Five minutes later, we were going down the road in a three-wheeled pickup truck we found in the warehouse. I was glad Joey had his driver's license: I could've driven if I wanted to, but I felt like I earned the right to sit in the passenger seat. As he drove, I discretely looked Shizuka over, studying her aura. As you've probably concluded by now, I have the ability to see a person's aura. The size of their aura shows their strength, and the color shows their purity.
Take Yugi, for example. His aura is very light, and extends perhaps four inches all around him. His pharaoh counterpart has a slightly less bright aura, but it extends seven inches all around. Kaiba's aura is equal in size, but less bright than the pharaoh's. Just between us, Kaiba is really a good guy, even if he comes off as an asshole.
Remember Odion from a few chapters ago? His aura is only an inch and a half all around, though his deck more than made up for it. His aura is beige, which is pretty much as neutral as you can get. The reason why I mistook his aura for a large dark one is because of Marik's influence on him.
But let's get back to Shizuka. Her aura was the brightest one I've ever seen, even surpassing Yugi. It wasn't a really big aura, though. Still, if she honed her skills enough, even Yugi would probably be able to see her aura; that's how bright it was. I closed and rubbed my eyes, reminding myself to carry around a pair of shades the next time I viewed her aura.
I decided to break the silence at that point by venting my frustrations. "Stupid virtual world," I grumbled.
"Hmm?" asked Yugi. "Why do you say that?"
"It's the accommodations, or lack thereof. With a press of a button, a little brat – albeit a smart one – can send us to the four corners of his virtual world. I can play games where the odds are against me; in fact, I love it when that happens. But it's not fun anymore when the game is rigged. Do you know what I mean?"
Yugi nodded. "Yeah. When I dueled against Pegasus in Duelist Kingdom, he knew all my strategies before I could come up with them."
"How did you get out of that one?"
"Would you believe me if I told you it was a combination of my Millennium Puzzle and the hearts of my friends?"
I smirked. "Yugi, I served Marik for two years and saw my share of weird things. I'd probably believe you if you said you could fly by waving your arms like a bird." Suddenly, Joey slammed on the brakes, sending us into Duke. For some reason, the robot monkey screeched at him and me until we stopped touching Shizuka.
"Why did you stop?" asked Yugi.
"Look in the sky." Joey pointed out what looked like a rocket going into space. "What do you think it is?"
I pulled out my PDA. "It looks familiar. Just scanning. …Guys, I think Kaiba's run into a little trouble. That's a monster called the Satellite Cannon. Should we investigate?"
"Shouldn't we be looking for Tristan?" Shizuka pointed out.
Before I could reply, I heard a familiar voice say, "…much better than those Romeo wannabes, Duke and Siege."
"What was that?" asked Téa.
"Who's a Romeo wannabe!?" I demanded.
Then the voice spoke again. "If I'm stuck like this long enough, I might start eating bananas."
But this time, we could tell it came straight from the robot monkey. "Tristan!" we exclaimed.
"Huh? You guys can hear me now?"
Joey jumped out of the truck and grabbed the monkey out of Shizuka's hands. "Ok, who are you!? I don't trust you."
"Joey, it's me! Tristan!"
"I don't buy it. I'll bet you're a spy sent by Noah. Would someone mind doing something about this thing?"
I took the monkey from him and tied it to a corner of the truck as he climbed back in the driver's seat. "I'm truly sorry, Shizuka. I know how much you like that monkey, but I have to make sure it doesn't try to hurt us."
As we started driving, the monkey pulled at the makeshift leash. "Come on! Do I look like a dog to you?"
"I'm sure we can all agree if there's any animal you look like, it's a monkey."
Eventually, we stopped. A gap prevented us from going further and on the other side was Kaiba, dueling against someone – Lector, I believe – whose Deck Master was Jinzo (2400/1500). Of course we knew that Kaiba's traps were useless, now. Kaiba's Deck Master was Lord of Dragons (1200/1100).
