Sdrive: Wow, people actually really enjoy this. This is a great feeling knowing that I am doing a good job as a writer. So, another chapter for all those lovely readers out there.
Disclaimer: Story idea, Kai, and Sprite, only things I own.
Two days had passed since the meeting at Nine's house and things were going a bit better than they had. Kai had pulled some really useful cards out of his booster packs and had reconstructed his deck however it was still missing cards needed for it to be better. "I'm sure there will be card shops and people more than willing to trade with you when we go to the tournament," Hajime said as he walked along with Kai.
"You're problably right, but my problem is that I don't have a lot to trade. The best cards I have are in my deck, and I can't afford to trade them."
"Well, when we get to Nakato's, I'm sure he will be willing to help out."
"Thanks for coming along with me to see him, Sprite had to go with her dad to go pick something up and Nine and Domid are working on their decks. You were the only one in the group not busy."
"It's no problem, but I'm sure Nakato would have helped you with your deck problem even without me being there."
"Yeah, but it's more of a support thing really." They kept walking until they got to Nakato's Card Shop. They walked in and saw Nakato at his computer behind the desk. "Hey Nakato," Kai said nodding his head.
Nakato looked up from his computer. "Well, if it isn't Kai, I haven't seen you in here for a while, what can I do ya for?"
"My deck for starters. The landlord kicked me out of my apartment so I've been staying with a friend. I'm hoping to get new cards so that I will stand a better chance at winning the World Championship this year. My very survival is being counted on me winning the 50 Grand."
"Well, let me take a look at your deck there," Nakato said. Kai handed over his deck as Nakato shuffled through it, giving the occasionaly 'uh huh,' and, 'I see.' He handed the deck back to Kai and got up from his chair. "Follow me," he said as he jumped over the counter and took them glass case. "It seems as though your deck runs Magicians, so some good Magician support cards are necissary." He removed the glass and picked up 4 cards from it. He handed them to Kai to see.
"Black Magic Attack, Diffuision Wave-Motion, Black Magician of Chaos, and Black Paladin?" Kai asked.
"Yup, very rare and powerful cards when used correctly in a Magician Deck," Nakato said. He then walked over towards a stand with booster packs. "A few Magician Force booster packs would help as well."
Kai nodded picking up some packs. They walked back over to the counter and set down the cards and packs. "I doubt I'll be able to afford all this, I might only have enough for just one of the cards and a booster put together."
"Well, you and your family have always been great customers. I could let you off with a discount," Nakato said.
"Yeah," Kai said looking down. "Now I just have to figure out what to pick."
Hajime looked at the cards and then at Nakato, "Hey Nakato, didn't Kai do some manual labor for you about 6 months ago?"
"Oh yeah, I told you I'd give you a reward for that but then you stopped coming."
"Money was tight and I never had the time to stop by. The landlord was sucking all the money I made right out of my hands and into his. That was about the time he had started to jack the prices of rent."
"Well, How about this, I throw in two of the cards as your Manual Labor work, you can use the discount for always coming here, and that should cover everything."
"I you sure about this?" Kai asked.
"Of course I am. You deserve them from all the times you've come by and supported the store, and for all the hard work you did for me during the summer. Helping me fix my roof was a big help. Ya know, I'll throw in another 4 boosters."
"Oh no, I couldn't except them."
"Nonsense, you were the one who really did all the work on the roof, I just told you what to do really. Just two cards really isn't enough for you working you're butt off for me in that hot sun and also going to your job. It's my treat."
"Thank you," Kai said. He paid for the cards and thanked Nakato again. "I promise, if I win the Championships, I'll repay you back, I really shouldn't be accepting all this."
"I have faith in you Kai. You're a good kid with a kind heart. You've built an excellent deck with the cards you have. I can only hope that these cards will help you out more."
"Well, lets find out," Hajime said.
Kai nodded and opened the packs. He pulled a Skilled Black Magician in one pack, and a Skilled White Magician in another. He pulled a couple Apprentice Magicians, and some other good cards. "Wow, these are awesome," Kai said smiling.
"Skilled White and Black will be very helpful in summoning the Black Paladin you bought. I wish you the best of luck."
"Thank you," Kai said. "Come on Hajime, I have some deck building to do." Kai and Hajime waved good bye to Nakato and headed back to Sprite's house. "He really shouldn't have done all that," Kai said while they were walking.
"You're right, but he did it because he feels bad for you, and wants to help you, just like we all do."
