Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Joey ❯ Track 5 - Japan ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh is the intellectual property of Takahashi Kazuki, and is being used in this fanfiction for fan purposes only. All situations, opinions and characters not belonging to Takahashi Kazuki are the intellectual property of Alecto Perdita.

Kaiba has always been a bit of a bastard. Scratch that, he's always been a full-blown bastard. It's the one of those things you never expect to change though. And he still is one- a bastard that is. Yet at the same time, you couldn't help but admire him in some way. At least, I admired him…

I really shouldn't admire him in any way. Care about him in any way. Worry about him in any way. But I did. That was the only reason- explanation- for my wandering around this creepy deserted mansion on my own. I should have stayed with Yugi and the others, instead of going after Kaiba-yaro…

I tightened my fingers around the picture frame. I didn't really understand the meaning of the photo of that freak, Noa, standing next to someone I vaguely remember to be Kaiba Gozaburo. My guts were what told me it was important though.

I slammed another door shut after finding another furnished but empty room. This was becoming annoying fast. There were absolutely no signs of life in this huge-ass mansion. Sighing, I turned to the next door down the hallway and twisted the knob.

The door fell open to reveal a tense scene. Noa and Mokuba was seated on the velvet red couch, the green-haired freak smiling at Kaiba in that creepy manner. To Jounouchi's left was an equally strange scene of Noa standing before the desk of the man from the photo- except the man looked older now.

"I am Kaiba Gozaburo's only son, Kaiba Noa."

"Kaiba, what the hell is going on?"

Kaiba turned, the tail of his trench coat flying through the air. "Jounouchi," his eyes widened just the slightest bit in surprise.

An image suddenly appeared in the air in front of the red couch. It showed Otogi at the wheel of the truck they had found and speeding down the bridge with some of those Big 5 morons on their trail.

"Shit," I cursed. "Yugi! Shizuka!"

Noa took one look at the image playing before them and scowled, "This is becoming a nuisance," he stood and faced us again. "I'm afraid we'll have to finish this some other time, Seto."

"Wait, Noa!" Kaiba called in rage after the fading images of Noa and Mokuba.

Then it was only the two of us standing in a void of black. It was strange because even though there was no light, we could see each other perfectly fine. There was no floor beneath us, nothing solid, and yet we were still standing upright.

Another door appeared suddenly to our right. Torn between Kaiba and my friends, I shuffled my feet back and forth for a few seconds. When Kaiba made no move at the door and just glared darkly at it, I knew I was going to have to move on with or without him.

"Damn it all," I swore again and ran for the door. I threw open the door to reveal a dry desert land with one wide road cutting down the middle of it. "I'm so tired of this shit."

Kaiba brushed past me and stepped through the door. The bastard didn't even bother to wait as he started down the long stretch of road.

"Oi, Kaiba! Wait up!"

As we made our way over the first hill, I spotted Yugi and the others in the distance. Ignoring Kaiba, I broke into a run and waved my arm frantically to catch their attention. Only when the sun reflected off the glass of the frame did I finally remember I was still holding the strange photo.

"Jounouchi-kun!" Yugi's eyes lit up as he saw us approaching. "Kaiba-kun."

I grabbed Yugi and pulled him into a friendly headlock, not oblivious to Kaiba's tensing at what I did. "Where are those Big 5 creeps? Took care of them, didn't you?"

"Noa came and took them away." Otogi said as he jumped down from the overturned truck. The boy then turned to help Shizuka down and Honda the robotic monkey still clung to her. If he tried anything else perverted on my little sister…

Letting go of Yugi, I turned to Kaiba and tossed him the picture frame. "Here, I found it in that weird mansion."

Kaiba furrowed his eyebrows in way that others would have described as cute, "This is impossible. Noa can't be Gozaburo's son."

"I don't understand, Kaiba-kun." Yugi stepped toward Kaiba.

When Kaiba refused to answer, I filled in the blanks for him. "That nut Noa says he's Kaiba's brother."

Yugi's eyes widened like saucers. "You have another brother besides Mokuba-kun?"

