I think a writer knows when he's hit on something special when the first thing he or she thinks of, when a spark of inspiration hits, is a particular project. In my most recent case, I thought of this project.
I know I'm not updating nearly as often as I set out to do, and I do apologize for that. But I'm still working on it, and have no intention of stopping. This project is a lot of fun, and it keeps me engaged in the "Paved with Good Intentions" version of the YGO universe. Considering just how frustrating the main story can be, that's a seriously good thing.
In any case, this chapter was inspired by a couple of things. One, a reading assignment from one of my courses. Two…well, you'll see.
Kaiba-shachou was angry.
They could all tell, without thinking. Even the greenest of employees knew better than to cross him today. When he was still, he looked ready to pounce. His fingers twitched in sequence with his right eye, and it was reaching past nervous tic and into "Hey, he might have a stroke" territory. When he walked, his usual sweeping stride was only a hitch slower than an outright sprint, and his voice…well, people talked about whip-cracks. Those people were idiots.
When Kaiba-shachou was angry, his voice became a sentient presence.
A miasma of negativity hung about the man's head, and he looked like he was actively searching for someone to make that one, tiny step over the line just so he'd have an excuse to explode. The absolute calm on Roland Ackerman's face was actually insulting; the man was so blissfully unaware of his employer's ill will that he may as well have been on his way to a movie, for all the concern he showed as he strolled behind Kaiba-shachou down the hall.
Roland was thinking about something Mokuba had told him some time before. "Have you ever tried to stump him?" the boy had asked, and Roland hadn't understood. "Like, asked him a question you knew he wouldn't know the answer to. He does. He knows everything."
"I highly doubt he knows everything, little one," Roland had said.
"Uh-huh!" Mokuba had insisted. "I asked him once: 'What's the official title for Magus in Chrono Trigger?'"
"…I'm going to assume that's a videogame. Of course he would know that."
"Do you know what he said? He said, 'According to which civilization, from which time period, and in which translation?' Okay, sure, I could see him knowing one answer, maybe he watched me play it or something, but when was the last time he had enough free time to research a game that came out in 1995?"
"I'm still not convinced that's entirely out of the ordinary, Young Master."
"Oh, yeah? Do you know how much money it would cost to build a full-sized Eva Unit from Evangelion?"
"…No."
"Niisama does! How 'bout the number of doors in that white hallway from the second Matrix movie?"
"No."
"Niisama knows! And he didn't even watch that movie!"
"Dare I ask how you've come across this information?"
"It's kind of like a game. When Niisama comes to pick me up from school, or when we're driving someplace or whatever, I'll ask him things. Like a trivia contest. I've been trying to catch him for, like, two years now. He knows everything. He knows how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, and it's not three."
Roland couldn't help but grin whenever he thought of the Kaiba brothers together, the younger peppering the elder with entirely random questions until finally getting fed up and stomping out of the room in a huff. He also couldn't help but think that Mokuba would do well to not try keeping up his little trivia tradition today; his brother was in the entirely wrong mood for it.
Mokuba tended to be understanding when Seto was in a bad mood, but Roland knew that this game was something special. It was so hard to convince Seto Kaiba to loosen up and do anything that didn't directly pertain to productivity, and these questions Mokuba kept digging for were the closest the poor boy ever got to playing with his big brother on a regular basis anymore. Regardless of why, if Seto responded negatively today, which he was bound to do, it would hurt. No matter why, no matter how inconsequential it might seem on the surface, it would be a betrayal.
Lord only knew that Mokuba Kaiba put up with enough betrayal already.
And so, when Roland followed his employer into a conference room and saw Mokuba sitting there surrounded by homework, his jaw clenched. And when the boy looked up at them with a sunny little smile on his face, Roland flinched.
"Hey, Niisama," Mokuba said, clearly prefacing a question, and Roland closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable. "Can entropy ever be reversed?"
Roland blinked.
Stared.
It was so random, so thoroughly absurd, that Roland heard a record scratching in his head. Daring to glance at Seto, he saw that the elder Kaiba brother had stopped dead, as well. His cobalt eyes had widened, his mouth had opened slightly, his face a blank slate of numb confusion.
Then Roland's entire understanding of the known world collapsed in upon itself as Seto Kaiba started laughing.
It was a good laugh, an honest laugh, deep and booming and lovely. For the first time in several years, Roland actually saw youth in his employer's face, and very nearly cried at the sight. He glanced at Mokuba, who looked surprised but delighted at his brother's reaction to his seemingly random inquiry. The black-haired boy glanced quizzically back at Roland, who gave a half-shrug.
Seto was still chuckling, every trace of anger and annoyance banished to the far reaches of the universe, when he said:
"There is insufficient data for a meaningful answer."
Chrono Trigger is a Japanese role-playing game put out by Squaresoft. Oft-toted as one of the best games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it's certainly my favorite; not only was it one of the first games in the genre that I ever played, it—and specifically the character Mokuba mentioned, Magus—kick-started my interest in fanfiction. So really, it's the reason I'm here.
Evangelion is, of course, a reference to "Neon Genesis Evangelion," again originally released in 1995 by Gainax, the pinnacle of everything good (and bad) about mecha anime. Yes. Mokuba watched it. Are you really all that surprised?
I don't think I need to mention much about the Matrix sequels that hasn't already been covered ad nauseum by the internet at large. Let's move on, shall we?
The first inspiration for this chapter was "The Last Question," a short story written by Isaac Asimov. The second was a desire to see what it would be like if Seto laughed. The two things naturally coalesced into this chapter, and it proved two things: one, Mokuba can make his brother feel better no matter what's been going on; and two, Seto is a nerd, after all. And that makes him awesome.
See you next time, everyone.
