Yu-Gi-Oh 5ds: The Judgement of the World

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

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He paused staring at his reflection in the steel gray metal doors that served to protect the interior of the elevator. Eyes locked with his own reflection as the feeling of approval melted into the vibrant excitement that the twins and Crow exuded. He could only imagine the confusion from Aki and Jack at this point. But Yusei had his own issues at the moment and concern over them only danced on the peripheral of those thoughts.

'Yugi', be he real or a fraud, knew about the figurines that had been sent to Carly, he was also either able to use the Marks to communicate, or had some connection to them. He was also aware of Aki and Ruka's abilities, meaning he might also be a psychic duelist and given that there were ways to go into the Duel Spirit world? It was possible that's where he had been the whole time, only what 'Yugi' had said bugged him.

'I've been out of time as of late, and catching up is proving rather difficult.'

That felt like a weird statement to make, 'out of time' coupled with 'catching up' felt like a coded message. If this 'was' Yugi, and Yusei wasn't exactly convinced yet, could he have been in the Duel Spirit World this whole time? It felt unnatural to believe so, the Spirits were bound to know that there was a human among them wouldn't they? Aki had recounted that Yugi 'created' that world with those portals to allow for physical visitors. She never mentioned that they had been closed off or restricted, just that 'no one really used them'. So if he had been there, and that had been 20 years ago, what stopped him from coming back until now?

If he 'was' the real Yugi.

Because if he was, why didn't he walk them to the door? He admitted working in KaibaCorp and because of him, they had arrived on this floor using a private elevator. There was 'bound' to be questions, and if it 'was' Yugi, the older duelist would easily be able to get them in the office with Kaiba.

Kaiba...

Thoughts of the CEO caused Yusei turned to check on the trio, he couldn't stand there staring at the elevator all day after all. Spread out before him was a large open space lobby of sorts, there were no chairs, forcing any visitor to stand until permitted audience. There was a thick carpet though, expensively woven as well as Yusei could tell and royal blue in color. The walls were an off white that gave the feeling of gold hidden in its depths as though someone mixed honey with milk. While two thick, ornate and very heavy, looking desks were situated in the room.

One was beside a door that the trio were heading too, manned by an elderly looking woman. She already looked alarmed at the presence of the group and was shakily pushing herself to her feet. Her hair was up in a bun, her suit was prim and neat in appearance, soft shades of gray with a white blouse. Though the glasses on her face could do little to hide how wide her eyes were in their alarm. Meanwhile the other woman, manning the other desk that Yusei could see was standing before the door behind her protectively. Her clothes were darker, and he couldn't help but notice how color was used to express age, giving the older woman a more faded appearance. While the younger womans' wine red suit and neatly brushed loose hair called attention to her youth.

All the while the trio he rode up with obviously continued walking, fixed on each other as they walked and chatted away. Utterly and completely oblivious to the fact that they were walking straight past women who were very alarmed about the Marks on Crow's face. The older woman moved with age as she tried to find the words to stop the trio from their chatter. Leaving Yusei to nearly smack himself in the face that this was even happening.

It was fine to be fans of Yugi and get lost in the moment, but he was being careless!

Embarrassed Yusei hurried after the trio, glancing at the worried expressions on the women faces as they shrank away from eye contact with Yusei. Making him wonder passively if he was 'that' frightening on his own or because of his Mark? He didn't have as many as Crow after all, only to hear Martha laughing in the back of his mind asking him to not be so serious all the time...

Yusei couldn't stop the frown from getting deeper as he found himself concerned over how the three seemed so oblivious. First it was just the twins, blindly following 'Yugi' into the elevator, with Crow trying to look after them like he should. Now Crow was as fixated and oblivious to his surroundings as the twins. While the Mark on Yuseis' own arm was a steady hum of excitement as the trio walked ahead. It occurred to Yusei that this might have been the doing of that 'Yugi' they encountered. Yusei's Mark reacted as though communicating a sensation from that stranger, so what was to say it wasn't happening to Crow and Ruka?

