The Bittersweet Fate Of A Duelist

Chapter 16

«Big brother, I have the data of the new Duel Disk. It's a great success».
Speaking from a hologram hovering in mid-air, Mokuba tried to get his brother's attention to distract him from the madness that had locked him up in the space station day and night.
After Diva's defeat, Seto had begun spending all his working hours in that place out of everyone's reach, away from the constant coming and going of people in his skyscraper and away from any kind of phone calls.
The only numbers he didn't block on his phone were Mokuba's and, surprisingly enough, even Yugi's stayed off the banlist for a while.
Seto left the mansion at the crack of dawn, went up to his space station alone and returned home late at night, so exhausted one evening he didn't even make out Mokuba's figure standing on the stairs. The younger Kaiba tried to wait for his brother, but every time he got more and more ignored.
He always repeated the same answer to every question, whoever his interlocutor was. "I need solitude", he would say. "I can have it, there".

At first, Mokuba tried not to worry too much, by that time used to his brother's exhausting routine, and as long as he took care of eating and drinking more than enough to function he avoided shouting his doubts in Seto's face.
At least, until Seto stopped coming back home.
The first few days Mokuba hadn't paid much attention to it. Seto was stubborn, and moving him from his goals was almost impossible even for him. Therefore, Mokuba chose not to interfere.
However, when days became weeks, Mokuba had decided to intervene by poking his nose into his brother's research and experimentations. Finding plans for a dimensional capsule wasn't the good news he was hoping to get.

Fiddling with the capsule's controls, on which elaborated holograms projected calculations and three-dimensional models of his ideal travel trajectory, Seto nodded in acknowledgment: «Thank you for the update, Mokuba, but now I need to stay focused».
The news his prototype was flying off the shelves should gave ignited his usual spark of pride, but Seto's attention wasn't directed towards the skillful marketing of the company.
What he was about to do could have positive results, but also negative ones. Lethal, perhaps.
Maybe that attempt would only prove to be an incredibly expensive way to get lost in an intricate web woven by the dimensions building the cosmos.
Seto didn't have a single hint about it.

Mokuba frowned: «Brother, are you really going? We didn't even test that prototype», he said, eyeing the capsule in which Seto was sitting.
Even the complex set of clothing he was wearing, completely interwoven with electronic components, cables and sensing devices, had never undergone the slightest hint of testing. Not to mention the Duel Diss Seto had already anchored to his forearm, a tech monster that alone had cost the CEO millions, if not more.
Of course, Seto had explained to him what he intended to do, and how he was going to accomplish such a mission.
The Quantum Cube, the elusive eighth Millennium Item used by Diva just some time before, was placed at his side, gray and dull, seemingly innocuous but holding immense power.
A power Seto had not only been able to counter, but to ultimately combine with his own technology.
The Cube was, in fact, the only source of energy on which the dimensional capsule would rely on to move in between dimensions.
The more he thought about it, the more Mokuba became convinced that journey wouldn't bring anything good.
What if the Cube was to lose energy earlier than expected?
Seto risked being trapped in who knows what place, unable to turn back. Even worse, the Cube could rebel against its holder and his technology, triggering a chain reaction and causing Seto to die.
«It's too dangerous», Mokuba said, his hands clenched on the control panel in front of him. Seto? Seto!».

Even knowing how much Mokuba was worried about him, Seto ignored his brother, continuing to tic away on the command keypad. He couldn't chicken out, not when he was so close to... to him.
Looking up at his brother, his little brother who had grown so much under his wing, he let a faint smile spread across his face: «I have to do it», he replied, almost forcing out those words. Words that came out in something that was just a little more than a whisper.
«Mokuba, I leave the rest up to you».
With one last look at his brother, perhaps really the last, Seto triggered the right mechanisms and the capsule closed over him, the dome sealing perfectly the cramped space.
Inside, Seto had only a limited oxygen supply, and the space was so small the slightest malfunction could cause irreparable damage to both the structure and himself.
In any case, if the intra-dimensional journey wasn't going to be successful on the first attempt, Seto would not get another chance.