Mokuba tells Atem to take his brother to the festival, uses the word date, and refuses to take it back.
Téa, consulted in a panic, asks one question that Atem cannot answer honestly without answering something else entirely.
There is a yukata, a shooting gallery, an obi retied by hand in a side street, and a hand held all the way home.
This is a translation of an original work on Pixiv.
Original Title: 05 秋祭り
Original Author: 葉人(@Hathor_yuki)
Personal site: https://prideshipping.sakura.ne.jp
Like everywhere else across the country, Domino held a festival.
KaibaCorp sponsored it as a local enterprise.
By now Domino was something close to a castle town belonging to KaibaCorp, but nobody said anything about it. Because that was what settled matters most smoothly, made everything run well, and left the participants satisfied.
It was also the season in which the security division grew hectic.
"Nii-sama, are you sure it's all right to put school first? I can handle overseeing the security division."
Mokuba's school festival and the Domino festival fell on the same days.
At events like Battle City, Mokuba had lent a hand in the capacity of host and chairman of the organising committee. Issuing instructions from above made things run smoothly, but they couldn't go on like that indefinitely.
They would expand operations and grow the company, and in the course of it Mokuba too would sooner or later be flying about more often as Seto's stand-in.
"Let the security division handle it. It's been a year since I made them specialists. They've worked events. They'll resolve their own problems."
"But what if something happens?"
"It's structured so that personnel can be dispatched from the events division only if the situation is beyond them."
"That makes sense."
"That isn't all."
"You've made some other move?"
Seto's face turned villainous.
"I have written vacation into my schedule."
Hahahahaha! Seto's ringing laugh rang out for the first time in a while. Haven't heard that since the afterlife, Atem thought, watching vacantly.
But Seto was not the only one whose manner changed. Mokuba's expression turned distinctly wicked as well.
"Whoa, that's serious pressure. That's brutal, Nii-sama. I'll write vacation in too."
Ordinarily she never felt that the air about them resembled each other's, but in delighted villain-faces they were unmistakably brothers.
They needn't be alike in that particular respect. She thought it from the bottom of her heart.
"Atem. What are you doing on the festival days?"
"Nothing in particular."
Out in town she often overheard talk of the festival, and she saw the posters.
So she had been thinking she might go and take a look, but since she didn't know what it was like, she had been considering asking Yugi.
"Then why not make the most of it and go with Nii-sama?"
"With Kaiba? But didn't he say he was taking a vacation?"
"That's exactly why. If he takes time off he's guaranteed to start some research project. You may as well go on a date."
Precocious brat, she thought, and then remembered that Mokuba had always been precocious to begin with.
If they were to walk together, it would be the first time since that tag team at Battle City.
Walking shoulder to shoulder with a rival.
"The two of us walking side by side doesn't make it a date."
"Huh? What are you talking about? There's nothing else it could possibly be."
Mokuba's voice went up in a squawk.
To Mokuba, who correctly perceived both his brother's feelings and Atem's, the what are you talking about came from the bottom of his heart.
Inside Atem, meanwhile, was incomprehension and panic.
A date was Yugi and Téa; for Joey it was Mai. They weren't partners, so she couldn't call it a date, and she couldn't ask him.
Mokuba, who dealt Atem the finishing blow, had genuinely believed he was being kind.
"Is something the matter?"
She didn't remember how she had got back to her room, but Téa's voice brought her to herself.
Right — times like this were exactly what girl talk was for. She had been at a loss and called Téa, then.
"Mokuba is telling me to ask Kaiba on a date. It isn't as though we're, well, going out or anything, so calling it a date is strange, isn't it?"
"Mokuba did. I see..."
Téa's woman's intuition returned a calculation: Mokuba was an ally.
And this was for her oshi. She would spare no cooperation.
"All right. Think about it simply. First — going to the festival itself is fine, isn't it?"
"Yes, I did want to see it."
"This part is important. I'd rather ask you in person, but it can't be helped. Kaiba isn't there, is he?"
"He isn't. He left on a business trip somewhere yesterday, so he won't be back until tonight at the earliest."
Téa took a deep breath.
"How would you feel if Kaiba went to the festival with someone other than Mokuba?"
Téa's on about that again, she thought.
That's no good, she also thought.
A festival was apparently something you enjoyed with someone special — a friend, or a partner.
Téa pressed into Atem's silence.
"That is the hint, and it's also the answer."
"Would he enjoy it, I wonder."
"Kaiba will make sure you enjoy it."
"Is that fun for him?"
