A/N: Happy New Year! I know these have still been long stretches, so thank you once more for being patient!

/Text/: Spirit to Host

/Text/: Host to Spirit

Chapter 54: Ito

Seto immediately knew something was up the moment he opened the door to the dormitory. Hadn't even stepped inside yet. Five heads immediately turned in his direction. Seven if the Pharaoh and Bakura counted, ghosted out as they were in the middle of the room.

For whatever reason, Hermione and Ryou looked incredibly anxious…and so did Harry and Ron. The Pharaoh wore the same insufferable expression he always did, but Bakura was one step away from baring teeth in the worst possible grin, so whatever they were up to in here couldn't possibly be good.

Maybe it wasn't too late to turn on his heel and stalk back to the Library. Curfew be damned.

"Kaiba, you're back!" Ryou squeaked out.

Seto narrowed his eyes suspiciously and shut the door behind him. "I don't even know what I just walked into, and I already hate it."

Yugi bit his lip.

"We were just, er, talking about some new developments," he said. "Apparently Ryou was followed around the castle."

"Welcome to the club," Seto said, voice flat and unimpressed.

"It's not just that," said Harry, "there's more."

Seto set his bag onto his bedside chair and leaned against his wardrobe with his arms crossed over his chest. "Of course there is. And again, I already hate it."

"You don't even know what it is," said Ron.

"I opened the door and you all stopped to stare at me as if I had grown a second head. Either your news is somehow going to get me into more hot water with the wizards, or you're plotting something that I'm not going to like."

Seto gestured openly at them and then crossed his arms again. "So…what is it?"

They all just exchanged a new set of nervous glances with each other. So no one wanted to be the bearer of bad news? His jaw twitched, and his scowl deepened.

Hermione, who was on the other side of the room perched on Yugi's bedside chair, stood up and took a few steps closer, stopping along the edge of Seto's bed. She ran a hand nervously along the scarlet curtains.

He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Seto, after the Astronomy Tower," she began, "do you remember when Hagrid and I found you when walking Fang…down by the lake? And…Umbridge showed up?"

Seto resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Of course he did; he carried Hermione back up to Hagrid's all the while listening to Umbridge screech after him since she couldn't keep up. He watched Hagrid try and bring her back around with the small medical stock on hand in his hut before they were ushered back up to the school. He sat at her bedside – ramrod straight and jaw clenched while Professors McGonagall and Snape dove into his own memory of the Astronomy Tower fight, just to see exactly what he cursed Hermione with, since none of Madam Pomfrey's regimens had worked. And he stayed all night and most of the following day until she woke up.

And she knew he remembered, so while he gave her credit for being the only one brave enough in the room to try and let him in on whatever this great secret was, he wished she'd just spit it out. Breaking this in gently was for everyone else's benefit, not his.

He huffed. ".…Yes."

"…And you were trying to figure out how Umbridge knew where we were, since the Auror had stopped following you…?"

Seto drummed his fingers against his arm.

Hermione glanced back at the others and then wrapped an arm around the bedpost. "Well…we were talking, before you came back up, about…other coincidences that have popped up. About Umbridge. How she nearly spotted Harry while he was trying to tail Malfoy around the Room of Requirement, and he was under his cloak at the time. Or…when Yugi got caught trying to leave for the Millennium Rod…and in this instance one of the Aurors was tailing Ryou around the castle…."

"Not to mention Aurors always following you around," Harry suddenly piped in, "and they never started from Gryffindor Tower, so how did they always know where to find you when half the time we don't know where to find you?"

"Well don't hold me in suspense," Seto deadpanned.

Hermione glanced back once at Harry before turning to Seto. "We…we think Umbridge has the Marauder's Map."

"…The map?"

Harry and Ron exchanged glances. They expected some dry, sarcastic comment, an 'I knew it all along!' or some sort of haughty response that his brain had already worked out that solution ages ago and all of them were just now struggling to catch up.

Instead, however, Seto's rigid stance loosened and he stared down at the floor, brow furrowed.

"…We think maybe it was confiscated during the fight," Hermione said, "while we were all preoccupied with…well…"

"Stopping me," Seto said, finishing her thought. He still didn't look up from the floor.

"Stopping Voldemort," Yami said firmly.

"Semantics," Seto snapped, though the tone lacked his usual bite. He loosened his tie and stared off away from the others and towards the freestanding mirror. "I…don't understand how it could be the map."

"Why not?" asked Ryou.

Seto shook his head, still focused on the glass, while he tried to sort through every memory of the fight. Surely there was one where he wasn't in his head, but out looking, fighting, and breathing in the Astronomy Tower that confirmed what he thought he knew this entire time.

"…I thought the Map was destroyed in the fight."

Hermione turned back to the others for confirmation. She wasn't even awake for the end of the battle, and when she and Seto stood in the wreckage of the tower, wands scant inches from each other, she faced the other way, towards the tower exit.

"No one has seen the Map since that day," said Harry, "And…well…it was intact when Hermione got blasted. But the instant that happened, Bakura flung us out into the Room of Requirement, so the only people who could have it would be any of the professors we left behind."

"No…" Seto said and turned to Hermione. "Didn't you destroy it?"

"…I hit those notes you took. The research on the wards – the ones you made that night in the Library when you snapped at me about curfew?"

"It really is the most logical answer," said Ron, "There's no other way to explain all these instances cropping up after that battle. And remember – you had it active before the fight started and no one would have had the chance to clear it. So whoever took it has been able to follow up on us this entire time."

"I don't know if Professor McGonagall even knew of the Map's existence, but Snape has seen it before, and they both would recognize the names on the outside for old members of the original Order," said Harry.

"…So Umbridge had the map this entire time….?" Seto sagged against the wardrobe. He was too preoccupied to take notice of just what Hermione's spell had caught, and all this time he remembered it to be the wrong set of parchment. All this time he believed both that blasted research and the Marauders Map went up in smoke and ash when that may not have been the case at all. And that one little difference clicked all the missing pieces together.

"We don't know that for certain though," he finally said. "No one has seen her with the Map. We're just speculating."

"…Right," said Hermione, "but it really is the only thing that makes the most sense."

Yugi cleared his throat. "And while, uh, I haven't been trailed around the school…yet…I'd rather not give her any reason to start. We were trying to hatch a plan to get it back."

"Problem is," said Ron, "we can't just waltz into her office."

"I offered to just take it," Bakura said stiffly, "but the lot of you are wusses."

"She'd know it was you even if you used the Shadow Realm," said Seto, "and for all any of you know, she keeps it on her and is expecting one of us to figure out she has it and make a play for it in her office."

"That's why I said we'd need invited into her office," said Ron, "to try and make sure it's really there."