"Mokuba is my only brother," he snarled viciously and shot me an angry glare. "Noa claims to be the legitimate son of Kaiba Gozaburo but he has to be lying."

"Why are you so sure?" I held my head just a little higher as I asked him.

He shoved the frame back into my hands, drawing his hands back as quickly as possible like he had been burned. "Just look at the picture, mutt. Gozaburo is younger in this photo than in the scene Noa just showed us, which was right before I was adopted six years ago."

I studied the photo intensely for a few seconds. I wasn't really sure what I was looking for. Yeah, Gozaburo did look younger in this photo than he did in that hologram. So maybe Noa was born before Kaiba was adopted. But then…Noa hasn't changed…

"Noa hasn't grown any older…"

"Precisely."

"But why did Noa take Mokuba-kun then?" Anzu asked.

"Noa seems to hold a lot of hatred towards Kaiba-kun so he must have done it to make Kaiba-kun suffer." Yugi answered.

Kaiba turned away in disgust and started to walk away.

Anzu weaved around the group and placed herself firmly in Kaiba's way. She never fails to amaze me with her show of spine. "Where are you going? If you're going to rescue Mokuba, let's go together."

"Get out of my way," Kaiba growled. "This is my business. It has nothing to do with you so get out of the way."

I'm not sure why Kaiba's words stung so much then. Did he really expect us to just turn our backs on him and leave him like that?

"Let him go," I said bitterly. "The almighty Kaiba Seto doesn't need our help."

I watched as his shoulders tensed but he said nothing in return. The silence was like another slap to my face. Why did I bother to care about the stupid jerk? Anzu just shook her head and refused to get out of Kaiba's way, even after he had brushed her off and knocked his duel disk against her chest.

"We're all stuck in this together," she fought on valiantly. "Besides, Mokuba is our friend too."

Kaiba finally looked away from Anzu, his deep blue eyes sliding over all of us and maybe lingering the longest on me. His eyes suddenly turned upwards and he smirked. Raising one hand to point at some spot over my shoulder, he declared, "Perhaps you should worry about that friend first."

"Honda!" Otogi shouted.

I turned slowly, unwilling to tear my eyes off Kaiba that easily. There Honda stood on top of a plateau with an ugly sneer on his face. No, that wasn't Honda. My best friend was trapped in the body of a robotic monkey right now. It was just an imposter that wore Honda's body and face.

"No," I muttered. "That's not Honda."

And somewhere to my right a "give me back my body, kukkiii!" sounded.

The sound of boots crunching against gravel indicated that Kaiba was moving again. I looked briefly over my shoulder and found Kaiba doing the exact same thing. He held my gaze without hesitation. It was a…challenge of some sort? Was he trying to force a choice on me again? Did he really want me to choose between him and Honda?

I tore my eyes away and turned to face the Honda imposter instead. I had made my choice.

Jounouchi tugged the lid of the baseball cap down. He lowered his head and stared at the sidewalk. He had forgotten how clean sidewalks could be after living in America for so long.

He had left Honda's apartment immediately after the awkward outburst. He almost thought his friend was tempted to give some bullshit apology but Honda wouldn't even do that. It had become quickly obvious that Honda didn't want to talk to him at the moment. Jounouchi never stayed where he wasn't welcomed.

He knew that Honda really cared for his little sister. He had known for years and since finding out that Shizuka was engaged, he was glad to find it was to Honda and not to some stranger he didn't know. At the same time, Honda was like a stranger to him now. It had been almost ten- eleven years since he had even last spoken to his best friend. If anything, it seemed as if Honda's relationship with his little sister had been a good influence.

He stepped around a gaggle of teenage girls converged in front of some store window. He was grateful that no one had recognized him so far. If that morning at the hotel was any indication, he would be easily recognized in public.

Damn Sophia.

He fingered the cell phone in his coat pocket and wondered if he should call Sophia. No, she was probably busy with work and the last thing he wanted to do was disturb her. She would probably make him do yet another interview- or worse, a guest appearance on some game show. He shuddered at the thought.

