Chapter 16: - Explanations
"Now Slifer, destroy her face down card!" Yami frowned as Kari cheered and couldn't work out why until it flipped up.
A certain blonde haired, red robed, gem holding warrior/effect monster.
'She had two!'
Slifer destroyed it, but Yami's points shot down to zero.
Stunned silence ruled the arena.
"Was that another…"
"Princess of Tsurugi." Kari confirmed.
"Does that mean?"
'She had two!'
"Yami…"
'She had two!'
Yugi sighed and seized control from a rather stunned Yami. It was the first time he'd lost a fair game and to say the Pharaoh wasn't taking it well was an understatement.
'Yugi, she had two.'
"I know that, I saw the Duel."
'Two.'
"I'm not talking to you until you can come up with something sensible to say."
'Two.'
Yugi shook his head and walked across the arena to shake hands with Kari who looked a little shocked it had worked.
"Well played."
"You too, I mean wow, I got to fight a God card!" Kari said, grinning slightly now it was sinking in. "What a match!"
They both turned to Roland who was still trying to work out exactly what had happened.
"I don't think he expected that." Kari laughed.
"I…" Yugi looked down at the Puzzle, "Didn't expect that."
Kari's grin widened at that.
Kaiba was the first to move as the platform lowered to ground level. "Congratulations on winning, Miss Ironhide. Your prize money will be handed over in the closing ceremony once we get back to Domino."
"Thank you Mr Kaiba." Why did it feel like he was sizing her up?
The CEO left.
"Does this make me Queen of Games?" Kari asked, head tilted to one side.
"You better hope not." Yugi laughed, "Unless you like the press."
"Blegh." The two went over to Yugi's friends who still were a little shocked. "I think we stunned em."
"Guys, if you don't say something soon, we're going to raid the kitchen on the blimp and leave nothing behind." Yugi sighed.
That got a reaction.
"Wow, guess we know who's the new best Duellist in town."
"I lucked out." Kari laughed, "I bet I can't do it again."
Yugi grinned as they headed for the blimp, hands slipping into his pockets only to have one of them come back out with a slip of paper he didn't remember there before.
It was a note.
From Robyn.
Hi Yugi and Yami,
Bet you didn't expect that. I guess the Jerk is going to go crazy. Hehe, Queen of Games. If you can get me a video of Kaiba vs. Ironhide I'll love you forever. I'll send Kari some protection soon, can you look out for her until then? See you in a few years. Say hi to the dragon for me.
Robyn
PS She actually has three.
P.P.S Bet you that within two weeks Kari will be living on takeout and will have a new job.
P.P.P.S. Do not feed sugar or sporks to the little Kaiba.
P.P.P.P.S I refuse point blank to tell anyone who or what an Auror may or may not be.
P.P.P.P.P.S You'll find out in September.
P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Remember to take a raincoat. The weather is a bit wet.
'Three?'
"Yami don't start this again."
It started raining and the gang raced into the blimp to avoid getting soaked.
"What happened to the snow?" Joey was complaining.
Yami paused in his rant about three Princess of Tsurugi, 'How would you feed a spork to Mokuba?'
"Without Kaiba killing us?" Yugi sent the equivalent of a shrug. "What do you think she's Seen?"
'I don't know. Something about us and Aurors.' Yami sent a shrug back, then he paused, 'Yugi, what's a spork?'
"I'm wondering how sugar, sporks, Aurors and September combines." Yugi replied, showing Yami the memory of a spork.
'No clue…' Yami decided they weren't as interesting as they sounded.
The now wet note went up in flames, briefly spelling another sentence. "Magic, I believe."
"Okay, that's freaky."
'Should we tell Kaiba sugar sporks are a bad idea?'
"Sugar sporks?"
'Yeap.'
"Sugar sporks?"
"Note from Robyn?" Kari asked. Yugi nodded. "Back to my room for hot chocolate? We have hours before we get back to Domino."
"Hot chocolate?" Joey asked, trying not to whine.
"Hot chocolate for all." Kari agreed.