"You can't search her office that way because she'll be there, and I don't believe for a second that any distraction to get her out would end with her letting one of us stay in it while she's gone," said Seto, "not after what you all told us about last year."

"You're right," said Yami, "then we started thinking about what if we tried for it while she was out of the school? Except she's taken less and less weekends away. If she did, Bakura could sneak in and look for the Map."

"…She'd notice it missing."

"We were going to write to Professor Lupin and see if he could tell us how the Map was originally made. We thought of making a fake that would throw her off our trail. That way the Aurors she kept sending wouldn't take her orders anymore," said Hermione.

Seto crossed his arms again. "You'd still need a way to get her out of the castle."

Aaaand there. The nervous glances were back. He narrowed his eyes. Whatever they thought up involved him, and whatever it was – they already knew he wouldn't like it. Suspicions confirmed.

…So who was going to be the first one on his hit list for breaking the news this time?

Hermione gripped the bedpost tighter. "There's a thought…it's, erm, just an idea…."

She bit her lip and glanced back towards Harry and Ron, but they merely nodded at her. This was their plan – when did she become their spokesperson?

"Hermione," Seto said sharply, and she faced him again. "Just tell me."

"YOU WANT ME… TO DO WHAT!?"

The shout came from somewhere up above; loud and clear enough that it could have been from right next to the poor second years sitting in the common room playing Exploding Snap. The cards were dropped and they scrambled up out of their seats.

"W-who was that?" one of them squeaked.

The other shook his head. "I dunno…but I definitely don't wanna find out…"

"Aaaaand, I win again!" Tristan said smugly and leaned back in his seat at the table.

Joey threw his cards down with a huff. "I don't believe this!" he grumbled, "You must've cheated!"

"Look, buddy, you just gotta face the facts that your so-called 'lucky left arm' isn't always up to snuff," said Tristan. His grin widened. "You know what that means!"

Joey wrinkled his nose and pulled a sour face. "…Best two out of three?"

Tristan blinked. "You already lost twice."

Joey grabbed the deck of playing cards and started shuffling. "Yeah well, those were practice."

A door opened and closed elsewhere in the house. Pegasus sauntered into the kitchen soon after and made a beeline for his overly posh coffee maker that neither of them had a clue how to use.

"Just admit that you're terrible at this game," said Tristan.

Joey huffed and dealt out the cards.

"Hm, and what are you two up to on this beautifully gloomy morning?" asked Pegasus, "are we skipping school in favor of card games?"

He glanced at the table and gasped dramatically. "And not even Duel Monsters! Oh, my heart!"

Joey snickered and picked up his new hand. "The world don't revolve around Duel Monsters ya know."

Tristan's jaw dropped. He didn't even pick up his cards and folded his arms across his chest. "Oh, no? Says the guy who took his duel disk to school every day! What was that you used to say all the time about a duelist always being prepared?"

He smirked at the new scowl forming on Joey's face and turned to Pegasus. "Joey doesn't want to admit it's his turn to clean the bathroom, so he's banking on using cards to get out of it. Only it's not working."

"…I see. And as always, so glad to see that after all the work I had done to assure that life could continue as normal, your study room continues to go ignored."

"It's not ignored, Téa's in it being responsible enough for th' three of us put together," said Joey. "Besides, she don't like doing the online school thing with us. Apparently we're 'too distracting'."

Pegasus eyed the cards again and deadpanned. "…I couldn't fathom why."

Joey set his own cards down and stared at Pegasus. Seeing him outside of his trademark red suits and ruffled collars still took getting used to, and they've all lived under the same roof for almost two months. "What's up with you this morning, huh? No corporate overlording today?"

"Hm?" Pegasus glanced down at his simple shirt and trousers. "No, it's Friday. Painting day!"

"Oh, right!" said Tristan, having completely forgotten what day of the week it was. Without anywhere to really go, the days easily ran together…and it was so hard to believe at times how (mostly?) comfortable they all became around each other….

The first few days – even the first two weeks of sharing the same living space with Pegasus, Grandpa Muto, Mokuba, and Roland were…strange, if not a bit tumultuous. No one wanted to share the same breathing space if Roland and Pegasus happened to be together. Mokuba told them once that Roland shared his brother's strong dislike for Pegasus, though he didn't give any further details. The heavy air between them those first few days could have suffocated everyone and then some.

But he had to give credit where it was due – it was sticker shock to hear that Pegasus built the house. And outside of the goofy toon caricatures decorating the upstairs walls near everyone's bedrooms, it was clear he put considerable thought into the idea of having a group of teens stuck together in one house for an undetermined amount of time, even if it was partly due to him sharing the house as well. There was a dedicated space for schoolwork (even if he and Joey spent as little time in it as possible), a space for Téa to work out and practice dance, a room full of video games and the largest television he had ever seen. And everyone had their own personalized sleep space.

Over time, and as everyone got more comfortable in the house, the tension lifted, if only by a small but bearable margin, and they all formed their own schedules.

Pegasus's wing of the house started just beyond Roland's office, and he usually kept to himself there for most of the work day. They usually ever only saw him during meals or in the evenings. Weekends were a wild card. Sometimes he kept to himself. He fashioned himself a studio nook somewhere in his wing (Tristan never wandered far into that corner of the house to find it), and sometimes he was out and about. He tended to find easy company with Téa, and sometimes the two of them would be found together working on an impromptu art project to pass the time on a rainy day.

Mr. Muto seemed to take their new living arrangements the best out of all them, though without his shop to maintain he found himself half the time itching for something to do. If he harbored any hard feelings towards Pegasus for Duelist Kingdom, he didn't openly express it. The first night Gramps entered the house he was a bit on edge, but then disappeared with Pegasus somewhere else for a few hours, and by the time they resurfaced, no one would have guessed there was any tension between them…so whatever they may have done or discussed behind closed doors must have cleared the air.

Grandpa and Roland went out on supply runs and to check on the shop every so often, and Gramps liked to cycle out the number of games he brought back from the shop's backroom so there was always something to do in the evenings that didn't have an electronic device attached to it.

Téa preferred to try and keep herself in as much of a routine as possible, even though they didn't have to physically get up and go to school. She rose early, worked out one of her dance routines before breakfast, and then used the study room until lunchtime, when she let him and Joey use it for the afternoon, and she would take her books and notes and commandeer a couch somewhere quiet to continue working.

Mokuba, who was used to his schooling getting interrupted by dueling tournaments or his brother going back and forth from New York, easily fell into an online schooling routine, and then after dinner would disappear into his room to chat with his brother before joining them again for games or movies or whatever else.

