Disclaimers: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!. I'd be rich if I did. :) Oh, and no Hellsing, either. And no Metropolis. ):
Ok, so, I went to check this story when it was up on the internet, and... I HADN'T POSTED CHAPTER 8. D:
Which I can't believe I forgot. : /
So, I posted it, and I hope you all enjoy(ed)! ^_^
Aaaannnndd if you can't figure out what 'Der Vatikan' means... I have nothing to say to you...
[Der Vatikan]
"I'll stay with you when I'm in Japan," Leda said, standing in the elevator with Kaiba, Hiram standing tall and quietly in the corner.
"Who decided that?"
"I'm not here on official business, and all my money is in an account that goes through the vatican. I can't just pull money out on a whim unless I'm on vacation. Security stuff or something."
"Then why don't you just get a personal bank account," Kaiba asked.
Leda shrugged in response.
"Been to lazy. So, since I have about 400 yen, I think, in all, and I can't afford jack shit, Hiram and I are staying with you. So please, don't argue." She shot him a fake smile.
Kaiba looked over to Hiram. He didn't feel comfortable with the idea of Hiram in his house. Leda he could deal with. Hiram not so much.
Leda apparently caught on.
"Hiram stays, understand? I don't go anywhere without him, he's trustworthy, and he won't mess anything up."
The elevator opened, and the three walked out of the back entrance ot the parking garage.
"Should we follow you in our car?" Leda asked, looking around.
"You have a car?"
"Nope. We got a taxi. So, where's your car?"
Kaiba sighed.
"Come on."
[Domino Multilane Highway]
The ride back was annoying, to say the least.
"This is a nice car, the seats are really comfortable!"
"What's that building over there?"
"Is the Diet building in Domino?"
"Do you always go this way? There are so many people."
Kaiba gripped the wheel, glaring out the windshield into the throng of late-hour commuters.
They were in the middle of a four-lane traffic jam. Common for such a populated area. Cars bumper-to-bumper, some impatient drivers and tired salary men honking their car horns in a desperately futile attempt to get the cars moving faster than the inch-an-hour pace.
Leda chattered on in the background, complaining about the traffic jam and yelling at people out the window.
Kaiba felt exhausted. He felt like the pressure in his brain would build and build until his head exploded. It was not a pleasant feeling.
Hiram, thankfully, remained quiet in the back seat. Kaiba looked back at him, an unamused look in his eyes and a grimace on his face. Hiram shot him an apologetic look, or what might have passed for one; with cold, sunken inverted eyes, a cold expression and hollow cheeks. Paper-white skin, and a curtain of dark hair skimming over his high cheekbones. He looked emaciated.
The white iris' moved to look at Leda, narrowing a bit in concentration. The girl jumped a bit as she fell quiet, looking back at her companion.
"What?"
"Quiet down a bit, okay," he rasped out. His voice sounded dead, if that phrase could be used.
Leda nodded, Kaiba sent him a thankful look, and then turned his attention back ot the road.
The traffic inched forwards a little faster than it had before.
[Kaiba Mansion]
"The rooms are upstairs. You can take the guest bedrooms. Go up the stair case and to the right. Those are all guest rooms. Pick the ones you want and let me know where you're staying."
Kaiba locked the door behind him, walking up the staircase in the middle of the entrance hall.
The hall itself was tall. It stretched out before Leda and Hiram, doors on either side, and windows up where the walls stretched into the second floor.
"This is elaborate. I was expecting a more Japanese home, not a european mansion," Leda smiled, running up the stairs.
"C'mon, Hiram. Let's pick a room."
Hiram followed, looking around warily.
"How long are we going to stay here," He asked. His eyes kept shifting from one place to another, memorizing.
"Until we get the job done. His holiness the Pope knows we're away on special business, we should have all the time and support we need."
She headed off to a room on the right.
"Why don't we stay here," She asked, walking in before stopping in the doorway. "My God..."
"What is it?" Hiram walked up behind her, stunned into silence as well.
