Battle 2 - Wrath of the Sealed One
By theria
Kyoko was an early riser, always has been, always will be. She doesn't even need an alarm clock, she'll wake up at 5:30 am on the dot. It never failed. She also has never needed coffee in the morning, or ever, to stay awake. You'd think she was one of those morning people but she could also stay up late at night. It's knacks like these that will get her through college.
But that was still three years away and right now, she was checking up on a few things online when her phone rang. The time on her computer was only 8:42 am. For her, she'd been up for a few hours. For anyone else, this was insanely early on a day when sleeping in was not only allowed, it was expected. Kyoko debated on letting the answering machine take it without even bothering to check who called.
"Call from Muto residence," chimed the phone. It was set to recognize a few phone numbers and notify her who the caller was. But to receive a call this early in the day, the day after Sugoroku's funeral even, something serious must have happened over at Yugi's place.
"Hello?"
"Kyoko...?" Yugi's voice came over the line as a hushed whisper. Kyoko could just imagine her friend hunched up over the phone, hiding in a closet or a dark corner. It certainly sounded that way. "Are you alone?"
"Yugi, I live alone," she dryly informed him. Didn't he already know that? No, wait, actually she never did tell him about her living situation. "Why are you whispering? For that matter, why are you calling at this hour? You usually don't drag yourself out of bed until noon on Sundays."
"Um, well, something kind of... came up... something really... important..."
Kyoko tapped her foot, waiting for Yugi to spit it out. Over the two months that she's known him, he had gotten better at expressing himself and not swallowing his opinions all the time. Still, there were times when he'd revert back to being timid. Like now.
"Have you ever... you know... Remember that time you... you know... saw something... over by that shrine..."
"Yugi," she cut in during a long lull in the broken conversation. He was a dear friend, kind of like a little brother, but she only kept up the facade of being patient with strangers. Her patience with people she knew was very short. "I am coming over to help out with the store you know. If you want me to come over earlier--"
"YES!!!"
She winced, holding the phone away from her deafened ear. First he whispered, then he yelled. What was wrong with the boy this morning?
"You'll be right over right?! I'll be waiting! Come quick!!"
The line went dead. Kyoko wondered if Yugi really was alright after yesterday. Well, it wasn't as if she was doing anything productive here and Yugi did sound rather desperate.
Only a handful of people recognized an inconspicuous doorway off to the side of the Kame Game store as the entrance way to the apartments situated in the upper floors of the Studio Dice building. There was also a back staircase that allowed the Muto family direct access to the store from inside but it was only used when the store was open, which Kyoko was not expecting it to be. However, when she arrived at the apartment entrance, she saw Yugi waving to her from the store entrance. The boy looked like he had seen a ghost.
"Alright then, Yugi, what's got you all worked up?" she asked after Yugi ushered her into the store. He kept looking around as if there was someone out there watching. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were scared of your grandfather's ghost." Kyoko kept her tone light and teasing because she didn't want to offend Yugi.
"Not his ghost, my ghost," Yugi confided after he ascertained that the ghost wasn't anywhere in the store. He was pretty sure it hadn't followed him downstairs but you never know. They can go through walls right?
Kyoko just stared at him.
He quickly tried to explain it to her. "You know how you say you can see spirits and such right?" She nodded warily. "I've never seen them but I believed you." Yugi knew he was babbling but really, what else could he do with his nerves the way they were? "And now somehow there is a ghost in my room, I just woke up this morning and there it was, it looks just like me but it's wearing funny clothes. It also looks pretty angry but I can't understand what it's saying. I wonder if it has anything to do with that weird puzzle I put together. Can you please do something about it?!"
Yugi tried to catch his breath after that long exposition. Kyoko was trying to process all of it and find the beginning of the waves of words he had thrown at her. Apparently, just talking about it was calming down the teenager as he finally stopped pacing around and just slumped on a stool.
"Yugi, have you eaten anything yet?" his friend asked, eyeing his disheveled clothes and hair. A loud grumble answered her question for him. "Why don't we discuss this over breakfast, for you that is. Where is your mom?"
As they went upstairs to the Muto apartment, Yugi explained that his mother had left for work, making up for the days she had missed earlier because of Sugoroku's passing. That had of course been after she rushed to his room after hearing him scream but he wasn't going to tell that to Kyoko. He had to retain some dignity after all.
Fortunately, Akane had left out food for her teenage son and a note to Kyoko asking that she make sure Yugi cleaned up afterwards. He cursed whatever universal principle set down that parents must always find new ways to embarrass their teenagers in front of their friends.
"Alright then," Kyoko started after Yugi wolfed down breakfast. "So this morning when you woke up you saw what you think is a ghost-"
"I could see through it."
"The term is translucent or transparent depending on the degree of opacity..." Yugi's eyes began to grow confused. She simplified the terms. "You can't see through something opaque, you can see clearly through something transparent, if you can makes things out but not clearly it's translucent. A window is transparent."
"Why don't you just have a look at it?" Yugi pointed up the stairs. "He's still in my room. I hope." That was 'hope' in the sense that it hadn't moved to haunt any other part of his home, not 'hope' in that the ghost was still here. He displayed absolutely no intentions of moving from where he was sitting now.
"You know, Yugi, unless you've strapped your cards to your body, you're going to have to go back up to your room to grab your deck for the demonstrations today." Besides being an extra pair of hands around the store today, Kyoko was also supposed to assist Yugi with the demonstrations of Duel Monsters as part of the promotion circuit currently going through the country. This had been arranged weeks before and couldn't be avoided.
Yugi dropped his head into his hands and groaned. He really didn't want to go back up to his room and face that ghost again. That's why he wanted Kyoko to come over and do something about it.
"Can't you make it go away or something?" he pleaded as Kyoko half-dragged him up the stairs. Just to buy more time, he dug his feet into the carpet. He was slightly reassured by the fact that he wasn't going up alone and that Kyoko wasn't feeling like going to see the ghost alone either.
"And you suggest how? Asking it nicely?" she replied tartly. It was a pain really, and disturbing, being able to see spirits and the like. Besides the fact that some of them were really scary looking, the minute they realized you could see them they wouldn't stop pestering you. So she tried to ignore them most of the time. She had been working on that really hard yesterday at the cemetery. You have no idea how many spirits still lingered there.
The only person who knew about Kyoko's unusual ability was Yugi, something she had confided to him after feeling comfortable enough around him. From experience, they both knew that Yugi couldn't see or hear spirits so it was strange now that he was claiming he could see and hear one, and that one happened to be in his room at present. Why would this be happening now of all times? What was different?
"Yugi, didn't you mention something about a puzzle?"
"Huh? Oh yeah." All thoughts of that annoying golden puzzle had almost completely vanished from his mind. For that matter, he still hadn't replaced the batteries in his flashlight, which was unfortunately still in his haunted room. "It was the other thing that jii-chan left me, some kind of Egyptian puzzle box. I couldn't sleep last night so I stayed up trying to put it together."
Kyoko refrained from mentioning how the lack of sleep could adversely affect his growth. "Well, maybe the puzzle has something to do with it then. What is this puzzle anyway?"
They had reached Yugi's door, which was still ajar because Yugi had never returned to close it. From their viewpoint, there didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary, unless you counted the mess in his room.
"Did you make the mess or was it the ghost?" Kyoko asked, stepping cautiously into the room. If there was a ghost, she didn't want to scare it anymore than she was already scared of it.
"How can a ghost make a mess if it can't touch anything?" Yugi wasn't taking a step into the room yet, not until Kyoko pronounced it ghost-free. He was fairly certain his room was clean, to his standards. Perhaps he might have knocked over some things in his panic this morning. "Well?" he asked desperately, risking a peek inside.
