Snatcher
A Kaiba brother's story, typical me, hehehe. Had this story on my mind for quite a long time and decided to finally write it up.
What starts as a virus, or so they thought, turns into something much more. Mokuba starts seeing changes in Seto, is he just imagining it or is something wrong really happening? Kaiba brother's fic.
The younger boy flopped down on his bed in a personal huff. He picked up a pillow for a moment and covered his face with it, not feeling like he wanted to see anything.
What's with Seto? The boy thought to himself, closing his eyes even though he had the pillow on top of his face. He should know that I'd be more than willing to help him out if he's that stuck and is that short pushed for time. I think it possibly doesn't exist though..... I mean, hello! My brother is like the biggest computer whiz in the world, if he can't find it then who honestly is going to find it? Plus if it's just a little virus then why did he get so stressed at me about it? It's got nothing to do with me, not my fault.... Great..... He's most likely going to be annoyed at me for ages now and I'm not going to spend any time with him because I'm in the way and he needs to get rid of whatever he's thinking the systems got.
BING BING!
The boy lifted the pillow slowly off his face, then showing the confusion on his face. Yes, he knew what the sound was but something wasn't right..... He sat up and immediately looked over at his desk on the other side of his bedroom, where his permanently opened up laptop was.
"I... Didn't leave you on....." He muttered in confusion. "I've been out all day.... At school and then went in Seto's office the moment I got in."
He finally frowned and pushed himself up off the massive double bed. On closer inspection he noticed his laptop was also on the internet and he had supposedly signed into his email account and messenger. It shouldn't do that........ The boy slowly sat down in his chair, unsure of what to think of all of this. Had someone been in his bedroom without permission? Seto will kill them.
"What's this.....?" He questioned to nobody in particular as he observed the screen on his laptop. It showed the page listing all his emails and saw one highlighted, indicating that he had a new email. He looked closer and saw that the sender was 'Unknown'....... But the subject part said the word 'Sorry'. Possibly junk mail? The boy frowned, he didn't want any viruses on his laptop, his email account must've accidently not put it in the junk mail folder. He checked the box next to the email and clicked on the button named 'Delete', that should fix that......
"What the hell?" He gasped, continuing to stare at the screen in wonder. The email that he'd just clicked on to go was still there, it didn't delete because? He continued to repeat his action of trying to delete the email but didn't get very far. After further more attempts he let out an over exaggerated sigh, seemed to be his day for bad luck. He clicked on the right button on his laptop and scanned the email with his anti-virus and saw that it was clean, from what it knew. Curiosity had now gotten the better of the young boy and he was intrigued on what the email had to say. After sitting there for a few moments considering everything he finally clicked on the link to open the email. Eyes darting through the message and he frowned a little after a bit.
Mokuba,
It's Seto. Sorry I came down on you so hard, love you really, Mokie. I was being stupid, there's no virus, all in my mind.
Xxxxxx
Seto
Usually most people would see that as a good thing and that meant that they could make amends of what had happened with the other person. But all it did was make Mokuba feel suspicious and didn't trust the email at all. Why? Because it didn't sound like Seto at all. Seto....... Sorry? Sure he had been sorry before but not usually worded this way. Love you really......... Was that sentence even in his big brother's vocabulary? Seto never said things like love, showed weakness in his eyes. Also he wouldn't ever, EVER, call himself stupid. Seto Kaiba would never call himself stupid or use words on himself that was short from perfect, he saw himself as perfection and everything that he did was top notch. And when Seto was certain of something...... He was really certain of something. Meaning he wouldn't say that the virus was all in his mind, basically saying he was acting paranoid, especially from the way he had a go at him just a good few moments ago. Plus Seto wouldn't block his email address to him, there was no reason for him to do that when Mokuba knew his email address already.
"Master Mokuba, dinner!" Yelled a certain member of staff to alert him.
Mokuba just frowned at the laptop and shut the whole thing down, even double checking that it had totally gone off. Best to most likely forget that email, couldn't be from Seto himself. Could just be some kind of joke from one of his friends or something....... But then again how would anyone else know about his recent fight with Seto?
