Queer As Tachi – Chapter 66
With a spectacular explosion of pixels Shandy’s last monster evaporated off the field, taking the rest of her life points with it. She cursed Kaiba roundly, as per tradition, but then laughed it off. “That’s seven in a row,” she exclaimed incredulously. “I think by now I can safely say, my beating you in the world tournament was the fluke. You’re a monster. No matter which deck I throw at you, or how much I work to keep your damn dragons off the field, you still kick my ass.”
Kaiba calmly shuffled his graveyard back into his deck and set it aside on the desk. “There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I could beat you. You had a lucky break at the tournament, that was all.”
“Guess so.” The young Brit sighed comically into the microphone of her wireless duel disk. “And here I thought I was gonna get bragging rights over the great Seto Kaiba. No such luck. You’re making my record go down, mate. I need to duel more pathetic newbies to bring my average back up.”
“You could always stop trying to prove yourself to me,” Kaiba flippantly suggested.
“Eh,” Shandy said unconcernedly, “you’re fun to pick on. All swagger and bravado, until I start taking the lead, then you get all pissy. It’s kinda funny.”
Kaiba scowled to himself. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Her bright laugh sounded in his ear. “Oh, Kaiba. So sharp but so clueless sometimes. Ah, but that was a fun one. Thanks for the duel. I’ll be hunting for that card you played on me, the one that backfired all my attacks on me. I want to add that to my deck.”
“Good luck,” Kaiba snorted, wandering over in front of the windows to look out on the dark landscape of his estate. “It’s a super-rare.” His voice lowered, as he was about to give a rare compliment. “That card you won in the tournament. That works pretty well for you.”
“Yeah, I know,” Shandy said happily. “It fits in right with the Union deck. I wasn’t sure, but I’ve played it three or four times now and it always comes in handy. I’ll have to thank Mr. Pegasus for it, if I ever enter a tournament again.” Her voice warmed to a smile. “Don’t suppose I’ll get to see you at one, will I?”
Kaiba stood motionless, arms folded, eyes lowered. “I’m not planning to throw one anytime soon, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“You, Pegs, either way. Somebody’s got to throw a world-class tournament more than once every other year.” She hummed under her breath. “All I can get is tabletop action at conventions, and let me tell you – the last thing I want to do on my weekend off is throw in with all the sweaty geeks in the region.”
“So the wireless duel disk is a good thing for you,” Kaiba shrewdly noticed.
“Sure is. Keeps me from getting bored.” Shandy brightened up again. “And lets me make new friends! If somebody would have told me, half a year ago when I bought it, that I’d strike up a chat buddy out of Seto Kaiba, I’d have thought they were off their nut. It’s been fun.”
Kaiba studiously directed his gaze out the window, trying not to be flustered by her comments and flirtations. They had only dueled a total of six times in the past two months, counting tonight, and only once prior, so he didn’t consider it anything remotely resembling a friendship. Not when his only thought was on winning and keeping his record intact. “I will admit,” he said patiently, “you are one of few duelists my caliber on the network. Which is why I don’t use it to duel, I prefer to keep my battles to tournaments.” He turned away from the window and stalked across the study. “I need to go. I have work to do.”
“It’s fucking midnight where you are,” Shandy noted. “You’re just starting to work?”
“I took a break,” Kaiba explained. “And now I’m done. I have an important project that isn’t progressing very well.”
“Aw, doesn’t sound like fun,” Shandy cajoled. “All day at the office, and all night at home? Poor Kaiba needs more playtime.”
He stifled the smile that threatened to break across his face. “I wouldn’t be working on it if my pathetic staff knew what the hell they were doing.”
“Ah,” the young woman said knowingly. “Cleaning up from others’ mistakes, as usual. You do have it rough. What’s the project? Do I get to know?” The flirt crept back into her voice. “Or is it a big KaibaCorp secret, hmm?”
“That’s exactly what it is,” Kaiba retorted shortly. “So no, you don’t get to know. Suffice it to say, I’m going to be at this a while.”
“Don’t have anyone else you can pass it off to? Bummer.” Shandy giggled slightly. “Load of rot that is. You should dig up some underling and pawn it off on him, and then blame him when it all goes out of control.”
“Not when a major KaibaCorp property is at stake.” Kaiba sighed into his headset. “I mean it, I need to go.”
“Duel you again sometime?” Shandy pleaded.
Kaiba sighed again, standing in front of his computer and staring at the names on his watchlist. Only Shandy’s was highlighted. “If I’m around,” he tacitly agreed.
“I’ll be watching. Nighties,” Shandy sang at him, and then disconnected.
Kaiba pulled the headset off and then his duel disk, setting them aside and dropping heavily into his desk chair. It was a good thing he had the excuse of needing to work, or Shandy might have kept him idly chatting far longer than he needed to. She had a disarming way of getting through to him, and always laughing it away whenever he got rankled or irritable. It was getting to the point where he didn’t know which enticed him more – the thought of smacking her down again to his personal satisfaction, or the chance to listen to her cheery voice and lilting accent in his ear for a little while. He had assured his superiority over her seven times over, why was he still dueling her? At least they weren’t crossing paths quite as often, this was the first night in three weeks he had run into her. The last time had been the night he had chatted with Yugi about his birthday. The reminder of that moment, and all that followed, sobered him briefly, chasing away all the pleasantry of having defeated Shandy soundly one more time. Neither topic was one he particularly wanted to spend a lot of brainpower on, so he shook it all off and stretched out his hands to his computer, logging completely out of the wireless network and pulling up his files instead.
Seto went to bed after two a.m., but hadn’t been there very long before a thought made him sit up sharply, blinking in the darkness. He had been trying to stop thinking about his project, trying to divert his mind elsewhere so it would quiet down and go to sleep, but a flash of inspiration had just struck. He knew how to solve his problem, and it all had to do with something casual Shandy had said. But it was a risky idea, one he wasn’t sure he wanted to entertain. It might turn out to be just as stupid as the problem itself. But it was a potential solution, the only one available to him. Taking a deep breath, he laid back down and gathered the sheet around him, rolling over to go back to sleep. He needed to think about it some more, but not tonight.