Kyoko frowned as she walked up to Yugi's desk. She didn't see anything out of ordinary in the room aside from the mess of books and assorted games. The puzzle Yugi had been talking about must be that golden pyramid on his desk. She picked up and held the upside down square base pyramid in the sunlight. Funny, she thought it would be heavier if it was made of pure gold.
"I don't see anything," she told him, turning around with puzzle in hand as she walked back to the door. "Oh yeah. Even though ghosts are generally intangible, some are powerful enough to collect their spiritual energy to move things. That's where you get incidents with poltergeist and such. Of course, if you have one of those around, I'd say you're in a bunch of trouble."
Yugi's purple eyes were as wide as saucers, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. He was pointing at something behind her. Kyoko could feel the hairs on her neck raise, a very familiar sensation that she had learned to hate. Turning around, very slowly, she found herself looking eye to eye with one very angry Yugi, er ghost.
He was rubbing his neck and muttering in a strange language, looking between Kyoko and Yugi. If he was disturbed by seeing himself, albeit shorter and younger, it didn't show. The ghost snapped something again. Yugi looked expectantly at Kyoko.
"Hey, I don't know what he's saying either." She hissed, trying to cover up her unease. Kyoko had come across a number of ghosts but this one had to be one of the most powerful ever, it just screamed power. Maybe that was because it was old. The symbol of an eye on his crown was like the one on the Puzzle and on the box. For that matter, maybe it was because it was so powerful that Yugi could see it. "Your mom didn't happen to meet him too did she?"
"She couldn't see it." That scene was still vivid in his mind, his mother bursting into his room after he screamed. She had walked right through the ghost, much to the ghost's surprise, and tried to calm him down. Akane had thought he had just woken up from a nightmare or something. Yugi had immediately pulled his mother out of his room, praying that the ghost wouldn't follow, which it hadn't. In fact, now that he was a bit calmer, thinking back to the chaos this morning, the ghost seemed pretty confused as well even if he was at the same time scary and angry.
Kyoko raised an eyebrow. Yugi could see the ghost but his mother couldn't. There had to be something more to all of this and she couldn't count herself because she couldn't stop seeing spirits. Her eyes fell to the Puzzle in her hand, was it the key to everything? Well, the ghost hadn't appeared until after she picked up the Puzzle.
"Yugi, take this."
He looked at the Puzzle she held to him, and slowly reached a hand to take it. The minute he touched it though a bright flash went off in his mind. Distantly, he heard Kyoko's voice calling to him and more of that ghost's weird language. There was a thud and he realized he had fallen to the ground. The funny part was, he didn't feel a thing.
The heat was unbearable, as was the dryness. He couldn't tell which was worse. It was like that last vacation his family went on before the divorce, when they went down to Okinawa in the summer. Yugi had gotten heatstroke and was forced to stay outside while his brother played on the beach. Why was he remembering that now? Oh yeah, it was hot.
How could darkness be so oppressive, so hot? He always thought that darkness would be cold. He couldn't see anything, not even his hand in front of his face. The deepest darkness, so this was how it was. Yugi wouldn't want to be trapped in here for any period of time. For that matter, was time even flowing here? No definition of space or time, he could go crazy here.
Wait, what was that? Yugi wondered if his eyes were playing tricks on him. Did he just see a spark of light? Perhaps he was staring into the darkness so much his eyes are playing tricks on him. No, there it was again.
A little spark of light struggling to survive in the darkness that consumed everything else and was trying to consume it too. It was coming closer to him. Yugi felt that if he could just reach out, he could touch it, as soon as he figured out where his hand was. How he could tell that the little light was being chased, Yugi didn't know, he just did.
"Come to me!" he wanted to yell but there was no sound here. And yet, perhaps it still heard him because the light suddenly seemed to speed up and zip toward him, the darkness darker than darkness rampaging after it. "Hurry!!"
The light shot through him and images flooded into Yugi's mind. Pyramids, dark-skinned people in white linen, large temples of stone, a flowing flooding river, the symbol of that eye. He was coming toward the back of a person with a purple cloak, a familiar cloak. The person turned around and it was the ghost, huge stone slabs rising behind as he glared at Yugi. Yugi recognized one of those slabs, or rather what was engraved on it. The ghost raised its hand and something on his chest began to glow. It was the Puzzle, the one Yugi had put together. He was wearing the Puzzle!
And while staring incredulously at this vision, Yugi did not notice the encroaching darkness lunging forward to consume him.
"Yugi!!" Kyoko cried, rushing forward to catch her friend as his eyes went blank, his body crumpling like a limp doll. Something had happened the moment he touched the puzzle, in fact, he was still holding on to it, tightly, despite the slackness in the rest of his body. She shook him but no recognition returned to his eyes. "Yugi, what's wrong?!"
That was of course a stupid question considering how Yugi was in no state to answer her. It was just something someone had to say when something was obviously not right.
But damn it, what happened? She had thought that the puzzle might have something to do with the ghost--the ghost!! Kyoko quickly scanned the room for ghost. Had he done something to Yugi? But no, he was also kneeling next to Yugi, futilely trying to slap the boy's face with a hand of no substance. From his actions, he was trying to wake Yugi up so Kyoko decided it was safe to assume that he wasn't responsible. However, that meant there were two of them here who had next to no idea what was going on.
Kyoko moved to check Yugi's pulse and froze. His skin was deathly cold, far, far too cold for a normal living person. But he wasn't shivering. This was no normal type of cold.
"Kuramyk!" the ghost swore, or she assumed it swore, as it punched its fist into the floor. How was it that it could have made the mess in this room and yet was unable to touch Yugi? Was it not as powerful as she had thought? He looked like he was giving up, his shoulders slumping but hands clenched tight. "Ide quav nour arqak..."
Kyoko felt a surge of... something run through her, not too unlike a static shock. The ghost felt it as well and both turned to look at Yugi's desk, one of the drawers opening on its own. She knew what was in that drawer. Something akin to light, but to her senses a spirit of some kind, leaped forth, forming a kneeling man before the ghost.
If Kyoko's eyes were wide open, the ghost's eyes were probably just about ready to fall out of his ghostly head. The surprise was only momentary as he snapped something in that strange language of his and pointed at Yugi. Bowing his head low and murmuring something, the dark blue robed man became light again and disappeared into the Puzzle clutched in Yugi's hand.
"That... that was the Black Magician!!!" Kyoko stammered, staring at the spot where the robed specter had been a moment before. Among the current number of Magic User type cards in Duel Monsters, the Black Magician was the most powerful Normal type. Yugi had one in his deck. "How...?" Actually, that wasn't as important as Yugi and where the specter had gone. "Where did he go? Why did he go into the Puzzle? Did you send him to save Yugi?"
The ghost only looked at her with a mildly puzzled expression. He was much calmer now after the Black Magician had come and gone. Perhaps he did know what was going on, if he had ordered the Black Magician to go do something in the Puzzle without hesitation. A beam of light emitted from the Puzzle, this time forming both the tall Black Magician and a shorter, more familiar form.
"Yugi!"
Yugi blinked, blinded by the sudden departure from darkness. He had been looking at that vision of the ghost and stone slabs and then... what? Suddenly he was back in his room again, Kyoko gaping at him and oh no that ghost was still here and between them was, that was him on the floor!!
"What's going on here?!" he yelled, taking a step back and walking right into someone. He looked up, there shouldn't have been anyone else in his room, and looked up into the face of the Black Magician. Yugi had seen the card enough times to be able to tell. "Black Magician?!"
Kyoko took a deep breath. "Yugi."
"Eh? Yes?" he turned back toward his friend. Perhaps she, or someone, could start explaining. Though he wasn't sure he could understand what the ghost might say much less the card-suddenly-come-to-life behind him.
"Get back in your body right now!"
