Getting to Know Each Other
Téa looked outside and saw a storm. "Just great," she groaned. "There's rain after school."
Joey and Tristan were given a job by the custodian to mop the floors in the halls. Tristan found it to be boring, but noticed his pal was whistling. "Joey, we're on mop duty. What are you so happy about?"
Joey faces him and answers, "Well, my sister's finally getting her eye operation and it's all thanks to the three million bucks I won at Duelist Kingdom."
"That's sweet, so when do we get to see her?"
Joey looked down and swished his mop around in the bucket. "It's not that easy. My mom's going to be there. And ever since Serenity and I were separated as kids, my mom and I haven't exactly seen each other eye-to-eye."
To put his mind at ease, Tristan puts his arm over his shoulder. "So I'll go without you. My only concern is whether or not Serenity likes me."
"Don't get any funny ideas," Joey warned. He certainly didn't like the idea of his best friend hitting on his little sister.
"Just tell me which hospital Serenity's staying at and I'll visit her alone. You'd only be a third wheel."
Joey lost it and kicked his bucket across the hall. "Tristan!" he snarled and was at the point of breaking his back. "I'll send you to the hospital!"
Emily went to her locker and changed her shoes. She saw Téa standing by herself and walked up to her. "Téa, can I talk to you?"
"Sure, Emily. What's up?"
She looks the other way and says sadly, "I'm sorry I've been avoiding you. I haven't been feeling like myself since that day."
"It's okay," Téa told her. "You just needed a little space."
"But it's really not okay. It was wrong of me to push my best friend aside when she was only looking out for me." Emily finally faces her again. "So I want to make it all up to you. I thought that maybe…" she stopped herself and decided to try again. "Would you like to come over to my house for dinner tonight?"
Téa could see that Emily really was sorry and wanted to do something nice. So she smiled and nodded. "I'd like that a lot. If you want, I could also spend the night."
"Well, if the rain doesn't stop any time soon," Emily chuckled. "I mean, do you want to spend the night?"
"I just thought maybe a little best friend quality time would make you feel better after how you've been doing," Téa replied. Emily figured she could use a little time like that. It would take her mind off of a few things. Téa decided to give her mother a call and let her know what she'd be doing. Emily decided to wait at her locker.
Yugi saw Emily and called her to get her attention. Emily saw him at the door and walked over to him. "How have you been," Yugi asked her.
"I've been better," she answered. "What about you?"
He decided to get to the point. "I need your help. And so does the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle."
"It is about what happened back there?"
"Well, sort of. Do you remember the guy who attacked us? Well, whoever it was that tried to steal the Millennium Puzzle seems to know a lot about it. That reminded the spirit of how little he knows about it. But I think you can help. Maybe spending time with you might help him figure things out."
Emily would do anything to help a friend, but she didn't know any more about Yami than Yugi did. "But what could I possibly to do help?"
"Just be a friend to him," Yugi told her and started running for home.
"Wait, what's the plan," Emily called to him.
"10:00 tomorrow at Domino station," he answered. "Thanks, Emily!"
"You're welcome," she told him. She lowers her voice and tells herself, "I hope I really can help."
Téa got off of the phone with her mother. "I can spend the night, but I have to go home first and pack up everything I'll need."
"Great," Emily said and opened up her umbrella. "So I'll see you in a couple of hours?"
Téa nods and opens her umbrella. The girls tell each other to be careful on their way home. Emily decided to fill Téa in about the whole thing at dinner. When she got home, she changed out of her uniform and got dressed into a blue sweater and a pair of slacks. She figured she would start making dinner while waiting for Téa. Since it was raining, Emily decided to make something nice and warm like a pot of stew. She set the water to boil, diced up her favorite vegetables, minced the beef into little squares and set it on the stove, and mixed the broth with the water. After mixing it all together, she let the stew set for dinnertime.
It was around 5:00 when Téa came over. The stew was still setting, so to pass the time, the girls dueled for a few times. Emily finally came clean and told Téa what she and Yugi were talking about.
"He wants you to spend time with the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle?"
"I'm not really sure why he would ask me to," Emily replied. That was actually a lie. She had a lot of thoughts on why he would ask her. Even Téa knew just as much and told Emily to tell the truth. "Okay, I'll let it out. I think the spirit and I have some sort of connection and I think Yugi's been wondering the same thing."
