The next night was relatively uneventful and as Mokuba was doing homework, he was also looking up the information about Chance's family. He had to do some digging as he found several dead ends, but in the end, the search was worth it. Looking over the information he shook his head. "No wonder she was acting weird after Seto made that comment."
Later on in the evening they were snacking on some left over pizza when Mokuba brought the subject up to his brother. "Seto, how much of a background check did you do on Chance?"
"All of the routine checks, but a little extra. I didn't see anything untoward. Did you find something?" Seto was surprised at his little brother's initiative but listened carefully.
"Well, I don't know if you noticed it or not, but last night when you made that comment about having a little brother. Chance flinched and dropped the subject." Mokuba said carefully.
"I noticed. I just didn't think it was that big of a deal." Seto shrugged the reaction off.
"Well I did some digging. Castner is not her original family name."
"Really, and what is it then?" There might be more to find if they knew her original family name.
"That's just it. No one knows. According to what I found, Chance was found half dead and delirious from the cold one early winter day when she was about three. When she was released from the hospital healthy again, no one had come forward to claim her as family so it was assumed that she had been abandoned. She became a ward of the state and was placed in an orphanage." Mokuba paused to take a bite of his pizza and look at what he had printed out before looking up at his brother. Something about the intensity of the elder Kaiba's gaze gave away the impression of wheels turning very fast and very intensely.
"Well anyway. She wasn't in the orphanage for long. The Castner family adopted her because they were unable to have children. Apparently she was treated as blood kin by the Castner clan so the state saw no reason why the adoption shouldn't become permanent. She was about four when this happened. About five years later a minor miracle happened and the Castners had a child of their own. He died while he was still in the hospital nursery a few days after he was born. No one knows why." Looking back up at his brother he was almost surprised that he didn't see steam coming out of Seto's ears from the intense look on his face as he absorbed all the facts.
"Chance apparently took it really hard and ended up seeing a child psychologist for almost a year after it happened as she apparently thought it was her fault. It was at this time that she became difficult for the teachers at her school so at the recommendation of the school counselors, they pulled her from regular enrollment and placed her in home schooling classes. While the Castners aren't poor per say, they did have to struggle at times to get her tutors paid." Finishing up what he knew about Chance he noticed that his pizza was getting warm quickly and finished it off while Seto sat at the table with his eyes closed in intense cognition.
"I see. Well this certainly puts a whole new spin on her actions last night." Whatever Seto had seen/heard of the confrontation he did not share with Mokuba, so what ever he was thinking was lost on the younger Kaiba.
"Anyway, There is one other piece of information that might interest you bro." Mokuba smiled slightly at the look of interest from Seto.
"Chance was placed in the same orphanage that we were when we were orphaned."
Seto's eyebrows shot up towards his hairline as he thought the facts over. "I may be able to get more information from them about her if I asked." He muttered to himself.
"Well you can go all night and still make it to class in the morning, but I need to get some sleep or you won't be able to drag me out of bed." Mokuba reminded his brother that there was class the next day and that it was getting late.
"Sleep well little brother."
As Mokuba headed up to bed, Seto polished off his pizza and headed back to his office. For the rest of the time he composed letters to the Orphanage for information and then spent a large portion of his time while he was still up contemplating the young woman and wondering how it was that she had come to the front of a large group of seasoned professionals and already won his brother's approval.
As far as he could see it, all of Chance's story could be an elaborate set up to get at Mokuba. But despite his paranoia over his little brother, he could not shake the feeling that she was sincere. Her reactions to him, and the things he'd said in the past were too genuine to be faked. There was also a feeling of innate trust there. Something he never felt about anyone, including Yugi. It perked his curiosity and now he had to find out why.
Over the next few days Chance wandered about the city, sometimes running into Yugi or one of his friends, but most of the time missed them. She spent some time working out; the gym bag in the work out center in the hotel was stout enough to handle her kicks as she worked up. Most of the time however was spent researching the Kaiba brothers' history and what she found out from her contacts wasn't too reassuring.
The blanks of time where one or both Kaiba brothers had gone missing and were reported only reconfirmed what her gut had told her earlier. Something wasn't right and it followed the Kaiba's around like a curse. Reading farther she also discovered that at key points during the battle city tournament, Yugi had also gone missing.
