You're like a knife in my head.

Three days, a two hour plane flight, and several cocktails later, Ren, Mokuba, and Kaiba had arrived in Tokyo. Duel Dynasty was slated to begin the following day, and Ren could hardly wait for it to begin so it could end. She had never understood the hype behind Duel Monsters. She had always just thought it was the same deal as Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon: just another trading card game for nerds to squeal over in the back room of game shops. But apparently, Duel Monsters was different. The player base was massive, as she understood, with thousands of players worldwide of every age. Just taking a look around the hotel that was to be the base of operations of the tournament, she could see all sorts of different people; from young kids to the elderly, boys, girls, even people from outside the country.

Ren smiled despite herself. At least she would have some pretty broad subject matter if she ever got the chance to take some photos this week. She glanced up at Kaiba, his eyes blazing and jaw squared. He would certainly make for good photography. He had spent the better half of the flight meticulously organizing and reorganizing his deck of cards, and Ren had sworn she had heard him in the bathroom giving himself a pep talk. Or perhaps she had just dreamt that. Regardless, the week would prove to be entertaining at the very least. She had never seen a Duel Monsters tournament, and she had to admit, the closer they got to the opening ceremonies, the more excited she was for everything to kick off. She was curious what Kaiba got out of the game, and what drew so many people to it. It might make an interesting photographic exposé.

"Ren!" She whipped her head around to face Mokuba, who was beckoning her towards him. "Where are you going? Check-in is over here."

She grinned and shook her head, jogging back over to join them. "Sorry," she said, shifting her duffel bag on her shoulder. "There's a lot to look at."

"This isn't even the beginning." He stuck out his tongue. "Just wait. Tomorrow you're going to be able to see some real dueling. Seto's gonna smash the competition this year."

"A tradition I'm happy to keep alive." Kaiba quipped, leading them purposefully to the concierge. Ren rolled her eyes. She was also excited to watch him get put in his place. As she understood, in every tournament that Yugi Moto and Seto Kaiba attended together, Yugi consistently came out on top. Kaiba had been swearing up and down the street for the past few days that this would be the year he would take back his title, and Ren couldn't be more excited to see him eat his words.

"Ren?" She perked up at the sound of her name, glancing between the Kaiba brothers, neither of which seemed to have said anything. She took a quick look over her shoulder and was met with a high school reunion she hadn't been expecting to have. Behind her stood the Duel Monsters crew from her homeroom class. Pint-sized Yugi Moto stood at the head of the group, hands clasped to his backpack straps, a kind smile on his face. Joey Wheeler and Tristan Taylor stood to his left, aggressively elbowing each other, while Tea Gardener stood at his right, a surprised smile setting her features alight. They had been an interesting group in high school. Ren had never hung out with them, but they had all been in the same class, so she'd had a few interactions with them that she had to say were never wholly unpleasant. Yugi and Tea had always been very kind, and she'd never been upset to have to pair up with either of them for school projects.

"…Hi." Ren smiled sheepishly, taking a few steps toward the group.

"It's good to see you, Ren!" Yugi chimed, smiling brightly. "Long time, no see!"

Ren couldn't help but smile back, nodding politely. "Yeah, it's definitely been a while. You're here for the tournament?"

"What are you doing here, Kuroki?" Joey blurted out, finally shoving Tristan away from him. "I didn't know you were into Duel Monsters."

"Well," she began, pointing a finger over her shoulder, "I kinda work for him."

It was at that moment that Kaiba finally turned from the concierge, smirking down his nose at the group. He crossed his arms over his chest, looking as smug as Ren had ever seen him. She felt like vomiting. "Now, I highly doubt that all four of you losers were invited to this tournament. You're still all riding Yugi's coat tails?"

"Dammit, Kaiba!" Joey spat, clenching his fists. "I was actually invited to this thing, so I think it's about time you start paying me some respect!"

Kaiba snorted. "Well. Then rising into the finals is going to be easier than I anticipated. I was really expecting more out of this tournament, but if they're inviting duelists like you, I guess it's just another rinky-dink card shop competition." He glanced down at Yugi, completely unfazed by Joey's rage. "Yugi."

"It's always good to see you, Kaiba." Yugi replied, forcing his smile not to fade. "Are you ready to duel?"

"The question is, do you have my title ready for me? Because my head is starting to get really cold without my crown."

"You know, you say that literally every year, Kaiba." Tea quipped, her eyes squinted. "And you still haven't beaten Yugi. Are you sure you even want that title anymore? Because it sure doesn't seem like it."