"I will pay him back, I promise."
Kai had arrived back at Sprite's house and Hajime had walked home. He was going through his deck, carefully picking and choosing cards to take out and put in. "It would be a shame to let these 4 cards go to waste," he said. He promised himself that he would find a place to put them. After about an hour he was finally finished with it. He looked it over with pride. He flipped through every card until he got to his favorite two cards, the Black Magician, and the Black Magician Girl.
"My mom bought me this card," he said to no one in particular when he looked at the Black Magician Girl. "Right before she died. And the Black Magician was given to me by Nine, as a symbol of our friendship. Ever since then the Magicians have been my favorite type of card. This new deck has my entire heart and soul into it. As long as I remember what I'm fighting for, I can't lose."
Kai heard the front door open and put his deck down to go greet whoever was coming in. He walked out to see Sprite and her dad coming in with a few bags. Kai went over to help them bring in the bags. Him and Sprite then went back into Sprite's room and Sprite collapsed on her bed smiling. "Well, my dad and I just finished helping an old friend of his move into their house. The man there knew that I was really into Duel Monsters so as a thank you for helping me he gave me a few packs and check this card out." She handed him a card and he looked at it.
"Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch?" Kai asked reading the name. He looked over it's effect and smiled. "That's not such a bad card," he said.
"Yeah, and it's two hundred points stronger than my Twin Headed Fire Dragon and plus it has an awesome effect so I'm going to take out the Fire Dragon and replace it with this."
"Awesome," Kai said handing the card back to her.
"Yeah," she said looking at the card. She then pulled out her deck and took out three cards. "My Raging Flame Sprites," She said smiling. "My favorite cards, I wouldn't replace them for the world. They may be commons but I think they are the coolest cards ever."
"Their effects are pretty good," Kai said. "Ya know, I'm getting a really good feeling about this tournament. I think we are going to kick major butt in it."
"I do too," Sprite agreed. "You remember the plan, we head over to Nine's tonight for dueling and deck strengthening."
Kai nodded, "I wouldn't ever forget it. This is our only week to prepare. We have to make it count." Sprite nodded and then they sat there talking about the tournament for a bit longer. They went over to Nines after about an hour and began the dueling. They decided to have a mock tournament to see how they would all fair as their decks stood as they were. After they had finished they did a bit of deck fixing to make them flow a bit better and then they did another mock tournament. This continued about twice more and finally they were all happy with what they had.
They all left knowing they had the best deck they could possibly have with the cards they had. For the next 4 days they went over to each others houses and just dueled the day away, making sure they knew exactly what to do in what situations. They learned how to get a feel on their new decks and made sure that mistakes were non-existent. On the Fifth day it was finally time to head out. They had packed all the necessities the night before and Sprite's mom was car-pooling them all to the dock where the boat was waiting. When they got out Sprite's mom wished them all the best of luck and hugged Sprite.
"Be sure to think about me while you're out there," She said.
"Don't worry mom, I will," Sprite said smiling.
They all walked up towards the docks and the security guards just stared at them as if they were crazy. "No way, there is no way you were all invited," he said looking down at them.
Nine and Hajime both stood up towards them. They showed their tickets and explained that Kai, Domid, and Sprite were the guests they had chosen to invite. The Security guard just narrowed his eyes at all of them but knew that he had to let them in. "I need your names," he said to them. They each gave their names and the security guard typed it into a tiny computer. 5 plastic key cards came out of a slot next to the computer. They had their names on it along with various numbers. "These are your key cards, you use these to enter the boat room designated on the card. Also they serve as your hotel keys when you get to the island. He handed the card keys over to the duelists and they were admitted onto the boat.
"Well, that wasn't too hard," Kai said.
"I wonder what the Island will look like," Domid asked.
"Weird that this whole thing is being held on an island don't you think? I'm pretty sure that last years was held in New York City in America," Hajime said.
"Ya know, I do remember that at the 2004 World Championships they said that if all went well, this years World Championships would have a twist," Kai said thinking back to when he had watched the tournament on TV.
"This is probably just part of the whole twist," Sprite said smiling. "Come one, we gotta go find our rooms."
"They did say that it should take a full day to reach the Island," Nine said. "I wonder how many people are going to be here."
"These things usually get a pretty good turn out," Domid said. "But one boat, it's pretty...INCREDIBLE!"
