"We need a break." Pacing about the room, Yugi was worn down by the constant thinking. Of the three Kings of Games, he was the best at strategising but two days of trying to make a worthwhile plan were giving him a headache. Everything they had been coming up with had been shot down by at least one other person in the residence.
"It's too dangerous to go outside." With both twins, his brother, Musume and Phantom spread about the place, Yusei could understand their discomfort. Even he was feeling like climbing the walls. "You might learn something which ends up changing history more than it already has."
If I may make a suggestion? Phantom had been more exasperatingly subservient since their guests had arrived and waited until Musume waved for her to continue. Why not a shopping trip? Minimal possibility of socio-historical contamination yet it would allow Yugi and Jaden to experience the culture.
"Absolutely not." The idea was dismissed out of hand. "Knowing popular items of this era could reveal what the basis of what industries produced them."
"What, like Duel Monsters and Duel Runners?" No matter what Yusei said, Musume always had an opposing stance prepared. If he said fire was hot, she'd run straight into a burning building to prove it wasn't. That might not be a bad idea. She'd probably survive and, hopefully, learn some humility in the process. "Big whoop. They could figure that out from the first time you meet them." In the time it had taken her to start an argument, Luna and Jaden had already started getting their shoes on.
"You coming, Phantom?" Pulling on a light jacket, Yugi had forgotten who he was talking to.
I will stay nearby, in case I am needed. As respectful and accepting the group was, she had long since learned the cruelness humanity had for anyone different. Going shopping in the open wasn't an option she was comfortable with but she would lurk where she could help in a hurry.
"Yo, piggy banks." Standing above Jack and Crow, Musume had an unpleasant look on her face. "Empty your wallets."
"Aren't we coming with you?" Jack chose to remain silent and let Crow answer. He wasn't sure he could keep his temper in check if she kept talking to him.
"None of you guys can come because you'll draw too much attention." Only Leo wasn't crushed at the news (since it meant he was finally famous enough to be an inconvenience). The others had been hoping to keep spending time with Yugi and Jaden and felt broken by the decision to exclude them. "But they don't have any cash so you're gonna have to help us out." Begrudgingly withdrawing his wallet, Crow handed over the stack of bills he had inside. Every time he won a contest, he liked to take a large stack of physical cash for himself. It made the win that much more real afterwards.
"Thanks." Taking both money and the wallet, she tossed them across to Jaden. "Jack, cough up." One hand began drifting towards the handle of the sword by her side as his gaze hardened.
That will not be necessary. Sensing the growing aggression, Phantom drew both ire and suspicion from the pair.
"Explain." Truthfully, this was a trick she hadn't intended to share but it was worth the defusing the tense situation.
How much do you know about test settings on devices running proximity-based frequencies? Incomprehension shone from the marked face. Wave the phone near the reader and it will accept the sale without recording it. Not exactly theft, it tricked the machines into saying an item had been paid for without saving the transaction anywhere. The discrepancy would only show up during a full inventory.
"Don't buy anything you can't take back with you." Glowering slightly, Yusei only hoped they followed his advice. Driving around the city and coming to the penthouse had tested the freedom he was allowed. He couldn't go shopping as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Watching the group depart in the lift, Jack almost missed not-quite-thanking the timely intervention.
"Hey, where are you going?" Taking off her outfit, Phantom was calmly folding the material into a compact pile outside the glass doors.
I said I would stay nearby. That is what I intend to do. Her words had been unwittingly ambiguous. She had meant she would stay nearby the shopping party in event they ran into any sort of trouble but they had thought she meant staying at the penthouse. If you will excuse me, Placing one hand on the far wall, she casually hopped over the edge and vanished from sight.
"This place is huge!" Luna and Musume had brought the pair to the biggest shopping mall in New Domino. Everything that could be wanted was in the vast complex, even living accommodations. It was entirely possible to be born, live and die without ever setting foot out from under the arched roof far above.
"Let's check out that shop first!" Instinctively dividing up into two pairs, Yugi was followed by Musume as he entered a gleaming phone store. He knew that taking anything back with him was impossible yet the allure of seeing the measure of human progress was too good to pass up.
"Just don't go looking at any names." Checking out the technology would be fine as long as he didn't track the companies. "Not that it would do much good. These old phones aren't worth much."
