Chapter 9: - Good Morning
It was dark and cold when Yugi opened his eyes. He obviously wasn't on the blimp any more.
He wasn't hurt in anyway either though, so either he was dreaming or someone had healed him.
It was dark and cold and felt like the Shadows but different. It didn't hurt to be here, at least not as much, and the darkness curled around Yugi, latching onto him eagerly. If anything he didn't hurt, it just felt like he could curl up and go to sleep for a very long time…
Yugi's eyes widened and he shook his arms to rid them of the tendrils of darkness.
He couldn't sleep here, that much he knew, Yugi closed his eyes and focused his magic the way Yami had shown him, causing the darkness to retreat from his light for a moment before it danced around him, just waiting.
"Yami?" Yugi asked, mentally searching his Soul Room and what he could sense of the Puzzle and Yami's.
Fear, real fear surged down the link.
Yami was mortally afraid.
But of what? Yami didn't fear anything!
Yugi raced forward, realizing the presence he was sensing wasn't in one of the Soul Rooms, but out here, in the darkness too.
"Yami!" He wasn't a hundred percent sure of where the Pharaoh was, but following the sense of 'Yami.'
The Pharaoh looked shocked and actually took a step backwards when Yugi came into view.
"Yugi? But you… you shouldn't be here!" Yami's tone settled to a harsh one but Yugi could sense the fear and concern behind the tone. Yami shied away from Yugi's light and Yugi quickly toned it down.
"You need me." Yugi said, "I wouldn't have woken up here if you didn't."
"Yugi…"
Bringing your hikari here Pharaoh?
Yugi gasped at the pain the harsh mental voice caused as it spoke.
Fine, then he can sleep here too!
"No!" Yami yelled, determined to protect Yugi as the darkness surged in.
"Yami, close your eyes!" Yugi called, pulling all his magic together and letting his light flare, scaring the darkness away for a mere moment, flash blinding both yami and hikari
When Yugi was able to open his eyes again, he looked around to find they were back in Yugi's Soul Room. He sank onto his bed, exhausted.
"Are you alright?" Yami asked, concerned, a little of the fear still lingering.
"What was that?" Yugi asked, willing to sleep now that they were safe in the Soul Room.
"Nothing." Yami replied but without meeting his eyes.
"Yami." Yugi stared at his dark half, "What was it?"
Yami frowned and sighed, "It was nothing, honest."
"You were afraid. I've never sensed that much fear from you before. It had to be something." Yugi continued to stare at him.
"It was a nightmare." Yami shrugged.
"I can keep this up all night if I have to." Yugi yawned, "What. Was. That?"
"I don't know why it let us go." Yami shuddered, "I guess with the Puzzle whole, it can't keep us."
"Huh?"
"It doesn't matter." Yami shook his head, "We have more important and pressing things to worry about, like Xuan and Johnson."
"What're…" Yugi tensed as Yami stiffened. "What?"
"Someone's knocking on your door."
"I'd better wake up." Yugi left the soul room, waking up in a sore and stiff body, "But you will tell me what in the name of the Gods that was!"
Joey was already at the door, surprisingly alert considering it wasn't even morning yet. "Magic? You're sure?"
"Yeah, magic wand and all. I've seen plenty of magic, but waving wands around?" Tristan shook his head, "It's new." He shrugged, "Warn Yugi will ya? That Johnson looks like he might be more trouble then Yugi thought."
"Alright, I'll tell him in the morning."
"Joey?" Yugi saw his friend tense up as the sleepy question reached him. "What's wrong?"
"We've got trouble."
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It was seven in the morning and it was breakfast time in the blimp.
Yugi, who had gotten very little sleep between Yami's nightmare, the warning about Johnson and Xuan and his own nightmares, was surprised to see Mai sat with Robyn, who was dressed all in blue today. Kari, who looked as awake as Yugi felt, was in jeans and t-shirt, grabbing a bowl of sugar… he was certain there was cereal under there.
"Morning!" Mai waved him over, "Where's Joey?"
"Getting up." Yugi rolled his eyes, knowing all too well what his friend was like, "Good morning." He bowed to Robyn.
"Hi, I'm Robyn, what's your name?" Robyn asked.
Halfway across the room, Kari had stopped, bowl of sugar still in hand, and would have face palmed if she'd had a free hand. Yugi grinned though.
"I'm Yugi, it's nice to meet you."
"Please to meet you too. You must be pretty good to get this far. I'm just taglong today."
Mai stared at the girl as Kari put her bowl down on the table and gave her friend an incredulous look. "Robyn, this is Yugi Muto! The King of Games!"
Robyn tilted her head, "Oh that sounds somewhat familiar. Aren't you the guy that the tall brunette said he would beat last time?"
"That was Seto Kaiba." Kari said in a despairing tone.
"The jerk you want to hire you?" Robyn glanced over to her friend, then glared at the bowl of sugar in front of her. "Kari!"
"It's breakfast!" Kari growled in Engish, her tone turning defensive, "And yes, the same guy." Sighing she turned back to Yugi, "I figured that the so called adults running this Tournament are going to run out of chocolate and sugar soon so I stockpiled some in my room if you want to grab a hot chocolate after the quarters. I'm Kari Ironhide, by the way."
"Sure. Thank you. You want a job at Kaiba Corp?" Yugi asked, as Tea entered the room, bright and breezy, and grabbed up two portions of fruit, one of which she dumped in front of Yugi.
"I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that's insane." Robyn declared.
"It's too early in the morning for fruit." Kari replied as Joey walked into the room, gave it a bleary eyed look for a moment, then headed straight for the food table.
"This isn't early." Defended Robyn as she put a little bit of everything on her plate.
"Says the crazy morning bird." Kari said before tucking into the sugar pile.
"Why are the spectators more awake then the competitors today?" Mai laughed, "It looks like I'm the only one Duelling that's fully awake!"
"Kaiba was heading down to the control room, I bumped into him in the corridors," Yugi replied, tucking into the grapefruit without complaint, knowing Tea would yell at him if he didn't eat something healthy, "And I don't know where Bakura and the other two are."
Mai wondered briefly if he didn't know, or didn't want to know.
"Who had the last of the sugar!" Joey complained as he looked around at them, not even giving Tea a passing glance, completely unaware she'd hidden it.
Kari quickly made her sugar disappear underneath her milk.
