Queer As Tachi – Chapter 64
Yugi and Yami emerged on the sun-drenched patio to find the group talking quietly among themselves, except for Mokuba, who sat staring down at his lap. They all glanced in Yugi’s direction when he appeared, and some looked rather relieved to find that he didn’t look upset. Yugi closed his eyes and sighed before taking Yami’s arm and allowing himself to be dragged back to the table. “I’m sorry I snapped at you guys,” he murmured. “I didn’t mean to get upset.”
“Nah, it’s okay, Yug,” Joey said heavily. “I think we get it.”
“It’s just…Kaiba’s been so nice to me today, he didn’t deserve to have you guys making fun of him behind his back,” Yugi complained. “He didn’t do anything to me. I’m sorry, Mokuba,” he added directly to the younger Kaiba. “That wasn’t nice of us.”
Everyone else cringed in their seats and looked suitably chastened. “Sorry, Mokuba,” Duke added.
“Yeah, that was our bad,” Joey agreed.
“It’s okay,” Mokuba shrugged, picking his head up again. “He does usually bring it on himself. No hard feelings.”
“So can we have cake now, and be friends again?” Yugi wondered of all of them.
“Bring on the cake!” Tristan exclaimed.
Chuckling, Grandpa got up and brought the cake over from where it had been nicely displayed with the catered lunch. Mai followed to get plates and forks, and Joey went along to get another plate full of food. Everyone else cleared space in the middle of the table so they could drool over the sweet confection before it could be gutted and served. “So what kind of cake did you get?” Téa asked Yugi.
Yugi swiped a finger-full of creamy frosting and popped it in his mouth before replying, “Strawberry!”
Joey groaned and rolled his eyes. “What is it with you and strawberries?”
Yugi made a pouty face at him. “It’s my favorite flavor,” he explained, leaving unsaid that it had special meaning to him and Yami. The hand on his back caressing dangerously close to his ass was proof that the secret had not gone unnoticed.
“Well, you know,” Duke said wisely, “strawberries are supposed to be an aphrodisiac.”
Tristan looked at him. “They are not. You’re making that up.”
“I am not! I totally read it somewhere!”
“I’ve read that too,” Bakura put in. “Though, technically speaking, anything is an aphrodisiac so long as you think it is. It’s a placebo effect.”
“Guys, maybe we shouldn’t be talking about aphrodisiacs in front of children?” Mai scolded.
Mokuba frowned. “What’s an aphrodisiac?”
The entire table erupted with laughter. “Ask your brother,” Joey dared, and left it at that.
Grandpa Muto encouraged everyone to go and get another drink, first, so they could toast Yugi for his birthday, and then he set about cutting and serving the cake. Right at that moment, a cell phone rang among them. Everyone started and looked at each other as if to say “It’s not my phone!” until Bakura snatched his out of his pocket and answered. Hearing the voice on the other end made him sit up sharply with a smile. “Marik!”
“It’s Marik?” Yugi wondered across the table. “What’s he doing calling you now?”
Ryo grinned and handed out the phone. “He wants to say happy birthday to you.”
Yugi’s eyes lit up as he took the phone and immediately heard Marik’s pleasant voice. “Hi, Yugi. Happy birthday.”
“Thanks, Marik!” Yugi cried, grinning. “You’re just in time! We’re having cake.”
“Ah, I knew it.” Marik chuckled. “I threatened Ryo that I was going to call sometime around lunch, I figured he’d be able to pass along the message. Excellent, that worked out just the way I hoped.”
Yugi laughed back. “Well, thanks for calling. That’s really nice of you.”
“So are you having a fun birthday so far?”
“Yeah! We’re at Kaibaland – we’ve been on a bunch of roller coasters, now we’re eating and stuff, and then I think we’re going to walk around and see some sights or duel before we hit any more roller coasters.”
“Oh, I wish I could be there with you,” Marik sighed. “It sounds like fun. Have a piece of cake for me.”
“We will.” Yugi grinned. “So what time is it over there, anyway?”
“Early,” Marik groaned. “Like…seven in the morning.”
“Really?” Yugi’s eyes widened. “You got up that early just to call me?”
“Well, actually,” Marik laughed, “I’ve been getting up this early for the past couple of weeks. It’s the time of year when a lot of archeological tours need to go out before the sun gets too hot, meaning very early in the morning. So, it’s no big deal.” His voice gentled, with a note of a smile in it. “I wish I could have done more for your big day, I hope just getting a call is special enough.”
“Aw, we wish you were here with us, too,” Yugi said kindly. “That would have been so much fun to have you along. But I understand. This is really nice of you, thanks, Marik.” He giggled. “You want to talk to Ryo again?”
“Yeah, sure. Happy birthday.”
Yugi handed the phone back to its owner, and Bakura got up and turned his back to the group in order to hide the rising blush as he finished the call with a promise to talk more later. He was next to Duke, who smiled knowingly as he overheard a quiet, “I love you,” passed between them before Ryo finally hung up and returned to the group, clearing his throat and trying to squash down the giddy thoughts that left his cheeks reddened.
The cake was big enough that everyone got a big wedge with lots of frosting and a strawberry on top, and several decided after the first bite to toast Yugi for his birthday again, in thanks. He giggled and blushed and just kept nibbling away at his cake, filled to the tips of his toes with delight and joy. He had his friends around him, his lover beside him, strawberry cake in his mouth, and a gorgeous, summery day shining down on him. The fact that he had just turned twenty and inherited half a game shop was actually furthest from his mind in that moment. The pleasant atmosphere made it too easy for everyone to relax and forget that they had secrets worth guarding. Having temporarily forgotten that they were supposed to be looking for a tactful moment to share their news with Téa, and until then, keeping their affections quiet, Duke swiped a finger through the frosting on the edge of his plate and sent it diving towards his partner. “You want my frosting?” he challenged.
