MANGA NOTE: The relationship between both Kaiba brothers and Yami in the early manga is nothing short of disastrous. Initially, Kaiba steals Sugoroku's BEWD from Yugi. Yami challenges him to a shadow game (or penalty game) to get it back. Yami wins when Kaiba summons the BEWD, but the dragon destroys itself rather than follow his commands. Yami inflicts a penalty game on Kaiba where he is trapped in the illusion that he is in the Duel Monsters world and is killed by his own monsters.
Mokuba, eager to prove himself to his brother and desperate to protect Kaiba from the consequences of going up against Yami again, challenges Yugi to his favorite game, Capmon. With a gang of taser-wielding elementary schoolers he threatens Yugi until Yami appears. Although Mokuba cheats, Yami (surprise!) wins. As part of the resulting penalty game Mokuba believes he's being sealed into a Capmon capsule. When Kaiba creates Death-T, Mokuba insists on being one of Yami's challengers. Kaiba misreads this as a personal attack on him, and when Mokuba loses he forces him to go through the Death Simulation chamber he had designed for Yami.
CHAPTER 21: EXTREME VICTORY
Is there anything more predictable than the unexpected? Sherlock Holmes tumbles to his death off the Reichenbach Falls. But before the shocked gasp at his seeming demise has quite left our lips we're already expecting his triumphant return to 221B Baker Street in the next installment.
We may not know the exact combination of madwomen, fires, storms and telepathic dreams that will drive Jane Eyre and Rochester apart or bring them back together – but is there any doubt that separation and reunion is in the cards from the moment she crosses his threshold?
And yet even the quietest moments can have a mystery all their own. Like the moment when the Count of Monte Cristo wonders if getting revenge was really the right thing to do after all, like the moment before Frodo volunteers to take a ring on a quest.
Perhaps the most unexpected outcomes of all are the things we learn about ourselves.
MOKUBA'S NARRATIVE
We landed, butt first, in a field. The Teleportation Operator tipped his hat to us, bowed, and disappeared along with the disk that had brought us here. I punched the ground. I'd barely gotten to hug my brother before this stupid game had separated us again.
"I can't believe that worked! We escaped!" Yugi yelled, clapping me on the back.
"It didn't work. Not the way I planned. Nisama isn't here," I said, annoyed that I had to remind Yugi of something so obvious.
"Yeah," Yugi said, looking around like he expected Nisama and Yami to be sitting next to us. "Don't worry, Mokuba. They'll be fine." I wondered if he was just trying to make me feel better. Then Yugi added, "Can you imagine anything beating either your brother or Yami on their own, much less when they're together?"
I grinned. "True."
"He found you once before." Yugi laughed. "Your brother even has a GPS tracker with him."
I pulled the GPS tag out of my pocket. "I figured as much," I said.
I called in my map. Given the level of detail in the surroundings and the intense blue of the sky, I figured we were near the center of this world. I was right.
Yugi looked at the map and pointed to the safe houses my brother had set up. "We should head for them," he said.
"Sounds like a plan," I agreed.
I should have know things were going too well to last. Before I could get up a Capmon capsule formed itself around me. I'd been imprisoned in one before, after meeting Yami – and losing a penalty game to him. That had been over a year ago now, but it's not the kind of thing you forget.
With stunning speed the Capmon capsule closed over my head. Its sides were smooth and unbreakable. When its halves snapped shut, I was going to be trapped. I was going to be alone. As it closed I saw Yugi's face. Unlike the first time, his eyes were wide and violet and he looked horrified. This was Yugi, I reminded myself, not Yami. He wasn't going to sneer at me and walk away.
"Mokuba! Don't you have anything that can stop this?" he yelled.
I shook my head then realized Yugi couldn't see me anymore anyway. Unlike the first time I couldn't even find the seams where the two halves had come together. The capsule was bigger too. I even had room to move around a little. I heard the same voices as before though.