Well, that was as good an idea as any other was. "But I don't know how-"
Yugi was cut off by a curt shove in the back and before he knew it, he was falling toward his body. Like how was this going to help, he wanted to scream.
"WAAAAAAAH!!" Yugi suddenly sat up, his heart going a kilometer a minute. The view of his room had changed again, he was looking at his desk. He had been on the floor and there was no Black Magician in sight.
"You alright, Yugi?"
Yugi looked into his friend's concerned brown eyes. What was she doing over here already, he wondered. Had he overslept and missed opening the shop for today's Duel Monsters promotion? She was going to kill him. But man, that had been one strange dream.
"I just had the weirdest dream. There was this ghost that appeared in my room and I had you come over and then I touched this puzzle I had just finished last night and suddenly I was somewhere really, really dark and hot. The funny thing was I saw all of these things that I swear are from Ancient Egypt, even that ghost who looked like he was king there or something and there were these stone slabs that looked like they were from Duel Monsters. Or would that be the other way around? And he was going to attack me with them." Yugi scratched his head amidst all of his babbling. "Guess that story Hopkins-san told us last night had a bigger impression than I thought."
Kyoko was looking at him strangely.
"What?"
She put her hands on his shoulders and directed him to look at his right. Sitting there was the so-called dream ghost looking very much real. And just beyond him was the kneeling form of the Black Magician. That was, until the ghost made a dismissal gesture and the magician turned into light and went back into Yugi's desk drawer. That same drawer where the Duel Monsters cards were kept, his and his grandfather's.
"Yugi," Kyoko said very carefully. "That wasn't a dream."
"So you saw the Black Magician come out of a stone slab carving of itself? And it was the Pharaoh who looked like he was commanding it?" Kyoko was checking over their stock of table top role playing game books. Some types of games never died out, they simply evolved with the times.
Yugi nodded, setting up the display case for the Duel Monster starter boxes. The store was due to open in an hour and they had to have everything ready by then. He hoped there would be a good turnout for the promotion event. All of their duelist acquaintances, his grandfather's friends really, had promised to spread the news. It would be great if Duel Monsters became as popular in Japan as it was in America.
"It was really weird. And I'm sure it was Ancient Egypt I saw, just like in those Ancient Egypt movies."
"Ah yes, I'm sure those are the perfect examples of historical accuracy," his friend grumbled. But it wasn't him she was grumbling at but the idiot who had put all of the books out of order. Was it so hard to put them back by the catalog number so clearly printed on the binding??
"And the ghost was in it too." Oddly, Yugi didn't feel very scared of him anymore despite the threatening scene he had been faced with in the vision. The Pharaoh had a hard look to his eyes when he summoned forth the Black Magician from the stone slab and though Yugi couldn't understand his words, he understood on another level that the Pharaoh had ordered his servant to attack. But the attack hadn't been directed at him.
"Wearing the Puzzle that you're wearing now. Are you sure that's such a good idea?" Kyoko did not want to go through another scare like that again. She had not missed the disappearance of Yugi's fear toward the ghost, due no doubt to his actions in trying to save Yugi from whatever happened to him and that vision he saw.
Yugi looked down at the Puzzle hanging from his neck. He knew he saw it around the Pharaoh's neck in the vision but looking now at the ghost, who was currently looking fixedly at the Duel Monsters promotion posters, the Puzzle wasn't there. It just felt right to Yugi to be wearing the puzzle even though it was rather... ostentatious.
Oh yes, and apparently, the Pharaoh, as they were calling the ghost now, was tied to the golden Puzzle, kind of like a leash. After a few incidents, they realized that he could only manifest about two meters away from the Puzzle. If the Puzzle moved, he would have to as well else be dragged. Yugi didn't feel any resistance, physically, but there was a faint sense of annoyance that wasn't his own. Kyoko told him that the ghost didn't look too happy when that happened so Yugi figured those feelings must have been coming from him.
"I don't want to get rid of it if that's what you mean." Finished with the display, Yugi closed up the box and hefted it up. He gave a whistle to the Pharaoh to tell him that they were moving. "After all, jii-chan did leave it for me."
Kyoko only shrugged, giving the bookshelf one final look-over before going on to check their supply of dice. "Your choice. He doesn't seem like an evil spirit anyway. Too bad we can't ask him how he did that magic trick with the Black Magician."
"At least he remembers our names."
After getting over their initial shock and fears that he might be a hostile ghost, the two living ones had tried to pierce the ghost's language barrier with only partial success. It had all started with Yugi digging out his Black Magician card and showing it to the ghost. They think he got the idea that 'Black Magician' was the name that they used for it. Based on his vision, Yugi pulled out some other cards that he thought would be recognizable to the ancient spirit but it was Kyoko who took the pieces of Yugi's idea and put it together into a semi-coherent organized whole. Obviously, they couldn't expect the ghost to pick up Japanese in one day much less a few hours.
"So are you going to tell Hopkins-san about your vision? That would certainly support his hypothesis."
Sure, if having a vision after touching a puzzle possibly from Ancient Egypt and had a pharaoh's ghost attached to it could be considered reliable, repeatable evidence. Kyoko and Yugi looked at each other and then burst out laughing in the half-lit store. They still had several more boxes to go through to as well as set up a dueling table.
The ghost looked at the strange teenagers as they collected themselves and went back to doing... whatever they were doing in this place that held so many things. Obviously, he had his own thoughts but whereas those two, what were their names again, the one that looked like himself but younger was Yugi, the girl with long black hair was Kyoko, could talk to each other in their strange language, he could do nothing but think to himself. It was quite frustrating being unable to talk with anyone.
It was also frustrating being tied to that golden pyramid thing that Yugi wore because it meant he couldn't stand or stay still with the invisible leash he was on. Being dragged around wasn't really painful but it was disorienting. For that matter, everything from this morning was disorienting.
Everything was strange. Being a ghost was strange. Unfortunately, beyond the feeling that it was strange, he knew precious little else. The children, he just felt much, much older than them, had taken to calling him 'Pharaoh' whatever that meant. Though that blue-robed person, Yugi had called him 'Black Magician' had called him 'King' and apparently could speak whatever language he himself was speaking. He wished he hadn't sent him away, a gesture that had just seemed so natural. Perhaps that Black Magician knew something. Unfortunately, he had no idea how the Black Magician had appeared in the first place so he couldn't call him back.
"Pharaoh!"
The spirit looked to Yugi. Ah, the boy was moving again. At least he was being considerate now that he knew of the ghost's limitation. Of course, if Yugi wasn't wearing the Puzzle and walking around with it, there wouldn't be this problem in the first place. And yet, for some reason, he felt... better with Yugi wearing it. There really wasn't a good way for him to describe it. Admittedly, he was curious about Yugi, his look alike, about Kyoko, who apparently was the only other person who could see him unlike that woman this morning who walked through him, now that had been a disturbing experience, and about this different world that he knew nothing about.
And then there were those small pieces of... he wasn't sure what they were made of but Yugi had many of them. For some reason, the spirit knew some of them though the names Yugi gave for them were unfamiliar and different. Somehow, he knew they were very important because they were just about the only recognizable thing to him but for what purpose and reason he had no idea. It looked like he would have to learn the language of the children before he could get any more answers.
"Hey, Kyoko. You finished?" Yugi called over the noise of the crowded store. As promised, their duelist acquaintances had most certainly spread the news and a formidable crowd had formed even before they opened the doors at 1 PM. They had needed to pull out another table and gotten some of their duelist acquaintances that dropped by to assist with the demonstrations as the cash register was swamped. Whatever advertisement Industrial Illusion had used in Japan it was certainly working.
"Just about!" she called back, wrapping up her shift of Duel Monster demonstrations. It was quite fun but after four hours of this chaos, she was really looking forward to some aspirin. And her 'customer' smile was wearing very, very thin. Kyoko finished up her last session and switched cashier position with Yugi. "Good luck on your duel," Kyoko gave him a pat on the back.