"The wobbling pink stuff goes well with the toast, and it's sweet. Robyn pointed out.
Joey gave her a blank look, his English not up to translating that sentence. Robyn searched for the right Japanese and came out with, "Pink and toast good?"
Kari burst into giggles, "Robyn, you really need to learn more Japanese."
"Or Joey needs to get higher grades in English." Yugi laughed as Joey sat down with his pink on toast, grumbling slightly.
"I've only been learning for a week, it wasn't like I could bespell myself to know Japanese." Robyn said, "And I know the important one, "No more sugar."
Yugi and Mai laughed as Kari gave her friend another despairing look.
"If you're good enough to make the quarters, how come we haven't seen you before?" Tristan asked, having entered the room during the giggling fit and sitting down with some something brown on toast that Kari didn't dare ask about.
"I've only been living here a couple of months." Kari replied, "I moved to Domino just after the last Battle City." She frowned slightly at the slight shift in everyone's mood at the mention of it, "As Robyn said, I'm trying to get a job with Kaiba."
"And the English colleges were holding us hostage." Robyn added, causing Kari to grin and the others who understood it to look confused.
"Evil assessments and exams while the Tournaments were on." Kari explained.
Joey hissed at the word exams, making Yugi grin, "We're normally on holiday during the Tournaments so it's not an issue."
"You didn't miss much last time though." Joey said, "Just some random insanity."
"Fun time must come after studying." Robyn said, rolling her eyes. "Kari could have been winning money from those Tournaments, instead of working too many hours, besides random insanity is fun."
"Not this kind." Yugi shook his head. "Wait, winning prize money?" Yugi suddenly looked at Kari, "How far up were you back home?"
"Up?" Kari looked confused.
"What level were you playing at back home?" Mai explained.
"Oh, I think I had an invite for a National, that's what the logo looked like, but my parents took to throwing out all my mail after I told them I was planning on moving to Japan."
'I want to play her.' Yami told Yugi who had to hide the grin. 'If she had an invite for the English nationals she'll be a real challenge and we haven't played her before.'
"We have other things to worry about first." Yugi replied.
"Yuge?" Joey poked him. "Earth to Yugi, what's the view like from up there?"
"Huh?"
Joey just shook his head, amused by his best friend as Kari asked, "You were miles away? Visit anywhere nice?"
"No." Yugi shook his head, "Just thinking."
"Don't think too hard, your brain will explode."
"I don't want brain on my toast thank you very much." Joey mock scowled, making the others laugh.
"Joey, the pink stuff is brains." Kari said when they'd settled down.
"Say what?" Joey pushed the plate away quickly.
"Kari!" Robyn said, throwing an orange at the girl.
"Ahhh! Fruit! Run away!" Kari ducked, finished her bowl of milky sugar and made a dive for it, failing to notice and, by extension avoid, the second orange thrown by Joey.
"Where did he get an orange?" Tristan asked. Yugi just pointed at Tea who was giving Joey a dirty look.
Kari glared at Joey and threw it back.
"Joey, I don't think we should have a food fight in the…" Yugi got a banana to the face and Yami took over with a grin, not the nice kind either.
Joey spotted the scheming look and gulped, attempting to make a hasty exit.
Robyn ducked under the table, taking the grapes with her and started throwing them randomly.
Joey was so busy avoiding Yami that he didn't notice Kari with a piece of grapefruit until it was too late.
"Ha, got you eep!" Kari eeped as someone got her with a mango.
Mai had given up being one of the sane ones and joined in.
It was at this moment that Seto Kaiba walked in and stood for several moments in disbelief before he was forced to dodge an erratic kiwi fruit.
Kari froze and promptly got a second mango splattered all over her t-shirt.
"Wheeler!" Kaiba growled.
It was at that exact moment Yami decided he was going to lob a fruit at Kaiba, which unfortunately for the CEO was a little too high, hit the wall and fell down onto the teen, who instantly glared at the Pharaoh.
Robyn rolled out from under the table and threw a grape at him. "Jerk." She declared, before grabbing Kari and walking out of the room.
"I would have thought the King of Games would possess a bit more maturity then the common rabble." Kaiba glared at Yami who smirked back.
"Yami, down." Yugi scolded, "You can fight him later. I need to get changed!"
Yugi regained control of his body as Kaiba stalked off with a single piece of toast.
"That was my toast!" Joey growled.
"Well at least you don't have to eat brains any more."
"Yeah, you would have turned into a zombie."
Joey shuddered in memory of Bonz, "Ummm, does anyone have a clean t-shirt I can borrow?"
"Not in your size." Yugi replied, shaking his head.
"Sorry, I only packed enough for over night." Tristan shook his head.
"Great, I'm going to be covered in fruit all day."
"Well you did start it." Tristan laughed.
"No I didn't."
"Did."
"Didn't."
"Did."
"Didn't."
Mai, Tea and Yugi left the two to it.
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'Yugi!'
Yugi relinquished control at Yami's urgent call and Tea and Mai gave him a questioning look. "I think you two should go and get changed." Yami growled slightly, "I'll be with you shortly."
Tea nodded and the two headed down the corridor.
"You can come out now." Yami called, "It's just you and me."
"It never is, is it though?" The robed man asked. "It's never just you against someone."
"Which one are you, Johnson or Xuan?" Yami snorted, sensing Yugi's wariness about the fact the guy knew about the two of them. "There's no point in hiding your identity now."
The robed guy snorted, throwing back the hood to reveal the brown hair and green eyes of Johnson, Yami stared him down.
"So, what are you after? Fame, glory, power?"
"Nothing so base, just your Puzzle." Johnson smirked, "Or should I say, your host's Puzzle."
'Yugi stay in your Soul Room.' Yami practically ordered and felt relieved when Yugi's Soul Room door slammed shut. Yugi was safe in there. "Who sent you?"
"You wound me, you think I'm not smart enough to come up with this plan myself?"
"I think that you're either Xuan's pawn or you're both working for someone higher up."
Johnson grew angry for a moment, then snorted, "It's true we both have a Master, but we have our own plans now."
"So you got smart?" Yami goaded. "Decided you'd go after a bigger power?"
Johnson's face clouded and he drew a stick, pointing it at Yami. Yami, in response, called the Shadows, which darkened the area.
"What's going on?" Joey asked , coming around the corner.
