Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Forgiveness ❯ Login ( Chapter 12 )

Disclaimer: If I owned Yu-gi-oh, Mokuba would get to kick ass.

Sorry, sorry, sorry! I promised myself I would have this out on Monday! Sorry!

And yes, I could easily find out the Five Fools' names, but… why dignify them that way?

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Yami sighed, beating another scenario. Seto was rather happy with him testing out the game, although he had pointed out that a reasonable challenge for Yami would take out any other duelist in two seconds flat.

Seto was amusing himself with back-seat dueling. The riddle contest with the Phantom had been a complete failure, since neither knew the other culture's methods of forming and solving riddles.

Seto was also directing him to the locations of secret quests and items, although he had not given away the answers. Since experimentation with a card costing life points to use had confirmed that the Five Fools had made it so life points would not regenerate at all, instead of slowly over time, Kaiba had been insistent on gathering healing cards since Yami had argued for Mokuba's participation. And the game called for at least four members in the rescue party. Since he had felt a familiar presence in the game, he knew where to find the third, but a fourth… the game was insistent.

Seto had confirmed Yami's suspicion about Mokuba's dueling strength. Attacking a monster with a weaker one without setting any magic or trap cards to aid was certainly not the strategy of one who had watched his brother win championship after championship.

The threat to his brother's company had caused Mokuba to be unable to think.

--Rather like Joey's duel against you. You make him so angry…--

---You mean that isn't the mutt's normal dueling strategy, or lack thereof?...Sorry.---

A smile and a sigh. -He envies you. You have a sibling by your side, and a future. He sees himself as having been denied both, though he refuses to give up. Your efforts to throw away what it cost you so much to win… he wanted to knock some sense into you.-

---?---

--He has a sister he has not seen in years. He does not speak of his father. The man retained custody of him so he could have a slave. He drove him into gangs by demanding money to stave off beatings. He is actually quite a skilled fighter.-

---I couldn't tell that when I fought him.---

--He was attempting to fight you without injuring you. All his techniques are designed to incapacitate his opponent. You couldn't duel to win Mokuba with your eyes gouged out. He was more focused on holding himself back then defeating you. And so he lost. And he has no money, no grades since school is the only safe place for him to sleep, and a police record. Everyone views him as worthless. He has no chance of going to college or of getting a good job. His mother has been trying as hard as she can to cut him off from contact with his sister, after learning of his gang activities.-

---I… I didn't know.---

--He tries very hard to hide it. The three million from the tournament… it was his chance to help his sister and acquire a nest egg. Since I doubt the tournament continued after what I did…--

---I let him have the money.---

Yami paused, almost allowing the Dark Magician to be trampled by a hostile Tri-Horn Dragon. -…What?-

---He told me about his sister, and… Yugi had given him the check I gave him when I took the puzzle. So I said he could keep it.---

He felt a ghost of a kiss brush against his cheek, and a smile on Yami's face. -Thank you, love. See? You're kinder than you think.-

Seto sent a mental shrug. ---Or I just have a soft spot for younger siblings.---

Yami chuckled as the forest fairies turned into cards in his hand. -Believe what you wish.-

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Mokuba locked the prototype room behind him as he entered. Why were the computers already booted up? Had Yami done it? He typed onto the screen as it came up.

Yami? I'm here. What should I do?

"Just get in a pod, I'll do the rest." Mokuba whirled around to see an image of Yami on a nearby screen. "I've already constructed you a deck, and the pod will place you in the next city. You'll be safe there until I arrive. Could you help me out by asking around about a way to cross the desert? Some specific card is needed to do it, and I haven't been able to figure out which one. And asking Seto would be cheating."

"Will do!" Mokuba agreed happily. An actual mission! He wasn't just going to be a tag-along! This was going to be great! Nii-sama's games always were!

"Meet at the town center in thirty minutes?" Yami smiled.

"Sure, I'll have solved it by then." Mokuba was almost as good at video games as Seto. He got more practice, though.

He was still worried, but somehow he knew that Seto was safe. For once in his life, people were fighting to protect him instead of the other way around. This should be encouraged.

Mokuba wondered if he could get Nii-sama to propose to Yami.

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After arriving in the town, Mokuba was drawing a blank. All everyone was talking about was the new Dueling Champion in the Town Coliseum. In games, stuff people were talking about was usually missions. Probably Yami would win money for fighting the champion. But that didn't tell him how to cross the desert. And someone had told him about how a prisoner had been taken across. So Seto was on the other side.

Mokuba decided to be like his Nii-sama. When Seto ran into a trap, he sprung it. If he could figure out what the thing stopping people from crossing the desert was, he could deduce what kind of card was necessary.

So, he decided to set out. He went to the edge of town, and began to walk into the desert.

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Mokuba sat up and brushed himself off. That could have gone better. He had sand all over from the sandstorm he had run into. Something that could stop wind was needed, maybe?

He was not going to tell Yami about this. With the mind-link thingy, big brother would find out, and man would he be pissed. He had no problem with putting himself in danger, but if he found out Mokuba had gotten himself tossed around by a tornado, not to mention wandering into hostile territory without a deck… "Getting kidnapped and re-kidnapped…He's going to lock me in my room until I'm forty if anything else happens to me."

