Pieces of Us, Chapter 4

I wasn't planning on updating today, but then I got two anonymous reviews begging to hear what happened next! Thank you for your enthusiasm, Anon. I'm writing this just for you. I had to re-watch episode 3 of the anime to remember what happened in canon and make sure I got this right.

I hope everyone enjoys this chapter! Don't forget to review!

-Storychan

I don't remember how I got home after that. I was in a daze, tears stinging my eyes as the memory of Manami's soul being torn away hit me again and again like a punch in the gut. I felt like I couldn't breathe. I wished this was a nightmare that I could just wake up from. But, I knew better than that. Even the nightmares I'd been having lately – the ones about my other sister, Kisara – had turned out to be alarmingly real.

I didn't ask for this! I had enough trouble in my life before all this started happening, trying to juggle school with dueling and taking care of Manami and Uncle Takumi.

Oh god. Uncle Takumi. What was I going to tell him about Manami? I couldn't just say that a crazy American millionaire, who may or may not be the reincarnation of the man that killed my sister in my past life, stole Manami's soul through my new friend Yugi's television. That sounded crazy. It was crazy. But, I'd seen it happen. I couldn't deny anymore that this world of Ancient Egyptians and Shadow Realms and Millennium Items was my new reality.

But, I decided, wiping my tears on my jacket sleeve, I'm not going to just sit around and cry about it and let myself be defeated! I'm going to duel Pegasus, and I'm going to win, and I'm going to get Manami back!

I also wanted to find The Painter and revive Kisara, but, as I didn't have any clues at the moment of how to find him or even who he was, I decided to focus on my energy on the problem of Pegasus for now. I began to plan.

I would tell Uncle Takumi that Manami had run away. It would break his heart, but not the way telling him the truth would (assuming he even believed me). Since her soul was no longer enshrined within her body, Manami was currently, for all intents and purposes, dead. She wouldn't stay that way long. I wouldn't let her. I just needed time to deal with Pegasus and return her soul. But, I had to give my uncle some sort of excuse until then. He'd already lost Aunt Chouko. He couldn't lose Manami, too.

I felt bad for having to lie to him. He'd given a home to me, the niece of his wife – not a blood relative of his at all – when I'd showed up on his doorstep seven years ago after being orphaned. For seven years, he'd raised me as a sister to his daughter. A daughter who was now gone because of me. Because two thousand years ago I was a dragon, and apparently some people still aren't over it. She had nothing to do with any of this. When I started having nightmares about my other, crazy, previous life, she was the one person who kept me grounded in this lifetime. I don't know how I'm going to do this without her. But, I have to.

When I arrived at my house and walked up my driveway towards my door, I noticed a strange envelope that had been shoved haphazardly into my letter box. I took it out and opened it to find a set of cards that explained I was officially invited to the Duelist Kingdom Tournament! The one Pegasus was talking about earlier, I realized, and suddenly remembered the glove with two chips shaped like stars that was in my backpack. He'd sent it to me. One to me and one to Yugi. He'd given us both these presents before stealing our loved ones. The cards explained that the Star Chips would serve as my passport to the cruise ship that would take me to Duelist Kingdom, which I was supposed to board tonight at 10:30.

Oh, geez. I had to lie to Uncle Takumi about Manami and ask for permission to go out past my curfew and enter a dueling tournament that would no doubt cause me to miss at least a few days of school. The tournament was going to be on an island, so basically I'd be taking an extended vacation. I'd gone to Hawaii before with Uncle Takumi and Aunt Chouko, when I was thirteen and Manami was twelve. But, this would be the first island vacation I'd ever taken alone.

Well, I thought, I won't be entirely alone. Yugi-kun – and his mysterious alter ego that I spoke to today – will be there, as well. This relaxed me somewhat. But, the person I really wished could come with me was Jounouchi. I felt safer when I was around him. I couldn't explain why.

Summoning up my courage, I stepped through my front door with the envelope still clasped in my hands and walked up the stairs to Uncle Takumi's room. I knocked on the door. "Ojisan?" I called. "Are you home?"

