Battle 1 - Card of Friendship
By theria
Yugi wasn't religious, in fact no one in his family was. So he wasn't sure why they had a Christian priest at his grandfather's burial. Not that he was paying any attention to him anyway, his purple eyes were fixed on the wooden box in which laid his grandfather, never to play another game with him again. It had been so sudden. He had just said good night to him one night and the next morning Muto Sugoroku was dead. Yugi knew he had a weak heart and some neuromuscular problems that the doctors were never able to figure out but his grandfather had seemed so healthy, so alive.
The boy felt a slight jab in his arm, forcing him to look up. His mother, her face tear-stained under her black hat, was stepping back after having placed a white rose on the coffin. Yugi looked down at his own hand and wondered exactly how long he had been holding that single flower. He stepped forward and placed it over his mother's. Then the coffin was lowered and the diggers began to toss in the dirt.
It was a gray overcast day with rain just hanging in the air. Muto Sugoroku's funeral was a small one. Yugi's parents were divorced and his father had taken Yugi's older brother with him when he left Japan ten years ago. Sugoroku's only family in Japan was his daughter Akane and his remaining grandson Yugi. He had a number of acquaintances around the globe but few could come on such short notice. Mostly, the Mutos had received consolation letters. Yugi himself only had one friend attending the funeral, Suomi Kyoko. She had been the one to nudge him forward to place the flower.
"Thank you for coming, Hopkins-san," Muto Akane choked, shaking the hands of one of Sugoroku's friends who had made it to the funeral. He had come from America with his granddaughter; a blonde green-eyed eleven-year-old girl called Rebecca.
"Nothing would have kept me from paying my last respects," Arthur Hopkins returned kindly, patting the grieving woman's hand. He had never met Sugoroku's daughter but could easily identify the boy with the golden bangs as being Sugoroku's grandson. After all, he looked exactly like his older brother. "I'm sure Shougi would be here if he could make it."
Akane only nodded mutely. Shougi was the name of her ex-husband. The divorce had been friendly but she hadn't heard from either him or her elder son ever since they left. Any news she got of Shougi was through the archaeology journals that Sugoroku followed fanatically. And of course there was no news of Yugi's older brother. But if he was still as wild as he had been at age five, perhaps no news was good news.
"Yugi?" Kyoko looked down at her shorter friend. It was strange to see him in something other than his school uniform. She was surprised he even owned a semi-formal set of clothes, black suit jacket and slacks, white dress shirt and tie. He looked older in those clothes, or was it this experience with death?
He was still looking at the freshly turned earth that now covered Sugoroku's coffin, almost oblivious to the world around him. The priest had left and the few other people who had came were exchanging polite words with Mrs. Muto several meters away. It was only Kyoko and Yugi still standing there with the dead and the ominous clouds.
But they weren't the only ones at the cemetery for a funeral today. There had been another one, not very close to them and much, much larger. Kyoko had noticed them as had Yugi, it was kind of hard not to, and the sight of it had made the boy even more depressed. So few people came to his grandfather's funeral, any outsider might have thought it was because there weren't very many people who cared about him. That wasn't true. Yugi cared, his mother cared, Kyoko cared, and having people that truly cared here was more important than having a lot of people who didn't really care.
The other funeral party was already dispersing and Kyoko, though also sharing Yugi's sorrow, didn't want to continue staring at the fresh grave and so let her eyes drift over to the other party. As far as she could tell, they were mostly adults dressed soberly in black. Bringing children to the cemetery probably wouldn't have been a good idea anyway, they may not understand the concept of death and they were sure to get bored by the entire observance. No wait, Kyoko took back that thought, there was one child there. It was a boy with long black hair that was beginning to fly around like hers was because of the growing wind. The summer storm would be coming soon.
Yugi took a deep breath to calm his unsteady nerves. He hadn't cried like his mother. It wasn't that he had been taught not to cry in public, in fact his grandfather and mother encouraged him to openly express his feelings. He had cried all his tears before now, ever since that morning Sugoroku died. He hadn't even gone to school for several days and hadn't understood how Kyoko could. But that was just her way of coping.
"Let's go, Kyoko," Yugi tried to say brightly, some of his golden hair flying into his face. He didn't want his friend to worry about him. After all, now it was just his mother and him and he couldn't always remain a sheltered, coddled child. "Kyoko?"
"Yugi, perhaps it's just me but isn't that one of our classmates over there?" Kyoko pointed to one person in the lingering remains of the other funeral party. Of course, it was rude to point and if Akane had been with them, she would have reprimanded Kyoko for her lapse of manners.
The person in question was a brown-haired youth, easily taller than both of them, followed by a pair of men dressed in black and wearing shades. Talk about classic Men in Black. Trailing only slightly behind the youth was the little boy Kyoko had noticed earlier. He was trying to keep up the same stoic face as the older youth and failing. His eyes kept going from the ground, the youth's back, his hand, and then back to the ground. It was like he wanted to grab the older boy's hand but was afraid of taking the action himself.
"That's Kaiba-kun...," Yugi murmured. Kyoko nodded. Kaiba Seto was in their class at Domino High School and always placed first in the school examinations. He was also first in sports, at least in P.E., but was not part of any clubs. Really, how could he when he has been running Kaiba Corporation for the past several months?
