Disclaimer: I own nothing but my plot and my original characters. Thanks to all those who have been reviewing and I can't wait to hear what you think of this latest chapter. I also apologize for the spacing, its my stupid computer's fault.

Wheeler VS Nonaka

His lesson had gone well, Seto thought as he stacked his digimon cards into a pile, having just lost for the last time that day. They'd spent the first hour going over the cards and then once she was sure he'd gotten the basics had decided to see how much he'd learned with a few actual battles. She was as good as they claimed and he hadn't won once but that didn't overly concern him. She was the best after all and he'd come closer to winning each time they'd played. She was a skilled opponent and Seto thought it was a shame that she didn't play Duel Monsters. She would likely be as fierce a competitor in that as she was with her Digital Monsters. She gave nothing away when she played and even now, as she gathered her own cards, her face revealed nothing of what she was thinking. It was strange but they were similar in quite a few ways, she was quickly becoming one of the few people he'd consider being worthy of being called his equal. "That went well, you're as skilled as your boss made you out to be." Seto commented as he looked over at her briefly, wondering what thoughts were going through her head, so cleverly hidden behind those purple eyes. Like him she rarely let anyone know what was going on, so much easier to catch them off guard that way.

)

"You learn quickly, no wonder you're so successful." Rika said with a small smile as she placed her deck into her bag pocket. She was really impressed with the way he'd played and would imagine that once he'd gotten the hang of it he might become as good as his teacher or even better. Long ago that would have pissed her off but the game didn't really matter all that much to her anymore. She'd finally learned that it was just a game and letting a game become that important to you was a foolish act that only caused you more problems then it solved. "With a bit more practice you'll have got the just of it. I thought that it would take longer, even for someone like you. I guess by the end of this month you won't need my help anymore."

"We'll see." Seto said in a bland voice, not about to give away the fact that he wasn't looking forward to her leaving. It puzzled him to no end as to why he enjoyed her company but for some strange reason he felt lighter when she was around, more in control of himself and what was around him. He didn't feel so old before his time and burned out when she complimented him and even the smallest one meant something to him because he knew that she wasn't trying to get something from him and was simply speaking the truth. To be blunt she made his day simply by being in the same room with him. And how pathetic was that, he thought to himself.

"So what time will we be meeting next?" Rika asked calmly as she stood up in her seat. They'd chosen to play in one of the conference rooms as there were too many distractions in his office and the conference room was nice and quiet. The room was rather stark and uninviting but Rika was willing to bet Kaiba had had it set up that way for a reason. She'd be willing to bet quite a bit that he used this one when he wanted to intimidate or put someone firmly in their place. They were sitting across from each other but at the foot of the long table was a tall black chair that made Rika think of a modern version of a throne, Kaiba's chair no doubt. The king ruling over his subjects, Rika thought with a small smile before turning to see Kaiba looking at her with a strange look before it faded away behind his usual arrogant look. What goes on in that mind of yours? Rika wondered as she looked into his blue eyes.

"I'm pretty much booked for the rest of the week." Seto said as he reached into his pocket to pull out his PC. "How does Monday at 10 a.m. suit you?"

"That will be fine." Rika said as she looked up the date in her own PC and marking the notation down closed it and returned it to her own pocket. "Have a nice afternoon, Mr. Kaiba."

)

"I'll walk you out." Seto said before he thought better of it. What on earth was going on that she could play with his mind so easily? If he didn't know that Shadi had the Millennium Rod he'd think that Rika had it and was using it against him.

"Thank you, it's not necessary though." Rika said with a startled look on her face.

"I insist." Seto said, mentally kicking himself but motioning to the door none the less. Surprise still on her face Rika nodded and headed for the door, holding it open for him as he walked out the door at her heels. Letting the door close as soon as he was through Rika didn't say anything and Seto was glad for that small favor. Walking side by side the two made their way towards the elevator, neither making any attempt at conversation, both simply comfortable with silence which was broken seconds later by a voice Seto was far from fond of.

"There you are, Kaiba. I've been looking all over for ya." Rika turned her head to see a boy with shaggy blonde hair strut over to them with a determined gleam in his eyes. Recognizing him from pictures Rika identified the speaker as one Joey Wheeler, second at Pegasus's little tournament at Duelist Kingdom and supposedly a highly skilled duelist. Well they came in all shapes and sizes, Rika thought with a smirk as she took in the whole picture.

"I don't have time for you, Wheeler." Seto said with a dark look in the annoyance's direction. Perhaps he'd developed some small respect for Wheeler's abilities over the years but Joey was still an incompetent moron that he preferred to avoid whenever possible. Plus he'd rather Rika not get the idea that he was in any way connected to the moron coming towards them

).

