Story: Foreign Customs||Chapter: Dueling and Dinner Plans
Romance: Ryou x Asuka
Chapters: 2-3||Words: 7,552||Total: 15,114
Genre: Romance||Rated: PG-13
Summary: While in California for a tournament held by Industrial Illusions, Asuka runs into someone she hasn't seen in sometime: Marufuji Ryou. They have a lot to talk about, too.
Asuka's eyes popped open and she slammed one hand down on the beeping alarm clock as hard as she could. That was one situation where language barriers didn't matter at all: an alarm clock was an alarm clock no matter what. She stared at it for a few moments, trying to let her brain assimiliate just what time it was. She didn't want to be awake just yet. She wanted to curl up back under the blankets and luxuriate in all that warmth for at least another hour.
Of course, since she had a breakfast meeting with Ryou relatively soon, there wasn't any way she was going to be able to do that. This was something that needed a lot more preparation than any duel she'd ever had before.
It's just breakfast with Ryou, she tried to tell herself as she stretched and ran her fingers through her hair, working out a few of the tangles that had taken up residence there. I don't need to dress up for it. And I'm dueling later today, too.
She didn't really have anything in her luggage that could be called dressy in the first place, either. Oh, there was that one outfit, but she intended to wear that on the final night of the tournament, which was scheduled to be on Christmas Eve itself. She wasn't going to wear it ahead of time, and not to breakfast, no matter what. Her usual dueling outfit would be more than good enough, once she got up and actually got herself together for the day.
She let her eyes slide back together for a moment and tried her best to concentrate and focus. She had to be at her best today. There was a real chance she'd lose one of her duels today, and be out of the tournament. She would still be able to attend the ceremony honoring the winner, of course, which was what she was saving her one truly fancy outfit for.
I wonder what the odds are that I might possibly win this thing. With some of the dueling greats here, she didn't think they were all that high. She had no intentions of giving up, but she knew somewhere along the line, she was going to lose a duel. Would it be to someone she knew? It wouldn't be the first time she'd lost to Juudai, if it turned out to be him. She hadn't ever dueled Misawa. It had never once crossed her mind to duel Ryou. He was just too good while they had been at the Academy together, and he'd only gotten better since then.
She shook her head in an attempt to focus again and pushed herself to her feet, stifling a yawn. Whoever wound up beating her, if anyone, she was going to give them the best duel she could. She didn't need to worry herself about what might happen. What she needed to think about at the moment was what she was going to talk about with Ryou during their breakfast.
The kiss. She glanced at the picture she'd lain on the nightstand beside the bed before going to sleep the night before, and tried not to smile too much. It made her feel a little strange inside to see them doing that. She didn't know how else to describe it other than that. How were things going to have changed by the end of the day? Or even in just the next couple of hours?
"They're not going to do any changing if I just stand here and stare," she snapped to herself, feeling her customary morning energy finally starting to stir through her. That was much more like it.
One hot shower and a change of clothes later, she felt much more like her ususal self, and left her room, determined to get things cleared up with him about that kiss, no matter what it might cost. She wanted to kiss him again, with both of them sober, and that was it. If he didn't want the same thing, she would just have to deal with that. It was much like a duel. One made the plans, and could only wait and see what one's opponent did when they were laid out on the field.
The hotel hadn't gotten any easier to deal with overnight, to her mild chagrin. She hadn't expected that it would, but it would have been pleasant if she'd found herself able to make it through without needing to ask for directions from someone.
Of course, needing to do so and actually doing so were two entirely different things, especially where Asuka was concerned. She didn't expect to run into any helpful other duelists this time, either. Most of the ones she passed either didn't pay her any attention whatsoever or from what snatches of conversation she could hear, probably didn't speak Japanese in the first place.
Wait a second. She sniffed the air a little, and a flash of a grin worked its way across her lips. That was a trail she could follow and not have to worry about a language barrier: the scent of breakfast. She didn't have the kind of nose for food that Juudai did, but anyone who couldn't follow the strengthening scents coming from the kitchen probably didn't have a sense of smell to start with.
