Fataleshipping (Kujaku Mai/Vivian Wong)
. . .
"What part of 'no' don't you understand? I'm off the clock today—I don't want to duel."
This had been going on for almost fifteen minutes already and Vivian was suspecting that the eyes wandering in this direction were going to form a crowd. Why should it? Vivian was the Asian Duel Champion and the two little fucks in question who wouldn't stop pestering her were the Meikyuu Brothers, a legendary tag team who had swept many a tournament themselves.
She ground her teeth as the stiff breeze from the mountains threaded through her hair. Down, today, and it was getting in her face. Why she thought it would be a good idea to not put her hair up when she was going to the top of the Great Wall of China, she had no idea. Maybe part of her had hoped she wouldn't be recognized without her signature buns.
"It's just one duel, off the record," the brother in orange said—she didn't remember who was who, and didn't care. "Just for fun!"
"You like dueling don't you?" the one in green said.
She knew what this was about, and the people who were also visiting the wall were starting to drift towards them, whispering with some excitement. She heard her own name dropped a few times and felt a headache coming on.
She had presented a poor performance at the KC Grand Prix, and already the tabloids and rumors were starting to fly that she had lost her touch. The next tournament to defend her title was coming up soon and now that she had her loss in the Prix over her head, the sharks were coming to sniff at the blood. The Meikyuu Brothers had announced their intention to each go solo for the next tournament and it was already a stir—what greater media attention would they get if they managed to beat the Asia Duel Champion? Corner her in a public place and coerce her into it, then take her down with tag tactics that she couldn't very well combat on her own, and voila, instant media fame as Vivian herself slid quietly into the cracks of obscurity. She didn't want to fall for it.
And yet…here was the crowd…and here were the sparkling eyes who were terribly interested in seeing what happened next…if she refused again in public it could make her look like she was scared and that would be a media death as sure as if she lost.
She ground her teeth, glaring at the bald pair who were grinning maliciously at her.
"Fine," she growled, wiggling her Duel Disk out of her bag. "Everybody gets one, I guess."
The brothers exchanged a glance and a grin, and she could feel her heart starting to clench up. Well, that was it for her, she guessed.
"Two against one isn't particularly fair," a sudden, drawling foreign voice called out over the crowd.
Vivian blinked. Was there something familiar about that voice? She couldn't quite put her finger on it. The Meikyuu Brothers, too, looked surprised, and then both of them straightened up and stared at something behind her.
Vivian's eyes flickered briefly over her shoulder—and then she turned all the way around to see the woman that was extracting herself from the crowd.
"Kujaku Mai?" she said, blinking with shock. What was she doing in China?
The Japanese woman sent Vivian a half smile and a quirk of her styled eyebrows. She already had a Duel Disk around her wrist as the crowd finally noticed who she was and parted to let her through, high heels clicking as she walked to meet Vivian.
"You've heard of me?" the woman said, looking pleased.
Of course Vivian had heard of her, no one hadn't heard of the duelists that had participated in the first Battle City finals. Of course, most of the tapes from the actual duels were gone, but Vivian had watched previous tapes of any tournaments the duelists involved had been in recently to get a feel for their play style in case she ever came up against them—being in Battle City automatically made them a force that was not to be taken lightly, and Kujaku Mai had been no exception. She opened her mouth but Mai kept talking.
"Oh, don't introduce yourself, I know you too. Wong Vivian, Asia Duel Champion—pleased to meet you in person."
Her eyes flickered over to the Meikyuu Brothers, and then back to Vivian. Her smile softened and Vivian realized all at once that this woman was far more beautiful in real life than Vivian ever could have known by watching her duel records.
"I hope you don't mind me inserting myself into this, do you?" she said. "I mean, as long as we're putting on a show for the crowd, might as well make it a double battle, hm?"
Vivian was momentarily speechless, just standing there blinking at Mai for a moment. Then she found herself again, huffing as she put her hands on her hips.
"I could have handled it," she said, flicking her hair from her shoulders. "But I suppose if you have nothing better to do—it will make for a better performance."
Mai laughed.
"Exactly what I was thinking," she said. "Besides, I can't turn down a chance to duel alongside the Asia Duel Champion."
"We—" one of the Meikyuu Brothers started.
"Hm? Not interested in a tag team?" Vivian said. "I thought that was your specialty."
They were trying really hard but Vivian could see that their faces were starting to get red. They hadn't been expecting this turn of events, but now they were just as a trapped as they had trapped her.
"It's completely fine," one of them said smoothly. "We hope to have a good duel with the both of you."
Mai caught Vivian's gaze and rolled her eyes as though to say "yeah, that was what he was after. Totally." Vivian couldn't help but snort.
The two woman took up positions beside each other, Duel Disks activating from across the makeshift battlefield.
"Thank you," Vivian murmured, quiet, so that only Mai could hear.
Mai didn't physically react to Vivian's words, and Vivian didn't look directly at her, but she thought she saw Mai's lips quirk upwards into a small smile.
"We girls have to look after each other," she murmured back. "Let's knock them dead, huh?"
Vivian laughed.
"With pleasure."
. . .
A/N: This actually made me start to like Vivian a little bit more. Next is Familiarshipping (Critias X Kisara).
