DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction produced for entertainment purposes only. Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters are the creations of Kazuki Takahashi.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry for the long break. There are 2 new chapters of this fic, so be sure to read them both!
Tournament of Shadows
Chapter 10: Through to the Finals
by Shadow's Mirror
In the beginning, the sixteen top ranked duellists of Japan had been chosen to participate in a very special week-long competition; the Domino City Treasure Quest Tournament.
Everything had been normal at first, but a series of mysterious attacks on the second night of the contest had left four children unconscious in alleyways across the city. The following day, three of the duellists, Avril Kensington, Rina Price and Callie Logan, had also been attacked. They would recover, but not in time for them to complete the first stage of the contest and make it into the finals. The attack on them had effectively removed them from the competition.
A fact which had not gone unnoticed by the other duellists.
Upon hearing about the attack on the girls, fear for his younger brothers' safety in a city that was apparently no longer safe for children had taken its toll on a fourth duellist. Espa Roba had withdrawn from the contest that afternoon.
That left twelve duellists in the competition and eight spots in the finals, with four of those spots having been claimed the day before. Nyc had been the first to get through, followed a couple of hours later by Kaiba and Yugi, within minutes of each other. Within the hour, Bakura had also joined them.
The fifth spot would almost certainly be claimed by Isis. She had passed the last of her first round duels the day before and only needed to go to the location of the finals to earn her place. But that would leave seven duellists and only three spots remaining in the finals.
As the officials started off what was certain to be the last day of round one in the contest, it was clear that those seven duellists were all determined and very serious about the day ahead of them. The mood that had settled over all of them was as dark as the storm clouds that threatened to rain on the tournament.
With all seven of the duellists up to their last duels in round one, anything was possible.
Mai was the first one to arrive at her final match. She stepped up to the duelling arena within 15 minutes of the day's official opening, as the location had only been a few blocks from the starting point in the park. After smiling her usual charming smile at the official, Mai began to duel.
Everyone else was still heading for their fifth duels, so the live show's camera stayed on Mai for the next quarter hour, until Mai began bringing her duel to an end with a couple of spectacular plays. The director chose to keep the focus on the end of her duel, rather than switch for the more boring scene of Joey arriving at the location of his last duel.
At his duel location, Joey paused to consider when the official asked him if he was ready to start duelling. He was eager to get started, but there was something in the air... an ominous feeling that sent a prickle of wariness up the back of Joey's neck. As always, he trusted his instincts over his mind. "Uh... would you mind if we waited a bit?" He shrugged at the surprised look the official gave him. "I need a few minutes to calm down. I'm too excited to concentrate." It wasn't a lie, really. The official nodded in agreement and settled back to wait.
Less than a minute passed before the official passed on the news to Joey that Mai had just won her final duel and was on her way to the location for the finals. Joey grinned. "That's great! I knew she'd do it!" He hesitated, then looked a bit guilty. "Sorry for making you wait around like this."
The official shrugged. "You're the only opponent I have today and I've heard a lot about your duels. I'm looking forward to our match, but at the same time I don't mind drawing out the anticipation." Joey grinned and she grinned back, then excused herself to answer her beeping phone. A few moments later she held it out to Joey with a smile. "There's someone who'd like to talk to you."
As Joey took his unexpected phone call, elsewhere in the city, Evien Sanders had just arrived at his last round 1 duel.
While he was clearly tense and impatient to begin, he still took the time to ask about the other duellists. On hearing Mai had already finished her duel and was on her way to the final location, he scowled, but his expression lightened on learning that no one else had started their duels yet. His smile was cold and there was a calculating gleam in his eyes as he took up position on the duelling field to begin the battle.
Evien's battle was so violent that it was with great relief that the director issued the order to switch to show the first turns of Malik's duel, when it started a few minutes later.
Malik's duel began mere moments ahead of the start of Joey's duel, but it was so good the director couldn't resist staying with it for a little while. So it was that, when the camera switched to Joey a few turns later, the audience was left wondering how he'd managed to get several good monsters and a trap card on the field. Not to mention the fact that his opponent's life points were already down by a quarter.
The fifteen minutes that followed were some of the best duelling footage from the whole contest so far, as the camera went back and forth between Joey and Malik's duels. Then Marik showed up at his duel location and it got even better.
Since the start of Marik's duel coincided with the end of Evien's, the director had to choose which one to show. It was no contest. Evien's whole duel had received as little screen time as possible, as the show's director was well aware of how many complaints the TV station had received about his duels and the bad example they set for younger duellists. The camera cut over to Evien just in time to show him smiling smugly as he spoke with the official after the match.
