YUGIOH
The Times Between Darkness and Light
Chapter 4.
During breakfast, both brothers quietly ate. Kaiba absorbed himself into the newspaper, taking in every detail that he might have missed during the time he was unconscious. As he did, Mokuba continued to stare strangely at him as he quietly ate his food...a question nagging to come out, but uncertain if he should ask.
Finally, as the quietness of the room seemed to almost smother him, Mokuba could no longer keep to himself, as he finally muttered, "S-Seto...?"
"What is it?" He asked, his eyes never leaving the newspaper, as he flipped the page and continued reading.
"Uh...well...are you heading to school first?" Mokuba asked.
"No." Kaiba answered, offering nothing else, as he practically devoured the piece of toast in his hand, continuing to read.
Mokuba didn't find that part surprising, seeing that Kaiba didn't eat any solid food for two weeks. But the school uniform was kind of odd, and he just didn't get it, yet. "But...some of the people might think it's a bit, well...strange going to work in a Domino High school uniform, is all." It was then that Mokuba noticed the movement at the doorway, and saw a couple maids carrying what looked like all of Kaiba's clothing somewhere else, dragging behind them some boxes, as well. 'What's going on?' Mokuba wondered.
"I'm not going straight to work." Kaiba answered, as he paused from his paper to shovel in some eggs. Somewhere half way through, Kaiba seemed to have finally noticed his eating, or perhaps lack-of eating habits, and quickly recovered, once again eating them at a normal speed.
Mokuba had noticed as his brother recovered, how he unconsciously glanced across the table, as if he had expected to hear the voice of his stepfather any second chiding him on his poor eating habits, before he turned his attention back to the paper.
Then grabbing a napkin, Kaiba wiped his face, and added, "I have somewhere else to go first. You take the limo and go on ahead. Inform the board members that I'm back, and I'll be heading up there in a few hours to answer anything they need to know. Other than that, today is mostly going to be a catch-up day for me, in recovering the company during my absence."
"Okay." Mokuba said, not saying anything more. 'Where is he going, I wonder?' Mokuba still wondered, but didn't question him. After all, spending two weeks in a coma putting your heart back together could probably be very stressing to a person. Maybe first hand he wanted to drive around the city or something, to see if anything else had changed while he was gone. Either way, he assumed his brother needed some space and time to recover, and he would give him all the time he needed. No matter what, Mokuba was just happy that his brother was back, and seemed to be better off. Yugi seemed to have succeeded in lifting the evil side that consumed his brother, and Gozaburo was gone, unable to cause anymore damage.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x
So, Mokuba left with the limo, as per his brother's instructions and headed to Kaiba Corp. Even there, the others didn't seem to take Mokuba too seriously. If anything, they seemed upset that they were being controlled by 'some kid'. Even though his brother may have been considered a minor as well, he had a way of scaring people into loyalty...something that Mokuba simply couldn't do.
He walked down the hall, heading towards his own room to see three people hanging around the water fountain talking. He knew they noticed him, and simply pretended to ignore him, and continued to talk. Mokuba stopped before them, and said something he would expect his own brother to say. "If you guys are looking for a job to drink water or hold up a wall, then maybe I should let you go, so you can find that career."
They glared down at him disrespectfully, then grudgingly pealed themselves off the wall, to head back to work. Mokuba then smirked, saying, "I hope for your sakes, you three don't plan on repeating this action."
One actually had the nerve to turn around then, and snap, "I believe as employees we have the right to get a drink of water, kid!"
A woman then smirked, saying, "Yeah, I'd like to see you hold your own against the labor board, after we tell our side of the story that some brat was just bored and playing games with our lives!" The third said nothing and just laughed, daring to pour himself another drink of water, as if daring Mokuba to fire him.
Yet, Mokuba just smirked, looking almost as evil as his brother at the moment, saying, "Well, I hope that's not the tone you plan on giving my brother, when he shows up to work later on..."
The man that poured another drink immediately spit out his water due to Mokuba's comment, and looked at him in terror. The others paused as well, looking at Mokuba with concern. Finally, one of them laughed, saying, "Yeah, right kid. You're just trying to shake us up. We know your brother's just a living stiff, right now. So yer not scaring anyone."
"You're going to regret those words!" Mokuba spat out in anger, but the other's just laughed. Mokuba just walked away, thinking, 'Fine...maybe I wont warn the people here at Kaiba Corp, and just let Seto find all those people slacking off. Boy, they'll pay, then!'
Mokuba planned on making an announcement on the loud speakers, but was now hesitant to do so. But after he thought about it again, he decided he would, anyway. Those who didn't take him seriously, like those three, would only think it's a shallow threat and still do nothing. And those that did listen to him would deserve the mercy they received.
So he got on the loud speakers, and announced Seto's arrival in a few hours. There was gossip everywhere when that was announced. Out of those that had been slacking a lot lately due to Kaiba's absence, half had believed Mokuba and worked their hardest that day, despite what people around them disbelieved. The other half saw this as just a ruse from the kid to make them work harder, and they continued to slack and goof-off.
Before Mokuba went into his office, the secretary stopped him, saying, "Mr. Kaiba, the board members wish to speak to you regarding your announcement."
"Of course." Mokuba answered, and went there, instead.
For some reason, the board members seemed to like having a conference in a darkened room all the time, with just enough lighting to make their faces look darker and foreboding.
Mokuba looked around, saying, "You guys really got to fix the lighting in here. It's terrible!"
"Mr. Kaiba." One of them said. "Is it true that your brother has awakened from his coma?"
"Yes, it is. Infact, I was heading up here right now to tell you, before the secretary called me on your behalf. He wanted to make sure you were all aware of that. He plans on making up for lost time, and catching up on everything he needs to. He should be arriving in a couple of hours." Mokuba answered as professionally as possible.
"Good." Said another. "Make sure that he sees us as soon as he arrives. We need to speak to him regarding this company, and what is expected of him."
"All right." Mokuba said, leaving the room.
He never liked dealing with the board members of Kaiba Corp. They were as evil and slimy as Gozaburo was. But being that they were the board members of Kaiba Corp, Kaiba had to deal with them. They were major stock holders after all, and they also helped Kaiba in ousting Gozaburo from his CEO position, when he jumped from the top floor of the meeting room on that fateful day. So in that sense, perhaps they were what was called a 'necessary evil'.
Special Note: Though I have been keeping this to be a more serious fanfic, I still couldn't resist to add a couple jabs at certain things I found to be humorous during the Pegasus season. During that entire season...every time they showed the Big 5, they were always shadowed in this dark room, and I couldn't help but laugh, wondering why they seemed to forget that simple thing called a 'light bulb'. So, you can say I put my 2 cents into that.
