What's Mine is Mine.
Disclaimer: No ownership of Yu-Gi-Oh. *Looks in pocket* Damn, only ten cents. Pity me. !_!
Summery: I've always wondered where and how Malik got a hold of his duel disk and locater cards to enter the finals of Battle City. My guess is that he stole them, and by chance the girl he stole them from wants pay back. But what can she do when the fact is; he's not the same guy anymore.
Rating: PG-15, due to language and some frightening scenes
Chapter 1: Location is everything.
I won't say that this is an easy story to tell for me, because it's not. And I won't pretend that it has one of those –"And they lived happily ever after" –endings either. Such is the stuff that has filled children's heads for years, and I think that fairy tales and tradition is what caused this mess in the first place. So I refuse to put a happy spin upon it, because there is nothing at all happy that happened. I can't say that I'm pleased with this; after all it is my life, even if it's a joke of one. Although if you ask anyone else they will say that I live, and lived, an ideal existence –of course they know nothing at all about me, or about the hell I've been through, or will go through.
People tell me that sacrifice is the only way for one to mature, that as we get older we have to give up things that are important to us for the greater good. I've never really believed in that, but I was forced to follow such an idea, even though I didn't want to. After all, I am only 16 years old, and to say that I have to do what I am told is a joke. Parents really don't have any control over their kids; it's an illusion that has been going on for centuries. And, depending on the parents, that pressure to do as asked can be very, very high. I know, I carry that fact with me every where I go. I'm steeped in tradition, no way out really, and I know if I could get out I would have no place to go. So I just deal with it a day at a time. But, there was for a brief moment, a chance for escape. And I, fearing the path that could lead to disaster, chosen not to follow it –and in the end I may have lost the only chance for my own sense of freedom.
But this means nothing to you unless I explain how I made that mistake, and to do this I have to go back to last summer in mid-July. You see my name is Carrassa Nombrey, and I was going to be one of the finalists in Battle City.
* * *
From Day one it seemed that nothing was going my way. I arrived at Domino City International Airport, and made my way to a nice Hotel known as the Shigimum, a place that looked a lot like the Ritz Carlton, only on a slightly smaller scale. To say that I wasn't impressed was a lie; I knew full well that whoever was throwing this tournament was trying to show off. In my hand I carried an envelope, sealed without a return address, and inside was a simple invitation.
Dear Ms Nombrey, You have been invited to participate in an exclusive tournament to be hosted in Domino City, Japan. The reason for your selection is due to the fact that this year you won first place at the International Duelist Association Tournament. Bring this invitation and at least a thousand dollars American in Spending money. On Saturday, July 21st, you are asked to convene with the other duelist invited to this tournament in Domino Plaza. Here you will learn all about the Tournament.
There was no signature, but whoever wrote it seemed rather curt, and –when I saw the number of duelist that were already there –I knew whoever was throwing this had to have quite a bit of the green stuff. I spent most of the day wandering around the city, unsure of where to go, and while I was there I came across an interesting situation at an arcade. Standing in the background, behind several older boys, I watched as a girl about sixteen or so threw off her jacket to stand –wearing a yellow tube top, and pink shorts, with a pair of thigh high stockings and sandal shoes –get on the electric stage of a dance game opposite a man with dreadlocks, multiple pricings, and attitude. The girl, her short brown hair swaying to the music as the techno beat pumped over the speakers, began to show off her dance moves. Graceful, but lacking the refinement of some of the best dancers in New York, she managed to astound the crowd.
"Typical," I thought watching her. Just another show off who has to prove that she's the best.
"Whoa, check her out," a boy near me said as I watched them wiggle and sway to the beat. "She's busting Moves even Johnny doesn't have."
Obviously this displeased this pierced up Johnny, because the next thing I know he's trying to trip her up, and elbow her in the head.
Bastard, I thought as the girl ducked and maneuvered out of the way.
"Hey, no cheating Johnny," a voice shouted from the crowd. But the girl seemed that much more determined, and she eluded his every attack. Eventually the guy with the dreads, slipped, and went crashing to the floor. The girl finished off with a sweet poise as the machine declared her the winner. It was then that I spotted the guy that she was with and watched them leave. Recognition was instantaneous for me; the spiked hair, the yellow bangs, even the violet colored eyes –exactly as my brother Robert explained to me. That was the boy who tried to win back his deck and keep him in the Duelist Kingdom tournament. I noted to myself that I would have to thank him for at least trying to help my brother.
