Categories > Anime/Manga > Yu-Gi-Oh! > Legacy
This is a crossover. Two of the primary characters are OCs.
If you are under the firm belief that those never work, and not even the best written fanfiction in the universe could convince you that two worlds can collide in a beautiful braid of plot and awesome, or that original characters aren't all the spawn of the anti[insert divine figure of good here]... well, I'll probably not change your mind, especially since I don't claim this to the best written anything ever-- perhaps excepting "best YGO/Metal Gear Solid crossover ever written", because I would be seriously surprised if it wasn't also the only YGO/MGS crossover ever.
Seriously, if there's another one, gimme a link please. I would die from happy and joy.
Back to my point-- this isn't going to be winning any "best thing ever" awards except by favor of being "only fic willing to try it so far", but it is going to be written to the best of my abilities. I'd like to think that would make it better than average, but really, the readers (and thus, you) are the ones who need to judge that. Try to get through at least, oh, my author's note-- er, a few pages-- wait, that IS my A/N!-- before passing judgement.
Trust me, (said the girl who knows how sensitive a lot of readers are to the signs of badfic, even when there isn't badfic) I've worked hard at making both the plot/crossover work and making my original characters as believable as possible to slide them into both canons at once and use them as a reasonable bridge over the pitfall of suspended-by-the-neck-until-dead belief.
This first chapter is something of an even mix of YuGiOh! and the original characters, with some very faint hints as to how Metal Gear Solid is involved. The entire story will be heavy on the Kaiba family, due to the plot, and with a slight sprinkling of grated satire-- a little satire on a dish of crossover and plot works wonderfully, adding a complimentary nutty taste to the thicker flavors, as well as some subtle texture that makes dishes like the Discworld series all the more wonderful.
... Huh. Where did that metaphor come from? XD
I promise, this is the longest author's note I'll have in this fic. Laugh Now for the meat of this note--
Warnings: If it's in MGS, it'll probably be at least suggested here. All three of the PSX/PS2 games are rated Mature, and for things like blood, violence, language, and sex; these take the form of people being killed (occasionally somewhat horribly), killing people (a lot of the time because tranq guns only have so much ammo), things going horribly wrong (and who wouldn't swear when the base you're infiltrating is about to be nuked?), and Snake (because damn is he sexy nosebleeds all over the keyboard).
MGS also has canon boylove, if by "boy" you mean "crazy Russian officers who're into beating people" or "bisexual vampires and the Marine generals they sleep with". Expect the gay at some future point as well. (Don't worry, it's not too contagious, no matter what Anne McCaffrey says about tent pegs.)
Setting information, YGO: Ignores all events that take place after Battle City (AE arc, Grand Prix, the whole of GX). Assumes Battle City took place in 2006.
Setting information, MGS: Ignores all the rumors about (and, if still being written when it comes out, all canon in) MGS4; otherwise takes MGS, SoL, SE, and PO as canon, and assumes that the Big Shell incident took place in 2009.
The story itself starts the summer of 2010, in the middle of a Duel Monsters tournament.
---
Legacy
Chapter One: Overture
---
15.6.10
Domino City, Japan
Boring tournaments, Mokuba mused, were actually rather nice.
There were no worries about evil organizations trying to kidnap him (or kill his brother, or take over Kaiba Corp, or take over the world, whatever the case may be)-- just him, cards, and duelists about his age.
A lot of the duelists were pretty interesting, too, like the pretty Russian girl Mokuba was currently losing to-- rather badly, at that.
She smiled charmingly across the space between them, and said brightly, "The Ekibyo Drakmord attached to your Blazing Inpachi destroys it this turn." Surely enough, the mottled demons clinging to Mokuba's fiery monster dragged it down, and it burst into the pixelated shards of hologram death. "If I may?" She drew a card and brightened more, if possible. "Oh, cool! I summon Homunculus the Alchemic Being--"
"Trap Hole!" Mokuba called quickly, and the monster barely formed before falling away with an inhuman scream.
Still smiling, she shrugged. "Well, I suppose that's still all right. You only have one monster, so I think I'll, hmm, flip my Eria the Water Charmer into attack-- you do know what she does, right? Charms one of your water monsters to my side? And you happen to have that 7 Colored Fish yet." She tilted her head, almost birdlike, and laughed as the blue-haired spellcaster beckoned to Mokuba's last monster. "And you don't have any traps left. Unless you have something quick-play--" Mokuba glanced at his hand quickly and saw only cards he couldn't use, "-- I believe I'll attack your lifepoints directly with your pretty little fish."
So Mokuba's lifepoints drained down from 1900 to 100; hers were still 3500, and there was no way Mokuba was wining this semifinal duel, which was really a pity.
