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Week 4 – Part 2
"Well, here we are at the end of our forth week of Duel Monsters Next Top Model! I trust you are all enjoying yourselves?" Pegasus lilts, his frilly, sunshine yellow shirt making his lime green suit look even more ridiculous.
A few of the remaining duelists nod their head in agreement.
"Excellent! Well, I know you've heard it all before, but let's go over our fabulous prizes once again! The winner of this contest will, first and foremost, earn the right to say that he is the best looking man in all of Duel Monsters! The rest of the paltry prizes are as follows: a choice between 2 million American dollars and a 2 percent share of stock in Industrial Illusions, either quite a lucrative offer; a Y500,000 wardrobe designed by the top designer in Japan, and two years of Duel Monsters themed calendars starring the winning duelist and his choice of monsters," the holder of the Millennium Eye claps his hands together gleefully.
Narrowing his eyes at the glowers being thrown his way by the 'Kaiba-tachi', he giggles to himself about having plucked that endearment from the Tomb Robbers mind at the shoot yesterday, his smile turns slightly sinister.
"Of course, some of you are participating for our bonus prizes as well," he smirks.
Amelda is the first to hold Yami back before Yugi grabs his counterpart's other arm. Kaiba doesn't move, instead continuing to plan the silver-haired menace's demise, both financially and physically.
"Now, we will proceed with your individual evaluations. But, before that, I'd like to introduce you all to our guest judge for the week!" Pegasus stands, gesturing to the curtains on the left side of the platform, next to the empty seat on the panel.
"Great. Another one," Bakura scoffs. The last time they'd had a "guest judge" they'd been subjected to the nonsensical ramblings of that head-case Bonz from Duelist Kingdom. "I wonder what idiot they're gonna pull out of the woodwork now," he murmurs.
The person who steps from behind the curtain knocks even the former Tomb Robber back a few paces; Gozaboro Kaiba.
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Noa Kaiba gags for a moment, and then his breath escapes him in a rush as he passes out cold. Chaos erupts around his fallen form as first Valon, Honda and Otogi come to his aid while on the other side of the group, Amelda, Jou, Yami and Yugi move as one to tackle a rampaging Seto mere inches from using a commandeered camera to murder both Dartz and Pegasus. On the other end of the judge's table, a terrified Siegfried von Schroeder and a stunned Arthur Hopkins scramble to get out of the way. The temporarily re-incarnated Gozaboro Kaiba stands his ground, smiling in sick amusement at the ferocity of his prized creation, Seto.
In the end, it takes four very large security guards to restrain the snarling and murderous CEO. At Pegasus' urgings, his favorite duelist is dragged from the room screaming obscenities and promises to kill Pegasus. Following behind the raging 19-year-old are the four duelists who have become closest to him over the last six weeks, Amelda, Yami, Jou and Yugi.
On a stretcher in the next room Noa Kaiba slowly regains consciousness as Croquet waits for the ambulance that he called as a precaution.
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"Well, that didn't work out as planned," Pegasus pouts, fanning himself with a large, feathery fan a few hours later as he and his cohorts enjoy an exquisite meal.
"I disagree," Dartz smirks into his glass of white wine. "I found it quite entertaining."
"You are both, psychotic," Siegfried retorts, shaking his head and wondering for the first time if it was a mistake to hook up with the two madmen.
'Maybe if I run now, Kaiba won't equate me with anything else that happens,' he muses.
The two other men laugh at him, Pegasus' Eye gleaming as he plucks that thought from Siegfried's head.
"I just hope they didn't damage my Kaiba-boy too bad," Pegasus continues. "I'm so sure that he can win."
"Do you two honestly think they will continue with the contest?" Siegfried balks.
"What choice to they have?" Dartz sneers, his eyes cutting to the five soulless beings mechanically eating at the end of the long table.
"Besides, it's too late to back out now," Pegasus quips, looking directly into Siegfried's eyes. "Kaiba will kill us all, no matter what happens from now on."
Siegfried swallows in fear.
"Ah, well! What will be, will be," the CEO dismisses with a wave. "We still need to pick a winner and a loser for this week."
"P-perhaps it would be best if we wait for Herr Hopkins to make such a decision," Siegfried prompts, eager for the slight change of subject.
"He didn't accept the offer to dine with us and he knew that we would be judging tonight," Dartz intercedes coolly. "His loss."
"I agree," Pegasus fans himself once more with the yellow feathers before standing. "Come, let us retire to my study and we can view the photos projected onto my view screen. You may bring your drinks if you like," he tosses, scooping up his own glass of white wine and heading down the hall.
"But what about…" Siegfried trails off as his eyes land on their soulless captives.
"Hmm? Oh, right!" The wielder of the Millennium Eye commands his puppets to stop eating and go to sleep, an order that they all follow immediately, forks dropping and heads nodding down where they sit.
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Full of concern for the volatile CEO, Amelda, Yami and Yugi have gotten together to form a contingency plan on what to do if Kaiba doesn't emerge soon from his self imposed isolation.
