Chapter 10: The First Day

A gentle shaking woke Jaishu from her sleep.

"Mmm," She groaned and swatted at the offending person. "Five more minutes, Mommy."

She heard a light chuckle close to her, she could deal with that. But the loud guffaws in the background weren't letting her go back to sleep.

"Guess that makes you a girl now, Jacob." A voice she recognized somewhat said loudly.

She finally decided to open her eyes so she could shout at the people that were too loud. Which was everyone who was with her. She was having a really good nap! Her eyes opened and her vision was blurry. She soon gave up and went back to her comatose state. Sleep was so good and wonderful. Almost better than chocolate or ice cream.

There was a sigh in the background. "Fine, if you want to play the hard way." The boy left the possible threat hanging as he took action. He picked her up unceremoniously and threw her over his shoulder, carrying her out of the private jet.

Jaishu squeaked as Jacob had picked her up. This was very undignified, both the lift and the squeak. "Put me down now, Jacob Herkins! Let me down before I kick you where the sun doesn't shine!"

The tall boy laughed, "You should have thought about this when I asked you to wake up politely. To carry out your threat while you're in that current position would difficult.

She finally gave up as Jacob carried her off the jet. After all, all she could do was pout and pound her fists on his back, which seemed to have no effect on him.

"You know I'm mad at you, right?" She asked as the brown-eyed American set her down on the ground. She threw a glare at Jounouchi, who was laughing heartily. The glare shut him up quite quickly. Yugi looked like he was trying hard not to laugh.

Jacob chuckled. "Of course. Why would you be anything else?" He grabbed his baggage as it carried out by some men that were in charge of carting luggage out of the jet.

A thought quickly struck her. "Just for waking me up so rudely, you can carry my luggage." She turned to Jounouchi who was laughing at the poor American's plight, "Since you think it's so funny Jounouchi, you can help." She smirked at the look of disbelief on both boys' face. She laughed to herself. "Just be thankful I didn't try to pack my room." She removed her two duffel bags, both of which were a bright red, and set them on the ground. She turned, walking away.

Jacob sighed. "I should've known better. She always seems to get revenge in some sort of way." He picked up the duffel bag closest to him and started walking, "Well, come on, Jounouchi. We'd better hurry or she might come up with more."

"What do ya mean more?" Jounouchi asked, a look of shock overtook his features. He quickly picked up the other duffel bag and jogged over to join him.

"Jaishu is very creative with revenge. Once, while spending the night with my sister, I had made her upset and I woke up in the morning with pink hair, and bright red makeup. It took several hours to wash itself off. It didn't help that I had band practice that day either." He sighed. The girl in front of them seemed to be oblivious to the entire conversation.

"You said you had a sister, Jacob?" Yugi asked. He had kept out of Jaishu's way. It might've been because she only had two bags with her that he escaped.

Jacob turned his attention to the much shorter boy, "Yes, I actually have four sisters and one brother. I'm the second oldest."

"Wait a sec. You said you had a brother and four sisters? That's" Jounouchi paused to count his fingers, "six kids!" Jacob nodded.

"Wow. It must be hard having that many siblings." Yugi speculated. "I'm an only child."

Jacob shrugged. "To be honest, I'm not really home too much. I spend a lot of my time with my band, at school, and with my girlfriend. But, I'm used to it. It's a bit trying at times, but I get over it."

"Here we are guys! The eighth floor! The floor we'll be dueling on!" Jaishu announced cheerfully.

"Good, then I'll leave your bag." Jacob dropped her duffel bag, grabbed a key from one of several being held by a black suited figure close by them, and went to the room it specified. "I'll be in room 843 if you need me. Later."

"How'd you know this was our floor?" Jounouchi asked. He had an incredulous look on his face.

"I asked. Duh!" She slapped him over the head. "Seriously, Jounouchi, you are so smart, I'm not sure how you get your brain through the door!" She exclaimed, obviously making fun of him.

"Hm, smart girl. She caught on a little late." Seto Kaiba's voice was full of scorn once again.

Jaishu rolled her eyes, "Whatever, Kaiba. I got tired of verbal fighting when I ran out of worthwhile contestants." She paused thoughtfully, "Although, I have found it entertaining to mock the intellectually-handicapped with superior lingual skills." Another thought passed through her mind before continuing, "Perhaps that's what got me into trouble at Rintama."