"Oh, and I'll also attack with Eria." The Russian girl watched Eria trot across the field and tap Mokuba on the head with her blue staff, dealing a whole five hundred damage and ending the duel.
Mokuba laughed sheepishly. "Well, guess I'm beat, then. Here's the two prize cards we wagered." He walked across to her and handed them over, leaving six of his own and giving her a full ten-card set. She giggled brightly and took them.
"Thank you, Kaiba-san! It was a pleasure dueling with you." She leaned in to peck him on the cheek and turned away, waving her hand and calling to someone else.
Mokuba bemusedly watched her go, joining a boy as blond and blue-eyed as herself, and rubbed his face absently.
"Well then," he said to himself, "I'd better go see if I can get four more prize cards."
---
"What a /cutie/," Roza sighed, staring at herself in the mirror of their hotel room. Ilya looked up from his laptop and smiled questioningly, and she caught his reflection's gaze. "You know. That Kaiba boy. He's vice president of the company hosting this tournament, you know."
"I know," Ilya replied, and clattered something on his keyboard. "You probably didn't need to kiss him, though."
Giggling, she twirled to face her brother. "Of course I did, Iliusha."
His smile went a little strained for a moment before he ducked his attention back to the laptop.
"Anyway, I was thinking that we haven't been to Harajuku, and now that I have all my prize cards I don't need to worry about card games. I could pick up some new clothing-- I hear they have some amazing things there, and I want to look my best for the finals, after all. We could pick you up something too, maybe, you could really get the local girls going if you bothered with how you looked." Turning back to the mirror, Roza picked up a tube of sparkling pink lipgloss and set about refreshing her looks. "Maybe something leather? Or there's this one style, they call it 'elegant gothic aristocrat', you could really pull that off--"
"No, thank you. I'm fine here." The clattering of keys went faster, and Ilya stared in concentration at his screen.
Roza pouted prettily at her reflection, and stopped when she saw his reflection wasn't looking. "But Ilya, you can get on the internet at home. As long as we're in Japan-- on daddy's money, even-- why can't you get outside, live a little? Sunlight doesn't burn, you know."
Ilya glanced up sharply, darted his eyes over to the large tube of expensive sunscreen settled beside Roza's other cosmetics, opened his mouth, and deflated.
"Of course not. But I'm not interested in going shopping for clothing. I do have schoolwork to do, and studying as well."
"What are you studying, anyway?" She had moved on to eyeshadow and eyeliner, leaving a pale opalescent glimmer around her eyes that made the blue of them bluer, or at least the contacts. "Not another dead language, I hope."
"C."
She gave him a puzzled look.
"Computer programming language," Ilya explained without looking up.
Roza sighed huffily and swiped on mascara. "Fine then. Spend our time in Japan learning computer talk in a crowded box of a room. See if I care."
Her brother winced and closed his eyes, abandoning typing to rub his forehead with the heels of his hands. Roza's eyes widened, and then she brought herself back to perky before sweeping her hair up in a smooth blond ponytail.
"Nevermind, Iliusha, it's all right. I'll pick something up for you, okay?" She smiled at him, grabbed her purse, and trotted lightly to the door.
With a voice muffled behind his hands, Ilya said something that might have been anything.
---
Later, Ilya wondered how his sister started calling their father "daddy", since the very idea of endearing names and their father were as mixable as a closed garage and carbon monoxide.
But then again, their father had paid for Roza to go to Japan and play card games. If Ilya had even thought about asking to go to Japan while in the same building as his father, he would have gotten a distasteful glare and been called pathetic.
'Ah, well,' he thought to himself, 'at least I'm not his favorite.'
---
16.6.10
Domino City, Japan
The day after he lost two cards to the Russian girl, Mokuba was challenged by a poor sap who thought he could bet four of his five cards and still have a chance at the finals. It was, of course, Insector Haga-- and an easy victory, Mokuba having seen enough of Haga's tactics over the years to wonder how the guy ever won any duels.
Cheating, Mokuba supposed, although that rather ceased to be effective when Mokuba just happened to break the clever little spring-loaded thing up Haga's sleeve when handing back the guy's newly-cut deck (all the trimmed and marked cards conveniently on the bottom).
So Mokuba was assured a place in the finals, alongside the Russian girl and some of his friends-- last he heard, Jounouchi only had nine cards, but he couldn't honestly believe someone with as much raw determination as Jounouchi wouldn't make it-- as well as a few lucky no-names that might be on their way to being Names.
