time it'll ever happen. Seems like, without even trying, he manages to best me at whatever game we decide to play.
Speaking of not even trying...he just moved.
...I've seen third-graders make more insightful moves than the one he just made.
What in the world is Yami Mutou doing?!
Shrugging, I sweep in with my rook, tearing through his defenses. "Check."
He eyes the board, smiling a little at me before shifting his own queen to block me. "Not anymore."
He's up to something. He could've blocked me with his remaining bishop...but he chose to sacrifice his queen. Why on earth would he make such a stupid move? The queen is the one with all the power...the queen is the one who commands the board...and he's just giving her up without a second thought.
That's it, I can't take it anymore. I want to know what the heck he's doing. If he's making a mockery of my favorite game...
"Why did you do that?" I ask him casually, taking his queen off the board. "You had the opportunity to save your queen, but didn't."
He smiles again, moving the bishop to take my rook. "I wanted my holy bishop to live a little longer."
With these words, he gives me a meaningful, knowing look, and sits back while I plan my next move.
If he's trying to distract me, he's doing a very good job of it. I get the feeling that he chose those words specifically, as if he were trying to send some hidden message. There's something here I'm missing...and I really wish he'd stop looking at me like that.
I make some random move, still thinking. He said "holy bishop"...it couldn't be that he just got the name of the piece wrong, could it? Holy bishop...yet all the other names of the pieces, he gets correct. Pawn, knight, rook, queen, king...and the holy bishop. Why? What's so special about that one?
What the heck am I missing here?!
He didn't refer to the other one as holy. Just that one. Like he can keep them separate? They're the same piece...but this one is the black-square bishop. I know I'm missing something, but I can't seem to think right now.
Yami's smiling at the move I made while I was thinking. He must've known it was an impulsive, unconscious one. He's just got that look on his face. "You always instinctively rely on your white queen," he says cryptically, shifting a pawn. "How predictable of you, Kaiba."
That's it. Now I'm mad.
"What kind of nonsense are you spouting, Mutou?!" I snap, slamming my knight viciously against his shifted pawn. The little plastic piece goes flying across the room, clattering against the wall and onto the floor. "Make your move and get this over with! I have work to do!"
"You're so angry all of a sudden. Have I done something wrong? I'm just trying to make small talk..."
This is all just a stupid little game to him. It's not about the chess anymore. No, I see what it is now...the chess game is just a farce. The real game he's playing is something more, something completely different. It's a game of words and pictures...but what is there to win? What's the prize?
What is he after?!
The holy bishop...the queen's sacrifice...putting faith in the white queen...what does it all mean? How do they tie in?
I turn and stare at the box containing our captured pieces. Our different styles of gameplay are perfectly evident right there. Most of my pawns are gone...they're useless pieces anyway. The rook I sacrificed to take his queen is also gone, as well as a few other pieces. But Yami has saved all but one of his pawns, and he's lost his white bishop and that queen instead...
Why would he sacrifice his queen?!
Why did he sacrifice his queen?
Why did he save the bishop...in the queen's place?
Why was the holy bishop more important to him...?
I glance at the board. His bishop is still guarding the king, making it near impossible for me to get in. He's got the king sheltered behind a row of pawns and the bishop defending the only exit. How ironic that he chose those pieces to defend his precious king...the two pieces I always saw as pathetically weak are the ones he chose as his personal guardians.
His...?
Did I just refer to Yami as the king?
...Is THAT what I've been missing this whole time?!
Suddenly, everything begins to fall into place. If Yami, as pharaoh, is represented by the king, that would make the pawns his loyal subjects. That fits from what I know of Yami's personality. He never saw things my way, would never sacrifice the weak to protect the strong. He uses the weak in unique ways to achieve a goal together.
His knights would then be loyal subjects...guards...anything like that. His queen, of course, would be his pharaohess; his rooks some form of servant or inspector, perhaps.
That would leave the bishops to be his priests...his holy priests...
