Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or Magic: The Gathering. They are the property of their respective owners.
Happy New Year! Hope you all had good holidays.
I just noticed something: This fic is at 200 reviews…200 REVIEWS! Wow. I mean, 100 was pretty impressive, but 200, 200 leaves me at a loss for adjectives to describe how I feel.
Now, some of you had some questions about the last chapter, so I'm going to try and clear them up.
Igor: Arrathir's Consume Spirit affected Pristine Angel because it only has pro-everything when it is untapped. Since it was attacking, it was tapped. True, Arrathir did play it as an instant (as opposed to a sorcery) so you caught me there. Second, Faust used Retaliate after Arrathir's Soulless One attacked him, destroying it, but Arrathir regenerated it, thus removing the gold counter (much like an enchantment falls off a regenerated creature). Third, I know Handcuffs is a cheap card, but I just wanted to put it in this fic because it's my favourite Unglued card.
Master of Words: Arrathir's Havoc Demon killed off all his zombies, allowing him to have a more powerful Soulless One (One could argue he could of just summoned them with everything in play.) The reason his Havoc Demon didn't do much is because Faust slapped Pacifism on it (sorry if I didn't make it clear.)
OK, on to the fic!
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"Dark Magician! Finish him! Dark Magic attack!"
Yugi's Dark magician unleashed a purple beam of magic at his opponent, wiping out his lifepoints.
YAMI: 2670
AKI YASHIMUZI: 0
"I lost!" said Aki "Well, it was still fun duelling you, Yugi!"
Aki crossed over to Yugi and handed over his locator card and ante card, Lava Golem.
"I can't wait to tell all my friends I duelled the great Yugi Mutou!" said Aki.
"You duelled well," said Yami "If you keep your faith in the Heart of the Cards, you will become a great duellist."
"Domo arigato, Yugi-kun," (Thank-you very much, Yugi) said Aki, bowing and leaving.
That's eight, aibou
/Yay! We're in the finals!/
Did you every doubt me?
/Yami! Of course not! I'm just glad we made it!/
Same here
/Let's go meet the others!/
Yugi took over and headed for the Kame Game Shop where the duellists have convened to meet before 9 P.M., time at which the finalists would meet at a secret location given by their locator cards. It was currently 7:30. Most of the duellists on the streets were scrambling to win final locator cards. Double or nothing duels were happening all over the place with duellists betting all their locator cards just for a shot at the finals. A few were so desperate they challenged Yugi, who politely declined. When he arrived, Ryou and Joey were already waiting.
"Yo, Yug!" said Joey "You in?"
"Of course," said Yugi.
"Good for you, Yugi-kun!" said Ryou "We're in too!"
"Yeah," said Joey "That last duel was a killer, I only just made it."
Arrathir arrived a few minutes later, looking very depressed.
"Guys," he said, "I didn't make it."
"What? How?"
Once Arrathir had gotten onto the main street, he had scrambled to collect his final cards, but most duellists he met either had all their cards, or were looking for easier opponents. He explained the duel in the alley and his subsequent failure to win the remaining cards.
"Here," said Bakura, handing him three of his locator cards "Take these."
"Whoa, I can't!" said Arrathir "They're yours, you won them."
"These are extra," said Bakura "I duelled some guy when I had six cards who was so desperate he bet his five cards."
"Well, thank-you," said Arrathir. He was touched by the tomb robber's gesture. It wasn't every day a 3000-year old Egyptian kleptomaniac schizophrenic spirit helped him.
"The tomb robber willing gave something away?" said Yami, astonished "You hikari is rubbing off on you."
"Shut up, baka Pharaoh," said Bakura.
Bakura-kun…
When Khell arrived with his eight locator cards, Yugi took his locator cards and placed them in his Duel Disk. The device hummed, and a hologram sprang out of the top, showing a map of the city. There was a bright red dot on the map where the Kame Game shop was. As they watched, a line came out of the dot and began weaving through the map.
"I guess this means we follow the line," said Yugi.
The duellists set out, following the holographic map. Eventually, they arrived at a large building with one of Kaiba's suits guarding the entrance.
"Please display your locator cards," said the man.
They showed him their locator card and he allowed them in. Inside the lobby they found several duellists had already arrived.
"Hey, there's Mai!" said Joey, running over to a blond woman. They started talking enthusiastically until she slapped him.
"Are they always like this?" asked Arrathir.
"They have a love-hate relationship," said Yugi "They both like each other but they fight all the time."
The woman noticed Arrathir and Khell and came over, Joey following her like a puppy.
