Chapter 4

Ring! Ring!

The school's final bell rung, signalling school was out. It was a beautiful, midafternoon with not a single cloud in the sky and the temperature was perfect. Anxious to leave the school grounds, Yugi, Joey, Tristan and Tea stepped out of the school's doors, walking quickly.

"School could not have ended later," complained Tristan.

"No kidding," agreed Joey. "Let's grab a bite to eat, huh?"

They all agreed as they took their first steps off of school property. No sooner a large crowd had approached them, full of people whom they did not even know.

"Uh, you all tourists or somethin'?" Joey asked them sarcasticly, disregarding the duel disks attached to their wrists. "Ya lost?"

"No," one of them said to him then turned to the shortest member of their group of four. "You Yugi Mutou?"

"Yeah..." said Yugi, backing away. He knew it again was another group of duelists that wished to challenge him for his Egyptian God cards. It must have been the third time that week.

"Duel me!" one person after another yelled to him. "No short stub could possibly be capable of holding cards so powerful!"

The crowd of duelists circled around the four. Tristan and Joey stood in front of Yugi, hoping that he would not be noticed. Of course, this failed miserably and the crowd began closing the space in on them.

"First one 'oo gets to 'im duels 'im first!" one of the guys shouted. The large crowd ran in on them, the space that separated them being lost.

There was so much shouting and shoving that none of the duelists seemed to be able to find the shorter Yugi. Joey and Tristan continued to cover him and protect him from the mob, but soon even they wouldn't be able to hold them off. Tristan finally came up with an idea to get Yugi out of there.

"Tea, take Yugi and hide him somewhere! We'll distract them!" he shouted, Tea barely able to hear them from all the shouting from the duelists.

"You sure?" she called back to them.

"Yeah, now take him and go!" Joey ordered. Tea grabbed Yugi's arm and whipped him out of the crowd. Without looking back, the two of them dashed off into the city. Luckily for them, none of the duelists had noticed Yugi's departure until a bit later.

Joey and Tristan were able to sneak their way out of the large crowd, who was still fussing about with one another. They wiped the sweat off their foreheads and began to walk away.

"Hey, you two!" the crowd noticed them walking away. "Where'd Yugi go? What did you do with him?"

"Oh, I don't know. The guy's a shrimp, so he probably just crawled his way outta there while y'all head your heads up eachother's asses trying to catch him," Joey told them and laughed. The crowd was angered by his sarcastic remark.

"Hey, dog," a tall, brown-eyed duelist walked in front of the crowd. Though Japanese, he seemed to use a lingo similar to that of a supposed ghetto person. "You go'n tell us wurr this Yugi punk is, an' I'm go'n duel 'im and take his God cards! Ya hear?"

While the entire 'dog' name-calling was part of his lingo, Joey took it offensively, remembering the many other times he had been called a dog. Without fear, though significantly under sized, Joey approached him and was up in his face. Tristan tried to grab his arm, but failed.

"You callin' me a dog...dog?" Joey told him. "How 'bout we duel?"

The duelist laughed.

"You ain't worth my time," he said, walking away. Joey grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back towards him.

"Let's see if you can handle a number one contender first! Then Yugi can school your ass if you still please for him to do so!" Joey was screaming at him now.

"Joey, I don't think Seto Kaiba's gonna want to make a trip out here, especially for us," Tristan warned him.

Furious, Joey shoved Tristan back and turned back to the dog calling opponent.

"Alright, ghetto boy! Let's duel already!" Joey challenged him.

Though annoyed, the skilled duelist decided to accept to teach him a lesson. Both duelists set up the holograms and set their duel disks to 4000 Life Points.

Panting, Tea and Yugi must have run to the middle of the city. They looked back to find no one following them, which meant they had gotten away for the moment. Somehow, they did not feel entirely safe. There were hundreds of duelists wandering the city streets, and just the sight of Yugi would make them run home to get their decks and duel disks. Hiding in an alley, Tea and Yugi brainstormed places they could go to hide for a bit, as they were sick of running.

"Popularity sucks," Yugi complained still panting. "I swear, I'm mobbed every five seconds of my life."

Yugi, who hardly ever complained about anything, poked his head around the corner. There were no duelists in sight at the moment, but Yugi could not afford to be deceived. For all he knew, he could have been stormed by another pack of duelists any second.

"We better decide where to go now, because if we go out there and people see us, we'll be mobbed," Tea noted. Yugi nodded in agreement.

"What's nearby that no one may suspect me to be in?" Yugi asked her, not giving much thought to it himself.

Tea thought for a few moments then poked her head out of the alley to look for a hiding place. There was a gorgeous fountain in the center of the town, with many people walking from store to store. The streets filled with cars and other modes of transportation. Then far across the street from where they were was the Domino Museum. Tea thought that would be the best place to hide out for a bit, because the stores were more packed with possible duelists than the museum would be.

