Eine Mitternachtsstimme Chapter 7 [Yu-Gi-Oh, Encore]
Title: Eine Mitternachtsstime (A Midnight Voice) Chapter 7 (other chapters can be found at ff.net)
Author: Crystal Rose of Pollux (rose_of_pollux)
Theme: 21; Encore; (replacing cadence; reusing nocturne)
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh
Warnings: PG13
Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine (except for the OCs), and the story is
Summary/Comments: Seto's problems increase tenfold
Cross-posted to ff.net
There was utter silence as the assembled duelists grasped ahold of the psychic’s words.
“Your daughter!?” Joey yelled. “But… You can’t be…! You’re nice; you’ve helped us against her…”
“I disagree of my daughter’s methods to glory,” Madame Mystíca said. “And she has long since disowned me. That is why I helped you.”
“Is there anything we can do…?” asked Yugi, quietly.
“You have done much already, my friends,” the psychic said, with a wan smile.
“But I don’t understand how…” Téa said. “How could she disown someone as sweet as you?”
“Oh, come on, Téa; you know how Vulsor is…” said Tristan.
“The Dronyche company she now runs used to be known as Capuchin Computers under me,” she said. “However, my daughter saw fit to take the company from me in a fit of rebellion and retreated to her father’s property in San Francisco. Fighting and arguing were useless, I realized, so I let her be.”
“And you ended up here in Domino?” asked Bakura.
“That is correct,” she said. “Aranea seems to have come here looking for a chance to take Kaiba Corporation, without even realizing that I was here, as well.”
“She’s still after my company…” Seto replied, his arms folded. “I realize that I’ve seen that detective before-the one who just left. He and his colleagues had alerted Mokuba and me that Vulsor had access to a data file of my stepfather’s digital manifestation.”
“Yes…” sighed Madame Mystíca. “My daughter’s insistence on the wedding has gotten them more involved with my family than they wanted. And with the Rare Hunters, as well.”
“What!?” asked Téa, her blood freezing.
“The Rare Hunters were last spotted in Tom’s Cove on Chincoteague Island,” she said. “They had fled by the time law enforcement arrived to apprehend them, though several stolen artifacts were recovered.”
“Yeah, well…” said Joey. “Chincoteague is thousands and thousands of miles from here; we’ve got nothing to worry about, right?”
“Hold on…” said Yugi, deep in thought. “Are you saying that your daughter is somehow connected to the Rare Hunters?”
“While she isn’t a member herself, she has friends who are; she has corresponded with Bandit Keith more than once, though she claims it was strictly business.”
“Yeah, right…” Joey muttered.
“This isn’t a coincidence,” said Téa, pacing the area. “That detective was talking about Aurus knowing that Kaiba had the Anubis medallion…” She glanced at the CEO. “You still have it, right?”
“Of course, though it’s of no use to me,” Seto muttered. “I’ve been meaning to give it to your crew, but I don’t have it on me.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t touch it,” said Yugi, concerned. “If there is a curse--”
“It’s most likely not even real,” he replied. “Now if you don’t mind, I need to attend to more important matters.”
“Don’t let the curses bite!” Joey called to him. And Seto gladly ignored him.
“Kaiba…!” Téa called to him. He paused for a moment, without looking back. “Thanks… for everything tonight…”
“It was nothing,” he assured her, and, with that, retreated to his limo.
“…It was nothing, or it meant nothing?” Duke mused aloud.
“You still didn’t tell us why you went to that party with Kaiba,” said Joey. “How much did you pay him to take you?”
“Joey, he asked me.”
“Oh, right. He… what!?” the blond blinked.
“Well, as much as I would like to amuse myself with this banter, I must head to the docks for some late-night fishing before I return to the hotel,” said Mako, taking his leave of them. And one by one, the others decided to leave, as well.
“You know, I think I should be getting back to Mom’s,” Serenity said.
“Great, I’ll take you back,” offered Tristan.
