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Fanfic Chapter 2: Raised Stakes

Episode Basis: Journey to Duelist Kingdom

Previously on Yu-Gi-Oh! Yugi was approached by Maximillian Pegasus, the creator of Duel Monsters and the president of Industrial Illusions. He drew Yugi into another dimension where he revealed that Yugi's Millennium Puzzle and his Millennium Eye that he wore in place of a normal one were ancient magical artifacts that hailed from Egypt. Pegasus also revealed that games similar to Duel Monsters had been played in ancient Egypt, only the monsters were real. The two had a timed battle in this Shadow Realm which ended with Pegasus claiming victory. He used his Millennium Eye to steal the soul of Yugi's Grandfather and dared Yugi to come rescue him. Things are only going to get worse for Yugi.


Yugi Moto sat on the roof of his high school watching the setting sun. He had been up there for most of the afternoon after school. It's where he used to go whenever he got bullied to just calm down, maybe even cry if the beating he got was hard enough.

Now he had another reason to cry. His grandfather, the man he looked up to ever since he could remember, was gone. Sure, the doctors said that he was in a coma, most likely caused by the intense graphics of Seto Kaiba's virtual Duel Monsters stadium, but Yugi knew the truth: that his soul had been taken from his body, right in front of him, by Maximillian Pegasus. And he, with his Millennium Puzzle, had been helpless to stop it.

"Hey," Harold greeted coming onto the roof. "Got room for one more?"

"Sure," Yugi replied. He scooted over and Harold crouched down next to him. For a minute, the two just sat like that.

"You know, everyone's been looking all over for you," Harold commented. "They've all been worried sick. I mean you just disappeared without telling anyone. Tea thought you were kidnapped li..." Harold didn't add 'like your Grandfather.' He knew that Yugi had enough on his mind.

"Sorry to worry them," Yugi said.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Harold replied. Oh boy, how do I handle this? Cheering people up has never been my strong point.

Fortunately, Yugi started it off. "It's hard to believe that he's really gone, literally spirited away by some sort of dark magic."

"Tell me about it," Harold agreed. "So how are you going to rescue your Grandfather?"

"Well, it's just a hunch, but I think that it might have something to do with that Duel Monsters tournament he was talking about on TV yesterday. Perhaps if I was there, I can undo whatever magic Pegasus used. But... will I be strong enough to do it?"

Yugi and Harold left the school building and began to walk home. "Yugi, you're a lot stronger than you think you are."

"If I am, then why wasn't I able to protect my Grandfather from being taken away by Pegasus?"

"Pegasus pulled a fast one on you," Harold said reaching behind Yugi's ear and pulled out a quarter. It was his favorite magic trick and he knew Yugi liked it as well. "Next time, you'll be ready for him. Plus don't forget, you have the ultimate trump card... or should I say cards."

Yugi nodded, knowing what his friend was talking about. "Exodia." Yugi could remember the sensation he got when he first called upon the legendary Duel Monster. It was perhaps one of the proudest moments of his life, right up there with him solving the Millennium Puzzle and... well, other things. Although, Yugi thought it was curious how the makers of the card chose to separate Exodia into five separate cards instead of making it one card like most of the others.

"That's right," Harold said unaware of Yugi's pondering. "As long as you have those Exodia cards, you're unbeatable."

"I hope you're right," Yugi said. "I have a feeling that this is just the beginning."

As Yugi and Harold approached the Game Shop, they noticed an envelope wedged in the door frame. It was to Yugi.

The Industrial Illusions logo was in the upper left corner of the envelope.

"Pegasus!" They both realized. Yugi's hands began to shake.

Harold could see that Yugi needed to be alone for a little while so he said, "Yugi, I'll see you later."

"Okay, see you tomorrow, Harold."

As Yugi went inside, Harold hurried over to a payphone and dialed a number. "Hey, Tea, it's me. I found him... yup, it's just like you said... I think he's going to need all the help he can get."