Lector had Injection Fairy Lily (400/1500) and Satellite Cannon in play, along with Solemn Wishes, Life-Absorbing Machine, and one facedown card. Kaiba only had a set monster, as well as Twin-Headed Behemoth (1000/1000). The stats looked like this:
1200/2600
"Without his traps, it's like playing with half a deck!" shouted Téa. "This duel isn't fair!"
"Naturally," I said. "But Kaiba's a real duelist; he'll open a way with his own power."
Kaiba drew. "Oh, well! I hope you're prepared for inclement weather. I activate Heavy Storm, blowing all your spells and traps away!"
"Nice try," said Lector, "but I activate Imperial Order! It negates all spell cards, and it stays on the field as long as I pay 700 lifepoints each turn! Now, you can't play any traps or spells!"
"Ok," I muttered. "Now, this isn't fair. Kaiba can't use spells or traps, and Lector's lifepoints keep going up, which means he can keep using Injection Fairy Lily's attack once a turn."
"My turn!" declared Lector. "I gain 500 lifepoints from Solemn Wishes and another 1000 from Life-Absorbing Machine. Then I pay 700 to keep Imperial Order on the field."
1200/3400
"And now, I attack your facedown monster with my Satellite Cannon!" We watched as a beam shot down from the sky and vaporized the Wicked Worm Beast (1400/700).
Kaiba growled. "How can I stop a weapon that's hiding in the sky?"
"You can't! Only a level 7 or above monster can reach it. And each turn, the Satellite Cannon gains 1000 attack points. You're about to lose everything you have, and it serves you right for destroying your own stepfather and betraying the Big Five. Now you'll pay the price for using others to get what you want; even your own brother!"
I looked up. "What was that?"
"What's Lector talking about?" asked Yugi.
"Kaiba's a jerk, but he's not a slime ball. Perhaps Lector is exaggerating a little."
Lector continued, "Your treachery began when Gozaburo gave you ten million dollars to test your business skills. When you increased the money by threatening a smaller company, Gozaburo was impressed by your abilities and cruelty. But that wasn't good enough for you. You called the Big Five together, telling us that if we helped you take over Kaiba Corporation, we'd rule together as a team. We all began to buy up stock in Kaiba Corp, but we began to have difficulties. We realized that someone was leaking our plans to Gozaburo, and you told us it was Mokuba!
"After his rejection, Mokuba was forced to go to Gozaburo, who only wanted Mokuba's shares in the company. With Mokuba's two percent, he believed he held fifty-one, so he stopped buying stocks. When you made your takeover attempt with your own forty-nine percent, Gozaburo thought our plan failed. He intended to fire us and send you back to the orphanage. But Mokuba gave you his two percent, and you became the new president. On that day, Gozaburo was broken. He committed suicide, and it was your fault."
Lector's tone slowly started to get louder. "You played us all like fools. It was really you who leaked our plans to Gozaburo! You deliberately leaked the information, making Gozaburo think it was Mokuba, so that Gozaburo would let you buy up forty-nine percent of the company, confident that he would have Mokuba's two percent on his side. But you knew better, didn't you!? You knew that Mokuba would remain loyal to you, no matter how badly you treated him!"
I was shocked. "He manipulated his own brother to claim Kaiba Corp? I knew he was ambitious, but I never realized the extent he was willing to go. I'm surprised that Kaiba's aura isn't pitch-black."
Kaiba shook his head. "That's not true. Mokuba was the only one I trusted. I knew that together, we could take our stepfather down."
"Lair!" snapped Lector. "You used Mokuba, and took advantage of his trust! You used me and the Big Five!"
"Listen. Life is a game, and I won't let anyone trample my dream. I draw, and summon Spirit Ryu (1000/1000)! I use it to attack your Injection Fairy Lily!"
"I activate Fairy Lily's effect, paying 2000 lifepoints to increase her attack by 3000!"