"This isn't just any boat, it's a fricken cruise ship!" Kai gasped as they saw that they were looking at a huge chandelier. There was a red carpet on the floor and it had two stairways, one going right and the other left, both heading down to the lower levels where there were tons of small and little vendor stands. They all looked on in awe.
"A cruise ship?" they all said at the same time.
"Of course, what did you expect?" said a voice coming from the left stair case. They turned around and saw a long. blue haired kid. His purple eyes had a hint of cockiness, and he seemed to be smirking at the others. He was wearing a green jacket and underneath that was a blue shirt. He had on black pants and a black wrist band around his arm with a white skull with bones crossing each other making an X behind the Skull.
"Who are you?" Kai asked.
"Names Kayose, and if you had any brains than you would have realized that this would be a cruise ship. Only the best are allowed to go to this tournament. It's for the elite duelists, not any wanna-be who got here by a fluke." He looked down at the floor below them and chuckled. "Look at that," he said pointing down to some kids dueling in a small cafe.
"What about them?" Hajime asked clearly not enjoying the company of Kayose.
"I just came from there, and all they could talk about was how they were going to win this tournament. I reminded them that only one person could win and then said that they should duel each other to decide who would do better in the tournament. They instantly took out their cards and began dueling saying that no one else had any chance. It's pitiful really. All these duelists here think they are going to win this thing, they forget only one thing."
"What's that?" Nine asked narrowing his eyes.
"Only one person can win this. They all have their hopes up for nothing. It's people like that who are going to be eliminated in the first round. They haven't got any chance."
"Hypocrite!" Sprite yelled at him. "You're no better than them. You're preaching about how only one person can win, and yet there you are with this whole attitude that says that you think you're going to win. You have to get through all the others as well."
"I know I'll do well. I asked them if they had ever been to a World Championship before. Neither of them have, where as I have been to 4, and done exceptionally well. This year, with a deck filled with many rare cards, I know I'll win it all."
"So you're fighting for yourself then," Domid said more as a fact rather than a question.
"Of course, everyone who enters in this is out there for themselves," Kayose said smirking. "You can't possibly say that you aren't in it for yourself."
"I'm not," Domid said.
"Heh, yeah right."
"It's true! I'm here for..." before Domid could finish Kai cut him off.
"We don't need to explain our selves to you," Kai said.
"Oh, I see, all 5 of you are here together. And here I thought you were just losers who manged to get on at the same time. Oh wait, I was right, you all did get on at the same time and you are all losers."
"What makes you say that?" Nine asked.
"The fact that you didn't realize that the World Championships committee never spares any expenses to make sure that this has the World Championships have the better turn-outs than the previous World Championships. That means that you have never been to one, which means that you are all newbs like those losers down at that table, which means that you have no chance of beating someone like me."
That really pissed Sprite off, "How bout you prove it then! Duel me now!"
Kayose cocked an eyebrow, "Duel you? Sure why not." Sprite started reaching for her deck when he spoke again, "Oh yeah, now I remember why not. You stand no chance. It would be a waste of my time and plus I would embarrass you in front of your little play pals. Think of it as me doing you a favor by sparing you the humiliation."
Kai could see the fire in Sprite's eyes and he knew that she was about ready to rip Kayose's head off. "Sprite, just calm down, he just wants a reaction out of you."
"Good! He's about to get it, and a fist in his teeth to boot!"
"Heh, that proves that you are a nube," Kayose said smirking. "Newbs always get worked up when called by their rightful names." Suddenly they heard a ringing sound and Kayose pulled out a cell phone. "Go ahead. Yes, ok, yeah sure, whatever I'll be there right away." He put the cell phone away and smirked. "Looks like I wouldn't have time to duel the newb even if I wanted to. I'm needed elsewhere, catch ya later newbies." He turned around laughing as walked down the steps.
Kai grabbed Sprite by the arm as she ran by him. "Don't do it," he said, "You'll be disqualified."
"As if I care right about now!" she said. Then the guilt ran down her and she turned around. "Sorry Kai, I...I,"
"We can't let someone like that annoy us," Hajime said. "If we did that we would lose focus on what's truly important."
"I just can't stand people like him," Sprite said highly annoyed.
"There's always at least one of them," Nine said. "Come on, lets go check out our rooms."
They found their way to their rooms and were happy to see that they were right next to each other. They opened one of the rooms to see that the inside wasn't nearly as nice as the rest of the ship. "I guess the best rooms are reserved for the high ranking duelists," Kai said. "It's still a nice sized room though."
