Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Do You Dream of Me? ❯ Chapter 23

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-gi-oh. Otherwise this would be an original novel. If this was an original novel, I would have sent it to a publisher, not put it up on fanfiction sites.

 

If I were you, I would head over to my lj. It's the homepage on my bio. Just a tip. Please review while you're there.

 

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There's this candy store on the way home from Yugi's school. It's always got a crowd of kids around it. They're fighting over one particular vending machine that sells Capsule Monsters (Capmon for short). It's a game that some accuse of ripping off Duel Monsters that is really popular with Elementary and Junior High school kids. The egg-shaped capsules have figures of different monsters inside them. There are 250 monsters, ranked from 1 to 5, the strongest. Five monsters are placed on one of 50 different game boards and moved. Different monsters have different abilities and move differently. And the capsules mean you don't see your opponent's monsters until the game starts, making it very interesting.

 

Yugi stood in line at the machine, explaining the game to Yami. Suddenly, a kid cut in front of him. “Wha… Hey, I'm next! No cutting in line!”

 

“Cutting? You were just spacing out. Besides, aren't you in High School?” the rude boy continued. “I mean, you don't look like it, but you're too old to play Capmon!”

 

Yami was enraged. Yugi was also rather annoyed, but he tried to stay polite. “Ha ha… Listen, age doesn't mean anything to a real gamer!” he told the boy, like his Grandpa always told him.

 

The boy raised his eyebrows and gave him a very bratty look. “Huh! If you want it that much, then you can go first this time.”

 

“Gee, thanks a lot,” Yugi said sarcastically. He got out a 100 yen coin, and put it in the machine, but no capsule came out, and the machine ate his money. He would have hit the machine, but then he remembered. -Yami? Can you fix this?-

 

He could feel Yami reach, and a second later a capsule popped out. Yugi took it, whistling, and thanked Yami, then turned around. All the kids were staring at him. “What are you looking at?” Yugi asked innocently. They hadn't seen anything, had they?

 

--No.—Yami reassured him. -Only one of them is even sensitive.—

 

-Phew.- Yugi turned around and started walking home again. Thursday already! Professor Yoshimori had promised he would have a lot of information for them on Sunday, which was the day Yugi had off school. Grandpa knew a lot, Yugi was certain of it, but he just laughed and tousled Yugi's hair and told him to wait until the weekend when he asked.

 

Yugi couldn't wait! Maybe they'd even be able to find out Yami's name. Well, it probably wouldn't be that easy. This was archeological stuff from thousands of years ago, but if Yami had been a Pharaoh or something… maybe they'd be able to figure it out. Yugi could hope, at least.

 

The lower-schoolers all seemed to be looking at one kid, who was standing a little ways away and looking surprised and a little angry. Then he grinned, and started to walk over, flanked by two cronies.

 

Some of the kids Yugi knew were startled when they saw him. Come to think of it, there were more kids than usual today… “No way! It's Kaiba! The Capsule Monster Champion!” one exclaimed.

 

“Hey, Yugi!” `Kaiba' called over. He had unusually long and messy black hair, Yugi noted, trying to remember. The Champion?

 

“Huh?” How did the Champion know him?

 

“You're Yugi Motou, aren't you?” Yugi stared at him, trying to figure out where he'd seen him before. There was something familiar…

 

“Heh heh heh… don't rack your brain! You don't know me. This is the first time we've met, but I know all about you! You know Seto Kaiba, don't you? He's my big brother.” The younger Kaiba had an almost gloating look in his eyes.

 

Kaiba, the Magic and Wizards-no, the game's name had been changed to Duel Monsters-player?

 

“Sheesh… my brother masters any game he plays. He's my hero. I can't believe that a little shrimp like you actually beat him… I thought you might be pretty cool, but I guess I was wrong.”

 

Huh? Yugi thought. It was strange that all the other kids had gone quiet when Kaiba's brother arrived. Yami also became more alert.

