Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Kawaita Sakebi ❯ Curse of fiend, De-spell, inexperienced spy ( Chapter 10 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

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Curse of Fiend
A magic card that reverses the battle positions of all monsters on the field during the turn it is played.
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"Hey, Boss."
"Mai-- You look awful."
"Well, that's what a night of coffee and introspection does to you. Here, I brought you a cup."
"But is there coffee in it?"
"Ha. Kaiba, I think we need to talk. Again."
"What-- do I look like Tea?"
"No, if you were Tea, I'd have brought nail polish."
"What, no earmuffs?"
"Those too. I've been thinking--"
"Well, that was your first mistake."
"What happened that night was horrible."
"It took you all night to come up with that? The Mutt must be rubbing off on you."
"What if Pegasus had a valid idea? What if people really were happier with their souls removed?"
"Pity the soulless aren't coherent enough to offer their views on the subject."
"Once Pegasus took your soul you became docile, contented. You would have willingly followed him anywhere."
"No. Behind the contentment, there was always fear. Fear of his caprice."
"Nevertheless, you were dependent on him for your life, but that was all right--
He would care for you; he was older and wiser and could care for you better than you could care for yourself.
Besides, you would be loved, accepted, part of the group, never alone.
It would be simple, cotton-candy happiness, true, but no doubt Pegasus would argue that that's happiness in its' purest form."
"Cotton candy. Ugh."
"I thought Mokuba said you liked cotton candy."
"Only the first three cones."
"Pig. You'd be simply happy, lost in child-like worship, and surrounded by people equally dependent; equally worshipful."
"Obsequious."
"Either way. Pegasus would remind you continually, that without him there would be evil, there would be dissension and fear, people would get hurt.
And remember if you followed him there would be no pain; there would only be happiness.
Without his guidance, the strong and rebellious would destroy themselves--"
"Out of sheer disgust, no doubt."
"--while the weak and rebellious would destroy each other.
Those left, weak and miserable, would cower, and crawl back fawning, begging him to make them happy, ignorant-- to save them from themselves."
"I refuse to tolerate that. I make my own choices."
"That requires free will."
"Yes."
"But free will comes both good and evil. Evil causes loneliness, fear, destruction. Evil results in Pegasus and his twisted ideas of after dinner entertainment."
"Well, that's why you have someone powerful and intelligent around, to negate the evil."
"But if he went around negating evil, you wouldn't have complete freedom to make decisions-- you're back to puppet-land."
"Hm. Perhaps partial soullessness--"
"And who would you make soulless?
"The people who didn't deserve to have souls."
"One might argue that that's what we have now-- the weak don't have the power to change their lives, and the strong rule over them."
"It doesn't sound so bad when you put it that way ..."
"Only if you're part of the ruling class."
"I could force the one in charge to negate the evil."
"He can't interfere."
"But I can."
"Exactly. You can make the free choice to do good."
"I could do something good in order to benefit from it."
"Yes, but the end result is the same-- good is done, and done freely, without outside interference."
"But you're not the one in charge. You had no right to interfere with my free will. Or try to defend my honor."
"I've thought about that too."
"Lucky me."
"More coffee?"
"Yes."
"Sheesh, Kaiba-- would you like some coffee with that sugar?"
"If you insist."
"I do. Here. Now, if you're hurt just a little bit, let's say (for example) you hit your head on the door--
"They should make higher door sills."
"--it's not a big deal, maybe you grumble a bit, but you shake it off and go on with your life-- you don't need any help dealing with it."
"Ok."
"Now, suppose you're stuck in a burning house--"
"What would I be doing in a burning house?"
"Would you prefer a freezing river?"
"Would the two negate each other?"
"No."
"Fine. Burning house, then. But only for the sake of the argument."
"Ok, you're stuck in a burning house--"
"And I call the fire department."
"But you required outside help, you didn't worry about honor or even dignity, you worried only about survival."
"I would have survived without your help."
"Perhaps so. It appears that I miscalculated the severity of the situation. I am sorry, I only meant to help. Now, shall we move unto costuming?"
"Wait. You still haven't given me a valid explanation for your actions."
"Yes I have."
"No you haven't, you've given me abstractions. Why did you choose to involve yourself in that particular situation?"
"Please don't ask me to answer that."
"So you don't have an acceptable answer?"
"I have an answer, it remains to be seen whether it was an acceptable one."
"Now that you've managed to pique my curiosity--"
"We'll move unto costuming. I have several ideas that marketing liked--"


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De-Spell
Destroys one magic card on the field.
***

"That's not my phone."
"No, it's mine, Boss. Hello?"
"Mai, where are you?"
"Still at work, Tea, a girl's gotta eat--"
"But it's after five, and we've got major shopping to do."
"I'm on my way."
"I hope KaibaCorp is paying you overtime, 'cause you're buying dinner, and I'm picking a nice restaurant this time."
"I hear you, I'm going."

"Hey, Boss, I'm out of here. Don't look at me like that: dragging your friends with you when you go shopping is a fine and long-standing feminine tradition."
"Who got stuck taking her out?"
"Joey. They're supposed to be doing the dinner and a movie thing, but if I know Tea, they'll end up going dancing."
"How did the Mutt manage to get a date?"
"I would assume he asked her. That's usually the way it works."
"Ah."
"Don't worry, Kaiba, I promise to pass along any embarrassing details. Have a good one, Hon. I'm gone."

