DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction produced for entertainment purposes only. Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters are the creations of Kazuki Takahashi.

Tournament of Shadows
Chapter 6: A Dangerous Game
by Shadow's Mirror

The third day of the Domino City Treasure Quest Tournament had just begun, but already it was quite different from the two days before it. The dark clouds that had gathered during the night still hung low in the sky and a feeling of tension was in the air, although no longer as heavy as it had been earlier that morning.

As the duelists started off to find their first duels for the day, there was far less excitement in their faces than there had been on the previous days of the competition. Most of them were not very good at hiding how worried they were about what the day might bring.

There was no sign of worry from Evien when he sauntered up to his duel, barely twenty minutes later, though. He looked calm and ready to battle, but the light sheen of sweat on his face gave away the truth. He'd run every step of the way there, desperate to be one of the first to get to, and win, his first duel of the day.

And it would have to be his first, if he was to have any hope at all of getting into the top eight and going through to the final round of the tournament. He was only on his third duel and there were already five others up to their fourth duels. With only five duels before the final round, he was quickly running out of time. He had to make every minute count.

- - -

Evien was the first duelist to find and begin his duel that day, but many of the others weren't far behind him. Isis began her level four duel only a few minutes later, with both Nyc and Avril starting their duels a few minutes behind her. Another ten minutes saw level three duels starting for Malik and Marik, who were both oddly focused considering how laid back they had been in the contest on the previous days. But the audience watching the tournament via the live coverage on TV didn't get to see much of them, as Seto began his level four duel at the same time.

Of course, as he won it in under ten minutes with a punishing attack from his dragons, there would have still been plenty of time to have seen Malik and Marik in action, but Callie had started her level four duel in the meantime and the camera seemed to find her more interesting to focus on.

Or maybe it was just that showing Malik and Marik when they were dueling seriously would have required the TV station to up the show's rating to a PG13, for scary stuff.

Seto was the first duelist to win that day, but not by much. Barely ten minutes later, both Nyc and Avril easily won their duels with some superb combo attacks that were the talk of the city for the rest of that morning.

At the same time, Reena and Bakura both began their level four duels, while Rex practically pounced on the poor official waiting for him and claimed loudly that he'd win this duel in under ten minutes and 'show that Seto Kaiba how a real duelist does it!'

By comparison, Joey's cheerful smile and happy 'Oh, hey there! Good luck in the duel!' at around the same time made a far better impression on both the officials and the audience. On the cameraman too, apparently, as it was Joey's duel that got the most coverage.

Although, he did cover the part where the official soundly defeated Rex, twenty minutes later. Quite a feat considering that Yugi's duel had started a few minutes earlier, while Reena was about to win her duel. Still, the live coverage managed to capture all of the major plays quite nicely.

Weevil and Espa had both needed to travel quite a distance to get to their first duels, but they managed it at around the same time as Callie won her duel, a minute or two before Evien.

Evien clearly wasn't happy with his win. Despite pulling off a range of combo attacks and using more traps and magic cards than most duelists would have had in their decks, his opponent had been quite good and whittling his lifepoints down had apparently taken a lot longer than Evien liked. Even so, he pasted a smile on his face and flattered the official a little afterwards, before asking him how he was placing in the tournament and how the others were doing.

When he left the duel location a few minutes later, Evien was no longer smiling.

At about the same time that Evien was learning that he was still coming in eleventh place, Isis, Malik, Marik and Joey all won their duels. Each of them did so in a different way, but all four had the same effect on both the officials and the audience of the live coverage.

The officials were impressed.

The audience was stunned.

Isis had been playing calmly and quietly through the whole tournament, but her calmness had never been more obvious than during that duel. Her opponent had been showering her with attacks and taking out her lifepoints in massive amounts each round for several rounds, but she had not so much as flinched. She had merely bided her time until she drew the cards she needed and had then proceeded to systematically destroy all of his monsters on the field and wipe out his lifepoints.

Malik and Marik had had far too much fun with their officials, but they'd also taught them some new strategies, judging by the fact that both men went shopping for Gravekeeper's Assassin cards after their shifts were done for the day.

As for Joey's duel... it was the most incredible example of a streak of pure luck that anyone in the city had ever seen. From his opening move to his final Time Wizard and Baby Dragon combo, everything he'd done had gone Joey's way. Most of his cards had been influenced by Fate, their effects either requiring the toss of a coin, the roll of a die or simple guesswork on his part, but he'd succeeded every time. If it hadn't been impossible to cheat with such things, he would have had his win challenged. Surely no one was that lucky? The official was still shaking her head in mute astonishment as she handed over his winning card and the clue for the next duel.

A few minutes after Joey's win, the last duelist finally made it to her duel.

Mai was clearly upset, although it turned out that her emotions were due to the fact that she'd missed out on something she'd wanted in a sale she'd stopped by at on the way to her duel and not because she was making a late start in the day's dueling. She took a moment to take a few deep breaths to calm down and then focused on her duel, clearly intending to make up for lost time.

For the first ten minutes, she shared the live coverage fairly evenly with Yugi. Then he won his duel and the audience was treated to a whole half hour of mostly Mai Valentine, despite the fact that quite a few of the other duelists were also dueling at that time.

