Author's Notes:
The second chapter turned out to be about as well received as the first one. I was still in shock.
By the time I finished this chapter, I had finally caved in and agreed to read part of the story to the boy. I was starting to stop at a local Starbucks every day between camp and my tutoring job to work on the story.
For anyone who is curious, the holiday Pegasus claims he is celebrating is an actual Japanese holiday that takes place on March 3. Families set up a display of dolls to represent the court of Japan, and girls dress up and have a tea ceremony. I've been intrigued by this holiday ever since I was a very little girl. If my playroom hadn't been a representation of the Greek gods sitting round a tended hearth on Mount Olympus, I'm sure I would have attempted at least once to arrange my dolls accordingly on some March 3rd. As it turned out, ancient Greece held more fascination for me than Japan.
The Ceremony of Dolls
The room wasn't entirely unfamiliar to some of the group. It was a long room with dark red drapes along grey paneled walls that reached over Yugi's head. A long table occupied the center of the room, laid out as if for a formal banquet. Through the forest of candlesticks, they could see their mischievous host sitting at the far end of the table.
Pegasus remained sitting, smiling sugar, as his guests entered, "Ah, Yugi-boy! I am delighted to see that you and your little friends decided to join me this afternoon!"
Protests that sounded vaguely like, "Little?" and , "We are not friends!" came from the directions of Joey, Tristan, and Kaiba simultaneously.
As if he hadn't heard them, Pegasus continued, "Come, everyone, find your places." The sing-song quality of his voice did little to put his guests at ease. The game designer was treating them as if they were old friends gathering when in fact the tension between the duelists in the room was so thick that it was nearly suffocating.
The spiky-haired duelist took an unusually confident step toward the table, noting that a duel monsters card sat in front of the water glass at the foot of the table. As he approached, he noticed that the card had a likeness of Mokuba Kaiba on it. As he made his way around the table, he noted that his card was flanked by cards that resembled Tea and Kaiba. He reached his seat just as Joey found his card opposite Tea's.
"Hey! These cards look just like us!"
"Aren't they wonderful?" Maximilian Pegasus' melodic voice floated down the table. "I had them made especially for this afternoon. Come, everyone, find your places!"
Frustrated by the eccentric man's joviality, Kaiba walked around the table. He had also noted that the cards looked like those in attendance. Finding his card beside Yugi Moto, he calmly completed a full lap around the table to sit at the foot of the table, the seat reserved for his younger brother. A part of his mind detached itself to scan the card carefully. The last time he was in this place, Pegasus had Mokuba's soul trapped in a card. If that were the case now, Kaiba privately resolved to rip the man's still-beating heart from his chest. "Why have you brought us here, Pegasus?"
"Kaiba-boy, you must work on your patience!" Kaiba huffed at that and sat back in the well-padded, high-backed velvet chair. "But since we are all here-," everyone looked at the three empty chairs," I guess we can begin."
Tea turned and whispered to her best friend, "Can't he see that Serenity and Mokuba aren't here?"
"I fear we're missing at least one other, Tea."
"Oh? Who, Yugi?"
He never got to answer. Joey had been looking at the cards on his side of the table. He couldn't contain his reaction at the one reserving the spot between Tristan and himself, "Mai!" The others looked at him in surprise, and then looked toward the card. Pegasus continued to sit in his seat looking rather pleased with himself, as if nothing odd was going on around him.
"Three people missing," Tea gasped. Four, the man sitting to the left of the dancer thought bitterly, though there was no way he could tell the others discreetly.
If Pegasus was aware of the noise around the table, he never showed it. He simply continued with his story. "As you may know, today is Dolls' Day. It was always one of Cecilia's favorite holidays. With her gone, though, I never wanted to celebrate it...until now." Most of the people looked around the table in confusion.
Tristan whispered across the empty seat to Joey, "This is weird, even for Pegasus." Joey, and his best friend across the table, nodded.
From the same door where the group had entered the room, two men stepped into the room and pulled back the heavy red drapes from the wall behind Pegasus to reveal a carefully laid out doll display. "On Dolls' Day, it is customary for families to lay out dolls representing the court of Japan. Cecilia and I had been working on collecting a decent set to display. Sadly, my set was incomplete until recently." Pegasus' conversational tone grated on everybody's nerves.
"You invited us here to play dolls? How childish!" Kaiba stood up from the table and started for the door.
"Not so fast, Kaiba-boy," the silver-haired man clucked, "You see, I think you will want to take a closer look at my collection." Curious, Kaiba turned around and glared at Pegasus, who continued to sit serenely, lightly tapping his fingertips against each other. Slowly, the teenage CEO made his way toward the display. It just looked like a standard set of kimonoed dolls until he realized the emperor resembled Yugi Moto. Closer inspection revealed a doll two shelves lower that looked exactly like Mokuba.
Seto Kaiba's face contorted in horror. "Pegasus, what have you done?"
The expression on their host's face never changed, "All in due time, Kaiba-boy. Let's have some tea." He waved his graceful hand, and servants started pouring tea into everyone's cup, starting with the ones at the foot of the table.
Kaiba didn't move. "There are dolls here that look like Mokuba, Yugi, and Wheeler's sister! Now, tell me what you have done with my brother!"
Joey quickly whispered across the table to his friends, "Mai has to be there, too!" The younger duelist's attention turned back to the display where he could now see Yugi very clearly on the top shelf beside Serenity.
"Now, where would the fun be in that, Kaiba-boy?" Pegasus grinned mischievously.
With a growl, the dark-haired teen reached out to the doll display. As soon as his fingers touched the Mokuba doll, the panels in the display fell away, taking the dolls with them. Kaiba let out a tortured cry as he grasped at the air where the doll had been, "Mokuba!"
The others were on their feet as the dolls vanished from sight. "Serenity! Mai! Where did they go?" Joey ran up to the display. For one brief moment, his friends were convinced he was going to throw himself after the fallen dolls. The spiky-haired duelist sympathized. It had taken all of his will power not to add his own anguished cry to Kaiba and Joey's.
"Pegasus! tell us where our friends are!" He folded his arms across the chain holding the millennium puzzle and waited for what he thought the obvious demand would be. At that moment in time, he really didn't care. He'd do just about anything to get his partner back.
He was sorely surprised by the game designer's response, though.
"They are here in my castle. You have twenty-four hours to find them, or they will become permanent residents of my doll collection." Several protests erupted from the group. Pegasus looked completely unaffected. When the room quieted down, Pegasus glibly stated, "The clock's ticking." Kaiba ran from the room, Joey and Tristan close on his heels.
The young duelist continued to stare at the display, willing the dolls to return. A light hand on his arm broke his concentration, "Yugi, should we go?"
Yugi, I will find you, and I will free you from Pegasus. The responding silence was painful. "Yes, Tea. Let's go find the others.