Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Legacy of Seraph ❯ Chapter Five ( Chapter 5 )

Legacy of Seraph

Chapter Five

Yuan checked his watch again. He had told Joey to be at the airport by ten-thirty, but he was nowhere to be seen. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Patience was not something he had much of.

"Well, this is a surprise." Yuan turned around to find himself face-to-face with Seto Kaiba.

"I didn't expect to see you here," Kaiba said. "Well, seeing as I'll be away for a few days, I guess I should tell you now." Kaiba then lowered his voice so that no one could hear him except Yuan. "I've decided that we'll mass-produce the Battle Board. I tried it a couple of more times, and I think it has a future."

Yuan's face lit up. "You will? Great!"

"Oh, before I forget, Mokuba wanted me to pass you a message," Kaiba said. He handed Yuan a slip of paper. He then closed his eyes and showed a pained expression on his face.

"Are you all right?" Yuan asked.

Kaiba gritted his teeth. "Listen. I've done some thinking about what you said concerning the Westrams. I had another run-in, this time in my own bedroom, and I barely scraped out a victory. I thought about what you said about having more duelists on our side, so I have decided to hold a tournament. It will be held in three weeks, in New York City. I assume you're familiar with the city, coming from New York state?"

Yuan nodded. "Very familiar."

"This tournament will be open to duelists around the entire world," Kaiba said. "Those Westrams will be drawn to it like moths to a flame."

"That's not going to work!" Yuan exclaimed with a hushed voice. "If a Westram wins, he'll kill the duelist and steal his or her abilities!"

"Which is why my men will be on hand to stop that," Kaiba said. "I will have undercover agents around the area, ready to snipe any Westram that tries to kill another duelist."

Yuan sighed. Seto Kaiba was just far too stubborn to be reasoned with. "Okay, fine. Now, why are you telling me in the first place?"

"I figured you might like the opportunity to announce to the world the death of your father," Kaiba said. "If you really want to, we can hold a special ceremony for him."

Yuan's eyes lit up. "Yes! Definitely! Thank you!"

"Don't thank me," Kaiba said. "Now that I've told you what I'm here for, why don't you tell me why you're here?"

"I'm on my way to Egypt," Yuan said. "I'm going to see Marik Ishtar so he can activate The Winged Dragon of Ra in battle mode. Right now, it's in sphere mode, and I can't use it yet."

Kaiba's eyes widened. "How did you get hold of an Egyptian God Card?"

"Ishizu had it and brought it out, and it chose me as the recipient," Yuan explained. Kaiba grunted in response.

"Hey, Yuan!" a voice shouted. Joey ran up to Yuan. "I'm ready to go."

"You're taking this mutt with you, Yuan?" Kaiba asked in disbelief.

"Shaddap!" Joey shouted.

Yuan sighed. He had no time for this. "Joey, ignore him and let's go," he said. "You're already five minutes late." Yuan walked into the gate with Joey behind him. Joey cast a glare at Kaiba as he boarded the plane.

-5-

Serenity gave the cab driver a few bills as she dashed into the airport. Joey had left his deck at home, and she needed to give it to him before he got on the plane. She ran through the security checkpoint and past the baggage claim area, trying to reach the gate. She finally made it, but neither Yuan nor Joey was to be seen. She looked around, and upon seeing Seto Kaiba, she decided to ask him if he'd seen them. "Um, Seto?"

Kaiba turned around. "You're Wheeler's sister, right? What do you want?"

Serenity blushed. "Uh, did you happen to see my brother? He left his deck at home."

"He got on the plane with Yuan McCann about thirty seconds ago," Kaiba said. "Now, leave me be."

Serenity ran through the gate door and hopped aboard the plane. As soon as she did so, the door slammed shut and the plane started to move. Serenity opened the door next to her and saw an empty room. She then walked over to the room past this room, but just as she was about to open the door, the plane suddenly accelerated and she was thrown to the floor. The plane then took off. It was then she realized that she was stuck on the plane.

-5-

"You'd better find a way to entertain yourself," Yuan said. "We have a long flight ahead of us." Just then, Serenity burst into the room.

"Hey, what the-? Serenity, what are you doin' here?" Joey demanded.

Serenity held up Joey's deck. "Joey, you forgot your deck!" she exclaimed.

"Huh?" Joey then looked down at his duel disk and noticed that his deck was missing. "Oops. Hey, Yuan, why didn't ya tell me?"

"I didn't notice," Yuan said. "I was too busy losing my patience."

"Well, I appreciate your help, sis, but you need to get home," Joey said as he grabbed his sister's wrist. "Let's see if dis pilot can turn around and land."

"No!" Serenity exclaimed. "Joey, I wanna go with you!"

