Behind the Scenes
By Anime2000
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!. Any of it other than the cards and other fan stuff that we're ALLOWED to have.Simple enough?
Hi everyone! Agh, I had written this chapter a month ago. Never did get a chance to upload it, though...
Notice any changes to chapter one? Yeah, I rewrote the first couple of chapters or so into one big one—as I've explained. I hope you guys like—or at least are okay—with the changes.
Strangely, this fic started out as a throwaway fic that I meant to delete if the reviews didn't reach ten. But I've found a new inspiration for this fic—including an ending! Weird how things turn out, huh?
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"I can't believe this," Bakura looked absolutely disgusted.
"Mahaado, tell me you're kidding around," Tristan clasped his hands together and was practically begging.
"Mana's gonna win!" sang Yugi.
With that, the blond girl promptly slammed the indigo-haired man's hand down on the table. Hard. Mahaado stared at the defeated palm in disbelief as she clapped her hands together and laughed, "I win again!" She crossed her fingers, rested her chin on them, and gave him a sweet smile and said, "Wanna play again?"
After losing three arm wrestling matches, in a row, with the actress for the Dark Magician Girl, the actor for the Dark Magician knew better than to accept. He just wondered how she could be so freakin' strong. "No..."
"Okay, Taylor, you owe me five bucks." Bakura held a hand out for his pay.
"Yeah, yeah..." Tristan grumbled and grudgingly relinquished the five.
Meanwhile, around them, the number of fans at the Yu-Gi-Oh! convention had tripled, and were on the verge of quadrupling. Yami and Yugi were already signing dozens of autographs per minute; Yami doing most of the work while Yugi disappeared randomly at random times. Like right now. He was visiting his two Spellcaster friends.
Tristan patted Mahaado's back sympathetically while Bakura snorted, "I mean honestly! Once was bad enough, but not twice—three times!" Mahaado glared at the white-haired actor and would not have hesitated to beat him up, if Mana hadn't intervened.
"Aw," she said and shrugged casually, "but Mahaado probably let me win, right?" She winked at him and nudged him hard in the ribs. Mahaado took the hint and nodded, sheepishly. Whether pretending, or actual feeling guilty for accepting the credit Mana had given him in order to redeem his masculinity, one couldn't tell. A little girl tugged lightly at Mana's skirt and asked if she was really the Dark Magician Girl. Mana replied with a broad grin and a nod. "I'm in my outfit, aren't I?"
"So you're really her?" the child asked curiously as she handed the older girl a notebook and a pen. "'Cause there's a lot of cosplayers here."
"Indubitably," Mana replied in a bubbly way as she signed it and handed it back. "Do you want Dark Magician to sign it, too?"
"Uh uh," the little girl said, smiling and shaking her head. "Dark Magician's not as cool as you!"
Mahaado actually did one of those infamous anime falls as the girl skipped off. He slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position with his arms and muttered, "Without the Dark Magician, there wouldn't be a Dark Magician Girl..." Bakura and Tristan roared with laughter, and Mana had difficulties suppressing a giggle. Yugi grinned and gave him an out of the blue hug.
Then he hugged the rest of the cast that stood by him. "My brother's probably wondering where I am, so I gotta go! Seeya!" As he skipped off, Mahaado wondered if he had one of those Yu-Gi-Oh! lollipops that were being sold for three dollars at the convention. They were very high in sugar.
"MANA!"
"Speaking of brothers..." Mana sighed and whirled around to face a tall man with blonde hair that reached his shoulders. Rather grumpily. "What's new?"
"Not your outfit, I can see," he said with a frown. "Didn't I tell you not to wear that thing?"
Mana threw her hands in the air in exasperation and cried, "But I'm the Dark Magician Girl! And this is a Yu-Gi-Oh! convention! And everyone else is wearing their costumes!" She pointed to Mahaado, who glanced down at his purple magician's robe and gave his staff a light wave as if to prove her point. "If he can wear that ridiculous thing, then why can't I wear mine?" This time, Mahaado folded his arms crossly and looked away. In the background, Bakura and Tristan were very close to turning blue from the lack of oxygen, due uncontrollable laughter.
"Because I don't want people staring you!" replied her older brother as a few random fans walked by. He snapped at them, "Mind your own business!" They quickened their pace.