"This is only my guess, but I think Kaiba is the type who finds more happiness in making someone else enjoy themselves than in enjoying himself. Kaiba Land is exactly that, isn't it? He'd be far happier being leaned on with an I want to go to the festival than being tiptoed around."
Ah, supadari attributes, she heard from somewhere, and Atem decided she hadn't.
"A while ago, I found myself thinking that I wanted to be the only one standing beside him."
"You two have always been that way. It hasn't changed. Not once."
"Hasn't changed? I never used to agonize over it."
"That's a maiden's heart for you."
"Téa."
Téa, declaring it so squarely, really was magnificent.
Atem, being carried along, of course had not noticed that she was.
The next morning Seto came home. He had toured the American branch offices while he was at the university, and the schedule seemed to have slipped by half a day.
"Welcome back."
"I'm back."
She summoned up the courage Téa had given her.
"Kaiba."
"What is it?"
He turned as he shrugged off his jacket. His expression was mild; kind to Atem, as ever.
"I want to go to the festival."
"The festival."
"With you."
She had the sense that Seto smiled.
"Is that so."
"It is."
"You don't need to go with your little friends? The festival runs three days. Which day do you want?"
He opened a display and they went through the schedule and the attractions for each day.
Stalls, mikoshi and floats — she had no idea what those were, but apparently they happened every day.
Only the final day ended early, but in exchange there were fireworks.
"These fireworks — are they secretly solid vision?"
"Those are ordinary fireworks, handmade by craftsmen."
"The final day. I want to enjoy all of it."
"Then we'll do that."
Mokuba, Téa — I have secured a date. An inexplicable sense of accomplishment welled slowly up in her.
Later the usual friends invited her as well, but unfortunately the dates clashed, so she declined.
And so, the day of the festival.
Mokuba came by in the morning and handed her something.
"Atem! This is a present from me. Téa and I picked it out the other day."
"What is it?"
"A yukata. Festivals mean yukata, fireworks mean yukata, dates mean yukata."
Now go and make Kaiba weak at the knees. She thought she heard Téa's voice, which she could not possibly have heard.
The maids cinched her tight and it was a considerable ordeal, but she did manage to get the yukata on. That part should be fine.
The footwear, though, was constructed so that it felt liable to fly off with every step she took. She wouldn't look down and find herself barefoot, would she?
"Kaiba, I'm ready."
"It's open. Wait inside."
Entering Seto's room, there were sounds from the back. Mid-preparation, then. Yukata are hard to put on, thought Atem, who had already got hers on, feeling rather superior from her vantage point.
To be safe, she perched shallowly on a seat so the obi wouldn't come undone, and waited.
"Sorry to keep you."
"Let's go."
Silence, on both sides.
Atem's yukata was white with a floral pattern. A sculpted obi.
Seto's yukata was a simple deep navy, with no obvious pattern and no obi that looked as though it hurt.
"Why is your yukata like that?"
"You're the one who requested yukata. Men's are simply like this."
"I'd rather have that one."
"It's charming on you, though."
"Charm— that's not—"
"It suits you very well."
Being told it was charming, being told it suited her, didn't feel bad. Only, her face was hot.
She turned her face away and stood.
"Is that... so? Then let's go."
"Atem. Sit down here a moment."
"Is there something else?"
"Your feet. Let's put something on before the thong takes the skin off."
Most people injure themselves before they're used to it, he said, and with his own hands applied a soft tape between her big toe and the next.
This was the sort of thing he'd have someone else do, and yet he went to the trouble.
Brown hair swayed in front of her eyes, and something itched.
Seto was kind to Atem. Lately it was nothing but this.
He lifted his face and blue eyes looked at her.
"You looked at the map. Where do you want to start clearing?"
"It isn't a game, you know."
"You said you wanted to enjoy all of it. What is it, then?"
She couldn't say: a date. But Mokuba, whom they ran straight into at the entrance, landed the follow-up blow after all.
"Nii-sama, Atem, enjoy your date. Right, I've got school."
"R-right."
She would have objected, but the conversation with Téa wouldn't let her.
It shouldn't matter what Seto thought of it, and yet somehow she couldn't turn to look beside her.
"We're going."
Seto took Atem's hand and headed for the car.
"You're all right with it being a date?"
"Perfectly acceptable."
A pleased voice. Supadari really are something, she marvelled, without understanding much of anything.
The car they got into set off for the starting point she had designated.
Thanks to Mokuba, Atem was half in a devil-may-care mood.
She found unusual food at the stalls and ate it. And when she found games — this was her home ground — she ran straight for a complete clear.
