A/N: Sorry for sitting around on this chapter for so long. I'm currently writing Ch7 and forgot that I hadn't cross-posted 5 or 6! Whoops!

"Okay, Mokuba," said Tristan, "How many places are we likely to find a duel disk around here?"

They regathered back in the living room, in the same semicircle of floor cushions they used while playing video games. But now the television was off, and instead of cheers, jokes and laughter enveloping the space, everyone merely resorted to staring at each other in mild distrust.

"In this house?" Mokuba snorted. "Almost anywhere."

"Well, we were only in so many places," said Duke, "So really…the murder weapon should be in, say, the pool table room, or the library, or the kitchen or whatever."

Téa crossed her arms over her chest. "Yeah, but don't you think it would be a little too obvious? If I killed Kaiba – which I didn't, let's just get that out of the way right now – do you really think I'd just dump the murder weapon in the same room I was using? If anything, I'd hide it!"

"Uh huh," Joey said flatly, "So if we wander into the library, you're sayin' we won't find a bloody duel disk hidin' on a bookshelf?"

Téa glared at him.

"What if we did find it there?" asked Duke.

"Then someone put it there after I left," said Téa, "and since I didn't leave it until you came to fetch me for pizza, that would really narrow down who could've done it."

"Or you could've done it to try and throw us off the trail!"

Téa rolled her eyes and slapped her hand to her forehead. "For the last time, I didn't do it! For one thing, I don't hate Kaiba nearly as much as some other people in this room."

"That don't mean anythin'."

Yugi sighed and readjusted his cap while Joey and Téa kept arguing with each other. "Aaand we're back to square one. Love it." He got up off of his floor cushion and waved his arms wildly in the air. "Okay, suspects! Let's move things along a little."

"You're right," said Atem. "Let's not point any more fingers until we've found the missing duel disk. I say we should all move about as a group so no one has an opportunity to try and move it elsewhere and cover their tracks even more."

"Where should we start?"

Tristan reached into the forgotten snack bowl on the floor beside a discarded game controller, and then pointed to Joey and Duke. "Well, we left for the pool table right after ordering pizza."

"But the duel disk wasn't in there," said Atem, "because Yugi and I stayed behind when you all went back to video games."

"We'll have to search for it there anyway," said Yugi. "No stone unturned and all that."

Tristan led the group back out and down the hall and Mokuba stayed to the back of the group with Atem. The first room they peered into was the library, and like Téa's admission, the duel disk wasn't anywhere in sight. The trek across the kitchen yielded similar results.

They stopped in the dining room again, and on the way through to one of the two powder rooms on the main floor, Joey snagged a slice of pizza. ("It's gonna get cold!")

"Say, Mokuba," Atem began on the way back across the large foyer, on route to the game room, "we didn't start splitting up around the house until after you ordered pizza. Technically you left the living room before the rest of us to see what Kaiba wanted."

Mokuba sniffed. "I thought you were on my side," he muttered.

"I am!" Atem said quickly. "but I was just wondering if it's possible that we're looking for the wrong weapon?"

"I mean, maybe," said Mokuba, "I didn't notice if it was on the shelf or not."

"Hm."

Mokuba leaned in and lowered his voice. "I still think it was Joey."

"…It's possible," said Atem, "but I don't know if we'll be able to prove it. Not yet."

"He's the only one of us all with enough motive to do it," Mokuba whispered.

They stopped just outside the doorway to the game room, where Joey and Tristan were blocking the way to everyone else. Mokuba and Atem glanced at each other and tried to peer around them, but Téa and Serenity were standing in front of them, and they couldn't see inside.

"What is it?" asked Atem.

Joey and Tristan looked at each other, and then stepped to the side so that they could pass.

Atem took the first step forward and stopped short right along the edge of the bar.

A duel disk sat on the center of the table.

Atem merely stared at it, and didn't even notice the others gather in a circle around the pool table. No one said anything, and even if someone had, Atem wouldn't have heard them, his mind too far focused on the bloodstained duel disk.

