Ryan was still working on his deck, trying to make his deck pure machine.
"No that's too many magic cards," he said to himself looking at his deck. "Not enough trap cards."
He deconstructed his deck again, separating the magic cards from the trap and monster cards.
"Hmm, I know I'll keep Skill Drain," he said placing away from the other traps.
He placed Kaiser Glider, Sapphire Dragon, Nin-Ken Dog, Harpie's Brother, Archfiend Soldier, Makyura the Destructor and several other non-machine cards into another pile.
"Eh, Makyura always comes in handy," he said putting it on top of Skill Drain.
He continued placing cards in his deck, but was soon taking them back out trying to make his deck absolutely perfect as it could be...
~Meanwhile, in Joey's room~
Joey was still trying to come up with combos he could use.
"Mako's Crab Turtle and Rex's Black Tyrano will help me out a lot," he said, looking at them. "If I could equip them with a United We Stand, alone they could do a lot of damage. Knowing Titan, he's going to go try and overpower me with his own strong monsters... but with these new monsters, he'll never win."
Joey put in Black Tyrano, Crab Turtle, and Turtle Oath without taking any cards out and was satisfied on his improved deck. But then he began to get second thoughts.
"Maybe I should take something out," he said, looking through his deck to decide. "Gilford the Lightning and... Swordsman of Landstar."
Joey took out the two monsters, but not carelessly discarding them as he looked through his new deck. He shuffled it a few times to see what he got on his first draw...
~Meanwhile~
As the hour reached midnight, the black-robed man stumbled into Salazar's office. He removed the black cowl from his head revealing himself to be Vincent Salazar. He discarded the robe completely, leaving him with a white buttoned shirt with black trousers. The Millennium Ankh was still in the robe, as if Salazar didn't care about it.
"Kaiba will have a hard time dueling him now," Salazar said to himself. "Besides, I need to see how he uses Obelisk in a duel."
He walked around his desk and sat down in the wheeled desk hair. He set the Millennium Rod off to the side of his desk as he turned on his computer and clicked on a button revealing several files. One file was updated reading "The Twelve Finalists." As he was about to click on it, a knock came at the door.
"Come in," he said to the knocker.
The door opened revealing Croquet.
"Master Salazar," he began, "The twelve duelists have been decided. Both Seto Kaiba and Yugi Muto have made it."
"I expected no less," he told him. "You may go now."
"S-sir," Croquet said to him, not moving.
"Is there something else I should know?" Salazar asked.
"Well yes," he began. "The twelve losing duelists at the preliminaries never made it to the boat. They've disappeared."
"I see," Salazar responded, as if knowing what was going on. "Anything else?"
"Yes, we have lost contact with 28 of our security personnel at least three hours ago," he said.
"Why am I just learning this?" Salazar asked, as he raised his tone. "Do you know who it is?"
"Y-yes sir we do," Croquet said, fear growing in him. "Security cameras identify the culprit as... Mr. Bakura. He also reached the third level basement and somehow discovered the secret passage..."
As a flash of lightning shot through Salazar's window, his face remained unchanged.
"That will be all Croquet," Salazar said to him.
"But sir..."
"I hate repeating myself, Croquet," Salazar said to him.
In an instant, Croquet left the room shutting the door quickly.
The roar of thunder and the flash of lightning came out his window. Enraged, Salazar stood up, knocking his desk chair over.
"Steal one of my Millennium Items, will you, Bakura?" Salazar said to himself, grabbing the Millennium Rod, unsheathing it. "You've crossed the line now. I'll take you out right now, by myself."
As another roar of thunder could be heard, Salazar's body suddenly began to shake. Beads of sweat began to gather on his forehead. His shaking right arm dropped the two pieces of the Millennium Rod, causing them to move at a far, unreachable distance. He began to breathe heavily as he fell to the ground, clenching his pounding head.
"Damn it," he said to himself. "Not again..."
