Seto gripped his knees in cold fury and wondered how much scheming he should do. First, he needed to figure out this headmaster elf, who was trying to talk to him, so Seto decided to humor him…for Yami.

"What's your name?" The headmaster asked gently, crossing his arms across his silky robes and leaning back into the carriage cushion. "My name is Dartz. Headmaster Dartz, or Master Dartz for short."

Gee, he sure likes hearing the sound of his own name, Seto thought sourly as he replied with one word.

"Seto."

"Is that really your name? Seto? Very short and simple," the headmaster said calmly, giving the demon child another up and down glance, noting the dusty mage's robes and apprentice hat. "Have you been learning mage magic?"

"No."

Anything he said now might incriminate Yami.
He would admit to nothing.
And even if it didn't incriminate Yami, he didn't owe this headmaster the truth about anything.

There was a tense silence, and the carriage floated into a dense cloud, washing everything white outside his window, and Seto grit his teeth in anger. He'd been trying to make a map of the terrain below so he could somewhat get back to the safetown….

"Let's try this again. What was your name in your past life?" Master Dartz was relentless, and Seto gave him a side-glare.

"My name is Seto. What more do you want from me?"

The elf gave him a piercing look with his eyes, which Seto realized with a jolt was two colors. One was a light hazel and the other was a sea green. UH…what the fuck was going on with his face?!

"The question I'm dying to know is…" Dartz smoothed the front of his robes over his legs gracefully. "What do you hope to gain from interacting with me?"

Seto blinked and briefly wondered how truthful he should be, and when he didn't say anything, the headmaster asked him another annoying question, "May I appraise you?"

"No." Seto replied stiffly, still freshly traumatized from the earlier assault of multiple appraisals.

"May I sometime later then?" The headmaster asked gently, and Seto grit his teeth harder.

"...Maybe."

"I'll take a maybe. Gives me time to hope," the headmaster said smoothly as the carriage took a nauseating dip downwards. "We're home!"

Not. Seto growled, deciding to find a way to escape as soon as possible…which meant asking about Yami's location.

"Where's my guardian being held?" He asked in a rush, his cheeks burning as he hated referring to Yami as such, but he wanted to sound removed. It didn't work.

The headmaster heard his feelings.

"I'm not sure yet," the elf answered him as he tucked a long strand of hair behind his pointed ear with an air of supreme grace that was annoying as fuck. "But the moment I find out, I will tell you."

Got it. That's grown-up speak for, 'idk and idc', Seto bit the inside of his lip so hard, he tasted blood.

The carriage landed with a soft thump! and Seto made no movement to get out, even when the headmaster eased out of the door, his hair billowing in the wind behind him as he stood by, encouraging him with a soft voice, "come on. I'll show you your room."

Seto folded his arms and chanced disobeying.

Nope. He was going to sit here.

"I'm not going to fight you," the headmaster said patiently, sweeping a lock of his hair over his shoulder and letting out a relaxed sigh. "You can sit in there, I can stand out here. For hundreds of years. I am a High Elf, you are…I think, an elf-mix, we won't know until you allow me to appraise you. We both can live well over several millennia. Who do you reckon will get hungry first?"

Seto rolled his eyes and climbed out with a huff, landing on soft, dirt ground, glancing up to see a community of tiny huts dotted across a large, flat field. This looked like summer camp from hell, not…school. Shit. Yami was right.

This was prison for kids.

Juvenile detention.

"This way," Dartz sang, reaching down to hold his hand, but Seto yanked his arm away and glared.

"Don't touch me."

"Okaaayyy," Dartz replied in the same singsong voice, walking towards the nearest tiny building that had two, double-wide wooden doors. "This is where we eat every meal. You may sit wherever you like, but if there's a fight, you will be assigned a seat."

The elf threw the doors open and Seto was greeted by the depressing sight of long, unfinished wooden tables and small, high windows. Jail cafeteria. Cool.

"Now these buildings back here are where we learn every day," Dartz pointed at the scatter of buildings built haphazardly without planning. "You will go between them based on your needs. We will assess you and put you in the right hands."

"I want to be with Yami," Seto said instantly, and he caught a sharp look from the headmaster's two-colored eyes.

