Welcome to the final chapter of The Kaiba Heir! Thank you to everyone who stuck with this story since the beginning, especially those who reviewed and contributed to the making of this story.

And, again, please let me know of any scenes that you feel should be read aloud at my presentation. I would hugely appreciate any input you could give on this front.

Chapter Eight: Relating to Insanity

Noah, a giant deforming smile upon his thin lips, practically skipped down the staircase, into the foyer.

Today was such a good day.

He squinted as one of the servants came into view. As he'd pushed his father off the roof— Noah chuckled quietly at the thought— the old man had reached out, trying to catch himself on anything that might stop his fall into the abyss. But, all he'd managed to snag was the glasses from Noah's face and leave a few bloody trails across Noah's cheek with his scrabbling fingernails.

But, Noah could get new glasses, and the wounds would heal. The wounds would finally heal…

"Anna!" Noah called out jubilantly. The maid flinched to a stop on her way across the foyer, turning to look at the young master with a look of fear on her face.

Fear? No, it couldn't be fear. Noah just really needed his glasses.

Anna had been one of his loyal servants when he'd been the only son of Gozaburo Kaiba, but Noah remembered watching her become more and more distant once they had arrived. Just one more thing they took away from me.

"Y-yes, Noah?" she asked.

"Where are my dear brothers?" The eviction couldn't wait. Noah had compulsively checked his father's will ever since Seto had come to the house, but Gozaburo had never once changed it in all those years, even after he had come to love Seto. Everything still came to Noah… like Gozaburo's Kaiba Corp. stocks.

A twisted smile began curling Noah's lips. Kaiba Corporation was his.

Anna had taken a step back as the menacing grin had taken residence on Noah's face, but she still answered him.

"A phone call came in last night, before you arrived home. Masters Seto and Mokuba immediately left to see to it, whatever it was."

They vacated on their own? Unlikely.

"Hm. Thank you, Anna. Please call a car around. I'm going to Kaiba Corp."

"Y-yes, sir, right away." Anna left quickly, leaving Noah to gloat in the foyer.

The car arrived and took Noah straight to the building at the center of Domino. A crowd was gathered around the base of the tower and several police cars were parked on the sidewalk, blue and red lights flashing and whirling. Miles of yellow police line seemed to be strung out around a specific area.

I wonder what could have happened, Noah wondered to himself, sparking another freakish giggling fit, causing the driver of the car to look nervously back at him.

"Um, sir?"

"Mm, yes?" Noah asked slimily.

"It doesn't look as if we'll be able to drive up front. Would it be all right if we went around the back?"

"Yes, that sounds all right. Everything is perfectly all right."

"Uh, yes, sir." The driver seemed to take the next corner a little too fast, and when the driver came around to open the door for Noah, he wouldn't even look in his direction and kept shifting his weight between his two feet.

Something's odd with the servants, Noah noted. Perhaps he would replace the entire staff once he officially became lord of the manor.

No, most of the servants had been with the family since before the orphans came along. They were relics of a happier time and should be kept.

Noah walked in through the back entrance of Kaiba Corp. and headed for the lobby. Employees were milling about everywhere, clumping together in to chatter in low tones. The occasional person was crying and being comforted by those around them. Noah had never really thought about it, but it sort of made sense to him that the people at lower levels within the company would make friends, or at the very least like each other's company. Still, it seemed odd to him.

Everyone stopped speaking when Noah came into view. For a few moments, all that could be heard was the occasional sniff and swish of fabric. They all stared at Noah, and Noah stared back, or did his best to without his glasses.

Karen, Seto's little helper, was the one to finally make a move and come up to him, turning away from a blonde woman who'd been sobbing her eyes out a moment ago, but was now looking at Noah with an almost horrified expression. Again, not that Noah could actually tell for sure without his glasses.

"Sir," Karen said, "I've been asked to take you directly upstairs upon arrival." She sounded very brisk, efficient, but also somewhat removed, dead.

She couldn't possibly be mourning Gozaburo, Noah thought suspiciously. She's been on Seto's side from the beginning. She may even been part of Seto's attempted takeover. She probably hated my father.

"Lead the way, Karen. After all, how on earth am I expected to navigate my way through my building all the way up to my office without your help?" Several people around them flinched and stepped backward at the whiny sarcasm in his voice.

Karen just blinked and headed for the elevators, leaving Noah to follow at his leisure, which he eventually did, pausing to give the large a gathering a second look and sneering the whole way.

