Yuugioh does not belong to me.
Thank you all those that reviewed. Sorry that this chapter was late, but I was really into my Naruto stories.
Seto wonders if his younger brother will notice the slight limp in Katsuya's gait, as he enters the room, said Katsuya in tow.
When Mokuba glares at him after merely glancing at Katsuya, Seto decides that he has. Shit.
"Well, did you figure out anything about the beads that Katsuya-chan mentioned seeing?" Seto says, trying to be casual, and sits down next to his little brother.
Mokuba pouts—shouldn't he be a bit more mature than this, Seto wonders—and doesn't answer. Seto massages his temples and sighs darkly. Eventually, though, Mokuba relents, and begins to speak.
"It could anything, but there's an old pagan spell—Celtic, druidic, something like that—that supposedly could be written on spheres—beads, in this case—and used by 'immortals.' It's weird, and vague, but it seems to fit." He looks over at Katsuya, and it seems that all grudges have been forgotten—for the moment. "Katsuya-kun, how old do you think that old lady is?"
"Hmmm," Katsuya think, placing a hand on his chin, and raising his eyes to the ceiling. "I dunno? She's been there forever. I mean, I've lived in that shithole apartment building all my life, and she's been there as long as I remember. Never really spoken to her before, though."
"Then, for all we know, she could be one of these 'immortals.'"
Seto sighs again, and sinks down deeper into the couch. "How is it we're even considering this? Immortals, spells written on beads? If this is going to become some kind of modern witch story, it could at least be a good one. This is so corny!"
Mokuba stares. Katsuya stares.
"Like a corndog?"
"What!"
"Really! Where the hell did that come from?"
"You said this was corny. Like a corndog?"
"No! Not like a corndog! As in fucking stupid."
Mokuba takes a couple deep breathes before speaking. "Let's go speak to this lady, then." Seto raises an eyebrow. He wanted to say that. When did his brother get so . . . forceful?
"I'm hungry," Katsuya whines, rubbing his stomach gently. "I don't think you eat nearly enough, Seto-cha-a-n."
"We're going," Mokuba says firmly, taking each of them by the arm and pulling them towards the door. Seto and Katsuya exchange slightly scared looks as the black-haired boy drags them out of the house.
In the car, Mokuba forces Katsuya in the backseat, where he begins to pout nearly immediately. Seto looks back at him through the rear-view mirror, and can't help but grin. His puppy is just so cute!
Mokuba is frowning heavily, and is forced to poke Katsuya viciously in the ribs every so often to make him behave. Sometimes it does feel like the Kaiba brothers own a dog, the way Katsuya acts.
After a long ride, they finally reach Katsuya's apartment. Mokuba takes command once more. "Okay, Katsuya-kun and I will go and question the woman, and you, Seto-nii, will go see Katsuya's father. He's no doubt worried that his son hasn't returned from school yet, right?"
Katsuya shrugs. "I guess. But he's worried a lot in general, so being late isn't a big deal for me anymore."
Mokuba has to stop and rub his temples as he thinks. "Well, go up anyway, onii-sama." He takes the doorknob—which feels greasy and gross—and goes to turn it when . . .
"Seto-chan, you did bring my key, didn't you?"
"What?" Seto cries, outraged. "What key?" Mokuba smacks his face exasperatedly.
"The key to get in!" Katsuya screams back.
"Look," Mokuba interrupts the two of them before they both start having tantrums. "Isn't there another other way to get in, Katsuya-kun?"
Katsuya stops, and puts his hand up to his chin in a stereotypically thinking pose. "Well," he drawls, "we could climb up the fire escape and go in through the hall window."
Mokuba sighs exasperatingly. "Okay, then. We're going through the fire escape. Lead on, Katsuya-kun." Katsuya, Seto and Mokuba walk around the building where they reach the fire escape. It's paint is chipping, and it looks more brown than red, now. It clacks horribly when Katsuya pulls it down, and Mokuba's eyes widen in surprise and fear.
