Key: "Talking" 'Travis's inner thoughts' (Voiceover/Non-story text) Note: I changed the dialogue around. I added some stuff, and took some stuff out. It's still the same as the original story. But I did make a few changes so just go with it.
Chapter 1
The Power of a Deck
(Hey there. Name's Travis Davies. I'm a 15-year-old duelist from America, travelling and studying abroad. I'm also attending classes at Domino High School. I'm friends with Yugi Muto, Joey Wheeler, Téa Gardner, and Tristan Taylor.)
"Yo, Joey, yoo-hoo, you there?" After I made my first move in a duel against Joey, he was taking FOREVER to make his next move. Finally, when he did make a move, he played a weak monster. "Wow, are you serious?" I scolded him with his move. "You spent that time just to play a weak monster?" The monster he played was Kagemusha of the Blue Flame. "Sorry Joey," I continued after drawing my card. "But I gotta do this. I play Blast Magician, equip him with Mage Power, and activate Giant Trunade." (Blast Magician has a special ability that gives it a spell counter for every magic card activated. As a special bonus, this is the best part, for every spell counter I remove, I can destroy an opponent's monster who's attack points are equal to or less than the number of spell counters I remove times 700. So in this case, I activated 2 magic cards, which gives Blast Magician 2 spell counters. 2 times 700 is 1400 Kagemusha's attack points are less than 1400. I'd say, about 600 points less. I just gave you a free math lesson. You're welcome. Anyway,) "I activate Blast Magician's special ability. I remove the 2 spell counters from the magic cards I played to destroy Kagemusha." I said. "Wha! NOO!" yelled Joey in his usual idiocity. "Joey, as your friend, I need to say this. CALM THE HELL DOWN! This is just a game.Now say buh-bye to the rest of your life points because now I activate Magical Blast, which causes you 200 life points of damage for each of my spell counters," Joey's life points 1800. "And now I'll activate Mage Power again." Blast Magician atk 1900. "Aargh, that wipes out my life points." Joey whined. "Get better cards buddy," I said. "Meet me outside after class and I'll help with your deck."
After class, Joey, Yugi, and me were outside sitting at a table eating lunch. Joey let Yugi and me look at his cards. "Joe, let me give you a little bit of advice," I told Joey while handing his cards to Yugi for him to look at. "Your deck sucks! It needs spells to either power up your monsters and traps to kill either your opponent's points, or their cards." I pulled out my deck and pulled a few cards to let him see. "This," pointing to a monster card. "Is a monster card, you have plenty of those so those need no introduction. This," pointing to a magic card. "Is a magic card. There can be equipment cards to prevent destruction, power your monsters up, or clear the field. And last but certainly not least, this," pointing to a trap card. "Is a trap. My deck's spells outnumber my traps but my traps are certainly needed as well. Check this trap out." I pulled out a trap card called Pitch-Black Power Stone. "I have two copies of these cards. Think of them as your reserve spell counters." I pulled out a monster card called Defender the Magical Knight. "Check this bad boy out. Defender is one of my favorites–"
Yugi interrupted me by saying, "JOEY YOUR CARDS ARE NOTHING BUT MONSTERS!" "Thank you Yuge," Said Joey. "I packed my deck chock full of all the kick-butt monsters I could find." "Joey, were you listening to me?" I asked him. "Yeah yeah, somethin' about spells and monsters right Travis?" He asked. "Wow… Joey, I'm surprised. I didn't think you were paying attention to me. Anyway, Pitch-Black Power Stone can move its spell counters onto my cards that I can place spell counters on. But Defender doesn't need spell counters on himself. He has an effect that can use a spell counter from any card, including himself, to protect my other spellcasters." The bell signaling the end of lunch rang, so we all gathered our cards and got ready. "My grandfather owns a card shop, so he can give you a whole bunch of great cards. Maybe, just maybe, I may be able to get him to show you his special card." Said Yugi. Seto Kaiba was walking close by us and he must've overheard Yugi because I noticed his normally expressionless face change slightly.
