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Fanfic Chapter 50: Dueling Alone Pt 1: The Stolen Puzzle
Episode Basis: The Mystery Duelist Pt 1
It was a peaceful day in Domino as Tea came up to the Game Shop where Solomon was sweeping the front stoop.
"Good morning, Mister Moto," she greeted.
"Ah, good morning, Tea," Solomon returned. "Yugi's up stairs in his room." Solomon called in to Yugi's mother, Noriko. "Noriko, can you get Yugi, Tea's here."
"Sure."
In Yugi's room, Yugi roped the Millennium Puzzle through a thick chain. "Hopefully, this chain will help keep the puzzle safe," he told Yami, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle.
"Hopefully," Yami agreed. "Now that we're no longer fused like we used to, we'll be relying on it a lot."
As Yugi lifted the puzzle to put it on, he paused.
"Is something wrong, Yugi?"
"I just got an eerie feeling," Yugi said.
"Don't worry, my friend, no matter what happens, I'll be there to back you up."
"Thanks, Yami."
There was a knock on Yugi's door. "Yugi, Tea's here," his mother called.
"Thanks, Mom," Yugi called back. He picked up his backpack and ran out the door.
"Oooh, what a nice chain," his mother said as Yugi. "Are you trying to impress someone?" She gave him a wink.
"Uh… who… me, uh… no, no, just thought it was time for a change."
"Oh, of course, well why don't you go show Tea, I'm sure she'll be impressed."
"Uh… I gotta go," Yugi quickly said.
"Yugi, by the way, who were you talking to?"
Yugi skidded to a stop. "What do you mean?"
"In your room, I heard you talking, who were you talking to?"
"Nobody, just myself, uh… gotta go, Mom, bye!" And Yugi high-tailed it out of there like the hound of Hades was after him. His mother stared after him concerned.
"Tea, thank you so much for everything you've done for Yugi, especially at Duelist Kingdom," Solomon said leaning on his broom. "Yugi told me about how you were willing to duel on his behalf."
"Kaiba took away Yugi's dueling spirit, Mister Moto, and since I couldn't give him mine, it was the least I can do."
"Well Yugi's very lucky to have a friend as devoted as you."
"Thank you," Tea said bowing a little.
"Hey Grandpa," Yugi greeted.
"About time, ready for the game, Yugi?"
"Yup, let's go. Bye, Grandpa!"
"Have fun, you two," Solomon called back.
"I'm worried about Yugi," Noriko said as she and Solomon observed the two teens leave. "He's been talking to himself a lot lately."
"Nonsense," Solomon dismissed. "He's just growing up. I was the exact same way when I was his age."
"That's why I'm worried."
Solomon face-faulted.
"So, who do you think will win the soccer game?" Tea asked as the two walked down the street.
Yugi just shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know."
"You really don't have a thing for sports, do you?"
Yugi looked down. "Sorry," he said ashamed.
"Don't be, it's just who you are. You know, Yugi… there's a school holiday coming up… I was wondering if you would like to do something."
"Uh… sure… I'd really like that."
"Yugi, is everything all right?"
"Oh yeah, everything's fine." But Tea had known Yugi a long time, long enough to know that something was bothering him, she wished he would tell her.
"Excuse me, young man," a voice called. Yugi and Tea turned and saw a fortune teller sitting in an alley. He had a table set up before him with a crystal ball. He wore a purple cloak.
Yugi looked around before pointing at himself in a questioning manner. "Who, me?"
"Yes, you, would you like your fortune told?"
"I don't know…"
"I can tell you your future, reveal your past, and unlock secrets that can not be found by ordinary means."
Yugi gasped. Maybe he can help me find out the truth about Yami and the Millennium Puzzle.
"You don't believe me, do you? I can tell your future for free, all I require is to hold something of personal significance… like your necklace." The fortune teller pointed to Yugi's puzzle.
"My puzzle?"
"Yugi, I don't think you should trust this guy," Tea said.
This could be my chance to find out about the secret of the Millennium Puzzle. "Okay." Yugi removed the puzzle from around his neck and handed it to the fortune teller.
The fortune teller looked it over, muttering. "Yes… yes, I see… I see." His mouth turned up in a smile, a terrible, sinister smile. "I see that this Millennium Item now belongs to me!"
How does he know about Millennium Items? Yugi wondered.
It all happened so fast, the fortune teller kicked the table which slammed into Yugi and Tea throwing them to the ground. He then took off laughing maniacally.
