It was nearly three in the morning when Kaiba finally arrived at Pegasus's castle. The tower was lit, but the majority of the space was still blanketed in darkness, Kaiba creeping through the shadows in her black coat undetected by the security force until reaching the front door. When she reached the front, she immediately took account of the two armed guards who stood in front of the main entryway, the men arguing amongst themselves before they finally noticed her standing in front of them.
They both looked shocked. Their faces turned white and Kaiba just stood there, unfazed before finally breaking the awkward silence.
"Give me Pegasus right now."
They both looked unsure of what to do, but before they could speak, the door opened and someone clapping walked through the gates.
"Well well well, Kaiba-sama, what a surprise. We didn't expect to see you here." It was Pegasus's main goon, Mr. Crocketts. He was unremarkable, by all counts, but Pegasus still trusted him all the same. It wasn't the first time he and Kaiba had ran into each other.
"I'm sorry your men couldn't kill me," Kaiba smiled back, her lips tight as her eyes narrowed, "Where's Pegasus?"
"Oh, if you'd please just follow me," Crocketts answered as he opened his arm to lead Kaiba along.
It could be a trap. Kaiba wanted her arrival to be a surprise, but by now, Pegasus probably knew she was there. Unfortunate, but there was nothing she could do about it.
"This is the second time you've been here, isn't it, Kaiba-sama?"
Kaiba didn't speak. She knew he'd remember her from the party. It was for the grand opening of the Simulation Box when it was first debuting. Everyone had come to the opening of Pegasus's Island, and at that time, Kaiba had been excited. She had been happy, for a short time.
"Enough of your chit-chat," interrupted Kaiba as she lost her patience, "Where's Mokuba? I know you all are responsible for kidnapping him, and if you think for a moment I won't do something about it-"
"Kaiba-sama, I think you are mistaken. We haven't done any such thing."
He was lying blatantly to Kaiba's face, but Kaiba was used to that from men. As if anyone would admit to running off with a minor and holding said child captive. Even Kaiba wasn't that low.
"You're wasting my time," barked Kaiba as she stepped up closer to Crocketts, who just coolly smiled at her. "Take me to your boss, now!"
"I'm afraid I can't exactly do that right now, it's three in the morning, and Pegasus is asleep."
"I don't care." She grabbed the man by the collar, and despite him being taller than her, Kaiba still managed to lift him up from the ground, making the man sweat before she finally let go.
"Okay, fine," the man said, as if trying to smooth things over, "He's in the next gate. If you can open the lock."
"What are you talking about?"
Kaiba approached the second entryway. There was a bolt of sorts at the front, which required star-like items to open. She could feel her blood pressure rising before she turned her gaze back towards Crocketts.
"Is this some kind of joke?"
"No, I'm afraid not," answered Crocketts, "You must have ten-star chips to continue on. I'm afraid I cannot enter myself, and so neither can you."
Her throat felt thick as her eyes started to twitch. "How convenient."
"Now if you don't mind, let me prepare a room for you in the annex, and we'll deal with this star-chip business in the morning..."
It didn't sound like Kaiba really had a choice.
It was dark all around him. Jonouchi kept pulling card after card, but they were all wrong. The stack was never ending. Something was breathing down his neck, uncomfortably warm and wet. He tried ignoring it - tried to stay his attention on the task at hand. He knew it was in here, somewhere…
Cold blue eyes flashed in front of him, and there was laughter from before him and a horrible keening from behind. Jonouchi spun around and was eye-to-eye with a massive Blue-Eyes White Dragon, its head bent low to observe him, nostrils flared. Letting out a surprised shriek, Jonouchi let go of his deck, the cards scattering away into the void.
Kaiba watched apathetically as the Blue-Eyes knocked him over with its head, snapping at the end of Jonouchi's green jacket before dragging him around the floor. One wrong move and that thing would try to eat him. It was playing with him like a cat would a cornered mouse, Jonouchi had no way of fighting back.
"I've never seen anyone try so hard and suck so completely at dueling," Kaiba laughed, pointing directly at him. He'd never felt so embarrassed in his life. He was flat on his ass again, with no hope of getting up. The Blue-Eyes White Dragon kept knocking him down with its whiplash like tail.
