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. He is homologous to the ancient Egyptian Priest, Seto.

Adoption and KaibaCorp takeover
At a young age, Seto and his younger brother Mokuba were orphaned. Their mother died when Mokuba was born, and their father died in an accident when Seto was about eight. Their other relatives used up their inheritance and afterward left them at an orphanage. At the orphanage, Seto promised to make life better for him and Mokuba and would advise him not to cry, saying that they should not show weakness. He taught Mokuba how to play chess and they lived to play each day. A photograph of them was taken playing chess one day. Mokuba believed that the time the picture was taken was the last time he saw Seto smile.

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 and Gozaburo adopted both brothers, changing their surname to "Kaiba".

Life with Gozaburo 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. Gozaburo did not realize that he was not raising an heir, but a powerful enemy.

Six years later, Seto managed to take control of KaibaCorp, which became finalized at a board meeting, in which the other member of the board, sided with Seto. After announcing that the company now belonged to him, Seto asked if he had learned what his father wanted. Gozaburo replied that he lost his game with Seto and told him to burn it into his brain that this is what a loser deserves, before committing suicide by jumping out a window. Kaiba accepted his message "to lose means to die" and thanked Gozaburo for teaching it to him.

Experience of Death
Kaiba visited the Kame Game shop, where he met Yugi Mutou and Katsuya Jonouchi from his class. When Jonouchi learned that he played Duel Monsters, he offered to let him join their group playing it at school. However Kaiba ridiculed the idea of them being in his league and tossed Jonouchi's cards over his shoulder, calling them useless. He boasted about competing at national level and told Jonouchi to come back after collecting at least ten thousand cards. Kaiba was surprised to Sugoroku Mutou's "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" card on the counter. He had previously thought he would never see a copy of that card and now thought he could be invincible if he owned it. He offered to trade all the cards in his briefcase for it, but Sugoroku refused, due to the card's sentimental value and told Kaiba that if he cared for every card in the briefcase, he would learn the true strength of the game. Kaiba stormed off, vowing to get the card later.

The next day at school, Kaiba watched Yugi and Jonouchi Dueling and thought that the elementary school students at the national tournament were even better than Jonouchi. He learned that Yugi had brought Sugoroku's "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" with him, so he pretended to have learned a lesson about loving the cards from Sugoroku and asked Yugi if he could see the card. Yugi complied and Kaiba switched it with a counterfeit. Yugi noticed what he did, but did not want to mention it in front of the other students, so he confronted Kaiba after school. Kaiba tried acting innocent, but eventually got fed up with Yugi and hit him in the head with his briefcase. He confessed that he did not care about loving cards and asked Yugi to tell Sugoroku that it does not matter how you play the game, but whether you win or lose.

Dark Yugi then emerged and challenged Kaiba to a Shadow Game of Duel Monsters. Dark Yugi informed him that the rules would be a bit different in this Duel and Kaiba was surprised to see lifelike projections of the monsters from the cards appear as the were played them. As Kaiba was about to lose, he slipped the stolen "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" from his pocket to his hand and played it. He lied that it was not Sugoroku's card, but one he had gotten from someone else. Remaining loyal to Sugoroku's soul, "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" refused to attack and betrayed Kaiba, by destroying itself. Dark Yugi defeated Kaiba after reviving the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" with "Monster Reborn".

Dark Yugi inflicted the "Experience of Death" Penalty Game on Kaiba for losing. This caused Kaiba to fall under the illusion that he had become a Duel Monsters card. Inside the card, he resided in the world of Duel Monsters, where he repeatedly experienced death at the hands of other monsters. Dark Yugi hoped that by becoming a card, Kaiba would learn to understand the heart of the cards.

Kaiba awoke from the illusion eventually, but continued to suffer nightmares about it.

Solid Vision 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.

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. 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.

