Chapter Two: Welcome to Munchkin Land

"Are you a good wizard or a bad wizard?"

Kaiba whirled around to see a dark-haired woman with blue eyes dressed in a light pink gown and holding a red and gold staff eying him closely.

"Beg pardon," Kaiba growled, "But I'm not a wizard at all. I'm Seto Kaiba, CEO of Kaiba Corporation."

"Oh," the woman said in a sophisticated sort of amusement, pointing at Mokuba with her staff, "Well, is he a wizard?"

"Mokuba?" Kaiba snorted as Mokuba hid behind him, "Mokuba's my little brother."

The woman laughed. "I'm a little confused. The Munchkins told me a new wizard has thrown a building on the Wicked Witch of the East, Tea. Here's the building," her staff went toward the destroyed KaibaCorp building, "And here you are…and that's all that's left of Tea."

Kaiba stared at two blue-white stocking feet wearing two silver slippers poking out of the rubble. Mokuba gasped.

"So what the Munchkins want to know is: are you a good wizard or a bad wizard?"

"I already told you," Kaiba snapped, "I'm not a wizard…wizards and witches aren't real."

Some childish giggles responded to his comment, but Kaiba couldn't see any children around anywhere.

"What was that?" asked Mokuba in surprise.

"The Munchkins," responded the woman with a motherly smile, "They're laughing because I am a witch…I'm Ishizu, the Good Witch of the North."

"You are?" Kaiba asked skeptically, "Well…I beg your pardon, but where I come from, witches are only in children's' books."

"Your land must be sensible, then," replied Ishizu, "In all sensible countries, wizards and witches have died out…but Oz is not sensible in the least."

She turned around and called, "It's alright…you may all come out and thank them."

Then, from their hiding places in the brush and behind trees, came little people no bigger than Mokuba, all dressed in blue.

"We saved a bunch of midgets?" Kaiba said in disgust.

"Munchkins," Ishizu corrected, "The little people in this land, Munchkin Land…and you two are their saviors from the Wicked Witch of the East."

"Saviors?" Mokuba repeated, his eyes wide.

"We thank you with everything in our hearts and souls," replied one of the female Munchkins, who looked oddly like a female Mokuba with softer eyes and lighter hair, "I am Adina, Princess of the Munchkins, and thanks to you, my people are finally free from Tea's heartless work hours and treatment!"

"She made you work?" Kaiba inquired.

Adina frowned as she nodded her head. "Night and day, for barely little pay…we were like slaves, great wizard, all to keep her satisfied."

"I'll assume her tasks were not to assist you in any way, then," Kaiba muttered.

Adina snorted. "Not in the least! She made us work in her diamond and silver mines to make her jewelry and trinkets! But now is not the time to be talking of such distasteful things!" she added cheerfully, "Now, we must rejoice, for the Wicked old Witch at last is dead!"

All the Munchkins around her cheered almost in unison, like a group of school kids whose summer break had just begun; then music started up and pairs of Munchkins were dancing around and singing happily.

"Ding dong, the Witch is dead,
Which old witch? The Wicked Witch!
Ding dong, the Wicked Witch is dead…

Ding dong, lift up your head,
Bat your eyes, get out of bed,
Ding dong, the Wicked Witch is dead!"

Mokuba was bobbing his head to the beat and seemed to get into the celebration, but Kaiba still stayed expressionless and business-like.

"She's gone where the goblins go,
Below…below…below.
Yo-ho, let's open up and sing
And ring the bells out!

Ding Dong, the merry-oh,
Sing it high,
Sing it low;
Let them know the Wicked Witch is-"

It was then that a huge blast of purple-black smoke exploded in the center of the square. The Munchkins all ran and hid, as another figure made his way through the smoke.

He was dressed in a black tuxedo and was also holding a staff (colored silver and purple); he had dark hair with side-burns, heavy lidded eyebrows and a straight-line moustache, and looked old enough to be Kaiba's father.

