E. PRELUDE TO THE SEMI-FINALS: PART II
We'll show 'em what were're made of I wanna give up No Matter What, from the album "Yu-Gi-Oh!: Music to Duel By"
As we fight for the ones we love
But I won't give in
I don't wanna do with my very best friend
We're equal match
and put it to play
With so much at sake
I just can't walk a way
Though I need a victory
You always meant the world to me
That's one thing that will never change
The rest of the night had passed relatively quickly and without any more issues, except for the things that go bump in the night and the urge to take a long, hot shower when civilization was found. In the morning Yugi had changed into her second to last clean shirt, which was a black t-shirt that had ' I'm a Ninja (now you can't see me)' written on the front in white lettering, and a pair of faded blue jeans with no knees while pulling her hair back up into a bun. After her change and welcoming of the day, she made her way towards Pegasus's castle and arrived only to find a familiar face waiting impatiently for her and that someone was Kaiba Seto. She paused and took note that his expression was rather grim with his arms crossed over his chest and the breeze whipping his overcoat around his feet dramatically. "Careful, you might be mistaken for Superman or Batman with that pose." She stated as his stoic face broke for a split second, the guards snickered at the comment as she crossed the distance between them rather quickly. "Where the hell have you been?" At this point she stood about a foot from him, only to have him grab her arm and walk towards the stairs she just spent the last five minutes climbing.
"Trust me." He hissed out and led her down the stairs to the first of two landings, out of sight of the castle and the guards but in sight of the people that may arrive later on.
"What's with the cloak-and-dagger act?" she asked as he leaned against the stonewall, bracing his hands against the corner while refusing to look her in the eye as she crossed her arms above the Millennium Puzzle and patiently waited for an answer.
"He has most places bugged and under surveillance— the arenas, the entrance, his guards." He replied, still refusing to look at her.
"Okay, I'll accept that, but why did you disappear like you did?" Yugi asked in an exasperated tone, getting tired of dancing around the subject.
"Something happened." Kaiba stated abruptly as she fixed him with a dead stare that clearly said, 'no shit Sherlock.' "Pegasus is working with a group that was loyal to The Kaiba." Yugi did not need any elaboration, The Kaiba was his way of referring to Kaiba Gozuboro without any formal title of respect, and the group in question had to be the abusive man's little cliché of friends, the board of directors for KaibaCorp before the man's death and their sudden outing by his heir.
"One final attempt to get back on top of the world." She muttered as he nodded. "Doesn't explain why Mokuba was running around here a day or so ago or why you suddenly show up now, you could have easily taken Pegasus out in the media and behind the scenes." He looked up at her and gave a hollow laugh, which made her frown because that meant things were worse than he was letting on and she was not reading far enough into what he was telling her.
"Pegasus kidnapped Mokuba a day before they tried to kidnap me." Kaiba told her, now turning to look her straight in the eye. "I have been here for less than a day, to challenge Pegasus for my brother." He paused again as something she said finally made its way through his muddled mind. "Mokuba? You seen him?" he demanded, on his feet with his hands on her shoulders and a wild look in his eyes. "Where is he?" He shook her a bit as she brought her hands up and grabbed his wrists, eyes narrowed.
"I don't know! He disappeared soon after he found me, I didn't get a change to talk to him either because Mazaki and her friends than stumbled across us and you know it is hard to ask someone something while she is screeching." Yugi answered as he did not let her shoulders go, but he slid his arms around her shoulders and suddenly pulled her into a tight hug. This caused Yugi to freeze while he just held on to her, obviously needing some sort of physical anchor to remind him that things have not totally gone down hill.
"He told me I would have to win five star chips from you in order to duel against him, to utterly decimate you just to see what else you have up your sleeve." He whispered into her ear and did not move, letting his defenses down for once in a few stressful weeks. "He told me you pulled a Blue-Eyes White Dragon against one of his more challenging Eliminators."
"A last minute addition to my deck, I brought the card in honor of Grandpa." Yugi told him as she brought a hand up to rub his back. "I removed it afterwards and switched a few others cards since then."
"Good." He whispered and pulled away from her, hands resting on her shoulders as he looked down at her with a small smile, which made her wonder what just how much happened to him to bring out this odd emotional side.
"Kaiba, I want to know everything that has been going on." She sternly told him as he frowned. "I am tired of being in the dark." It was than his eyes narrowed, his hands left her shoulders as he backed up a few more feet and she thought she had crossed the boundaries and made him angry.
"I will tell you after I duel Pegasus and win, right now Mazaki and her group are about to hit the first steps. We best make this look show good for that bastard and them or else they will suspect something is up." He gruffly told her and turned around, his over coat flaring a bit as he ascended the stairs.
