Chapter 5: Joey vs Mai

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After leaving Weevil behind they wandered around the island a bit letting the stress and excitement from Yugi's duel ware down. At the same time as they walked Abasi found herself thinking over her vision and what it could mean. (Why am I having a vision about the Kaiba brothers, dose Pegasus have something in mind for them?) She thought to herself as Joey started to say that he was going to be the next Duel monsters champ. He clearly wasn't thinking realistically about the competition as he had never dueled in tournament before.

"He needs a reality check." Tea said as they all looked at him blandly.

"I'll be more than happy to give it to him if it comes down to it. After all he's doing this for his sister." Abasi said. Before leading the way over to Joey. From the hill they were standing on they could see the many duel area's that were nearby. It seemed to get Joey even more pumped up as he said he was going in.

"You sure you want to do this? If you lose you give up your only star chip." Tristan pointed out.

Tea just had to add the he was right and all it did was dampen Joey's mode which in Abasi's experience in tournament dueling was a bad idea. Thankfully Yugi came to his rescue and told him not to worry, that he could do it. "Not everyone here is a pro, I'm sure you can find someone along your level."

"Go for someone easy Joey." Tea added.

"You also need to remember to keep your head in a duel. If you lose track of what's on your field and your opponents, chances are that you will get crushed when you don't expect it. Yugi's duel against Weevil is a good example of that." Abasi said with a smile at Yugi who nodded in agreement. "Also remember to not under any circumstances underestimate who your dueling at any time, no matter which way the duel is going."

"Wow you really do know a lot about tournament dueling." Tristan said sounding impressed.

"Well she did say she was Egyptian champion two times in a row." Tea said.

"Wait what?" Yugi asked looking at her in surprise hearing this for the first time.

"Crap! I forgot I said that in an attempt to shut Mai up." Abasi said as she having forgotten that her anger had letting it slip.

"Why didn't you want to tell us?" Joey asked.

Abasi sighed. "I didn't want to seem like I was this big time duelist and that I was going to hold it over your guys head. You know like how Kaiba dose."

"But that's not who you are." Yugi said. He was surprised that she would think it would mater to them.

"Your nothing like Kaiba, your always giving others tips all the time at school and Joey too." Tea said.

This was a big relief to hear from all of her friends but then Tristan asked the one question that she didn't want to answer. "So why don't you duel in tournaments anymore? I mean if you won the Egyptian championship for the second time in a row before you moved to Domino, then it wasn't that long ago."

That was all Yugi needed to hear to connected the dots together. "It's because your parents died isn't it?"

Abasi nodded. "Ya but that right now is not important. Getting you two to your next duels is. So let's go see if we can find someone on Joey's level for him to duel."

They could see that she didn't want to talk about it so they left it alone for the time being. Joey was just saying that his deck being mostly warrior types that the meadow region they were curtly in was the best for his monsters when they heard a commotion nearby. Looking for the source they spotted Mai standing next to a dueling arena laughing as the kid she had just defeated was shouting at her that she must have cheated. He ended up running off crying well she just laughed.

Then she spotted them. "Well looks who here."

Of course she started sweet talking to Yugi, asking if his duels were going well, that she was up to a little dueling etc. but then she went and challenged Joey to a duel. It didn't really surprise Abasi as she figured that Joey would be easy to defeat as he only had one star chip. "Joey, I don't think this is a good idea to duel someone like her for your first duel on the island." She said.

"Don't do it Joey. If you lose this duel your out for good." Tristan reminded him.

Seeming to think he didn't stand a chance against Mai, Tea tried to convince Yugi to tell her that Joey shouldn't duel and that he would duel her instead. Abasi thought that might be a good idea but then when Yugi said that it was Joey's decision she had to agree with him. It was up to Joey who he dueled and there was nothing they could do if he decided to go through with it.

They could see that Joey was really considering taking Mai on.

"You can't be serious Joey?" Tristan asked him.

"I've never been more serious. Don't you see this is my chance to prove myself, to show everybody. Don't forget gramps trained me. I mean sure he didn't get a chance to finish my training and granted I wish I had a chance to practice more before getting thrown into a tournament this huge with so many heavy hitters but honest I think I can take her."

Abasi could see that Tea and Tristan had their doubts but Yugi defiantly had faith in his ability's and that was enough for her. "You know what Joey, go for it."

"Huh? But a moment ago you said I shouldn't."

"I know I did but you have to take risks to win. We can't really stop you when it comes to who you chose to duel, and as long as you believe in yourself, your skills and your deck, then that's more than enough." She said as she grinned and gave him a thumbs up.

"Thanks Abasi, you too Yugi." Joey said before he turned to Mai and accepted her challenge.

So as Joey and Mai took their places at the terminals they cheered Joey on but Abasi couldn't help but wonder if this would be the only duel they would see him in well on the island. It didn't help that as they drew their cards Mai's went face down and she didn't look at them once.

Joey didn't see that until he had had put his first monster on the field and he passed it on to her. She started to hum as she moved her hands over her cards. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Divining my card. I have to mystically choose which of them is the best." Mai explained.

"What are you Psyche?" Joey asked well the rest of them speechless, save Abasi who was immediately annoyed. Mai "divined" her Harpies' Lady on to the field where it got a field power bonus from the mountain region. Joey wasn't at all detrude by this as he foolishly attacked Mai's Harpie, with Yugi telling him a little too late that flying monsters had an advantage against land ones. His legendary swordsman was easily defeated, dropping his life points to 1410.

"Oh cards speak to me!" Mai chanted from her side of the filed annoying Abasi more as a growl escaped her throat. Mai placed another card without looking and they could see that it was spooking Joey out. Yugi tried to couch him but he was to focus on how Mai was choosing her cards without looking at them.

