Time Left Unspent

Written by Shaun Garin

Kazuki Takahashi owns Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters

Battle 02 : Duel! Attack of Red Eyes Black Dragon!

"C'mon kid, stop following me everywhere!" exclaimed Jounouchi as he tried to duck behind a grove of trees. Samantha growled and grabbed Jounouchi's sleeve.

"Look Wheeler, I am not going anywhere until you face me again!"

"And what part of NO do you not understand?"

"Obviously I don't! Now quit yakking and duel me!"

"RRRRGH!"

"Hey Joey," greeted Yugi, coming out of the bushes. Jounouchi made an ERK sound. "Having trouble with someone?"

"I thought you were tailing Yugi," said Jou, folding his arms. Critically, he eyed Yugi who had managed to disguise himself fairly well. With his hair combed backwards into a more conservative style instead of his standard mop of hair, it was tied back and mussed into something more fitting his own mop of unruly blonde hair. One or two strands of blonde hair fell around his face.

Yugi had also abandoned his standard school uniform, opting for tying his jacket around his shoulders and opening his white button shirt to let that black leather shirt underneath show. With his hair down and his style adjusted a bit more, Yugi almost looked like a different person. Yugi smiled and nodded to Samantha. "Judai Yuki. Pleased to meet you."

Samantha folded her arms. "So you're Wheeler's friend?"

"Yes, I am," said the newly rechristened Yugi. "I hope he hasn't been giving you any problems as of late."

"All he does is refuse to duel me," snapped Samantha. "Hey, there's a duel going on over there!"

As Samantha ran off ahead, Jounouchi leaned over to Yugi and asked in a low voice, "Judai Yuki? Teenage Fun Game?"

"Better than yours, Mr. Joey Wheeler," said Yugi with a grin. "Just try not to slip up."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," said Jounouchi as they approached the duel ring. Looking up, Jounouchi made a face. "Eeew, it's Ryuusaki facing off against someone I don't know. And the kid is getting clobbered."

"This ends now!" exclaimed Ryuusaki, slapping down a card. "Red Eyes Black Dragon, sign of attack!"

The tremendous bulk of the Red Eyes appeared on the field and his opponent, a young girl who looked to be about fifteen yelped in dismay. "Attack, Red Eyes!"

The energy attack exploded up against the face up Wyvern Warrior in a burst of black and red energy. Ryuusaki whooped in victory as he pointed to his dejected female opponent. "That's what you get for trying to take on the Junior Champion Runner Up, Dinosaur Ryuusaki!"

"Two years and he STILL hasn't curbed the ego," muttered Jounouchi, earning a confused look from Samantha.

Jumping down from his perch on the elevated duel ring, Ryuusaki snatched the offered star chips and clicked them one by one into his glove, relishing the moment. "That makes seven star chips."

Yugi startled at the pronouncement. Pitching his voice so that only Jounouchi could hear it, he remarked, "Seven? Last time you dueled him, he had two, considering Mai took most of his chips."

"Well maybe Mai grabbed most of them."

"I doubt it," said Yugi. "She didn't have THAT many chips, even after we delt with Panik, the Eliminator."

"Oh yeah, the guy who was lit on fire."

Yugi winced at the memory of his darker half torching Panik during the punishment game. A stirring felt and the Other Yugi grumbled, "That, was not my fault. He threatened us."

"It's about time you woke up," remarked Yugi mentally. "I thought you didn't make the trip."

"I'm fine," replied the Other Yugi. "Transferring one's soul into the past takes concentration. I'm surprised that I didn't literally fly apart when the transference was complete."

"So you're up to speed?"

"Mostly," replied the Other Yugi. "Do you wish for me to deal with any opponents during this strange and unique adventure?"

"No, I think I can handle it. Feel free to step in if there's a problem though," said Yugi.

"Yuki? Yuki! Oi, Ryuusaki's talking to you!"

Yugi shook himself out of his trance as he found Ryuusaki glaring at him. "About time," growled Ryuusaki. "I've been asking for a duel for the last minute or two. So, are you going to duel or go home like a little mommy's boy?"

