Last Time: Nighttime and breakfast should have gone on normally, but circumstances (and Yami TK) dictated otherwise. And they aren't even home yet! Meanwhile, Yugi's on his way to get his Yami back…along with Seto Kaiba!


Taking A New Host: Part 5


For the first time, Kari was afraid to walk next to her boyfriend. She knew it was TK's body, but the spirit definitely wasn't TK. After what happened at the diner, she was sure of it.

"What's the matter, Kari?" Yami asked. "You seem so distant."

Kari couldn't just keep her feelings bottled up. "What did you do to that guy?!"

"The coward? He simply met his fate by my hand."

"You killed him!"

"Now, I didn't kill him. But I grant you, he won't be the same again. Perhaps next time, he'll think twice before he attempts to do evil again."

"I'm starting to see why Yugi took the Millennium Puzzle apart!" Kari cried. "You go too far!"

"Yugi had no right to take the Millennium Puzzle apart!" Yami snapped. "And you have no right to say that! I was doing what I felt was best!"

"There are other ways to do things besides making a guy lose his mind!" Kari shot back. "That's not the way TK would have done it!"

"TK wouldn't have had the guts," Yami muttered. "I had to prompt him!"

Kari just shook her head and kept walking. "You ARE an evil spirit, no matter what you say! I really hope this ends soon, because I don't want TK to be forced to deal with your dark ways much longer!"

Kari started to storm off, wanting to leave Yami behind. But she didn't get very far, because when she crossed an alley, somebody dragged her into an alley. Kari could barely even react before she found herself being held up at gunpoint by a crook wearing a black stocking over his head.

"Give me your money, kid."

Kari was ready to comply, but then the worst happened. Yami had come to her rescue again. He was standing by the alley wall.

"A pitiful excuse for a human being! Robbing a child?"

The crook turned around. "What's it to you, punk? Mind you own business!"

"Why don't you step away from the girl and play a little game with me?" Yami smirked. "If you win, not only can you have the money, but you can also take the girl to do with as you please."

Kari was outraged. "HEY!"

"But if *I* win, then *I* will decide your fate."

The crook laughed. "You're on, punk!"

Kari had no say in any of this. She now found her life on the line in this game, whatever it was.

Yami reached into TK's vest and pulled something out. Kari saw that it was a freshly wrapped package of Duel Monsters cards. He unwrapped the cards and shuffled them.

"We each pick the top card. Whoever draws the cards with the highest Attack Points wins. Pick your card, coward."

Kari couldn't believe that her very life came down to a luck of the draw. The crook drew the top card.

"Curse of Dragon: 2000!"

Kari was in shock. She would never see her loved ones again if she had to be taken away with this crook. She wanted to scream, but couldn't muster the energy to. Then Yami confidently drew his card.

"And I draw the Dark Magician, with an attack strength of 2500! Looks like I win!"

The crook shrugged and held up his gun. "Enough of your games, kid! This gun says *I* win!"

Yami just shook his head. "Take your loss fair and square, coward. MIND CRUSH!!"

Yami extended his hand and, just like back in the diner, the crook fell to the ground and started convulsing. Having finished his game, Yami threw the Duel Monsters on the fallen crook. It took a while for the shock to sink in for Kari. She stood frozen. But she found herself able to move again as soon as Yami reached for her hand. Kari quickly snatched it away.

"How DARE you use me as a bargaining chip!! What if you had lost?!"

Yami smirked. "I never lose, Kari."

Kari was dumbfounded. "That's NOT the point!! How could you…you…you….AAAHH!!"

Kari couldn't take it. She reared back and slapped the taste out of Yami's mouth. At least she THOUGHT it was Yami.

"OW!! Kari!!" a whiny voice cried.

To Kari's utter disbelief, Yami had retreated into the puzzle and now TK was back out. She had unknowingly slapped her boyfriend…again.

Kari gasped. "TK! I'm so sorry!"

"You slap harder everyday," TK asked, noticing the trickle of blood coming out of his mouth.

Kari sighed deeply. "Are you ok?"

"I'm ok…mostly. But this is getting really creepy. There's something really weird about this guy."

Kari hung her head down solemnly. "There's something about him. I sense a huge darkness whenever he's out."