Tristan ducked out of the way of the finger before it could get frosting all over his face. “Hey! Watch it! What, you don’t want your frosting?”
“It’s too sweet. Here – have some!” He tried again, nearly succeeding in nicking Tristan’s nose.
Tristan grabbed his wrist and held him off, grinning daringly at the frosting-coated finger in his line of sight. “Stop it!” he laughed.
“No food fights,” Grandpa Muto warned from across the table.
“Come on…” Duke tried to wrestle his arm away, very nearly poking himself in the eye with his own finger. Tristan struggled with him, and then clamped down on his arm and very naughtily licked the frosting from his finger. Duke’s green eyes widened. “Well! I guess that’s one way of doing it.”
“Maybe those strawberries really are an aphrodisiac,” Tristan said under his breath with a grin.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Both Duke and Tristan turned, startled, at the sharp, accusing tone coming from beside them. Téa was staring at them, confused and a little worried. Yet, they couldn’t let go of each other, or stammer out an excuse, until Duke muttered, “Oh shit.”
Tristan let go of his arm and nudged him instead, flicking a bit of frosting off his cheek. “Dammit, we have the worst sense of tact. I guess there’s no hiding anymore.”
“You better tell her, guys,” Joey said.
“It’s about time,” Mai agreed with a frown.
Téa did not glance around at the other comments, but she heard them, and frowned even more. “What are they talking about? What have you been hiding from me?”
“It’s not that we wanted to hide,” Tristan hastily explained, turning to her as she was sitting directly beside him. “It’s just…well, we wanted to tell you in person, and we’ve been trying to find the chance all day but it just hasn’t been right.” He gave her the most pathetic, hopeless look he could muster. “Duke and I are seeing each other. Uh…we live together, too.”
“We were going to tell you earlier today,” Duke immediately added, “but the right moment never came. It’s not like we could have said it right away when we met up this morning. I mean, if we had said, ‘Hi Téa, good to see you, ready to go on some roller coasters, oh by the way Tristan and I are seeing each other’ at the gate, you would have killed us.”
Téa sat there blinking unsteadily in surprise for a long while, saying nothing. Tristan lowered his head contritely and gave her his best puppy-dog eyes. “I’m really sorry we waited, Téa,” he said softly. “I just wanted you to hear it straight from me.”
“Téa?” Yugi wondered.
Blinking herself alert, Téa suddenly rounded on Yugi and rose up out of her seat, yelling, “This is all your fault!”
“What?” Yugi fell back, aghast. “My fault?”
“All of a sudden, everyone else who hangs out with you is turning gay!” she cried. “I heard Bakura on the phone before, there’s something going on between him and Marik too, isn’t there? And now this? It’s your fault, it has to be! You’re spreading this sickness around all of our friends! It’s disgusting!” Yugi stared, mouth open. Téa then switched to focusing on Tristan. “What’s wrong with you? You’re having sex with Duke? When did that happen? You just decided you were gay, now? Is everyone at this table gay?”
“Excuse me?” Joey tried to interrupt.
“It’s like everybody except Joey and Mokuba has gone gay on me,” Téa seethed. “I don’t know any of you anymore! This is all your fault, Yugi!” She spun to face him again, shoving back her chair with her knees. “If it wasn’t for you, none of this would have happened! You’re sick! You’re making everyone else gay, even the pharaoh!”
Yami rose suddenly in front of her, shielding Yugi from her. “Téa!” he said angrily. “That is not how things are.”
“I can’t be around you anymore!” she accused, turning away from the table. “I can’t be in the middle of this…this gay parade. Get away from me! Leave me alone!” With that, she raced across the patio to the stairs and stormed down them, shoving through the gate. A moment later, they all heard the slam of a door in the vicinity of the restrooms at the bottom of the stairs.
Everyone sat motionless for a second, and then Yugi abruptly broke the silence by bursting into tears. Yami dropped into his seat beside him and held out his arms, and Yugi collapsed into them, sobbing into his shoulder. The rest of their friends sat staring at the table or their half-eaten cake, stunned and angry. Even Mokuba flushed red with embarrassment, though he had his own reasons why. After a long silence punctuated by Yugi’s ragged sobs, Duke huffed an angry sigh. “Yugi…just forget about it,” he tried to encourage. “It’s all right, just forget her. You don’t have to put up with that kind of treatment.”
“We can’t just forget her,” Joey snapped. “Téa is our friend, we can’t just write her off.”
Duke’s eyes burned even more angrily. “You call that a friend? Look, I know I’m not as close to her as you guys are, but just because she’s your old pal doesn’t give her the right to say things like that. I mean, for crying out loud – she made Yugi cry! On his birthday!” He huffed and got up, going to lean on the railing of the patio rather than face the others. After a moment Tristan got up and joined him, rubbing a hand over his back to try to calm him down.
Yami remained quiet, holding Yugi tightly in his arms, no longer afraid to show his true affections in front of the others. Yugi clung to him, trembling, sobbing, his hands clenched into fists on his partner’s t-shirt. On his other side, even Joey leaned over to rub his back consolingly, though his presence wasn’t nearly the comfort that Yami could be. “It’s okay, Yug,” Joey gently implored. “C’mon, she didn’t mean it.”
