Disclaimer: Put simply, I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or its characters. I do own (from this chapter) Tory and the little kid, Kevin. And Akogi.
Replies to Reviews:
Ayame akakaru Kaiba: I think you're the person who said the thing about the Millennium Rod. Anyway, I figured that since Yami defeated Marik's bad self, the Rod didn't have any evil spirit in it and a whole bunch of other powers. And...sorry about the chapters. Eeek!
AuroranWings: I was sittin' at the computer for two hours trying to get rid of the virus.
T-Bone: About Marik...you'll never know! Bwahaha!
Sylvia Viridian: Hehe...good on 'ya Kaiba.
MidnightBallad's Notes: I AM SO SORRY I UPDATED SO SLOWLY! I HAVE BEEN SO BUSY OVER THE HOLIDAYS IT'S NOT FUNNY! YOU MAY ATTACK ME NOW! Ahem...read on...
By the way, this chapter rated PG-13 for brief use of guns, although I'm not sure if that makes a real difference.
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Chapter V:
Akogi Kuga
It was quite a long way to New York from Domino (A/N: If someone can tell me how long it is from Japan to America, then...yeah), but Seto didn't mind. He went about sleeping, reading, and mentally counting the money for Akogi in his briefcase.
Right now, he felt he was winning the race to the Essence Scales – actually, he felt as though he were flogging Tory to it.
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Tory awoke with a start, the black dots before her eyes fading away, until she could see Yami and Marik standing over her. Coughing roughly, Tory sat up, rubbing her head. The world danced in front of her.
'Where am I?'
Marik pointed to a banner above what looked like an airport departure gate. It was blazing with silver letters: Welcome to New York!
'That answer your question?'
Tory was very confused. Coughing again, she asked, 'What can't that Millennium Rod of yours do, Marik?'
Marik seemed to dwell on it for a moment, before he took Tory by the hand and pulled Tory to her feet. Tory quickly shook him off and gazed around.
'Where to now?' Yami asked, arms folded. Suddenly, the trio heard heavy footsteps behind them, and they all spun around. Behind them were, quite simply, men like bears wearing very expensive-looking black suits. Each of them grinned.
'Uh...hi?' Tory said. Not as a greeting – as a question.
'We have been sent by Master Kaiba,' one man began. 'To...how can I put this nicely...slow you down?'
Yami grabbed both Tory and Marik by the back of their shirts. 'We'll be off, then.'
And then they just ran.
Seconds later, a barrage of gunfire ripped their way, and other people began to scream, hiding beneath seats and in shop doorways. Bullets bounced off the wall, but the trio just kept running, the bear-like men hot on their heels.
'Where do we go?' Tory yelled over the noise of screams and bullets being fired.
Then a trolley bearing the weight of six or seven suitcases came wheeling across the floor, its driver a short boy of only seven years old. His eyes opened wide at the look of the men with guns. Tory, Yami and Marik jumped the trolley, and moments later they heard a child scream. Tory paused, gazing over her shoulder at the seven year old that had been wheeling the trolley.
He was being held at gunpoint by one of the men.
'Stop, if you value this kid's life!' He shouted, the boy beginning to whimper and cry.
'D-don't lemmie d-die!' the boy stuttered.
Tory turned to Yami and Marik, but they were gone. Gritting her teeth, Tory spun around, taking her Duel Monster's deck from her pocket. 'What's your name, kid?'
The boy's chin wobbled. 'Kevin.'
'Kevin? Okay, Kevin: don't move.' Tory picked out one of her cards, throwing it through the air – it exploded in a flash of golden electricity, and Tory said quickly, 'Thunder Mage: take that guy out!'
The red-haired, purple-dressed semi-Dark-Magician-Girl card brought forth a very long sceptre, and it brimmed with lightening. The man holding Kevin screamed as he was struck, and Kevin was thrown into the trolley of bags. Crying again, Tory went over to him and crouched over his trembling body. 'Kevin, I need you to get out of here, okay?'
Nodding in a somewhat stunned manner, Kevin got to his feet and was out of there faster than a hare being chased by a fox. Tory stepped away from the trolley, only to run into one of the black-suited men. She could only gasp as the man punched her square in the face and she dropped down, almost invisible amongst the bags.
'Hey.' Someone said.
The man turned around, and received a very hard kick in the gut from Marik. Groaning, the man fell to the ground, clasping his stomach very tightly in his arms.
The last man raised his gun, its crosshair falling on Marik, who turned just as the bullet raced toward him –
And it just stopped, covered in a thick layer of ice. The air behind it was glittering with ice. Looking confusedly at the bullet, Marik touched it, and it fell out of the air. He didn't waste another second: he smashed the last of Kaiba's cronies over the head with his Millennium Rod, and he fell to the ground with a river of spit running from his mouth.
