Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

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While the sun lowered further into the ocean, setting Texas on fire from where he sat. Mr. Mouto sat looking over the menu that had been provided with the room. The chair was one of many stiff formal seating arrangements. Painful enough to keep him focused on the task at hand, his eyes scrolling down the list of meals.

'Hm, there's a sizable option for children and not just American children...' he recognized as he saw the generic chicken fingers, french fries, but also staples for children from multiple parts of the world. Reflecting not a fixation on purely American food, or Asian due to Kaiba's...

"Henry, Kaiba isn't fully Japanese is he? He's pale enough... But I feel like there's something else there, especially with looking at his younger brother." Mr. Mouto commented as his eyes went from the children part of the menu back to the adult fare.

"I suppose not, I only met Kaiba, Gozoboro once. Shortly after you hired me in fact," Henry replied as he brought a fresh cup of chamomile tea to his boss's side.

"Smart business man, but his emotional disconnect to the rest of the world is pretty evident with his adoption of young Kaiba. What with his own son dying and all.."

"Son? He has a biological?" Henry grew respectfully quiet.

Gozoboro never announced or had another announce the death of his son, until the day he passed away he spoke as though the boy lived. Coma, the CEO claimed, but while he was in such a state Seto would be in place to run things. No one believed it, while the extremely wealthy had more than enough wealth to attempt such a thing. That no one saw the boy.

"He had a son named 'Noah' odd name for a full blooded Japanese child. Regardless, there was an 'incident'. Kaiba claimed that his son was merely in a medically induced coma where the boy would be monitored and looked after until his body had healed." Mr. Mouto explained, waiting for any possible questions to come from his assistant.

Henry frowned thoughtfully, "Noah would have stood to inherit the company though, why adopt Seto and his brother? Medically induced coma suggests he would have lived." He poured himself a cup and joined his boss, sitting in another of those stiff uptight chairs. The aroma was a pleasant relaxing scent and he hoped it would influence some relaxation in Mr. Mouto.

"I don't think anyone believed the child 'could' be saved. Kaiba was a second generation family of wealth, they don't accept 'defeat'. So losing Noah to death would have bothered the man greatly I imagine." Mr. Mouto took a sip of the tea and stood up to resettle himself in a more comfortable chair.

"So adopting Seto and Mokuba served more as a replacement?" Henry asked as he watched his boss walk over to another ideally more comfortable chair.

"Yes, but given they were adopted, the odds of finding another boy as hard and arrogant as himself wouldn't have been easy. I suppose he beat the boy into that..." Mr. Mouto recounted, noting the flinch from Henry at the word 'beat'.

"But he died of a heart attack right? Its kind of twisted, if its even possible that Noah 'is' alive and 'does' get revived. He's going to wake up to a world where his father, who went through all of this for him, is gone." Henry noted then added, "and the company is now a gaming company so any training this boy has would be useless."

"Indeed, and somehow Kaiba, Seto and Mokuba, have been befriended by Yugi. I'm not even sure how that would be possible." Mr. Mouto agreed with a faint sigh as he settled on a dinner option. "Thankfully Kaiba has a Japanese palette, I can expect the food here will actually 'taste' Japanese."

"I don't even know how they met," Henry agreed as he stood up to get the menu and see what Mr. Mouto wanted served.

"Father said that they share the same class," Mr. Mouto explained. "It wasn't an instant friendship... It was about a week before... my..." he paused, his lips pursed and the pain starting to etch back into his expression.

"I see, was that when he told you that your son and Kaiba had become friends?" Henry suggested his voice gentle.

Mr. Mouto shook his head. Gazing down into the swirls of his tea he tried to find a way around the obstacle of words. Words refused to dissolve the way the water did into the tea then flowed with ease. Nothing could overcome its flow given sufficient time and amount.

Right?

"Yugi has finally begun making friends!"

"Besides Little Anzu?"

"Yeah, a trio of boys from his class!"

It was a trio of boys that his father in law spoke of last year, Kaiba did come up in conversation but distantly. "They're more like frieamies," Sugoruku gave that big belly laugh that ballooned the air and pushed him away from the phone for a moment. "Kaiba was antagonistic sure, tried to kill Yugi even, but they're ok now. Even if Kaiba doesn't act like it!"

'Tried to kill Yugi'.

Perfectly normal statement, lots of people made meaningless threats and he wanted to believe it was one of those.