What was it doing here? He and Yugi both were the last ones in this room, and he would certainly remember if that were here. Yugi wasn't playing the game like the rest of them, so now someone was trying to frame him.

Oh gods – what would Mokuba think, after he assured him of his intentions to find Kaiba's killer and bring them to justice? Surely he'd think he was a hypocrite.

"Well," said Yugi, finally breaking the tension, and poked the duel disk with one of the pool cues. "This is a rather quick development. I…well, to be honest I thought we'd have to work a little more to find that."

"Yeah," said Téa, "me too."

Duke fake coughed. "Well, Atem. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Atem kept staring at the duel disk. "It wasn't me."

Tristan sighed. "It doesn't look too good for you, buddy."

"Look, it wasn't me!" said Atem, "Kaiba is my friend, my rival! I have no reason to kill him!"

"Neither do the rest of us," Joey muttered.

Everyone slowly turned to look at him.

"Hey!" Joey frantically waved his arms in the air. "I didn't do it!"

"There's a lot of that phrase going around tonight," said Téa, "but clearly someone did it."

"It wasn't me though," Atem insisted, "the duel disk wasn't even in here when Yugi and I were playing pool!"

Serenity bit her lip. "But no one else was in here with you."

Yugi's jaw dropped. "What am I, a ghost?"

"Nah, the only ghost is across the hall," Tristan snickered. "You think he's still there on the floor?"

"He better be," said Joey. "We gotta chase a killer, no time to go on a hunt for the stiff also."

Yugi rolled his eyes and scribbled another note onto his clipboard. "Look, Atem was with me the entire time."

"Look, Yug'," said Joey, "no offense, but since you're not a suspect and…ya know, not a part o' this the same we are, how do we know you're not just vouchin' for him?"

"That's true," said Serenity, "Who would really know if Atem left here to kill Kaiba while were still playing games, and then he'd have a solid alibi!"

Atem let out a heavy sigh and pushed himself off the bar. This was ridiculous. "Look, I think it's clear that I'm being framed. Even if I did kill him, do you really think I'd be stupid enough to leave the weapon in the room I was spending time in, as Téa said?"

Mokuba eyed each of his friends suspiciously. "I don't think Atem did it. And if he didn't, and if Yugi didn't, that means someone had to have had the opportunity to place the duel disk here after they left the room."

His eyes landed on Yugi and Atem. "You guys were both here until the pizza arrived."

And then to Tristan. "You went to get them, so it couldn't have been you."

To Duke, and then Téa. "Duke, you went to get Téa from the library, and you were both back before Atem and Yugi showed up in the dining room, so you couldn't have done it."

To Serenity. "And…you were in the kitchen with me! So…"

His eyes narrowed and his mouth formed into such a scowl that he hoped would make his brother proud. "That just leaves you, Joey."

"What!?"

"You know," said Téa thoughtfully, "you were the last of us to come for the pizza, and you were right across the foyer in the living room. What took you so long?"

Mokuba nodded frantically. "Yeah, you're right! I bet you killed my brother and then planted the evidence once you knew everyone got to the dining room!"

Joey groaned and sank down into a chair in the corner of the room and held his face in his hands. "C'mon…," he whined, "it wasn't me. You think I could bust into Kaiba's office and off him without anyone hearin' a peep outta him? He hates me!"

"You could have snuck up on him," said Mokuba.

"Now let's not be too hasty," said Yugi, "and let's not forget that all the blood and tear marks in Kaiba's clothes were on his front. If Joey or anyone else struck him from behind, not only would those tears be on his back, but probably would have landed differently."

"This is a game though," said Serenity, "so isn't that a bit nitpicky over details?"

Duke shook his head and couldn't help but laugh. "C'mon Serenity, you've seen the man. We were all in the study and saw the mess he made to show off that he was dead. The man's a sucker for details and his middle name is 'Drama King'."

"Guys, I don't know if Joey had enough time to run to the study, kill Kaiba, and then plant that evidence in the span of time he was probably gone," said Téa.

"Then who did?" asked Serenity. "We've accounted for everyone else."

