Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this story. 'Cept maybe the basic idea of one of the shortest battle sequences in this whole story. That's about it.


Message from: LooksCanDeceive84@hotmail.co.jp
Message to: GameMaster01@hotmail.co.jp

Sorry I haven't written to you in a while. Things have been pretty hectic over here.

Your Ojii-chan doesn't seem to be getting any better. At least he's safe. I haven't seen anything else that appeared even remotely strange. Save an oversized albino dog when I was walking home. I know foxes are popular over here, but I very much doubt that we get wolves in Domino. Especially in broad daylight. But I haven't seen it recently. I guess that's a good thing.

Sure, I didn't see any strange things, myself, but I've heard some pretty weird stuff. They closed school for a day because of a thunderstorm. People are saying they swore to seeing faces in the storm clouds. Strange, ne? I also heard that our homeroom teacher was mugged when he was walking home from his second job. By some little kid in a ridiculous outfit. He had strange armor, blue hair, purple-ish skin, and a shield with the numbers '07' on them. And there are rumors that Kaiba Mokuba was attacked by a huge green monster...

I want to know what's going on around here. I don't know what to believe anymore. I probably wouldn't have believed any of it if your Ojii-chan wasn't attacked in front of us. This week just keeps getting weirder and weirder...




Subtlety, Chapter 2: The Island's Hidden Enemies

Seto Kaiba POV



Pitch after pitch. None of the pitches hit any of us, but the backlash sent us flying. We barely had any time to react. Jounouchi couldn't use that trick he used when we met Ansatsu, since, from what I could see, he could barely slip his hand into his pocket before another bomb was chucked at us and sent us flying. And the leftover smoke was so thick, I could barely see the others. We lost Honda early on in the fight. Maybe he had backed out of the fight, somehow?

If so, I think that crazy boy became smarter than the rest of us.

Another bomb was tossed. It was just far enough away from me that even the backlash didn't hit me. In the brief time period, I saw two things. The first thing I saw was Honda. I shrugged it off at the time, since I only saw him for a brief second. The second thing I saw was a brief shine of something. Most likely a sword. Again, it was very brief. I seemed a bit more empathetic about the latter than the former.

I found myself searching through my trenchcoat for my deck. I pulled out one card, and was decently satisfied when I found out just which one I pulled. As for the creature, you can have three guesses which one it is. The last two don't count.

Instinct kicked in, but I did something completely different from what Jounouchi had done. I held out the card in front of me, and focused on it. I felt a good amount of my energy leave me, but I thought nothing of it. I released the card when it began to glow. One flash of light later, the most infamous monster in my deck stood in front of me. Yes, it was completely different than what Make Inu had done, but I'm not Make Inu.

I searched for the flash of silver again, only to find out that the smoke had veiled it again. Our attacker seemed smart enough to keep away from me. What good would it do?

I could kill the one attacking us presently, but he's not posing as an immediate threat. If he's not even striking to kill, why waste an attack on it?

I blinked in surprise. I could actually hear the newcomer through the smoke. I let my trademark smirk cross my face.

"Blue Eyes," I said, a little bit too calmly, given the circumstances. "Fire the Burst Stream that way." I pointed about five meters from the rest of the group. My creature obeyed, firing a wide beam of white lightning from his mouth. I watched it streak into the thick smoke, a content smirk on my face. I heard the Make Inu scream something along the lines of, "You tryin' to kill us?!?" I didn't take much notice to it. I was focusing on something else?

Did the attack hit?

Blast Juggler chucked more bombs at Yuugi, Jounouchi, and Bakura. The smoke never cleared.

"Smoke screen," noted another voice. I whirled around. Honda. But he looked... different, somehow. He had a confident look on his face, which changed my outlook on him. Another thing that changed was his eyes. I know it's one of the last of things you look at somebody on the battlefield, but they were different. I don't know what color eyes he had, but I was sure as hell they weren't the steely blue color they were now. Honda didn't seem to notice too well that I was staring at him. "Our new friend is smarter than Ansatsu was. Blast Juggler's not just a distraction. His attack is veiling the creature. You have a slim chance of hitting it now."

Honda was making sense.

"And if you don't mind, Kaiba," Honda smirked, drawing a card. (When'd he get a deck?) "I'd like to take out the distraction."

He tossed the card in his hands. Much like with the Blue Eyes, it began to glow. Unlike the Blue Eyes, the monster on it appeared in a shower of sparks, rather than a flash of light. It was a Pendulum Machine. Before I could question Honda where he found it, he had issued a command to his creature.

"Blast Juggler o koroshita!" {{Kill the Blast Juggler!}}

The creature charged. The pendulum connected to its torso swung into the Blast Juggler and split it in half upon impact. The demented clown-like machine shattered and faded. The black smoke cleared almost instantly. I could see the shocked looks of Yuugi and the rest of them. Even more importantly, I saw the creature. It was a Sword Hunter.

No clue why it felt it had to hide behind the smokescreen. No matter.

