Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Several buses passed before Misty got herself back together. She wiped away the tears away from her face and took a breath. Looking down she pushed herself to her feet and turned to face Honda, her expression reflecting her gratitude and sadness.
He could see her mouth moving and strained to hear what she was saying.
"Thank you for helping me, I need to hurry, but thank you for letting me cry and such. Don't overwork your knee and maybe I'll see you again!" Misty looked at him as though she was committing his appearance to memory. Then she turned and quickly left back down the way where she had been heading before.
A good woman now a widow... there was just so much death, it clung to so many people and this was just another example of how Honda needed to appreciate his life. He pushed himself to his feet, and figuring this was going to be possibly the last time he saw her he walked after her. If for no other reason than to watch her go and make sure she left unbothered by thugs.
He felt his bum knee stretch a little further out and he felt a bit more of his foot touch the ground than before. Proving he had the right idea about this walk while his eyes scanned the empty street leaving him confused. She 'should' have still been in eyesight, yet he couldn't see the blond American woman anywhere. He limped further down the alley and looked about in a futile attempt to see the nurse.
Yet the only thing that caught his eye was the white crisp edge of a picture on the ground, in the area where the altercation happened. He limped along and bent down to pick up the picture, looking at the back and front. The picture was of a couple, the man was bony thin wearing jeans and a lumberjack shirt with a very robust blond by his side.
Was this a picture of family that Misty had? Hopefully they would be there to help Misty deal with her loss. He tucked the picture into his jacket pocket and turned his steps back to street he had been on. As he walked he glanced up at the sky and took in the bright vivid blue so high above. He thought about all his friends, even the ones not in Japan. And wondered... was Ryuji and Mai ok?
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Work had begun around 5am, regardless of the jet lag that accompanied the red eye flight, and coffee was becoming the life blood to keeping him awake. The duels that the tournament was the focus of were just now finishing mid tier and moving ever closer into finals. This long business trip from location to location was exhausting and nothing made him happier than knowing this was the final leg to that journey. Well, nothing save knowing that his game was picking up.
Ryuji took another sip of coffee, missing Japanese coffee where one had a choice with hot or cold coupled with cost. Made it easier to throw back the much needed caffeine without spending a ton of money. But it wasn't doing his looks all the greatest, having to sleep early just to make up for what he lost to jet lag. Thus for all the traveling he had done, he had seen little of the many cities and countries he had visited up until this point. Now in Australia and the 'heat' was incredible, or maybe it was the lack of sleep that got him.
He pushed himself up from his chair and went to do inventory of the Dungeon Dice Monsters game sets he had brought with him for this tournament. Originally Industrial, the hosts of these tournaments, had provided him with only 10 sets and a booth to help start advertising the game. There were others in game shops across America, but this tour was to help get more interest into Dungeon Dice. All of this was marketing, to be sure, but being able to call the head office and explain he sold out in the first 4 hours?
It was difficult to be professional when you got to literally sell your game until you had to turn people 'away'. The urge to cheer was incredible and it gave him the boost to keep him standing during these long two day sometimes three day tournaments.
Now at each event when he arrived at the booth there was a good 50 sets ready to be sold a day and when these events lasted easily 10 to 12 hours? Some cities he had to stay the whole time, but would end up nearly or completely sold out. Other days he was sold out by lunch and took those wonderful openings to go and take a much, much needed rest at the hotel.
He knelt down behind the booth and began pulling the remaining sets forward while counting them down.
"Dungeon Dice Monsters?" A voice read aloud above his head and he turned to look over his shoulder. There were a group of guys standing at the front of the booth looking at some of the promotional artwork of the game.
His English wasn't the greatest and while he got the gist of what was said, he was also in Australia which meant slang and terms varied from what he was used to. But thankfully he also had a translator who was hired to both translate as well as help promote the game to the masses that walked up to the booth. So he was able to keep working on checking inventory while keeping an ear out in case he was needed.
Since sadly, he ended up with a new translator when ever he had to shift to a new country. By the time he was comfortable with a new translator, he was moving to the next country where he would have to meet a new one. It was certainly unfortunate, some of the people assigned to him were the nicest, most considerate folks he had met.
Well there was that 'one' prick who had issues that he was a guy willingly wearing women's eyeliner and painting his face the way he did. But he mostly had fun, laid back and sociable translators who knew the fun places of the towns he ended up at.