Yugi struggled and was able to stand. He looked over at Tea and saw that she was only dazed. He saw the fortune teller disappearing into the alleyway. He checked on Tea, who was dazed but all right. He took off after the fortune teller.
Yugi skidded to a halt around a corner. There were posters with red arrows on the wall. It must be a trap, Yugi thought. But I have to follow them if I have any chance for getting the Millennium Puzzle back. Yugi took off following the arrows.
"Tea… Tea!" Tea moaned and opened her eyes. A white blur was standing over her. Wiping her eyes into focus, she saw that the white blur was Bakura.
"Bakura," she cried standing up. "Where's Yugi?"
"What are you talking about, Tea?"
"Someone attacked us and stole Yugi's puzzle! I'm afraid that they took him too!"
"All right, stay calm, Tea, go get the others. I'll talk around and try to find out what happened."
"Oh, thank you, Bakura!" Tea ran off.
I can't believe Yugi would allow himself to lose the puzzle. I need Little-Yugi to have the puzzle for my grand scheme to work. And therefore, whoever challenges Yugi Moto shall face the wraith of me… and the Millennium Ring! Yami Bakura emerged and took out the Millennium Ring. "Ring, lead me to the Millennium Puzzle!" The spikes on the arrow pointed down the alleyway and Yami Bakura followed.
Yugi followed the arrows to an old warehouse. The old wooden building looked like it was on the verge of collapse. "The arrows have led me here," Yugi said. "But is it where the puzzle is?" A tingling sensation in the back of his mind told Yugi that the puzzle was indeed there. He opened the front door and carefully stepped aside. The inside was pitch black. "Hello? Is anyone here?"
A harsh laugh echoed through the room. A spotlight turned on and illuminated the Millennium Puzzle. The puzzle was fastened to the wall by an eye bolt. "If you want your precious puzzle back, you'll have to duel for it!" More spot lights turned on and illuminated the room. In addition to old machinery and crates, a huge dueling arena much like the ones used at Duelist Kingdom. The fortune teller was standing on the red podium.
What's a dueling arena doing here? Yugi wondered before setting his mind back to the current situation. "Who are you, what do you want with my puzzle?"
"What I want is the puzzle's power," the fortuneteller explained. "But according to the ancient rules, I can't just steal it from you; it must be won in a duel. As for who I am, let's just say I am the one who will control your destiny as I have controlled others." Is this truly the one who defeated Maxamillian Pegasus? This mind tells me it is. But I find it hard to believe, therefore, it must be the one who I'm searching for.
"Why should I duel you? The puzzle's already mine! I put it together myself!"
He assembled the conundrum? He must be a Chosen One!
"Yami," Yugi called.
"I'm sorry, Yugi, our bond is growing weak the longer we remain apart, in order to restore it, you're going to have to duel him."
"But…"
"I'm sorry, Yugi, you're going to have to duel him… alone."
"I understand, Yami."
"Don't worry, Yugi, as long as you believe in the heart of the cards, there's no duel you can't win!"
"Right." Yugi hopped up on the other podium. "All right, whoever you are, you want a duel, you got one, but be careful what you wish for." Yami, this duel's for you!
"Let's duel!" They both shouted.
(Y: 2000)
(X: 2000)
Yugi made the first move. "I summon Celtic Guardian (1) in attack mode!" A rather large elf wearing green and brown armor carrying a large sword appeared.
"Then I'll set one monster card face-down and in defense mode," the fortuneteller countered.
"Celtic Guardian, attack his face-down card!" The Celtic Guardian sliced the card in two, but then the card exploded taking the Celtic Guardian with it. "No, what was that?"
"That was my Cyber Jar (2)," the fortuneteller explained. "It can destroy all monsters on the field. Also, we each need to draw five cards and summon or set any monster with four stars or less."
This is no amateur, Yugi realized. He's using cards and strategies that someone of Bandit Keith's level would do. Yugi only drew one monster with four stars or lower. "I set a monster in defense mode."
"Meet a couple of my little friends: Mechanicalchaser (3) and Ground-Attacker Bugroth (4)!"
Machine monsters? Wait a second, there's only one Duelist I know of who would stack his deck full of machine monsters. "Show yourself… Bandit Keith!" The fortuneteller lifted his hood to reveal that it was indeed Bandit Keith. But something was odd about him. He wasn't wearing his shades and his eyes seemed glossy and distant. I knew it! But wait a minute, this doesn't make any sense, why would Bandit Keith disguise himself and try to steal my Millennium Puzzle? Yugi recalled the last time he saw Bandit Keith.
