Niege heard something he initially took to be a joke...until he saw it for himself. Vil walking side by side with a rather cute girl wearing a golden pendant around her neck and an outfit that someone later described to him as 'steampunk'.

The girl had golden bangs and dark red hair with black highlights. Her eyes were a vivid purple that was only accented by her make-up, which was expertly applied and really made them pop. Her figure was petite, but the way she moved spoke of some training. Her hair was held back in a braid similar to Vil's own, save for her blond bangs which flowed down her face in curves.

She wore fashionable heels and there was no denying the spell she had over Vil as he hung onto her every word. The pendant was rather odd, as it had a stylized eye on one side and appeared to be made of gold. It hung off a thick chain around her neck. In her ears were odd cross like earrings, save for the fact that the top had a hoop of sort. She wore a black choker which also doubled to protect her neck from any damage caused by the thick chain. Her nails had a deep crimson lacquer.

Vil said something to her, and she easily claimed Vil's chair while he went to talk to the director for this particular shoot.

Needless to say a great number of people were all highly curious as to who the girl was and why Vil treated her so warmly.

Several hours later...

Nozomi was bored, and Vil had said they would go out to eat once he was done. It was all very fascinating, watching her brother act...but after a certain point it had become somewhat boring.

Vil saw the expression on her face, and with an impish grin, sent her a text.

'Go ahead and explore a bit. Supposedly they're waiting for some hotshot with money to show up to approve the final product anyway.'

Nozomi went to look around.

She really should have known her luck was not that good, because when she heard the sound of an incoming helicopter she cast a glance before groaning.

"Ugh...of course he would be the one everyone's waiting for."

She had her phone out in an instant and was already texting Vil.

'Of course the hotshot everyone is waiting for would be Kaiba.'

'Kaiba? That delusional stalker that is ego-driven into beating Yami? That Kaiba?'

Nozomi stayed back enough, but was able to catch a decent shot of Yami's rival and send it to her brother.

Yami was wide awake the second she realized who was inbound, but knew about Nozomi's agreement.

She was heading back to where her brother was when Kaiba's internal radar for Yami allowed him to see her in a decently sized crowd...or rather, her all too familiar Puzzle.

"Muto. So this is where you disappeared to," said Kaiba with a sneer.

"Hey Mokuba. I see your brother's ego is still larger than his dragon jet," said Nozomi to the smaller Kaiba.

Mokuba snickered, he couldn't help it.

Kaiba looked her over for a moment.

"I must say I'm surprised. It seems you finally developed some actual taste," said Kaiba.

Nozomi didn't twitch. Kaiba hadn't been there when she ripped that bitchy teacher a new one...but he definitely would have heard about it. Odds are he had dismissed them as hearsay.

"I'm not the one who's been stalking a dead man," she shot back.

Mokuba had to stare...Yugi was being unusually catty, and her outfit looked like a professional had put together, complete with make-up. For that matter, why was she even on this set to begin with? She wasn't the sort of person who would have been casted for the commercial being shot.

Predictably, his big brother would never turn down the chance to challenge his rival...especially since Yugi had up and disappeared for two full months with next to no clue as to where. All Yugi's grandfather would say was that they had been chosen for an 'elite college', and that they were living in a dorm for the foreseeable future.

Nozomi made a face when Kaiba brought out his duel disc.

"I told him I wouldn't duel today, so I didn't bother to bring my duel disk," said Nozomi flatly, crossing her arms.

Kaiba raised an eyebrow at the word 'him', but dismissed it.

"You did at least bring your deck with you, right?"

"Of course I did! I left the trio back at the dorm in his room, though. I didn't see the need to bring those cards with me!" she said.

Vil, upon learning of the headaches she had to deal with regarding the trio of God cards, had put his signature spell on them. They were secured in his room, and if anyone was stupid enough to open up the box without having beaten his sister in a proper duel first, then anyone who touched the cards would end up paralyzed unable to move until Nozomi reclaimed possession of them.

Kaiba sneered at her, but had Mokuba bring her a spare duel disk. Nozomi had a long suffering look on her face.

Honestly, she was sick and tired of Kaiba stalking Yami. Her other half offered to handle it, but she wanted to tell him off for two years now.

"You okay, Yugi?" asked Mokuba.

"Mokuba, after this duel is over I'm giving that idiot brother of yours a long overdue tongue-lashing," deadpanned Nozomi. "I don't need him following me to my new school just to duel me."

Mokuba would have said something, but Yugi had a point in his honest opinion. His brother was obsessed over that one point.

With Vil...

He knew something was up when a good chunk of the crew that weren't actively filming had discreetly disappeared once the helicopter landed.

And then he saw an all too familiar white dragon appear, and he sighed.

"For the love of the Seven...I knew she said he was obsessed, but this is rather ridiculous. There's a time and place for that sort of thing," said Vil exasperated.

