Tournament of the Millennium!
Chapter 16: Duelist Traps – First Confrontation

Mokuba glanced at his digital watch absent-mindedly. It was getting late. It was close to 7:00, but it was still light, because it was summer in Australia. Still, Mokuba wanted to get back to Seto's penthouse. It was on top of the biggest and flashiest casino in Sydney, which Seto coincidentally owned. Well, technically. Legally he was still acquiring it, since he'd only recently turned 19, which was the very minimum age someone could own a casino in Australia.

Mokuba flicked open the keyboard fixed to his right wrist and typed some commands into it quickly and efficiently. Reams of data began to stream across his visor; duelists still in the tournament, people qualified for Round 2, how many prize cards each duelist had, which ones they possessed, etc, etc. Mokuba noted with only a slight hint of surprise that Yugi had qualified for Round 2. He knew that Seto had beaten him firmly and yet, he'd qualified. Joey was qualified too, but that didn't surprise Mokuba. He gave Joey a lot more credit than his brother did.

Pressing another button, Mokuba brought his own profile up. He'd won two duels, had 4 pieces of Exodia and needed only one more. Out of the 237 duelists still in the tournament, he was ranked 206th. Not that bad, considering that only that morning he'd been unregistered and unknown to the wider dueling community. His prize cards so far were Dark Ruler Ha Des and Tyrant Dragon. Mokuba paused from his study of his progress. He could feel that someone was watching him. Slowly and cautiously, Mokuba switched off the visor, returning it to its transparent state.

In front of him was a girl, watching him intently. Mokuba's stomach gave a lurch. She was cute. He guessed that she was about 15, only two years his elder if he was correct. She had raven-black hair that was swept back behind her carelessly, and deep ebony eyes. Her skin had a deep tan, and she wore a dress of light cream cotton, which fluttered loosely in the wind. Mokuba noted that the dress didn't even fall halfway down her thighs, revealing most of her long, slender legs. Mokuba gulped, suddenly feeling nervous.

"Yes?" he asked uncertainly. He felt as if he knew this girl, like he'd seen her before.

"You're Mokuba Kaiba. I want to duel you. And I have something for you to deliver," the girl stated calmly. Her voice was playful and full of vitality, and Mokuba rubbed his hands on his shirt, trying to wipe them dry. At the moment they would have felt like fish.

Mokuba stood up from the bench he was sitting on, and tilted his head slightly, to show he was interested. As he did so he noticed an interesting armband, she wore. It was made of a silvery metal and had the letters 'DT' engraved on it.

She noted his interest in his armband and laughed. Her laugh reminded Mokuba of spring, and baby birds.

"I'll give you the package after we duel, and I'll tell you what it means when we duel. I have four pieces of Exodia and I know you do as well. So one piece each. My head, your left arm." She cut straight to business. Mokuba waved his arms frantically.

"Hold on! You know who I am, but who are you?" he asked inquisitively. She laughed again and stuck her hand out to shake his. He shook her hand, hoping his hands weren't still clammy.

"My name is Clee. Clee Mana Hepshut."

Mokuba blinked. So she was Egyptian. That would explain the tan. And her clothing.

"Nice to meet you Clee. Alright, your terms sound fair to me."

Clee smiled appreciatively.

"You can call me Mana if you want, all my close friends do."

Mokuba's stomach lurched again. It felt like he'd eaten a cage of butterflies for lunch.

"Umm... okay then. But I think I like Clee better. Do you want to bet on the prize cards now?"

Clee nodded vigorously.

"For sure! I'll bet my Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End, if you're willing to bet your Toon World."

Mokuba gasped, shocked. How did she know he had that card?

"Your DeckMaster is Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon. I recognize that from your brother's duel against Pegasus," Clee explained. In Mokuba's mind, this still left some big questions. Seto's duel against Pegasus hadn't been broadcast. No one except those in the castle saw it.

"Yeah, you're right. Okay then, I'll agree to your terms. So let's duel!"

Mokuba hopped up and began to prepare. He flicked open his keyboard and typed some more commands. More data scrolled across his visor.

Name: Clee Hepshut. Age: 15 Nationality: Egyptian Deck Type: Hand/Deck Disruption World Rank: 498

Mokuba didn't think this would be too hard of a duel. Only the top 500 duelists had been invited. She'd just made it in. Still, if she ran a disruption deck, he'd have to modify his own deck. His deck wasn't designed to cope with it.

Mokuba snapped open the briefcase in front of him, pulling out all variety of cards. In the end, he only switched a few. Now his deck was ready.

He jumped up and drew his first five cards. They weren't bad. Since Clee had challenged him, that meant he had to start off, so he drew another card.

"Manju of the 10,000 Hands (1400-1000) in Attack Mode. And that allows me to put Ruler of Heaven Shinato into my hand. Set 1 card and end turn. So what's that armband about?" Mokuba asked cheekily.

