July 9, 2003

After school, the team decided to visit Ringo at her father's apartment, minus Berii, who had prior commitments with Tasuku. They had all decided the day before to go over to her house and check on her since she had not been heard from at all by her brother. As they approached the door, Purin told the group, "I hope Ringo's alright. I really wanna play with her before the finals." She had adored having someone her age among the team, and had begun to grow close to Ringo.

As Zakuro knocked on the door, she said through it, "Ringo? Mr. Akai? Anyone?"

She quickly got a reply when the door opened from the other side, and Ringo stood in the doorway. At least, they all thought it was Ringo staring back at them. She bowed and said, "Nice to see you all. What brings you here?"

"We wanted to check in on you," Ichigo explained to her. "Your brother hasn't heard from you or your father at all for a few days. Is everything alright?"

"Yes, of course," 'Ringo' assured them as she stepped aside to let them in. "Come, everyone. Step inside." As the whole team stepped inside, 'Ringo' thought to herself, "I got them all right where I want them. They don't suspect a thing. Soon, their souls will be mine, and Ichigo will be no more."

As the gang looked around her apartment, they noticed nothing wrong with it. Everything seemed clean and in place, and there were no signs of trouble. Retasu asked Ringo as she walked into the kitchen, "Ringo, is everything alright? Your father isn't here."

"He's out," 'Ringo' innocently replied to her. "Don't worry. We've been doing just fine." She then revealed a deck of cards. "If you guys want, we can play a casual game of Duel Monsters."

"I do have a deck," Retasu remarked to her. "But... Eheheh... It's not too good..."

...

The Day Before

Retasu and Ichigo were talking in the break room of the café in the middle of the day about various topics, like the tournament and the trials they had faced already. As the conversation went along, Retasu pulled out a deck of cards from one of her pockets in her café uniform. "As a matter of fact," she told Ichigo. "I do have a deck. You mind looking it over, if you want?"

"Of course," Ichigo replied with a nod, taking the deck from Retasu's hands to look it over. As she looked over each card, she began to notice a few things off with the deck, and her facial expression turned to one of concern and at times confusion. At the very end, Ichigo sighed and broke some bad news to her. "Retasu, no offence, but your deck..." She tried to phrase her words, but could not find a better way than to be blunt. "I'm just gonna say it. As it stands now, your deck sucks. There's almost only monsters in here, and there's only like three or four Magic Cards, with no Trap Cards at all."

Retasu was saddened to hear the review. "Awww... I thought that if I put monsters in there that I thought were strong, it would work."

"That's important," Ichigo noted to her. "But you need to support those monsters with good Magic and Trap Cards. It also doesn't help in this day and age of the game to try to at least have a very basic theme to your deck. My deck for example is mostly themed around the Elemental HERO and Vision HERO cards. I see you have quite a few WATER attribute monsters, and your only Magic Cards seem to be basic support cards for decks like that." She then handed the deck back to Retasu. "I think that with a few additions, you could have a good WATER Attribute deck. They've been pretty powerful before, such as with Kajiki Ryouta, the Fisherman Duelist."

"A WATER deck sounds pretty cool," Retasu replied, taking her ideas into serious consideration. "It's settled, then. Wanna help me restructure my deck around WATER monsters?"

"Absolutely," Ichigo replied with a nod.

...

"Eh, who cares?" 'Ringo' then reached into a cabinet to pull out a deck of her own. "It'll be fun. We'll use the First Edition Rules."

Retasu, confused, asked her, "First Edition Rules?"

"Oh yeah," Ichigo chimed in from another room. "The First Edition Rules were the original set of rules for Duel Monsters when it first came out. They're pretty different from today. You started with only 2000 life points, you could not attack a player directly, you didn't have to tribute to summon higher level monsters except for the Egyptian God Cards, you could only use one Trap Card per turn, and you had to summon or set at least one monster per turn if you had a monster in your hand."

"Those sounds weird," Retasu replied. "But I guess we can play by them."

...

A few minutes later, Retasu and 'Ringo' sat opposite from each other at a table in the kitchen. The whole gang watched, curious to see how using the old rules would affect the game. As the two of them drew their five cards, 'Ringo' thought to herself, "This will be a fun lead-in for the taking of your souls." "Alright, I'm ready. How about you?"

