September

Day 1

Mai opened the door to the girls' hotel room and stopped short with a gasp. Before her was an extravagant sitting room with a large, plush couch, elaborate writing desk, and the largest flat screen TV Mai had ever seen.

"What's the hold up," Ayako complained, giving Mai a light shove to move her into the room. Ayako and Masako walked in after her and looked around. "Wow, pretty nice," Ayako said appreciatively. "I could get used to this." She and Masako continued further into the spacious room and followed a short hallway past the bathroom and into the bedroom beyond. It was a few more moments before Mai could shake herself from her awe and follow, and by the time she did, Masako and Ayako had already each claimed one of the two beds.

"Wait, there's only two?" Mai said. "Where do I sleep?"

"The couch looks pretty comfortable. I'm sure you'll be fine," Ayako said, waving her question away. Mai thought of arguing for a moment before she went back into the sitting room and set her bag on the couch. Truth be told, even the couch looked like it would be more comfortable than her own bed back home, and she didn't feel up to arguing about it. It had been a long, confusing day and all she really wanted now were some answers about this mysterious case Naru had taken.

"Hey, let's head over to the base," Mai called into the bedroom.

[X]

Takigawa and John were already there and the door was standing open when the girls went next door. It appeared that each of the three rooms – or suites, as it turned out – were laid out the same way, and Naru had already set up camp at the writing desk. His laptop was open in front of him and the screen was filled with several different windows, the most prominent of which displayed information about something called the Battle City Tournament, a company called KaibaCorp, and what looked like the homepage for a website devoted entirely to fans of the occult in Domino City.

"I've decided to split the group up into three small teams, at least while we gather more information," Naru said as they walked in.

"What?" Mai exclaimed. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"The teams will be the same as the rooming assignments," he continued without hesitation. "And each team will have a few specific people I'd like you to speak with about our case. Lin is printing out their information in one of the business lounges now."

There was an uneasy silence in which Mai refused obstinately to make any further comment after having been so thoroughly ignored. She crossed her arms and huffed indignantly.

"Well… I guess we do have a lotta ground ta cover…" John said, hoping to ease some of the tension in the room. Lin returned at that moment, several sheets of paper in hand, and gave them to Naru who distributed them among the teams. Ayako took the girls' and Mai and Masako gathered around her to read.

"Kujaku Mai-san and Otogi Ryuji-san," Ayako read as she held their two sheets out next to each other.

"We've got…" Takigawa separated his and John's two sheets. "Mazaki Anzu-san and Isis Ishtar."

Masako went over to where Naru was sitting to look at his papers over his shoulder. "Kaiba Mokuba-san…" she read from the top sheet. "Was that who you were speaking to at the docks?" she asked him.

"It's his younger brother. I think we'll have more luck if we start with him, given the reception the elder Kaiba gave us."

"So you're gonna try to meet with just the younger brother?" Takigawa said doubtfully. "Do you really think that jerk will go along with that?"

"I don't intend to ask him," Naru answered.

"Whoa, hold on. You're not planning on kidnapping the kid, are you?"

"Don't be ridiculous; I hardly think he'd tell me anything useful if I did something like that."

Yeah, like that's the only thing wrong with that, Mai thought.

"I expect everyone to meet back here by early evening tomorrow to share what you've learned." With that, Naru turned back to his computer and the group gradually dispersed with only minimal eye rolls and shaking of heads.