To paraphrase Louise Rosenblatt, "a story's just ink on a page until a reader comes along to give it life." This in my way of saying, I'd really like to know what you think, and appreciate all reviews.
MANGA NOTE: Yami and Kaiba have two duels that either don't appear in the anime, or appear in a radically different form. Their first penalty game occurs when Kaiba steals Sugoroku's BEWD from Yugi. Yami challenges him to a shadow game (or penalty game) to get it back. Yami wins when Kaiba summons the BEWD, but the dragon destroys itself rather than follow his commands. Yami inflicts a penalty game on Kaiba where he is trapped in the illusion that he is in the Duel Monsters world and is killed by his own monsters.
CHAPTER 9: CROSSROADS OF CHAOS
Heroes and villains exist without protective coloration. Standing at opposite ends of the spectrum, they share the trait of being instantly recognizable. It's comforting in a way, to have everything so neatly categorized, even – or especially – when the fate of the world is hanging by a thread.
And then there are those characters who exist to unsettle, who seem to change shape before our eyes, taking new form with less fanfare than the average Pokemon evolution. Often the changes are so inevitable they surprise no one but the participants themselves. Is there any doubt that Peter Parker, despite the occasional whine, will eventually accept that with great power comes great responsibility? Or that Han Solo will return in the Millennium Falcon, saving the galaxy and Luke Skywalker's butt?
But "often" isn't the same thing as "always" – and sometimes you watch the mighty Blue Eyes White Dragon change into the cuddly Toon Dragon right before your eyes and wonder… are the fangs and claws just for show?
KAIBA'S NARRATIVE
We were on a savannah this time, standing knee deep in grass and weeds. I looked at Yugi. For a moment I wondered if my vision had blurred. Then I realized there really were two of them here. Standing side by side, their differences were even more obvious. Yami was slightly thinner, slightly taller. Even more noticeable, he radiated confidence. That sense of power had always been there; it was more striking now, as if he'd been unleashed. Only the stunned looks on their faces were identical.
I waited for one of them to say, "I told you there were two of us," even though I'd already acknowledged it.
"Yami?" Yugi asked, uncertainly.
Yami nodded, then looked down at his hands as if he'd never seen them before. He made a fist, then flexed his hand; flicked his wrist as if drawing an imaginary duel monsters card. I noticed a second difference: Yugi still wore the Puzzle around his neck; Yami was carrying the backpack.
"How is this possible?" Yugi asked.
Yami walked up to me. He reached out so slowly, I didn't think to block him or push him away. He touched my face. He ran one finger down my cheek, down the side of my neck until it lodged at my collarbone. My pulse beat against his finger. He moved slowly, almost tentatively. Even for Yami, it was bizarre. I didn't like being touched, but this was different. There was no threat here… just an odd awareness of his finger against my skin. He finally noticed me glaring at him and stepped back.
"I can feel," he said wonderingly. He drew in a deep breath, held it for a moment. I heard the air whistle through his lips as he exhaled. "This isn't Yugi's body. This isn't an avatar. It's real. It's mine." He drew in another breath; his eyes drifted shut as if concentrating on filling his lungs was the only task before us. He opened his eyes as he exhaled once again. "Thank you, Kaiba."
"I guess this is yours then, too" Yugi said, slipping the Puzzle off his neck. He handed it to Yami – or tried to. But the minute the Puzzle left Yugi's hand, Yami disappeared. The Puzzle fell to the ground.
"What the fuck?" I muttered, stepping forward and picking it up.
As soon as the Puzzle was in my hand, Yami reappeared at my side, close enough that his voice sounded like it was inside my head, as he said, "This didn't happen the last time we were in this game. Something's changed."
He was so near. As with his finger against my skin earlier, I had this odd sense of awareness, this feeling of mingled danger and safety, of once sharp boundary lines blurring the closer I got to them. If I closed my eyes I could imagine his breath on my neck, his voice echoing in my ear even though he'd stopped speaking. I shook my head, unsure of what was happening, unsure if it was a threat… unsure if I liked it.