Clee smiled as she drew her card. She picked two cards in her hand and activated them.

"Activate Delinquent Duo and Confiscation. Confiscation will destroy the Shinato in your hand, then you lose a card at random and a card of your choice because of Delinquent Duo. However, it costs me 2000 Life Points."

Mokuba sighed as he discarded Shinato, Suijin of Atlantis and Chishiki. Now he only had Raijin of Olympus and Magician of Faith in his hand.

Clee rubbed her armband and began to explain it. Mokuba listened intently.

"This armband signifies that I'm part of a duelist clan. You know what a clan is, right?"

Mokuba shook his head. He had a vague idea, but not a very clear one.

"It's a registered team of duelists. They can enter tournaments as a team in order to get better chances of winning, or simply for the fun of it. If a clan member wins a prize, it's split between the clan. There are some tournaments in which you have to be part of a clan to compete, because the clans duel against each other, with each member playing one duel, or something like that."

Mokuba nodded to show his understanding.

"I'm part of a clan called the Duelist Traps. Hence, my armband has DT engraved on it. All Duelist Trap members have one."

"How many Duelist Traps are there?" Mokuba asked with some curiosity.

"Let's see... over two hundred and seventy at the moment. It's really amazing. It's the second biggest clan in existence, which is pretty good, considering that it's run by two 16 year olds and a 19 year old."

Mokuba's mouth fell open in shock. 270 was a huge amount. Most clans had 15 or less members.

"However, most of the members are only casual members, scattered around the world. Level 3 members, to be precise. There are only nine Level 2 members and three Level 1 members. Only Level 1 and 2 members are participating on behalf of the clan at this tournament."

Mokuba thought about that carefully.

"What are Level 2 duelists? You must be one of them."

Clee laughed and explained.

"Well, basically, Level 2 duelists are the public face of a clan, normally the best of the clan's duelists will be Level 2, except the very best, who may be Level 1. None of our clan's duelists fall under that category. If they're really good, they're Level 2. Our Level 1 is the founders only. Alternatively, a Level 2 duelist can just be someone the clan's founder favours, such as a personal friend. You could say I fall into both categories there."

Clee pulled another card from her hand and placed it on the dueldisk.

"Now, I'll summon Golden Snatch Eagle (1650-1350) in Attack and destroy your Manju. You lose 250 Life Points and have to discard a card from your hand."

A golden eagle swooped forward and shredded up Mokuba's many-handed man. Mokuba pushed Raijin of Olympus into the Graveyard sadly.

As Mokuba drew his card, Clee continued to chat with him about the Duelist Traps.

"I'm the scout for the DT's. I go in first and try to find worthy opponents for us to duel. I'm hoping that, if you make it to Round 2, you will come and fight against us? Oh, and our leader has asked if you could try to convince the rest of the Millennium Duelist clan to come with you. A formal challenge from one clan to another."

Mokuba blinked in shock at this. What was she talking about?

"Um, sorry, can't say I know any Millennium Duelists. And I'm not one of them."

Clee furrowed her brow in thought.

"That's weird. Says you are on the clan register. Along with Yugi Moto, Joey Wheeler, Mai Valentine, Ryou Bakura and your brother."

Mokuba did a double-take. There was no way his brother would have agreed to be part of any clan. Especially not one with Yugi and Joey in it.

"Yeah, and seems Solomon Moto is the founder, but Seto Kaiba is acting president of it."

Now Mokuba was beginning to understand. Yugi's Grandpa had registered them all for some crackpot reason, and now Seto was taking control so he could sort out the issues and dismantle the clan. He'd heared Seto fuming about it almost a week ago.

Mokuba set both of the cards in his hand and ended his turn.

"So what convinced you to join the DT's?"

Clee studied the card she'd drawn carefully and then set it on the field. She ordered Golden Snatch Eagle to slay the facedown Magician of Faith, and Mokuba placed Chishiki back into his hand.

"Well, my mentor introduced my to the leader of the DT's and requested that I join. So I did."

Mokuba drew his next card and then activated Chishiki. Clee flipped up the Trap she had just set.

"I'll activate Invalidate, forcing you to discard the three cards you had drawn."

Mokuba discarded his Kazejin of Valhalla, Change of Heart and Toon World with a heavy heart. He'd hoped to use his Toon World card. Then he activated the one card in his hand.

"Activate Soul Release. Remove Kazejin of Valhalla, Suijin of Atlantis, Raijin of Olympus, Toon World and Chishiki."

Mokuba pulled the five cards out of his Graveyard and stuck them in another slot. Clee looked sorrowful as she watched.

"Oh no. You lost Toon World. I really wanted to see you use that card. I wanted to duel you at your best, with your best moves and tactics."