As Joey returned home that night, he noticed a package that was addressed to him. He opened it up and discovered a video tape. Joey had been wary since when this happened to Yugi, his Grandpa's soul got stolen. Joey didn't want to end up in a coma like Yugi's grandpa did.

When he placed the tape in the VCR and hit the play button, he was treated to an image of a girl with strawberry-blonde hair and green eyes (though they were beginning to look gray) in pink pajamas.

"Hey there, Big Brother," she greeted.

"Serenity!" Joey gasped. He hadn't seen her in a long time. He almost didn't recognize her.

"It's been a while, hasn't it? I haven't seen you since… well…" Joey knew what she was talking about. "I just thought I would send you this so you wouldn't forget your little sister's face." Her smile took on a sad quality. "The doctors say I don't have much time. They said that I'll be passed the point of no return in a few weeks. If for some reason I… well… please, take care, Joey." The tape ended.

Is it really getting to be that time? Poor Serenity, I wish there was something I could do to help her. Joey re-played her last three words in his mind.

"Take care, Joey."


The next day at school, Yugi showed the others what he got from Pegasus. Inside were five cards that were styled similar to Duel Monster cards. One had a picture of a boat on it. The second had an island as the picture. Another had a picture of a pile of gold and three stars; the fourth one has a picture of a glove and two gold star tokens. The last one just had a white background as the picture. Only the blank one didn't have any text, just a name: Glory of the King's Opposite Hand.

"So if I'm reading these cards right," Harold said. "Then there's a boat leaving a week from Friday at six o'clock at night at Domino Pier."

"That's right," Yugi confirmed. "But it appears that only guest bearing stars will be accepted."

"Hey Yugi, what about what was in that first package you got from Pegasus?" Tea asked. "Weren't there stars in that?"

"Oh, you're right, Tea." Yugi reached into his pocket and took out the two star tokens that were in the package along with the glove and video tape.

"So anybody who has those star thingies is accepted onto the boat?" Tristan asked. "That means we won't be able to join you. Sorry, Yug."

"Yeah, I already thought of that," Yugi said.

"But we have to join him," Tea protested.

"Tell me about it, Tea," Tristan agreed as Joey picked up one of the cards. "Who knows what would happen to Yugi if we're not there to back him up."

"Whoa, take a look at this," Harold said. "According to this, the winner of the tournament gets a rather large amount of prize money, the equivalent of three million dollars!"

"Joey, I don't care about money," Yugi said. "I'm only in it to rescue my Grandfather!"

"Well someone apparently does care about money," Harold cracked.

This could be the break I've been looking for, Joey thought. No matter what happens, I have to get on that boat!


On the evening when the boat was to take off, Harold received something from Industrial Illusions. Upon opening the large brown envelope, he discovered a whistle along with a letter. He skipped over the legal mumbo-jumbo until he got to what the letter was really saying.

"You have been accepted into the Duel Monsters Watcher League. As such, you are to act as Guard at the upcoming Duelist Kingdom Tournament!" Harold dropped the letter. "This could be the break we need. I need to call Tea and Tristan." Harold ran to the phone and tried dialing Tristan's house but nobody would pick up, the same with Tea. "What's going on, here? Maybe Joey's at home." But Joey wasn't home either. "This is getting weirder and weirder by the moment. Have they gone to see Yugi off? Well... perhaps it's better if they don't know. If they did know, they might not trust me ever again. Still... I have to find out where they've all gone. And the best place to start is Domino Pier." Harold looked around. "And I have to stop talking to myself." He ran upstairs and grabbed some things and ran out.


As Yugi carried his backpack up to the pier, he realized that this was a lot different than the Duel Monster tournaments he normally sees on TV and from the audience. Kids and grownups alike lined up as a cruise ship floated next to the dock. "This is kind of freaky," Yugi muttered as he got in line.

"What do you mean I can't go on?!" A loud and familiar voice said.

"I mean what I said," a black-suited guard replied. "Nobody may board the boat without the required star chips."

