Chapter 14: - Catch 'Em All
"Ginka, no!" Yugi yelped, scrambling towards the shelving unit where the kitten she was looking after was investigating some rotund plastic capsules that were carefully lined up in number order. She was too late to prevent the feline menace from batting several of her highest level Capsule Monsters off of the shelf and onto the floor. She managed to rescue most of them, but Ginka chased the last two under the bed and proceeded to hiss at the girl every time she reached to take them back.
"Having fun there, Yuge?" Jou chuckled as Yugi attempted to tease the kitten out from under the bed using a laser pointer she had appropriated from her grandfather's old supplies from when he had been a guest speaker at colleges and universities, alongside his American friend Professor Hawkins.
"Yeap." Yugi admitted as she wiggled the little red dot in front of the kitten and the bundle of fluff pounced, missed its footing, rolled and landed at Yugi's feet. Both teens laughed as the little cat proceeded to get to her feet, pretended it never happened for a moment by sitting still and dignified, and then proceeded to chase the dot around the bedroom.
"I see your capsule monster collection had a cat attack." Jou grimaced, noting the mess on the shelf that he had watched Yugi carefully organise just the night before.
"Yeah, I'm trying to distract her enough that I can rescue the ones she knocked under the bed." Yugi explained with a small frown of concentration as she got the feline to chase the dot around in circles.
"I'll get them." Jou chuckled, dodging the furry fury and reaching under the bed, recovering the pair of capsules, opening them up to find a tiny dragon and a magician. "These are rare, aren't they?"
"Yeah." Yugi nodded, "Level six monsters are hard to come by in Capsule Monsters." Putting the laser pointer away and causing Ginka to proceed to search the room for the dot that was now conspicuous by its absence, Yugi gently took the pair of monsters from him. "Took me ages to find these two, but they're worth it. Even if they don't see much use." She carefully put everything back, smiling as she added the seven to her 'small' collection of about fifty capsules.
"Well I'm willing to play if you're willing to teach me." Jou offered, causing Yugi to grin brightly at him, still unused to anyone willingly submitting to her beating them at games no matter how hard she tried to go easy on them.
"Later." Yugi promised, "There's some shopping I need to get first. I forgot to get it on the way home from school and..."
"Yeah, I saw the state of the fridge." Her friend grinned back, before concern washed over his features, "You sure you're gonna be able to carry all of it?"
"Yeah, I always used to get the shopping on my own and ever since you know what, I'm back to my old self. I'll be fine." Yugi reassured him.
"If you're sure?" Jou asked.
"It's just a trip to the shops." She reassured him, "Not an epic trek across America."
"Point." He sighed, "Pick me up some pop rocks while you're there?"
"Only if you promise not to prank me with them again." Yugi shook her finger at him, though he could tell she wasn't really cross, "It took me ages to get the cola out of my clothes and hair."
"I was aiming for Honda." Jou protested, putting his hands up in a 'don't shoot' gesture, "You just had bad timing." He looked sheepish, "Besides, Oneesan made it very clear what she'd do if I soaked you a third time."
"Oneesan wouldn't hurt you." Yugi promised, having taken Oneesan's oath when they had been in the corridor between her room and the Pharaoh's, to heart.
"She didn't threaten to hurt me." Jou grumbled, leaving the other option unsaid.
"Anzu would probably help." Yugi admitted. "I'll see you later?" She asked as she pulled her trainers on, a nice sensibly priced pair unlike the Air Muscles, which Joey never seemed to take off if he could help it.
"Go have fun with your shopping." Jou waved her off.
"Only about as much fun as you're gunna have sweeping." Yugi teased, reminding Jou that he had to sweep the shop again as part of his punishment from Sugoroku for getting cola all over his kitchen.
"Yeah, yeah." Jou grimaced half jokingly. "Shoo. I'm hungry."
"I take it this means you're crashing here again tonight?" Yugi asked hopefully.
"Dad's home tonight so..." Jou didn't need or want to explain any further.
