Thank you for your reviews. This is not beta read.

Chapter Five: Towards Zero
"Hullo, Mum. It's me."

"Hermione!" The voice crackled over the phone, followed muted mutterings on the other end. "Sorry, it was your father. How's the card ga-- I mean, 'duels' going?"

"I'm doing well." Hermione paused, before plowing forward. "I haven't lost yet. I have two more duels."

"Ah," her mother crackled knowingly. "You think you might well win this."

"I didn't--" Well, I might, Hermione stopped her tirade. She did think she could win this. Half the game was a mind game, and she had found that she was rather good at those, if nothing else because she was an unknown, and her patterns were still new. "Yeah, I might."

"Well, your passport is still valid." Her mother sighed.

Hermione wondered why she sounded almost relieved, before upping it to a trick of the phone. "Yeah. I was wondering about the wizarding side of things. I know that to go to Australia need to declare your intention by letter to their Ministry a week ahead of time. I can't remember what the laws are for Japan though. I have a book upstairs--"

"And you want me to go get it and look it up for you?"

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble." Already Hermione heard slight thunks; her mother must have answered on the cordless. "It's on the top shelf of the bookcase. You'll need to look up Japan in the index and--"

"Hermione, I know."

"Sorry. Ron doesn't always." For that matter, neither did Harry, but that was what she was for. And most books in the library didn't have an index; it had made Nicholas Flammel so elusive. She tapped her fingers, waiting.

"Found it. All that's required by you is a muggle passport, and for you to present yourself at the Ministry with in forty-eight hours of entering the country."

Hermione smiled. Another weight off her chest. She hadn't looked before leaving, not planning to let the knowledge bother her, but now that she was so close to going, she had to know. She didn't fancy pretending to be an utter muggle, and not even take her wand to get into the country.

"Ohhh." The hiss of breath played havoc with speaker. "Hermione, did you know that they do not have underage restrictions on magic there?"

"What?" Hermione asked, her mind already beginning to whirl in plans.

"Yes, you can use it when you're over there."

"I didn't know..." An idea began to grow, but she tried ignore it. She hadn't won yet.

Actually summoning a monster was like waving her wand for the first time. It was an almost religious experience. The light played of the scales of the mermaid she had summoned, and it swam though the air fluidly to the center of the field. Hermione placed a trap card face down, and played, delighted. It was a beautiful game.

Her opponent had been the first to sacrifice a monster and to attack. The monster had appeared in a shower of sparks. She had admired it for a second, until it attacked her.

It was almost a physical blow to see her monster destroyed, and a few hundred of her life points blown away as well.

However, as she ordered her Swan Warrior to attack, she paid him back in full and more, wiping out the last of his life points.

The next hour, waiting for her final duel passed in a blur. Hermione shuffled her deck nervously, but couldn't bare to look at the card faces, or the duel disk. Panic clogged her throat.

It may have been just a game, but the stakes had been upped the moment her mother had confirmed her suspicion.

She was ready for when the referee called for her, and with steady hands, she drew five cards.

Chris Tanner was the best duelist she had faced yet. His style was cutthroat, often sacrificing his monsters. As long as it gave him the advantage, the cost didn't matter. He sacrificed a seven star monster for a six star monster with a strong attack, but a weaker defense. It destroyed the monster that she had in attack mode, and bested it by four hundred attack points.

From there on, it was a close duel.

It was the final stretch of the duel, and though her life points were lower, she felt that they were evenly matched. She had one card, that would allow her to summon one of her higher class monsters, but it would let her opponent bring back any monster from his graveyard. If he was choosing for an effect monster, like the man she had dueled against in the second round, she might have chanced it, but as it was she didn't dare.

"Draw," she murmured, looking at the hopeless hand, adding another useless card to it. Playing Hysteric Fairy in defense mode, she struggled to contain her sigh. It was a shield, for the next turn only. "I end my turn."

Chris looked at her suspiciously and then at her face down card. It was there first time she had played a monster face down without a magic or trap card waiting face down. He had two monsters out on the field already, both having over a two thousand attack points. If he did not summon anymore, she would survive the turn by a margin of three hundred to five hundred life points, depending on which monster attacked.

That was if he did not summon another monster. He had no monsters left in his hand, she had seen to that two turns ago, when she had played a magic card that let her see his hand and discard two cards.

She met his eyes calm, willing herself not to react to anything. He was baiting her, seeing how she would react as he put down another magic card. Hermione would not let him win this. She was going to go to Japan, and test her spells there.

The boy searched her stance and face. "I end my turn," he said, uncertain.

Hermione nodded, and placed her hand over her deck, praying desperately and wordlessly for the card she needed. She had only this turn and maybe one more; she would make it count.

