Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue.

Random talk: ((comes out of corrner from crying)) You guys love this fic, but you won't review! I have over 1000 hits, but only 11 reviews! I'm really hurt! I want to know what I could do to improve! Now, I'm going to go back to crying now... I'll see you at the end of the chapter.

Note on yamis and hikaris: Yamis and hikaris will be mentioned or actually appear. Just to go over how I will call them. This doesn't mean the characters will call them that.

Hikari: Yuugi, Ryou

Yami: Yami, Bakura

Chapter 7

Insanity

Kaiba sighed and continued. "Well, her death devastated my father. Things went downhill for him after that Tanabata all those years ago. I guess you can say he went a little insane."

"Insane?" Jonouchi questioned. "How bad are we talking about?"

"At first, he wasn't insane, just depressed. You remember how your father and mine would go out to drink every Sunday, right?"

"How can I forget? They started to drink together after Okaa-san left with Shizuka. But your father was drinking excessively even before that."

"Correct. After a few years of drinking, he started to act strange. He would talk to himself constantly, and he never cooked anymore. Mokuba and I would go over to Obaa-san's house just to eat. This went on for about a year."

"Then what happened?"

"He snapped. Mokuba was five and I was ten. We found the hard way."

"Care to explain how you found out the hard way?"

"One night, Mokuba couldn't sleep, so he joined me in my bed. Mokuba instantly fell asleep, but I couldn't. I could sense something was amiss. A few minutes later, our father opened my door. I pretended to be asleep so he wouldn't get mad at me. I heard him walk up to my bed slowly so he wouldn't step on anything. He started to talk to himself, but it seemed like his words were addressed to us. The last thing he said scared me. He said, 'Go back to hell, you devil child. You ruined this family for the last time.' I realized he was talking about Mokuba. My eyes snapped open, and I saw our father with a steak knife in his hands. He really was going to kill Mokuba."

"Wait… You mean your real father tried to kill the little guy?"

"Yes. Luckily, I stopped him before he succeeded. After I stopped him, he ran out of the house and never return."

"What happened to him?"

"Hm… You're full of questions…"

"Maybe you shouldn't leave any holes in your stories!"

"True… Well, he went for a drive and got in a car accident. Died instantly. I thought that Mokuba didn't know about what happened that day. Two years ago, I found out differently. Turns out Mokuba had his suspicions until Gozaburo told him the truth. Who knew Gozaburo did so much research on my family."

"He did research on you?"

"Seems like it. I guess he wanted as much blackmail as he could on me."

"Wow… Just one more question, how did you stop your father from killing Mokuba?"

"I'll give that answer some other time. For some odd reason, I'm exhausted."

"Then sleep, you baka."

"I don't have much of a choice, eh inu?"

"Just shut up and sleep." And Kaiba did just that.

"You're a fast learner, Rou," Hirutain said with a smirk. "Who knew such a scrawny, little brat could actually be a decent fighter?"

"I'm not scrawny or little," Mokuba muttered. His outfit was basically some old clothes one of the gang members had from when they were his age. He had a plain white shirt and an aqua-green hoodie jacket with the sleeves torn off. His blue jeans were also torn off at the knees. He even had his right ear pierced, twice. "I told you I'm a fast learner."

"So you did. But I didn't expect you to learn this fast. It's only been one day, and you already know the proper way of handling a knife and a gun. Not only that, but you can keep up with one of my best fighters in a fist fight."

"My so called brother thought it would be wise if I learn some self-defense. After being kidnapped so many times, he didn't want to take any chances. I always saw it as a waste of time, since I was surrounded by bodyguards almost 24-7."

"I don't care how you learned. All that matters is if you know how to."

"Of course. It's amazing how there hasn't been any search party for me yet…"

"Maybe your brother is happy that you're gone."

"I highly doubt it. I'm all he's got. Besides, he doesn't realize he owes me. If it wasn't for me, Gozaburo might still be alive."

