บท 9: Don't Play with the Lion
DIMENSION: ANIME (Pays to Save the Day)
Seto Kaiba's Home, 2002
"I don't often screw up this bad. I have companies to run, I never get this messed up." Yet, Seto couldn't deny it. On his dresser when he woke up was a black cat, waking him up. "You did not just say, 'rise Seto Kaiba, there is payment to settle' to me."
"Yes, I did." The cat spoke again.
Seto rolled out of bed, looking around. It had to be a prank. "Cats don't talk."
"I am Bastet," she answered, "and you must help save the world."
"No, I must figure out who drugged me last night." A talking cat, bothering him of all people to save the world? Someone was playing dirty with him.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," it said as he headed to the bathroom. "Everyone must put in payment, even Pharoah."
He stopped and looked backward. Pharoah? He stared at the cat. "How do you make a dead man pay?"
"I am Bastet, with orders to gather payment for another universe of you to save the world."
Seto shook his head briefly. The hell did he get into last night? "Another Universe of me?"
"Think of it as . . . oh, how to explain to mortals. Think parallel universe."
"Multiverse?" Seto rubbed his face. "When I get my hands on the person who drugged me, I'm going to have a thing or two to say-Ow!" Damn cat! "You scratched me right on the back!"
"I am not a drug, I am a goddess, and you will listen!" She changed into a woman that still had a catlike appearance. "Every time you think this was all some result of alcohol or delusion, remember your scratch."
Seto felt his back start to sear. He touched it. ////Seto: I can't even say I did it to myself./// "Fine, I'm listening." Though he didn't understand it. In all his years, he had never met an actual Egyptian God. He met the God Cards, and had seen them, but an actual god that could walk and talk? Not a card? "What brings you to planet Earth?"
"Payment," she corrected him as she took the form of a regular black cat again. "In another universe, a version of you is going to help save the world soon. That version will need extra power and he will have no time to relinquish payment. You have to pay the fee for him."
"Are you kidding me?" Another him, in another universe, needed him to pay his fee? "If he's me, he'd find a way to settle the score."
"There's no time," she warned him. "Payment will be taken, and the gods do not want to take payment from winners."
"As hard as it is to imagine, what if he loses?" Seto asked.
"Payment is still needed ahead of time to have the power needed to save the world," she said again. "I can explain no further. You must provide payment."
Seto went over to his wallet. "What's the damages?"
"Payment is not provided through trivial currency. You cannot buy power that way."
"I beg to differ," he said.
"Not these powers. You are a hard one to get through. Most would be praising, bowing and urging me to tell them more. You haven't even kneeled and I had to scratch you to make you even believe," she complained. "I am close to leaving."
"Without getting your payment?" He closed his wallet. "Fine by me."
"Payment will be taken with or without your consent," she said. "When it is by the mortal's cooperation, they feel more in control of it. The ways of getting there are better, but if you want it to just happen, keep going."
Hm. "What's the payment?"
"You will create the next wielder of the Blue Eyes White Dragon with Serenity Wheeler."
What? "What kind of payment is that?" Serenity Wheeler? That name sounded almost familiar. Wheeler. Wheeler.
Hm. There was an annoying person named Joey Wheeler he used to know, thought he was a real- "Wait, that's relation to that moron, Joey Wheeler?"
"A sister."
"How do I create the next wielder with his sister? Why would I?"
"Payment. You will create it the way humans create other humans, with mutual relations."
What?! "You think you are going to stick me with some kid with Joey Wheeler's sister? That's not payment, that's punishment."
"Yes, some payments will feel like punishment."
"What's Yugi's punishment?" Seto was intrigued to find out more. "Maybe I'll be more cooperative in your little game if you tell me?"
"For starters? Half immortality," she said.
"For starters? I don't get it, what's that supposed to mean?" Seto asked.
"Pharoah is the modern man Yugi Muto and the spirit that was known as Yami to this dimension," she answered. "Now will you cooperate nicely?"
"No, I was lying," Seto said as he cleaned out his ear. "You're probably just some bent out of shape spirit that got trapped in a cat or something. These punishments don't make any sense. There's no way I am bringing anything into this world, especially with a Wheeler."
"I tried." Bastet bowed her head and faded away. "Sekhmet."
————-
Seto looked around himself. He found himself on the floor in his pajamas with a lion sitting two feet from him. He found his side hurt, and most likely there was a cause if there was a huge lion right in front of him.