“Of course she meant it,” Yugi whimpered, lifting his head just enough from Yami’s shoulder to say it. “She hates me. I know she does. That’s why she didn’t talk to me all year long. She hates that I love Yami and now…now…” He lost his train of thought and broke down into fresh sobs, pressing his face into Yami’s neck to try to stifle them.
Tristan heard that and winced, swallowing a rush of pain in his throat. He turned to Duke, leaning closer to him to whisper, “Hey. You okay?”
“Yeah,” Duke said morosely. “I’m just mad. Not because she insulted me, but because she insulted you and Yugi…people she’s supposed to care about.” He lifted his head and gave Tristan a hard look. “What about you?”
“I’m a little mad,” Tristan admitted, “but mostly…just upset. That did hurt, a lot.”
“She’s wrong, you know.” Duke folded his arms on the railing and peered absently over it. “This isn’t a sickness. This isn’t anybody’s fault.”
“I know. I know she’s wrong,” Tristan patiently said, “but I’m still worried that we didn’t help matters by springing it on her like this.”
Duke shook his head. “No, this was coming. Sooner or later.” He glanced over his shoulder at Yugi, still crying, and the others trying to comfort him and looking among themselves uncomfortably. Even Bakura sat alone with his hands in his lap and tears in his eyes. “Yugi’s right. She’s been mad at him since Christmas. This has been building a long time, it just finally came out at the totally wrong time.” Sighing, he pushed himself up and turned back toward the table. “Yug, man, I’m sorry. I’m sorry we set her off in front of everybody.”
Yugi shook his head against Yami’s shoulder. “It’s not your fault,” he shuddered. “I just…I don’t understand. I didn’t know she hated me that much. How could she say that?”
“Yugi…” Grandpa Muto leaned over from where he sat, speaking in his most fatherly tone. “Téa doesn’t hate you. She’s just scared.” He sighed quietly. “She doesn’t understand that her friends are changing, because she hasn’t been here to be with you though it, and that scares her. And people often react with anger to cover their fear. It’s an instinctive reaction, a fight or flight – and Téa chose fight.”
Yugi listened, and gradually began to quiet, though he still sniffled and shuddered for breath. Yami held him and soothed his hands over his back, resting his chin on the top of Yugi’s head and just wrapping him up in strong, protective arms. Tristan took a step and set a hand on Bakura’s shoulder. “Hey. You okay? I know that had to sting.”
Ryo lifted a hand and surreptitiously wiped the tears from the ends of his eyelashes. “I’m all right,” he whispered. “The truth is, I’ve always been gay, so it’s not like I can blame Yugi for anything. I just…never expected…Téa?”
Duke came up and laid his head on Tristan’s shoulder. “I won’t forgive her for hurting you.”
“She hurt you, too.” He reached around to give Duke a comforting pat on the near shoulder. “That’s really hard. That came out of nowhere.”
Mokuba sat silent while the others talked out their anger and pain, listening but not interfering. Deep down, he was just as upset as the others because everything Téa had said about her friends, she had indirectly said about his brother, too. He didn’t know how she could get off being so phobic when he got a lecture about it for even accidentally saying something bad. As Tristan reached to touch and comfort his lover, Mokuba looked up at them and blinked. “So, it’s true? You guys are dating, too?”
“Yeah.” Tristan shrugged uncomfortably. “Really, Téa was kind of right about something – everybody here except Joey and Mai really is gay. More or less.”
“Oh.” Mokuba shrugged as if to say that it was all right, but kept any further comment to himself.
“Somebody ought to go catch up to her,” Joey said sadly. “Make sure she’s all right.”
“I’ll go,” Mai announced, standing up.
“Maybe Joey should,” Tristan suggested. “No offense Mai, but we’ve been friends with Téa a lot longer.”
“No offense, Tristan,” Mai said in return, “but I’m the only one here allowed to go into the girls’ room.”
“Oh.” He shrank away sheepishly. “Right, sorry.”
“I understand.” She patted him on the cheek as she passed. “I know you boys care about her, and I’ll make sure to pass it along. But right now, a girl needs another girl to talk to. I’ll take care of it.” She glanced back at Joey and gave him a sad look. “You guys take care of Yugi.”
They watched her go, and then Tristan and Duke returned to their seats to try to pick up where they left off. Grandpa leaned past Mokuba to double-check that Bakura was okay, being as he was alone among them, while Joey and Yami saw to it that Yugi calmed down and just rested in his partner’s arms for a while. Not even the idea of more cake could cheer him up, but a few minutes of quiet helped, along with his friends piling up the extra napkins and sliding them over so he could blow his nose. Yugi gave them all a watery smile of thanks and leaned against Yami, heaving a shuddering sigh. “I’m sorry…” he started to mumble.
“Don’t you dare,” Joey said seriously. “It’s not your fault. You were the one hurt, here.”
“But if I…if I’d tried…”
“Yugi,” Yami said gently. “You did try. You are blameless.” He kissed his sweetheart on the forehead and cuddled him close. “You don’t have to say anything. We’re here with you.”
Yugi didn’t look cheered, but he closed his eyes and accepted his partner’s comfort. “Thanks.”
There weren’t any other parties sharing the pavilion, so there was little chance of any stranger coming into the private restrooms at this point, but Téa knew the owner of those brisk heels clicking on the tiled floor the moment they entered. She was hiding in one of the stalls dabbing at her eyes, and held her breath as the daunting steps came up and paused outside the door. “Go away, Mai,” she said preemptively.
