Chapter 4: - No Choice
Yami slowed down to catch his breath.
Joey hadn't been at the park, or aqueduct, or the bridge or about a million other places, but he had heard about Joey and a girl teaming up to deal with some thugs who'd tried to jump Joey.
Yami and Yugi had grinned when they'd heard about Joey's tag team duel, it would be interesting to meet another Magician user who didn't cheat, unlike Arcana. They did seem to attract the crazy ones, the ones who'd quite happily jump into a massive battle even if they didn't know what was going on and who didn't tend to run from danger.
There had been other goons around, but they seemed to be content with trailing him for now, something that had Yami on edge. If they were being paid to grab the Puzzle, why weren't they attacking him?
"Yami, look around."
Yami frowned at Yugi's request and did so, worried frown turning to amused smile at Yugi's sudden switch in mood as the first of the, warned of, snow fell from the sky, not pitching on the ground yet, but soon, it had been cold and dry recently.
"Where should we try looking next?" Yugi asked.
'I think Joey will probably come looking for us, we're easier to find, look at all the fans we've run into while looking for Joey.' Yami replied, 'If we stay in one spot we'll probably get him passing us.' Yami shivered slightly. They didn't get to see snow very often, but when they did the gang were like little kids just given their favorite candy.
Yami quite liked snow, but he had to wonder how many Duelists would pack it in if the snowfall got too bad. A roaming Tournament was often bad enough if the weather was just cold, to add snow to the equation was just asking for complaints and frozen Duelists.
Leather wasn't the warmest thing in the world, Yami decided as he rubbed his arms to get some feeling back into them, if anything he'd've thought Aibou would have chosen something a little saner to wear considering the forecast was snow.
"Sorry Yami." Yugi tried not to laugh, "I completely forgot about the weather forecast."
Yami sent the mental equivalent of an irritated eye roll and then a quick grin to show he didn't mean it. He'd been as bad as Yugi, so busy getting ready and trying to beat down nerves, that he hadn't thought to check the weather forecast.
Joey had been going on about snow for over a week, hoping that it didn't fall today of all days, but of course, sod's law, it was falling over a city swarming with Duellists.
"So who're you going to fight?" Yugi asked as Yami took in the crowd and noted every Duellist in it in under a second.
'I'm still waiting to see if those goons that have been following us make another attempt at the Puzzle.'
"If you wait too long we won't get enough Map Cards."
Yami smiled slightly. Yugi was worried about Joey and about the guys after the Puzzle, but Yugi still wanted to win this Tournament as much as Yami did.
'Well, who would you suggest?' Yami asked, swapping over, wanting to test Yugi's ability to pick a good opponent.
There was silence for a minute as Yugi looked at the Duelists and then decided, going over to the blonde that they'd met earlier and challenging her.
She looked startled for a moment, then grinned and nodded.
Yami, aware of a sudden peak in interest from the goons that had been following them, took control and activated his Duel Disk.
This was why they'd been following him, to watch him play and see if there were any weak points in his deck that they could exploit.
Well, if they wanted a show they were going to get one.
"Yami, don't get too over confident." Yugi scolded him.
"I've been after playing you." The girl said, saving Yami from having to think of a response, "I'm Kimi Honda. Thanks for helping me find that bug earlier."
Yami grinned, "Nice to finally get to know your name, but that doesn't mean I'm going to go any easier on you."
"Two map cards?" Kimi asked, holding them up.
"Two." Yami agreed, showing her his own. "Make the first move."
"Thank you." Kimi grinned, drawing, "I play one card in defence mode and two cards face down. It's your move, Yugi."
Yami drew, looking at his hand and grinning, "Queen's Knight, in attack mode and three cards face down. Queen's Knight attack her face down card!"
The card blew up and so did Yami's knight.
"Huh?"
"Old Vindictive Magician." Kimi explained with a grin, "Destroys your monster when it's flipped face up."
'Don't say it Yugi.' The innocent whistle from Yugi's Soul Room told Yami he'd been right about what Yugi had been thinking.
"Nice one." Yami nodded, "Your move."