"We will discuss that later. Now, for your room," Dartz said firmly, sweeping past him and leading to another large brick house with a thatched roof. "To avoid disagreements, we will house you by the species you correspond with the closest. Now, may I appraise you?"

"No." Seto replied staunchly, and he caught a worried frown across the headmaster's handsome brow.

"Very well. Let's take a look at where you will be staying if you were hybrid," Dartz said calmly, wondering if the child had been conditioned to hide his species. He walked into the dorm and pushed the doors open to reveal short, child-sized bunks with rows of colorful dressers beside each one.

"This is the Lilac Dorm," Dartz explained, waving his hand to clean up a few stray coats and shoes that were laid out messily by one of the beds. "Shared between species which are smaller in size, be they hybrids between human and animal, or…delicate fae folk and human."

I'm not listening to this garbage, Seto thought furiously as he was led to the building right beside it, and the door was painted light blue.

"This is the Azure Dorm," Dartz continued, aware of the tiny demon's callous thoughts. "Elemental children live in this dorm, the ones that are made of the very fabric of our universe."

Garrrbage, Seto chanted, realizing he didn't fit in here either. GREAT. Sounded like he was about to be an outcast in jail too. Could this world get any shittier?!

"Lastly, Our largest, most populated dorm, the Sage Dorm, home to all beast-folk and fiends," Dartz announced, pulling the doors back to reveal a more spacious sleeping area, but the beds were stacked by threes instead of two. Awesome. He was an outcast, and it was about to be overcrowded in here too.

He wasn't a fiend, or a 'fay'.

"Guess you're sleeping here. Pick an empty bed and I'll appraise you after this," Dartz said with a firm tone, standing tall by the door, blocking the dusky light filtering in behind him. "Let's get along. Seto."

"I'm not any of these things," Seto replied finally, wondering if there was an empty bed here for him. Everything appeared taken, and some of the drawers were overflowing with clothes.

"Then let me cast an appraisal," Dartz said with a wide smile that showed perfect, white teeth. "Ready?"

Seto hissed through his teeth and stood his ground. Fine. He nodded stiffly once, and the headmaster didn't even open his mouth to speak. Instead, Seto saw a flood of light pool out from underneath his feet so fast, it vanished in a blink of an eye. And, he'd felt…nothing.

No cold, no heat. Cool trick? Did it even happen?

"Demon class, very nice," Dartz said with a gleam in his two-colored eyes, tapping a manicured finger to his sharp chin. "You are indeed very powerful and…I see an Arch title in your future. Perhaps you could grow up to be a Demon Lord, hmm? Like the sound of that?"

"No?!" Seto raged, his ears burning at that horrible label. "I'm not trying to be noticed or killed. Being a boss monster isn't my goal in this life."

"A boss…monster…" Dartz repeated with an amused smile. "Then what, pray tell, is your goal, Seto…? That is indeed your name, with no surname or clan name. I'm very sorry. You have my deepest condolences for the loss of your entire clan to human cruelty."

There was an awkward silence.

Seto grit his teeth and hissed, "I just want to be left alone. I want to live a peaceful fucking life, away from…this shit!" He gestured at the three-stack bunks, feeling a shiver roll down his spine when he had a horrible flashback of slumming it at the orphanage.

When fate said, 'start over', they really meant, 'start over'!

"So the bed arrangement displeases you. We can make adjustments for you to have your own room," Dartz said with another glint in his eye. "Provided you attend the classes we require of you. Agree to that, Seto? Your species is good at bargaining. Bargain with me."

"That, and I want to know Yami's whereabouts," Seto laid out his demands in a flash, not hesitating for a second. "I want frequent visits to him. I want off this hellish property, and I want to visit Mai too. I want my old life back. I have friends in District 5—"

"Let me stop you right there," Master Dartz held up a graceful hand and lowered his head in polite understanding. "You have been placed in my care, therefore, I am your guardian now. Whoever Yami is, will not be able to help you, but I will allow one visit provided he is in a safe and…reachable location. About your friends in other districts, I'm afraid we have no way of contacting them unless we gain their parent's permission."

