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.

Tournament of Shadows
Chapter 4: The Game Continues
by Shadow's Mirror

The second day of the Domino City Treasure Quest Tournament dawned with clear skies and great excitement in the hearts of the sixteen duelists who were participating in the contest.

According to the competition's rules, all the entrants had to gather at 9am on each day of the contest at the park where the event had been opened. That way, none of the entrants would have an advantage and they could start off each day on an equal footing. In theory, it was a good idea, but in reality there were quite a few grumbles about it as the duelists gathered on the second day.

"I don't see why we have to come here each day. Waste of time." Weevil Underwood scowled.

Rex Raptor nodded in reluctant agreement. "It's a good idea, but it's also a pain." He shrugged in response to the curious looks his comment earned him. "My next duel is on the other side of town from here. Our hotel was closer."

Yugi, Malik and Joey all nodded. At least, Joey did something that could have been a nod if he hadn't been panting so hard. He'd obviously run all the way to the park so he wouldn't be late.

"Nyc and I don't lose out in that way." Mai smiled at the boys as she gained their attention. "We're in the hotel just over there." She gestured to the major five star luxury hotel in front of the park.

Joey managed a weak whistle. "Doing the contest in style, huh Mai?" He grinned at her.

"Something like that." Mai grinned back at him.

Bakura's attention had been caught. "So if you're rooming with her... where is she?"

"She made the same mistake she made yesterday." Mai grinned at Bakura. "She asked at the desk if we'd had any messages and they gave her so much mail she had to take it back up to the room."

Bakura smirked. "So who's the popular one? You or her?"

Mai's smile was quite wicked as she replied to the white-haired yami. "Both of us. I break a lot of hearts and Nyc keeps in touch with most of the kids she duels against in the smaller tournaments."

Kaiba snorted and looked away. Apparently he was still annoyed from the day before, when he'd been rendered speechless by Nyc's comeback to his complaints about her and the other girls being in the competition. Any mention of the smaller tournament circuit was enough to remind him.

Isis smiled at Seto as she joined the group. "Did you see the recap of the day's duels last night?" Her smile was a little too sweet.

Seto scowled at her and briskly nodded. "Of course." He'd seen the television recap show all right. It had shown quite clearly that all of the duelists in the tournament were more than a little skilled in the game. Including all five of the duelists Kaiba had been complaining about the day before.

"I thought so." Isis's smile became quite smug.

The brunette's scowl deepened and he turned away without replying. Talking to someone who could see things that you'd rather not be seen could be very irritating. Unfortunately, his movement brought the three approaching girls into his line of sight. His scowl immediately deepened more.

Callie winced at Kaiba's expression and bit her lip, looking very timid and worried. "Uh... sorry... we didn't mean to interrupt anything."

Kaiba almost winced and his scowl faded. "You didn't. Isis was saying something annoying."

Isis smiled gently at Callie. "Seto was frowning over what I said, not at you and the others."

"Oh. Good." Callie smiled happily, the sweet smile lighting up her face.

Kaiba looked away as if embarrassed, although surely something as simple as a girl's smile wouldn't have that sort of effect on him.

A little girl of perhaps eight years old was peeking out at the group from behind a nearby tree. She was dressed in a pretty sundress as blue as the sky and her black hair was caught up in slightly lopsided pigtails. Her attention seemed to be focused on the girls, but when she realised that Kaiba was looking at her, her brown eyes went wide.

"Kaiba? Hey, Kaiba!"

"What?" Kaiba snapped as he whirled to look at the cause of the annoying distraction. He scowled at Joey.

"I said, the officials are here. It's time to get this party started." Joey frowned at the tense brunette. "What's up with you? You're awfully touchy today."

"There was a..." Kaiba started to gesture towards the tree where the girl was. Or rather, where the girl had been. Frowning, he glanced around, then mentally shrugged. Pushing the vague uneasiness that he had no reason to be feeling to the back of his mind, he looked at Joey again. "Nothing is 'up with' me." He started to head off to where the officials were waiting and most of the other duelists in the tournament were already gathered.

Joey followed Kaiba, but he was obviously not happy with the brunette's response. "Don't give me that, Kaiba. I know you well enough to know when something's wrong. You've got that 'don't talk to me because I'm ticked off and will bite your head off' look to you. Even Téa's staying clear and she's normally so close that you can't get a card between you. Well it's true!" He shrugged off the glare that was shot in his direction. "What's going on?"