Yugi looked pained. Since it was near closing, they weren't going to do any more demonstrations but were instead going to have a real duel for the customers to watch. Since one of them had to watch the cash register, only Yugi was participating in the set of duels with their roped-in helpers.
On the other hand, the Pharaoh's eyes had lit up. He recognized the word 'duel' now and, having noticed the change in the set-up of the tables where the cards were being used, sensed that something interesting was going to happen. It was a bit disturbing though to look at him, if you could, because he had resorted to floating above everyone's heads to avoid being walked through.
The remaining customers, both those with and without purchased decks, fell into hushed silence as the experienced duelists prepared to play real matches. And Kyoko had one of the best seats in the house to watch the ensuing duels.
"Irashaimasu!" she automatically greeted as the door chime announced the arrival of a new customer about half way through the duels. Though reluctant to take her eyes away, she turned to look at who it was. "How may we help you?"
And she could feel her 'customer' smile freeze on her lips as their newest client sauntered around the crowd in the middle of the store to come to a stop next to the cash register where she sat.
"Hmph, so you work here?" There was an undercurrent of overbearing and derisiveness in his tone that just slipped itself under your skin like a splinter to drive you nuts. "Such a quaint little store."
Kyoko reminded herself she was working right now and her personal feelings were not to interfere with her professionalism. Then she promptly told herself to stuff it. "Quaint enough to bring in the oh high and mighty Kaiba Seto. On your way home from a hard day at work?"
You would think that they hadn't just seen each other at the cemetery yesterday. Yugi and Kyoko were both wearing jeans and black promotional Duel Monster T-shirts as well as little turtle-shaped nametags. Kaiba on the other hand looked like he had walked straight out of a catalog for men business suits in his matching deep blue jacket and slacks. A gold pin in the form of the Kaiba Corporation logo was affixed to his left jacket lapel.
"Only some final preparations for the opening of an important project tomorrow morning," he replied, scanning the dueling tables with a bored eye. "The promotions seem to be doing well."
Kyoko blinked and wondered if her hearing was going. Had Kaiba just answered a question directed at him, much less one relating to Kaiba Corporation? And he answered her? This wasn't such a groundbreaking event as to merit the sky falling but she made a note to look for any dead rising from their graves. No wait, that already happened. There was the Pharaoh who was floating from one duel to the next, watching with avid interest.
"Yes they are. Isn't your company working with Industrial Illusions on something? I remember reading that on one of the gaming news sites." She said in reply to his earlier comment. "But you didn't come here just to see that." Her eyes fell on the very heavy-looking, metal case Kaiba held in one hand. "What are you doing here?"
He didn't appear to hear her, apparently consumed entirely by the card-playing going on at the dueling tables. But the expression in his eyes, it wasn't one of interest or, more commonly, contempt. His eyes were blank, not really seeing anything in front of them as the person himself was turned completely inside of himself. Kyoko had seen this kind of expression before, only this morning.
"Hey, Kaiba. Kaiba!" She tried calling again louder but not too much. It wouldn't look good to make a scene and she might accidentally disturb the duelists. Since he was still standing, she took that as a good sign that he wasn't succumbing to whatever happened to Yugi this morning if whatever did happen wasn't tied only to the golden Puzzle. Kyoko grabbed Kaiba's shoulder, the stool she sat on put her eye-to-eye with him, and gave him a good shake. "Earth to Kaiba! Come in!"
Life returned to his eyes and he scowled at her, brushing off the offending hand. Ah yes, the old, infuriating Kaiba was back from his momentary trip to who knows where. If he started talking about mummies and ancient tombs, they were going to need a serious spirit cleansing of this building.
"Did you want something?"
"That was and is my line. You're the one who walked into the store. I just work here." Kyoko gave it up as hopeless that she could treat Kaiba as a respected customer, he just always seemed to rub her the wrong way. Common sense told her, and anyone else, that angering him was not the best of ideas, he did after all have the resources to bring hell on earth down on you.
"Not with you," he answered curtly, eyes fixed again on the dueling tables but mainly, she noticed, on Yugi. "I have some...private business with Muto."
"He won't be available until after the store is closed," she warned in the same tone. Even as she spoke, the duels were wrapping up on the third duel of the set as needed. Yugi had already won his first two so he and his opponent were watching one of the other duels.
"I can wait." Closing his eyes, Kaiba appeared to settle himself against the wall, half covered by a tall, cardboard cutout of a demonic lord called Zork, showing no intention of moving or leaving. Apparently, he wasn't in any rush to go anywhere.
Kyoko couldn't devote any more attention or thought as to what he was doing here because the last flood of customers, inspired and excited by the game play, were lining up to buy cards. She hoped their stock was going to hold out.
"It's finally over," Yugi sighed in relief, stretching out his sore muscles. Between sleeping on his desk, manning the cash register, and sitting at the tables all afternoon, he felt like a beaten-up punching bag. He was going to sleep right after he had a long soak in the bath. A hand on his shoulder made him look up.
It was Hanajima, a graduate student who lived about an hour away in the next city and was one of their duelist acquaintances who they had drafted to help out today. He didn't look too mad. "Looks like we got a lot of converts today."
"Yeah. But it might be awhile before Japan can catch up to America in terms of dueling level." To say nothing of how many of today's hopefuls would stick with the game.
"Now about my 'payment'?"
"Oh yeah," the younger boy laughed nervously. Naturally, he couldn't get them all to completely volunteer their time, especially when they hadn't planned for it. Yugi ran over to the cash counter where Kyoko was going over today's receipts. "Kyoko, we still have some of the decks left right?"
Without looking away from her calculations, Kyoko reached under the counter top to pull out the decks she had set aside earlier and handed it to him. "By the way, you have a guest."
Yugi blinked. He looked around. Other than Hanajima and the others, all of the customers had left since it was after closing time. His mother wasn't supposed to be back until really late tonight but then, Kyoko would never call her a guest.
"Over there in the not-quite all-concealing shadow," she pointed out Kaiba, still standing in the same position for the last half-hour. "He said it was something private."
"Um, okay." Yugi had no idea why Kaiba was here and by Kyoko's tone, she didn't know either. There was also an undercurrent that implied that there was going to be something very bad happening if he had known and hadn't told her. "Kaiba-kun, I'll just be a bit longer."
"Humph," was the only response they were graced with.
With a sweatdrop, Yugi ran back to the part-time help and gave them their starter decks. It was more for novelty than anything else but Yugi couldn't fault them. He and Kyoko had also set aside boxes for themselves.
"Hey, Yugi. I've been wondering for awhile now but what's Kaiba Seto doing at your store?" Hanajima asked, pausing at the doorway. "I mean, if you wanted to show-off a really good duelist, you should have gotten him to play."
"Kaiba-kun plays Duel Monsters?!" That Kaiba, the one in his class at school and who ran a multi-billion yen corporation, played Duel Monsters?? Yugi wasn't sure if his brain could handle this kind of news.
"You didn't know? Funny, I would have thought that he might have challenged Sugoroku-san but then, not many people knew how good your grandfather was." Hanajima gave Yugi a weird look. "Kaiba hasn't really played in any tournaments, not that we have any in Japan, but I've heard in some of the chat rooms that he's challenged certain top players to private matches and he's won all of them. Anyway, are the Dueling Days still going to be the same?"
Yugi nodded. The so-called Dueling Days were once a month get-togethers that his grandfather used to sponsor at the store for all of their duelist acquaintances. They'd have their own mini-tournament and the champion, when he entered, had always been Sugoroku. Locking the door behind Hanajima and putting up the 'Closed' sign, Yugi returned back to the counter where Kyoko and Kaiba were.
