I have a couple of notes before we begin.
First, it has never been my intention to break the terms of submission on this site. I play by the rules, all except one. I have, throughout this story and some others, continually broken a specific rule by quoting published works which are not in the public domain. I understand that ignorance is no excuse, but I began submitting here back when various banned practices were still permitted: NC-17 pieces, stories about real-life celebrities, songfics, et cetera. I was under the mistaken impression that the manner in which I chose to quote certain songs/books/poems, as epigraphs, was still permitted. I have recently come to the understanding that I was wrong. I have since removed said epigraphs from this story, and will be working to remove them from my other works. I must simultaneously thank and apologize to Teh-AMAZING-One. Thank you so much for looking out for me.
One more point: I am under no magnificent delusion that I am perfect. I make just as many mistakes as anyone. I'm always glad to hear from my audience, and if there is something in any of my stories that bothers you, I encourage and appreciate bringing it to my attention. I won't be angry. I want these stories to be the best that they can be, and you are just as much a part of that process as I am.
However, when delivering criticism to me, I respectfully request politeness, courtesy, and thoroughness. I, like many of you, put my work up here to share my imagination with others and to improve my writing. I do not, and will not, tolerate being flamed. Any such criticism will be summarily ignored.
That said (apologies to my faithful audience; this hostility is in no way directed at any of you), I continue "Paved with Good Intentions" with the first chapter of its new story arc, which begins here, some months after the "von Schroeder incident" but before the events of the first chapter.
If you've read chapter 19 of "Blue Eyes, Violet Eyes," you will know that in my mind, Mokuba is rather fond of the Swordstalker. I explained my reasoning for this in that chapter, but suffice it to say that I think there was more to his using it to rescue Seto in the Five-Headed-Dragon arc of the anime than random chance.
Keep that in mind as you read.
It should, if I've done my job right, add something to the narrative.
1.
"You're sure about this, then?"
Seto glanced at his assistant and nodded. "He's recovered enough, and spending all his time at home is beginning to affect him, anyway. He wants to go back to a traditional school. He performs better in a classroom setting, and I've been having to reschedule lately anyway."
"Better?" Roland Ackerman repeated, frowning incredulously. "Master Kaiba, are you serious? I've seen his work, you know. It's exemplary! He's doing better than I did in high school, and I did rather well."
Seto smirked. "He's not going back to Oakwood. I'm having him transferred to East Rivers."
"Of course you are," Roland laughed. "He's more than ready for junior high by now."
"He is, but I would have kept him at Oakwood and have him go through sixth, except that he's insisting that he can handle it. It seems that he wants to…emulate me." There was obvious pride in the elder Kaiba's voice, but also a twinge of worry. Roland knew why. Seto had effectively graduated from high school by twelve, and the idea of Mokuba trying to force himself to follow his brother's example was rather worrisome.
"So then…?"
"He takes the entrance exam next week," Seto said. "He'll attend his first classes a week afterward." There was no question that Mokuba would pass; Roland didn't mention it. "I've been forwarded a list of his potential instructors."
"And?"
"They'll suffice," Seto said, which was about the highest praise any public school teacher was liable to get from him. "One of them…Joanna Lorwell. English. Her sister works at the Children's Home."
Roland nodded. "I remember that one. Jennifer, I believe. She's quite spirited."
Seto chuckled. "Not the word I would have used."
"Still, you hired her. I'm assuming she's qualified. The same goes for her sister?"
"Yes. I'm not concerned. East Rivers was recommended to me personally." Roland knew that the only opinion Seto would take seriously was Detective Darren McKinley's. He remembered that Darren's daughter, Katherine, had gone to Mokuba's elementary school. Roland figured that when she had graduated, she'd moved on to East Rivers Middle.
"The little one is excited, I assume?"
Seto nodded. "Quite. I've no doubt he'll do fine. But…" Seto reached into his desk and withdrew a manila folder. He held it out. "Look into them. See if you find any red flags, and if you do, bring them to my attention immediately. I don't intend to take chances."
Roland nodded as he took the folder. "Of course."
