Today was like any other day of any other month. A normal day for Seto Kaiba, anyway. Wake up, go to school, tease the mutt, go to work, and, of course, save Mokuba from a kidnapping. But this kidnapping was different from any other.

Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. Let's start at dawn, the beginning of our dear friend Kaiba's day. It will be only the start of his weeks of turmoil…

Kaiba woke up at dawn, as usual. Combine that with last night's late hours, he got about five hours of sleep. That was good. That was more than he usually slept.

He swung his legs over the side of his bed, stood up, and stretched. He usually didn't remember his dreams, but the one last night had been… weird. It was so very confusing. All spinning swirls and flickering images… he couldn't make sense of it.

He quickly got moving to stimulate his brain and wake up more. He threw on his school uniform and brushed his tidy brown hair. Before he left his room, he glanced in the mirror above his bureau. His sharp blue eyes glared back at him. And… dear god… was he that pale? He hadn't seen the sun much this past week or so, substituting it with computer screens. Mokuba wouldn't be happy about that.

Speaking of his little brother, the little devil was probably sleeping. Kaiba figured he should wake him up, seeing as it took a hideously long time for the boy to get up. The tall brunet exited his room, strode down the hall, and open Mokuba's door. He reached in and turned on the light, much to the black-haired kid's dismay. Mokuba groaned at his brother.

"Ugh, Seto, do you have to get me up this early?"

"Yes, I do," Kaiba replied. His tone was not cold, as it usually is. It never was when he talked to his one family member. "If you got up fast enough, I might let you sleep in. But…"

"Yeah, yeah," Mokuba moaned, sitting up and throwing a pillow at Kaiba. It missed. "I get it, I get it. I'm up…"

Kaiba smiled, but to the outside eye, it looked like a smirk. Only Mokuba knew the difference, and that was all that mattered. He backed out of the room, closing the door, before going down the stairs into the kitchen.

He poured himself some coffee and stood staring out the window over the sink, leaning casually against the countertop. He watched the sun stain the sky a mixture of pink and pale orange. Slowly, the sun rose, changing the atmosphere to blue.

The digital clock on the microwave switched to 7:20 PM. As if on cue, Mokuba raced into the kitchen, backpack slung over one shoulder, to grab a granola bar. And then he rushed outside before realizing his brother hadn't followed him.

"C'mon, Seto!" Mokuba called. Kaiba rolled his eyes, but he smiled, too. You'd think that after years of doing this, Mokuba would have learned. But he did it almost every morning. Nevertheless, Kaiba dutifully followed his little brother to the waiting limousine. His chauffeur drove first to the middle school to drop off Mokuba before heading to Domino High.

As he walked from the automobile, down the sidewalk to the school's front door, a chill washed over him. He immediately stiffened and swept his icy gaze around. He swore his heart stopped when he saw a man in a dark gray fedora and overcoat standing on the other side of the gate. He couldn't really see the man's face, and his hands were in his pockets. Kaiba was immediately suspicious of this man. But school was about to start, so he couldn't do anything about it. The young CEO was forced to face forward once more and head inside the building.

Kaiba took a seat next to a window, so that he could look out of it. The man was gone. He raised an eyebrow at the glass before turning to face the blackboard. It wasn't until the passing period after his first class did he notice Jounouchi Katsuya was absent today. Yugi and his friends were missing their dumb blond.

"Where's the mutt?" he asked crudely in the moments where the classroom was teacherless.

"Jounouchi is sick today," Yugi replied patiently, stressing his friend's name. Anzu and Honda glared at the brunet, but the short kid never glared at anybody. Unless, of course, they were trying to destroy the world. His gaudy pyramid necklace still dangled from its chain around his neck. When would he get rid of that damn thing? "He has a really bad cold."

"That's too bad," Kaiba sneered.

"Maybe it's good," Anzu retorted snidely. "He won't have to listen to you."

"He won't have to listen to you either. Maybe he faked it to get away from you."

Anzu gave him a long, azure glare, but she couldn't say anything because the second period teacher had just walked in.

"Now class," the teacher said, "today we start the Shakespeare unit in English. We will start by reading Twelfth Night." He passed out a bunch of tattered, thin green books. "Now, with an overview…" and he turned to the blackboard, chalk in hand, and wrote down the character's names.

Kaiba's attention once more was focused on outside. He had already read Twelfth Night. In fact, he's read most of Shakespeare. This was going to be easy.

Nothing was outside the window. Except for one big, fat, black crow in a big, bare, black tree, stripped clean of its leaves with the late fall wind. What was that old wives tale about crows… Kaiba racked his brain. He had looked at a small poem once. How did it go…

Ah yes.