Like when Kaiba would be running around with them on some Millennium Item world-saving adventure, it was easy to forget Roland was even around until he appeared when least expected. If they weren't up early enough to see him for one of his first two coffee rounds of the day, then he wouldn't surface again until dinner, the one meal that Gramps gently insisted that they all eat together as a group. He otherwise spent his weekdays in his office.

Roland though, was the one member of their ragtag household with any current wizard contact. Occasionally, they'd hear from Mokuba on any given day when the house's KC office seemed surprisingly quiet that Roland left for a short visit to the Kaiba Corp in the USA with a Japanese wizard escort, or had a training exercise at the Domino office and had gone for the day. It seemed a bit counterproductive to come and go from the house as much as he had, especially when he had to meet wizards, but each time Roland returned in a different vehicle so he could only assume the man was taking precautions.

He remembered Joey asking Gramps about the wizards who had guarded the Game Shop before because they were friendly enough, but Mr. Muto had sadly said that the whole mess over the holidays put a bad taste in his mouth with Dumbledore's allies. They were friendly…but he couldn't quite trust them anymore. And with Ishizu back in Egypt, there was no one else in close contact with their British allies to speak on their behalf. And so outside of mandatory office visits and their grocery and supply trips, no one left. And day by day, little by little, living with the man who was once their enemy got easier.

"What's the art of the day?"

"Storms," said Pegasus thoughtfully, "or maybe meadows. I haven't decided."

Tristan nodded. "Figure it out as you go?"

"Something like that." With his coffee in hand, Pegasus turned towards the doorway. "Well – if you two need some new entertainment, you should check in with Mokuba."

Joey blinked. "Why?"

Pegasus shrugged and started off towards his corner of the house. "It's not every day that he eavesdrops outside his own door."

Joey and Tristan stared at each other.

"What d'you suppose that meant?" asked Tristan.

"I dunno, but the only thing down that way other than Pegasus's rooms is that Kaiba Corp office. Why wouldn't the kid just go in?"

"Good question," said Tristan, "and we got nothing better to do, so how about we snoop too?"

"Sure," said Joey, getting up. "But we're still doing two outta three."

Tristan rolled his eyes.

As Pegasus said, the door to Roland's office was open only a crack, and Mokuba sat right outside on the floor against the wall.

"What's going on?" Joey asked.

Mokuba's head snapped up. "Shh!"

Tristan sat down on the floor next to him and leaned in close, eager to join in on this puzzling bit of recon. "Hey little man, what's the big secret?"

"He's been on the phone with Seto for a while," said Mokuba. "He sounded mad too. I was trying to figure out what's going on."

"Who's mad – Spook Man or your brother?" said Joey.

"Definitely Seto." Mokuba then frowned. "You call Roland 'Spook Man'?"

Joey shrugged and joined Mokuba on his other side. "Spook Man, Ninja, I've got a bunch."

"Why's your brother mad?" asked Tristan.

"I dunno," said Mokuba, "They've been talking for a long time. Seto was yelling something at first, but I couldn't make it out before Roland closed the door. Only thing I really caught is that whatever is going on is somehow Yugi's fault."

Joey scrunched his brow. "Nah. Not buyin' it."

"Well clearly he's not mad anymore because there's no more yelling," said Tristan.

Mokuba nodded. "I know. I can barely hear anything. What good is lurking around if it doesn't get you any news?"

"You could just ask," said a cold voice behind them, and Joey scrambled to his feet with an unnaturally high-pitched shriek.

Roland stood in the doorway, arms crossed, his phone clenched in his hand. Mokuba twisted his head around. He could see Roland's earpiece was in – no wonder he couldn't hear whatever Seto was raving about anymore.

"Hi Roland," he said with a far more casual air than Tristan expected. Perhaps this wasn't the first or even the second or third time that the kid had gotten caught eavesdropping outside an office door.

"Everything going ok in there?" Tristan asked. "Mokuba said he heard yelling."

"Nothing to concern yourselves over," said Roland. He stepped around them and started for the hall closet.

"Soooo, what did Seto have to say?" Mokuba asked.

Roland kept his back to them and fished through the closet for his overcoat. "Mr. Kaiba is often frustrated with the British Ministry of Magic, and their agents located at the school. He was merely venting."

Mokuba wrinkled his nose. That didn't quite track with what he heard. How was any of that Yugi's fault?

"That's lame, I was hoping for something juicy," said Joey.

"Yeah, me too," said Tristan.

Roland tugged the coat on and fished the gloves from his pocket. "I didn't realize my private conversations were to entertain."

Mokuba followed him all the way to the front door. "Where are you going?"

"I have a meeting at the office," said Roland. "And will be stopping at the mansion before I return. Is there anything you need picked up?"

Mokuba shook his head. "Is Seto okay?"

"Mr. Kaiba is fine," said Roland. "Merely agitated."

"…so…when can I actually visit Kaiba Corp again?"

"One day."

"Soon?"

"Perhaps."

Mokuba huffed and leaned against the staircase rail. "Fiiine. See you later, I guess."

The moment the door shut, Mokuba turned back towards Joey and Tristan with such a scowl that looked far more natural on his brother.

"He's up to something," said Mokuba.

"How can you tell?"

"I know what I heard," said Mokuba, "and I know him. He's keeping something a secret."

"Huh," said Joey, "Kind of like how he was keeping this place a secret, and that he conspired with Pegasus of all people to pull it together?"

"I didn't know the man was able to keep a secret," said Tristan, "I mean, isn't this the same ninja who also freaked the heck out all the way to Dartz's headquarters?"

"I don't remember that," said Joey.

"You were a husk at the time."

"…Oh."

"We're going to have to be discreet," said Harry the following morning at breakfast. They sat at the far end of the Gryffindor table from the door, away from most of the rest of their house. And mercifully, Umbridge wasn't up at the High Table. "I don't know if they're still monitoring the owls that come and go from Hogwarts."

"The Aurors really have time to go be going through the mail?" asked Ryou.

"Well, no, not exactly," said Ron. "More like Umbridge was making a point to do it. So if she really does have the Map, you know she'll be monitoring what we send out."

"What if we didn't use Hedwig?" asked Yugi, "and took one of the school owls instead?"

"That might work," said Ron, "So long as she doesn't see us head to the Owlery in the first place."

Hermione put down Seto's copy of The Daily Prophet and turned to Ryou. "What about your spirit?"

Ryou blinked.

Harry's eyes widened and he nodded excitedly. "YES! Okay – hear me out for a second. Back in the beginning of the year, when I was, er…."

"Spying on us?" said Yugi.

"Uh…yeah…anyway, Yami and the Other Bakura only showed up on the Map when they were ghosted out. So if Umbridge was in her office right now watching the school she wouldn't be able to see them because they're in their Millennium Items."

"And we already know Bakura is capable of leaving the castle on his own," said Yugi.

