Please read and review! In addition to just plain loving reviews, I find them helpful in terms of structuring the rest of the story.
NAME REMINDER: Koryuu means Little Dragon, and refers to the 13 year-old Seto Kaiba.
CHAPTER 12: HIGH NOON
JOUNOUCHI'S POV
Yami might have been born over 3,000 years ago, but I swear he knew more about our world. The kid knew nothing. He had never been to a movie or a baseball game. His idea of a good time was working out with Kaiba – and he always came back with bruises. Whether he got his shots in too was hard to tell – Kaiba's arms were always covered with a long sleeve shirt… and usually, a trench coat, for good measure.
I remembered how Kaiba's name had suddenly appeared on top of the leader board for all those video games – a spot he held to this day. Yet I was beginning to wonder if he had ever played a game until Gozaburo died.
Most evenings, Seto would sit next to Mokuba and Kouma, fingering his deck. Hell, everyone knew about Kaiba's pride in his cards. I'd just never realized how far back it went. I started wondering how often he got to duel. As much as I hated Kaiba, I liked playing against him. It might be fun to see what kind of moves the Little Dragon had.
I didn't mind spending time with Seto, but I wasn't fooling myself that that made us friends. As far as he was concerned, everyone except for Mokuba and Kouma was just part of the scenery. The glint in his eye when I proposed dueling came from his joy in finding a battle, not a pal.
But when I challenged him, I'd expected him to use Kaiba's deck. I'd seen him run through it often enough; seen him slap the cards in and out of the Duel Disk Kaiba had given him. So I was surprised to see him pull out his old deck.
"Hey Koryuu… I'm sure Kaiba'll let you use his," I said.
"In five years that'll be my deck. Now, I play with my own cards. Don't worry. It'll be enough to beat you."
As he shuffled, I saw him slip out a card. I was willing to bet it was a hand-drawn Blue Eyes White Dragon.
"I don't know why I'm doing this," I groaned, "But here, take some of my cards."
He was a Kaiba, all right. "I don't need your help to win," he sneered.
Kaiba stepped in, handing him three cards, saying, "Pride is one thing, stupidity another." Seto looked at the cards and nodded.
Three of them, huh…. Oh, shit.
Like we didn't all know which three they were. Just knowing those dragons were in there, waiting, changed the game. I grinned. It made playing him even more of a kick. But I kept whittling his life points down, anyway. It was a little embarrassing. I mean, he had a kid's deck. There wasn't much he could do until a Blue Eyes appeared.
KAIBA'S POVThis was his first duel. The first one against a real flesh and blood opponent, although he had played often enough against imaginary ones. Not that anyone could tell from looking at his face. He didn't blink, even when the hologram monsters filled the room. The only clue was, he was maybe a little too eager, a little too excited. Unconsciously I frowned. He looked up, caught my eye, and immediately smoothed his expression to its habitual indifference. For a moment, I felt guilty for reminding him.
He was slowly losing points, but was still calm. He was playing as well as he could, given the cards. I knew his deck as well as my own, as well as I knew the schematics of the missiles I had designed when I was his age.
I knew why he had chosen to stick with his deck. He felt a connection to his cards; a connection I had denied ever since that first Shadow Game with Yami. I had brought my dragon to life, only to see him reject the person I had become. Only to see him hate me as much as I hated myself. Only to see him destroy himself rather than stand at my side.
I had blamed that beast for destroying my final, faint hopes that there might be something in me worth preserving. I ripped him to shreds along with what was left of my heart, and spent the next three years denying his existence, his meaning… even as the other three had helped me to heal.
Seto's deck was not quite as weak as it seemed. Most of his monsters were in the 1700 – 1900 range, making it harder for Jounouchi to assemble a sacrifice. Jounouchi thought Seto was just stalling, delaying his inevitable defeat. The mutt wouldn't recognize strategy if it bit him. I might have the most powerful deck in the game now – but that didn't mean that I didn't know how to play from a position of powerlessness.
His faithful Battle Ox was on the field. That card that had once been the pride of my deck. Now it was fit only for sacrifice. Seto drew the Mystic Horseman; combined it with my Polymerization Card to create the Rabid Horseman for the first time. I heard everyone gasp as they realized that I had not given Seto my dragons.
I had been tempted to replace Mokuba's hand-drawn card with a real one, but it would have been disrespectful to supplant his deck. So I had given him the cards that would enable him to win… if he played his best. If he offered less, he deserved to lose.
