Chapter 18

A small crowd of people were milling about, fiddling with cameras and other technology. Every now and again someone would stand on their toes and try and look into the building they were waiting outside of. But for the moment there was no movement from inside. People continued to fiddle though it seemed unnecessary, the crowd just wanted something to do whilst they waited. The minutes ticked on and there was still no movement from the building. A few members of the crowd were starting to get restless. A few checked their watches, others retied shoelaces, and others checked their equipment for the thousandth time. But finally, there was a sign of movement. There were mutters as people spoke and jostled each other for positions. It was the calm before the storm. The door to the building opened and a lone figure emerged, his head down as he made his way through the crowd. The crowd waved cameras in the air and lights flashed. Members of the crowd called to the figure; he was still attempting to make his way through the crowd.

"Yugi! Yugi! Over here!"

"Yugi! How's your cousin?"

"Yugi! What have the police said?"

Yugi managed to push his way through the crowd but even on the other side the reporters attempted to follow him up the road. It appeared they were going to continue to follow him. He bit his lip for a moment before slowly turning to face the oncoming crowd. The reporters stopped less then a metre away from him, he didn't get a good look of a lot of their faces as cameras and microphones were shoved in his face with more questions being shouted. He looked at them before speaking over their shouts.

"Look guys, I understand you have questions but I hope you can understand I'm not going to talk about my cousin or what happened. We would just like some privacy with that, but with the tournament I'll happily answer any questions you have."

The cameras around him continued to flash for a moment before a reporter spoke.

"How do you feel about the next duel? Are you confident you can win and progress to the final?"

Smiling at the change of subject Yugi replied, "I have faith in my cards and that they will do me proud in the next match. I am very eager to find out who my opponent will be."

"How would you feel if you went up against Joey Wheeler?" Another reporter asked, "After all you two are good friends, Am I correct?"

"Joey is a strong duellist and has come a long way since he started playing. It would be an honour to go up against my best friend."

"You don't think it will be a strain on your friendship?"

"Of course not!" Yugi said, shaking his head to stress his point, "Nothing will get in the way of our friendship, we've been through so much over the last few years so I know he'll always have my back and I'll always have his, no matter what happens in the tournament."

The reporters tried to ask him more questions, but he raised his hands almost like he was in mock surrender.

"I'm sorry as much as I'd love to keep talking to you all I do need to get going. Otherwise, we may never find out who I'm up against."

As he turned, whilst waving to the reporters, they continued to yell questions at him but he hurried away. He did not want to be late, for one thing Kaiba would be mad and after everything he'd done for both him and Atem he didn't want to insult him. The second thing was he was rather excited to find out just who he'd be duelling. Since the announcement two days ago about the tournament restarting, he had been quite glad of something to distract him from the past. It had also helped the former Pharaoh and given him a focus. Together they'd discussed strategies and potential moves that one could make in certain situations, of course they didn't know who Yugi would be facing but they could still work with what they knew. But after today they'd be able to plan properly as they would know who he was facing. Kaiba was planning a live televised event for the announcement. Except it would not be quite the event seen when the tournament had first kicked off, from what he knew it was going to be small. But hopefully the event would be able to draw the attention away from Yugi and Atem. The reporters who'd been waiting for him outside the game shop had been there since it was announced that Atem was safe.

Yugi kicked a stray rock as he continued the walk into the city, the rock bounced into the road and almost hit a passing car. Thankfully, it just missed the car's paint work and rolled underneath. As he got closer to the city centre the more people he saw and the more people saw him. The general public acknowledged him, some waved, and others simply smiled. Unlike the reporters, they did not pester him. They didn't call out questions which did take him slightly by surprise. This was the first time he'd been out in public properly since Atem's rescue. Whereas when the former Pharaoh had been in hospital Yugi had only been out when he was travelling between the game shop and the hospital. But, although he had been expecting to get loads of questions it was nice that people left him alone. Ahead of him the Kaiba Corp building was just coming into view and he could just make out the silhouettes of three people waiting by the front steps. A smile made its way onto his face when he saw them. His friends must have spotted him as well as they turned to face him.

"Yugi!" He heard Tea call.

The smile on his face widened as he responded and hurried. Joining them Joey immediately leapt on Yugi, putting him in a headlock.

"Here he is!" He called, "Here's our little spikey haired buddy."

"Joey! Let go of him!"

"What? We've not seen this guy for days!"

Yugi wriggled out of Joey's grasp and straightened up, grinning at them.

"Hey guys, it's good to see you."

Tristan clapped him on the back, "It's good to see you too, it's been a while."

"Yeah sorry, it's been a crazy few days."

"We understand man. How's he doing?" Joey asked, his face falling in concern.

