A/N: Well well, here it is. My subconscious was pretty well set against me finishing this fic. I can tell because this chapter took me more than twice as long of actual writing as any other chapter. It was the hardest piece of writing I've ever done and I'm not entirely happy with it even after tons of tweaking. One thing you should be aware of, I don't know much of anything about the legal system in Canada, my country of residence. I know more about the legal system of the US, but that's just from watching Law & Order. I know nothing about the Japanese legal system. Thus, my courtroom scenes will be quite inaccurate. I do, however, realize that a trial takes more than a day. But it's my fic, and so I condensed it. So nyeh.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! That's my plot twist for this chapter.

Chapter Thirteen: Denouement

It was a sight that Mokuba relished. He'd invited the gang to the mansion for a celebration, to celebrate Kaiba's recovery and the end of the affair with the Ghouls. The celebration, to which the elder Kaiba had been notably absent, had gone long and the younger had invited his guests to stay the evening. That was what had lead to the gang being collected in the familiar kitchen, gathered around Joey in the midst of another story. The story in particular was his encounter with the Ghouls in a back alley, and the first time he met who he had later learned was the leader of the Ghouls.

"So I climb up this fire escape to get away from the two dozen Ghouls that had ganged up on me," he related, climbing atop the counter to illustrate his point, "And I get to the roof and there's this big guy there, like, almost twice as tall as me and like, this wide," he continued, drawing his arms out as far as they would go to either side. Tristan and Duke were making fun of him even as he told the story, knowing Joey's penchant for exaggeration. Everyone else watched intently. That was why Joey was the first to notice when Kaiba made his appearance.

Kaiba stepped into his kitchen and took a look at the spectacle. The nerd brigade was still here, it seemed. "Oh, hell…" Kaiba groaned, and stormed into the kitchen. Every eye turned on him; even Joey froze in his position, towering hunched over the rest of his friends. Kaiba swung open the door to his fridge and poured himself a glass of lemonade, setting it on a counter separate from the rest of the gang. Grabbing a plastic packet from the freezer, he opened it and dumped the contents into his microwave. He moved to the espresso machine and declared, "Pizza pops, two," causing the microwave to spring to life. Taking his first hit of espresso for the day, he continued to his seat and sipped his lemonade. Finally, he looked up at the gang, still staring at him.

His gaze fell to Serenity. The girl had saved him the previous day, but he remained firm on his decision to end their relationship. Still, he did care for her. That was why he had avoided the party. He knew that if anyone could, the girl could break his resolve. Cooking up a particularly vicious quip to aim at the mutt on his countertop, he suddenly noticed the look she was giving him. It seemed an imploration to be amicable. Sighing, he turned his gaze back to Joey. "Well?" he asked flatly, and the entire group relaxed. Joey continued his story, but Kaiba wasn't really aware of it. He stared into his espresso, or when he could, stole a glance at Serenity. He missed the girl.

A tone from the microwave let him know that his breakfast was ready. Taking his beverages in hand, he decided he'd rather eat in on the veranda. Silently, he left the room. The party, no worse for the loss, continued behind him.

He stood silently for some time, eating his usual breakfast. Watanabe had often lectured him about nutrition. Tai, by contrast, ate twice as many of the incredibly unhealthy pizza pops each morning and had taken more than a liking to the espresso machine. Chewing thoughtfully on one bit, he felt a hand softly tap his shoulder. He turned to regard Serenity Wheeler, a tenuous expression on her face.

He stared at her for some time, before finally exhaling sharply. "What is it?" he asked impatiently.

"I think you know what I want to talk to you about," Serenity replied, moving to stand beside the CEO.

"And I think you know what I have to say," Kaiba shot back, nearly hissing the words as her turned away from her.

"You don't know as much as you think you do." Serenity replied coolly, "Duke came to talk to you with the purpose in mind of breaking the two of us apart. He and Joey worked together to do it, because they were jealous of how much time we were spending together," she explained, all the time watching him for a reaction.

"So you know the reason why I did it. That's good, you had a right to know that much. However, whatever Devlin's motivations were in coming to talk to me that day, the points he made were solid. I'm a powerful man, and not a particularly congenial one. I have many enemies and many of them are militant. Battle City should have taught you that much. I will not put you in that risk. It's bad enough that Mokuba has to be exposed to that," he explained, his voice cold and impassive.