“Or I could,” said Duke, cutting in front of him.
“Oh, no you don’t!” said Joey. “I’m taking her back. Téa, we can continue this tomorrow.”
“Joey, she doesn’t owe you any explanations,” Mai said. “Come on, Téa; I’ll walk with you while we’re still heading in the same direction”
“Thanks,” the girl sighed following her. “It’s been a weird night.”
“Which part…?” Mai mused aloud. “The mansion, the holograms, the upset here at the festival, or Kaiba asking you out?”
“All of it,” Téa replied, with a shake of her head.
“So tell me about Kaiba…” Mai said. “You seem to have grown closer all of a sudden… Unless I’m more out of the loop than I realized.”
“You aren’t out of the loop, Mai,” the brunette replied, instantly. “I told you about how that dance troupe was a front for the Rare Hunters…”
“It wasn’t the whole story, was it?” Mai asked. “It’s personal; I could tell from the way you reacted when you realized they were involved.”
Téa paused and then gave a nod. She could tell Mai… She, of all people, would understand the nagging worries she had to deal with… And within the next several minutes, Téa told her all of the details she hadn’t yet spoken to the others, wincing as she got to the part about Bandit Keith saying she was one of them just because of getting a drop of ink on the parchment.
“I know how poor Vulsor’s fiancé must feel…” she said. “He’s forced into this, just like Keith wants me to become a Rare Hunter.”
Mai had been planning to say something about the revelation of the kiss that Téa had shared with Seto in Paris, but Téa’s worries were much more concerning.
“Well,” sighed Mai. “You know we’re all here for you. Now I don’t know how the Rare Hunters’ initiation process works, but I’m sure that in a court of law, they can’t hold you to a drop of ink…” She trailed off. The Rare Hunters never did have much regard for the law…
“You won’t tell anyone, will you?” asked Téa.
“Of course not,” Mai promised. “Not until you’re ready to tell them yourself.”
“Or until Keith comes to pick me up…” the dancer added, derisively.
“He’d be an idiot if he did,” the older girl said. “You’re not alone here, Téa; you have all of us. Even Kaiba would help you; he already proved that he would.” Unfortunately, Keith is probably moronic enough to try something, she added to herself. “And no matter what happens, Téa, always hold on to a part of yourself.” She sighed. “That was the mistake I made when I met Dartz. But you’ll be alright; you don’t even want to join those Rare Hunters. They won’t get you to crack.”
“You never really wanted to join Dartz,” Téa said, immediately. “If you had, you never would’ve broken free. Deep down, you held onto yourself. I just hope I can, too.”
Mai was about to say something in contradiction, but realized that Téa was going to have none of it.
“Well,” she said at last, as they reached an intersection. “Here’s where we part ways. Keep your chin up, Kiddo.”
“I will,” Téa promised.
**************************************
Seto had arrived home that night to see Mokuba anxiously waiting to hear the events that had occurred, and so his brother informed him of the impressively realistic simulation.
“And how did spending the evening with Téa go?” he asked, knowing that Seto would never bring it up by himself.
“It would’ve been a lot less embarrassing if half the dweeb patrol hadn’t been tailing her,” he replied, without thinking.
Mokuba slapped his forehead. Well, there’d be other opportunities…
“So how was your party?” Seto asked.
“Oh, it was great,” Mokuba said, perking up. “We had been planning to look around at the festival, but then we heard about that banshee showing up, so we decided against it.”
“That psychic was there,” Seto informed him.
“Madame Mystíca? That’s good; we didn’t know where she was these past few days…”
“She was meeting with her daughter; I believe you and I know her as Aranea Vulsor.”
Mokuba nearly choked on the glass of water he was drinking.
“No way!” he cried. “But Madame Mystíca’s on our side, isn’t she?”
Seto quickly launched into an explanation of what he had heard from Mystíca, as well as the detective.
