Something in Yuugi's words pulls Kaiba down to earth, just a little closer. For once, he isn't thinking solely about himself, or Mokuba, but of someone else.

Yuugi can say he's not scared of dying, and Kaiba will believe him. But he is scared of something, relating to death. If not him, then the deaths of others, surely. Something...he might have had a hand in?

No, not possible. The Yuugi he knows, this Yuugi, even...they don't have the grit for it. He's certain.

Besides, the offer he makes afterwards? It's like a knife slicing through the last remaining tether that holds Kaiba steady. The smile that had faded now catches at the corner of his lip, dragging it up slightly.

Oh?

Do you think that I need protecting? Is that it? I need protecting? I need your pity?

Perhaps you think me a coward, of the sort who would put it off on someone else because it's more convenient to let someone perish than to face danger head-on?

Kaiba would laugh if he could. But he can't.

I don't need you to take a bullet for me, Yuugi Mutou. You pitied me once--and I'm not talking about the other you.

It was you who chose to stay your hand against me, to crumple under the weight of my gambit! And for what? Just to watch the outcome, I suppose, an outcome I could not change, because I--