Jounouchi dropped all items he was carrying in shock, "You went to Rintama?"

"Yeah, only for a year though. A gang leader liked me a little too much for my tastes. His gang tried to jump me, but I got the better of the leader and ran off."

Jounouchi's face fell as she admitted running. "If you could take down the leader, why'd you run?"

Jaishu shot him an exasperated glance, "Jounouchi, I am not a martial artist or street fighter by any means. It was incredibly difficult. The main reason I got away was because I got hold of his knife. I know several ways of self-defense, but that's it. I prefer trading cards to trading punches. The way of the fist is for those who do not wish to fully explore the ways of intellect and technology." She paused, "Though, I must be honest, I'm only sure enough of my tech skills to fix a virus from my laptop. I leave the massive stuff to guys like Kaiba. To each their own trade. You, physical fighting, Kaiba, gaming technology, Yugi, being an awesome guy, Jacob, playing rock music, and me, writing and wowing the public with my awesome skills!" The most enthusiasm shown, of course, was during her own description.

"It's good someone knows their place." Kaiba interjected. This caused Jaishu to laugh.

"Far from it. I think I remember Jacob saying I'd be the man in any relationship." Jaishu said with a laugh. She missed seeing the referenced boy rob his eyes with a shake of his head. Jounouchi gave her an odd look.

"Eh, sorry to leave in this interesting point in the conversation, Jaishu, but I think I'll go unpack now." Yugi, whom Jounouchi and Kaiba forgot was standing there, grabbed a key, looking somewhat perturbed by Jaishu's comment. She merely shrugged.

"I think I'll take my bag now, Jounouchi. That is unless you like carrying it around. If so, I'll let you be my personal 'carrier of items I don't feel like carrying myself' for the rest of the trip." She offered with a smile on her face. The blonde boy quickly gave her the duffel bag.

"Nah, you can take it. I don't wanna carry your stuff around." He said quickly. The girl snapped her fingers with a light-hearted 'shoot'. "Well, I got my key, see ya later." He swiftly ran off to his room to recover from jet lag. A plane trip from half way across the world was not an easy one. The ride had been over ten hours.

As soon as Jounouchi was gone, Kaiba slammed her with a serious question. "Why do you hang out with that mutt? You'll only catch his horrible skill."

"What? Jealous?" A glare sent by the blue-eyed CEO stopped her, "Well, if dueling skill was any indication of who one should hang out with, would Yugi really be with his non-dueling friends? It's personality, Kaiba. I think his personality is the kind that makes people want to go up and pat him on the head. I admit he's not the sharpest tool in the shed, but he has other redeeming qualities. A dog may not always be the greatest in smarts, but a cat only stays in your lap because it's warm."

This caused Kaiba to raise his eyebrow. "Interesting metaphor, but I don't care." He would not be 'friends' with anyone, not unless it furthered his own causes. That would make him the 'cat' of the dark haired girl's metaphor.

"Of cour-" Something stopped her in the middle of what she was going to say. Immediately she burst out laughing. This went on for a few minutes before she finally calmed down.

"Care to let me know what was so funny?" While Kaiba was under the impression that Jaishu's sanity was not fully intact, this was odd behavior for the girl. That and he felt that he was somehow the cause of her sudden burst of laughter. A prospect that Kaiba was not fond of.

"Sorry," She said as she wiped away a laughter-induced tear, "I just remembered the dream I had on the plane. I was wearing a black and white tuxedo while at a fancy restaurant and the people serving me dinner were," She paused, hesitant of telling the rest of her dream, "You, Jounouchi, Yugi, and Jacob. And you were all wearing French maid dresses!" The look of slight shock on Kaiba's face practically begged her to go on. "Oh yes. French maid dresses. You all filled the chest area quite nicely. But you and Jounouchi were the best. Your legs were very shapely." She laughed even more as she grabbed her bags and a key. She was barely able to make it to her room. (1)

Kaiba quickly shrugged off any horrors that description may have induced and grabbed his own key for a room. That was such a demeaning idea that Kaiba wished to erase it from his mind forever. The picture that dream could conjure would scar him for all his life into eternity. Why did he bother wasting his time with her? Unfortunately, he was unable to find an answer to that. There was something about her that he didn't know drew him to talk to her, even if it was in scorn. While he had always voiced his distaste for Jounouchi, it was different with this girl. He didn't know what it was. Kaiba hated not knowing himself.

