Kaiba came to the afterlife to settle things with a duel.
What he had not accounted for was that the king standing in the throne room would return a value his own head could only classify as undefined. He gives himself exactly one line of unease before converting the whole problem into strategy: this one falls — not him, Atem.
Three visits, a stated success rate of one hundred percent, and a rationality that has already surrendered.
This is a translation of an original work on Pixiv.
Original Title: 理性の融点
Original Author: 葉人(@Hathor_yuki)
Personal site: https://prideshipping.sakura.ne.jp
Sound, the passage of time — everything felt as though it lay under a thin membrane.
Seto advanced one step at a time.
Gravity, the air: he had the illusion that both differed from the living world. But his gaze did not waver.
There was one purpose only. To settle things with Atem. That was all.
The voice of the man standing in the throne room carried a quiet authority.
He was not the Yugi of memory. The man standing there resembled Yugi's old form and was nothing like him at all.
At that profile, lit from the side, Seto's field of vision wavered for a single instant.
Perfect proportions. A harmony beyond the golden ratio.
Atem, standing as King of the Underworld, was as beautiful as a statue, and divine to the point of danger.
The crimson eyes ran deep, the skin was smooth as though it drank the light, and the gold ornaments and the royal garments sat on him like something out of myth.
The system inside Seto's head began its analysis without being asked.
The color temperature of the skin, the reflectance of the eyes, the tone of the voice — all of it converging on "ideal ratio."
But the result was undefined.
An anomalous value called beauty, which could not be reduced to numbers, was disrupting the computation in Seto's head.
This divine figure, these crimson eyes — all of it, he would take into his hand. Thoroughly. Without fail.
Beauty alone possesses the power to move people.
The desire to have it in his grasp rose quietly, and unmistakably.
Calculatedly, as strategy: bring him down. He should be brought down. The instant he decided it, heat ran through his chest.
He did not say it aloud. But his eyes had already decided. Bring him down.
He had decided it, at any rate. And then he thought: this one falls. Not me — Atem.
A sweet stretch of time was beginning here and now. The elation of it filled his chest.
After checking over Atem from the crown of his head to the tips of his toes, Seto smiled thinly.
"Hmph. You've come to look quite the king."
"Look like one or not, I am a king."
The guileless tone arrived defenseless.
That voice, too, was clear and easy on the ear, and Seto closed his eyes for a moment as though listening in.
Reflexively, he ran countermeasure code in his head. A physiological reaction to excess input. Merely noise.
"…So this is the face you wear in the afterlife."
Seto's voice was low, and faintly rough.
Atem smiled.
"This is my true face. Surprised?"
"Surprised? No…"
Seto let a beat pass and fixed him with the blue eyes.
"My reason is demanding a recalculation."
Atem tilted his head slightly.
"What is that… supposed to mean?"
Seto walked toward him. With every narrowing of the distance, the air of the afterlife trembled faintly.
His gaze remained cool, and it was unmistakably taking on heat.
"Atem. You remain a man outside all forecasts. That you would breach even the critical threshold of my aesthetic sense…"
Covering his mouth with one hand, Seto let out a long breath.
At words he had never expected, a faint red rose in Atem's cheeks.
"C-critical threshold, of your aesthetic sense?"
"Correct. You are over the threshold of beauty…"
"The threshold… of beauty?"
At the phrases being deployed, Atem blinked rapidly and tilted his head. He understood that he was being praised, and could not quite grasp the quality of the heat contained in it.
Seto was aware that, deep down, his reason had begun issuing alerts. But faced with an existence past the critical point of beauty, there was no need to remain cool.
Reason judged that this situation could be left to feeling. And so he would bring him down.
"Beautiful…"
Seto let out a light breath and arranged his expression.
"King of the Underworld or otherwise, it makes no difference. As a rational judgment, I have arrived at a conclusion."
"A conclusion?"
"I am going to bring you down."
The wind stopped.
Atem's eyes went round in spite of himself.
