"...gi! ...ugi! Yugi!" shouted a voice.
"Huh?" Yugi mumbled, still half-asleep.
A thundering pound rang through Yugi's ears, forcing him to awaken. He looked around to see someone was pounding hard at the door.
"Yugi!!" shouted a familiar voice to Yugi as the pounding continued.
"Joey!" Yugi exclaimed then looking at the door, noticing the chair he blocked it with. "Oh right, the chair."
Yugi got out of bed and walked over to the door. He slid the chair from underneath the doorknob and unlocked the door. He opened the door to find a surprise.
"I'll break the door down!" shouted Joey who was running towards the now open door at top speed.
Yugi yelled out in surprise as he got out of the way. Joey however kept running until he ran into the bed, flipping himself on to the other side, twitching on the ground.
Mai and Ryan, who were also at the doorway tried as best as they could to stifle their laughter, from Joey's stunt. However in a few seconds, they were laughing pretty hard.
Yugi walked over to the bed and helped Joey back up.
"Are you okay?" Yugi asked, pulling him up.
"Just fine..."Joey groaned as he got back on his feet.
As Joey regained his balance he asked: "Didn't you hear me knocking the first time?"
"Nope," Yugi answered. "I got to bed late last night."
"Usually, you're a light sleeper," Joey told him, "Anyways it's a quarter until 8:00 and you've got fifteen minutes until the breakfast buffet is closed."
"Okay," Yugi responded, but realized. "Let me get some pants on first."
Yugi quickly slipped his plants on, put on his shoes and socks and walked to the door.
"Oh wait," Yugi said running back to his bed. "Almost forgot the Millennium Puzzle."
Yugi grabbed the chain of the puzzle and placed it around his neck. He adjusted so that the puzzle would hang near his stomach. He then closed the door on his room, meeting up with Mai and Ryan.
"Morning Yugi," Mai said, "Sleep well?"
"Yeah," he answered her, then turned to Ryan. "How about you, Ryan?"
"I've slept better," he told Yugi. "I was up until 2:00 AM, trying to make my deck as best as a machine deck. I ended up putting in several of some non-machines."
"Well if you worked that hard, I bet it'll be one tough deck," Yugi replied.
"Yuge, let's go to the dining room," Joey said, "They've got the best steak and eggs ever!"
"The French Toast is to die for," Mai said. "The cooks made it absolutely perfect."
"I had the pancakes," Ryan added, "Simply divine."
"Okay let's go," Yugi said, walking out of the hallway.
The other three followed closely behind, unaware of a lurker hiding behind the corner.
As the three turned the corner, the person made their move. Moving towards Yugi's room, the person slipped into Yugi's room unnoticed and completely silent.
"That fool," he said, looking at the foot of Yugi's bed. "He's so careless."
He grabbed the golden Millennium Item known as the Millennium Tauk.
"Four..." he said to himself as he exited the room, without having to sneak around...
Meanwhile at the dining room
"Whoa!" exclaimed Yugi at the sight of the massive breakfast selection.
Pancakes, waffles, French toast, steak, eggs, bacon, and various other breakfast foods sat on the long buffet table.
Yugi grabbed a plate and some utensils as he placed a few foods on his plate. He put two stacks of pancakes with syrup, a few scrambled eggs and a glass of milk. He took his food over to the dining table and began eating.
"We'll wait for you to finish," Joey said to his friend.
As Yugi began eating, he looked around the table to find a few other people eating.
First, he saw Kiyoji, eating scrambled eggs with a self-made breakfast burrito. Looking at his face, it was emotionless. He had his teeth clenched in a smug smirk but released it for each bite of his burrito. He was also eyeing Kaiba each time he could, laughing a little each time.
Seto Kaiba was sitting on the far side eating a steak with various other foods.
'Kaiba's mainly in this tournament to get even with Salazar,' Yugi thought to himself. 'And Kiyoji's here to get even with Kaiba. But he's acting differently from last night...'
Yugi then continued to eat his food, finishing off his eggs and the first pancake.
"Attention all finalists," came Croquet's voice over the intercom in the dining room. "Please report to the main hall, immediately."
Quickly, Yugi drank down his milk, and left his remaining pancake. He walked back over to Joey, Mai, and Ryan.
"Alright then," Joey said to the other three. "Let's move out!"
The three nodded as all four of them walked down the hallway, followed by Bakura, Kaiba, and Kiyoji.
A few minutes passed and they soon arrived to the main hall. Michael, Dario, Nicolas, Enigma, and Shadow were already there, waiting.