"Ano...what did you need me for?" He hadn't been able to figure out exactly what kind of 'private' business Kaiba might want him for. After all, it was only Kyoko who pestered him at school. It certainly couldn't be about yesterday. Kaiba had made it quite clear that he had no intention of speaking with anyone about his father's funeral. Maybe Hanajima had been on to something and Kaiba was here about Duel Monsters? That might explain why he had wanted to wait until everyone else was gone.
Kaiba finally opened his eyes but only to give a pointed glare at Kyoko who had finished with totaling the receipts. She showed no intentions of leaving for this so-called 'private' talk without good reason. Besides, even if she left, the Pharaoh would still be around and by some warped logic, she felt that if he got to stay, she should be able to as well. That and she was dying of curiosity as to why Kaiba was here.
Finally, Kaiba simply lifted up the metal case onto the counter, setting it down and snapping open the locks to reveal its entire interior packed with Duel Monsters cards.
"Sugoi!" Yugi gasped, his eyes running and cataloging each and every card he could see. "These are all rare cards!"
Considering how rare, super rare, and ultra rare cards were only about a fifth or less of the cards released in each new booster set, Kyoko figured they were made even rarer by the sheer number Kaiba must have in his case.
"I'll trade all of these for the Blue Eyes White Dragon," Kaiba said coolly, a glint of something in his blue eyes. "Don't look so surprised. I've already spoken with Professor Hopkins and I know you have it."
Rebecca had definitely been talking too loud at the cemetery yesterday. Well, at least Yugi knew why Kaiba wanted this to be a private talk and he was thankful for that discretion. Not even their dueling group knew that Sugoroku had that ultra rare and powerful card. It wasn't that Sugoroku was necessarily a greedy man but there were people in the world that would steal, perhaps even kill to get certain rare cards. And this card, rare yes because of its powerful and limited quantity, had been too important to him to risk losing.
Kyoko wondered if Kaiba had come to the store directly from meeting with the professor. He couldn't possibly be carrying this case around with him all the time. It must weigh a ton with all of the cards in it. She had wondered for awhile now whether or not he actually played the card game or whether he simply had the joint project with Industrial Illusions because of the popularity, and near certain guaranteed sale, of the cards.
"I'm sorry, Kaiba-kun, but I will not trade that card." Yugi steeled himself to meet his taller classmate's gaze. Obviously, it would have been easier to do so if they were of equal height.
Kaiba's eyes narrowed. He was probably not used to refusals. Reaching into his suit jacket, for some reason Kyoko wondered if he was going to pull out a gun, he withdrew a checkbook.
"Alright then, how much?" he asked tightly.
Yugi shook his head. "I'm not selling it either." He was not backing down from this decision, no matter what Kaiba did or how much he was shaking inside. For some reason, one of his hands reached up to clutch the Puzzle. There was a faint sense of confusion, probably from the Pharaoh who had no idea why the two boys were facing off over that case of cards, or so it appeared to him.
The young CEO's face was very pale, not with fatigue or anything, but with anger. How dare this... this... this boy refuse him. His mind raced through all possible venues and explanations to this unreasonable scenario. Yugi wasn't even tempted by either offer. If Yugi simply wanted to keep the card because of its power, that Kaiba could understand. However, his talk with the old American and his little granddaughter had told him that Yugi had been all but ready to give away the card to them, even to the point of throwing a duel. Obviously, that alone was a mark for contempt by the CEO and definitely a sign that Yugi was not fit to retain possession of the Blue Eyes White Dragon card.
"May I know why you...refuse to part with it?"
Kyoko could see the warning signs and she hoped Yugi could also. She didn't really think Kaiba would do something rash in the store, not with witnesses and security cameras present. Besides, his control over himself was much too good to be lost over something like this. Or at least, she hoped it was.
"I don't know what Hopkins-san told you but this was a very important card to my grandfather. It was a sign of his friendship with Hopkins-san, of what they went through together. Even if it was just a normal card, even if it was a weak one, my grandfather would have treasured it just as much. The value of this card goes far beyond monetary or material value, it has a history, a soul, and that can not be replaced. I'm sorry, Kaiba-kun."
Both Kyoko and Yugi jumped when Kaiba suddenly burst out laughing. It wasn't a nice laugh, not one filled with joy and delight, but with rancor and contempt.
"A soul? I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised to hear such nonsense coming from you," he spat, eyes cold and condescending. "Cards are power and power is the only thing I believe in. Power to defeat any and everyone else. Don't give me that sympathy story about friendship, I heard all about your duel last night over the card. Of course, I agree with the girl that no self-respecting duelist would accept winning the card under such a farce. But you were quite willing to put it up as the ante for a duel and you just as willing took it back."
"Hey, Yugi never had any intention of keeping Blue Eyes!" Kyoko was not going to just sit around and keep quiet while Kaiba tore up her friend. She wasn't the only one getting angry though. The Pharaoh, though unable to understand what was being said, was getting the distinct feeling that the tall brown-haired boy was menacing Yugi for no apparent reason. "The card was Hopkin-san's and Rebecca's all along. It was her choice to give it to Yugi!"
"You stay out of this!" Kaiba growled. "It does not concern you."
If there hadn't been a countertop and that open briefcase in her way, Kyoko probably would have attacked Kaiba for that one. Doesn't concern her indeed, he was the one picking an argument with her friend! Very violent thoughts involving the metal case and Kaiba's head raged through her mind.
"Fine then. If you won't trade or sell it, then what about a duel?" Kaiba didn't miss the sudden wavering in Yugi's firm look. He allowed himself a smirk. "Like last night except this time, only one duel. You will stake Blue Eyes White Dragon and I will stake one of my own rare cards." He waved a hand at the open case. "Unless you feel that the worth of your card is worth all of this."
"Kaiba, he already told you that-"
"Alright."
"WHAT?!" Kyoko cried, looking at Yugi who was perfectly calm after his announcement. Perhaps all of the shocks of the day were finally affecting his head. "Yugi, have you lost your mind!?!"
"It's alright, Kyoko," he smiled as if all was right in the world. "You said before that Blue Eyes was lonely because he wasn't being used. Truth to tell, I'm not really sure if I'd use him either. But if Kaiba-kun wants him that badly, he must be willingly to use him. And if that's so, then I think Blue Eyes will accept Kaiba-kun if he wins him fair and square in a duel."
Said 'Kaiba-kun' rolled his eyes at the way Yugi referred to the card as if it was alive, what sheer and utter nonsense. But, if it led to getting what he wanted, he'd tolerate it, for now.
"Kaiba-kun, if you have your deck now, we can go upstairs to duel," Yugi gestured to the 'employees only' door that led to the back storeroom and the stairs to the apartment above.
"Actually no, I have a better, more...suitable field for our duel." Kaiba's smile, if you could call it that, was definitely not nice, the kind a cat has when maliciously looking at an unaware, trapped mouse. "A field worthy of a duel for the rare Blue Eyes White Dragon. My driver can take us."
He had left his driver outside of the store waiting all of this time? Kyoko was sure that Kaiba had not left the store since he came in and most certainly hadn't called anyone. Really, the rich could be so inconsiderate of their employees.
"Okay." Yugi was going along with this way too calmly.
"Any objections if I come along as well?" Kyoko asked, though her tone implied that she wasn't going to take 'no' as an answer. Kaiba simply shrugged, as you wish, snapped the metal case closed and left first, expecting them to follow. "Yugi, are you really sure about this?" She almost bit back her words when she saw the bemused light in his violet eyes as he fingered his deck, slipping the Blue Eyes White Dragon into it. "Oh gods, you're looking forward to dueling him."
Yugi's grin grew wider. "You didn't hear Hanajima earlier did you. Kaiba-kun apparently is a really good duelist, what better chance could I get to duel against him?"