/What do you think, Spirit?/ said Ryou. /Can you?/

/I don't particularly feel like being a messenger./ Bakura sniffed. /But I suppose if there truly is no other way…then fine. I'll do it this time./

/Somehow I don't think there's going to be a next time./

/You say that now, Landlord. One Shadow Realm favor will turn into two, and before you all know it, you'll be attempting to abuse my powers every five minutes./

Ryou frowned. /I think you're overreacting. /

/I don't do favors for free./

And with that, he vanished from their corridor and into his soul room.

"The spirit is on board this time," said Ryou, "but he may not help again in the future unless there's something in it for him."

Ron rolled his eyes. "Why am I not surprised."

Yugi clasped his hands around his goblet of pumpkin juice. "I think, before we continue any further, we ought to –"

"I'm not going to look for him," Harry said before Yugi could finish, "I know what you're going to say. This is the only viable plan. And," he lowered his voice, "prophecy or no, I'd like to live to see tomorrow."

Hermione pressed her lips into a thin line. After his initial outburst, and to his credit, Seto did manage to stay put in the dormitory long enough for the well-rehearsed number of supporting arguments in favor of their plan. And only once they were finished did he release the tension locking his jaw and ream them out.

And then he stormed from the room.

When she did finally leave Yugi's dorm, far later than any of them realized after losing track of time, she found Seto angrily pacing the common room on his phone. She caught the large clock on the wall nearing midnight and slipped up the girls' staircase when his back was to her.

"I don't know who he was talking to last night," she finally said, "but he wasn't happy – and seeing as no one has spotted him this morning, I don't think he'll want to be found."

"That's nothing new," said Harry. "He does this almost every weekend anyhow."

Yugi stared down at his lap. "He was right though. We really should have asked for his input before coming up with the plan and assuming he would go in on it. And really, he doesn't have to do anything. He doesn't have to leave. And I don't know if Ryou and I could make up a plausible excuse to get out of the school."

"What about your grandpa?" asked Ron. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a bunch of seventh-year girls get up from their table and the nearby Hufflepuff table and rush towards the entrance to the Great Hall, but couldn't make out what was going on. "What if you claimed he was, I don't know, sick or something?"

"That wouldn't be enough to get Umbridge out of the school," said Yugi, "Professor Dumbledore would probably just have a member of the Order take me home."

"That won't work," said Harry, and now he also glanced up the table to see what the congregation across the way was about. "What in the world…?"

Ryou got up from the table and tried to peer through the herd. "I…I can't see – oh…wait!"

He gasped. "Harry! I think – I think that's Katie!"

Now Hermione half-rose from the table as well. "Katie Bell? I…I didn't think she would be coming back. It's been months!"

Before she or any of the others could even swing around and off the house table benches, Harry was already up and moving up the hall.

"Katie!"

"Harry!" she said, and shifted around one of her friends to greet him. She was here, happy and smiling, a far cry from his last memory of her screaming and contorted in pain when cursed by the necklace. Though her face had thinned a bit. For the length of time she was gone, recovery must not have been very smooth.

"You're alright!"

She nodded. "I am."

Yugi finally caught up to them. "I'm glad you're okay, Katie. You really had us scared."

Katie frowned. "It's…been a time. The healers at St. Mungo's told my father that if I had held onto that necklace for even just a few moments more…."

"…and no one still knows anything about where that thing came from?" said Harry, "you were in the Three Broomsticks, right? Did you pick up someone else's package by mistake?"

Yugi shot him a warning look that went ignored.

/Really, Harry…now isn't the time to jump back on that track./

Yami chuckled. /He's quite persistent – but we already knew this about him, Yugi./

/I know…but maybe at least let her get settled back at Hogwarts first. She's been gone for months!/

Katie sighed and shook her head. "I really don't remember much about that day, Harry. I don't know where that necklace came from…or who gave it to me."

Harry's face fell.

"It was a long time ago," said Katie, "I'm just ready to put it behind me and go back to how things were. As it is, I'm going to have to see Professor McGonagall about taking this year again. There's too much for me to catch up on now to try and learn anything new before term ends."

"You sound like Hermione," said Ryou, having finally joined them, with Ron and Hermione following in the rear.

Hermione bristled. "Actually, I think it's more appropriate to compare her with you and Yugi and Seto taking those additional evening lessons to get up to speed with the rest of us."

Ryou blinked and nodded, conceding the point as Katie giggled.

"So – will we see you on the Pitch?" Yugi asked. "I've been filling in for you, since…the accident, but I'm more than happy to give you your spot back."

"That's really nice of you, Yugi," said Katie, and a waving friend near the Great Hall doors caught her eye. "But I think I'm going to just try and focus on my lessons. I've missed too much already, and I'm sure you've done a fine job as Chaser without me. You can finish out this year and I'll just try out for the team again next year when things are a little more normal."

Her face suddenly fell.

Harry turned to see what had her rooted to the spot, and he too froze.

Draco Malfoy stood in the center of the doorway, white as a sheet, eyes locked on Katie.

Harry looked from him to Katie and back.

"Katie…are you alright?" asked Yugi.

Harry didn't wait for an answer and started up the aisle, ignoring both Ron and Hermione's calls for him to stop. Malfoy seemed to break out of his stupor once he was halfway to him and bolted from the Great Hall, and that only spurred him on faster.

I knew it, Harry thought to himself as he ran, Malfoy was behind this!

A pair of first-year Hufflepuffs flattened themselves against the wall as he surged past them. Malfoy was just up ahead, gunning for the grand staircases.

Harry picked up his pace. Malfoy was quick – but he had spent his entire early years escaping Dudley's gang. This was no big deal.

The door to the grand staircases slammed in his face and he threw it back open. Malfoy was already heading up to the first landing. The stretch of staircase broke away from the wall and started up towards the sixth-floor corridor. Harry started up after him. The next available floating staircase lingered on the second floor.

This was his chance – he couldn't lose sight of Malfoy now. Not when he was so close and –

"POTTER!"

Harry skidded to a halt just before the second floor. Professors Flitwick and Sprout stood at the start of the first-floor corridor and stared up at him.

"Y-yes, Professor?" he asked.

"Why are you in such a hurry," said Professor Sprout. "It's not nearly time for class."

"Oh, I, eh, left my book in the dormitory," said Harry.

"Ah," said Professor Flitwick, "Well, there's still plenty of time. No more running, you're bound to mow down a first year if you continue like that."

Harry nodded. "Yes, sir."

They continued down to the ground level and Harry slowly started back up the steps. Once he was sure they were out of sight, he ran for the next moving landing. It floated up near the fourth floor and Harry craned his neck, squinting up towards the top of the hall. The platform Malfoy rode up was slowly floating back down.

It was empty.