Kaiba's face fell in mock-concern. "Oh, you got your feelings hurt and want to regain your precious male ego?" And then her expression sharpened, grim exposing teeth as white as the Blue-Eyes beside her. "Why don't you just give up, Jonouchi?"
He came to from his dream with a start, his entire body jerking upwards as his eyes snapped open. Jonouchi felt sore and achy, the back of his hair sticking uncomfortably on the back of his neck. His jacket clung to his sides and arms, but he felt too chilled to remove it. Beside him, the rest of his friends continued their sojourns through the dream world.
It had been only a dream.
The sun was still relatively low on the horizon. Jonouchi lifted his arm and scrutinized the glove covering his right hand. He only had four-star chips. Still, more than half to go before he secured a spot in the finals, and he'd have to get them all today. Stretching, Jonouchi let out a long sigh before picking himself up and dusting himself off. They couldn't afford to waste any more time by sleeping in; Jonouchi was a little surprised that no one had tried to jump them during the night. But they'd been sleeping on a private island, not his neighborhood…
"Alright, guys!" he announced loudly, receiving bleary stares for his efforts, "The last day's already started, and we have star chips to win! Onwards to Pegasus's castle!"
"I'm still sleepy," whined Honda as he got up. Anzu was missing, and Yugi silently picked himself up, wiping sleep from his eyes as he yawned.
He looked around as Anzu approached, appearing troubled. "Anzu, do you know where Mai is? I don't see her anywhere."
"Oh, she left sometime during the night," Anzu shrugged, "But she left her tent and food for us, so that's cool."
Jonouchi hardly paid any attention to them. Mai wasn't really one of their group. She was like an outsider looking in, and since she was so annoying, it didn't bother Jonouchi in the least if she wanted to be a special snowflake and go out on her own... as long as they still had food to eat.
Besides, it was the last day of the tournament. They had no time now for being pals with strangers.
"Okay, let's go!" announced Jonouchi loudly.
"Right!" Yugi agreed, "There are probably only half of the contests left by now... But still, only the first four with ten star chips make it to the end. Whomever we encounter today will be stronger than yesterday, so we can't lose focus…"
"Stronger?" echoed Jonouchi. He couldn't help but make a face at that.
"What, getting scared now?" Honda snickered from behind.
"Like hell I am!" Jonouchi bellowed, pulling Honda into a headlock and rattling him around for good measure. "I'll take them all down - anyone who dares to stand in my way!"
"That's the spirit, Jonouchi-kun!" smiled Yugi. "I know you can do it."
They'd been walking for some time. The sun rose higher in the sky, and with it, Jonouchi began to feel a tell-tale heaviness in his bladder.
"Yo, I'm gonna take a leak," he said as he ventured off the path for some privacy. Anzu had given him a withering look for his crudeness, but the others had simply nodded and left him to his business.
When nature called, he just had to heed it.
Finding a reasonably secluded tree, Jonouchi unzipped his pants and gave into sweet relief. He'd just about finished up when he was grabbed from behind, a large palm covering his mouth, and he felt hauled away unceremoniously.
What. The. Fuck.
That shit had been intense.
There he'd been, pissing in the woods when he'd been dragged down forcibly to some creep's crypt. Jonouchi had been vaguely thankful that he hadn't wet himself in the ensuing debacle to drag him underground. Vaguely. But mostly just enraged that someone had sunk low enough to catch him with his junk out and about.
And he'd been forced to bet all his star chips - definitely not the way he'd wanted to begin his day, and especially not all by himself. That Kozuka guy had been a colossal weirdo with an equally freaky deck, and it had taken all of Jonouchi's wits to skate by that Duel without pissing himself. He hated occult shit of any kind, and all Kozuka seemed to have were creepy-ass zombies.
It'd been hard, especially with that Bandit Keith barking orders, and he hadn't had Yugi's support. But he couldn't give up - that meant being kicked out of the tournament, and failing his sister. Becoming the loser that Kaiba thought he was.
All he could do was trust in his cards. Trust in himself.
And he'd won.
It took a large gamble: he'd only had 150 life points left and a magic card he'd never really tried out before. Just a random card he'd pulled in a booster pack and thought might be useful down the line.
But he'd won, and doubled his star chips in the process. He'd also gotten them into one hell of a bind, though.
