Chapter 22 - 22

Chapter 22

"One moment, one moment! Just need to... oh! Hello Mai!"

Shaking her umbrella just outside the door so she didn't track a ton of water into the card shop Mai Valentine smiled and lowered the hood of her rain slicker. It wasn't the most elegant garment she owned but when they were getting a torrential downpour like this it was better to cover up her beauty in a rubbery coat than to drag herself over the threshold looking like a drowned alley cat.

"Hello Mr. Muto," Mai said with a smile.

"Whatever are you doing in weather like this? When I heard the bell ring I just assumed it was one of Yugi's friends... then I remembered they are all here!"

"Mr. Muto, Mai is our friend," Tea said as she came down the stairs.

Joey was right on her heels. "Yeah, and Ed ain't here either and he's our friend." Mai forced herself not to roll her eyes at that; Joey had apparently trying to make up with Edwin for... well, a lot of things he'd done during Duelist Kingdom... and while Edwin had been willing to keep the lines of communication open and had told her that he'd met with the gang a few times and even shared texts with Joey when the young man asked for advice Mai wasn't ready to forgive him. She'd never forget how utterly broken Edwin had been after Joey had dismissed the trauma of Mrs. Chaos' passing and for that Joey would always find a barrier between him and her. "But yeah, what are ya doin' out in this weather, Mai?"

"It wasn't that bad when I started out," Mai stated, leaning her umbrella against a wall and walking up to the counter. "And I wanted to get some errands taken care of now so I could enjoy the next few days."

"Oh, hi Mai!" Yugi said as he and Tristan finally came downstairs, joining Joey and Tea and making the gameshop a bit too crowded for Mai's tastes. Honestly she wondered why Mr. Muto hadn't ever sought to expand things. "Finally back in Domino?" As soon as he said that Yugi blushed and ducked his head in embarrassment. "I mean, of course you are. I just-"

"It's fine Yugi," Mai said with a chuckle. "And yes, I am. Just got off my flight this morning." Mentally she added, 'Not that I needed one.' Edwin had offered to use the Millennium Key to bring her to Domino but Mai had informed him that it would raise too many questions. Besides she wanted to have a bit of time before she saw him again, face to face. They hadn't had a chance to actually see each other since she'd left to run through a string of tournaments and she wasn't interested in their reunion being marked by her frazzled attempts to get all her suitcases through a magical door.

Tristan nodded. "Heard you won the last one... we wanted to watch it live but with the time difference we taped it."

"And you still heard I won? Who spoiled it?" She looked over at Joey.

"Hey!"

"Well?"

"...okay, yeah, I did. But I actually stayed up to watch it unlike these guys!" Joey proclaimed, puffing out his chest like that was the greatest accomplishment in the world.

Tea snickered. "And fell asleep in the middle of class and got yourself a week's detention."

As Joey grumbled at that Mai walked up to the counter and pulled out a secured deck box and pulled out several cards. "I won a few of these and was interested in either selling them."

Mr. Muto instantly hurried around the counter, a smile on his face as he realized this was about business and not just a casual visit. "Of course. Let me take a look... no trades?"

"No need," Mai said. "You don't improve on perfection."

"You can always improve on perfection," Mr. Muto countered as he began to inspect the copy of Tri-Horned Dragon that she'd won at her second tournament during her 'World Tour'. It was one of four copies that she knew of in the world. "No deck is ever finished and complete. One can always improve it."

"True but you also shouldn't tinker with something just to tinker with it." Mai patted the two deck boxes that were attached to her belt; one contained her modified Harpie deck, using the cards she'd gotten from Pegasus' vault, while the other one held her new Amazoness deck that she'd been play testing. Thanks to those two decks she figured she had at least a year or two before she'd need to do any serious modifications. "Right now I'm looking to fill my bank account rather than my deck."

"Hmmm," Mr. Muto stated, rubbing his chin. "¥75,000."

"That is one of only 4 cards in existence," Mai argued. "And you only get them through winning tournaments. That is at least ¥120,000."