"Although it's cruise ship there are still other people other than duelists on board," Hajime said reading from a small booklet that he had received along with his ticket. "It seems that the Island is only one of many stops that this ship takes. It leaves the dock and then comes back the next week, at the end of the tournament. So that means that each duelist has to share a room with two others."
"But that would mean that two of us would be sharing a room with a complete stranger," Domid said. "So who are the two lucky people who share the room with the stranger?" Domid asked with a bit of sarcasm in his voice. They checked their key cards and the pairings came out to be Domid, Hajime, and Nine sharing the room they had opened, leaving Kai and Sprite to share the room with the random duelist.
"We just can't seem to get away from each other huh Sprite?" Kai said jokingly.
"Yeah, it's like we're magnets," she said smiling. They all decided to put their stuff in their rooms and then go get lunch together. It was still early but they wanted to get it out of the way before too many duelists boarded. Once they were all situated they headed out together and went back to the lobby. They decided that they would eat at the cafe that Kayose had pointed too, it looked promising enough.
"So, the food on this thing is free for duelists right?" Domid asked.
"We brought money just incase anyway," Hajime said.
It turned out that the food was free for the duelists so they all got a bit of food and sat down at a table to eat. They ate there and watched as there were other duelists who were busy dueling at tables inside the cafe. "They sure seem to be having fun," Nine mused as he looked around.
"It would appear so," Sprite said smiling. Once they were done with lunch they decided to go check out the ship. There were many different things on the ship including a movie theater, gymnasium, and large out door pool on the upper deck. "It's gigantic," Sprite said.
"Maybe if we have some time later we can go swimming," Kai said.
"I say we go now!" Sprite said pumping her fist in the air.
"Heh, more fun seekers," someone said from behind them. They turned around and saw a boy who seemed to be in his late teens with long flowing black hair. He was wearing a black t-shirt and blue jeans. His brown eyes stared down at the tea he was holding. He took a sip and then looked at the group, "Here's a small little lesson for you kiddies, this isn't the minor leagues. I don't know how you got here and frankly I don't care, but you are all going down."
"Hey, all she said was that she wanted to go swimming, what's wrong with wanting to do something to pass time?" Domid asked.
"Its not that she wants to go swimming, its that she seems so unaware of how important this tournament is. She's not even taking this ship ride seriously. If she wanted to do well in the tournament then she would try to watch as many people duel as possible that way she can find out what kind of decks will be used."
"Oh, so you're just all knowing?" Domid asked.
"Please, if you knew any better you would know that you never want to mess with a duelist when you don't know what kind of deck they run. Take a good lesson from this encounter small child."
"What did you call me?" Domid asked.
The boy just kept on as if Domid hadn't said anything, "My name's Lin, and don't mess with me, for I am indestructible, I can not be beaten." Lin finished his tea and then got up and walked away.
Domid narrowed his eyes as Lin walked away. "Don't let him get to you," Hamjime said. "He's no better than that Kayose kid."
"Yeah, you're right," Domid said.
They took about 20 minutes to go back down to their rooms, grab their swim suites, and head back up to the pool. They spent about an hour just relaxing, and goofing off. They were having a lot of fun. They actually got out at one point to wave good bye to everyone as the boat started to sail off.
When they were done swimming they all got out of the pool. Everyone started to walk back down to the rooms but Kai stayed behind. He walked over to the side of the boat and stared out at the ocean and clouds. It was a spectacular view and it felt even better knowing that Ricardo wasn't in his life anymore. He felt a hand placed on his shoulder and turned to see Sprite smiling at him.
"I noticed you weren't following us so I decided to see where you had gone."
"Just checking out the view. Its so much nicer here than back at the apartment."
"Well, don't get to used to the boat, we dock at 12:00 tomorrow depending on how the weather is."
"It's more than that. I love knowing that I'm going to be away from Domino for a whole week. It's like a well needed vacation."
"In that case, we'll have to do something non-tournament related," Sprite said smiling.
"I think I would like that," Kai said nodding.
"Come on, let's head back to the room."
Everyone headed back into Nine, Domid, and Hajime's room and did a bit of practice with each other. They spent about two hours just practicing their skills and mentally psyching everyone up for the big day. Once they were all dueled out Domid looked at the time, "Can't believe its 4:30 already."