"I don't see why he wouldn't," Téa said. "You were both attacked back there."
"But I think the real reason is because…" she stops herself for a moment. "Téa, do you remember what Pegasus' journal explained back in Duelist Kingdom?"
Téa did remember. "Something about combining Kaiba's technology with the Millennium Items to bring Cecelia back." Then Téa saw where Emily was going with this. "Wait, the journal also mentioned a Millennium Star and a princess. Emily, you're not saying-?"
Emily kept quiet for a second, then asked, "Téa, what if… I'm the princess?"
This time, Téa said nothing for a while. She finally asked, "Is there really any way of knowing?"
"I think that's what Yugi wants to find out. The guy who attacked us called me a princess and he must think I'm the one. I want to know for sure too. That's why tomorrow, I'm going to spend the day with the spirit and join him as we look for answers to what's going on."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Téa asked.
"I think for now, it should just be me and him."
Téa respected Emily's decision. "Okay, but I have an idea." She reached into her bag and pulled out a flyer. "You guys should check out the exhibit together. It might help you out."
Emily took the flyer. "Téa, what a great idea!" In gratitude, she hugged her best friend. Téa laughed and hugged her back. They were about to continue their game until the timer went off. The stew was finally ready. It wasn't like how Emily's mother always made hers, but it still tasted good.
The next morning, the sky was clear and the sun dried the city. "I have a feeling today is going to be awesome. Now if I can figure out what to wear, we can get out of here," Yugi said, going through his wardrobe.
Yami sat on the bed and asked, "Tell me, Yugi, what's this big surprise?"
"Well, if I told you, then it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it?" Yugi remarked.
Yami chuckled. "No, I guess not. But I still have many riddles to unlock and I don't have time for surprises."
"Don't worry. What I've got planned is going to help," Yugi said and winked.
Emily was already at Domino station casually dressed in a white shirt and skirt, a white scarf around her neck, and a white clip-on bow in her hair. She tried not to think of this arrangement as being set up on a date. Actually, all she could think about was what she could do to help Yami. How does Yugi expect me to help the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle learn about his past? I mean, it's not like I can tell him anything about the Millennium Puzzle he doesn't already know. Thinking about it made her feel like she had butterflies in her stomach. This is way too much pressure.
Yugi ran through the streets and saw Emily right where he wanted her to be. "Ready or not, Spirit, this is where you take over."
The Millennium Puzzle glowed and Yami took control. It wasn't exactly what he was expecting. He was only called upon for a challenge and there wasn't a duel about to go on. He began stammering at the Puzzle, which caught Emily's attention. When Yami saw Emily looking at him, he felt embarrassed and held up his hand. "Hello." Emily returned the gesture.
They went to a small café in town for a drink. Yami just stared outside the window. He seems to have a lot on his mind, Emily wondered as she took a sip from her cocoa. Trying to fight the tension, she decides to give it a shot. "I know what we can do." Then she reached into her purse and pulled out the flyer Téa gave her. "We can check out the ancient Egypt exhibit."
Yami looked at the flyer. "Now that could be interesting."
Emily nods. "And look here, the stone has the same symbol as your Millennium Puzzle. The exhibit might give us some answers or even clues about your past." When Yami said nothing and continued to look at the flyer, Emily told him. "We could do something else if you don't want to see the exhibit. It was just a thought."
"You must forgive me, Emily," Yami was saying. "Lately, I've felt like a stranger to myself. There are so many things about who I am and where I came from that I can't seem to remember."
"Is there anything about yourself that you do remember?"
"Well, I know that my origins lie in ancient Egypt and that my spirit now resides within the Millennium Puzzle, but that's about all. I feel as though, my spirit was somehow… reborn." To explain what he means, Yami tells Emily, "I feel as though I'm here for a reason, that destiny brought me to Yugi to accomplish something of great importance. When the Millennium Puzzle was almost taken from us, that feeling grew stronger. Then I wondered, maybe the key to why I'm here lies in my past."
Listening to Yami's words, Emily felt like she could relate to him. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm going through the same thing."
"You are?"