Harry gnashed his teeth and pounded a fist against the railing. Great. He missed Malfoy's stop, and by now he could be anywhere. There wasn't time to search the entire upper castle before Charms, and in his haste to chase Malfoy, he left his bag in the Great Hall.

Oh well – Ron will bring it.

He turned and shuffled back down and let the stairs float him towards the Charms corridor, all the while frowning.

"He definitely gave Katie the necklace," he said aloud to the open air. "But…what does that have to do with him in the Room of Requirement?"

He remembered the necklace from Nocturne Alley, so it wasn't as if he found it in the school. And besides, the necklace was meant for Dumbledore, wasn't it? That's what Leanne had said. Whatever this mission was that Voldemort gave Malfoy to do, it meant harming Dumbledore from inside the castle since Voldemort couldn't walk in himself and do it.

But the Room of Requirement was full of junk. It didn't make any sense.

With a huff, Harry rounded the corner and into the Charms class.

Seto was already in the classroom, his tall travel cup of coffee beside him. He sat at the end of the long row, reading what had to be at least four or five chapters ahead in the textbook. Blue eyes flitted to him for just a second, if that, but the level of ice in that piercing glare stopped him short at the front of the row.

So he was still furious with them. Wonderful.

Harry counted off the seats and sat the farthest from him, suddenly wishing he had gone back to the Great Hall instead.

Roland checked his watch as he stepped off the elevator on the thirtieth floor. The front desk, normally manned by Mr. Kaiba's secretary, was empty as she currently had a temporary setup down three floors assisting a different department. There was no point keeping her here while Mr. Kaiba was in the UK and he was working remotely the majority of the time.

He slowed near Mr. Kaiba's office door. He hadn't stepped foot up here in weeks; the last time was to replace the security cameras, make sure all was in order in the empty office, and to lock the door.

The visual remains of the attack were long gone, but he could still see the echoes.

Roland swiped his card and entered the office. It was undisturbed, as expected, but he still swept the room for anything out of place before locking it once more.

His receptionist added an interview to his calendar this morning before he arrived, down in a conference room five floors below, and this was mostly the sole reason he ventured from the safe house all the way back to Domino. He had almost given up on hiring any more officers. The two that started just a few weeks ago were the only ones from the number of applications that seemed to pass his strict requirements. That still left three vacancies and it neared the point where he was about to throw in the towel and just continue forward without them.

He stepped back into the elevator, hit the button for the 25th floor, and glanced down at the folder he had tucked under his arm. The other applicants that survived the interview process first had a remote interview from the safe house. But this man? His references were almost too good to be true, so he wasn't going to keep his hopes up.

His secretary met him off the elevator with a notepad and a pen in hand. "He is in the far conference room," she said, and after a pause, "did you want me to stay and take notes?"

"That won't be necessary," said Roland, "this will likely be a short interview."

She frowned. "Hopefully not – I think you passed on most of the ones that have come forward. This may be the last."

"It is what it is."

"Will you be staying through the day? They were talking about lunch in the bullpen from the restaurant downtown that you liked. I can ask them to order for you."

"I'll stay through mid-afternoon, so that's fine." He fished his wallet from his pocket and handed her his credit card. "I'll have my usual. Make one order for the whole department."

Her eyes widened. "O-oh!"

"These last few months have been difficult for us all," said Roland, "and I have not been present for my team nearly as much as I would have liked. Lunch is on me."

She beamed. "Thank you, sir!"

Roland continued to the end of the hall and into the conference room. The man seated at the end of the table stood up to greet him. He was tall and a bit stocky, roughly the same build as Fuguta, with long hair pulled back into a low ponytail, wearing a suit that fit him well, but there was something else…something off about him that Roland couldn't quite place.

Roland closed the door and moved to greet him. "You must be Jinpei Ito."

A nod. "Yes, sir."

Roland gestured to the vacated chair and took the one opposite him. He set the folder down and flipped through the papers. "I'm Roland Isono, the Chief of Security for the Kaiba Corporation."

Ito blinked. "I…didn't realize I would first meet the boss."

Roland raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I was told that you weren't in the office and that interviews were being done…online," he said, after struggling a moment for the right word. "So when I got a call from the receptionist asking me to come in, I thought I was meeting someone else."

"I can assure you I am the only one who interviews for my department," said Roland, "and I work both in the office and remotely as needed. There have been a record number of applicants that applied, and remote interviewing was needed to weed through most of the candidates."

He glanced down at the papers before him. "You, however, seem to have some rather…unique experiences. So here we are."

Ito nodded and leaned back rather casually in his seat for a man vying for a job.

"So…," he began, with just a trace of nerves edged into his voice, "…what do you want to know about me?"

"It says here you are multilingual. What other languages do you speak fluently?"

"English. My German is broken at best, and French is a bit better but I haven't utilized it in years, so it's rather rusty."

"Kaiba Corporation has a regional headquarters in New York City," said Roland in clear English, "if there were ever an occasion where you needed to be transferred to that office on either a temporary or permanent basis, can you speak, understand and be understood by your coworkers in America?"

"I can," said Ito.

"Good," said Roland, and skimmed the documents again. "You say you are experienced in foreign relations?"

"I was a…secretary to the Prime Minister several years ago," said Ito, "Forging relationships with other foreign offices was part of my job, and I often traveled with the Prime Minister when he visited other nations."

"…and it says here you've also worked in law enforcement?"

"…Yes," said Ito after another pause. "I'm a detective."

"You are," said Roland, picking up on Ito's use of the present tense. "For what precinct?"

"Oh, um, a private detective," said Ito, "Though I do provide aid to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police when they ask for assistance. I sort of put that on pause when I worked for the Prime Minister, but after that position ended, I returned to detective work."

Roland eyed Ito sharply and glanced back at the list. "I don't see on here that you are licensed to carry a firearm."

"I am not, sir."

"All of my officers are expected to become licensed and undergo the mandatory training and routine examinations to maintain said license," said Roland, "Are these steps you are willing to take if you're hired?"

Ito paused.

"You applied for this position," said Roland, "the job requirements were listed in the posting."

"I know," said Ito and he paused again. "And…yes. I would be willing."

The man didn't seem thrilled at the prospect of it, and Roland closed the folder. "I manage the security teams for all aspects of the Kaiba Corporation and Mr. Kaiba's private estates. While it is unlikely to happen, armed intruders have breached some of those grounds before. I don't carry my firearm because I want to. It's so that I can do the job I am assigned."

Ito straightened up in his seat. "I understand."

Roland furrowed his brow and gestured to the folder. "You had other positions within the Prime Minister's office. You're a private eye for the Tokyo PD. You used to work with the Domino City police as well. You seem to be a bit over-qualified for entry-level private security."

