Yugi pulled the length of his hood further down his face as a small crowd of people passed him by. All these years and flying was still a nightmare. He couldn't get anywhere without being recognized, especially not whilst he was waiting for his flights to start boarding. It was just a matter of time before he was caught.
Trying to get his mind off it, Yugi snuck a look down to his phone. There weren't any new messages, just a dozen old ones he looked over again. Wishes of luck and safe travels from Téa, a cordial invite from Kaiba to that tournament he announced a few days ago, and the most pressing of them all: The messages from Joey.
A God Card.
That's what Joey called it over and over again, in his texts, in his calls. That when Joey was facing some kid in a title match, his opponent summoned a monster that was nothing less than a God.
Yugi slipped his hand into his overnight bag and pulled out the Millennium Puzzle box. With a quick movement, he peeked inside and confirmed to himself yet again— yes, he still had the God Cards. They hadn't been stolen again. They were safe. He was safe. The world was safe.
So why didn't it feel that way?
A cold feeling was swimming in Yugi's blood, one he couldn't shake off. It was foreign and yet familiar, like running into an old school bully years later. Underneath it all, deep in Yugi's heart, was the worry that ancient evil would rear its head soon again.
Man, what Yugi would give for some help right now.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, Yugi felt his hood being pulled away from him, causing him to jump and yelp in surprise.
"See, I told you guys it was Yugi!" A voice said then, as Yugi leapt back and collected himself.
"I don't do autographs," he squeaked out, pulling his hood up and glancing around to see if anyone else had caught him exposed. The laughter that came from the voice, however, made him pause.
"Hah, autographs?" they said, with an incredulous sneer. "Don't tell me you've bought into your own hype that hard, Yugi."
"Marik?" Yugi turned, his hood falling off as he recognized the voice in question. The two faces accompanying the voice were similarly a sight to see. "Ishizu! Odion!"
Right before his very eyes were the Ishtar siblings, carrying between them a handful of bags and luggage. That didn't stop them, however, when Yugi rushed forward to give them a handshake along with his greetings.
"It's so amazing to see you all!" he said, looking over his old friends. Marik and Ishizu hadn't changed at all it seemed, the former only seeming to have added a leather vest to his wardrobe since they'd last seen each other.
Odion, however, far and away had changed the most. His old dark cloak had been replaced with a brand new one with a deep purple hue, bearing lines of stitching all across it that reflected a rainbow of colours in the light. And atop it all was a new piece of headwear Odion carried: a headdress of red and white cloth.
"It's good to see you too, Yugi. The years have treated you well," Ishizu spoke up with a soft and yet firm smile as he shook her hand.
"Heh, you guys look great too!" Yugi took a step back, giving the three some breathing room as he continued. "But, oh, hey, what're you guys doing back in Domino? Not that it isn't nice to see you, of course."
"We were invited," Odion said, speaking up for the first time. From his cloak, he pulled out a large envelope, light blue with the Kaiba Corp logo embossed on it. All at once, Yugi realized what he meant.
"Oh, the tournament! Yeah, you guys were finalists in Battle City, so you would be invited." As Yugi recollected himself, he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Heh, well let's hope things end a bit more amicably than last time."
"I wouldn't bet on that." Marik took a proud step forward as he said that, making Yugi pause and the other two Ishtars roll their eyes. A cocky grin crossed Marik's face. "I've been honing my skills since last we met, Yugi. I'll be gunning for you and that title!"
A moment of tense quiet took the two, as Yugi was unsure of how to react. When Marik broke out into laughter and moved to put his arm around Yugi's shoulder, however, the scene unwound itself.
"Oh, relax, Yugi." With a hearty chuckle, Marik patted his old rival's back and separated. "We're just looking for some good duels and to reconnect with old friends. And we're making a great pace, it seems!"
"Glad to hear it. Guess I'll be seeing you all around soon enough?" Yugi asked, looking between the three.
A round of nods was given.
"What of you, Yugi? It seems like you're leaving Domino— Will you not be participating?" Ishizu asked then, reminding Yugi all of a sudden he had a flight that would be arriving soon.
"I'll be there!" he quickly confirmed, grabbing his luggage from his seat. "I'm just meeting up with someone beforehand. They're going to help me get ready for the tournament."
"Rusty, huh?" Marik asked, cocking a brow.
"Mhm." Yugi glanced over the Ishtars, watching as the terminal he was waiting on ticked over from Arriving Soon to Boarding. "I haven't had a good duel in, gosh, five years?"