As if he knew what to do, he crawled towards the bottom left desk drawer and pulled out a framed picture. The picture depicted a younger Salazar standing next to a pretty woman. In front of the two of them were three children each of youthful ages. Tossing the picture aside, he pulled out a bottle of tequila. He opened it up only to find it empty. Impulsively, he threw it to hit the wall, shattering it. He then helped himself up and walked towards the discarded picture noticing a crack on the frame glass. He opened the liquor cabinet above the picture and pulled out a bottle of tequila...
~Meanwhile, in Yugi's room~
Yugi had been working hard on the Millennium Puzzle the whole time. He had worked so hard that he only had four pieces left. He put in the pointy piece at the bottom of the puzzle, seeing it fit perfectly. He then placed the piece that was pointy on one side into a top piece, nearly completing it. He placed an oddly shaped piece into a hole, nearly filling it up.
"Here's the last piece," Yugi said holding the puzzle piece with an eye on it.
Yugi placed it in the last empty hole, completing the puzzle. The puzzle suddenly began to illuminate white, even brighter than the lightning outside. When the light faded, Yugi was greeted by an old friend.
"Hello again, Yugi," the Spirit of the Puzzle said.
"Yami?" Yugi asked.
"Yes Yugi," the spirit said. "How have things been?"
"You wouldn't believe it," Yugi began. "I had to duel three times without you. Each duel seemed like my last."
"And yet here you are, in the finals," the spirit said to him. "You're a better duelist than you give yourself credit for."
"But something else troubles me," Yugi said.
"What's that?"
"Half the people here are dueling for Salazar. One of them is Bakura, but he doesn't remember me or Joey."
"Hmm... that's rather interesting. I shall have to see that for myself. Is there anything else I missed?"
"I ended up getting a new card," Yugi said, thumbing through his deck until he found it. "This one, Versago the Destroyer."
"That's a fine card Yugi," the spirit said to him. "It makes a fusion much easier to accomplish."
"Yeah that's true."
"But there's something I've been thinking about," the spirit said to Yugi.
"What's that?" asked Yugi.
"Well if Salazar has control of Shadi, he must have control over his Millennium Ankh."
"That makes sense."
"Also, if this is really Bakura that's here, then I wouldn't be surprised if the Millennium Ring was here as well. Plus, we hold two Millennium Items as well and Salazar has the Millennium Rod along with the Millennium Ankh. That means five of the Millennium Items are on this island. I wouldn't doubt that the remaining two Millennium Items are on this island as well."
"Do you think he wants all of the Millennium Items?"
"I wouldn't doubt it. But why does he want them? And how did he obtain the Millennium Rod to begin with?"
"Those are my same questions. But I doubt we'll figure it out, tonight."
"You're right. It's getting late; I think we should get some sleep Yugi. We're both going to need it for tomorrow."
Yugi nodded as he got ready for bed. He took off his blue jacket and pants, placing them at the foot of his bed. He made sure that the door to his room was locked but to make sure, he leaned a chair back, blocking the door. Afterwards he placed his two Millennium Items on each side of his pillow; the Puzzle on his right and the Tauk on his right.
"Goodnight Yami," Yugi said to the Millennium Puzzle as he began to drift off into a sleep at 12:17 PM...
As several hours passed, a bright light hit Yugi's closed eyes, waking him up.
"Wha? It's too early to be sunrise," Yugi said, rubbing his eyes.
Yugi looked out the window to still find it raining. He looked down and saw it was the Millennium Tauk glowing brightly.
"What the...?" Yugi questioned.
He picked up the Millennium Puzzle, putting the chain around his neck. Quickly, he changed into his Yami Spirit, so he could inspect the Millennium Tauk.
'Why is it glowing?' Yugi asked the Spirit of the Puzzle through thought.
'I'm not sure,' he responded. 'But maybe it's trying to show us something.'
Yugi grasped the Millennium Tauk, putting it around his neck to see what would happen. Suddenly, the Tauk illuminated even brighter, turning the whole room white.