"There are no known support cards for Tri-Horn, meaning that it isn't as desirable as the Blue-Eyes White Dragon or the Red-Eyes Black Dragon. ¥83,000."

"There is a rumor that Rex Raptor sold his Serpent Night Dragon for ¥100,000 and that was a prize for regionals. This was for Continentals. ¥110,000."

"The Serpent Night Dragon is rumored to be getting new support soon. ¥86,000."

Mai scoffed. "That's just a myth, just like the Starry Night cards for Seiyaryu. I thought we were discussing facts, old man. ¥107,000."

"Old man?" Mr. Muto sputtered. "¥83,000!"

"Hey!" Mai declared. "You can't go back down!"

"I can do whatever I want!"

Tristan scratched his chin. "To be fair, Mr. Muto, you are rather old."

"Oh am I?" Mr. Muto asked. "¥89,000 and ¥6,000 of that is coming from Tristan!"

The dark haired teen faulted at that. "You... you can't do that!"

"It's rent for all of the food you and Joey eat!" Mr. Muto declared.

"¥97,000 with another ¥8,000 coming from Tristan!" Mai shot back.

"HEY!" Tristan exclaimed in panic. "Stop that!"

The continued on like that for another 10 minutes, the price going from dropping down by thousands of yen to a few hundred till finally they were bickering over ones and twos. Mai knew that she could have gone to any number of buyers and gotten a better deal but she'd wanted to check in on Yugi and his little friends, to see how they were doing and if some of the rumors she'd heard were true. Edwin had told her that Tea's father had been in league with the Big 5 and Pegasus but from the way the teen was acting Mai couldn't tell if Edwin had the story wrong or Tea was just a great actor. There were also whispers about other duelists getting decks mailed to them and while Mai hadn't encountered that during her World Tour the whispers were getting louder and she figured if anyone were to be in the middle of such a maelstrom it would be Yugi.

'Besides, its fun to actually have a challenge when it comes to selling cards,' she thought as they finally decided on ¥92,000 with Tristan having to put in another ¥5,000 (Mr. Muto was apparently mad not just about the age comment but Tristan eating his favorite cookies). She'd had one such bartering match with Mr. Muto when they'd all arrived back in Domino and even if she hadn't gotten as much money she could have going someplace else the thrill of challenging the cunning old man more than made up for it.

Counting out the money herself Mai's mind went over what else she needed to do before she could head back to her hotel.

"If you want Mai you can stay and we can finally watch your duel in the fianls," Yugi offered.

"Thanks," she said, forcing herself not to shudder at the idea of spending the afternoon sitting on the floor in some tiny apartment while eating overly salted chips and listening to Joey ask a thousand questions about her duel, "but I still have a few more errands to run. I want to get a new outfit for tonight."

"Oh?" Tea said, interest piqued. "And what is happening tonight?"

Mai smiled at that; seemed like despite only hanging out with guys Tea did had a feminine side. "Edwin still owes me a dinner so I plan to make him pay up."

"You and Edwin are going on a date?" Tea asked.

Before she could answer though Joey spoke up. "Nah, it ain't like that. Just two friends havin' dinner."

"Excuse me?" Mai said, raising an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware, Joseph, that you were my social coordinator."

"You're what'sit?" Joey asked.

She rolled her eyes. "I didn't know you knew my plans."

"Well... come on, it's obvious, right? You and Ed are just friends."

Tea, Tristan, and Yugi all stared at Joey, faces utterly blanked.

"What?"

"How... how can you not see it?" Tea stammered.

"See what?"

Yugi shuffled a bit. "Uh, Joey... Edwin and Mai... they..."

"What? Are pals? Yeah, I noticed that. Everyone sees that."

"They are more than pals, bud," Tristan said.

Joey looked at his friends before chuckling. "Uh huh, sure."

"Joey," Mr. Muto said, "I've never seen the two of them together and even I know that Edwin and Mai are... together."

