Chapter 20: Practice Makes Perfect

The next day, Rya woke up to someone knocking on her door. She stood up, and opened it to reveal three faces. Two were smiling, while one held the usual scowl she'd grown used to. "Yugi? Joey? Kaiba? What's–"

"No time ta talk Rya! You need ta get your breakfast and energy 'cus we're gonna teach ya ta play Duel Monstas!" Joey cheered.

"Hn. Like you could teach her anything Mutt," Kaiba smirked. Joey started going off on an unfazed Kaiba, while Yugi looked up at Rya.

"Rya? I know you're upset about yesterday and...well do you think we could discuss this privately?" Yugi asked. Rya simply nodded and let her into her room, away from the babbling between Kaiba and Joey. Yugi sat down on the chair while Rya sat at the end of the bed. "Rya, Yami's really upset. He doesn't want you to go through with this. He doesn't want you to get hurt. Yami asked me to ask you to not go through with this and just have me and Joey duel in your place."

Rya simply looked at him, now with more determination. "Yugi, I made the challenge, and I should be the one to go through with it, no matter what the risks or pain. I won't allow Lisa to hurt him again, at least not if I can help it. I know I'm inexperienced and don't know much, but I'm sure I could learn with you three teaching me." Yugi still looked unsure and bowed his head. Rya knelt in front of him and held his shoulders. "Yugi? I'm willing to do this, for Yami. I feel like I can do it with all of your support. Okay?" Yugi looked up and nodded with a small smile on his face. Rya smiled back as they opened the door to see Joey and Kaiba still going at it.

"Uh, guys?" Yugi called out. Both of them turned their scowling faces towards Yugi. "You think we could start now?" he asked nervously. Both Joey and Kaiba simply scoffed and headed off towards Kaiba's private dueling arena. They all helped Rya construct a deck that would help her.

"All right, here's how it'll work. It'll be me and the girl versus you two dweebs." Kaiba said meanly. But they all agreed nonetheless as Rya and Kaiba headed to one end of the field, while Joey and Yugi walked to the other. As the tower raised itself up, Rya held onto it for dear life. "Calm down, you won't fall," Kaiba told her. "You two geeks ready over there?" he yelled across the field.

"GEEKS! Why I outta–" Joey was cut off by Yugi putting his hand over his mouth.

"We're ready over here!" Yugi yelled with a huge sweat drop on his head.

"Good. We'll start with the rules of the duel..." Kaiba and Yugi, and occasionally Joey would tell her when the turn starts, ends, when to go, what cards you can use, when to use them, so on and so forth. Rya was a quick learner so she understood everything they told her. "All right then. We'll start a practice duel and tell you what to do as we go on, got it?"

Rya simply nodded as she placed her deck in the deck box, as the others did the same. The flipped a coin and decided that Yugi and Joey would start things off. It would go Yugi, Kaiba, Joey then Rya. Throughout the duel, Rya started to get the hang of things. Such as conducting a good strategy, using magic cards and trap cards, and working together with her partner to defeat the opposing team. In the end, Rya and Kaiba won when he used his Ultimate Dragon to wipe out the rest of Yugi and Joey's remaining life points. The entire day was spent dueling, with everybody switching partners. Rya was partnered with Joey in the second duel, and they had lost to Kaiba and Yugi. When Rya was partnered with Yugi, they won against Kaiba and Joey (which of course made Kaiba really upset). By the end of their third duel, it was already late at night.

"I say we all get something to eat and then get some sleep," Yugi suggested. Everyone agreed and headed to the kitchen. Once their stomachs were satisfied, Yugi and Joey took their leave.

"We'll practice some more tomorrow," Kaiba told her and went off to bed himself. Rya simply nodded and walked slowly back up to her own room. She wasn't really tired so she decided to go onto the connected balcony outside her room.

"It's such a beautiful night," she thought with a small smile. She looked straight out to see her home. "I've never seen it from above before," she gasped and watched it for what seemed like hours. She fell asleep, thinking about the next day and how the practice would go.

