A Real Duelist

[sneeze@me]

yay! i cant wait to see yami and jounouchi try to infect namu!

[coldcure08]

I don't think I have ever been happier that something is my fault!

I am loving that Yami Yuugi is getting to share in the illness, also Marik is one of my favorite characters... so get to see him get sick is a delightful bonus...

In addition, the intentional contagion factor is making me soooooooooooo happy right now! I can't wait for the next dose! lol... Bravissima yet again!

[Natto]

@ sneeze@me - Glad you're having fun. Hopefully this chapter does not disappoint. Thanks for your comment. I love hearing from readers.

@ Lorea08 - I'm so happy you encouraged me to keep working on it. I'm having a blast. Anyway, I hope this next chapter will be fun for you. I'm super, super into contagion, so that's going to show up in most if not all of the stories I write.

Hello hello, and welcome back! Part Four ended up being a bit longer than some of the other parts. Hopefully that won't be too much of a problem. Anyway, this chapter actually includes FEMALE sneezing/illness/etc., so that's a heads up for anyone who isn't interested, and for anyone who is. It's concentrated in the third scene.

Thank you so much for all the wonderful, supportive comments. I'm having so much fun writing this, and you guys are making it a million times better. You all rock.

~`~`~

Part Four

They have not worked out any sort of coherent plan by this point. They had meant to discuss it while waiting for Namu, but they had hardly spoken a word. Jounouchi doesn't have much in mind besides being in the same room as him. They could sneeze on him, or lick his hands, or Jounouchi could pretend he's Mai and give him a big fat kiss on the lips. None of these ideas some plausible, but just standing there hoping that their germs will leapfrog over into Namu's nose is a stupid plan. He decides to start off with a greeting. “Hey Namu, how're you doing?” he asks. The words sear his throat and his voice cracks, so he rubs at his neck, and swallows twice to get his voice working properly again.

“I'm fine,” he says, edging toward the wooden table by the wall. The table is covered in foodstuffs, which Namu is eyeing eagerly. Jounouchi drags a palm along his cheek, ashamed that he hadn't thought of trying to contaminate the food. Then again, he wouldn't have been able to guess what Namu would choose, and it would be disgusting to wreck the whole spread. Neither Jounouchi nor Yami seem to be thinking of anything to do—their brains are wrapped in fuzz, they're too feverish and lethargic to drag themselves off the couch. Yami pulls himself together before Jounouchi does. After plodding over to the table, he waves at Namu, then clamps a shaking hand around his shoulder.

“So,” he sniffs. “I'm sure you've heard about this cold that's going around. We're in such a small, enclosed place, I wouldn't be surprised if everybody got sick. How resistant are you to these things, usually? Do you easily fall victim to disease?” Namu tries to shake him off, but Yami's grip grows tighter. This was a little more direct than Jounouchi had expected, but he likes things direct. He joins Yami at the table, grabs a napkin from a stack on the table, and forcefully blows his nose. The napkin makes its way onto the table. Jounouchi flicks it toward Namu without looking at it, and hopes that it looks like an accident. It doesn't, so Yami shoots him a glare.

“Um, yes,” says Namu, flicking the filthy napkin into a nearby garbage can. “I heard about that. I do hope it doesn't end up being too serious for anyone. I'm hoping to avoid getting sick myself...” He doesn't say whether he's especially prone to illness. That makes sense. If Jounouchi were a sickly person, he wouldn't want to admit it. Getting knocked on your ass by a couple of germs seems pathetic. A man should have resistance, even a man as girly-looking as Namu. Jounouchi sighs, then shoves his hands into his pockets. Those pockets are laden with used tissues and sticky with snot, so when he pulls his hands out, they're coated in it. He rubs the mess off on the table near Namu's hand. Namu doesn't notice, and his fingers scrape against the residue.

Yami says, “I wish you luck. It'll be difficult to avoid it, but if anybody can, I'll be happy. Though, I can't say I'd be terribly put out of Marik got sick. He deserves it.” Namu narrows his eyes, and his fingers clench ever so slightly. This strikes Jounouchi as vaguely suspicious, but he lets it go. Yami sighs, and rubs at his eyes. He does this every few seconds, and soon Namu is mirroring him, touching his eyes with fingers that just grazed a patch of mucus.

