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“No taxis?” Ishizu repeats.
The hotel receptionist gives her a long, complex answer about why she cannot call Ishizu a cab this morning. This receptionist has fewer English skills than the younger one Ishizu talked to the previous morning, and she repeats herself in the local language, as if maybe Ishizu will understand her better. Festa, she keeps saying. It’s a holiday.
The woman digs a paper bus schedule out from behind the desk and taps a pen over a timetable. “Festa,” she insists.
Ishizu walks stiffly out of the hotel, her briefcase in hand. There’s reduced bus service for whatever this holiday is. If she misses the next one, she will have to wait another three hours, and she’ll miss her conference talk.
The bus stop is nothing but a sign on the corner of the street. Ishizu stands under it, gripping her briefcase and focusing on keeping calm. This is a small conference, tangential to her own field. It will be embarrassing if she misses her talk, but it will not be the end of the world. Her reputation will not be harmed. No one will even remember in a few weeks.
Ishizu digs her carefully manicured nails into the leather of her suitcase. She hates not being in control. She hates not knowing every single detail of what is happening, what will happen. She feels stupid for not having anticipated a local holiday. She feels stupid for not knowing the local language. She feels stupid for thinking she’d be more comfortable with her accommodations out here in this village, rather than at the hotel hosting the conference.
In an attempt to calm herself, Ishizu opens her phone to double check that the bus is indeed on its way, and that it will follow the route printed on her bus schedule, dropping her off right in front of the conference. The schedule pulled up by her navigation app is different from the paper one. Isihzu frowns, ignores the onset of panic, and tries the province's public transportation website. There is no option for a language she actually speaks, but Ishizu is fluent in a couple of related languages, and reading is much easier than listening. The bus lines for this village are in a PDF that her phone will not open.
Don’t be childish, Ishizu commands herself. That would be the stupidest thing of all, to cry out of frustration over a bus schedule. She will not be doing that in public.
The bus never comes. But a bright purple convertible sports car slams on its breaks in front of her, a screeching noise echoing through the empty streets of the village.
“No way!” a blonde woman exclaims, setting her sunglasses on top of her head to stare at her. “Ishizu? Ishizu Ishtar, right?”
Ishizu cannot say she’s relieved to see Kujaku Mai in front of her. Ishizu has never liked surprises. Her childhood was fundamentally not a happy one, where any lapse in routine meant something bad was about to happen, and her foray into magical item usage in her early adulthood had allowed her absolute clarity about what was happening. Even good surprises make her nervous.
“Are you waiting for the bus?” Mai asks, not the least bit perturbed by whatever face Ishizu is making. Mai waves at her, gesturing at the passenger seat. “Get in! I’ll give you a ride.”
Ishizu hesitates. This would solve her problem, even if she’s skeptical of accepting a ride from a woman she only met once, years ago. Ishizu has no reason to think Mai would like her. If Mai remembers what Malik did to her, then likely Mai would hate her.
Nevertheless, Mai is grinning up at her, her pink lips spread wide over perfect white teeth. She looks excited to see Ishizu, and Ishizu does need to get to this conference.
“It’s a bit far,” Ishizu hedges. “I’m attending a conference up in the mountains. My taxi yesterday took about an hour.”
Mai waves her hand dismissively. “A drive up the mountains? Sounds fun. There’s some gorgeous views up there, and I was going hiking anyway.”
And so, Ishizu climbs into the car. She balances her briefcase in her lap and holds it like it might protect her from any new surprises. Mai types the name of the conference hotel into the console of her car, then wolf whistles at the photo.
“Looks fancy,” she says, grinning at Ishizu. “Not staying there?”
“They only had shared rooms left,” Ishizu says. “And I wanted… to see the local villages.”
She’d originally meant to stay at the conference’s hosting hotel for the duration of the conference, then move to a larger town to enjoy a few days of relaxation. Then she’d found out she might be assigned a roommate, and she’d immediately changed her plans. A roommate would be an unknown factor she wouldn’t have been able to deal with.
“Your pants are super cute, by the way,” Mai says conversationally as she pulls the car forward. “You can really rock any style, can’t you?”
Ishizu doesn’t know how to respond to this. She’s wearing dress pants and white blouse, with her usual gold jewelry. She feels like she’s dressed fairly casually.
Mai does not seem to require a response. “Man, this town is dead today.”
“I believe it’s some sort of holiday,” Ishizu says. Perhaps they will have some sort of celebration later. Or perhaps this is simply a day to relax.
“Huh, okay,” Mai says.