How could someone use the Marks of the Crimson Dragon against them?

Yusei's stomach dropped as he saw Rua, oblivious to the world around him as he was in the midst of chatting with Ruka and Crow, open the door in front of him. Regardless of what was on the other side of the door, Rua didn't have a Mark, he should have been the most aware that this was wrong. A rock planted itself firmly in the pit of Yuseis' stomach formed by mounting worry. Causing Yusei to break from a stiff walk to a near run as the secretary finally found her legs enough to try to stop the kids from going past that door. Her own voice, aged and alarmed, ignored by the trio.

As he reached her, Yusei gently nudged her back with the back of his gloved left hand while trying to reach the back of Crows' vest with his right. "Sorry, this isn't like them at all.." Was all he could think to say as his fingers ghosted across the back of Crows' vest.

Ruka was carrying her backpack in her arms like a child might carry a large precious object, walking by her brother she disappeared past the door. Rua was holding his bag in much the same way, yet he froze holding on to the doorknob and Crow's entry past the door ended up blocking Yusei's view of the twins faces. But he could feel their reaction burn up the Mark on his arm, setting the gentle excitement that he had been feeling into outright shock.

A shock that was rapidly shifting into alarm and confusion, as the trio stumbled a step back as a strong, unamused voice called out from further in the room. "What is the meaning of this? Kinoshita!"

"Lord Ka-Kaiba!" the elderly secretary called out, and Yusei stepped aside for her as he mentally groaned. It 'was' too much to hope that the door lead further into the building, of 'course' it had to be the door to Kaiba's office.

And the twins with Crow in tow had just willingly, blithely, and carelessly walked into the personal office of the CEO and President of KaibaCorp.

"Forgive me sir! I was just... the personal elevator! I..."

"Oh... OH! Oh man sorry! We're so sorry, we'll just... uhhhh!" Crow grabbed the twins and began backing up only to bump hard into Kinoshita. Yusei rushed over to brace the woman before she was bowled over, while the other secretary was still plastered to the door next to her desk.

Crow started at the sudden contact and whipped around to see the older woman, for the first time apparently, and paled before fumbling into an awkward dance with her. She recoiled when he reached for her, with more justified reason than she needed. So Crow lifted up his hands and shuffled further into the room so he and Yusei could bracket the poor flesh statues that 'had' been the twins.

Yusei finally wedged his way into the doorway as Crow's urgent tugging on the twins wasn't moving them at all. The pair frozen to their spots in out right fear, given what Yusei could feel in his arm. Meaning Yusei had to step into the room to help literally pick a twin up and move them bodily.

'Kaiba might be intimidating, but he's not one to yell in the presence of children after all,' 'Yugi' had said. Suddenly Yusei's own way of thinking started to connect dots as he planted his hands on the twins shoulders. There was an obvious danger to the situation putting Yusei's brain into autopilot as it looked for paths and secured routes to deal with this. Putting aside the 'why' for a moment, if Yugi 'wanted' them to reach here. It made sense to attract the twins as bait, get the kids in the elevator, then their presence alone would mollify Kaiba from any of his more grand expressions of outrage.

Followed on that line of thought two more followed on the heels of each other as he stood there.

'Carly's a good girl, I'm glad I chose to send her those figurines.'

'Tell Kaiba I said 'hi'.'

Suddenly the lone cloud of suspicion that Yusei had about 'Yugi' turned into a vast ceiling of storm clouds. So long as Yusei didn't fixate on the age issue it was possible that Yugi was trying to send messages to Kaiba and using them to do it. It made sense even on the notion of the Mark.. 'Catching up' as though Yugi wasn't in sync with the rest of the world anymore. What happened to Yugi, was a mystery through out the world and one of the only people that might know the answer was sitting stiff back in a tall, black leather executive chair. Behind a large, wooden desk that held a high end computer monitor.

