When vengeance goes too far
Chapter 4: Mokuba's desertion
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Yu-Gi-Oh! They are the property of Kazuki Takahashi, Shonen Jump, Konami and Shueisha comics.
Kaiba sat in his office at the top of Kaiba Corp headquarters. He was planning or at least trying to plan the grand finale for his plan on getting even with Serenity after she humiliated him. However, for some reason, he couldn't think straight. Since he secretly visited the city hospital the previous day and saw Serenity's state for himself, something was eating away at him. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't shake it off, at least not anymore.
"Why am I feeling like this?" he asked no one in particular.
"It's called guilt," a voice inside his head said.
Kaiba was shocked. Where had that come from? The voice sounded like his own, but it didn't sound like something he'd say or even feel for that matter. He knew what guilt was and in his view, it was a feeling he never felt unless it had to do with Mokuba. Apart from that, he never felt guilty over anyone's situation.
"Do you honestly think that Seto?" the voice came.
Kaiba shook his head.
"I'm hearing things," he concluded.
However, even as he said it, he began to wonder if the voice, whether it was imaginary or not had a point. Did he really feel guilty over Serenity's predicament? Of course not, he was Seto Kaiba, he'd done in a lot of people emotionally and he had no problems sleeping at night, so why should Serenity be any different. Kaiba smirked and asked himself that.
"Because she was younger than all you're previous victims," the voice came again, "She's at least five years younger than you and you went further than you ever went before with your previous victims when you had her mother and brother beaten up."
"Not again," Kaiba, thought, "I must be imagining things."
"I'm your conscience," the voice said, "And no, consciences don't operating with that stereotypical angel/devil thing."
"I'm not hearing this," Kaiba said.
"You can't shut me out forever Seto," his conscience said, "Soon my nagging will become too much for you."
"I don't know who or what you are," Kaiba, said, "But I have no conscience. If I ever had one then it died when Gozaburo adopted me."
"Mr Kaiba," came a voice, "Are you feeling alright sir?" Kaiba glared at the owner of the voice, which belonged to his secretary. The woman cowered in fear and dropped the papers she was holding. Kaiba just raised an eyebrow.
"What do you want Elaine and it better not by a raise?" Kaiba said.
"No sir," Elaine, said, "It's just that your brother's here and he wants to see you right away." She was on the floor picking up the papers she dropped.
"A little help would be appreciated," she thought, "But no, you don't help out because you're Seto Kaiba, the biggest pain in the ass the world's ever seen."
"You may tell Mokuba that I'm too busy right now," Kaiba said.
"I'm afraid that he insisted," Elaine, said, "He didn't look very happy; in fact he looked downright furious."
Kaiba was surprised at this. Mokuba never bothered him at work unless it was something important and he most certainly was never furious. Sure, Kaiba admitted that his work took up most of his time, but he thought that Mokuba understood that it was for his benefit as well as his brother's. With him in turmoil over what he did to Serenity, this was all he needed.
"Send him in," Kaiba, said, "And in future, don't ever come in without knocking and when I tell you to come in or next time, you're fired."
"Yes sir," Elaine said.
She left and a few second later, the door to Kaiba's office flew open and in stormed Mokuba, who looked more furious than Kaiba had ever seen him. Kaiba was surprised and a bit intimidated. Mokuba was never like this. Kaiba guessed that this had to do with more than just the fact that he never had enough time for him.
"How could you Seto?" Mokuba said quietly.
"Huh?" Kaiba, said, "Mokuba, what is the meaning of this and what's up with you?"
"HOW COULD YOU SETO!" Mokuba yelled, glaring at his brother with hatred that Kaiba never dreamed his brother was capable off. Sure Kaiba knew that Mokuba was capable of hatred, he was human after all, but he never dreamed Mokuba could hate as much as he did now and to make matters worse, this hatred was directed at him.
"What did I do?" Kaiba said, unable to comprehend why Mokuba was anger at him.
"Serenity," Mokuba, said, "How could you do that to her? She's only years older than me and you devastated her."
Kaiba was shocked. How did Mokuba know? Could Hobson have let it slip? Mokuba wasn't supposed to know about it. In fact, Mokuba didn't know a lot of things that he did. Mokuba didn't know how he managed to get the three Blue Eyes White Dragon cards from their original owners. One of those people had been a rich property tycoon gone bankrupt because of Kaiba. Kaiba had driven the second person to suicide and he had hired the mafia to assassinate the third. Mokuba didn't know about that and he even wasn't supposed to know about what he did to Solomon Moto, Yugi's grandfather, but he'd shown up in the middle of Kaiba and Yugi's first duel just to see him lose.
