A Christmas Vacation
Cyrox
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.
Jonouchi entered a phone booth, inserted some yen, and dialed up Yugi's number.
"Hi, this is the Mutous. We are not in right now, so could you please leave a message after the beep," An answering machine that had Yugi's grandpa's voice on it said.
"Hey Yugi," Jonouchi said, "I'm sorry to tell you this, but I'm going to have to miss your Christmas Party tonight. My sister has given me some tickets to see her this Christmas and the train leaves today. But don't worry, I left my presents for you and the others at my house. Just head over there and my dad will give them to you. Well Merry Christmas."
After hanging up, Jonouchi went over to the train station, gave the conductor his ticket, and boarded the train.
"Spending Christmas with my sister, nothing can get better then this," He thought as he found his seat on the train.
"We'll arrive at our destination in seven hours," The conductor said.
"Seven hours! Good thing I came prepared," Jonouchi said as he took out his Duel Monsters deck.
Another boy spotted his deck and challenged him to a duel, they went over to a miniature dueling arena that the train had and started their duel.
Meanwhile in the first class of the train, Mai Kujaku was drinking some wine as she enjoyed the ride.
"Well, here's to another pathetic Christmas," She said as she was drinking.
Then she heard news about a duel monsters game going on in the second class, she walked over to it to check it out, it will give her something to do.
The boy had a lead with four hundred life points while Jonouchi had three hundred. Both looked at the cards in their hands and neither were ready to quit. The boy had a Curse of Dragon Card on the field and was dominating with it. It was Jonouchi's turn and he drew one card and smiled. Then he placed the Red Eyes Black Dragon down, giving Jonouchi the victory.
"Great match," The kid said.
"I know," Jonouchi said, "you're very good yourself."
"Well, see ya."
"Ok," Jonouchi said as he shuffled his deck, "anyone else want to duel me?"
"I'd like to," Said a voice that was familiar to Jonouchi.
He immediately knew who is was, Mai Kujaku.
"Mai! What are you doing here?" Jonouchi asked.
"Just trying to find a place to spend Christmas," She said, "so how about you?"
"I'm visiting my sister Shizuka's house for Christmas," Jounouchi said, "and I just thought I'd do some dueling to pass the time."
"I guess I could use some excitement," Mai said as she stepped up to the dueling platform.
So the two of them got their decks ready and started the duel. Mai made the first move and played a Harpie Lady in attack mode with another card face down. Mai's Harpie lady appeared on the dueling field, along with her other card. Jonouchi countered by playing his Armoured Lizard with a card faced down too. Both monster and card appeared on the field as well. Jonouchi ordered an attack and the Armoured Lizard charged right at her.
"Big mistake," Mai said as she revealed her face down card Rose Whip, "you should have expected that."
A large whip appeared in her monster's hand and it used it to strike Jonouchi's monster.
"You're right," Jonouchi bragged, "and I did. Reveal trap card Chained Boomerang."
Jonouchi's face down card flipped up and revealed his chained boomerang card. The weapon appeared on his Armoured lizard. The weapon flew at the Harpie Lady and wrapped around her body. The Jonouchi's monster defeated Mai's monster and knocked her life points down to eighteen hundred.
"Good move," Mai said, "but it takes more then that to win a duel. Now I play another Harpie Lady and the magic card Elegant Egotist, as well as one card face down."
Three Harpie Ladies and a faced down card appeared on the field. Mai ordered the monsters to attack, causing Jonouchi's Armoured Lizard to fall, and his life points to go down to eighteen hundred too. Jonouchi didn't have any monsters that could beat her, so he placed a monster in defense mode. He continued to do that for three turns until he drew the Flame Swordsman.
"This is just the card I need," He thought to himself.
"Are you going to do something," Mai taunted, "or just give me another random monster to destroy."
"Here's your next opponent, Flame Swordsman," Jonouchi said, "and I'm adding the power of Salamandra to it."
The Flame Swordsman appeared on the field. And with an attack of twenty-four hundred, things were looking bad for Mai.
"Attack," Jonouchi commanded.
"Reveal trap card Mirror Wall," Mai said.
The face down card flipped over and a giant glass wall blocked the Flame Swordsman's attack and reduced its attack points to twelve hundred. Then Mai's Harpie Lady Sisters attacked the Flame Swordsman and Jonouchi's life points went down to thirteen hundred.
Mai's turn began and she equipped her Harpie Ladies with Cyber Shield card, but she couldn't attack because Jonouchi had no monsters, so she ended her turn.
Jonouchi looked at his hand and spotted two of his favourite cards, Baby Dragon and Time Wizard. While he was anxious to play because the Time Wizard would destroy her trap, he knew that he couldn't just do it yet because Mai could easily stop him from aging his Baby Dragon. So he placed another monster face down. Mai easily defeated it and ended her turn after that. Jonouchi drew, hoping that he would get a card that he needed, and it was that card.
"Now I place one card face down," Jonouchi said, "and play Baby Dragon on the field in defense mode."