His fingertips collided with the sharp thin edge of what felt like a card. He fished it out from the pocket. It was the business card Bakura had slipped him the night before. The address wasn't so far from where he was at the moment. It was either go see Bakura or his mother. He wasn't sure he could face his little sister right now, since learning he was the cause of her breakup.

He cringed. No, he was most definitely not ready to see his mother or sister again just yet. Bakura it was. He shoved his hands deep into his pocket and vanished in the anonymity afforded by Domino's afternoon crowd.

Sophia tapped her fingers against the wooden surface of the table. She didn't like lying to Jounouchi, but it was for his own good. He had enough to worry about with his friends and family.

She picked up one of the notes. There was no way to pinpoint their origin. They began receiving these death threats almost everyday since the week they arrived in Japan. After the last few weeks, a sizeable amount had piled up. They were all generally along the same line. The characters were cut from newspapers and magazines. There was never any sort of signature or other identifying sign.

It wasn't unusual to receive death threats in the entertainment business. Sophia had been in the business for a good many years now. There was always one less than mentally stable individual that made some unfortunate celebrity the object of his or her obsession. Rarely did the situation get out of hand like the ones that make it into the media. She usually didn't worry about things like this, even if this was the first time this had happened with Jounouchi.

These threats almost seemed more personal though. She crumbled up the note in her hand. She wasn't going to tell the police. That would just create a scandal because these things always found a way of leaking out to the media. Jounouchi did not need that. Not right now.

Sophia dropped her head into her propped up hands. This would be so much easier if only she wasn't so emotionally invested in the blonde. He was just supposed to be her client- her employer, but she couldn't detach herself from Jounouchi in that manner. She had known since she first came across Jounouchi in Hong Kong all those years that she would never work for another in the business again.

She groaned and reached for the ashtray. Her hands shook slightly as she dug through her purse for her carton of cigarettes and zippo lighter. The shaking subsided as she inhaled a few breaths of smoke. She remembered promising Jounouchi to quit some months ago, but it was hard. She had this monkey on her back since she was fourteen. She had been able to break a lot of other addictions and vices over the years but smoking had been the enduring one in her life.

She blew out another puff of smoke and looked at the notes spread out in front of her. Jamming the cigarette back between her lips, she dumped the one she had crumbled into the ashtray and set it on fire with her lighter. She proceeded to do the same with every note and by the time she was finished, so was her cigarette.

She drew another one from the carton and lit it. Considering the ashes in the tray and smeared over the table from her cigarettes and the death threats, she wasn't sure how to handle this situation. Jounouchi must never see these notes. She shuddered as she inhaled another lungful of toxins.

She would protect her own no matter what.

Sophia grabbed her phone and took a deep breath of clean air this time. She sighed and punched in a number she never thought she would need again. The other end of the line rang three times before someone picked up. "Isaac?"

"Speaking," the man on the other end of the line replied in Cantonese. "Who am I speaking to?"

"It's Sophia Chang." Her mother tongue sounded strange after not speaking it for so long.

Isaac chuckled. "Sophia, I thought we would never hear from you again after you left Hong Kong with your boy toy."

"Shut up," she growled and took another drag from her cigarette. "Don't say shit like that. I need to talk to your boss. I'm in need of a favor, and I'm willing to pay top money."

She could almost see the smirk on his lips as he spoke. "What sort of goods can I procure for you?"

"I'm in Japan right now, and I'm sure your contacts will get it to me within the next few days."

"With the right price. The Japanese custom officers are cracking down on certain imports from this side of the sea. Not to mention, our Japanese brethren haven't been as receptive to us as of the late. The price may be heftier than you imagined."

"Of course," Sophia couldn't fight the feral grin that crept across her lips. "I haven't been out of the circle for that long. Money is no object here."

"I'm glad to hear that. We miss your business wits, Sophia. Are you sure we can't convince you to come back?"

She gritted her teeth together before she realized she was ruining her cigarette that way. "I'm sure, Isaac. I wouldn't even be calling you if Katsuya wasn't in trouble."