"Interesting. Care to elaborate?"

"Back when Gozaburo was still CEO of Kaiba Corp, Kaiba tried to take the company for himself. Of course, he let me in on his plan for I had 2 of the shares and I was his brother. I knew it wasn't even a challenge for Kaiba, so I made things interesting. I told Gozaburo about Kaiba's plans of the take-over. I also made a bet with him. I said that if Kaiba didn't succeed, he could send us back to the orphanage."

"What if he did succeed?"

"Gozaburo would have to die. I guess that got the old man's attention. You see, that's when the real life chess game started. Eventually, Kaiba owned 49 of the company. Gozaburo got cocky and said that Kaiba lost. His fatal mistake was forgetting that I had 2, which I gave to Kaiba right in front of Gozaburo to make sure he knew he lost. After that, Gozaburo jumped to his death. He probably knew if he didn't kill himself, I would have. I still need to give the old man some credit though. He made it sound like he did it out of he's own free will. But the most amazing part is that no one realized that I was the one who was controlling the game. I think no one know up until now. Consider yourself lucky. You were the first one I ever told the true story to."

"I'm honored. Now, why don't we get some food? You look a little hungry."

"As long as I'm not paying."

"Who said anything about paying?"

That night, Yuugi, Honda, Anzu, and Ryou walked into Kaiba's hospital room. Jonouchi sat right next to the sleeping CEO.

"Found anything about Mokuba?" Jonouchi asked.

"Sorry," Honda said. "Looks like Mokuba doesn't want to be found. We really should tell the cops about him running away."

"I don't think Kaiba-kun wants the public to know about this," Yuugi said.

"What are you talking about?" Anzu asked.

"Think about it," Yuugi started to explain. "He asked us for help after he found out that Mokuba wasn't taking his medicine. If the police were involved, then the media would find out soon enough. That means people will find out about Mokuba-kun's, and eventually Kaiba-kun's, condition."

"But the media found out about Kaiba's condition," Ryou mused.

"His fault, not ours. The baka over here wouldn't eat when he took his medicine. How many years has he been taking it now? Let's see… He started it when he was about five…"

"That's eleven years!" Honda yelled.

"And he still can't remember that he needs food for it to work properly… He may be a child prodigy, but he can't even get the simplest common sense in his head."

"You really care about him," Anzu said. "I know he was your friend and all, but this is a real sudden change of heart."

"For one thing, yes, I do care about him," Jonouchi said with an air of melancholy. He had a sad smile plastered on his face. "Second, he's still my friend. I have no clue as to why he treated us like that, but he must have his reasons."

"Why do you say that?" Honda asked. "I mean, not too long ago, you couldn't imagine Kaiba being nice."

"That was before I found out he was Ryujima. He was the kindest kid anyone could meet. If you compared him back then to Yuugi, Yuugi would be a Boy Scout while Ryujima was a saint. He never got mad at anyone, except when his okaa-san died, but that was one time. He wanted to make everyone happy, even if it would make him unhappy in the process."

"Who said I changed?" Kaiba muttered.

"Kaiba!" Jonouchi yelled in surprised. "I thought you were still asleep!"

"Don't call me that."

"What? I didn't call you anything!"

"Don't call me Kaiba… I only took that name so Mokuba and I could be adopted and have an easy life. I knew none of the other families could afford my medicine along with Mokuba's. If they could, then they didn't want Mokuba. Gozaburo was the only one that would adopt us, with the right incentive."

"Then what do you want me to call you!"

"I don't care. Ryujima, Seto, anything but Kaiba. Of course, at school you will still have to call me that."

"Fine. Seto it is."

"An update on a story previously reported. Yesterday, we reported teenage CEO Kaiba Seto was hospitalized for unknown reasons. Today, we found out that it was due to an illness."

"Turn it off," Mokuba said. The gang turned to face their newest member. His back was facing them, but they knew better not to disturb him. Just this morning, the kid managed to wound one of their best fighters besides Hirutain. To add salt on an old wound, he made it seem like child's play.

