I'm so sorry for the wait on the next update. I've just been busy and I couldn't really find inspiration to write. But I got this done so enjoy.
"Seto? You wanted to talk to me?" Asami peered into her brother's study and caught sight of him standing by the window and staring out of it.
"Sit down." Asami frown at his cold tone but did as told. "I've started construction on a new project and it's almost complete. The project will have a game tower, with five stages to it." Asami froze, her mind immediately figuring out what this 'project' of his was.
'No...It can't be...'
"W-what's the project called?"
"I've named it, 'Death-T'."
YGO~~~~~~~~~~YGO
She had to stop him-convince him that this wasn't the way to do this. The completion of Death-T was coming fast. Kiba was suspicious-of course she was, they had never really hid anything from eachother when growing up-and she couldn't even look at the others without feeling guilty for what was coming.
"Seto, think about this for a moment-"
"I already have and I'm following through with my plan."
"But this is crazy!" Asami snapped. "You're going to kidnap an old man, and are going to force his grandchildren and their friends into playing a 'game' in which they could lose their lives-their lives Seto!" Asami glared up at the older Kaiba but he wasn't fazed.
"If they hadn't-"
"If they hadn't what? Refused to sell you a card? Gotten back the card after you tried to steal it?" Asami shook her head. "No, what you're really focusing on is that Yugi beat you, aren't you?" Asami paused for a second. "Look Seto, I get it, I really do, I can be really competitive with Kiba sometimes but you have to let this go. Death-T isn't-"
"Death-T will continue Asami. Your approval isn't needed. Is that understood?" Seto cut in, anger evident in his eyes. Asami immediately took a step back, her stance becoming slightly defensive. Over the time she had been staying here, she'd come to notice a few things. One of the things she'd noticed was that Mokuba, while having occasional bouts of cruelty, he was like his Duelist Kingdom self for the most part. Another was that Seto cared very much about the happiness and wellbeing of his younger siblings, and was secretly a nice guy under the hardened exterior built when Gozoburo was the brothers' guardian. But there were also times where Seto was the cold hearted CEO, papers and magazines claimed him to be and he didn't seem to care who or what got in his way when he wanted something.
"Sorry...they are my-I grew up with Kiba and was raised by her parents. I figured that the least I could do in return is try and keep their daughter from harm. I'll continue on with your plan without further protest..."
YGO~~~~~~~~~~YGO
"...I need to ask you for a few favors..." She knew this wasn't exactly fair to Grandpa and yet here she was. This was all she could think of. All she could do. She couldn't talk to Kiba since Seto had given strict orders that she was not to talk to her or Yugi-in fact she wasn't suppose to have gone to Ryou's apartment earlier but she had gotten Kazuko to agree to keep that secret. Asami knew her requests were going to be selfish and maybe a little unreasonable but that didn't stop her from asking anyways. Part of her told her that Grandpa would agree to them, if only to calm her down slightly.
YGO~~~~~~~~~~YGO
"You guys wanna go to the arcade?" Joey asked as he, Miho, Yugi and Kiba walked home together.
"Yeah!" Yugi exclaimed and Miho and Kiba nodded in agreement. The blackette took a moment to think over what had happened in the last few days. Once Bakura had given Ryou control again, the boy had freaked out on them for a while before coming to the realization that they had played a game of Monster World and had come out unscratched. Ryou had then started to warm up to them a bit more but they hadn't played another game since then and Ryou didn't seem to like hanging out with them for very long, probably in fear of Bakura hurting them or something. Asami also still hadn't been to school and the last time they had seen or heard from her, was at Ryou's. Kiba didn't like it at all. Something was wrong with Asami and Kiba had a feeling she knew what it was but she didn't want to believe it. And even if it was what she thought it was, she was sure Asami would try to put a stop to it so she tried not to think about it too much. Tea and Tristan also weren't with them at the moment because they both had prior engagements. Tea had to work today and Tristan hadn't really said what he was gonna be doing, just that he was busy. Kiba was snapped out of her thoughts when a black car suddenly stopped right besides them. A man in a uniform stepped out and faced them.
