Seto Kaiba (manga)

Seto Kaiba is a character in the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga. This is the original depiction of Seto Kaiba, as created by Kazuki Takahashi.

Kaiba is a rival of Yugi Mutou and Dark Yugi. He was first introduced as a prodigal, cold-hearted gamer who stopped at nothing to achieve his goals, even resorting to seemingly killing his opponents.

Following his second Duel with Yugi, he was left in a coma, where he reconstructed his heart and emerged less evil. Since then, he retains his arrogance, but shares compassion for his younger brother, Mokuba. His Egyptian ancestor is Priest Seto.

Prior to debut
At a young age, Seto and his younger brother Mokuba were orphaned. Their mother died when Mokuba was born, and their father supposedly died in an accident when Seto was eight. Their relatives greedily used up their inheritance and afterward left them at the city orphanage.

The then-head of KaibaCorp, Gozaburo Kaiba, arrived at the orphanage to adopt an heir. Seto, who was 10 at the time, saw the chance to challenge him to a game of chess, with the stakes being that Gozaburo was to adopt Seto and Mokuba together, should Seto win. Seto won the game by cheating. Gozaburo then adopted both brothers.

However, life was opposite of the luxury that Seto and Mokuba expected after the adoption, as Gozaburo forced Seto into a rigorously accelerated school program, forcing him to study several subjects, including economics, social studies, foreign languages, and game strategy. What Gozaburo did not expect was that he was not raising an heir, but a powerful enemy who harbored a lot of anger and rage towards Gozaburo for his actions.

Six years later, Seto Kaiba took over his adoptive father's company by gaining the 51% that he needed to be in control. Gozaburo, provoked by Seto taking over and becoming CEO, committed suicide by jumping out of his office window, leaving a grudge-filled message that would become his adoptive son's philosophy: to lose is to die.

The Cards with Teeth
Kaiba visited the Kame Game shop, not expecting to see anything of value to him, but spotted Sugoroku Mutou's "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" Duel Monsters card on the counter. Sugoroku refused to trade or sell the card because of its sentimental value to him. Kaiba stormed off in a huff, believing Sugoroku to be a fool.

The next day at school, Sugoroku's grandson, Yugi had brought the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" card in with him. Kaiba pretended to have learned a lesson about loving cards from Sugoroku and asked Yugi if he could see the card. Yugi showed him the card, but Kaiba exchanged it for a counterfeit, thinking Yugi hadn't noticed. However when he was leaving school, Yugi approached him, saying he knew he took the card, but didn't want to say it in front of everyone else earlier. Kaiba denied it and whacked Yugi with his briefcase when Yugi persisted to ask for it back.

Dark Yugi then emerged and challenged Kaiba to a Shadow Game of Duel Monsters. As Kaiba was about to lose, he snuck the stolen "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" into his hand and played it. However the "Blue-Eyes" remained loyal to Sugoroku and betrayed Kaiba, by destroying itself. After Kaiba lost, Dark Yugi inflicted a Penalty Game, where Kaiba imagined he was sent to the Duel Monsters Spirit World and repeatedly killed by Duel Monsters, though it was just a sensation of death. Unfortunately, this had little effect on Kaiba's personality and he emerged, even more vicious than ever before, determined to defeat Yugi.

Hologram simulator projects
Kaiba began work on creating holographic technology to heighten the experience of playing Duel Monsters. He designed the Battle Boxes, which were arenas that players sat inside while playing Duel Monsters and would be surrounded by projections of the monsters they Summon.

He passed the idea on the creator of Duel Monsters, Maximillion Pegasus. Pegasus invited Kaiba as his special guest to witness his televised Duel against the Card Professor, Keith Howard. At the Duel, Pegasus simply sat in front of Keith for a few seconds, then wrote down some instructions on a piece of paper, which he gave to a beginner from the audience to use against Keith. While Tom dueled Keith, Pegasus sat with Kaiba and accepted his proposal. This defeat also caused Keith's downfall and resulted in him becoming a broken individual who played Russian Roulette while attempting to cope with his failure with drugs and alcohol.

Kaiba was later invited to the Duelist Kingdom island to celebrate the launch of the Battle Boxes.

Kaiba inferred that Pegasus must have read Keith's mind in the Duel, so later he began making Duel Disks to combat Pegasus' mind reading strategy. With Duel Disks, players would be able to stand further apart and avoid face-to-face contact, which he hoped would be enough to avoid having his mind read.