Maybe at the depths of the cup he would see an answer float up like a magic 8 ball. Just keep staring at it, and swirl the cup.

"Sir," Henry took the cup from his hand and put it on its saucer resting on the near by table.

"They've been 'friends' of sorts for a year. Before the Battle City Finales even." Mr. Mouto recounted, "though in fairness its hard to believe that the guy I saw standing there opposing Kaiba was 'Yugi'. He was so different. My Yugi is this shy, demure kid who looks and acts like a 10 year old."

"And that was no '10 year old'," Henry agreed as Mr. Mouto's voice faded into nostalgia.

"Yugi with his back straight, proud..." Mr. Moutos' voice was both confused and amazed. "Watching... did I ever tell you I gave my father in law that Dark Magician card? I saw it in a shop in Tokyo on a connecting flight to Domino. Just felt like he should have it... And there was Yugi summoning his grandfathers' Dark Magician."

Henry lowered his gaze as a lump of worry started to grow in his throat, they had seen that duel after all. "I remember, the tv feed went dead and the ending was never aired we were just told that Yugi won. The plays that were used and there was a hologram program that showed the final duel after the cameras went down."

"Blew up the island," Mr. Mouto recalled as he sank back into the chair. So distracted he didn't realize the tea cup was gone and tried to take another sip. Blinking he looked down at his hand before sighing. "And Father was all 'its just how Kaiba is'... Well now someone blew up the shop and I would swear it 'was' Kaiba, except Yugi was 'with' Kaiba when it happened."

"At least your son is safe..." Henry pointed out as gently as he possibly could. Which earned him a sign of mild resentment.

"I understand his reasoning, he finally has friends and uprooting him now close to graduation would just be a hassle." Mr. Mouto grumbled as he heard the argument over and over in his head.

It even sometimes was voiced by a young woman! Little Anzus' voice was edged with sadness and desperation in those calls when he tried to reach Kaiba. Demanding to know his son's condition...

"I realize this is a trying time for you sir. We had no idea that the shooting would take place and everyone here is doing what they can..." Anzu's voice was bird like, flighty and light, it was also decapitated and chained to the ground with the weight of grief that kept her voice from hitting any high pitched panicked tones a girl might get.

"'Everyone here'? You are all high schoolers, you're not doing anything because you 'can't' do anything! Or rather, should 'not' be doing anything. No one wants you pursuing the shooter," Mr. Mouto retorted. Yelling at her would be great, if she were Kaiba, or if she sounded vapid and indifferent. But this was Yugi's 'Little Anzu', the friend that stuck true to Yugi all these years. Mr. Mouto would have been fine with yelling at the Emperor if it meant reaching someone. But he could hear so much genuine emotion from the girl that yelling just... It only made him want to cry on his end harder knowing that he wasn't alone.

"I... I mean..." He could hear the break in the girls' voice. "I know, and I realize Kaiba comes off as cold and cruel. But he's not as bad as he was last year! He's just been alone, its just been him trying to protect Mokuba for so long. So now... now when he's finally more willing to accept friends, even if its at arms length. For this to happen..." Anzu stammered through with this tone that he knew.

It was the tone of someone trying to hide something, omitting facts. Not done out of maliciousness, that hint of regret. It was easier to be seen than heard though, the lowering of the head a smidge, the increased effort to look up because of the head tilt. A tone Yugi, intentionally or not, learned from his grandfather. As it was how Sugoruku stood when he began explaining why the Turtle Game Shop was bleeding money.

Because Sugoruku was still gambling and lost several large sums of money. As in, all the money he got from selling multiple highly prized, very expensive relics...

"I mean if you don't have the money now, that's ok... I uh... hehe tapped into Yugi's college fund so its..."

"You what?"

"I can replenish the money don't worry son! It'll be fine..."

Did... did he forget that the Japanese Yen wasn't exactly a 'great' in the exchange rate? If Yugi grew up and decided on a foreign college... he was seven now but... "Do you even remember how much the difference is between our Yen and the dollar or pound or... How could you?!"

"Sir?" Henry frowned slightly, recognizing those signs of deep reflection. Sure Mr. Mouto was sitting safely in a chair now. But had nearly walked right into on coming traffic several times when allowed to get so distracted. It was literally now an instinct to keep the man focused on the present.

"Hmm oh..." Mr. Mouto shook the thoughts from his head as he sat there as though sweeping dust off a shelf. "Sorry, last time I spoke to father he had confided that he finally finished restoring Yugi's college fund to where it was before. Then the next week..." Mr. Mouto gave a half hearted wave of the hand.

