Yu-Gi-Oh is the intellectual property of Kazuki Takahashi and Konami, and is being used in this fanfiction for fan purposes only. No infringement or disrespect is intended by this fanfiction.

Author's Note and Warning: This story is a sequel to KP Duty and Coming Clean. It may be useful to read one or both of those before you read this. For the most part, all three stories strive to follow canon Yu-Gi-Oh characterizations and events as presented in the unedited anime and the manga: however, because two key characters (Pegasus and Gozaburo) have been purposefully distorted, these stories are by definition AU.

As previously. grateful thanks to my beta Dark Rabbit.

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Beholden, Chapter 5: Remnants

by Animom

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"Pause program," he said immediately, before Pegasus moved.

He wasn't ready.

"Hey," Jounouchi—out of out of sight in the hallway—asked, "how come I don't pause too?"

"External processor." Why was he hesitating? This was something he wanted to do, had been told he had to do, and what he had to say was straightforward: You were my friend. Yet you let the Big Five … attack me. He accepted that the act of accusation was the key point, but what he really wanted, what he needed, was to understand why it had happened, and to get some acknowledgement of how his life had been altered—which was unlikely, considering how capricious Pegasus had always been even about trivial matters.

He knew that Pegasus would offer neither justification nor apology, so then why was he was holding back?

"Huh? What external processor?" Jounouchi was now standing in the open doorway

He was annoyed, but also relieved by the familiar distraction. "You. Your brain. It's not part of the program, it's just passed in as an input."

"Huh. Okay. Like that movie?"

He had to get out of this room, out of this simulation. He stepped away from Pegasus, and without explanation he brushed past Jounouchi and down the hall.

"How long you gonna keep him on pause?" Jou asked, hurrying after him.

"He'll resume when I exit."

"Where are you going?"

"For a walk." It was like babysitting a toddler.

"Want me to leave?"

He stopped, thinking he'd frame something that suitably expressed his annoyance, but it wasn't worth the effort. "You can stay if you talk less."

Jou opened his mouth to reply, stopped himself, grinned, then nodded.

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The autumn forest he'd created as the setting for the Tantalus program's Ryuken module had been expanded again and again over the years as it became his preferred space for private hiking, and now covered several square kilometers. He'd given his supercomputer's AI Millie control over randomizing the environment so that the trails didn't become stale: as they walked he was pleased to see that her algorithms apparently continued to function flawlessly. Even without a biosuit's enhanced sensory interface the aesthetics were more than adequate.

Jou, true to his word, kept quiet, and stayed a few paces behind him, as if to allow him the illusion that he was alone. Seto supposed that this was meant as a some sort of considerate gesture, but it irritated him, but then, if he were honest, for as long as he could remember almost everything in his surroundings had irritated him.

He had come to understand that the majority of people didn't experience life this way, apparently having high thresholds and low standards for their stimuli. Not that he attached any meaning to this observation: how the masses were hardwired wasn't of interest to him. What was of interest was that his irritation was beginning to extend to Mokuba, to a slowly-increasing resentment of Mokuba's happiness. This phenomenon had at first been difficult to accept, but once he did it was clear that he needed to change his patterns of perception, processing, and behavior before he wound up bitter and isolated.

"A new template," he said aloud.

"Huh?" Jou asked.

There was a rustle in the bushes to the right of the path.

What the –?

A black and brown dog burst through the branches in an explosion of dried leaves.

"You made virtual pets, too?" Jou squatted and held out his hand. "C'mere boy."

Seto felt some apprehension at the unexpected sight of the dog. The dog was very similar to the dog Mille had created for the Lord Ryuken module of Tantalus, the private fantasy VR he'd he'd been obsessed with back in high school, during the months that he'd tried to convince himself that a virtual lover would be superior to a flesh and blood one. He was certain he hadn't loaded the program before transferring the two of them; had he inadvertently tripped one of Mille's triggers?

Jou was now enthusiastically scratching the dog between its ears. "Nice attention to detail: it's almost like I'm pettin' a real dog!"

Shit ... the dog had only appeared in the very early versions of the Ryuken module, when the encounters were outside. If somehow those old files had loaded, then any moment now Ryuken and his troop would appear, and as Ryuken was essentially Jounouchi in feudal clothing …

"I see that Kee has found new whelps for her litter. Or are these bear cubs too young to escape up a tree?"

... and there they were, all of them, including Ryuken, his face fortunately concealed by an iron helm.

One of the women said, "They do say, my lord, that some of the trees in this wood bear strange blossoms."

"Vagrants," Ryuken said. "Arrest them."

"Now wait just a minute, Sir Whatever-your-name is!" Jounouchi said.

"I am Lord Ryuken, ruler of these lands," Ryuken said as he took off his helm. "I punish those who trespass in my forest."

Jounouchi did a double take and then started laughing. "Oh, is that right? Well, this is gonna be fun—I've never kicked my own ass before!"

"Do you mock me?" Ryuken asked coldly.

"Nah, nah," Jounouchi said, holding up his hands. "I was kidding."

Ryuken, not programmed for this input, stood glowering.

"So you cloned me." Jounouchi said, cocking his head. "It's a pretty good likeness. When did you do it?"

"Back in high school," Seto said. He couldn't tell if Jounouchi was insulted or flattered. "It never worked the way I wanted it to."

"Aw, that sucks—wait! He said he punishes trespassers?" Jounouchi was now gleeful. "Was it, like, special punishment?" He waggled his eyebrows. "Sexy punishment?"

"End program," Seto said. "Override. Arc-NULL-3."

As Ryuken, his troop, and the dog faded, Jounouchi said, "Hey, don't be embarrassed. I used to practice making out with my pillow." He added with a final chuckle, "Of course, I was like eight, but still."