Before very long, she found herself standing in the doorway of the hotel restaurant. Several of the other duelists were already there, both those who had already been eliminated and those who hadn't. Virtually all of those who had lost were sticking around for the end of tournament party, or so she surmised. Who wouldn't want to attend one of Pegasus J. Crawford's parties? They were the talk of the dueling world, in any language.
Ryou sat at a table near a window, with what looked to be a gorgeous view of the ocean. It wasn't very hard for her to find him, even with all the people going this way and that. His sense of presence was just too strong for her to miss him. She started over there, avoiding people as best she could, and smiled as she came close enough for him to see her.
"Good morning," she nodded her head slightly as she sat down and he inclined his head towards her. "Nice table you've got here." She took a quick look out the window; the view was every bit as wonderful as she'd expected it to be. She hadn't expected much less, both from the view and from him choosing a seat here. He clearly remembered their times at the Academy as well as she did.
"I thought you'd like it." Ryou said in his quiet voice. "I've been looking forward to seeing you again."
"Same here." Asuka agreed, then cut off whatever else might've come out of her mouth as a waiter came over to take their orders. Their business didn't need to be overheard by anyone else.
Ryou glanced up at the waiter, and ordered something that didn't sound very appetizing to her in flawless English. She considered being annoyed, and decided now wasn't the right time. She'd always known he spoke better English than she did, anyway. That was just what he did. He was better than people. It was no more his fault than it was the fault of the sun for being yellow and hot.
"I'd like some miso soup, rice, and grilled fish please," she ordered. English wasn't her best language, but she'd at least managed to learn how to order what she wanted to eat. It had been a fairly pleasant surprise to find that regardless of whether the staff spoke Japanese or not, they at least had some familiar foods on the menu. "And green tea." It would almost be like eating at home. Without Fubuki making a fool of himself. That was a large plus to her way of thinking.
Once the waiter had left, she looked back at Ryou, trying to decide just what to say to get things started. Maybe it would be better to start with something else, and work up to that kiss, and what could come of it. Unfortunately, nothing else wanted to come to mind. Just asking after his health and what his most recent duels had been like was so mindbogglingly inane she couldn't bring herself to even consider it for more than a few seconds.
"Do you really want to talk about things here?" Ryou said before she had a chance to say anything at all, indicating everything and everyone around them with a flick of his eyes. Something tight eased inside of her as she realized he understood. It might not have tallied exactly with what she was thinking about, but at least she wasn't going to have to talk about it here and now.
"Not really. Maybe after breakfast, we could go for a walk on the beach? It's not that cold today." It would be colder at night, but night was a long way off, and even so, the thought of walking by the ocean with him under the stars was a very attractive one.
"That's a good idea." Ryou agreed. He glanced around the room again, this time a little more slowly, then looked back at her. "I've seen some of your duels. You've done very well. I expect you're going to place very high in this tournament."
"I hope so. I'm supposed to duel at least twice today," Asuka replied. She toyed a bit with the end of her napkin. "I wouldn't be surprised if you or Juudai won it, though. Or tied for it." She smiled a little at him. "It wouldn't be the first time."
Ryou chuckled softly. The school duel at the end of his last year had been one of the sweetest memories of his entire life. He'd hoped ever since then to have a chance to duel Juudai again, just to see which of them was really better. He thought it might well be Juudai, but he would give him the best duel of his life even if it was. "We'll see. Are you going to be staying for the celebration once the tournament's over?"
"Yes. I'm supposed to be going right back to Japan after Christmas, though, if I can. My parents want the whole family together for the New Year's party." She rolled her eyes a little. "Fubuki supposedly has some kind of big announcement. He's probably going to tell us he's dying his hair again. That was what he said last year, anyway."
"That does sound like him," Ryou agreed. He'd probably seen as many of Fubuki's antics as she had through the years. "He hasn't mentioned anything to me about an annoucement, though."
Asuka nodded, then put the thought of her brother and whatever he was going to try to startle them with next out of her mind. Their orders would be there soon, she hoped, and Fubuki had a tendancy to put an end to her appetite when he was there. She wasn't going to let him do it when he wasn't. "I'm wondering who else might be here that I haven't seen yet, that I know."