"How can you call this stuff old? It's amazing!" Yugi knew that the phones from his time were comparable to those that had sent humans to the moon but the specifications on the handset he was holding made computers of his era look like a bunch of smoke signals.
"It's still years away from what I'm used to." And with her gifted handset in one pocket, she wouldn't ever need a replacement. Perks of inevitable death mixed with stolen next-gen tech.
"Oh, does Yusei make phones or something?" The lights crackled as her rage loosened the tight restrictions she kept on her supernatural captives. Then she regained control of herself and the moment passed. Most people probably assumed a power surge had caused the moment of darkness.
"No. Like I said, I'm from the future." It took him a minute to figure out what she was saying. As far as Yugi had been concerned, he was in the future. That she had come from even further was a slight shock but only a minor one.
"How far?" When Phantom had unconcernedly revealed the year at the far end of the century, she had shattered a lot of illusions for the pair. Even though they knew complex obstructions lay between normal people and the ability to traverse the ages, the way it had taken over their lives had made the impossible seem easy.
"Couple of decades." She had taken to keeping the answer vague. People tended to ask too many questions if they had too many answers. "I can't keep it straight these days. There was a coma for a while."
"Huh." Diverting from the conversation, he went back outside as shop assistants began to swarm. "Is there anywhere you think I should see while I'm here?" He hoped that she would be able to find somewhere they could both enjoy without breaking the rules.
"Yeah, I think there is." What Musume didn't know was that she tended to think of rules as mere guidelines. Taking him down a hallway larger than most streets, she noticed Luna in the crowd ahead. It appeared that they both had the same destination in mind. Pulling them back as they approached a fountain big enough to be a swimming pool, she pointed through glass panes the size of buildings to where rows and rows of Duel Monsters merchandise were on proud display.
At first, Yugi didn't realise the significance of the spectacle. Every shop they had passed had been related to the card game in some way or another. It wasn't until his eyes picked out the name emblazoned above the entrance that the meaning struck him. "Wow!" Looking up at the raw splendour, he couldn't believe that it had all started with a humble game shop run by his grandfather. "We have to check this out." Dragging Musume in his wake, he walked into the largest branch of Kame Game anywhere in the world.
Kneeling atop the roof, Phantom was silently listening to the crowds below. Keeping track of Yugi and Jaden was easy but she was trying to focus on any potential danger. Unfortunately, humans are petty creatures and veritable clouds of greed, jealousy and hostility flowed everywhere. She was getting plenty of practice in controlling her newfound ability.
'Why are you here?' Appearing before her, Yubel's presence was acknowledged by an inclination of the dark mask. Had she not been kneeling already, she would have dropped to one knee.
In the event of any great risk to Yugi or Jaden. They must be protected at all costs. She knew the risks of disrupting history. Truthfully, she would have been against taking the pair from their times in the first place. Undoing an alteration to history would have been less difficult than ensuring their safety at every moment. But her place was to follow and not lead. She was just thankful that they had decided to come in the morning. The noise of the city wasn't yet loud enough to incapacitate her and she could feel the joy and wonder of discovery radiating from the pair.
'How is it that you were able to strike me?' While she agreed with the objective to protect her partner, the surprise blow had been the first to make contact from a non-Duel Spirit. She needed to know how to protect herself – and Jaden – from it in the future.
Microscopic sigils etched into every layer of my armour. I cannot be certain exactly which combination was effective. A calculating greed was approaching Musume. A woman dressed so finely probably had something worth stealing and the thief had a calm assurance about them. Probably a pickpocket. That target is too risky. Security will notice.
She had studied human minds over the years. If a voice seemed to be whispering in their ear from nowhere, people tended to assume it was their own conscience and the thief passed by without trying to steal from her. Truthfully, she had been more worried about Musume noticing and tearing an arm off as she continued to walk around the shop.
Circling on the other side of the immense shop from Musume and Yugi, Jaden and Luna were being waylaid by an intriguing distraction. At least, Jaden had been and Luna was sticking to his side. "A shell game?" The idea was ridiculously simple. Nobody could be expected to win against a professional. It would be quicker just to hand over money and walk away. Finding the lady was impossible when she could slip up a sleeve without notice.
