Yu-Gi-Oh! Love Selflessly – Chapter 20
Emiko stood out in the hallway, leaning against the wall in defeat, clutched her locket and held it close to her chest. She thought, "I promised I'd save them. I promised Seto and Mokuba. I promised myself. I couldn't do it." She took a shaking breath. She felt a few tears rolling down her cheeks and jumped when she heard Yugi's voice in front of her. He asked, "Emiko? Are you okay?" She sniffled, wiping her eyes on her sleeve, and said, "I-I...Yugi...I'm sorry." He frowned and asked, "Sorry? What do you mean?" She said, trembling out of frustration and fear, "I promised them...I promised my brothers I'd get them back." He placed his hand on her shoulder and said in his soft, comforting voice, "Listen to me, Emiko. Everything is going to be alright. I will win back your brothers' and my grandfather's souls." She nodded.
"I know," she said, "If you can't do it, Yugi, then I'm not sure who else could." He said, "Stay strong, Emiko." She smiled through her tears and said, rubbing her eyes and wiping away the rest of the tears, "I believe in you. Please, Yugi. Win this tournament." She walked past him towards the viewing balcony. Yugi walked out onto the blue side of the duelling arena, looking across the way to Mai, who was already shuffling her deck. Croquet announced, "The winner of the previous round, Bandit Keith, will now move on to fight Joey Wheeler in the next round." Yugi shuffled his deck and both he and Mai placed their cards on the board.
"Now," Croquet continued, "the next duel of the semifinals will begin. Up next is Mai Valentine versus Yugi Muto." He said, "You must both show me your tournament entry cards." Mai and Yugi held up their qualifying cards. Croquet said, "Both qualify. The duel may proceed."
Emiko muttered, "Good luck, Yugi." Téa shouted, "Go, Yugi!" Joey cheered, "Alright! Go, Yuge! Wipe her out, man!"
As the life point counter set itself to 2,000, both duelists drew ther initial hand of cards. Mai enthusiastically called, "Here I come, hotshot!" As Mai looked over her cards, Yugi chuckled and said, "If you're playing honourably, you can't try your psychic act on me the way you did on Joey." Mai shook her head and said confidently, "No tricks this time, Yugi. I'm not all smoke and mirrors, kiddo. Even without my tricks, I can duel with the best of them and I play Harpie Lady in attack mode!"
"That's Mai's standard opening move," Tristan said. Emiko looked down at the playing field and sighed. Joey patted her on the shoulder and said, "Don't you worry, Em. Yugi knows what's coming. He's seen Mai and her Harpie Lady in action like a billion times already." She smiled a little, then turned back, watching as Mai finished her turn with another face-down card.
Yugi summoned Gaia the Fierce Knight, but just as he sent his attack, Mai activated a trap card called Mirror Wall, taking down Gaia's attack power by half and stopping his attack. She powered up her Harpie Lady and destroyed Yugi's monster, bringing Yugi's life points down. Yugi struggled against Mai's powerful combination of cards for several turns. After some time, Mai said, "Yugi. You promised you'd try harder, but I can see now that isn't gonna happen." She drew a card, then smirked, summoning Harpie's Pet Dragon and destroying his Summoned Skull with very little effort. Her dragon was powerful and when it was on the field alongside Harpie Lady, it gained an additional 300 attack points. Mai taunted, "I told you, you're gonna have to concentrate and step up your game if you're gonna stand a chance against me." She paused. Yugi grimaced.
"Why are you playing so poorly, Yugi?" Mai asked. She said skeptically, "I've got you on the ropes and you're barely even putting up a fight. I want to duel you at your best, but there's only so far I'm willing to go." She glared over the arena at him and said, "You know, Yugi, I remember Joey once asked me an important question about why I duel. The answer I gave him was frivolous, but honest. Can you answer the question, Yugi? Tell me: why are you duelling in this tournament?" Yugi said without hesitation, "I'm duelling for my grandfather, Mai."
"Hey," Joey piped up from the balcony, "He's got a heck of a lot better answer than you did, Mai! Listen. Me, Emiko, and Yugi aren't just duelling for ourselves, you know! Some of us have people counting on us to win!" Mai said, "Of course, that's what you say, but tell me, could it be that your motives aren't entirely selfless?" Joey snapped, "What, you're saying we should be more like you, then? Well, I guess we could do that." He stood tall, hugging himself, and said in a mocking tone of voice, "I'm gorgeous! I'm such a great duelist! I love me!" He looked down at her and asked, "How was that?" She sighed, "You are such a twit. Joey, can't you see I'm being serious here?" Joey said, "I can see that you're seriously trying to mess with Yugi's head and you're making him and me and everybody crazy and dizzy and-" He shrieked as he leaned too far over the edge of the balcony, caught up in his frustrated rambling. Téa and Tristan quickly grabbed him and held him back. Téa shouted at him, "Will you control yourself?!"
Mai chuckled. She thought, "You're wrong, Joey. I'm not trying to confuse Yugi. You're off-kilter enough without my help. Something happened to Yugi and he's going to need more than his friendship with you lot to snap him out of it." Yugi set a card face-down and summoned the Dark Magician in defense mode, but Mai countered with the continuous trap card, Shadow of Eyes, forcing any male monsters into attack mode. As Mai's trap forced the Dark Magician to attack, he ran straight into her Mirror Wall, cutting his attack points in half and negating the attack. Mai demolished not only the Dark Magician, but also the face-down card he had set, bringing Yugi's life points down to 300.
Emiko said, concerned, "Oh, no. Mai's really got Yugi in a tight spot. She's brought him down to just 300 life points, but she hasn't lost any. She's really good." Joey nodded and said, "Yeah, who knew? Could it have been sheer dumb luck that I beat her before?" Below, Mai looked up and said, "It wasn't luck, Joey. I lost that duel to you because you knew something I didn't. I learned more from that duel than from any other I've ever played." Joey asked, "Really?"