"You pretty much pulled me down here, Kaiba, how can we redeem that?" she asked throwing her arms in the air as he chuckled.
"Just say I threatened you." Kaiba threw over his shoulder as Yugi felt a twitch develop in the left corner of her eye again. Of course Kaiba would say something like that, but this meant she could get him back for that. They both knew that his threats would not follow through with her because she was more likely to take him out than anything.
"I swear he is turning into a drama queen." Yugi muttered to herself as she let him get halfway up the stairs before following. She just wanted this entire thing done and over with, now things took another turn for the worse. When she hit the top of the stairs for the second time the true show began.
Anzu was still angry that she had lost to Mai, giving the blonde the needed star chips to compete, while she had to find someone else to duel, seeing Jonouchi also had the required ten star chips and refused to duel her. She paused as everyone behind her looked curious about what was unfolding in front of them. "I challenge you, Motou Yugi, for five star chips." Kaiba stated boldly as Yugi crossed her arms and looked rather bored.
"Then I forfeit the match." Yugi declared without preamble, bringing her hands up in the international sign of defeat for moment before letting her arms fall to her sides. "I won't duel you under these terms and not for the sadistic pleasure of that psycho with the gender crisis." She added as Kaiba looked a bit surprised.
"What?" he got out as she shrugged and waved a hand in dismissal.
"Here, five star chips." She added bringing her left hand to the dueling gauntlet and popping five of the golden stars from the slots while he stared at her in shock. Yugi rolled her eyes and brought her hand up and offered them to him. "Seto, I am not going to duel with you if I know you will do anything to win. Not fair." Jonouchi frowned as he watched her take a few steps closer and dropped them into his still extended and open hand
"Wha… How? What the?" he got out as she snorted and turned to leave.
"Very eloquent for a billionaire CEO, Kaiba." She added as he twitched and stared down at the chips. "Don't spend them all in one place and don't waste them." With that she turned to leave, as if she had no more star chips.
"Poor Yugi, brought down by her foolish notion of friends." Anzu sneered as Yugi paused by her.
"At least my friends know they can trust me not to stab them in the back. What about you?" she retorted and sauntered down the stairs, but Mai knew better and followed her down to the landing where Kaiba had told her about everything.
"Hey Yugi!" Mai shouted as she jogged to catch up with the tri-color haired teen that was standing at the bottom of the stairs with her hands in her pockets and looking rather relaxed. Mai froze in her tracked when Yugi turned to face her with a devious grin, which was rather disturbing on the tri-color haired teen's face. "What's with the sudden generosity?"
"I just had some extra chips laying around and it would not have been as fun if I just told him that." She replied pulling her right fist from her pocket, opening her fingers to show extra stars. "No one paid attention to the bet I made at the beginning of my duel with Panik, he had at least eighteen or so star chips." The older blonde looked a bit embarrassed by that, since she did have a verbal catfight with Anzu. "Eight to you, two on mine, than minus five to Kaiba, leaving me with six to draw from…"
"You just gave Kaiba five star chips." Mai pointed out, totally ignoring the last half of what Yugi had said and paused as the teenage girl nodded and pulled out her remaining star chips from her pocket and than began to put the stars into the empty slots on her gauntlet, leaving one extra and that was shoved back into her pocket.
"His pride would not let him take the chips normally, such as me just saying 'Hey Kaiba, I got some extra chips that I want to give you.' Not to mention there were cameras and microphones up there, or so he said and he's been rather paranoid as of late, that Pegasus put in placed in hopes of scouting out a duel between us." She pointed out as the blonde twitched.
"Aren't you perfect?" she growled out as Yugi snorted and slipped her hands back into her pants pockets after the last chip was in place.
"No, I am going off what I was told and since Kaiba challenges me to games all the time. We never compete against one another with the intent to trump one another, goes against a childhood promise we made." The teenager replied and stared past her, up at the castle. "Best go on ahead with them, I doubt Katsuya has taken my advice."
"Advice?" Mai asked turning on her heel and ascending the stairs.
"To dump Mazaki before she did something horrible to him." Yugi replied as Mai rushed up the stairs, not knowing how to take the fact that the odd Motou Yugi had a point despite what she heard from the group. She had heard Mazaki, Katsuya, and Honda talk about her like she was an idiot or arrogant teenage girl while the Bakura boy just shook his head and answered, when she asked him privately, that he did not know Motou Yugi all that well but he would wager her to be a dangerous person on the other side of a duel.
