A Legacy Unfinished
Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh because, despite all references I have, I still can't draw any of them.
Summary: Sequel to 'Identity'. The legacy carries on in a new timeline – modern Domino. Ryou and Seto face new problems the legacy holds in store for them. Semi-AU Duellist Kingdom and Battle City S/R YY/R
Chapter Title: First Duel
Warnings: yaoi, OOC, swearing, semi-AU, weirdness of character and DK, BC plot changing! If you don't like, DON'T READ! And all flames will go to burning Anzu/Tea, and assisting Baku and Marik in their evil schemes.
Author's Notes: All right, Mai and Keith are still in the game. I'll take care of Seto and Bakura's whereabouts, ok? Now, onto the fic!
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Chapter Six: First Duel
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Yugi and Jounouchi spotted a familiar figure lurking in the bushes only moments after the fireworks had ended. The blonde shouted above the noise of the other contestants, causing Yami to turn around and look at what he was pointing at.
"Oi!" Jounouchi shouted. "You there!"
"Jounouchi-kun, what's wrong?"
"It's him!" Yugi said. "He's the one who threw away the Exodia Cards!"
And Yami recognised him too. He had seen the green-haired duellist on television during the regional championships. There was no mistaking the insect-shaped glasses and the permanent smirk plastered to that pasty face. It was the kind of look that made him want to just snap and give him a taste of his fist.
"He's running away!"
"Follow him then," Yami said, running. "Come on!"
Haga led them through the thick of the contestants, earning themselves shouts of annoyance. He disappeared into the forests. Without hesitation, Jounouchi, Honda, Yugi and Yami followed him, leaving the others behind. Ryou blinked at how fast his boyfriend just ran off, but shrugged and followed Bakura elsewhere.
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They followed Haga into the forest, where they were instantly swarmed by moths. Covering their faces, the four of them ran on, barely managing to make out Haga's figure up ahead, running in the distance. Jounouchi yelled at him to stop, but the duellist didn't seem to hear anything.
"Who set the rules so that the whole island is a battleground?" Jounouchi said angrily, swatting away the moths.
That's a good point, Yami thought. Why such a big battleground for a simple card tournament? There must be a reason.
"Remember what Haga said back on the ship?" Yugi asked, calling over his shoulder. "Something about there being a new rule in the tournament."
"Oh yeah . . ." Jounouchi said.
Yami frowned. He hadn't been there when Yugi and Jounouchi were told about the new tournament rule, but he had a bad feeling about it. Besides, then it would explain the reason why Haga would go to all this trouble to lure them into the forest instead of just battling them there and then.
Suddenly, the trees gave way to an open clearing. Haga was standing on the other end of the clearing, smirking at them. Yami, Yugi, Honda and Jounouchi stopped, glaring at him.
"Haga!"
The green-haired duellist cackled at them. Yugi started forward.
"You threw away Jiichan's Exodia cards!" he shouted.
"I won't forgive you for it," Yami said angrily. "I challenge you to a duel."
"That's good," Haga said, grinning evilly. "You're the one who beat Kaiba! When I beat you, I'll be the winner of this whole tournament for sure!"
"We'll see about that."
"DUEL START!"
For a brief moment, nothing happened. Then the ground began to tremble violently, sending them all off-balance. Jounouchi cursed as he grabbed onto Honda for support. Haga's cackles were heard over the trembling. Yami gritted his teeth.
"What's this . . .?"
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Bakura carried his backpack as he dragged Ryou away from the crowd of duellists, muttering something about 'stupid tournaments'. Ryou sighed in exasperation and amusement, shaking his head. His brother was a very, very impulsive person and liked to act on his emotions, which often got them both into a lot of trouble.
"Ne, niisan, what are you doing?"
"Going to find somewhere quiet."
"Aren't you going to duel?"
"That, baka otouto, will be a matter of whether the people who approach me are worthy of my time."
Ryou sighed again, looking back towards the dispersing crowds. He wanted to follow Yami and watch him duel. Those duels were always so exciting. But he had run off after Insector Haga, supposedly for a duel of their own, so he had no choice but to follow his brother. Not after farewelling a certain CEO and his younger brother of course, just to be polite.
He sniffed a little, the cold still bothering him. Swinging the bag forward so that it was now in front of him, he rummaged inside for the pack of tablets Kaiba had given him on the ship. As he was going through one of the pockets, his cell phone began to ring.
"Moshi moshi?" he said in to the phone.
"Ryou?"
"Tousan?"
Bakura realised he had stopped walking and turned around, seeing him on the phone. Ryou mouthed 'tousan' and pointed to the phone, earning himself a nod of acknowledgment.
"Where are you?"