The stranger looked around for a moment, and then his eyes lay on the dead feet of the Wicked Witch of the East.

"W-who's he?" stammered Mokuba.

"That's the Wicked Wiz of the West," replied Ishizu, "He's even more dangerous than the Wicked Witch of the East was…"

"Who killed my associate?" the stranger asked coldly, similar to how Kaiba would, before raising his voice and roaring, "Who killed the Witch of the East?"

Some of the Munchkins screamed. The stranger looked at Kaiba and Mokuba.

"Was it you?" he spat.

"We…we didn't mean to, it was an accident!" pleaded Mokuba.

"We can handle any lawsuits you intend to shoot back at us," Kaiba interrupted, stepping protectively in front of Mokuba and glaring at the stranger.

"Well, boy, I'll determine that," the stranger leered at Kaiba.

"Are you forgetting about the silver shoes, Gozaburo?" Ishizu said silkily.

"The shoes," Gozaburo mumbled, as if he'd just remembered, "Yes…the shoes…"

He turned back to take them, only to find the silver shoes were no longer on the Wicked Witch of East's feet.

"They're gone!" he growled, rounding on Ishizu, "What have you done with them? Give them back to me, or I'll-"

"It's too late," Ishizu replied calmly, picking up her staff and pointing with it again, this time at Kaiba's feet, "There they are, and there they'll stay."

When Kaiba looked down, his regular work shoes were now alight with silver. His eyes widened.

"I'm the only one who knows how to use them, boy," snarled Gozaburo, "They're no use to you. Give them back to me. Give them back!"

"Keep tight inside them, Kaiba," Ishizu muttered in his ear, "They're very powerful; that's the only reason he'd want them so badly."

"You stay out of this, Ishizu!" Gozaburo snapped.

"Rubbish," Ishizu snapped back, "There's no way I'll let you get that kind of power; now be gone, before someone drops a house on you too!"

Gozaburo involuntarily shot a look up at the sky, before hissing, "Very well…I'll bide my time. And as for you, boy," his head jerked toward Kaiba, "True, I can't kill you with my bare hands, but just try to stand out of my way. I'll get you, boy, and your little brother too!"

And with that, he vanished in a puff of purple-black smoke.

"He's gone now," whispered Ishizu to the Kaiba brothers, "I'm afraid you've made a dangerous enemy of the Wicked Wiz of the West. He won't leave you alone until he gets the silver shoes…the only thing I can suggest is to get back to your world before that happens…sadly, there are only two ways for you to get home and both are rather far from here. One is to go see the Good Wiz of the South, my business associate, but he is so kind and merciful that everyone wants to see him…he's quite a star, you see. The other is to go see the great and terrible Wizard of Oz himself."

All the Munchkins bowed at the mere mention of that name. Mokuba and Kaiba, however, were clueless.

"Wizard of Oz?" asked Mokuba, "Is he good or wicked?"

"Very good, but very mysterious," Ishizu elaborated, "But he lives in the Emerald City, and that's very far from here…did you bring a broomstick with you?"

Kaiba and Mokuba exchanged a look and then shook their heads.

"We didn't even bring our Blue Eyes plane," sighed Kaiba.

"Well then, you'll have to walk," Ishizu replied, "Now…all you have to do is follow the Yellow Brick Road," her staff pointed at a yellow road leading out of Munchkin Land, "And it will lead you straight to the Emerald City. And remember," here she looked straight and Kaiba, "Never take those silver shoes off your feet for the slightest moment, or you will be Gozaburo's mercy."

Kaiba nodded curtly, before he and Mokuba took their first steps onto the Yellow Brick Road.

"But what happens if we…?"

"Just follow the Yellow Brick Road," Ishizu repeated, before disappearing in a gentle gust of pink smoke.

"Man," muttered Kaiba, "People come and go quickly here."

Then, hearing yells of goodbye and good luck from the Munchkins, the two Kaiba brothers started down the Yellow Brick Road.