I guess since it's the new year, one of my fics deserves a new chapter. Also threw in a shout-out to one of my other favorite pairings (but don't get your hopes up, this fic is basically pairing-less by virtue of time travel making relationships weird and not good).

Unbeta'd, my mistakes wish you a happy new year.

The crowd around the ferry to Duelist Kingdom feels much smaller than he remembers. Maybe he's gotten used to huge crowds on the tournament circuit, although he's never been as self-conscious as Yugi anyway. Hopefully the tournament buzz kicks in for Yugi soon, and himself too. So far the most exciting moment he's had for the tournament has already come and gone - Yugi offered him the Glory of the King's Hand on the drive over, thanks to Bakura leading the conversation into wondering what the two cards he'd been given meant and damn if it'd been hard enough not to cry last time...

The card is safely hidden inside a secret zip within a hidden pocket this time around. The Thief King's doing at Bakura's order no doubt; he didn't care to think about when or where either one of 'em managed to get hold of Jounouchi's coat long enough to do it, although he does appreciate them remembering that Bandit Keith stole it. So long as he doesn't lose that he's relatively safe from Keith pulling the same trick, even if they do manage to get him on their side. Never trust a cheat.

He barely hears the others chatter around him as he keeps his eye out for one person in particular. Mai. She'll be here, there's no way she wouldn't be. If he can get started on a better foot, then maybe she won't be alone for so long. There's no reason to put Mai through freaks like that player killer or the evil Malik if he can help it, not a single one and fuck whatever decided that either of those should happen to her. In fact, if he ever meets 'fate', he's gonna punch the shit out of it.

When he eventually does spot her, she's a lonely figure surrounded by fans near the gangway. She looks at the ship like she can't quite believe it's there, like she can't believe she's there. She's scanning the crowd in a daze, ignoring her many admirers that hang around.

Then she turns to their group and he can't look away because there's an unmistakable flash of recognition in her eyes, not aimed at the boy who defeated Kaiba, but him and that can only mean one thing. She's been going back with them too, dragged back in time over and over. She's had no way of knowing how long it would last, if anyone remembered her, if anyone remembered the end.

She's been all alone.

Shit.

She puts her game face on as she approaches, does a similar routine to last time as she confronts Yugi but he's sure only he and Bakura can see the disappointment on her face when Yugi, Anzu and Honda treat her like a stranger, because to them she is. Jounouchi can't bring himself to act the same at all and he knows it'll look weird. But he doesn't really care because, short of flat out saying it, it's the closest way to let her know that he still knows her.

They don't get the chance to talk until much later on, losing each other in the boarding chaos, when night falls and the big name duelists retire to their rooms while everyone else makes do on the floor. True to form, they end up getting the same relatively private but widely considered worst spot on the ship, right by the door leading out to the deck. It's cold and damp and stinks of decades of old shoes and sea water. Sheer excitement about what was to come was surely the only thing that had let any of them get any sleep at all the first time, although Jounouchi might be able to manage it this time around with Yugi leaning on his shoulder.

Mai's voice suddenly cuts through their attempt at dozing. "They're letting you poor things sleep out here? That's ridiculous; come with me. I have plenty of room."

The room is somehow even more lavish than how he'd always imagined it, more like a penthouse suite than a room on a ship - at least Ryuzaki being stupidly easy to seduce into a game he can't win is one constant in this mess. Mai claims the master bedroom, letting Yugi use one of the smaller rooms. Anzu calls the one with a private shower within while Bakura flips a coin to decide who gets the last bedroom and which unlucky two have to sleep on the couches. To only Honda's surprise, he wins the room.

Once the others have fallen asleep, the two of them sneak into Mai's room. She's awake, looking like she hasn't slept in weeks as she flops down to lie flat on the bed, staring at the ceiling listlessly. "Tell me what's happening to us."

Bakura thankfully answers for him, since he's not exactly sure himself. "For a while, your soul was once entirely trapped within the shadows and nothing remained of you besides your body on this plane of existence. It's placed you out of sync, so to speak, so while the universe resets we remain the same. The same thing happened to Jounouchi and myself, along with the other Bakura, although we're not sure why the other Yugi doesn't remember either in that case. Judging by Yugi's grandfather not remembering us, it's safe to assume Kaiba and Mokuba don't either - their souls were sealed in objects, not left to the shadows."

"So it's just us three?"