Mai navigates the narrow streets of the town, following the directions of her navigation app to the highway up into the mountains. Ishizu relaxes slightly. This is the same route the cab had taken yesterday.
Then, Mai suddenly jerks her car to the right, exclaiming that there’s people down that way. A tiny yelp escapes Ishizu’s mouth, and she grips her bag tighter.
“Bon dia, com va!” Mai yells, waving down a group of old men eating on the patio of perhaps the only bar open that morning. “Una pregunta—”
Mai chats with them loudly, taking her hands off her steering wheel to gesture. The men seem charmed. Ishizu checks her phone. She’s missed the bus now, according to the paper timetable, if that’s even correct. She really does have to hope Mai can get her to the conference now.
Finally, Mai pulls away, and her phone directs her to go around the block to finally access the main road that will take them to the mountains.
“It’s some saint’s day,” Mai tells Ishizu. “I think they said there’s supposed to be concerts tonight, but I didn’t really understand much.”
“Oh,” Ishizu says. “You seemed to be quite fluent…”
Mai laughs loudly. “Fluent? Nah. I used to work a lot of international cruises and big casinos, so I met people from all over the world. Looking pretty and half-speaking whatever language is how you get good tips. You pick up a lot of things that way. I can have a whole conversation with just ten words.”
Ishizu cocks her head to the side, considering this. She formally studied a lot of languages, with nothing else to do in her childhood crypt, but she feels like she wouldn’t dare utter a single word until she was sure she could make a complete sentence. She remembers feeling humiliated, the first time she’d stepped into the world and spoken Arabic to strangers outside the Tombkeepers. Apparently what her family spoke sounded incredibly old fashioned and even a little bizarre.
Really, she feels most comfortable reading and writing ancient languages, where she can double-check herself and no one will tease her about an accent or unusual word choices.
“Oh, but I’m pretty sure they said the vineyard up here is open,” Mai continues on. She turns onto the main street, and the car picks up speed. “So I think I’ll go check that out after I try a few trails, and then I can drive you back down when you’re done with your conference.”
Ishizu turns to her, blinking at her in surprise at the generosity baked into this statement. Mai is dressed more like a model preparing to go on a hike than her edgy duelist outfit, in a loose cotton shirt that shows off her shoulders and the cross-cross patterned straps of a sports bra. But she still has on a full face of make-up, is driving a ridiculous sports car, and she gives off a definite “mean girl” vibe.
“You don’t have to,” Ishizu says.
“Don’t worry about it,” Mai replies. They finally pass the edge of the village, and she hits the gas harder. “When I realized everything would be closed today, I figured I’d go do some nature-y stuff. It’s no problem to also give you a ride, and you’re helping me out by pointing me at a place to be for the day. Besides, what would you do without me?”
Ishizu doesn’t have an alternative plan. Her stomach twists, some unnamed emotion bubbling up inside her. She really should just accept Mai’s help.
Mai keeps talking, obviously not needing an answer from Ishizu. “If the vineyard is good, maybe we can get a drink after your conference, or dinner. Then we can check out those concerts in the village.”
“You don’t have to,” Ishizu repeats.
“What, don’t want a tagalong?” Mai asks. She says it without a hint of malice in her voice, like she just genuinely wants to know, but Ishizu is still taken aback by her bluntness.
“It’s not that…” Ishizu hedges awkwardly. The wind feels nice on her face as they move into the mountains, but it batters her hair, and she puts her hands over it futilely.
“There’s a hair clip in the glove compartment,” Mai says, her own hair flying behind her like a queen’s golden banner. She reaches forward and opens the compartment without input from Ishizu. “No, it’s okay if you don't want to hang out. I get that. I just meant, if you want company, I’m only staying one town over.”
There is indeed a big purple hair clip in the glove compartment. Ishizu has sudden anxiety over hygiene, sharing a hair clip, but then she imagines showing up to the conference with her hair all messed up. She clips her hair back.
Without waiting for an answer, Mai asks, “What time do you need to be there?”
“I’m giving a talk at noon,” Ishizu replies. The talks for the day have already started, but that’s the event at which people will notice if she’s missing.
“What’s it about?” Mai asks.
Ishizu does her best to explain her research. She is the world’s leading expert on the Tomb of the Unnamed Pharaoh by right of her family’s stewardship of the tomb, but since her life had calmed down after Battle City, she’d formally enrolled in higher degree programs and expanded her expertise. She’s presenting on a collaboration she’d gotten involved in as part of her dissertation, which is how she ended up at a conference on Mediterranean archaeology.
