Tea's Time to Shine
Magicman: I'm back. Excellent. Now, where was I?
Tea: Akumu and I were going head to head, she set up Ectoplasmer and Magical Hats, and was going to use it next turn.
Magicman: Oh yeah.
Pegasus: The freshest fruit juice, Gorgonzola cheese, and a good duel to watch. This is indeed the way to live. *Sips his fruit juice*
Joey: *devouring pepperoni pizza*
***
"You're done" Akumu laughed. "This match is over! Next turn, I'll just sacrifice my Dark Magician for Ectoplasmer and finish you off."
True" Tea admitted. "If you still had Ectoplasmer. But now I'll destroy it by flipping Magician of Faith!"
Tea's magician appeared suddenly. She waved her wand and a light shone as Tea drew a magic card from her graveyard. Akumu was livid. "Cheater! You didn't have that monster on the field last turn!"
"Your Shallow Grave changed that. You forgot one rule. It brings back a monster from both our graveyards."
"What?!" Akumu snatched up the card and scanned it. "Uh oh."
"Not so talented, eh Akumu?" Tea asked cheerfully. "Now I'll set one card face down", she put the last card in her hand on the field in the magic and trap zone, "And attack one of your hats. Go Dark Magician!" The spellcaster blasted away the hat on the right. "Now it's down to just two of your hats. Your move."
Akumu drew and frowned as she studied the field. 'What could she be up to?' she thought quickly. 'She's left her Magician of Faith wide open. If I attack it, she's done for. But then there's her facedown card, which I doubt I can trust. Hmm.' Tea's face was pleasantly smiling, revealing nothing. Aloud, she said, "I'll switch my Dark Magician to attack mode, but I won't attack."
"Okay then. I won't attack either. Let's see who cracks first."
"I'll crack you, alright" Akumu shot back. "I'll crack you to pieces!"
Yami watched the duel with trepidation. Of all the occurrences he'd ever thought to witness, Tea duelling the reincarnation of his old lover was not particularly high on his list.
"Who do you think is going to win?" Akki asked as she watched Tea deliberate her move. "Akumu's always been a pretty nasty duellist."
"Tea will win" Yami said firmly. "I have no doubt of that. She's proven herself to be resourceful in times of adversity. Look, she's smiling."
Tea was indeed smiling. "Two hats" she counted. "That's a fifty-fifty chance. So why not even it out a bit? I play Wingweaver (2750/2450) in attack mode!"
The six-winged fairy arose on the field, floating in the air peacefully. Akumu growled at her appearance. "Now Wingweaver, attack the hat on the left and smack down her dark Magician with Nova Smash!"
Wingweaver's wings started to flap harder and the light from the sun intensified in her hands. The light grew ever brighter until Akumu was forced to squint. Then the fairy monster hurtled the beam of light directly into the right hand hat. But when the explosion cleared, once again there was nothing. The slave reincarnate smirked.
"You missed again. You're having some terrible luck."
Tea snorted. "Yeah right. You only have one hat left, right? So your Dark magician must be under it. So I'll just attack it next turn with Wingweaver and smack you down with Dark Magician."
"You're just giving me another turn to fight back, you know."
"I couldn't destroy you this turn anyway, so you may as well go."
"Fair enough. It's your funeral." Akumu drew and frowned. 'This wasn't hat I was hoping for. But it will do. She has three monsters so I can't touch her lifepoints. But maybe I can get her to fall for my trap.' "I play one card facedown," Akumu declared, and a spot on the field began to flash. "I'll finish my turn by doing absolutely nothing." She shrugged lazily. "I'm afraid that I just didn't draw the right card. I'm practically throwing the game but I don't have much choice. All I can do now is attack, so I'll begin by destroying your Magician of Faith. Attack with Dark Magic!"
As Akumu's Dark Magician powered up, Tea let out a laugh of victory. "You set off my trap. Go Mirror Force!"
The attack was reflected with a resounding crack. It whistled toward Akumu's Dark Magician.
"And that", Tea said carelessly, "As they say is that."