The elevators opened to show a large man already inside them. He was in a suit, but it was of such pathetic quality that Noah knew the man didn't work for Kaiba Corp. Noah glared as he stepped in, but the man didn't even seem to notice. Karen had moved to stand quite near the man, almost cowering in his shadow, but not away from him, more away from Noah.

Huh.

Karen had already pressed the button for the top floor, but no other levels were lit up. Apparently the stranger was coming with them.

The elevator doors slid open with a chime, but Karen and the man made no moves to leave, merely gesturing for Noah to proceed. Noah regarded her coldly, squinting to bring her face into focus. He was horribly near-sighted.

"Aren't you coming?"

"I wasn't asked to come along, just to deliver you," the young woman carefully responded.

Noah frowned at her. "Right…"

But, he left it at that. Maybe the girl deserved a break. She'd be gone soon enough once Noah officially took control of the company.

A wretched noise bombarded Noah the moment he stepped out of the elevator. A wailing, sobbing sound, worse than that of all the people in the lobby combined. Noah walked a ways down the halls before he found the source of the noise: Cathleen, the secretary. She was in what used to be Noah's office, the one he'd been forced to share with Seto. The older woman was sitting behind Noah's desk, Seto's chair having vanished, crying loudly with a glob of messy, drippy tissues growing in front of her.

Another, not as large, man was standing near her, keeping… guard?

Cathleen looked up and saw Noah in the door. "Oh, Noah!" she screeched, making to get up and come to him. But, the man stopped her with a hand on her shoulder pushing her gently, kindly back into the seat.

"Cathleen? What's going on?" Noah asked, pretending to be ignorant. He'd always been good at that, especially when it came to Cathleen and the tutors he'd had as a child. He didn't see the man with his hand on Cathleen's shoulder narrow his eyes at Noah's words.

"Oh, it's horrible, Noah!" She was caught up in another surge of blubbering. "Your father's—"

"Ma'am," the man quickly interrupted. "Perhaps he shouldn't be told without having it broken to him gently? Let my colleagues handle this."

"Oh, yes. Yes, you're right! Poor Noah!" That started Cathleen up all over again. "And, those other boys, too! This is the second time it's happened to those ones, you know," Cathleen informed the man between gasping hiccups.

Noah's eyes widened a little upon hearing that. He'd always known, but it hadn't really sunk in that Seto's and Mokuba's parents had had to die before they could have become orphans. Now, all three of them were orphans because of Gozaburo's death…

Good. Now those brats were officially what they had been all along: orphans.

Noah had to bite his bottom lip to keep from grinning.

"Mr. Kaiba," the man said, catching his attention. "My colleagues and others are waiting for you in the next office over." He jerked his head toward the wall

"That's my office," Noah heard himself say, smugly, some of the grin leaking out.

"Is it, sir?" There was a suspicious, knowing tone in the man's voice, one that caused a shiver of foreboding to travel up Noah's spin.

"Noah… what are you talking about?" Cathleen looked up, confused and full of dramatized grief.

Noah ignored her and, holding the man's eyes, backed up a little and walked, practically ran, down the hallway to his office.

His full office. Everywhere Noah looked, there was someone looking right back.

"Noah Kaiba?" another random, unknown man asked. "I'm Detective Farley. We have some questions for you, if you don't mind."

The orphan was sitting in what was now Noah's seat. And, his little orphan brother was sitting next to him in Seto's stolen chair from the other office.

Mokuba looked as if he also had spent a lot of time recently crying, but also as if he'd been up all night, unable to, or unwilling, to sleep. He sunk back into his seat as he saw Noah watching him. Seto reached over to grab his hand, not taking his eyes off of Noah, or even blinking. The hand not holding Mokuba's was clenched around the arm of the chair— Noah's chair —and the knuckles were close to breaking through the skin.

"Detective Farley, is this really necessary?" Seto gritted the question out.

The man turned back to look at the young man he'd been speaking to through the night, one of the boys due to take over now that their father was...

"Yes, sir, I'm afraid we have to follow protocol in these matters." Farley was amazed with himself that he was actually calling this virtual kid 'sir.' But, he'd watched the seventeen-year-old and his reactions to this tragedy, and the way he had stepped up to the plate after the initial shock and grief was something that the detective had to respect. All the men in the room already did.