Mokuba snorted.

"Funny way to do that, if you destroy every tactic before I establish it. You've already crippled three of my main tactics. Toon World, Gate Guardian and Shinato. So I think it's time to mess with your tactics a bit."

Mokuba flipped up his two cards triumphantly.

"Activate Holy Dimension and Heaven's Gate!"

Fluffy white smoke poured from Mokuba's dueldisk, surrounding both of them and completely changing the scenery, similar to Bakura's Dark Sanctuary card.

Mokuba and Clee now stood ankle deep in clouds, with more clouds above them. The whole place glowed with etheric light. Behind Mokuba, large ornate golden gates rose from the clouds and opened. Small cherubs fluttered out of the gates and soothing harp and trumpet music could be heard. Clee looked around, not in the slightest bit flustered.

"My Holy Dimension can only be activated if at least 5 cards are in my removed from game pile. It prevents you from using any effect that would affect my hand in any way. So I've just sealed your only strategy. And also, Heaven's Gate, which can only be activated if Holy Dimension is active, allows me to draw one card each Standby Phase."

Clee pursed her lips. That could be troubling. Shrugging it off, Clee drew her card and summoned it.

"I'll summon Don Zaloog (1400-1000) in Attack Mode. And now, both of my monsters will attack you directly, for 3050 Life Points of Damage."

With that attack, the Life Point scores changed to Clee: 6000 Mokuba: 4700.

"Also, I activate Don Zaloog's second effect, allowing me to discard 2 cards from your deck. My hand disruption strategy may be ruined, but not my deck destruction strategy."

Mokuba discarded Light Magician Girl and Cleric of Heaven. He waited for any other move, but Clee motioned him to make his move.

Mokuba drew his two cards and placed one of them on the field.

"I'll activate Hell's Gate. And then I'll just summon my Toon Gemini Elf (1900-900)! Toon Gemini Elf, attack and kill the Don Zaloog!"

Clee watched passively as the cartoon twins destroyed her thief, and her life points fell to 5700. Then she drew her card. As she did, a huge black granite gate burst up behind her, maniacal laughter sweeping from it. Bats poured out, shrieking shrilly.

Clee glanced at Mokuba calmly.

"So what does Hell's Gate do, exactly?"

"It forces you to discard a card from your hand every Standby phase."

"So be it. Goodbye, White Magical Hat."

Clee checked her hand. She still had 4 cards. She picked one and summoned it to the field.

"Sangan (1000-600) Defense Mode. And Golden Snatch Eagle into Defense as well. End turn. So, Mokuba, what's it like being you?"

Mokuba was thrown by Clee's question. He'd never really thought about it.

"Um, cool, I guess. I get pretty much anything I want. But I don't ask for much," he added hastily, not wanting to seem spoiled.

"But surely such a life leaves little social time? You mustn't have many friends."

Mokuba nodded as he drew his 2 cards.

"Not really, but I'm used to it. I can entertain myself. Um, 2 cards facedown and now I'll kill the Golden Snatch Eagle."

Clee smiled as she drew her card. Just what she'd been waiting for.

"Excellent. Now, I'll have to discard Compulsory Evacuation Device. And now, I'll remove the Don Zaloog and White Magical Hat in my Graveyard to Special Summon Chaos Emperor Dragon –Envoy of the End (3000-2500) and activate it's special effect!"

Mokuba braced himself. Seto used this card, so Mokuba knew what was coming next.

"Now I'll pay 1000 Life Points in order to destroy my Chaos Emperor Dragon, along with every card on the field and in either player's hand. So goodbye all!"

Mokuba watched his 6 cards on the field burst into flame, along with Clee's 3, and the 3 in her hand.

"Now you take 300 Life Points of Damage for each card destroyed, so that's 3600 Life Points of Damage. You have 1100 Life Points left!" called Clee playfully.

Mokuba responded in a voice just as cheery as hers, "Not quite!"

As the two gates exploded, flame spewed out of the one behind Clee and blue light out of Mokuba's. Their Life Points adjusted to Clee: 3700 Mokuba: 3100.

"Hell's Gate deals 1000 damage to you when destroyed, while Heaven's Gate heals mine by 2000."

Clee looked slightly surprised, but smirked as she made her next play.

"It doesn't matter. One thing you must learn Mokuba, is to be prepared. You should always have a trap able to prevent the summoning of a monster, just in case something like this happens," Clee lectured calmly as she searched through her deck.

"Using Sangan I can fetch a one Yata-Garasu from my deck into my hand. Now, all I have to do is summon it, attack with it and that's Yata-lock and game. It's been fun playing Mokuba, but now, it's time for you to invite the rest of the Millennium Duelists, deliver the packages I have, and confront the DT's for a rematch. Now, Yata-Garasu, attack directly!" called Clee energetically.