The hubbub over Yugi’s birthday was finally quieting down, allowing things to return to normal. Inheriting half the game shop hadn’t changed his routine any, he and his grandfather still alternated shifts in a pattern beneficial to them both. Joey was off of school for the summer but still had his menial job, which kept him busy in the mornings or afternoons but allowed him plenty of time to hang out with Yugi, take his fiancé on dates, and such. Collectively, the gang talked about finding some time later in July to coordinate going down to Osaka to catch Téa in a festival performance or something, but busy work schedules conflicted at the moment. It didn’t make much difference to Yugi, he was just glad that the rift between him and Téa was finally on its way to healing. It left him in a rather chipper mood as he went about his work, checking in stock and minding the store as usual.
The early days of July brought sunshine and summer heat to Domino, sending kids to the beach, the park, or anywhere with air conditioning, like arcades and game shops. Yugi didn’t mind working days at this time of the year, he got to stay downstairs where it was cooler and thus had his evenings free to hang out with his friends. He had just seen a cluster of kids out the door when the phone rang, necessitating a dash across the store to snatch it up with a bright, “Kame game shop…”
“Yugi,” a curt voice answered. “Just the person I wanted to talk to.”
Yugi blinked in surprise. “Kaiba?”
“Do you have a moment?”
“Yeah, sure…” Yugi glanced to make sure no one else had come in while he wasn’t looking, and sidled around the counter to lean on the wall. “What is it?”
“I have a business proposal for you.” Kaiba paused and then added darkly, “no, it has nothing to do with your store. Would you be available to come down to my office sometime this week to discuss it?”
“Um…just a second.” Yugi turned to glance at the calendar, becoming rather puzzled about the nature of this phone call. “I’m working days until Thursday…but I can swap shifts with my grandpa if that doesn’t work for you.”
“Thursday,” Kaiba repeated. There was a sound of keys tapping for a moment, and then he came back with, “Thursday is fine. I have an opening around eleven o’clock.”
“Okay. Eleven on Thursday,” Yugi repeated, snatching up a pen. “I can be there.”
“Don’t be late. I keep a very tight schedule and I don’t want to waste any of my time.” Kaiba gave a snort of derision under his breath. “And make sure you dress appropriately for a business meeting. Wear something professional, not your usual goth look.”
“Fine,” Yugi agreed, beginning to smile at the note of irritation in Kaiba’s voice. “What’s this all about? What kind of business meeting is this going to be?”
“I’ll tell you when you come for the meeting,” Kaiba said crisply. “It isn’t anything you need to be worried about, so relax. I’m not hunting for your game shop again, or anything like that. I intend to discuss business and nothing else.”
Yugi nodded with the phone by his ear. “All right. Fine, be that way. I’ll be there on time.”
“Good. And make yourself respectable before you show up.” With a click, Kaiba was finished.
Yugi hung up the phone and then stared at it, his mind racing. What in the world could Kaiba want from him? Business? What kind of business? He glanced aside as he became aware of Yami’s presence hovering, his own mind just as full of questions. “What do you think?” he asked the pharaoh’s spirit.
“I’m not sure,” Yami mused. In Yugi’s mind’s eye, he was standing there thoughtfully resting his chin on his fist. “It’s an unusual request, but I heard no deceit or danger in his voice.”
“No, he sounded pretty normal,” Yugi agreed, “right down to insulting my style of clothing.”
Yami smirked. “Don’t take it personally.”
“Oh, I won’t. That’s just Kaiba.” Yugi shrugged and turned to write in the appointment time on the calendar, along with the reminder, “KC” for his own amusement. “I guess we’ll find out in a couple of days, but I can’t imagine what kind of business he would want to discuss with me, if it doesn’t involve the store.” He glanced over his shoulder to his vision again. “Do you trust him to be honest with me?”
“I do.” Yami faced him with a solemn look. “He has chosen to let his guard down for brief moments around you, after the tournament and again at your party. To that end, I would expect he really does mean ‘business’ and not some underhanded ploy to harm you in any way.”
“Yeah, there is that.” Yugi gave his partner a smile. “And I feel like I do still owe him something for giving me such a nice deal. Maybe he’s just calling it in.”
“Could be.”
Joey, however, did not have such nice things to say about Kaiba when Yugi told him about the meeting, later that night when they got together for food. “You can’t be serious, Yug,” he exclaimed, leaning on the table. They were both broke and short on time, so they had just gone out for fast food. “This is Kaiba we’re talkin’ about, here. He doesn’t do anything nice, no matter what kind of blackmail you got on him.”
“I don’t have any blackmail on him,” Yugi insisted. “And I don’t know that this is necessarily going to be ‘nice,’ he said business. And he usually means it.”
“I don’t know,” Joey said warily. “Don’t forget, it was only a year ago that he spent an awful lot of time and energy trying to buy out both you and Duke. And he hasn’t changed all that much since he got whipped in the tournament.”
“But he told me on the way back, that part of his plan is over,” Yugi patiently explained, while Joey sipped at his soda. “The KC game shop is open now, and I haven’t heard a peep from him about it since the game expo last year. I’m inclined to believe him when he says it’s nothing bad.”
“I’m not,” Joey said bluntly. “I won’t ever stop being suspicious of him. Kaiba doesn’t do things for people unless he has a selfish motive behind it.” He peered at his best friend across the table. “What does Yami think about it?”
Yugi gave him a smug look. “He’s on my side,” he reported with some glee. “He heard what Kaiba said on the phone, and doesn’t think it’s dangerous.”
Joey made a face and grumbled about that. “Well, I guess there’s no arguing with a pharaoh,” he muttered. “Just keep your eyes open. Don’t let him threaten you into anything. Be a good businessman and listen to his pitch, and then get the hell out of there.” He did his best to look thoughtful. “Could be that now that you own half the game shop, he thinks he’s got a better shot at you.”