Yugi watched with as Mai took off up the stairs, obviously she had a bit on her mind to get away that quickly. With a snort she followed, wanting to see Kaiba's duel against Pegasus and hopefully defeat the silver haired CEO but something told her that Kaiba was going to lose. Shaking her head, she tried to will her mind to be a bit more optimistic since Kaiba was a damn good duelist and not a novice. Before she knew it she was standing before the surprised guards, showing them that she indeed did have ten star chips despite what had happened before, and they handed her a blank card, which caused her to frown in confusion and glance at them oddly but they ignored her in favor of rattling off the standard instructions for the finalist before heading into the castle. They basically told her to head into the castle and than to precede to the dueling arena, what a brain buster.
The outside courtyard was beautiful flower garden with a spattering of shrubs and trees, but the inside was lavish and reflected Pegasus's character rather well. The rugs were all a deep red with the walls paints a pristine white while the trimmings were done in a lighter red. Ever so often down the hall there were alcoves with pedestals that showed beautiful artifacts or antiques that many a museums would sell their life's work to get a hold of for displays. Taking in a deep breath she turned to go down the right corridor, since Pegasus neglected to put up signs or have someone help her find the place, and decided that wandering around would be fun. Her pace picked up a bit when she felt Atemu getting a bit restless for no reason, seeing no one else was in the corridor that could possibly antagonize him. Get rid of that card. Atemu told her as he appeared in front of her, which made her come to a sudden stop.
"Why?" she asked with a frown, glancing to her right and seeing a set of large, dark wood, double doors that had been halfway down the corridor when she started.
There is something off about it, something that deals with the Shadow Realms. he answered as she glanced down at the card again and than at him.
"What if you are just being too paranoid?" Yugi asked as his eyes narrowed at her questioning.
Just do it; if you need it you can come back for it. he hissed out as she looked around for the nearest pedestal, muttering to herself about the insanity of this whole thing, than stalked over to an expensive Ming vase that was resting on a marble pedestal about five feet from where she had been standing. She carefully grabbed the lip of the vase and lifted it up high enough to slip the card under, but as she was slipping the card beneath the vase she felt a familiar pain.
"What the hell is it with you people and trying to send me back there?" she snarled, eyes screwed up in pain as her arm trembled, trying to keep the vase raised a bit and not tip it over too far. The pain intensified as she fought against it, biting her bottom lip as a few tears escaped from the corners of her eyes and traveled down her cheeks. Concentrating on resisting took every bit of concentration and unknown power she had; it did not help that her fingers would not respond to her at all.
My Hikari! she heard Atemu shout in concern, she felt him his soul but not his touch as he joined the fight. Yugi knew her breathing had picked up and she felt her resistance weakening, despite the help. A moment later she felt both hot and cold, and than felt nothing.
Atemu took control of his Hikari's body out of desperation, pulling the card back and lettering the vase down. He was very confused about what just happened, that feeling was something he did not recall having ever witnessed or felt in all his millennia in the Shadow Realms as a sleeper. He glanced down at the card and seen that the blank card now had a picture of Yugi's silhouette, what little darkness she had, which confused him. With a deep breath he tucked that card into the front of the secondary deck and moved to the wall, wobbling a bit since his center of gravity was off a bit, and sat down against it.
He shut his eyes and let the body go slack, but not totally because it would not do well for any of Pegasus's cronies to think she was out for the count. He stepped into the gray corridor that connected their souls and seen the simple door to her soul room was cracked and partially open and showed a dimly lit room. He cautiously entered the soul room and seen that half of it was gone and half was still present, but what made him freeze was the fact that she was laying on her back and looked to be asleep with her left hand by her head and her right across her stomach. The distance between them had quickly been closed as he kneeled by her right side and checked her over for any physical changes, finding that her spirit was a bit cooler to the touch and that her skin was unnaturally pale while her lips were tinted blue like she was freezing. "My Hikari." He whispered, worried as she shifted a bit and slowly her eyes fluttered open and a shiver ran through her body.
"What happened?" she weakly whispered and brought her left hand up a bit, only to have her hand fall back to where it had been. He noted she looked rather lethargic and tired, but would not comment on that considering what happened.
"Someone tried to imprison your soul into that card using the Shadow Realms." Atemu answered as she frowned at that statement, why would they try to seal her soul into a card? She had been the one blackmailed into this!
"I figured that much, since you people have this sadistic glee with sending me there and every time it is involved I well like I am outside in the middle of winter without a heavy jacket!" Yugi hissed out in an annoyed tone, but he ignored her comment and focused on gently slipping his left arm beneath her neck and lifted her upper body up enough that he could shift to sit behind her, so that her head was resting on his shoulder and she was some what propped up. "But, I feel colder than the last few times. Is it because of what happened?"