"I saw someone the other day that shouldn't have even been here," Ryou said after a few moments of thought. "I don't think you ever met him, though. He left the Academy before you came there. Haru Katsu." At her questioning look, he told her all about what he'd done, and before the end of the story, she was almost ready to fall off of her chair laughing.
"He actually did that? He was that stupid?"
Ryou shrugged a touch. "Yes, he did it. He didn't have them here, though. I'm not sure if he was trying to be an honest duelist or not. He lost already, to someone who I am fairly certain never even attended dueling school."
Asuka's lips twitched a little, and she began to relax. It had really been too long since she and Ryou had had a good talk, and she looked forward to this almost as much as she did to dueling. And I'm looking forward to that other talk we're going to have just as much.
Neither of them could remain on the beach for as long as they might want to. They were committed to duels later that day. But for now, they had time to spare. Asuka walked beside Ryou, the waves lapping close to them, but not enough to disturb them.
"I was down here yesterday," Asuka said, remembering. "I thought about you then, and all the times we stood on the pier at the Academy."
"The ocean reminds me of you, too," Ryou replied. He didn't look at her at the moment, but she wasn't look at him either. Sight wasn't as necessary as sound was for the moment. "In a lot of ways."
She could almost feel the heat rising in her cheeks at what he said. "What do you mean?"
He shook his head for a moment, then reconsidered. "Because you're like the ocean. You can be calm most of the time, but when you blow up, it can take people by surprise, and cause damage they didn't expect." He paused, and Asuka knew she was blushing more furiously than she ever had before. He'd never said anything like that to her, or anyone else, as far as she had always been aware. "You're a challenge. You're someone to be respected. I respect you, Asuka."
Asuka didn't think she'd ever heard anything in her life that she had wanted to hear more than that. There were so few people he felt respect for, and she imagined they were even fewer that he'd said it about, much less to. It meant more to her than any words of romance might have.
"I respect you, too, Ryou," she said quietly. "I always have. No matter what." She meant every word of it as well. She couldn't remember a time when she hadn't. Ever since Fubuki had first brought home the elegant, quiet, restrained young boy who had grown into an elegant and fiery young man, she had respected him, even before knowing what the concept of respect was. He simply inspired it by his existence.
They walked along together for a little while longer, neither saying a word for several long minutes. Asuka was the one who broke the silence in the end.
"Fubuki sent me a picture of what happened that time," she said quietly. "I should've guessed he'd have one, if anyone would."
Ryou only nodded a touch. "Have you ever done that with anyone else?" he asked.
"No," she stated it quietly. "I haven't ever really wanted to kiss someone before." She didn't think parents counted after all.
There was another quiet nod from him. "I have. After what happened with you at that party, at least. Before then, there wasn't anyone else."
It took Asuka a moment to work through all of that, and once she had, she smiled a little. "So we were each other's first kiss."
"Apparently so." Ryou agreed, his voice still calm and unruffled. "I very much liked that kiss we had."
"So did I. I've been thinking about it some." Asuka took her courage in both hands and continued to speak. "I've wondered what it would be like to kiss you without anything affecting either us." She wasn't going to say 'without us being drunk'. They hadn't been drunk in the first place. They'd just had a couple of glasses too much. She would go as far as mildly buzzed, or with slightly released inhibitions.
Ryou agreed with a slight tilt of his head. "It's crossed my mind as well," he replied, nothing more. Asuka held back a shiver, and wondered if she should've brought some kind of jacket at least. It was warm, but something like that might've been useful anyway.
"You said you've kissed other people?" She wondered just why; he hadn't seemed like the type to do that.
"Yes. I wanted to know something about that kiss."
"What?"
He turned to look at her, and she glanced back at him, their eyes meeting. "I wanted to know if I enjoyed it because it was a kiss, or because I was kissing you."
Asuka couldn't take her eyes off of his face, and might not have even if she could have. "Well? What did you figure out?"
Ryou kept looking down at her, and she wondered for a moment if he intended to kiss her again. With the way the surf was pounding behind her, she couldn't be entirely certain if what she heard was it, or the sound of her heart thudding in her ears. If he had kissed her, she knew she would kiss back.
"It was you. The other kisses weren't anything like yours. I liked yours the best of them all."