It was my old gang. They'd helped me grab Yugi; they'd been there for my penalty game with Yami.
"What a pussy! Listen to him crying like a baby…. Yeah, who does he think he is, acting like he's so tough, telling us what to do…. Let's give the wimp something to cry about…"
Once, hearing them turn on me had been the final thing to turn Yami's penalty game into a nightmare. I'd felt like I'd lost everything all at once: the game, my chance to protect my brother, Nisama's love, my friends. Now I knew better. I hadn't lost my brother and they'd never been my friends. Not really. Not like Yugi. And Yugi was here, somewhere. He wouldn't run out on me.
Their voices faded as Yugi called, "Mokuba! Can you hear me? Can you breathe?"
"Yeah," I yelled back.
"What is this thing? It looks like an egg… or a giant Capmon capsule. What's it doing here?" Yugi asked.
"Don't you remember us playing Capmon?"
"Why would I… oh… that time… you took me to that abandoned factory. You said you had a new game. I didn't know why you were mad. That's all I remember."
"Oh," I said. I wasn't sure he heard. I called in my largest throwing knife and tried cutting my way out, but the blade couldn't pierce the wall of the capsule. It was all covered with goo. It hadn't been like that the first time.
"I can't break out," I yelled.
"Do you have any weapons?" Yugi asked.
"Yeah. I tried to cut my way out, but nothing happened," I said.
"Don't worry. I'll get you out." It was still Yugi's voice, but it sounded more determined than I'd ever heard him.
"How?" I asked. "I saw your inventory before we came. You don't even have any weapons."
"I don't know, but I'll find a way."
He tapped against the capsule wall. It made a hollow sound.
"Hold on! I have an idea!" Yugi yelled. "What did they say in biology class?" he mumbled to himself.
"Biology? Like from school?" I asked.
Yugi laughed. "Yeah. Weird, huh?"
"I'm just glad you're the one here and not Jounouchi. Unless something you learned in lunch could help."
Yugi giggled again. "Well… kind of… Just hang on and I'll have you out of here."
I nodded, although I knew Yugi couldn't see me. I could handle this, especially now the voices had gone away. I started to calm down.
That's when the monsters started to shape themselves out of thin air.
They materialized so slowly I had plenty of time to recognize them: the skeletons still in their battle armor, the leering ghouls, the giant crocodile that looked like it was going to swallow me whole just as soon as his teeth became solid enough to bite. They weren't standard duel monsters. They were my brother's creations for Death-T. Just like before, the penalty game Yami had forced on me was merely a warm-up for my brother's.
"I'm not afraid!" I yelled at them.
"That's great, Mokuba," Yugi hollered back. I realized he had no clue what was going on and it was too hard to explain.
The skeleton closest to me grinned. The crossbow bolts protruding from his empty eye sockets bobbed as he moved his head.
I remembered what Nisama had said as he was building Death-T: no matter how scary they were, the holograms weren't real. People died because they were weak enough to believe in them. But Nisama had survived this illusion. He'd faced it every night for months.
"No!" I said quietly. I didn't want Yugi to hear me. "I don't believe Nisama would ever hurt me again."
The monsters laughed. I couldn't help shrinking back against the wall of the shell. I jumped back the instant my back touched its smooth surface.
"Hey! It's getting hot!" I yelled. "What's going on out there?"
"Sorry. It's the only thing I could think of." Yugi giggled again. The sound seemed to make the monsters waver for a moment. Maybe they were as surprised by it as me.
"From Bio class?" I asked, closing my eyes briefly. Maybe if I didn't look at them I could convince myself they weren't real.
"Yeah. This thing looks like a giant egg."
"So you're cooking me alive? Like you'd boil an egg? That's your great idea?" I yelled, opening my eyes again in shock. The monsters closest to the shell must have been sensitive to heat because they were melting.
"You can't hurt me!" I yelled.