"Come in," Uncle Takumi said weakly, and I did. He was lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling with a vacant expression. His shirt was dirty and his hair was disheveled. An open bottle of gin was on his bedside table, and in his hands was a tearstained picture of Aunt Chouko. It sounds like a pretty bleak scene, I know. But, I was used to it. He'd been like this most of the time since Aunt Chouko's death. I was surprised he'd gotten out of bed to come pick me up from the hospital the other night. He'd been pretty lucid then, but now he was back in another one of his moods. It's because he was like this so often that Manami and I had to work so hard finding dueling tournaments in order to pay rent. I didn't blame my uncle, exactly, for neglecting his duties due to his grief. Aunt Chouko's passing had hit us all pretty hard. I guess I'm just better at getting back up.

"Did you call in sick to work again, Ojisan?" I asked.

Uncle Takumi nodded.

"You only get so many sick days in a year, you know," I reminded.

"I know," my uncle replied sadly. "I'll….I'll go to work tomorrow, Sagiko-chan, I promise. Today I just….couldn't handle it."

"It's alright," I shrugged, walking over to his table and putting the cap back on the gin before discreetly stuffing it into my backpack so I could hide it from him later.

"It's been a year now," Uncle Takumi protested. "I….should be over it by now, shouldn't I?"

"You'd known Aunt Chouko your whole life," I insisted. "I mean, you were childhood friends even before you got together and were married for twenty years, right?"

"We were next door neighbors, growing up," my uncle recalled with the ghost of a smile.

"So, of course facing life without her is hard," I told him soothingly. "I still miss her a lot, too. But, you've got to pull it together, ok?"

"Ok."

"Let me fix your hair," I clucked in a nurturing tone that reminded me of my own mother. "And I'll get you some clean clothes to put on, alright? Lord knows you've been wearing those ones you got on since yesterday. I'll make the two of us some dinner, too."

"Two?" Uncle Takumi blinked. "Is Manami-chan sleeping over at a friend's house tonight, or something?"

I froze. Like I said, I'd planned to tell him Manami had run away from home. But, I wasn't sure if I could give him bad news when he was in a funk like this. I had to come up with something, fast.

"Manami is…..at Anzu-san's, getting ready for tonight," I falsified.

"What's tonight?" my uncle asked.

"The Duelist Kingdom Tournament," I said, showing him the envelope I'd found in the letter box earlier. "I've been invited by Pegasus Crawford-san to compete in a Duel Monsters tournament on his island."

Uncle Takumi sat up in bed. "Sagiko-chan, that's amazing!" he said. "I'm so proud of you!"

I tried to smile. Dueling had always been more Manami's passion than mine. I was just in it for the money. That was why I'd given Kaiba my Blue Eyes in the first place. It wasn't like I'd gotten into this tournament because of my dueling skills, anyway. It was because in my past life I'd been a dragon-girl called Sagira (I was still struggling to wrap my brain around that) and somehow that creep Pegasus knew about it and had taken an interest in me. It really felt like "Sagira" was ruining my life as "Sagiko". I wished I could go back to before these nightmares began to change my life. Yet all I could do was move forward.

"I have to leave town for the tournament tonight," I explained. "And I'll be gone for a while. Are you going to be ok without me here?"

"Yes, of course," Uncle Takumi nodded. "Sagiko-chan, I….I'm sorry I've been such a burden to you this past year. I'm your legal guardian. I should be the one taking care of you."

"It's ok," I began, but he interrupted me.

"No, it's not," he shook his head. "You deserve better. You're young. You deserve to go do fun, amazing things like this. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Take it, and don't worry about me. I'll pull myself together. I can manage on my own until you come back."

"Are you sure?" I frowned.

"I am," Uncle Takumi nodded. "And…Manami-chan, she's going with you to Duelist Kingdom, to cheer you on?"

In actuality, people without Star Chips wouldn't be allowed to go to Duelist Kingdom at all. But, I feel that if Manami were here, she'd find a way on that boat somehow. I swallowed a mouthful of guilt as I faked a smile and said, "Yes, Manami-chan is going with me. She'll be perfectly safe."

"Well, of course she will, she'll be with you. You've always taken such good care of her, Sagiko-chan. Thank you."