As fickle fate would have it, their paths met at a crossing as they were both leaving the cemetery. If Kaiba had recognized his classmates, it didn't show. They could have been complete strangers passing in one of the city's busy crosswalks. Yugi however wasn't Kaiba.
"Kaiba-kun, did someone you know die?" It was a rather blunt question and it came out in a rush but Yugi really didn't know what else to say or how to start. He thought it would be strange to start off with pleasantries like "Hello" and "How are you" considering that they had both just come from funerals. Yugi also knew that if he didn't get to the point right away, the taller boy was likely to simply walk away as Yugi had seen him do plenty of times in school, even to teachers.
Kaiba did stop though and his blue eyes bore down on Yugi as if the mere force of the stare could make the shorter boy sink into the ground. Even though Yugi hadn't cried, his eyes were still a bit red and sad. Kaiba's blue eyes were closed. He had briefly noted the two familiar faces and he knew they weren't part of his funeral party. Kaiba wasn't in a particularly tolerant or curious mood so he hadn't planned on having any interaction with them.
"My grandfather died," Yugi spoke up. If misery loved company, than Yugi saw nothing wrong with sharing this information. "We just buried him."
Kaiba's expression clearly said "And this concerns me how?" with no words.
"Our foster father died," spoke up the little boy from behind Kaiba.
"Mokuba!" Kaiba reprimanded, the first thing they had heard him say yet. Mokuba bit back whatever else he was going to say and ducked his head. Kaiba apparently immediately regretted his harsh tone because his next words were softer in tone though not in meaning. "There's no need to tell them anything."
Mokuba only nodded.
"Let's go." Without a glance at his classmates, Kaiba proceeded down the path toward the cemetery's gate, his two bodyguards and younger brother in tow as the wind began to pick up. A few large drops of water were already beginning to fall.
"He doesn't seem particularly sad," Kyoko muttered under her breath. She had heard in March that Kaiba Gozaburou had been forced to hand over his position of CEO of Kaiba Corporation to his son because of some injuries he sustained in an industrial accident. Apparently, the man finally died.
"Maybe he doesn't show his feelings well," Yugi suggested. Apparently, whoever said misery loved company never met Kaiba. "I bet that makes things harder for you."
Kyoko fixed a glare at her shorter friend, daring him to voice what he was only hinting at. Okay, so perhaps she was the last person in class who still tried to engage Kaiba in some kind of conversation. Nearly everyone else had given up on trying to be friendly to the distant youth. Yugi didn't quite believe Kyoko's explanation that she just enjoyed picking on Kaiba to try to break his stone face. After all, he had seen Kaiba study his friend a number of times at school when Kyoko wasn't paying attention. He didn't know what was going on in Kaiba's mind but it was a great thing to tease Kyoko about in revenge for all the ribbings she gave to him.
"Ah, Yugi isn't it? Excuse me." Arthur Hopkins stepped aside to let Kaiba's group pass him on the path as he walked hurriedly up to the two children, his own grandchild swinging her red umbrella behind her. "I was just speaking with your mother and she said that I should ask you about a certain card that your grandfather had."
Kyoko and Yugi exchanged looks. Yugi's mother didn't particularly like Sugoroku's obsession with certain things, one of which being a certain trading card game that he played with them. And naturally, they knew a little bit about this friend of Sugoroku's and had a very good idea what this "certain card" he was talking about was. Of course, Rebecca mistook their looks to mean ignorance.
"Oh come on, you must know what card my Grandpa is talking about! It's not just anyone who has a Blue Eyes White Dragon!!" she announced in a loud voice that was inappropriate normally to say nothing of in a solemn place like a cemetery. Perhaps it carried her words farther than she expected because it certainly caused one person to pause mid-step. "I hardly think he needs it anymore now that he's dead and you shouldn't keep it. It should go back to my Grandpa!"
"Rebecca!" Arthur scolded at his granddaughter's unintentionally callous words. Though both spoke Japanese, his was less heavily accented. Who knows where or why Rebecca learned the language. "Forgive her, she is still young."
"I'm eleven!" She retorted, drawing herself up to her full height, which only came up to Yugi's nose.
"Perhaps we should continue this conversation back at the store?" Kyoko hesitantly suggested. The clouds were getting darker, the drops more frequent. There was that and she was simply dying to take off the black heels she had to wear with the black dress for the funeral. The way Yugi was fidgeting with his tie also signaled the end of his tolerance for the formal clothes, his grandfather's funeral or not.
"It won't be an inconvenience for you, Hopkins-san? My grandfather did state in his will that he had something he wanted given to you," Yugi added, holding up a hand to ward off the wind and water.
"Of course, it won't be any trouble at all. I had already accepted your mother's invitation to come. If we hurry now, I'm sure we'll be able to all fit in a taxi."
Muto Sugoroku, as far as most people knew him, had always run the game store Kame Game on the ground floor of the building called "Dice Studio". It was a gamers and collectors dream, a game store run by a gamer for gamers. He carried not only games produced in Japan but those produced in other countries like America and could always be counted on to secure any rare or obscure game a customer wanted. Now that he was dead, the future of the store was up in the air. His daughter wasn't much of a game enthusiast and his grandson was still in high school. But for today, the store was closed.
