Meanwhile, Yami Yugi stood at a nearby pay phone, nervously gesturing with the cord as he called the Kaiba Corporation main office.
"I'm sorry, sir, but Mr. Kaiba is a very busy man. He will be in meetings all day." The snooty secretary answered. "If you want, I can transfer you to his voicemail."
"You… you don't understand…" Yami Yugi protested.
"Excuse me, sir?"
"This is a matter of life and death. I have to speak with him now."
"Sir, nothing could be more important than his business with Kaiba Corp."
"It is his destiny…"
The woman on the other end of the phone muttered something in the background about 'another loony' calling up Kaiba Corp. For a moment he thought he heard Seto Kaiba's voice in the background.
"Who is it on the phone?" a muffled voice asked.
"Someone claiming to be Yugi Moto." The secretary replied, her voice also muffled. Her hand must have been covering the receiver.
"Give that to me."
Yami Yugi heard the phone being snatched from the secretary's hands.
"What do you want, Yugi... I'm a very busy man." He growled into the phone.
"Kaiba… I need your help." The pharaoh answered.
"You need my help? Oh how amusing. I shall have to mark this day on my calendar."
"Kaiba, we don't have much time to lose. I need you to meet me at Domino City Hospital."
"What are you blabbering on about, Yugi?"
"It's Ryou Bakura. He is very ill."
"And that concerns me?"
Kaiba thought back for a minute. He remembered Bakura. One of the eight semi-finalists at Battle City. The first to be eliminated, to be exact. The one they were trying to get him to land the blimp for, so that he could go back to a hospital, despite the fact that it was Bakura himself who had broken out of one just to compete in Battle City.
"I don't particularly care about your weak friend."
"He is sick from being sent to the shadow realm. He will die if you do not help us."
"And I don't believe in this shadow realm either."
"We need to summon the three Egyptian gods in order to help him. The Obelisk card will not work for us, but it will work for you."
Kaiba perked up at the mention of a duel monster card.
"What's exactly in this for me, Yugi." He sneered. "If you want me to cancel the rest of my meetings for the day, there better be something very worthwhile."
He paused for a minute, hoping Kaiba wouldn't hang up the phone while he thought.
"I will give you your god card back." Yami Yugi finally answered. "Obelisk."
The phone buzzed in the uneasy silence.
"You've got yourself a deal." Kaiba finally responded. The pharaoh breathed an audible sigh of relief into the phone.
He heard Kaiba's muffled voice as he shouted to his secretary to cancel all of his afternoon meetings and reschedule them.
"Where do I meet you?"
"Domino City Hospital. Critical Care Unit." Yami Yugi answered quickly. "And hurry. Every passing moment is critical."
"Whatever…"
The pharaoh hung up the payphone, and walked quickly back inside the waiting room. When he turned the corner, however, all he saw was Isis.
She noticed him immediately.
"Pharaoh…"
He stopped. The expression on Isis' face was disconcerting, to say the least.
"Has something…" He couldn't finish his sentence.
"Happened to Ryou?" she finished it for him. "Yes, they went in just a few minutes ago."
"Is he…"
"No…" she breathed a sigh of relief, already anticipating Yami Yugi's question. "He's not dead. But he is worsening at a rapid pace."
Yami Yugi froze just thinking about it.
"He… he couldn't breathe." Isis continued. "They were forced to put him on the ventilator. When the nurse came out, he was slipping in and out of consciousness. I… I do not know how he shall fare now."
For once, Yami Yugi wished her millennium item were all-powerful. But he knew it had its limitations.
"They said… with the breathing tube in place, he will not be able to talk. But not to let that frighten you."
Yami Yugi nodded, and walked through the double set of doors.