Mokuba was exhausted as he shut down his home computer for the night, but it was a good kind of tired. The sort of tired that spoke of a hard day's work.

As the Head of Promotions and Marketing, he had been working on the advertising for Battle City ever since his brother had decided it was going to be a thing. Today he had put the final touches on the packages they were going to be offering to the businesses that were going to be affected by the temporary pedestrianisation. Those that could stay open would probably take advantage of the increased tourism to make a profit, but Kaiba Corp was going to provide for them if that failed, while cafes and restaurants were being offered a small stipend if they offered a discount to competitors and spectators.

He was halfway to his feet when he felt the room's temperature drop several degrees and felt something shift sideways. Seconds later the door into the hallway clicked shut. Reaching for the panic button under his desk, he turned to look at the entrant and found, as he had suspected, Bakura Amane, or rather, her darker, more murderous self, had snuck into his home office.

"You're trespassing," he warned her, silently wishing that he had not set his desk up so he could look out over the gardens, rather than keep an eye on who was coming in.

"Call the guards on me and you'll be picking up the pieces." There was an odd tone to her voice that made him pause. "I'm here to discuss what you owe me. That's all."

Mokuba mentally winced and his hand fell to his side. "I can get the check…"

"I'm not interested in the money." His eyes widened when she shook her head. "I want into your tournament."

"What?"

"I want in to Battle City," the Thief Queen repeated herself with a scowl. "And you're going to get me in."

"Why?" The Vice-CEO struggled to comprehend. "You're not a Duelist."

"I can duel, I just choose not to. Until now." Her shrug only deepened his confusion. "If you value your brother's life, you'll get me into that tournament."

Mokuba's heart froze. "Is that a threat?"

"Not from me. I'm on your side for a change." She looked amused at the anger in the younger Kaiba's tone. "But there's a bitch who's going to try and destroy anyone who gets in their way, and she has the third God card. You honestly think your brother isn't going to Challenge her at some point?"

There was no way that Seto would let Bakura's target slip past him.

He wanted the God cards.

He wanted to be the most powerful Duelist in the world.

Because at the end of the day, he might be much, much better than he had once been, but his brother still had a competitive streak a mile wide and treated every duel like it was a fight for survival.

Partly because it was.

Some of Kaiba Corp's reputation hung on his brother's dueling prowess. Kaiba Seto's position at or near the very top of the Dueling world allowed Kaiba Corp to be considered an expert in all things Duel Monsters. That meant that investors were willing to pay top price to buy stocks in the company.

If they lost Kaiba Corp, they lost everything. Their home, their income, their way of life.

There was even a risk that they could end up back in the orphanage if Isono, Seto's right hand man and the only person besides the two Mazaki lawyers that they could truly trust, relinquished his legal support. Seto was, technically, still a child. Until he hit 20, he had to have a legal guardian and could not have legal guardianship of his brother.

If Isono decided to drop them when the company went down, they would end up back in the orphanage and they could get split up.

He hoped he was right in that Isono would not do that to them, but the fear was constantly at the back of Mokuba's mind, and he knew it bothered his brother, too.

It was why he had supported Seto's decision to pick up twenty percent of the public stock that had been sold off by panicking Industrial Illusions investors. The only one who now held more shares of Duel Monsters' founding company was Pegasus J. Crawford himself. That meant that if anyone from I2 dared to try another hostile takeover stunt like Duelist Kingdom, Kaiba Corp would ruin the other company in turn.

They did not want to because it would weaken their own position, but they would if they had to, and Crawford and his children knew it.

With that problem neutered, Seto's key concern was getting his World Champion title back so those who were doubting him had to shut up.

Having the God cards would ensure Seto was back at the top of the Duelist food chain, and Kaiba Corp's position would be completely secure.

But that meant, if Bakura was right, his brother was going to butt heads with someone who might kill him.

"How sure are you?"

"Put it this way, the bitch is only slightly less psycho than the Pharaoh was when she first woke up. On a good day."

"Right…" Mokuba turned back to his computer and turned it back on, grimacing. "You realise I can only get you in, right? If you want to get to the finals, you'll actually need to be on a competitive level. Only rank four and higher duelists are being allowed to register. We're talking regional champions."

