Chapter 6 - 6

Chapter 6

'This is going just as I had hoped!' Mai thought to herself as she watched that pathetic miscreant of a duelist Joey Wheeler struggle against Rex Raptor and his dino deck. 'That fool Joey fell right for my trap. I knew if I played on his ego he'd rush into facing Rex without a second thought. He's like all little boys, so sure of themselves but the moment you press them they crumple like a paper bag.' She watched as the blonde twerp's Axe Raider, that he'd been crowing about moments earlier, was destroyed by Rex's Sword Arm of Dragon, leaving him once more with no cards on the field. Which was frankly becoming the story of the duel: Joey summoned something, thought he finally had a solution, and then was brought back into the mud where he belonged. 'Soon Rex will defeat Joey and get back the Star Chip Joey won off me. Which, after I defeat Rex, will be right back in my dueling glove.' She glowered a bit as Joey set a monster and a card in his Spell/Trap Zone. She hated it to no end that Joey had one of her Star Chips. It didn't matter that none of the other competitors knew that... she did. It was a mark of shame, a taint on her standing as a duelist, that the oaf would lumber from duel to duel thanks to one of HER Star Chips. She would get it back and everything would be right!

'And,' she thought to herself, 'I will beat Rex rather easily after watching him reveal his entire deck to me taking on Joey!' The dino-doofus didn't even see what he was doing! Mai knew that Rex wouldn't be able to resist pulling out all the stops to crush Joey, thinking that doing so would impress her. 'As if. Rex is merely Joey with a bit more skill, that's all. I saw that when I dueled him for his room and I see it now. He'll throw out every trump card he has, reveal his weak combos and tactics, and then me and my Harpies will crush him!'

Yes, everything was working out just as Mai wanted.

So why wasn't she happy?

She should have been grinning ear to ear. Her plan had worked! She'd tricked Rex into doing her dirty work and then goaded Joey into a duel he wasn't at all prepared for. She'd even gotten Yugi to butt out, keeping his backseat dueling out of the match, and Joey had alienated his little cheering squad with his attitude. Already the tall kid had stormed off and with how Joey was acting she wouldn't be surprised if the girl and even Yugi abandoned him! He would be alone... like a loser like him should be. Every time his lifepoints ticked down was a step closer to her victory that would taste oh so sweet!

So why did she feel so...empty?

Mai found herself unable to focus on the duel as her mind drifted to only a handful of minutes earlier. Joey had just punched out his friend and Rex had continued to egg the boy on, even after he had accepted the challenge. Mai had challenged his manhood one more time, just in case he was thinking of backing down, only to notice Joey and his friends to look up and beyond her. She'd turned... and seen him.

Edwin Chaos.

He had been with some kid but that hadn't mattered to Mai because the way he was looking at her... she'd seen that look before. Heck, she'd looked at plenty of people the same way. It spoke of disgust, of seeing someone, something, that was so beneath the other person that they weren't even worthy of a second of their time. Edwin had looked right at her, his eyes searching her own before he just kept walking towards Joey and his friends, not even acknowledging her existence. They might as well have been complete strangers rather than two people who had spent an afternoon together. And enjoyable afternoon, Mai could admit, even if it hadn't worked out how she'd wished.

"Hey! Who the heck are you?" Rex had snarled, clenching his fists together and taking a step towards Edwin. "If you've come here to muscle in on my duel then just forget it! I'm taking on Wheeler, you hear me?"

He hadn't even responded to Rex. He'd merely turned his head, his glasses flashing in the light of the setting sun, and Rex had clammed up at the piercing gaze.

"You gonna get on me too?" Joey had said sternly when Edwin shifted his focus back on him. "Well save it... I'm duelin' him no matter what you have to say-"

"I saw everything that happened," Edwin said. Though he kept his voice low the tone was like that of a king passing judgment upon a beggar. "Everything. I have nothing to say to any of you." There had been nothing rude about what he said yet... to everyone's ears it had come off as the most cutting of insults. With that he 'd moved to stand with the kid away from the others, a clear divide between himself and Joey and his friends. That had shaken the blonde twerp, Mai could tell that, but in the end Joey had finally nodded to Rex and the dueling platform, which was only a short distance from the Non-Aggression Zone, had risen up.