"…You're joking…"
"If it sounds like a joke to you, that is a talent in its own right. Beauty with no awareness of itself is troublesome."
"No, you don't joke about— but…"
Atem looked away without meaning to.
"You looked away. You are not accustomed to having your appearance assessed. That, too, is precarious."
Seto laughed faintly.
"My preferences are clear. From this moment I will bring you down by every available means. The success rate is one hundred percent."
"What— why— where does that confidence come from."
"Reason and theory are both within my domain. Romance resembles mastery, so that is my domain as well. …All the more so when the one I am bringing down is you."
"…Romance."
"I'm going back for now. Mount it on your arm and the instructions will display. Have your deck built. Until then."
Seto handed over the Duel Disk and turned on his heel.
Atem held the Duel Disk in both arms and watched that back go. Deep in his chest he felt a strange heat.
"…Kaiba."
The name he called quietly dissolved into the wind of the afterlife.
For the barest instant, the sound of it stopped Seto's feet.
"What."
"Will you come again?"
Seto answered without turning around.
"It is not a matter of my coming. In time, you will be the one waiting."
Seto's voice was low, and earnest, and straight all the way through.
"Prepare yourself. I am going to bring you down."
Atem's breath caught.
Crimson light and blue light crossed. In that moment, the air around the throne changed.
It was not yet infatuation, nor love.
But there was, unmistakably, the sound of a beginning.
Amid a pale light drifting like mist, Seto was walking the colonnade of an ancient temple.
Wrapped in the usual white coat, he was calmly observing structures that the science of the living world still could not explain.
"When did you get here?"
A quiet voice came from behind him. It was Atem.
But he carried an air that was somehow softer than majestic.
Seto answered without even turning.
"The spatial coordinates of the afterlife remain unstable, but your presence alone holds constant."
"You were observing me?"
"Obviously."
Seto stopped walking, turned slowly, and observed Atem.
He retained an impression of the old Yugi and was nonetheless a separate existence.
The lines of his outline were slightly finer, and the light dwelling deep in his eyes carried depth rather than sharpness.
A stance with nothing wasted in it. Royal garments, gold ornaments. Brown skin visible through the gaps in the cloth.
Each time the small movement of his throat showed, Seto's gaze followed it of its own accord.
"Human beings fear what they cannot understand. But I understand, and I control. That is also how I love."
Atem drew his brows together, dubious.
"How you love?"
"Observe, analyze, redefine. In that process, fear becomes trust."
Seto walked quietly closer, closing the distance with Atem.
"Your thought patterns, the changes in your expression, the rhythm of your breathing. All of it is on record."
Atem took a step back.
"…You make me sound like an experimental subject."
Seto's blue eyes caught him.
"Not a subject. An answer. The single exception my reason has arrived at. That is—"
A moment of silence.
The wind passed between them.
Atem gave a wry smile.
"And what will you do with understanding me? You're not the type who loves people with his heart. The other day, too, it was my appearance that—"
Saying it himself, Atem went faintly red.
Listening, Seto smiled slightly.
"Correct. But my theory does not deny emotion. Emotion is a phenomenon. It can be understood. It can be predicted. And it can be guided."
Atem's heart jumped.
"Guided?"
"Correct. When you look at me, your gaze drifts a certain amount. When you argue back, you deliberately lower your voice. Proof of an awareness that resists being controlled."
Atem held his breath.
"You really are— me…"
Seto came one step nearer.
"But so long as we are in the afterlife, control is an illusion. Here, reason and emotion mix together. …That slight agitation when you look at me is no longer fear. It is desire."
At those words, Atem's throat made a small sound.
Confirming it, Seto raised the corner of his mouth just slightly.
"…With this, observation is complete. I move to the next phase."
"The next phase?"
"The trust-establishment phase."
"What is that supposed to be?"
Atem made a dubious face again.
Seto lowered his gaze and touched Atem's hand.
"Touch conveys the truth faster than words. Learn this temperature."