***
"Good evening, Miss, I believe your friend is already waiting for you."
"Thank you."
"Hey, Mai."
"Hi Tea. How are you?"
"I have a list of stuff we need to buy. I think if we can finish the clothes tonight, we'll have enough time tomorrow to get shoes and still do make-up and hair."
"Tea--"
"I figured we'd hit the mall first, then if I didn't find anything I liked we go boutiqueing."
"Tea, don't you think you're going a bit overboard on this? I mean, it's Joey." "This is different."
"I don't see how-- you weren't dressed up at the fair, and he certainly seemed to enjoy spending time with you then."
"Mai, someday I'm going to make sure you eat those words."
"Yeah, yeah. I'll remind you I said them if I ever have time to date again. Fine, three hours, no more."
"How come? It's still early."
"I've got a limited mall tolerance, you know that. Besides I've got work to do tonight."
"You're turning into Kaiba."
"Well, if I spring for a leather duster you can start to worry. If you want desert, I'll split something with you."
"Only if it's something chocolate. You like him, don't you?"
"Do you want the triple fudge cake or the chocolate peanut butter pie?"
"Cake, I think."

***
"Hey Yuug."
"Joey, how are you?"
"Nervous. I'm supposed to be meeting Tea here."
"She's here, but she's still getting ready-- said something about using my hair gel."
"Yuugi, what are you supposed to do on a date?"
"Shouldn't you be asking Tristan about that?
"I did, but he wasn't very helpful. He said if I had to ask, I didn't need to know."
"Hi, Mai."
"Hello boys, Tea's almost ready. Be sure and tell her how pretty she looks, Joey. You don't want to know how long it took us to find the perfect outfit. "
"'Ok. Mai, you're a girl--"
"Last I checked."
"What am I supposed to do on a date?"
"Joey, if you have to ask--"
"You're no help."
"Look, Hon, I'll tell you the same thing I told Tea. You two are friends, just go out and have fun and don't worry about trying to impress each other."
"I guess--"
"And remember, we'll all be waiting here for the embarrassing details."
"Great."
"Joey, I'm ready."
"Tea. You look-- wow."
"Is that good?"
"Come on, Tea, he's drooling; what more do you want?" Joey, Hon, close your mouth."
"You look pretty, Tea."
"Thanks, shall we go?"
"Have fun kids, don't do anything I wouldn't do."
"Well, that leaves the playing field wide open."
"Thanks a lot, Yuugi."

***
"Uh? H'lo?"
"Mai? Is that you?"
"Tea? Wha- time--?"
"Uhm-- It's only two am."
"Two? Where are you? Are you ok?"
"I just got home."
"How was it?"
"Absolutely marvelous, you want to hear about it?"
"Sure. I'm jus' gonna clos' my eyes an' listen."

***
"Mai? Mai? Are you there?"
" ... uh-huh...."
"So what do you think?"
" ... won'ful. G'nigh'..."
"Mai? MAI? Are you sleeping? Mai?"



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The Inexperienced Spy
A magic card that allows you to select and see one card in your opponent's hand.
***

"Morning Boss."
"Mai. You're here early."
"Eh. Had some stuff to work on."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, got stuck doing concept art for the promo posters."
"What have you done so far?"
"A few prelim sketches. Here; tell me what you think--"
"How successful was Tea's date?"
"To be honest, I really have no idea."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, I kinda fell asleep during her report. It's not funny-- she called at an ungodly hour and insisted on analyzing the evening in great detail."
"So you will remain blissfully uninformed through sheer dumb luck?"
"On the contrary, she'll rehash and agonize over the evening incessantly. At least until Joey asks her out again."
"Is this normal female behavior?"
"Yeah. But I assure you I participate in it under much duress."
"So you choose not to discuss your dates?"
"Pretty much. Why? Curious?"
"On a purely intellectual level."
"Of course. So tell me, which designs do you like? Marketing wants to go with green, purple and grey colour scheme."
"But you would mention it, if you were dating someone, wouldn't you?"
"Yes I would. And no I'm not. Perhaps if anyone bothered to ask me; are you going to get the phone, or should I?"
"Kaiba. What do you want?"

***
"Hi, Mai, whatcha doing?"
"Working on promo posters for the VR adventure game. What are you doing?"
"Seeing what you're doing."
"Did you get your dragon picture? I left it with Jane."
"Uh-huh. And she hung it on the wall for me."
"Mokuba, you're part of our target audience-- what do you think of these posters?"
"They need dragons."
"Ok. What else?"
"Lots of dragons, breathing fire and trying to roast people and a knight on a horse toasting marshmallows."
"That would certainly be memorable."
"And you could make the words all fiery, and the corners of the paper look all burned up."
"Hm. Would you like to help me draw it?"
"Can I draw the fire?"
"Of course."
"You have to do the dragon, though, 'cause your dragons look all real and scary."
"Ok. What do you think of this one?"
"No, it needs to be bigger, and white, with blue eyes.
"Mokuba, I don't want trademark issues here--"
"How 'bout silver, then?"
"Silver works. How's this?"
"The knight needs to look a bit scared."
"....ok.... One scared knight."
"He's silly. Now do the houses in the background."
"Mai?"
"Yes, Mokuba?"
"Do you like my brother?"
"Why are you asking me this?"
" 'Cause I wanna know. Duh."
"What do you think of that house?"
"That looks ok."
"Now Oh Great Fire Drawing Artist, add in the fire."
"Ok. Why haven't you answered me?"
"I changed the subject; you weren't supposed to notice."
"Uh-huh. That's what Seto does when he doesn't want to answer me."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, and then I have to tickle him."
"Kaiba's ticklish?"
"I'll even tell you where when you answer."
"Great, bribery."
"Come on Mai, I can keep a secret."
"I'm sure you can, but will you?"
"Ah-ha. You would have just answered if you didn't like him. And now you're blushing."
"Hey!"
"That's all I needed to know, Mai."
"Well, fine. Can we finish this, now that you've extracted your information from me."
"Ok."