They reached for me anyway, determined to kill me before they were destroyed themselves. A crocodile creature snapped at my leg. I jumped back, wincing as I crashed into the shell. Drool flew from its mouth as it snapped for my leg. It missed, but as its spit hit my jeans, the denim sizzled and burned away. My leg blistered where the crocodile's spit landed.
"I'm not trying to hurt you! I'm trying to help! Okay, I think the shell's brittle enough. Try cutting your way out, again," Yugi yelled.
My knives were longer and slightly heavier than standard throwing ones. Nisama had insisted. I remembered him telling me I could use them for defense if I needed to and this definitely qualified. Besides, having them in my hand made me feel like Nisama himself – and not just his monsters – was in here with me. Nisama wasn't the one trying to kill me. Not today. Not ever again. These monsters were here because of my fears, not his. I slashed at the skeletal had reaching for me. The brittle wrist bones broke. I moved forward, slicing through the monsters in my way, swinging wildly for the shell itself. I had to get out of here, and unlike at Death-T, I was going to do it on my own… well, with a little help.
As my knife hit the shell a crack appeared. I swung again and again, widening the hole. With each strike, the monsters became more formless, less real… less able to hurt me. Yugi started helping from the outside, tearing the shell away in chunks.
"What the fuck?" he yelled as I tumbled out, followed by a ghostly crew of skeletons and monsters. They turned to mist as soon as they hit the air.
Yugi helped me up. I'd been holding it together, but when I saw Yugi, I couldn't. I broke down in front of him and bawled like a little baby.
"I was so afraid," I sobbed.
My brother had once told me that the only way to be happy was to never reveal a weakness, but that just didn't seem to apply anymore. I was making a fool of myself, but it felt good.
"I keep saying I don't need anyone but Nisama, but that's just not true!" I cried. Yugi's arms went around me. He was a good size to cry against. I thought he was going to promise that everything would be all right, like my brother or even Yami would have, but he didn't.
"I was scared too," he said. "Suddenly I was all alone and I didn't know what to do, and I was so afraid that you needed me and I wasn't going to be able to help. It's like the first challenge I had here, with your brother, but this one was worse. I didn't even have Jounouchi's voice, calling me a wimp, for company. It was just me."
I stared at Yugi surprised. Hearing him say he'd felt just as lost and clueless as me made me feel better, somehow. Like I wasn't the only one here who was scared, and dumb as it sounds, I felt stronger knowing that.
I'd been so relieved at my escape I hadn't even wondered how Yugi had managed it. I heard a loud squawk and looked up. A very ruffled Niwatori was pecking through the broken pieces of the Capmon capsule as though it really was a giant egg and she was looking for her chick. She was pretty pissed; it was clear she didn't consider me an adequate substitute. I'd ridden a Niwatori once, when we'd gone to rescue my brother the first time he'd gotten stuck in a video game. I'd almost forgotten how big and fat they were. She shook out her feathers, jumped off the broken shell, and squawked angrily at Yugi again. She strutted around, croaking and flapping her ridiculously undersized wings until she disappeared.
"What the fuck?" I said, echoing Yugi.
Yugi giggled again, as though we both hadn't been sobbing like kids a minute ago.
"It was the only chicken I could think of big enough to hatch that thing," he said.
I'd never known Yugi was crazy before.
Then he noticed my pants. The burn on my leg started to hurt.
"Oh shit! What happened? Were those monsters part of … your original penalty game with Yami?" he asked.
"No. Not exactly. These monsters didn't have anything to do with Yami," I said, not wanting Yugi to feel bad. "The crocodile spat on me."
"Don't worry. I can fix you up in a minute. I'm just glad your brother had the sense to stock all our inventories with plenty of healing salve. It looks like we're going to need it."
"What the fuck are you talking about? My brother has plenty of sense!" I yelled, then stopped short. I couldn't believe I'd just said that. My brother wasn't infallible. I knew that. I'd known it ever since Death-T. But it was a hard habit to break.