"Possibly. This is unknown to me." He whispered in her ear as she pushed herself back to sit in his lap while his arms were loosely wrapped around her waist.
"If the Shadow Realms are involved, why am I… we… here?" Yugi asked with a confused look on her face, as he did not move.
"I would not let whoever is in control of the card imprison you, one part of your soul is in the card and you are here." Atemu answered as she frowned. "This is your body and this room is a representation of your soul, like the corridor represents the connection between us, and the other door is my soul."
"Can I still duel?" she asked him as he rested his chin on her left shoulder and was silent.
"I am unsure, I have never dealt with someone with only part of their soul." He answered honestly as she started to struggle to get out of his grip, but could not break it.
"I can't give up." She whispered, sounding determined to carry on, and looked towards the door was he dipped his head down and kissed the side of her neck.
"You will not, my Hikari, I will support you in this. Trust in me." He stated in a low, seductive purr as his right hand moved to cover her heart while his left was pressed against her cloth-covered navel. This caused her eyes to widen a bit and her body to stiffen at the touch, but she did not pull away from him "Let me in, let me into your soul. Please?" he whispered in her ear as she let her eyes slide shut at his breathy tone.
"I don't have any true reason not to trust you, do I?" she muttered, as he did not move. "Please, help me." She told him in consent as he than carefully maneuvered them both to their feet.
"This will not be individual, my Hikari, this will be a combination of myself and yourself." Atemu told her as they made their way to the doorway.
"Call the form Yugioh." Yugi stated as he picked her up bridal style, her arms coming up to encircle his neck while she buried her face into his neck and missed his curious look.
"Why that?" he asked as they crossed the threshold into the gray connection between them. "Yugi, since its my body, and 'oh' because this is definitely an 'oh shit' moment." Was her sarcastic reply before he began the process back into consciousness with the subtle blending of both minds and souls.
One of Pegasus's guards had come across her slumped over form, like Pegasus said would happen when he gave the clue in the middle of the duel against Kaiba. He crouched down in front of her and moved to grab her shoulders, only for her hands to shoot up and grab his wrists before he even touched her. The poor guard nearly jumped out of his skin as he quickly looked down at his wrists and than at the girl, who's head had raised from its bowed position to look him in the eyes and the man felt like he had met someone more dangerous than his boss. Her left eye was purple and her right eye was crimson in color and she had no expression on her face, but he looked down a bit farther and seen the golden puzzle that hung against her stomach was glittering in the artificial light of the corridor. "Troubles, sir?" she asked in a raspy tone as he fell back, her grip broken easily.
"No, ma'am." He got out as he got to his feet, looking around.
"I apologize, the trip here wore me out more than I expected." Yugioh replied and slowly got to her feet, wincing as several joints and bones popped as she did. He was trembling, waiting for her to lash out at him but all she did was give him a once over before losing interest. "Where would the dueling arena be?" she lazily asked as he pointed to the doors she had been standing across from before the incident. "Thank you." She added with a nod and than brushed past him to open the doors.
She entered to see that Anzu and her lackey Hiroto were present, sitting on a bench next to one another with Anzu's legs crossed and her nose in the air while her hands were folded in her lap and Hiroto fuming. Her mismatched eyes scanned those present and seen that there was something obviously going on between Hiroto and Jonouchi, at least from the glares they were sending one another, while Mai was standing by Jonouchi at the other end of the large balcony watching the tail end of Kaiba's duel. She silently shut the doors behind her as Bakura turned towards her, obviously the only one that heard the noise of the doors shutting, and when he seen her he paled like he had seen a ghost.
Out of curiosity, Yugioh inclined her head a bit and took note of the life points. The infamous dueler, having only been defeated by Yugi, was definitely losing horribly. "That is rather disheartening." She stated out of the blue, causing Mai to jump and Anzu to glare at her.
"What are you doing here, Motou?" Anzu snarled out as Yugioh shrugged and slipped her hands into her pockets. It was at this point that Kaiba was staring at her in shock and Pegasus's expression was a cross between shock, fear, and curiosity.
"Ten star chips, I get to compete." She simply answered and moved to stand by the railing of the balcony, so that she could take the time to look over the field a bit better and file away some tidbits of information since she would be dueling Pegasus at any coast. "What a really sadistic card to have." She commented to no one in particular with a low whistle, causing Ryou to jump a bit and look around like a spooked rabbit but she paid no attention to that. Anzu was now fuming with Hiroto while the blondes went back to watching the duel and the duelers shook off Yugioh's appearance.
