(22/10/13)

Author's Note: Hey there everyone! My heart is soaring right now - I have so many people following my fanfic! :O I want to thank everyone who has my story on their Favourites list and/or Alert list and/or any other list the FanFiction site has to offer. Thank you so much! I am so honoured to have you all as my readers! You have no idea how happy this sort of thing makes me. I am so glad. / Thank you!

So… it's been a terribly long amount of time since I last updated - I lost count. But I was dealing with stuff and now I've started university (UBC in Vancouver - my dream uni!) and might get even busier. I was stressed out during the week of midterms and I suddenly remembered that I had this fan fiction I was writing so I wrote a lot of this chapter out just to get away from it all. So now, I'm trying to drop my CSI addiction (that is seriously what it's become and I need to stop it. x'D) and focus more on studying and writing. ._.

Personally, I have some form of a problem whenever I write a duel scene that includes Sarah. I lose focus and I don't like it. -.-

So, here it is! Chapter 33! Enjoy. :) And I apologize for the late arrival. Q^Q

Rewrite Fiasco: So, I indeed have some chapters in Past Repeating 1 updated. :D Chapters 1-5 are up and running - making sense on top of that! I'm thinking about diverting most of my energy into re-writing Past Repeating 1 because of how terrible the point of view is and how terribly I introduced my character. And I want to fix it all fast so no one gets confused! I don't want my readers to get confused! Q^Q Okay, So I'll try to do both Past Repeating 1 and 2. x3 Fingers crossed!

Summary: The same cloaked figures from a couple nights ago have come back to fight but with a different challenge. They want a duel and they asked both the Pharaoh and Sarah for a tag duel. Now Sarah has to fight alongside the Pharaoh. Will they be able to conquer this distraction from Marik?

Disclaimer!: Fanfiction, and I do NOT get any money out of it either. Thanks. ^^

Battle City-New Evil Emerges, Old Friends Reunite Chapter 33

Locator Cards: Yugi: 3/Joey: 2/Sarah: 4

"Hey... who are those guys?"

"I don't know but they're dueling against Yugi and Sarah!"

"What? The both of them in a tag duel?"

"Match of a lifetime!"

People began to gather around to watch the duel that was about to start. This made me even more worried.

We activated our Duel Disks and our life point counters climbed to 4000.

LP: Yugi: 4000/Sarah: 4000/Male Hunter: 4000/Female Hunter: 4000

I just jumped right in but when I took a moment to clearly think about what I was doing, I realized that I was going to duel with the Pharaoh in a tag team duel. These kinds of duels were allowed in Kaiba's tournament, but that meant that we had to give up a locator each to make it fair. That was two locator cards for two locator cards. I only hoped that I wouldn't let Yami down.

I drew my first hand. "I'm glad the two of you have decided to play fairly this time," I said to the cloaked figures we were about to duel. They still hadn't dropped their hoods or their names, just their attitude. We could see only the bottom half of their faces this time and I was getting really tired of not knowing who they were. My wound started throbbing again from when one of them slashed me a few nights ago. It was like it knew its attacker was here and decided to remind me to whack him upside the head.

The mystery female scoffed in the darkness that her cloak provided. "We're fair every time we play. The last time you were on the other side of the line, we decided to throw a surprise at you to show how much we cared."

"You cared about us as much as we cared about you," I retorted.

They grew restless. "Let's just get on with the duel," said the mystery male. "We'll let the ladies go first before we make our moves. How does that sound, Pharaoh?"

"Wonderful," said Yami darkly. He was just as fed up with them as I was.

"Great. I'll start it all off." I drew a card before the female Rare Hunter could protest. I wanted this duel done and over with so the Pharaoh and I could focus on the Egyptian God card that was supposed to show up. Marik's words seemed consistent so why did these two pop up right in the middle of his plans?