Yugi sighed. "Right, I'll do it. Judai Yuki, nice to meet you."

Ryuusaki smirked. "All right, lets get this over with."

Yugi found himself on the red side of the duel ring as Ryuusaki called out, "How many chips will you wager?"

Weighing his options, Yugi called out, "Five!"

Jounouchi smirked from the side of the arena where he and Samantha watched. Samantha was gaping at the huge wager. "Is he insane? He could loose everything! Dinosaur Ryuusaki is the recent runner up of the Japan National Junior Championships!"

"Don't worry, Yuki knows what he's doing." Said Jounouchi confidently.

Ryuusaki smirked. "All right. Five will do. Lets get this over with!"

"Duel!" the pair chorused as they drew their opening hands. "I'll go first," said Ryuusaki, drawing his card. "And I summon Two Headed King Rex in attack position! He gets a source bonus from the wasteland, bringing his attack strength to 2210!"

Quickly recalling the strengths and weaknesses of monsters getting source bonuses, Yugi drew his card and winced. "God of Osiris. That isn't good."

"Hey, quit mumbling over there and play something!" yelled Ryuusaki, getting impatient.

Leaving his God Card in his hand, Yugi slapped down a magic card. "Jar of Greed! Allowing me to draw two cards."

Drawing his cards, Yugi inspected his hand before slapping down a monster from his hand. "Black Magician of Chaos, sign of attack!"

The armored magician appeared on the field, brandishing his staff. "It has an attack strength of 2800! And it's effect activates when normal summoned or special summoned to the field. I can bring back a magic card from my graveyard and add it to my hand. And I choose Jar of Greed."

Playing his Jar of Greed once more, Yugi placed two cards onto the field and declared his attack. In a burst of black light, the Two Headed King Rex exploded into bits. Ryuusaki stared, open mouthed. "What the hell was that?" he cried angrily.

"That will end my turn," said Yugi. Internally, he winced at the thought of rampaging through Dinosaur Ryuusaki. Although somehow, Ryuusaki would be able to rampage as well, knowing his stubbornness and ill intent against anything resembling himself. Setting two cards face down, he ended his turn.

Sure enough, Ryuusaki slapped down his own card. "Serpent Night Dragon, attack power of 2700! And I'll boost his power with Dragon Nails, increasing its attack strength by 700!"

The Serpent Night Dragon tore through his Black Magician of Chaos as Yugi shielded his face from the resulting explosion. Life points dropped and Yugi recovered his footing on the shaking platform. Samantha gaped. "Attack power of 3400? That's insane! No one can beat that!"

"Yuki can," said Jounouchi, folding his arms.

"It's my move." Yugi drew and smiled. "I play Life Shaving Cards! This allows me to draw five new cards, and then discard my hand five turns later."

Drawing his cards, Yugi held up three cards. "I offer Alpha the Magnet Warrior, Beta the Magnet Warrior and Gamma the Magnet Warrior to combine into Valkyrion the Magnet Warrior in attack position!"

The Valkyrion erupted onto the field and Yugi pointed to the wasteland. "My Rock monster gains a 30 power source bonus from the Wasteland, which makes him even stronger! Bringing it's attack strength from 3500 to 4550! Now Valkyrion, attack his Serpent Night Dragon, with Magnet Sword!"

The blade cleaved through the Serpent Night Dragon and it exploded. The resulting blast dropped Ryuusaki's life down to 260. Yugi checked his own life total and found it sitting at 1400. Setting two cards face down, he ended his turn.

Ryuusaki grit his teeth as he drew. Then he grinned in trumph. "Ha! I play a special card, given to me by Pegasus himself! I play, Red Eyes Black Dragon, in attack position!"

The Red Eyes appeared onto the field in a flurry of black-red energy as Ryuusaki held up a card. "And I play a combo with it, equipping it with Negative Energy Amplifier! It increases the attack power of my darkness monster by three!"

