Did I say it would be a while until I posted the next chapter? Yes. Has it been a while? No, but here we are, par for course for me. Also, to those who have alerted this story, welcome. I see a bunch of you have found this story recently.
"I'm off!" Yuugi called.
Sugoroku ran to around the corner of the shop to see Yuugi and Mahou at the door on their way out.
"Hey, Yuugi!"
Yuugi paused in opening the door, a piece of toast in his mouth. He was in his school uniform even though they didn't have school today. Behind him was Mahou, dressed in a long lavender skirt, black blouse, and purple sweater, her bag over her shoulder.
"What, Grandpa?" Yuugi asked with his mouth full.
"What do you mean 'what, Grandpa'? If you're going out, finish eating first. It's bad for your digestive system."
"But if we're late it'll inconvenience everyone," said Yuugi. "Later."
The two left.
"Ah hey! Yuugi! Mahou!" Sugoroku called after them to no avail. Man. "Everyone, eh? Yuugi used to only hang out here alone and play games . . . Now he's going out with his school friends a lot. I suppose he's changed thanks to his friend." He chuckled. "I'm happy for you, Yuugi."
He went back behind the counter.
And then there's Mahou. Timid as she is, she seems to have taken a shine to Yuugi. She's even started coming out of her shell.
Yuugi and Mahou walked towards the arcade where they would be meeting the others.
"Must be Sunday, look how crowded it is," said Yuugi.
Mahou agreed with a hum, giving space to the people walking by. I thought I was doing better with crowds, she thought, tensing up when someone got too close for her comfort.
Yuugi and Mahou stopped and looked down a side alley to see a line of people in front of a shop. They went to get a closer look.
"I wonder what's going on," said Yuugi.
A man in line turned to them. "D-Shock Premium collection."
They turned to him.
"You mean that's the wristwatch D-Shock?" asked Yuugi.
"Yeah that's it. That mystical premium collection is on limited sale here today."
"The mystical collection." Yuugi looked at the line and was surprised. "Mahou, there's Honda-kun."
Honda was near the front of the line a little hunched over in discomfort. He noticed them when they walked up to him.
"So you like this kind of thing, too, Honda-kun?" asked Yuugi. "Seems kind of out of character."
"Well . . . I suppose." He leaned forward. "Yuugi . . . I have a favor to ask . . ." he said quietly. He whispered what it was in his ear, glancing at Mahou and looking embarrassed.
Yuugi took Honda's spot in line and Honda ran off. "You don't have to wait in line with me, Mahou. You can go on ahead."
"It's okay," said Mahou. "There is a bookstore down the street. Do you mind if I go look for something?"
"Go ahead," said Yuugi. "Honda should be back soon."
Mahou nodded and went to the bookstore. She was quick to find what she was looking for and returned to see the line had moved, but Yuugi wasn't anywhere to be seen. She looked in and saw Yuugi was at the front of the line.
The clerk called out, "Everyone standing in line behind! I deeply apologize! This item, D-Shock Premium Collection, is all sold out!"
There were many cries of outrage and groans of disappointment.
Mahou slipped inside.
"So this is the last item?" asked Yuugi, putting the money on the counter. "That sure was close!"
"Here. Thank you very much."
Mahou was shoved aside and fell into a rack.
"I'll be taking that." A man in an orange sweatshirt, purple bandana, and sunglass with several piercings was standing over Yuugi.
"What are you saying? This D-Shock is . . ."
"You do not deserve this item," he said. He rolled up his sleeves to reveal the multiple watches in different colors. "They're Swiss Color Watches Special Variation. Only when these colors and designs are together are they a collection. In the whole world, there are only about a hundred each of these ten types. In Japan . . . no . . . in the world no other person has collected these rare ten types! Do you get it? That's why this D-Shock Premium collection only has meaning in the hands of a rare watch collector like myself! An amateur like you who doesn't understand the meaning of rare watches should not possesses it!"