Of course, this meant he had plenty of time to sit in the office next to his brother's and deal with the little things being vice president of a major corporation brought to his desk. Like--
"No. No no no. Tell this--" Mokuba glanced down at the memo on his desk. "-- this Watase Haru that Kaiba Corp has not been involved in supply, or distribution, or support of anything military since the death of the previous president, and we intend to keep it that way, no matter what."
"Of course, Kaiba-san." The-- whatever he was, someone dragged away from his desk and into messenger duty-- bowed to Mokuba and turned to go.
Mokuba sighed and wished people like Watase Haru would stop trying to use the technology for making games real as a tool to make war fake.
War as a video game.
The very idea gave Mokuba the creeps, which was pretty difficult-- he had been in games taken too far before, and it wasn't something he particularly wanted to relive. But for most people, games weren't something you died from, and if war was a game, you couldn't die from that either.
Good grief. Why was he even thinking about that sort of thing?
Mokuba stretched a bit and clicked his computer over to the tournament statistics. According to them, Jounouchi did indeed have a full set of cards, thanks to beating-- hah, Insector Haga, /again/. So did the Russian girl (Roza Sorokina, Mokuba saw written alongside a smiling mugshot that actually made her look good, defying the laws of mugshots everywhere) and some American boy Mokuba had never heard of.
There were another twelve people left in the preliminaries, and four of them would make it to the finals.
Mokuba was looking forward to the end of the tournament.
---
Ilya could hardly wait for this tournament to end.
Then-- at the end-- he and Roza could go back to Russia, and he could settle back into sleeping and studying, and she would go back to her private school, and his father would start to ignore him again, and oh had he hoped he would make it to Japan one day, but he never thought it would be with his family.
Roza had a devious feel around her, so strong it made Ilya wonder why no one edged away from her on the street. But everyone ignored them or smiled flirtily at Roza, and she smiled and laughed and waved to a couple of people she had met over the last few days.
When they passed a duel, Roza didn't so much as glance at it, for all the huge nearly-real ninja bearing down on a pyramid-shelled turtle. Nor did she glance at a store displaying exactly the same sort of clothing as what she was wearing, or what looked like an extremely popular card shop, people wearing the newest off-the-shelf duel disks walking in interested and walking out happy. She bore purposefully downtown, pulling Ilya a little too roughly by the wrist.
Eventually, Roza slowed, then stopped. Ilya tried to catch his breath a little.
"Iliusha!" she chirped.
Ilya nodded.
"This is Kaiba Corp!
Ilya glanced up, saw the sign, and nodded again.
"You like computers, right?"
He glanced at her. He had no reason to think she was pulling something underhanded, besides the way she was always trying to pull something underhanded on someone.
"I think I might like them too. I know I could be good at them."
In his mind, Ilya straightened and snapped a disbelieving line or two. Something like, "I believe that as much as I believe your pretty little kawaii act" or "Let me guess-- Daddy dearest will pay for special classes after I worked so hard to learn on my own?"
On the sidewalk, Ilya slumped his shoulders. "That's good, Roza. Computers are really useful. I'm sure you will be good at them."
She laughed and clapped her hands delightedly. "I thought you might say that! So I was thinking of trying to get a job at Kaiba Corp-- my Japanese is good enough, and most of the jobs here deal with computers in some way. Right?"
Ilya tried not to think about it. "Right."
"Daddy can get me a work visa, I'm sure. And you might be able to stay, too! Teach me what you know, all that sort of stuff."
"Right," he said, staring a little past her.
"Oh, Iliusha! I'm so glad. Do you think we should get applications right now?"
"If you like." Ilya let Roza catch his wrist and pull him inside the building, not really looking where he was going until she pulled to a sudden stop.
"Kaiba-san!" she called across the lobby, and Ilya looked up just in time to see the Kaiba boy do the same.
The Kaiba boy waved back, said a few short words to the man he was talking with, and walked towards them.
"It was Roza Sorokina, right?" he said with a polite smile. "And you are...?" he asked, turning towards Ilya.
Roza tugged Ilya forward. "This is my twin brother, Ilya Sorokin." She smiled sweetly at Mokuba. "He's a marvel with computers. He was cheering me on yesterday, too."
Mokuba nodded with polite interest. "Are you ready for the finals tomorrow? I managed to win all the cards I need, and Jounouchi Katsuya has qualified, too."
"Oh, really?" she chirruped. "I can hardly wait to duel you two!" She smiled a million-watt smile, and continued, "Say, I was wondering if after the tournament I could get a job here? Japan is a really beautiful place, and Kaiba Corp seems like it would be interesting to work at."
Mokuba's smile flickered, and Ilya got the distinct impression that what made it flicker was disbelief. "Well, the front desk-- over there, you see it?-- should have applications. You could pick up as many as you want."