"Master Yugi, Miss Kiba, and their friends, I presume?" The man said catching the attention of the others. "Master Seto cordially requests your presence." Kiba glanced over at her brother and Joey, who shared a glance with each other. Next thing the girl knew, She, Yugi, Miho and Joey were suddenly in the limo, being driven to where ever Kaiba was at the moment.
"Why is Kaiba inviting us to see him?" Joey questioned.
"He hasn't been at school recently..." Yugi added.
"Yes...Master Seto has been busy...He has been working on an important project...He is the President of Kaiba Corporation after all." The driver replied.
"And I'm the vice president!" A new voice said as a familiar face popped up from the front seat. Kiba looked up, a little startled to see Mokuba in the front. A feeling of cold dread suddenly washed over her and she froze slightly. It was today wasn't it? Death-T was starting right now. Why hadn't Asami given her a heads up?
"Huh? Who are you?" Joey asked. Kiba's mind immediately went to getting her brother to deny Kaiba's challenge but as soon as that thought crossed her mind, it was shot down by the reminder that Grandpa was probably being held at Kaiba Land at this very moment. Asami probably worked hard to try and get Kaiba to change his mind but if he still made Death-T, then it looks like it wasn't enough. Was this also why they hadn't seen much of Asami lately? If the Kaiba brothers were in the know, then it stood to reason that Kaiba would keep Asami away from them to keep her from warning them.
"The name's Mokuba. Mokuba Kaiba." Seeing Yugi and Joey's slightly suspicious looks, Mokuba spoke up again. "Hey Yugi...Relax! You're going to get the V.I.P. Treatment. The project my brother was working on is finished and today's the opening ceremonies."
"Opening ceremonies...?" Miho questioned.
"Well my thoughtful, considerate brother wanted his friends to be the first to enjoy it so he's giving you a special invitation..."
"What's this project?" Yugi asked.
"That's a secret...You'll have to wait to find out." With that Mokuba got comfy in his seat and silence reigned for a while before Mokuba spoke up again. "Look, you can see it from here." Everyone looked out the window and spotted the tall tower in the distance. "My brother's tower of dreams that soars over Domino."
"Wow! Kaiba built this skyscraper?!" Yugi, Joey and Miho exclaimed. Kiba frowned at the tower, wondering if Asami was in there.
"That's Kaiba Land. It's an indoor amusement park. Officially it's not set to open for three more days but today we're holding a special event, open to certain people and my brother decided to invite you for it." Mokuba informed them.
YGO~~~~~~~~~~YGO
"Thank you for attending Kaiba land today." A voice over the intercom said. "The opening commemorative battle will begin very soon. Everyone, please gather on the first floor of the game tower." Kiba looked around at all the people. Once they had gotten here, Mokuba had excused himself from them, saying he had stuff to oversee and told them a guard would be by soon to take them to Kaiba.
"There's a lot of people." Miho said as she looked around as well. Joey glanced over at where everyone was heading.
"Should we go over there for now?" Yugi nodded.
"Yeah, let's go!"
"Wow!" Miho exclaimed when they got closer to the game tower.
"So this is the game tower..." Kiba muttered. Could the four of them beat Death-T? She didn't know that but she did know she wouldn't go out without a fight.
"Please come this way." The four teens turned to see a man in a suit with sunglasses on his face, standing besides an open elevator. "Kaiba-sama is waiting. Please get on this elevator." The four exchanged looks before doing as told. When the doors opened again, they suddenly found themselves in what looked to be an arena.
"What is this place?" Joey asked.
"There a cube in the middle..." Miho pointed out.
"There's someone inside it." Yugi noticed as they got closer. "Ah! That's...Grandpa!" Yugi ran up to the box with Kiba following behind him. "Grandpa!" Kiba watched, worried as Grandpa noticed them and got up, standing before them and trying to tell them something, only for his voice to not travel past the glass. "I can see your lips moving but I can't hear anything! Grandpa!"
"Stay back!" One of the guards posted around the box told them when they tried to step closer. The crowd around them, which Kiba had ignored before, suddenly started to chant 'Kaiba! Kaiba!' and the two Mutos turned to see Kaiba making his way towards the box.
"For your entertainment, you will now witness a match of the world's number one collectible card game, 'Duel Monsters'." Kaiba announced. "My challenger is this gentleman, Sugoroku Muto. He is said to be a Game Master who has never lost a duel."