Death-T
The four "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" cards were possessed by an American, a German, a Hong Konger, and Sugoroku Mutou of Japan, Yugi's grandfather. Kaiba took the cards belonging to the former three by forcing one person into bankruptcy, by making deals with the mafia and even forcing one person to commit suicide.

Even though he has returned to normal, Kaiba still continued to suffer nightmares of his Sensation of Death. Kaiba worked on constructing a Kaiba Land theme park in Domino City and spent 10 billion yen on the Death-T park, which is set on constructing artificial Penalty Games to get his revenge on Yugi. He hired people such as professional hitmen and a serial killer to work in stages of Death-T. Mokuba also offered to face Yugi in one of the stages. Kaiba tried talking him out of it, believing Mokuba to be no match for Yugi, but Mokuba insisted and took the role anyway in the hopes of winning Seto's respect. Kaiba even made a bet on which stage of Death-T Yugi would die on, choosing the final stage, meaning he bet Mokuba would lose.

He invites Yugi and his friend Katsuya Jonouchi to his mansion the night before the grand opening of the KaibaLand and has Sugoroku Mutou kidnapped unbeknownst to them.

The next day, he brought Yugi and Jonouchi to the opening as his special guests. Here he is confronted by a former KaibaCorp employee, who accuses Kaiba of driving his father to commit suicide, but the man is quickly removed. Kaiba grants Yugi and Jonouchi free access to a number of rides, before he takes them to a special show. Here he reveals that he has kidnapped Sugoroku and faces him in a game of Duel Monsters in his new Battle Box simulators. Sugoroku uses "Blue-Eyes White Dragon", but loses as he is overwhelmed by the holograms and Kaiba's 3 "Blue-Eyes White Dragons". After winning, Kaiba tears-up Sugoroku's "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" card so it cannot be used against him and has Sugoroku subjected to an artificial Penalty Game, where he was attacked by holographic monsters. Kaiba makes Yugi swear to participate in Death-T in exchange for releasing his grandfather.

Yugi accepts, but Jonouchi won't let him do it alone. Their friend Hiroto Honda, who was in the audience with his nephew Johji also accompanies them.

In the first stage, Death-T 1, Kaiba has Yugi and his friends face the hitmen in a shootout game. Although the game is greatly rigged against Yugi, his friend Anzu Mazaki had been hired by KaibaCorp for that stage. Yugi and his friends still managed to defeat the hitmen.

In Death-T 2, he subjects them to an electric chair ride and guillotine, where they must solve a riddle to prevent their hands from being cut off. For the final part of the stage he kidnaps Johji, who is a fan of his and such cooperates. Kaiba forces a member of the party to face the Chopman in a fight to the death to get Johji back. He appears on a screen on the Chopman's stomach telling the group of the Chopman's crimes.

In Death-T 3, he has the group enter a room where blocks fall from the ceiling. The friends manage to make it out, apart from Honda, who gets stuck behind.

Death-T 4 was Mokuba's stage. Beforehand, Mokuba approaches Seto about him betting against his own brother. Seto reminds Mokuba that he tried talking him out of it, as he can't beat Yugi and calls him a loser. Mokuba stormed off, eager to show Seto up. The stage consisted of a rigged game of Capsule Monster Chess. Mokuba was eventually defeated by Dark Yugi, so Kaiba subjected him to an artificial Penalty Game, similar to Sugoroku's. However Dark Yugi, saves Mokuba. Mokuba reconsiders recent events and notices Seto has changed and wonders if Yugi can return him to normal.

Kaiba faces Dark Yugi in a game of Duel Monsters in the final stage. Yugi uses his grandfather's Deck. As the game nears the end, Kaiba has Summoned his three "Blue-Eyes White Dragons", almost ensuring victory, but Yugi manages to Summon "Exodia" and defeat Kaiba. Dark Yugi then inflicts another Penalty Game on Kaiba.

This time, having realized his original game hadn't worked, Dark Yugi inflicted a "Mind Crush" on Kaiba which dispels Kaiba's evil side and leaves Kaiba in a coma, where he must reassemble the "shattered puzzle of his heart".

Duelist Kingdom
Kaiba remained in a coma for the next few months. In the hopes of helping Kaiba finish the puzzle, Mokuba constructed two lockets, using a torn photo of them from the orphanage and put it around Seto's neck, believing it to be the final piece of the puzzle. Yugi, in the meantime, would visit Kaiba in the hospital from time to time, desiring that once Kaiba wakes up and redeemed himself, they can duel as friends.

