"Master Seto, there really is no need for you to have taken one of the guns in the next shipment," said Roland.
He was one of the trustworthy guards...Seto's intuition and Roland's own behavior had told him that the man was as loyal as Romario was to Dino. He obvious liked the brothers more than he did his own employer, but he kept it quiet.
"Considering the number of 'accidents' and the fact that someone is clearly after him, I'd rather be safe than sorry," said Seto. "Did he tell you to take the gun from me?"
Roland hid his disgust towards the older Kaiba.
"Actually he wanted me to make sure you knew how to fire it properly. He said if you were going to learn how to shoot, then he didn't want to pay for the hospital bills because you have no idea how to use it properly."
Seto had already insured Mokuba wouldn't go near it. He showed the gun to his younger brother, and told him exactly what it was and why he was not to go touch it without his brother there to help him.
Test firing it under his brother's careful supervision had taught Mokuba that guns simply weren't his thing. Yes, if he wanted to learn then his brother was more than happy to teach him, but he didn't really like the amount of racket it made. Never mind the recoil, and the amount of hassle that came from keeping it maintained.
He found he preferred small knives and the limited hand to hand combat that Seto could teach him in the stolen moments they had together.
Considering Seto was taught by a number of strict tutors who only accepted perfection, it was unlikely any of them would raise a stink about a twelve year old carrying a gun. Particularly since the boy's father was being targeted.
Roland didn't know whether to be relieved or worried at how quickly Seto took to using a gun. It was almost as if he had prior training, which was ridiculous.
Seto, on the other hand, was more annoyed at the low quality of the gun he had 'acquired'.
Seriously, was this how Gozaburo made his money, by shortchanging his contracts with low quality goods that could pass as decent? Or was he simply shipping them in bulk to make more money?
Perhaps he was a bit spoiled by the weapons Reborn insisted were 'acceptable'...then again it wasn't like the idiot civilian would know that his adopted son had much higher standards when it came to weapons.
He was definitely upgrading from the piece of crap he had acquired by swiping from the shipment Gozaburo insisted he observe for training purposes the second that fool was out of the way.
It was almost time...his plan was coming to it's peak, and soon they would be free of the nuisance that was their step father.
Most of the smarter players had been very quick to distance themselves from Gozaburo, and those that didn't have the brains to do so had been taken out by the Varia.
It had taken a chunk out of his available cash, and had wiped out some of his lesser dummy accounts, but it was so worth getting rid of the obstacles in his path. Best of all, the deaths of the more important players had made Gozaburo decidedly more nervous and paranoid.
Though not even Seto expected the idiot to be so foolish as to give Mokuba two percent of his company, which combined with the percentage he had 'acquired' either directly from his step father or through other means, gave him a controlling share of the corporation the man had built for himself.
Gozaburo's usefulness was up, and now Seto had everything he needed to get rid of him permanently.
Best of all thanks to Mammon, he had everything he needed to keep the Big Five in line until he assumed full control.
It felt incredibly satisfying, watching Gozaburo fall apart the moment he realized he had taken a much more dangerous predator than he could have ever hoped to be. One who had utterly ruined him while at the same time assuming control of something he had spent most of his life building up.
The shock of it all caused him to lose his mind...though his body still registered the sharp pain of his 'son' shooting him in the kneecap, so that he tripped and fumbled into the plate glass which shattered from the flaws Seto had carefully put into it.
The shock of seeing the boy openly shoot his 'father' (albeit in a nonfatal area) and possessing a cold calculating expression on his face caused the adults to become far more wary of the 'boy' than they had before.
Seto's eyes were like chips of ice as he calmly laid down the more middling secrets the board had...which made them more wary about what else the mere 'child' had on them, if he was so confident to lay this out after openly killing his adopted father.
Later that night...
Mokuba happily curled up against his brother. It was finally over, at least he assumed so.
Seto was considerably more relaxed than before, but still on his guard. He knew that it wasn't entirely over, and thanks to Noah, the digital copy of the will insured that Roland would be their 'legal guardian' until Seto proved legally competent to be an emancipated minor with full custody of his brother.
The Big Five had been placed on alert, and it wouldn't take much of their collective brain cells to figure out that Seto had been behind the 'accidents' and the sudden drop of support around his step father.
