Chapter 16: - Take 2
Yugi, Jou had discovered, was just as competitive as her older sister.
She hadn't really wanted to go to the arcade, but Jou had and on their way there, Jou had gotten her to agree to a friendly wager. Whoever managed to get the most high scores before the arcade closed would buy the other's lunch at school for a week. Of course he had forgotten who he was talking to.
While he struggled to scrape ninth and tenth place on the leaderboards, Yugi was systematically working her way through the games available, getting her name at the top of eight lists so far and was currently working on her ninth.
The local regulars, when they had seen 'YUG' slowly but surely pushing 'KAI,' who had held every high score in the arcade, into second place, had been in uproar. Suddenly there was a new player on the scene who was better than the guy who had held the top place on the leader boards for the last six months.
Jou was just glad that the lists drew from an online database that held the high scores of every console of that variety across the country otherwise someone would have worked out that it was his friend doing it and he was fully aware she got embarrassed easily when pounced on by large crowds.
Normally he wouldn't mind losing to his friend, but today it was grating on his nerves. Unlike Yugi, who more often than not shrugged off when people laughed at her, Jou couldn't just ignore the ribbing he was getting from some of the regulars for his inability to beat the high scores.
The final blow came when he managed to get a high score on a fighting game, something Yugi had admitted weeks ago was her worst genre of games, taking tenth place on the board. He entered his name but by the time the board had loaded up with the new names added to it, Yugi's was already in first place and had pushed his off of the board.
"That's it." Jou sulked, getting to his feet and ignoring the startled and vaguely worried look on Yugi's face, "I'm going to get a drink. I'll be back in a minute."
He stalked off towards the vending machines at the back of the arcade, needing a break from the games for a while. It wasn't like he could possibly catch up to Yugi's total anyway. He just didn't have her insane skills. "Note to self, never make a wager with Yugi about anything game related." He sighed as he put a hundred yen in the machine, getting out a cola for himself.
"Did you say Yugi?" One of the other kids hanging around asked, the one who had first noticed the steady increase of 'YUG' on the leaderboards. "Is he the one who's been beating Kaiba's high scores?"
Jou was about to snap something back when what the kid had said twigged, "Kaiba?"
"Yeah, that's who 'KAI' is. Kaiba Seto. You have to know who he is." The boy rolled his eyes, "He's only the guy in charge of Kaiba Corp, one of the world's leading games companies. He lives here, in Domino."
Jou knew Kaiba alright, but his mind had finally connected the Kaiba Seto who he sat in class with on an almost daily basis, with the Kaiba Seto who was well known amongst the gangs of the area as a powerful business man who hired thugs to do his dirty work for him.
While Jou had still been running with Hirutani, long before he had met Yugi, he had heard stories about the guy. How he was prone to hiring people to 'get rid' of problems for him.
He blanched slightly as he realised that Oneesan had made herself into a problem for the Kaiba brothers.
"You alright?" The kid asked.
Before Jou could answer there was a loud crash from over by the fighting games and someone yelled in pain. Jou dropped his drink and shot towards the sound as he recognised the voice, his previous thoughts dominating his mind.
"Yuge!" He pushed his way through the crowd building, some small part of his mind taking note of the suspicious looking guy heading away from the scene. Yugi was sat on the floor, leaning against one of the consoles, her posture curled up enough to tell him that her stomach hurt, while her already bruising cheek and slightly dazed expression finished telling him the story as he knelt at her side. "Yuge, you okay?"
"My Puzzle..." Yugi whimpered, looking down at the floor, her head bowed, her tone causing him to wince as he realised the Puzzle was missing.
Jou let out a hiss as he thought he worked out what had happened. Someone had seen the golden pendant Yugi always wore and had attacked the girl to take it for themselves, though why Oneesan hadn't woken up to defend her was beyond him.
