Author's note: ... Yo. *waves awkwardly* Still alive, still writing. Ehe. Meep. I'm sorry. PLEASE FORGIVE ME.

Thanks so much for the reviews, y'all rock! Here's the next chapter and we're really getting somewhere, I promise~.

This place was still an enigma to her. Mana's nose was clogged up from the amount of crying; she could barely breathe. The crumbled up cloth in her mouth was soaked with saliva, but the tight tape kept her from separating her lips. Her eyes darted around in the gloomy room, still finding it too dark to make out anything.

Being beyond disoriented was slowly getting to her. She had no idea how long she had been here already, nor what time of day it was but by the way her body was craving for some water, she guessed for more than two days.

Tears started streaming down her face again as she realized it was over. The last thing she remembered was leaning over her father and Yami staring at her with so much pain in his eyes that she wanted noting more than to jump off the highest building. After running away, someone had appeared in front of her, knocked her out cold and now she had been tied to a chair for god knows how long.

Mana's sweaty palms rubbed against the rope, still hoping that she would somehow be able to loosen the tight knot. Her arms were clamped to her sides, seeing that her hands were bound to either side of her body, only enabling her to wiggle her fingers.

Crack. Her head shot up. Every now and then there were footsteps above her, and she became fully aware of the fact that there was more than one person in this hell place. Not one of them had bothered to check up on her, so maybe they just wanted to let her starve to death, or simply didn't care.

Craaaaack. Another footstep and she heard distinctive voices now. One of them sounded awfully familiar but she couldn't put her finger on it. She had heard that voice several times now, but her panicked mind didn't allow her to connect the dots.

Laughter. Her body started trembling. A muffled sob echoed through the room and she lowered her head, her body slumping in the wooden chair.

More murmuring, more footsteps and slowly but surely, they died down and Mana tensed when she heard someone descend the stairs. The footsteps were getting closer again and now Mana was sure one of them was finally going to check on her.

Adrenaline pumped through her veins. This was her only chance to escape. If that person was going to open the door, all she had to do was kick him in the stomach and make a run for it. She moved her arms and shoulders in desperate attempt to loosen the ropes around her wrist and she gasped when she felt something slip down her right wrist.

"…" The person was only a few feet away now and she quickly managed to free her right hand. A key was shoved into a lock. Mana wasted no time and blindly reached for her left hand, tugging at the rope. The door swung open and she placed her hands back into their original place again.

The lights were turned on and Mana instantly squeezed her eyes shut, turning away from the bright lamp above her head.

"Sorry for taking so long. Couldn't shake off the others," that same familiar voice said.

Mana slowly looked up and saw a man leaning over her. The black cloak hid the only thing she wanted to see: his eyes. The only visible things were his thin lips, which were curled up in a satisfied grin and his slightly clenched jaw.

"But now you have my full attention. Let's get this over with."

He leaned even closer to her until she could almost feel his body temperature and his hand reached for her forehead while his other hand reached for her trembling chest. Taking a deep breath, she raised her leg and violently kicked him in the stomach. The maniac obviously hadn't seen this coming for the blow send him sprawling across the floor.

Mana freed herself, took off the damn tape and spit out the wet cloth. Not wasting any more time, she leaped over him and sprinted towards the door. A million thoughts were spinning around in her mind as she searched for a way out, but when she had climbed the stairs, she was lost.

She had been here before. The giant hall, the red carpeted floor, the bar, the glass tables… Her brain screamed at her to continue and she turned on her heel, spinning around until she saw what she was looking for: an exit. Her legs felt numb from the lack of exercise; indicating she had been sitting in that damn chair for a long time.

"Mana."

It was like a whisper in her ear. Mana, after convincing herself it was her disoriented mind playing tricks on her, pushed the door open and closed it behind her again as she ran into the bright daylight. Quickly taking in her surroundings, she found herself in some city, and Mana tried to process the fact that life outside the building had continued while she had been locked up. People were walking around and laughing, obviously oblivious to her panicked state.

"Come back."

Her eyes darted around, trying to find a payphone so she could call her brother. Calling out for help was useless. No one would believe her, let alone help her out. She had to get in contact with Yami.

"It won't hurt."

The door behind her moved and she immediately took off.

"I promise."

