Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

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"Talk like you know her don't you," Valon teased as he watched a harpy descend on a warrior.

"As a matter of fact, I do! She's a friend of mine and Yugis', though I haven't seen any of them since I started working for Industrial." Ryuji confessed with a hint of pride in his voice. "Been busy promoting a game I created and well. I've not had time to even call lately." His shoulders sagged a bit as he confessed that. "Heard something happened around Domino months ago and I really should find out."

"You sure that someone that hot would be friends with a beanpole like you?" Valon teased giving Ryuji a sly look from the corner of his eye.

After all between the pair, Valon was easily the muscular one of the two of them and out of the 'whole' group. Only Rashid would surpass Valon in muscular fitness. "You know what I lack in muscles, I make up for in talent!" Ryuji retorted with a grin, a part of him deciding he liked this guy. It was just a feeling that this guy was honest, rough around the edges maybe, but honest. Given how he and Mai traveled extensively, it helped to know they had friends at various ports so they wouldn't be alone.

"Say, when the duel is over, I'll introduce you to Mai. Just to prove that a 'bean pole' like me knows champions." Ryuji offered, reaching up and rolling the die hanging from his earring with relaxed fingers.

"You're on!" Valon agreed readily, looking back at the blond on the platform. "So then I suppose I might as well have some idea what I'm looking at. Don't want to look stupid in front of the lady."

"Don't worry, the gang back in Japan isn't made up of all scientists, its good. But as for the Duel Monster game... I'm no Yugi, but I can give you the basics." Ryuji offered before gesturing out to the field. "Ok so both sides have ten spaces, in two rows..."

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"You know, I never 'did' ask how people who won awards had their names instantly on their statues..." Valon confessed as he stood there beside Ryuji and Mai as she waited while an engraver put her name on the large ornate trophy she won.

"I only found out after my first tournament in America, after I finished shutting down the booth," Ryuji agreed.

"Yeah, the 'not' glamorous part of winning anything," Mai agreed with a small twist of the lips. "Even Kaiba's tournaments are like this."

"Unless your name is 'Yugi'," Ryuji added with a knowing smirk on his face.

"Oh yes, he shows up, go home, you have no chance." Mai agreed with a roll of her eyes and rolling her head a bit before shaking her head in a sadder amusement. "Of course if Yugi shows up and Kaiba show up, you might as well leave the city. Because they're going to some how turn holograms into wrecking machines."

Ryuji began to chuckle only to have it die on his lips. Recalling how Mai had been sealed away after her loss to Malik. She didn't actually 'see' the duel between all three God Cards but her soul had also been in a life or death situation.

"Here you go, Ms. Kujaku," the engraver spoke up, holding out the trophy to Mai in a professional tone.

Mai took the trophy and turned to look at the two guys with her, and found that Valon guy looking at her.

"So I guess I should go huh? Or do you let strangers celebrate with you after a win?" Valon asked, and the lack of a deck at his hip told her that he didn't duel.

"Not really, professional duelists can't afford to just throw money away..." Mai explained calmly with a slight twist of her lips. "The win money goes into paying bills and transport from tournament to tournament."

"I thought these things put out large sums of cash if you win..." Valon asked, his brows furrowed in mild confusion. His arms crossing his chest in his confusion as Mai started walking away with Ryuji following expectantly thus Valon following Ryuji's example.

"Traveling across countries isn't cheap though, Visas, plane tickets, and there's no standard for what the win pot is between tournaments. If you're going to go professional, then you can't just afford to stay in your own town and wait for the tournaments to come to you. The highest tier of the game is blocked by two guys who pretty much insure that there's no way to reach world champion status and that status is near financial security status," Mai continued explaining when two officials whisked her away from the pair mentioning photo ops.

"Two guys? Just two guys are holding the top position in a game... that seems to have lots of random chance?" Valon asked as Mai was directed in front of the screen with her trophy.

"Yep, Kaiba, the CEO of KaibaCorp and now Yugi, though Yugi didn't 'want' to be World Champion. He just wanted his grandfathers' Blue Eyes card back and because Kaiba put the title on the line just for show..." Ryuji shrugged his shoulders in amusement.

"So while she's busy... Mai 'is' single right?" Valon asked leaning over towards Ryuji earning him a glance out of the corner of Dice Masters' eye.

"Yeah, I mean Jounouchi seems to have a soft spot for her, but he young and dumb about women soo..." Ryuji answered with a smirk thinking about the whole Battle City tournament.

"Sooo...?" Valon echoed in curiosity, "what's a guy gotta do to have a chance?"

