After the duel at the warehouse had ended, Tokyo Mew Mew plus Kaiba, Yugi, Jounouchi, and Malik all met outside the warehouse, all still shaken by the duel but glad everyone made it. Zakuro and Ichigo talked to each other, both glad to be alive, with Zakuro apologizing rather profusely to Ichigo for how she had acted while she was brainwashed by Deep Blue. "Ichigo," she told her, the two of them and the rest of the team now de-transformed. "I'm sorry for how I acted. I did horrible things to you during that duel, and said horrible things as well."

"You don't have to be sorry, Zakuro," Ichigo calmly assured her, her pendant back around her neck and Dark Ichigo's form standing nearby. "It's not your fault. Deep Blue made you say and do all of that. The first thing you did when you came to was to try to save me, and that's what matters."

Minto then chimed in, hugging Zakuro from behind and wrapping her arms around her. "Onee-sama, you nearly died trying to save Ichigo. You tried to the very end to free her from her ankle weights. Don't ever be sorry for what happened."

Zakuro blushed slightly before she smiled and turned around, returning the hug to Minto, who blushed a bright red in response. "Thank you, Minto."

"May I add something?" Malik and Jounouchi then both walked over to the three of them. Malik looked over the sea before then as he told them, "If what Deep Blue did was similar to how I once brainwashed Jounouchi, then everything Ichigo said was true. You didn't have any control over what you said or did, Zakuro. You weren't at fault."

"I know he's not lying because it did happen to me," Jounouchi added. "Before Malik saw the errors in his ways, he had brainwashed me into dueling Yugi. I once had the same reaction you did when I came out of it, Zakuro. You just gotta reinforce in your head that what you did out there wasn't you." He then turned to Malik. "Not gonna lie, you're pretty ingenious when it comes to those kinda traps."

Malik chuckled and gently pushed Jounouchi on the shoulder, "Aw come on, it was nothing special. It was some thing a few of the Ghouls whipped up, really." It had been six years since Battle City, and Malik had learned to make some light of what he had done before then, especially with Jounouchi. "Speaking of, ever since I abandoned them, they've been a thorn on the side of Duel Monsters the world over. Now that they have a leader who managed to somehow be even more batshit insane than I was back in the 1990s, they're an even bigger threat than they were back then. Hopefully, this tournament snuffs them out for good."

"Right," Ichigo agreed with him. "Malik, I promise. When this is over, the Ghouls will be gone for good."

...

Meanwhile, in another part of the city, Jurou had just finished up what would most likely be his last duel of the preliminaries before the finals began. He had racked up an impressive number of D-chips, and was a contender for being the champion of the tournament as a whole. As he took off a backpack he wore and placed his newly-gained D-chips inside, he also brushed off his dark blue coat and thought about what had transpired before with Ichigo and the Ghouls. He was unaware of the duel with Zakuro. "These Ghouls are really going all in," he thought to himself. "Their leader, that Deep Blue guy that Ichigo brought up, seems really dangerous. Was he really the enemy that she had fought as Mew Ichigo?" He then packed up his bag and stood up,pulling out a necklace that consisted of a stylized Kaiba Corporation logo. "Regardless, I cannot let it distract me from my goal of having a fair rematch with Ichigo, nor my goal of reaching the top in Duel Monsters. With that said, what did Kaiba mean when he talked to me at the start of the tournament...?"

...

Right before the Preliminaries

Kaiba had met with Jurou privately in a back room at the Kaiba Corporation Branch Office in Tokyo. It was here that the nerve center of Battle City 4 would be located. The two sat alone in a drab meeting room on opposite ends of a table, and Kaiba had his trademark white coat on, while Jurou had the same dark blue coat he normally wore. "I see you're enjoying that coat I gave you before the qualifiers," Kaiba noted to him.

"Of course," he replied. "I wear it as much as I can." He clearly was happy to have received the coat from him.

"Now," Kaiba began. "Do you know why I contacted you in the first place?"

Jurou was perplexed by the question. "Because I was the youngest player in Duel Monsters in Japan to ever reach the Top 10 nationally?"

"Well, yes," Kaiba did admit. "That was the initial reason. The other reason is because I've seen quite a few things I used to do in you, and not all of them are exactly good."

Jurou, wondering just what those negative things were, asked the young CEO who was practically his idol, "What do you see?"