He grabbed Yuugi by the color and lifted him up.
"Yuugi!" cried Mahou.
"Unforgivable. I will not forgive you!"
"Stop it!"
The hand that landed on the collector's shoulder made him stop. He turned to see Honda. "Who're you? You wanna get in my way?"
"You may be a rare collector or whatever, but you gotta obey the rules," said Honda.
The collector let go of Yuugi and turned the whole way around. "What?"
Honda stared him down.
"Hello, police?" The clerk was on the phone.
The collector got spooked and ran off.
"Sorry I'm late," Honda apologized. "You okay, Yuugi? Mahou?"
They both breathed sighs of relief.
They stood outside of the arcade and Miho showed off the yellow D-Shock on her wrist. "Isn't it great?"
"It's the first time I've seen a real one!" Jounouchi said excitedly.
"Honda-kun, you really helped Miho by standing in Miho's place," said Miho.
Anzu glanced at her sideways. "Friends truly are worth having, right, Miho?" she asked dryly.
"Absolutely! I love you, Honda-kun!"
"She said she loves you, Honda!" teased Jounouchi. "Aren't you glad you stood in line since early this morning?"
Honda blushed. "Shut up! As a beautification member it's only the natural thing to do! Look at the world! People's hearts are dirtied . . . purifying those people's hearts is the true beautification member's job! In other words, a beautification member must have a pure heart and the greatest kindness."
"Although that's kind of overdoing it," Yuugi pointed out.
"How forceful!" added Anzu.
"Hey, Miho, can you let me see that?" asked Jounouchi.
"Huh? This D-Shock?"
"Hey, Jounouchi! Are you listening to me?" Honda yelled.
Jounouchi ignored him. "Just while we're here," he told Miho. "I just want to do this once in my life."
"Okay. Just don't get it dirty, all right?"
"Wait a moment!" Honda yelled in his face.
"What is it, Honda?" Jounouchi yelled back. "You're screaming in my ear!"
"Rock-paper-scissors," said Honda.
"Huh?"
"The winner of rock-paper-scissors has the privilege of holding Miho-chan's D-whatever," explained Honda.
"It's D-Shock," Jounouchi corrected. "You're no candidate if you don't even know the name."
"Come on, rock-paper-scissors! Here we go, Jounouchi!"
"Man! You're serious? Looks like I don't have a choice."
Honda won.
Mahou found she liked the arcade games mostly for their colorful visuals. She went around with Yuugi playing the different games.
"Hey, Mahou, wanna give it a try?" Yuugi asked. He pointed to a slot machine.
Mahou shook her head.
Yuugi pulled the lever. The slot machine began to beep and coins started pouring from slot. "I did it! Look how much came out! Hey, hey, look, Honda-kun."
Honda was not paying attention, too busy rubbing the D-Shock against his cheek like a cat.
Yuugi waved his hand in front of Honda's face. "Honda-kun." With no response, he sighed in defeat.
Mahou went off to find a game she wanted to play and wandered around. She found a pinball machine that interested her. She put a coin in and started playing. She watched the ball bounce around the machine, flicking the paddles when it got to the bottom. She caught it in one and held it for a moment before letting it slide down and sending it flying back up the machine to hit a high point target. Lights flash, sounds rang out loudly, but Mahou managed to keep playing even if she flinched at an unexpected buzzer or bell. After a few minutes, the ball fell between the paddles, unrecoverable.
"That was amazing!" Yuugi cried out.
Mahou turned around to see him and the girls watching. She ducked her head shyly. "Beginner's luck."
They gathered up in the middle of the arcade again, but Honda wasn't present.
"I'll see you guys later," said Miho.
"Eh? Miho, you're going home already?" asked Anzu.
"Yeah, I have an early curfew," she answered.
Honda walked over to them. "Really? Then, I'll return that . . ." He reached for his back pocket and came up empty.
