6. Big Brothers

Yugi awoke Wednesday morning with a crick in his neck after sleeping curled up in a corner of the cave with Téa leaning against his arm. A fair trade-off, all things considered, but he was anxious to get up and stretch and had to go to the bathroom. He'd kill for a shower and a toothbrush, but knew he'd have to settle for splashing some water on his face and rinsing his mouth out. As carefully as he could so as not to wake anyone, he slid out from under Téa, lowering her gently to the ground.

She half opened her eyes and murmured, "What time is it?"

"Early," Yugi whispered, giving her a kiss on the forehead. "Go back to sleep." She mumbled something unintelligible and then rolled over and fell back asleep.

As he slipped out, he did a headcount of his friends. He counted eight, including himself, Kaiba, and Mokuba. Who was missing? Looking over the sleeping faces once more, he realized Rebecca and Mai weren't there. Frowning, he left the cave and blinked in the sunshine that seemed a little too bright for five AM and pulled his jacket tighter around him against the brisk morning air.

After answering nature's call, his first order of business was finding Rebecca and Mai. He found Rebecca fairly quickly; she was sitting by the campfire watching Mako and Kenan's wife, Makena, cooking more fish for breakfast. She looked pretty subdued for Rebecca and he decided Mai could fend for herself.

"Hey Rebecca," he said. She looked up, acknowledged him with nod, and then went back to staring at the fire.

He sat down beside her. "You're up early. You okay?"

"We're shipwrecked in the North Pacific, no one knows where we are, someone is trying to kill us and reopen the Shadow Games, and oh yeah, it turns out I've got some kind of 'mark' from playing a Shadow Game I didn't even know I was playing when I was eight years old. I'm great, how are you? Oh, don't bother answering, I already know," she added, a note of bitterness to her voice. "You're deliriously happy 'cause you have Téa now."

Yugi was taken aback. "Whoa, where did that come from? Since when is that a problem? You've been giving me a hard time about Téa for two years now."

"Well yeah, but I didn't expect you to ignore everyone else because of her."

"Um, excuse me? I spent the whole morning walking up here with you!"

"Yeah, but ever since we made camp and you two went looking for water together, the rest of us might as well not even be alive."

"That's not—" he started to protest, but then closed his mouth with a snap. In truth, she probably was right. He'd been so elated after their time alone together that he had spent most of the rest of the night glued to her side and quite likely would not have noticed if Rebecca was trying to get his attention. Feeling a fresh round of guilt—he was supposed to be looking after her for the professor, after all—he put an arm around her shoulder. "You're right, Rebecca. I'm sorry."

She merely shrugged his arm off of her. "Forget it. No big deal."

"Come on, Rebecca, what's this about? You're not…" he trailed off, too self-conscious to finish the thought.

"Jealous?" She finished for him, rolling her eyes. "Oh puh-lease. Do we think highly of ourselves or what? Seriously, let's think about it." She held out her two hands like a balance. First she indicated the left one. "We've got the total hotness that is Mokuba Kaiba—and oh yeah, let's not forget he's really obscenely rich and incredibly sweet—and we've got the total geekiness that is you. Hmmm, which is better?" She let her left hand, the one she had assigned to Mokuba, crash to her knee while her right hand flew up above her head. "Oh yeah, real close call there," she scoffed.

"Then why have you been avoiding him all day and hanging around me instead?"

This seemed to surprise her. "Avoiding? I'm not avoiding him! I just… oh no, I hope he doesn't think…"

"It'll be fine, Rebecca, just go talk with him when he wakes up."

She nodded. "Yeah, I should." Then she took a deep breath and continued. "But just so you know, I was so over the little kid crush thing like two years ago, and yes, I know that's what it was and that I was never really your girlfriend," she added off his surprised look. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm not particularly stupid."

"I know you're not stupid, Rebecca. And okay, you're not jealous, but if that's not it, then what? What more can I do but apologize? Would it help if I admitted you were right all along? I guess I had been 'pining,' to use your word, and now that Téa and I have talked about how we feel, it's all kind of new and… distracting, I guess. But I'll try to be a better friend to you and look out for you."

She looked at him. "Like you did when the ship went down?"