“No way,” Yugi scoffed. “You don’t know him like I do, Joey.”
Joey laughed at that. “You don’t know him hardly at all, what are you talking about?”
“I just want to give him a chance,” Yugi said petulantly, withdrawing and taking his soda to him, nibbling on the end of the straw.
His friend gave him a long, appraising look and sighed reluctantly. “Yeah, I know,” he said. “Just because I don’t like him doesn’t mean you’re wrong about him. I only want you to be careful, all right?”
“I will,” Yugi promised. “I won’t get in over my head.”
Grandpa Muto didn’t have a much better outlook on the situation, though his warning was phrased a little more tactfully. “We gave you part ownership just in case of times like this,” he reminded his grandson the next day in the shop – the day before the meeting. “Kaiba may think you’re an easier target now, but it will actually be much harder for him to buy us out or threaten you.”
“I don’t think that’s what he’s after, Grandpa,” Yugi insisted as he stocked Duel Monsters cards. “I know it’s Kaiba, and therefore he’s got something planned, and is probably calling in a favor I owe him. But I don’t think it has anything to do with the store.” He glanced over his shoulder at his grandfather behind the counter. “You saw him at my party, a couple weeks ago. He was perfectly normal, the only odd thing was that he was being so nice to me. I kind of figured, he would want something out of me in return, and now we’re going to find out what it is.”
“Hm, yes, you have a point,” Grandpa concurred. “Just be careful. Don’t feel that you owe him something for the party, and agree to do something you shouldn’t.”
“I won’t,” Yugi assured. “I have Yami with me, he can always take over if it looks like Kaiba is trying to bully me or something. I’m not afraid of him, but Yami’s better at standing up to him.”
Grandpa nodded and smiled. “As long as Yami trusts him, and doesn’t think there’ll be trouble, I’m sure you can handle it together. I have faith in you, Yugi. I just have to worry – it’s my right as a grandpa.”
Yugi giggled at that. “Fine, fine. Yami says that if worst comes to worst, we’ll call him out, challenge him to a duel. That’ll at least distract him for a few minutes.”
That gave Grandpa Muto cause for a hearty laugh. “True! Oh, I’d like to see that. Just to see the look on his face.”
Yugi grinned as well, sharing the sentiment. Inside his heart, his partner chuckled. “In that case, let’s not forget our deck.”
Thursday finally arrived, and found Yugi nervously tossing through the clothes in his closet, searching for something “respectable” as per Kaiba’s request and coming up empty. He knew he had to have some kind of button-down shirt in there somewhere, he hadn’t thrown out all of his school clothes upon graduating. It wasn’t that he took Kaiba’s jibe at his style of dress seriously, but he was very conscious of the fact he was going to KaibaCorp for a supposed business meeting – he may as well dress the part, so as not to startle the regular staffers. At last, he came upon a blue short-sleeved shirt somewhere in the deepest recesses of the closet, and rushed into the other room to iron it quickly and throw it over his black tank top. The Millennium Puzzle refused to be hidden, so he left it dangling on its heavy chain outside the blue shirt, and only buttoned it most of the way to hide his tank top. Instead of his favorite black leather collar, he dug out the silver necklace Bakura had given him for his birthday and clasped it around his neck. But for the Puzzle, he looked downright yuppie, he thought to himself upon brief inspection in the mirror. Yami, to his credit, said nothing throughout the search and discovery mission, contenting himself to watch in amusement as Yugi cleaned himself up for the visit. He remained silent until they were well on their way, and Yugi had a few moments of distraction while walking up the sidewalk towards the imposing skyscraper. “So…what do you suppose we’ll find when we get there?” the pharaoh’s spirit wondered.
Yugi shifted his eyes to the façade of the KaibaCorp building ahead, with the brightly-colored “KC” towering over downtown. “I have no idea,” he answered internally, leaving their conversation as mental only so as not to be caught talking out loud to himself. “I’ve gone over all kinds of possibilities in my mind and I can’t come up with a single thing that makes sense. His company is the one thing Kaiba would never want me intruding on, he’d rather help me win a duel than consider me a business partner.”
“And yet, here we are.” Yami mused deeply on it for a moment. “I suppose all we can do is hear him out.”
“I know, I’m just as curious as you are,” Yugi said with a kind mental chuckle. “Well, we’re almost there. We’ll find out soon enough.”
The enormous glass-fronted lobby of KaibaCorp gleamed with midday sunshine, which left patches of warmth on the otherwise cold, sterile floor and the big desk right up front where three receptionists worked as a team to handle all the incoming calls to the company. With practiced efficiency, one of them transferred a call and immediately looked up and smiled at Yugi as he hesitantly came up to the desk. “Welcome to Kaiba Corporation! Is there something I can do for you?”
Yugi glanced at her, startled, and smiled faintly. “Um…yeah, I’m here to see Kaiba. Oh…I have an appointment.”
Her fingers flew over the keyboard in front of her. “Yugi Muto?” she read off the screen, her glance flicking back up to him. “Oh, silly me, of course it’s you. Yes, you’re on Mr. Kaiba’s schedule. You’ll have to take the tower elevator up to the penthouse floor, over there…” She gestured smoothly to a couple of elevators standing on the far side of the lobby, as opposed to a larger bank much closer by. “I will inform Mr. Kaiba’s secretary that you’re here, she’ll see you in when you arrive.”