With amazing energy, Roza bounced on her heels. "Ah-ha! All right, then. I'll go grab a couple. Thank you, Kaiba-san!" She patted Ilya on the shoulder and said, in Russian, "Be nice to Kaiba." Then she sashayed away, flirting her hips far more than necessary.
Ilya glanced at Mokuba and saw he wasn't watching Roza's hips.
"She's incredible, isn't she?" Ilya said, as monotone as he could.
"I suppose." Mokuba brushed his bangs away from his face and looked quizzically at Ilya. "Not really my type."
He didn't laugh, but he did smile. "Glad to hear that. I don't really care for her going out."
"Err. You saw when she kissed my cheek, didn't you?"
"I was, ah, 'cheering her on' yesterday and all."
Mokuba laughed awkwardly. "It kind of came as a total surprise. You aren't the protective type, are you? Not going to punch me for what your sister did?"
Ilya shook his head. "No, I'm not protective of her. Protective from her, well--"
Then Roza came up to them and looped her arm in Ilya's, jerking his attention away, and Mokuba was left puzzled as to what Ilya meant. (Oddly, when Ilya looked back at Mokuba, he flashed an apologetic smile, as if he wanted to explain but couldn't right then.)
"I hope my brother didn't bore you too much, Kaiba-san." Back came the million-watt smile, and she half-bowed, dragging Ilya with her. "I'll see you tomorrow!"
"Tomorrow, then." Mokuba nodded to them. "Will you both be there?"
"Well, if Ilya isn't a wet hen and wants to come--"
"I'll be there." He was returning Mokuba's puzzled look, as if he couldn't figure something out. "It should be interesting. I wonder who else will qualify?" Ilya bowed, without dragging his sister along, and repeated, "Tomorrow, then. Good bye for now, Kaiba-san."
And then they left.
---
Mokuba spent half that night changing his deck, with a little help from Seto's collection. If he was going to face Roza again (and probably some of the other duelists in the finals), he needed more effect monsters and cards that could destroy magic and trap cards. The way it was right then, his deck wouldn't cut it.
And thinking of it, some sort of Direct Damage beside Just Desserts-- and to make his Murasame Blade more useful, he should probably cut down on any monsters that weren't Warrior-Type and also weren't really good (or, ooh, why hadn't he thought of it before?, add Scroll of Bewitchment so he could change attributes, and Yellow Luster Shield so his defensive monsters could get a boost from that). And if he recalled correctly, the only Charmers were for Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water, so the more Light and Dark monsters he had, the more useless he would turn that trick of Roza's--
He fell asleep to the thoughts of cards, and effects, and magic, and traps.
---
16.6.10
Domino City, Japan
Mokuba woke up from a rather pleasant lucid dream to the less pleasant blaring of his alarm.
He rolled over, groped for the off switch, hit the snooze instead, and settled for that, then tried to recall the details of his dream-- something about being on a date with with Eria the Water Charmer, and that other boy (Irya? Ilya? Ilia?) on a date with Mokuba's Cure Mermaid. But then Eria had charmed the Mermaid away, so Mokuba summoned Neo the Magic Swordsman to go after Eria and get the other boy's date back.
But then Neo was the other boy, and he turned to Mokuba with an apologetic smile, and said something about Chorus of Sanctuary being on the field, and Cure Mermaid wasn't worth taking the damage for... would you like to sit here and duel me instead?
Huh. An odd dream, Mokuba supposed, but at least it wasn't a bad one. Mokuba had had enough of those to last him several lifetimes already.
He rolled out of bed and got dressed, ready to face the world-- or at least a few duelists.
---
Ilya woke to a bundle clothing landing heavily on his face.
He flailed around until it dislodged and glared, blearily and half-heartedly, at his sister. She stared levelly back for a moment, then seemed to remember herself and smiled brightly. "Good morning, Iliusha. I picked some clothing up for you while I was in Harajuku."
'You really didn't have to,' he thought, and picked the distressingly small shirt (which seemed to involve more fishnet than cloth) away from the even more distressingly tight pants (which he didn't even want to think about).
"Umm, thank you, Roza, but I would much rather wear my own clothing--"
She flipped her hand sharply, as if shooing away the notion. "Oh, no, you really must wear this-- I spent so much time picking out clothing for you, it would be a shame not to see you in it. And you'll look good, I promise!"
Without another word, Ilya accepted his fate and went to change in the tiny bathroom of their hotel room.
---
---
So~ first chapter.
I... have nothing left to say, except that the next chapter (which shall be primarily duels) will be written when I find where the heck my brother put all our cards (including the mocked-up decks I made for all the dueling characters).
Please, review, critique, or criticize me to your heart's content. I may not agree with you, but I won't throw a hissy fit, either. XD Bis spater, meine Freunden!