It wasn't the Puzzle Yugi was truly concerned for, Jou knew that without having to think about it. It was the spirit within that held Yugi's attention. Though Yugi had never been a fighter, the fact she hadn't been able to protect the artefact and prevent her sister from being taken away would weigh heavily on her for a while.
"I'll get it." Jou promised, rage beginning to take a hold as he realised that this wasn't some thug of Kaiba's but some garden variety loser. He stood up and headed in the direction the suspicious looking guy had gone. It wasn't hard to find him, he hadn't gone far, too busy admiring his 'prize.'
"Hold it right there!" Jou snarled as the guy turned a corner and stepped down an alley. The guy turned to look at him, smirking as he did so. "How dare you hurt my friend?!" He demanded, "Hand over the Puzzle and I won't have to rip you apart!"
"You?" The guy looked amused, "Have the audacity to challenge me to a street fight?"
"It's not a fight." Jou shot back, more than used to dealing with jackasses like him and feeling rather within his comfort zone, "It's gunna be a slaughter. And then I'm gunna take back the Puzzle."
"Well get this," The guy smirked, actually looking forward to putting the challenger in his place, "I've never lost a fight. I know karate and boxing. You're the one that's gunna die."
"Quit flapping your jaw and make your move already." Jou growled. If the guy had studied karate and boxing then Jou was tempted to get the name of the dojo the thug studied at and warn his sensei that he was using it to pick on defenceless girls. Something most sensei's weren't supposed to approve of.
"Don't be so hasty." The guy replied, only increasing Jou's desire to punch him in the mouth. "I'm a big fan of Bruce Lee, he wasn't just a movie star, he was a real fighter! He showed his true strength to the world in the Ed Porter International Karate Tournament at Long Beach! That's where he used his 'One Inch Punch!' The records show that with just one inch no handicap his punch blew his opponent away..."
Jou didn't really pay attention as the lecture continued, he had heard quite enough about Bruce Lee and quite frankly had no time for this fanboy of some deceased has been. It wasn't until the guy broke off his rambling by ending it with, "So we'll do this like a fighting game." That Jou really started to pay attention, subtly glancing around and relaxing slightly when he saw none of the wisps of Shadows that he had during the Shadow Game he had taken part in.
"If you win, I'll give you the Puzzle." The guy offered, still confident in his ability to kick Jou's rear. "But there's a catch." He pulled two knives out of his pocket. "We'll play this like a 'Game of Death' just like the film with Bruce Lee by holding them between our teeth."
"What?" Jou deadpanned.
"Of course if you don't want to play, I'll just smash this Puzzle now."
Jou froze at that threat. Oneesan had told him herself that if the Puzzle was dismantled she would return to the darkness that had held her for so long. He had promised her that he wouldn't let her be sent back. If he wanted to keep his word to both her and to Yugi who was expecting him to come back with her Puzzle whole and safe, he had no choice but to take part.
Easily able to see that Jou wouldn't refuse, the guy smirked and put one of the knives between his teeth, offering the other to the blonde who took it.
"Fine." Jou said, accepting the blade, "But take that out of your mouth. I don't want to have to hold back when I punch you in the face."
"It's your funeral." The guy shrugged spitting his blade out as Jou put his in. "When I punch you in the face that knife will go right into your throat! One inch is enough to kill you! Let's go!"
Suddenly, without fair warning of the 'game' starting, Jou was under attack. Swiftly having to move to defend himself from an assault that was much more powerful than he anticipated. It was easy to see that his opponent had been trained by a professional and while Jou had years of experience on the streets, he had to sweat to keep up with the man, the knife putting him at a disadvantage he could ill afford.
'Damn it.' He thought as he narrowly dodged a strike that would have driven the blade down his throat, 'The alley's narrow, I've got next to no room...' A lucky shot winded Jou, causing the teen to double up and, luckily, back up, giving him a chance to recover as the guy gloated before moving in for the kill.
