Gentle and soothing wouldn't have worked for Kaiba. He needs to be smashed against the temple with reality for it to really sink in. It doesn't mean it's any less shocking to see Kaiba's face fall, the confusion knitting his brows, everything.

"It didn't cross with me," he finally says quietly. The pod hadn't landed in the afterlife with him, that much was true. But he thought...if he was there, then his body had crossed over physically and not just mentally. Everything had felt so real, Atem ha been real, the feel of him had been more than just a dream--

"Why...?" he asks, and the more he tries to speak, the less fractured his syllables sound. "Why you? Why would he tell you?"

He wants to ask more. What happened to him? Why do his legs hurt? Why doesn't his arm feel completely the same? Was Mokuba okay?!

His brother...his brother had to be doing okay, right?