“Um, okay. Thanks.” Yugi bobbed his head politely toward her and headed off in the direction she had indicated, punching the button and hoping he didn’t have to stand there feeling like an idiot in the huge, empty lobby for very long. But the elevator swiftly came to rescue him, and he found as he entered that there were only a few select floors at the top of the building it would take him to. He hit the button for the penthouse floor, noting that it was second only to the roof, and snorted to himself. Figures. There was an unpleasant lurch as the elevator sped upward, but it leveled off shortly and let him out at the end of a wide, elegant hallway paneled in wood and metal. There was only one desk in it, at the far end, where the secretary stood guard over the innermost private offices. Yugi made his way to it and only got out a “hello” when the secretary greeted him by name and told him to have a seat in one of the chairs across the hallway until Mr. Kaiba could meet with him. He felt even smaller and sillier sitting there, completely out of his element and considering how much he didn’t belong there. Everything around him was so smooth and sleek and professional, elegant but not quite in that way that was meant for banks and hotels. It was all designed to show off not only that KaibaCorp was a multi-billionaire company, but that it got to be so by the whims of its gamer president alone. At last, Yugi heard the chime of the intercom and the secretary’s response, and a second later he was passing through the double doors into Kaiba’s top-level office.
In all the years they had known each other, and battled each other, Yugi had never been here before. The inner sanctum, Seto Kaiba’s private office. Naturally, it was huge, and furnished as if to allow the president of the company to hole up in there for days or weeks working on projects. Besides the giant desk set along the windows so as to always silhouette Kaiba with dramatic backlight when he was sitting at it, there was a leather couch and several chairs, an entertainment center with a plasma screen set into the wall, and even a few potted plants curiously enough. Yugi realized much later that the plants were plastic. Most of his attention immediately upon entering was directed to Kaiba himself, who stood behind his desk as if he had just gotten up from the cushy chair where he had been working. He wore a completely blank expression, neither welcoming nor antagonistic, as he waited for the door to close behind Yugi. “You’re on time,” he said curtly.
“Of course.” Yugi’s curiosity ramped itself up tenfold now that he was actually facing his rival. “What’s this all about, Kaiba? You’ve never had me come to your office before.”
“I’ll explain everything,” Kaiba said with calm restraint. “Sit down.”
Yugi shrugged and came around the end of the squishy leather couch, perching himself on the edge of it and clasping his hands on his knee as he waited to hear this explanation. Seto Kaiba swished around his desk in his big purple coat and came to stand in front of it, in order to give audience to Yugi like an overbearing principal lecturing a wayward student. “Before I say anything, let me preface with a word of warning,” he said with his usual Kaiba sharpness. “I hate having to come to you for assistance with anything, especially anything having to do with KaibaCorp. This goes against every fiber of my being, but the truth is, you’re a convenient outlet. As much as I hate to admit it, on this one matter, it would be a waste of my time and money to consult anyone else.”
Such a declaration was not entirely unexpected; Yugi’s expression did not change as he sat and listened. “Fine,” he conceded in a soft voice. “I understand, Kaiba. You don’t like having me around, I get it. So just tell me what you want, already.”
For a fleeting second, Kaiba considered that he might have hurt Yugi’s feelings somehow, judging by his flat response. But then it was gone, and he was patiently explaining the situation in his most businesslike manner. “You’re rather familiar with my virtual game, ‘Legendary Heroes,’” he began, folding his arms sternly over his chest. “Your beta test at the theme park last month was the last step in getting it fully operational. Now that it’s ready, I’ve decided to take it in a new direction, a new venue for KaibaCorp to explore in the gaming world. I want to develop it as a console game, for people to play at home.”
That got Yugi’s attention, he perked up in astonishment. “A Legendary Heroes video game? That would be awesome!”
“That’s kind of what I was hoping,” Kaiba said aloofly. “But I’ve run into a bit of a problem. My development department is apparently at a complete loss over how to adapt the virtual game to a home console. The software and game engines I wrote for Legendary Heroes apparently are light years ahead of what passes for good gaming on the three main consoles these days, so the dumbing-down process is going very slow.” He allowed a displeased growl to cross his lips. “It’s getting to the point where I’m having to hold hands through every step of the process, and that’s pissing me off. I have a company to run, I can’t be single-handedly responsible for rewriting the game engine and creating content for the game. No one in development seems to have any sort of video-gaming background, they keep giving me blank looks when I tell them to do something about it.”
“Really?” Yugi blinked in wonder. “I thought you hired the best gaming minds available. Nobody in your company has done any kind of video games?”
“Not since the next generation consoles came out,” Kaiba grumbled. He lowered his arms and began to pace along the length of his desk. “KaibaCorp was always invested in other types of gaming, to humble ourselves to put out some kind of game software to play on a home console was like taking a step back into the dark ages. But now, some of their technology is catching up, and when I mentioned to some investors that I was considering this move to console gaming with an established title, they all sat up and took notice.” He paused in his pacing and shot Yugi a sidelong sneer. “I have all kinds of software companies clamoring for a piece of KaibaCorp’s glory, practically knocking down my door in their enthusiasm to be the one I choose to release ‘Legendary Heroes’ as a video game.” The sneer vanished and his sullen glare returned, and after a moment he resumed pacing. “But that’s where it gets sticky. With all this interest in the project, I need to kick it into high gear, but my development teams can’t keep up. They have no idea where to even start.”
Yugi leaned forward in his seat in interest, resting his elbows on his knees. “So where do I come in? What could I possibly have to do with Legendary Heroes or video games? Other than I’ve played both.”
Kaiba paused at the apex of his pacing, resting his fist on the corner of his desk. “You have as much experience as I do playing the game,” he said heavily, “but none of my personal attachments to it. As much as I’d like to consider myself intelligent and fair, I’ve been working on it far too long to have any kind of objective view. After all, this has been my personal pet project for many years. Almost as long as you’ve known me.” He turned and leaned on the edge of his desk so he could face Yugi, his expression dead serious. “I don’t need your help on it. The game is already written, it already exists in a certain form. I’ve done all I can to convert it to a console game, I’ve reached my limits. What it needs now is a good test run from someone who is familiar with the game, and understands what it’s all about, someone who also plays other video games and can give me a completely objective viewpoint.” He sighed tiredly. “And like I said…trying to find someone who isn’t you to game-test it would be a waste of time and money, when you already exist. I can put aside our rivalry for a short time for the sake of my game and my company.”
Yugi sat back with a deep breath, finally allowing himself to settle into the couch. “Wow,” he said after a short silence. “I had no idea. Well…what would you want me to do? How long would it take?”
