ONE CARD SHORT:
CHAPTER FOUR - SAVIOR OR NOT
"If you have a wish, you should just go for it."
Written by Gregory Smith
All characters portrayed within are copyright 1996 Kazuki Takahashi,
With the exception of Gradius, who is copyright 2003 Gregory Smith.
As the long, rainy day carried on, Yugi became less and less interested in what was going on in his classes, and more and more interested with the girl he'd seen on the bus. There was even a point where he started mumbling aloud how "stupid he thought math was, and if he had the choice, he'd abolish it." This, naturally, didn't receive a very optimistic reaction from Yugi's calculus teacher, as she sent him to the principal's office. But Yugi didn't go to the office; instead, he wandered the halls.
This isn't anything like me, Yugi thought as his leather boots clicked against the tile floor of Domino City High School's hallway, so why am I acting like this? I've been like this ever since the end of sophomore year… If only Yami hadn't Yugi closed that line of thinking; he wasn't going to think about Yami today. However, Yugi couldn't find any other thoughts to occupy his brain, so he just continued to walk through the school building.
Somehow, some way, Yugi had walked up the steps to the roof and now faced the door that led to it. "Hmm," Yugi contemplated as he reached for the door handle, "I wonder if the rain's letting up at all." Upon opening the door, he found that it was; it had stopped raining almost entirely. The sun was stealing a glance out from behind a cloud, and the same gray clouds were moving away from Domino City. Yugi smiled a little bit; his first smile in an entire year. Something about looking at Domino City from this height made him happy; he was content with life. "I wish I could just stay up here and watch this scenery forever…"
"So what's stopping you, Yugi?" called the same tomboyish voice that had called to Kaiba earlier that very same day, "If you have a wish, you should just go for it."
"Who?" Yugi wondered as he turned around, meeting the redheaded girl from the bus that morning eye-to-eye, "It's you!"
"Yeah, it's me!" she answered, giggling and folding her arms behind her head as she leaned back against a wall, "You've been thinking about me a lot today, haven't you, Yugi?" When Yugi's answer was just a modicum of mumbled, incomprehensible words, she knew that she was right.
"Well," Yugi began, subsequent to composing himself, "I was just confused as to who you were. With the way we 'met' on the bus this morning, I haven't been able to stop wondering about you."
The girl looked slightly agitated. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" she muttered, narrowing her eyes a little bit towards Yugi.
"It means…" Yugi stammered, trying to get a handle on his words, " It means that I want to get to know you better."
The girl's mood seemed to get even fouler after that remark. "And would you mind telling me, Yugi," the girl mumbled, now unfolding her arms and taking a few steps towards Yugi, "what you're trying to say here?"
Yugi took a step back, becoming slightly afraid of how menacing the girl had suddenly become. OK, Yugi, he thought, looking into the girl's angry green eyes, what the hell did you say? What'd you do so wrong that pissed her off this much?…
Suddenly, it hit Yugi like a steamroller. Not her.
Him.
"Err…" Yugi spluttered, trying to save himself from being thrown off the roof of the school building by the guy he'd mistaken for a girl, "…I didn't catch your name…?"
"Huh?" the boy inquired as he stopped, his eyes suddenly returning to their normal vibrancy, "Oh! It's Gradius! Gradius Twinburniern!" The boy smiled, putting out his right hand.
In his mind, Yugi let out a sigh of relief (while thanking God that this kid was a little bit bipolar), and shook Gradius' hand. "Pleased to meet you, Gradius," he said, his voice now confident, since he knew Gradius wasn't going to try and rip his limbs off, "I'm Yugi Mutou." Great move, there, Yugi, he thought, telling him who you are. If he doesn't know who you are, he's been living under a rock for the past two years…
Gradius grinned. "Who doesn't know that?" he questioned jokingly as he let go of Yugi's hand, "You're the King of Games!" This netted an energetic laugh from Yugi, who hadn't been called by his world-class title in at least an entire year. This laughter befuddled Gradius. "What's so funny, Yugi?"
"It's just" Yugi started, then laughed again; after about a minute, he calmed himself down a little bit so that he could respond, "It's just that nobody's called me that since the Battle City tournament!" After a little bit more laughing, Yugi decided it was time to get down to business. Gradius was there to meet with him for a reason, and Yugi wanted to know why. It seemed like Gradius understood this when he was the first one to start up the conversation again.
"Yugi," Gradius started, becoming serious, "idle chat isn't the reason I followed you here. I have something urgent that I need to discuss with you."
Yugi nodded, understanding. "And that is?" he asked, feeling like he knew what the question was going to be about, anyway. I'm not going along with it, Yugi thought, if this has anything to do with
"The Shadow Games," Gradius spoke, a twinge of fear in his voice, "and you're the only one who can stop them."
Yugi glared, hate welling up inside of him. He wasn't getting involved this time; savior or not, he was tired of it. Yami was gone, so he didn't have any need (or desire) to be a hero anymore. "I'm sorry Gradius," he sighed, walking past his new "friend" and opening the exit door from the roof, "I can't help you. The Shadow Games don't concern me anymore." And with that he exited the roof, leaving Gradius standing alone in the wind.
"That's what you think, Yugi," Gradius growled, his emerald eyes becoming silver, as the wind around him began to pick up due to some inexplicable force, "You're going to help us, whether you like it or not." As Gradius spoke, the cloud cover moved back over Domino City, and the downpour began violently. In the stratosphere, a purple-black sphere enveloped the planet, shrouding the world in a violet darkness.
It was from this sordid event that the second round of the Shadow Games began.