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Seto arrived in New York soon after Yami, Marik and Tory, and was surprised to see security guards running all over the place. He was also surprised to see bullet marks on the walls, and three familiar men lying on the ground, groaning. One of the men had been singed by something, his face blackened and clothing ripped to shreds.
Gazing at his cronies, Seto went around the paramedics that had arrived at the scene, and noticed small dribbles of blood had marked the ground. There must have been a brawl between his men and the people he'd sent them after.
Smirking, Seto made his way to his personally booked limousine, ready to go strike a deal with Akogi.
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Akogi's office was floor 25 of 50 in his skyscraper, a glittering block of sky blue tinted windows and silvery walls. It looked as though Akogi was a very rich man, and wasn't afraid to show it off. He even had security guards standing in sleek black uniforms at his doors, pump-action machine guns slung over their shoulders, anti-flash sunglasses covering their scowling eyes. As soon as Seto went to enter the building, they asked Seto the million-dollar question:
'Excuse me, sir, do you have an appointment?'
Seto gave them steely-eyed looks. 'I am here to consult Mister Akogi Kuga about the scales he is selling online. I left a message with my bid, m name is Seto Kaiba.'
The men fell away from Seto within seconds. 'So sorry, sir. Akogi will see you now.' They knew who Seto was and they didn't want to get in his way.
Seto went into the building – it looked ultra-modern, with white walls and a steel desk where a secretary was chewing on her pen. She looked up at Seto as he entered, giving his a dazzling smile. 'Good day, sir. Can I ask your name?'
'Seto Kaiba.'
The secretary mouth a long 'ooh' and said, 'You're the man who bid, aren't you? He'll see you now.'
Seto nodded and made his way to the glass elevator, which shot him up twenty-four levels before he reached the floor that belonged to Akogi. At the exit of the elevator stood two more guards, each carrying heavy-looking machine guns. They stepped aside as Seto entered.
Akogi Kuga looked up from his desk. Seto was surprised that Akogi was actually quite young – only about seventeen or eighteen. He observed Seto with bright green eyes, peering over a stack of papers in his hands. He wore mostly black, and a pair of black sunglasses was perched on top of his spiky red hair.
'This is Seto Kaiba,' one of the guards said. 'The man that bid on your scales.'
Akogi's face lit up, his green eyes sparkled. 'Well then, this is a pleasant surprise. When I read that note from your secretary, I thought I was dreaming. The millionaire Seto Kaiba bidding on a set of scummy old Egyptian scales.'
Seto smiled. 'They have value to me, that's all I'll say.' He held out his briefcase. 'Here's your money, in exchange for those scales.'
Akogi stood up, a large smile spreading across his Japanese-American face. 'Kaiba, you have made me a happy man. Let us go upstairs, my friend.'
He clapped Seto on the back as they made for the elevator. They went up another few stories, Akogi explaining how he had found the scales on a dig in Egypt, and how an English museum wanted to buy the scales from him. Seto was only mildly interested: he just wanted to see the scales for himself.
Ping!
'Here we are,' Akogi said. 'The security isn't too tight around it...I doubt that anyone's too interested in these.'
You'd be surprised... Seto thought as he entered the room. He froze. There were green laser-beams everywhere, which obviously could set off an alarm. He glanced at Akogi. 'Not too tight?'
Akogi grinned. 'Not too tight by my standards, anyway.' He punched in a sixty-character-long code into a computer on the wall, and the beams vanished. Seto went into the middle of the room, where the Essence Scales, still encrusted with sand, sat on a black stand with a glass hood over it.
'You can just lift that off,' Akogi said from the back of the room. 'But be careful, please.'
Seto did what Akogi had said, and gazed upon the Essence Scales. Seto could feel the magic pulsing around them, and he held his breath. And then he smiled – he'd beaten Tory to the scales.
Turning around, Seto asked Akogi the main question. 'How much?'
Akogi narrowed his bright green eyes. 'About a million.'
Seto held out his briefcase again. 'Done.'
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Tory was lying on a park bench, eyes closed, dry blood hiding just above her forehead. The punch from Seto's men had not only knocked her out, but left her feeling very sleepy indeed. Right now, her head was rested on Yami's lap, and she dreamt of nothing but getting her hands on the scales. But in the back of her mind, something told her that she was too late.
-End chapter V-
MidnightBallad: Once again, apologies for slow update. Also, sorry for typos that'll appear in this chapter – I was in a rush to get it done for you guys.
Later!