Part 11: The Hierophant (Jounouchi vs. "Marik")
Getting Bakura cared for and resting in his room left little time before they had to get to the main room for the new draws, Katsuye letting out a sigh at all the running around they had to do and hoping that the first Duel wasn't some sort of sign of how things were going to go from now on. She frowned as Kaiba walked up beside her, slowly reaching over to touch her hand as he asked, "Are...are you doing alright?"
"You can stop acting like I'm going to bite your head off for asking," she muttered, blushing as she remembered the kiss and moment they'd shared right before this. She'd never been accused of having good timing, and that had possibly been the worst timing ever.
"My question still stands," he asks, giving her only a mild glare, "your friend was hurt, and...well, Mokuba is not sure if he wants to continue to watch the Duels." She got that, especially after his first few encounters with anything involving Millennium Items had ended pretty badly.
"Is that why he's not here?"
"He's helping Hinagata and the others with seeing what they can find out about Ra, should it appear," he told her, the name making her frown. "There are three God Cards - I have one, Yugi has one, and Marik has the final, and possibly strongest, one."
"So if it shows up, Mokuba's going to get what information he can and see about it?"
"That's his plan, at least. I would like for him to stay, but...the way things are going, I would rather he be safe."
She understood that reasoning, and looked over as the remaining numbers began to fly before two numbers came down - the first was hers, of course, but the next…
The tall, scarred-face Duelist didn't even bother to give her a look before turning to head towards the Dueling arena, and she took in a breath before saying, "Mokuba had better watch, then. I'm going to get the Ra card from that punk."
Kaiba is fairly sure that his relationship with Katsuye is going to be exactly like this - worrisome, and involving him trying to stop her from doing something rash and foolish before she pulls him in for a kiss and tells him, "That's for the surprise one you pulled on me, and for luck! You're supposed to wish me luck, idiot."
"Then you'd better win and stay sane through this," he finally said back, "I would expect to get a kiss for good luck for my own Duel."
So by the time they both got up, both were blushing furiously as Yami was looking at him like he was ready to remind Kaiba that he could and would humiliate him in order to protect Katsuye, Shizuka bouncing in place as if this was the most perfect thing she could use her fixed eyesight for, and Mai and Layla glancing at him like they hadn't quite figured out if they should join with Yami in glaring threats at him, or join Shizuka in bouncing for joy.
Marik seems intent on winning and the other Duelist that Kaiba is uncertain about, Namu, is once more asking questions. Varon answers as best he can, while Anzu watches and looks nervous as she still cheers on Jounouchi as they square off. Katsuye glares down her opponent only momentarily before making the first move and waiting for what he will do.
Marik has Ra, and she is confident she'll gain that card...but what is it's power? The danger of this is that we don't know what it does. Obelisk is straight-forward, simple and does damage. Osiris is trickier, has more traps and falls...so what can Ra do that makes it the strongest of the God Cards?
And how will it affect Katsuye?
He could feel the Shadows building in this tournament, the itch from it seemed to seep through his Deck and into him as he fought to ignore most of it. He didn't want to deal with the Shadows, and it was obvious that Yami had already taken note and was upset and worried over their increase presence as well. Even the others that hadn't been in Shadow Games before seemed to note the uneasiness of the whole situation as Marik played the Shrine of the Pharaoh card.
"This means I can place two trap-cards on the field at once," Marik said, before putting down two cards as Katsuye frowned at him, as if confused by what he said. He could see the reason for that - face-down cards were often either magic or trap cards, and there were no rules about how many you could have on the field. He's trying to get her to attack - he's not even leaving an opening for her to get out of. So...what will she do?
Katsuye wasn't known for taking easy routes, and was not a 'chess' type, like Yugi and Yami. She wasn't even a gimmick type, as many others were. She used Warriors and Beast-Warriors because they tended to be the type that were reproduced more, and so you didn't have to spend so much money on them. She glanced at him and her cards before using the next few turns to summon monsters, attempting to use one card to wipe away the traps but failing as her own monsters were destroyed, taking out a little over half her life points.
