Borrowed Nerves

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" The MC's voice boomed through the arena, eliciting cheers and shouts from the crowd.

"It's the moment you've all been waiting for, the start of the Asia's Top Tournament!"

"Top Duelists from all over the world whose origins trace back to this great continent have gathered here to compete for the title of Asia's Best Duelist!"

Jack had to admit, the Kaiba dome was hardly recognizable anymore, it had gone through so much work he wondered how much of the original remained. It was larger than before, thanks to the numerous additions, and as such Jack was enthusiastic about performing in front of a larger crowd.

All the competitors were sitted in a lounge, waiting to be called upon for their duel. No one knew the person they would face so there was no opportunity for prior preparation, as a result they were all rather bored.

Sitting next to Jack were Crow and Rua, apart from them Jack only recognized a few of the competitors: Freya, Silver and Hibiki. There were two large screens in the lounge for the competitors to watch the Duels with, the MC was just about done with the formalities.

"Now, for the first Duel of the tournament, we'll let the randomizer run!"

A large holographic screen appeared above the dueling field, two boxes could be seen there and as soon as the MC stopped speaking it began shuffling through the pictures of the duelists.

The MC spoke again as the randomizer settled on the faces of two duelists, his pompadour hair bouncing around as he moved. "Ladies and Gentlemen! For the first duel of this tournament, we have on the right side a duelist well known for her grace and skil, Mei Chen!"

Dressed in a shimmering scarlet gown, it was clear that the black haired woman cared a lot about her appearance. Her Duel Disk was strapped on her right hand, also scarlet in colour. She waved to the cheering crowd as she took her place on the dueling field.

"And on the left side," the MC continued. "We have… a very mysterious duelist out to prove her might, Masako Jun!"

Jun's bright purple hair had a bit of shine to it as she walked onto the field, despite not knowing her the crowd still cheered. Unlike her opponent she was dressed simply, opting for a black sweater and brown shorts.

The two females approached each other and engaged in the compulsory hand shake, Jun's frown deepening at the sight of her opponent's smirk.

"Now that the duelists are ready and the formalities are out of the way, it's time to…"

"DUEL!"

Mei: 4000 Jun: 4000

Hearing the entire stadium bellow that one word had a nostalgic effect on Yusei who at the behest of Aki was currently in the audience. He chuckled as Aki joined the crowd in cheering. He wondered when she became so outgoing.

Seeing Yusei laugh made Aki a bit relieved, she had feared that he would let his worries get the better of him. Making him come to the stadium was a good thing after all.

"It looks like Mei will be taking the first turn!" The MC announced, and despite not looking happy about it, Mei complied.

"My turn." She began. "I set a monster and a card face-down, turn end."

In as much as Yusei enjoyed watching the duel, he felt that he could have enjoyed it more if he was at home. Between the constant giggling and laughing done by Aki, Luna and their friend -the name of whom he needs to ask- and the discomfort brought about by the person to his left rubbing his sweat soaked shirt against him, he was rather irritated.

"Yusei, isn't this fun?" Aki called.

Turning to his right to face her, Yusei agreed despite his reservations. It had managed to get his mind off his worries and dare he say less paranoid.

"I told you it would be fun." She replied smiling.

He returned her smile with one of his own. He could tell that Aki was trying to help, and he was grateful for it. Besides, if his worries were proven right he would be right in the stadium ready to stop whatever danger would occur.

In the few days leading up to the start of the tournament, Yusei was filled with a sense of foreboding, unsettling it was, and knowing he couldn't do anything against the danger he seemed to sense only made it worse. It's interference with his work led to him taking a few days of leave, and in an attempt to help him, Aki insisted they watch the tournament live.

It was a win-win situation now that he thought about it, Aki wouldn't be worried anymore, and should anything happen he would be right there to stop it. This was great.

He tapped the red haired woman, gaining her attention. "I want to get something to eat, I'll be right back." She nodded in acknowledgement and he made to leave the stands.

Yusei let out a sigh of relief as he made it out of the main stadium, boy was he glad to breathe fresh air. A variety of food vendors were present in the stadium, all that remained now was which to choose. A smirk came to Yusei's face, maybe he'll get sushi for Aki just to get on her nerves.

He just sat there with a book in hand, his peculiar mask obscuring his face. Why would someone like him feel the need to hide themselves? He was good enough to be considered a top tier duelist if he was able to get in the tournament, yet he kept his mask on. What did he want to hide?

Jack occupied himself by musing about the masked duelist. It was insinuated that it had been the same person dueling behind the mask, afterall what kind of officials would let a person use a mask to duel without knowing their face first, or at least using finger prints and the such to identify them. Still, something about him felt off.

As jack wandered within his thoughts, the first duel ended, the purple haired youngster stole the win, as the crowd cheered, both Jun and Mei found their way back into the lounge.