Star chips? Yugi thought. So that's what those token things are called. He then realized that the voice yelling was Joey. He ran to check it out. Sure enough, two guards were trying to haul Joey out of line. Yugi secretly removed one of his star chips from his glove and went up to Joey.

"Joey, what are you doing here?" Yugi asked.

"Hey, Yug, Dumb and dumber over here won't let me onto the boat."

"That's because he doesn't have a star chip," the guard said.

"Oh great," Joey moaned as if he was realizing his situation for the first time. "I don't have any star chips."

"Of course you do, Joey," Yugi said holding up the star chip he removed from his glove. "I was keeping it safe for you. You would lose your own head if it wasn't attached to you."

The guards were stupefied. Obviously, they never encountered anything like this before. But rules were rules and seeing as how Joey did have a star chip after all, they allowed him and Yugi to board the boat.

"Thanks, Yugi, I really appreciate it," Joey said as the boat began leaving. "But if anyone knew that we each had only one star chip, we'd be easy picking."

"As long as you don't blab it out to everyone, Joey, we'll be fine."

"Excuse me," a female voice said. "By any chance are you Yugi Moto?" Yugi and Joey turned and saw that they were approached by a vuluptuout-looking woman with blonde hair and purple eyes. She was dressed in a white baby T-shirt over a purple jacket and a purple skirt.

"Uh... yes I am."

"Man, I wouldn't mind dueling her," Joey muttered lustfully.

"And you are?" Yugi asked like he didn't hear Joey's lewd comment.

"My name's Mai Valentine, I just wanted to see the shrimp that beat the legendary Seto Kaiba. I didn't expect you to be an actual shrimp."

"I've heard about you," Yugi said trying to cover up the bit of red that threatened to reveal itself on his cheeks. "I've heard that you can play your cards without even looking at them. But how do you know about me?"

"It's just something us advance-level duelists can do. And as for knowing about you, everyone in the Dueling Circuit heard about your battle against Seto Kaiba. They're all saying that your victory was a complete impossibility. So it'll be interesting to see if you're as good a duelist as you claim to be, or whether your victory was just a fluke."

Maybe she's right.

"Look, Mia or whoever you are, my bud can beat anyone, anytime, anywhere."

"Well I look forward to see if that is true, hon. See you on the Dueling Ring." With a wink, Mai left.


"Man, people like her really tick me off," Tea complained.

"Don't let her get to you," Tristan advised.

"But look at them; Yugi and Joey are fawning over her like, like some… love-struck monkeys!"

"I don't know, Tea, I mean Joey definitely, Harold maybe, but this is Yugi we're talking about. Romance is just not in his deck if you know what I mean."

"Men," Tea huffed. "Anything with a cute face talks to them and they fall all over them, bunch of sex maniacs."

What's with Tea? Tristan wondered. It's not like she has a crush on Yugi... wait a second.

Tristan shifted his position to relieve pressure from his foot which was asleep. Rather than fooling the guards like Joey did, Tristan and Tea opted for a more simple approach: stowing away. The idea had been, to Tristan's surprise, Tea's. Tristan had never known Tea to been so assertive. Did she really want to join Yugi on the island that badly? Well, it didn't matter now what Tea's logic was, now they were hiding out on the bow of the ship.


"Wow, Yug, you're a regular celebrity here."

"I'm just glad that I have at least one friend on this boat. It's too bad Tea, Harold, and Tristan couldn't join us though."

"I'm sure wherever they are; they're with us in spirit. Come on, let's go inside and look around."

"Okay."


"Aww nuts," Harold said walking up and down the dock. "Looks like I missed the boat." He scratched his scraggly blue-brown hair. "Hmmm... how do I get over there?" He then slapped him in the head. "Duh, why didn't I think of that earlier? I had the perfect source of transportation the whole time." He turned and ran to a different pier.
"Jeez, Yug, look at them all," Joey said looking at all the duelists gathered in the cabin of the cruise ship. "They're all playing Duel Monsters."