"Alright, see you later." Yugi just nodded and grabbed her school bag before darting out the door, hungry herself and wanting to get the shopping done as quickly as possible. The shops weren't that far away but Yugi took a detour to the only local shop that still had a capsule monsters dispenser.
The game, called CapMon by its fans, was declining in popularity as Duel Monsters, the proper name for 'Magic and Wizards,' steadily grew. It was the way of it, some games lasting the ages while others faded by the wayside. The only problem with that was that it was slowly becoming more and more difficult to get the game pieces and she actually quite liked CapMon. Not that she had had anyone but her grandfather to play against until she had made friends with Jou. Anzu had never really wanted to play her games unless they were of the console type and those were too expensive on Yugi's pocket money for her to get new ones. Most of her collection were second hand or had been presents.
There was quite a queue for the CapMon machine when she reached it. A bunch of kids who looked younger than she did had formed a line to put their yen in and get their toys, though she noted with some amusement that it was literally dispensing a high level capsule every other time and wondered whether the younger children had noticed too.
Making sure she was an even number in the line so that, if the machine continued its current pattern, she would hopefully get a higher level and hence rarer monster, as she had many copies of the lower level beasts, she watched the kids either praise or curse their finds. Personally Yugi didn't mind what monster she got, but if she could use the seemingly fixed machine to her advantage, she wasn't going to complain when she had no opponent.
Just as she stepped up as put her money in the machine, she caught some of the kids complaining about her being 'too old' to play CapMon. Yugi grimaced slightly as she took her level five monster from the hatch. She wasn't that much older than them, not by enough at least that she felt like she deserved their ridicule.
She was just turning away, opening her capsule to find out what was in it, when someone called her name.
"Mutou Yugi." She turned to find a boy with long black hair and piercing slate grey eyes was watching her carefully, with a look that told her that he already knew who she was, "You are Yugi, right?"
Yugi nodded, wary. Her hand slipped to her Millennium Puzzle as she tried to work out why some kid she had never met before would know her name. "And you are?" She asked, too focused on the boy to notice that some of his 'friends' were fanning out behind her, fencing her in.
"The name's Mokuba." He replied, "You don't know me but you know my Oniisan, Kaiba Seto."
Yugi froze as horror and fear coursed through her. She could guess now, what this was about. Oneesan had Challenged and defeated Kaiba Seto in a Shadow Game a little over a fortnight ago. Kaiba hadn't been back to school since, so it wasn't hard to assume that she had issued a Penalty Game since he had already proved himself to be a liar and a thief. "You're Kaiba-kun's little brother?"
Mokuba smirked, nodding as he did so, looking her up and down considering her carefully, "You don't look like the Games Master my brother paints you out to be." He said, leaving Yugi feeling vaguely insulted even as she panicked a little as she realised that she was surrounded, memories of Hirutani's gang flickering to the fore. "Still, considering you're the only person that's ever beaten him, you must have something special."
His eyes flickered to the Puzzle as he said 'have' and Yugi's fight or flight reflexes yelled at her to run as she realised that he knew about Oneesan, how much had yet to be seen, but he was at least aware that she shared her body with another and that her powers came from the Puzzle. Even if he didn't know anything else, that made him a dangerous adversary. "Wha...What do you want?" Yugi asked nervously, worried that she was going to have to go on the run or something because family members of Penalty sufferers wanted revenge on Oneesan and by extension, her.
"You and I are going to play a game." Mokuba replied, "And when I win, I'm going take your Puzzle and give it to my brother."
"Uh, no." Yugi backed up, only to feel something pressed against her back, something with a familiar shape, absolute terror causing her mind to shut down when she realised it was a stun gun just like the ones carried by Hirutani's people. Oneesan seized control of the body and glared at Mokuba.
"Your brother was a thief." Oneesan snarled at him, viciously shoving her own memories of the kidnapping away, "And he deserved what he got."