"Well, my situation's not exactly the same as yours, but I'm not sure why I'm here or what my future holds either. So for now, I'm just going to follow my heart and see where that takes me. And right now, where I'm standing, my heart is telling me to become a performer."
Yami smiled. "That's great, Emily. I always tell Yugi to follow his heart."
"And I may find that performing isn't for me, but I'll never know unless I try. I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't look at the unknown as an enemy, see it as an adventure." Emily rose from her seat with excitement. "All right, that's it. I've totally just inspired myself. Let's go see what the world has in store for us."
"Where are we going, Emily?" Yami asked as they left the café.
"Wherever we're inspired to go," she answered. "Life's an adventure."
Their first stop was the music store. Emily decided to listen to a sample of hits from Max's latest album. After listening to about three or four songs, she left the store without buying anything. After that, they took a stroll in the park. Emily crumpled up some crackers to feed to the pigeons. Some of the pigeons landed in Yami's hair and tried to mess it up. The scene made Emily laugh. She thought about taking a picture, but decided against it. To make Yami feel better, she brought some vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup. Yami never tasted ice cream or chocolate before, but Emily promised him that he would love it. She chose chocolate because it didn't just taste good, but it also made people feel good. Yami took a spoonful and tasted it. He smiled, finding it delicious and feeling a little happier.
Emily took Yami with her to one of her favorite stops at the mall. It was a pet shop and Emily loved visiting the animals. She admired the many different colors of the birds, laughed at the puppies as they frolicked in play, and watched the rabbits cuddle up for a nap. The animals Emily loved most were the kittens. She loved to hold them and play with them. Seeing Emily show love and kindness to the animals made Yami smile at her like he had seen this demeanor before.
Yami finally found a place of interest. "Look, Emily, players can trade Duel Monster cards here."
"Congratulations. Today must be your lucky day." She looked at the poster on the window announcing the sale of Pokémon cards. "Hey, they sell Pokémon cards here too."
"Pokémon cards?" Yami had heard of the game, but hadn't gotten a chance to play it yet. It was actually still a little new.
"Let's go inside," Emily immediately said. "You can trade Duel Monster cards and I'll buy some Pokémon cards and tell you about the game." And that's what they did. While they were inside, Emily noticed that Yami was starting to look a little happier and actually having fun as he was trading cards.
They left the shop happy with their cards. One of the cards Yami got was a trap called Lightforce Sword. He decided it would be a good addition for his deck. Emily showed Yami some of the cards she bought. There were cards of common Pokémon like Pikachu, Eevee, Jigglypuff, and Meowth. She even managed to get a card of a rare Pokémon called Mew. The Pokémon card game was almost similar to Duel Monsters because opponents still did battle with creatures. There wouldn't be magic, but there were items players could use. After explaining the game as best as she could, Emily decided to give her cards to Yami as a gift.
Their next stop was the arcade. Emily loved coming here with the boys to play games and win prizes. There was a crowd at one of the games in back. It was that Rock Band game and who would have thought that Max would be playing? Well, it was a little similar to Rock Band. It took a team of two. One teammate would sing the song of choice and the other would play the guitar. Max was singing the songs and her friend and guitarist of her band, Skylar Hope, was playing the guitar. They always played alone, but didn't mind playing against another team.
The crowd cheered for Max and Skylar. Some of the songs in the game were actually written by Max herself. "I wonder where Max gets all these ideas for her songs," said a girl in the crowd.
"I don't care," said her brother. "I want to know where Skylar learned how to play her guitar."
Skylar shook her head to get her hair out of her eyes. "Who wants the honor of being Max and Skylar's next opponent?"
"Some kind of dueling music game," Yami wondered.
"Yeah, and it looks like fun," said Emily.
Max noticed Emily in the front of the audience. "What about you, Emily? You want a shot?"
"Why don't we ignore them and go someplace else?"
Emily shakes her head. "Max may be able to pitch a few high notes, but they're not high enough to scare me away."
"What are you doing, Emily?" Yami asked as she handed him her purse and walked up to the stage.
"Having some fun," she answered and took her microphone. "All right, let's go."
"We go when Max says we go," said Skylar.