"Mai Kujaku," she introduced herself. (A/N: There you go, Writer Awakened, a non-dub name!) "So you two must be those duellists who play that new game. Well, let me give you a bit of advice: You've been lucky so far. Don't count on it from now on. Only the serious duellists make it to the finals. You're going down." She walked away.
"Nice meeting you too!" yelled Arrathir.
"Sorry about that," said Joey "She's just real competitive."
The doors opened, and Seto Kaiba walked in dressed in his usual white, gravity-defying trenchcoat. He was carrying a metal briefcase and was accompanied by a raven-haired kid.
"How does his coat do that?" Arrathir whispered to Ryou.
"Starch is my guess," said the albino boy.
"Welcome all," said Kaiba "If you'll all enter the doors behind you, we can continue with the tournament. The tenth finalist has not arrived, but they will be filled in when they arrive."
A set of doors hissed open as the nine finalists filed into a large room. In the centre of the room were a dozen pod-like devices with cables running all over the place.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," said Joey.
"All right," said Kaiba "The finals of the tournament will take place in my virtual world!"
Yugi and Joey groaned, "Not again," they both said.
"Kaiba," said Joey "Don't you remember the last time we went into your virtual world? We almost got stuck there!"
"Well, the bonkotsu (amateur) is backing out?" said Kaiba "The door's that way, mutt."
Joey gritted his teeth and said no more.
"You will enter these pods and load your decks in the slots located inside. Afterwards, you will be transported to a virtual reality world where further instructions will be given."
One of Kaiba's suits stepped up. "In the first pod, Dracos, Khellendros."
Khell frowned "I hate when people call me that." He sat in the pod and slotted his deck. The pod's translucent lid closed over him and he closed his eyes.
"In the second pod," said the suit "Tayan, Dayton." A tall man wearing a white cloak stepped up. Arrathir could feel the mana emanating from him. A mage.
"In the third pod," said the suit "Mutou, Yugi!" Yugi nervously stepped up and entered his pod.
Mai was in the fourth pod, Kaiba in the fifth, Ryou in the sixth, and Joey in the eighth.
"In the ninth pod," said the suit "Arrathir!" Arrathir stepped up to his pod, noticing he was the last one. The tenth duellist had still not arrived. He seated himself in the pod, which was in a reclining position. He saw a slot in the side and slipped his deck into it. There was a beep, and a red light above the slot flashed. As the lid closed, Arrathir saw someone burst through the doors. The final duellist. Arrathir had trouble seeing him through the dark Plexiglas, but he could make out his wild hair.
Yami Marik!
Arrathir banged on the Plexiglas, trying to grab the attendant's attention. Yami Marik was a madman! However, he found himself becoming very drowsy and eventually, his pounding stopped and he let sleep take him over.
When Arrathir woke up, he was lying on the ground in a small metal room. His deck was in a box beside him. He got up, took his deck, and opened the door. Outside, he saw a lobby where all the duellists were assembled.
"Yugi!" he said, running up to his friend "Yami Marik is the final duellist!"
"What?" said Joey "That freak is in the finals?"
"Exactly," said Yami Marik, who had just arrived.
"Kaiba!" said Yami "Stop the program! Yami Marik is in!"
"I see no reason to delay the finals," said Kaiba, ignoring Yami.
"Well, pharaoh, it seems our paths cross yet again."
"You will never defeat me," said Yami "I shall triumph and banish you forever."
"I highly doubt it," said Yami Marik "I have, how shall we say? A trump card in my deck."
"We will now decide the duelling order," said Kaiba, interrupting them. He snapped his fingers and the lights dimmed. A bingo machine looking like a Blue-Eyes- Ultimate Dragon rose from a dais in the centre of the room.
"You are all numbered from one to ten, according to your pod numbers," said Kaiba "The first pair of duellists will be selected by pulling two balls from this machine. After the first duel, the second pair will be selected and so on."
Kaiba pressed a button on the machine and the balls began to spin wildly around in it. One of the balls was swallowed by one of the Blue-Eyes heads and rolled out into a trough. Kaiba picked it up.
"The first duellist is: number one, Khellendros!" Khell stepped forward, determined.
Kaiba pressed the button and the balls resumed their wild dance. Another ball fell into the trough. Kaiba picked it up.
"The second duellist is: number nine, Arrathir!"
I knew this would happen some day; that Khell and I would be opponents.
To be continued…
Author's note: OK, you're all wondering, "Why is he including a bunch of Japanese words in the text?" I want to incorporate some of the Japanese culture into this story through simple words and phrases as well as in the way some characters talk. For example: I decided to keep with Ryou speech pattern in the manga, which is very formal and polite, his sentences peppered with "kun"s, an informal Japanese honorific used to denote friendship. I will provide translation, so no need to rush out and buy a Japanese dictionary.