By the time Ichigo and Masaya had emerged back onto the street, it was now 11:30. They had been trapped in the basement for a while, and they wondered if the others had tried to reach them. A large amount of buzzes from missed calls and texts to their phones confirmed so. Ichigo opened her phone, cleared the messages left, and called Ryou first. Soon after she dialed his number and pressed "call," he answered up with, "Ichigo, where are you?!"

"Me and Masaya are in Minato," Ichigo told him as she looked around. "Where are you?"

"In the area," Ryou replied to her. "Thank God you two are alright. Anyway, we think we know where Zakuro and Minto are. We're heading to the dockyards at the harbor. I received a text message from her phone saying to go down there. I suggest you do, too."

"Alright," Ichigo replied with a nod. "We'll head right over." She then hung up and turned to Masaya. "We need to get to the harbor. They think Zakuro and Minto are there."

Masaya was relieved, but also now had new concerns. "That's good, but how are we gonna get there in time? We're pretty far from the harbor." Above them, the two of them heard what sounded like helicopter blades getting closer and closer to the rooftops of the buildings around them. As they looked around to find the source of the noise, they saw a helicopter approaching a rooftop near them.

"I think we have our answer," Ichigo told her as they began to look away due to the wind pushed by the blades of the helicopter.

Sure enough, the side doors opened as it hovered just above the rooftop, the rails not touching the roof itself, and Kaiba stepped out. He waved over to them, calling them over to board the helicopter. "Well," Masaya said to his girlfriend. "Let's get on."

...

Several minutes later, the helicopter had taken off, and was heading straight for the harbor to meet with the rest of the gang. Aside from Ichigo, Masaya, and Kaiba, Yugi and Jounouchi had also been on board. Ichigo and Masaya sat across from the trio. All five were silent at first, wondering who would break the ice among them. Then, Yugi finally did, asking Ichigo, "Hey, how are you feeling?"

Ichigo sighed. "Well, I've been threatened with death quite a bit over the past few days, questioned life itself, and have had many of my family and friends either threatened or hurt by Deep Blue, but aside from that, I feel fine." She had a rather sarcastic tone in her voice, a tone that Yugi could spot. "And now, I have to contend with two of my closest friends being kidnapped by him."

"Right," Yugi nodded in response. "I know what that's like. I'm just sorry that you have to go through it so young. I was already in high school when this began. I couldn't imagine going through it in middle school."

"To be honest," Ichigo replied to him. "This isn't my first rodeo with death. I died once already against him to save my boyfriend's life." She then gripped Masaya's hand tightly. "I would gladly do it again if I had to."

"Ah, young love," Jounouchi remarked to the young couple. "I remember when Yuge and Anzu first got together. Me and Honda had wondered for so long when it was finally gonna happen, and lemme tell ya, when it did, it was cute as Hell."

Yugi laughed as he blushed slightly. "You're not wrong. Now the two of us are engaged."

Kaiba simply shrugged. "It is what it is. We have other matters to worry about right now. Tell me, Ichigo, how did you get into Duel Monsters?"

"How I got into Duel Monsters..." Ichigo thought back to when she first began to play the game with Ryouta at school. "Masaya has a friend named Ryouta, and he introduced me to it. I was bad at first, really bad. It wasn't until I got my hands on the Elemental HERO cards that I got better." She then reached into her duel disk and pulled her deck out. "I use a sixty-card deck. I swap cards in and out about once or twice a day during the tournament. Speaking of my deck..." Ichigo then looked through the deck of cards, trying to find one in particular. "Aha! Yugi, here's Osiris." She presented the Egyptian God Card to the three of them. "I won it in a duel. What's the status on the other two?"

"I have Obelisk again," Kaiba replied, pulling it out of his coat. "I haven't added it to my deck, though. As for Ra... Yugi, you said Malik had it again, right?"

"Yeah," Yugi nodded. "He won it from a resurrected version of his own dark side. Deep Blue seems to like reviving old enemies of our's."

"It's probably an intimidation tactic," Jounouchi inferred. "Think about it. You'd be scared too if some wise guy whose ass ya kicked suddenly came back from the dead, right?"

"Malik Ishtar, right?" Ichigo recognized the name. "The Middle Eastern and North African Region Champion from the first Battle City in 1997?"

"Correct," Kaiba replied to her with a nod. "Back then, he was the villain. At the time, I didn't believe much in this occult stuff that Yugi, Pegasus, and him were pushing and preaching. Now, though, I'm a bit more open to it. Yugi, do you mind explaining to her what was going on?"

"Sure," Yugi nodded as well. "Ichigo, back then, Malik tried to kill the other me, the Pharaoh Atem, because he thought he was responsible for the death of his father, and because he resented the fact that his family was tasked with guarding his tomb and the tombs of many other Pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. He was the original founder of the Ghouls, but disavowed them after he realized the errors of his ways."