After class, Yugi led us, along with Tristan and Téa, to his grandpa's card shop. "Grandpa, I'm home." Said Yugi. "Ah hello everyone." Yugi's grandpa said. "So gramps, Yugi here told me you have a special card." Said Joey, way too up-front about the question. "Oh well since you asked me so kindly," Grandpa pulled a box out and opened the top revealing a really strong and very, very rare monster card called Blue-Eyes White Dragon. "…There's only four of them in all the world." Grandpa finished explaining. The door burst open and there in the doorway was Seto Kaiba himself. "Hey, its you." Said Yugi. "Hey Kaiba, wanna get together and play duel monsters sometime?" Asked Joey to Kaiba. "Oh please, I'd have a better chance dueling one of your other lackey's." Said Kaiba. 'How rude.' "I hear you have a Blue-Eyes White Dragon card. But why its here in a dump like this surprises me. Listen here old man, this briefcase holds the rarest duel monster cards in existence." 'Oh they aren't that special. I bet my spellcasters can win against that deck.' "No way," Said grandpa. "This is a very special card that I hold dear to my heart. I would never trade it for all the rare cards in the world." "Then I'll buy it off of you. Name your price, I can pay anything." Said Kaiba. 'This guy does not know when to take no for an answer.' "I said no. I would never trade or sell this card for anything." Finished Yugi's grandpa. "You'd feel that way even if it were a common card, right Grandpa?" Asked Yugi. 'I wouldn't sell my Dark Red Enchanter for anything he has to give.'
A few days after the ordeal at Grandpa's shop, we were walking home from school. Tristan and Joey were talking to each other about Joey's deck. "I'm telling you man, your decks sucks ass. You need better cards." Said Tristan. "Oh yeah Tristan? Why don't we take a look at your cards and see the flaws in them? Besides, Gramps said he'd train me to be a better duelist." Replied Joey. When we got to the game shop, the front door was wide open. "What happened here?" We got inside but couldn't see Grandpa anywhere. "Grandpa?" Yugi yelled for his grandpa. "I'm home. Are you here?" After a few minutes of searching the place, the phone rang and Yugi picked up. "Card shop." Yugi said the usual greeting. "Ah Yugi." Said the voice over the phone. "KAIBA!" Screamed Yugi. I ran down the stairs saying "What about Kaiba?" Yugi shushed me and continued with the phone conversation. "Yugi, you need to come pick up your grandpa at my shop." And with that, Kaiba hung up.
We got to KaibaCorp, his fancy-schmancy gaming company, and found Gramps lying on the floor in pain. "Here comes Mr. Sunshine." I said sarcastically. "Looks like our duel was a bit too much stimulation for the old man. We both bet our rarest cards. And look at my spoil of the war." He held up Gramps' Blue-Eyes White Dragon card for a second and then ripped it in half. "KAIBA! WHAT'D YOU DO THAT FOR!" I yelled. He just gave a smug laugh and said, "Because, even though the Blue-Eyes is really rare, this one can never be used again. Now Yugi, your friends can care for your grandpa, while we duel." And he just walked into another room without a second glance. We got Grandpa to an ambulance, but not before Téa marked our hands with what she called a special sign. It was a smiley face. She said that though the ink may fade, our friendship will never fade. Téa, Tristan, and Joey got Grandpa down the elevator and me and Yugi went into the other room so Yugi could duel Kaiba. Joey joined us a little later. But it wasn't Yugi dueling, it was a different person altogether, kind of like me I guess. But this new Yugi looks different. Same hairstyle, but three of his hair… things go up, his voice gets deeper, and he looks taller. Well, he challenged Kaiba to a duel and we were all surprised as to what this duel was. There were real life monsters. Somehow Kaiba was able to bring the monster on the card to life. Despite the apparent upper hand, Yugi still won the duel using Exodia the Forbidden One. Something weird happened when Yugi thrust his hand forward and Kaiba just fell down in a slump. I'm scared of this new Yugi… anyway, I got a call from Téa telling me that Grandpa recovered and will be coming out of the hospital in a couple days.
A few days later, we were all hanging out at Yugi's place watching TV. The finals for the International Duel Monsters Tournament. It was Rex Raptor versus Weevil Underwood. They were some of the best international duelists in the world. Weevil totally owned Rex, and after winning the tournament and getting the trophy, there comes Maximillion Pegasus to announce a tournament on his private island. 'Oh yeah, I'm so winning that tournament!' "Yugi a package came for us." Said Grandpa. "Really? Who's it from?" Asked Yugi. "It doesn't say." Said Grandpa. "You know, I got a package like that too. My dorm master said the same thing. No return address." I said. I live in an on-campus dorm since I'm from America and I don't have my own apartment yet. I can probably use the money from this tournament to get a house. Or maybe even a freaking mansion for Pete's sake. "Hey, there's a video in here. Along with a glove and some stars?" Said Yugi in confusion after he opened the box. "I got the same thing. All of it. I have it with me too." I pulled my glove out of my bag. "See? Actually the little indentations are for the little stars to go in. Pop the video in." So Yugi put the video in. But all of a sudden, Grandpa was lying on the floor and Yugi was screaming Grandpa Grandpa into the TV screen. What the hell just happened here?
