To all the Snack Pirates, I hope you enjoyed the Superbowl!
Snack Pirate: One who doesn't care who's playing during the game, and is only there to snag food before wandering off to do something else. Be honest, you know who you are, and if you're a fellow Snack Pirate like me, you're not ashamed to admit it! LOL
Since Seto was certain this Bakura wouldn't listen if he approached him directly, especially if he really was the reincarnation of the one who killed the king in Yugi's Puzzle, he gave Mukuro and Chrome an assignment they were all too happy to do. If only for the sheer amusement factor on Mukuro's end.
He was going to kidnap Ryou, Bakura's reincarnation and trigger the switch directly. If Yami showed up every time Yugi was in trouble, he had little doubt Bakura would do the same to his other half.
Mukuro chuckled darkly at his Sky's order...this was going to be fun. Best of all Seto had given him full permission to get Bakura's interest in possibly working with them, which meant he got to play with an opponent who could take his worst and might even respond in kind. Chrome would be waiting in the wings, in case Mukuro needed to make a quick escape.
"Kufufufu..."
Ryou twitched, his instincts screaming at him to run. However an internal force was more interested in standing their ground.
Mukuro only gave the spirit of the Ring a few second's warning before reality seemed to warp around them and teleport them to an empty warehouse.
The area was under the White Dragon's control, so no one would be there to witness the fight about to happen. Chrome would tell Seto when it was safe to enter, preferably after they had worn down the secondary spirit inside Ryou.
Honestly, they should have made it harder for him to figure out who the thief was that killed the king...his surname was Bakura, for crying out loud and there was a rash of odd incidents in the boy's previous schools that lined up with the incidents caused by Yami while he was still trying to wake up from being trapped in the broken Puzzle for so long.
For a split second, Ryou retained control. The second he was cut by Mukuro's trident however, the Ring flared and Bakura took over from the shell shocked Ryou.
He sneered at Mukuro, who replied in kind with a demented sort of delight on his face.
"Shall we play?" he purred.
"You're going to regret trying to kidnap yandoushi," sneered Bakura.
"Who said it was him we were trying to find?" said Mukuro smugly.
Seto sipped his high end espresso...Reborn had ruined him for anything less...while Chrome monitored the situation for him.
"Bossu, Mukuro-sama would like to express his considerable delight at having someone fun to play with," reported Chrome.
"Has he worn down the thief yet?"
"So far this Bakura person is still testing the waters so to speak. Apparently his magic is acting up whenever it comes into contact with Flames," said Chrome.
"Tell Mukuro to start testing the waters to see if this Bakura would be interested in learning more about them, and possibly even robbing the more established groups for their possessions. Also, make it clear that he isn't going to find anything out without our help because the same groups are very close knit and won't tell him a thing unless he knows the right questions to ask."
"Got it Bossu," said Chrome, sending the mental message along.
About an hour later, Chrome spoke again.
"Bossu, Bakura said he'd be willing to hear your proposal since he's now very fascinated by Mukuro-sama's abilities," said Chrome.
"Remain on standby in case we need to make an exit," said Seto.
"Understood, Bossu," said Chrome dutifully.
The expression on Bakura's face when he saw Seto Kaiba stroll in like he owned the place, and the way Mukuro subtly deferred to him was priceless.
"You're that pest's leader?" said Bakura in disbelief.
"Contrary to whatever you might think, I honestly don't give a damn about the king you killed 5,000 years ago. The priest you knew back then has undergone more than one incarnation, and his last one was a leader who had a charisma equal to the king," said Seto bluntly. "As a side effect, I'm no longer drawn to protect him as stringently as I might have before."
Not that he would have...Clouds were notoriously difficult to court after all.
Bakura seemed to be sizing him up.
"You had your minion kidnap my other half. Why?"
Seto smirked.
"Because you're almost exactly like him. You want a challenge, and you want power. Considering your past history with that king, I'm not going to bother offering you a position in the group I made," said Seto bluntly. "Instead I'm going to offer you an alliance."
"An alliance?" said Bakura, almost intrigued in spite of himself.
"I'm not going to interfere in whatever pissing contest you have with the pharaoh. Odds are you're a direct enemy of his, and as long as you leave Yugi alone I could care less what you put him through. But..."
"But what?"
"I have a few items that need to be...liberated...from the people holding them."
Bakura sneered at him.
"You want me to rob people like your minion, but you can't do it directly. Is that it?"
"Something like that," agreed Seto. "The people I would normally hire for this sort of work also happen to be an affiliated branch of the group I want to rob. And I wouldn't dare trust someone from that side of the world already...they'd almost certainly try to betray me or keep the items themselves because of the leverage they would obtain in the process. And the professionals wouldn't dare be brazen enough to pull it off, considering who I want to acquire them from."
"Why me then?" asked Bakura, curious in spite of himself.
"Your magic is a wild card, and considering the time period I'm guessing you were an elite tomb robber. You would know better than to try and use the items for yourself considering the Egyptians were rather notorious for putting curses on damn near anything...and these particular items are blood locked and will violently reject anyone not of the right bloodline messing with them. Not to mention you weren't raised to revere the idiots I want you to rob, nor are you likely to give a damn about their reputation," said Seto simply.
"There's also the fact that your magic apparently eats the particular power we use, which means you can bypass any...special...security they have in place," said Mukuro darkly amused.
"What do I get in exchange for acquiring these particular items?" asked Bakura.
"We teach you everything we know about our energy. You share what you know about this shadow magic. In exchange I'll tell you everything you need to know to infiltrate this particular society and how to avoid the attention of the enforcers who will arrest anyone who is too overt and is stupid enough to break the unspoken rules of secrecy."
Bakura looked seriously tempted.