"Uh-huh." A look crossed Marik's face as he heard that, a thought working its magic in his brain. "Well, we won't hold you up any longer. Hope your flight isn't too boring!"
"Thanks!" Yugi nodded to the three and gave his goodbyes before stepping away to meet his flight. Along the way, he began to think.
Well, that was a nice distraction. Perhaps this whole tournament thing would be more enjoyable than Yugi thought! He'd be able to hang out with his old friends again, Joey and the Ishtar siblings. And maybe he wouldn't even have to stay and duel too long. He could graciously lose early on and spend the rest of the time promoting his game whilst the tournament was progressing! That was an idea.
Thoughts for later though.
For now, Yugi had a twelve-hour flight to contend with and all the worries Joey had saddled him with harassing him the whole time. This 'fourth God Card' debacle was sure to give him a headache. What he would do for that expert right now.
Expert.
Yugi froze, right at the gate leading to his flight, and turned. And before the flight attendant could ask him if anything was wrong, he began sprinting in the other direction.
"Ishizu!"
46 unanswered calls.
While Alexis tried her honest best to focus on her deck building and her strategy, all she could think about was that. 46 unanswered calls. More calls in a week than she honestly made in a year before then.
Sighing, Alexis stood up from her desk, leaving her strewn-out collection of cards behind and walking further into her hotel room. If she listened closely enough, she could hear her brother in the adjacent room cancelling her upcoming matches and events. Bless him. As hard as Atticus partied, he always got the job done first.
Alexis took a seat on her bed, leaning forward and sliding an envelope off the nightstand in one motion. The embossed Kaiba Corp logo greeted her with a glint of silver as she turned it over, almost taunting her as she gave it a long look. Taking a deep breath, Alexis reached inside and pulled out her Egyptian God Locator Card.
A shiny cobalt blue, the highest possible rank.
She was surprised when she had received it, especially after hearing none of the others in the Duel Academy gang had. Alexis certainly didn't think of herself as a bad duelist, of course. It was just that she was unsure if the breadth and width of her career up to that point really put her at the level of duelists like Yugi Moto or Seto Kaiba.
At that thought, Alexis paused.
"What the heck am I talking about," she said, standing straight and shaking her head. "I was at the top of my class at Duel Academy. I was an Obelisk Blue from my very first year. I was the Queen of Obelisk Blue!"
Raising the metallic blue card she'd been given, the blue card she had earned, Alexis took a deep breath. She had big shoes to fill, a legacy to uphold and make her own, and something new to earn.
"And I'll be the queen of this Obelisk Blue too," she declared. Tossing the card onto the bed, Alexis returned to her desk. There was work to be done and a tournament to win.
Yet, as Alexis took her seat and picked up her cards, a nagging thought returned, demanding her attention. Try as she might, Alexis couldn't shake it. And honestly, she shouldn't want to. It was worrying, honestly worrying. With nothing else, Alexis decided to indulge her worries, for just a moment, before she got back to work.
46 unanswered calls.
All of them were for Chazz.
Where was he?
"And then I'll hit 'em with a wapow! Wit a wham and a boom! Before they know what's good, I'll drop Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon on their butt and win the whole thing!" Joey fell back onto his couch with a huff, reaching for his drink and downing it in one gulp. "And dat's how I'ma smash rich boy's tournament! Ya hear? Your man, the King of Games!"
Mai rolled her eyes as she listened to Joey talk, going on and on about how well he was gonna do. She didn't dare say a word to the contrary. Not because Joey didn't like critique, of course, she delivered that to him nightly, no holds barred. No, she kept quiet because this was one of Joey's off days. He needed to unwind.
The two were seated at their apartment in Domino City, their refuge together after long exciting days apart. There was a lot to do after all, when you're the number one active duelist in the world and number one dueling coach. Today, however, their usually quite clean abode was a bit of a mess, with piles of cards scattered everywhere. That's how Joey liked to build his decks, stumbling upon answers and strategies, quite literally.
"Ain't no one gonna get one over on Joey Rockin' Wheeler, ya hear?!" he cried to the sky, as Mai nodded and hummed approvingly. Through gritted teeth, he continued. "Least of all dat punk kid, the Slifa Slacka!"
So Mai listened on, patting Joey's back and occasionally sipping her drink. Nothing alcoholic, of course, for Joey's sake, just grape juice. His mug, meanwhile, was some unholy concoction he'd mixed together from three different brands of soda.