“I heard that he was less than kind to you,” Namu says with a shrug. “I'm sorry about that. But either way, the less people that get sick, the better. We won't be able to get anywhere with this competition if everyone's sick. I'm sure that you're eager to defeat Marik, are you not?”

Yami doesn't respond to him straight away, because his mouth is gaping and his breath is beginning to come in ragged gasps. He reaches to cover his face, but Jounouchi holds his arm back. If he's going to sneeze, it ought to be uncovered. Yami's lip quivers, his head pitches forward, and he lets loose. “Hippchhoo! Ickkhhhiew!” Namu blinks, wiping the mist from Yami's fit from his face. “I'm the...hhhh...terribly sorry, I...hhkchh!” This time, Yami covers his nose with his wrist. “Ahhh...accident. S-sorry. Ahhckchiew!”

“Well, that was...unsanitary,” says Namu, wetting a napkin under the tap of the water cooler, and dabbing his face clean. “Funny, when you were talking about not wanting others to get sick.”

“I told you, it was an accident.” Yami's voice is muffled by a tissue which he has pressed to his face. He blows his nose, then hacks painfully into the tissue. “I've been sneezing like crazy since I caught this...hikkchoo! Hipshoo! It can be hard to control it. I'm sure you understand. I mean, you must have been sick before.” Jounouchi smirks at this, then stops paying attention to their conversation for a moment while he himself is overcome by a coughing fit. When he tunes in again, they're talking about how Namu wishes that the salads they served on board had more croutons. Jounouchi chimes in and rasps something about how he thinks croutons are disgusting. Yami keeps touching his face to guide Namu, and Jounouchi joins in, too. After ten minutes of this, the door slides open. Anzu strides in and grabs Jounouchi by the elbow.

“It looks like your sister caught the KaibaCorp Blimp Cold,” she says, flicking a hand through her short brown hair. “You might want to go see how she's doing.”

~`~`~

As soon as he hears the news, he practically flings himself out of the room. He doesn't care about Kaiba's plan, or how sick and lethargic he feels, all he cares about is checking on Shizuka. Anzu tells him that it isn't too bad, but that she's running a low-grade fever. “The main reason I came to get you is that Honda made me. He's treating Shizuka like an invalid. He hasn't let her out of bed since she started sneezing. It's sort of ridiculous, but that's Honda for you.” Anzu shrugs, and rolls her eyes. “Anyway, he told me to get you, so I thought I might as well. Maybe you can be a voice of reason.”

Jounouchi doesn't think that he can be Anzu's voice of reason. If Shizuka's sick, then Honda's right, she should be in bed. If Jounouchi had the time to sleep all day he'd do the same. Jounouchi's little sister is prone to stratospheric fevers, so he doesn't quite believe Anzu about it being 'low grade', and he isn't able to relax about it no matter how many times Anzu tells him to. It takes her grabbing his arm to force him to slow down. “You're practically sprinting!” she cries. “Don't do that. You're sick too, you're going to wear yourself out. Shizuka's not going to explode if you take a few minutes to get to her room.”

He doesn't want to listen to her, but he's rooted in place by a string of coughs. It feels like he's swallowing small shards of glass, but he tries to ignore it. He wipes his mouth on the back of his wrist, then falls into another fit of hacking. “Are you okay?” asks Anzu. “I have some candy in my purse...it's not as good as cough drops, but I didn't think to pack those. Want some candy?” She unzips her purse, and plucks a round yellow lollipop from a ripped plastic bag inside. Jounouchi takes it gratefully.

