"Stupid bimbo," Haga grumbled as he rolled the dice and failed, yet again, to get the right number. His last seven rolls had been the same.
Glancing over at Yugi only irritated him further. She seemed to be having all the luck. Once again she was fitting a piece of her statue into place, the second bulbous eye slipping into place easily, leaving just two legs left to insert into the antlike carapace.
He was sure she had to be cheating, that her calm facade was a mask, hiding a smug smirk as she fiddled her rolls in order to cheat him out of victory. No one's luck was as good as she was trying to make out hers was.
She glanced over at him, waiting for him to take his turn so she could cheat and put one of the last legs in. He just knew it. Anger bubbled away inside him as he picked his die up. She had no right to test him, to judge him.
Yes, she was technically World Champion at his game, but that was only down to sheer dumb luck. She would never have defeated Kaiba if it had not been for the fact she had drawn Exodia out of her deck. Now the cards were his. If he couldn't have them, no one could. Especially not some jumped up rookie duelist. They were wasted on her.
"Finally," He grouched as he rolled a one, allowing him to add a leg to his almost limbless statue, anger roiling away under the surface as Yugi turned away to take her own turn.
He considered his options. He was not going to win. That much was becoming obvious. She would have to have an insanely bad run of luck to lose now. She was just too far ahead.
But there was something he could do to stop her winning. Their statues and the parts that went with them were colour coded, his green and hers purple. If he stole one of her leg pieces, she couldn't finish her statue.
He picked up one of the purple legs, grimacing as he tried to work out how such a wimpy looking girl could lift such heavy parts with such ease. He didn't think to wonder why the purple leg felt like it weighed a ton as he staggered over to his statue and slid the leg into place.
Out of nowhere a wind started up, pushing him away from the now mismatched statue, making him stumble backwards and trip over one of the eye pieces belonging to his statue, hitting the floor with a yelp.
"Well, that was predictable." Yugi scowled at him as he rubbed his rear, moving away from her statue and stalking towards him, darkness flaring up around her like flames. "Though I did expect it would happen earlier."
Haga's smart-alec comment died in his throat as he stared up at her. This wasn't the Yugi he had talked to earlier. The innocent looking girl with wide, purple eyes from earlier was gone. Instead this was a vengeful teenager with sharp red eyes and a scowl, who seemed to control the darkness around them like it was an extension of her.
"You cheated, Haga," She informed him. "And for that you will pay."
"I...I..." Haga stammered, his hand slipping into the pocket where he had stowed the Exodia cards, "He...Here!" He offered them. "You can have them..."
"It's a little late for that, Haga," she snapped at him, glowering. "If you had played by the rules, that would have been enough. Now, however..."
Haga started trembling, fear and anger mingling, as he pulled his hand back and stared up at her. The flames that surrounded her were as cold as ice and as they licked around his feet he could feel his toes going numb.
She was a sorceress, there was no other explanation for it. That was how she had been cheating. She had been using her magic to rig the game!
Anger overtook him as the chill continued up his legs and he realised that he had never stood a chance. That she was standingthere, looking down on him, judging him.
How dare she? How dare she?!
Well, he could get one last shot in before she cast whatever horrible spell she was planning to cast.
"You think you're so great," Haga snarled, getting to his feet. "You're just like everyone else, a lying, cheating cow." He glowered at her. "You think you're above everyone else? Just because you can make people see things and create things from nothing?" His expression shifted, to one of a vicious smirk. "Well say goodbye to Exodia."
He had just enough time to tear the stack of cards in half before the Shadows swarmed him.
"Yuge?" Jou asked, worried, as Oneesan stalked into the room, pieces of cardboard in one hand, dueling glove in the other, golden box poking out of her jacket pocket. He didn't think he had ever seen the spirit of the Puzzle stay this angry after a Challenge. There were times that had come close, but Oneesan's rage normally burned out pretty quickly, taking the magic with it. At the moment, however, he could just glimpse the darkness still swirling around her frame and from the looks on the faces of the others, they could, too. "You alright?"
"Yes, but he won't be," Oneesan snapped, slumping onto the mat and shoving the duelling glove at him. "Here. That insect won't be needing it anymore."
"Insect?" Jou examined the glove, noting that there was already a star chip inserted in it as Anzu quietly asked, "You don't mean Haga?"
"Someone's going to notice if you've driven Haga nuts," Honda hissed at Oneesan, glancing around and glad that almost everyone had gone back to sleep even as he wished Bakura's Challenge had not opened his eyes to the magic loose in the world around him. Seeing the Shadows cling to 'Yugi's' frame was creepy. "Can you fix him?"
"He cheated." Oneesan shrugged, causing Anzu and Honda to wince, while Bakura let out a resigned sigh. They knew the dangers of cheating during a Challenge. Haga wouldn't be getting up any time soon. "Besides," Yugi's other self continued. "He deserved everything he got."