"Hey, I already explained about that, and that had nothing to do with me spending time with Téa anyway. She was with you, remember? I know I have a responsibility to you, and I really will try to be better about it, but when stuff like this happens, Rebecca, I have a responsibility to everybody, too."

"Why? You're not the kid with the spirit of a Pharaoh living in your head anymore, are you?"

"No," he said, "but if the Shadow Realm leaves some kind of mark, don't you think that would too? He's never really going to be gone, that's what I realized over the last couple of years as I got used to having his memories. And let's face it, what has everybody been saying since we got here? Tristan joked that no one has tried to steal his soul since he and I have been apart. Mai said if I was here, the world must need saving. Téa said that three days into the trip was too soon to tell if it was going to get weird and not half an hour later the engines blew up and the first thing she said was 'three days on a ship with Yugi Mutou, something strange was bound to happen.'

"As much as I say none of this stuff is my fault, as much as I know it really isn't, it always centers around me because of who I am or who I used to be or whatever, but Rebecca, that gives me a responsibility when stuff like this happens. Innocent people get caught in the crossfire because of psychos trying to use me to get some kind of power. Me and Kaiba both, actually, and Pegasus, too. That makes it our responsibility to do something, and that night seeing Pegasus was a priority, more than staying with you or even Téa, even though I'd only just found out that she wants to be with me.

"But I didn't forget you," he told her. "I sent her to go find you and make sure you got on the lifeboat. Maybe I shouldn't have left it to her. Maybe I could've waited to see Pegasus and stayed with you instead. But at the time I needed to know what was going on because I needed to know if I was supposed to do anything about it. Do you understand?"

"I understand," she said, "but if you're feeling so responsible for everyone, then yesterday when you were so busy making goo-goo eyes at Téa, did you even notice that something is really wrong?"

He frowned. "What do you mean? Someone blew up our ship. I kind of noticed! Or are you talking about what Pegasus said about the Shadow Realm?"

"No, Yugi, it's not any of that. I mean like Egypt. Can't you feel it?"

This stopped him cold. "What do you mean, like Egypt?"

"You know exactly what I mean, how it was the last few months. Why do you think I've been sticking so close to you? You're the only one who could understand. You're the only one who made it okay when we were there. I hated it, Yugi. I… I was so depressed all the time."

"I know. It was great getting back to Cairo, even with the missing passports and everything. It was like you were you again." He put his hand over hers. "Look, Rebecca, no matter how much of a hard time I give you about you being annoying or whatever, I like you like that. You have so much life. I hated seeing what Egypt did to you."

"Well, it's like that here. Everything just feels wrong, and you'd feel it too if you weren't so preoccupied with your new girlfriend."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Egypt had felt… like gloom and despair and death. This place felt alive, despite everything that had happened. Or did it? Was Rebecca right? Was his euphoria over finally being with Téa overriding any instincts he might have about this place and the danger they were in?

"I don't feel anything strange," he admitted, opening his eyes again and looking at her, "but maybe you're right. Maybe I have been too preoccupied with Téa. I'll try and be more aware. If you're right, it could have something to do with the Shadow Realm. What we felt in Egypt might have, too, if Pegasus is right and that's when all those tomb thefts were taking place."

She only nodded.

"Rebecca, what can I do to help you? I want to know how I can be your friend right now."

She sighed and closed her eyes.

"What?" he asked.

"It's just… do you have any idea how hard it is to make friends when you're a child prodigy? Well, maybe you do, actually. But still, you were at least in school with people your own age even if you were really different from them. I was in Duel Monsters tournaments since I was six and in college by the time I was ten. People my age were never mature enough for me and people of my maturity level were too old to want to hang out with a little kid. You were my first friend ever, Yugi, and even then not really because we really weren't ever in the same place for very long and I know you weren't really all that interested in hanging out with a little kid either, but you didn't treat me like I was just a little kid, you treated me like a friend. You gave me that Ties of Friendship card. It's probably why I had that crush on you when I saw you in Domino a couple years later, and then again in California right after that, which was really cool despite everything that happened because we did get to spend time together, especially with that KC Grand Championship tournament. Trust me, though; I got over the crush thing quick when you moved in with Grandpa and me. You can be really annoying when you're around all the time, you know that?"

