Updates ... Holy Cow! We made it to Part 2! Is this sweet or what! As I stated at the end of Part 1, the chapters will be getting a bit longer. I'll try not to let that stop me from keeping my updates a weekly thing, but if it should happen once in a while, just bare with me. I do have a life outside of the computer screen.

WHAT?

You didn't think I did? Okay, I understand how you could make that mistake. Heck, I make that mistake too sometimes! I actually have a friend named Hugo that I accidentaly called Sugo a week ago! Is that wrong or what? Thankfully he just laughed it off. Probably thinks I'm nuts now though. ; )

Oddly enough, the site didn't e-mail announce when I first put this up almost 5 days ago. I still don't know what was up with that. Anyway, I reposted it. Did it work this time?

PyroDragon2006 ... LOL, trouble works just as well. I'm thrilled you thought so much of that last chapter. I do occasionally like to get a little soft once in a while. As for the thought behind it...well, what can I say? Just think... a mother - her only child leaving - far away ...what else could I come up with?

Ciardra ... Glad you enjoyed the fluffiness. It likes to come sneaking out once in a while even with my suppression attempts, lol.

Scarab Dynasty ... I like thinking deep thoughts too every so often. Makes me feel slightly intelligent, lol. As for the future...well...you'll just have to keep reading and see. He he he, aren't I the evil one with the teaser?

LadyAlthea ... Changing names are we? I do like it though. Glad you enjoyed that last offering even if it was a little burnt in the center and soggy on the edges, lol.

All aboard everyone! Next stop... America! Well... eventually anyway, lol.

Trixie21

Okay, you all know the drill. I have to take up valuable space and time to say that I do not own any part that is the coolness of the Yu-Gi-Oh universe. That honor goes completely to Kazuki Takahashi. Authoress as she bows subserviently before her shrine of great creators... "We're not worthy! We're not worthy! We're not worthy!"

This Old Man: Sugoroku's Story

Part 2: America

18. The Journey Begins…

Sugoroku moaned aloud as he lay on his bunk, curled tightly into a fetal ball. His head pounded like a drum, his stomach was twisted in knots so tight he could barely breath without throwing up, and every sound he heard seemed to lance through him like a thousand knives.

No, Sugoroku was not experiencing a hangover.

He was seasick.

Horribly so. What was worse was that it was going onto its fourth day.

They had warned him of course, Mark and the others. But that was after the ship had already pulled out.

"Don't worry about it kid," Leo had said cheerfully, "Just like everything else, it passes eventually."

The young man groaned. Sure it would. But in heaven's name when? He hadn't eaten since it hit, hadn't been able to stand straight, couldn't even sleep… All he could do was lay with his pillow clutched to his chest as the ocean waves continued to rock the boat, unsympathetic towards a land raised Japanese kid.

The first day on board hadn't been too bad. He'd been too excited and busy investigating the Pemberton to notice anything anyway. But the morning of day two hit him like a ton of bricks. He'd tried to open his eyes, and was practically blinded from the sensitivity his sickness had created. He knew then, that he didn't want to get out of that bed until the boat had reached America, but he needed just then to go to the bathroom. Very much so.

Getting out of his bunk had been torturous, and as he staggered towards the head(1), he'd fallen four times and bumped into poles and beams at least 10. What a wonderful thing that had been. He was sick and bruised by the time he made it in, and of course once there before the toilet, he wasn't sure which action his body wanted to undertake first.

He'd managed to take care of the normal procedure first, but he'd barely finished before the second action took over and he threw up continuously for almost five minutes. After the first three though, it was dry heaves ever since, and after three days of it, he was sore and exhausted.

So there he lay in misery. Sicker than he'd ever been in his life, and wondering if he was even going to make it to America.

"Hey Sugoroku," called Mark quietly, "How ya' feelin' guy?"

Sugoroku swallowed down a fresh wave of nausea before mumbling, "If I had known what it was going to be like, I'm not sure I would have come."

Mark chuckled.

"Sorry it couldn't be easier on you, but it'll be worth it when its over. You'll see."

Sugoroku could only moan a half reply before burping slightly with a shiver.

"This is so…so…"

He fumbled through his mixed thoughts.

"Terrible?" suggested Mark to help Sugoroku out with his words.

The young man shook his head very slowly.

"Worse."

"Well, I thought this might help."

Sugoroku peeked one eye open only slightly at Mark's offered hand to see a small white tablet.

"What is it?"

"Aspirin. Just pop it in, take a drink and hope it helps."

Sugoroku shifted on his bunk, carefully making every movement as slow as humanly possible to keep his dizziness from taking over again. He leaned on one arm as his other hand took the aspirin, stuck it in his mouth and took hold of a small porcelain cup. He sniffed the light brown, tepid brew and looked at Mark.