The three ongoing duels with Joey, Malik and Marik were all heating up and made for great watching for the few minutes that followed, before an important event took over the focus of the live coverage.
Mai had arrived at the location of the tournament finals.
The camera did a slow pan up her legs, then focused on her hands as she signed herself into fifth place in the finals, before moving up to capture the knowing smile and the kiss she blew towards the watching audience. It lingered on her face as she looked again at the sign-in book and caught her slight frown, as if she'd noticed something that worried her.
As Mai settled herself comfortably in a chair, clearly intending to wait and see who else made it into the finals, the live coverage returned to Joey's match just in time to catch Joey shaking hands with his opponent after his win. A fact which caused the show's director to wince as he knew there'd be a flood of complaints over the show missing the end of the blonde boy's duel.
After that, the show focused on Marik and Malik's skilled duelling until it again switched back to the location of the finals for yet another important event.
The sixth spot in the finals had been claimed.
Mai waited patiently until Isis had finished signing herself in and then moved over to talk to the older woman. "I'm glad to see you. When I got here first, I was worried." Her voice couldn't quite hide the concern she was still feeling.
Isis lightly touched Mai's hand, guilt in her eyes. "Forgive me. I should have told you this morning. I had to drive Malik and Marik to their duels before I could come here."
Mai arched an eyebrow in surprise. "You're driving yourself and your brothers, today? Hasn't your other brother been driving you three around?"
"Yes. However Odion is currently forbidden to drive for a week, due to his excessive speed yesterday." Isis sighed. "I have told him before that there is no need to rush, but all of this tension has been getting to him, I fear. That, plus the fact that the new issue of Fluffy Bunny magazine came out yesterday and he wished to collect his copy before the store closed, caused him to drive fast enough for the boys to call for his punishment over it. I had to agree it was warranted."
"Ouch. Sorry to hear that." Mai winced in sympathy. "So I guess that means you have to go get them now, too, huh?"
Isis nodded. "Yes. You are waiting here for Joey? He will, of course, be next to come." She and Mai traded knowing smiles. Although normally they'd expect Joey to come in last among the qualifying duellists, they both knew that he would never allow himself to be beaten in that way by Evien Sanders.
"Yeah. He mentioned wanting to visit the girls at the hospital and I thought I'd go again, too. We might as well share that comfy ride Kaiba's provided him with." She winked at Isis, who laughed softly.
"That sounds like an excellent plan. I believe I shall take my brothers there later this afternoon, also."
The live show coverage was supposed to cut back to Marik's duel after Isis had signed her way into the finals. Just before it did, however, the director learned that Marik had already finished his duel with one last turn, played at the same moment his sister had claimed her spot. The poor man almost whimpered when the official who had duelled Marik went on to say that it was the most spectacular turn of the whole tournament so far. Fortunately, the film crew at that location had it on tape, so it could still make it into the night's replay show. But the director knew he could expect more complaints about not showing it when it happened.
With a cameraman escorting each of the duellists that day to capture their reactions when they learned whether they had made it into the finals or not, along with a security guard provided by Kaiba Corp., the director figured they could at least show a few scenes of Marik heading to the finals location.
Assuming that was where he was actually going. It took a few moments of watching the live stream footage from Marik's cameraman for the director to realise that the boy was heading in the wrong direction.
Then something happened that drove all thought of Marik and his intended destination from the director's mind, and diverted the live show's focus from not only the wandering teenager, but also the closing turns of Malik's duel.
Something more than a little surprising to anyone who had watched the nightly recap shows of the tournament, which had included a segment where the competing duellists had been ranked in order, according to how far along they were in the tournament.
According to that segment, Joey Wheeler had been ranked in last place for all of the tournament's first three days. But now, on the fourth day... he had just laid claim to the seventh of the eight spots in the finals.
It was a stunning turn of events, and one that would be discussed by duellists throughout the whole city of Domino for weeks to come.
Just as Mai's legion of fans would discuss how she had greeted Joey with no surprise at all to see him there, and how the two had talked for barely a minute before heading off together.
Joey finished signing and turned around to grin at the woman standing behind him. "Hey, Mai! Congrats on getting in."
Mai grinned back and nodded. "Thanks, Hon. Same to you. I heard when you won. Kind of surprised you got here so fast, though." She looked curious. "That driver of Kaiba's must really be something."
Joey nodded. "He's pretty good, but I told him how to get here." At Mai's questioning look he looked a bit sheepish as he shrugged. "When you walk everywhere, you get to know the quietest roads and fastest routes pretty quickly."