Sophia supposed there were other ways to handle these types of situations, but this was the only way she knew. She shook her head. She may hurt Jounouchi with this but better him hurt than dead. She refused to consider the latter option. That was out of the question, equation, and picture. She stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray.

Old habits died hard.

The office was deadly quiet when Jounouchi entered it. It was a small office- Jounouchi had expected something bigger- just outside of Domino's business district. All he could hear was the sound of typing from the receptionist hidden behind the computer sitting on the front desk. He didn't take off his baseball cap and looked around the waiting room. He was surprised that there were no other patients waiting. He approached the desk, and the receptionist paused.

"Do you have an appointment?" She asked.

"No," Jounouchi shook his head. "I'm just a friend of Bakura's stopping by. Is he busy right now?"

"Bakura-san's seeing a patient right now," the receptionist glanced at the appointment book by her elbow. "You can sit and wait for him to finish. They should be about finished with today's session. Bakura-san should be free afterwards."

"Uh…thanks." Jounouchi nodded awkwardly as he noted she was looking at his baseball cap with disdain. He moved to the sofa opposite of the receptionist and sat. He could hear the ticking of the clock on the wall to the side as the minutes passed. He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination or if it was actually that loud.

A few times, he was startled by an outburst behind the door to the left of the receptionist's desk. They died out as suddenly as they began. Jounouchi began to wonder what sort of patient Bakura was dealing with at the moment.

After fifteen minutes- though it seemed more like an eternity to Jounouchi- the door to Bakura's office finally swung open. A perpetually nervous looking man stepped out of the office. Bakura followed quickly behind and seemed to be offering some sort of reassurance. The patient nodded but glanced anxiously around the sitting room. He froze when he spotted Jounouchi sitting on the couch. The man stuttered something and rushed out the office door.

Bakura leaned warily against the doorframe and sighed. The white-haired man looked up and smiled when he saw Jounouchi in the waiting room. "Jounouchi-kun, how nice of you to visit me! I thought you'd be busy with interviews and all that."

Jounouchi made his way across the room in a few long strides. He had caught the speculative look Bakura's receptionist was giving him. He hastily pushed Bakura into his office and shut the door behind them.

"Do you mind?" Jounouchi hissed. "The last thing I need is for your receptionist to call her friends, and the media will be all over me."

Bakura raised an eyebrow that almost vanished into his white hairline. "Is that what the baseball cap is for? It's not a very good disguise. You should have worn a pair of sunglasses too."

Jounouchi yanked off the baseball cap and glared at Bakura. "I didn't come here to talk about the shortcomings of my disguise incognito."

Bakura gestured to the lounge chair and said, "Have a seat, Jounouchi-kun."

Jounouchi snorted and folded his arms across his chest. "I'm not one of your patients, Bakura."

Bakura tapped a finger against his chin and studied him with a thoughtful expression. "Your body language tells me that you're trying to close yourself off. It's like you're trying to build a wall around yourself."

Jounouchi glared harder at the man.

Bakura sighed. "I'm not going to psychoanalyze you, but I would rather you relax. This won't make for a very pleasant experience otherwise."

"You've changed." Jounouchi pointed out very bluntly.

"Really?" the white-haired man then smiled sadly, as if with a hint of loss. "It's been almost eleven years, Jounouchi-kun. You've changed too. You're calmer and more cautious."

Jounouchi threw his baseball cap on the sofa sitting all the way against the other wall and sat down on that instead. "Have to be. One wrong move and the tabloids will be all over you. Sophie can only divert so much attention away with her insanity."

Bakura moved over to him and sat down next to him, still leaving a few good inches of space between them. Jounouchi was grateful for that and Bakura felt more like an equal like this.

"So how long has Malik been back? He used to visit only around the holidays." Jounouchi asked languidly.

There. That was a safe topic to begin with.

"He moved to Domino just under two years ago."

"What's he doing these days?"

"He's works for Kaiba-kun!"

Jounouchi's jaw dropped. "Malik Ishtar is working for Kaiba Seto. You got to be kidding me."

