Author's Note: In case you don't follow my Twitter or are a member of my discord- For Halloween this year we have two special treats!
First, we will have the two part "Submitted For Your Approval", two short fun stories styled after the Twilight Zone!
But even more fun… starting soon will be a limited series spin off of Chaos Effect!
"When Edwin is forced by Seto Kaiba to go to LA to attend an event just before Halloween he assumes that it will just be another Filler Arc. He did not expect a murder to take place… or for him to be drafted to assist the LAPD in solving it. Along with their former consultant: The Devil himself, Lucifer Morningstar."
Edwin In Lux: A Chaos Effect Mystery
~MC~MC~MC~
"Leichter! Leichter!"
Boregard Anton Leichter wiped his brow to remove some of the sweat that had gathered there, staining the gray jumpsuit he was wearing with more black muck. His sweat was mixing with the grim that was filling the air but it was better that it be on his sleeve rather than in his eyes.
"Leichter!" the shrill, whiny voice of the company stooge echoed all about him, somehow managing to cut even through the pounding of sledge hammers, the clatter of coal being dumped into mine cars, and the grumbling grunts of the other men. "Get back to work! You know we have a quota."
He shot the man a dark look. "Just catching my breath," he said.
"You can do that when you are dead! We need to get this shipment out and we're already too far behind."
"I'm not the one that promised it would be done this soon," he grumbled.
"What did you say?" the stooge, Carlton, demanded. He moved deeper into the tunnel, ducking his head and looking about wildly for any rocks that might strike his thick empty skull. "What did you say?"
"Nothing," Boregard said, biting his tongue; he couldn't afford to lose this job. As much as he hated it mining coal was one of the only professions a man could do with no education in Kentucky that would allow him to keep his dignity and fill his pocket. It was filthy, gritty, back breaking work but no one would look at a coal miner and think they weren't earning every dime they had. Fathers might not want their daughters marrying a coal miner but they wouldn't turn up their nose to a man doing the job for a summer.
"He said that you were the one that promised it would be done too soon," another miner said, Boregard turning to glare at him. But any insults he might have tossed the man's way died on his tongue when he saw just how thickly built he was. The man was Boregard's height but three times his width and it was all refined muscle. He was wearing a mask over his face so Boregard couldn't gauge his features but he handled the pickaxe like he had been born with on, tunneling his way out of his momma rather than being born. "And he's right."
"He's… this shipment was approved by management! Are you saying management is wrong?"
'Of course they were wrong,' Boregard thought, for once managing to hold his words back so he didn't cause himself more problems. That was the problem with management: they weren't connected to the little people. The ones actually doing the work. They sat in their fancy offices with their AC wastefully blasting away and whimpering if they got a chip in one of their nails. They would take credit for every success and deny they were connected to any failure. They demanded the impossible and didn't want to hear from people that it couldn't be done because they thought they knew better than those that were actually hauling the product all thanks to their fancy city educations.
Never mind that's what Boregard wanted for himself.
'But I'm gonna be different,' he thought. 'Companies don't run well if the boss doesn't know what is really going on. But I'll remember where I started and when I'm the one in charge I'll use that to make wherever I work the leader in its industry.'
"They were," the burly miner said, never stopping from mining the coal. He dropped his pickaxe and reached over to grab several heavy buckets that normally took two or three men to lift, wrapping his thick meaty fingers around the handles and hauling them up with ease. Boregard had to admit he was impressed… and also understood why the other miner was speaking up. Someone that strong and powerful had job security and would be able to mouth off. But only to a point . "Bad advice was given."
"Bad advice?" Carlton squawked.
"Do you just repeat what I say?" the other miner mocked and Boregard fought back a snicker. "You and the other boot lickers gave the new owners bad information. Didn't tell them the mine wasn't dug out as deep as it was, that the reserves were as low. And now you're trying to cover it up." Boregard frowned at that; he'd heard that some upstart from Japan had bought the mines recently but considering that nothing had really changed for him when it came to his work he hadn't really thought about it.
"…you… you…" Carlton trembled, nearly causing his oversize hard hat to tumble off his melon.
"Oh… you want to fire me?" the big miner said, slamming the buckets down in the cart and turning back to Carlton. "Think you can toss me aside because I dared to speak truth to power?" And with that he reached up and pulled off his mask. "I'd like to see you try."