"I summon Celtic Witch." Kimi said as she played the monster. It was one of the new cards from the latest booster packs, the four star, 1700/1300, lady Spellcaster in some sort of red and gold robes, like the Rare Hunters' robes but in colour and without covering the face, the monster's brunette hair did that plenty well enough, without help. "Wand Blast!"
The Spellcaster pointed a wooden stick at Yami, firing off some sort of bluish light.
Yami's voice couldn't be heard over the noise of the bluish light striking the brown fuzzball who exploded and protected Yami from the attack. Thanks.
"Was that Kuriboh?" Kimi asked with a grin. "He was so cute."
Yami smiled, "I take it you know what he does then."
Kimi nodded, "You discard him and he protects you from one attack." Her smile became slightly vindictive, "You stopped a God with that card, didn't you?"
"Only for one turn." Yami replied, put on guard by her attitude change.
"I end my turn."
Yami had been waiting for that and drew, "Alpha, the Magnet Warrior in attack mode, and I activate Magnet Pull, allowing me to summon Beta and Gamma from my deck." The other two magnet monsters appeared on the field. "Then I merge them to Special Summon Valkyrion the Magnet Warrior." Yami's 3500/3850 Magnet Warrior appeared on the field. "Destroy Kimi's Witch!"
Kimi flinched as her witch was cut in two and her life points dropped to 2200.
"Your turn."
Kimi nodded and drew, annoyed he'd turned it around so quickly, "I summon Celtic Wizard." She played the monster, this time it was a man in blue and bronze robes and brown hair who gave Yami the most disgusted look that the Pharaoh had ever seen on a Duel Monster's face. "He's the boyfriend of Celtic Witch, so since she's in the graveyard he gets an extra 1000 attack and defence points."
The wizard's points rose to 2900.
"He's still not strong enough to fight my Valkyrion." Yami stated, wondering what she was up to.
"No, but I can activate Defusion, separating your Magnet Warrior back into it's three parts." The warrior split into Alpha, Beta and Gamma again, "Celtic Wizard! Destroy Alpha the Magnet Warrior."
Yami's Alpha exploded, decreasing Yami's points by 1500.
"Your move."
Yami drew and smirked. Not a regular good draw smirk either, it was the I-know-exactly-how-this-is-going-to-end-because-I-just drew-something-uber smirk which was slightly different to those who knew him from the oh-god-I-know-that-look-we're-gonna-die smirk.
In his Soul Room, Yugi's head shot up at the energy that had passed from card to Pharaoh and wondered which God it was as Yami played Monster Reborn to bring back Alpha and sacrificed all of them for…
"I sacrifice all three for Obelisk the Tormentor!" Yami growled as he summoned the huge blue God monster. "Attack!" Yami yelled up at it.
Kimi threw her arms up to protect herself as her Wizard was squashed by a huge blue fist and her points dropped by another 1100.
"Your move."
Kimi growled under her breath as she drew a card, looked at the field and then smiled and shook her head. "I expected to face a God, but I still manage to be surprised." She played a card face down in defense mode, "Your move Yugi."
Yami drew, "I play a card in defense mode." Yami said, then turned to his God Card, "Obelisk! Attack her monster!"
The poor monster exploded but Yami frowned as his life points dropped.
"What?"
"My trap card activated." Kimi said. "I know that your God is immune to them, but you're not, so I activated Magic Bomb, which takes five hundred points from you for every Spellcaster destroyed in the turn it's activated."
Yami frowned but let Kimi take her turn. Another card face down and a card in defence mode.
Yami drew and smiled, "I play King's Knight in attack mode." Yami called, summoning the monster, "He destroys your face down card."
"I activate another Magic Bomb!" Kimi retorted as King's Knight slashed her Spellcaster out of existence.
"Obelisk!" Yami growled as his points dropped to 1500, "Finish this!"
Kimi was knocked backwards as Obelisk obliterated the rest of her life points.
"Nice game." Yami said, giving her a hand to her feet.
"I kinda knew I was going to lose." Kimi sighed, putting her hand in her pocket and pulling out two map cards, "Here, good luck."
"Thanks, are you out now?" Yami asked.
Kimi nodded. "Never mind, maybe next year." She shrugged, "See ya around."
"See you Kimi." Yami gave her a broad smile.
