Kaiba's vision is slowly clearing up again. The others can now look again too. There is no longer a hall around them, not even a building. All four of them are standing on a large meadow. Your next look is at Noah. The young man is kneeling on the floor and is breathing heavily. His face is sweaty but he's back to normal. Now he throws Kaiba a frightened sideways glance, but then he drops his eyes.
"What was that just now, Noah?" Yami asks now. Slowly and with trembling movements, Noah gets to his feet again. “I'm sorry, Yugi!” He says, “When I said that my program was damaged by the curse, it wasn't exactly the truth.
"Seto, you surely remember your last duel with our father. You saw what became of him. After you escaped, Mokuba asked me to come with you. How I would have liked to have followed his offer, through You Yugi and your friends I finally found out what friendship is.
"But I still had something to do. I knew that Father would try to escape before the system blew up. And he probably would have succeeded, but I had to prevent that at all costs. He was a tyrant and not once his sons were safe from his cruelty. I was not allowed to let him escape!
"So I decided to merge my program with his to keep him in cyberspace. And as much as it disgusted me to come into contact with his sick mind, I took the risk. I wanted to do something right at least once. Something mine outweighed bad deeds a little and gave me the chance to have some respect for myself again.
"But when, at the last moment before the explosion, I transferred my program to the airship's computer, the explosion caused a disruption in the transfer. As a result, my program became irredeemably merged with his." A tear comes to Noah's eyes. "Basically, his program is no longer complete, he's just a shadow of himself. All that's left of him is a pile of garbage files.
"But these countless splinters and fragments of his personality have now merged with my program. I hear his hateful voice in my head non-stop and these sick feelings that were in him are now part of me too.
"There was one thing I didn't lie to, Yugi. I just can't stand this state any longer! This other personality in me is driving me crazy. I have to concentrate insanely so that it doesn't get the upper hand over me. It is." like a split personality only a thousand times worse!
"That's why I tried to ask for your help, Seto. If it were possible to copy my program into an artificial body, the garbage files could possibly be filtered out.That way I would get rid of him once and for all and would not have to endure his hatred, his contempt and his madness all the time. "Noah turns away with a painful look. You can tell how much he suffers.
"That's typical for you again!", Kaiba remarks unmoved, "Once again you expect everything to come to you. If there is a problem you just look for someone else to solve it for you. But my answer is still No! I'm not interested in helping you with anything. "
"Kaiba!", Yells Yami indignantly, "How can you be so heartless? He sacrificed himself so that we would be safe. You could at least show him your gratitude." "Nobody asked him to mess with Gozaburo", he turns back to Noah, "If it didn't work out as you thought, then it's your own fault. So try to come to terms with it yourself!"
"But he's your brother and you hated your stepfather too," Yami tries again, "Then why don't you want to help him." "Because it's none of my business. He screwed it up all by himself. Because of him, we are got into this position in the first place. So what do I owe him? And the mere fact that he is my brother doesn't mean anything. Brotherhood obliges nothing at all. It is completely meaningless! "
Suddenly a bright voice comes from behind him, “Is that what the same Seto says, who jumps into a raging river and tries to save his little brother at the risk of his life? Or do you want to tell me that Mokuba has meanwhile also become meaningless has become for you? "
Kaiba drives around. The appearance of the fire princess has disappeared. In front of him is a young woman with brown hair. She wears wide jeans and a cropped, green tank top. Her green eyes flash vigorously at him and return his gaze. For a long moment Kaiba couldn't utter a word. Yami looks at him in amazement. Kaiba seems to have lost her conception at the sight of this woman. Its facade of superiority has been wiped away and has given way to a mine of trepidation. His face is pale and apparently it takes a tremendous effort to accept what he is seeing.
No it is! Kaiba is more troubled on the inside than it looks on the outside. He hadn't seen this young woman in years and had a slightly different memory of her, but he recognized her straight away. Here he sees the young girl from back then in the woman in front of him, and at the same moment all the emotions and memories from then rise up in him again. Never again! He never wanted to think about it again! He had sworn it to himself and now this ominous phantom suddenly appears again in front of him. Why? Why does he have to meet her again now and here?