"Mis…. Mis… Mister Kaiba?" Carlton stammered.
Boregard just frowned.
He had no idea who that was.
"What… what are you-"
"Doing down here? Fixing your mistake." Mr. Kaiba scoffed. "Now grab a pickaxe and help out. We don't have the best oxygen down here and you flapping your lips isn't going to help matters."
"I… I don't mine," Carlton said with a derisive sniff. "I am far too-" he caught himself as he realized just WHAT he was about to say… and say it too.
Mr. Kaiba stepped up to Carlton, looming over the sad little needle of a man. "You either pick up a shovel or an axe… or your pink slip. Its up to you." And then he turned, not bothering to see just what Carlton would do. "Leichter, right?"
"Yes sir," Boregard said, having cottoned onto the fact that Mr. Kaiba was actually someone rather important within the company.
"None of that," he said. "Gozaburo."
Boregard said the name out loud, tasting such a strange name.
"Now then… what supplies would actually help the miners be able to work down here? I noticed a lot of them don't wear goggles."
Boregard nodded at that. "I tried it… first day I was done I found they cut into my face too much. And the glass makes things harder to see. Just not worth it."
"So better goggles… what else?"
Leichter frowned. "Excuse me but… who are you?"
That made Mr. Kaiba, Gozaburo, laugh. "I'm the fool that bought this mine and didn't replace the incompetent managers that were running it into the ground." Boregard's eyes widened at that. "And speaking of that… you want a job?"
~Present Day~
"Any luck?" Joey asked Koyo, his friend standing on his shoulders to see over the tall wall. 'Of course he might not just be my friend,' Joey thought. 'He might be something more.' And he was surprisingly okay with considering that. A year or two ago he would have been disgusted thinking about himself and Koyo being in a relationship. Unnatural. Wrong. Disgusting. A sick and twisted joke and he would have creamed anyone that suggested that. 'But that ain't me. Not anymore. That's just who my dad was tryin' ta twist me inta. Now, with my friends?'
And it wasn't just Yugi, Tea, and Tristan that had helped me be more open. There was Duke, who loved to flirt with women but also never judged anyone based on who they cared for. There was Edwin who had joked with Mai and Tea about attractive looking men and shrugged his shoulders when Joey had first given him odd looks. There was Mr. Muto who, while never discussing such things with him, always seemed to be so willing to respect others.
'Heck, even Rex,' Joey thought to himself. 'Ever since Ed got him ta get the stick from out of his butt he ain't been half bad. And he mentioned bein' bi… I didn't even know that was possible. That ya could like guys and chicks. I never even considered that.' He licked his lips. 'And… could I be bi? I mean, I like hangin' out with Tristan and Yug as much as I like hangin' out with Tea but that don't seem like da same thing. Seems like bein' in a relationship is more than dat.'
The thing was… Joey honestly didn't know what a couple 'did'. He had thought he'd known, based on movies and TV shows, but he'd come to see in real life that couples were far different. For one thing the relationships developed far more slowly than they did in movies… but not as slow in tv shows. And there was far less bickering and fighting. Tea and Yugi might sometimes get on each other but they didn't seem to hate each other like half the couples Joey saw in films. And Edwin and Mai… there was just something about them, a presence that was hard to describe. Yugi and Tea had it too but Edwin and Mai? They walked into a room and within seconds you knew they were a couple.
'Is that somethin' I could have with Koyo? Is-'
"JOEY!" Koyo exclaimed and Joey realized that he'd become so lost in his thoughts that he'd let Koyo slip off his shoulders, leaving his friend clinging to the wall he had been trying to get up. Joey hurried back into position but Koyo was kicking up a storm, trying to get his balance again, and the next thing Joey knew the two of them were on the ground, a tangle of limbs.
"You… you okay man?" Joey wheezed; he was pretty sure he had separated something… "Wait." He suddenly pushed away from Koyo and rolled his neck before laughing.
"I think so… are you?" Koyo said, concerned.
"Course! I just realized this ain't real so I couldn't really get hurt!" Koyo blinked at that. "I mean it! I feel great! Pain is all gone."
"Not for me," Koyo groused, slower to get up.