"I summon Dimensional Alchemist to the field and place a card face down." My monster, a fairy type monster with a long violet cape and wing-like shoulder designs, materialized onto the field in attack mode with a hidden card behind him. With 1300 attack points, it was an acceptable opening move. Then I glared towards the female Hunter. "Your move."

"What, that's it? Pretty shameful." With a cocky smirk on her face, the female Hunter drew her first card of the match. "You need a few pointers in dueling like you need some more training handling your weapon."

"I wasn't the one with the cheap shots!"

"You're just sad that we won while you were left in a pool of your own blood, wondering what had happened to you."

That was harsh. It took all I had to keep my anger in check. I knew that if I brought out my sword now, especially from thin air, bystanders would be worried for their safety. I bet that was exactly why the Hunters were challenging us now because they knew that we didn't want to put innocent people in harm's way, so they were taking this as an opportunity to push our buttons.

Those sly Hunters.

My eye twitched with annoyance. "Just make your move," I said, clenching my teeth. This Hunter's attitude was the most annoying. The male Hunter hardly spoke.

The female Hunter smirked. "I summon The Agent of Mystery, Earth." A beautiful woman with shoulder-length, flowing silver hair wearing a green dress with ribbons materialized onto the field. Her skin had a light shade of lavender to it. She had gold ankle and wrist bracelets and a gold crown adorned her head. Beautiful green feathered wings graced her back. With a glass jar in hand by her side, she held an aura of mystery and absolute authority. Her attack points were only 1000 - my Alchemist could easily defeat her. The female Hunter wasn't dumb enough to make that mistake so it was an obvious lure. Her trap card - when she placed one - would back her up.

"When this monster is normal summoned, I can add a card of the similar type from my deck to my hand." Alright... She went ahead and did that, never slipping.

"Then I'll place one card face down and end my turn." How obvious could you possibly get?

"She played the same moves as you, Sarah," noted Yami quietly. "A monster and a face down card. You'd best be careful." I nodded.

"You worry about your moves and I'll worry about mine, okay?" the female Hunter snapped.

I felt rage pouring out of my body. "How dare you talk to him that way!"

"You took that too far..." the male Hunter said to his teammate. She merely brushed it off. No respect. Absolutely no respect. It was considered treason to speak to someone of royal blood with such an awful tone.

I took a step forward but Yami held his arm out to stop me. "Don't cause a scene that'll be more than just a duel," he said. "The safety of the citizens could be jeopardized."

It took all I had to resist the urge to backhand her. Yami was right, I couldn't put them in danger, but I was proud to call him Pharaoh. Even though Ancient Egypt was gone, he was still a Pharaoh. He deserved the respect of one. I knew they were just pushing us around because they knew we wouldn't do anything rash to get back at them. It would get the police involved with this many people around, and they'd be in danger if the Hunters decided to bring out their weapons. I returned to my previous stance.

"Before the cat fight really does ensue, once again..." the male Hunter gestured towards Yami. "It's your turn."

Yami drew his card, paying no regard to what just happened. It was better to move on from it before anything else began. "I summon Berfomet in attack mode," he said. The large, muscular beast with blue wings and horns pixelized onto the field, roaring and ready to pounce. Yami wasn't done.

"My monster's effect allows me to summon Berfomet's brother monster in the same turn from my hand, Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts!" The same fiend-type monster appeared next to Berfomet on the field. This one had sharp talons and one horn on his head. Berfomet had 1400 attack points and Gazelle had 1500 attack points. They were both strong enough to take out a huge portion of the Hunters' life points but it was too bad we couldn't attack on our first turns.

"I end my turn."

We waited for the second Hunter to make his move. It was discouraging to see one who was nearly completely out of control while the other one was seemingly calm.

"I place one card face down and summon Raging Flame Sprite in attack mode. I end my turn."

A cute little fairy with a flaming scepter, an earth-like dress, and a large brown pointed hat appeared onto the field and flew around enthusiastically in front of a face down card. Yami and I blinked.

"... That has got to be the cutest little monster ever," I stated in awe, watching the little sprite zip by. Yami noticed how distracted I became of cute things.