And now he was right where she wanted him to be and all she could think about was how Edwin hadn't even looked at her.

'He can't still be mad about when we last talked, right?' she thought to herself. 'Okay, so he wasn't pleased I tried to trick him... and I'm not sure why he ran off like he did when I offered to join him for dinner but he wasn't happy with that either. But still... he can't still be upset about that! What, does he expect me to apologize?' She heard Joey declare something but she didn't even look up, lost in her thoughts. 'What for? I didn't do anything wrong.' She grimaced. 'Heh, even I don't believe that. Still... its just part of the game, right?' She flexed her fingers, feeling the leather of her dueling glove crinkle slightly. 'Though maybe to him it wasn't part of the game quite yet?' She mentally let out a groan. 'Oh grow up and admit the truth, Mai... you offended him by first trying to trick him and then trying to do so by turning it all into a come-on. He didn't like that, saw through your tricks, and then you didn't even follow after him to apologize. That's why he is acting like you aren't even here.'

Mai huffed.

"Well, time to see about that," she said softly to herself before walking up to the girl... Taya or Tina or something or the like. Yugi had run off, Mai wasn't for sure but she wondered if it was so he could fight the urge to chime in to help with Joey's horrible dueling skills, leaving the girl all by herself. Though she seemed to have enough good will and cheer in her to be a one-girl pep rally.

"What do you want?" Tara asked in annoyance as Mai moved to join her.

Mai help up her hands. "Now now... one would think you weren't happy to see me! I thought you goodie goodies were all about friendship and kindness."

"Yeah, for people we actually like! Not rat finks that trick my friends into duels!"

"Joey is a big boy. If he didn't want to duel Rex he could have said no at any time. You're just mad that he didn't do what you wanted... far too used to the boys leaping to your beck and call?"

"What? I... no... I mean..." Tanya flustered a bit before glaring at her. "Why don't you just go back to rooting for Rex, huh?"

"Oh, those two will keep swapping blows for a while now. I wanted to just ask about the newest member of your group..." she nodded towards where Edwin was, the man leaning against a tree watching the duel, the kid sitting next to him. "I've met Edwin but who's that? His brother or something?"

"No," Tippa said, watching as Joey debated what card to put out next. Mai could almost see the monkeys working in his brain, fumbling with wires as they tried to make a proper connection. "If you must know that's Mokuba."

"Mo... Mokuba? As in Mokuba Kaiba?" She looked at the young boy and suddenly remembered him from one of Seto Kaiba's matches. "Kaiba keeps him on such a short leash... what is he doing here by himself?"

"Pegasus brought him here. Using him as leverage to try and get Kaiba's company. Edwin battled one of Pegasus' Eliminators to secure his freedom."

"Is that so?" Mai asked before moving away from Terri without another word.

"Mai?" Rex called out. "Hey Mai! Where ya goin'! I'm about to destroy this fool! You better not be tryin' to get out of our duel!"

"Oh calm down! I can only take so much of Joey's brain grinding gears trying to work out how to win a battle. Need a bit of a break. Focus on actually winning, Rex!"

"I summon Flames Swordsman!"

Mai quietly grimaced, not even looking back to watch as Joey's new monster easily destroyed Rex's. 'That rock-headed... he completely forgot that per Duelist Kingdom Rules Dinosaur monsters are weak to Fire Types.' Sure enough Rex let out a howl of protest. 'Still, I'm not that worried... Rex nearly was the National Champion of Japan... no way does one Warrior with a burning sword take him down.' She moved over towards Edwin and as she got closer she could hear him quietly talking to Mokuba, who was studying the duel intently.

"Alright, so Joey has out Flames Swordsman who gets an attack boost because of the field and his Fire Typing... for some reason only that our glorious Nixon of an organizer Pegasus understands... gives him an advantage over dinosaur monsters. What would you do to defeat that card?"