"Aw, that's cause you're smarter than me and sometimes that means ya focus on stuff more. Me? I let things pass right on through. Woooosh!" He darted his hand across his face.
"Don't say that," Koyo complained, Joey holding out his hand to help him up. "You are very smart, Joey. You just don't give yourself the credit you deserve."
"Heh, maybe," Joey said. "Gramps said he wants ta take me ta some doctor… thinks I have ADPE or something like that."
"ADHD," Koyo said at once. "And its possible Joey."
"Man, I don't know. I think I'm perfectly fine."
"No, you're Joey Wheeler and there is nothing wrong with that," Koyo stated. "And if you are happy with how you are then that's great. That's the most important thing. But if you are bothered by things… if you want to change… then finding out about this is a good thing."
Joey's smile slipped at that and he scuffed his shoe against the sidewalk. "…I… I am thinkin' of seeing a shrink. I don't know if I can really talk ta Brom, not after what happened in our duel and he's all da way in America but maybe someone else?"
"That would be great!" Koyo exclaimed. "I go to therapy and it really helps me!"
"Really?" Joey said. "Ya don't think it would make me weak? I can just imagine Kaiba makin' fun of me for that. And I know Tea wanted Ed ta go after what happened with her dad and now Ishizu but he keeps sayin' he don't wanna-"
Koyo cut him off. "Edwin is Edwin. He is different from you. As for Kaiba… he is the first person that should be in therapy, Joey, so you can't listen to him."
"Heh, yeah, you're right about that."
The two fell into silence. It wasn't terribly awkward… rather it was the kind of silence that came when there was simply nothing left to discuss and two people decided that they didn't need to fill the air just so there wasn't something more than the quiet. It was comfortable and nice and even though they were trapped in the Virtual World Joey didn't feel all that concerned at that moment.
"Well… this is an interesting sight."
Joey turned and stared at Mai as she stood there, a dark little smirk on her lips. "Hey! We're were lookin' for ya, Mai! Well, anyone, really! Tryin' ta see if anyone else had managed to defeat any of the Big 5."
"Defeated and destroyed," she said blandly. "Honestly it was a pathetic attempt on their part and I'm embarrassed for them. Still, what do you expect when a mortal tries to challenge a god?"
"Aw man!" Joey said, slowly backing away from Mai. "Koyo… I don't think Mai is in da driver's seat at the moment!"
"I am Mai though, please pay attention," Selene stated. "That is what is so bothersome about you all. You believe me and Mai to be no different than the Pharaoh and little Yugi. But Mai is me… just less. Lacking."
"There's only one person I'd argue is 'lackin'' anything," Joey retorted, narrowing his eyes.
That made the goddess chuckle. "Oh… how utterly witty. And here I thought you would be all doom and gloom, Joey, but here you are trying to make jokes."
"Maybe," Koyo said, glaring at Selene, "he isn't all that pleasant because he remembers how you tricked him into attacking Edwin."
"I actually was hoping that he would merely say something vulgar and upsetting… the attack did NOT please me." She took a step forward and Joey cringed, teeth clenched in worry.
But Koyo held his ground, waiting until Selene was right in front of him… and then reached out and poked her nose with a single finger.
"Boop."
~MC~MC~MC~
The Titan was so startled by that reaction that she leaned back in shock, blinking, while Joey collapsed on the ground, white and stiff as a corpse. She pulled away from him, slowly reaching up and touching her nose as if she expected to find that Koyo had placed something there.
"Joey made me realize it," Koyo said as he took a step towards Selene. "We're not really here. This is all just happening in our brains. And I wager that your godly powers don't transmit over cables and wires. In other words… here you are just as mortal as the rest of us." He suddenly snapped his hand out and flicked her earlobe.
"Stop that!" Selene demanded, puffing up a bit.
But Koyo shook his head. "No. You tormented Joey and used him without a second thought about what would happen when you were done with him. You've had Edwin living in fear that you will suddenly pop up and meddle in his life. You have turned your Mai self into a paranoid wreck because as much as you feel like you are the same person she does NOT feel that way about you and she lives in terror that she will disappear one day." He took a step forward and Selene stared at him, eyes wide as her tongue darted out to lick her lips. "And furthermore… you are a god. You don't respect us mortals in the slightest. You humor us. You delight in our lives. But you don't respect us. You are the bigot who says that black people can have their music and their movies but they should never dare believe they are homophobe that will cheer on a gay actor but scream in outrage if they want to marry the person they love.