"I already have a plan in place for that." The Thief Queen shrugged, watching over his shoulder as he tagged one of the entries as 'confirmed'. A tag that only two other entries apparently had so far. "You don't need to worry."

Duel Monsters was close enough to Diaha and she had seen enough duels while trailing the Pharaoh around that she knew the basics. She was pretty sure she was going to be more than capable of handling herself. She just needed to speak with Honda and get him to assist her in practising.

"Alright, you're in." The younger Kaiba turned his chair around so he could look at her. "Don't suppose you'd be willing to share why this woman's so trigger happy?"

"Ancient bullshit relating to a foul up your brother's past self made." Her shrug was nonchalant. "I thought you Kaibas weren't interested in the history stuff."

"Tokyo made me very interested." Mokuba decided that if she was willing to talk to him about it, it was high time that at least one of them understood everything that was going on. At least this way, if he needed to do something to keep his brother safe, he would know it. Plus the vision of his brother hanging out with Meisa back in Egypt and how hurt 'Seth' had been when he had been dealing with her burial rites, had hit home with the younger Kaiba.

Mokuba knew the pain of losing family far too well. If knowing about the past would stop him or his brother getting hurt like that again, he was willing to listen.

There was a pause as Bakura considered him for a moment, then she snorted and nodded. "Fine, but you're providing the food and drink. I might even consider teaching you how to control those senses of yours."

"What do you…?"

"You've been able to sense the Shadows since Duelist Kingdom, haven't you?" The Thief Queen did not need an answer, his grimace was answer enough. "I can teach you how to control that, and possibly how to summon, if you're tainted enough."

Though he disliked the term 'tainted', he could not deny he was curious.

"And what do you want in exchange for all of this?"

"I need one duel with your brother. Just one. You're going to arrange it for me."

"At Battle City? The matchups there are…"

"No. It doesn't have to be soon. I just need something from him I can only get in a duel. And I need it before the brat tries to get the Pharaoh's memories back."

Mokuba paused to consider. His brother was very picky about who he duelled against. He had to be to prevent being under a constant spam from challengers.

However, if he could convince Seto that the duel was part of the repayment of what had been owed for the food Bakura had provided on Duelist Kingdom, there was a possibility he could get her the duel she needed.

However…

"You're not going to rip his soul out, right?"

"I don't need his soul. I just need him to summon his dragons against me."

"Why?"

"Because my Ka beast can absorb the power of things it destroys, and I want it to have the power of a Blue-Eyes before I take my final shot."

"You honestly think you can kill a Blue-Eyes?" The incredulity of his tone came through clearer than he would have liked, but surprisingly she did not seem to take offence.

"I guess we'll see, won't we?"

Meisa was bored.

Her Imoto had settled in to catch up on the school work she had missed while she had been in hospital as a distraction from the conversation with Marik, since nothing could be done about it right now. Plus her Jii-san was busy doing paperwork for the shop, so she had no one available to interact with. Not that she expected any of them to entertain her, but after recent events, she did not particularly wish to retreat to the Puzzle. She wanted to be out and about in the world, even if she could not do much while she was there.

The sound of a female voice screaming startled her and made her wheel towards the door.

'Easy, Anesan, I think Katsuya's watching horror films again.' The amused exasperation that trickled over the bond helped the Pharaoh unwind. 'He knows I don't like them, so he promised to watch the new one he picked up after he finished his own homework, since I have much more work to do than him.'

It took the Pharaoh a moment to remember what her twin was talking about, then she remembered their friend talking about an American ghost film that was coming out. She had been interested, but she had been able to sense that Imoto had not wanted to watch, so she had refrained from pressing.

'Do you mind if I…' The Pharaoh trailed off, a little reluctant to leave Yugi unattended.

'I'm safe.' The light souled twin turned to look at her, understanding etched on her features. 'No one's going to shove me down the stairs here, and I don't think Bakura knows what time we got back into town. Go enjoy.'

Wondering if she was really that easy to read, the Pharaoh passed through the doorway and floated down the corridor. Knowing her luck, he would be halfway through the film already, and she would have missed the good stuff and have no way of asking him to restart the movie.