Tears of panic blurred her vision before she stubbornly wiped at her eyes. She had no idea what was going on or what was going to happen to her, all she knew was that she wanted to hear her brother's voice.

Within less than seconds Mana was engulfed in citizens, couples giggling to each other, women holding tiny babies in their arms, men in a rush to get to the train station and there she was, frantically running from the stranger. Quickly looking over her shoulder, a few tears escaped from the corner of her eyes.

"Mana…"

Tokyo, Japan

September 12th, day 33, 9:04 am

The bandages around his right hand didn't allow Yami to move them around freely and it was annoying him. It looked exactly like it did in those weird action movies, which was almost ironic to him since his life didn't feel real anymore. It was as if he was merely a bystander who was watching from the sidelines. Or maybe that was his way of dealing with the pain he felt.

After Kaiba had brought him to that deserted orphanage, he had felt a lot better. He couldn't talk properly for a few hours because he had been screaming so hard, but it had been worth it. Kaiba had taken him back to the car to drive him back to the apartment where Anzu was waiting for him. She had put on a random movie they could watch together and Yami appreciated the offer, but went to bed right away.

The next few days had gone by in a flash. Since he had been assigned to take a few days off, he was forced to spend time with Anzu and for the first time in his life, he despised her presence. For some reason everything she did ticked him off. She didn't take it personally and tried to give him space by going into town and doing some extra grocery shopping. Whenever she brought up Mana or his father, Yami would snap at her and she'd immediately shut her mouth and change the subject.

And now he was sitting in Ishizu's office, avoiding her piercing gaze.

"I have all day, you know," Ishizu spoke and she tapped the tip of her pen against the notepad on her lap. "Maybe you like to to sit there in silence and not answer my questions. Or you're thinking of different ways to kill me because you'd rather die than be in my presence."

"Hilarious," Yami murmured without looking up. He flexed his fingers again and felt himself twitching at the sharp pain that shot through his entire hand.

"Let's get one thing straight." Ishizu got his attention by setting the notepad aside and folding her hands together, giving him a motherly look. "We both know you're not here because of that lie of yours. Or are you defending your masculine pride by denying you are indeed afraid of spiders?"

He could easily pretend he was deadly afraid of those insects and get away with it, or he could tell the truth and say he all made it up because he had gotten this disturbing premonition of someone torturing him. It was probably better to go with the first suggestion, seeing he was sitting in front of a psychologist who would diagnose him with something a lot worse than arachnophobia.

"I guess you saw right through me."

"Hm," she hummed coolly and reached behind her. Yami frowned in confusion, having no idea what she was up to. She turned back to him with a large, hairy spider in her hand and held up to him.

"What is— Oh."

"No chills, sweating, screaming, hiding, panic attack or even the slightest hint you're afraid. Makes one wonder."

Yami glared daggers at her, wondering how the hell she was even allowed to have this job because of her sarcasm. She grabbed one of the spider's legs and dangled it in front of his eyes, making him back away out of instinct.

"No wonder I'm not afraid. It's fake," Yami retorted, but he knew it was over.

Ishizu threw the toy over her shoulder and folded her arms over her chest. "That doesn't matter. Most of my patients who truly suffer from this would curl up in their chair and beg me to put it away. You didn't even flinch."

"I already told you that I'm able to control myself."

"Phobias cannot be controlled, Tanaka-san. You're not afraid of spiders, probably never were and never will be. Now, then. Shall we move on to the real issue here?"

Yami resisted the urge to flip her off. "Which is?"

"Well, for starters, what happened to your hand?"

"I punched a wall."

"Why?"

"… Because I was angry."

"And why were you angry?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because I lost everything in one day?!" Yami snapped at her, wanting to punch another wall, or her. "My baby sister who has the mental age of a child, kicked my father until he was brain dead and then ran off. Kaiba said I had nothing to worry about because his team is on it, but does he honestly think that that's gonna help? We're missing three teenagers and we have no idea where they could possibly be."

"So obviously you're upset about your sister and stressed over your case," Ishizu stated in a neutral voice. "Those are two completely different things to worry about. Why don't we—?"

"My sister is the case," was the sharp reply. "I know I'm supposed to separate my private life from work, but those two things got intertwined, which makes it kinda impossible for me to do so."