Before Mai could comment on that, Joey spoke again. "Do you still want to go visit the girls?" He grinned at her, his eyes gleaming with barely repressed eagerness. "I called Kaiba about it on the way here. He's heading there, too."
Mai let him get away with changing the topic and nodded. "If you don't mind giving me a lift? My cameraman's gone but the guard's still here. I thought he'd go too, but he says Kaiba gave him orders to stay." She looked baffled.
"I was planning on it." Joey grinned, then looked more serious as he nodded. "Yeah. He told the guy with me to stick to me like glue, too. I'm also under orders to drop you off at your hotel afterwards. Kaiba's not taking any chances."
Mai nodded back. "I see. I'm actually pretty relieved about that." She started walking with him to the car.
As they left the building, she glanced around and shivered. Her bright façade had faded with the cameras off her. When she spoke, her voice was very quiet and serious. "I don't mind telling you, I'll be glad when this tournament's over. It's been fun and all but..." She trailed off and Joey nodded.
"Yeah. I know what you mean. Not much more to go, now." He grinned at her. "I'll be beating the pants off Kaiba before you know it!"
That earned a chuckle from Mai. "Hon, I don't know what amuses me more. The thought of you actually beating Seto Kaiba and the look I know he'd have on his face if it happened, or the mental image of you demanding he give you his pants afterwards." She winked at him as Joey, now a rather good shade of red, spluttered.
"Mai! As if I would! I might have dreamed about it but I wouldn't really do it!" His admission to dreaming of the same scene made Mai laugh even harder.
While Joey was proclaiming his innocence; elsewhere in the city, a duel was drawing to a close.
Malik had played well and he smiled happily when he took out the rest of his opponent's lifepoints with one final attack from the three monsters he had on the field. "Yay! I win!" The opponent smiled and shook his hand.
"Congratulations. You just need to get to the location of the finals." He checked his data pad. "You'd better hurry though. There's only one spot left and two of the other competitors have already finished their duels." He looked up again and blinked when he realised that Malik's attention wasn't on him, but on something behind him.
Marik's voice over his shoulder made him jump. "So who was the other one?"
"What? When did you...?" The official stared at Marik, realising rather belatedly who he was and remembering that he really wasn't supposed to be there. "Why are you here? You should be heading for the finals."
Marik grinned at him and shrugged, just as Isis pulled into a park nearby with a rather depressed-looking Odion in the passenger seat. He pointed at the car. "I'm being picked up with Malik. Who was the other one?"
"Oh... um... Evien Sanders."
"Oh." Marik nodded. "He's mean to his monsters. I'm surprised they work with him at all."
Before the official could come up with a reply to that somewhat odd statement, Malik grabbed his other's hand and began to tow him off. "Thanks for the duel! We have to go now."
The official relaxed and smiled. "It's good that you're so enthusiastic about getting to the finals."
Malik blinked at him. "Huh? The finals? No... not really."
Marik smiled happily. "Sister Isis is taking us for ice-cream!"
When Isis drove off with her brothers, the official was still standing there blinking in shock.
At another location in the city, Rex Raptor forced his way through a hedge and finally found himself at the location for his last duel. He smiled at the surprised official. "Man, you sure are tucked away well. I had to go through half the bushes in this park to get here!" He took up his position and prepared to duel.
The official blinked at Rex. "But..." He glanced over at the park's main path, that ran right in front of his location, then decided that he really didn't want to know why, much less how, Rex had found him by coming through the bushes behind them. He started the duel.
The few minutes that followed had some rather quiet plays from Rex. The live show's director noticed with confusion that he seemed really relaxed for someone who was suppose to be racing against the clock to win and beat the other competitors into the finals. In fact, he almost seemed to be deliberately trying to draw out the match. Surely not.
All that aside, while his plays were nothing special, he was duelling better than usual. The audience were treated to some good, solid duelling while the show was focused on him, and it continued when Weevil Underwood started his duel as well, a few minutes later.
Like Rex, Weevil also seemed more focused on duelling well than on winning quickly. From the first turn, he began to slowly but surely chip away at his opponent's lifepoints, laying out some good combos and protecting his cards, like the master of the game that he really was.
While it was a bit late in coming, the next three quarters of an hour proved to everyone watching the live show exactly why Rex and Weevil had been placed in the top 16 and how they'd earned their way into the tournament. It was clear that they not only knew what they were doing, but they knew their cards like the backs of their hands and they both had the uncanny knack for drawing the exact card they needed, when they needed it, that most of the top duellists had.