"Ah tell you what Mai, I'm done dwellin' on dat kid, and his stupid God Card," Joey said, his adrenaline slowing down as he walked off to refill his cup, taking extra precaution not to step on any cards on the floor. As he pulled the jugs of soda from the fridge in their kitchen and began to mix himself another mug-full, he continued. "I been thinkin' bout it, and what do I gotta worry about? The kid couldn't even summon it without me helping him!"
"Unless he has another two," Mai said then, finally speaking up. That made Joey pause, his drink overflowing as he stared back at Mai. "Oh, don't give me that dumb face. If that kid really did have a God Card, then he probably has two more. The original set had three, so why not now?"
A moment of silence took the whole apartment, as Joey processed the thought. Then, all at once, he dropped the jug of soda he was carrying and rushed out of the kitchen.
"Youz right! I can't relax for even a minute! If I wanna winz this, I gotta figure out how to beat dat kid's Ravioli!" Joey shouted out, dropping to the floor and looking over his cards all in one motion.
"Raviel, sweetie," Mai corrected, snorting and rolling her eyes. How did she remember the thing's name and he didn't? "And hey, you said this was your day off?"
"Ah, days off are for losers. Joey Rockin' Wheeler don't need no crummy day off! Joey Wheeler's a machine!" Joey called out, just so the neighbours would know.
That made Mai chuckle before she took another sip of her drink, watching Joey fall into his process. This was the third day in a row he tried to have some time off. Seemed he was just too darn excited to keep it down.
Looking up from his cards, Joey gave Mai a look that made her pause. It wasn't every day his cocksure attitude and boyish attempts at humour gave away to a look like that, unambiguous affection.
"Hey Mai?" he began, planting a hand onto the carpet and leaning on that arm. "Thanks for all this. I can't imagine handlin' me is the easiest job in the world, and I'm glad that if you had to choose one bozo to do it for, you picked me."
"Joey, that was the closest thing to a romantic gesture I've ever heard out of you." Mai put her drink aside, leaning forward in her seat in one motion. "Get over here you big lug."
Coming together, the two shared a quick peck before separating, happy and content. All the shenanigans and over-the-top yelling were worth it for moments like that, as the two settled into their routines, together.
The calm quiet lasted only a few minutes before Joey's phone went off. He was getting a call.
From Yugi.
Jaden stared up at the ceiling from his hotel room bed, tossing a piece of paper into the air and catching it again. A hundred thoughts were going through his head, thoughts of worry and planning and excitement. At the forefront of his mind, though, was a very specific thought.
This wasn't Jaden's hotel room.
Jaden could barely afford a corn dog, let alone a room for the amount of time he'd been in that one. No, this wasn't Jaden's hotel room.
It was Chazz's.
It had been a week since the announcement of Duelist Ultimatum, and the gang still hadn't heard back from Chazz. No calls, no emails, no texts, not a word. All they knew was that he was last seen boarding a train for Domino and then dropped off the face of the Earth.
So here Jaden was, lying in his friend's room, spending his friend's money, all while his friend was missing.
"Kuri?" A familiar voice chimed, drawing Jaden's attention as he sat up. A small smile crossed his face then, as an old friend came into view.
"Hey buddy," he said, reaching forward and petting the ethereal form of Winged Kuriboh. "You've been pretty quiet, something up?"
"Kuri!" Winged Kuriboh nodded, flying in a loop around Jaden's head and nudging him off the bed.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's gotten into you?" Jaden said with a laugh, moving over and getting up. Floating back into view, Winged Kuriboh butted their head into Jaden's chest. "Hm, guess we'll go figure that out, huh?"
Saying that, however, led Jaden's eyes to the door of his room, where he sighed.
"Or at least, we would, if we could get out of this dumb hotel," Jaden grumbled to himself as he approached the door, pressing the top of his head against it in annoyance. "Dumb warrant."
"Kuri?" Nudging Jaden's back, Winged Kuriboh gave him an inquisitive look as he turned and lied against the door.
"Sorry bud, but we're still on the run for taking down that building," he explained, earning an annoyed chirp from Winged Kuriboh. "Fine, I'm on the run. Either way, we're not leaving the hotel anytime soon."
Jaden stepped away from the door, walking back to his bed.
"Hopefully, when the tournament starts up, the city will be busy enough that I can get by without getting caught," he explained, looking over his shoulder to Winged Kuriboh. As he turned back, however, something caught his attention: His cards.