Johnson put the wand away. "Your Puzzle will be ours, have no doubt about that."
He stalked off and Joey glared as he passed before turning to Yami, "You alright pal?"
"Fine, I want to check on Tea and Mai." Yami said, glad to have Joey at his side as they walked down the corridors.
"So, you got to meet the bad guy face to face, finally." Joey snorted, "What do you think?"
"I think I'm going to have to be careful and so are you."
Joey groaned, "Why are these things never normal?"
"Just be glad we've got them, not Mai or Kari." Even though I'd rather you didn't have to fight them either.
Joey nodded tensely at that, not hearing Yami's thought.
Then the sound of running footsteps charging down the corridor slammed into them. "Oh! I'm sorry, I've been looking for Joey." Robyn said, "I'm sorry about the food fight, here's a clean t-shirt." She said, dumping a plastic wrapped piece of cotton into Joey's hands. "See you at the matches!" Then she ran off again.
"What was that?" Joey asked. "And what is this?"
"It appears to be a Kaiba Corp logoed t-shirt." Yami said with a perfectly straight face.
Joey glared at him, "You're really helpful today aren't you?" He growled, Yami just smirked. Joey paused. "How did she know I didn't have a clean t-shirt?"
"Guessed?" Yami suggested.
"I repeat, helpful." Joey glared again.
"A cute girl decided to give you a present and you're acting like it could suck out your soul, Joey." Yugi said, taking control again.
"She was cute wasn't she?" Joey grinned, now distracted from being annoyed at Yami by the thought of a cute girl. Joey smirked, "Kari seemed to be into you."
"She's a fan girl I think." Yugi waved the comment aside.
"I dunno, she could have been worse, I mean look at some of the fan girls you've had throwing themselves on you." Yugi shuddered, "She could be much worse."
"Still…" Yugi paused as he knocked on Mai's door, "Mai, it's me and Joey." Yugi turned back to Joey, "Kari's nice enough, but I'm always wary of fan girls, besides I don't get a look in until Yami's played her at least once anyway. He's already said he wants to… hi Mai." Yugi said as the door slid open, allowing them entrance to the room where Tea had borrowed one of Mai's tops and the two girls were already changed.
"You alright?" Mai asked. Yugi nodded.
"Yuge, magic check please." Mai and Tea looked confused as Joey held out the t-shirt.
"Joey she brought it in the shop five minutes ago, I really doubt she did anything to it."
"I repeat, magic check please."
"What's this?" Mai asked.
Yugi rolled his eyes, "Robyn apologized to Joey and brought him a t-shirt. Joey there's no magic here just put it on!" The two girls turned around as Joey swapped t-shirts.
"I would ask how she knew my size, but I don't think I want to know." Joey commented after trying on the extremely non-magical t-shirt.
"Girl sense." Mai said, developed after days of shopping.
"Shouldn't you be getting changed, Yugi?" Tea asked, concerned as she looked at her watch.
"I'll have to go back to my room." Yugi said, "No non-magical t-shirt for me."
"You're not going to let me live this down are you?"
Yugi shook his head and exited before Joey could catch him.
"Ouch." Yugi winced as he put his bad foot down, "That hurt."
'Sorry.'
"Why? It wasn't you who started the food fight." Yugi replied as he hobbled down the corridor. "Besides…will you warn me before you do that?" Yugi snapped as Yami seized control and glared at Bakura.
"I don't have time for this." Yami growled.
"I just thought I'd warn you. Your new friend has magic of her own."
"Which one?" Yami asked, "Wait, why are you warning me?"
Bakura just smirked, "I'd've thought the Pharaoh would want to know that someone who is a potential friend is possibly dangerous."
"Yes, but why are YOU warning me? What possible interest could you have?" Yami growled.
"Because in five thousand years I have never met anyone with a worse memory for faces."
"What?"
Bakura chose that exact moment to vanish on the spot, leaving a confused Pharaoh in the corridor. 'What was that about?'
"Yami, getting changed?" Yugi asked, "And what did Bakura mean he's never met anyone with a worse memory for faces?"
'One of those girls, has a link to my past.'
"You do realise Bakura is just trying to psyche you out."
'Shouldn't he be trying to psyche Kaiba out first?'
"Can anyone psyche Kaiba out?"
'Good question.'
"That wasn't a challenge Yami."
Yami sulked as he swapped over again, allowing Yugi to get changed before heading back towards Mai's rooms. "Are you done sulking yet."
'I never sulk.'
"Sure and Bakura is the King of England."
'Don't give him ideas!'
Yugi just laughed at that.
'Besides I don't think Kari and Robyn would be happy if Bakura was their King.'
"So if one of them is connected to your past, which one do you think it is?"
'I don't know.' Yami replied, 'Kari's in the Tournament.'
"But Robyn's been talking to us the most."
Speaking of the two girls, Kari, who was now wearing something with lacy arms and receiving a lecture of some sort, in English, from Robyn, something about warm clothes and snow, as the two girls headed down to the place they needed to disembark. Glaring, Robyn pulls a misshapen woollen thing out of her bag and pulled it over Kari's head just before they turned the corner.
'Kari might be shy, neither of them probably knows anything anyway.' Yami sighed, 'Just be glad neither of them seem to have yamis.'
"I guess we'll just have to wait and ow!" Yugi yelped both audibly and mentally as Joey grabbed him and then let go quickly.
"Sorry Yuge. I forgot." Joey backed away quickly. "You ready for this?"
"As ready as I get." Yugi nodded.
"Let's go."
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Joey glanced around and saw most people were disregarding the cold weather. Robyn looked rather strange wrapped up in hat, scarf and coat and seemed to be bouncing on the spot to keep warm.
Kari on the other hand…
Joey ducked a snowball.
"Weren't you immature enough earlier?" Kaiba growled.
Kari stopped instantly. Fortunately Yugi, who'd seen the next thing coming had dragged Joey away and Robyn had prevented another incident by making sure Kari didn't get another snowball.
The Stadium was open topped, which had allowed the snow to pile up and had been pushed to the sides to make space for the Duellists who were competing. Roland, Kaiba's right hand man, would be officiating, which somehow didn't surprise Yugi and Joey in the least and Kaiba and Bakura were first on the cleared platform.
"Are all Quarter Finalists here and accounted for?" Roland asked.
Johnson and Xuan were the last to give the affirmative.