Tristan started pacing the length of the pool table. "There has to be something we've missed. Maybe Kaiba wasn't killed when the pizza arrived. Maybe it was earlier, and the evidence was just planted."

Yugi tilted his head. "I wonder then who might have planted it?"

The room fell silent once more. Atem went back to staring at the duel disk, as though if his eyes bore into it enough something would happen and it would just magically reveal the name of Kaiba's killer. Téa and Serenity were eyeing all of the boys, one by one. Tristan and Duke merely stared at the floor.

But Joey jumped up so suddenly that the chair he sat it rocked back into the wall and dislodged one of the unused pool cues, sending it clattering to the floor.

Duke sniggered. "Nice going."

"Shut it!" Joey snapped. "I just thought of somethin'. What if we ain't the only suspects?"

"Yeah?" Tristan asked. "Who else is there?"

"Well, Yug' did invite Bakura."

"I did invite Bakura," said Yugi, and he lowered the clipboard to his side, unsure of where this was going. "But he couldn't make it."

"That could be a lie," said Joey, "A sneaky little murder game sounds right up Bakura's alley."

He turned to the others. "Don't it?"

Tristan shrugged nonchalantly. "I mean…you're not wrong."

"Guys, Bakura is not here."

"I bet he's lurkin' upstairs where we're not supposed to go," said Joey. Ignoring Yugi completely. "Maybe we ought to search the place for him."

Mokuba picked up the dropped cue and set it onto the table. "I think we're more likely to find—" His eyes widened and he whirled around to face Atem. "I GOT IT!"

"What?"

"ROLAND!" Mokuba cried. "He's still in the house too!"

"You think…Kaiba's spook did it?" asked Téa.

Mokuba shoulders slumped and he huffed at her. "Oh, is it that much more far fetched than Bakura being here?"

"Kid's got a point," said Joey. "He can sneak around more easily than we can – and he could've offed Kaiba anytime after Mokuba ordered Kaiba's nasty-ass pizza. How hard would it be for him to take the duel disk and hide it until we all went to get food. I bet he could've planted it against any one of us!"

"Roland's been here for years," said Mokuba, "and he knows the house just as well as I do. If he killed Seto and went into hiding, it's going to take a lot more effort to find him than this duel disk."

"Then we should get started," said Serenity, "before he has a chance to sneak away any more."

A low gurgling rumble sounded across the room, and everyone turned to stare at Joey, who turned a vibrant shade of tomato, and the entire group fell silent.

"Dude," Tristan groaned. "Really?!"

"Shut up, man! I'm hungry!"

"You just ate!"

"It was one slice!"

Serenity giggled. "Okay, well…I think we can pause for a minute for a little pizza break."

Joey's stomach gurgled again. "Thank you, Serenity. Good to know at least my own sister is on my side."

"Well, I'm a little hungry too," said Serenity, "and maybe that will help fuel our search later!"

Joey clapped a hand onto her shoulder. "I like the way you think, sis. Now come on, troops! There's pizza with our names on it!"

The herd moved on, out towards the dining room, and Atem stopped at the hallway leading towards Kaiba's study; Mokuba had stopped as well, and was staring off towards the home office with a thoughtful frown on his face. Mercifully, the younger Kaiba seemed to believe in his insistence that despite the murder weapon appearing in the game room, that he was not the killer, and the two of them could resume their plot to try and convict Joey.

"What's up?"

"You go on ahead," said Mokuba, after a quiet minute. "If we're going to break from sleuthing for a while, I want to let Seto know he can get up. I got him a pizza too, and he should get the chance to eat some of it before the game ends."

"Alright."

"I'll be back in a few minutes," said Mokuba, "I guess we won't put a movie on, like the original plan, but I'm sure there's something funny I can throw on the tv in the meantime. It'll be too awkward to eat together when we're all giving each other dirty murderer looks."

Atem chuckled. "Indeed. Alright, I'll make sure no one steals your pie before you get back."

"Hah! We've already established that the big stomachs in this house are in the anti-pineapple crowd, but thanks!" And with a thumbs up, Mokuba turned on his heel and skipped down the hall to his brother's office.