Seeing them duel, the question of 'why are they even in this contest?' that had been spreading around the city for the past few days was answered. The new question on the minds of the audience was now 'why haven't they played like this before now?'
It was with great reluctance (and a heavy sigh at the thought of how many complaints the station would likely receive over it) that the live show's director ordered the switch from Rex and Weevil's duels back to the location for the contest finals. Evien Sanders had arrived and was about to claim the final position for the second round of the tournament.
The director was still sighing when he remembered a little rumour that had caught his ear the previous evening. One of his cameramen at the tournament's starting point had heard Evien taunting Joey Wheeler about his being in last place. With a sly grin on his face, the director quickly relayed an order to the cameraman at the final location to be sure and get a good shot of Evien's face when he saw who had made it there ahead of him. Then he sat back to enjoy the show.
He wasn't disappointed.
As Evien moved to sign his name in the log book, there was an obvious pause in his movement. His eyes widened slightly, then narrowed in an annoyed scowl before he almost slashed at the page with the pen. It spurted slightly as he put too much force behind it, but he was too busy scowling at the name ahead of his on the page to notice it. It was obvious to everyone watching that he was not at all happy about learning that Joey had made it there ahead of him.
The director allowed himself only a few moments of snickering before he ordered the show's focus off the annoyed teenager and back to the ongoing duels with Rex and Weevil. Mostly Rex, as his duel was almost at an end with his opponent down to only 200 life points.
Despite that, it was still a good ten minutes before Rex made the final play of the duel and wiped his opponent out. The cameraman with him zoomed in on his face as the official quickly checked his data pad. Any feeling of guilt the director might have had at the thought of milking the teen's reaction to the bad news for good ratings faded into a resigned sigh when Rex's only response to the news that he was out of the contest was a single shrug, followed by a question about Weevil's location.
Although the director immediately switched the show's focus back to the location of the finals, where Malik and Marik had just arrived, he didn't allow himself to hope for too much. While he was eager to get their reactions to the news of their failure in the tournament on film, he'd already noticed that they hadn't seemed to be in any hurry that day and had a feeling that their arrival at the finals was going to be as interesting as Rex's non-reaction had been.
In that, however, he was soon proven wrong.
Although it had already been a quarter of an hour since he had signed into the final spot in the finals, Evien was still there. His smug smile was firmly back in place, his perfectly tousled hair was not ruffling at all in the light breeze and the colour of his lips might have been attributable to lip gloss bought solely for the purpose of making him appear less washed out on camera, as he spoke to the small group of media people gathered at the front of the building where the final stage of the contest would be taking place. He was a king holding court and clearly taking a great deal of pleasure in all of the attention he was receiving.
The media were merely taking up space on the pavement.
Too much space for Marik's liking.
As he and Malik hopped out of the car, he frowned at the gathered people.
As they headed for the doorway to the building, talking quietly to each other, Marik's eyes remained on the crowd and his frown steadily deepened.
When they reached the gathering, he scowled at them all. "Hey, you're blocking the doorway. We can't get by. Move." His voice wasn't loud, but it carried over all of their voices with the ease of someone used to calling out cards over the roar of an enthusiastic crowd. The faint note of 'I'm someone scary, you will obey me now' in it had the media people instinctively moving aside in response to the request. It also made them look at the ones who had just arrived.
Evien frowned as his audience was distracted, but then smiled coldly when he saw who it was. "Sorry boys. You're too late. I just got the last place." It was a good shot, but it still missed the mark. It did keep the media's attention on the twins though, as they looked to see how they were taking the news.
Malik and Marik didn't ignore Evien. They simply didn't hear him. They were still deep in their conversation as they walked past; close enough for Evien and the gathered reporters to hear every word they said.
Malik was in raptures over how good the ice-cream that they'd stopped off for on the way there had been.
Marik was in agreement, although he thought it hadn't been quite good enough to have earned a whole half hour waiting time for a table at the shop.
Malik agreed with that, but pointed out that it wasn't like it had been a wasted half hour since they'd been allowed to play the games at the arcade next door while Odion and Isis had waited in line.
Marik happily smiled at that and agreed that had been fun and he hoped they could go there for ice-cream and games again soon, as Isis had promised next time he could try for the big plush penguin in one of the claw machines.
The light and his yami went inside, chattering happily about where they'd put Marik's future penguin, but the media people were very quiet as they took in what they'd just heard. Half an hour wait at an ice-cream shop, but the boys had arrived barely fifteen minutes after Evien had claimed the last place. If they'd come straight here and hadn't stopped...