"All right, rich man, now you're going to pay for the humiliation you gave me."
"Humiliation that you so rightfully deserve," Pegasus said like he wasn't worried about a gun being put to his head.
"Shut up! I'm about to give you a bullet for each day I lingered in agony!"
If Keith shoots Pegasus, I'll never be able to rescue Grandpa or the Kaibas! Yugi realized.
"Prepare to die!"
"I don't think so." Pegasus stepped on a button on the floor and the floor space around his chair fell away sending Keith down a tunnel and out a hole in a cliff. Keith fell into the ocean with a not-so-gracious thud.
Keith cheated and Pegasus had him ejected from the island. But why would he be after me now? "Why, Keith, what did I ever do to you?"
"I'm not Bandit Keith," he said. There was a mysterious duel tone to his voice. "I only speak through him since he has become… my mind-controlled slave!"
"What?"
"After Keith was ejected from Duelist Kingdom, he thrashed around in the ocean until me and my servants picked him up. I'm always looking for new servants and when it was revealed that Keith knew the great Yugi Moto and has seen his Millennium Puzzle, there was no way I could resist bringing him under my control."
"Help me," a voice cried out before it was suppressed.
"Silence, Keith, you work for me now!" "Now let's continue the duel!" The person controlling Bandit Keith made him draw a card. "I summon Machine King (5) in attack mode! Machine King gains an extra 100 attack points for every machine monster on the field!"
(MK: 2200-2500)
"Machine King, attack Yugi's face-down monster with rocket punch!" The Machine King's fist literally detached from its arm and destroyed Yugi's face-down monster, Silver Fang (6).
I have to keep up my defenses, Yugi thought. "I set another monster in defense mode."
"Then I summon Megasonic Eye (7) in attack mode!" Machine King's attack power went up again.
(MK: 2500-2600)
"Machine King, attack with Rocket Punch!" Yugi's Giant Soldier of Stone (8) was destroyed.
I have to keep my defenses up, Yugi thought. His eyes lowered. But… how can I win without Yami's help and without my friends' support? I could really use some about now.
Joey and Harold were cleaning the blackboard when Tea burst into the classroom. "Yugi's in trouble!" She announced. Fortunately, the three of them were the only ones in the classroom. They grabbed Tristan and together, they set out to rescue Yugi.
But on the way, they hit a snag.
"Where do you think you're going?" The coach asked. They all stammered as they tried to think of a reply. "You promised you would help at the soccer game this afternoon."
Harold decided that desperate times call for desperate measures. "Coach, I just saw a kid making off with the… uh… uneven bars!"
The coach looked around. "Which way did he go, which way did he go?"
"He went around to the back of the cafeteria, hurry and you can still catch him!"
"I'll teach that troublemaker a lesson!" And the coach ran off.
"That wasn't very cool to lie to him," Tea scolded.
"Who cares? Besides, it was an emergency."
Yami Bakura came to the same intersection that Yugi got to when he first saw the arrows.
Yugi must be around here somewhere, Yami Bakura thought. He looked at the arrows. "Suspicious." The spikes on the Millennium Ring pointed in the same direction as the arrow. Yami Bakura tore off the arrow signs. "This way, I'll be sure that I get to the puzzle before anyone else does." He then turned and ran off tearing arrow signs off along the way.
"Quit stalling, you little fool," the man controlling Bandit Keith said. "Your puzzle will be mine sooner or later."
"I don't think so," Yugi said. "I play Gaia the Fierce Knight (9) and Curse of Dragon (10)! And I'll combine them with Polymerization to form Gaia the Dragon Champion (11)! Gaia, attack his Mechanicalchaser with Spiral Saber!" The two monsters clashed and Mechanicalchaser was destroyed. "Yes, I lowered Machine King's attack points by 100!"
(MK: 2600-2500)
"Enjoy your brief victory, Little-Yugi, for that is what it will be, brief! I switch my weaker monsters to defense mode and use Machine Conversion Factory raising Machine King's attack and defense power by 300!"
(MK: 2500-2800, 2000-2300)
"Machine King, destroy his Dragon Champion with Rocket Punch!" Yugi's fusion monster was knocked out of the sky.
