"Kaiba decided to organize another tournament !" With this happily shout Jonouchi came through my door.
One second later, without waiting for my reaction, he started to put my things into the suitcase.
He was talking quite fast, so the only thing I caught in the middle of my attempts to stop him was something about "the USA" and "the gang is coming with us".
About an hour later we were already traveling to the airport, my protests long gone. After all, my friends were still what mattered to me the most and any occasion to see them was a good one, especially in full squad. Even Kaiba's sight would be pleasant for me.
Another half an hour and we were in the air with the rest of the gang, exchanging greetings and teasing each other about growing old and not having time to meet.
This is was to be my first tournament without Mou… the Pharaoh.
I just can't say his true name.
It was its fault that he had to leave us.
Leave me.
If we just hadn't learned his name…
I was brought back from my thoughts by Ryou's happy scream. He was running to me waving cheerfully, looking much happier than he did the last time I saw him. I started to talk with my friends and for a while I was distracted from my gloomy thoughts, enjoying the presence of Ryou and Otogi, people I rarely seen these days.
But then the memories came again.
The last time I've been to the USA, he was…
No ! I can't think about it !
Thankfully, my friends once again provided me with something else to concentrate on. Anzy was not here, for she was already in the USA, pursuing her dream and would meet us at the airport, so Jonouchi took it as a wonderful opportunity to gossip about her mercilessly, only to be scolded by Mai.
The flight was very pleasant, for instead of reminiscencing, everyone was talking about 'now'. Any other day I would be saddened by it, for it would be a painful reminder that I was the only one still living in the past, the only one that missed him. But I knew it wasn't true, because I saw the way Jonouchi and Honda were eying me and Mai. At first, I didn't understand. But suddenly, it came to me. I was not the only one battling my memories from our time in the US. Mai was too.
Therefore omitting talking about our shared past was protecting not only me. It was protecting her as well. Surprisingly, it helped me relax. Even though we weren't talking, we haven't even exchanged a knowing glance, it was nice to know that I was not the only one, that I was not alone in my mixed feelings about returning there.
True to her word, Anzu was waiting for us at the airport, as excited to see us as ever. We talked for a while (She dumped Johnny, she didn't want a boyfriend at the moment, she was doing well in her classes, she still feels as if she needs to lose weight) and she drove us (I might be jealous of her license a little) to Kaiba Land. Well, of course.
Some things didn't change and Kaiba certainly wasn't going to.
/
Next day after our arrival we went to the Blue-eyes Dome (how typical) and to my surprise, I haven't noticed anyone I knew. Dinosaur Ryuuzaki, Insector Haga were nowhere to be seen.
We entered the main building and were greeted with a crowd of players looking at the stage in apprehension.
Kaiba, just nodded at me, not bothering to even speak to me. He wasn't exactly a gentelmen throughout all this time I knew him, but he usually respected me enough to talk to me.
I said as much to Jonouchi who was standing next to me and he just snorted.
"What did you expect, honestly." I just nodded and went back to observing Kaiba. He looked even more murderous than usual, and judging from the way he was hissing into his earpiece, he had some troubles yet again.
"Seems that this one isn't going to go smoothly either." I said to Ryou, who agreed.
"Well, he is the one to blame. I mean, who organizes a tournament without checking who's participating?" Jonouchi replied and Mai muttered something that sounded like 'Marik'.
"He will probably cheer up when he starts to duel. He is participating in this one." Anzu informed, elbowing Jonouchi into ribs for good old times' sake. No when I think about it, I've always felt that she was in love with the Pharaoh, but looking at her now I see that it is not exactly true. She's moved on, grown up. I was the one standing in place, yet still trying to progress.
I was taken out of my thoughts by Kaiba announcing the rules.
As in the case of Battle City finals, the Duel Lottery had to decide who is going to have the first battle.
After a few moments of nervous silence, the results came out.
Of course it happened, that the first battle was Jonouchi's and some Egyptian guy's.
There was no photo of him, or his name- only nationality. I glanced at Kaiba who was looking even more upset than before. Another hacker?
"Hey, I can think of few people who would do something like that." Honda mused.
"Me too. Ten bucks it's Marik again." Otogi proposed and I turned just in time to see him wink at Shizuka. Thankfully, Jonouchi was already on his way to the arena and missed it.
