Thank you all once again. I lied. Looks like I'm updating before I submit another story. Anyways... Read, enjoy and review. Those are the requirements. j/k

Disclaimer: Nothing out of YGO is mine. Not even Kingpin. Naomi is, though. So sorry.

Chapter Ten: Kingpin Blues


"Let's play Kingpin!" the comment was completely out of the blue and with no relevance to the previous conversation. How would Shakespeare relate to a game purely for entertaining the inner animal in us?

Barely taking time to look up over the edge of his book- Romeo and Juliet, of course- Dartz asked, "What's Kingpin and how does it relate to Shakespeare?"

Valon shrugged, landing back into his seat with a heavy thump. "Oh- sorry Raffy." Ignoring the glare- or completely oblivious of it- the brunette slid off the blond to the side of the unoccupied couch. "Kingpin is a game where ya throw soft, squishy dodge balls at the other team, tryin' ta knock their teeth out. Oh- and yer supposed ta hit the pins, too."

"And how does that relate to Shakespeare?"

"Um... well, Romeo probably wanted ta hit Tybalt with a dodge ball and knock his teeth out," Valon guessed with another shrug. "Only not so soft and squishy."

From his position completely out of Dartz's immediate reach, Alister added, "And we don't have to listen to you read it."

"Especially the falsetto for Juliet..," Rafeal muttered. It had been a painful morning for them all as this was their boss's new idea for a 'punishment.' Wouldn't lowering their 'salaries' be enough for this fiendish fiend? Of course not- duh.

With a growl, Dartz smacked the blond upside the head with the book. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't quite so out of reach. "How do you play this... Kingpin game? Are there any ancient beasts to be resurrected to destroy the world?"

"Well... first ya need at least four dodge balls and four pins for each team. And for a good game, at least four players to a team," the brunette started excitedly. After hearing the punishment they were going to receive the night before, he had more or less decided to stay under the influence of sugar to survive. And to accomplish this- had downed at least two whole bags of pixie stix that were hidden away in one of the kitchen drawers. "Ya line the balls up in the middle and the pins further back and spaced out. In a line- not on drugs or anything."

"Then the gym teacher forces to line up behind the pins with one foot and one hand on the wall. Then they shout 'Go!' and you run forward at a maniacal speed, rushing to get one of the balls before you're pegged in the face," Alister concluded, ignoring the glare from the Aussie. "And then they laugh while people are being pegged."

"Ya win by pegging all of the other team's players so they're out or by knocking all the pins over- AN' JUST CAUSE YA DON'T LIKE THE GAME DOESN'T MEAN YA HAVE TA BE SO CYNICAL!" A glaring match- at least from one end- continued before the brunette finally calmed down long enough to finish with: "And there's no beast of Kingpin."

Dartz nodded, sorting the important statements from the others. For example: THERE WAS NO BEAST WORTHY ENOUGH TO RESURRECT. "What's... 'out?'"

"It's when you can't play in the game any longer," Rafeal answered this one before the other two could. If having to listen to the first three acts of Romeo and Juliet was the worst that could happen, then a game or two of Kingpin couldn't be all that bad. It at least put a rainy Saturday with a bored sugar high Valon and an annoyed Alister- plus an added dose of a miffed, annoyed AND sugar high Dartz- in perspective. "You can get out by being hit or by catching a thrown ball in the air."

"And if you're already holding a ball and bounce a throw up into the air and your teammate catches it, then the thrower's out. If the throw hits the ground and then hits you- you're safe." Valon paused a moment, then continued, "When you have one pin left then a player can kneel in front of it. If you have one last player and they catch the ball in the air... then the rest of their team comes back onto the field. Which really stinks if the other team has only a few people left..."

Alister nodded once in agreement; he had been on that specific team once too often and had learned the lessons of letting a poor thrower- coughhimcough- let the last player catch the ball. It. Had. Not. Been. Pretty. "And that's about it."

Dartz fingered the dent in the paperback book slowly, trying to make some more sense out of this new information. For example: No beast worthy enough to even MENTION the possibility of trying to resurrect it. Then again... maybe Valon has it wrong... Hold on a minute. "So... there's no beast to resurrect..?" he asked slowly. Maybe... juuuuuust maybe...