"I can be annoying?" he asked, incredulous.

"But still, I feel like we got to be real friends the last two years when it was just you and me and a bunch of old stuffy archaeologists. Not like I'm just a little kid you have to take care of, but a real friend."

"That's right," he agreed. "I already told you, you're like a sister to me."

She gave him an odd look. "I… I used to have a big brother. Did you know that?"

Yugi felt his jaw drop. "What? No, I didn't know that."

"He died in the car crash with my parents when I was a baby," she said.

He wasn't sure what to say. He knew Rebecca's parents had been killed when she was very young, but she'd never really talked about it before and neither she nor her grandfather had ever mentioned a brother. "Rebecca, how could I have lived with you and your grandpa for two years and not known this?"

She shrugged. "I don't think about it much, really. I was a baby so I don't remember any of them. His name was David. He was seven when he died, so I guess he would've been about your age."

She looked down. "Actually, that's not exactly true—that I don't think about it much, I mean. When I was little I used to pretend that David was my guardian angel." She blushed. "It's stupid, I know. It's just… Grandpa was always such a great 'dad' I never missed my parents much. I know that sounds awful, but it's hard to miss parents you never remember having when you have someone like grandpa. But I'd always wished I could have known my brother, someone who would've been my friend when everyone else was too old or when I didn't fit in because I was too smart.

"When I met you," she looked back up at Yugi, "I imagined that David would've been like you, and then I felt bad for trying to replace him, so I decided you would be a better boyfriend. But I think… I think I like you as a big brother. Maybe David would understand."

Yugi put his arm around her and pulled her toward him. This time she didn't try and shrug him off. "I'm sure he would, Rebecca. I would love to be your big brother. You are very important to me. You're… Imouto-chan, you know that?" he added, using the Japanese endearment for "little sister" because the English phrase didn't quite convey the full meaning.

She seemed pleased by this. "Really?"

"Really."

"Then you're Onii-chan?"

Having been an only child all his life, it felt foreign to him to be called "big brother." But he liked it, too. "Yeah, I guess so."

Rebecca beamed for a moment, then grew more somber. "I just don't want that to change, Yugi. I don't want you to love Téa so much that there isn't room for me anymore."

"That won't happen," he promised solemnly. "You will always be important to me. And I will try to be more aware of that and more aware of the other stuff you were talking about, but you have to cut me a little bit of slack, okay? Not counting you, I have never even had a girl like me before—"

"Vivian Wong," she interrupted with a sneer of distaste.

"Okay, I've never had a sane girl like me before," he amended with a sheepish grin, "so this is really new to me and really overwhelming, okay? Can you be patient with me as I try to figure out how this new relationship fits in my life?"

"Okay."

"And I need you to tell me what you notice about things being wrong here, because that could be really important, Rebecca. You might be noticing something the rest of us aren't picking up on yet and it could be really, really important. And if I can help make it easier for you, I want to. I've got your back, I promise. And I need you to watch mine."

She nodded then gave him a sly grin. "You really wanna cheer me up? Let me spend some time with Mokuba without Kaiba or you or Duke hanging over our shoulders."

"Ha! You forget—"

"I'm only thirteen, I know! I wish you wouldn't feel the need to remind me every fifteen seconds!"

"Actually, I was going to say you forget I'm the 'big brother.' And Duke sort of sees himself as your big brother, too, you know. So now you have two big brothers and a guardian angel brother and you can bet none of us are gonna let you wander off alone for too long with some boy, even if it's Mokuba Kaiba and we trust him. Mostly. Got it, Imouto-chan?" he added with a smile.

"Whatever, Onii-chan," she scowled. "It must be a Japanese thing. You Japanese big brothers are way too overprotective."

"Hey, you think I'm bad? At least Joey isn't your big brother. According to him I should consider all males scum and shouldn't trust any of them to even get near you."

"This is true," she agreed. "If I were Serenity, I'd have killed him by now. Okay, so all things considered you aren't the worst big brother ever."

"No, third or fourth worst, tops." She laughed at this and he said, "See, I can cheer you up even without Mokuba."