All the Big 5 members stood in a line against the right wall. Pegasus and Demebek were also there; Pegasus even saw fit to take things serious for a moment and had a grim cast to his features. All seven of them stared at the wall directly across from them, except for Crump, with a vicious bruise across his left cheek, who stared down a the carpet as he fidgeted, and Lector, who was glaring daggers at Noah and Seto back and forth in turn.

"Fine," Seto sighed, just wanting things to move forward after the long night.

"Sh-shouldn't we tell him what's happened?" Mokuba spoke up, his voice on the verge of breaking as he spoke.

"Not quite yet," another detective said quickly, allowing Farley to take over before Noah was given too much information.

"Noah, when was the last time you saw your father?" Farley asked.

Noah made his eyes widen considerably, but not too much; he didn't want to break the scabs open across his cheek. Blood was not a good look for the innocent. The guilty, on the other hand…

"Last I saw Father was… yesterday, mid-evening. He was in here with Lector and I asked to have a private word with him." Noah nodded at his father's personal assistant, providing a witness to support his facts. "Has something happened to my father? And, why are there policemen outside my building?"

His building? Seto thought, frowning. Did Farley catch that?

"According to Lector, your father never returned after your chat," Farley continued, ignoring Noah's questions for now. And, yes, he had caught how Noah referred to the building as his. "Could you tell me what you and he talked about?"

Noah looked down and didn't answer for a long time. Finally, he sighed, and looked directly into Seto's eyes. "I hadn't wanted to, but I knew it was necessary to keep the company in the family. My father and I talked about how I had found out that he—" Noah pointed at Seto, sitting in Noah's chair "—was planning on sweeping Kaiba Corp. out from beneath our feet. With the help of several people here, as a matter of fact."

Farley looked back at Seto and around at the men in suits gathered around the periphery of the room, but returned his attention steadily to Noah. "And, where did your father go after that?"

"I don't know. I left him in the elevator and headed home after that. He didn't seem well, no doubt from the shock of his betrayal, but he wanted to be alone, so I let him… Where is he?"

"Was any part of your talk an argument, Noah?" Farley persisted.

"No. Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

"What happened to your hand, Noah?"

That gave Noah pause, and his surprise as he looked down at his hand was absolutely real. He'd bandaged it at least. Again, blood didn't mix well with innocence. But the dressing was poorly done and fairly suspicious looking.

Shit. Blood probably got on his suit when I pushed him.

"I punched a mirror. In the thirteenth floor's bathroom," Noah answered honestly, figuring that they probably already knew about the broken mirror.

"Why?"

"I thought someone was in there with me who shouldn't be."

"Anyone specific in mind?" Farley pressed.

"No," Noah bit out. Keep cool. "What's going on? Where's my father? Is he okay?"

"Noah, perhaps you should take a seat," Farley suggested, indicating one of the chairs set up in front of Gozaburo's desk.

"I'll stand, thank you," Noah answered, brittle in his tone. There was only one chair he wanted and it was occupied.

Farley sighed. "Alright, then." He looked over his shoulder at the other two living Kaibas, wishing that, as the family, they would break the news to their brother. But, it was a hazard of the job…

"Noah, last night, sometime between eight ten and eight thirty, your father fell from the roof of this building and died on impact… I'm very sorry… Noah?"

Don't smile, don't smile, don't smile…

"Oh… God," Noah was finally able to get out. He forced his knees to buckle slightly before catching himself. "W-what happened?"

"Christ," Seto spat behind the desk, in Noah's seat. Just looking at him, you could see he was frustrated, angry, tired, and, perhaps, sad. He was done with Noah's and Farley's pretending. "Can we please just move on?"

"Just a moment more—"

"This is your fault!" Noah suddenly screamed. Again, he was pointing at Seto. "I-if you hadn't," Noah paused to take a shaking gasp, "if you hadn't taken the company away from him, he'd still be alive. It's your fault he jumped!" he accused. "Can't everyone see that?"

The whole room stared at him for a moment. Then, Pegasus snorted. "My, you Kaibas are quite entertaining, aren't you? And, so good at acting!" Pegasus chortled to himself.

"That's enough, sir," Farley reprimanded. He turned back to Noah and, after taking a deep breath, reached into his jacket pocket. "Noah, do you recognize these?"

Inside a clear evidence bag, covered in blood, were Noah's bent and twisted glasses.

Noah swallowed. "They're my glasses."