The others had found him right as he'd landed the finishing blow on Kozuka's life points, and then Bandit Keith had run off and sealed their exit. The only way out would be to traverse the dark tunnels and hope there would be another opening at the end. Luckily, Mai had left them a lantern in her bag of goods, and Bakura's ring seemed to know the way out (which in and of itself was creepy as fuck).
They'd been weaving through the dark corridors when Bakura turned to them, eyebrows drawn down in concentration. "I think we're in a maze."
It made sense. Jonouchi had noticed how the walls around them had smoothed and straightened out, their path peppered by sharp ninety-degree turns. After a while, it didn't seem like anyone knew where to go in the underground cave and Jonouchi felt frustrated for being trapped down there in the first place.
"Do you know what those punks did to me?" started Jonouchi as he began to speak into the darkness.
No one answered, so Jonouchi took that as a cue to continue.
"They snatched me while I was taking a piss," Jonouchi hissed, his eyes still not quite used to the darkness as he squinted around to see, "What kind of douchebag just does something like that? I had my shit hanging out and everything."
"Oh be quiet, Jonouchi," said Anzu as she shook her head in distaste, "No one wants to hear about that."
"Yeah well, that's exactly what happened though," continued Jonouchi. "It was ridiculous. Sure, I've been jumped before, but never like that. A man needs his privacy and those punks didn't even give me a moment to get my shit together. It was so undignified."
"You wouldn't know what dignity was if it slapped you across the face," laughed Honda as he hit Jonouchi lightly on the shoulder with his own. "You were mad because some guys caught you with your drawers down."
"I almost pissed all over myself," continued Jonouchi. "It's not like I got an extra pair of clothes."
Anzu sighed loudly, irritable as ever.
"You could always ask Mai for a hookup," Honda suggested with a snicker, "She seemed to have a lot of shit in her bag, so a change of clothes wouldn't be far off. I'm sure you could wiggle into one of her leather skirts."
"You'd like that, wouldn't you," shot Jonouchi back, "What are you, some kind of homo? What kind of stupid suggestion is that?"
"Hey man, beggars can't be choosers. Just be glad you didn't actually piss your pants."
"I am happy I didn't piss my pants," mumbled Jonouchi back quietly.
He wouldn't be able to live that kind of humiliation down, after everything that already happened to him thus far. Jonouchi felt like a complete fuck up. Nothing was happening right, despite just managing to win a duel all alone. That was great, yet he was still constantly screwing up and becoming the butt end of jokes.
"I wonder why there are dueling boxes down here, anyways," began Jonouchi, "It seems like a stupid place to make people duel."
"Well, Pegasus does seem a bit eccentric," Yugi surmised, "And since this tournament has field advantages, I guess it makes sense to give all types of deck advantages."
"Or maybe the guy is just a giant dick. That seems more likely," reasoned Jonouchi.
"Do you guys always feel the need to talk in terms of your privates?" groaned Anzu, "They're called privates for a reason!"
Jonouchi rolled his eyes, moving closer to Anzu as he bumped shoulders with her. "Why you gotta be such a giant prude," Jonouchi snickered, "You act like you are some high and mighty girl, but I know you like dirty shit just as much as the rest of us. I've seen your yaoi collection before. I recognized the titles, you pervert."
His sister read them, but he didn't want to explain that far. It wasn't like he'd ever want to read a bunch of gay stories...
He felt a sharp pain as Anzu rammed her elbow into his ribs. "Oh hush, Jonouchi! It's not like I flaunt it. And how would you know, anyway!" Even in the dim light, her face was obviously reddened.
"My sister reads that shit," cried out Jonouchi as he hissed from the pain. Damn, sometimes Anzu could be violent. She was a small girl, but she could be mean. "My mother doesn't approve, so sometimes I support her sick habit. You happy now? I'm not interested in butt sex with another dude, you weirdo."
Honda was snorting somewhere in the background as Yugi sighed. Ryou was so quiet, Jonouchi almost forgot he was even there.
"I don't get why you girls even want to read that stuff, anyways. It's so weird."
"It's not all about the sex," Anzu retorted as she smoothed her hair, "But it's not like I expect the likes of you to get it." She stuck out her tongue briefly before stalking off to the front of the line between Yugi and Ryou.
Jonouchi just snorted. Anzu could be so damn uptight, sometimes. He didn't think he'd ever understand girls.