“No way,” Mai said in return. She placed her hands on her hips and faced the closed door, behind which Téa’s voice echoed just a bit. “I don’t mean to sound rude, but what the hell was that?”
Téa shrank down even further. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“You’re damn right I don’t.” Mai sighed in exasperation. “You sure picked a hell of a time to pick a fight with Yugi. In front of everybody, and on his birthday?” She shook her blond head. “You must really have it out for him.”
“I don’t have it out for him,” Téa spitefully corrected her. “I just…I can’t stand to see what he’s doing to everybody. Asking us to accept him was one thing, but now…everybody’s catching it.”
“Are you that dense?” Mai complained. “Being gay isn’t a disease you can catch from breathing the same air. I thought you were a smart girl, and knew that. Just because some of your friends finally came out of the closet in the past six months doesn’t mean they weren’t gay until they spent a little time around Yugi. It’s not like he’s slept with any of them.”
Téa’s voice from behind the partition quivered with anger. “Do you have to be so crude about it?”
“Maybe I do,” Mai said sharply, “because Yugi’s way of being nice and gentle about it and giving you lots of time to think it over and learn to accept it clearly isn’t working.” She sighed again and stepped back, leaning on the opposite wall and folding her arms. “So it bothers you. I figured that might happen. I was really surprised when everybody else turned out to be so open-minded and understanding, I knew the other shoe had to drop sometime. Nobody can have a completely perfect circle of friends, not even someone as lucky as Yugi.”
“Get out of my face, Mai,” Téa snapped, sniffling back a sob. “I don’t have to listen to you lecture me.”
Mai chuckled slyly to herself. “I came down here to see if you were all right, the boys were all worried, but it looks like you’re not in the mood to listen to reason. So I’ll just lay it on the line for you.” She glared at the closed door across from her. “I don’t care if you’re scared, or insecure about something, or genuinely homophobic, but you have no right to say the things you did to the people you’re supposed to care about. Yugi’s up there bawling his eyes out because of you. If you had any sense, you’d go up there right now and apologize to him – and to Tristan, and Duke, and Bakura, because they’re just as offended. You hurt them, Téa, they’re shocked because they never expected a friend like you to turn on them like that.”
Mai’s blunt assessment made Téa cringe and squeeze her eyes shut before a fresh round of tears could leak out of them. Hearing that Yugi was crying made her stifle a gasp in her throat. After a long pause to make sure Mai had no more accusations for her, Téa swallowed hard and snapped, “Well, how am I supposed to react to news like that? They were hiding it from me on purpose. How long have Tristan and Duke been going out, anyway?”
“Since Christmas,” Mai answered flippantly. “They kept it from us for a couple of months, too, until they were sure they had something and felt it was right to share. Seriously, would you have wanted Joey to email you randomly and spring that news on you?”
“Well…no…” Téa murmured sheepishly.
“Maybe I don’t understand what it looks like from your perspective,” Mai went on, “but that’s because I don’t have it in me to see things from a bigoted point of view. I’ve always been open about these kinds of things.”
A fist slammed against the metal partition of the stall. “I am not a bigot!”
“Sure sounded like it to me,” Mai sniffed. “Accusing Yugi of spreading a ‘sickness’ around his friends? Telling him it was disgusting?” She tilted her head casually. “And here I would have thought, going to school at a dance academy in New York, you’d find yourself surrounded by gay men.”
“I am,” Téa admitted angrily, “and they’re all arrogant, pretentious jerks who sleep around and risk getting diseases just to…to have sex with strangers, and then they go around bragging about their conquests worse than the jocks in high school ever did.”
“Is that it?” Mai said knowingly. “You’re afraid that Yugi and the others being gay means that they’re just like the jerks at your school or in your theatre circles? Then you obviously don’t know your friends very well, do you?”
“Mai!” Téa yelped. “How could you? You don’t know anything about me and Yugi and Joey and Tristan, you always mocked us for being such good friends…”
“Then how come I’m the one lecturing you about how you should be treating them?” Mai straightened up and propped her fists on her hips again, leaning forward to berate the bathroom stall door. “Face it, Téa. Friendships change. People change. It’s a fact of life, and no amount of crying about it is going to stop it from happening. Your friends have grown, they’re discovering who they are and who they want to be with, while you’re sitting there thinking they ought to be the exact same people they were in high school. It’s been two years. You may not have noticed them changing because you’re all the way in New York, but that’s the way it is. If you can’t handle that your friends are changing and finding out what they want out of life, then maybe you should end your friendship with them. You can’t capture them in a bottle and preserve them forever just the way you remember them – that’s what memories are for. Real life involves change, and you’re not being fair to them to expect them to wait for you to come back from America so you can pick up where you left off.”
The tirade left Téa shamed and quiet. The only noise from behind the door now was muted sniffling and shaky sighs. Mai gave her a moment and then stepped closer, setting her hand on the door. When she spoke again, her voice had gone gentle. “I know you’re scared,” she said patiently. “You came back thinking everything was going to be cool, and then you find out your friends are totally different people from what you remember. I’m sure it’s a scary feeling. But what you’re missing is that their hearts aren’t different at all. They’re the same great guys I remember meeting in Duelist Kingdom all those years ago, they still love each other and support each other the same. Everybody goes through changes, it’s part of growing up, but as long as they don’t lose sight of who they are deep in their hearts, it’s okay. It’s to be expected.” She smiled to herself. “You also have to realize that the people at your school aren’t characteristic of all gay men. Look at your friends and see them for who they really are: Yugi wears a promise ring for his lover every day of his life. Tristan and Duke decided to move in together because they want to make a relationship work. I don’t know much about Bakura’s situation, but I will admit I’ve never seen him smile the way he did when Marik was here visiting him last month. These guys aren’t gay for the sake of being gay. They’re with each other because they love each other, first and foremost. They aren’t a part of ‘that crowd,’ so you don’t have to be afraid for them.” Mai turned away from the door and crossed her arms again. “I don’t know how you could be so blind as to not see that. Yugi, especially. He loves so unconditionally, that hasn’t changed a bit. The only thing that’s changed is that he and Yami have been able to do this ritual once every month, so Yami can live all over again and do something about his feelings for Yugi.”
