Seto walked back into his dressing room with his arms full of flowers, feeling accomplished.

That had gone incredibly well.

The rush of being on stage, at the center of attention, almost erased the horror from an hour ago. It came rushing back the moment he saw Yami sitting calmly on the couch, with Solomon standing in the corner of the room, still dressed in his janitor's garbs, and his mood went sinking to his feet.

There was a tense silence.

Seto moved to set the flowers down on the counter by the mirror and inched his tie off around his neck, staring at Yami sitting stoically on his couch, still wearing full body-armor with a helmet resting in his lap. Jeez…
What happened to being retired?
Not that he wasn't grateful, but this couldn't be healthy.

Reaching for a makeup wipe by the mirror, Seto palmed it across his cheeks, wincing at the coolness. The extra powder on his face made it feel like he'd been wearing a mask under the hot lights.

"Well, he seems fine. I'll be leaving now," Solomon grunted, walking to the door and almost got stampeded by the PR team who came rushing in, falling over themselves to talk to Kaiba.

The old man side-stepped the small group of shouting people and went on his way down the hall, with no one giving a second glance.

Yami tensed and tightened his grip around his helmet with half the mind to put it on, mainly to hide his identity, but thankfully, no one was looking at him.

Two women and one man were frantically shoving a tablet in Kaiba's face, talking over each other in a panic.

"Can we have permission to call the lawyer? There's some slander trending on the hashtag!"

"We need to strike this down before it trends worldwide. Your release is connected to this!"

"Mr. Kaiba! Can we use your technology to confirm it's a deep fake?!"

Seto discarded his second makeup wipe and walked over to wash his hands in the sink, thinking he had a feeling he knew what this was about.

While he was drying his hands, the PR leader was showing him a grainy, dark video on her electronic pad. It was of him, wearing the same suit he'd been seen on stage with, half-off screen, firing the 3D gun.

The camera was knocked over, giving a sideways view of the full-armored man bloodied on the floor before the stream cut off.

The neon text across the dark screen were in all different languages, of people commenting in swaths when the video looped again, he managed to read:

"...?! CEO MURDER!"

"I knew it. 73[V] is not involved with this!"

"T€m would not fk with this kinetic psycho"

"Wht. is that a 3d gun? TF billio$S0naires are wack."

"Gun restric in Kapan works if he had to MAKE a gun lmaosdojsiao"

"Ripping this to put on the m in. The soys r gonna lose their minds."

"WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW/ hit at the dome gone wrong /WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW"

"Cancel all reqs for sk rofl maybe he hit t3m like this. He was a god. fuck"

"Shit. rip †3m"

"Fck tha wasn't T3m"
"That was kappa leader, have rumit it is."

"ipigs were all over the scene, dome more secure than most secret service buildings in the world bc kc can pay"

"Someone gonna try this on the muskr t if he pops his head up in a stadium"

"rip.""

"Rofl rip"

"†EM?!"

"Someone say it before i do–trained by /-\†e[]V[]"
"HOLY FUCK SNUFFFFED!"

"Look at his stance. Good bracing teq. He was ready fhaehehah"

Seto leaned away and glanced at the three nervous faces waiting for him to say something.

"Wow they have my face really clearly," was all he said after cracking a smile, and all three of his employees gaped at him.

The man standing closest to the couch had to sit down shakily, and only then did he realize there was another person in the room, and he jumped in fear at the sight of thick-soled boots beside him. The spiky-haired man beside him was wearing full body-armor. His slender legs were crossed, giving him a scary view of an ankle holster toting a small gun, a knife strapped to the man's other thigh, and… the butt of another very real-looking gun, sitting against the man's inner hip.

A high-tech helmet sat on the man's lap, blocking his view of it. M-Maybe this man was a cosplayer but the outfit was scarily similar to the full-body armor-wearing men in the slanderous video.

"W-Wow…uh…" The man broke out into a sweat, and Yami didn't even look at him. "...Is that a real gun?"

"It's fake," Yami replied evenly, keeping his arms crossed.