Atem started to pull his hand back at the coldness of those fingers. But almost at once, heat came through.
Seto's palm was recognizing that existence, unmistakably, as a phenomenon.
"I am here by reason. What that reason selected was you. It is not an error."
Atem could not look away from that earnest gaze.
"The more I look, the more you are a different man. …No — the ideal itself, perhaps."
"…What are you…"
"That face, those eyes, that voice. Perfectly finished. Enough to make one wonder whether you were built for me."
Seto laughed lightly. But his eyes were not laughing. His gaze was erasing every route of escape.
"Kaiba… don't tell me…"
"Don't tell you what."
Seto brought his body close and locked their gazes.
"That there's no possibility I could fall for you — is that what you want to say?"
The silence was either agreement or doubt.
"The rationality within me has already surrendered to your beauty."
"Wh—"
Surrendered. Far too ill-suited a word to come from Seto's mouth, and at the shock of it Atem blinked, eyes round.
"None of that matters. The issue is—"
Seto closed the distance further. Held at point-blank range, the air went taut.
"—how you see me."
"That's… what do you… Kaiba is Kaiba, isn't he."
"No. The you who looked at me through Yugi, and the you standing before me now as king. Which of the two is looking at me in earnest?"
Atem's eyes wavered slightly.
King though he was, he could not hide the agitation.
Seto did not miss it.
"So I'm right."
"You're as forceful as ever."
"Rather late to say so. But—"
Seto's voice dropped lower.
"The moment I saw that face of yours, I was certain. You are going to destroy my reason."
Atem's shoulders jumped faintly.
Seto's gaze took on heat.
There was a pressure to him, as though he were closing in with his existence rather than his words.
Precisely because Atem had been told it was not control but the result of being drawn in, his heart would not settle.
Something was beginning to change.
Seto's logic was dissolving into the stillness of the afterlife, and beginning to carve a temperature into Atem's chest.
Deep in the afterlife, a gold light wavered for an instant.
It was the moment the reason and the souls of the two of them began beating at the same wavelength.
Observation was the sign of something about to become love. Neither control, nor battle.
Only two souls colliding at the same intensity: the beginning of pure infatuation.
Atem was walking a quiet colonnade.
His footsteps crossing the cold flagstones rang out excessively.
What remained in his heart were Seto's words: I am going to bring you down.
That had not been a joke. There had been no lie in those eyes. Scheming at something, and yet drawn in by instinct rather than calculation.
Precisely because he had been made to know it, Atem's heart was unsettled.
"What is with him, that Kaiba. …I'm a king…"
The moment he muttered it, half in self-mockery, a low voice came back from behind him.
"King or otherwise, it makes no difference. Once you've fallen, it's finished."
He turned, and Seto was in the shadow of a pillar.
As though he had known from the start that Atem would pass this way.
"Are you tailing me? Surveillance is not admirable."
"Not surveillance. Observation."
"That's what people call sophistry."
Seto walked out, slowly.
"How you would react, how you would waver… I have been watching all of it."
"That's the look of a man watching prey."
"Precisely."
Seto smiled.
"…And you think words like that will shake me?"
Atem drew back and took a little distance.
"Whether you shake is beside the point. I will shake you."
Seto stepped in. Soundlessly, the distance closed.
"But I have no intention of taking you by force. You will fall to me of your own will. Since I wish it, that is what will happen."
Atem let the corners of his brows drop and let out a small breath.
"That isn't going to hap—"
"It will happen."
Seto held out one hand.
His fingertips grazed the ends of Atem's hair.
"Because you are stronger than anyone, and more alone than anyone."
For an instant, his heart jumped.
That, too, was on target.
A pain he had never spoken of to anyone had been seen through, easily.
As though he had been looked into all the way to the bottom of his heart.
"Before you are a king, you are, all the way down, a human being."
Seto's voice fell quietly.
"That solitude — seated on a throne, untouched by anyone — I will fill it."