"No way!" Joey responded. "Da Sahara is not for you! Right, Yuan?"

Yuan went tense. "Leave me outta this!" he exclaimed. "I'm not taking sides! This is between you and your sister!"

"Joey," Serenity begged as she put on puppy dog eyes, "pleeease?"

Joey gave a sigh of defeat. "Oh, all right," he agreed reluctantly. "I'm tired. I'm gonna go take a nap." He then left the room.

Yuan started laughing. "Boy, you sure know how to manipulate your brother!" He then stopped laughing. "Well, as I told Joey, you'd better find something to keep you busy. This is going to be a long ride."

Serenity sat down, twiddling her thumbs. "Um . . . if it's not too much trouble, can I talk to you?"

"No trouble at all," Yuan responded. "What's up?"

"Well, I just wanted to get to know you better, that's all," Serenity answered.

"Sure," Yuan said as he pulled out his deck. "What do you want to know first?"

Serenity watched as Yuan began shuffling his deck. "What made you decide to become a duelist?"

"Well, to begin with, my father's legacy had something to do with it," Yuan answered. "My father had been a duelist since he was just a boy. My father was a prodigy when it came to dueling. At the age of twelve, he was named the duelist champion for the state of New York, and his skills continued to increase. He was never defeated in a single sanctioned match. In fact, that's how my parents met. I never met my mother, but I know that she was an expert duelist. My parents met when my father was United States champion, and he defended his title against her. It was a heated match, and my father won with only 500 Life Points remaining. I said before that my father is often referred to as Mr. 8000 because he frequently won clean sweeps. Well, the newspapers had a field day with this one. My uncle has one of those newspapers posted in his office: 'Mr. 8000 reduced to 500.' Well, this woman not only managed to almost win the duel, but she also won my dad's heart.

"My dad used to tell me that I was a born duelist, and quite literally. You see, the day I was born, by father had just purchased a new booster pack and had opened it up when he saw me for the first time. He held the cards in his hand - he hadn't looked at them yet - and suddenly, I reached out and grabbed one." Yuan stopped shuffling his deck and tapped it with his left index and middle fingers. "The card that I had grabbed was this card right here." He drew the top card without looking at it and showed it to Serenity. It was a Dark Paladin.

Serenity's eyes widened. "Wow! How did you do that?"

Yuan smiled. "It's just a little card trick. Anyway, back to the story. Apparently, I was even more prodigious than my father. I guess that's what happens when you're the offspring of two master duelists. At first, my father had constructed a deck for me and I dueled the other kids in town. One thing I noticed was that many of them were trying to imitate my father's deck, often going overboard with dragons. As I got older, I understood the game better, and I constructed my own deck. At first glance it seems similar to the others' decks, with all of the dragons - Pitch-Dark Dragon, Baby Dragon, Curse of Dragon, and Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress #1, just to name a few - but instead of topping it off with a Red Eyes Black Dragon or a Black Skull Dragon, I used my Dark Paladin.

"The first thing I noticed was that it was difficult to get Dark Magician and Buster Blader together, so I threw in an Emblem of Dragon Destroyer. I also use cards like Yami, Sword of Dark Destruction, Book of Secret Arts, and Witch's Apprentice to increase Dark Paladin's attack power even more. I also added an Anti Raigeki and a few copies of De-Spell to protect my monsters from cards like Raigeki, Dark Hole, and Beckon to Darkness. Pretty soon, I was destroying my opponents in duels. My attack would be so devastating and quick that they nicknamed me 'Yuan.'

"I engaged in practice duels with my father a lot. I know that whenever I won, he let me win. Finally, when I was seventeen, I dueled my father for the last time. Neither of us held back, and we went all out. That day, I lost, but I got his Life Points down past 100. He then realized he was done with dueling and announced his retirement. He promised me a rematch, but . . ." Yuan hung his head. "We never had the chance . . .

"When my father disappeared, I went looking for him. I found him with a man. The man was carrying him in his arms. I called out to him, but there was no answer. The man told me that my father was dead, and that I would be too. He revealed that he had killed my father." Tears began to run down Yuan's face.

"I don't remember much of what happened next. I went into a rage and annihilated him in a duel. He ran off with my father's body. I tried to follow him, but he was too fast. I had never been so hurt. The man I had looked up to my whole life was dead, and I never got to bury him. I never got my rematch, and now I will never see my goal of defeating my own father. They took his deck, too. My father knew that I wanted his Red Eyes Black Metal Dragon more than any other card he had, and he promised it to me if I bested him in a duel. Now, I will never have my chance." Yuan then got up. "Please excuse me."

-5-

Yuan sat on the bed in the makeshift bedroom on the plane, tears clouding his eyes. Talking with Serenity had brought back the painful memories of the circumstances of the deaths of everyone in his hometown.

