At Duke Devlin's store, the celebration is going on. Right now, at the shop's arena, Duke and Mai are standing across from each other. The charming lad is lazily playing with his hair and looking at his opponent with a laid back smile. Mai has her arms crossed and a determined expression.
'Go, Duke,' the female 'fan base' cry excitedly on the mezzanine.
It is not a duel monsters arena, mind you!
'And now, ladies and gentlemen,' Pegasus speaks, holding a microphone, serving as a referee during this special event, 'we shall give you a sample of the new game that is released today by our company. And what better way to do this than with an actual match? Mai Valentine, the duel monsters champion, shall face Duke Devlin, the creator of the new game, in a dungeon dice monsters battle!'
The audience cheers.
'You may be good at duel monsters, lady, but let me see how you will fare by my houserules,' Duke provokes her.
'I can win at any game,' Mai cries haughtily, pointing at her opponent. 'And I shall crash you, kiddo.'
This causes some Mai fans among the audience to cheer.
'I can win at any game,' an annoyed Joey does an impression of Mai.
That moment, Tristan's cellphone rings. It's Tea. With an eyebrow raised, the brown haired boy reads the message. He takes a slightly concerned expression.
'Umm, Joey, Tea sent me a message,' he taps his blond friend on the shoulder. 'She says it's an emergency.'
Joey turns his head. 'Did she say what is going on?' he asks.
'No,' Tristan shrugs.
'Probably her kitten is stuck on a tree branch again,' Joey sighs. 'Go and save it yourself this time. I want to stay here to see how much more conceited that woman can get.'
Tristan represses a chuckle. Next, with his concerned expression returning to his face, he pushes aside some audience members (apologizing to them while he is at it) and runs out of the store.
Rebecca is in Yugi's room, on his bed; there is no guest room in the small apartment where Yugi and his grandfather reside above their game store. The girl is squirming, mumbling and sweating in her sleep. A worried Yugi is holding her hand, trying to calm her down. Tea is just standing and looking at them, shuffling her feet, with her arms behind her back.
Thankfully, Yugi and Tea found the girl's cellphone in her skirt's pocket. Her grandpa's number was stored on the contacts, so, after they explained to Yugi's grandpa what had happened, they called Arthur.
Speaking of which, Arthur storms in the room, followed by Solomon. 'Rebecca!' he cries and runs over to his granddaughter. He's wearing a beige set of old fashioned clothes, a white shirt underneath and a red bowtie.
'Umm, Yugi, this is my old friend, Arthur Hawkins,' Solomon awkwardly gestures to the archaeologist. 'I have talked to you about him many times. Remember?'
'Of course I remember,' Yugi rolls his eyes. Then he turns to the other old man. 'It's a pleasure to meet you, Mister Hawkins,' he closes his eyes, places his hand on the chest and bows in a Japanese fashion. 'In fact, I have wanted to meet you since I was a child, though I hoped it would happen under better circumstances.'
'You can call me Arthur,' the man replies, crouching and holding his granddaughter's hand, with his eyes on her and a worried expression on his face. 'What happened?'
Yugi tells him the whole story, leaving out certain details, such as the part where he and Rebecca made out! He guesses this isn't a good time to tell him that he kissed his granddaughter without her consent! And although Yugi didn't know yet back then that Rebecca was under Marik's control and therefore in no position to give her consent, he would still have a hard time explaining to Arthur why he was kissing a 12 year old girl in the first place!
The first official dungeon dice monsters battle in history is about to begin. There are three hearts emitting flickering lights on each player's podium; those hearts are the equivalent of life points. A bin opens next to Mai, holding countless dice in multiple colors and with a variety of symbols on them. The woman gasps in confusion.
'This is the dice pool,' Duke explains. 'Select 15 dice to use in the game.' And, casually coiling his hair around his finger, with a meaningful smile, he adds, 'I'd give you some advice as to what dice to choose, but I guess that a self proclaimed game master like you will have no problem figuring this out herself.'
The audience laughs.
Mumbling curses, Mai picks her dice at random while Duke carefully selects his.
Seto is working in his lab. Alone. He is developing the next generation duel disk. He started developing this long ago, before the Duelist Kingdom tournament began (the duel disk he used to duel Yugi on Pegasuses island was an imperfect prototype). He planned to resume his efforts when he returned from that island.
Even though Mokuba cutting him out of his life devastated him, even though Kaiba no longer cares about anything, he is still working on that model. He is determined not to stop before it is perfected. He feels the inner need to do so. He feels the need to complete this project. Because this accomplishment will be his swansong, his last achievement before he... let's not think about it for now.
As Kaiba is working at his desk in his personal lab, with spectacles protecting his face from sparks, with stuff such as screws, screwdrivers, logic gates, ram chips and motherboards all over the place, memories of his life with Mokuba are flashing through his mind, like a movie in fast forward mode.