"Oh, tousan, niisan and I are at a tournament," Ryou said quickly. "It's a Duel Monsters' tournament held by Pegasus. I left a note on the fridge."
"You did?" his father sounded surprised. "Oh, wait, I see it now. Gomen, I should have checked before I doubted your responsibility. I just panicked when the two of you weren't home and when your brother didn't pick up . . ."
"Niisan never turns on his cell phone," Ryou said, shooting an accusing glare in Bakura's direction. "Don't bother with it."
"Oh well . . . let me talk to him for a sec."
Ryou held out the phone to his brother, who glared at him questioningly. He shrugged and mouthed 'he wants to talk to you'. Rolling his eyes, Bakura took the phone from his younger brother and drawled out a lazy 'hey, tousan.' Ryou winced as he heard his father's voice from inside the tiny machine.
"I gave you the cell phone for a reason!" he was screeching. "You almost gave me a heart attack when you didn't pick up! Why can't you be responsible?"
"Itai," Bakura grumbled, holding the phone away from his ear. "Hai, hai, tousan, I get your point. I'll turn on my cell phone when I get home and charge the batteries. Yeah, yeah . . . we'll be back in a week or so, if I get into the finals. Otherwise . . . look, the most a week, ok? All right! See ya!"
He hung up, growling murderously under his breath.
"He hasn't yelled that loud since the time we went to the amusement park by ourselves. If I remember correctly, he yelled at me for being 'irresponsible' and 'setting a bad example for your otouto'."
"You can't really blame him," Ryou said, stuffing his phone back into his bag. "I mean, really. The time you took me to the amusement park was shortly after kaasan's death. We were all agitated."
In a rare moment of affection, Bakura reached over and ruffled his younger brother's hair. Ryou squeaked indignantly, but smiled nevertheless. Despite the cold and uncaring, bad boy attitude that Bakura often adopted, he was very protective where Ryou was concerned.
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The ground split open to reveal a large, rectangular hole. The sound of mechanical whirring sounded over the trembling of the ground, alerting Yami to the fact that something was rising from inside the opening. He braced himself for any surprises while Haga just kept laughing.
A large, metallic object rose up from the ground. It was blue on one side and red on the other. The middle space was just grey with a large number 15 painted on the side. From both ends of the rectangular space rose towers. When everything seemed to be in place, the ground stopped its shaking. Yami's eyes widened in recognition at the object in front of them.
"This is the duelling arena we will be using," Haga said.
"The duelling arena . . ." Yami repeated.
"You mean the whole island is installed with heaps of these things?" Jounouchi yelped, staring at the duelling arena.
"Come on, Yami, let's begin!"
Haga ran to the red platform, dropping his bag down at his feet. The platform rose immediately so that he was now standing on top of the tower, overlooking the stadium. On the blue end, Yami came up also.
"We both have two star chips," Haga smirked. "So we're even. I bet one star chip on the outcome of this duel."
"No, I want you to bet on both your star chips," Yami said.
"Nani?"
"Only one of us can stay here."
"And if I don't?" Haga's smirk widened. "Can you bet with something that I will be happy with?"
"Our identity as a duellist," Yami said without hesitation. "Our decks."
"Omoshiroi," Haga smirked. "That's fine with me. If I had known this sooner, then I wouldn't have thrown away your Exodia cards."
On the ground, Jounouchi, Yugi and Honda were staring in horror. Yami wanted to bet his deck on the outcome of the duel? Yugi knew how much his Duel Monsters deck meant to his brother, and yet he was still willing to put his deck and his duelling career on the line . . .
"You can beat him, Yami!" Jounouchi yelled.
People were beginning to gather from the edges of the trees.
"Look, minna! There's a duel over there!" a guy yelled.
"That's Japan's number one duellist, Insector Haga and . . . that's . . ."
Jounouchi smirked and turned around to face the two boys.
"That's Mutou Yami, the one who beat world champion Kaiba," he told them. Then he jabbed a thumb to his own chest. "And I'm his friend, Jounouchi."
The people appearing were stunned. They looked up at the two duellists on the platform in awe and surprise.
"Yami and Haga?" they repeated. "Oh wow, a battle of kings!"
"Let's begin, Yami!" Haga crowed.
The playing field between them began to glow and holographic images of grassland flickered into view. But Yami and Haga paid it no mind, eyes focused on their opponent as they began the duel.
"DUEL!"
The life point counters turned to 2000. Haga called his turn and drew a card from his deck, smirking at Yami.
"The card I just drew is the Killer Bee (1200/1000). I play it in attack mode!"
The simulators inside the field hummed to life and a holographic image of the Killer Bee flickered to life, hovering over its square. Undaunted, Yami drew his own card.