"Oh, certainly he won't be that extreme."

"Oh yes he would." Mokuba turned around. There was an old man there, trying not to laugh. "And how would you know?"

"He did program me." The man inclined his head. "I would shake hands, but I'm not programmed to move my arms. You can't pass the desert without a Niwatori card."

Mokuba frowned. "Why a Niwatori card?"

"Consider me to have shrugged. I didn't program the thing." The man sighed. "Stern Mystic at your service. And no, I don't know how to get a Niwatori card. But there'll probably be a clue around here somewhere."

"Thank you!"

The Elf smiled. "Just doing my job, youngling."

Mokuba dashed off. The Elf smiled as the scene disappeared. "Kids."

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"How do you know he went this way, Joey?" Tea asked curiously.

Joey pointed down at where the dust was disturbed. "No one's been here in ages. I wonder why? Until just recently, anyways."

"How do you know all this, Joey?" Yugi asked, temporarily jerked out of his own little world.

"Lots of time spent in abandoned warehouses. Wait a minute." Joey twisted the knob around a little, then gave up. "Yup. This door's locked."

"And I can hear machinery, but no one's talking." Tristan added. "Why did we follow Mokuba again?"

"There was something wrong… he was hiding something." Tea replied. "What are you doing to the door, Joey…"

At that moment, Joey straightened up and opened the door. Everyone looked at him, surprised. "What?" He looked around and held up a lock pick set. "Legacy of a misspent youth. Well? Come on in." He held the door open for them.

Inside the room was a wall of computers, and… pods? There were three, and Mokuba was in one?!

"Guys? Come over and look at this." Tristan called, sounding worried.

There was a line of text on one of the screens. Yami? I'm here. What should I do?

"Yami had Mokuba put into that pod?!" Yugi was worried. Where was Seto? Had Yami blackmailed Mokuba? He looked around, but didn't see the Puzzle.

"What do we do, guys?" Tea asked, biting her lip. "If Mokuba's inside the Virtual World…"

"We'll just have to go in and get him out." Joey was busy tapping away at one of the computer screens. "It's a Duel Monsters based game, so that means Yug' and me." He frowned. "There are currently four players in the game. Kaiba's one of them. So's Mokuba. One's ID is Tester and the other's ID is blank."

"Yami." Yugi breathed. "No way he'd let a game go on without getting involved."

"All of them except Kaiba're in about the same place. And that's near the spot where you go in." Joey got up out of the chair. "So…got your deck, Yug'?"

Yugi nodded. He knew he would need it to fight Yami. He had to beat him. But… Yugi couldn't do… what Yami did to people who lost. How did he know Yami would keep whatever promises he made? He had said he would not fight the Puzzle being taken apart…

Joey looked at Yugi as they got in the capsules. He didn't really know what to do. Yugi was so… the innocent trusting little kid was trying so hard to be gone… Yami had killed Pegasus, but what Kaiba had said… they all had been screwed. Yugi didn't really seem in his right mind.

Well, if Yami was doing something bad in the game, then he'd know. But if it was just a game… maybe he was helping test it? It would make sense: Yami was kick-ass.

Joey didn't know if he could beat him, but he had to try. It was like at Duelist Kingdom. Yugi couldn't duel like this. Not that Yugi was a bad duelist, he was great even without Yami, but… Joey would have to do most of the fighting.

Ever since he could remember, everyone but Yugi and his friends had told him his brain was worthless. Well, he'd just have to prove them wrong. Again. And again.

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"So, you still have no idea what's going on in that room?"

"Sorry, sir." Kemo cowered. "The… we shorted the lock, then shot it up and the door still won't open. We can't hear anything inside over the hum of the computers."

"Mokuba has escaped. We have footage of him leaving the building. What do you have to say for yourselves?!" Fists struck the table.

"Calm down." The one with the glasses said. "We know he won't abandon his beloved brother. Just like when the brat took over the company. Even with what he did…he'll try to get "Seto-sama" out of the game. He'll head for the other Virtual Pods."

"Kemo, get your men over to Kaiba Land!"

As the men left the room, the one technician that had been willing to betray Kaiba, who they had called in when the program began acting… odd, reported.

"Sirs… we have a problem."

"What?!"

"Calm down." He turned to the programmer. "What is it?"

"Just after Kaiba entered the game, so did another player. I can't detect where he's coming from. The program locked me out soon after. I can't change it anymore, and it seems to be changing on its own."

"So, we've got some mysterious hacker?"

"Cracker."

"What?"

The nervous programmer licked his lips. "Someone who breaks into systems is actually called a Cracker, sirs."

"Can't you do anything!?"

"No. The program is ignoring all the override codes, you made me cut them all out so Kaiba-san couldn't use them."

The Big Five looked at each other. What the hell was going on?

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Well… Yugi is an innocent. He's basically been exposed to good people and bullies. Of course, Joey and Tristan becoming friends… but being possessed and your body killing someone… it's got to be scary as hell. And, well… you do have to go to court even for killing in self-defense.