"Well, not together-together," Mai admitted. The two of them hadn't declared anything official... honestly Mai just knew that her and Edwin wanted to spend time together and see if something blossomed.

Joey though pointed a finger at Mai and laughed. "Ha! See, she even admitted it! Ya guys are making somethin' out of nothin'!"

Going from befuddled and amused to frustrated and annoyed Mai put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes. "And what exactly is the problem if Edwin and I are a couple?"

The blond teen just chuckled at that. "Come on, Mai... we all know ya would never be with a guy like Edwin-" She could feel her blood pressure spike at that insult and opened her mouth to complain... "-we know he ain't good enough for ya!"

Mai's brain screeched to a halt.

"Joey!" Tea exclaimed, smacking his shoulder. "How can you say something like that?!"

"Hey! Hey!" Joey protested, trying to shield himself. "It's just the truth! Ed... he's a great guy... but he ain't Mai's type. She needs someone strong... athletic... a duelist who cares about the game! He's got those glasses-"

"That's it? Edwin has glasses?" Mai let out a dark laugh. "Please."

"What, you sayin' you'd consider datin' Ed?" Joey shot back.

"Yes, I am saying that."

"Guys, lets not fight," Yugi began but Joey cut him off.

"Ha ha, very funny, Mai."

"It isn't a joke."

Finally it seemed to dawn on Joey that Mai was being serious. "Buh... buh... you can't!"

"And why not?"

"Well... because... he ain't right for ya!"

"And exactly who is?"

"Like I said! Someone who is strong, athletic, a duelist, doesn't wear glasses-" 'Seriously what is with him and the glasses?' "-just... someone not like Ed!"

"Then who?" Mai demanded. "Well? Since you have such brilliant insight into my life who should I-"

"Me!" Joey finally exclaimed.

Mai just blinked.

"Yeah... yeah!" Joey said, as if he too had just heard that idea. "You and me... we should be the ones going out and havin' fun! We're perfect for each other!" He took a step towards Mai and gave her a leering once over that made her want to cover herself. "What'da say?"

"-snerk."

Joey face faulted. "Uh?"

Mai couldn't stop herself. She threw her head back and laughed. She clutched her sides and howled, filling the room with her amusement.

"What's the joke?" Joey said, scratching his head and that confusion allowed Mai to regain control of herself.

"It's this, Joseph," Mai finally said. "I. Choose. Edwin."

"...what?"

"I choose Edwin. Over you."

Joey blinked before his face grew red and hot, jaw clenched. "What, because he's suddenly rich now? Is that all-"

"Because he's a good man who did all he could to not only protect a child but also help those around him be better. Not just all of you... but me. He makes me want to be better. And that is far more than-"

Before the fight could grow worse the door to the card shop slammed open with such a bang that it overpowered the thunder crack outside. They all turned to see a panting Mokuba, clothing sopping wet, a limo parked on the street next to the car Mai had rented.

"Help," he whispered.

~MC~MC~MC~

The scene that played before Tea Gardner was all her worst nightmares come to life.

"Aren't that terrible," Mokuba admitted. "Seto wanted to do creepy zombie monsters but I convinced him that since this was the starting level he should stick with something that would teach players how to play."

"So what?" Mai asked. "A bunch of cream-"

"BOOOOOOO!!!!"

Mai let out a scream as a ghost suddenly popped up from behind a tombstone.

A cute, chibi ghost.

GHOSTRICK SPECTER

Joey fell over, laughing as Mai clutched at her chest. "That's not funny!" she roared at the blond.

"You're right... its hysterical!" Joey exclaimed, pointing a shaking finger at her. "You got scared by the silly little-"

"GRAAAAAH!" a tiny little chibi reaper declared, popping up from an open grave.

Joey screamed and leapt into Mai's arms.

"Uh... I wanted to protect you?" Joey said only for Mai to dump him on his rear.