"We will now begin the Quarter Finals of the Second Battle City Tournament." Roland continued, "Ryou Bakura will play Seto Kaiba in the first match. Are the Duellists ready."
Bakura nodded, a smug smirk on his face.
"Let's just get it over with." Kaiba looked bored.
"Bakura to move first."
"Let's Duel!"
Bakura drew, his smug look not shifting, "I play two cards face down and end my turn."
"Is that all?" Kaiba snorted, as the spectators for this match ranged themselves around the Duelling arena. "This Duel won't see it's third turn, I activate Polymerization, fusing the two Thunder Dragon in my hand, into Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon."
"Yeah, go big brother!" Mokuba cheered.
The huge redy orange and blue twin headed dragon like thing appeared on the field. "Attack him!"
Bakura just rolled his eyes, "As if it would be that easy, Kaiba, I activate Fearful Earthbound and Call of the Earthbound!" The first took five hundred points from Kaiba for calling an attack, the second… "I can direct Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon's attack wherever I want and I think I'll have him attack you!" Kaiba lost another 2800, bringing him down to 700 already. "Are you done wiping yourself out yet?"
"Three cards face down and it's your move."
Bakura's smirk widened.
"Yami!"
The shadows rose as the thing hanging from a rope around Bakura's neck started glowing.
Yugi swapped with Yami, Joey hissed, Tea blanched, Tristan growled, Mai looked vaguely sick and Bakura's smug look got worse.
The two mages or whatever they were looked amused, as if they'd wanted to see something like this and of the two girls, Robyn looked like she'd expected something like this, which she couldn't possibly have done, and Kari was frowning, not an angry frown, but a confused one.
Kaiba was the only one choosing to ignore the weirdness.
"You know what's happening?" Bakura asked.
"I don't believe in your weird mumbo jumbo so just make your move." Kaiba growled.
The shadows danced as Bakura laughed, "Even now you deny everything." The shadows weaved around Bakura like a playful puppy, "Just be aware, that this is no longer just a game Seto Kaiba." He drew, "You'll find this game to be harder then any you've played. I play a card in defence mode and set a card face down. Your move."
"What's going on?"
"Do you think it's Destiny Board?"
'Knowing Bakura…'
"I summon Kaiser Seahorse!" The seahorse warrior appeared on the field. Kaiba paused and Yami frowned. Deny it's existence or not, it was affecting Kaiba… "And I attack your face down card!" Kaiba's points dropped to 200.
"I activate Destiny Board!" Bakura called, his monster appearing for a split second before exploding. "And you just destroyed Morphing Jar, so we both have to discard our hands and drew fresh ones."
"I remember that card." Joey growled.
So did Yami and he glared at the spot the monster had been in as a spirit holding the letter F appeared, floating above Bakura's head.
They drew fresh hands and Kaiba smirked, "I play Monster Reborn to bring forth, Blue Eyes White Dragon!" The dragon appeared on the field, bellowing at Bakura before turning to gaze at Kaiba.
Mai hadn't noticed Joey slip his hand into hers, giving her a reassuring smile. She smiled slightly, grateful for the reassurance.
"And I end my turn."
Yami was so busy watching Bakura's next move that he didn't notice the two girls move closer to the large group or the fact one of the girls had her hand firmly shoved in her pocket.
"At the end of each of your turns…"
"I know what it does." Kaiba growled, "I saw you use it against Yugi."
An I appeared in the hands of a spirit.
"Just three more letters to go." Bakura smirked.
"You won't get to the last letter." Kaiba growled, ignoring the headache as best he could. He'd had worse after pulling an all nighter at his laptop, or at least that was what he was trying to convince himself.
Bakura drew, "I activate Zoma the Spirit, summoning a creature with 1800 attack points to the field."
"Couldn't Kaiba just wipe it out with his Blue Eyes?" Tristan asked.
"He could." Kari acknowledged, her and Robyn just off to one side now, instead of halfway around the arena, like they had been two turns ago, "But not only would he lose five hundred points because of Fearful Earthbound, but he'd then lose another 3000 because of Zoma's effect."
"Huh?" Robyn looked confused and Kari explained it again in English, making Mai smile slightly.
"I end my turn."
"Bakura's just waiting until Destiny Board beats Kaiba for him."
Kaiba drew. "I sacrifice my Kaiser Seahorse for a second Blue Eyes White Dragon!" The second dragon appeared on the field. "And activate Dragon's Nest, increasing Blue Eyes's attack by five hundred per dragon on the field. Your move."
Bakura drew and smirked, "I play Ectoplasmer."
"What?" Kaiba growled as Yami's eyes widened and he wheeled around to look at a suddenly very pale Kaiba.
"And I summon the Gross Ghost of Fled Dreams." Bakura smirked. "I guess you won't be facing anyone in the semi finals."
"I activate Last Turn!" Kaiba growled. "And I choose my Blue Eyes White Dragon to stand alone for me."
Bakura's smug look transformed into a scowl of hate as all of his cards from his hand and all the cards on the field except a Blue Eyes with 3000 attack points, went to the graveyard.
"You get to summon one monster to stand for you, but it has to attack Blue Eyes and survive and you have nothing strong enough to stand against it." Kaiba smirked irritatingly.
Bakura glared at his deck, summoning Diabound Kernel in attack mode. The huge humanoid thing with a snakelike tail hissed menacingly before attacking Blue Eyes who just looked very bored and blasted it away with its White Lightening attack.
The Shadows faded, Robyn's hand came out of her pocket and Kaiba gloated over the fact that he'd beaten Bakura.
"You thought you could beat me?" He mockingly laughed, "As if. Come back when you're a real challenge."
"Kaiba." Yami's tone was warning as Bakura's glare turned on this CEO.
Kaiba just waved him off as Kari winced slightly away from the angry teen on the Duelling Platform.
"Kari?"
"I'm fine."
"You won't beat me next time Kaiba." Bakura growled, stepping down from the platform as the monsters faded.
Kaiba just smirked and left the platform to make room for the next match.
Yami's gaze shifted immediately to Johnson, who was smirking across the lowered platform. Yami glared back, one of his best scare-the-living-daylights-out-of-the-opponent Death Glares, though Johnson seemed surprisingly immune.
"Guess it's our turn."
'We'll beat him.'
"Just promise me you'll be careful."
'I will, I promise.'
