Chapter 4
"Al Karnak"
At long last, the long ride drew to an end as the flight attendant came over the intercom to let everyone know that they would soon be descending in Al Karnak, Egypt.
Yugi, who'd awakened an hour earlier, pressed his nose against the window excitedly. But he couldn't really see anything because of their altitude and the fact that the sky had darkened to a beautiful midnight blue. "I wonder what'll happen once we land," he mused.
"I really couldn't say," Bakura shrugged, "I suppose we'll just have to wait and see."
"Yeah, I guess," Yugi said, still peering out the window.
Unbeknownst to Yugi, Bakura was no longer himself. For a brief second, his eyes became more angular and his hair spiked higher. Yami Bakura had seized control of the body once his pathetic host had passed into unconsciousness. Their struggle earlier had left him without anymore energy to fight for power. He had just been prolonging the inevitable anyway. Now he had complete control – just as he should. And it would only be a short time before he could get Little Yugi alone long enough to take possession of the Puzzle.
Behind them, Tea yawned and stretched, and Tristan noticed something he never had before. She wasn't poorly built at all…whoa! What was he thinking?? This was Tea, one of his closest friends. He wasn't supposed to have those kinds of thoughts…was he? He was a man, after all…but he doubted that she saw him as one.
He folded his hands in his lap, confused and suddenly a little depressed. Tea noticed his distraught expression, and cocked her head. "Hey…" she said, "What's the matter?"
"Huh?" he said, jumping slightly, "Oh, nothing. I was just kinda hoping we're not walking into the middle of another evil plan, you know?"
"Yeah…" she nodded, "But it's a little late for that, isn't it? Ten minutes to landing and all?"
"I guess you're right," he said, putting one hand behind his head.
"When will you learn that I'm always right?" she asked, giving him a teasing wink.
For the first time ever, Tristan blushed because of something Tea had done.
Across the isle and up a ways, Joey was still fast asleep, as he'd been for the past two hours. Mai had tried to sleep, but hadn't been able to manage it. Instead, she'd taken to watching Joey, and envying his apparent lack of insomnia. It seemed a shame to wake him…
Mai grinned. She shook him gently. He continued to snore softly. She frowned. Apparently, the nice approach wasn't going to work. She reached over and poked him in the stomach.
Joey, being extremely ticklish, woke with a start and nearly fell out into the isle! "Ah! Wha? Huh?" he said looking around, "Where am I?"
Mai put a hand over her mouth, trying to hide her smile. "We're about to land," she said.
"Oh…right…" Joey said, feeling stupid, "…Thanks…"
"Don't mention it," Mai said, leaning back in her seat.
Several rows away, the two younger duelists (Weevil and Rex) were gathering up their things. Neither spoke a word, both too absorbed in their own thoughts. There was a general thought that was racing through the minds of almost every duelist on the plane: This tournament is mine!
The plane began to cut speed and lose altitude. The small rubber wheels on the 747 met the hard pavement of the runway, bounced once or twice (which made everyone's stomach lurch) and managed to bring the plane safely down to Earth once again.
Everyone began to unhook their seatbelts and gather up their carry-ons. They were all much too tired to put up much of a fuss about anything, so exiting the jet was done in a mostly humane manor. Mostly being the key word.
As Mai got up out of her seat, her high-heeled boot snagged on a wire under the seat and she fell forward. Joey, caught off guard and not quite out of his own seat, moved to catch her, but wound up aiming a bit too low and before he even knew what had happened, his nose was buried in her chest.
Mai was blushing for the second time that day (or night, as it was). Quickly, she pushed herself up off of him, and muttered, "Sorry."
"Eh, no," Joey sputtered, "It's cool. You okay?"
"Yeah. Fine," she said.
"Okay then," he said, "Um…" Not knowing what else to say, Joey grabbed his bag and headed out into the isle. Mai picked up her own bag and followed after him, feeling more violated than she had in a very long time.
As he descended the ramp, one thought was running through Joey's mind, 'Boy that was warm and soft…'
It only took a few moments for everyone to make it off the plane, and they all gathered at the end of the ramp, wondering just what they were supposed to do next.
Then a voice that was much too cheerful for midnight cut through the air, "Welcome to Al Karnak, Duelists!" Everyone turned to see an Egyptian woman with white-blonde hair standing a few yards away. She was dressed in a short-sleeved dress that nearly matched her hair, and she held a clipboard under one arm. "My name is Vitani, and I'm the tournament coordinator. If you'll all follow me, I'll show you where you can all pick up your bags and get registered into our duelist-reserved hotels!"
She turned and started to walk off, and the group moved slowly after her. Yugi caught up to Tea and Tristan and said, "Hey guys – I didn't realize how many people were actually coming here for this thing!"
"Huh?" they both said and looked around. It was true. There were 747s all over the runway, with groups of people from all over the world unloading and following their own tournament official.
"What're we lookin' at?" Joey asked, falling into step with his friends.
"All the different jets that are here," Tristan shrugged.
