"Even I can have habits, and if I get into a habit of just fixing things to make my life easier. Well that's a slippery slope there because cause and effect are always in play. If I shut it off for me, it starts rips in reality and everything eventually falls apart. I have several friends who could have made that very suggestion, even if framed differently, and none of them have had the courge or the belief that it would work to offer it." Yugi explained as he wiped away the tears with his hand gripping the orb. "So you have my thanks for making the choice to offer me that option."

Valon was left floored as he sat there, he rolled his shoulders while his fingers bounced over his kneecaps before sliding halfway up his thighs to bound over to the arms of his chair. "So... does this mean you know how to... uh... make this like an actor thing?"

Smirking never looked so evil as it did on Yugi's face at that moment. That confident smirk and look made Valon want to leave the room even if his skin had to stay behind. Trying to register that he was 'supposedly' in a normal, high end hotel room.

With 'GOD'.

Not white, Japanese.

Everything the nuns told him was a lie...?

"So do you..."

"No. Don't need him, that was constructed after a certain group made me out as some overly strict monster. Man has ever rebelled against tyrants and when they realized that's how they framed me they created him to be a necessary mediator." Yugi answered with a quirk of the lips before shrugging. "I mean I was born Japanese in this lifetime, I was born in Kemet the last time, or Egypt as its modern name is, like Maha here."

Valons' eyes grew wide and he couldn't stop the grin forming on his own face as his head tilted to the side. "So you're black? God is black?"

Yugi sat there indulging in the sheer shock on the childs' face, the wonder and awe, the growing number of questions he had. Tethered down only by nagging suspicion that Yugi was pulling his leg. "Yes, I'm sure the nuns would tell you otherwise about me..." Yugi noted with a smile. "I've been every race on this planet, as well as male and female versions."

"You've been a girl?!" Valon stammered out in shock and got another shrug from Yugi.

"My... divine essence if you will, is always going to be opposite of my physical manifestation because my highest self is both genders. So to retain balance I'm always going to work that way, though there are many who would protest the concept. But yes, I have girl versions of myself of just as many races and in those cases my Ka is male. In this reality she's female."

"Mai's going to lose her mind when I tell her about you... I hope you know that..." Valon noted with a grin on his lips.

"Well that's only if you tell her, or we can watch her be as shocked as everyone else? The world still doesn't know for sure 'what' I look like after all..." Yugi pointed out with that amused smile not fading. Below Seto's speech was winding to a close, the gossips were still going strong, Mai and Vivian were just wild. His dad was not the least bit amused, standing between the two with a frown that was also pulling on his brow.

Yet at the same time, his father wasn't exactly confident if Mai 'was' lying, she knew enough details about Yugi, dated as that information was, that she had his attention. While Vivian was becoming increasingly competitive... and Anzu...

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Anzu was wondering when this trip through the twilight zone was going to stop. She had managed to stagger her way in Mai's wake to the quartet. Keeping an ear out for Kaiba and his speech, her mind was a hamster that decided to strap on a jet pack and tear the wheel off the wall. Everyone was talking, and her mind couldn't process any language other than Japanese any longer. Her skin tethered between apologetically hot and arctic cold with every step.

Flowing between the Yugi she grew up with the Pharaoh, and coupled with the whole God thing. She was terrified he would know what she was thinking, and now... 'Yugi would be having fun with this wouldn't he? Well not 'him him' but the Other Yugi would, I bet he'd find this amusing. Geeze Yugi how did this end up happening?' She pondered as she caught wind of Mai thinking aloud of a honeymoon on an exclusive beach.

Yugi in swim trunks...

Nope, nope, NOPE!

And Mai was getting waay too gleeful about how she sounded regarding this...

'Maybe I need to actually listen and give hints to any of Mai's future boyfriends or that guy she was with earlier if he's one of them?' Anzu thought in a daze.

Though while not Yugi, help DID start to approach her in the form of Ryou and Malik, though Malik was taking up a surprisingly background position to Ryou. The former thief lightly touched Anzu's shoulder in an effort to get her attention.

Keep her from fainting, he was trying to keep her from fainting.

The room was such a buzz he could have stolen half the jewelry off everyone on his way over if he had been so inclined. It was this interesting place where he wasn't rich or well known so he was left undisturbed. Yet given his thick white hair he 'was' getting noticed occasionally, a quick glance at the corner of the eye that got turned into a longer, startled stare.

