Atem wakes up aching and assumes it's a cold. Seto asks one very specific question, arranges a physician, and says nothing else. Later, over crêpes on a bench, Téa explains exactly how popular Seto Kaiba is — which Atem, who has only ever known him across a duel, finds genuinely hard to process.
This is a translation of an original work on Pixiv.
Original Title: 02 ガールズトーク
Original Author: 葉人(@Hathor_yuki)
Personal site: https://prideshipping.sakura.ne.jp
That day, from the morning there was heaviness and drowsiness, a headache and a stomachache. Perhaps she had caught a cold.
Japan's climate was unstable, so it couldn't be helped. Just now in particular there was a phrase for it — three cold days, four warm ones — with warmth and chill arriving in turns.
Atem layered on one extra thin jacket and headed for the dining room.
There, unusually, was Seto, who had not yet left for work. Breakfast was normally just her and Mokuba.
Mokuba aside — no, Mokuba would be bad as well, but passing it to his brother would be very bad indeed. Unwell or not, the man would choose work.
After all, like Priest Seto, he was the sort who worked outrageously hard.
"Morning. Um, I think I might have caught a cold. So I'm going to go sleep in my room."
She told him honestly and tried to leave at once, but Seto caught hold of her, told her to let him see her face, asked what the symptoms were.
There was no point in hiding it, so Atem answered honestly again.
"I'm a little heavy, and I have a headache and a stomachache."
"Your colour is bad. Chills?"
"None."
"Fever?"
"Probably not."
He laid a hand on Atem's forehead, confirmed there seemed to be no fever, and went silent for a while.
Being gazed at so fixedly was uncomfortable. Whatever he was thinking about, his face had gone difficult.
And then one more question was pushed out of him.
"...Do you have pain in your lower back?"
"I do."
Seto's eyes sharpened for a few seconds, and he sighed.
"I'll arrange a physician. Eat breakfast if you have an appetite, and be absolutely certain you listen to what she tells you."
"It isn't that serious, you know?"
"Not yet. You'll understand soon enough. Are we clear? Listen to her."
It would be a few more days before she understood what he had meant, but the explanation she received from the physician that day made Atem think her head might come apart.
You'll understand soon enough. So this was what he meant.
She didn't fight the cramps, took the medicine obediently, and rested her body when it grew heavy.
Did all the women in the world endure something like this?
In which case Téa had always looked cheerful, but she might have had hard days too.
Atem was being laid low by the menstrual pain that came at her in waves.
That hard look in his eyes came back to her. He had probably realised. That this was about to arrive.
Being abruptly given sex education by a physician had been startling in itself, but she thought: how did he work it out? He might have predicted it, but he shouldn't have been able to know the cycle. Why? It was strange.
This was proof, they told her, that the body was ready to bear a child. This body could bring a new life into the world. Whether such a day would come she did not know, but it was a precious thing. Without realising it, Atem had laid a hand gently over her belly.
Come to think of it, she was very sleepy.
She seemed to have fallen asleep without noticing, and when she woke it was evening. She rubbed at eyes still sleepy despite the sleep; there was hunger, at least.
The painkillers must have taken effect. Stroking a stomach that no longer hurt but still felt wrong, she glanced toward the bathroom. The third time. Honestly she wasn't the least bit used to it yet, but she changed her sanitary products as the physician had instructed and headed for the dining room.
Seto's five senses had been keen since he was small. Eyes that could distinguish the faintest difference in shade, ears that picked up the smallest noise. His fingers were deft and his palate was fine. And among them all, his sense of smell was precise enough to identify a person by scent.
Atem was a woman. That time she said she might have caught a cold, there had been a scent about her different from usual.
But it was not a cold as she claimed, not the inflamed smell of an infection. It was a scent with something drawing about it. And so he inferred that it was probably that, specified a female physician, and gave instructions for Atem to be educated.
Being a man, Seto could not know it himself, but going by the physician's report, she was on the heavy side of it.
That imperfection was presumably what being human meant. Without noticing, he had drawn his brows together.
"The goddess does cruel work."
His guess that it would be heavy seemed to have been correct; Atem had apparently spent most of the day asleep.
He had no hesitation about putting her on hormones, but whether Atem, careless as she was in daily life, could remember to take them every day was highly doubtful. In a game she left no opening at all, and away from one she was a different person entirely. On that point his trust in her was refreshingly nonexistent.
He thought a moment about what to do and decided to have the household staff manage it. Even that Atem would take them if they were held out to her.
It was Atem's life, and it was to be enjoyed to the fullest. There was no need for pain to exist in it.
When Atem was summoned by the physician again, Seto was there, along with a maid she often saw in the kitchen.
"Lady Atem, your menstruation appears to be on the heavy side."
"Is that... so?"
"Yes. Heavy enough to put you to sleep. It must have been very hard on you."
"Well. You could say that, perhaps."
Now that it was mentioned, she recalled that Téa had come to school every day and had never once dozed off.
