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"Right," Seto murmured, primarily to himself. He liked this plan thus far. Research was practical and natural, the exact kind of thing Seto wanted to throw himself into right now. Setting down his teacup he thanked Yuugi for the meeting and announced that he needed to get back to his brother and Jounouchi. "I'll contact you further when we are prepared to begin researching, although if you do think of anything else in the interim don't hesitate to contact me," Seto said, directing himself out of the shop without a formal goodbye. Formalities are for people who need things and for the moment Seto had what he needed. Pulling out his mobile as he headed back to his helicopter he dialed his brother. He didn't expect the kid to trust him and wait patiently for too long, particularly if he had shared his exploits with Jounouchi.

- - -

Shizuka sat patiently watching Mokuba and Jounouchi argue the pros and cons of contacting Yuugi and having him keep them updated on his brother. Their discussion finally hit a halt when Mokuba's phone began to ring. Shizuka however was the only one in the room not surprised at the revelation that it was Kaiba calling.

"Mokuba, I'm fine, I'm on my way back to the hospital now," Seto answered, pausing his stride for a moment in order to focus on the call.

"Things are fine, I'll tell you more when I get back," Seto half-lied, not willing to have Mokuba any more involved in this than necessary. He ended the call without further pleasantry, and proceeded to rush back toward the helicopter.

Seto spun around startled, not used to someone being able to follow him without his notice. "Oh," Seto uttered, "yea fine, come along then." Without another word he hurried toward the helicopter, assuming Yuugi was following behind him.

- - -

"Are you okay Mokuba?" Shizuka asked kindly once he lowered his phone, noticing his visible distress, "is your brother okay?"

Shizuka smiled kindly at Mokuba's concern. "I'm fine thank you, I'm going to try and stay calm and wait and see how mother's progress goes before falling apart again," she replied with a pleasant smile.

The helicopter ride passed silently, and thankfully without incident, neither party attempting to make small talk with one another. No words were exchanged when they landed, Yuugi merely followed him into the hospital and toward the waiting room where Seto felt fairly confident the Jounouchi siblings and his brother would still be waiting. As long as there had been no sudden worsening of Jounouchi's mother's condition of course, as annoyed as everyone probably was with him he figured such a turn of events would have at least merited a heads up call from his brother.

The pair walked into the waiting room to find 3 surprised faces staring back at them, Seto realized they probably hadn't expected him to have Yuugi in tow.

((Been re-watching all of TAS lately, I was watching the most recent episode and my boyfriend was amused and while he hasn't watched much YGO he decided he wanted to watch the whole abridged series. Given thus it was with great difficulty I did not sit here and write out a helicopter flashback scene (pretty much if I had more free time that would definitely have happened). xd ))

Seto rolled his eyes but allowed his brother to drag him off to find a physician.

- - -

Shizuka lowered her eyes in acknowledgment of the sad situation and thanked Yuugi for his concern. "So Yuugi, what exactly has been going on? I think Mokuba and myself have been left a bit in the dark on several things here, which considering this probably involves us too seems quite unfair," Shizuka asked, hoping to gather more honest information from Yuugi than she had been given thus far.

((Yea, I didn't remember until I started watching again that the Noa abridged Arc isn't really even trying to abridge those episodes but making up an alternate 4Kids plotline. I don't know if it would have been better if he'd just taking the Arc more as what it was, kept things a bit more canon, however I am definitely enjoying the more recent post-Noa abridgements as well.))

Shizuka wasn't caught by complete surprise by Yuugi's revelations, she nonetheless felt overwhelmed by the gravity of the situation. After taking a minute to let everything sink in, wondering briefly if there might be more that her brother and Kaiba knew but hadn't shared, she asked, "so what do we do now?"

((Battle City is probably my favorite Arc, though originally I loved Duelist Kingdom most, and the whole of the Finals definitely encompasses my favorite parts of the series as well.))