Asuka found it hard to breathe suddenly. She was hot for a moment, then cold, then hot again. She had never felt anything like that in her entire life. If she hadn't known better, she might have suspected she was getting sick. Was it because of what he said? It didn't make sense for simple words to have that effect on her.
"I want to kiss you again, Ryou," she murmured quietly, and he nodded, just a little. She felt as if she were staring up at the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon with how nervous and out of her depth she felt, and she couldn't wait for more.
He started to lean down, just a little. She reached up, just a little, their eyes never leaving one another.
"Boss! Hey, boss!" Both of them pulled back from each other, and for a moment, fire flickered deep in the depths of Ryou's eyes. He said nothing at all, but his voice was calmer than the deepest depths when he spoke.
"Matsuo. Hidaka." He didn't turn away from Asuka for a moment, either. She glanced behind him to see the two duelists he'd been with the day before coming down towards them.
"Who are they, anyway?" Asuka wanted to know as they scrambled towards her and Ryou. She could at least find out who she needed to kick around for interrupting this moment.
"I'm supposed to be teaching them how to handle themselves in the Pro Leagues." Ryou turned slightly towards them as they pounded their way up. "Apparently I forgot to mention that when I say I don't want to be bothered, that's exactly what I meant." The tone of his voice could've easily been used to chill two or three deserts.
Matsuo didn't notice for a moment. "Boss, I'm supposed to be dueling in about twenty minutes, against Hayashi Michi. You've got to be there!"
Ryou said nothing at first, then turned fully back to Asuka. "He's right." Distaste flavored his voice for a moment then was gone as if it had never been. "We can continue this later. After the duels for today?"
"Right." She glanced at her watch; she had a duel herself in another hour. She really should be getting ready for it. There wasn't much she had to do besides show up; she had went through everything the night before. Maybe she could do a little research on her opponent if she had to. "Where should we meet?"
"Outside the front doors to the hotel?" he suggested. The smallest hint of a smile tugged briefly across his lips. "I think you should be able to find those."
"No problem at all." The same small hint touched her own lips for a moment. "As soon as possible after the duels are done?"
"Yes." It wasn't a specific time, since it was impossible to really judge how long a given duel could last, but they would find one another. If nothing else, they could cross paths via e-mail and see what was going on like that. Or they could just look until one of them located the other.
Matsuo fidgeted a little more. "Boss, I know you're busy trying to arrange a date with your girlfriend, but if I'm late, I'm going to be disqualified!"
Ryou glanced at him with that frosty gaze, and the younger duelist subsided obediently. He looked back at Asuka calmly. "My apologies. He still has a lot to learn."
"Didn't we all at one point?" Asuka asked. Ryou nodded ever so slightly, that ghost of a smile making another brief appearance. "I'll see you then." She looked over at Matsuo and nodded a greeting and good-bye in the same motion. "Good luck with your duel." She didn't really wish anything wrong on him for having interrupted them. At least, not all that wrong. Maybe a few bad draws at least.
She started back to the hotel itself, while Ryou and his protoges followed the path that would lead them to the dueling arena that Pegasus had set up for the tournament. She had been there four times already since this tournament had begun, twice for her own duels, once for one of Juudai's, and once for one of Misawa's. It was definitly a magnficient experience.
Before too long, they were too far away for her to keep an eye on Ryou, and she missed that. In her imagination, she could still feel the soft whisper of his breath on her lips, and wondered just what it would have tasted like to feel his lips on hers like that. Time and sobriety had muddled the memory of what the first time had been like. She wanted to be certain nothing like that happened with this one.
Entering the hotel brought her back into the sphere of the other duelists, the ones who either were already out of the running or who weren't all that interested in watching any of the other duels going on at the moment. She couldn't see anyone she knew around here, and guessed they were probably being spectators at the moment, if they weren't dueling themselves.
Should we try to have dinner together or something tonight? The concerns of what was going on between herself and Ryou wandered back to the forefront of her mind. She wondered why that seemed so important to her all of a sudden. Was it just being around him again after so long? That had to be it. It certainly felt good to just talk to him, to feel him being so close to her.
