Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Love & Duel Monsters ❯ The Finals ( Chapter 2 )

To Yugi, the finals couldn't have come quick enough. Not just because he wanted to be able to have a full on conversation with Stacy, but also because he had to defeat Marik. Walking into the huge arena the finals were to take place, he had a sense of reassurance. Like everything was going to be okay. The sun hid behind a cloud long enough for him to see a girl with light red hair smiling and waving to them.

 

“I knew you all would make it here.” Stacy laughed.

 

“I guess it was no wonder you made it here. Very few have faced a Blue-Eyes and lived to tell about it.” Tristan smirked.

 

“Well, from what I here no one lives after meeting a God card, right Yugi?”

 

“Wow, how did you hear about that already?” Tea asked.

 

“Word travels fast when the word is Slifer the Sky Dragon.” Just then the very familiar sound of a helicopter emerged from the sky. When it landed, Kaiba and Mokuba jumped out and the helicopter arose once again. “Oh, go figure the man who threw the tournament just happens to get enough locator cards. Or maybe he's just here because he knows where the tournament finals are being held.”

 

“It would do you good to shut your mouth.” Kaiba snarled.

 

“It would do you good to get laid.” Stacy retorted, as Kaiba growled at her. At that, Joey laughed. “Hey, he may mellow out a little bit.”

 

Once the laughter died out, Yugi took a step forward and attempted to get a normal answer out of Kaiba. “Is this really where the finals are being held?”

 

“No.”

 

“Oh, well then where are they being held?” This actually didn't get a real response as much as a grunt and an index finger held up, pointing toward the sky. Yugi looked up in time to see a huge blimp coming at them. He began to walk backward, but ran into Stacy.

 

“Where you going?” She asked, rubbing the foot he stepped on. Yugi held his finger up as Kaiba did and, noticing how he'd stepped on her foot, blushed.

 

“Is that a blimp?” She followed Yugi's example and began walking backwards. The large blimp landed in the center of the arena and opened it's huge stairway which extended down to the ground.

 

“Welcome Duelists!” A Kaiba Corp suit said from the top of the staircase. “Present your six locator cards to the guards below and you'll be permitted on the blimp.”

 

“Wait.” Kaiba ordered. “They're not all here yet.”

 

“What do you mean we're not all here yet? How many of us are there?” Joey asked.

 

“Eight.”

 

“We still need four.” Mokuba said, more to Kaiba than anyone else.

 

Slowly, three more finalists made their way into the arena. Mai Valentine, who ran over to Stacy at the surprise of everyone else there, was the first of the three. Followed closely by Bakura and Marik.

 

“We will board now.” Kaiba ordered to the guard. “If the eighth finalist doesn't arrive in five minutes, she's out of luck.”

 

Once everyone boarded, with a little help from Mokuba for Tea, Tristan, and Serenity, they all got shown to their rooms. Yugi was a little relieved to see that his room had been placed across from Stacy's. This relief, however, was meant with a bit of a snicker from the spirit residing in his mind.

 

Lunch had been served that afternoon, which served Yugi a perfect time to get seated across from the girl he'd wanted to talk to for a long time.

 

“Hey Yugi.” Stacy smiled warmly as he sat down in front of her.

 

“You told me that at the finals you would answer my questions. And we're here.” Yugi was trying to be funny and charming, but wasn't sure if it was coming through. He never was too good at talking to girls. Tea was the only girl he'd managed to carry on a conversation with.

 

“Ah, yes we are.” She took a drink before thinking back to questions he'd asked her. “I do know Mr. Personality over there.” She thrusted a thumb in Kaiba's direction. “We all go to the same school, you know.”

 

“We do?” Joey asked as he sat down beside her. Yugi tried to hide the dismay in his face at the intrusion on his private time.

 

“Well, you might not know me, I only go for half a day. But so does Kaiba. I've known him for a while and he's always been an ass. I stopped just taking it and I started to fight back. It seems to deter him a little bit.”

 

“Why do you only go a half a day?” Tristan asked, sitting down beside Yugi. Yugi gave up trying to talk to her; he just sat there and listened.

 

“Because I have training. I've had it since I was about 10 years old.”

 

“Training for what?” Tristan and Joey asked in unison.

 

“Duel training.” This made Tristan and Joey look at each other.

 

“You serious?” Joey asked. “Who would want you to train like that?”

 

“Ok, here's the whole story.” Stacy sat back and was actually kind of shocked that so many of them were patiently listening to her story. “My father started working for Pegasus when I was about seven or eight. He helped design Duel Monsters. One day, when our school had that whole `Take Your Child to Work Day' thing, my dad took me with him. Pegasus thought I was the cutest little girl he'd ever seen.” She stopped talking when Joey smirked. “Hey, I was a cute kid.”

 

“Never mind him, go on.” Tristan urged.

 

“So, anyway, on days we didn't have school, and most of the summer, I would go to work with him. And, frankly, I never saw my dad because I was always with Pegasus. One day he was playing with some of the new cards he'd created, figuring out strategies and stuff, when he told me to hold the cards and try to beat him. I can still remember it like it was yesterday…”

 

Flashback to Stacy at 8 years old

 

“But Uncle Max, I don't know how to play this game.” Stacy said, her green eyes wide looking at the cards she now held in her hand.

 

“That doesn't matter, you will learn. Besides, no better way to learn than by doing, right?” Her Uncle Max smiled down to her.

 

“Ok, but you're so going to win.”

 

Pegasus laid down a simple Feral Imp in attack mode just to see what she could do. And she did something amazing. She played a combo-attack.

 

“Can I combine a, um, magic card with a monster card?”

 

“Yes, Stacy, you can.”

 

“Ok, then I play the Feral Imp in my hand and I add the Horn of the Unicorn card too…is that okay?”

 

Pegasus just sat back in his chair. “Stacy, are you sure your father never taught you this game?”

 

“No, Uncle Max. He says I'm too young yet.”

 

“Well, your father is wrong.”

 

 

End Flashback

 

“So then what happened?” Serenity asked.

 

“He went to talk to my father and I began training whenever I was there. After a while he came to my house to talk to both of my parents about me becoming his first full-on student. So then I began having only half days of school and I trained five days a week.” She took a drink and glanced around at the group around her.

 

“You were trained by the creator of Duel Monsters himself? No wonder you're so good.” Tea gasped. Stacy just laughed.

 

“I really can't believe you are close enough for a nickname like Uncle Max.” Yugi said lightly.

 

“I was only good enough to beat him six months ago.” She smirked.

 

“How many times did you try and fail?” Joey asked, without thinking how it sounded.

 

“Oh, none. I wouldn't even attempt it until I was damn sure I would defeat him the first time.”

 

“Then who did you duel while you were training?” Yugi asked.

 

“Just random employees that showed promise. Uncle Max used to say that I was the only duelist to want to be losing so I could have an awesome comeback. But he was wrong, wasn't he Yugi?” This made Yugi blush, but it made the rest of them laugh.

 

“I don't want to be losing…” Yugi blushed even more.

 

“But sometimes you can't help it.” Joey stated.

 

“Yeah, and you would be the expert.” Tristan joked. Joey wrapped his arm around his neck and pulled him down until he was on the floor.

 

“Are you amateurs ready?” Kaiba grunted as he walked closer to the table.

 

“Oh yes Master of the Universe, we are!” Stacy stood up and saluted him. He glared and walked away. Yugi smiled at her, admiring her ability to smack Kaiba down after all of his insults.