After all he'd done for me, Yugi would have been perfectly right to yell at me for being so snotty to him, but he looked guilty.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I'm sure he does," Yugi agreed, as if he hadn't just seen the monsters from Death-T rolling around on the ground at our feet. "You two are an amazing team. He was worried about you the whole time I was with him. And he figured out how to find his way back to you."
I smiled at Yugi. I'd always assumed he let Yami duel for him because Yami was just better at it. Now it hit me that maybe Yugi did it because he knew how much Yami enjoyed dueling and he was too nice to keep Yami shut up in the Puzzle all day.
Yugi was right about the salve too. As soon as he put it on, my leg felt better.
"I didn't really know what happened to you that day. Was that what it was like, when Yami shut you in the capsule for real?" Yugi asked quietly.
"Yeah, pretty much. Except for the monsters. But I thought I was going to be stuck in there forever – or until I ran out of air."
"Yami did it all to protect me – and I never asked what he did or why."
I nodded, not sure what to say. I raced through all the possible answers in my head: "It wasn't so bad…" Nah, Yugi'd never buy that… "Hey no biggie, me and my brother built a theme park of death. Nobody's perfect…"
I gave up and settled for saying, "Well, I did taser you."
"And that makes us even?" Yugi asked.
"Well, yeah, I guess, kind of."
Yugi laughed, but he shook his head. "Thanks for the out, but I don't think it works like that. Those penalty games… Yami was just trying to help… but once we were together, he would have told me about them if I'd asked. And I didn't." Yugi pressed his lips together, squared his shoulders and faced me, like a duel was about to go down. Odd as it sounds he reminded me of my brother, or maybe everyone stands that straight when they're judging themselves.
"At first I was afraid to find out what had happened," Yugi admitted. "Then I kind of forgot… there was so much going on. But I shouldn't have let it go."
"Well, you're not doing that now," I pointed out.
"Yeah, in an odd way, as crazy as this place is, I'm glad I'm here. It's like getting a second chance."
Yugi finished with the salve. We watched as the blisters on my leg lost their angry red color, then disappeared.
"The one thing I don't get," Yugi said, "is that it felt like the same challenge as when I was with your brother. I was alone and helpless. But I faced that fear once already. I won. Why'd it come back?"
"Because stuff does," I said. "Sometimes it's just like a horror movie where the bad guy comes back to life after he's been killed."
"I guess this game really is a dress rehearsal" Yugi said.
"What?" I asked, trying to figure out why Yugi was talking about dresses.
"You know… a dress rehearsal. Like for a dance recital. I saw Anzu's once…" Yugi's face suddenly turned pink. Then again he was talking about dancing. "It's like I told your brother…" he added.
"You told my brother his virtual reality game was like a dress rehearsal for a dance? What did he say?" I asked, wishing I'd been a fly on the wall for that conversation.
"He didn't exactly say anything. He snorted."
I laughed. "Okay, I'll bite," I said. "I like riddles. Why is a virtual reality game like a dress rehearsal?"
I was joking, but Yugi surprised me by answering seriously. "I faced my demons in here and it was awesome to beat them, but just like with a dress rehearsal, it's what we do outside when it counts that matters."
Thanks to Bnomiko for betaing this chapter.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It feels a little odd to post a chapter without any Kaiba or Yami in it. But I felt like it was time to reconnect with their respective other halves, and it felt a bit unwieldy to try and cram everything in.
Yami doesn't remember his past, but ironically he's also the one responsible for the blank spots in Yugi's memory. In the early manga, Yugi has no memory of the penalty games, although he does have the uneasy feeling that there's something he should remember. It stuck me that that's an odd parallel between them. Once Yugi became aware of Yami, I can see him shying away from finding out the details of what happened during the times he didn't remember, and later I can honestly see recent events – like tournaments, kidnappings, and soul-stealings, crowding out older events.
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