The Rabid Horseman charged through Jounouchi's deck. Seto had the smell of blood in his nostrils, and he was pressing his advantage. Now that the Rabid Horseman was on the field, the game had caught Yami's attention. I suddenly remembered him rooting for me against Pegasus; against Isis. I wondered if he was cheering for Seto, now.
YAMI'S POVIt was interesting. Kaiba had not sought to replace Seto's deck, but to strengthen it. And now it was time for Jounouchi to lose life points. I remembered how Kaiba had always called it his faithful Battle Ox. Remembered how worn it had looked, five years later.
The Rabid Horseman was Seto's first powerful card, and he was one with it's strength and power, which so matched his own… was caught in the rush of its attack. I suddenly wished Kaiba had given him a dragon. It would have been wonderful to see him play it; to see him fly for the first time.
But for all the skill he had shown, Seto's deck was a child's. Jounouchi's was an adult's… and soon the Rabid Horseman was gone. Seto was putting his monsters in defense mode, just as I had in our first Shadow Game, or at Death-T. I wondered if he was desperate or biding his time. I could feel his excitement, his pleasure in the game, although after that brief flash of glee, his face was expressionless as ever. As remote as Kaiba's as he watched his younger self start to lose.
Seto played Niwatori. I smiled at the thought of Kaiba's deck ever containing a big, fat chicken. But Seto had finally made a mistake. He had left Niwatori in attack mode. Jounouchi's face was a study in conflict. He wanted to humiliate Kaiba. But he didn't want to do it by beating Seto on a child's error.
Seto was as composed as ever. My eye fell on the two face down cards which had lain, ignored, on his side of the field all night. Jounouchi, torn between his satisfaction at his impending victory over a Kaiba (any Kaiba), and his embarrassment at beating a 13 year-old boy, had forgotten them. Jounouchi had his Baby Dragon on the field. But it wasn't quite enough to wipe out Seto's remaining life points. He set Time Wizard to join it. Seto's eyes flashed. He laughed. It was the move he had been waiting for.
Before the Time Wizard reached the end of his spin, Seto pounced. "This card lets me break into your turn," he said, flipping over his second borrowed card, The Impatient Goblin. The imp swaggered across the room, and winked at Seto as he shanghaied Jounouchi's turn.
"And given all the times you've called me Little Dragon, don't you think this should belong to me, as well?" he asked, as he turned over Kaiba's final card, Change of Heart. "Consider it a reminder that Baby Dragons grow up."
Seto watched, with the first genuine smile I had seen, as the roll stopped and the Baby Dragon aged 1,000 years, wiping out Jounouchi's remaining life points, with its attack.
"I knew you could do it, Nisama!" Kouma shouted. "You're the best! You always win!" I wondered if I was the only one who noticed Seto's quickly checked shiver, as if another burden had been added to his slight shoulders.
Throwing down his cards with a laugh, Jounouchi said, "I was sure you'd need those Blue Eyes to win."
Seto smirked, "I don't need them to beat a mediocre duelist like you."
Jounouchi turned to Kaiba, "Koryuu gloats even worse than you. It's about his only human quality."
But what surprised me most was the way he had played. Not the brilliance or the intensity. That I had seen before. But the joy. An elation that had vanished at Kouma's words, at the reminder that games had no place in his life, any more.
CARD NOTE/DISCLAIMER: I'm not a duelist. My main interest in the cards is asthetic --- I think they're beautiful. I once read in an interview with Kazuki Takahashi where he was asked why, in the manga, the cards sometimes work differently than in the actual game. He replied that the cards did whatever was necessary for him to tell the story.
Works for me. I tried to make the duel (or at least the part I described) somewhat realistic – or at least, not glaringly unrealistic. But I played the cards in the order that made the most emotional sense.
Also, there is no card called, "The Impatient Goblin" I simply needed a card that would allow Seto to break into Jounouchi's turn and use Baby Dragon against Jounouchi. After all, how could I resist a card that's actually named (in Japanese) "Koryuu"?
One thing that's odd, is that writing a story this long is sort of like dueling (not that I know how to duel). But you choose your demons and then spend a lot of time laying down trap cards – some of which are going to trip up the characters, some of which are set against anyone patient enough to be reading this. And then you spend the rest of the story trying to turn them over as quickly as possible.