"What is it?" asked Miho.
"Hey, don't tell me . . . you lost it?" asked Jounouchi.
Honda began to sweat and frantically searched all of his pockets. "No . . . no way! That can't be! Wait a moment. Where is it?" He started stripping! "It's gone!"
Clothes went flying and the girls and Yuugi were shocked that Honda had stripped down and was now peering down his boxers. Jounouchi wasn't phased in the least.
"Why? Where did it disappear to?" Honda continued to freak out.
A hand came flying and Miho slapped Honda across the face as hard as she could. "Honda-kun, you idiot, idiot, idiot!" She ran out of the arcade in tears, leaving Honda sprawled out on the floor. "I hate you! I really hate you!"
"Mi . . . Miho-chan . . ." Honda called after her weakly.
"Man, you really messed up," said Jounouchi.
"Now could you please put your clothes on?" Anzu demanded.
Honda put his clothes back on and they all went looking for Miho's D-Shock. They searched everywhere, Honda even crawling on the floor to look under the machines, but it was nowhere to be found.
"Where is Miho-chan's watch?" he screamed, tears in his eyes.
The others gathered around.
"Honda-kun," started Anzu, "it doesn't look like you're going find it."
"You've lost it," said Jounouchi. "Just give up already."
"I can't just give up!" cried Honda. "It's my fault! Because of my carelessness . . . Miho-chan's important D-whatever is . . ."
"Like I said, it's not D-whatever," said Jounouchi. "It's D-Shock."
"Shit!" Honda swore.
A foot came down on his hand and Honda yelped.
"Oh! Sorry." It was the collector from the shop. "I thought that was a wash cloth."
"You bastard . . ." growled Honda.
Jounouchi grabbed the collector by the front of the shirt. "What are you doing, punk?"
Honda got to his feet. "Stop it, Jounouchi. If you have time to play with that idiot, then please help me search for the watch instead." He walked away.
The collector removed himself from Jounouchi's grip. "What he said."
They watched him walk for the stairs.
No good, thought Yuugi. I don't have any proof he took the watch.
An alarm went off. They turned to see Honda somehow lifting a slot machine up. Security ran over and demanded what he was doing, pulling him away from the machine.
"Let me go! Please! I'm just looking for something! Please! Let me go!"
Jounouchi and Anzu ran over to help him.
Yuugi looked back at the stairs.
Mahou shook her head at it all. "Yuugi, do you – huh?" She was expecting Yuugi to be beside her, but he was gone. She saw him heading for the stairs. She looked at the others. "Hey, guys."
They were too busy dealing with security.
Mahou followed after Yuugi. She entered the stairwell and looked down to see if she could see them. She caught a glimpse of blue two floors down. Hiking up her skirt in one hand, Mahou ran after Yuugi.
She found the air conditioning room and heard some very disconcerting sounds.
"Give it back! Give it back!"
"This is mine."
"But that . . ."
There was the familiar sound of fist hitting flesh. "See what you get? This is mine!"
"It's not . . . ah!"
"What? You mean it's mine!"
Mahou yanked the door open to see the collector throwing Yuugi to the ground. "Yuugi! Leave him alone!" She ran up and grabbed the collector by the arm.
He snarled. "Get off, brat!" He flung his arm and sent Mahou stumbling into a unit. He pulled up his sleeve to see if there was any damage to his watches. He then walked over to her and slammed her to the floor, kicking her in abdomen.
The collector went back over to Yuugi. "Just obtaining a mystical item is the greatest high!" The collector kicked Yuugi in the side one final time. Chuckling, he turned to leave.
The back of the room was steeped in darkness, the Millennium Puzzle the only thing to be seen as it rose up.
The collector tried the doors. "It's not opening." He tried several more times. "What's going on? Dammit!"
Mahou saw the shadow of Yuugi grow and spread across the collector's back.
"It's game time," announced the other Yuugi.