There was no way they'd be able to get anything done until the duel was over, it was too flashy...never mind the noise level would interfere with their work.

As if following an unspoken signal, everyone took a break from filming and all followed Vil to the duel. Wisely, everyone parted for him, likely due to the expression on his face.

He knew Nozomi was good, but watching her duel was on another level. Her strategies were impeccable, her royal aura on full force for everyone to see. There was no doubting this was a queen in her element, and he couldn't be more proud.

Seeing her take down that arrogant rich boy, even more so.

Kaiba looked pissed, and Nozomi looked beyond irritated with him. Her expression said clearly that she was just done with his behavior.

What followed next was just beautiful...in that Vil got to see all the training he had given his little sister in full force. Last time she had accidentally dialed him when she gave that pathetic teacher a tongue-lashing of a lifetime, which had lead to the woman being kicked out of the teaching profession.

This time he got to watch it in person, and there was no way he could possibly hide the delighted smile on his face watching her dress down the idiot who kept stalking her just to duel the dead mage she carried around in that pendant around her neck.

"Honestly, Kaiba, what in the name of the Seven were you thinking? Dueling has a time and place, you insufferable fool, and I know for a fact that everyone here has been working hard all day to shoot that commercial so they can get paid!"

"What do you care? For that matter why are you here at all? You're not the sort of person they'd cast for perfume," said Kaiba sullenly.

"I, unlike you, have been here for over five hours," deadpanned Nozomi. "And what do you mean I'm not the sort of person they would cast?"

Kaiba deliberately looked her up and down.

"You barely rate as a female to begin with, and your appearance does nothing to show off any feminine qualities. Besides, since when do you know about perfume or make up?"

Nozomi's face twitched, as she calmly walked up to Kaiba...and proceeded to punch him hard in a perfect right cross to the solar plexus. He went down in seconds.

The expression on Kaiba's face was just...delicious. He had provoked the female dragon one too many times and it had come to roost.

Even better, Vil could clearly see several people recording the entire thing and he was absolutely hunting them down later for the best video for his own personal enjoyment.

"Is there anything you'd like to say for yourself?" she said, arms crossed and glaring at him.

Kaiba stared at her like she had grown a second head, once he had recovered enough to stand. Mokuba was wheezing to the side, mostly from laughing his ass off.

"Since when did you grow a spine and turn catty?" he demanded.

Nozomi's glare went up by ten notches. Vil felt he might as well step in, since he wouldn't be interrupting anything.

"Well done," he said, walking up to Nozomi. The pleased smile on his face was rather obvious.

"Thanks," she said happily.

Kaiba observed the two, before he sneered.

"So you finally got a boyfriend? He must not have much taste, considering you barely rate as a girl on a good day."

Now both of them were glaring at him, and the resemblance was uncanny.

Mokuba was staring between the two with a great deal of confusion. He looked at Nozomi, then at the mystery blond with familiar purple eyes.

"Uh, nii-san? I don't think he's her..." started Mokuba.

"Figures you'd only grow a spine after getting laid. Though with how feminine he looks, he can't be that good in bed."

Nozomi's look of disgust was nothing compared to Vil's.

"Nii-san!" scolded Mokuba. Kaiba looked at him. "I don't think he's her boyfriend."

"He's not," said Nozomi, looking ill at the very idea. "Vil is my cousin."

"Cousin? You have a cousin?" said Kaiba dumbfounded.

"Honestly Kaiba, do I really have to tell you how babies are made?" smirked Nozomi. "It's bad enough you interrupted Nii-san's shoot because you had to duel me, again."

Nozomi looked exhausted, as did Vil.

"Rough day?" asked Rook, already pouring both of the some tea.

"Kaiba showed up at the shoot, and insisted on dueling me," said Nozomi. "Then he had the gall to suggest Vil-nii was my boyfriend."

"I thought you were exaggerating on his level of obsession with Yami...if anything you were understating it," said Vil.

"Actually...we should have brought Grim with us," said Nozomi. "Kaiba adamantly refuses to acknowledge magic is real despite several attempts to prove it. A talking cat would drive his denial up the wall."

Vil snorted, before realizing she was being serious.

"Wait...he's still in denial about magic?" he said incredulous.

"He refuses to acknowledge it's real, or that he has enough magical ancestry that he could easily qualify to attend NRC," said Nozomi dryly.

She would love to introduce Idia-sempai and Ortho to him... he'd never live the fact he was being upstaged by a reclusive mage who was better at hacking and could create a better duel system than him.

And she wasn't exaggerating that part. Idia had taken one look at her duel disk and called it a 'cute toy for children'. The second Ortho expressed an actual interest in dueling, which Nozomi was more than happy to teach him, he created a new system that the entire dorm now used for their duels.

None of them had been able to beat Nozomi yet, but they were improving in leaps and bounds under her tutelage.

She was seriously thinking about Idia's joking suggestion of starting up a Magicam channel in which she talking about Dueling and other games.