Somewhere in the middle of it her mood settled, and before she knew it she was enjoying herself thoroughly.
"You're good at ring toss and the shooting gallery — Kaiba, the shooting is one thing, but ring toss is not on. That's cheating."
Atem cackled.
"I'm accustomed to handling that sort of thing."
KaibaCorp's predecessor had been a munitions industry. He could in fact handle weapons in general, for demonstration purposes — but of course he did not say so.
"Is that how it works?"
"That is how it works."
Incidentally, Seto's far too casual bearing, his sniping stance and flawless accuracy had the place buzzing with murmurs of the free-to-play guy and the like. Of course every word of it reached his ears perfectly clearly, and he was thinking that the covertly taken photographs (he had noticed, so they were hardly covert) would be spreading before long.
Atem displayed a talent for goldfish scooping. The raw tension of never knowing when the paper would tear was apparently to her liking. She scooped and scooped and scooped, then decided that raising them wasn't for her after all, and released them.
"Shaved ice next, then. Hard to decide on a flavour."
"You've only just drunk a ramune."
"That's true. I'll save the shaved ice for the next shaved ice stall."
"For shaved ice, it isn't a stall, but this shop would be better. You can rest your feet there as well."
"True, there's still time before the fireworks. Let's do that."
She had walked a fair distance in unfamiliar footwear, and her feet were somewhat tired.
That was not the only reason. To Seto, who loathed artificial flavourings, shaved ice was a triple attack of scent, colour and taste. He would certainly be made to eat some, and in that case there were grounds for preferring one made from carefully selected fresh ingredients. Excessive flavouring was no longer the smell of food at all.
There was a considerable queue when they reached the shop, but he had apparently made a reservation at some point, and Atem was shown straight to a seat.
Atem had said she would clear all of it. Shaved ice was on the route. He had made the reservation as a countermeasure, but that too was hardly worth mentioning.
The shaved ice they ordered arrived, and she scooped up a piece of yellow fruit along with it and put it in her mouth.
The fruit was thick and sweet.
"Mango. This is seriously good."
"It's a tropical fruit, like coconut. I thought it would suit you."
"You really do know me."
"Well enough."
"What flavour is yours?"
"You'll like it."
"What is this?"
She put her spoon into the offered shaved ice without a moment's hesitation. She tasted it, and Atem's face came up in shock. Her eyes were sparkling. She had evidently taken to it.
"Lychee. Another fruit of the southern countries."
After savouring the shaved ice and letting her feet recover, they ransacked a good many more stalls in the second half and enjoyed themselves thoroughly.
In that state Atem was scarcely different from a child.
"I've arranged viewing seats for the fireworks. The view is good."
"Really? That's a supadari for you."
"Oh?"
Seto's face turned amused.
Bad. He knows what it means.
"Ah — er, forget that."
"Rather late for that. Do you think my head is that regrettable?"
"It's a matter of a woman's honour."
"I see. I'll remember it all the same."
She had told him to forget it.
Seto did not forget Atem's words.
She felt something similar had happened before.
It was when they had talked about coconut water. Certainly the one in his room tasted better than the coconut sold at the stalls.
They had played themselves out, and as she walked with a large bag of prizes — spoils of war, rather — something felt wrong at her back.
"Kaiba, could you look at my back? The obi's been shifting for a while."
"Ah. It's coming undone."
I'll fix it, he said, and led her off to one side.
"Hold here with your right hand, and pinch this with your left."
She held and released as instructed. Before long the slack was drawn taut, and she could feel it being reset behind her. It didn't hurt. And in the morning she had been cinched so hard.
"Yukata really are a lot of work."
"Move about that much and it can hardly be helped. I put a few knots in my head in case something like this happened."
"You're a dexterous one."
"What do you take me for?"
"...Dexterous?"
"What is that. That's precisely what you just said."
She couldn't see, but he was surely laughing, enjoying himself.
Done, he said, and took a photograph to show her.
"It's a different shape from this morning."
"That is what an obi is. In this shape you can lean back and sit without trouble."
Shall we head for the seats, and Seto picked up the bag he had set down.
A familiar voice came from a little way off.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing to Atem this time!"
"Joey?"
"And what is it you claim I have done?"
These two, as ever — or rather, Joey was combative from the outset, and the one answering had a bad attitude at every turn, which made the pair of them impossible to handle.
"Y-you were about to put your hands on her in a place like this!"
"Are your eyes knotholes?"
"What was that?! Atem, over here."
Out of habit Joey pulled Atem's wrist, and flinched at how thin that wrist was.