"Will Yugi Muto and Johnson Ford please report to the Duelling Arena."
He wasn't hurt in anyway either though, so either he was dreaming or someone had healed him.
It was dark and cold and felt like the Shadows but different. It didn't hurt to be here, at least not as much, and the darkness curled around Yugi, latching onto him eagerly. If anything he didn't hurt, it just felt like he could curl up and go to sleep for a very long time…
Yugi's eyes widened and he shook his arms to rid them of the tendrils of darkness.
He couldn't sleep here, that much he knew, Yugi closed his eyes and focused his magic the way Yami had shown him, causing the darkness to retreat from his light for a moment before it danced around him, just waiting.
"Yami?" Yugi asked, mentally searching his Soul Room and what he could sense of the Puzzle and Yami's.
Fear, real fear surged down the link.
Yami was mortally afraid.
But of what? Yami didn't fear anything!
Yugi raced forward, realizing the presence he was sensing wasn't in one of the Soul Rooms, but out here, in the darkness too.
"Yami!" He wasn't a hundred percent sure of where the Pharaoh was, but following the sense of 'Yami.'
The Pharaoh looked shocked and actually took a step backwards when Yugi came into view.
"Yugi? But you… you shouldn't be here!" Yami's tone settled to a harsh one but Yugi could sense the fear and concern behind the tone. Yami shied away from Yugi's light and Yugi quickly toned it down.
"You need me." Yugi said, "I wouldn't have woken up here if you didn't."
"Yugi…"
Bringing your hikari here Pharaoh?
Yugi gasped at the pain the harsh mental voice caused as it spoke.
Fine, then he can sleep here too!
"No!" Yami yelled, determined to protect Yugi as the darkness surged in.
"Yami, close your eyes!" Yugi called, pulling all his magic together and letting his light flare, scaring the darkness away for a mere moment, flash blinding both yami and hikari
When Yugi was able to open his eyes again, he looked around to find they were back in Yugi's Soul Room. He sank onto his bed, exhausted.
"Are you alright?" Yami asked, concerned, a little of the fear still lingering.
"What was that?" Yugi asked, willing to sleep now that they were safe in the Soul Room.
"Nothing." Yami replied but without meeting his eyes.
"Yami." Yugi stared at his dark half, "What was it?"
Yami frowned and sighed, "It was nothing, honest."
"You were afraid. I've never sensed that much fear from you before. It had to be something." Yugi continued to stare at him.
"It was a nightmare." Yami shrugged.
"I can keep this up all night if I have to." Yugi yawned, "What. Was. That?"
"I don't know why it let us go." Yami shuddered, "I guess with the Puzzle whole, it can't keep us."
"Huh?"
"It doesn't matter." Yami shook his head, "We have more important and pressing things to worry about, like Xuan and Johnson."
"What're…" Yugi tensed as Yami stiffened. "What?"
"Someone's knocking on your door."
"I'd better wake up." Yugi left the soul room, waking up in a sore and stiff body, "But you will tell me what in the name of the Gods that was!"
Joey was already at the door, surprisingly alert considering it wasn't even morning yet. "Magic? You're sure?"
"Yeah, magic wand and all. I've seen plenty of magic, but waving wands around?" Tristan shook his head, "It's new." He shrugged, "Warn Yugi will ya? That Johnson looks like he might be more trouble then Yugi thought."
"Alright, I'll tell him in the morning."
"Joey?" Yugi saw his friend tense up as the sleepy question reached him. "What's wrong?"
"We've got trouble."
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It was seven in the morning and it was breakfast time in the blimp.
Yugi, who had gotten very little sleep between Yami's nightmare, the warning about Johnson and Xuan and his own nightmares, was surprised to see Mai sat with Robyn, who was dressed all in blue today. Kari, who looked as awake as Yugi felt, was in jeans and t-shirt, grabbing a bowl of sugar… he was certain there was cereal under there.
"Morning!" Mai waved him over, "Where's Joey?"
"Getting up." Yugi rolled his eyes, knowing all too well what his friend was like, "Good morning." He bowed to Robyn.
"Hi, I'm Robyn, what's your name?" Robyn asked.
Halfway across the room, Kari had stopped, bowl of sugar still in hand, and would have face palmed if she'd had a free hand. Yugi grinned though.
"I'm Yugi, it's nice to meet you."
"Please to meet you too. You must be pretty good to get this far. I'm just taglong today."
Mai stared at the girl as Kari put her bowl down on the table and gave her friend an incredulous look. "Robyn, this is Yugi Muto! The King of Games!"
Robyn tilted her head, "Oh that sounds somewhat familiar. Aren't you the guy that the tall brunette said he would beat last time?"
"That was Seto Kaiba." Kari said in a despairing tone.
"The jerk you want to hire you?" Robyn glanced over to her friend, then glared at the bowl of sugar in front of her. "Kari!"
"It's breakfast!" Kari growled in Engish, her tone turning defensive, "And yes, the same guy." Sighing she turned back to Yugi, "I figured that the so called adults running this Tournament are going to run out of chocolate and sugar soon so I stockpiled some in my room if you want to grab a hot chocolate after the quarters. I'm Kari Ironhide, by the way."
"Sure. Thank you. You want a job at Kaiba Corp?" Yugi asked, as Tea entered the room, bright and breezy, and grabbed up two portions of fruit, one of which she dumped in front of Yugi.
"I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that's insane." Robyn declared.
"It's too early in the morning for fruit." Kari replied as Joey walked into the room, gave it a bleary eyed look for a moment, then headed straight for the food table.
"This isn't early." Defended Robyn as she put a little bit of everything on her plate.
"Says the crazy morning bird." Kari said before tucking into the sugar pile.
"Why are the spectators more awake then the competitors today?" Mai laughed, "It looks like I'm the only one Duelling that's fully awake!"
"Kaiba was heading down to the control room, I bumped into him in the corridors," Yugi replied, tucking into the grapefruit without complaint, knowing Tea would yell at him if he didn't eat something healthy, "And I don't know where Bakura and the other two are."
Mai wondered briefly if he didn't know, or didn't want to know.
"Who had the last of the sugar!" Joey complained as he looked around at them, not even giving Tea a passing glance, completely unaware she'd hidden it.
Kari quickly made her sugar disappear underneath her milk.
"The wobbling pink stuff goes well with the toast, and it's sweet. Robyn pointed out.
