Shadows of Knowledge

Summary: Kaiba has failed another year of high school due to how much school he's missed. Yugi and Ryou are in the same boat. The board of Kaiba Corp and his investors aren't happy. Instead of staying at Domino High School for another year SetoKaiba sets up his own school with plans to learn more about the Shadows.

Chapter One

It had been a while since he'd visited his mother. Too long. It was nice to get back to Japan. He didn't have anywhere to go for once and he didn't have any urgent business that he could foresee would take him out of the country. His mother's grave was in his old home town. He didn't particularly like returning since his biological family still lived in the area. He had no desire to see the people who'd rejected him as a child ever again. He'd seen his grandfather at his mother's grave once. The man tried to apologize but he refused to have anything to do with the man. Mokuba would forgive the old man, but he couldn't, he wasn't a forgiving person. His grandmother and uncle where the worst. They'd been the ones that had actually dropped him off at the orphanage. The ones that had been the most vocal about separating him and Mokuba. The ones that told him to his face that they hated him. He was only eight years old at the time. It had been awful for him to hear an adult hated him as much if not more than the kids his own age.

It was far easier to visit his father's grave in England then it was to visit his mother's grave in Japan. No one knew who he was when he was visiting his father. In Japan he was too well known, especially in business, gaming and duel monsters circuits. He had a high chance of being recognised and not just by people that knew him as a child.

He was alone in his visit. Mokuba didn't ever have the chance to know their mother and didn't feel the need to visit their mother like he did with their father. He respected his brothers decision.

'It's alright to still be hurt by your mother's death. My mother's death still hurts me, and it was over 3000 years ago.'

"I can't help wondering how different everything would've been if mum didn't die." Seto said out loud.

'You'd be a different person then you are now. But we can't change the past, as much as we wish it. You've done bad things. Those bad things don't make you a bad person my cute descendant. I've done my far share of bad things. Growing from those experiences and making the decision to not to repeat our past mistakes. Repenting when we do repeat them. Recognising what is right and what is wrong.'

Seto wondered if this was how Yugi and Ryou both felt. Having a voice talking constantly in his head. Someone he couldn't get rid of because they were a part of his soul. When he'd still been in Set's tomb it hadn't bothered him too much. He'd been distracted with wanting to get back to Mokuba. He hadn't given much thought of what it meant for him from now on. He liked his privacy and had his secrets but now he had someone living in his head. He couldn't be alone anymore. His thoughts were no longer private. He had another opinion that wasn't his own. Someone who knew all his sins.

Someone that could control his body. It was a pain. He'd be at work, trying to get important projects done and would find himself waking up in his bed in the morning. Set didn't force control very often. But when he did it was when the old spirit felt he needed sleep. He got better sleep when Set was in control when his body went to sleep. He didn't like the feeling of waking up in a different location with no recollection of how he got there or falling asleep. Luckily for him all Set did force him to his soul room and put him to bed.

He'd bet if he actually saw a psychologist that he'd be diagnosed as mentally insane.

'You're not insane my cute descendant.' The man told him.

Sure, the voice in his head was telling him he wasn't insane. He couldn't help but chuckling at the thought. He got a few strange looks from other mourners who were visiting the cemetery.

He'd been called cute by woman many times over the years. He hated being called cute. Cute didn't fit his image. He swore the ancient spirit called him cute just to tick him off and because the spirit could see inside his head the old man knew that it worked.

With the spirit tied to the tome it had been left in his hands. Yugi had tried to give him the Rod which had been Set's in his past once they had returned to Japan.

"Now is not yet the time young Pharaoh. You need all seven items in order to unlock the secrets of my cousin's locked memories." Set had told Yugi.

The only item Yugi didn't have was the ring. Ryou had passed the item to Yugi when they'd returned to Japan, but the Thief King hadn't liked that much and the next day the item was back with Ryou.

Ryou and Amane where both still living in the mansion. Upon returning to his home country he'd arranged a tutor for Amane. A tutor that wasn't anything like the ones he'd had the horror of knowing when he'd been adopted. He'd performed rigorous screening to make sure the woman who was tutoring Amane had the suitable credentials, do the work she'd been hired to do and wouldn't harm the girl in any way. The magic hospital she'd been in didn't seem to do any work with her at all. Just wrote her off as a lost cause. She wasn't at the learning level that Ryou was, but no one had bothered to even see if she was capable of relearning. Which she was. They'd would never know what level she would've been at if someone had taken the effort to work with her.

His mother would've loved both Ryou and Amane if she'd still been alive. The staff loved Amane and would be devastated if she ever left. She seemed to bring life to the mansion. He didn't mind, it meant they didn't try to dote on him as much. Ryou didn't overly want to stay in the mansion. He felt like he was imposing and was constantly trying to help out around the mansion. Seto wasn't about to separate the siblings again. They'd been separated for far too long and should've never been separated in the first place. He knew what it was like to be separated from Mokuba, those times had been the worst of his life. Ryou and Amane had been separated far longer then he'd ever been separated from Mokuba.

'Yes being separated from family is the worst.' The spirit agreed with him. I was separated from one of my children. My daughter Bek. She was kidnapped when she was twelve. She hated me when I finally bought her back home four years later. But even though she hated me, when I first bought her home; I didn't mind. She was back home with family and safe. She'd grown to love the man who kidnapped her and was carrying his child when I finally tracked her down. She never did forgive me for the death of her kidnapper. Bek's child, a little boy named Isa. He was such a bubbly boy. I loved him dearly. I loved all my children and grandchildren dearly. I hope you get the chance to love and have a family. Children are the most precious things, even if they make you want to pull your hair out at times. Something really should be done about young Joseph and his sister.'

Joey and Serenity were another set of siblings that had been separated for far too long. Due to the selfishness of their parents. He had an idea of how to get them back together, without them knowing he was helping them. But the time to implement that plan wasn't now. They had a lot that needed to be done. School for one thing. Yami and Yugi needed to recover Yami's memories and true name. Finally destroy Voldemort for once and for all, they couldn't let him build his numbers again. He'd been hurt by Voldemort as had both Amane and Ryou. Luna and Draco and many others. If Voldemort wanted the items, tome or the item holders he would have to come to Japan to get them. Eventually they would deal with him, but not now. Voldemort had made a mistake when he'd kidnapped Seto, and Seto was going to make the remainder of Voldemorts life hell.

"Sorry mum, I'm not a good son. I've done the unforgivable and planning on doing the unforgivable again."

He stood at his mother's grave telling her about how Mokuba was currently doing, and his plans for Voldemort.

Authors Note: Would you believe me if I said I tried to post this yesterday. The site went down half an hour before I finished work and was still down when I went to bed last night. Work this year had been busy so haven't had as much time as I would like to write in the evenings so this story is well and truly behind schedule since I planned to start posting this section in February.

Thankyou everyone who had read, reviewed and faved. I hit 50 reviews in the months this stories been sitting idle which makes it my second most reviewed story. It's also second place for fav's and alerts and 4th when it comes to overall views.