"Ah. And, can you tell me where those scratches came from on your cheeks?" Farley drifted his fingers across his own cheek as he tracked the scratches across Noah's.

"…U-um." Noah suddenly couldn't think of anything. Up until this moment, Noah hadn't actually considered that everything wouldn't work out perfectly for him. Gozaburo was gone, Seto and Mokuba would be gone, and Noah would get Kaiba Corp. That would be the end of it.

But, no one had even considered the idea that Gozaburo's death might be a suicide. And, now his glasses had been produced, glasses that he had last seen falling through the air, next to his father.

"Noah," Farley called his attention back. "Your glasses were found clasped in your father's hand. There was also blood under your father's fingernails, as well as in a handprint on his lapels. Later, I'm going to have to ask you for a DNA sample, but, for now, could you tell me your exact movements last night, after your brothers went home?"

Noah slowly looked around the room, seeing through the fuzziness of his vision that there wasn't one person who didn't already seem to know the answer. The people in the lobby and the servants at home, they must already know too. Everyone seemed to know what he'd done.

But, he was the president of Kaiba Corp. now. No matter what he'd done, he deserved their respect and adoration.

Noah's gaze finally settled on Seto, sitting in the president of Kaiba Corp.'s chair. What should be Noah's chair.

Seto met Noah eye for eye.

"You've saved me the trouble of figuring out what to do with you and Pops, at least," Seto murmured.

Mokuba looked up at his brother at that comment and the note of hidden sorrow in it. He knew Seto had been completely committed to the idea of removing Gozaburo from his thrown, but he obviously hadn't been plotting the old man's death. He'd been calling him 'Pops' ever since they'd first met back at the orphanage… Maybe he'd actually meant it?

In any case, Mokuba swore there was a slight, barely visible sheen of tears in Seto's eyes. Besides Seto's and Mokuba's own relationship, Gozaburo's and Seto's had been the most developed and real within the Kaiba family. Not necessarily as if Gozaburo had actually come to see him as his son, but still as someone he may have been capable of caring about, even if he had been hard on him.

They'd never know how Gozaburo really felt now.

"It's not proven yet whether your brother actually did anything wrong yet, Mr. Kaiba," Detective Farley addressed at Seto, trying to maintain order, but the way he said it made it clear that it was only a matter of time before it was. "Where were you last night after your brothers went home, Noah?" the detective asked pointedly.

Noah couldn't hear anything. His whole world was made up of the fact that Seto was sitting in his chair.

"Noah? Could you please answer the—"

"Get out of my chair!" Noah screeched, startling everyone. It shocked everyone enough to give Noah a shot at his second murder. He scurried like a rabid rat around the detective and took a running jump onto the desk, hands scrabbling like claws for Seto's neck.

Mokuba screamed, falling to the ground as Seto pushed hard on his chair to get him out of the way. Not that Mokuba was, or had ever been, Noah's target.

Other shouts erupted as Noah clambered over the desk, trying to get purchase as Seto kept leaning and throwing his head back, trying just as hard to keep out of Noah's reach. Eventually Seto toppled over in the damnable chair and Noah fell to the ground just behind the desk. Seto continued backing away, towards the right so that he wouldn't be pinned against the wall of glass behind him, but he didn't have to worry at this point.

Noah had a new destination now, and Mokuba was the first one to see it as Noah scrambled to his feet.

"No, Noah!" he shouted, grabbing and wrapping himself around one of Noah's legs, trying to stop him from going to the window and throwing himself out.

Noah kicked his leg free of Mokuba's stubborn grip and swung it forward to smash the window pane. The force of it shattered the whole thing. Causing glass to fall down in a curtain to, eventually, land within the vicinity of the bloody splatter that had once been Gozaburo Kaiba. Noah stepped up to the hole left in the window. No matter what, he was determined to follow in his father's footsteps…

But, as he was about to step out into nothingness someone viciously grabbed him by the back of his jackets and threw him on the ground, coming to fall on top of him, having overbalanced.

Seto! He just had to keep on ruining Noah's plans, didn't he?

Noah's fist connected with Seto mouth when the brunette wasn't expecting it, causing him to spit a gob of blood onto Noah's shirt. But, finally, Seto got him pinned underneath him, unable to hurt anyone, including himself, anymore. But, still Noah struggled.

"Kaiba Corp. was never going to be yours, Noah. Not ever," Seto hissed at him, wanting to make sure he understood what had really happened, blood still dripping from the cut in his mouth. At least it stopped Noah from trying to buck him off.