Joey gave her a blank look, his English not up to translating that sentence. Robyn searched for the right Japanese and came out with, "Pink and toast good?"
Kari burst into giggles, "Robyn, you really need to learn more Japanese."
"Or Joey needs to get higher grades in English." Yugi laughed as Joey sat down with his pink on toast, grumbling slightly.
"I've only been learning for a week, it wasn't like I could bespell myself to know Japanese." Robyn said, "And I know the important one, "No more sugar."
Yugi and Mai laughed as Kari gave her friend another despairing look.
"If you're good enough to make the quarters, how come we haven't seen you before?" Tristan asked, having entered the room during the giggling fit and sitting down with some something brown on toast that Kari didn't dare ask about.
"I've only been living here a couple of months." Kari replied, "I moved to Domino just after the last Battle City." She frowned slightly at the slight shift in everyone's mood at the mention of it, "As Robyn said, I'm trying to get a job with Kaiba."
"And the English colleges were holding us hostage." Robyn added, causing Kari to grin and the others who understood it to look confused.
"Evil assessments and exams while the Tournaments were on." Kari explained.
Joey hissed at the word exams, making Yugi grin, "We're normally on holiday during the Tournaments so it's not an issue."
"You didn't miss much last time though." Joey said, "Just some random insanity."
"Fun time must come after studying." Robyn said, rolling her eyes. "Kari could have been winning money from those Tournaments, instead of working too many hours, besides random insanity is fun."
"Not this kind." Yugi shook his head. "Wait, winning prize money?" Yugi suddenly looked at Kari, "How far up were you back home?"
"Up?" Kari looked confused.
"What level were you playing at back home?" Mai explained.
"Oh, I think I had an invite for a National, that's what the logo looked like, but my parents took to throwing out all my mail after I told them I was planning on moving to Japan."
'I want to play her.' Yami told Yugi who had to hide the grin. 'If she had an invite for the English nationals she'll be a real challenge and we haven't played her before.'
"We have other things to worry about first." Yugi replied.
"Yuge?" Joey poked him. "Earth to Yugi, what's the view like from up there?"
"Huh?"
Joey just shook his head, amused by his best friend as Kari asked, "You were miles away? Visit anywhere nice?"
"No." Yugi shook his head, "Just thinking."
"Don't think too hard, your brain will explode."
"I don't want brain on my toast thank you very much." Joey mock scowled, making the others laugh.
"Joey, the pink stuff is brains." Kari said when they'd settled down.
"Say what?" Joey pushed the plate away quickly.
"Kari!" Robyn said, throwing an orange at the girl.
"Ahhh! Fruit! Run away!" Kari ducked, finished her bowl of milky sugar and made a dive for it, failing to notice and, by extension avoid, the second orange thrown by Joey.
"Where did he get an orange?" Tristan asked. Yugi just pointed at Tea who was giving Joey a dirty look.
Kari glared at Joey and threw it back.
"Joey, I don't think we should have a food fight in the…" Yugi got a banana to the face and Yami took over with a grin, not the nice kind either.
Joey spotted the scheming look and gulped, attempting to make a hasty exit.
Robyn ducked under the table, taking the grapes with her and started throwing them randomly.
Joey was so busy avoiding Yami that he didn't notice Kari with a piece of grapefruit until it was too late.
"Ha, got you eep!" Kari eeped as someone got her with a mango.
Mai had given up being one of the sane ones and joined in.
It was at this moment that Seto Kaiba walked in and stood for several moments in disbelief before he was forced to dodge an erratic kiwi fruit.
Kari froze and promptly got a second mango splattered all over her t-shirt.
"Wheeler!" Kaiba growled.
It was at that exact moment Yami decided he was going to lob a fruit at Kaiba, which unfortunately for the CEO was a little too high, hit the wall and fell down onto the teen, who instantly glared at the Pharaoh.
Robyn rolled out from under the table and threw a grape at him. "Jerk." She declared, before grabbing Kari and walking out of the room.
"I would have thought the King of Games would possess a bit more maturity then the common rabble." Kaiba glared at Yami who smirked back.
"Yami, down." Yugi scolded, "You can fight him later. I need to get changed!"
Yugi regained control of his body as Kaiba stalked off with a single piece of toast.
"That was my toast!" Joey growled.
"Well at least you don't have to eat brains any more."
"Yeah, you would have turned into a zombie."
Joey shuddered in memory of Bonz, "Ummm, does anyone have a clean t-shirt I can borrow?"
"Not in your size." Yugi replied, shaking his head.
"Sorry, I only packed enough for over night." Tristan shook his head.
"Great, I'm going to be covered in fruit all day."
"Well you did start it." Tristan laughed.
"No I didn't."
"Did."
"Didn't."
"Did."
"Didn't."
Mai, Tea and Yugi left the two to it.
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'Yugi!'
Yugi relinquished control at Yami's urgent call and Tea and Mai gave him a questioning look. "I think you two should go and get changed." Yami growled slightly, "I'll be with you shortly."
Tea nodded and the two headed down the corridor.
"You can come out now." Yami called, "It's just you and me."
"It never is, is it though?" The robed man asked. "It's never just you against someone."
"Which one are you, Johnson or Xuan?" Yami snorted, sensing Yugi's wariness about the fact the guy knew about the two of them. "There's no point in hiding your identity now."
The robed guy snorted, throwing back the hood to reveal the brown hair and green eyes of Johnson, Yami stared him down.
"So, what are you after? Fame, glory, power?"
"Nothing so base, just your Puzzle." Johnson smirked, "Or should I say, your host's Puzzle."
'Yugi stay in your Soul Room.' Yami practically ordered and felt relieved when Yugi's Soul Room door slammed shut. Yugi was safe in there. "Who sent you?"
"You wound me, you think I'm not smart enough to come up with this plan myself?"
"I think that you're either Xuan's pawn or you're both working for someone higher up."
Johnson grew angry for a moment, then snorted, "It's true we both have a Master, but we have our own plans now."
"So you got smart?" Yami goaded. "Decided you'd go after a bigger power?"
Johnson's face clouded and he drew a stick, pointing it at Yami. Yami, in response, called the Shadows, which darkened the area.
"What's going on?" Joey asked , coming around the corner.
Johnson put the wand away. "Your Puzzle will be ours, have no doubt about that."
