Genderbent

Chapter 14 ~ Duel!

  The third round began. Yugi smiled slightly to himself, thinking how pleased the two teenage girls would be to see Yami facing a female duelist in the final round before the duel with Seto Kaiba. He hoped for her to stand a fair chance, and she actually did for the majority of the duel. Yugi glued his eyes to the field, but found them straying back to Yami. The duel was intense enough to keep most of his focus but every time Yami spoke he found himself getting distracted and words lost their meanings. It was just his voice. Yugi had to keep reminding himself what was going on in the duel, absently cheering with Joey whenever the moment arose. Joey was drowned out by the sounds of the monsters and Yami's voice.

  Yugi glanced at Yami's life points and his breath caught when he saw Yami was down to 1000. He glanced over to see his opponent was down to 1000 as well. They were toe to toe as if it were the duel between Yami and Kaiba happening at this very moment. Joey shouted encouragements to Yami and Yugi sat quietly, knowing the better duelist would win. If Yami's opponent won then obviously she's better. It was only their skills, and admittedly luck, that would decide the outcome.

  Yami blocked her attack with a trap card that destroyed the monster, and another that ended her turn. He sacrificed the monsters on his field to summon a more powerful monster and raised its attack with a spell, giving it enough power to destroy her monster and bring her life points to zero.

  Yami's victory was announced and the crowd went wild with cheers and whoops and air horns. Girls squealed his name (some briefly flashed themselves toward the stage) and men whooped and chanted. Yami turned to wave and smile toward all sides of the stadium as flashes of light from cameras erupted across the stands. Yami turned back towards his opponent, who had walked across the arena towards him.

  "Thank you, you're a respectable opponent. I would love to be honored to duel you again." Yami's voice boomed through the speakers after the screams began to die down. The crowd gave a brief roar.

  She shook his hand, "I'd be honored to defeat you." And the crowd cheered.

  "The only one defeating him today will be me." Kaiba's voice echoed through the stadium and the crowd screamed even louder.

  Joey plopped down into his seat and Yugi chuckled to himself as they watched a helicopter fly over the stadium and Kaiba jumped from it. He began free-falling and the crowd gasped before rocket shaped devices sprang from his elaborate jacket, emitting flames with enough power to allow him to float gracefully down to the ground. His feet touched the ground and the rockets disappeared again. The crowd went ballistic and from the corner of his eye, Yugi could see Joey's crossed arms tighten.

  "Are you ready for the CEO of Kaiba Corp to yet again face against the so-called King of Games!?" Kaiba shouted to the crowd, a close-up of his face showing across every screen. The crowd roared. Kaiba smirked and turned to Yami, "I won't lose this time. Say goodbye to your title."

  Yami smirked, "I'll gladly pass the crown to you Kaiba. If you can beat me."

  The quickly moved to opposite sides of the field and activated their duel disks.

  "Duel!"

  Joey groaned and leaned back in his seat, "Why does the rich kid bother? The chick who lost the last round could beat him."

  Yugi shrugged, "Maybe. She was a close match for Yami." Yugi chewed the inside of his cheek absently, letting Yami's voice fill his his head dizzily.

  "Did you hear me?"

  "What?" Yuki asked absently, twirling her hair with her fingers and watching the way Yami's muscles flexed.