"We did take a tour of the ship that was about 45 minutes," Hajime said. Then we took 20 for walking up and down the decks to get our stuff when we went swimming, and another ten when we came back. We spent an hour swimming and two dueling."
"Jeez," Domid said. "I understand how it got to be 4:30, I just said I can't believe it."
"Wanna go see one of those movies?" Sprite asked.
"We've got nothing better to do right now," Nine said. "And it's still a bit too early for dinner. If we do see a movie it should end when dinner rolls around."
They decided on a movie to see and then made their way over to the on board movie and ended up only staying in it for an hour. Decided that they were too hungry from the swimming they headed off to the café that they had been too earlier.
"I can't believe that we actually skipped out on a movie," Kai said. "We've never done that."
"Ok, you can go back to the movie and we'll enjoy dinner without you," Hajime said.
"Now wait just a second there!" Kai said rather loudly which got a couple people to stair at him and two old people to shush him. "Jeez, Temperamental."
"We are kind of invading their space here," Nine said.
"Well, we had to get to the island somehow," Domid said. "I doubt they expect us to swim there."
"Here's your life jacket," Sprite said passing Domid an invisible life jacket.
"Thanks a lot but I don't need it."
The gang arrived at the café and started sharing stupid duel monsters jokes. "What do you call it when a Labrinth Tank crashes into a Black Magician?" Domid asked?
"Me destroying whoever crashed it!" Kai said laughing as the others chuckled.
"No, a Magic Jam!" Domid laughed as everyone else threw plastic knives at him.
"I've got one," Sprite said. "What happens when you look down at a Time Wizard and Time Eater? No one said anything so she continued: "Final Countdown."
Everyone groaned from the horrible joke. After dinner they decided that they were too tired to do much else. They thought they would go back and see the movie all the way through but they were just too tired to do anything else.
"I guess we should just head on up to sleep then," Nine said. Tiredly, everyone made their way to the rooms and said good night to each other. Sprite and Kai walked into their room and noticed that no one was in there with them.
"I guess the third duelist is still out on the ship," Sprite said.
"Yeah I guess so," Kai said. "But he or she has defiantly been in here."
"How can you tell?"
"Eyes and Brains, there is a set of luggage over there that we didn't put there."
"Oh, so there is," Sprite said noticing the luggage. "Well, I guess I'm going to get some sleep," she said as she eyed one of the two beds. "Wait a second, there are only two beds and yet three people."
"I'll sleep on the floor," Kai said.
"You don't have to do that," Sprite said. "We can rotate every 4 hours."
"No, I'll be fine, you get some sleep, I don't need to sleep on the bed, I'll be fine.
"Well, alright," Sprite said. "Have a good nights sleep," she said as she hugged him.
Kai blushed and in turn made Sprite giggle, "Um…goodnight?" Kai said nervously.
Sprite giggled again, "Goodnight."
Sprite went into the bathroom to change while Kai sat down on a small chair and looked outside at the ocean. Sprite came back out and laid down in one of the beds. She turned off the lights and put the covers over her shoulders. Kai watched her motionless figure and smiled. He looked out at the ocean again and began to think, 'Tomorrow starts off the tournament. A lot of questions will be answered tomorrow when the tournament begins.' He slowly fell into a deep sleep inside the chair. Tomorrow, would begin it all.
Sdrive: Yay, 3rd chapter finally completed. Sorry if it was kind boring, I promise the duels will begin soon. Alright, Review time,
Mina-chan: Yup, this is an Item and magic free tournament. The only thing slightly similar is how they will duel, and if you read the first chapter, the opening theme, you'll be able to see what I mean, but it's not related to Kaiba Corp.
Peace Writer: Glad to have caught your attention. And the Blue Eyes is rare and so are a lot of other cards. So that's how that works, but glad to see you are enjoying it.
Reaver of Heaven: Glad you like the plushy. Anything to make a fan happy. Yeah, he hates mooching even though he HAS too. Well, here is the posting you were looking for.
Voldermort's Daughter: Yeah, I know they are, I just think they are funny. Thanks for the complement.
AxelWildfire000: Thank you, it really means a lot when people enjoy the work that you do. I hope that you keep reading.
Zenryo: I just tried to write what I thought Domid would say. Glad you like it. –pumps fist in air- I got someone to say a word three times. That's a first.
Sdrive: Next chapter, The Duelists meet Sarosu, another annoyance, and then the they finally arrive on the island. The rules are explained and the tournament begins.
Power to the Hikari's