"Sarah..."

"Hmmm? Oh, yeah..." I wasn't that distracted, but still... the little sprite was adorable. It only had 100 attack points. I wondered why an evil Rare Hunter had such a card in his deck.

"Second round," said the male Hunter, watching my eyes follow the little sprite as it flew around his corner of the field. "Let's start making the duel more interesting."

"Yes, let's." I drew my next card and felt a strategy forming in my mind. I wondered if the Hunters had their decks made to defeat ours specifically. Marik would probably have planned it that way so that our decks would fall into submission against theirs. No matter what, I couldn't let myself believe that. If that was the case, then our decks might be overtaken. Might. There was always another strategy that could be used against such decks that targeted specifically known strategies. There was always a backdoor. We just had to have the courage to keep looking for it.

"I activate the effect of my Dimensional Alchemist. Once per turn, I can remove from play the top card of my deck. My monster then gains 500 attack points until the end of my turn."

I drew the top card of my deck and slipped it into my thigh sheath without looking at it. I was completely focused, and in doing this move, I hoped with all my heart that it would follow according to my plan that way not only would I win, but my deck would win as well. I wouldn't let sacrifices be in vain.

"Oh no, more damage," said the female Hunter dryly.

"You don't have to worry," I said. "Because I'm not attacking you. I order my Alchemist to attack the Raging Flame Sprite!"

My monster held out his hands and formed a ball of blue and purple light between them. If this attack went through, I would bite a chunk out of his life points. A powerful beam of colourful light blasted towards the little fairy who was trying desperately to fly out of the attack. The male Hunter didn't even seem fazed. The attack was only a few inches close to the male Hunter's monster's when the female Hunter smirked and activated her trap card.

"I activate Negate Attack! Pretty self explanatory. Your attack is negated. Too bad, the whole light show was for nothing."

My eye twitched. I had completely forgotten that in a tag team duel, team mates could look out for each other.

Yami saw the look on my face. I shook my head.

"Heh... the duel just started," I said with a calm tone. "Besides, now her trap card's been flipped."

The female Hunter drew her next card. "Mhm, because that'll do you so much good." She placed another card face down after she drew her next card. Her sarcasm, I swear… "One more surprise for you and I also summon Victoria!" A beautiful female warrior adorned in golden armour rode onto the field from inside the card on the back of a ferocious four headed dragon with the same kind of armour. Her hair shone like the sun and she held her scepter up with great pride. The dragon heads roared as their tail whipped up into sight.

"Beautiful…" I heard a girl behind me say. Her friends broke into a wave of chatter. Truly this woman was amazing, and her attack points were at 1800.

"I attack your monster!"

Victoria ordered her dragons to attack. They blasted my Dimensional Alchemist with their fiery breath and made him into a pile of pixel dust.

LP: Yugi: 4000/Sarah: 3500/Male Hunter: 4000/Female Hunter: 4000

I blinked at the empty space in front of me. "Uh oh…" I was wide open. The face down card I had was a bluff. Would the female Hunter take the chance and attack?

She smirked. "Now I attack you directly with Earth!"

I was afraid of this…

The mysterious Agent monster summoned a ball of light and energy into the palm of her hand that sparked and glittered. She threw it at me with such speed it appeared as a bolt of lightning, and right when it hit me straight in the chest, I felt an odd sensation of static. I watched my life points drop once more.

LP: Yugi: 4000/Sarah: 2500/Male Hunter: 4000/Female Hunter: 4000

"That'll do for now," said the Hunter snidely. I glared at her.

"My turn," said the Pharaoh, eyeing the both of us. Mostly me. Probably because I had let such an attack happen. He drew his next card and showed the smallest hints of a smirk on his lips. "I use the spell Polymerization to fuse Berfomet and Gazelle together to form Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast!"

Both of his large fiend monsters merged together to form a more ferocious beast with a lot more attack points. Chimera roared and pawed the ground, ready to strike his next victim down.

