This is my first fanfic, and I just want to give a little information. First, these characters belong to Kazuki Takahashi. Second, other characters, such as the goon squad and YO, are my own characters. Finally, enjoy the story and give me some feedback.

Chapter 1 The Warning

At 2:23:47 a.m., Seto Kaiba pushed the save button his laptop computer, glanced at the sentence he had just written, and then scrolled to the top of the fifty-four pages. It was time to reread his work.

In the room next to his, a creak went out into the still air, then a soft padding of feet made its way to the door between rooms. A small hand opened the door a crack, the other rubbing his eyes.

"Seto, why are you still up?" The little figure came completely into the room, stopping behind his brother's chair.

When there was no response for more than the standard thirty seconds, the boy persisted, "Nii-sama, you said you were going to go to bed tonight."

"I still am, Mokuba" he answered, eyes riveted to his computer screen.

Mokuba waited for a few minutes, not moving, but neither of them spoke again. Sighing, the boy went back to his own room, padding over to his bed and crawling inside. When the squeaking stopped, everything again was still, except for Kaiba's eyes flicking back and forth over the pages he had written.

Outside the two rooms, two goons remained on watch, their black tuxedoes blending into the darkness. They were focused on any strange sounds and were unsurprised by the creaking and padding of feet. A slight sound from above them, coming from what seemed the vents, went by them unannounced. Everything was as usual in the Kaiba mansion.

Everything, but one thing.

A small camera watched in every room, taped anything that happened back in the control room. There, three security men looked on to be certain no one was where they should not be. However, one camera did not just have the three watching.

Alone in a small room, an avid little man squinted at the screen, grinning when he saw Kaiba ignore his younger sibling.

"Beware, Kaiba," he hissed. "You will soon regret how you ignored him!" A bubble of laughter burst from his gut, and he turned his head to the ceiling and cackled.

-

At exactly 5:00:00, Mokuba opened his eyes and blinked several times, bringing his room into focus.

As he crawled out of his bed, he thought, I wonder if nii-sama slept last night. Thinking it over for a second, he decided he did not want to know.

Changing into his school uniform, Mokuba grabbed his book bag and violin, heading downstairs. The scent of something odd drifted into his nostrils, and he made a face. Obviously, the cook was the one making breakfast today.

"Good morning, Seto," he said, plopping his school items down onto the floor and flopping into a chair.

"I told you, I hired you to be a member of the goon squad, not to cook every meal," Kaiba was saying to Jaques, who was bustling around the kitchen with a chef's hat. "Morning, Mokuba," he said absently, paging through his report of how his corporation was doing.

"Voila! Bon appetit!" Two plates of brightly colored food-stuffs were placed before each of them.

Kaiba took a second to look away from his packet and glance at the table. "I am not eating that. Not only is it colored peculiarly, the content of fat is much higher than average—it's not healthy." Then he was scanning over his work again, standing near the wall.

Mokuba was carefully sniffing his plate, trying not to make a face. Sighing, he picked up his fork and put a little of the wobbly, sickly yellow foam into his mouth. Crepes again. Mechanically chewing, he began to make his way through breakfast. Even if his brother refused to eat, Mokuba knew Seto would make him eat. He was a growing young man and needed plenty of energy to get him through the day, he could almost hear his brother say, as he always would.

After a bit, he got up and poured a bowl of wheat cereal, the most tasteless, unappetizing, crunchless cereal there was. But it was the healthiest, and Seto ate it all the time. Putting it down before his brother, the little guy watched him automatically begin eating while he read, and Mokuba finished his own meal in better spirits.

There was plenty of time for him to pull out his current interest book, reading about the legends of Africa. Except for Jaques, the goons quietly kept their watch, though from a floor above, a small argument drifted down the stairs from the O'Riley brothers, both more men from the goon squad.

"It's not yer turn!"

"Yes, it is!"

"Yer cheatin'!"

"No, I'm not!"