"About time you got here, Stone," Michael said to Ryan. "Better late than never, I suppose."
"Well I'm here, aren't I?" asked Ryan.
"Didn't get much sleep, did you?"
"Why do you care?"
"Busy rebuilding your deck? I wouldn't blame you. My deck is superior to you and your metal pieces of crap."
"And I suppose your retarded dimensions will save you? I guess you didn't learn the first time."
"My deck's plenty different now. My dimensions are the least of your problems, now."
Before Ryan could comment him, Croquet and a group of suits emerged from the left corridor.
"All right, follow me," Croquet told the finalists, leading them back to the left corridor.
All twelve finalists obeyed each following the suits at their own pace. They followed down the same path they went for the preliminaries. Just like the first time they walked here, Salazar's six eliminators were tailing the group.
The group arrived to the large metal door, watching it open up automatically like last time. As they passed through, they arrived to the rather wide, spiral stone staircase...
Meanwhile, at Salazar's Office
Salazar had drunk the entire bottle of tequila and several other bottled alcohols which left him passed out in his trashed office. It was remarkable that he hadn't succumbed to alcohol poisoning.
"Ugh..." Salazar groaned as he got himself up.
He looked at a shard of a broken mirror to discover himself a mess. He looked around to see his room was no better. Off in the corner, he found the covering of the Millennium Rod and its blade right next to it. He walked over and sheathed it as he let out a wheezy cough.
"Maybe I'll take a shower," he said, walking to an adjacent room to his office...
Meanwhile
As the group of suits and finalists arrived to the end of the staircase, there they met the room with seven metal doors all around, each depicting a Roman-Numeral.
The suits walked over to the door reading "VII" and opened it up, but didn't enter just yet.
"This door holds the elevator to the dueling field," Croquet told them. "For safety precautions, only five finalists shall go at a time, along with two guards."
After a brief pause, Yugi decided to go in first. Following him came Joey, Kaiba, Mai, Ryan, and two suits. It was a rather short corridor with a regular-sized elevator. All seven of them got in easily with somewhat of breathing space. One of the suits pressed the button with an arrow pointing down and the elevator descended.
'Why are there so many twists and turns in here?' thought Yugi. 'It's as if Salazar has something to hide.'
After about a minute, the elevator stopped and opened up. As the group of seven emerged from the elevator, they stood on a stone surface. Ahead of them was a three-foot-tall stone gate, indicating they were on a balcony. Across the stone gate was another stone gate, with two wooden double doors several feet behind it. As the finalists looked around, one of the suits pressed a button on the elevator, causing it to go back up.
Yugi and Joey looked below from the balcony they were on to see a dueling field, a flat metal surface what seemed to be made of 25 5x5 metal squares.
"So that's where we'll be dueling?" Joey asked a suit.
"Yes," he answered.
"Compared to the other stuff I've seen in the castle, this is the cheapest," Joey commented.
"By far," added Mai, unimpressed with the dueling field. "Salazar couldn't even make another simple arena, like the ones outside?
"Oh, you might be surprised," the suit told him.
"What do you mean?" asked Joey.
"You'll find out," he answered, chuckling.
Soon the elevator descended down again bringing out Michael, Dario, Bakura, Nicolas, Kiyoji, and two more suits. Just like before, one of the new suits pressed the same button, returning the elevator back up. A few moments later, Shadow and Enigma arrived, accompanied by the remaining four suits.
"The duels shall commence as soon as Mr. Salazar arrives," said Croquet. "Seto Kaiba and Kiyoji Hiraga, ready yourselves, for you are the first to duel."
Kiyoji was shuffling his deck, eagerly anticipating his victory. He still had his maniacal smirk on his face.
Kaiba walked over to Kiyoji and asked him, "Are you ready to duel?"
"More than ever," Kiyoji answered. "Your cards can no longer compare to mine now."
Kaiba simply chuckled at what Kiyoji said, before walking away.
On the parallel side of the balcony, two double doors opened up, revealing Vincent Salazar, accompanied by no one. He looked much better before, now wearing a new business suit. He merely stood there as he announced: "Now that I've arrived, let the dueling arena arise!"
Suddenly, the metal platform arose and was at equal surface with the balcony. The stone gate in front of the finalists dropped, fitting perfectly with the floor.
"Will Seto Kaiba and Kiyoji Hiraga step onto the arena?" Croquet asked, as he walked onto the field as well, and crossing to Salazar's side. "I shall be the official judge of this duel."
Kaiba took the right side of the field, while Kiyoji took the left side.
"Now for the Virtual Field," Croquet said, as a flat screened television descended from the ceiling, making various pictures appear.