It was clear that Seto was distracted. He'd eventually given in to Mokuba's requests—after several months of homeschooling—to head back to a traditional school, but that didn't mean that he was pleased with the idea. As Roland left his employer's office and headed toward his own, he thought that Seto had good reason not to be. The chance of Mokuba being targeted again, just as he'd been by Siegfried von Schroeder, was high; it had always been high. And although he had been searching, Seto had yet to find any bodyguards trustworthy enough to hire.
"Anyone I trust to guard my brother's life," Seto had said, "has to be as close to perfect as humanly possible. I have to know, without the faintest bit of doubt, that Mokuba will be safe with this person, and that means I have to be far more critical than I've ever been before. Find me perfection, Roland, or don't bother."
Roland hadn't found perfection yet.
As he sat down at his desk, Roland looked at his phone, and on impulse picked it up and dialed a number. After two rings, there was an answer: "Roland?"
"Little one," Roland said, smiling. "I hear you're going to be heading back to school."
"Yeah. Niisama finally said it was okay."
"I'm supposing it took some convincing."
"Yeah. Sure did."
Roland's smile dropped a bit. "…Listen…Mokuba. I think…I think, at least, for the first week or two…you might want to make a habit of calling your brother throughout the day. I doubt…it's strictly allowed, but…but I think you should do it, anyway."
"I think he'll call me first," Mokuba said, chuckling.
"I…kind of doubt that, little one. That's why I called. Don't…don't wait for him to call. Whenever you get the chance…between classes, at lunch…just…well, don't wait. All right?"
There was silence for a moment.
Then,
"…Yeah. Yeah, okay."
Roland didn't bother to explain himself; he knew Mokuba understood. And so he said goodbye, hung up the phone, and opened the folder Seto had given him. Part of me wants to think you're paranoid, sir, he thought, smirking.
And yet…
The rest of me knows you're right.
2.
"Seventh grade, huh?"
Mokuba nodded. "Uh-huh. Niisama got a test set up, so I can see if I'm good enough for it. If I pass, I start school in a couple weeks. East Rivers Middle School."
Joey Wheeler smirked. "Jus' kinda figures. Lookit you, tryin' to hide that smirk o' yers. Skippin' sixth grade. Well, congratulations, kid. Betcha'll do fine."
"Did you go there?" the boy wondered.
"Me?" Joey pointed to himself. "Nah. I went t' good ol' Domino Junior High. Kinda lame soundin', isn't it? Generic. Not too good a school, either, come to think of it. Good thing yer not goin' there. East Rivers, that place's good. Better neighborhood, better teachers, all 'at good stuff."
Tristan Taylor nodded. "My sister went there. S'more upscale. Not surprising, Kaiba sending you there. Although honestly, I'd have figured you for a private school kid. One of the real swanky places, y'know?"
Mokuba shook his head. "If he wanted to do that, he'd have just hired tutors and had me stay at home. I don't want to go to a private school. I've seen a couple here, and they're…stuffy. It's the kind of place where I'm expected to go, and that's just…"
"Yeah, that makes sense," Joey admitted.
Yugi Motou—carrying a huge box of plastic models and anime DVDs—stumbled into the front of the Turtle Game Shop, where Joey, Tristan, and Mokuba were seated around a card table. "So are you excited?" he asked, voice slightly shaky as he struggled with the weight of his burden. Joey got up and helped him set it on the counter.
"Yeah," Mokuba said. "I think I am. Niisama took me to see it yesterday. It looks nice."
"I'd make fun o' ya for sayin' you're 'excited' to go to school, but I guess you smart kids actually like it," Joey said, smirking. "Prob'ly would've had a lot better time in school 'f I'd actually paid attention. Or 'f I had to spend all my time at home with Kaiba."
Mokuba almost snapped at the blond, until he saw the wide grin on Joey's face. The jab was good-natured, and the black-haired boy realized that it had been meant solely as a joke. He smiled. Joey winked and began to help Yugi unload the merchandise he'd brought out.
The bell above the door of the shop rang, and Yugi said, "Be with you in a second."