"I understand you're upset."

"You have no fucking idea."

Ishizu remained silent and glanced over at her notebook. Yami watched her, unsure of what to think. He knew it was highly unlikely that she would be able to face her boss without any notes and was now contemplating whether she had to keep asking him questions or write down what he had just said.

Casting his eyes to his feet, Yami felt guilt eating at him. For the past few days, many had tried to help him and all he'd done so far was snap at everyone and push them away. And now he was preventing Ishizu from doing her job, even though he obviously didn't want to be here in the first place.

Maybe Anzu was right. Bottling things up wasn't always the answer and swearing at his psychologist probably wasn't going to do him any good, either.

"Write it down."

Ishizu looked at him without moving her head. "You sure?"

"Look," Yami breathed, leaning forward and placing his elbows on his knees. "we had a bad start and I'm sorry about that. Talking is… difficult right now."

"That's completely understandable," Ishizu replied smoothly and she carefully grabbed her notepad and clicked her pen. "I also have to apologize because it's not my duty to force you into anything. I only want to help you because everything's a mess right now and you need to be able to move on. My job is to give you guidance, not to tell you off."

Yami sighed through his nose and nodded. He ran a hand through his bangs and leaned back against the chair, giving her a small smile and getting one in return.

"Do you have any idea why she did this?"

Much to his displeasure, Yami shook his head. "Not a clue. If there was something wrong she would have called me and asked for help. She's done it a lot ever since I left the house for my job. I know her and my dad were not that close, but she would never kill him."

Her hand glided over the paper as she drew the letters in quick and swift motions. "So you two were closer. What about you and your father?"

Yami bit the inside of cheek, not sure how to formulate his answer. "Not exactly close. He was depressed for fourteen years and we kind of grew apart."

Her usual cool eyes shone with concern. Yami found it hard to keep eye contact because his own eyes were starting to itch. He didn't know how he was supposed to tell her everything since he had never told anyone about what happened that night.

"Did something happen?"

Memories flashed in front of his watery eyes and he quickly blinked to get rid of them. His back hurt. Painful screams entered his ears and all he could do was try his best to stay focused on the present.

"My mom died fourteen years ago."

Right at that moment his phone started vibrating. Awkwardly looking down at his pocket and looking back at the psychologist, he silently asked her if he was allowed to answer.

With a flick of her wrist, Ishizu said, "Go on. It could be important."

"Thanks."

Yami got up from his chair, fished his phone out of his pocket and left her small office. He flipped open his phone and saw a number he had never seen before. For a good ten seconds he stared at the screen, wondering whether he had to press the green button or not. Then again, if he took this call, he wouldn't have to talk to Ishizu.

"Hello?" he said after pressing the device against his ear.

"… Y-Yami?"

The hand that was holding the phone started shaking and his mouth felt incredibly dry.

Mana. It was Mana. Mana had called him, which meant she was still alive. "Mana…? Where—"

"I know he's going to get to me soon so I don't have much time. I am so sorry about what I did. After I ran away, I was knocked out and kidnapped. I woke up in a basement, some guy tried to assault me and I keep hearing his voice as if he's in my head! I don't know what's going on, anymore. My head hurts like hell and I feel completely drained. I just wanted to call you and hear your voice and wanted you to tell me that it's going to be okay."

Mana was talking so fast that Yami was having a lot of trouble keeping up. Her voice was shaking and it sounded like she was close to crying her eyes out. He seriously didn't care about what happened, all he wanted was to get to her and talk to her.

"Mana, it's great that you called. Please tell me where you are."

"Yami, I'm so sorry about e-everything," his sister said and this time, Yami knew she was crying.

"Where are you?" Yami was already on his way to the exit, he didn't care about his appointment or his job anymore. He snatched his keys out of his pocket and started jogging down the stairs.

"… I d-don't know…"

"Look around! Ask someone! I don't care, as long as you find out where you are so I can come and pick you up!"

People were looking at him as he was yelling at the phone but he couldn't care less. Mana was quietly sobbing on the other side, tearing his heart in two. His yelling only made it worse; he should be calm and collected, like Kaiba had told him to be so many times.