There was no adequate response to this, so Seto turned and began walking.

However unexpected Ryuken's appearance had been, it did underscore that all he was accomplishing at the moment was delaying the conversation with Pegasus. He analyzed the reason for this: was he apprehensive, under-prepared? No, it wasn't that, Mokuba had sent him plenty of resources. It was ...

Everyone had acted as though the confrontation would be the solution to everything. Didn't they see how flawed that assumption was? So he'd go in, make his accusations—and then what? "It won't change anything," he said.

Jounouchi stopped, turned. "What?"

He hadn't meant to speak aloud. "Talking. To him."

As always, Jou's facial expressions made his thoughts transparent: the current one was Crap, I don't know how to handle this kind of thing! "It might."

Seto huffed.

"Look," Jou said, now with This is some serious shit right, but I can handle it, "This thing that happened? It's been eating away at you for years, like poison. When you told Mokuba—well, that brought it out in the light, which was good."

"Light has no effect on poison," Seto pointed out.

"Always so technical!" Jounouchi said, rolling his eyes. "You know what I meant. Point is, making him own it changes it from something that happened to you, to something he did."

Nonsensical semantics. "And then what?"

"And then you can get your life back to normal," Jounouchi said.

So he, like Mokuba, obviously wanted to believe that a single conversation would magically resolve everything, so that they could stop feeling uncomfortable around him. He was a to-do list item: Get rid of guilt over not being attacked by "helping" Kaiba. "So that's my goal? Normalcy?"

"Whatever normal means for you, yeah. You've always been pretty far ahead of the average guy, and the shit that's gone on in your life has just added to that." He shrugged. "You've skipped a lot of stuff that other people do, but it's not important unless there's something you want to do but can't." He stopped, nudged Seto. "So figure out what makes you happy, and do it."

"Happy."

"Yeah, happy. That thing where you have fun and feel good and smile?"

"Hn." Mokuba had been telling him for years that he'd stopped smiling after they left the orphanage. He hadn't truly laughed either: schadenfreude didn't count. But how was he supposed to figure out what would bring happiness? Simply do what everyone else was doing? Was the only way to be happy to follow the lemmings, find "normal" where the bell curve bulged with overwhelming numbers? He assumed that part of "normal" was being in a relationship, having sex, but his past attempts hadn't been anywhere near optimal. Which Jounouchi well knew.

As if he was reading Seto's thoughts Jou winced, "Look, I know it's not your way to ask for help, but a professional might be able to help you sort stuff out better than I can."

"A therapist? The media—"

"It ain't none of the media's business," Jou interrupted. "And anyhow, a legit therapist'll guarantee confidentiality. They take an oath or something."

"You've gone to one?"

"Me? No, I..." He shrugged. "I just went around with different people until everything felt right."

And I was wrong. It wasn't an unexpected assessment. "Does your ... person ... approve of you being here?" Who was Jounouchi "going around" with, anyhow?

"They don't know details, but yeah, when I said I needed to help a friend they pushed me out the door."

Seto couldn't suppress his snort of disbelief.

"Ya know, that worked in high school." Jounouchi said, but he was cheerful, not angry. "Acting like you don't believe that anyone but Mokuba gives a shit about you. C'mon. You know better."

He wasn't going to admit it, but he'd been coming to realize that his past experiences with so-called "friendship" had been atypical, and had colored his objectivity to the point where he likely had rejected what should have counted as empirical evidence. Add to that the concept that, as far as he understood it, friendship was supposed to be reciprocal, and understandably he was reluctant to go up against people who had years of practice. It was not an enjoyable thought, that he might never learn to correctly interpret social interactions.

Still, to avoid it was cowardice. "Mokuba told me ... that you kept my secret even from him. I appreciate your discretion."

"Heh, betcha didn't think I could keep my mouth shut for that long." Even in profile Jou's grin was an enjoyable thing to see.

"You're the one saying it." Seto said.

"When it's something important, I can keep it zipped."

They walked for a while longer—just because they could—then Seto said. "Mokuba wants to be there."

"It's your decision," Jounouchi said, shoving his hands deep in his pockets and staring down at his shoes. "But yeah, I think it's a good idea to have family around for something like this." He glanced over. "You should take Mokuba instead of me. I mean, I'd be honored to back you up, but I don't wanna intrude."

"Don't be ridiculous," Seto said. He pulled out his phone. "Mokuba—"

"I was about to call you," Mokuba said as soon as he answered. "Kurosuke says that we need to airlift Pegasus to the hospital as soon as we can."

"Why?"

"Apparently the experimental treatment was a little too aggressive. He's stable, but his brain activity and vital signs have been getting weaker and weaker."

Seto's first thought—irrational though he knew it to be—was that Pegasus' consciousness had somehow remained connected to his VR image, was somehow driving his avatar in the VR world the way a user would from a pod, and that he was trying to use death to escape accountability by erasing his image. Which was, of course, ridiculous: the physical connection had been removed after the copy was made. Pegasus' consciousness couldn't possibly have any control over the copy on the computer, and what happened to his physical body mattered even less.

And yet Seto felt an irrational imperative to confront Pegasus while his body was still alive in the real world. He didn't understand why it felt important it just did.

"How soon does he need to be taken?" he asked.

"Now, pretty much," Mokuba said. "Before there's a medical crisis we can't handle at the house. I've already got the 'copter on standby."

"See to it," he said, "then join me."

There was a pause as Mokuba processed this request. "Any particular avatar you want me to use?"

"No," Seto said. "Come as yourself. There has been enough hiding."

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~ To be continued ~

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Author's note: Next up: the confrontation with Pegasus.

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(07) 21 Aug 2013