"I choose to attack Victoria," he said with a sweep of his arm. His beast charged at the woman in gold and sent the female Hunter's life points plummeting.

LP: Yugi: 4000/Sarah: 2500/Male Hunter: 4000/Female Hunter: 3700

"Now Sarah isn't the only one with damage."

The female Hunter radiated anger.

I glanced towards the Pharaoh. "Did you just avenge me?" I asked with a slight blink.

"Yes, I did," said Yami with a straight face.

"... No. You're not allowed to do that."

"..."

"No."

The female Hunter sighed. "Can we get a move on? Ridiculous. Just attack them, Ri-"

"Alright, already," said the male Hunter rather forcefully. His partner seemed taken aback but then realized something and quickly looked away. I thought about what just happened and found that she was about to say her partner's name.

After drawing his card, the male Hunter turned his hooded face towards me. I braced myself. "This is quite ironic..."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "How so…"

"My Raging Flame Sprite has a special effect of attacking an opponent's life points directly if there were any monsters on their field, but since you don't have any monsters already, I can just attack you directly anyways. And after each successful attack, he gains 1000 attack points."

I clenched my fists as he posed for an attack. "Raging Flame Sprite, scar her points!"

The little, flaming pixie zoomed straight towards me with no lag and bopped me on the head with his blazing scepter. I rubbed my head, feeling a warm fuzziness from the holographic projection and watched my life points drop another hundred while the pixie's attack points rise to 1100.

LP: Yugi: 4000/Sarah: 2400/Male Hunter: 4000/Female Hunter: 3700

The innocent little monster blew a raspberry at me before flying back to his master's side. My eye twitched.

"Not so cute now, is he?" The female Hunter smirked.

"Why are you only attacking Sarah?" asked Yami.

"She's the one we need to get rid of first," said the female Hunter rather scathingly. "The only way for us to get to you is by passing her."

"But, this is a dueling tournament. Why don't you just duel me and acquire your target faster?"

The female Hunter seemed annoyed, but it wasn't directed towards Yami. "If we can't defeat your Guardian then we have no right to duel you."

"If she had never been resurrected with you, we wouldn't have had to test ourselves against her," explained the male Hunter.

I smirked. I was a road block.

While I drew my next card and looked over my hand for the next play, I realized that my hand consisted of nothing but spell and trap cards. There wasn't a single monster in my hand. I couldn't believe it. I tried hard not to let panic show on my face otherwise the female Hunter wouldn't let me live it down.

"I place three cards face down," I finally decided. This should confuse them until I was able to get a monster onto the field. "My turn ends here."

"The duel ends here for you too," said the female Hunter with so much hatred I felt my skin crawl. Why was she like this? "I attack you with Earth!" She didn't even consider the face down cards. Or, she must have thought they were more bluffs.

"I activate the trap card, Sakuretsu Armour! The attacking monster is destroyed!"

In the middle of her powerful wind attack, The Agent monster, Earth, shattered into pixelated pieces and blew into the distance. The female Hunter stared at the spot where she last saw her monster. Then her head slowly rose up to meet my gaze but I still couldn't see hers.

"I place one card face down and end my turn."

Nope. She didn't like me at all. It was if all her moves were fueled by her hatred. She just wanted to duel and win against us before thinking even once about relaxing.

"My turn," said Yami. He drew his next card and took a breath. "I use the spell Defusion to pull apart Berfomet and Gazelle from Chimera. Then I attack Raging Flame Sprite with Beformet and I'll send in Gazelle to attack you directly!"

Both beasts materialized from within one another and roared majestically before charging straight towards the male Hunter's direction. His only source of protection was the face down card he had on the field. Berfomet tore through the sprite while Gazelle ripped through his life points.

"I play the trap card Directionality. This allows me to let my opponent have half the damage of the total that I've been hit with during my turn. So, Yugi, you take half damage."