"What did he do?" Anzu asked, frowning.
Oneesan's response was to reveal the pieces of cardboard. Jou swore loudly enough to wake some of the other duelists as he realised what they were.
"He ripped up Exodia?!" Anzu yelped.
"Now you see why I'm quite so ticked?" the ancient ex-Pharaoh asked as she put the pieces away in the box forher spares.
"Why didn't you just...you know, what you did with Blue Eyes?" Honda was confused, "I mean Kaiba was gonna rip it up and..."
"I'm not sure how 'I' did it last time." Oneesan smiled slightly as she noted the look on the faces of the others when she emphasised the 'I,' "You thought I," she pointed to herself, "did that?"
"Well...yeah." Honda nodded. "I mean, you're the one with the magic, not her."
"The Puzzle belongs to Yugi, not her." Bakura spoke up, watching Oneesan carefully, causing the spirit to wonder if it was Amane or the spirit of her Millennium Ring in control of the body. "And it's the source of the magic."
Oneesan couldn't help but be amused when Jou, Honda and Anzu all turned to her for confirmation, "It's true." She nodded. "I'd like to teach her more about how to control it so she could use the Puzzle properly, but she's...I suppose the best way to term it would be that she's 'allergic' to the Shadows. Her soul is too light for her to be able to handle them for any length of time. Little things like rescuing Blue Eyes is nothing, but anything more..." She shrugged, "and I'm pretty much making it up as I go along as it is. I'd be a pretty lousy teacher anyway."
"That's certainly not changed over the last three thousand years." Oneesan's eyes narrowed as she glanced over at the spirit of the Ring, whose deeper voice and slightly glowing Ring had made her arrival obvious, "You were a pretty lousy teacher back then, too."
"And how would you know?" She shot back.
"This may come as a shock to you, your highness," Bakura said the last as a slur. "but you invited me to join your lessons."
"What?" Oneesan blinked at her, mostly hiding her shock.
Frustratingly Bakura didn't seem to want to divulge any more information, retreating to the Ring and leaving her 'landlord' in control as her friends digested this new information, both about her and about Imoto-chan.
Her little sister's frustration and embarrassment came through clear as Oneesan tried to work out if Bakura had been messing with her or whether she had been telling the truth, making the long deceased Pharaoh mentally cringe. She had forgotten Imoto-chan had been hiding the fact it wasn't just Shadi's spell that would affect her that badly. It had just been the best way to explain why her other self lacked the magic that she could wield so easily.
She 'stepped back,' taking the Shadows with her as she retreated to the Puzzle, leaving her little sister in control and trying not to wonder if she had just revealed a weakness to an enemy. Yugi waited nervously as she watched her friends work through what they had been told, wondering what their responses would be.
"Only you, Yuge," Jou said finally, looking at her with a half amused, half resigned expression, "could be allergic to your own magic."
Yugi didn't really have a response to that. There wasn't really much she could say. Shadi had proved to her just how feeble she was when it came to dealing with the Shadows and though she was determined that, once she could talk to Oneesan, it was something she was going to work on, right now there wasn't much she could do about it.
"The other Bakura said she and Oneesan used to be friends, right?" Anzu asked, thinking about the Monster World Challenge and when the spirit of the Ring had been gloating at the spirit of the Puzzle. When Yugi nodded at her, she continued, "So maybe she did teach her. They had to have met somewhere."
"Shame they're not friends now." Jou snorted. "We wouldn't have had to go through that RPG if they were."
"Are you gonna let Oneesan handle Pegasus?" Honda asked her, able to see Bakura looked uncomfortable and changing the subject.
"I don't know," Yugi admitted as she started rearranging her spot on the mat so she could get comfortable and try and get some more sleep. She still didn't have a plan but she knew that if Oneesan needed her help, 'allergic' to the Shadows or not, she would help. It was the least she could do after she had walked headfirst into Pegasus's trap.
"If he's using Shadow magic and it makes you sick..." Anzu worried at her.
"As long as I'm working with Oneesan, she can shield me and the Shadows don't bother me," Yugi reassured her friends, noting the way they relaxed at that news and leaving off the 'as much.'
"That's good." Jou nodded, flopping back onto the mat and staring at the ceiling. "So what are we saying happened to Haga?"
"They can't exactly bust Yugi for something their boss has been doing," Honda pointed out. "So maybe we should keep quiet and get some sleep?"
The idea was a sound one but none of them could drop back off. They finally gave up around sunrise, snatching up their bags and heading up onto the deck, watching the waves go by and an island loom large on the horizon.
"There it is, Yuge," Jou murmured, the duelling glove on his right hand seeming to get heavier the closer they got to the island and the more he thought about what was at stake. "You ready?"