Bakura chuckled. "It's a pretty strange thought, isn't it?"

"What could Malik possibly be doing for Kaiba? Is he running around doing hits for the bastard or something?"

"Malik is head of public relations actually."

Jounouchi was stunned yet again. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Malik's actually quite good at his job. He's refreshing, if nothing else. He doesn't take any sort of nonsense from reporters." Bakura was practically beaming with pride for his boyfriend.

"Well, he can't be worse than Sophie," Jounouchi muttered. "Glad to see he's settled down though. I guess I should have seen it. Kaiba's official apology to me stunk of Malik humor."

"It's been eleven years, Jounouchi-kun. We can't remain teenagers forever."

There it was again- advice given so readily and without hesitation. Jounouchi tried to recall a time when Bakura had been this confident but couldn't. The slight edge of blackness and despair that always seemed to taint Bakura in his teenage years was completely gone. Even when Bakura's dark personality was finally defeated, Bakura had not changed in any significant way. This was a development of the time he had been gone from Japan.

Lots of things had changed…

He threw his head back and it connected painfully with the wall behind the sofa. He did his best to ignore the throbbing pain now battling his pre-existing headache to cause the most pain.

"I think I messed up big time, Bakura," he muttered very quietly. "I don't think I should have come back."

"Why do you say that?"

"I just stopped by Honda's place, Honda's and Shizuka's place," he quickly corrected himself.

Bakura was smiling that sad but calm smile of his again. "They've been separated for quite so time now."

"He was completely fine last night. He gave absolutely no indication." Jounouchi threw an arm over his eyes. "He was still my best friend last night."

"And what about today? What makes him no longer your best friend today?"

Jounouchi knew Bakura was prodding now, but he was too drained to resist. "He hates me, Bakura. I broke him and Shizuka up. It's all my fault, because I left in the first place, because I came back now. God, I suck at this."

"That is where you're completely wrong."

Jounouchi turned his head and stared at the white-haired man in complete disbelief. "You can't mean that."

"I do. These are issues Honda-kun and Shizuka-chan need to work through together. If they cannot get over this hurdle, it is only because of themselves. No one can dictate the course of their relationship but them. Honda-kun kept a big secret from Shizuka-chan and no matter how good his intentions were, he still hurt her greatly. He needs to fix this on his own."

"So you're saying it's not my fault?" he was blinking rapidly, waiting for the words to sink in.

"No, it's not your fault."

After another long moment of silence, Jounouchi asked, "So what else have I missed?"

"I think it would do you good to find that out on your own," Bakura rose from his seat next to him and walked back toward his desk. "We should find some more time to see each other again though."

"Sure…"

Jounouchi left Bakura's office with a comparatively lighter heart than that which he left Honda's apartment with. It still didn't make the day any better or less abysmal.

As soon as he stepped out of the building, his cellphone began ringing. His ringtone, the funeral march, told him it was Sophie calling even before he had a chance to flip open the phone and look at the screen. He had taken immense pleasure in programming that tone to be Sophie's default and needless to say, she was less than pleased with his sense of humor.

"Katsuya, I'm afraid there's been a change in the schedule. We had to move your interview for Domino Times' Lifestyle section up to today. So that means you need to get your ass down here as soon as possible."

Jounouchi glared at the sidewalk and wished for a can to kick. Unlike the streets of LA, the streets of Domino had always been as clean as the streets of Tokyo. "Don't I get more than an hour's warning before shi- something like this happens? Aren't there union regulations against this sort of abuse?"

"You're a freaking movie star, now get your ass down here before I have to go out and find you and you know that won't be fun."

"Alright, alright, where do I have to go?"

"We're going to do the interview back at the hotel. I've already called ahead and had the staff prepare for this. So just get there as soon as possible. You should probably call someone to pick you up."

The line went dead before Jounouchi could say anymore.

He sighed and slipped the phone back into his jacket pocket. Sophia could be described as many things, but she was also a strict taskmaster above all. Who would have guessed such a questionable woman was such a hard-worker? Fixing his cap and straightening his shoulders, he left the alcove where he went to receive the call.

