Peach Wookiee: I loved your review! That last part really made me laugh, it was so funny and cute. Yeah, you'll have to see though what happens to her. Don't worry, things are gonna start happening very, very soon. You'll see. Thanks again for that fun review!

Afiong Bassey: Seto has been a jerk, hasn't he? Oh well, I suppose if he wasn't a jerk he wouldn't necessarily be the Seto Kaiba we know and love… we do love him, right? I'm kidding, we all love Seto Kaiba! Some times… haha. Hope you like this chapter!

Candy world: Thanks for the many, many reviews! I feel bad, though, for having you read my story rather than do your exams. But I hope this chapter is amazing and that you love it. I updated uber quickly this time! Thanks for the reviews!

AmePiper: Here's the next chapter, I hope you like it a lot!

Chapter 18

Heart and Soul

The following morning, Mokuba woke up with a smile on his face. It felt as though it was a brand new day and a brand new start. The fact that his older brother was slipping into an alcoholic cycle of drinking and getting drunk almost every day had almost completely disappeared from his train of thought. The only thing he could think about was the math class that he wouldn't be dreading, and the lunch period he could have once again to enjoy with his renewed friends. It was as though the last 3 months of torture was all in the past, and life was new in this odd country Mokuba found himself calling home.

The boy happily got himself dressed and swiftly walked down the stairs to find that not only his brother was seated at the table, but his old butler as well. Mokuba stopped and stared at him. "Isono?" Isono looked up from the newspaper he was reading and smiled upon seeing Mokuba.

"It's good to see you," Isono got to his feet and hugged Mokuba as he ran over to him. Mokuba returned the hug with a tight squeeze.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came here to help you and your brother out. My flight ran a little late last night so I didn't get here until after you had already fallen asleep." Mokuba looked over at his brother. He had thought the night before that the reason why Seto was out was because he was busy getting drunk after a long day at work, but to hear that he was out picking up Isono from the airport instead of that gave him a light of hope. Maybe things weren't as bad as they had seemed.

"Well, I better get going. I have to get to school." Seto looked at his watch.

"School? But school doesn't start for a while…you sure you want to leave so early?" Mokuba nodded. His heart was filled with excitement; he couldn't bear to wait at home for school to start. And if he made it there in time, he might just be early enough to catch up with Jimmy before classes started up. "Well, if you really want to…"

"I can drive him to school," Steven suggested, popping out of the kitchen with plates of food in his hands. Seto and Isono both gave Steven an evil look.

"That's quite alright Steven, I'm sure Mokuba would like to catch up with Isono for a bit this morning and would love to have me drive him at that time." Mokuba raised one eyebrow.

"No… that's okay. Steven can drive me. Plus, isn't that better for you guys? Then you guys can catch up and I won't bother you." Mokuba turned and grabbed his backpack and sweatshirt. "So are we going Steven?" Steven nodded and quickly took off his silly apron that Seto had forced him to wear as a way of humiliating him. Seto and Isono were silent as they watched him and Mokuba race out the front door. "See ya Seto and Isono!" They could hear Mokuba call before he shut the door behind him.

"I'm not fond of that butler you have there. He seems like one of those rebel kind of guys, a man who could turn on you at any given moment if he has some sort of stupid righteous cause to fight for."

"I know exactly what you mean, I feel that way too." Seto looked down at his watch again, then stood up, "We have to go though. I have to get to work." Isono looked at him.

"You have another job?"

"I'm sure you've heard about Kaiba Corp. taken over."

"Oh… right… well, where do you work now?" Seto sighed.

"You'll see."

"Industrial Illusions?" Isono stared at Seto, "This is where you work?" Seto, with a look of defeat on his face, slowly nodded in response. "Well… what position do you work?"

"Administrative Assistant."

"An assistant? Mr. Kaiba, you and I both know you are no assistant."

"Well, with Pegasus as my boss, I am." Isono's eyes widened.

"Maximillion Pegasus? HE'S your boss?" Seto nodded once more. Seto motioned to follow him as they headed inside. "I can't believe this… Mr. Kaiba, he's your enemy. How can you be working for him?"