"It looks like your threat was false." Kaiba told Pegasus with a glare as the other man grit his teeth.
"Her soul should have been sealed into that card they gave her!" Pegasus hissed to himself as his one good eye narrowed, first at the smug Kaiba and than when he turned to gaze at the teenage girl who should have been a lifeless husk. "It does not matter, Seto-chin, because you still lose this match." He stated in a louder, more smug tone before he launched his final attack from his new card called 'Toon World' and watched as Kaiba's life points were reduced to zero. "Which means you also lose something else." He added and shifted his hair away from the side of his face as two of his guards came up behind Kaiba and carried him away, like he just fainted after his loss.
"What a sore loser." Anzu stated as Ryou was staring at the smiling Pegasus.
"Welcome, finalists and guests!" the man jovially stated as he spread his arms out in welcome. "Allow me to be the first to congratulate you on making it this far. Before anything, the semi-final duels will begin tomorrow afternoon at noon and for now I would like for all of you to be shown to your rooms so you may freshen up for dinner, which will be served at 4:30 and you will be required to arrive at the dining hall at 4:00, and the drawing of letters to find out who will duel who in the first two matches."
When they had been shown to their rooms it had been ten in the morning, which gave plenty of time to take a shower and relax a bit. Yugioh had taken a shower, brushed and braided her hair, and changed into her leather attire in that time than began to modify her deck again while avoiding the soul card that was still in her possession. She felt restless and just wanted this whole ordeal to be finished at all costs, and that was something that scared a small part of her remaining soul and mind. At quarter till she tucked her main deck back into its holder, picked the Millennium Puzzle up from where she had placed it on the table by the large bed and slipped the band around her head and settled the puzzle against her stomach, and left the room without taking time to appreciate its lavish beauty.
The main dinner was only held for the four finalists— Mai, Anzu, Yugioh, and Jonouchi— in the main dining room while the other got to eat in the kitchen. Presently they took up the far end of the long, glossy, dark wood table with an empty seat at the head of the table for Pegasus with Yugioh and Jonouchi sitting to the left with Mai and Anzu to the right. The room had white walls with gold accents and red curtains and carpeting, but was bare of any other decoration. Three butlers entered with trays laden down with things while the maids moved around them and made their preparation to set the table resemble a dance. A white tablecloth was laid out as golden plates followed with red napkins and silverware that was arranged just so. Glasses followed as the butler's retreated only for a second wave to enter with glass pitchers of water.
"How could a screw up like you get this far?" Anzu sneered, directing her question at the two across from her while Mai picked up her water glass and decided now would be a good time to take a sip.
"The same could be said for yourself." Yugioh replied without even blinking, causing Jonouchi to snicker and Anzu to fume.
"Mazaki, there are always gonna be people better than you out there and it will always will be like that no matter how much ya' deny it, so shut up and quit prodding the dragon." Jonouchi stated as he crossed his arms and glared at the brunette who looked insulted. Mai wisely continued to stay out of the small feud that was indirectly being declared at the table, it was better to be an observer on this one but one thing did not add up. She stared at Yugioh, confused by the fact that no one else seemed to notice the changes.
For one, no person's eyes could change that drastically in under a few hours. Two, the warmth and personality that drew Mai to her were not there. For some reason all she did was sit and stare at her plate, looking rather apathetic about everything around her and she was just there. The last thing was that Mai was afraid of that dead look in the other's eyes, afraid of the fact that something in her demeanor changed and that the next duels would be brutal.
"At least I deserve to be here." The brunette stated as she placed a hand on her chest.
"The mentality of people I have seen, yes you fit in well. You walk, talk, and act like most of them." Yugioh replied with a tilt of the head, her expression looking a bit fond as she brought her right hand up to cover the yawn that soon followed her statement. Both blondes were confused to why Anzu took that as a compliment and started to primp herself with such an 'acknowledgement.'
"That wasn't a compliment." Mai deadpanned as the brunette's face suddenly twisted into an ugly expression of anger. "Don't start shrieking, I'm sure Pegasus would like his crystal intact." She added on with a glare as Anzu huffed and crossed her arms under her chest and glowered at them.
"How do you stand her?" Yugioh asked Jonouchi who rubbed the back of his head looking a bit embarrassed.
"Good question." He answered and got a glare from the brunette while the tri-color haired teenager raised both eyebrows in question. "I got a question for ya', Motou-san." He continued, the addition of the honorific getting a surprised look while Mai and Anzu were now locked in a glaring match, leaning towards her to whisper the question.
"Yes?" Yugioh prompted, leaning part of the way towards the embarrassed teenage boy.