The billionaire had been released by the guards several hours after the incident at judging, commandeered one of the cameraman's cars and disappeared into the night. Upon his return early the next morning, he'd kicked Amelda out of their shared bedroom with only his toiletries and a few changes of clothes and shut himself away from the world.
Now, a full two days later, no one has seen hide nor hair of Seto Kaiba.
"You should have knocked him out, Yami," Amelda insists. "Then he wouldn't have been raging so long and maybe he'd have calmed down faster. And then maybe he wouldn't still be locked in that room!"
"Because you know nothing about Kaiba, I'll ignore the stupidity of your statement," Yami glowers.
"Maybe it's you who knows nothing about him, Yami!" Amelda snaps.
"Yami's right, Amelda. You don't know enough about Kaiba's history to---"
"So you think it's fine for him to be locked up in that room too?" Amelda cuts Yugi off.
"Amelda, with Dartz power to bring back the dead, that was probably Gozaboro Kaiba for real. Mind Crushing Kaiba in front of Gozaboro would have made him look weak. Kaiba would rather die than appear weak in front of that monster. Do you understand?" Yami snarls.
The redhead doesn't really understand, but thinks it best not provoke the obviously less-than-sane Game King at the moment.
"Fine," he exhales. "So what do we do now?"
"We wait," Yugi replies. "Yami will try to bring him some food at dinner-time. Until then, we leave him be."
Amelda hates the idea of leaving his new friend in whatever screwed up state he's in, but realizes that Yami and Yugi have known Kaiba far longer, so he accepts that maybe they're right in their approach to the situation.
"I still don't like it," Amelda admits, glancing out Yami's bedroom door toward where the CEO is holed up.
"Trust us, Amelda," Yugi smiles lightly.
"Hey! You guys hungry?" Jounouchi calls into the open doorway, breaking the somber mood. "They're serving lunch in 10 minutes."
After affirmative nods all around, they all follow Jounouchi.
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Following a quiet lunch, Amelda joins Yugi, Jounouchi and Honda in their room with the idea of just hanging out with the trio for a while. Yami had gone to his own room with his angsting roommate. The former Pharoah and his former Tomb Keeper's dark side have formed a loose friendship of sorts. When Malik starts going crazy from missing Rishid and is about to go on a pointless rampage, Yami is able to calm him down.
When Kaiba kicked him out of their room, Amelda found himself crashing with Honda, Jou and Yugi. Oddly enough, these few days with the three have turned out to be quite positive for him.
Despite their boisterous natures, Jounouchi and Honda are actually fairly calm individuals, while Yugi prides himself on not flying off the handle in most situations. Amelda finds the time spent with the obviously very close friends to be rather soothing.
Except maybe for Jounouchi's whining about being 'so horny' all the time. Like he's doing now.
"Jou, seriously, if you say that one more time, I'm gonna start smackin' you around!" Honda snaps at the blonde's fourth "so horny" sigh in the last ten minutes.
"I can't help it!" Jounouchi whines. "I shouldn't have broken up with Valon. You have no idea what this is like!"
For the first time in Amelda's memory of the brunet and his friends, he witnesses Honda's carefree, jovial facade crack.
"No idea what it's like, huh?" the brunet stammers. "At least you could do something about your crushing loneliness. How do you think Yugi and I feel, knowing that we can't…"
"Hiroto…" Jounouchi trails off, hopping up from his sprawl across his bed to enfold Honda into a warm embrace.
A moment later, Yugi joins them from where he's sitting at the desk as silent sobs wrack the stocky brunet's body.
Feeling completely out of place as the three friends all begin to all break down, Amelda swiftly leaves the room, only to nearly collide with a distraught Yami rushing by him.
As the former Pharaoh joins his grieving friends, Amelda quietly closes the bedroom door.
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Amelda wanders around the castle's grounds for the better part of an hour, unsure whether he should go back to the room he's staying in temporarily. He doesn't want to intrude on his newest friends' consolation of each other. Though he could probably seek out his fellow former DOMA duelist, he isn't interested in spending any time with Valon at the moment and he has next to no association with any of the castle's other occupants. After another few minutes of wandering, the redhead finds refuge on a cushiony lounge chair next to the surprisingly deep pool at the back of the property. He's barely closed his eyes in relaxation when he feels a presence nearby.
'Maybe if I pretend to be asleep, they'll go away,' he thinks.
"Of course you'd be here," Kaiba's familiar, gruff tenor intones. "Where else would I find a princess, but lounging around, expecting to be waited on hand and foot?"
Concerned silver assesses cool sapphire.
"Are you alright?" the smaller man frowns.
"Next question," Kaiba retorts.
Nodding in understanding and knowing not to press any further from his conversation with Yami and Yugi, Amelda instead sits forward and extends his arms.
"Carry me? Your princess is tired from walking around all afternoon," the redhead grins.
"Not in this lifetime," Kaiba scoffs.
"Then can I at least move back into the room?" he entreats.
"Whatever," Kaiba dismisses turning on his heel and heading back toward the castle.
Amelda smiles lightly to himself and quickly follows.