Yuna's POV
I have never been this enraged in my life, and it's all one man's fault.
It's been a really bad two weeks, and it's only getting worse. After Gozaboro's funeral service, I haven't seen Seto Kaiba at all. I knew that he was planning to take over KC and that he was going to change it into a gaming company. He told me about it, once. I also know that it will take time for the changes to take place, but he has been doing great. In the past week, all weapons that he had designed got bought by KC and then were destroyed. The other ones are being bought this very moment,and he won't stop until all are destroyed.
He appears on every news report, in gossip magazines as well as business magazines and sections of the newspapers. But he doesn't give interviews or go to talk shows. When he does give his opinion on something, he usually snarls at the notion of the fact that he, just like me, is only 8 years old.
I must admit that I miss him terribly.
In the meantime, we got new students, twins like me and Yugi. Their names are Ryou Bakura and his older brother Bakura Bakura. Many laughed at the fact that his name and surname is the same, well at least until I explained that his name means 'thief' and he just looked at me with this wide eyed look, probably not expecting anyone else to know it's meaning. Or help. We don't get along all that bad, but we still have a long way to go before I can relax around him like I do with Seto.
Oh, by the way, I realised that I have a crush on Seto.
I'm pretty sure it happened on the first day, even, but I was aware of this feeling for the first time that day when he retrieved the missing puzzle piece. I never had or needed someone to stand up for me, and I have always been grateful for that fact. After our parents death, the only people I cared about were Yugi, grandpa, Mahad, Mana and a few other family friends, as well as friends that I made through my work. But the thought that Seto cared enough about me to get in a fight for something that means to me, filled me with warmth. When I'm around him, I don't mind talking about our personal past. I usually just talk about my research and such, but I want him to know about the real me, just as I want to be special to him.
My greatest wish is to fulfil our parents dreams. While they were still alive, they often talked about some legendary artifacts that they wanted to find, but had nothing to base their search on so they let it go for it to be dealt with later. But they never got the chance to live their dreams of finding them. That tumb collapsed on them, taking their lives immediately. They also had this wish to see their genius daughter graduate from the best schools/collages in the world. Mother always said that I could probably do it before I turned 20. By best colleges they ment Harvard, Yale and Princeton, 'The Big Three'. I could probably get in now, I am known for my very high IQ and dedication to anything I set my mind on. I have already gained diplomas from a couple universities in Cairo and from Tokyo University. But, before I went to get those diplomas I was homescholled.
But that's beside the point. Yesterday, a package came in the mail, addressed to me, but it was NOT grandpa who opened the door for the mail man, like he usually does. After checking the whole house and calling his cell phone, which he forgot, Yugi decided that he was probably shopping for dinner tonight, at which point he started asking me what I will be making. I almost always cook for us. But, as much as I wanted to believe that what my little brother is saying was the truth, I have this gut feeling that tells me that not all is well. Yet, I decided to see what is in the box I received.
There's a strange red leather glove with ten imprinted stars, as if waiting to be filled, and two star chips which I assume go on the glove. There are also two cards as well. Both are Duel Monsters cards, but one is completely blank, while the other shows a picture of a heap of gold coins and jewels, a sword sticking out of them with a kings crown dangling from the handle. There is a cassette aa well, so I decided to play it. It's not aa if we were watching anything interesting, just some guys around our age, Whewell Underwood and Rex Rapture, dueling for regional champion. They are acting as if they defeated the world champion or something, not that I'm trying to brag.
I put the cassette into the right place, and hit play. There was static snow and then the image of non other than the creator of DM, Pegasus J. Crowerd, appeared on the tv. To say that I am surprised is an underestimation of the month. What could he possibly want with me? Could it be because I won a duel against Seto? It's possible.
His image shimmered a bit and all of the sudden I am watching what could only be considered a "live" footage of the man.
"You must be Yuna. I've heard many things about you, but the news that you defeated my world champion REALLY got my attention. You see, little ol' me is making a new tournament on my very own island and I would like you to competit in it as well as a good number of other duelists who have wished to defeat Kaiba-boy. What do you say?" he said with flare and flashines of one of his fairy monsters. He has obviously made it possible for me to talk to him by installing a camera and microphone somewhere in the room, and the cassette was used as a link for the signal, but I think the best thing to do now is decline his offer and search for them later.
"I'm afraid I'll have decline, Mr. Crowerd. Good day" as I was about to turn the tv of, he caught my attention.
"I'm afraid that I can't afford that, but how about this. We duel right now, and if I win you must participate in my tournament. But if you win, I'll release your aging grandfather, how does that sound? " as soon as he ssaid that, a video of our grandpa, tied hands and feet, was shown to us.
"GRANDPA!" both Yugi and I shouted. I felt my anger raising.