The way my uncle was smiling so trustingly at me only made me feel worse. I'd gotten his daughter technically killed, I was lying about it to his face, and now he was thanking me. I almost broke down and told him the truth. Instead, I bowed and raced out of the room to go warm up the leftover curry Manami had made for our last meal together before my departure. My hands were shaking so badly that I wondered if I'd be able to eat.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

In the end, I'd eaten the curry to avoid rousing Uncle Takumi's suspicions, but my nerves had turned what was normally my favorite food to granite in my stomach. I was in my room, packing a suitcase for the dangerous trip ahead. As I folded my clothes, I tried not to look at Manami's empty bed, which I felt was staring at me accusingly. I looked through my cards, trying to decide which ones to take to duel with. If I wanted to confront Pegasus, there were plenty of duelists I'd have to defeat along the way. I used a Pyro deck. My ace card was Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, which, until fate handed me that Blue Eyes (which I was starting to wish I'd kept), had been the rarest card I've ever owned. It went into the deck box in my suitcase immediately. But, deciding which of my other, fairly run-of-the-mill cards was worth taking took a lot longer to figure out.

It was 10 pm when I finally looked up and heard the sound of the phone ringing. I picked it up. "Hello?"

"Hey, Sagiko-san, it's Yugi."

"Oh, hi, Yugi-san," I said. "It's about time to start heading over to the docks, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Want me to meet you outside your house so we can walk over together?"

"Sure."

Yugi was silent for a moment on the other end of the line. "Sagiko-san," he said finally. "I know that you'll get Mahomura-san back. I want you to know there's no doubt in my mind that you can do it."

I had begun having some doubts, myself. I wasn't an expert duelist by any means. I wasn't sure I could do this. What if I failed, and Manami was lost forever? No. I had to win. I would not come home without her. That was how I had to think.

"Thanks, Yugi-san," I said. "For the record, there's no doubt in my mind that you'll get your grandpa back, either."

"Thank you," Yugi replied, and from the way he said it, I could tell that he was just as nervous as I was. It comforted me a bit to know that even he, the wielder of the mighty Exodia, got pre-tournament jitters. But, this was more than the normal nervousness I usually felt before a game. This time, it was life or death.

"I'll be there to support you every step of the way, Sagiko-san. I'm your friend, remember?," Yugi assured me.

"Right," I smiled, eyes blazing with determination, and slipped the gauntlet with my Star Chips in it onto my hand. "Let's do this."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Yugi met me moments later, and together we walked to the docks, where the boat to Duelist Kingdom was waiting. We didn't talk much on the way there. We were both going over duel strategy in our heads. When we got there, there was a huge line of duelists waiting to board. Yugi and I quietly filed into it, waiting for it to be our turn to show the imposing men in black suits up front our Chips to prove our identification. Then, suddenly, we heard a commotion coming from up ahead.

"Beat it, kid!" one of the black-suited men was saying. "No Star Chips, no entry!"

"Lemme go!" shouted a familiar voice. "I'm a friend of Yugi Mutou, who beat Kaiba!"

"…..Jounouchi?" I recognized, and saw it was indeed him fighting with Mr. Black Suit. "What are you doing here?"

"Sagiko-san!" Jounouchi called. "Yugi-kun! You gotta get me on that boat! I ain't letting you two go to Duelist Kingdom without me!"

Yugi gasped. "Jounouchi-kun, I know you said you wanted the cash prize, but…."

Oh, I thought. So that's why he wants in the tournament. Not like I can judge. I duel mostly for the money, too.

"But nothing!" Jounouchi replied. "I'm going and that's it!"

I smiled. I'd wanted him to come with us from the beginning. "But," I realized, "Jounouchi-kun, you don't have any Star Chips."

"Yes, he does, Sagiko-san," Yugi grinned.

"Wait, what?"

"I'm going to give Jounouchi-kun one of my Star Chips!" Yugi announced to Black Suit. "Then, he can come with us!"

Jounouchi's eyes widened. "You'd do that for me?"

"Of course! You're my friend!"

"But, everyone else will have two," Jounouchi protested.

"I'd rather be at a disadvantage than do this without you," Yugi said certainly. Wow, I thought. These two have quite a strong friendship.

I felt lucky that I was now a friend of both of them, too.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Once we got onto the boat, the three of us were ushered into a large room full of other duelists. "These will be your sleeping quarters for the evening," Black Suit explained.

"What? All of the HUNDREDS of duelists here gotta sleep in the same room?" Jounouchi protested.

"G-girls, too?" I blushed.

"You're actually the only female duelist I've seen here so far," Yugi realized.

"Oh, come on!" I protested. "There's got to be some more somewhere. And, seriously, do I really have to sleep in a room full of dudes?"