"So no… I won't stop. Not now… not ever. Because its time you learned what it means to be mortal, Selene… truly mortal. To be powerless." And with that he flicked her other ear.
"S-stop it!" she shouted, trying to sound tough but the stammer in her voice revealed how terrified she was. "When… when we escape here I will rain agony upon you!"
"So you're saying I need to make sure you never leave, got it."
"Wait!" Selene pleaded, taking another step back only to fall upon her rear end. She looked up at Koyo and he smirked, wondering how long it had been since she had been forced to tilt her head up to stare into the eyes of another. "Wait!" Koyo stared down at her. "You… you must want something."
"So many things," Koyo confirmed. "But I also know not to trust the word of a god."
"Our word is our bond!" Selene declared in a near panic; Koyo might have felt an ounce of guilt for her if it wasn't for the fact that he remembered well all she had done to him and his friends. How she had been tormenting Joey with what she had tricked him to do not 2 minutes earlier.
"Swear you will seek no vengeance against me or my friends," Koyo said at once.
"I swear!" Selene said only to cringe when Koyo reached out to her. It was honestly pathetic how scared she was acting. Trembling and whimpering like a frightened puppy. It was hard to imagine that only moments earlier she had been so proud and mighty.
"Very well," Koyo said and Selene opened her eyes to find he was extending his hand to help her up. After a long moment she accepted. "Remember what it felt like to be powerless and know that for countless years you made all of humanity feel that way."
And with that he turned and made his way over to Joey, offering him a hand up as well.
"Come on," Koyo said, "let's get out of here."
He didn't bother to look back to see if Selene would follow him.
He knew she would.
~MC~MC~MC~
Serenity Wheeler felt she deserved a bit more credit than she was getting.
In the span of a few days she had gone through an operation to restore her eyesight, her own mother buggering off the first moment she could because she had 'other things to do' and had to 'keep working to make up for the money lost so far'; as if it hadn't been Joey who had ensured that she could have the surgery. She had then been kidnapped by some deranged Egyptian Man and only lived because her kidnapper had a change of heart and Edwin had decided to burn some cultists alive. She had learned that magic was real. That GODS were real. She had conversed with two of them, one of which helping her see that her mother had basically kidnapped her when she was just a little girl. She had fought in a multiversal war and though the memories were wispy and thin she KNEW it had happened. She had been stalked by a serial killer and-
Serenity blinked.
She had been thinking about how people should show her more respect, considering all she had been through and how she was now dangling over a great ravine while two men dueled to determined her life. But… her mind kept going back to the fact that she could remember it being Halloween and Edwin saving her from the Ghostface Serial Killers… in the middle of Battle City.
Same with Christmas. In fact the more she thought about it the more she realized that they had had MULTIPLE Chrismases and Halloweens all in the span of… two days? Three?
"What the fuck?!" Serenity snarled as suddenly everything Edwin had teased and hinted at came into sharp focus. "My life is LITERALLY A FUCKING ANIME!?" She threw back her head. "AND I'M NOT EVEN THE FUCKIN' MAIN CHARACTER!?"
"Do… do you understand what she's talking about?" Leichter said.
"I believe I do but not quite-" Pegasus began only for Serenity to grab the bars of the cage and violently shake them.
"YOU SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTH!" she screamed. "I'M THE FUCKING SUPPORTING CHARACTER IN A FUCKING ANIME!" She suddenly learned back, eyes wide with horror. "Oh fuck… I'm not even that. I'm Joey's little sister. I'm… I'm the tragic backstory character for the supporting character!" She threw back her head and began to scream some more. "I'M PROBABLY SUPPOSED TO BE TRISTAN'S LOVE INTEREST!"
"Well, I personally don't know who this Tristan is," AI Cassie said with a sniff, "but he sounds rather disappointing." She drew her next card. "Much like your own attempts to defeat me, darling."
Pegasus merely smirked at that. "It truly isn't becoming of you to lie."
"I never lie. It isn't my fault you can't accept the truth."
