Mokuba's Plan

By Pearl of the Dark Age

Disclaimer: I own… (pinch) Sorry, I was daydreaming. I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh.

Chapter 11

Gleaming glass doors stood before him. The interior had a fake marble floor and women that looked as if they were made of plastic behind polished wooden countertops. Okay, I've seen worse, Seto Kaiba thought as he stepped through the entrance. Compared to the rest of this neighborhood, it's not half bad. He was in Osaka to put an end to this whole dating service disaster once and for all. The CEO casually strode up to the receptionist as if he were not rankled and strung out by the whole affair. She was noisily smacking her bubble gum while twirling a strand of hair around her finger and talking on the phone. "Hello," he smiled as he leaned over the countertop and pressed the button upon the cradle to hang up her phone. "I'm sure that was an interesting conversation, but I have a company to run. This shouldn't take long."

"You hung up my phone!" she exclaimed stupidly. Her mouth was agape. She had dealt with rude customers before, but none were as calmly collected as this.

"Yes, I did," Seto remarked in a cool tone. Boiling irritation was licking the edges of his words. "I am Seto Kaiba, president and CEO of Kaiba Corp. Apparently someone - as a practical joke, I'm sure - signed me up for this dating service without my knowledge. I'm sure you've seen the news recently. I don't have time to waste on this trivial nonsense when I have an impetuous brother to locate and an international company to run. Therefore, you will terminate my account with your dating service…" he paused for effect, "immediately!"

"Okay, your password please?" she asked, returning her attention to her computer.

Seto grounded his teeth so loudly she flinched. "I thought I've told you people before! I don't have the password because I did not sign up! What part of 'I did not sign up!' don't you understand?"

"Okay then, could you answer the security question for me?" she droned. Yelling she could handle; she was desensitized to it.

"Unbelievable…" Seto muttered hotly under his breath. "What's the question?"

"What was your first job?" she asked in a feigned quizzical tone. She blew a bubble with her pastel blue gum. When it popped a second later, so did Seto's shock of the sheer stupidity of the question.

"What an asinine question! Anyone can answer that!" he blazed. "Everyone knows about Kaiba Corp and that I-"

"It's not Kaiba Corp," the receptionist interrupted smartly. She was staring straight at her screen, avoiding his furious gaze.

"WHAT!" Seto exploded! A window pane fell out from above and shattered on the hard floor next to the potted psuedo-fern. Several people scurried from the lobby in alarm. Seto grabbed her monitor upwards and over the counter to have a look. Surprisingly, the wires connecting it were long enough so that the screen did not lose power when he did so. It read: lemonade stand.

Seto stood there, stunned. He carefully handed her back the monitor without a word. Gulping a few times helped to fight back tears of frustration. The surmounting pressure in his head nauseated him. For several long minutes, the humming of an air conditioner was the only sound to be heard. She waited. No one else was present now - they had all been scared off.

After taking a deep breath to steady himself, Seto remarked, "That was before the orphanage…"

"So you do remember it as your first job," she replied rhetorically.

"Who in their right mind would consider that a job?" Seto snapped. "I'm telling you that someone else signed me up. Now I know who: Mokuba!"

"Your brother?"

"Yes! Only he would know about that! It has to be him." Seto slapped himself in the forehead - something he was not in the habit of doing. "It all makes sense now…" He actually started to laugh. The laughter doubled him over, and he gripped the desk for support. Wiping a tear away from the corner of his eye, he said joyfully, "I am going to kill him when I find him!" Straightening himself up, he locked eyes with the lady, "Can you trace this? Can you find out where he is?"

"Uh…" she looked from him to her monitor and back to him. "No," she said. And for the first time, her voice was filled with true emotion: regret. "I'm sorry," she apologized, "but this is done over the internet… and it was so long ago… Our company doesn't have those resources."

Seto looked pensive, "I thought it might be a long shot…" He sighed. Torrents of hopelessness washed over him. "Just take me off the damn thing." She complied without hesitation.

Seto walked outside, feeling dazed. He just stood there, completely emotionally drained. Mindlessly, he looked at the sign across the street giving directions to a nearby park - The Duck Pond. Cute, Seto thought. He noticed that there was no traffic. The sunlight penetrated his skull. The warmth made him feel sleepy and slow.

Seto saw across the street under the sign a duck waddling his way. She was followed by five baby ducklings still in their downy feathers. The mother duck hopped down off the curb into the street. It's a good thing there's no traffic, Seto thought, if she intends to cross the street. It turned out she did intend to cross. She waited patiently for all of her offspring to make the jump before proceeding in a beeline straight at Seto on the other side.

As she crossed the halfway point, Seto heard a distant roar of a fast approaching motorcycle to his right. Within seconds, it appeared at high velocity. The mother duck stopped in the middle of the path to quack at the offending vehicle! Eeerrrrrrrrrrrrr………! The driver came to an abrupt stop mere centimeters away!

Seto was stunned. The water fowl flapped her wings indignantly and gave the front tire a peck with her bill. She must have decided that this settled the matter because she resumed her waddling progression towards Seto. As the biker waited patiently for the five ducklings to follow their mother, Seto had a minute to check him out. He could not see the guy's face, since it was covered with a helmet, but he seemed to think that he knew him from somewhere. His black T-shirt emblazoned with green words in English, Low and Loose and Full of Juice, did not ring a bell. Nor did Seto register his generic blue jeans and a duffle bag strapped to the cyclist's back. The maroon and black knee-high boots were familiar; so was the strappy black leather jacket with white leather patches on the shoulders. I know that guy, Seto thought, still feeling dazed by the sunlight.

The last duckling made the jump up the curb onto the pavement where Seto was standing. I must look pretty funny standing here like a moron with ducks at my feet, Seto belittled himself. He saw the driver's helmeted head turn straight at him before he zoomed off.

