On Mako's command, the two heads of the Ocean Dragon Lord open their respective mouths and, after producing a double roar that shakes the stadium, start gathering energy and forming two blue energy balls surrounded by droplets of water. Finally, they fire two blue blasts heading to Yugi. Somewhere along the way, the two blasts merge into one, wider blast.

With no cards on the field or in his hand, the only thing Mako's opponent can do is stare, with his eyes bulging, at the blast that is about to hit him and reduce his life points to zero.

Time seems to slow down, from both Mako's and Yugi's perspective, with both of them having an adrenaline rush, each for different reasons.

'I WON!' Mako thinks with a grin.

And then... Yugi grins as well!

With time still slowing down from his perspective, Mako gasps. Why is that boy smiling? There is literally nothing he can do to change the result of this duel!

'I use the effect of the Kuriboh,' Yugi declares and produces a card depicting a cute, round, furry, brown creature with green hands and feet, no limbs, and large, purple eyes. It has 300 ATK points and 200 DEF points. 'When a monster attacks me, I can discard it from my hand to reduce the damage to my life points to zero.'

The floating hairball momentarily appears on the field and multiplies. With countless adorable squeals, the Kuriboh clones absorb the blast's power and Yugi's remaining life points are left intact.

'I-I don't get it,' a gobsmacked Mako stutters. Then he gets an indignant expression and clenches a fist. 'I don't get it,' he repeats. 'Where did you get that Kuriboh? You were supposed to be left without cards in your hand. EXPLAIN!'

Yugi chuckles, amused at his opponent's frustration. 'When you activated the effect of Daedalus, all monsters on my field were destroyed,' he begins explaining.

'Yeah, I know,' Mako nods, impatient to know. 'Valkyrion the Magnet Warrior and a weak, vanilla monster whi...'

'It wasn't just a vanilla monster, Mako,' Yugi interrupts him haughtily. 'You should have looked more carefully.'

To make his point, the boy with colorful hair picks up the aforementioned card from the top of his graveyard and shows it to his opponent. 'Sangan!' he exclaims. 'When it is sent from the field to the graveyard, it allows me to take a monster with 1500 ATK points or less from my deck. And I chose Kuriboh! And since the Ocean Dragon Lord's effect sent the cards in my hand to the graveyard at exactly the same time that it did the same thing to the Sangan, the card I added to my hand right after thanks to the Sangan's effect wasn't affected by that.'

It takes the duelist with the water themed deck one more moment to realize what has happened. He sighs.

If one was watching this duel right now, they'd be like, 'It's still Mako's victory. He has a monster with 2900 ATK points on the field and Yugi's field is bare and Yugi has no cards left in his hand. There is no way the next card he draws can give him one more miracle.'

However, Mako can now feel it that he's not going to win. He can feel it that, having missed this chance to win as well, there is no turning back.

'Yugi,' he says, having resigned himself to his fate. 'It was an honor to duel you!'

'It was an honor to duel you, Mako,' the other boy replies.

Silence.

'Do it!' Mako nods with a serious expression.

Yugi nods with a smile. He draws a card. He looks at the new card. His eyes back to the opponent. 'I play the Brain Control,' he declares and shows the aforementioned spell card. 'By paying 800 life points, I get to control one of your monsters for this turn.'

Yugi's life points decrease to 200 as two green hands lift the gargantuan body of the Ocean Dragon Lord, without the slightest difficulty, and position it on Yugi's field.

Little Mako is carefreely chasing a butterfly in the grassy prairie outside his village. He's nude, except a pair of ragged blue shorts.

Man, he would be so embarrassed if his friends saw him right now. As almost any normal boy his age, he tries to act cool and macho when around his peers, but the truth is he needs such moments as well. Moments he plays with butterflies!

At some point, he spots his father. Mister Stream Tsunami, who also is nude, except a pair of beige shorts, is praying on the top of a hill, the village shrine, kneeling before a wooden structure. Part of that structure is a wooden statuette of a serpent, a creature the villagers believe is the God of the Ocean and really looks like Ocean Dragon Lord Neo Daedalus, a duel monsters card from the future, though, right now, duel monsters aren't even a thing yet.

'Hey, dad,' the boy calls out and climbs the hill in seconds, running over to his beloved papa. He loves him so much!

'Hey, son,' the sturdy, muscular man laughs heartily and lifts the boy in his arms. A true gentle giant!

'So, you were praying to God?' Mako casually asks as his father gently places him back on the ground.

'Of course, son,' Stream answers. 'Never neglect to pay your respects to His Holiness. It is thanks to His blessings that I get good hauls and manage to put food on the family table.'

'I'll remember it, dad,' the smiling boy nods.

Mako is now looking at the Ocean Dragon Lord, the ultimate monster in his deck. The monster that was fighting by his side a moment ago and is now against him.

'God of the Ocean,' the muscular lad thinks with a smile of resignation. 'My father always worshipped and respected you and offered part of his goods as tributes to you. Yet you eventually took his life. Just as you will now take my life points. So be it! May your will be done!'

'Neo Daedalus,' Yugi cries, pointing a finger forward. 'FINISH THIS DUEL. DIRECT ATTACK!'

The Dragon Lord fires his blast once more. The blast hits Mako, forcing his back to the hard floor of the stadium and reducing his life points to zero.

The holograms disappear.

Yugi walks over to the fallen opponent and offers him his hand in order to help him get up. Mako accepts the help with a smile.