"I'm not a dark person. That's not who I am. And I don't want this darkness inside me! I really want this all to be over!"

Kari closed her eyes. "So do I."

Finally, TK had reached his apartment and it couldn't have come a moment too soon. After everything that happened at the diner and on the walk home, TK didn't want to take anymore chances on Yami suddenly coming out and taking control. At this point, he could only hope something would end all this. So TK began to converse with this ancient spirit inside him.

/// So when does this end? ///

// Yugi takes after me quite a bit. He never gives up. So I'll venture to guess that he'll be here to try again right about… //

As if on cue, someone knocked on the door. Indeed, it was Yugi and his friends, who had just approached the premises. TK gladly held the door opened as he put his arm around Kari.

"Yugi, I was really hoping you'd drop by. Come on in."

Yugi accepted the offer and walked through the door. "I'm glad I ran into you and not Yami, TK. I was hoping to get a chance to talk to you."

Joey walked in behind Yugi. "We hope you've both come to your senses and decided to take the puzzle apart and give it back to Yugi."

Tristan came in third. "We'd hate to drag this on anymore than we have to."

And Téa brought up the rear. "Have you thought about it at all, TK?"

"I can't lie to you," TK began. "A little something like an ancient dark spirit taking up space in my body is a little hard to ignore. But…I can't say I've come to a decision."

"You're an indecisive person, aren't you?" Joey blurted out before Téa elbowed him in the stomach.

"Pay no attention to the dueling monkey over here," Tristan cut in.

Joey snarled. "I told you not to…!"

"What Joey meant to say," Téa interrupted, "was that you really haven't made a decision? You've had a whole night to think about it."

"I don't want to intervene in what's probably more of a personal situation," TK explained. "So I agreed to let Yami deal with this."

Yugi sighed. "I guess I can understand." He looked at the Millennium Puzzle. "Yami, please let me plead my case one more time."

That got a reaction out of the Millennium Puzzle. Yami began to emerge from within and take control of TK's body again.

Yugi waited anxiously for Yami to come out. This was his last chance before turning to his ultimate last resort. After the light from the Millennium Puzzle faded, the young, happy-go-lucky TK was once again replaced by Yami, who showed off his trademark self-confident expression.

"What part of 'no' don't you understand, Yugi? I'm perfectly happy with my new Aibou."

"I'm going to give you one last chance," Yugi sighed. "Please come back, Yami. Don't make me have to resort to what I'm about to do."

"No," Yami said calmly. "There is no reason for me to return." Then he got a twinkle in his eye. "Unless…"

But Yugi didn't give him a chance to add anything else. "Ok, then I'm afraid I no longer have a choice." He looked outside the still-open door. "Ok, come on in!"

As soon as he came in, it didn't take long for the fire to light in Yami's eyes. Just seeing that person again was enough to ignite something in the ancient one. And the guy at the door only had a smirk that would infuriate him further.

"KAIBA!"

Seto Kaiba turned his gaze to Kari. "Where are my manners? May I come in?"

Kari just blinked, completely in the dark. "Uh…come in."

Kaiba slowly wandered into the apartment and closed the door behind him. He looked to be very satisfied with this scene. He moved in right between Yugi and Yami, who had his angered glare fixed right on Kaiba.

"I never thought I'd live to see this day," Kaiba chuckled. "Yugi and his better half, separated. That's a nice look for you, Yami. It's very Gilligan. I can't say that I ever expected to see any of this happen, but I can say I'm very amused. And what makes all this even better is that this whole fight started…over me. I almost feel touched."

Yami shifted his furious gaze to Yugi. "You are NOT endearing yourself, Yugi! What's the meaning of bringing HIM here?!"

"Oh Yami, don't snap at poor Yugi," Kaiba said mockingly. "We all know what this is really about. Come on, what kind of fool do you take me for? When this hapless kid put together the Millennium Puzzle, unaware of what would happen, you saw that as the perfect opportunity to separate yourself from Yugi. The question everyone seemed to have was, why would you abandon Yugi after all you've been through together? But I know the answer. I know exactly why you would separate yourself from the host you've known for so long!

"It's because you're afraid of me! You couldn't handle the fact that I defeated you! And rather than risk ever losing to me again, you decided to start a new life and start fresh. I must say, that's very admirable…and cowardly."