Joey turned and saw a red-haired boy with a backpack slung over his shoulder. "Hey. Does this place have—holy crap." The boy stopped, and his mouth gaped. His eyes kept turning from Mokuba to Yugi and back to Mokuba again.
"Might wanna check a church outhouse for that," Tristan said, and Joey snickered.
"…Huh?"
"Welcome to the Turtle Game Shop," Joey said with a bit of a flourish, "yer one-stop shop f' Domino City's game 'n geek elite. I think I can tell whatcher gonna ask, and…yeah. It's them. Autographs're a maybe, maybe not deal. Hafta ask 'em."
There was once a time, Mokuba mused, when Joey would have been offended to not have hordes of fans gawking at him, but he seemed to have come to grips with the fact that for some reason, even though he had defeated any number of prominent duelists (not the least of which being "Bandit" Keith Howard), Joey Wheeler's name simply didn't resonate in the public's memory.
"Ah…um…r-right."
Yugi turned finally and smiled. "Are you looking for anything in particular?" he asked. "If you do want an autograph, I'll need to find a pen."
That was something else Mokuba noticed; just as Joey was growing more comfortable with his obscurity, Yugi seemed to be growing more comfortable with his fame. The young Kaiba remembered a time when he would have been petrified to even speak to a fan, much less make a joke. The red-haired boy laughed, awkwardly, and wiped his hands on his jeans.
"Ah…n-no, that's okay, I…I was just wondering if…if you had something. M-Mister Devlin at the Black Crown said to check here."
"Duke?" Yugi asked, smiling. "Well, that was nice of him. What is it you're looking for?"
"It's a, uh…a model? A new Magic & Wizards statue. It's in the, ah…um…third series."
"Ah!" Yugi nodded. "The new one? Just came out last week, I think."
The boy nodded. "Yes! That's it."
Yugi glanced at the box he'd brought out. "Mm…you know, it's not in this box, here, but I'm pretty sure we got some a couple days ago. Let me go check in the back. Just a minute."
The boy nodded. "Okay! Thank you, Mister Motou!"
"Heh," Joey chuckled. "Mister Motou. Nice. Hey, Yug, where you want this stuff, anyway?" He jabbed a thumb at the box.
"Set it out by the windows. Whatever you can't fit can go on the shelves." Yugi turned to leave the room. "Thanks, Joey!"
3.
The kid with the red hair looked nervous enough to wet himself.
Joey supposed there was good reason for that. Having befriended Mokuba, he had quickly realized just how famous both Kaiba brothers were. He thought it was pretty stupid of him to not have seen it before, but Mokuba had much the same problem with children that his brother had with teens: they flocked to him, and yet none could ever string together proper sentences around him.
The thing was…Joey would have sworn that Mokuba would have gotten used to it by now. But looking at the heir to the Kaiba name, he'd have said that Mokuba was just as flustered by this redhead's attention as Yugi might have been a couple years ago. He was maintaining eye contact with the boy, and he was answering the questions posed to him, but all the same it didn't feel right. Mokuba seemed to be gauging the boy, eyes constantly flickering up and down as if waiting for the boy to pull a weapon. And his answers were clipped. Stock answers. The sorts of answers that said, "Okay, stop talking now. You bother me."
At least, that's how it sounded to Joey. The kid didn't seem to catch the same thing; he kept stumbling his way through a conversation, flustered and blushing and unsure of where to look. Mokuba was polite, but it was so painfully obvious that he didn't want to talk that Joey honestly marveled at how the redhead could keep going. Maybe Mokuba hadn't quite yet perfected the "Kaiba Sneer" that his brother pulled off so effortlessly when he didn't want to talk to somebody (which was just about always).
"…Why don't you play Capmon anymore?" the redhead was asking.
"The latest tournament rule set messed everything up," Mokuba said mechanically. "The game's too easy now. I still play sometimes, but only with the older rules."
"Oh…"
Joey glanced at Tristan, and from the look on the brunette's face, he saw, and heard, the same thing Joey did: Mokuba did not want to be having this conversation. It was odd; Mokuba was usually extremely open and social, and if anybody asked anything about a game he had played, the boy was usually just as excited as Yugi to talk someone's ear off about it. Over the past few months, though, he seemed to go out of his way to avoid talking to people, electing only to converse with a select few—his brother, Joey, Tristan, and Yugi seemed to comprise the entire list—and anyone else he took great pains to avoid.