'Mako, that was an amazing game. You truly are a formidable duelist,' Yugi remarks with a smile of recognition.

'The hell it was,' Mako laughs heartily, stroking his nape. 'Here. Take my two locator cards. And of course my rarest card, Ocean Dragon Lord Neo Daedalus. My deck will be considerably weaker without him, but rules are rules.'

'I accept your locator cards,' Yugi says, taking them. 'But not your monster card, Mako.'

'Huh?' the taller boy gasps, surprised.

'I never take any cards as an ante from opponents I defeat. It's against my principles,' Yugi explains.

'Yugi... are you sure...' a dumbfounded Mako wonders. 'I mean, when I registered for this tournament, I willingly accepted that risk.'

Without responding, Yugi just smiles one more time, turns around and walks away. 'Take care, Mako,' he says in his head.

That moment, as Yugi walks away, he suddenly feels a powerful, sinister aura. A divine aura. A God Card! Someone, somewhere in Domino City, has just summoned a God Card! Slifer the Sky Dragon!

Mai is staring at the gargantuan monster in front of her, with her eyes widening. A red, winged, serpent like dragon with two mouths. Slifer opens his upper mouth and produces a roar that Mai swears caused some fruit to fall off nearby trees.

'Witness your death, Mai,' an elated Marik cries through the body of Strings, making the latter unnecessarily point a finger forward. 'This is the last monster you will ever see.'

Even the monsters on Mai's field (two Cyber Harpies and the Harpy's Brother) look scared.

'Mai,' Yami Yugi whispers. She needs his help! He must run.

The boy starts running, as fast as he can.

Tea and Tristan are walking on the Battle City streets. Tea is wearing her summer clothes: an azure sleeveless shirt, a denim skirt, white high stockings and blue sandals. Tristan is wearing a red jacket and blue jeans.

'Darn. I'm so bored,' Tea moans, placing her hands behind her lovely head. 'All our friends are out there dueling right now and, as for us, we have nothing to do.'

Tristan nudges her with a meaningful smile. 'Let's play tennis,' he suggests.

Tea realizes right away that this is a reference to 'Friends with Benefits', that sappy, American rom com they watched a few days ago. She rolls her eyes. 'Haha, very funny, Mister Taylor,' she says sarcastically. 'Not even with a thousand condoms!'

'Chill, I was kidding,' Tristan laughs. 'Besides...'

Before continuing, the boy takes a more serious expression, places his hands behind his head and sighs. 'My heart is elsewhere.'

'Serenity, huh?' Tea casually asks.

'Yeah,' Tristan admits. 'Even though I have seen her only in photos Joey has shown us, I feel as if I had known her all my life. It's a shame she finally went permanently blind after all.'

'You should be thankful. Now that she cannot see what you look like, maybe you have a chance with her,' Tea was about to say, when she realized that it would be too callous to make such a comment about a girl who will never regain her eyesight. Though she still cannot understand why Joey's sister did not go through with the surgery her brother had paid for.

That moment, Yugi passes by them, running like crazy.

'Hey, Yu...'

'NOT NOW!' Yugi screams, almost pushing his friends out of the way!

The two flabbergasted teenagers stare at their friend quickly getting lost from view.

'Are we sure that was Yugi?' Tristan scratches his head.

Tea closes her eyes, annoyed by her love interest's rudeness. 'Probably, it was Kaiba, who switched bodies with Yugi!'

Yugi arrives on the battlefield. Mai is dueling the mime he saw earlier. He knew it! He knew this bald freak was bad news!

'MARIK!' the boy cries. 'Leave her alone.'

Strings turns his head. 'Pharaoh!' he yells. 'What do you want here, motherfucker?'

'Leave her alone,' Yugi demands, ignoring the expletive. 'It's me whom you want.'

Marik makes Strings point at himself. 'I decide whom I want and when I want them,' he quips.

'Yugi!' Mai cries, irritated. 'Stay out of this. This is my battle!'

'But, Mai...' Yugi tries to insist, knowing full well that it's futile. Darn, this woman is so stubborn!

And how does she think she's going to win anyway? She has only 300 life points left whereas Marik has 3600! Slifer is on the field and has 4000 ATK points. The Revival Jam (a blue, shapeless monster made of slime) is there too. As for Mai, she has only one monster on the field: the Harpy's Brother. What is she supposed to do with such a weak mon...

Huh? Wait a minute. What is this sword the Harpy's Brother is holding? Is it some equip spell card?

'Harpy's Brother,' Mai cries determinedly. 'Avenge your Harpy Lady Sisters. SLAY THE GOD!'

And slay the God he does! Literally! The very next moment, the Harpy's Brother, a monster that, as far as Yugi knows, is a vanilla monster with 1800 ATK points, charges at Slifer the Sky Dragon and, with a supernaturally high jump, strikes him with his sword, cutting him into two!

The God monster breaks into a million tiny pieces, as if it was an ordinary monster! And String's life points decrease from 3600 all the way to zero!

'WHAT IN THE NAME OF RA?' Yugi cries, his eyes bulging in a manner that would be comical if the current situation wasn't so serious.

Strings falls on his knees. The holograms disappear.

Mai walks over to her opponent. 'It's over, Marik. I won,' she says, arms crossed. 'Now hand over the locator card and of course the rarest card in your deck: Slifer the Sky Dragon!'