"What right do you have to tell me what risks I can take? The truth is that you're not scared for me, or at least, that's not why you're doing this. You're scared of me, scared of holding yourself responsible for anything that happens to me. Well, suck it up, princess, because whether you like it or not I love you and I'm sure as hell not going to let you push me away because you're scared and want your teddy bear!" She yelled, having built in volume since the beginning of her tirade.

Kaiba turned back to the girl, anger clear on his face. Seto Kaiba was not used to being talked to that way by anybody. Looking as though he was about to explode, he opened his mouth to speak. "It's a Blue-Eyes plushie, actually," was all he said. Gently, he slid one arm onto Serenity's back. "Why can't I stay mad at you?" he asked, smiling.

"Oh, you know." Serenity replied coyly.

The brunette pulled the small girl in for a kiss.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It seemed like an endless sea of people spreading out in every direction. Kaiba had been to premiers and galas and other such social functions in which he'd seen reporters grouped like gazelles, but nothing like this before. It seemed that there was nothing like a trial to bring even the worst newspapers and magazines out of the woodworks. After all, Kaiba had given the tabloids nothing for years and now he was the defendant in the largest murder trial in Domino history. He turned to the other person in the limousine with him, a prim woman he'd hired as his attorney.

"I'll do my best, Mr. Kaiba." She explained, sorting papers in her lap, "What we need is some kind of gesture, or some speech that will stick out in the mind of the jury to turn their opinion."

"I could try to put on a glove that's too small," Kaiba offered.

"That is not funny, Mr. Kaiba." The lawyer replied coldly. Kaiba loved riling the excitable woman.

"Are you sure? I was pretty sure that was funny." Kaiba explained, raising an eyebrow.

"You seem pretty calm for someone who stands to go to prison until he fossilizes." The woman shot back, turning away from Kaiba.

"The only reason this is going to trial is that the district attorney hates me. It's a simple matter to prove that the Ghouls presented a clear and imminent threat to my safety, and the safety of my family, and that I had little to no other choice than to kill them in self defence. Assuming that you don't critically screw up, it should be an open and shut case." Kaiba replied matter-of-factly. The woman was uptight and somewhat irritating, but she was a skilled trial lawyer.

"Normally that would be true, but the fact that you brought explosives from home belies premeditation, and premeditation denies self defence because it isn't in the heat of the moment." She answered, still looking away.

She was pouting. This woman, arguably the best defence lawyer in Japan, was pouting. Kaiba rolled his eyes, "Would you like me to buy the jury, because for you I will," he offered sarcastically.

"Mr. Kaiba," the woman replied, "I hope you realize the seriousness of your situation."

"True," Kaiba admitted, opening the door to his limo as it pulled up in front of the crowded courthouse, "If I'm convicted I'll have to move. I hear New Zealand is nice."

As soon as he left the limo reporters immediately mobbed him. Racing up the stairs, he kept his eyes on the door until one reporter called out a question that caught his attention, "Mr. Kaiba, do you believe what you did was wrong?"

Kaiba turned in an instant and stared directly at the reporter. He was holding out a microphone to Kaiba, and the cameraman behind him quickly moved into position. Kaiba's eyes simmered with anger, and he spoke directly into the camera. "Sixteen people are dead by my hands. I'm going to have to live with that, but if I hadn't done what I did those men would've killed myself, my brother and a handful of other victims. It's wrong to take the life of another, so yes, on some level what I did was wrong. Despite that, any brother, father or husband in my position would have done exactly the same thing." Having answered the question, he stormed into the courthouse.

While reporters and members of the media were allowed into the courtroom, no recording devices of any kind were allowed in. Kaiba took a seat at the table allotted him and waited for his attorney to join him. Across the aisle from where he sat was the district attorney, a particularly vindictive man who had come to hate Kaiba earlier when Kaiba had been convicted of trying to infringe on freedom of the press and fined one hundred million dollars. Kaiba had purchased ten percent of every news corporation in Domino and threatened to sell if they gave him bad press, causing their stock prices to plummet. He had abandoned the plan after his first defeat to Yugi, but when it went public the DA had pressed charges. Since then, the prick of a sixty year old had viewed Kaiba as a rich playboy with no respect for the law and had hounded him at every turn. His name was Kariudo Tenchi, and he would be the prosecutor in the case.