A fire rose out of TK's hair. That crack sent Yami over the edge. "I am NOT afraid of you, Kaiba!!"

Kari inched over towards Yugi and whispered in his ear. "Uh…Yugi? What's the whole point of this?"

Yugi whispered back into Kari's ear so nobody would hear. "Yami could never turn down a challenge from anybody, much less Seto Kaiba. He's got a lot of pride. But if he ever wants to take this challenge and shut Kaiba up, he'll have to come home with me."

Meanwhile, Kaiba continued his verbal onslaught. "You're all talk, Yami. Face it! If what I'm saying isn't true, then you wouldn't be hiding behind a new host. The truth is, our little series is tied one to one. However, I won the second time because you can't beat me without Exodia. You could NEVER beat me without Exodia! You know that if we dueled again, I would win just like last time."

"You won because you took the coward's way out!" Yami pointed out indignantly. "You won because Yugi held me back!"

Kaiba only laughed. "Then maybe you should go back to Yugi so we could find out."

That was the line that was sure to get Yami to come back. But if only Kaiba had stopped there.

"But I have a better idea," he continued. "You see, this whole situation presents a unique opportunity. With Yugi and Yami separated, I'd like to see just who IS the better half."

Yugi was in shock. "Kaiba, this isn't what we talked about…"

"I'm altering our little deal, Yugi! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! My proposal is a game of Duel Monsters…for high stakes. Yami and Yugi, one-on-one."

"We never discussed a duel!" Yugi cried.

"What's on the line?" Yami demanded.

"I'll make it easy so even Joey can understand," Kaiba smirked.

"Hey!"

"If you win, then Yugi and his friends over there will leave you alone forever. Furthermore, I'll give you a chance to duel me one more time, so you can try to shut my mouth and prove you're better than I am. But if Yugi wins, you let this kid take apart the Millennium Puzzle and go back to Yugi. THEN I get a rematch, so that I can break our tie and prove that I'm the superior duelist! So what do you two say? Up for a duel?"

"No way," Yugi huffed. "For one thing, Yami doesn't even have a deck of…"

Anticipating Yugi's protest, Kaiba reached into his blue trench coat and pulled out a fresh, unwrapped deck of Duel Monsters cards. He tossed them to Yami.

"A little something I always keep with me, just in case. While the deck may contain random cards, I'm sure it'll be no problem for Yami since he's an expert duelist and all. Anymore objections, Yugi?"

Yugi wanted to protest again. Even if he wanted to duel, he was no match for his Yami. Yami had always been the expert dueler. He was the one who beat Pegasus and got through the Duelist Kingdom. Yugi was about to refuse, but Yami quickly put an end to that.

"It's your only chance to get me back, Aibou," he said. "For once, I'll let the game of Duel Monsters decide MY fate. I won't have it any other way."

Yugi couldn't argue with that. He was backed in a corner. "Ok, I accept."

"Good," Kaiba smirked. "Now for this duel, we'll head outside. I'll have to ask for you to wait for me there. I'll be right back. I just have to grab my dueling disks."

"Wait a minute!" Yugi snapped. "You just happen to have fresh decks of cards AND your dueling disks here?!"

Joey put two and two together. "You creep! You had this all planned, didn't you?! As soon as Yugi called you, you started playing us for chumps! You didn't do this for Yugi, you did this for yourself!"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Joey," Kaiba said, feigning innocence. "All I know is that if Yugi wins, he gets his Yami back…AND I get my rematch. But if he loses…I get my rematch anyway. Hey, I guess now that you look at it, I win either way AND I get to watch the two halves of Yugi duel each other."

Yugi couldn't believe this. He had fallen for this ruse hook, line, and sinker. Instead of getting Yami to come willingly, Yugi would have to duel. But Yami was the best duelist in the world. He truly WAS his better half. Yugi didn't stand a chance.

He would have to have faith in the heart of the cards. It was all he could do.


Next Time: Yugi and Yami duel EACH OTHER? It's about to happen. Who will win? And will Kari have a hand in the outcome?


Any comments? Then mail me at AmericanCaptor@hotmail.com and don't forget to review below!