He stalked off and Joey glared as he passed before turning to Yami, "You alright pal?"
"Fine, I want to check on Tea and Mai." Yami said, glad to have Joey at his side as they walked down the corridors.
"So, you got to meet the bad guy face to face, finally." Joey snorted, "What do you think?"
"I think I'm going to have to be careful and so are you."
Joey groaned, "Why are these things never normal?"
"Just be glad we've got them, not Mai or Kari." Even though I'd rather you didn't have to fight them either.
Joey nodded tensely at that, not hearing Yami's thought.
Then the sound of running footsteps charging down the corridor slammed into them. "Oh! I'm sorry, I've been looking for Joey." Robyn said, "I'm sorry about the food fight, here's a clean t-shirt." She said, dumping a plastic wrapped piece of cotton into Joey's hands. "See you at the matches!" Then she ran off again.
"What was that?" Joey asked. "And what is this?"
"It appears to be a Kaiba Corp logoed t-shirt." Yami said with a perfectly straight face.
Joey glared at him, "You're really helpful today aren't you?" He growled, Yami just smirked. Joey paused. "How did she know I didn't have a clean t-shirt?"
"Guessed?" Yami suggested.
"I repeat, helpful." Joey glared again.
"A cute girl decided to give you a present and you're acting like it could suck out your soul, Joey." Yugi said, taking control again.
"She was cute wasn't she?" Joey grinned, now distracted from being annoyed at Yami by the thought of a cute girl. Joey smirked, "Kari seemed to be into you."
"She's a fan girl I think." Yugi waved the comment aside.
"I dunno, she could have been worse, I mean look at some of the fan girls you've had throwing themselves on you." Yugi shuddered, "She could be much worse."
"Still…" Yugi paused as he knocked on Mai's door, "Mai, it's me and Joey." Yugi turned back to Joey, "Kari's nice enough, but I'm always wary of fan girls, besides I don't get a look in until Yami's played her at least once anyway. He's already said he wants to… hi Mai." Yugi said as the door slid open, allowing them entrance to the room where Tea had borrowed one of Mai's tops and the two girls were already changed.
"You alright?" Mai asked. Yugi nodded.
"Yuge, magic check please." Mai and Tea looked confused as Joey held out the t-shirt.
"Joey she brought it in the shop five minutes ago, I really doubt she did anything to it."
"I repeat, magic check please."
"What's this?" Mai asked.
Yugi rolled his eyes, "Robyn apologized to Joey and brought him a t-shirt. Joey there's no magic here just put it on!" The two girls turned around as Joey swapped t-shirts.
"I would ask how she knew my size, but I don't think I want to know." Joey commented after trying on the extremely non-magical t-shirt.
"Girl sense." Mai said, developed after days of shopping.
"Shouldn't you be getting changed, Yugi?" Tea asked, concerned as she looked at her watch.
"I'll have to go back to my room." Yugi said, "No non-magical t-shirt for me."
"You're not going to let me live this down are you?"
Yugi shook his head and exited before Joey could catch him.
"Ouch." Yugi winced as he put his bad foot down, "That hurt."
'Sorry.'
"Why? It wasn't you who started the food fight." Yugi replied as he hobbled down the corridor. "Besides…will you warn me before you do that?" Yugi snapped as Yami seized control and glared at Bakura.
"I don't have time for this." Yami growled.
"I just thought I'd warn you. Your new friend has magic of her own."
"Which one?" Yami asked, "Wait, why are you warning me?"
Bakura just smirked, "I'd've thought the Pharaoh would want to know that someone who is a potential friend is possibly dangerous."
"Yes, but why are YOU warning me? What possible interest could you have?" Yami growled.
"Because in five thousand years I have never met anyone with a worse memory for faces."
"What?"
Bakura chose that exact moment to vanish on the spot, leaving a confused Pharaoh in the corridor. 'What was that about?'
"Yami, getting changed?" Yugi asked, "And what did Bakura mean he's never met anyone with a worse memory for faces?"
'One of those girls, has a link to my past.'
"You do realise Bakura is just trying to psyche you out."
'Shouldn't he be trying to psyche Kaiba out first?'
"Can anyone psyche Kaiba out?"
'Good question.'
"That wasn't a challenge Yami."
Yami sulked as he swapped over again, allowing Yugi to get changed before heading back towards Mai's rooms. "Are you done sulking yet."
'I never sulk.'
"Sure and Bakura is the King of England."
'Don't give him ideas!'
Yugi just laughed at that.
'Besides I don't think Kari and Robyn would be happy if Bakura was their King.'
"So if one of them is connected to your past, which one do you think it is?"
'I don't know.' Yami replied, 'Kari's in the Tournament.'
"But Robyn's been talking to us the most."
Speaking of the two girls, Kari, who was now wearing something with lacy arms and receiving a lecture of some sort, in English, from Robyn, something about warm clothes and snow, as the two girls headed down to the place they needed to disembark. Glaring, Robyn pulls a misshapen woollen thing out of her bag and pulled it over Kari's head just before they turned the corner.
'Kari might be shy, neither of them probably knows anything anyway.' Yami sighed, 'Just be glad neither of them seem to have yamis.'
"I guess we'll just have to wait and ow!" Yugi yelped both audibly and mentally as Joey grabbed him and then let go quickly.
"Sorry Yuge. I forgot." Joey backed away quickly. "You ready for this?"
"As ready as I get." Yugi nodded.
"Let's go."
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Joey glanced around and saw most people were disregarding the cold weather. Robyn looked rather strange wrapped up in hat, scarf and coat and seemed to be bouncing on the spot to keep warm.
Kari on the other hand…
Joey ducked a snowball.
"Weren't you immature enough earlier?" Kaiba growled.
Kari stopped instantly. Fortunately Yugi, who'd seen the next thing coming had dragged Joey away and Robyn had prevented another incident by making sure Kari didn't get another snowball.
The Stadium was open topped, which had allowed the snow to pile up and had been pushed to the sides to make space for the Duellists who were competing. Roland, Kaiba's right hand man, would be officiating, which somehow didn't surprise Yugi and Joey in the least and Kaiba and Bakura were first on the cleared platform.
"Are all Quarter Finalists here and accounted for?" Roland asked.
Johnson and Xuan were the last to give the affirmative.