'Is he here to see his son? I don't know what Yugi's father does for a living, but if he's here for that... he's starting to remind me of my own father.'

That was when Ryou saw both men and suddenly the thoughts of the 50k diamond necklace that the twig thin woman was wearing four people to the southeast of him was gone.

"Greetings to you, John..." Bakura greeted the man standing just behind Mr. Mouto, in traditional Ancient Egyptian. Which was enough to snap Anzu out of her stunned state and got Malik's attention piqued as he studied the man as well.

Mr. Mouto blinked confused as he heard the strange language, turning his head to exam his personal assistant speculatively. "Henry?"

Henry blinked before looking over at his boss, his expression both surprise and confused concern before looking over at his boss. "I... have no idea sir," then he turned his gaze back to the white haired stranger. "I'm afraid you must have me confused with someone else..." He smiled speaking very polite Japanese yet the strange teen didn't lose his professionally cheery expression.

Then there was that blond with him, with his surprisingly straight hair despite his skin tone. He was curious in expression, and there was a slow growing smirk on his face.

"Mr. Mouto," Bakura then shifted to greet the reincarnated Pharaoh. Now that Bakura could see Yugi's dad in person, there 'was' similarities between the two. Mostly in physical structure, while hair came from Grandpa clearly. Yet Mr. Mouto had such a stern visage, and it occurred to him that Yugi had not been able to communicate with his father since the shooting.

'He's got to know they're here...' and then it hit Bakura as he stood there. Yugi would know, and if Bakura was right. And he was. There was a reason why Mahaado had made no appearance the whole night.

"The Living Pharaoh has sent a message..." a merchants' spirit announced behind Bakura, the elevated title for Yugi dripping with anxiety and fear. "He will see his father after the tournament, and that you are free to make up whatever reason amuses you as to why." He wasn't visible to the living, but even now the spirit looked around anxiously. Fearing that the Living Pharaoh would find some flaw in his delivery of the message and strike him down.

"We're friends with your son actually," Bakura began tilting his head towards Anzu. "I believe you've spoken with Anzu over the phone," he introduced and watched as Anzu gave a slight bow. It wasn't as stilted as it would have been if they hadn't already begun trying to thaw her out. Though Mai pretending to be engaged to Yugi. Bakura could already see the mayhem heading towards them from here.

And it was certainly a measure of Mr. Mouto that he wasn't scolding them or displaying very justified outrage at what happened to his son. 'I don't know what Anzu told him over those phone calls. Maybe I should have asked,' he mused to himself as the complete stranger among them grumbled.

"You are friends with Yugi?" Vivian didn't sound pleased given how there were so many people close to Yugi's age here. There was this feeling of being pushed out of the group. "I was not paying attention to what Kaiba was saying. Why does Yugi stay up in his room alone?"

"Doctors' orders," Bakura answered briskly, "The doctors are understandably concerned the body armor wasn't as thick as it could have been given how he dressed. So he has some serious bruising near his heart." He let his tone turn sympathetic as he turned to address Mr. Mouto directly, "It wasn't his intention to alarm you. In fact I believe he wants you to enjoy the tournament... See a bit of the game he's been playing."

Oh boy.

Was 'that' an understatement!

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It was scientifically proven that Kaiba could, in fact, be utterly amused by something and 'retain' that deep glower he was known to wear. But realizing that Kajuku was about to play a game of 'that' type with the other duelist was...

'I almost feel bad for this Wong woman,' he mused while Mokuba was a fit of giggles by his side. Yugi was trying to suppress his ability and Kaiba could feel it, pushing against Kaiba's own power Divine Lightning bouncing in a sugar bottle.

Then it stopped, in an instant Yugi seemed to no longer push against the boundaries that Kaiba had been forced to erect. So suddenly in fact that the 'core' crumbled under the weight of Kaiba's attempt at keeping Yugi under some semblance of control.

'What did you do Yugi?' Kaiba pondered, and a part of him expected an answer, be it something in the surroundings shifting for he alone, or maybe just Mahaado whispering in his ear. But there was nothing, save Mokubas' amusement.

"Well good thing Mai is pretty and a friend of Yugi's. I'm sure Anzu would be ok with the friend part, and the audience is going to love the pretty part," Mokuba noted offhandedly. "But I don't know if the other kids are going to understand the whole 'engaged' angle..." Mokuba explained earning himself a small 'hm' from his older brother.