It didn't need more.

"Hello, I am officer Miyazaki and I am calling to reach Mouto, Sugoruku's son in law. One Mouto, Shinji?"

"I'm his personal assistant and he is not receiving calls this early in the morning." Henry replied formally. The person on the other end was not just speaking Japanese, but an officer looking for Mr. Mouto?

It turned out to be the Domino police department, reporting that the Turtle Game Shop had been destroyed in a 'bombing' of all things... and that Yugi had been kidnapped along with the Kaibas... A double whammy. One strong enough that, tired though he was, instantly woke Mr. Mouto up and then that sent the man collapsing into the chair near the small table in the hotel room.

Henry spent the rest of the day apologizing as he canceled several business meetings and working to try and support his boss. Which was when the 'introspective into traffic' began when he was being honest. While at night when Mr. Mouto retired to his room, Henry started trying to ferret out as much as he could about both the kidnapping and the bombing.

Yugi's school records were interesting. His grades had been borderline failing the prior year and he would just meek out a pass each year. Then suddenly during the time of the Battle City tournament, Yugi's grades started to climb. Now his grades were rather good, and chances of getting into a good college were on the rise. Also Yugi's friend circle had expanded from his 'Little Anzu' friend, to including several guys from his class. Including Kaiba of all the surprises!

Mr. Mouto's wife had been with her father when the bomb went off. Leaving the man trapped between worrying over his kidnapped son, while also trying to plan his wife and father in laws' funeral. Two things that Henry knew absolutely nothing about. So he researched Japanese burial practices, ordered Mr. Mouto's favorite meals...

Because Henry failed at cooking Japanese food... Very much so.

And speaking of failing...

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Mahaado wasn't saying anything.

Not a word.

A peep.

Even an expression of a raised eyebrow.

Because he had absolutely no Honest to Ra CLUE what was going on in front of him.

Mokuba did. The child was loaded with expressions. Wide eyed, grinning from ear to ear amused to hell and back again.

Kaiba wasn't amused either.

Now a lot of people would not be able to tell when Kaiba was 'amused' and just being professional and being utterly serious. But having spent enough time with the man, Mahaado could see the subtle ways Kaiba's muscles would relax when he was amused. He didn't make it hard to miss when he was in his 'dueling' clothes. Admittedly his office clothes proved a challenge to the living. Mahaado wasn't and could just sense it as part of being dead.

Yay dead.

"I don't know who you bribed to get this far in to even approach me, but I hope it was worth what I'm about to do to them." Curt, to the point! Mokuba, the well trained little brother knew that it was the sign to call security...

Paparazzi had already been expected, and they were instructed to stay with the reporters. Granted Yugi was now such an incredibly hot commodity along side his Big Brother due to the shooting. They hadn't been able to see Yugi to take pictures and given what Mahaado could do, Yugi was safe from 'anyone' taking pictures of him until the final duel.

Not that anyone really knew.

'But big brother Mahaado looks... isn't that his 'I have no idea what's going on' look? I didn't really explain the paparazzi to him. Oh this is going to be fun!' Mokuba realized as he stood there doing his best, and failing he was self aware of this, attempt to appear like his older brother.

"We just need a few pictures! Just for the articles!" One guy, who was hiding in the middle of the crowd argued.

"I can always take them somewhere else if it would make your life easier," Mahaado pointed out in Kemet...

'And no one would ever see them again, leaving a body trail...' Kaiba thought to himself and wanted so, so badly to say 'sure'. But, technically, these weren't criminals or even people looking to mess with one of the duelists.

"You can leave and see him at the same time as everyone else, or you can be ejected from the park all together. The option is yours, so decide now." Kaiba growled, causing the Blue Eyes to let a shake of her wings. Granted she wasn't visible to anyone save the magician, but the growl from her Dearest made her wonder... Was she supposed to snack on these humans? They would fit into her mouth, not all at once but they would!

But then her eyes fell on the littlest child and the amusement in his eyes made her question if her Dearest really needed her to have a snack. The people began to leave, though they were clearly displeased. She was about to settle down only for the trio to resume their walk, so she adjusted herself so she didn't step on them... Then nearly stepped on another small one and just shrank herself down. Spreading her wings Blue Eyes White Dragon soared above her Dearest and his little group while her other selves scouted ahead to make sure nothing untoward bothered her Dearest.