"I'm good," Retasu replied. "You wanna go first?" Her hand was all monsters, as she had not modified her deck yet with Ichigo's help.

"Why not? I draw," 'Ringo' replied as she drew a card. "I summon Sword Slasher, with 1450 attack. As you notice, even though it's a Level 5, I did not tribute anything due to the First Edition Rules. I end my turn."

"My turn," Retasu said in turn as she drew her next card. "I summon Deepsea Warrior, with 1600 attack." Since this was a normal duel, there were no flashy effects or holograms, just two people playing as normal. "Deepsea Warrior attacks your Sword Slasher."

'RINGO': 1850

RETASU: 2000

"Alright then," Ringo replied to her as she drew her next card and began her next turn. "I activate Monster Reborn to bring back my Sword Slasher. I also summon Battle Ox, with 1700 attack. Now, I'll have Battle Ox attack your Deepsea Warrior. Remember, monsters aren't everything."

'RINGO': 1850

RETASU: 1900

Then, 'Ringo' stood up. "I guess I shouldn't hide it any more. I'm getting a bit impatient with these slow proceedings." As her facial expression turned dark, she dropped her facade and revealed herself to be Dark Ringo, the one who had banished her father to Hell several days prior. "You've all fallen into my trap, and I got you all right where I want you."

Ichigo, concerned about her behavior and not yet realizing what was going on, asked Dark Ringo, "Ringo, what do you mean? What's going on?!"

"Ringo," a frightened Purin asked of her. "You're scaring me. What's going on?!"

"Goodbye," Dark Ringo replied to her before she pointed at Retasu, which had the affect of also targeting the rest of the team. "Penalty Game!" In an instant, all five of them collapsed to the floor with loud thuds, their souls taken by her. As Dark Ringo stood from her chair and looked over their bodies, she said to herself, "Now no one can fight me." She then turned around to get ready to leave. "I'm going to join Deep Blue and help him succeed in his quest. Now with that girl's father and her friends out of the way, no one can stop us!"

"I wouldn't be too sure of that," a mysterious voice then called out to her from the kitchen. As Dark Ringo turned around in shock, she was met by an awakened Dark Ichigo, who had taken over when Ichigo's soul was ripped out of her body. "You failed to take into account my presence within my partner's body. I don't know who you are or what you're doing to the real Ringo or her father, but I know this: You're going to pay."

Dark Ringo was surprised to see her. "I didn't recognize that you could escape from such acts. If it's a duel you want, it's a duel you'll get!" As she sat back down at the table, a thick dark cloud of smoke enveloped the entire room. "But this won't be an ordinary duel. This will be a Shadow Game of my own doing!"

"Yawn," Dark Ichigo, unfazed, replied to her, annoying her greatly. "I've done and seen more horrifying things. You should be the one that's afraid here, because if you think I am..." She then began to laugh, greatly angering Dark Ringo. "Now, you would be intimidating if, you know, you were actually good at being intimidating and you weren't like 10 years old, kid."

Angered by Dark Ichigo's attitude, Dark Ringo replied, "Stop mocking me! You'll regret it when you first summon a monster! Now, pick up Retasu's deck and pick up from where she left off!"

"Fine, fine," Dark Ichigo replied as she picked up Retasu's cards. "It was her turn, right? Alright. I draw." Dark Ichigo looked over her hand and sighed,thinking to herself, "Ugh, this is a horrible hand. I can see why my partner wanted to fix this deck." "I remove from play Deepsea Warrior from my graveyard to Special Summon Aqua Spirit, with 1600 atta-" Dark Ichigo then gasped as the monster on the card came to life. As smoke dissipated from the card and a humanoid form emerged from it, she looked it over and realized she recognized the person. "Wait a minute... Retasu?!"

"Huh?" Indeed, Retasu had taken the form of Aqua Spirit, much to her shock. "What?! Where am I?!" She then looked up at Dark Ichigo and screamed. "Ichigo?! What?! Why are you huge?! Why am I dressed like this?!" The teenage girl was frightened beyond belief.

"That's the punishment for your attitude before the duel," Dark Ringo sinisterly told Dark Ichigo. "Your friends have taken the form of several monsters in that deck. If they are in the graveyard when the duel ends, they will not be able to come back, even if you win!"