InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Luck of the Draw ❯ First Impressions ( Chapter 1 )

Domino City was weird. Well, it was quite a bit more than that actually, but weird was the nicest descriptor that came to mind. Growing up in Tokyo -albeit on one of the more remote shrines- Kagome was no stranger to some of the oddities that came with life in the city. Tokyo was a hub of life and bustling activity that had something for everyone and then some. What it didn’t have, was what seemed like an army of competitive card game players that called themselves duelists.

Really, Kagome thought that title was a bit dramatic. Souta was still a bit sore with her for laughing the first time he’d told her about it. The game was apparently called ‘Duel Monsters’ and he’d picked it up at some point during her travels.

Admittedly, even once her adventures had come to an end, she hadn’t really noticed right away. Frankly, she hadn’t possessed the mindset to pay attention to much of anything around her for a while. No matter how many times Kagome had run over the possible outcomes of completing the jewel, she still hadn’t been prepared for it when it happened. She had always known that being sent back to her own era was a possibility once they’d completed their quest and yet she was still dumbstruck once it happened, lost without a goal to strive for. 

It was strange. Time passed slowly without a quest or the threat of enemy action hanging over their heads. Then Souta had come home with a trophy from a local championship and she felt lost all over again. She’d been so absent that she’d not only been unaware of her little brother’s new interest, but it had been long enough for him to get good enough to play competitively.

She’d felt like such a horrible big sister once the realization had really struck her.

That was why she’d so eagerly volunteered to go with him when the topic of this tournament came up. Souta was certainly old enough and more than capable of traversing the city on his own, but it had been so long since she’d spent proper time with him. It was a relief when he was openly excited that she chose to go with him. 

With the way things turned out, she was also quite grateful that she had. 

She’d stepped to the side only for a minute while Souta wrapped up his most recent duel -again, she really couldn’t help but giggle- to grab them some lunch from a nearby food cart. Much to Souta’s chagrin, she didn’t understand the game well enough to recognize the strategies or the moves he was so proud of and she could only watch holograms that looked eerily similar to the demons she’d known for so long. She could hear Souta chatting with someone behind her and a glance over her shoulder offered a glimpse of a boy his age with shaggy black hair. 

The vendor was just passing over her change and their food when she heard Souta’s yell. “Hey! Let go of him!”

Kagome had been expecting another fist fight over a rare card to have broken out. What she wasn’t expecting was what looked like an occult group wearing purple robes manhandling her brother and his new friend. She was expecting the dark magic that hovered around them even less. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of it but w hen Souta proceeded to bite the man who’d grabbed him, she realized she didn’t exactly have the time to ponder it either.

Appetite forgotten, Kagome sprung into action and did the first thing that came to mind – she lobbed her can of soda at the creep’s head.

It burst on impact and his buddies jumped when he crumpled. The sounds of the city faded away as Kagome find herself rushing head first towards yet another conflict she knew nothing about. It was bad enough they were picking on kids half their size at all, but they’d put their hands on her little brother.  

For his part, Souta at least had the sense to grab his friend by the front of his shirt and take cover in the adjacent bus stop while a few passersby screamed and fled. She heard the other boy shouting something about getting backup but unfortunately couldn’t afford to pay him closer attention than that. 

Fortunately, these creeps clearly didn’t expect more resistance than the kids they’d tried to snatch. They probably didn’t think a lone high school girl to be much challenge either. They probably thought they had the advantage with that dark magic of theirs, whatever it was. While Kagome still wasn’t quite sure what the nature of it was, she was sure that it was her advantage more than theirs when she slugged one in the face and her first came back tingling. It had been so long since she’d felt the sensation of her own power that she wasn’t sure if she’d imagined it or not. 

A large van came to a screeching halt on the street beside them. A handful of men in dark suits leapt from the vehicle and for a moment Kagome wasn’t sure who they were there to help. 

Her answer came in the form of Souta’s new friend bolting out of cover with a grin. “Roland! Perfect timing!”

The one she’d knocked out suddenly jerked upright, his voice eerily distorted as he barked out for the others to retreat. Kagome wasn’t quite sure what to make of that either. 

What she was sure of, was that the security detail was decidedly lacking.  