"It's a change of pace," Ito admitted, "and I do enjoy a challenge. And my old superiors thought this may be a good fit for me."

Roland took a pen from his inner jacket pocket and started making notes on Ito's reference sheet. "…and who would those superiors be, if you're now a private detective?"

"Well, they were the police, in a sense," said Ito. He straightened up taller in his seat, the traces of earlier nerves gone. "They believe my unique skill – one that's not listed on any of those documents, will be far more valuable to you than some rank-and-file officer watching cameras all day."

"…And what skillset is that?"

After a deep breath, and without twisting in his seat, Ito glanced up and scanned the ceiling around the room for security cameras. Finally, satisfied that there were none to be found, he reached across the table, held his arm high in the air, and made a flourishing movement.

An ebony wand appeared in his hand.

Roland stared at it for several seconds.

"Well," he finally said, his voice flat, "You could have saved us both the time and just started off that you were a wizard."

Ito chuckled awkwardly and leaned back in his seat again. "Well, I couldn't just put that on a job application. It would only break, oh, half a dozen or so laws and violate the International Statute of Secrecy. I'd rather not get sent to prison."

"You work for the Japanese Ministry of Magic." It wasn't a question.

"I don't, actually; I left the Ministry when my post to the Prime Minister ended. I haven't worked among wizards in over a year."

Roland shook his head and jabbed a finger at the folder. "Look, I'm no stranger to magic or unexplainable disasters. You don't have dance around the subject, not with me. And the fact that you've been playing me along from the start isn't doing you any favors. I'm going to start again, and I expect some honest answers this time."

Ito set the wand down on the table and placed his hands on his lap. Roland stared at it disdainfully. "Go ahead, sir."

"Is Jinpei Ito your real name?"

"It is."

"Why are you here? – And I'd think hard about that answer, because the last several encounters I've had with wizards have not been favorable, and so far you're not doing much to change my mind."

"I am as I said – a private detective, but for both the regular police and our Ministry of Magic. I specialize in unsolved crimes in the non-magical community and pinpoint if there was wizard involvement that would otherwise go unchecked. If I find any traces of magical interference in the case, the file is forwarded to the Ministry's Auror office, who will handle any final investigative work and the case will close properly for both the Ministry and the local police."

Ito gestured to the file. "I was also a secretary for your Prime Minister, at the time acting as a liaison between him and our Minister of Magic. That is a standard position in every country – we help bridge the communities together, discreetly, so if there was a major disruption in our world, we can provide a cover explanation to the regular population that will be accepted without question.

"To cover a recent instance, just over a year ago there was a strange encounter with green stones and monsters taking the souls of wizards and nonwizards alike. We never did quite understand what the green rocks were about, not fully. And the stone monsters that appeared with them vanished without a trace. But amid all of it, there were other monster sightings."

"I was there," Roland said, unimpressed. "In the thick of it, as everyone blamed Kaiba Corp's holographic dueling tech for malfunctioning, when it hadn't."

"Yes, we know," said Ito. "Because to hide how real monsters were suddenly all over the world, we led the general public to believe it was a technological malfunction. And because Duel Monsters became so prevalent here in Japan so quickly, the rumor spread like wildfire."

Roland's eye twitched. "Oh, so we have you to thank for that mess."

"Well, not me personally," said Ito, "but yes."

"…And now you're here, looking for a job."

"It seems a little murky all at once, and I admit there was some deception, at least in part of arranging this meeting and for that I will apologize. I was a little unsure how to go about it, since the Ministry of Magic did warn me about the, er, mishaps that have occurred here in the past, and I wasn't quite sure how…or when to reveal my magical background. But it's out in the open now…so I suppose I should start from the beginning."

Roland started drumming his fingers against the tabletop.

"I was not working for the Ministry of Magic at the time of the attacks here and at Kaiba Land, but I do still have friends in the Auror department. I knew the official story recorded in the newspapers was a magical coverup, so I decided to do some further digging – with some extra help from my old friends. They shared with me that they had recently outed a spy working for the British Ministry of Magic in the Department of International Magical Cooperation that may have attributed to the attacks.

"This, of course, led to an even more thorough investigation into what he was doing here and why the wizards in Britain were so interested in you and Yugi Muto. They were already aware of some of the strange magical phenomena going on around Domino City for some time."

Roland merely stared at him.

"The link between the Egyptian museum exhibits and the Duel Monsters game did not go unnoticed all this time. Our allies in the Egyptian Ministry warned us that the Millennium Items could not be tamed by outside magical means, and while they were – and still are – incredibly dangerous, we were not to interfere and to let things play out as they should. We didn't necessarily agree with that, but we are talking about artifacts that are thousands of years old, and the Egyptians know their history far better than we do, so our government yielded to them."

Ito cleared his throat. "In any case, we discovered secret communications between our compromised individuals and the British Ministry –"

"—And let me guess," said Roland, "you're here because Mr. Kaiba has a target on his back again. Mr. Kaiba is abroad, so I don't see what you intend to offer that hasn't already been done twice over with little to no success."

"I'm not here for Seto Kaiba," said Ito, "I know he's safe at Hogwarts."

"Then get to the point."

"The intelligence I've gotten from the Auror department suggests that the war that Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba have been drawn into is going to go on far beyond the length of a school year. And it's only going to get worse. Hogwarts as a refuge will only last for so long, and then what?"

"Wizards were already here offering magical wards and promises of protection," said Roland icily, "It didn't save Mr. Kaiba, my officers, the guests at Kaiba Land or the woman who was here guarding Mr. Kaiba's brother who ended up tortured and killed over the holidays. They say this building is protected. Death Eaters still got in. Those same protections are presumably on Mr. Kaiba and Mr. Muto's homes, but I don't trust what I can't see."

"I understand that," said Ito, and when Roland raised an eyebrow skeptically at him, he added, "Really – I do. I've worked with both wizards and nonmagical folks alike. Unlike some of my fellow Aurors, I grew up in a world without magic. I can see down both sides of the aisle, so to speak. Which is why I'm here. One man cannot fight a wizard war by himself. Not without help."

"You mean not without magical help," said Roland, "and again – we've been burned by that help before."

"That aid was compromised the moment it was offered," said Ito. "You don't want or need the help from the ones who can't even fight the battles on their own home front."

"But I'm supposed to accept this from you?" Roland asked skeptically. "I don't even know you."

"Our Auror office has asked for me to step into a role in the same capacity I had at the Prime Minister's office," said Ito, "A liaison between our worlds. They're watching the war develop in Britain rather closely. And we can both agree that the measures previously taken here in Domino have so far been lackluster."

"Again – I don't see anything new being offered here. Going to replace the supposed wards the British Ministry put up with ones of your own? That's not a solution."