"And I use my monster's effect, discarding two dragon cards from my hand to increase my monster's attack by 2000."
"It's still too weak!" A second later, Kaiba's monster was destroyed.
800/1400
"Why did he do that?" asked Téa.
"Kaiba knows what he's doing," said Yugi.
I nodded. "Marik used this very trick against me when he dueled through Joey."
"Behemoth," said Kaiba, "Destroy his Fairy Lily!"
Lector caught on too. "No! I don't have enough lifepoints to boost my monster!"
800/800
"You'll pay for that. I draw, and gain a boost from Solemn Wishes and Life-Absorbing Machine!"
800/1650
"Wait," said Kaiba. "You have to pay 700 to keep Imperial Order in effect."
"I can't afford to keep it in effect, so I'll destroy it."
I grinned. "Poor Lector. Now he can't defend against Kaiba's spells."
"How could you hope to control Kaiba Corp if you can't keep the numbers in a simple game of Duel Monsters?" challenged Kaiba.
"Silence! I'll set a monster and attack with Satellite Cannon!" Once again, Kaiba's field was clean.
"My turn. I play Pot of Greed, letting me draw two. Then I summon Possessed Dark Soul (1200/800) and attack your defensive monster."
"I reveal Dream Sprite (300/200)! Her effect lets me redirect your attack to any of my other monsters, and I choose Satellite Cannon." Since Satellite Cannon can't be destroyed by anything lower than level 7, the attack dissipated. "For my turn, I'll simply take a boost from my traps and end my turn."
800/2150
"Why didn't he attack?" asked Joey.
"He's charging up his Satellite Cannon for one final blast," explained Yugi.
"There's only one card that can save him now," I thought. "The card he took from Sensei years ago. Selkirk Rex, please watch over him."
I sensed Kaiba performed the Destiny Draw, though he seemed oblivious to it. "I'll play a monster in defense mode," said Kaiba. "Then I use the Deck Master ability of Lord of Dragons. By paying 500 lifepoints, I can summon any dragon from my hand. So I sacrifice my monsters…"
300/2150
"…to summon the Blue Eyes White Dragon (3000/2500)!"
"There it is," I thought. "Well, that's the end of Lector. His Satellite Cannon only has attack points when it attacks, but not when it's attacked."
"My dream won't be lost to a weapon of death! Ghost of Gozaburo…I command you to disappear!" Blue Eyes White Dragon flew up and destroyed the Satellite Cannon, wiping out Lector's lifepoints.
300/0
"Now, tell me where my brother is!" I can admit when I'm wrong. I thought that since Kaiba was willing to use his brother like a pawn, his aura would be darker. Now I see how much he truly cares for his brother. I'll wager that Mokuba's aura influences his brother's.
As Lector disappeared he said, "Who knows? But this isn't over yet."
Kaiba clenched his fists. "I'm coming, Mokuba!"
Then we heard Noah's voice. "You might have won the duel, but you've lost something more important: your brother!"
"Tell me where Mokuba is!"
"Just look down." In front of Kaiba, a tunnel appeared. Also, the gap between us and him was bridged.
"Mokuba!" he yelled as he ran towards the tunnel.
"Wait, Kaiba!" yelled Yugi. "We'll go with you!"
"Stay out of this!" snapped Kaiba.
"Who do you think you are?" demanded Joey.
"It doesn't concern you. It's family business!" With that, he ran off.
Joey fumed. "That Kaiba. Who needs him?"
"I think we should help Kaiba find Mokuba," said Yugi. With that, he and Téa started running towards the tunnel.
I crossed my arms. "What happened to 'we should stick together so Noah doesn't separate us'?"
"I'm sick of helping Kaiba and never getting any thanks for it!" snapped Joey.
"I don't care," said Shizuka. "He needs our help!" With that, she took the robot monkey and started running towards the tunnel.