On the desk sitting in the corner, Jaden's deck was strewn about. Heroes and Neo-Spacians and Winged Kuribohs all the like were scattered in uneven piles and lines, a remnant of his earlier attempts at deck building.
At the center of it all, though, were three cards, evenly spaced and perfectly aligned. In all the work he'd been doing preparing for the tournament, they dominated his decisions and workings.
"Crummy Sacred Beasts," Jaden grumbled aloud, approaching the desk and taking a seat. He stared at the cards and the card stared back, silent and yet saying so much. Like a painting by a pretentious painter.
Scooping the three cards up, Jaden shuffled them away, snorting air through his nose as he organized his deck. Despite his apprehension, Jaden wasn't sweating the Sacred Beasts anymore. Alexis accepted it, the rest of his friends would too. Everything was okay with Jaden having those cards, so all that was left was fitting them into his deck.
Everything was okay.
A knock on the door took Jaden's attention then, surprising him as he hadn't expected visitors.
"Coming!" he shouted, sliding his deck into its slot on his belt. With a hop and a skip, Jaden opened the door, greeted by an odd sight: A massive pile of trading card packs. He stared in confusion for a solid moment, looking around before the pile began to shake. And before he could say another word, the heads of Hassleberry and Syrus popped out of the pile.
"Huh!?"
"Ain't no more time for slacking off, sarge! There are preparations to be done!" Hassleberry said immediately, pulling away and revealing he was standing behind the pile.
"Yeah, Jay, come on!" Syrus added, disappearing and reappearing at the pile's side.
"What're you guys talking about?" Jaden asked, shaking his head after his moment of shock and confusion. Reaching forward, he pulled out one of the packs and checked out the cover. Duelist Tune-Up it read.
"They released Tuner monsters today! Like they said they would!" Syrus exclaimed, grabbing a handful of packs and showing them off to Jaden as evidence. Each one had a different monster displayed proudly on it.
"And I got us Domino's entire first shipment!" Hassleberry snickered loudly to himself as he said that, patting the stack of packs and threatening to knock down the whole thing. "Called in a favour with a vendor buddy of mine, and wapow! Intercepted the supplies before they could make it to the battlefield."
"Come on, the gang's gonna crack these open in me and Zane's room!" Syrus exclaimed as Hassleberry crouched down and picked up the entire pile in one move.
A smile crossed Jaden's face, as his earlier worries slipped away.
"Aww heck yeah, new cards!" Jaden hopped into the hallway, throwing his arms around the two and harassing them to move down the hall in time with him. "Let's go! We got packs to open!"
And with that, the three were off on their way.
"Check it, I got me a Dino Tuner!" Hassleberry stood up and excitedly marched around the room, showing off the card in question to the rest of the group.
The gang was sat around a table in the Truesdales' room, a huge pile of opened and unopened packs strewn around them in a complete mess. A mess that Hassleberry didn't pay any mind to as he barreled straight through it to show off his shiny new card to Jaden.
"Jurrac Aeolo! This guy's great cause I can summon him off my Misc—"
"Glad to hear you got a good card, man, but I'm trying to concentrate here," Jaden said, letting out an awkward laugh as Hassleberry pulled away. In front of Jaden's spot in the corner was a respectable stack of packs, notably unopened.
"Whatcha doing, sarge? Dig in!" Hassleberry asked, as Jaden returned to studying his stack intensely.
"Nah, check it, this is my method," Jaden explained, attracting the attention of the others as he spoke. "Pulling a rare card from a pack, it's like pulling the golden eggwich from the sandwich cart!"
"Oh god, not this story again," Syrus groaned, as Jaden spoke.
"Hm? Eggwich? What's that?" Blair asked, popping open a few packs of her own. She wasn't actually invited to Duelist Ultimatum, but she wouldn't pass up the opportunity for rare cards.
"Couldn't tell you for the life of me," Zane said, not even looking up as Jaden continued his story.
"Okay, it's a lot like drawing cards from your deck, if you wanna get the one you want, you gotta believe in the heart of the cards, or whatever," Jaden explained, looking over his pile of packs and concentrating.
"Except you don't just get one pack, Jaden, you can take from almost all of them," Alexis said, standing up from her seat at the table, and approaching Jaden's spot. "Do you honestly think any of us would hold onto a card we couldn't use and you could?"
"True!" And like that, Jaden was let loose, tearing through the packs lightning-fast and scoring through the cards for good finds. Quickly, however, he realized something. Something terrible, absolutely horribly tragic. And that realization was— "I didn't pull a single good card!"