I frowned, annoyed I was wasting time on stray thoughts when there was a practical problem to be solved. Yami had been a few feet away when he'd blinked out. Why had he reappeared at my side instead of Yugi's? I looked at the trinket in my hand and shrugged. There was only one way to confirm the most obvious explanation. I took a step back and threw the Puzzle to Yugi.
"Here! Catch," I called.
The instant the Puzzle left my hand, Yami disappeared, reappearing once more by Yugi's side as he caught the thing.
"Even here, everything comes with strings attached," I observed.
"So…" Yugi said, trying to figure it out. "Yami's still tied to the Puzzle and he can only take solid shape if someone's holding it?"
"Seems that way," I replied. "We could toss him around a couple more times if you want to make sure."
Yugi's lips tightened. He stuck his chin out. As an attempt to intimidate me, it was laughable.
"Don't make fun of him," he ordered. "If the situation was reversed, do you think for a moment he'd taunt you?"
Damn. Yugi was right. I'd wanted to treat the Puzzle as if it was a worthless trinket. I'd wanted to prove the strange feeling of connection I'd felt the moment I'd picked it up was an illusion, to dismiss everything I'd thought and felt as if it was a triviality. I hadn't meant to do the same thing to Yami.
"I was wrong to belittle you," I said stiffly to Yami, ignoring his even smaller partner.
Yami nodded curtly, eyes cold.
"You went through as yourself the first time," I said thoughtfully. "I wonder if that made a difference."
"This body is mine, not Yugi's. I would have sworn it was real." He sounded upset… disappointed even. For an instant he looked like a little kid who'd just had a toy snatched out of his hand. Then Yami remembered our latest quarrel and glared at me. I couldn't believe I'd forgotten, even for a moment, what a stiff-necked bastard he could be.
"You are real. Never doubt it. I wish your body matched," I said.
He smiled slightly, accepting what we both knew was a peace offering. The three of us looked at each other uncertainly.
"So now that we're all here, what happens next? Where do we go? What should we do first?" Yugi asked.
"I'm going to try to open the program. Maybe I can shut down the game from the inside now that we're here," I said, knowing it was a fool's hope, but not wanting to admit I had no clue what our next move should be once I'd confirmed that the codes were inaccessible.
But before I could do anything, a small figure dropped into our midst, materializing as suddenly as Yami had winked in and out. I can't believe it took me a moment to recognize my own brother – or maybe that was how bad I didn't want him to be here.
Mokuba grinned in satisfaction as he surveyed the landscape.
"Hi, Nisama," he said, a touch of bravado in his voice.
"What the fuck are you doing here? Get back home right now!" I yelled over the rising wind. It must have been my imagination, but I could have sworn I heard mocking laughter.
"I can't. The VR pods vanished. The only way out is through the game. We're going to play it together after all," he said smugly.
"You're going home." I didn't want to look weak in front of Yami, but I added, "Please."
Mokuba was starting to look stubborn. I didn't care.
"Exit game!" I called out. There was no response.
"Unhide codes," I yelled next. The program was still unresponsive. I swore under my breath.
"It looks like you're stuck with me," Mokuba said happily.
"Don't you get it, Mokuba? Remember what happened the last time you insisted on being part of one of my games? I don't want you to get hurt!"
"C'mon Nisama! I want to help… and I'm going to."
"The hell you are! I wish you were anywhere but right here next to me!"
"Kaiba, control yourself!" Yami said sharply.
As soon as I said the words I wanted to take them back. I wanted to unthink the thoughts that'd spawned them. But it was too late. I heard a rumble deep in the ground.
A fissure opened right in front of me, knocking me to the ground. By the time I got to my feet, the gap was too far to jump and it was widening with each second. I recognized the stone plateaus rising as I watched, trying to keep my balance as the ground I was standing on soared into the air. The game was recreating the spell card "Canyon." Its card effects wouldn't apply here. That didn't matter. Its physical presence was what counted. Yami, Yugi and I were on one stony outcropping. Mokuba was on the other.
As I stared across at him, measuring the distance, a Dragon Capture Jar appeared, hanging improbably in the sky. I cursed in frustration. Now I couldn't even call in my Blue Eyes White Dragon to rescue Mokuba. I could only use the seven cards I'd identified before coming into the game. I couldn't switch – not until this challenge played itself out. I'd seen Yugi's seven choices before we'd started. He didn't have anything big enough to rescue Mokuba either. I wasn't sure what was in Yami's allotment of cards. The game would have picked seven at random from the ones he used most commonly – and there wasn't a flier, besides Curse of Dragon, in the bunch. And if Mokuba could have extricated himself, he would have done so already. That left it up to me.