Finally Abasi couldn't take it anymore as Joey put another card on the field and Mai's Harpie took it out dropping his life point even further. "Joey! Stop thinking on how Mai is choosing or placing her cards. You need to focus on your cards and what you're doing with them! She's just trying to freak you out!"

"I'd say it's working." Tristan said.

"Oh shut up Tristan, you're not helping." Abasi snapped making all of three of them jump. They could see now that she was really angry as she glared at Mai.

"What's got you so upset?" Tea asked her.

"I hate people who pull mind disturbing stunts like what she's doing. All it does is throw a player off and makes them seconded guess their every move. It's almost as bad as cheating." Abasi said as Mai equipped her Harpie with cyber shield magic card, whichh supped it up and took out Joey's defense monster.

Joey was really freaked out by this point and not thinking strait at all.

"Settle down." Yugi tried to reason with him again, to get him to think. "Remember what my grandpa taught you about how to play duel monsters."

"Don't let her raddle you she's just trying to psych you out." Tea added.

This of course pissed Mai off. "Stay out of this!" she snapped at them. "Your brainless cheering isn't going to help him against the superior power of my Harpies Lady's. Don't you guys get it yet? Friendship doesn't win duels, never will it hasn't helped him. He's defeated and he knows it."

"Not true."

"No I beg to differ. There can be only one champion on this island, in this game someone can be your best friend today and your worst enemy tomorrow. Once the competition forces you to face each other in a duel where's your friendship then? That's way the only person a duelist can trust is himself."

"Oh put a sock in it Mai, drop your dumb act and duel properly." Abasi said as she glared up at her. "If you continue to duel like that your no better than an ordinary cheater. You clearly have marked your cards in some way."

"Don't make me come down there and beet you senseless you bleach blond twerp." Mai snapped.

Abasi was opening her mouth to throw her own insult at her but Yugi stopped stepped in. "Don't you let her get to you Abasi. We need to try and get Jory to concentrate on the duel so he doesn't forget why he's doing all this."

Abasi sighed as she nodded. "Your right Yugi. It's just I've seen Duelist pull stunts like this so many times and it just ticks me off."

"I agree but why not let Joey show Mai that she is wrong, not only about the way she's dueling but what she's saying as well." Abasi blinked at Yami in surprise. She didn't even séance the two of them switch places and with him so close to her as he gave her a reassuring smile she felt a blush cross her face before she put a little space between them.

The duel progressed with Yami giving Joey advice from the sidelines, which helped to give Joey his confidence back and think strait again. He had his eyes closed as he tried to think on how he could win the duel when he smelled something odd in the air. He focused on it for a bit and realized that it was different perfumes he was smelling and where they were coming from. "I see though your card trick. You spread all your cards with different perfumes and by smelling each different sent you can tell which card is which, even when their face down. So you don't have to look in order to play your cards. That way you can psyche the other player out."

"Yes, way to go Joey." Abasi cheered happily as did the others.

Even though he had figured Mai strategy out he still had a long way to go to defeat her. It didn't help that she laughed when he put his baby dragon on the field in defense mode. She then countered with a spell card called Elegant Egotists which made duplicates of her Harpie. Tristan and Tea of course wondered if Joey had any moves left that could trump Mai's combo and asked Yugi and Abasi as they were the experts. Yami said that as it was Joey's duel he had to figure it out for himself. Abasi simply shrugged as she hadn't looked at Joey's deck recently to judge for sure.

Since she had multiplied her harpies Mai couldn't attack him that turn. So it was Joey's turn but he was now freaked out that he would soon have an army to face but Yami talked him through it. He pointed out that Mai was only using one monster and continually strengthen it, which meant that her deck only had one kind of monster in it. It was a good strategy but there was a serious flaw in it and Joey soon figured it out.

If he managed to take out all of her Harpie lady's then he would win the duel, if he pulled the right card from his deck. Abasi almost thought that Yami's couching was a little to helpful but if it meant defeating Mai she was fine with it. When Joey put his time wizard onto the field she finally understood what Yami had been hinting at. "Oh I see, you gave him that didn't you?"

Yami just smiled at her.

They watched at Joey used his time wizard to age his baby Dragon into thousand dragon and at the same time ageing her Harpies in to old hags with only 1300 Atk points each. Joey easily took out all three harpies and Mai's life points.

"How? How could I lose to such an amateur?" Mai asked herself as she moped a bit till Joey got her attention.

"I tried to tell ya there's more to dueling monster then kicking the other guys butt. If you're ever gona be a real champion you got to learn to care about someone other than yourself. Isn't that right Yugi?"" He said

Yami nodded as he let Yugi have back control.

"Very well said Joey." Abasi said impressed. Looking at Mai she could see that for the moment Mai was touched by what he was saying. She didn't even say much as she gave him the star chip he had won and walked off, deep in thought. Of course now Joey was a little full of himself as he now had two star chips.

"Is there a time limit on how long he gets to crow?" tea asked getting a little tired of it after a few minutes of listening to him.

"Cut him some slack Tea. Did you ever think Joey would beat Mai in a duel? I mean Joey who would have thought?" Tristan asked as they watched Joey polish his star chips.

"I knew he do it." Yugi said.

"Yes you did and you made a believe out of me." Abasi said as she smiled. "He still has a long way to go but I know now that he has what it takes to get there. Serenity sure is lucky to have him for a big brother"

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A/N: I know this is a bit of a short chapter but I am going to be shorting a bit of the next few duels as I don't feel Abasi will add to them but I will make up for it as the story progresses and I hope to keep you all interested.