Yu-Gi-Oh! Love Selflessly – Chapter 16
Pegasus made the first move of the duel, setting two cards face-down. Kaiba set a card face-down and summoned Rude Kaiser, destroying Pegasus' monster quickly. Over the next few turns, it was the same outcome. Every defeat earned a very forced and obviously faked reaction from the Duel Monsters creator. Yugi and Emiko watched Pegasus skeptically. She thought, "Hold on. What is Pegasus up to? The way he's duelling, you'd think he was an amateur. Not to mention, his reactions are not convincing in the slightest." Tristan said, confused, "I don't get it. Pegasus talks a big game, but he duels like a kid." Mai said, "It's like he's toying with him." Joey turned to Yugi and said, "Wait. Didn't you say he pulled this act with you?" Yugi nodded.
"Yes," Yugi said, "I guess he doesn't even take the world champion seriously. I just hope Kaiba catches on before it's too late." Emiko thought, "I don't like this. I don't like it at all." Emiko grabbed her locket and clutched it to her heart. Seto drew a card, then said, "It's my turn." As he went to place a card on the table, Pegasus announced, "Hold on, Kaiba-boy! I'd like to play a little guessing game with that card you're about to throw out on the field." Seto growled, "A game? We're in the middle of a duel!" Pegasus explained, "What? I'm allowed to play a game. My trap card says so. It's called Prophecy and it gives me the right to guess whether the card you're about to play has an attack power higher or lower than 2,000." He smirked. Seto gritted his teeth nervously, looking at his card, then back up at Pegasus.
"If I manage to guess correctly, then the card in question becomes mine."
Seto started to speak, but Pegasus interrupted, "And I think I'll prophesize that it is indeed over 2,000. Oh, but wait. Wait. I see something else. Yes," he closed his eye, "Yes, I see blue. I see white. Could it be?" Emiko gasped. Pegasus said confidently, "I see the Blue-Eyes White Dragon." Seto's face went pale. Emiko said, "M-my brother's favourite card." Pegasus asked mockingly, "Was I right? Please tell me I was right. Oh, I so hope I was right." Seto snapped, placing his card in the card exchange slot, "That's enough! Here! Take it!" She thought, "There's no way. He couldn't have seen Seto's card. He has to just be really good. Right?" Pegasus took the card and said, "Now, the most valuable card in your deck is mine." Yugi said, "Pegasus must be up to his old tricks." Joey nodded in agreement. Pegasus giggled playfully and said, "Now, I have two things you care about, Kaiba-boy, your dragon and your brother." Emiko clenched her fists. When Seto played a face-down card and Saggi the Dark Clown, Emiko knew exactly what he was about to do. Bakura said, "Wait, I remember this move!" Téa said, "Yeah. It's the same thing Kaiba used on Yugi in their duel." Joey said optimistically, "Only this time, it's gonna be Pegasus catching the bug." Yugi said, "Don't count on it. Pegasus knows that it's coming."
Below, Pegasus used his face-down Negative Energy card to double the attack of every monster on the field, rendering Seto's Crush Card Virus combo useless. After Pegasus summoned another monster, destroying Seto's monster and bringing his life points down to 1,000, Seto let out a sigh, visibly taken aback. Téa said softly, "I've never seen Kaiba so shaken before." Emiko sighed, still grasping her locket, "Neither have I." Bakura said gently, "Oh, my. Don't worry, Emiko. It's going to be okay." Emiko said, "How? Pegasus already has my brother down to 1,000 life points. It's almost like he knows Seto's every move before he even makes one." Yugi said, "It's that Millennium Eye. It somehow lets Pegasus see all of the cards in Kaiba's hand." Mai chuckled, "Come on. Tell me you're not serious." Joey looked down at Yugi and said, "Wow. I know you said that thing's got magical powers, but I didn't know that it could help him win duels, too. How the heck is anybody supposed to win against that kind of power?" Yugi said confidently, "Still, I wouldn't count Kaiba out of this match just yet. He may be trailing now, but he didn't get to be the World Champion without learning a few comeback tricks." Emiko sighed and looked back at Seto.
"I hope Yugi's right," she thought, "for both of my brothers' sakes." Seto played another card, but Pegasus interrupted the duel yet again with another story. He said, "Tell me something, my friend, did you enjoy watching cartoons in your youth?" His question was met with silence. He gasped, "Is that a 'no'? My, my, you're even more cold-hearted than I thought." He smiled and said, "For me, they were the absolute best and none was closer to my heart than the misadventures of one tricky hare! I am speaking, of course, of Funny Bunny!" He laughed, "Such a clever rabbit, forever evading Ruff Gruff McDog and his long paw of the law. Oh, how I'd spend hours watching their never-ending antics and perpetual game of hide-and-seek!" Seto snapped, "Just make your move!" Pegasus said, "But, Kaiba, that is my move." Seto furrowed his brows and said, "Your move's a cartoon?" Pegasus exclaimed, "Not just a cartoon, but an entire magical cartoon world! Welcome, Kaiba, to Toon World!" He placed a card on the field, revealing a huge pop-up book on the field. Téa said, "Toon World? It looks more like some kid's pop-up book to me." Joey said, "Hey, I've never heard of this wacky card before." Tristan said, pointing at the field, "Don't look now, but I think Pegasus' Dark Rabbit just pulled a Houdini!" Emiko gasped, "You're right. He's gone!" Seto asked, "So now, you can make your creatures disappear?" Pegasus shrugged.
