Jounouchi hadn't known anything beyond "come to the Academy and duel". He never thought that he'd be dueling Mai... well, no, that wasn't true. He had thought. Continously. Or rather, he'd hoped. It'd been so long, though, and he'd been hoping. It had seemed silly to really think she'd be his opponent.
It wasn't so silly now that he was standing in front of a thousand Academy students, staring at her back. It... it was her, right? He wouldn't put it past himself to be hallucinating. He called her name. She didn't move, and he felt a fool. Again. Dammit, again, he always did embarass himself when it came to her... Mai? It's not you?
She turned, and his stomach dropped. His mouth, too, but he didn't notice.
"Mai?" Well, that was a start. He managed to say something. Now if he could say something besides her name. Nothing came to mind, though. He just stared, words failing. So much had come between them when she had fought with Dartz. At the same time, so much had strengthened. Risking his life when they all wanted to kill Malik anyway was nice and all, but fighting her, when she was trying to kill him and he owed her nothing, that was something. If he hadn't known how he felt about her before he'd gone to America, he certainly knew after. He'd been happy to fight and nearly die. The question was, how did she feel?
Mai wanted to run. Thousands of students and her own cowardice kept her standing where she was. Jounouchi stared at her, and she stared back.
"What are you doing here?" she finally got out. His smile fell. The question hurt him, and she winced. She hadn't meant to; it had slipped out. She wasn't supposed to duel HIM. Did he know he'd be dueing her? Why were things going so wrong?
"They asked me to duel," he answered in a level voice. The excitement was gone from him as well. The students cheered, not noticing the conversation playing out before them. The stands were a distracting, screaming mass of blues, yellows, and reds, but two duelists had eyes only for each other. "I didn't know it would be you," Jounouchi finished, his head down and voice low.
"I didn't mean..." she started, but swallowed it. What? She didn't mean to offend him? No she didn't, but did it really matter? It paled compared with what she had done to him before.
"I told them..." Mai hesitated. "...told them I'd duel if it wasn't you."
"Not me?" Jounouchi asked, head still lowered. His duel disk activated, and the students cheered louder. He said something more, lifting his head and looking right at her, but she could hear only the cheering.
The cards appeared in his hand before she noticed. With a flurry of lights, he summoned Blue Flame Swordsman. Mai mentally cringed at the familiar monster. He set two cards and it was her turn.
She drew a card, trying to read him. His eyes stayed down, refusing to meet hers. Was he mad at her? Would he just get the duel over with and not speak to her? That wouldn't be so bad. She summoned an Amazoness Paladin, its attack points matching those of the Swordsman, so she left it as it was.
Before she could end her turn, Jounouchi activated a trap. Her Paladin charged the Swordsman. With a clash of steel, both monsters struck and destroyed each other. Flame Swordsman appeared in place of its fallen comrade. Mai again started to call the end of her turn. Without a word, Jounouchi activated his second trap, and called his Blue Swordsman back from the graveyard. Mai stared at the two monsters on his side of the field, ready to attack as soon as she let them. He'd taken the upper hand so easily... was this the duelist she had become? She set a facedown card, but it was only a bluff until she could get a monster on the field.
Finally his turn, Jounouchi drew again. Mai had never heard him stay silent this long before. She wanted to say something. They could have the talk they'd needed since the whole business with the Orichalcos. They could talk, and work things out and be friends again.
Or she'd stand in place like an idiot while he beat her at Duel Monsters. Saying nothing, she watched him play a ritual spell. He discarded a card and a familar knight stepped onto the field. He didn't announce the name, and it didn't matter for it disappeared just as quickly, replaced by his trademark Red Eyes Black Dragon.
"Almost over," he muttered, just loud enough for her to hear. Was that supposed to reassure her? So she could get out of here more quickly? He had every right to be angry with her, but she wasn't used to it, and it was provking.
"At least one more turn," she shot back. "Red-Eyes can't attack." Still, the thought of facing it down the following turn with only 400 lifepoints wasn't encouraging.
"Yet." The three monsters on the field vanished. Mai blinked. He'd sacrifice his Red Eyes? The only monster of his with three tributes was... Gilford. But that wouldn't make sense, would it...?
She heard the dragon before she saw it. The students went crazy at the appearance of this rare monster. Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon, she'd heard of, and Metal she knew he'd used against Keith. This was something beyond either of those.
"Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon," he explained, seeing her confusion. A regular Red-Eyes emereged onto the field with its advanced partner.
"Its effect," he gestured to the new Red-Eyes. Together, the monsters had 5200 attack points. Mai stared at them. No, things couldn't fall apart this fast. She couldn't lose to him in two turns. He raised his hand, and both dragons struck. Her life hit zero. Game end.