"One visit, per month," Seto shot back, aware that he was losing and didn't know where the hell this place was, how anything worked, and what he would be expected to 'learn'.

"Can't promise that. Don't know where he is…yet," Dartz replied with a dazzling smile, and he stepped back into the courtyard and gestured for Seto to follow. "Come now. Make some friends here. I'll be watching you closely."

Fucking bet, Seto growled as he followed the headmaster out of the dorm and to a small clearing where a few trees were planted intentionally in a circle, and children were out, playing.

It was the strangest assortment of kids he'd ever seen, and the reality of his situation was hitting him harder than ever the more he observed them.

There were dots of light, small beings with wings, gaseous beings, insects with human heads, and vice versa. The hybrid beings he was so used to seeing were plentiful here too, and he desperately tried to find someone who walked on two, human-shaped legs with a human-ish head. No one. Fuck. Where the hell were the "fay-folk"?!

Or were they all hybrids, and the dorms were a rough estimation of their similarities?!

This was kid-reject hell.

This was worse than the particle field gathering experience.

He was being left alone at the clearing, and he called after the tall elf, hating his beauty even more as he shouted, "don't leave me here!" And all the children stopped to stare at him fearfully. F. u c k.

"You will be fed soon, don't worry!" Datz called over his shoulder, drifting away to the other buildings. "Play nice. No fighting!"

Seto swallowed thinly and held his ground, staring at the odd assortment of children before him, trying not to let his fear show, but he knew it was probably oozing out of him.

After the hybrid children finished staring at him, they went back to their flying around, galloping, and stick-tossing. Some were drawing runes in the ground and making sparks fly from it, and others were obviously casting on each other, making their features change color. It was…disturbing and scary.

He'd sit in a corner and avoid everyone.

He marched to a set of dirt blocks someone had casted up from the ground and plopped himself down on it, relieved to see his salvation in the form of another human, but he had stark white hair, dark red orbs for eyes that had no pupils, making him appear…blind, and paper-thin skin that showed all the veins underneath.

H-Holy sh—

"Get the fuck away from me…Seto Kaiba!" The white-haired boy growled, baring his fangs and narrowing his eyes. "Nice to meet you here…in hell."

Completely thrown, Seto decided not to acknowledge that, but his insides leapt for joy. JOY! Someone here…knew who he was!

Wait, that was bad, wasn't it?

"Kaiba? Is that a curse word?" Seto asked, hoping to play dumb for as long as possible. "My name is Seto, but I don't have a surname or clan name…anymore."

The white-haired demon narrowed his eyes, his lip shaking and curling upwards with disdain as he continued to glare.

"A reincarnation? Another version of him? One that's…dumb and…5 years old?" The white-haired boy was now chewing the tips of his claws, side-eyeing him and sweating visibly. "I could use him…to escape. His brain is the same, if he looks this way, he should be—APPRAISE!"

Hey! Seto growled but he let the white-haired boy assess him, because he wanted to escape too.

A wave of heat crashed over his body, making his fingertips sting from the warmth, and he wiggled them, wondering why each appraisal felt different. He was used to the cold.

"Same class…as me! Impossible…!" The white-haired boy was still ranting to himself like a madman, acting like Seto wasn't sitting there. "And a level...I can't comprehend! We could break out of here tomorrow, today! Yesterday!"

"I can do that to you too," Seto said flatly, raising his voice, "Appraise!"

"Oh no you don't!" The white-haired boy lunged at him with his claws outstretched, and Seto leapt off the dirt block, seeing numbers hovering above the boy's head briefly before they disappeared, and he was tackled to the ground, with hands choking around his neck, making him see stars.

"DEMON FIGHT!" Someone shouted, and everyone backed away fearfully to watch.

Seto grit his teeth and took a huge breath of air and realized that if he explored the tightness around his neck, he could breathe again. This creature… Bakura, who was a level 200 demon boy, at the age 47 was trying to strangle him but unable to do any damage other than get him dirty and surprise him by knocking him off his feet. Only because he was bigger. Only by a little.

"You're the reason I died!" Bakura hissed, leaning into his face, spit frothing at his pale mouth. "Working for you day after day, late night after night was torture. You tortured me, and I'll torture you right back!"