"Ready to go, sir?" a voice interrupted his listening. The usual goon, Roland, looked at his watch and then to Mokuba. "You have orchestra this morning, I believe."

Mokuba blinked. "I thought I was walking with Seto…" He glanced up at his brother, saw him immersed in yet another page, and nodded to Roland. Putting his tome of legends aside, Mokuba gathered up his book bag and violin before walking out the door with Roland, calling goodbye to his brother.

By the time the response came, Mokuba was halfway down the street, thinking what they would do in science that day.

"Goodbye…"

-

The limousine drove away, and Kaiba glared at the school building before him. Another half-day of wasted time… He strode toward the building, not paying attention to anyone else when someone suddenly pushed by him. Narrowing his eyes at anyone who would dare shove by him, Kaiba was even more annoyed when he saw the blonde head.

"Wheeler," he said lowly, gritting his teeth.

"Eh? Kaiba!" The figure practically squawked before regaining his bravado. "What? You wanna mess wid me?"

"I want you get out of my way." Alone in the windswept desert tundra, no one could have felt more chilled.

Joey glared right back. "Well, you're in my way! Always standin' in my—"

Interrupting him came another person about the same height as Joey. "He doesn't mean anything by it, Kaiba. That's what he's trying to say." Wheeler's companion covered his friend's mouth and looked highly nervous, though he turned a scowl to his friend. "Joey-man, don't get into this," he hissed under his breath.

Kaiba swept by both of them, ignoring Joey's furious attempts to get free and take a swipe at him. "Amateur," he muttered. "Bonkatsu."

That merely made the one spoken of struggle even harder, so that another person came to grip his arms and hold him back. Grabbing onto him did nothing to calm him, so both his friends were working to keep Joey in place.

The newest member cried out, "Calm down, Joey! You'll mess up my hair!"

"Eh, forgetaboutit! You'll pay for dis, Kaiba!" Joey shouted down the hall, waving a fist once his friend finally removed his hand, swearing that Joey had bitten him.

From another person walking by came the question, "What's going on, guys?" This speaker was much shorter and more innocent looking, though his hair made him stand out more than a quiet boy like him would like, or so it seemed.

Joey shook his head in response. "Nuddin', Yuge. You don't wanna know."

The short punk blinked a few times, then shrugged. He adjusted his bag, saying, "Okay, Joey. I'm sure you know what's best."

All four males were about to continue walking to their classroom when a girl stopped in front of them, hands on hips and glaring.

"What? Are you trying to rival Kaiba?" The speaker gave a toss of his hair, waving to some girls giggling as they walked by.

"Stop flirting for one second, Duke Devlin. You might actually know what was going on then."

Duke automatically turned all his attention onto the speaker. "That's it, Tristan!"

Duke and Tristan broke into a scuffle, which everyone but the passing girls ignored. They called for Tristan to let go of Duke, saying he would hurt him.

Not even glancing at the other two, the girl with her hands on her hips stated, "Don't let him take advantage of you, Yugi! And Joey, be nice!" She smacked him on the arm, then crossed her arms and began walking next to the others.

"Nice to see you, Téa," Yugi said, still having a rather shocked expression with his wide eyes.

Joey did not even glance back down the call, instead, simply shouting, "Guys, we're goin'!"

Duke and Tristan instantly stopped the small fight, content to merely try to shove the other out of the path as they went to their homeroom.

Joey immediately took a seat and turned to glare intently at Kaiba, who ignored him as he read a book with the word Nietzsche in its title.

Completely baffled, Yugi looked from Joey to Kaiba. "Uh, Joey? What are you doing?"

"Ignore him, Yugi, he's acting like a baby." Téa turned her back to the blonde-headed boy as he fell out of his desk.

"A baby? I'm no baby!"

Another member of the gang had just arrived in order to see the last events. He stopped in his tracks and commented, "Oh, dear. What's going on?"