Yugi felt like saying no. She didn't feel ready. She had no real plan, bar win her way to the top and beat Pegasus, she had no clue how to combat Pegasus's Millennium Eye and she honestly wasn't sure they were ready to duel in the major leagues, but there was no time and no choice. It was sink or swim time. She had to be ready. So she nodded instead.
It was the right choice as she saw Jou's confidence grow at that, as if her being ready was enough for him to feel ready. Maybe it was. She had always felt more at ease and able to do anything when she had her friends with her. Maybe, right now, he needed the same thing. She wasn't the only one with family at risk here after all.
"Hey, one good thing came out of Haga being a thieving prick at least." Jou seemed to realise as they thought about what was to come and the duels they would have to fight. He held up his glove to show the others the two golden stars embedded in the wristband of it. "We're starting at the same point as everyone else."
"Of course, Yugi should totally take her Star Chips back now," Honda teased Jou. "Save you wasting them later."
"Hey!" Jou snarled at him, giving his friend his best death glare. "I'm ready for this! More than ready!"
"Will you two behave?" Anzu sighed at the pair of them before they could start brawling. "If you fall in the ocean we're not dragging you two back out again."
"Bah." Jou huffed, backing off but still glaring at Honda. "Zero respect."
Yugi just smiled and shook her head at their antics, spirits lifted a little by the normalcy of it.
"Hey, Yugi?" Bakura asked, leaning against the railing next to her. "He doesn't know I'm coming, does he?"
"I hope not," Yugi offered, glancing at her friend and frowning slightly before turning to watch the sun rising over the water. "Or he'll be after your Ring next."
"He can have it." Bakura snorted, still peeved with the spirit of her Ring for trying to kill her friends or trap them in game pieces. "But maybe I could be an ace up the sleeve or something. Cover you if you need it, or help the others get away if it goes bad."
Yugi blinked at her. It wasn't that she wasn't grateful for the offer, she just hadn't expected it. She wasn't sure why she hadn't, Bakura was as much her friend as any of the others, even if she was linked to someone who wanted to kill her. Still she hadn't expected her to offer her help so readily.
"I know you can't trust the spirit of the Ring." Bakura's hand went to the Ring. "But I want to help and I doubt she'll let some big headed, obnoxious American steal 'her' treasure, so I don't think she'll stop me."
Yugi could quite easily see her friend being right. Though they had gotten off to a rocky start, the spirit of the Ring seemed to have settled down a lot since the Monster World Challenge. However the other Bakura had sworn that the Puzzle would belong to her eventually, even if she had to wait for it.
Yugi knew the spirit of the Ring was a dangerous adversary, but she was mostly convinced that her recent actions were all part of a plan to rile up Oneesan. The other item spirit seemed to enjoy annoying Yugi's older sister, especially by dropping hints about their shared past but refusing to share details. Because of this, she was pretty sure that the other Bakura would help them if they needed it, if only to ensure that she got her prize at the end of the day and she still had someone to wind up.
"You know," Jou commented as he watched the other Duellists begin to emerge onto the deck, catching the first few rays of sunlight on what was promising to be a nice morning. "We could just aim Bakura no Oneesan at Pegasus and watch the fireworks."
"Please don't call her that." Bakura winced, "She's not related to me and calling her the 'Other Bakura' is bad enough."
"Sorry," Jou answered sheepishly. "But I don't know what else to call her."
'Like it or not, Landlord, my name IS Ba-Khu-Ra.' Bakura flinched as her Other's voice echoed around her head, 'Do you expect him to remember how to pronounce it properly?'
"Can't you use something else?" Bakura asked.
'You have a given name. Try using that instead of your surname.' The spirit huffed at her. 'I have been using my name for three thousand years; I'm not changing it just to suit you.'
Amane had no idea how to respond to that, so she didn't even bother trying. She knew she could have gone by her first name, but it was the principle of the matter. The announcement coming from the nearby speakers, informing them that breakfast was served sufficiently distracted her from the name problem anyway and she followed the others back into the depths of the ship.
They tried to ignore the rumours flying around over the fold out breakfast tables that had been put up in the time that they had been up on deck, though it wasn't easy when several people mentioned the fact that Insector Haga had been rushed to the ship's infirmary and probably wouldn't be able to compete.
The more charitable of those amongst the Duelists on board wished him a speedy recovery, while those whom he had annoyed over the years were just glad to have one less opponent standing between them and the prize money.
Luckily, though some people had been heard grumbling that they wished he'd gotten sick before he'd gotten on board and worrying about the chances of catching whatever he had, no one seemed to connect the thief who had been rummaging through bags last night with Haga, and no one asked Yugi any awkward questions that she couldn't answer.
It didn't take them very long to get through a decent breakfast, though they had to poke Yugi, who didn't feel particularly hungry due to nerves, into eating what was on her plate. By the time they had finished, however, the boat had docked and it was time to disembark.
