DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction produced for entertainment purposes only. Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters are the creations of Kazuki Takahashi.
AUTHOR'S NOTE 1: Text in bold is being emphasised.
AUTHOR'S NOTE 2: This is part of my special Christmas update, a thank-you gift for everyone who's reading my stories. I've updated all five of my ongoing Yu-Gi-Oh! stories and posted a one-shot Christmas fic too. Merry Christmas everyone!
Chapter 2: Introductions
By Shadow's Mirror
"C'mon Yug! We're gonna be late!"
Joey's familiar voice made the small group of teenagers standing by the park fountain look up. Most of them smiled. Weevil Underwood, Rex Raptor and Seto Kaiba preferred to grimace.
"Coming! You go on ahead. I'll catch up."
The second voice, Yugi's, gained the same reactions from the same people, except that Kaiba's grimace was more of an irritated scowl.
"That's okay, pal. I can wait for those short legs of yours."
"Hey!"
Malik and Marik snickered for a moment before bursting into howls of laughter. Odion sighed softly and glanced at Isis, his look saying, 'Isn't there anything you can do about them? Please?'
Isis smiled back at Odion calmly, as if to say, 'You were the one who fed them sugary cereal this morning. You deal with them.'
As the two boys came into view, Kaiba shook his head slightly. "The circus must be in town. Here come the clowns." He was very careful to merely mutter it to himself, knowing the pain he'd experience if the girl standing beside him overheard his comment.
"Yugi! Joey! Over here!" Téa waved, smiling happily at her friends as they waved back. As soon as they started towards the fountain, she elbowed Kaiba in the side. Hard. "Be nice."
Kaiba blinked at her, shocked. "How in the world could you hear me?"
Téa's eyes narrowed as she turned to her sort-of-boyfriend. "So you were muttering something mean about them."
Kaiba swallowed hard, realising that she had just bluffed him into betraying himself. "You're good." He smiled ever so slightly.
Téa smiled sweetly back at him. "Of course. It's about time you realised it."
"Ugh! Why don't you two go get a room or something?" Weevil's interruption earned him a pair of identically irritated glares. He blinked, turned several shades paler and began backing away slowly. "Er… Never mind…"
"Hey." Joey grinned as he and Yugi walked up to the group. He peered at Weevil warily. "What's up with Bug Boy? He looks like someone just brought out a fly zapper."
"Close. He insulted Téa and Kaiba." Tristan grinned.
Joey burst out laughing. "Yeah. That would do it, all right!"
Kaiba's sapphire eyes narrowed into a glare. "What's that supposed to mean, Mutt?"
Joey immediately bristled at the insult. "It means…"
"That you and Téa are both pretty scary when you get mad."
The voice that interrupted the argument was low, husky and feminine, with a note of barely suppressed laughter. Joey smirked as he turned to greet the speaker. "Hey Mai!" Kaiba grunted a greeting as the others, with the exception of Weevil and Rex, all smiled and waved.
The blonde woman smiled back easily. "Hey Joey. Everyone." Her eyes flicked over the gathering crowd milling around the park. "Sure are a lot of people here today." She turned her attention to the immediate group and frowned slightly. "We're missing a few though."
Joey looked around and nodded. "Yeah. Shouldn't there be sixteen of us? There's only…" He tried to do a quick head count, but Espa Roba's brothers were everywhere and he kept counting them thinking they were Espa. All the green hair was confusing. "Um…"
Kaiba sighed. "Eleven. Honestly Wheeler, considering how old you are, I would have thought you'd have learned to count by now."
Joey glared at Kaiba. Before another argument could break out though, Ryou spoke up quietly. "I didn't recognise the other names in the contest list. Does anyone know who they are?"
Kaiba scowled. "They're the ones who shouldn't be in this tournament."
Mai frowned at him. "That's harsh, Kaiba. Even for you. They got in by their rankings, same as we did." Her comment earned her an icy glare.
"But we got here by being the best. All they did was win a few minor tournaments against amateurs!"