“It turns out that Vulsor is forcing that boy to marry her; you remember those detectives who came by our office not too long ago?”
“Yeah,” said Mokuba. “One of them gave Gozaburo’s digital spirit a makeover as a gag; boy, was he mad…”
“That’s the one she’s after; something about a broken Egyptian medallion.”
“Ouch…” said the boy. “Well, is there anything we can do?”
“Nothing at all,” Seto insisted. “We’re staying out of it. Though the man’s brother was telling me something about the medallion upstairs. I offered to let Yugi take a look at it, but he doesn’t think we should touch it.”
“Well, you know… Yugi is almost always right…”
Seto merely rolled his eyes.
“Well, I certainly have no use for that medallion,” he insisted. “It’s time to focus on more important things; I have neglected my email the entire evening.”
Mokuba merely shrugged to himself as his brother headed upstairs and decided to turn in, as well soon after.
Seto was working well into the night; the light from the computer screen gleamed against the gold medallion on the desk. Seto frowned; he was sure he had kept it on the dresser; how had it gotten there? Well, he certainly wasn’t ready to believe that it had gone there of its own accord…
He frowned, suppressing a yawn. He was tired; and somewhere in the back of his mind, he could hear the mysterious whispering that he had heard two nights ago.
Ironic… He had first heard that voice when von Krolock called him. And now, after spending the evening at his dinner party… No, he was being foolish! It had to be some bizarre coincidence, or, at the very least, von Krolock was using his holograms to make it seem as though the medallion was talking…
With a roll of his eyes, Seto picked up the artifact. That young detective probably meant well, but, clearly, nothing was happening to him now. He tossed the medallion into one of the dresser drawers and went back to his laptop, trying to ward off the sleep that was creeping in.
He glanced at the clock. It was midnight.
What happened next was still a blur; he woke to the sunlight streaming through the window. He winced, cursing himself for not drawing the curtains closed.
The phone began to ring. Still blinking from the sudden awakening, he answered it.
“Kaiba,” he grunted.
“Seto, where have you been!?” his brother’s frantic voice asked. “Were you in your office all this time!?”
“What are you talking about…?” Seto trailed off as he realized that he was not in his room, but in his office in the Kaiba Corp. building. He was, thankfully, still in the navy-blue suit from last night, but how had he gotten here!?
He was struggling to pay attention to Mokuba’s chiding of how he should’ve left a not instead of leaving him to worry. The correlation of this oddity was too concerning. The first time he had heard that whisper, he had ended up in his home office. And now, he was in his main office…
He shook the thought from his head. The very notion that the medallion had transported here was ridiculous!
“Good morning, Mr. Kaiba,” his secretary said, meekly. “You’re in a little early, aren’t you?”
“I guess,” he said, perplexed and annoyed that he could recall how exactly he had gotten here. “Roland’s usually here; is he around?”
“N-No, he isn’t, Mr. Kaiba… He’s not in,” she said. “But…”
“But what?” Seto asked, annoyed with her reluctance to speak.
“I received a call from him a few hours ago.”
Seto checked the time.
“That would’ve been at three in the morning. Why would he be calling you then?”
“He… he said he saw you heading here… on foot…”
“What…?” the CEO asked.
“He was following you, Sir… He had an inkling that something was wrong, and then he headed here. But something went wrong… He said he saw something around your neck glowing, Mr. Kaiba, and he was still on the phone when he saw it. He tried to come closer and see what it was, and the line got cut. I… I came as soon as I could, and all I found was this…” She held up Roland’s phone, damaged from an apparent all. “He’s disappeared!”
Seto stared at the phone with an unreadable expression. That story couldn’t be true! It couldn’t be! …And yet, there was the damaged phone. It couldn’t be a trick; Roland would never pull a stunt like that!
The secretary placed the phone on the desk and took her leave as the CEO passed a hand over his weary eyes. Perhaps he was still dreaming… still asleep…
He leaned over, and a cold piece of metal touched the skin of his chest.