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Kari would have been curled up on her bed from the pain she really shouldn't have aggravated had her friends not been here. She wondered if there was a non magical remedy for magically caused pain.
It was probably called ibuprofen.
Kari sighed.
Robyn was right, Robyn was always right.
She'd been stupid in fighting the guy and getting herself this hurt. At least with the Tournament money it wouldn't matter if she was too stiff to go to work tomorrow.
She hadn't realised there was a note beside her bed saying, 'No, I'm not Kari.' If she had she would have realised it was from Robyn.
"Where's the hot water?"
"We had to get some from the kitchen last time." Kari said, wincing as she stretched out.
"Are you alright?" For a split second Yugi's eyes were crimson, then they were back to violet again. Yugi2 was concerned about her… that was… strange… it wasn't like they were close friends, or at least she didn't think they were.
"Fine." She lied, she was good at that.
However she hadn't reckoned on Yugi's friends, who were used to looking out for signs of fatigue or pain in their friend that he would shrug off with a 'I'm fine'.
"No you're not."
"You haven't gotten any painkillers from the Doctor?"
"How do I explain to a Doctor? 'Yes I left the infirmary to duel but I really need some pain killers for a magically induced pain. Where does it hurt, you ask? Everywhere!'" She looked at Yugi, "Besides, weren't you supposed to stay off that ankle as much as possible?"
Yugi just grimaced.
"And I thought I was stubborn." She sighed as Tristan left for a flask of hot water "If it's alright, I'd like to hear the story behind that…" She pointed to the Puzzle, "And Yugi2."
'Yugi2?'
"She means you, Yami."
Yami appeared in spirit form and bowed to the girl who gave a stiff bow back, "Can he hear me?"
Yami nodded.
"Hi I'm Kari." She introduced herself, "What's his name? I can't keep calling him Yugi2."
"His name's Yami." Yugi said, "And I'm not sure where to start."
"At the beginning's always good."
"Beginning, beginning…" Yugi hummed making Kari laugh, "I guess Duellist Kingdom then."
"Before you get talking, you two are sitting down." Tea said, pushing the two towards the sofa. "We'll sort out the drinks…" She glared at Joey and Tristan who moved into action, "You relax."
"Wow. Scary."
Yugi smiled, used to Tea by now, "A little."
"I heard that Yugi!" Tea called.
Yugi eeped and Yami, who was looked like he was leaning on the wall, just smirked.
"How does he not fall through that?" Kari asked, intrigued.
The concept had never occurred to Yami before, who made the mistake of thinking about that, gave a startled yelp and fell backwards, through the wall and into the corridor.
Joey was hard pressed to keep a straight face as Kari and Yugi laughed as the Pharaoh re-entered the room and glowered at Kari.
"That's not going to work," Kari pointed out, "I'm too sore to be scared of you right now."
Yami just rolled his eyes at her. 'I think she planned that!'
"How could she? You're being paranoid." Yugi sighed as Yami grumbled something about people out to get them. "So how much do you want to know?" He asked Kari.
"As much as you can tell me."
"Well." Yugi was about to start when someone else knocked on the door.
"Who is it?"
"It's Mai. Is it alright for me to come in?"
"Is it alright for Mai to know?"
"Mai knows about magic." Yugi looked at Joey who was confused for a moment, it was Yugi's secret, why was he asking Joey's permission?
"She'll have to know at some point if she keeps getting caught up in our problems." Joey shrugged.
"It's ok."
"I'm fine Mai, come on in." The door slid open and Mai walked in, a grin gracing her features, "Kaiba's throwing a head fit in the control room over the fact someone beat you before he could, Yugi."
"What does that mean?" Kari asked.
"You're likely to get a CEO pestering you every five minutes for a Duel."
"I'll play him… if he'll hire me." Kari mostly joked. She turned to Mai, "Mai, I was just about to have…" Kari pointed to the Puzzle, "Explained to me. You're welcome to stay if you like."
Mai looked at Yugi, who nodded.