"But well, hey we could make a 'queen of duels' title right? If either of them make it to the finals, that would be nice. Something to encourage girls to join in," he continued thoughtfully while earning yet another 'hmm'. "Though I guess its a bit late to get an official title made up... I mean we'd have to get all the tournament organizers in on it..."

"It can be just our title for it, which given the menagerie of other duelists I would say that either women hold a strong potential for success." Kaiba noted calmly earning a snort from his little brother.

"So its going to be a cat fight? Kinda?" Mokuba giggled further as he looked up at his brother.

"You can not use that term until you're 16," Kaiba ordered with no force in his voice.

They were sitting at the grand table, talking as an employee walked off to gently 'remind' the ladies they were meant to be at the table. The whole 'table of champions' thing that was part of the pomp and pageantry of these things? Though being a stickler for such things didn't change the fact this was turning out fun.

'Yugi probably knows and I have my suspicion that he thinks this is funny.' Kaiba mused as he sat there his gaze sweeping the room. Looking for Maha and wondering where the magician would be, of course he would be with Yugi if he was allowed to choose. But Yugi would want Maha to have some time to move about and see things as well. 'He's probably with a magic scroll reading it for the billionth time again,' he thought as the two women made their way to the head table.

'Not that I can blame him, its banal certainly, but at least its appropriate for the masses in this tournament.' Though the notion that this was going to be the other 'attraction' to Kaiba's tournament was groan inducing to the CEO anyway. But this was America and he couldn't exactly say he was an expert on what they liked. 'Cat fight' indeed. Where Mokuba had heard the term and its definition, Kaiba didn't know. Now he had an itch to start parental locking the computers and television from Mokuba.

'But it may be too late anyway,' he thought in mixture of resignation. While the crowds began parting for Mai with this look that even he could see. 'Yugi, you brat of a prince you haven't changed at all...' he thought to himself as Mai strutted like her proud namesake as she made her way to the table with Wong glaring daggers when she opened her eyes. Though her strut was just as bold and brash...

Snow white hair was semi visible where he stood, with a glimpse of blond near by him. It was curious how the pair weren't following Kajuku until a man moved aside. Now he could see Anzu and they were all clustered with a pair of older men.

"They're talking to Yugi's dad," Mai explained, leaning over a bit and noted how Mokuba's eyes widened in shock.

Squirming a bit in his seat as he tried to look over the numerous people in the way between the Kaibas' and the group. 'I bet Yugi's dad is really mad. I hope he doesn't yell at Big Brother...' Mokuba thought as he sat there. Years of watching his brother talk down older man, now being confronted by Yugi's dad? It was one thing to sit back and watch as his brother dominated the stuffy adults who had stripped them of so much of their lives.

But Yugi's dad.

Mokuba didn't remember their real dad, and Gozoboro really wasn't a dad to him or his brother. So he sat there squirming and wanting to find out what Yugi's dad was like. 'I hope he's not too mad, Yugi said he told his dad it was staged right?'

'Hm I've never asked what Mouto did for a living, and Anzu was left responsible for dealing with him while... things were going on...' Kaiba mused to himself as he finally received his meal. The tournament was pleasant, a return to form and allowing him to enjoy work. No cults or demons, just an eclectic group of duelists on either side of him, an idiot woman who might cause him to raise the rating on this tournament.

But no god cards, people chasing after an inverted puzzles, and so long as Mouto didn't become irrationally angry at what happened to Yugi... There was a man, in the position that Kaiba recognized as a personal assistant role. Another Westerner among all the others that he had seen time and time again as CEO. Yet he felt...

'This is one of those powers isn't it...?' Kaiba wondered in annoyance before he realized how Mai 'felt'. She was animated and engaging at the moment, while he felt she was a million miles away. Static radiated off her in waves that caused him to feel like goosebumps were forming up his arms and his neck. 'What did Kajuka get herself into?'

Self awareness caused him to clamp down on his 'power'. Causing the room to go back to feeling completely bland and ordinary. Boasting duelist conversations, Wong had been distracted from her fixation on Yugi too. A modeling stint she did in Milan two years prior.

No dogs, thankfully whatever stupid magical device that Maha had made, they had skipped the mutt. Just Mai sitting there there chatting and enjoying her meal while washing Kaiba in this strange wave that he had not the name or experience to understand.