Many years ago...
"...We protected mankind from the return of the shadow games, and we've both grown tremendously,"
"I'm gonna miss you..."
"You do realize we will never truly be apart right? The gift of kindness you have given me and the gift of courage I have given you will remain with us and that will forever bind us together..."
Years later...
Yugi Muto looked at his array of photos of him wearing the millennium puzzle from long ago. It seemed like such a long time ago, yet seemed so close at the same time. In the event that transpired since Atem left Yugi, Tea, Joey, and Tristan eventually graduated college, Tea would go on to pursue her dream to become a professional dancer, Joey would go on to marry as would Yugi, Tristan would end up finding work elsewhere besides his father's factory, and Kaiba... well Yugi figured Kaiba was just doing what he always did.
As for Yugi? Well, currently he had taken over for his grandpa's game shop ever since his death and as for who he would eventually marry, in she came with bags of groceries in hand. Rebecca Hawkins, or rather Rebecca Muto.
"Reminiscing about Atem again?" Rebecca asked.
"Yeah... it just seems like it wasn't too long ago that I had to let him go... but it was for the best. He changed all of us for the better and I can't thank him enough for it,"
"You thinking about possibly retiring from Duel Monsters? The game has changed a lot since then," Rebecca asked as she went into the kitchen, "I mean first there was new fusion support, then there was Synchro Monsters, Xyz Monsters, Pendulum Monsters, and now Link Monsters, Pendulums and Links both changing up the game in new ways I didn't think were possible."
"Lately? Yeah. I kinda have," Yugi admitted, "I've been thinking of possibly passing the torch to our daughter, she has been getting into the game recently and on occasions has almost bested me with her deck. The game's changed so much in the last couple of years, it's gotten faster than I could ever hope to keep up with. Maybe this time in the upcoming Tournament hosted by Kaiba Corp I'll defend my title of King of Games one last time before announcing my retirement."
"Honestly? I've been thinking of possibly retiring as well..." Rebecca added as Yugi came into the kitchen, "It was a fun game back in the day, but so much has changed and I think it's time for me to move on, which is why the upcoming tournament is gonna be my last one as well."
"You're competing in the tournament too?!"
"As is our daughter," Rebecca chirped, "Speaking of, what's taking Mellissa so long to get back home?"
Walking down the sidewalk was a girl with blonde, red, and black long hair going down to her back wearing the Domino City High Uniform with her glasses and customized duel disk based on the ones used at the Duel Academy was Mellissa Muto, daughter of Yugi Muto and Rebecca "Hawkins" Muto. Alongside her was another girl with blonde long hair going down to her back and wearing the Domino City High Uniform alongside a customized Duel Academy based Duel Disk was one of her closest friends and daughter to Joey Wheeler.
"Mary, for the last time I said I'm not gonna be switching out my deck," Mellissa groaned in annoyance.
"Awww, come on-a! You-a can't keep using a modified version of your dear old pop's-a deck forever!" Mary went in her thick Italian accent inherited from her mother.
"But I'm Mellissa Muto! I'm the daughter of the King of Games! I'm the Princess of Games for crying out loud, I need to use some sort of a new version of my father's deck to showcase I'm worthy of carrying on his legacy!"
"But-a Mellissa you-a don't need to follow in your-a father's footsteps, you-a can-a be your own person with-a your own personal deck, after all-a I mostly-a use a Red-Eyes deck,"
"Along with nine other monsters that belong to your father's deck-"
"-But I-a still have more Red-Eyes monsters than I-a do monsters used by my-a dad. Plus some of the monsters in there are needed if I was-a gonna make my-a Red-Eyes deck. You don't choose-a what decks you're gonna use, you can-a use the most meta deck in all of Duel Monsters but the game-a is just no-a fun if you don't put your-a soul into it by creating a deck that you're-a more comfortable with and speaks-a numbers about-a you as you play-a,"
"But Sachi-"
"Sachi Kaiba, CHOSE, to play a Blue-Eyes deck-a. Her father told her straight up-a she didn't have to-a follow his footsteps in-a playing a Blue-Eyes deck, in fact, he straight up-a didn't want her to-a play a Blue-Eyes deck. But she chose to-a because no other deck-a felt-a right to her,"
"That's probably what Kaiba WANTS the competition to think, in reality, he may have programmed her to use that deck from the start, he did BUILD the damn girl after all,"
"Well... I-a will give you that-a..."
"OOF!"
Mellissa and someone else fell down to the ground. Upon closer inspection, she saw it was a boy with silver hair, blue jeans, a blue camo shirt, gray eyes, a black jacket, glasses, and black shoes alongside a Battle City Modeled Duel Disk. She knew who it was instantly...