Kaiba closed his eyes briefly. “Don’t worry, you’ll be paid for your time.”
“I’m not worried about that,” Yugi said honestly with a shake of his head. “I just don’t know what you think I can do that’s better than all your development people.”
“Consider it a consulting position,” Kaiba said gruffly. “I don’t expect to need you very much, a couple of meetings tops. You’re to game-test the version we’re preparing right now, and give me an honest, objective review. From there, we’ll see what happens.”
“Just a couple of meetings,” Yugi repeated. “I guess I can handle that. I didn’t want to agree to anything that would take me away from the store for days or weeks on end…Grandpa needs me.”
Kaiba snorted. “It’s nothing that serious,” he retorted. “I just want to get this game out, and have it not bring shame and ruin to the KaibaCorp name in the process. I want it to get out quickly, but I also want it to be good if it’s going to have my name on it. I won’t even tell you what I think of it before I let you test it, I want a clean, unbiased opinion. If it’s trash, I want to know that now before it gets pressed and released to the public.”
“All right,” Yugi said with a little nod. “In that case…sure. I’d be glad to help you out, Kaiba.”
Kaiba’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t have to sound so smug about it.”
“I’m not!” Yugi countered. “I know this bothers you, having to ask for my help, but you’re still doing it. I appreciate that, really. I’ll do my best. It sounds like a really cool idea, I’d love to be able to play Legendary Heroes at home!”
Kaiba nodded very slightly. “Mokuba gave me your report from that day at the theme park. It sounds like you enjoyed the game.”
“Oh, yeah, totally,” Yugi gushed. “It was as much fun watching the others smack each other around as it was for me and Yami and Joey to be able to play as a team. I can see why you want to put the game out on Playstation, or whatever – that would be the next logical step, wouldn’t it?”
“That’s what I want.” Kaiba turned on his heel and went back around his desk to his computer. “Fine, then let’s get some details worked out. I will pay you a consulting fee for every meeting you’re called to…”
Yugi got up from the couch and went to the front of the desk, leaning against it to see the computer and whatever Kaiba was about to type. But before the company president could even sit down, much less finish his sentence, the entire building began to shake around them. Both young men started, looking up and around them. The shaking didn’t stop after a second, it continued to grow in intensity. They realized at the same time what it was, though Yugi was the one who declared it out loud: “Earthquake!”
All across the city, there wasn’t a single person who didn’t immediately know what was happening. Far from a minor temblor of the sort that occasionally rattled bookshelves in the middle of the night but rarely even woke people up, the earthquake rippled across Domino with a force no one there had witnessed in decades. As seconds ticked by, panic began to spread through shops, schools, streets, and offices. No one was in Kame game shop at the moment except Grandpa Muto, so he ran for the storage room doorway and cringed at the sound of the glass display cases rattling dangerously. In Mokuba’s school, girls started screaming and people leaped out of their desks, while the teacher waved his arms and tried to get them to remember their earthquake drills. Mokuba just slid out of his chair and dropped under his desk, hunkering down with every intention of not letting himself get as scared as everyone else, trying to ignore the screaming girls and the crashing of things falling off the walls. Duke Devlin ran through his store directing customers to safety, lest any of them be hurt by falling displays. Inside Kaiba’s office, the two young men stood their ground for a moment, not sure whether to run for safety or stay where they were. The building went from trembling to swaying, finally prompting Kaiba to action. He grabbed Yugi roughly by the arm and dragged him along, heading for the door, even as the wall of windows behind the desk shattered, spraying both of them with shards of glass. Yugi raised an arm to shield himself, feeling small stings as the glass raked across his skin. Kaiba suddenly stopped short, causing Yugi to run into him, as the distant rumbling of the earthquake was drowned out by a much nearer and larger destructive noise. They were mere feet away when the doors suddenly disappeared in a shower of debris, as the ceiling collapsed in on them. Recoiling, Kaiba threw his left arm up to protect his head, but he was a split second too late. The entire building shuddered as girders supporting the rooftop helipad snapped and buckled, and a good part of that support system plunged down into the penthouse-level offices. Debris caught Kaiba directly, throwing him backwards into Yugi and both of them down onto the floor. As if to add insult to injury, a chunk of plaster fell straight down out of the mangled ceiling and cracked across Kaiba’s head, knocking him out cold. He fell limp in Yugi’s arms, blood on his temple. Yugi wrestled himself to a seat and saw what had happened, giving a startled cry. Things were still falling down around them; small trinkets and objects crashed out of the entertainment console, the phone jostled off the desk, even the potted plants fell over and rolled around on the floor. Yugi gritted his teeth and threw himself over Kaiba’s unconscious form, determined to protect him from being struck by anything else. Even as he did so, the Eye of the Puzzle flashed, and he could feel a warmth stealing through his body and bursting outwards from him. Yami was aware of everything happening, and brought out one shadow power he knew how to use almost without thinking, projecting a protective barrier around Yugi and Kaiba which could not be penetrated by falling debris. The Puzzle blazed brilliantly with his inner power, leaving Yugi able to just close his eyes and cling to Kaiba, desperately hoping the earthquake would soon end. He could feel Yami’s presence like a hot wind rushing around him, and knew that with him there, they would be safe, but the shaking had to stop. Finally, after what felt like forever, the earth’s tremor ended, though it took a bit longer for the tall KaibaCorp building to dissipate the energy that left it still swaying drunkenly like jiggled Jell-o.
