Chapter 4

He barely slept that night. The excitement of what was coming was too much. Finally the school week was done and he could focus on the tournament. Yugi found himself in the kitchen at just after seven in the morning already dressed and ready to go. He was sat at the kitchen table making his way through a bowl of cereal. He was desperate for time to hurry up so he could leave and start this exciting day. He was expected to be at KaibaCorp at ten so there was still quite a while until he even needed to leave. At the moment he was pretty sure he was the only person awake in the house, he'd not heard movement from either of the other two occupants. But he was hoping that someone else would wake soon, he didn't like having no one to talk to especially when he wanted some way to occupy himself so time would move quicker. Getting to his feet Yugi moved to the sink and began to wash the bowl up. He tried to waste even more time by washing his breakfast things as slowly as possible but even that only managed to waste two minutes. Setting the bowl down a little harder then he meant to Yugi braced his hands against the sink. This was madly infuriating, why couldn't time go faster?

Letting out a slightly frustrated huff and resisting the urge to stomp he made his way back through the living room and began walking back up the stairs. There had to be away to distract himself. Pausing on the stairs a thought suddenly came to him and it occurred to him that perhaps this was the way. Grinning he quietly ran up the last few steps, entering his bedroom and went straight for the box which was still sitting on his desk. Opening the lid he ran his finger gently across the duel disk. Well he had enough time… it wouldn't hurt to try it out… just to ensure he knew how it worked. Grinning to himself he carefully picked the duel disk up and secured it on his arm. It was still remarkable how light it was compared to its older version. He was still grinning like a schoolboy, which he was, when he inserted his deck. Now he felt ready. Now he felt like the King of Games. With a quick flick of his arm the duel disk lit up and the wings swung round and smoothly clicked together. He had to suppress a squeal of excitement, he had to be mature. There were many interviews with the press and photoshoots today, he had to act mature even though his inner voice wanted to scream and charge about with excitement. Yugi looked into the mirror behind to try and get a full view of himself and the duel disk however his bedroom mirror wasn't long enough. Surely they had a full length mirror somewhere. Creeping into the bathroom he found the mirror there had the same problem. Leaning against the sink he drummed his fingers on the sink as he thought. Perhaps there was a mirror in Atem's room? It had been the spare bedroom before he'd moved into it. It would occur to Yugi that maybe there'd be one there. But at the same time he knew that the former King was still asleep, or at least he assumed he was, and it would be rather rude of him to barge in just to look in a mirror. The mischievous side of him wanted to do it just to annoy him but the sensible side knew it just wasn't a good idea.

Yugi pushed away from the sink and moved back downstairs to continue his hunt for a mirror. It was as he walked back into the living room he suddenly realised his idiotic mistake. There was a mirror in the downstairs bathroom, Grandpa used it a lot before he went out to check he looked smart enough. He himself had used it… a lot. Rolling his eyes at himself he headed straight for the bathroom. However, it was in that bathroom he made another mistake. One which only became clear after he'd got himself in front of the mirror and began to check out his look. As he stood there he decided now would be a great opportunity to practise for the press photo shoots later. He'd never really done any before so this would be a first for him and the last thing he wanted to do was look silly. So he began to try out different poses which he thought would work and it was here that his mistake became apparent. As he settled into an almost heroic pose a voice suddenly came at him.

"Out of all the possible things I thought you'd do to prepare for today… this wasn't one."

Yugi jumped and wheeled round to face the other person. Stood in the doorway to the bathroom looking rather amused was his grandfather. He'd left the door wide open.

"Grandpa! I… er… I… Well… Good morning."

"Good morning Yugi." Grandpa replied, grinning, "I was going to ask whether you wanted some breakfast or would you like more time alone with the mirror."

Yugi scowled, following his grandfather into the kitchen, "No thank you. I was only trying to pass the time."

"You're just lucky it was me who caught you and not Atem. He'd never let you live it down."

Yugi dropped himself into a chair as Grandpa flicked on the coffee machine, "Probably not but he doesn't know so I'm in the clear."

"What if I tell him?"

There was a pause. The only noise was the coffee machine as grandfather and grandson looked at each other. Yugi had a look of pure horror on his face and Solomon was just smirking.

"You wouldn't." Yugi said finally.

Grandpa merely shrugged and turned away to fill his mug with coffee. After offering breakfast again to Yugi, who turned it down, he busied himself with preparing his own breakfast. Glancing up at the clock he saw it had gone eight so he still had some time but it was slowly getting towards the time where he'd need to leave and head to KaibaCorp.

