December 13 2006: Author Notes: I suppose I should stop writing sometime soon but I've been enjoying working on this today; having a day off is awesome. My hands are starting to get sore from all the typing! Heh. I hope it's worth the work I'm putting into it. Crosses fingers Well, right to Chapter 4 then.
Chapter 4: Blue-Eyes, Sacred Dragon
The challenge was issued and Yugi seemed different than he had when Kagome had met him fifteen or so minutes before as he stepped up to his side of the dueling arena. Kaiba too had a new glint in his eyes that hadn't been there for the previous opponents, he was suddenly much more serious and alert than he had been in the other duels. The change was subtle but enough that Kagome realized she had joined a few of his fan girls. She smiled at that and shrugged to herself, there was nothing wrong with cheering at a sport, and that's more or less what Duel Monsters had become. She would believe in her side and back Kaiba even if he'd really annoyed her earlier, she was rather adjusted to crass remarks after all.
The crowd had hushed to listen to the duelists as Yugi pulled his starting hand and then drew a card, looking over his hand before announcing. "I play Obnoxious Celtic Guardian in attack mode, then I lay one card face down. I can't attack now so I end my turn."
"Good to see you again Yugi," Kaiba mocked as he drew a card. "I thought taking my title back from you could wait until the tournament I'm starting in a few months but I suppose now is as good as any time. I will place a monster in face down defense mode and put three cards face down. Then I end my turn."
"As cocky as ever." Yugi replyed with a deeper voice, Yami currently in control for the duel. "I put down my Axe Raider in attack mode. Now, my Guardian, attack his face down monster card."
The imagery was amazing to watch, the lifelike holograms and the technology that had to be behind them was an art form even without the addition of the game, Kagome was enjoying her first match by that alone but she blinked as some of the images shattered, the only person that was there happy that they explained every step of the game.
"Your attack has activated my face down monster's ability. Cyber Jar destroys all monsters on the field and then we draw five cards each and put all monsters into play in either face up attack mode or face down defense mode." Kaiba explained as he drew the cards himself and settled his cards into place. Now having two face down monsters and a Gemini Elf in attack mode.
Yugi's side changed to having two monsters in defense mode. "I will set another card face down and end my turn. Just play the game Kaiba."
"That's what I've been doing Yugi, keep up." Kaiba remarked as he drew his next card. "First I turn my Dragon Lord into face up attack position then I'll play the magic card: Dragon Summoning Flute. Which allows me to summon up to two dragons in my hand to the field without sacrificing any cards."
"Not so fast." Yugi interrupted. "I activate the trap card: Magic Drain. If you want to keep using your flute you need to discard a card first."
"Weak." Kaiba offered as he gave up one of the cards in his hand. "Now. Come forth my Blue Eyes White Dragons. Next, I'll use the magic card: Share the Pain, and sacrifice one of my face down monsters on the field to make you choose and sacrifice one of your monsters."
The intimidating large dragons appeared and two of the face down cards shattered as the monsters were sent to their respective graveyards.
"And sense Dragon Lord is face up on the field, my dragons are immune to all trap and magic effects that you would choose to employ. Now my Gemini elf, attack his face down monster and send it to the graveyard." Kaiba announced, waving his hand forward with his command for it to attack.
The hologram jumped forward and struck the face down card, the thing flipping to show the high defense Giant Soldier of Stone, Kaiba's life points taking the 100 difference between the Elves attack and Soldier's defense.
"The hundred life points is fine to lose for what will happen to you soon Yugi." Kaiba announced, hands motioning with his command. "Attack the face down creature Blue Eyes. White Lightning attack!"
The hologram reared back and called an electric beam from it's mouth to send it at the face down creature, another card shattering, and wind blowing back the hair of both opponents. Kaiba smirked, then nodded toward his second dragon.
"Now my other Blue-Eyes, attack his life points directly while he has no defense." Kaiba called out, motioning the creature forward, the same attack animated from a different angle blasted past Yugi who held his hands up despite the fact that it was just a harsh wind and otherwise all an illusion. Yugi's life points dropped to 1000 from his original 4000.
"What happened to you Yugi? In one turn I've already removed over half of your life points. Did you stop dueling the past year after the previous tournament? Lord of Dragon, use your attack to finish off Yugi's life points!"
"Not so fast." Yugi interrupted, motioning up a trap card. "I activate Rageki Break. I may not be able to target your dragons with attacks but I can target your Dragon Lord. I discard a card and send him to the graveyard, removing your ability to shield your dragons from my trap and magic cards."
"You are running out of tricks already Yugi." Kaiba replied with a shake of his head. "I end my turn"
"You don't win until my life points reach zero." Yugi reminded, drawing a card. "First I use the magic card: Scapegoat. Allowing me to summon four low level tokens to the field in face up defense mode. Then I sacrifice two of them to summon my Dark Magician. Don't start mocking me yet, next I'll equip my Dark Magician with Malevolent Nuzzler, bringing his attack up an extra 700 points and past the attack of your Blue Eyes White Dragon. Now, attack one of his dragon's Dark Magician!"