I got ready to jump across. I knew I probably wasn't going to make it. I didn't care. I'd rather plunge into the stony abyss trying to reach him than leave him alone to face whatever was out there. This was my fault. The one thought that had pounded through my head like a drumbeat was how much I wanted him gone. I hadn't controlled myself. Now it was time to pay. I had to let Mokuba know his safety mattered more than anything.
"Nisama!" he yelled.
"Just hang on Mokuba, I'll be there in a second," I yelled.
"No! Nisama, it's too far to jump!"
"Then I'll die trying. You're my partner. You're all that matters. This was my fault. I should never have said – have thought – I didn't want you here. I was afraid of this happening – and I was the one to set it off."
I took a step back to try and get whatever running start I could on the uneven ground. Yami and Yugi grabbed me. I tried to throw them off. I didn't have time for them; I had to reach Mokuba.
"Damn you, let me go!" I screamed.
"You'll kill yourself, you fool!" Yami yelled.
I managed to throw Yugi off. "Do you think I care?"
"I know you don't. That's why we're not letting go," Yami answered.
"Nisama, please stop! I'll be fine," Mokuba screamed. Hearing his voice made me struggle even harder.
Yugi latched on to my arm again. I stared at his Puzzle – it was my last chance. If I could get it off, then I'd only have one of them to subdue, and we all knew how a fight between me and Yugi would end. I grabbed the chain around his neck, half strangling him while I tried to rip it off.
"Wait!" Yugi said. "I have an idea. Just trust me for a minute."
I let up for a fraction of a second; just long enough for them to consolidate their grips. As I was cursing myself for a fool for hesitating, Yugi summoned Eagle Eye. The sun shone through his tail feathers just like I'd designed it to; a golden battle helm was on his head. At least his presence meant no more trap cards could be activated, but it wouldn't get rid of the Dragon Capture Jar. My Blue Eyes White Dragon was still as helpless and bound as I.
"What good does this do? There's no way Eagle Eye can carry Mokuba!" I yelled at Yugi, trying for the chain around his neck again.
"It doesn't have to." Yugi took one hand off my arm to pull the Puzzle out of reach. He looked at Yami. "It's the only way. We can't leave Mokuba alone out there."
Yami nodded.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" I growled.
Yugi took off his Puzzle. Yami disappeared. Before I could shake Yugi off, Eagle Eye grabbed the Puzzle in his talons and bolted off across the abyss. He dropped the Puzzle at Mokuba's feet and disappeared.
"Mokuba! Pick up the Puzzle!" Yugi yelled.
"Got it!" Mokuba yelled back. He put it around his neck and yelped, "Oh shit, Yami?" as my rival appeared at his side.
As if part of the game had been satisfied by Yugi's action, the chasm turned to a river. It was sweeping Yami and Mokuba away; their plateau had turned into a stony raft, buoyed by the currents.
"I'll protect him, Kaiba," Yami called out.
I wanted to jump in the river, although the swirling waters and sharp rocks made it clear that would be just as suicidal. I wanted to do it anyway – anything would be better than watching Mokuba disappear on the horizon.
But I couldn't leave Yugi alone – not after what he'd done. He'd given up his partner to protect mine.
"I'll do the same," I yelled. "Don't worry, Mokuba. We'll catch up with you. I promise." I paused. I wasn't used to saying this stuff aloud, but he had to hear it. "I trust you. We're a team. Always. Just be safe until we can get to you."
"I can take care of myself," Yugi said quietly at my side, as the river carried them out of sight. "But I know it made Yami feel better."
I turned to face Yugi. On the rare occasions when I've been truly grateful, I've never found the words to express it. "Thank you," I said awkwardly.
"It's okay. I'm sure you would have done…" his voice trailed off. I wouldn't have done the same thing and we both knew it.