"The truth that you have no true way to defeat me?"
"The truth that this was hopeless the moment you accepted this duel." She let out a dramatic sigh, staring at him with utter pity. "You are yesterday's news, Maximillion. A relic. Someone that never learned how to move ahead."
"oh, and the woman that has been programmed to act like we are back in the 1910s is going to lecture me about being outdated."
"Good manners never go out of style."
"JUST FUCK ALREADY!" Serenity shouted from her cage. She was now truly regretting having never learned how to duel because if she had understood how to do such things she could have just dueled Ai Cassie herself and not wasted so much time with fucking banter!
"How vulgar!" Ai Cassie proclaimed before letting out a sigh. "But then again, what is one to expect from the lessers of society. Now then, Serenity dear, pay attention as I show you how one duels properly. We'll start with special summoning. I discard this card to the graveyard," Serenity saw the Englishwoman discard a card, "which, thanks to my field spell, allows me to draw one card. And now, using his effect, I can special summon Dragunity Legatus."
Serenity was a bit surprised to see that it wasn't a dragon that appeared on AI Cassie's side of the field but rather a humanoid figure. Save for the single eye that was visible under its very pale green mask one wouldn't have been faulted for believing the monster was in fact a bird man. It was a bulky creature, truly looming over the others with only the Toon Cyber Dragon able to look down at it.
"Next I will then normal summons Dragunity Phalanx!" A lot of the dude bros at her school, the ones that tried far too much to appear cool and edgy, would have said that the dragon had skipped leg day. Indeed its hind quarters were rather thin while its arms and chest were bloated with muscle, which it proudly displayed as it roared. "And now its time to reveal a new trick. With all my Dragunity Monsters on the field I can, with one of them in my Spell and Trap Zone, destroy one Spell or Trap on the field, once per turn. And I will be of course destroying your Toon Kingdom!"
The Dragons all threw back their heads and let out roars that caused Serenity to clamp her hands over her ears, trying to blot out the sound. Pegasus, she saw, was doing the same and his Toon Kingdom field spell trembled and vibrated before it finally could take no matter, shattering into a thousand little pieces.
"And with that your hope is gone!" Leichter crowed. "The strength of your Toon Monsters is the protection they gain from your field spell! With it gone they are all destroyed, sent back to the depths of your twisted mind, where they might keep you warm as-" He froze as he saw Pegasus' side of the field.
Toon Cyber Dragon merely wink at him.
"How!?" Lechter screeched. "How has it not been destroyed? It should have been destroyed! Everyone knows that!" He stared at the field and Serenity did as well. Toon Cyber Dragon remained on the field but there were some changes to it. The monster had lost all its pigment, looking like an old timey black and white photo. But otherwise it was perfectly fine.
"Ah ah ah," Pegasus said with a waggle of his finger. "I am afraid you are a touch out of date, Leichter. You said that my toons would be destroyed and that would be the case if I were using Toon World. But after Little Yugi defeated my wonderful toons in our duel I knew I had to correct that weakness. As such Toon Cyber Dragon is part of a new breed of Toon monsters; ones that can easily survive without Toon Kingdom on the field."
"That's…that's impossible! There ain't no way! That… ya must have cheated!" Leichter declared.
That made Pegasus' smile fall. "I have done many things in my life that I am not proud, Leichter. I have cheated, I admit that now. I tried to play it off as something else, as me doing something, well, was natural for me and thus my right to do. But I now know I was merely lying to myself and I sworn, even if I gained that ability again, to never do it. I own up to my faults. I would own up to cheating." He shook his head at that. "Besides, it is rather sad of you to blame one small misstep in your grand scheme upon cheating. It truly is. Gozaburo would be MOST disappointed in you."
"Don't you dare speak about him!" Leichter shouted. "You didn't know him… not like I did!"
"My my my…" Pegasus shook his head. "Is someone harboring a secret crush? I would have thought you'd have understood, Leichter, better than all others, that Gozaburo would never tolerate such things, especially from you."
"I-"
But Pegasus cut him off. "Now now… don't get me wrong. I'm not saying its wrong you feel that way. Only that it was wasted effort. Gozaburo was Ace, as they would say nowadays. He simply didn't feel sexual desire at all. Don't worry, it had nothing to actually do even with yourself. After all, his marriage was a complete sham. Dear little Noah was someone he had to have, not because he desired him. But you and your dear friend? No… that would never happen."