The earthquake did not leave a single corner of Domino untouched, and every one of Yugi’s friends faced their own sort of peril wherever they found themselves. Joey had run down to the university to take care of some registration issue, hoping it would only be a short errand so he could return Mai’s car to her, but the quake caught him inside the library by the copy machine, scrambling to avoid being struck by books tumbling off the shelves. Just before he bolted for the door, something caught his attention – a familiar face, or perhaps it was the silvery hair, down between two bookshelves. He glanced aside in time to see Bakura cover his head with his arms and fall to the floor, while books rained down on top of him from the shelves. Joey skidded to a stop and changed course, darting down between the shelves and throwing himself on top of Bakura. He called his friend’s name, but as he reached him he realized Bakura was unconscious, having been struck in the back of the head by a heavy book. Joey just hunkered down and resolved to protect Bakura until the shaking stopped, clenching his teeth and grunting painfully now and again as books cascaded down on top of them and struck him in the back. Clear across town, Tristan’s job had him working currently at a construction site near the harbor, a particularly dangerous place to be in the middle of an earthquake. The moment the ground started shaking, men scattered in all directions, trying to put as much distance between them and the half-built warehouse as possible. Tristan was with two others in the part of the building honeycombed with small offices, where they had been installing wiring, but as they bolted, the first two got ahead and didn’t stop to notice piles of loose materials come tumbling down behind them, cutting Tristan off since he was the last man in the line. The building was nowhere near completed enough to withstand an earthquake, it was all coming down, and Tristan realized he wasn’t going to get out before it did. He dove into a small space formed by boards and beams that had fallen and braced each other, covering his head to wait it out. The building came down all around him and on top of him, piling girders and aluminum siding over him but leaving that space where he cowered undisturbed. The upheaval of the ground even split the concrete foundation, but somehow Tristan managed to ride it out without harm. The rumbling died away, at which point he lifted his head and opened his eyes, amazed to find himself enclosed in a dark space, dimly lit by sunlight filtering through cracks and crevices. He was alive, unhurt, but buried. And, as he got to his feet and paced the length of his prison, verifying that there was no immediately obvious way out, he realized he could hear something that filled him with trepidation. No other sounds made their way to him from outside, but for the faint, breathy hiss of escaping gas. He hunted around the chamber until he found it – the gas main ran under that part of the warehouse, and the quake had cracked it. It was deep beneath him, but he was fairly certain that gas was slowly leaking into the chamber from the cracks in the concrete beneath his feet. Tristan backed away from those cracks, climbing up as high onto the pile of rubble as he could, frozen by fear and unable to even cry out for help.
Scratched and cut by broken glass, Yugi held Kaiba and protected him with his body until the shaking stopped and a dreadful silence fell around them. The florescent lights dangled from the ceiling, damaged wiring sparked, and occasionally some shard of glass fell from the edge of the windows and tinkled as it hit the floor, but otherwise everything went still. Yugi lifted his head slowly, even as the protective barrier from within the Puzzle faded from around them and the pharaoh’s powerful presence receded. Kaiba was still unconscious, and bleeding profusely from the cut on his head, so Yugi hunted around them for something he could use to stop it. There was nothing close by, and he didn’t want to move Kaiba just yet, so he unbuttoned his blue shirt and yanked it off, ripping away a strip from the hem to press to the wound to stop the bleeding. He held his hand pressed to Kaiba’s forehead for a few silent moments, his own panting breath loud in the stillness, and then tore off more of his shirt to wrap around Kaiba’s head to hold the makeshift bandage in place. The rest of the shirt he bundled up and tucked underneath Kaiba to pillow him while he laid there. Kaiba’s arm was twisted underneath him, so Yugi very carefully shifted him, thinking to himself that it didn’t look good but he had no idea what to do about it. From within, Yami noticed that his younger half was shaking, covering up how scared he was by working to administer first aid. His inner voice was the first thing that Yugi heard intruding on the dread quiet of the ruined office. “Are you all right, Yugi?”
“I’m okay,” Yugi quietly assured, his voice trembling as he spoke it aloud. “I’m a little cut up, but I’m okay.”
“I know you’re scared,” Yami said patiently, gently. “Why don’t you let me take over? You’ve had a nasty shock, you should take a moment to rest.”
Yugi nearly whimpered with relief at the suggestion. “Um…okay,” he relented, sitting back on his heels and taking a deep breath. The Puzzle flashed again, briefly, as Yami’s mind came to the fore to protect his lover. He opened his eyes and gazed wisely down at Kaiba, knowing what he had to do. He settled Kaiba’s limp body on the floor and got up, searching around the office for both supplies and information. The door to the hallway was completely blocked with fallen debris, and from the looks of the collapsed ceilings, there probably wasn’t much of the hallway left either. All of the windows had shattered, littering the carpet with broken glass that crunched under his boots, and everything but Kaiba’s laptop had been knocked off his desk. Yami Yugi went to the phone and picked it up, listening for a dial tone, but it was dead. He was pretty sure the electricity was out, too. A water cooler in the far corner had been knocked over and spilled, but there was enough water left in the plastic container to use. Yugi found Kaiba’s coffee mug somewhere on the floor and filled it with water, taking a quick drink himself before refilling it and bringing it over to Kaiba. He was still out, but his wound needed tending. Yugi crouched down beside him, checking to see that the bleeding had stopped, before giving a short sigh and looking around. The broken windows let in faint sounds from below, a brisk wind that tossed the blinds arrogantly around and the distant yowl of a million car alarms going off. Apart from that, there was no sound to be had, least of all from the direction they needed the most – the other side of the barricade of debris.
About then, Kaiba stirred and let out a pained growl, which escalated to a sharp, seething hiss as he regained consciousness and realized just how much pain he was in. Opening his eyes, he looked up to regard Yami Yugi’s concerned face looking over him, taking a moment to blink and let his unsteady gaze come into focus. “Dammit,” he cursed.
“Kaiba,” Yami Yugi said immediately, leaning in closer. “Easy, don’t try to move.”
Kaiba did anyway, hissing again and biting back a cry as he tried to push himself up and realized his arm wasn’t cooperating. He let out a muttered stream of curses as he laid back and waited for his head to stop swimming – and the shooting pains to let go of his arm – and then glanced to Yugi with a sigh. “What happened? We were running for the door and then…”
“You were knocked out,” Yugi replied. “The ceiling caved in, we’re trapped in here.”