"You were too late Noah. Gozaburo was killed around eight twenty. You probably know the exact time. But, I bought the company at seven forty-six. Kaiba Corporation is mine, Noah. You killed Pops for nothing." Seto gave him a harsh shake before repeating, "Nothing."

The teal-haired seventeen-year-old took a shuddering gasp as he looked into his adoptive brother's eyes, seeing the truth…

And, Noah broke down in wet, giggling sobs.

Six months later:

Kaiba Corp. sales were better than ever recorded in the history of the company.

"Congratulations, Mr. Kaiba," Lector drawled unhappily, having placed the reports concerning KC's rising revenues in front of Seto himself just a few minutes ago.

"Thank you, Lector," Seto replied civilly.

Noah may have been the one to actually push Gozaburo, but Lector blamed both of the previous Mr. Kaiba's ungrateful sons for all that had happened. The man had actually been loyal to Pops, which had both surprised and secretly delighted Seto, and had made him decide to keep the slightly hostile personal assistant around. It wasn't working out as well as Seto had hoped; Lector's loyalty to Gozaburo had not switched over to Seto just as everything else that had once belonged to the old man had. So, at this point, Lector's job mostly consisted of finding Seto a new assistant, which suited everyone just fine.

"If you don't mind," Lector started stiffly, "I have an appointment with a prospective assistant that I would like to prepare for."

"Of course, Lector. Have fun," Seto sarcastically wished, giving Lector a challenging look, getting a twitching glare back.

The sooner Lector was gone the better, Seto thought as he watched Lector stalk out. The same with the rest of the Big 5.

Crump had already disappeared once he'd proven he'd had nothing to do with Gozaburo's murder. He was probably down in Antarctica, living as one with the penguin colonies there.

The current Big 3 would be gotten rid of as soon as possible. For now, let them think that they were safe and had Seto's gratitude keeping them in their positions. But, once they were all paid back and could no longer hold that Seto was in debt to them, they'd be gone. They'd betrayed a Kaiba once, and they could do it again.

Pegasus and Demebek would be the only ones left of Seto's original scheme in the end. Pegasus would slowly be paid with the gaming technology Kaiba Corp. now produced. Demebek would be harder to get rid of as Kaiba Corp. continued buying from him. But, eventually Seto would be able to say he wasn't indebted to anyone. Well, maybe someone.

Karen buzzed through the intercom into Seto's office about an hour later. He'd gotten rid of Cathleen, gently of course, after the horrors of having her boss pushed of a roof and his son, whom she'd been fond of, being the pusher. But, she'd still had to go. Everything that was part of the old Kaiba Corporation was slowly but surely being phased out, while the new era of Kaiba Corporation made the name its own.

"Mr. Kaiba—" and while Seto made the 'Kaiba' name his own "—Mokuba's here," Karen informed.

Seto didn't bother responding since Mokuba was already traipsing through the door.

"You're here early," Seto commented, smiling at his younger brother. School must have gotten out only ten minutes ago, and usually Mokuba stayed behind a little while, talking to teachers and other students. He was becoming quite the social butterfly.

"Yeah, I'm meeting someone later, so I couldn't stay," Mokuba answered, smiling even more widely back at his older brother as he sat down across from him.

"You're in the paper you know?" Seto commented.

Mokuba's eyes widened considerably. "Huh?"

"Well, your boots are, anyway," Seto continued cryptically. Looking up from beneath his bangs, Seto threw a section of the 'Daily Domino' at the even further confused Mokuba.

Mokuba caught it and looked to try to uncover whatever Seto could have meant. "Sister Mary Therese!" Mokuba exclaimed, immediately recognizing the nun. What was she holding? Was that…?

"Nothing ever went to waste at that place," Seto commented, watching Mokuba's amazed expression with a slight grin on his face. "Even the cats get put to work."

It had probably been a slow news day to bring out such a story, or maybe it was one of those feel-good deals that the media would bring in every now and then to make sure the population didn't become depressed and off themselves. But, in either case, the picture of Sister Mary Therese holding Boots didn't change, though, rather than just 'Boots,' the cat's name was captioned as being 'Mokie's Boots.' Supposedly, he was being used at the orphanage to rehabilitate the children who'd had painful pasts.