Mahou looked back at him and saw the room had morphed and was now filled with turning cogs and gears that would belong to a clock or a watch.
"You!" snarled the collector.
"Hey, that's dangerous," Yuugi warned smugly.
A pendulum swung between the two, stopping the collector.
"What the hell is this?" he asked, finally registering that something was different.
"You're going to play a game with me," said Yuugi.
"What?"
"However . . . it'll be a Yami Game. We will be wagering your stolen D-Shock," added Yuugi.
The collector held up the D-Shock. "Don't fuck with me, bastard!"
A tiny door in the floor popped open and a cuckoo clock bird swiped the watch out of the collector's hand and quickly retreated.
The collector dropped to his knees in front of the door. "My D-Shock!"
"But it's not really yours, is it?" asked Yuugi. "But if you win this game, I'll acknowledge that it's yours."
Mahou stood up, a little unsteady. Her hip throbbed from where the collector's kick had landed. Her movement attracted the collector's attention. He looked at her and started to lunge.
In an instant, Mahou found herself high above them, sitting on a giant cuckoo clock just behind Yuugi. She was tipped forward dangerously, but didn't have the sensation of sliding. She was stuck.
Just like on the rooftop during the first Yami Game, thought Mahou.
"Ah-ah," Yuugi scolded, wagging his finger. "Mahou-san is no bargaining chip to be used. She will be safely out of the way up there."
Mahou let out a sigh of relief.
"Well? Do you accept?" asked Yuugi.
The collector growled. "I'll play any game you got!"
"No need to be so angry," said Yuugi. "The rules are simple. At the start of the game, that same pigeon from before will appear. The D-Shock stopwatch will activate. The one who stops it closest to ten seconds wins."
"What? That's it?" asked the collector.
"However if you exceed ten seconds, the pendulum will pass by right next to the D-Shock," Yuugi added. "You know what'll happen if you're too slow, right? Whether you do this or not, is up to you."
"Don't mock me! Of course I'm in!"
"All right. So who'll start?"
"I will!" said the collector.
"Understood," said Yuugi. "Then . . . start!"
The bird appeared and the stopwatch ticked up. It was a tense few seconds. The collector jumped forward and hit the button. He barely had enough time to get clear of the pendulum as it swung by quickly.
Mahou sucked in a breath. That's a broken hand if that hits, she thought.
"How's that?" asked the collector proudly.
Mahou saw 9.35 on the watch.
"You're good," said Yuugi. "Now, my turn."
The bird disappeared to reset itself.
"Start."
The bird reappeared and the stopwatch started.
The collector laughed in his head. Let's see you show that gutsiness you had earlier.
Mahou watched. Yuugi . . .
Yuugi had his eyes closed.
H-he . . .
Mahou's eyes widened. He's listening!
The pendulum began to swing, making a rumbling noise. Yuugi's left hand shout out and hit the button, his arm pulling back with the pendulum, barely missing him.
The collector gasped. "9.95 seconds?"
"He won," Mahou whispered.
"Looks like I win," Yuugi told him.
"No!" denied the collector. "This was just a test! The next one will be the real one!"
Mahou was shocked by the outburst. This hadn't happened before. She looked at Yuugi to see how he reacted.
"Test?" he asked, amused. "I see. Very well. Then . . ."
"Wait," said the collector. "This time I'm doing it from that side!"
Yuugi scoffed. "Okay." He moved to the other side. He waited for the collector to be ready. "Start."
The bird popped up and the clock started.
The collector smirked. I figured out his winning strategy. One side is more favorable. This side allows your hand to escape at the last moment. I thought it'd be hard with the upside down numbers, but the switch is the most important thing.
Mahou was thinking something similar. Yuugi was able to move his hand at the last moment because he used his left hand, the farthest from the pendulum and easiest to hit the button. This guy's got if figured out, but . . .