Jou launched a powerful upper cut that knocked the guy off of his feet and sent him sprawling. An agonised wailing starting up as Jou winced at the sight of the mess he had made of the guy's face. "Uh oh..." He said as he spat out the blade and unhitched the Puzzle from around the guy's neck, "Broken jaw... Not my problem."
A part of him felt a little guilty, while the rest of him reminded that part that the guy had just tried to KILL him and the dude was lucky that he was getting away with just a broken jaw.
"And if I EVER see you anywhere near Yugi again, I'll break a few more things." Jou decided to threaten, putting on a tough guy act he hadn't used since leaving Hirutani's gang, knowing that they often came to the arcade and not wanting the prick to try again when he recovered from this particular beatdown.
The guy didn't respond beyond glowering at him and Jou took it as his chance to leave. Yugi was still waiting for him at the arcade anyway and he wanted to reunite the sisters as soon as possible. For some reason the thought of Yugi without Oneesan and vice versa left him feeling odd, like the idea didn't mesh properly in his head. Possibly because Yugi had had the Puzzle, and hence Oneesan, for almost as long as he had been her friend.
By the time he got back to the arcade Yugi had unballed herself and was hovering anxiously by the door, her face lighting up when she saw he had the Millennium Puzzle. The moment he slipped the rope over her head she hugged it to her chest tightly. For a moment Jou thought he saw a flash of the illusion that normally went up when Oneesan took control, then it was gone, leaving Yugi behind.
"Thank you." Yugi grinned at him brightly, the joy in her features chasing away the darker emotions that were still swirling within Jou. "I owe you."
"Eh, we'll call it even if you let me win once in a while." Jou replied with a teasing grin. "Or some donuts. Don't mind which."
"I think the donuts might be easier to provide." Yugi admitted with no small amount of embarrassment. It didn't seem to matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to lose convincingly when she threw any game she played and she just knew Jou would get frustrated if she didn't provide at least some form of challenge.
"Donuts it is then." Jou chuckled, herding her out of the building, not sorry to get away before anyone asked what he had done to the thief anyway. They were halfway down the road before anything else could happen, then a rather large white limo pulled alongside them.
When the window rolled down to reveal a brat with long black hair and a vindictive smile, causing Yugi to freeze up, Jou just knew it was going to be one of those days.
"Hi Yugi." Mokuba said as two goons got out of the car. Jou could see guns tucked into their waistbands and instantly moved to cover Yugi's much smaller form with his huge frame. He couldn't help but wonder when the hell they had been dragged into some mob film and let out a soft hiss as he remembered that it had been the elder Kaiba making the mistake of pissing off Oneesan that had done it. "My Oniisan requests your presence. He's got a surprise for you."
"Tell your brother I'm sorry." Yugi replied, shaking her head even with the two goons looming, "But I have homework to be doing and I have to..." She trailed off as one of the goons drew a gun, shielding it from the shoppers milling around but making the threat obvious.
"I'm afraid Kaiba-Sama was rather insistent." One of the goons informed her.
"Let Jou go and I'll come quietly." Yugi promised, not wanting her friend hurt for something she had done.
"You're not going in without me, Yuge." Jou shook his head. "If you're going, I'm going."
Yugi couldn't see that she had much of a choice but to get in the limo. They had guns and while she had Oneesan, she couldn't guarantee Jou's safety if the goons were faster off the mark with their weapons than Oneesan was with her magic.
"There's more than enough room at the mansion for the both of you." Mokuba replied, his attempt to sound reassuring marred by the huge smirk on his face.
"Jou..." Yugi looked up at her friend. She didn't want him to follow her. Not this time he realised. He had thought her ignorant to the threat the Kaibas posed but obviously he had thought wrong and now she wanted him well away while they took whatever revenge they had planned.
"I'll be fine. Trust me." Jou pounded his fist into his other hand firmly and watched as uncertainty crossed Yugi's features for a moment before she nodded.