"It's about time I find out exactly what that thing is." Mai looked wary though and sat down on the bed a little ways away.
"It's called the Millennium Puzzle." Yugi started, "It comes from Ancient Egypt and is around 5000 years old."
"Ancient Egyptian Model, now comes with extras." Kari murmured, "Like ancient ghosts I'm guessing."
"Yami's not really a spirit." Yugi said, eyes following Yami's pacing around the room, "His soul was trapped in the Puzzle all those years ago and now we're trying to recover his memories."
"An amnesiac ghost?"
"Like I said not really a ghost." "Yami will you stop that!" "Unfortunately we don't know much about Ancient Egypt, just that the Millennium Items are really powerful…"
"You can say that again." Mai murmured, remembering the Millennium Rod and Millennium Eye.
"And control Shadow Magic."
"What's Shadow Magic?"
"It's what Xuan was trying to imitate." Joey said, passing cups around, "Those shadows you saw were cheap copies of the real thing."
"If a fake Shadow Game hurts that much…"
"Trust me, don't get into a Duel with Bakura." Yugi warned her.
Kari looked at Mai who had a haunted expression on her face. She'd obviously fought a real Shadow Game before.
"So where does Maximillian Pegasus come into this?"
"He sealed my Grandpa's soul into a card, did the same to the Kaiba brothers and tried to destroy me." Yugi said. To start with Kari thought he was joking until she saw the looks on Yami, Joey, Tea and Tristan's faces.
"What?"
"At the time he had the Millennium Eye, it was taken from him just after the end of my… our match against him. It allowed Pegasus to read minds."
Kari sank into her seat a little more, "So he could read minds and this Millennium Eye is now M.I.A.?"
Yugi frowned at the unfamiliar term.
"Missing in action." Mai supplied. "I take it Marik had one of these Millennium Items too."
"There's seven in all, Marik's was the Millennium Rod. He could use it to control minds." Yugi shuddered and Yami came to his side, the memory of the Death Duel with Joey springing to mind, "Luckily we own that one now so it's out of circulation."
"So what're the other ones?"
"There's the Puzzle, the Ring, Bakura owns that one so I'm not sure what else it can do, the Eye, the Rod, the Necklace which gives visions of the past or future…" "And gave me hope when I didn't have any." "The Millennium Key which allows it's wielder to enter people's minds and rearrange their Soul Room to the wielder's design and the Millennium Scales, which judge people somehow, I think it's like the scales of Duat," Yugi saw one puzzled face and one that understood what he meant, "But I'm not sure."
"What's a Soul Room?"
'She's good at asking the hard ones.'
"I'll make you answer them if you keep being 'helpful'."
"A Soul Room is…" Yugi frowned, "I'm not sure how to explain it, it's kind of this room that's just yours. It's a reflection of your soul. It's where I go when Yami's in control and Yami spends a lot of time in his when I'm out and about, but I suppose it's best described as a sanctuary."
"Where are the Scales and the Key?"
"Shadi owns them." Yami had some choice words about Shadi that made Yugi give him the look, "He's supposed to be the guardian of the Millennium Items, but he tends to show up just after real trouble starts and he's never around during it."
Kari snorted her amusement.
"And that's the condensed version." Joey said, "What I want to know is where did you come from with a deck like that?" He asked Kari who smiled slightly.
"I'm from England. I've spent a lot of money on my deck, getting the cards I want and things…"
"Are you just here for the Tournament?"
Kari shook her head, "I moved here just after the last Battle City, I'm trying to get a job as a Games Designer but no-one seems to be hiring, so I work in a café to earn money for rent on my apartment."
"Aren't you worried about getting home sick?"
Kari snorted, "The only things I'll miss about England are people like Robyn, Ash and Lily."
"Huh?"
"You've met Robyn, Ash is Lily's older brother and they're friends too. My parents don't care too much."
Joey knew how that felt.
"It's all a null point anyway." Kari shrugged, "I don't want to go back to England." She grinned then, "So, who's up for raiding the blimp's kitchen while we still can? We've got another few hours before we get back to Domino."