LP: Yugi: 3400/ Sarah: 2400/ Male Hunter: 3400/ Female Hunter: 3700

The crowd murmured for the King of Games landing a giant hit on the suspicious duelist only to have half of it returned. And I thought they weren't attacking him. I suppose when it came down to defending themselves, they don't want to be too far below their opponent.

The female Hunter was not pleased for some reason. She probably wanted to rip someone's head off, but she sneered instead.

"It's only a matter of time when you lose absolutely everything anyways," she said bitterly.

The male Hunter quickly turned to her. "If you keep this up, rather than tormenting them, you'll end up saying our plans." His partner simply turned her head away.

"It's your move."

He sighed as he drew his card. They fought as though they were siblings.

"So, we'll lose everything?" I asked, trying to probe for more information. "On what grounds? By whose hands?"

"She doesn't mean what she says half the time," said the male Hunter, looking towards me. The other didn't say anything, but I bet she was trying her hardest not to blow up. So she was sensitive to anger and got mad easily… I decided not to use that against her. What if she started a fight? There were so many people around watching the duel. They could be caught in the crossfire. I had a responsibility to the citizens of this city as much as I had a responsibility to the Pharaoh because this was where his host resided. If something was to happen to his home that I could have prevented, it would haunt him and he would never trust me again. Besides, putting innocent lives at risk wasn't something my heart was too thrilled upon thinking about it.

"I play the spell card Swords of Revealing Light!" the male Hunter managed to spring up a surprise for us on his turn. Golden swords shot down from the sky and lodged themselves in midair around both the Pharaoh and me. We were trapped with our monsters not being able to attack.

"With that, I end my turn."

After another simple move from the male Hunter. It was his partner I was more worried about. She was more of the destructive type.

It was my turn once more and I drew my card, hoping for something that would help. I managed to draw a monster. Finally. "I summon Petit Dragon in defence mode!" The little guy wasn't much of a threat but at least my life points will be defended. A small baby dragon with shining yellow scales materialized onto the field and smiled up at the other duelists. The crowd awed but it was the female Hunter's reaction that scared me.

She was laughing hysterically.

"Do you mean to tell me that the great Sarah Wind has that monster in her deck?" She had to hold her stomach as she continued to crow. I couldn't believe it. Could she have really been that proud?

I smirked regardless of her interpretation. I loved my little dragon. "At least he's a much better looker than you, not afraid to show his face."

A daredevil from the crowd yelled "Oooooh!" to emphasize the own. The crowd laughed and clapped for the moment. I knew it would have been dangerous to get her angry but I wasn't asking for a fight. This was merely a little pass of words between duelists on opposite sides of the field. My smirk was probably the reason why I saw her gloved fists clenching.

The Pharaoh looked at me carefully but I knew he wouldn't say anything. He understood my plan beneath my plan.

I was trying to stir her up a bit for information. Any slip-up at all that could lead us to Marik. If we knew where he was and put a stop to his plans before he could start anymore duels, then we wouldn't have to worry about him anymore and we could focus on Bakura.

"You'll see our faces soon enough… and when you do… you will never forget them." Something about her words made me shiver.

"Was that a threat?"

"It's up to you whether or not you want it to be one."

A loose canon. That was what she reminded me of. If at any given moment, she tilted the wrong way, she could hurl towards me at damaging speed. That was my last attempt at pressing for information. I didn't want her veering towards the left.

We had no choice but to follow what Marik wanted us to do.

I couldn't believe he was using us as pawns. All because he had leverage: the Egyptian God cards and a threat: to steal the Pharaoh's powers.

It was her turn now. What could she possibly have planned?

"For this turn, I first play the spell card Stop Defense! You know what that means…"

My Petit Dragon spun around once and he was in attack mode. He suddenly looked frightened.

"Then I play the spell card Cost Down which drops my chosen monster's level down by two. " She discarded a card from her hand which was the price to pay for playing the card and then summoned her monster. "Athena! It's time to end this!"