After school the following Sunday, Joey and I found Yugi hanging out on the roof. "Uh… Yuge, what's goin on?" Asked Joey. Yugi started to tear up. "Maximillion Pegasus himself appeared on that video tape and challenged me to a duel." He said. "You dueled a video tape!" I asked in sheer confusion. "Not… exactly. It was Pegasus on the screen but it was like he was actually there talking to me in person. He challenged me to a duel and he actually knew all the cards in my hand like he was reading my thoughts. After he won the duel, he took my grandfather's soul and stuck it in the TV!" He said real sadly. "HE DID WHAT!" Joey and me said at the same time both in surprise. "He took my grandpa away from me. And he's going to pay! I'm going to enter that tournament, and I'm going to fight and defeat Pegasus to rescue my grandpa!"
(A week later, we boarded the boat to Duelist Kingdom. It was a little complicated to get Joey on the boat because Pegasus must not have given him a duel glove and the star chips mentioned in the video. Téa and Tristan smuggled themselves on. Anyway, the duelists we met on the boat was a chick named Mai Valentine, and the international tournament champion, Weevil Underwood, and the runner up, Rex Raptor, themselves. I wish I could contain my excitement. In case you don't know, that was sarcasm. My spellcasters could easily whup Rex and Weevil.)
I was hanging out on the boat's deck since I couldn't sleep. Yugi and Joey decided to join me. "Oh hey Joey, I have a card that I think would help your deck out a whole lot." Offered Yugi to our friend. "Yeah? Watcha got?" Asked Joey in response. "Check this out: Time Wizard. It could help you out in a pinch." "Thanks Yuge." Said Joey in response. I noticed Weevil was coming over. "Yugi, Joey, Lord of the Flies 3:00." They turned to see Weevil. "Hey your Weevil Underwood." "Hello, Yugi and company. Yugi, I heard you defeated Seto Kaiba. With Exodia the Forbidden One no doubt. Would it be okay if I took a look at them?" Asked Weevil with feigned innocence. 'Something's up…' "Sure Weevil." He took the pieces of Exodia out of his special box where he kept the Time Wizard and let Weevil look at them. "Ah the 5 pieces of Exodia. I never dreamed of the day I would ever be able to touch them. So indestructible, so rare, so powerful. But now…" He was walking over to the side of the boat while describing the cards, "they're useless!" And tossed them over the edge. "WEEVIL!" I tackled him while Joey jumped over the side of the boat and I was ready to punch him before he said, "Ah ah ah. If you so much as touch me, I have you thrown off the boat and out of the tournament. Now, I think you have a couple friends to save." I was so pissed at him for what he did that I hesitated… but I got off him and said, "We'll settle this on the island!" I turned around in time to see Yugi jump out after Joey and I called for help. I grabbed a life preserver and threw it into the ocean to save them. 'That smug son-of-a…' "Yugi, Joey, grab hold of the life preserver!" I called to Yugi and Joey. Yugi grabbed the preserver and I pulled them both up. "Sorry Yugi, I could only save two of the cards." Said Joey, sadly. "It doesn't matter Joey. At least you didn't drown." Said Yugi, trying to cheer his friend up. "Bug-boy is still gonna pay for that."
The next morning, we all got off the boat, Joey developed a cold from jumping into the ocean like that. 'Moron.' The guards all led us up to Pegasus's castle, and he explained the rules of the island. When he signaled the start of the island, Yugi, Joey, Téa, Tristan, and I all got into a group and split from the rest of the crowd. "Wow, a billion stairs. What, Pegasus, you have all this money and you can't install a freaking escalator?" I was complaining about the billions of stairs Pegasus has leading up to the castle. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, we found Weevil Underwood in front of the entrance to a forest. "HEY! Its bug-boy! After 'im!" Yelled Joey. We chased him into the forest and there was one of Pegasus's fancy dueling arenas. This was different from the one Yugi fought Kaiba on a couple weeks ago.