Just as Joey was about to wonder why that was, and why he seemed so much like his brother right now—saying just enough to be polite and absolutely nothing else—he realized with a jolt that he knew the answer.
"Hey, uh, buddy," Joey said suddenly, just as the red-haired boy was about to ask another question. "Listen, ah, you wouldn't by chance happen t' know me, wouldja? Joey Wheeler? Guy who damn near won the Duelist Kingdom, Battle City, and KC Grand Prix tournaments? Eh? Eh? C'mon. Don't say ya don't reco'nize me."
Mokuba blinked, looking surprised.
Tristan smirked.
"I…I…think I…"
"Well!" Joey cried, slipping in between the boy and Mokuba and leading him off, "lemme school ya, then! See, you might know Yugi, 'n you might know Kaiba, but me? I'm right up there with 'em, honest t' God. So here's the deal, man, I…"
Joey went on, rambling to the point where even he didn't know what he was saying after about ten seconds, but when he glanced over at Mokuba, he saw profound relief on the young Kaiba's face. When Mokuba glanced up at him, Joey winked.
Mokuba's smile was almost worshipping.
Joey thought, as sudden warmth struck his stomach, that he finally understood why Seto Kaiba was so damned protective. It was for that smile. For that radiant smile, Joey knew, Seto would do anything. Absolutely anything.
Damned if it didn't make a hell of a lot more sense, now that he'd seen it for himself.
Joey didn't know how long Yugi would have to spend in the back of the shop to find whatever it was the redhead wanted, but he was bound and determined to play distraction for as long as it took. He didn't pay attention to the fact that his "audience" didn't seem all that impressed, just confused, as Joey railed off his numerous achievements in the Magic & Wizards arena; as Mokuba had suspected, the blond was far past the days when he cared if people knew his name or not. Especially since fame didn't seem to be quite the Holy Grail he'd once thought it was.
From what he'd seen of Mokuba…it was more trouble than it was worth.
"Don't mind him," Tristan cut in, and Redhead turned to him. "He gets kinda antsy when you don't pay enough attention to him. Like a needy dog. Just pat 'im on the head; he'll be fine."
"Woof," Joey muttered.
Mokuba snickered.
Redhead grinned.
"Just don't pay too much attention or he'll wind up peeing on the floor," Tristan added, and when Redhead doubled over laughing, he winked at Mokuba too. Joey wasn't sure if the boy's grin could get any wider even if it wanted to.
"Watch it 'r I'll gnaw on yer leg," Joey said, determined to retain some amount of dignity (such as it was) even though he was sacrificing it willingly. "Why don't you duel me, smartass? Huh? Oh, yeah, that's right, you can't. 'Cuz you suck."
"Right, because you started out like a God-honest prodigy, right?"
"Sure, I did. Jus' didn't wanna make you guys feel bad, so I acted dumb. You know about that, actin' dumb. Right? C'mon. If you're gonna mock my skills, then let's test 'em. Right now. Bring it on."
Now fully distracted by the show, the red-haired boy may as well not know Mokuba was even in the room; and if Joey were to hazard a guess, that's precisely how he wanted it. It wasn't too long before Yugi finally shuffled his way into the room again, holding a box that wasn't quite as big as the one he'd first brought in; but for a single item, it was rather huge.
Mokuba frowned curiously at first…then his eyes went wide.
And his grin came back.
4.
"You're in luck," Yugi said as he set the model onto the counter. "We have five of them. These are a limited run. There wasn't much advertising for them, so we didn't get any preorders. This is the one you wanted, right?"
It was a statue. After the Duelist Kingdom tournament, besides continuing to release booster sets of Magic & Wizards cards, Industrial Illusions had begun to dip its hand into more…tangible merchandising. Some of the most popular were the Living Legends collectible statues. Each statue was modeled after a popular monster card. The first series had consisted of the Dark Magician, the Flame Swordsman, the Harpy Lady, the Red-Eyes Black Dragon, and Relinquished. Mokuba, and any number of other collectors, had been surprised and rather dismayed to find that the signature monster of Seto Kaiba—who was once the top-ranked duelist worldwide—the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, had been conspicuously absent.