"Sheesh," Joey said, "With this many people, the first round's gonna take forever…"
There was a lot of murmuring and muttering from a lot of tired and annoyed duelists about time zone differences and the ungodliness of the cheery attitudes at the current time, but the majority of the people managed to go to the hotel, all with thoughts of a nice long sleeps in their brains.
No such luck. There were numerous problems with this plan. First, when they got to the hotels, they also found out about the rates for hotel rooms. The worst thing was that whoever was in charge of this tournament had bought the hotels and could make them pay as much as he wanted, if the duelists wished to compete.
A second problem was that the tournament guides wanted them to find out all about the different rules and regulations for the tournament, tonight! Joey, who was now carrying Yugi, was one of the many who used their vast vocabulary to verbally trounce this idea. Rex, who had Weevil leaning on his shoulder (nodding off), gave the universal sign of rudeness to the officials. In response, they held a brief conference and after a few minutes, then agreed to send copies of the rules and such to the duelists the next morning.
* * *
As Tea signed them in, and Bakura reluctantly emptied out his wallet, none of them realized that they were being watched. Across the large lobby, a young girl with short black hair and sleepy gray eyes had her gaze fixed on Yugi. Her father bent down and lifted her into her arms, as her mother returned with a key to their room. As she was carried off, her eyes never left Yugi.
* * *
Across the street, at a different hotel, annoyed duelists were banging on the doors as Seto Kaiba spoke with the desk clerk. Mokuba sat on the floor at his feet, hugging his knees and sleeping lightly. It had been a long helicopter ride.
"You want…the whole hotel?" the clerk asked, sure he had heard wrong.
"That's right," Kaiba nodded, "I don't want any of these losers hanging around and distracting me while I'm here. I'm sure you've heard of me, so you know I can pay for it."
"Yes, sir…" the clerk nodded, and typed the rather odd request into the computer, "I'll automatically unlock all the doors. Choose any room you like, sir…"
"Thanks," Kaiba said, and bent down to nudge his little brother.
"Huh?" Mokuba said, looking up, quickly rubbing his eyes, "I wasn't sleeping."
"Let's go," Kaiba said, picking up his briefcase, and heading off towards the elevator.
"Okay!" Mokuba grinned, grabbing his own suitcase and hurrying after, "Can we stay all the way at the top floor?"
"Sure, why not?"
"Yes!!"
* * *
Ring! Ring! Ring! Joey moaned and rolled over on his side. The phone beside his bed was ringing. He picked it up groggily and put it to his ear.
"Good morning, duelists! The Egyptian Tournament begins now! You'll find all rules and regulations on the night table that this phone is on! Get reading and then get dueling! Have a nice day!"
The annoyingly pleasant voice on the other end switched off and Joey let the phone fall from his hands to the floor with a clatter. Then his head hit the pillow again and he settled back down to sleep.
Five seconds later, he sat straight up, "WHAT?!? The tournament's startin' already?!?"
* * *
"You've gotta be kidding," Mai said, hanging up the phone, "Why on Earth would they schedule us to get here at midnight, and then start the tournament at six the next morning?" She sat up begrudgingly, brushed her hair out of her face and reached for the rule book, which was right where the wake-up-call had said it would be. She'd might as well get started – everyone else was sure to.
* * *
"Shit," Rex groaned softly. This couldn't possibly be day yet! The sun wasn't even up and he still had another good three hours of Z's to catch! The 16 year old grabbed for the rulebook, tossed over to the foot of Weevil's bed, then lied back down. He pulled the covers up to his nose then put his pillow on top of his head.
No doubt, Weevil would wake up before him and memorize the rules. Then all the dino duelist had to do to get the abridged version was ask Weevil! The tournament may officially start now, but he was pretty sure that on one was stupid enough to be up dueling at this hour!
* * *
"These rules seem pretty much just like the Battle City rules," Yugi said. He was sitting on his bed, flipping through the rule book as Joey looked over his shoulder. Sitting on Joey's bed across from them was Yami, in his translucent form. Tristan and Bakura were still sleeping, and Tea was in a room of her own across the hall.
"It says there are cloaks in the closet to protect us against the sand, and our dueling items are in the top drawer of this nightstand," Yugi continued.
"Duelin' items?" Joey echoed, "Whadda they mean by that?"
"I'm not sure," Yugi shrugged, reaching for the drawer, "Probably like the star chips or locater cards."
Upon opening the drawer, Yugi let out a small gasp. The Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle's eyes widened as well, although only Yugi could tell. Lying in the dresser were three golden chains, each of which had mini, down to the last detail, replicas of Millennium Items!
Yugi picked up the chains, and held them up. For a moment he and Joey just stared at them. "Whoa…" Yugi breathed, "They're perfect miniatures…"
"But how would anybody know about the Millennium Items?" Joey wondered.
"I don't know…" Yugi said, and looked over at Yami, who was looking just as puzzled.
"Aren't all the Millennium Item holders accounted for?" Joey asked.
"Yes…wait – no!" Yugi said, fingering the chains, "We've never seen who own the Scale." He found a miniature of it and held it out for Joey to see.
"So that's our suspect?" Joey guessed.
"I don't know of anyone else who would know enough to make them so accurate," Yugi shrugged, "So we'll certainly have to be on the look out for the person who owns it."