Happy Valentine's Day!
He should have expected this. He really, really should have. Thank the kami his life as the head of the Vongola (and the insanity of the Tenth generation) had taught him the skills needed to deal with this.
Reborn looked incredibly amused...and intrigued...over the fact that the mystery Sky of Shamal showed such a reaction over his presence at such an incredibly awkward time.
"So... Why is the World's Greatest Hit Man and undisputed Chaos King doing here?" asked Seto calmly.
Reborn preened inwardly at the fact that the Sky didn't even remotely hint at the title he hated the most.
"I was asked to observe you and assess the situation from a friend of mine," said Reborn.
Seto relaxed slightly. So it wasn't the Vongola.
"Fon called in a favor, mostly because you were free and due to the fact you had an inside man in the form of Shamal. I was wondering how he was planning to react since he was unable to interfere directly at the moment."
Reborn...carefully hid his reaction.
"You know a lot, for someone who isn't active in the underworld."
Seto smirked.
"I don't need to be active in the underworld. There's a reason I hired Shamal as the head of our medical division. I'm still trying to tempt Verde into settling nearby in exchange for a real challenge to his intellect."
He had already secured Spanner, and it wouldn't be long until he had a meeting with Byakuran. The tournament shouldn't last a month, if that, and he was fully confident that cleaning out the Triads in Namimori would take even less time.
Reborn gave him a hard look.
"What's your endgame?" he asked. "I highly doubt you have an altruistic motive for starting a group, and you're too high profile for most famiglia to bother with."
Seto decided to level with him.
"I'm insuring that a certain group never makes me into their own puppet. It's one you know rather well, despite the fact you're a notorious freelancer, and if they knew I was still alive they'd pay an extremely healthy sum for the information."
Reborn could tell he wasn't lying, which was odd.
"Why not challenge the group directly?"
"Because it's lead by a senile fool and the man leading his intelligence is a braying jackass who never should have been given the post in the first place."
Reborn had a suspicious feeling about who was really before him...and it made far too much sense as to how Kaiba corp rebounded so fast from scrapping it's weapon dealing in exchange for an almost pure gaming and technology division.
"Is there a reason you relaxed when I said I was here to observe?" asked Reborn, mostly to confirm his suspicions.
"If they did find me, you'd be on the list of people they'd send to try and bring me back into the fold...particularly since as far as they know, I'm a civilian."
Reborn was certain of it now.
Sawada had lost his wife over ten years ago, and had remarried two years later. As far as the underworld new, his wife and son had died in the accident as there were two reported fatalities.
However the basis that the son had died as well was mostly based on the knowledge that there had been two fatalities at the scene, and the son couldn't be located when he found out about the news. Considering the condition of the wife's body, it's unlikely that any of the remains would have been in proper condition to be identified. And Japan, as far as Reborn knew, had a habit of cremating their dead rather than burying them as was the tradition in the West. Which meant by the time Iemitsu learned of his wife's death, the bodies would have been beyond recovery anyway.
Seto had a strange smirk on his face.
"I know what you're likely planning, but wait until after this is over...and for the love of all things sane, use whatever half-sibling I likely have and not the braying jackass for comparison."
"You make it sound like an obvious conclusion I'll do a DNA comparison on you," said Reborn.
"You're not an idiot, and will likely have made a guess as to who the braying jackass I've been going to extreme lengths to avoid is," said Seto flatly. "I wouldn't put it past him or the group he's with to have his DNA profile flagged for potential bastards, especially since I highly doubt he was remotely faithful to his wife. And it's been long enough that he will have almost certainly remarried, if only because he believes I'm dead. I want no part in cleaning up their bullshit."
"There's one thing I don't get...why are you going to so much trouble to clear out Namimori?" asked Reborn. Because that was the main point of concern Fon had about the person Kyouya had asked help from. He didn't know what the White Dragon was getting out of the deal, since Kyouya had assured him...in his own way...that he wasn't being forced to join up with them.
"An alliance and the agreement for training," said Seto. "Anything else is a bonus, really."
"You're doing all of this...for training?" said Reborn.
