Three months went by and life settled back into an average routine, except for the fact that my mind was always somewhere else so my grades dropped! My parents began to worry so the sent me to a therapist for depression! Then summer vacation came, but I didn't feel much like celebrating, so while everyone else went to the beach I sat in my room writing mini songs.
Then one day a letter came in for me. It was from Domino, Japan! I quickly opened it. It was an invitation to one of Seto's dueling tournaments! It was going to be in Tokyo! Next to the invitation was a letter, this is what it said;
Dear Tanya,
I wasn't originally inviting you but Yugi said he wouldn't come if I didn't invite you, Emily, and Sarah. And Wheeler insisted on Megan so you're all invited. So come if you want.
Sincerely,
Seto
I quickly ran to my mom.
"Mom look I was invited to participate in a dueling tournament! Can I go please?" I cried. My mom looked at me skeptically.
"I don't think it's a good idea, you just a beginner and I don't want you to be disappointed when you lose." she said.
"But how do you know I will loose? I'm really good, please mom!" I pleaded
"All right but your father and I are coming with you this time." she relented.
"Yes, thanks mom! You won't be sorry!" I promised. Then I quickly ran to pack.
Three days later we were on our way to the airport to go to Japan, but my mind wasn't on the upcoming tournament, but on who else would be there. When we had boarded the plane I heard someone calling my name and looked up to find my friends waving for me to come and sit with them. I quickly ran over, leaving my parents behind. Behind me I heard a voice say,
"You too?" and it sounded like Sarah's mom! Then I heard my mom laugh and the sound of her sitting down.
"Hey guys!" I called as I reached my friends "How have you been?"
"Great!" laughed Emily, I could practically feel the joy radiating off her!
"I hope Seto doesn't mind if I bring a friend along though," whispered Emily "because I did." At this she pointed at Kristen who was sitting next to Megan.
I laughed and pointed up front saying "I brought my parents."
"Me too!" piped up Sarah "they wouldn't let me come without them."
"Same here," I laughed.
"My parents are absolutely positive I'm going to lose the first round." vented Emily.
"Mine too." I said.
"Same here," Sarah nodded "but we'll prove them all wrong."
When the plane landed I practically jumped out of my seat and Emily literally did! We then ran laughing out of the plane leaving our stunned friends and family behind us. I'm pretty sure I heard Sarah say, "I expected that from Emily, courtesy of Pharaoh but what's with Tanya, but then again it is Tanya.", but I can't be sure.
Once I was out of the plane I heard my mom calling out for me to wait but I ignored her, looking around for Yugi, Joey, Pharaoh, and Tristan. When I spotted them I quickly got Emily's attention and ran over to them.
"Hey," I called as I reached them "how have you guys been?" I turned to see my mom getting out of the plane followed by my dad and Sarah's parents, and right behind them Kristen led the others out of the plane. My mom was looking around franticly so I lifted up my hand to show her where I was. She quickly ran over to me, followed by everyone else.
"Young lady, I told you to wait! And when I tell you to do something, you do it!" she scolded. I blushed and looked down, ashamed of having my friends hear this.
"Uh…mom, these are my friends, Yugi Moto, Joey Wheeler, Tristan…uh, I don't know his last name, and, umm…, just call him Yami." I said pointing to each one in turn "I met them on my first visit here."
"Nice to meet you." My mom nodded politely.
"You too." said Yugi.
"Yeah," Joey agreed nodding.
"Come on, we have a tournament to get to!" Sarah called as she headed off towards Kaiba Land.
"Hey wait for me!" called a voice from the crowd of people. I turned to see Rebecca running up. Once she reached us she was quick to grab Yugi's arm and fall into step with him. I steamed silently as I watched them walk past.
"Who's that delightful young lady?" asked my dad as he watched them go.
"That's Rebecca." I mumbled.
"You don't seem very happy to see her, what's wrong?" asked my dad worriedly.
"Nothing, nothing at all!" I said hurriedly before running to catch up with the others, leaving my dad behind me with a knowing look on his face. I hurried ahead of the others calling for them to hurry up or they'll be late. Emily, Megan, Kristen, and Sarah run to catch up with me.
Suddenly we hear an unfamiliar voice behind us "Hey stop right there! We own this street, and you can only pass if you pay our passing fee." We turn around to see three big thugs!
"And how much would that be?" asked Joey sarcastically.
"10,000 yen per person." said one of the thugs.
"But none of us have that much money!" cried Tristan.
"You can't pay, you can't pass." Said the biggest thug as he and the others moved to block the path!
"But it's the only way to get to Kaiba land!" objected Joey.
"That's your problem." growled the thug on the left.
"That's not fair!" cried Tristan.
"Want to make something of it?" hissed the thug on the right.
"Yeah I do!" cried Joey as he lunged at the first thug. The first thug quickly sidestepped Joey and tripped him them picked him up and sent him flying into a wall!
"Hey leave him alone!" cried Tristan jumping at the thug. But he was soon piled on top of Joey, moaning!