Mokuba gave an amazed chuckle that morphed into a full-blown laugh. "Didn't exactly help us, did he?"

Seto shrugged. "We were able to help ourselves."

"Yeah…" Mokuba smiled again. "Boots got big." The cat was over-flowing the boundaries of the Sister Mary Therese's arms.

Seto snorted, remembering the kitten only vaguely.

"Hey, you think I could get a cat now that—?"

"No," Seto said firmly. "No cats, no dogs, no pets of any kind that have teeth, grow fur, smell bad, make noise, or have been featured in a horror movie."

Mokuba pouted. That didn't leave much left.

Karen buzzed through the intercom again.

"Mr. Kaiba, Lector says that he would like to bring the man he was interviewing up for you to meet personally."

"Alright, Karen. Tell him to come up," Seto told her, giving Mokuba a slightly apologetic look.

Mokuba was already getting out of his seat. "It's cool. I have to get going anyway."

"Thanks, Mokie," Seto said, meaning it.

"Are you going to see Rebecca?" Seto asked, as his little brother reached the door.

"…No, I'm not," Mokuba admitted, slowly turning to look over his shoulder with a caught, semi-guilty look on his face.

Seto's face contorted and shifted between concerned, disgusted, and understanding before finally settling on reluctant, slightly frightened acceptance.

"You're going to see him, then?"

"Yeah. I just… feel bad, you know?"

Maybe Seto didn't know, but he wouldn't stop Mokuba, though he may wish he could.

"Just be careful. Very careful."

"Trust me, I will be."

The Maryhille Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane was the sign that hung above the doorway that Seto's little brother was just now entering.

Mokuba walked down the sterile white hallway of the facility, a familiar creeping feeling of… creepiness racing up his spine as he walked up to the reception desk.

A woman in her thirties, dressed in pastel nursing scrubs sat there and looked up tiredly as he approached. There was a single door beyond her that, from the outside, looked like it wasn't any more than a bland, white metal door that you just happened to have a security card to get past. But, Mokuba knew, from being on the other side of it so many times, that it was extensively reinforced with more locks than Mokuba had seen on any door, of both the electronic and manual sort.

"Ah. Mokuba," the weary receptionist greeted, making her best attempt at a smile. "I was wondering when you'd show up here again to abuse the system."

Mokuba chuckled uncomfortably. "Yeah…"

"Just take a seat and I'll let Dr. Jenni and one of our boys know you're here," the woman waved him off, turning to her phone.

Mokuba sat down in one of the benches along the walls and fell prey to the thoughts and memories that the receptionist's comment about abusing the system brought up.

It wasn't really abuse… it had just been skillful lawyering on Johnson's part… and a series of bribes from the existing, sane members of the Kaiba family.

What the receptionist had meant was that the Maryhille Psychiatric Institute was a medium secure unit, not a high secure one, and the only reasons Noah wasn't in a higher one was for the reasons above. One of the arguments that had been used during Noah's sentencing (there was no way that Noah hadn't killed Gozaburo, so they hadn't even attempted a plea of 'not guilty') was that his murder of his father and attempted murder of his brother were both personal issues that did not indicate a general urge to kill. Still, some of the staff didn't have quite the same faith that Noah wouldn't someday come after them, too…

Mokuba winced. He couldn't believe that in some ways this wasn't directly Noah's fault, but he did feel that Noah had been pushed over the edge by a variety of outside forces. And, he felt guilty because he knew that two of those reasons had been himself and Seto. He had a feeling that Seto knew that too, but that wasn't the reason why Seto had been in support of a medium secure institution.

There had been no way to hide the events at Kaiba Corporation from the public, and the press had had more than a field day; they'd been absolutely beside themselves with happiness and viewership.

Everyone knew that Gozaburo had been pushed off his own building by his own son, and that that same son had tried to kill his adoptive brother just the next day before attempting suicide. It had been, well, insane for a while. To lighten the damage done to the company and the Kaiba name, Seto had done his best for Noah, having Johnson represent him, making sure that the courts understood that Noah wasn't mentally stable (not that it wasn't obvious), and convincing the judge that Noah wasn't a threat to anyone but himself any longer.

A door near the entrance to the institute opened and a large man in white scrubs came out. He nodded to Mokuba, who smiled uncertainly back, before leaning against the wall opposite. Dr. Jenni arrived not too long after.

"Hello, Mokuba," the Doctor welcomed, giving him one of her more genuine smiles. He was one of the few people who visited their relative residing inside Maryville on a regular basis, and he was definitely the sweetest.

