It was only after Reshef the Dark Being had been dealt with that Joey noticed something off about their friend. Blake was an awesome duelist, that was for sure, but he just couldn't shake the feeling that there was something strange about him. The more he tried to write it off, the more he noticed.

For starters, there was the way everything seemed to gravitate around him, even the Egyptian God Cards. Blake getting Slifer he could chalk up to Yugi being nice, but not only did Blake obtain Ra's Phoenix Mode, he won Obelisk from Seto Kaiba! And not only could Blake use them, he could control them as well—something Bandit Keith, Pegasus, and Reshef himself had learned the hard way. Something was definitely fishy there, and Joey hoped it wasn't just jealousy that the kid had beaten Kaiba when he hadn't.

Second, Blake had been the one to take down Pegasus and Reshef. Sure, they had all helped him win, but Blake had been the one to actually duel them, single-handedly preventing the world from burning. As nice as it had been to get a break from saving the world, well… that world-saving drama was the sort of thing Yugi usually handled. Even though the Millennium Puzzle had been taken captive, wouldn't that make Yugi want to fight even harder to win? And speaking of Millennium Items, how the heck did Blake see the Millennium Necklace's vision along with Yugi?

There were other details, not only about Blake but about himself. Joey had been dueling Panik and the Mimic of Doom for what felt like countless hours, but when he had finally beaten them and stormed the castle to help against Reshef, it seemed only thirty minutes had passed. It was just long enough for Blake to battle a brainwashed Mokuba, duel Kaiba for Obelisk, and interrupt Pegasus' resurrection ritual before it was finalized. When he'd asked Yugi about the experience later, his friend had said the same thing had happened when he was dueling Para and Dox.

Then there was little stuff, like not knowing if Blake had a last name, or why the kid never seemed to speak unless spoken to first. And how he never seemed to lose a duel, but from the way he acted, you'd swear he'd lost at least a hundred times before winning.

Finally—and this was probably the most troublesome part—Joey couldn't remember meeting Blake. His friends all acted as if he'd always been a part of their lives, and Joey certainly felt that way now, but for the life of him, he couldn't recall how or when they first met.

Joey decided to approach Blake directly first. No point in gossiping if he could get his answers straight, he thought. The boy was hard to locate, but Joey finally found him in an alleyway near Domino High.

"Hey, Blake. You got a minute?"

The boy said nothing at first, then nodded.

No point in confronting him with the worst of his misgivings, Joey thought. Better to start small.

"Hey, uh… Don't take this the wrong way, pal… but I just realized something. We're great friends and all, but…I don't even know your last name!"

He blinked. "You do have a last name, right?"

The boy gazed at him curiously, his grey hair hidden behind a blue baseball cap. After a moment, he spoke, suspicion lining his face.

"What kind of question is that?"

Joey blushed. "O-of course you have a last name. Way to go, Joey. Master of tact. Uh…What is your last name, Blake?"

Blake stared into space for a few seconds before responding; it seemed he had to think about it himself. "It's Slater."

Joey grinned. "Blake Slater, huh? Good to know you a little better."

Blake smiled back. "Likewise. Is there anything else you wanted to ask me?"

"Well, now that you mention it…I do have a few about that whole Reshef thing… and the God Cards… and-"

Blake interrupted him and held out a Duel Monsters card, inserting it into his Duel Disk.

"I'll bet you have a lot of questions, Joey. Duel me, and if you win, I'll tell you everything you want to know."

Joey inserted his own deck into the Disk, trying to ignore the faint alarm bells ringing in his head. He never could resist a challenge, "You're on."

The duel was hard-fought and seemed to last ages, but it was over the moment Blake drew Ra's Phoenix Mode—which he then discarded to make way for its Battle Mode. Joey groaned as his Life Points reached 0, but to his surprise, Blake began to speak.

His voice was soft, but laced with a threatening edge that made Joey feel quite foolish for coming here alone.

"Nice match, Joey! As promised, I'll tell you what you want to know."

Joey blinked.

"…Wait. I thought you said you'd talk if I won."

A quiet grin.

"You did win, Joey—about five times, in fact. You just didn't win in this particular instance."

"What do you mean, instance," Joey said, beginning to back away.

Blake made no move towards him, but Joey still felt trapped. "Every wonder why I always looked like I lost so many duels? It's because I had lost. I just…rewound things until I was able to win."

"Okay, sure. You've got this magical time-rewindin' thing."

"It's a touch more complex than how you put it. Only I can go back, and none of you would consciously remember its effects. I suppose you felt that duel just now lasted a long time?"

Joey smirked in spite of himself. "Do I even wanna know how many times you lost to Reshef and ended up watching him destroy the world? Don't answer that."

At that Blake motioned for him to move on, eyes never leaving Joey's face.

"Okay, uh…how come you could control the God Cards? I thought only chosen duelists could wield them…"

Joey trailed off as Blake kept staring at him. The whole thing reeked of ancient magic; gaining the Gods' favor would have been difficult, but not impossible.

The grey-haired boy pulled down his cap, hiding his eyes.

"Any other questions? We're almost out of time, Joey."

"Just one. How come I don't remember ever meetin' you?"

A laugh.

"Simple. You didn't."

Joey paled. "Then…how are you…"

Blake stepped forward slowly, jerkily, like a puppet. The shadows of the alleyway played around them both until they were both steeped in unending darkness.

"I'm nothing more than a slate to imprint on your minds. I could have named myself anything, said anything, and you'd believe it like it had always been there. But let's be honest, Joey—would you have befriended me if I'd told you the truth?"

Joey swallowed. "What truth?"

Blake lifted his head, eyes glowing a strange shade of purple.

"That I'm an emissary of Zorc. Nothing more."

Joey's words rattled out in a panic as the shadows closed around them both.

"B-but…you stopped Pegasus and Reshef! None of us could've done that—well, Yugi could've, but…Why would you save the world if you just wanna destroy it!?"

"Simple, Joseph. The last thing Zorc wants is competition."

Much like its prequel game, The Sacred Cards, in Reshef of Destruction you name and control a boy who hangs out with Yugi and Joey and save the world instead of them. They all act like you've been around for ages, despite there being no origin to your character.

So I thought about the idea of the player character doing everything, having no established backstory, and various other game oddities, like the story not continuing until you win no matter how many times you lose and essentially being able to rewind time with the reset button or just losing a duel. I decided to take those ideas and make them (I hope) scary. I named the player character Blake Slater as a pun on blank slate.

And no, your character is not an emissary of Zorc in the game. (At least, I hope not...)