21. Masters of the Universe

"Take a seat, Mr. Fudo. Let's finish this fast, I'm feeling a bit indisposed today."

"Uh… sure." He quickly found out the Master wasn't kidding around, as he won almost every turn as quickly as possible. Joey managed to register the smell of every card that came to his hand, allowing him to win a few turns as well.

Half an hour later, each had basically the same amount of chips as the other, with the Master's pile just a little bit larger.

"It seems I underestimated you, Mr. Fudo. You're almost as good a player as your partner."

"Eh, well. He taught me a lot. And…"

"And?"

"I think I have a certain… affinity with your deck." I hope I used that word right.

The Master stopped and stared him dead in the eye. He felt like he was staring at himself, from a long time ago. To Joey's luck, he didn't realise he actually was staring at himself.

"You do, huh? Good, good. Seems like we're on the same wavelength." Could it be…?

"Um… okay." Joey had no idea what that meant. A few turns later, he finished memorising the smells. The Master's overconfidence caused him to be careless, and suddenly Joey had the upper hand. He started to panic, knowing there was no other way; he would have to do it.

"I would like to change decks. Do you have any objections?"

Joey felt inexplicably happy. Even if he was winning, he'd feel much better if there was no cheating involved. "No, no. Go ahead."

The dealer brought a new deck, and they resumed playing. With each turn, luck would grace one of them. The Master looked and couldn't find B.; he was so conflicted by what had happened that morning that he couldn't focus. While thinking back about everything they had talked about, he won the next couple of turns.

From what Kaiba could see, they had the same amount of abilities. Neither could bluff, and both had a lot of luck. Joey caught him watching and won another two turns.

Several rounds passed, and they remained relatively tied. There were considerably less people watching the duel than the day before, and that number slowly diminished, as some spectators began to go home, bored. The Master felt nervous; if he didn't concentrate, he would lose everything. Had it really been a smart move to change decks? But he had to; his opponent seemed to use the same strategy as him, somehow. He thought he was the only one with that good a nose, but apparently he was wrong.

Another few rounds went by; now only familiar faces watched them, and they both started getting worn-out.

The Master sighed "I'm… I'm getting tired. You can see this isn't going anywhere, right?"

"Yeah… pretty much a stalemate."

He smiled resignedly. "Let's do it then. Next round, all in; winner takes all. Whatever happens, happens."

Joey looked at Kaiba, who simply shrugged and crossed his arms. "Okay."

The dealer handed them the cards. The Master stared at his hand for a while and bought 1 card. Joey bought 3. Both had blank, expressionless faces and a thin veil of sweat on their brows.

The Master looked around, finally getting a glimpse of B. sitting on his favourite chair. He sighed. "Since I suggested the bet, I'll go first." He showed his hand, starting on a 5 and ending on a 9 of hearts. "Straight Flush."

Joey sagged in the chair, the cards almost falling from his hands. He set them on the table one by one. He had started with a 10, and finished on an Ace. "Royal Flush."

The (as of now ex) Master could only stare at the table, since he had no idea where his voice or strength had gone.

"Um…" Joey looked around, motioning for the Kaibas to approach the table, then stared at the dealer for help. But the dealer was just as shocked as the Master. "Hello? Hey, man…"

That took him out of his stupor. "Oh, er… the… the winner is Mr. Yusei Fudo, who shall now hold the title and post of Master!" The few people who weren't staring in astonishment at the table managed to applaud, and there were even a couple of whistles.

B. stood behind the former Master's chair, taking advantage of his state and passing his arms around his neck and whispering in his ear. "C'mon, Puppy. Shake his hand. I'm going to avenge you now." He winked at Joey. "Duel me, new Master Fudo?"

"Eh… gimme a second to catch my breath first, will you?" He got up and hugged Kaiba, who was standing beside him. "I did it!"

"Lucky son of a bitch. I can't believe you bought those cards. You have as much luck as I have skills."

"Uh… thanks, I guess…" He stopped next to the former Master and held out his hand. "Master… no, well, er…"

"…Joey."

"Yeah?" He replied as if the other had called him. Kaiba elbowed his ribs. "Ow! I mean, what?"

