I'd never thought it would happen to me – reincarnation. I never would have wanted it, either. My first life was full of pain, suffering and it didn't have a good happy ending. If I could have chosen, I would have chosen to die and live a life of freedom from my nightmares. That's probably why no one asked me what I wanted when I was reincarnated.
I was born again Hana to a mother, father and an older brother named Seto. My brother Seto was a year older than I was, and I was blissfully unaware of what was to come. I enjoyed the peace of being a child again, this time to a family that was kind and seemed to care for myself and my brother. We had another brother a few years later named Mokuba. Our mother passed when she gave birth to Mokuba, and while it was obviously difficult on him, our father was a good single father.
A small twinge in the back of my mind pulled at my consciousness at the two names, but it wasn't enough to make me concerned at the time, nor the story. Many women died in childbirth and there were a lot of single parents.
When our father died in a car crash when Seto was eight, I was seven and Mokuba was four. That twinge pulled at me again after his death and we three stood at the orphanage. We were in the orphanage for four years when Gozaburo Kaiba came for a publicity stunt.
The appearance of him made me curl into Seto, more scared in this life than I had ever been. Losing our mother was upsetting, as was losing our father, and the fear of the unknown was haunting, but something I knew how to handle from my first life. The constant fear of the unknown, of what would happen to me was as normal as breathing, at that point.
Seeing Gozaburo Kaiba made my heart beat fast and my stomach clenched tight in worry and anticipation. Seto had pushed young Mokuba into my arms with quiet assurances and challenged Gozaburo to a game of chess. I wanted to stop him as I realized what was happening, and where I was. Instead, I watched with my heart in my throat and the slight tremble of the anxiety I thought I had left behind in my last life. Holding tightly to my younger brother as my older brother won, I knew things would change, and for the worst for a while.
The many years between the adoption and when the original Yu-Gi-Oh series started was fraught, and full of anger, pain and suffering I had hoped to forget long ago. When Gozaburo Kaiba was finally out of the picture, Seto was CEO and going to school, as well as Mokuba, was when I started to settle more.
While I knew that things were going to get worse again when my brothers began mixing with the main cast, I hoped to spend the few years with my brothers enjoying life. While Seto and Mokuba went to public school, I was tutored at home. To my deep shame, the arrival of Gozaburo Kaiba ignited the conditions I had suffered before my death.
Having lived in an abusive home before, I was no stranger to PTSD, panic attacks, depression and anxiety. They were especially difficult and abundant when Gozaburo was alive, but calmed down a little when he passed.
Even so, Seto and Mokuba kept careful eye on me, keeping me from the spotlight. I did private tutoring at home, and spent my days baking for my brothers, doing my work and homework and whatever I felt like dabbling in. As shameful as I felt having suffered from those conditions, and being treated so carefully like a fragile teapot by my brothers, I couldn't deny how nice it was to not have to go to public school, not have to do press conferences and have anonymity to do as I wish.
So when we hit the canon timeline of Yu-Gi-Oh, I wasn't prepared. I knew we were getting to that age; I was fifteen, Kaiba being sixteen and Mokuba being twelve. I was busy with the dessert I was baking. While we lived in Japan, I came from America and I often had the urge to make more American foods at times, especially desserts.
It was as I was pulling my pan of brownies from the oven, proud that I hadn't burned myself and they didn't look half bad, that I checked my watch, concerned by how late my brother was. While Kaiba was a bit of a workaholic, not something I blamed him for, it was still later than his usual. Mokuba was also suspiciously missing.
I pulled out my phone with a small frown and dialed up Seto's number, trying to ignore the concern bubbling in my stomach. He didn't answer his phone, which wasn't totally abnormal. I attempted Mokuba instead this time, but he didn't answer either. That was abnormal. I pulled my apron off, allowing the worry to simmer underneath my skin.
I used my phone one last time to call for a car to come around and drive me to headquarters. I spent the trip keeping my hands clenched tight to avoid fidgeting too much. The ride was quiet as I was left to my thoughts, and as we approached Kaiba Corporation headquarters, I saw a group of teens run into the dueling entrance.
Dread fell over my shoulders as I leaped out of the limousine that hadn't even parked, rushing after the group of teens – one teen with tri-colored hair, a young brunette female, a young blonde male and a young brunette male.
As I burst through the doors of headquarters, I watched as the young teen with tri-colored hair drop to his knees by an older man, and I couldn't deny it any longer. We had hit the first episode of the series. After pausing briefly at the entrance, I hurried over to the group as guilt and shame welled in me.