"It's true, Joey," she said, "I honestly learned a lesson from you that day that I never really wanted to learn. I didn't know it then, but it would change both me and the way I looked at duelling. I had to take a hard look at myself and admit that the reason I relied on tricks was because I was afraid. Afraid to trust in my own abilities. Afraid to trust in myself like you trusted in yourself, Joey." She smiled and said, "Facing up to that wasn't easy. Believe me." Yugi said, "You've really changed, Mai." She said, looking back up at the blonde above, "Joey, do you know how you made it all the way to the final round of this tournament?" Joey shouted, "Heck yeah! I made it this far because I got my friends Yugi and Tristan and Téa and Emiko and Bakura behind me, cheering me on and telling me that I can go all the way!" Mai nodded and said, "Yes, that's true. That's very true. Your friends were with you all the way, but you also have the guts to look inside and face up to what you saw there." Yugi's eyes widened. She continued, "You looked your demons in the eye and dealt with them and that's a lesson everyone should learn." Joey asked in disbelief, "Wait, I did that?" Mai nodded.
"That's right. In that game, you taught me that a duelist can learn more from her defeats than from her victories." She then turned to Yugi. She said, "So, Yugi, have you faced up to your fears? Whatever freaked you out in your battle with Kaiba, have you come to grips with it?" Yugi remained silent for a moment, then smirked and said, "Mai, thank you for reminding me that a true duelist faces his problems. You're right. I was holding back, but not any longer." Mai thought, "It's about time. You're a little late to the party, though. I've been duelling for real all along." He used Brain Control, taking control of Harpie's Pet Dragon, and played two cards, including Catapult Turtle. Using the Catapult Turtle and sacrificing Mai's dragon in order to destroy her Mirror Wall, inflicting damage to Mai equal to half of her dragon's attack points. She grimaced, left with only 850 life points. She countered by multiplying her Harpie Lady into three. Yugi used his turn to activate a magic card, returning his Catapult Turtle and the rest of his hand to his deck, then drawing five new cards. He then summoned Mystical Elf in defense mode, unaffected by Shadow of Eyes. Mai used Monster Reborn to summon Harpie's Pet Dragon back to the field with an attack power of 2900 points, thanks to the boost from being on the field with three Harpie Ladies, easily destroying the Mystical Elf.
"Come on, now," Mai said, "We both know I'll wipe out any card you play on my next turn." Yugi called, "Swords of Revealing Light!" Glowing swords fell from the sky onto Mai's side of the field. Emiko exclaimed, "Alright! That'll stop Mai in her tracks for three turns! It'll buy Yugi some time to get out of this mess!" Mai said, "Decided to go down fighting, huh?" She chuckled and said sweetly, "Well, alright, then. A surrender would honestly be easier, but if you insist on going out in a blaze of glory, I'll be only too happy to light the fire." Yugi corrected her, "No, Mai. What I intend to do is go out in a blaze of victory." His gaze returned to his hand and he played a monster before ending his turn. Mai, still trapped by Yugi's swords, couldn't do anything and passed her turn. Yugi's next turn brought Gaia the Fierce Knight back and the next two turns were uneventful with both skipped.
"Yugi," Emiko worriedly muttered. Joey put his hand on her shoulder and said, "Just stay cool, Em. Relax. You can tell from the look in his eyes, he's not about to give up." She looked up at him, then sighed, smiling and looking back down at Yugi. She thought, "He's right. I have to just keep holding onto my faith in Yugi." When Mai drew her next card, her violet eyes lit up. Joey said, "Mai isn't even trying to hide her next move. She's got so much firepower, she thinks she's got this game in the bag." Mai, ignoring Joey, said, "My turn is over, as are your Swords of Revealing Light. Didn't get much out of your three free turns, now, did you, Yugi?" Yugi grimaced and hesitantly drew his next card. He looked down at it and smirked.
"Well, Mai," he said, "You've put up a good fight, but this duel ends now. Starting with the Black Luster Ritual!" Mai gasped, "Oh, no!" Emiko, up on the balcony, gasped, "There's just no way! The Black Luster Ritual is really rare and powerful!" She thought, still in shock, "I can't believe Yuge actually did it! He managed to summon the legendary Black Luster Soldier! This duel has to be over, now!" Mai leaned forward over her field in defeat and stammered, "J-just like that...my most powerful monster...it's gone." Joey said, "This is just outstanding! For a minute, there, I really didn't think Yugi would be able to pull off this victory!" Tristan said, "I don't think Mai saw it coming either." Emiko said, her spirits lifted, "Me, neither, but he did." Bakura said, "You said it. He managed to call on one powerful, game-changing monster just in the knick of time." Mai let out a soft groan of defeat and placed her hand over her deck.
"I'd much rather not see my Harpie Ladies destroyed in the next turn," she said, "This duel is yours, Yugi." Yugi smiled. Mai turned to walk off of the platform. Yugi called to her, "Mai, wait. There's something I want to say to you." Mai turned back to him. He said, "Thank you. You said that a duelist can learn more from defeat than victory and you were correct, but you, Mai, you taught me a lot today. I had to confront my own fears, my own weaknesses, or I never could have beaten you." She said, "That's awfully nice of you to say that, Yugi, but it seems like I also still have a lot more to learn. Both about duelling and about myself." She smiled up at him.
"Although, I suppose no duelist ever learns all there is to know and maybe the most important lesson is that defeat doesn't have to be forever. You won this duel, Yugi, but there'll be others. You and I will meet in the arena again, kiddo, and when we do, you'd better watch out." Yugi nodded and they exchanged a thumbs-up. She winked and turned to walk out.