They could decide what they were going to do together when they were actually together. That was on the far side of the day, and there were a lot of other things that she had to do between now and then. I've got some time. I'm going to see who it is I'm going to be dueling today and find out what I can about them. They were probably already doing the same thing, learning what they could about her. It was the way of the duelist.
Ryou could think of several reasons why he shouldn't smack Matsuo and Hidaka upside the head. It was rude, it was uncalled for, it was crass, he didn't really need to do it, and they wouldn't understand the problem in the first place. He could also think of at least one why he should: they'd interrupted things with Asuka.
Those things had been going very well, really, and that was what bothered him the most. He hadn't quite expected that they would have been each other's first kiss, though in retrospect he probably should have. He knew he had never bothered with any kind of emotional entanglement, no matter what the popular tabloids declared. Asuka hadn't either, even with Manjoume having had a deep crush on her since the ending of their first year at the Academy. She had simply not been interested in him, or anyone else, beyond the boundaries of friendship.
Finding out that things had changed, at least where he was concerned, had been a shock. Perhaps it wasn't all that bad that they'd been interrupted. He wanted to have a chance to think things through a little more before they took any extra steps.
He didn't want to rush into this, whatever 'this' might be. Calling it love was a little too quick for his tastes, and for hers, he suspected. He hadn't lied when he said he respected her. She was a strong, skilled duelist, with a great deal of heart and soul. She wasn't the only person like that in the world, but she was the one who he noticed, even without noticing that he did so.
Perhaps it would be a good idea to try a few more things before they started kissing on a regular basis. Their breakfast together had been one of the more enjoyable experiences of his life. He could get used to seeing her across a table more and more frequently. Maybe he should think about asking her to dinner that evening?
What about the end-of-tournament party? He hadn't really thought about attending that beyond a cursory appearance if he placed highly enough by the end. But now that he thought about it a little more, spending several hours in Asuka's company in a party setting wasn't all that bad of an idea. There had to be something in his wardrobe that would be suitable to wear, and there would be other people to talk to as well. It had been a while since he'd done anything that resembled socializing. He wasn't very good at it, either. But with Asuka there, that was all the social life he felt he needed.
After all, she wasn't likely to try and urge him into dancing if he didn't want to, and neither of them would be inclined to overindulge in whatever alcoholic drinks happened to be laying around, not after the last time. It would be a lot more interesting than some of the so-called 'dates' he'd had to endure thanks to his manager. Perhaps I should give myself a gift for the holidays: a new manager. He could certainly use a generous severance package as well. It wasn't as if he couldn't find another one with a snap of his fingers. Scarcely a week went by without someone wanting to know if he felt like a change.
The sound of cheering worked its way into his attention, and he glanced up to see how the duel was progressing. Matsuo was dueling Hayashi Michi, the same girl he'd mentioned to Asuka earlier as not having went to dueling school at all. He had paid little attention to her beyond having noted that about her. She appeared to be primarily a defensive duelist, luring her opponents into attacking her face down monsters, which generally had devestating flip effects. It wasn't the most original strategy he'd ever heard of, but there were worse ones. Matsuo was also dueling fairly well, though Hayashi had a thousand point lead on him in life points.
Ryou quickly figured that the reason for the cheering was Matsuo had just neatly managed to block what appeared to be Hayashi's favorite spell card, Shield and Sword. Now, can he follow up on that? He paid a little more attention to the duel, despite his minor annoyance with Matsuo. He wanted to be able to give worthwhile advice once this was done, and not necessarily just about not bothering him unnecessarily when he was busy with something, or someone, else.
A slight bend of his head was all Ryou needed to do in order to get a good look at Matsuo's hand. He didn't have anything face down on the field at the moment, so Ryou was able to quickly figure out what the best strategy of the moment could be. He wasn't able to see what Hayashi had in her hand or what her two face down monsters were at the moment, but that was all right.
If he attacks, he could lose his monsters. She's been known to use both Man-Eater Bug and Nobleman-Eater Bug so even if his monsters are more powerful than hers, if that's what she has face-down, he'll leave himself vulnerable. Ryou eyed the cards carefully. He wouldn't give any advice for now. It was Matsuo's duel, and he wouldn't learn anything if Ryou ran it for him.