This was not just for her, not just a game. This meant she could go to Japan, see their library, and best of all, test her spells. This was about keeping Harry alive. Hermione wondered, that in winning this game of cards, if she would win the war.

She drew.

A minute later, she could only stare at as her opponent's life points blinked down to zero. The monsters disappeared in a shower of sparks, the holographic system disengaging. The roar of the crowd swept though the ballroom. She looked around, having forgot them in last desperate minutes when the world had narrowed to her and the cards.

The referee smiled at her, before quieting the room for the next duel, for the other finalists that would represent Britain.

The congratulatory hand shakes, and advice wore thin very quickly, as did the small talk. It penetrated Hermione's clouds of dream and hope, bringing her back down to earth. The gushing of gleeful fans (she was still trying to get over that), made Hermione want to run. No wonder Harry hated this. She could feel her face was glowing red, and wished it wasn't. This was so embarrassing.

They crowded around her, shoving paper and cards that they wanted her to autograph. Numbly she did, her hands moving automatically, and the ball-point pen feeling unfamiliar in her hand. She stared as her former opponent did the same, with much greater ease, talking to his smaller clump of fans. After the tenth card, she began to only clearly write the first letter of her name, and scribble a line after, in parody of her signature.

For first and the only time at the tournament, Hermione made it to a meal early. She and Maria Kaur sat in the places of honor, as the champions of the tournament. The other girl chatted with duelists, but Hermione was quiet.

"You played a good game," Maria commented, as the soup was served. "You honestly tried today. The style of your dueling completely changed."

"Really?" Hermione said. She didn't feel like making small talk. The day had been too long.

"Yeah." Maria seemed to take a hint, and she only talked to Hermione to ask for her to pass the salt afterwards, until dessert. Most of the tables began to clear, and the one they sat at was empty but for them.

"You've never been to a Japanese tournament, right?" Maria asked, poking her jello cautiously.

"No... have you?"

"Twice. I went to the second world tournament there, and..." Maria put down her fork, taking another sip of water. "I also went to Duelist Kingdom."

"That tournament about a year ago. It was held by Industrial Illusions?" Hermione rested her chin on a hand, now slightly more interested. It was one of the earliest tournament to use the holographic technology.

"Yeah. I lasted less than a day." Maria drew the straw out of glass, and twirled it, before continuing. "Which I am sincerely grateful for. At least three people went missing in that tournament. One was a duelist who drew a gun in finals, because he lost." She smashed the straw flat. "There were other rumors too."

Hermione wondered if Maria was smarter than she had originally thought. As scare tactics went, this was effective. However, she was a witch, and could handle herself. Hermione prided herself on rarely making stupid mistakes.

"I'm still going." Hermione wiped her mouth with napkin, and left the table.

Her parents were trilled that she was going. Almost too trilled, and Hermione almost had a few suspicions as to why, but she didn't voice them. They were all happy she was going to Japan, and there was no need to stop her. She wanted to there to test spells, they wanted her out of the country and presumable out of harm's way. There was no need to let them know what the injury rate for spell testing was; she was careful, and it was unlikely to happen to her.
It was a probably a good thing that she was able to pick up the phone a few days later, rather then her mother.

"Excuse me, but is Hermione Granger there?"

"Yes, that's me," Hermione answered cautiously. The voice over the phone sounded vaguely like Parvati's, but she didn't have Hermione's number; she also had no reason to call.

"Thank god. I was afraid that I would have to try to catch you at the airport."

Hermione leaned against the counter, twining the phone cord around her fingers. "Maria?"

"Oh! Uh, yeah, it's me." She sounded rather sheepish. "I... uh..."

"Why are you calling?" Hermione asked again.

"Look, you're a new duelist." Maria was serious now, her voice colder. "You haven't gotten into the networks or anything. This is going to be your first international tournament, right?"

"Yes," Hermione said, trying not to lose her patience.

"There's a rumor going around--"

"Look, I'm really not interested," Hermione cut in. "I have reasons of my own for wanting to go, and I'm going to go regardless of what you say."

"Just hear me out," Maria snapped. "I'm doing you a favor here. Look, Seto Kaiba's little brother has disappeared. There's nothing official, but he hasn't been seen in public recently. The tabloids think it's a fight, but..."

"I'm sure it's something like that," Hermione sighed. They didn't have a dark lord running around there, and she doubted that a man who owned a multinational company didn't have sense and money to hire bodyguards.

"Whatever. All I'm doing is telling you that I'm not going. I'll see you on the dueling circuit, maybe." The off hook tone sounded a moment later, and Hermione hung up the phone.

She went back to packing and weighing her bags, trying to cram the maximum amount of books in.