Atem held his breath.
While the cold air of the afterlife stroked his skin, Seto alone stood there carrying a definite heat.
"Destroying my reason… is that what you meant? My reason?"
Seto laid a hand on Atem's chest.
"Not destruction. Melting. Reason and pride both, in exactly the shape they are. Entrust them to me."
Atem's lips trembled, and no words of rebuttal came. Nothing came back at all.
Only the beating of his heart, ringing loudly. There was a definite power in Seto's words.
Neither control nor seduction. A strength that could be believed in.
"Kaiba… are you serious…?"
"I told you. My rationality surrendered to you."
Seto laughed, enjoying himself.
"Escape is impossible. I will pursue you through the afterlife itself."
His pulse leapt.
"The moment you are shaken, the state of the battle is settled."
No words came.
"I have read the winning line. All that remains is execution."
The voice fell low. Whispered at a distance where breath reached him, Atem could not move.
He let his gaze wander slightly and let out a small breath.
In that moment, Atem understood. He was beginning to be drawn to this man.
Not as the King of the Underworld, but as one man.
The night air was clear, and a thin mist drifted.
In the stillness, Atem sat alone at the edge of a spring.
The moon wavered on water like a mirror.
Into that light, Seto's shadow fell once again.
"…You came again."
"As many times as it takes, until you surrender."
"Surrender… is it."
"Once you've fallen for me, it's finished. And I have already fallen. So I bring you down."
Seto answered as though it were obvious, and sat down beside him.
"Every place you might flee to has been accounted for."
"Fleeing is a harsh way to put it, addressed to a king."
"Then let me correct it. You are pretending to think, and merely postponing your feelings."
At those words, Atem blinked. He let out a thin breath.
"Do you really intend to see through everything?"
"My aptitude for romance scores high."
The corner of Seto's mouth rose slightly.
It sounded like banter, and his gaze was entirely serious.
"What is that odd stat of yours."
Atem let out an exasperated breath.
"I taught you that romance resembles mastery. Full commitment."
The delivery was light, and a definite seriousness and confidence bled through.
"But I am a king. I cannot let myself be swept along by feeling."
"What of it. You already know. You must be feeling it."
Seto's voice overlapped quietly.
"You look at me, and something moves. Do not crush that something with logic. Not as a king — as Atem. Feel it."
A wave rose inside Atem's chest.
Seto's words spread his emotions outward, like a stone dropped on the surface of water.
"…Kaiba. What am I to you."
"The one human being I have chosen."
Seto answered instantly.
"You call the King of the Underworld an ordinary human being?"
"Correct. It is fine for you to be an ordinary human being. Discard the title and the power, and be that in front of me."
Atem lowered his eyes.
The wind stirred Atem's gold fringe, softly.
"That way you have about you is almost as though you were testing my reason."
"I am merely confirming."
Seto stood and positioned himself directly in front of Atem.
"The moment you open your heart."
In the silence, only their breathing carried.
Seto reached out gently. It stopped just short of touching Atem's cheek.
"Give your permission. Not as a king — as Atem."
Atem's eyes wavered.
After a short silence, he drew his chin down lightly.
At that small nod, Seto's fingertips touched him. Temperatures crossed. A definite warmth, of the sort that melts cold air.
"You're… forceful."
"Rather late to say so."
Seto laughed quietly.
"True enough. I did already know."
Atem let a smile through as well.
"But I also know how to control gently."
The thought came down to him, suddenly.
Being held by this man was not defeat. It was a relief in which one could think it acceptable to entrust even the soul.
The instant Seto's fingertips left him, Atem drew a deep breath.
As though a long seal had been undone.
"…You're an unfair man. Reading hearts with that odd stat."
Seto laughed a little.
"There is no need to read. I look and I know. Expression, the tremor in the voice, the disorder in the breathing. It is impossible for you to hide any of it from me."
"You're almost… like a diviner."
"An observer. I observe your existence with the greatest possible accuracy."