As he remains in his coma, Maximillion Pegasus takes the opportunity to try and take over KaibaCorp. He teams up with The Big Five and has Mokuba kidnapped.

At the Duelist Kingdom tournament, Yugi duels the Ventriloquist of the Dead, who is using Kaiba's stolen Deck. Kaiba manages to solve the puzzle and wake-up, during this Duel. His willpower is channeled into one of the stolen "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" cards, causing it to destroy itself.

Kaiba makes his way to Duelist Kingdom to save Mokuba. The two men on the helicopter turn out to be Pegasus' spies. One of them holds a gun to Kaiba, but Kaiba jams it using a "Gyakutenno Megami" card. He grabs the gun, snapping the man's finger in the process. Kaiba then forces him and the pilot to jump into the ocean, ignoring their pleas for mercy. He flies the helicopter to the island himself.

On the island, Kaiba meets up with Yugi's group and has his Deck returned to him. Jonouchi challenges Kaiba to a Duel and Kaiba easily defeats him, using his new Duel Disk technology. He goes against Yugi's suggestion of teaming-up and heads to the castle to face Pegasus, which left Yugi quite saddened and shocked.

At 2:30 am, he arrives at the castle. Croquet denies kidnapping Mokuba and refuses to let Kaiba see Pegasus until the morning, but Kaiba seizes Croquet by the collar, demanding to see Pegasus. Croquet then shows Kaiba to a gateway, sealed with a lock containing star-shaped holes. To see Pegasus, he must pass through this gate, Croquet tells him and in order to do that, Kaiba must get 10 Star Chips. Kaiba eventually loses patience with Croquet and strikes him with his briefcase. Saruwatari rushes in and pulls out a gun, but Kaiba quickly puts his own gun to Croquet's head. Croquet panics and orders Saruwatari to stand down.

Kaiba takes Croquet hostage in the guestroom, threatening to snap his neck in a briefcase if Pegasus doesn't speak to him. Shortly afterwards, Pegasus appears on a screen and permits Kaiba to see him, if he can beat Yugi in a Duel. Saruwatari gives Kaiba 5 Star Chips, Mokuba had stolen earlier and Pegasus instructs Kaiba to wager them in a Duel against Yugi.

Kaiba confronts Yugi outside the castle and imposes a Duel. Yugi's friends try to advise him against accepting, as he already has enough Star Chips, but he switches to Dark Yugi and accepts. Kaiba uses the Duel as an opportunity to test his strategy to combat Pegasus' mind reading abilities. Since he was using Duel Disks, he was able to stand further apart from his opponent and avoid face-to-face contact. Kaiba Summons "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon", causing problems for Yugi, but Yugi fuses it with "Mammoth Graveyard", causing it to decay and lose ATK each turn. In the meantime, Kaiba is unable to draw new cards, as the Fusion, composed of "Polymerization" and the three "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" cards, is taking up four slots in his Duel Disk, while "Negate Attack" is occupying the fifth, without a chance for Kaiba to use it. As Yugi is about to win, Kaiba begins to suffer a gruesome hallucination where Mokuba was trapped inside the rotting body of the Ultimate Dragon, being smothered and begging for help; as Kaiba himself stood there staring helplessly in horror and despair, a younger Seto rushed to save him, only to fail and give the older Seto, who began rotting away as well, a glare of immense hatred. Kaiba, awakening from his nightmare, decides to bring out his ultimate weapon: he walks back five stones, each representing one hundred of the five hundred Life points he'd just lost to Yugi's last attack, which leaves him standing up on the edge of the castle. Fearless and confident, Kaiba declares that he has nothing more to lose and that he would "gladly die for the cards", and threatens that if Yugi wins the game with one more attack, he will jump to his death, greatly horrifying Yugi and his friends. He then shows his contempt for Yugi by stating that if their positions were reversed, he (Kaiba) would kill Yugi without a second's hesitation, heavily disgusting and infuriating Dark Yugi. Seeing Dark Yugi hesitant in making this choice, Kaiba dared him to "slit my throat with your card". Although Dark Yugi tries to attack, Yugi takes over and calls it off. Kaiba wins on the next turn, taking 5 of Yugi's Star Chips. Seeing Kaiba would much rather die than accept Yugi's friendship and forgiveness, Jonouchi and Anzu furiously express their utter disgust and renewed hatred for Kaiba, Yugi fears his other self and resents Kaiba, and Dark Yugi would later bitterly comment that he and Kaiba will forever be enemies. Kaiba, sickened by their friendship, simply strode off to the front gates with his prize.