Kaiba sighed to himself. This blonde mutt could be so annoying at times. Still... "There was a child. She seemed a little too interested in the girls. There was something about her, however..." He trailed off, frowning to himself.

"But you can't quite put your finger on what was odd with her? Little girl, about seven or eight with black pigtails?" At Kaiba's surprised look, Joey shrugged. "I've seen her a couple of times now. She was here yesterday too. I don't think she's a fan, though. I saw her with Callie."

"What? When?" Kaiba ignored the waiting officials who were frowning at them. It was still a few minutes to nine. If he wished to have a conversation instead of joining the others, then he would.

"Yesterday afternoon. I was looking for my duel and I saw Callie doing the same thing. She was about to cross the street at the far end of the block from me, but I'm sure it was her. That little girl was with her." Joey stopped Kaiba before he could interrupt. "Before you ask, no, the kid wasn't stalking her. Callie was holding her hand. Maybe they're sisters or something."

Kaiba arched an eyebrow. "Wheeler... genetics are not that arbitrary."

Joey blinked and made the most eloquent reply he could. "Huh?"

"She looks nothing like Callie."

"Oh." Joey frowned. "Why didn't you just say that?"

Kaiba just shook his head and joined the others, not willing to lower himself to the blonde's level any further than he already had.

Nyc had joined the group while Kaiba and Joey had been talking but they were still one short. The officials were looking at their watches and muttering to themselves and the other duelists were also starting to get rather annoyed. When Evien sauntered into view at one minute to nine, there were more than a few glares in his direction. Even the officials looked irritated at his laid back attitude to time and went on with the opening of that day of the tournament without any further delay.

As the announcer droned on about the contest rules and other information that had been covered the day before and that no one really cared about... except possibly for Marik who was listening intently and nudging Malik with loudly whispered comments like 'hey did you know that?' and 'wow, really?'... Kaiba caught himself looking around for the child he had spotted earlier.

Wheeler's words had concerned him. Not only about her possible connection to one of the girls, but his implication that he too had felt that something was not quite right about the girl.

Although Kaiba normally discounted Wheeler's ideas and conversations out of principle, he had to admit that the teen's instincts were usually quite good.

Then the second day of the tournament was announced as being open and all thoughts of quickly disappearing little girls and blonde teenagers with irritating instincts rushed out of Kaiba's mind. Those sorts of things would have to wait until later. There were more important things to think about. Like strategy and tactics and where he had to go to find his next opponent.

It was time to duel!

- - -

For the second day in a row, Yugi was the first to find his duel location. This time, though, he was also the first to win.

When he got his next clue, he blinked at it and then sighed softly. He knew the logo; it belonged to a chain of fast food restaurants around the city. The problem was, as the logo was the only thing on the card, he had no way of knowing which restaurant the next duel was at. Sitting down on a set of steps nearby, Yugi slipped into his soulroom so he and Yami could work out, through a process of elimination, the likeliest places to search first.

Mai was the second duelist to find her match, with Avril and Bakura right behind her, and narrowly took the second win of the day ahead of Kaiba, despite him only taking ten minutes to win his duel.

Again, the city buzzed for the rest of the day with discussions on whether five turns counted as a duel, but this time they also added comments of sympathy for the poor official who had nearly been reduced to tears when he had lost all three of his defence monsters and most of his life points in one turn, thanks to Kaiba's trio of Blue Eyes White Dragons.

Avril and Bakura's matches were of a more reasonable duration. A combination of lucky draws, good tactics and a thorough knowledge of their cards added up to easy wins for both of them.

About the time they were finishing up, five more duelists located their matches.

Nyc had needed to go halfway across town from the starting point, but once she got there she proved yet again that her practice in the smaller tournaments had prepared her well for this larger competition. She won in under half an hour with some nice monster and spell combo attacks.

Isis took a little longer to win her duel, but that was mainly because her opponent used the Swords of Light against her. She played with her usual calm efficiency and didn't seem to be in any sort of hurry either throughout the duel or after she won, judging by the way she instructed Odion to drive them to a nearby restaurant for lunch while she learned the location of her next duel.