"All right . . . now!" The collector's hand reached forward for the button. Wait! Something's different from before!
The pendulum is coming from the wrong side, thought Mahou.
The collector looked up to see the pendulum coming. Damn it! The pendulum's coming from the other side! If I stand here I'll be in its way.
The collector started to pull his hand away, but was too slow. He let out a yell of pain and fell to his knees.
"Too bad," said Yuugi.
The clock Mahou was sitting lowered to the floor. She slid off onto her feet.
Yuugi reached for the watch in the bird's beak. "I suppose I'll be taking this back after all."
The collector grabbed Yuugi's wrist. "Stop! There's no way I'm giving this up! Forget the game! The D-Shock is mine!" He looked up at Yuugi's face and gasped.
Yuugi stared down at him, disgust and anger clear in his expression. "How pathetic."
Mahou's hands went to her mouth in fear.
"The Door of Darkness has been opened," Yuugi declared.
"What?" The collector tried to move the arm that was not holding Yuugi. It moved jerkily. He looked at his hand where he had been hit by the pendulum. The skin was broken, but there was no blood. Instead, the gears and cogs of watches ticked and moved in his body. He let out a yell and jumped back. He pushed up his sleeve. The watches on his arm were all fused to his flesh.
Yuugi calmly took the D-Shock and walked to the door.
Mahou ran after him, trying to ignore the panicking collector.
"I don't like this!"
Yuugi opened the door and let Mahou out first.
"Save me!"
He closed the door hard behind them.
"You found it?" Honda cried excitedly. He took the D-Shock from Yuugi. "It's true! Yes! It's found!"
"So it was under the stairs?" asked Jounouchi.
"Yeah," said Yuugi.
"Why would it be there?" asked Jounouchi.
Anzu turned to Yuugi and Mahou. "Also, what happened to your face, Yuugi? And Mahou, you were limping."
Yuugi nervously stuttered. "I'd like to joke about this . . . but I don't remember what happened."
"You bumped your head a bit hard," Mahou spoke up.
"Huh?"
"We thought to try to look other places for the D-Shock," Mahou explained. "I missed a step and fell. Yuugi tried to catch me, but we both ended up falling." She hoped they would buy the lie.
Honda was too busy dramatically weeping. "Thank goodness! With this I can face Miho-chan! This really is great! Thank you, Yuugi!"
Mahou sat in her room. She pressed a cold cloth to her bruised hip. Her sketchbook was open, a surreal image of a clock and a man inside of it, his body slowly becoming a clock itself. Giant crimson eyes stared angrily at the man from high above.
There was a knock on her door.
"Yes?"
Sugoroku poked his head in. "I just checked in on Yuugi. He's asleep." He held up an icepack. "For your hip."
"Thank you," said Mahou. She took it and replaced the cold cloth.
"Quite the fall," he said.
"Yuugi took the brunt of it," Mahou said.
Sugoroku hummed. He looked at the open sketchbook. With a yawn and a stretch, he said, "I'm going to bed. Do you need anything else?"
"No, thank you," said Mahou.
"Okay, good night."
"Good night."
The door was left ajar and the lights were kept on.
Mahou let out a sigh.
When they saw each other at school, Miho was wearing the D-Shock.
"Perfume?"
"This Sunday, Emperor department store Mambo Line Lady Perfume is specially on sale!" Miho explained. "Miho wants this! But I'm sure there'll be a long line!"
"All right, Miho-chan! Leave this to the beautification of justice, Honda Hiroto!"
Miho applauded Honda. "I'm so happy! Miho is so moved!"
Honda laughed blissfully.
"Well . . . well . . ." Anzu put her face in her hand.
"I don't suppose they make medicine for stupidity?" asked Jounouchi.
Miho continued to giggle excitedly.
Anybody else see Cam Steady made a Yu-Gi-Oh! rap cypher? You should probably go check it out then. I thought it was a lovely tribute to Takahashi-sensei.