The Anubis medallion was indeed around his neck.
Author: Crystal Rose of Pollux (rose_of_pollux)
Theme: 21; Encore; (replacing cadence; reusing nocturne)
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh
Warnings: PG13
Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine (except for the OCs), and the story is
Summary/Comments: Seto's problems increase tenfold
Cross-posted to ff.net
There was utter silence as the assembled duelists grasped ahold of the psychic’s words.
“Your daughter!?” Joey yelled. “But… You can’t be…! You’re nice; you’ve helped us against her…”
“I disagree of my daughter’s methods to glory,” Madame Mystíca said. “And she has long since disowned me. That is why I helped you.”
“Is there anything we can do…?” asked Yugi, quietly.
“You have done much already, my friends,” the psychic said, with a wan smile.
“But I don’t understand how…” Téa said. “How could she disown someone as sweet as you?”
“Oh, come on, Téa; you know how Vulsor is…” said Tristan.
“The Dronyche company she now runs used to be known as Capuchin Computers under me,” she said. “However, my daughter saw fit to take the company from me in a fit of rebellion and retreated to her father’s property in San Francisco. Fighting and arguing were useless, I realized, so I let her be.”
“And you ended up here in Domino?” asked Bakura.
“That is correct,” she said. “Aranea seems to have come here looking for a chance to take Kaiba Corporation, without even realizing that I was here, as well.”
“She’s still after my company…” Seto replied, his arms folded. “I realize that I’ve seen that detective before-the one who just left. He and his colleagues had alerted Mokuba and me that Vulsor had access to a data file of my stepfather’s digital manifestation.”
“Yes…” sighed Madame Mystíca. “My daughter’s insistence on the wedding has gotten them more involved with my family than they wanted. And with the Rare Hunters, as well.”
“What!?” asked Téa, her blood freezing.
“The Rare Hunters were last spotted in Tom’s Cove on Chincoteague Island,” she said. “They had fled by the time law enforcement arrived to apprehend them, though several stolen artifacts were recovered.”
“Yeah, well…” said Joey. “Chincoteague is thousands and thousands of miles from here; we’ve got nothing to worry about, right?”
“Hold on…” said Yugi, deep in thought. “Are you saying that your daughter is somehow connected to the Rare Hunters?”
“While she isn’t a member herself, she has friends who are; she has corresponded with Bandit Keith more than once, though she claims it was strictly business.”
“Yeah, right…” Joey muttered.
“This isn’t a coincidence,” said Téa, pacing the area. “That detective was talking about Aurus knowing that Kaiba had the Anubis medallion…” She glanced at the CEO. “You still have it, right?”
“Of course, though it’s of no use to me,” Seto muttered. “I’ve been meaning to give it to your crew, but I don’t have it on me.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t touch it,” said Yugi, concerned. “If there is a curse--”
“It’s most likely not even real,” he replied. “Now if you don’t mind, I need to attend to more important matters.”
“Don’t let the curses bite!” Joey called to him. And Seto gladly ignored him.
“Kaiba…!” Téa called to him. He paused for a moment, without looking back. “Thanks… for everything tonight…”
“It was nothing,” he assured her, and, with that, retreated to his limo.
“…It was nothing, or it meant nothing?” Duke mused aloud.
“You still didn’t tell us why you went to that party with Kaiba,” said Joey. “How much did you pay him to take you?”
“Joey, he asked me.”
“Oh, right. He… what!?” the blond blinked.
“Well, as much as I would like to amuse myself with this banter, I must head to the docks for some late-night fishing before I return to the hotel,” said Mako, taking his leave of them. And one by one, the others decided to leave, as well.
“You know, I think I should be getting back to Mom’s,” Serenity said.
“Great, I’ll take you back,” offered Tristan.
“Or I could,” said Duke, cutting in front of him.