"Yū?! Yū Xabiere?! What are you doing outside, I thought you called in sick at School!" Mellissa went in shock as the two got up.
"I lied! I had to!" Yū panicked, "I've been busy doing odd jobs around the city all day so that I can get more money! I've been trying to save up for the most recent Duel Monsters pack, it's rumored to contain an Ultimate Rare Blue-Eyes White Dragon, the only one in existence!"
"Why are you wasting your time gambling your money on a card that's only one of in existence?! Shouldn't you be spending it on cards for your own deck?!" Mellissa asked in complete blasphemy.
"'Cause I need it if I plan on making a good enough of a deck for the upcoming Tournament!" Yū explained, "My Cyberse deck just isn't gonna cut it against all these top tier decks!"
"And just what makes you think throwing in a random card will help you?!"
"I've got enough cards to make a solid Blue-Eyes deck out of, I've got at least three Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragons already, all I need is just that Blue-Eyes card and I can summon them at no cost!"
"What?! I didn't know you were crafting a Blue-Eyes deck!" Mellissa went in shock.
"I have been for that past two months, I just wanna prove to EVERYONE that these meta decks like Salamangreats, Sky Strikers, True Dracos, Trickstars, Pendulum Magicians, Thunder Dragons, what have you, won't win you a game all the time,"
"You're going up rapids creak with that mindset Yū," Mellissa warned, "You need to be careful or else you might find yourself on the floor regretting everything you ever said. Why are you even gonna be entering the upcoming tournament anyways?"
"I need that prize money! My family's currently in debt bad and a few days ago we just got a red letter saying we had until the end of the month to pay the last of our house payment or else we'll be living on the streets!"
"WHAT?!" Mellissa and Mary shouted in horror.
"Wasn't your dad making a steady income?!" Mellissa asked.
"He got fired two months ago due to a mass layoff at his old job and as a result, we've mostly been living off of his last check and we don't have enough to pay the house payment last week!"
"Can't Sach-"
"You know damn well Sachi won't help me, she does nothing but make fun of me and bully me just for being so bad at Duel Monsters," Yū went, "Look, I've gotta get going, I've got more jobs to do, I'll talk to you girls later, just don't tell anyone I skipped school, please?"
"We promise," Mellissa reassured.
"Thanks," Yū said before rushing off.
"Yū..." Mellissa softly spoke.
Hours upon hours Yū spent going around the city doing odd job after odd job to earn some money to save up for the recent Duel Monsters packs to try and get a Blue-Eyes, putting loads of pressure all over his body and nearly sleep depriving himself as it soon reached 01:30 before he finally could go home, but upon checking a map, he then realized going home would take him probably up to four hours.
Not taking any chances he checked for a house nearby, inhabited by those who he knew, that would be willing to let him stay over for the night and Mellissa's looked to be the closest, be it a thirty-minute walk. But seeing as he had no other options he kicked it into gear and started running for the game shop that Mellissa, Yugi, and Rebecca Muto lived at hoping that maybe he'd make it before it got to 0300, but just like his luck, he ran out of breath just after two blocks. To top it all off, he started hearing sounds. The sounds of footsteps specifically and he started panicking.
Yū then ducked into a nearby alleyway where he proceeded to hide behind a dumpster trying to not make as much noise as he could, but then heard the footsteps getting closer and decided to book it only to run into a really tall agent looking person, and then instantly knew where he came from with the KC logo on his jacket. Sachi must've sent him.
"L-look, I don't mean no trouble, what are you doing here?" Yū asked.
"Sachi says you've been going around doing odd jobs around the town to save up for that Ultimate Rare Blue-Eyes, not if she has anything to say about it. I've come to, more or less, take you out of the equation," the Agent replied slamming his fists together.
"SOMEONE, HELP ME!" Yū hollered out into the night.
But Yū knew nobody was coming. Instead, he just braced for whatever was coming but suddenly felt... strange... on top of that he heard the sound of... cowering? Yū opened his eyes to see the agent backing away in terror and then he noticed why. Surrounding Yū was a light that looked to be emanating... from the moon? Backing away Yū felt his foot hit something and turned around to see some sort of single eye mask. Picking it up and inspecting it, Yū then put it on and felt... strange... like something was changing and then... he blacked out.
The Agent looked on as the boy got up wearing the cat-like mask coving his right most eye and part of his head, almost like as if he was in some kind of a trance.
"W-what the hell is this?!" The Agent went in fear.
"Hello, Agent. I wanna play a little game with you," Yū? went in a sort half feminine, half manly voice.
"A... g-g-game?"
"But, it won't be any ordinary game. It will be... a Shadow Game," Yū? went as his mask's eye glowed bright red.
-TO BE CONTINUED-