Yubel fell to her knees, staring at the ground in front of her. "I-I told them I wouldn't use it. What compelled me to pull it out?" The force-field surrounding the arena fell, unbeknownst to Yubel.

"Power corrupts. It gets stronger when we're angry." Yoshida walked up to Yubel. His face was in tears, red with anger. His hands were clenched, holding nothing but the regret he had. "We should be worried about Yuei, he looks worse than a pile of bones." Yoshida cracked up, trying to lighten the mood. He was feeling it again, the pain and regret from his Father's death. It was his tournament, he had to take responsibility for the actions of his players. There was a cheat, and a friend, both dead in literal ashes. What was the public going to think? He didn't care. He just needed a friend, and it seemed like no one was there.

"Yoshida," Yubel stood up, latching herself to Yoshida's body "I'm sorry. I tried to help, but I couldn't do anything. I just watched, and I-"

"Yubel," Yoshida answered "Don't worry. We'll get through this." Yoshida slowly pried Yubel off, and pulled out his phone. "Escort these guests out, and get this mess cleaned up, quickly." The guards around the stadium started to show spectators out, whilst Yubel and Yoshida stood there.
"Sir!" a guard walked up to Yoshida "This is the mess you wish to be cleaned?"

"Be careful, their ashes." Yoshida forced himself to keep his composure. "I want them both put in secure areas, separately."

"Of course." The guard ran off, getting his crew to pick it up.

"Y-Yoshida-Kun,"

"Yes, Yubel?"

"L-Let's go."


Yoshida pulled Yubel in, closing the door behind them. "Welcome to my office. Now, let's try to find out who was behind all this."

"W-what do you mean? I killed Matsuda, who killed Yuei."

"But who was the 'God' he mentioned during the duel?"

"H-How-"

"I have guards reviewing the footage right now. They've already informed me." Yoshida sat down in his chair propping his leg on the desk.

"H-He said something about Mentis." Yubel sat in the chair sitting in front of Yoshida's desk.

"Lord Mentis?" Yoshida stared, his composure had returned, but his thoughts had not yet emptied. Yubel nodded.

"H-He was talking about-"

"Mr. Yoshida! A message."

"From who? How is it more important than-" Yoshida stared at Yubel, then back to the man with a letter. "I'm sorry. Bring it to me, and leave." The man put the sealed letter on Yoshida's desk and left.

"C-Can they see me?"

"They've seen worse, Yubel. Trust me." Yoshida opened the letter, and pulled it out. "We're sorry for your loss?" Yoshida read the cover of the card, and opened it. There were no names signed, or any indication as to who sent it.

"It was premeditated. They knew Yuei was the Supreme King, did they-"
"Yubel, don't get ahead of yourself. As far as we know, it could just be someone who saw what happened, and pieced two and two together."

"B-But-"

"Yubel, go to Yuei's house. Disguise yourself as Yuei if you have to, but go back." Yoshida stared at a security camera and nodded. Yubel stood up and walked out.
"Thank you for helping me." Yubel ran through the door, shutting it behind her.

Yoshida stood up from his desk, and stared out the window behind him. "How did I let this happen again?"


Yubel walked slowly. She tried her best to change how she looked, but her body wasn't shifting. She had done it before, so many times. But her body just didn't want to give in. She made her more demonic parts disappear, but not much else. Her third eye vanished, and the spikes on her arm retracted into her body, her hair fell onto her in strands, and turned red and white, just like Yuei's. But the rest stayed the same. "Come on, Yubel. This is the easiest thing you've ever done."

Yubel stared at the house in front of her. Yuei's mother sat inside, and it'd be a simple knock. But what would she say? Yuei's with Yoshida? Yuei's gone? I'm Yuei? Mrs. Mitsui wouldn't believe any of that. Yubel ran away. Running all the way back to Kaiba Corp. "What am I doing?" She spoke to herself, running past everyone, pushing through some of them. "I can't stay calm at all, what's happening to me?"


Yoshida sat in the alleyway. It was the only place he could get to without being watched. Yubel wouldn't be allowed back into the building, his orders. "She's unstable. It'll be dangerous for all my employees. I'm justified in that." Yoshida spoke to himself, as rain began to fall. As each drop fell on his head, a tear began to fall from his eye. "I should've finished my duel faster. I could've saved Yuei."

"HEY!" A voice yelled towards Yoshida. Yoshida jumped up, wiping his face and slapping his duel disk on. "You're Kaiba? The Kaiba Yoshida?"

"The one and only" Yoshida drew his hand of five cards.

"Eager to duel? I'll grant you this wish." A man in a cloak walked forward. The cloak covered his face, and all that could be seen on him was his torn clothes. Sandals on his feet, shorts on, holes in his clothes, dirt covering every bit of him. "I'll take the first turn. I set three cards face down, and set a monster face-down. I end my turn."

DUEL START

Yoshida: 4000 Unknown Duelist: 4000

"MY TURN!" Yoshida drew a card, and placed it in his hand. "I activate the spell card, Advanced Ritual Art ! By sending a normal monster whose level is 8 from my deck to the graveyard, I can ritual summon my Chaos MAX Dragon!" Yoshida drew a Blue-eyes from his deck, and put it in the graveyard with Advanced Ritual Art. Then, he slapped Chaos MAX Dragon onto the field.

Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon

DARK / Level 8 / Dragon-Type Ritual monster / ATK: 4000 DEF: 0

I activate my other spell card, The Melody of Awakening Dragon. I discard one card, and add a dragon-type monster from my deck to my hand. I discard my Negate Attack, and add Blue-Eyes to my hand." Yoshida pulled the card out of his deck, and added it to his hand. "Next, I normal summon my Assault Wyvern!" Yoshida slapped his card onto the duel disk, and watched as The dark monster rose from the ground.

