Chapter 1 – Darkness approaches (Four years Manga episode 343)
The fugitive drove hard through the desert. Behind him was the army who were chasing him for treason. The desert seemed to stretch forever, an endless yellow sea, his jeep a speck on the sea, rolling up and down on the sandy waves. Suddenly, there were shots and a mortar came towards the jeep, the fugitive swerved and suddenly, the sand gave way under the jeep and it fell in. Just as fast as the cave in, new sand fell on top burying him and the jeep, lost forever in the desert. Except, deep within the chasm a monster which had lain dormant for thousands of years, stirred and awoke. Great rumblings could be heard far away in the city for the rest of that night and then, silence reigned.
Grandpa had been dead for three months now, and Yugi was left alone running the card shop. Sure, his friends helped out often in minding the shop while he was busy, but between running the shop and University and playing Duel Monsters, he really had little time to himself. So it was a rare occurrence that he was enjoying a slow walk through the park, when he observed a group of teenage punks harassing what appeared to be a man in a cloak.
The young man had the night before suddenly found himself laying on a park bench after what had seemed like an eternity trapped in between dimensions, and he was maladjusted to the new world. Having spent the night in the shivering cold on the bench, he had gotten up in the early morning and started to explore around his surroundings. He observed that many of the people wore strange clothes of differing colours, and whenever, he tried to speak to them, they would look puzzled and just walk off.
That was until he had met the group of young teenagers, who seemed to take offence when he approached them and then started following him and trying to hit him. The young man thought that he could defend himself with lethal force against these louts, but it wasn't really worth it, to possibly kill these people. So he just continued dodging most of their blows and running, until two of them crash-tackled him and forced him to the ground where they started kicking him until he bled.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the park, Yugi, watching the teenagers now bashing the cloaked man decided to go and help the cloaked man. Running over, with the phone in his hands as if he was talking with the police, Yugi called, "The cops are coming to arrest you." On hearing this, the teenage gang ran away. Yugi got up to the cloaked derelict and turned him over onto his back. He saw the young man's face which was bleeding from several places. Yugi asked, "Are you alright?"
Yugi got no reply; the man seemed to be bleeding to death. Grabbing his phone out from his pocket he dialled the emergency number. Soon an ambulance had come and had started to treat the young, cloaked man. Once the ambulance officers had revived him into consciousness, they asked the young man what had happened. The young man seemed to give an incoherent reply which the ambulance officers definitely could not understand. Yugi, who was standing nearby, thought that it sounded like Egyptian.
It was obvious that the ambulance officers had no idea what the strange cloaked man was saying, so Yugi offered a suggestion. He went up to the man and started to speak in Egyptian. Immediately, the cloaked man started babbling about ancient prophecies and duties, which reminded him of the events four years ago, when he had helped Pharaoh Atem fulfil his destiny. The ambulance officers then asked Yugi to help translate for them and so Yugi went into the ambulance and it drove off.
At the hospital, the cloaked man lay upon the bed, wrapped up in bandages. Showing through the bandages were snippets of ritual scars, not unlike those which were on the Tombkeeper's in Egypt. But these markings were unlike any other, they seemed to glow with a blood-red sheen. The young man asked in Egyptian, "What is your name?" after having thanked Yugi for saving him in the park. He started enquiring about many things, about how the world had changed and why people spoke this strange garbled language. Suddenly, the red scars began to glow from underneath the bandages, and Yugi felt a sudden intrusion into his mind. Immediately, the young man in the bed apologised as if he had hurt him. Yugi wondered for a moment what had happened and realised that the young man was now speaking Japanese. The young man in the bed explained that he had accessed Yugi's mind to "learn" Japanese. Yugi gave a little laugh and politely explained to the young man that people spoke many different languages and Japanese was just the language spoken here by people in Domino City. He explained that other people in places like America spoke other languages such as English.