Finally, his attorney made it through the mob outside and found her seat. The woman, a Mrs. Tetsurugi, was considered the best defence lawyer in Japan. Uptight and condescending, Kaiba made a habit of irritating the woman. Nevertheless, he respected her legal skills and talents and knew that she'd fight her hardest to win the trial.

They all rose as the judge entered. This was where Kaiba had lucked out most. The judge was a benevolent fifty-five year old and a grandfather, which made him likely to empathize with Kaiba. The jury, however, was less to his favour. Despite the notable skill of his attorney, jury selection had gone badly. Only five of the twelve jurors were parents, three of the jurors hadn't even had siblings. More than that, they were all middle or lower class citizens, certainly not likely to empathize with Kaiba given their social and economic status.

Still, as he sat, Kaiba was confident. Some part of him maintained a firm hope in their judiciary system and he believed the trial would vindicate him. If not, he would break out of prison and flee the country. It was as simple as that. The prosecutor rose to make his opening statement.

"All people are equal before the law," he started, walking to the fore of the jury box, "This is a fact that those in the higher parts of our society often choose to disregard. The defence is going to tell you a sad story of kidnapping and assault, and it will, for the most part, be true. They will try and tell you that the people the defendant killed he killed in self-defence, because he had no other choice. However, self-defence is only a defence when it is done in the heat of the moment. No, on the day in question, Mr. Kaiba planned out his attack on his enemies, rigging a briefcase, by his own admission, with remote plastic explosives and using it to kill sixteen men. This was not done in the heat of the moment; it was a cold, calculated, and premeditated crime. And thus you must return a verdict of guilty, no matter the motivations for the crime." With that, Tenchi sat down.

Next, Kaiba's lawyer rose. "Self-defence is not a crime. It is a right that every person has: the right to defend his or her own life. That's not in question. What is in question is whether or not what Mr. Kaiba did qualified. Over the duration of this court case, I intend to make it clear that Mr. Kaiba was suffering from a pattern of repeated attacks from a clearly identified source, and that he was aware that his life was at risk as long as the group remained…" She continued on with her speech, but Kaiba was barely listening. He understood, and approved of, her plan of attack.

So he tuned her out and scanned the collected group behind him. Reporters composed the back and sides of the courtroom, standing room only. The prosecutor's side held some remaining members of the now disbanded Ghouls; he recognized them from his encounter at Joey's warehouse. It also held several families, probably families of those that had died in the explosion. It was hard to believe, but considering some of the Ghouls had still been in their teens it was conceivable some were still living with their parents. How did a parent miss that? Kaiba certainly knew Mokuba would never be able to pull something like that off without him noticing. On his own side, Kaiba noticed his own supporters and groaned inwardly. It seemed like the nerd brigade had brought all of their friends to support him, from Professor Hawkins to Mai Valentine. He hadn't seen Valentine throughout the entire affair, he realized, though he understood she'd been in the hospital when he'd left Serenity there to visit Joey. Some of his employees were there too, executives that had a closer relationship with Kaiba than the average employees or those jockeying for position. In the very back, he noticed that about a dozen members of his staff had shown up. Even Cecil, who very rarely left the mansion, was there.

He became vaguely aware that his lawyer had finished her statement and snapped back to attention as the prosecutor stood to call his first witness. "The prosecution calls Seto Kaiba to the stand," Kariudo declared, and Seto rose, taking the stand. After swearing to tell the truth he sat down in the chair and looked at the DA disinterestedly.

"Mr. Kaiba," he started, "The day of the incident, can you tell us about the call your received in your home?"

Kaiba nodded. Kariudo was going to systematically confirm everything he'd said in his earlier statement. He walked through the questions confirming what had occurred on the call, detailing Vex's demands.

The attorney nodded, then continued, "What did the police say when you called them?"

"I didn't." Kaiba replied flatly.

"And why was that?" Kariudo led.

"The men told me to come alone. I wasn't going to risk my brother, because I understood that the force the police would dispatch would most likely not match the force of Ghouls. Moreover, it would likely put the police in harm's way, and I didn't feel that risk was necessary," Kaiba replied calmly. He knew Kariudo Tenchi's style. The man would try to ruffle him, try to get him to say something that would betray himself. Kaiba was too cold for that; he wouldn't allow himself to get angry.

"So did you bring the shares of your company as they requested? Surely if your concern was your brother you would have wanted to comply with their demands," Tenchi sneered as he continued, "Did you bring what they wanted?"