"I was just too weak," Yuan said to himself. "I was too weak to help my father, and I was too weak to defend the town. I'm just pathetic."

Serenity happened to be walking by as she heard Yuan talking to himself. She stopped and listened.

"I'm trying to do my best to keep any more crises like the one that happened at home from happening, but I don't think I can do it. I failed once; what will keep me from failing again?" There was a pause. "Man, I'm just a no-good duelist. I do well in tournaments and crap, but when everything's on the line, I suck. I should have died back there with the Westrams. Then, everyone would have been gone and I wouldn't have to suffer. I may have even gotten to duel my father in Heaven or something." He then fell silent.

Serenity waited about two minutes after Yuan finished talking to himself. She then knocked on the door frame. She heard Yuan grab a tissue, blow his nose, and then heard him say, "Come in."

Serenity walked into the room. "Yuan, I want to apologize. I shouldn't have brought up the subject."

Yuan raised a hand to stop her. "It's all right. You did nothing wrong." He picked up a portable CD player and started fooling around with it.

"So, do you like music?" Serenity asked.

"I guess you could say that," Yuan said. "This CD contains what I like to call duelist themes."

Serenity looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"Well, have you ever watched professional wrestling?" Yuan asked.

"No," Serenity said. "Joey has, though. He used to really like it."

"All right," Yuan said. "Well, for their matches, professional wrestlers like to show off as they come into the ring. They strike poses, fire off pressure guns, or have pyrotechnics that go off, among other things. Meanwhile, they have theme music playing in the background. The music also plays when the wrestler wins a match. As soon as the bell to end the match rings, their theme music starts up again, and they get up and the referee holds the victor's hand up in victory. Well, what I have thought of doing is incorporating theme music into duels. Each duelist chooses a song to enter the playing field to and to celebrate to, and it plays as they enter the field, and as the celebrate their victory if they won."

"Are you sure that will work?" Serenity asked.

"If it doesn't right away, the audiences will catch on," Yuan said. "A lot of people had their doubts when they heard that Hulk Hogan entered to 'Eye of the Tiger' in the early 1980s, but the crowds ate it all up. Actually, a few of these songs are old wrestlers' themes. Joey would probably recognize several of them."

"What's dis I'd recognize?" a groggy voice asked. Joey was standing right outside the room, obviously having just woken up from his nap.

"Some of these songs," Yuan said. "Most of these are old wrestlers' themes."

"No way!" Joey exclaimed. "What for?"

"I've been thinking about introducing them as duelists' entrance and victory themes," Yuan responded.

"Awesome!" Joey responded. "I call dibs on Shawn Michaels's theme!"

Yuan laughed. "'Sexy Boy?' More like 'Real Man's Man.'"

"HEY!" Joey shouted.

"Hey, I'm just kidding," Yuan responded. "Well, since Lady Luck seems to smile upon you, how about 'Lucky?'"

"Ain't no way I'm walkin' out to Britney Spears!" Joey exclaimed. He then added as an afterthought, "Although, I wouldn't mind walkin' out with her. . ."

"You and every other guy on the planet," Yuan remarked.

"That's funny," Serenity said. "I thought you liked Mai, Joey."

Joey began to turn red. "Hey, what is dis, Pick on Joey Day?"

Yuan stopped his laughing. "Sorry, Joey, we're just joking. Don't worry, I'll get to work on finding a theme for you."

"I told ya, I want HBK's theme!" Joey interrupted.

"Joey, HBK still wrestles," Yuan told him. "I had to go to a lot of work to get permission to use certain songs, and that is only because the wrestlers who used them no longer wrestle for one reason or another."

"Well, what's your theme?" Joey asked.

"That's my secret," Yuan said.

"Come on, tell me!"

"If I did that, it would spoil the secret," Yuan responded. "Don't worry, you'll find out soon enough."

Joey sighed. "Whateva. I'm gonna go get some food." He then left.

"Boy, your mood sure improved in a hurry," Serenity commented.

"Well, that's because I was able to have some fun," Yuan said.

"I'm sorry about what happened to you," Serenity said.

"Don't be," Yuan said. "You didn't do anything."

Serenity stood up. "Here, I've got something to give you."

Yuan got off the bed. "What is it?"

"This." Serenity moved up and gave Yuan a hug. Startled, but comforted, Yuan returned it.

When they broke off the hug, Yuan found himself smiling. "Thank you." Serenity beamed at him and left.

Yuan sat down on the bed and took a look at the night stand. He saw two notes there. He knew the first was from Mokuba, thanking him profusely for the Battle Board system. He picked up the second note and read it. It had only one line.

As long as you are alive, you will still have hope.