"Well hey, Kaiba, no one told me you'd suddenly started to fear playing me. If I'd known that I wouldn't have come here to challenge you." Joey said with a smirk, hoping that if he made Kaiba look bad in front of the gorgeous redhead the jerk would agree to duel him and finally give him a chance to cream the guy once and for all. "I'm Joey Wheeler by the way, pleasure to meet you, Miss?"

"Nonaka, Rika Nonaka." Rika said as she raised an eyebrow at the kid's guile. Calling Kaiba a coward was no way to start a conversation unless you were suicidal. Then again from what she'd heard about Joey this was not likely the first time he'd pulled something like this.

"The day I fear playing you is the day you show intelligence and pigs fly." Seto said with a dark look, not liking Wheeler's words or the way he was looking at Rika. "Get lost, Wheeler, I have better things to do then waste my time humiliating you in public. Again."

"Well then if you're so sure you'll beat me then play me and we'll see who's the loser." Joey said as he glared at Kaiba. Losing to Kaiba repeatedly over the years had always been a major sore spot for him and he was always eager for the chance to change all that by beating the arrogant asshole.

"If you're as good as you say then why don't you prove it to him?" Rika asked softly, intrigued by the whole thing. She knew that Joey didn't stand a chance against Kaiba but how would he stand up against her? "I'll battle you, Joey. If you beat me then maybe Mr. Kaiba will consider you worthy of his time."

"So if I beat her you'll play me, Kaiba?" Joey asked thinking that this would work perfectly. He didn't recognize the girl from any battle or tournament, most likely an average player at best who wanted to show off in front of Kaiba. Why girls dug bad asses like Kaiba were beyond him.

"If you can beat Rika I'll play you, Wheeler." Seto said after thinking it over. He really had no intention of playing Joey and he was taking a risk assuming that Rika was as good a duelist as she was with her digimon cards but life was a risk. If she lost he'd play Wheeler and beat the little slug once more, if she won then that was that and he got out of having to play the little weasel.

)

"Okay then, lets battle then." Joey said with a confident smile at Rika who didn't smile back.

"I don't have my cards here and I'm not dressed for it either." Rika said as she gestured to her business suit with her left hand. "I'll meet you at your choice of battling arena in half an hour."

"You can use one of my rooms here for your battle, I'll rearrange my schedule so that I can watch you crush Wheeler like a bug." Seto said with a smirk, thinking that Wheeler's obvious overconfidence would likely be the moron's undoing. Even the best duelist could be beaten if they were too busy with their egos to realize what was going on around them. "We'll all meet here in half an hour then?"

"Sounds like a plan to me." Joey said with a smirk, glad that he was finally going to get another chance to prove that he was so much better then Kaiba no matter what had happened in the past which didn't matter one bit at the moment. "By the way, Kaiba. When I win you'll have a week to practice before I can battle you cause we're heading out camping in two hours. Being the nice guy I am I'll let you have that time to prepare to lose."

"The only person who'll be losing will be you." Seto said with a cold smile, knowing suddenly in his gut that Rika would win this match. "I'm betting on it."

"Joey, do you really think it was a good idea to challenge this girl? You have no idea how skilled she is and if Kaiba's behind her then who knows how good she is." Tea said with a worried look on her face as she, Joey, Bakura and Tristan stood in Kaiba's building, waiting for Kaiba and Rika to get there. She'd only met that girl once but she had a feeling that Rika was too much like Kaiba for comfort.

"Hey don't sweat it, Tea. It will all work out just fine, you'll see." Joey said confidently, sure that he could handle anything the redhead dished out. After all it wasn't like she had a God Card or anything and if he could survive one of those then he could survive anything. "Hey Kaiba, where's your star player? Not too afraid to show is she?"

"She'll be here, you're all early." Seto pointed out with a smirk as he surveyed the people waiting to see the duel, not surprised that Joey had dragged along his friends to the match. "I see you brought a support group for when you fail. One of your smarter ideas, Wheeler."

"So does this Rika duel professionally, Kaiba?" Bakura asked softly before they got into a fight which Joey tended to want to do when Kaiba was around.

"Not in Duel Monsters, no." Kaiba said with a shake of his head. Of the four Bakura bothered him the least and he wished that it was Bakura who was facing Rika, that would be a real show of her knowledge and fighting ability. "And here she is now."

Everyone turned and Tristan whistled softly at the picture she made. She was wearing jeans with a thigh belt where her cards were presumably. She was wearing a white tank top with a broken red heart in the center, tattooed bracelets on either of her upper arms in what looked to be ancient writing. Around her neck was a thin silver chain and at the end was a charm the size of a baby's fist in the shape of a silver dragon. As usual her hair was up and her face was a mask as she walked towards them in the walk of a hunter stalking her prey. "Are you ready to play, Wheeler?"

