Happy New Year!
After so much angst and anger and depression, I thought it time to take a lighter tone with everything. Ironically, this chapter was inspired by a rather dark piece of television (an episode of Criminal Minds), but…we won't talk about that.
The talk of rituals in the previous chapter got me thinking: what kind of ritual might the Kaibas have when they're separated? This chapter attempts to shed some light on one of them.
Let's begin, shall we?
"All right, and…we'll wrap it up there for the night. Next week, you'll all level up, so take a look through your books and figure out what your new encounter power's going to be." Yugi Mutou never looked quite so accomplished than when he was done leading a roleplaying session. His eyes were practically glowing as he watched his players gathering up their dice and pencils and notes.
Mokuba was first to stand up from the table.
"Questions, comments, concerns, compliments, condemnations?" Yugi railed off, folding the paper map he'd had in front of him the entire night. "Highlights? C'mon, people, give me something."
"Sorry, Yugi," the young Kaiba said. "I have to make a phone call."
Tristan started talking, and soon he and Yugi were in the midst of a rules argument. Knowing that this would last well into the evening, Joey opted to follow Mokuba down the hall. "Don't mind me, gotta use the bathroom," the blond said when Mokuba turned to look oddly at him. This seemed to be a satisfactory answer; Mokuba slipped into the guest bedroom without comment.
By the time Joey had finished up in the restroom—washing his hands and rearranging medicine bottles, mostly—it was a good six minutes later. As he passed by the room where Mokuba was engaged in some secret meeting, Joey caught bits and pieces of the conversation; Mokuba seemed to be relaying every moment of the game with the gusto of a Shakespearean actor.
"Who's he talking to, anyway?" Yugi asked when Joey reentered the front room.
"Kaiba," the blond said without hesitation. "Sounds like he had fun. Tellin' the Big Cheese all about that skill challenge in the Spiderlord's lair. By the way, that new rule o' yours can suck my appendage."
Yugi chuckled. "Rules are rules, Ulogg."
"What-eva. You're just makin' shit up now, is whatcher doin'. I ain't forgettin' this, next time I run a game. Bitch."
Yugi grinned. "Sounds fun. Bring it."
The rest of the evening passed by without any real incident. Tristan spent the next two hours attempting to study; Joey challenged Yugi to a Mortal Kombat tournament, then challenged him to a real-life version when he lost. It was typical Game Night at the Mutou residence, except the youngest member of their band of social misfits was nowhere to be found. Nobody thought too much of this; it was commonplace whenever Kaiba was out of town. They all knew better than to interrupt a Kaiba Ritual by now, and the before-bed phone call was particularly sacred.
By the time midnight rolled around, Joey figured he should look in on the kid. The more time went on, the more Kaiba seemed to expect the blond to take over the Big Brother role for Mokuba whenever necessary. Not that Joey much minded; Mokuba was a good kid, and Joey'd had plenty of practice at it, anyway. It was pretty much second-nature. Besides, the younger Kaiba brother was the oldest eleven-year-old in Domino City, and watching him didn't mean watching him so much as it meant watching everyone around him.
The light was still on in the guest bedroom, and Mokuba was still dressed in jeans and a t-shirt; he hadn't even taken off his shoes. But he was sound asleep, his cellular phone tucked against his left ear, half his body hanging over the edge of the bed. Joey, remembering any number of weekend evenings when he'd caught Serenity in much the same position—with some sugar-and-rainbows girly cartoon blaring out of her pink princess TV—couldn't help but crack a smile.
There was no television in this room, and yet Joey heard something.
As he approached the sleeping boy, Joey realized that whatever he was hearing was coming from the phone. He lifted up Mokuba's legs and straightened him out so that he lay fully on the bed without danger of falling off, and tugged off Mokuba's sneakers and unceremoniously tossed them into a corner.
"Look like a drunk frat boy, kid," the blond murmured. "Which…pretty much means you look like a frat boy."
He was about to turn out the lights and shut the door.
Then he realized with a jolt just what he was hearing out of Mokuba's phone: singing.
Joey turned around, and inched closer. He leaned down, and damned if he wasn't right: Kaiba was goddamn singing on the other end of the line:
"…Doko e itta…ano yama koete sato e itta. Sato no miyage ni, nani morouta…den den taiko ni shou no fue…"
Joey Wheeler wasn't exactly an expert on languages, even his own, but he'd seen enough anime to recognize Japanese when he heard it.
The song had a strangely haunting sound to it, almost like Kaiba's voice was some kind of forlorn ghost, lamenting. But perhaps the most shocking part of it, aside from the fact that Kaiba was fucking singing, was how different Kaiba sounded when he did it. His speaking voice was sharp, deep and gravelly, like shards of glass grinding themselves into a fine powder; at least, that's how Joey thought of it.
His singing voice was still deep, and still had some underlying sharpness to it, but it was smooth. It flowed easily, and the blond wondered for a moment if he'd ever taken classes or something. It was...a nice sound. Almost hypnotizing.
"Nen nen korori yo okorori yo. Boya wa yoi ko da...Nen ne shina…"
Mokuba had a contented little smile playing across his face, and it struck Joey that this was the first time he'd seen the younger Kaiba brother looking…at peace, for lack of a less corny way of putting it, ever since…well, hell, ever since Duelist Kingdom, now that he thought back on it.
Joey smiled, feeling something burning back behind his eyes, and he reached over and lifted the phone from Mokuba's ear, careful not to wake him. The blond put the device to his own ear. Kaiba wasn't singing anymore.
"He's asleep, man. Out like a light."
Silence. Then,
"Thank you."
A click, then more silence.
Joey flipped the phone shut, set it on the end table, turned out the lights, and shut the door behind him. He stepped back into the front room, where Yugi was building a castle out of Magic & Wizards cards, and Tristan was shooting him angry looks every few seconds.
"What's up, Joe?" Tristan asked. "You look weird."
Joey shrugged.
"Nothin'."
As in previous chapters, the game Yugi and the others were playing was the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons, published by Wizards of the Coast.
I believe that I've mentioned before that one of the biggest divergences from canon that I take with my work is that Domino City is located in the US. However, Seto and Mokuba are still of Japanese descent, and their parents immigrated there before Seto was born.
I thought a while ago about the idea of Seto singing Mokuba a lullaby to help him sleep; it's a cute image, isn't it? But I wondered what sort of lullaby he might opt to use; the traditional "baby in the treetop" stuff from the States didn't really sit right with me.
I thought a traditional Japanese song would fit much better; so I opted to use "Edo no Komoriuta," or "Edo Lullaby," something I figure Seto's mother would have sung to him. The full lyrics go something like this:
"Nen nen korori yo, okorori yo. Boya wa yoi ko da. Nen ne shina. Boya no omori wa, doko e itta. Ano yama koete sato e itta. Sato no miyage ni nani morouta. Den den taiko ni shou no fue."
Translated into English, we're looking at something like this:
"Sleep my baby, sleep my lovely; close your eyes, my baby. You are such a good baby. Sleep my darling, sleep. Where's your nanny? Where's she gone? Over the mountains, she has traveled, to her parents' home. As a souvenir from her hometown, tell me what she gave you, darling. A small rattle drum and a small bamboo flute."
I make no guarantees in regards to the transliteration or the translation; I used Wikipedia and Youtube. But it paints a nice picture, doesn't it?
Until next time.