“I feel like shit,” he moans, after rolling the lollipop around the roof of his mouth. “This is probably the worst cold I've ev...EHHCHH!” The lollipop falls from his mouth to the floor, leaving a chunk, three yellow shards, and a few shining crumbs. “Hyehhh...hahhh...HACHH! Hyahh..ahh...ACHH! CHH!” Jounouchi digs a pulpy, tattered tissue out of the pocket of his jeans. It's so broken and useless that he may as well be blowing his nose into his hands. He's forced to wipe the thick, yellow discharge onto his pants leg, and as soon as he's finished he sneezes again. “Fuck. It's not like it's deadly or anything, but I hate to think that my sister's feeling this lousy. Besides, she doesn't handle this kind of thing real well. Up until a couple of months ago, she was sick almost constantly. The worst thing was when she started going blind, that was...that was awful. But before that, she was always catching stuff. She has complications, and it takes her a long time to get better. I don't think I'm being unreasonable for worrying.”

Anzu places a hand on his shoulder. “I'm sorry. I didn't know that. I said what I said because Honda was acting like an idiot. He was thinking with his penis instead of...well, I shouldn't say that either, not about your sister.” She laughs, rubbing his shoulder with a curled fist. “I understand why you're worried, but she's really okay. She's got the same cold everyone else has, and she doesn't seem any worse off than you.” After a few pained coughs, Jounouchi thanks her, but keeps on striding toward his sister

~`~`~

When Jounouchi arrives, he finds Honda and Otogi fussing over his sister like a pair of mother hens. Shizuka herself is huddled underneath a tangle of blankets, and Otogi is busying himself trying to straighten them out. “If your blankets are messy like this, there will be gaps for cold air to get in. Lift your leg so I can fix it, okay?”

Jounouchi doesn't like Otogi telling Shizuka to do anything with her body, but he ignores his irritation and tries to feel grateful that she's being cared for. “Yo,” he says, after clearing his throat. “How're you feeling, Shizuka-chan?” Shizuka doesn't rise from her futon, but she does sit up and give him a weak smile. Jounouchi notices that both Honda and Otogi's futons are blanket, sheet, and pillow free. He sighs. Too many sacrifices for Shizuka, and they'll wind up with nasty colds of their own. Besides that, Shizuka is going to overheat underneath so many blankets. He isn't sure whether to say anything about it or not, so for now he just kneels down next to his sister, and brushes her sweat-soaked bangs away from her forehead.

“Don't worry about me, onii-chan,” says Shizuka. Her throat and nose sound packed with clay. She sniffles, so loudly and forcefully that it comes out a snort. Shizuka has never been delicate about these things. She proves this again when she blows her nose—instead of a soft rush of fluids, it comes out a loud, grating honk. Hopefully, these unladylike sounds put a damper on Honda's hormones. After blasting into another tissue, Shizuka says, “I'm okay. It's nothing very serious, and Honda-san and Otogi-san are taking such good care of me. You should focus on preparing for your duel, and on getting better yoursel...HYAKKUHH! ACKKUHHCHH! CHIEW!” That sneezing fit snaps her forward like a birch tree in a rainstorm. A thick glob of mucus trails out of her nostril, so Jounouchi plucks a new tissue from the pink box next to her futon, and dabs it away for her. Shizuka snatches his hand, and the tissue, and snorts thickly into the paper. His hand ends up misted with mucus and spit, but he just wipes it off on his pants. “Oh gosh,” she says, with another violent sniff. “I'm sorry. I should have taken it out of your hand first. I was just so desperate to blow my nose, I wasn't thinking.”

Before Jounouchi can tell her that he doesn't mind, Honda jumps in and yells that it's absolutely fine, and that she shouldn't be sorry about anything. This isn't exactly the message Jounouchi wants to send—after all, she shouldn't be blowing her nose on other people's hands—but he ignores Honda, and places a hand on his sister's forehead. “Anzu said you had a fever, is that true?”

Instead of letting Shizuka answer, Otogi says, “yes, we checked that about fifteen minutes ago. It's 101, which is a little higher than comes standard with a cold. That's why we sent Anzu after you—Shizuka-chan insists that she's fine, but you'll probably be less inclined to preserve our feelings. Does she typically get fevers with colds, or is this unusual for her?” Honda walks over and places a damp towel on Shizuka's forehead, then presses her down into her pillows.