"No. Not because I wasn't willing to give up my company, but because I knew they had no intention of sparing either of us," Kaiba answered evenly.

"What makes you say that?"

"They used one of my employees to get to Mokuba. That employee, I was aware, was in Mokuba's will for half of his financial estate. Mokuba, in turn, was in mine for a billion dollars cash. Therefore, in the event of both of our deaths my billion would default to Mokuba and half of that would go to him. He only made money in the event of both of our deaths. Since he was involved, I determined that was the plan." Again, Kaiba's tone was cool and level, his emotions perfectly in check despite the ire that the DA arose in Kaiba.

Kariudo nodded, pacing slightly in front of the witnesses box. He was forming a plan of attack again, trying to get Kaiba to reveal the hatred he knew that he harboured toward the Ghouls. Seto had been correct in saying that it should have been an open and shut case, however if Kariudo could make it look like revenge instead of self-defence he could finally put Kaiba away. "I take it you bore some ill will toward this employee, the one that helped kidnap your brother."

"Of course. I did not, however, expect him to be at the warehouse. He wasn't a particularly courageous man. In any case, he didn't die in the explosion. He died a few days ago after assaulting my brother. It was self-defence. Like this case." Kaiba turned to stare at a particularly interesting floor tile. He hated Kariudo, oh how he hated him, but he had to reign in his emotions to win the case.

"I see. Why did you choose to bring plastic explosives to the warehouse? It says here in your earlier statement to the police that at the second warehouse you used a gas grenade instead, to equally effective results." Make it look vicious, make it look intentionally harmful.

"First off, because we had an advantage there in that I was to enter from the outside once the gas grenade had been activated, allowing me a distinct advantage and secondly because as I owned the warehouse I could legally demolish it. Moreover, if I was to rescue Serenity… that is, the captive at the second warehouse, I could not be pursued. Again that wasn't an issue at the second warehouse because the more simple design allowed us to bar off the only exit," the CEO explained.

"Sounds like you had it planned out pretty well," Tenchi drawled, the implications clear in the way he said it.

"I was in the midst of an urban war with the Ghouls. They'd harassed me at every turn and kidnapped my brother and Serenity once already before. I intended to do what I had to in order to protect myself and my brother from them once and for all. That's why I brought the explosives. To end the ongoing battle," Kaiba stressed ongoing. He knew that in order to vindicate himself he had to make it clear that is was an unending struggle and not separate incidences.

"That's all." Kariudo smirked and sat down. He'd accomplished his goal in calling Kaiba.

"Mr. Kaiba," his attorney called, standing for her cross-examination, "Had you ever killed anyone before this incident?"

"No," Kaiba responded somewhat sharply, "My stepfather ran an arms company and I came to loathe the killing. I turned it into a gaming company instead."

"Describe your previous encounters with the Ghouls."

"The first encounter in this series of events was when four armed men attacked me outside my house," he made sure to say house, not mansion. He'd been told to play down his wealth. "I incapacitated them and was severely injured in the process. The second encounter they kidnapped my brother and his sitter, the girl I already mentioned, Serenity. I saved Serenity from an ambush they'd lain for her brother, incapacitating a sniper they'd placed in the process. The third encounter was when I broke into what we deduced was their stronghold in order to save my brother. I had thought that that encounter would put an end to the… war going on between us but their leader escaped the police that I called."

"So would you say that it was a consistent stream of attacks?"

"Yes."

"Would you say that you felt a consistent threat?"

"Of course. They were after blood, they told Joey Wheeler," he had to force himself not to say 'the mutt', "as much."

"That's all," she said, sitting.

"Redirect?" The DA asked, addressing the judge. He nodded.

"Mr. Kaiba where did you get the plastic explosives from?" Tenchi asked, sneering vilely.

"My stepfather kept a room full of weapons in the house in which I live," Kaiba responded, already knowing where this line was going.

"If you hate killing and weapons as much as you say, why didn't you clean out that room?" He continued.

"I knew that Kaiba Corp, and I myself, has and will continue to have enemies. I knew that some of those enemies, as experience has taught me, use weapons to accomplish their goals. I kept the weapons around because I knew they may become necessary to fight off those enemies."

"And the Ghouls presented such an opportunity?"

"Such a need, yes," Kaiba replied.

