Chapter Twenty-Six: A Meeting of Suspects
Yugi's place…they'd all be there. When weren't they there? The gang was truly a herd of unintelligent beasts that didn't feel safe or right unless surrounded by the idiots of like self. And I, the wolf, would seek out the weakest member to attack first before rounding on the others and feasting…
The shop where Yugi's grandfather Solomon sold a variety of games from all times rose into view. Gliding to a halt, the driver looked back in the mirror for my orders. He straightened outside the car and opened my door; as I passed him, I muttered my instructions.
"Stay here; I'll be back within the hour."
With a nod, the man slammed my door and sat back in the limo. Once there, he unfolded a newspaper and held it in his white-gloved hands. What a simple life he must lead. Then again, what a blessing such a simple life truly was.
After walking through the door, only a limited time passed—twenty-seven seconds—before the old man noted my presence and hurried over.
"Is there anything I can help you with, Mr. Kaiba?" he asked with a slight bow.
Staring at him and his wide, expressionless eyes, I wondered if the rumor of how I had murdered my brother had passed to him from Wheeler and the others. Or did he simply pity me and my situation? Or did he simply not care? After all I had done to the man, if he held satisfaction, I would remain unsurprised. Or even if he felt nothing whatsoever to me seemed understandable. I doubted that had Yugi vanished I would have felt much of anything for Solomon beyond an amusement.
"I am going to see Yugi. All you can do for me is prepare him if you wish or simply stand aside."
"Is…Yugi expecting you?" Doubtless, my determination and complete lack of propriety had halted other foolish questions that normally came from these people.
"It doesn't matter. He soon will be if he isn't. But I imagine he's been expecting me for two months and twenty-five days." Dammit, I needed to stop keeping count. But to stop the count was to give up on all hope of my brother returning.
The old man gazed at me, some inscrutable thoughts nearly glimmering in the corner of his large eyes. But if they were truly thoughts, they had to have been in some foreign code, for they made no sense to me whatsoever. Finally, after what seemed another entire day as I waited impatiently for Solomon to reach what I had already decided and known for hours, he slowly nodded and stood aside from the door. Casting him but the briefest glance as I strode by, I wondered if he didn't want to be deemed responsible for letting the devil in the midst of the nerd herd.
Yugi had a mother that I'd glimpsed occasionally, but the woman seemed absent today. Her lack of presence didn't bother me in the slightest; she had been holding a heavy ladle every time I saw her and wielded it expertly like a club. (1) Such actions certainly made me respect her.
Voices drifted from the main sitting room equipped with a small television set and a long couch. The different colored heads seemingly floating above the ground appeared as the only variety in the room, a rainbow of uniqueness and a symphony of colored sounds.
Though my pace never slowed, I noticed that certain more people sat here than I had anticipated. Devlin, another store owner, sat near Tristan, and Joey's younger sister relaxed on the ground next to him. The others I had guessed would be here, and they didn't disappoint me by suddenly going solo. While gaining independence normally seemed a good trait, in these buffoons, had they done anything unexpected, it meant my knowledge was truly worth nothing.
The talking ceased as a variety of eye colors and shapes all glanced up, the majority narrowing and trying to shoot realistic sparks at me. But none of them singed me as I proceeded into the main room and took my stance, glaring back at them.
"Whaddya doin' here, rich boy?" Joey asked, already getting to his feet and clenching his fists.
Téa put a hand on his arm and kept him in place not from strength of body but strength of will. "We don't need a fight here, Joey," she said quietly.
"We need a fight anytime an' anywhere if Kaiba's involved."
Smirking, I couldn't help but realize how much Wheeler still reminded me of a dog. He was even growling now.
"What do you want, Kaiba?" Yugi said abruptly, face unreadable.
The others all kept their gaze on me as I focused in on the short teen. Yugi's large violet eyes seemed to seek answers not only for the question he had asked, but other questions that had existed. Existed for two months and twenty-five days.
"I want to talk to Bakura right now. And later, I'll probably want to interrogate the rest of you."
Eyes wide, Bakura glanced at the others as if someone had just read his name from a list of those to be executed and no one even attempted saving him. No one moved.
"What makes ya dink ya have de right t' get what ya want just by marchin' in here and demandin' dings, huh?" Joey never glanced at his sister, though her big eyes filled up and she clung to one arm.
"Yeah, why should we do anything for you, Kaiba?" Tristan asked, my name a curse from the way he sneered it.