“Wow, that’s amazing,” Mai says. “Man, so you’re a professional, and you can duel? I bet even Yugi is jealous.”
Ishizu doesn’t know how to answer that, so she turns to look out over the scenery as they gain elevation. The mountains are forested with short little trees, with warm-colored boulders peeking out between them. Below the road, an olive orchard spills down the mountainside, the twisted bark of the trees shining in the morning sunlight. With her hair firmly in place, the breeze is warm and refreshing, and Ishizu suddenly finds that she just feels good right now, all anxiety washed away.
“This place is really beautiful,” Ishizu says.
“Yeah,” Mai agrees, and Ishizu turns back around to find Mai eyeing her with an unreadable expression.
“What about you?” Ishizu asks. “What are you doing out here? Forgive me, but you don’t seem like… a hiker.”
Mai laughs, tossing her head back carelessly. “I’m not!” she cries. “I’m wearing my running clothes. I thought I’d be reviewing card strategies over glasses of sangria all day, but when I googled what to do around here, every website said hiking. I’ve got a great pair of legs, so why not?”
Ishizu would never. She does not tell Mai this.
“So, you’re still dueling?” Ishizu asks politely.
“Someone’s gotta keep the boys on their toes,” Mai replies, shooting Ishizu a cocky little smirk. “I got paid to fly out and do an expo match in Barcelona, but then I decided I wanted to get away from the city, so I rented a car and drove until I found a town I liked.”
“Oh, you…” Ishizu says. “This is a very spontaneous trip, isn’t it?”
“Correct,” Mai says, grinning at her.
“I can’t imagine,” Ishizu admits. “I’m…”
She nearly refers to herself as a control freak, as someone who cannot stand to do a single thing without plotting out every detail first. Mai must have her extremely relaxed, despite everything, to even think of admitting something like that outloud. Ishizu doesn’t ultimately put words to it, but Mai seems to understand the gist of what she’s trying to communicate anyway.
“Hey, my entire life has been chaos,” Mai tells her. “Getting to spontaneously decide one day that I want to drive into the mountains and find a pretty town to sit around drinking wine in is my version of freedom. And if that plan gets shut down? I’ll just do something else that I want.”
Ishizu tightens her fingers over her briefcase’s straps. She turns back to look over the mountainside, and she can see the red-brown tiled roofs of her hotel’s village below them now. She’d felt annoyed to have to make new arrangements besides the clear-cut plan of staying at the conference hotel. But maybe that had been a good thing, after all.
Mai pulls over at a lookout point without asking.
“Come on,” Mai says. “We should take a selfie, to commemorate our reunion.”
“The conference…” Ishizu starts, ready to refuse to leave the car.
“Come on,” Mai repeats, pushing her own door open. “You have plenty of time. You deserve to have some fun, and I won’t let you be late.”
She smiles at her. Ishizu stares down at her briefcase. She does have an hour…
Ishizu gets out of the car. The view is breathtaking. They can even see a little hint of the ocean, a sliver of cerulean on the horizon.
They stay for about fifteen minutes, and Ishizu ignores the occasional ping of anxiety that they need to be moving. Had she not applied to this conference because it was in a beautiful location? She deserves a few minutes to breathe, to enjoy the scenery.
She turns to find Mai watching her, a knowing smirk on her lips.
“What?” Ishizu asks.
“Nothing,” Mai replies. “Just thinking about how I really hope you’re up for a glass of wine tonight.”
Ishizu spends the last part of the drive thinking this over. She is interested in trying the local wine, and in having fun seeing local celebrations. With Mai, she’ll have someone whose company she enjoys and who can help her relax and talk to people. And, Ishizu can’t help but think, Mai wouldn’t have offered to help her out at all if she hadn’t really wanted to catch up with Ishizu, would she? Mai is kind, but she’s not self-sacrificing, and she only does what she wants. She’s genuinely interested in Ishizu.
But, then again, Ishizu refuses to let her poised outer image slip at the conference, so she also needs to make sure she gets some rest.
“Wow,” Mai says as the car rolls to a stop in front of the hotel. “Super bougie, Ishizu. Next time just call me, and I’ll be your roommate.”
Mai waits patiently as Ishizu combs out her hair and double-checks her make-up. Ishizu steps out of the car and uses the side-view mirror to double check her clothes are still pressed and wrinkle-free. Then she turns back to Mai.
“When you go to the vineyard,” Ishizu says, “make sure you find the best wine. I don’t have time to drink more than one, after all.”
Mai raises her eyebrows. “You’ll get drinks with me after the conference, then?”
“It’s a date,” Ishizu promises.