Above the ground floor store were a few levels of two-story apartments and it was in one of those apartments that the Muto family lived. Currently, Kyoko, Yugi, and Rebecca were sequestered in the kitchen of Yugi's home. When they had arrived, Yugi had immediately procured the small wooden box and letter that Sugoroku had instructed to be given to his old friend Arthur Hopkins. Then the two teenagers and one child had given him some privacy in the living room.
"So in that box is Blue Eyes White Dragon?" Rebecca demanded to know, slamming both hands on the table and glaring at Yugi eye-to-eye. "It is Blue Eyes White Dragon isn't it? You aren't trying to trick my Grandpa and keep it all for yourself are you?!"
Yugi sweated under her rapid-fire questions. "Why would I want to trick your grandfather? My grandfather put it in his will that he wanted Hopkins-san to have Blue Eyes back."
"Humph!" the little girl snorted, plopping back in her chair. "Just goes to show what you know. That Blue Eyes White Dragon card you know? There are only four of those cards in the entire Duel Monsters. And not only are they very, very, very rare they are super-strong to boot! But I suppose you wouldn't know anything about Duel Monsters over here in Japan," she shrugged with a superior air.
This time, both Kyoko and Yugi sweatdropped. It was true that Duel Monsters, a trading card game produced by an American company called Industrial Illusions, was a huge hit in America ever since it was introduced seven years ago. Any cards in Japan were imported from America and anyone who knew or played the game was an enthusiast. Naturally, Sugoroku was one of those enthusiasts and had introduced the game to his grandson. Kyoko had moved from America to Japan only this past spring and had a passing interest in the game. Her skill as a player had been growing over the months thanks to Sugoroku's and Yugi's tutelage. In fact, it had only been last month when Sugoroku had pulled out his precious Blue Eyes White Dragon card to show the two of them. He didn't keep it with his other cards and didn't use it to duel either. Yugi remembered Kyoko commenting on how lonely the card must be, always kept separate from the others and never used. Sugoroku had only laughed gently and patted her on the head.
"The card must go back to my Grandpa because it's his card and then naturally he's going to give it to me," Rebecca announced proudly, puffing out her chest like a strutting rooster. Yugi irrelevantly noticed that her freckles stood out against her skin under the kitchen lighting.
"Because you're his granddaughter?" Kyoko asked so innocently that Yugi knew she was teasing the younger girl. It wasn't a very nice thing to do considering that they were the elders by nearly five years. Having been picked on a lot at school, Yugi knew how it felt to be on the merciless receiving end. But with his growing confidence in himself, he knew how to recognize some mostly harmless ribbing. Besides, Rebecca's attitude was getting on his nerves. He did his best to fight back a snort, knowing where this was going.
"No. Because I am the United States National Duel Monster Champion!" She looked triumphantly across the table at the two older ones. Even if they didn't know what Duel Monsters was, they surely must understand the achievement of being a national champion.
"I remember reading that in the Duelist Magazine!" Yugi exclaimed, eyes wide with admiration, half-sincere, half-mocking. True, it was quite a feat for someone of her age to become National Champion but that wasn't everything. "They called you the Genius Junior Tournament Champion!"
Rebecca started and glared narrowly at Yugi, trying to figure out if he was making fun of her. His face was all innocence. Kyoko suddenly stood up and ran out of the kitchen, rambling something about getting something or other, but all she did was burst out laughing in the hallway.
The blonde American girl tugged on one of her pigtails as she fumed. Okay, so they apparently knew more about Duel Monsters than she had thought. There were two divisions in Duel Monsters tournament play, Junior and Expert, and of course privately sponsored tournaments had their own custom rules. She was certain they were making fun of her and that they had no intention of returning Blue Eyes to her Grandpa and of course her. Rebecca was only right about half of that. Well, she knew how to show them who deserved to keep the card.
Rebecca slammed her deck of cards on the table, smirking. "Alright, so you seem to know something about Duel Monsters then if you read the Duelist Magazine and recognize who I am. What about a duel? Standard Junior rules, we don't want to be here all night. Best two out of three wins with the ante being Blue Eyes White Dragon!" Her smirk grew at Yugi's widening eyes. "You do have a deck don't you?"
"Well...yes..." What was the point of dueling when the card was already returned to her grandfather? Of course, Rebecca didn't look like she was going to take 'no' for an answer. Maybe a little duel wouldn't hurt...would it? "Let me go get my deck," Yugi excused himself meekly. He almost tripped over Kyoko who was sitting in the hallway still giggling.
"Where are you going?" she asked, getting up. Apparently, she hadn't heard that last conversation.
"Getting my deck." Yugi tugged his tie loose and yanked it off. If he was going to his room, he was going to at least drop off his tie and jacket. Letting them fall on his bed, his mother was probably going to yell at him for that later, Yugi opened his desk drawer where he kept his cards and paused, looking at the two decks and miscellaneous cards scattered there. The cards were of course all in English but he could say the names for all of them thanks to his grandfather's and Kyoko's coaching and he already knew what effects they could produce if any. One of the decks was his own, his usual deck for when he was dueling with his grandfather or Kyoko. That brought a sad smile to his face. The other deck was his grandfather's. Sugoroku had even included in his will to whom which of his Duel Monster cards would go to. Kyoko and a few of Sugoroku's friends had been given cards, some of their favorite cards even, but Sugoroku's deck had gone to Yugi. His hand hovered over the deck, remembering the last time they dueled. But no this wasn't his grandfather's duel, it was his. Yugi snatched up his dueling deck and a dueling field mat then returned downstairs.
