Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Do You Dream of Me? ❯ Duel! ( Chapter 11 )

Disclaimer: If I owned Yu-gi-oh… oh, I already said Kaiba would get to kill Gozaburo. Well, he should have!

I'm so, so sorry. I promised an update a week, but between the week-long Catalina trip and guests and psycho Dad (I'm home for the summer) I haven't been able to write. Again, sorry! Updates to Devotion and Forgiveness as soon as I can manage. The Deny update I actually wrote before leaving but was unable to post due to computer trouble.

And I'm sorry, but from now on, in this story, I'm only responding to reviews that say more than "Great!" And "Update NOW!" I love them, but saying "Thanks and here you go!" Is a little repetitive for every one. I still mean that statement for every one though! Still R&R! I love those reviews! Just almost 2 pages of responses is a little ridiculous.

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Honda cocked his head. "Hey… What's that, Jou?"

"Ha, ha! I'm playing the new card game Magic and Wizards! Yugi, I'll attack with my zombie!"

Yugi smiled. This was so fun! He knew Jou would like the game! And he could feel Yami cheering him on. "It's my turn now!" He drew. As his hand rested on the deck, he felt Yami call out to it, asking it to help his Master, and the deck responded!

"All right1 The Blackland Fire Dragon! He's strong! And I attack Jou's zombie and destroy it! That move lowered Jou's life points from 2000 to 1500." He explained to his watching classmates.

After defeating Jou's `Secret Weapon,' Yugi couldn't help himself. He threw his hands up in the air and yelled, "Yay! I won!"

Master is the greatest!

He could feel Yami's praise and it made his blush. A second later he blushed with shame as the comments of his classmates made themselves heard. They were calling Jou weak. He looked shamefaced at Jou, but Jou saw the expression and just shrugged. He was weak, compared to Yugi.

"Yugi"

Yugi turned around. "Ah, Kaiba!"

"Heh heh… It's fun to watch you playing!" Kaiba smiled.

Yugi smiled back.

"By the way… do you have the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in your bag by any chance?"

Yugi sweatdropped. "Wow! How'd you know it was there? I begged Grandpa to lend it to me just for one day! Had to promise not to play with it though." He wouldn't have asked, seeing as how precious it was to Grandpa, but the card made Yami feel so strange… they both wanted to know why.

"Could you show it to me one more time? Even since yesterday when I touched that card, I've been so excited I couldn't sleep! And… well… What your grandfather said yesterday made me realize what it means to love the cards!" `And it's all true except for that last part… I NEED the Blue-Eyes!'

Yugi looked at him for a long moment. Something just didn't seem right… but he could feel… even not touching the card… the card wanted to see Kaiba. And Yami also, seemed to confirm there was a connection between the two. It couldn't do any harm, could it? "Okay, then! I'll show it to you!" He said, excited. Maybe Yami would learn something from this?

Kaiba took it and held it up to his face. "Mmmm… It is a BEAUTIFUL card!" His eyes seemed to soften as he looked at it. Yugi could feel the card reaching out to him longingly… but then it was rejected!

He had closed his eyes to help sense what was going on, and they stayed closed as he frantically tried to figure out what had happened. A second later he felt a tap on his shoulder. He opened his eyes to see Kaiba holding out a card. But it wasn't the Blue-Eyes!

"Thank you, Yugi. Just holding this card makes me love this game more than ever!"

Yugi took the card and looked at it. No, It wasn't the Blue-Eyes. It was a copy from a picture. He would have been able to tell even if he couldn't sense the absence of the spirit of the card.

Kaiba smiled "Later, then! Have fun with your game!"

Yugi watched Kaiba go, disappointed. Yami was enraged. -No, you can't challenge him now, there are too many people! I'll confront him later, maybe he'll give it back…-

"Hey, Yugi! Let's have a rematch!"

Yugi turned to Jou. "Huh… Okay."

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As Kaiba walked out the gates after school he laughed to himself. `Ha ha ha ha! There's no way I'll lose at the next tournament!'

"Kaiba!" He heard a voice behind him calling out. He froze. Then he slowly turned.

"Yugi!" He managed to recover quickly. "Ha ha… are you on your way home?" He chuckled.

Yugi sighed. "Kaiba, please give that card back!"

"What?!" Kaiba was shocked. How did Yugi know?!

Yugi continued, embarrassed. "I didn't say anything about you switching the cards because everyone was watching…"

Kaiba decided outrage was his best bet. Shy little Yugi would back down quick. "S-So… You thing I stole your card?! I give it back to you!"