She had been told it varied from person to person; were there people who felt no pain, no sleepiness at all?
The physician took out a sheet of pills and showed her.
"Please take this medication every day."
"What is it?"
"It's the pill. It's also used for contraception, but you'll be taking it to ease your symptoms, Lady Atem."
"Contraception? Does that mean I won't be able to bear a child?"
"Ovulation resumes once you stop taking it, so there's no problem. We'll adjust the dosage as we see how you do."
She didn't quite follow it, but it would apparently make things a little easier. The modern age was remarkable.
Still — was it really all right to alter the natural cycle that existed for bearing children?
Seto was not a man to overlook that hesitation on Atem's face. But that conversation could come later. Getting the medicine into her took priority.
"Left to you, you're liable to forget to take it, so I'll have them bring it out at breakfast."
"It's fine, I won't forget."
"No, please leave it to me, Lady Atem. I won't have you put through anything so painful again. I'll bring it out every morning without fail."
"No, really, it's fine—"
"No. Please leave this to me."
Thinking that she would not forget and there was no need to go to such lengths, she lost to the maid's surging pressure and left the management of the medicine to her.
"You'll begin taking it from the day your next period starts."
Begin from the next one meant she was not taking anything yet. So one more heavy week was waiting for her.
Thinking that this would come at her again in three weeks, it was no wonder Atem was disheartened.
She left the medical room with Seto and started toward her room.
"What were you thinking about?"
"Nothing."
"Let me change how I ask. What are you worried about?"
She had answered that it was nothing, but lies apparently did not work on this man.
"This body can bear a child. I'm hesitating over whether it's all right to force that cycle to change with medicine."
"Do you want to give birth?"
"I don't know yet. I'm talking about the possibility."
"Infertility is fundamentally brought about by things other than this particular medication. Stop taking it, and if you wish for it you will conceive. There is nothing whatsoever to worry about."
If she wished for it. To wish for a child. Would such a day come? And she would be the one to give birth. A precious thing, and a frightening one.
"There's no need to agonize over it yet. Once your condition has settled there will be time enough to agonize at your leisure."
"That's... true."
That day she somehow didn't want to be left alone, and spent it in Seto's room playing all kinds of games.
She couldn't concentrate, too many stray thoughts crowding in, and her record was dismal — and of course there was no chance of him going easy on her. That, if anything, was easy and comfortable.
She got sleepy, so they lay down side by side and played more games at the pillow.
And so, when she had slept and woken, her mood had cleared a little.
Early summer.
The weather had turned warm, and around the time Atem was growing accustomed to modern life, Téa came home from America.
"It's been a while, Atem."
"Hey. Have you been well?"
"Of course!"
The Téa who had shown her tears at the parting was nowhere in her.
A conviction that women were a hardy sort was forming inside Atem.
The maid at the Kaiba mansion, likewise; the physician too — both of them said their children were little terrors and that they raised them by shouting them down, and in fact Atem had been on the mischievous side and had often been scolded by the royal nurse.
"Have you seen Aibou?"
"Yes, at the airport."
"I see."
Coming all the way out to the airport to meet her. Not bad, Aibou.
She didn't know the details of where the two of them stood now, but Atem, who had watched Yugi be so hesitant, was glad of it.
The old group was planning to gather later today, but Tristan and Joey, the working-adult pair, were of course at their jobs, and Yugi had school.
So Téa and Atem, both free until then, had made a plan to go for tea a little ahead of the others.
Seto was at work as a matter of course, and though she had asked him anyway, he had said, exasperated, do you think I would go?
They headed for the arcade the same as they once had. Téa dancing was unchanged — or rather, sharper than before, and very cool.
Afterward she kept her company window shopping, and the liveliness of this is cute, that's cute too was unchanged as well.
Back then, she had wanted to know who she was and had been afraid of knowing. It had not been wanting to stay at Yugi's side for his sake; in truth she had simply wanted to stay at his. The one who pushed at her back while she wavered and agonized was none other than Téa.
Tired from walking around, they rested on a bench with crêpes in hand.
They no longer shared a body, and yet apologising inwardly — sorry it isn't Aibou — was something like a habit.
"Come to think of it, you're a girl now, aren't you?"
"Yeah, that's right."
On the night she decided she wanted to greet everyone, the first one she reached was Téa; they couldn't meet in person and the time difference made it convenient, so she called.
For some reason Seto knew the contact details and put the call through. In truth he had not so much known them as had her personal information on file, but of course Atem neither knew that nor had been told.
On the far side of the connected monitor, Téa had looked at Atem and gone wide-eyed with shock.
"Then nobody's going to leave you alone, are they. You're cute."
"Nobody? Everyone's the same as before. Ah, but if I had to name someone — Mokuba is extremely kind. He's sure to grow into a fine man."
He was considerate, he was gentle, and he was not harsh the way his brother was. A great many people would gather around Mokuba. He seemed to have grown taller again lately, too, and would surely be popular with girls.