Kaiba worked on constructing a Kaiba Land theme park in Domino City and spent 10 billion yen on the Death-T park, which was set on simulating the Experience of Death, through Solid Vision, in order to get his revenge on Yugi. He hired people such as professional hitmen, torturer 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 and Mokuba bet on which stage of Death-T Yugi would die on, with Kaiba choosing the final stage, meaning he bet Mokuba would lose.

Kaiba invited Yugi and Jonouchi to his mansion the night before the grand opening of the Kaiba Land and had Sugoroku Mutou kidnapped unbeknownst to them. He had planned on giving Yugi and Jonouchi a personal welcome, but fell asleep after long nonstop work. He suffered the Experience of Death nightmare that night, which he found ironic the next day as he planned on never having that dream again after Death-T. Kaiba learned that Mokuba had tried to kill his guests in his absence, but laughed it off, saying "boys will be boys".

Kaiba brought Yugi and Jonouchi to the opening as his special guests. This opening took place three days before the park was open to the public. Yugi, Jonouchi and other children Kaiba had invited were given access, free of charge. This caused Yugi and Jonouchi to think they may have misjudged Kaiba. However Kaiba was confronted by a former KaibaCorp employee, who accused him of driving his father to commit suicide. That man was quickly removed. After letting Yugi and Jonouchi use a number of rides, he took them to a special show. There he revealed he had kidnapped Sugoroku, and then faced him in a game of Duel Monsters in his new Battle Box simulators. Sugoroku used "Blue-Eyes White Dragon", but lost as he was overwhelmed by the projections and Kaiba's three "Blue-Eyes White Dragons".

Kaiba tore up Sugoroku's "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" card, as Sugoroku's punishment for losing and the card's punishment for betraying him before. He also had Sugoroku subjected to an artificial Penalty Game, where he was attacked by holographic monsters. Kaiba got Yugi to swear to participate in Death-T in exchange for releasing his grandfather. Yugi accepted, but Jonouchi would not let him do it alone. Their friend Hiroto Honda, who was in the audience with his nephew Johji also accompanied them. Kaiba agreed to let them help Yugi, thinking that it just meant he would bury them all in the same grave. Kaiba allowed the other children he had invited to Kaiba Land to watch Death-T from the stalls. They believed Yugi and his friends were special guests given access to another theme park, but were unaware that its intention was to kill Yugi. Kaiba himself, monitored the events from a control room.

In the first stage, Death T-1, Kaiba had arranged for Yugi and his friends face the hitmen, Johnny Gayle, Bob McGuire and "name unknown" in a shootout game. The objective was to eliminate enemy players by shooting a sensor on their vests. However Kaiba supplied ineffective guns for Yugi, Jonouchi and Honda, while the hitmen were given lethal guns. Before the game began, an attendant was to explain the rules to Yugi and his friends. However someone had hired Anzu Mazaki, for that role. Kaiba was annoyed on discovering this, as he knew she was a friend of Yugi. Just before the shootout began, Kaiba appeared on monitors on the floor. He warned Yugi that his opponents were mercenaries and told him to enjoy his "last game". Kaiba's promise of a ¥10,000 bounty to each hitman for each opponent they killed, made the hitmen less willing to work together. Jonouchi's surprise attack, later followed by Honda's discovery of the ineffective guns and use of Anzu's working gun, allowed Yugi and his friends to win the shootout. Anzu accompanied Yugi for the next few games.

In Death T-2, Kaiba had his butler, a former torturer, take Yugi and his friends to the Murderer's Mansion on the Electric Chair Ride. On the ride, the players were subjected to terrors and would be electrocuted to death if they screamed. His butler was killed in this stage, as Johji defecated on his lap, causing him to scream.

