Domino City, Japan

The Gunma Tenyo Housing Complex

Tenyo Townhouse 435

Monday, February 2nd

10:49 P.M.

Aglaia hadn't felt so giddy since Yohji Yamamoto and Takada Kenzo did a collaboration show in the fall of 2006.

She had spent the remainder of the evening at the mall with Yugi, Tea, Tristan, and Joey until it closed. Who knew that hamburgers and milkshakes could be so wildly entertaining?

It was like all of the times that Aglaia saw groups of friends laughing together, only this time, she was part of them. It was so strangely fantastic.

It was 10:49 and the bus stopped on her street corner. She made haste towards her family's small townhouse, squeezed in between two others, under the street lights and knocked on the door only to have it swung open in her face.

Her father looked at her in frantic anger and then took on a sort of relief.

"Aglaia, it's you. Come inside, come in quick."

"D-Daddy, what's wrong?"

"It's your brother," he informed as he hurried back into the kitchen where his wife, Kalliope, was sobbing into the phone.

"Here," he said as he took the phone out of her hands. "Yes, I'm here. . . Sorry, that was my wife. . . Yes, yes. . . He has a Japanese face with with spiked hair and dark eyes. . ." His voice faded as he walked into the room.

"Mom, what's wrong? Where's Kenichi?"

"Keni-- Keni-- Keni-- Keni--" she hiccuped, unable to form coherent words.

"Yes? What happened to Keni?"

"He's gone!!!" she shouted.

"Gone?! Where did he go?!"

"I-- I dunno! Guys in a limo came and said they were looking for him and he didn't come home and he didn't call and he's gone and I'm worr-i-i-i-ied!!!" Kalliope spewed out a long string of words and continued in slobbering all over herself.

She grabbed onto Aglaia and sobbed into her sweater.

At a very convenient moment, Aglaia heard a loud bump from the ceiling above her. She pried her mother off of her as lovingly as she could and ran upstairs.

She threw open her bedroom door-- the source of the noise-- and saw Kenichi on the floor.

Before Aglaia could say anything, Kenichi grabbed her by the collar of her sweatshirt.

"Listen, Aglaia, I don't have much time." He kept his eye on the open window and the street alley below it. "Tell Mom and Dad not to look for me. I'll come back when I can-- maybe in two or three weeks-- but I need to you try and stay in doors. They might come looking for you, and if they try to talk to you, I need you to scream and run, run as fast as you can--"

"Kenichi! What are you talking about? You're acting crazy--"

"You don't understand!" he shouted, and held his hands over his head in anguish.

"I don't understand what?"

"This! This!!" He pulled a glass case holding what looked like a deck of cards out of his jacket. "They'll kill me for this! You don't know what they'll do to me!" He began to pace hastily around the room. "This was stupid. This was so stupid!! What was I thinking?!"

"What is that? And who are "they"? I don't understand this. Kenichi! Please, calm down!"

Kenichi turned to her, shaking with desperation.

"The Kaiba Corporation! Kaiba Corp! Oh, I've heard stories about their tactics, but I never thought they'd be true! They already got Ushio, Yuki, Kimura--"

"Kaiba Corp? As in Seto Kaiba?" Aglaia's mental image went to him sitting across from her the limousine, looking as much like an icicle as a man could.

"Yes! And this is his deck! His famous deck! I'm holding his Blue Eyes White Dragons in my hands!"

"For Duel Monsters?" Aglaia's eyebrows knitted. She knew that Duel Monsters was as big-- bigger than Pokemon and Disney combined, and that Kaiba Corp specialized in such things, but she wasn't getting the idea. "I still don't understand! Kenichi! Please, please stop it."

Kenichi grabbed his sister by the shoulders and held her tight. He pulled her face up to his and stared straight into her eyes with the most terror she had ever seen.

"Keni-- you're hurting--," she plead, but he interrupted her.

"Listen to me," he whispered with slow, focussed dread. "I. Have. Seto. Kaiba's. Deck. He's looking for me, and when if finds me, he'll kill me." Kaiba? Kill? Somehow that constant look in his eyes and the idea of thug violence seemed extremely compatible.

"You have to stay here. Whatever you do, don't let them find you. Stay home from school if you have to, just stay safe."

Kenichi let go of her, and she rubbed her sore shoulders.

He mumbled something about, "I'll find somewhere," and jumped out of the window onto the fire escape.

"Wait! Kenichi!" Aglaia called out of the window when she found herself. He was already halfway down the alley.

There was a small moment in which Aglaia had time to think. Get her parents? Shout after him? Follow him? Start crying?

Thankfully, she did not choose the latter, and found herself uncharacteristically empowered with courage.

She tried to heroically leap out of the window but got the belt hinge of her jeans caught. She yanked several times, as she watched her brother turn the corner, and tore her pants pulling away.

Aglaia shuffled down the metal stairs as quickly as she could. She ran down the alley at a pace much slower than that of her brother, and the realization dawned that she could not catch him this way.

When she reached the opening into the street, Aglaia looked to her right and saw horror itself.

A black car with headlights blaring, focused on Kenichi. All around him, men in black suits. And then, Seto Kaiba himself, staring down at her brother with not a shred of mercy.

Aglaia felt the need to scream, but couldn't find her lungs within her.

She ran as quickly as she could (much faster than before, apparently) towards her brother on an impulse. The girl fell onto the ground, tearing the knees of her jeans and probably causing bleeding. She turned her head up and shouted with newfound lungs her brother's name.

Continuing when all she earned were a few turned heads, Aglaia ran again and slammed into the backs of several suited men surrounding Kenichi.

"Kenichi! Kenichi!" was all she could say. Well, more like shriek.

"What are you doing?! Run! Go back!" He waved his arms in an attempt to motivate her.

The fierce Kaiba standing over Kenichi switched his eyes toward Aglaia, but did not move another muscle.

With all of the strength she could muster, Aglaia idly pried and punched at the men around her older brother, so one did not hesitate in turning around and wrapping one of his huge hands around her neck.

Kenichi stood and shouted, only to be held back by two of the men.

Kaiba, watching this affair, nodded slightly at the man holding Aglaia, and he realeased her.

Almost falling, she held onto Kenichi, who held her the same, both equally protective.

"Leave my brother alone!" Aglaia shouted, like a demanding child.

The imposing henchmen held their circle and Kaiba only sneered onto the silence that held panting for the Greek descended two.

The Kaiba Corp. CEO held out his hand in a menacing manner and his threatening expression did not move a half an inch.

Aglaia shook her brother into realization and Kenichi pulled out the glass case from his jacket. Trembilng, he held it out to Seto who snatched in with disdain.

Frigid blue eyes turned to the glass case. A moment of analysis.

"Hmph."

Not even snapping his fingers, Seto Kaiba's goons followed him back to the car, loaded in, and were gone before the Atsukos realized it.

After the car turned to corner, Aglaia turned to her brother and finally cried.

[loosely based season 0 seto. . . he was scary.]