With 10 Star Chips, Kaiba enters the castle and confronts Pegasus. He insists on using the Duel Disks, but Pegasus isn't too keen. Pegasus accepts under the condition that Mokuba, who is stripped of his soul, holds the Duel Disk for him. Kaiba refuses to face his brother in such a way and agrees to duel without the Disks. Using his Mind Scan, Pegasus overwhelms Kaiba by predicting every strategy and producing perfect counters against them with his overly powered toon cards, leaving Kaiba to discard his hand and rely on tactics instead, which was not much better as Pegasus read Kaiba's subconscious memorization of his own deck to maintain the upper hand. Eventually, Kaiba got reckless as his Blue-Eyes White Dragon was captured twice, which led to him accidentally triggering his own Crush Card virus that obliterated his deck, as it was composed mainly of high-level monsters. Refusing to surrender, he made one last futile move by reviving Saggi the Dark Clown, and apologizing to a soulless Mokuba and bidding Yugi farewell in his mind. Pegasus commended him for playing to the bitter end before killing the Dark Clown, which makes Kaiba lose by a deck out. Pegasus then traps Kaiba's soul in a "Soul Prison" card, as a Penalty Game, and have both Kaiba brothers' empty bodies placed in separate dungeon cells.

When Yugi defeats Pegasus, the latter frees the souls of Seto and Mokuba Kaiba, along with Sugoroku Mutou as promised. Yugi tells Seto that Mokuba was the last piece. The child Seto, who was shown beginning to put the puzzle together at the end of Death-T, is shown once again, holding the finished puzzle.

Battle City
Ishizu Ishtar invites Kaiba to a private exhibition at Domino Museum. Here she shows him a stone tablet, containing rectangular shapes, resembling Duel Monsters. She tells him that Ancient Egyptians had tamed evil spirits, named them and sealed them in slabs. Pegasus based Duel Monsters on these spirits after a trip to Egypt. Also on the tablet is a priest and a nameless pharaoh, who resemble Kaiba and Yugi. Above them are monsters resembling "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" and "Dark Magician".

Kaiba is skeptical over whether the stone is real or that Duel Monsters was created in Egypt. He prepares to leave, believing this to be a waste of time, but Ishizu calls him back, telling him of legendary cards, the Egyptian Gods. These cards were too powerful and making them had been considered Pegasus biggest mistake. Pegasus had tried to destroy them, but couldn't bring himself to do it, so he buried them in Egypt. However 2 of them were stolen by the Ghouls. Ishizu entrusts Kaiba with the third God card, "Obelisk the Tormentor" and asks him to start a tournament to find the holders of the other Gods and reclaim them.

Kaiba tests "Obelisk the Tormentor" and his new model Duel Disk against a Duel Computer, which is using his Duelist Kingdom Deck. The computer Summons "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon", but Kaiba defeats it using "Obelisk the Tormentor". Obelisk's power is too much for the computer system, causing it to explode.

Kaiba sends out invitations to the tournament in card magazines and online saying "come to the place where ancient duelists and their cards slumber in the stones", along with a date and time for the announcement of the tournament. Kaiba allows duelists who he has rated level 5 or higher on a scale of eight to participate. He meets the duelists who got the invite in Domino City, where he explains the rules of the Battle City tournament that will be held in two days time.

On the day the tournament began, Kaiba announced that he too will be taking part and that each of the 48 duelists has been given 1 Puzzle Card which they must wage in Duels along with their rarest card. The finalists will be the eight duelists who collect 6 Puzzle Cards. The Puzzle Cards can be used to determine the location of the finals, which not even Kaiba knows.

During the tournament, Kaiba finds Koji Nagumo insulting Mokuba, who called a foul after Koji tried to take a second rare card that wasn't part of the ante with a duelist he just defeated. Kaiba tore-up Koji's rare card "Hyozanryu", saying Koji was going to lose it anyway as he challenges him to a Duel. Kaiba antes a briefcase of rare cards and "Obelisk the Tormentor". He allows Koji to use the cards from the briefcase in the Duel to compensate for "Hyozanryu", but says he'll take them after he beats Koji. Kaiba easily defeats Koji with "Obelisk" and takes his Puzzle Cards.