Trap cards are tricky...he considered as she played her own cards, the three other trap cards finally revealing to show the three Avatars of Apophis. Her own attempt to defeat them failed, and Marik said finally, "I know your Deck. You cannot defeat me."
"I'm seriously getting tired of hearing that," she told him, slowly standing from where the holograms had pushed her down, the last 50 lifepoints still on her score, "I've heard that a lot, and it always seems so stupid. I've been hearing it since my first actual Duel in this tournament."
"Give up, while you're still a Duelist."
She glared at him, looking almost angry at his insinuation. "Losing doesn't make me less of a Duelist, quitting does. So stop acting like you actually have any honor or pride, you cheater." She drew her card, looked, then placed two cards face-down.
He didn't panic like Shizuka did, and he saw Mai smirk a bit as the Avatars started forward, only to have the two activate before a tall, masked monster rose up and let out a muted roar.
Jinzo?
"As long as we're being all about how Battle City was for me, let me introduce you to the first card I won," Katsuye said, sounding suddenly confident and like many other Duelists he'd faced. She often either yelled when finally upset or stuck to simply saying what was going on, but beyond that, she often simply let her body language do the talking. In this, she didn't have a poker-face, but it seemed to only come out when she was finally serious.
That's her way of Dueling, he realized as she added, "Jinzo is a bit of a bane for your Deck, isn't he?" She glared back at him as she continued, "You don't know anything about me or my Deck."
Yami hated how the Shadows were acting in this game, and after Jinzo had wiped out the Trap-Monsters on Marik's side of the field, he'd been hit but able to stop Jounouchi from doing more than simply drawing and planning out her strategy, or just setting up the cards she had as they prepared.
But the Shadows weren't going around and waiting, like they had when he summoned Osiris or even when Bakura's soul had started to slumber, the link between it and the Ring now only similar to the link that Shadii or Pegasus had had with their own Items. No, instead, they seemed ANGRY, writhing in pain and growling out and around Marik as he summoned the Holy Beast Selket to guard the sealed box and it's card.
You said the Shadows said something about a perversion or twisting of a rituaL, Yugi mentioned from his place watching Katsuye, Yami in the forefront in the hopes of using his power to protect anyone should the Shadows react badly, and the God Cards had some of the Shadows inside of them?
Yes. They're part of a ritual, I believe, or became part of one.
Then...what if it's a reproduction of Ra? A copy of the card?
You're a member of our clan, Rishid. You can control a copy of God.
Rishid is silent as he hears Marik's command in his mind. He allowed the link after all that happened, and after Ishizu betrayed them in their quest. He knows that Marik needs to defeat the Pharaoh, to purge the hatred of three thousand years before that part of him will be gone forever and he will return to the Marik he knows and cared for, that he helped and that he became a Tombkeeper for.
I can defeat this girl on my own, Master Marik. I will not need the card that I sealed away.
He'd been Marik's shadow for as long as he was alive, even before Marik was born. Master Ishtar had never treated him as a son, only as a servant, and his fate had been sealed when Ishizu and Marik were born. He'd been four years older than Ishizu, eight older than Marik, and he'd still tried to take the ritual on. Why shouldn't he?
But when it was denied, in the weeks before it, Rishid had found a book detailing one other thing, one carving he could make, that would tie him to their clan forever.
The Mark of Maahes, the Scarlet Lord, inheritors of the mantle of Sekhmet.
With that design, as Marik screamed in pain in the other room, and with only the dim light to guide him, he had carved the mark into his face, a reminder to Marik of who he was.
Marik will inherit the Items, the Rod that once stood to the king's right, and I will stand behind him, his shadow, ready with the Scarlet Lady to strike down those that attack the ones who threaten us. I will be Mater Marik's shadow, in all of this, and I will keep him safe until his revenge is done, and the darkness from his family's curse is overcome. I will kill the Pharaoh myself.
He chanced a glance over to where that man was, and saw the woman who had been standing alone for a bit when Battle City had started. Her tawny eyes locked on his own, and she raised her head a bit as there was a growl from next to her, and he thought he saw a lion with an asp for a tail, coiled around her.
