Mikkimikka: And I swear I do love Joey/Mai too! I felt so sad for both of them when I wrote this scene...
Shvon: I did it on purpose, I love suspense ;) I had the same dilemma inside me when I wrote it, the arrogantshipper was happy and the polarshipper cried XD
ValonGirl: Same for me, I almost feel bad for putting him through this... the poor guy didn't deserve that but, as Shvon said, it had to be done...
Ylc: Thank you very much ;) I love those fights between them.
Lace Kyoto: Merci beaucoup! Haha, I loved the ticket seller scene too, it's soooo Kaiba to just give a lot of money so she would let him the **** alone, lol. And about Yugi (well we don't actually see him but he's there), Pegasus, Joey... Yugi in the YGO Abridged Series would say: "super mega awesome plot twist" lolll ;)
Chapter 7: Kiss me like that
For the first two or three seconds, Mai's entire body was tense. She never expected Kaiba to do such a thing. Then, she closed her eyes, and her muscles relaxed. She could hear the flashes of the photographs who all wanted to capture this moment. She felt Seto's hand softly caressing her cheek. Mai had absolutely no idea how long it took before Kaiba's mouth whisper to her hear:
"Good riddance."
Mai didn't understand what he was talking about until she opened her eyes and saw that Joey had disappeared. Pretending to whisper him some sweet words, she brought her mouth close to his ear:
"You bastard!"
"My, my, Kaiba boy, it is good to see how healthy and happy your relationship is", Pegasus said with a smirk. "I did not even know you were going to come with someone tonight!"
"Yes, Seto is full of surprises", Mai said.
She gave Pegasus the best smile she could. In fact, she was mentally searching for the best way to take her revenge. The only reason Kaiba kissed her was because he wanted to hurt Joey even more. And that was something she could not accept.
Pegasus hit his hands together.
"Please, everyone, I would like your attention!"
He waited a few seconds for the conversations to stop.
"I want to thank each and every one of you for coming tonight. I'm glad to see that everybody accepted my invitation. The reason I invited you tonight is that I wanted to show something new to the top of the Duel Monsters community. And that is you, of course. I've been working on the prototypes for years, and here it is!"
He opened a suitcase and showed its content to the crowd. It looked a bit like a Duel Disk.
"Say hello to the Monsters Creator! Your new best friend in your dueling career."
Mai felt all the tension taking over Kaiba's entire body.
"Have you been living in a cave for the last two years or what? Your invention is simply a copy of my Duel Disk!" he said with an extremely strong and angry voice.
"I can guarantee you that it is completely different. First, the Monsters Creator allow each duelist to choose between using his personal deck, or creating a deck via the Monsters Creator's database, so people don't have to buy cards to be able to play a good deck. It will also provide advices during the duel. This option, of course, can be disabled for a Tournament."
"What do you mean, create a deck via the database??? It's ridiculous!"
"If you are so convinced, then why don't you try it right in front of us?"
Pegasus looked at the crowd with a big smile on his face.
"Let's see, who shall be your opponent? Oh... why not your dear girlfriend, Japan's new champion? Miss Valentine?"
"I will be my pleasure", Mai quickly replied.
She was going to publicly kick Kaiba's butt at Duel Monsters for what he did to Joey. Mai walked towards Pegasus.
"I don't recall saying yes to this stupid offer!" Kaiba said, extremely upset.
Mai turned to him with a teasing smile.
"Come on, honey. It's gonna be fun. I've always wanted to know how good you actually are at this game."
"I wouldn't want to humiliate you in public, sweetie."
"I wouldn't be too worried if I were you."
She put on the Monsters Creator Pegasus gave her. She noticed that it was lighter and a bit smaller than a Duel Disk.
"You can classify the cards that will appears on your screen by level, name, attribute, archetype, etc.", Pegasus explained to her. "Come here, Kaiba boy! Don't be so shy to face your lovely lady!"
Kaiba rolled his eyes and took the other Monsters Creator. Mai was already picking her cards, touching the screen whenever she saw an interesting one. As soon as she finished, the deck appeared in her Monsters Creator.
"The cards you will be holding will actually be holograms. The system shuffle the cards itself, so no cheating is possible", Pegasus explained.
When Kaiba's deck appeared, Pegasus smiled.
"Let the duel commence!"
They both picked five cards.
"Ladies first", Kaiba said with a rather mocking voice.
"All right, sweetheart. I summon Harpie Queen to the field! Then, I activate my magic card Elegant Egotist, to summon Cyber Harpie! I'll give a gift to both of them..."
She put two cards in her Monsters Creator.
"To my Harpie Queen, I give the Cyber Shield, raising her attack to 2400 points, and to my Cyber Harpie, I'll add an equip card called Aero Nail, giving her an additional 300 attack points! Then, I'll lay two cards face down on the field and end my turn."
Mai's hand was now empty as Kaiba took his card.