“It's pretty typical, yeah,” says Jounouchi, shooting a glare at Honda. He doesn't like him manhandling his sister, and while he was glad to be called here, he's not sure he likes the reasons. Shizuka can speak for herself, after all. Spending months in the hospital taught her not to lie about her symptoms, so Jounouchi will believe her if she says that she's okay. If it were really serious, she wouldn't be stupid enough to risk her health for the sake of pride, or sparing feelings. All this is is a lousy cold. And so he says, “but she's fine. She's the one who's sick, she can tell you better than I can how she's doing.” Shizuka nods, then scratches the bridge of her nose. Jounouchi hands her a tissue, then tells her she can move back into his room now, if she wants. “You're already sick, so we don't have to worry about me infecting you. What do you say?”

“Sure onii-chan, just...HACKHUU! Oh, s-sorry.” She scrubs at the pink rims of her nostrils, sniffs, and spends a while trying to empty her dripping nose. “I'd like to take a nap first, if that's okay. After that, Honda-san will help me move my things into your room.” She glances expectantly at Honda, and he stammers his agreement. “Thank you, Honda-san!” she rasps, a sunny smile stretching across her pale face.

~`~`~

On his way back to Namu and Yami, Jounouchi spies Kaiba in somebody's bedroom. He's clutching a small purple shirt to his face. His head is thrown back, his jaw is slack, and his eyes are squeezed shut and tearing. After sneezing onto the shirt, he takes a bit of lint out of his pocket, shoves it up his nose, and immediately collapses into a full-blown fit. At first, he's overtaken by force of it, and he isn't able to direct it anywhere, but after three or four sneezes he staggers over to the crisply made bed, and sneezes, uncovered, onto the pillow. Bloodshot eyes brimming with allergic tears, he turns to Jounouchi and glares at him. “Wha, what are you, what are you...huhhh...aren't you supposed to be trying to...hhuhhuhh....infectuhhhhchhh! Huchhhoo! Huaakchh!” He stops speaking, and holds a soiled handkerchief to his nose. He blows forcefully, purposefully, likely attempting to get rid of the lint. Without removing the handkerchief, he asks Jounouchi why he's abandoned his post.

“My sister got sick, so I had to check up on her,” says Jounouchi, crossing his arms, daring Kaiba to scold him for it. Kaiba doesn't. He simply nods, and says that now that that's over with, he'd better get back to doing his part. He says that he's busy, and that Jounouchi should run along like a good puppy and get out of his way. “Don't call me that!” he snaps. “Freakin' asshole, can't you show a little respect? Anyway, what the hell are you doing? Is this Marik's stuff? It had better be Marik's stuff, otherwise you're sicker than I thought.”

“Of course they're Marik's, you idiot,” says Kaiba, after sniffling and shoving his handkerchief in his pocket. “It's not like I'm going on some insane germ-spreading rampage. I've already outlined my reasons for doing this quite clearly. The shirt is, I think, Namu's, but as I have explained, Namu is a target as well. Though what his shirt is doing in Marik's room, I don't want to know.” Kaiba rolls his eyes, then hacks into the crook of his arm. “I'm done here. Mokuba says that if I don't rest he's going to rip up my Blue Eyes White Dragon. He won't, of course, but I'm going to indulge him. I'm going to bed.” With that, he storms away, leaving Jounouchi alone in Marik's germ-filled room.

[LeapYearKisses]

Lovely update! Keep up the good work! If I had more time, I'd give a better review, but I'm still very much enjoying this story!

[curliecatlover]

Amazing! Wonderful! Super!!!!!

I am in love with this story!

I cant wait to see whats going to happen next!!!!!

[curliecatlover]

Amazing! Wonderful! Super!!!!!

I am in love with this story!

I cant wait to see whats going to happen next!!!!!

ETA: sorry double post, stupid ipod

[ichixshiro14]

Hahahaha he's sure to get sick now! I love where this is going

[PaperThings]

Okay, I am SO in love here. How did I not see this? I am a HUGE Yugioh fan - not quite as big as I am for GX, but close enough - and finding a fic like this, that's actually well-written, put me over the moon. Please keep updating <3. This story is a dream come true.