"She humiliated me," Kaiba eventually said.
"It's always about your pride Seto," Mokuba, said, "I have defended you from all those accusations long enough and to tell you the truth, I'm sick of it. I can see why Yugi and the others would say you're a heartless, ruthless jerk and I have defended you countless times and not once did I ever get a "Thank you Mokuba," or Thanks for sticking up for me". You stuck up for me against bullies and I thanked you, but when the situation was reversed, you ignored me. Even when I encourage you during your duels, you ignore me as if I don't exist. I'm sorry Seto, but I can't defend you from this. What you did to Serenity could be irreparable. You definitely went too far. In the past when I defended you, I always drew where the line was drawn and you just stepped over it. You could've humiliated her back, but instead you decided to completely devastate her and why? Just because she highlighted the truth."
Kaiba said, "Mokuba…"
"I'm not done Seto," Mokuba, interrupted, "In case you're wondering how I know about Serenity, I'll tell you. You see, Tristen called up the mansion looking for you and told me. I was going to defend you like I normally do, but when he told me how devastated Serenity was, I just couldn't. I realised that you had gone too far. You're so self-centred Seto. You have no concept of other people or their pasts. We're not the only ones with a tragic past you know. Serenity and Joey were separated as children due to their parents' divorce and their mother arranged for Serenity to go with her and Joey to stay with their dad. Since then, Serenity's emotional state has been very unstable. She was quite and shy and because of it, she never had any friends. Now she has friends, but the damage to her emotional state was already done and you just made it worse Seto. Unlike you, I listen to what others have to say. You however don't want to hear it. Gozaburo's changed you Seto. I remember the days we spent together. We may have hated the orphanage, but at least we had each other. You even smiled back then, but when Gozaburo came, you changed. You may hate his guts and you may have been the architect of his fall from grace, but I bet he's happy in the knowledge that you became just like him. You're ruthless just like he was. You use the same tactics he used. You might as well be a younger version of him."
"Enough Mokuba!" Kaiba said sharply. If it was the one thing he hated, it was people comparing him to his stepfather. He would not have any of that, even if it was from his own brother.
"Why?" Mokuba, said, "Because it's the truth. You can't stand the truth; therefore it has to be a pack of lies. Serenity only highlighted the truth. Okay, so maybe, she did go too far with that overrated comment, but that's not the point. The point is, you utterly crushed her. You're not the Seto I used to know. I always believed that he was still somewhere inside you somewhere , but I can honestly say that my hope was for naught. And Serenity's not the only one you hurt. You hurt Yugi's grandpa and Yugi during your second match, in fact if I heard correctly, you cheated during that match just to win."
"I did it for you Mokuba," Kaiba, said, "I had lost that match, I would've lost my only chance at rescuing you from Pegasus."
"Is that so?" Mokuba, said, "Or were you just wanting to beat Pegasus just to prove that you were better at Duel Monsters than its creator? Maybe you were only using me as an excuse, just as you used me as a scapegoat for the Big Five when you intentionally let your plan to overthrow him come to his attention. At the time, I had no idea of your plan, but I knew that it was part of your scheme to get rid of Gozaburo, so I played along. Why didn't you tell me Seto? Can't you trust me to keep a secret? I may have guessed your motives, but I still felt hurt by what you said. Just what gave you the right to hurt Yugi's grandpa anyway? His Blue Eyes White Dragon card was a gift to him from a friend whose life he saved, so it was his most valuable treasure because it reminded him of his friend and you knew this, yet you tore it anyway just because it was used against you. Again, it was just to heal your wounded pride. As much as I hate to admit it, but when I think about it now, Yugi gave you exactly what you deserved and after Duellist Kingdom, Arthur Hawkins, Yugi's grandpa's friend who gave him the Blue Eyes card was in town and his granddaughter, who misunderstood the situation came looking for it. I had the unfortunate task of telling both Arthur and Rebecca, his granddaughter just who was responsible for the card's current state in the first place."
Kaiba was shocked. Never had Mokuba spoken to him like this before. He'd heard it all before from the "geek squad", as he had dubbed Yugi and his friends, but never from his own brother.
"Enough," Kaiba, said, "Mokuba, I'm very busy right now…"
"I'M NOT DONE YET!" Mokuba, yelled, "All Yugi and his friends have done for us is try to be nice and you always drive them away. Yugi helped us out and not once have I ever heard you say thank you. If you had just accepted the fact that he had you beat during your rematch, then I'm sure he would've rescued me, but no. It's all about pride to you. Yugi was right. You're just fill of nothing but anger and hate towards the world. What did the world ever do to earn your hatred? You clearly hate the world and treat games as if they were all-out war. Just how many of your opponents you defeated before you faced Yugi gave up playing Duel Monsters because of you?"