"Over there," she pointed to the museum. Yugi liked the idea, and the two ran into the museum, hiding from the pack of duelists.

"And now, I sacrifice my last Scapegoat, my Alligator Swords, and my Baby Dragon to bring out Guilford the Lightning!" Joey had just summoned his best monster onto the field. "And with its special ability, I can destroy every one o' your monsters on the field!"

His opponent stood in disbelief. His arms fell to his sides and his face was in a matter of shock.

"That's right, dog!" Joey teased. "Guilford, destroy all his monsters, then attack his life points directly!"

In one giant swing of his massive sword, Guilford the Lightning slashed all of Joey's opponent's monsters to shreds, sending out a flash of lightning with the swing. The monster holograms screamed, then shattered in midair, disappearing. Guilford was the only monster, let alone the only card on the field. Guilford cried out in a loud tone, then leaped swiftly towards his target. He raised his sword above his head as Joey's opponent shrieked. Then Guilford swung his sword vertically, hitting the duelist with the sharp side of his blade. The sword flashed yellow as it moved, and the duelist was sent flying backwards and into another duelist. He stood up and looked at his duel disk, which showed his Life Points drop to zero.

"Now," spoke Joey, his duel disk reformed itself to a more portable piece of technology. "There anyone else who wants to face me? C'mon, at least ya won't be on the receiving end of Yugi's God cards."

The crowd of duelists began to run off, each of them going their own direction. Joey felt proud of himself for breaking up the group. As the hologram projectors returned to his duel disk, he stood tall as if he were king of the world.

"I gotta admit, that was pretty smooth," Tristan complimented him.

"You bet it was! Ya see that? I cleaned his clocks!" he began to brag.

"Oh yeah, you really took it to him. I mean you beat him by at least 300 Life Points. That's a lot," Tristan sighed as Joey continued to ramble about his great victory.

That had taken much longer than either of them had expected it to take. They had given Yugi and Tea plenty of time to make their escape. Now their main concern was catching back up to them.

"Oh boy," Tristan said. "Now we gotta find them again."

The two began walking in the direction they had last seen their friends run off to. It was already late afternoon, with the night still ahead.

Seto lifted his wrist and looked at his watch. He was growing impacient! He didn't want to wait another minute for Yugi to arrive so he could duel him. He began pacing around the dueling arena, his temper starting to run short.

Coming from the entrance, a familiar figure came in. It was the hobo Kaiba had encountered at Pegasus' island. Seto stopped his pacing as the hobo approached him, his face still hidden.

"I assume you have created a flawless strategy," the hobo said to him, almost whispering.

"Indeed I have," Kaiba assured him. "What are you doing here?"

"I have come to wish you luck on your duel, and I hope everything goes as planned," he patted Seto on the back. Kaiba stepped back.

"I won't need any luck to win this duel," Kaiba snapped. "I will claim victory of this duel! I will get back my number one duelist rank! I will regain all the pride Yugi swiped away from me for so long! I will-"

"My, my, aren't we a little autogenous?" the hobo laughed. "Do not worry, Seto Kaiba. I doubt you not in your abilities to win this duel and reclaim all you have lost. I have apathy for you."

"As you should," Kaiba remarked. "My strategy is indubitable! Indubitable, I say!"

"I really hope you have not had anything to drink," he joked. "Otherwise I'd call you Pegasus."

Kaiba couldn't help but grin at the remark.

"Well anyway, my quest here is done. Victory will be on your side tonight," the hobo said as he began to leave.

"Wait," Kaiba stopped. "Aren't you going to stay and watch me win?"

The hobo turned around and laughed lightly.

"You should not be concerned about that," he told him.

"But you gave me the card so I could defeat Yugi, because apparently you have something against him, too," Seto stated. "Why do you wish to see him fall?"

Again, the hobo laughed lightly and turned back towards the exit. The sunlight shining in from the doorway made the back of his dark clothes more visible.

"Not that it is any of your business, Seto Kaiba," he began. "Let us just say is that he will suffer the humiliation you and I have been through before. And vengeance shall be payed."

His words seemed to fade as he walked back out the door. Shoving the door closed with one hand, he pulled out a new toy from his belt, a small, sharp toy that would be of good use, if everything went accordingly, later that night.

Kaiba was a bit confused about the second half of the hobo's statement, but he was disconcerned with it. He looked at his watch again and his short temper and impacience returned. Instead of pacing this time, he pulled out his deck and looked through it once again. He pulled out the two cards that would be the answers to Yugi's defeat. Obviously he was obsessed with them, and his obsession would become the blinding factor that would prevent him from seeing reality.