Prologue

Nine years ago

"Come on Richie Rich, just give us the backpack and your wallet, and we won't hurt you... much."

Why did I walk home? Seto told me to take the town car, why didn't I listen? Mokuba thought as three low life teens carrying bats and crowbars cornered him down a one-way ally. The younger Kaiba brother knew better than to walk around the shadier parts of Domino by himself, but wanting to be independent, he decided to forgo the chauffer and walk home from Kaiba Corp on his own. He must have taken a wrong turn at some point because the pleasant clean streets became dirtier and scarier. Around the time Moki realized he wasn't in the parts of town he was familiar with was when he'd realized a group of teenage thugs were following him.

"Just l-leave me alone, my big brother will end you guys if you lay a h-hand on me" he stammered, freaking out when he saw the thugs blocked the only exit out of the ally and the chances of him getting past them were slim.

"'Cordin to the paper your big brother is overseas, how is he gonna end us from over there? Now give us your everything ya got on you." One of the bullies sneered, shoving Mokuba, causing him to fall into a pile of trash.

Doing as they demanded wouldn't stop him from getting hurt, he tried one last chance at escaping, even though he knew it was pointless. His big brother wouldn't just stay there and take a beating. He'd fight back. He tried to shove past the bullies with all his might. Mokuba was stopped by a swift punch to the face, causing him to stumbled and fall to the ground. In his fall he fell on a broken bottle, cutting his hand.

"Did you not hear us, kid? Give us your shit, or we'll take it." The tallest out of the three growled, stepping on Mokis' chest, pushing him to the ground when he tried to get back to his feet.

"I'm not giving you thugs a thing!" He yelled, spitting in their direction.

That seemed to set the bullies off, they quickly pounced on Moki, punching, kicking and beating him with their weapons, laughing and mocking him all the while.

The beating seemed to go on for hours, and just as he thought he couldn't take anymore, it suddenly stopped. Uncurling from the protective ball he'd tucked into Mokuba looked around to see where his attackers went, and why they stopped without a word. Not that he was complaining. The jerk-offs were also on the ground, but a few feet away, two unconscious and the third groaning in pain.

There were also four more people in the ally now, three large men and a shorter person wearing head to toe black and a hood concealing their face. The hooded figure was walking towards Moki while the other three dragged the thugs away to God only knew where. It wasn't until the person kneeled in front of him that he realized it was a girl. She had long curly dark hair that peeked and flowed out of the hood and haunting blue eyes, the rest of her face was masked in darkness. Reaching forward his savior placed a well-manicured hand on his face, ignoring his flinch on pain and wiped the blood that was trickling from his lip from a cut he'd gotten thanks to a well-placed kick to the face before he'd been wise enough to cover himself with his arms.

"looks like you've seen better days kid," she said, sympathy clear in her eyes.

Not wanting anyone's sympathy or pity, Mokuba tried to get up, wincing when he put his weight on his cut hand.

Seeing the pain that must have showed on his face, the girl stopped Moki from getting up.

"I get you wanna be all strong right now Kid, but your gonna do your body more harm than good. Before taking care of those thugs, I had my men call an ambulance for you. I'd strongly advise you to wait for it." Grasping his hand, she took a look at the cut, moving it this way and that before taking a handkerchief out of her pocket and wrapping it around his hand. "Keep pressure on that and have it looked at when you get the chance, who knows what filth is in this alleyway," She advised.

Standing up the girl turned her attention back to her now reappeared bodyguards. "Are those idiots taken care of?" She asked in a bored tone.

"Yes, ma'am," the three said in unison.

Nodding as if pleased, she then walked out of the alleyway. Without another word or glance at the bleeding Mokuba, the girl got in the waiting limo in the street.

One of the bodyguards handing Mokuba back his backpack and wallet and readvised him to wait for the paramedics to arrive before joining the girl in the car before it sped off in the night.

As the shock from the trauma he'd endured began to fade, Moki took note of his injuries and in doing so noticed there was a set of initials hand-stitched in the handkerchief the girl gave him. AP

A/N: Thank you so much for reading the first chapter in CheckMate! If you feel inclined to do so, reviews are much appreciated! I love hearing from you all and know all opinions and on where you thought I might have messed up! Thanks again! Enjoy the next chapter!