When it came to games, Yugi's better judgement, if he had any, which Kyoko wondered at sometimes, generally flew out the window. She could empathize with that feeling since she's experienced it a few times herself.
"He certainly isn't the type to accept an invitation to one of our Dueling Days," she agreed with a resigned sigh, hastily scribbling a note to Yugi's mother in case she came back before they did. The note said they were going out for a bit, that was true, with a friend, that was stretching the truth, and put it somewhere it was sure to be found.
Yugi had their jackets, since their promotion T-shirts were rather flashy, and he locked up the store while she put hers on. They slid into the open door of the waiting limousine and were off.
Kaiba was silent and studiously ignored the other two people as if they weren't even there. Yugi hummed a popular tune under his breath, watching the buildings and cars pass by through the window. He had never been in such a luxurious car before. Kyoko perhaps might have enjoyed herself more if her 'friend' hadn't played gentleman and had her enter the limo first, seating her next to Mister Personality Kaiba. Generally, she would enjoy picking on him but this whole duel situation wasn't allowing much levity. And of course, the Pharaoh was floating rather uncomfortably in the remaining space, seeing as how he had never been in, much less even seen one before.
The black limousine came to a stop before a large building. In the darkness, it was hard to tell exactly what it was except that it was apparently not open for business yet. That didn't stop Kaiba who only gave the security a look before they opened the doors for him. Unerringly, he led them through the front entrance, which apparently had some kind of large statues in it, and into one of many rooms.
Of course, it was pitch black inside.
"Lights," Kaiba said smugly.
Very bright, very strong lights suddenly flooded the room, raising cries of protest from Kyoko and Yugi as they were blinded. Kaiba had shielded his eyes. The room was actually more of a mini-arena with stands surrounding all four sides of a depressed ring in the middle. On each side of the ring was a kind of gondola stand, which overlooked the depressed grid-line field. The arrangement of those grid boxes looked very familiar.
Without hesitation, Kaiba walked over to the blue stand. Following his lead, Yugi moved to the red one. At the stand, he found a marked display looking like half of a duel field mat and which matched the marked floor below him.
"This is a new level of dueling, Yugi," Kaiba smirked from across the field. "I'm sure you recognize the layout of the dueling mat. Feel free to re-shuffle your deck though you'll understand that we'll be forgoing the cut."
Kyoko stood leaning against the arena railing, not bothering to take a seat in the stand. Wherever they were, it was owned by Kaiba Corporation if the logo on the security guards' uniform were any indication. So was this then part of that joint Industrial Illusions-Kaiba Corporation project?
And there was just something odd about the scene spread out before her. On one side was Kaiba looking completely out of place in his business suit and on the other side, in definite contrast, was Yugi with his windbreaker, T-shirt, and jeans. Add in the Pharaoh in his ancient linens hovering behind Yugi and Kyoko just had to wonder could there be an even more bizarre set-up.
Probably.
Kaiba won the coin toss for who went first. Looking through his hand, he chose one card and placed it down on the display mat of his stand. Neither of his classmates had ever seen him more animated, even if it was in an arrogant, conceited kind of way. There was no way he could lose this duel. "I play Cyclops in Attack!"
The entire arena darkened as lights around the ring and on the stands blinking to life to allow the duelists to see. There was a rumbling sound, courtesy of the linked speakers set all around the room, and suddenly a green one-eyed monster roared into life on the arena floor.
"What in the?!" Yugi stared at the literally larger than life monster. It was so realistic, he could see its shoulders rise and fall with its simulated breathing. Was this how it was when Kyoko saw the Black Magician appear in his room?
The Pharaoh stared slack-jawed at the creature that had suddenly appeared. There was a shiver, a pulsation running through his body as he looked upon it. It was familiar, somehow, this scene, this sensation. What was it about these children and their 'cards' that seemed to echo so deeply with him?
"Another one?!" But Kyoko immediately corrected her mistaken impression. Whatever this was, it was not like the Black Magician, she could sense nothing from this. It was just an illusion, a technological one. "Kaiba! Is this what you've been developing with Industrial Illusions?"
"Humph. The Virtual Card Battle Simulator is entirely my idea," Kaiba snorted. He had been expecting more awe and was rather peeved that the two didn't appear more impressed, or surprised. "This Duel Ring is the next evolution of Duel Monsters. Turn end."
Kyoko couldn't help but wonder then why they were still playing at Junior rules. Perhaps it was just as well. They had been demonstrating Junior rules all afternoon and Yugi's deck was not set up for Expert. There may be an advantage for Yugi in this but neither of them knew anything about Kaiba or his deck.
Similar thoughts were running through Yugi's head. After everything that happened this morning, playing Duel Monsters on this Duel Ring wasn't going to phase him. Besides, he owed it to his grandfather, Hopkins-san, and Rebecca to test to see if Kaiba deserved this Blue Eyes White Dragon card.
Why did he suddenly get the feeling like he was searching for a owner for a new puppy or something?
"Well then, I summon the Fortress Protecting Winged Dragon in Attack." On Yugi's field, a large blue dragon with a big snout appeared. When you really came down to it, Duel Monsters was a number game with the higher number winning. Usually, players would have to rely on their own knowledge and experience to determine the numbers. But on the display of the stand were shown the points of the face-up creatures on the field. Handy but it went both ways. "Attack the Cyclops! Fire Stones!!!"
The blue dragon took a deep breath and then spewed forth a hail of burning stones, engulfing the Cyclops in a rain of fire. It exploded, the echoes vibrating throughout the entire arena, and Kyoko could even feel the force of the rapidly expanding air from where she stood on the sideline. As the smoke cleared, she could see Kaiba lowering his arm, having shielded himself from the too-real effects of the virtual game. His life point meter dropped by 200 points.
"I'll concede the first hit to you, Yugi," Kaiba smirked after Yugi ended his turn. "But the true battle is from here on out."
"Tch." Yugi didn't get annoyed very often. Now though was one of those times. Ever since Kaiba had played the Dark Generator magic card with the Dark Clown Sagi, he had been destroying Yugi's defending monsters one after another. Kaiba had the lead in life points and in monster power. Yugi had yet to draw a card powerful enough to defeat the boosted Dark Clown.
He wasn't the only one getting frustrated. There was a dark rumbling in his mind coming from the Pharaoh. The ghost wasn't happy with the way the duel was going either though Yugi wasn't sure exactly how much of the game he understood. Hopefully he had picked up something after watching four hours of demonstrations.
"Yugi, you're disappointing me." Kaiba's voice across came out loud and clear. How nice to see at least one person was enjoying himself. "I was expecting more of a fight from someone who bested the American National Champion. Or perhaps she wasn't worthy of that title in the first place."
"Kaiba-kun! I won't stand for your disrespectfulness toward Rebecca! She is a very good duelist. It was the cards who decided the fate of the duel!"
"Of course, I'll agree with that. The cards do decide the duel, the most powerful cards."
"No, it isn't just about power. It isn't just the duelist fighting but the cards as well. If there isn't a connection between them, if there isn't trust and faith, then no matter how powerful your cards are you will still lose!"
"More of that nonsense. And where has your so-called faith and trust in the cards gotten you? It would appear to me that all your cards are doing, if they're doing anything at all, is leading you down the road to defeat," Kaiba chuckled darkly. "It is your turn, Yugi. Draw your card already and let's see your 'faith'!"
"I believe in my cards Kaiba-kun. Draw!" Yugi glanced briefly at the card and placed it down on the display. "Come forth, Dark Knight Gaia!" There was an echo of glee from the Pharaoh. Yugi figured the ghost wasn't too crazy about Kaiba. "Attack the Dark Clown!"
Kaiba's life points dropped to be on par with Yugi's after the destruction of Sagi. So Yugi still had a trump. Actually, there was also the Black Magician card but Kaiba knew that neither could stand a chance before his trumps.
