Disclaimer:

What is obvious is that I don't own anything officially related to Yu-Gi-Oh. What isn't obvious is that I also don't own the title "Lost Innocence". I was attempting to be cute. The title belongs to the Eric Stuart Band, or Eric Stuart himself as the man who wrote the song to begin with. It's important to note that the song and this story started out in no way connected to each other.

Author's Notes:

I'm so mean! A friend has pointed this out.

I really don't remember much about working on this chapter and the next. It was something of a green tea frappucino-induced blur. I remember them nearly writing themselves, with little help from me. Even I was a bit surprised when I read what I'd written. This is also right about where I feel the story fell apart in the first draft. I knew somehow I had to light a fire under Seto, return Mokuba to the estate, and not jump six years into the future. This is only meant to be a vignette, a brief story that shows why Seto started down this road of what can really only be described as self-loathing (regardless of anything that man may say!).

Also, I really think Gozaburo Kaiba is a jerk, and am often floored at the fact he managed to be successful at all. I understand Seto's success. I fail to understand Gozaburo's. Peter principle, perhaps?

Chapter 5

A few days later, Gozaburo visited Seto. The older boy surprised his stepfather by asking to visit his stepfather's company. Despite being delighted at the fact the boy was finally showing interest in the company he was being groomed to lead, Gozaburo emotionlessly replied, "Yes, I think your school work can go a day without you."

"Thank you, father!" Seto could barely contain his excitement. His first look at the company he planned to take over! That alone was more exciting to the ten year old than finally escaping his room.

The visit itself was fairly boring. Gozaburo asked an aide to take Seto on a tour of all the non-private sections of the company. Seto naturally asked to see what was behind every door he was led away from. In one case, when he asked what was in a small, nondescript building, the aide paled slightly. "We don't talk about that."

"Why not?" Seto was even more curious, wondering what secret could possibly be contained in such a plain, semmingly unguarded building.

"We just don't." With that, the aide returned him to his stepfather, the tour over as far as the aide was concerned.

Seto spent the rest of the afternoon watching Gozaburo work on his computer and field phone calls. He tried to sit as still as he could, listen to his stepfather's calls, but occasionally Gozaburo would have a secretary take him out for a snack or something equally inane while he handled a phone call that he felt the boy didn't need to be around for. Finally, they returned to the mansion for dinner, and then Seto was returned to his room.

The next morning, a new tutor arrived. A stack of books containing Seto's normal work was set on the floor. A stack containing Seto's new work was set on his desk. Gozaburo had seized the opportunity and decided to start his stepson's education in business. Seto worked harder than ever on his new school work, much to Gozaburo's contained delight. The tutors observed more than once that the boy had a natural talent for the subject and displayed a genuine enthusiasm for it. Thrilled as he was at his stepson's progress, Gozaburo kept pushing Seto to excel. The boy met every demand tirelessly. Finally, he decided to reward his stepson.

Seto was shocked one morning as his tutor cancelled his lesson for the day. He wandered downstairs to find the foyer brightly decorated. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Mister Kaiba has asked that we keep it secret," the servant replied. Seto didn't care for that answer, but couldn't get anything else out of the men in the room.

Annoyed, he started back up the stairs. "Wait, Seto! Don't go." Gozaburo's voice rang out through the foyer. "I think you'll like this." The boy turned where he was and folded his arms across his chest. He wasn't about to believe that his stepfather would do anything that would benefit him.

The distrust Gozaburo had instilled in him led to a feeling of great surprise as he watched his younger brother walk through the front door of the mansion. The little boy was laughing and joking with the man walking beside him, his personal bodyguard. Then, he looked up and saw his older brother standing on the stairs, "Seto!" Mokuba started running toward the staircase, but Gozaburo stepped in fornt of him, intercepting him..

"How was your trip, Mokuba? Did you have fun?"

Never removing his mischievous eyes from his brother, Mokuba replied, "Yeah. I had a blast! Seto, you wouldn't believe all of the cool stuff I got to do!" Fearing that the scene before him was a dream, Seto feebly nodded.

Watching his older stepson carefully, Gozaburo put on an air of dismay, "Seto, aren't you going to welcome your brother home?"

That was when it hit the boy. He heard himself say, "Of course. Welcome home, Mokuba," but his hatred of Gozaburo was growing like a wildfire. His brother was being used as a pawn. He knew he had to free them both from Gozaburo.

Mokuba looked crestfallen at his brother's formal greeting. Gozaburo seemed similarly shocked. He had been certain that bringing his younger stepson home would produce some sort of change in Seto's nearly stoic demeanor.

"Why don't you boys go play until lunch time?" Gozaburo offered. Mokuba cheered and raced up the stairs, grabbing his brother's arm and dragging him along.

Seto followed him, dazed, confused, and suspicious. Why would Gozaburo suddenly be so willing to let us be together? The smaller boy almost couldn't stop talking the entire time it took to reach Seto's room, telling Seto about all of the places he'd been. From the sounds of it, Gozaburo's method of keeping Mokuba out of the way was to send the boy on a world tour of amusement parks.

"I've got some great new ideas for Kaibaland, Seto!"

"That's great, Mokie." The lanky boy dropped into the chair at his desk as his brother continued to ramble. He couldn't shake the nagging feeling that something was wrong. If there was one thing Seto Kaiba had learned in his very short life, it was to trust his instinct. He finally interrupted the boy's tales, "Mokuba, did you go straight to the amusement parks?"

Mokuba blinked and looked around nervously. Bingo, Seto thought. He moved over to the bed to sit beside his brother. "What really happened, Moki? Tell me." The younger boy drew his knees to his chest and dropped his eyes. Seto reached out and grasped his shoulder, trying to offer him strength and support.

Mokuba finally spoke up, "It was awful, Seto." The older boy waited patiently as the five year old explained what had happened. He had been moved from his room to a room in another wing at the far end of the mansion, kept prisoner in a windowless room. He was finally removed from the estate and held prisoner in another windowless room.

Seto could feel his blood starting to boil, "Did you really visit all of these parks?"

"Oh, yeah. About three weeks ago, we started going out and playing!"

Right around the time I visited KaibaCorp, Seto realized. This was another of Gozaburo's attempts to control him, and he was using Mokuba to do it.

Seto was furious.

He also felt the familiar twinges of overprotectiveness pulling on him. Mokuba was looking at him, a question on his face. Seto realized very quickly that he didn't want his younger brother caught in the middle of his power game with Gozaburo. He put on the same smile for Mokuba that he had for his stepfather after Mokuba was removed from the Kaiba estate, the one that hid the rage hiding just below the surface. It pained him to lie to his brither like that, but he kept telling himself it was for the younger boy's own good.

"What's wrong?" Mokuba finally voiced his question.

"Nothing. I'm just tired, Moki," the older boy responded dismissively.

"Oh." Seto wasn't sure his younger brother believed him, but at that moment, he didn't care. All he wanted was to remove Gozaburo Kaiba from their lives.