The original French story belongs to Melzart, and the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise belongs to Kazuki Takahashi.

Chapter 22

A Very Simple Proposition

"Just call her."

Mokuba had already been back for half an hour, and had already told his older sibling about his 'adventure'. He still hadn't admitted that he was taking courses of self-defense. But he was tired of seeing Seto pacing between the hall and the salon, stopping at a window every now and again to try to see if he could see the lights of the Jaguar brightening in the mansion's driveway.

Naomi had been gone for almost two hours. Which frustrated him.

But he had insisted that he leave her be, to not follow her, to not even plant a bug somewhere on her, which he was now regretting.

He didn't respond right away to Mokuba's request, who himself seemed slightly amused.

"Agh! Seto! Just call her. Then you'll know everything's okay."

"No!"

To call her would be a sign of weakness, a mark of his dependence. Worse, to take back his own word. He couldn't force himself to do that.

"You're right, though. There's nothing to worry about. She's just in the middle of doing some shopping," Mokuba told him generously, who, knowing his brother well, had immediately understood that it would be difficult for him to ignore his persisting sense of worry. "She's scouring the entire city for something… or maybe… I don't know, some weirdo's trying to drag her into his car…"

Grr… Naomi? What are you doing?

What if she had gone, without warning and without any suitcases?

No. He was of the opinion that she wouldn't desert him using his own car. She was too respectful of others' well being to borrow something for such a purpose.

"Seto!" Mokuba almost shouted now, standing to stand directly in front of his brother. "Stop turning in circles, it's bothering me!"

"I am not turning in – "

"Okay, fine, geometrically, it's more like an oval – long and stretched out given the distance you're going – than a circle, but still!"

"Ugh. I'm compensating for the exercise I don't normally get. I need to walk a bit, stretch my legs out."

Pathetic. Both to the ear and to his seriously insulted sense of logic.

But Mokuba was right.

It was stupid. Dialing a telephone number was child's play. However… he still couldn't bring himself to do it.

Okay.

He placed his hand on the telephone.

Phew! About time, Mokuba thought, still watching him closely.

But his happy expression fell away when he saw him pull his hand back away from the phone and look out the window to search for her once more.

Gah, he can be so stubborn… luckily things aren't this complicated with Samantha. Otherwise… geez…

Which made him smile timidly, a smile he then hurried to conceal.

"Ugh! Seto!"

Unable to take it any longer, Mokuba proved to be the more mature of the two in that moment when he grasped the phone in his own hands.

"What are you doing?" Seto asked sharply.

"I'm doing what you should be doing!"

Kaiba threw him a grimace.

"Put down that phone, Moki."

"No!"

"Mokuba!"

"No! Be as forceful as you want, I'm not letting go of this phone!"

"Grr!"

Kaiba began to run towards him to tear the phone from his hands, but Mokuba had been too speedy in punching the number into the keypad.

The line was already ringing on the other side.

Somehow or another, she knew when she answered who was calling her, given the brouhaha going on in full force on the other side of the line.

"Damn," Kaiba whispered.

After having reunited with her colleagues at the gym, she had decided to do some shopping. She was already on her way back when the car phone began to ring.

Hey…

But she wasn't annoyed. To be honest, she felt happy to be alone in the car, because nobody could see the small smile that lit her face.

"Hello?"

"Er… hi, Nao!" Mokuba said loudly, having stopped the fighting with his brother over possession of the phone.

Kaiba had taken a step backwards when he realized that he had lost the fight.

Grr… you'll pay me back for that, Moki…

The storm in his eyes warned Mokuba of the war to come.

But in truth, he was very happy for having taken the initiative.

Out of habit, Naomi took a quick glance in the rearview mirror, then straightened it slightly.

"Hey, Moki," she responded with a lack of enthusiasm.

"Er… yeah… Seto was won- "

But he suddenly felt himself be on the receiving end of a small kick in the shin, which didn't deter him.

"We were wondering," he corrected himself after looking at Kaiba again, "how long you were going to be out. Everything okay?"

He rapidly straightened, not daring to say anything further, but instead quickly put the phone on speaker so that Kaiba could hear the entire conversation perfectly clearly, and vice versa.

He had turned around back towards the window again, slightly annoyed with the banal situation and Mokuba's insistence in messing in what was supposed to be his own business.

"Yeah. Yeah, thanks," she responded as she came to a stop at a light on her way to the bank. "Er… no, I think I'll be – "

But she suddenly stopped the conversation clean when an another vehicle nearly hit her when it sped through its own red light.