The blast flew toward the dragon but then Kaiba activated one of his trap cards.
"I activate Negate Attack, stopping your Dark Magician before it can reach my Blue Eyes." He announced, the trap card turning upward and blowing the attack away before shattering after it's use.
"I will place another card face down and end my turn." Yugi announced quietly. "Now even your blue eyes don't match my dark magician."
"Just for the moment Yugi, that won't matter soon." Kaiba replied as he drew his new card, smirking in his superior way as he pulled a card, setting it into his duel disk. "Let's speed this up Yugi, I'd like to take a break for lunch soon. I activate Polymerization. Then I combine my two Blue-Eyes on the field with the one in my hand and I create the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"
The field changed, the three dragons curling into each other and coming out even larger as a single dragon with three heads, rearing and roaring as it was summoned into existence on the field. Kaiba paused too look over the card Kagome had given him earlier. He'd just drawn it, it was a trap equipment card, the gold text at it's top indicated just how rare it was, it was specifically for already powerful creatures which wouldn't make it an asset to most beginning players. To use it the monster had to have at least 2500 ATT points to begin with as well as being a Light monster. It's best feature is that it could be played from his hand at any time during any phase of the game. He considered it for a time before adding it to his hand.
"Now my Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, attack and destroy his Dark Magician!" Kaiba ordered with the smirk still on his face. Yugi wasn't nearly doing as well as some of the other times they dueled, but he still had to be wary, there was much yet that could happen.
"I activate Magical Hats!" Yugi called, the trap card coming into view, then dropping large hats from the holograms version of the sky to settle over three positions on the field. "Now if you want to attack my creature you have to find it! Do you still want to attack?"
"I can wait an extra round to destroy you Yugi." Kaiba shrugged at his rival. "There are only so many magic tricks left in your sleeve. I'll have my Gemini Elves destroy one of your token monsters, and my Ultimate Dragon destroy the other in the meantime. Then I will end my turn."
The two small fluffy scapegoats exploded apart and then the magical hats not hiding the dark magician disappeared, leaving the creature in face down defense mode and now without the equip card that had made it dangerous in the first place.
Yami considered carefully. "We just have to have faith in the cards." Yugi assured. "We'll draw what we need."
He nodded and drew a card, considering what he had before nodding.
"I'll use my Switch spell card to trade it out with a spell card already put in my graveyard at the cost of half of my life points. Then I'll activate that card, using Scapegoat a second time." Yugi explained as the puffballs returned to existence over his side of the field. Then I'll sacrifice two of them to summon Buster Blader, who gets 2000 extra attack points for the dragon cards in your graveyard and your dragon on the field. Raising him to 3900 ATT. Then I use my Pot of Greed magic card to draw too more cards."
"Stop stalling Yugi and make your move." Kaiba ordered when Yugi paused for several moments to consider his new options.
"Your cockiness will end now Kaiba." Yugi called. "I'm tired of this. Next I'll use a magic card I placed on the field to wipe your spell and trap cards from the field. Harpy's Feather Duster, get rid of his last line of defense."
The powerful magic card swept away his several magic and trap cards, he gritted his teeth against the blow to his defense but stood his ground and watched Yugi at work. He still had 3900 life points while Yugi was now down to 500 after his last little effort.
"Next, I use Polymerization to combine my Dark Magician and Buster Blader into the Dark Paladin!" Yugi exclaimed animatedly, on a roll toward his success in the duel. The two monsters swirling together and reforming into the black clad version of the dark magician. "And as it still gets the extra 2000 attack points he has a total of 4900 attack points, 400 more than your blue eyes ultimate dragon."
"Yeah, go Yugi!" Joey called from near where she'd sat.
"Don't cheer yet." Kagome leaned down to tell him. "I think Kaiba's going to surprise you."
"Oh quit being a brat about having a loser represent your shrine." Joey laughed. "Yugi is about to destroy Kaiba's strongest defense and then he'll take him apart next round."
"Dark Paladin, go and destroy Kaiba's Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon!" Yugi called from down the field, dragging the two observers from the budding argument. The Paladin sped toward the dragon and then Kaiba played the card that Kagome had given him.
"I activate Sacred Defense." Kaiba called. "This trap card can be activated without ever being set on the field. It's an equip card that raises my monster's attack by one thousand points. It's other abilities don't need to be mentioned here."
As the Dark Paladin flew at the dragon it seemed to take a crystalline form and it's attack blew through the Paladin before it ever reached him, blowing past and slamming into Yugi, reducing his attack points to zero and leaving Kaiba as the winner of the duel.
The crowd was silent for a long set of moments and then Kagome broke into a cheer, her initiating the following cheers for Kaiba's fans and most of the people that were neutral, Yugi's closest friends were in shock, as were Yugi and the Pharaoh. Not that Yugi was a particularly prideful person but he had lost so rarely that he felt the sting a little more than usual when the win was coming from Kaiba.