 

“I'm pretty good at Capmon! I won the last tournament. What about you, Yugi? It looks like you play it too!”

 

Yugi blushed, embarrassed. “Well, I'm not that good.” Yugi winked. “I just started a little while ago!”

 

“Heh heh heh… don't be so modest,” Kaiba's brother chuckled.

 

An instant later he called out, “Get him!”

 

Five kids (his gang?) surrounded Yugi (now Yami) and pointed weapons at him. How had middle school kids gotten their hands on guns and stun guns? Yugi was still wondering that when Yami used his magic to break them and to augment a kick that sent them flying.

 

-Neat!- Yugi clapped.

 

Yami preened. Master approved. But the challenge was not yet dealt with. Red eyes narrowed, looking at the child. “Is this about your brother?” Obviously it was so, but things were not always as they seemed… like Kaiba, the child had a pure soul: shadow-steeped, not bright like Master's, but too pure and strong to match his actions.

 

“Ya… Yeah!” the child regained composure fast for one startled twice so close together. But then, he seemed to have been expecting oddness. What had Kaiba told him? “You beat him! No one beats my big brother! You must have cheated somehow!”

 

Yami laughed. A brave child, to accuse him when his followers lay unconscious on the ground and there were no others on the street. “It was an… unusual game. But I warned him, and he seemed to not mind the rules.” He had enjoyed it… it should have been strange, but it had felt… familiar. What was it about Kaiba? But this was not the time for it: he faced the brother now. “I don't cheat, child.” Contempt. “Only losers cheat. Or, rather, those without the confidence to believe they can win without cheating. Cheating seals the loss: the end of the game is only a formality.” A grin. “Your brother lost before the game had ended.”

 

It took Mokuba only an instant to puzzle that out. A bright child. “Liar! My brother doesn't… He could have beaten you!” So the child did not have it in him to deny the truth. What was that in his eyes? He rushed to the defense of Kaiba's honor… “I'll prove it! I'll beat you!” A challenge?

 

Yami smiled again. “According to the rules, in a trial by combat, the challenged has choice of weapons… but I never lose a game. Shall we go with Capmon, as you intended?” A rherotical question.

 

The child was startled, but only for a second, eyes narrowing. It would be hard to keep this child off-balance. He had already figured out that Yami had seen through his plot, and, if Yami wasn't mistaken, he seemed to be rising to the challenge. The child had a gamer's spirit, like his brother… but also one that had been warped. “All right, Yugi!” Yami was right, he wasn't going to back down. “I'll beat you and prove my brother could have beaten you!” Why was the child so fierce about this? It seemed to be more than wounded pride in his brother… the child clearly cared deeply for Kaiba.

 

“I accept your challenge. Shall we make it interesting, child?” Yami smiled. The child seemed startled. Ah, then he had noticed that Yami had changed Yugi's eyes to red.

 

But Kaiba's brother had enough sense to not back down or back away, even from a `demon.' Yami doubted he was a demon, but… it never hurt to have one's opponent off guard. “Sure! I'll fight you just like my brother did! And quit calling me `child!'” The child glared at him.

 

Yami laughed. “Shall we get started, then?” The child had a warrior's spirit, no doubt about it.

 

“Yeah! Let's each get five capsules from the machine and go! It would be no fair if I used my collection on you. I'd win for sure!” The child didn't miss a trick.

 

Neither did Yami. “From a machine that has been tampered with? I thought you wanted to win this, child.”

 

He'd been right, he could see it in the child's eyes. “Qu… quit calling me a child!”

 

Yami should his head, sighing theatrically. “I will when you quit acting like one, child. How shall we go about this, then?”

 

The younger Kaiba growled. There weren't any other machines nearby, and he clearly wanted to do this now, instead of them both going home and picking five out of their collections.

 

Yami sighed again. “The traditional solution in this case would be to get a full ten, have one of us divide them in half, and the other person pick which set they want first.”