"I summon Rocket Jumper!" Matuso declared, placing the card on his Duel Disk. The holographic monster appeared, pointed directly at Hayashi's side of the field. True to the name, it was a red rocket set on top of a bandaged goblin. "And since both your monsters are in defense mode, it can attack your life points directly!"
Ryou nodded slightly; that was the best move that could be made at the moment. It bypassed whatever tricks Hayashi had in mind with her face down monsters and struck her directly. Matsuo was learning; he'd missed this kind of trick when he and Hidaka had first been assigned to Ryou.
Dinner tonight, and then I'll see if she wants to go to the party together, he decided, dividing his attention between the duel and considerations on what to do with Asuka. There were still a few more days left in the tournament; perhaps they could find something to do between now and then. For that matter, perhaps he should think about getting her some kind of a gift.
That was a small problem in and of itself. He couldn't think of what she might like. He couldn't remember the last time he'd bothered to get presents for people. No one expected him to. Occasionally if he saw a card or something that his brother or parents might like, he picked it up, but he had never done something like this for Fubuki or any of his other friends.
He had absolutely never done it for Asuka. When Valentine's Day came around, she had given him obligation chocolate just like she had Juudai, Manjoume, Misawa, Shou, and anyone else she hung out with at the Academy. He presumed she'd kept on doing it after he'd left. He hadn't ever asked, and she hadn't sent him any since then. He thought he remembered getting her something for White Day, but he couldn't remember what it had been. It had been a few years, after all.
Asking Fubuki for advice on the matter didn't cross his mind for more than the time it took to dismiss the notion altogether. The elder Tenjon sibling would probably be suggesting things such as roses, candlelit dinners, and love duels. Ryou would throw himself bodily into a volcano before he would do something that inane.
He was just going to have to go searching around town for something that suited her, and if he didn't find anything, then no harm was done. They could simply talk and spend time together, before and after the party. Even with her leaving shortly after the twenty-fifth, they could remain in touch, and arrange visits on occasion. It wouldn't be that hard to do. The only reason he hadn't before was because he hadn't been certain what to do about the kiss itself.
Matsuo's cheer of victory drew his attention more fully back to the dueling. He ran what he'd seen back through his mind, not wanting anyone else to know he hadn't been paying quite as much attention as they expected from him. He didn't think he'd missed anything of vital importance. Neither duelist had done anything really spectacular or stupid. It had been a slightly better than average duel, all things considered.
"Well done," he said to Matsuo. "We can talk about things more in depth later."
Matsuo flashed a cocky grin at him. "Are you sure about that, boss? Don't you kind of have previous plans?"
Ryou bent his most annoyed gaze on the younger duelist. "My plans will not take up the entire evening. I said that we will talk about it later." He didn't need to say anything else. Matsuo's eyelid twitched a little, sure sign that he was getting nervous, and Hidaka stepped up, nodding as quickly as he could.
"You're right, of course. I'm supposed to be dueling in about an hour. Will you be there?" The other duelist asked as politely as he could. Ryou nodded briefly, reviewing the schedule of duels that he'd glanced at that morning in a mental heartbeat. Asuka was to duel someone that day, he recalled. He would have to be there to watch. Her opponent's name wasn't familiar, but he wasn't overly concerned. This was Asuka. She would do her best, no matter what.
He also had a duel coming up that afternoon. It wasn't a hard and fast rule, but for the most part the lesser skilled duelists performed in the morning, with the more advanced ones coming in the afternoon. That would change as more and more of them were weeded out. He considered researching his opponent, and decided not to. He had other things he wanted to do, such as exploring the city for some suitable gift and possibly interesting dining areas that weren't connected to the hotel. That was good enough for a quick breakfast, but for a dinner, something more was required.
Asuka drew a card and glanced at it briefly before she laid it on her duel disk. "I play Pot of Greed, and if you don't know what that does, you shouldn't even have a deck of Duel Monster cards."
"Thanks for not stating the obvious," her opponent, a redhead who had introduced herself as Kohaku, told her. "If I have to hear one more person going 'this lets me draw two cards', I might have to find a way to hurt them."