After Rya practiced being partners in a duel, she asked to try and duel by herself in a one-on-one duel. First, she was up against Yugi. She did pretty well against him, but she still lost. Kaiba was next, and lasted longer than everyone thought she would. She even surprised him with awesome strategies. But she still lost against him as well. However, when she dueled against Joey, she didn't hold back, and gave it everything she had. She actually beat him, which shocked everybody. Rya was exhausted by the end of the duel, and collapsed to her knees on the platform.

"Rya!" Joey and Yugi cried. They all ran over to her as Kaiba had the platform lowered. "Rya are you all right?" Yugi asked kneeling beside her.

She was panting heavily and sweat had collected on her brow. "I'm fine. I...have to...keep...practicing," she said and tried standing up again.

"Rya, you need to rest! You've exhausted yourself. Please, let's just take a break and we'll get back to it once you feel better," Yugi suggested.

"There's no time...for that! I have to...get better at this if I...want to beat her!" Rya exclaimed leaning her whole body against the platform to help her stand. Her eyes widened when the whole arena shut off. She looked over to see that Kaiba had flipped the switch.

"Listen, I won't let you use my equipment if you're not fit to. Just do as the midget says and take a break. Once you're better and able, I'll turn it back on and we'll continue," Kaiba glared and walked over to her. He flipped her onto his shoulder and carried her out. Rya didn't even have the strength to fight back and decided that they were right. They all ate some dinner and just relaxed for about an hour. Rya stood at the window and stared outside to see that it was raining hard. The only thought in her mind was Yami, and how she was fighting for him.

"Yugi?" she called out gently. Yugi and Joey were simply playing cards until they both looked up at her. "May we please continue now? I'm feeling much better," she smiled.

"Sure. Let's go," he smiled back as they all headed back to the now lit arena. They practiced another few hours, with Rya getting better with every duel. She still lost against Kaiba, got very close to beating Yugi, and beat Joey every time. "Wow, Rya! You've really come a long way! You're going to be awesome tomorrow!" Yugi cheered with a thumbs up.

"No doubt!" Joey included with a wink.

"She may be good against you morons, but she's far from being able to beat Yami," Kaiba stated coldly.

"Don't forget, it's a tag team duel, Kaiba. We have no idea how good Lisa is. For all we know she could be the worst and will hold Yami back," Yugi said.

"Lisa? That's her opponent? Isn't she that slut that Yami was stupid enough to fall for and ended with her cheating on him?" Kaiba asked. Yugi and the others simply glared up at him. "Hn, from what I understand you'll have no problem defeating her if she's your opponent," Kaiba smirked. Rya didn't really pay any attention to what he was saying.

"I think it'd be better to assume that she's good, so I'll know to fight my best. I refuse to lose Yami!" Rya yelled as she pounded her fist. Guys noticed a sparkle on her cheek, where her stray tear was.

"Rya, we know how bad you want to help Yami, but don't get upset. I'm sure you're going to do fine," Yugi soothed.

"Thank you, Yugi. That means a lot," Rya stated and wiped her tear away.

"I hate ta bring dis up, but who's your partner gonna be?" Joey asked. Rya thought about it, and stepped off of the platform.

"I'll decide later this evening guys. I just need to know who's willing," Rya said. She was surprised to find that Kaiba was willing to help out.

"Only because you'd probably lose with either of these two," Kaiba explained. Rya just rolled her eyes and smiled. "Well, give me time to think about it. I think we've done enough for today. Goodnight," Rya said and walked up to her room.

A/N: Hey everybody! How's it going? Well, you guys are probably starting to wonder who Rya will pick for her partner. Now It's already been decided, but I'm interested in finding out who you'd like to be her partner, and why. Just for fun! And if you don't care who it's going to be, just gimme a guess, k? But now here is where voting actually takes place: Kyshin has made an awesome suggestion, that Rya should lose the duel. Now I think that it as an excellent plan, but I'm still not sure. So I would like anyone who feels they'd like to, vote for the outcome of the duel. Please note however, that no matter what the conclusion from the voting, it may not exactly determine how I will continue this. It's more for helping me in deciding which direction the story should lean into. I would very much appreciate your time and effort in helping me. You have no idea how much it would mean to me. Thank you especially Kyshin for your wonderful idea and reviews. I hope you enjoy the rest of the story. Thank you:)