Téa gave a shuddering sigh. “And what about my feelings? Every time I see Yugi with the pharaoh, it’s like he’s throwing them in my face.”
Mai rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “For crying out loud, Téa, it’s been two years,” she griped. “More than that, I’ll bet. Get over it.”
More sniffling and shuffling. “I can’t!” Téa whimpered.
“You’re going to have to,” Mai scolded over her shoulder. “Or else let go of the friendship and put it to rest. Yugi moved on a long time ago. Being jealous or afraid is no reason to insult him and break his heart. You owe him better than that.” She turned and frowned at the door again, as if trying to stare through it to where Téa was hiding. “What you did today was nothing short of being a total brat. You insulted all of your friends and hurt them deeply. I expect you to go up there sooner or later and apologize to them for that, regardless of how you feel about the rest. After that, it’s up to you. You don’t like the idea of Yugi or Tristan being gay? Fine. That’s your choice to make about your own beliefs, and no amount of me telling you how selfish and immature that is will change your mind. You’re the only one who can decide whether you want to stay friends with them, and learn to accept them, or say goodbye now and go on with your own life. I’m sure you can make friends, meet a nice boy and get married, have a career, do everything you want to do, and not have to cross paths with these guys again. Me, I’m sticking with them. I’m excited about the prospect of marrying Joey and getting to hang out with Yugi and Tristan and the others all the time. They’re the best friends I’ve ever hand. Hell, they’re the only friends I’ve ever had.” She turned and walked away, her heels clicking noisily all the way to the door. “I’ll leave you alone now, because I’ve said my piece. I tried to understand, Téa, but I really don’t. I don’t know how you can throw your friendship with these guys away so easily.” Her voice dropped with a hint of sadness. “They mean a lot to me, and I want to see them happy. But it’s not my place to make their decisions for them. They seem to still want to be your friends, even after what you said. So, I hope you’ll think about what I’ve said and do the right thing.” She pulled the door open, and paused one last time. “What do you want me to tell them?”
Téa sniffed back the tears silently streaming down her face. “Tell them…I need to be alone in here for a while,” she whispered. “I’ll come out when I can face them again.”
“Okay. We’ll be out in the park if you need us.” The door closed to with a heavy thud, leaving Téa by herself to mull everything over in the thick silence of the bathroom.
Mai rejoined the group upstairs to find Yugi finally sobered enough to be finishing off his cake, though rather halfheartedly. The others were talking, but seriously, and not about Téa. They all glanced up at Mai, who just strode confidently into their midst and returned to her seat next to Joey. He had to ask her, for all of them, “Well? What happened?”
“She’s going to be in there a while,” Mai replied. “It’s best if we just give her some space.”
“Did you talk some sense into her?”
“I did my best.” Mai flipped her hair back over her shoulder and smiled at Yugi. “So, kiddo, what do you say? Are you ready to go back out and have some fun?”
Yugi stared at his plate. “I don’t know. I don’t feel like fun right now.”
“Maybe, if you got to go do something no one else in the park can do…would that cheer you up?” Mokuba hesitantly offered.
Everyone looked at him. “What do you mean?” Yami queried.
Mokuba chanced a little smile to put them at ease. “Well, when my brother was here earlier, he reminded me about it just in case you guys might be interested to see it. It’s the newest attraction to the park, we’re almost finished building it so it can open later this year.”
“Ahh, so that’s the catch,” Joey said knowingly. “I knew there was a reason he was giving us all this nice treatment. What does he want?”
Mokuba did not deny it. “He just wants your opinion on it,” he answered, “if you guys are up for it.”
“Depends on what it is,” Tristan said warily.
“Well, I could tell you…” Mokuba grinned a little more. “Or I could take you over there and surprise you with it. I’ll just say, it’s something most of you have seen before, and I’m sure you’ll really like it. That’s why I know it would be a great way to cheer Yugi up and have some fun.”
Yugi lifted his head and blinked at him, and then glanced solely at Yami. “Well…I guess, since Kaiba was so generous, the least we could do is see it. Who knows? Maybe it’ll be worth it.”
“I guess that’s a yes, then,” Tristan said to Mokuba. “Lead the way.”
Leaving the picnic pavilion in disarray with the last slices of cake spirited back into the shelter, the group pushed in their chairs, downed their drinks, and followed Mokuba back through the park to the theme area where all of the dueling arenas and actual hands-on gaming could be found. There were arcades and big DDR stages and other attractions, but Mokuba brought them past all of it to a big building in the final stages of construction. There was nothing on the outside yet to give a clue about what might be inside, and the flowers and trees currently being planted in the landscaping were perfectly generic. Mokuba swept his security pass across the pad at the back door and then stuck his card locket into a waiting slot, clearing the final security barrier to let them pass. No one was working on the building at the moment, so he had to flip on all the lights as they walked through the backstage areas and came out into a huge room bearing a rather familiar layout of individual pods lined up in double rows along the walls. Mai pursed her lips, trying to figure out why this looked vaguely familiar, while the others gasped in awe. “Virtual pods!” Yugi cried for all of them. “Mokuba, does this mean…”
“Yep,” Mokuba said proudly. “My brother finally got Legendary Heroes up and running.”