"The card I play is Mammoth Graveyard (1200/800)," he said clearly. "I summon it in attack mode!"
Mammoth Graveyard appeared on the field, opposite the Killer Bee.
"Our monsters both have the same number of attack points. BATTLE!"
Haga only laughed.
"Let's go Killer Bee!" he shouted. "Attack!"
The two monsters collided in the centre of the field. Then, Mammoth Graveyard disappeared from the field, much to Yami's shock and Haga's amusement.
"Killer Bee has defeated Mammoth Graveyard."
But the attack points are the same, Yami thought to himself in shock. How did my Mammoth Graveyard get defeated?
"You're probably wondering why I chose this particular field for our duel," Haga said, grinning maniacally. "Well, let me tell you this: I am the only one Pegasus has told about this new tournament rule. Look at the field. It's 80 forest and 20 grassland. This field is the perfect place for my insect cards, so my insect cards' points are boosted up from the power in this field. So both the attack and defence points receive a 30 power up!"
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Two albino boys, no matter how tough one of them looked, was easy prey in the eyes of someone who had malicious intent. That was how, a little after their father's phone call, Bakura and Ryou found themselves surrounded by a gang of duellists, all taller and more fit than they were. Bakura stood protectively in front of Ryou, glaring at the others.
"What do you want?" he growled.
"Two girly-boys like you shouldn't be here," the leader sniggered. He had blonde hair tied up underneath a bandanna and an unshaven look. "I doubt you even know how to duel."
"Niisan . . ." Ryou whispered, eyes wide with fear.
"Get lost, buggers," Bakura said, waving his hand regally, his voice and expression mocking. "You wouldn't be able to beat me in a duel."
"Who said we wanted to duel you?" the ringleader asked.
"Then what do you want?"
"Oh, the company of your beautiful otouto here," the blonde said lazily, looking Ryou up and down. "And your star chips."
"Over my dead body," Bakura spat.
The blonde leader snarled and leapt for Ryou, who shrunk back behind Bakura. The elder albino punched their attacker in the face, knocking him backwards and sprawling on the ground. He scrambled to his feet, clutching his jaw painfully.
"Nobody punches Bandit Keith and gets away with it," he growled.
"RYOU RUN!" Bakura shouted, shoving his younger brother away. "Run and don't look back!"
"Niisan!" Ryou yelled, looking back at Bakura in horror as he obeyed. "Be careful! I'll meet you back where we started, all right?"
Bakura shouted back an affirmative and turned back to the gang. He swore. Half the guys had gone after Ryou, who had never been a fighter. It was times like these he wished he had bothered to teach Ryou basic self defence. At least, if he couldn't outrun them, then he could do them some injury, like a knee in the balls or something. If they got Ryou, they would get his star chips as well. He had left them with Ryou in case he lost them.
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Ryou ran and ran, knowing all too well that there were three guys at his tail. He kept running, glad that, instead of bringing a sports bag to this tournament, he had brought a backpack. It was still a heavy weight, of course, but at least it wasn't slipping off his shoulder every few seconds.
"You're so gonna regret this when we catch you kid."
That's if, Ryou thought. I might not have power, but I have stamina.
But then someone lunged at him from the side, knocking him into the bushes as he turned the corner. His scream was muffled by a hand over his mouth and he was pinned down beneath a tall, lean body. So he just lay there quietly, eyes wide, as his pursuers ran off in another direction.
"Daijoubu ka?" the person above him whispered in a very familiar voice.
Ryou nodded, relief washing over him. The hand was removed from his mouth and the body lifted off his as Kaiba went to check whether or not the pursuers had really gone. The albino dragged himself into a sitting position, gathering his wits about him enough to calm down.
"A-Arigatou, Kaiba-kun," he whispered.
"It was nothing," Kaiba replied, crouching down in front of him. "Just tell me why those guys were after you."
"I-I don't know. Niisan and I were just walking . . . and then these guys just surrounded us and – and they wanted –"
He looked ready to burst into tears. Kaiba sighed, wrapping an arm around his back and lifting him to his feet gently but firmly. When Ryou's knees buckled, the CEO took the bag from his back and guided his hand so that it was around his shoulders.
"I'm meeting niisan back where the tournament started," Ryou whispered. "In front of Pegasus' castle."
"Let's wait for Mokuba first," Kaiba said. "MOKUBA!"
A small figure trotted out from behind nearby bushes. Mokuba grinned up at his brother and the albino.
"Ready to go, niisama?" he chirped.
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End Chapter Six--------
Author's Notes:
I'm not gonna write the rest of the Haga-Yami duel because we ALL know who's going to win. Instead, I'm going to skip a few duels, change a few things and yada . . .
Review!
Relinquished