I looked around. The river had disappeared. Yugi and I were back in the same savannah that had been there when we'd arrived. Absent-mindedly I reached into my pocket. I pulled out my GPS tracker and stared at it a moment, then breathed a sigh of relief as I saw a little red dot moving away from me. Movement meant life.
I was so busy figuring out the logistics of how to reach Mokuba as quickly as possible, that it took me a moment to wonder what my GPS tracker was doing in my pocket at all – instead of being back in the computer lab with my body. Then I remembered Mokuba's hair. It had looked the same as always. But I'd been sitting next to him in my office, watching as he'd coded a red stripe onto his avatar's hair to match the ones on his sneakers. A red stripe that was now missing. I frowned, trying to figure it out. The red stripe should have been in his hair in this virtual world. My GPS tracker shouldn't be here at all. And Mokuba had said that the VR pods had disappeared.
"What's wrong?" Yugi asked.
I didn't bother answering. I had a more important question of my own.
"Yugi… is there anything in your pockets?" I asked.
Yugi put his hands in his pants pocket and shrugged. "My keys, some money… you know… stuff. Why?"
"Because you're supposed to be a virtual reality avatar, remember? You shouldn't have anything in your pockets that I didn't put there."
"But I'm still wearing my school jacket."
"Of course you are. I made an avatar of you in it. As I seem to have to keep repeating to you two, it's not like you ever wear anything else. But if I'd made an avatar of you wearing a pink tutu, that's how you should have appeared. And I certainly didn't waste time and storage space putting your house keys in your pocket."
I held up my GPS tracker. "I put a GPS tag on Mokuba. This was in my pocket back in the real world – so that if anyone tried anything while we were here I could find him fast when I woke up. I didn't bother putting it in my avatar's pocket – so it shouldn't be here. But it is." I put my hands in my coat pocket and frowned. "I designed the jacket pockets as a handy way to store items we'd need all the time – like a compass or weapons. It didn't matter if they could physically fit or not."
I swung my hand. My katana appeared in it. "That part still works."
"So, somehow, we really are here? Like, us… not just our avatars?" he asked. With his impossibly big eyes, Yugi's face looked like it was made to be confused.
"That's my working theory," I said.
"But… that would mean we're really in a virtual world!" Yugi said.
I nodded. "And it looks like all the normal rules of the game apply. We still can use the cards the way it I intended us to, we can call up weapons or the map."
"How did this happen? What does it mean?" he asked.
I shrugged. I wasn't going to admit I had no idea what was going on in my own virtual world or how it worked now. I thought of Yami's backpack and wondered just how solid the objects inside it were.
"It means," I said, "that if your other half wasn't a fucking amnesiac he might have a better idea how this happened than we do."
Yugi smiled up at me. He might have been trying for a smirk, but his face was too friendly for him to pull it off.
"What gives?" I asked.
"It's the first time you've ever admitted that Yami's search for his memories might have a point," he said with a grin I could only describe as impish. I didn't know what to say, so I glared at him. He frowned. "I just thought of something… if your adoptive father and some Shadow Realm bad guys are in here calling the shots, why didn't the game just send a bunch of duel monsters to wipe us out?"
It was a good point.
"I guess, even now, the game has to operate within the parameters I set. We should be able to use that, because there's no way those bastards are beating me at my own game," I declared. It was time to issue a challenge of my own.
Yugi laughed. He had to reach up to do it, but he punched me on the shoulder. I'd seen his friends do that to each other. I'd never been sure why.
I shook my head. "At least the GPS tracker works. It shouldn't take us long to find Mokuba."
All I wanted to do was get started. But just when I wanted to deal with him the least, the Wicked Worm Beast appeared. He ignored Yugi, just like he'd ignored Yami when we'd been in the game the last time. As I'd expected from the moment of his arrival, he charged straight at me, tentacles stretched out to immobilize.
"This won't take long," I told Yugi as I called in my weapons. I started slicing tentacles, hours of practice at dismembering him making each stroke quicker and surer than the first time I'd faced him.
The Wicked Worm Beast was annoying. He was stupidly, stubbornly persistent, but never skillful enough to be a threat. I'd tried to either upgrade his capabilities or delete him altogether, but nothing had worked. He just kept coming back, as maddeningly ineffectual each time. I couldn't even blame him on Gozaburo or his allies. This wasn't part of their little additions. The Wicked Worm Beast had been like that from the beginning.