"Not bad Yugi," he commented, drawing the card for his turn. An unholy sparkle touched his eyes. "But not good enough unfortunately. Too bad your 'faith' in your card is going to be so poorly rewarded. This is my card, Yugi, Blue Eyes White Dragon!!"
A silvery-white, sleek dragon materialized on the playing field, bellowing its battle cry. Just looking at it struck a person with all of the majesty of its existence. It was one thing to know the card was powerful but to see it right in front of you...
"Kaiba-kun, you already have a Blue Eyes?!" Yugi gasped as the dragon's blazing light breath attack destroyed his Dark Knight. But if he already had one, then why did he want Sugoroku's?
With the resources Kaiba must have, Kyoko supposed that it was possible for Kaiba to have acquired one of the four cards in the world. After all, he did have an entire case full of rare cards and she doubted he got them all simply from buying boxes and boxes of booster sets. And if he already had one, if he was trying to get Yugi's Blue Eyes...
"Just how many Blue Eyes do you have, Kaiba?" Kyoko yelled at him.
"What??" Yugi's eyes grew wide. Did Kyoko just ask 'how many'? But there were only four in the world and if he already had one and Kaiba had one... they couldn't all be... Yugi couldn't finish the thought.
"Fufufufu... very clever, Suomi. Why don't we just continue playing and find out?" Kaiba announced his turn's end. Yes, he figured she probably already guessed at the horrible truth, that there was no way Yugi could win this duel. "Go on Yugi. See if you can draw your grandfather's precious card. That's the only thing you have that could hope to stand up against my Blue Eyes."
Yugi frowned, adding his newest card to his current hand. Kaiba was right. Even boosted, none of the single monsters in his deck was capable of destroying Kaiba's dragon. It would only result in mutual destruction if he were to use his grandfather's card against it because he didn't have any boost cards that would work with it. If he did draw Blue Eyes, he would only use that tactic as a last resort. Yugi put down one monster card in defense and ended his turn.
As Kaiba expected, Yugi was on his last legs. "You can relax for a bit, Yugi. I wouldn't want to waste my Blue Eyes' attack on whatever worthless monster you put down. Instead, I think I'll increase the number of monsters I have on the field." Kaiba's smirk in the darkness was positively frightening. "And Nike the goddess of victory is favoring me today. Come forth, my second Blue Eyes White Dragon!!" Ah yes, the shock and fear on Yugi's face was so satisfying.
Kyoko groaned. The chance of Kaiba actually having all three Blue Eyes just became a near certainty. What she knew of Yugi's deck, he didn't have any means of defeating both of them. Though there was a way he could hold them off for a while...
"I'll hold off their attacks until my next turn so I can destroy all of your wall monsters. Well, Yugi, go on. I have yet to see this vaunted 'trust' you share with your cards."
Yugi knew he was at a bad disadvantage. Being only able to lay down one monster card a turn, even if he did put down another monster in defense, they would both be destroyed by Kaiba's dragons. Kaiba could keep repeating the cycle until Yugi ran out of cards in which case he would automatically lose. It was the only way he could lose, because he wasn't going to purposely place a monster on Attack with the Blue Eyes on the field.
However, Yugi wasn't going to give up. There was a determination in him that he only rarely felt before, a determination he remembered always being in his brother. Hadn't he sworn to become stronger? On the sidelines, he could see Kyoko's shadowy form and though she had said nothing since her earlier outburst, he was certain she was silently yelling at him to bring down Kaiba. Next to him was the Pharaoh whose very presence gave Yugi the strength to stand up against Kaiba's verbal barrage. This duel, like the one with Rebecca, wasn't about winning. It was about trusting in the cards to bring about the right resolution.
"Draw! Sealing Swords of Light!"
About twenty blades formed of nothing but light rained down from the ceiling, trapping the roaring dragons. There was a collective sigh of relief from Yugi, Kyoko, and the Pharaoh.
"A minor delay," Kaiba shrugged at this latest annoyance. Though the magic card's properties lasted for three turns, no monster he put down on the field during that period of time would be able to attack. Well, he had no worries about his Blue Eyes being destroyed. "But it would be boring if I did absolutely nothing at all so I'll set down one monster on defense. You may attack it if you wish."
Yugi knew Kaiba was only baiting him. The destruction of that monster would have no effect on Kaiba's life points. It may even have a special ability that activates upon destruction. After this, he had two more turns of reprieve against his opponent's attack.
He felt a presence looking over his shoulder, the Pharaoh, who was looking fixedly at Yugi's hand of cards. A ghostly finger pointed to three cards there, cards that had been slowly gathering in Yugi's deck. He couldn't discard them but he couldn't use them either. The Pharaoh pointed at the Puzzle hanging from Yugi's neck, to the three cards in his hand, and then his remaining deck. He was trying to tell Yugi something.
"I already know," Yugi mouthed silently to the ghost, thanking it anyway for the pointer. His trust in the cards had gotten him this far. It would guide him to the conclusion.
"Stretching out your turn will gain you nothing, Yugi. Draw your card already!" Kaiba was getting impatient. This was taking longer than he had allotted for. And for some reason, Yugi was not as terrified as he should be, faced with two, soon to be three Blue Eyes. Kaiba did not know exactly when the third one would be drawn but he had a feeling that it would be within these three turns.
Of all the games he's played, Duel Monsters resonated the most with him. His instincts were never wrong, his chances of drawing the card he wanted always high. Some small-minded people may say it was all luck and Kaiba was not utterly taken up with himself to believe that luck didn't play some part. But it was more than that, much more.
Yugi swallowed a retort. He didn't need to resort to Kaiba's intimidation techniques. Even as he drew his card for this turn, Yugi sensed what it was. Holding it up to look, more for the benefit of the Pharaoh than himself, he allowed himself a smile.
The next set of turns past with little more than card drawing and monsters being placed on defense on the playing field. After all, no more than six cards could be held at any one time, and both sides had their reason for wanting to draw still one more card.
"Well then Yugi it's down to the final countdown. Once I end my turn, my Blue Eyes will be free to attack you in the next one," gloated Kaiba. It was coming, he sensed, no he knew what the top card on his deck was. "For my final draw... I summon my third Blue Eyes White Dragon!!! Turn end!"
With those fated words, the light swords vanished allowing all of the dragons the freedom of movement again. It was almost like they were alive, rearing and stretching as if they really had been unable to move and not just prevented from attacking by a changed computer code variable.
Kyoko had to admit that whoever did the programming for these holograms really did their work well. She could almost believe that there was a burgeoning spirit in them but there was nothing definite, nothing like that Black Magician or the Pharaoh.
It was also getting a bit crowded on Kaiba's side of the field.
Yugi didn't need to see Kaiba's face to know that there was a look of expectant victory on it, there were already the three dragons and the suffocating pressure of their presence and power. It was like a palpable force, this fear of impending doom, of imminent defeat. Kaiba wasn't his opponent, this was.
He looked at his hand and then at his remaining deck. If one was to rely on probability, his chances were dismally low. However, Yugi was never that good in math anyway so he didn't know that. What he had relied on was faith, in his cards, in himself, something in part that his grandfather had given him and something that he had to create and believe in himself.
But sometimes, it helped to have some outside assistance.
Kyoko knew that this would be the final turn. She didn't know how she knew, she just did. It was something probably developed after so many duels. Unlike last night though, she didn't know the resolution of this match. It was only naturally that she wanted Yugi to win, because they were friends and because she didn't want Sugoroku's Blue Eyes to fall into Kaiba's hands. The way he was, he wouldn't appreciate the poor dragon. But as a duelist, she knew that realistically the chances of defeating three Blue Eyes White Dragons were exceedingly low. She could curse Kaiba for being greedy. She could curse Yugi for wanting to duel. She could curse herself for not trying harder to prevent this duel. But that was all in the past and had no bearing on this duel. Everything was up to the cards. Kyoko unconsciously murmured a prayer.