The young man then spoke of his own past and some evil he had to prevent as repayment. Yugi offered to give the young man a place to stay for a while, until he could find whatever he had to do. The young man gladly accepted, but told Yugi that he would repay him somehow for his generosity and bravery. Yugi asked the young man for his name, but the young man replied, "I do not remember my name, when I was little, it was just Master and he always called me Apprentice, why don't you give me a name, Yugi?"
Yugi, surprised at the offer said, "But I don't know how to name people," However, the young man insisted and so Yugi gave him the name Amun, an Egyptian name of some significance, a link to the young man's own past.
Three weeks later, a package arrived in the mail for Yugi, from Industrial Illusions. Amun, still in his black cloak, which never seemed to get dirty, sat in the dining room of Yugi's house as Yugi opened the package. The package contained a letter, from Industrial Illusions, inviting Yugi to attend their World Championship Tournament in Duel Monsters in Domino City, and that the tournament would start in one month. Amun asked Yugi what Duel Monsters was, and even though Yugi owned a Card Shop, Amun who had spent most of his time meditating to try to find the great evil had no idea what Duel Monsters was.
Yugi spent some time explaining the basics of the game of Duel Monsters. He described the basic rules about monsters, magic and trap cards and how to play them in an effective way. He showed Amun videos of his old duels from the last World Championship Tournament. Through this Amun gained a small understanding of the concepts of Duel Monsters.
After watching the videos, Yugi showed Amun his deck of cards. Amun was surprised at the thinness of the plastic. "Is this how advanced your magic is now, that the monsters can be kept in these thin little sheets of papyrus?" he asked.
Yugi answered, "No, there are no monsters kept in there, I know in ancient times powerful sorcerers used to keep them sealed in stone tablets, but they have disappeared and today's cards don't contain any Ka." Yugi then continued flipping through his deck. When he got to the three God Cards, Yugi explained that they were special cards. Amun looked at the three cards and mentally counted. "If Yugi has three Gods and I hold three in my body, that is only six, where is the seventh?" Aloud he asked Yugi, "Does anyone else hold another God card like these ones?"
Yugi responded, "No, there aren't any other people who hold God Cards." Amun explained to Yugi, "then it is as I feared, the seventh god is missing and he is the most dangerous of all, Set." Amun proceeded to describe the final battle between his master and the Pharaoh and the birth of the last three gods, which Yugi now held, and the Ka of Set which disappeared after his Master, Zork had died. Yugi was surprised, "We defeated the spirit of Zork, four years ago, and so he is gone as are the Millennium items."
This time it was Amun that was surprised, with the revelation of the existence of the Millennium items, "so some fool did use the magic written in the book, it would have turned him into a slave of my Master and bought chaos upon the world. But it is good you have defeated my Master, but unfortunately I have now been left with the duty of capturing Set and setting that correct."
That night, as Amun sat meditating on the floor, a vivid vision of the Old Pharoah came to him, instructing him to enter the Duel Monsters tournament, to guide the Chosen One to his destiny and to help save the world. Amun awoke from the vivid vision with shock and sat in silence for the rest of the night.
Next morning, Amun asked Yugi to teach him to play Duel Monsters so that he could enter the tournament, as the vision had told him to. Yugi gladly agreed, but said that Amun needed to obtain a duel disk and a deck, which cost money. "That is no trouble," Amun said, "I will copy a duel disk and I know which Monsters, I will use in my deck, it is only simple sorcery to create these, if I can see it I can copy it." So Yugi showed Amun his Duel Disk and some cards and Amun sat down on the floor and started chanting incantations. Yugi watched on, as Amun's scars started glowing a bright red under his cloak and watched as his Duel Disk suddenly became two and a stack of cards magically appeared within the second. Amun thanked Yugi and put the stuff away for safekeeping.