"I know what you mean." Asuka had never really liked the way some duelists were just so bland about what they were doing. Everyone knew what some cards did. It was still a matter of style. She pulled her two cards and examined them quickly. Things were looking good for her in this duel. There was a five hundred life point difference at the moment, but she wasn't worried about that. She'd come back from tougher situations.
This play would have to be the one to win it, though. She had two monsters on the field already, Blade Skater and Etoile Cyber. She hadn't pulled Fusion that duel yet, or she would have had Cyber Blader on the field. But she didn't think she was going to need it now. Kohaku's Launcher Spider was about to go down. Glad she just summoned that thing last turn. Sure, it ate my Cyber Tutu, but now...it's payback time.
"This was a really good duel, but I've kind of got something else to do with the rest of the afternoon, so it's going to have to end now," Asuka declared. She thanked that Pot of Greed. Combined with what she already had in her hand, she had what she needed to win now. "First, I play Ritual of Machine Angel!"
Kohaku groaned audibly.
Asuka grinned a little, then went on. "I sacrifice Etoile Cyber and Blade Skater for this ritual to summon..." she paused briefly for dramatic effect, "Cyber Angel Dakini!"
As she placed the card down, the monster began to form. Blue-skinned and four-armed, with the top two arms bearing a sword in each and the lower two hefting a staff between them, adorned with bronze and gold armor, it was one of the most impressive monsters in Asuka's deck. "By the way, thanks to Cyber Angel Dakini's special effect, you're not going to be able to protect yourself. Now that I've Special Summoned it, you have to destroy one monster on your side of the field. Since you only have one monster..."
"Right. Squash the spider." Kohaku hmphed lightly as her spider beast vanished in a sparkle of light, and two thousand seven hundred attacks points bore down on her mere two thousand life points. As her life point meter ran down to zero, she grinned, sweeping her cards back into her deck. "You were right, this was good."
"Maybe we can duel again sometime?" Asuka asked, going over to shake her opponent's hand. "Doesn't have to be in a tournament."
"I'd like that." Kohaku shook her hand warmly. "Those are some pretty cool monsters you've got. No one with any sense would say fairies are weak if they went up against you."
Asuka smiled a little. "Thanks. Your fire-monsters are kind of hot, too."
Kohaku blinked at her for a moment, then laughed. "That was bad. That was very bad." She shook her head and smiled. "I've got to get going, now that I'm out of the tournament. Good luck! I hear Marafuji Ryou's in this thing, so watch out for him."
"You'd better do the watching, since you're about to bump into him." Asuka held back a laugh as Kohaku whirled around in time to stop herself in her tracks. Ryou stood there, calmly looking down at her.
"Sorry about that," Kohaku apologized, backing up and bowing slightly. "Gotta go!" With a quick wave of her hand, she darted through the crowd and was soon lost to sight. Asuka shook her head; she had yet to run into a duelist who didn't have some kind of interesting personality. Even Ryou had far more than his fair share of quirks.
"That was an excellent duel, and a good draw at the end there," Ryou complimented her as he came over. The crowd that had been watching dispersed, already on their way to another duel more than likely.
"I got lucky," Asuka acknowledged. It was hard to say what might have happened without knowing everything else that could've been drawn, but she was willing to attribute it to skill and luck both. They were the two best friends of any duelist. "Don't you have a duel this afternoon?"
"Yes, but it's not for another thirty minutes. I wanted to talk to you before that, if you don't mind."
Asuka shook her head. "I don't mind at all." There were few things she could think of that would be more pleasant than spending time with him right now. Most of the rest of them involved being back at home, however.
Once again the two of them found themselves walking by the ocean, this time in the opposite direction that they'd been going earlier. It felt good to get out in the fresh air, and the sound of the surf was somewhat comforting, especially when she was around him.
"Was there something in particular you wanted?" Asuka asked as they walked. She hadn't really expected to see him before their already agreed on meeting after the daily duels.
"There's two questions I want to ask," he replied, coming straight to the point. "The first is, would you care to have dinner with me this evening? I looked around town before I came to find you, and I found one or two places that should be interesting to try. They don't serve Japanese, though. The ones that do appear to be completely full for the foreseeable future."