She grinned back and headed off towards somewhere warm.
"Yami. Look around." Yugi grinned.
The snow was pitching. Forming a covering of white over the ground.
Yami however, was distracted from that by the goons who were closing in on them. Quickly shutting off his Duel Disk and putting his deck in it's case, Yami growled as he was surrounded.
"What?" He snapped at them.
"You know what we want." The leader of this group growled.
"What's the matter?" Yami asked, a smirk on his face, "Things not going the way you planned?"
"Wheeler got lucky."
"What? You weren't expecting to lose to a girl?" Yami laughed. The bad guys looked startled, "I've heard about the Double Duel."
"You're coming with us." The leader growled and stepped forward.
"Why would I?" Yami asked, giving the man his best Death Glare and smirking slightly when he recoiled.
"Our boss wants to see you."
"Hirutani wants to see me?" Yami asked, rolling his eyes, "Tough."
Yugi could sense that there was more to Yami's attitude then he was letting the bad guy's see. In a Duel or a game of any kind, Yami could take them, but they had a size advantage over the Pharaoh if they chose just to attack them.
"You're coming with us." The Leader took a step forward.
Yami stayed exactly where he was, "Who are you working for?"
"Hirutani." He answered, as if that was obvious, giving the two behind Yami a nod.
Yami rolled his eyes, "Who's Hirutani working for?" Then had to try to pull himself free as he was grabbed from behind and had one arm twisted behind his back, while the other attempted to tear away the arm that now surrounded his throat.
Yami tried not to bark in pain as they twisted the arm behind his back further, but he did stop trying to free himself for the time being.
"Why don't you come and meet them for yourself?" The Leader smirked.
"I know this probably sounds stupid, but it isn't a bad idea." Yami frowned, more at Yugi's comment then the thugs. "We're going to have to face them sooner or later and I'd rather face them before they can drag our friends into it."
Unspoken, before they can hurt Joey.
"Fine. I'll come with you." Yami said out loud. Though to be fair, short of Shadow Gaming these freaks, which he didn't dare do while they had him pinned like this, he didn't really have much choice.
"You never had a choice."
Joey hadn't been at the park, or aqueduct, or the bridge or about a million other places, but he had heard about Joey and a girl teaming up to deal with some thugs who'd tried to jump Joey.
Yami and Yugi had grinned when they'd heard about Joey's tag team duel, it would be interesting to meet another Magician user who didn't cheat, unlike Arcana. They did seem to attract the crazy ones, the ones who'd quite happily jump into a massive battle even if they didn't know what was going on and who didn't tend to run from danger.
There had been other goons around, but they seemed to be content with trailing him for now, something that had Yami on edge. If they were being paid to grab the Puzzle, why weren't they attacking him?
"Yami, look around."
Yami frowned at Yugi's request and did so, worried frown turning to amused smile at Yugi's sudden switch in mood as the first of the, warned of, snow fell from the sky, not pitching on the ground yet, but soon, it had been cold and dry recently.
"Where should we try looking next?" Yugi asked.
'I think Joey will probably come looking for us, we're easier to find, look at all the fans we've run into while looking for Joey.' Yami replied, 'If we stay in one spot we'll probably get him passing us.' Yami shivered slightly. They didn't get to see snow very often, but when they did the gang were like little kids just given their favorite candy.
Yami quite liked snow, but he had to wonder how many Duelists would pack it in if the snowfall got too bad. A roaming Tournament was often bad enough if the weather was just cold, to add snow to the equation was just asking for complaints and frozen Duelists.
Leather wasn't the warmest thing in the world, Yami decided as he rubbed his arms to get some feeling back into them, if anything he'd've thought Aibou would have chosen something a little saner to wear considering the forecast was snow.
"Sorry Yami." Yugi tried not to laugh, "I completely forgot about the weather forecast."
Yami sent the mental equivalent of an irritated eye roll and then a quick grin to show he didn't mean it. He'd been as bad as Yugi, so busy getting ready and trying to beat down nerves, that he hadn't thought to check the weather forecast.
Joey had been going on about snow for over a week, hoping that it didn't fall today of all days, but of course, sod's law, it was falling over a city swarming with Duellists.