Knowing exactly who Joey was referring to, Yugi nodded slowly, "He's… He's alright, I think. He's definitely better than he was, it's just going to take him a while to recover. He wants me to tell you all that he appreciates your concern and that he's fine."

"Well, that sounds like him." Joey said, "I'm just glad he's on the mend."

"Me too," Yugi agreed, "I was worried when we first found him that he'd be a lot worse but thankfully not."

"What happened with the police? Weren't they looking into this?"

Yugi paused for a moment wanting to try and use the right words. Since the police had announced that they would be investigating what happened they had indeed come round to speak to Atem. That had only been yesterday. He remembered Grandpa leading the policemen into the living room where he and the former Pharaoh had been. Asking if they could ask Atem a few questions they'd sat down but before any questions had been asked, Atem had asked for both Yugi and Grandpa to leave the room. Despite being reassured by the police that he could have them there to support him, he'd refused. Atem hadn't wanted to recount exactly what had happened with them there. He told them he'd worried them enough and hearing what happened was not fair to them. They'd reluctantly agreed to leave the room, waiting in the kitchen for the police to leave. They had heard some questions that the police asked but they never heard Atem's responses, he was speaking in a way which meant they couldn't overhear him. After a good hour the police were satisfied and left. For the rest of the day Atem hadn't really spoken, he had been clearly lost in his thoughts. Yugi had carefully tried to ask him about what had happened, but he was never given an answer and backed off, clearly Atem wasn't going to talk about it.

"They came round yesterday..." Yugi started, "They asked him questions but I don't know what about or what Atem said because we weren't allowed in the room."

"Why not?" Tea asked.

"He didn't want us there, he won't talk to us about what happened. I think he's still trying to protect us by not telling us."

"But why would he do that?"

Joey let out a breath, "You know how he is. He doesn't like people worrying about him, and obviously whatever happened to him wasn't good. You didn't see him in that factory, Tea. He wasn't in a good way at all. In some ways I'm not surprised he doesn't want to talk about it, I'm not sure I would want to if it were me."

Tea looked as though she wanted to say more but Yugi, guessing what she would say, got there first.

"Joey's right, he doesn't like being worried about, but he knows that we're all here for him. The best way to help him now is to carry on and give him something else to think about. Like the tournament, we've had lots of conversations about strategies to use on my next opponent."

"You never know Yuge you might be facing me, and I'll give you a run for your money." Joey said, swinging his arm around his shorter friend's shoulder.

"Good, I'm glad to hear it." Yugi said, "Come on Joey, we should probably head in then we'll know once and for all who we're facing."

Joey punched the air, "Yes! Let's get this show on the road."

Joey practically leapt up the stairs leaving a laughing Yugi to follow not before waving at the other two. Together they entered the building and were immediately greeted by Mokuba, who apparently had been waiting for them.

"Good, you're here! That's everyone now." He said.

"Hey there Mokuba, so how are we doing this?" Joey asked, "Shall I pull a name out of a hat?"

Mokuba snorted, "No nothing like that in fact the computer has already decided whose facing who and I am the only person who knows."

They made their way up a corridor, with Mokuba in the lead and the other two boys following behind.

"You know? Then you have to give me a hint!"

"Sorry Joey but if I did that then Seto would disown me and I'd rather that not happen."

Joey's jaw looked like it was about to hit the floor but he caught himself just in time. Yugi, smiling at his best friend, couldn't help but wonder how this event was going to take place. They appeared to be going into the heart of KaibaCorp so it was difficult to know exactly where they were heading.

"How's this all going to work Mokuba?"

"We're going to do it in the conference room where we first announced the tournament. We've got the same members of the press to come and everything will be broadcast live so please try to be dignified," Mokuba explained, casting an eye at Joey, "Once we've revealed the duels there will be some questions and that's it."

Yugi nodded, that all sounded straight forwards, but he couldn't help but wonder whether there would be a repeat of what had happened outside the shop earlier. As they made their way through KaibaCorp and into the conference room they saw various news reporters setting up along with Kaiba and another boy who, at a guess, must be the other semi-finalist.

"Good you're finally here." Kaiba said, strolling over to meet them, "Typical that Wheeler would be the last to arrive, maybe I should disqualify you from the tournament."

"Watch it rich boy, it may be us facing each other in the next round and I think I know you're deck pretty well by now so we shall see who comes out on top."

Kaiba just scoffed, "The day you beat me is the day I hand the company to Mokuba."

Without another word he strolled away, moving to speak with some of the reporters. Mokuba moved to follow his brother before he paused and whispered.

"Try to beat him… if you're up against him."

He hurried off without another word leaving Joey and Yugi to grin at one another. Leading the way further into the room Yugi walked over to the other boy in the room who, frankly, looked overwhelmed by everything he was seeing. This must have been the first time this boy had ever made it this far into a tournament. Holding his hand out Yugi smiled at the boy.