"Ginger tea," the American answered, "Its supposed to help the nausea."

Fighting to keep himself conscious long enough to finish, he took a long sip and swallowed with a grimace at the bitter taste. He couldn't even bring himself to finish it. As soon as Mark had taken back the cup, Sugoroku dropped back down to assume his motionless state once more and for next three hours, a rabid assortment of dreams assailed the young mind in a virulent swirl of images and sounds.

xxxxxxxxx

Do humans dream in color?

The experts of the time assured us, no. They told us that when our day was done and we relieved the stresses of that day through the random wanderings of the subconscious, our mind presented these conjured visions in black, white and shades of gray. The brain, so it seemed to them, only shut certain portions down and chief among those was a small section that utilized the eyes to let one recognize colors. The brain made conclusions based on the personal knowledge of the item seen and when one awoke, they would essentially 'colorize' it the same way in which an old black and white Humphrey Bogart movie is colorized in a studio. If one knew the grass should be green within the dream, the mind makes one believe it already was. If one were to be completely color blind to all colors except black, white and grays, they of course would never 'colorize' their dreams once awake since all they would have to associate to them would be the colors that they know.

The same theory applied to the application of words within the dream state.

Scientists said that when we slept, that portion of the brain which allows one to register known writing and comprehend it, sleeps as well and that within dreams we could not therefore read any letters or words one may chanced to have seen. The mind again makes the assumptions regarding the words so that in essence, one thinks they have seen the word written clearly. If that person were to dream of a bank, and that mind knows they are dreaming of said establishment, that mind automatically assumes that the word 'Bank' is written on the sign outside of the building. However, if one were to have seen an example of Arabic writing, but not understand it as a language - that is, not know how to read it - one could dream of it quite clearly because it would be stored as an image rather than an expression of speech.

Finally, more amazing than that which has already been stated to have been believed for that time, was the theory that a person could not dream of places or events that could not in some way be related to what a person had read, seen or heard of in some way. To say it in a very basic analogous form, one could not dream of Mt. Rushmore if they have never heard of its existence or even a minor description. One could not theoretically dream of a certain person with a red hair, blue eyes and a wide forehead if they had never seen such features before. If one were to have seen those very features, even if on separate faces, the brain could then, to some degree, combine those characteristics and thus produce such a person in that sub conscious state. But minus even one of those pieces, and the face would never bear it until the dreamer finally viewed it while in a conscious state.

Even if he had known of these scientists and their 'theories', Sugoroku's opinion would have differed dramatically after those last three hours.

He would have happily sworn that his dreams were toned in the richest of reds and yellows, oranges and blues, even purples and greens. He would most assuredly have argued most unrelentingly, that he had read every Japanese character and English letter he saw as clearly as if he were reading a school book. As for the buildings…well…there could be little to say about some of them except that Sugoroku was absolutely positive he had never before seen anything like them.

To be fair though, within his cavalcade of unconscious thought, he did see a multitude of scenes that he knew as assuredly as he knew his own name. He saw his own home and the city of Tokyo. He saw massive volcanoes not unlike Japan's own Mt Fuji. He saw great hordes of people moving like rivers through canyons of concrete and steel. Mixed within he saw too, things that he could not so easily place, but had heard of to some degree. There were endless stretches of beaches that never met water, huge plains of ice and snow concealed in the gray darkness of a half night and giant statues of men whose chiseled might was only exceeded by the sense of self worth emanating from them.

Through out many of these places and scenes there appeared disaster and joy, breathtaking beauty and horrific ugliness to blind the eyes. Violent storms swept away every vestige of life, while countless seasons came and went seconds. Money and jewels rained down from the heavens and ribbons of pure light cut through the whole of the earth to shine through into the space beyond. Animals, the mix and like of which he'd never even dared think of even in the most childish of nightmares, roamed throughout these myriad domains and moments, and while some ran beside him in wild joyous abandon at his presence, others raged at his heels infuriated by their failure to catch and devour him and rid their lands of the stain of his existence.

These images and colors swirled and mingled, and in a play made with no earthly sense of rational, it went on for what seemed like an endless eternity, traveling back and forth through the marvel of one young man's imagination…

xxxxxxxxx

Several hours later, Sugoroku woke up from his short nap and blinked in confusion. Something was suddenly different and after only a brief moment, it came to him. His head no longer hurt. He'd actually been able to have a straight thought for the first time in four days!

He rolled onto his back slowly and looking up at the ceiling above his head, he found that it no longer make him sick to do so. His eyes and ears seemed to be functioning almost normally again too.

'I hope this means its over,' he thought grimly, before daring more movement and sitting up.