Kaiba couldn't answer, but being the pride-filled person he was, he just said, "Not my problem."
"See," Mokuba, said, "You don't care. It's like you're still anger at what Gozaburo did to you and revenge on him wasn't enough. Now you take your anger out on the world because getting rid of Gozaburo wasn't enough, so you decide to just target innocent people that had absolutely nothing to do with Gozaburo. I guess it's true that revenge turns you into what you set out to destroy. Gozaburo's gone and thanks to Noah, he's gone for good, but his legacy lives on in you."
Kaiba said, "Enough Mokuba, that's enough."
Truth be told, Kaiba was on the brink of tears, but he refused to cry. He saw crying as a sign of weakness and he was aware that if Mokuba kept rambling on then he would eventually lose it and cry uncontrollably. Hearing this from anyone else would've probably have added that unlucky person to Kaiba's list of people he hated, but from the mouth of his brother was more than he could bear.
"And what about me Seto?" Mokuba, said, "What about me huh? What do you care about more, me or duelling?"
"What?" Kaiba, said, "What are you trying to insinuate?"
"That care more about your former title than you do about me," Mokuba, said, "Don't think I didn't notice it at Battle City. All you cared about were the God Cards. You were willing to just leave with only seven duellists and you clearly had no regard for people's safety, which you could've been arrested for. I saw the duel between Mai and Marik. Mai could've been killed and you didn't do a thing about it. Yugi got in the way of Ra's attack, which should've earned him a disqualification, but you told Roland to let it slip since he had Slifer. When Marik caused Mai to lapse into a coma and Bakura ended up injured, you were willing to just let them die. I bet if Marik had killed Mai instead of sending her to the Shadow Realm or whatever it's called, you probably wouldn't have cared less that we'd have had a murderer on board. What if I was kidnapped and you had one last chance to reclaim your title, but if you lost or didn't show up then you would've lost the chance to regain your status forever and the kidnappers threatened to kill if you went ahead with the duel?"
Kaiba was at a loss for words. He had really never considered that scenario as a possibility, though he had to admit that as unlikely as it sounded, it could happen someday and the thing was, he didn't have a true answer.
"You don't have to answer that," Mokuba, said, "I can already guess what it'll be and I have to say that I'm shocked. What happens when you run out of people to take your rage out on and I'm the only one left or if I became a better duellist than you, not that that'll ever happen? I'm through Seto. I want nothing more to do with you unless you change and Serenity can find it in her heart to forgive you, which I sincerely doubt."
By now tears were flowing freely down his cheeks Kaiba was shocked to see this. His little brother was hurt and to make matters worse, this time, he could do nothing about it since he was the source of it. Mokuba turned and ran out of the room, refusing to even look at his brother as he left.
"Mokuba, come back!" Kaiba, yelled, "Mokie, come back."
Kaiba was stunned. He hadn't called Mokuba Mokie since the day Gozaburo adopted him. Mokie was Mokuba's nickname that Kaiba had called him as a kid. It was a name that Mokuba adored. However, it was also a name that he had only allowed his brother to address him by, just like he was the only one that could address Kaiba by his first name and get away with it. Now Mokuba had friends at school and since Kaiba didn't call him by his surname anymore, he had allowed his friends to call him that.
"Mokie…" Kaiba cried, as tears now flowed freely down his cheeks.
"You brought that on yourself Seto," came the voice of Kaiba's conscience, "Now you can either attempt to sort this out or learn to live with the consequences of your actions and move on, though I doubt you can do either one."
Author's notes: Woe, Mokuba really hit the nail on the head didn't he? Kaiba's relationship with him is ruined and Kaiba's lost the only friend he ever had. Guess it's true that sometimes, you don't know what you have until it's gone and what goes around comes around. Now Kaiba's the one devastated. Next chapter he enters a dream in which he meets a few familiar faces, including a certain five thousand-year-old blue-eyed girl and his task is that he has to find himself and deal with all his problems. I don't know how many chapters this story will be. Kaiba's dream sequences, I estimate will be over two or three chapters. Anyway, I felt that in order for Kaiba's conscience to really get to him was to have Mokuba abandon him because let's face it, even Mokuba has to have his limits as to how much he could stand from his brother. He's only human and so is Kaiba, as much as he hates to admit it. Anyway, till next time.