Author's Info: Two updates in one day is pretty good, all things considered. I hope you guys like it. I'll see if I have another chapter for Destinies of the Divine Descendants or not, but that may start slowing down. I'm re-watching the Millennium arc for inspiration, and I am going to do my best to stay caught up, but things are going to start getting mad about a week from now, so please forgive me if it takes me a little while. Thanks to and all of you who have favorited/read/commented on my stories.

The "what"s: Listening to the album Love by The Juliana Theory and started reading The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice. I've been thinking about possibly looking over all my stories and deciding on a rank order of importance. I've been neglecting my real story as of late (yes I am actually writing my own story), and I'm feeling it. I miss being in the world of these characters. If any of you are interested in reading it, message me.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. If I did, I wouldn't ever be able to work on my real project, and Shawn would never be the awesome vampire he has become. I would be devoting far more time to all these Yu-Gi-Oh arcs. As it stands, I do own Tsuki and Yumi. Please tell me what you think.

Chapter Eleven

Kaiba had to admit she knew what she was doing, but not attacking his life points would prove to be her undoing. He was only getting started, and he hadn't even begun to show her what he was capable of. He drew a card and smirked, saying, "I play Battle Ox in attack mode. Battle Ox, attack her Arcane Apprentice now!"

"Same trick, Kaiba? I thought you would have figured out by now that won't work against me. Go, Attack Guidance Armor! Redirect the attack to Maiden of Macabre!" She watched as the armor attached itself to her Maiden and Battle Ox changed direction only to have her Maiden slice him in half and gain another two hundred attack points.

"Wow, Yumi really is good," Tristan said, eyes wide as he watched her. "She diverted both of Kaiba's attacks and wasn't even fazed. She knew he was going to target her weaker monster and easily stopped and destroyed both of his monsters."

"I told you, Yumi's the best duelist I've ever seen," Tsuki said seriously. "She never could have defeated all those people in the Tomb Robber and Guardian circuits otherwise. She's always getting challenged, especially by the Tomb Robbers, since she's the Guardian's top duelist. I've never heard of her backing down from a challenge, either."

"You mean she's won every duel against every challenger for over three years?" Joey asked incredulously. "That's impossible! Even Yugi has admitted to losing a few duels before. There's no way she's gone completely undefeated."

"I never said I haven't lost a duel in the past three years," Yumi said seriously as she watched Kaiba play a card face down. "I just haven't lost any duels that were important or related to the circuits. After I, I lost that Senet match to my brain-dead sister, didn't I?"

"Hey! I'm not brain dead; I'm fully functional!" Tsuki cried out indignantly. Much as she loved her sister, she still hated how easily she won games and created new things with technology. It seemed like her sister had been given all the talents, while she was given all the personality.

"You're right," Yumi agreed, smiling a little at her sister. "Still, if you think I'm so wonderful at everything I do that I get everything I want, you're either incredibly daft, or you have a few screws loose. Everything I have I've worked hard to attain; harder than you'll ever know., and everything I don't have I either have farther yet to go or cannot hope to attain on my own."

"And what kind of things would that be?" Kaiba asked. He noticed Yumi regarded him seriously for a moment before looking down at the card she had drawn. He had to admit this was more enjoyable than the afternoon of interviews and meetings he had originally scheduled. She knew how to combine the cards, and her tactics were well planned, but he would ultimately prove the victor.

"I guess a relevant example would be my sister's wish for me to find a boyfriend. I haven't met anyone worth considering a potential partner; they are either foolish, creepy, or nothing more than acquaintances and friends. Tsuki wasn't far off when she told my friends in Tokyo I had a stalker, though," she admitted, amusement and annoyance coloring her tone. "He's the second highest among the Tomb Robbers, and he's known as the Prince of Thieves. At first, he dueled against me for the usual high stakes game: if I lost, I would lose something precious to me. That is the typical scenario, and I'm allowed to do the same if I so choose. I most always forego the option, especially when I'm in a foul mood; I can be quite cruel when I allow myself the choice. Needless to say I defeated him, quite mercilessly, as far as I was concerned. Ever since then, he's come to challenge me twice a year, the maximum any member of either circuit is allowed. The only difference is that now, if I lose, I am required to go on a date with him."