"What was that?" Yugi asked, when I'd finished hacking the monster to bits. He stared open-mouthed at the bloody carcass, or what was left of it, looking even less like Yami than usual.
"The Wicked Worm Beast," I answered.
"I know that. I meant, why him?"
I stared at Yugi. "You really don't remember?"
"Why would I remember? Oh… was he in one of your penalty games with Yami?" Yugi asked quietly.
"The first one," I answered.
He looked uncomfortable. He was probably remembering that had been the game that had set me off. Building Death-T had been the inevitable result.
"Why did you act like you expected him?" Yugi asked in a subdued voice.
I was surprised but pleased that Yami had kept the details of our first penalty game private. I'd taken the Blue Eyes White Dragon card like a sneak thief; I'd hated having to steal it back as if it wasn't mine. And then in the duel that had followed, my dragon had abandoned me, as if I wasn't his. I was glad Yami hadn't told anyone, even Yugi, that my own dragon had rejected me.
Yami and I had been enemies then, pure and simple. He'd had no reason to keep my secrets. It was a victor's right to inflict as much pain as he could.
I'd seen enough of the Wicked Worm Beast in that penalty game and in the nightmares that had followed each night without needing to run into him here. He'd been the one to deliver the final blow. I remembered the feel of him strangling me, cutting off my air supply, as I underwent the promised experience of death. I remembered hearing Yami, his voice muffled as if coming from a distance, making another promise – that this was an illusion; that painful as it was, it would make me a better duelist. At the time I'd thought it was merely mockery, the final coup d'grace. Now I wondered: Had Yami been offering hope – comfort, even – instead? I'd thought I'd understood what had happened that day. Now I wondered how much I'd missed.
Yugi's question was far easier to answer than my own.
"The Wicked Worm Beast keeps coming back," I told him.
"Why?"
I hated to admit it. "I don't know. There's a glitch in the program I can't seem to fix."
"I thought everything here means something, right? That's what Yami said. So, what does this mean?"
"It means there's a faulty algorithm somewhere that I have to find and fix," I said. I pulled out the GPS tracker and added, "Well, since the show's over lets try to close the gap between us and our prey."
JOUNOUCHI'S NARRATIVE
Since I wasn't crazy about the idea to begin with, it figured we got in to see Pegasus without a hitch. Anzu had been right: Mokuba's locket was as good as an invitation. Either that or they let us in because we were accompanied by one of Kaiba's goons and lugging around his briefcase. Isono had tagged along, but he'd gone back to keeping his mouth shut. That was fine with me. I just wished Pegasus had taken a vow of silence too.
Meeting with Pegasus was about as annoying as I'd expected it to be. The guy gave me the creeps, and knowing there was a hole where his eye should have been bothered me, even though his hair was covering that side of the face. Maybe that was part of it… I kept wanting to push that weird silver hair back and take a good look. Then he'd start talking and all I could think about was punching him in the good one. Yugi had disappeared into some psycho video game of Kaiba's. Pegasus thought that was a real hoot.
"Let me see if I understand the situation," he said when we'd finally finished explaining. "Your friends vanished into a virtual world, bodies and all, and your response to this unexpected turn of events was to bring the plans Kaiba considered too secret for his server, even when stored behind his formidable firewalls, to me?"
That's when he started laughing.
"Maybe this wasn't such a hot idea," I muttered to Anzu.
"And you expect me to help because you've confused me with someone altruistic? How delightfully misguided," he said when he'd finally stopped laughing. "Or are you children naïve enough to think I feel an obligation to my business partner or a debt from the past just because I trapped his soul in a Shadow Realm prison? We dueled. He knew the stakes."
"What about the owner of this locket?" Anzu asked, holding it up.
"Yeah," I said. It was hard working up any enthusiasm for saving Kaiba's ass, but Yugi and Mokuba were in trouble too. "You trapped a kid in some crazy Shadow Realm jail. Now he needs your help to spring him from a virtual reality one. Seems fair to me. And you owe Yugi big time. You know you do. It's time to pay up."