Seto's voice carried low.
Sophistry again, Atem thought, and no words came.
At the seriousness of that gaze, his heart was quietly taking on heat.
"Your eyes were always looking at a battlefield."
Seto continued.
"Victory and defeat, order, justice. But not now. They reflect nothing but me."
Atem's breathing stopped for an instant.
Seto's fingertips played gently with the gold fringe stirring in the wind.
The motion was neither control nor command, only certainty.
"Kaiba…"
"What."
"If I were, perhaps, drawn to you… would that also be your calculation?"
"No."
Seto's voice softened, just slightly.
"What I bring down by my own power is only your reason. Decide your heart by your own will."
"That's — still an unfair thing to do."
"My success rate is one hundred percent."
At those words, Atem smiled.
As though melting a faint warmth into the night of the afterlife.
"Heh. But I've already decided."
"I see."
Seto tipped his chin slightly.
The distance narrowed again.
Their breathing overlapped, at a distance close enough to touch.
"One thing, let me say."
Seto's voice was low, and full of certainty.
"I am bound by neither the living world nor the afterlife. From the moment I found you, every boundary became meaningless."
"Meaning?"
"It makes no difference that you are in the afterlife. I have chosen. That whoever you are, wherever you are, you will be at my side."
Atem's eyes went damp with heat.
Not words — the feeling itself came through.
Seto reached out slowly. Atem's fingertips slowly took that hand.
The wind wrapped around the two of them.
In a place that was neither dark nor light, two existences quietly crossed.
"You are deeper than the afterlife itself."
"I came intending to make you say so."
Atem let out a small breath and spilled a smile.
Seeing that expression, a quiet smile settled at Seto's mouth as well.
And then, only a single line.
"My win, then."
He whispered it, small.
Atem shrugged and narrowed his eyes as though acknowledging the loss. But there was no color of defeat in his face.
If anything, there was relief, arriving at last after a long stretch of time.
Silence came.
But it was not one carrying unease or tension.
It was a stillness for confirming that the other's existence was there beside him.
Seto lowered his gaze and reached a finger toward Atem's cheek.
Touching skin dressed in gold ornament, what came back was not coldness but a faint warmth. Fine-grained, smooth, and harder to leave than it looked.
"You're being blown by a cold wind, and you're warm."
Atem lowered his eyes and let a slight smile touch his mouth.
"That's because your hand is hot."
"Hmph. My doing, then."
Seto laughed a little.
"In that case, let us leave it like this for a while."
When Atem raised his face, Seto's gaze was holding him, straight on.
In those eyes there was no coldness, and no color of control.
Only a gentleness backed by certainty.
"To think I'd end up seeing an expression like that on you…"
Atem's voice was low, surprise and confusion mixed in it.
"Rejoice. You are the only one who can."
Seto said it without hesitation.
"Not work, not a match. Logic is unnecessary. This is my emotion."
Atem's breath caught. Deep in his chest, something made the sound of falling quietly into place.
It was a pulse by the name of love.
"I… never noticed, in the living world. Seeing you with these eyes, I understood for the first time. That straightness of yours is dazzling enough to frighten me."
Seto's mouth loosened.
"Rather late. But I'm honored."
Seto's hand reached out again and touched the ornament at Atem's brow.
Those fingertips stroked the swaying gold fringe fondly, and traced the curve of his cheek.
Atem did not resist the motion, and only accepted it.
"…Being handled like this isn't bad either."
The murmured voice dissolved into the wind.
Seto answered calmly.
"Do you imagine this much is sufficient? Once I return to the living world, this becomes a world with no one in it."
Seto cut the sentence there and took Atem's hand.
Quietly, he guided it to his own chest.
"I will fill the solitude. Not as logic — as a choice."
Atem's eyes wavered.
But that wavering was not refusal; it was wrapped in warmth.
"Then let me choose as well."
"Choose by your own will. What will you choose?"
"…Whoever you are, wherever you are — the place at your side."