"I picked it up in prison." Kame Game was one of the biggest employers of formerly convicted citizens. Their rules were clear: mess up once and they'd call the probation officers. Mess up after a second chance and there wouldn't be a third. Having a job to focus on had helped rehabilitate innumerable prisoners and turned countless lives around. "I put the idea to my manager and she agreed to let me run a trial for a few days. You pick the item, put down a quarter the cost and let me work my magic. Fill out a feedback form and I'll even take one of the shells off the table."
"What have I told you about trying to cheat feedback?" The easy smile vanished as a stern woman approached the table. Her every action scream 'strict'. This had to the manager who agreed to the game. "You'll stick to four cups, no more, no less."
"Can I at least treat the lovely couple to a free go?" A withering glare failed to stop the return of the smile. "Four shells, I promise." Returning the mock shell circular box to the table, it was visually indistinguishable from the three beside it. They had come from Kame Game stock based around the turtle shell in the original shop sign.
Looking at Jaden and Luna, the scowl lessened a fraction. "Fine. But I'll take the fee from your wages if they win. Put on a good show." Taking place at one side, she was on the lookout for any clever tricks.
"What'll it be? We've got everything from Runner parts to Duel Disks to keychains. Gambler's choice." It was clear why the manager had given the go-ahead for the game. The bare chance of winning any prize was one in four. Even with skill and fast eyes, swift hands could keep those odds from hitting one in three. It was a constant influx of cash.
"We'll take a keychain." If they ended up winning, Jaden didn't want to be responsible for taking out the man's wages more than the minimal amount.
"Okay, here we go." Pulling out three silver discs and one gold, he slipped them into bulbous shells and held out both hands to prove none had been concealed. Deftly placing fingers atop the shells, he began slowly shifting them around at a speed which kept it easy to follow the concealed golden coin. "Still following? Because this is where it starts getting tricky." The speed gradually increased until they were a merged blur of movement. Watching the capsules spinning and darting around, Jaden felt a hunger tickling in the back of his mind. Wait, not hunger, the other thing... idea!
Hovering over one shoulder, Yubel had sensed the pressure of Jaden's gaming spirit even as the more normal distraction filled his mind. 'How can you be thinking of food? Shouldn't you be focusing on this game?' Battles between two foes of extreme power she could understand but games of random chance and deception befuddled her. Humans were such strange creatures.
"And there we have it." Slowing the shells into a perfect line again, the gambler looked up with a smile. "One in four, find the gold coin." It was a good show. The speed he had shuffled them at had been nearly inhuman. Any normal person would have stood no chance but Jaden could see a spectral finger hovering above the left shell.
"I think it's in..." Moving his finger down the row, he paused over the indicated shell. "This one." It would have been cheating to have help and he slid to the one beside it.
"Close, my friend." Twisting apart the adjacent shell, he revealed a gleaming silver coin. "But you were one off." Proudly showing off the golden token, he beheld a grim silence from the manager.
"That was fun. Can we go again?" Looking to the authority figure for acceptance, Jaden received a dispassionate smile in return. "I'll pay this time."
"It's your money." Pulling out a note from the wallet Crow had lent him, Jaden wasn't sure how much money had changed. "That's too much."
"The extra's for you if I lose again. Better make it hard." That glint in his eye told Jaden that the risk-taker was onto him. He knew that Jaden had let him off easy in the first round.
"Okay, here we go." Showing the one golden coin again, he began at the same speed as before. "Four shells, one winner. Let's go." There was no gradual warmup this time. He switched back to the faster movements and pushed faster still as Jaden's eyes struggled to track which direction they were moving in.
"Don't help me this time." Speaking in the relative privacy of his own mind, he could feel Yubel tracking the movements as well. "I want to do it by myself."
'Is that why you're recklessly using your abilities on this petty affair?' She could feel the fraction of his own power gradually lighting his eyes. The abilities of the Supreme King didn't let him slow down the speed of the shells or even heighten his own reactions but the desire to win was slowly drawing them out regardless.
"And there we have it." Jaden wasn't the only one stressed by the round. It had put a strain on the showman as well and he was beading over with sweat around his temples. "One in four, find the golden coin." Nudging them back into position, his eyes flickered over the shells. In all the rush to make it difficult, even he hadn't been able to keep track of which it was in. Off to one side, even the manager could see.