The reporters weren't the only ones doing the math.
Evien watched the twins go inside, fury in his eyes as a snarl curled his lip. Without a word, he turned and strode off. The media watched him go without a word and then moved off as well.
There'd be no interview with the eighth duellist on any of the news shows that night, or in any of the papers the following day.
The half hour that followed was devoted entirely to Weevil Underwood's final duel. Although this was due to it being the only duel still going on in the first stage of the tournament, it was still worthy of the attention. Weevil was duelling with all of his skill, using combos and strategies that his opponent was struggling to guard his cards against.
Finally, with one final attack from his Insect Queen, Weevil won the match.
As the official checked his data pad to see if Weevil still had a chance at entering the finals or not, a familiar voice hailed the green-haired teenager. Weevil turned and blinked. "Huh? What are you doing here?"
Rex came out from behind the large tree where he'd been watching the duel and sauntered up to his friend. "We're out." He sounded rather cheerful for someone who had just lost his chance to be in the final round of the tournament. "Want to go for some lunch? There's a ramen shop in the next block that looks pretty good."
"Hm..." Weevil considered the pros and cons of that idea. He was hungry and, if they were already out of the contest, then it didn't matter how long it took them to get to the final location. On the other hand, lunch with Rex Raptor could be misconstrued by some as a... date. He shuddered at the thought, but his stomach growling convinced him that it was worth the risk. "Fine. But I don't feel like ramen. How about Italian? I passed a restaurant on the way here and it had a poster for their spaghetti and meatballs in the window." It was the main reason why he was currently so hungry.
"Only if you're paying. I saw the poster too. That place is pricey!" Rex wrinkled his nose. He didn't mind Italian, but there was a limit to his generosity when it came to paying for meals. He turned to head off.
"What? But you invited me! Don't be so stingy." Weevil scowled at Rex as he fell into step with him.
"Stingy? You're the one with expensive tastes!" They headed off, still arguing over who was going to pay for lunch and both forgetting that Weevil hadn't officially been told that he was out of the contest, yet.
The official blinked and watched them go, very confused. "Why don't they just pay for their own meals?"
With Weevil and Rex the last ones in the tournament and both in no hurry to go sign in and finish it off officially, the live show's director had a choice to make. End the show without showing the signing in, or go back over the past few days' highlights. He chose the highlights.
Although he was eager to include more of Joey's duels, since that was what most of the letters and calls in to the station were asking for, he quickly found out that luck was not on his side with that. The cameraman who had been with Joey that day turned out to have forgotten to put any film in his camera.
So it was that the highlights contained a marked lack of Joey Wheeler and anything but a lack of Mai Valentine.
Her cameraman had not only remembered his film, but had carried three spare reels of it and used it all.
An hour and a half later, the Mai Valentine Show was interrupted by the arrival of the last two duellists at the finals location.
As the two he'd been waiting for finally showed up, Seto Kaiba straightened from his position leaning against the side of one of the pillars that surrounded the lobby of the building. He watched in silence, his eyebrow arching just slightly as Underwood and Raptor signed in with only a minor argument about who would sign first. As soon as the cameras were off them, he made his approach.
"It's about time. I have some news for you both." He spoke quietly, so the few lingering reporters couldn't overhear.
"Firstly, from tomorrow, the day's opening ceremony is to be held here, not the park. Easier to secure." The two teens nodded in silent approval, both looking more serious than they had been only moments earlier. "Secondly, while all of the participants are welcome to watch the rest of the tournament, only the duellists that qualified for the finals need to attend the opening." He scowled slightly at their looks of relief. "It seems the organisers felt those who did not qualify had been punished enough." He ignored Weevil's snicker and Rex's grin. "Finally..."
He looked at them both and hesitated as he frowned, as if not liking what he had to say, but then his expression softened slightly. "In case you are interested, the girls have awoken."
Both duellists visibly brightened at that. "Hey, we're allowed to go where we like now, right? Like, say, the hospital?" Rex looked hopeful.
Kaiba nodded. "Indeed." He started to turn away, but then paused and turned back, frowning as he looked at them.
"Not that I particularly care, of course... but why were you both looking so smug when you arrived?"
Rex grinned and looked smug all over again. "Oh that. I didn't have to pay for Italian."
Weevil nodded and also looked smug again. "But he did pay for our burgers."
Kaiba blinked and then sighed as he turned away again. "I knew I would regret asking."
On that note, the fourth day of the Domino City Treasure Quest Tournament came to an end.
To be continued...