Spoilshipping (Pegasus x Rebecca)
Pegasus usually didn't care much about the duelists he handed trophies to. Most of them were arrogant, and believed that a card game was the answer to all their problems. While in a business sense, Pegasus was glad of that, he was annoyed by it in a personal sense. People like Insector Haga, Bandit Keith Howard, and all the other finalists he pretended to be happy for didn't have real lives, or relationships. How could they ever understand what the world was really like? None of them had grown up enough to understand life.
But this one...this one was different.
Although the tournaments were not usually split up by age group, they usually became adult tournaments after while. Few kids could keep up with the experience of the adults, not to mention an adult's ability to buy a lot more cards than children.
So Pegasus was not the only one who was surprised when an short, twelve-year-old, blonde girl skipped into the arena to face against last year's American champion, "Bandit" Keith Howard.
The look on Keith's face was priceless. He was completely dumbfounded – and then angry, because he obviously felt condescended to.
"Hi!" the girl said, who was announced as Rebecca Hopkins. "This is going to be fun, isn't it, teddy?"
She jiggled her teddy bear to make it look like it was agreeing. Her pigtails bounced as she giggled girlishly.
"What the hell is this?" Keith said. "This is a joke, right?"
"Oh, the scary man is using scary words," Rebecca said, hugging her teddy bear and looking on the verge of tears.
"Yeah, that's right, kid. Maybe you should just walk out if you can't handle it," Keith said, taking off his sunglasses so he could glare at her.
Although she continued to look teary-eyed, and nervous out of her mind, she did not move from her chair. Pegasus could barely understand what he was seeing. How had a timid, shy little girl like this made it this far into the finals? As a rule, he generally didn't watch anything except for the final round, so he had no idea who this was.
The duel was no less surprising.
Rebecca acted as though she had never played a duel in her life. She played weak cards out first, and Keith squashed them immediately. But then when her cards were destroyed, their effects simply summoned more cards, and a visible blood vessel started to pulse in Keith's forehead.
"Yay!" Rebecca said as she summoned yet another defense position monster, hugging her teddy bear.
"This is a frikking joke!" Keith said, slamming the table. "Play like you know what you're doing, kid!"
She just smiled innocently at him, blinking with sparkly eyes.
And then it was her turn. She drew her next card, smiled, and summoned another defense position monster. But this time, she added a face down card to the mix. Pegasus almost used his Millennium Eye, just to find out what card had made her smile so much.
But he held back. The surprise was so much more exciting.
An angry Keith grabbed his next card, and then grinned. He reached to flip over a face down monster
"Waaaait!" Rebecca said in sing-song voice.
"What?" Keith said, half shouting.
"I'm playing a magic card," Rebecca said with a giggle, and she flipped her card. "This is called Prophecy. I have to guess if the card is above or below 2000 attack points. If I'm right, I get the card!"
"Ha," Keith said. "Go ahead, kiddy."
"Hm, what do you think, teddy?" Rebecca said, making its arms dance back and forth. "Oh, that's a good guess, teddy!"
She looked at Keith with bright eyes.
"It's...above 2000 attack points," she said. "Actually, it's exactly 2600 attack points...because that's your Zoa card, right?"
As Keith's jaw dropped, Pegasus found his own head spinning. How had she known that? Did she have abilities like Pegasus? No that wasn't possible...but then...how?
Barely restraining his rage, Keith handed over the card. Rebecca giggled and placed Zoa on her side of the field. In a single instant, she had gotten the most powerful monster on the field – the duel was over in just one more turn.
Security had to restrain Keith before he launched himself at the smiling Rebecca. For her part, she simply made her teddy bear wave to him as he was forced to exit the arena.
Pegasus rose slowly, taking the trophy an attendant was handing out to him. He descended the stairs, trying to mold his face into his usual false but charming smile for contestant winners. It was difficult, as his mind was still racing.
"Congratulations, Miss Hopkins," he said, presenting her with the trophy. "That was a remarkable duel."
Rebecca giggled out a thank you as she accepted the trophy. But the laugh was fake, Pegasus suddenly realized. Cold, sharp intelligence gleamed behind her innocent eyes. Her perfect mask stunned Pegasus, leaving him dumbfounded for a moment. This innocent, girlish face that looked up at him was a lie – but a well-crafted one.
For just the briefest of moments, he allowed his Millennium Eye to glance across the surface of Rebecca's mind.
Days spent at the back of a classroom, alone because she couldn't relate to kids her age. Arguing with a teacher because he had done the formula wrong and he refused to believe it. Not being allowed to move up grades, where she would actually fit in with the right intellectual level...not thinking it would even matter because even though she understood everything as well as the older ones, they wouldn't accept her anyways because of her age.
Then hours spent in front of a television screen, memorizing faces and decks. Noting facial expressions, filing them away with ease. Knowing each contestant's trump cards, and the subtle flickers of their mouths and eyes when they drew what they were looking for. Calculating probabilities of facing different duelists, the cards they might draw, the best way to counter them. Learning all of this with barely a fraction of effort, and only because she needed that challenge. The card game didn't matter for an instant – only the intellectual stretching it provided. The mask...well, that was another thing. To disarm the opponent before she had even begun, throw them off balance with a veil of cuteness and naivety – but this girl had never known naivety.
Pegasus gave Rebecca one more cursory smile before stepping back, and allowing her to bask in the glow of her success.
She was certainly different, that one. Give her a few years, and not even Pegasus would want to face her.
A/N: I think Rebecca is a savant (meaning an extremely smart individual who has trouble relating due to their incredible IQ). She's only twelve and she's the national champion of Duel Monsters in America. Which, in my train of thinking, she would have had to beat the original champion to earn that title, who is Keith Howard. Thus, he got a cameo in this story, although I would have liked to focus more on Rebecca and Pegasus. I think the only reason Rebecca didn't defeat Yugi (well, he forfeited, but Yugi could have won) was because she had never seen him duel before. She didn't know his deck, his strategy, or anything else. I think she's secretly a genius, and I wish the anime had delved more into her character after introducing her. Well, whatever, that's what fanfiction is for. Next is Spiritshipping (Yami no Yugi x Anzu x Yugi). I'm going to enjoy this one. :D