"Hello Other Yugi." Mokuba replied, ignoring her proclamation, unable to deny that his brother had had cards stolen from people before. "I was hoping to see you."
Onesaan was torn between surprise that he was actually acknowledging her existence, something which didn't happen outside of their group of friends and anger that yet again someone was threatening and frightening Imoto-chan to draw her out. "You do remember what happened to your brother when I Challenged him, right?" She drawled, unafraid of the pintsize pest and, though wary, not overly concerned about his brat army.
"Oh I know what you did." Mokuba retorted, watching as 'Yugi' moved away from the boy behind her and planted herself quite firmly in the centre of the circle, glowering at him. "He's talked of nothing else since."
'Kaiba had to have recovered then, at least somewhat, if he was able to talk again,' Oneesan thought, with an internal frown."And you think it's wise to risk the same?"
"I'm not going to risk anything, because I'm not going to lose." Kaiba's little brother snarked back.
Oneesan glanced around. While she wasn't adverse to Challenging the little sod right here and now, she was aware that she shouldn't display her powers in public and that Jou and Grandpa were waiting for Imoto-chan to come home with the shopping so she wanted to get it over with as fast as possible. "Where do you want to do this?"
"You'll see." Mokuba's mood seemed to switch easily when he realised that she wouldn't fight them. "Just one moment." He poked his head in the door and two minutes later the lot of them were heading away from the shopping district and towards a group of warehouses a few minutes away, carrying the vending machine with them. Oneesan, having flicked over Imoto-chan's memories of the day for hints of anything she could use, made a note of the fact it had been distributing high level capsules every other capsule and found herself disappointingly unsurprised when Mokuba offered to take turns getting their pieces out of the machine, even going so far as to graciously offer 'ladies first.'
"I assume you've rigged it." Oneesan responded, noting his momentarily scowl at her catching him out, "I must say I'm impressed, it takes a lot of work to get one of these to rig which capsules come out with such precise timing. You must have practically rebuilt it from scratch. Still you know what I did to your brother for cheating, did you really think it was wise?"
"Well it's the only capsule machine around, so..." Mokuba gestured to it.
Oneesan quickly did the maths in her head, remembering that the last capsule out was a high number one. Even if she got all five of her capsules out at once, assuming that Mokuba's rigging held, she would be at the disadvantage with three lower levels and two higher. Still she stood more of a chance, assuming that Mokuba's cheating didn't go any further, and she was willing to let him think he had the advantage. She was sure that using Imoto-chan's vast knowledge of the game she would beat him anyway and victory would be sweeter if he had had a better start.
A little irritated that she had to put more of Imoto-chan's money into Mokuba's rigged machine in order to teach the whelp a lesson, she collected her five capsules and sat at the table that Mokuba's goons had set up. The board was already set up and even as she kept an eye on Mokuba as he got his own, watching to make sure he didn't cheat any further than he already had, she was already strategising, skimming through Imoto-chan's memories of the monsters she had gotten and the rules of the game to make her choices.
It wouldn't be easy, she could admit that when Mokuba set up his monsters opposite her without actually saying another word. Mokuba had three high level monsters to her two and while her two were good, they wouldn't stand much chance in the long run. Then Oneesan saw an opening, her one chance at taking the younger of the Kaiba brothers down in one fell swoop. It took some working out, something her mind could do in a couple of heartbeats thankfully, but while Mokuba laid his capsules out in a rather standard position, Oneesan put hers out rather differently, grouping most of her beasts and leaving one level two monster to one side.
"Since I'm betting that you're waiting for just the right moment to announce that this will be a 'Shadow Game,'" Mokuba spoke once the board was set, drawing a flick knife out of his trouser pocket, "I'm setting my Penalty now. I'm a Champion at this game and when you lose, I'm not just taking the Puzzle for my brother, you'll lose a finger too."
Oneesan scowled. Threatening to take the Puzzle was one thing, but threatening to maim her little sister was another entirely. "Fine, but there'll be no escaping a Penalty Game when I defeat you." She warned him, "I'm already within my rights, due to your meddling."