GHOSTRICK SKELETON

Standing up Joey brushed himself off before looking around the graveyard, catching more of the little, and rather cute, monsters ducking behind the tombstones, mocking them with giggles and silly faces. "These guys are the terrible terrors?" he asked with a scoff.

Mokuba though merely nodded. "This is the first level, Joey. It needs to be easy to teach you how to play the game. Watch." Mokuba took a couple of steps forward before pulling out a card from his duel disc. "Any card from your deck can be called out, you just need to think of it. Cyromancer of the Ice Barrier, attack!" The card flashed and a helmeted mage fighter appeared, swinging two blades of ice at the Ghostrick monsters, causing them to screech and dive for cover though Mokuba did manage to take out the skeleton.

"Ah, I get ya!" Joey said. "Flames Swordsman!"

"Wait!" Mokuba called out but Joey had already summoned his monster and ordered it to attack, taking out a few more Ghostricks.

"Ha! See that! This is awesome!" They heard laughter and turned to see a witch and a werewolf, both cute and chibi, had appeared.

GHOSTRICK WITCH

GHOSTRICK WARWOLF

"Yug!"

"On it!" Yugi declared, drawing his own card. "Dark Magician!"

"Harpie Lady #2!" Mai added.

"Stop!" Mokuba cried out too late, the gang taking out the Ghostrick monsters easily. There was a flash of light and suddenly the dark and gloomy graveyard had been transformed into... well, as Yugi looked around it was still a graveyard but a well maintained one, with all the tombstones fixed, the grass neatly trimmed, and the sun shining down on them.

"Hey, that was easy!" Joey said, puffing out his chest.

Mokuba though shook his head. "Try and summon Flame Swordsman again."

"What? Okay." Joey drew the card... only to find that all he held was a small scrap of the monster's card. "Oh no! I ripped Flame Swordsman!"

"No you didn't, Joey," Yugi said, drawing the Dark Magician and finding much the same as Joey: all he got was a small bit of the card. "We're in the virtual world... these cards aren't real." He turned to Mokuba. "But that doesn't explain what is going on."

"It's a cool down mechanic," Mokuba stated. "Seto put it in when I pointed out he could beat the entire game just using his Blue-Eyes. When you use a card it becomes locked until a certain amount of time passes." He took out his Cryomancer and the others were surprised to see that there was much more of his card than their's. "Each star level a card has equals 5 minutes of cool down. So my Cryomancer will take 10 minutes to cool down. Yugi will have to wait 35 minutes, Mai 20 minutes." Mokuba shook the card and they saw a little timer appear next to the slowly growing card.

"So we need to think carefully about what cards we summon," Yugi stated, "because we won't be able to access them for a while after doing so."

"Right!"

"Hey, wait a minute," Joey said, looking at Flame Swordsman. "Why does mine say the cooldown is 12 minutes? Should it be 25?"

"Wow, Joey, you actually did the math without taking off your shoes," Mai quipped.

"Hahaha," Joey said sarcastically.

"It's your perk for being the Barbarian Class. They get their monsters back faster." Joey began to grin manically at that only for Mokuba to burst his bubble. "But your spells and traps will take twice as long to regenerate as ours... and because Yugi is a Paladin his spells will take half as long as mine or Mai's."

"Aw man!" Joey whined. "Ain't there like... some class that lets me do everything quick?"

"Sorry Joey but I don't think so," Yugi said. "It's all about balance... which is why it's good we're all different classes. It means that you can cover us with monsters if we all run out and we can take care of spells."

"Yeah... yeah!" Joey warmed up to the idea rather quickly. "Alright, lets get to that Keeper and get moving!"

"Hold up, Joey," Mai said, walking over to where the Ghostrick Mansion had been, the hill having shrunk down to flat land. There, Yugi noticed, were several hovering cards. "Mokuba, what are these?"