Watching from within the Puzzle, Yugi remembered that Emily needed a guitarist in order to play. He had some experience with a guitar since he and his friends formed their own band together and often performed for the school. So he asked Yami to step down for a while so he could help her. Yami accepted his request and let Yugi take control. Yugi joined Emily on the stage and took the guitar in his hands.
"Hey, why don't you back out now and save yourself the embarrassment?" Skylar tormented.
"You're the ones who are going to be embarrassed," Emily argued.
"All right, you're going to wish you never stepped on our stage. So what do you say? Ready for us to rock your world?"
Emily tightened her eyes. "Get a life, Skylar," she groaned, irritated.
"It's time to make some noise," cheered the announcer in the game.
It's time Max learned what real singing was all about, Emily thought. The song Emily decided she wanted to sing was one of her favorites. It was Don't Say You Love Me sung by M2M. It started out slow with the singing and the playing wouldn't kick in for a while, but she would have fun. As she sang, everyone in the audience, boys and girls, became taken in by her voice.
"What a voice!"
"That girl can really sing!"
"Maybe Max is a little tired after that last number."
Skylar plucked the strings on her guitar to match the song note for note. When she saw that Emily was getting a lot of attention, she decided to break out a few moves of her own and really rock it with her guitar. As she moved around with attitude, Emily could see that Skylar was intentionally trying to hit her and interrupt her singing. This girl's cheating! But Emily dodged Skylar's attacks and continued to sing with ease.
"Yeah, keep it clean, Skylar!" one girl cheered.
"They're still getting beat," laughed one of the boys.
His friend agreed. "Max and Skylar are going down."
Skylar was actually doing a lot badly as the song progressed. She tried to keep getting back the attention, but ended up hitting all the wrong notes on her guitar.
"Weak," the announcer said slowly.
Stupid machine, Skylar thought. It must be broken! She tried to keep it together, but her concentration continued to slip. Even Max started to do badly as she was singing because of Skylar's mistakes.
"Whoa, Skylar's losing it! That new girl's just awesome!"
Finally, when the song was over, the scores were tallied. Yugi and Emily were the best performers this time. Skylar thought it wasn't fair and said she only kept messing up because her confidence was taken with the audience. Max tried to continue singing with ease, but all of Skylar's mistakes kept distracting her.
Now that the game was over, Yugi let Yami regain control. He and Emily left the arcade and went to the pond to enjoy the sunset. "I had a lot of fun today," Emily was saying. "I also know that it was Yugi who played with me back there, so I owe him my thanks. But did you see the look on Skylar's face? Hopefully getting beat at her own game will shut her up for a while."
"You were wonderful today," Yami told her. "I've been thinking about what you said, Emily, that when in doubt, you follow your heart even when you're unsure of where the road may lead you. Now I must do the same thing and follow mine. And my heart is telling me to uncover the secrets of my orgin."
He's really determined to know about his past, Emily thought. But I have a bad feeing it's going to lead him and Yugi into danger. But she didn't want Yami to sense that. "I'm glad my advice could help. And just know that your friends will be with you all the way."
"Thank you."
"And thank you, for today."
"What do you mean?"
"When Yugi asked me to spend the day with you, I was a little scared," Emily admitted. "I didn't know you as well as Yugi did. I didn't even know what to do when I met you today. But then I got excited and decided to show you all of my favorite places in town. I thought we'd have fun, but I also thought maybe it would help us to get to know each other a little bit. That gave me the confidence to be myself. I had a lot of fun today and I'm glad I got to share it with you. So thank you."
Yami smiles and moves closer to Emily. "I feel the same way. I'm glad I got to know you."
Just then, Max and Skylar showed up. "Do you two geeks mind if we cut in," Skylar asked.
"Now what do you want?" Emily asked, annoyed.
"We've humbly come to ask you for a second chance."
"Second chance?" repeated Emily.
"Max and I would have easily won if I hadn't hit the wrong notes on my guitar and kept messing her up. I think you owe us a rematch."
"Give it up," sighed Emily.
"I'll give you a rematch," Yami offered, "but we'll duel my way."
"Stay out of this, tough guy," Skylar barked. "This is between us girls."
Yami paid no attention. "Emily, may I finish off your opponent?"
"Umm, sure."
Skylar chuckled. "Good, I'm not afraid of either of you. Name your game."