Yugi closed his eyes from the brightness, but when he opened his eyes, the room had faded out and he was surrounded by darkness. Even more stranger, both he and the Spirit of the Puzzle were in physical form. Around the Spirit's neck was the Millennium Puzzle, while around Yugi's was the Tauk.
"Where are we?" asked Yugi.
"The Tauk is showing us a vision," the spirit explained. "We should be seeing something shortly."
It was so, the darkness soon faded away as Yugi and the Spirit appeared in a building with extremely tall windows. Yugi looked out of the windows to find them to be at a very high level.
"We must be in a business building," Yugi said to the Spirit, looking back at them.
Suddenly, a door opened and out walked two men, both in business suits. Both of them were oddly familiar to Yugi and the Spirit. One had a black pony tail with several long hairs on the side, wearing a black three-piece suit. The other had a thick mustache and wore a red business suit. They were both carrying on and laughing as if they were both friends.
"You are one class act," the man in the red suit said as he walked around to his desk. He sat in the desk chair while the black-suited man sat in a chair in front of the desk.
"Anyways back to business," the man in the red suit said in his gruff voice, "You wish to merge your company with mine, correct?"
"Indeed," the other man said, "As you can see, Spain's militaristic market has nowhere to go, but up. I guarantee your profits will increase tenfold."
"Tenfold, huh?" the man in the red suit asked in interest. "If you can accomplish that, you might find yourself in a higher position here at Kaiba Corp."
"Thank you sir," he responded.
The red suited man then pulled out a contract for the other man to sign. The man did so and when he finished, the two of them gave a handshake. After that, the man in the black suit walked out of the room.
"Were those two..." Yugi was about to ask the Spirit of the Puzzle.
"Yes," he answered, already knowing. "Gozaburo Kaiba and Vincent Salazar. It seems they were business partners."
Before Yugi could ask another question, the scenery around them changed. Outside the blue, partly cloudy skies turned thick and gray. Gozaburo Kaiba, sitting in his chair, was replaced by a young teen with brown hair and deep blue eyes.
"Kaiba!" they both said in surprise.
Kaiba pressed a button on the desk's intercom and spoke into it, "Send him in."
Through the doors, in walked the same man from the previous vision. This man however had a look of fear on his face.
"Salazar..." the Spirit said, inspecting his face.
"Well Mr. Salazar," Kaiba began, "You know why you're here, don't you?"
"I'm afraid I don't," Salazar answered. "Please tell."
"You're here because I've made a decision," Kaiba told him. "And as the head of Kaiba Corp in Spain, it's rather effective to you."
Salazar began to gather sweat as he was about to hear the words he feared.
"Since Kaiba Corp is under my management, now," Kaiba began. "No longer shall Kaiba Corp make war machines, but gaming software. That leaves no place for you or Spain. Vincent Salazar, you're fired."
Salazar gasped as soon as he heard those two words. He fell to his knees, unable to stand up.
Kaiba pressed another button on his desk and two guards came in.
"Show Mr. Salazar the way out," Kaiba ordered them.
The two guards nodded pulling Salazar up and escorted him out of the room.
"We should have seen that coming," the Spirit of the Puzzle said to Yugi.
"What do you mean?" Yugi asked.
"First, it seems Salazar managed to increase Spain's military productivity by ten times. Gozaburo Kaiba apparently was pleased with his work so he put him in charge of Kaiba Corp in Spain." Yugi explained. "But all Spain had to offer was military resources and Seto Kaiba was not interested in keeping a Kaiba Corp in Spain, so he sold it."
"Hmm..." Yugi muttered while he thought to himself. 'So Salazar knew Kaiba before the tournament... interesting.'
The scenery around Yugi and the Spirit of the Puzzle changed again. The thick gray clouds turned black and were pounding with rain, much like the weather at Duelist Kingdom now.