"But I don't even know what is in Rex's hand."

"I didn't ask you what Rex should do," Edwin said gently. "Nor am I asking you to come up with a strategy. I'm asking you to consider the playfield and think of what you could do to take down Flame Swordsmen."

"Well... obviously I could summon a monster that was stronger that Flames Swordsman."

"In what way?" Edwin pressed.

"What do you mean?"

"Just attack points?"

"Well... yeah!" Edwin looked up and pointed towards the field as Rex summoned his Serpent Night Dragon. "Oh! I get what you mean now! Since Dinosaurs are weak to Fire summon something that isn't a Dinosaur!" Mokuba though tilted his head. "Why would Rex have a Dragon in a Dinosaur deck?"

"I honestly have no clue," Edwin said before shaking his head. "What else though? What other ways could you get rid of Flame Swordsman?" As he asked that the dragon easily defeated Joey's monster, putting Rex back in control.

"...what if a Dinosaur monster had a Water typing?" Mokuba asked.

"Exactly! Water beats fire, so it would allow you to drench the sword and stop your Dinosaurs from losing attack points while also dropping Flame Swordsman's. What else?"

"What else is there?"

Edwin grinned. "The field itself. You could attack and destroy it in a way to eliminate the bonus."

"But your monsters would be weakened too," Mokuba pointed out.

"Not if you broke the field in such a way that gave Dinosaurs a different way to power up. Like maybe... saying that all the fallen dinosaurs' bones create a Dinosaur Graveyard that power up other Dinos? But it can only be revealed by shattering the meadow?"

"That would work?"

"Under Duelist Kingdom rules it would."

Intrigued at what he was doing, for it didn't sound at all like he was trying to help Joey (especially since his example dealt with DEFEATING Joey) Mai decided to make her presence known. "Hello Edwin."

The blonde man looked up at her. "Mai."

"Oh, so you did notice me," she said in a teasing tone. "I was beginning to think you were going to ignore me. Didn't say hello to me or anything when you showed up."

Edwin, much to her surprise, actually grimaced at that. "Sorry, I didn't know what kind of welcome I'd get. Still, should have said something at least. Sorry again."

Mai blinked. She'd expected a snarky comment, an insult, denial... not an honest apology and embarrassment. It threw her off and left her feeling flatfooted. "Well... perfectly fine. You can see now that there are no hard feelings."

"You two know each other?" Mokuba asked.

"We met in Domino City," Edwin stated. He shot Mai a look. "She tried to figure out my deck. Endymion with burn and destruction effects by the way... just in case you were going to try something else out to get the information."

She had been and decided not to even try and deny it. "Well now the only reason I have to ask you to have dinner with me is because I'm hungry and enjoy your company." He glowered and she quickly threw up her hands. "Okay, we're not at the point of joking about that..." she moved to stand next to the tree, watching as Rex's Red-Eyes Black Dragon destroyed Joey's two battleguards (and when had he summoned those?). "So, what are you two up to anyway?"

"Mokuba wants to learn how to duel but doesn't have a deck yet. So I am teaching him how to strategize using the travesty of a duel."

The words almost left Mai's mouth. They were so very close. The mocking that Seto Kaiba's little brother didn't know how to duel and had to have some stranger, someone that had never competed on the tournament circuit, teach him how to play the game. But she forced herself to stop. First and foremost because Mokuba was a kid and from what Tea had told her he'd had a rough time of it. Second that at that moment she realized that Yugi was back to watching Joey and she remembered how he was a nobody as well who had defeated Kaiba, Weevil, and apparently Mako as well.

And finally because she got the sense that if she opened her mouth now it would be the last time she got to talk to Edwin Chaos. And while she couldn't quite pinpoint why... she didn't like the idea of having him his an enemy.

'Maybe because he's the first person to see me not as a conquest... who actually got offended when I suggested that,' she thought to herself before out loud asking, "Travesty, huh? Not cheering on Joey?"