"Hey Mokuba." The tall brown haired teen greeted as Mokuba walked into the dining room.
Mokuba looked a little surprised at first, wasn't expecting his older brother to be here. Seto doesn't usually have dinner with him, well very often, because he was always busy. "Seto?"
"Look, I'm sorry for snapping at you early." Seto replied softly and waited expectantly for Mokuba to sit down at his end of the table. "I've just been..... Really stressed recently."
Mokuba nodded plainly and sat down in his usual seat, at the very other end from Seto. "You're apologising again?" Mokuba raised his eyebrow, testing to see whether Seto knew anything about that email he got.
"Hmm?" Seto frowned, pulling a seriously confused face. "What are you talking about, Mokuba?"
That answered Mokuba's question immediately, he knew Seto wouldn't look so confused if he had been the one that sent it. "..... Oh....... Nothing...." He finally muttered as their food was placed in front of them.
Seto gave out an intense frown from what Mokuba had just said. Was there something Mokuba wasn't telling him? He definitely got that feeling from him. "Am I missing something, Mokuba?" He questioned, raising a curious eyebrow.
"It's nothing, Seto. Really." Mokuba lied and did his best attempt of looking truthful in what he was saying.
"If you say so........" Seto replied, still with a frown on his face, not totally believing him.
After a few minutes of eating their dinner in absolute silence Mokuba decided to speak up. "Managed to get away from work then?" Mokuba asked, trying to hold back his bitterness. He lost count of how many times he'd asked Seto to put the laptop down and just take an hour out to eat or do something with him. He always got the same reply and bundle of excuses every single time, no and why didn't he understand how important the companies work was. Mokuba got very sick of hearing this; didn't he matter as much as the company then? 2nd place? He often got very lonely. Seto was the only family he had, so when he didn't get to see him he was most often alone, which was extremely often. And if he ever tried pushing, sometimes just regular asking, for Seto to spend more time with him it most of the time ended in rows and not happening. Seto would use his short fused temper and tell him to go away if he was seriously working on something, which was most of the time. Mokuba had no idea whether Seto ever felt guilty after shouting or whatever but Mokuba wasn't going to hold his breath on whether he actually does; Seto doesn't like to feel most things.
"Just thought it would be good for us to eat together for once." Seto replied simply.
"Yea, it is for once." Mokuba muttered under his breath.
"What was that?" Seto questioned in an accusing voice.
"Nothing." Mokuba sighed and continued with eating his dinner. Why was Seto here? Mokuba hasn't had dinner with his older brother for at least a few months, had been saying he was too busy. If Mokuba didn't see him in the office he often didn't see much of him at all. So why has he bothered with today? Especially after getting so uppity over what he thought was a computer virus, shouldn't he be off trying to inspect some more?
"I was thinking........" Seto started but finished a mouthful first before continuing. "How about we go and do Duel Monsters practice? You and me."
Mokuba just looked totally surprised and caught off guard; he and Seto haven't done anything like that in ages. Mokuba would work the controls while Seto faced the computer system in a game of Duel Monsters. Mokuba used to give suggestions and opinions on the match to Seto so Seto could improve his game and better the system.
"Assuming that you've done all your homework." Seto added, but already knew that his little brother most likely had already done all his homework. He was very proud of Mokuba's grades and intelligence, like himself Mokuba was much more than just average.
"Sure......." Mokuba finally spluttered. "But...... Don't you have work to do?"
"I do but it can wait."
Mokuba raised his eyebrows for a second; this was totally something new to him. Seto had been working nonstop after the Doom incident, trying to raise the company's stats again. He barely left the office and hadn't entered a tournament or really trained for Duel Monsters much since. Which did mean that Mokuba hadn't seen Seto so much. He used to go on the trips with Seto, train with him and help do small tasks for the company but he hasn't done that in quite a while.
"I have been doing a bit of training on my own, in the virtual chambers, but wanted to try in the old computer rooms against the computer system. Plus wanted you to see the training, see whether I need to alter anything in my deck and see whether there are any new strategies. New cards are being created all the time, possibly some new cards could work well with my current ones." Seto continued to explain.