The second series of collectible statues had been more obscure: Ryu-Kishin Powered, Gaia the Fierce Knight, the Witty Phantom, and the adorable but mostly useless Kuriboh. Mokuba had been further disappointed, and wondered why in the name of God the rarest monster card in the entire game (that had been made available to the public, anyway) had been neglected yet again.
Now he knew why.
The third series, of which information had been purposefully scarce, consisted of two monsters each poised in mock battle. Mokuba only knew of one of them: the Magician of Faith versus the Man-Eater Bug. An odd combination, Mokuba had thought. But now he saw another.
Crouched and poised to strike, gleaming slate-blue tail curled behind it, great wings spread out and mighty jaws open in a roar, was the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. And standing in front of the great wyrm, not facing it as if poised for war but with its back turned as if defending it, was the deadly, demonic bulk of the Swordstalker.
Darkness and Light.
Yin and Yang.
The red-haired boy looked excited, bouncing on his sneakers as he nodded enthusiastically. "That's it! That's it!" he nearly clambered up onto the counter as if he wanted to just grab the statue Yugi had taken from its box to show him. "Oh, wow! It's so cool!"
"You know the third series is a bit more expensive, right?" Yugi asked, quirking an eyebrow. "On account of having two monsters in each display. If you want to buy one, it'll be $49.99."
Redhead nodded. "I know, I know. I've been saving my allowance for a month to get this! I'll take it!"
The transaction was made, and the red-haired boy whose name Mokuba had never bothered to ask for nearly skipped out of the Turtle Game Shop. Yugi laughed, shaking his head as if he were thinking, Those crazy kids.
"He's a fun one," Joey said. "Kid's pretty clueless, if ya wanna know the truth of it. But…eh. Whatever. Can't be more'n eight. And not every kid's a genius like somebody I could think of." The blond glanced over his shoulder at Mokuba, who was watching the door.
"Hey…Yugi," Mokuba murmured softly, almost vacantly. "You…you said you had…five of those?"
"Yeah," Yugi said. "Well…four, now. You want one?"
"…Uh-huh."
Yugi chuckled. "Thought you might." He turned, left the room, and came back again (this time much faster) with another of the statues. He frowned as he set it down. "You know…the other two of this series that's been released have had the two monsters fighting…this one's different. I don't understand why the Swordstalker was paired up with the Blue-Eyes, either."
Mokuba did.
After he had handed his friend a hundred-dollar bill and stuffed his change into his pocket, Mokuba took the statue out of its box to examine it more closely. He noted, on the base just in front, a small plaque.
"Comrades in Arms," Joey read, glancing at it. "Huh. Interestin'."
"Heh. Maybe it's fightin' for the Blue-Eyes 'cuz it knows it can't beat 'em," Tristan suggested.
"What's 'at say?" Joey asked, frowning. He pointed to a pair of characters that he apparently couldn't read, just above 'Comrades in Arms.' Yugi shrugged. Mokuba smirked.
"It's Japanese," the black-haired boy said. "Kanji."
"Eh? Huh. 'Zat right?"
"What's it say?" Tristan wondered.
Mokuba's smirk softened, and he wondered who had designed this statue, and on whose orders. He thought he might want to meet that person, whoever it was.
"Nakama," Mokuba almost whispered. "It reads…nakama."
END.
I know, I know, "nakama" is perhaps the most overused Japanese word in all of anime. I hope I may be forgiven for perpetuating the cliché, but I felt it worked for the narrative. Since I went on a bit of a rant up top, I won't take up much of your time here. I just wanted to mention that this storyline will eventually lead up to when Mokuba first meets Connor Brinkley, a character who hasn't shown up in a while, and detail how their friendship began.
In the spirit of that, I've called this arc (this season, if you will): "Origin of the Species."
Until next time, take care. Be good to one another.