"I won't lose." Mokuba repeated as the Shadows curled around the table, the chairs, the pieces and the Players, visible only to the pair of them, "Now go."
Oneesan made her first move, noting that his response was exactly as she had planned. However the former-Pharaoh was frustrated as she proceeded to put her plan into motion. Unlike some of the people she had Challenged and defeated, she could tell that Mokuba was just doing it to please his brother. She wasn't sorry she had put a Penalty on the older Kaiba, he had stolen from her long before she had put the Penalty on his head. In her defence, Mokuba was going to deserve the Penalty she placed on him too. However just as something unnameable had convinced her that the elder Kaiba that was not completely irredeemable, she was certain the younger was not a complete write off either.
"You don't stand a chance against me." Mokuba sniggered as he continued to fall into her trap, taking the bait by destroying the piece she had put forward to lure him in and moved into its slot. "I know every trick in the book."
Oneesan just let out an amused chuckle. It didn't seem to matter who they were or what they were playing, most of her adversaries seemed to come out with the same tired spiel. Originality seemed to completely desert them the moment that the Shadows closed in and the game started.
"What's so funny?" Mokuba demanded, scowling at her as he tried to work out whether he was missing some tactic that he had just walked into and, thankfully, not seeing her plan.
Oneesan smirked slightly as she realised she could use her momentary distraction from the game to her advantage. "Just thinking that perhaps I should teach you the rules of gaming." She explained nonchalantly, as she moved another low level monster into position, "Rule one, always act like you have the upper hand."
"You think you can teach me!?" Mokuba snapped, destroying another of her pieces, her level four not standing up to his level 5 beast, "I'm the Champion!"
"Keep your cool at all times." Oneesan responded without missing a beat, taking out his level two plant like creature with her own higher level warrior, "That's rule two."
Mokuba just let out a low growl and continued his assault on her game pieces, "It doesn't matter if I lose one piece," He commented as he moved another one to destroy the warrior who had caused the loss, "I can still take yours down."
"If you say so." Oneesan couldn't help the amusement at the anger her tone of condescension earned her as she moved the final piece of her plan into place. It wasn't supposed to be this funny, but he was so stereotypically playing the bad guy, at least from what she could tell from Imoto-chan's memories of movie and anime villains, it just struck her as funny.
"Ha!" Mokuba crowed as he destroyed her penultimate piece, "Now what're you going to do? I have four pieces and you only have one! And it's only a level two! It doesn't stand a chance!" He paused when Oneesan smirked, "What? What's funny? Don't tell me that look's one of your stupid rules too!"
"No, no," Oneesan shook her head, vindictive laughter in her voice as she spoke, "This is a look of victory."
"What?!" Mokuba squeaked.
"Look at the board properly." Oneesan watched realisation dawn as he finally took in what her final piece was and how he had lined up his monsters. "My bird, the one you're so dismissive of, is Torigan. Once per game, it can destroy any number of enemies, regardless of level, as long as they're at a diagonal line from it."
"She...she..." Mokuba stared at the board as he realised that he had fallen, head first, into her trap and he had been so busy dismissing her skills and destroying her other pieces, monsters he know realised she had sacrificed in order to ensure victory, that he had never seen it coming.
"Hold your trump card till the end." Oneesan informed him as she knocked his pieces over with her Torigun, the Shadows showing the boy who was now firmly ensnared in their grip, a Penalty imminent, "Rule three, remember it well."
"I...I lost..." Mokuba paled, panic settling as Oneesan got to her feet, realising what was to come. He lunged for the Puzzle in one final attempt to seize what he wanted.
"Penalty Game!" Fingers splayed, hand facing him, Puzzle glowing causing him to back off, she felt more than justified in giving the boy this small terror as vengeance for his threats against her little sister and his last minute move.