"Just call me Joey." He shook the other Joey's hand and got up, untangling himself from B.'s arms. "If it's okay with you, I think I'll go lay down for a second."

"Uh… sure." Joey did some sort of awkward bowing, and Kaiba elbowed him again.

The former Master got up to leave, but stopped when B. caught his hand. "Let go."

He did so, as to not upset him more. "Do you want me to go with you?"

"No. Stay here. Duel him, don't duel him. I don't even care anymore." He left without looking back. On the way to his room, he met Yugi.

"Great duel, Joey!"

"Thanks, Yug'." Despite all his sorrow, that actually felt good.

oOo

"Now?" Joey shuffled the odourless deck on his hands.

"No time to waste. I have to help my brother. He didn't show up like he said he would." B. was already sitting down to start their duel.

"Well, then let's go after him now!" Joey started to move, but Kaiba stopped him.

"Finish here first, and don't take long. If he's Master again, it'll be easier if we need resources. You don't want people thinking this is a sham, do you?"

"Okay, let's do it then." They called the dealer back. A different one showed up, since the other was halfway through a bottle of tequila.

oOo

With high bets and risky moves, it ended in less than ten minutes. Joey didn't even have to lose on purpose; B. wiped the floor with him. That caused the current dealer to also request a bottle of tequila for himself and join the other in the commemoration.

"Wow. That… that was the easiest duel I've ever had. No offence Puppy, but you suck."

Joey wrinkled his nose. "Eh… you know I could beat you with the other deck, right?"

"Okay, now I'm just going to pretend you didn't say that. Come on, let's go."

They moved to a computer room. "Alright Nice Me, you look for every rehabilitation clinic on the internet, while I talk to Puppy to find out the new access code for my bank accounts, hoping he didn't damage them too much. And Puppy… ah no, I only have one Puppy now. Sorry, I'm taken." He smiled snobbishly at Joey, who simply rolled his eyes. "Where was I? Oh yeah… you just stand there and look pretty."

"Fine." Kaiba held Joey before he would punch the other and sat in front of a computer. He handed him the dimension machine. "Go home and email Mokuba, the address is saved on my laptop. Make sure everything is okay, and tell him to come home tomorrow."

"'Kay." He went back to their room, to cross dimensions privately.

oOo

B. (now once again the Master) knocked on his door. "Puppy? Can I talk to you? It's very important."

It's not like he could deny him anything now. "…Come in."

He told him that he went back to being Master, and the story about Mokuba.

"You have a little brother? That's good news. And now you're my master again…"

"No."

"What?"

"We'll have to talk about this later. Now I need the access code for the bank accounts in order to help Mokuba."

"Code? Ah… it's um… 52422."

"Thanks." B. kissed him on the cheek and left.

"…Yeah…"

TBC

So the story reaches its final stages… or does it…? (nah, it does)

Warning: nerd alert ↓

Joey has duelled quite a handful of cheaters; to some he lost, but he won most of the duels. Here, let's count: first against Mai and her (hereby homage'd…) so-called ESP/aroma strategy, then Rex, who didn't really cheat, but Mai kept telling him how to win. The same thing happened when he duelled Bonz/Zombie Boy, Bandit Keith kept bugging in the whole time. While Duke didn't cheat, he made Joey use new cards instead of his own deck. The rare hunter/Steve with his fake Exodia cards was next, then Espa Roba and his "psychic powers", a.k.a. headset, and Weevil telling a random kid to spike his deck. Odion also used a fake Ra, orders of Marik (which ended badly for poor baldy bastard). The duel with Melvin!Marik is difficult to say, but… well, using your demonic powers to debilitate your opponent and put them in a coma is probably considered cheating. Johnson of the Big Five was the worst offender, cheating in every single turn, the fucker. I don't remember about the Paradox Brothers because that duel was too forgettable. Aaand… that's all my nerdy mind can remember right now, sorry. People who never cheated Joey are: Kaiba, Yugi, Mako Tsunami and… Valon. Man, I friggin' love that ridiculous duel with Valon.

tl;dr, people love to cheat against Joey.