"Ready whenever you are, Rika." Joey said with a confident look though it wasn't so confident as before. There was just something about her now that suddenly didn't feel at all right to him.

"Then let the games begin, shall we?" Rika said as she motioned to the elevator that would take them to the lower levels where she knew Kaiba kept his battle fields.

"Right this way." Seto said as he motioned towards the elevator and pressing the button stepped in with the others following. No one talked on the ride down and when the doors opened they got out and looked at the room before them. It was an awesomely built battle arena and one Kaiba was proud of.

"This is great, Kaiba." Bakura said with an appreciative look as he took it all in. "We're most definitely in for a treat, you guys."

"Well then, shall we begin?" Rika said with a look towards Joey and at his nod headed for the left while he took the right. Following Kaiba Tea, Bakura and Tristan headed for the seats that had been positioned right beside the battle field so that they could see everything clearly. Both opponents stood in front of their panels, each holding their deck in their hands.

"Ladies first." Joey said as he motioned to the board with a sweeping gesture. "You can go first."

)

"Well I've never been called or considered myself a lady but if you insist who am I to decline the offer." Rika said with a smirk as she took the cards from the top of her deck, her eyes showing nothing as her mind settled on the strategy she'd decided would be most efficient for battle Mr. Wheeler. "I lay my first card, Nemuriko in Attack mode and I lay this card face down." Rika said as she placed the monster card on the field as well as her trap card. Instantly what looked to be the head of a small elf child appeared in front of her, the child having a normal head but a rather shrimp like body.

"Well looks like I might be fighting Kaiba today after all." Joey said with a smirk, thinking that he had this game in the bag since she obviously had no idea what she was doing. "Your Nemuriko has only 800 points, no match for the card I'm about to play. Since I want to get this over with I'll summon him now. Red Eyes Black Dragon in Attack mode. Red Eyes, destroy her Nemuriko."

"Bad move, Joey. You should have check to see which card was face down before risking your Red Eyes, an amateur would know better." Rika said with a cold smile, glad that he'd fallen for the trap she'd laid. "First I'll lay my next card in defense mode, The Dark Witch. Back to your mistake now, Joey. You just destroyed my Nemuriko but I activate my trap card, Fissure. As you know that card deletes the monster on your side with the lowest attack points. Unfortunately for you, you only have one monster on the field." Rika said with a smirk as her card destroyed Joey's Red Eyes before his disbelieving eyes.

"Oh no, Joey." Tea said as she watched Joey's score go from 8000 life points to 5600 while Rika only lost 800 from her overall life points to make hers 7200.

"A foolish move, the fact that she started off with such a pathetic card should have been a give away. Typical Wheeler to miss it though." Seto said with a smirk, mentally applauding Rika's move. She'd read Joey well and had realized that she could slip him up easily because he was so sure she wasn't skilled enough to cause him any major damage.

"Don't listen to him, Joey." Tristan called out even though he had a feeling Joey had just sealed his fate with that fatal mistake. Even if Joey played his hardest he'd suffered such a major blow that coming back from it would take a miracle. "Don't let it get you down, Buddy. Show her who's boss."

"Yes, come on, Joey. You can do it." Bakura called out with a thumbs up for his friend. "Don't give up, the games just started."

"Yes don't give up now, Joey." Rika said with a smirk as she looked down at the cards in her hand then back at him. "You wouldn't want to let your cheerleaders down so soon after all."

"All right then." Joey said sucking the blow up. He'd been wrong to assume that he was playing against an amateur, the fact that Kaiba trusted her should have tipped him off but he'd let his ego get in the way. Well no more. He was up against someone as good as he was and it was time to play like he was. "All right then, Rika, lets see how you like this little surprise." Joey said as he laid down his new monsters and hoped that with their help he could still win this match.

They'd been playing for a a little under half an hour and though Joey had managed to bring Rika's life points down to minimize the gap she was still winning and Joey was more then beginning to lose hope. He'd learned quickly that Rika preferred Dragon and Warrior type cards with Fairy thrown in to make things interesting. Most of her cards were female too which really didn't surprise him since she'd struck him as a feminist all the way. She was obviously very skilled with a killer deck and he'd already seen how deadly her Dragoness The Wicked Knight and her Metal Dragon could be.

"Well this looks like an interesting match." A voice said and Joey turned to see none other then Mai strolling over to sit beside Kaiba in one of her short skirts and revealing corset like shirts. What was she doing here, Joey wondered as he gapped at her, not even paying attention as his monster took 900 of Rika's life points bringing it to 3540 life points. Why did she have to come here of all times to see him beaten by this girl who'd never even entered a Duel Monsters Tournament as far as he knew. He continued to play on against Rika for five more minutes, wondering and trying to see the light in the darkness. He was at 2100 life points at the moment and even though he had his Flaming Swordsman on the field and Baby Dragon he had a feeling that even with them he was dead meat.