 

“Fine!” The child got a handful of 100 yen coins out of his pockets and went over to the machine. “I'm dividing!”

 

“As you wish.” The child was clearly going to rely on his ability with the game to make one set better than the other in a way that would make it seem less attractive to a new player. “But you divide seeing only the rank numbers on the capsules, not the monsters themselves.” That would make the game more like a normal one, where the players did not know what their opponents had.

 

The child had clearly planned to look at the monsters and not let Yami see both halves. Clever child. But this was a game. “There's hardly a point to playing if it's going to be unfair, child. Do you think yourself so weak you cannot win without every advantage?”

 

The child was fun to taunt. Yami laughed as he muttered something rude under his breath.

 

When he'd divided up the capsules, clearly trying to regain control while doing so, he beckoned Yami over, saying, “Hurry up and pick, and we'll go to my secret hideout to play.” Home ground?

 

Yami picked up one of the sets at random, not even glancing at the numbers. “You're a Champion, like your brother, and yet neither of you knows anything about the protocol of gaming.”

 

“Games are just games! It's winning that matters!” The child seemed like he was quoting his brother.

 

“How can you win if you don't know the rules?” Yami asked, an eyebrow raised. He had to admit he liked showing off like this. Master found it impressive as well. “Lead on. Child.”

 

The secret hideout was an abandoned warehouse, like that Jounouchi's old gang had set up in. Really. How cliché.

 

“Don't think you're intimidating me! My brother told me you turn into a different person when you game! I'm not scared!” The child was glaring at him. How endearing.

 

Yami laughed. “Perceptive, child.”

 

The child muttered something rude again. “Well… you're the one I want to beat! And I'm going to!” He set up his pieces on the game board. “This is Battlefield 7, `Crisis Hill.' It's the board I do best at!”

 

“Of course you are.” Yami placed his as well. It wouldn't be fair to learn about them with magic, so he'd peeked at them while Mokuba had been examining his own (and trying to hide that he was wincing) on the way over. Putting them down without seeming to bother to look at them first would make him seem even more confident. Head games like that were amusing.

 

“If we're doing one of your weird games, I get a Penalty Game if you lose!” The child pulled out a knife and grinned. “I'll cut off your finger with this.”

 

“I'll decide what I shall do when I win. Shall we begin?”

 

The child (what was his name? Kaiba's true name had been Set, Yami had realized during the battle, but this child… he refused to call him Kaiba. They both seemed to dislike that name somehow.) grinned, saying, “Game start!” and lifting the capsule off one of his monsters.

 

Yami snapped his fingers and the pieces came alive, pushing their ways out of the capsules.

 

The game didn't take long. The child was taken aback that he seemed to be losing from the beginning.

 

“No matter what the circumstances, always act like you have the upper hand! That's Rule Number One!” Yami chided him when he groaned, down to three monsters.

 

The child slammed his fists on the table, making the monsters hiss and growl at him for causing the board to shake. “Y-you think you can teach me?!” Why was he so enraged by the thought? Mere pride?

 

“Stay cool at all times! That's Rule Number Two!” The child growled at him.

 

…just before he lost all three remaining monsters to an attack by the Torigun, a `miserable' level 2. He groaned, realizing he'd let himself be suckered into lining up his monsters diagonally.

 

“Hold your trump card `till the end. Rule Number Three, remember it well,” Yami commented calmly, not bothering to gloat.

 

The child had fear in his eyes. He had lost. What would Yami do to him? The question was going through his mind, Yami could see it on his face.

 

“Your penalty will be the same as your brother's, since you seem to care for him so. To experience what it is to be a pawn in these games.” Yami conjured up a Mokuba capsule, like the card he had made for Set, and showed it to him. “I wouldn't do anything more permanent. You will be a worthy opponent… once you learn the rules. Penalty game!”

 

He left the child acting like a mime, feeling out the walls of the capsule that surrounded him in his own mind.