"Hey," the two guys were talking behind me still. "Did you see who that chick was with?"
"Yeah, that was Mutou Yuugi. He won first place at Duelist Kingdom, and beat Kaiba Seto," said the other guy, and I smiled.
So Yuugi Mutou was here in Domino City, I figured that he must be in the tournament then, and grinned. If he was then I was definitely going to have to get into the finals. No doubt that Yuugi would be there, and I was hoping to go out of the duelist world with a bang. And what bigger bang could you get then defeating the guy who took out both the reigning World Champion, and the guy who invented the Magic and Wizards himself, Pegasus J. Crawford. I stayed a bit longer, playing a couple of video games just for the fun of it. Then, when the sun was setting, I headed out to the plaza.
For a change of pace I wasn't dressed in my normal every day clothing, after all if I was going to make an impression on the victims…er competition, I had to look like I had something that would keep them wondering just how good I was. So I wound up wearing a pink top, and yellow skirt, and a black jacket over that. My brown hair was pulled up in a tail, and I had my deck on hand just incase some idiot wanted to start something with me. Cruising the Plaza that night with my eyes I spotted some of the trickier duelist. "Insector" Haga, a well known insect deck specialist –known only for the fact that he tended to cheat to win, standing next to him was "Dinosaur" Ryuusaki. A guy with a purple streak on his bangs, and a mouth that needed to be kept shut. He was a blow hard and bragger. Near by, eating some fish was Ryouta Kajiki, the great "Sea" duelist. I still had no idea how I was going to deal with him, as most of my deck dealt with Plant. It was then that I saw Mai Kujyuka, one of the few female duelists that made a name for herself, although it wasn't one that I would be particularly proud of to bear. Some claimed she had cheated her way to the top with some sort of perfume-on-the-top-of-the-cards trick that let her know which card she had coming up. Yet she was a finalist in Duelist Kingdom, and one person I wanted to face off against.
"Yuugi," I heard her exclaim running up to the spiked headed, "King of Games", "It's so good to see you. And Anzu…is this a date?"
At this I had to roll my eyes, but I leaned in a bit closer from where I sat next to Ryouta. He was happily munching away on his dinner and, looked up at me for a moment.
"Fish?" he offered.
"Uh, no," I declined. "I don't eat fish. Sorry."
"Oh, well," he said politely. "Are you here for the tournament?"
I nodded.
"Ha, so am I. I'm…"
"I know who you are," I said getting up and moving away. "I don't need to be reminded. Thanks."
He looked a bit hurt, I didn't care. I wasn't here to make friends; I was here to win a tournament, and to at least say I accomplished something in my life before…I remember shaking at the thought of what would happen next year.
No, more, stop thinking of it Carra, I insisted to myself, and sat down closer to where Mai –who had been holding the girl she called Anzu in a headlock –was talking to Yuugi and explaining why all the people were around. "It looks like Duelist Kingdom all over again," she was saying.
"Mai, you're right. There's Ryouta Kajiki," Anzu pointed him out, while Yuugi added.
"And Haga and Ryuusaki. Mai, what are all these people doing here?"
"Well, there was this invitation that went out. Several people I've talked to say that whoever is throwing this, is rude and a show off," she told him. I nodded in agreement; it would have taken someone with a lot of cash to host this shin-dig. However I knocked Crawford off the list right away, he didn't like anonymity very much, and would have made a huge public announcement had this been his tournament. Yuugi, apparently agreed with me.
"Then who," Anzu was saying to him when suddenly the screens that were playing all sorts of different ads changed instantaneously. I jumped up from my seat and turned around looking in awe at the fact that now the screens all held the same smug, smirking face of the World Champion: Seto Kaiba.
"Greeting Duelist," he said and launched into a speech about how this was his tournament, and it was called Battle City. How it was going to be an all out war, and that basically no mercy would be shown. He also showed up in person on a private helicopter, and I noticed that –out of the swarming sea of faces –he zeroed right in on Yuugi Mutou. Whatever it was that was going on between them, there was defiantly something very dangerous about it. Most of the other challengers were hollering that Kaiba was the best, that this was so cool. Me, I had set my face, and was determined to make it to the finals. I was going to battle Seto Kaiba and Yuugi Mutou, and I was going to go out in a blaze of glory. The winner of this Battle would not be a man, it would be a woman, and that woman would be me. Carrassa Nombrey.