He remembers a blurry scene of himself sitting on the floor, in a cosy living room, next to a fireplace, and playing with a toy train, while his mother (yes, his real mother) is sitting in a rocking chair, cradling Mokuba, who is still a baby.
Although Seto was 9 when his parents died (in other words, not too young to have clear memories of them), he barely remembers them. In fact, he barely remembers anything of his life before the day his brother and he were sent to that cursed orphanage. That day, Kaiba forced himself to prematurely grow up; he felt that, from now on, he had to be not just a big brother to Mokuba but also a father and a mother at the same time. Eventually, he stopped smiling. He became stern and bitter. It was as if his old self, that cheerful child he used to be, had died and another person had been born in his place: an arrogant, ambitious, at times cruel and ruthless, survivor. And, along with his old self, along with that playful child, almost all the memories that child had of his life, of his parents, of his carefree childhood, had died as well. Even the faces of his parents as he remembers them, he is not sure whether they are their real faces or just a visual attempt of his subconscious to prevent him from believing that he never had any parents to begin with, that he's not an organic being but rather a robot or something. The only thing left of that child in the current Seto was his love of games!
Nevertheless, Seto and Mokuba did not have to stay long at that orphanage. The opportunity arose the day Gozaburo Kaiba visited that so called institution. And Seto had all the abilities needed to exploit that opportunity: The intelligence to be aware of the opportunity in the first place, the insight to realize what kind of person Gozaburo, that multibillionaire portrayed by the media as a benevolent philanthropist, really was, the manipulative skills to convince him to agree to a chess match.
But how did a child manage to defeat an undefeated until then super grandmaster? (Gozaburo had scored almost 3000 points in the Elo rating system!) Sure Seto was an exceptional player himself (by the standards of a child his age, that is). Sure he had studied Gozaburo's strategies. But still! Well, if you ask Seto, and if he answers truthfully, putting his arrogance aside, he will tell you that Gozaburo underestimated him. If they had played under different circumstances, say, in a championship game, with Gozaburo setting his mind to it, the older man would almost certainly have destroyed the boy. But that day, when Seto's unexpected challenge prolonged what the busy businessman had initially expected to be a short visit to that orphanage, Gozaburo was inwardly like, 'Let's just get it over with so that I can get back to work. After all, how tough can a little boy be?'
Despite his initial frustration of losing to Seto, Gozaburo soon saw the prospect of raising a worthy heir to his empire. And so, from the moment Seto and his brother set foot at their new home, Gozaburo forced the former into an accelerated education program. He trained him to turn him into a worthy ruler of KaibaCorp. He trained him well. Perhaps too well! For Seto turned into his stepfather's nemesis.
Seto went as far as to use his own brother as a pawn in his plans to overthrow Gozaburo, mentally hurting Mokuba in the process, albeit temporarily. All these years, Seto believed that Mokuba understood why he had treated him the way he did during that period. He believed that Mokuba acknowledged that Seto had done what he had done so that the two of them could have a better life afterward. He believed that Mokuba had forgiven him.
Is it possible that he hasn't forgiven him after all? Is it possible that Mokuba has been holding a grudge all these years? Is this why he told him he hates him? Does this hatred have nothing to do with what Mokuba went through on Pegasuses island after all?
In any case, Kaiba is sorry for failing Mokuba. He is going to apologize in the letter he will leave behind before he... well, as I said, let's not think about that before we perfect the duel disk prototype!
The first official dungeon dice monsters game in history is going on. Mai Valentine versus Duke Devlin. Duke Devlin versus Mai Valentine. Creator versus Champion (albeit the champion of a different game!)
Both players have managed to summon several creatures so far and expand their respective corridors, though Duke's corridor is visibly longer and more neatly structured than Mai's. Mai has lost one heart.
'Battle Ox, attack the Harpy Lady,' Duke commands one of his monsters.
With a terrifying bellow, the aforementioned anthropomorphic beast raises his axe, about to strike.
'I use one of my stored trap crests to activate the Harpy's effect,' Mai yells. 'Harpy, flap your wings to evade the attack.'
On her master's command, the Harpy ascends, with the oxes axe hitting thin air.
'And now, Harpy, counterattack,' Mai smiles.
The female monster slashes the Battle Ox with her claws, thus destroying it. The crowd cheers.
'Not bad, woman,' Duke chuckles nonchalantly. 'This is the first time you're playing this game, yet you have already learnt how to use advanced tactics.'
'I might have a chance after all,' Mai thinks, a bead of sweat trickling down her cheek.
Ishizu is watching Kaiba, through her Millenium Necklace, unbeknownst to him. And even though her Millenium Item has neither the capability of looking into people's minds (as the Millenium Eye) nor that of looking into people's souls (as the Millenium Ring), she can see the pain in his eyes. The pain of your own brother renouncing you. Ishizu, too, knows that feeling.