"Hopefully." Bakura finishes with a shrug. One far too casual given the circumstances. Jounouchi wouldn't wish what's been happening to Mai on anyone. Well, maybe the other Malik.

Jounouchi shows her the device, explains what few plans they have to get the Millennium Items back and try to banish Zorc for good this time. "I'm so sorry for dragging you into all of this Mai."

She covers her face with a hand for a few moments. After a deep sigh, she pushes herself up to rest on her elbows. "It's alright, hon. There's only one person in this room to blame for 'the end of the world round two' and he's already hating it, I bet."

She pulls her deck out from under her pillow and pulls a card out from it. The Red Eyes Black Dragon. "I might've used my psychic abilities one last time to know that this was his rarest card," she says with her first real smile of the evening. "Go on, and don't give me that duelist's honor crap. I'll trade for it if I have to."

He's never been so tempted by a card in his whole life. But he can't do it. He fought for the respect of the Red Eyes and it came through for him time and time again because of it. "Mai, I haven't earned this."

"C'mon, I have a perfectly good theme deck going, I'm not squeezing another dragon in - considering that time travel is real and all, I don't want my own dragon to get jealous or anything and switch itself to defense mode, or whatever."

Just taking it would make it just another monster, so he shakes his head. Mai rolls her eyes at his silent refusal and slips the card into her coat pocket, the one she doesn't keep her deck in. "Fine, then you're not seeing this little lizard again until the finals. And you better be ready to fight for it then."

"No doubt - but you better not surrender!"

Bakura interjects suddenly. "Will you be traveling with us, or going alone?"

She glares at him for the interruption (and Jounouchi wonders if Thief King was responsible for that brief lapse in manners), then thinks to herself. "I think I'll be fine by myself for a while; I don't feel like looking after you kids all day, believe me. I'll show up by the evening, you're all pretty easy to track down."

Makes sense to Jounouchi - sticking around their group limits how many star chips she can get, and it's not until after dark that the player killers come out after all. They can keep a close watch out for anyone suspicious.

Wait. "Kids? We're technically older than you right now!"

"And I'm still technically even older so zip it. I've always ended up babysitting you brats no matter how old we all were."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, because you can't be trusted! Remember when I was late to Anzu's twenty-fifth because my train was delayed? By the time I got there you and Honda broke the karaoke machine, Anzu was drunk enough to try and steal her own lamp and I found Bakura kissing Kaiba on the stairs, all because you didn't have my watchful eye keeping you out of trouble."

"That was one time and the karaoke machine was broken when we got it out of the basement!"

"A likely story!"

A red faced Bakura drags Jounouchi out of the room before they end up adding another point to their scores, wishing Mai a hasty goodnight.

There were a few moments of silence before Jounouchi couldn't hold back any longer. "You don't just randomly kiss people; how the fuck did Kaiba happen?"

"I could tell you how," Thief King snickers. "Certainly wasn't the first, that's for sure."

"Y'know what? I'm suddenly really tired, let's not."

Jounouchi assumes that he wakes up before anyone else does, until he sees that Yugi's door is open. He goes out onto the deck and finds him out near the railing just outside their suite alone, talking to that damn worm Haga like he's not a nasty lying scumbag. He makes his way over as Yugi's hands over the Exodia cards, just like he did before, and Jounouchi braces himself for a dive into freezing ocean water not long after.

Would grabbing all but one be worse than only getting one out of the five? Or should he go for the same number he managed to get last time? What if he doesn't get any of them? Can he even make the jump; knowing he's got to jump in is an entirely different beast to jumping on impulse, and those waters look rough. Not to mention he could get sucked into the propeller, or be sent into shock from the cold and sink or something, and then that's the end. Oh shit, is the device even waterproof? Surely it is. No way Kaiba would ship anything that couldn't survive a bomb hitting it, so being dunked in the ocean shouldn't be an issue. Hell, he's pretty sure Kaiba wants to duel up in fucking space.

There's a few more people around this time though as the sun rises across the sea, which is being solidly ignored in favor of observing the winner of the Japanese National tournament having a friendly conversation with the nobody who defeated Seto Kaiba. So perhaps that's why Haga simply flips through the five pieces of Exodia, the unstoppable god of all duel monsters, then returns the cards without a fuss.

"I'll see you on the island, Yugi."

Despite what Bakura had warned, surely keeping Exodia couldn't be that big a deal, right?