"Can we trade some cards? I need to strengthen my deck and I understand if you…" he trailed off as she shrugged.
"No trouble." Yugioh replied as he looked surprised, but sat up again as Pegasus entered the room with his usual flourish. "Dinner and a show." She muttered picking up her glass of water and taking a sip as Pegasus sat down with a smile, nodding to his guests and sitting back in his chair as Yugioh sat her glass back down and the salad was brought in, which she passed over while the others accepted some.
"Down to business than." Pegasus jovially stated after the salad was done, the bowls taken away, and the soup was brought in. "The duels will be set up as A versus D, B versus C. The first duel will be at noon tomorrow and than each of the duels will be played in succession afterwards, since it will be hard to tell how long they will last." he stated as everyone had their spoons in hand, Yugioh had decided to stir her soup while Pegasus spoke, but Anzu already had a spoon full halfway to her mouth. A moment later she shrieked, dropping her spoon in her lap and causing everyone but Pegasus and the servants to jump in surprise. The other three finalists stared at her oddly after that while she continued to push her chair away from the table, until she ended up tipping the chair back.
That brought fresh rounds of shrieks, which made everyone cringe at their sheer pitch, while she scrambled out of the chair and away from the table. Jonouchi glanced down at his own soup and twitched while Mai and Yugioh glanced at him next and he pointed at the soup, which caused them to do the same. "Morbid." Mai stated wrinkling her nose as Yugioh fished the white and gold eye from her soup without batting an eye and held it in front of her.
"There is an eye in me soup." She stated in a snooty voice as the other two gave a weak laugh while Anzu was sitting against the wall trembling.
"Corpse Bride, good choice." Mai stated, trying to keep her tone from reflecting the fact that she found this means of drawing lots a bit disgusting, and than carefully used her spoon to fish out her own eye.
"Lack of options." Jonouchi dryly stated as he followed their example. "Doubt a cannibal joke would be good." Mai dropped her spoon at his statement as Yugioh carefully used her left hand to pick up the fake eye.
"Are you three finished?" Pegasus asked with a glare as Anzu was helped to her feet by a butler and led back to the table.
"Maybe." They stated in unison, causing him to twitch.
"Clarice! What are you doing here?" Jonouchi asked Yugioh in a mock British voice, causing Anzu to shriek and hold on to the butler. "Hey, it wasn't that bad!" he protested with a frown as Mai looked confused while she carefully sat the eye on the tablecloth before sitting her spoon down. After that she picked the eye up gain and delicately cracked it open by knocking it on the edge of the table a few times like it was an egg. Yugioh's reaction was to carefully sit her spoon on the napkin to the left of the plate so that she could cover her face with her hand, hoping that her palm covered the fact she could not hold back the smile. It was going to be an even longer weekend, it seemed.
"Lot B." Mai stated, breaking the tense atmosphere a bit as Jonouchi pulled his from his soup wile Yugioh cracked her fake eye open and the butler had Anzu sitting down and was pulling the eye from the soup for the brunette.
"Lot A." Yugioh stated as she sat the pieces on the table and patiently waited for the other two to announce which ones they got.
"Lot D." the butler announced for Anzu, who was calm by this point, and Jonouchi just dropped his on the table.
"I'll assume I'm Lot C, unless ya' messed up the lettering system." He stated as Yugioh cracked a small smile and Pegasus hid his annoyance behind his smile, but his one good eye betrayed his true feelings. He did not like the fact that they were mocking him, or the fact that Motou Yugi was still walking and talking and was not a shell! Everyone else had become a virtual living, breathing doll but no… she was acting like nothing happened. That Egyptian woman had told him that there were no mistakes, because mistakes would kill him and that would end everything so this was not a mistake.
"Than, the first duel tomorrow will be between Motou Yugi and Mazaki Anzu with the second duel between Kujaku Mai and Katsuya Jonouchi." Pegasus announced as he picked up his spoon and decided to finish the soup so that he may move on to the rest of his dinner.
"I am sure the rest of the dinner you have planned is as spectacular as you are, Pegasus-san." Yugioh stated as she carefully got up, pushing her seat back as she did so. "But, I don't have much of an appetite right now and I think I'm going to go relax before bed." She felt very uneasy as he stared at her, so she turned to the right and made to leave the dining hall as he continued to stare at her back.
"Hold up, Motou-san, I'll join ya'." Jonouchi stated as he did the same, but he was not as smooth as she was and had tripped once or twice as he tried to escape the space between the chair and table. The blonde boy caught up with her rather quickly, even proceeding to pull her out the doors while Anzu and Mai just looked a bit surprised.