"Pfft, I can picture it. Kaiba was popular too, but he's the flower on the high peak, the kind you can only look at from a distance. Mokuba's more like an idol you can actually reach."
She could see it. She could see it, but.
"Kaiba was... popular?"
As for Seto back then, she knew almost nothing but his figure on the field of battle. A strategist, certainly, but a fairly violent power type of man. That was about the extent of it.
"He was incredible. His face is put together, he's tall, he's clever, right? And on top of that he's the president of KaibaCorp. Forget Domino High — he's popular across Japan and in America now."
"Is that so."
Going by status alone, or without knowing what was inside, perhaps that was so.
Looking only at his appearance, his face was certainly well arranged, and she supposed he was probably good-looking.
"But inside he's that Kaiba, you know? He's arrogant, and isn't he selfish?"
"Apparently that's good too. Reticence and ferocity coexisting in one person, right? The number of women who've fallen for that gap is past counting. Wanting to be led, or wanting to be loved by force — something along those lines, I suppose."
Past counting. Atem was fairly severely shaken.
She had never once thought about her rival's relations with women, but it was not unimaginable. He stood out and he was famous. Considered properly, it would be no wonder at all if he had admirers.
"Huh. Is that so. A woman's heart is beyond me."
"But the single-minded part scores high with me too. You know — crossing dimensions, was it, going all the way to another world. That's rather like a prince coming to collect you."
"At that point he's less a prince than a king."
Téa laughed at Atem's words.
"If Kaiba is single-minded, then whoever he sets his heart on has it rough. Single-minded is too sweet a word for it."
Atem's gaze went distant.
It would be no exaggeration to call it not single-mindedness but tenacity, or obsession.
Restoring the Millennium Puzzle for a revival, scheming to summon her — and not only that, but if it proved impossible, crossing dimensions himself. Who could possibly have thought of it? He was certainly a man who did calmly the things no one else would think of. But that was outrageous even for him.
Speaking of outrageous, the first time Seto came to the palace it caused an uproar. Knowing the culture of ancient Egypt three thousand years ago, he had deliberately stepped forward on his right foot before the king — which was Seto Kaiba through and through.
She had complained that he should consider the time and the place, and by his account, Atem was neither king nor god to him, so there was no reason for him to display submission, and this was sufficient — a piece of inscrutable logic he unfolded at her. She did not, of course, demand submission, but the way he forced his own rules through wherever he happened to be was more than anyone could bear.
With an attitude like that, soldiers appeared who tried to seize him without heeding Atem's restraint — and those several men were sent flying, by what martial art she couldn't say, so if anything it was her side that took the beating.
It was empty desert. The coat turning in the swirling sand struck the eye as alien and vivid. Sensing further chaos coming from the guards bristling with bloodlust, she hurriedly managed to calm them and clear the area, but it was hard going all the same.
If Priest Seto, with his long years, had been the one to hold them back, would they have listened? He was far more accustomed to clearing up that sort of mess. But Priest Seto himself, for all the commotion, never for some reason abandoned his posture of quiet observation. She didn't know the reason, but she had wanted his help putting that uproar down. It had been truly, truly hard going. In modern terms, the sort of thing that puts a hole in your stomach.
And then, having caused an uproar like that, the man simply stood there composed, as if to say he had business with no one but her, and paid the surroundings no mind at all. She could not help pitying the soldiers who had been thrown; he surely didn't even remember the throwing, having filed it away as trivial.
That was the sort of man he was. Which was why there was not a single cute point on him anywhere.
When she gave Téa an abbreviated account of Seto's arrival in the afterlife, Téa said stop, don't make me laugh any more, that's Kaiba for you, my stomach hurts from laughing — and laughed harder still. You don't know the half of what I went through, Atem thought, feeling faintly resentful.
"Well, in reality he's a workaholic, so that sort of story isn't going to come up."
"Well now. I wonder about that."
"Hm? What do you—"
Just as she started to ask the meaningful-looking Téa, Joey's voice reached them.
"Heeey, Atem, Téa!"
Looking toward the voice, Yugi and Tristan were there as well.
"Sorry to keep you."
"Hey, welcome back."
"I'm back!"
They high-fived, and in an instant the atmosphere was no different from before. Only now Atem was joining it in the flesh.
"What were you two talking about? Looked like you were having a blast."
They had been laughing that much. Of course he'd be curious.
Téa shushed Atem as she began with well, actually — then smiled, said, girl talk, and winked.
Oh. So this had been girl talk.
"Aw, come on, now I really wanna know."
"Now, now. If that's what it is, there's nothing to be done."
That day they played until late at night, until a call came from Mokuba, worried about when she was coming home.
See, isn't he kind? she said to Téa, and Téa said, oh my, the king has come to collect you — so she followed her line of sight. It was the car carrying Seto, just then on his way home.
Atem and Téa met each other's eyes, burst out at the same moment, and giggled together.
Girl talk wasn't bad either.