In the end, I agreed to the duel. It was meant to last 15 minutes and who has more LP wins. I easily kept decreasing Pegasus' LP and soon, we were down to the last few minutes. However, what unnerved me is to find out that he also has a Millennium Item that gives him an advantage; the Millennium Eye. It's said that only those who can see beyond the world we see can have it. And Pegasus fits the bill. He seems to have been born with the ability to read a person's thoughts or feeling right from their eyes and he uses it quite well. The Millennium Eye suits him perfectly. But I am the one with the real advantage, because I have easily learned of his gift and blocked off my thoughts almost completely. And without his mind reading ability at "full power", so to speak, he can't stop most of my strategies. Not to mention that I solved the Millennium Puzzle, which means that my way of thinking is different from others. Also, it should be mentioned that I, like Seto, have the nerves and guts to bet everything on instinct. It's a quality that I have yet to find in anyone else other than Seto and myself. As our game progressed, he started talking about how Duel Monsters came to be what it is, as if I don't know more about it then he does; I AM the one that dreams how they made stone tablets and carved imeges into the stone, but he doesn't need to know that. The duel is ending, but Pegasus used a magic card to destroy my Summoned Skull and his creature took a big chunk of my life points. We are now equal in the number of LP and it all depends on what I draw now.
As I placed my hand on my deck, I saw a flash of blue eyes and brow hair. 'That's right. I must win. I promised Seto not to lose to anyone else. I WILL keep that promise! "
I drew my card with closed eyes and placed the card directly on the playing field. I heard Pegasus gasp. I knew that this card must be at the very least a monster with 2900 ATK because if not, it will be destroyed by his monster. But I have faith in my deck. I have worked for every card in it and so I have a special connection with the cards. They have yet to fail me.
I opened my eyes to see the majestic Blue-Eyes White Dragon, 3000 ATK. I grinned at Pegasus as I commanded the attack on his monster, his LP equal to mine, just as the timer reached 00.00 . I know that he won't keep his word because of the technically inclined need for a winner. And it happened as I thought it would. He gave me the information that I need to be at the harbour tonight at 8.00 pm for the boat that will take me to the tournament. So I packed my bag while Yugi packed his, turned the light of and put a sign that said that the shop won't work for a few days.
As we got closer to our destination, I tied up my hair in a bun, put on a regular beret that covered it so only my blond bangs stuck out from under it and, just to be sure that no one can recognise me, I covered my unique blood colored eyes with a pair of tinted black sunglasses that kept my observing eyes from sight. I have a feeling that for the duration of the tournament I'll always be watched by Pegasus' goons.
In the harbour a gigantic cruise ship was waiting to be filled with it's chosen passengers. A good number of duelists is here, but I can't seem to find the chestnut colored head that I truly wished to see. I guess that Seto Kaiba has a lot more important things to do then this tournament. We didn't stand there for long before a guy with strange , pointed black-brown hair that looked like a pointer to the direction of the sky. He told us a little about the tournament, and that we couldn't enter without the things that we got in our invitation package. He seems to be familiar to me, from somewhere. Ah, he's little Mokuba's bodyguard. But, wait. Why is he here? I have a bad feeling about this.
As we climbed on to the ship, I saw a blond guy with a puffy hairdo, a guy with a similar hair cut as the guy who yelled the instructions and a brunette whose hair was shaped like a box, trying to sneak in. I snorted, but made sure no one saw where I was looking at.
During the ride to the Duelist Kingdom, Yugi and I met a blond female duelist, Mai Valentin, who I took a liking to. She seems very lonely and I will not have it that way. So my brother and I kept her company until she told us to wait for her for about ten minutes. In the meantime, I also met Whewell, who tried to throw my Exodia cards overboard, but my fast reflexes allowed me to catch them before they flew too far from the railing. We ran into the kids that snuck on board and I warned them to behave themselves, to which they didn't react too well, but I ignored them as the 12 year old Mai came back and told me that she "found" a room for me, Yugi and herself, so we roomed together. It turns out that she dueled Rex for the room, and won.
Early the next morning, we arrived at the tournament destination and were escorted in front of Pegasus' castle where our host is going to give a speech and explain the tournament rules. While we were climbing the ridiculously long staircase, I thought I saw a spot of white move and quickly turned to catch a glimpse of snowy hair. I have seen Baku ra and Ryou on the ship as well, but if they are hiding then the two of them are also stowaways.
While Pegasus was giving his speech, he was looking my way the entire time. I just glared at him. When he was finished his speech, all the duellists went to spread across the island. I am rather suspicious of the location of this tournament, since most others are held in city arenas or something similar. But for this one, a remote island was chosen, and not just any island. On this floating piece of earth there's the natural environment of every climate and zone of our planet: forest, desert, lake, fields, mountains and sea. Before the ordinary dueling mata and certainly before Seto's duelling sistem there was a playing mat with different types of zones that increased the power of certain monsters, like zombies and ghosts are stronger on the waist land zone (desert) or bug type monsters in the forest zone. With this island having every one of those zones, I have a feeling that we will be playing old school.