The group fled just as another man stalked around the corner, looking as if he could spit fire at the sight of the commotion. He gave her a brief glance before turning to scowl at the man Kagome was now sure was supposed to be security.

“Just what,” he grit out, “is this chaos you’ve let into my tournament, Roland?” 

“Sir! My apologies, the assailants appear to have escaped-“ 

Kagome didn’t need to hear anymore. Her attention snapped to the newcomer, clearly at least upper management with the flashy way he dressed. He did look like someone who would be in charge of a tournament of a game with such a dramatic player base. “You’re the one in charge of this tournament?” 

The man’s attention drifted to her at her interruption, his eyes narrowing as he looked down at her. “Who else would it be?” 

He said that as if she should recognize him. If Souta’s not so subtle stage whispers of ‘Sis, what are you doing?! That’s Seto Kaiba!’ were anything to go by, she probably should have. That wasn’t to say it would have changed anything; Kagome had never been particularly impressed by titles or status, even when the people in question had been actual nobility.  

But she did recognize the name. There was no way she couldn’t. She wasn’t so oblivious not to make the connection to the company logo that had been plastered across the city and even if she was, the streets were filled with people talking about nothing but. 

‘Kaiba Corp, Kaiba Corp, Kaiba Corp- who cares this much about a card game?!’ Kagome had kept such thoughts to herself, of course, given Souta’s excitement. The answer was a lot of people, apparently. Including weird occultists, right down to the stereotypical cheesy cloak and hood getup. But that didn’t mean she was about to take attitude from some guy who thought he was a hot shot because he was good at the game.  

The fact that he was in charge of the company hosting the event only made the negligence worse as far as she was concerned. 

“Well, just so you know,” she set a hand on her hip with a huff. “Your security sucks.” 

---

Kagome was willing to admit that when she’d told the man just what she thought of his security -specifically that it was awful - she had been giving him a bit of a hard time. She hadn’t expected her assessment to be quite so accurate. 

At least the subsequent kidnapping and hostage situation hadn’t involved her or Souta this time. But the fact that there even was another one was absurd. Whatever record she held for being kidnapped was very swiftly being challenged in the course of one day. She wasn’t sure whether to be impressed, horrified, or simply baffled at the ineptitude that allowed for it. 

The entire event had been just as overly dramatic as everything else so far. 

They’d only gotten there towards the end of the duel, only to find the two duelists on a dock, bound to an anchor set to drag the loser into the sea below. Another girl -likely a friend, judging by the obvious hostage situation- had been bound to a chair on an adjacent dock, with a crate hung precariously over her head. 

Several years earlier Kagome might have been horrified but after all she’d seen during the struggle for the jewel she was just dumbfounded. ‘Only Naraku was ever this...extra.’  

Luckily, while there was a bit of panic and shouting, the situation ended as well as could be hoped for. The dark magic that had been controlling one of them didn’t seem strong enough to hold for too much longer and after a bit of nudging from Mokuba, Kaiba orchestrated a rescue for the girl. One of them got dragged down, but the alarm for his fate was short lived and after a semi heated exchange between the elder Kaiba and the group, they left soon after. She didn’t see them again until that evening, when they arrived to the site that Souta’s locator cards had led them. 

‘For as aloof as he tries to be, this whole thing is really flashy.’ Kagome’s eyes drifted towards the man, not for the first time. He certainly wasn’t bad looking. If it wasn’t for the flashy getup she thought he might look quite regal, actually. His attitude certainly tracked for some of the nobles she'd met. While their siblings had been fast friends, Seto Kaiba was certainly not a conversationalist and she wasn’t inclined to prod. After all the drama, the quiet atmosphere was a nice change of pace. 

Souta and Mokuba were off to the side, chatting animatedly about another game that she didn’t recognize -something to do with capsules- and she’d been perfectly content to sit in silence off to the side while they socialized. A little smile tugged at her lips when she saw the glances Kaiba snuck towards the pair while he pretended not to watch. 

Mokuba perked up as the group from before walked up, looking much happier to see them than his brother. “Oh, cool. Looks like everyone made it.” 