It shouldn't have surprised him as much as it did that Seto wasn't even on the ground, but already sitting behind his desk. The pizza box that he had carelessly dropped onto the couch was propped open on the desk, and Seto was currently in the midst of polishing off a slice while scrolling through who-knows-what on his laptop.

Mokuba paused in the doorway and crossed his arms over his chest. "You know, you're supposed to be on the floor, pretending to be dead."

Seto glanced up at him, shrugged lightly, and set what was left of the slice back on the plate. "I got hungry."

"The dead don't get hungry," said Mokuba.

"Then what was the point in ordering all the food before the game started if it was only going to get cold?"

Mokuba threw his hands in the air. "Okay, look, I didn't know that you were gonna get bludgeoned before dinner, okay? If I did, I would've waited."

"It's fine that you didn't," said Seto, "your reaction was much more genuine this way."

Mokuba beamed. "Glad to know I can still fake it like the best of 'em!"

Seto peered around him towards the door, as if any of the Nerd Herd was going to appear out of nowhere and throw a fit over him not playing corpse. "Where is everyone anyhow? Surely they don't still think you did it and are hiding the evidence."

"We're taking a dinner break," said Mokuba, and he plunked down into the chair opposite Seto's desk. "I was going to tell you, so you could too, but it looks like you already beat me to it."

"I got up about ten minutes ago."

Mokuba's shoulders slumped. "Seto!"

"I cannot be expected to lie there and just sit still," Seto huffed. "Even Yugi knew that, and agreed to let me work so long as no one was investigating in the room with me."

"Yeah, but on the floor!"

"Well someone took my phone," said Seto, "and then someone else made off with the tablet."

Mokuba wrinkled his nose. Yeah, he knew Joey and the others took his phone from where it slipped out of his pocket when he went down onto the floor, but as far as he knew, the tablet should have been in here. He certainly didn't take it; he used his own from his bedroom to order pizza. "Who took it?"

"Roland." Seto narrowed his eyes at Mokuba's sudden burst of laughter. "Is it that funny?"

"Well, yeah!" Mokuba cackled, "even he knew you'd get antsy, that's hilarious. Is he still here? We haven't heard from him in a while."

Seto raised an eyebrow. "I've been dead. How would I know?"

"Oh. Right."

Seto picked his slice up again. "Why don't you let them brood and bring your food in here?"

"Oh," Mokuba said in mock disappointment. "You're not going to share your pizza with me?"

Seto's hand froze just before his fingers could close around the crust for his second slice, and it was now that Mokuba got a decent look at it, and breathed an inward sigh of relief that in his panicked drop of the box that the cheese and toppings didn't slide right off of it.

"No," said Seto, "this is mine. You have your own, and the last time I checked, you don't even like porchetta."

"I'd pick it off! But the rest of what you got is pretty good!" He reached for a slice anyway, only for Seto to slam the box shut before he could get a hand inside.

"If that's what you wanted, you should have ordered it."

Mokuba stuck his tongue out at him, and then got up off the chair. "Nah, I got my pineapple disaster. I'm good. But let me make sure everyone else is fine and I'll be back. Don't wanna be a bad host."

Seto watched him bound out of the room before reopening the pizza box and taking a new slice out. "So long as Wheeler didn't eat it all."

All of the pizza boxes were shoved to one end of the unnecessarily large dining room table, and everyone gathered at the other when Mokuba returned. An open seat sat between Yugi and Atem, clearly meant for him, and his worry of an awkward, silent dinner went unwarranted.

"What took ya so long?" asked Joey, grinning between bites.

"I wanted to check in on Seto," said Mokuba, "that way he could stop pretending while we paused the game."

Joey waved his pizza slice in the air with such enthusiasm that a blob of bacon fell off and into his plastic soda cup, eliciting a round of quiet snickers around the table. He glanced at it floating in his drink before shrugging and turning back to Mokuba. "Nah. He can afford to take a longer snooze."