What she walked in on, however, was the ghost in the movie picking up a knife from the side and tossing it towards a shrieking blonde girl, who barely dodged, babbling something in English that Meisa struggled to understand at that pitch and speed, but Katsuya seemed to get, possibly because his English was stronger than hers, as he frequently watched American Mobster movies.

She leaned on the back of the sofa as the ghastly threat, which, if she was picking up the words correctly, was called a poltergeist, proceeded to pick up and launch more things at its targets, none of whom seemed to have the sense to flee from the building. Instead they trapped themselves in small spaces and darkened cupboards, thinking it would save them.

Not that the spirit of the Puzzle was really paying attention to them. While Imoto had told her on multiple occasions that things that happened in movies were not always possible in real life, she could not help but be curious if she could pick things up like the poltergeist in the movie. Katsuya had not seemed surprised when the creature had started throwing things and she knew he normally disliked ghosts, so he probably had some idea of what one could do so he could avoid them.

She reached down for one of the pillows on the sofa and let out a quiet huff when her fingers passed right through. Not to be discouraged after one failure, she paused to consider the specter on the screen, trying to work out what it was doing that she was not.

And it was not long before she worked it out.

The poltergeist was only throwing things when the children poking around its domain did something to anger or upset it. Then the emotions made the ghost's power stronger, much like how the Shadows reacted to her own feelings by boosting her strength.

She pursed her lips. While she had been angry many times, she did not want to only be able to interact with the people she lived with when she was irritated. However, if she could use other strong emotions in the same way, then maybe, just maybe, she would be able to do things like play games with her friends.

She paused to think of a good memory and came up with the moment she had realized that not only could Jii-san see her, he wanted to talk to her. Smiling gracefully, she reached for the pillow again.

And for just a few moments she could feel the fabric underneath her fingertips.

Then Katsuya let out a frustrated sound and chucked a potato chip at the television, distracting her, and her fingers slipped through the material again.

Meisa let out an irritated snort.

She was going to need some practice at this if she was ever going to be able to do it and still interact with her friends.

She had plenty of time, though the question was, did she have the patience.

The first rays of the rising sun on Monday morning played across Kaiba Seto's desk. At their interruption on his screen, the teen grimaced and sat back from his computer, where the 3d modelling software he had been working with for the last eighteen hours was active on his screen.

He did not trust the creation of the digital avatars of the God monsters to his staff. They were too big of an addition to the game to be designed by anyone except himself. However, Obelisk's virtual avatar was causing issues. Something about it just was not working correctly. The spikes were just at the wrong angle or the position of the facial features meant that rigging it so it could animate properly was almost impossible.

Picking up the blue-tinted card in question, so he could check the image on it compared to the one on screen, made Kaiba's grimace turn into a scowl. When he had first received the card, he had felt nothing from it. Now, however, each touch released a painful sensation, like a bout of pins and needles, along with a sense of distrust.

Once upon a time he would have just dismissed it. It was a Duel Monsters card after all, nothing more. However, the first ever Penalty game he had faced, the 'Illusion of Death', where Meisa had thrown him to the wrath of his monsters, repeated run-ins with the magic behind the game, and his own growing connection to his deck, specifically his Blue-Eyes White Dragons, had taught him that there was a soul to the monsters within the game.

Which meant something about him was objectionable to Obelisk the Tormentor, and he was not sure what it was.

He was one of the best Duelists in the world and he was CEO of an internationally acclaimed company. He was more than worthy to wield an opinionated piece of cardboard.

Putting it back down on his desk, he turned back to his screen and started making adjustments to the 3d model on it, determined that he was going to have Obelisk ready for texturing by the time he met with Yugi later in the day to discuss the contracts with her. Not that it would be too hard to colour the creature considering that it was a huge blue beast.

The long weekend was catching up to him, though. He had been unable to relax enough to sleep on Friday night and had instead spent the evening working on deck combinations, trying to work out exactly how best to utilise his new God card, while watching the door. Nor had he slept much on Saturday night, far more caught up in working out exactly what he would need to do to get Kaiba Corp's systems to handle the sheer power that Obelisk gave out upon being summoned.