"My brother's revenge is well under way!" Mokuba yelled at her, even as an illusionary CapMon capsule started to close over him, "The secret project, Death-T, is coming!" With that the illusion snapped shut.
Mokuba let out a horrendous, terrified screech, his mind trapped within the false image by her magic. "I can't move! Or see!" The boy wailed, tears flowing, as she turned to leave, a feeling of nausea rising as she tried to ignore Mokuba's pleading, "Oniisan! Please! Help me! It's dark and cold..."
She exited swiftly as the boy's gang members tried to work out what was wrong, getting two blocks away before she leant against the wall and pressed her head against the cool brickwork. The penalty she had set had been too close to home for her to stomach. She wasn't even sure herself what it was meant to teach, she had just wanted to punish him for threatening to maim Imoto-chan when she had set the game in motion and his terror and his tears reminded her too much of before.
She didn't remember anything before the darkness, all she had known was that she was lost, imprisoned in the dark, in pain and all alone. As she tried to ignore the way her stomach wanted to jump into her throat, her mind flicked back to when she had first awoken in the Shadows, how she'd screamed and pleaded and sobbed for someone, anyone to let her out, to help her, to save her from the agony.
And no one had come for her. Not until Imoto-chan had solved the Puzzle and freed her from her prison.
Mokuba's Penalty wasn't the same. He wasn't in pain, he wasn't lost in a realm of soul eating monsters, but it still hit too close to home and she had chosen it purely because she had been feeling vindictive.
Unable to keep the bile in her throat down any longer, she wheeled around and retched into the nearest bin, hacking up what Imoto-chan had had for lunch, emptying it into the bin, only becoming aware of someone rubbing her back when she finally stopped, her stomach empty, the person's voice attempting to be soothing, even with hints of concern and anger wavering through his tone.
"J...Jou?" She asked, closing her eyes at the reassuring tone, trying to calm herself down enough to put on at least a facade of being the strong, unflappable older sister they expected her to be.
"Hi Oneesan." Jou murmured, recognising her for which 'Yugi' she was almost instantly, "Is Yuge sick?"
"I..." Oneesan stopped and shook her head, not trusting her voice when she could feel another wave of nausea coming on.
"Then what's brought this on?" Jou asked, worried, "This 'cause of a Shadow Game?"
For a moment Oneesan considered lying, telling Jou something, anything else but that she had brought this on herself. That even with Imoto-chan's light to protect her, she still feared that dark place that had held her for so long. That she was feeling sick because she had thrown someone else into a situation far too similar to how hers had once been.
"What're you doing here?" She asked instead, not wanting to answer his question, having never lied to Jou and not really wanting to start now.
"Ojiisan sent me to give you a hand." Jou told her, leaving out how one of their regular customers had rushed into the store in a tizzy and scared both Yugi's Grandfather and Jou by informing them that she had just seen Yugi being led away by a gang of kids with tasers. Frightened that Hirutani was back already, something that was unlikely but not in the realms of impossible, Jou had promised Sugoroku that he would make sure Yugi was okay and with his blessing, shot out of the door to try to find her. "What happened? Yuge was fine when she left the house."
He wasn't going to let it go, she could tell that and it wasn't fair to leave Imoto-chan in control of a body that felt wretched and whose mouth still tasted of bile just because she wanted to avoid a question.
"Kaiba's Otouto-san." Oneesan started, still not looking at him and trying to pull the thoughts into a coherent train without feeling ill again, "Wanted to challenge me. His gang had tasers. Imoto-chan freaked out and I woke up."
"So you kicked their asses." Jou sounded like he understood. That was the good thing about Jou. While Anzu didn't understand that she was only defending herself the only way she had, and Honda would rather she didn't exist at all, Jou was willing to talk to her and willing to accept her Challenges as necessary to protect her little sister. "So what's with the barf fest?"
"It's nothing." She lied, taking a deep breath and straightening, turning to face him, "I'm fine."
"You're obviously not fine." Jou scowled at her, "If you were fine, you wouldn't have been heaving twenty seconds ago. What happened?" Jou paused, "You didn't lose, did you?"
