Somehow, it didn't surprise him nearly that much when Yami's interest in the 'mini kingdoms' that were mafia families and their territory persisted after the tournament. At the very least it meant someone else could get the headache of dealing with the politics of it all, and since he had been a king in his past life he was rather adept at dealing with it.
While Seto could do the same, he was also extremely busy on a good day and on the worst not even Mokuba wanted to be anywhere near him until he'd at least had twelve straight hours of sleep to restore him to tolerable levels.
It had only happened twice, but that was enough for the preteen to learn the warning signals so that it never got that bad again.
On the plus side, it gave Yami (and by extension Yugi) a proper use in his group so he could justify that they were already claimed if some idiot noticed them and attempted to make them puppets. An unclaimed Sky was bad enough...one that was already gathering Active elements AND was being targeted by crazies which would only cause them to use their flames regularly was even worse. It was a miracle none of the underworld had noticed Yugi by now.
He was still pissed that damn Isis was on his ship, and he was pretty sure he had earned major brownie points with Marik when, the second the cameras shut off for the live streaming (which meant Noah would edit out anything if necessary), he stormed up to the woman and punched her as hard as he could in the face.
Isis now had a black eye, but was still unrepentant about the fact she had set Rare Hunters on his ass by telling Marik who had Obelisk the Tormentor in their possession. Even if Kaiba had kept the card with Chrome the entire time until the finals.
"Why did you punch her?" asked Marik, faking polite interest. Kaiba could tell he was inwardly dancing with dark glee at the fact that someone had the balls to punch his sister in the face, gender be damned.
Kaiba's face twitched.
"I hate dealing with Seers. They always assume that their visions are the only path available and never consider that they're only seeing a fragment of the bigger picture. The future is far from set in stone," said Kaiba.
He knew this for a fact, because if it was then his mother would likely be alive and Reborn would have been sent to train him by this point. More to the point, Ieyasu and whatever siblings he had would not exist.
Also, and this could not be emphasized enough, he had changed a future the first time he had to deal with Byakuran in the "Future-that-never-was".
Add onto the fact that the Arcobaleno (the few he had regular contact with) had come clean at one point about the betrayal of Luce and her Sight, and it all boiled down to Seto not trusting a Seer's vision without outside confirmation and a lot of hard evidence.
Isis had merely shoved a rather dubious vision onto him, told him he was the reincarnation of a 5,000 year old Cloud guardian to a king, and said he had to help because he was the best one available to do so without any reasoning for it.
Seto barely liked his 500 year old ancestor/previous incarnation. He sure as hell wasn't about to start bowing down to someone ten times more ancient and just as dead...particularly since that incarnation didn't have a ghost he could quite literally drag out to yell at whenever he had to clean up yet another mess created by their idiocy.
(Reborn would always shake his head in bemusement during the times Tsuna got so drunk that he literally dragged Giotto out to yell at him for being such a damn idiot. On an unrelated note, the Secundo and more serious dons liked him considerably more than his wishy-washy ancestor.)
He could sense Marik was enjoying this situation far too much...understandable considering the fact that if Seto found having to deal with one annoying, he couldn't imagine what having to live with one was like.
Seto spotted Chrome and walked over to her.
"Bossu, the last member of the Traids in Namimori was kicked out with a message to stay out. We made sure that the point was rather clear," said Chrome.
Translation: Mukuro had gotten creative and had likely sent a ticking time bomb back to China, where the flunky would either die after the message was sent or would be killed off.
"How are the preparations on Enma's end?" asked Seto.
"Enma-san is ready for the ship to arrive. They have the dock ready and the cameras are set up," reported Chrome. "Also, he wanted to know if you'd be interested in having dinner at their place."
Seto considered that, before he came up with a better idea.
"Chrome, how would you feel about one of our usual gatherings where I make my special curry?"
Chrome's eyes gleamed, and he could sense Mukuro likely had the same expression.
"I'll get right on it. The usual arrangements?"
"Be sure to adjust it so we have enough for Enma's group, as well as Yugi's and any possibly extras. My intuition says to prepare for five possible surprise additions, but less than seven."
Chrome was already on it, and was in a very good mood.
"What on earth did you tell your Mist to get that reaction so fast?" asked Reborn, baffled.