"This is honestly the best room I have ever seen."
A large bed, a window covering about half the wall, drapes, a couch, a beuro, everything.
"And there's even a bathroom to boot," Leda smiled, looking into the white tiled room.
[-_-_-_-]
Jonouchi typed away on a keyboard, his face temporarily bleached a bluish-white in the light of the computer screen. It was a stark contrast against the black room. Sadie had showed him where a computer room was. Multiple all-in-one units were lined up against both walls, blacked out windows opposite him blacked out, and a semi-old, updated Kary Mainframe in the middle of the room, modifications stretching up and through the celling. Jonouchi had no doubt that it was more powerful than most supercomputers. She told him to keep the lights on, that using the computer in the dark was bad for him. He turned the lights off anyway; he preferred the dark.
He clicked away on google, looking at maps of places, exploring the grand canyon through the video screen. He switched it over to the 'search' function, resting his head on his hands a moment to decide what to do next.
He typed "Seto Kaiba" into the search bar and clicked 'Google Search.'
What turned up was a wikipedia page on Kaiba and His business, multiple articles from news outlets, financial information, even fan sites (That made him cringe).
He clicked the Wikipedia article.
What came up was surprisingly precious little information. No birthday, with just a question mark and a dash to the current year. His age was put at 16, however. He looked it, too.
The information was exceedingly general- The CEO of Kaiba Corporation, one little brother... He was adopted, that was something Jonouchi didn't know. There were no records of him before he was, though, if the article was right. That was about all that it said. But the little nugget of information he gained was valuable- Kaiba hadn't really existed before he was adopted and thrown into his life now.
He wanted to find out more about Kaiba now... all the more reason to get to know him.
Jonouchi thought on it for a moment, staring at the dark wall.
The thoughts were quickly torn from him, however, by a loud growl from his stomach.
"Good lord..."
[Kaiba Mansion}
Kaiba sat in his room, his second office, after putting Mokuba to bed. He smiled as he thought about what his little brother said. He made a new friend, and he got a high score on a book report he wrote on "Number the Stars." He remembered that book, how he laughed at it when it came out. He remembered World War Two Germany. He wasn't much for the affairs of humans or humanitarianism, but he couldn't abide the death camps... So he fled to Russia, immigrating to Japan during the Cold War, after Reconstruction was well underway.
His eyes fell out of focus and his hand stopped moving the pen over packets of papers. His reminiscing about the past, something he usually didn't do, was interrupted by a pang in his stomach, a slight noise. It had been about a week since he had last fed... Time to go hunting, lest a repeat of last time happen. As he walked out, he told the servants to inform Leda of his whereabouts should she inquire.
[Domino City-Red Light District]
Jonouchi walked through the crowded streets. He really didn't like it here. The people were shifty, the corners and alleyways dark and sticky with oily shadows, and the blood was disgusting. Diluted and curdled with alcohol and drugs- Crack Cocaine, Pot, Beer... it all mixed together in a cesspool of disgustingly abused, horrible-tasting red life.
Oh, how he wanted something else, something cleaner. The blond stopped for a moment, a thought or two snapping in place. _ _ _ _ _ _ had never said that he only had to eat here. He smiled to himself. He turned around and ran back to the better side of town.
[Domino City- Downtown shopping district]
Kaiba walked down a well-lit, busy street, being as inconspicuous as possible. Normal clothes for a change; A hooded sweatshirt, pulled up to hide his face and his hair, a pair of blue jeans, and some old tennis shoes from god knows when. And, for good measure, a pair of earphones. Seto Kaiba, dressed for the normal urban lifestyle. Who'd've thought it?
Walking past the tall buildings, there were a few alleyways, and, Kaiba was sure, a few hobo's as well. That would do. He turned down a random one, making a note of where he was going and what building he was going by. There were a few... communities, you could say, of homeless people around Downtown Domino. He moved his hand in his pocket, feeling the cold steel handle of his hand gun, making sure it was there for the hundredth time. Just in case of trouble.