"Duel Monsters? Grandpa and Kaiba?" Yugi questioned as he and Kiba regrouped with Joey and Miho. Kiba watched as they started to play, and the first monster was summoned. A lifelike version of the monster appeared over them, scaring Grandpa slightly and Kiba felt her worry grow. Hadn't the virtual monsters ended up giving Grandpa a heart attack? Grandpa summoned his Blue Eyes but in the following turns, Kiba summoned all three of his Blue Eyes, before attacking and causing Grandpa to lose. From besides her, Kiba heard Yugi gasp in shock. Kaiba stepped out of the box and monster appeared before grandpa, all of them seeming to attack him.
"Grandpa!" Kiba and Yugi both shouted, they raced forward again, shoving the body guards out of the way with the help of Joey. "Stop it! Stop it!"
"Kaiba! Let Grandpa out of that box!" Yugi yelled.
"Heh heh...We've done human experiments in that simulator." Kaiba told them. "We discovered that the average person goes insane in about 10 minutes. If we don't stop it soon, your grandfather will be destroyed." This froze the others in shock. "I have one condition for stopping the simulator. You must swear to face the hidden attraction of Kaiba Land, 'Death-T'! The theme park of death that I built to exact my revenge on you!"
"I understand. I'll face Death-T!" Yugi agreed. Kaiba ordered the simulator to be stopped and a moment later, the images of the monsters cleared and the box doors opened. Yugi and Kiba raced to Grandpa's side. "Grandpa, are you alright?"
"Y-...Yugi...K-Kiba..." Grandpa wheezed out. "I...I failed...I'm sorry..." He struggled for breath and Kiba tried to elevate him slightly in hopes of helping him breath better. Grandpa pushed his deck towards Yugi. "Th-...these are the cards I used in my duel... I lost but to me, these cards are my soul...Take them..." Yugi took the deck. "Yugi...I know you can defeat that young man."
"I'll beat him." Yugi promised.
"Yugi, Kiba, I called the ambulance, get your grandpa!" Joey called. Paramedics came and loaded Grandpa onto a stretcher and put a breathing mask on him before taking him away.
"Ha ha ha ha ha...Yugi, I see you holding your loser grandfather's cards. You think you can defeat me with those?!" Kaiba mocked. Kiba growled, anger coursing through her. Who did he think he was, doing all of this to them-to grandpa.
"I promised my grandpa." Yugi replied. "I'll beat you with these cards." Kiba didn't listen to Kaiba's reply, too focused on trying to calm down some. She would need a level head for Kaiba's wicked game.
"Kaiba! Count me in too! I'm not letting Yugi go alone!" Joey suddenly said.
"I'm in too." Kiba put in.
"Me too!" Miho added.
"Joey, Kiba, Miho..." Yugi trailed off.
"Listen Kaiba, I could punch you in your lily-white face with my fist right here, right now, but that wouldn't mean anything." Joey told the brunette. "Yugi'll beat you at your card game! And I'll stake my life to help him get there."
"You and me both Joey." Kiba stated, standing side by side with her brother.
"Don't forget about me!" They all turned to see Tristan...with a kid strapped to his back... Kiba blinked. Wasn't that kid only in the manga? Did that mean they were following the manga right now? But Miho wasn't in the manga so was it also the anime? A mixture of the two?
"So let's start the game already!" Joey shouted, snapping Kiba from her thoughts.
"Open the gate of Death-T!" Kaiba ordered. A door to their right opened and they turned to face it. "Step through the gate Yugi. We're all waiting for you." Kiba ignored the crowd around them, shouting praise for the oldest Kaiba, as she and the others made their way through the gate. "Yugi. I'll be waiting for you at the top." The last thing they heard before the doors closed was Kaiba's laughter. The four friends walked on until reaching a door marked 'Death T-1'.
"Death-T One!"
"Is this the first game?!" The gate opened and immediately an alarm sounded around them.
"Emergency! Emergency!" A robotic voice said.
"What's going on?" Miho questioned.
"Please help me!" A familiar voice shouted. Kiba turned towards the doors, blinking at the girl in front of them.
"Tea?!" Joey and Yugi exclaimed.
"Whaa?!" Tea asked looking as equally shocked and surprised as the others. "What are you doing here?!"