It was late afternoon, but it still looked like mid-day because of the summer season. The crowd thickened since the early-shift salarymen were beginning to get off. That was perfectly fine with Jounouchi. It just meant there were more people to hide behind until he got back to the hotel. He contemplated calling someone to pick him up, but he wasn't eager to do this interview. Today was supposed to be his free day.

It was at that moment that something slammed roughly into his side. He gritted his teeth and dug his shoes into the pavement to keep from falling over. Jounouchi twirled around and glared after the hunched figure now disappearing around the corner. He was tempted- sorely tempted to chase after the asshole, but to do that would be to call attention to himself.

That would not be a smart thing to do.

Gritting his teeth until his jaws hurt, Jounouchi once again thought about how this was not his day.

Sophia grabbed Jounouchi as soon as he walked into his hotel room. She proceeded to strip him out his jacket and shirt. Before Jounouchi could even begin to protest, she shoved a bundle of clothing into his arms and pushed him toward the bathroom, ordering him to change right away.

"You look like a goo wak jai [1]. I won't have you meeting the reporter like that. Now!"

Jounouchi shoulder's slumped under the weight of her command and closed the bathroom door behind himself.

"Really," she muttered to herself. "You would think he'd learn by now after so many years."

She reached into one of his jacket pockets and emptied them. She set the cellphone, Bakura's business card, and a handful of yen coins onto the writing desk. Digging into the other pocket, she only found a wrinkled piece of paper. She was about to set the paper on the table too when one corner of the unevenly folded paper caught her attention.

Her hands shook as she unfolded it.

Soon, Katsuya.

Soon.

It wasn't a death threat, but Sophia was sure that it was from the same sender. She fumbled for her purse. Jounouchi couldn't see this. The tremors only increased as she closed her fingers around her lighter. Jounouchi must never know about this.

The paper caught the fire from her lighter in the corner and curled around the paper like fingers. Jounouchi exited the bathroom just as she was about to turn and dump the lit paper into the trash can.

"Shit!" Jounouchi exclaimed and crossed the room in a few long strides. He grabbed the lit paper from her hand and dumped it into the trash can. He yelped again when the flames licked against the index and thumb finger that held the burning paper. Sophia grabbed the pitcher of water off the bureau to her right and dumped the content in the bin.

The distinct scent of something burning still hung heavy in the air.

"What the fuck was that?!" Jounouchi brought the two burned fingers to his mouth.

She turned away and grabbed her purse off the bureau after setting down the empty pitcher. "I'll send someone to look at that and someone to do your hair. Come down to the restaurant as soon as you're done. We can't keep the reporter waiting for too long."

"Goddammit, Sophie!"

She ignored him and walked out of the suite, fumbling through her purse for her rapidly declining supply of cigarettes.

"I need a smoke."

"Something's on your mind."

Kaiba simply grunted and refused to acknowledge Malik's statement. He stared resolutely at the floor numbers as they flew by instead. He didn't know if he should be grateful or not for not being surrounded by his usual entourage. While he found their mindless chattering both tedious and uninspired, Malik wouldn't dare ask such personal questions if they were around. And Malik always managed to have a personal question or comment when he managed to solicit Kaiba by himself.

He wondered how long Malik would be able to keep that loud mouth of his shut.

"Come on, you're being broodier than usual."

Just as he suspected, not very long at all.

"It's none of your business."

"It's my business if it's going to affect how you appear before the public."

"I wasn't aware I had to attend any press conferences soon."

"You will if this deal goes through. And no, this isn't something you can just shove on me like usually." Malik straightened his tie before crossing his arms over his chest. "I haven't seen Mokuba at all today. Where could he be?"

Kaiba's hands flexed at the mention of his younger brother. He had a feeling that Mokuba would not be coming around again anytime soon.

Malik didn't seem to notice and just kept talking. "Ryou called not long ago. Seems like the pup stopped by his office."