A beautiful woman wearing a long white battle dress with gold embroidery and chest plate emerged onto the field. She wore a matching helmet and held a shimmering round shield in one hand while her other hand held a tall and decorated scepter. She was as majestic as her name implied: Athena, Greek Goddess of Wisdom. An ancient warrior known to be smart as well as brave. Long silver hair tinted with lavender flowed behind her, shimmering as much as her gown. She had 2600 attack points.

I was so close to losing.

"She is a powerful monster, but there are even more powerful cards in my deck that you should be afraid of," said the female Hunter malevolently.

"Athena… attack!"

Luckily, not all of my face down cards was a bluff.

"I, too, play Directionality! And as you are well aware, it simply cuts my damage in half and gives one half to my attacker. You're welcome!"

LP: Yugi: 3400/ Sarah: 1400/ Male Hunter: 3400/ Female Hunter: 2700

"You have that rare card as well?!" exclaimed the female Hunter. "I can't believe it!"

"You'd better believe it," I smirked. "You two aren't the only ones with cool tricks up your sleeves."

"Damn you… I will get y-"

Two Rare Hunters suddenly emerged from around the corner of a building that was behind the Rare Hunters we were dueling. They had their hoods down to reveal ordinary, everyday faces who turned evil. At the end of the day, the Rare Hunters were just normal people under Marik's control. Dark eyeliner graced their eyes. One had long, teal hair while the other had short, orange hair.

Oh, wonderful. It's a party.

Did all of them have the same style? And why were they not concealing their faces? Now that I thought about it, these two were the only ones who always had their hoods up.

"What the… are you two dueling them?!" shouted the one with teal hair in outrage. "You know what Master said! He doesn't want you interfering once he started his plan!"

The female Hunter was quiet for a moment before she started chuckling. "What's a little unexpectancy in life, hm? Tell Master not to worry. I have everything under control."

"Your life points say otherwise," said the Rare Hunter with orange hair. So many mysterious people… "Drop the duel, we're leaving. He knows you're missing and sent us to get you."

"I said… everything is under control!"

"Stop it, you know they're right." The male Hunter sighed remorsefully. "I knew this was a bad idea, and your arrogance is going to lead us straight into trouble."

"But-"

"Enough! Pull out of the duel, give the Guardian your locator card, and let's go."

The tables had suddenly taken a turn in a whole different direction. The female Rare Hunter seemed speechless, torn between obeying her colleagues and finishing the duel. In the end, she groaned with annoyance, put her hand over her deck to submit her surrender, and threw a locator card at my feet. The male Hunter did the same but threw his card towards the Pharaoh.

"We'll meet again," she seethed. "And when we do, no more games." Then she darted off with the Hunters, all four of them rushing down the street leaving no trace behind, not even the portable projectors.

I couldn't stand such cowardice. "Wait just a minute!" I shouted after their retreating forms. "You can't just back out of a duel like this!"

They disappeared around the corner of a large building, into an alley.

Unable to help myself, I ran after them, running through the holograms as I sprinted. I heard the Pharaoh call after me. The crowd murmured, wondering what was going on.

I ran down the street by passersby who were looking after me with question in their eyes, wondering what the rush was in a dueling tournament. Those Hunters had answers to our questions! I couldn't just let them get away. When I turned the same corner the Hunters ran around, I hit a dead end. There was a wired fence towering between the two buildings, with garbage bins sitting beneath them, blocking my way. No sign of the Hunters anywhere. They had vanished.

"Damn... they threaten us and then just walk away? What cowards...!" I wanted to wring that female Hunter's neck until she squealed Marik's location. Now that I couldn't find her, or her lackey friends, I could only clench my fingers tightly together in my hands. I then proceeded to walk back towards the open street when the Pharaoh suddenly appeared around the corner. He had also been running, chasing me.

"Couldn't find them?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No, they ran away before I could tackle one of them."