"Wait a minute!" I called out as I ran after her. "We bloody well need to stick together!" That turned out to be a relatively small problem, as the tunnel disappeared shortly after Téa entered it. "What the?"
"Yugi!" Joey cried out. "Hang in there!"
I sat down. "Ok. Let's focus. We need to think of a plan to reunite with the others."
00000000
We thought for a few minutes, but nothing came. Then we heard the monkey say, "Hey, what has eight eyes and lives in the water?"
I looked over and saw him peering down into the water. "Is this some sort of joke?" asked Shizuka.
I walked over. "Let's see what you've got." I looked down and frowned. "No joke." I grabbed the monkey and pulled him away from the ledge as a waterspout shot up, revealing four of the big five. Gansley and Lector were still disguised as Deep Sea Warrior and Jinzo respectively. Crump was disguised as Nightmare Penguin, and Johnson as Judgeman. "It's four fifths of the Big Five. Came back for a rematch?"
"We're through with Noah's game," explained Gansley. "We're taking your bodies, and that's that."
"Sore losers." I reached into my pocket. "I'll have to teach you a lesson on…" I fumbled around, confused. "Where's my knife?" Then I remembered where it was; back at the warehouse. I failed to retrieve it after trying to stop Nesbitt. "Oh, damn."
"Today, there's a 100 chance of our freedom!" declared Crump.
"I think not." I activated my Duel Disk, drew several cards, and summoned a bunch of random monsters. Joey did the same, and then we all jumped into the truck, which Joey had trouble starting. I looked back, and saw that while the monsters were keeping the four at bay, they wouldn't last long. "Hurry up, Wheeler!"
At last, the truck started. "Yes!" cheered Joey. "Hang on, guys!" We did, and we drove as fast as possible while the Big Five pursued.
Somehow, we ended up in a dusty landscape. I kept summoning random monsters while holding on, but they did little to slow their pursuit, and I eventually became alarmingly low on cards. Eventually, Lector fired beams from his eyes, and we swerved and turned over. I reached out to Duke, but he ended up flying. I breathed heavily, my heart racing a mile a minute. I slowly climbed to my feet and checked on everyone. Nobody was hurt; just a little shaken up. I was quite relieved, until we were surrounded.
"I want the girl's body!" said Crump.
"Hang on," said Lector. "We're choosing in order of height, so you choose last."
"What! That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!"
Gansley came along, carrying Duke and setting him down. "Stop bickering and choose!"
Before they responded, Noah appeared. "You're all pathetic! You can't win fairly, so you decided to cheat?"
"Wait, let us explain!" screamed Gansley.
"Save it!" A vortex appeared, and the Big Five (minus one) were sucked up. And as the twister disappeared, so too did Noah.
I sighed with relief. "That's a stroke of luck." Then we all turned as we heard people running towards us. "Yugi! Téa! Kaiba!" I ran over and gave Téa a big hug, and Joey did the same to Yugi. After I let her go I said, "Seriously, I think Joey's impulsiveness is rubbing off on you." Kaiba stood alone, saying nothing. He only looked at a picture he held in his hand. I walked over and looked at it. It was a picture of Noah. To his left was a man in a red suit and a mustache, sitting down. "Who's that guy Noah's with?"
"It's my stepfather, Gozaburo Kaiba," he answered. "Noah claimed he was Gozaburo's true son."
It thought about. "Hmm…you took the company that Noah would've inherited from Gozaburo, and now he wants revenge? Yes, that makes sense."
"No, this photo must be a trick. Noah insinuated that this photo was taken six years ago. But look closely."
I studied it for a second. I didn't see anything wrong; Noah looked like he…"Oh! He looks exactly the same then as he does now!"
Téa shivered. "That means…Noah hasn't aged for six years?"
End Chapter
(Insert dramatic tone here.) What could Noah's secret be? Is it a good diet, or some kind of youth potion? Or is it something else? R&R.