"Oh, give it a rest, Joey, if we're allowed to not starve, so is he," said Téa.

"Grab a plate and join us, Mokuba!" said Yugi, smiling up at him. His deerstalker cap was gone, likely left behind with wherever he left his clipboard, and his hair, now freed from under the cap, stuck out in all directions even more so than usual.

He caught Mokuba staring at it, and then ran a hand through it for the umpteenth time since taking off his hat. "I know, it looks bad. Don't worry, the hat goes on right after we're done, and then we can all forget my terrible muppet hair."

"It's fine," said Duke, grinning, "at least now on a quick glance I can tell you and Atem apart."

Yugi and Atem both looked at each other, and buried their faces in their arms, shoulders shaking under the strain of trying not to laugh. Or maybe cry. Mokuba wasn't sure.

"Jeez, even the facepalms are synchronized. They're worse than twins," said Tristan.

Mokuba shook his head at them and reached into his box for two slices of his ham and pineapple pizza. It cooled off faster than he figured it would, and he shuffled off towards the kitchen.

"I'm gonna heat this up really quick. One sec."

Serenity got up and moved down the table to find her pizza box. "So how do we go about searching the house for Bakura or Roland or anyone else if we have to stay on the ground floor?"

Yugi exhaled noisily. "Bakura isn't here you guys…."

"Maybe we can convince Mokuba to let us look around upstairs," said Duke, as if Yugi hadn't said anything, "we can even have him do it, and then it technically wouldn't break Kaiba's rules, right?"

Yugi frowned.

"I mean, we aren't the ones snooping."

"We should follow the rules that Yugi and Kaiba created for us," said Atem, "it's only–"

—The lights in the mansion suddenly went out, immediately followed by gasps, a scream, and at least one 'what the heyho!' from Joey.

"What's going on?" Serenity cried.

"Power's out," said Tristan. "Obviously.

Duke groaned. "Great."

Despite the tall windows along the front wall of the dining room, the clear night sky didn't allow any light in, and the house was too dark to see more than a few inches out.

"What do we do?"

"What can we do?" said Duke, "Not much but wait for it to come back on."

"Some game night this turned out to be," Joey muttered.

"It's not even storming out!" said Téa, "I wonder what's going on!"

A thud and a loud crash sounded from somewhere nearby.

"Whatever that is didn't sound good," said Tristan.

"Everyone alright?" asked Téa. "No one tripped or anything, right?"

"I dunno – yo!" Joey called loudly. "Everyone sound off. Trist'! You alive?"

"…No need to yell, I'm right next to you."

Joey huffed. "Yes would've been fine, ya know. Duke?"

"Yep."

"Téa?"

"I'm fine."

"Yug'?"

"Right here!"

"Other Yug'?"

Atem chuckled. "I'm here, Joey."

"'Ren?"

"I'm okay."

"Mokuba?"

No answer.

Joey narrowed his eyes and called out again. "Mokuba!"

"He went to the kitchen, remember?" said Téa, "He probably can't hear you."

"It takes 30 seconds to throw lukewarm pizza in the microwave, Téa," said Joey, and he raised his voice even louder. "YO MOKU-MAN!"

After a long silent pause, Serenity piped up. "Maybe we should check on him. I thought I heard a crash earlier."

"I heard it too," said Atem.

The lights flickered back on mere seconds later. Yugi, Téa, and Atem were still seated at the table. Joey and Tristan had gotten up during the blackout. Duke was halfway across the dining room, and Serenity still stood where she was when the lights went out; with a slice of sauceless pizza halfway in her hand.

Now able to see where he was going, Atem pushed his chair away from the table and got up. "Mokuba?"

Nothing.

"I hope the kid's okay, or Kaiba's going to turn us into ghosts," said Duke, and being the closest to the kitchen door, hurried through it.

"Holy – guys get in here!"

Joey and Tristan exchanged looks before bolting across the dining room with Téa and Serenity hot on their heels. They burst through the doorway and stopped just short of plowing right into Duke.

Mokuba was sprawled on the floor, unmoving, surrounded by shattered china and a bloody knife.