The thing was, they wouldn't be able to prove it was him...at least not in a way that the courts would take seriously. After all, they would first have to prove that a child had underworld contacts that his father didn't. And thanks to Noah, the video of him shooting Gozaburo had suffered a mystery glitch of Seto drawing the weapon. And the employees outside would have heard nothing thanks to the silencer.
For now though, he could relax a bit and just be the child he physically was.
Roland, in an attempt to salvage what little childhood Seto had left, introduced his charge to a card game that was swiftly gaining popularity among his age group. Seto had already developed something of an interest in at least one of the monsters (one that would develop into an obsession), but at least it gave him an outlet that was moderately healthy and away from anything damaging like drugs or alcohol.
Regardless of how much the board would have wanted some leverage over the rather terrifying young man who had assumed full control and was already culling their original cash flow into something far more sustainable, like technology and games. They could play it off as a "child's whim" all they liked, it didn't change the fact that thanks to his Hyper Intuition, Seto had a better idea of what was highly marketable and what wasn't. Once he cleared out the worst of Gozaburo's incompetence, he would be making hand over fist in short order.
The moment he touched the authentic Blue Eyes White Dragon card (a birthday gift from Mokuba, who spent hours with Noah's help to track it down) he felt something strange latch onto his flames.
It wouldn't be until much later that he realized what an ass he had been, or how lucky he was that he hadn't actually killed anyone while under the influence of Shadow Magic.
Some time later...
Seto was, peripherally, aware of the one called Yugi Muto. Thanks to his previous life, he could tell the difference between a very feminine boy and a girl who simply wore male clothing out of necessity.
And Yugi, contrary to popular belief, was a girl. Considering how often he was sometimes mistaken for a tomboyish girl until he grew into himself, Seto knew the difference instinctively.
Considering that puberty hadn't fully set in, it was likely Yugi wore the male uniform out of necessity since it was highly doubtful that the school carried female ones her size.
He wasn't sure why he did it, or why he even cared that Yugi's grandfather apparently had some rare card. But his hyper intuition all but demanded he visit the small shop to confirm it wasn't the Blue Eyes White Dragon card he had become obsessed with obtaining.
In all honesty, he wasn't sure why he cared so much. It was a piece of cardboard and ink, and he should have been more focused on growing his empire so that the Vongola couldn't touch him.
And yet he was down and determined to obtain all four of the Blue Eyes White Dragon cards. He couldn't explain what it was, just that he was very driven.
That impulse got even worse when he saw the card.
What the hell was going on with him lately?
"Nii-san, are you sure you're okay?" asked Mokuba, after the incident.
Seto was still shaking after the weird death vision Yugi had inflicted on him. If it wasn't for the fact he had been through worse...much worse... he would have likely been traumatized for life.
As it was, it would take some time to shake this off.
Mokuba, not one to take the fact that a mere nobody had hurt his brother after all the crap they went through with Gozaburo, decided to have a go at Yugi himself.
If Kaiba was pissed before, he was furious when Mokuba started having horrible nightmares of being trapped in a capsule. It took him months before he was remotely back to normal.
"Mokuba, I don't want you going after Yugi anymore, not until I figure out what exactly is going on."
"But nii-sama...!"
"No buts! It's bad enough Roland told me you openly threatened him with kids armed with tasers," scolded Kaiba.
"You carry a gun..."
Kaiba gave his brother a flat look.
"I have training to use a weapon. A bunch of kids armed with tasers might freak out a civilian like Yugi, but against an adult with actual training it's another story. Besides, the last thing I need is for them to go blabbing to their parents because they were stupid enough to mess around with something like that and got hurt," said Kaiba flatly. "The adults are already leery of the idea of me being emancipated, particularly after having an influence like that idiot. I don't want them having actual ammunition to remove you from my custody."
Mokuba had to sense to look ashamed.
"I... didn't think of that."
"I know you didn't, which is why I'm not more upset. If you want actual training, I can find real tutors for you, but I don't want you doing anything risky like that again," said Kaiba, before a thought occurred to him. "You did collect all the tasers, right?"
"Roland did. He made sure to get all of them and they were too freaked out by whatever Yugi did to think of keeping them," said Mokuba promptly.
"I seriously need to give that man a raise," muttered Kaiba. That was one disaster averted.
However something was definitely going on. He shouldn't be this vengeful, not over a card...regardless of how rare or powerful it was.
He couldn't explain what was going on, and it was bothering him greatly. Even Roland was concerned.