Mokuba nodded, listening to what Seto had to say. He also took that as Seto's quirky little extra way of being sorry for earlier and he must actually be feeling guilty. Plus he must want to spend time with him but decided to chat in reasoning form, make it still sound like work. "I thought you didn't ever want to use the virtual chambers anymore....... After the Big Five and Noa." Mokuba questioned, not understanding why Seto would want to train in those things again. Two times he almost got himself trapped in virtual worlds, why train in there when he could just do regular real training?
"I want to go back into playing Duel Monsters again, not just working in the company." Seto replied and explained with a serious face. "Especially since I'm the best. I wanted to train in private, without others knowing of this and the public hearing about it, and the virtual chambers were the only place I could do that. Since training in the virtual chambers I've been superiorly better, suddenly knowing certain ways of duelling that I've never used before."
Mokuba didn't feel so certain though, something about the virtual chambers didn't feel right, especially after having all the bad times before. Plus Seto doesn't usually ever change his duelling styles and takes forever to learn new fresh ways of duelling, that no one else uses. Things definitely feel weird here..... "Ok....... I'll control the machines...." Mokuba finally muttered, biting his lip on saying his concerns. He knew if he said something it would most likely cause another row and he didn't want any more of that today.
Seto just replied with a basic smile at Mokuba, and he only gives Mokuba any kind of smile. He resumed eating and just watched Mokuba also eat for the remainder of the dinner, in silence.
"Alright! It's ready to go, Seto!" Mokuba yelled down from the control station to his brother, who was standing in the duel arena against the machine. He put the skill level up to maximum, as his brother had asked before they'd started.
Seto nodded back up at Mokuba and turned to stare straight at the machine. As soon as the machine was started up though it all of a sudden let off a few electric bolts, like it short circuited. Seto lifted his arm out in front of himself in an attempt to self defence from it.
"Seto!? Are you alright?!" Mokuba called down with concern.
"Yea......" Seto grunted in annoyance. "What's wrong with this thing? I had a team check on it just a couple of days ago......."
The machine wasn't off though; it automatically jumped back into starting a duel, without being told. Jerking and still letting off a few electric sparks. Mokuba and Seto both looked genuinely surprised when it proceeded to throw all the rules out of the window and served out some of the hardest cards ever. It was making it so it wasn't even really duel; it could use any card in the world and not following any regulations.
Seto didn't even turn on his duel disk but yet the machine still continued..... And the duel monsters still proceeded to step forward towards him in a threatening way. For once, Seto looked absolutely petrified and realised the seriousness of the danger he was in. But then again....... They were just holograms..... Right? Seto didn't want a chance to find out.
"Turn it off!" Seto yelled up at Mokuba.
"I'm trying!" Mokuba cried back in panic, trying any button that could come to mind that makes the thing turn off. "It won't go off! It's like its jammed or something!"
Seto turned and tried to open the door to the small arena but wasn't getting very far because it seemed to be acting like it's locked. Why is everything acting short circuited or like it's got an error?
Mokuba let out a frustrated sigh, why wasn't anything working? It should just turn off. He peered over the control panel to look at Seto and saw the Duel Monsters were getting closer to him and that the door wasn't opening. He was about to try and repress buttons when he noticed the main power cable and pulling it out suddenly crossed his mind. He didn't even think twice and just tugged it out of the wall, all of the lighting immediately turning off.
"Mokuba!" He heard his brother suddenly calling out to him from the darkness. "Are you alright?!"
"Yes, Seto! Had to cut everything!" Mokuba called back, finally relaxing now the havoc had ended. He was now standing in total darkness, unable to see a thing. Mokuba decided to just stand still and not move, could get lost or run into something. After a minute though he jumped when he suddenly felt a pair of long arms wrap around him and soon realised the touch was his brother hugging him protectively........
Hope you enjoyed the next instalment.
Thank you for the views and reviews and hope they keep coming. And thank you for any and all suggestions given. The first chapter was more rushed and have had a hard time fitting in time for writing due to all my recent work load and make silly errors. This chapter is quite longer and hope you enjoy it. Love suspense, keeps you on the edge, lol.
