After Joey completed trading for cards, the duo left for the deck to talk amongst themselves. At first, Yutaka thought about following them, but he knew that this was when Yugi handed Joey one of his ace cards, the Time Wizard. So he opted to give them some space so that they could bond.
Still, he didn't want to stay in the common area anymore, as he had already scoured almost all the cards in the hands of these 'elite' duellists.
"How could you expect a lady to stay in a place like this!? I demand to talk to your manager!"
As he left, Yutaka heard a Karen complaining to the cruise staff, but then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a blonde bombshell beauty in a violet jacket.
"Hey there, hot stuff! If you want to see a VIP room, why don't you spend the night in mine?" said Yutaka... obviously it was not him. He didn't have the guts to utter such words with blind confidence.
It was Rex Raptor.
"Will you, really?" said Mai as she grabbed Rex's arm seductively. If there was one thing Mai knew how to do, it was to use her beauty as a honey trap against unsuspecting idiots. This was by no means a criticism. Any man who thought with their lower halves deserved to be treated like that.
"Umm, excuse me?" Still, Yutaka decided to butt in. Not because he wanted to save Rex but because he wanted to annoy him. Even though it was technically not him who lost the Red-Eyes Black Dragon, it still annoyed him to no end that it was gone anyway. If it weren't for Rex, maybe he would have directly started with his favourite ace monster instead of slaving away here to build a random deck.
"Tch, it's this loser. Hey, go away and hang out with your own brethren. Don't you see that I am busy?" Rex dismissed Yutaka and got annoyed by him.
"Ma'am, if you want a VIP room, you can use mine. Though I have to move out my luggage first," said Yutaka as he ignored Rex as well, which he was sure would annoy him to no end.
"You are?" Mai asked while frowning. She knew that there was nothing free in the world, so she was not happy with Yutaka playing the knight in shining armour. In fact, it would be easier to deal with this idiot, Rex.
"Yutaka Minami, not as good as the guy next to you, but I came in fourth during the nationals, so Mr Pegasus gave me a VIP room."
"Can't you see that this hot stuff is with me? If you keep annoying me next time, I will take your whole deck," Rex said, clearly furious.
However, Yutaka had a brilliant smile on his face. The words he heard just now were heaven-sent. He could use these words to make a deck bet with Rex and get his trap cards as well. If he didn't remember it wrong, Rex had a nice trap card called Time Machine, which could definitely come in handy. It was also connected to Red-Eyes Retro Dragon, so it might be useful in printing that card. Even though it was clearly a weak card in an IRL environment, it would be extremely useful in this place where people just played the highest ATK monster that they could find. However, that card might also belong to Bandit Keith. He wasn't 100% sure about it, but it was still worth a try.
"Shall we?" said Yutaka, as he kept ignoring Rex. Even if Mai refused him, Yutaka had already achieved his goal, so it didn't matter. In fact, it would be even better, as, if he did not remember it wrong, Mai was going to cheat Rex out of his room so he would be sleeping outside tonight. However, as he mentioned, he did not recall much about the early anime. Particularly, he couldn't recall much from the Duellist Kingdom arc, a time when the rules were at their most absurd.
Mai was at first intending on refusing Yutaka but then noticed Rex was getting more and more out of hand, acting like she belonged to him, which flared her pride. She was her own person, not belonging to anyone else. So she let go of Rex and grabbed Yutaka's arm, which clearly surprised both him and Rex.
"Okay, handsome. Lead the way." Mai spoke seductively, causing Yutaka to shiver, but not in a good, arousing way. More in the fact that he was 100% sure that she was lying, but he couldn't find any flaws in her expression. It was almost like she genuinely thought he was handsome and wanted to get close. Women really were scary creatures...
"Hey, get back here!" Rex wanted to get handsy, but thankfully the ship crew stopped him, so the duo left unimpeded towards his room.
When Yutaka opened the room, Mai said, "So handsome, do you want to play a game? The winner gets to make the loser do A-NY-THING," she whispered into Yutaka's ear. Her voice was almost as if it were Lillith herself.
Yutaka had another bout of unpleasant shivering and cold sweat on his back. He decided that once the Duellist Kingdom event was over, he would not have anything to do with this scary woman.
"No need, I just need to grab my backpack and cards, and then I will leave," said Yutaka as he waved his hand in denial.
After all, he was sure that the game would be rigged. Again, his memory was not exactly clear since it's been so long, but he remembered something about Mai being a casino dealer, and everyone knows that the house never loses. So she would probably cheat during the game.
"What?" Mai was clearly taken aback, as she thought he was merely trying to provoke Rex. So was this guy serious? But there is nothing free in the world, so what did he want?
"Yeah, I think staying in the common area would be better since I could trade cards with others. Anyway, since I am not using it, you might as well, right? Here are the keys." Yutaka grabbed his backpack and handed Mai his keys, but as he was about to leave, Mai stretched her arm and stopped him at the entrance.
*Kabedon*
"Hey, are you sure? You know, I am not that generous, so you might not get another chance like this." Mai still sounded like she was interested, but Yutaka could see a fire burning behind her smile.