Kagome glanced over and furrowed her brows. There were a few newcomers with them that hadn’t been there before. They were chatting happily enough with the group, and only one of the wore a duel disk, but they seemed familiar enough with the others. At least they hadn’t gotten themselves killed getting to the finals – though she did think that the concept of a secret location hidden on fancy cards was also overly dramatic. Especially when that location was a blimp. 

A singular woman, face obscured in robes not entirely unlike the creeps from before, entered wordlessly. Kagome shuffled when the woman paused only to eye her before taking her place to wait without a word. The unease that crawled over her skin was odd, she thought, until one last man arrived to join them. He called himself Marik. 

None of them seemed all too pleased to see him. He was tall and foreboding in his stature alone, but everything else about him, right down to the way he’d introduced himself, just seemed strange. For as much of a villain as he supposedly was, the man did nothing to engage further - only stalked away from them and side-stepped her as he headed on board. Maybe she’d just been desensitized by all the theatrics, but after the performance earlier that day, that seemed even stranger.

Kagome pursed her lips, almost disappointed. 'What, no dramatic monologue?’  

The remaining duelists finally began to filter on board after that. Despite the tension that hung in the air, things at least seemed to be proceeding smoothly enough. At least, that was until one of the suits guarding the entrance held an arm out in front of her when she made to follow Souta. “Only contestants from here. The rest of you-” 

“Oh, no, no, no. I don’t care if I don’t have a pass or whatever. You guys,” Kagome bit out, jabbing a finger at the security guard who’d tried to stop her, “really suck at your job, and there’s no way I’m trusting you to keep my little brother safe.” 

To his credit, the man looked a little shame faced. “I-I’m sorry, miss, but-“

“C’mon, Roland,” Mokuba interjected with a shrug. “She’s not the only one without a pass. Besides, Souta’s my friend and she helped me out earlier. It’s fine, right Seto?”

“Just get moving, already,” he muttered before stalking up the ramp.

Mokuba’s cheer confirmed that was as good of an agreement as they were going to get. Kagome hid a smile behind her hand when the boy waved Souta on and the pair vanished down the hall, followed only by the fading echoes of their laughter.

Somehow, the announcement of the tournament brackets and the dinner that followed went by without any of them trying to kill each other. For a while, she expected at least one of them to attempt to lunge across the table with the silverware. Though Kagome did worry that Kaiba might have an aneurysm when Mokuba ran off with Souta, leaving him to show her to what would be her room. 

“Consider yourself lucky,” he muttered upon their arrival, not even bothering to look at her as he swiped a key card to unlock the door. “Only contestants were even supposed be here.” 

Kagome rolled her eyes and turned to him with a dramatic bow. “I am ever so grateful for the hospitality then, your lordship.”

Kaiba looked at her with such a jerk that she wasn’t sure whether he was angry or confused. She strained not to laugh – whether the restraint was for his sake or hers, she wasn’t sure. The expression lasted only for a moment before settling back into that scowl that seemed to be permanently affixed to his face. 

“Whatever,” he tossed the key card at her with a scoff. “Just don’t cause any trouble while you’re here...” 

“Kagome Higurashi,” she supplied, arching a brow at him in turn. “And from the looks of things around here, I’m the last person you should be worrying about causing trouble.” 

Whether it kept finding her was another matter. 

Kaiba gave her a scowl as she walked around him to inspect the door. “What are you doing?”

“Checking to see if your lousy security extends to the locks on your doors,” Kagome shut the door again with a shrug, opting to ignore the way his eyes narrowed on her. 

Eventually, he turned with a scoff. “Try not to lock yourself in.”

The door slammed with a click behind him and Kagome blinked. After a moment, she giggled, recognizing the familiar reaction of a bruised ego for what it was. 

At least the room was nice, she thought as she finally busied herself looking around. It was minimalist compared to the rest of the facilities, but clean and elegant in a way that still screamed of wealth. There wasn’t much furniture beyond the basics for a bedroom and desk, small but still bigger than the one in her room at home. The bed, though plain, was the most comfortable thing she’d ever encountered. It was probably the most dangerous thing on the aircraft, Kagome thought.

That was, until she dragged herself away from the mattress to inspect the ensuite bathroom. 

“Okay Kaiba,” Kagome grinned, eyes greedily roving over the shower bath and what she was pretty sure were jets lining the tub. “Maybe your flashy taste isn't so terrible after all.”