Good Day Readers. Obviously I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh only Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also italics symbolise a mind conversation or a flashback, or something in another language.

I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy

Chapter 26: - Jounouchi VS. Trap Deck

As we rushed to Seto's room it was announced that a twenty minute break would be held before the next Duel started, Jounouchi was more sure than the rest of us about what could happen, although Kylie did seem to be in deep thought about something but she wasn't exactly forth coming about what had momentarily delayed her a short time ago; my thoughts were broken by the dinging of the elevator and I looked over to see Mokuba coming out and upon seeing us the boy asked what we were doing.

"Mokuba we need to talk to your brother urgently, where is his room?" I asked. Mokuba pointed it out to us but did question what we wanted with him, no one got the opportunity to answer that as Jounouchi immediately dashed over and started pounding on the door, demanding that the CEO come out; Mokuba was annoyed by this and started protesting the blonde's actions but then the door slid open to reveal an annoyed Seto and Jounouchi barely stopped his fist from smacking against the brunette's chest.

"Oh, It's the deadbeat. Even you should know how important the time before battle is for a duelist," Seto stated. Those words almost caused Jounouchi to nearly start a fight, fortunately his level headed counterpart known as Honda dashed between the two and reminded the blonde that this wasn't the time to be fighting; Yugi took the opportunity to walk up and address the CEO by asking for a favour, Seto's respect for the boy caused him to invite us into his room where he took a seat and we gathered in a semi-circle in front of him. "What is it Yugi?" Seto asked. The boy looked at me and nodded so I stepped forward drawing Seto's attention to me.

"It's Bakura. He need emergency medical attention due to the amount of blood he's lost, we need to get him to a hospital ASAP so can you please land the battle ship?" I requested. Yugi also tacked on that the white haired boy had yet to wake up since the end of their Duel with Jounouchi claiming that our friend had already been pushing himself too far by coming here to duel, Seto asked what he should do about that.

"Please land the blimp and take him to a hospital so he can be looked at," Shizuka requested. This caused the brunette to look at the sweet girl who had her hands clasped in front of her, the action resulted in a blush appearing on her cheeks and her hands were lowered yet still clasped; Honda and Otogi both supported the girl's statement, however Seto simply stated it was Bakura's own fault for dueling with his injuries in the first place but then Shizuka bowed to the CEO. "Please, I beg you. People's lives are more important than these duels," Shizuka requested. That girl was really something as most people would wither before Seto's stubbornness after being rejected the first time; the man had his attention back on the girl.

"Alright Seto quit the acting and call the doctors you're bound to have on this airship," Kylie spoke up. Everyone snapped their heads to my sister with surprised expressions on their faces except for Seto who raised an eyebrow at this. "You're too cautious to take the risk that one of your finalists could potentially have a chronic medical condition and not have someone around to treat them," Kylie stated. Seto let out a sigh as he pressed his hand to his head before standing up and sending the medical staff to Bakura's room.

With that settled we proceeded to leave Seto in peace although Honda and Otogi both started falling over Shizuka complimenting her for what she had said causing a sweat drop to appear on my head whilst Kylie heaved a sigh at their antics, soon Honda came over and stated he would look for the Millennium Ring but when Yugi offered to held, he refused it since we needed to focus on the upcoming duels and reassured us it was fine before dragging Otogi away from Shizuka who let out a sigh of relief; Otogi was forcibly taken to the elevator and the door closed on them, with Jounouchi commenting that they could be useful sometimes.

"Yeah, but don't you think Honda-kun was acting weird," Yugi commented. Kylie patted the boy's shoulder at this, there was nothing weird about how Honda was acting considering that he was probably angry at Otogi for flirting with the girl he liked in front of him; with Bakura's situation resolved, we proceeded to split up to focus on our strategies, I entered my room and immediately spread my deck out before picking up a series of combos and setting them aside, I then settled my hands on my three Primordial Gods feeling their strength flow to me and giving me comfort.

Suddenly a jolt of magic power shot through my senses which snapped me back to reality, so I quickly grabbed my deck and put it together before rushing out of my room, only to nearly collide with my sister; after steadying myself the two of us exchanged a look and nod then we took off coming to Yugi's door which Kylie swiftly opened with her magic only to find that inches from the doorway was an individual dressed in white with a turban secured around the head.

"I am a guardian of the Millennium Items. And currently, all eight items are gathered aboard this ship. Adding to that the God Cards are here as well. All the requirements needed to open the door to the Pharaohs memory on aboard this Battle Ship," The person in front spoke. It was a masculine voice and I knew of only one person who dressed like this and would know so much about the Millennium Items and God Cards, it was someone none of us had seen since Duelist Kingdom.