I wasn't going to bother appealing to Pegasus's sense of decency. We all knew he didn't have one.
"And you truly believe even Kaiba-boy could design a virtual world that all encompassing?" he asked, as if the only thing that mattered was the quality of the product.
"Him and the other Yugi – and don't pretend you don't know all about him – seem to think so. It's some fucked up blend of a virtual world with all that funky shadow magic shit mixed in," I said.
"Eloquently put," Pegasus murmured. "A virtual world that can fool even such experienced players… that can beguile the senses until it becomes their reality… that has become three-dimensional enough to require their bodies as well as their minds… a virtual world that can kill. That certainly doesn't sound like a safe place for a child. It doesn't sound like a safe place at all…"
"Does that mean you'll help?" Anzu asked.
"Do we want him to?" I muttered.
"I think, my little apricot-girl, that it does," Pegasus answered.
"Why?" I asked. I didn't like his sudden turnaround. I didn't like his smiling face or that creepy drawl. "It's not like you've ever been Mr. Charity before. If you're doing this, it's for your own sick reasons. Don't think I don't know that."
"Such a perceptive lad. Does it really matter, little duelist? If you had a choice, you wouldn't be here."
"Yeah, it matters. I don't want you fucking things up worse than they are already."
"Such faith in me… it's charming. And if I promise to see your deceptively cherubic friend and the underage child safely home?
"You didn't mention Kaiba," Anzu said slowly.
"Yeah," I chimed in. "I know why I hate the bastard, but I thought you two were partners. What gives?
"Hate Kaiba-boy?" Pegasus laughed. "How imperceptive. I don't hate Kaiba-boy in the slightest. It's just that jealousy is such a corrosive emotion."
"Oh man, just how much money do you need anyway?" Honda groaned.
"Of course I don't begrudge him his money or even his creative genius. I have plenty of both those commodities."
"So what's the deal then? It's not like he's got any friends or even much family," Honda said.
"Precisely. I don't envy his losses, but what he's managed to hold on to."
"Mokuba?" Anzu asked.
Even when he was sighing, Pegasus still managed to sound smug.
"You've come close. But nuances are important my foolish little apricot-girl. Not Mokuba. Love."
Thanks to Bnomiko for betaing this chapter. I've run out of ways to say how much I appreciate it!
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I have to admit, writing Pegasus is a guilty pleasure.
At Duelists' Kingdom there's something irresistible about the combination of his sounding like the jolly, over-caffeinated host of a children's show while calmly (and without any sense he realizes there's anything wrong with his actions) plotting to stick people's souls on playing cards for all eternity.
I find his affectations and over the top mannerisms incredibly annoying and hilarious at the same time, and I tried to match his voice. One of my favorite Pegasus affectations was the way he persists in calling Kaiba, "Kaiba-boy" probably because of the way the VA on the subtitled anime drawls out the "o" in "boy," and partly because it's hard to think of anything Pegasus could call Kaiba that he'd find more annoying. As Anzu's name means "apricot" I liked the idea of "little apricot girl" as a nickname.
I once read an interview with Mr. Takahashi where the interviewer pointed out that from Mokuba's point of view, Kaiba was the hero. He replied that he tried to write his villains (and when we first meet Kaiba, he definitively qualifies as a villain) so that from their own point of view they were the heroes. This is probably what I like best about the Yu-Gi-Oh! villains – there's a real feeling that they've been pushed beyond their breaking points and I like how you get a sense of how the world looks from their own, at times twisted, vantage points. And I love how, even with the characters who change from villain to rival and ally, as with Kaiba, you often still have the sense that the story looks very differently when seen through their eyes. This is the first time I'm writing Pegasus as a character, as opposed to only seeing him in flashbacks, so I'm excited about being able to explore things from his point of view.
Penalty Game Note: I always found the penalty leveled against Kaiba in their first penalty game an example of irony at its worst. After the penalty game, Kaiba repeatedly re-experiences getting killed by duel monsters when he sleeps. We later find out from Mokuba that Gozaburo used deliberate sleep depravation against Seto. To me, there's something sad about the idea that after Gozaburo's suicide, the penalty game continues to deprive Kaiba of a chance to sleep.
Comments would be adored…