Yugi challenged Weevil to a duel to avenge Exodia. But again, it wasn't him. It was the other Yugi dueling for him. He only had one star chip to bet against Weevil's two because he gave one to Joey to get him on the boat, but Yugi staked his entire deck on his duel to gain 2 stars. Weevil had him backed WAY into a corner, but eventually he won. Yugi: 3 star chips, his deck, and the title of international duel monsters tournament champion after his defeat of Weevil. Joey: 1 star chip and a new dueling glove courtesy of the very first, freshly ejected Weevil Underwood. Me: 2 stars. Joey and I haven't dueled… yet. But who knows, maybe we will.
"Travis! Hey Travis!" Yelled a voice coming behind us. We all turned around to see where the voice was coming from. "Oh… no." I said grimly. "Travis?" Asked little Yugi. "Uh… who's that?" Finished Joey. "Ugh… Ricky what are you doing here?" I asked him. "You uh want to introduce us to your friend there?" Asked Téa. "Guys this is my annoying little brother Richard." I said while giving him a playful noogie. "Ricky, this is Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor, Téa Gardner, and Yugi Muto." I introduced him. He seemed a little star struck because when I said Yugi's name, he just blurted out, "YUGI MUTO! You're the one who defeated Seto Kaiba! He's undefeated!" "He WAS undefeated." Said Joey mockingly. "That is until Yugi here defeated him." He finished. "I thought you wanted to stay with Dad while I was studying in Japan?" I asked Ricky. My mom died when Ricky was about 2 years old. I was 7 years old at the time so that would make Ricky 10. "You shouldn't be here. Why are you here anyway?" He held out his hand, which just so happened to have a dueling glove on it. "Since when! You're ten years old!" I said in surprise. "Well, I wanted to be just like you, so after you left, I made a deck to enter Pegasus's munchkin tournament. I got second place. But Pegasus was so impressed by how well I handled the cards that I was entered into this tournament. Now don't forget our deal! You promised me you'd challenge me if I got good enough." He said. "Alright, but just because you're my little brother, don't expect any mercy. And since we're in a tournament already, we're betting star chips." I told him. "NOO! If you win, I'll get kicked off the island!" He started whining. "I can see why he's annoying." Said Tristan. I smirked at him and continued talking to Ricky. "Don't worry, I'll settle things with the guards and you won't have to leave the island if you lose. You'll get to see me duel in the finals in person."
We found a duel arena and got ready to duel. The life points were set to 2000 and we both bet both our star chips. I let him take the first move. "I play Cyber Valley (ATK:0 Def:0) in attack mode and end my turn." He made his play so it was my turn. I drew my card and said, "Ricky, dueling 101. You don't play a monster with 0 attack points without playing another card to back it up. Especially in attack mode and with nothing to protect it. Breaker the Magical Knight (ATK: 1600 DEF: 1000) in attack mode. Attack Cyber Valley." Ricky interrupted me by saying, "Don't you know that Cyber Valley has 3 effects? I'm activating the first one." (First effect of Cyber Valley: When Cyber Valley is selected as an attack target, you can remove this card from play, draw 1 card, negate the attack, and end the opponent's battle phase.) "Urgh… fine. 1 face down, turn end." I looked at Joey and said, "Pay attention Joey, my next move will definitely surprise you." Ricky continued his turn with, "To start my turn off, I think I'll go and activate a magic card named Solidarity." I was way surprised with that move. "How do you have a card that powerful in your deck!" Ricky said, "Pegasus said he'd give this to me if I joined the tournament." "I don't get it, what's so special about that card?" Said Joey. "Are you kidding Joey!" I said still surprised. "That card raises the attack of all the controller's monsters by 800 attack points if you have monsters of no more than one type in your graveyard." "That's right. That was even the card I pulled with Cyber Valley's effect. Now I summon Proto-Cyber Dragon. (ATK: 1100 + 800 = 1900 DEF: 600) Attack Breaker!" Proto-Cyber Dragon destroyed my monster and since they were both in attack mode, the difference in their attack points is subtracted from my life points. My life points are now at 1700. I draw my card. "I give up 500 life points so I can play the magic card Twister. That destroys Solidarity." My life points are now at 1200, Ricky's life points are still 2000. "I summon Mythical Beast Cerberus in attack mode and he destroys Proto-Cyber Dragon. Set 1 card, my turn is over." Ricky's life points are now at 1700. "I play Machina Soldier. When my field has no other monsters when I summon him, I can special summon another Machina monster from my hand. I choose Machina Sniper." (Soldier 1600 atk Sniper 1800 atk) "Sniper attack Cerberus." I interrupted him with a counter move. "I activate a trap card. Magic Cylinder! It redirects your attack back to one of your other monsters, destroying it and causing you damage to the difference in their attack points." Magic Cylinder redirected Machina Sniper's attack to Machina soldier, making Ricky lose 200 life points. It seems like our match attracted a little attention because a crowd started to gather. Including a guard. I started to get a little nervous and distracted. Ricky's life points went from 1700 to 1500. "When a monster is destroyed by a trap card's effect, half of that monster's attack comes out of your life points." Ricky's life points go from 1500 to 700. "Oh no… uh… 1 card face down. My turn is over." I drew my card. "I summon the Summoner Monk in attack mode. But his effect moves him into defense mode. And speaking of effects, I play another one. I discard a magic card from my hand so I can special summon another spellcaster from my deck." I started to tear up a little bit. "Sorry I gotta do this to you, but I play Magical Blast. It causes my opponent 300 life points of damage for every spellcaster on my field." The tears started to come down my cheeks fast now.