"Curiouser and curiouser" she muttered to herself as she headed down to the front desk to check for messages. She was packed up and ready to leave as she had to check out in another hour and she still had not heard back from Seto or Tammy. Shrugging, she found that there were no messages and continued the check out procedures.
On her way back home Chance almost stopped and turned around several times just to see if she should have waited longer. However she didn't have the money to stay on in Domino any longer as the trip had wiped out what little she had in her savings account.
Walking in the door she noticed that there was a note on her table for her. It was from her apartment manager telling her that even though he understood that she was out of town on business, the fact of the matter was that she was overdue in paying her rent. Her apartment had been let out to someone else and her things other than her answering machine were now in storage.
Chance nearly collapsed at the news. She no longer had a place to live. She had to turn in her keys today and get her things out of storage somehow. Only now, she couldn't afford to pay the storage fees to get them out.
The manager said that he had left her answering machine up and so she checked it to see why he would have done such a thing. It was blinking and there were several messages, most of them well wishers on the interview process.
The last message caught her attention and she nearly wept tears of relief. She wasn't completely down and out yet. The message went:
"Castner, despite the fact that you didn't tell me everything that we should have known at the interview, you have been picked for Mokuba's bodyguard. Report in tomorrow morning first thing so that Tammy can finish up the paperwork that has been started."
Chance gathered up her things, took down the answering machine and then headed out to the managers officer of the complex to turn in her keys. It was probably a good thing that she had left instructions for her parents to pick up her cat over the week and a half that she had been gone. Otherwise who knew where he'd be.
Flipping open her cell phone she dialed her folks and told them where she was going to be and asked them to take care of Jamok for her. They congratulated her on her success and told her that they would look after the cat till she got settled in.
With that out of the way she stepped into the office and informed the manager that she would be leaving in a few hours to head back to Domino. She had just been driving all day and she was tired, but she knew that she would be able to crash at her friend's house for a couple hours before she hit the road again for the all night drive to get back to Domino for her first day.
~Seems that Seto Kaiba is a lot more worried about his brother than even he will admit. I will have to see what becomes of this.~ She thought to herself.
After a short argument with her building manager and a nap at her friend's house, Chance said good-bye to the town she had grown up in and started the night drive back to Domino. She wasn't going to look too good going into the officer with as little sleep as she was going to get, but she knew that she had bigger things to worry about. Like where was she going to stay when she got there?
Later on in the evening they were snacking on some left over pizza when Mokuba brought the subject up to his brother. "Seto, how much of a background check did you do on Chance?"
"All of the routine checks, but a little extra. I didn't see anything untoward. Did you find something?" Seto was surprised at his little brother's initiative but listened carefully.
"Well, I don't know if you noticed it or not, but last night when you made that comment about having a little brother. Chance flinched and dropped the subject." Mokuba said carefully.
"I noticed. I just didn't think it was that big of a deal." Seto shrugged the reaction off.
"Well I did some digging. Castner is not her original family name."
"Really, and what is it then?" There might be more to find if they knew her original family name.
"That's just it. No one knows. According to what I found, Chance was found half dead and delirious from the cold one early winter day when she was about three. When she was released from the hospital healthy again, no one had come forward to claim her as family so it was assumed that she had been abandoned. She became a ward of the state and was placed in an orphanage." Mokuba paused to take a bite of his pizza and look at what he had printed out before looking up at his brother. Something about the intensity of the elder Kaiba's gaze gave away the impression of wheels turning very fast and very intensely.
"Well anyway. She wasn't in the orphanage for long. The Castner family adopted her because they were unable to have children. Apparently she was treated as blood kin by the Castner clan so the state saw no reason why the adoption shouldn't become permanent. She was about four when this happened. About five years later a minor miracle happened and the Castners had a child of their own. He died while he was still in the hospital nursery a few days after he was born. No one knows why." Looking back up at his brother he was almost surprised that he didn't see steam coming out of Seto's ears from the intense look on his face as he absorbed all the facts.
"Chance apparently took it really hard and ended up seeing a child psychologist for almost a year after it happened as she apparently thought it was her fault. It was at this time that she became difficult for the teachers at her school so at the recommendation of the school counselors, they pulled her from regular enrollment and placed her in home schooling classes. While the Castners aren't poor per say, they did have to struggle at times to get her tutors paid." Finishing up what he knew about Chance he noticed that his pizza was getting warm quickly and finished it off while Seto sat at the table with his eyes closed in intense cognition.