The windows of the office were paneled across a whole wall revealing the city that sprawled out before it in all the bright whites and grays of stonework. The light projected back and though the glass was just lightly tinted to protect the interior from the damaging effects of light and anyone stupid. Only the stupid who had lost the will to live would strive to shoot at KaibaCorp at this point.

"Lord Kaiba! Forgive me, I didn't know what to think, I was taken aback when the private elevator opened with people inside! With you and your son both here it was unexpected!" Kinoshita bowed low with a profusion of apologies. "Forgive me for not monitoring the security cameras properly..."

Her voice was trembling, her hands stayed at her side and open yet even they shook with fear, and perhaps because of that fear it finally woke Ruka up.

The small girls' eyes moved slightly to look at the shaking hand beside her before she, finally, started to observe the world around her. That maybe she and her brother had just pulled a monumentally bad move occurred to her as she reached for Rua.

"Oh I'm not surprised he got past you Kinoshita, Yusei there has been rather... frisky shall we say, as of late."

Rua shivered at the steel quality of the voice as his sisters' hand grabbed on to his sleeve, pulling his attention away from his shock. This was bad, this was 'really' bad, Kaiba had a reputation and no matter how active as Rua could be, he wasn't without some degree of respect and manners. His eyes instantly got dry as the desire to start crying starting pushing itself forward. Not because he lost a duel, rather because this was absolutely terrifying.

"Yugi said to tell you he says 'Hi'," Yusei finally answered, feeling that he should get the message that Yugi was trying to send across. If he kept Kaiba focused on 'him' at the very least it would mean everyone else would get lesser punishments from the CEO. More over this was actually important, if that wasn't Yugi... if that 'really' wasn't Yugi. Who was that who let them on the elevator? If that was a robot, or an incredibly good actor, was that person on their way to the R&D department to steal information? Had they been used as decoy's from some form of corporate espionage?!

Kinoshita turned slowly to stare at Yusei, her eyes wide and with a face so drained of color that Crow quickly moved to catch her. The poor secretary looked clear ready to faint and even having Crow move behind her didn't faze her anymore.

'Why? Oh why did you say that...' Rua thought passively as he saw the frown deepen on Kaiba's face. The temperature in the room felt as though it was dropping by double digits despite being in a skyscraper that put it closer to the sun. Frost could start glazing the windows at any moment as far as Rua was concerned.

"Everyone has been going on about how 'Yugi' has been in hiding for years, its apparently this great mystery that was never solved. Even though I just rode up the elevator with someone claiming to be him. But now that I'm standing here, I think the better question might be... What happened to Yugi and your brother." Yusei asked, abrupt and about the only manners he bothered with were the honorifics that went with Japanese. "Mokuba?"

Living on Satellite had meant that he wasn't up on all the modern news, he had only the bits and pieces of info that had survived Zero Reverse growing up. So when people said 'Kaiba' he had mentally envisioned a neatly cut, brown haired, tall, white suited businessman. It was 'literally' the whole point of why Jack wore all white. But this wasn't Kaiba... at least not the Kaiba he saw in those faded, and damaged magazines. Not the Kaiba he saw in the most historic duels from the past videos he found on the net.

The stories of the duels between Yugi and Kaiba, Seto were considered the stuff of legends, the duels that no one could live up to. No duel ever since theirs could come close to the inability to make even a call on who would win. A deck made for raw power against a magicians' deck that was streamlined for strategy. While at the same time maintaining a versatility that allowed for tag teaming with just about any other deck. The man sitting behind the desk wasn't that Kaiba, instead it was 'Mokuba', the black haired younger brother, who sat in the chair of the CEO. Meaning that 'Ryu' the Vice President was Mokuba's son. So where was the 'Kaiba' that Yugi wanted to say 'Hi' to?

"My honorable older brothers' whereabouts are of no concern of yours 'child'," Mokuba fairly growled. His eyes were that of a dragon guarding a treasure from a threat, it lacked trust or warmth and framed with the feathering of his black hair gave him an almost hooded feel. Made all the worse that he clearly saw the group as a 'threat' if not the world itself, for expressions didn't come that readily from a one time startled surprise. His intensity and focus was honed over the years, wounds left unhealed had left obvious emotional scars.