"Man, that really got me." Plain brown irises stared down at the line-up. All four shells were identical but only one contained the right token. "This one." It had shifted to centre-right. Maybe. "Final answer."
"Let's see." Reaching down, he slowly unscrewed the faux-shell. In the centre lay a shining golden coin. "Congratulations, we have a winner!" Raising his voice slightly to drum up some interested, another scowl from his boss cut short the grandstanding. "You know, that crazy hair of yours tells me just which one would be perfect for you." Digging about under the counter, he came back with a pair of slim packages. "Got a pair of the Kuriboh lines. One for you and the lovely lady. If that's okay with you, boss?"
"I swear, you like pushing your luck more than you like working here." Rubbing strained eyes, she had been unable to follow the shells as they whirled across the table. No doubt that the customer had earned it. "I suppose I can let it slide this once. But I expect half that tip in the charity pot at the end of the day." Even with the extra cost of the second keychain, Jaden had left a decent leeway.
Walking away with the keychains, Jaden examined the fluffy little creations. "I get Winged Kuriboh but who's this little thing?"
"That's Kuribon." The distinctive red ribbon tied about its midriff gave it away in an instant. "She's the newest one of the group." By Jaden's reckoning. Kuribon had already been around for years as far as everyone else was concerned.
"Can I keep it?" Dangling the tiny thing in front of his face, he could see how cute it was. "It'd be neat having something from the future and it's probably not dangerous." Any technology was right out of the window but what harm could come from a fluffy little reminder of his adventure?
"I suppose." Luna couldn't see any problem with keeping the charm. People would just assume that he had tied a piece of ribbon to a Kuriboh icon.
"Take this one." Holding out the Winged Kuriboh, he didn't need a reminder of his first partner. The fluffy bundle frequently went bumbling about whatever room he was staying in all the time. "I mean, nobody remembers me in my own time but at least I know that someone's always going to remember me in the future." That carefree smile blinded her to the idea that anyone could forget him.
"Hey, you two." Approaching from ahead, Musume had a new bag slung over her shoulder. Whatever trickery Phantom had programmed into the phone worked. Nobody had even looked twice. It was tempting to see how much she could get away with before people noticed but petty theft didn't interest her. "Find anything interesting?" She noticed the slight flush on Luna's neck as she tucked something into her pocket.
"There's a guy with a really great shell game." Sliding away his own keychain, Jaden distracted the group with his natural charm. "You bet a quarter of what you want to buy and have to find the gold coin. He's really good at it and gave me a great idea!"
With the Signers clustered around the patio table and Phantom lurking mostly in the pool to alleviate her growing headache, they had gathered back at the Tops to hear his big reveal and it was underwhelming. "A shell game?" Jaden had looked so insufferably proud that Yugi didn't even have the heart to dissuade him. "Can you explain it a bit better?"
"These Yliaster guys are trying to get each of us in our own times, right?" It had taken nearly an hour for him to learn just that. Nobody expected him to figure out a plan all by himself. "Which means they won't be expecting us to replace each other. If we switch places, they'll be easy to beat."
… I hate to admit it yet the theory is sound. Being the King of Games required immense concentration, years of skill and experience, an unshakeable resolve, endless potential and the ability to strategise. Those qualities aside, the titleholder could be as clueless as Jaden and Phantom was begrudging him beating her to a viable plan. At least, one without a sizeable list of casualties. Yliaster would most likely create Anti-Decks to target each of you individually.
"Anti-Decks?" Yugi could guess what the term meant but there was no telling how this new world might use it.
"Decks used to target one specific Duellist." Yusei was starting to see the simple brilliance of Jaden's plan. "They're nearly impossible to beat but their reliance on one opponent makes them vulnerable to others." An Anti-Dragon Deck would be helpless against a Spellcaster build. A Deck designed to restrict Synchro Summoning could be undone via Fusion Monsters. Yliaster had planned to kill them each in their own time. They likely wouldn't have precautions for a different target to show up.
"It's probably not a good idea." As the most experienced time traveller in the room, Musume knew the dangers of spending too long out of their own time. All sorts of knowledge and information could unwittingly bleed through. "As long as you stay here, we can potentially return you to the same time as you left. If someone goes back and takes your place, they become part of events and you can't return you without interfering with the localised causal nexus and risking severe causality paradoxes."