Ito leaned forward. "No. I can't restore the trust you lost in the magical community, but between myself and the help of the Japanese Ministry, we have something the British don't – familiarity. We live here. We know the streets and the communities far better than they did. We know how to blend in with our surroundings.

"Those Order of the Phoenix members who were here placing wards around houses and schools? They're going back home to fight a losing war. If they died in London today, tomorrow, or even a week from now then those protective spells are gone. And since you can't see them, you'd have no idea they were lifted until the Death Eaters came back, maybe in even greater numbers than they did before. What they set up is a time bomb waiting to explode."

"That doesn't exactly tell me why you're looking for a job instead of having your old Auror friends assign you to Mr. Kaiba or Yugi Muto's home. That's what the Order did."

"I'm not here for Seto Kaiba or Yugi Muto specifically – I'm here for you."

Roland looked taken aback, eyes wide. "…Me?"

Ito glanced to the chair beside him, where a thick envelope sat out of eyesight. He grabbed the top one and slid it across the table. "October was a busy month – after your people discovered all those privacy breaches, there was a lot of communication between the spies we outed here and the ones that got away in the UK. Luckily for us, the British Ministry likes to live forever stuck in the 1600s and they write everything down."

Roland eyed Ito sharply and opened the envelope. He flipped through each of the moving photographs, the mild frown on his face progressing closer and closer to a livid scowl with each passing one. There were the suspicions months ago that wizards may have poked through their affairs even before the data breach, but to see the evidence – in moving photographs, no less…that was something else entirely.

"They were watching," said Ito. Roland's jaw twitched once he passed the last photograph and moved onto the letters in the back of the pile. A detailing of Mokuba's school schedule. One entire itinerary that Mr. Kaiba kept on his November trip from Hogwarts. The times he himself went in and out of Kaiba Corp during the week. The exact times of day when the guard changed between Kaiba Corp and the mansion. "We believe, had Seto Kaiba not traveled to and from Domino as much as he had in the fall term for them to devise their attack, that there would have been at least one attempt to take Mokuba."

Roland picked back up one of the photos he had already shuffled past. It was of himself, the day Pegasus dragged him out of the office to inspect the construction on their contingency project. But unlike the other photographs, it was taken indoors rather than outside.

Ito waited a moment before he continued. "They uncovered the rather staggering coincidence that the night of the Domino attack, Yugi Muto's grandfather, his friends, and Mokuba Kaiba all disappeared, and you stopped coming to the office on a regular basis."

"I read the Ministry's report on the attack here," Ito continued, and he watched Roland's jaw twitch again. "I know at least one guard was put under an Imperius Curse to take out the others. Now imagine, just a moment – that the Death Eaters are still looking for Mokuba Kaiba, or Mr. Muto, or anyone else to use as leverage to get what they want from Yugi Muto or Seto Kaiba. Now they can't find anyone, but through their work impersonating your own officers at the park, they know you were the last one to see them. Only you disappeared as well."

Roland finally looked up from the photographs.

"Except here you are, occasionally coming out of hiding to take care of little things in the office here and there before vanishing again. How easy would it be to just blend in here with the rest of the company staff, wait for you to make an appearance, and just follow you back to where presumably everyone else is hiding? And what then are you going to do – one man against a swarm of Death Eaters?"

"….Is this your roundabout way of telling me I've hired Death Eaters?"

"Hired or infiltrated – I don't know," Ito admitted. "But I'd very much like to find out."

Roland clasped his hands together on the table and narrowed his eyes at him. "And what do you expect to do here, in the guise of a regular man? You say I can't fight Death Eaters alone, and you're right. But I fail to see how one outmanned wizard in a magic fight will fare much better."

Ito shifted in his seat. "It's bleak no matter what. But based on what I've gathered…the next target isn't going to be Mokuba. It'll be you. To a bunch of dark wizards, you're not a serious threat to them, but you have the means and manpower of at least taking a stand and making things rather messy for them – they saw that at the amusement park. And they know you took everyone else to ground.

"I'm offering myself here, to be whatever you want me to be on paper. I can be an errand boy for your staff during regular business hours. I can fill one of the holes in your schedule overnight. I am fully capable of doing anything your other security guards can do, even the roles no one else wants to do, while also investigating whether someone has been planted in preparation for another attack. Because I have no doubt there will be one, and it's just a matter of when. And with the spring term ending in a few short months, time is running out."

"You're going to investigate every person under this roof? There are hundreds of employees here," said Roland flatly.

"Yes, there are," said Ito. "But how many do you interact with over the course of your day? How many have you hired since Albus Dumbledore visited over the summer? Also consider that since the attack, you haven't been in the office – that exponentially increases the opportunity for a plant. These are all starting points."

"And how do I trust that you are not a plant yourself, that I give you access to the building and my office for you to aim that wand at me when my back is turned?"

Ito sank back again against the chair and shook his head. "I'm not, but I understand why you're suspicious of me. I wish I had an easy, tangible way of proving to you that I'm not some rogue wizard in disguise with ulterior motives, but I can't."

He twisted in his seat to glance out the conference room windows behind him and down at the rest of Domino. "…The truth is, the Ministry is trying to handle this delicately."

"…Delicately?"

"Yeah." Ito let out a noisy exhale. "Look, I didn't know about anything that was going on until I read the fake story about Kaiba Corp attack in the newspaper. That's what got me into all of this. And when I presented my findings to my old friends in the Auror department, they showed me their work. About the moles they uncovered here and in Britain. Their notes on the attacks. Everything.

"But they must tread carefully, because even though you're not a wizard, the British wizards got you and the others involved, and now they're trying to do right by their wrongs and keep you all safe. Because every time Death Eaters make a move here, it threatens our exposure to the nonmagical community. And we both know how well the British get along at cleaning up their messes – especially ones on foreign soil. They're just trying to avoid another catastrophe."

"Funny," Roland snapped, "They don't seem too interested in giving help, do they?"

"Well," Ito slowly began, and turned back to sit facing forward again. "The last time wizards offered their help in Domino, a bunch of people got hurt and died. It wasn't their fault specifically, but it's not a good lasting impression, is it? And I'm not just here to speak ill on the British – they found moles here too, remember? The Japanese Ministry isn't perfect by a longshot. …They're just trying to help, as best they can."

Roland huffed and shuffled the letters and photographs back into their envelope. "If they wanted to make amends with me, they'd just come out and do it without hiding behind you. Are they worried that I'd just shoot them on sight for entering the building?"

"I…can't speak for them."

Roland's jaw twitched. "You've been speaking for them this entire time. Look, right now I really don't care about the Ministry of Magic. I want to know why you, Jinpei Ito, are sitting in front of me. Because none of the other wizards who were assigned here by either Ministry of Magic were looking for a paycheck. So are you here because you want to be here, or are you here because they want you to be here? And if I cannot get one adequate answer, then this meeting is done."