- - -

Although the skies were still dark with storm clouds and the air was still heavy with the feeling that something was about to happen, the day had gone fairly smoothly for most of the duelists. Of the sixteen of them, only Rex and Weevil had been defeated so far and they were both looking quite good in their second attempts at passing their checkpoints. Some of the duelists had begun to relax a little, but when the officials' bags began to make beeping sounds, shortly before eleven thirty, those who were dueling at the time all had a sudden feeling of foreboding.

They were right to be worried.

So as not to distract either the duelists or the officials from the duels, important news was sent to the officials' portable data pads, rather than their cellphones. The arrival of such a bulletin set off the beeping alarm, alerting the officials to the fact that there was information available that the duelist might need to be told after the match was over.

Bakura was the first to win his match, a few minutes after the alarm sounded, so he was the first to learn what had happened.

Three of the tournament's duelists, Avril Kensington, Rina Price and Callie Logan, had been taken to hospital. They'd been discovered by another duelist, lying unconscious in an alley.

As Seto had told the group who had gathered that morning, his security team had learned of four children being found earlier that morning, also lying unconscious in alleys around the city.

It could just be a coincidence, of course.

Bakura hadn't lived as long as he had by believing in coincidences.

As he walked away from the dueling area, he slipped Ryou's cellphone out of his pocket and hit one of the speeddials. "Yugi? It's Bakura. Put Yami on, would you? This game just became dangerous."

- - -

As the other duelists won their matches, the officials told them the news.

Mai was the next to learn and it hit her hard. She knew the girls and liked them. On the other hand, there was nothing she could do to help them and she was right in the middle of a tournament. She needed to focus on it. There was a prize at stake.

She frowned at the clue she'd received and then sighed. Putting it in her bag, she went off to hit the shops. Even if it didn't help them, visiting them with get well soon gifts that afternoon would have two benefits. It would make her feel like she wasn't completely useless and shopping for the gifts would relax her again enough to focus on solving the clue and finding her next, and last, duel. She was in the top group. Mai knew she could afford to take some time out for herself and her friends.

Espa was so shocked at the news that he had to ask the official to repeat it. The second time, he bit his lip hard and started to leave before receiving his prize card and the clue for the next duel. The official had to run after him with them. Clearly distracted and distressed, Espa looked as if he wasn't sure what to do next. The official kindly asked him if he was all right and he shook his head.

"I... I think... Would it be all right if I went back to my hotel for a little while? I... I really need to see my brothers right now. To make sure they're all safe." He was near tears.

The official nodded and offered to have someone drive him there. Espa sniffed and accepted.

The green-haired duelist wasn't seen again for the rest of the day.

Rex also took the news hard, but his reaction was the opposite of Mai and Espa's. He gruffly said that the competition wouldn't be as good with three of the best no longer in it, then stomped off to find his next duel, muttering that he'd win it for them.

Weevil lost twice to his opponent, but finally managed to beat him on his third try. His smug smile lasted only as long as it took for the official to hand him his card and clue and tell him that Rex had won his duel twenty minutes earlier. But when he heard the news about the girls, his pout turned into a heavy scowl. "Why is it that strange things always happen during these big tournaments? It's getting so a duelist can't even duel in peace."

The clocks in the city were chiming noon when Nyc stepped up to the dueling arena for her fifth, and final, match of the tournament. One look at the waiting official and she seemed to know that something had happened, asking that she be told before the duel when the official wanted to wait until afterwards. Despite the official warning her that it would possibly distract her off her game, Nyc quietly insisted that she would take that chance.

When she heard the news about her friends, she bowed her head. For a few moments, she was still and silent, then she lifted her head again. The official took an involuntary step back at the intensity of the anger in Nyc's eyes. "It seems... that this tournament... has just become personal." Nyc spoke very softly, just to herself, then looked at the official and summoned the ghost of a smile.

"Let's duel."

Despite the fact that Seto Kaiba's second duel started, and ended, during the half hour that Nyc's duel went for, he barely got more than a minute of screen time in the live coverage. There was something about Nyc's duel that was almost spellbinding to watch and it apparently entranced the people editing the camera footage as much as it did the show's audience.

She didn't use rare cards, or complicated strategies. There was nothing in her duel to suggest that Nyc was anything but a duelist used to dueling at a middle level of competition. Even so... through the whole duel, her hand never once wavered over her choice of card. Her eyes never once left the dueling arena and the monsters gathered there. Her focus was completely on the duel.

When it was won, the official smiled a little as he handed her the prize card and final clue. "Congratulations. You just need to go to the final location and you're through to the finals."

Nyc nodded and smiled a little, although her eyes were slowly filling with tears. "Thank you. I am not just in this for myself, now. I am fighting for them, also." She spoke so softly that the microphones for the live coverage didn't pick up a word of it, but the official heard and understood.

He nodded and looked sympathetic. "Once you get there and sign in, you're done for the day. You can wait and see who else turns up, of course, but you're also free to go off and do... other things."

This time, Nyc's smile was a little brighter. "Thank you. I may just do that."

Half an hour later, just as Yugi was beginning his fifth duel on the other side of the city, Nyc stepped into the foyer of the auditorium where the finals were to be held.

The contest official who was waiting there smiled broadly at her. "Congratulations. If you would just sign the register..."

One signature later, Nyc was officially the first of the eight finalists of the Domino City Treasure Quest Tournament.

That left just seven more places for the finals and twelve eager duelists to fill them.

A challenge had been issued and Nyc had accepted. Now, it was just a question of who else would join her.

To be continued...