"My question is," Masaya then interjected with. "How did the Ghouls agree to work with Deep Blue, despite him being so hellbent on destroying humanity?"

"They were leaderless for a long time," Kaiba explained to him. "I talked to Malik over the phone, and he explained that they were desperate for a cause to work for, and when Deep Blue came along, he gave them a cause: Infiltrate Battle City 4, and destroy the Kaiba Corporation and Industrial Illusions. He did not let them on the whole "destroying humanity" part, but did tell them he wished to take over not just the world, but much of the known galaxy."

"So that's how far he wants to go...," Ichigo noted to herself. She then held up her pendant, which now hung from a red choker around her neck, and asked them, "Do you guys wanna talk to the other me, too? I can bring her out at will."

Yugi, Jounouchi, and Kaiba all looked at each other and nodded. "Sure thing," Yugi replied to her. "I want to find out some stuff from her."

"Okay then," Ichigo replied as she closed her eyes and let her pendant glow a bright light. In a flash, she had transformed into Dark Ichigo, and as she looked around, the normal Ichigo told her, "Other me, Yugi wants to ask you a few things."

"Right," Dark Ichigo replied to her. She then turned to Yugi. "So, Yugi, what do you want to know?"

Right off the bat, Yugi decided to get right to it and ask her, "Do you have any clue as to your past? The other me didn't for a long time."

"Then I'm in the same boat he was," Dark Ichigo affirmed to him. "I have no idea who I was. All I know is that I was someone from the Cyniclons, but from a long time ago. I can read Cyniclonian and Ancient Egyptian, but I have no idea why."

"I want you to read this," Kaiba replied as he handed her a piece of paper that contained a photograph. "It's a photograph of an inscription Atem did three thousand years ago. I think Yugi may have showed you before, but with a translation. See if you can read it out loud."

Ichigo, looking over Dark Ichigo's shoulder, instantly recognized the inscription. "It's the really dirty one..." She blushed as her other self looked over the picture. "Are you sure you wanna read it out lou-?"

Dark Ichigo interrupted her as she began to read it out loud in a language nobody else on the helicopter understood. However, Yugi recognized that it was indeed Ancient Egyptian. (A/N: This is a translation of what Atem wrote and what Dark Ichigo said.)

(Name carved out), though you may part from me this week, you will be in my heart for eternity, and I will forever await your return to Egypt. Mana and Mahad are going to miss you dearly, but I will miss you the most. They do not know of our love that transcends the boundaries between the world of us mere humans and your world among the Gods and Goddesses. I'm sure Mahad would understand the most, given how madly he loves Isis. Enough of that, though. (Name carved out), the last six weeks we had finally spent as a couple have been some of the happiest in my short life as a prince.

You rival no one else. Your skin is soft to the touch, and is unique compared to everyone else, as are your eyes and ears. Hearing you speak is a beautiful sound, as if Hathor Herself was speaking into my ear. If it was possible, I would kiss you all day. Of course, you know that we have gone far beyond merely kissing. We have made love many times over those six weeks, and every time was even better than the last.

At this point, Dark Ichigo looked up at Yugi and asked him, "I can see why my partner was a bit embarrassed to read this."

"You're telling me," Yugi replied in agreement. "I had to read a translation of the other me basically writing smut about his girlfriend."

Jounouchi laughed in response. "I remember that! That was hilarious!"

"Anyway," Dark Ichigo continued on with. "Where was I...?"

Your dark red hair shines in the sun of the Egyptian sky. Your ample bosom makes many of the other girls our age envy you. I do not blame them. You have grown so much from when I last saw you when we were mere children and not young adults three years prior. Your body is built to be loved, but to go on about it forever would be a waste compared to how you are on the inside. You are kind, comforting, and incredibly brave. Your father was right when he said you would make a great ruler for your people one day.

One day, when you return, I want to see if we can be wed. I want to unite my kingdom with your's. Cyniclonia and Egypt combined will be unstoppable on my world. We will oversee a new era.

Wait for me, (Name carved out), my princess.

Dark Ichigo was silent, unable to form a coherent response to what Atem had wrote when he was only almost 14 years old. Masaya turned to her, not understanding the words she had said, and asked her, "Ichigo, are you alright?"

"I...," Dark Ichigo replied. She then sighed as she collected herself. "I guess me and Atem had a deep connection. My only question is... Who scratched my name out?"

"We think it was Priest Seto," Yugi replied. "He did erase mentions of Atem's name too. Your name must have been among the targets, too."

"Master Kaiba," the pilot then yelled from the front of the helicopter. "We're approaching the harbor! We're getting ready to land!"

"Alright then," Kaiba replied. He then turned back to Dark Ichigo. "Ichigo, we're here."

"Right," she affirmatively nodded. "Let's save Minto and Zakuro!"