"No..," Valon replied just as slowly. He blinked once and the sugar from last night's bingeing brought him back up to regular speed. "Butdoyouwanttoplay! Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease!"

"...Is there anyway to capture the loser's souls..?"

Alister sighed and rolled his eyes. The brunette had begun to jump up and down in his seat in a speed that could only be acquired in a video game or under the influence of red, blue, orange, green or purple sugar. "No, but I think Valon's going to explode if you don't answer. Hint: please say no- let's see if he'll sky rocket through the roof."

"And have to pay repairs?" Dartz scoffed with a shake of his head. "No way! But- we'll play a game and see if you three are telling the truth about the beasts and souls an' all that."

Unfortunately, Alister and Rafeal barely heard him, as Valon had leaped further up than before, yelling triumphantly. His cry was beaten only by the blond's cry of pain as he had landed directly on Rafeal's foot.


"Ya know, there's only four of us," Alister started. He waited for any reaction out of the brunette and received only a curious glance. "So there'd be only two people on a team."

Another glance- those shoe laces were still giving him trouble.

"So how in heck is this going to work out?" the redhead finally asked point blank. "Or were you just planning to forget about all of that?" He wouldn't have been too surprised if that was the case- Valon usually forgets to think things through sometimes.

"I aws gonna ask Mai to join us," Valon finally replied, just finishing up with strangling his sneakers. "Jeez- what do they make these stupid things out of!"

"Polyester, usually. Anyways, that would work out pretty well..."

"Uh-huh... well polyester annoys me."

"Of course it does- that's why they're made out of the stuff. So, first she'd punch you and then she'd peg you in the game. That actually works out quite well."

Valon grunted again. "I was also going to ask Raffy's new friend- whatever her name is- to come too. Just to even up the teams." Growling, he stuffed the ends of the shoelaces into either side of his ankles. He'd get to them later. "Ya know, I feel like a sail for a ship with this tee-shirt on. Is it made out of polyester bleep too?" They had all changed out of their usual biker gear into tee-shirts and shorts; partly so they'd be able to move around easier, and also because Dartz had wanted to punish them some more.

"Probably not- most likely it's cotton," the redhead answered. "Have you learned anything new about this girl? I haven't heard of her before and according to Rafeal, she's been under Dartzy's employment for about as long as you."

The Aussie flapped his arms once, still annoyed at the shirt. "Course I haven't heard anything about her- and Raffy hasn't been talking."

"As though he'd want to."

"Good point..," Valon agreed reluctantly. Sighing, he lowered his arms to his sides again- ugh... for now on, all baggy shirts that he could find were going to be burned with incense so it would take a longer time to be destroyed completely- he continued, "I'm gonna go find Mai and ask her to come with us. You can go ask whatever her name is. Buh-bye!" He left before Alister could argue. There had been one too many arguments where the carrot top had won from sheer logic.


What once had been carefully manicured nails were now torn and completely without nail polish. They scratched against the door, drawing out one more line next to another one. Three. Three... days...

The blond growled deeply in her throat, eyes narrowing to slits. When she got her hands on any one of those blokes, they were going to DIE. Wait- blokes..? AIIIIEEEE! SHE'S STARTING TO THINK LIKE THAT STUPID BRUNETTE WHO CAN'T STOP TRYING TO ASK HER OUT! AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!

The light that filtered through at the bottom was suddenly blocked out. Not hesitating in the slightest- not even to shout 'Hallelujah'- she started pounding on the door. "GET ME OUT OF HERE, WHOMEVER YOU ARE!" she screamed as loudly as she could, her words punctuated by the bangs her fists created.

Whomever was outside in the sane world didn't continue on their way like so many others had. Instead, the rescuer opened the door, making her lose her balance and fall onto the ground at their feet. Suddenly feeling very happy and not so angry, she grabbed the nearest foot, forgetting all about a little word called 'dignity' and began to cry out her practiced 'thank you' speech.

The person nearly lost his own balance at her... embrace... but managed to keep to his feet by whaling his arms around like a lunatic. "M-Mai?" he asked, clearly startled out of his little mind. "What were you doing in there!"

