Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Unbelievable Connections ❯ Conclusion of the Duel and More Mysteries ( Chapter 9 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! However, I DO own Marissa, Keline, Symari, and Joseph.

By the way, whenever I say “Arabic” in this fic, I'm referring to Egyptian Arabic.

Chapter 9~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Joey,” Keline said simply. “You should be proud of yourself.” Joey looked at him, confused. “You're one of the few people I've had to use this card for.” He indicated the one he had been staring at.

“What!?” Marissa exclaimed suddenly. The others looked at her and noticed her eyes were also wide, and she looked worried. “Kay, are you crazy!?”

“Yes.” His eyes narrowed, as if he was concentrating. He took a deep breath while removing a card from his hand and placing it in a Magic Card slot. “I play Darkness of the Past Ritual!” The components of the card appeared on the field: two urns containing black fire on both sides of an elaborate throne with carvings of the Millennium Items embedded into the gold. “This Magic Card allows me to summon the Ritual Monster - Pharaoh of Darkness!!!” Keline slapped down the card he had been staring at. A humanoid shadow coagulated in front of the two duelists.

From the sidelines, Yami felt himself being drawn from the Millennium Puzzle. Almost against his will, he replaced Yugi on the outside and stared - all but gaping - at the scene before his eyes. The Shadow had glowing eyes like that of Yami, along with the Eye of Anubis on its forehead. Five, waving, triangular pieces of darkness protruded from where its head seemed to be, like hair. (A/N: If any of you remember the scene from Duelist Kingdom - I think it's right after Yami's duel with Weevil - where Yami sends a telepathic message to Pegasus in the form of a shadowy-version of himself, this “Duel Monster” looks pretty much like that, except with eyes. Hope that helps!)

Mai, being quite confused, glanced at Marissa and Yami to see if their reactions were any different than hers. She quietly gasped when she saw Yami's surprised face and Marissa's nervous one. Still, Mai turned back to the duel without asking questions.

Joey braced himself for a powerful attack. Even though he still had Thousand Dragon to defend him, he could tell from Keline's semi-speech and the way he was acting that the Pharaoh of Darkness was one strong monster.

“So are you going to attack, or what?” Joey asked with a proud smirk.

“Are you ready?” Keline questioned in return. Joey nodded, so Keline took a deep breath and continued. “Pharaoh of Darkness...attack with Mind Crush!” (A/N: Sound familiar? ^^o Hehe...) The Shadow held up an insubstantial hand. With a flick of its wrist, it sent out a rushing wave of darkness straight at Joey. Instantly, the Thousand Dragon was annihilated, and Joey was blown backwards so far that the crowd parted. He slowly stood up. When he took a glance at his Life Point counter, he couldn't help but be shocked.

“Zero!?” he shouted in amazement.

“Sorry, Joey,” Keline apologized, shrugging. Once the holographic items on the field had dissolved into the air, the two boys approached their on-looking friends.

“No worries, man.” Joey smiled, holding out his hand to Keline. The latter took it and gladly shook hands.

“Nice job, you guys,” Marissa congratulated. “You have great skill, Joey.” He grinned proudly.

“Awe, thanks, Marissa.”

“But don't let that go to your head,” Yugi warned. He had regained control a few minutes before. He could tell that Yami was deeply disturbed and worried, so he let Yami rest and think about it for a while.

“Hey, wait a sec,” Mai interrupted, causing the others to turn to her with questioning looks. “If Joey had 1,870 life points left, and with the Thousand Dragon's 2,400 attack points, that means your monster” - she pointed to Keline - “has to have at least 4,270 attack points!” Joey and Yugi gasped. (A/N: Wow...Mai adds fast. ~_^)

“It has 4,300 to be exact,” Keline corrected. Marissa laughed at their surprised expressions.

“Where'd you get such a powerful card?”

He shrugged. “Connections.”

“There are some problems with it, though,” Marissa interjected. “For some reason, this card can be...disobedient.”

“What do you mean by that?” asked Joey. Like Yugi and Mai, he was confused.

“Sometimes it doesn't attack when you tell it to, or sometimes the summoning backfires.” She turned to Keline. “You were lucky this time, Kay.”

“Yeah, I guess,” he replied, lighter than what was expected.

“Well, why don't we go off and find our own duels now?” Yugi suggested. The others agreed, so they said good-bye and separated, except for Keline and Marissa who stayed together. Yugi stole a perplexed glance at the couple before walking off.

