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It was a hot August day in Neo Domino City when Jonouchi found himself in the kitchen making lunch. While Kaiba didn't need to go to the main office of KaibaCorp, he randomly announced the five of them were going to have a little vacation before Mokuba went back to school. Of course, Mokuba was excited to see his friends again as video calls just were not the same. Heero could care less himself but was okay with it since Duo was excited. Jonouchi, like always these days, was basically just enjoying the ride.
“Hey, who's Shizuka?” Duo asked as he walked towards Jonouchi, not looking up from his tablet. “I was reading some of these journals from your time and this Hiroto guy is really crushing on her but is worried about you.”
“Yeah, really glad Honda got over that crush on her,” Jonouchi laughed, putting the knife he was using down. “Shizuka was my little sister, so you can understand I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of my friend dating her. Thank God he got together with Otogi after he revealed he was only hitting on Shizuka to make Honda jealous. Still not too happy with that part, but the results still work.”
“Huh... Why haven't we met her reincarnation?” Duo continued. He sat down at the kitchen table and put the tablet to the side to focus on the conversation. Something told the former pilot it was about to get interesting.
“I never had the time to look for her,” Jonouchi sighed in guilt. “With waking up, needing to grow up again, the war, and helping out with Duel Monsters, there wasn't much time. Besides, most of them found me since they already worked at either KaibaCorp or Industrial Illusions. Yuugi was the only one I had to go out of my way to find but that's because he's a kid still. At least his family still runs Kame Game Shop after all this time.”
“You just always had poor time management,” Kaiba interrupted, walking in followed by Heero and Mokuba, all three carrying groceries. “I managed to track down everyone while sharing a body with Heero, constant training and assassinations, fighting in the war, occasional Preventor work, and still being a top duelist. You even had a head start over me.”
“So cold, Seto,” Jonouchi whined. “Care to tell us what happened to my sister?”
“Wait, he really doesn't know?” Mokuba asked with a grin.
“Evidently,” Kaiba sighed, sitting down. Heero smirked while putting the food away. Might as well let Kaiba handle this explanation despite him doing the bulk of the research in between missions. “Shizuka is actually part of three bloodlines in two families. She was Honda and Otogi's surrogate, each of them having their own kid.”
“Well, I guess I can live with that instead of her ending up with Honda,” Jonouchi said, scratching his head. “That's only two. I'm guessing the third one was with who she married. Am I right?”
Kaiba's smirk grew as he pulled out his phone and went to open his photos. He turned it around to show Jonouchi an image of himself with a girl with brunette hair and green eyes. The girl had one of her arms around Kaiba's and flashed a peace sign with the other. Jonouchi's mouth dropped as tears started to form in his eyes.
“We met last year when we finished the paperwork to make everything legal,” Kaiba said once he realized Jonouchi got over his initial shock. “Say hello to my 'sister', Serenity. Her family was the one to help with making me legitimate.”
“So, if her family was the one to take you in, would that mean her full name is Serenity Kaiba?” Duo asked out loud. Everyone could practically see the gears turn in Jonouchi's head as he tried to comprehend everything. It took less time than Kaiba thought it would before rage filled Jonouchi's eyes.
“SHIZUKA MARRIED MOKUBA!?” Jonouchi yelled before glaring at Mokuba. “Why didn't you ever tell me you're also her descendant!?”
“You never asked,” Mokuba stated, raising his eyebrow. “Seto-nii, your brother wasn't lying when he said how stupid Jonouchi was. How did he not run Industrial Illusions into the ground?”
“We all suspected his dumb luck extended outside of Duel Monsters,” Kaiba sighed. “It is also the only explanation as to why he's still alive. Either way, congratulations, Duo. You got what little intelligence Katsuya had.”
It took a few seconds before both Duo and Jonouchi started to yell at the same time. Duo was ranting about how Kaiba implied he wasn't smart since Kaiba loved to joke about how much of an idiot Jonouchi had always been. Sure, Heero and Kaiba called him an idiot or something to that extent in the past, but this one hurt more for some reason. Meanwhile, Jonouchi kept switching between how evil the boys in the Kaiba family were and how Kaiba called him stupid. Every so often he pleaded with whatever higher being was listening that Serenity wouldn't be corrupted by the Kaiba blood in her.
Opening to his messages, Kaiba typed out something to tell his “sister” that Jonouchi finally found out the truth. He'd let his boyfriend rant about “evil Kaibas” for now, he would be forgiven by the time they’d gone out to lunch this weekend. Having Jonouchi finally see a version of Shizuka for closure would be worth the headache he'd have in a few minutes.