"Hi, I'm Yugi. Congrats on making it this far through the tournament."

"Thanks," The other boy replied, shaking Yugi's hand, "I'm Justin by the way, I've been a huge fan of yours since Duellist Kingdom. I can't believe I'm meeting you in person."

"Believe it." Yugi grinned, "But I'm more honoured to meet you, you've earnt your place here."

"I didn't think I'd make it this far, I thought I'd be knocked out in the first round. But I remembered what you said about believing in your cards."

"And look where they got you." Yugi beamed.

They were prevented from having a further conversation as Kaiba called for quiet and began explaining how the event would take place.

Despite being quite a small event it took them a good couple of hours to actually prepare for the event. Kaiba wanted everything to run smoothly. Every detail needed to be checked, if a camera angle didn't work then in his mind the whole event would be ruined. But soon enough everything was ready and the count down to the live event was on. The four-duellist stood in line with Joey and Yugi on one side, Kaiba and Justin on the other. In the middle of the line was Mokuba, who'd be leading the event. Yugi watched as the red light on the central camera flicked on and off, counting down the seconds. He was actually quite nervous although he couldn't be exactly sure why. The light continued to flick before a man, who worked at KaibaCorp, held up his hand. In time with the light flickers, he counted down from five to one before the red light stopped flickering and became solid.

"Good afternoon Domino!" Mokuba greeted, "We thank you all for joining us as we officially restart the tournament, I'm here with all the semi-finalists who are just as excited as you as to find out who they'll be duelling next."

Beside Yugi, Joey was standing in his overconfident pose. The expression on his face must have been to him a look of pure confidence but to Yugi it looked more like Joey was desperate for the toilet. Grinning despite himself, he turned his attention back to Mokuba.

"Before we get to the duels, I think it's only fair that we touch on why the tournament was paused for a while." A glance at Yugi, "The tournament stopped for reasons that I am sure we are all aware of. Duel Monsters should not be about causing harm to others because you're not as strong as you'd want to be. Duel Monsters is about striving to improve your skills. If you're not as strong as you'd like to be then that should motivate you to work harder and, as the King of Games says, believe in your cards. It should not be about taking what you want by force. We were shocked to hear of the incident that took place, an incident which reflected everything Duel Monsters is not about."

Mokuba had turned to Yugi.

"On behalf of all of us here at KaibaCorp Yugi, we wish your cousin a speedy recovery."

Yugi smiled slightly and nodded his thanks to Mokuba. Joey clapped Yugi on the back before resuming his pose. Rolling his slightly sore shoulder Yugi internally let out a breath. Hopefully now that Mokuba had mentioned Atem none of the reporters would. He knew that his grandfather and Atem would be watching this at the game shop and the last thing he wanted was there to be question after question about the former Pharaoh. He knew that everyone was just showing their concern, but he also knew how much the former Pharaoh was trying to maintain his privacy as he recovered.

"Now, the semi-finals will be held next week." Mokuba was saying, "We're going to hold the semi-finals and the final in the Kaiba Dome. Tickets to watch the duels will go on sale exactly one hour after this broadcast so if you want to watch some Duel Monster action I suggest you head to the KaibaCorp website as soon as you can! But we can't have a duel monsters match without knowing who will be duelling. So, I think it's time to reveal who will be duelling in each match."

A television screen descended behind then.

"Our computer randomly matched up the duellists and I can now reveal the duellists in the first match of the semi-finals."

On the screen two square boxes had appeared which, at a guess, Yugi thought must be to reveal the picture of two of them. There was a dramatic pause and he found himself unable to pull his eyes away from the screen. Hours past, well to him it felt like hours when in fact it was only a couple of seconds. He saw himself appear on the screen followed by…

"Our first semi-final will be between the King of Games himself and Justin Fletcher!"

Yugi looked across at Justin and smiled at him before moving over to shake Justin's hand again. Justin's hand trembled in his, but he smiled at Yugi before they both moved back to their original spots.

"Which means, the second semi-final will be between none other of then Seto Kaiba and Joey Wheeler."

The television screen behind them had changed from a picture of Yugi and Justin to Kaiba and Joey. Beside him Joey had stiffened slightly, but he did walk over to Kaiba and shook his hand. Glancing at Joey as Mokuba rounded off all the announcements Yugi saw Joey reset that determined look in his eye, he was determined to beat Kaiba. It would be the ultimate win for Joey if he could. The next duels of the tournament were coming and seemingly it was going to be an interesting few days. The remained of the event past quickly with the reporters asking more questions but none involved Atem, which Yugi was thankful for. After all the questions were asked, the event ended and now all of them could focus on what came next. The semi-finals were coming and Yugi, for one, couldn't wait.

My dear friends, I wish you a very Merry Christmas!