"That's right," Yugi confirmed. "But they're not just playing, they're also trading. Duelists hope that they can get cards more suitable for their decks." Yugi was going to explain more but Joey was already in the middle of two duelists trying to trade his Kagemusha of the Blue Flame card.

"So the rumors are true, Yugi Moto is on this ship," a high-pitch voice said. Yugi turned and saw two boys walking into the cabin. The boy who recognized Yugi was short with light blue hair in a bowl-shape, large coke-bottle glasses and dressed in a green suit. He wore what looked like a permanent sneer.

The one next to him had shaggy black hair with a tuft of pink at the front wearing a knit cap and a cream-colored vest over a green shirt.

"Weevil Underwood!" Yugi recognized. "You're the reigning Duel Monsters champion!" He turned to the other boy. "And you're Rex Raptor, the runner-up." Rex just grunted, Yugi guessed that he was still upset over losing to Weevil in the Duel Monster Championship. "You... know me?"

"Of course," Weevil replied. "Everybody's heard of the kid who beat Seto Kaiba. I'm interested to see how you are on the Dueling Field."

"You won't even get a chance," Rex commented. "My dinosaurs will stomp all over you before he ever gets the chance."

"As if, your dinosaurs would just get stung by my insect swarm like last time. Plus, I know something nobody else does."

"What's that, Weevil?"

"Well, let's just say that everybody will soon learn that there are special rules that will require duelists to think more strategically."

"Oh please, my deck is so strong that I'll beat everyone, new rules or none."

"Like how you beat me last time? I doubt it." Weevil and Rex erupted into another argument which Yugi took advantage of in order to leave and walk out on the deck.

So many expert duelists know about my duel with Kaiba, Yugi thought. But I doubt they know about my duel with Pegasus. Why me? Why did Pegasus single me out? I mean he said that there were seven Millennium Items. So why didn't he go for one of the other five? Why did he express so much interest in my Millennium Puzzle? I know it's special, but how special is it that he's willing to kidnap my Grandfather's soul?

"Hey Yug!" Joey called. He walked holding a variety of cards. "Check out all the cool cards I got."

Yugi read them off. "Salamandra, Koon Eye with Chain, Baby Dragon (1), and Shield and Sword. All right, with these new magic cards combined with your monster cards, you'll have a real strong deck."

"Oh yeah!" Joey cheered.

Yugi reached into the box that the Millennium Puzzle originally came in, which was also where he kept some spare cards and took out one of those cards. "Here, use this card as well. It's called the Time Wizard (2). It can be handy in a tough spot."

"Thanks, Yug, you're always looking out for me."

"Well, what are friends for?"

"Friends..." Joey let out a slight chuckle. "If you were to tell me a few months ago that we would become friends, I wouldn't have believed you."

"The way you threw that piece of the Millennium Puzzle into the pool, I wouldn't have believed it either."

"Hey, I got it back for you, didn't I? I mean after you stood up to that street punk for Tristan and me, it was the least I could do."

"Yeah, we have to look out for one another." Joey nodded.

Little did Yugi and Joey know that they were being watched by three people, two with malicious intentions.

"Oh Yugi." It was Weevil. "May I see those Exodia Cards of yours? They are just so rare..."

"Oh, sure." Yugi withdrew the five cards and handed them to Weevil.

"So these are the cards you used to defeat Kaiba." Weevil subtly positioned himself near the railing. "You know, for so long, I have been trying to devise a strategy to counteract Exodia. But I just couldn't think of anything. Exodia's just too powerful to face straight-out. Now, I've finally figured it out." Something in Yugi's gut told him not to trust Weevil, especially with the Exodia cards. "You see, while it's impossible to attack Exodia, it is possible to get rid of the cards directly, like THIS!" And like he was throwing a scrap of paper into the waste bin, he threw the Exodia cards over the side of the boat. "Say good-bye to Exodia!" Weevil cried with demonic laughter.