Mai Valentine paused in her speech, glancing up at the foot's owner.

Oh boy... She'd been saved by the Rescuer Down Under.

Valon knelt down carefully so he wouldn't hit her. "Were you stuck in there for the past three days?" he asked, voice pratically dripping with heartfelt, Australian concern. "Why didn't you try calling out fer help or anything? We could've gotten you out sooner."

She blinked her usually very carefully eyeliner rimmed eyes. This was so wrong. Why couldn't her real Prince Charming come and save her instead of Aussie?

"Uh... Mai- are you okay?"

Another blink. Wait... didn't she have revenge plans earlier..? How did they start again..?

"Do you want ta get something to eat- ya must be hungry," Valon paused for a minute, blushing just the slightest, "Want some help up? Uh- we can finish talking downstairs an' all... Heh..."

Mai frowned the slightest bit. Ah- wait a minute. Yes... that was how the plans started out like... With a ferocious growl, she got to her feet, knocking the unsuspecting Aussie over. "YOU ARE GOING TO DIE! I'M GONNA PLANT YOUR BROKEN AND BLOODY BODY IN A NONEXISTENT FLOWER GARDEN CALLED YOUR GRAVE! THEN I'LL LET WARMS EAT YOUR FLESH! AND BEFORE YOU KNOW IT- THEY'D HAVE EATEN YOUR EAR LOBES OFF! BWAHAHAHAHA!"

Valon blinked dazedly up at his true love, feeling uncharacteristically confused. Was she actually going to kill him? WHY! What did he ever do! It must have been the kitchen remark, he thought to himself as he was being slowly dragged away. Yeah- had to be that. Why wouldn't she want ta talk to me? Oh! I forgot to ask her about the game... Huh... maybe over second breakfast... okay then... Hey... where is she taking me..?


Alister bounced one of the 'dodge balls' onto the ground. The taped up baseball bounced back up a foot than back down. They shouldn't have used so much duct tape- who knew when they were going to need it again? "Where did Valon go?" he asked to no one in particular. There was only him and Rafeal in the room, so there wasn't much of any choice who to ask.

"I wouldn't know," Rafeal answered, flipping a page in the latest Motorcycle Week edition. "He probably found Mai by now and is trying to talk her into joining us. Or to join him for a stroll or something along those lines."

"Of course..," the redhead agreed, picking up the baseball in one smooth move. He tested the weight and figured that one could get a mild concussion. "But you still haven't answered whether your new 'partner' would like to come hit people with heavy objects or not. Knowing your luck in finding girls- she probably would."

"That would be Valon's luck and he has to stop giving it to me," the blond replied with a grunt. Unfortunately for him, the redhead had a point. "And I don't really know her, so I can't answer for her. And besides, she'd prefer to throw knives than those 'dodge balls.'"

"Ah... so she's kinda've like Mai?"

"Except that she'd aim to kill everyone instead of just Valon. More or less."

Alister was silent for a minute, letting the baseball drop back to the ground. Maybe Mai would punch Valon in the head and knock him unconcious and stop this madness before it even started. "Is she a duelist like us? Or she some psycho secretary?"

"She tried to kill me- she's no secretary."

"Uh-huh... Then what does she do?"

"Kill people."

"Besides that."

"She does that for a living- it's her job," Rafeal said slowly, wincing again as the baseball hitting the floor made another heavy 'thud.' Nothing right now was helping his migraine- not even the advil and tylenol he had recently taken. Together. "She's an... asassin..."

"Rrrriiiiigggghhhhtttt."

"I mean it."

"Uh- huh," the redhead replied again. He flung the baseball next to the other substitutes for the dodge balls: two wrapped up tennis balls and also a volley ball. "Why haven't we met her before now?"

"Probably because Dartz doesn't want us to tell the police about her- they might find out that she's his employee and will haul him into jail too."

"What's her name?"

Rafeal sighed. Yesterday, Dartz had only introduced them, explained the mistake, their separate jobs... and had then decided to make them partners. Just so they could get to know each other better and stay out of his hair- ahem... to get her introduced to the others more easily. "Her name is Naomi Ryozaki. I think. She kind of mumbled it several times until Dartz gave up on trying to get her to talk."

