Without Niisama
Kaiba Mokuba, now the President of KaibaCorp and sole heir to the Kaiba fortune, started out his day the same way he had for months: get out of bed, wash up, get dressed, and record in his journal that he'd had that same dream again last night.
"That dream again…" Mokuba thought as he moved through his routine. He'd had that same recurring dream ever since getting home from Pegasus's island. In his dream, Mokuba was back in the dungeons of Pegasus's castle, waiting with hope and full faith that his brother would awaken from his coma to come rescue him. In the dream, Seto didn't fail. Of course, in an admirer's eyes, an idol is always perfect. So it was only logical that in Mokuba's dream, Seto had beaten both Yugi and Pegasus in order to save him. Failure wasn't even in Seto's rather large vocabulary.
Kaiba Mokuba pushed the dream from his mind, as usual, as he put down his pen and got up from his desk to head downstairs for breakfast. After breakfast, he grabbed his backpack and briefcase and headed out to the limo to be driven to school.
&&&
At school, he was curtly informed by his teacher that even if he was technically his own guardian now, since he wasn't eighteen yet, he couldn't sign his own field trip permission slip, President of a major, multi-billion corporation or not. Kaiba Mokuba merely calmly placed the permission slip back in his briefcase, resolving to settle the matter later.
During lunch, he successfully closed a business deal with key people in Great Britain on his cell phone. He spent the remainder of the period beginning to draft up the necessary papers.
&&&
After school, Kaiba Mokuba was driven straight to the KaibaCorp building for work. Heading up immediately to his office, he only paused momentarily to hand off his permission slip for his secretary to sign.
Inside his office, Kaiba Mokuba stopped to stand in front of the memorial table to the side of the room. It had been up longer than a traditional memorial table was typically left up, but that was because Mokuba wasn't ready to say goodbye to Seto.
It had been months, and still Mokuba expected to see Niisama walk through the door, and, to Mokuba's stare of shock, give a small smile that said, "You didn't really believe I was dead, did you?" After which Mokuba would recover from his shock and jump up to run into Niisama's arms.
Kaiba Mokuba stood before this table, this mini shrine, staring at a picture of Seto. Beside the picture sat a vase with a lone iris in it. Seto had never been fond of flowers, but it was there more for what it meant, rather than what it was; an iris meant that those who were left behind or died would not be forgotten. Also on the table was Seto's dueling deck, still within his original duel disk system. The duel disk was surprisingly still intact, even after Seto's plunge to his death on the rocks below the castle wall. The locket Mokuba has left with Kaiba before he was taken to Duelist Kingdom was not among the relics on the table. Neither had it been interred with Seto's remains. The exact whereabouts of the locket remained a mystery. It had been reported by Yugi and his friends that Kaiba had jumped from the wall, clutching the locket in his hand. Recovery of Seto's body had turned it up missing. It had been logically assumed the cord had snapped and the locket had slid down into one of the rock's crevices. Search of the rocks had yielded nothing. Reluctantly, Kaiba Mokuba had had Seto buried without it; Mokuba had insisted on including a replacement…but it was not the same.
Kaiba Mokuba drew himself out of his reverie to look at the map tacked up on the wall behind the table. With a red pen, Kaiba Mokuba marked the letters 'KL' onto Great Britain. Already with identical marks were the countries of Japan, China, India, Australia, United States of America, Russia, France, and Spain.
"Almost there, Seto," Kaiba Mokuba reassured Seto's picture. "Your dream is almost reality. We won Great Britain over today. There are seven KaibaLand's being built in seven different countries. And, starting next week, the construction of the eighth, in Great Britain, will be underway. Counting the one already built here, there will be nine." Kaiba Mokuba stood silently looking at the picture, as if waiting for it to respond.
"I swear, Seto, your dream will come true," Kaiba Mokuba said, determined. He vacated his place before the table momentarily to retrieve a knife, used for opening letters, from his desk. Returning to the shrine, Mokuba slid the blade across his palm, his blood beading up red in the blade's wake.
Mokuba whispered to the picture, and to the spirit of Niisama he believed was near, "You promised me no one would ever separate us, Niisama. You said we'd always be together. You dreamed of building KaibaLand amusement parks all over the world for kids who are the way we were: poor and alone." Mokuba shut his eyes against his tears, clenched his slit hand into a fist, while his other hand set down the knife and grasped the locket he still wore every day. His voice became slightly choked as he continued, "I swear, Niisama, I'll make your dream come true. I promised to wait forever if I had to for you to wake up so we could be together; now I promise that once your dream is fulfilled, I'll join you so no one can separate us again, Niisama…I promise."
Kaiba Mokuba moved away from the table without a word; he had work to do.
On his desk, Kaiba Mokuba spotted a small, unopened package. Noting the lack of return address, he glanced around the room, wondering how it'd made it to his desk. Picking up the package, Kaiba Mokuba slowly opened it. Inside was a box. Lifting the cover, Kaiba Mokuba reached in to draw whatever was in the box out.