The sound of tires squealing on pavement made Kaiba jump, and, sensing the immediate danger, muttered very quietly without turning around:

"Where is she? Ask her where she is!"

"Asshole!" he heard her yell at the other driver.

The window of Naomi's car being open, Kaiba could clearly hear what sounded like a retort in Naomi's direction, which put him on edge and made him deeply regret not being there. He would have smashed the other man's skull with pleasure.

Despite it all, he was ready to leave at the slightest sign of any real disturbance.

"Nao!" Mokuba cried, also worried.

"Hunh?"

For a second she had almost forgotten that she had a damn telephone on one ear.

"No. It's good, I'm okay. Just an idiot who didn't stop when he should have, that's all. It's just…. nah, I'm okay. Don't worry, Seto, he didn't do any damage to the car."

Grr… like I give a damn about the car right now.

Kaiba still breathed a sigh of relief.

But worst of all, she knew that two brothers were listening. She knew that Seto was listening.

"Oh, by the way, Seto, I love your Jaguar!"

He still didn't respond, a very nostalgic grin on his face, still refusing to show the slightest interest. But he was happy that it pleased her.

"So…" Mokuba began again, "when will you be back?"

Naomi sighed gently, with a somewhat mocking tone.

Seriously? Does he still think I'm at the mansion?

But Kaiba wasn't smiling.

"Well… for a little while longer, I think I've still got some more shopping to do… so don't worry, just have dinner without me, okay?"

No, Kaiba was not smiling at all. Wasn't she beyond his grasp?

"Er… okay," Mokuba said. "See you later, okay?"

Again, Naomi glanced quickly in the rearview mirror. Except this time, her attention was soon won by a black limousine which, for a moment, seemed to be following her.

Grr. Kaiba…

A hesitation in responding procured a new apprehension in Kaiba's bosom. He could have sworn that something was bothering her.

That can't be right. If he's following me, why would he be asking me where I am and when I'd be back?

Hm. Maybe it really is anxiety and he just has to know every move I make. Probably. They'd go hand in hand.

But how did that explain the alarm bells that were suddenly ringing in her head?

"I…" she began again before falling silent.

Grr…tell me where you are, Naomi. I'll be there right away…

"I'm gonna go now, okay?"

Her voice had betrayed her, at least to Kaiba, who easily picked up what sounded like a tone of annoyance. He was again thrown into a state of the worst kind of torment.

No. No… this isn't good… what's wrong? Say something, Naomi.

"I'm just gonna do some shopping and then come back, don't worry," she assured them, eyes trained on the car behind her. "Talk to you later!"

Then she hung up.

Even from this far away should could sense Kaiba's emotions erring wildly, which wasn't exactly reassuring. She just decided to end the conversation.

Kaiba sighed, loudly.

What had she seen, or believed she had seen, that could have broken her concentration like that?

. . . . . . . . .

Wanting to squelch her apprehension, she deliberately chose to park on the side of the road. The limousine then mirrored the action, which was disturbing and confirmed what her intuition had said.

Then, with even more audacity, she got out of the car to find out who was so eager to follow her like this.

She approached the driver's side window, which was soon lowering.

"Is something wrong, ma'am?" he asked, courteously.

She had never seen him before. Never in Kaiba's immediate entourage. And this limousine did not belong to them, she was certain.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing," she dared to tell him.

"Excuse me?"

"I don't know if you were planning on coming home with me, but if you have something to tell me, now's the time."

He was going to protest, lie pointedly as per quid pro quo. But as he had received an order, he decided to end this now.

"I believe you are mistaken, ma'am."

The window then rolled back into place, and the vehicle began to move forward.

"Hm…" she grumbled thoughtfully as she watched the car vanish into traffic.

Fishy. This was all very odd.

No, she really didn't appreciate her damned intuition right now.

So she climbed back into Kaiba's Jaguar to get back on her way.

. . . . . . . . .

"So are you satisfied?"

Kaiba didn't respond.

Something in Naomi's voice indicated a hint of something evidently bothersome. Miniscule, maybe. But real.

And he wasn't there.

I never should have let her leave the house…. gah, but how could I have stopped her? This is absurd…

"Seto! Hello? Hello! This is the moon, do you copy, Houston?"

"Hunh?"

Kaiba, somewhat disobligingly, came out of his torpor.

"Yeah, I am," he assured him.

"So can we eat now?"

He seemed to be absent, a fact which Mokuba noticed and was beginning to think was a bit much. He had personally heard that everything was fine. So why was he so worried?