“Oh, no you don’t!” said Joey. “I’m taking her back. Téa, we can continue this tomorrow.”
“Joey, she doesn’t owe you any explanations,” Mai said. “Come on, Téa; I’ll walk with you while we’re still heading in the same direction”
“Thanks,” the girl sighed following her. “It’s been a weird night.”
“Which part…?” Mai mused aloud. “The mansion, the holograms, the upset here at the festival, or Kaiba asking you out?”
“All of it,” Téa replied, with a shake of her head.
“So tell me about Kaiba…” Mai said. “You seem to have grown closer all of a sudden… Unless I’m more out of the loop than I realized.”
“You aren’t out of the loop, Mai,” the brunette replied, instantly. “I told you about how that dance troupe was a front for the Rare Hunters…”
“It wasn’t the whole story, was it?” Mai asked. “It’s personal; I could tell from the way you reacted when you realized they were involved.”
Téa paused and then gave a nod. She could tell Mai… She, of all people, would understand the nagging worries she had to deal with… And within the next several minutes, Téa told her all of the details she hadn’t yet spoken to the others, wincing as she got to the part about Bandit Keith saying she was one of them just because of getting a drop of ink on the parchment.
“I know how poor Vulsor’s fiancé must feel…” she said. “He’s forced into this, just like Keith wants me to become a Rare Hunter.”
Mai had been planning to say something about the revelation of the kiss that Téa had shared with Seto in Paris, but Téa’s worries were much more concerning.
“Well,” sighed Mai. “You know we’re all here for you. Now I don’t know how the Rare Hunters’ initiation process works, but I’m sure that in a court of law, they can’t hold you to a drop of ink…” She trailed off. The Rare Hunters never did have much regard for the law…
“You won’t tell anyone, will you?” asked Téa.
“Of course not,” Mai promised. “Not until you’re ready to tell them yourself.”
“Or until Keith comes to pick me up…” the dancer added, derisively.
“He’d be an idiot if he did,” the older girl said. “You’re not alone here, Téa; you have all of us. Even Kaiba would help you; he already proved that he would.” Unfortunately, Keith is probably moronic enough to try something, she added to herself. “And no matter what happens, Téa, always hold on to a part of yourself.” She sighed. “That was the mistake I made when I met Dartz. But you’ll be alright; you don’t even want to join those Rare Hunters. They won’t get you to crack.”
“You never really wanted to join Dartz,” Téa said, immediately. “If you had, you never would’ve broken free. Deep down, you held onto yourself. I just hope I can, too.”
Mai was about to say something in contradiction, but realized that Téa was going to have none of it.
“Well,” she said at last, as they reached an intersection. “Here’s where we part ways. Keep your chin up, Kiddo.”
“I will,” Téa promised.
**************************************
Seto had arrived home that night to see Mokuba anxiously waiting to hear the events that had occurred, and so his brother informed him of the impressively realistic simulation.
“And how did spending the evening with Téa go?” he asked, knowing that Seto would never bring it up by himself.
“It would’ve been a lot less embarrassing if half the dweeb patrol hadn’t been tailing her,” he replied, without thinking.
Mokuba slapped his forehead. Well, there’d be other opportunities…
“So how was your party?” Seto asked.
“Oh, it was great,” Mokuba said, perking up. “We had been planning to look around at the festival, but then we heard about that banshee showing up, so we decided against it.”
“That psychic was there,” Seto informed him.
“Madame Mystíca? That’s good; we didn’t know where she was these past few days…”
“She was meeting with her daughter; I believe you and I know her as Aranea Vulsor.”
Mokuba nearly choked on the glass of water he was drinking.
“No way!” he cried. “But Madame Mystíca’s on our side, isn’t she?”
Seto quickly launched into an explanation of what he had heard from Mystíca, as well as the detective.
“It turns out that Vulsor is forcing that boy to marry her; you remember those detectives who came by our office not too long ago?”