"We don't have enough dollars, you cheater." Mai chastised" We are from Japan, if you recall. And my money would be on Ishizu any way."
We started to discussing the chances of mysterious guy being either Ishizu or Marik, for they both had something for 'effective entries' and it was no wonder that after 5 minutes we had already placed bets. We were betting food, instead of money, because aside from Otogi and Anzu, the rest of us truly didn't possess enough dollars to bet on anything. At least I only took the amount that was necessary to survive a week and return, keeping in mind what happened the last time we came here hoping that Pegasus will bring us home.
I think I don't need to say that it brought back some memories…
The place of the duel was settled and we started to move towards the exit to follow Jonouchi and cheer him on.
When we were near the arena of the duel we were joined by Kaiba and Mokuba and only now I got a chance to see how much Mokuba has grown up. Give him few months and he will be taller than me! Which shouldn't actually surprise me anymore, but still...
"Good to see you here, guys!" He shouted, his enthusiasm unchanging.
"Thank you for inviting us." I replied, my words being drowned by the rest of my friends saying the same.
I caught Kaiba's glance.
"Is it me, or is something really wrong with this tournament already?" I asked and to his credit, Kaiba didn't look too shocked by the fact that I noticed anything amiss.
He gave me a cold stare as a reward.
"This guy... I don't believe in date he had provided me. That's why I left his name blank and I didn't attach a photo. His papers seem fine, but I won't acknowledge them because I know his identity is a fake. I cannot prove it at the moment. But I will." He replied, his words menacing as ever. Still, I knew exactly what I knew before. Nothing. Judging from Anzu and Honda's faces, they were as confused as I was. If Kaiba knew this guy identity was a fake, why did he let him duel?
We arrived at the arena.
It was designed to resemble an Ancient Egyptian temple.
Yeah, whole world is trying to make me more miserable and hit me with my past. And here I was, doing so great in not thinking about it.
We took our seats and waved at Jonouchi already standing on the platform.
One minute later, this Egyptian guy came, with black hood on his head and dark cloak dancing on the air behind him. My guess might've been right, it definitely looked like Marik.
The commentator said his standard opening, the screens flashed data on Jonouchi's previous duels (he wone two championships in which I didn't take part and it was wonderful to see him bask in his own glory. He deserved it.) and duel had begun.
Meand Ryou had a promise to watch the Egyptian's strategy to know if this is one of our friends, we were both betting on Marik after all and both of our darker halves knew Marik's strategies best than anyone.
Jonouchi started with Panther Warrior.
"He is predictable." Mai sighed, but she was fooling no one. Her proud glance was telling enough.
Jonouchi's opponent without hesitation played two reverse cards and summoned Gazelle – The King of Mythical Beasts.
Which was my card. Interesting.
After a few minutes of the duel I was convinced that this guy was quite good.
He reduced Jonouchi's Life Points to a half in what was hardly more than ten minutes, his own LP still at perfect 4000.
and then, on the Egyptian's field appeared Queen's Knight, Jack's Knight and " King's Knight.
This tactic resembles mine and Mou..
Pharaoh's.
Maybe it was Marik?
He saw our way of dueling many times…
And then I heard the stranger's voice.
It was so similar to HIS….
It wasn't Marik… It definitely wasn't Marik.
While I was listening to his voice, the meaning he meant to convey lost on me, Ryou was listening to his words.
He paled.
"Yuugi, he wants to summon..."
But he wasn't allowed to end the sentence.
On the field appeared none other than Osiris The Sky Dragon.
"Impossible…"I whispered.
This card was gone with the tomb! It disappeared along with the Millennium Items, I saw it with my own eyes!
It must be a fake!
I looked at Jonouchi.
He was in a state of shock, his cards laying on his desktop while he stared at his opponent..
Thankfully, he came back to his senses and drew next card.
"This card allows me to attack opponent directly, even if he has a monster on his field!" He shouted and ordered his Baby Dragon to attack.
The monster' flew towards the Egyptian and breathed fire at him, the rush of air taking down the stranger's hood.
Oh, Ra….
On the field, with a triumphant smirk on his face, was standing nobody else than Pharaoh Atem.