Ryuji glanced at Valon quietly his expression observant and shifted his glance back at Mai who was posing with the other winners from the lower brackets. He took in her lone female status, how the guys tried to situate themselves as though she was a presenter and not a champion. As though she was just a beautiful model and not talented in her own right. The wall her expression held, professional, tauntingly arrogant and closed off. "What do you think?" he asked, after all, Valon felt like a good guy to have around as a friend, but if Ryuji was going to play match maker for anyone towards Mai?

"She looks professionally wounded, like shes' done spent her life being disappointed and let down by the people. She knows how to show off her looks so she probably used her looks to survive what life has thrown at her. But she's tired of it, like she wants more and can't figure out how to find it." Valon answered thoughtfully before adding, "given what she said about this life, I can't see how it would be easy to find someone too. Bouncing from one city to another city or country, guys probably don't want a woman who can kick their ass in the same profession."

Ryuji quietly nodded, appreciating the guys' clear insight into the obvious, and the sad truth of the matter. Pride could be a poison in a relationship, any chance that Jounouchi might have had he pretty much blew in Battle City. Even if Mai had done a good job of hiding it, Jounouchi had shown he just wasn't mature enough to be in a relationship with Mai. She was an adult and really had experienced enough that his juvenile antics weren't always going to work.

But Valon was an adult as well so maybe?

It was a roll of the dice, but why not? Dice were Ryuji's thing after all.

"You've got a pretty good eye for these things, if you think you can fill that void you can certainly try. But I know a group in Japan that will take high offensive if you hurt her though, and some of them can do things that you don't want to be any part of. So don't screw up," even if Yugi and Bakura were no longer bound to the Sennen Items, implying a possible threat was always good.

"Heh, I don't go into situations with a desire to be a failure you know," Valon teased as Mai was finally released from the photographers. "How are you not blind from all the flash bulbs?" Valon called out to Mai as she approached them and watched as her lips curled into a smirk.

"Not easy, that's for sure," she answered the thick Aussie accented guys' quip. Honestly, the guy looked like a middle point between the gang and Yugi's eccentric appearance. His normal brown hair was spiked up in a tame version of what Yugi had. But he wore riding leathers and was much more muscular than the rest of the group. It wasn't that random that she ran into Ryuji once she saw the Dungeon Dice booth when she arrived. But that he would find a random guy in Australia and start befriending that guy? It was like Yugi's friend making instinct was a contractible male only disease that was spreading.

'Hi! Could you use a friend? Lets be friends!'

"But I'm free now so, you guys up for some drinks?" Mai suggested, though she was going to have to figure out where Ryuji's room was first in case the poor guy fell over sleeping. He looked exhausted, but even as she spoke she suddenly remembered that the gang was not exactly universally 'of age'. "You're legal and can stay awake right, Ryuji?"

He rolled his eyes amused before giving a shrug, "I took a power nap to prepare for you duel..."

"Only I found him with a sign asking to be woken up, bloke was still sleeping hence how we met," Valon cut in with a smirk and a shake of the head.

Ryuji nodded with self directed amusement, "the dice are hot! I've had multiple cities were I've sold out on day one. Sleep is becoming a commodity that is precious to me because they keep my schedule as hot. I have to be on the plane tomorrow for the next city even."

Valon shook his head, "wow you guys like to move fast."

"Speaking of moving fast..." Mai joked at the sight of the rowdy group of guys staring straight at her with cameras.

"Wow..." Valon shook his head, "all for a card game?"

"Yep," Ryuji answered with a grin that felt a bit tacked on, and Valon seemed to pick up on it quickly enough.

"Or more because she's smoking hot? They seem more interested in pictures with her than autographs... Oh wait, I see a few girls in the back..."

"Behold the rare 'Lady Duelist' rarely seen in public these Ladies go about showing that strategic thinking isn't exclusive to the male gender..." Valon shifted his voice to a dramatic tone like a certain crocodile hunter.

Ryuji broke into a laugh at that, honestly this guy was starting to feel more and more like he would work well with the rest of Yugi's gang in Japan. "Out of curiosity, how good is your Japanese?"

"Uhh... I can say 'thanks' and uh 'hi'..." Valon confessed in embarrassment. "But that shouldn't matter much right? Mai's English is spot on!"

"Yeah, but we have mutual friends and I'm not sure if they all speak English as well as Mai. Even my English is more something I've been learning while on this business trip. I figure Kaiba can speak English fluidly, but the rest?" Ryuji explained, realizing in passing that he was essentially trying to pull a 'meet the folks' on Mai. So in an effort to 'not' sound like that, "course that would mean actually 'reaching' them. I called Yugi or Honda and one's store number is out of service which... oh..." He suddenly remembered something he was meaning to ask Mai. "While the other is studying for school like mad."