One crow means sorrow,
Two crows mean joy.
Three crows mean a letter,
Four crows, a boy.
Five crows mean silver,
Six crows mean gold.
Seven crows mean a secret,
That's never been told.

He wondered idly what sorrow would befall this crow's vicinity. Of course, he didn't really believe the saying. But like most old wives' tales, this poem had roots in truth. He had no way of knowing what he would experience today.

Kaiba walked to the middle school to pick up his brother. It was chilly outside, though that was to be expected, seeing as winter was almost upon them. But he didn't want to trust the limousine to pick up Mokuba, because if he did, he would go straight to work and not see him. And besides that, he wanted to. So he walked.

There was a throbbing behind his eyes. It was the beginning of a migraine, he could tell. It had started as a dull ache at the base of his skull sometime during lunch. It was growing exponentially. He couldn't wait to pop some ibuprofen when he got the chance.

It was hard to see Mokuba amongst the throng of little kids. So he waited for Mokuba to find him. When his little brother discovered him at the front gate, he was immediately glomped. Once he had detached himself from the boy's arms, they started off towards home. Mokuba swung blissfully on Kaiba's arm as he told his big brother about his day.

"We had an assembly today, Seto."

"Did you? What was it about."

"Safety and stuff. Same old, same old. They were all, 'wash your hands or you'll get sick!' and stuff, 'cause it's cold and flu season, you know?"

The conversation continued much like this. Mokuba did most of the talking, whilst Kaiba responded with the appropriate words to keep the boy chattering happily. Meanwhile, Kaiba's headache just got worse. It was edging on a blinding pain. He tried to ignore it, attempting to cover any hints of pain from his brother.

When they rounded a corner, multiple things happened at once. Kaiba couldn't stand his headache anymore. He brought both hands up and pressed the base of his palms against his temples. Mokuba looked up at him and asked in a worried voice, "Seto?" A car screeched as it rounded the same corner, headed in the opposite direction. A dog started barking hysterically. And a thug jumped them.

The thug's true intentions are never known. It is unclear whether he wanted to get their money, be a distraction for a bigger plan, kidnap Mokuba, or something else. He is a stereotypical thug, with a bulky stature and a bald head with a gruff, short beard. A tattoo snaked down his left arm from under his short sleeved shirt. Nothing is known of the tattoo, save it was pure black. He had dark, darting eyes and, of course, a nice shiny pistol.

Kaiba was not in the mood for this common hooligan. As civilians around them backed off, scared and dialing the police, the CEO took action. He would not let this petty (read: ugly) person touch him or his little brother. He pushed Mokuba to safety behind him before swinging a leg around to kick the gun out of the thug's hand. The man roared in anger and stormed at him. Kaiba pushed off the ground and brought a hand back. He slammed his palm into the ruffian's face, swiftly overpowering him and shoving him to the sidewalk.

It's around this time that a funny thing happened. Kaiba could literally feel his headache drain away as his hand covered the man's eyes. It slipped from his head, down his arm, and out his palm. He pulled away and stood up, clapping his hands together as if to get chalk or dust off of it. A police cruiser pulled up, lights flashing and siren wailing.

Here's the funny thing. Just as the two cops got out of their car and approached the man, he opened his eyes and screamed. It was as high and as loud as he could muster. You know. Like, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" That kind of scream.

Everyone slowly backed away, if they already hadn't. Words started slipping past the thug's lips. "ARG! NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! GET– GET AWAY!! GET THEM AWAY!!!!!!!!!!! THERE'S… THERE'S MONSTERS EVERYWHERE! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! IT'S SO DARK! GET ME OUT!!!!!!!! THEY'RE GONNA EAT MEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Kaiba froze, his blood chilling and slowing to a crawl. His blue eyes widened in horror as Mokuba clung onto his arm. Pedestrians watched in shock. This man, he was… hallucinating? Kaiba thought it sounded like he was in the Shadow Realm. Even if he didn't believe that magic stuff. One of the cops nervously nudged the man with a foot. But the thug's eyes proved that he was gone. The pupils were dilated.

The cops got brave again and hoisted the thug up by the arms and brought him to the cruiser. Before they left, one of them said to Kaiba, "You go home now, sir."

Kaiba complied. Perhaps eagerly, but if so, he hid that emotion. He started his pace up quickly, and he and Mokuba walked back home in silence.

The newspaper tomorrow said that the thug died during the night. His heart had simply stopped. He had quite literally, died of fright.

This was only the beginning of the story for our dear friend Kaiba. Let us hope he fares better than that thug.

I'd like to give thanks to Windona. Without her, this story would be no good.

I know, it's starting off a little slow. But I'm stretching it for all it's worth. It shouldn't be bad. But tell me what you think. Please review! Cheers.