"Virtual Field?" asked several of the finalists.
"Every duel during the first round shall have a different virtual climate," Croquet explained. "They are to test your strength and are randomly chosen. To test your endurance, each time you lose a life point during the duel, you shall feel it from the pain simulators put into the field."
Yugi looked at the television screen, seeing a silhouette of a storm cloud with lightning about to strike the ground, another image was a silhouette of what looked like a snowflake, then a ball of fire, and various others. Soon, the images began to slow down, and stopped on the storm cloud.
"The first Virtual Field shall be the Tempest Field," Croquet announced, as the flat TV turned at ninety-degree angle, facing the finalists, but behind it was another TV screen for Salazar and Croquet to watch.
Suddenly the metallic platform Kaiba and Kiyoji were on began to glow white. The platform then dropped to seven feet. The walls around the two duelists were also made of metal, and were glowing white as well. Another metal surface covered the balconies again, sealing Kaiba and Kiyoji in.
The glowing ceased inside the Virtual Field and changed in color. Kaiba and Kiyoji now stood on a grassy plain in that went on as far as the eye could see. Up above, the sky was black with storm clouds. Soon rainfall came, hitting every single blade of grass as a cold wind blew around the two. Lightning was striking off in the distance, but looked like it would soon come pay the two a visit. It didn't even look like Kaiba and Kiyoji were in a metal box anymore.
"Wow," Joey said amazed with what he saw on the TV, "More virtual reality."
"I'll say," Yugi said, "This is even more realistic than the white rooms we dueled in."
"So are you prepared to lose?" asked Kaiba, turning on his Duel Disk.
"That's my line," Kiyoji replied, activating his Duel Disk. "By the way, I'm wagering my entire deck for four of your Duel Monsters cards."
"Why four?" asked Kaiba, "There are only three Blue-Eyes White Dragons left."
"The fourth card is for the one you destroyed," Kiyoji explained. "But when I get through with you, I'll make sure you're humiliated worldwide."
"You talk big," Kaiba said. "But you have nothing to back it up. I'll accept your terms anyhow. You won't even take me down to half of my life points."
"Let's duel!" both of them said, as their life points rose to 8000 and they drew their first five cards.
As they began a loud crash of thunder roared throughout the Virtual Field and out of the TV for the finalists to hear...
"Huh?" Yugi mumbled, still half-asleep.
A thundering pound rang through Yugi's ears, forcing him to awaken. He looked around to see someone was pounding hard at the door.
"Yugi!!" shouted a familiar voice to Yugi as the pounding continued.
"Joey!" Yugi exclaimed then looking at the door, noticing the chair he blocked it with. "Oh right, the chair."
Yugi got out of bed and walked over to the door. He slid the chair from underneath the doorknob and unlocked the door. He opened the door to find a surprise.
"I'll break the door down!" shouted Joey who was running towards the now open door at top speed.
Yugi yelled out in surprise as he got out of the way. Joey however kept running until he ran into the bed, flipping himself on to the other side, twitching on the ground.
Mai and Ryan, who were also at the doorway tried as best as they could to stifle their laughter, from Joey's stunt. However in a few seconds, they were laughing pretty hard.
Yugi walked over to the bed and helped Joey back up.
"Are you okay?" Yugi asked, pulling him up.
"Just fine..."Joey groaned as he got back on his feet.
As Joey regained his balance he asked: "Didn't you hear me knocking the first time?"
"Nope," Yugi answered. "I got to bed late last night."
"Usually, you're a light sleeper," Joey told him, "Anyways it's a quarter until 8:00 and you've got fifteen minutes until the breakfast buffet is closed."
"Okay," Yugi responded, but realized. "Let me get some pants on first."
Yugi quickly slipped his plants on, put on his shoes and socks and walked to the door.
"Oh wait," Yugi said running back to his bed. "Almost forgot the Millennium Puzzle."
Yugi grabbed the chain of the puzzle and placed it around his neck. He adjusted so that the puzzle would hang near his stomach. He then closed the door on his room, meeting up with Mai and Ryan.
"Morning Yugi," Mai said, "Sleep well?"
"Yeah," he answered her, then turned to Ryan. "How about you, Ryan?"
"I've slept better," he told Yugi. "I was up until 2:00 AM, trying to make my deck as best as a machine deck. I ended up putting in several of some non-machines."
"Well if you worked that hard, I bet it'll be one tough deck," Yugi replied.
"Yuge, let's go to the dining room," Joey said, "They've got the best steak and eggs ever!"