"What if someone hears all this noise and calls the police?" Damn it, this is what happens when they put him in charge. He's fourteen years old for god's sake! He's not some street tough youth, nor is he a jaded genius, like them. As previously stated, he's fourteen.
Katsuya waves away his questions with a quick flip of his wrist. "Nah. I go up here all the time—"
"Well, that's good. That means we can trust it to hold our weight," Seto begins before Katsuya finishes his sentence.
"—if by all the time you mean I've vaguely heard it was possible."
Mokuba sat down on the concrete hard, staring up at the third story window that was their goal in despair. "We're doomed," he cries, clutching his head in both hands.
Katsuya rolls his eyes. "C'mon, Mokuba-kun! This is easy. It's not like you can die from a fire escape!" He steps climbs up the first ladder so that his feet are on the first rung. "See, do I look fatally injured?"
Mokuba looks at him incredulously. "Didn't you see that movie, Final Destination II? You know, the one where he jumped down from the fire escape, slipped and the ladder came loose, and stabbed him in the eye?" Katsuya pauses, thinking about this rather deeply. After several seconds, he jumps down from the fire escape, and runs over to Seto.
Seto gives Katsuya the usual confused-but-slightly-amused look as he clutches Seto's midriff (although, it's really Katsuya's) tightly. "Seto-chaaaan, I'm scared! Mokuba scared me with his scary movie references and such!" Seto pets the brunette's head lightly, and is briefly surprised at how soft his own hair is. It must be that conditioner he uses, he decides. Note to self: buy Katsuya some of that lavender-smelling conditioner.
Mokuba's standing up, hands on his hips in the stereotypical arguing stance (though an organization of females recently signed a petition attempting force males to cease their usage of such a move because it makes them look like females. Especially when they have long, black hair.) "Oh, you're the victim now? Who was the one that had to sleep with all the lights on and rather loud music last year because a certain someone showed me the Exorcist and Battle Royale in the time span of six hours?"
"Hey! You said you were bored," Katsuya retorts, trying to defend himself.
"Yeah, and that's just asking to be traumatized, right?" By this time Seto has already pushed Katsuya away from him, and is glaring at him.
"You were the one that left that movie in our house? I cried my ass off during that movie asshole!" Seto joins Mokuba in the ranks of males-using-the-female-arguing pose.
Katsuya raises a thin brown eyebrow at the blonde. "You were so scared by the Exorcist it made you cry? You were actually scared by something?" His eyes widen in shock, and he seems to be hyperventilating.
Seto frowns. "No, baka! Battle Royale!" He begins sniffing, and turns his head to hide the secret tears. "Their love withstood the will of the government! And the cutie in the beginning gave his life to defend the honor of the woman he loved and respected!" Even from the back, it is rather obvious that Seto's crying hysterically—though quietly—by the way his shoulders are shaking, and his hands are covering his face. "How sad!"
Mokuba and Katsuya exchange matching looks of sheer terror. Seto . . . is . . . crying. Over a movie where more than forty characters die horribly gory deaths. For some reason, that is oddly fitting for Seto.
"Nii-sama. You laughed during The Notebook, didn't you?" Seto nods silently, still sobbing through his fingers. Mokuba shakes his head in exasperation, apparently having forgotten how traumatized he had been by Battle Royale, since the shock of his brother's reaction to said movie. "You know what, Katsuya? If you're going to be a little baby, I suppose I'll climb up first. If I die, please tell my hysterical brother I love him." And so, Mokuba, quite bravely, I might add, approaches the frightening fire escape.
Seto pauses in his bawling to watch his brother jump up and down several times to reach the bottom of the ladder. "How valiant," Seto utters in a low tone. Katsuya nods, agreeing silently.
Mokuba finds that he wishes he had paid attention in PE when they had been practicing their pull-ups. He struggles for quite awhile before he finally manages to pull himself up. "Mokuba, old boy, get some upper body strength." He quickly climbs up that first ladder, and as soon as he's finished that first task, he stares up sadly at the remaining two.
As he climbs those, he thinks a good many things. Among them, Katsuya and Seto's odd dilemma. Even if this woman is the one they are looking for, how are they possibly going to convince her to change them back?
