A/N: Hey, I just wanted to say 1) thank you for reviewing my story, and 2) sorry for not updating sooner. New Year's celebration you know (non-alcoholic one). Anyway, here's chapter three.
Chapter 3: Where a Duelist's Soul Lies
Jounouchi slammed the phone down when he heard the dial tone, cursing at assailant.
"Of all the damn things in this world…"
"What did he say, Jounouchi?" Grandpa asked in concern.
"He wants me to have Kaiba and me to deliver Yugi's deck to him… Damn it!"
Jounouchi almost pounded his fist, but remembered he was still leaning on the display case of the store and did not want to damage Grandpa's property. Suddenly, someone flung the front door open, startling them both.
"Jounouchi," the figure that opened the door said, "So you know about this too…"
Stepping forward, Seto Kaiba, in his battle city outfit and duel disk on his arm, went to the two others in the store.
"How did you know so quickly, Kaiba?" Jounouchi asked.
"The fool somehow got my personal fax number and sent me a picture of Yugi bound up in what looked like a cage," he answered.
"Nani!?" both Jounouchi and Grandpa said shocked.
"How dare that bastard!" Jounouchi yelled afterwards, "I'll kill him!"
"Baka," Kaiba replied, "He will kill Yugi in a matter of hours unless I can take his deck to him."
"Hm. He must not have stated this on the fax, but he wants me to deliver it too."
"He is an idiot," Kaiba said, "Bringing more witnesses into the situation isn't the wisest thing to do if he wants to keep it hidden."
"That doesn't matter," Grandpa said, "What matters is he has Yugi, and that means I go too."
"Fine," Kaiba replied, "I understand that. Just get his deck and meet me outside. My limo will take us to my jet. Mokuba is having it fueled right now."
Jounouchi thought for a moment. It would be easy to just hand over his deck, but he thought of the consequences of that action. Yugi's deck was one of his most prized possessions, especially his Black Magician (Dark Magician).
"Let me get his deck, Gramps," he requested.
"Sure, Jounouchi."
He put the Millennium Puzzle down on a nearby drawer and looked thought his room for Yugi's deck. The spirit then appeared, sitting on Yugi's bed and immediately putting his attention to one side of the room.
"It's over there on there, Jounouchi," he heard the sad spirit of the Puzzle say.
He went over to where he was pointing and got the deck holder it was in. After taking it out, he carefully looked over the cards that were in it. His eyes wavered as he got to the Black Magician.
"That bastard!" he snapped, "It's like he's taking his fighting spirit."
"I don't like it anymore than you do," the spirit replied, "but Yugi will build another one though not with the same essence. The important think is…"
The spirit looked down at the ground as seemed to get irritated. Jounouchi looked at the deck for a moment more before he heard someone make a quick "tigh" sound. He turned around to see the spirit making his fist tighter.
"Are you ok?" he asked.
"You're right. I should have done something. If I had just taken over a split second earlier… Shit!" the other Yugi said hammering his fist to his leg.
"Spirit…"
He looked up and saw Jounouchi was in a position to slap him. Even though he knew it wouldn't do anything, the spirit was taken back by the gesture alone.
"Look," Jounouchi explained putting his hand down, "that won't do anything. The only thing that matters now is to get Yugi back. Sulking isn't going to help."
The spirit looked back down.
"I'm sorry. You're right."
Jounouchi looked at Yugi's deck again, and then put it in his pocket and took out his own deck, confusing the spirit. Jounouchi began to walk out of the room.
"Jounouchi-kun, what are you doing?"
"I'm going to try to negotiate with my own deck. I can't just hand his to some maniac."
"You would give your own fighting spirit?"
"For Yugi…yes…"
"Then take me too," the spirit replied, "I may be able to protect Yugi if he is conscious enough."
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Yes. I can't take over your body, but I want to help in anyway I can."
"I think he will want you to be there…"
The spirit got up from the bed and looked at Jounouchi for a while before disappearing. Jounouchi just took up the Millennium Puzzle and put it around his neck. He saw Grandpa downstairs as he walked out of Yugi's room and went to save his best friend.
He saw the light again, along with the silhouette of the person in the doorway. This time, Yugi was fully conscious and aware of his surroundings. He was in a cage that was in a tiled room. The cage itself was about six feet tall and was slightly rusted at the bottom. It was pitch black, though, so it was the best he could come up with.
"At least this time, I might be able to see his face."
"Ah," the figure said, "You're out of the dazed state. Good."
Yugi tried to say something, but with tape over his mouth, only a muffled sound emitted.
