Rock Bottom: Season One

Bet

As Ryou released Marik and used his hand to brush away the final traces of his tears, they heard a new voice call out to them.

"Hey!"

Everyone but Yugi lifted their heads to look in the direction of the newcomer, who turned out to be Mai Kujaku.

"So I guess you guys qualified too," she said cheerfully, but a moment later realized that something was wrong. "What's going on here?"

"Yugi lost a duel to Seto and now he's not qualified for the finals anymore," Anzu answered, her hand on Yugi's shoulder as he continued to sit in his shell-shocked state. Ryou couldn't help but wonder if Yugi was trying to speak with Yami. Were they arguing? Were they trying to work through Yugi's fear? Was the pharaoh apologizing? Or was Yugi trying to force the pharaoh out of his soul forever?

"Then I suppose I arrived just in time." She strode over to Yugi and bent over a little as she held out her hand, which contained a half dozen star-chips. "I promised I'd pay you back, didn't I? Well, here they are. Don't worry, I've got enough for myself."

She winked and held up her dueling gauntlet, which was full, demonstrating that he could take the star-chips without preventing her from entering the finals. Yugi didn't react, though, and Mai frowned in frustration.

"What, my star-chips aren't good enough for you?" she demanded, looking quite miffed.

"Come on, Yugi," Anzu urged gently, giving his shoulder a small squeeze. "You won Mai's star-chips back for her so she could stay in the tournament, now she's just returning the favor. It's only fair."

Yugi remained unresponsive, increasing Mai's annoyance.

"Fine then, if you won't take my star-chips, you can sit here while the rest of us enter the finals." She withdrew the hand that held the star-chips and started to walk away.

"It's more complicated than that," Joey snapped. "Yugi doesn't want to duel ever again."

"What, because you lost one lousy duel?" Mai turned around and crossed her arms, raising one eyebrow at the stricken teen. "Buck up, kid. So you lost one fight. Big deal. That's no reason to give up. If I'd given up when PaniK beat me, I wouldn't be standing here, now would I?"

"He's not giving up!" Anzu was quick to spring to Yugi's defense, metaphorically and physically. She now stood between Yugi and Mai. "You have no idea what he's going through!"

"Then explain it to me, because all I see is a sore loser who's not strong enough to get over himself."

"I won't let you stand there and mock him, Mai!" Anzu exclaimed, her emotions getting the better of her. "I challenge you to a duel!"

"I thought you said you didn't duel much," Mai scoffed, her sass increasing three-fold. "What makes you think you can suddenly beat me in a duel?"

"Because I'm dueling for my friend, unlike you! You're just dueling for yourself."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Mai just humoring Anzu now, taunting her into a small fury.

Anzu fumed as she glared at the other woman, suppressing the urge to audibly growl. "Because friendship is the most powerful force in the universe!"

"It's even stronger than Chuck Norris?" Joey asked facetiously, making Mai giggle.

"You shut up!" Anzu had already been annoyed with Joey, and his comment had only made things worse. "Will you duel me or not?"

"Fine," Mai sighed, sounding bored. "I saw a Duel Arena near the bottom of the stairs. We can duel there."

"Fine!" Anzu and Mai headed down the stairs towards the Duel Arena while Marik and Ryou approached Joey and Yugi.