He also wonders if Seto's insanity is genetic. He doesn't want to ever get that disease. Baldness come if you must, but leave my good sense alone.
Perhaps he should cut his hair. He's tired of getting confused for a girl. And/or a female character his brother based on him. Which is probably a subtle hint of his brother's for him to get a new hairstyle. Sure, it was a little cute when he was ten, but no longer. Fourteen-year-old boys with long hair don't look like rockstars anymore. They look like fucking idiots.
Unless they ride skateboards. In which case, they still look like idiots, but idiots with very good balance and coordination. Unfortunately, Mokuba has neither and seems to have failed the test that one unknowing takes to be a society-accepted teenaged boy with long hair.
Okay, that's it. Mokuba decides firmly that he's cutting his hair, as soon as possible, as he climbs through the hall window. "Okay, guys, it was fine! Start climbing, now!" He pivots around to glance at his surrounds, only to be faced with his brother and Katsuya.
"What! When the hell did you two get up here?" Mokuba cries, enraged.
"Oh, some guy leaving the building opened the door for us. We would have told you to come down, you had just pulled yourself up to the first ladder, and we felt bad making all that work go to waste," Seto responds logically, but of course, logic doesn't sound well on a face with tear-stained cheeks, and golden eyes that look like they're secretly laughing at him.
"I hate you, nii-sama! You are so fucking sadistic!" With that said and done, Mokuba runs off. Unfortunately for Mokuba's pride, he soon realizes he has no idea where he is going, and he wanders back.
Katsuya giggles, but his fun is cut short when Mokuba bites him in the arm. "Ahhhh! Ahhh! Ahhhhhhhh!" Mokuba quickly lets go and backs off before Katsuya can throw him against the wall by habit. Raccoons and small foxes have a natural affinity for Katsuya's arm, it seems. Thus, scars line his arms that make people think he's suicidal.
Seto gasps. "What the hell was that for, Mokuba-nii? That's my arm, for your information! I want it back in the same general condition, okay? Anyway, what if you have rabies or something?"
If this was an anime, Mokuba would at this moment turn chibi and throw Seto out the window. Either this, or throw himself out the window. Luckily for both Mokuba and Seto's general health, this is not an anime and the window remains unbroken. This causes no amount of relief on the landlord's part, for one. Instead, Mokuba replies in voice that barely contains his anger, "Seto . . . do I look like I have rabies?"
Seto pauses, and gives Mokuba a good once-over. "Well, if you squint a little . . . " Mokuba is about to launch himself onto his brother in his fury when a door opens, and a book hits him in the head. Hey, Mokuba thinks indignantly, rubbing his head where the book had hit him. That's his trick!
Katsuya turns to look at the doorway out of which the book had come. The attacker had been that same old lady from yesterday, donning an odd outfit. She's wearing a rather tight navy t-shirt with the English letters T, E and H on them, as well as a plaid skirt to match. In fact, she isn't even an old lady. And yet she's coming out of Sanouke's apartment building.
And looks far too much like her Katsuya's liking. Logically, he assumes that this stranger must be Sanouke's granddaughter.
"Oh, hi there," he greets her friendly. "We're here to see Sanouke-sama. Do you know if she's home?"
The girl raises an eyebrow and purses her lips angrily. "Hello? Who do you think you're talking to?"
"Um, you are Sanouke-sama's granddaughter, right?" Katsuya's beginning to wonder if this is even the right building . . .
"No. I am Sanouke!" Katsuya blinks . . . and then decides more blinking is in order. And still more. There is not enough blinking to cover his shock.
"You said that the woman was old, Katsuya!" Seto cries, pointing rudely in 'Sanouke's' direction.
She takes another object from behind her back and with perfect aim hits him in the head with a bible. "Just who do you think you're calling old, bozu? I'm only about a hundred! That's about a fourth of what I expect to live, so you shut up!"
"So you are a witch!" Mokuba cries, and joins his brother in the Point League. Katsuya slaps his hand down before yet another book hits the smaller boy.
