You're Only Deceived Once

By SariaSubi-kun

SariaSubi: Hey! A Yu-gi-oh fic! ::does a dance:: Somethin different! Yu-gi-oh is one of my faves, but the card game(and video game for that matter) is interesting, too.

Setting: This starts right after Duelist Kingdom and follows the Battle City timeline, however, many of the events have been altered to my distinct liking. Don't worry, it won't suck --;;

Chapter 1

The looming clouds over Domino City held back their tears as the rain stopped for only a moment. The ground was a slick silver, the flat rivers of rainwater running down the sidewalks that no one dared to walk. A car zoomed down an empty street, but the lights stayed on inside and no one else came out.

The air was hot and humid, and the remnants of summer lingered, not wanting to leave without the final rainfall. A lanky, lonesome figure ventured out onto the empty avenue from behind a dark alleyway, arms crossed over her chest, trying to ignore the shiver from the cold drops of water that ran down her bare arms. The girl only donned jeans and a thin yellow blouse, and the blouse was opened to a skimpy undershirt. Her skin paled under her body's loss of heat, an unfamiliar feeling, and she looked up to the gray sky, her navy blue hair plastered to her face. She had put it up, hoping to avoid the problem, but half of it came out and stuck to her pointy face and her square-rimmed glasses.

Has it stopped raining?

With a shake of her head and a half-shiver, half-sigh, she trudged on through the building fog on the wet sidewalks. She fumbled without looking for her messenger bag and pulled out a sheet of paper with a list on it. About then things were listed, and only one was check. She rolled her eyes and sighed with annoyance before she stuffed it back into her bag.

As soon as the girl turned the corner, she came upon a shorter street with a small shop across it that flashed "KAME" in funky lettering. The girl stopped and tore out her list again, then looked at the store with her eyebrows raised. "Game Shop, eh? Kind of a crappy location if you ask me. Meh." She shrugged to herself and walked across the short street and kicked the door open with little care.

A little bell rang, and a short old man came from the back room and met her at the counter. "Miss!" he greeted with surprise. "Hello and welcome to our game shop! I am surprised, though, that you came here with the weather outside. Here, let me get you a towel."

"Thank you." She shrugged some water out of her ear and tried to peel her wet hair off of her neck, looking extremely annoyed with her own body. She accepted the towel and immediately put it around her neck. "I was wondering what kind of cards you have."

"Well, we have many cards. We have Magic, we have lots of trading cards, and we have—"

Immediately she stopped him, as if she had to rush to the point. "No sir," she spoke calmly, "I meant Duel Monster cards." She put her hands in her pockets and leaned back.

"Ah, yes, I was just getting to that. Here, let me show you. I got a new shipment just today in fact! I have some pretty interesting cards. Let me get the box." The girl nodded as he left and looked around the store. She tapped for foot as she waited, looking at the rare rookie and first edition cards that were in glass cases on the walls.

From another hallway she heard footsteps and looked in that direction. As she narrowed her eyes, she saw the shadow of a small figure coming. The old man? No…someone different. She awaited for them to emerge; but before the shadow revealed itself, it called out, "Ojisan! I was wondering if—" Then, from the hallway, a short boy looked around the shop, seemingly not noticing the girl. "Ojisan? Grandpa, where are you?" He surveyed the room once more, and then finally his big eyes found her.

"Oh! Miss, are you looking for something?" He stepped fully into view and smiled like a regular employee would to a customer. So does he work here to? Oh, I know that face, and I thought the King of Games himself would do a bit more than watch his grandfather's shop.

She shook her head. "Nope. Your grandfather is getting what I need in the back."

"Oh. Alright then." The boy just stood there for an awkward moment, but then glanced up at the girl again to find she had a strange kind of smile on her face. "Miss?"

Her strange smile left her face, and she took two steps toward him and looked down at him with an eyebrow raised. Then she smiled again. "I knew it. Yugi Mutou, in the flesh.

Yugi was taken back a bit by the girl's sudden knowledge of him, like he was some celebrity, and stuttered his response at first. "Yes, I am."

"The same Yugi Mutou that beat Pegasus and won first place in Duelist Kingdom…the same Yugi Mutou that's called around Japan the 'King of Games'…"

He blushed a little. "Y-yes."

The girl's lips curled into a grin that spread across her milky white complexion. "Well, then, this is quite unexpected." Then, she lowered her head and said in a low whisper to herself. "Not everyday you run into top competition. Heh, heh." Yugi looked up quizzically up at her, but then just shook it off—it was best not to show your opinions of customers to their face.

She then lifted her head again, the navy blue strands falling away from her face. Luckily, there was a more settling smile on her face. "Oh, dear, where are my manners. My name is Matsu, it's very nice to meet you, Yugi." She closed her eyes happily and extended her pale hand.

Yugi's features relaxed and he smiled back, reaching up and shaking her hand. "So, Matsu, you're a duelist?"

She nodded. "Uh-huh." Then she cocked an eyebrow. "You mean…?"

Yugi looked at her, confused. "Huh?"

Matsu shook her head, before she slapped her forehead and muttered to herself, "Oh dear… this isn't good…I guess word overseas is getting too slow!"

Yugi looked confusedly at her again. "I'm sorry, Matsu. What are you talking about?"

He received a pout. "Oh dear! You mean you really haven't heard the name Matsu before?"

Yugi laughed nervously. "Um…well, I know it means 'pine'…you're Japanese, then?"