Joey looked from Mai to Kaiba and back again, frowning slightly. "Okay, I'm confused." He turned to Mai, ignoring Kaiba's muttered, 'So what else is new?' "What's going on, Mai? I thought this contest was for the top ranking players in Japan, so what's the problem? If these other guys qualified…"
Mai shook her head. "It's not that simple, Joey." She paused for a moment, considering. "No, actually it is, but there's a catch. You see, the rankings are based on a points system and it covers all official dueling tournaments and matches in Japan. That includes all the small gameshop matches held each weekend, as well as the larger professional tournaments and events like Battle City. The thing is, Kaiba does have a point. The other entrants in this tournament got here by winning mainly smaller contests. Most of the duelists in those small matches are playing just for fun. There's no way they could go up against someone as experienced as, say, me… and have even a chance of winning."
Joey frowned. "That doesn't sound fair. If they don't stand a chance, this won't be much fun for them."
Mai smiled slightly. "Ah, but that's where Kaiba and I disagree, Joey. The way I see it, the duelists that got here by winning only smaller tournaments have really earned their places the hard way."
"Yeah? How's that, Mai?"
"Rankings are worked out according to the number of points a Duelist earns. The more prestigious the tournament, the more points it's worth to the winners. Major events can offer up to two hundred points. That's the equivalent of a world class Duelist. The larger tournaments offer between fifty and a hundred points, depending on where you place. There are also other tournaments for anywhere from ten to fifty points. But most of the small weekend matches only earn a point or two each, if they earn any at all. A lot of the time, they're just for fun. Winning doesn't count towards an official ranking."
Mai paused and looked around again, although this time it was obvious that she was searching for something, or someone, and not just looking around at the crowd. "Where in the world…? Oh well." Shrugging off her distraction, Mai returned her attention to Joey and the others. By this point, even Rex, Weevil and Kaiba were listening to the conversation. Kaiba was pretending to be disinterested, of course, but he was still listening.
"Now where was I?" Mai thought for a moment. "Oh, yeah. Only the best sixteen duelists in Japan were invited to this tournament. To get here, each of us had to duel our way into the top ranks."
She began to count them off. "Battle City was the biggest tournament this year. Yugi and Malik, as the top two duelists, earned enough points from it to automatically qualify for this contest. The rest of us finalists got a pretty decent boost in our rankings from it too. I don't know about everyone else, but after that, I went on to win a couple of high-stakes duels. Big prize money and more than enough points to earn my place here. I heard that Roba, Underwood and Raptor each won a few larger tournaments, so they qualified that way. One of the remaining five barely scraped in. He won just enough of the mid-sized contests to qualify. Even then, he only made it in because Bandit Keith was caught cheating and disqualified from the tournament."
Ryou's eyes widened in shock. "Oh! I remember that! I saw the announcement on television when it happened."
He remembered it vividly. It had been during the time that Bakura had accidentally turned himself into a chibi. The story had been on the news one night. Bandit Keith hadn't merely been disqualified from the one contest though, he'd been banned from participating in all official tournaments.
"Bandit Keith was ranked sixteenth and there were no more official matches before this one, so his place in this contest seemed assured. But when he was caught cheating, the next duelist in line moved up to become sixteenth instead."
Ryou left it at that, although he was tempted to tell them of his strange reaction to the photo of the fortunate duelist. The moment it had appeared on the television screen, he had known that the duelist was big trouble. But since he had no proof, he didn't want his instinctive dislike to prejudice the others.
Kaiba snorted. "So he only got in due to sheer luck. That's what I mean. Lower level duelists have no right competing in top level competitions like this one." His blue eyes glared at Mai, daring her to contradict him.
Naturally, Mai took up the challenge eagerly. "Hold your dragons, Kaiba. That was just one of the five. The other four have been steadily working their way up through the ranks over the past year. Between them, they've won pretty much all of the small tournaments and a fair few of the medium ones as well. When you consider how many duels they've fought, and won, to get here… It makes what we've gone through look like a walk in the park!"
She matched him glare for glare. "Each one of those four has earned her right to be here!"