Jaishu entered her room with a flourish of movement. She tossed her bags on the floor and collapsed on her bed. She needed to lie down so all this weariness could just go away. After lying around for a couple hours waiting for jet lag to wear off, a man in a red porter's outfit brought in dinner.

"Ah, thanks." Jaishu said with a small bow.

"And you are to report to the ballroom at eight o'clock in the morning." He added curtly as he walked out the door. But before he left he quickly added, "Everyone that's part of the tournament has complete access to this floor except for the other opponents' rooms."

After the man walked out the door, Jaishu attended to her food. It was a very delicious meal. She always did like Western food. It encompassed a lot different cultures. But no matter what, her favorite food was teriyaki chicken with rice. Not fancy or rare, but she thought it was delicious.

With a yawn and a stretch, she checked the time. It was only six-thirty. There was plenty of time before she would head off to bed.

After digging into pocket, she drew out her deck. To make sure she hadn't left any cards behind, she went through her deck, counting the amount first, then sorting them into piles by type, then she finally looked at each of the cards individually. Jaishu didn't want to have any sudden, unpleasant surprises in her deck when she was dueling.

For the next hour, Jaishu spent her energy going over any strategies or combos that her deck might provide. The girl mostly went over situation that she would confront when she would reach her duel with Kaiba. There was no one else in this tournament she wished to face more, besides Yugi or Jounouchi. Of course, to get to either of them, she would have to face and defeat Kaiba. She was starting to drift away when there was a knock on her door. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she stood up slowly and walked to the door.

Another, more persistent, knock filled her ears when she didn't answer right away. "Hold on, I'm coming right now." She opened the door right when her friend Jounouchi was going to attempt knocking on the door again, but instead, he ended up knocking on her head.

"Ouch! Jounouchi! What do you think you're doing? Didn't I say I was coming to the door?" Jaishu said upset, holding her head. Jounouchi had hit her hard! Her skull was made of bone, not three inches of solid wood.

Jounouchi looked her, shocked. "Uh, oops, sorry, Jaishu." He gave her a sheepish apology. Yugi, who had accompanied him, shook his head a little at his friend's bumble.

"A little late for that, Jounouchi. Your brain is there for a reason other than to take up space, use it." Jaishu reached up and whacked him over the head.

"I do!" Jounouchi exclaimed defensively. He gripped the offended limb with both hands.

"Not often enough." The girl huffed for a moment and folded her arms. "So, anyway, what can I do for you guys?" She still seemed irritated, but most of it seemed to have gone away.

"We came to tell you that we found out there's going to be a surprise tomorrow morning." Yugi explained. He had only heard about it when Jounouchi knocked on his door, telling him what he had just heard from a porter.

"Care to clue me in on the surprise?" She asked. An extra twist in a tournament was always interesting.

Yugi's shoulders fell. "That's why we came. Jounouchi figured that you might know what it was."

Jaishu gave an exasperated sigh. "Wow, that's rich." Her speech was interrupted by a yawn. "I think the jet lag is still getting to me guys." There was another yawn. "You guys should get to bed early too. We all need to be awake for our duels."

"Aw, I don't wanna go to bed early. I want to explore the floor." Jounouchi whined.

"Heh," Jaishu laughed, "There's no way you're going to duel half asleep. You'll lose your matches by being late."

Scratching his head, Jounouchi had a stunned look on his face before he laughed. "Oh yeah. I forgot about that rule."

"Yeah, good night guys." She yawned once again. "Good luck with your duels tomorrow. See ya." She yawned as she bid them good night and shut the door.

(1) Ahem. This is based off an actual dream a friend of mine had. It featured our close male friend. Even after all this time, he will never live it down.

Elf: It's-It's -gasp- An update! Has it really been over a year since I last updated this thing? I am so sorry to all of my readers who have been waiting so long for me to get off my rear end and update this. I've gotten very distracted recently with other story projects, so I haven't given much time to this one or my YYH fic. I haven't much to show I guess, but I'm planning on releasing a Naruto fanfic this year. It's a big project, so I'm a little nervous about releasing another project when I have two other UNFINISHED projects sitting on my account waiting to be updated. The good news is that my YYH fic should be reaching it's end sometime, whenever I actually write in it.

SK: Get to the point already.

Elf: Sheesh. Anyway, please forgive me.