Oh, come on. Obviously Yugi Mutou didn't keep much up to date in the dueling world.

Fortunately, to end any more oncoming awkwardness, the old man came back from the storage room. "Miss, I have the cards! You should come take a look at these, I have some pret-ty rare finds!"

"Grandpa just got some interesting cards," Yugi added, "you should add them to your deck. What kind of cards do you have?"

Matsu brushed him off and dove straight for the display. Her eyes scanned it through her glasses, like a librarian. Is it here…? If it isn't, I'm going to throw myself off the top of the TokyoTower Finally, her eyes rested on a card that stood in the mix of the others. It was a magic card with a picture of a half-silver, half-black moon with the background of a night sky. Her eyes widened through her glasses. She looked up at Grandpa Mutou and pointed at it, her mouth open and speechless.

The man chuckled as if he understood. "Yes, well that card is brand new," he explained. "But you need the other three cards that go with it to use it, and those three are very rare. I'm sorry I don't have them."

Matsu frowned. Okay, it is so not new. I've been looking for this little fucker for… She inwardly sighed and reached into her pocket. "That's fine," she pulled out three cards and held them up. "I got them myself already."

"What?" Yugi and his grandpa stared in shock. "But those are ultra-rare cards!"

"I know," she smirked. In her hand were three cards of the Spellcaster type. The first one was a picture of a cloaked boy, smirking, holding a golden key. His stats were 1600/2000. The next one was a girl figure who also looked like a sorcerer. She had purple hair that was flying all over the place, and she was holding a ball of golden power. Her stats were 1700/2000. The last one was another magician/warlock-looking boy crouching, holding a golden staff similar to the Dark Magician's. His stats were 1800/2000. "I know with these combined under the card, Gekkō no Yugure, the moon illuminates the field and causes every monster not in the Graveyard to be sacrificed for Tribute to summon an ultimate warrior. I have been looking for this card for a very long time. I see you have it, so I'd like to buy it from you. I have the money, so name your price."

Yugi's eyes traveled up to Matsu's face. He saw that her once laid-back posture was now straight as a board and demanding. He gulped, feeling a bit weird. She looked like Kaiba when he had tried to buy his grandfather's last Blue Eyes.

The girl sensed the mood going around the room, so she put on a polite smile and added, "Please."

"I'll take it for, say—"

Matsu cocked an eyebrow. Oh dear, she folded her arms over her chest. This man will probably put a nice ninety dollars for this one…I don't have that type of money right now.

Grandpa Mutou was thinking over and over about how much he should price the card. It was a very rare and valuable card; first edition, too. But the girl before him didn't look like she had a lot of money on her at the moment. He wasn't looking for much, anyway. This girl had to be about Yugi's age. He shrugged. "How about thirty?"

Matsu blinked. "Are you kidding me?"

The old man shrank back a bit. "Is that too much?"

The navy-head shook her head furiously, coming back with a wide grin. She slammed her hands down on the counter. "No, that's excellent! Of course I can afford it!" Happily, she dug around in the pocket of her blouse and pulled out a very slim tin case. She opened in and pulled out some money. "Alrighty," she handed it over, "thirty." Mr. Mutou nodded and took the card out of the plastic sleeve it was in with the other cards and put in a sleeve of its own. He handed it in a small cardboard box to Matsu.

"You're very welcome."

She nodded. "Thanks."

Then he cocked his head at her. "By the way, miss, you don't intend on going out in the rain again, do you? Why don't you stay for dinner? Yugi can show you around afterward if you're new in town."

"Yeah," Yugi encouraged her.

Matsu shook her head. "No, thanks anyway. It's very kind of you, Mr. Mutou." She turned to open the door to the shop when she stopped. "Yugi."

"Yes?" he looked up at her.

"Do you…do you go to Domino High?"

"Yes, I'm going into my second year. Why?

"Well, I am new in town, so I was just wonderin'. It's nice to meet a classmate right before school starts. It was nice meeting you. I hope to duel you someday."

"Sure. You can meet my friends also. They're really nice."

She nodded and opened the door. It was even darker now, signaling night had come. She looked up to the sky. "Look, it stopped raining."

Matsu walked through the park with her hands stretched lazily behind her head. "Ah, the good feeling of completing my deck." She grinned. "I was waiting for that card! It took me forever to find it, though. The little fugger." Her nose caught a whiff of something, and she looked around until her eyes fell on the item of interest. "Oh, oh! Ice cream!"

She skipped happily over at first, but then slowed down as a thought popped into her mind. Matsu sighed. "Bleh! I keep forgetting how much I have to word on my Japanese…oh, I hope this isn't too hard. Then again, if I can't order a simple thing like ice cream, Ishizu-sama will laugh at me for sure." She had her head down in a sour puss, counting her money and didn't see herself walking into a tall, slim figure.

"Ack! Gomen-nasai, gomen-nasai!" she repeated, not bothering to look up.

"Maybe you should watch where you're going instead of counting two measly dollars over and over again," the cold voice told her. She slightly tilted her head up and popped open and eye, seeing the (well she could tell it was a guy now) person and saw another boy about twelve years old with him. The two walked by her, but she looked after them. The tall one seemed familiar to her, but she couldn't figure out who it was until she saw the bystanders gasp at the two. She heard a murmur of who it was and smiled, "I finally found ya." The vender leaned over and she turned around and blinked.

"Miss, are you going to buy any ice cream?"