Kaiba had aged considerably, looking like the Seto Kaiba of the present date. He was currently typing on his computer, in the same desk chair and desk.
Suddenly, the two doors flung open, much to Kaiba's, Yugi's, and the Spirit's surprise. The same man in a black suit walked in, armed with a briefcase in his left hand.
"Salazar," Yugi and the Spirit said.
"Good afternoon Seto," Salazar said to him, smugly. "My you've grown since I last saw you."
"Who are you?" Kaiba questioned. "And how did you get passed all the security?"
"That doesn't matter," he replied. "Now listen close. I'm going to make you the deal of your life."
Kaiba pressed a button underneath his desk to alarm the security, but it seemed to do nothing.
"That won't do you any good," Salazar told him. "Your security is not as good as you would think. Now for my deal: I am willing to give you something you've desired for so long."
"What are you talking about?" questioned Kaiba. "What could you have that I would want?"
"The Immense Devine Soldier of Obelisk," he answered.
Kaiba gasped as soon as he heard that name.
"You lie!" Kaiba said told him. "Now get out of here before I deal with you myself!"
Salazar sighed as he began to open his briefcase. When he opened it, he pulled out a Duel Monsters card showing Kaiba its blue color. Kaiba gasped as he saw it, in even bigger disbelief.
"How... how did you get this!?" shouted Kaiba, standing up from his desk.
"I won't bore you with the details," Salazar said. "But here's what you're going to do: pull out of this year's World Championship Duel Monsters Tournament, and this card will be yours."
"What do you mean?" Kaiba asked, in anger. "You have the audacity to barge in here and force me to do something?! Get the hell out of here, now!"
"I'm so sorry you feel that way," Salazar told Kaiba, digging into his pocket with his free hand. "Since you're the only one worthy of using this card, it has no real value..."
He pulled out a match and flipped it open. Lighting the spark, a flame ignited on the lighter.
"I'll just get rid of it right now," he continued, putting the flame closer and closer towards the card.
Kaiba's firm face quickly faded as he eyed the card.
"Hold it," Kaiba called to him.
"What?" Salazar asked, pausing the flame, making it at less than inch away from burning the card. "This card's useless. I'm doing everyone a big favor by getting rid of this atrocity."
The Spirit of the Puzzle looked at Kaiba's expression.
"That is the real Egyptian God Card," the Spirit said to Yugi. "Kaiba knows it is too."
"No, STOP!" Kaiba shouted.
"Does this mean you'll consider my offer?" asked Salazar, moving the card, ever so slowly towards the flame.
"Yes..." Kaiba said, defeated.
In an instant, Salazar closed his lighter, putting out the flame and back into his pocket.
"Fantastic," Salazar said, placing Obelisk back in his briefcase. "You'll get the card after the tournament is done with. By the way; if you enter the tournament, I will know and Obelisk will be extra crispy."
Kaiba growled in anger but asked him, "Who are you?"
"Remember my name, I'm Vincent Salazar," he answered. "I'll show myself out."
With that, Salazar turned around and walked out of the Kaiba Corp building without one guard to apprehend him.
Kaiba soon began rubbing his temples as he said, "Salazar... why does that sound so familiar?"
The Kaiba Corp building soon faded out, leaving Yugi and the Spirit of the Puzzle in darkness again.
"So that's why Kaiba wasn't in the World Championships," Yugi said. "Salazar must really hate him."
"But I don't think he would be mad for only getting fired," the Spirit said. "It must go much deeper than that."
After the Spirit finished his sentence, the darkness vanished and the two of them were back in Yugi's room. However only Yugi's body was the only one present now, wearing both of the Millennium Items.
Yugi yawned and looked at the clock, seeing it was 1:18 AM.
"Well it's late," Yugi said, taking off the Millennium Items. "I should get some sleep."
He placed the Millennium Puzzle off to the side of his bed, while placing the Millennium Tauk on the ground, by his shoes.
"Goodnight," Yugi said to the Puzzle as he quickly fell to sleep...