Assault Wyvern

LIGHT / Level 4 / Dragon-Type Effect monster / ATK: 1800 DEF: 1000

"Oh, Yoshida. Are you going to destroy my monster with your MAX Dragon, and deal pitiful damage to me? Predictab-"
"ASSAULT WYVERN, ATTACK THE DEFENSE MONSTER!" Yoshida pointed at the card on the ground, as Wyvern flew fast, and flipped the card over. The card was a spell card. "Hey! What's with that. I'm going to invalidate this du-"
"Hey, Yoshida, it's a card effect. This is Negative Reinforcement. I can place it face-down as a monster card, and when It's flipped face-up, it becomes a monster of my choice from my deck. All I have to do is banish the monster from my deck. I choose Arcana Force EX - The Dark Ruler." The duelist pulled the card out of his deck, and slid it in his pocket. "Next, Negative Reinforcement is re-summoned as The Dark Ruler, but has its effects negated for the rest of the duel."

Negative Reinforcement

DARK / Level 10 / Fairy-Type Effect monster / ATK: 4000 DEF: 4000

"Dammit. So I take 2200 damage?" Yoshida snickered. "No big deal."

"Are you sure? Cause I activate my trap card, damage redirection!" A trap card flipped over, and arrows flew from the card's artwork. "I negate any damage done, and redirect it to any duelist I choose. So I'll be taking that 2200 instead." The arrows flew through the air, flying through the duelist.

Unknown Duelist

4000 → 1800

"Why? You're just setting yourself up for a loss."
"Oh, Kaiba, you'll see. Now end your turn like a good little dog." The cloaked duelist snickered, sneered, laughing at the man in front of him.

"Ugh, I end my turn."

"Good. Now, It's my turn! Draw!" The duelist lifted his hood slightly, just enough to reveal a face. "Kaiba, I want you to know true pain, the same pain Seto Kaiba felt during his duel with Dartz."

"Wait, what?"

"I activate the field spell, The Seal of Mentis!" The duelist put the card into his disk, and watched as the ground beneath the two became red, forming a pattern. Yoshida stared at it, and looked at it's intricacies as it formed.

"This symbol, this sign."

"Of course, in all the studies you partook in, your father had to have slipped up somewhere. This is the Mentis. It would normally lock your soul into a battle, but I've no interest in that. Lord Mentis requires your Blue eyes deck. So I'll use my face-down! The Seal of Switching Mentis!" Another trap card flew up, and revealed a different pattern. A star, made up of two triangles inter-linked.

"How do you have that card? I thought only the highest of disciples owned one." Yoshida began to think of any reason to invalidate the duel, the thoughts crawled through his head quickly. If he could invalidate it, he could run, and get Yubel to help.

"Then who do you think I am? Why would Lord Mentis send a worm to climb up a matured tree?" The Duelist threw his hood off, and walked closer to Yoshida, the flames around them finally enclosing the area. "Kaiba, no, Yoshida. It's time for you to come back. I don't want to do this."

"W-What are you talking about?" Yoshida backed up, closer to the flames. The Duelist sighed.

"Don't you remember me? It's your old friend, Akemi." The man pointed at his face, and watched as Yoshida shook his head.

"N-No. You died. I watched you die."

"But I didn't. It was just my body. Lord Mentis granted me a new one when the time came." Yoshida fell to the ground, landing on his bottom. His eyes widened, tears beginning to flow. The rain fell harder, their cards had begun to get wet, and Yoshida was in shock.

"W-Why?"

"You can bring him back, you know. Yuei can come back, but only Lord Mentis can do it." Yoshida stood up slowly, pushing himself up with a single leg. He rose his hand, his face expressionless, tears streaming from his eyes.

"Nothing can now." Yoshida's hand flew down, and slapped Akemi's face as hard as he could, knocking Akemi to the ground. "Play your card, let's get this over with."

Akemi stared at Yoshida. "The Seal of Switching Mentis changes the target of the original Seal. So instead of having your soul, I'll be taking your deck once I win. The spirits inside as well."

"How can you win in this state?"

"Because of my last face-down. I activate the trap card Final Move."

Final Move

"You can only activate this card while your current life points are greater than your opponent's. Discard your entire hand, and destroy all monsters on your opponent's field. Deal damage to your opponent equal to the combined total ATK of their monsters halved."

"But when I discard this boy," Akemi raised a monster from his hand, Damage Tuner. "I can double the effect damage you take. To be specific, when this card is discarded by a card effect, it doubles any effect damage either of us would take this turn." Two pillars came out of the ground, rising to the sky. The bottoms of both began to crack, as Akemi pointed to the one closest to him. "Finally, I activate the effect of Damage Redirection in the Graveyard! I negate any effect damage done to me this turn! So say goodbye, Yoshida."

"Wait! No!" Akemi's pillar stopped, and Yoshida's Fell over top him. As Yoshida was crushed by rubble, he ran through his mind. "I-I could've invalidated this duel because of the Seal."


Yoshida opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling. His hand reached towards his leg, his deck hold being attached. His hand opened it carefully, and reached inside. He jumped up, and looked at the room around him. "MY BLUE-EYES ARE GONE!" Yoshida tore out a chord, but did it precisely. He detached the cords attached to him, and began to walk out. He limped to the door, before a nurse ran in and pushed him back onto the bed.

"Kaiba-kun, you can't be pushing yourself too hard."

"W-Where's my deck?"

"You didn't have it with you when we found you." The nurse pushed Yoshida back onto the bed, and he laid down.

"I need to leave tomorrow."

"But si-"
"Tomorrow. And get one of my executives in here. I need to have a discussion with him." Yoshida stayed still as the nurse hooked him back up to the machines.

To Be continued...