"Oh, I hope he wins," Edwin said. "Joey is a good guy. He's an idiot but he's a good guy." Edwin looked over at Mokuba. "List off why this was stupid of Joey."

The kid thought it over. "Well, my brother would say that Joey was way out of his league."

"Not acceptable. Any duelist can win at any time. Any given Sunday, as the athletes say. Try again."

Mai was rather impressed. Edwin was on the island to report on the tournament but he acted more like a professor than a newsman.

"Well... he didn't learn about the field bonus." Edwin motioned for him to continue. "He knew Rex used dinosaurs but didn't alter his deck to take that into account. Oh! And he gambled all his Star Chips when he could have only done one!"

"That it?" Edwin asked.

"I think so."

"Then you missed the biggest one: Joey rushed in angry and emotional instead of using logic. That made him be sloppy and cost him early on. Even though it started with him mad he should have taken a breather when he first drew his hand and considered just what to do before laying his first card down." He shot Mai a dark look. "No matter what anyone says or does to try and goad you into a duel you don't do it unless you are in control of yourself."

"Hey kid," Mai called out, "you mind letting me and Edwin talk alone for a bit?"

Mokuba looked over to Edwin who nodded. "Stay near Yugi and Tristan and Tea, okay? That way I can see you. We won't be long, I don't think." Mokuba didn't look too sure of that but finally nodded and hurried over to the others, who were cheering Joey on as he thought about his next move. Mai hadn't noticed them all returning. "Alright Mai... floor is yours."

"First off I want to say I'm sorry about last time we spoke," she said, surprising even herself with her apology. Though he had apologized to her so that was only fair.

"Are you apologizing because you understand why what you did was wrong? Or because I got mad at you and you just want to fix things? Or that but you still think you're right and just want me to let it go?"

"Uh... the second one I think."

He chuckled at that. "At least you're honest."

"But now I sense you aren't exactly happy with me right now either."

"Noooooo!" he exclaimed in an exaggerated shock. "Ya think?" He waved towards where Joey was setting up his next move. "You tricked someone who has only had one professional duel in his life into dueling a regional champion because you are upset he got lucky and beat you... despite the fact that you have 8 Star Chips already. So you played on the fragile ego of someone who is dueling just so he can get his sister an operation so she doesn't go blind." He didn't even bother to look at her. "You must be so proud of your accomplishment here."

She had been proud but his scorn turned her victory into ash. And she didn't like that. "Hey, he's the arrogant loudmouth that crowed about beating me! He's just getting what he deserved."

"You cheated using perfume to mark your cards," Edwin snapped back. "Had Joey wanted the moment he realized you were pulling that trick he could have demanded you forfeit the duel. You would have been banished from Duelist Kingdom... because believe me Pegasus doesn't like cheaters, just look up the name 'Bandit Keith'... and pretty much ruined your entire career. The fact that he celebrated his first official win a bit too wildly? That was peanuts over what he could have done."

Mai screw up her face at that. She hadn't considered just how badly things could have gone had Joey pushed her little fake-psychic trick and demanded one of Pegasus' staff to intervene. She'd just assumed no one would be able to pick it up, figure out the trick... and there were enough duelists with gimmicks that what was one more? But she now saw how risky that gamble had been. Most people knew that Pegasus had defeated Keith Howard at the Intercontinental Championship by writing out Keith's strategy for a boy in the audience, so that he could counter his plan. What only a few who were deep in the duelist culture knew was that there had long been rumors that Keith was a cheat. That he'd just so happen to get the right card at the right time... even though no one remembered seeing him with that card before. Or that when rewatching the tapes a card that was in his graveyard at the moment was in his hand the next, seemingly by magic... or quick fingers. Nothing had ever been proven but some, like Mai, had suspected that Bandit Keith had been found out by Pegasus and that was why he'd chosen to humiliate him as he had. It certainly was out of character for the man.

And that could have been her.

I never got to hear Yugi's response as Tea's screech had all of us instantly on alert.