Inside the Murderer's Mansion, Kaiba appeared before the group via holographic projection. He compared Yugi's group to living chess pieces being brought closer to checkmate and warned them that the serial killer, the Chopman, was hidden in the mansion. He explained that in order to find the exit, they would need to put their hands through four holes in the wall and press the correct button at the opposite side. Once their hands were inside the holes, Kaiba had them cuffed in place and showed them the guillotine above, which would drop in five minutes or if an incorrect button was pushed. Before disappearing, he told them he had left a clue to finding the correct button, in the room. Yugi solved the bllood clue, revealing the exit and saving him and his friends.

Before Yugi's group left the mansion, the Chopman kidnapped Johji. Kaiba got Johji, who was a fan of his, to pretend he was alone in a room to lure Yugi and his friends in. He also gave him orders to attach a handcuff to whoever entered the room. The others would not believe Johji when he said he was alone, so Kaiba appeared on a monitor attached to the Chopman's torso. He said that one person had to enter the room to play a game with the Chopman, or he would give the Chopman the order to kill Johji. Jonouchi stepped inside and Johji attached the cuff, which was strung through a pedestal and attached to the Chopman. Kaiba explained that when the game began, each player would pick a weapon and fight to the death. Jonouchi managed to win by picking the handcuff lock with a candlestick holder and tricking the Chopman into ripping open the door and incinerating himself.

As Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu, Honda and Johji made their way to Death T-3, Kaiba realized that he underestimated some factors. He acknowledged that they were a good team and that their close friendship had been the key to beating the games, but he planned on breaking that union in the next stage. He thought to himself that friendship is just an illusion, evidenced by his theory that people in danger would be willing to betray their friends to save themselves. In this stage, blocks fell from the ceiling. The players had to avoid being flattened and climb the blocks to reach the exit. Kaiba assumed that their numbers would be a liability in this game and that they could not win without sacrificing a player. Everyone made it out, except Honda, who became trapped. Kaiba then compared Yugi to the king chess piece, Jonouchi to the knight and Honda to the rook and stated that the rook had been captured, beginning the countdown to checkmate.

Before Death T-4 began, Mokuba reminded Kaiba of their bet and got mad at Kaiba for betting Yugi would beat him. However Kaiba stood by his decision. He accused Mokuba of trying to show him up by challenging Yugi to a game before and said he knew the outcome of that game. However Mokuba claimed he had done it in the hope that Kaiba would like him if he won. Kaiba yelled at him that there is no such thing as brotherly love in the gaming world and until Mokuba realizes that he would always be a loser. Mokuba stormed off, determined to show Kaiba that he could defeat Yugi and prove he was a gamer.

In Death T-4, Mokuba was defeated by Dark Yugi in a game of Capsule Monster Chess. Afterwards, Kaiba appeared on monitors over the Battle Box and gave Dark Yugi directions to Death T-5, where he said he was waiting. He spoke to Mokuba, stating how he had felt his "pathetic loser's gaze" staring at him for years. He reminded him of his repeatedly warning that if he played with fire he would get burned. He announced that only the winner could leave the Battle Box, while the loser must face a Penalty Game. To Mokuba's surprise, Kaiba subjected him to the Experience of Death. Dark Yugi, who was also shocked that Kaiba would do this to his own brother, reached into the Battle Box and pulled out Mokuba. This caused Mokuba to think about how Kaiba had changed since they were adopted and wondered if Yugi could return him to normal.

In Death T-5, Kaiba faced Dark Yugi in a game of Duel Monsters. He dominated the early stages of the game with "Saggi the Dark Clown" equipped with "Dark Energy", until it was defeated by Dark Yugi's "Gaia the Fierce Knight". He then began Summoning his "Blue-Eyes White Dragons". Dark Yugi managed to hold two of them off with "Swords of Revealing Light". When all three were eventually free to attack, Dark Yugi drew the last piece of "Exodia" and defeated Kaiba.