"Seriously Shadi?" Kylie asked. The man turned to look at us and inclined his head as a greeting so we stepped into the room and Kylie closed the door, Yugi smiled at us before we turned our attention to the mysterious man. "Quick question, you got any knowledge as to why so many people are referring to me as the Consort of the Pharaoh?" Kylie asked. Shadi nodded his head to show that he did understand why people were calling her such a thing I wasn't surprised by Kylie's question since I really wanted those answers too.

"An ancient tablet, similar to the one depicting an ancient battle between the Pharaoh and a priest along with the God Cards and Millennium Puzzle, shows a woman bearing your likeness and bracelet being named as such, the exact reasoning was worn away however," Shadi explained. At least it was something and Kylie proceeded to relax a little at those words although her eyes still gleamed with worry. "But listen carefully, all three of you. Both the Millennium Items and the God Cards may only be used by those chosen wield to them. If one who is not chosen tries to use them, they shall suffer the God's wrath," Shadi warned.

We were confused by this and so Shadi told us a tale; some time after gaining his Millennium Eye and learning of Duel Monsters from palettes depicting the monsters, Uncle Pegasus returned to Egypt several times to discover more palettes about the Pharaoh and his priests, these actions were what would lead to the revival of Duel Monsters in our current age; Uncle Pegasus' studies eventually led to his discovery of the God Cards and he immediately set out to find them but it was a struggle to do so.

At least until Shadi showed up one day and explained that the Tomb Keepers had sealed the God Cards away with their Power of Darkness and Uncle Pegasus would never find them as a result, but Shadi offered to guide him and guide him Shadi did using his Millennium Key to protect them from detection by the guards in an underground town; the palette was found and all the information on the God Cards was recorded allowing Uncle Pegasus to return to America.

However as Shadi admitted, even he did not know the terror which was about to be unleashed, Shadi had wanted to know if those chosen by the Millennium Items could wield the God Cards as well; apparently all those involved in the God Cards' expedition died except for Pegasus, I remembered those days clearly as he'd been bordering on furious even refusing to come to our birthdays due to his obsession in completing Duel Monsters.

Others became delusional and developed panic attacks, this started a series of arguments between father and his half-brother as father wanted Uncle Pegasus to stop before the man ended up dying himself but Pegasus refused to listen to him and decided to take the brunt of that wrath, Uncle Pegasus personally designed the cards but it was then that Shadi delivered a warning to Pegasus revealing that by reviving the Gods he had brought a terrible fate upon the world as even he could not control the three Gods at once unless they were sealed away once more in Egypt.

Taking Shadi's warning seriously, Pegasus rendered the three Gods into cards and returned with them to Egypt where he encountered a specific woman who Kylie identified as being called Ishizu – I wondered if it was the same woman who'd with appeared after our Tag Duel with Azurite and Rhodonite – Shadi nodded his head at this then asked for Yugi to pass these words to the Pharaoh, but at that moment the Puzzle glowed and Yami took Yugi's place and requested he be told directly, Yami's appearance caused Shadi to kneel.

"I am most sorry. All eight items are aboard this ship. All you need to do is win the duels and open the gate with your own power," Shadi explained. That was something that would be difficult to do as it would mean defeating the other two God Cards but at least Yami had one of his own, however then I noticed Shadi looking at me and Kylie. "There is a final part to my tale. Although the cards were sealed Pegasus was terrified that someone evil would discover and control the Gods, to calm him, Ishizu sent him to ruins in Greece and China were Pegasus discovered a palette depicting four and five cards respectively that could defeat the Gods and he created them," Shadi explained.

On instinct my hand dropped to my deck as did Kylie's, Greek Mythology was the origin of my entire deck were as Kylie's Guardians were from Chinese Mythology and that meant that our most powerful cards had to be the ones that Shadi was speaking about, however I was concerned about this fourth card Shadi mentioned as I only had three; at that moment an announcement was made which revealed our twenty minute break was over and we were to report to the main lobby, our attention had been dragged upwards as a result so when our eyes came back down we found that Shadi was gone.

"Guess it's time to go. Marik and Seto need their butts kicking but if I do get either card don't expect me to hand it to you so easily Yami," Kylie warned. In response Yami smirked clearly indicating that he would expect nothing less from her, we then left the room only to find Honda and Otogi talking to Jounouchi and Shizuka about being saved and something that involved a ghost, Yami ended up scaring Jounouchi when he settled a hand on the blonde's shoulder; Honda explained what happened to them which essentially boiled down to, they nearly died until Shadi appeared and saved them, I'll have to thank him next time we meet.