It couldn't even move before Blue Eyes' attack sent it back to wherever the hell it came from. Soon afterwards, the dark shadows around us dissapated, leaving us back in the castle. Luckily enough, none of us were hurt too bad. We were a little scuffed up. The worst thing was that Honda and I were tired. And the former of those mentioned before was staring at the card in his hands, confused to no end. He was just being strange again, I thought.

Yeah, everything was fine. Just fine...

Later that day...


Bakura, Yuugi, and Jounouchi conversed amoungst themselves quietly. I was working diligently on my laptop. I had some of my own things to do. My company was already working on Dueling Stations all over Japan. I was working on something else, at the side. Something a bit more practical, and a lot easier to carry around, than what was currently out. The last project I had worked on worked just fine, but it had too many complications to it. I had to re-work it a bit.

Basically meaning, I had a ton of work to do. Unfortunately, I had reached a creative slump. Which left me nowhere.

"Ne, Kaiba-kun..." Yuugi said suddenly. {{Hey, Kaiba-kun...}}

"Nani?" {{What?}}

"Can I check my e-mail quickly?"

I groaned, pulled down my current work, and let Yuugi use the laptop.

"What're you working on?" he asked as he opened up his e-mail account.

"It doesn't matter," I snapped in reply. "I didn't get that far on it today."

"On what?" came Make inu's voice.

"Nandemonai, zako." {{It's nothing, small fry.}}

Make inu didn't seem to take too well to that. I was surprised Bakura could hold him back. His little blonde friend did seem to jump the gun a lot. Finally, it looked like he had calmed down enough, so Bakura released him. And everybody went back to doing what they were doing. Somewhat.

Yuugi typed quickly on the laptop. Bakura looked over a rather large pile of cards. He took one from the pile, read it over, and either set it to one side or another. Deck-building. That was the most logical explanation I could come up with. Jounouchi hunched over the pile, too, asking Bakura about certain cards that stuck out to him. "If you don't want it, then can I keep it?" He muttered that a lot when Bakura told him he wasn't looking for that type of card for his deck.

I had nothing better to do, so I left the group with themselves. I needed to think for a bit, anyway. Business-related. I needed some more ideas.

I walked pretty aimlessly for a while. Just lost in thought. More business-related stuff. I was jogged from my wonderings by Honda. He was talking to himself, glancing at the wall across from him. Loony. I just kept walking. As I passed Honda, he looked shocked, but shook it off rather quickly. I didn't take much notice. I kept walking. It wasn't until I was about to turn the corner when I heard him speak to me.

"Kaiba!" Honda yelled quickly. "Matte!" {{Wait!}}

I stopped, allowing him to catch up. Don't know why, but I did. So I've grown empathetic in such a short amount of time. Hn. This trip affected me sooner than I thought it would.

When he caught up, he nodded his thanks. I glared at him. "What do you want?"

"Somebody tangible to walk with me," he replied. "Keith's good company and all, but it's just too weird talking to somebody and having someone walk through him while you're talking."

"Keith?"

"Bandit Keith," Honda replied. "He's my friend... I think..."

"Has it ever occurred to you that he's dead?"

"Duh," Honda smirked. "He's hanging around the castle for a while until he is satisfied. Then he'll cross over. Until then, he said he would help us out."

"Isn't that nice of him?" I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

"He helped out in the last fight," Honda replied. "He told me you saw him. He possessed me so he could fight. He thought you needed some help."

"I'd've managed just fine."

"He doesn't care."

"And why did Keith decide to be a nice guy?"

"He wanted to haunt Pegasus into the grave for killing him, but Pegasus's already dead, so he said he'll leave when this is all over with."

I stopped and glared at Honda. "You were dropped on your head when you were a child, weren't you?"

Silence. Then Honda glared back. First at me. Then past me. Creepy bastard. Wouldn't be surprised if he was dropped on his head. I continued walking. Honda glared at nothing for a bit, then jogged to catch up with me.

"Where're you going?"

"I don't know."

"Then why're you walking?"

"Clearing my head," I shrugged. "Hit a creative slump for business."

Honda gave me a confused look. He was as much in the dark as I was, although he was focused on why I was still working, and I was wondering what Honda smoked to give him those ridiculous fantasies of his. I simply turned around. "I'm re-creating the Duel Disk."

The confusion in Honda's face was cleared up only momentarily. "Why?"

"I need something more practical than something you chuck at the opponent," I told him.

"You just want something that a crazy person won't roll on the ground in a successful effort to mock you."

It was meant to be a joke. Even I knew that. But he was somewhat, vaguely right.

Honda shuddered suddenly. I turned on my heel abruptly and went the other way.

"Kaiba, where're you going?!?" Honda called after me.

"Whenever you shiver," I answered. "Something's coming. And it's in my best interest to keep out of this."

I continued walking. Honda didn't follow. He started talking lowly to himself. Then, he shouted, "Kaiba!"