Yugi gripped his Puzzle tightly, glancing briefly to his friend on the ringside. Even without being able to see her, he knew she was lending her silent support. He almost shrieked, nearly dropped his cards in his other hand, when a slightly chilly pressure squeezed the hand on the Puzzle. It was the Pharaoh's hand; Yugi could actually feel it. He looked up at the Pharaoh, at his confident eyes, his nod of encouragement.
Kaiba resisted the urge to tap his foot, which would signal his impatience. Yugi was again drawing out time, drawing out his inevitable defeat. It was pathetic really, such petty desperation. Well, at least he knew that the short boy should be in the depths of despair right now. That was a consolation though not by much. He looked at his watch. He was going to be late.
"Kaiba-kun," Yugi called across the ring. "I'll admit that your three Blue Eyes White Dragons are very impressive and powerful. But that's all. You may think this duel is like the one I had with Rebecca but it isn't. That duel wasn't about the card, but this one is. At first, I thought that Blue Eyes might be happy with you, so I accepted you challenge. But as we dueled, I realized I was wrong. Blue Eyes wouldn't be happy, and my grandfather's memory wouldn't be honored. Winning this duel isn't about defeating you or about keeping Blue Eyes. This duel is for my grandfather because even though we buried him yesterday, he will always be with us and I can't let him down."
"Are you so overcome with hopelessness that you've resorted to babbling nonsense?" Where did Yugi get off spouting self-righteousness to him, talking as if he knew him, which of course he didn't. Hadn't it pierced his thick head yet that the only road open to him in this duel was defeat? Kaiba looked over to the ringside where Kyoko was standing. She had followed the entire course of the duel but even she wasn't despondent. In fact, she was smiling at Yugi. They were both smiling. Were they both just that utterly oblivious? Where were they getting this phantasmal hope from??
"I draw my final card, Kaiba-kun." Yugi placed his five cards face-up on the display grid. The computer read them and displayed the names for both players to read.
"The Sealed...Exodia...!?" Impossible, Kaiba couldn't believe it. Yugi had all five pieces of Exodia in his deck?? And he had drawn all of them?!? "How can that be...that would take a...a..."
"A miracle, Kaiba-kun," Yugi said quietly as the ancient chained god rose forth from the flaming pentagram floating above Yugi's field. "If you trust the cards, the cards will answer in kind. When that happens, anything can happen, even miracles."
"Exodia! Hellfire Wrath, Exod Flame!!!"
Yugi released a deep breath. He had won but he wasn't really satisfied. He had meant what he said to Kaiba, about this duel being for his grandfather. Defeating Kaiba here and now didn't feel like a real victory, he didn't have that feeling when he played with his grandfather or Kyoko. Yes, there was some dejection at losing but at the same time there was still the enjoyment of a game well played.
"Kyoko!" he called, picking up his cards and running over to his friend. "I won!" he said unnecessarily, smiling widely to cover up his gloom, figuring that she would be happy about this. After all, she always said she wanted to see Kaiba be taken down a notch.
"......" she muttered, head bowed.
"What was that? I didn't hear you."
Kyoko looked up, eyes blazing. Yugi gulped and stepped back but it was too late.
"Since when did you have Exodia in your deck?! You took them from the deck your grandfather gave you didn't you! What were you thinking, not telling me about that?? Are you trying to give me a head full of gray hair?!"
"Ah, gomen, Kyoko!!" Yugi yelped, ducking under her swinging arm. He hoped she didn't hit the Pharaoh by accident, even if it would probably just go through him. But Yugi was quite sure he had actually felt the ghost's hand on his during the duel. He looked to the Pharaoh who was looking into the arena, probably trying to figure out where all of the monsters went. "Well, should we go?"
"I'm afraid we can't allow that."
Yugi and Kyoko were grabbed from behind. Belatedly, they recognized their black suit captors to be under Kaiba's employ.
"You may have beaten me in this one duel, Yugi." Kaiba finally straightened up from his hunched position over his duel display. Methodically, he collected his deck and slipped it inside of his jacket. He walked around the ring and came to a stop before them. "However, I'm afraid you don't quite understand the situation. If I can't have Blue Eyes, no one can." His eyes were cold and empty. "Hand it over."
"I will not!" Yugi yelled, struggling against the arm around his neck. The hold was too loose for someone of Yugi's size and he managed to wriggle out of it, kicking the man's shins for good measure. "Kaiba-kun, this isn't right, you know it isn't!"
"Kaiba, you are out of your mind!" Kyoko added, jabbing her elbow hard into her captor's gut and then ramming the heel of hand under his chin. Those self-defense lessons certainly came in handy. However, a third man caught her by the back of her jacket, throwing her against the stands, and fired his gun.
"Kyoko!" her friend screamed, prevented from running to her by a gun held to his head. She wasn't moving. At that close distance, the bullet...
"Who gave you permission to shoot?!" Kaiba snapped, ripping the gun out of the man's hand and backhanded him with its butt. He ignored the man's murmured apologies. "Ky-, Suomi?"
"...it missed...somehow..." Kyoko hoped it would just be left at that. Her mind had frozen when she heard the gunfire, her body falling back on old instincts. Other than the bruising from the throw, she didn't feel any other pain. However, she was feeling something else, a very powerful, very angry surge of energy. "Oh no."
"What-!?" Kaiba gasped as he was suddenly blown aside, slamming him into the wall, noticing only afterwards that his men were unconscious on the floor. Yugi was crouching against the ring wall, Kyoko still against the stand seats. Where the hell was this wind coming from?
"Pharaoh!" Yugi tried to call to the spirit. This was him, Yugi knew it was. The ghost's anger had been pounding into his head, into him, ever since Kyoko had been thrown aside.
Even though it may not have known what a gun was, he had apparently understood how close Kyoko had been to being killed. Or maybe he somehow picked that up from Yugi's fear. Whatever it was, the ghost was angry and his anger was pouring out manifested. He deliberately walked toward Kaiba, pinpointing him as the source of all of this. There was no escape from his wrath, just as there was no escape from the Sealed One.
Kaiba couldn't believe he couldn't pull himself off the wall. No wind could be this powerful, certainly not one that had come out of nowhere. It tore away all sound, so he could see Yugi saying something but heard nothing at all. He suddenly realized the vision before him was hazy, as if he wasn't seeing it clearly. There was an impression of... a person? But there wasn't anyone standing in front of him, there shouldn't have been anyone else here.
The Pharaoh raised his hand before the offender.
"Mind Crush."
Author's Notes
Man, writing this was a bit tough. I had to get away from the computer twice for a couple of hours to figure out how I was going to write stuff. Even while I was writing, things just came out differently than how I had imagined or planned it.
For example, that entire end sequence? I was trying to figure out how to do it for the entire time I was writing this chapter. I mean, I know I wanted the Pharaoh to Mind Crush Kaiba but the way I set things up, I couldn't do it the same way as in the anime or manga.
Comments on the Pharaoh:
That's the only name he's going to have from now on. I think it only makes sense that the spirit, even if it doesn't remember much about itself, won't be able to speak Japanese. As for his language... I trust all of the readers will assume it is Ancient Egyptian even though everything I've 'written' is simply nonsense.
I think I've been reading too much "Hikaru no Go". Fujiwarano Sai was a big influence on my depiction of the Pharaoh.
Comments on Kaiba Seto:
He's actually a lot harsher, even more evil, in the manga than he is in the Duel Monster anime. I waver on how I want to portray him, due no doubt to the animosity my brother/sounding board has for the character. Well, at least I granted one of his wishes of what he wants done to Kaiba.
theria@theria.net