"You are very committed to the Archfiends," Kaiba did point out. "You've never strayed away from them. It reminds me of when I first became interested in the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, although less..." The young man sighed as he had to admit his own shortcomings, something he did not like to do. "Less insane, perhaps. However, it seems you do share something else. You share an obsession with a rival."

"You mean Ichigo?" Jurou now knew what he was getting at. "Well yes, I would describe her as my rival."

"That's obvious," Kaiba replied. "However, I do want to warn you of one thing. Don't let it consume your life." He then paused for a few seconds before saying something else. "Okay, maybe it's more than one thing. The other thing is, don't let it stop you from working together with her when something major is at stake. When lives are on the line, especially of you or your loved ones, you can put your rivalry aside, and you should."

...

Present Day

"He must have been referring to Mutou Yugi when he was talking about rivalry," Jurou thought to himself in the present. "I get it, but... I need to settle what I have. Besides, I think they got this Ghoul thing under control."

He then was interrupted in his thoughts by a man who was standing before him. "Hey, are you gonna pay attention to me or are you just gonna stand there like a fool?"

"Huh?" Jurou then snapped back to reality and looked over a man who was standing before him. "Oh, right. Who are you?"

"Your next opponent," the young man replied. He had dark green hair and odd-shaped ears. "The name is Ikisatashi Kisshu. How about you?"

"Yamamoto Jurou," he replied. "You seem pretty odd, almost out of place." He then readied his duel disk. "Anyway, how many D-chips do you wanna bet?"

"Ten," Kisshu replied. "I got a lot more, but I need to get into the Finals. I got a lot at stake. Also, if you think I'm out of place, you have no idea." As he readied his duel disk, the alien thought to himself, "I may not do so well, but it's good practice anyway. Deep Blue has mostly Fiend monsters in his deck, and from what I've heard about this Yamamoto Jurou guy, he uses exclusively Archfiends. If I can get some experience against Fiends, I can do better when I go up against Deep Blue to free Pai and Taruto from his grasp."

...

Later on, Ringo had returned to her "other" home in Tokyo, away from where she normally lived with her older brother. It was here that her father lived, and she had been staying here for the duration of the tournament to be closer to the rest of the team. As she opened the door to the apartment, she walked in and found many of the lights off, indicating that her father was asleep. After all, it was around 9 PM that she had come home. As she quietly turned on the front room lights, she thought to herself, "That was an incredible duel. I'm glad Ichigo was able to get Zakuro back, even if she had to lose to do so."

Suddenly, as she rounded a corner into the living room, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest and collapsed to her knees. As she clutched her chest in pain, she grunted, wondering what was happening and wishing badly for the pain to stop. As the room around her began to disappear from her view, she closed her eyes and let out a yelp in pain as she felt another stabbing pain. This alerted her father, who woke up from bed and ran out to see his daughter. He had hair just like Ringo's brother, and was about the same height as him. "Ringo?! Ringo! What's wrong?!" He quickly ran to her side as she slumped over onto the floor, thinking that she was having some kind of heart attack.

However, for him, this would be far worse than any heart attack.

"Nothing is wrong," Ringo, or at least what he thought was Ringo, replied to him in a slightly deeper voice. "Nothing is wrong at all." She then stood up and stared down at the man, who was on his knees. "Now, I need to get you out of the way." As her Mew Mark glowed on her forehead, she gave her own father one of the most disturbing grins he had ever seen.

"What?! Who are you?!" Ringo's father was horrified to see what or who had taken over his daughter's body.

"I'm your worst nightmare, old man," Dark Ringo addressed him in a rude tone of voice. "I've sent your wife to Hell already five years prior, and I'll make sure you join her!" Several black hands then emerged from the floor, seemingly going through the top, and latched onto her father's legs to keep him in place. "Have fun wandering the shadows forever. Now, Penalty Game!" She then pointed at him, instructing the arms to pull down.

"No! No! Somebody help me!" Ringo's father then screamed and screamed and screamed as the hands slowly pulled him through the floor, making him disappear into what could only be described as Hell. As the screaming stopped, Dark Ringo looked down and saw that his cellphone and his watch had stayed behind.

She picked up both with her hands as her Mew Mark disappeared from her forehead and looked them over. "Just wait, Ichigo. I'll challenge you soon."