Mai perked up and turned sharply to him. “Oh! That was it – the virtual game KaibaCorp asked me to test out.”
“That’s the one.” Mokuba continued on down the middle aisle between rows of virtual pods, speaking as he went. “After the Big Five took it over and messed around with it, Seto kind of put it on the shelf for a while, but he spent so long working on it that he couldn’t just dump it for good. He always wanted to make it a special feature of the arcades and stuff, and now that we have Kaibaland, it’ll make the perfect addition. The technology’s come a long way, too, he really streamlined it and made it so we can install smaller, less flashy versions in the arcades and KC game stores, but the only super-big high-end complete virtual pods will be at the Kaibaland theme parks. I mean, these are awesome,” he gushed as he passed through a door into the control room next door. “Complete immersion, with heated, cushy seats and vibration mode and all that. It’ll feel like you’re really there.”
“Painful shock of having life points ripped out of your body and everything?” Joey teased.
Mokuba grinned at him as he flipped switches to bring the computer online. “It’s almost ready to go. They just have to finish up the building, and test all of the computer connections to make sure everything is working perfectly. My brother authorized me to let you guys go in and play a couple of rounds, kind of as a free beta test. What do you say?”
The gang looked around at each other, and then at Yugi. He was beginning to smile again, awed by the technology and the offering. “That sounds like fun,” he said. “Can all of us play?”
“Well, right now, with no technician around to monitor everything, I can really only let four people go in at a time,” Mokuba explained. “When we get it up and running, we’ll be able to switch around to let any number of people into a single game, and run multiple games all at once, but the standard is to have four pods per game. There’s a couple different game modes, though,” he added. “You can play a team game, like part of the story mode or Capture the Flag or something, or you can play one-on-one, in survival mode.” He flicked a switch, and a giant LED monitor came to life over their heads playing a dramatic trailer for the game. “The rest of us can watch from in here, this will show the game master everything that’s going on inside the game. Oh, don’t mind that – that’s just the movie that will be playing in the lobby for everybody coming in to play, when it’s open.”
“Sweet!” Joey exclaimed. “Count me in, I’m ready to kick some computer ass!”
“I guess we’ll have to split up into two different groups,” Yugi noted as he counted heads. “Who wants to go first?”
“Well, you’re the guest of honor,” Duke reminded him. “You should play the first round.”
“How ‘bout you, me, Mai, and Yami,” Joey suggested. “For old time’s sake. Since we all played the first Legendary Heroes. And then everybody else.”
“I’ll sit this one out,” Grandpa Muto offered, holding up his hands. “All that virutal technology makes my head spin.”
“I can go in with you guys,” Mokuba said to Duke, Tristan, and Bakura, “so you have a game master to lead the way. I’ll have Yugi run the show from out here.”
With that all decided, the first team of four went back into the room with the virtual pods and were ushered into the first four in the line. Mokuba showed them where to set their decks so the virtual card reader could take stock of their cards, and then indicated a control panel at their right hands. “I already logged everybody in from the main controls, so you just have to pick a character, and the whole process will start. You get a half-hour game, so decide now if you want to play a team game or one-on-one.”
The four friends consulted one another, and agreed on a team game. Up popped the character selection screen on the flat pad next to them, and Mai immediately touched the screen to select the female warrior in Valkyrie armor she had worn the last time playing the game. “That’s it right there, baby. Look out, boys, Mai’s in town.”
“I am not wearing the rug this time,” Joey declared. “Let’s see…maybe…yeah, that guy looks cool.” He selected a muscled samurai type, and settled back into his pod to await the start.
Yami recognized one of the offerings and selected it right away, blue armor with a red cape. Seeing as he picked that one, Yugi hemmed and hawed for a moment before picking another warrior with a similar style armor, but in black and silver instead. That done, all four pods began to close at the same time, and the players settled back in the comfortable, plush seats to let their minds be captured by the virtual technology. Mokuba retreated to the control room with the others, who crowded around the in-game monitor to watch. Another screen on the control panel displayed the names of the four players, with a current life point count of 4000 each. “I don’t see them,” Duke noted as Mokuba came and hit a few buttons.
“Give it a second,” Mokuba assured. “They’ll show up.”
As if on cue, four fantasy-style characters materialized into view on the screen, the camera angle just above them capturing their costumes from a flattering angle as they checked themselves and each other out and looked around. The others inside the control room clustered by the monitor in fascination. “Look! It’s really them!” Tristan said. “Not the characters they picked, it’s them dressed up like the characters.”
“Told you.” Mokuba gave him a smug look over his shoulder as he donned a headset to communicate with the players. “Technology has come a long way since the first version.”
The four players took a moment to get oriented with their surroundings and appearance before checking the duel disks on their arms for life points and then glancing around. They had arrived in a clearing in a forested area, which looked and sounded and felt for all things like reality. “Incredible,” Yami breathed, lifting his head toward the sun filtering through tree limbs. “This is all happening within our minds?”
“Kaiba’s really outdone himself,” Yugi complimented. “It looks like he borrowed back some of the technology that was taken from him to create the virtual world, it’s a living, breathing place.”