When something caught Mokubas' sight below Yusei's eye line, given that he was sitting down, meaning that it was possibly one of the twins and their hair style. Causing the CEO to quell whatever form of yelling he might have used in reaction to Yuseis' words. Barely.

"Yugi said that he was 'out of time' and having 'trouble catching up' though," Yusei pointed out, shifting his posture slightly. He didn't want to be viewed as aggressive or a threat, this man had actively protected Rua and if nothing else deserved appreciation for that. As well as the fact that he was very well aware that the twins and Crow had screwed up by walking into the office blindly. Yet if it wasn't 'blindly' if they simply were being led to do so by Yugi in some fashion or another?

"So you expect me to believe that after 22 years, Yugi just shows up in the private elevator here and lets you ride up..." Mokubas' eyes were narrowed as he sat straight back against his chair before shifting his gaze to his computer. He reached over to the mouse and clicked something on the screen before he began typing on the keyboard. It was a quiet keyboard, the sounds of the keys barely making it over the sound of breathing in the room. Because no one was talking.

Kinoshita stood waiting off to the side of the group in an anxious fearful silence, if this was something normal or not, it wasn't like the quartet was the least bit aware of. The focus was purely on Kaiba sitting at his desk typing away at something with an incredibly neutral expression. It was clear that he hadn't left that sentence hanging, it 'was' a statement that clearly required an answer. Only no one had any courage to answer it and Yusei didn't know 'how' to answer it. Mokuba clearly had some awareness about Yusei and the group, but was it safe to discuss in front of the secretary?

Yusei felt cold under his thick clothes at the protracted amount of silence coming from Kaiba. He expected for security to be called and they be tossed out if lucky, arrested at worst, with a new mark for Yusei and Crow. This wasn't standing up against Security because he was pursuing something that belonged to him. Nor was it standing up against the forces of evil to defend the world. It was literally standing in an office before its, hostile, owner, with no understanding of 'why' they were there. It may have started off to help Carly, but she was now a distant thought. With the twins young enough not to be held accountable for this right? Right...

Please say something Kaiba...

The shuffling sound was 'not' what Yusei wanted to hear, as the two bug antenna like pigtails that Ruka wore her hair in... Moved...

His eyes were drawn down to the twins where Ruka was shuffling away from him her bag still clutched in her arms.

"Who... who else could it be?" Rua finally asked as he hovered over his sister as she moved forward to Kaiba's desk. He wanted to argue that it 'was' Yugi, that they saw him and spoke to him! But saying that 'Kaiba' was 'wrong'? Though Kaiba hadn't yelled at them, he still conveyed a threatening presence that scared every word that Rua could say with confidence of out of his mind. He felt like if he said the wrong thing they would all get in trouble. But Ruka was walking forward and he had to protect his sister!

For his part Mokuba said nothing in response, he glanced over at the twins, a look that alone was enough to freeze Ruka mid step. Leaving both herself and her twin as tiny islands of people between the grown ups behind them and himself. He sighed in annoyance, even after all these years he couldn't bring himself to yell at a child. Instead he switched on the wall screen that revealed itself when the shelf before it parted. The screen rested on the far right of Mokuba, showing his desk top which held a still frame of a video that he had paused. He had been staring at that one screen in an effort to remind himself that one of these two kids had a heart condition.

There, frozen in time, was an image of Yusei resting against the corner between the door and wall, arms crossed and clearly displeased in the elevator. Crow was frozen in mid pat down one hand pressed against a his chest, another hand was at his hip. Rua was standing next to his sister near the center of the elevator, he had his bag in one hand as he held a thin book in the other as though he was either pulling out the book or shoving it in. Ruka was standing there holding out another similar slender book with both her hands while her bag rested at her feet.

The only out of ordinary thing about the picture was that she was handing it to the control panel of the elevator. There was no one else in the private elevator with them.