Mai knew what he had coming, but she didn't have a card that could remove his face down card. She drew another card, only to find another Harpie Ladie. She decided to save it and see if luck won't be on his side.
"Harpy Ladie, attack that Dragon!" Mai commanded.
"Reveal Waboku," Jonouchi said, as the card flipped up.
One Harpie Lady charged at the Baby Dragon. Then a group of people in blue robes appeared and stopped the attack and the Dragon was saved.
"Now for my Time Wizard!" Jonouchi said.
He placed the card down and the monster appeared on the dueling field.
"Go Time Roulette!" He commanded.
The arrow on the Time Wizard's staff started spinning. Everyone who was watching the duel anxiously awaited to see if the arrow would land on a time machine, or a skull. Jonouchi anxiously awaited to see where the arrow would land and if luck would be on his side.
But before the arrow landed, the dueling system conked out. Both Mai and Jonouchi knew that it only works as lone as the train was moving, so Jonouchi figured that they had arrived.
"I didn't expect the ride to be that fast," Jonouchi said.
"We're still two hours away," Mai stated.
At that time, the conductor entered the car.
"I'm sorry," He said, "but an avalanche has covered the tracks. Don't worry, a hotel is willing to keep all of you until the snow is cleared."
"When will that be?" Jonouchi asked him.
"We're sure that it will take two days," The conductor said.
"Tonight's Christmas Eve and if it takes two days ..." Jonouchi said as he calculated, "I'm gonna miss Christmas!"
Soon everyone sat around the hotel lobby, waiting to be assigned a room. Jonouchi just sulked at how things have been turning out and Mai was looking around.
"This place is a dump, but it will have to do," She said, then she turned to Jonouchi, "cheer up kid, this is how you're gonna spend Christmas later on. Winning Christmas Tournaments and spending the money in a first class hotel. But in our case, we might just forget the first class hotel."
Then Jonouchi got his coat on and walked over to the door.
"What are you doing?" Mai asked him.
"I'm going to Shizuka's house." Jonouchi said.
"Are you crazy, you'll freeze out there?"
"I don't care! I promised Shizuka that I'd visit her on Christmas and that's what I'm going to do!"
"Enough of this nonsense Jonouchi! It's too far to walk and there's no way you're going to make it. Besides my Christmas is ruined and you don't see me complaining about it."
"Well I've had enough of listening to you talking about how miserable your Christmas is! Unlike you, I have a sister who's been waiting to see me! And I'm going to see her, no matter what you say!"
"Fine, go ahead and freeze your butt off, see if I care!"
After that Jonouchi went outside. Mai just walked around the lounge, thinking a bit about Jonouchi, wondering why he'd do something so stupid. She was sure it was because Jonouchi was kind of a hot head and would do whatever it takes for someone, but she felt that there was more to it. She walked over to the TV that was in the lounge, which had A Christmas Carol on. She decided to watch it so it would take her mind off Jonouchi. The part that she tuned into was the part where Scrooge visits himself as a child and sees his sister take him home for Christmas. Then she realized something.
"Now I see why Jonouchi wanted to see his sister so badly," Mai thought, "and I haven't been helping by complaining about how I spend Christmas. I need to make it up to him somehow. And I can't believe I learned something from one of those cheesy Christmas specials."
Jonouchi walked through the blizzard carrying his luggage and some presents.
"Lousy Mai," He thought, "I wouldn't be too surprised if nobody wanted to spend Christmas with her."
He walked around a nearby town seeing if he could get a taxi. There he spotted a mall that had a manger scene inside. It made Jonouchi think of the first Christmas, but it did more then that too.
"Then again, I don't think Mai has anybody to stay with," Jonouchi thought, "that must be why she spends Christmas in hotels. And Christmas isn't about spending time with your family, it's about spreading the love of Christ around on his birth. I'd better make things up with Mai, and stop worrying about my Christmas being ruined."
Jonouchi went back to the hotel and once he warmed up, he searched for Mai, but couldn't find her anywhere. Then he noticed her enter the hotel and Jonouchi ran over to her.
"There you are, I've been looking all over for you," They said at the same time.
"Mai," Jonouchi said, "I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier."
"And I'm sorry too," Mai said.
At that point, she grabbed Jonouchi's hand and took him outside and revealed a black snowmobile.
"Come on Jonouchi, you're going home for the holidays."
The two of them climbed onto the snowmobile and took off. And after three hours of traveling, they finally arrived at Shizuka's house.
"Well, we're here," Mai said.
"So, what do you plan to do now?" Jonouchi asked.
"I guess I'll find a place, it's not so hard for me to find one and I still have some of the prize money left."
"Mai, wait right here," Jonouchi said as he rushed inside the house. And after ten minutes, he went back outside.
"Mai, I talked it over and you can stay here for Christmas," Jonouchi told her.
"Really?"
"Yeah, Shizuka said she'd like to meet you."
"Well, thanks Jonouchi," Mai said as she kissed him on the cheek.
Then the two of them went into the house.