"No!" Oneesan protested, her pride piqued at the suggestion that she could lose, "No." She shook her head, "I won, but..." She paused, swallowing hard against the lump in her throat. It was ridiculous that she, a Pharaoh of old, one who had survived three thousand years in the Shadows, should be reduced to this state because of one Penalty. But she had been and she suddenly realised that she wasn't as in control of herself as she should be if she was going to try to control the Shadows, which magnified the best and worst in a person's mind and soul.
"But?" Jou pressed.
"The CapMon machine he wanted us to use was rigged. He'd rigged it." Oneesan explained, "So I issued a Penalty. Didn't think about it, just cast it..."
"What was it?" Her friend asked warily, as if unsure he wanted to know.
"Nothing extreme." Oneesan promised, "I just trapped him inside the illusion of a CapMon capsule for a while. The moment Kaiba goes near it, it'll break. I didn't want to hurt him, just scare him."
"So what went wrong?" Jou wondered, "I mean it had to have done for you to be..." He gestured to the bin.
"It's nothing." Oneesan dismissed it, or at least tried to. When Jou glowered at her she snapped, "I don't want to talk about it, alright?"
"Oneesan..." Jou grimaced. He was bad at this heart to heart stuff, Anzu was much better at it but he knew she wouldn't want to talk about this, except perhaps to lecture Oneesan about 'not Challenging people in the first place.' It had to be him to try and find out what had distressed Oneesan so much she'd been ill. "Look you obviously don't want to be alone right now or you'd do what you normally do when you want to avoid talking to me and shove Yuge out here. And even I can tell you're upset about something and I'm normally oblivious, so share. Even if I can't do anything it helps to talk. Yuge taught me that."
Oneesan paused for a moment. She wasn't sure what Jou meant by Imoto-chan teaching him that talking things over helped, but her pride wouldn't allow her to admit to her fears. However while it was true that most of her reasoning for not putting Imoto-chan back in control was the fact the body felt wretched, she didn't want to return to her cell right now. She was sure Imoto-chan wouldn't begrudge her a little longer in control if she did the shopping for her in exchange. "What will it take to get you to drop it and leave it alone?" She asked Jou, "So we can get on with the shopping?"
"The truth." Jou snorted in reply, "Unless you don't actually trust me enough to..." Jou trailed off as everything came together in his mind finally. "You trapped him in the dark. Alone. With no way out without outside help?" Oneesan nodded slowly, wondering if she was about to get an earful. However before she could say anything, Jou had drawn her into a hug, only the third one she had ever received in three thousand years but it was his next words that really shocked her. "We won't let you go back there. I promise." They were there for a minute or so before his grip tightened briefly, then he released and grinned at her, "Besides, if you vanish, who's going to keep me and Honda in check?"
"Anzu does a pretty good job." Oneesan sniggered after a moment, glad for the subject change even as she made up her mind that until she could control her impulses better she would stop issuing Challenges using magic unless there was no other way of solving the issue and think through her Penalties much more carefully from now on, "She could probably manage."
"I dunno Yuge," Jou retorted as they stepped back onto the high street, shielding her from prying eyes with him much larger frame even as he slipped back into calling her Yugi, "She wasn't having much luck before."
"I," Oneesan emphasised, trying to pass on the fact that it was in fact Imoto-chan she was talking about, "Distinctly remember Anzu chasing you out of the classroom after you got caught badgering me."
"Yeah, yeah..." Jou grimaced, remembering many occasions of the same thing. "We'd still want you around."
"Anzu and Honda don't like me." Oneesan reminded him, fully aware of that little fact.
"It's not... you know what no. Honda and Anzu need to go over this with you, I'm not sticking my nose in." Jou shook his head. "Now let's get this shopping and get back. Ojiisan is going to be pitching a fit soon."
"Alright." Oneesan agreed, still convinced that she was right. "The sooner we get done the better."