"You're going to duel her?" Kyoko looked at him incredulously when he came back down cards and mat in hand. She rolled her eyes after Yugi explained over what exactly they were dueling over, knowing how pointless this was. If it had been her, she would have refused to duel Rebecca. It was one thing to duel the younger girl as a test of one's dueling skills but this, this was no reason at all. "I have to watch this."
Rebecca was waiting expectantly at the kitchen table when the two returned. Yugi spread out his Duel Field mat. They shook hands, Yugi gingerly, Rebecca smugly. Kyoko watched as both players shuffled their respective decks and then handed it over to the other to cut. Finally, they set their decks down on the Deck Zone of their respective sides of the mat.
"Duel!"
Rebecca won the first duel, preening over her victory as the only possible result of dueling with her. Her confidence was such that she didn't bother exchanging any cards with her Side Deck before the second duel. For that matter, Yugi didn't either. And he won the second duel in only four turns.
"WHAT?!" Rebecca shrieked, staring at the impossible. She had lost? And in only four turns?!
"That was a good draw," was the only comment Yugi made as he reassembled his deck after switching out some cards. Kyoko gave him a thumbs-up sign from where she was sitting. Though there was news in the gaming community of the upcoming release of Duel Monsters in Japan, there were still precious few duelists. Generally, the three of them only played among themselves and the few enthusiasts that would drop by for a dueling session. Neither of them had ever beaten Sugoroku though they had been able to steal a duel or two from time to time.
"Yes it was." The American girl was suddenly calm again, picking up her side deck and discarding fifteen cards from her current deck. All of the new cards were added in. She smirked as she met Yugi's eyes again. "But lightning doesn't strike twice."
With one win each, this last duel would settle who would win the set. The new additions to both of their decks threw the outcome up into the air. Kyoko had a good idea of what Yugi possibly had in his deck, it had only been an exchange of three and experience gave her an insight to his deck composition, but Rebecca had replaced over a quarter of her deck. So she was getting serious now. Rebecca really wanted that Blue Eyes White Dragon card back and Kyoko was sure Yugi had noticed it as well. He was more empathic than she was. As much as Kyoko wanted to see Yugi win and deflate that little girl, she was fairly certain that Yugi wasn't going to win this duel or game. It was only now a question of how.
"Duel!"
Even intent on the game as she was, and the duelists were oblivious to everything else but each other and the field, Kyoko sensed Rebecca's grandfather hovering outside the kitchen door. He noticed her looking at him and shook his head, raising a finger to his lips. So he didn't want her to reveal that he was there. Kyoko let her eyes return to the table and the duel. Rebecca's cemetery was growing larger, mainly with Critter and Witch of the Black Forest cards. Both of those cards had the special effect of allowing the player to draw a monster of 1500 Attack or lower from the deck once the monster was destroyed. Yugi was having a bit of trouble now with the Millenium Shield and Magnetic Ring combo Rebecca had placed on the field. Even with the penalty applied by the Magnetic Ring, dropping the Millenium Shield's Defense rating to 2500, Kyoko couldn't remember Yugi having any monster with a non-boosted Attack rating to cleanly defeat it. Plus the Magnetic Ring forced any attack Yugi announced to target the Shield. With a tactic like this, Kyoko could see how Rebecca would make it far into the championships. Until that Shield combo was destroyed, Rebecca could attack her opponent with ease like she was doing now with that Cannon Soldier which could directly attack the opposing player with a monster sacrifice.
:Well, there might be one combo Yugi could pull...if he can draw the cards.:
"I summon Catapult Turtle." Yuugi placed the card down on the mat next to his Summoned Demon and then turned over a reversed magic card. "With Brain Control, I can control of one of your monsters for one turn."
Rebecca's eyes narrowed. "That won't do you any good as long as the Magnetic Ring is in play!"
"I choose Millenium Shield!" Unbidden, an image of a popular children animation show popped into Yugi's mind as he said those words. That almost exact same phrase was always used in it. Oh well. "And sacrifice it to the Catapult Turtle! Of course, since the Shield has a zero Attack rating, you won't get any damage."
"But the Shield and the Magnetic Ring will be destroyed," Rebecca growled in a very unladylike manner. With the Summoned Demon's attack on the Cannon Soldier, her cemetery grew by three more cards. Had her earlier cards only been used for buying time until she could pull this combination? That may have been possible but relying only on this strategy wouldn't have made her a national champion. Yugi frowned behind his cards.
"Turn end."
Her frown suddenly turned upside down. Rebecca drew a card, adding it to her hand, and then played a monster face-up in Attack. "I summon Shadow Ghoul! And with ten cards in my graveyard, its Attack rating is boosted to 2600. More than enough to take out your Summoned Demon!"
:So that was what she was really aiming for.: Yugi drew another card and placed it in his hand. It had been a possibility considering how easily she had been sending monsters to the cemetery that she was planning something that required a certain number of cards there. Yugi didn't really like that strategy; it belittled the value and feelings of the cards. It was unavoidable that monsters would be destroyed but to deliberately continue sending monsters there just to boost up another monster's power... Well, not everyone was taught to treasure cards like he and Kyoko were.