"But it looks real," the man began, and Yami cut across him.

"It's fake."

"Then can I touch it?" The man begged shamelessly, and all other heads turned to face Yami sitting on the couch. One of the women let out a gasp, and clutched the pad closer to her chest.

A military officer had been sitting there the whole time and they didn't even know because he didn't move.

"No," Yami said irritably, tapping the com in his ear, meeting Seto's gaze in the mirror. "Get rid of them. Pegasus is entering with two agents."

The man beside him stared hungrily at the curly wire coming out of Yami's ear and his gaze slowly landed on the receiver Yami had clipped to the side of his front chest plate.

"The radio is fake too? Are you a cosplayer?" The man asked incessantly, his eyes still fixed on the small gun strapped to Yami's thigh. "Were you part of making the video? Is that why you're here?"

"Shut. Up," Yami gave the man a cold glare and lifted his gaze to ask Seto again. "You're not in trouble but they want a statement."

"Okay." Seto said calmly as he walked over to the mini fridge to pull out a bottle of water. "Drink?"

Yami nodded stiffly, so Seto tossed a bottle of water at him over his shoulder. Yami caught it single-handedly in his gloved hand and the plastic crackled from how hard he squeezed it.

All three PR employees could only continue to stare speechlessly.
It sounded like…the video was real?!

The voice in his comm sounded like Pegasus, and Yami took a drink as he listened.

"...No. It's fine. We keep him on site until the crowd leaves. Yes."
"...Gemini? Do you copy?"

"It's Yami, over." Yami said irritably, making all three PR workers jump in surprise, so he tapped his ear and tilted his head, "not talking to you."

Seto moved to take a seat in the make-up chair and swiveled around to face Yami, taking in his impressive full-armored outfit, and had to wonder where it came from. He was about to ask when Yami moved quickly and yanked a dark head-sleeve out of the helmet and slid it on over his face.
The heavy-duty helmet followed, and Yami managed to fit it snugly over his ears just in time to hear a knock at the door.

"That's them," Yami signed with his left hand, and he remembered Seto couldn't understand him.

Stunned at the sudden change in attitude, Seto stared at the odd hand-signs Yami used, and understood. Right. He'd get the door…

Standing quickly, Seto inched the door back and saw three people hovering nervously before him.

Two men were wearing police badges around their neck and…Pegasus, in that outrageous, red blazer. He didn't even get to watch the footage of how Pegasus had MC'd his stage arrival. Fuck.

"Mr. Kaiba…" Pegasus peeked into the crowded dressing room and was shocked to see Atem sitting casually in full-gear on the couch while three other civilians lingered. "We need to talk about the video that surfaced of you firing a 3D gun."

Seto clenched his jaw. Fine. Jeez.
And he'd call his criminal defense lawyer, just in case too.

"One second," Seto growled and he slipped his hand into his blazer for his phone, seeing that motion startle the other two agents, who froze, and then shouted, "...GUN!"

Yami froze for a millisecond.
Then he moved, grabbing the man closest to him to drag him shoulder-first to the ground, hearing him let out a frantic cry, and he put his knee down on the man's chest, drawing the smallest weapon from his thigh to point it at the doorway, wondering why Seto wasn't getting down, or moving.

"Phone…to call my lawyer," Seto said testily, turning left and right to show off that he only had his phone in hand, hating how the two agents had triggered Yami. "You two fuckers can fuck off." He pointed at the cops behind Pegasus and kicked the door shut, seeing Pegasus open his mouth to protest, but the door almost caught him in the nose.

The man pinned under Yami's knee was whimpering, hugging the electronic pad to his chest while he stared upwards at the helmet-wearing man who remained in the hostile stance with the gun raised at the door.

"Chill out… It's okay," Seto said carefully, aware that Yami was probably still 'on'. "We're safe. It was my fault. I should've said I was reaching."

Yami lowered the weapon and tucked it back into his holster, kneeling on the man for a moment longer than he needed to before getting up to stand at attention in the corner of the room, his skin tingling with fury and adrenaline.
He did not need someone to shout 'gun' when he was trying to turn off.