Due to the effect of Magical Blast, since I have 3 spellcasters on my side of the field, my opponent loses 300 life points for each one. 3 times 300 is 900. That brings his life points to 0. The guard came over to the ring and announced me the winner. Ricky gave me his star chips and I added them to my collection. Me: 4 star chips. The guard walked over to us and told us that since Ricky doesn't have anymore star chips, he needs to leave the island. "NOO!" I pleaded to the guard. "Please reconsider! He needs to stay! I'm all he has." I really started crying now. "Why should I reconsider?" Asked the guard, rather heartlessly. "Our parents died when he was little. They were flying in from a conference overseas when something happened with their plane and it crashed. I'm not sure how many survivors there were, but our parents… oh god please don't take him away!" The rest of the crowd, including my friends, really seemed to buy it because Téa and one person in the crowd actually started to cry too. Someone else said, "You jerk! Leave the kid on the island, the brother's all he has." Other people started to agree with him.
The guard got a call. When he hung up, he said, "Your lucky. That was Mister Pegasus on the phone. He told me to let the kid stay." The crowd started clapping, and I said, "Thank you so much. I won't forget this." About 13 hours later, Joey and Yugi were both at 10 star chips. The duel that gave me my 10th star chip was against someone who was using a frog deck. His strategy was to change the field to a swamp and MAJORLY power up his real weak frogs. I was almost defeated at 900 to 600. But I beat him. I convinced him to bet 6 star chips against my 4 because that way, he could get into the castle quicker. I still beat him too. Joey's duel was against some creepy looking kid named Bonz. That gave him his 9th star chip. He's really gotten good. Yugi's last challenge was to avenge Mai Valentine in a duel against another creepy duelist. He said he was an eliminator and he called himself Panik. After that one, he dueled against another duelist who called himself the ghost of Seto Kaiba. He constantly claimed he was Kaiba's ghost, but we weren't believing him. Eventually he revealed himself to be some sort of butt ugly clown. He wasn't Kaiba's ghost but he was his evil side that Yugi banished during his duel against Kaiba. Before THAT one, one of Yugi's other friends showed up and challenged Yugi to a friendly match with no star chips on the line. He said we should all put our favorite cards into Yugi's deck so it would be like we were all in this duel. Yugi chose the Dark Magician, Joey the Flame Swordsman, Tristan the Cyber Commander, Téa the Magician of Faith, and my favorite card was Defender the Magical Knight. He has strong defense as well as a strong effect. Then Bakura started to act strange. His voice got deeper and raspier. A weird ring appeared around his neck. Unfortunately, I'm not sure why but I don't remember one second out of the entire thing. Joey just said it was a dream, so I probably shouldn't even worry about it. Why does Yugi duel all the weirdos? Eventually we all got to 10 star chips, Yugi and Joey had to duel a pair of dueling mercenaries who called themselves the Paradox Brothers. My god they were annoying. But we got through the maze, and we got to Pegasus's castle.
The guard let us all in and we got a bird's eye view to see Pegasus wipe Kaiba all over his specially designed arena. Something strange happened because after his duel, Kaiba just got a blank expression in his eyes. Like Joey in history class. Something must've made Yugi snap because before I knew it, the deeper voiced Yugi took over and told Pegasus that he was gonna defeat Pegasus and save everyone that fell victim to the power of his millennium eye.