Amelda! Seto realized two seconds too late.

"Se…to…!" Seto turned to his left to see a man hurriedly waddling towards him like the biggest duck he had ever seen. "What's with the birds?" the man panted as he neared.

Seto glanced down to his feet where the brood was gathered, quacking madly. "There's a duck pond around here," Seto remarked. "I mean a park. Shoo!" The mother duck quacked loudly at the pair of them and wandered off, her troops in procession.

Seto glanced back up at the man, half bemused and half irritated. Believe it or not, this man was a friend of Seto. The CEO met Yoshi Kiyosaki at a Science & Technology Convention. Yoshi took it upon himself to stick to Seto like a stamp to a letter, much to the latter's annoyance. Yoshi was 44 - twice Seto's age, short, fat, bald, and eccentric. He was as flamboyant as he was wealthy. Yoshi had forced his friendship upon Seto, and to everyone's great surprise - especially Mokuba's - Seto had very reluctantly accepted. Yoshi invited him to business conferences, parties, conventions, plays, and dinners. He often dropped by Seto's office unannounced whenever he was in Domino City. Seto was glad Yoshi lived in Osaka, because otherwise Seto would see him too much.

Since Yoshi was a fellow businessman, he understood Seto's world. However, Seto found their conversations interesting and enjoyable not only because of this, but because Yoshi was unlike any other Japanese white-collar Seto knew.

Yoshi took a moment at present to take a silk handkerchief out of his vest pocket to wipe the sweat off his gleaming forehead. Seto waited patiently for him to catch his breath before asking, "What are you doing here on the outskirts of Osaka? I thought you haunted uptown."

Yoshi smiled mischievously and giggled. "Had some business to take care of, Seto," he answered vaguely. His sharp eyes glanced to the sign above the entrance to the building next to them. "A dating service, really?" Yoshi grinned more broadly, "Ano, looks like you've got 'business' of your own!"

"That has nothing to do with me!" Seto popped Yoshi's proverbial balloon. "Let's get out of the sun."

"Good idea!" Yoshi agreed jovially. "I know a place not far from here!"

As they drove to the deli Yoshi had suggested, Seto had little time to dwell upon what had just happened before his friend showed up. Seto was immensely satisfied that he put a finish to the dating service disaster, but was feeling a queer sensation due to seeing Amelda that he could not figure out. The sensation itself didn't bother him, but the fact that he could not name it did.

"Is something bothering you?" Yoshi asked keenly through a mouthful of tuna salad. They were sitting in the shade of a large umbrella outside the deli. "You haven't heard a word I've said - have you, Seto?"

"I'm sorry, Yoshi," Seto apologized. "I'm just feeling uncharacteristically 'out-of-it' today." He glanced down at his sandwich. He had only taken a few bites. Seto picked it up and took the largest bite he could, hoping this would delay more uncomfortable answers to awkward questions.

"You miss Mokuba, don't you?" Yoshi asked kindly. He was the second person after Yugi to come by and offer help when the news went public.

"Un…" (7) Seto affirmed through a mouthful of deli. He did miss Mokuba; it ate at his guts like a parasite.

"Don't worry," Yoshi said. "He's a bright kid. He's probably somewhere safe and sound, ready to come back at the end of the month." Yoshi was the only person besides Seto and the police to have read the note. "What you need is a distraction," Yoshi continued.

"I've had enough distractions," Seto acerbically murmured without hesitation, suddenly dentigerous.

Ignoring this, Yoshi asked, "Seto, how would you like to come to Bishonen-ai with me and Yoko?"

Bishonen-ai? Seto knew this to be Yoshi's favorite hot-spot. He and his wife, Yoko, went there on a regular basis. Yoshi, being bisexual, ranted and raved about it every other week. "I'm not gay," Seto answered automatically.

"So what!" Yoshi scoffed, "It's not like that! Besides, lots of heterosexual men go there. It's art!"

"The way you go on about it sometimes… It doesn't sound like art to me." Seto replied coolly. This shut Yoshi up. Seto took an even bigger bite of his sandwich this time. An image of a fire-monster with a whip of flame burst into Seto's head.

Yoshi was silent for a minute, which gave Seto time to reflect upon his first duel with Amelda. Why am I thinking about this now? Seto wondered, completely baffled with himself. I shouldn't be worried about ducks and Amelda when I should be worried about Mokuba. Seto swallowed his food painfully; his voice broke with multi-layered emotions, "I sure hope you're right about Mokuba, Yoshi."

"I hope so, too," Yoshi replied dejectedly. "So!" He brightened instantly, clapping and rubbing his hands together, "Will you come to Bishonen-ai with me? The first time is always memorable! You've never been, right?"

"You know I haven't," Seto responded with an impatient edge.

"So you'll go?"

"Why should I indulge in such a trivial thing? It would be a waste of my time," Seto scorned. He was returning to his usual self now. "What do I have to gain by going?"

"What have you to lose by not?" Yoshi inquired suavely.

Author's Note:

If you're probably wondering why Seto doesn't make the connection that Mokuba might be staying with Amelda, I don't blame you. I'm not a psychiatrist, but here's my unprofessional explanation. Seto is a compartmentalized thinker. It's how he's so good at denying things. Things he doesn't wish to think about get sealed away into his subconscious. Seto can't correlate the two because he doesn't even want to acknowledge Amelda's existence. Harsh, but that's denial.

The other thing you might ask is why doesn't he recognize Mokuba's duffle bag. That's simple. The bag is unremarkable and indistinguishable from other plain looking duffle bags. Chances are, that with such an easily replaceable item, Seto would not have bothered to memorize its appearance.

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