The buildings wound up, with a wall here and a fence there. A few homeless people watched as he passed. He stopped at a corner, looking around it to see a woman sitting there. Well past her midlife crisis, it was safe to say she would not be missed. He turned the corner, walking up behind her. His mouth salivated at the thought of blood, as it always did. Time to feed, then.
Back at the main strip, Jonouchi walked down the sidewalk, buffeted by people. There was an alley, here, there, that man in the book shop, that woman in the jewelry store, that kid in the gas station, bumming a cigarette off of his friend, or the girl at the ABC Packing store, handing over a fake ID to purchase a bottle of Smirnoff. So many choices! He smiled to himself. He wasn't even that thirsty, and he was acting like he was starved. He just needed a bit of a meal.
Jonouchi spotted an alleyway. That looked promising. Good blood, out of the way. Perfect. He ran down the alleyway, eager to get all this over with. Left, left, right, left again. He spotted someone after a short time; a random someone. He didn't much care. Walking up, he put what he was about to do out of his mind, focusing on the act instead of the ethics. It was a strangely enjoyable sensation, giving himself over to it. It just felt right. He towered over the person, smiling to himself.
Good...
Not to far away, Kaiba let the corpse drop to the ground. He could still feel the hazy bloodlust in the back of his mind; the high he got. He was just letting himself slip into a state of warm security when he hear small footsteps come up in front of him.
"Gramma!"
There was a little kid standing there, tearing up horribly, holding a small bag of food.
Oh, good lord. He should have noticed her sooner, then he could have been out of here. He was getting old. He was exposed. Mouth open in surprise, blood dripping slightly down his chin. He took a step back.
The little kid looked up at him, scared. She hiccuped a few times, focusing on the blood.
"Y-you-"
He melted into another side alley instantly, dissapearing from anyone's view. Not magic, just practice.
Night eyes scanned for a fire escape. There was one with a ladder up. It wasn't a big jump, only six feet or so. He went for it.
As expected, there was no problem. Climbing out onto the roof of the building, he looked around, trying to find the tower and then go from there. It shouldn't be to hard.
After a moment, he spotted it. Over to his right. Legs started moving, carrying his body over rooftops and alleyways, sliding behind water tanks and stairwells and into the smallest shadow to keep away from people.
Ten minutes or so into the trip, he heard a loud 'bang' off in another alleyway. It was probably just a gang fight.
Another bang quickly echoed around, followed by an unusual amount of screaming.
His curiosity piqued, Seto sneaked to the edge of the roof he was on, crouched and looking down on the scene. Very good night vision helped.
Down in the alleyway, a man was running from something he couldn't see. His ratty Goodwill turtleneck was ripped up, his patch-ridden jacket shredded, and his neck and chest lacerated in parts.
"Sloppy" was all Seto could think about it. His mind really was slipping.
Someone ran after the man; right on his heels, actually.
And Seto knew that someone. He knew that someone. Nobody else in Domino had hair like that. Or clothes like that.
He watched in partial surprise at what happened next.
The blond cornered the man, who was shaking like a pitiful leaf, trying to press himself into the wall and away from the fast- approaching menace.
A veritable gore-fest happened next.
After the blond was done, he hurriedly wiped his mouth with his blue shirt sleeve and ran off, looking around the exit to make sure nobody had seen. In seconds it looked as if Katsuya Jonouchi had never been there. Nobody would find the body for days, if not weeks.
Seto remembered that phrase "True blue never shows stains" before backing away from the edge of the roof and heading back to his home. This was important; this was proof.
Now if he could get Leda to acknowledge it- But he couldn't. He had seen it, but what proof did he have other than his own story. Without hard evidence, Leda accept he saw something but wouldn't act on it. That was problematic. But he had to tell her anyways. She had to know. Proof or not, she had to be aware of it. But he felt exhausted tonight; it would have to wait for tomorrow.
[Ende]
There be PROOF! This is getting to be Setocentric... it'll run that way for a while, I guess. Hang in there, guys!