"Looks like you have an admirer, Jack." Crow's voice snapped Jack out of his musings.

"What are you talking about?" The king replied, rather irritated.

"Jun, you didn't see her when she passed by, but she had her eyes on you the entire time."

"Whatever." Jack waved Crow off.

"She pretty cute though, Jack, you shouldn't just leave her hanging."

"Crow, she's like eighteen." Rua stated. "How old are you guys? Like thirty, c'mon!"

"I am not thirty." Crow laughed, indignant. "I'm barely halfway through twenty!"

"Wow, you guys are pretty old." Rua said, narrowing his eyes. "I used to think you would've gotten married by now."

"I'm not that old." The ginger haired male insisted.

"I can already picture you with grey hair." Rua laughed.

"Hey!"

The first duel had ended a short while ago and, while Rua and Crow chatted away, the MC was just about announcing the next.

"For the next duel, we have on the left, a duelist born and bred here in Neo Domino, one of the members of the best dueling team the world has ever seen, Hogan Crow!"

The ginger haired joker ran onto the dueling field, as Jack would put it, smiling like an idiot. He waved a hand to the crowd as they cheered him on.

"On the right, we have a name not known by many, but he has been making waves around Asia, Shinji Tetsuya!"

Crow's opponent walked onto the field, his Duel Disk in hand. Said person possessed short, slightly curly brown hair peeking from below the head warmer. His hazel eyes sending a calculating gaze towards the former signer.

"Now it's time to…"

"DUEL!"

Jun had decided to take a stroll around the stadium. She could still hear the crowd's noise and the MC's irksome voice.

If there was anything she could hate more right now, it would be obnoxious people-not that she hated the fans or anything, it was just annoying to be around those type of people.

People that didn't pay attention to their environment, people that didn't care about the welfare of others, people that thought they could get away with anything…

'What would father do?' She could help but ask herself everytime.

He would probably say she should move on, forget about it, that it would bring no good. But good wasn't neccessarily what she wanted, it was quite the opposite now. It might be dishonourable to his ideals but he always did say to follow your heart, and this was what hers wanted.

"Oof." Someone grunted a second before she found herself falling onto her backside.

"Sorry, sorry." The person apologized, waiting for her get back on her feet.

"Watch where you're going!" She blurted angrily, bringing herself to her feet.

She was surprised to see who she had just snapped at. "The masked wierdo…" she stated, not caring that the guy was just in front of her.

It was hard to tell if he was offended or not, or even if he heard her, the mask did its job of alienating everybody else well afterall, and without uttering any words he left, leaving the purple haired girl alone once again.

"What a jerk." Hiding behind a mask was such a cowardly thing, she wondered why the dueling federation allowed him to do so. He was probably switching places with other duelists, the whole 'never use the same deck for long' being his cover. It was just pathetic, someone like him didn't deserve to be in the tournament.

But it wasn't time to dwell on that, her current aim was to get something to eat, the tournament organizers hadn't exactly been generous in that aspect. After digging through her already shallow pocket she bought a burger, fries and a smoothie, sitting in the small restaurant, deciding to watch the rest of the matches from there.

The restaurant was mostly devoid of customers as most of people were in the main stadium watching the tournament. From what she could see on the T.V the green haired kid was up, he was dueling against an orange haired man whose name she didn't know, he seemed popular though.

'Should be enough to pass the time.' She shrugged, taking a bite from her burger.

She stopped chewing rather abrubtly as she felt an odd feeling wash over her. Her head swiftly snapped to her left and right and she turned to look behind her. She could have sworn there was someone there…

A thought popped into her head, one she found rather amusing, apparently, as she chuckled. "Yeah right, I'm the wicked one."

Heaven.

That was the first thing he could think of as soon as he saw it. Beautiful, gorgeous, amazing, wonderful, divine. He could think of all sorts of adjectives to qualify it, that was as close as he could get becuse words fell short of describing what he saw.

It was the closest thing to a paradise, not even Neo Domino had an iota of this grace and tranquil. What he would give to be in a place like this…

Like his legs were on automatic, he found himself moving, away from the hill upon which he once stood, and towards the beautiful land he had beheld.

Each step on the lush and green grass felt like something he had never felt, rather than get tired or expend energy he felt reinvigorated, as though getting closer to the land made one's being better.

An array of flora he passed by, Daffodils, Roses, Lilies, Daisies, Tulips, and he even saw an Amarylis. 'She would like it here.' He thought, his aura emmiting the fondness he felt.

Time flew by really quickly and before he knew it he had passed by springs, waterfalls and geysers, he even had the opportunity of passing through what he would call a reef-for lack of better description.

It was quite weird, too good to be true, he knew he should be wary of it but the place seemed to disable all of his defenses, and he hated it.