"Well," Kagome's mom broke the cheers or uncomfortable thoughts. "That was amazing. Let's let the winner take a break from his dueling for lunch though and in about an hour we'll start back up with him dueling Ms. Shannon Morray. Another round of applauds for both duelists!"
Kagome grinned, her mother was getting the hang of this. She glanced down at the still shocked Joey and leaned down.
"Hey don't worry about it. It's just a game. He'll have another chance to beat him sometime I'm sure. Tell him it was a great fight for me. I'm going to go congratulate Seto." She was honest in her words before moving off to find the winner of the duel, following into her own home to find him seated at the table to enjoy the lunch her mother had made him.
"Great job." Kagome said cheerfully as she entered and sat down. "That was amazing. You really are awesome to watch."
"I suppose you figure my victory is thanks to the card you gave me." he observed incorrectly, picking up another piece of the meal to enjoy.
Kagome's smile faded and her demeanor turned colder than his, she reached over to pick up his meal, plastering a fakely sweet smile on her face. "I hope you learn what it's like someday to be treated how you treat other people."
She turned the meal over on his head and then stormed from the room and up toward hers, slamming the door behind her, it resounding down to where Kaiba sat half-indignant and half-perplexed. He reached to get his napkin and wipe away the horse radish dripping down his cheek, motions controlled despite the budding anger he rose and moved to follow her, opening her door without knocking.
"What do you want?" Kagome demanded upon his unannounced entry. Turning from her desk to give him a glare that most people would fear.
"Is there a reason you dumped my lunch on me? Or is it common for someone ranting on about etiquette to not display any?" He asked, eyes as fierce and not about to back down from the girl's tantrum.
Kagome was quiet, she didn't even have a response to give to that. Wanting to scream at him but knowing he would just have something else to say. "Just go back to whatever you were doing. Whatever I say wouldn't matter to you anyway."
"I'd love to return to lunch, but that is a bit difficult. Is there something about our acquaintanceship I am missing? Did you think we were closer than we are?" Kaiba asked, tired of whatever this was that she was irritated about already. This is why he hated being close to women, they were grand until they mistook him for a friend.
"I was just trying to compliment you! That is why I dumped your lunch on your head. Not trying to take any credit from you, not that it would matter to that huge head of yours. I couldn't hurt your ego with a jackhammer. My mistake for trying to be nice to you as apparently you are too busy being a heartless ass to worry about the people around you!"
Her animate words weren't a result of Kaiba's actions alone. She had years of being misused by Inuyasha that weren't yet behind her and had left her more oversensitive than she would ever realize. She wouldn't accept anyone taking her kindness for granted anymore…not that she wouldn't still be nice to people, but this was the first time she'd had to deal with such causticity sense Inuyasha had been sealed from her life. When no response came she turned her back on him and looked out her window without really seeing the outside.
"Get out of my room." she ordered, gripping the edge of the window to try to bring her wild emotions back under control.
I wasn't being that bad was I? Kaiba asked himself as he watched the light-hearted girl that had clumsily bumped into him degenerate into the exasperated one in front of him. I only reacted how I always react…but I did finally defeat Yugi thanks to the card she gave me. The look on that dork's face alone was worth the whole day. Not to mention that my title was returned to me about an hour before, I can afford to give her a little ground for the time being.
"All right. Thank you for the card and the congratulations." He said, he wasn't about to apologize, but it was something.
She un-tensed at least, standing for a bit before resisting her urge to sigh at him. Turning around with a small blush. "I suppose we should clean you up and get you something else to eat."
"Women." he retorted shortly. "Shall I return to the kitchen or are you just looking for further vengeance with the wider array of weapons in the fridge?"
Kagome laughed at him, moving back toward the door. Not offering a quipe back as she had to admit she sort of deserved the last one. "Come on, I'll fix you something else real fast and get your hair as clean as I can."
He eyed her and shook his head, the things he put up with. Moving and heading down the steps ahead of her, turning when he heard a commotion above him.
Kagome hadn't seen the small toy that had been left at the top of the steps, she grabbed for a railing that didn't exist as she started to tumble forward, there was a second where she felt the sensation of free falling before she was caught near the bottom of the steps. The cool feel of leather against her neck and the slight but familiar pressure of being held on her back. Opening her eyes to find his face closer to hers than she'd ever expected while her cheeks turned a dusty rose.
End Chapter
I did more research for this chapter of a fiction than I have for any chapter of any fiction I've written ever, I had to actually dig out my old Yugioh decks and look up some cards online. Other than the couple I made up myself for plot purposes I used cards from the game and kept the effects the same. I thought it was amusing to throw in the explanations and make it closer to the show.
-Aura
Normally a section here would go to my reviewers but I haven't really given a chance for any sense my last chapter got posted.