Kaiba blinks, but quickly shakes his head. Whatever. He's heard weirder. The grunt will live without one of many, many Haunters for a little while.

But that question catches him off guard. He has to think about it for a few moments. The emotions that flicker on his face are tangled up---regret, embarrassment, and then resolve. He's slowly learning to live with who he is now.

"I don't know if you listened in on all of Zahra's conversations with me, but the differences in all of our lives from the puzzle going to a different person appear to have had a number of ripple effects. I didn't have the opportunities to be hostile to them that your Kaiba did, I was so laser-focused on defeating the pharaoh---and after he left, it got worse. I abandoned Mokuba over chasing that title."

He finally got one corner of the tent up and leaned over the pole for a moment, gathering his thoughts. "Someone I met here showed me that I needed to make a choice between my obsession with a title or building a future---that I wasn't as prepared for the consequences as I'd thought. I realized once we were apart for this long that Mokuba means more to me than winning. I'm not better---I'm just a failure who got a second chance."