"I see. Well this certainly puts a whole new spin on her actions last night." Whatever Seto had seen/heard of the confrontation he did not share with Mokuba, so what ever he was thinking was lost on the younger Kaiba.
"Anyway, There is one other piece of information that might interest you bro." Mokuba smiled slightly at the look of interest from Seto.
"Chance was placed in the same orphanage that we were when we were orphaned."
Seto's eyebrows shot up towards his hairline as he thought the facts over. "I may be able to get more information from them about her if I asked." He muttered to himself.
"Well you can go all night and still make it to class in the morning, but I need to get some sleep or you won't be able to drag me out of bed." Mokuba reminded his brother that there was class the next day and that it was getting late.
"Sleep well little brother."
As Mokuba headed up to bed, Seto polished off his pizza and headed back to his office. For the rest of the time he composed letters to the Orphanage for information and then spent a large portion of his time while he was still up contemplating the young woman and wondering how it was that she had come to the front of a large group of seasoned professionals and already won his brother's approval.
As far as he could see it, all of Chance's story could be an elaborate set up to get at Mokuba. But despite his paranoia over his little brother, he could not shake the feeling that she was sincere. Her reactions to him, and the things he'd said in the past were too genuine to be faked. There was also a feeling of innate trust there. Something he never felt about anyone, including Yugi. It perked his curiosity and now he had to find out why.
Over the next few days Chance wandered about the city, sometimes running into Yugi or one of his friends, but most of the time missed them. She spent some time working out; the gym bag in the work out center in the hotel was stout enough to handle her kicks as she worked up. Most of the time however was spent researching the Kaiba brothers' history and what she found out from her contacts wasn't too reassuring.
The blanks of time where one or both Kaiba brothers had gone missing and were reported only reconfirmed what her gut had told her earlier. Something wasn't right and it followed the Kaiba's around like a curse. Reading farther she also discovered that at key points during the battle city tournament, Yugi had also gone missing.
"Curiouser and curiouser" she muttered to herself as she headed down to the front desk to check for messages. She was packed up and ready to leave as she had to check out in another hour and she still had not heard back from Seto or Tammy. Shrugging, she found that there were no messages and continued the check out procedures.
On her way back home Chance almost stopped and turned around several times just to see if she should have waited longer. However she didn't have the money to stay on in Domino any longer as the trip had wiped out what little she had in her savings account.
Walking in the door she noticed that there was a note on her table for her. It was from her apartment manager telling her that even though he understood that she was out of town on business, the fact of the matter was that she was overdue in paying her rent. Her apartment had been let out to someone else and her things other than her answering machine were now in storage.
Chance nearly collapsed at the news. She no longer had a place to live. She had to turn in her keys today and get her things out of storage somehow. Only now, she couldn't afford to pay the storage fees to get them out.
The manager said that he had left her answering machine up and so she checked it to see why he would have done such a thing. It was blinking and there were several messages, most of them well wishers on the interview process.
The last message caught her attention and she nearly wept tears of relief. She wasn't completely down and out yet. The message went:
"Castner, despite the fact that you didn't tell me everything that we should have known at the interview, you have been picked for Mokuba's bodyguard. Report in tomorrow morning first thing so that Tammy can finish up the paperwork that has been started."
Chance gathered up her things, took down the answering machine and then headed out to the managers officer of the complex to turn in her keys. It was probably a good thing that she had left instructions for her parents to pick up her cat over the week and a half that she had been gone. Otherwise who knew where he'd be.
Flipping open her cell phone she dialed her folks and told them where she was going to be and asked them to take care of Jamok for her. They congratulated her on her success and told her that they would look after the cat till she got settled in.
With that out of the way she stepped into the office and informed the manager that she would be leaving in a few hours to head back to Domino. She had just been driving all day and she was tired, but she knew that she would be able to crash at her friend's house for a couple hours before she hit the road again for the all night drive to get back to Domino for her first day.
~Seems that Seto Kaiba is a lot more worried about his brother than even he will admit. I will have to see what becomes of this.~ She thought to herself.
After a short argument with her building manager and a nap at her friend's house, Chance said good-bye to the town she had grown up in and started the night drive back to Domino. She wasn't going to look too good going into the officer with as little sleep as she was going to get, but she knew that she had bigger things to worry about. Like where was she going to stay when she got there?