MythCreatorWriter: So you want to know how I didn't proof read all my stories for so many years? Laziness, pure laziness. I am THAT lazy. And also excitement. When I finished a chapter, I want to post it immediately because, well, it makes you feel like the chapter is officially done, and reviews are exciting, almost a sexually arousing process for me(not really, hahaha, but it can be for some authors, am I right?) I did it again for this chapter… which was kind of hell… not going to lie, just because I really didn't like this chapter. Actually that one part with the Mokuba and his hair thing was kind of a funny scene for me to write. See, Gozaburo has been so violent in the past and tends to lash out about the most random things, especially when its Mokuba's doing. So when I started writing out that scene I was like "CRAP! I have to do something before this kid gets beaten!" So that whole Seto thing was literally thrown in there to prevent another child abuse scene from occurring(sometimes scenes I never planned come up in my story and just seem fit so, if they don't exactly flow, I have to write the rest of the chapter to move around it, hahaha) I've got to say, I love you reading my other review responses to other people and then responding to them myself! It kind of makes me feel important. I actually don't think I give you guys who respond to my review replies/author's notes enough credit because gosh, I ALWAYS forget to read the review replies or author's notes of other people. Like, I just can't seem to care enough to see it. Does that make me a bad person? Oh, it doesn't matter. Anyways, thanks for the review and enjoy the chapter!
Patriot16: Well, I didn't have Zigfried creep out Seto, but I did have him do something else… if that's vague enough to peak your interest :) Hahaha, thanks for your review though!
KatrinaKaiba: And yet another review without a Consequences update in sight! You must be delighted with me right now! Yeah, I always try to find places to throw in random references. You should read some of my other stories sometime, I have a LOT of quotes from random little kid movies, like you wouldn't believe. And they'll come up in the most serious of situations. Just adorable if you ask me :) Well, I don't like this chapter, but maybe you'll like it. Thanks for the review!
WhiteAsukalover: Of course Seto does! Gozaburo went to college!(Your mom goes to college… hahaha, Napoleon Dynamite) Anyways, it's all good now. Just as they say in the Lion King, I've got to put my past behind me! Which I already have, so it's all good :) Thanks for your concern though! I really appreciate it! And also for your wonderful review!
AmePiper: What a great save then! That would've been tragic if you had never discovered I had updated :( And oh my gosh! I want to write review for films and such as well! Don't know if that's what I'll specifically do… but it's what I sort of have in mind a little bit. I'm glad you're proud of me for proof reading cause honestly I hate it(or at least I hated it for this chapter… gosh, I really don't like this chapter at all) Yeah, I still feel like I have a bit of writer's block right now. Can't seem to push myself to finish the next chapter of Consequences, which makes me cry because it's going to be such an epic chapter. Yeah, actually, I was thinking the same thing. About how Seto is really developing and you can really see this transformation he's going through. Cause honestly… when I write, I plan very few things out, and stuff will just come out as I'm writing. And that whole contemplating and realizing he wants to be like Seto… that was just another scene that came up that seemed to really flow with the theme, so I was kind of thumbs up rocking out with that. Writing is seriously like a gamble to me, you really hope things work out in the end because most of the time you don't even know what you're going for in a story. Hahaha, I love you so much kid and I hope this chapter doesn't fail too much! Do give me your well-rounded, fantastic, super sexy honest opinion about it when you get the chance! I really wasn't feeling proud of it. I love you, thanks again for the review!
Lil girl pink: Hahahaha! I love you kid, I really do! "Like fo sho, almost like a fo sho ho, but u ain't no ho… because u updated!" um, can anyone say, MY LIFE?? Hahahaha, amazing. Your review seriously inspired me to finish this chapter tonight, so this one goes out to you girl! Hahaha, your review really made my day, thanks so much for writing it to me! I'm really looking forward to reading the next one :) Enjoy!
Twelve
The look on Mr. Schroeder's face was priceless and would continue to be priceless up until the point where Mr. Schroeder cursed under his breath and left. Mokuba was still standing by his brother; his hold around Seto's arm hadn't loosened at all. It might have even tightened a bit, just from standing there, especially with Zigfried still standing in front of them. The situation was already awkward enough, Mokuba couldn't figure out why his brother hadn't left the scene as Gozaburo had already.
Seto, on the other hand, hadn't wished to leave the scene. He had been so amused by Mr. Schroeder's facial expression that he had nearly forgotten his manners, because the moment the man had left, Seto burst out laughing. Mokuba put his hand up to his face and tried to hide the embarrassment he was having. Zigfried was still standing in front of them, becoming more and more furious as Seto continued laughing. Mokuba was too ashamed to even say anything. It wasn't long, though, before Zigfried spoke up.