Reminding himself to take deep breaths, Yami leaned against the wall and decided to sit down. He was buzzing from head to toe.
Sinking into a semi-relaxed position on the ground, Yami propped his dominant arm up on his left leg, angled at 90 degrees…so he could draw from his hip at a moment's notice.

He barely listened to Seto calling his lawyer, and 10 minutes passed in tense silence while they all waited for the man to show up.

All three PR employees sat down on the couch, giving Yami a comforting view of all their faces, an unobstructed view of the door, and Seto, beside him in the makeup chair.

The mini fridge was beside his shoulder, so Yami opened it, thinking he had seen a lemon in there. He was correct. A small stack of lemons sat on the shelf's edge closest to the door, so he picked one up and slammed the door shut.

He hated being idle while in full-gear and needed something to do.

Using the small knife from his thigh sheath, he cut it open and took his watch off, rolling up the edge of his glove to set the fruit against the henna tattoo on his skin, eager to get it off.

No identifying marks.
Wearing the design made his arm feel like it was hot.

"What are you doing?" Seto asked as he leaned against the armrest of his chair to look down at Yami rubbing the half-cut lemon against the skin of his inner wrist.

Lifting the lemon away from the faded tattoo, Yami angled his fist left and right to show Seto the tattoo.

"Two? Of what?" Seto said with a smirk, and Yami shook his helmeted head.

Oh.

"Gemini, I get it," Seto grinned, trying to get Yami to relax, because the silence in the room was suffocating. "I take it Pegasus knows?"

Yami nodded, aware that all three civilians were staring at him from the couch.

"And the…'i-pigs'?" Seto asked with a smirk, thinking he heard Yami let out a huff under his helmet, and Yami drew a line across his throat with a gloved hand, then held up a middle finger.

"So only Pegasus knows. Who else?" Seto asked conversationally, and Yami was about to speak and say "Solomon", when someone knocked rapidly on the door, calling out loudly.

"Mr. Kaiba, I am your legal counsel!" It sounded like Dartz.

"Stop shouting!" Seto shouted back, and Yami tightened his grip around the handle of the knife.

Jeez.

Standing up to quickly let the man in, he was followed by Pegasus and the other two agents. The dressing room was quickly becoming crowded, and the PR employees stood to bow at the newcomers, and were promptly asked to sit back down as the agents bowed back, handing out their business cards.

Yami ground his teeth. Formalities. Could they get this over with?!
He wanted to take off the armor, sit in a hot bath and then lay in bed.

Datrz eyed the fully-armed individual sitting in a defensive stance on the ground in the corner of the room and his lips curved up into a smile, "May I get the names of everyone in this room before we start?"

The two agents stayed by the door while Pegasus hovered beside Seto, and the lawyer stood in against the wall by the TV screen, setting his briefcase down on the coffee table in front of the three PR employees who looked frightened.
Well, he had been in odder situations.

"Emiko-san," the PR leader said, lowering the electronic pad from her chest to tap her hand-written name tag.

"Goto-san," the man in the middle said, bowing, and his co-worker beside him piped up, "Ishizaki-san."

The two agents by the door bowed to the lawyer, "I am Agent Haga".
"I am Agent Ryuzaki…"

There was a loud thump on the wall, causing everyone to jump and look in Yami's direction on the floor, and Yami was signing furiously, "SHUT the fuck up and get on with it."

Pegasus glanced over at the fast hand-signs and translated politely, "he says to please get on with it. That is our friend, Gemini. And you already know whoI am, Mr. Paradius."

Dartz smiled thinly and nodded, giving everyone in the room a polite half-bow, "thank you. You have Mr. Kaiba's full cooperation. Let's begin. What are we discussing today?"

The agents turned to address Mr. Kaiba with a cautious tone, "we would like to know where you got the 3D weapon and where the remnants are. The person you shot was moved and we can't confirm the ID of the person in the video."