What was going on?
Why was she angry with him all of a sudden?
She got the room for free, right?
Didn't even need to waste time dealing with that moron Rex. At the same time, he also couldn't help but notice how good she smelt.
"Umm, yeah?" Yutaka sounded confused; no, he was genuinely confused. At moments like these, he wished he had Pegasus' Millennium Eye since it could read minds. At least, that way he could solve the mystery known as womankind.
Mai's smile stiffened on her face. She wanted to check if she was smelling or something, but she had made sure to wear her favourite perfume. Normally, men would be all over her already, begging for more. She wanted to let this insensitive idiot go. But her pride wouldn't allow it. She wanted to win the prize for the tournament and become a rich self-made woman. So she couldn't stomach the idea that she owed this idiot something.
"You said you wanted to trade cards, right? How about you take one card from my deck? That way we would be even for the room," said Mai as she took out her deck and handed it to him. Then she realised how much of an idiot she was.
She was showing her deck to someone who was going to be her opponent tomorrow; moreover, what if he took one of her ace cards and crippled her deck? But she was too proud to backtrack now.
Her pride was the very essence of Mai's being. She would never do anything that would damage it. She could intentionally put herself down, like when she was seducing that idiot Rex and acted like a dumb blonde bimbo, but she would never allow others to put her down.
Yutaka agreed dismissively. He didn't even remember what deck she played, but since she was a semi-main character, it might have some useful ones...
'DAMN! IS THAT HARPIE'S FEATHER DUSTER!!!!!' Yutaka immediately went wide-eyed.
This was the most staple back-row cleaning spell card to ever exist. It was banned and unbanned countless times, and it was limited to one when Yutaka had crossed over. He didn't even take a second to pocket it. It was just that it was used so much in every deck that he forgot for a second that this card actually belonged to the Harpie archetype.
"You are not gonna say you regret it later, right? If you ask me, with this, you could even stay here for a month."
Mai saw that the card he picked was a useless feather duster, which she had countless copies of, but she was not going to miss this opportunity.
"Then how about you let me take a look at your deck as well, and maybe I can take something from it?" If there was a really good card, she didn't mind taking it, but her real goal was just peeking at his deck for tomorrow. She would never let anyone take advantage of her. Since he saw her deck, she had to see his.
"Umm, I guess? Though I hope you don't pick any of my one-off cards, as I have no other copies." Yutaka hesitantly handed over his deck. He knew that she was no Weevil, but he still hesitated to hand the deck over. Because this deck was the only way for him to defeat Rex currently and take back his ace.
Seeing him hesitating, Mai got annoyed. He already saw her deck, so why was he acting coy now? So she rudely grabbed the deck out of his hands and looked at the cards, and then...
WHAT'S WITH THIS DECK!?
Half of the deck was made up of useless spells, and the rest of the cards were traps. There were only 10 or so monsters, and aside from one Launch Spider, none of them had high stats. Especially this one named Kuriboh. Who would even bring a monster with 300 ATK to this island?
How did he even become the fourth in the nationals with such a 'bad' deck?
"Ugh, I don't want any of them, so I guess I will take this Pot of Greed," said Mai as Yutaka started shaking and was about to cry.
WHY?
WHY THE POT OF GREED!?
"What? You don't even want to give me such a useless card? Weren't you the one who said my card was almost worth staying in this room for a month?" Mai's veins started to bulge on her forehead.
"No, no, no. Of course, it is worth it; so how about I give you an even better card? After all, who would even use such a trash card like Pot of Greed, right? I think this Sword of Deep-Seated would work wonders in your deck. Since your Harpies have low ATK, this would make up for their deficiency. Also, if it's ever destroyed, you can draw it again next turn, so you would always have a 500 ATK boost on the field?" Yutaka wasn't even sure what kind of BS he was spewing, but he talked like a machine gun to confuse – *ahem* – I mean convince Mai that Sword of Deep-Seated was a good card.
Well, technically, he was not lying since in this meta where people summoning 800 ATK monsters was the norm, it really was a useful card; otherwise, it wouldn't be in his deck in the first place. But it still couldn't match up to something like Pot of Greed.
"Really? Well, *ahem* if you insist, I don't mind taking it from you," Mai said as she coughed to hide her embarrassment. She didn't think she would encounter such a big sucker. What she didn't realise was somewhere along the way her anger towards him had faded.
"Yes, yes, big sister, I insist. Let go of that Pot of Greed lest it dirty your hands," Yutaka said as he swiftly pocketed the Pot of Greed.
Then, without even saying anything, Yutaka escaped from the room, fearing she would go after his Graceful Charity next. Mai, meanwhile, looked at his back confused. Not even a goodbye? Wait, did she even introduce herself to this guy?
Now that she thought about it, she actually didn't. Maybe this was why he had called her big sister? But they were similar in age, though?
'Yutaka Minami... an interesting person, that's for sure.' Mai thought to herself as she closed the door and locked it.