Disclaimer: Mr. Kazuki Takahashi owns Yu-Gi-Oh! and all its characters and properties. Basically, only Gorg the Caveman, "Crystal" and "Sakura" belong to me.

Chapter Five: Death by Sandal

Mokuba sat against the door of the linen closet, panting. He had gotten there as fast as he possibly could, stumbling on his ridiculous sandals. His speed had paid off, fortunately. Sakura had either not come that way, or had passed the closet without discovering anything. He guessed the former, though. There was no fiery destruction at all in that particular hallway.

The boy looked down at the terribly ugly sandals that had strapped themselves to his feet. They, gaudy and illogical as they might be, were his only hope at getting rid of Sakura.

I guess I should test them out…

Mokuba reluctantly heaved himself off the floor. He stared expectantly at his sandals, and waited.

Absolutely nothing changed.

"Aww, man. I hoped I wouldn't have to try this…" Mokuba looked left, then right, then left once again for safety, cleared his throat and spoke.

"Hey, Sandals! Umm, why don't you… Uhh… Blow up the washing machine!" Mokuba waited a moment, and once again, nothing happened. Mokuba made a frustrated noise similar to "Gahk!" and stomped his foot in rage. He had made a fool of himself talking to his own footwear and had got nothing for it.

Ca-rash! Splop, splop, swish! A highly abnormal array of noises exploded from the laundry room on his right. Mokuba stared at the door for a moment, half dreading what he'd see.

What he saw was an utter mess. The washing machine had in fact, exploded. Judging from the many soggy socks plastered to the walls, floor and ceiling, as well as the large puddle of hot water on the floor, it had been halfway through a load.

Mokuba quickly came to the conclusion that giving his sandals an order in conjunction withstamping his foot was what activated whatever silly powers they had. Just in case, he decided to test his idea. "Okay, Sandals! Fix the washing machine!"

The sodden mess stayed in place; not even one of the socks moved. Mokuba left the wrecked laundry room and closed the door. It seemed they couldn't undo anything they'd caused.

If Seto asks… It was Sakura.

It is somewhat unusual for one of the eighth-and-upward Millennium Items to have any significant limitations on its power, for their purpose is to drown out all that came before them. If they do have any holds, they are trivial ones. For example, the twenty-fourth Item, teh uBeR l337 Millennium Garden Trowel, is utterly incapable of halting volcanic activity on Mars.

The Great Yet Rather Pointless Millennium Sandals, however, cannot undo anything they have done. Also, once their user's ultimate goal is accomplished; they vanish to whence they came. Once Sakura was gone, so were the Sandals. This would be, of course, a very, very good thing. Still, Sakura was still very much alive, and much more experienced in the use of Millennium Items. Mokuba knew this, so, with great care, he set out in search of Sakura.

Sakura was no longer rampaging wildly through the large mansion, but lounging in the scorched wreckage of Seto's auxiliary office. She was sprawled against the upturned desk, still wearing her less-than-attractive true form. Her wonderful Beauty Mask did itch so, especially when things weren't going her way.

Damn, that kid's getting to be a nuisance…When gets out of that Hole, I'll have to educate him a little…

Mokuba was already out, as is already known, and in search of her. He was at that moment, conducting a thorough search of the downstairs bathroom. Sakura didn't know that, and being rather bored of mayhem and destruction, simply delighted herself with violent, perverse imaginings of Mokuba's "education".

Several minutes later, Sakura stopped giggling long enough to notice something. Her BeLt was acting strangely; the eye symbol was flickering with golden light, and the odd, cone-shaped ornaments were waving about of their own accord.

The words that ran through Sakura's mind were not fit for a biker brawl.

For Teh BeLt's odd activity could only be caused by another Millennium Item, one in close proximity. Hoping it wasn't too serious; Sakura rose and went out of the room, seeking to eliminate whatever was causing her BeLt to react.

Both Sakura and Mokuba worked their way quietly through the mansion. They were drawing nearer each other with every moment that passed, as Sakura could tell by the increased activity of hero own Item. The Sandals, unfortunately, could not detect her presence.

It was in the foyer, where they had first laid eyes on each other that they finally met in battle. Mokuba, fortunately, saw Sakura first. She was walking down the stairs carefully. It is difficult to walk down steep, slippery marble stairs at the best of times. When you are wearing three inch wedge heels, it is especially tricky.

"Sandals, take away her belt." Mokuba whispered to his mystic footwear and stomped his foot. Teh BeLt, flickering madly, the odd little ornaments flailing, ripped itself away from Sakura's elfish waist and flew six metres across the room. "Whoops…" He had hoped that would things for good. It seemed that he needed to be more specific with his instructions.

In the time it took to realize his error, Sakura had all but flung herself off the stairs in order to retrieve her beloved belt. With it in her claws, Sakura was a formidable enemy.

FLASHFLASHFLASH!

Every plot twisting anomaly in Sakura's arsenal was unleashed upon Mokuba. Plot Holes, Chasms of Despair, Tunnels of Lurve, and other myriad figments of illogic popped up everywhere. Mokuba was able to evade them through a combination of being small and fast, and staggering luck.

"Sandals," He gasped, "make her belt disappear forever!" he slammed his small foot to the floor as hard as he could manage.

There was no light. There was no sound. Teh BeLt and all its spawn simply vanished. Sakura stood alone, bereft of her greatest strength. Her Beauty Mask flickered back into existence and she put on her most heart rending tearful smile. "You don't really want to hurt me do you, sweetheart?" She was nauseatingly gorgeous in her desperation.

"Sorry, but really need to leave me and my brother alone now." Mokuba then said the fateful words. "Sandals, send Sakura back where she came from!" As with Teh BeLt, Sakura vanished without sound or light. She was simply gone.

Mokuba felt himself drop a centimetre or two as his ridiculous, miraculous sandals finally vanished. "Oh, good. They're gone." He wandered back to the linen-closet hallway, in a daze.

When he arrived, the fact that the ordeal was over was finally driven into his head when he saw his confused, groggy, dishevelled elder brother crawl out of the linen closet with a dryer sheet stuck to his coat. "Seto! Seto!" Mokuba hurled himself at Seto, throwing them both to the floor.

Seto had an absolutely seismic headache; he had just dug himself out a linen closet, and felt inexplicably… dirty. The only good thing that seemed to be happening was his brother's laughter. After a while, when Mokuba was calm, he gently extricated himself from his brother's bear hug and asked, hesitantly, just what on earth had happened. There had been few times he had felt more disgusted. After he had heard the explanation, he got up and began to walk off.

"Seto, where are you going?" Mokuba asked.

"'M gunna take a shower…" Seto mumbled in response.

Seto was had never been good with thanking people, even his brother, so Mokuba knew he would have to wait just a bit. "And then?"

"I'm going to take a bath."

Mokuba grinned. "And then?"

Seto Kaiba smiled. A tired, barely existent smile, but a smile nonetheless. "I'll do whatever you like."

- - -

And… We're done! At last… Hoi. I'm sorry that took so long. Really. Please forgive me! Wail

I'm going to start something new soon. A semi-parody of the whole cat ears thing. Once again staring poor Kaiba. He'll end up with the ears of something rather more… ignoble than a cat. I'd really appreciate you reading it and telling me what you think. Please?