Yami raised his hand, and Pegasus spoke up, "Our friend has an interjection. Allow me." And he stepped forward to see Yami signing to him, "Dead man was Kappa Leader, Kalim Sayed. Code name: lime. I won't tell you where I put the body."

All three PR employees on the couch tensed in fear and glanced at every face in the room.

Seto Kaiba looked relaxed, with the water bottle hanging loosely from one hand.

The MC named Pegasus was also calm, while the two agents looked furious, and the lawyer was smirking handsomely.

"We need the body…please," Agent Haga said with his fists clenched at his sides, wondering how he would ever report to HQ correctly about what happened here. "Our jobs depend on it."

"Not. My. Problem," Yami signed, and Pegasus replied just that.

"Says it's not his problem," Pegasus felt like the villain saying it, but didn't feel the usual rush of guilt that came with it.
It was strange, working for the side he used to hate.

"Mr. Pegasus, you were there! You tackled the Oscar leader! Where was the body behind you?" Agent Ryuzaki asked frantically, and Pegasus glanced at the lawyer briefly before answering, "you saw what happened on my body cam. I gave chase and successfully apprehended the threat. I don't know what happened behind me."

Yami raised his fist for attention and signed again, "conditions for my releasing the body: you will announce Seto Kaiba's image was deep faked in the video. You will erase all footage of me, and terminate employment of Maximillion Pegasus, and erase footage of his service under you."

"What?! I won't say that!" Pegasus yelped, and to his rising fury, Yami drew his weapon and pointed it at him in a hostile manner, signing with his other hand.

"Say it."

Everyone in the room tensed at the sight of the drawn gun, but Seto remained unfazed.
This was Yami on a good day.

"H-He says…" Pegasus swallowed and turned to relay Yami's message to the two agents, receiving shocked looks, and pale faces. As expected.

"We can't do that," Agent Ryuzaki said lamely, and Yami thumped the wall with his other hand, aware that his appearance in full-armor was terrifying them.
Everyone jumped at the loud noise…except for Kaiba and the lawyer.

"Then, no body." Pegasus surmised as he eyed Yami's fingers curving around each English letter. "No deal, no body. No job."

There was a tense silence.

"Mr. Kaiba, please do something," the agent with the glasses pleaded with him, and Kaiba felt a rush of resentment towards him.
The one that had shouted 'gun' carelessly.

"No." Seto said calmly, crossing one leg over the other and lacing his fingers over his knees. "If you don't take down the video with your authority, I will sue. For literally anything, and I will win, starting with…leaked, deepfaked footage that was supposed to remain locked under the protection of your agency."

The agent's mouths dropped open, and Ryuzaki pointed at the three people sitting quietly on the couch, "this is your PR team, are they not? We can interrogate them."

"With me present," Dartz said loudly, tossing a lock of hair over his shoulder. "Everyone under Mr. Kaiba's employ receives the blanket legal protection. It is the contract they signed at the start of their employment with Kaiba Corporation."

All three people on the couch let out tense sighs, and Yami bit back a smile.
Now could they go home?!

"Mr. Pegasus, we have your full cooperation, do we not? You can stay in contact with Gemini while we track his movements over the next months," Agent Haga said with his eyes narrowed at the full-armored individual sitting on the ground behind the lawyer and Seto Kaiba. The visual was oddly disturbing.
Why were these people…protecting that monster?

"No. He's not required to cooperate," Seto said as he threw a protective hand over Pegasus's chest, smirking. "He is with me."

Pegasus gave Kaiba an incredulous look but didn't say anything.

A power struggle was happening, and his job, his reputation was once again, on the line.

The two agents frowned in anger and Agent Haga took a step forward, patting the handcuffs swinging on his belt as he announced, "then we will arrest Mr. Gemini and detain him until he cooperates. He is a criminal."

Seto glanced at his lawyer who took the cue, and nodded.

