"Yugi! That was a great duel!"
The blue-clad duelist grinned as his friends continued to congragulate him on his latest triumph. "Thanks, guys."
Kaiba, however, remained off to the side, observing everthing with a bored expression threatening to swamp his features. Mokuba tugged on his brother's sleeve eagerly. "That was a great duel, huh, Seto?"
"I guess." Seto's eyes wandered over to where Kyara was comparing cards with Yugi and Joey.
Mokuba followed his sibling's gaze. "Something wrong?"
"No, I'm fine."
Although he decided to not pester his brother further on the matter, Mokuba thought he knew what was bothering Seto. Something along the lines of jealousy. When Seto had won his first match, no one had been there to celebrate it with him. With the exception of Kyara, of course. And all of the support Yugi got from his friends before, during, and after his match, wasn't helping.
Mokuba smiled up at the CEO of KaibaCorp. "Hey!" he cried to the rest of the group. "I've got an idea!"
Joey turned to face him. "Well? Let's hear it."
The little boy pointed at a nearby clock. "How about we go out to lunch to celebrate Seto, Kyara, and Yugi's victories?"
Joey nodded eagerly and rubbed his stomach. "I'm all for it!" he declared. "Who's with me?"
Kyara nodded and carefully stowed her dueling into her pocket. "That sounds great."
But just as the group was about to leave, a voice halted them.
"Hey! Yugi! Joey!"
The two turned around. Yugi gasped as he caught sight of a tall, blond-haired duelist dressed in purple and white running towards them. "Mai?!"
The woman winked at him as she stopped. "The one and only! What are you guys doing here?"
"Competing, what else?" Joey answered.
"What?!" Mai's jaw dropped open. "YOU qualified for the Intercontinental Championships?!"
"Actually, no. I just came here with Tristan and Te'a to cheer Yuge and Kyara on."
At the name, Mai peered over Joey's shoulder. "Kyara? You mean Kyara Nayako?"
"Of course, who else-"
Mai pushed Joey aside. She smiled wanly at Kyara. "Kyara!" she cried. "I haven't seen you in ages!"
"Likewise." Kyara grinned broadly.
"Hold on a sec," Joey said. "You two know each other?!"
"Of course!" Mai answered. "Kyara here is one of the top female duelists! Along with yours truly. A while back, me and her took the Regionals. First and second place of course."
"That's right!" Kyara chirruped. "The others didn't stand a chance! Even in the tag duels hosted there! We made a great team, right, Mai?"
"Totally."
"Wow," Joey blinked. "Kya never told us that she was that good!"
"Hmm..." Mai shrugged. "Maybe it's because you never asked?"
Mokuba, however, was confused about something else. "Kyara? What did you mean by tag duels?"
"Oh that? Tag duels were an extra event that the Regionals Mai and I attended were having. A team of two duelists got to fight other pairs. The winners were named the best tag team duelists. We won, of course."
"Tag team? Sounds like that duel Yugi and I fought against the Paradox brothers."
"Para what?" Kyara asked.
"Never mind." Joey said as his stomach suddenly gave an almighty rumble. "Can go get something to eat now? I'm STARVING!"
"All right, all right!" Te'a began walking towards the exit again. C'mon, guys."

* * *

"So, Kyara, so you still have those Elemental Sorcerer cards?"
Kyara nodded as she and Mai, whom had decided to come along, conversed on their way to the nearest restaurant. "Yea, I still have all of them. But tell me, are you still using that Harpie Lady combo of yours?"
Mai smirked. "You better believe it!"
The other giggled. "Remember when we fought that first tag battle? Our opponents said that 'girls are weak' so..."
"Oh! I remember! So we decided to beat them with only female Monsters! Its all coming back now! I used the Harpie Lady Sisters powered up with Cyber Shield and Rose Whip, and you used your Wingweaver powered up with the Megamorph and Upstart Goblin combo and Dark Witch combined with the Malevolent Nuzzler and Black Pendant cards."