"That's my line!" Joey shot back.
"I started working at this amusement park today. I lost my job at Burger World when I punched out this customer who touched my butt so I applied at Kaiba Land. They put me in this costume and made me the guide for this game. You guys surprised me."
"So why did you yell 'help'?"
"It's an act. Part of this game. After that, I say this line to the customers; 'The enemy is about to blow up this space station! You are the only ones who can save it! Put on your cyber vests and defeat the intruders with your laser guns!'" Kiba perked up a bit at the mention of laser guns. She and Asami had gone to play laser tag a lot back in their world and it was always a lot of fun. She went to the cyber vests, choosing one and quickly getting dressed, noticing the others doing the same. It was then that Kiba suddenly remembered something. Their own guns were fakes while the others had real ones. Did Tea still have a real one? Wait Miho was here so did they have real guns? She had after all been the one to take the enemy team down in the first place hadn't she?
"Alright, let's go!" Kiba blinked and looked up from her gun to see Miho, Tristan, Joey and Yugi heading towards the door that led to the arena, leaving the kid Tristan was watching, in Tea's care.
"Wait up guys!"
YGO~~~~~~~~~~YGO
"Who the hell hired that girl!? She's one of their friends!" Asami looked over from the monitors at her brother's shout. She turned back to her monitors, feeling a self satisfied smirk make itself known on her face. Just because her brother had forbidden her from talking to the others, thus not letting her give them a heads up, it didn't mean she couldn't work behind the scenes to help them. Getting Tea the job without it leading back to her had been hard but she had done it. Focusing back on the monitors, she watched as the group, minus Tea and the kid, make their way into the arena.
'Good luck guys...'
YGO~~~~~~~~~~YGO
Kiba bit her bottom lip as she and the others stepped into the playing arena. The floor suddenly lit up and multiple screens showing Kaiba's face appeared. An idea crossed her mind and Kiba was a bit sheepish to say that the next thing she found herself doing wasn't paying attention to what he was saying but moving her feet so that it seemed like she was stepping on Kaiba's face. Before Kiba knew it though, Kaiba's face was gone and she was left staring at the floor.
"Damn..." She cursed. Might have been childish or whatever but she had found a bit of satisfaction in pretending to step on Kiba's stupid smug face. Shaking her head clear of those thoughts, she focused on the game. She and the others knelled behind a wall, waiting for the enemy to come to them.
"Hey, what are we waiting around for?" Joey whispered impatiently.
"Idiot! Stay still, let them make the first move!" Tristan whispered back. Joey sulked for a minute before suddenly starting to climb the wall.
"Joey!" Kiba, Yugi and Tristan hissed out but the male ignored him.
"Yeah! Now I've got room to fight!" Joey started going forward on top of the walls. "Here I come!" Kiba face palmed. Of course he would do this. She should have known better then to think he might actually listen to them this time. She glanced over to where Miho was, only to find the girl asleep. She sweat dropped. Oh well, if this saved their butts later, she didn't care what the girl did. "Aha! Found one!" Kiba could see that Joey had obviously surprised them but the enemy was quicker with their gun and they all knew it. To get around that though, Joey reacted quickly, slamming his foot into the guy's face and knocking him out cold.
"Way to go Joey!" Yugi cheered.
"That idiot actually managed to get one of them..." Tristan trailed off shocked.
"Joey, take cover!" Kiba called a second before the enemy started to fire back at him, having gotten over their surprise. One of the shots managed to hit Joey though and they watched in horror as the sensor on his vest seemed to explode, the explosion knocking Joey back.
"Joey!" Kiba tsked as she and the others ran to Joey, her and Tristan taking up posts as guards while Yugi checked on Joey.
"He's lost consciousness!" Yugi exclaimed, making the two turn back to them. Kiba feared for a moment that the game was following the manga but when she caught sight of Joey's chest still going up and down as he breath, she sighed in relief.
"The sensor's destroyed!" Tristan pointed out. "This isn't a game. These aren't normal guns either. You'll really get hurt if you get hit." Kiba shook her head.
"Alright, enough about that, we have to hide, Tristan, grab Joey's legs, Yugi, help me with his upper body, let's move Joey back into some cover." Between the three of them, they managed to move Joey back so that he was laying behind one of the walls with them guarding him on the surrounding sides.