"Would you mind telling me what it is you find so funny, Kaiba?" Zigfried said in a threatening tone. Seto paused for a moment to catch his breath. By the glint in his eye, Mokuba was quite certain that Zigfried was the last person that would frighten Seto at all. The fact that Zigfried was approaching him in this manner almost made Mokuba feel bad, but considering they were in a public setting, Mokuba was positive Seto wouldn't try to attempt to do anything harmful.
"Honestly between your ridiculous hairdo and that fantastic display of your father getting his butt handed to him, I would say that I could be laughing at a number of things." Zigfried clenched his fists. Zigfried wasn't used to be looked down upon and even less use to being ridiculed by someone else. Zigfried was going to make sure he would have the last laugh in all of this.
"Is that so? Well… at least I'm not adopted," Zigfried said with a grin. Seto's eyes immediately narrowed and looked towards him. It had become apparent what this was about now, and what Zigfried was trying to do. That was a low blow, even for Seto's standards, but he wouldn't fall for it. No, instead, he offered a grin back at Zigfried's inferior insult.
"If you say so, but I'm just glad that I'm not related to a man who can't seem to win over his own rival. After all, if success can truly does run in one's blood, so can failure." Seto was having so much fun taunting Zigfried that he had failed to notice Mokuba pulling on his sleeve. The boy had also caught onto Zigfried's little scheme as well; trying to say whatever he could to cause Seto to snap and throw the first punch. Seto was smarter than that, though, and he knew that. So for right now, he was merely poking fun at him.
Mokuba didn't feel right, however, doing this and get out of the situation as quickly as possible. He looked up at his older brother desperately.
"Nii-sama, can we please go? Gozaburo might leave without us if we don't hurry now," Mokuba stated. Zigfried saw this as another opening.
"Oh don't worry; I'm sure he wouldn't leave without you…" Zigfried said to Mokuba, just before turning towards Seto, "Or rather, he wouldn't leave without his precise protégé." Seto eyed him; and he slipped his arm out of Mokuba's lock and instead held his hand.
"Stop it Zigfried," Seto commanded sternly. Zigfried was delighted to see these results, and therefore decided to go more in depth. Mokuba looked from his older brother back to Zigfried. Suddenly he felt confused.
"What do you mean?" Mokuba asked innocently.
"I'm saying you mean nothing, don't you understand? You're the second born son and nothing more. You serve no purpose except to exist and to make your brother look like a genius in comparison to you." Mokuba took a step back in horror from what he had said. He knew that he didn't mean much in Gozaburo's eyes, but to be used as only a mere comparison, nothing but a tool? The truth seemed a little too dark this time to handle. Seto saw this and reacted appropriately.
"That's enough. We're leaving." Seto pulled on Mokuba's hand and led him in the other direction, one that was going away from Zigfried. Zigfried saw his window of opportunity beginning to close and he just wasn't ready to let it slip out of his fingers. He had to leave his incriminating mark on the Kaibas before they made it out of the mansion.
Zigfried quickly ran up from behind Mokuba and gave him a good shove. Seto immediately stopped walking, just as Mokuba caught himself. Seto took a deep breath and counted to ten, trying to cool his anger inside his head. Thankfully Mokuba had caught himself, but his heart had nearly jumped out of his chest when he had almost fallen a second ago.
"Come now, Kaiba, are you that much of a coward? Can you not even defend yourself, or did Gozaburo teach all of his fighting skills to his useful son?" Zigfried asked, giving Mokuba another shove. Mokuba did nothing, looking to his brother for guidance. Mokuba was much too afraid to react in anger. Mokuba swallowed hard.
"I said stop it Zigfried, or else," Seto said, without turning around to face Zigfried.
"Or else what?" Zigfried asked. Seto said nothing and began walking again with his brother by his side. Mokuba gave a sigh of relief, looking up ahead at the giant entrance. Soon this would all be over. They would walk out the door; get away from this party, and go back home. Home had never seemed so appealing in Mokuba's mind.
Mokuba tried walking as fast as possible to get out of there. But Zigfried didn't want them to be let off that easily. Zigfried ran up once more and gave Mokuba a hard enough shove that the boy fell forward and tumbled to the floor.
What happened next had managed to happen all too quickly for anyone to have reported anything. All they knew was that they had heard Zigfried scream like a girl and Seto was hovering over him with his fist in the air. Blood had already begun to trickle down Zigfried's face from his nose; his collared shirt was wrapped up in Seto's palm as he held him above the floor. Seto's eyes had death written all over them.