Kaiba's upper lip curled into a derisive sneer. "Oh really? I'll grant you that their dueling records are almost impressive, but the fact remains that they've only been winning against amateurs. They're about to encounter an entirely new level of skill. I doubt if they'll be able to keep up with us."
"Oh, I don't know. I think we'll do just fine. After all, from what I've seen of your dueling skills, Seto Kaiba… some of those 'amateurs' could teach you a thing or two."
The lightly mocking voice caught everyone by surprise, except Mai. As the others whirled around to see who was brave, or stupid, enough to insult Kaiba like that, she merely grinned. "Hey Nyc. About time you got here. I was starting to think you'd gotten lost or something."
Kaiba's composure slipped for just a moment, then he glared at the girl who had somehow managed to walk right up behind them without any of them noticing. "As far as I'm concerned, it would be better for you if you were to get lost," he growled. "I suppose you think that, just because you won enough duels to qualify for this tournament, you're in the same class as I. Not likely."
Instead of replying, Nyc merely smiled slightly and walked right past Kaiba, towards Mai. She laughed softly. "Sorry if I worried you, Mai. I made the mistake of stopping by the front desk to see if there were any messages for us. There were. The mail was also in. So then I had to take everything back to the room again before I could come out here." She rolled her eyes as Mai chuckled.
Kaiba spluttered. "I was talking to you!"
Nyc looked at him over her shoulder and smiled sweetly. "And I was ignoring you. Get used to it." Her dark brown eyes narrowed slightly. "I don't have time for anyone who thinks they're a better duelist than I am simply because they enter larger tournaments than I do. We play the same game and we face the same challenges in it. Neither of us would be here if we weren't both good at what we do."
Mai smiled. "Well said, Hon!" Nyc grinned back at her.
Kaiba didn't have a comeback for that. He did, however, have the good grace to remain silent instead of pretending he did. As he deliberately turned away, his cheeks held a faint hint of colour.
Everyone else blinked at the girl in astonishment, unable to believe what they had just witnessed. Someone had actually been able to render Kaiba speechless and blushing! That had to be a record.
Joey looked between Mai and the new girl and back again. "Hey Mai, you two know each other?"
Mai smiled. Much to everyone's surprise, she slipped an arm around the smaller girl's shoulders. "I should, we've been friends for about two years. We're rooming together during this tournament, too." She paused and then took pity on the confused boy. "Joey, everyone, this is Nyc." She pronounced it as 'Neek'. "She's one of the five duelists Kaiba was complaining about." Mai sent a wicked little smile in Kaiba's direction.
"He's not the only one who's not happy about this." Weevil Underwood spoke up. He scowled at Nyc, who grinned back at him as if he were her best friend. "Kaiba's right. You and the other girls shouldn't be in this tournament! You're only going to make fools of yourselves when you're defeated! Hey! Are you listening to me?"
Nyc's attention had been diverted about halfway through Weevil's rant. Everyone else had noticed what Weevil had failed to as well.
While he'd been talking, three other girls had walked up behind him. The smallest one looked like she was almost in tears, while the middle one looked as though she'd like to whap Weevil with a fly swat a few times. The tallest one merely looked at the boy as though he was something slimy and unpleasant that had crawled out from beneath a rock.
The middle one spoke first. "You mean the way I made a fool of you when I squished every one of your bugs within one turn, during our last match?" Her green eyes flashed with satisfaction as Weevil made an odd squawking sound and whirled around, his eyes resembling those of his precious insects as they bulged in shock.
"Y…You…!" He quickly caught himself and managed to stop trembling, but he was still considerably paler than he had been. "I… I… That was pure chance! You just happened to make some lucky draws! That was the only reason you won!" A flicker of unease in his eyes suggested that wasn't quite true.
"Indeed? Then it appears that all three of us have been considerably… lucky… in our dealings with you." The tallest one was speaking now, her voice cool and measured. "As I recall, all three of us have defeated you in every duel we have faced you in." Her brown eyes regarded Weevil with calm dismissal, as though he was as insignificant as the insects he treasured
The middle girl smirked as Weevil shifted uncomfortably. "What's the tally now? Three wins to me, four to Avril and two to Callie, isn't it?"