"No that's too many magic cards," he said to himself looking at his deck. "Not enough trap cards."
He deconstructed his deck again, separating the magic cards from the trap and monster cards.
"Hmm, I know I'll keep Skill Drain," he said placing away from the other traps.
He placed Kaiser Glider, Sapphire Dragon, Nin-Ken Dog, Harpie's Brother, Archfiend Soldier, Makyura the Destructor and several other non-machine cards into another pile.
"Eh, Makyura always comes in handy," he said putting it on top of Skill Drain.
He continued placing cards in his deck, but was soon taking them back out trying to make his deck absolutely perfect as it could be...
~Meanwhile, in Joey's room~
Joey was still trying to come up with combos he could use.
"Mako's Crab Turtle and Rex's Black Tyrano will help me out a lot," he said, looking at them. "If I could equip them with a United We Stand, alone they could do a lot of damage. Knowing Titan, he's going to go try and overpower me with his own strong monsters... but with these new monsters, he'll never win."
Joey put in Black Tyrano, Crab Turtle, and Turtle Oath without taking any cards out and was satisfied on his improved deck. But then he began to get second thoughts.
"Maybe I should take something out," he said, looking through his deck to decide. "Gilford the Lightning and... Swordsman of Landstar."
Joey took out the two monsters, but not carelessly discarding them as he looked through his new deck. He shuffled it a few times to see what he got on his first draw...
~Meanwhile~
As the hour reached midnight, the black-robed man stumbled into Salazar's office. He removed the black cowl from his head revealing himself to be Vincent Salazar. He discarded the robe completely, leaving him with a white buttoned shirt with black trousers. The Millennium Ankh was still in the robe, as if Salazar didn't care about it.
"Kaiba will have a hard time dueling him now," Salazar said to himself. "Besides, I need to see how he uses Obelisk in a duel."
He walked around his desk and sat down in the wheeled desk hair. He set the Millennium Rod off to the side of his desk as he turned on his computer and clicked on a button revealing several files. One file was updated reading "The Twelve Finalists." As he was about to click on it, a knock came at the door.
"Come in," he said to the knocker.
The door opened revealing Croquet.
"Master Salazar," he began, "The twelve duelists have been decided. Both Seto Kaiba and Yugi Muto have made it."
"I expected no less," he told him. "You may go now."
"S-sir," Croquet said to him, not moving.
"Is there something else I should know?" Salazar asked.
"Well yes," he began. "The twelve losing duelists at the preliminaries never made it to the boat. They've disappeared."
"I see," Salazar responded, as if knowing what was going on. "Anything else?"
"Yes, we have lost contact with 28 of our security personnel at least three hours ago," he said.
"Why am I just learning this?" Salazar asked, as he raised his tone. "Do you know who it is?"
"Y-yes sir we do," Croquet said, fear growing in him. "Security cameras identify the culprit as... Mr. Bakura. He also reached the third level basement and somehow discovered the secret passage..."
As a flash of lightning shot through Salazar's window, his face remained unchanged.
"That will be all Croquet," Salazar said to him.
"But sir..."
"I hate repeating myself, Croquet," Salazar said to him.
In an instant, Croquet left the room shutting the door quickly.
The roar of thunder and the flash of lightning came out his window. Enraged, Salazar stood up, knocking his desk chair over.
"Steal one of my Millennium Items, will you, Bakura?" Salazar said to himself, grabbing the Millennium Rod, unsheathing it. "You've crossed the line now. I'll take you out right now, by myself."
As another roar of thunder could be heard, Salazar's body suddenly began to shake. Beads of sweat began to gather on his forehead. His shaking right arm dropped the two pieces of the Millennium Rod, causing them to move at a far, unreachable distance. He began to breathe heavily as he fell to the ground, clenching his pounding head.
"Damn it," he said to himself. "Not again..."
