Play the Damn Card.

…We're not getting any younger, you knowTwo opponents regard each other as they have a million times before. Only this time the outcome is going to be different. Seto vs. Yugi in the last Duel of their lives. Future-fic.

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 four" of the future.

Chapter Four.

There was a Catapult Turtle and a Marshmallon currently standing between Seto Kaiba and a direct shot at Yugi Mouto's life points.

Kaiba was really starting to hate that fuzzy lump of mallow that Pegasus had the nerve to call a Duel Monster. He was also getting a little tired of working out the mathematics in his head, but then by doing that, there was also always the advantage of the fact that the electronic counters on Duel Disks couldn't drop lower than zero. Beating your opponent was one thing, taking their life points all into the negative was quite something else. Something that many duellists tended to take pleasure in and which a few of the more unofficial tournaments tended to utilise as a way of deciding the winner in an otherwise draw.

The mathematics here, however, regardless of how you worked them out, were not in Seto Kaiba's favour. Not with his Ultimate Dragon disintegrated, his Shining Dragon in the graveyard and God Only Knew what Yugi had done with the Gods. Kaiba had a suspicion that they weren't actually even in his deck. If they had been then Yugi surely would have played one, by now.

Instead, Kaiba lay the Head of Exodia (another victim of mass-reproduction in the last five years or so) face down on the field and waits patiently for Yugi to analyse the strategy.

'You know they say that with old age, speed of thinking is the first thing to go, Yugi.'

'Kaiba, surely you must realise that you're older than me.'

'By mere months.'

'Hm. But that could make all the difference here.'

'Speaking of which, how's the mutt?'

'Complaining about having to use the wheelchair.'

'Thought he might. Idiot.'

Yugi calmly drew a card in advance of his next turn. 'Valerie can't get any peace, she says. He keeps on trying to coach the kids on the street and always ends up nearly killing himself on their duel disks.'

'It doesn't surprise me; he never could operate the damn things properly in the first place. Remind me not to let you mention him again, just thinking of him is a pointless distraction.'

'You're the one who brought him up.' The tone was reproachful in only the mildest of senses. Even in later, more cynical years, Yugi had never been one for accusations.

'Well try telling him I'll pay him million yen if he can stay in the thing for three days without attempting to negotiate anywhere without it.'

'…That's very generous of you.'

'Only because I know the fool's too stubborn to ever manage it.'

'I'll be sure to let him know.'

'Appreciated.'

'A wise man once said that all genius contains a hint of determination that most people like to pass off as sheer madness,' Kaiba was smiling as he stood quite firm and unmoving on the corner of the arena. Joey, for his part, remained ridiculously agape. 'If you have a problem with that kind of thing, Joey, I certainly didn't see it in you the last time you visited virtual reality.'

'No, not that!' Joey blurted out. 'I mean you're crazy for doin' this to the room! Are you trying to tell me you organized this whole freaking banquet and spent a whole tonne of cash on building a duel arena right beneath the freaking floorboards? Here?! Seriously, why we couldn't have just taken this outside?' He looked around the room, waving his arms in melodrama. 'Man, this is it, folks! A testament to your great leader's total lack of sanity!'

'Big words from a small puppy,' Kaiba waved a hand dismissively, pulling out a new edition duel disk which had been oh-so-carefully hidden beneath the folds of the tablecloth.

Joey twitched vaguely. And then...then he started grinning. 'Oh, you're asking for it already man. Bring it!'

The room started cheering. Particularly Slifer Red. And Seto realised that Yugi had started laughing again, a loud, contented, excited laugh that Kaiba had completely forgotten the boy –no., man– was capable of. Kaiba felt his lips twitching just a little.

'Then let's duel.'

Kaiba had decided long ago that he had no love whatsoever for the Marshmallon card. From the looks of Yugi's side of the field right now, that growing dislike wasn't going to be negated any time soon.

'Just turn over the card already, Mutou. Get on with this whole charade already.

Yugi didn't move.

Kaiba started shifting. Which hurt, damn it, because his back really didn't want to move the way he was forcing it to. Still, be damned if he was going to be told what to do by his stupid body. Impatient, he reached out in Yugi's direction, brandishing a hand with all the strength he could muster. 'Oh come on already, Mutou, are you going to make a move or… he paused. Cutting off mid sentence when Yugi refused to look up at him. '…Yugi?'

'The Dark Magician,' Yugi muttered, vaguely.

'What? You played that one five turns ago, last I checked it was in your graveyard.'

'Yeah, I know,' Yugi went on, still staring vaguely at the cards that were in his hand which Kaiba felt the familiar itching urge to see. 'You got him with that X-Head Cannon when I wasn't expecting it. I just wish he wasn't, that's all.'

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. Surely he wasn't going to start blathering about the heart of the Cards again, for god's sakes, not now. '…Uhuh. And the reason for this would be…?'

Yugi looked up and lowered his hand.

In his hand Yugi held the Feral Imp (a junk card, of course, and pretty much designed to be destroyed) and Polymerisation (about as much use as nothing without anything to merge). There are two trap cards out on the field but whatever they were Yugi obviously couldn't play them or else he would've done so by now. His remaining deck-stack lay empty besides him.

The layout of his side of the field was all but perfect, and yet he couldn't carry it through. The strategy had too many holes in it, too many errors that no one but Kaiba would pick up on.

The Dark Magician might have helped him out, in that exact situation, but probably not.

Yugi couldn't win. There was nothing more that he could do, and if it weren't already being operated by the best pacemaker money had to offer, Seto Kaiba swore that his heart would probably have betrayed him completely right at that moment.

'…Is it over?'

'So tell me, Seto Kaiba, what do you have now?'

Yugi leaned back in the chair almost seeming to relish the moment. Which was ridiculous, of course, because there was no way in hell that anyone could ever relish defeat at the hands of another.

Except that Yugi was never very much like anyone else, now, was he?

'Well I guess that's it,' Yugi said, evenly, before he started to rise from the table. 'Poor old feral imp here, just can't pull it through without that other card. Shame. Would've been a good move, too, if I'd been able to pull it off, don't you think?'

Seto didn't look at him.

The reality of the situation was sinking in around him. He knew that this… this organized set of cards lain out before them, was not a result of luck or chance. It never had been. This was a victory, pure and simple. Kaiba had never expected anything less from himself. Not in all his sixty years of duelling had he ever imagined that this moment wouldn't come. So obviously, he wasn't the least bit surprised that it happened to come… now. In an offhand duel with just cards on a tabletop and the setting sun of the Domino Evening.

Not in the least.

'…I win, Yugi.'

'Yes,' Yugi smiled, almost as if he'd heard the words that Kaiba knows for certain he didn't speak aloud. 'Congratulations, Seto. You win.'

Yugi Mutou reached a hand across the table, fingers openly defying his own arthritis.

And without so much as a thought for modesty, or grand staging, or laughter, or the self-righteous enjoyment of a long awaited victory, Seto Kaiba took it.

No, we're not done yet. Review and concrit are appreciated.