"Oh right, the loot and EXP system!" Mokuba hurried over. "First of all we all get experience points. This levels us up and makes our monsters stronger, our spells hit harder, and increases our lifepoints." Reaching for a card with his face on it there was a flash of light. Yugi was next and when he held the card he noticed his lifepoint reader on his duel disc increase to 2100 before the words LV 2 flashed on the screen. "We all went up a level defeating the Ghostricks. Now we need to pick our loot. We can either take cards representing the monsters and add them to our decks or turn them into coins that we can use to buy gear and supplies."

"Well that's easy," Joey said as he grabbed his card. "Those little monsters were weak compared to what we have so the coin is going to be more useful."

"I think you're right, Joey," Yugi said and the others agreed, all of them gaining 10 coins.

After that it was simply a matter of backtracking to reach Keeper who happily thanked them for defeating the Ghostrick. After that it was a short 10 minute walk down a newly revealed forest path before they finally entered a small woodland village where all manner of mages and spellcasters, along with ordinary citizens, moved about visiting stalls advertising all manner of items.

"Look at all this," Mai marveled. "Potions, weapons, armor, gear, maps... this game is really detailed."

"Yeah," Mokuba said, nodding in agreement. "Seto and I worked hard to make this all as immersive as possible."

Yugi could only marvel silently at it all. He loved games and puzzles and adventure stories but never had he expected to be in something like THIS. A video game where he was the one walking the streets talking with the people, planning out what his next step would be. Not sitting in front of a tv with a controller or reading an adventure book in the comfort of his room... this was all him. It was so wondrous that it left him bouncing on his feet, eager to explore more.

Walking over to one stall that held cards he looked them over. Some of them were rather cheap; Sparks, for example, was only 10 coins. Other cards though were super expensive, like the Terrorking Archfiend card he'd picked up to look at, coming in at 1000 coins-

The card suddenly disappeared and the words YOU HAVE BEEN DETECTED flashed in front of him.

"What?" Yugi exclaimed as suddenly a gnarled old man burst out from behind the rows of shelves and pointed a crooked finger at him.

"THIEF!"

"What did ya do, Yug?!" Joey asked as guards began to appear.

"I... I just picked up the card-"

"If you touch anything here that's for sale you could end up stealing it," Mokuba stated worriedly, looking about as the guards, all wearing the armor of Breaker the Magic Warrior, marched towards them. Or maybe they were just all Breakers... it was hard to tell.

"Then just give it back!" Mai exclaimed, stepping forward and holding out her hands. "Listen, he didn't mean to take it but he'll happily give it back-"

The guards though continued to silently march towards them.

"What do we do, Mokuba?" Yugi asked nervously, eyeing the swords and slowly reaching for a card. 'Curse of Dragon? Or would that do too much damage to the village?'

"Well, normally you have to pay a fine or serve jail time."

"Jail?!?" Joey squeaked.

Mai smirked. "You were probably destined to see the inside of a cell at some point, Joseph..."

"It's only for a day," Mokuba told him. "Or we can fight or run but that means we won't be able to return to the village and we need the information here."

Yugi sighed. "I guess we pay the fine-"

"No fine," one of the Breakers declared. "You will be judged by the Lord of Song." With that he grabbed Yugi by the arm and began to drag him away. Joey let out a yelp of protest and tried to tackle the Breaker... only for the knight to easily catch him and carry Joey away like a sack of potatoes. Yugi looked behind him and spotted the others giving chase as they were led through the village, a crowd of peasants following after them, a murmur rising up as their numbers swelled.

Yugi was a bit surprised when, rather than being led to some building that one could consider a courthouse or a jail, they were instead marched to a medieval outdoor theater. The crowd filled into the seating area while Yugi and his friends were led to the stage, a heavy curtain preventing them from seeing much of what lay beyond the stage itself.

"What is this?" Mai said, looking about.

"The Lord of Song will judge him for his crime," one of the Breakers stated before stepping away.

That's when the music started.

A musician stepped out, playing quick cords on a lute, only to be joined by first a flutist and then two more lute players. The song, fast with a driving beat, filled the air and Yugi looked about wondering just what was going on as a new musician, this one wearing a large bass drum, began to slam down hard in time with the beat.