"…I'm not gonna discuss this with ya anymore!" Leichter snapped petulantly. "Cassie, hurry up and finish him."
"But of course!" Cassie said with a polite little smile and a dip of her head. "I will now use my Dragunity Legatus and Dragunity Phalanx in order to Syncro summon Dragunity Knight – Gae Dearg!" The Dragon turned into a ring of energy while the rider morphed into a beam of light, both shooting up skyward before merging together into the new monster. Both dragon and fighter had seen their skin darken to a dark blue, their armor now matching in a blood red. The two blade horns on Dragunity Phalanx's head had merged into a single large blade while its button jaw blade had curled so that when it snapped its jaws it created a great pincer. "Dragunity Knight – Gae Dearg, attack Pegasus' Toon Cyber Dragon!"The mounted warrior nodded, guiding his mount towards the Toon Cyber Dragon that merely snorted in derision… only for its body to shatter, leaving its eyes which blinked several times in confusion before they fall to the ground, rolling about like two plastic bowls before finally settling. Then, and only then, did it shatter. "And now my Dragunity Dux, whose attack has increased thanks to having my Dragunity Monsters on the field, will attack you directly!"
Serenity watched in horror as Pegasus was blasted by Dragunity Dux, sent skidding back towards the edge of the terrace they were battling on. He just managed to catch himself before he flipped end over end beyond the safety of the castle and into the ravine below. Then the shockwave from the attack rocked her cage and she screamed as she struggled to hold on; even knowing she couldn't slide between the bars she still felt her stomach lurch. (Pegasus- 1600)
"This isn't looking well for you," Leichter taunted. "Your most powerful card has been destroyed. You have nothing on your field. And Cassie has summoned several powerful monsters. I do think that this is the end of ya, Pegasus… that the creator of Duel Monsters is about ta end up a footnote in history… assumin' I take your body instead of the girl's up there."
"Fucking try it!" Serenity screamed but she wasn't feeling as confident as she was trying to make herself sound. 'He better do something soon… or we're both toast!'
~MC~MC~MC~
Noah glowered as he stared at the monitor that was showing the current duel that was going on. "How dare he speak that way about my father! Insinuating that he didn't wish to have me… I was his heir! He taught me everything he knew about running his company! I was destined to take over… and that fool Pegasus has the nerve to claim that my father would have preferred it if I had never been born?"
"That's not what he actually said," Mokuba chimed in, causing Noah to turn and face him. Mokuba got the sense that Noah had forgotten that he was even there, so obsessed was he with watching Pegasus and Leichter match wits. 'Of course some of the other stuff that has been happening has been making him nervous…' the boy thought. When Selene and Joey and Koyo had begun talking Noah had become interested in Selene's comments… and Mokuba could tell he didn't like her saying she was a god.
"What was that?" Noah snapped.
"That wasn't what Pegasus said," Mokuba chirped with a smile. "He never said your father didn't want you. He said that your father only had you because he was expected to have an heir. It's the same reason he was going to all those orphanages, looking for a child to adopt. He needed an heir."
"He went to the orphanages to find a new body for me!" Noah snapped.
"Then why did he bother to teach Seto at all?" Mokuba pressed.
Noah turned away from him.
"You have been wondering that for many years, haven't you?" Mokuba pressed. "Why didn't he give you Seto's body right away? Or mine. We were right there. You can't claim the technology didn't exist because how else was he able to put your brain in the Virtual World. So why did he bother with Seto and I? Why give us classes and teach us business? Why not just adopt one of us and instantly get us prepped to have our brains shoved in here and you take over us?"
"Because he had to prepare everything, you little dolt!" Noah snapped, his good mood now fully gone. "It took him a year to get everything ready so he might legally transfer everything to Seto… or rather me… so that I could continue my life as if nothing had happened. But then your brother stole my father's company and drove him to kill himself… and left me trapped here."
Mokuba stared at Noah.
"We lived with Gozaburo for 3 years though."
Noah's face screwed up. "What?"