"The French Toast is to die for," Mai said. "The cooks made it absolutely perfect."
"I had the pancakes," Ryan added, "Simply divine."
"Okay let's go," Yugi said, walking out of the hallway.
The other three followed closely behind, unaware of a lurker hiding behind the corner.
As the three turned the corner, the person made their move. Moving towards Yugi's room, the person slipped into Yugi's room unnoticed and completely silent.
"That fool," he said, looking at the foot of Yugi's bed. "He's so careless."
He grabbed the golden Millennium Item known as the Millennium Tauk.
"Four..." he said to himself as he exited the room, without having to sneak around...
Meanwhile at the dining room
"Whoa!" exclaimed Yugi at the sight of the massive breakfast selection.
Pancakes, waffles, French toast, steak, eggs, bacon, and various other breakfast foods sat on the long buffet table.
Yugi grabbed a plate and some utensils as he placed a few foods on his plate. He put two stacks of pancakes with syrup, a few scrambled eggs and a glass of milk. He took his food over to the dining table and began eating.
"We'll wait for you to finish," Joey said to his friend.
As Yugi began eating, he looked around the table to find a few other people eating.
First, he saw Kiyoji, eating scrambled eggs with a self-made breakfast burrito. Looking at his face, it was emotionless. He had his teeth clenched in a smug smirk but released it for each bite of his burrito. He was also eyeing Kaiba each time he could, laughing a little each time.
Seto Kaiba was sitting on the far side eating a steak with various other foods.
'Kaiba's mainly in this tournament to get even with Salazar,' Yugi thought to himself. 'And Kiyoji's here to get even with Kaiba. But he's acting differently from last night...'
Yugi then continued to eat his food, finishing off his eggs and the first pancake.
"Attention all finalists," came Croquet's voice over the intercom in the dining room. "Please report to the main hall, immediately."
Quickly, Yugi drank down his milk, and left his remaining pancake. He walked back over to Joey, Mai, and Ryan.
"Alright then," Joey said to the other three. "Let's move out!"
The three nodded as all four of them walked down the hallway, followed by Bakura, Kaiba, and Kiyoji.
A few minutes passed and they soon arrived to the main hall. Michael, Dario, Nicolas, Enigma, and Shadow were already there, waiting.
"About time you got here, Stone," Michael said to Ryan. "Better late than never, I suppose."
"Well I'm here, aren't I?" asked Ryan.
"Didn't get much sleep, did you?"
"Why do you care?"
"Busy rebuilding your deck? I wouldn't blame you. My deck is superior to you and your metal pieces of crap."
"And I suppose your retarded dimensions will save you? I guess you didn't learn the first time."
"My deck's plenty different now. My dimensions are the least of your problems, now."
Before Ryan could comment him, Croquet and a group of suits emerged from the left corridor.
"All right, follow me," Croquet told the finalists, leading them back to the left corridor.
All twelve finalists obeyed each following the suits at their own pace. They followed down the same path they went for the preliminaries. Just like the first time they walked here, Salazar's six eliminators were tailing the group.
The group arrived to the large metal door, watching it open up automatically like last time. As they passed through, they arrived to the rather wide, spiral stone staircase...
Meanwhile, at Salazar's Office
Salazar had drunk the entire bottle of tequila and several other bottled alcohols which left him passed out in his trashed office. It was remarkable that he hadn't succumbed to alcohol poisoning.
"Ugh..." Salazar groaned as he got himself up.
He looked at a shard of a broken mirror to discover himself a mess. He looked around to see his room was no better. Off in the corner, he found the covering of the Millennium Rod and its blade right next to it. He walked over and sheathed it as he let out a wheezy cough.
"Maybe I'll take a shower," he said, walking to an adjacent room to his office...
Meanwhile
As the group of suits and finalists arrived to the end of the staircase, there they met the room with seven metal doors all around, each depicting a Roman-Numeral.
The suits walked over to the door reading "VII" and opened it up, but didn't enter just yet.
"This door holds the elevator to the dueling field," Croquet told them. "For safety precautions, only five finalists shall go at a time, along with two guards."
After a brief pause, Yugi decided to go in first. Following him came Joey, Kaiba, Mai, Ryan, and two suits. It was a rather short corridor with a regular-sized elevator. All seven of them got in easily with somewhat of breathing space. One of the suits pressed the button with an arrow pointing down and the elevator descended.
'Why are there so many twists and turns in here?' thought Yugi. 'It's as if Salazar has something to hide.'