"Tokyo, I'm in Tokyo. The guy who took me was wearing a black cloak, was about your height and in his twenties. I couldn't see his eyes, or anything for that matter. He said that whatever he's going to do to me would be painless. And he also said that there were others."

The information sounded random at first, but Yami knew exactly what she was doing and that she was running out of time. He took a deep breath to calm himself, mentally preparing for the worst that could happen. His free hand that was holding the keys was still shaking uncontrollably and his chest tightened.

"Mana," he cleared his throat. "were you in a building, a house, or…?"

"Building."

"Is he watching you right now?"

A quiet whimper. "Yes."

His chest tightened even more. He needed to find Kaiba. "If he takes you, take off that cloak of his. You're in the middle of a crowded area so take advantage of that. Start screaming, crying, make a scene, make a complete mess, anything to draw attention."

"… Okay," she whispered. Yami shut his eyes and pressed his lips together, forcing himself to stay calm.

Click.

It went completely silent and Yami was pretty sure his heart skipped a beat. "Mana?"

"I told you to stay out of this."

The phone slipped through his fingers. It was as if someone had wrapped their hands around his neck for breathing had become incredibly difficult. It was that same voice he had heard in that short vision and from what Mana had described to him, it had to be the same guy. He matched the description perfectly and sadly, that was the only thing he knew about this creep.

Realization dawned on him. He had never even met this guy, and Mana telling him that she could hear his voice in her head made his heart beat even faster. Just what the fuck was going on?

Yami slowly reached for his phone, picked it up and let his legs drag him back upstairs. Before he could turn around the corner, someone roughly grabbed his arm and dragged him back. Letting out a startled gasp, Yami immediately started struggling, but was slammed against a firm wall.

His boss was standing in front of him, and Yami's breath hitched. There were strangle marks on Kaiba's pale neck and the area around his right eye looked dark and bruised. On top of that, he looked like he was about to collapse any second. Instinctively, Yami straightened up just in case.

"What happened to you?" he asked in an awfully calm voice.

A bitter chuckle brushed over his sweaty cheeks and he shivered. "My brother."

Blood red eyes almost popped out of his head as he grabbed Kaiba's shoulder tightly and squeezed. "What?"

"Last night, when I got home, he tried to drown me in the sink and after that, strangled me with my own belt. He wouldn't stop no matter what I did and wouldn't answer my questions, so I…" Kaiba sighed and lowered his head, his usual voice quivering. "I had to knock him out and cuffed him to the fridge. He escaped."

Something flashed in front of Yami's eyes and he felt his knees buckling under his own weight. He felt like he was going to black out, but then he saw two people in a kitchen, one of them pushing the other's head under the water in the sink.

He stopped moving completely, letting himself go limp in his brother's grip.

As planned, the grip softened and Kaiba immediately raised his head out of the water and spit water in his brother's face to distract him. The other reached for his eyes to get the water out and Kaiba managed to get his wrists out of the belt.

"No, no, die! Die!" Kaiba grabbed his brother's shoulders and shook him.

"What's gotten into you, Mokuba? Is someone blackmailing you? Are you following someone else's orders?"

But Mokuba didn't appear to listen to him; all he did was cry and scream. Kaiba's brain wasn't working properly, he couldn't come up with anything else to say or do. Adrenaline was pumping through his entire body and his heart was racing like crazy to warm him up again. The ice cold water in the sink had left his skin red and numb.

"Answer me!" he yelled, pushing Mokuba against the fridge. "This is not you, Mokuba— Ow!"

In one swift move, Mokuba turned the tables and had slammed Kaiba's head against the fridge. Then, within two seconds, he had wrapped the belt around his throat.

"The pain will stop, the pain will stop…" Mokuba panted, pulling on the belt's ends and letting Kaiba snarl and gasp for air. The edges of the cold leather were digging into his skin, almost enough to draw blood.

Then, as if time had stopped for a second, he felt himself back in the present. His head was spinning; was he hallucinating?

"The pain will stop…" Yami looked up at Kaiba and they looked at each other for a few seconds, Yami's eyes softened when he saw blue eyes shimmering with salty tears. Kaiba looked fucking broken and even though they were not that close, it still felt like a dagger in his chest.

"That's what he said," Kaiba muttered and he took a few steps back, wobbling for a second before he straightened up again. "Just like your sister and the others. We need to find out if they knew each other or if anyone has ever seen them together. There has to be some link between those kids."