"I'm here because I genuinely want to help," said Ito. "I may have been clueless to everything going on up until six or so weeks ago, but it's hard to unsee the signs of war. I don't work for the Ministry of Magic, or any magical office, but after speaking with them and doing my own investigative work, it's clear that what's going on in Britain will not stay in Britain. If they're willing to put spies in our government and among our regular population, then there's clearly a greater interest in play.

"The writing is on the wall. You ask any intelligence group from any Ministry of Magic, and they'll tell you that Voldemort and the Death Eaters are only getting more powerful. The prisons are being emptied. Good wizards – ones that dedicated themselves to careers in service, are ending up dead. Their government had so many personnel shakeups within the last six months that no one can keep up. That's not normal.

"They plotted and carried out open attacks against our civilians – and there's nothing stopping them from doing it again. If you had reliable intelligence that Yugi Muto's grandfather was going to be attacked, would you just stand by and do nothing? You're under no obligation to protect him – it's not your job. But if you chose not to act and then he was later injured or killed from those warnings that you ignored, how would you live with that?"

Ito got up and glanced back out the window. He sighed, resigned, and tightly gripped the back of his chair. "The Ministry believes you are the next target. They also know that you're not trusting of them, even though the stem of that distrust came from the British government. I'm not the Ministry. And I don't answer to the Ministry, if that's what you're worried about. I may not know you personally, but I'm just trying to do the next right thing. If you want nothing to do with me, that's fine. But I can at least say that I came in good faith and tried to help."

Roland stared up at him, eyes narrowed and brow furrowed for a long minute.

Ito turned back to him and met his gaze head on. He didn't say anything; he had nothing left, but Roland didn't speak either, and silence grew more and more uncomfortable with each passing second.

Roland finally looked down, pulled the photographs back out of the envelope, and shuffled through them once more. "…And what did your Auror intelligence have to say about where I've vanished to all this time?"

Ito shook his head. "Nothing. I don't believe the moles discovered it."

Sharp grey eyes darted up again. "And have you? In your own investigations?"

"I hadn't looked that far," Ito admitted, "Not yet. I figured it was far safer to meet on, er, public grounds, than try to show up unannounced at yours or someone else's home."

"Hm," Roland mused, "that likely would have gotten you shot." He finally got up from his own seat and reached for the file he brought in as well as the evidence envelope. "And does your intelligence say when this supposed attack is going to occur?"

"No," said Ito, "Though I would guess closer to summer. They know you're in regular communication with Seto Kaiba, so I would imagine whatever they were planning to do would be quiet, swift, and in preparation for when he and Yugi Muto return home."

Roland nodded slowly. "…I see."

He glared at the wand on the table, and another bout of silence filled the empty room once more.

"I will take this…matter of your employment into consideration," Roland said bitterly, and he checked his watch. "You'll have an answer within the next few days."

Ito bowed his head. "Yes, sir."

Roland flipped through the file the receptionist prepared for him. "…Whose phone number is this?"

"Mine."

Roland raised an eyebrow at him.

Ito couldn't help but chuckle, and thank goodness for it too, for it drove at least a small portion of the tension from the room. "I may be a wizard, but I work among regular people. And honestly owls are loud and messy. Phones are so much more convenient, for all parties involved."

With one last look at the indoor photograph, Roland shuffled it away. "Until I've made my decision, I am not to be followed and we will treat this meeting as if it never happened. Your Ministry may have found their spy, but that doesn't mean there was only one, and I will not have you putting me or my charges in any more danger than they're already in. And you can relay that to your Ministry friends too."

Ito nodded and pocketed his wand. "I will."

Roland gestured to the door. "Good."

Ito followed him back out into the hallway towards the elevator. "Whatever the outcome…I appreciate you taking the time to meet with me. In person."

"Hm," Roland made a noncommittal noise. He leaned against the wall of the elevator, and reread some of the stolen communication letters again as they made their descent to the ground floor.

Ito's eyes suddenly widened as the elevator slowed to a stop and the doors opened with a chirpy ding!. "I almost forgot – I have this for you as well. Mostly for Seto Kaiba, but I'm sure you'll have read it long before he does." He reached into his jacket pocket and produced one last envelope.

"What's this?"

Unlike the quiet, upper floors of the Kaiba Corp tower, the lobby bustled with activity. They maneuvered around a small cluster of office ladies heading back into the building from their lunch hour and he stopped near the closest set of doors going out onto the plaza.

Ito handed it to him. "My findings on the data breach."

"We already knew it came from Britain," said Roland, eyeing the envelope suspiciously, and then he looked up. "Unless…."

Ito smirked at him. "I am a detective, after all."

Roland nodded and slipped the envelope into the file folder and out of sight. "That you are. We'll be in touch." He turned and headed back for the elevators. In the few moments since they had stepped off, the lifts all had gone to upper floors.

With a sigh, he stared down at Ito's applicant file, and then glanced back towards the floor-to-ceiling front windows showing off the plaza and two of the towering Blue Eyes White Dragon statues standing sentry on either side of the main steps heading down to the sidewalk.

Ito was gone.

Roland's jaw twitched just as the elevator door opened. He stepped back inside and jammed the button for the fifteenth floor. The receptionist for the floor greeted him once he stepped off the elevator. She thanked him profusely once again for his generosity and handed him back his company credit card, but he barely paid attention to the words coming out of her mouth.

His takeout box waited for him on his desk, and his stomach churned just looking at it. With a sigh, he set the file onto the desk and walked back out of his office and into the bullpen.

"Thanks for lunch, boss!" said one of the officers. More quick thanks followed suit from the others around the room.

Roland merely nodded and glanced up at the large screens on the wall. Cameras were all working perfectly. His eyes slowly moved through each one. Empty hallways. Reception areas. Conference rooms. Labs. All rolling snapshots of everyone's daily grind.

He swept another long look around the officers currently in the bullpen before he retreated to his office. The folder opened once more, and he fished through the files for that one photograph.

The security office encompassed most of the floor and was secured – Pegasus didn't have access. If he recalled correctly, he met Pegasus in the reception area just off the elevators. The two left the building from there, for that working lunch that ended up being a home tour.

The photo was taken in reception; he could just make out the elevator call button in the background. Did the receptionist take it, while he wasn't looking? Was it one of the officers, coming or going from their desk? Was a member of his staff replaced, like that guard at Kaiba Land? Or did someone merely dress the part and manage to magically bypass all the scan-badge checkpoints to get up here, and just watched and photographed the whole department, invisible to the rest of them?

And – were they still here?