Nothing happened.

'Well, that can only be a good thing.'

He slowly climbed off the bunk and stood still for a moment as he kept a tight grip on the bed next to him. There was a little warning thump in the front of his head, but it was gone in another moment. So it seemed that he was actually past the sickness finally and would probably be able to handle things, as long as he took his time and didn't over due it. Feeling much better just for that, Sugoroku made his way slowly to the mess and once there, saw Mark and a few others gathered at their normal table. He joined them and slid onto the bench seat before setting his head down on his arms to rest for a moment, his head aching slightly.

Okay, so he wasn't completely over it yet.

"Hey! Look who it is guys! How ya' feelin' Sugoroku?" asked Leo in his excessively cheerful manner.

"Not as bad as before."

"Well, it's a start," said Mark with a smile.

"See! We told you it wouldn't last forever," added Leo.

"It certainly felt like it was going to."

Leo grinned.

"Give it another couple of days kid and you'll barely remember it."

Sugoroku wasn't sure he believed that one. He did after all, have a pretty good memory.

"Do you feel up to eating anything yet?"

"Maybe a little bread and water."

Mark nodded as one of the men went to the galley to get the food for Sugoroku.

"Good idea to keep it light. Just in case."

Just then, there came a loud yell from the other side of the room.

"Man! I cannot believe I lost again!"

"Geez Mick. You're really bad at this."

"I am not! Back home you should see me. I never lose."

"Yeah? Well you're not home right now Mick. So get over it and pay up."

"This stinks. I am out of here."

The aforementioned Mick stalked past the table where Sugoroku and his friends sat, but Mark stopped him.

"Everything okay Mick?"

"Just peachy," replied the man sarcastically, "If you count the fact that I owe Richter my last 4 packs of smokes as a good thing."

Mark sat quietly for a moment as Mick walked off. When he turned to look at his friends, he found Sugoroku looking at the retreating man's back intensely, his pale lavender eyes shining brightly.

"Uh oh…" the older man said softly.

Even as sick and as tired as he still was, Sugoroku had not missed the inference that a game had been played, and someone had lost. The young man stood slowly before heading over to the table where Mick had just come from, and standing several feet back, he watched carefully.

The three men seated there were not playing chess. They were playing a card game.

A man with rangy brown hair was flicking cards out to the other two men, as well as himself, and when he was done, he picked up the cards before him and started arranging them.

"What do you want kid?" he suddenly asked, not looking up from his cards. His tone, while not unfriendly, was not exactly welcoming, and for some reason, Sugoroku felt the hair at the back of neck stand in mild agitation at the man. There was definitely something about him he did not care for.

"I was just watching," answered Sugoroku guardedly.

The man's eyes flicked up briefly at him.

"You're that chess genius, right?"

Genius was a new word and not understanding it, Sugoroku simply replied, "I do play chess."

"Hear you never lose."

Sugoroku nodded.

"Yes," he stated.

The man tossed some cards on the table, as did the other two, and after dealing new cards, the man said, "Think you could beat me at Poker?"

"Once I know the game."

Sugoroku smiled almost smugly as the man looked up quickly. They way the man studied Sugoroku was intended to make the young man nervous, but it had no such effect on him what so ever. It did in fact make him not only dislike the man more, but Sugoroku suddenly had the strange, strong need to win against him.

There was a long silence.

"I play. I don't teach. Go get someone to show you how to play first, then come back and see me. Then we'll play a hand or two."

From that moment, Sugoroku was shut out of the man's notice completely, and he felt it. He walked back to the other table and sat in deep thought, the men around him staring.

"Mark, can you teach me this Poker?" he asked after a bit.

Mark looked a little uncomfortable at the question.

"Any one of us could teach you Sugoroku. But you'll need to know a whole lot more then just how to play, it if you're going to challenge Richter."

"Then you will show me?"

Mark looked at the others, most of whom nodded at him.

"Alright we can teach you how to play."

And so, Sugoroku's education in Poker began.

Poker is a card game in which an average of four to six players try to out play each other by attaining the highest cards in their hand for each game. There are varied ways to play, but in the basic five-card draw form, the players each begin by offering an ante or 'token bet' for the right to be included in the game and ensure that someone will always win something on each hand.

Once all the players have put up their ante, the dealer deals the cards face down around the table, starting at the player to his left and continuing clockwise. The dealer, if he's playing, always deals to himself last. The dealer deals everyone their first card, then goes back around the circle to deal the second, and so on. As soon as everyone has five cards, the remainder of the deck is placed in the middle of the table, and play begins.