"Big sis!" I heard Mokuba yell, and as I looked over at my brothers, first Mokuba off to the side and Seto ahead of me, I felt tears prickling the corner of my eyes.
"Hana…" Seto murmured, his wide, almost crazed-looking smile starting to dim, if only slightly as he met my eyes. I closed my eyes, holding back the tears with a deep breath and opening my eyes once more to give Seto a look of disappointment.
"Seto, what did you do?" I looked down at Sugoroku, and Yugi and his friends. "Big brother, did you do this?" Seto didn't immediately respond, to which I curled my arms around my middle. I took another deep breath at the group of teens who were watching Seto and I like a tennis match.
I shook off Seto's stare resolutely and got to my knees next to little Yugi.
"Please, we need to get him to the hospital. You can use the limousine I brought. We need to hurry." Yugi's eyes were wide as he stared at me, cupping the Duel Monsters cards in one hand before he nodded at me and one of his friends put a hand on his shoulder informing him they'd get him to the hospital.
I let Yugi have his time with his friends to comfort him, finally taking off without another look at my brothers with Anzu and Honda. I led them to the limousine. They hesitated as we approached, but I held the door open for them and said imploringly, "Please, I won't hurt you guys. I just want to make it up to you for what my brother did. I just want to help you." They eyed me with worry and curiosity as they piled in without a word to me. I informed the driver to get to the hospital as fast as he could.
The ride was tense, with no words spoken as Anzu cared for Sugoroku. As we pulled into the hospital, I guided them inside. Anzu spoke with the front desk as the older man was carted off and Anzu and Honda quickly went back with him. I watched quietly before approaching the front desk.
"The man, Sugoroku Mutou, please send his hospital bills to the Kaiba Corporation. I showed her my Kaiba Corp badge briefly that I keep in my pocket usually in case of emergencies and pulled her notepad over, grabbed a pen and wrote down the number for our financial department. "If you have any questions, please call this number here. They will confirm that his bills are to be paid by the Kaiba Corporation. Otherwise, you can always call the main number and have them transfer you back to the financial department."
The woman at the front nodded at me and took the card. I pulled away from the front desk then, glancing briefly over to the door they took Yugi's grandpa through. Feeling my shoulders hunch, I shook my head, thinking of the conversations I will have to have with my brothers.
I headed back towards the doors then, climbing into the limousine as the driver held open the door for me. I quietly asked him to drive me back to our mansion, watching the scenery pass me by as I sat in the limo alone with my thoughts.
After finally pulling up to the mansion, I got out and headed towards the kitchen. The brownies were cool at this point and I gave a huff of disappointment at missing out on the best part of the brownies. Ignoring the disappointment, I grabbed powdered sugar and poured a generous amount over my brownies. I pulled out some ice cream from the freezer then, cutting the brownies and making myself a portion of a brownie and a scoop of ice cream. I sat at our counter and ate quietly.
Not too long after, my brothers entered the mansion and I felt myself tense at the noise, but quickly relaxed my body. Mokuba wandered in, face brightening at the brownies on the counter. He quickly grabbed himself some as well and I turned to look at Seto as he walked into the kitchen.
"Hana," He started, voice quiet.
"Oh, Seto," I said with a sigh. I pat the space across from me. "Come sit with me."
Mokuba finished grabbing himself some of my food and jumped onto the chair next to me at the counter. Seto slowly slid himself onto the chair watching me hesitatingly.
I reached over and cupped his hand in mine. "You know I love you, right?" I got a jerk of his head in response, which was enough for me. I shook my head as I squeezed his hand lightly once. "I don't know the whole story," I started, "but that doesn't seem like something you would do, big brother." When I looked back up at Seto, his face was almost covered by his bangs as his head tilted low. "Whatever happened, I still love you, Seto. And I know you're better than this." I squeezed his hand once more before letting go. "Now grab something to eat! Don't try to tell me you've eaten today, I know you!"
When Seto raised his head at me, I could see a glimmer of amusement swimming in his eyes. I gave him a quirk of my lips in response and lightly slapped his arm with the back of my hand.
"Go on! Eat."
He shook his head lightly at me and headed over to grab himself some food. "You know how unhealthy this is for you, right, Hana?" He asked almost judgmentally as he took a bite.
I raised my chin up at him to look at him defiantly. "You can pry my baking pans and utensils from my cold, dead hands, before I'll stop baking and eating away my sorrow."
Mokuba gave a snort of laughter at my words, and the argument was left at that as we enjoyed each other's company.
Despite the light end to the night, I felt the despair of knowing canon had started, and this was only the beginning of another stretch of trouble for my brothers.