Rina had trouble finding her duel and that seemed to worry her. She was obviously tense and it affected her game, causing her to make several bad decisions early on. Eventually though, she managed to turn the tables on her opponent and won the duel. Then she was off in search of her next opponent, obviously eager to make up for lost time.

Callie also had a few problems finding her match and her duel lasted for over an hour, but she remained bright and cheerful all the way through to the last play, even when it looked like she was going to lose all her lifepoints a couple of times. She also didn't seem to be in any particular hurry to leave and chatted to the official for a few minutes before a little girl with black pigtails tugged at the bottom of her shirt and said in a voice that was little more than a whisper, "Callie, I am hungry."

While Callie was promising the child that lunch was their next stop, Espa finally won his match. He'd made a serious mistake the first time and had lost the duel, but he'd made up for it with a good solid game in his second attempt. He hadn't done anything flashy, but he'd been lucky enough to draw some good cards, so the win was a fairly easy one for him.

While all of those duels were being played, most of the remaining duelists in the competition had also managed to locate their duels, with one addition.

Yugi proved that he deserved the title of King of Games by being the first to find the location of his second duel for that day. Being a level three duel, it wasn't an easy win, but he managed it just as Kaiba stepped out of his car and stalked towards his own second duel, on the other side of the city.

Kaiba had been caught in two traffic jams and a detour due to roadworks, so he was not in a good mood, but that only served to sharpen his mind. Fifteen minutes and four turns later, his opponent's defences shattered under the onslaught of a Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon and Kaiba won the match.

But for once, it wasn't Kaiba's brute force win that was the talk of the city that afternoon. Instead, it was Evien's duel that everyone spoke of, their voices ranging from shocked to disapproving. Except for those who truly loved the Duel Monsters Game. They were simply disgusted.

Evien didn't seem too happy about having taken all morning to find the location for his match and it was obvious from his first move that he had no intention of dragging the duel out as he had the day before. His game was ruthless; his moves calculated to deal out maximum damage to his opponent without letting a little thing like the protection of his own monsters get in his way. He gave up three good monsters to lure his opponent into traps and a few more became sacrifices for bigger, stronger monsters. His attacks were brutal, but it was his obvious disregard for his own cards, rather than the way he used them, that people watching the duel muttered over.

Most duelists treated their cards with respect, knowing that they would win or lose based on their cards and the luck of the draw as much as their own skill. There was a superstition that the cards themselves could influence the game. Some duelists claimed that if you mistreated your cards, you would be cursed with a run of bad luck until you earned the cards' trust again.

Of course, most people considered that to be a load of pocky, but it did seem to happen quite a bit out of pure coincidence. Not to Evien though. He had no trouble at all with his deck.

As soon as Evien won his match, it was obvious that he was planning on hurrying to his next duel, but he took a moment to smile charmingly at the female official who's cards he had just decimated, when he noticed her checking some sort of electronic timetable she had. "So, just off the record, how is everyone else doing? I haven't had time to check out the live broadcast today."

The official eyed Evien thoughtfully before she quietly answered him. "Yugi Moto and Seto Kaiba won their duels just before you." It wasn't the whole truth, but she wasn't in the mood to say more.

Evien's eyes widened and then he smiled again, obviously delighted at the news. "So I'm coming in third? Oh, I guess I should slow down, then. I wouldn't want to make the others look too bad, after all. Thanks for the info!" He winked at her and sauntered off, no longer in a hurry.

The official wrinkled her nose in disgust but refrained from voicing her opinion of him and set about preparing for the next duelist to arrive there, content in her minor bit of revenge for her loss.

Malik and Marik showed up at their respective duel locations within minutes of each other and both won within minutes of each other, too. Although, the bags they both had with them and Marik's cheerful 'sorry I'm late, there was a sale' seemed to indicate that their timing was due less to their bond as 'twins' being so strong and more to the fact that they'd been having fun in the city together and had almost forgotten that they were in a competition.

Aside from Espa, the only other duelists who had trouble winning their matches the first time around was Rex and Weevil. Both teens finally managed to locate their matches about the same time as Yugi found his second duel of the day, but winning those matches proved to be tough for them.

Rex needed four tries before he finally managed to squish his opponent, and even then it was only because of a lucky draw that enabled him to get one of his strongest cards onto the field.