Yugi hurriedly pried him off.
"Honestly! What are you doing, grabbing Atem out of nowhere."
Joey had a sister, if he recalled. Once he registered she was a woman he would not lay hands on her again. Seto watched the scene quietly.
He turned his eyes to the rescued Atem.
"It's nearly time. We're going."
"Right. Joey, nothing was done to me, so there's no need to worry."
He had only sorted out something she had carelessly done, in the usual pattern.
It didn't look as though she'd be given time enough to explain, so she waved, said see you, and chased after Seto.
It was dark around them. He stood out, so following him was fine, but she was small, and if she got buried by accident she couldn't move forward at all.
"Kaiba."
"Atem?"
Seto laughed wryly at Atem's struggling and took her hand.
"That's a help."
"Hold on like that."
They were walking hand in hand. Despite the crowd, moving forward was far easier.
A height far above her own, a broad back, a stride matched to hers. Was this what being protected felt like?
But like this, it really was a date, wasn't it.
She was surely the only one thinking such things.
She glanced quietly at Seto's face. He looked as though he was enjoying himself, but she could read nothing beyond that.
They reached the viewing seats safely, and when she checked her phone, sure enough there were messages about what had happened. Were they all suspicious? It was the group chat.
She wrote that he had only fixed her obi, and sent it.
Really? from Tristan as well.
Really, she wrote, and attached the photograph he had taken.
Once everyone had read it, a private message came from Téa: The yukata is adorable! Thank you for wearing it. Still, being able to retie an obi as well — that's a supadari for you. Praising another man where Yugi could see it must have felt improper.
Kaiba complimented me, she sent, and got a meaningful sticker back. She was wondering what to do about it when a voice said, it's starting.
Sorry, everyone. The rest will have to wait.
The fireworks were far larger than she had imagined; light, sound, vibration, all of it seemed to resonate through her whole body.
I'm glad I came with him. She thought that.
Watching the fireworks go up, she found the body heat right beside her strangely comfortable.
The hand taken again while they looked up at the sky stayed held all the way back to the mansion.
A large hand; unlike her own, slightly hard. A man's hand.
Not many days after the autumn festival, Atem went out into Domino and found herself surrounded under the name of an interview.
Your name?
Where are you from?
Where did you meet President Kaiba?
Since when have you been going out?
Questions flew at her in rapid succession, and the last one struck her dumb.
This was the situation Téa had fallen into, wasn't it.
She considered how to get through it, but no way out came to her. Protect his image, tell no lie, explain herself — and she could not imagine being believed. She knew that in this modern age words were cut out and interpreted however it suited. Whatever she answered would be useless.
Rivals for life — saying that would surely be useless too. Should she muddle through in the ancient tongue? That didn't seem a fine idea either. Seto Kaiba did not lie. So she could not lie either.
"Erm. Well..."
"Do you want something with her?"
The one who saved the cornered Atem, silenced the place and scattered the reporters was Mokuba, who happened to be passing.
That snort of a laugh through the nose — he needn't have taken after his brother there. A pity.
"That was a help."
"Don't mention it."
With that, Mokuba made a call to someone.
"Isono? Contact the security division and confirm what's happened to Atem's protection detail."
"Protection? What does that mean. I'm fine, I don't need anything like that."
"Instructions to that effect should have gone out. They ought to have driven them off before contact, and instead they were this far behind. Sorry about that."
"Is that so?"
When had she started being treated as such an important person? She hadn't noticed.
With a bad feeling, she searched.
Seto Kaiba, festival.
What came up was nothing but Seto Kaiba the sniper taking aim at his target. Pointlessly good-looking even here. #FreeUserNiisan — what was that?
Nothing that looked like a problem came up and she was relieved, and at the same time her feelings turned complicated.
Mokuba, peering over, smiled brightly.
"You won't find anything by searching normally. I applied pressure so only Nii-sama would come up, so relax."
Where in that was there anything to relax about.
She started to say it, and stopped.
This was Mokuba. On this sort of topic she had been hit with follow-up after follow-up and finished off entirely. There was no telling what bomb he'd drop next.
"If you wanted to be talked about I'd arrange it, and I think Nii-sama would sign off on it too, if you wanted it."
"Hold on a moment — approving the publication of rumours like that, what do you—"
"Huh. You went on a date and you still don't get it. Looks like the security placement is done, and I've got things to do, so I'm off. See you later!"
The conversation isn't over. What do you mean, still don't get it?
No bomb fell, but Mokuba left meaningful words behind instead and went on his way.
The autumn only deepened.
