Summary taken from the title of an Lj-community, playthedamncard. YuGiOh and all related characters are copyrighted to Kazuki Takahashi as of 1996 and are not my own.

So. This turned out kind of… long, thus I think you should think of it as yet another badly chaptered story, or as a series of one shots working towards a final point. Some bits flow a lot better than others. For now, here's "part three" of the future.

Chapter Three.

It was frankly unavoidable, really.

Seto Kaiba, renowned for his strength of will and control in duels the world over, sat side by side with his greatest rival and aforementioned rival's closest friend, and struggled desperately to keep from twitching.

'So then. Kaiba,' Wheeler said, loudly, immediately attracting the attention of everybody in the ball room who wasn't already listening. It was actually the third time he'd said it (in just that delightfully sarcastic tone of voice, too) so far and it didn't look like he was going to stop it any time soon. More was the pity.

The room stirred gently, waiting and impatient, which was, Kaiba supposed, only to be expected for a room full of Duel Academy Graduates. He was expecting a minor rumpus to break out over in the Slifer Red Section any second now, just to break up the atmosphere a little, so Joey had better hurry up and get this over with.

'Domino Duel Academy Founder Seto Kaiba…' Joey swirled the champagne in the bottom of his wine glass before reaching back for a top up from the waiter. 'Okay. See. I have a problem here. 'Cause there's so many stories I could tell you all about our good host here. Only thing is, I don't think you'd actually believe any of them. Figures, really. He didn't believe a lot of 'em either, not even when they were happening right in front of his nose. You kids all know about bluffing, right? Sure you do.'

Joey smiled at the room full of young duellists, fresh from graduation and most of them, by now, at least slightly tipsy. Christ, Kaiba thought, the man was nearly forty years old. Most of these graduates weren't even old enough to have mortgages and yet Kaiba swore that for some ridiculous reason, half the females in the audience just couldn't take their eyes off of Wheeler. He was revelling in it, too. Yugi, for his part, sat there smiling quietly and playing with his cufflinks.

'You guys know all about bluffing. Betcha any money it was your very first lesson at this place. It was, wasn't it? I can see the title in the textbook right now: "How to Stop your Opponent From Knowing You Have a Sucky Hand, Can't Even Duel Properly and Are Already Gonna Lose".'

Someone in the audience noisily voiced their agreement and people started sniggering –the Slifer Red Section. Again. Kaiba would probably have given Yukai a detention, if he weren't here –against all odds– as a graduate and no longer actually a pupil. Darn it.

'Yeah, I figured. Thanks kid. I like ya. But anyway Kaiba here is the bluffer of the century. I mean he has to be. Just look at all the times he lost to the guy sitting here on my right…. C'mon, now, Yuge, don't hide behind the table again. Let the audience see your cute lil' Kaiba-crushing face, right there.'

More laughing. Kaiba resolved to take Yugi outside and kill him for organizing things this way once the party was over. Joey Wheeler! Giving an Academy Graduation Speech! For the love of God why did Seto ever agree to such a stupid—

'See, I guess that none of you guys ever really learned just how easy Kaiba was to pound in the old days. Hell, even I did it… sorta. Nearly. Once.' He coughed around his champagne glass and Kaiba was far too stubborn to sink any deeper into his chair. 'He got a little lucky towards the end, though.'

'In your dreams, Wheeler,' Kaiba muttered under his breath.

Joey rolled his eyes. 'Whatever, man. Be nice, now, this is your kids' party after all.'

Kaiba started to think that he should've had the entire Slifer Red section gagged and bound before they entered. In fact, Obelisk Blue was starting to bug him a little as well. They just wouldn't stop laughing

'Seriously man, I tell ya they once considered using this guy as his own Lab Rat for the testing of those freaky hologramic—'

'Holographic, Joe,' Yugi corrected.

Okay, there was definitely far too much alcohol circulating in this end of the room. 'Yeah, thanks Yuge. Holographic systems. They were just new when we started out, you know. Nobody had ever seen anything like a Duel Disk and I swear Kaiba here used to test those damn things on himself. With the safety disengaged and everything.' He paused for a second, checking his wine glass before realising it was empty. He shrugged and placed the glass down on the table. 'I guess it figures. Safer that way. The scientists probably became less attached to him than they did to the real rats.'

Oh, for the love of God, people were laughing again.

'Though, I guess I'm not here to diss him too badly… Yugi'd never forgive me for that. To tell you the truth, I kinda showed up only-half-invited tonight. Really nice of your main man to gimme a speech spot, don'tcha think? Just goes to show you all how much of an influence we had on the guy.'

…Definitely going to kill Yugi. After he'd finished with Wheeler. And dumped the body far outside the city.

'And we did have an affect on the guy,' Joey added. He was speaking a little quieter this time. Must've been the effects of the alcohol kicking in, Kaiba thought. Still, anything which talked Wheeler into sitting the hell down and shutting his trap couldn't be a bad thing.

Then someone in the audience – oh, not them again– decided that it was a good time to start asking questions:

'Tell us about the first Battle City Tournament, Mister Wheeler!'

Oh.

'Oh don't you even think about it, mutt.' Kaiba felt his hands grip the bench ever so slightly tighter and started glancing at Yugi from around the unopened wine bottles. Yugi, for his part, remained blissfully quiet. Listening.