“Yeah,” said Mokuba. “One of them gave Gozaburo’s digital spirit a makeover as a gag; boy, was he mad…”
“That’s the one she’s after; something about a broken Egyptian medallion.”
“Ouch…” said the boy. “Well, is there anything we can do?”
“Nothing at all,” Seto insisted. “We’re staying out of it. Though the man’s brother was telling me something about the medallion upstairs. I offered to let Yugi take a look at it, but he doesn’t think we should touch it.”
“Well, you know… Yugi is almost always right…”
Seto merely rolled his eyes.
“Well, I certainly have no use for that medallion,” he insisted. “It’s time to focus on more important things; I have neglected my email the entire evening.”
Mokuba merely shrugged to himself as his brother headed upstairs and decided to turn in, as well soon after.
Seto was working well into the night; the light from the computer screen gleamed against the gold medallion on the desk. Seto frowned; he was sure he had kept it on the dresser; how had it gotten there? Well, he certainly wasn’t ready to believe that it had gone there of its own accord…
He frowned, suppressing a yawn. He was tired; and somewhere in the back of his mind, he could hear the mysterious whispering that he had heard two nights ago.
Ironic… He had first heard that voice when von Krolock called him. And now, after spending the evening at his dinner party… No, he was being foolish! It had to be some bizarre coincidence, or, at the very least, von Krolock was using his holograms to make it seem as though the medallion was talking…
With a roll of his eyes, Seto picked up the artifact. That young detective probably meant well, but, clearly, nothing was happening to him now. He tossed the medallion into one of the dresser drawers and went back to his laptop, trying to ward off the sleep that was creeping in.
He glanced at the clock. It was midnight.
What happened next was still a blur; he woke to the sunlight streaming through the window. He winced, cursing himself for not drawing the curtains closed.
The phone began to ring. Still blinking from the sudden awakening, he answered it.
“Kaiba,” he grunted.
“Seto, where have you been!?” his brother’s frantic voice asked. “Were you in your office all this time!?”
“What are you talking about…?” Seto trailed off as he realized that he was not in his room, but in his office in the Kaiba Corp. building. He was, thankfully, still in the navy-blue suit from last night, but how had he gotten here!?
He was struggling to pay attention to Mokuba’s chiding of how he should’ve left a not instead of leaving him to worry. The correlation of this oddity was too concerning. The first time he had heard that whisper, he had ended up in his home office. And now, he was in his main office…
He shook the thought from his head. The very notion that the medallion had transported here was ridiculous!
“Good morning, Mr. Kaiba,” his secretary said, meekly. “You’re in a little early, aren’t you?”
“I guess,” he said, perplexed and annoyed that he could recall how exactly he had gotten here. “Roland’s usually here; is he around?”
“N-No, he isn’t, Mr. Kaiba… He’s not in,” she said. “But…”
“But what?” Seto asked, annoyed with her reluctance to speak.
“I received a call from him a few hours ago.”
Seto checked the time.
“That would’ve been at three in the morning. Why would he be calling you then?”
“He… he said he saw you heading here… on foot…”
“What…?” the CEO asked.
“He was following you, Sir… He had an inkling that something was wrong, and then he headed here. But something went wrong… He said he saw something around your neck glowing, Mr. Kaiba, and he was still on the phone when he saw it. He tried to come closer and see what it was, and the line got cut. I… I came as soon as I could, and all I found was this…” She held up Roland’s phone, damaged from an apparent all. “He’s disappeared!”
Seto stared at the phone with an unreadable expression. That story couldn’t be true! It couldn’t be! …And yet, there was the damaged phone. It couldn’t be a trick; Roland would never pull a stunt like that!
The secretary placed the phone on the desk and took her leave as the CEO passed a hand over his weary eyes. Perhaps he was still dreaming… still asleep…
He leaned over, and a cold piece of metal touched the skin of his chest.
The Anubis medallion was indeed around his neck.