"The game is Duel Monsters and if you lose, you're never to bother Emily again."
Max accepted his request. "But if Skylar wins, Emily's got to give up her dream of becoming a singer." Emily groaned hearing that, but Yami promised her he wouldn't lose.
The four of them went to Duke's game shop and used one of the available arenas. "Challenging Skylar Hope to a duel was a huge mistake!" Skylar laughed. "You two losers have no idea who you're dealing with."
"You're the one who's going to lose," Yami argued.
Skylar scoffed. "Listen, Max and I never lose. Hey, you may think you won today, Emily," she called from the arena. "But that was only because of a freak accident!"
"Emily won that round fair and square," Yami told Skylar.
She still wouldn't listen. "Believe what you want to believe, tough guy."
Yami saw that the only way to silence Skylar was to duel her. "It's time you learned your lesson, Hope."
"Let's duel!" cried both duelists.
Skylar decided to make the first move. "It's time to let loose the dogs of war." She summoned Giga-Tech Wolf, a mechanical canine with 1200 attack points.
"Or so you say," Yami says and draws his card. "Not bad. I summon Celtic Guardian. Attack! Destroy Giga-Tech Wolf with your Steel Sword!" And Celtic Guardian did just that with the swing of his blade.
Skylar gasped and lost 200 life points. "It looks like you got lucky, but I wouldn't let it go to your head." She drew her card and smiled. "I'll kick things off with a bang as I play Robotic Knight in attack mode." It was 200 points stronger than Celtic Guardian, but Skylar wasn't ready to attack yet.
Yami was confused. "What's Skylar up to?"
Emily heard him and asked, "Is something wrong?"
"It's strange," he was saying. "Skylar knows her monster is stronger than mine and I'm unprotected, but she just ended her turn." He turned his attention back to his opponent. "If you think you can win by waiting it out and keeping me in suspense, you're sadly mistaken."
"Ooh, I'm shaking in my heels," Skylar said mockingly. "Maybe your puny brain can't figure out my brilliant plan. That is, if you've even got a brain."
"Talk all you want. We'll see who wins in the end." Yami wanted to see what Skylar had planned, so he ended his turn without playing a card.
Skylar summoned another machine to the field. It was Woodborg Inpachi. It had only 900 attack points, but 2500 defense points, so Skylar played it in defense mode. To strengthen her monsters, Skylar played Machine Conversion Factory. Now they were 300 attack and defense points stronger.
Maybe Skylar's a far better duelist than I've given her credit for, echoed Yugi's thoughts in the back of Yami's mind. With such a powerful defense, it's a lot harder to take down her life points. But she still made one mistake and it's going to cost her.
"Ready, Skylar Hope?" Yami asked and drew his card. "I play Curse of Dragon in attack mode. Incinerate Robotic Knight with your Dragon Flame!"
"Whoa, I just messed up!" Skylar said as her monster was destroyed. "I forgot to switch my Knight into defense mode!"
Emily watched in disbelief. "Skylar doesn't even know who she's up against."
"So far, you're hitting all the wrong notes," said Yami.
"Don't worry. I'm just tuning up for the grand finale. But first," Skylar said as she drew her card. "A surprise guest: Witch of the Black Forest! But there's more to come, duel fans. I play Polymerization to fuse Witch of the Black Forest and Lady of Faith into a rock and rolling new entity better known as the Musician King!" And Skylar's new monster appeared as a guitarist with 1800 attack points. "Rock it for the Celtic Guardian!" And the sound waves of the guitar's music removed the Guardian from the field. Skylar laughed. "I guess he wasn't a fan of the electric guitar. Not that I blame him. I actually make better music. I'll end my turn by placing this face down."
Yami took this turn to attack. "Curse of Dragon, fire your Flame and silence the Musician King!"
Skylar laughed once again. "Ha! You fell into my trap! I totally blame you!" And she revealed her face down card. "Time to pump up the volume with Metalmorph! It transforms Musician King into the fabulous Heavy Metal King and raises his attack points." Heavy Metal King was now 50 attack points strong enough to counter Curse of Dragon's attack and destroy it. "How pathetic! Looks like you're nothing but a one-hit wonder!"