"Did your brother go to Yugi Mutou's show?" It was the first thing Yami could think of and he felt a shiver go down his spine when their eyes met once again. He froze on the spot because it looked like Kaiba was going to murder him.

"My own brother, my very own flesh and blood, the only family I've got left, tried to kill me last night and you wanna know if he's a fan of a fucking moron who thinks he has magical powers?!"

Yami psychically winced and several people came running towards them. Kaiba was towering over him, his breathing far out of control and his eyes swimming with tears of rage. His own breathing was shallow as they stared at each other; Yami gathered his courage and swallowed before he spoke again.

"Kaiba, calm down—"

His air was cut off. Kaiba had pressed his arm against his neck and was pressing. Hard. Some of their colleagues yelled at him to stop, but they were ignored. Yami didn't struggle, merely looked him dead in the eye. He felt his face going red and his lungs screaming for air.

"I should've fired you on day one. All you do is run around like a toddler, ignore my orders, disrespect me, and most importantly, you piss me off," Kaiba whispered, one single tear rolling down his cheek. "You're fucking pathetic, useless and you're an ass. You can go to hell."

Mai had walked over to them and pulled Kaiba's arm away from Yami's neck. He coughed, gulping in precious amounts of air and covering his neck, which felt hot and raw.

"You've got to get a grip!" Mai shouted, beyond furious. "Yami's done nothing wrong and all he's been trying to do is help you out. Both of you are going through a hard time right now and all you do is try to bite each other's head off. We're all working our asses off here and you need to get it through your thick head that this is one of the hardest cases we've ever worked on. I'm sorry about what happened, and that Mokuba's gone, I really am, but now's not the time to take out your anger on a police officer who's just trying to do his job!"

Everyone watched them, their eyes wide and mouths slightly open. Mai had put both of her hands on her hips and was blocking Kaiba from escaping, her violet eyes practically shooting fire. Kaiba didn't move, his bangs were shielding his face from view as he hung his head, and all Yami could feel was the blood pounding in his ears while the person he looked up to stood there like a motionless puppet.

Mai turned to the remaining bystanders and with a flick of her wrist, sent them away so the three of them were alone. She slowly turned back to Kaiba and placed a comforting hand on his arm.

"Why didn't you call us?"

"I thought I could handle it myself." Kaiba was still hiding his eyes.

"What are the similarities between Yami's case and yours?"

"He was hysterical, wouldn't listen, started crying his eyes out at some point, kept saying that he was in pain and that it would stop soon, and… he's seventeen."

"Okay." Mai rubbed his arm and gave it a firm squeeze. "I'll go get you some water. I swear, if you two go at it again, I will throat punch you. I mean it."

"Yes, ma'am," Yami mumbled in a hoarse voice and she walked past him, brushing her hand over his shoulder as she turned around the corner. Before he could utter an apology, Kaiba cut him to it.

"This is what I was talking about earlier," Kaiba sighed, finally looking up and his bloodshot eyes looking up at the ceiling. "I lost control and took it all out on you. It won't happen again."

Yami guessed this was Kaiba's way of saying sorry, so he nodded and absently rubbed over his neck again.

"What's your deal with Yugi Mutou?"

"All I know is that I found tickets to his show at every house and I know you told me that your brother's a fan of him. Apart from them being a teenager, that's all they have in common. They didn't even know each other. Rebecca was already applying for college, Leon had to go to summer school, Mana wanted to become a make-up artist, they had different hobbies and interests, and they didn't live in the same area… So yeah," Yami carefully explained, half tugging at his collar to distract himself.

"Someone's been doing their homework."

"… Yeah."

"I know that Mokuba wanted to go to his show, but I've been so busy that I barely had time to notice if he actually went to see him or not." Kaiba had started rubbing his forehead and Yami pressed his lips together. "Do you really think he has something to do with the murders?"

"I do," Yami quickly said.

"Then I guess we'll have to pay him a visit.

Author's note: YAY. I'm getting a bit too excited because I can finally write the next chapter (I like writing in chronological order and it's annoying sometimes) and I've wanted to write it for so long, it's not even real. WE'LL MEET YUGI, YAY. *flies into the sun*

Please review~!