Sanouke rolls her eyes, and closes her door, displaying the large sign hanging off her door. It reads in large, bold letters: Sanouke Kyo, Residential Witch.
Both Seto and Mokuba turn slowly and glare at Katsuya, who is trying his best to look innocent. "Look, I didn't see the sign last time I was here, okay? I was thinking about other things!"
Mokuba and Seto pick up the books they had been hit with and launch them at Katsuya, who rushes to avoid the incoming attacks. He fails miserably.
"So, can you fix us, or not?" Katsuya asks, now that the three of them are seated on a couch placed in the dead center of the room. He is currently nursing three wounds, two from Mokuba and one from Seto, and isn't feeling happy. The satisfaction from their round at Seto's house has worn off and now he aches.
He's grumpy, to say the least.
"Well, the thing is—" Before Sanouke can respond, something moves in his pants and lets out a shrill noise. It's not the item that usually moves in his pants, but more to the side. He doesn't want to touch the area in case Sanouke thinks he's masturbating, or something. It vibrates again, though, after second, and the shrill sound is heard again.
Katsuya feels like an idiot when he realizes its in his pocket. He pulls out . . . a cell phone. Popping it open with a sidelong glance at Seto, he answers it in a gruff voice. "Hello?"
"Where are you, Kaiba-sama?" an angry voice screams through the phone. Katsuya quickly shoots Seto a confused look, and he shrugs in response.
"Um, at a . . . home away from home?" he replies unsurely.
"I left you nearly fifty messages! We have a very important meeting today!" The voice sounds very distressed, and Katsuya feels bad having to avoid this meeting, but he cannot go to a meeting in Seto's body. For one, he will cause KaibaCorp to fall into bankruptcy faster than you can say Katsuya Is Not A Businessman.
"Oh my god! My brother just gotten bitten by a wild raccoon! I've got to go, I think that raccoon had rabies! Yep, it did. Ta." He closes the phone with a click, and sighs. That was possibly the worst excuse he's ever come up with.
"What did she say?" Seto asks, sounding worried.
"Nothing important," Katsuya assures him, but he doesn't look convinced.
"A raccoon?" Sanouke asks incredulously, and then shakes her head as if she doesn't even want to know.
"Can you do it or not?" Katsuya repeats, once again getting back on track.
"Well, the thing is—" The phone in Katsuya's hand rings once again, and he opens it angrily. "What!"
A sinister voice answers. "We have just taken your lover hostage. If you want—"
"My lover is sitting less than a meter away from me," Katsuya interrupts dryly.
"Not that one! The cute blonde one with the gravity defying spikes!" By the speaker's tone of voice when she says that, it's clear that she is an obsessive SetoYuugi fangirl.
"S-I am not having sex with Yuugi Mutoh," Katsuya replies, annoyed. He has said this same phrase too many times for his liking.
"What!" Seto cries from the other side of Mokuba.
"You are entitled to your own opinions, no matter how wrong they may be—"
"I am Kaiba Seto! I know who I have sex with, for god's sake! I am hanging up now."
"No! Wait, we have Yuugi ho—" Click.
Katsuya looks at Sanouke again. "You were saying?"
"Well, as I was saying being I was rudely interrupted . . . there's a—"
Katsuya jumps up. "Holy shit! Someone's kidnapped Yuugi! Try to get this damn cell phone to call that number back! Yuugi's in danger!"
Seto grabs the phone, and begins pressing some numbers. "What level of danger? No Gel danger, Duel danger, End of World danger or Fangirl danger?"
"Fangirl danger!" Seto's eyes widen in shock.
"Oh god. I hope it's not too late . . . I don't like him, but I never wished this upon him!"
Sanouke stares at them blankly, not even attempting to look as if she understands them at all.
I never even planned for Yuugi to get kidnapped until I typed it in. Ha.
The Exorcist scared the bejesus out of me. I seriously cried. Battle Royale was just gory. XP And The Notebook just wasn't as good as everyone seems to think it was! JESUS.
This chapter is really weird, isn't it?