At that answer, Seto's expression eased, unmistakably.
For the barest instant, the darkness around them thinned, and a light fell that was far too soft to suit the afterlife.
Words were unnecessary.
Only the sense that each other's existence was certainly there filled the world.
The sky of the afterlife carries a color unlike the living world's.
In a space where deep blue dark and gold light mixed, Seto's figure wavered for an instant.
"So you came."
Atem was standing quietly under the moonlight.
Expectation lived in his eyes, and he was smiling as though to draw the moment out.
Seto laughed lightly and reached out to touch Atem's shoulder.
"Kept you waiting."
"No. Waiting is unexpectedly good too."
Atem's voice was quiet and composed, and he could not hide the leap in his chest.
Seto caught that faint pulse and let a thin smile touch his lips.
"You stayed here the whole time. For me."
Atem narrowed his eyes and answered.
"It's obvious that I'd be here, isn't it?"
Seto saw through at once the feeling hidden behind that word, obvious.
Sweet, and slightly aching.
Seto took pleasure in detecting even the emotions that did not become words. That was precisely the taste of love.
"I see."
Seto took Atem's hand and laced their fingers as though confirming the warmth.
"The garden happens to be at its best. I'll show you."
The garden of the afterlife is quiet. Deep crimson buds swayed in the light of night, and a faint scent drifted.
Shoulder to shoulder, they walked with few words.
Feeling each other's presence, meeting each other's eyes — that was enough.
Flowers wavering red. Between them, quiet moonlight came through, drawing pale patterns on the ground.
"These flowers are beautiful, but they close at night…"
Seto looked at Atem straight on, and tightened his grip on the hand a little.
Their heartbeats resonated faintly.
Atem's eyes widened for an instant, and then he let his strength rest in that hand.
The moon hid behind cloud.
"…The moon hides and the flowers close, exactly as they say."
The words were teasing, and it was clear they were his true feeling.
At them, Atem colored slightly and lowered his gaze.
But Seto looked into his face and let a quiet smile show.
At that smile, Atem's heart lifted a little.
"That's an honor, but… you're too honest."
"I merely do not lie."
He looked down slightly, as though to hide a face gone redder still.
"In the living world too — do you think about me?"
Atem asked it, glancing up.
Seto looked steadily back.
"There is no possibility of forgetting; that goes without saying. Right now I am thinking of nothing but being here with you."
Atem's eyes shone as though they had caught stars.
Not missing that light, Seto closed the distance further.
"There is no need for concern. I am here."
Atem squirmed slightly, and even so, reassurance won out over embarrassment.
"…I'm feeling it too — that waiting for you is the better way."
Within the cold air drifting through the afterlife, a warmth belonging to the two of them alone certainly existed.
Sweet time spent forgetting the noise of the living world, leaving calculation and theory entirely behind.
Every time Seto returned, Atem smiled, and Seto kept that smile to himself.
"You'll come again, won't you?"
Atem asked quietly.
"Obviously."
Seto laughed a little and touched Atem's cheek lightly. At the warmth of those fingertips, Atem drew a breath.
"Kaiba…"
At the address that came out naturally, Seto's smile deepened.
"…You're mine, aren't you."
Atem nodded and brought his body just slightly closer.
In the moment their gazes tangled, the air flowing between them was sweet and warm, even at night.
A while of silence.
Even so, they did not let go of each other's hands, and only felt each other. That alone, and it carried.
Seto whispered at Atem's ear.
"I want to be watching all of you."
Atem let out a small breath and slowly closed his eyes.
"Heh… rejoice. You're the only one who can."
In that moment, the air of the afterlife grew softer still, dyed in sweet time.
"Correct. Only me."
Certainty and affection were mixed in Seto's reply.
At that answer, Atem only nodded, and let out a breath deep in his heart.
The sounds of their hearts overlapped, quietly.
And so their small everyday life melted, sweetly, into the eternal night of the afterlife.