Comically falling forward, Jaden let out a groan ripe with annoyance, one that left the rest of the room with no reaction beyond exasperated sighs. Alexis, especially, didn't find Jaden's antics very charming.
"I told you it was like the Golden Eggwichs!" he whined.
"Here, this might do something for you." Reaching over to where she kept her pulls, Alexis pulled out a single Tuner monster before handing it to Jaden. He blinked.
"Huh, you're really giving this to me?" Jaden asked, looking over the card in question. Just as he saw what it was, Winged Kuriboh appeared at his side and chirped happily, earning a smile from him.
"Course I am, Jay. What did I just say," Alexis answered with a laugh, returning to her spot and leaning back. "You better have something for me though."
Alexis was mostly joking when she was saying that, but Jaden seemed to take it quite seriously, as he immediately got to work, searching through the cards he'd gotten and looking them over again. After a moment, he hopped to his feet with a card in hand and handed it forward with a smile.
"Try this one on for size!" he said, leaving her blinking in surprise with the new card. Whilst she looked it over, Syrus spoke up.
"Oh hey, Jay, I forgot to say. This arrived for you earlier," Syrus said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out an envelope. When Jaden spotted it, a glint formed in his eyes.
"It's here!" he shouted out in a fit of glee, hopping over to Syrus's side and swiping the envelope from his hands. "I told you guys it'd arrive, can't have a tournament without Jaden Yuki!"
Jaden giggled maniacally to himself as he eyed the embossed Kaiba Corp logo, tearing into the envelope a moment later to retrieve his Egyptian God Locator Card. The last week had left Jaden a nervous wreck, as his friends had easily retrieved their locator cards a few days after Kaiba's announcement. When Jaden tried, however, they said they had nothing for him.
Because of course, Jaden didn't have a professional record that would qualify him.
"Here it is! My ticket to—!" Jaden paused, as he raised the card into the air for the whole room to see. A moment of silence took the group, before he swore under his breath and groaned. "Oh, come on."
"Looks like you're still stuck in Slifer to the very end." Zane's voice cracked the silence of the room, as his snide remark attracted the giggles of the others.
It was true. While the rest of the Duel Academy gang had gotten a Ra Gold Locator Card at a minimum, Jaden had been assigned, almost appropriately in a way, with a Slifer Red.
"Hey, nothing to be ashamed of, Jay!" Blair called out. "Slifer pride, right?"
Straightening up from his defeated slouch, Jaden threw his head back and scratched his cheek in thought.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," he said, taking one last look at the card and pocketing it. "Guess I shouldn't complain so much, just means I'll get to face some stronger duelists."
"That's the spirit!" Hassleberry said, standing up and delivering a painful pat to Jaden's back. "Ain't no shame in being a Slifer, someone's gotta lose to me on day one."
"Don't push your luck," Jaden replied, half-jokingly as he shoved Hassleberry off, before wandering over to a spot by the wall. It was then, as the room settled back to looking over their cards, that Jaden looked down at the envelope in his hand. Pressing his back against the wall and sliding down, Jaden reached inside and pulled out a piece of notepaper. That was odd, none of the others got notes. "They know I got a number, right?"
Pausing, Jaden pursed his lips.
"Okay, technically I don't."
Not waiting another moment, he unfolded the note. And what he found inside?
It left Jaden pale as a ghost.
"Aw, come on man…"
"You sure about this, bro?" Mokuba's voice crackled in from the intercom, making Seto pause. With a flick of his chin, he turned with his seat, facing the opposite wall where the static-filled image of his brother awaited. Behind it stood stark the inky blackness of space, and the horizon of the Earth underneath. "You haven't used this place in years, ever since…"
Memories of the incident with Diva replayed in their minds, memories they weren't in the mood to voice.
"It's the most powerful dueling AI in the world," Seto simply said, turning back again to his work. In front of him, the translucent blue images of cards danced in almost random patterns, coming together and splitting apart into new combinations time and time again. "It'll find the most optimal version of my deck it can think of."
Seto snorted, closing his eyes and leaning his head back.
"And then I'll show how it's really done."
Mokuba sighed, shifting in place as he watched his older brother work. One of these days he'll drop the theatrics. One of these days.
Not today, however.
"I wanted to tell you that the message was delivered," Mokuba said then, rubbing the back of his head. "Whoever this Jaden Yuki is, they know to watch their backs."
End of Chapter 11