"Hey leave them alone!" called Pharaoh stepping forward "Try me instead!" At this he sent a fist flying into the first thug's face!
"Get him." growled the thug from the ground. The other thugs dove at Pharaoh and, even though he put up a good fight, he too was subdued!
"Pharaoh!" cried Emily lunged forward.
"No Emily, calm down!" I called, grabbing her arms. She pulled fierily, trying to get free but to no avail.
"Hey, you can't pick one my friends like that!" cried Yugi as he stepped in front of Pharaoh "Leave them be!"
"I'll get to you later, right now I've got to finish off this idiot." replied the thug coldly.
"Come on, are you scared, pick on someone who can defend himself." taunted Yugi. I could tell he was just trying to lure the thug away from Pharaoh, well…it worked
"Why you little twerp!" yelled the thug as he sent Yugi flying with his fist "Let's do it this way!" As he advanced on Yugi, I felt me body go into overdrive! Next thing I new I was standing in-between Yugi and the thug.
"Don't touch him" I growled coldly, colder than I had heard my voice in a very long time.
"Tanya! Get out of there, you'll get hurt!" called my mom franticly.
"Listen to your mommy, little girl. Get out of my way I've got business to settle with this little twerp!" growled the thug. But I stood firm, shaking with rage, looking him strait in the eyes.
"Ok, I'll go though you first!" the thug called as he advanced.
"Tanya, get out of there!" cried my mom.
"Mom, will you please just BE QUIET!" I yelled without taking my eyes off the advancing thug. The unexpected outburst silenced my mom.
"You should have listened to you mommy, now I'm going to pulverize you." growled the thug as he raised his fist to deliver a blow. I ducked instinctively and sent my own fist into his chin.
"Ow! That girl's got spunk." acknowledged the thug "get her boys" At this the other two thugs came running at me! But I moved as silent and deadly as the anger that flowed though my veins at that moment. Only once they were all three piled up on the ground did I really realize what I was doing! I looked over at my friends who were all looking at me, amazed and frightened, even Yugi! I looked down; I had let down my self control! NEVER a good idea, I could have changed!
"They were lucky; I could have killed them if they had made me mad enough." I whispered.
"But you're usually such a calm, gentle, loving person, what happened?" whispered my mom.
"I forgot my self control." I said ashamed "I shouldn't have let it get that far! I know better! I could have killed them! I don't want to kill anyone, not again!" I was suddenly on my knees, my hands covering my face.
"What do you mean again? You've never killed!" cried my mom "What's going on!" My friends gathered around me trying to get me to respond.
"No, no, no!" I whispered, ignoring them all "I shouldn't have let it get that far! Not that far!" Suddenly Yugi was in front of me.
"Does this have anything to do with what you told me before you left to go back to America?" he asked gently. I nodded, looking up into his eyes.
"You forgot your self control and it took over?" he inquired. Again I nodded. He smiled and put his hand on my shoulder.
"It's ok, it's over now. Be glad it didn't get any farther." he reassured me. I nodded and smiled gratefully.
"Yeah," I agreed "I guess you're right." Then I pushed myself up off the ground and turned to the others.
"We'd better get going or we're going to miss the tournament." I called as I began walking off, followed by Yugi.
"Wait just a moment, young lady, are you going to tell me what just happened or not?" called my mom. I stopped and turned around to face her.
"Umm… let's see…most likely not." I said "Just forget it ever happened, ok, I don't like to talk about it." At this I turned around and started walking away.
"What are you hiding from me? Tanya!" my mom called franticly. I stopped, sighing.
"Let's put it this way mom," I said "I'm not human. My mom was an Atlantian Queen and my dad… well my dad is another story entirely." My mom looked at me shocked.
"What do you mean, not human? Of course you're human, how could you not be?" she cried.
"I agree with your mom!" called Megan.
"Yeah, how could you be anything else?" agreed Kristen.
"There are many intelligent species that roam this earth besides humans." I said exasperated. "And if you want proof, tell me could a human do this?" I began to slowly lift off the ground and I held out my hand as a clear-blue orb began to form on it.
"Is that enough proof for you?" I asked as I descended to the ground. My parents looked at me astounded and speechless, as Megan and Kristen looked freaked out.
"Well if we are done here, maybe we can be at the tournament in time?" I said, turning around and heading off to Kaiba Land, leaving them with no choice but to follow. Once we were almost there Yugi and Pharaoh combined so they wouldn't have to do it later. When we reached Kaiba Land Mokuba spotted us and came over.
"I'm glad you could make it!" he called "I hope you didn't run into any trouble on your way here. I had some guests tell me there are some thugs guarding the road back there and demanding a passing fee."
"Not any more there's not!" said Joey smiling "Tan…." Tristan quickly covered his mouth.
"He means we didn't have any trouble making our way over here." covered Yugi. Mokuba looked confused but he let it go.
"Good, come this way please." he said leading us to a big dome "This is our state of the art dueling platform. It copies the strategies and decks of famous duelists and uses them to duel against whoever challenges it. We've imported Yugi's and Seto's decks as well as many others."