"Speaking of, he's dueling first today. I should go see if he's awake yet."

"It's still early, not even six o'clock yet."

"Really? Eh, it's this stupid sun coming up so early. It feels like eight or nine already."

"Why don't we just talk some more since no one else is up yet? I'll even let you gush about how dreamy Mokuba is."

She made a disgusted face. "Okay, who talks like that? 'Dreamy.' Really." She rolled her eyes. "You can be such a loser sometimes, you know that?"

"Now I know you've been hanging out with the Kaibas too much," he grinned.

It was about six thirty when Téa woke up to find Yugi gone. She was relieved to find him the first place she looked, by the fire eating breakfast. She felt a flash of annoyance, however, when she saw Rebecca sitting close to him, still cloyingly possessive as they laughed at some shared joke. Biting back her irritation, she smiled and called out, "Hey Yugi!"

He turned and smiled brightly when he saw her, which improved her mood considerably. "Hey, Téa, come have some breakfast," he said, sliding closer to Rebecca to make room for her on his other side.

"What is there?"

"Pretty much fish and MREs. Although Mako says some of the MREs have gone missing, along with Kenan Bagatui's backpack."

"No big loss on the MREs," she said, wrinkling her nose. "Can I just say how much I'm already really missing those extravagant buffets?" She went to the fire and got some fish and some dried fruit from Makena Bagatui, then returned to sit down next to Yugi.

"Hey," he said a little shyly. "You sleep okay?"

"Pretty good, considering. When did you get up? I don't remember you leaving."

"Around five. How about the others, are they awake yet?"

"Uh, Duke was just starting to move when I left, but everyone else was asleep. I didn't see Mai, though."

"Yeah, me neither. She and Rebecca were both already gone when I woke up."

"I saw her," Rebecca said. "She got up around the same time I did and went to take a walk in the woods."

"Alone?" Yugi frowned. "I don't know if that's a good idea. We really should stick together. And that means you, too," he finished, giving Rebecca a pointed look.

"Yeah yeah, Onii-chan," she said, and they both smiled and he nudged her with his shoulder as if they were sharing a private joke.

Trying to ignore that, Téa said, "I'd like to see you try and tell Mai what to do."

"Yeah, that would go over well, would it?" Yugi agreed wryly.

Before too long, other passengers started trickling over and a line formed at the fire to get food. Mai showed up and after greeting them, headed for the food line. She was followed soon after by Kaiba and Mokuba. To Téa's delight, when Mokuba appeared, Rebecca excused herself to go talk with him. Before she left, Yugi took her elbow and said simply, "Remember." She seemed to understand what that meant because she nodded and he let her go.

"What was that all about?" Téa asked Yugi.

"Nothing. Just something we were talking about earlier."

She felt another flash of annoyance, but he took her hand absently in both of his and immediately it melted away.

"So I guess we continue the tournament today," he said, with little enthusiasm.

"You don't sound too happy about that," she observed.

"I'm worried. If the goal of sinking the ship was stopping the tournament, what will happen if we continue?"

"There's only thirty-eight out of over four hundred of us here. Odds are the saboteur is on the other side of the island."

"Rex and Weevil are here, and I don't trust them," he pointed out. "And even if it wasn't them, it might have been someone else who knocked those boulders down on you and Mokuba."

"Yeah, I'm worried, too," she agreed. "You be careful, okay?"

He put his arm around her and pulled her close so that her head rested on his shoulder. "Always."

Mai, holding a stick with some chunk of fish skewered on it, sat down and joined them. "I am so over fish," she said, wrinkling her nose at her breakfast. "I could really go for an omelet right about now."

"You and me both," Téa agreed.

"Where were you, Mai?" Yugi asked. "I didn't see you when I got up."

"It was kind of hard to sleep once the sun came up, even in that cave, so I took a walk," she answered. "Although apparently no one else had any trouble. The rest of the gang still sleeping?"

"I guess not," Téa said as she saw Tristan, Joey, Serenity, and Duke appear.

When they all had their breakfast, they sat together near the fire and talked about the upcoming duels, which were to be held on the beach one at a time. From what Goradon had said, they were going to try and do all eight division finals today.

