Book I | Just a Little Girl

Duelist Kingdom Arc

Prologue

Seto Kaiba: 17 years old

Kisara Pegasus: 15 years old

…

A year later Seto Kaiba would wonder if Maximillion Pegasus had not invited him personally to the Intercontinental Duel Monsters Tournament of 1995 as a demonstration of the older man's power. If, seeing that Kaiba had just relatively recently taken over his father's company, and the ever going battle he now faced in transforming that company from one of war machines to one for children's enjoyment, Pegasus had even then picked him out as a victim. Or if, as a new and rising competitor in the entertainment industry, Pegasus had not decided to put the young man in his place – a demonstration of power. Actually… no. Seto did not wonder. He knew that this was the case.

Well, what Seto Kaiba saw that day in the arena between the creator of Duel Monsters and Bandit Keith did not frighten him. It cautioned him.

It wasn't a duel. It was an embarrassment. A nationwide embarrassment. Somehow – and Seto still could not quite understand how, even a year later – Pegasus had been able to predict every single movement of his opponent. And "Bandit" Keith Howard, a man whose well-toned and scruffy appearance made him look formidable, went to pieces in front of the entire arena of people. He had been champion of Seto-didn't-know-how-many tournaments in America. He had been called "a representation of America's strength in the Game of Life," according to New York magazine. And, by the time Pegasus was done with him, he was on his hands and knees, his deck having spilled through his fingers, crushed.

Seto had watched as Pegasus wrote some notes down on a piece of paper that he must have prepared for the purpose beforehand, and called a boy over from the crowd. Voices broke out in mutters across the stadium. What was happening? Bandit Keith objection rose above all the rest. "What do you think you're doing?! Asking for help's illegal!"

Pegasus rose with grace from his seat, undaunted. "I don't need help," he answered nonchalantly, brushing his red suit down of wrinkles. "A child could defeat you, er, Bandit Keith. And I'm going to prove it." It was smug. It was daring. It was insulting beyond words.

Pegasus then left center stage, actually left it, and went to sit in the empty seat next to Seto. It was all Seto could do to stare. Pegasus smiled at him, notably looking up and down at the school uniform that he had chosen to wear to the event. Seto's eyes narrowed, daring Pegasus to comment on his youth. Wearing this uniform was a statement of his own: just try and underestimate me. Instead, Pegasus turned back to the spectacle before them. "I hope you are enjoying the tournament so far, even though it must seem so crude to you, unlike the holographic dueling stations KaibaCorp. is developing."

Before Seto could answer, the boy had done it. Keith lay down one card, the boy glanced at the paper, lay down his own card – and the match was over. Seto watched in undisguisable shock as the crowd was raised to its feet by the sheer sensationalism of the event, as Pegasus returned to the arena and raised 'Sam's' hand, and declared him the winner, and as Keith slid from his chair to the ground, his deck skidding across the floor.

It was a show of strength. And it was made just for him, Kaiba. What Pegasus could do to Keith, he could do to anyone. That was the message Seto Kaiba was meant to walk away with. And he took note.

…

Standing at the gala only a short while later, Seto's ears were still ringing with the din of, "Sam is the winner!" And he knew that what was on his mind was one everyone else's. How? How had Pegasus done it? Seto looked up from his glass of water. He was yet too young to drink, officially. And to have taken any sort of fizzy drink would have seemed much too childish. Wearing a uniform was a statement. Drinking Coca-Cola was not. Water was unassuming enough. His eyes darted across the crowd before him. They were the usual. Competitors and honored guests had been invited here today. Many of the men wore rented suits. The women's fake diamonds caught the light of the chandelier. The heated roar of the stadium had been replaced with the room-temperature murmur of rumors and clinking glasses. Bandit Keith was nowhere to be found. Gossip had it that he was drinking away his sorrows in a hole-in-the-wall somewhere, completely broken.

Seto wondered… How many of the painted peacocks in this room were already under Pegasus's power, whether through fear or money? Chances were, he and Keith were a few of the diehards. Keith because he was too stupid to know better. Seto, because he was too clever to know better…

He took a sip of water. Clapping swept over the crowd. Seto looked to the main entrance, and there was the victor of the Tournament, soaking it up for all it was worth, waving with one arm while on the other he had–

Ah. Yes. Of course. That had been one of the more…minor… things that had, for a moment, made Seto Kaiba hesitate in taking KaibaCorp. from the making of weaponry to that of trading cards. It was a small world, at the top. And he intended to go to the top. But at the top… it was a world she was part of. It was a world he had made her part of. He took another sip of water, his eyes fixed.

The party progressed. The humming returned. Pegasus was, of course, swarmed by well-wishers and congratulators, all lining up patiently to kiss his ass. She stayed by his side, at least at first. Then, Seto watched as, with a discreet kiss to her surrogate father's cheek, she gently slipped her arm out of his, and made her way to the drinks table. He, Seto, had no need to talk to any of these people here. Most of them were duelists that had been defeated in the later rounds of the tournament – useless. Or were distinguished guests – even more useless. They had only been brought here to be intimidated. No, Seto was here to see Pegasus, and Pegasus alone. And he would be damned if he would be swept up in the rest of this crowd.

The man at the bar gave her a glass of sparkling water, and a dish with half a lemon on it, cut down the center. She took the lemon, and squeezed the juice into the glass, then put it back onto the dish. The barman took it, and she seemed to thank him. All this time she stood with her back to Seto, and came in and out of sight as people walked the great distance between them.

