Official epilogue; the second epilogue isn't really an alternate, it's just a fun little post-epilogue thing I wrote because I'm sadistic. Take that as a hint. An obvious hint.

My thanks to: TaintedApple, se-tar, FantasyGuardian, Melzart, and Demonkittee, the quintet of people who noticed the story while it was in progress. And of course, if you haven't reviewed, please do. This is probably, in its entirety, a rough draft to a more polished version once I actually acquire that magnificently fleeting trait known as "skill".

Epilogue

X ~ X ~ X

Wednesday, October 26, 2005, 7:00 AM

Tokyo, Japan

Kaiba now knew what it felt like to be twenty-five years old and the chief executive officer of a massive company: it felt like he was still twenty-four years old and the chief executive officer of a massive company. Birthdays didn't really mean anything to him. Especially his own.

Mokuba's might have been an exception. That was the day when Mokuba finally started speaking to Seto again. Offering to step down as CEO for Mokuba might have been the trick, even though it didn't work. Kaiba was simply pleased Mokuba didn't reject him for trying to beg him into returning to Japan, even though that kind of was what he was doing.

Kaiba was seated his limo, reading the shinbun, more to keep informed than because he actually wanted to do so. Newspapers confused him; their layout was perhaps logical to some people, but to him, who did everything on the newest technologies, oddly folded pieces of paper were growing more and more passé.

Partly on a whim and partly because his secretary had beeped him with a request to flip through it, Kaiba stopped when he reached the obituaries. A quick glance revealed nothing interesting; lots of old people were dead. Nothing incredibly new. Nothing to concern him.

Then he read one obituary which puzzled him and made him feel strangely guilty.

He wondered why that particular person would have gone and killed themselves – according to the obituary, they had left no last will and/or testament, no motive, no real note. The writer, someone from the newspaper because the individual had no available relatives, left it an open question whether the date was significant.

Seto Kaiba had never publicly disclosed his birthday; as it didn't matter to him, he saw no reason why it should matter to anyone else, except perhaps Mokuba.

Yet Seto Kaiba understood that yes, this person had chosen to kill themselves, in grief presumably, on a date that was symbolic to them. And it made him uncomfortable. Almost regretful. Yes, he could admit that he was regretful, couldn't he? But it was alright now: Mokuba was back in his life, Pegasus and Hermand were not – hopefully permanently – and everything was back to the way it had been.

When he glided out of the limousine at the back entrance to the Kaiba Corporation, he lazily tried to throw the obituaries, now crumpled in a compact mess of paper and ink, into a garbage can; his lack of seriousness caused it to miss, and he strode inside, and no one really bothered to go and pick it up.

If anyone were to have opened that obituary that day, they might say, "oh, yeah, I think I remember her", once they saw Noelle Hermand's face gazing up, the odd one out amongst the senior citizens. But they wouldn't really know the reason why she ended up there; and eventually, the quirky coincidence from earlier-that-day would pass out of short-term memory. The only one who would remember her – both in life and in her attempt to provoke a heart-wrenching martyrdom – honestly couldn't care any less.

Kinda short eppy, but yeah, it didn't need to be very long.

As for future projects... Appearances, originally by Melzart, will continue to be updated, hopefully around once a week. I do have a few ideas I still have to sketch out before putting up here, but I suppose FINALLY getting around to thinking about Through the Hourglass wouldn't hurt. Of course, the actual final epilogue thingy to this will be up Sunday, Jan 30, 2011 (because this story started on October 30: 10/30... 01/30... err... yeah, I'll shut up.) As for my one-shot, Come to Grips, if you've read it, you can tell it's sort of a warm-up for what this story ended up becoming. I may take it down soon, but... gah, I dunno, YOU tell me.

I thought I said I was shutting up?

~ Mardigny