Yugi sighed. This was really embarrassing. He'd thought better of Kaiba. "Even I can tell the difference between a copy and the real thing…" `Even without magic.' "Please give it back!"

`Urk…' "I know nothing about it!"

"You must know!" Yugi shouted, trying to get through to Kaiba. "You have to know how important that card is to my Grandpa!! If I don't keep my promise and give that card back, I'll break Grandpa's heart!! I can't do that to him! He's my Grandpa! I can't betray him!" Yami was beginning to be really annoyed…

Kaiba chuckled. "Oh, come on… What about my feelings? I really don't know about your card. Before you complain about your grandfather, why don't you try believing your friend?"

"But Kaiba!" Yugi clenched his fists tighter. He just had to get through to Kaiba!

A look of contempt appeared on Kaiba's face. Threat! Yugi felt Yami take over. And about time. He hated to give up on anyone, but Kaiba was just so, so… he had to know he wasn't going to get away with it! Stealing the card in the first place, after hearing how much it meant to Grandpa… he was just fed up with Kaiba.

"Shut up already!" Kaiba yelled, swinging his metal briefcase at Yugi, no Yami, now. Yami blocked it easily, but Kaiba was too contemptuous to notice. " I don't care about `loving the cards' or stupid things like that! Tell the old man this! It's not how you play the game, it's whether you win or lose! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Yami laughed. And laughed, and laughed. "Fool…" He said, finally meeting Kaiba's eyes with a patronizing look.

Kaiba snarled. "What do you mean?"

"How you play the game… is whether you win or lose, fool." He smirked. "Will you return the card now, Kaiba, or will I get a chance to show you?"

"What do you mean?" Kaiba snarled. This… wasn't Yugi. Yugi was a pushover. A little kid, though he'd grown more of a backbone recently, standing up to Ms. Crono. What the hell… it had to be Yugi! What was he thinking.

"I mean, let's play a game…"

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Yami and Kaiba sat down at opposite sides of the table. Kaiba laughed. "Well, Yugi! I can't believe you challenged ME to a Magic and Wizards duel… What are you thinking? Heh heh…"

Yami smirked. "This game will be a little different from what you've seen before! You'll see once we start."

Kaiba made himself comfortable. "No matter the house rules, I won't lose. You're no match for me." `And if I get into a pinch, I always have the Blue-Eyes White Dragon… I'll just tell him I got it somewhere else!'

Another smirk. "Who said anything about the rules being different? Game Start!"

"Well, then, I'll go first… Yes! Ryu-Kishin!" He threw it down on the table. "Huh…?!" Smoke was coming from the card… "W-What the?!" A figure was rising out of the card. It… It was the gargoyle! "The card came to life?!!"

Yami bowed slightly, faking politeness. "I told you this game was different. Now…" He drew, and selected a card. "The card I choose to stand against your gargoyle's attack is… this one! The Blackland Fire Dragon!"

Again, a monster appeared. But this one was bigger. It hissed and the gargoyle cringed as Kaiba looked on in shock. Yami looked at the dragon. "If you would…"

The dragon turned to look at him and bowed. Then it incinerated the gargoyle. Yami reached out and scratched the Dragon's back as he smirked at Kaiba. "And… my dragon defeats your gargoyle."

As he waited for Kaiba to recover from the shock, Yami reached out to his Master, who was trying desperately to stay awake enough to keep track of what was going on. `He's gotten so much stronger… not that he was ever weak.' He felt his Master's thrill at the victory, and drank in the praise and affection. His Master was so sweet… This was so nice, even though it was with an unworthy opponent. Anyone who would steal another's heart had no strength of heart of their own.

He would win, for his Master fought with him. His light filled him. He would dedicate this victory to his Master, in anticipation of when they would fight together truly. This game… if felt… he should know this! It was an approximation of what he did know how to do… but to fight this person, this `Kaiba'… it was… wrong, somehow. Not fighting him, but fighting him like this… He wanted an honorable battle! And within the darkness that drowned him, so did `Kaiba'… why did it seem like that was not his name? But a seahorse, his Master's memory told him, had the potential to become a dragon… that seemed right… there was a connection between this one and the dragon he desired enough to throw away his honor for it…

"What your true name?" He asked abruptly.

"W-what?" Kaiba replied, still in shock. How did Yugi know Kaiba wasn't his real name? He shook his head. Of course it was! He'd paid enough for it! "I am Kaiba! Kaiba Seto! Who the hell are you!?"

An eyebrow raised, over those strange red eyes. "Perceptive… I am Yami… Seto."

