"I miss Mom and Dad. I wish that they were here with us right now. It's not fair that they left us here all alone."

"Come on, no crying. Tears aren't gonna help us now. There's only one way you and I are gonna get through all this. We've got to get tough. Emotions will only get in the way of our survival. Don't expect anyone else to help us ever again. You and I are on our own now."

10 Years Old: Seto cowered on the floor as his step-father walked away, leaving his adopted son without a single shred of remorse for what he'd done.

"What more does he want from me?" the child whispered as he choked back a sob. No matter how loud he yelled or how hard he hit, Gozaburo would never make him cry. Seto wouldn't allow it. Even so, he was shaking as he struggled back to his feet and began to gather together his school things, moving stiffly as he cleaned up the desk before finally going to sleep for the night.

He remembered when he used to enjoy schoolwork, because it was interesting and he was good at it. But ever since Gozaburo had put him in a highly accelerated education program, school had become a grueling, miserable thing for him. His "father" demanded only the best from Seto, and when he couldn't manage to get absolutely perfect scores, he suffered for it dearly.

Besides all that, what child could enjoy schoolwork when it meant he'd be forced to whittle away at pages and pages of it while wearing a tight dog collar meant to keep him from falling asleep before he was done? And how could you feel satisfied with completing your homework when all of your toys and games had been taken away permanently, so that you couldn't play with them even when you had finished your schoolwork? Surely his step-father hated him, and intended to torture him until he broke his spirit.

Seto knew why Gozaburo hated him so much. After all, what man enjoyed having the title of international chess champion stripped from him by a mere child, even if he was a prodigy? Seto had trumped Mr. Kaiba in that fateful chess match, and he'd known that he would going into it; after all, when a chess champion was challenged to a match by an orphan betting adoption, it looked more like an act of ignorant desperation than a carefully planned strategy. He'd known that Gozaburo wouldn't take the match seriously at first, which had given Seto an advantage, one that he'd exploited shamelessly. Gozaburo had never forgiven him for his arrogance and intelligence. His bitterness and egoism kept his hatred for the child burning hotter with every passing day.

"I liked the way it was before we got here! At least back then, you actually smiled once in a while!"

"He wants to forget everything, including the person he used to be. But I liked Seto back then, he actually used to smile. Now he wants to get rid of that smile forever. Seto needs to realize that reaching the top doesn't have to mean being miserable."

11 Years Old: Seto hated living in fear. One day, he'd be powerful enough that there'd be nobody for him to fear, that everybody would be afraid of him. One day, he'd be smart enough that he wouldn't need anybody's help with anything. One day, he'd be strong enough to take care of his brother all by himself. Gozaburo may have intended to break Seto, but the arrogant orphaned prodigy was proving to have an indomitable spirit.

Seto worked at his lessons as hard as he possibly could, not just to avoid Gozaburo's' fury, but so that one day he could surpass and supplant the president and founder of KaibaCorp. And as he got older, his anger grew hotter, his wit grew sharper, and Gozaburo's temper grew shorter.

Mr. Kaiba refused to tolerate insolence from the brat he'd taken in from the orphanage, and Seto soon learned the full extent of Gozaburo's cruelty. Even so, Seto endured it all dry-eyed, his spirit hardening into cold steel, forged by the fires of hatred. He hid his wounds and scars perfectly with the formal suits and turtleneck shirts he was given, never letting his younger brother, or anybody on the outside, see him in pain.

"The past is over, and I may not be proud of every decision I made, but everything I did, I did for us, so we'd have a better life. Now let's move ahead, and don't look back."

12 Years Old: As much as he hated Gozaburo, it was still in his interest to please the egomaniac. He developed a computer program for a virtual gaming system and showed it to his step-father, only to have him laugh in his face, then steal Seto's program and pass it off as his own, earning his company millions of dollars.

"How dare he," Seto muttered to himself. "How dare he steal my invention, after I worked so hard for so long to make it? Nobody steals from me and gets away with it." Mokuba could only sit by silently, upset that their step-father had stolen from Seto, but also displeased at seeing what his older brother was becoming: someone who was angry and unhappy all the time. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen Seto smile.

On the elder brother's birthday, Gozaburo proposed a contest to Seto. He gave him ten million dollars, saying that he may do anything he liked with it, provided he could pay back ten times the amount in exactly one year, and if he couldn't, Seto and Mokuba would go back to the orphanage. Thus, Seto's first real challenge began. He was undaunted, however.

"I never lose!"

13 Years Old: He paid back more than ten times the amount Gozaburo had given him. Perhaps he had used underhanded business techniques, but he hadn't done anything illegal. He wasn't a thief like his step-father. But he had learned his business techniques from the scummy corporation head himself, not just from observing Gozaburo, but also from the game theory, econometrics, and investment textbooks he'd had Seto learn by heart.

But not even Gozaburo could have anticipated what would happen next. Seto had accumulated almost enough shares of the Kaiba Corporation to take over. All he needed was Mokuba's 2% of the shares to finally overthrow their step-father. Gozaburo tried turning Mokuba against Seto, but ultimately failed. In such a way, Gozaburo lost control of KaibaCorp.

Seto spared no tears when Gozaburo committed suicide, just as he'd wasted no love on the cold, cruel man when he was alive. Seto was almost there, almost to the point where he'd have the power he'd long dreamed of acquiring. That power, he believed, would protect him, so long as he could keep it. And once he had that power, he could use it to protect Mokuba and give him a better future.

"Yugi may have lost the game, but at least he hasn't lost his heart, unlike you, Seto Kaiba! You've spent so much time around machines that you've forgotten what it's like to be human!"

17 Years Old: He was president and CEO of KaibaCorp, the youngest multibillionaire on earth. He'd changed Gozaburo's company from specializing in weapons of mass destruction and combat vehicles to children's gaming technology, developed entirely by yours truly. He programed and designed the holographic stages for the popular card game Duel Monsters, a game he'd managed to master in no time. He was officially the international champion, and as such held the title of King of Games. He never lost a single duel.

He'd even landed a profitable deal with the Duel Monsters creator, Maximilian Pegasus. He'd started attending a normal high school, not that there was much they could teach him. He was still working towards fulfilling the oath he'd made to Mokuba when they were still in the orphanage: that one day he'd make the best theme parks all over the world, theme parks that orphans could visit for free.

"I make my own destiny."