"The Hibari clan has been around longer than the Vongola, and in terms of flame knowledge they are superior since they're not trying to recreate what the Primo did four hundred years ago. I wouldn't be surprised if Asari was trained by them, since his clan was from that area as well. In exchange for helping them dispose of the trash, they've agreed to give our people real training as opposed to figuring it out on our own," said Seto. "Besides...my mother is buried in Namimori. The last thing I want to deal with when paying respects is a bunch of Triad flunkies harassing me or attempting to drag me into their nonsense."
Against his better judgment, Reborn was starting to like this Sky. He would reserve his final opinion until after the tournament though.
"Welcome, everyone, to the Battle City tournament!" said Kyoko cheerfully. She had jumped at the chance to wear a magical girl costume, and her mood was improved after her temporary boss had taken one look at her brother and asked if he wanted to be a bodyguard.
Considering the fact that after Yamamoto took the tester job he came back for a few months and looked much happier, Kyoko was confident that Kaiba was a good person.
He could only hope he would give her brother a job, since she really didn't want Ryohei to join up with the creeps who had been hanging around town recently. She knew it had to be bad because even Hana was becoming worried.
Kyoko kept up a happy smile while she and Anzu explained the new rules to the duelists. There was always going to be one or two that would become angry because they hadn't thought to look up any tournament rules that might be added.
Just look at the mess caused during the Duelist Kingdom, all because Pegasus had failed to warn them they'd be camping until they got the necessary star chips to reach the castle!
He was still dealing with the repercussions of that mess, along with the unnecessary roughness of the men who kicked the losers off the island.
"There are a few special rules in place for the tournament, so pay close attention!" said Kyoko.
"Each Duelist will be given a special locator card. Those who can gather six cards can put them together to find where the finals will be located. We will give a general alert so everyone knows when the maximum number of finalists have been reached," said Anzu. "For those of you who were in Duelist Kingdom, you may recall the star chip restriction... anyone who loses all of their locator cards will be kicked out of the tournament. Also, the control center is keeping track of the cards. You will have to input the bet amount for it to be considered an official duel, so anyone trying to steal the cards by force will be banned automatically."
Kaiba had heard of Bandit Keith from Yugi, and he wanted to prevent anyone from reaching the finals by cheating or stealing the cards. He had made a point to warn Bakura of that rule as well, though he did mention that if Bakura happened to end them with shadow magic because they irritated him, he would overlook it so long as it wasn't recorded.
"For those under the age of twelve, it's required for you to have at least one person over the age of sixteen or preferably a parent with you during official dueling hours. All duel disks will shut off after ten, provided that you are not actively dueling," said Kyoko. "While the Disciplinary Committee of Namimori High have volunteered their time to help keep an eye out for troublemakers or stranded duelists, please keep in mind that Kaiba Corp is rather firm on insuring the safety of all duelists during the tournament."
"To that end there are certain areas which have a restriction lock on them, which means if you enter that area dueling will not be allowed. All areas will be marked and if your duel disk flashes red, then you've come too close to a restricted dueling area. Among these will be the major roads, businesses, and hospitals. While certain areas can be closed off from traffic, the police have politely asked that no duels occur anywhere that they might cause an accident. They understand this is new technology, so the holograms might go over the road, but they will not tolerate anyone who deliberately tries to duel over an active road," said Anzu calmly.
Kaiba could already see the parents and a few duelists nodding in approval hearing that. Some teenagers looked cross at being told they weren't allowed to go into certain areas, but they'd find out on their own that the duel disks would automatically turn off the second they tried to duel in a restricted area...if a duel looked like it might take place over a road while the duelists were on opposing sides, it wouldn't activate at all.
The parents were openly pleased that the younger duelists were required to have an older person with them in case of trouble, and that there was a curfew set for the duel disks.
"Also, for the younger duelists or those who can't afford them, Kaiba corp is offering a special on limited use cell phones for the price of a locator card. You're free to keep them after the tournament!" said Anzu.
That really got the duelists buzzing.
Anzu on the other hand was still surprised Kaiba had given not only Yugi, but her entire close group of friends actual cell phones before they even set foot in the town, with certain numbers on speed dial.
