Cairo looks to a nearby monitor showing the progression of the many duels taking place in KaibaLand. A name in particular catches her eye and she frowns. It appears Joey has lost his second duel and will not be moving forward. Much time has passed and there are still no signs of the powerful soul she sensed earlier. Maybe it would be best to meet up with the others.
"Cairo!" she hears a boy yell and she turns around to see Roy, the kid she saved earlier from getting his card stolen by a group of bullies. He runs up to her, panting for few seconds before regaining his composure.
"Oh, hi," Cairo greets. "Did something else happen? You haven't gotten your card stolen again, have you?"
He shakes his head with a smile. "No, I'm being extra careful this time!" he exclaims with a grin. "Have you completed your mission yet?"
"Still searching."
"I see," he says, beginning to walk alongside her. "You said you had to capture souls. Is anyone able to see them?"
"Yes. And they possess the bodies of others."
"Whoa." He pulls out the comic book in his book bag and flips the pages. "Sounds like this chapter I'm reading. A recent foe that the hero has fought is possessed by this outside force that gives them great power and the battle that ensues is an intense one."
Cairo looks up in thought. "A recent foe huh?" She tries to think of a more recent foe that she has been up against. She has fought many in the past. The thought of the bully she beat briefly enters her mind and she shakes her head. Couldn't be him. The soul wouldn't possibly use a child to carry out its revenge.
The boy looks up to the golden crown that she always wears on her head and he raises an eyebrow. "Are you a princess?"
"Did you need something?" she asks, not wanting to delve into her past.
"Oh! Well I wanted to give you this," he says, his cheeks turning red. He hands over a small action figure of the Magician of Black Chaos that he bought from a gift shop. She brings it closer to her face and observes it. "You know, as a thanks for helping me earlier."
Cairo smiles and looks at him, the blush on his cheeks turning redder by the second. "Thank you. I shall always cherish it," she says. His heart feels like it is about to burst out of his chest. He watches her leave and places a hand up to his chest with a dazed expression.
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In a restaurant surrounded by food, Joey, Duke and Tristan get their grub on, munching happily on the delicious food set aside on the various tables. Meanwhile, on two nearby tables stand a woman named Vivian who wears a short yellow dress and her hair in buns. Her duel disk readied as she stands across from her opponent, none other than the pharaoh.
She was eliminated from the tournament by Rebecca, but she isn't willing to accept defeat just yet. She has taken a strong liking to Yugi. After kidnapping his grandfather, who also was a mystery duelist in the tournament who lost to Joey under the name Apnarg Otoum, she has persuaded Yugi to duel. If he wins, his grandpa will be released. If he loses, he will be forced to go out on a date with her. In true Yugi fashion, he is not the one to back down.
"Get it through your thick head Vivian!" Téa yells angrily as they duel and Vivian continues on with her flirting. "Yugi doesn't like you and he never will!"
"Okay, breathe," Joey says between bites, sensing the jealousy boiling from Téa.
"Attack his magician directly!" Vivian orders one of her monsters and it succesfully defeat's Yami's Dark Magician. "Now attack him directly!" The maiden monster uses its sword and swipes down on him and he grunts.
Joey nearly chokes on his food. "Now how in the world was she able to attack twice in one turn like that?"
"I'll place this monster in defense mode! And put these two cards face down, ending my turn," Yami says, placing his cards on his duel disk.
"Look at it this way," Tristan says, slurping his ramen. "If Yugi loses, at least he gets a cute date."
"Yugi won't lose!" Téa snaps. "So drop the date thing!"
The doors to the restaurant open, revealing Cairo. "Hey look who it is!" Duke exclaims and the three of them turn around while Yami focuses on his duel.
"About time you decided to join us," Joey says as she walks over to them. They continue to munch on their food while the duel continues on.
"You guys! Yugi needs our support and you all are busy stuffing your faces!" Téa says in disbelief. "We should be supporting him! Isn't that right Cairo?"