After about a minute, the elevator stopped and opened up. As the group of seven emerged from the elevator, they stood on a stone surface. Ahead of them was a three-foot-tall stone gate, indicating they were on a balcony. Across the stone gate was another stone gate, with two wooden double doors several feet behind it. As the finalists looked around, one of the suits pressed a button on the elevator, causing it to go back up.
Yugi and Joey looked below from the balcony they were on to see a dueling field, a flat metal surface what seemed to be made of 25 5x5 metal squares.
"So that's where we'll be dueling?" Joey asked a suit.
"Yes," he answered.
"Compared to the other stuff I've seen in the castle, this is the cheapest," Joey commented.
"By far," added Mai, unimpressed with the dueling field. "Salazar couldn't even make another simple arena, like the ones outside?
"Oh, you might be surprised," the suit told him.
"What do you mean?" asked Joey.
"You'll find out," he answered, chuckling.
Soon the elevator descended down again bringing out Michael, Dario, Bakura, Nicolas, Kiyoji, and two more suits. Just like before, one of the new suits pressed the same button, returning the elevator back up. A few moments later, Shadow and Enigma arrived, accompanied by the remaining four suits.
"The duels shall commence as soon as Mr. Salazar arrives," said Croquet. "Seto Kaiba and Kiyoji Hiraga, ready yourselves, for you are the first to duel."
Kiyoji was shuffling his deck, eagerly anticipating his victory. He still had his maniacal smirk on his face.
Kaiba walked over to Kiyoji and asked him, "Are you ready to duel?"
"More than ever," Kiyoji answered. "Your cards can no longer compare to mine now."
Kaiba simply chuckled at what Kiyoji said, before walking away.
On the parallel side of the balcony, two double doors opened up, revealing Vincent Salazar, accompanied by no one. He looked much better before, now wearing a new business suit. He merely stood there as he announced: "Now that I've arrived, let the dueling arena arise!"
Suddenly, the metal platform arose and was at equal surface with the balcony. The stone gate in front of the finalists dropped, fitting perfectly with the floor.
"Will Seto Kaiba and Kiyoji Hiraga step onto the arena?" Croquet asked, as he walked onto the field as well, and crossing to Salazar's side. "I shall be the official judge of this duel."
Kaiba took the right side of the field, while Kiyoji took the left side.
"Now for the Virtual Field," Croquet said, as a flat screened television descended from the ceiling, making various pictures appear.
"Virtual Field?" asked several of the finalists.
"Every duel during the first round shall have a different virtual climate," Croquet explained. "They are to test your strength and are randomly chosen. To test your endurance, each time you lose a life point during the duel, you shall feel it from the pain simulators put into the field."
Yugi looked at the television screen, seeing a silhouette of a storm cloud with lightning about to strike the ground, another image was a silhouette of what looked like a snowflake, then a ball of fire, and various others. Soon, the images began to slow down, and stopped on the storm cloud.
"The first Virtual Field shall be the Tempest Field," Croquet announced, as the flat TV turned at ninety-degree angle, facing the finalists, but behind it was another TV screen for Salazar and Croquet to watch.
Suddenly the metallic platform Kaiba and Kiyoji were on began to glow white. The platform then dropped to seven feet. The walls around the two duelists were also made of metal, and were glowing white as well. Another metal surface covered the balconies again, sealing Kaiba and Kiyoji in.
The glowing ceased inside the Virtual Field and changed in color. Kaiba and Kiyoji now stood on a grassy plain in that went on as far as the eye could see. Up above, the sky was black with storm clouds. Soon rainfall came, hitting every single blade of grass as a cold wind blew around the two. Lightning was striking off in the distance, but looked like it would soon come pay the two a visit. It didn't even look like Kaiba and Kiyoji were in a metal box anymore.
"Wow," Joey said amazed with what he saw on the TV, "More virtual reality."
"I'll say," Yugi said, "This is even more realistic than the white rooms we dueled in."
"So are you prepared to lose?" asked Kaiba, turning on his Duel Disk.
"That's my line," Kiyoji replied, activating his Duel Disk. "By the way, I'm wagering my entire deck for four of your Duel Monsters cards."
"Why four?" asked Kaiba, "There are only three Blue-Eyes White Dragons left."
"The fourth card is for the one you destroyed," Kiyoji explained. "But when I get through with you, I'll make sure you're humiliated worldwide."
"You talk big," Kaiba said. "But you have nothing to back it up. I'll accept your terms anyhow. You won't even take me down to half of my life points."
"Let's duel!" both of them said, as their life points rose to 8000 and they drew their first five cards.
As they began a loud crash of thunder roared throughout the Virtual Field and out of the TV for the finalists to hear...