[Hm...haven't updated this in a while... I've been in pretty good moods recently, though, which means I really didn't feel like whining or writing. And that's about all I do on this particular blog, except a few rambling rants... Anyways. The entire point of this particular post is just to write, so here we go!]
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Sequel to Not Quite
Scribble scribble scribble. Hesitate. Scribble. Click click click on the calculator. Curse. Shred. Scribble scribble scribble. Hesitate. Click click click on the calculator. Curse.
"I can't do this!" Yugi finally shouted, rumpling up his homework and lobbing it at the far wall. "I just - " rip " - can't - " rip " - do it!" The shredded remains of another paper fluttered to the ground.
Perched on the edge of the bed, Yami raised an eyebrow. "The hikari is frustrated?"
"Algebra," Yugi sighed. "I just can't get logarithms at all... Or absolute value, or quadratic equations for that matter, and they're all on my test tomorrow. I know I'm gonna fail."
Yami's face grew stern. "The hikari should never speak like that. If the hikari studies, he will do well." The spirit-embodied stood and came to stare over Yugi's shoulder at the math book. He perused the lesson carefully, seeming to soak in everything it offered. Then, picking up the forgotten pencil, he scratched something underneath Yugi's work. A momentary frown; he glanced back at the textbook, scribbled again. Scratched out his answer. Looked back to the text. Scribble. Text. Scratch. Scribble. Text. Scratch. Scribble.
An hour and two pencils later, Yugi glanced up from his book and immediately sweatdropped. "Uh, Yami? What precisely are you doing?"
"Sending the cursed book to the Shadow Realm!" the spirit raged.
"You know, for a three-thousand year old Pharaoh, you sometimes act a lot like a teenager..."
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"...and since this and this cancel out, and seven minus seven is zero,
x equals zero. Got - what?" Yugi held up a hand to silence his yami, listening intently to something.
"I said, it's time to go!" Solomon Moto shouted again. Yugi yelled back that he would be right down and turned to his darker half.
"Sorry, Yami, I forgot - Grampa and I have to go to that showcase convention tonight! We'll keep working on this when I get back, all right?" The young duelist flashed a bright grin, and the spirit couldn't help but smile back.
"Whatever the hikari wishes," Yami replied. Yugi nabbed his jacket from its usual position on the back of the chair and dashed out of the room, shouting something incomprehensible to his grandfather. Yami gave the algebra book a final glare before retreating to his perch on the edge of the bed; the door slammed closed, and the house fell silent.
The spirit gave a quite sigh as he felt the warm presence of his hikari fading. How he hated being left alone.
The gaming convention was drawing to a close, and the crowds were beginning to thin out as all but the serious gamers started leaving. The demonstrations and amateur competitions were over; some of the stalls were already empty, their owners having already gone home for the night. In one corner of the huge convention center, however, things were still as excited as ever.
"Come on, Matt! You can beat this punk! No porcupine-headed duelist is gonna out-duel you!"
Yugi couldn't help but grin at that. His opponent was easily three times his size, a great deal older than he, and had a pinched, nasty look to his face, but he played honestly, and Yugi was enjoying the duel. Even if it was far too easy. He laid one of his more common traps on the field and set a weak monster in attack mode, fully expecting black-haired Matt to sniff out his trap; no such luck.
"Yeah! You go, Yug! Whoop this guy!"
"Good move, Yugi!"
The younger duelist had to fight down the flush of embarassment rising in his cheeks. It was great that his friends were there to support him, but still...it
was a little unfair. Here he was, King of Games, with his entire cheering squad behind him while his less-than-brilliant opponent had only one friend.
But wait...that glint in Matt's eye could mean nothing good, could it? A mental
eep!, followed by a mental head banging against a mental wall, accompanied by a fluent string of mental curses. The activation of his trap had somehow set off Matt's own trap, nearly halving Yugi's life points.
"Looks like the little guy isn't so tough after all," Matt sneered. He was now 400 life points ahead of Yugi.
The smaller duelist frowned and drew a card, adding it to his already-powerful hand. He held an entire arsenal of deadly monsters, not to mention a few handy magic and trap cards; he could have ended the duel at any time. But he was just having too much fun! It wasn't often that he had the chance to duel a new opponent just for the heck of it, after all - usually someone's life was on the line. It was something of a new experience for him.
"Aw, come on, Yug! Crush this upstart! No one beats the King of Games this easily!" Joey pumped his fist in the air, blonde hair shimmering under the intensely bright lights. Yugi winced. He hadn't told Matt his title, and hadn't planned on doing so.
Matt's friend froze in the middle of his cheer, eyeing Yugi nervously. "Hey Matt," he started, "maybe you should just forfeit this...I mean, if he's the King of Games - "
But Matt just grinned. "If he's really the King of Games, then there's no way in the world I'm backing out now," he said, playing a frighteningly strong monster and backing it up with what Yugi feared was a trap. "Not when I've got him on the run!"
Yugi breathed a silent sigh of relief.
Thank Ra he's a good opponent. "Then I guess you won't mind if I play...this!" The tiny hologram projector whirred to life as he slapped down his own monster and trap.
Ah, yes.
Now things would get interesting.
Joey glanced at his watch and sweatdropped. "Hey, Tristan," he mumbled into his friend's ear, "you realize this duel has been going for an hour now?"
"Yes, I realized that! I had three cokes before we came here, do you really
think I hadn't noticed?!"
Joey sweatdropped a little more.