"I'm an actress!" protested Mana, stamping a foot on the ground. "I'm on TV! People watch me all the time—at least when I'm on!"
"That's bad enough as it is."
"Big brother..." Mana was reduced to whining now.
"Mana..." He said, giving her a stern glare.
"Well, I'm not changing!" She said and folded her arms across her chest, stating that her word was final. "And what're you doing here anyway? You've gotta job to go to!"
"Fine, fine." He gave in. Before he left, he said to the 'mage-in-training', "But be careful; a few convicts escaped from jail a couple of hours ago. Don't talk to strangers. Stick close to people that you know. Stay away from weirdos. Be home by seven o'clock. And take the bus. Or I could come pick you up—"
"GO!" Mana barked and swung her wand at him. He backed away and waved sarcastically. "Agh! That's it! I'm escorting you to your car!" She grabbed his sleeve and dragged him to the main entrance of the building that the convention was held at.
When the two blondes left, Bakura asked Mahaado, "What's with him? You'd think that he was her father or something..."
"Their parents died in a car accident," said Mahaado quietly. Bakura nodded understandingly and gestured for him to continue. Mahaado rolled his eyes at the younger boy's inconsideration. Ever since Mana had been hired for the role of the Dark Magician Girl, Mahaado had gotten to know her very well. She had even become one of his close friends in such a short amount of time. "Well, anyway, she's under her brother's custody. End of story."
Bakura shrugged and went to look for Ryou. He just hoped that he hadn't been trapped by a bunch of fangirls. Bakura shuddered at the thought of the gruesome ending. Being glomped wasn't that bad, but multiple glomps at the same time could result in catastrophic outcomes. While he was deep in thought, a slender, black-clad figure pushed pass him. "Hey! Watch where you're going..." Bakura recognized the wild, black hair almost instantly. "Zeph?"
The Magician of Black Chaos took no hesitation in snarling back, "Well, if you were being chased by mob of fangirls, you'd be in a hurry, too! In fact..." A wicked grin appeared on his face as he whistled to a group of white-haired girls, whose natural hair colors were probably not white, and shouted. "Look, there's Bakura!"
And that's why Bakura started running. "You will pay for this!" He promised the Magician of Black Chaos just before the crowd overpowered him.
Zeph laughed and saluted him. "See? We're not so different after all, are we?" And then he realized that his own fans had caught up with him. So, he ran.
(-)
Yugi watched as Yami's pen whizzed across the sheets of paper. So quickly. Yugi admired his big brother's speed. His violet eyes followed the tip of the pen as the ink left a trail of blue on the paper and melded with the material. He could watch Yami sign autographs all day...
But Yami couldn't. "Yugi," he sighed and put down the pen, much to Yugi's disappointment, and flexed his fingers. "Yugi, do you mind actually signing a few of these?" He looked around when he got no answer. "Yugi?"
(-)
Tea couldn't believe she was doing this. She had been dared. If Yami or Joey... or anyone else from the cast saw her singing karaoke, that would be so embarrassing! But she liked to sing. She held the microphone to her lips, closed her eyes, and thought about the words to the song that she had chosen, Shuffle.
She started out weakly, but she realized that people were actually cheering for her later on! As she began to grow more confident, she opened her eyes. The music went on, but she had stopped singing. Malik and Mariku stood right in front of her. They traded glances and their mouths had curved into huge grins. Tea didn't like the looks of that. She suddenly lost the will to sing, and she stumbled over her words. "Aya... Ayatsurare... teru... teru no ka? on the field, daremo ga— Obiezu ni, go away, dem—demo..."
The song ended, and Malik and Mariku were the only ones clapping overenthusiastically. Tea blushed as she stepped off stage. She wondered what she did to deserve this.
"Geez, Gardner, you really blew me away!" Mariku gushed, making big, lovey-dovey eyes at her.
Malik added his two cents, "Yeah, I mean... That was an incredible performance! But the beginning wasn't that good..." They laughed relentlessly.
Scowling, Tea wanted to hit them really hard with the microphone in her hand...
Thunk.
Thunk.
And that's what she did.
(-)
Yami had taken a short break. However, it wasn't quite a break. Yugi had slipped away, yet again, but this time, Yami felt like he knew something was horribly wrong. It was just feeling, but Yami went to look for his little brother anyway.
