Joey turns up alone to tell Atem she should move out before Kaiba's mystery bride arrives.
Atem tells him who the bride is. He does not take it well, and takes it considerably worse when she says Seto's name out loud in front of him.
This is a translation of an original work on Pixiv.
Original Title: 13 騒動の痕跡
Original Author: 葉人(@Hathor_yuki)
Personal site: https://prideshipping.sakura.ne.jp
The one who visited the Kaiba mansion was Joey.
"You're alone today? That's unusual."
The only ones who came alone were Yugi and Téa, so it was very unusual. And since he could hardly be said to be on good terms with Seto, he stayed away. Face each other and one was combative and the other had a bad attitude.
At Battle City he should nominally have been the man who saved his life, but neither of them had any such thing in mind.
"Coffee? With plenty of sugar and milk."
"Yeah. No — it was hot outside, so make it iced coffee."
She brought up a display and selected the connection.
"Joey's here. Could I ask for iced coffee today?"
"Master Joey, of course. I'll bring plenty of milk and syrup with it."
"Thank you."
"I still can't get used to you handling the — technology? — like that."
"It's extremely convenient. They went to the trouble of setting it up; there's no sense in not using it."
A maid brought drinks, light food and sweets.
Everything laid on, truly.
Joey picked up a sandwich and drank something you could no longer call coffee, into which an inexplicable quantity of syrup and milk had gone. It must really have been hot; he drained it in one go.
"Another? They left the pot."
"You're on the ball. Appreciate it."
They talked about nothing in particular for a while, and then Joey's face abruptly turned sour.
"Atem. Move out of here. If my place is no good, Yugi's would be fine, right?"
"No. I'm not moving out. I decided I'd stay here."
I'm here. She had decided she would be beside him always.
"But you know about the Kaiba news, right? You'd be that Kaiba's wife. I can't see it working out."
"There's no need to worry about that."
"Have you met her?"
"Met — well, that is, how do I put it."
Atem's eyes wandered.
It's me, and that would be that. How should she tell him? It was embarrassing.
While she was thinking it over, both her shoulders were seized. Not this hand, she thought, twisting away unconsciously. What to do.
"Joey, calm down."
"Like hell I can calm down."
"It really is all right."
She'd been told she could open the information up at whatever timing she liked.
Tristan had seemed half aware of it, and Yugi and Téa knew as far as the proposal.
Settled, then. No more concealment.
Atem lifted her face and looked Joey straight in the eye.
"It's all right. It really is. Will you listen calmly to what I'm about to say?"
At the seriousness of her, Joey straightened up.
"Got it. What is it?"
"The one he's with... is me."
"Huh?"
Joey's mouth fell open. A few seconds later understanding must have caught up, because he startled her with a HAAAH?! Her ears rang.
To the astonished Joey she at least tried to nail down that it was a secret from anyone who didn't already seem to know, though whether he was listening was unclear. He wouldn't go around telling people, but it was worrying.
"No. No way. He's got you tied down; he doesn't even let you outside."
"I'm the one doing the tying down, and I don't go outside because it's hot, you know?"
It was true. Atem got jealous and she did tie him down.
And having been done in by the humidity at the start of summer, she was simply being wary of the Japanese one.
"Right. You're being made to say this."
"Believe me."
"Oh, I see, is that so — like hell I can believe it. It's Kaiba."
"Yes. It's all right because it's him."
Looking, there was a ring on the third finger of Atem's left hand.
It caught his eye — one resembling the one on Seto's hand that the talk shows had shot in close-up endlessly. His face went stiff.
"Is Wheeler here? Atem, I have something for you. I'm coming in."
"Yes."
She had asked Seto for two tablets.
Because when Mahad had contacted her the other day, she'd been asked by a Priest Seto who was irritated for some reason.
"I've added the translation function. Unlike that one, whether that master and apprentice can use these is doubtful; the initial settings are limited to communication. If they can use them, adjusting the settings makes them no different from ordinary units. Do the final check for me. I'll send them once that's done."
"You've finished already? That's a help."
"Hm. Who do you think you're talking to?"
"Thank you."
These two? Getting married?
Joey had fallen into a panic.
The road of battle stretching on past all sight was going to become an ordinary happily married couple?
But if his eyes had served him a moment ago, Atem had touched Seto. And, on top of that, smiling and happy about it.
Joey stopped Seto as he made to leave the room.
"Hold up, Kaiba. We were just talking about you. Let's have a talk between men."
"I'm busy. I don't have time to indulge you."
"Just listen. Right — I'm not handing Atem over as a bride."
Joey folded his arms with a snort and glared, but Seto's reaction was extremely thin.
"You didn't know?"
That was all.
He didn't needle him in the modern manner, and there was nothing of the bad attitude about it either, so Atem was privately relieved.
Conversations between these two could develop into an argument at any moment and were beyond salvaging, so she couldn't stay calm. But she couldn't relax yet either.
"For some reason Joey seems to have been the only one who didn't know. So I told him just now, and he won't believe me."
What a business, and Atem scratched her cheek with a fingertip.