"Don't you want to know what's going on with your brother?" one of the guys asked.

"For one thing, he's not my brother anymore. For another, I know what's wrong with him. He's dying." Mokuba turned to face the others. The little preteen had the scariest grin on his face. One that could rival Bakura and Marik combined. "His illness finally caught up with him. Interesting that our mother had the same illness, yet I was the one who killed her… What would be more interesting is that if I really could be the one to kill him."

It's been five days since Kaiba arrived at the hospital, and the young CEO was not happy. Evidently, his PR manager thought it was a good idea to tell why he was in the hospital without his consent. That means, everyone knew about his illness. His stocks dropped slightly, but it was going back up. He was resorted to working in the sterile hospital room, and all of his meetings for the next two weeks were canceled. Not only that, but Mokuba was still missing. Thankfully, the media has yet to find out about that. The excuse used was that Mokuba was sick with the flu.

"He's late," Kaiba muttered. All of his homework and paperwork was finished. There was nothing the ill teen could do but wait for Jonouchi. After every day of school, the blond teen and his friends would come by and keep him company. He was secretly happy that the other would come by and visit even after how he treated the blond. He didn't even mind Jonouchi's friends now, something he would never admit to it.

"Sorry we're late!" Jonouchi yelled.

"Yeah. Jonouchi had to get the right bouquet for you," Honda blurted.

"Honda!" Jonouchi yelled even louder, his face turning a nice shade of pink.

"Why are you embarrassed?" Anzu asked sarcastically. "It was your idea to get him a get well present…"

"I'm touched, koinu," Kaiba said.

"Really?" Jonouchi asked, his face got a shade darker. "Well, here." The blond duelist handed the bed-ridden teen a dozen white roses. "If my memory serves me correct, you liked these, right?"

"And your memory is correct," Kaiba said softly. Jonouchi thought he could see the faintest blush on the CEO's cheeks. Of course, it could just be his fever.

"I would never suspected Kaiba be a fan of roses," Honda said. "Hope you don't mind me asking, but why white roses?"

"Okaa-san had the most beautiful garden one could ever imagine. Her pride and joy among the plants was her white roses. I remember her the most by those flowers. Just seeing them reminds me of her."

"I remember that garden. After she died, you started to care for it."

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," the doctor said.

"You were not, Dr. Hitomi," Kaiba said. "So, any word of when I can leave?"

"Actually, that's the reason why I'm here," Dr. Hitomi said with a smile. "You can leave tomorrow. We just want to keep you here for one more day, just in case."

"Finally," Kaiba muttered. "I never did like hospitals."

Little do they know that a certain raven-haired kid was listening from outside of the room. Mokuba smirked at the new information.

"Oh, Kaiba, you don't have to worry about going to hospitals anymore," Mokuba said to himself. "Soon, you're going to join the rest of my victims. Along with Yuugi-tachi." With that, he left the hospital, laughing his evil laughter.

TBC

Next time: Mokuba makes his move. How will Kaiba and Yuugi-tachi react to where Mokuba has been?

Random talk: Heh… I really had to do this… Gives a good reason as to where part of Mokuba's insanity came from… Sorry for speeding things up. Just a quick question… Is it just me, or did I make Mokuba a little too much like Wrath from FullMetal Alchemist? Please tell me it's just me… It's bad enough that I think the two look alike… (Am I the only one who thinks this? Tell me I'm not!)

Sorry for not keeping my word on posting on Friday. Two things affect my posting. One is school, the second is if my Otou-san is using my computer. He's been using it so much just to play Spider Solitare! I've been telling him to hook up his! Wah!

Also, I'm sorry I can't reply to those who aren't signed up to this site. Some time ago, they said we couldn't reply to reviews in fanfics. Now, I really don't want to chance this story being deleted just because of that... I really am glad for every review I get!

Rubi-chan