"Three to Callie, Rina. You forgot the rematch he demanded after she won their last official duel."
Ignoring the glares Weevil was giving him, the ones promising that revenge for this would not be swift but slow and extremely painful, Rex Raptor smiled very slightly and nodded to the tallest girl. "Avril. Been a while. Congratulations on making it here. I didn't think you three could do it. Sticking to the smaller matches and all. I've never heard of anyone managing to pull that off before."
The tallest girl, Avril, nodded back, the barest hint of a smile on her lips. "Thank you, Rex. It was rather simple really. The most difficult thing about it was coordinating our entries to ensure that we did not end up dueling each other. That would have been counter-productive to our plan."
Rex smirked at that while Weevil glared at her. Nyc and Mai chuckled. Everyone else blinked in confusion.
"You three worked as a team to make sure you all ended up qualifying for this, huh? That's really cool." Joey frowned as everyone stared at him, stunned. "What?"
Kaiba arched an eyebrow at the blonde boy. "You mean you actually understood her? I'm surprised, Wheeler. I didn't think you understood words of more than one syllable." He smirked as Joey glared at him.
"Of course I understood her!" Joey suddenly looked like a Duelist who had just opened a booster pack and found all five pieces of Exodia. "I've had plenty of practice. She talks a lot like you do." He glanced at Avril and grinned. "No offence."
Avril's lips twitched as though she was barely restraining a smile. "None taken."
Kaiba glared at both of them and then turned away. His attention was immediately caught by the activity over in front of the stage that had been set up on the park's main grassy area.
"In case anyone's interested, it looks like they're about to begin the tournament. I suggest we move to where we're supposed to be." He strode off, not bothering to see if the others had even heard him.
As the organisers went through their final preparations before officially opening the tournament, the fifteen participants who had arrived took their places in the waiting area off to one side of the stage. They would be called up and introduced to the crowd one by one during the opening ceremony, so the fact that one of the duelists was missing was causing the organisers no end of concern.
While they waited for the opening ceremony to begin, the participating duelists chatted amongst themselves.
Rex and Weevil had taken up position on one side of the enclosure, opting to lean against the side of the stage rather than rest in the available seats. They stood in companionable silence side by side, close enough that their shoulders touched. Occasionally, Weevil would glare in Rina or Avril's direction and Rex would nudge him until he stopped.
Kaiba and Téa were seated up the back of the enclosure, talking quietly. Technically, Téa wasn't supposed to be there, since the area was for participants only, but Kaiba had given the attendant one of his patented Blue Eyes CEO Dragon glares and that rule had been waived. And not just for Téa.
Just in front of the pair of brunettes, a pair of blondes were having an argument about whether or not fish were good for throwing at people or if they should just be used for juggling.
Odion sat beside Malik and Marik, trying to keep himself from listening in to the argument for fear that it would cause him permanent brain damage from trying to understand any of it. Isis sat calmly on his other side, reading a book. Every now and then Odion would glance at her. Each time Isis would quietly say, "No." Odion would then sigh and resume trying to keep his sanity more or less intact.
Yugi and Ryou were sitting together off to the left. They weren't talking. Not to each other at least. To anyone who knew their secret, the distant look in their eyes revealed the truth. Both of them were deep in conversation with their yamis. After a few minutes, there was a flash of light from the puzzle hanging around Yugi's neck. A moment later, another flash came from Ryou's Millennium Ring.
Now in control of their lights' bodies, Yami and Bakura glanced at each other warily and traded a knowing look. They continued to sit in silence, as their lights had but for a different reason. They had no need to talk. Both knew that the other was concerned about the same thing he was.
There was something not quite right about the four female duelists currently chatting to Mai, Joey and Espa in the front seats of the waiting area. It concerned them enough that the two yamis had decided to come out and observe the situation first-hand rather than merely keep watch through their lights' eyes. So, Yami and Bakura endured each other's presence in silence as they covertly studied the four girls.