He found the two Bakuras circled by a ring of girls. Ryou seemed a little tense, but Bakura had a big, cocky grin on his face proved that he was far from nervous. "So, then, after Mariku loses, I make a brief appearance. Too brief, if you ask me." The fangirls were staring at him with full attention. "Now, if you promise not to glomp me again, I'll tell you another spoiler."
Ryou had spotted Yami and motioned for him to come over. Yami was hesitant, but walked over anyway. "I found him like this, and thought he needed help, but now, he's the one keeping the girls at bay!" Ryou whispered, looking around anxiously. "O-oh yeah; I—I come in that episode... too!" He stuttered when a fan looked over at him.
"Have you seen Yugi?"
"Heh?" Ryou blinked. "Yeah, he was with a few tall, shady-looking men when I saw him last."
"And you didn't find that just a little suspicious and follow them!" Yami cried in disbelief.
"I'm not that kind of a person..." Ryou fought a grin that was threatening to appear on his face at Yami's expression.
(-)
"Mahaado! Come quick!" The purple-robed man gazed at the blonde's worried face. "You won't believe what I just saw!"
She ran behind him and pushed him without waiting for him to even respond. "Um... Mana?" he finally asked. "What's wrong?"
"I just came back in! And then I saw Yugi—I can't explain right now!" Her voice was commanding and firm. "We have to find everyone! Now."
(-)
It really hadn't occurred to Yugi that someone would try to harm him. This was a Yu-Gi-Oh! convention, after all! Three tall men had just come up to him. Yugi didn't suspect anything at first, despite the fact that they were all wearing the exact same jumpsuits. After a few seconds, he began to get suspicious. That's when they grabbed him.
"A hostage," grunted a very brawny guy, who almost resembled a gorilla. "Whaddowe do with 'im?"
"Let him go, let him go! Who...who—kn—knows..." stammered a nervous-looking man, scanning around while twiddling his thumbs anxiously. "Who knows what this could get us into! I—I mean... where are we?"
"Forget about that!" spat the last of his captors. He was obviously the ringleader of this circus. "We're obviously in some big building."They weren'tvery bright, though, Yugi concluded. He took the boy by the collar of his shirt and dragged him up on stage.
A cry of horror came from the crowd. It was familiar. "T—Tea!" Yugi gasped, straining towards her, but the man's grip was too strong for him to break. "Tea, help me!"
The primate-like man took a microphone from a random singer's hand. He stared at him and backed away, not sure what to say. "We's got a kid 'ere!" the escaped convict announced, his voice booming across the huge room. "An' we's in control now. So lissen up, or deh kid ge's hurt!"
"Hey!" Yugi recognized Malik's voice as the blonde Egyptian climbed up on stage. "You! Drop the kid!"
"An' whaddaryou gonna do 'bout it?" The big man towered over him.
"Uh..." Malik snatched the microphone from him and said loudly and clearly, "All fans evacuate the building! Now...!"
(-)
"... And Yami, get over here!" At once, Yami knew that it involved Yugi. He raced tow the karaoke stage.
Only to be tackled and wrestled behind a shelf of Yu-Gi-Oh! manga. "Mariku!" Yami roared, ready to punch the Battle City antagonist if he didn't get out of the way. "My little brother is in danger, and if...Mmmph!"
Mariku had clamped a hand over his mouth. "Shut up, already!" he whispered and looked around. "We've got an idea, but it's gonna take some really good acting."
Yami blinked and pulled Mariku's hand away from his face. "Acting? What's the plan?"
"Okay, first of all... I didn't make it up; Mana did."
"Of course."
"Secondly..." Mariku whispered the plan into Yami's ear.
Snorting in disbelief, the 'ex-pharaoh' said, "That's never gonna work! Our faces are broadcast on TV! They KNOW we're actors; not the real deal!"
"Malik's keeping them busy and annoying the heck outta them," Mariku laughed quietly. "Smart guy. He gotsome information from them. Apparently, they don't even know where they are! Which is kinda sad because there are posters everywhere with your face on 'em... Not that they noticed 'em..."
Yami's expression was still doubtful, but many of Mana's crazy schemes have worked before. He knew that from experience. "All right. Just as long as they don't know who we really are, we'll be okay, right?"
"That's the spirit!" Grinning, Mariku held up a hand. "Now let me see your deck!"
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Oh yeah, Shuffle is one of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Japanese themes. :)
R&R!