"That sounded like Tea!" Yugi exclaimed, leaping to his feet and moving to where Mai had put the shower. Mokuba moved to join him but I held out my arm to block him, shaking my head. Even though I knew it was most likely Bakura (or, to be more accurate, Yami Bakura wearing the real Bakura like a suit) I didn't want to risk it actually being one of the Eliminators hoping to take advantage of the situation to make a grab for Mokuba; Pegasus might honor his word but I didn't trust Kemo or the other goons. With Panik somewhere out there looming in the shadows the last thing I needed was to force a needless confrontation.

After a few minutes though Mai returned back to our campground, dragging Joey in by the ear, Tristan and Yugi following behind with blushes and grimaces. "Do I even want to ask?" I growled, Joey still trying to free himself while at the same time whimpering in pain.

"This little peeper burst into the shower to get a look at Tea!" Mai complained, finally giving Joey a shove while I marveled at the fact that we'd actually gotten a deleted scene in this episode... moment... whatever.

"She was screamin' and I rushed in to help her! I'm a hero!" Joey complained, rubbing his abused ear.

"And when both Tea and I yelled at you, after you boldly proclaimed "Have no fear, Joey's here!" that you were NOT to go into the shower... you still felt the need to?" Mai pressed.

"Well... she could have been forced ta say that! Ya never know!" He rubbed his ear and Mai huffed, going off to stand guard for Tea while she finished.

Tristan shook his head as he sat down next to Joey. "I told you not to do that. Tea said she heard something OUTSIDE of the shower, not in it!"

"Would ya lay off me, man! I was just tryin' ta help!" He folded his arms over his chest. "Supposed ta be on my side instead of those crazy chicks."

I merely shot Yugi a look and he meekly looked away. 'Coward.'

After that things went easy enough. All of us dug into our supper, chatting about everything and nothing. The gang asked me about life in America and I found out that while Joey had a Brooklyn accent that mainly came from his father having grown up there; Joey hadn't actually been to New York. A couple times Mai seemed ready to make a sarcastic or biting remark, like when Yugi asked about her Star Chips, but then she'd look at me, let out a sigh, and actually tried to talk with them. And when she wasn't trying to portray herself as a cold hearted bitch Mai was rather fun to be around. She told stories of how she'd been a dealer on a riverboat casino, and of the time she'd gone to a tournament and her and her opponent accidently ended up swapping decks, forcing her to play a beast warrior deck and having no idea what any of the cards did. In exchange I had told them about how I had a rule named after me at the University of Michigan that forbid students from doing anything they wanted for a senior project (do one mock Mission Statement for a brothel and suddenly they are naming rules after you).

Finally, when it was got to 10pm, Mai went off to take a shower, and sadly lose to Panik but there was little I could do there to change that without leaving that maniac on the loose, and I changed into my pajamas (because I didn't care if I was camping I wasn't sleeping in dirty clothes), arriving back with a robe on to find Tristan in the middle of a ghost story.

"And when they looked in the back seat there were 25 pepperoni pizzas!" Tristan declared.

Even Mokuba stared at him blandly.

"What? Should I have done ham instead?"

Joey rolled his eyes, giving Tristan a light shove. "That ain't no scary story!"

"Sure it is! There was no garlic bread!"

"Crazy Bread," I muttered under my breath.

Joey rubbed his hands together. "Now, here is how you tell a scary story. We begin-"

"Nowhere," I said, cutting him off.

"Yeah," Tea said with a shiver. "Think about... Mokuba."

"I want to hear the story!" Mokuba complained.

"And I don't," I said firmly. The others stared at me and a rolled my eyes. "I have a hyperactive imagination. Thus scary stories screw with me REAL bad. So we aren't telling them, at least so long as I am in earshot. And considering how you four are I don't need any of you waking me up with night terrors. Besides," I looked to Mokuba, "you need to get to bed."

"But it's-" he let out a yawn, "-not that late!"