Jou passed by the mooks greeting the Duelists off of the boat without any trouble. Their gloves signaled that they were Duelists after all. As far as the guards were aware, Jou was meant to be there. Honda, however, nearly got himself and Anzu caught as his nervousness, unaided by the not particularly concealed weapons on each of the guards, made his movements stiff and jerky. Luckily, the guards mistook his nervousness at getting caught for nerves about the tournament and let them go by.
Jou couldn't help but tease him as they headed for the castle where the tournament was supposedly due to start. Oneesan, who had taken control of the body in advance, wasn't really listening to it. She was more interested in their surroundings. The island seemed completely deserted bar them and the men hired by Pegasus.
It was a very pretty island, she couldn't deny that and from what little she could see it looked like it had most of the different types of 'fields' that Duel Monsters often took advantage of available. Not that she knew what the importance of that was yet, but she figured it was probably something to note for later.
The castle they were supposed to be heading for was at the top of the mountain and unfortunately for the Duelists there was no lift available to take them up. Instead they had to climb the rather long staircase until they reached the top.
Jou wasn't the only one that moaned when the castle doors didn't open for them when they reached the top. There were several others who were just as vocal as he was, including Dinosaur Ryuuzaki. They soon shut up when Pegasus himself stepped out onto the balcony above them.
"Welcome one and all, to Duelist Kingdom!" Pegasus announced, a bright smile on his face, the same one he'd had when he had tricked Imoto-chan into taking part in his Shadow Game.
"Pegasus, that dirty, cheating son of a...ow!" Jou glared at Anzu who cut him off by stamping on his foot.
Oneesan smirked slightly at their antics even as a part of her wanted to use her magic to drag Pegasus down here and destroy him, despite the crowd around him.
"Let me explain the rules of this special, special tournament!" Pegasus continued, seemingly oblivious to the grumbling going on below him, though he did smirk at Oneesan when he saw she had fallen into his trap. "The Duels will take place with officially licensed Duel Monsters cards. I hope you all brought your most powerful decks!"
Several Duelists looked worried at that. Most of the others had done some trading the night before to get their decks settled as best they could and accepted that there was very little else they could do to improve their chances at this point of the game.
"Each of you should have a Duel Glove and two Star Chips. If you haven't already, please place your glove on your left hand. On your gauntlet you'll find ten spaces where you can insert Star Chips. Please insert your two Star Chips now."
Oneesan couldn't help but feel smug that her little sister had already worked that out as she glanced at the glove already sitting on her left hand and the glittering golden stars held safely within the metal band around her wrist.
"These Star Chips are your life as a Duelist," Pegasus continued, holding one of them up. It glinted like the star it was supposed to represent in the morning sunlight. "Every time you duel, you must wager one or more Star Chips on the outcome."
"Thank Kami we're both starting with two then," Jou murmured, his voice quiet enough for only Oneesan and the others in their group to catch what he was saying.
"The Duels will take place, 'Battle Royale' style all around the island using the new Kaiba Corp Duel Boxes." Pegasus continued, "Only the first Duelists to win ten Star Chips will be allowed to enter the castle. They and only they will have the chance to win the 'honours' mentioned on the cards I sent you."
'Duel Boxes around the island?' Oneesan considered as she tried to remember what Haga had been saying to Imoto-chan the night before, when he'd been trying to make friends with her. He had probably been planning to steal the Exodia cards when her little sister had shown them to him. Oneesan half suspected that they would have gone overboard if her other self had asked for them back, though that might have been preferable to getting ripped in two, if Imoto-chan could call cards to her, like she had with the Blue Eyes that now rested in their deck. 'This has to be something to do with the new rules Haga was talking about. Probably to do with the terrains too. Looks like we'll be playing a more advanced version than we're used to. This should be fun.'
She couldn't help the excitement that the thought caused. Though she knew what was at stake for her and her friends, this tournament would be a true test of her gaming prowess and she looked forward to the challenge.
"The Dueling begins in one hour," Pegasus called down to them. "And the time limit is forty-eight hours. Anyone without ten Star Chips by that time will be disqualified and will be deported from the island with the rest of the losers. Only the very best, the one to win their way into the castle and defeat every last opponent will be named the King," Pegasus smirked at Oneesan who glowered back as he continued. "Or Queen of Games! Now Duelists, good luck and let the games begin!"
Author Note: And so the tournament begins. Finally. Sorry for the delay. I've had to move halfway across the country and back in with my parents due to a rather large problem involving money, or rather a lack thereof, and it's thrown my writing for six. I am beginning to catch up with everything now though so hopefully the updates will start coming faster again.
Beta Note: I, Scaehime, also apologize for the extended delay. I had a lot going on this past week or so, what with family visiting for my brother's graduation. I'm finally getting this done at 2:30 am, so I apologize for any errors I may have missed.