She had grown. Of course, he had caught glimpses over her over the years. Yet now, with the two of them in the same business… Not that they were, really. She was a child, adopted child, of a businessman. And though he had started out the same, he was a businessman himself now. No, there was nothing similar about them now….

She was dressed in a demure, deep blue dress. Her shoulders, through seemingly sleeveless, she had draped with a thick white shawl that was too large for her narrow frame. She wore flats, and her hair had been done up into a neat bun.

No high heels, no jewelry, no flourishes whatsoever. Seto was seventeen years old now. He'd had girls. No– women. And enough of them. And now, looking at her as she took that glass in hand to bring it up for a drink, he knew for certain, with all the contempt of the two years that separated then, that she was just a little girl.

She turned, their eyes met, and his mouth went dry.

Those eyes. How could he have forgotten. Then again, how could he have remembered? One could not capture that sort of thing in a photograph. To her face, her figure, and her attire, still clung all the trappings of a fifteen year old girl. But in her eyes there was an… understanding. A vulnerability that seemed as though it had been a part of her longer than she could possibly have been alive. There was eagerness, and hunger, and strength and, glazed over all of it, a reserve that smothered all the rest and seemed to keep all in check. It was not inhuman. It was all too human. It was something he understood all too well.

For the second time he saw himself in her eyes, and hated it. She smiled a thin-lipped smile, raised her glass as if to toast him and, with a sip, broke the eye contact.

He tried to swallow. His mouth was still dry. Almost as if it was coated by sand. He blinked, and drained his glass. "KAIBA-BOY!" An arm clamped down on his shoulder, and Seto nearly spewed out the water he had not yet swallowed. "I am so happy you could make it!" Seto looked up, into the face of Maximillion Pegasus, the man of the hour. He looked positively gleeful with victory, a large glass of red wine in the hand that wasn't clamped on Seto's shoulder.

Seto fixed his gaze on the one eye he could see behind that mane of silver hair. "Yes. You said it would be worth my while," he said flatly.

Pegasus burst into giggles. "Of course, of course! Heaven forbid the great Seto Kaiba travels to America, simply to celebrate a victory with his fellow in arms!" Fellows in arms? Interesting choice of words.

"You didn't know when you extended the invitation that it would be a victory."

"Oh," Pegasus said, much more quietly and smoothly and, for a moment, Seto felt quite certain that he had the attention of both the man's eyes, "didn't I?" Silence. Then, with a final clap on his shoulder, Pegasus proclaimed loudly, "Business! I want to talk business with you! Can you imagine how much more fun it would have been out there on that stage, if they had been actual holograms, instead of a silly table?! Of course you can! You invented it, didn't you? Clever boy! However, business can wait till tomorrow. For now, enjoy yourself. Oh, and if you want a glass of wine, please go ahead. No one's standing on ceremony here, and what I say goes."

Seto's mind was reeling at lightning speed. Of course he had been hoping for some sort of proposition from the creator of Duel Monsters, but this seemed as though it would be on a much larger scale. Almost a merger? Well, if that, Seto would have to call up his lawyers as soon as he got out of this dive. When would Pegasus want to meet? Tomorrow? The blood was pulsing in Seto's ears until–

"You've met my daughter, Kisara, haven't you?"

Pop.

"Kisara! Youuuwhoo! Angel-face!" With no show of bashfulness whatsoever, Pegasus flailed his arm across the sea of heads. It was easy enough to spot her. Who could mistake that shock of white hair, as she turned to look at them both? It was then that Seto knew he had to fortify himself against her. As she made her way through the crowd towards her father, with her every step, Seto's back straightened, and his jawline set.

And then they were standing in front of each other, for the first time in five years. The time seemed eons. How long had he looked to this reunion? Centuries. What? No…

Neither spoke. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. His eyes darted to her lips. Her eyes darted to the blue collar of his uniform… and that was the final straw. Seto looked to Pegasus and said curtly, "Please, be in touch. I'm interested in this 'business' that you want to talk." He gave her a nod, hardly looking at her, turned, and left.

Seto firmly set his glass down on an hors d'oeuvre table as he walked out the door, numbly accepted his jacket in exchange for the ticket at the coat exchange, and stood in the cool night air as he waited for his limousine outside the stadium, where both the tournament and the gala had been held.

As he slid into the backseat, for a moment, he wondered what it was Kisara would have said to him. What it was she could have said, after five years. …Thousands... He blinked. Perhaps nothing. Probably nothing. She was as mute as he. He knew. They were the same. No, not the same. Never the same. He had made something of himself. He was strong.

…He had run away.

…

The deal was done in a week. Seto wanted this deal. He was young. He was up and coming. He was hungry. His one flaw in business, as he later learned, was that his hunger could cloud his caution. An alliance with the creator of Duel Monsters would give him stability in this new field. He needed such an alliance if the company was to successfully transfer from machinery to playing cards. Seto shook hands with Maximillion Pegasus over a model of the hologram-built-in arena, and the deal was done. Industrial Illusions got the holograms. KaibaCorp. was given free reign with all things Duel Monster related. Nowhere during that week did he see any sign of that girl. Not that he looked.

His suitcase was packed, all his papers were filed away, and he flew back to Japan without a second glance. He knew this wouldn't last. He knew that there was no room at the top for two companies. And he knew that Pegasus would not have let him have as much power as he did if Pegasus thought he could not control him. He also knew his own capabilities.

What he did not know was where he would be this time in a year. He knew his own capabilities. What he did not know– what neither he nor Pegasus knew– were hers.