Joey shrugged his armor on his shoulders and grinned. “Except you can’t feel any weight, and I bet if I took out this sword it wouldn’t do you any damage.”
“I’d rather you didn’t try,” Yugi said warningly. He glanced at Yami and smiled. “You look awesome.”
“So do you,” the pharaoh said in return with a matching smile. “The black armor is stunning.”
“Dressed to kill,” Mai joked.
Joey looked around the clearing. “So…what do we do now?”
A voice answered from above. “This is your game master speaking,” Mokuba called out. “You have thirty minutes to make your way from the clearing to the temple at the edge of the forest, and find the treasure inside. All of you have played before, so you know how to handle any monsters and obstacles that come up in your way. And if you lose all your life points before time is up, you’re out. Time starts…now.”
Yami threw back his shoulders and turned to face the path that led out of the clearing. “Well, let’s get moving. There’s no telling what might stand in the way of us getting to that temple.”
“Pharaohs first,” Joey grinned.
Their friends outside watched, intrigued, as the players chose their path and headed out, keeping together in a cluster. The in-game camera hovered overhead, and scenery and obstacles obligingly faded at appropriate times to let them see the characters on screen clearly. None of the foes in their way were particularly threatening, but it was clear the players were taking the game very seriously, since they were fully immersed in the world and viewed any attacker or monster as really being there. They were first accosted by a team of ninja monsters, who attacked them from the trees, but their attack points were low and each gamer had a monster ready at hand who could take them down. The problem was, the ninjas kept multiplying, until Yami reminded Yugi that he had a magic card that would eliminate them all at once. Since Yugi had chosen to summon Dark Magician Girl, he quickly pulled out Diffusion Wave-Motion and put an end to that assault in one fell swoop. The pharaoh was using his secondary deck, which contained its own Dark Magician variant, but he decided to trust his Flame Emperor to protect him for now. Further into the forest, the trees themselves started to come to life, and Mai pointed out that it was an effect of a Vampire Orchis, fueling the Des Dendles all around them and turning them into vicious, man-eating trees. That wasn’t hard to counter, but one got Joey’s monster and took him down in points. Fortunately, before moving on they uncovered a game secret – a Griggle, hiding under some leaves, which boosted everyone’s life points. Just when they had sighted the temple and started running for it, they were attacked by swarms of various Insect-type monsters, but no matter how much their monsters swatted at the bugs, they couldn’t kill any. Yugi discovered why, as a sultry fairy rose up out of the underbrush and laughed at them. A Prickle Fairy, in defense mode, who had to be destroyed before the insects could be killed. She may not have been able to attack their monsters, but there were Minars in the swarm who attacked life points directly. If not for the Griggle-boost, they could have nibbled away all their life points on the spot. Dark Magician Girl handled the fairy, and after that, it was just a few long minutes of picking off individual insects and then they could move on. But it had wasted much of their time, leaving them in a panic as to whether they could pass through the temple and find the treasure in time. Getting there wasn’t the problem, but facing the guardian of the treasure was. Despair From the Dark swelled up out of the shadows and obliterated all their monsters, leaving them with just a couple of minutes and nothing to protect themselves, while it laughed and dared them to come for the treasure it guarded. Joey and Mai had nothing powerful enough close at hand, so it was up to Yugi and Yami, teaming together, to take down this boss. They only had time for one turn, to draw and play whatever was on top of their decks and hope that it was enough. Yami had the magic card, and Yugi the monster – The Cheerful Coffin, and Black Luster Soldier, Envoy of the Beginning. With the first, Yami deposited a monster into his graveyard, which happened to be Light, and then removed it, along with Yugi’s Dark Magician Girl, so they could summon the extra-special Soldier and all 3000 of his attack points. He leaped in and slashed the boss monster to ribbons, and a triumphant fanfare sounded to let them know they had won the treasure. Just in time, too – they had no sooner turned to each other and cheered and the game expired.
Mokuba showed Yugi which buttons to push when, and then it was time for the second round, as he escorted Duke, Tristan, and Bakura into the game. They had decided, based on their general inexperience either with dueling or Legendary Heroes itself, to play a one-on-one elimination battle in the desert city portion of the game world. Mokuba never dueled, and Tristan rarely, so Duke assured them that the only real challenge they’d have to face was Bakura, who just smiled cutely and promised to do his best. He and Duke at least had decks to input into the card reader, but to their surprise, Tristan also had one along. He grinned at their boggled looks. “What, I knew we were going to the Duel Monsters theme park,” he explained. “I may not play with it a lot, but I still have it. I just hope it’ll be some use against you guys.”
“Aw man,” Mokuba complained. “I have to have the computer construct one for me. I don’t even own a deck.”
“But you’ve probably played around in this game a lot,” Duke reasoned. “You’ve got us there.”
“This should be interesting,” Bakura said cheerily.
They settled into the pods while Yugi and the others retreated to the control room to set the sequence in motion, and a few moments later, the character choices for the four players popped onto the screen. Bakura had picked a mage character with a sweeping robe, Tristan a burly barbarian, Mokuba a set of green and silver armor like Yugi’s, and Duke appeared as what could have only been described as a bondage fairy. Yugi was giggling hysterically already, moreso when he heard Duke’s voice in his headset. “Hey! I like this! Nice character variety, Kaiba.”
“Please tell me you didn’t pick a girl character’s outfit,” Tristan groaned.
“All right, you guys,” Yugi said to them. “When I start the time clock, you’ll be transported to four different locations in the city. You have to find each other, and battle each other, until three of you are eliminated and only one is left.”