If you are under the firm belief that those never work, and not even the best written fanfiction in the universe could convince you that two worlds can collide in a beautiful braid of plot and awesome, or that original characters aren't all the spawn of the anti[insert divine figure of good here]... well, I'll probably not change your mind, especially since I don't claim this to the best written anything ever-- perhaps excepting "best YGO/Metal Gear Solid crossover ever written", because I would be seriously surprised if it wasn't also the only YGO/MGS crossover ever.
Seriously, if there's another one, gimme a link please. I would die from happy and joy.
Back to my point-- this isn't going to be winning any "best thing ever" awards except by favor of being "only fic willing to try it so far", but it is going to be written to the best of my abilities. I'd like to think that would make it better than average, but really, the readers (and thus, you) are the ones who need to judge that. Try to get through at least, oh, my author's note-- er, a few pages-- wait, that IS my A/N!-- before passing judgement.
Trust me, (said the girl who knows how sensitive a lot of readers are to the signs of badfic, even when there isn't badfic) I've worked hard at making both the plot/crossover work and making my original characters as believable as possible to slide them into both canons at once and use them as a reasonable bridge over the pitfall of suspended-by-the-neck-until-dead belief.
This first chapter is something of an even mix of YuGiOh! and the original characters, with some very faint hints as to how Metal Gear Solid is involved. The entire story will be heavy on the Kaiba family, due to the plot, and with a slight sprinkling of grated satire-- a little satire on a dish of crossover and plot works wonderfully, adding a complimentary nutty taste to the thicker flavors, as well as some subtle texture that makes dishes like the Discworld series all the more wonderful.
... Huh. Where did that metaphor come from? XD
I promise, this is the longest author's note I'll have in this fic. Laugh Now for the meat of this note--
Warnings: If it's in MGS, it'll probably be at least suggested here. All three of the PSX/PS2 games are rated Mature, and for things like blood, violence, language, and sex; these take the form of people being killed (occasionally somewhat horribly), killing people (a lot of the time because tranq guns only have so much ammo), things going horribly wrong (and who wouldn't swear when the base you're infiltrating is about to be nuked?), and Snake (because damn is he sexy nosebleeds all over the keyboard).
MGS also has canon boylove, if by "boy" you mean "crazy Russian officers who're into beating people" or "bisexual vampires and the Marine generals they sleep with". Expect the gay at some future point as well. (Don't worry, it's not too contagious, no matter what Anne McCaffrey says about tent pegs.)
Setting information, YGO: Ignores all events that take place after Battle City (AE arc, Grand Prix, the whole of GX). Assumes Battle City took place in 2006.
Setting information, MGS: Ignores all the rumors about (and, if still being written when it comes out, all canon in) MGS4; otherwise takes MGS, SoL, SE, and PO as canon, and assumes that the Big Shell incident took place in 2009.
The story itself starts the summer of 2010, in the middle of a Duel Monsters tournament.
---
Legacy
Chapter One: Overture
---
15.6.10
Domino City, Japan
Boring tournaments, Mokuba mused, were actually rather nice.
There were no worries about evil organizations trying to kidnap him (or kill his brother, or take over Kaiba Corp, or take over the world, whatever the case may be)-- just him, cards, and duelists about his age.
A lot of the duelists were pretty interesting, too, like the pretty Russian girl Mokuba was currently losing to-- rather badly, at that.
She smiled charmingly across the space between them, and said brightly, "The Ekibyo Drakmord attached to your Blazing Inpachi destroys it this turn." Surely enough, the mottled demons clinging to Mokuba's fiery monster dragged it down, and it burst into the pixelated shards of hologram death. "If I may?" She drew a card and brightened more, if possible. "Oh, cool! I summon Homunculus the Alchemic Being--"
"Trap Hole!" Mokuba called quickly, and the monster barely formed before falling away with an inhuman scream.
Still smiling, she shrugged. "Well, I suppose that's still all right. You only have one monster, so I think I'll, hmm, flip my Eria the Water Charmer into attack-- you do know what she does, right? Charms one of your water monsters to my side? And you happen to have that 7 Colored Fish yet." She tilted her head, almost birdlike, and laughed as the blue-haired spellcaster beckoned to Mokuba's last monster. "And you don't have any traps left. Unless you have something quick-play--" Mokuba glanced at his hand quickly and saw only cards he couldn't use, "-- I believe I'll attack your lifepoints directly with your pretty little fish."
So Mokuba's lifepoints drained down from 1900 to 100; hers were still 3500, and there was no way Mokuba was wining this semifinal duel, which was really a pity.
