Chapter 3: Stolen Soul

By: Shadow Dragon

Standing at the bottom of the stairway that lead to Pegasus's castle, Gen'in stared up at the castle entrance that laid at the top of the stairs. Releasing a soft sigh, the young teenager decided that the day had been long and that she needed some rest before facing the finals. Turning away from the stairs, she headed towards a large Aspen tree, which had thick branches. Gen'in glanced up at the Aspen, and decided that the branches were strong enough to support her weight, and wide enough to sleep comfortably on, so she climbed the tree. When she reached the branch she had picked, she leaned her back against the tree and made sure that her legs wouldn't hang down. With her legs straight ahead of her, she let her head fall back so it rested on the tree's trunk, and she drifted off into the dream realm.

Several hours later, Gen'in awakened from her sleep, and when she woke up she found herself in darkness with the moon and stars being her only source of light. Decided that she had enough energy, she jumped from the tree branch and landed on her feet without a problem. Determined to win the finals, so she could challenge Pegasus, she raced herself to the steps that lead to the entrance of hope. Wanting to save her energy, she walked slowly to the entrance, but getting bored and over excited she dashed up the stairs until she made it to the top.

"Finally, I made it to this point. The beginning of the end has started."

As her voice faded into silence, she removed her star chips from her dueling glove and placed them in ten separate slots, and with that the door opened. In a very upbeat mood, she proudly walked inside the castle where she found a large, golden room.

"Wow. It's beautiful."

After admiring the room's beauty, she heard a very familiar voice nearby which sounded like it was coming from the next room. So Gen'in rushed over in the direction of the voice, and to her surprise she discovered the group of people she had met before. She came to a halt when she was several steps away from the group, and when she stopped she grabbed the group's attention.

"Hey, it's that one girl!" Joey growled.

Ignoring what anyone had to say, she turned to her right, where she found what she was looking for. She observed Kaiba and Pegasus dueling. Interested in the duel, she grabbed onto the railing and looked down so she could get a good view of the duel.

"Hey, you?!"

Gen'in turned to look at the owner of the angry voice and stared for a few moments waiting for him to say something.

"What do you think you're doing here?" snapped Joey.

"The same reason all of you are here."

"What?! How can someone like you make the finals?!" Joey yelled in confusion.

"I'm not here so you can insult my dueling skills, now back off or I'll kick your butt a second time!"

"You won our last duel on pure luck alone! There's no one you could beat me a second time!"

Becoming tired of the pointless fighting, Gen'in turned her attention back on the duel, causing Joey to become angry.

"Why I outa.!"

Joey growled at Gen'in and as he did so, a guy wearing a long brown coat grabbed Joey and pulled him away from the situation.

"Let go of me, Tristan! I'll show her who the better duelist is!"

"No way man! Just relax and stop bickering."

"Yeah, Joey why don't you learn some self-control, besides you know she'll kick your butt like she did the last time."

"Mai! Shut up!"

"Mai's right Joey. You need to learn to control yourself sometimes."

"Not you too, Yug!"

"May, I ask your name?"

Without turning to look at who asked her the question, Gen'in replied.

"My name is Gen'in."

"I'm Tea, and this is Bakura." Tea stated while watching Gen'in turn to look at her and Bakura.

"Please, to meet you."

"I'm glad to have met you all too, but I don't have time to chit chat."

Gen'in turned away from everyone and continued to watch the duel.

"Come on Kaiba, you have to win this duel. For Mokuba's sake!" Gen'in whispered to herself.

Tea and Bakura looked at Gen'in, but then watched the duel between Kaiba and Pegasus.

As Pegasus played his turn, he started off by drawing a card from his deck, and he stared at the card he had just drawled expressing no emotion before looking a Kaiba.

"Tell me something my old friend. Did you enjoy watching cartoons in your youth?" Pegasus stated, and when he saw that Kaiba didn't answer his questions with words or actions, he continued to speak. "Is that a no then? Well, Kaiba you are more cold-hearted then I thought. For me they were the best, and none was closer then to my heart than the adventures of one clever hair. And I am talking about Funny Bunny of course. When I was a child I would watch them hours on end." Pegasus said childishly.

"Just make your move!" snapped Kaiba impatiently.

Pegasus laughed at Kaiba's words before replying.

"But Kaiba boy that was my move."

"Your move is a cartoon?"

"Not just a cartoon you simpleton. An entire magickal toon world."

"Huh?!" "Welcome to toon world, Kaiba boy."

As Pegasus spoke he played the card he had just drawled, and Kaiba watched as toonish land appeared in the dueling arena.