"That's an attack power of seventy-two hundred!" exclaimed Samantha in abject horror. "Nothing can survive that!"

Yugi calmly activated Sand Tornado as Ryuusaki's Negative Energy Amplifier was blown off the field. Fighting down the urge to utter a Kaiba-esque remark of "Denied", Yugi nodded to Ryuusaki who seethed in anger at his combo being blown off the field. In truth, the four cards he set down were Sand Tornado, two useless magic cards and a Mirror Force. If the Sand Tornado didn't get him, the Mirror Force would.

"End turn," ground out Ryuusaki, sensing defeat.

Yugi drew and proceeded to attack for the win.

As the platforms lowered, Ryuusaki jumped off and said sullenly, "Here, five star chips. Take it and don't bother gloating."

"Thanks," said Yuki. "I hope your next duel turns out better."

Ryuusaki smirked. "You're not bad, kid. Judai, was it? I'll see you at the castle."

Yugi smiled. "Perhaps I will."

"Hey, did you hear? Ryuusaki got beaten by a kid named Judai Yuki," said Jounouchi as he and the others relaxed. It had been a long hard day of dueling and both Yugi and Mai had recovered their star chips from Panik. The end result was still ugly but at the very least, Yugi didn't loose his life.

"Yeah, he was out five chips before he took out a kid for three. And then Jounouchi defeated him," said Mai. She still appeared shaken up from her close encounter with a possible horrible death.

"That's not all. Some guy named Joey Wheeler had an insane one-sided duel against the regional champion from America. You ask me, there's a lot of strong duelists out there," said Honda.

"I worry though. Two relatively unknown people suddenly come out of nowhere and defeat a regional champion and a national runner up. Maybe they're Eliminators that Pegasus hired?" said Anzu.

"Could be," said Yugi. He glanced over at Ryou who watched the firelight flicker. Both had been shaken up by the mystery surrounding their golden items.

Honda yawned and got up. "I'm gonna go look for more wood. I'll be back in a bit."

"Don't stray too far," said Jounouchi. "More crazies might be out there."

Honda gave them a thumbs up and wandered deeper into the woods.

"She's asleep," said Jounouchi after inspecting the girl thoroughly. "Sam's eyes are flickering in REM."

"Good, I don't want to be answering too many questions," said Yugi. "We certainly made a name for ourselves, haven't we?"

"More than we needed to," said Jounouchi. "Man, Yugi, this whole incognito thing is hard. It would help if we had disguises or something of the sort. How are we going to stay anonymous for the rest of the adventure?"

"I don't know. At least my hair is cooperating."

"Maybe I should just Mullet mine," remarked Jounouchi.

Yugi snickered. "Jounouchi, you HAD a Mullet. Remember early in high school?"

"Oh yeah. I suppose there was no excusing the excessive amount of hair I had," remarked Jounouchi.

Suddenly the underbrush parted and Honda stumbled out. "I knew the campsite was here," he exclaimed triumphantly. "Hey guys, where's Mai, Ryou and Anzu?"

"Gyah! Oh, hi Honda," said Jounouchi, recovering from his surprise of Honda stumbling out with an armful of wood.

Honda dropped to his knees and dumped the firewood. "Enough to keep it burning all night," he said. "Who's the little girl?"

"Samantha Wylde," answered Yugi. Obviously Honda saw through their pathetic attempts at disguising themselves. "She stumbled into the campsite and asked to sleep next to the fire."

Honda nodded as he folded his long legs underneath himself. He then looked at Jounouchi closely and said, "Hey, since when did YOU start wearing Ryou's big gold ring?"

"Uhhh…"

Honda turned to Yugi and said, "Wait, since when did you tame your hair and start wearing more gold than usual?"

"Ummm…"

Honda looked at the pair. Yugi was a bit taller, despite sitting down. He also wore more gold than normal in addition to his Millennium Puzzle. He wore a golden necklace with an eye similar to the one on the puzzle. Also, Jounouchi wore the ring around his neck, the metal gleaming in the firelight. And he had a golden rod laying next to him.