But only the black one was holy. Only the dark mage...
Dark magician!
Of course he'd choose his dark magician to be his protector! He specifically took the black pieces to set up that stupid metaphor...and taking them left me with the white ones, which I prefer anyway. Here I thought I was getting my way, when really I was just collecting the leftovers from him...
...Or was I?
Hadn't he said something about me trusting my white queen? This was no coincidence. He'd planned this. But who is the white queen?
Yami smiles at my hesitation. "Is something wrong, Blue-Eyes? Have I confounded you? Make your move and win the game, if you can."
And just like that, he gave me the clue I needed to win.
I fix him with a glare. "The game is over. I win."
"Is that so?"
"This entire game is pointless. It's just an illusion. So I'll have my Blue Eyes White Dragon attack—" Here I move my white queen in and take his bishop, "—your Dark Magician. Check and mate."
I look at him smugly, but he hasn't faltered. "That's true. Except it wasn't my Dark Magician you were attacking."
"Excuse me?"
"You got everything right except one. It was never about the Dark Magician. He is my loyal servant, yes. But the queen's sacrifice would be meaningless to him."
"Then why do I care?!"
He smirks at me. "Why, Kaiba...haven't you always said you care for no one but yourself?"
...ME?!
"Me?! What kind of trick is this? You make no sense!"
"Long ago in ancient times, a sacred game was played of both spirit and mind. And the sole person who could control the darkness of the Shadow Games almost as well as myself was my most holy priest—" Yami lectured, smiling.
I cut him off, knowing his words before he said them. "—High Priest Seth."
"The highest of all dark magicians under my command."
"You sacrificed your wife and possible heirs for him."
"I would have sacrificed my kingdom for him."
"Oh? And what did he think about that?"
"He hated me. Much as you hate me. And yet...he appreciated my sacrifice, I think, in his own way."
"Don't you DARE compare me to that weakling," I hiss, and with a swipe of my arm the chessboard is cleared of pieces. "He is nothing like me."
"Possibly. But then again, you don't know Seth the way I did. And I also know you've been having dreams lately...dreams of sand. Dreams of the desert."
"I do not believe in magic."
"You are his reincarnation."
"I do not believe in magic."
"Yet you believe in me."
"I don't know what you are, Pharaoh Yami no Yugi, but this is my company and my life, and I want you out of both!"
He rises from his seat and walks around the table to my chair, quickly brushing bangs off my face as he leans in to brush his lips over my forehead. Startled, I shove him away, not noticing the glint of gold falling into my lap as he ensnared me.
Smirking at me one last time, Yami picks up his crown and heads for the door, turning halfway and tossing one last comment over his shoulder before he leaves my office for good.
"Happy birthday, Seto Kaiba."
And as my door swung shut, I dimly became aware of a burning glow emanating from my forehead...
A glow that matched that of the Millennium Rod—Yami's birthday gift to me.
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TO BE CONTINUED...
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Well, I think Yami put it best of anybody. Happy birthday, Seto Kaiba! Of course, the fact that I've left it to be continued should indicate that a possible plot thread took off about halfway through this chapter, and now I'm on the run. I'll probably add one or two more chapters to this, depending on how the mood strikes me.
It's also worthwhile to note that this story takes place between the end of Battle City, as written about in the previous chapter, and the current Atlantis arc. Next chapter will most likely take place in the openings of the arc, when KaibaCorp is being blamed for the monsters terrorizing the city...or else it'll be a meeting between Yami and Seto after both have claimed their dragons. That's my best guess, anyway.
Seto: Happy birthday to me! Woot!
Yami: You so rock.
Seto: That I do.
As always, leave me reviews and tell me what you think, be they nice, annoyed, critical, whatever. Just please do it in a polite fashion. Joey the Flame Swordsman and Flamina the angel minion of fire are ready and waiting to do away with any and all flames that may come my way, so DO NOT FLAME ME. Constructive criticism is welcome, flames are NOT. That said, please read and review!