"Y-You…what?!" Seto gasped, reaching up to pry the hands away from his neck weakly and kicking his legs, deciding not to fight back, eager to hear more. "We're p-partners?!"

"IDIOT! You controlled me!" Bakura yelled in his face, getting a few flecks of spit in his eye, making him turn his head to the side. "Look at me, you insolent CHILD! You're going to grow up to be a heartless monster. You will destroy economies everywhere you go, pollute needlessly, and become a brash, wasteful, cheating scumbag! I should kill you now to save THIS world!"

Maybe this white-haired guy was from the timeline where he was the asshole trying to launch himself to another planet and then had maybe caused global economic fluctuations in a pandemic?

"…Ow…" Seto said weakly, hitching his breath to sell the act. "C-Can't breathe—"

He could breathe fine.

He wanted to hear more.

"GOOD! DIE!" Bakura shook him viciously, his red eyes flashing. "I wasted my life because of you! I thought, oh, work at Kaiba Corporation! Get a promotion! And another! And another! And then what?! I was turning 45 and got hit by a drunk driver, dying single, alone, and accomplished nothing other than being a corporate slave to you!"

Should I apologize even though I don't know him? Seto wondered faintly, and he opened his mouth to say he couldn't breathe again, but the hands released him, and Bakura backed off his body, heaving and glaring.

"I heard your thoughts. You want to apologize to me," Bakura said, his voice suddenly quiet, his large eyes half-lidded. "You really don't remember anything about being a CEO?"

"Of a…clan? That's like a boss, right?" Seto ventured, rubbing his neck with a visible wince and a cough. "I must have been a bad boss to you in a past life. For that, I'm sorry."

Bakura narrowed his eyes even further until they were glowing red slits, and he exercised his jaw, opening and closing it while flashing fangs every time.

"He means it. Fucking odd," Bakura spat, sitting down on his heels and tucking his legs underneath him formally. "I'll forgive you if you get me out of h—Master Dartz!"

He leapt to his feet in a cloud of dust and bowed, and Seto scrambled to his feet too, mirroring Bakura's bow and making obvious side-glances at him.

"I want to hear the story," the elf headmaster said calmly, kneeling to their level and giving them each a steely look. "What's this about being a bad boss?"

"I don't know. I don't know him," Seto answered truthfully, and knew the other two could feel it. He really didn't know this guy! And if he'd worked himself to death, that sucked, but…he didn't control that…!

"Again, he means it like his brain is empty!" Bakura growled to the ground, clenching and unclenching his fists before raising his head to address the headmaster.

"Master Dartz, this man—this child was a powerful boss in his past life," Bakura pointed a clawed finger at Seto, and Seto felt his stomach curl. E-Exposed?!

"Oh?" The elf tilted his head gracefully, so much that a lock of hair slinked down his shoulder, and Seto glared at it, hating him.

"He was a man of business, and money, and the future. Technology!" Bakura ranted, eager to tell on him. "A king amongst humans! One of the most notable and richest humans…ever! His inventions changed the course of human history, whether he knows it or not."

"Wow," Seto muttered, wondering if he ought to take this as high praise. He'd died at age 35, thinking his achievements were normal for someone like him, but then again, someone like him was only in the top 0000.01 percent of society…

"AND HE REMEMBERS NONE OF IT!" Bakura shrieked, pulling at his hair, his eyes glowing again. "He apologized to me! This man never apologizes! Look at this…ugly, helpless…child, sharing his face and body!" And Bakura kicked the dirt in his direction. Seto raised his cloak sleeve to shield his face from the cloud of dust, keeping his temper.

This man Bakura hadn't made his peace with his own death yet. Sure, he had some work to do in that area personally, but at least he wasn't spitting in people's faces about working long hours…

"Who is Mokuba? What's a duel disk?!" Bakura taunted, working himself up into another rage. "Better yet, who is Akiko-san, Seto Kaiba?"

"I don't know," Seto answered truthfully, deciding to fixate on the last question to get his emotions across better. "Some…girl?" Maybe a wife?

"S-Some girl...maybe a wife, he thinks!" Bakura choked, and he turned away with his shoulders shaking, and Seto stared at his back, unsure if he was laughing, crying, or…what, because he appeared to be completely off his hinge.

