Atemu strode into the room with regal grace, eyes focused on Kaiba. The other duelist smirked, "Ready to duel, Mutou?"

"Always," Atemu replied, coming to stand before Kaiba, deck outstretched. The CEO took the offering and handed over his own, then they both shuffled in silence. As he returned his opponent's deck, Atemu added, "I must admit, I am curious as to why you wanted this last duel. Unhappy that I won before the final round?"

"Hardly," Kaiba scoffed. "I just wanted to see if you had yet another convoluted deck ready to go. Afraid that I'll come up with a counter if you bother to stick with a strategy?"

Atemu raised an eyebrow, giving his opponent a curious once over. "You need to know your opponent's strategy in order to beat them?"

There was a moment of silence, then Kaiba growled, "Stop wasting time and get on your dueling platform."

Atemu smirked and did as instructed, setting his deck in place, drawing his opening hand as the platforms rose. The lifepoint counters flashed to life and the duel began.

It didn't take Kaiba long to pick up on the theme of his opponent's cards.

"Are you seriously playing a kuriboh deck?"

"Is that a problem?"

"The point of this was supposed to be to prove that you could play this game! If you're not going to take this seriously-"

"Oh, I am quite serious," Atemu interrupted, eyes flashing. "And I would caution you to avoid underestimating the seemingly weak. They can surprise you. One would think that you would have already learned that this day, but apparently you need the lesson driven home."

Kaiba frowned and called out an attack, only to have it cancelled when Atemu discarded a Kuriboh from his hand. As the attack animation petered out, Kaiba rolled his eyes and said, "You know that you have to actually destroy my life points to win, right? Just keeping yours safe won't do a thing."

Atemu just smirked and drew a card.

The duel continued on with Kaiba growing ever more frustrated as his monsters and attacks were destroyed by a neverending swarm of fluff balls. Finally, there came a turn when Kaiba's field was empty and he found himself staring down a mini army of Kuriboh-themed monsters.

Atemu surveyed his hand and declared, "It has been an interesting duel, Kaiba, but it ends here. I sacrifice my Kuribohrn, Kuriboh, and both of my winged Kuribohs to summon Dystopia the Despondent!"

The Kuribohs disappeared and a massive 5000/5000 demon took the field. Kaiba stared up at it in resignation. There went the rest of his life points. Once the counter hit zero, the platforms lowered to the ground. The opponents left their stations, coming to meet on the side of the arena. They stared at each other for a minute, then Kaiba held out his hand, surprising Atemu.

After a moment's hesitation, the former pharaoh took the offering, shaking it firmly. "Well fought. Each of our duels was a true challenge. Your title of champion is well earned."

"So's yours," Kaiba replied. Then he pulled his hand back and swept towards the room's exit decreeing, "Come on, we've wasted enough time on this."

Most of the room's occupants stared after the CEO in stunned silence. However, Mokuba immediately hopped to his feet and followed along, calling, "Wait up, Seto!"

Kaiba paused, not turning around, but not moving either. He simply waited until Mokuba was at his side, then started moving again. It was also clear that he'd shortened his stride, compensating for his brother's shorter legs.

Atemu watched the interaction with a thoughtful gaze. Yuugi was right. Kaiba is far more complex than I first thought. He may even have a heart.

The return trip to Kaiba's office was full of excited babble from Mokuba. It turned out that the boy was something of a chatterbox once you'd received his big brother's approval. Most of the chatter was directed at Atemu. Questions about deck strategies and certain choices that had been made in the duels. He answered the first few as best he could, then happily switched with Yuugi, allowing his partner the chance to discuss the game with a clear fan.

Once they reached the office, though, the mood shifted. A tense silence settled on the group as they took various seats around the room. Yuugi took the spot of honor in front of Kaiba's desk and the two rivals stared at each other for a good minute, each collecting their thoughts. Then Kaiba spoke, declaring, "So the puzzle is some sort of ancient confidence booster," with a pleased smirk.