Okay, that was it! "Where the fuck to you get off, calling me by my first name! I haven't given you permission!"

A breath of laughter, and those enigmatic eyes closed for a second as a smile crossed his opponent's face. "I'll call you what I like. But Seto isn't quite right, either…" A frown.

The dragon gave a worried whine and he returned to scratching it. "Your turn…"

"Fuck that! I'm not doing anything else until I get some answers! What the hell's going on?! Are you drugging me? Where did the monsters come from?"

"They didn't come, we did."

"What?"

"Look around." Yugi… Yami waved at their surroundings.

Kaiba gazed in shock. Black mist. "Where the hell are we?"

"The shadow realm. The monsters are real here. It's simple to summon and command them, if one has the strength. Of course, humans aren't meant to exist here. To maintain one's mind in one's body takes strength." A deadly smile. "Try not to tick me off any more, Seto, or I might just forget to shield your weak little soul…"

"I'm not weak!" Kaiba snarled.

A sigh, and rolled eyes. "You do indeed have potential… but you're wasting it criminally. All this darkness in your heart… you'll never control anything until you can control yourself."

`Typical mystic mumbo-jumbo…' "Alright. How come you can do this. And why?" Kaiba said, trying to reign in his temper.

"This is a shadow game. If you win, you can keep the card. If I win…" A smirk. "I think I'll let you experience death. You're a despicable weakling and you get on my nerves for some reason." A raised eyebrow. "Did you really think Yugi-dono wouldn't be able to spot such a transparent fake?"

!!!

--Shhh, don't worry Master, I won't really kill him. But he doesn't need to know that.--

"I already have the card. I don't need to duel you to get it." `Yugi-dono?'

A laugh. "Forfeiting is the same as losing. You really should have asked for the terms before you agreed. It's too late now, Seto. You're in a fight for your life."

An instant later he was shocked. Why was Seto… laughing?

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Nieka's Creator: Um… sorta… he is going to try, but it won't be that extreme. You'll have to wait and see.

Angel Reaper: There's a bit more to it than that… but the AE manga has a huge influence on what is going to happen. Also, I'm possibly altering my theory on Shadi. There are two ways it could work, and both are appealing. And, on Seto…

Yana5: Thanks for bugging me! It's nice to know people care. And again, I'm so, so sorry!

Elmo-enchanted: Wow, your life is on the line… a big impetus to break the rules! (I'm not actually supposed to be on the computer right now…)

Maverick Soldier: Can you give me the title of that? It sounds good.

Dark Sanctuary:

Yami: Master! Help! Only you are allowed to hug me!

Neko Yugi's Hikari: Not writer's block… sorry! And thanks. I and I will when I can. I looked at them and they're just not really the kind of stuff that grabs me, though. Sorry.

Narutofan11: Wah! I feel so guilty! Here I am late and you're praising me for updating often!

Origamigryphon: I've thought for the longest time that that is so their song, it's nice to know someone agrees!

SoulDreamer: Thanks! And it's on the NAF list! Yay!

Trekkie-54: Here you go, sorry it's late!

Sylvia Viridian: More here. And thanks for all your reviews of Devotion!

Hikari Tsuki Chi: Y/Y forever! Does that answer your question?

Tara.B Amy: Actually before Death-T!

LPGirl05: Thanks!

Osiris-Lee: ;)

Flowers: Please don't kill me!

Day dreamer: Yes, it is the manga, but what do you mean, flat!!!!

Anime Crazed: Kuriboh=Kawaii!

Aria Lenerdeair: I have no intention whatsoever of stopping this story! Thanks for saying it is so original!

Yami Dragoness: Thanks for saying it's so cute.

Chigiri: Sorry to keep you waiting!

Strega(): Thanks for noticing!

Chrisoriented: He's not complaining.

Damn! Dad caught me! Sorry guys, it's going to be another day or so. Damn! Should have just posted it without the responses, but didn't want to disappoint… Sorry!

Swtdreams07: Thanks! It fits with how he actually is in the show, completely submissive to Yugi.

Amber(): I already have that all planned out.

Hikari Hiei: And now I feel even more guilty…

SilverWing147: I hope!

Silvershadowfire: I think he must have. And thanks for saying I pulled off the kawaii-ness.

Delphine Pryde: ;)

Aislynn Goldleaf: Sorry! Sorry!

Cherazz22784: Yes, he does, doesn't he.

Flowacat: Most people don't see Yami as adorable but I do!

Reki(): Yeah…

Pharaoh Atemu's Angel: Growing? It's already there…