"I play Mahah Vairo in Defense." Neither of Mahah Vairo's ratings would be able to withstand an attack from Rebecca's boosted Shadow Ghoul but Yugi had an idea of a way to defeat it. He already had two cards reversed on the field and if he could draw the one other card he needed in his next turn...
"Well, I guess you don't have any other monster you wanted to put out to buy you time," Rebecca gloated, eyes glinting. She had an eye on those two reversed cards on Yugi's field. However, one had just been placed down and the other had already been there. If the older one was a trap, it hadn't activated yet. "I place a monster down in defense. Shadow Ghoul attack!"
Yugi flipped over one of his reversed cards, the newer one. "Nullify Attack! Shadow Ghoul's attack is negated for this turn."
"Hmph." Rebecca had assumed as much. But now he didn't have that card to use anymore. On her next turn, she could still have her Shadow Ghoul attack Mahah Vairo. It only remained to see what other wall monster Yugi would put up. But as far as she was concerned, the game and the Blue Eyes White Dragon card were in the bag.
"My turn." Yugi stifled a long-suffering sigh. He had to admit that Rebecca was a good duelist even if he didn't really like her strategy. Her arrogance could be excused for her young age and all of the fame and recognition going to her head. She had put down that reversed monster as a taunt of her invulnerability and a challenge. If he defeated it, it would give her Shadow Ghoul another 100 Attack points. Yugi looked at his current hand. He had deliberately chosen to play Mahah Vairo instead of this other card. He drew the top card from his deck and looked at it.
He put it back down on the deck. "I lose."
Kyoko sighed and closed her eyes for what was coming up next.
Rebecca blinked and then jumped up and cheered. "Yatta!! I won! Blue Eyes White Dragon is mine!!"
::It's actually your Grandfather's:: was the exasperated thought running through both Yugi's and Kyoko's mind.
"That game was for Blue Eyes White Dragon was it?" Arthur Hopkins finally stepped into the light of the kitchen, holding up in his hand the contested card. Rebecca gave a little shriek, in joy or surprise no one was really sure, and ran up to her grandfather. But he held it above her reach. "Now, now, Rebecca. Where are your dueling manners?"
Rebecca winced and looked suitably chastened. She held out her hand to Yugi, sounding appropriately modest as she said, "That was good duel, Yugi."
"Thank you. It was an honor to duel with you," he returned, firmly shaking her hand. But when he moved to clean up, Arthur's hand stopped him.
"I would like to tell you all a story," the old man smiled, forestalling any moves to put away the card game. With a look at Yugi, he picked up the card on the top of Yugi's deck, the one he had placed back down after looking at it. Arthur looked at the card and a sad, nostalgic smile touched his face. "As you know, Sugoroku and I have been friends for a number of years. I am an archaeologist by profession but for a long time I have been working to prove the connection between Duel Monsters, this card game that you children are playing, and a similar game played in Ancient Egypt."
"They had cards in Ancient Egypt??"
"Yugi, they didn't even have paper, just papyrus. How can you expect them to have cards?" Kyoko pointed out, rapping Yugi's head with her knuckles. For all of his gaming skill, the boy's mind always went on vacation when it came to school. Her help had kept his test scores stable in the top half of the class but it was always an uphill battle.
"Not cards exactly," Arthur looked amusedly at Kyoko's and Yugi's repartee, "but a number of the images on the Duel Monster cards are similar or the same as those found on several stone carvings from that ancient civilization. Of course, it may simply be coincidence and the creator of the game's current incarnation won't answer my questions about it...still, there must be something for the game to surface twice in only the span of about fifty years."
"Twice?!" both Yugi and Rebecca gasped.
"Yes. It isn't very well remembered now." Professor Hopkins looked at Kyoko, the only one who didn't appear surprised by that piece of information. "As a card game, what you play now is the second time this card game has been circulated. Do you know anything about this? Miss...?"
"Suomi, Suomi Kyoko," Kyoko introduced herself. She hadn't been surprised because she had already known about this though she had never told anyone. Why bring it up when it was something only the elderly would still remember. "I know that about fifty years ago the Duel Monster card game with slightly different rules than now but similar in content first was produced in Japan and later spread to the United States and Canada. The creator had enjoyed another trading card game called Magick: The Congregation but found it a bit overly complicated. He created Duel Monsters out of a mix of what he liked in that game and inspirations he derived from a trip to Egypt..."
Now Yugi and Rebecca were staring at Kyoko slack-jawed, especially the former. Kyoko had never told him about this! He had thought she only knew about it because she had come from America. But to think that the card game used to be played when his grandfather had been young, and possibly even further back in Ancient Egypt...!
Arthur nodded. "Yes you are correct. Very few of us remember it well, Sugoroku and I were two who did. About five years ago, I invited Sugoroku to Egypt on a dig of mine where we unearthed some of those stone carvings. However, the cavern was quite old and the supports caved in, trapping us two old men with a single lantern, one canteen, and a lot of free time." He looked fondly at the cards still laid out in the kitchen table. "To pass the time away, and to gamble on who would get the canteen of water, we had a duel. Watching you dueling against my granddaughter brought back memories of that time." Arthur patted Rebecca's head fondly. "To think that the exact same hands would be played...even over five years later... it must be that spirit of the cards that Sugoroku always told me about."