"Hi, Dr. Jenni," Mokuba replied, also smiling, though it was several shades dimmer than his normal ones.

"Let's be off," she said, turning and leading the way. The man in white pushed away from the wall and followed.

Dr. Jenni opened the door behind the reception desk and led Mokuba and the man through the twisting, twining corridors of the institute.

"So, how is he?" Mokuba finally asked. He had been here so many times now that the guard trailing them didn't hamper his ability to talk only to Jenny while ignoring their shadow. It paid off later on as well.

Dr. Jenni gave a gentle, sympathetic smile. "He saw his scars yesterday and we had to sedate him to calm him down. But, other than that, he seems to be doing all right. He's still calling the nurses by the names of your housekeeping staff at home. I'm 'Anna' according to him. We'd just as well keep letting Noah think that this is still the Kaiba estate rather than force the truth on him. It could send him into another breakdown."

Mokuba shuddered at the thought.

They reached Noah's… room? Cell? Mokuba never really knew what to call it. Whatever it was, everything inside it was white and either padded or plastic, and sometimes both. Even the window that Noah was sitting in front of wasn't made of glass, but hard clear synthetic material that allowed you to see out across the lawns of the institute, but couldn't be shattered like the, say, windows at Kaiba Corp.

Mokuba could easily see all of this through another small window sat into the door.

Dr. Jenni stopped him before they entered the room. "Besides the sedation, we decided to, for his own safety, put him in a straightjacket. So, don't be alarmed when you see it," the doctor warned him.

Mokuba's eyes widened. He didn't know they used straightjackets anymore. But, he nodded, and Dr. Jenni opened the door.

"Noah, you have a visitor," Dr. Jenni informed her patient.

Noah didn't say anything. He just continued staring out the window.

"Hi, Noah," Mokuba greeted, knowing he sounded way too cheerful, not to mention false, for everything to just be normal.

Noah, again, said nothing. Just stared.

"I'll come by in a little while to see you out. We don't want him getting overworked, so keep it a short visit and don't mention anything too… controversial." Dr. Jenni left then, but the man in the white scrubs stayed behind, setting himself up as a sort of nonthreatening guard in the corner. Just in case.

"So," Mokuba started, taking the only other chair in the room close to Noah, though not too close. "Everything's going well… um, I really like my school. The girl I told you about last time, Rebecca? She's got this huge crush on this guy a year or so older than us. His name is Yugi Moto and his grampa owns a game shop. But, anyway, he's all Rebecca will talk about now, and…"

Mokuba kept talking about inanities, like how he'd decided to take a gourmet class next year in case he should ever move anywhere on his own, and how he was thinking of maybe getting a goldfish or something else that couldn't get into much trouble and met all of Seto's criteria in a pet. Noah sat and didn't seem to listen, the same dull, half-lidded look in his familiar cobalt eyes. His glasses had never been returned to him, and no one had ever thought to get him a new pair. He didn't really need them anymore.

It was about half an hour later when Mokuba came to a pause in his inconsequential chatter.

"Mokuba," Dr. Jenni said from the door. "I think that's been enough for now, yes?"

"Yeah… bye, Noah. I'll see you next week, okay?" Mokuba slowly got up from the chair, pausing to see if he got any reaction out of Noah. But, there was none. There never was, even when he wasn't sedated.

Mokuba left, following Dr. Jenni, and the man in white following them both.

Noah was left alone in his room, seeming as if he had no recollection of who had come to see him, or that he'd been visited at all.

But, then he started mumbling lowly to himself.

"Mokuba… orphan, orphan, orphan… Ssseto! ...Father… Father… Father? …Roof… splat, splat, splat… Father?" It continued growing louder and louder until a passing member of the staff heard his ranting and ran off to find Dr. Jenni.

"Father, Seto, Father, Seto, Father, Seto, Father loving Seto. Love, love, love! Do you love me now, Father? Do you?"

The End

Just to be politically correct, the term "criminally insane" is no longer a recognized legal or medical term, but I believed that it helped create the correct atmosphere for the story.

Alas, there is no next chapter of The Kaiba Heir, but I would like to thank everyone who has made it thus far, especially those of you who have been with it from the beginning. I hope you liked the resolution of The Kaiba Heir, and, again, thank you for reading and for helping me with my Senior Culminating Project!