Jounouchi also had managed to make a wardrobe change. From his school uniform to a blue and white shirt he wore when casual. Feeling his hackles rise, he said, "You guys aren't Yugi and Jounouchi, are you?"

"Guilty," said Jounouchi. "Joey Wheeler. And this is Judai Yuki and the little one is Samantha Wylde. She'd probably blow your eardrums off anyhow if she was awake. Sorry for the deception, but you sat down and started assuming things."

"Man, it's freaky. You two look exactly like Jounouchi and Yugi. So where are they anyhow?"

"Probably back at your campsite," said Yugi. "Sorry for the misunderstanding."

"Naw it's cool. After what I've seen at this island, things couldn't possibly get weirder." A pause. "So where did you guys get a Millennium Ring and Puzzle anyhow?"

"That is a long and crazy story," said Jounouchi. "I'm sure you wouldn't believe us."

"Try me."

Yugi and Jounouchi shared a look and Yugi said, "It wouldn't hurt to have someone looking out for us. And keep tabs on our younger selves."

Honda blinked. "Okay, you've lost me."

Jounouchi. "Time Travel. It's a cornucopia of disturbing concepts."

"We're Jounouchi and Yugi from the future. A year actually, just soon after Kaiba hosts his Battle City tournament." Said Yugi.

"A lot of crazy stuff happens there, so we won't get into any major details. Suffice to say that Yugi had to win three God Cards in order to keep the world from plummeting into darkness." Added Jounouchi.

"God Cards? As in Duel Monster cards?" asked Honda.

Fishing into their decks, Yugi and Jounouchi held out the three God Cards to Honda who picked them up and looked at them. "Saint Dragon God of Osiris. God of the Stone Tower Obelisk. Divine Dragon of Ra. And these are the cards that Yugi needed to win the tournament?"

"Yeah," said Yugi, plucking the Gods out of Honda's hands. "In the hands of a normal duelist, they could be an unstoppable force. In the hands of someone who can wield magic, they could plummet the world into chaos."

Honda whistled. "And Pegasus MADE these cards?"

"Yes, but they're very dangerous if used improperly." said Jounouchi. "It's going to be a real pain when it comes around I'll tell ya that much."

"And you had to deal with this in a year?" said Honda in abject shock.

"It's been a pretty wild ride," said Jounouchi. "And it hasn't been all fun and games at times."

"So if you two are from the future, then what's with the excess amount of gold? I know Bakura wouldn't have wanted to give up his Millennium Ring that easily."

"These are the Millennium Items. We got them from people who gave it to us. Rod, Tauk and Puzzle." Answered Yugi. "But we don't want to say too much, otherwise we risk contaminating the time steam."

"It's not like we've got a Prime Directive, Yugi. I think Honda will be able to help us, even though we don't know he was doing so."

Yugi looked at Honda who nodded. "Don't worry. I won't do anything to stop major events from happening."

"All right," said Yugi. "The first thing to know is what happens here, in Duelist Kingdom…"

As Honda listened to Yugi and Jounouchi narrating their adventures to come, Samantha listened, her back turned to the others. Everything seemed to fall into place. The way Wheeler, no, Jounouchi beat her so easily, how Yugi was able to put Ryuusaki into his place despite being the National Junior runner up, everything made sense. Though the thought of being able to wield cards that would knock Exodia onto their back was a promising thought, although the stories told of these God Cards made her worry about being able to beat Yugi for them, or even wield them properly.

As she drifted back off into sleep, she made a mental note to confront her two companions the next morning.

"Where the heck is Honda? He should have been here by now," said Jounouchi, rubbing his hands over the dying fire.

"I don't know. I think I'll rest up for tomorrow." Yugi lay down and soon, was asleep.

After a while, Honda came back, carrying an armful of wood. "Sorry, I got lost," he said.

"About time. It's cold." Noticing the expression on his friends face, Jounouchi added, "You okay there? You look like you have something on your mind."

"Naw, I'm all right. Just kind of tired. G'night."

"Night."