Night. Joey is walking on the deserted streets, heading to the hospital to visit his sister. Serenity is scheduled to have her eye operation tomorrow and, of course, Joey will stay with her all night to give her courage.

He's also carrying his duel disk, although he's not planning to engage in a duel before the Battle City tournament begins. But, you know, he's carrying it just in case. Because a true duelist must always be prepared!

Needless to say he's also carrying with him his brand new deck, the one he spent hours building, with Yugi's help on occasions. Even a comic relief character like Joey Wheeler has realized that, considering that, as of this tournament, the game mechanics will be substantially different from the ones players have been familiar with so far, participating with the same deck he used at the Duelist Kingdom would be suicidal.

And, of course, it's not just Joey. All duelists around the world have been spending the last days modifying their respective decks, not to say rebuilding them from scratch.

Rebecca and Yugi, too, have worked hard preparing their new decks, spending sleepless nights in the latter's room advising each other on what cards to use. Their task was made harder by Yugi's grandpa, who would often interrupt them by entering the room, on one pretext or the other, to make sure they weren't doing anything a boy and a girl their age should not do with each other. (Guardians get paranoid sometimes!)

And now, here Joey is, crossing an alley, against his better judgement.

Suddenly, without realizing how the hell it happened, he finds himself surrounded by a group of hooded men.

The blond boy gulps, trying not to show fear. 'Umm, may I help you?'


In the dawn, in another part of the town, we see another well known to us figure walking: Duke Devlin.

He's walking on the pavement next to the beach, with his hands in his pockets. He's fuming. How is he supposed to keep living after that blow to his manhood?

You see, tonight, Duke was having a good time in his luxurious apartment (he can afford luxury thanks to his dungeon dice game selling beyond expectations), enjoying the company of two of the girls he met at his shop's grand opening event. And, when everything was going fine and pointing towards a threesome, the girls eventually started getting more interested in each other than in Duke. In fact, past a point, they totally forgot about him!

And so, the boy left his apartment, being discreet enough to let his guests enjoy their lesbian orgy in private (such a gentleman!)

However, now that he is walking here, all alone, reflecting on that incident, he feels boiling inside.

He stops and punches a tree. 'WHORES!' he yells. 'THEY'RE ALL WHORES!'

He stays like that, with his arm extended and his aching fist still in contact with the trunk. He's breathing heavily.

Women! Who needs them? They think they're great and all just because they can sexually please one another? As if us men couldn't do the same thing... I mean, if we wanted to... but Duke is not that kind of man. Right? Wait, why did he even feel the need to inwardly ask himself for confirmation?

Before the lad can further contemplate this, he spots someone sitting on the beach. Wait, hasn't he seen that blond boy before? If he recalls right, it was at his shop's grand opening event.


Joey is sitting on the sand, with his arms behind his back, his knees raised, his face full of scars, his eyes full of tears and a turned over, empty bottle of some alcoholic beverage next to him.

It all happened so quickly. One moment, everything in his life was going perfectly: He had a brand new duel disk, he had ensured a place at the Battle City tournament and his sister was about to regain her eyesight.

The next moment, he found himself beaten up and his rarest card, the Red Eyes Black Dragon, was gone. How the hell did he lose that duel? He had the upper hand the whole time. Where did that creep find all pieces of Exodia?

And so, here he is. The tournament hasn't even begun yet, but he has already lost his best card as an ante. No, come to think of it, he didn't lose it as an ante. Essentially, it was stolen from him. I mean, those bastards ambushed him in a dark alley, forced him to duel and something tells him that, even if he had somehow won (though he doesn't see how anyone could win against someone who has three copies of the whole Exodia in their deck), they would have beaten him up and got his card all the same.

Joey drops his upper body to the sand and spreads his arms in frustration. 'Quit making excuses, Wheeler,' he sighs. 'You're just good for nothing; that's all.'

Just as he 'managed' to lose his qualification card at the Duelist Kingdom semi finals, now he has 'managed' to lose his most precious card as well as to miss his sister's eye surgery.

That's why he's now sitting here, gazing at the horizon, the same horizon he promised his sister that he would show her when she had got her eyesight back, instead of rushing to the hospital as soon as possible. What is he supposed to tell Serenity? 'Excuse me, sis, for not being here earlier as I promised; I was just too busy being a comic relief failure, just as I was when I failed you at the Duelist Kingdom by not knowing where the hell I had put my "Glory of the King's Hand" card'?

No, he cannot face his sister again. He just can't. Serenity will be better off without him.


Duke jumps over the low stone fence separating the beach from the sidewalk and starts walking over to the blond lad. As he's getting closer, he makes out the scars on the boy's face and the tears in his eyes. It seems that that cute guy could use some company and consolation.

Wait, did he just call an unknown man cute?

And why is he, all of a sudden, fantasizing about him in a dog suit? For a moment, Duke stops worrying about whether he's gay or not and chuckles at that fantasy. For some reason, he suddenly feels that there is an alternate, parallel universe where he somehow really forced that boy to put on a dog suit. And he was so sexy in that dog suit. OMG, what is he thinking?


Joey realizes that a boy the same age as him is standing next to him. He has black, wavy hair tied in a manly ponytail and green eyes. He's wearing a black, sleeveless shirt, dark jeans, a red vest and a bandana the same color. Wait, isn't he that Duke guy that owns the game store close to that of Yugi's grandpa?