"Champions get private rooms," bragged an unfamiliar voice, and in walked a bespectacled boy in a green jacket, followed by a boy with long hair in a red hat. I was pretty sure I'd seen these two somewhere before. Wait a minute…these were the duelists I'd seen at the regional championships on TV at Yugi's house the day Manami disappeared!

"Insector Haga and Dinosaur Ryuzaki," Jounouchi recognized.

"That's us," Haga smirked, then walked right past Jounouchi and I to talk to Yugi. "I hear you're the one who defeated Kaiba," he said. Yugi nodded. "You should know," Haga continued, "that being in a room full of duelists isn't all bad. You have an opportunity to trade cards."

"Ooh good idea!" Jounouchi grinned and grabbed me by the wrist. "C'mon, Sagiko-san, let's go find some cards to trade!"

"Awesome!" I agreed, and followed him.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

About fifteen minutes later, we met up with Yugi, who hadn't wanted to trade with anyone and was staring quietly out of the waves. "Hey!" he greeted us. "What cards did you get?"

"Baby Dragon, Kunai With Chain, and Shield & Sword," Jounouchi bragged.

"I got Battle Footballer and Kickfire!" I said proudly.

"Hmm…" Yugi contemplated. "I've got a card that will work well with your Baby Dragon, Jounouchi-kun."

"Yeah?"

"It's called Time Wizard," Yugi said, and handed it to him. "Oh, and I've got something that goes well with Battle Footballer, too, Sagiko-san," he added, fishing another card out of his golden carrying case and handing it to me. "It's called Blaze Fenix."

"Wow, thanks, Yugi-san!" I grinned. "'l'll think of you whenever I use it!" Jounouchi told him something similar. Just then, a curvaceous blonde walked up to us.

"Hey, what do you know!" I smiled. "I told you there were other female duelists here!"

"I'm Kujaku Mai," the blonde introduced, then immediately turned her attention to Yugi. "You're the one who defeated Kaiba! You're famous!"

"A-am I?" Yugi asked uncertainly.

"Totally! But there's no way you'll defeat me," she said proudly, then turned and walked away.

"She was hot," Jounouchi said, staring. I frowned. "I'm going to go talk to her," I decided. "It's so rare to meet girls with similar interests!"

I went tailing after her, and finally found her conversing with Ryuzaki.

"If you defeat me in a duel," she purred seductively, "I'll let you do anything you want with me." I blushed and hid behind a pillar. Did I seriously just hear her say that?! I thought. I despised women who used their beauty to get what they wanted. I'd much rather achieve my ends with intelligence and skill.

"But if I win," Mai continued, "you have to let me have your room." So that's what she's after, I realized. I would rather sleep in the lounge with all those guys than bet my body on a duel! It's like she's pimping herself out!

It seemed I wouldn't be making friends with Mai after all. I went to walk away, but then I heard her call out to me: "Hey! You! The girl with the bangs!"

"What do you want?" I snapped.

"No need to be so touchy," she said, tossing her blonde tresses back. "What's your name?"

"Ryuya Sagiko," I replied. "I already know who you are. I was there when you introduced yourself to Yugi-san."

"Ooh, are you his girlfriend?"

"….What?" Yugi and I were just friends, and, honestly, with his short stature and puppy-dog eyes, he felt more like a little brother. "I'm his friend," I explained.

"So, he's not taken, then? Cool," Mai giggled. "What about Blondie?"

"You mean Jounouchi?" I asked, finding myself suddenly blushing for some reason.

"Is that his name? Is he single?" Mai pressed.

"Currently," I replied coldly. I didn't want Mai to go after Jounouchi, even though I'd heard him say he thought she was hot. I wasn't sure why. "Are you just going to babble about boys, or can I talk to you about what we're actually here for – that is, dueling?"

"If that's what you want, Ryuya-san," Mai shrugged. "I've seen some very skilled duelists on this ship so far. Your friend Yugi is one. Do you think you defeat him in a duel?"

"Um…." I realized I hadn't thought of that. What if Yugi did wind up becoming my opponent?

"He has the legendary Exodia," I confessed. "That would be pretty hard to beat."

Mai nodded. "Hm…..maybe if you flirt with him, he'll accidentally slip up and reveal some sort of weakness in his deck that you could use against him," she suggested.

"Ex-cuse me?!" I cried. "What a ruthless thing to say! I would never do something like that, especially to my friend!"

