He doesn't hear from the mysterious Atem for one day. One day stretches into two days, stretches into a week without hearing from the anonymous blackmailer. The bags under Kisara's eyes darken until their rich indigo color is almost as striking as the sapphire of her eyes. Seto's brain starts to throb even after coffee and prescription migraine medication. Atem lurks in the shadows everywhere, making it impossible for Seto to sleep or even spend time alone, so he begins to work through the nights in his underground workspace, emerging as the dawn breaks to continue his duties as the Kaiba Corporation CEO. After the first sleepless night, Kisara starts working through the nights with him, sleeping with her head rested on a pillow laid over her keyboard. He is grateful for her unspoken gesture of camaraderie, and even if they rarely speak, he begins to feel comforted by her calm and focused presence, and the unwavering strength of her determination as she trudges on through their monotonous work. On the third sleepless night, Kisara informs him that her employer believes she is on vacation.
"Visiting family," she says, unloading a plastic grocery bag of coffee creamers and swiss rolls into the refrigerator. "All my vacation days for this year."
"You didn't have to do that."
Kisara shrugs, slamming the refrigerator door behind her. The empty grocery bag skitters across the floor, settling in a dark corner. "I don't have family," she replies. "Don't worry about it."
He does not ask her to elaborate. Mostly they work in silence, meticulously working their way through Kaiba Corp expense reports and employee documentation. They follow the digital trail of the Young Paladins foundation all the way back to it's inception, and when they come up empty, Seto slams his fist against the table, and Kisara suggests that they go out and get a hot meal, instead of downing swiss rolls and instant coffee. They find themselves dumped unceremoniously into the Domino City dusk, shoving their hands into their pockets as the shiver in the early-Spring wind.
X
She leads him into a diner with white linoleum on the floors and the walls and the countertops. A black-haired waitress with almond-shaped brown eyes and a tired smile leads them to a high table in the back, and Kisara orders a basket of fries, which they nibble on halfheartedly, avoiding each other's eyes.
Seto speaks first. "You've done all you can," he says. "I think it's over."
Kisara snaps a French fry in half, squeezing out the insides. "I won't give up," she says firmly. "We can keep working, keep up with the search."
"It's just a waiting game," Seto snaps back coldly. "I won't have it on my conscience if you go down with me."
"Well, I won't have it on my conscience if I don't try my best to catch a child trafficker." She spits out the last words, scrunching up her face with displeasure. "It's not just about you, Seto Kaiba."
Seto nods, and the room suddenly lurches around him. The air feels like it has dropped several dozen degrees, and the fragrance of coffee and grease that hangs over the diner like a fog threatens to suffocate him. As strong and resilient as the world has shaped him to be, patience has always been a sort of afterthought to Seto-he was never patient in waiting for his chance to duel Yugi and reclaim his rightful title as the King of Games, and he was not patient in executing his ruthless scheme when Gozaburo gave him the final task that would cement his position as the heir to the Kaiba Corporation, and he had not waited patiently for a family to take in both him and Mokuba when they were children. His life had been shaped by his own actions, and the act of waiting is more agonizing to him than anything else he had ever experienced.
"I can't take this." Feeling strangely like an observer in his own body, Seto reaches into his coat pocket, retrieving his phone. His mind is curiously blank, and his heart is calm as he scrolls through his messages, looking for Atem….
"Whoa, whoa. What are you doing?" Kisara's voice, slightly shrill with alarm, slices through his reverie. His head snaps upwards and he finds himself eye-to-eye with a startled Kisara.
"This ends now."
Kisara shakes her head, pressing one palm to her temple. "What...what on earth does that even mean?" she asks softly.
Seto slides the phone across the table towards her, and lifts his chin. "If all this idiot wanted to do was take me down, he would have done so already. He wants to gloat. We should save ourselves the effort and just cut to the chase already."
Kisara's dark eyes widen with alarm. "That hardly sounds prudent."
"Screw prudent. I'm done with this."
X
Seto: I'm through with letting you toy with me. This ends now.
Atem: SO YOU'VE FAILED TO IDENTIFY ME.
Atem: DESPITE YOUR BEST EFFORTS.
Seto: If you're going to try to ruin my company and my reputation, then just do it already. You don't have to hurt anyone else.
Atem: GAME OVER?
Seto: Game over.
The next message contains geographic coordinates on a map of Domino City. A small red digital pin is placed at the docks in East Domino. Seto squints, zooming in on the location, but there are no businesses or storefronts near the pinned location.
Atem: AS YOU WISH.
Atem: TOMORROW NIGHT.