"Isono, the world is my enemy, and yet I still have to comply with the rules of society." They both stepped into the elevator side by side and watched as the doors closed. "I can no longer run around, waving money in the face of any man that gets in my way, when I lost my company, I lost my power and my position in this world."

"Mr. Kaiba, I think when you moved to this wrecked country, that was when you lost what power you had." Seto shot a glare at Isono.

"I had to do it. For the sake of Mokuba, I had to risk everything." They both stepped out of the elevator and began to walk down the long hallway toward his office.

"But Mr. Kaiba, is this really how you imagined 'your great escape' to be like? I mean, I love the kid too, but I never imagined, you, of all people, to be an assistant for a man such as Pegasus." Seto stopped and turned around.

"You're not his brother, Isono, you can't possibly imagine what it feels like watching him suffer and knowing it's your own damn fault for it. I couldn't live any longer in Japan knowing my brother's life was constantly at risk, I simply couldn't. Mokuba isn't just some kid, he's my younger brother and I would rather risk my life and everything I own… just so he could be safe." Seto twisted back around and headed into the office section where he worked. Isono quickly followed silently behind.

When Seto finally made it to his cubicle, he found Duke sitting in his chair waiting for him. Duke stood up when he saw Seto. "What are you doing here?" Seto asked with his deathly voice switch on at the moment.

"Pegasus wants to see you in his office." Duke noticed Isono standing behind Seto. "Who's he? And what's he doing here?"

"He's a friend of mine."

"Does he even have a visitor's pass? You can't just let anyone waltz in here. He needs to go through-" Seto began to walk away just as he had started explaining. Duke shrugged and shook his head.

Seto walked into Pegasus's office with his head up high and Isono standing firmly behind him. "You wanted to see me?" Pegasus twisted around in his big chair and immediately noticed Isono's presence in the room.

"Who is that?"

"Isono, an old butler of mine."

"Oh, I see…" Pegasus looked Isono up and down, then ignored him and turned his attention towards Seto. "You were late today, Seto Kaiba. You've been late a lot these past couple days."

"My apologies, Sir. Things have just been rough back at home."

"And where are those papers I handed to you a week ago? You're beginning to fall behind, Kaiba. You know slackers aren't allowed to work in this company."

"My apologies once again Sir, it's just that you've been piling all this work on me, it's impossible for me to do it all in the time that you ask me to do it." Pegasus stood to his feet, bringing his hand to his chin, and staring Seto right in the eyes. Seto stood with an emotionless face.

"Is that so? You want to know what I think, Kaiba? I think you don't want this job bad enough, I think you're beginning to become unmotivated."

"Well, it's not like you pay me enough for half the shit you make me do." Pegasus's eyes flared with anger.

"What was that?"

"I can't pay half my bills with the pay I make in only a month. I do almost all your work, and I can't finish most of it. If you expect me to work even harder, I suggest a raise." Pegasus walked towards him until he was standing right in front of him.

"Is that a command, Administrative Assistant?" Pegasus asked.

"No Sir, it's a request." Seto still kept his ground; his face still held no emotions what so ever.

"Assistants don't get to make requests, Kaiba, assistants have to wait until they are given the privilege of such a request to be made. Therefore, you are in no position to be making such requests." Pegasus turned away and walked back to his desk, sitting back down in his chair. "You may return to your cubicle. But you have been warned, Kaiba. Test my patience, and I will terminate you." Pegasus twisted his chair back around and waited for Seto to leave. But Seto stood there silently, not making any sort of effort to leave. "I said, you that you can go, Kaiba, did-"

"I'm going to lose my home if I don't get a raise." The room fell silent. Isono froze and stared at Seto, his face showed no sign of breaking down from its current icy state. It seemed as though his words echoed through the office. Pegasus turned his chair for the second time and stared at him.

"And you think that just because of that, I'll give you a raise?" Seto knew he had lost now, "Seto Kaiba, it's a big, big world out there. People have to fight to get what they need and what they want. If you truly wanted that raise, you'd be putting you're whole heart into this."