Jounouchi had been surprised and a little happy...right up until he found out that his ringtone had been programmed to sound like a small dog yapping at him. It took him an hour to figure out how to change it, and he still kept stumbling across surprises Kaiba had left for him.
(It wasn't his fault that his reactions made him an entertaining and harmless stress release for Kaiba...he was just too easy to rile up.)
Though Anzu still wondered when Yugi got her ears pierced...or why she had such expensive jewelry on. Then again her Puzzle was likely a priceless antique anyway.
"Hehehehe... You're a very entertaining person, Kaiba-kun," smirked Bakura.
"Had fun with the flunkies?" asked Seto, not even caring about their bleeding or comatose forms.
"If you're this much fun at the beginning, I can't wait to see what will happen when you get serious about the pest problem around here," said Bakura. The delight on his face was obvious... the Triad members didn't stand a chance.
For obvious reasons, Seto made very, very sure that all those attempting to clean out the foreign mafioso out of the area knew exactly what Bakura looked like and that he was a threat who happened to be on their side...for now. They were not to provoke him, and were instructed to ignore him as long as he wasn't going after innocent civilians or to direct him to other Triad members to 'play' with.
He was considered a much more lethal version of Hibari, ironically enough. He would almost certainly be pleased with the comparison.
"If you're having this much fun with the lackeys, I wonder how much you'd enjoy the competent ones?" said Seto.
Bakura was definitely interested.
"What are your terms, dragon king?" asked Bakura, his face full of wicked delight.
"A permanent alliance, rather than the temporary one we have going now. I'll hire you out for certain jobs and in exchange you help out occasionally with operations like this one. I'll be sure to reward you well, to a certain extent."
"If things continue to be this amusing, you'll have yourself a deal," said Bakura, smirking.
Seto smirked.
"If you want to have more fun, I suggest visiting the restricted areas of the tournament, preferably where there won't be any witnesses. We set up a few areas to act as ambush points, since only idiots would bother operating openly during such a massive tournament where the honored law keepers would show up to arrest them."
Bakura's glee at this information was almost disturbing...if you weren't already used to Varia-level crazy and Mukuro when he was in a mood. The fact Seto didn't even bat an eye at the sight of it made the respect the thief king had for him rise considerably.
A few hours later...
Seto had to wonder if this was going to be a thing for him, that he would end up having to deal with Yugi's own crazies after him.
He pinned the Rare Hunter to the wall.
"Who told you I had Obelisk the Tormentor in my possession? And don't bother lying."
"Our boss got information from the woman protecting the cards! She said that if he wanted Obelisk, we had to challenge you for it!" he gasped, trying not to scream from his cracked rib.
"Tsk. This is why I hate Seers."
Isis had clearly painted a target on his back, though why she bothered he had no idea.
Next time he saw that idiot, he was going to rip her a new one. He specifically mentioned that he was already in the middle of something troublesome enough without her adding to his headache.
After the third Rare Hunter tried to jump him, he got annoyed.
"Right...if I see another one of those idiots I'm giving the bloody trio open range to deal with them..." said Seto to himself.
The "bloody trio" being the nickname that Mukuro, Chrome and Hibari had. One wouldn't think Chrome to be terrifying without her other half, but Seto had seen firsthand the devastation she could cause when motivated during 'that' time of the month. And that had been before Mukuro had the chance to take over and finish them!
Being jumped by yet another Rare Hunter, Kaiba felt his saint-like patience snap.
"That is it," he said, mostly to himself. It took little time to kick the man's ass, and the moment he finished utterly breaking him barehanded Seto took out his phone.
"What's up, Bossu? There's an unusual number of duelists that keep coming near you," said Chrome.
"Chrome, alert the bloody faction that the rogue group I warned you about after Yugi are now available to hunt."
"...What level?"
"Non-fatal, but they should at least be incapacitated until long after the tournament is over. Aside from that, I really don't care."
"Understood. Also, Mukuro-sama is rather delighted to have more 'prey' to hunt."
"I figured he would be," said Seto darkly amused. Not his problem, and most of these Rare Hunters appeared to be minor-level thugs with limited dueling skills. Not enough to be serious players, but enough to get on his nerves very quickly.