"Yuki!" He finally says quietly.The young woman nods crookedly. "How nice that you finally recognized me. You may be a really smart head, but in some things you are just shockingly dense." Kaiba takes a deep breath, then tightens again. "You are right, I should have realized earlier that you were involved, Yuki Atsumi! Such sneaky, little mean things are exactly your style after all. I guess you are responsible for the little scenes from my past. "
Atsumi crosses his arms. "That's typical for you again, Seto!", She says seriously, "Of course you will get straight to the point. Isn't our reunion worth a friendly greeting after all these years?" "You really expect a friendly greeting from me? ", sparkles Kaiba," After all that has happened? Keep dreaming! I'm not so young anymore that I couldn't see through you. "
"See through?" She asks seriously, "There is nothing to look through. You know as well as I do that everything you've seen here so far has never happened!" Kaiba looks she contemptuously: "Don't even try! I've been served enough lies and fairy tales today. This clumsy attempt to convince me something is a pure joke! Just because I see no reason to remember my past doesn't mean that I couldn't do it! And I know one hundred percent that it happened that way! "
"If you're so sure, then the question still remains, why do you claim brotherhood is meaningless?" Atsumi replies. But Kaiba does not respond. "What do you have to do with this digital whimper," he wants to know. “It's very simple,” she explains, “He asked me for help and when I found out what you had to do with the matter, I was happy to help him.
"In return, he helped our program a little. Actually, he's not a bad guy and amazingly talented. It would really be a shame to lose him!" Kaiba snorted contemptuously. "And you're accusing me of being heartless. Well, if that's not a calculating thought! And of all people you want to give me a lecture about compassion and brotherhood? Don't laugh!
"You really haven't changed a bit. It really amazes me that someone like you has been entrusted to head the research department. But you probably just hacked this post too, regardless of anyone. But you still have always get what you wanted, right? Tell me, how long have you been working for Gigatech? "
Atsumi stretches, then takes a step towards him. "Work for them?", She says, amused, "I'm having fun! This ismycompany! I am their president." This news surprises Kaiba."You own the company?" He asks, astonished.
"That's right!", She confirms, "I had to work hard for it too. Building this small business took me days of drudgery and nights without sleep, but it was worth the effort. Believe me, it was no picnic for me either. but I did it, all by myself! So basically the two of us are not that dissimilar. "
"I'm not a bit like you!", Kaiba exclaims, "Don't you come up with the idea of ​​comparing yourself to me!" "You are right!", Atsumi admits seriously, "In reality you are much worse!"
She builds up angrily in front of Kaiba. "My father was a good businessman. He worked hard to build his company. He sacrificed almost all of his time to it. He was constantly on the move. That meant he rarely had time for me, but he was successful and so made possible." it is our job to maintain a prosperous lifestyle. We had a beautiful villa and we lacked for nothing else. But you already know that, "she adds with a disdainful sidelong glance," after all, you have been with us often enough ; almost every day if you remember.
"Your family was not particularly rich, your parents both had to work to keep your family afloat, so they were always on the move. But you could come to us at any time, it was almost ...", she pauses for a moment, " like you belong to the family.
"But then later, when Gozaburo Kaiba adopted you after your parents died and you had to prove yourself to him, you deliberately abused my father's company for your purposes and purposely drove him into bankruptcy. You destroyed everything that meant something to him. Everything that he built so painstakingly over the years, you destroyed through your little stroke of genius and that ultimately destroyed him!
"To save his company he had to go into debt and he sacrificed all his savings for it, all his belongings he gave to keep his employees doing their jobs, but that drove himself into ruin. In the end he had to he did sell to save the company, but there was nothing left for him. He never got over that and so I lost my father too. You ruined my family and the worst thing is, you are not even sorry! " Atsumi hastily wipes a little moisture from the corner of his eye and then puts on a controlled mine again, but you can see how agitated she is.
Kaiba looks at her in silence. "Now I understand what this is all about," he says calmly, "This