A few weeks later, Yugi, his friends and Amun, gathered outside the Industrial Illusions building for the championship. For the past few weeks, Yugi, Amun and Joey had worked hard on fine-tuning their decks and strategy and now they saw that it had been necessary as they could see many of the top duellists in the world had arrived. The Tournament Host stood on the steps of the building and announced, "Welcome, to the World Championship Tournament. With the help of Kaiba Corporation, we wish everyone good luck in the tournament and may the best duellist win. You will each receive a locator card a whenever you win a duel you may take one of your opponent's locator cards. You will need six locator cards to find the secret destination of the finals is to be held. So before you leave, each of you should receive an instruction manual with the rules and regulations as well as a locator card. Again I would like to say good luck and now LET THE TOURNAMNET BEGIN!!!" The crowd cheered as the duellists each went off in separate directions. Amun, Yugi and Joey, said good luck to each other before heading off in separate directions, each to find a duellist and to win.
In a quiet area of a park, Mai Valentine was walking through looking for a duel when a man called out, "Mai, I challenge you to a duel, for one locator card." Mai turned around and looked at her challenger, "Oh, it's you again, Magnum. Didn't you get it last time? I don't want to marry you." Magnum replied, "I'm not looking to marry you. I just want revenge for last time. So, are you up to duelling me now or aren't you." Mai answered, almost with contempt "Of course, I'm ready, but I won't lose to the likes of you. Let's Duel." Mai and Magnum both shuffled their decks and put it into their Duel Disks, which snapped into playing position.
Duel 1: Mai Valentine (5000 LP) v Jean-Claude Magnum (5000 LP)
Mai began the duel by drawing a card. "I now summon Harpy Lady (4/1300/1400) in attack mode," and a feathered Harpy appeared in the space between the two duellists as she lay the card down on her duel disk. "And I'll place one card face down, and end my turn." After that a projection of a face down card appeared on the field behind the Harpy Lady. Magnum drew a card played Ninja Assassin (3/1000/1000) in attack mode and placed two cards face down and then with confidence he said, "It's your turn. Mai"
Mai drew another card form her deck and thought to herself, "out of his two face down cards at least one is a trap but I have to press home my early advantage." Mai then summoned Amazon Lancer (3/1200/1000), an Amazon woman with a lance appeared next to the Harpy Lady. "I'll attack your Ninja Assassin with my Harpy Lady, go Harpy Lady, attack," Mai ordered. "Not so fast," Magnum replied, "I activate a trap card, Gravity Bind which makes all monsters of four stars or more unable to attack." The Harpy Lady stopped flying forwards as she seemed to be pinned to the ground by an invisible force. "All right," Mai thought, and then she declared an attack with Amazon Lancer. Amazon lancer drove straight at the Ninja Assassin and destroyed it, making it explode into little fragments. (Magnum 4800 LP) But the Amazon Lancer also exploded into a shower of fragments. Mai was surprised at this. Magnum said, "Ninja Assassin's special effect allows it to destroy the monster that attacked destroyed it." Mai set one card face down and ended her turn. Things looked a bit troubling for Mai, as she thought to herself, "maybe Magnum won't be so easy to beat this time."
Notes
1. New Cards
Name
Level/Att./Def.
Effects (if any)
Ninja Assassin
3/1000/1000
When Ninja Assassin is destroyed by another monster in the battle phase, destroy that other monster at the end of the opponent's turn
Amazon Lancer
3/1200/1000
2. The new tournament has the following rules so far....
a) When you challenge someone to a duel the ante is 1 locator card and the winner keeps his/her locator card and takes the opponent's.
b) Each player starts off with 5000 LP
3. A bit of history between Mai and Magnum – Mai had previously promised Magnum (the big movie star) that she would marry her if he could beat her in a game of duel monsters. During the Battle City tournament Magnum challenged Mai and lost. For more information go to and do a search on Yu-Gi-Oh! and read the episode guides.
4. I'm inventing the bit where the book was used by Priest Akunadin (in the manga) to create the Millenium Items. Further readings on this subject may be found at