Chapter Five

Maybe it had been all the exertion. Even though his hand was still bandaged, Yugi hadn't been able to help trying to reach and do things with his right hand throughout the day. It hurt, a little, a dull throbbing ache that spiked into active stabs of shooting pain as if to remind him that it was entirely unhappy. It took a little while, but Yugi had finally been able to fall asleep.

In his dreaming mind's eye, he saw Kaiba's dragons again -- the little blue kitten-dragon, the protective white sapphire-eyed dragon, and the menacing, malformed, ruby-eyed dragon. In the weirdly logical way of dreams, the gemstone dragons morphed into real ones. Yugi's awareness deepened as his dreaming self watched the dull gold dragon menace the little blue one, and the white dragon interpose itself...

No. Not itself. Himself. Yugi's gift -- his psychic sense -- caught hold of the truth revealed by the gemstone dragons, somehow divining it from the emotional ether and decoding it for Yugi's benefit. A richly appointed office formed from the stuff of dreams. The dragons in his dreaming mind morphed again. In the way of dreams he was not only witnessing the actions, but feeling the emotions, of those he watched.

A small child played with his cars in his favorite place for playing with cars. This office had the best landscape upon which to play Driving On (or Off, as the whim carried him) A Cliff, Death-Drop Racers, and Long Way 'Round, since the dark desk was so massive and had such interesting knobbly little bits set into the wood. He enjoyed his play, but a taut sort of awareness seeped into his every motion. A deep, rumbling voice alerted him that Father was home. Father would be highly upset to find him here, for Father did not want him in his office. Father didn't understand the lure of his desk for the games the lonely young boy was forced to play, as his older brother was always so busy studying that he couldn't play with him anymore. The child, newly five years old, gathered his cars swiftly, shoving them into his pockets and prepared to dart from the office before he was discovered. He didn't mean to disobey Father, it was just...

His new car--the one big brother had given him on his birthday just six days ago! Where was it? He had to find it! Frantically, he retraced his steps and actions in the forbidden office, but still could not find his favorite car. He had to get out before...!

Too late! The door opened and Father's form filled the entire doorway. Cold, grey eyes flashed fury at the child.

"I told you what would happen if you disobeyed me again, Mokuba," Father said in a soft, low tone. Mokuba shook. When Father talked so softly, it meant he was very angry.

"I-I'm sorry, Father! I won't do it again! I promise!" Mokuba's voice diminished to a terrified whisper as Father stepped closer. Father undid the buttons holding his suit jacket closed. With a terrible sort of slowness he undid the buckle and deliberately slid the stout leather length of his belt through the belt loops of his trousers.

"No, Father, no! Please, don't!" Mokuba whimpered.

Father smiled. It wasn't a pleasant smile at all. In fact, it was a very evil smile.

"I do not tolerate disobedience, Mokuba. You know that."

"No! No! No!" Mokuba found his voice in his panic as the first lash of the Belt struck against his legs. He scrunched his eyes up in terror and pain as the Belt retreated, before darting forward again. Somehow, in his terrified mind, the Belt had become his Father; his Father, the Belt. Whatever it was -- furious, powerful man, or strangely living evil instrument of torment -- he desperately wanted it to leave him alone.

"SETO!" His terror had unlocked his voice.

A crashing noise made him open his eyes and look. Seto was there between himself and Father, the awful Belt rendered powerless and dead in his big brother's hands.

Yugi's gift pulsed. No longer was he a terrified little boy, frightened by a lumbering bully of a man and the threat of a beating. Instead he was filled with a fierce, protective urge that would willingly kill anything that hurt his little brother. This urge was so overwhelming that it sought to drown his reason. He fought to channel it, to control it. If his emotions ever overcame his reason, he was afraid of what he might be capable of doing.

"Never again," Seto said in a low, deadly voice. "Do whatever you want to me, but never again do you lift even a single finger against Mokuba!"

Father hauled himself to his feet from where Seto had shoved him to the floor. He wiped a trickle of blood from his nose while his eyes shot daggers of cold poison at his oldest, adopted son. "Very well, boy. You will regret those words, I promise you!"

On those ominous words, the image froze and the point of view shifted a final time. The little boy, five years old, crouched upon the floor, but, bolstered by his big brother's presence, he glared up at the man with pure defiance. The older boy, Yugi "knew" he was fifteen, bore a weary expression of resignation upon his face. He was slight, compared to the menacing bulk of the angry man, but resolved to pit every fiber of his being and every erg of his will against that angry man to protect his younger brother.

The man's expression made Yugi shiver. Under the menace, hatred, and pure evil -- it was blank. There was nothing there at all. Every vile thing he was writhed on the surface. Inside the man, there was only emptiness.

The images morphed, becoming the gemstone dragons of the display case in Kaiba's dragon room, once more. Yugi had a quick psychic impression of the stoic endurance of torment, both physical and emotional, that Seto had accepted to protect his younger brother. A furtiveness attending to those feelings let him know that Seto and his 'Father', Gozaburo, had kept their feud with each other out of Mokuba's sight. Gozaburo wouldn't have cared, Yugi realized. That must have been Seto's idea, to protect his brother from knowing that Gozaburo was torturing him in Mokuba's place. Yugi shook his head, which broke the psychic dream, and woke him up.

He slipped out of the bed, walked to the desk, and poured a cup of water. Mokuba had known. He was too observant a child to not know. But the fact that Seto had tried to keep it away from him meant more to him than the knowledge, and he never let on. Yugi nodded to himself. Kaiba's actions did save Mokuba. He could sense it. But, what effect did they have on Seto? Kaiba's fierce protectiveness of his little brother was born of love, Yugi had sensed that, but in the name of that love, what was Kaiba capable of doing? He shivered.