"Alright," Yugi nodded, agreeing to him coming, if only because she had the feeling that he would follow her anyway if she didn't. One of the goons opened the door for the pair and Yugi slipped in first, half hoping that they would shut the door on Jou before he could get in. She wasn't that lucky and her friend slid into the seat next to her.
The door slammed shut behind them and before they could ask any questions they were on the move again.
"This is about Death-T, isn't it?" Yugi asked nervously, remembering the note she had found in her drawer alongside the goban the morning after Oneesan's party.
"How did... I told the Other Yugi. Not you." Mokuba looked confused.
"Oneesan doesn't keep secrets from me when knowing them could save my life." Yugi replied with a shrug, pleased at herself for getting the upper hand on him mentally without Oneesan's help.
"Oneesan?" Mokuba questioned.
Yugi didn't offer any explanation, realising she shouldn't have said even that much and not wanting to give away any more secrets. Just giving them the name they used for the nameless Pharaoh within her Puzzle felt bad enough.
Mokuba grimaced when he realised he wouldn't get any more information out of her on that subject and nodded slightly. "Yes, this is about Death-T. You have no idea what you're going up against."
"Who said Yuge'd agree to take part?" Jou pointed out with a growl, not liking the sound of it.
"I'm not sure I'm going to be left a choice in the matter." Yugi replied softly, though Jou could hear how tense she was.
"Don't be like that, Yugi." Mokuba scolded her, "My brother spent millions on building the perfect theme park just for you. The least you could do is be grateful."
Kaiba had gone to that expense for Yugi's sake? It wasn't for her. She was certain of that. He, like Shadi, most likely wanted to draw Oneesan out and test her to destruction and whatever happened to her was just the collateral.
"Oneesan will beat your brother's theme park." Yugi warned Mokuba, fully confident in her big sister's ability to beat any challenge that came her way. It was one of the many ways Oneesan was better than her.
"We'll see." Mokuba shrugged, actually looking forward to it more since Yugi wasn't just lying down and playing dead. Reports he and his brother had gathered had suggested that she'd grown more confident since solving the Puzzle and the proof was here in front of him.
Jou himself was surprised at how confident Yugi was proving. Death-T was most likely aimed at killing her and she didn't look afraid, if anything she looked cross. The Yugi he had picked on a couple of months back wouldn't have been like this. Finishing the Puzzle and getting Oneesan had been good for her. Now he just had to hope that it wouldn't get them both murdered horribly.
"Is that where we're going?" Yugi asked.
"No." Mokuba admitted, "The park doesn't open until tomorrow. You're the opening attraction. Tonight we're taking you to the mansion."
"If we're ordering our last meals," Jou worked out what was going on, remembering hearing somewhere about how people who were up for execution getting whatever they wanted for their final meal. "I'd like a sixteen ounce rib-eye steak, medium rare, with fried mushrooms and chips. Yuge'll take like, twenty cheeseburgers."
"Twenty?" Mokuba looked amused.
"Believe me, she'd eat them." Joey shrugged, uncaring if Mokuba believed him or not, but fully aware Yugi could eat like a horse when she was hungry, yet didn't seem to put on any weight, possibly because she was sustaining Oneesan too.
"Twenty cheeseburgers. Got it." Mokuba still looked amused though, suggesting that Yugi would probably be going hungry.
Jou just grimaced as he turned away and watched the world pass them by. If the younger Kaiba was actually contemplating his request, the older one was probably not going to stop tomorrow until they were, in fact, as dead as Oneesan if not more so.
Yugi fell silent when Jou did, much more frightened by the turn of events than she was letting on. She was both glad of Jou's presence at her side and hated the fact he was being dragged into this.
A part of her wanted to be cross at Oneesan too, but this was her fault, not the Pharaoh's. If she hadn't been foolish enough to have let him take the Blue Eyes card from her in the first place, Oneesan wouldn't have had to have Challenged him and they would never have come to the attention of the Kaibas.