"What is going on?" Joey whispered.

Mokuba though looked about with wide eyes. "I... I don't know! Seto never mentioned anything like this."

"Thunder..." the crowd murmured in time with the drum. "Thunder..."

"I'm really not liking this," Mai whispered as the crowd grew from whispers to chants.

"Thunder. Thunder. Thunder! Thunder!" the crowd roared... only to begin whispering again as a new voice filled the air.

"I was caught in the middle of a carriage track! I looked round and I knew there was no turning back! My mind raced and I thought what could I do? And I knew there was no help, no help from you!"

The curtains parted and a man that could only be the Lord of Song stepped forth. He was wearing an assortment of different purples, from his deep purple tights to the lighter violets and plums that made up his poofy pants and elaborate jacket. White frilled cuffs stuck out at the end of his sleeves and a feathered cap sat slightly tilted on his head. But most startling was the carved lilac-colored mask, smooth with no mouth and dark eyes that hid his features from them. He too was strumming a lute as he stepped out onto the stage, the crowd cheering as he sang.

"Sound of the drums! Beating in my heart! The thunder of guns! Tore me apart! You've been-" the Lord of Song did a spin before thrusting his hand into the air, "-Thunderstruck!"

Everyone screamed and clapped as the music died down.

"Bring forth the prisoners," the Lord of Song said, his crisp voice slightly accented and also muffled by his mask. "Yes... yes... I can tell this short one is the worst sort of criminal."

"I didn't mean to take the card," Yugi began only for the Lord of Song to cut him off.

"Silence knave! For your crimes I sentence you to 20 years working the acid mines!"

Joey leapt forward only for a guard to stop him. "Hey, ya can't just make'im do that!"

"Of course I can and you'll be joining him too! You will be given goggles, of course... but the goggles do nothing!" The Lord of Song declared before turning to Mokuba and Mai. "The boy will be shown about our village while the dear warrioress will join me for dinner. After all..." the Lord of Song reached up and removed his mask, revealing a smirking face framed with a full blond beard, "I do still owe you dinner, Mai."

"EDWIN!" Mai cried out, darting forward and giving him a hug.

"Breakers, release the others. They are dear friends of mine. I'll pay the fee for the stolen card to wipe clear Yugi's record." Hanging his mask off his belt Edwin clapped his hands together. "Come on, we can talk at the judge's house." And before they could say anything else Edwin began strumming the lute again, "Once a humble bard chanced a ridealong with Yugi of Domino. And along came this song..." the playing grew quicker. "When the Duel King fought the five-headed devil and their army of elves at its claws did they... revel. They came after Joey with masterful deceit. They broke both his arms and they kicked in his teeth!"

"HEY!" Joey complained.

"While the draco's claws minced our tender meat but so cried Edwin, "We can't be beat!" Toss a card to your duelist, O'Valley of plenty, o'valley of plenty, oooooo! Toss a card to your duelist, O'valley of plenty... oooooo!"

Yugi shook his head as he followed after Edwin, the crowd already breaking up. "That wasn't very funny." Edwin shot him a look and Yugi finally rubbed the back of his head. "Okay, it was a bit funny."

"Darn right it was!" Edwin declared, one arm wrapped around Mai while the other rested on Mokuba's shoulder.

"How the heck did ya already end up the boss 'round her, Ed?" Joey asked as they made their way off the stage and towards a two-story home that was apparently the 'Lord of Song's' abode. "It's only been a few hours-"

"Hours?" Edwin said, face twisting slightly. He looked down at Mokuba. "Time move differently?"

"Yeah."

"Thought as much." He let out a sigh. "Or at least I was hoping as much. I was afraid I'd died and you just... kept me in here."

Mai forced him to stop. "Edwin... how long as it been for you?" He turned his head but she caught his chin and forced him to look at her. "Edwin..."

"...8 months." He shuddered. "8... very long months."