The Pharaoh looked at me carefully. "You know what this means," he said. "We have to play their game. Marik is always one step ahead of us and the Hunters always have a way to escape if things ever began to look bad."

"And judging from this whole facade, it seems as though his duel wasn't on Marik's "To-Do" list."

The Pharaoh smirked regardless of the circumstances. "One of them has a temper just like yours."

I squinted my eyes. "I have a thing against people who run away from a fair fight. They had the guts to start one but then ran away from it themselves."

"You'd better be careful," he said. "Or that passion might end something the wrong way. Imagine what would have happened if they hadn't escaped. You might have wrung someone's neck."

I crossed my arms, thinking of how ironic his words were.

"Never mind that now. We learned something very interesting. They ran away because Marik wanted them back at base. He hadn't wanted them out here in the first place which tells me that they must have been rogue Hunters."

"Then they wouldn't have been running back," I said. We made our way to where we were before and the crowd had slowly started to disperse. A random dueler walked towards us with his friends.

"Hey, what was that all about? We were hoping for the match to have an outcome of some sort," he said with slight disappointment.

I still wasn't used to the fact that this was supposed to be a dueling tournament for the promotion of Kaiba Corp. and for the duelists to have some fun. So much has already happened to make it not seem that way. To the Pharaoh and me, this tournament could mean our lives at some point.

With some form of affection to a dueling fan, I gently patted his head. "Don't worry about it," I said with a smile. "We'll duel again, and next time, there will be a definite winner.

"Although we all know that with their retreat, we were given the match today," I smirked.

The dueler smiled. "Yeah," he said. "If anyone can do anything around here, it's you two." A round of smiles was given from his friends as well as from him. Then they walked away to look for another duel.

I sighed, deeply troubled by this. "I can't believe it," I said finally. I haven't said that yet since the whole tournament started. "So many threats in just a couple of days... how does he do this..."

"Marik seems well organized," said the Pharaoh. "He has every step planned for us, down to a moment..."

"Unless someone decides to go against his rules and try things for themselves," I said. "That girl... she has a mind of her own..."

The Pharaoh thought for a moment. "But if Marik really did have control of this sick game, then how didn't he know those Hunters were including plays of their own?"

"He didn't mind control either. He sent messengers instead."

"... This is strange."

"It is... I don't understand... Is playing along all we can do? We have no idea where he is..."

"He has a Millennium Item," said the Pharaoh quietly. "And he seems to be quite knowledgeable about it. Even the Egyptian God cards. We have no choice but to be pawns on his chess board. He'll do anything to get what he wants with the insight that he has."

I shook my head, looking at the ground. "At times I wonder... when will people stop looking for power..."

"They never will," said the Pharaoh. He then held out a locator cards towards me. "But for now, let's stand our ground. Your new friend gave you a present."

I held the chipped glass card up to catch the light of the sun. A small puzzle piece shaped map was in the center.

"Putting pieces together to find a map… while you and I put pieces together to find a way to defeat Marik."

"Delicious irony."

"Hmm…"

Then I blinked and looked at the Pharaoh. "You still have that match with the "Silent One"," I said. "And he's supposed to have an Egyptian God card with him..."

"It'll be fine," he said. "In the end, power isn't the only important thing in a duel. Marik needs to be able to play the card properly if he wants to win."

"He must have had a lot of practice though... and we need to find this guy first-"

Suddenly, my phone began to ring. "Oh..." I said, pulling it out of my pocket and blinking at the flashing screen. "It's Téa. Finally, a normal person..."

I pressed the "Accept Call" button and also the Speaker button. Then I sat on the ground by Yami's feet in the middle of the street and balanced the phone on my head. Yami blinked at me for a minute.

"... Sarah?" I heard Téa say.

"You've reached Sarah Wind! How may I help you?"

"..."

With another blink from Yami, he spoke into the phone. "Er… hey, there… Téa…"

"... Hey, Yugi. Um… is everything alright?"