'What, you mean the second time we kicked Kaiba's ass in his own tournament? Or was it the third time?' Joey made a pretence of thoughtfully scratching his nose. 'Kinda hard to remember, I mean it did happen an awful lot. Amazing really, that this guy would go on to host and run like the biggest duelling academy in all of Domino… Well, actually the only Duelling Academy in all of Domino, but hey, who's keeping count, eh?' He gave Kaiba a rather unexpected thump across the shoulder. The laughs this time were interspersed with sniggers and comments Kaiba couldn't help but be glad he wasn't close enough to hear.

Yugi was going to suffer for this one.

'You realise, of course, that you're only setting yourself up for more suffering?' Kaiba was smiling vaguely at the board laid out before them. He counted three magicians, two knights and a couple of decent sized dragons and toy-monsters in Yugi's graveyard at this point and unless Yugi had done anything particularly revolutionary with his deck some time in the last twenty years (which wasn't likely), Kaiba couldn't see him pulling out anything more powerful.

'Perhaps. But then again, it's only a game, right?'

The words tugged on Kaiba's memory in a way which was ever so slightly uncomfortable, but he shook that thought away and didn't allow it to distract him. He snorted.

'You've been getting complacent in your duelling skills, Yugi. I might even say that you're slipping.'

'We'll see, Kaiba,' Yugi said, quietly. It was a bluff. Kaiba knew it, because he'd seen that face too often not to. But… it made him wonder, all the same.

Kaiba had just reached the part of his own speech where, for some inexplicable reason; he had decided to bring up his little stint at the Duellist Kingdom Tournament, when he started to wonder just why in the hell everyone was still laughing. Honestly, Wheeler had sat down ten minutes ago. Was he now trying to entertain himself and everyone in the room by pulling weird faces behind Kaiba's back, or something?

But… no. Joey, (as crazy as it sounded), was still sitting perfectly calmly in the chair besides Yugi. actually he seemed to be the only one in the room who wasn't cracking up. Well, him and Mokuba, who was also sitting there with a disturbingly serene smile on his face which Kaiba had never quite seen on him before. He'd ask about it, except that he was supposed to be in the middle of giving a speech.

What exactly was so amusing, anyway? It was true, after all. Joey really wouldn't have stood a chance against Mokuba in a duelling ring, even if he had the entire contingency of Level-Up Metal Armour Dragons, The Blue Eyes, Red Eyes, Dark Magician and the Sugar Plum Fairy –the real one, that was, not the Duel Monster Card– in his deck.

It was true. He said as much out loud.

And yet people were still laughing. Yugi especially. There were tears all but running down the man's cheeks, he was laughing so damn hard and Kaiba was finding this whole thing very undignified. There wasn't time to think about it, though, because now Mokuba gave his older brother a reminding wink and pointed down at the banquet room floor. Not that Kaiba needed reminding.

He had, after all, been waiting for just this moment.

'Well... since you're all apparently nice and warmed u,' he said, eventually once the simmering laughter had died down a touch. 'I'd say it's about time you got to see a little of what you're all actually here graduating for, so you can tell exactly what you're all in for when you get out of this building. Wouldn't you all agree?'

Yugi stopped laughing. Strange but in all his years of reading the man's movements, Kaiba had never truly considered just how extensively Yugi had also been reading his. It was an oversight that annoyed him something terrible, but in this instance, it proved to be more amusing than anything else. Because from the look on Yugi Mutou's face the moment Kaiba said the words "wouldn't you all agree?" and glanced ever so slightly in his rival's direction, Yugi had known exactly what Kaiba had in store for them.

That was when –on a precisely timed cue courtesy of Mokuba– the room had started shaking.

Yugi's eyes were widening in his skull in revelation that his assumption had apparently been right. A few of the more nervous graduates had shrieked a little and scattered back across the room. It wasn't every day, after all, that a Duel Arena opened directly under your feet and sent your classmates scattering.

Kaiba hadn't spared much expense on the thing. It was created according to the old fashioned standards, tall walls and raised platforms. But the system still operated purely on the new edition duel disks. It was merely harking back to outdated classics and Kaiba had made is specifically to look like something out of Duellist Kingdom.

After all, how much more appropriate could you get for a man's crushing defeat than to duel at the site of his very first one?

Kaiba looked from Yugi's face, to Mokuba's, to Joey's and couldn't keep himself from smirking, not that he would wish to. 'A rematch is in order, I believe. For a little event at a place called Battle City. Not that I lost, that is. As a matter of fact I didn't.'

Kaiba turned around to face Yugi…

…And then kept right on turning until it was Joey Wheeler settled in his line of vision. 'This has been hanging over my head for far too long, Wheeler, and I think now's as good a time as any to see it through to the finish, don't you?'

Joey Wheeler's face slowly moved from the Arena, to Kaiba, then back to the arena again. 'I… whoa. Hang on. Wait a second, Kaiba, what the hell is this?'

Mokuba grinned. Yugi blinked his too large eyes. 'Looks um…it looks like its duelling podium, Joey.'

'Damn it, Yuge, I can see that already.'

'Well since you had so many wonderful stories,' Kaiba said, with a dry smile. 'I'm quite certain you won't mind giving them all something new to tell their grandchildren. Like how about your second punishing defeat at the hands of your good host Seto Kaiba. What do you say, Wheeler? Why don't we have some fun?'

The banquet hall-turned-duelling arena had started buzzing, an excited, hopefully hiss that ran the length of the room and back again. Graduates stared up at them from every side and Kaiba knew that Wheeler was too much of a stage actor to ever turn down from such a fight.

'…Aw, man, you've gotta be kidding me.'

He should have known by now, of course, that Kaiba never joked.

Reviews and concrit are much appreciated.