“What?” Kaiba tried to sit up again, fighting against Yugi’s care, but only got far enough to see that the door was blocked before falling back down. His uninjured right hand went to his head in instinct, because it hurt as well, and that was when he noticed the strip of fabric bound around his forehead. He gingerly touched the part that stung and scowled at the faint trace of blood that came away on his fingertips. “I see,” he sullenly breathed. “Did you do this?”
Yugi nodded slowly. “I had to stop the bleeding. Other than that, how do you feel? Are you hurt otherwise?”
Kaiba gave up, figuring he was in no shape to protest help, and blinked absently at the cracked ceiling tiles as he thought. “No, just my head and my arm. I think it’s broken.” Something occurred to him then, and he dug inside his coat for a moment before finding the cell phone tucked into an inner pocket. He held it up before him, clicking buttons and becoming distinctly more annoyed. At last he growled and dropped the phone defeatedly. “Dammit. I can’t get a signal.”
Yugi glanced at where the door should have been. There was still no sound coming from beyond it. “The main phone is out as well. How are we going to let anyone know we’re trapped here?”
“One thing at a time,” Kaiba sighed. He glanced at the phone’s display again; at least it told him the time, and he realized how long he had been out. He thought of the appointments and meetings that were supposed to be happening about now, and how they had all been nicely cancelled for him with no explanation needed. There was just one appointment he needed to keep, or needed to contact, and he wasn’t sure how to do that just now. There were more pressing matters at hand.
As a matter of fact, Seto Kaiba had a date scheduled. It wasn’t until much later in the evening, but it was still on his mind as he lay injured in his ruined office. Alastair was back in town, or so he hoped, as the last contact they had had was a few days earlier, when the red-haired young foreigner had called him to let him know he was coming to Japan on business. Kaiba had once asked him to let him know when he would be in town, and found himself scheduled to meet with Alastair later, not sure what would come of the encounter but secretly hoping maybe it would lead to more good sex like last time. Thanks to the earthquake, even that was now in doubt. Alastair was, in fact, in Domino at the moment, and not far from KaibaCorp himself. At the moment of the quake he had been walking downtown, having just arrived from Tokyo and out to play tourist for a bit, but he wisely threw himself into a doorway and sheltered until the shaking stopped and he could be certain nothing more would fall on him from overhead. He walked around in a daze, shocked at how the peaceful, colorful, innocent street he had been walking down just a minute before was suddenly a wreck and a ruin, covered in shattered glass, knocked-over signs, and precariously-dangling traffic lights that didn’t work. At least there were no collapsed buildings that he could see. As he looked around, Alastair ducked down a side street and saw ahead of him the battered façade of the KaibaCorp building, its majestic appearance spoiled by so many windows broken out, gaping at him like so many toothless grins. His heart sank, and without even thinking about it he started towards the building at a dead run, eager to see if there was anything he could do to help, while trying not to think of any worst-case scenarios.
The university campus had been particularly hard hit, its semi-modern buildings faring a bit better than some of the older structures, like the library. That had been shaken to pieces, huge holes in its brick walls and the columns at the main entrance all broken down. Coughing the dust out of his throat, Joey looked around to see that he and Bakura had survived intact, though they were buried in books and two of the tall bookshelves had fallen against each other, propping each other up lest one of them fall flat onto the two boys. The whole building was dark, but a great hole in the far wall let in enough natural light to see by. A few other bewildered students staggered around, picking themselves up and crawling out from under tables in order to search for an escape route. Joey sat back on his heels and tossed aside all the books that had fallen around them, clearing them away so he could get Bakura out of there. But as he held the unconscious young man in his arms, he wasn’t sure just how badly he had been hurt and didn’t want to move him, just in case. There wasn’t anybody else around to call over to help, so Joey figured he’d have to do it all himself. He touched Bakura’s face, feeling for a pulse in his neck, and then brushed back his messy hair when he realized Bakura was alive, just out cold. He only had a moment or two to collect himself, wiping across his forehead with the back of his arm, before Bakura stirred, moaning softly. His eyelashes fluttered uncertainly. Joey leaned over him. “Bakura! Hey, Bakura. Wake up. It’s me, man.”
Ryo breathed shallowly, having a difficult time waking up. His brown eyes opened very slightly, and he tilted his head toward the voice. “Joey…?” he sighed.
“That’s right,” Joey assured him. “Come on, Bakura, you can do it. It’s okay, the earthquake’s over.”
Ryo moaned again, and blinked as he recognized the face hanging over him. “Joey,” he said again, a little more strongly, before giving a little sigh and passing out again.
“Bakura! No, come on, man, stay with me.” Joey patted him on the cheeks, but Bakura was not going to wake up again. Joey growled and sat back, kicking books out of his way in frustration. He looked around once more, but there was still no help to be had.
The body beside him groaned again, making him look sharply, but even as Bakura’s eyes were opening again, a hand closed tightly on Joey’s wrist. He started and looked down in confusion as Bakura awoke, though something about him seemed different. Something in his eyes. His head turned to regard Joey, and a scowl flitted to his lips. “You,” he seethed in a deeper voice. “What happened?”
Joey tensed at the strange aura surrounding his friend, and the hand on his wrist. This wasn’t Ryo anymore. “Earthquake,” he said bluntly. “I’m trying to help you. We have to get out of here before these bookshelves collapse on us. There are gonna be aftershocks.”
The hand tugged at his wrist, and Bakura pushed himself up enough to respond. “Don’t…let them…take the Ring,” he growled.
“What?” Joey frowned curiously. “Who do you mean?”
“The emergency personnel. Don’t let them take my Ring,” the spirit within Bakura demanded.
Joey’s frown deepened, but then he noticed, as Bakura tried to sit up, the outline of the Millennium Ring underneath his half-buttoned shirt. Why he had it, Joey could not fathom, but he decided to cooperate and nodded. “I won’t let anyone touch it,” he promised. “But now you gotta help me. I have to get us out of here, but I don’t want to move you if you’re hurt. Are you injured? Can you move?”