We arrived in the lobby and the Bingo machine was started with the Numbers two and seven being spat out and these number correlated to Jounouchi and Marik respectively – it also let us learn that Marik's surname was Ishtar – worry burst to life inside of me since Marik possessed the third God card and Jounouchi didn't have a way to counter its' power and he could end up being seriously hurt as a result of clashing against it.

Unfortunately we couldn't stop the Duel so we went to the aerial dueling platform, Marik's hood was blown down revealing that he was mostly bald except for the small ponytail of black hair at the back of his head and his carving/tattoo extended over his ear; the two of them shuffled the others decks with Jounouchi heatedly glaring at the psychopath who remained completely expressionless in the face of the blonde's anger which was kind of interesting when taking into account all the possessed conversations we'd had with the man.

The others talked about what Jounouchi's look meant for his opponent – although Honda stated it only applied to fistfights – with Shizuka being nervous since it was her first time seeing her brother Duel so Anzu reassured her to just cheer him on as best as she cold; eventually Isono had to step in and get Jounouchi focused on the duel, the two swapped their decks back and took up their positions although Jounouchi was stupid enough to declare that Marik would lose to him by Marik's eleventh turn which caused Kylie to slap her forehead.

"Idiot," Kylie hissed. All of us except for Shizuka agreed with her, Shizuka however blindly believed in her brother's words and none of us had the heart to correct her although Mai outright called the blonde's words nonsense; however Marik then proceeded to pull out his Millennium Rod causing me to push my cardigan sleeve up and allow a glow to be emitted from my Gauntlet whilst Jounouchi flinched backwards, however the psychopath then tucked the Rod away underneath his cloak causing my magic to fade away but I kept my sleeve up.

"That was frightening," I commented. For now it appeared that Marik was going to Duel fair and square which was something of a novelty given previous interactions, however I noticed Marik's eyes dart down to our location briefly before turning back to his opponent but since it was so quick I couldn't quite tell who he had been looking at... although I don't think it was Yugi from the general direction his eyes had been cast, it seemed more likely to be around Anzu's area than anywhere else; with that the Duel began.

Jounouchi – LP: 4000

Marik – LP: 4000

"I get to go first! Draw card!" Jounouchi declared. He drew a card as Honda and Mai cheered him on although Yugi did reveal that Jounouchi didn't have Red-Eyes when Otogi asked about it which caused the ravenette and Honda to vocalise their disagreement with such an act despite Jounouchi's promise regarding that card; although I did have to disagree with Otogi's comment that Jounouchi's deck hadn't powered up as he'd would have won some rare cards from his duels so those should help him in the finals.

However, mere second after that thought occurred, a strong gust of wind blew over us and Jounouchi's cards were ripped from his grasp causing the boy to make a mad grab for them, this event probably caused all our hearts to freeze until the blonde caught the cards which is when I heaved a sigh of relief whilst Kylie muttered something under her breath that I'm sure was a stream of insults; Shizuka also seemed annoyed by this, up until she complimented him which caused all of us to fall down in shock.

"Concentrate... concentrate," Jounouchi spoke. He had his eyes closed and appeared to be calming himself which was no doubt necessary after the fright he'd just had, the blonde then opened his eyes and gripped a card he held. "Alright, my turn! I play this! Gearfried the Iron Knight in attack mode!" Jounouchi announced. The monster was projected onto the field and Honda complimented it but then Jounouchi was foolish enough to not set any face downs to protect his monster.

Gearfried the Iron Knight – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1800, DEF/1600

"My turn, Field Magic activate. Temple of the Royal Family!" Marik calmly stated. He slid the card into the retractable slot and the ground began to shake as a temple rose up behind Marik with Egyptian markings across its' surface. "This has now become a sanctuary for the Pharaohs' treasures! All beings other than the Tomb Keepers must humble themselves before this sacred ground!" Marik declared. Those words caused my eyebrows to furrow as it seemed such a strange thing for him to say after his previous display of hatred towards Yami.

Jounouchi was confused by this words until Marik explained that thanks to this card effect Jounouchi could only set one card face down per turn, Marik then set two cards face down and all but stated that these face downs were Traps due to the words that he used and ended his turn before daring Jounouchi to 'set foot on the sacred ground' which I'm assuming meant he was daring the blonde to attack him, however his actions caused me to scratch my head in confusion; on the other hand Anzu and Honda cheered Jounouchi on with their lack of knowledge showing.