'Having problems, dude?' Duke chuckles, hands in pockets.

Joey sits up and raises an eyebrow. He's not sure whether the newcomer's chuckle is a provocative one or one of genuine compassion. 'Why do you care?'

With one more carefree laugh and a hairflip and without asking for permission first, the uninvited boy sits on the sand, next to Joey, who gets irritated.

'Everybody has problems, dude,' Duke carries on. 'Life is full of shit. There is no such thing as a happy person. Get used to it.'

'Said the teenager who has already made a fortune running his own business,' Joey fumes sarcastically.

Duke gets a more serious expression and turns his eyes to the rising sun. 'Believe it or not, I, too, have issues.'

'More serious than mine?' Joey asks, though that sounded more like a protest than a question.

Duke's eyes back to Joey. 'Wanna bet?' he chuckles.


Robert Schmeichel is in his room, in the luxurious hotel he's residing at. He's in town for the upcoming Battle City tournament. The blond duelist is wearing white pajamas and crimson slippers. He's sitting on a chair with his legs crossed and a bunch of cards scattered on the table in front of him.

Across from him, Seto Kaiba, in his Battle City outfit, is standing, with his arms crossed and his back leaning against some curtain.

Robert raises his eyes to his mentor. 'Are you sure you don't want me to use your three Blue Eyes White Dragons in the tournament?' he sighs. 'I think they would help a lot.'

'Yeah, just as they helped me so much in my duels against Yugi and Pegasus,' Kaiba chuckles sarcastically. Next, with his face growing serious, he produces the aforementioned three cards and shows them to his guest. 'You shall not use them,' he carries on. 'And do you want to know why?'

'Yes, I'd really like to know,' Robert nods.

'For two reasons,' Kaiba raises two fingers in a classy manner. 'First of all, because that would raise suspicion and I don't want to risk anyone discovering my current whereabouts. Secondly, because you haven't proven your worth yet.'

Robert is about to retort, but Kaiba glares at him, thus shutting him up, and points at the three dragons. 'Look at them. Can you see the rage in their eyes? Even the thought of a worthless deadbeat like you using their power enrages them.'

'This guy is a psycho,' Robert thinks with a sigh.

Kaiba gives him one more glare. The blond duelist gulps. Did... did that wealthy freak read his last thought?


The sun is high. Joey and Duke have talked for quite a while.

Joey told him about what happened to him last night. Duke had a good laugh at that. To Joey's annoyance! Nevertheless, after laughing, he got serious and advised him on how to 'become his own man'.

Then Duke told Joey about his disastrous double date with those attractive ladies. It was Joey's turn to laugh and Duke's turn to pout.

'And they started to make out with each other?' Joey asks, unable to stop laughing. 'For real? Man, I thought that such stuff happens only in porn movies.'

'Do you want me to show you how exactly they did it?' Duke asks, now having an ambiguous expression.

'Huh?'

The next thing Joey knows, Duke is leaning towards him. Slowly. Suddenly, Joey thinks he knows what that boy is up to. Perhaps he should stop him before it's too late. Yeah, that's a pretty good idea. He should stop him before it's too late. Then why hasn't he begun stopping him already? Good question!

Duke wraps his hands around Joey's neck, closes his eyes and sticks his lips to his.

Joey's eyes widen. He produces a moan of surprise in Duke's mouth. Or at least he hopes it's a moan of surprise rather than one of... pleasure.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Joey pushes Duke away. 'WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?' he screams.

Duke stands up and dusts himself off, laughing carefreely. Without responding, he walks away, leaving Joey alone with his thoughts.


With bandages wrapped around her eyes, Serenity is sitting up in her bed, at the hospital, and sobbing, with her head buried between her knees. The doctors and her parents are knocking on the door, which she has locked. The knocks eventually turn into bangs.

However, Serenity has made up her mind. She won't have that surgery after all. She knows this is her last chance. She knows that, soon, her blindness will no longer be curable. But she just doesn't have the courage to do it. What if the surgery fails after all? She'd rather come to terms now with the fact that she will remain blind for as long as she shall live than allow herself to be given false hope and be further disappointed later. She's tired of being disappointed. She wants this to end now.

By the way, Joey has gone missing. His and Serenity's mother called his friends, who said they would look for him. But they couldn't find him anywhere.

Oh, Joey. If only her brother was here to support her. Then everything might be different. But he's not. And Serenity will never forgive him. She doesn't want to see his face ever again, which is what will literally happen anyway, since, as we said, she will remain blind forever.


Joey is walking along the beach, far from the spot where Tristan found him in the universe where the series took place.

Why did he not push away that freak immediately when he realized he was about to... yikes. Was it because he was surprised? Or was it because... NO, he was just too surprised to react right away, that's all. End of discussion!

To take his mind away off that incident, Joey takes out his deck. He looks at the Time Wizard, the card that Yugi gave him when they were on the way to the Duelist Kingdom island. His only rare card left.

Joey decides not to use it after all. Perhaps Duke is right. Perhaps the reason he has been a comic relief caricature of a duelist all this time is his unconscious fear of stopping being Yugi's duelist and growing into his own duelist. And, to do that, he has to cut the cords.

Of course, he can still wager the Time Wizard in duels (he doesn't have much of a choice anyway, since, as we said, it is his only rare card left), but that doesn't mean he has to include it in his deck.

In fact, Joey has just decided to rebuild his whole deck, so that it will be less Yugi and more... himself.