"Er…yeah, Moki… go ahead. I'll wait a little while."

"…okay…"

He didn't wait any longer before rushing to the kitchen as Seto used his most penetrating stare to look through the window onto the property below.

. . . . . . . . .

She was stunned.

What was supposed to have been a simple bank visit was turning into a wild goose chase as she scoured the bank, looking for whoever was in charge.

"Ah! Mrs. Déziel!" he cried when she found him, welcoming her arrival with the greatest of smiles. "Please, sit down."

Which she did, even though her cheeks were red. This wouldn't take her very long, hopefully.

"What is the meaning of this?"

"Of what, ma'am?"

She wasn't taking any chances, although she probably didn't need any to do this.

"If you look in my account, you'll find that a deposit equivalent to over fifty thousand U.S. dollars was made…. which I had no idea about. Could you explain this to me?"

He coughed a little, visibly impressed by the amount of money involved.

"Er… yes, I see."

"What do you see?" she cut him off vigorously.

The anger was spreading through her entire body.

She just wasn't trembling, yet.

"It's just… I can see the money, ma'am. But.. what would you like to know that you don't already?"

"What? Okay, let me try this again. I don't think you understood what I asked of you. At least try to read my lips: WHERE DID THIS MONEY COME FROM, AND WHY THE HELL WAS I NEVER INFORMED? You get it now?"

How was he going to tell her that he honestly had no clue where it all came from or how it could have happened?

She decided to try to calm down; nothing was won by anger alone.

"Alright. What I mean is, it has to be a mistake… and – "

He interrupted her, warmly.

"Oh no, it's not a mistake. It was specifically placed in your account, under your name."

Naomi shivered, albeit inconsiderably. She had to stop herself from digging her fingernails into the wood of his desk.

"Where did it come from?"

"It was an anonymous donor."

Grr… an anonymous donor? Is he trying to make fun of me?

"Excuse me?"

"I assure you that I'm telling you the truth – I have absolutely no idea who – "

"Do I look like Queen Elizabeth or something to you?" she hissed aggressively.

She was more than irritated, as he could tell by the look on her face and the vibe pouring off of her.

"I'm terribly sorry, ma'am," he said again. "But you can even look at the screen, if you want. I have absolutely no idea of the name of the person who would give you such a sum of money."

So why do I have an idea as to who? GAH!

"So are you telling me that anyone can enter my bank account without my permission?"

"Er… not quite. Somebody can make a deposit. That's public domain. But the good news is that nobody other than you can access your account to make a withdrawal."

"Oh, that sounds so nice."

Again, she sighed loudly.

"Fine. Could you at least tell me where it came from?"

"Er…"

"Europe? North America?"

"Oh. Er, Japan," he said resolutely, seemingly proud of himself for finally answering one of her questions.

I am going to fucking KILL him!

"The date? When was the transaction?"

He looked at the screen briefly.

"Er… it says here that it was on this past December twenty-third."

She had still been having trouble with her wounds at the time. She remembered that quite clearly. Even if she had struggled to hide it all behind powders and foundation.

She stood up without warning.

"Thank you. That will be all."

He tried to prevent her from leaving.

"Oh, wait, ma'am! Would you perhaps be interested in some of our off- "

"Ha! Are you trying to make a fool of me? You let anyone walk in and out of people's bank accounts and you think I'm trusting a bank like that?"

His chin raised, his mind full of excuses.

"I only know that it was most likely a transaction not made at this exact bank, manually. It was most likely done via phone."

Who the fuck cares how.

She already knew who did it.

And the anger was leaving her fuming.

"Kaiba…"

That was it. The truth left her shaking from the inside out. If he were indeed a being born on earth, and not descended from the skies, he would have to learn to fear Naomi's reaction.

"Fine."

Then he would have put down the phone to plunge right back into the work he was doing on his laptop.

She was more than angry. She felt the feeling down to the crux of her stomach. He should see this coming – you can't make an omelet without breaking a couple of eggs.

. . . . . . . . .

But he wasn't about to joke about the future battle between them. He was inclined to do so by the simple desire to compensate her a little for all of the pain she had suffered in his name.

It had been a long time since he had made the decision – almost two months. At the time, it was supposed to be a present. But he had then got around to thinking about the use of it as a payment for the incident. And now that was what he pushed to believe. Again, he remembered being stopped from putting in any more than that amount, as to him, his brother's life was priceless.

He had done it purposefully, knowing well in advance the reaction that she would likely have. He'd just have to plead guilty.

But his action left behind no second thoughts. Which he hoped that she would understand, despite it all.