“Hey, Yami...” Yugi called to him through their mind-link. “Are you okay?”

“Not really,” Yami responded sadly. “Yugi...that card - it was me.”

“Are you sure? I mean, I know it looked a whole lot like you and all, but -” Before he could defend his idea, he was interrupted.

“How could it not be?”

Yugi was forced to capitulate. “They're hiding something, I know it.”

Yami nodded. “I agree.”

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Later that same day - at dusk - Joey came across Keline while on his way home. Right away Joey ran up to the other boy and greeted him.

“Hey, Joey,” Keline responded with a slight smile. “Find any more duels?”

Joey nodded enthusiastically. “Sure did!” he answered, then went on to describe his duels in detail. Keline seemed to be enjoying the recital. After he was done, Joey asked, “What about you?” In reply, Keline stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out some Locator Cards. “Four already!?”

“I could have won all six if I needed to.” He shrugged. “But I had to let Marissa have her turn.” With a wink, he put the cards back into his pocket. There was a pause in the conversation before Joey spoke up again.

“Hey, where you headed off to?” He raised an eyebrow in question. “And why aren't you riding your motorcycle today?”

“Domino Museum. And my aunt insists that I should walk more often.” He shrugged again, but this time he also frowned slightly.

“Something wrong?” Joey asked worriedly, with a look that showed his concern.

“What's with all the questions?” Keline retorted. Joey's reply was a sheepish grin. They both mentally tossed the question away as if it was never asked. Still, Joey wanted to know the answer. Keline always seemed to have something on his mind, and this bothered the blond kid. Joey had the urge to help him through whatever difficulty there might be - like friends. That's it - it might sound sappy, but Joey wanted to be friends with Keline.

Of course, they were sort of already friends, but they weren't all the way there yet. `Then again,' Joey thought, `we have only known him for two days. And we have made progress...' He reminded himself about how, when he had originally met Keline, he had acted ruder than he should have. Perhaps Joey was now acting nicer because he understood that Keline had reasons to be rude. Or perhaps it was because Joey thought that if he were nicer, than Keline would be nicer too.

Joey became so involved in thinking about all this that he neglected to notice the front steps of the Domino Museum. Down he went, barely managing to stop himself from falling flat on his face by sticking his hands out in front of him.

“Careful, that first step can seem to appear out of nowhere,” admonished Keline, a little too late. The other boy sprung to his feet.

“You can say that again,” he said, brushing himself off. He turned his eyes towards the building in front of him. “I take it we're here?”

Keline nodded. “See you later, Joey.” Without waiting for a reply, he began to ascend the steps to the museum.

“Bye...” From a distance, he stared at the door which the brown-haired brown entered for a few minutes before shaking himself out of a daze and turning around. Just as he was about to take a step forward, he had the urge to take one last look at the museum before heading home. “Gah!!” Great surprise caused him to shout and almost fall backwards, for staring him straight in the eye was a woman standing before him. Her Egyptian-looking clothing caught Joey's eye. He opened his mouth to speak, but she interrupted him.

“You must be patient, for in due time you will learn what holds Keline's secrets inside his soul,” she told him. Her voice held an air of mystery and wonder. “Along with the cause of his impertinence.” She turned around to leave, but Joey halted her departure.

“Wait!” She stopped to raise an eyebrow in question. “H-how do you know this?”

“I have foreseen it.” With that, she walked up the stone steps and into Domino Museum. Joey finally started on his way home. `That was certainly weird...' he thought, quite confused. `Who was she? And how'd she know about Keline?' He sighed deeply in concentration.

A while later, he came across the steel doors of an apartment complex. The eerie creak of them opening sent chills through Joey's spine. `Good thing I don't live that far from the museum...' After making his way past multiple doors on the third level, he went in the apartment at the end of the hallway. He noticed his dad was asleep on the couch, so he went straight on to bed.

`This whole tournament is turning into one big mystery,' he thought as he collapsed on the soft sheets. `So...confuse...' Without even completing this thought, he drifted off into deep sleep.

“Gigantic donuts!”

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BTW - I made the Pharaoh of Darkness and the Darkness of the Past Ritual into cards, but they're based off of things from the show, which I already said I don't own. And last chapter with the Malevolent Bovine, that monster card is based off of the Hell Cow from Diablo II, which I don't own either.