(Y: 1700)
(K: 2000)
"Why don't you just give up and surrender your puzzle! One way or another, I will get it, at least by forfeiting, you save yourself a little dignity."
"Never!" Yugi cried. "I will defeat you!" He drew a card. "I call on the Summoned Skull (12). Now, I'll play Makiu, the Magical Mist which rusts over your machines and makes my Summoned Skull stronger than them." The Summoned Skull's attack power was increased by 700 points.
(SS: 2500-3200)
"Summoned Skull, attack Machine King with Lightning Strike!" The Summoned Skull let out a burst of lightning which devastated the rusted Machine King. "Even though Makiu's effect is temporary, it served its purpose."
(Y: 1700)
(K: 1600)
"Are you sure this is the way they came down, Tea?" Harold asked.
"Positive. This is where he was set up."
"So which way do we go now?" Joey asked.
"The best thing for us to do now is split up," Harold said as they came to an intersection. "Tea and I will go right, Joey and Tristan, you guys head left. Let's meet back here in five minutes." The four split up.
"How do you like that? Now what are you going to do without your precious Machine King?"
Keith held up a magic card. "I drew the ultra-rare Graceful Charity card. Playing this allows me to draw three cards." Unbeknownst to Yugi, a little claw underneath Keith's robe slipped three cards into Keith's hand and as Keith laid his hand on his deck, he laid the cards on it as well. He drew three cards.
"Hold on, you also have to discard two cards," Yugi reminded him.
"I know." Keith took two different cards from his hand and deposited them on the graveyard. "Now I play the Zera Ritual card!"
"I never heard of that," Yugi gasped. He could feel Yami trying to tell him something, but because the link between them had deteriorated, it only came as a whisper.
"Zera Ritual is a ritual magic card that allows me to summon one of the most feared creatures in Duel Monsters: Zera the Mant (13)!"
"Hold on, you need more than just the magic card to do a ritual summoning, you also need the right monster card and what are the chances of that happening?" Yugi really regretted saying those words as Keith showed him the right monster card. "Oh, no!"
"Now I sacrifice my two remaining monsters so I can summon Zera the Mant!" Keith's two remaining machine monsters disappeared as a large blue monster with large claws appeared. "Now Zera, attack his Summoned Skull!" Yugi could only watch in horror as his Summoned Skull was literally disarmed and then destroyed.
Yami Bakura walked to the front of the warehouse. My Millennium Ring has sensed the puzzle coming from here. And it also senses another power, one different from the puzzle. This might actually be interesting.
Little Yugi is done for, the mind controller thought. Soon, his Millennium Puzzle will be mine!
To Be Continued
Duel Monster Database
(1)
Name: Celtic Guardian
Level: 4
Type: Warrior
Attribute: Earth
ATK: 1400
DEF: 1200
(2)
Name: Cyber Jar
Level: 3
Type: Rock/Effect
Attribute: Dark
ATK: 900
DEF: 900
(3)
Name: Mechanicalchaser
Level: 4
Type: Machine
Attribute: Dark
ATK: 1850
DEF: 800
(4)
Name: Ground-Attacker Bugroth
Level: 4
Type: Machine
Attribute: Earth
ATK: 1500
DEF: 1000
(5)
Name: Machine King
Level: 6
Type: Machine/Effect
Attribute: Earth
ATK: 2200
DEF: 2000
(6)
Name: Silver Fang
Level: 4
Type: Beast
Attribute: Earth
ATK: 1200
DEF: 800
(7)
Name: Megasonic Eye
Level: 5
Type: Machine
Attribute: Dark
ATK: 1500
DEF: 1800
(8)
Name: Giant Soldier of Stone
Level: 3
Type: Rock
Attribute: Earth
ATK: 1300
DEF: 2000
(9)
Name: Gaia the Fierce Knight
Level: 7
Type: Warrior
Attribute: Earth
ATK: 2300
DEF: 2100
(10)
Name: Curse of Dragon
Level: 5
Type: Dragon
Attribute: Dark
ATK: 2000
DEF: 1500
(11)
Name: Gaia the Dragon Champion
Level: 7
Type: Dragon/Fusion
Attribute: Wind
ATK: 2600
DEF: 2100
(12)
Name: Summoned Skull
Level: 6
Type: Fiend
Attribute: Dark
ATK: 2500
DEF: 1200
(13)
Name: Zera the Mant
Level: 9
Type: Fiend/Ritual
Attribute: Dark
ATK: 2800
DEF: 2500