"Oh dare he!" Anzu shrieked as Mai groaned and rubbed both temples while Pegasus grit his teeth and decided to finish dinner before he tried to crack the puzzle that was Motou Yugi.
Yugioh blinked a few times as Jonouchi was still dragging her, by her right hand, down the corridor to where the finalist rooms were. She could feel Atemu's increased annoyance at the teenage boy, probably for the fact that the position they were in looked rather interesting, and all she did was take in a few calming breathes and waited for the other to stop. "Katsuya-san, why are you pulling Motou-san along like that?" a voice asked as he came to a stop, causing her to stumble a bit at the fast pace to no pace. He let go of her hand, blushing a bit, while she brushed some imaginary dust or such from her leather attire.
She than glanced up and seen a smiling Bakura standing in front of them and it was a bit creepy. Jonouchi did not show any signs of discomfort, due to the fact that he was still rubbing the back of his neck and stuttering out an excuse, but she could see that the white haired teen had been up to something. Only because he has that smug feeling. Atemu muttered as Yugioh agreed.
"Someone looks like the cat-ate-the-canary." She commented with a weary look, but he looked a bit shocked. "What is going on?"
"Just heard the screams, thought something bad happened." Bakura covered, trying to look concerned, but failing miserably.
"Mazaki freaked out about the fake eye in the soup." Jonouchi answered with a shrug as Yugioh frowned when the white haired teen edged past them, hands behind his back. "Where's Hiroto?" he asked as Bakura stood straight, careful to keep his front to them as he backed down the hallway where they had just come from.
"Gorging himself in the kitchen, flirting with an uninterested maid." He answered as the blonde snickered at that mental image, causing the only girl among them to slap her forehead at the conversation. She would never understand the male species. "I need to find the bathroom, bye!" he abruptly added and quickly turned and ran from them.
"That was weird." Jonouchi commented as he pulled her hand away from her face.
"I know nothing, I see nothing." She declared and turned to head in the direction she had been pulled towards. "It is easier to deny everything." She muttered as he spun around and rushed to catch up with her.
"Why's that?" he asked as she sighed.
"Bakura-san is obviously doing something weird, so why get involved?" she asked him as he accepted this. "Why are you suddenly so buddy-buddy with me? Since junior high you have avoided me like the plague or made jibbing comments at me, but that was after you shacked up with Mazaki and her clone squad." She paused in front of the door to her room; turning the handle and pushing the door open as Jonouchi looked a bit nervous now.
"I realized that your earlier warnin' was true." He admitted and entered the room as she followed behind him, watching as he sat on the edge of the bed. Yugi moved around the bed to sit on the other edge of the bed, forcing him to turn and prop his right leg up on the edge of the bed while she bent over and pulled up her right pant leg to show the laces of her knee high boots.
"What brought on that epiphany? You had the same reaction Honda had when I said to drop her, disbelieving and annoyed that I dared to say something like that." Yugioh pressed as she slid the first boot off and worked on the other, still not turning towards him. Jonouchi sighed and pulled out his deck and sat it on the bed cover, biting his bottom lip as he thought about how to word his reply.
"It started when I won against Ryuuzaki, the Dinosaur guy that was one of the regional champions. She had lost a star chip to him and told me that I had no chance cause I was a novice and had a weak deck." He started off as she slid the second boot off and moved to sit in the middle of the bed, Indian style, and pulled both deck pouches from her belt and sitting them on the bed at her right. "She wasn't happy that I won that duel easily, got two star chips and the gauntlet out of it and shut the annoying idiot up. Since than she has been a bit hostile."
"Big surprise." She muttered picking up her secondary deck and taking it out of its pouch and plastic casing, making sure to be careful when she removed the once blank card that was at the front of that deck. That card was than sat beside her main deck, since it would not be good to lose it. He shifted as an awkward silence fell between them, but she was focused on going through her secondary deck and occasionally laying down cards he could possibly use. "Define 'hostile.'" It was with that statement that he busied himself with searching out some cards to trade her, hoping she would take it easy on him.
"How she acts to you— biting comments, sneers, nose in the air. Hiroto isn't helping matters cause he always takes her side." He admitted as she sat her secondary deck down and picked up the cards she left out of it. "Some friend he is." Jonouchi added under his breath and handed her a few cards off the bat, rather weak ones to his annoyance and her amusement.
"How about I strike a deal with you." Yuigoh stated as she sat the cards he handed her on the bedspread and handed him the ones she picked out of her secondary deck. "If that is the best you have to trade, I'd be on the losing end of this and we are not friends or even close enough to warrant a free handout." She continued as he glared at her, obviously offended at the phrase 'free handout' but she held a hand up to pacify his anger. "How about we work out a payment plan. I give you these cards on credit and you work off how much they would be at my Grandpa's shop as a part-time clerk and stock boy."
