Chapter Six: Murmurs of Ancient Evil

I found that kid who must have hurt my brother. I'd been watching for potential bullies when I went to pick him up from school, and I also had some goons set up as spies complete with cameras in their glasses to prove that this creep had been picking on Mokuba.

It shouldn't be a problem anymore. But I didn't inform Mokuba of anything that happened. Still, I'll watch to make sure no new injuries occur.

All the ride home, Mokuba stared at his newest treasure.

The dragon was made of a silver metal, the deep grooves blackened and enabling the shining silver lines of its writhing, curling body to stand out more. But nothing stood out more than the glittering eyes made of some smooth gem. Its color was indeterminable. In fact, it seemed to change what color it was according to what direction one gazed on it or how the light reflected on it. Even discovering that, Mokuba wasn't at all certain the eyes changed or flashed only from that. It seemed the pendant had a personality, an aura emitted and it was through that the eyes changed.

But that was nonsense.

And so, dragging his eyes away from the scales that seemed to have been sliding in on its knotted self, Mokuba turned to look out the window, aware that his older brother had been watching him.

"Thanks for my birthday present!" he said cheerily, hoping it would take his brother's mind off the sudden love he had for such a strange item. It wasn't that the younger Kaiba feared his brother would ever take the legend about it seriously; it was more that Mokuba didn't usually act so taken about a piece of jewelry. He was excited for things, sure, but never so much that he'd gaze mesmerized at it.

And Mokuba didn't want his brother to have any reason to think anything was out of the ordinary—didn't want him to have any reason to take away the pendant.

As both brothers gazed out their respective windows again, their attention more on just how the other's body was stiffly unmoving as they kept aware of just where the other's consciousness was, the dragon's eyes had a strip of light that went over both of them slowly, making a red haze.

The morning's light breached the inner sanctum, and as its poisonous rays reached out over the smooth eyes, a small glow of their own shone brighter than the sun before finally settling down and allowing the foreign light to be its eyes. But below the surface, bubbling and seething, a molten pool of lava waiting to explode, the awareness waited. A trickle of what appeared to be smoke came from the dragon's nostrils, and the tiny scent wafted into the air.

When Mokuba was fully awake, however, the scent disintegrated and the charm returned to just that: a dragon charm on a string.

Mokuba fumbled out of bed quickly, smiling when he saw his newest addition to his outfit. Now, instead of just his single card locket, the dragon pendant was around his neck and resting heavily on its twining string, though under his shirt was where he placed it.

"Morning, Seto!" he said brightly, plopping down in a chair to eagerly pour himself a bowl of the cereal sitting out for him. Knowing his brother, Mokuba was certain Kaiba had been up for hours before.

"Good morning, kid. I'm glad you're still wearing that thing today. Since you waited so long for it, you'd better keep interested in it for awhile."

Surprised, Mokuba saw it had already leaped free from under his shirt. "Like I would just forget it the day after I got it! Come on, Seto, you know I like it more than that."

His brother did not reply, just sat across from him at the table, glancing at the boy's wardrobe choice and pulling over the newspaper. Mokuba had no doubt that Seto had already read anything of importance in the paper long hours previously or had known about it before it was even printed. Something had his older brother slightly on edge.

Could it possibly be this necklace? Did Seto actually believe in the story behind it?

"School starts soon," Kaiba said then, breaking Mokuba's worried thoughts. He put it all behind him and made certain everything was in his bag as he dropped off his bowl at the sink.

"Oh, yeah, how could I forget? Seto, you have to sign this!" He dug out a piece of paper creased and slightly crumpled from his bag; it looked like it was relieved to finally be able to breathe in the crisp mansion air.

"How could you forget?" Seto repeated and smirked. "We were going to that rundown shop yesterday and you raced through everything of your homework so quickly I wouldn't be surprised if you had the same answers for everything; yes, the same answers even for math and English and…art."

"I'm not that bad!" he protested, handing over the paper he had tried hard to smooth, but the wrinkles were forever imbedded on the paper, just as they were for people no matter how much botox treatment they had. "I might have been a little excited for the shop but—"

"A little excited? You were jumping up and down to hasten me out the door. You didn't even use a dictionary to look up your vocabulary, and I seem to recall you making some errors on that before."

"It was late then! I bet I have it all perfect!"

"Oh? It's a deal, then, the bet's on. Hand it over for me to check and I'll sign this slip."