"I told her I was giving the cooks a night off and making my special curry. Despite what you might think, I can cook for myself. As for Roland and the Disciplinary Committee..."
Seto got on his phone and started making some calls. It didn't take much to convince Tsuyoshi to host a private gathering at his restaurant for the bodyguards and the committee members who worked so hard to make the tournament safe for the duelists...never mind the efforts they went through kicking the Triads out.
He was more than happy to do it, because Kaiba said he would be footing the bill for both the food and the alcohol.
Amusingly enough, when told they would be getting a break once the tournament was over in the form of free food and drinks, both sets of minions became more enthusiastic about doing their jobs. Kyouya found it annoying, but was pleased that his new Sky (and hadn't that come as a shock to him and his clan) was more than willing to foot an almost guaranteed massive bill for both their men without even being asked to do so.
It was probably a good thing that she had the current situation with Marik to deal with, otherwise she might have been too shy to be around Kaiba at the moment.
She didn't know when it started really, but lately she kept having weird dreams about him. And the feeling she had when he rescued her, Jounouchi and Ryohei-san was hard to explain. All she knew was that she didn't really see him as a 'friend' or an 'older brother' like she did Jounouchi. Nor did she have the weird, and often complicated feelings she had for Yami.
Then again it was hard to describe the sheer level of awkwardness having such an alpha male personality in your head all the time, especially during that time of the month or when she was having girl talk with Anzu or Chrome. Yami had learned very quickly after the first couple of mishaps to hand over control the second any danger or a duel was over, because he was not equipped to handle it.
Just as she turned a blind eye to the sites he happened to visit late at night. He had been stuck as a teenager for 5,000 years, when kinks and fetishes were more of a hush-hush sort of thing you didn't really discuss except in privacy with very close friends, if that. Yugi had simply learned to clear out her browser history every morning without looking, least she die from sheer embarrassment.
Sure, it didn't happen often and Yami was often more interested in dueling forums or catching up on the knowledge that had accumulated since he was trapped in the Puzzle (Yugi was not ashamed to say she had him study for tests as he was better at certain subjects...such as history). However there were nights when Yugi did her best to ignore any odd...sounds...coming from Yami's half of their mind.
She didn't know who was more embarrassed when she mentioned it the next time he was awake.
Even so, her feelings for Kaiba were different.
Yami seemed to catch onto her musings, and he chuckled a bit.
"Perhaps you have a crush on him, Aibou?"
If Yami wasn't in control of her body, she would have turned a bright red. As it was, he had to hold back on his amusement externally while laughing in his room.
'I don't have a crush!'
"You have feelings towards him that aren't platonic or like the ones you have towards Jounouchi. It's perfectly normal to have a crush...and you could do worse. He's far different than when we first met him," said Yami indulgently.
At first he might have held romantic feelings towards Yugi, but their daily interactions and the fact he couldn't move on any physical urges he might have shifted them to something closer to an older brother who enjoyed doting on an extremely adorable little sister. It didn't hurt that he could literally tell what she was thinking, and that they were stuck sharing the same body.
It had been Mukuro who helped him put his feelings towards his other half into proper context. Though unlike him, Mukuro's feelings for Chrome were firmly in the romantic end.
Yami, once they had returned from Duelist Kingdom, had looked up what a 'psychotic break' was and found that it fit most of Kaiba's rather antagonistic behavior rather neatly. Particularly when he put the fact that Kaiba had been under an extreme amount of stress right before hitting puberty and had little to no support shielding him from the brunt of it.
Far from it, Kaiba had taken it upon himself to shield Mokuba from the worst.
Yugi realized she might actually have a crush on him when she became inexplicably jealous towards the slightly younger red haired girl who ran up to Kaiba and hugged him tightly.
From what she could tell, Kaiba had inadvertently saved her family from an attempt to wipe them out a few years prior, and his easy friendship with the girl's brother (the one who agreed to host the finals on his family's island) meant she had a serious case of hero worship towards him.
She was never happier that Yami usually dueled in the official matches than that moment. It meant she could muse privately over her apparent crush on Kaiba without embarrassing herself.
Reborn was about to call Fon to explain that the situation was almost over when he saw something that had him stop cold.
"Where on earth did you get those beans?" he asked intently.