"He is employed under Kaiba Corporation as well," Dartz said slyly, enjoying his job very much when he saw two, tense, angry faces in front of him. "We can provide documents of Mr. Kaiba's extensive security detail. If you wanted to arrest a member of Mr. Kaiba's team, you will need to prove this man did what you claim he did, and we can provide documents for Mr. Pegasus's employment too."

Can they? Pegasus wondered briefly and he received a warning glance from Seto Kaiba beside him that made him rearrange his face into a neutral expression.
Sure. Of course.
He had signed something when he entered the Kaiba Mansion.
They could easily take that signature and put it on another document.

"So take the video down and we will get…a body delivery?" Agent Ryuzaki asked shrilly, and Seto smirked.

Yami raised his hand in the air to sign back, "done. You said it. Now move so I can leave."

He rose to his feet and felt everyone in the room freeze in fear.

Oh I'm still holding a weapon, Yami thought as he absently stuck it back into the holster and nodded. There.

"He's dangerous. We can't let him back out into society!" Agent Haga was pointing at him with a bead of sweat curling down by his ear. "We cannot let you leave."

Uh oh, Seto thought plainly as he gently eased off the makeup chair and got down on his knees to put his hands behind his head in a defensive position. His three PR employees saw him do that and immediately raised their hands up to the sides of their faces, trembling in their seats.

Yami didn't move. He merely crossed his arms and watched Pegasus and the lawyer also get down on their knees…as if bullets were going to start flying, and Yami knew it wouldn't be from his gun.
Damn.

"What are you all doing? He's not threatening you!" Agent Ryuzaki cried, not reaching for his weapon but resting his hand on the back of his taser. "Haga-san?"

Yami raised his hand slowly to sign, and Pegasus translated in a shaky voice, "...he says if you apprehend me, I will act in self-defense. Everyone is obviously preparing for my hostile exit. I suggest you step aside."

Yami then took a step forward and watched the agents shrink back against the wall.

He took another step forward and another, and another, his boots thumping heavily across the floor as he reached the door without anyone stopping him. He yanked the door open and walked out into the hallway, aiming for the supply closet where his regular clothes were waiting.

The yellow door appeared down the hall, so he shouldered it open without hesitation, wrinkling his nose at the metallic stench inside as he quickly picked up the black bag from the janitor's cart and got changed.

Back inside the dressing room, Kaiba's lawyer was shaking his hand and leaving.

The two agents were furious, and they both left in a hurry after receiving a call from headquarters.

His three PR helpers were eager to leave too, but Kaiba made sure to call after them, "your discretion is appreciated…!"
And no one looked back to bow at him. They were all terrified of him. Damn.
Maybe this was what Yami felt on a daily basis.

Pegasus remained standing beside Seto's chair, and didn't dare move or speak. Atem had told him the next time he saw Seto Kaiba, he ought to run in a zigzag line.

"Alright, thanks for your help," the CEO turned to give him a charming smile that threw him off guard. "If I re-watch footage of your MC-ing and hate it, I'm cutting your first paycheck."

Completely at a loss for words, Pegasus merely grit his teeth and bobbed his head in a polite bow. Nice to know Seto Kaiba would be sending him payment.
He had first tackled the man who aimed a gun to Kaiba's head earlier.
Some monetary thanks would be nice.

Striding out of the dressing room with a tentative glance out into the hallway, he was stunned to see Atem, walking casually down towards him, handsomely dressed down in a black t-shirt, black form-fitting athletic pants and black running shoes.

"Good work," Yami said calmly, pressing his hand against Pegasus's chest to hand him the key to the closet. "Sever ties with the C1 agents after you give them this key. Body is in the blue bin. See you next Thursday? I have you penned in for a massage with me at 5PM."

Catching the keys before they fell to the ground, Pegasus's hand grazed Yami's knuckles briefly and his palms burned.

Yami smirked at him over his shoulder and disappeared inside the dressing room. He could hear a loud crash and then heavy panting coming obviously through the door, and he flushed dark red.

He hurried off and tried to calm his thundering heart.
All in a day's work?

All in a day's work.

Author's note:

thank you for following this story so far! more coming soon!