"Not quite." Akumu countered. "I have a facedown card too, remember? It's called Ring of Destruction, and it destroys one monster on the field, dealing damage to both of our lifepoints equal to its attack power. Can you guess what that means?"
"It means the whole duel winds up as a draw, as I'm targeting your Wingweaver with my trap!"
A tight collar wrapped around the fairy's neck. Despite her thrashing, she could not free herself. The collar began to glow brilliantly before it exploded. The ensuing flash covered the field with smoke and both duellists' lifepoints dropped to zero. The holograms faded and Akumu brushed the dust off her cloak.
"Well, well" she said. "A tie game. You don't see that every day. I guess we both keep our star chips, hmm?"
"I guess so. I've never seen a tie before." Tea shrugged. "Then it's back to where we started off."
"Not quite." Akumu smiled coldly. "I still haven't forgiven Yami for what he did to me. I'm just going to be more patient about paying him back. Now that I know what his little girlfriend can do, I can afford to wait." She bowed mockingly to Tea. "See you in the finals."
Akki snorted. "At least you're turning your crazy plans on someone other than me. Living with her is like giving a monkey dynamite and matches", she added to Yami and Tea. "You just know that something is going to happen."
While Akki was griping, a mischievous smile crept over her sister's face. Akumu slid quietly up behind her and whacked her upside the head.
"Ow!"
"You're still too slow, sis!" Laughing, Akumu took off into the forest. Furious, Akki tore after her. She looked back and waved. "See you guys later!"
Tea let out a breath. She was glad that little fight was over.
***
"So what's the deal with you two anyway?"
Tea asked the question while she was cooking lunch. She was trying to perfect Joey's method of cooking candy bars, but the black crispiness slowly forming on the food suggested that she needed practice. Yami was lying back on the grass, thoughtfully looking up at the clouds.
"I still only remember bits and pieces of my past," he began, thinking, "But I'm beginning to recall her with some clarity. She was a slave, a gift for my birthday. I think it was my eighteenth. I remember thinking that her attitude would get her killed someday. She was like a dog that had been kicked around a lot but still had fight left." He smiled at the memory. "I took to her quickly and eventually she opened up to me. We became...intimate, I guess you could say." He self-consciously scratched his head. I was weird to talk to Tea about this.
"Go on." Tea had given up on the cooking and was paying full attention to the story.
"Well", Yami continued, "There was a war going on at the time. I think. It's still kind of vague. There was some political trouble at any rate. Anyway, to smooth things over an alliance by marriage was agreed upon. I would marry the princess of country there was trouble with. I waited until a week later to tell Akumu, or Ziane as I knew her then."
"I'm guessing she didn't take it well."
"Not at all. She was furious. And that's not all. The castle guards were always a brutish bunch, and they picked on the castle slaves. They always left Ziane alone because she was with me, but after that night they went after her with a vengeance. It got so bad that she wound up strangling one of the guards with her slave chain, and she fled the castle. I never saw her again."
Tea had sat down next to the spike-haired duellist and was now watching him with sadness. "That's so sad."
Yami shut his eyes tightly. "And the worst part of it is-"
"No! Don't even say it!"
Yami blinked in surprise, staring at Tea. The girl was glaring at him fiercely. "It was not your fault!" she snapped. "You had make a decision and you made the right one. If you weren't in a war, one could have started, right?"
"Well, I suppose so."
"Well there you go. You did your best, and it's not like you pushed her away or anything. It was just a political marriage anyway. How far could that go?"
Yami hesitated. "To be honest, it took a while but I fell in love with her too."
The words sucked the comments right out of Tea's mouth. Her mouth formed an 'O' and she fell silent. She lay down on the grass and joined him in looking up at the sky, feeling overly enlightened.
Tea liked, REALLY liked, Yami. This whole Duellist Kingdom thing was so she could get closer to him and understand him better. Ever since that date Yugi had set up between the two of them, she understood that there was more to him than just a duelling deck and some spiky hair. He had a quiet, dignified personality that she rather liked, and she'd hoped that she would have a chance with him. But hearing about his past lovers was demoralizing at best. How could she compete with ghosts?