Cairo's eyes go big, seeing all of the various types of food in front of her. She can't remember the last time she's had a full meal like this. Her stomach growls and her mouth begins to drool.
"Say no more," Tristan says, handing her a plate and she sits down, quickly munching on the food. Téa drops her head and sighs heavily.
"I play monster reincarnation!" Yami summons. "So that means Dark Magician is back in my deck!"
"Oh no!" Vivian whines, knowing that the Dark Magician is Yugi's signature card and a powerful one at that. She has already defeated him once, but a second time will prove to be difficult.
"I now use my Polymerization card to fuse Dark Magician and my Buster Blader to form Dark Paladin! The monster of your demise!" Cairo gulps down her food when she sees a blueish magician form, looking similar to Dark Magician but with slight changes. Its clothing is dark and its skin is blue. She's never seen anything like it before, not even in her past. This duel monsters game sure comes with a lot of possibilities she thinks to herself.
"No! It's not fair!" she whines.
"Oh, it's quite fair. Dark Paladin, wipe out the rest of her life points!" The magician uses its magical staff and finally defeats Vivian to her dismay and she drops down to her knees as Téa and the gang cheer.
"He did it!" Téa exclaims before sticking out her tongue to Vivian.
"Now tell us where Yugi's grandpa is!" Joey demands.
"I never kidnapped him!" she confesses. "It was just something I said to get my dear Yugi to duel me! And then when I would become victorious, I would finally get my date!"
"What? Seriously! Why you—"
"You truly are pathetic," Téa says, rolling her eyes and shaking her head and Vivian scrambles out of the restaurant. "What a waste of time."
Duke looks over at Cairo who finishes up her plate. "So I take it you're done with your soul catching business?"
Cairo frowns. "Not exactly. I'm having a hard time pinpointing where this one is."
"You're typically good at locating them," Yami says walking up to her. "This one in particular must be different from the other souls you've captured in some way."
"Indeed. And if we're honest, I'm dreading facing off with this one," she says with folded arms. "This soul is really strong it seems."
"I'll be glad when all of this soul catching stuff is over and life gets back to normal," Joey groans and Téa bumps his arm.
"Joey! Don't say that! Once all the souls are captured, Cairo will have to go back to the Shadow Realm. Plus, when has life ever been normal for us?" she points out.
"Well that's not what I meant!" Joey exclaims, waving his arms frantically. "Of course I'd like the soul catching to stop, but I definitely don't want to see Cairo go!"
Cairo smiles. "It's okay Joey. I know what you meant."
Duke looks over to a nearby monitor that reveals who is the finalist dueling against Yugi. It is a young purple haired boy named Leon, who also happens to be a huge fan of Yugi. "We better get a move on," he says to Yami. "You've got a duel coming up soon."
"Right," Yami replies with a nod.
They all walk out of the restaurant and head to the stadium where the final duel will be. As they reach the entrance, Cairo feels a pair of eyes on her. Yami turns around, seeing that Cairo has stopped. "Is something wrong?" he asks and she looks back at him with a reassuring smile.
"You go ahead. I need to have a word with someone," she replies and turns her head to one person in particular. Yami follows her gaze and sees a tall woman leaning up against a building with her arms folded.
"Is that a Kul Elna soul?" he asks and she nods.
"It's okay. Compared to the other ones I've faced, she's not bad."
"Come on Yug!" Joey calls out to him. "You're up."
Yami looks down at Cairo. "Alright. Promise me you'll be careful."
"Yes father," she replies with a smile and a nod before running off and he enters into the stadium to have his final duel.
"So the pharaoh truly is walking amongst the living," Tara says as Cairo approaches her. "Surprisingly enough, I don't have the strong urge to kill him."
"Change of heart?" Cairo asks, with an eyebrow raised and a smirk.
Tara sucks her teeth and looks away. "Shut up."
"So what brings you here? Ready to go back?"
"You have a lot of jokes little girl. But no, I was thinking about what you said earlier and I have some questions."
"Go on."