Weevil only needed three attempts, but his first two failed so completely that he wasn't even able to boast about needing one less than Rex. Of course, when he did win, he immediately puffed himself up and boasted loudly that everyone would be talking about his glorious victory.

Unfortunately, his glorious victory had happened at the exact same time as Isis's win of her second duel that day, which had made for far more interesting viewing. Weevil's win, and his entire third duel for that matter, hadn't even made it onto the live coverage being shown around the world.

Shortly after that, in a very nice performance and what was considered to be one of the better duels of the day, Avril managed to make winning her second duel that day look quite easy.

Nyc followed a few minutes later with her own win, although no one got to see it as the live coverage editor seemed to have developed a bit of a crush on Avril and the coverage showed her as she received her prize card and the clue to her next duel location, instead of the end of Nyc's match.

During Avril and Nyc's matches, the other duelists who had won their first duels of the day fairly early began to show up at their second duel locations, too. The first of them, Rina, won her match easily. That set the tone for the others. Within half an hour, Callie, Mai, Espa and Bakura had all won their second duels as well.

Despite the duels being more difficult at level three, Espa had none of the trouble he'd struck earlier that morning. He showed all the reasons why he was considered to be a champion-level duelist.

Bakura had seemed to be rather irritated when he arrived at his match, but half an hour of slowly draining the lifepoints away from his opponent cheered him up quite nicely. After getting his next clue, he looked at the time. "Quarter past four. A half hour or so searching and then home." He smiled a little as he headed off.

His smile turned into a sigh as Ryou, from his soulroom, informed Bakura that he needed to pick up a few things for dinner. Because of the five o'clock curfew on the participating duelists, that meant just one thing.

"Scratch the half hour of searching. Where's the nearest grocery store?"

The last duel for that day was also a rather odd one.

It was half past four when Joey stumbled into view of the official waiting for him at the location of his first duel for that day. The official, the same woman who had dueled against Evien earlier in the day, couldn't hold back a gasp when she saw him.

His T-shirt was wet with sweat and he was flushed and panting heavily. He looked completely worn out. Despite that though, he managed to give her a smile and a wave. "Hey. I'm not too late, am I?" He had to force the words out in between gasps of breath.

The official quickly shook her head. "Not at all. There's plenty of time. We have half an hour yet, so just catch your breath for a few minutes."

Joey smiled a little. "I'm okay. Really." Despite his words, he did take another half minute to catch his breath enough so he wasn't gasping. Then he took up his position on the dueling arena.

The duel lasted barely twenty minutes and on the surface, it seemed that it had been strikingly similar to Evien's earlier duel.

Like Evien, Joey had left monsters in attack mode to tempt his opponent into attacking... but the trap and spell cards he had used had protected his monsters, rather than activating upon their defeat as Evien's trap and spell cards had.

Like Evien, Joey had used some monsters as sacrifices to bring out stronger monsters... but the look in his eyes each time he had done so had been one of regret and gratitude to the monsters helping him in his duel, not sneers or smirks at how powerful his new monsters were.

Joey also used a couple of his monsters before he sacrificed them, proving that he valued them for their own strengths and didn't consider them to be useless and only good for sacrificing.

His attitude to his opponent was also completely different. When he won, he didn't plaster on a fake smile and say 'oh, guess I win this one, huh?' Instead, his smile was genuine and his handshake firm as he thanked the official for a 'great game'.

After receiving his prize card and the clue to his next duel, Joey started to head off. The official hesitated, then spoke up. "Hey, are you sure you're okay?"

Joey smiled sweetly and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just ran around a bit too much today. Thanks for asking. See you and thanks again. It was a great duel."

- - -

So the second day of the Domino City Treasure Quest Tournament came to a close. But once the game was over for the day... that was when the real work started for the duelists.

The 'Recap Show' showed the highlights of all the duels played that day and was a good way for the competitors to check out each other's playing style and come up with ideas and strategies that might work against them. The show also stated the level of the duel, so everyone watching could tell how well each of the competitors was doing in the tournament, overall.

With the last stage of the tournament made up of duels between the top eight competitors, it was a vital source of information.

So when Seto Kaiba received a phone call barely a minute before the show started, just as he'd sat down with a cool drink to watch it, he was not pleased.