A little before eight, they all headed back down to the beach where Mokuba would duel Jacques Rousseau, a lanky Frenchman with a nasty disposition, for the Green Division title. When they arrived at the beach, Goradon, Croquet, and the other IDMTC guy, Nelson, were scurrying around preparing for the duels. What they could possibly have to do that would make them all look so busy, Téa couldn't begin to imagine. Once a space was cleared, all they really needed were the duelists, their duel disks, and one judge. Yet here they were, looking as if they were setting up a stadium match that would be televised worldwide. Pegasus perched like a sleek cat on top of a rock, surveying the activity.

Mokuba and Jacques Rousseau stood waiting near Pegasus while the other duelists and guests formed a rough semi-circle around the swath of beach where they would be dueling. Kaiba took up a position near the edge of the group, his face impassive as he waited for his brother's duel to begin. Rebecca stood near him, ready to cheer for Mokuba. Téa, Yugi, Joey, Mai, Tristan, Serenity, and Duke stood in a group not far from Rebecca and Kaiba.

Eventually the IDMTC guys seemed to run out of things to do. Mr. Goradon made some sort of speech that was mostly lost in the wind, although Téa figured that was probably for the best. Pegasus, his voice carrying better over the wind and surf, announced the Green Division final and introduced Jacques and Mokuba. The two competitors met in the middle of the group of onlookers and exchanged decks to shuffle. Once both decks were returned to their owners, the two competitors inserted them into their duel disks, took up positions on opposite sides of the beach, and the duel began.

Téa could see from the beginning that Jacques had earned his reputation as a rather brutal duelist. His monster cards were primarily Fire monsters with some pretty nasty effects. Mokuba's deck was built around Wind monsters and winged beasts. Téa realized that in all the time she'd known Mokuba, she'd only seen him duel once, when he was only ten and didn't really know how to play the game. At first he played like she would expect based on his personality; he was shrewd but level and did not tend to engage in the kind of gloating and mean-spirited attacks his brother favored.

As the duel progressed, however, both sides seemed to get more and more brutal. With the holographic duel disks, attacks to monsters and especially to a competitor's Life Points were very realistic and could take a lot of physical strength to withstand, but for some reason this duel seemed a little more real, with both duelists seeming to take more punishment than the holographic attacks usually dished out. After Mokuba had been knocked back more than once by Jacques's Tyrant Dragon, a monster with twenty-nine hundred attack points that could attack twice in one turn so long as the opponent still had a monster left on the field, he started playing with a kind of vindictiveness that Téa would expect from Kaiba, but never from Mokuba.

"Does Mokuba always duel like that?" Téa asked Yugi. "I know he's Kaiba's little brother, but I never expected him to be so, I don't know… mean."

"Hm," was all Yugi replied. He was watching the duel intently, a deep frown on his face. As the duel went on, she noticed he seemed to withdraw more and more, as if he were the one dueling.

It ended when Jacques successfully summoned a Lava Golem on Mokuba's side of the field. Téa shuddered as she remembered the last time she'd seen that monster, when Marik's Yami side had used it in his Shadow Game against Joey. Though Jacques had given Mokuba a monster with three thousand attack points, its special effect inflicted one thousand points of damage to its controller's Life Points each turn. When Mokuba tried to use the Golem against Jacques, it ended up trapped in a Spellbinding Circle, which left it unable to attack. Mokuba could not get rid of it before it drained his Life Points to zero and the duel was over.

Jacques, however, didn't seem to be finished with Mokuba. Though already the winner, he had his Tyrant Dragon attack one more time, and the force of the blow knocked an already weary Mokuba off his feet.

This put everyone into an uproar. Rebecca leapt to Mokuba's side while Kaiba immediately flew into a rage. "You little worm, who do you think you are? Anyone who messes with my brother messes with me!" He made a threatening move in Jacques direction and Croquet and Nelson raced to hold him back while Nelson, who had been refereeing, started shouting at Jacques that the duel was over and he was to turn off his duel disk immediately or forfeit the match.