He seemed to understand how she felt. Gently he took her hand and smiled. "They were both in another life, Tea", he reassured. "I can't live in the past. Whatever happened then, the present will be unaffected by it. This is a new life for me," he added softly. "A new chance to live and love again."
Tea smiled back and squeezed his hand gently. "I hope you get that chance Yami. I really do."
***
Zev laughed as her monsters crushed another duellist's lifepoints. She collected her chips and went back to her campsite without a backward glance. She knew her ghostly colleague was following her.
"You truly enjoy beating your opponents, don't you?"
Zev just glanced at him and raised a smoke grey eyebrow. Bakura smiled as they walked. "I'll take that as a yes. I am curious. Whatever happened to make you this way?"
The response was cold and callous. "Aren't we all tired of clichéd sad stories yet?"
Bakura chuckled. "Ah. One of those, hmm? I've always wondered if I'd find someone with a life sufficiently deranged enough to be my equal."
They walked on in silence, neither caring to talk. When they were about thrity feet from the camp, Zev suddenly grabbed Bakura's arm and stopped him. She stared into his burning brown eyes with her own cold grey ones. "Why do you bother following me around?" she asked in honest curiosity. "What is it about me that catches your attention?"
"I don't know", the tomb robber answered honestly. "You just do."
Zev snorted and let go of him. She turned and walked into the clearing, but not before throwing back one last parting shot. "That's supposed to be how love starts."
The words froze Bakura in his steps.
***
Magicman: Not as long as I'd like, but at least I ended on an interesting note. I'll go more into those two as things develop.
Pegasus: *watching Yami and Tea snuggle* I used to be young like that...
Joey: The guy's over 5000 years old! How the heck is he young?!
Pegasus: Well...
Smokegirl: Hey, what's my character's past like, anyway? You never told me.
Magicman: All will be revealed when it is the proper time.
Smokegirl: -_-' You really get a kick out of this mystical stuff,
Magicman: ^_// Yep!
Magicman: I'm back. Excellent. Now, where was I?
Tea: Akumu and I were going head to head, she set up Ectoplasmer and Magical Hats, and was going to use it next turn.
Magicman: Oh yeah.
Pegasus: The freshest fruit juice, Gorgonzola cheese, and a good duel to watch. This is indeed the way to live. *Sips his fruit juice*
Joey: *devouring pepperoni pizza*
***
"You're done" Akumu laughed. "This match is over! Next turn, I'll just sacrifice my Dark Magician for Ectoplasmer and finish you off."
True" Tea admitted. "If you still had Ectoplasmer. But now I'll destroy it by flipping Magician of Faith!"
Tea's magician appeared suddenly. She waved her wand and a light shone as Tea drew a magic card from her graveyard. Akumu was livid. "Cheater! You didn't have that monster on the field last turn!"
"Your Shallow Grave changed that. You forgot one rule. It brings back a monster from both our graveyards."
"What?!" Akumu snatched up the card and scanned it. "Uh oh."
"Not so talented, eh Akumu?" Tea asked cheerfully. "Now I'll set one card face down", she put the last card in her hand on the field in the magic and trap zone, "And attack one of your hats. Go Dark Magician!" The spellcaster blasted away the hat on the right. "Now it's down to just two of your hats. Your move."
Akumu drew and frowned as she studied the field. 'What could she be up to?' she thought quickly. 'She's left her Magician of Faith wide open. If I attack it, she's done for. But then there's her facedown card, which I doubt I can trust. Hmm.' Tea's face was pleasantly smiling, revealing nothing. Aloud, she said, "I'll switch my Dark Magician to attack mode, but I won't attack."
"Okay then. I won't attack either. Let's see who cracks first."
"I'll crack you, alright" Akumu shot back. "I'll crack you to pieces!"
Yami watched the duel with trepidation. Of all the occurrences he'd ever thought to witness, Tea duelling the reincarnation of his old lover was not particularly high on his list.