"Well that's Japan for you, love their education," Valon offered with a shrug and a nod.

They finally talked themselves out as they watched Mai go through, and deal, with the list of guys wanting pictures, and the few girls who seemed more cheerleaders than duelists themselves. For which Mai was incredibly supportive of the girls, taking pictures, signing autograph books and chatting for a bit.

When she, once more, was free to join them Valon tilted his head in a direction, "there's a nice little cafe I passed by on my way here. Seems like a nice enough place, bikers like me don't go there much but I've never heard a bad word about it.. Walking distance too."

The pair looked at each other and down at the trophy that Mai was carrying, and she shook her head. "Sounds nice, but I'm not looking to carry this around all day. What say we hit the hotel lounge? We can do the cafe later?" She suggested.

"Sounds like a plan," Valon agreed willingly.

While Ryuji was grateful that he wouldn't have to do a ton of walking and readily agreed to the shorter trip. The hotel in question was quite nice as well, more the pity that Ryuji didn't even realize Mai was staying in the same hotel until now. The hotel was brightly lit using eggshell white walls to help the lights above. There was the occasional plant and small islands of comfy chairs for people to sit at, even a piano was in the room, near where people would have breakfast.

Off to the left was a nice hotel bar, with the usual professionally dressed bartenders in their white shirts and black vests. Valon began to hang back as the pair started their way to the elevators, causing Mai to glance back at him in concern.

"Well its not right that a stranger just follows you up to your room, want me to stay here and wait for you?" Valon offered patiently, tossing his head towards the thick seats near the elevator.

Mai gave a small approving smile before nodding, "yeah, I'll just put this down and be right back..."

"I think I'll go as well, send a message to my translator so he doesn't think I ditched him," Ryuji added, realizing he really needed to let the guy know what was going on.

Valon nodded and found himself a nice seat that put the elevator glass to his left and the bar before him. The seat was soft nothing like riding leathers or the hard seat of a motorcycle, this 'was' a nice hotel, one of the higher ends. That Mai could afford it showed there 'was' some level of profit that came from dueling. But he preferred working on bikes, even if it was a dirty job in the end.

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"Nice guy, kinda hard to expect given the riding leathers," Mai commented in Japanese.

"Yeah, I left a note to be woken up before your duel and he was did just that even though the duel had already started," Ryuji agreed. He pressed the elevator button and they waited giving them time to talk without feeling like they were intentionally excluding Valon.

"Yeah, I'm used to guys wanting to follow me up to my room, get 'in' my room," Mai confessed with a sigh. "Nice that he has common sense, though he kinda has Chibi-chan's eyes."

"'Chibi-chan'?" Ryuji asked at Mai's bemused pet name.

"Yeah, Yugi, its what I like to call him, though Anzu just giggles now when I use it," Mai explained shaking her head at the odd behavior.

Ryuji gave a tired good natured laugh as the soft sound of the elevator went off, and a soft white light glowed to alert the deaf that the elevator arrived. "At least Anzu picks up for you, Yugi's number has been disconnected and Honda is studying so much he won't answer the phone!"

Mai froze as he spoke even as he walked into the elevator, but it was when he turned to look at her and saw that expression that he grew concerned. For someone who had a solid poker face, just the expression of shock and... worry? Concern? Something made Ryuji frown in answer as he reminded her to get in the elevator.

"Ryuji... uh... when was the last time you spoke to the gang?" Mai began, and he could see her mind playing strategy against strategy like she was on a duel field. Something was up and she was trying to figure out how to put it. She turned to look away from him as she pushed the button to go to her floor.

"Uh... did something happen?" He asked, and watched as her lips pulled into a wince and her eyes lower to the floor.

"Do you know that the game shop was destroyed, Yugi's grandpa and mom are both dead. He's living with Kaiba and Mokuba... and Honda... he was at ground zero, he's mostly deaf..."

Ryuji suddenly felt his stomach plunge into the ground, as though when the elevator lifted up to carry them it forgot to include the guys' organ. His knees went weak and he barely caught himself before collapsing as he recalled the mention about a bomb in Domino. It was at the Mouto's game shop? Honda had been at ground zero of 'that'? Suddenly all his mild frustration at being unable to reach Yugi, the annoyance at Honda for 'studying'...

He suddenly felt so ashamed as he collapsed against the elevator wall as Mai resumed speaking.

"I didn't know either, I ran into Anzu in New York and her letters were being sent back. She reached Bakura, that's the only reason I knew at all.."