For Kaiba's Penalty Game, Dark Yugi inflicted the "Mind Crush" on him, destroying his evil side and leaving him in a coma. Mokuba disclosed his and Kaiba's history to Dark Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu and Honda, detailing how Kaiba had changed for the worst. Dark Yugi explained that Kaiba was now reassembling the shattered puzzle of his heart, one piece at a time, with his own strength, so he would not make any mistakes that time. Mokuba vowed to wait forever when Dark Yugi said that Kaiba would return once the puzzle was completed.

Duelist Kingdom
Kaiba remained in a coma for the next six 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 believed that Kaiba would change once he awoke from his coma. He sometimes visited him in the hospital and refrained from entering Duel Monsters tournaments, until he could fight Kaiba in a fair Duel in one. Kaiba was later taken back to his mansion, where he remained under twenty-four-hour care. Some of the best doctors in the world looked at him and thought he might spend the rest of his life in that state.

Kaiba's comatose state negatively impacted the management of KaibaCorp and caused stock to drop. His loss to Dark Yugi lowered the company's image, which had been dependent on Kaiba's status as the number one gamer in Japan. With the company in a poor state, Maximillion J. Pegasus took the opportunity to try and take over it, by making a deal with the company's leading shareholders, The Big Five. As part of the agreement, the Big Five needed to steal documents from Kaiba's safe, but then had to kidnap Mokuba, who swallowed the key to the safe. Before he was kidnapped, Mokuba left a report detailing what happened in Kaiba's absence, with their maid. One of Pegasus' spies implanted in KaibaCorp, Saruwatari, stole Kaiba's Deck while he remained in the coma.

During the Duelist Kingdom tournament, Dark Yugi Dueled the Ventriloquist of the Dead, who used a Seto Kaiba puppet, which he claimed contained Kaiba's soul bent on revenge. He also used Kaiba's stolen Deck. During the Duel, Kaiba awoke from the coma. His willpower was channeled into one of the stolen "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" cards, causing it to destroy itself. At this point in the Duel, the ventriloquist stopped using the Kaiba puppet. After the Duel, Dark Yugi inflicted the "Puppet Illusion" Penalty Game on the ventriloquist for stealing Kaiba's cards and playing with his soul.

At Kaiba Manor, Kaiba scolded his bodyguards for allowing Mokuba to be kidnapped. Despite concerns about his health from his maid, he arranged to have a helicopter fly him to Duelist Kingdom, to confront Pegasus. While flying over the ocean, Kaiba discovered that the other two men on the helicopter were spies working for Pegasus. One of them held a gun to Kaiba, but Kaiba jammed it using a "Gyakutenno Megami" card. He grabbed the gun, snapping the man's finger in the process. Kaiba then forced him and the pilot to jump into the ocean, ignoring their pleas for mercy. He then flew the helicopter to the island himself.

On the island, Kaiba met Yugi's group and had his Deck returned to him. Jonouchi challenged Kaiba to a Duel and Kaiba easily defeated him, using his new Duel Disk technology. He went against Yugi's suggestion of teaming-up and headed to the castle to face Pegasus, which left Yugi quite saddened and shocked.

At 2:30 am, he arrived at the castle. Croquet denied kidnapping Mokuba and refused to let Kaiba see Pegasus until the morning, but Kaiba seized Croquet by the collar, demanding to see Pegasus. Croquet then showed him to a gateway, sealed with a lock containing star-shaped holes. To see Pegasus, he must pass through this gate, Croquet told him and in order to do that, Kaiba had to get 10 Star Chips. Kaiba eventually lost patience with Croquet and struck him with his briefcase. Saruwatari rushed in and pulled out a gun, but Kaiba quickly put his own gun to Croquet's head. Croquet panicked and ordered Saruwatari to stand down.

Kaiba took Croquet hostage in the guestroom, threatening to snap his neck in a briefcase if Pegasus did not speak to him. Shortly afterwards, Pegasus appeared on a screen and permitted Kaiba to see him, if he could beat Yugi in a Duel. Saruwatari gave Kaiba 5 Star Chips, Mokuba had stolen earlier and Pegasus instructed 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.