"Who do you think is going to win?" Akki asked as she watched Tea deliberate her move. "Akumu's always been a pretty nasty duellist."
"Tea will win" Yami said firmly. "I have no doubt of that. She's proven herself to be resourceful in times of adversity. Look, she's smiling."
Tea was indeed smiling. "Two hats" she counted. "That's a fifty-fifty chance. So why not even it out a bit? I play Wingweaver (2750/2450) in attack mode!"
The six-winged fairy arose on the field, floating in the air peacefully. Akumu growled at her appearance. "Now Wingweaver, attack the hat on the left and smack down her dark Magician with Nova Smash!"
Wingweaver's wings started to flap harder and the light from the sun intensified in her hands. The light grew ever brighter until Akumu was forced to squint. Then the fairy monster hurtled the beam of light directly into the right hand hat. But when the explosion cleared, once again there was nothing. The slave reincarnate smirked.
"You missed again. You're having some terrible luck."
Tea snorted. "Yeah right. You only have one hat left, right? So your Dark magician must be under it. So I'll just attack it next turn with Wingweaver and smack you down with Dark Magician."
"You're just giving me another turn to fight back, you know."
"I couldn't destroy you this turn anyway, so you may as well go."
"Fair enough. It's your funeral." Akumu drew and frowned. 'This wasn't hat I was hoping for. But it will do. She has three monsters so I can't touch her lifepoints. But maybe I can get her to fall for my trap.' "I play one card facedown," Akumu declared, and a spot on the field began to flash. "I'll finish my turn by doing absolutely nothing." She shrugged lazily. "I'm afraid that I just didn't draw the right card. I'm practically throwing the game but I don't have much choice. All I can do now is attack, so I'll begin by destroying your Magician of Faith. Attack with Dark Magic!"
As Akumu's Dark Magician powered up, Tea let out a laugh of victory. "You set off my trap. Go Mirror Force!"
The attack was reflected with a resounding crack. It whistled toward Akumu's Dark Magician.
"And that", Tea said carelessly, "As they say is that."
"Not quite." Akumu countered. "I have a facedown card too, remember? It's called Ring of Destruction, and it destroys one monster on the field, dealing damage to both of our lifepoints equal to its attack power. Can you guess what that means?"
"It means the whole duel winds up as a draw, as I'm targeting your Wingweaver with my trap!"
A tight collar wrapped around the fairy's neck. Despite her thrashing, she could not free herself. The collar began to glow brilliantly before it exploded. The ensuing flash covered the field with smoke and both duellists' lifepoints dropped to zero. The holograms faded and Akumu brushed the dust off her cloak.
"Well, well" she said. "A tie game. You don't see that every day. I guess we both keep our star chips, hmm?"
"I guess so. I've never seen a tie before." Tea shrugged. "Then it's back to where we started off."
"Not quite." Akumu smiled coldly. "I still haven't forgiven Yami for what he did to me. I'm just going to be more patient about paying him back. Now that I know what his little girlfriend can do, I can afford to wait." She bowed mockingly to Tea. "See you in the finals."
Akki snorted. "At least you're turning your crazy plans on someone other than me. Living with her is like giving a monkey dynamite and matches", she added to Yami and Tea. "You just know that something is going to happen."
While Akki was griping, a mischievous smile crept over her sister's face. Akumu slid quietly up behind her and whacked her upside the head.
"Ow!"
"You're still too slow, sis!" Laughing, Akumu took off into the forest. Furious, Akki tore after her. She looked back and waved. "See you guys later!"
Tea let out a breath. She was glad that little fight was over.
***
"So what's the deal with you two anyway?"
Tea asked the question while she was cooking lunch. She was trying to perfect Joey's method of cooking candy bars, but the black crispiness slowly forming on the food suggested that she needed practice. Yami was lying back on the grass, thoughtfully looking up at the clouds.
"I still only remember bits and pieces of my past," he began, thinking, "But I'm beginning to recall her with some clarity. She was a slave, a gift for my birthday. I think it was my eighteenth. I remember thinking that her attitude would get her killed someday. She was like a dog that had been kicked around a lot but still had fight left." He smiled at the memory. "I took to her quickly and eventually she opened up to me. We became...intimate, I guess you could say." He self-consciously scratched his head. I was weird to talk to Tea about this.