But the poor brunette's agony was almost over; a faintly pharaonic smirk crossed Yugi's lips, and he set a final card on the field. Matt groaned as his life points fell to zero. Sitting dejectedly off to the side, his friend cursed and stalked off. The black-haired duelist just raised an eyebrow at his retreating back.
"Hey, great duel, man," he said, shaking Yugi's hand. "Even if I did lose, at least I know I held my own against the King of Games, right?"
"You did great! I've had some pretty tough duels, but this was probably the most fun of all of them," Yugi replied.
Matt grinned back. "Hey, thanks. Look, I've gotta go find my buddy before he does something stupid, but I'll catch ya later, all right?"
"See you later, Matt!" Yugi waved as the black-haired young man disappeared into what remained of the crowd. Then, suddenly, he shivered.
"What's wrong, bud?" Joey asked, frowning. "You okay?"
Yugi nodded. "Yeah, I'm just cold," he replied. But still... Somewhere in the back of his mind, there was a nagging feeling that something was wrong, and he just couldn't shake it.
"I am sooooo out of here!" Tristan yelled, running towards the restrooms. "Be right back!" Yugi raised an eyebrow.
"What's with him?"
"Heh heh heh...he drank Coke," the blonde chuckled. "And you know what that does to him."
Yugi buried his face in his hands. "...that would be qualified as
way too much information, Joey..." He shivered again, and pulled his jacket closer around his shoulders. It was strange; the room wasn't
that cold, there was no reason he should be shivering... He frowned slightly.
Anzu looked worried, too. "Are you sure you're okay?" she asked.
"Yes! Yes, I'm fine, really."
"Well, okay...you just don't look so fine," she said.
Joey grinned and grabbed his friend's arm. "I know what the problem is! When was the last time you ate?"
Yugi hesitated. "This morning," he lied.
More like three days ago...a sandwich... But Joey doesn't have to know that. He'd not been eating well for a few weeks, ever since the Spirit of the Puzzle started acting strangely. He was quieter than usual these days, and very short-tempered. Sometimes Yugi found it hard to believe he'd once been the Pharaoh.
He blinked, suddenly understanding. "The spirit!" He took off towards the exit, leaving his bewildered friends staring blankly at his fast-retreating back.
"...the hell were you thinking?!"
The woman's reply was high, panicky and grief-stricken. "I don't know - I wasn't - I just - he - I can't believe I hit him!"
"Yeah, I bet you weren't," Joey snapped, glowering at her. "This is a fucking residential area! You don't run seventy in these streets, dammit!"
"Joey, cut it out," Téa said tearfully. "I'm sure the poor lady feels just terrible. It's Yugi we should be thinking about."
The rage in the blonde's eyes faded, leaving room only for an all-encompassing worry. The little guy had been running across a deserted street, focused only on reaching the game shop half a block away; then the truck had ripped around the corner. It had slammed into his frail body at seventy miles per hour and sent him flying. Now he was deathly still, crumpled on the pavement.
"Téa, give me your cell phone," Tristan said, holding out his hand.
There's no way I'm letting her make this call. Please...please, little buddy, just be okay...
Only minutes later they heard sirens screaming towards them. Yugi still hadn't moved. Té was crying openly; the woman was paralyzed with shock; Tristan and Joey were both kneeling by their friend's body, holding back tears and trying everything they could think of to help him. It was a relief when the ambulance finally showed up. There were a few moments of frantic activity, police officers and EMTs firing questions in every direction with no attention as to who answered, and then they were gone, rushing to the nearest hospital. Joey was allowed to ride with the injured duelist, as he was the closest and knew the most about him. Within minutes, the street was calm again.
"I hope he's all right," the aspiring dancer sobbed. Tristan hesitated, then pulled her into a hug.
"He will be," he murmured. "He will be. He always is... Don't worry, he'll be - "
"What happened here?!"
The two brunettes spun simultaneously, surprised by the sudden arrival of the newcomer. It was Kaiba. He was panting, out of breath from sprinting who knows how many blocks from KaibaCorp., but his eyes were wide.
"I heard the sirens and came to see if I could hel - what? Gardener? Taylor? What are you two doing here? What's going on?"
Téa looked up at him with shimmering eyes. "It's Yugi," she whispered brokenly. "He was hit...by a car..."
The young CEO seemed to freeze. His eyes narrowed. "He
what?"
"He's in the ambulance with Joey," Tristan added, his voice slightly more controlled than his friend's. "We...we don't know if he'll make it."
Kaiba was already slipping into his 'I'm a CEO, I have to fix it' mode, one hand reaching into his pocket for his cell phone while the other triggered the tiny radio in his collar. "Does Mouto know? The elder, that is?"
Tristan shook his head. "No...we sent Téa's cell phone with Joey..."
"Ah. I - Kaiba speaking. I need a ride. ...yes, I'm on foot. One block north of the Kame Game Shop. Be here in ten minutes." Clicking the radio back off, he tossed Tristan his cell phone. "Call Mouto. Tell him to be outside the center in fifteen minutes - he is at the convention, is he not?"
"Yeah," Tristan replied, catching the phone with a surprised look. "Yeah...how'd you know?"
"Lucky guess."
[Note: This is gonna be the same essential story as the two things I've previously posted titled "Sequel to Not Quite", but I'm rewriting it. Both scenes will most likely be worked into this in some form or another.]
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Random Quote of the Day:
Life is like an overlong drama through which we sit being nagged by the vague memories of having read the reviews.
- John Updike