The shopping séance was to be expected, and might be delayed later if she didn't do it now; yet there were much better points to be raised at the moment.

Why? Why did he allow himself to do this?

He hadn't even the decency to get her to slip in a word concerning her opinion.

It was an grave insult, a blow to her private life.

Even if she had wished to find another man guilty, nobody could possibly have been as 'available' as Seto Kaiba.

Even if he, quite simply, hadn't the right.

The car's headlights lit up the front of the mansion as the Jaguar approached the entrance, which indicated to Kaiba that at any moment it was quite possible to hear the door open and then slam violently several seconds later. Even though he secretly wished that it was to sound like nothing quite as unpleasant.

. . . . . . . . .

Despite her anger and perfectly conscious that this house did not belong to her, she managed to keep sufficiently calm to head towards Kaiba's office. Remarkably, she broke nothing in her path.

"Hey, Naomi, have fun?"

Mokuba had rushed out of nowhere, wanting to let her know just how badly Seto had been worrying during her absence.

"It's about time you got back 'cause – "

"Not now, Moki," she told him dismissively, disconcerting the young man as he watched her walk away, wanting to understand what could have happened to make her mood do a one-eighty.

But something told him that it had something directly to do with his brother.

She didn't bother knocking, whacking open the door with a bang!

But Kaiba didn't seem terribly impressed. After all, he was used to dealing with everybody else's bad moods at the office.

He didn't confess that it could be slightly more difficult in Naomi's case as he sat unflinching before the threatening tornado which had just violently entered the room.

"Have a good time?" he asked without raising his eyes.

She growled.

Before he could blink she was standing in front of his desk, arms crossed tightly.

If he were to look at her, he was sure that he would see a cloud of smoke steaming out of her ears.

"What the hell are you playing at?"

No response. Kaiba kept a disarming calm. Apparently he had nothing he felt that he had to apologize for.

"Take back the money, Seto!"

It was an order, and although he showed nothing, he was quite irritated.

"No."

He then suddenly stood to his full height, his blue eyes meeting Naomi's directly. She didn't budge.

"You think this is funny?"

"Of course not."

"You owe me an explanation, don't you think?"

Grr… why does everything always have to be so complicated…

Since when was Kaiba obligated to explain himself? Ever since he forgot he was dealing with her.

"That's alright, I just have a simple proposal to make to you," he said, easily taking control of the conversation.

He was about to do what he knew best: talk business.

"Don't change the subject. First explain to me why you put that money in my account and why the hell you thought you had any right to!"

"It's just compensation, Naomi. Don't worry about it. I had no ulterior motives for doing so."

"What? It's COMPENSATION? Why?"

This time he turned away slightly so that she couldn't perceive the trouble that he went through to talk about that horrible time.

"For all of the time that you couldn't meet your contract at the hotel with your concerts, the revenue you couldn't get when you were – "

He stopped himself briefly.

When I was… injured?

It was maybe at that exact instant that she realized how badly those events had hit him – him.

"… convalescent."

He seemed pensive, lost in thought now, and although this occurred for only several seconds, Naomi understood that the incident was still taking its toll on him.

He almost grit his teeth.

Seto… I didn't think that…

It had to be that very thought which was keeping him silent.

He felt responsible. And now she just understood just how much he felt so.

"Seto…" she said, putting a hand on his arm as if to guide him back to reality. "It's not your fault."

Nothing. He was still suffering.

"I think it's alright to compensate you for the loss of salary that you accumulated during that period. That's why I did it. The only reason."

She sighed.

He only had the best intentions on the inside, purely harmless.

"Seto… I don't want to get into an argument with you. But I want you to take back that money."

He then took her into his arms.

"Well then, don't argue with me, Naomi…."

You'd just lose anyway.

She wanted to free herself from his grasp, but he held her even more firmly, careful to not hurt her in the process.

"… so, no, I won't take it back."

"Ugh, I hate it when you – "

"Have I already told you how beautiful you are when you're angry?..."

She had no idea how to respond to that.

But he pushed her a bit more closely towards his body.

"…and what it does to me?..."

Grr… why does he always have to –

Disarmed. She had to fight against her own urges now, fight to resist him at any price. But the frank look on his face, those superbly polar blue eyes, conquered her every time.

If she tried to move a muscle, she'd collapse into his arms.

"Take it back, Seto," she said, turning her head away so that she gave him no indication of her own desire to kiss him ardently.

He stood absolutely firm, his mouth looking for her lower neck.

"No."

She exhaled.