"I am putting my whole heart into this, I'm putting my SOUL into this," Seto stomped over to Pegasus's desk and slammed his hands onto it, staring him in the eye, "Do you know what it's like? Waking up every day, knowing you're nothing more than a low life assistant? I use to be champion, I use to be the best. And now all I am is a fucking assistant!" Seto pushed all the papers and things on Pegasus's desk onto the floor with one mighty sweep with both his hands. Pegasus stood up.

"Get out of my office." Seto took back his hands and left his office. As he was silently returning to his cubicle, he could feel the eyes of his peers and co-workers staring at him as he made his way and sat down. Duke stood by Seto's cubicle and opened his mouth when he came close to him, but decided not to say anything.

"This is… the life I live now," Seto said with a stern face, "The great Seto Kaiba is no longer the CEO of a great company. The great Seto Kaiba is on the brink of homelessness and total destruction."

The bell rang and Mokuba was bright and happy all through out math class. Ms. Morgan wasn't there that day which led him to believe that his life was finally normal. In her place was a substitute, whom proved to be of no threat and didn't explain why Ms. Morgan was absent that day. Mokuba hoped that Ms. Morgan had been fired for good. When that bell rang, Mokuba knew he was free at last to live his life the way he had wanted to live it from the beginning.

Jimmy and Mokuba walked side by side out of the classroom, when a counselor pulled him aside just as he had walked out of the door of the classroom. "Are you Mokuba Kaiba?" Mokuba stared at her, but nodded. "Could you please come with me?" Mokuba turned to Jimmy. Jimmy shrugged.

"I guess I'll see you at the lunch table when you get out." Mokuba nodded and followed the woman down the hallway and into the principal's office. Mokuba looked around. His heart stopped when he spotted Ms. Morgan sitting in between the principal and the assistant principal. There was a police officer in the room as well.

"What's going on?" Mokuba choked out, his heart was beginning to beat faster and faster. He didn't know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing, but his gut was telling him something terrible was about to happen.

"You don't need to worry, just sit down and relax. We have our secretary calling your brother right at this moment."

Seto stared at the pile of papers in front of him. "How does he expect me to finish all of these by tonight?" Seto looked over at Isono, but all Isono did was look down in sadness.

"I'm sorry Mr. Kaiba, I'm not sure myself." Seto gave a loud sigh of frustration. The phone rang. Seto picked up it.

"Yes?"

"Is this Mr. Kaiba?"

"Yes, that's me. What do you want?"

"Mr. Kaiba, this is the secretary of San Fran Middle School. The principal has asked me to call you. There's a very important matter that needs to be discussed right now in her office. We have your brother with us currently."

"What?! Is he hurt? Is something wrong?"

"There's not much us I'm allowed to tell you, Sir, we just need you to come down here as soon as possible."

"I'm on my way." Seto slammed down the phone and turned back towards Isono. "We're leaving." Seto got up and headed towards the exit. Duke stood up and ran beside him.

"Kaiba, where are you going?"

"My brother needs me."

"But you have too much work to do today. You can't just leave." Seto stopped and turned to him.

"Watch me."

"Kaiba, if you leave now, there's a great possibility you'll be fired."

"I don't care. My brother needs me and I am willing to risk anything and everything to help him." Seto and Isono left the office with that. Duke stood in the middle of the hallway astonished and confused. Somehow he knew Seto Kaiba wasn't going to be coming back anytime soon.

A/N: Hey guys! Me again with another quick update! Don't you love those quick updates? I know I sure do! Oh yes, and just to let you guys know, if you have any questions what so ever about a sentence that might've been confusing, or something that happened that wasn't clear enough, you can totally let me know. Just leave a question in a review or you can e-mail me. My e-mail is on my profile, so anyone can find me. Or just send me a message through fanfiction. Don't be afraid to ask, cause I want everyone to be updated and not feel lost when reading my story. I'm just throwing that little detail out there for anyone who needs it, I hope you liked the chapter!