"This had better be good." He didn't waste time with the niceties as he snarled into the phone.

"It is." The slightly-less-than-completely-calm voice on the other end of the line, coupled with the fact that Isis had not done her usual 'thank you, Seto, I am fine, how are you?' greeting, told Kaiba immediately that something was very, very wrong.

"Marik and Malik are trying to take over the world again?" From anyone else, that line would have been a joke. From Kaiba to Isis, it was a distinct possibility.

"I am afraid it may be more serious than that." Isis's reply caused Kaiba's eyebrows to both take up residence in his hair.

"I'm listening."

"Nine blocks to the West of the Kaiba Corp. building, there is an alley. I have just seen Joey there. He was lying on the ground. I hope that he was merely unconscious, but I cannot be sure."

The moment Isis said 'seen', Kaiba winced. When she said 'Joey', he sneered. But at the words 'lying on the ground'... he tensed. By the time she'd finished speaking, he was already barking orders to the head of his security team at Kaiba Corp. through his cellphone.

After confirming that he was to bring the one he found in that alley back to the Kaiba estate if he was merely unconscious, and take him to the hospital if it was more serious, the brunette teen returned his attention to Isis. "I'm having him brought back here. Do you have any idea what's happened?"

"I am hoping that it is merely exhaustion that has claimed him. However... after the other vision I had a little while ago, I cannot be certain."

It was the slight tremble of fear in her voice that caught Kaiba's attention. "What's wrong?" He refused to ask her what she had seen. He was willing to believe that she somehow knew things at times that others didn't, but that was entirely different from believing that she received visions through a magical necklace.

"Nothing... yet. But I saw the streets of Domino being covered by a shadow and there was a feel of evil and impending doom in the air."

Kaiba sighed. "A shadow? Impending doom? So it is Malik and Marik then?"

"No, Seto." Isis's voice was still tinged with fear. "This evil... was true evil. Like nothing either of us has seen or felt before. Unspeakable and terrible things are going to happen... soon. Very soon. I only hope that Joey has not already fallen victim to it." She took a steadying breath, which told Kaiba far more than anything she could have said.

"I'll let you know how Wheeler is as soon as he gets here."

As a reply, it wasn't a particularly good one. As a reassurance, it was the most that he could give and more by far than he once would have offered.

As he put down the phone and returned his attention to the television, Kaiba found himself hoping that for only the second time in her life, Isis was wrong about what she had seen.

- - -

The Recap Show that night had been a particularly good one, but for Evien Sanders it had also brought a shocking realisation.

From what he had learned earlier in the day, he had believed himself to be in third place, but now he knew that he was really coming eleventh. That wasn't nearly good enough.

He paced his hotel room, furious and more worried than he would admit even to himself. All of his carefully constructed plans would be meaningless if he failed to make it into the top eight, but as things stood at the moment, that wasn't looking likely. Of the ones that mattered, only the two strongest in the tournament were playing exactly as he had predicted they would. Some of the others in the tournament were nowhere near as strong as he'd heard and others were playing far beyond what he thought them capable of.

The thought echoed in his mind and he frowned as he reconsidered it. No, that wasn't quite true.

Calming a little, he sat down on the edge of his bed again and carefully thought through what he'd learned about the duels that day.

He began to smile.

Maybe things weren't as bad as he had thought.

- - -

The little girl whimpered softly and tried to burrow in more closely to the girl holding her. "It hurts."

Callie bit her lip and forced herself not to cry. She had to stay strong. She couldn't give in to her fear. She hugged the little girl tightly. "I know, Emi. Not much longer. I promise."

She looked up as Avril came into the room. Avril smiled a little at Callie and the child and nodded. "We are going now. We will not be long. Remember, if anything happens..."

Callie nodded. "I know. I'll do it."

Rina poked her head into the room, frowning. "Avril, come on! We're going to lose our prey."

Avril winced at the word. "I really wish you would not use that term." Her hand lifted and lightly touched the white crystal she wore on a silver chain around her neck.

"You're too fussy. Now come on, it's time to go!"

Callie bit her lip. "Be careful. Don't get caught."

Avril smiled and nodded. "Do not worry. We can do that much, at least."

Then the two girls were gone and Callie was left comforting a sobbing child when she was close to tears herself.

She could only hope that things went according to plan.

To be continued...