"So who won?" Rebecca interrupted impatiently. "You did right? If Yugi and I were dueling just like did back then, then you won right?"
The old man suddenly looked very, very old under the lights. "Sugoroku acceded victory to me, just as Yugi did to you. At the time, I was very dehydrated and Sugoroku noticed that. He let me win so I could have the water. Just as Yugi let you win so you could accept having Blue Eyes White Dragon."
"EH?! But there's no way he could have won!"
Arthur revealed the card that Yugi had set back down, a trap card that when activated would remove five cards from the opponent's cemetery. In this case, that would have meant that Rebecca's Shadow Ghoul would have lost 500 Attack points to its rating, dropping it to 2200.
"But Mahah Vairo still can't beat my Shadow Ghoul with that!"
"You think so? Let's have a look at the rest of Yugi's cards shall we?" He turned over the remaining reversed card on Yugi's field. "Book of Secrets which gives a 300 boost to both Attack and Defense of Magic User monsters. Equipping this to Mahah Vairo would boost its attack to 1850 and the activation of its special effect would push it to 2350. Your Shadow Ghoul would have been defeated, Rebecca. But that isn't all. Yugi, would you please show me your hand?"
Yugi was bright red but he complied with Arthur's request. This was too embarrassing.
"Black Magician. Thunder Bolt. Four Star Death Ladybug." Rebecca stared at Yugi's now revealed hand. The Thunder Bolt magic card alone could have destroyed all of her monsters. The Four Star Death Ladybug has the flip-over effect of destroying all Level 4 monsters on the field. The Black Magician could easily destroy her reversed monster card which remained to be revealed. He could have defeated her and won but he didn't.
"Why...why did you have these cards and not use them!!" she shrieked. He let her win! How dare he treat her like that, as if she couldn't win on her own!
"Because Yugi is a kind boy and he knew that you would never accept having Blue Eyes without feeling that you earned it. It was not the victory that was important but the result of that victory. You are very much like your grandfather, Yugi."
Yugi's beat red face studied the suddenly very interesting swirls of the wooden kitchen table.
"Yeah, same hair, same height," Kyoko coughed behind her hand before ducking under Yugi's swinging arm. She gave him a thumb's up. "You're just a big softie under all that leather you like to wear."
"Now then Rebecca," Arthur held out the contested Blue Eyes White Dragon card to his granddaughter, "I gave this card to Sugoroku five years ago as a sign of our friendship. He has returned it to me now, not because our friendship has ended, but because he felt a new one could now be started. As my granddaughter, I give it to you. What do you wish to do with it?"
Rebecca took the card into her hand and looked at it. With this card, she could be near unbeatable in any duel tournaments from now on. As national champion it was only fitting for her to have the most powerful card in the game. She had won this card! She had...she had...
"Here!"
Yugi looked at the Blue Eyes White Dragon card held out in front of his face. Rebecca was looking away.
"You're the one who won so Blue Eyes goes to you."
"But Rebecca..."
"Just take it already!" she snapped and Yugi reflexively took it. The blonde finally turned her angry green eyes on him. "But that's just for now. I won't accept winning that way. Next time we duel it will be different. I'll beat you, and everyone else, even without Blue Eyes White Dragon!"
Arthur smiled approvingly at his granddaughter who was still pouting. It was getting late and the weather forecaster predicted the storm was only going to get worse into the night. Arthur Hopkins and his granddaughter said their farewells and Yugi and Kyoko saw them to their taxi.
"Alright then. I look forward to our next duel," Yugi smiled to the young girl holding out his hand after shaking hands with her grandfather. Rebecca turned red, barely touching his hand, and then jumped into the taxi. The boy blinked.
"Oh dear," her grandfather murmured, following after his wayward granddaughter. "I don't think this is going in the direction of friendship. Until next time, Yugi."
"Did I make her angry again?" the boy wondered out loud as he and his friend watched the taxi leave.
Kyoko only laughed and shook her head. "I'd better be going home too. You are such a lady's man, Yugi."
"Huh?" He sincerely had no idea what she was talking about. So she put it in clearer words.
"It looks like you have two loves in America now," she grinned evilly.
"Two?" He had told Kyoko about his crush on his childhood friend Mazaki Anzu who was currently studying to be a dancer in America. It was perhaps not the wisest thing he's ever done since she loves to tease him about it. But what did she mean by two... Rebecca's red face floated into Yugi's mind. "WHAAAAAT?!?" he cried, almost dropping his umbrella. "But...but..."
Kyoko's grin only grew wider.
"But she's only eleven!!" he protested.
"Like I said, lady's man," Kyoko called back as she began walking home. "I think I should warn Anzu about this! She might come all the way back just to defend what's hers."
"Kyoko!!" Yugi was turning red a lot tonight. Well, he could give as good as he got. "Hey, isn't your boyfriend going to give you a ride home in his limo?"
"Kaiba is not my boyfriend!"
"I didn't say any names!"
Whatever Kyoko said in reply, which was certainly not very nice or polite, was lost in a clap of thunder.