"So who're you going to fight?" Yugi asked as Yami took in the crowd and noted every Duellist in it in under a second.
'I'm still waiting to see if those goons that have been following us make another attempt at the Puzzle.'
"If you wait too long we won't get enough Map Cards."
Yami smiled slightly. Yugi was worried about Joey and about the guys after the Puzzle, but Yugi still wanted to win this Tournament as much as Yami did.
'Well, who would you suggest?' Yami asked, swapping over, wanting to test Yugi's ability to pick a good opponent.
There was silence for a minute as Yugi looked at the Duelists and then decided, going over to the blonde that they'd met earlier and challenging her.
She looked startled for a moment, then grinned and nodded.
Yami, aware of a sudden peak in interest from the goons that had been following them, took control and activated his Duel Disk.
This was why they'd been following him, to watch him play and see if there were any weak points in his deck that they could exploit.
Well, if they wanted a show they were going to get one.
"Yami, don't get too over confident." Yugi scolded him.
"I've been after playing you." The girl said, saving Yami from having to think of a response, "I'm Kimi Honda. Thanks for helping me find that bug earlier."
Yami grinned, "Nice to finally get to know your name, but that doesn't mean I'm going to go any easier on you."
"Two map cards?" Kimi asked, holding them up.
"Two." Yami agreed, showing her his own. "Make the first move."
"Thank you." Kimi grinned, drawing, "I play one card in defence mode and two cards face down. It's your move, Yugi."
Yami drew, looking at his hand and grinning, "Queen's Knight, in attack mode and three cards face down. Queen's Knight attack her face down card!"
The card blew up and so did Yami's knight.
"Huh?"
"Old Vindictive Magician." Kimi explained with a grin, "Destroys your monster when it's flipped face up."
'Don't say it Yugi.' The innocent whistle from Yugi's Soul Room told Yami he'd been right about what Yugi had been thinking.
"Nice one." Yami nodded, "Your move."
"I summon Celtic Witch." Kimi said as she played the monster. It was one of the new cards from the latest booster packs, the four star, 1700/1300, lady Spellcaster in some sort of red and gold robes, like the Rare Hunters' robes but in colour and without covering the face, the monster's brunette hair did that plenty well enough, without help. "Wand Blast!"
The Spellcaster pointed a wooden stick at Yami, firing off some sort of bluish light.
Yami's voice couldn't be heard over the noise of the bluish light striking the brown fuzzball who exploded and protected Yami from the attack. Thanks.
"Was that Kuriboh?" Kimi asked with a grin. "He was so cute."
Yami smiled, "I take it you know what he does then."
Kimi nodded, "You discard him and he protects you from one attack." Her smile became slightly vindictive, "You stopped a God with that card, didn't you?"
"Only for one turn." Yami replied, put on guard by her attitude change.
"I end my turn."
Yami had been waiting for that and drew, "Alpha, the Magnet Warrior in attack mode, and I activate Magnet Pull, allowing me to summon Beta and Gamma from my deck." The other two magnet monsters appeared on the field. "Then I merge them to Special Summon Valkyrion the Magnet Warrior." Yami's 3500/3850 Magnet Warrior appeared on the field. "Destroy Kimi's Witch!"
Kimi flinched as her witch was cut in two and her life points dropped to 2200.
"Your turn."
Kimi nodded and drew, annoyed he'd turned it around so quickly, "I summon Celtic Wizard." She played the monster, this time it was a man in blue and bronze robes and brown hair who gave Yami the most disgusted look that the Pharaoh had ever seen on a Duel Monster's face. "He's the boyfriend of Celtic Witch, so since she's in the graveyard he gets an extra 1000 attack and defence points."
The wizard's points rose to 2900.
"He's still not strong enough to fight my Valkyrion." Yami stated, wondering what she was up to.
"No, but I can activate Defusion, separating your Magnet Warrior back into it's three parts." The warrior split into Alpha, Beta and Gamma again, "Celtic Wizard! Destroy Alpha the Magnet Warrior."
Yami's Alpha exploded, decreasing Yami's points by 1500.
"Your move."