"Whaa." He got out and stared at her like she had grown a second head, cards falling from his limp fingers.
"Part-time job, work off the cost of those cards. Maybe pick up some tricks and new cards from the weekly shipments, as long as you pay for them or whatever Grandpa decides since he owns the shop." She slowly stated, as if talking to a child, thinking she had broken him. He suddenly lurked forward and hugged her, causing her to freeze up in surprise, but he drew back quickly and gathered the cards she sat down and the ones he dropped.
"Really?" he excitedly asked and flipped through the ones she had handed him.
"Might as well, we could use an extra set of hands and your heart is in the right place." Yugioh stated with a shrug, twitching a bit at the memory of the unwanted hug, confused to why Atemu was not pulling his usual possessive gestures. "That dragon that is in with those cards best be kept in good shape or else I'll make you regret it." She threatened with a glare as he nodded and sprinted from her room.
That was a nice gesture. Atemu commented as she shrugged and slipped her secondary deck back into its holder and pouch before she got up to close the door of her room and lock it.
"Why didn't you attack him? It seems like every other time someone touches and/or attempts to hug me in any way you go territorial." She commented as he shrugged.
He had no intentions of wooing you. Kaiba did so, when I first encountered him, and he maybe possibly still have intentions of pursuing you. he answered, arms crossed and nose in the air as she looked a bit skeptical, but dropped the subject. The blonde teen had been a throne in her side for a while, and the hug was a spur of the moment thank you for not slapping him in the face in any way, so she decided to chalk it up to a fluke. Why help someone you will probably duel?
"Everyone deserves a chance, especially in this crazy escapade. It helps that, as I stated on the boat, his heart is in the right place and that is all that counts as far as I am concerned." she told him while leaning against the door. "Not to mention it'll piss Mazaki off when he progresses farther than her in the finals." She added pushing away from the door and approaching the bed, pulling the Millennium Puzzle up over her head and tossing it on to the pillows at the head of the bed, and than fell face first into the cover while ignoring the decks and soul cards that were near the pillow.
How do you know he will get farther that she does? he asked while appearing in his spirit form on the bed, running his fingers through her hair as she turned her head so that she could stare at him.
"Its just a strong feeling I have." She muttered as he smiled fondly down at her. "Just like I had to give him the Red-Eyes Black Dragon card, which I never used before and has been collecting dust in my deck, as well as the few other cards I had duplicates of."
Fate? he asked curiously, looking a bit perplexed by what she was implying to him, watching as she closed her eyes and let out a sigh.
"Maybe." She muttered and got to her knees, pulling away from his touch and staring out the balcony doors that were opposite of the door into the room. "I'm going to change for bed and turn in early." With that she grabbed her messenger bag and made her way into the bathroom that connected to the room, shutting the door behind her.
That night her sleep was troubled and this caused Atemu to stay in spirit form, sitting on the edge of the bed watching her sleep with a sad look. He reached out with his left hand and ran his fingers through her hair, watching her relax a bit at the touch. She than started to plead in ancient Egyptian, making his eyes widen and his left hand freeze with his fingers against her right cheek and his thumb resting against her jaw line. He drew his hand back as her eyes snapped open and she bolted up right, holding the sheets to her chest and her hair disheveled. "What's happening to me?" she whispered dropping the sheets to bring both hands to her face as he moved to sit behind her.
Dreams? he asked slipping his arms around her tense shoulders and pulling her back against his spiritual body, but she did not relax.
"If that was a dream, than it was a horrible nightmare." She told him, shivering with the after effects of what she had witnessed, as he lightly stroked her cheeks with his fingertips but she still did not relax. "I seen my death, I think. It was a bright day and I was in the desert, but I was dressed in something out of The Mummy. There was a shouting match between the psycho that had a blade to my stomach and someone that looked just like you, but why a blade to my stomach?" she asked as he froze, but she did not realize how her recounting of events was effecting him. "She stabbed me there, I went to the ground, and she was on me again and stabbed…" she trailed off as he pulled her into a tight hug, silencing her by pressed her face into the crook of his neck.
A nightmare, that was all it was, nothing more. he told her as she shivered at his determined tone, but did not argue. After a few moments his grip slackened and she carefully pulled back from his slack grip so that she was sitting on the edge of the bed. Atemu let his arms drop as he stared at her back.
"Before I woke up, the last face I seen resembled yours and I felt like I would never be happy again."