"Oh yes it is. And I want to be up early tomorrow before Pegasus can send a swarm of Eliminators after us. Scoot." Mokuba shot me a wounded dark look and I sighed. "Would Seto let you stay up?"

"...no."

"Then I don't need Seto kicking my alps for letting you stay up late." I sighed when Mokuba continued to look at me. "I promise if something exciting happens I'll wake you. But nothing will. We are going to talk for a bit and then I'm at least going to bed. This lot will probably stay up way too late and then be too tired to duel tomorrow but I'll be in the tent soon."

"Okay, fine fine," Mokuba said, sitting up and wandering towards the tent. "But you better wake-" he yawned, "-me up if anything interesting happens!"

"I will."

I didn't.

I had been thinking of what was to come next ever since I knew I would be heading to Duelist Kingdom: Bakura's first appearance and the duel he and the Pharaoh had using the souls of Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Tea. I knew the wisest thing to do was to get the hell away while they were doing that. The Millennium Items were cool in the show when you weren't affected by them but being stuck in this world... they terrified me. They were magic crafted from the sacrifice of innocents. They could ruin lives and destroy souls both in the sense of corruption and LITERALLY destroy them. The smart idea would be to find an excuse to wander away, maybe watch Mai duel, then hook back up with the gang once they were done.

That was the smart idea.

And I was going to be a giant idiot and let Yami Bakura/Thief Bakura/Zorc stick my soul into a card.

It was something nearly every fan of the series had thought about. What was their favorite card, the card they would want their soul to go into, and later on what card was their Ka or Ba or however it went. The card of their soul. That, and the fact that I'd get a taste of what it was like to have magic. I was a normal human in this world and unless Shadi decided to give me a Millennium Item I'd never get a taste for it except now.

(And if that mysterious ghost bastard did try and give me one I'd go running in the other direction; like I said the Millennium items were NOT things to play around with!)

But while I had decided to let Yami Bakura wallop me into a Shadow Duel there was no way I was letting Mokuba near one. Not just because he was a kid but also because it was so utterly dangerous. There were only 5 monster zones; enough for Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Tea, and myself. I had no idea what would happen if Mokuba's soul was in the Pharaoh's deck when the duel ended. Would he return to normal? Or be lost. And then there was the worry that Mokuba might get summoned onto the field and would cause problems for the Pharaoh. Already I knew I'd have to deal with Joey and Tristan being stupid and rushing around attacking... and Yugi too, now that I thought about it. I couldn't remember much other than that Tristan and then Joey had gone to the card graveyard and it was only because of Tea's Magician of Faith card (and why was that her favorite card when the Dark Magician Girl became her favorite card... and would Yugi having it now screw up the duel?) that they both survived. We only had two chances to die, as strange as that sounded, and I couldn't risk hoping the Pharaoh would top deck multiple miracles.

So off to bed Mokuba went. And about 20 minutes later, just when I was about to get real annoyed-

"Don't you think we should check on Mai?" Tea asked.

Yugi nodded. "She has been gone a long time."

"Probably a trap," Joey groused, Tristan nodding only for the bushes behind Tea to begin moving around them. If I didn't know for a fact that Bakura was being influenced by Zorc I'd give the idiot a dope slap for being a creepy bastard. As it was I made a show of leaping to my feet while Joey, to his credit, leapt with Tristan to protect Tea. "Okay, I think Mai is sneaky but she ain't this freaky. Hey, come on out!"

And with that Bakura melted out of the bushes.

"See, I told you!" Tea declared, still half hiding behind me. "I haven't just been seeing things!"

"Tea, that is right in my ear," I complained, hoping that maybe in this world I wouldn't end up with tinnitus.

"What are you doing out here, Bakura?" Joey asked.

"Same as you guys, I guess."

I held up my hands. "That doesn't answer his question. Who are you and what are you doing here? I don't see a dueling glove on you and I don't remember you in the crowd at Pegasus' castle..."

Bakura smiled ever so slightly and I felt my skin crawl. 'Yup, Zorc is in full control at the moment,' I thought as Bakura answered.