"Fine. So you'd have no problem with me giving it to others who are more deserving of it than I am?"

Grr… so stubborn… yes, I'd have a problem with that.

"I have a better idea," he said, separating from her. "It concerns the proposition that I mentioned when you first walked in."

A proposition? What is he going to force out of me now?

Naomi stared at him.

"With the money, I propose that you buy a solid amount of KaibaCorp stock."

Her mouth hung open, eyes wide, her face clearly showing her stupor.

Kaiba had to prevent himself from bursting out laughing at the almost comical expression that had swept across her face.

But he had even thought it funny before he said anything – he had foreseen her reaction.

"What?"

"It's simple," he continued. "In a few days' time a new contract will come into effect, augmenting my company's profits…. we're absorbing another business, and – "

What the hell does that have to do with me?

" – and it will bring a nearly fifty dollar increase in the price of shares already on the market. Which of course means that this would be the ideal time for you to invest and enjoy massive returns."

She shook her head, simply uncomprehending.

"Seto, you didn't listen to me. I don't want money. So why would I go about trying to make a profit?"

More deeply ingrained in his reasoning, which was apparently not being clearly understood, he continued:

"You should, because as you love giving to others so much, why not wait and fructify what you have first? Afterwards you can do as you wish with it."

In reality it was already done. He had already bought her some of the shares under his name. It would come back to her in some way or another, even if she dispensed of his first payment – she would still have small shares in the company.

Didn't he want the business to stay in the family?

"I'll let you think about it, and if you should agree, I'll make the required transactions."

This is all so weird… why do I feel like he's trying to trick me? You know he's not doing it for some bad reason… he's a businessman. Remember?

But it was true that until she gave the money away, like to the orphanage ever present in her thoughts, the threat of wanting to profit from the situation still remained.

How could she walk out of the room now?

By warning him that he had won for now, but this was the last time she'd let him meddle in her affairs?

Grr…

. . . . . . . . .

"So… from what I can tell… he's still alive?" said the tall man as he bent nonchalantly over the half-knelt body of another man in chains, an animal ready for slaughter.

Kaiba had secretly kept the habit of coming back to the warehouse to check upon how his prisoner was doing.

Anybody else would have had a strand of pity the man, who has half-dead by now; his fists were bloody, maimed mostly by the iron wristbands he had fought against more than once to liberate himself from. And all over his body he could see burn marks and bruises, ignoring the numerous cuts due certainly to the sharp blades, those that shear skin like razors.

And on his face, which Kaiba could barely recognize, evidence of an almost daily punishment deformed his features, extremely worn from the long hours he spent awake.

But what seemed to be the cruelest thing of all was the drug injected into him which made him keep living his miserable existence and gave him all the appearances of being a zombie, a zombie which could no longer cause any harm.

Anybody else would have done practically anything to stop all of the inhumane torture.

But Kaiba felt that even pity – as pathetic as it was – was unjustifiable before this vermin.

It had been this very man who had taken so much pleasure in torturing Naomi several months ago.

It would be this very man who would never see the clemency of Seto Kaiba.

Disgust smeared across his lips every single time. As much in the not-so-long-ago past as at present, when he was once again before his eyes.

In one fashion or another, no amount of suffering could ever be enough for this guy. Not after what he had done.

And now Kaiba was keeping him alive. Without any pity. Like a guinea pig for science, a laboratory rat cut in half and then purposefully sewed back into one.

But he had stopped the physical abuse of slapping him a while ago, realizing that dirtying his hands on the monster wasn't worth it.

Only Kaiba hadn't yet decided upon his final fate. Or, rather, the right moment to make him disappear entirely. He simply couldn't reduce himself to the quick route, over at a snap of the fingers.

But he still had time. His entire life to chastise him, to make him bitterly regret - in the world's cruelest way - an action he never should have even imagined doing.

Look at your bitch now, Kaiba, I made a beauty out of her. Like it?

If Kaiba were to surprise himself for one instant by wanting to lessen the prisoner's pain, it wasn't long before he was revolted with himself, his eyes seeing the man's bloody hands holding Naomi in his arms in the fucking hangar where he had happily violated her. So nothing was important but his own personal vengeance.

And it was simply a turn of events.

If you want to die, I will leave you alive…. and if you wish to live… I will do my best to make you suffer even more.

It really did stink in this room; a mixture forged out of blood, vomit, and chemicals altered the ambient air.

Kaiba looked at him one more time before turning on his heels, a look of unending spite and contempt.

He never would have previously thought himself capable of such hatred.