"Isn't it possible that you're more like your stepfather than you care to admit and that you kept those weapons because you wanted to use them-"

"Save it!" Kaiba hissed venomously. From that moment he was in contempt of court but no one, not even the judge, said anything. "I did what I had to and nothing more. If all you want is to incarcerate me by all means, go ahead. Both of those two," he said, gesturing to Mokuba and Serenity in the front row of his section, "are worth ten of me, so I won't regret a moment of it. But don't for a second think that I did any of this out of hate, revenge, spite or sadism. I did it because I care about those two and not even your damn heavy-handed law is going to do anything to stop me from saving those I care about. Now, are you quite done Kariudo? Because I don't have to listen to anymore of this shit."

For a few moments, no one said anything. A man as powerful and influential as Kariudo Tenchi was not used to being spoken to that way. Finally, Kariudo mustered a rather sheepish sounding, "The witness is excused."

They broke for a ten-minute recess after that, and Kaiba sat quietly at his desk. He had broken under the incessant questions from that worm of a man, but it seemed to have done him as much good as bad. Snapping him out of his trance, Serenity tapped him on the shoulder. "Nice outburst," she commented, grinning slightly.

Kaiba shrugged and glanced at the empty jury stand, the jurors having been taken into a separate room. "I should have had more control over my emotions. It was a mistake."

Serenity kissed Kaiba on the cheek and smiled. "You're doing fine, Seto. You'll be all right. You're in the right here. Don't let that ass make you forget it."

"You're on in five," he noted, looking at the order of prosecution witnesses. "He's going to try and use you to establish that I had a personal vendetta against the Ghouls. He'll probably bring up the first time you were captured and my reactions therein. Just stick to the truth, don't let him bully you and you'll be fine."

Nodding slightly, Serenity glanced over Kaiba's shoulder at the list. "A shrink? What, they're having an expert witness on your psychological state? Do we even have time for that?"

"Ha ha," Kaiba commented sarcastically, "He's here to attest to my psychological state at the moment of the crime, saying I was 'cold and calculating'."

Serenity nodded again, "They should also have him mention that the sky was blue, dogs chased cats and pop music still sucked."

Rolling his eyes, Kaiba glanced away from the girl. She was getting just a bit too comfortable around him. He'd have to punish her, hit her with a pillow or beat her at pool again. Teach her some proper respect. It's exactly her casual lack of respect that makes her so appealing. He thought to himself. Sighing inwardly, he brought his mind back to the trial. It wasn't over yet.

Calm and collected after the earlier incident, Kariudo took his seat. It was show time, and he planned to make an example of Seto Kaiba. More than that, he wanted to see the rich playboy humiliated. Incarcerated would do.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The next batch of prosecution witnesses had gone much as expected. The only witness that the defence had called was Mokuba, simply to attest to the danger of the situation. By this point it was a purely subjective case. Both Kaiba and his attorney were counting on turning one juror to hang the jury so no verdict would be returned. That would mean that they'd have to start from scratch on the trial, and the DA would likely drop it. No verdict was a good verdict. Given how jury selection had gone, if a verdict was returned it would almost certainly be bad.

Kariudo's closing statement mirrored his opening one. Kaiba's attorney's was equally uninteresting. Staring at the ceiling, Kaiba waited for the court to recess pending a verdict, and then rushed to exit.

The mob of reporters had swelled when news of Kaiba's courtroom outburst had spread. It was nearly impossible to navigate the gauntlet of calling press people, and when he finally reached his limo he once again heard one nagging reporter with a question that had to be answered. "Who's the redhead who testified for you? A Serenity Wheeler?"

Kaiba turned his head over his shoulder enough to fix the reporter with a lethal glance. "She is to be left alone," Kaiba answered coldly, then entered his limo.

He let his mind drift to the earlier slight he'd received. Duke had tried to play him for personal gain. Worse than that, he had almost succeeded. Well, one bad turn deserved another. Picking up his phone, he placed a full-page ad in tomorrow's paper. It read simply 'Tristan Taylor: Marry me – Duke Devlin'. That would suffice.

With his mind still drifting, Kaiba found himself thinking of the trial. It hadn't gone as well as he'd expected. Despite the purity of his motivations they'd managed to paint him as a cold-hearted killer. Or at least, that's how it appeared to his eyes. Serenity's testimony had worked to his advantage. The fact that so innocent a girl harboured some feelings toward him had helped his image, and since the meat of the case was subjective his image was suddenly very important.