As they passed through the gates, Jou kept a watchful eye on their surroundings, trying to work out if he could find a route that would allow both him and Yugi to get the hell out of there. There were several routes he alone could have taken, all of which were risky with the goons and dogs he could see patrolling the grounds, but he wasn't willing to leave his friend behind.
As they pulled up in front of the building and were escorted inside, Jou realised that every guard that had seen them walk into the building would probably have no qualms about lying if the pair of them were to suddenly disappear. It made him wonder what, exactly, he had gotten himself into.
It also made him wonder what he would have been like a few years down the line if he had followed the path he had seemed destined for while still running with Hirutani's gang. Back then, the only way up had seemed to be getting himself a position with the yakuza. If he had gone that way, would he have been just as jaded?
"Welcome to the Kaiba Mansion." Mokuba showed off the front hallway. It was huge, ornately decorated and showed the trappings of wealth wherever you looked. "The guards phoned ahead with your orders, so if you'd like to follow me through to the dining hall we can eat now and then I can show you to your rooms."
"Rooms?" Jou asked.
"Yes, rooms." Mokuba replied, "It's not proper for you two to share a room, unless there is some truth in the rumours..." Mokuba smirked as Yugi flushed bright red in her embarrassment and shook her head.
"No, no, it'll be fine." Yugi glanced at Jou. "Right?"
"Fine." Jou held back a grimace, having to adjust his escape plans to incorporate the fact Yugi would be in a different bedroom. Not that he had a firm plan yet. He just didn't want to go down quietly. Not to the plans of some rich creeps who had to hire goons to do their own dirty work and didn't know how to fight fair. Yugi's earlier offer to surrender herself if they let him go had not helped his mood either.
"Good." Mokuba grinned, guiding them into the dining hall as he did so and gesturing for them to take seats at a table that had both the meals Jou had requested for them as well as a couple of dishes from other countries. Yugi's mouth watered at the smells rising from the hot and delicious looking food but even as Jou settled at the chair opposite his steak something seemed wrong about the whole set up.
"I thought, since you seemed so hungry in the limo we'd play a little game." Mokuba informed them, sitting down on the last chair, his words setting off Yugi's warning bells. "You spin the board and you get to eat whatever stops in front of you."
"It's not poisoned is it?" Jou asked, eying up the steak in front of him, voicing the concern that Yugi hadn't wanted to.
"Would I do a thing like that?" Mokuba seemed wounded. "Go on, try it." He gestured to the wheel. Jou warily spun the board, watching it for tricks as it slowly came to a stop, depositing the steak back in front him.
Jou dug in, still wary but hungry. He was halfway through the plate of food before he stopped, eyes going wide, a choking gasp coming from his mouth, before his face screwed up in pain, and his breathing turned rough and uneven. "You...!" He gasped out, glaring daggers at Mokuba.
"The answer is yes." Mokuba replied, unconcerned by Jou's hatred. "I would poison the food."
"This time you die!" Oneesan snarled, seizing control from her little sister and rising to her feet.
"Uh uh, Oneesan." Mokuba tutted at her, seeming pleased by the outburst and remembering what Yugi had called her, "You kill me, you'll never get the antidote to save your friend."
"Give it to me! Right now!" Oneesan threatened the young Kaiba, ignoring the way the guards were reaching for their guns.
"You want it, you'll have to beat me. Sit back down." Mokuba ordered, gesturing to the seat Oneesan had vacated.
Oneesan sat and glowered at her opponent for a moment as she started the table spinning, before glancing over at Jou, who had slumped at the table, concern cutting through her rage. She had to end his fast. She didn't know how fast acting the poison was, or how long Jou had before he...
She turned back to the table in time to see Mokuba playing with an empty bottle of sauce. Since the only thing on the table that required sauce adding to it was the pancakes, she assumed that was what it was for. Or she would have done if he hadn't been fiddling with it during Jou's turn too.