Emily's boredom turned into worry. Could Skylar actually win?
Yami decided to take to the defense and summon his Giant Soldier of Stone to protect his life points. Skylar just scoffed. "You can't expect that stone sculpture to protect you. Metalmorph raises my guitarist's attack points for every attack. Kick it!" That attack gave Heavy Metal King a 650 point boost and destroyed the Stone Soldier, but dropped down to its original value now that the attack was over.
"The spirit's in major trouble!" gasped Emily.
Yami knew what he needed to do. He summoned Dark Magician and declared an attack.
"The fun just never ends," said Skylar. "With Metalmorph's effect, Heavy Metal King's attack power is greater than that of the Dark Magician's."
Yami could see that Skylar didn't know the rules of her card. "Skylar, your ability to miscalculate is uncanny."
"Say what?"
"Your overconfidence renders you blind," he clarified. His mage's Dark Magic attack removed Skylar's guitarist from the field. "Your Heavy Metal King is shattered."
"Impossible!" Skylar cried. "My monster's attack points were higher because of Metalmorph!"
Yami explained to Skylar that she was almost right, but she left out the rule that Metalmorph only raises her monster's attack points when it's the one attacking. And since it only received the power bonus when it attacked, her monster's attack points went back to their original value of 2050. Plus, since Dark Magician attacked, Heavy Metal King didn't receive the power bonus. "Metalmorph is only powerful when used correctly. You should have paid closer attention to the instruction manual."
Skylar lost her grip on the cards in her hand. "But that just isn't fair," she protested. "You must have cheated! Who are you anyway?"
"Just call me Yugi," he replied.
"Huh? Wait a sec, that name sorta rings a bell." When Skylar finally recognized it, her eyes widened. "There's no way! Not the same Yugi who defeated Pegasus at Duelist Kingdom! It can't be you!" Now that Skylar knew who her opponent was, she decided to withdraw from the arena. "Forget it, I can't hang around you. I'm out, man. I'm a guitarist, not a duelist!"
Outraged, Emily rose from her seat and marched up to the arena. She stopped in front of Skylar and scowled at her with her hands on her hips. "Yugi takes a slight lead in the duel and you decide to give up? That's just like when you tried to cheat and hit me with your guitar in our game! Look at you, Skylar! Where's your pride?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"When the game goes out of your favor, you get scared and run."
Skylar stammered and replied with, "Yeah, well, so what? Forfeiting is always better than facing defeat. Everyone loves a winner. I can't let people see me as a loser."
Emily tightened her eyes. "Tell me, Skylar. Do you have any friends at all?"
Nervously, she answers, "Yeah, I've got hundreds of friends."
"Fans don't count, Skylar," Max reminded.
Hearing that made Emily assume that Skylar didn't have any friends after all, but Skylar answered in honesty that she had three friends and that was everyone in the band. "Three, huh," Emily said, not sounding impressed. "Are you sure? Because that's three friends more than I would have guessed you had."
"Hey, just watch your mouth," snapped Skylar. "I don't have to put up with this!"
"I can't stand people who don't face their problems," Emily scolded. "Everyone fails sometimes, but the important thing is having the courage to look trouble straight in the eye. So if you want to be a winner, be someone who never gives up."
"Quitters never win," Max was saying, "but winners never quit."
Listening to everyone's words, Skylar looks down. "You guys have a point. I guess I was wrong." She turns around and heads for the exit, but stops for a minute. "Hey, Emily," then she turned around and smiled like a friend. "Thanks for being honest with me."
Max walked up to Emily. "You don't know what she's been through in the past," she told her. But she smiled in gratitude. "But she needed her lesson. Thanks and congratulations on your performance. You did well and I think you've got what it takes to be a great singer. Still," then Max winked. "Don't think that means you'll be as good as I am." Then she left to join Skylar.
"I'll keep that in mind," Emily said as she watched Max exit the arena. She chuckled and stuck her tongue out a little. "If Skylar learned her lesson, then maybe she'll face her fears instead of run from them."
Yami rejoined her. "And that's exactly what I must do." Emily knew what he meant when he said that. It was time to take the next step.
Like Max, Skylar Hope is a character that belongs to my younger sister, who helped me to write this chapter. Thanks, sis.