As if he knew what to do, he crawled towards the bottom left desk drawer and pulled out a framed picture. The picture depicted a younger Salazar standing next to a pretty woman. In front of the two of them were three children each of youthful ages. Tossing the picture aside, he pulled out a bottle of tequila. He opened it up only to find it empty. Impulsively, he threw it to hit the wall, shattering it. He then helped himself up and walked towards the discarded picture noticing a crack on the frame glass. He opened the liquor cabinet above the picture and pulled out a bottle of tequila...
~Meanwhile, in Yugi's room~
Yugi had been working hard on the Millennium Puzzle the whole time. He had worked so hard that he only had four pieces left. He put in the pointy piece at the bottom of the puzzle, seeing it fit perfectly. He then placed the piece that was pointy on one side into a top piece, nearly completing it. He placed an oddly shaped piece into a hole, nearly filling it up.
"Here's the last piece," Yugi said holding the puzzle piece with an eye on it.
Yugi placed it in the last empty hole, completing the puzzle. The puzzle suddenly began to illuminate white, even brighter than the lightning outside. When the light faded, Yugi was greeted by an old friend.
"Hello again, Yugi," the Spirit of the Puzzle said.
"Yami?" Yugi asked.
"Yes Yugi," the spirit said. "How have things been?"
"You wouldn't believe it," Yugi began. "I had to duel three times without you. Each duel seemed like my last."
"And yet here you are, in the finals," the spirit said to him. "You're a better duelist than you give yourself credit for."
"But something else troubles me," Yugi said.
"What's that?"
"Half the people here are dueling for Salazar. One of them is Bakura, but he doesn't remember me or Joey."
"Hmm... that's rather interesting. I shall have to see that for myself. Is there anything else I missed?"
"I ended up getting a new card," Yugi said, thumbing through his deck until he found it. "This one, Versago the Destroyer."
"That's a fine card Yugi," the spirit said to him. "It makes a fusion much easier to accomplish."
"Yeah that's true."
"But there's something I've been thinking about," the spirit said to Yugi.
"What's that?" asked Yugi.
"Well if Salazar has control of Shadi, he must have control over his Millennium Ankh."
"That makes sense."
"Also, if this is really Bakura that's here, then I wouldn't be surprised if the Millennium Ring was here as well. Plus, we hold two Millennium Items as well and Salazar has the Millennium Rod along with the Millennium Ankh. That means five of the Millennium Items are on this island. I wouldn't doubt that the remaining two Millennium Items are on this island as well."
"Do you think he wants all of the Millennium Items?"
"I wouldn't doubt it. But why does he want them? And how did he obtain the Millennium Rod to begin with?"
"Those are my same questions. But I doubt we'll figure it out, tonight."
"You're right. It's getting late; I think we should get some sleep Yugi. We're both going to need it for tomorrow."
Yugi nodded as he got ready for bed. He took off his blue jacket and pants, placing them at the foot of his bed. He made sure that the door to his room was locked but to make sure, he leaned a chair back, blocking the door. Afterwards he placed his two Millennium Items on each side of his pillow; the Puzzle on his right and the Tauk on his right.
"Goodnight Yami," Yugi said to the Millennium Puzzle as he began to drift off into a sleep at 12:17 PM...
As several hours passed, a bright light hit Yugi's closed eyes, waking him up.
"Wha? It's too early to be sunrise," Yugi said, rubbing his eyes.
Yugi looked out the window to still find it raining. He looked down and saw it was the Millennium Tauk glowing brightly.
"What the...?" Yugi questioned.
He picked up the Millennium Puzzle, putting the chain around his neck. Quickly, he changed into his Yami Spirit, so he could inspect the Millennium Tauk.
'Why is it glowing?' Yugi asked the Spirit of the Puzzle through thought.
'I'm not sure,' he responded. 'But maybe it's trying to show us something.'
Yugi grasped the Millennium Tauk, putting it around his neck to see what would happen. Suddenly, the Tauk illuminated even brighter, turning the whole room white.