Tristan and Joey, of course, looked interested.
A certain blonde haired, red robed, gem holding warrior/effect monster.
'She had two!'
Slifer destroyed it, but Yami's points shot down to zero.
Stunned silence ruled the arena.
"Was that another…"
"Princess of Tsurugi." Kari confirmed.
"Does that mean?"
'She had two!'
"Yami…"
'She had two!'
Yugi sighed and seized control from a rather stunned Yami. It was the first time he'd lost a fair game and to say the Pharaoh wasn't taking it well was an understatement.
'Yugi, she had two.'
"I know that, I saw the Duel."
'Two.'
"I'm not talking to you until you can come up with something sensible to say."
'Two.'
Yugi shook his head and walked across the arena to shake hands with Kari who looked a little shocked it had worked.
"Well played."
"You too, I mean wow, I got to fight a God card!" Kari said, grinning slightly now it was sinking in. "What a match!"
They both turned to Roland who was still trying to work out exactly what had happened.
"I don't think he expected that." Kari laughed.
"I…" Yugi looked down at the Puzzle, "Didn't expect that."
Kari's grin widened at that.
Kaiba was the first to move as the platform lowered to ground level. "Congratulations on winning, Miss Ironhide. Your prize money will be handed over in the closing ceremony once we get back to Domino."
"Thank you Mr Kaiba." Why did it feel like he was sizing her up?
The CEO left.
"Does this make me Queen of Games?" Kari asked, head tilted to one side.
"You better hope not." Yugi laughed, "Unless you like the press."
"Blegh." The two went over to Yugi's friends who still were a little shocked. "I think we stunned em."
"Guys, if you don't say something soon, we're going to raid the kitchen on the blimp and leave nothing behind." Yugi sighed.
That got a reaction.
"Wow, guess we know who's the new best Duellist in town."
"I lucked out." Kari laughed, "I bet I can't do it again."
Yugi grinned as they headed for the blimp, hands slipping into his pockets only to have one of them come back out with a slip of paper he didn't remember there before.
It was a note.
From Robyn.
Hi Yugi and Yami,
Bet you didn't expect that. I guess the Jerk is going to go crazy. Hehe, Queen of Games. If you can get me a video of Kaiba vs. Ironhide I'll love you forever. I'll send Kari some protection soon, can you look out for her until then? See you in a few years. Say hi to the dragon for me.
Robyn
PS She actually has three.
P.P.S Bet you that within two weeks Kari will be living on takeout and will have a new job.
P.P.P.S. Do not feed sugar or sporks to the little Kaiba.
P.P.P.P.S I refuse point blank to tell anyone who or what an Auror may or may not be.
P.P.P.P.P.S You'll find out in September.
P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Remember to take a raincoat. The weather is a bit wet.
'Three?'
"Yami don't start this again."
It started raining and the gang raced into the blimp to avoid getting soaked.
"What happened to the snow?" Joey was complaining.
Yami paused in his rant about three Princess of Tsurugi, 'How would you feed a spork to Mokuba?'
"Without Kaiba killing us?" Yugi sent the equivalent of a shrug. "What do you think she's Seen?"
'I don't know. Something about us and Aurors.' Yami sent a shrug back, then he paused, 'Yugi, what's a spork?'
"I'm wondering how sugar, sporks, Aurors and September combines." Yugi replied, showing Yami the memory of a spork.
'No clue…' Yami decided they weren't as interesting as they sounded.
The now wet note went up in flames, briefly spelling another sentence. "Magic, I believe."
"Okay, that's freaky."
'Should we tell Kaiba sugar sporks are a bad idea?'
"Sugar sporks?"
'Yeap.'
"Sugar sporks?"
"Note from Robyn?" Kari asked. Yugi nodded. "Back to my room for hot chocolate? We have hours before we get back to Domino."
"Hot chocolate?" Joey asked, trying not to whine.
"Hot chocolate for all." Kari agreed.