That was as much as I heard from Honda. Darkness shrouded my vision. Frigid ice seemed to pierce my veins. And I was still concious. At least I could see myself. And the slowly-approaching woman in the distance--- NANI?!? {{WHAT?!?}}

"Glad you could make it, Seto Kaiba," she mused. I tucked my hand into my pocket, searching for my deck. I really didn't trust this lady. As my fingers wrapped around my cards, she smiled, suddenly within arms-length of me. "Why the hostility?"

I simply glared at the newcomer. The Dark Elf. "What the hell do you want?" At least this one spoke. Better than nothing.

"A proper duel," she replied. "You'll have to forgive my colleagues earlier, with the smokescreen and the sneak attack that nearly killed that boy... No, I want a regular duel."

"Fine," I replied. "What's the life point count?"

"Oh, not a duel like that," she frowned suddenly, running a dark-tanned hand through her purple-ish hair. "After all, I don't have access to cards."

"So, we're fighting like before?"

"Let me finish," she smiled. "You shall use your cards, and I shall use anything within my power. We each get two monsters to summon."

"I assume you don't count as a monster?"

"Oh, no," she said, shaking her head. "I'm of Duel Monster origin. I only get one companion in this duel, while you get two. Lucky boy. But I can attack just fine, while I believe you are merely there to bark at your servants and give orders. The strategist, if you will. Not that much different from a regular duel, if you ask me."

"Magic cards?"

"Anything you desire," she replied. "Magic cards can be used as Trap cards, and Trap cards can be used as Magic cards. Do you follow?" I nodded. "Good. Normal restrictions apply. But you can't use anything to regain what you've lost, Magic or otherwise.

"And one more thing. We're not playing with Life Points. The first one to be hit by the opponent's monster loses, and is to forever fade into the Shadow Realm. Basically meaning, death follows the loser of this duel."

That's it?

"Fine," I shrugged, searching through my deck. I'd use the Blue Eyes. That was a given. Should I use two of them for this fight? Was I allowed to double up on a certain type of monster? I decided against it. I chose Saggi, instead. I pulled my Magic and Traps from my deck and shoved the rest of my monsters back into my trenchcoat.

I summoned my creatures a lot easier next time. I found out I could do an interesting trick with my magic cards. I had three of them set in front of me.

"I'm surprised you didn't summon your Ultimate Dragon, or two Blue Eyes," blinked my opponent.

"I wasn't aware I could," I answered. "But it doesn't matter. This will end quickly, regardless."

"You're not worried about the consequences of this fight, are you?"

I wasn't. In one duel, I disgraced my brother, was unable to free him, and I lost my own soul, after all. "I've lost worse," I scoffed. "You can move."

The Dark Elf summoned a Mystical Elf. Strange. She'll focus on defense, rather than attack? And such a weak defense, considering the attack power I had. Of course, it made Saggi basically useless, due to the low attack power. So much for the Deck Destruction Virus of Death plan... But why was it in attack mode? She set and summoned a magic card.

A brown-ish jar appeared next to the playing field. In a wave of purple smoke, Blue Eyes was gone.

"So, you're relying on cheap tricks to win?"

"Whatever it takes," she answered as two small flashes of red appeared on the Dragon Capture Jar. "Take your turn, Seto."

I armed Saggi with Megamorph, doubling his feeble attack power. The Dark Elf left her "companion" in attack mode. But, as Saggi attacked, the Dark Elf's Reverse Trap was activated. Saggi's attack fell immensely, and Mystical Elf ripped through my only remaining monster.

"I believe it's my turn," the Dark Elf smirked. "You were right. The fight would end quickly."

I prayed my own cheap trick would work as she sent her monster in to attack. To my surprise, it did. I found myself in heavy blue armor. I had pulled a trick Jounouchi had used. I didn't think I could use Polymerization on myself... The Mystical Elf was quickly taken care of, disappearing in a shower of blue sparks.

"I-impossible!"

I smirked. "I think I found a loophole in your rules. No matter. Whatever it takes."

I outstretched my hand and focused. I felt lightning surging through my veins before it took form in my palm. A quick twitch of my hand, and the lightning found its target. The darkness faded back into the castle.

Too easy.

I picked up the cards that had fluttered to the ground. As I pocketed them once again, I turned around. Honda was gone. Must've went to ask Yuugi-tachi for help. I rolled my eyes and walked back, lost in thought.

I think I just left my Creative Slump.

I found the group again, just as I had left it. Strange.

"Hey," I said. "Have you seen Honda?"

"Not since that last battle we fought," Yuugi replied. "Doshite?" {{Why?}}

I shook my head. "Nandemonai." {{Nothing.}}

I opened up my laptop again and started typing. Before I fully indulged myself in my work, I watched Bakura leave. Jounouchi quickly stole the spot in front of Yuugi, asking for help in rebuilding his deck. Then I was lost in my typing, once again.







Next chapter, Bakura Ryou POV. More strange stuff happens. But in this story, was there any doubt in your mind?