While all of this was going on, Mokuba jumped to his feet and brushed Rebecca aside with a roar of rage. Téa clapped her hand over her mouth in shock as the teenager pulled a card from his deck and slammed it into the monster slot on his disk. Spirit Ryu, a giant, ethereal blue dragon appeared over his head. Mokuba then discarded two dragon cards to increase Spirit Ryu's attack from one thousand to three thousand.

Kaiba shook himself loose from the two men holding him back. In two long strides he was at his brother's side. Clapping a hand down on his shoulder protectively, he growled across the field to Jacques. "You just try and attack my brother again, you pathetic sack of slime!"

"This duel is over!" Nelson cried out again, running onto the middle of the field between Mokuba and Jacques. "Both competitors will be disqualified if they do not turn off their duel disks immediately!" He turned to Kaiba. "Mr. Kaiba, return to the sidelines or you will also be disqualified from this tournament!"

"Not until I know this piece of filth isn't going to go after my brother again!"

"Non-duelists may not enter the field during a match!" the referee insisted.

"The duel is over!" Kaiba shot back.

But then the Spirit Ryu suddenly flickered and winked out of existence. Mokuba had turned off his duel disk. "It's okay, Seto," he said, sounding more dazed than angry now, "it's over, let's get out of here."

"Mr. Rousseau?" Nelson demanded. With a sneer of disdain, Jacques turned off his duel disk and his monsters disappeared as well.

"Jacques Rousseau is the winner of the Green Division and will move on to the tournament quarter finals," Nelson announced, but clearly he was still very angry. "But be advised, any more nonsense outside the bounds of a duel and you will be disqualified." He glared first at Jacques, then at the Kaiba brothers. "The next duel will begin in fifteen minutes: Zigfried von Schroeder and Christine Aileas for the Red Division Championship!"

"What was that?" Mai asked. "I'd expect that from Kaiba, but Mokuba?"

"I don't know, if that guy had gone after me like that, I woulda done the same thing," Joey argued.

"Well, I'd expect that from you, too. You have all the self-control of a rhino, but Mokuba?" Mai shot back.

Joey growled at her, but Yugi held up his hand, a deep frown still etched in his face. "What about this Jacques Rousseau? Is he normally this aggressive."

Mai nodded. "I've seen him compete a lot on the European circuit. Had to duel him a couple of times myself. Actually, assuming I win my division, I'll be dueling him next. Violet versus Green in the quarterfinals. But yeah, that was pretty par for the course for Jacques I'm afraid."

"He's a real piece of work, isn't he?" Joey added.

"Guys, did the monsters seem more seem more souped-up than usual to you?" Téa asked.

"Yeah, actually," Joey replied immediately. "Mokuba really got hammered there, more than you'd expect from the duel disks. Weird."

"Hm," Yugi nodded, lost in his own world again.

"Yugi?" Téa asked, but his attention was back on the field where the Kaibas were now standing off to the side, Mokuba reassuring his brother that he was all right. Rebecca hung back from them, a very disturbed expression on her face.

"Rebecca," Yugi said thoughtfully, and Téa looked at back at him.

"Yugi?" she asked again.

"I'll be right back," he said distractedly and headed off toward Rebecca.

Téa gave an irritated grunt and went after him, but she only made it several steps before someone grabbed her arm from behind and held her back.

"No you don't," Joey said, leaning close and speaking softly near her ear.

"Joey Wheeler, let go of me!" she cried in frustration.

"Nothin' doin' Téa. It's just petty and you're better than that."

"What are you talking about?" she grumbled, shaking her arm out of his grasp.

"You know what I'm talking about. She is not a threat to you. She's a kid and he is nuts about you."

Téa started to stammer another denial, but then her shoulders slumped and she growled again in the back of her throat. "I don't know why she bugs me so much," she admitted petulantly.

"She bugs everyone. It's what she does. But she's Yugi's friend, like a sister to him, and you do not wanna be in the business of deciding who his friends are."

"No," Téa agreed with a sigh, "I don't. It's just… ooooh, she makes me crazy sometimes. I think it's because she gets so possessive with all the 'boyfriend' stuff and grabbing his arm and don't look at me like that because I know she's too young, but it still gets on my nerves!"