"We will now begin the Quarter Finals of the Second Battle City Tournament." Roland continued, "Ryou Bakura will play Seto Kaiba in the first match. Are the Duellists ready."
Bakura nodded, a smug smirk on his face.
"Let's just get it over with." Kaiba looked bored.
"Bakura to move first."
"Let's Duel!"
Bakura drew, his smug look not shifting, "I play two cards face down and end my turn."
"Is that all?" Kaiba snorted, as the spectators for this match ranged themselves around the Duelling arena. "This Duel won't see it's third turn, I activate Polymerization, fusing the two Thunder Dragon in my hand, into Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon."
"Yeah, go big brother!" Mokuba cheered.
The huge redy orange and blue twin headed dragon like thing appeared on the field. "Attack him!"
Bakura just rolled his eyes, "As if it would be that easy, Kaiba, I activate Fearful Earthbound and Call of the Earthbound!" The first took five hundred points from Kaiba for calling an attack, the second… "I can direct Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon's attack wherever I want and I think I'll have him attack you!" Kaiba lost another 2800, bringing him down to 700 already. "Are you done wiping yourself out yet?"
"Three cards face down and it's your move."
Bakura's smirk widened.
"Yami!"
The shadows rose as the thing hanging from a rope around Bakura's neck started glowing.
Yugi swapped with Yami, Joey hissed, Tea blanched, Tristan growled, Mai looked vaguely sick and Bakura's smug look got worse.
The two mages or whatever they were looked amused, as if they'd wanted to see something like this and of the two girls, Robyn looked like she'd expected something like this, which she couldn't possibly have done, and Kari was frowning, not an angry frown, but a confused one.
Kaiba was the only one choosing to ignore the weirdness.
"You know what's happening?" Bakura asked.
"I don't believe in your weird mumbo jumbo so just make your move." Kaiba growled.
The shadows danced as Bakura laughed, "Even now you deny everything." The shadows weaved around Bakura like a playful puppy, "Just be aware, that this is no longer just a game Seto Kaiba." He drew, "You'll find this game to be harder then any you've played. I play a card in defence mode and set a card face down. Your move."
"What's going on?"
"Do you think it's Destiny Board?"
'Knowing Bakura…'
"I summon Kaiser Seahorse!" The seahorse warrior appeared on the field. Kaiba paused and Yami frowned. Deny it's existence or not, it was affecting Kaiba… "And I attack your face down card!" Kaiba's points dropped to 200.
"I activate Destiny Board!" Bakura called, his monster appearing for a split second before exploding. "And you just destroyed Morphing Jar, so we both have to discard our hands and drew fresh ones."
"I remember that card." Joey growled.
So did Yami and he glared at the spot the monster had been in as a spirit holding the letter F appeared, floating above Bakura's head.
They drew fresh hands and Kaiba smirked, "I play Monster Reborn to bring forth, Blue Eyes White Dragon!" The dragon appeared on the field, bellowing at Bakura before turning to gaze at Kaiba.
Mai hadn't noticed Joey slip his hand into hers, giving her a reassuring smile. She smiled slightly, grateful for the reassurance.
"And I end my turn."
Yami was so busy watching Bakura's next move that he didn't notice the two girls move closer to the large group or the fact one of the girls had her hand firmly shoved in her pocket.
"At the end of each of your turns…"
"I know what it does." Kaiba growled, "I saw you use it against Yugi."
An I appeared in the hands of a spirit.
"Just three more letters to go." Bakura smirked.
"You won't get to the last letter." Kaiba growled, ignoring the headache as best he could. He'd had worse after pulling an all nighter at his laptop, or at least that was what he was trying to convince himself.
Bakura drew, "I activate Zoma the Spirit, summoning a creature with 1800 attack points to the field."
"Couldn't Kaiba just wipe it out with his Blue Eyes?" Tristan asked.
"He could." Kari acknowledged, her and Robyn just off to one side now, instead of halfway around the arena, like they had been two turns ago, "But not only would he lose five hundred points because of Fearful Earthbound, but he'd then lose another 3000 because of Zoma's effect."
"Huh?" Robyn looked confused and Kari explained it again in English, making Mai smile slightly.
"I end my turn."
"Bakura's just waiting until Destiny Board beats Kaiba for him."
Kaiba drew. "I sacrifice my Kaiser Seahorse for a second Blue Eyes White Dragon!" The second dragon appeared on the field. "And activate Dragon's Nest, increasing Blue Eyes's attack by five hundred per dragon on the field. Your move."
Bakura drew and smirked, "I play Ectoplasmer."
"What?" Kaiba growled as Yami's eyes widened and he wheeled around to look at a suddenly very pale Kaiba.
"And I summon the Gross Ghost of Fled Dreams." Bakura smirked. "I guess you won't be facing anyone in the semi finals."
"I activate Last Turn!" Kaiba growled. "And I choose my Blue Eyes White Dragon to stand alone for me."
Bakura's smug look transformed into a scowl of hate as all of his cards from his hand and all the cards on the field except a Blue Eyes with 3000 attack points, went to the graveyard.
"You get to summon one monster to stand for you, but it has to attack Blue Eyes and survive and you have nothing strong enough to stand against it." Kaiba smirked irritatingly.
Bakura glared at his deck, summoning Diabound Kernel in attack mode. The huge humanoid thing with a snakelike tail hissed menacingly before attacking Blue Eyes who just looked very bored and blasted it away with its White Lightening attack.
The Shadows faded, Robyn's hand came out of her pocket and Kaiba gloated over the fact that he'd beaten Bakura.
"You thought you could beat me?" He mockingly laughed, "As if. Come back when you're a real challenge."
"Kaiba." Yami's tone was warning as Bakura's glare turned on this CEO.
Kaiba just waved him off as Kari winced slightly away from the angry teen on the Duelling Platform.
"Kari?"
"I'm fine."
"You won't beat me next time Kaiba." Bakura growled, stepping down from the platform as the monsters faded.
Kaiba just smirked and left the platform to make room for the next match.
Yami's gaze shifted immediately to Johnson, who was smirking across the lowered platform. Yami glared back, one of his best scare-the-living-daylights-out-of-the-opponent Death Glares, though Johnson seemed surprisingly immune.
"Guess it's our turn."
'We'll beat him.'
"Just promise me you'll be careful."
'I will, I promise.'
"Will Yugi Muto and Johnson Ford please report to the Duelling Arena."