I guessed he was blinking some more. "Yes… Sarah is simply being stubborn. We're alright though. For now…"

"Well, I hope that "for now" will soon turn into "forever". Be careful, you two. This guy you're after is dangerous."

"We will," I said. "What about on your end, Téa? How are things? Did you catch up with Joey?"

"Yup, we're watching him duel right now. Your grandpa wanted to join us so he tagged along, Yugi."

I blinked. "Yugi really does take after his grandfather, doesn't he…" Téa and I shared a small laugh as Yugi's small blush shone through Yami's cheeks.

"Who is Joey dueling?" he asked.

"Weevil. He used his tricks again. This time, he conned another duelist into taking Joey's Duel Disk and slipping a virus card of some sort into his deck. Now he's dueling for all he's got."

"Why, that...!" I clenched my fists again. "Cowards! Cowards, everywhere!"

Yami took the phone into his hands and gently patted my head as I crossed my arms, as a child does when something doesn't go their way. "Please excuse her, Téa. She's having trouble controlling that temper of hers. I wonder if she was always like this... even back in Egypt..."

I heard Téa's response from the speaker. "Maybe..."

My mouth fell agape.

"How's he doing against him?"

"Trying to hold up."

"You let him know that we're right there with him, alright?"

"Will do!"

"Was that the only reason why you called?"

"Actually, no. I had something weird I needed to tell you. A girl with was looking for Sarah. She was asking all over. Every duelist she could see."

I blinked. "Salex?"

Yami looked at me carefully. "Oh, calmed down, have you?" I glared at the floor knowing that I couldn't glare at him.

"She never mentioned her name," Téa replied. "But she seemed urgent."

"I suppose we'll know why the next time we see her. The tournament grounds are rather large."

"Yeah, you might end up bumping into her soon."

"We'll keep an eye out. Thanks, Téa."

"No problem. I hope I get to see you two duel soon. I need a break from Joey."

This caused us to laugh.

"It'll be fine."

"Hopefully. Ah, I need to go. He's wondering where I've run off to. I'll talk to you guys later. Oh, and did I mention for you to be careful?"

"We will..."

"Alright. Take care!"

"We'll see you soon."

The call disconnected and Yami held the phone out to me. I looked at it for a moment and reached up to grab it but he moved the device away from my reach. Then I looked up at him with questioning eyes.

"Will you throw this in frustration and anger?"

Despite me being supposedly just as assertive as the Pharaoh, I pouted. "No..." I grumbled.

He put the phone in my hand. "Good."

I blinked at the phone in my hand and then looked up at the Pharaoh in confusion again. He looked down at me with just such an expression.

"... Was I...?"

"... "being casual just now"? The answer would be yes. Yes, you were.

"That's interesting." My eyes went wide.

The Pharaoh looked down with slight embarrassment. "Sarah... you're rubbing off on me. This isn't a good thing..."

Looking away, I smiled to myself. When I first met him in this life, he reminded me only of the tough and brave side of him. Now, as I look at him, I see that his friendly side is also beginning to show. This felt like the first year of me being his Guardian. He was acting as Pharaoh the first little while, but then he slowly began to open up.

"Well... erm... sorry?" I said sheepishly with a smile.

Yami looked at me for a moment before poking me in the forehead.

"No."

I sighed. We were getting to a lot of different places in just one tournament.

Locator Cards: Yugi: 4/Joey: 2/Sarah: 5

Author's Note: Finally! Another chapter! And after so long... better late than never, I suppose! I hope it was alright. Thank you so much for reading! Now, we'll finally get into the most intense stuff! Muahahahahaha!

I would like to apologize for not updating in such a long while. Grade 12, the year that was supposed to be memorable, was definitely memorable, but in more ways than just good. So many things happened that I'm still in shock, even now when I'm well into the first term of first year university. Being away from home is helping me cope but now I also have to deal with the effects of what happened and also the hard courses.

Hopefully, I will be able to write again soon. Until then, I hope you guys have an awesome day! And again, thank you so much. :)