A/N: The cards from Kyara's deck mentioned by Mai are all real. Wingweaver is a powerful Winged-Beast card. Megamorph is an ultra rare Equip card that has the following effect: If your LP is lower than your opponent's, the Monster equiped with this card doubles its original attack power. For example, say my LP is 1500 while my opponent's is 2000. If I used Megamorph on my Dark Magician, his attack would be raised to 5000! Imagine if someone used it on the Blue Eyes White Dragon!)
As for Malevolent Nuzzler, it powers up any Monster by 700 attack points. However, when it is sent to the Graveyard, you can pay 500 LP to return it to the top of your deck. (Same thing with the Horn of Light card that Kale used in his duel versus Yugi.) Upstart Goblin is an unusual Magic card that allows you to draw an extra card, but raises your opponent's LP by 1000. Go figure. Lastly, the Black Pendant is a rare card that powers up any Monster by 500 points. But, when it is sent to the Graveyard, it inflicts 500 points of direct damage to your enemy's LP. All the cards described here, with the exception of Wingweaver, are found in the Magic Ruler booster. And all owned by me! Except for Black Pendant and Wingweaver. Okay, back to the story...

"Now THAT was fun. Remember their faces when we kicked their butts?"
"Definitely." Mai closed her eyes, pretending to be savoring the victory as if it had just occured yesterday.
Seto grunted. "Sounds like you two are quite the pair."
"Yea you could say that." Kyara leaned on Kaiba's shoulder. "I wonder if they're going to have tag duels here?"
"I think so." Seto replied. "One on one matches alone lose their novelty after a while. I can ask one of the sponsors later to see if there will be team duels this year."
Mai raised a curious eyebrow at Kyara's actions. She glanced at Kyara, then to Seto. "So..." she said slowy with a grin threatening to creep across her lips. "Are you two a couple or something?"
Kaiba winced at the word 'couple'. It sounded far too elderly in his opinion. "If your asking it we're going out," he answered evenly. "Yes."
All the while, the rest of the group had been watching intently, they were waiting for Mai's reaction. To their surprise, she burst out laughing. "Seriously? You two are dating?! Then congragulations!"
"If you ask me, I think Mai only said that because she's afraid of what Kaiba might do to her if she said otherwise." Tristan mumbled into Joey's ear.
"Lay off it, man." Joey answered. "Let's just focus on getting something to eat here!"
Yugi pointed at a building about a block away. "There's the place, guys. Let's get going."

"This place looks great." Joey declared as they all entered the restaurant. "I smell pepperoni pizza!"
"Ugh," Tristan sniffed the air tenatively. "How can you still like pizza after that science project fiasco?"
"Simple," Joey said as he sat down at a table. "The pizza only hurt my grades, not my stomach."
"What kind of philosophy is that?!" Te'a asked as she seated herself.
"Mine." Joey snorted.
"Enough with the chatter." Ryo commented as a waiter approached them. "We'll take three large cheese pizza-"
"Better make it four, man." Joey remarked. "All that walking really stimulates my appetite!"
"Uh, okay...four large cheese pizzas and nine sodas."
"Hold on a sec, Ryo." Tristan held up his hand. "Instead of a soda, I think I'll take an extra-large chocolate milkshake."
"All right then."
Joey regarded Tristan's request as a challenge. "I'll take one too! C'mon, Tristan, let's see who can eat the most pizza and drink the most milkshakes!"
"Is that a bet? Then you're on!"
Te'a groaned. "Something tells me this meal won't be as quiet and calm as I hoped it would be..."

About twenty minutes later, their food arrived. Without even waiting for it to cool, Tristan and Joey dug in. Mai winced as the duo shoved large amounts of food into their mouths.
"Disgusting."
From beside Mai, Kyara tittered helplessly. "I wonder who's going to choke first!"
Mai nodded. "Just watch, it'll be Joey. Trust me, I know."
Wordless, Seto applied himself to a slice primly, as if trying to show what etiquette the other two should be using. In his opinion, of course, Seto believed that neither Tristan or Joey could use table etiquette, let alone spell the word.Mokuba slurped his beverage cheerfully and conversed with Mai and Kyara in between sips. "So Mai, have you had your first duel yet?"
"Yep." she answered proudly. "I beat some guy who thought he could beat me just because I was a girl."
"Ugh, I hate those kind of people." Kyara grimaced.
"Eh, forget them!" Mai reached for her drink. "We'll show them once we get back to the Convention Center."