"What are you doing here, Mai?" Tea asked in surprised as she watched Mai look at the scoreboard with a smirk. "Weren't you suppose to be at a photo shot?" Tea said referring to Mai's summer job. Apparently Mai's aunt was a super model and had gotten Mai a job for the summer to earn money for college.

"My cousin is visiting my house so I'm here for a week. I stopped by the store and Yugi's grandfather said that you'd all be here." Mai said with a careless wave of her hand as she watched Rika consider how to fight back against Joey's monsters.

"Well, Joey, it's been nice fighting you but the time has come for this game to end." Rika said finally as she pulled out two cards with a small smile. She'd been saving the first for later on and now it was time to use it along with the card she'd just drawn, the most powerful card in her deck. Joey had one card face down, either a trap or a magic card, the question was what kind of card was it and what would it do? Well life was about taking risks and she was about to take one. "I summon Empress Judge and my Red Eyes Black Dragon, both in attack mode. This game is over, Joey as I activate the face down card from my past turn. Malevolent Nuzzler, increase my Empress Judge's attack points by 700 bringing it to 2800."

"Say good bye, Joey." Mai said with a smirk as she watched the great black dragon appear before them along with a beautiful redheaded girl with a ruby in the center of her forehead, rimmed in purple.

"Damn." Joey said softly, knowing that this was the end.

"Attack his Fire Swordsman, Empress Judge." Rika called out and watched as her Empress's attack destroyed the monster, sending it to the graveyard. "And finally my Red Eyes, destroy the Baby Dragon to finish this match!" At her command the great beast shot out its crushing attack, destroying Joey's Baby Dragon and ending the match.

)

"Not bad, Wheeler." Rika said in the silence that had fallen at the end of the match. Finishing collecting her cards she climbed down from her box and walked over to the middle of the battling field, meeting Joey in the center. "Well played." Rika said simply as she held up her hand, smiling a little when he took it.

"That was one hell of a match, Rika, you deserved to win." Joey said with a grin, realizing that she did in fact deserve her win. "Anytime you want to have a rematch it would be my honor."

"Same goes, I can see why you managed to get so far in the tournaments you've played in." Rika said with a nod. "Your friends are waiting for you and I see someone I want to talk to."

"Well that was some match huh, looks like I won't be playing you for a while yet, Kaiba but don't worry, I'll beat you sooner or later." Joey said as they walked over to where their audience was waiting for them. He wished he'd beaten Rika but losing to her was better then losing to Kaiba and at least she didn't rub it in his face like Kaiba was bound to do.

"I doubt that, Wheeler. Well played, Rika." Seto said with a nod at her, a small smile on his lips. She'd played very well and with a bit of training he'd bet she could be just as good as Yami and himself. Where had she learned to play so well though?

)

"Well you certainly showed him who was boss." Mai said with a smirk having been filled in on what had all happened before she'd arrived by Tea. She wasn't surprised at all that Joey had tried to get another match with Kaiba, the surprise was finding out who he'd ended up fighting. "Though you should have used Doma The Angel of Silence somewhere in there, the match would have been over quicker that way."

"Seeing as I beat him and you haven't I think I'll stick with my strategy, Mai." Rika said with a smirk as she patted her cards through the holder.

"You two know each other?" Tristan said in surprise as he looked from one to the other.

"Who do you think taught her how to play the game? The Easter Bunny?" Mai said with a smirk as she threw an arm over her cousin's shoulder. "Though of course she's not as good as me yet. She's not bad at all for someone who's never competed in Duel Monsters professionally."

"One professional duelist in the family is enough, Mai." Rika said with a smirk that grew when she saw the shock on everyone's' faces at her careless statement. "Oh did I forget to mention that our mothers are sisters making us first cousins?"

)

"You two don't look anything alike." Joey said as he looked from one to the other in total shock. Rika struck him more as the tomboy type while Mai was woman all the way. The only thing they had in common was that both of them had purple eyes and a skill at kicking ass at Duel Monsters. "You didn't say you were Mai's cousin." He said as he looked at Rika with confusion written all over his face in bold letters.

"You never asked." Rika said with a smirk. "Speaking of which since this match is over you want to go grab some late lunch, Mai? My treat."

"Sound good to me." Mai said with a smile of her own. "I'll see you guys when you get back from your camping trip, give Yami and Yugi a kiss for me."

Yami? Rika thought with a raised eyebrow before shaking her head at the thought that had come into her head at the mentioning of that name. Couldn't be. Could it?