"Oh, and I'll also attack with Eria." The Russian girl watched Eria trot across the field and tap Mokuba on the head with her blue staff, dealing a whole five hundred damage and ending the duel.
Mokuba laughed sheepishly. "Well, guess I'm beat, then. Here's the two prize cards we wagered." He walked across to her and handed them over, leaving six of his own and giving her a full ten-card set. She giggled brightly and took them.
"Thank you, Kaiba-san! It was a pleasure dueling with you." She leaned in to peck him on the cheek and turned away, waving her hand and calling to someone else.
Mokuba bemusedly watched her go, joining a boy as blond and blue-eyed as herself, and rubbed his face absently.
"Well then," he said to himself, "I'd better go see if I can get four more prize cards."
---
"What a /cutie/," Roza sighed, staring at herself in the mirror of their hotel room. Ilya looked up from his laptop and smiled questioningly, and she caught his reflection's gaze. "You know. That Kaiba boy. He's vice president of the company hosting this tournament, you know."
"I know," Ilya replied, and clattered something on his keyboard. "You probably didn't need to kiss him, though."
Giggling, she twirled to face her brother. "Of course I did, Iliusha."
His smile went a little strained for a moment before he ducked his attention back to the laptop.
"Anyway, I was thinking that we haven't been to Harajuku, and now that I have all my prize cards I don't need to worry about card games. I could pick up some new clothing-- I hear they have some amazing things there, and I want to look my best for the finals, after all. We could pick you up something too, maybe, you could really get the local girls going if you bothered with how you looked." Turning back to the mirror, Roza picked up a tube of sparkling pink lipgloss and set about refreshing her looks. "Maybe something leather? Or there's this one style, they call it 'elegant gothic aristocrat', you could really pull that off--"
"No, thank you. I'm fine here." The clattering of keys went faster, and Ilya stared in concentration at his screen.
Roza pouted prettily at her reflection, and stopped when she saw his reflection wasn't looking. "But Ilya, you can get on the internet at home. As long as we're in Japan-- on daddy's money, even-- why can't you get outside, live a little? Sunlight doesn't burn, you know."
Ilya glanced up sharply, darted his eyes over to the large tube of expensive sunscreen settled beside Roza's other cosmetics, opened his mouth, and deflated.
"Of course not. But I'm not interested in going shopping for clothing. I do have schoolwork to do, and studying as well."
"What are you studying, anyway?" She had moved on to eyeshadow and eyeliner, leaving a pale opalescent glimmer around her eyes that made the blue of them bluer, or at least the contacts. "Not another dead language, I hope."
"C."
She gave him a puzzled look.
"Computer programming language," Ilya explained without looking up.
Roza sighed huffily and swiped on mascara. "Fine then. Spend our time in Japan learning computer talk in a crowded box of a room. See if I care."
Her brother winced and closed his eyes, abandoning typing to rub his forehead with the heels of his hands. Roza's eyes widened, and then she brought herself back to perky before sweeping her hair up in a smooth blond ponytail.
"Nevermind, Iliusha, it's all right. I'll pick something up for you, okay?" She smiled at him, grabbed her purse, and trotted lightly to the door.
With a voice muffled behind his hands, Ilya said something that might have been anything.
---
Later, Ilya wondered how his sister started calling their father "daddy", since the very idea of endearing names and their father were as mixable as a closed garage and carbon monoxide.
But then again, their father had paid for Roza to go to Japan and play card games. If Ilya had even thought about asking to go to Japan while in the same building as his father, he would have gotten a distasteful glare and been called pathetic.
'Ah, well,' he thought to himself, 'at least I'm not his favorite.'
---
16.6.10
Domino City, Japan
The day after he lost two cards to the Russian girl, Mokuba was challenged by a poor sap who thought he could bet four of his five cards and still have a chance at the finals. It was, of course, Insector Haga-- and an easy victory, Mokuba having seen enough of Haga's tactics over the years to wonder how the guy ever won any duels.
Cheating, Mokuba supposed, although that rather ceased to be effective when Mokuba just happened to break the clever little spring-loaded thing up Haga's sleeve when handing back the guy's newly-cut deck (all the trimmed and marked cards conveniently on the bottom).
So Mokuba was assured a place in the finals, alongside the Russian girl and some of his friends-- last he heard, Jounouchi only had nine cards, but he couldn't honestly believe someone with as much raw determination as Jounouchi wouldn't make it-- as well as a few lucky no-names that might be on their way to being Names.
Of course, this meant he had plenty of time to sit in the office next to his brother's and deal with the little things being vice president of a major corporation brought to his desk. Like--
"No. No no no. Tell this--" Mokuba glanced down at the memo on his desk. "-- this Watase Haru that Kaiba Corp has not been involved in supply, or distribution, or support of anything military since the death of the previous president, and we intend to keep it that way, no matter what."