"We lived with Gozaburo for 3 years." Mokuba felt like he was on the very edge of something deadly and dangerous, teetering back and forth. He didn't want to take the plunge but he also knew he needed to because the risk might give him the greatest of rewards. "Noah… Seto and I were adopted 6 years ago and we lived with Gozaburo for 2 years before he challenged Seto to make as much money as he could to pay back the loan he gave Seto."
"…no… no, that's not right."
Mokuba shook his head. "I remember my own life," Mokuba challenged. "I was 5 when we went to the orphanage. We stayed there 6 months before Gozaburo adopted us."
"No… you-"
But Mokuba cut him off. "For two years we lived in his mansion and then, when I was 7, he made his challenge to Seto. When I was 8 Seto took over KaibaCorp and he's been in control for 3 years."
Noah shook his head rapidly. "You're… you're wrong. You're wrong Mokuba. Your… your foolish little undeveloped brain has gotten the dates wrong."
He didn't know what was coming at them. Knew that he was missing a key piece. But it was just there and if he kept pushing…
"Noah… it has been 6 years since Gozaburo adopted us. "
The green haired boy stared at him for a very long time, before, in a soft whisper, he spoke… and sent them both over the edge.
"…I've only been in the Virtual World for 4 years."
~MC~MC~MC~
Author's Notes: So the ages of the characters and their history is… tricky. We know that Seto was given 1 year by Gozaburo to repay the loan. We also know that he is around 16 at the start of Duel Monsters, sometimes said to be 15. But sometimes it is said Gozaburo adopted him at 10, other times 12, with how long Mokuba and Kaiba were at the orphanage dancing between very little time to two years.
Then there is Seto's education under Gozaburo. I doubt Seto, even with how smart he was, only got a few months. As such, I worked out the following timeline:
Mokuba- 5 Seto-9.5- Arrive at Orphanage
Mokuba- 5.5, Seto 10- Adopted by Gozaburo.
Mokuba- 7.5, Seto 12- Education/Living With Gozaburo. Challenge issued
Mokuba- 8.5, Seto 13- Seto stages the takeover, Gozaburo dies
Mokuba- 11.5, Seto 16- Seto controls KaibaCorp, becomes #1 Duelist. First episode of show
~MC~MC~MC~
Omake by guest author skelconpeverell
"Prison realm, open"
A giant wall then opens with a bunch of eyes. Gojo turning around quickly.
"Hey, satoru" a man wearing monk robes said. Gojo turning around at the sound of his voice. "Long time no see" the man said.
Gojo stared at him in shock. Years of memories going through his mind. Then the red wall became a bunch of thick lines capturing gojo.
"Thats not good satoru" *the man began only for gojo to cut him off*
"so, who are you?" Gojo said
"Im geto suguru" the man said with confidence.
Gojo responded with anger "my soul denies this!" gojo shouted and them a strong voice from the left was heard
"Let him go kenjaku"
gojo and 'geto' turned slightly to see a tall blond man with a full circle beard and wearing jeans and a michigan university sweatshirt
"Didnt you hear me kenjaku? Let gojo go" the man said
"And why should i" kenjaku said.
The man looked at kenjaku annoyed. "You will if you want to live"
Kenjaku laughed hard at that. "You think you can kill me? I just captured the strongest sorcerer of the modern age"
"I can, and i will." the man raised his hand and the prison realm suddenly disappeared and appeared in his hand. "What do you think of my trick?" The man said as everyone stood shocked. "It's my cursed technique, chaos effect. I can make things that shouldn't be possible happen by manipulating chaos"
Kenjaku stared in shock. "T-this shouldn't be possible" kenjaku shouted in fear as a pure black orb appeared in the man's hand
"Oh its possible, and happening. The mind is the only limit" with that, the man tossed the orb at kenjaku. Kenjaku tried to dodge but the orb struck him. The orb sunk into the body and kenjaku started feeling weird.
"Now you are dead kenjaku. This body is turning to stone"
kenjaku tried to run but his chest and legs were already stone. "No, you cant do this to me"
Kenjaku was then fully turned to stone and gojo destroyed mahito and jogo. "So, who are you?"
"Call me, Hadrian Chaos"
INTRODUCING THE CHAOS OF EARTH 577, HADRIAN CHAOS, THE MOST CHAOTIC SORCERER
