Dual Persona

Chapter 09: Kaiba and Wheeler

      Third person pov

" Hey Joey, what's up?" Greeted a smiling Mokuba Kaiba. " Seto sent me down to let you know that he's going to be a little late. One of his meetings with the contractors for Duel Academy is running long."
"Figures Rich boy is busy," Joey replied with a knowing grin, " Well I haven't eaten yet, does your guys cafe still have those really good cheeseburgers?"
"Yeah we do. Let's go get some, I'm hungry too, it'll be Seto's treat." Mokuba joyfully announced.
As Mokuba led the way to the cafe inside Kaiba corp,  Joey listened to Mokuba chatter about what he'd been up too since they'd last seen each other. As they arrived at the cafe Mokuba strolled up to the counter and ordered both of their burgers.
" So I heard you came from Grandpa Muto's store, how is he?" Mokuba asked as they sat down waiting for their food to be ready.
" He's doing pretty well and so is the shop, if the crowd there was anything to go by." Joey said as his cheeseburger was delivered. " Gramps roped me into dueling all of the kids there as a special event. It was pretty fun."
" Glad at least one of us had fun today Wheeler." Came the voice of Seto Kaiba. " I've been stuck dealing with incompetent contractors all day."
"Sucks to be you Kaiba." Joey bantered back with a smile on his face upon seeing his old rival.
" Hey big bro, did you finally decide to run away from your meeting?" Mokuba asked with obvious joy at his brother's expense.
" Actually I was able to solve the problem by firing those contractors which means that as the Vice president it's your job to find new ones." Kaiba said with a smirk. " I did get through some of the teacher interviews though. Dr. Crowler shows some promise, as does the Cyber dojo's head, Sheppard.  Also I found an English teacher, Midori Hibiki.
" Fine I'll go get on that. But I'm glad you found some teachers at least. Given your standards I didn't think you'd find any." Mokuba grumbled as he got up grabbing his burger to take with him. " See you around Joey. Hope you have better luck than the contractors."
" Yeah don't work too hard and good luck finding contractors." Joey called out to Mokuba's retreating back.
" So Wheeler you duel anyone interesting while at Kame Games." Kaiba asked with feigned disinterest.
" Actually one of the kids, Ben Poole was pretty interesting." Joey said.
" I figured he'd stand out." Kaiba replied, " he's won every junior tournament that he's participated in. Including a few that Kaiba corp sponsored. He's also registered for the national youth championship."
" Yeah he's very good," Joey began, " he kinda reminds me of Yugi when he was younger."
" How so?" Kaiba asked his interest now showing.
" Well he seemed really nervous as he was walking up to me but as soon as he reached the table it was like a switch flipped." Joey recounted, " he seemed to become more confident in an instant. Then there was the way he dueled. It reminded me of Atem during the ceremonial duel. Ben brought out his Nightmare Magician as fast as possible and then played a variety of cards that supported it. Similar to what Atem did with the Dark magician after the god cards were destroyed . Why are you so curious about this kid anyway?"
" I was thinking of offering him a scholarship to Duel Academy when he's old enough in a few years." Kaiba said, " Until today he's never lost a publicly recorded duel. Assuming his skills continue to grow and don't regress he seems to be an ideal candidate to be one of the Seven Key Keepers in a few years."
" Guess I don't need to put in a good word if he's already got your attention." Joey asked before continuing." Remind me why you, me, and Yugi don't just camp out on the island for a bit and duel the Shadow Riders ourselves."
" For one because I'm extremely busy running the biggest company on the planet and Yugi is who knows where on a whole self reflection journey. None of us outside of Yugi can just sit on the island for who knows how long waiting for the Shadow Riders to show up. Even though they wouldn't stand a chance against just one of us let alone all of us." Kaiba began, " The other reason is that only residents of the island can be Key Keepers. You have to spend several months there before the Shadow Riders even show up to be able to be accepted by the keys. It's something to do with the duel spirits involved in those knock off god cards."
" Yeah that makes no sense but then again most magic doesn't." Joey began, " I just don't like the idea of using kids to protect the keys."
" I'm not crazy about it either but any student that chooses to accept the offer will be generously compensated and no one will be forced into accepting the responsibility. Anyhow I do believe we've talked long enough." Kaiba said as he got up and began leading Joey to the Duel Monsters testing arena. " Time to renegotiate your endorsement deal Wheeler. Standard rules I win and you attend some Kaiba corp galas for the PR benefits. You win and we do some joint charity work instead."
" Your on Money bags" Joey said while putting on his Duel disk as across from him Kaiba did the same.
"Duel" they both said at the same time grinning in anticipation of their match.
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Author's Note

Yeah Kaiba corp sponsors Joey in the pro league. I like to think that after everything Kaiba's developed a bit of respect from Joey, he still thinks he's better but this Joey has made something of himself and sits ranked at number one in the pro league. I also think that Joey would be the type to be philanthropic and want to give back to the community now that he's a success. And if he can make Kaiba join him then yeah he uses it as a bargaining chip in negotiations to try and get out of stuffy parties. Parties that Kaiba would love to watch Joey attend and make a fool of himself at, for his own amusement.

So we learn in DSOD that Kaiba keeps track of everyone in Domino City and I have little reason to believe he doesn't also do it here. So since he's aware of the Keys he's already scouting out talent for his school. Which is why when a young duelist with some unique cards pops up and doesn't lose, he's aware of it. What opportunities might arise from this, who knows?
Next chapter: The start of the Youth Regional Championship.