"NO!" Yugi cried. "Those are the Exodia cards that my Grandfather gave me!"

"You should always keep a stern hand on your possessions, you never know when you'll lose them," Weevil said. He laughed again and then walked away.

"Hang on, Yugi, I'll get them!" Joey volunteered and before Yugi could stop him, Joey dove into the ocean.

"Joey, no, it's not worth it!" Yugi argued.

In the water, Joey struggled to swim towards the first Exodia card at the same time keep his head above. He finally reached the first one. "Got it, just four more to go." Joey's head went under for a second then popped up again. He started to swim towards the next card.

"Joey!" Yugi called out. He took off his Millennium Puzzle so that it wouldn't weigh him down and then jumped in after Joey.

Joey reached another Exodia card. He placed it into his jacket pocket along with the other one. "Just three more to go," he said before feeling his strength leave him. Joey sunk beneath the waves.

"JOEY!" Yugi went under as well and pulled Joey back up to fresh air. Unfortunately, by the time he did, Joey was out cold. I have to get Joey back onto the ship... wait, how do I do that? Nobody knows we're out here. So is this it? Am I going to drown before ever getting a chance to duel Pegasus? Somebody, help me!

"Yugi!" Yugi heard a faint voice. He looked up and saw a rope ladder dangling down the side of the boat. Tristan was on it and Tea could be seen on the deck holding his Millennium Puzzle.

"Tea, Tristan," Yugi managed to say. He brought Joey over to the ladder where Tristan hauled Joey onto his back and brought him up. Yugi followed.


When Joey awoke, the first thing he saw was Tristan knealing over him. Tilting his head to one side, he could see Yugi was leaning against the wall, in the same position as he was in, only with Tea watching.

"Joey, you're awake!" Tristan said after Joey finished retching up sea water.

Joey's eyes were dripping but it wasn't from the water. He turned towards Yugi and said, "I'm sorry, Yugi, I was only able to save two of your Exodia cards."

"Don't worry about it, Joey," Yugi said. "What's important is that you're safe."

"But this is always the case. I'm no help to anyone. Not to you, not even to my sister, Serenity."

"You have a sister?" Tea asked, surprised. Yugi was too, he could never recall Joey talking about his family before. There was one time where he joked about how he and Yugi were like brothers, but other than that, he never talked about his biological family.

Joey pulled himself into a sitting position. He reached into his pocket and took out his wallet. Inside was a picture of Serenity. It was a few years old, but up until the tape came, it was the visual reference he had of her. "Our parents separated when we were very little. I can remember seeing her cry as our parents broke us up. I haven't seen her for a long time." Joey explained that Serenity had a disease that would cause her to eventually go blind. The only hope she had was a very expensive surgery by a surgeon who lived in Germany. "That's why I want to win the three million dollars, so that she could get the operation. If I fail, then it will eventually reach the point where it would be impossible to restore her eyesight even with the surgery."

Yugi, Tea, and Tristan had never seen Joey so passionate about anything before. But deep down, they couldn't blame him. If there was one thing that Joey cherished above anything, even friendship, it's the bond between brother and sister. And with such high stakes, then Yugi could only say, "Don't worry, Joey, I'll do anything I can to help you win that money."

Joey smiled. "Thanks, Yugi. In return, I'll do anything I can to help you rescue your Grandpa." The two clasped hands to cement their pact.

"Hey guys, take a look," Tristan called. Everyone looked to see an island coming up in the distance. The rising sun behind it made it look very beautiful. "Do you think that's it?"

"That's it," Yugi confirmed. "Pegasus' island, Duelist Kingdom, and hopefully, where my Grandfather is being held."


Monster Glossary:

(1)
Name: Baby Dragon
Level: 3
Type: Dragon
Attribute: Wind
ATK: 1200
DEF: 700

(2)
Name: Time Wizard
Level: 2
Type: Spellcaster/Effect
Attribute: Light
ATK: 500
DEF: 400