"Of course, Kaiba-san." The-- whatever he was, someone dragged away from his desk and into messenger duty-- bowed to Mokuba and turned to go.
Mokuba sighed and wished people like Watase Haru would stop trying to use the technology for making games real as a tool to make war fake.
War as a video game.
The very idea gave Mokuba the creeps, which was pretty difficult-- he had been in games taken too far before, and it wasn't something he particularly wanted to relive. But for most people, games weren't something you died from, and if war was a game, you couldn't die from that either.
Good grief. Why was he even thinking about that sort of thing?
Mokuba stretched a bit and clicked his computer over to the tournament statistics. According to them, Jounouchi did indeed have a full set of cards, thanks to beating-- hah, Insector Haga, /again/. So did the Russian girl (Roza Sorokina, Mokuba saw written alongside a smiling mugshot that actually made her look good, defying the laws of mugshots everywhere) and some American boy Mokuba had never heard of.
There were another twelve people left in the preliminaries, and four of them would make it to the finals.
Mokuba was looking forward to the end of the tournament.
---
Ilya could hardly wait for this tournament to end.
Then-- at the end-- he and Roza could go back to Russia, and he could settle back into sleeping and studying, and she would go back to her private school, and his father would start to ignore him again, and oh had he hoped he would make it to Japan one day, but he never thought it would be with his family.
Roza had a devious feel around her, so strong it made Ilya wonder why no one edged away from her on the street. But everyone ignored them or smiled flirtily at Roza, and she smiled and laughed and waved to a couple of people she had met over the last few days.
When they passed a duel, Roza didn't so much as glance at it, for all the huge nearly-real ninja bearing down on a pyramid-shelled turtle. Nor did she glance at a store displaying exactly the same sort of clothing as what she was wearing, or what looked like an extremely popular card shop, people wearing the newest off-the-shelf duel disks walking in interested and walking out happy. She bore purposefully downtown, pulling Ilya a little too roughly by the wrist.
Eventually, Roza slowed, then stopped. Ilya tried to catch his breath a little.
"Iliusha!" she chirped.
Ilya nodded.
"This is Kaiba Corp!
Ilya glanced up, saw the sign, and nodded again.
"You like computers, right?"
He glanced at her. He had no reason to think she was pulling something underhanded, besides the way she was always trying to pull something underhanded on someone.
"I think I might like them too. I know I could be good at them."
In his mind, Ilya straightened and snapped a disbelieving line or two. Something like, "I believe that as much as I believe your pretty little kawaii act" or "Let me guess-- Daddy dearest will pay for special classes after I worked so hard to learn on my own?"
On the sidewalk, Ilya slumped his shoulders. "That's good, Roza. Computers are really useful. I'm sure you will be good at them."
She laughed and clapped her hands delightedly. "I thought you might say that! So I was thinking of trying to get a job at Kaiba Corp-- my Japanese is good enough, and most of the jobs here deal with computers in some way. Right?"
Ilya tried not to think about it. "Right."
"Daddy can get me a work visa, I'm sure. And you might be able to stay, too! Teach me what you know, all that sort of stuff."
"Right," he said, staring a little past her.
"Oh, Iliusha! I'm so glad. Do you think we should get applications right now?"
"If you like." Ilya let Roza catch his wrist and pull him inside the building, not really looking where he was going until she pulled to a sudden stop.
"Kaiba-san!" she called across the lobby, and Ilya looked up just in time to see the Kaiba boy do the same.
The Kaiba boy waved back, said a few short words to the man he was talking with, and walked towards them.
"It was Roza Sorokina, right?" he said with a polite smile. "And you are...?" he asked, turning towards Ilya.
Roza tugged Ilya forward. "This is my twin brother, Ilya Sorokin." She smiled sweetly at Mokuba. "He's a marvel with computers. He was cheering me on yesterday, too."
Mokuba nodded with polite interest. "Are you ready for the finals tomorrow? I managed to win all the cards I need, and Jounouchi Katsuya has qualified, too."
"Oh, really?" she chirruped. "I can hardly wait to duel you two!" She smiled a million-watt smile, and continued, "Say, I was wondering if after the tournament I could get a job here? Japan is a really beautiful place, and Kaiba Corp seems like it would be interesting to work at."
Mokuba's smile flickered, and Ilya got the distinct impression that what made it flicker was disbelief. "Well, the front desk-- over there, you see it?-- should have applications. You could pick up as many as you want."