Mokuba groaned, but he had gotten himself into this predicament. He eased out the rest of his folders holding his various assignments and the collection of other useless old paper that would start a better fire in his backpack at the bottom of the ocean than trigger up his memory to do well on some test he'd have in the future weeks.

Kaiba's head was utterly still on his neck as his eyes scanned over the assignments with startling alacrity. Mokuba was becoming dubious that his brother was even checking the answers properly. Who had done it faster? Kaiba checking them over or Mokuba filling in the answers?

Watching his brother in silence, Mokuba began fidgeting and playing with the zipper at the bottom of his light jacket. It wasn't like it would take his brother long to check his work, and yet, Mokuba thought the few minutes that passed seemed endless, especially with how quickly his brother had started checking answers. A snail stuck in molasses and having a broken body oozing toward the beach…that was how the minutes crawled by him as the vice-president of Kaiba Corporation awaited to see his score. After his argument, he didn't want to be wrong.

A small quirk played at the edges of Seto's mouth, and still he continued to look over the sheets his brother had handed to him in stubborn acquiescence.

"You're done, aren't you, Seto?" Mokuba asked suddenly. "And you're just taking so long in order to torture me!"

"My, my, so quick to attack me. No wonder; all these assignments are done in undecipherable little chicken sprawl; that way you could argue you had the right answer simply because no one could debate against you in any proof."

"My handwriting can't be that bad!"

"Oh? Just because you say so?"

"No, because I saw it all. I can read everything myself! Maybe you should wear your glasses, Seto, then you could, too."

"I don't need glasses, Mokuba," his brother commented wryly as his eyes returned to the paper.

"Oh? That's not what the eye doctor said. I saw that little note from him last time. How old is it?"

"Four years. For your information, those low numbers I scored don't mean I need glasses; they mean I see better than most people, than the average person."

"Huh? Really? You can see like a hawk!"

"No, they can see far better, as I would hope you'd know."

"I do know! I was just checking if you know." Mokuba crossed his arms and gave a stern look the reflection of his brother's. Still, though his physical appearance mimed and echoed Kaiba's, a certain atmosphere of authority and command was not at all present and he thereby lacked any chance of seeming like his brother at all.

"I see," Seto said dryly, finally handing back the papers to his younger sibling.

Then, as Mokuba stood and waited, Kaiba collected his own portfolio with his piles of research and homework that he had done weeks ahead of time, heading to the door.

Mokuba jogged after him, trying to look up at his brother's face as his arms struggled to keep all his things in order when none of it was packed orderly in his sack.

"Well?"

His brother remained silent as he trotted out to the car behind Seto's long strides.

"How'd I do?"

The door opened and both brothers climbed in the back seat, letting the driver shut the door after them. Settling himself as if he were in a business meeting and in the attention of everyone worthwhile on the planet, Kaiba crossed his legs and sat up straight despite the plushy seats of their limousine.

Practically bouncing in impatience and curiosity, Mokuba was at his brother's side, looking earnestly into the teenager's face.

"Come on, tell me!"

Finally, catching sight of the brightness in his brother's eyes—nothing else, not even a slight tremble of the mouth, gave away his mood—Mokuba kneeled higher on the seat and looked directly into Seto's eyes.

"I must've done a lot better than you thought, huh?"

"You might want to check numbers four, eleven, and thirty-seven, and your definition of 'ecstasy' is faulty."

"Huh?"

"It's not just a street drug; it had a meaning as a word before those apathetic losers ever stole it to represent their idiotic denials of accountability and justifications to commit callous actions completely unforgivable because of said actions' pointlessness, immorality, and irresponsibility."

"To represent their what?"

"Psychological addiction."

"Oh." He leaned back, contemplating through what his brother said.

Finally, as time went on and their schools were both coming close, he said casually, "Three mistakes out of three and a half assignments? Not bad, was it, Seto?"

His brother grunted.

"I take after you, don't I?"

Seto was looking out the window.

"I mean, I bet the other kids did tons worse."

Silence.

"Looks like I don't need to go to class anymore if I can do so well on these types of assignments that were supposed to take hours and I cruised through them in the forty minutes before we left for the shop. Maybe I should be doing more with Kaiba Corp. Maybe I could type up some reports for you!"

"All right, fine: you did well. Don't push it, kid."

Mokuba smiled, turning his attention back to his own window where the reflection of the dragon pendant shone in a translucent form, watching him carefully.

His brother was proud of him.

A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews! I can't thank you guys enough. They truly lit up my return to the dorm room, which is, one of the loneliest places conceivable if you ask me. I love reading what questions you have and what reaction you have, too, so thanks again!