Duke's collection of girls fawning over him started waving and giggling at the new person who had just walked in. His white hair was past his shoulders and fell in chunks, but his accent and brown eyes obviously attracted the girls. He glanced at them uneasily, then to Duke, and quickly slid into a seat near Yugi.

"Ladies! Why don't I show you another trick?" Duke held out some dice, flashing a smile at the girls, who were back to watching him.

"Show-off," Tristan muttered. Louder, he added, "So then Romeo has no reason to be going after Serenity!"

Duke didn't glance at him, but he grinned as he continued with his little trick.

"Hi, Bakura!"

"Hello. Are you all right, Joey?" Bakura helped Joey back into his desk, very worried about his friend's safety.

"Don't worry about him, Bakura," Téa said. "He's fallen and hurt his brain so much you can't tell if it has changed this time."

"WHAT!"

"Gotta admit, Joey-man, that was a good one."

Joey sunk his head into his arms. "I can't believe my best buds are makin' fun of me!"

"I'm not, Joey! I always stick by you, no matter what."

"Danks, Yuge." His head did not come up from his arms.

"So, what happened?" Bakura asked.

No one could answer, for at that moment, the teacher walked in. Immediately, everyone sat up straight and put complete attention to the front of the room. Well, almost everyone. Silence fell over the students.

A ruler smacked down on Kaiba's desk, its smacking noise accented by the sudden quietness. Still, that did not deter the young CEO. He finished reading his page before slowly looked up from his text.

The teacher's face was completely red. "When I walk in this room, I expect complete attention! I'm a teacher, like a god to you!"

Hardly discernable, a small sound escaped Kaiba's lips. "Hmph."

"What was that?"

He did not reply, merely continued glaring at the teacher before him. Reddening even more, the teacher raised the ruler again, his hand shaking with rage.

"This is the last time, Kaiba Seto! Get out of my room now!" The teacher continued huffing in his anger.

"It would be my pleasure." Kaiba gathered his bag, his book, and did not look back.

Silence continued over everyone else who remained on his or her best behavior. Even Joey Wheeler was shocked and not causing trouble. The bell for first period could not come quickly enough. When it finally rang, the gang split into their separate classes, much subdued, though Joey was finally realizing what this meant.

"Guess what? Kaiba's not comin' back!" He gave a little whoop, silence by the hard prod into his ribs. Gasping, he looked up. "What'd you do dat for, Tristan?"

"Man, it's not funny. Do you know what kind of penalties this could have on Kaiba's future life?"

"Like what? He already owns his own corporation. I don't dink you need ta worry about him, Tristan."

"Still," Yugi said quietly.

Only in the short student's sight, a sterner, taller, and wackier-haired version of Yugi floated beside him.

"Kaiba should have learned his lesson by now, Yugi. Maybe, this way, this time, he'll learn it."

"Yeah," he replied miserably. "But I still don't think it should have happened, Yami."

The other being that was within him had no response, or else, he kept it to himself. The latter, however, would be quite a task, as sharing a mind made it difficult to keep secrets from the other.

Meanwhile, the one thought on everyone's mind was thinking of nothing other than what was due at the term for his business. With his new product coming out, an eye-following computer, there was a lot of paperwork that needed to be completed. Out of school, he might have enough time to finish it without staying up all night. And he had been expelled.

After he had left his homeroom, Kaiba debated going to the principal, which is what his teacher had wanted him to do. But, when he truly thought about what would be best, Kaiba went to his locker, packed up all his books, and walked out of the school feeling a lot more freedom.

Even if the school did not know it yet, as soon as they found out he was refusing to go to school again, they would expel him. To Kaiba, nothing better could have happened to him.

At his mansion, booting up his computer, Kaiba quickly sketched over an outline of what he would type up for the description as the computer loaded. At 7:32:16, with school no longer a bother, he completely forgot everyone else.

-

Far away, at the other end of a camera, a figure laughed. "This time, Seto Kaiba, you're finished!"