"You must have done something really bad when you were living to end up as the keeper of souls," Tara begins and Cairo groans internally. Does she really have to explain her past once again? "So what did you do?"
"Well long story short, I was possessed by a dark force, betrayed my father and the rest of Egypt in the process and have been banished to the Shadow Realm for all eternity."
Tara's eyes widen. "Seriously?"
"Seriously," Cairo replies simply, wanting to change the subject.
Tara looks up at the pharaoh who continues to walk away with his group and then her eyes land back on Cairo. If what she's saying is true, then it's not her fault that she's in this current position. The other souls have always painted Cairo to be a monster, especially because of who she is related to. And there's no doubt that the Shadow Realm has hardened her and caused her to always to be on guard. But she really is just a kid whose life got cut short due to unfortunate circumstances.
"Tell me the truth. Is he really not the cause of the destruction of my village and my people?"
"As I've said before, he's innocent."
"For some odd reason, I believe you…" Tara says somewhat hesitantly, looking the girl in the eyes. They don't have any hint of deceit. "If he truly isn't responsible, then there's no reason for him to be punished."
A cold chill goes through Cairo's body and her head whips around, feeling the presence of evil. "Tell that to the evil soul lurking around," she says and Tara looks around as well. It is hard to pinpoint where this presence is coming from since there is a large number of people in the park now.
Chants nearby from the start of the final duel begin to sound through the air and Cairo narrows her eyes in frustration. She really wanted to watch her father duel. But it seems like she will be missing out on that as well. She sighs heavily. "I guess I should be used to it by now," she says to herself before looking over to Tara. "Can't you just talk to your buddy and tell him to stand down?"
Tara smirks. "Got somewhere to be?"
"Well there is a duel involving my father going on right now," Cairo says, stating the obvious and Tara chuckles.
"You might as well join your friends. If there is any soul around, chances are their sights will be on your father. So you should probably stick close by."
"Mmm. Good point," Cairo agrees, turning away. "Guess I'll go about my way."
"Keep your guard up, kid!"
Cairo smirks as she walks away and mutters, "Don't I always…"
She walks into the main lobby of the arena, standing in the middle to gather her thoughts and to focus. But it is hard to do so when there are so many people around her. She's never had this many distractions before when pinpointing where a soul is. But with all of these people, it's making it super hard. She growls in frustration. "At this point, I won't be able to find him like this. I need some sort of sign."
There is a crowd of cheers as Yami wipes out on of Leon's monsters on the field. His opponent has two face down cards while Yami has out his Dark Magician Girl who twirls her wand and places it on her shoulder with a wink after being successful at landing an attack.
"Ah yeah!" Joey cheers, punching his fist in the air as they look on from an upper balcony.
"Yugi is gonna mop the floor with this kid!" Tristan exclaims.
"I don't know guys, Leon is a pretty skilled duelist," Duke points out. "There's a reason he made it this far."
Téa side eyes Duke, causing him to flinch. "Well let's stay positive." Cairo finally walks up and looks over the balcony at the duel happening below. "Cairo! It's about time you showed up!"
"How much have I missed?"
"We're more than halfway through it seems, telling by the life points that are left over," Tristan guesses. "But that could go either way."
"Yeah, I hate to admit it, but Duke is right. Leon shouldn't be underestimated one bit," Joey says.
There is a light roar of thunder and Duke looks up, seeing the sky getting gradually cloudy. "They need to get a move on. It looks like it's gonna storm really soon."
Cairo looks up to the sky, narrowing her eyes. The soul is close. She can feel it. Turning around to leave, Joey looks at her questionably. "Hey, where are you going?"
"Yeah, you're gonna miss the rest of the duel," Téa says. But Cairo continues to walk away without an answer.
"What was that all about?" Duke asks.
"I don't know. But with Cairo's history, it can't be good," Joey says in a serious tone.
YGOYGOYGOYGOYGO
Sorry for the long update again! Not sure if anyone is reading this story lol, but if you are, let me know how you're liking it in the reviews! I'm enjoying writing it anyway, ha.