"Yumi's always annoyed when he comes," Tsuki said, giggling. "He's the only guy out of the circuits anywhere near our age that I regularly see. Most people in the circuit I don't know, or haven't been told they're in it. He's obsessed with beating her now. It's kind of cute to see how much he likes her, but Yumi's too stubborn to give him a chance. Too bad he's a Tomb Robber; maybe she'd be more likely to notice him if he were a fellow Guardian. He's a really good duelist, but nowhere near good enough to defeat my sister."

"Hopefully now I'll get a brief respite from dueling anyone from either circuit. I'd much rather work on my project, not think about who's coming after my head this time," she said teasingly, although somehow Yugi knew she wasn't really joking about it. It sounded like these people were completely serious about their duels, and that their antes were much higher than just losing a title and a few cards. It made him wonder why she had agreed to duel in such circuits at all. Surely she had some idea of the dangers before getting involved.

"I thought you wanted to duel people who were actually worth your time," Kaiba said sarcastically. "If they're as good as you say, then why not keep dueling against them? Unless, that is, you're afraid." He smirked at the thought of her backing away in fear only to see she held his gaze seriously, a frown set deep into her facial expression.

"Trust me, Kaiba, while it's nice to play against skilled duelists, there are other places to find them. Look at Yugi; you wouldn't have ever expected him to be such an amazing player if you hadn't dueled against him or watched some of his duels at Duelist Kingdom. Now he's the King of Games. As for me, I just wanted to get away from the circuits for a little while. Even the best duelist should handle high-stakes games seriously, and one gets very tired after a rather lengthy series of them. Some no doubt already have some idea of my location, but they're either waiting or they're not interested in dueling at the moment. Not everyone who runs through these circuits is looking at me. There are other, greater threats to them, of which I'm merely a pawn, albeit a stronger one. I would be likened to a knight in the game of chess: something powerful and hard to predict, but capable of losing to the lowest of pawns if played correctly by its respective master."

"That only proves that you're weak," Kaiba scoffed. "If you were truly that great, you wouldn't lose to a low-level pawn."

"Then tell me you've never sacrificed a knight, bishop, rook, or even queen for the sake of winning a game of chess. Tell me that they were never taken by a pawn you had lured into a trap."

"You're calling yourself a sacrifice now?" Kaiba asked incredulously. "Where do you get all this nonsense? You're worse than Yugi and all his friendship speeches."

"I'm not so noble as to say it's a sacrifice for someone or some cause, but I do have my own things to protect. If I fail to protect what actually matters in my life, it should get taken away. That's why I try to defend what's important to me, even if it means putting myself at risk. It's the only way to ensure I don't lose."

"Right, and we all know how well that goes," Kaiba said, scoffing at her explanation.

"Yes indeed. It gets people adopted along with their siblings when they have nowhere else to go. It gets people a company from the hands of a greedy and ruthless tyrant. It gets people to turn a company form the largest weapons dealer in the world to the most successful gaming corporation in existence," she said wryly, making Kaiba's scowl deepen.

"How do you know all that?" Kaiba snapped. He was not sure how she had gotten all that information, but he wasn't going to ensure this any longer.

"Word goes 'round the water cooler, Kaiba," she said mysteriously and teasingly before becoming serious once again. "Kaiba, if I didn't know as much about you and your company as I do, I wouldn't have made getting a job with your company my victory prize. I take this very seriously, despite what you think. Speaking of victory, I sacrifice my Arcane Apprentice and my Maiden of Macabre to summon Arcanite Magician. I also pull this trap card from my deck thanks to the effect of my Arcane Apprentice." With that, she held up the card Assault Mode Activate and placed it in her hand. "Your move, Kaiba."

Kaiba smirked. He had to give her credit for managing to summon monsters with dual purposes, but she still wasn't going to defeat his most powerful monster.