"Don't you ever, EVER, touch my brother again, you disgusting little worm." Mokuba ran up from behind Seto and grabbed his arm.
"Nii-sama, don't!" Mokuba cried, trying to pry his brother off of Zigfried. Mokuba wasn't strong enough to force Seto off of Zigfried, and Seto had even pulled his own arm out of Mokuba's grasp, socking another one to Zigfried's face. The hushed whispering became loud and more chaotic as all conversations were directed towards the fight breaking out in the middle of the ball room. Mokuba stared at his brother, desperately wishing he would stop this quarrelling while also wondering what had happened to what Seto had said earlier about him no longer choosing to fight.
There was nothing Mokuba could do about it now except watch in agony and worry from the sidelines. No, it would take a whole other person to take control of Seto, one much older and much more powerful than he.
"Get off of my son, you juvenile delinquent!" Mr. Schroeder yelled, running across the room and over to the two boys. Mr. Schroeder forced Seto off of his son and helped the mangled Zigfried to his feet. "How DARE you!" Mr. Schroeder said out loud in a very dramatic fashion as he turned around. "I should make you pay for what you have done!"
Just as Mr. Schroeder lifted his own fist in Seto's direction, the much older and much powerful man that Mokuba had been referring to earlier arrived on the scene. His hand gripped Mr. Schroeder's wrist and stopped it in mid-air just before it was able to struck Seto. Seto re-opened his eyes to see Gozaburo standing behind the man, keeping his fists from coming anywhere near Seto's perfectly in tact face. Mr. Schroeder pulled away and twisted around in anger.
"Have you seen what you're boy has done?! I should have him arrested for assault!" Gozaburo looked over at Zigfried and his bloodied nose. He rolled his eyes and stepped away, towards Seto.
"Please, and then force me to convict you of child abuse? Mr. Schroeder, I thought you were a bit more intelligent than that." Mr. Schroeder's eyes widened with surprise. He hadn't thought of it that way, or really even thought about the consequences of hitting a thirteen year old in the face. Needless to say, he was speechless. Gozaburo walked past him and signaled Seto to follow him out the door and out of the building. Mokuba hurriedly followed them outside out to the parking lot. When they reached the car, Gozaburo turned to William, whom was keeping post, standing by the limo.
"William, please place Mokuba inside the limo. I need to teach my son a lesson." Mokuba's heart froze. Gozaburo was going to hurt him. Gozaburo was going to beat the living daylights out of Seto for what he had done to Zigfried! Mokuba couldn't let this happen. Not again.
Mokuba ran towards Seto, but was grabbed by William instead and lifted off the ground towards the limo. Mokuba struggled to get out of his grasp and even began to yell.
"Nii-sama! No! Please, wait!" Mokuba called, just before he was shoved into the limo by William. Seto hadn't even had time to look at his calling brother, for now he had worries of his own. Gozaburo's idea of teaching him a lesson had been defined in the past as a beating. But Seto had been beaten down so much, he felt he couldn't spend too much time worrying about the pain he would receiving, just pondering how long it would last.
Gozaburo led him out of the parking lot and over to a nice wide open grass field beside the Schroeder Mansion. Seto looked around; this would be a strange place to beat someone in broad daylight. What was Gozaburo planning next? Gozaburo lifted his arm, and Seto automatically fell the ground and curled up in defense. This was the defense mechanism he had built up after three years of corporate punishment, and yet, the beating never came.
"Come now, get back on your feet," Gozaburo said. Seto quickly got back up and tried not to stare directly into the man's eyes. Gozaburo had been quite vocal about hating it on many random occasions. "I'm not going to hurt you. You did a good thing back there, bopping that pansy in the face." Seto looked up with surprise. Was he actually getting approval from Gozaburo?
"But still, you know that doesn't condone violence, especially not at a business party. And I'm a little shocked to see that you have already forgotten the lesson I had taught you previously," Gozaburo said, "Don't you remember? Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer?" Seto looked down in shame at his mistake. It was the first time he had ever received approval from Gozaburo and now suddenly he felt he had ruined it with his silly mistake. "Why would you do something like that?"
"He… he hurt Mokuba. I mean… I don't know, I didn't even think about it, really. I just acted. That's all I can ever do when Mokuba is in danger," Seto looked down at his hands in confusion, in some instances, he felt he had no control of them. The incident with Zigfried was one of those incidents. But it wasn't Seto's fault! After all, it was simply his natural instinct to defend his brother no matter what. "He's my brother… I made a promise that I wouldn't let him get hurt."