Yami drew and smirked. Not a regular good draw smirk either, it was the I-know-exactly-how-this-is-going-to-end-because-I-just drew-something-uber smirk which was slightly different to those who knew him from the oh-god-I-know-that-look-we're-gonna-die smirk.
In his Soul Room, Yugi's head shot up at the energy that had passed from card to Pharaoh and wondered which God it was as Yami played Monster Reborn to bring back Alpha and sacrificed all of them for…
"I sacrifice all three for Obelisk the Tormentor!" Yami growled as he summoned the huge blue God monster. "Attack!" Yami yelled up at it.
Kimi threw her arms up to protect herself as her Wizard was squashed by a huge blue fist and her points dropped by another 1100.
"Your move."
Kimi growled under her breath as she drew a card, looked at the field and then smiled and shook her head. "I expected to face a God, but I still manage to be surprised." She played a card face down in defense mode, "Your move Yugi."
Yami drew, "I play a card in defense mode." Yami said, then turned to his God Card, "Obelisk! Attack her monster!"
The poor monster exploded but Yami frowned as his life points dropped.
"What?"
"My trap card activated." Kimi said. "I know that your God is immune to them, but you're not, so I activated Magic Bomb, which takes five hundred points from you for every Spellcaster destroyed in the turn it's activated."
Yami frowned but let Kimi take her turn. Another card face down and a card in defence mode.
Yami drew and smiled, "I play King's Knight in attack mode." Yami called, summoning the monster, "He destroys your face down card."
"I activate another Magic Bomb!" Kimi retorted as King's Knight slashed her Spellcaster out of existence.
"Obelisk!" Yami growled as his points dropped to 1500, "Finish this!"
Kimi was knocked backwards as Obelisk obliterated the rest of her life points.
"Nice game." Yami said, giving her a hand to her feet.
"I kinda knew I was going to lose." Kimi sighed, putting her hand in her pocket and pulling out two map cards, "Here, good luck."
"Thanks, are you out now?" Yami asked.
Kimi nodded. "Never mind, maybe next year." She shrugged, "See ya around."
"See you Kimi." Yami gave her a broad smile.
She grinned back and headed off towards somewhere warm.
"Yami. Look around." Yugi grinned.
The snow was pitching. Forming a covering of white over the ground.
Yami however, was distracted from that by the goons who were closing in on them. Quickly shutting off his Duel Disk and putting his deck in it's case, Yami growled as he was surrounded.
"What?" He snapped at them.
"You know what we want." The leader of this group growled.
"What's the matter?" Yami asked, a smirk on his face, "Things not going the way you planned?"
"Wheeler got lucky."
"What? You weren't expecting to lose to a girl?" Yami laughed. The bad guys looked startled, "I've heard about the Double Duel."
"You're coming with us." The leader growled and stepped forward.
"Why would I?" Yami asked, giving the man his best Death Glare and smirking slightly when he recoiled.
"Our boss wants to see you."
"Hirutani wants to see me?" Yami asked, rolling his eyes, "Tough."
Yugi could sense that there was more to Yami's attitude then he was letting the bad guy's see. In a Duel or a game of any kind, Yami could take them, but they had a size advantage over the Pharaoh if they chose just to attack them.
"You're coming with us." The Leader took a step forward.
Yami stayed exactly where he was, "Who are you working for?"
"Hirutani." He answered, as if that was obvious, giving the two behind Yami a nod.
Yami rolled his eyes, "Who's Hirutani working for?" Then had to try to pull himself free as he was grabbed from behind and had one arm twisted behind his back, while the other attempted to tear away the arm that now surrounded his throat.
Yami tried not to bark in pain as they twisted the arm behind his back further, but he did stop trying to free himself for the time being.
"Why don't you come and meet them for yourself?" The Leader smirked.
"I know this probably sounds stupid, but it isn't a bad idea." Yami frowned, more at Yugi's comment then the thugs. "We're going to have to face them sooner or later and I'd rather face them before they can drag our friends into it."
Unspoken, before they can hurt Joey.
"Fine. I'll come with you." Yami said out loud. Though to be fair, short of Shadow Gaming these freaks, which he didn't dare do while they had him pinned like this, he didn't really have much choice.
"You never had a choice."