Kaiba smirked. "That just means I'm overdue for a long reign. This is my year, Yugi. And do you want to know why?"

"Sure." Yugi answered, but Kaiba barreled right over him.

"It's because this is the year of no magic. We're done with Millennium items, we're done with the shadow realm, we're done with gods and legends and all of that other nonsense that always seem to follow when you geeks are involved."

Ren raised an eyebrow. Was he high? He had to be high. That must have been why these tournaments were so popular. They had to be handing out mushrooms or something like that at these things. She made a mental note to keep an eye on all of her drinks this week. She let her gaze wander over to Mokuba, who was fully engaged in the conversation, his eyes blazing and fists clenched determinedly. "You'll see, Yugi." He grinned, "This is the year, just you wait. Seto's got a secret weapon up his sleeve, so you'd better watch out!"

"Alright, Mokuba," Kaiba responded, laying a hand on his brother's shoulder. "You don't want to give these losers any hints. They might hurt themselves trying to figure it out." He peered down at Ren, sharply cocking his head toward the elevators. "Let's go, Kuroki."

Ren scoffed, rolling her eyes, but followed nonetheless. She followed closely behind the two brothers, caught in conversation.

"What secret weapon do I have this year, Mokuba?" Kaiba asked.

The younger brother shrugged, grinning broadly. "I dunno. I just wanted to see how they would react." Kaiba cracked a smile, ruffling his brother's hair.

"You're gonna do just fine, kid."

There was a soft ding and the elevator doors slid open just as they arrived. Kaiba strode in and hit the button for the suite they were to stay in, swiping his card key as authorization for the floor. There was another man in the elevator when they entered, and he did not exit, instead standing in the far back corner, seemingly attempting to make himself look as small as possible. He was dressed all in shades of grey, all the way down to his limp hair and twitchy eyes. Ren couldn't help but stare as she entered the elevator, her brows knit and a frown pulling at her lips.

She mouthed the words 'what the fuck?' to herself, and did her best to stare at the wall, aggressively averting her gaze away from the grey man. He mumbled to himself the entire ride up through the hotel, his head twitching in her direction every so often, and she could sense him fiddling with something in his front sweater pocket. Kaiba and Mokuba seemed not to notice, and when they arrived at their floor, they calmly exited without a word, while Ren all but flew out the elevator doors, wanting to put as much distance as possible between herself and the twitchy man. She took one last glimpse at him as the elevator doors were closing, and made the horrible mistake of making eye contact. One grey, bloodshot eye met hers, and his mumbling seemed to intensify at the intimacy of human contact. The doors snapped closed and a shiver ran down Ren's spine.

"Did neither of you notice that guy?" She blurted out, gesturing behind her at the elevator.

Mokuba shook his head. Kaiba unlocked the door to their suite, stepping inside. "What guy?"

"The fuckin' weird dude that was just in the elevator with us!" She exclaimed, pushing her way into the hotel suite and tossing her duffel bag onto the kitchen counter. "How did you just not notice that?"

"Because I have better things to do than stare at common people in elevators."

Ren scoffed. She seemed to be doing quite a bit of that today. "Look. You told me to look out for weird people. Freaky, unhinged kinda fuckers that look like they might want to do weird shit to little boys."

Mokuba squinted his eyes. "I'm fifteen."

"Regardless!" She exclaimed, powering through, "You said to look for weirdos, and I just saw a weirdo."

"Kuroki, this entire event is a carnival," Kaiba sneered, rolling his eyes. "Just look at Yugi and Joey."

"Those are on completely different levels of weird!" She ranted, hands held out before her in exasperation. "Fine. You don't want to take me seriously? That's okay. I got really bad vibes from that dude, so when I get stabbed in the neck, you'll be the one who gets to pay my medical bills."

"As long as you die defending my brother, we'll give you an honorable burial." And with that, Kaiba strode off into the penthouse suite, slamming the door to the master bedroom behind him with a flourish. Ren seethed, knocking her duffel onto the floor in a silent rage. She glanced down at Mokuba, who shrugged his shoulders, a smirk pulling at his mouth.

"Your parents will be proud if you die for me."

"I will throw you out a window, Mokuba?"

"Will you?" He grinned, "I have always wanted to fly."

Ren smirked, shaking her head. She gave the kid a shove, and bent over to pick her things up off the floor. "Come on. Let's get settled in. Tomorrow is apparently a big day."

"Oh, you have no idea." Mokuba grinned, "This is only the beginning, Ren."