"You idiots! The face downs are clearly Traps and who knows what could happen, deck destruction, loss of Life Points, destruction of monsters, stealing of monsters, negation of card effects... who knows what those cards could do. Jounouchi has to be careful," Kylie stated. Otogi agreed with my sister's words as carelessly throwing oneself into a trap ridden field was utter suicide; there was also the sarcophagus at the top of the Temple that caused some concern to grow as to what its' purpose could be.

Jounouchi didn't make his move quickly, implying that he was thinking over his strategy but then that knucklehead's lack of a poker face came to the forefront when his expression became one of giddiness and I groaned at this fact; the blonde proceeded to make his move by summoning out Little Winguard in attack mode but he didn't bother to set any face downs to try and deal with the traps.

Little Winguard – Attribute: Wind, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1400, DEF/1800

Honda claimed that he appeared to have this under control whilst Shizuka admitted that she was getting nervous, on the other hand Marik was completely calm as he set another two cards face down and he ended his turn; my lips turned into a frown at this unusual strategy since I'd never heard of this kind of strategy before, I glanced at Kylie who had a confused look on her face as she watched the Duel with her right hand clasping the back of her head.

"What the hell? I've never seen someone duel like this before," Kylie stated. Given both of our lengthy experience in regards to dueling that was saying something and I was worried about how this would turn out; Jounouchi swiftly made his move by summoning out Falcon Knight meaning that he now had monsters, whose attack points totalled over four thousand meaning that if these attacks got through then Jounouchi won... my instincts told me that that wouldn't be the case.

Falcon Knight – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 3, ATK/1000, DEF/700

"Marik, you fell into my trap! Magic Card activate, Hurricane!" Jounouchi announced. He slid the card into his Duel Disk causing a roaring squall of wind to be whipped up, Mai complimented the move as now all Magic and Trap cards would be removed with Yugi stating that his friend had won, however if this was the extent of Jounouchi's plan then a single probability left it with a massive and gaping hole in the successfulness in that plan.

As the swirling winds reached Marik's side of the field it suddenly started shaking before eventually dissipating all together without removing any of Marik's face downs and the man himself declared that Jounouchi had walked into his trap with him revealing that he had been waiting for the blonde to activate a Magic card instead of a Monster card like the knucklehead had been thinking, Marik revealed that he knew Jounouchi had Hurricane and his lack of face downs cemented his intention to use it due to the effect hitting both fields and he even went as far as to call humans foolish as they did nothing that they deemed worthless.

"Jounouchi, such tactics are child's play to me, the great Marik! This is the Trap card you deserve, Judgment of Anubis! This card activates when the opponent uses a Magic card, the effect is negated and every monster on their field is destroyed and your opponent receives half their attack points as damage to their Life Points," Marik stated. As Marik spoke above the field a purple miasma formed the shape of a dog's head with red eyes glaring down at Jounouchi and by the time the psycho finished speaking the miasma began to swirl out before piercing each of Jounouchi's monsters and flowing to the blonde who flinched back slightly.

Jounouchi – LP: 4000 – LP: 1900

"Jounouchi, this is only the beginning of the true Trap Hell you will fall into," Marik warned. Yugi stated that Trap cards could turn the tide of a Duel in a single instant but the worst damage they did was the mental attacks on a duelist with Mai commenting that they'd caused a lot of stress which was true, after all Defend Slime had caused Yami hell in his Duel against the Doll since it had prevented Osiris' destruction on the turn it was summoned.

"If Marik's got a deck loaded with Traps then Jounouchi is out of his depths, facing down Traps requires a level head, that isn't exactly the knucklehead's speciality," Kylie stated. Shizuka asked if her brother was going to be alright with several of those around us reassuring the kind girl that he would be fine, I decided not to bring up the fact that Marik could turn this into a Shadow Game at the drop of a hat if he so felt like it and it appeared Kylie decided the same since she said nothing as well.

Turning our attention back to the Duel, Marik insisted that Jounouchi complete his turn but the blonde claimed he'd used the turn to test the psycho's abilities and admitted he underestimated Marik, he also spouted some nonsense that made me want to smack the idiot upside the head and Kylie had planted her head into her hands as if to hide from the embarrassing connection; poor sweet Shizuka was delusional enough to believe every word he said, thank the Gods I wasn't like that with my sister since I at least knew when she was in over her head.

