Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!
Part 3: Preparations
Death's POV
Let me make one thing perfectly clear: I love duelling, and I love it even more when I duel against Atem.
That being said, I had my doubts about this particular duel. The Shadow Realm is not a nice place to visit.
It's not the kind of place you take your family for a nice BBQ or a picnic. The Shadow Realm can only be controlled by accomplished immortals – and by me. On the down side, it has a tendency to weaken mortals, including the deceased.
So why was I duelling my best friend in what can only be described as a Shadow Game? Was I some kind of sadist? Not really.
I will admit that I genuinely enjoy torturing people who have tortured others in life. But even if Atem had played penalty games against people, I wasn't going to hold it against him now. That would make me a hypocrite. I did the exact same thing. Still, we were going to duel in the Shadow Realm. It made me sick to my stomach but it had to be done. You see, here's the thing about the Shadow Realm:
It does not allow you to cheat.
The Shadows hate cheaters and punish them.
Taking this particular duel to the Shadow Realm was convenient as the Shadows could serve as both an arena that wasn't monitored by the Council of Gods – or by Destiny for that matter (I hate that guy, but I'll get back to that… maybe).
However, duelling in the Shadow Realm was also an insurance policy.
Neither one of us would be willing to cheat – and we would both be less likely to weasel our way out of a fair bet. We just needed some rules.
"OK Atem, we agreed to take this to the Shadow Realm, so here are the rules:
We each pick 20 cards from our decks and we only play with those cards, okay?
It'll be much faster and it shouldn't drain your energy too much. In addition, we only begin with 2,000 Life Points each."
"Fine be me."
"Good," I answered, changing my eyes to their immortal form as I opened my skull formed wallet.
The blackish purple darkness of the Shadows slithered its way around the hallway and swallowed both my friend and myself whole like a child swallows a juice brick. There was no going back now – not even for me.
Can I tell you a secret?
I was a little bit scared.