Kaiba felt the beginnings of a migraine. "Your point?" he had a feeling this was going to be one of those moments where he was going to want to kill Malik and throw the body somewhere so remote even scavengers wouldn't be able find it.

"Oh, none at all," Malik stated innocently- too innocently. "I was just wondering if Jounouchi would stop by to visit here too."

Who would have thought Kaiba would one day long for the "good-old-days" where Malik was just another psychologically unstable duelist obsessed with Yugi (or Yami or whatever the hell the damn ghost thing wanted to call himself) and bent on sabotaging Kaiba's company, or at least his tournaments. Those would have been issues that Kaiba knew he could handle readily.

"This is private property, Malik. Non-employees just can't walk in and out as they please." Kaiba grumbled.

"But it's Jounouchi." Malik spoke as if that would explain it all.

Kaiba made a noncommittal sound and Malik just stared harder at him.

"He's only going to be here for a few more weeks before he goes back to America. You don't have that much time left. If you're going to make a move, make it soon."

Kaiba unwillingly thought back to the previous night where he caught Jounouchi and Mai kissing on his balcony. His fists curled and his muscles strained to hit something at the mere thought. It was followed by the even more unwelcome imagery that flashed before his mind's eyes. Taking a deep breath, he shoved all the unnecessary emotions to the back of his mind.

Hopefully, he wouldn't have to deal with them at all.

"I think you have too much time on your hand, Ishtar. Should I be assigning more to your department?"

"You're going to be really stubborn about this, aren't you?"

He refused to reply and got off the elevator instead.

Jounouchi felt strange having to bow so much, and since he came back to Japan, he had done a lot of bowing. He was glad it was one of things that Americans didn't usually do. Really, what was wrong with a good, firm handshake?

It had taken less than ten minutes to get Jounouchi sorted out. Sophia had even cowed the hairdresser and make-up artist to work with more speed and efficiency than usual. He was led to meet the reporter at the back of the restaurant downstairs. Their area of the restaurant had been closed off, but there were still curious patrons and waiters that were trying to see what was going on.

"I can't thank you enough for doing this interview, Joey-san?" she, the reporter, grabbed his hand and shook it just after they had exchanged bows. "Or should I call you Jounouchi-san?"

"Whichever. I have nothing to hide." He pulled his hand away and sat down in the chair their waiter had pulled out for him. He absently shook the numbness away from his hand. She had squeezed his burned fingers just a bit too hard.

"Of course, I'm Yamato Kimiko of Domino Times," She gestured to the over-excited man to her left holding a camera. "And this is Kujaku Makoto, he'll be taking a few photos of our interview today. We've already cleared all of this with Chang-san."

At the sound of her name, Sophia joined the two of them already at the table. Jounouchi noticed her hands were trembling and she looked more worn than usual. Shaking his head, he turned to the overenthusiastic looking photographer instead. Great, he even had fanboys/men.

"Kujaku, huh? You wouldn't happen to be related to Kujaku Mai, would you?" Jounouchi asked.

The photographer's eyes widened and he stuttered for a few moments- probably stunned by the fact Jounouchi was addressing him directly. "She's my cousin."

"Really? I didn't know Mai had a cousin." He mumbled.

Sophia cleared her throat and glared at him not-so-subtly out of the corner of her eyes.

The reporter, Kimiko, leaned forward across the table; her eyes alit with some strange light. "So you're acquainted with Kujaku Mai-san of Valentines Boutique?"

"I believe we should order instead of making our poor waiter wait like this." Sophia obviously didn't like where this interview was going.

He couldn't just not give any answer at all to the reporter. It would just look all the more suspicious. "She's an old friend from my dueling days. I didn't know she owned a boutique these days."

It only took each of them a minute to order altogether so Kimiko jumped right into the interview. "So Jounouchi-san, you must be glad to be home after all these years."

He told himself she didn't mean anything in specific by choosing to address him by his old name. It wasn't even his legal name anymore. He had changed it to Joey Katsuya at Sophia's insistence. "Yeah, it's great to be back all these years."