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Kari would have been curled up on her bed from the pain she really shouldn't have aggravated had her friends not been here. She wondered if there was a non magical remedy for magically caused pain.
It was probably called ibuprofen.
Kari sighed.
Robyn was right, Robyn was always right.
She'd been stupid in fighting the guy and getting herself this hurt. At least with the Tournament money it wouldn't matter if she was too stiff to go to work tomorrow.
She hadn't realised there was a note beside her bed saying, 'No, I'm not Kari.' If she had she would have realised it was from Robyn.
"Where's the hot water?"
"We had to get some from the kitchen last time." Kari said, wincing as she stretched out.
"Are you alright?" For a split second Yugi's eyes were crimson, then they were back to violet again. Yugi2 was concerned about her… that was… strange… it wasn't like they were close friends, or at least she didn't think they were.
"Fine." She lied, she was good at that.
However she hadn't reckoned on Yugi's friends, who were used to looking out for signs of fatigue or pain in their friend that he would shrug off with a 'I'm fine'.
"No you're not."
"You haven't gotten any painkillers from the Doctor?"
"How do I explain to a Doctor? 'Yes I left the infirmary to duel but I really need some pain killers for a magically induced pain. Where does it hurt, you ask? Everywhere!'" She looked at Yugi, "Besides, weren't you supposed to stay off that ankle as much as possible?"
Yugi just grimaced.
"And I thought I was stubborn." She sighed as Tristan left for a flask of hot water "If it's alright, I'd like to hear the story behind that…" She pointed to the Puzzle, "And Yugi2."
'Yugi2?'
"She means you, Yami."
Yami appeared in spirit form and bowed to the girl who gave a stiff bow back, "Can he hear me?"
Yami nodded.
"Hi I'm Kari." She introduced herself, "What's his name? I can't keep calling him Yugi2."
"His name's Yami." Yugi said, "And I'm not sure where to start."
"At the beginning's always good."
"Beginning, beginning…" Yugi hummed making Kari laugh, "I guess Duellist Kingdom then."
"Before you get talking, you two are sitting down." Tea said, pushing the two towards the sofa. "We'll sort out the drinks…" She glared at Joey and Tristan who moved into action, "You relax."
"Wow. Scary."
Yugi smiled, used to Tea by now, "A little."
"I heard that Yugi!" Tea called.
Yugi eeped and Yami, who was looked like he was leaning on the wall, just smirked.
"How does he not fall through that?" Kari asked, intrigued.
The concept had never occurred to Yami before, who made the mistake of thinking about that, gave a startled yelp and fell backwards, through the wall and into the corridor.
Joey was hard pressed to keep a straight face as Kari and Yugi laughed as the Pharaoh re-entered the room and glowered at Kari.
"That's not going to work," Kari pointed out, "I'm too sore to be scared of you right now."
Yami just rolled his eyes at her. 'I think she planned that!'
"How could she? You're being paranoid." Yugi sighed as Yami grumbled something about people out to get them. "So how much do you want to know?" He asked Kari.
"As much as you can tell me."
"Well." Yugi was about to start when someone else knocked on the door.
"Who is it?"
"It's Mai. Is it alright for me to come in?"
"Is it alright for Mai to know?"
"Mai knows about magic." Yugi looked at Joey who was confused for a moment, it was Yugi's secret, why was he asking Joey's permission?
"She'll have to know at some point if she keeps getting caught up in our problems." Joey shrugged.
"It's ok."
"I'm fine Mai, come on in." The door slid open and Mai walked in, a grin gracing her features, "Kaiba's throwing a head fit in the control room over the fact someone beat you before he could, Yugi."
"What does that mean?" Kari asked.
"You're likely to get a CEO pestering you every five minutes for a Duel."
"I'll play him… if he'll hire me." Kari mostly joked. She turned to Mai, "Mai, I was just about to have…" Kari pointed to the Puzzle, "Explained to me. You're welcome to stay if you like."
Mai looked at Yugi, who nodded.
"It's about time I find out exactly what that thing is." Mai looked wary though and sat down on the bed a little ways away.