"Hm. Well, I'm sure now you have something to say while not being high…"
Suddenly, the room brightened, revealing everything in it. He finally saw the room itself, but more importantly, he saw the man who was talking to him. He was about 5 feet in height and looked like to be his late thirties with a brown overcoat. As the man took out some keys, Yugi noticed the holster under his coat with a pistol inside. The man unlocked the door to the cage and took out the gun: a stainless steel Colt Defender. He also noticed that his voice was American, but he obviously knew how to speak Japanese.
"Now, I don't want any trouble with you, ok?" he said waving it back and forth.
Yugi just nodded his head. He went to the bound teenager, squatted down, and quickly removed the tape.
"Ok Yugi, I know you have questions," the man stated.
"Who are you?" he asked after a while.
"I knew that would be the first question. My name is Norman Johnson, and I am the person who kidnapped you."
"Why did you bring me here?" Yugi asked.
"Simple, my little guest: revenge."
"I don't know you. What did I do to you?"
"Hm. You've done plenty, and it all goes back to one of your opponents in the Battle City tournament…Malik Ishtar!"
"Malik!" Yugi said in shock.
"Yes. That once great criminal mind is the reason I hate you," Norman said getting up, "As you know, Malik Ishtar started the Ghouls organization, but he created it out of several card trading gangs, one of which I was the leader of."
"So, the rare hunters I saw in battle city…some of them were with your group?"
"Yes," he answered, "I did loaned some of my goons to Malik when the tournament started."
"You mean like Pandora and the light and dark mask duelists?"
"No. Just grunts, you might say. Mostly to do the dirty work if the need arose. Malik might have used them to spy on other duelists or even take their cards…"
Suddenly, Yugi began to remember such individuals, thinking back to the "people" Malik talked about that were spying on his friends and the person who had the remote to the crane explosive device at the pier where Anzu was held hostage.
"Like I said," Norman continued, "This all goes back to the gangfs that were turned into the Ghouls organization. Malik did recruit six other gangs, though I don't know how…"
"The Millennium Rod?" Yugi assumed in his mind.
"…But, he was able to 'hook' my gang with the promises of riches if I would be his partner in the States. You'd be surprised how far his rule over the black market went with Duel Monster cards. Under his leadership, I made a fortune. I had everything: a mansion, several cars, a luxury boat, several casino ratchets on my own time, ect. Malik and I made a great team here in America, and with the advent of his new card duplication technique, we were on the verge of making it big…"
Yugi saw a sudden change in his attitude. While he was talking, the man's apparent attitude was content, but now, he seemed sad, cold, and distant.
"But, before that happened, Seto Kaiba announced Battle City. Malik told me he was going to leave Egypt to go to Japan for the tournament. I later learned he was looking for some god cards I knew had to be fake, but I thought he was trying to get them to sell to the highest bidder. Then, a week after it ended, the Ghouls just disappeared. Not only that, Malik gave Kaiba a list of all the card dealers he controlled. Needless to say, just before he was going back to Japan after he began to set up his stupid theme park, Kaiba gave a copy of the list to the American authorities. My gang was hunted down, and they took all of my possessions for evidence. All I had was my super sonic jet and a few thousand dollars."
He turned around suddenly and pointed at Yugi.
"And it's
all your fault!"
"Nani!?"
"He disbanded the Ghouls because of you! I finally found out you beat him in the finals, and that must have caused him to squeal on all of us!"
"No!" Yugi replied, "Malik was misguided and also was taken over by his darker side, and after he was saved from it, he realized what he was doing…"
"SHUT UP!!" he yelled pointing his gun to the teenager.
"This guy's nuts," he thought.
Norman took a deep breath and lowered the gun. He bent down again get closer to Yugi.
"Sorry about that. I get angry about that little topic. Seto Kaiba and your friend will be here in a few hours, at least that's my estimate based on the time it took me to get from Tokyo to Seattle, and I gave Kaiba the location here. We're high in the mountains in a base my gang built to test replicating the duel computer of Kaiba's duel disk system, just before we got caught."
"What do you want?"
"Your deck and to see you suffer. The cards will get me some money, and the suffering is a surprise, but I can tell you that from watching you for the past week in Domino, the perfect form of suffering will be delightful. After this, I'm going south…way south to settle down…"
"But…" Yugi said before Norman put the tape over his mouth again.
"That's enough for now… Hm. Even for a small build, there's something about you…"
Yugi went wide-eyed as Norman pinned his shoulder to the cage wall with his free hand. Suddenly, there was a beeping sound coming from outside the room's door. He just smiled and got up.
"Well, finish this later…"
He got outside the cage and locked it, went to the entrance of the room, closed the lights, and shut the door.
"I take that back. He's not nuts; he's insane!" he thought, "And what does he mean 'friend?' Anzu? Jounouchi? Honda? Who ever it is…and Kaiba-kun…be careful…"