"Uh-huh... What else do you know about her?"

"I didn't know that this was Twenty Questions- and you can ask her any questions yourself. She's right over there. Or right behind you, depending on your point of view."

Alister glanced over his shoulder, and nearly jumped out of his shoes. She was more than just 'right behind him.' More like: 'stepping on the back of his shoes.'

The girl smiled, making it look more like she was baring her teeth than actually smiling. "Hullo, stranger. You must be the freaky tall, wears-the-belly-shirt, Alister." She whipped a loose lock of brown hair out of her face; the rest of it she had tied back in a pony tail that barely brushed her shoulders. "Hey Raffy- where's the game gonna be played at?" Ignoring the look on the redhead's face- and him entirely- Naomi waltzed over in front of the blond.

Rafeal shrugged. "Wherever Valon decides to end his game of 'Catch the Aussie.' Usually after a few jumps over people and around alleyways."

"Uh-huh... and whose team do I get to be on? Vally's or yours?" She leaned into his line of sight, forcing him to look her straight in the eye. "And where is Vally?"

Alister laughed shakily, leaning against a nearby wall. Having one person sneak up on him was enough for the day. "That's how this whole conversation got started!"

Naomi nodded once. "Yes, I know. And you better go stop Mai from killing him- they're on the second floor by a window. I believe she's planning on throwing him out of it... Or tying him upside down in the wind."

Rafeal and Alister exchanged glances. What was the probability that she was right...?

Too good, they decided almost simultaneously, jumping out of their places and rushing out of the room. Naomi watched them leave, a small mischievious smile on her face.


Mai knocked about the drawers and containers in the room, trying to find some rope. She didn't want to actually kill anyone and leave fingerprints behind, oh no... She'd prefer to see him terrified out of his wits before he died. Oh yes...

And speaking about the victim...

She glanced over her shoulder at where she had duct-taped the brunette to a chair, finding him still stuck there. She was going to have to thank Alister before he, too, died a terrifying but uncriminating death for keeping an extra roll of the gray binds under his pillow. The Aussie struggled weakly in the chair, muffled noises coming around from his heavily duct-taped mouth. Poor guy- it almost looked like he wanted to leave.

Ignoring the noises, she turned back to her search, moving faster through the closet. Ugh. Where did this idiot find these outfits..? With another grunt she flung aside another fashion dead item, resolving to show the idiot where to get good clothes before he died a terrifying but incriminating death.

The door to the room busted open and in came the cavalry. The redhead took a look around his once neat and orderly room and cried, "What in bleepin' bleep did you bleepin' DO!" The blond that Mai recognized as the crazed one from three days ago immediately moved to help the Aussie out of the duct-tape. He grabbed the other's attention by whirling an item at him and barking- 'Get over here and help me get Valon out before she throws him out the window!'

Mai let them try. With another grunt she went back to her search, moving faster than before. Her hand came across the item she was looking for and she cried out triumphantly, bringing silence into the room. She turned around slowly, holding the item aloft in the air.

"You... all... will... DIE!" she cried out, advancing slowly. The brunette's eyes widened beyond belief and he began to struggle more. The other two blinked a few times and started to move out of the way far too late.

She had 'em right where she wanted 'em.


Naomi flung the baseball against the wall, enjoying the deeper dent it made and the sound it made as it hit the wall. For various reasons, Dartz had 'temporarily' lowered her salary to absolutely nothing from nothing, so it wasn't like she had to PAY for any repairs...

The brunette sighed, growing tired of the game. She hadn't heard of anything else since Mai had probably jumped them, wrapping them all together with the rope. Poor Raffy- taken down by another girl a third his size.

"HA!" She flung the volley ball at the wall, catching it nimbly in the air on the rebound. "Poor Raffy indeed. Serves him right for running into me like that, the idiot... Although he is better than those other two... Huh."

There was a loud thump from upstairs, as though a heavy chair weighted down by an Australian teen had fell over in an attempt to get away. So Mai had yet to tie him to the end..? "You moron- you're supposed to hang him first so there'd be more strain on the rope before it snaps! Than no one can lift them back up..."