If it wasn't for the fact that he couldn't very well visit a therapist...and hiring a mafia one was the height of idiocy, if there even was such a thing...he would have started immediately.
As it was he opted for option three. Pushing himself into advancing the gaming technology his intuition insisted would make or break his company and earn his freedom once and for all.
On the plus side, if he did things right then he could rope a certain Lightning to his side on top of two other idiot scientists who caused this mess in the first place. He had yet to come up with a viable lab space that would tempt Spanner, never mind Verde.
If it wasn't for the fact that he still needed funding, since he was doing a MAJOR overhaul of the company, he never would have agreed to attend this boring party. Mokuba was lucky...he didn't have to actually talk to these rich idiots.
He was almost done for the night when he spotted...her.
He knew that face anywhere, and feeling her subtle but hidden Mist flames, he knew it had to be her.
Chrome Dukuro.
She looked about as bored as he did, and was obviously avoiding a woman he could only assume was her mother or her nanny. The woman kept giving her daughter annoyed looks, like she was displeased she had to bring her child with her.
Well, might as well say hello.
The second he got close to her, he had to hide his glee. He couldn't help it...it figured one of his rare bonded Elements would follow him, particularly the oddball pair of Mists he had acquired.
Chrome, or "Nagi" looked at him with an odd expression. It took him a moment to register that she likely felt his Sky flames (which he had been using subtly to part fools with their money all night) and suspected he was going to try something since she felt like an unbonded Element.
He could sense Mukuro's presence the closer he got to her, and didn't bother to hide his smirk.
This was going to be hilarious and get his Mist back for all the crap he put him through last time, before he ended up in his younger self.
Seto made subtle small talk, carefully sizing out the girl before him. Mukuro's presence was stronger now...likely to help Chrome fight off any forced harmonization.
Which was why he made sure she knew exactly who she was dealing with.
"Before I leave, there is one thing I'd like to say," said Seto.
"What?" asked Nagi.
"Tell that pineapple headed idiot that if he gives me nearly as much paperwork as he did before, I'll gut him. I've had it up to here with his unresolved sexual tension with that damn Skylark and having to pay for property damage on top of therapy... Chrome."
The complete and utter shock on her face was hysterical. He could only imagine the shock on Mukuro's face.
Sure enough, the older, considerably more dangerous Mist took over.
"Kufufufu... I have to admit, you caught me off guard," Mukuro said, holding Chrome's form...at least to the outsiders. Seto didn't even bat an eye at the switch, further proving his identity.
"Yes, well this time things went slightly differently. For one thing, the jackass apparently believes I'm dead," said Seto flatly.
"What of..."
"Traffic accident. I had no idea it was even coming and she was already gone," said Seto without hesitation.
Mukuro gave his former/future Sky a moment to silently grieve his mother.
"So what are your plans?"
"Telling the Vongola to go screw themselves and making a company so strong that not even their influence can topple it. I'm done playing their puppet...and I have room for a heartless lawyer all too happy to rip people to shreds who can uncover all sorts of delightful blackmail through less than legal means, as well as a decent personal assistant who can keep things organized."
"What of Ken and Chikusa?"
"I plan to run a gaming company. Worse case scenario, they become part of the main testing group for anything that interests them. I want to keep things legal, at least on the surface. I have more than enough room at my current home for you to take over a wing," said Seto immediately.
"Deal," said Mukuro. He felt the bond between him and his Sky slip back into place, and he relaxed at once. "It's good to be home...especially since you've somehow avoided the mafia."
"Just to warn you, there are five idiots in my board of directors that I want you to keep a sharp eye on. The first sign of them trying to betray me, I want you to end them however you see fit so long as none of the evidence points back to me or my little brother."
Mukuro blinked. Twice.
"You have a brother?"
"Adopted, active Sun. I wasn't about to let the Triads notice him," said Seto immediately.
Mukuro chuckled at the protective feel of his Sky's flames, and made a mental note that the young black haired boy who called his Sky "nii-san" was to be protected. He clearly wasn't trained, as his Sky despised the idea of sending children out to fight for him.
The only reason he tolerated Lambo doing it was due to the fact that the brat always managed to find his own way into the fight once the civilians were out of the way. He took pride in being the family's last line of defense for the civilians and protecting the noncombatants so that the heavy hitters could focus on annihilating anyone stupid enough to oppose them.