"Hey, Ryuji? Wanna help me show this lot how to play the game?" Mark asked, a neat laid back Australian with short blond hair and semi formal attire that contrasted with Ryuji's red and black color theme.
"Sure," Ryuji answered as he got up with a final count of 8 more sets, once those were gone the two of them would be free to do as they pleased. There was already an open display unit that the pair could use for demo's, unless they sold out of the rest and someone seriously begged for it. Happened in Brazil. Nice place, beautiful ladies...
And these models of the duel set was also top of the line, not on pair with the Duel Disks of the Duel Monsters games, but still a treat. Granted the monsters weren't as full motion as in Duel Monsters, but they were also small enough, and inexpensive enough that it didn't matter. Also the fact that each monster was on display and could be selected from a line up helped keep prices down. People bought individual figurines instead of the random selection of cards per pack.
And that helped with encouraging sales because not everyone who came to these tournaments were duelists. Many were friends and supportive fans of duelists and this was a good game they could play and be engaged in between matches. In fact you didn't have to be 'that' good, it came down to the dice and sometimes lady luck favored you and sometimes she didn't.
Unless you were Yugi.
Through out the world, his name could still be brought up and while it was expected to hear about Yugi about Duel Monsters. There was always that one person who knew about Yugi also playing Dungeon Mice that one time and winning. Guy didn't even leave 'Domino' all that much and... MAI!
Mid roll, Ryuji's eyes caught the flash of vivid blond that the Amazon Duelist had, and he could see her making her way to one of the dueling areas. He had been so busy he didn't even realize she was 'in' the tournament! Only his showmanship and professional responsibility kept him from leaping from his seat and calling out to her. But his surprise made him fumble his roll sending the dice out of their more controlled spin into a wild dispersal across the field.
But dice were always wild, no matter how much you wanted to control them, honest dice were 'always' wild and free.
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Ryuji walked around the booth and rested against the front of it, if he had an ounce of common sense he would be on his way back to his hotel room. Try to get some shut eye and maybe 'finally' get around to seeing the sights of the area before he flew back to America. He even allowed his translator to have an extended break. His English may not have been top of the line, but he 'could' say they were sold out. All that was left was him and the demo unit he had been using.
So why was he still here?
Mai was in the finales that's why!
She had won her way up to the last duel and he wanted to be there to cheer her on, which meant he was going to be a little late to his bed. But reality had won out, and while Ryuji was able to put up everything in his hotel room and make it back to the arena the best he could do was write a 'wake me when the finals begins please' sign. Prop it up for Mark and settle down for a nap at the table off to the side.
"'Ey... 'Ey! Finals are going on mate!"
Ryuji got shaken out of his nap, and blearily looked around only to see the world as a sleepy blur for a bit. He turned his head to the left and followed a tanned hand up a muscular arm to a guy in riding leathers. With a few more blinks he could see the tanned guy had a wild mop of brown hair, that seemed like a toned down version of Yugi's own hair. Only toned down to an almost bread crust brown, but just as spiky.
The guy had goggles resting on top of his head, and his jacket was open to show a tight red shirt over a strong torso. As much leather and muscles as he showed, he looked rather out of place from all the casual builds of the guys at this tournament. But the guy tossed his head towards the arena causing Ryuji to return his gaze to the floor and saw Mai was already in the finals and in the middle of the duel.
Crap...
"Thank you for waking me," he said quickly as he stood up and ended up having to stretch out his muscles thanks to his improper sleeping position. Or he was going to crash unceremoniously over his own two feet and that wasn't going to be any good.
"No problem. I figured that's what the sign meant, seems a strange place to sleep." The stranger confessed as he moved back allowing Ryuji to walk out. Though speaking of 'strange place' the guy was more leather than duelist and while it 'was' reasonable to expect Duelists to come in all types. Hell Yugi LIVED in leather, the guy didn't appear to have a duelist belt. That jacket didn't seem a good idea for a carrying around a deck for starters.
"You a duelist too?" Ryuji asked, hoping that his English would be good enough to carry on the conversation. He wouldn't be able to have any advance conversations, but doing this tournament promotional tour was actually helpful. Introducing him to new words and meanings, learning even if he spent most of his days behind a kiosk selling his game.