"Well you're gonna have to deal with it because like it or not, she's an important part of his life. They lived in the same house for two years and they shared a pretty miserable experience the last six months from the sounds of it. This duel on top of everything else obviously upset her and he needs to be there for her. You need to stay out of it."

"I know, I know. Oooh, I hate it when you're right," she grumbled. When he gave her a cocky grin in return, she added, "Lucky for me it's a pretty rare occurrence."

While Croquet, Nelson, and Goradon tried to restore order and clear out the field to get ready for the next duel, Yugi headed for Rebecca. He glanced at Kaiba and Mokuba when he passed; Kaiba was still fuming but Mokuba looked okay. Still, it was odd. Shaking his head, he bypassed them and found Rebecca off to the side.

"You okay?" he asked.

She nodded blankly, still watching Mokuba.

"Rebecca?"

She looked up at him now. "That was awful," she said.

Yugi nodded. "Something's wrong, isn't it?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You feel it too now?"

"Yes. I started noticing it right after the duel started. You were right, Rebecca, something is very wrong. It does feel like Egypt. I think I was right. I think what we felt in Egypt was because whoever stole those relics was trying to bring back the Shadow Games. That's what we feel here, too."

She hugged herself, suddenly looking very small. Her attitude had always made her seem larger than life despite her youth and petite size, he realized. It was disconcerting to see her look small. Just like she had in Egypt the last six months. It had only been on their return trip to Cairo that she'd gone back to her prattling, annoying self. It had been such a relief to feel like themselves again, he'd almost immediately shut out of his mind how bad it had been for her.

He put his hands on her shoulders. "Rebecca, it'll be okay. I promise you, we'll stop this. I won't let the Shadow Realm be reopened."

She just nodded and then Mokuba and Kaiba joined them. "Rebecca, are you okay?" Mokuba asked, his voice thick with concern and regret. "I am so sorry I shoved you aside like that. I didn't mean to. I just got so mad at the way that jerk was playing."

"I'm okay," she said, brightening a little.

"Are you sure? I feel terrible for acting that way. I really like you, Rebecca, I wouldn't want—"

He never got to finish what he was saying because Rebecca threw her arms around his neck in a tight hug.

"Puppy love," Kaiba sneered contemptuously, but Yugi thought he saw a hint of amusement in Kaiba's eyes.

"Kaiba, what do you know about this Jacques Rousseau?" Yugi asked, pulling the other man aside.

"That he's a dead man if he ends up dueling me," Kaiba responded menacingly.

"He'll be dueling the winner of the Violet Division next."

"Valentine, then," Kaiba assumed. "He'd better pray she beats him and he doesn't get to the finals."

"Kaiba, would you forget about revenge for a minute? Something was very wrong about this duel. Why would he attack Mokuba after the duel was over? And does Mokuba usually duel like that?"

"Mokuba is an excellent duelist," Kaiba retorted.

Yugi gnashed his teeth in frustration. "Kaiba, I'm not questioning his abilities, I'm just asking if he was out of character during that duel? I've never seen him duel, not since he was ten and didn't really know how, anyway, so I don't know his style, but I do know his personality and he's not like—"

"Like me?" Kaiba asked with a smirk.

"Well, yes. Is it normal for him to play so aggressively and to get so angry?"

"No, but given the circumstances, it was certainly justified."

"Yes," Yugi admitted. "But still, something wasn't right. It makes me wonder what this Jacques Rousseau is up to."

Kaiba's eyes widened as he realized what Yugi was getting at. "You think he's the one who sank the ship? Or sent that boulder down onto Mokuba?"

"Possibly. This duel felt… dark. Like a Shadow Game."

"You listen to too many of Pegasus's ghost stories," Kaiba scoffed.

"And you don't listen enough," Yugi shot back. "You know the Shadow Games are real and you know there was something wrong with that duel."

Kaiba glared at Yugi. "The Shadow Games may be real, but the only thing I know for sure about that duel is that he attacked my brother unprovoked. But you might be onto something about Jacques being involved with the ship going down. He isn't exactly a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize."

"We should keep an eye on him."

"It would be my pleasure," Kaiba smiled malevolently.