Each player looks at his or her cards, and then the first player places a bet. While there are several ways of deciding who bets first, usually the player directly to the left of the dealer will make the first bet. Then on the next hand, the person to his left will bet first, and so on around the table for each new hand.

Here, players will begin the first round of betting. The player who bets first has two choices. They may "open" the pot with the first bet, or "check". When a player checks, it means that the person doesn't want to open the betting, but doesn't want to quit either. This basically means "I'm not going to open the betting, but I'll stick around and see what happens."

Everyone betting after the first player, has three choices. The first choice is to "see" or match another player's bet. The next choice is to "raise" the bet. When one "raises" the bet, they must first "see" the previous bet, and then increase it. The last choice is to "fold" or "give up" for that hand, by placing the cards face down on the table. This option is used when a player feels their hand is too weak to compete. They are cutting their loses there rather than stay in and lose more against stronger hands.

From here, all the players who haven't folded, are allowed to get rid of the cards they don't want and take some new cards. A player is permitted to get rid of up to 3 unwanted cards and receive up to 3 new ones from the deck provided the player always has 5 cards in total. No one may see what anyone else has discarded (threw away) or drew (got as a new card) as these cards are all placed face down.

After every player draws 0 to 3 new cards, the betting begins again. Once more, player #1 for this hand has the option of opening or checking, and once someone opens, the others can see, raise, or fold.

The game ends when there are no more raises (everyone saw everyone else's bet), or everybody folds (except for the winner, of course). From there, everyone must turn their cards over and see how they fared. The player with the highest hand wins the pot.

A new hand is then dealt and the play continues on until either all the other players run out of money or they leave the game. Theoretically, a game in a casino could go on for ever if there are always new players filling in when others leave, or no one makes any decent bets or wins.

Knowing which cards to hold, the skill of the game, is a key factor, but just as important is the ability to read the other players, and play against the emotions they present. Many games and major pots are won simply by reading the expressions of the other players and taking risk. If a player has a terrible hand, but can fake everyone into thinking he has a good one, they may all fold and thus give the win to the player with the worst hand. This is called bluffing.

Cards can be fickle though, so there is also some amount of luck to a win, but one must always weigh the risks and the odds presented before them, not just for the overall game, but for each individual hand as well.

This was what Sugoroku was taught.

He was taught all the ways in which a hand can be useful including the Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pair, One Pair and High Cards. He was given an idea of odds based on the cards that had already passed, and he was given ideas on which cards to hold, or discard based on what he held in his hand. He was helped to understand what bluffs, aggressive play and conservative play were, and when each of these were best played.

The basics of the game he learned thoroughly in only an hour… The instincts on which cards to keep, in only two… The hardest part for him was holding back any "tell", or body language and expression, to what he wanted the others to see, and not accidentally slip the wrong queue or signal. For the average Japanese man, it might have been a relatively easy thing, as many could be normally quite stoic, and when not, it was rarely more than a hard edge that they would show. But Sugoroku was not like that.

Remember that in his school, he had been allowed to express his ideas more freely than the average Japanese boy, to better train the others as to how those free thinking countries might do things. He had also been so easily taken with the American's natural ability to be the same open expressive type, that he found it difficult to curb.

He would tap the table absently as the others looked at their cards and placed their bets. He would grimace when something didn't look good, or he had to fold. He would even smile if he had a good hand. Basically, the others knew exactly what to do against his hand, just by watching him. They could bet aggressively against him when he signaled a weak hand, or fold when he had a good hand, so that they would not lose too much money.

Playing this way was immeasurably frustrating for Sugoroku at first, but by slow degrees, he began to spend more time observing the faces of his friends, and he soon reacted to them rather then his hand. This did help him very much as it then confused the men. But he still needed to work on his own queue very hard.

Because of that, it took several days before he had it under control enough to begin to get truly competitively with his friends, but once he had, Poker was his new obsession, and he was the ship's new worst nightmare of an opponent for a second game.

For Richter though, Sugoroku was but a mild annoyance.

Next Chapter: Winners and Losers…

(1) Head...popular nautical term for 'bathroom'. Lol, sorry. Couldn't resist!

And just for clarification...I am in no way advertising the game of poker as anything other than a card game. I personally am not a gambler and would not go running around extolling its virtues (whatever they may be), but, because it is a part of Sugoroku's life, I have included for your understanding, the basics of the game and some of the terminology applied. I will however totally admit to a rabid love of the TV show 'Las Vegas' and have watched enough of 'Celebrity Poker' to know it can be a rather interesting and competitive game.

Last note... Really it is. I Promise... There was originally some interest generated by the dreaming in color and reading theories. I have reworded that portion to better reflect that they are theories stated by the experts of Sugoroku's time, that is the 40's and 50's, not today.

R and R's gratefully appreciated: )