"Intriguing," was all the headmaster elf had to say, and he rose to his feet, walking away again. "Children, let's eat. We're all here for a reason, and let's make the most of our time here."

The other kids rushed past them in a plume of dust, cheering excitedly while Bakura and Seto stayed standing in their spot, unmoving and alone.

Seto curled his fingers into his damp palms, waiting for Bakura to attack him again, and sure enough, the white-haired demon spoke up, "you know this is a prison for abandoned kids, right? If you think it's a school, you're missing half your brain, Kaiba."

"Seto, and yeah I know it's a prison," Seto replied calmly, eager to befriend the white-haired boy. "My guardian was dragged off into a cell and I want to get out of here to see him. He saved me from mass slaughter. I owe him."

Bakura made odd choking noises again and turned away with a hand clapped over his mouth, fake heaving.

"Are you okay?" Seto asked irritably, knowing the boy was making fun of him, but he wasn't going to acknowledge it. "Maybe eat something. What's good here?"

"HEAR YOURSELF?!" Bakura shrieked, grabbing at his hair again and stalking around him in a circle, breathing down the top of his head. "Little boy Kaiba, sounding…dare I say, human?!"

"Not sure I want to be human," Seto answered truthfully again, and Bakura's mouth dropped open in sheer shock.

"W-Why not?!" Bakura hissed, his eyes constricting slightly as he struggled to compose himself. "Being human is…the best!"

"Humans are weak. You're an idiot," Seto said blithely, grinning and daring to show off a bit of fang. "Your form is way better, get it? You want out? We have to work together to get out. I need to see Yami. I love him." He said that knowing it would elicit an extreme reaction from the white-haired boy, and sure enough, Bakura made another disgusted gurgling noise while grabbing at his neck, rolling his eyes to the back of his head and shuddering with his split tongue hanging out the side of his mouth.

"The almighty Seto Kaiba, saying he loves…" Bakura muttered, kicking the dirt. "Maybe this is the life where we can mold him before he becomes a terror. I'm okay with that. Be his friend, Bakura. You can fucking do it if you want to see the fucking outside."

"I wanna see the fucking outside too!" Seto grinned and let out a laugh in spite of himself and hurried off in the direction of the cafeteria. "Come on. I heard they don't assign seating unless there's a fight, so let's not fight if we're friends."

He turned to hide his face, cringing internally at himself but he knew this was the way.

Play up Anti-Seto Kaiba, be the opposite of a raging asshole with too much money, and he would get out of here with the help of another powerful demon who had also once been a human Japanese citizen from his time. This new life was really proving to be a karma loop.

He had to make it up to this white-haired man somehow.

Racing across the dirt paths to the large building, he spotted the silvery-blue-haired elf standing by the doors, waiting for them.

"Did you sort yourselves out?" The headmaster asked kindly, and Seto ignored the beautiful high elf by walking right past him, hearing Bakura reply, "Yes sir."

Ass-kisser.

Seto sat down quickly at an empty spot by the wall at the end of the long table, and the seat warmed for a moment before a plate appeared before him, and menu options in Elvish glowed beside the plate. Great. He couldn't read this. School might actually be useful here if they taught him how to read…

"Translate…" Seto muttered, and the characters slowly re-arranged themselves in his vision while Bakura slid into the spot beside him and a plate appeared before him too.

"Can't read?" Bakura caught on quickly, and Seto chose silence as his place was filled with an assortment of strange-looking fruit and a mound of purple rice.

"Why do you kiss his ass?" Seto shot back, forgetting that he was supposed to be nice to this boy, but Bakura grinned manically at him, his red orb eyes glowing as he replied, "…Master Dartz is our only way out of here. You should be nice to him and he'll give you leniency, as he did for me."

Seto again said nothing and took a bite of his food, realizing for once, he was famished. A small, worried voice in the back of his head wondered if Yami was eating this well, because he had a feeling the food was only so good here because they were kids…

He kept his head lowered and decided to listen to Bakura talk, because this white-haired boy was an ally he needed.

Author's note:

a dark bakura and seto interaction! (in """school""""')