"Let the fun begin."

"You must be kidding!" Kaiba yelled in disbelief.

As the duel continued, Pegasus's monster, the Dark Rabbit disappeared into the land of Toon World.

"So, that's the power of your toon world?! It allows your monster to disappear!"

"Come now Kaiba boy. Not even cartoon bunnies can disappear into thin air, he just simply went into his new home. And it's a home that will prove to be the safest of havens. But my Dark Rabbit won't vanish into his new home without paying you a visit first. Dark Rabbit attack!"

With Pegasus's command, the Dark Rabbit appeared out of Toon World, and wound up a punch, literally, and bonked Kaiba's Battle Ox, destroying it.

"What a terrible chapter in your Battle Ox's life, wouldn't you say Kaiba boy? I would allow you revenge for your monster but my Dark Bunny is already safe in his new home. But maybe when he comes out again, you can try and have a swing at him."

"You coward!" Kaiba looked at his hand, and placed a card face-down.

"Well, it's my turn again, so I will be able to show off more cartoons. I suppose I will play this card, the Blue-Eyes that I stole from you before."

"My Blue-Eyes!"

"Now, I will show you what your monster is capable of under my control. Blue-Eyes awaken! And now he will enter the land of Toon World, where he will turn into a toon himself!" "How dare you stripe him of his pride!" growled Kaiba. "Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon attack!"

The dragon followed Pegasus's orders and blasted Kaiba causing his life points to fall down to 1000.

"How sad, that the world champion is falling from one of his very own most trusted beasts."

"Pegasus, your underling dueling tactics, have gone on long enough." With his words, Kaiba discarded his entire hand of cards, because he knew something was going on since Pegasus could read his every move.

"I put all my faith into this next card!" Kaiba drew a card from his deck, and without looking he slapped down the card, and unexpectedly his second Blue-Eyes appeared surprising everyone including Pegasus.

"Pegaus, you couldn't see my cards, and so your toon dragon will fail you!"

"What a lucky drawl, Kaiba boy. But this should be interesting because a Blue-Eyes fighting his toon counter part. There isn't an end to the zaniness of toon world!"

"Your wrong! This isn't some after school cartoons! Your toon won't escape this!"

"Oh, no." laughed Pegasus childisly.

"Blue-Eyes attack with all your might!"

The Blue-Eyes attacked his toon counter part, but sadly the toon dragon used his toon specialities and dodged the attack.

"No, way!"

"You should have watched more cartoons Kaiba. The cuddliest creatures never get hurt. I shall play the Shine palace, which will allow me to strengthen my dragon toon five hundred points, which makes it stronger than your Blue- Eyes. Toon Dragon attack!"

"Not so fast! I play my New Gate attack!" The magic card that Kaiba played stopped the strong attack of the Toon Dragon, but the card only last one turn.

"It's my turn now!"

As he spoke Kaiba drew the Shadow Spell, and he played the card soon quickly. The card caused black chains to wrap around the toon dragon causing it's life points to drop 700 points giving Kaiba the upper hand. Then quickly he made his Blue-Eyes attack, destroying the toon.

"Good work, Kaiba, but you will pay for ruining my fun. I play the Double Ganger, which will allow me to copy any card in your deck, and I choose your Crush Card Virus which will only allow you to use monsters with an attack of 1500 or below."

 "No! My entire deck has been infected."

"Well, Kaiba boy that's what you get for filling your deck with monsters with an attack power above1500."

Kaiba picked the only card he could play, which was monster reborn.

"It's the only thing I can do now. I revive Zokie the Clown."

"Now, Kaiba boy I shall finish this duel. Darn Rabbit attack!"

Kaiba released a heavy sigh and as the Dark Rabbit made it's attack Kaiba whispered silently to himself.

"Mokuba... I tried my very best... and I failed you. Forgive me Mokuba... I'm so sorry..."

"You lose, Kaiba boy, you have lost your baby brother, but don't worry I will let you join you brother."

Pegasus stated while taking out an empty card. "What is that?!" "Its the finally resting place for your soul, Seto Kaiba!" With his words, Pegasus used the card in his hand to create a bright flash of light that headed towards Kaiba. Confused and a bit afraid Kaiba, continued to look at the flash of light until his body became an empty shell. His eyes seemed lifeless to Gen'in as she watched in disbelieve.

 "This can't be... Kaiba lost to the likes of Pegasus..."

Breaking down to tears, Yugi transformed into Yami Yugi, and then looked at Pegasus and spoke.

"Pegasus, I will not stand for this! You have messed with our friends and family long enough!"