Though his head swam, Bakura laid back and shifted his limbs one by one. “Yes,” he said darkly, “I can move. I’m fine.”
“All right.” Joey snaked an arm underneath his shoulders and made to pick him up. “You can go away now, you’ve done your part. Bakura’s gonna be okay.”
The spirit’s gaze flickered, as he realized Joey knew the difference, and then he seethed a short growl of impatience. He was angry, but only because he felt helpless and knew the only thing he could control right now was Ryo’s mind – his body didn’t want to come along for the ride. “Just…don’t let them take the Ring,” he demanded one more time before giving in to the haze that wanted to swamp his senses, falling unconscious once again.
Glad that he didn’t have to face the dark spirit a minute longer, Joey bundled Bakura in his arms and picked him up out of the nest of books, carrying him out from between the bookshelves and straight to the hole in the wall, the fastest way out of the crumbling library. He picked his way carefully through the damage, stepping out into the sunshine and looking around to see if there were any emergency personnel around after all. He had to get Bakura to a hospital, or find him other medical attention, that much he knew. He glanced down again at the Ring peeping from beneath his friend’s shirt, and shook his head. I don’t want to know why you have that right now, he mused internally, but at least that spirit helped me out. Just hold on, Bakura. I’ll get you some help.
Once the earthquake was over, Duke politely saw his customers out the door, promising to hold their intended purchases behind the counter until the store could be opened again and they could come and pay for them. The building seemed okay, though some of the windows were broken, as were the TV screens at the display area, and a good percentage of his merchandise was not on the shelves as it should be, but piled on the floor. He looked around the store with a sigh, not relishing the amount of work it was going to be cleaning all of it up, but at least he was okay, as were all customers and employees in the store at the time of the quake. He locked the doors and set one of the young men to board up the broken windows first, to protect against looters, while he took stock of the situation and then pulled out his cell phone. He at least had a signal, though not very strong. There was only one person he needed to contact, and he hit the speed-dial, but it didn’t pick up. Not only was Tristan not answering his phone, it wasn’t even going through to his voice mail. The recording on the line warned Duke that the number he wanted was not in service. Though there could have been a million reasons why a cell phone wasn’t working after an earthquake, Duke’s imagination immediately settled on the worst of them, and his heart went cold within him. He pocketed his phone and ran to the counter, swiping his keys from the register now that he had locked it so no one could get at the money. “Keep an eye on things for me,” he ordered the manager standing behind the counter at the moment. “Shop’s closed, no one can come in, just…hold down the fort.”
“But why? Where are you going?” she asked, puzzled.
“I have to find Tristan!” he snapped, already running for the door. “Just keep an eye on the place until I get back!”
He leaped into his car and drove like a maniac through the confused and panicked streets of Domino, which were under the rule of chaos now with traffic signals blacked out in large parts of the city. Fortunately, there was nothing blocking his way down to the harbor, and Duke noticed as he drove that the damage got worse the further he went. He flicked on the radio and let it hunt for information, as all the stations had dropped their music in favor of news reports, but he heard nothing that pertained to him as he drove down to the work site he knew Tristan to be at. He pulled into a parking spot conveniently left next to Tristan’s motorcycle and raced onto the site, not caring that he wasn’t supposed to be there or had no safety equipment. He was pretty sure the building they were constructing was not supposed to look like that, and the crowds of workers gathered around confirmed that they had barely escaped with their lives. A couple were sitting or lying around with injuries, but the others stood in small clusters. Duke scanned them with his eyes, quickly confirming that Tristan was not one of the injured, but the more unfamiliar faces he saw, the more he began to panic. He sought out the foreman in the white hard hat and nice tie, grabbing his arm and demanding his attention. “Tristan Taylor. Where is he?”
The foreman had a clipboard, but the blunt question from this obvious civilian took
him aback. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
“I’m a friend of his,” Duke explained.
“I can’t reach him on his cell phone, I know he’s working here. Where is he?”
He noticed the clipboard, a list of names with check marks by them. “You’ve checked to see that everyone is
accounted for, haven’t you?”
The foreman looked nervous suddenly. “Well, yes, but…unfortunately…”
“Chief! Over here!” someone called from across the property.
The foreman, several of the able workers, and Duke ran towards him, to one of the piles of rubble that used to be the office block of the warehouse. More workers were climbing on top of it and shouting things into it, while some ran back and forth from the foreman to the front line, but Duke couldn’t understand any of their chaotic yelling. Finally, the foreman said something he could hear, and understand. “Taylor is trapped inside that debris,” he said. “At least he’s not injured.”
Duke sighed heavily. “Great,” he muttered, “now how do you get him out?”
“It’s not going to be easy.” The foreman pointed to the pile. “That’s several tons of construction material and what used to be the building on top of him. He may not be hurt, but we don’t know what’ll happen if an aftershock shifts that debris or something.”
“That ambulance better hurry,” one of the other workers said as he ran up to them.
Duke gave a small start of alarm. “I thought you said he wasn’t hurt!”
“He’s not…but there’s a gas leak somewhere inside there,” the worker reported. “If we don’t get him out soon, the fumes will overcome him.”
Duke stood back with a little growl, clenching his hands into fists, aware that there was nothing he could actually do to help, but the thought that Tristan could die even though he hadn’t been hurt by the earthquake cut into his heart like ice. He stood there motionless as the construction workers called out to one another, dragging every last available man who could walk and haul over to the pile to begin digging Tristan out, by hand if they had to.
Deep inside the small pocket of safety inside the rubble, Tristan was rather grateful that his shouts had been heard, and people knew where he was. He wasn’t sure what it looked like from the outside, but the fact that they could call to each other and he could let them know he was uninjured gave him hope that they could make a way to him. He wasn’t sure how big the gas leak was, but he reported it nonetheless, and then climbed up as high as he could on the rubble, searching out air pockets. He stripped off his t-shirt and tied it around his face as a makeshift mask, hoping it would help in any small way. All he could do now was wait, putting his faith in his coworkers to save him.