The next morning, we were treated to a big meal that Pegasus threw in honor of the duelists that made it here. "Hey why isn't Pegasus here? Shouldn't the host be here? Its only polite that the host graces his guests with their presence." I said. "Master Pegasus will not be joining us this evening. He is busy preparing for the finals. If you don't like it, leave the island now." Said his crony known as Croquet. 'Well fine then, you prick.' We were then served soup after the big meal. I just slurped it down. Hey, I figure that if the host won't be polite and show his face, why should I be polite. I felt something touch my lips but then the soup caught up to me and my throat started burning like crazy. "OH JEEZ THAT WAS A BAD IDEA!" My throat felt like it was on fire, but it cooled off almost immediately. "Uh… okay… never mind." 'Whoa… that was weird.' I just took a drink of my water in total embarrassment. "If you would be so kind as to WAIT for the soup to cool down next time." Said Croquet. "I'm… fine now." 'I don't think that's ever happened before.' I looked at the little ball that I felt touch my lips. "So what's with the eyeball?" Joey started freaking out because the same little eyeball popped out of his soup. A little eyeball popped out of Yugi and Bandit Keith's bowls of soup too. "If you'll open those eyes, you'll find a letter." We all did what he asked. My letter said A. Yugi's had B. I wonder what Joey and Keith had. A big monitor came down from behind Croquet. "These are the listings for the finals." He started explaining. The same letters that he explained the duelists received showed up on the screen. "Here are the duels for the finals. It will be A versus B. C versus D." He finished explaining. 'Oh how original.' "Hey Yugi, I guess its me against you." He nodded and said, "And no matter who wins, we stay friends right?" "Right." We said. "WHO HAS D?" Screamed Joey in his impatience. 'God, Joey, don't have a freaking cow.' Keith just nonchalantly held up the last piece of paper. "Ha this'll be revenge for trapping us in that cave." He didn't say anything but instead just continued eating his soup. Later that night, Joey, Yugi, and me and my brother were all hanging out in my room. "What was that little show you put on for us at dinner Travis?" Asked Joey. "I uh… don't… I don't even know. One second my throat's on fire, the next… nothing." I said just as confused as Joey was. "Anyway, Joey," Yugi interjected. "If you and I win our duels, it'll be me and you in the semi-finals." "That's right Yuge. And we don't let our duel get in the way of our friendship." Yugi nodded to him and got up and left the room.
"Hey, Travis?" Said Joey to me. "Yeah…?" I responded. "Do you think you'd be able to throw your duel against Yugi?" Ricky and I looked shocked. "But why!" Ricky asked. "Travis has always dueled his best!" "Yeah, but Yugi needs to win, for his grandfather." 'Oh yeah… I forgot. When Yugi dueled that videotape of Pegasus and lost, Pegasus must've taken Gramps' soul. I'm still confused as to how though.' "Me and Yugi need to duel in the semi-finals. Yugi for Gramps, and me…" Joey hesitated a little bit as if he didn't want to finish his sentence. "I need to win this tournament… for my sister." He finally finished his sentence. "Your sister? You never mentioned you had a sister." I said. "I did actually," He said. His voice was sounding different… It wasn't high and hyper like it normally was. It was low. He was being serious. "This was before we were all in the cave and I dueled against Bonz. Yugi, Tristan, and Téa found my wallet and they knew what I was dueling for." He said. "I was somewhere else dueling so I must not have heard you mention you had a sister."
After Joey left, Ricky encouraged me to think about it over the night, so while I slept on it I was also making my decision. When the semi-finals came around, it was me against Yugi. I held up my promise to Yugi and, ending my winning streak on the island, I let him win this duel. I looked up at Joey with, surprisingly not a look of disappointment at Joey's encouraging me to throw the match, but with a look of confidence for what I did. I could tell by the look on Joey's face that he was thinking "thank you" but not saying it out loud so the rest of everybody here wouldn't understand what happened. Yugi did though… "Travis, what happened? You had great strategies and you pulled them off flawlessly in your duels on the island." He asked me. "Its… uh complicated." I pulled out my "Glory of the King's Hand" card. 'Guess I won't need this anymore.' While Joey was walking up to the arena, Keith was just laying down on the couch like he was so confident about not having to go up to the arena right away. 'Now if that isn't suspicious, I don't know what is.'