Nyc was deep in conversation with Mai.
At first glance, they appeared to be complete opposites. Mai was in her early twenties, Nyc appeared to be around sixteen. Mai had long, stylishly wild, blonde hair and violet eyes that always seemed to hold a mix of cynical amusement and daring challenge. Nyc's dark brown hair fell in a neat shoulder-length bob, unlike her fringe which was tousled and slightly spiky, and her dark brown eyes were wide and open with just a hint of mischief. Mai, as always, was dressed stylishly in her trademark purple. For this tournament, she'd gone for her usual short skirt and a sleeveless jacket over a white top. Nyc, by comparison, seemed to fade into the background in her sleeveless brown top and matching just-above-knee-length skirt. Even her black sneakers were nothing like Mai's knee-high purple boots. Their taste in jewelry was also different, Mai opting for a pair of purple hoop earrings while Nyc wore a simple silver bangle around her right wrist.
There was nothing obviously unusual about Nyc. But the two yamis noticed how her eyes kept darting around. She was keeping a very close eye on everything going on around her. They didn't know her well enough to say whether it was simply an indication of a cautious nature, or if there was something in particular that she was keeping watch for.
The other three girls were even more of a mystery.
Callie was the smallest of the three and, even if she hadn't looked like it, the protective attitude of the other two girls towards her suggested that she was also the youngest.
She bore a strong resemblance to a porcelain doll. Her long, pale-blonde hair was caught up in a ponytail that curled into a single large ringlet, except for one long lock that fell down in front of her left ear. Her eyes were framed with long, thick lashes and illustrated the phrase 'wide eyed innocence' to perfection. Her skin was very pale and the colour of fresh cream after a strawberry had been lightly swirled through it. She also seemed to have a permanent hint of colour in her cheeks.
All in all, Callie looked as though she'd be right at home in a Victorian gown with more lace and frills than a debutante's ball, so it was almost a physical shock to see her in fairly modern clothes. She wore a sleeveless blue top with a wide, embroidered band around the neck, black sneakers and dark blue jeans with lighter cuffs and small silver stars sewn on at random. Aside from the stars, her only other ornament was a blue crystal, about the size of an acorn, that was attached to her belt by a silver chain.
There was something about Callie that made the two yamis uneasy. She looked almost too innocent. Surely no one could be that guileless naturally? Not even their lights were that pure! Also, although she was happily conversing with Espa Roba, she became distracted at the slightest sound. Perhaps it was just excitement over being in the tournament, but was that a flicker of anxiety or fear in her eyes?
Rina, the one who had confronted Weevil earlier, was talking with Joey. Judging by how animated the conversation was, complete with laughter and hand motions, they were going over previous duels they had each won.
Her preoccupation gave the yamis ample opportunity to study her.
Rina's hair was blonde, a few shades darker than Callie's, and she wore it up in two short, bouncy pigtails. A lock of hair curved around one side of her face, while her long fringe was swept out of her twinkling dark green eyes to frame the other side. Her strapless golden-yellow top defied gravity with the aid of a thin frill that ran along the upper edge and around the tops of her arms. She wore it like a tunic, with a loose brown belt around her waist. Even her dark blue jeans were slightly unusual, only coming to mid calf and with a wide band of green and gold ribbon instead of cuffs. Her canvas shoes were black and ordinary… except that she'd laced them with gold ribbon. Like Callie, Rina also wore a crystal the size of an acorn attached to her belt, only her crystal was emerald green.
On the surface, Rina appeared to a bright and bubbly girl with a slightly odd fashion sense. From her confrontation of Weevil earlier, they also knew she was a little hotheaded. But the longer Yami and Bakura observed her, the more they noticed that her smiles weren't quite meeting her eyes and her attention wasn't as focused on Joey as they'd believed. Like Nyc and Callie, Rina was keeping a very close eye on everything around her. She didn't seem worried or afraid, just wary.
