Destined to be Yours

Chapter 15: First Opponent

"Dry land in sight!" Akia yelled out, really excited about getting off the boat. She didn't exactly like large bodies of water, considering the fact that she couldn't swim.

Honda looked a little worried, and he started whispering his worries to his two friends, "Anzu, Akia, what if they figure out that we don't have Star Chips? Don't we stand out?"

"It's alright," Anzu reassured him, "they won't check again, but they'll suspect you if you're uptight."

"I might not have any Star Chips now, but I'll get them soon," Akia stated with confidence.

She smirked from the excitement that was filling her as they got closer to the island.

When the ship docked, they all started disembarking from the boat. One of the security people called out to Honda, "hey!"

Honda, surprised and panicked, looked back at him.

"You should relax a bit," the man told him.

"Y... Yes! Thank you!" Honda stuttered and hurried to join the others. Having safely gotten away from the security guards, he panted loudly, "I thought my heart was going to stop!"

"Geez, you were frightened like a little kid," Anzu teased him which made Akia giggle at the comment.

"Alright! At least we all got here safe-" Before Jounouchi could finish his sentence, he sneezed and Akia barely dodged it.

"Jounouchi!" She told her friend off.

"Akia, it's all my fault... Sorry, Jounouchi-kun," Yugi apologized.

"Don't worry about it, Yugi. But I can't forgive that bastard who tossed your precious cards away," Jounouchi replied then turned his gaze towards Insector Haga.

"Yugi, can I take him on?" Akia asked.

"I think I should be the one to do that," Yugi explained to his sister, "I mean, it's my cards that he took."

"Fine..." she resigned.

"All Duelists..." everyone's attention turned towards the source of the powerful voice calling for their attention. A tall man with pointy hair and sunglasses, one of those who were in charge of security on the ship, stood in front of a long staircase leading to a majestic palace, "...gather around the castle gates."

"Wait... we have to go all the way up there? I thought this was a Duel Monsters Tournament, not a workout session!" Akia complained.

"Stop being lazy, Akia..." Yugi called her out.

"Yeah, this is Pegasus' castle, after all, so let's go!" Jounouchi exclaimed with enthusiasm.

"Damn it... Guess I have no choice..." The red-eyed girl surrendered.

They all started going up the huge set of staircases. On their way up, something caught Anzu's attention.

"Hmm?" Anzu interjected.

"What's wrong, Anzu?" Honda asked.

"Wasn't that Bakura-kun over there?" The brown-haired girl pointed in a far off direction.

"Bakura-kun?" Yugi inquired.

"Ryou?" Akia thought to herself as she averted her gaze to where Anzu was pointing. All the others did the same, but there was no sign of Bakura anywhere.

"Huh? He's gone? I guess I was just imagining it," Anzu replied, starting to doubt what she saw.

"No you weren't... That was probably Ryou. I would tell them about it, but he didn't seem like he wanted them to know he's here. Besides, I owe him for getting me this far," Akia reasoned internally.