Her look was a challenge as he looked away, and he felt himself sweat as he did. The thief that Marik had attempted to hold was right - she was here, and he would have to be careful if he wanted to free his Master.
He glared at the girl, the one who is also in the Pharaoh's shadow and doesn't acknowledge when she's about to lose, as Selket eats the final monster. It's her turn, and she seems quiet, her head bowed so he can't even see her eyes.
"Give up. There is no way for you to win."
"You keep saying that, as if making me run off will exonerate you for what you did." He's quiet as she continues, "I remember most of it. I even remember your ugly face before everything turns bad. But I also was remembering most of it during this battle...and I was wondering how the hell someone who so likes to cheat and stack decks has such a Deck. You put out traps and spells, you summon, but the other one, the one in my head…"
Rishid blinks as she says it, and realizes what she wants to say, what she will say.
"I have the Rod! I have Ra!"
"You have what looks like the Rod, and Ra is locked up," she tells him as she finally raises her head. He blinks when he realizes something, and sees the smiling, almost laughing sphinx behind her, it's tail waving as contently as a cat in sunlight as it purrs at her, healing her mind and soul, and she finally completes her thought, her eyes determined and her voice confident.
"You're not Marik."
He glared at her, and even without Master Marik's prompting, he spoke. "Than you will face Ra's wrath for your insolence, woman!"
I will summon Ra, and I will show that I am a part of the clan. Even if this is a copy, even if this is a shadow of the one Master Marik has, that doesn't matter. I am his Shadow. I am the one who willfully took on the mark of the Maahes, of the Scarlet Lord, when the one here would not save us from this fate.
I am his clan. I am his rock and his shadow. I will do this!
The moment it came out, Kaiba felt his heartrate skyrocket in a way that only his first Shadow Game had done. He was afraid, not excited, and if what Katsuye said was right, then that meant this was a fake, and the odd static in the background was not simply them attempting to hide what it really was.
No, Ra came out, dark mixed with light, like a solar eclipse, and the feeling of the Shadows in his Deck, from Obelisk that had accepted him and that had given some of his cards more life, screamed in anger. The Blue Eyes felt like it was trying to wake up on it's own, before being summoned, and he felt himself take in a breath before a sudden, warm feeling spread over him, and he heard Yami say, "Kaiba, get the others behind you."
He didn't need to see the glowing eye on him to know what to do, and Anzu had already dragged Shizuka back as Mai and Varon, though confused, moved away, Layla following them as Namu started to follow, only for him to stop, a glare suddenly turning his face from kind and placid to angry and almost evil.
He moved forward, not sure what he was going to do, as something seemed to be roaring on the Dueling platform, Katsuye apparently calling out about something as the fake Marik tried to control whatever was going on.
"Give up, you moron!" Katsuye yelled over the screaming sound of a storm that seemed to pick up more and more around them. "You have to stop this!"
The false Marik said nothing, simply standing as the false Sun God turned black, swirling around them before raining down the attack on it's owner's side of the field.
He was moving before Katsuye even started to, jumping up to try to stop her as the false Marik was hit by the attack, the light seeming to go through him as he simply accepted it, falling to the ground before Katsuye shook herself free of his grasp and raced over to him, Kaiba moving to join him as Yami ground out to the Duelist who introduced himself as Namu, "Marik! What have you done?"
Kaiba turned to look in time to see Marik trying to talk before he started to shake, putting his hands to the side of his head and groaning, almost screaming as he said, "No...no, stop it!"
"m-master...marik...no...i have…" the muttering of the man got both he and Katsuye to look at him as he attempted to reach for Marik, his hand moving up slowly, "I...I will...calm the...darkness in…"
The moment his hand fell, eyes closing, Marik let out a blood-curdling scream, his forehead bulging with the same Wadjet eye that his followers had whenever he took control, and his eyes seemed to turn the same type that Gozaburo's were, when he had beaten Kaiba and told him to continue studying, to make up for time lost, or it would be Mokuba who took the Kaiba name, not him.
"Finally," the darker being spoke before it slowly grinned, looking at them all as the others stood behind Yami, Kaiba standing to shield both Katsuye and the false Marik, "finally, I am free."