"Come now," he said in a sing-song voice, "Even cartoon bunnies can't vanish into thin air. My Dark Rabbit simply went to his now home, which will prove to be the safest of havens, for as soon as I close that hard-book cover, Toon World's bindings can't be penetrated by anything." He chuckled, "Oh, but don't worry. My Dark Rabbit won't lock himself away in those pages without first paying you a little visit. Dark Rabbit, attack!" Not did Pegasus' toon monsters wipe out Seto's defenses, but Pegasus summoned Blue-Eyes White Dragon, transforming into its own toon counterpart and hid both monsters inside the book of Toon World. Seto growled and said, gathering his current hand of cards and throwing them into the discard pile, "Pegasus, your underhanded duelling tactics have gone on long enough. It's time someone put a stop to your cheating ways." He drew a new hand of cards and placed them all face down in front of him without looking at them.
"I may not know exactly how you're cheating," Kaiba said, "but somehow, you can see my cards, so I'm abandoning my present hand. Perhaps if I can't see what I'm playing, you can't either." Yugi said, surprised, "A gutsy move." Tristan asked, "Now, how do you think Pegasus is cheating?" Joey shrugged and said, "I don't know. Either he's got some hidden cameras in here or Yuge's right about that Eye of his." Tristan said, "You really think he might have some hidden cameras?" Joey said, "Hey, I wouldn't put anything past him. I'll tell ya this much: now that Kaiba's not even looking at his cards, he needs to trust more in the Heart of the Cards if he's gonna have any chance of rescuing his little brother." Seto said, drawing his next card and placing it directly onto the field, "I've put all my faith in this next card. Now, let it be revealed!" A bright flash later, the loud roar of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon pierced through the arena and the dragon stretched its wings, leaving Pegasus, and the audience, shocked.
"No way," Mai exclaimed, "That has to be the luckiest draw I've ever seen!" Emiko said, "No. That wasn't luck! That was faith!" Joey said, "Yeah! Kaiba listened to his heart and it payed off for him big-time!" Seto's Blue-Eyes attacked its toon counterpart, but the Toon Dragon stretched out of the way. After a brilliant play by Pegasus, Seto managed to catch and immobilize the Toon Dragon, bringing its attack down and successfully destroying it, finally making a decent dent in Pegasus' life points. Seto shouted, "Now, do you understand that nothing will stop me from rescuing Mokuba? My little sister is counting on me to get him back and nothing is going to stand in my way! Not even my own Blue-Eyes." Pegasus said, feigning sorrow, "Aww, Kaiba-boy. Your treasured Blue-Eyes White Dragons mean so very much to you, don't they?" He chuckled, "Well, as the creator of Duel Monsters, I'm truly touched by your devotion...but, when will you learn that the same devotion is not returned by the Blue-Eyes?"
Pegasus countered, using a Dragon Capture Jar and Dragon Piper combo before finally using Doppelganger to copy Kaiba's Crush Card Virus, winning the duel. Seto muttered, "Forgive me, Emiko. Mokuba. I am so sorry." Pegasus applauded and said, "You did well, but there are no more cards you can play, therefore you lose, Kaiba-boy." Emiko trembled as she tried to process what had just happened. Pegasus reminded Seto, "You've lost so much more than just this duel. You've lost the only chance you had to save your baby brother. You let him down, but don't worry, my dear friend." He pulled the blank card back out of his front pocket and said, "I will spare you the agony of carrying on in this world without him." Emiko shrieked, nearly leaping over the edge if it weren't for Tristan and Joey holding her back, "Seto! Seto, get out of there!" Seto screamed, but then everything fell silent. Emiko cried, relaxing against the boys' grips, tears streaming down her face as she saw Seto enter the same trance Mokuba was left in. His eyes lost all of their former light and he stared blankly into space. She sobbed loudly.
Pegasus chuckled, holding both of the Kaibas' cards in each of his hands, "Ah, the brothers Kaiba. One in each hand. Now, all I need to complete my little collection is sweet Emiko. Ah, but even though you boys' cards are so very close, your souls have never been further apart. At least when I had Mokuba locked up, the three of you were all living in the same dimension. But, now, you're worlds apart."
Emiko cried, "Seto. He...h-he can't be gone, too. There's just no way!"
Pegasus waved and said, "Take away that empty shell. Teach it to wash dishes or something." Yugi sobbed, leaning his head on the balcony, "He's gone. Just because he was trying to help his little brother and sister." He slammed his fist into the stone and shouted, "He was just like us! He just wanted to save someone he cared for!" He looked up and asked through his tears, "Why, Pegasus? Who are you to toy with our friends and our families in this way? I won't let you get away with this!" Pegasus said calmly, "Yugi-boy. Don't forget that you still have to make it through the remaining rounds of this tournament to even win the privilege of challenging me." Yugi said, "Rest assured, I'll be at the finals, but the true privilege will be defeating you and undoing all the evil acts you've committed against my friends." Pegasus smirked. He said, "I look forward to your finest efforts, Yugi-boy, and wonderful performances from all of our finalists. You truly are the best of the best."