Avril, the last of the four, sat slightly apart from the others. She was the tallest of the girls and seemed to be the eldest. Considering the way Callie and Rina acted towards her, she was apparently also the unofficial leader of the trio.
Her hair was an odd shade of not-quite-blonde/not-quite-ginger and she wore it in a high ponytail so it cascaded in waves to just below her shoulders, but her face was framed by two long bangs as pure blonde as Callie's hair. Her dark brown eyes were serious, even solemn, and seemed to contain a hint of sorrow even when she was smiling. Although Rina and Joey were laughing right beside her, Avril never once did more than curve her lips into a slight smile. She would have given the impression of being very self-contained and unemotional, were it not for the fact that her sleeveless, and almost strapless, top was of a shimmering material in a very vibrant shade of red. She had teamed it with a straight black skirt that fell modestly to just above her knees and stylish black ankle-boots. Her only item of jewelry was a clear crystal identical to the blue and green ones Callie and Rina wore. Unlike her friends, however, Avril wore her crystal on a silver chain around her neck.
Of the four girls, Avril was the one who made Yami and Bakura the most uneasy. She reminded them rather strongly of Isis. Like the older Egyptian woman, Avril seemed to be very calm and controlled. But just like the other girls, she was tense. The two yamis could tell. It was there in the stiffness of her shoulders and the way in which her eyes constantly searched the surrounding area.
All in all, the four girls didn't seem to be any threat, but still… There was something about them that made Yami and Bakura very wary. They'd learned from previous experience that few people were truly as they appeared to be, and these four girls were acting more than a little suspiciously. They all seemed to be waiting for something, and neither yami believed it was the opening of the tournament!
Yami and Bakura were still watching the girls when it happened.
As one, Nyc, Callie, Rina and Avril all tensed; their attention focused on a single point. The entry to the waiting area. Or rather, the tall young man who was now striding into the waiting area with a beaming smile and an attitude that shouted, 'Admire me for I have arrived and you will soon find out that I am by far the best duelist here!'
The stranger was tall, with broad shoulders and a slender frame almost hidden beneath his oversized clothes. His shoulder-length blonde hair was of a similar shade to Rina's, while his grey eyes surveyed the gathered duelists with an almost unnerving intensity. Aside from that, his face was rather nondescript. It was the kind of face you wouldn't notice in a crowd and even if you did, you'd quickly forget all about it.
His clothes were also rather ordinary, at least compared to what the other duelists were wearing. The loose dark cream top had long sleeves and two black lines around it. It looked expensive, as did the matching pants that he wore low on his hips, his stylish black boots peeking out from beneath the fashionably-too-long slacks.
He looked around for a moment, then his eyes locked on Avril, Rina and Callie. For a single heartbeat, his smile wavered as a look of shock flickered over his face. It was quickly followed by a small frown of annoyance. If Yami and Bakura had not been watching him closely, warned by the girls' obvious unease that something was wrong, they would not have noticed. They would only have seen his broad smile and heard his hearty greeting.
"Well now! Avril! Rina! And sweet little Callie! What an unexpected pleasure! I never thought you three would make it here. The last time I saw you all, you were dueling in the amateur tournaments."
Avril slowly stood up. Rina started to, but a look from the other girl stopped her. She satisfied herself with a glare at the young man instead. Callie was too busy trembling to even consider standing.
Fixing the stranger with an icy gaze, Avril spoke. Her voice was so soft that Bakura and Yami had to strain to hear it. "Evien Sanders… If you come near any of us for the duration of this tournament, you will find yourself awakening in the hospital in several months' time with no recollection of anything except a great deal of pain. Do I make myself clear?"
There was a thread of steel in her voice that sent a shiver up both yamis' spines. She meant every word.
Apparently, the stranger thought so too. His smile slipped slightly and he nodded. "Perfectly." He moved away again, taking a seat up the back near Kaiba and Téa. He tried his smile out on them, only to receive a very irritated bright blue glare in return. Shifting uneasily, he quickly looked away and pretended to study the back of the chair in front of him.