Yugi rolled over on his bed, unable to sleep. His crushed tie and jacket, from when he jumped onto the bed, lay discarded somewhere on the floor wherever he threw them. Oh well. It had been one very, very long day between his grandfather's funeral and that bout with Rebecca. Yugi had hoped to catch some sleep finally but sleep wasn't coming, no doubt due in part to Kyoko's parting words. He hoped she wasn't right about Rebecca having a crush on him. That was the last thing he needed.
Some people would probably think that him playing card games on the same day his grandfather was buried might be disrespectful. Truthfully, Yugi hadn't been thinking about it at the time but reflecting back now, it was probably one of the best ways of remembering him. After all, Sugoroku had taught him how to play and they've played countless duels and other games. It was better to remember the good times.
But still...this was the second time that he lost two people close to him. The first time had been when he was about five, when his parents divorced and he lost both his father and brother. And this year he lost Anzu and his grandfather. Of course, of the four only one was actually dead, the other three were just far, far away from him. At least Anzu wrote to him. And he wasn't utterly alone. He still had his mother and Kyoko who seemed more sister than friend at times.
Lying in his dark room while the storm raged outside, Yugi could see the occasional flashes of lightning illuminate his room and the new box sitting on his desk. It was another thing his grandfather had willed to him, something he apparently had gotten in Egypt. Well, seeing as how Yugi wasn't getting any sleep right now he got up, turned on a light, and sat down at his desk to examine the golden box.
There were carvings all over it, what was it called again? Hieroglyphics, a pictorial alphabet, one of two used by the Ancient Egyptians. Of course, it all looked like a bunch of random scribbling to him. On one side of the box was a raised symbol of an eye in gold but that was it. The lid didn't even open.
"Well, that's nice. What am I supposed to do with a locked box?" Yugi held it up and turned it this way and that but there didn't appear to be any secret button or switch to open it. It was a box and there was something inside of it, he could hear the rattling of many metal things when he shifted the container. But he couldn't open it. He put the box back down on the desk and glared at it. It didn't budge. Maybe if he had Kaiba's patent glare...
Yugi let his head fall with a thunk onto the desktop. It was okay, no permanent damage. His mother said he was thickheaded anyway. He was okay with his grandfather's death, really he was. He could handle it. He had support, he had family, he had friends, he wasn't alone, he could deal with it.
Now completely ignoring the rain, lightning and thunder pouring outside, Yugi wished he were stronger. Not physically stronger, but, oh, how to put it? Strong like his older brother.
"Yushin..." Yugi murmured, giving voice to a name neither he nor his mother had said in nearly ten years. It was his older brother's name and it used to be said a lot, usually with a lot of yelling and scolding. Yushin didn't need anyone, even at the young age they were back then. He could do anything and he could do it by himself. That of course included getting into trouble more times than either of the two boys could count. The funny thing was, it was actually Yugi who got into trouble and it was Yushin who had to bail him out. However, being the elder and usually the one with all the cuts and bruises, Yushin was the one who got the blame.
Yugi couldn't help thinking now that perhaps Yushin chose to go with their dad to get away from him. After all, all he ever did was cause trouble for his older brother. Okay, so maybe some of those were done on purpose but his parents always seemed to pay more attention to Yushin and to a young child's mind that translated to more love.
In Yugi's mind, Yushin was always the same age as when they were separated. He missed his brother terribly but he was also deathly scared of meeting him again. What could he say? That he was sorry for everything he did? What if Yushin hated him? Heck, Yushin didn't have to hate him, Yugi hated himself for what he used to do. If he had been more self-assured, if he was more self-assured, then he could apologize to Yushin.
Okay, that was his wish. He wanted to become stronger so he could eventually meet his brother and make up. Too bad all the storm clouds blocked out the stars, Yugi chuckled hollowly to himself. Just when he comes to a resolution, this happens. No, wait, blaming the situation, the external factors that he had no control over, was not a step in the right direction. But really, what was the right first step?
Lightning flashed, thunder boomed, and the light on Yugi's desk flickered and went out.
"Great," Yugi said to the darkness. "There goes the power." He reached out a hand to switch off the lamp so there wasn't some circuit overload or something when the power did come back on. His hand fumbled on the mysterious box, brushing the metal eye symbol, and something clicked.
The boy blinked. Forgetting the lamp, he let his hands roam over the box. The lid, which had previously been sealed tight, was just a tiny bit loose. Yugi, holding his breath, put both hands on the box lid and lifted it with a quick jerk. No poison gas or needles came spewing out as far as he could tell. He was remembering too late all those tales of curses tied to Ancient Egyptian artifacts. But his grandfather wouldn't give him a cursed item right? A little voice inside Yugi reminded him that his grandfather's will never mentioned anything about opening it either.
"...oh well." What's done is done. Now to see what was inside.
Yugi felt around inside the middle drawer of his desk for a flashlight he was sure he had thrown in there the last time his mother told him to clean his room. His hands closed around the cylinder handle. If the batteries weren't dead... Yugi pressed the button.
Light poured from the flashlight.
"And then there was light!" He had heard that in a movie he once watched, which coincidentally was about mummies and Ancient Egypt. Turning the light into the box, Yugi almost blinded himself with the reflected light off of the golden pieces inside. He poured them out onto his desk and examined them one by one.