Joey was on his end of the arena and Croquet announced for the contestants to flash either of their glory cards. Keith was SO confident about holding up his card that he didn't even move an inch from the couch. 'If that's doesn't say I did something please disqualify me from the finals, I don't know what did.' Joey reaches for his pockets and… nothing. He starts freaking out and being all spazzy. "Joey…?" I said accusingly. After a while of him searching his person, Croquet says he has 5 minutes to go get it. He ran out of the arena and I chased after him. "Joey!" "What is it Travis?" Said Joey. "I threw my duel against Yugi for you. You may owe me one, but take my glory card. I don't need it." I handed him my glory card and he just stood there not doing anything. "Well take it you spaz and get back in there. And good luck in your duel." "Thank you Travis. Really." He said still standing in the same spot. "Save the waterworks for AFTER you win the freaking duel!" I pushed him towards the doors and he walked with renewed confidence. I ran to the top of the banister just in time to see Joey and Keith draw their beginning hands. After a long and toughly fought duel, Joey eventually won. Keith doesn't know how to take no for an answer and, before he got kicked out of the castle, he ran back to the arena and jumped over to where Pegasus was sitting, demanding Pegasus give him the prize money. But before we knew it, Keith must've fallen down a hole.
Next up, this was really hard for Téa, but next up were Yugi and Joey in a duel against each other. They promised each other that no matter who won, they'd still be friends. After a long and hard fought duel, where Joey got the upper hand against Yugi, Yugi ultimately defeated Joey by reviving the recently destroyed Black Skull Dragon. Téa was finally relieved that one of them won. And now, was the final duel, this was it. Yugi vs. the Duel Monsters creator himself: Maximillion Pegasus. Joey, Tristan, me, and Téa were all standing up in the rafters. The duel started to get a little intense when, all of a sudden, a giant bubble appeared around the arena. Before that, Yugi began swapping between his two selves. Pegasus must've been reading his cards somehow because he got a strange look on his face.
"Ricky, stay up here!" I told Ricky. When the bubble appeared, we all ran down there to see if we could get inside. Téa tried reaching in, but her hand reappeared on this side. Tristan tried rushing in to get inside, but he ended up on the other side. I felt a sharp sting in my heart. The others must've felt that way too because they felt the same thing. "Did you guys just feel that!" I asked in shock. "Something bad must've happened!" I could also sense what happened like I was there witnessing the entire duel. "Y-Yugi…? YUGI!" I tried shouting for him but nothing happened. "Guys Yugi's in trouble! Pegasus… he must've done something to him because he just fainted!" I could then hear Pegasus's creepy voice as well. "Now your cards are like an open book!" He said. "Oh no. Yugi's about to lose." I said. "How do you know?" Asked Tristan. "I don't know, I can't explain but somehow, I just know." I said. "Maybe Travis has a stronger bond with Yugi. So much so that he can tell how well he's doing in a duel even though he's not right next to him." Suggested Téa. "Well anyway," I said. "We need to do something." Joey looked at his right hand and said, "We need to put our hands in." "What'll that do?" Asked Tristan. "Téa mentioned a bond Travis had with Yugi, which I doubt, and that reminded me of Yugi's first duel. You know against Kaiba?" Téa must've figured out what Joey was saying. "Now I remember, I marked our hands with a special sign." "Oh no! Pegasus… is reading Yugi's mind!" I said in complete confusion. "Don't ask again, somehow I just know. We need to help!" I finished. "Guys, I think we should put our hands in. Our bond is strong, so we should be able to help him in some way." Suggested Téa. We put our right hands in, the hands that Téa put that special sign on and I heard Pegasus. Somehow he couldn't read Yugi's mind. And that's exactly what Yugi used to finally defeat Pegasus.
The bubble cleared and we saw Pegasus slumped over his end of the Arena. And on our end… little Yugi. "Hey guys!" He said. We all cheered for him. A few hours later, we were on the boat that brought us to Duelist Kingdom. Yugi won the title of King of Games and Kaiba had been returned to normal. If that's the case then Grandpa must be back to normal too. About a week after Yugi defeated Pegasus, I told the group that I needed to go to an airport to take Ricky back to America and back to our dad. "Tell Grandpa I said hi when you see him." After I told them that, Ricky and I got on the plane to America, and a couple days later, we were reunited with our father.
