Italics indicate thinking
Yuki's POV
I waited a bit and grabbed lunch before heading to the location on the map to get into the finals.
"Here you go." I held out my Locator Cards "All six."
"Yes." The bodyguard nodded "You are the second to arrive, here is your ID card."
"Second, I thought I would have been first." I looked passed him "Oh you're already here Kaiba, guess it's because I stopped for dinner real quick."
"It would be ridiculous if I wasn't the first to qualify for my own tournament." He said.
"Someone is watching us." Cleopatra hummed
"So Uhh…how'd that stuff at the dock go?" I asked struggling to make conversation with the boy who was probably close to ten years or even more younger than me.
He just looked at me "Fine."
"Great."
He's not much of a talker is he…
"More are coming." Cleopatra looked towards the entrance.
I looked back and saw Yugi walking up with his friends, including Joey. Yugi's expression was a bit softer though, different than when we had teamed up.
"I'm glad it all worked out." I took a deep breath.
"He certainly has quite the entourage." Cleopatra hummed as the stadium lights powered on.
With Joey and Yugi here we now had four of our final eight.
"Hello again." I smiled at them "I'm glad you all made it here in one piece."
"Yes, thank you for all your help." Yugi smiled.
"This pathetic boy hosts the Pharaoh?" Cleopatra floated around in my vision.
"It was no trouble; you and I are a lot alike it seems." I laughed before shooting her a look "There's still four players remaining…and he'll be one of them."
"Marik…" we all said silently.
The stadium quieted as footsteps could be heard and someone approached.
"Number five…" I whispered under my breath as someone stepped in.
"Is it Marik?" Cleopatra asked.
The boy that walked in was young, had shaggy like dusty colored hair dark middle eastern skin and a clam look in his eyes.
"Namu." Tea and Joey ran up to him.
"Seems they know him, I suppose he's not Marik." I commented.
"Yes…" Cleopatra paused.
Everyone got a little quiet again as another person Yugi and his friends knew came up, this boy was soft looking and had long white hair, they called him Bakura.
"I sense darkness in him." Cleopatra noted.
"He does kinda give me the willies." I shivered "And he's got a cut on his arm to, should he even be here."
"Is that the seventh Duelist?" Bakura asked.
We all looked back to see a tall man in a dark purple cloak walking up. His eyes were shadowed but I could make out some bizarre tattoo like scars of hieroglyphics around his one eye.
"That's gotta be him." I looked across "The one that's been hunting everyone."
"Marik…" Cleopatra hummed.
"Are you Marik?" Kaiba asked.
"I am." The man said in a deeper voice than I expected.
"You bastard there's no way you're getting off after what you did!" Joey yelled "You'd better be prepares, I'm settling this with a duel rather than my fists!"
"I'm free to disqualify you whenever I want." Kaiba told Marik "But I'd rather not do it now, instead I'll beat you to a pulp and take your God Card for myself."
"My big brother's gonna get revenge for everyone!" Mokuba yelled.
"Hmm." The man growled lowly and walked off to be alone.
"This pressure, it must be that serious aura and spirit they're always talking about in manga." I hummed.
"Whatever you say." Cleopatra scoffed.
"Will the seven duelists present give me their attention." The guard in charge spoke "I have an announcements to make."
We all turned to him.
"You have all completed the preliminary matches and assembled here at Domino Stadium. However this is not the location of the finals." He said.
"What?" I gasped a bit.
"The real stage will appear in a moment." The other guard said.
Slowly all the stadium lights turned up and pointed to the sky where a huge blimp was slowly descending.
"No way." I awed.
"It's called the Battle Ship!" Mokuba explained "The finals will be 1000 meters in the sky!"
"Hope no one is afraid of heights." I laughed a bit to relax.
"What a bizarre machine." Cleopatra noted.
The blimp landed and set down a boarding staircase.
"Please board, we will take off when the final duelist arrives at Seven Sharp." The guards said.
"At least we only have to worry about Marik up here, not the other Hunters." I noted to Cleopatra as we went to our room.
"Yes." She floated next to me "Though if he's somehow managed to infiltrate the minds of some of the others it may be difficult."
"Our only goal is to ensure he doesn't get all the God Cards right?" I asked "So we just have to make sure someone else wins Ra from him."
I opened the door to my room and relaxed for a bit, I immediately regretted buying dinner on the ground since the fridge was stocked and room service was open, but whatever. We had to wait a bit but soon we were all assembled in the main hall for the drawing of who'd fight who. It would be done one at a time, so you wouldn't know who you were fighting till just before the duel.
"Hmm." I tapped my fingers on the table I was sitting at a bit.
"Should you not socialize?" Cleopatra asked.
"Everyone here's a lot younger than me." I shrugged "We don't have much in common to talk about, still…they all seem like good kids."
"I suppose this generation has spirit." She paused "More than can be said for mine."
"Hmm?" I looked at her.
"I should be truthful with you." She looked at me "The reason I serve the Gods as I do is because I made many mistakes that upset them, most notably trying to seal away things like this, these…Dark Games. In my time these were more than just cards, but they were dangerous that despite the Gods decree I had them erased and destroyed, hence my curse."
"Oh…" I gasped a bit "So you're really tied into all of this."
"Yes…Hmm."
"What?" I asked.
"The eight duelist still has not arrived." She commented as they rolled out a bingo machine to draw the first match.
Soon thought it was time to draw for the first match up and the numbers that dropped were Yugi and Bakura. You were allowed to go up to the roof and watch but I wasn't sure if I really wanted to spend more time on the roof than I wanted.
"We should take the chance to scout the others if we can." Cleopatra told me "Go watch, at least a few turns."
"Fine." I sighed doing it, knowing that she'd just take me over if I refused.
I went up to the top deck and saw that Yugi and Bakura were dueling, Cleo was right ealier when she said Bakura was dark, he was like a different person, a total monster who wanted to kill Yugi.
"I feel like I know this boy." She noted seeing the dark Occult Deck he played.
In the end it made little difference and Yugi managed to pull out a win, even when Marik tried to interfere and get Yugi to Surrender but the real Bakura and Fake Bakura both took the hit together rather than one of them die. With the first match over we had to draw number two.
The balls were rolling once more.
"The first Duelist is…Duelist 2!" the ball dropped "Yuki Shinonome!"
"It's my turn." I took a breath.
"And the Second is…Duelist 7!" the other ball fell "Marik Ishtar!"
"It's time." Cleopatra said.
"This was what I was chosen for." I looked at the tall man.
This is going to be a fight between God Cards…
AN
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Till Next Time!