Seto smirked.
"Did you enjoy the fight you had with Mukuro?" he asked.
Bakura smirked.
"It wasn't boring, for once," he replied.
"What if I said this society had several people of his caliber, most of which won't hesitate to kill you if given the chance? And that you're unlikely to be bored or lack for any...playmates...you wish to acquire?"
Bakura perked up at that. It was so hard to find a decent playmate that he couldn't simply use shadow magic to crush when he got bored.
"Do I get a chance to think about this?" he asked.
Seto kept his poker face on.
"There is someone who is coming soon that will challenge the Pharaoh. Apparently Pegasus was stupid enough to recreate certain gods in card form, and he has at least two of the three in his possession."
Bakura gave him a deadpan look.
"Are you shitting me? Do you expect me to help that damn pharaoh?" he growled.
Seto snorted.
"No, I just want you to send me a basic description of what he looks like if and when you run into him. From what I was told, he's carrying a Millennium Item that looked like a staff with an odd sort of wings...one that can separate into a dagger of sorts," said Seto.
"The Millennium Rod," said Bakura, in recognition. "Who gave you the information?"
"An annoyingly persistent Seer with a necklace bearing the same eye as your ring and Yugi's Puzzle. She seemed far too certain she was going to have the upper hand and that I would be blindsided by the idea of magic and reincarnation," said Seto flatly.
"The Millennium Tauk," said Bakura. "You don't seem impressed with her visions...that's one of it's abilities."
"I'm not," said Seto grumpily. "Seers have a rather annoying habit of always thinking their vision is the only acceptable path...and they insist on dragging whoever they want to insure it happens, regardless of the harm it can cause. I know of one who betrayed the strongest wielders of the power Mukuro and I wield simply because she believed it was for the greater good."
Seto had zero respect for Luce.
Bakura had to admit, he rather liked this version of the priest. He was ruthlessly pragmatic, cunning and kept an open enough mind to see the bigger picture while still keeping his own interests in mind.
Before Bakura left the controlled area, he had to ask one thing.
"Why did you kidnap me anyway?"
"Would you have listened if we approached you directly?" said Seto bluntly. "You were more likely to listen once you had evidence of another power besides your magic and Mukuro is devious enough to get your undivided attention while wearing your magic down to the point it was safe to talk."
Bakura had to admit, he had played it masterfully.
Then he saw the girl waiting outside...and how her right eye shifted without any warning to the familiar red of Mukuro's own altered one.
"Kufufufu..."
Bakura recognized possession when he saw it...it only made his interest in whatever power Kaiba was offering in exchange for an alliance even stronger.
Perhaps with this power he could manifest outside his yandoushi's body, thus keeping it safe while he did some real work.
An hour after Bakura left...
"You're planning to have him steal the Vongola rings, aren't you?" asked Mukuro amused.
Seto merely smirked.
"It's not like the Vongola are using them properly, and I have access to Giotto's actual blood, since we managed to avert Enma's family from being taken out."
Honestly, that had been a stroke of luck on his part. Gozaburo just happened to be buying art from the Shimon famiglia head when he happened to spot Iemitsu...or rather a possessed jackass...enter the hotel.
It hadn't taken much for him to divert Daemon's attention long enough for the Shimon to escape, and Enma's father was more than willing to hear him out after Kaiba tracked them down on their island once Gozaburo was killed off.
The Shimon were the first group he made an alliance with, and it had helped to solidify his presence in the underworld. Most of the people funneled his way from Italy came through them.
Mukuro chuckled darkly at the chaos his Sky was intending to inflict on the worms that had tried to turn him into a puppet last time.
This was going to be fun. And knowing his Sky, Seto would happily share in the coming chaos and destruction. He was a good boss like that.
(In Italy, Reborn had a sudden premonition of chaos, anarchy and all out mischief being played on some major players. His only regret was that his finely tuned senses couldn't give him a proper direction of where it was coming from, besides East. He really wanted to get in on it, because he just knew it would be glorious.)
"I don't whether you're super paranoid or just a major mother hen," said Mokuba flatly.
Seto paused in outlying the 'allowed' dueling zones and the rules regarding allowed dueling times. The entire thing was going to be a logistical nightmare.
"How so?"
Mukuro and Chrome tried not to laugh.
"Nii-san, you are setting designated dueling zones, adding locator beacons into the duel disks so that you can keep track of where everyone is, and you're insisting on a buddy system for the younger duelists," deadpanned Mokuba.
Unlike Pegasus, Seto didn't want to deal with a potential lawsuit over injuries or other mishaps...particularly since the dueling tournament was going to draw attention away from the real reason why they were holding it in Namimori.
"Bossu has always been a mother hen," said Chrome, snickering.
"Considering he was responsible for that batch of crazies all the time," said Mukuro, laughing.
"Oh yes, how could I forget, Bossu had to perfect the 'mom voice' for you and the others," said Chrome, laughing.
Seto glared at them both. Mokuba, on the other hand, was already snickering.
"Nii-san can do the mom voice?" he said, cackling.
Mokuba felt a sudden chill go down his spine. Seto was looking at him with a weird expression.
"Nii-san?"
"Mokuba...do not call me a mother hen in front of anyone, got that?"
Mokuba instinctively sat up straight...he recognized that tone anywhere, even if he hadn't heard it in years.
"That reminds me...I need to insure that Muto and her band of cheerleaders don't get caught up in our side operations," said Seto.
Mukuro made a face at that.
"Yeah, if they have any decent sensors, they're definitely going to pick up on her and her passenger."
"I'll need to make sure that any flame active duelers get special disks...we'll need to keep a closer eye on them just in case," said Seto.
He did not want the extra headache of saving Muto or her cheerleaders.