Duke looked slightly confused when my glance passed over him to focus on Bakura's frightened features. Standing as I did in the middle of all these seated idiots, I felt like the much-respected teachers at school. Indeed, these friends seemed like a kindergarten class from the way they acted and just how tiny and insignificant they all were, especially in comparison to me and my determination to find answers.
"Bakura," I said again, voice low, "tell me the truth of what happened that night." His gaze focused on mine, and he swallowed.
No one needed to ask which night I was referring to.
"We already gave our reports to the police, Kaiba," Téa said far louder than I had, sapphire eyes narrow. "How many times will you need to hear our stories before you finally accept them for what they are: the truth?"
"I'll hear them as many times as it takes for the real truth to come out."
She glared at me, but there, no competition existed. The day someone out-glared me was the day I would kiss Wheeler. It would never happen.
Bakura finally turned to the others resolutely and nodded. "I'll go; don't worry about me. Maybe Kaiba'll finally understand that we're all telling the truth…that we've all been telling the truth from the very beginning."
Eyes narrowed, I led him out without even a sharp jerk of the head. The others, I knew, were filing our backs as their eyes flicked from one back to the other. At least they all remained silent this time as we walked through the doorway. The narrow hallway hardly held more seclusion—unlike my offices in the mansion or Kaiba Corporation building—but this space seemed better than nothing. Two posters of Duel Monsters, one ripped and nearly falling off the wall, decorated the faded white paint. Standing where I was, the floor creaked once as I stepped down, but once I was firmly planted, not another sound dared to squeak out of it.
Opposite me, Bakura regarded me coolly, arms crossed and eyes half-lidded. This reminded me all too much of that scene in my office when we had been discussing a school project, and instantly, my hands readied themselves for any needed action.
"Ask your questions, Kaiba." His voice was lower, sounding more authoritative and…daring. For the first time, I wondered if the rumors I had heard about him were true—that he had another self like Yugi had. Would this be the other Bakura? "But make them good and I won't have to lie."
Immediately, my hands grabbed his collar and my body pressed him against the wall. But Bakura never reacted. He merely stood there, smirking.
"There'll be no lies, Bakura," I said, staring him in the eye.
He continued to smirk, mouth opening wider as my hands tightened.
"I want the truth."
"Then ask and decide if that's what you are given."
I grit my teeth and hated this pompous, self-serving attitude more than anything ever before. How could I battle against one so similar to myself?
"What—the—hell—happened—that—night—when—my—brother—vanished?" Before he could start spinning off some random answer, I added, "You claimed to have awakened and seen him screaming but had no memory of things before that. I don't believe you. And I don't believe you had nothing to do with the pain my brother experienced."
"Oh, bravo, Kaiba. You have realized I had a role to play. But don't insinuate those other answers were lies. You were simply asking the wrong person."
"I don't buy that crap. Answer me straight, damn you!"
"No need to swear and get so upset. So much easier to toy with you that way, Kaiba, isn't it? Emotions get in the way of everything."
Stiffly, slowly, I straightened and removed my hands from near his neck. I had to regain control of this situation. Questions…I had to ask questions to rid his face of that irritating leer.
"You claimed to have no memory of what you were doing before discovering my brother screaming in pain. What were you doing?"
"What was I doing, Kaiba?" He laughed dryly. "I was searching the maze for the objects your brother requested we find to get free, or weren't you aware of that? And after that, I was following your brother."
"Why, you bastard?"
Chuckling, his dark eyes looked past me like I was an underling and he was some noble king.
"Does that matter to you?"
"Of course it does!" My fingers tensed, hands ready to grip his throat once more, having been of such the perfect size and shape it seemed they belonged there.
"Then I won't tell you. Heh."
The others appeared behind Bakura just when I debated really throttling him once and for all. But after their faces looked at us, a couple ready to join in the near-fray, I withdrew from attacking him and took a ragged breath.
"Tell me why you were following my brother. What were your intentions? Did you follow him afterwards? What exactly did he say to you? Fix your lies!"
The others remained silent, looking at Bakura as well, and the foreign teenager smirked again. "I was seeking your brother to gain something by him, but it proved impossible to obtain, and so I left. The rest you know from the witness report," he relished, obviously deciding enigmas and riddles would bother me even more than no answers at all.
Yugi glanced at me, saying, "Like I said, Mokuba was fine when he found me later. A little shaken perhaps, but nothing major. He was with some of his workers." He looked at me. "And you even found us then. You didn't stay long, but then you left with your brother."
I hadn't known that.
I had found Mokuba after he screamed?
No kind of memory involving that existed in my mind.
(1): Yugi's mother exists in the manga, and yes, she really smacked Yugi with a ladle, but it was meant to be humorous.