"You know how much I love you, darling, but your moves are so predictable. I activate my magic card, Shrink! It allows me to cut in half the attack power of any monster on the field for one turn, and I choose your Harpie Queen! Then I'll play another magic card, Cost Down! For this turn, all of my monsters lose two stars, which mean that I can summon Judge Man without any sacrifice! Judge Man, destroy her Harpie Queen!"
"You are damn predictable too, my love. I activate my face down card, Harpie Lady Sparrow Formation! Thanks to the combined forces of my two harpies, your attack has been negated."
"Then I play two cards face down and end my turn."
Mai picked a card.
"I play Card of Sanctity! We both draw until we have six cards, which mean I get to draw six news cards! Let's see what I have for you... I summon Harpie Lady, in attack mode!"
"You activated my trap card, Cloning! This card lets me copy your new monster and summon a clone in defense."
"So you love my lady, uh? I've always known you have good taste. I'll give my Harpie Lady the Rose Whip to power her up a bit. And now, Harpie Queen, attack his Judge Man!"
"Not this turn! I activate Negate Attack!"
The beautiful harpie backed down before she touched Kaiba's monster.
"Your turn then, honey."
Kaiba picked a card... and smiled. A smile that could only mean one thing.
"I'll suppose I'll get rid of my Judge Man and that clone to summon a monster that you might recognize... my Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
Kaiba's favourite creature appeared on the field. Mai's harpies looked extremely small compared to him.
"Blue-Eyes, attack her Harpie Lady!"
The Harpie Lady disappeared with 1500 of Mai's life points.
"I guess now it's my move! I sacrifice both of my Harpies to summon my own dragon, Harpie's Pet Dragon!"
"Too weak for my monster. Too bad for you, sugar."
"Not for long, my dear Seto. I activate my face down card!"
The trap card rose.
"Hysteric Party!"
"Wait, when did you get that card? You never had it!"
"Have you already forgotten? I got it few minutes ago, thanks to the database. It lets me summon as many harpies as possible to the field from my Graveyard, and I have three of them!"
The Harpie Queen, the Cyber Harpie and the Harpie Lady came back on the field. Each of the three harpies was holding a golden chain in her hand, a chain that was tied to the dragon's collar.
"Together, they give 900 attack and defense points to my dragon, but I'm not done yet! I play another Elegant Egotist, to summon a second Cyber Harpie to the field, making my dragon stronger than yours! Harpie's Pet Dragon, send his Blue-Eyes to the Graveyard!"
The breath of fire destroyed the powerful white dragon.
"You know what's next, don't you? Harpies, attack!"
Pegasus slowly applauded.
"Impressive, Miss Valentine. This is what I call a convincing one-turn victory!"
Kaiba's face was perfectly emotionless, but Mai knew that he was extremely angry. He disliked being outshined.
And she disliked being kissed to break someone's heart.
They spent the rest of the evening in silence. Mai knew that he was waiting to be alone with her to let his anger out... and so was she.
When they got back into their limousine, it took him about five seconds to explode:
"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!"
"Hey! Pegasus is the one who asked me to duel you! AND THAT'S ALL YOU DESERVED! It's all your fault!"
"And what for, if I may ask?!"
"For the way you treated Joey! He TOTALLY didn't deserve that! I agreed to pretend to be your girlfriend, not to hurt people! Unlike you, I have a HEART!"
"The way I treat Wheeler or anyone else is none of your business!"
"It IS when you use me to make him suffer!"
"You're supposed to ignore any of your relationships other than professional while you're with me! Next time you sign a contract, make sure you read it!"
"THAT DOESN'T MEAN I HAVE TO ACCEPT THAT!"
"Yes it does! Read the darned contract!" he yelled.
"I told him I was truly with you! And he already looked totally devastated when he saw us! You didn't have to kiss me in front of him! Way to kick a man while he's down! You're just a heartless bastard!"
She crossed her arms.
"And you didn't have to kiss me to begin with! That was totally unnecessary! Your hand on my waist was clear enough!"
"You agreed to be CONVINCING in your role! You had to expect something like that to happen!!!"
"BUT NOT IN FRONT OF HIM!"
Mai deeply breathed in.
"If I didn't know you like I do, I'd say you're taking advantage of the situation!"
"What, you think I appreciated that?" he asked with a sarcastic tone. "It was definitely one of the most unpleasant experiences of my entire life!"
"Well, try THIS ONE!"
Mai violently slapped him. Noticing his totally bushed expression, she said:
"And you DEFINITELY had that one coming for acting like such a JERK!"
"Who do you think you ARE?"
"Who do YOU think you are to insult me like you do! And if you DARE say anything that will make me even more MAD, I swear that you'll receive another one immediately! It's about time someone shows you that you can't do anything you like with people!"
For the first time in his life, Kaiba actually listened to someone, and remained silent.
As soon as the limo stopped in front of the manor, Mai got out.
"I'm going to bed", she simply said without even looking at Kaiba.
Still sitting in the limousine, Kaiba watched her walking towards the manor.
What have I done?
End: This slap was for every reader who loves Joey ;) hope you enjoyed the chapter!