"Damn it...Where are they? I can't catch their presence at all?" Tristan muttered. Kiba frowned as she concentrated on feeling the Ki's in the room. Asami had told her that Ki reading wasn't something she could really actively do and that most of it was subconscious but she had also told her that when she did wanna do it, she usually cleared her mind and focused on finding on she was already very familiar with before focusing on finding others and separating them until she could tell where they were. Following Asami's advice on the subject, Kiba had managed to do it before on occasion but right now she couldn't clear her mind enough to do it. Alright, since that option was out, then she would have to rely on her other senses. She strained her ears to try and hear anything as her eyes scanned their surroundings critically.
"No movement...I don't sense anything at all." Yugi put in. Tristan turned back to them.
"For now, if they find us first, we lose."
"That's right, boy." A gun suddenly appeared in front of him and the three teens froze. They looked around, only to find that there was one person pointing their guns at them each.
'Wait a minute! There's four people? Joey got one, and there's three of them here. Three guys, and the woman from the anime.' Kiba clenched her fists as she looked around. Things were not going good for them.
"No way! When did they-? I didn't sense anything at all!" Yugi said still shocked by the enemy's sudden appearance.
"Of course not. Like we'd let amateurs detect us." Kiba mentally punched herself for forgetting that they could sense their own presence just as well as hide them. What were they going to do now?
"You guys could use some training to hide your presence." The woman told them. "That nervousness is completely unsightly."
"An amateur is just an amateur after all. I wanted to play more, but too bad." Tristan suddenly batted away the gun from in front of his face.
"Run!" He ordered. Taking advantage of their momentary surprise again, the three teens rushed off, taking cover as soon as they could to avoid enemy fire.
"Mmm...Miho fell asleep..." Kiba blinked, looking over to where Miho was kneeling. Of course! How could she forget about her so quickly?
'Come on Miho!'
"Hiding your presence by sleeping...you're quite good, girl." Miho looked up surprised to see them standing in front of her before immediately panicking and firing her gun blindly.
"Stay away, enemy! Save me!" The three from the enemy team were hit, going down one by one.
"No way. She got them all!" Yugi exclaimed. Slowly Miho seemed to calm down and stopped shooting, allowing the others to come out into the open again.
"That was amazing Miho!" Kiba praised. Having seen Miho take down three highly trained professionals was much more cool in real life then it was through a tv screen. She supposed those were lucky shots but still, so cool.
"Huh?" The three made their way to Miho, congratulating her. Kiba grinned victoriously.
'Take that Kaiba! We beat the first level of your stupid game!'
"Joey! Wake up! We won!" Kiba blinked and looked over to see Yugi trying to wake up Joey. The blonde stirred and slowly woke up.
"Yugi..."
"Thank goodness!"
"You're okay, right?" Kiba asked walking over.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
YGO~~~~~~~~~~YGO
"Whaaa?!" Tea exclaimed. The girl had just been filled in on what was happening. "I quitthen!" Kiba shook her head but didn't say anything anything as they continued on down the hall that would take them to the second level of Death-T.
"Anyways, let's keep going on this wave!" Joey said, looking really happy about their win.
"You're one to say." Tristan told him.
"What?"
"You were the first one to fall."
"Come on, at least we cleared it." Miho intervened to prevent a fight between the two."
"Miho's right, let's just continue on to the second level." Tea added.
"I wonder what it'll be." Yugi said.
"Whatever it is, it's sure to be even more difficult than this one. Be careful guys." Kiba warned them. The others nodded.
"But..but why do I have to carry this kid?" Tea suddenly whined. Kiba looked down at the kid in the girl's arms.
'Really glad I'm not Tea right now...'
"Sorry Tea. Jouji'll pitch a fit if you don't."
"I don't believe this!"
"Heh...Tea..." Jouji mumbled, snuggling closer to Tea's chest. Kiba sweatdropped.
'Yeah...really glad.'
"Anyways, whatever's ahead we'll beat it!" Joey declared.
"Right!"
"Yeah!"
"Let's go!" Kiba couldn't help but smile. The other's excitement was a little contagious.
'Right. We'll definitely beat Death-T.'
And that's a wrap. Again, sorry for the long wait. Bye ^w^/)