Yuugi just stared back, stunned. Then a snort of laughter came from behind him. He turned and immediately knew exactly where the noise had come from. Marik had a hand clamped over his mouth, but his eyes were shining and his shoulders were shaking.

Kaiba's smirk turned to a scowl. "Are you laughing at me?"

Marik shook his head and finally managed to get himself under control as he replied, "No, not at all! It's just, if you don't know the whole story, that's a really logical guess and I find that hilarious . Could you imagine if that's really what it did?"

He began to laugh again and Atemu appeared in the air beside Yuugi, looking annoyed. "Is he trying to ruin all your hard work?"

"No, but it's definitely not helping! Please tell me you have diplomacy training before I start panicking."

"Of course," Atemu replied, gaze turning fond. They switched places and he turned to face Kaiba. "As Marik said, your guess was well reasoned. I suppose that this is why you asked for the puzzle to be used in our final duel?"

Kaiba nodded, still looking annoyed. "Mind explaining why you act like a completely different person when you've got it on?"

A smile tugged at the corners of Atemu's lips. "You have just unwittingly guessed the answer."

Kaiba's annoyance took on a puzzled air, so Atemu continued on, offering a brief explanation of the puzzle's secret. Once the former pharaoh finished, the CEO crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, gaze pensive. Eventually, he sighed and said, "I can't think of a reason why you'd make that up."

"I suppose it is rather hard to believe," Atemu conceded. "Then again, you do have the ability to summon dragons."

"I didn't believe that at first either," Kaiba replied, earning a curious look from the puzzle-bearer.

"Would you care to tell us how you were convinced?"

Kaiba shrugged. "I assumed it was a practical joke at first. Pegasus is a big fan of those. So I went to a series of random locations and repeated the process with various marked cards, including random ones that I never play. When the experiment's results were repeated consistently in places that clearly had no chance at being rigged, I figured that I had no choice but to accept that this particular type of magic was real."

"You do not sound pleased about that," Atemu noted.

"I'm a man of science," Kaiba replied, gesturing around the technology-laden office. "As far as I'm concerned, magic belongs in video games and duel monsters belong in cards. It certainly doesn't help that Pegasus can't explain most of this. I'm guessing you can, though, assuming that this whole pharaoh nonsense has some truth to it?"

Atemu nodded. "I know the origins of the items, our abilities, and the duel monsters themselves. However, this is not knowledge that I will give freely."

"Obviously," Kaiba agreed. "What are you proposing?"

"Everything we know for everything you know?" Atemu suggested. "I have several ideas of how to go about that, but I am open to hearing your thoughts."

Kaiba's eyes narrowed. "Fact for fact?"

"With the option to ask for clarification and a promise to continue on if one of us runs out of information?" Atemu offered, earning a nod. "Excellent. As a show of faith, I will begin."

"The items were created 3000 years ago by my uncle as a means to amplify an individual's magic."

Kaiba considered this, then said, "Pegasus first created duel monsters 6 years ago as a means to try and lure out other millennium items."

"During the item's creation, a dark being of unfathomable power was unleashed upon our world."

"Of course it was," Kaiba muttered. Then he shook his head and said, "Pegasus wanted all the items because he thought they'd give him a way to bring his dead fiance back to life."

Atemu's eyes widened. "What? But such power is beyond even the gods! Why did he-"

"Don't ask me to explain the mind of Pegasus Crawford," Kaiba interrupted. "The man's a nutjob."

"Very well," Atemu agreed. "I believe that it was my turn?"

"It was."

Atemu nodded and took a deep breath, studying Kaiba closely. "The dark being I mentioned previously was unleashed upon Egypt 3000 years ago. In order to stop him, I sacrificed my soul, trapping both of us within the puzzle."

"How-" Kaiba began, but a pointed look from Atemu cut him off. He chuckled. "I suppose there's no reason I'd need to know?"

"Precisely."