As the limo arrived home Kaiba strode out of the car and back into the house. Mokuba, who had snuck into the limo with less fanfare than Seto, shuffled out after him, expecting Kaiba to head straight to his office. Instead, he moved to a room he rarely entered and that no one in the mansion but him ever entered.

A few hours later Serenity arrived, anxious to see how Seto felt about the trial. Cecil led her to the room Kaiba currently occupied and left her at the door. Serenity realized she'd never been into this room before, or even really noticed it. Slowly, she pushed open the door.

The room was an art gallery, only slightly larger that the first floor infirmary. It contained only original pieces, but some of them were certainly noteworthy. Eighteen different paintings lined the walls of the room, and several sculptures took up much of the floor space. Kaiba was sitting on a black marble panther, obviously not a seat, but seemed totally unaware of the piece's value. He was staring at a painting on the wall, an original Monet, so intently he didn't notice her arrival.

"Nervous?" Serenity asked tentatively, and Kaiba turned his head to regard her, "About the trial?" she clarified.

Kaiba nodded, "A little."

"You have a right to be. That much jail time is enough to make anyone a bit antsy."

"It's not that," Kaiba replied, looking back to the painting, "I just don't want to be remembered a killer."

Serenity entered the room and wrapped her arms around Kaiba's neck. So he was touchable after all. She thought back to how things had begun. The night Kaiba had been attacked she'd talked to him for the first time. He'd gotten angry with himself for revealing something that had been of no consequence. Each conversation since then, it seemed, he'd been able to open up a little bit more, to let her touch him a little more. To think of doing this before the affair with the Ghouls… well, perhaps good could come of anything.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Cecil entered the gallery to see Kaiba hunched over, sleeping while sitting atop the black marble panther. Serenity was also asleep, arms around his neck, leaning forward. The two seemed to be falling into each other, each staying upright because of the counter lean of the other. It seemed a tender moment, but he had to wake them.

He tapped Seto on the shoulder, bringing him to. In turn, Kaiba woke Serenity by tapping her on the hand, bringing her back into reality. "What is it?" Kaiba asked calmly, looking to Cecil.

"They've returned a verdict," Cecil explained. Kaiba rose, Serenity with him. The smaller of the two wrapped her arm around Seto's waist and they made their way to the limo. It was time to decide his fate.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kaiba sat in his seat once again, trying his best to look calm. The jury shuffled in and settled in their seats, not a one of them looking at him. Everyone rose as the judge entered and sat. All was silent for a sickening moment as the judge collected himself, then looked to the foreman of the jury.

"Mr. foreman, has the jury reached a verdict?" he asked.

"We have your honour."

The judge went through each count of the indictment, stating the name of the victim along with the charge. Not guilty was the reply for the first, the second, the third… It dragged on, and with each 'not guilty' a bit of tension lifted from Kaiba's shoulders.

"In the fifteenth count of the indictment, the second-degree murder of Ian Jones, how does the jury find?"

"We find the defendant not guilty."

"In the sixteenth count of the indictment, the second-degree murder of Shinji Watanabe, how does the jury find?"

The foreman glanced at Kaiba, "We find the defendant not guilty."

Noise erupted from the courtroom and the judge beat his gavel for silence. Finally, the room quieted. The ambush of Watanabe had come out fully during Mokuba's cross-examination. Apparently, it hadn't been enough to condemn him. The judge turned his gaze to Kaiba.

"Very well. Mr. Kaiba, you're free to go."

Elation filled Kaiba as he left the courtroom. His arm was around Serenity, and he didn't know when that had happened. Mokuba held onto his other arm, relying on his big brother to guide him through the mass of the reporters. Striding out of the courthouse, he stood atop the steps of the courthouse. Questions shot from around him, most asking his thoughts on his victory. Turning to one reporter, he gave a wry grin.

"Was there ever any doubt?" he glanced at Serenity, grinning up at him from beside him. The girl seemed to fit into the position, her slender body pressed against his muscular frame. Still grinning, he turned back to the reporter.

"I'm untouchable."

A/N: I debated and debated over what the final verdict would be, but I finally decided that I just plain didn't like Seto going to jail. I'm still not happy with the verdict, but I don't think I'll get any happier than I am. I'll probably do an epilogue depending on how I, and other people, reviewing people, feel. One last time, please tell me what you did and did not like. It's the only way I'll learn, people.