"Go on." Tea had given up on the cooking and was paying full attention to the story.
"Well", Yami continued, "There was a war going on at the time. I think. It's still kind of vague. There was some political trouble at any rate. Anyway, to smooth things over an alliance by marriage was agreed upon. I would marry the princess of country there was trouble with. I waited until a week later to tell Akumu, or Ziane as I knew her then."
"I'm guessing she didn't take it well."
"Not at all. She was furious. And that's not all. The castle guards were always a brutish bunch, and they picked on the castle slaves. They always left Ziane alone because she was with me, but after that night they went after her with a vengeance. It got so bad that she wound up strangling one of the guards with her slave chain, and she fled the castle. I never saw her again."
Tea had sat down next to the spike-haired duellist and was now watching him with sadness. "That's so sad."
Yami shut his eyes tightly. "And the worst part of it is-"
"No! Don't even say it!"
Yami blinked in surprise, staring at Tea. The girl was glaring at him fiercely. "It was not your fault!" she snapped. "You had make a decision and you made the right one. If you weren't in a war, one could have started, right?"
"Well, I suppose so."
"Well there you go. You did your best, and it's not like you pushed her away or anything. It was just a political marriage anyway. How far could that go?"
Yami hesitated. "To be honest, it took a while but I fell in love with her too."
The words sucked the comments right out of Tea's mouth. Her mouth formed an 'O' and she fell silent. She lay down on the grass and joined him in looking up at the sky, feeling overly enlightened.
Tea liked, REALLY liked, Yami. This whole Duellist Kingdom thing was so she could get closer to him and understand him better. Ever since that date Yugi had set up between the two of them, she understood that there was more to him than just a duelling deck and some spiky hair. He had a quiet, dignified personality that she rather liked, and she'd hoped that she would have a chance with him. But hearing about his past lovers was demoralizing at best. How could she compete with ghosts?
He seemed to understand how she felt. Gently he took her hand and smiled. "They were both in another life, Tea", he reassured. "I can't live in the past. Whatever happened then, the present will be unaffected by it. This is a new life for me," he added softly. "A new chance to live and love again."
Tea smiled back and squeezed his hand gently. "I hope you get that chance Yami. I really do."
***
Zev laughed as her monsters crushed another duellist's lifepoints. She collected her chips and went back to her campsite without a backward glance. She knew her ghostly colleague was following her.
"You truly enjoy beating your opponents, don't you?"
Zev just glanced at him and raised a smoke grey eyebrow. Bakura smiled as they walked. "I'll take that as a yes. I am curious. Whatever happened to make you this way?"
The response was cold and callous. "Aren't we all tired of clichéd sad stories yet?"
Bakura chuckled. "Ah. One of those, hmm? I've always wondered if I'd find someone with a life sufficiently deranged enough to be my equal."
They walked on in silence, neither caring to talk. When they were about thrity feet from the camp, Zev suddenly grabbed Bakura's arm and stopped him. She stared into his burning brown eyes with her own cold grey ones. "Why do you bother following me around?" she asked in honest curiosity. "What is it about me that catches your attention?"
"I don't know", the tomb robber answered honestly. "You just do."
Zev snorted and let go of him. She turned and walked into the clearing, but not before throwing back one last parting shot. "That's supposed to be how love starts."
The words froze Bakura in his steps.
***
Magicman: Not as long as I'd like, but at least I ended on an interesting note. I'll go more into those two as things develop.
Pegasus: *watching Yami and Tea snuggle* I used to be young like that...
Joey: The guy's over 5000 years old! How the heck is he young?!
Pegasus: Well...
Smokegirl: Hey, what's my character's past like, anyway? You never told me.
Magicman: All will be revealed when it is the proper time.
Smokegirl: -_-' You really get a kick out of this mystical stuff,
Magicman: ^_// Yep!