"So how long have you been awake?" Grandpa asked, as he joined Yugi at the table.

"A while…" Yugi replied, sheepishly, "I found it hard to get to sleep. I'm just so excited."

"Well, that's understandable but remember Yugi, I know this is an exciting day for you but you need to be aware with all this being confirmed and your involvement, you could well find yourself with less peace."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, once the tournament is confirmed and you've done this conference with Kaiba and the press it could well be that people will keep coming up to you in the street or the press follow you around."

Yugi stroked his chin as he thought. That was a good point he'd not really thought about that at all. People did stop him in the street from time to time but it would make sense that people would start to come up to him more, some would probably challenge him in the streets knowing what would happen if they won.

"Atem will need to be aware of it as well," Grandpa continued, "Although knowing him he's probably already thought about it. We'll need to have a cover story for him ready as people will ask or think that he's you."

"Yeah I meant to talk to you about that, Tea said the same thing the other day at school when someone there mixed us up."

"I'll talk to him about it later, seems a bit unfair for us to decide this for him." Grandpa glanced up at the clock, "Where is he anyway? He's normally awake by now."

A sheepish look came across Yugi's face, "I may have kept him up late with all my talk about this tournament."

Grandpa laughed, "Well, for that I believe you can do the dishes my boy. Seems only fair and it will help to stop you clock watching."

Yugi grinned and obliged moving to the sink to begin the task. As always his grandfather was right, there was something about doing the dishes which was rather therapeutic and for the time being it did, almost, take his mind off the upcoming events of the day. As he began drying the dishes Grandpa joined him at the counter and flicked the kettle on. He opened the cupboard and pulled another mug out before placing it on the counter and dropped a tea bag into it. Yugi looked at him with a slightly confused look however his grandfather just gave him a knowing look. Frowning at him he continued to place the cooking appliances back into their respective places before turning to look at his grandfather. He was confused at what his grandfather was doing as to his knowledge he didn't drink tea. He opened his mouth to ask just who he was making tea for but Grandpa shook his head. Pouring the hot water into the mug, he squeezed the teabag as much as he could before throwing it away. Picking up the mug Grandpa looked at Yugi and held three fingers up. Yugi was truly puzzled but it soon made sense. Grandpa, silently, counted down on his fingers… three…. two… one. There was a thump from the other room followed by a small yelp. As soon as the owner of the yelp came into the doorway the hot tea Grandpa had been holding was presented to him.

"Everytime." Grandpa said, amused, "Every morning you walk into that table. How do you not see it?"

"I really don't know." Atem replied, accepting the mug and rubbing his eyes with his free hand.

Atem was the only member of the household who'd not got dressed yet. He was still in his pyjamas although he was wearing a jumper with the hood pulled up. Yugi had noticed quite quickly that the former King had taken to pulling hoods up on jumpers at certain times where he felt vulnerable or deep in thought. It was quite common to see Atem doing this in the mornings when he'd just woken up as he wasn't quite alert yet. This was something Yugi knew he wouldn't like as his instincts would say this was when something bad would happen as he wasn't prepared or even alert yet. A habit built from a lifetime of waiting for something to happen and which would be hard to shake off. But eventually maybe this instinct would start to ease. Perhaps Atem viewed having a hood up as a way to protect himself from whatever bad things he imagined may come but alas Yugi would never know as he'd never asked the once King and wasn't planning on asking.

As Atem took a seat at the table, taking a sip of his tea. Yugi looked up at the clock again, it was almost time and he wasn't sure he wanted to sit here much longer to wait.

"I think I might start to get going." Yugi said, "Better to arrive early then be late, knowing Kaiba he'd hate it if I was late."

"Or you just can't wait any longer." Grandpa smirked, "You're just itching to get out there and get this tournament started."

"Ok yeah maybe but is that a bad thing?" Yugi said, slightly exasperated.

Atem smiled taking another sip of his drink while Grandpa chuckled moving to his grandson's side and ruffled his hair.

"No. It's good that you love this game so much and I'm proud of you. You go out there and show the world what you're made of."

Yugi smiled but then a sudden thought crossed his mind.

"What if I say something silly in front of the press? I've never been good at public speaking."

He appealed to the former Pharaoh for a response. This was true, Yugi really did not like talking in front of crowds of people. He just didn't feel comfortable and never knew how to respond to questions. In their time doing tournaments together the Pharaoh had always been the one to do the talking or told Yugi what to say. He had this natural charm and charisma which had come in handy for the countless interviews they'd done.