Asuka blinked a few times, trying to get this straight in her head. Ryou was asking her out on what appeared to be a date, to some nice restaurant in town. He hadn't had to say they were nice; it went without saying since he was making the suggestion. He had standards, after all. The thought of trying something new in the way of cuisine wasn't all that scary, either.
"All right," she said at last. "Dinner out on the town would be good. What was the other question?" This had to be something interesting, or Ryou would never have mentioned it in the first place.
"You're aware of the party that will be held once the tournament is over, I know." Ryou approached this a touch obliquely. She knew that he knew she knew. They'd mentioned it over breakfast, after all. "Have you thought about going with anyone?"
A thousand thoughts passed through her mind in the space of a single heartbeat, and she smiled. "Yes, I'd like to go to it with you, Ryou. There's no one here I'd rather go with." There, that passed through all the awkward asking and wondering that usually made her want to throw things at the screen when she saw something like this on television.
She was warmed by the faint hint of a smile that he bestowed on her. That was worth more than all the cheesy grins that most people had to her. So now they had two dates lined up, more or less in a row. She supposed some people might think they were moving too fast. She didn't care what they thought. This was her life and their relationship. They would proceed at whatever pace they felt was right, and anyone who didn't like it didn't have to pay attention to them. They should be worried about their own lives, not hers, regardless.
Asuka gazed up briefly into his eyes, enjoying the depths she found there. Many people had been terrified into surrendering duels before they'd drawn more than their first hand by staring into those eyes. She could understand why. They could be as cold as ice when he wanted them to be, and always, always were they filled with confidance beyond the lot of any mortal. Right now, however, she could see other things in them. She could see herself reflected in there, small but there, and she liked the thought of being a part of him. Was he looking at himself in her eyes, and did he liked it as much as she was liking this? There was no way to ask right now. Maybe another time, another place, another day.
"I think we need to start to head back." He didn't take his eyes from her, and she couldn't have moved at the moment for all the world. "I have that duel."
She knew he wouldn't appreciate it if he missed the duel because he was standing here with her. Dueling meant as much to him as it did to her, and she would never have forgiven him if it had been the other way around. Besides, this meant she got to watch him while he was dueling, and it was a fair trade. He'd watched over her duel with Kohaku, even if she hadn't known that until afterwards.
"All right." It was better to go ahead and get that finished soon, too. There would only be two or three more in the day, and after that it would be announced who they were dueling the next day.
Ryou's duel was one of the better ones, at least as far as Asuka herself was concerned. His opponent was a young man a couple of years older than he was, with a clever style and a deck of common cards he used in interesting and unusual ways. Asuka wondered if he'd ever been to the Academy; his style wasn't anything she remembered seeing before. But in the end, it was Ryou who emerged the victor.
"Great duel!" The opposing duelist congratulated him. "Good luck, I think you could win this."
"We'll see," Ryou replied with a quiet smile and nod of his head. It felt good to be able to respect his opponents again, after everything that had happened all those years ago. He renewed his determination to find something around town not just for Asuka, but for Shou as well. There had to be something somewhere.
Asuka came a little closer as he put his deck away and tugged his duel disk off for the day. The newer models were as light as they had ever been, but wearing something like it constantly could be a little on the annoying side still. Nothing was ever that perfect.
"There's still plenty of time left until dinner," he said. "What would you like to do?"
"Why don't we just see who we're going to duel, then just talk for a while, maybe watch a movie or something?" she suggested. She had a few DVDs she'd brought with her that might work in the player in her suite. It would be better than trying to make sense of the ones the hotel had provided.
He nodded briefly, and the two of them headed towards the main room of the duel arena, where the results of each duel were electronically displayed after the winner was declared, and who they were to duel the next day was also shown. There were several displays for the various languages all the attending duelists spoke, and he checked the Japanese one first. His English was very good, but he was still most comfortable in his mother tongue.
Asuka saw her name first, and when she saw her opponent, the world virtually stopped turning around her. Ryou caught sight of it a moment later, and he froze where he stood, as taken aback as she was.
There, in glistening color, were their names. One duel the following day would be Marufuji Ryou versus Tenjoin Asuka.
To Be Continued