As the eight crows swooped towards Mokuba he smirked.

"One thing you must learn, Clee, is to expect the unexpected. I expected Yata-Garasu. You didn't expect this!" he shouted as a spiritual figure, bright and colourful, burst into existence. "Ghost of Christmas Future (1950-0) use Wraith Wrap counterattack!"

The ghost stuck its hands out and waves of rainbow energy emanated from them. The energy struck the crows and they dropped from the sky, dead. Clee stared, shocked, at what had happened as her life points fell to 1950.

"What! How? How'd you do that Moki?" cried Clee in surprise.

Mokuba rolled his eyes at what she'd called him, then explained.

"Yata-Garasu is an ever-present threat in any major tournament, due to it's pure potential. So I put Ghost of Christmas Future into my deck. It can be summoned to the field at any time. All I have to do is remove 2 Spellcasters from my Graveyard. It then gains half the combined Attack of the removed Spellcasters. So, since I removed Light Magician Girl (1400- 1500) and Cleric of Light (2500-2100), it's attack was 1950."

Mokuba drew his card and smiled slightly at Clee.

"It's been fun, but now, it's time to finish this. Ghost of Christmas Future attack directly!" Mokuba pointed at Clee and she swept her hand upwards.

"Activate DeckMaster effect, Dark Wicca! This effect negates the attack and then I gain half the monster's ATK as Life Points!" Clee declared as her life points rose to 3425.

Mokuba glanced at the card in his hand and shrugged.

"Okay then, time to reintroduce one of my strategies! Activate Chaos Fusion! This lets me pay 2000 Life Points to put up to 3 Spell or Trap cards from my removed from game pile into my hand! Activate Chishiki and Toon World!"

Mokuba whooped happily as the giant toon book appeared on the field and sucked his ghost in. In its place was a Christmas Tree with bauble eyes and tinsel lips.

"Cool! Toon World! Good play Moki!"

Mokuba smiled and activated the Second Wind he'd received because of Chishiki. His Life Points rose up to 5100.

Clee drew her next card and glanced at it. Then she slotted it into her graveyard.

"Activate Pot of Greed. Now, activate Monster Reborn to revive Chaos Emperor Dragon! Next, I'll use the secondary effect of my DeckMaster, Dark Witch, to place the card in my hand into her safekeeping for one turn. And now I'll use Chaos Emperor Dragon's effect again!" called Clee. Her Life Points fell to 2425.

Mokuba's Life Points fell to 3600 and then Clee laughed as her Dark Witch leapt over her and landed in front of her.

"Now, let's finish this. By bringing Dark Witch onto the field, I can access the card I gave her to safe-keep. Activate Premature Burial to revive Chaos Emperor Dragon at a cost of 800 Life Points! And now, Chaos Emperor Dragon will attack you directly, reducing your Life Points to 600. Finally, I'll finish this duel with a direct attack from my Dark Witch (1800-1600)!"

"Not so fast, I'll summon Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon to protect my Life Points! If you attack with Dark Witch now, you'll lose!" declared Mokuba stoutly.

Clee realized that Mokuba was right. She also realized another thing. She had nothing to protect her Dark Witch. All Mokuba had to do was attack her next turn and it was over.

"Well done Mokuba. Great move! Looks like you have me beat. You've played better than I thought you would. You have lived up to Zeak's praise and more. But, you just have one more thing to learn from me this duel." Clee looked sad as she contemplated what she was about to do and Mokuba realized what was about to happen.

"Chaos Emperor Dragon. Apocalypse Blast!" Clee yelled loudly. Her life points fell to 625 and the dragon ripped itself to shreds with a huge explosion. Clee's witch shrieked as she disintegrated, and Mokuba's cartoon dragon melted into blue ink. Both duelists' Life Points dropped to 0. It was a draw.

Clee strode over to Mokuba and dropped four cards into his hand. He stared at them. Only one he could recognize. Exodia the Forbidden One.

"You deserve it. I could have won that if I'd just taken the Premature Burial from Dark Witch without summoning her, attacked with my dragon and then nuked it. I missed that and as such, lost the duel. We'll call it even if I keep my Chaos Emperor Dragon, hey?"

Mokuba nodded mutely. It seemed overly generous of her to be doing that, but who was he to argue?

"Now, here are the details for the DT challenge. Give them to Seto, he'll organize it. And those other three cards are for Yugi, Seto and Joey. They'll know whose is whose. Tell them it's a gift from Shadi."

Mokuba repeated her information, then, when she was satisfied, she bent over and gave Mokuba a kiss on the cheek. He blushed furiously and looked up from the cards to say something, but she was gone. She'd just vanished. Too confused to do anything else, Mokuba looked at the cards again. He knew what they were. He knew all too well what they were.

"The Legendary Dragons..."