Title: Unreal.
Author: Yeziel Moore (aka: Me)
Pairings: None.
Warnings: Teensy bit of angst in the background. Allusions to child abuse.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Not Yu-Gi-Oh! and certainly not Harry Potter. Pity that.
Words: 824.

AN: Let's not interrupt the flow, yeah? So it'll be at the bottom.

-o0o-

Un•re•al /ʌnˈriəl, -ˈril/ adj.

1. not real or actual. 2. imaginary; fanciful; illusory; fantastic. 3. not genuine; false; artificial.

-o0o-

There was not such a thing as magic.

Science was real, it was tangible, methodical and logical, but most important of all, it had rules and, as long as you followed them, you could never lose your footing with science. Magic was anything but, magic contradicted everything science stood for, therefore, in Seto's mind, magic couldn't exist.

It was a weak refusal all around and Seto was well aware of the inconsistencies his argument presented but…

He didn't care, and wasn't that a shocking thought in itself?

Seto knew what Yugi and his band of misfits thought magic was: wonderful and awe-inspiring and a great adventure waiting for the right time to manifest. And who knows, maybe it was, for them. For Seto it was none of that. Magic to him was harsh words shouted his way, smacks (or worse) on his head or rump and a dark cupboard too small for a dog never mind a growing boy. Magic robbed him of his parents and took away any love his remaining family may've had for him. In short, magic had ruined his childhood and may yet ruin his adulthood and he had no intention on indulging the capricious thing, not even to acknowledge its existence.

Of course, he was aware that his rather vehement denial and continued refusal was not the best approach to the situation, it could be seen as childish even, but some lessons stuck and stayed with you for good, no matter how long ago they were learnt. It was the first lesson Seto received, before he got himself to Japan, even before he had a name he could call his own. One very simple lesson, driven into his very being with blood, pain and tears.

It went something along these lines: Magic is not real. Dragons and princesses and castles are fantasy. Fantasy is not allowed. Imagination is not allowed. (Your) Happiness is not allowed. He was a nuisance and a Freak and he would keep his freakishness locked and far away from the family or there would be CONSEQUENCES.

There were more, of course. Seto could probably fill an entire book with all the things that were wrong with him according to his relatives and all the things that he hadn't been allowed to think about much less do in the time BEFORE. Lucky for him, most of them didn't hold weight in his mind anymore.

(Because Seto wasn't an idiot, quite the contrary in fact, and so as soon as he knew what abuse and conditioning were he took steps to fix the damage done to him. And he did a damn good job too, if he said so himself)

But there was one point, one single line, that had sunk so deep into his psyche it couldn't be pried off, not by his own efforts and certainly not by anybody else's.

Magic is NOT real.

Oh, don't mistake him. Seto knew that wasn't entirely right. He had seen real magic, he had it himself, could feel it curl under his skin like the warmest laziest cat in the world, he could reach for it and use it if he wanted to, had consciously done so once before, to change his appearance. Seto knew all of that, knew it with all the weight and credence empirical evidence provides. And although believing often came after (or even before) knowing, in this unique case Seto couldn't bring himself to believe. What for everybody else would be an unmistakable feat of magic, to him it would always be something else, holograms, hallucinations, illusions, a mental disorder of some sort, anything BUT what his heart and soul already knew and believed, had known all along.

The nameless boy had learnt his lesson well. As a consequence Seto had been born, built out of logic and rationale and firmly rooted in science. Science could be measured and explained, magic (and people) could not; science was normal, unlike magic (and most people); but best of all, science had never hurt him, not like magic (and people) had. Now Seto was a businessman, but before that, even before he had gotten a little brother and Kaiba had been added to his name, he had strived to understand all science could offer.

And in the end, what did he need magic for? If he wanted a dragon he could damn well build himself a dragon, which he did, by the way. He didn't need the real thing, the real thing would try to kill or eat him as soon as it saw him, so really magic was severely overrated, in his not so humble opinion.

Seto Kaiba didn't need magic, regardless of what Yugi, Mokuba and the hollow pain in his chest seemed to think, because magic wasn't real and that wasn't going to change.

-o0o-

The real AN: This came to me after re-reading King's Jackal by esama, which is a must in your to-read lists if you haven't read it yet. After reading, my mind fixated on Seto Kaiba, for reasons only my mind is privy to. I had no plan. But Kaiba's vehement denials of everything and anything magic related always amused me (back in my yugioh days) and I'm a sucker for turning Harry into just about every character under the sky and beyond. And just like that this idea bloomed.

Unfortunately I remember very little of Yugioh and I don't think I can do it justice. So this little baby will remain little and short for now (or ever).