RESPONSES TO REVIEWS:
Seto, Kaiba, Sugoroku and the BEWD: (Ceribi Motou, crimson winter, Desidera, Kagemihari, Katie Torango, laura m, Lightning Sage, Mistal: The Poisoned One, QueenofGames2, samurai-ashes, Tokemi) If you accept the idea that the BEWDs represent a piece of Kaiba's soul – what does it mean that he destroyed one of them? I've always considered that a metaphor for the emotional damage he inflicted on himself to protect Mokuba. So I suppose it's the fourth dragon, rather than the other three, that has always fascinated me. I also think that Kaiba might feel that he owed Sugoroku, if not an explanation, at least an acknowledgement that the dragon was important to him also. I thought he might have felt like he owed it to Sugoroku to explain why he felt like it was his.
Kouma: (Amarin Rose, laura m) When I started writing the story, Kouma was basically an accessory – he got carried a lot, and he slept a lot because I couldn't think of anything for him to say or do. I've added some stuff, although he has the least amount of time of the four Kaiba brothers versions running around this story. You get to see and hear him at length in the next (appropriately numbered) Chapter 13, and on and off from then on. I'm not planning on having him narrate a section, because I can't pull off writing from an 8 year-old's perspective.
Father Figures: (Amarin Rose) The background on everyone's families was great! I never knew that Otogi's father was insane. Now I definitely have to go back and read the Dice Monster scanlations, or watch the subtitled anime! Yes, I noticed that the lack of sane male parents is stunning. One thing I like about Yugioh is the way it shows how each character's past and experiences have shaped who they are. This certainly applies vividly to Kaiba, but it also applies to the other characters as well. It's kind of interesting that the shy, bully magnet (Yugi) actually has one of the least traumatic histories of the characters.
Seto and Yami: (Desidera, Kagemihari, Lightning Sage, samurai-ashes) I agree – I think that Seto would be quicker to recognize his feelings for Yami. But I think that the intensity of his feelings, and the out-of-control nature of his infatuation would make him both angry and defensive. I think he would see this as something that Yami was doing to him, and resent it.
Kaiba's flashbacks: (Amarin Rose) Yes, for Seto, that first flashback Kaiba has in Chapter 8 would have just happened – it would be in his recent past. Incidents like that would have contributed to his decision to try and run away in the first place.
Titles: (Amarin Rose, Kagemihari, Katie Torango) Thanks for coming up with chapter titles! I couldn't believe that people pitched in. High Noon was sort of Kagemihari's suggestion… well, actually when I said I needed a chapter for a duel, she said something along the lines of, you mean like "High Noon" And I said something like, Wow, that's perfect!" At which point she said "ack… I was kidding." Too late! I also loved Amarin Rose's "Double Dragons" – perfect for a story with two Seto Kaibas (I have the chapter picked out, and, especially, "Escape from Alcatraz". That could be the title of the whole story in some ways. Thanks also to Katie Torango for "Here There Be Dragons" which will also make an appearance, i8n a later chapter.
I don't know why the last three words of "It's Déjà Vu all over again" aren't capitalized (I guess I should know, but I don't.) I think it's because it's actually a quote by Yogi Berra, the former NY Yankees catcher (he's the guy confusing the duck on the AFLACK commercial). Anyway, since it was a quote, I didn't capitalize most of it. Yogi Berra also said, "It ain't over 'till it's over" which I also thought would make a good title, but Déjà Vu sounded sexier.
Martial Arts: (Desidera, Kagemihari, QueenofGames2, samurai-ashes, Tokemi) I'm glad people liked the martial arts motif, because it continues weaving it's way through the story. It also highlights something interesting about choosing to write a second story with essentially the same characters: I've tried to focus on different things than the first time around, but I've sometimes ended up looking at the same thing from (hopefully) a slightly different angle. There are some things I just see as being inherently part of these guys, like Kaiba and martial arts, (or dragons) so they tend to reoccur.
Seto and Jounouchi: (Tokemi) Seto's feelings on Yugi's friends in general and Jounouchi in particular, don't get fully explored until later. For now, though, I think Jounouchi summed them up pretty accurately. I think Seto divides the world into three groups: Mokuba; potential enemies; and proven enemies. Yugi and Co. are in the potential enemies category – along with most of the rest of the world.
Akunadin and Shadi (well, not as a couple): (Amarin Rose, sun-sun kat) By Chapter 14v I start to explain where Akunadin's been, and what he's been up to; by Chapter 15 both characters' whereabouts are fully explained. I know it's been a long break, but I'm getting back to them.
Changing POVs: (Kagemihari, laura m) One thing I love seeing with the changing POVs is who ends up with whom as chapter mates. You've met eight of the ten total voices by now.
Thanks to Kurosaisei, Leland Lancaster, sasameyuki. I'm glad you're finding it well reasoned, and that it's keeping your interest. And thanks for writing to let me know.