They continued on in this manner for the next two hours. After the first few tense exchanges, the guarded facts turned into a more open sharing of knowledge as they both began to trust the other's commitment to the truce. By the end, Yuugi's group had learned more than a few concerning facts. Chief among them being three things. First, Pegasus did indeed possess all of the tablets from the hidden chamber in the Valley of the Kings. Second, Pegasus seemed to be working for someone that Kaiba had never managed to meet. Finally, Pegasus hadn't contacted Kaiba in several weeks. The CEO seemed unphased by that fact, but then, he didn't seem to care much for his sometimes business partner. The only concession he made on this point was to hand over a list of Pegasus' personal phone numbers and decree, "If you're so concerned about him, here you go. Knock yourself out."

Atemu took the list with a nod, carefully folding it and sticking it into his pants' pocket. They could decide what to do with it later.

Once that was done, he turned his attention back to Kaiba and said, "There is one final matter that we should discuss."

Kaiba raised an eyebrow, signaling for Atemu to continue.

"As you now know, the fate of the items is currently in question. We may soon ask for you to assist in their destruction or combined use. What say you?"

Kaiba glanced over at his brother. Mokuba had long since grown bored and was now sitting against the wall, playing on a handheld video game console. The CEO studied the boy for a long moment, then said, "My vote is for their destruction."

Surprise flashed across Atemu's face. "Truly?"

"Nothing I've learned about the items makes me a fan," Kaiba explained. "If destroying them means no more magic, then I'm all for it."

"It would mean no more dragons," Atemu pointed out, a hint of mirth coloring his tone.

Kaiba smirked. "A sacrifice, but one I'm willing to make. However, I'll be keeping the rod for now. You wanna destroy it, tell me where and I'll tell you when I can make it happen."

"I would not ask you to leave yourself unguarded," Atemu agreed. "In fact, as a sign of good faith, I will instruct you in how to go about creating a protective shield. You can use this on your person or to create charms for those you care about. It is more of an alarm system than a true barrier, but it is preferable to going completely defenceless."

There followed a brief lesson in magical defenses, after which Kaiba personally escorted them out of his office and to the elevator. As the machine began its descent, he said, "I suppose we'll have to wait until this item business is over before we start on that game of yours. I don't want you distracted when Mokuba's safety is in question."

"The game?" Atemu asked, startled by the change in topics.

"The thing you came here to pitch?" Kaiba reminded his tentative-ally.

"Yes, I merely-" Atemu began, then he stopped and switched places with Yuugi. The former pharaoh knew that this was his partner's achievement, not his. That meant that this discussion should be in Yuugi's hands.

The shy teen ducked his head, blushing slightly as he asked, "You liked it?"

"It has potential," Kaiba admitted, gaze sharpening. "You switched, didn't you?"

Yuugi nodded and Kaiba sighed, turning his gaze to another of the elevator's occupants. "Whatever. I'll have a contract drawn up and sent over to you, Otogi. Review it with your co-designer and get back to me with any concerns. I want this all signed and ready to go as soon as this magic nonsense is handled."

"You got it," Otogi replied, winking at the CEO as the elevator came to a halt.

Kaiba walked the group to the door that led to the reception area, then pulled a card from his pocket, handing it to Yuugi. "Don't use this without a good reason."

Yuugi took the card and looked down at it, pleased to find that it contained Kaiba's personal number. When he looked up, he found that Kaiba had already turned around and started walking back towards the elevator with Mokuba at his side. The small boy waved goodbye, then looked up at his brother and asked, "Can we get dinner now, Seto?"

Kaiba's response was too quiet to hear, but the interaction still left Yuugi smiling as they exited the building. Rishid was sitting on a bench near the door, clearly waiting for them.

"Anything interesting happen while we were in there?" Marik asked by way of greeting.

His brother shook his head. "It was quiet. How did your mission go?"

"It was... productive," Marik said. "Let's get dinner and we'll tell you all about it when we get home!"