Mukuro looked at him smugly. While Chrome had gone on with their Sky, he had stayed behind to help with the potential clean up in case the Triads had left any...surprises.
"You mean you didn't know? I thought a coffee addict like you would know who sells the number one coffee beans in the underworld right now," said Mukuro.
"Of course I know. The most exclusive and hard to obtain beans for true aficionados are sold by the..." started Reborn, almost insulted, right before his mind caught up to him. "The White Dragon beans."
"The Boss is a major coffee addict, and after the second time the help bought the wrong kind saying it wasn't healthy for a child to drink that much caffeine, he got pissed and said he was going to grow his own. Which has the rather amusing side effect of exposing anyone stupid enough to steal from his personal stash," said Mukuro. "Besides, it was a great cover for what the White Dragon group is and why it's on the payroll of Kaiba Corp."
"Why do you only sell to the underworld?" asked Reborn.
Mukuro's smirk was even wider. Reborn sincerely wanted to punch him and he didn't know why.
"We use it to help the trainees refine their control so they aren't so sloppy. The reason it's an underworld exclusive product is because the best beans are all flame saturated. Can you imagine the damage it would cause if the Sun-based beans were given to an Inactive civilian and they went active in a crowded area that didn't have active mafia around? And worse, the video went viral?"
Reborn winced...that was too much chaos even for him.
"Which is why we only market the best beans to the underworld. Using product amplified by flames won't have nearly as much of an impact," said Mukuro. "Though to be fair, the only reason it's nearly impossible to find in Europe is because the boss didn't want to deal with the headache of trying to argue with the various famiglia who would see it for what it is and try to gouge him in order to sell it overseas."
Reborn snorted. If it was good enough for him to want it regularly, then there was no way the various mafia famiglia wouldn't try to hog the sales for themselves...particularly once they figured out where the product was made, which meant easy access to trained flame actives.
"Think your boss would be willing to let certain individuals buy it direct from the owner?" asked Reborn.
"You can always ask. I know he was planning to offer you a chance to see if you were remotely compatible with him after everything is settled."
Reborn frowned at that.
"He does know how many Skies have attempted..."
"He is aware. However he's not going to pressure you into a bond... he just doesn't like leaving 'what if' scenarios loose like that. If you're not compatible he will drop the issue entirely," said Mukuro.
"Doesn't he already have a Sun?"
"Boss doesn't believe in the current nonsense where a Sky can only have one bonded set of Guardians at a time. He believes that it is possible for a Sky to hold a loose familial bond and a proper Guardian bond without issue. Officially, he has no Sun. The only Guardians he has are the Mist, Rain and recently Cloud."
Reborn didn't even entertain the hope of finally finding a decent Sky. After the disaster with Luce and his curse, he had given up...he knew it was the same for the others as well. Still...there was something about Kaiba that drew him in more than any other Sky had...even Luce.
"Don't go talking about childish dreams, not after you've already found yours," said Reborn. He barely hid the bitterness in his voice.
"Why Arcobaleno, I thought you knew? Such dreams are for those who do not understand what true hell is like..." said Mukuro creepily, chuckling in a sinister tone. "Besides... the Boss holds you in far higher esteem than even you might realize."
Reborn was sadly the closest thing to a caring parent Seto had ever had...and he was an absolute bastard who took amusement in tormenting others for his own entertainment.
The odds of him not harmonizing with Kaiba now, when he was putting all the lessons of being an excellent mafia boss to use and had no Sun Guardian being forced on him were too low to even consider. Mukuro had zero doubts that Reborn was going to be a permanent figure in the White Dragon group once this mess was over.
"By the way, why were you buying up so much food earlier?" asked Reborn.
"Boss said he was throwing a buffet style party once this was over for everyone. Tsuyoshi gets to comp the Boss for the minions and other lackeys while the inner group gets to eat Seto's special curry. If we're really lucky he might even make the curry buns," said Mukuro, almost salivating at the thought.
Reborn had to blink.
"Wait...he's cooking himself?"
"It's a recipe he learned from his mother. He does it as a hobby to remember her," said Mukuro. Which was actually true, but he had only gotten the cooking hobby from her...he had made up the curry recipe himself.
Even Xanxus would behave if he was allowed to eat Tsuna's special curry.