Gozaburo gave a disappointed sigh which made Seto feel even worse. But… why did he even care? Seto hadn't honestly given Gozaburo's feelings towards him a second thought; Seto HADN'T cared what Gozaburo had thought. Now it suddenly mattered, and Seto couldn't figure out why. Was it because now he yearned for the power Gozaburo possessed? Did that, in some shape or form, cause Seto to see him as something more of an evil step father, possibly even a role model? Seto shook his head, he couldn't believe he was thinking such thoughts… and yet, he could.
"Seto, we've been over this before… there's no room for family in the business world. Those kinds of things only hold you back, hold you from showing you're true potential."
"And my response is the same!" Seto said in a confused manner, "He's my brother, what else am I supposed to do?" Gozaburo sighed and shoved his hands into his pants pockets. He looked around at the sky, as if he were going to say something philosophical just now. The strange thing was; Seto was actually ready to listen to him for the first time.
"Oh Seto… you're so devoted to principle that you don't see what you truly possess. You have a gift, Son, a gift that not many others have. Are you really that willing to throw your life away just because you have a younger brother?"
"Just as I have a gift, I also have a duty… a promise to fulfill. I promised to always protect Mokuba when…" Seto held his tongue and decided to rephrase it, "A very long time ago, I meant. I can't simply turn my back on that, I love my brother."
"Which is why you need to let him go, you need to tear yourself away from him. I don't think you understand this, but having a weakness doesn't just mean it'll hold you back, but it'll also tear you apart. The minute an opponent figures out what you care about, they will do anything to destroy it. Why? Because that's what it's like to be in the business world. It's all about playing dirty. Do you understand?"
Seto looked away. He understood completely… but what Gozaburo was asking for wasn't what Seto wanted to do. He didn't want to pull away from his brother… Mokuba needed him, just as he needed Mokuba. They supported each other, even though they rarely got to see one another. But what Gozaburo said made sense… but how was Seto supposed to turn his back on the only family he had?
Gozaburo placed his hand on Seto's shoulder and broke him out of his thoughts.
"Look Seto… you're a smart kid, but if you're not smart enough to move forward and accept the opportunity you have right now, then I'm afraid I'm going to have to let you go," Seto's eyes widened, "I adopted you because I knew you had the potential, the drive, one would need to be trained intensively to be able to survive as Kaiba Corp.'s next CEO. But that can never happen unless you truly want it."
Seto nodded slowly. He understood Gozaburo's words completely.
"That's why I'm asking you right now… are you in? Are you willing to do whatever it takes to learn all there is to know about the dynamics of this business? Are you ready to put all that you ever cared about aside to focus on your future? Are you?"
This was it, this was all that it came down to; this one answer he was supposed to give. Seto was either in it or he was not. Seto took in a deep breath. He felt like his whole future depended on this one answer. Seto imagined Mokuba standing beside Gozaburo; his face was torn with sadness. Mokuba didn't want him to do this; that was easy to tell. But his eyes burned with determination, his heart burned with the desire to win it all, to come out on top. Seto shut his eyes and re-opened them, Mokuba's image was gone.
However, Gozaburo was still standing in front of him, waiting for an answer. It was his choice and his destiny. It was either his way or the highway. It was… nerve wrecking. But finally, after what seemed like an eternity of an internal struggle, but in reality was only about a minute, Seto spoke up and said his final words loud and clear.
"I'm in."
A/N: Hey kids, how's it going? Okay, moving RIGHT along, I have to tell you… it took EVERYTHING in me not to throw into the Seto-Gozaburo conversation this; "It's a buggy bug world out there… someone could get HURT," from A Bug's Life. No joke, it really did. Is that lame or what? Hahaha, there's something about kid movie's that always wants me to relate it to my stories :] Maybe I'm just silly. Anyhow, still working on being inspired for my other story, but in the meantime, this went pretty well, huh? I have to tell you, there were some scenes that seemed a bit iffy in my mind, and definitely some conversations that could've been a bit more in depth, but who knows. I'm actually going to proof read it right now (aren't you all happy that I'm finally growing up?) and who knows, maybe it'll come out better at the end. Either way, I hope you enjoyed reading my story, I know I enjoyed getting your reviews!
P.S: I just finished proof reading my story… wow, I'm almost ashamed by some mistakes I make. I hope the past couple chapters haven't been that bad. Just as a second author's note, I guess, I still really don't fancy this chapter at all, but it's got us moving along so… yeah. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it though!