Mokuba found a small slip of paper that contained one sentence. It read: "I'm sorry, Mokuba." Trying to make sense of the message, Mokuba pulled at the string hanging partially out of the box. He stared in shock and amazement at the locket attached to the string. Slightly bent frame, snapped cord…Mokuba peeked inside, to see the picture of himself, younger, staring back at him. It was Niisama's lost locket.
&&&
Mokuba sat on damp stones, the heavy iron manacles on his ankles attaching him to the wall like a dog on a leash. He peered through the gloom, straining his eyes and ears for any trace of Niisama. All he heard was the faint sound of water dripping far away and Pegasus's security grumbling further down the corridor. All he saw was inky, gloomy darkness.
"I wonder where Niisama is," he thought, grasping his locket, his last lifeline. "Is he awake? Does he even know where I am?"
He reassured himself aloud almost immediately, "Of course he is. Nothing ever keeps Niisama down for long. I'm sure he's on his way now. I just have to keep strong for Niisama, so that he'll still have something to wake up to…A reason to wake up at all."
"Oh, how touching…" Pegasus's slimy voice interrupted his thoughts.
Mokuba jumped; he had been so intent on his own words, he hadn't even noticed the approach of Pegasus. Mokuba struggled to his feet; he didn't want Pegasus to catch him down. His grey eyes narrowed into a glare as he looked into Pegasus's one good eye.
"Mokuba-boy, you truly believe your brother will rescue you?" Pegasus asked, chuckling to himself, "How amusing."
"Of course he will! He's gonna fly here and beat you at your own game!"
With another evil chuckle, Pegasus asked, "What makes you think he'll win?"
"He's the best! Nobody ever beats him at anything, certainly not back-stabbing snakes like you!"
"My, my…whatever have I done to deserve such insults from you?"
"You're trying to take over KaibaCorp! You turned all our security against us and infiltrated our home!"
"Now, now…I was merely trying to help. Without your brother as its active head, your precious company was beginning to crumble." Pegasus reached into his pocket as he said, "And I'm about to help you further. Just between you and me, Mokuba-boy, Kaiba-boy is already on the island. All he has to do is beat Yugi-boy in a duel so he can enter my castle."
"See? I told you Seto'd come," Mokuba replied confidently.
"So you did. But what are his motives coming here, I wonder? Did he come here to rescue you…" Pegasus began, looking down at Mokuba though his one eye, "or his company?"
Mokuba made no reply; he was too shocked by what Pegasus had just implied.
"Me or the company!" Mokuba thought, panicked. "It used to be that Seto cared about his company more than anything. But, when he was in his coma, Yugi said he was rebuilding his heart, that he'd change from the heartless, ruthless person he was back into my brother…"
Pegasus chuckled evilly, "Yes, Mokuba-boy, I See you question your brother's actions as well…I know you'll have plenty to think about for the rest of eternity."
A bright light flashed; Mokuba screamed, his voice echoing down the corridors and into the depths of the sea.
(Mokuba's soulless body slumped to the ground. Smiling wickedly, Pegasus pocketed his newest soul. Chuckling evilly, he headed back upstairs to watch Kaiba-boy's battle with Yugi-boy…)
Mokuba awoke in a room filled with far more light than the dungeon. As he attempted to let his eyes adjust, he heard Pegasus's voice say, "As promised, Kaiba-boy, your brother his returned to you, safe and sound."
Mokuba blinked his eyes open and saw Niisama standing a short distance away.
"Niisama!" Mokuba shouted; he ran towards Seto.
"Mokuba!" Seto shouted; he caught Mokuba in his arms. Mokuba, so overjoyed to see his brother again, clung to him and didn't think he'd ever let go.
&&&
Kaiba Mokuba shoved the dream from his mind, but the final scene, so real, refused to be banished from his consciousness. Kaiba Mokuba found his eyes returning to Seto's picture on the table, the knife still beside it. Mokuba's blood shone wetly on the blade, making it look thirsty for more. Mokuba tore his gaze from the knife edge and back down to Seto's locket in his hand.
"Who sent this? Pegasus? I doubt it...Maybe Yugi?" Mokuba asked himself aloud. Even after months, Mokuba knew the spiky-haired boy still felt responsible for Seto's death, although Mokuba didn't know why; all Yugi'd done was play his best and beat his brother fairly, he knew Seto would not have hesitated to beat Yugi if he had the chance. Mokuba recalled the words on the note 'I'm sorry, Mokuba.' "Maybe..." he started, then shook his head. With a sigh, he admitted, "No, it could not have been Seto. He's gone..." His heart remained unconvinced. The graceful letters on the note were far too similar to his brother's handwriting...but that kind of thing wasn't possible, was it? With a small, almost bitter smile, Mokuba resolved that when he next saw his brother, he'd return his locket to him, and ask him who'd sent it; afterall, Niisama had to know, he knew everything.
Knowing he was not going to solve the mystery now, he shoved his musings aside and pulled his locket open. Clutching Seto's locket in one hand, Mokuba cradled his open locket in the other, gazing at the picture of Seto's last smile, tears in his eyes as he whispered, "Soon, we'll be together forever, Niisama. I promise…forever." …