Scores of letters and numbers spilled across the screen, varying flashes of color against the blank white. Brackets closed in his commands. Commands that were blurring into one another. Seto Kaiba blinked hard. Perhaps another coffee break was needed. Rubbing his fingers into his eyes in attempts to reach the ache behind them, he stood and stretched. A digital clock in the corner of the end screen of the three monitors displayed 11:34pm. It was late. But Kaiba was only getting started. Nonetheless, Mokuba would probably not be pleased with him. They did, after all, still have school.
Why am I even in High School still, he thought blithely. I could have passed those measly exams in my sleep by the time I was twelve.
He certainly would get a lot more work done if that was the case. Originally he had stayed in school so as to give the front of being a mentally healthy teenager to the public as well as his stockholders. Being thought of as not being a fully socially developed person was not the best way of building trust. Not that he would even dare to think of those brats as being socially developed.
This was just getting ridiculous, though. Getting up at 6:30 just to sit around for eight hours doing nothing? And when he had deadlines to make, programs to oversee, hallucinating idiots who saw mainframes turning in to sarcophagi—stuff like that, to do. Perhaps he should reconsider 'graduating' early.
With a small groan, he made his way to the break room just outside his office. The hallway's bright lights and white walls made him wince after spending so long in his dark office. He moved by the scent of coffee beans.
He had just set his coffee to brew when he turned to find a very, very unwelcomed guest.
Swathed in white, linen robes, set with turban and all, stood an Egyptian with very unnerving, strange eyes. A golden ankh shaped key sat at a rest on his chest.
Seto didn't flinch. He didn't even blink. Instead, he folded his arms, leaned against the counter, and drew up his usual scowl.
"You." He said. "Come to spout nonsense, I suppose? Should I even asking how you got past security?"
"I have not come here to argue against your stubbornness." said the Egyptian. "I have come for your help."
Now this Seto had not been expecting. But that didn't change his response. He gave an annoyed grunt and turned back to check on his coffee.
"What is with you random Egyptians thinking you can demand help from me? What, are you going to ask me for a Duel Monsters tournament too? Forget it, I only did that once because it was I wanted to do, not that little bitch's idea."
"The stakes are much higher this time."
Kaiba snorted. "They always are."
"And it is not a tournament I seek. I am seeking a person: a young woman of great importance."
"Oh spare me." He snapped. "The police are who you are looking for. Get out of my sight or I'm calling security."
The Egyptian's eyes narrowed. Was that just him, or had the room's temperature dropped several degrees? He would have to talk to maintenance about that.
Brown fingers lifted up the strange golden key. "Seto Kaiba, you can either help me willingly or have your hand will be forced."
"Was that a threat?"
"This girl also affects you too, Kaiba. It is not just for me. Do you not wonder why strange items from the past have been replacing important objects in your company?"
Needles prickled up his back, sending the hair on his arms on end. He now had his attention.
"So she's the little conspirator then? Let me guess, she bribed my employees to play those stupid pranks, hoping to make a fool of me."
The man's eyes narrowed further. "Do not be foolish. She knows little to nothing of you. It is the time rift she has created which--"
"Spare me the details. Why can't you just find her yourself?" Seto eyed the man, from his golden key to his stony expression. "You don't seem like a man who has trouble finding who he needs."
"I don't." he said. "But she is different. She runs on her own plane of time, such as I, so I can only guess as to where she is. Since the time rift opened up near here, my only clue is that she is in this area."
"And you need me...?"
"You too are a man who does not have trouble finding who he needs. I will continue to search, but she must be found before she finds the Pharaoh."
Seto inwardly groaned. Always it had to do with that other face of Yugi's. This just had to be more of the hocus pocus he didn't have time for—even without school in the mix.
"Why don't you just go to the Pharaoh, then?" said Seto, beyond exasperated. "If that is who she is aiming for, she might already be there."
"You do not understand, Kaiba. He should not even be allowed to look at her. Just seeing her will ruin the time continuum—battles will come to the chosen one that he is not yet prepared for, the world may be ruined!"
"Yeah. Whatever."
"Please, I am begging of you—"
"No, you're leaving."
"Kaiba—"
The coffee machine dinged. Not stupid enough to turn his back on the man, crazy or not, Seto took out his coffee left handed and brought up the creamer with the other. He glared at the other while he lazily applied the creamer to his coffee. Sugar helped boost the caffeine's effect.
"If you have any sense," he said, setting the creamer down. "You'll get out of here while I'm feeling merciful. Whoever you are."
For the first time, the man's face change, showing a bit of frustration. This satisfied him. At least the idiot wasn't a robot. As he took the first sip of his coffee the man dropped his hold on his strange medallion and reached into his robes instead.
"Your mind will change." he said, and the lanky CEO tensed as he began to bring something out. A gun? He readied his hold on the hot coffee. Maybe he could throw it in the man's face and while he was distracted by the sting duck under and disarm him.
But it wasn't a gun he pulled out. It was a piece of paper. He set it gently on a side table by the door.
"We will meet again, Kaiba."
"Of course." said Seto with a roll of his eyes. It was another thing his strange Egyptian visitors often told him. Was it suppose to make them sound more mystical?
With that, the man turned and vanished into the shadows. Seto's free hand twitched towards his cell phone to call security, but a part of him knew the man was probably already gone. He had not met this one often, but every time he had a knack of vanishing when he needed to.
He finished his coffee and left without a glance to the paper the man had left for him. Let the janitors pick it up in the morning, he thought. Good riddance to those freaks. He was tired of their games.
On opening his door, however, that thought changed. The raw glow of his computer screens had vanished. In their place, showing faintly by the strips of city light allowed in through the blinds and the light from the hallway, was a tall, stone tablet. On its face he could make out a carving, but a carving of what he couldn't tell, and didn't care. He stepped forward and touched it, hoping it was a trick. Rough stone met his fingertips.
Not even sparing a breath for a curse he spun on his heel and dashed back into the break room. The paper felt oddly crinkled in his hand, as though it had gotten wet and dried once or twice. As he opened it, he took out his phone and called security.
"There's an Egyptian man in white robes in this building. No one is to let him out, you hear?"
As he heard the confirmation of the guard on the other end, he took in the picture of a girl on the page. She had curly, platinum blond hair and wide blue eyes. Something made him shiver at the sight of her face, and a familiar sense of déjà vu came over him.
Only one word crossed his mind when he re-entered his office to see the stone tablet begin to fade and his computers reappear.
Bastards.