"Cool!" cried Joey "so you must have mine in there too!"
"Yeah, it's got to be able to lose or it wouldn't be fair." teased Tristan
"Hey!" cried Joey as he leapt on Tristan "Take that back!"
"Please excuse them" I laughed, trying to forget what had happened just a moment earlier "They're nut-balls!" I looked up to see a boy walking down from the platform looking upset. His friends encouraged him, then one of them recognized Yugi and they came running to get autographs from him and Rebecca. I laughed as Yugi examined one boy's deck and gave him advice and a magic card. The boy then promptly ran up to the platform to try again at level two. Suddenly the lights went out! And I could hear people running around trying to find out what had happened. Then the lights came back on, but the doors slammed shut!
"That's defiantly not good!" moaned Kristen
"I am reprogramming myself." a computer generated voice called.
"Neither is that!" said Megan.
"What's going on?" cried Mokuba as he typed away at the control system "It's not responding!"
"Look the computer reset itself to level five! He'll never survive that level!' cried one of the boy's friends. Suddenly Yugi switched with Pharaoh and jumped up taking over the duel. I watched as the duel progressed amazingly, but finally Pharaoh won! As he walked down from the platform all the boy's friends gathered around asking to trade with him. Pharaoh smile amused then switched with Yugi. Then the doors opened and the kid's parents come and to collect their children. Suddenly a Kaiba corp. helicopter lands and Seto jumps out and ran over to Mokuba, worriedly asking if he was ok.
"Sorry, Kaiba, you're too late to save the day, Yugi already did that." teased Joey.
"Shut it underdog." growled Seto "What happened Mokuba?" Mokuba quickly explained while ignoring Joey as he steamed, and as the others and I laughed at the perfect timing of the statement. Seto quickly headed in to check the computer. When he was done he gave it an, all clear, and said that whoever hacked into his computer system is the one that was waco. He then instructed Mokuba to take us to the dueling arena. Then he told Mokuba that anyone who was late would be disqualified, and to make sure Joey was late. I snickered behind my hand as Joey yelled after Seto.
"Come with me please." called Mokuba as he led us to a big building
"Let's go!" I called as I ran into the building. The others followed me in, equally as excited to see the inside of this humongous building. Inside we find a big party with lots of television reporters and newspaper reporters!
"What's going on?" asked Yugi, voicing all of our confusion.
"We're trying to create a buzz about our tournament." replied Mokuba evenly. I watch as Rebecca runs off towards the snack table, quickly followed by Joey and Tristan. I smile, amused, until a woman, with long pigtails, wearing Chinese clothes ran up and to Yugi introducing herself as Vivian Wong, but she told him to call her Viv, while Yugi blushes! Simultaneously Rebecca and I reached forwarded and grabbed her long pig tails and pull her away from him.
"Get away from him!" growled Rebecca. But Vivian promptly pulls free telling Yugi that just because they'll be opponents for the tournament doesn't mean they can't be "buddies" off the playing field and promptly grabs him around the neck! (How dare she!)
"Let…Him…Go…!" I growled coldly. Vivian lets go, only to then run off calling to Seto!
"Hey, Yugi!" called a boy who was pushing his way out of the crowd, it was Leon!
"Leon, what are you doing here?" inquired Yugi.
"I'm in the tournament too!" replied Leon "I've been hoping to duel you for a long time now!"
"It could just happen." said Kristen honestly. Suddenly the lights dimmed and Roland walks on stage.
"It's time to begin the world's biggest dueling tournament!" he called "Will the contestants please come on stage so I can announce them!"
"Time to strut our stuff!" joked Joey "Let's go!" I watched as Yugi switched with Pharaoh and began to walk on stage followed by the rest of the gang minus Tristan and Kristen. I was also quick to follow them.
Once everyone was on their way to the stage Roland began to call out the contestants "Our first contestant is the new dueling boy wonder, the prodigy who has yet to be defeated, Leon Wilson! Up next is Fortune Salmin, then we have Shade Jordan, Sergei Ivanoff, Detective Paul McGregor, Abe the Monkey Man, Dr. Richard Goat, Balfry Ginger, Totani Ialos, Road Warrior-ish Australian, Ethan Shark, Jafar Shin, and Vivian Wong." I gasped as Roland stopped to catch his breath.
"She's a contestant?" I cried quietly.
When he had caught his breath Roland was quick to continue. "Ok, next we have Rebecca Hawkins, and our own Joey Wheeler, the overwhelming underdog, as well ad the mystery masked duelist, Apnarg Otom! We are also graced by the presence of four young duelists who have come all the way from America to participate in this tournament, Tanya Peterson, Emily Dickerson, Megan Morris, Kristen Dotson, and our youngest duelist, Sarah Rodriguez! Our final contestant is the World Champion, Yugi Moto! Whoever survives the elimination will get a chance to duel Yugi for his title!" Pharaoh looked up, surprised. Obviously, no one had told him about this before. I had to quickly hide a smile, because of his expiration.