"It's called the Millennium Puzzle." Yugi started, "It comes from Ancient Egypt and is around 5000 years old."
"Ancient Egyptian Model, now comes with extras." Kari murmured, "Like ancient ghosts I'm guessing."
"Yami's not really a spirit." Yugi said, eyes following Yami's pacing around the room, "His soul was trapped in the Puzzle all those years ago and now we're trying to recover his memories."
"An amnesiac ghost?"
"Like I said not really a ghost." "Yami will you stop that!" "Unfortunately we don't know much about Ancient Egypt, just that the Millennium Items are really powerful…"
"You can say that again." Mai murmured, remembering the Millennium Rod and Millennium Eye.
"And control Shadow Magic."
"What's Shadow Magic?"
"It's what Xuan was trying to imitate." Joey said, passing cups around, "Those shadows you saw were cheap copies of the real thing."
"If a fake Shadow Game hurts that much…"
"Trust me, don't get into a Duel with Bakura." Yugi warned her.
Kari looked at Mai who had a haunted expression on her face. She'd obviously fought a real Shadow Game before.
"So where does Maximillian Pegasus come into this?"
"He sealed my Grandpa's soul into a card, did the same to the Kaiba brothers and tried to destroy me." Yugi said. To start with Kari thought he was joking until she saw the looks on Yami, Joey, Tea and Tristan's faces.
"What?"
"At the time he had the Millennium Eye, it was taken from him just after the end of my… our match against him. It allowed Pegasus to read minds."
Kari sank into her seat a little more, "So he could read minds and this Millennium Eye is now M.I.A.?"
Yugi frowned at the unfamiliar term.
"Missing in action." Mai supplied. "I take it Marik had one of these Millennium Items too."
"There's seven in all, Marik's was the Millennium Rod. He could use it to control minds." Yugi shuddered and Yami came to his side, the memory of the Death Duel with Joey springing to mind, "Luckily we own that one now so it's out of circulation."
"So what're the other ones?"
"There's the Puzzle, the Ring, Bakura owns that one so I'm not sure what else it can do, the Eye, the Rod, the Necklace which gives visions of the past or future…" "And gave me hope when I didn't have any." "The Millennium Key which allows it's wielder to enter people's minds and rearrange their Soul Room to the wielder's design and the Millennium Scales, which judge people somehow, I think it's like the scales of Duat," Yugi saw one puzzled face and one that understood what he meant, "But I'm not sure."
"What's a Soul Room?"
'She's good at asking the hard ones.'
"I'll make you answer them if you keep being 'helpful'."
"A Soul Room is…" Yugi frowned, "I'm not sure how to explain it, it's kind of this room that's just yours. It's a reflection of your soul. It's where I go when Yami's in control and Yami spends a lot of time in his when I'm out and about, but I suppose it's best described as a sanctuary."
"Where are the Scales and the Key?"
"Shadi owns them." Yami had some choice words about Shadi that made Yugi give him the look, "He's supposed to be the guardian of the Millennium Items, but he tends to show up just after real trouble starts and he's never around during it."
Kari snorted her amusement.
"And that's the condensed version." Joey said, "What I want to know is where did you come from with a deck like that?" He asked Kari who smiled slightly.
"I'm from England. I've spent a lot of money on my deck, getting the cards I want and things…"
"Are you just here for the Tournament?"
Kari shook her head, "I moved here just after the last Battle City, I'm trying to get a job as a Games Designer but no-one seems to be hiring, so I work in a café to earn money for rent on my apartment."
"Aren't you worried about getting home sick?"
Kari snorted, "The only things I'll miss about England are people like Robyn, Ash and Lily."
"Huh?"
"You've met Robyn, Ash is Lily's older brother and they're friends too. My parents don't care too much."
Joey knew how that felt.
"It's all a null point anyway." Kari shrugged, "I don't want to go back to England." She grinned then, "So, who's up for raiding the blimp's kitchen while we still can? We've got another few hours before we get back to Domino."
Tristan and Joey, of course, looked interested.