It took just a half a second before his mind could start pulling things together.
"Scream and I'll enjoy biting off your head," it hissed. "I am not Bastet. I enjoy human meat, so just treat me the same way you did her. I dare you." She growled with a sort of smile showing off her teeth. "I don't have to leave every piece intact for you to finish payment. Don't test me."
Much. More. Impressive than the kitty. ///Seto: It's a fucking lion!/// Even if it wasn't a god, it could bite his head off right there, and he knew he had a wound on his side. He was in incredible pain and he even felt liquid next to himself. ///Seto: Am I going to die already?///
"Not if you pay attention," Sekhmet answered his inner thought. "You are going to take the punishment in order to save the world. That's all you need to know, mortal. Unless?" She licked the outside of her mouth. "I can give you more information in return for a limb?"
"No thanks, keep your information." He wanted to keep all of his limbs but she was still stretching forward. He tried to block himself, and screamed as she crunched down on his finger.
"Sekhmet, no, spit the finger out," Bastet insisted as it ripped off. She spit it out and Bastet reattached it. She took away the pain of the finger and all signs it was unattached. "There, good as new. You owe him for that, Sekhmet, he said no to that."
"Human meat is so damn tasty."
"Anything you want!" Seto would not play around in any way with this lion. He didn't even provoke, and it tried to eat his finger! The pain in the finger was gone, but he still remembered it, and the rest of his body was still in pain!
"Do you want to remember this now or not?" Bastet said as the cat sat on top of the lion's head like a mere decoration. "If you don't, we will fix your wounds, heal you and rid you of all of the pain. You will forget all memories tied to Joey Wheeler and Serenity Wheeler."
"Finally, something good," he tried to joke to avoid the pain.
"You will take care of your payment unknowingly and forget us. You will remember later in life. But? If you want to keep the memory now, we'll do nothing to patch you up, and you'll take care of your payment knowingly," Sekhmet answered.
Ah! "I want to know my future, but I need the no pain option," he insisted.
"Okay. We wanted to be graceful," Bastet purred. "Goddesses should have a sense of grace. To leave all to pay the punishment without any explanation wouldn't be graceful."
"Fuck grace, that lion wants to eat me, fix this!"
"Okay. A compromise since your state is leaving you in too much pain to make the decision you want to. You will remember in the future after you meet with her again, so you can convey the truth," Bastet said. "Temper please." She looked down at Sekhmet from her head. "You owe him for the finger. Humans do not multiply fast enough for you to consume."
Sekhmet growled.
"Plenty of alcohol when we go home."
Sekhmet stopped growling. "Fine. Seto Kaiba? You, Serenity Wheeler, Yugi Muto, the one you ridiculously call Yami Yugi, the Cecelia Pegasus Card spirit, Téa Gardener, Joey Wheeler, Bakura and Mai Valentine will all suffer."
"Will provide payment," Bastet said instead. "Now, let's take all these bad feelings away, human. You don't need to feel them anymore."
"Those are old names, and an even older card," Seto said. "That card was even busted, are you saying there is a spirit in it?"
"There was until it went into a friend of the one you call Yami."
"That card went to that girl?" Seto Kaiba said, having come back from the flashback they showed him. It was even more intense than what Ishizu had shown him before Battle City. He could see situations he had no idea of, and heard what he never could have. "So? It doesn't help me in any way. Not that card and not this explanation. I can't do anything. I can't reverse or help, all I get is the memory to say 'this is why it happened'? That's not good enough!" Seto complained.
"Oh. Maybe cards, would you like cards?"
Ooh? "Yeah, I'm partial to God cards." She handed him fourteen cards. He looked at them but there was no writing, just decoration on both sides. Red cards, gold trim. All of them had a single name on the top but two of them. "What are these?"
"Explanations. You can hand out the cards when the payments are ready and the truth will be revealed. We don't have time to mingle with humans all the time for explanation."
Ugh. "Just stupid explanation cards." Not god cards at all. Seto tried to block himself again, but Bastet stopped Sekhmet.
"The arm, I want the arm for the outburst!" Sekhmet insisted.
"Cease!" Bastet commanded. "Let his memory be wiped, and we can end this day."
"Fine," Sekhmet said, "but when he remembers, I want his arm unless he apologizes."
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