"... What?" Jaden had been following for the first half but became lost as soon as she used the word 'localised'.
"If one of us goes back, nobody else can deliberately change what they do without... everything breaking." Yusei recognised Jaden's strength lay as a people person and not a scientist. "If I went back and took out whoever Yliaster sent after you, you couldn't then go back to the same time I did and do it yourself because then there'd be no reason for me to have gone back in the first place."
"I still don't get it." Leo had watched enough science fiction to understand the idea but he was more hung up on the practical execution. "Isn't that what Yliaster's trying to do? Why can't we do the same thing?"
"I think I understand." Yugi had studied history. It was the next best thing to advanced physics in this argument. "They know our Decks because we've already used them before but they're not trying to change any particular aspect of our history. They just want us gone." Without any particular date to aim for, they just had to pick out the first time they felt the pair were weak enough. That would prevent issues with causality.
"Huh. Then why shouldn't we swap places? If they can't undo what we do, then tricking them is the best plan." Stunned silence radiated outwards at Jaden's rebuttal. People tended to accept Yusei as the smartest person in the room. Arguing was nearly unheard of.
A nudge of movement drew Yusei's attention to one side. "Neat." Looking down at her phone, Musume had the widest grin they had ever seen. "Check it out!" Holding the screen out to the group, she showed off the fruits of her labour. "First time Yusei's stumped, caught on camera." In the picture, his jaw had slackened slightly and shock was on his face. He hadn't been outsmarted in years and never in an area he was an expert in.
"Send me a copy." Looking at the screen with a smile his own, Crow was insufferably proud of her. "And Jack. And Akiza. And... do you know anyone who can make shirts?" It was at that moment that Yusei prudently withdrew from both the conversation and the penthouse.
"And that's it? You're going gallivanting off through time because Jaden said it was a good idea?" He had arrived back at Poppo Time slightly before Akiza. His absence had been noted and passed along to Akiza so she had bypassed going to the penthouse and gone directly to Yusei and his ridiculous ideas.
"Not just me! One of the other's is going back as well!" They hadn't sorted out the details before he left but it would have to be him and one other. Either Jaden went to Yugi's time or Yugi went to Jaden's.
"And how is that any better?" She was understandably furious with his choice. It had only been a few days ago that she had been terrified of him just fetching them from the past. A longer journey was going to break her patience.
"If you've got a better idea, I'd really love to hear it because I don't want to leave you here." Grasping her shoulders, the depths of his feelings resonated in his gaze. "Give me something, anything that means I don't have to go back to the dark ages alone." Even with Trudge's help the day before, this was the only plan they had managed to find which gave them an advantage.
"Take me with you." It was the first thing he had thought of on the way over and he knew the answer would only anger her.
"We can't. If we both disappear, the ICC investigation would take it as proof that I'm guilty and everyone we care about will pay the price." People would think they ran away together and their families would take the fall in their absence. "If they realise I've gone by myself, you have to pin the blame on me."
"Then send one of your brothers. Send them both!" While a tempting enough idea in its own right, there was the problem of getting them there.
"Musume could only take me back because we can both use the Accel Slipstream. She'd have to take them back one at a time. And, honestly, do you think either of them could figure out how to blend in?" Admittedly, he wasn't sure how he was going to fare either but throwing them both under the bus was the better option. "What do you want me to do?"
"I don't want you to do anything but stay here." Curling up against his chest, she felt both his arms wrap around her. It was instinctive. All she had to do was reach out to him and he'd automatically try to protect her. "Do you promise to come back?"
"Of course." Gently stroking fingers down her back, he could feel the hands clutching at his chest. "You know, I did survive in the Satellite while living with Jack. A rogue faction of Yliaster is nothing compared to that. Nothing's going to happen to me." Between the bruise on his collarbone, the bite mark on his shoulder and the fractures in his spine from being wrapped around her finger, nothing could intimidate him after being in a relationship with Akiza. He could only hope that whatever had halted the ongoing overload to his brain would continue to work or he'd really find himself in trouble. Not even death would be an adequate excuse before her strength of will.
And it appears that's all we have time for. I've run through my batch of prepared chapters and looks like I'll be stepping back for now. More chapters will come, just not as frequently as they have recently.
Why not toss in a review, for old time's sake?