"Ah, little Yugi. Now, remember that you must be one of the two winners from the finals to have the right and challenge me to a duel. I must be off now, good night little Yugi." With his words, Pegasus turned from the arena and began to walk out of the room.

"Pegasus, you cowardly bastard!" came a new voice from above.

"Hm?" Pegasus stopped in his tracks and looked up at the owner of the voice.

"I, Gen'in Asagi, vow that I will have revenge for what you have done to my friends! I shall destroy you for Mokuba and Seto's sake!"

"Nice speech my dear, but I'm assuming you've watched our duel. If you think you can do a better job then Kaiba, then I await the day we duel face to face, but you will have to be one of the winners from the finals. Then I will allow you to seek revenge for you fallen comrades." "If I beat you, you will return them to me!" "I will accept that offer, but you will have the same luck as Kaiba. The finals will he held in the morning, I will hope to see you there, my dear. Now, I shall be off."

Gen'in growled sofly as she watched the theif, that stole both of her friends' souls, walk out of the room and into the unexplored castle. As Pegasus vanished from the room, Yami Yugi turned his attention to the Gen'in, who was leaning on the rail with a very sad look on her face.

 "Will you be okay?"

Gen'in looked up and saw that the short kid has turned into someone taller and a serious look in his eyes, but as she stared into Yami Yugi's eyes she didn't reply until she noticed that Joey was becoming impatient.

"I will live..."

 Gen'in lifted herself from the rails and turned away from the group, and started to back track towards the entrace but before she left she spoke to the group with turning around.

"The finals will be starting soon, so I suggest you all get a good rest because the finals will start early in the morning. See you then."

Yami Yugi and company silently watched as the girl named Gen'in vanished from the room, but as she left Bakura decided to go after the girl to see what was wrong.

"Bakura, where are you going?" asked Tea.

"I'm going to follow her to see what's wrong with her, I will catch up with you guys later."

"Okay, but be careful." a worried Tea replied back.

Bakura nodded at Tea, before running after the mysterious girl.

When Gen'in reached outside, she ran down the stairs quickly but careful not to loose her footing, and as she reached the bottom she dashed for a thin wooded area. Releasing a heavy sigh, Gen'in slumped down to the ground and curled up to thick tree trunk and her mind wouldn't stop thinking.

"Mokuba... Kaiba... Why did both of their souls had to be stolen!? Kaiba lost miserably to Pegasus... if the world champion couldn't win against Pegasus, how do I expect myself to beat him? Stop thinking like this! Seto had something to fight for, but the stakes are higher with me! I have to win, period!"

With her words, Gen'in got to her feet and turned towards the tree and gave the it a strong punch trying to release her anger. Not satisfied with her results, she continued to punch the tree trunk until her knuckles began to trickle with blood and the pain coming from her hand she stopped. With the stress, she allowed her body to fall onto her knees, and the tears that she fought to hold back began to flow down her cheeks. Bakura peered silently over a low bush, a observed the young girl crying softly, but not wanting to disturb her, he accidently rustled the bushes grabbing her attention causing her to quickly get to her feet.

"Who's there?!"

"Uh.. it's me Bakura."

Bakura slowly showed appeared from the bushes causing Gen'in tears to quickly dry up and made her alert.

"What do you want?!"

"You left in a distressed manner, so I thought I would check up on you. And it seems that it's a good thing that I did because your hand needs some medical attention."

"Oh, this. Don't worry about it, it will be fine."

"Let me me bandage it up for you."

"Forget it!"

Ignoring Gen'in's words, Bakura took out some medical supplies, which came from no where, and took out some gauze, medical tape, and a small ace wrap. Bakura signaled Gen'in to sit down, and while muttering she did what Bakura wanted her to do. He sat down beside her and placed her wounded hand on his lap. Bakura sized a gauze for her wound, and taped it into place before wrapping her hand in the ace wrap.

"Alright, I'm done."

Gen'in muttered a thank you to Bakura, and brought her hand into her own lap.

"May I ask, what your connection is to the Kaiba brothers?" Gen'in glared at Bakura causing him to sweat drop.

"They are my friends, and I want to help them nothing more."

Bakura frowned at Gen'in as he got to his feet.

"Do you want to hang out with my friends since the finals are coming up soon?"

"No, I'll just stay here. You may leave now, I will see you during the finals." Bakura released a soft sigh and nodded at Gen'in.

"As you wish. See you tomorrow at the finals."

When Bakura left, Gen'in laid down on the ground waiting for the moment she waited for, the beginning of the finals...