Yugi closed his eyes from the brightness, but when he opened his eyes, the room had faded out and he was surrounded by darkness. Even more stranger, both he and the Spirit of the Puzzle were in physical form. Around the Spirit's neck was the Millennium Puzzle, while around Yugi's was the Tauk.
"Where are we?" asked Yugi.
"The Tauk is showing us a vision," the spirit explained. "We should be seeing something shortly."
It was so, the darkness soon faded away as Yugi and the Spirit appeared in a building with extremely tall windows. Yugi looked out of the windows to find them to be at a very high level.
"We must be in a business building," Yugi said to the Spirit, looking back at them.
Suddenly, a door opened and out walked two men, both in business suits. Both of them were oddly familiar to Yugi and the Spirit. One had a black pony tail with several long hairs on the side, wearing a black three-piece suit. The other had a thick mustache and wore a red business suit. They were both carrying on and laughing as if they were both friends.
"You are one class act," the man in the red suit said as he walked around to his desk. He sat in the desk chair while the black-suited man sat in a chair in front of the desk.
"Anyways back to business," the man in the red suit said in his gruff voice, "You wish to merge your company with mine, correct?"
"Indeed," the other man said, "As you can see, Spain's militaristic market has nowhere to go, but up. I guarantee your profits will increase tenfold."
"Tenfold, huh?" the man in the red suit asked in interest. "If you can accomplish that, you might find yourself in a higher position here at Kaiba Corp."
"Thank you sir," he responded.
The red suited man then pulled out a contract for the other man to sign. The man did so and when he finished, the two of them gave a handshake. After that, the man in the black suit walked out of the room.
"Were those two..." Yugi was about to ask the Spirit of the Puzzle.
"Yes," he answered, already knowing. "Gozaburo Kaiba and Vincent Salazar. It seems they were business partners."
Before Yugi could ask another question, the scenery around them changed. Outside the blue, partly cloudy skies turned thick and gray. Gozaburo Kaiba, sitting in his chair, was replaced by a young teen with brown hair and deep blue eyes.
"Kaiba!" they both said in surprise.
Kaiba pressed a button on the desk's intercom and spoke into it, "Send him in."
Through the doors, in walked the same man from the previous vision. This man however had a look of fear on his face.
"Salazar..." the Spirit said, inspecting his face.
"Well Mr. Salazar," Kaiba began, "You know why you're here, don't you?"
"I'm afraid I don't," Salazar answered. "Please tell."
"You're here because I've made a decision," Kaiba told him. "And as the head of Kaiba Corp in Spain, it's rather effective to you."
Salazar began to gather sweat as he was about to hear the words he feared.
"Since Kaiba Corp is under my management, now," Kaiba began. "No longer shall Kaiba Corp make war machines, but gaming software. That leaves no place for you or Spain. Vincent Salazar, you're fired."
Salazar gasped as soon as he heard those two words. He fell to his knees, unable to stand up.
Kaiba pressed another button on his desk and two guards came in.
"Show Mr. Salazar the way out," Kaiba ordered them.
The two guards nodded pulling Salazar up and escorted him out of the room.
"We should have seen that coming," the Spirit of the Puzzle said to Yugi.
"What do you mean?" Yugi asked.
"First, it seems Salazar managed to increase Spain's military productivity by ten times. Gozaburo Kaiba apparently was pleased with his work so he put him in charge of Kaiba Corp in Spain." Yugi explained. "But all Spain had to offer was military resources and Seto Kaiba was not interested in keeping a Kaiba Corp in Spain, so he sold it."
"Hmm..." Yugi muttered while he thought to himself. 'So Salazar knew Kaiba before the tournament... interesting.'
The scenery around Yugi and the Spirit of the Puzzle changed again. The thick gray clouds turned black and were pounding with rain, much like the weather at Duelist Kingdom now.
Kaiba had aged considerably, looking like the Seto Kaiba of the present date. He was currently typing on his computer, in the same desk chair and desk.