With amazing energy, Roza bounced on her heels. "Ah-ha! All right, then. I'll go grab a couple. Thank you, Kaiba-san!" She patted Ilya on the shoulder and said, in Russian, "Be nice to Kaiba." Then she sashayed away, flirting her hips far more than necessary.
Ilya glanced at Mokuba and saw he wasn't watching Roza's hips.
"She's incredible, isn't she?" Ilya said, as monotone as he could.
"I suppose." Mokuba brushed his bangs away from his face and looked quizzically at Ilya. "Not really my type."
He didn't laugh, but he did smile. "Glad to hear that. I don't really care for her going out."
"Err. You saw when she kissed my cheek, didn't you?"
"I was, ah, 'cheering her on' yesterday and all."
Mokuba laughed awkwardly. "It kind of came as a total surprise. You aren't the protective type, are you? Not going to punch me for what your sister did?"
Ilya shook his head. "No, I'm not protective of her. Protective from her, well--"
Then Roza came up to them and looped her arm in Ilya's, jerking his attention away, and Mokuba was left puzzled as to what Ilya meant. (Oddly, when Ilya looked back at Mokuba, he flashed an apologetic smile, as if he wanted to explain but couldn't right then.)
"I hope my brother didn't bore you too much, Kaiba-san." Back came the million-watt smile, and she half-bowed, dragging Ilya with her. "I'll see you tomorrow!"
"Tomorrow, then." Mokuba nodded to them. "Will you both be there?"
"Well, if Ilya isn't a wet hen and wants to come--"
"I'll be there." He was returning Mokuba's puzzled look, as if he couldn't figure something out. "It should be interesting. I wonder who else will qualify?" Ilya bowed, without dragging his sister along, and repeated, "Tomorrow, then. Good bye for now, Kaiba-san."
And then they left.
---
Mokuba spent half that night changing his deck, with a little help from Seto's collection. If he was going to face Roza again (and probably some of the other duelists in the finals), he needed more effect monsters and cards that could destroy magic and trap cards. The way it was right then, his deck wouldn't cut it.
And thinking of it, some sort of Direct Damage beside Just Desserts-- and to make his Murasame Blade more useful, he should probably cut down on any monsters that weren't Warrior-Type and also weren't really good (or, ooh, why hadn't he thought of it before?, add Scroll of Bewitchment so he could change attributes, and Yellow Luster Shield so his defensive monsters could get a boost from that). And if he recalled correctly, the only Charmers were for Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water, so the more Light and Dark monsters he had, the more useless he would turn that trick of Roza's--
He fell asleep to the thoughts of cards, and effects, and magic, and traps.
---
16.6.10
Domino City, Japan
Mokuba woke up from a rather pleasant lucid dream to the less pleasant blaring of his alarm.
He rolled over, groped for the off switch, hit the snooze instead, and settled for that, then tried to recall the details of his dream-- something about being on a date with with Eria the Water Charmer, and that other boy (Irya? Ilya? Ilia?) on a date with Mokuba's Cure Mermaid. But then Eria had charmed the Mermaid away, so Mokuba summoned Neo the Magic Swordsman to go after Eria and get the other boy's date back.
But then Neo was the other boy, and he turned to Mokuba with an apologetic smile, and said something about Chorus of Sanctuary being on the field, and Cure Mermaid wasn't worth taking the damage for... would you like to sit here and duel me instead?
Huh. An odd dream, Mokuba supposed, but at least it wasn't a bad one. Mokuba had had enough of those to last him several lifetimes already.
He rolled out of bed and got dressed, ready to face the world-- or at least a few duelists.
---
Ilya woke to a bundle clothing landing heavily on his face.
He flailed around until it dislodged and glared, blearily and half-heartedly, at his sister. She stared levelly back for a moment, then seemed to remember herself and smiled brightly. "Good morning, Iliusha. I picked some clothing up for you while I was in Harajuku."
'You really didn't have to,' he thought, and picked the distressingly small shirt (which seemed to involve more fishnet than cloth) away from the even more distressingly tight pants (which he didn't even want to think about).
"Umm, thank you, Roza, but I would much rather wear my own clothing--"
She flipped her hand sharply, as if shooing away the notion. "Oh, no, you really must wear this-- I spent so much time picking out clothing for you, it would be a shame not to see you in it. And you'll look good, I promise!"
Without another word, Ilya accepted his fate and went to change in the tiny bathroom of their hotel room.
---
---
So~ first chapter.
I... have nothing left to say, except that the next chapter (which shall be primarily duels) will be written when I find where the heck my brother put all our cards (including the mocked-up decks I made for all the dueling characters).
Please, review, critique, or criticize me to your heart's content. I may not agree with you, but I won't throw a hissy fit, either. XD Bis spater, meine Freunden!
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