Time frame: After Duelist Kingdom, with flashbacks going back to the duel between Kaiba and Yugi. The dialogue Kaiba and Anzu have can be found in the anime episode after Yugi lost to Kaiba in a duel on top of Pegasus' castle due to some underhanded tactics on Kaiba's part.
Musings By Emrys ReiIt's over.
Pegasus has been defeated, unsurprisingly by the one person that I was unable to beat.
Yuugi Mutou.
The name alone is enough to elicit a response from me. A response so primal and savage I'm amazed that I was still sitting calmly and not trembling from rage. The first battle I fought against him, I had three Blue Eyes. I was so certain that I would win. I let my guard down in that one moment when I shouldn't have.
I underestimated him.
He managed to wrestle victory from me that time because he had Exodia. Since he no longer had it, I thought fulfilling Pegasus' demand would be easy.
I was wrong.
He may be many things but easy most certainly is not one of them. When all seemed lost and victory was once again in my grasp, my cunning strategy working to perfection, he managed to wrestle it from me once again. His perfect offense against my perfect defense.
How could things have gone so badly?
There was nothing left but to force his hand. I knew he would not have the heart to go through with it. In fact, I was counting on it. Mokuba's life depended on it. Just when I thought that he would finish me off, because if I was in his shoes, that is what I would do. I stood my ground and refused to feel fear. I could still feel the wind rushing towards me as his Celtic Guardian charges towards my Blue Eye's Ultimate Dragon. Surprise that he would actually go through with it, I closed my eyes and thought how I have once again underestimated him… then I heard her.
Anzu Mazaki.
Rushing and pleading with my archrival, for him to stop, to spare me and in turn, spare himself. I would have done anything to win, would he?
No, he would not.
He hesitated, the coward. And within minutes, the duel was over. I have won. An accomplishment that, if not for the drastic and cowardly measures I took, would not have been mine to begin with.
A hollow victory.
Perhaps because of that fact, I was so bitter towards him. It wasn't enough that he took away my title and humiliated me in front of my own brother, but now my pride, my self-respect, and my honor as a duelist is also in question. As I listened to them, comforting the boy, my anger built. I will not allow them to see me humiliated again, all because of a terrified boy who decided to spare me at the last moment out of some moral obligation to his conscience. Squaring my shoulders, I looked towards them with contempt and spoke words dripping with sarcasm and arrogance. But what I wasn't expecting was the passionate outburst in your defense. It was so characteristically her that I wondered why I should even be surprised.
'He spared you!!'
The force and strength behind those words left me reeling. Before I even have my bearings back, words tumbled out of her mouth. One after another, pleading to be understood.
'He showed you compassion!!'
Of course. Someone like her, so pure and kind hearted, can never understand the urge for revenge, to strike back in whatever way, in whatever form that it takes to wound. To make your opponent bleed, like the way he made me bleed. Why I would wish to hurt her friend by such cruel, taunting words even though that duel was over and I had won. She can never understand what her friend took from me this day.
I am a duelist. I devoted my entire being to being the best. My work. My life. Duel Monster is what I lived for.
It is my world.
My true passion.
There is nothing else.
And to have it taken away from me by an upstart nobody with a split personality who has never sweated a day in his life to achieve what I have worked so hard to gain, enrages me.
'The game?' she uttered incredulously.
You do not understood. No one could. The game is all there is.
'Yuugi has a heart, Kaiba. Yuugi has us: friends that will stand by him to the end, no matter whether he wins or loses a stupid game, and what do you have, Seto Kaiba, what do you have at the end of the day?! Tell me! Tell me!'
My eyes hardened at the memory. The nerve of the woman. How dare she presume to know anything about me?!
'I have all that I need!'
I spat out the words and turned away quickly, lest they… no, lest she… saw how close she had come to the truth. I refused to allow her the satisfaction.
Looking down towards them as the chopper spiraled away, I cannot help but be envious. True, I have my brother with me now, safe and unharmed. Still, I cannot help but notice how you have won even his friendship and admiration in so short a time. You saved him, and as disgusted that I am, you saved me. You beat Pegasus, a cheat who played me for the fool from the beginning. May he burn in hell for all eternity. My hands clenched. I underestimated you not once, not twice, but again and again. You will not have a chance to exploit that flaw again. The next time we duel, I will win, fairly and honorably. And everything that I've lost here on Duelist Kingdom, I will regain.
~*~
Owari.