They continued onwards. Jonouchi couldn't tell how far they'd been walking, or how long, or even how deep underground they were.
In the distance was a pinpoint of light. It grew as they approached, the darkness on the walls receding behind them. Finally, they came to a wide entrance that opened to a brightly-lit room with tiled floors and large embossed kanji all around: beneath their feet, on the walls flanking the room, painted on the doors at the back. In the center of the room was a table shaped in an octagon with four chairs.
"What the hell is this place?" Jonouchi said aloud as he scrunched his face up and looked around. He didn't have much time to stand around and gawk: there was a rapid whooshing sound, and a blur of motion, and suddenly two nearly-identical-looking men dropped down before them.
"We are the Meikyu Brothers, guardians of the dungeon!" announced one of the men. Jonouchi could hardly tell the two men apart, and he frowned when he realized he wouldn't be escaping the maze anytime soon.
"Have you come to find the pathway out," asked the other with a broad smile, "We have the answer, but for a price."
"You must get past us-"
"-By winning a Duel," answered a brother, "And then you may be given the answer to the question you are looking for."
One of those back doors had to be the right door to escape. Jonouchi felt his anxiety begin to prick; he wanted out of there.
"But if you run," warned the slightly larger of the two, "You and your group shall be lost forever!"
That didn't sound too good. Maybe it was an empty threat, but Jonouchi didn't want to test that theory. He turned to Yugi for some kind of guidance before the latter stepped forward.
"I accept your challenge," Yugi announced, sounding more sure and confident than he had earlier while in the tunnels. Jonouchi was beginning to notice the change better. Yugi stood taller, straight and proud, his eyes focused and sharp as he gazed at the pair of brothers.
"Who shall duel as your partner?" asked one of the two, "We must play two against two."
Yugi smiled as he looked at Jonouchi.
"We'd make quite a team, wouldn't we?"
Jonouchi blinked, his face warming up as his throat closed up. He wasn't able to respond right away, feeling strange as his chest swelled and his palms began to sweat. Was it not long ago that he had been forced into some Duel, and now he was being swept away into another one?
He'd be fighting alongside Yugi, though. Yugi, who was the best player Jonouchi had ever seen and wouldn't lead him astray.
"Yeah, I'm playing, too," Jonouchi declared, puffing out his chest for effect, "Yugi and I are a team!"
"How much will you two gamble?" asked the brothers in unison.
Yugi laid down four, while Jonouchi did just two.
"When we get out of here, Jonouchi, we'll both be qualified for the semi-finals," alerted Yugi.
They'd each have ten-star chips. Jonouchi would be able to save his sister, and Yugi, his grandfather.
"But first you two must get past us," grinned one of the brothers, "And we are not an easy pair to get past. Are you ready?"
Jonouchi and Yugi took their places at the table, while their identical opponents each sat across from there. The table itself was oddly-constructed: the middle of it was cut out, the bottom scored in a grid. Two large gates stood before either brother, the kanji written upon them mirroring the two doors at the back of the room.
"I'll go first," the brother to the right said as he laid down a card. There was a rumbling sound, the table softly vibrating, and then all along the grid, various lines rose up in unison, forming…
"Another labyrinth," Yugi gasped as the walls set into place.
"This is the Labyrinth Field," one of the men said, "You'll have to get through that to win this Duel! But beware what lurks within its walls…"
Jonouchi had never seen anything like it. Not only had he never tag-team dueled before, but he'd never encountered a field quite like this.
"Allow me to properly explain the rules of this particular Duel," began the brother who played the card, "Turns are alternated by the team. We each have 2000 life points, but each of us is bound to our partners. If one loses all of his life points, then both partners shall die!
"Now, about this field - think of your monsters as chess pieces. If in attack mode, you can progress as many spaces as the number of stars on the card. If you manage to get through the dungeon and defeat us, then we'll allow you to open one of the doors. Will you choose 'mei,' the Door of Deception, or 'kyuu,' the Door of the Palace?"
"Shit," Jonouchi hissed. How would they know which door to go for? This was just stupid. "What's your deal, huh? The deck's already stacked against us, and we're waging our lives, here! At least give us a clue!"
The brothers smirked their small mouths, a thin line across their broad faces. "If you insist... From now on, one of us will always tell the truth, and one of us will always lie."
Fucking fantastic.