Seto jumped off the boat as soon as it landed on the beach, he took a moment to breath in the fresh air of the island, before hauling Mokuba out of the boat.
"Come on, we have to find a duelling arena, then we can pick some targets for you to beat."
Mokuba looked down at his Italian loafers that his brother had bought him for Christmas.
"Uhm… Seto…."
Kaiba looked at his brother, Here it comes, prepare yourself.
Mokuba looked up and saw his brother's face set, his mouth formed a hard line, his eyes shrunk, it was his business face, Mokuba studied his shoes again.
"I'd rather… erm… pick my own duels… and… urgh… not have the…uhm… best duellist in the world breathing down my opponent's neck while we duel."
"It's ok Mokuba, I understand, I guess I'll see you in the 3rd round then."
Seto was all business but Mokuba knew it was tearing him apart underneath.
"Uhm… yeah guess so." Isn't he going to at least hang around until the other boats arrive?
"I guess… bye then." The older Kaiba turned around and haughtily marched into the wood.
Mokuba sat down, forlorn, all around him the other duellists raced into the wood, determined to take an advantage before the last boats arrived.
A motorboat sped towards a crowd of seagulls floating on the water;
"Hey man, gimme some fizzy jerks."
"Here you go."
Tristan passed the sweets to his blonde friend who emptied them into the palm of his hand.
"Any idea who's got Yugi's puzzle yet?"
"If I did they'd be dead so fast!..."
"Joey, anyone who has it, has probably recognised it, and sent that Goth chick to the shadow realm to get it."
"Whaddya saying?"
"I'm saying that perhaps you won't be able to clean up your own mistake this time."
As the boat passed close to the seagulls Joey lobbed his handful of sweets, the brightly coloured pellets flew into the air, where they were immediately grabbed by the scavenging seagulls.
"Aw not again Joey, you know this is going to delay your start time for the next round."
Half of the birds started to flap and propel themselves along the water
"They'll probably keep away from the boat. And are you calling me a bad duellist?"
Joey raised his fists half-heartedly, but Tristan couldn't see any anger in his eyes.
"Well you did lose to that Goth, but you also finished 3rd in battle city and second in duellist kingdom. I'm not calling you a bad duellist, but you've never beaten someone who had a millennium item and that's a fact, though Marik only beat ya 'cos he was a cheatin' bastard."
Joey opened his mouth to retaliate, but Tristan beat him to it; "I know you beat Yugi earlier, but you must no he let you win or u don't even have half the brains I give you credit for, and we all know blondes are stupid in the first place…."
Up above them, seagulls began to explode, each cried out a loud "SQUWARK!" before showering the boat with bloody goo.
Under her sunhat, Mai woke up.
"Not again! I thought you learned your lesson when I made you clean out my car with your toothbrush."
"I'll get a mop."
Joey slunk off, his shoulders drooped.
(North beach)
Yugi's boat pulled up on the shore and he jumped out, gone was his usual school uniform replaced by jeans and a black t-shirt with a dark purple vortex spiralling towards the centre in homage to his duel-monster cards.
He watched as all of the other duellists sprinted into the forest, determined to find duelling arenas to challenge others from.
Looking around he spotted Mai, Tristan and Serenity climing out of a boat covered in what appeared to be guts.
Either Marik convinced them to sacrifice a chicken or Joey's been playing with seagulls again
At a closer look he spotted a shock of blonde hair sticking up from the boat just in front of a mop handle that waggled back and forth.
Yugi looked around for Tea, found her looking for her Australian friend and decided he was better off alone.
He set off towards the woods, his mind seething with possibilities over who might have the millennium puzzle and where it could be when he almost tripped over a boy sitting on the ground checking his deck.
"Sorry about that, are you okay?"
He asked.
"Fine"
Came the muffled reply.
"Wait, I know that voice…"
Yugi wrenched the boy's hat off and low and behold it was Mokuba Kaiba.
"Why aren't you with Seto?"
"I uh told him I wanted to go it alone."
"Why don't you come with me, that way you're sure to meet up with him at the end of the tournament, because he never misses a chance to duel me and if I wear your cap, nobody will recognise me so you can fight some good duels."
Mokuba looked up at him and watched as Yugi tucked his hair under the cap, without his millennium puzzle and pointy hair he found that even he couldn't recognise him. Mokuba leapt to his feet.
"This'll be great, you can teach me all you know and then I can face my brother in the finals and prove to him that I don't need to be protected anymore."
The two walked off into the woods.
(North beach)
Joey tipped the last bucket full of blood stained water over the side,
"Can I please go now?"
He asked the beefy pilot who had been sitting watching him.
"Bugger off before I get ya' kicked outa the tournament blondie."
The sailor answered.
"And remember I'm duelling in this tournament too pup, so stay outa my way and I won't make things difficult for ya."
Joey made a gesture involving two of his fingers in response and walked off with his sister, Tristan and Mai. As they reached the tree line Joey turned to Mai and said.
"Jeez that old sea-dog's grumpy, he ought' ta ligh'en' up."
"Joey you covered his boat in seagull guts, just be thankful he let it go after you cleaned up. Calling me a pup… Wait, I know what to do."
Mai and Tristan hit their hands against their faces then tried to grab Joey before he yelled;
"Oi you, big-dog, come and duel me if you think you're hard enough!"
But they were too late.
(L-space)
Ok, I actually know where the plot's headed now, no questions it will all be revealed soon enough. Yugi always needs to be in a posse with someone, its Yami who's the loner. Standby for a sneak peak at the next chapter;
Joey watched in terror as the tree fell, everything seemed to slow down around him as it crashed down, breaking branches against the other elms that occupied the forest, he felt his legs go numb, his entire body was paralyzed, he could not move. He felt his heart beat against his ribcage as he took what he thought was going to be his final breath.
(Disappears in a flash of smoke dragging his next chapter with him, all you can see is a shiny blue button)