He wandered through what would be called a safari, not feeling frightened in the least as he passed by creatures high up in the food chain.

It was magical, he never wanted it to end, he wouldn't know what to do if it ended, he certainly didn't want to go back there, there was nothing for him there.

As though in response to his thoughts the sun pulsed and then began shining brighter, he didn't feel the slightest sensation of heat though, rather it was calming and soothing.

Then everything went dark.

A sharp pain shot through his left foot as his face, along with the rest of his body, burned in pain. He would have made some noise if he could, but he found that his vocal cords didn't seem to be his anymore.

He got to his feet, he could feel it -at least he thought so. Using his hands to feel things out, he resumed moving forward. Unlike the invigoration he experienced before, he gradually became tired.

He tried to ask why, tried to shout for help, but as before his voice wasn't his. A loud shriek echoed loudly and for the first time since his arrival here he felt something negative.

Fear.

And he knew it all to well, why wouldn't he, he'd been feeling it for years now. But this was unlike what he had felt, it was a lot worse, and along with it came feelings of hopelessness and despair.

It felt as though he was dying the most cruel death possible, and nobody seemed to bat an eyelash as he writhed in pain.

He felt a tear roll down his right cheek, then his left cheek, then another and another until it began falling in streams. It was weird, despite all that had happened in his life, never-not even once, had a tear fallen down his cheeks, this entity's sadness and pain was just too overwhelming.

What was causing it so much pain? What was hurting it? Why was it doing it? And why am I feeling the same? His head hurt trying to make head and tails of the situation.

But he hated crying, he already decided he had done enough of that, he wouldn't be weak anymore, he wouldn't let things like that faze him anymore.

Hope, a small glimmer shot through him, his eyelidsseemingly free from whatever had been keeping them shut.

The sight before him was nothing short of horrible, he was just only noticing the repulsive smell of the place, if it wasn't for the need for oxygen, he would have stopped breathing all together.

The land was swampy and wet, oily and muddy, a wrong step, it seemed, could get his entire body sucked into the menacing ground.

The sky was an unnatural and eerie gray, shrubs stuck out at odd places, and as far as he could see the landscape was the same. He continued walking, trying to understand the place he was in, why the changes occured.

Why he thought things would improve puzzled him, that sort of optimism never paid off, never. And he should know, he-

The loud shriek rang out again, it was worse this time, admittedly more of a whine than an actual shriek. It was like the dying noises animals would make, the…

An opening ceremony, it sounded rather amusing, shouldn't they have done it before the tournament began? 'Now it would just feel like salt on the wounds of the losers.' Jun thought.

The first day had been impressive, there were some strong duelists she had to admit. Jack, Crow, Hibiki and -she reluctantly admitted- Silver were the top contenders, but not for long though, she had every intention on winning, and anyone who came in her way would just have to fall.

The sun was beginning to set, she guessed it was time to leave, figuring it was best to get ready for the ceremony. She was feeling rather positive about her situation, things couldn't have gone any better.

She let out a chuckled as she gloated inwardly, she was much closer now, payback would be certainly worth the wait and effort, she was sure of it.

'Just you wait...'

"Sorry, I got sidetracked." Yusei said, rubbing his hand uncomfortably, Aki seemed pretty mad. It was understandable though, she did buy the tickets so they could enjoy themselves and support their friends.

Aki's eyes narrowed, disbelief clearly written on her face. It was a fact that when people lied they did certain things unconsciously, Yusei's was averting his eyes and avoiding eye contact. For someone so bold normally, it was quite hard to miss.

"It was work, wasn't it." She said. "Yusei we're supposed to enjoy ourselves, what's the point of taking a leave if you're still planning on working?"

He didn't respond, maybe he didn't want to or maybe he didn't know what to say, frankly she didn't care. "I don't understand why you want to work so much, you've been doing it for years now, isn't it enough?"

"It's not like that-" Yusei finally spoke. "I-"

"Just spent the entire day wandering around, huh?" She cut him off. "Why can't you just loosen up once in a while?"

She was gone before he could reply, her footsteps echoing through the empty hallway.

Yusei sighed. Why was she so mad? She had Ruka and her friend with her, didn't she? While her anger confused him, he had to admit, that was certainly a first, how she vented and stormed off, was it wrong how he didn't feel too bothered by that?

Being so stoic, he didn't look fazed in the least, and he figured that it made it worse. He would have to apologize later, maybe she just needed some time to cool off, he knew he did, besides what was he supposed to tell her, that now instead of just hallucinating he was losing time, forgetting things, she had made it pretty clear how worried she was about him and he had no intention of making her worry more.

But he had to admit, it was something worth worrying about, he couldn't remember a thing that had happened after he left to get the snacks, not a single thing, no matter how hard he tried. It didn't bode well, he knew that much, but he had to keep it to himself, nobody could help him but himself after all.