"I see. But this is a matter between Atem and me. Your permission is unnecessary."
"Like hell! After kicking up an uproar like that, that's rich."
This too was the same as when she'd come back from the afterlife. As at the festival, everything somehow ended up being Seto's fault.
And this one showed every sign of developing into an argument.
"Joey, that was more or less something I caused—"
"You didn't do anything. Say, hypothetically — hypothetically you two were together, right?"
"If you have something to say, say it concisely."
"The news right now does nothing but make Atem anxious. Your own lover gets talked about as being days from marriage, and then all these names get thrown around as the partner — there's no way that feels good. You testing her?"
"Where would be the need to test her?"
This uproar had been caused by Atem.
Was the one doing the testing herself? As Téa had said — he belonged to no one but her, and that man had chosen her. Had she got the shape of that feeling wrong?
Proof that their hearts were connected. Proof that he was hers.
Without meaning to, she gripped Seto's hand.
"Seto."
"Se—! (SETOOO?! Right, that was his name!)"
Above Atem's head, in a place she couldn't see, Seto glared Joey into silence.
Ordinarily Atem never called Seto by name in front of others. Only when they were alone, or in front of Mokuba.
As far as Seto was concerned he had every desire to fire back at Joey for saying something unnecessary.
But what took priority was, of course, Atem.
"This much is a charming selfishness."
Atem didn't understand the difference between being selfish and testing him.
But there was nothing troubled anywhere in Seto's manner; the air about him was gentle as always. So she trusted the words and nodded slightly.
"...Understood."
"Be as selfish as you like. I'll grant all of it."
Saying so, he stroked her head.
Gentle eyes he'd never seen, a sweet tone he'd never heard. Without being bore down on at all, Joey swallowed hard. So this was what being overwhelmed felt like.
Judging that control of the room was complete, Seto left to prepare the shipment bound for the afterlife.
If Joey had made any progress with Mai the reaction would presumably have been different — what a business these little friends were, he sighed inwardly.
Seto's sweetness toward Atem was something Yugi had been made to witness endlessly, but it was Joey's first exposure, and recovery took him a little time.
A pairing he wouldn't have dreamt of.
And on top of that, like Yugi, he'd nearly put a foot on the forbidden road — with that natural enemy, Seto Kaiba, no less. It could hardly be helped.
"...If you're fine with it, I've got nothing more to say. Probably."
"Probably?"
"But if Kaiba does anything you don't like, I'll knock him flat."
"Mm. I appreciate the thought, but he's strong, you know?"
"I don't lose a fight. Leave it to me."
"That's not what I mean — practical, rather. By my assessment he's considerably skilled."
In fact the palace soldiers had been turned back by Seto. That, with both sides trained, had not been a brawl. It was dangerous.
"That's worrying in its own way. He hasn't forced himself on you, has he?"
"He's not a man who'd do that."
"You sure?"
"You may be misunderstanding, but he's kind, and—"
Joey had begun to feel something like worrying about a sister, but with gushing coming back at him there was no arguing.
He had no desire whatsoever to hear that sort of thing about a sister, and stopped knowing what to do.
That day the damage he took from Atem was the greatest of all, and with no way to stop the surging barrage, it goes without saying that he was worn to a shred.
I won't interfere in a couple's business. Probably. So he swore in his heart.
"Check's done. It's easy to follow, and it doesn't look like there'll be a problem."
"It's designed so that touching it produces instinctive understanding."
Cube in one hand, he operated the panel at his fingertips, and a hole appeared in empty space.
"You went in and out through somewhere this narrow, on that vehicle?"
"Hardly. Repeated improvement is a constant. Ultimately I designed it with the structure of a gate. One simply passes through."
Though of course an extraordinary ego and level of consciousness were required.
This time it was only setting tablets on that one's desk, so a small hole was quite sufficient.
Transmission of matter had been tested; it succeeded, was implemented, and he'd sent all manner of things one after another to the Atem in the afterlife in what amounted to a war of attrition, so he was well used to it.
He inserted only the requested items and closed the hole.
"That should have arrived."
Over the display he'd connected, Atem checked with Priest Seto.
"Seto, did they arrive?"
"They arrived. Now — now I can work."
While they were lent out, surveying, tallying and the rest had been done by hand, Priest Seto grumbled.
Hard labour indeed, Seto thought.
By any conservative estimate it was over-technology, but both the potential to master it and the attitude of adopting it without distaste rated extremely highly.
Furthermore he saw his surroundings and his people well and worked considerably hard; in the living world he'd unquestionably be a target for headhunting.
"My King, Mahad is most grateful—"
"Touch the screen and its use will make itself known. However, if it interferes with your work I'll impose usage limits and cut your pay. Now, if you've received it, get out — you're obstructing my work."
Mahad was driven off the screen.
The connection was cut from the other end, on the grounds that he was going to start on the work that had piled up.
Perhaps he should have put a function for summoning the master and apprentice into the initial settings after all. Mahad was serious enough, as seriousness went; he'd do some amount of work.
That guy works like crazy, Atem muttered to herself, and though he was in no position to say it of anyone, he agreed.