It was the strangest thing he had ever seen. The largest piece had a string strung through a loop but it was...odd. All of the pieces had a funky geometric look though some had smooth surfaces. It kind of reminded him of a puzzle, a really warped and twisted three-dimensional puzzle. Well, this certainly looks much more like what he would expect his grandfather to give him.
"But did this really come from Egypt?" The pieces looked too shiny to have been locked up for ages. Perhaps if the interior of the box had been vacuumed sealed...like the Ancient Egyptians would be able to do that! Yugi set the flashlight down on its side so it could still provide illumination, leaving both of his hands free to mess around with the pieces. If it was really a puzzle, and if it had really come from Ancient Egypt, imagine if he could actually put it together!
Some bird was chirping outside. Yugi swore that if he had a gun he would shoot it. Well, not really, but it was making a terrible racket that was buffeting his sleep-deprived brain. The sun was shiny over the wet streets of Domino City and right into his eyes, making it difficult to sleep any longer. His neck was sore and his back ached, Yugi realized he must have fallen asleep at his desk last night working on that bloody puzzle.
He swore whoever created it was either a genius or insane, maybe both and probably demonic. Figuring which pieces went on the outside was easy, they had smooth slanted edges that matched the flat part of the largest piece. However, trying to figure out how all of the internal pieces fit together had been sheer hell. Yugi would get two or three together and then add the wrong piece in the wrong place and it would all fall apart. It was like it wouldn't stay together unless everything was put in exactly right. He wasn't even sure how long he had worked on it but he had gotten all but a few pieces when he decided to close his eyes for just a moment. Yugi turned tired eyes at the puzzle pieces...no, Puzzle!
His purple eyes grew wide, staring at the completed puzzle on his desk. Had he finished it in his sleep? Hah, like that could happen. Yugi tried to remember whether he had actually put in the final pieces before falling asleep but the entire night, the part spent working on the puzzle, was a big blur. Oh, and the batteries in his flashlight were dead. He'd have to replace them before some emergency where he really needed a flashlight happened.
Yugi stood up and stretched out his protesting muscles, cracking a yawn. Good thing today was Sunday. No plans except to run the store. What were they going to do about it? Obviously, he wasn't going to drop out of high school to take care of it but Yugi couldn't bear to think of closing it up or for that matter letting strangers take care of it. Maybe they could open it only in the afternoon...
Turning around, he caught sight of himself in the mirror. He wasn't dressed in his pajamas anymore but in some weird...clothes was the best descriptor Yugi could give it. He had on some black sleeveless shirt and a skirt, gold bands were around his neck, arms, waist, and legs, and he had on some weird purple cape. Was he still dreaming?
"Anak tuphare iridon!"
Yugi blinked. Had he just said that? Then he realized something else, two things actually. One, he didn't have a mirror behind his desk. Two, he could look through his so-called reflection. And to tack on a few more things, his reflection was floating a couple of centimeters off of the ground, was taller than him, and was glaring at him. A distant part of Yugi's mind noted that it was a glare worthy of his classmate Kaiba. The rest of Yugi just screamed.
"GHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOST!!!!!!!!!!"
Author's Notes
Okay, this is currently my most stable attempt at a Yu-Gi-Oh story. Bite me, I always work best with AU-rewrites anyway. This story kind of starts right before the beginning so it may be a (relative) while before we get to the portions of Yu-Gi-Oh that the American audience is familiar with. I follow both the manga and the current episodes in Japan so I will more likely be using inspirations from them. I will also be using card names that are translated from the Japanese cards because those are the only cards I have.
A funny thing happened while I was buying some more Yu-Gi-Oh booster packs the other day. The saleswoman, after she realized I could understand Japanese, asked if I was buying the cards as a gift or for myself. I said they were for me. She was surprised and said it was quite rare for a girl (to be buying Yu-Gi-Oh cards).
Comments on Sugoroku's death:
In the very first chapter of the Yu-Gi-Oh manga, Yugi gives Anzu a bit of a shock by saying that the Puzzle box is a memento of his grandfather's. She thought he had died and suffers a minor heart attack when she realizes he's still alive. I decided why the hell not and let the old man die.
Comments on Suomi Kyoko:
I don't know how many people are actually going to recognize this name which is the exact name of a character in another manga series. However, it is not the same character, I just happen to like the name. As mentioned in the story, she is currently Yugi's only friend in school as Anzu is off in America. They hit off on the first day of high school after Yugi learned she plays a little of Duel Monsters.
Comments on Arthur and Rebecca Hopkins:
These are actual characters that appear in Episodes 41-42 of Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters. I did not make them up. Rebecca developing a crush on Yugi just kind of...happened. I hadn't even planned for it in the story, it just came out while I was writing. Needless to say, this isn't the last we'll see of her. I noticed there are very few female duelists.
Comments on Yushin:
I made him up. I also made up the name of Yugi's dad and Yugi's family situation. Yushin doesn't get to appear in the flesh until much, MUCH later in the story. But that doesn't stop Yugi from remembering him.
Comments on Yami Yugi(?):
If you can't come up with an image in your head of what Yugi saw in the morning, take a look at how Ancient Egyptian Yugi appears in the Playstation game Shin Duel Monsters (Japanese) or Forbidden Memories (US). Of course, that's also how he's drawn in the manga flashbacks. I have a different take on the ancient ghost. Oh, and what he said? If you can figure out, write to me.