Jounouchi declared it was Marik's turn so the man simply set two more cards face down, this got Jounouchi mad at him for only setting Traps and demanded that he fight fair and square but Marik's response to that accusation was that Jounouchi shouldn't call him a coward simply because the blonde couldn't understand a Trap deck, even stating that it was a brilliant strategy yet his voice had remained even and calm as he responded to Jounouchi's anger which caused me to tilt my head to the side in confusion.

"I was expecting Marik to be more...," I spoke up. However I trailed off as I tried to think about how to word my opinion of the psycho from our limited interactions, in response to this Otogi suggested aggressive whilst Mai offered up loud and Kylie gave anger. "Yes, to all of the above. Not calm and composed, almost serene really. It just seems so... odd for him to be behaving differently to how he did through his puppets," I finished. Suddenly heated eyes drilled into me from behind so I glanced back in time to see Namu looking at the Duel but a dark gaze was still present in his eyes.

"Then allow me to show you the true way to play Duel Monsters!" Jounouchi snapped. This wasn't good as the blonde was letting his anger get the best of him which would cloud his mind and impede his ability to Duel properly, letting one's emotions enter a Duel isn't necessarily bad so long as the emotions are tempered and controlled by logic; to Duel solely on emotion means one can only ever react and never act. "My turn, draw! I Summon Wyvern Warrior in attack mode!" Jounouchi stated. Fortunately Jounouchi wasn't completely controlled by anger as he ended his turn with a face down.

Wyvern Warrior – Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1500, DEF/1200

I think all of us were relieved by that move since it was the safest one to make until he found a way passed those Traps, Marik simply ended his turn without doing anything beyond his draw phase, this caused Jounouchi's eye to twitch and so he copied his opponent's previous move but then Marik did the same thing; I wasn't sure why the seemingly odd man wasn't summoning out any monsters... unless he didn't have any monster cards.

Jounouchi's short fuse had finally burnt itself out with that action and he completely ignored all of us when we tried to get him to calm down since his cool had finally lost, as such Jounouchi summoned out Rocket Warrior in attack mode and he immediately proceeded to attack his opponent with the Monster, there were several ways this could play out and it wasn't going to be good for Jounouchi at all.

Rocket Warrior – Attribute: Light, Type: Warrior, Level: 4, ATK/1500, DEF/1300

"Trap card activate! Willpower of the Wadjet Eye!" Marik declared. The card lifted up to reveal an eye shaped hieroglyph which was projected out onto Rocket Warrior. "Due to the effect of this Trap, the Monster who sees the Wadjet Eye shall be under the control of the player for one full turn. Rocket Warrior attack Wyvern Warrior!" Marik explained. The attack was diverted to Jounouchi's other monster and if it hit then Jounouchi would lose one of his monsters and who knows what other Traps Marik had just waiting to be activated.

"I had a feeling you'd do that! Magic card activate, Monster Box!" Jounouchi retaliated. The face down card opened and Wyvern Warrior was sucked into the box that was projected onto the field, as a result Rocket Warrior lost its' target and was left flying around in a circle; Wyvern Warrior poked the top of its' head out of one of the holes so Marik had it attack that one causing dust to fly up, when it cleared both monsters popped their heads out from the box indicating that Marik had missed. "Too bad! My monster's unscratched! Plus I found the weak point of your Trap Tactic!" Jounouchi taunted.

My eyes alongside Marik's own and everyone else's eyes – including Seto – widened in surprise at those words, Jounouchi went on to explain that Marik didn't have a single Monster in his entire deck and all he had to do was bypass the Traps that were set for him and he would be able to deal damage to Marik's Life Points, that was a very risky strategy to attempt due to how varied Trap effects were but it was definitely a plausible one.

"Jounouchi, are you sure about that? You have already fallen deep into my Trap Hell," Marik responded. Jounouchi was surprised at this reaction but there was clearly something that Marik had a trick hidden up his sleeve in regards to his deck. "Just like you said, my deck is made up mostly of Magic and Trap cards. But what if there exists a Trap card that could take the place of a Monster card, if that were true then my deck would truly be unbeatable, with none of the weaknesses you speak of," Marik revealed. All of us were surprised by this, the others since they never heard of such a card whereas me and Kylie knew that Trap Monsters were incredibly rare; Marik revealed that Jounouchi had activated the Trap card causing three Trap Monsters to be summoned and all were Embodiment of Apophis.

Embodiment of Apophis – Attribute: Earth, Type: Reptile, Level: 4, ATK/1600, DEF/1800 (X3)

"He summoned three monsters at once?" Jounouchi questioned. Things had gone from bad to worse and Marik's God card wasn't even on the field.