"Tch. There are no 'friends' in tournaments," Mai dismissed. "Everyone is an enemy, an obstacle standing between you and the title of champion. The sooner you realize that, the better chances you'll have of winning."

"That's harsh!" I protested.

"Oh, really?" said Mai, raising her eyebrows. "Isn't there something you're fighting for?"

Manami, I thought. I had to get her back. If I lost a duel, I'd be sent packing…and then I'd never see her again.

"Do whatever it takes to win," Mai advised. "Unless your goal isn't something you mind risking never having the chance to achieve." Then she sauntered off, leaving me feeling very confused and worried.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

I found Yugi and Jounouchi talking to that Haga guy from earlier. "Let me take a look at your Exodia," I heard him say, and watched Yugi place it naively in his palm.

"Hey, Yugi-san, be careful with that!" I called out, but then it was too late: Haga dropped the cards into the waves! "Now nothing can defeat me!" he cackled.

"What the hell?"

Then, something even more unbelievable happened: Jounouchi jumped into the sea!

"Jounouchi-san!" I cried, and rushed to peer over the railing. He was swimming towards the cards, trying to catch them before they disappeared into the waves.

"Jounouchi-kun, my cards aren't worth drowning over!" Yugi cried.

"That's right!" I shouted over the sound of waves and wind. "Come back here, you idiot, where it's safe! Yugi-san and I would never be so stupid as to….." I stopped short as I saw Yugi vault the railing and jump into the waves after Jounouchi!

"YUGI-SAN! WHAT THE – GET BACK HERE!" I cried. Frantic, I watched Jounouchi's head go under and Yugi dive down to rescue him. "Oh, no!" I gasped. "Hold on, guys!" I shouted down to them. "I'll get a life preserver and throw it down to you!"

"Already got that covered," said a familiar voice, and a life preserver whizzed past my head into the water. I turned around. It was Honda and Anzu!

"Where did you guys come from?" I asked, shocked.

"We stowed away," Honda grinned rebelliously. "Now, help me pull them up!" I rushed to do so, and soon Yugi and Jounouchi were back on dry land. Without thinking, I wrapped my arms around Jounouchi.

"Thank God you're ok!" I said. "Don't scare me like that!"

He blushed, and I let go. "S-sorry." Then, I realized he looked really sad. "What's the matter?"

"I…I could only save two cards," Jounouchi confessed. "I'm sorry, Yugi-kun."

"It's alright," Yugi assured him. "The important thing is that you're safe."

Jounouchi's hands balled into fists, and I realized he was shaking. "I….I can't save anyone," he muttered miserably. "Not my sister, Shizuka, either."

"You have a sister, too?" I blinked. I wouldn't have guessed that it was something we had in common.

"Yeah," Jounouchi nodded. "My sister, Shizuka, she….she's going blind."

"That's horrible!" I gasped.

"There's a specialist in Germany I think could save her eyesight," Jounouchi admitted. "But…I don't have the money to send her there. If I win this tournament, then with the prize money, maybe I could…"

Oh. I realized. So that is what he wanted the prize money for. I'd assumed it was for selfish reasons, and now I felt bad.

"I know what its like to duel to earn money to support your sister," I confided. Some nights, when my uncle had missed a week of work due to a really bad episode of his melancholy, dueling was the only thing that put Manami's bread on the table.

"I thought Mahomura-san was your cousin," said Jounouchi, confused.

"She is, but I've been raised as her sister since I was ten, when my parents died," I enlightened.

"You're….an orphan, Sagiko-san?" said Jounouchi, looking so sad for me.

"Yeah," I disclosed. "But, it's not like I have no family. I had my aunt, who was like a second mother to me. And my uncle – the two of them both adopted me as their own. And Manami was the sister I never had. We grew up together. Life with the three of them was actually pretty great." It was only this past year, now that my aunt had died and my uncle had gotten depressed, that things had gotten a little hard. But, growing up in the Mahomura household, up til then, hadn't been bad at all.

"My sister is still the thing I'm fighting for now," I said determinedly. "I'm not going to fail her, no matter what happens."

"I guess that's something we have in common," Jounouchi said, beginning to smile again.

"And I'm fighting for my grandpa," Yugi added.

"All three of you have to fight on and never give up!" Anzu cheered.

"Guys!" Honda called. "Land ahead! I can see Duelist Kingdom here!"

We looked out over the side of the boat and saw that he was right. Our journey in Duelist Kingdom was about to begin.