"What? Me? They're using those cards right? No, I don't duel. Motorcycles are my thing," the guy answered casually with a shrug. As a stark reminder of how Ryuji spent most of his time, given that it took him a moment to realize he was talking to someone who did 'not' play the card game. Or games in general from the sound of it.
"So, how come you're here then?" Ryuji asked before smacking himself in the head. "The name's Ryuji, well my surname is Ryuji."
That was always a bit of hiccup for him, not everyone went last name first and the moment he got out of an Asian country it usually ended up a toss up.
"Right, last name first, personal name for close friends and family right? We're not 'in' Japan but its always good to know a little something bout your neighbors," the biker answered while sticking his hand out in a casual handshake greeting. But as he talked he seemed to recall the other polite aspects of Asian culture sending his hand in a weak wave and trying to do a proper bow. "Names Valon."
It was enough to get a grin out of Ryuji, who was starting to warm up to the guy, "nice to meet you, and yeah that's right. Though it can throw off people so don't worry, I've been around the world now and I've gotten used to the initial fumbling."
The stadium was large and most people were sitting in bleachers that ringed around the center of the arena. As they approached Ryuji could hear the sounds of the audience cheering and or groaning in accordance to what their duelist did.
"I don't get it, those... arm things? They allow those holograms show the monsters right? Why use such a big stadium for a match then? Why not just have it out here?" Valon inquired as they entered the hallway towards the stadium.
"Marketing," Ryuji said simply, realizing he may have hit a potential snag, did he know enough English to communicate the reason? "The duel disks? The thing that people wear on their arms? Those are good for a duel and presenting the monsters. But another aspect of the game is the ability to transform the landscape. Duel Disks can't do that as well, they can show the effects of the change but not the change, Industrial Illusions specialty. So when Kaiba Corp came out with the Duel Disks Industrial Illusions utilized them in standing systems. See the towers on the four corners of the field that the duelists stand on? With those towers you can project any type of landscape and as well as field changes, environment changes, or just expansive attacks."
When they finally reached the other side of the doors, Ryuji showed his pass to get himself and Valon in. The doors were opened and they stepped into the loud, raucous arena where the seats were filled with cheering people of seemingly all ages. But the crown jewel of the arena was easily the center where the duel was taking place.
The area was filled with a jungle setting, with a thick canopy of leaves crowning the tops of holographic trees. There were no sounds of song birds which only made sense given this was a duel, hence a battle where animals would stay quiet for their own safety. Amid the field there was the occasional flash of a large wing, hinting at a harpy or a spear. Moving among trees and below among bushes all seemingly stationed on one side.
The other side was essentially the same, only with thick armored warriors and it 'really' looked like a girl verses boy match if there ever was one.
"That... is mighty impressive," Valon confessed with a whistle as he looked the battlefield over in awe.
"Isn't it though," Ryuji commented, his eyes fixating on Mai.
She looked good, her hair perfect, her outfit tight and distracting...
"Wow, she looks good, I didn't know women played card games," Valon commented before letting his eyes scan the room. "Its a sausagefest in here otherwise."
"A 'what'?" Ryuji asked never hearing that word before. Turning his gaze away from Mai and back towards the biker at his side.
"Huh? 'sausagefest'? Oh, just meaning its a room full of guys, no girls." Valon explained, realizing for the first time that it was possible that Ryuji wasn't 'that' good with English.
"OH, yeah, it wasn't really tailored to attract girls I guess. The most it does is get girls as fans for the duelists. Mai stands out pretty much as one of the few who has any type of name to herself as a duelist." Ryuji confessed with a faint nod. Isis made it to the Battle City finals simply because she was using her abilities to see the future and predict her opponents next moves.
In fact as he thought about it, Mai was 'literally' the only legal person who attended the Battle City Tournament. Jounouchi got in because Malik wanted to use him against Yugi. Kaiba and Yugi got in because Malik kept targeting them thus 'handing' the pieces for the pair to win their way onto the airship. Isis because of her ability to see the future, Rashid because he was Maliks' stand in. Malik and Bakura just because Malik and Bukura. It was only Mai who had to systematically find duelists, actually 'duel' them, and win using only her deck and abilities.
Know Yugi and you'll meet some of the most interesting people.