The girl removes her hands from her Millenium Item and sighs. In the future the Millenium Necklace predicted, at this point, she would convince Kaiba to organize the Battle City tournament in order to lure the Rare Hunters out of their hideout. However, as events transpired, as opposed to what her artifact had shown her, Kaiba is now in no condition to help her. She doubts that, even if she talked to him about the God Cards and gave him Obelisk the Tormentor, he would be motivated enough to overcome his current sorrow and combat the Rare Hunters by her side.
Perhaps, if she told him about the spirit of the Millenium Ring controlling his brother... no, most likely, he wouldn't believe her; Kaiba disregards that stuff as 'hocus pocus nonsense'. Then again, what does she have to lose? She has to at least try. You never know. Maybe, now that Kaiba has lapsed into depression, he will opt to believe, to embrace his ancient past, in order to give himself new hope, something to get him going.
Suddenly, the Millenium Necklace starts glowing. Ishizu lowers her eyes, alerted.
'Are you... are you saying that I must not tell him?' she addresses the artifact, with her beautiful eyes widened.
The item ceases glowing, as an affirmative response. Ishizu's eyes further widen. Is it possible that, for some reason, Gods do not want Kaiba to know yet that his brother is possessed?
Ishizu gulps. 'Then... then what am I to do?' she asks. 'Tell me.'
The item does not glow this time.
'TELL ME,' Ishizu demands, violently shaking the artifact.
Once again, no response.
Ishizu takes off her necklace and, with an angry cry, hurls it at the wall. With a loud, clinking sound, the item hits against the hard surface and ends up on the floor.
'YOU USELESS PIECE OF JUNK,' the woman screams.
Her eyes get wet. For a while, she sobs, rubbing them.
Finally, she stands up, walks over to the fallen item and picks it up. 'I'm sorry,' she says softly amid her sobs, caressing the golden artifact as if she was a mother cradling her baby.
She knows that what she just did was a sacrilegious act. In Ancient Egypt, she could have been executed just for that!
Ishizu produces the God Card in her possession, Obelisk the Tormentor. A navy blue colored card depicting a golem whose spiked body is a lighter blue color. Even though his eyes indicate he never shows any mercy, Ishizu knows how merciful and benevolent Gods are. She respectfully leans the card against the backrest of a chair. Next, she kneels before it and assumes an Ancient Egyptian praying stance. (In case you don't know, the Ancient Egyptian praying stance looks like the muslim one: The prayer is on all fours, with their forehead touching the ground.) And so, she begins praying before the card, as Christians do before images of Jesus or Holy Mary or Saints.
'God, please, forgive my sin,' she whispers. 'I'm only human. My emotions took the best of me. I deeply regret it.'
Ishizu stays in the same praying position, silent, for a while. Finally, without moving nonetheless, she speaks again, 'I feel so lost, God. Please give me a sign. Something. Anything.'
Ishizu has never attempted to make a decision on her own before. All her life, she believed that fate controls everything and that future is predestined. Everything she would do or say depended on what her Millenium Necklace showed her.
And yet, now here the future is, having changed! And Ishizu still cannot explain how that happened.
The woman finally opens her eyes, sighs, sits up and takes the card in her hand. She looks at the imposing creature drawn on it. What if... what if the future hasn't actually changed? It sounds crazy, but... can that false future the Millenium Necklace showed her be Gods' way of telling her that there is no such thing as determinism? That she has grown too dependent on her gift of being able to predict the future to a limited extent? That Gods want her to start making her own decisions, taking initiatives and grow into her own person?
All the above make Ishizu feel so afraid. But she knows she has to do it. She has to cut the cord to the magic of the Millenium Items and resolve her problems by herself. So, what is she supposed to do from now on? Let's calm down and think rationally. In the supposed future, Pegasus lapsed into despair after his loss to Yugi at the Duelist Kingdom, whereas Kaiba was full of drive, so Ishizu asked for Kaiba's help. In the real future, things are actually the other way around: Kaiba is the one who has given up on life whereas Pegasuses spirits are high as never before. So should she ask for Pegasues help?
'Aaaannndd, it's official, ladies and gentlemen. The first official dungeon dice monsters game is officially over. Also, I have a rich vocabulary!'
The spectators burst into laughter. Pegasus is a talented entertainer indeed!
As for the match, predictably, Duke won.
Having left their earlier banter behind, the two players smile and shake hands as the crowd cheers.
'Congratulations, Duke,' Mai says. 'Well played.'
'Well, you didn't fare badly either, considering that, less than one hour ago, you didn't even know the rules,' Duke comments. 'You even managed to take out one of my heart points!'
'Next time, we're playing duel monsters and I'll crush you,' Mai winks.
'I'd like to see you try,' Duke winks back.
The audience laughs again.
Pegasus approaches them. He wraps his arms around Mai. 'If that means anything to you, you are a winner in my heart,' he says.
'Thanks,' Mai replies and the two lovers kiss on the lips, causing some people among the audience (especially female ones) to go like, 'Awww' and Joey to snort.