Suddenly, the two doors flung open, much to Kaiba's, Yugi's, and the Spirit's surprise. The same man in a black suit walked in, armed with a briefcase in his left hand.
"Salazar," Yugi and the Spirit said.
"Good afternoon Seto," Salazar said to him, smugly. "My you've grown since I last saw you."
"Who are you?" Kaiba questioned. "And how did you get passed all the security?"
"That doesn't matter," he replied. "Now listen close. I'm going to make you the deal of your life."
Kaiba pressed a button underneath his desk to alarm the security, but it seemed to do nothing.
"That won't do you any good," Salazar told him. "Your security is not as good as you would think. Now for my deal: I am willing to give you something you've desired for so long."
"What are you talking about?" questioned Kaiba. "What could you have that I would want?"
"The Immense Devine Soldier of Obelisk," he answered.
Kaiba gasped as soon as he heard that name.
"You lie!" Kaiba said told him. "Now get out of here before I deal with you myself!"
Salazar sighed as he began to open his briefcase. When he opened it, he pulled out a Duel Monsters card showing Kaiba its blue color. Kaiba gasped as he saw it, in even bigger disbelief.
"How... how did you get this!?" shouted Kaiba, standing up from his desk.
"I won't bore you with the details," Salazar said. "But here's what you're going to do: pull out of this year's World Championship Duel Monsters Tournament, and this card will be yours."
"What do you mean?" Kaiba asked, in anger. "You have the audacity to barge in here and force me to do something?! Get the hell out of here, now!"
"I'm so sorry you feel that way," Salazar told Kaiba, digging into his pocket with his free hand. "Since you're the only one worthy of using this card, it has no real value..."
He pulled out a match and flipped it open. Lighting the spark, a flame ignited on the lighter.
"I'll just get rid of it right now," he continued, putting the flame closer and closer towards the card.
Kaiba's firm face quickly faded as he eyed the card.
"Hold it," Kaiba called to him.
"What?" Salazar asked, pausing the flame, making it at less than inch away from burning the card. "This card's useless. I'm doing everyone a big favor by getting rid of this atrocity."
The Spirit of the Puzzle looked at Kaiba's expression.
"That is the real Egyptian God Card," the Spirit said to Yugi. "Kaiba knows it is too."
"No, STOP!" Kaiba shouted.
"Does this mean you'll consider my offer?" asked Salazar, moving the card, ever so slowly towards the flame.
"Yes..." Kaiba said, defeated.
In an instant, Salazar closed his lighter, putting out the flame and back into his pocket.
"Fantastic," Salazar said, placing Obelisk back in his briefcase. "You'll get the card after the tournament is done with. By the way; if you enter the tournament, I will know and Obelisk will be extra crispy."
Kaiba growled in anger but asked him, "Who are you?"
"Remember my name, I'm Vincent Salazar," he answered. "I'll show myself out."
With that, Salazar turned around and walked out of the Kaiba Corp building without one guard to apprehend him.
Kaiba soon began rubbing his temples as he said, "Salazar... why does that sound so familiar?"
The Kaiba Corp building soon faded out, leaving Yugi and the Spirit of the Puzzle in darkness again.
"So that's why Kaiba wasn't in the World Championships," Yugi said. "Salazar must really hate him."
"But I don't think he would be mad for only getting fired," the Spirit said. "It must go much deeper than that."
After the Spirit finished his sentence, the darkness vanished and the two of them were back in Yugi's room. However only Yugi's body was the only one present now, wearing both of the Millennium Items.
Yugi yawned and looked at the clock, seeing it was 1:18 AM.
"Well it's late," Yugi said, taking off the Millennium Items. "I should get some sleep."
He placed the Millennium Puzzle off to the side of his bed, while placing the Millennium Tauk on the ground, by his shoes.
"Goodnight," Yugi said to the Puzzle as he quickly fell to sleep...