"Well, my name is Bakura," he said with all the pleasantness of that scorpion asking the frog for a ride across the river. "And you are?"

"This is Edwin," Tea said, motioning for Bakura to join us. "We met him on the ship... he's been helping us out when we run into some sticky situations."

"...are you in your pajamas?"

"Yes, yes I am," I said with utter dryness.

Realizing that I wouldn't be able to press Bakura any more (and I was honestly interested in what excuse he'd use for being on the island) I merely sat down while the teens caught up with their casual friend. The show had apparently skipped ahead quite a bit as nearly an hour had gone by and I was getting rather tired when Tristan finally looked over at Joey and asked, "Why do you keep staring at that card, man?"

"I'll tell ya, so long as ya don't laugh," Joey said, looking down at the Flame Swordsman. "Sometimes, when I'm in a duel... I pretend it's me out there swapping blows with whatever card my foe has out." He leaned back and rubbed his head with a laugh. "Ain't that dumb?"

"No it's not," I said, quickly seeing through Joey's ruse. Whenever he was worried people thought he was dumb I was willing to bet he'd call it out first, pretending like it was all a joke to keep from being tormented and teased. I sadly wondered how many times his drunk of a father had mocked him for something being stupid and felt a pang of guilt for my rant against him earlier in the evening. "It's only natural to envision yourself in something you love. Movie, comic book," 'Anime,' I mentally added.

Bakura nodded in agreement. "Edwin is quite right. What card would you be, if you were one?"

"Eeeeehhhhhh.... This one!" Joey showed us his Flame Swordsman, standing up and mimicking swinging a sword. "The Flame Swordsman kicks everybody's butt!"

Tristan smiled and stood up as well. "Not my guy's! The Cyber Commander!"

"You guys and your cards are hilarious," Tea teased.

Yugi turned to her and countered, "I think everyone has a card they can identify with. You should see if you can find one yourself." Tea pulled out her deck and began to go through the cards. "What about you, Edwin?"

"I think that one's obvious," I said, pulling out Endymion. "Ever since I got my Uncle's deck I've felt a deep connection to him."

"Here we go!" Tea said. "The Magician of Faith."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Tristan exclaimed.

"More like the Magician of Freaks if you ask me!" Joey said, pulling a face and bringing RIGHT back to being annoyed with him.

"Tell me which one you identify with, Yugi," Bakura said.

"Well, I hate to copy Edwin but he has a point." He pulled out the Dark Magician. "Just like him I felt a deep connection to this card the moment I got it. I can't imagine dueling without him in my deck! Which one do you care about the most, Bakura."

"This one," Bakura said.

I suddenly looked up, swearing I could hear the dramatic music playing overhead.

"What does that funny lookin' card do?" Joey asked.

Bakura chuckled slightly. "If you want to find out why don't we have a friendly duel right now?"

"Yeah. After all this Star Chips stuff it will be nice to have a duel with no strings attached!" Joey declared.

"I agree!" Yugi said even as I braced myself.

"Why don't you all put your favorite card in Yugi's deck so it's like we're all playing?" Bakura said. The others quickly nodded in agreement and I, fighting a sudden case of the butterflies, did as he asked. Yugi and Bakura set up the playing field, complete with a dueling mat to protect the cards, while I began to pace.

'This is a dumb idea. Dumb dumb dumb! I'm already in Yu-Gi-Oh! why I am I taking such a needless risk? I already have Pegasus gunning for me now I am going to get Zorc's attention?'

"Edwin, come on!" Tristan called out.

"Before we get started there's a little something I'd like to share with you," Bakura said, eyes narrowing even as he kept his tone light. "especially you, Yugi."

"Hey, I need to go use the little duelist room," I said quickly. "So you guys-"

"A Millennium item!" Yugi exclaimed and I turned to see... IT.

The Millennium Fucking Ring.

Fuck.

"Oh Muppet Fudger," I muttered even as Bakura declared he was taking us to the Shadow Realm. The ring glowed...

...and everything went dark.