Another thud. Some yells. Naomi turned her head towards the noises, waiting for anything else. Nothing. Ah... and there's her cue to turn up. She flung the two tennis balls at the wall, dodging the return. Poor, poor Raffy... First he was taken down not once, but twice by girls a third his side... Then he gets flung out of a window, tied to his two idiot friends by a flimsy rope.

And then, thirdly- he gets saved by his worst nightmare.

"Me!"


"Mmphff! Phfff!"

Alister glanced upwards to where Valon was hanging by a chair leg, and up where Rafeal was above him. He found the view much more welcoming than the spinning ground below them. "What did he say?" he called upwards to the blond, who hopefully understood what the Aussie said.

"I don't know!" Rafeal answered, taking a quick glance downwards. His fear of heights was getting a hold of him again. He was going to have to get over that soon... "I think something along the lines of 'Help' or Cheese Muffins!"

"Why would he be talking about Cheese Muffins!" the redhead asked back. "He's dim, but not that dim!"

Rafeal rolled his eyes. Why would he know what was going on through the brunette's head? It wasn't like he wanted to visit there anytime soon... He was about to open his mouth to reply when a rather unwanted but familiar face appeared at the window sill.

"Hey, Raffy! How's the weather?" the fiend asked with another of her huge smiles. "You guys want some help out of there?"

"Mmmppppphhhhfffffff!"

One of Naomi's eyebrows arched up. "I wouldn't know about cheese muffins- but yer girlfriend is taking a little nap. She hit her head against the door frame- you may want to get around to fixing that soon, Ally."

"You hit her head against the door frame! Naomi!"

"Oh calm down, Raffy- I already told you. She ran into the door frame. Anyways- you guys want to get up?"

"That would be nice. How are you going to do that? Cut the rope?" the blond growled, not liking the way the rope was spinning them around. It didn't help that at any second it was going to rain as far as the clouds were looking.

Much to his surprise, she shook her head. "I can't kill you guys- whether I like it or not, you three are my coworkers. I can pull you three up, though, if ya want."

"Rafeal, if you don't say 'yes!' then I'm going to kill you!"

"Alister- shut up!" the blond barked downwards, catching an unwanted glimpse of the ground below him. To Naomi he replied, "There's no way you can pull us all up by yourself."

Naomi shrugged. "Some would say that it'd be impossible for me to throw you down a hallway, but since I can pick you up with one hand, I think I could toss you around a bit."

"Uh-huh... Well- if it's at all possible, could you get us out of this?"

"Yeah, sure. On one condition, that is."

"..what..?"

The brunette considered for a second and then shrugged. "I'll tell ya later," she replied, grabbing hold of the rope. "Hold on." Ignoring all the protests from the teens she disappeared from view, bringing handful of rope after handful of rope in.

Rafeal grabbed hold of the window sill gratefully, taking some of the slack off. After he got in and untangled himself from the rope he helped out silently. There was one too many questions to ask her and not one answer was he looking forward to finding out. Valon came in next, his eyes squinched shut. Alister swung himself in, not looking over at Naomi at all.

Naomi joined them, taking a pocketknife from her pocket and cutting the duct-tape off of Valon. The Australian wriggled his way out of the remaining bonds- masking tape, scotch tape, all purpose tape, and rubber cement- and rushed over to Mai. The blond was leaning against the wall, snoring softly. Alister mumbled something about needing a broom to clean this all up and disappeared from the room in search for such the object.

Thus, more or less alone, Rafeal found himself once again in her debt for not killing him. "Thanks, Naomi. When you find yourself hanging outside a window, we'll help you out. Now... what was it you were talking about?"

"I'm going with you on your mission tomorrow- so see you then! Buh-bye!" Naomi replied in a rush. She walked off, not letting him or that annoying Aussie see her amused smile. Oh... she was going to have SO much fun annoying him tomorrow... Especially with driving poor Raffy up the wall...


Sorry it took me awhile again and also that this isn't up to usual standards. However- I'll try updating again quicker, and it'll be funnier. Hopefully. Anyways... thank you everyone for reviewing, as always- you all make this sooooo much more enjoyable.