A plate of spaghetti bolognaise stopped in front of her.
"You have to clear your plate, Oneesan." Mokuba smirked at her, "That's the rules."
"Remember Mokuba," Oneesan warned, feeling the Shadows straining against her tight mental grip, wanting to both enhance and feed from her rage and refusing to loose them unless completely necessary. No matter how much she wanted to use them to deal with the brat, she needed him coherent in order to provide the antidote and she had sworn to stop using magic until she could guarantee she could control herself, "What I did the last time you rigged the game against me."
Mokuba glowered at her, gesturing once again to her plate. Oneesan ate it rapidly, figuring that Mokuba wouldn't want the game to end so soon and watching intently as he took his turn. Once again he messed around with the empty syrup bottle and got himself some ramen which he ate eagerly.
"Your turn again." Mokuba gestured to the table, "There's only two meals left, so why don't we both eat whatever meal's in front of us. If yours isn't poisoned, I'll give you the antidote. If it is, too bad, you'll both die."
He had planned this and she felt her anger rising again. As Mokuba got distracted by a butler who had entered the room and seemed to be trying to remind the younger Kaiba about something, she swiftly removed the Puzzle and wrapped the rope around one of the posts, before spinning it fast enough that the Puzzle smashed the glass syrup bottle.
"What?!" Mokuba yelped as Oneesan struggled to stay in control of the body, the Puzzle tugging at her soul, calling her back inside, "Why would you..." He trailed off, paling as the burgers stopped in front of him.
"We have to clear our plate, wasn't that the rules?" Oneesan asked, smirking at him even as she felt herself slipping, trying to end it before Yugi was forced back into control of her body.
Mokuba nodded, still pale. She had guessed that he had poisoned the burgers too. Their last meal requests would indeed have been their final meals. "You know what, you win." Mokuba shook his head, pushing the plate away and tossing the antidote across the table in a throw that nearly ended with the small glass vial on the floor, shattered just like the syrup bottle.
Oneesan snatched it from the air just milliseconds from hitting the floor and darted over to her friend, tipping what she prayed was really the antidote down his neck. Jou coughed and spluttered for a moment, then slowly, steadily, his breathing evened out and the pain seemed to decrease. Oneesan, however, didn't get to see him open his eyes, having lost her fight with the Puzzle's pull on her spirit, leaving Yugi to nervously hover over her friend.
"Jou?"
"I'm okay." Jou didn't sound okay, his voice was rough and still had an edge of pain even as he got up and moved unsteadily around the table, unhitching the Puzzle from the post it was tied to and handing it to Yugi. "Thanks Yuge."
"Oneesan saved you." Yugi's voice wavered, fear now a lot more obvious. She could handle threats to herself, but she had come close to losing him. "You...You should leave..."
"It's a little late for that." Mokuba answered for him, having watched the interaction between them, "The mansion's shut down for the night. The guards will shoot anyone who tries to leave."
"Even you or Kaiba?" Jou snarled, his head still spinning slightly and thoroughly pissed off. He wouldn't have abandoned Yugi anyway, but he knew that there was no way he would be able to get both of them out before morning now, not unless the weakness in his limbs and dizziness cleared up in short order.
Mokuba shrugged, having planned on incapacitating the ex-gang member all along in order to prevent any trouble he could have caused before it could happen and so they had a bargaining chip to use against Oneesan. "I don't plan on testing it." He replied, "Now, let me show you to your rooms."
Jou bristled, anger rising as he realised that the Kaibas had been planning on him refusing to leave Yugi's side, but there was nothing he could do about it now. The term 'live bait' sprang to mind and the only thing he could think as they were taken upstairs and separated was that at least it was him here at Yugi's side and not Anzu or Yugi's Grandfather.
As the door locked behind him and he realised that the windows were barred and that Yugi's room was probably set up much the same way, it was a small mercy.