“And just as a tip, there’s life point boosts and Monster Reborn tokens all over,” Mokuba said, “so collect them if you see them and if you get knocked out, you can bring yourself back to life.”
“Ready?” Yugi tapped the key that would execute the command to start the game. “Go! Good luck, guys!”
The four players disappeared from the entry spot and reappeared in divergent locations, and the monitoring screen split itself into four smaller screens to show each of them to the game master. Those watching took great delight in seeing the four roam around for a bit, always hunting for each other but occasionally running into non-player characters that inhabited the town. They were only there for color and distraction, not to add to the battle, so it was hilarious (in Joey’s estimation, anyway) to watch Tristan come around corners with his duel disk poised only to realize he had stumbled on yet another peasant. Mokuba evilly sought out the Monster Reborn tokens first before engaging in a battle, ensuring himself multiple lives. Duke and Bakura ran into each other first, and took a few swings at each other before retreating to boost their life points and find a slightly easier opponent. Unfortunately, the game rapidly turned into a round of Tristan-bashing, as his highly-underused deck showed its weaknesses early and made him an easy target for the others, even Mokuba. But he got enough of Mokuba’s points down to leave him running in search of a boost with Duke hot on his tail, and not long after, he was eliminated for good. At least he and Tristan both had lasted well over half the game and had restarted once each, so they gave up and watched the game play out from an overhead-camera angle while Duke and Bakura hunted each other down in the streets. Duke had finally dug out his Orgoth, and figured he was safe from Bakura’s favorite continuous magic and trap cards because the Legendary Heroes duel disk had no means of setting or maintaining them, but Ryo had some pretty sneaky tricks up his sleeve, and ended up trapping Orgoth and destroying him to clear the field so he could slash through Duke’s life points with Dark Necrofear. The round ended slightly before the half-hour was up, but Bakura was the decisive winner and they came out of it agreeing that it was a really fun game.
The group of friends gathered in the main control room so they could all deconstruct the game that had just happened, exclaim about this or that great move and laugh over mistakes and funny moments. Mokuba plopped down in the swivel chair by the control panel and grinned at them. “So? What’s the verdict? Do you guys like it?”
“It’s awesome!” Yugi enthused. “I had no idea the full game would be so detailed.”
“It’s pretty cool,” Joey agreed. “But what about the story that was in the first version of the game, the one we played? What happened to that?”
“It’s still part of the program,” Mokuba replied, “but you can only play it in parts. If you wanted to go through the whole story, from beginning to end, and fight the Five-Headed Dragon, there’ll be some kind of membership program so you can save your progress and keep coming back to try to complete it. Seto has a few other ideas in mind for it, he hasn’t totally worked that out yet. But it’s in there.” He nodded toward the controls. “The whole world has been built up, all the places and people from the first version are in there. But he made it so you can just play these short programs with a team or against each other instead of playing through the computer’s organized story. Gives it more variety, I think.”
“That’s really neat,” Yugi said happily. “It makes it so people will want to come back again, and keep playing it. You could almost never play the same game twice.”
“I like the intricacy,” Mai said. “There were any number of ways we could have fought the battles, depending on our cards. And the power-ups were nice.”
“Yeah, that Griggle saved my ass,” Joey admitted.
“How did you enjoy the battle mode?” Yami asked the others.
Tristan groaned. “I need a better deck before I do that again. I got my ass handed to me.” He glared at one person in particular. “By somebody who doesn’t even own a deck!”
Mokuba grinned insolently back. “Yeah, but look who my brother is.”
“I had fun,” Bakura admitted. “Though I would like to play the team game, also. Both versions are just as interesting. I’ve never experienced anything like that before.”
“Oh yeah,” Duke realized. “You’ve never gone into the virtual world before, have you?”
Ryo shook his head. “It was fascinating. I felt as though I was really there, running through the streets and looking over my shoulder for enemies.”
“Would you come back to the park to play again?” Mokuba asked them all.
Each one nodded and said yes. “If this is the only place where you get the full effect,” Joey reasoned. “We haven’t always had the best of times in the virtual world, but a full-on game with nobody hacking in from outside would be totally cool.”
“I don’t suppose there’ll be any opportunity for arcade owners to have their own versions,” Duke asked warily.
“I don’t think so. It’s a KaibaCorp exclusive,” Mokuba smirked.
“Great, now Kaiba’s gonna get even more of our money,” Tristan sighed.
Yugi laughed. “I guess that means you can pass on word to Kaiba that his game gets a seal of approval from world-class Duel Monsters gamers.”
“And Tristan,” Joey offered.
“Yes, thank you for bringing us here to play,” Yami added maturely. “I know Kaiba did it out of a desire to have a test run, but it was still fun. We enjoyed it very much.”
“Sure thing.” Mokuba hopped up and gestured for them to come along. “I gotta shut down and lock up. You guys know your way back to the picnic area. I’ll meet you back there, if you want to hit more roller coasters after this.”
The group left the building by the back entrance and stood for a moment outside orienting themselves to the park’s attractions before heading off toward the pavilion. No one mentioned Téa at all, even though they would likely encounter her when they got back, because Yugi was finally smiling again, walking hand-in-hand with Yami. Whatever pain he still felt on the inside, he wasn’t letting it show. Perhaps the time they had spent distracting themselves with the spectacular atmosphere and gameplay of the Legendary Heroes world had done them all enough good to let the rest of the day go on as normal. They would find out very shortly.