By the end of day one out of three that we have to collect the ten star chips needed to enter the castle where the finals will be held, I had five stars, but that's not all that happened. I had first dueled against Whewell and won his two stars. Since I overheard that blond guy talking about how he needs the money that the tournament offers, I gave him one of my chips so he could compete fairly. I then dueled some guy by the name Mako Tsunami and won one more star chip. We then met up with Mai and I told her that I disapprove of her tricks that have actually cost her a duel against that blond guy who's name is Joey Wheeler, according to Mai. She said that she would never use it again. That night, Mai and I ran into the bunch of stowaways and ended up staying with them, at least until tomorrow morning. The brunet's name is Tristan Taylor and the only girl in their group is Tea Gardner. They are quite a lively bunch and I could already see that Joey and Mai might come to like each other. Also, it seems that my own beloved little brother has a small crush on Tea. Interesting.
As the night wore on and we put up the camp, Mai went for a walk. I soon drifted away from the group, thinking about what else happened today.
I saw Mokuba. He was trapped by Pegasus and kept prisoner in the castle while KC board of directors tried to take ownership of the company. Mokuba somehow escaped and found me. He tried stealing my ster chips so that I would be disqualified and KC wouldn't fall into Pegasus' hands, but in the end, Mokuba was captured again by the guard that greeted us on the boat, Kimo. I went and bet Mokuba's freedom on a duel, to which Pegasus accepted but my opponent left me speechless.
It was Seto!
I couldn't believe my eyes! Why would Seto, who fought soo hard to get control of Kaiba Corp., help someone take it over? And why would he try to get his own little brother into the hands of a madman? !
That's right, he wouldn't! But he had all of Seto's cards, including the three BEWD. But he kept talking about revenge and things like that. I saw from the very beginning that the person before me wasn't Seto; he lacked the fire, the determination, the ability to gamble everything on a gut feeling that I only saw in Seto and myself. I only realised who my opponent was when he said that I overshadowed his best work.
In my life, my "gift" gave me recognition and many admirers, but also plenty of enemies as well. While everyone else had to work hard to get something done, all I needed to do was sleep and that was it. My dreams gave me many skills like playing certain instruments, knowledge of ancient times, ways, secrets and languages, or even the martial arts. They thought me to draw and paint and etc. However, it was up to me to practice these skills to perfection, but no one would believe that if my secret got out. So I always kept it hidden. But because I was so famous, people wanted to hear what I say, no matter if someone else is holding a presentation on the same subject. I remember that one guy swore that he'll get back at me for stealing his thunder. He was fat and short, if I remember correctly, with some strange shade of purple hair and resembled a clown. This was him. It seems that he perfected the skill of disguising one's self and it shows. He was a spitting image of Seto Kaiba!
I was able to win rather easily, seeing as the BEWD disappeared from the field as the work of, what I can guess, non other than Seto himself. But the basterd already ran off with Mokuba.
I don't know if I'll ever dare to look Seto in the eyes if something happens to Mokuba when I could have prevented it from happening.
On that note, where iS Seto? That idiot lied about him being dead, as an explanation for how they have his deck. And despite all that's happening, Industrial Illusion is still using Kaiba Corp.'s dueling platforms.
As I was lost in thought, I almost didn't see Bakura and Ryou sneaking around. I just continued pretending to be having a walk, and when we were close enough I jumped on them. They both let out startled cries and tried to escape before seeing it's me. Bakura scowled and Ryou blushed until he was as red as a tomato. After they explained that Pegasus invited them because of the Millennium Ring that Bakura wears all the time (sometimes under his shirt), we walked back to the camp when suddenly a helicopter flew out of nowhere, waking everyone else in the process. The albinos and I stayed in between the trees and watched what is happening.
"Hey!Some of us are trying to get some shut eye here!" Yelled Joey as his friends and Yugi followed him to the copter as someone exited.
I now truly could not believe what I was seeing!
Standing there, one hand in his pocket, the other holding the handle of a metal briefcase, wearing a long royal purple trench coat ower olive green button up shirt and slacks, on his chest a locket in the shape of a Duel Monsters card and his chestnut hair carried by the slight breeze, some strands falling into his eyes the colour of Lapis Lazul, was Seto Kaiba himself.!
A/N: Note on the Duelist Kingdom events.
I know that I made it seem like everything happens on the first day, but it just worked for me that way. I also know that some things need explaining, but that comes with the following chapter that will have how Seto got to the island and the events that followed his arrival. Also, please remember that the Yugi-tachi is still nonexistent. In the context of Yuna and Seto's lives, they just happened to be there. They won't appear again after the next chapter for a long time, until the Battle City finals. After that they will become a lot more regular characters. I like the idea of Mai and Yuna being friends, because Mai travels a lot and Yuna will at one point leave Domino for some time, return to defeat Duke Develin, leave again, return for Battle City, leave again and then come back to Domino and then...
You'll have to read and find out!
Thanks for reading and please review! :)