"How does your sister feel about this? And your mother? They must have been ecstatic to see you again." She was completely relaxed and he noticed she hadn't even begun to take any sort of notes on pad of paper set in front of her. Without waiting for him to answer, she plodded ahead, "Have you always wanted to be a movie star, Jounouchi-san? Is that why you left in the first place? To pursue that dream? Records show you left not long after you graduated high school. You must have had your heart set on this."

"Enough," Sophia's hand fell against the table with the force of a sledgehammer. "I believe we discussed the limitations of this interview already. You are not to pry into Katsuya's past. You are here to talk about his current projects, Miss Yamato."

Kimiko raised a questioning eyebrow. "I remember, Chang-san. If you've noticed, I haven't taken any notes yet. I was just curious. I assure you nothing will go awry."

Sophia growled loudly in warning. Jounouchi had to bite down on his tongue to keep from commenting she was the one who sounded like a dog now.

"Well then," Kimiko pressed her pen against the pad. "Shall we start with the real interview then?"

The interview commenced without any further objections and they were only disturbed by the arrival of their food. Kimiko asked him questions about the movie and Makoto snapped a few photos once in a while. There were times when the reporter would dance of the knife's edge of a personal question and Sophia would simply growl in warning. The interview was finished when Jounouchi got halfway through his dish. With seemingly no other choice, Sophia reluctantly invited Kimiko and Makoto to join them for dessert.

The entire affair came to an end around 8:20, just over an hour after it started. They all stood as the waiter moved to clear their table and exchanged polite bows once more. Before the reporter and her photographer left, Makoto shoved a piece of paper in his direction and asked him for an autograph.

Jounouchi just smiled- Sophia called his charming disarming smile- and signed his signature with a flourish. Makoto clasped his hand longer than necessary when Jounouchi extended the autograph back.

"I'm an absolute fan of yours, Joey-san." The man's eyes shone with absolute adoration and it unnerved Jounouchi greatly. "I really look forward to see your career take off. I know this movie will do wonderful things for it. I know I'll be in for the first showing at the theater near my apartment for the first showing."

"Ugh, yeah. Thanks I guess. Say hi to Mai for me if you see her."

Jounouchi resisted the urge to wipe his hand against the tablecloth when the other man finally released his hand. It would have been too insulting. Unlike his younger days and after numerous incidents in the states, he had learned to hold back a little and swallow the unpleasant things that were begging to be said.

Sophia never did, nor did she care.

"Alright," she paused to take a drag from her cigarette. "You've had your fun, fanboy. Now get lost and let the grown-ups work."

Makoto glowered at her and opened his mouth to retort when Kimiko called for him.

"Let's go, Kujaku. You'll have plenty of opportunities to gawk later."

The photographer gave Sophia one last dark glare and scurried after the reporter.

"That was…" Jounouchi struggled to find the right words for the experience.

"She's a bitch." Sophia snarled without hesitation and Kimiko had barely walked five feet away from their table. Since Kimiko hadn't looked back, Jounouchi hoped she hadn't heard. Sophia leaned back against the table and jammed her cigarette between her lips.

If Jounouchi had just met her at that moment, he would have figured her the very picture of cool.

But after so many years of friendship, he knew better. "How many packs have you gone through today?"

She shrugged and flicked the loosely hanging ash at the end of her cigarette on to the carpet. One of the waiters glared not so kindly at her, and she returned it. "I don't know, lost count a while ago."

She promised him she would quit.

"Something's wrong," Jounouchi muttered.

It wasn't a question.

Exhaling another puff of smoke, she sighed. "I guess. The problem is I don't really know. Just gotta expect the unexpected, I guess."

[1] "Goo wak jai" is Cantonese for low-lewel members of the Triad (the HK mafia). They're the ones that do all the dirty work and get into fights. They're usually easily distinguished from the regular populace by the way they dress and talk incessantly on their cellphones. Like the yakuza in Japan (who shared the most cellphone usage with schoolgirls), members of the Triads are one of the demographics in Hong Kong that use the most airtime minutes.

All reviews are whole-heartedly appreciated. I thank everyone ahead of time.