"You won't do anything of the sort." Atem said, looking directly at Yugi, "You'll do well, I am sure of that."

"But how? You were the one to do these things in the past."

"At first maybe, but as your confidence grew I did not need to help as much as I once did and I don't think you noticed that. Give yourself more credit Yugi, you will do well today. I have faith in you."

Yugi just looked at the former Pharaoh, who held his gaze, for a moment. His face showed a slight look of concern but the once King gave him one of his famous reassuring looks and nodded at him, Yugi internally shook off his concern and rolled his shoulders. Atem was right, he'd be fine.

"You'll do great today Yugi." Grandpa said, patting his grandson on the shoulder.

"Yeah. Today will be great."

Moving into the other room Yugi gathered together a few things, as he did he made sure the new duel disk was safely secured on his arm and his deck secured. The last thing he wanted was to make it all the way to KaibaCorp and to realise he'd left his deck behind or not secured it properly both of which would be highly embarrassing.

Moving back to the kitchen he addressed Atem, who was still slowly drinking his tea. He had hoped Atem would walk with him to KaibaCorp but it seemed the other was in no hurry.

"Will you meet me there Atem? Joey and the others will meet us after its all done but I doubt Kaiba will mind you coming in?"

Atem looked over and nodded, "I'll meet you there."

Nodding Yugi bid farewell to the pair of them before setting off. It was time.

The sun shone high in the sky as he made his way away from the game shop and towards the centre of the city. There weren't many people around as it was still fairly early on a Saturday morning. But actually Yugi preferred it this way, having the odd car drive past was nicer then having the constant sound of zooming cars. It helped him to keep his mind on the task of the day and prepare himself. He tried to think about questions he may or may not be asked but then maybe that in itself was a bad thing. If he tried to prepare too much for may or may not be said it could go badly for him. Instead he decided to just go with whatever happened. As Atem had said, he'd spoken to people before about tournaments and this wasn't the first one he'd been involved in since the once King had been released from the puzzle and Yugi had gone into the duelling world alone. Looking up Yugi spotted KaibaCorp beginning to come into view. It was quite an impressive building when looked at in detail. It towered over other buildings which was probably what Kaiba had wanted, he was a very proud individual and always wanted to show off his power. The closer he came to KaibaCorp Yugi got an understanding on what his grandfather had warned him about earlier. The news of KaibaCorp announcing something today had been broadcast everywhere the previous evening and news crews were already waiting outside the building. As the journalists caught sight of Yugi they began to call out to him, asking him for a comment or anything that would give them an insight to what was coming but Yugi merely smiled at them and waved before making his way inside the building. Once inside he was immediately met by Mokuba who wore a warm smile.

"Yugi! You're right on time!"

"Hey Mokuba, there's quite a crowd out there already."

The younger boy groaned slightly and motioned for Yugi to follow, "Tell me about it. Some of them have been here since last night! But that's the press I guess."

They made their way along several long corridors, KaibaCorp workers were rushing around calling out to one another. This was going to be a very busy day for all of them.

"Seto has invited only a few journalists in for the conference. They've all reported our events before and Seto trusts them so you've got nothing to worry about. He'll be out there with you the whole time and to be honest you might not have to talk that much."

Yugi nodded following Mokuba down another corridor.

"After the conference we'll get into the photos and again Seto has asked only the people he knows well and trusts to be involved with that."

Yugi nodded again. They finally entered a small room with a couple of tables and chairs. There was another door which led to another room and from what Yugi could just see through the window that it was full of people and cameras. He could also just see a long table at the front which at a guess would be where he'd be sitting with Kaiba.

"So? Are you ready for this?" Mokuba asked, grinning at Yugi.

"Yes. I am… I think."

"You'll be fine Yugi. Just picture them all in their underwear. That's what I do."

Yugi laughed, "Thanks Mokuba. By the way I told Atem to come meet me here is that ok?"

"Yeah that's fine I'll keep an eye out for him."

Behind them the door opened and Seto Kaiba walked in. He looked at the two in the room before strolling over to the other door and looking at all the members of the press taking their seats.

"Is that all the journalists Mokuba?"

"Yeap they're all here Seto."

Kaiba rolled his shoulders and looked at Yugi, "Well then King of Games shall we get this started?"

Yugi smiled and nodded. He gave himself another internal shake to try and shake off any nerves and followed Kaiba. This was it, where all the excitement could start and he couldn't wait.