As Monday morning dawned properly, the elder Kaiba brother's eyes grew heavy and his motions slowed, until finally he fell asleep sprawled over his keyboard.

And woke up on the sofa he had not slept on for three years.

His back ached in a way it had not done since his adoptive father had gone out of the window as he pushed himself sitting and tried to comprehend what was going on. He recognised the papers strewn across the table as homework that his tutors had set him, though he could not remember exactly what it was about as he stood, trying not to wince as stripes of pain shot across his back at the movement.

His reflection in the mirror confirmed what his mind was already telling him.

He was twelve. A tall, tidy twelve, but twelve nonetheless.

The thought occurred to him that he was probably dreaming, but he knew that dreams were not supposed to hurt. It was why the nightmares he had been through when he was younger had been nothing compared to his reality.

A nasty thought occurred to him that maybe, just maybe, the last few years were the dream and perhaps he and Mokuba had never escaped Kaiba Gozaboro's clutches…

His train of thought derailed as he tried to shake off that thought and straightened out his shirt, causing a piece of paper fell to the floor.

Scooping it up revealed it to be the hand-drawn Blue-Eyes White Dragon that Mokuba had created for him at one of his lowest moments and hidden inside one of his textbooks to sneak it past the security that was supposedly for their safety, but more often than not helped in the containment of the Kaiba brothers.

On instinct, his hand went to the place where his locket normally hung, only to be reminded that it was not a thing. Nor would he have had the matching necklaces made yet. That explained why the hand-drawn Blue-Eyes, which he had tucked safely behind the photo of his brother that rested within his pendant, was not in its usual place.

The sound of footsteps approaching his door made him shove the dragon into his pocket, not wanting it to be confiscated like so much else he had valued. He was just in time as the door slammed open and his father strode in, looking like the cat that had gotten the cream.

"Seto. Make yourself presentable," the broad-shouldered thug of a CEO snapped out, his stance wide, chin jutted out, a cigar in the fingers of his left hand. "You will be joining me in the driveway. As will your brother."

The child he was ordering around froze at the mention of his brother. Normally he would jump at any chance to see the reason he was going through all of this, but his father never did anything with the brothers together unless there was an oncoming punishment.

"You have three minutes." As his father strode from the room, Seto did not even bother trying to change. Instead, he quickly ran a hand through his hair and ensured he could pass for tidy before darting through the surprisingly empty building. Not that he trusted any servant, except for Isono, who had been looking after Mokuba since their adoption, but the lack of people wandering around and doing their jobs was creepy.

Not that he cared once he had stepped outside.

The sight of his father, chest puffed out, accompanied by a huge brute of a guard who had his hand on his seven-year-old brother's shoulder, stood in front of a pair of men who were wearing his brand new Duel Disk design made everything make sense.

When he had first invented the ability to design and interact with virtual worlds on a sensory level, his father had ripped the plans away from him and turned it into a tool of war. Militaries around the world used the software and hardware he had designed for games and fun to train to kill people and wage wars.

Fury and betrayal shot through the older Kaiba brother as he realised it was happening again. The Duel Disks were about to be weaponised, and his brother was being used to ensure that he did not rebel, like he had the last time his technology had been stolen from him.

"I've found a way to make your toys useful, Seto," Gozaboro crowed, pleased with the momentary slip in the boy's normally cold expression. "With the right user, your virtual blades can call real monsters, and, well…"

He gestured to one of the men, who summoned a Battle Ox using the Duel Disk he was wearing. The creature roared and lunged towards the target opposite it. The raging bull slammed his axe onto the wood, which splintered into hundreds of pieces.

Seto did not need to guess how well a human being would stand up to such an attack. The answer was quite clear. That was why he stood and watched, wordless, as the two testers demonstrated exactly how much damage they could do to the target range with their monsters. He did not want the beasts turned on him, or worse, Mokuba.

"I summon Obelisk the Tormentor."

Seto's eyes narrowed as one of the men called up the DIVINE creature, wondering how well the disks his father had stolen from him would handle the God monster. He did not have time for more than a moment of surprise that the system handled the creature, though, before the huge, seven-storey-tall humanoid made of pure muscle lashed out.

One huge hand curled into a fist and slammed down on its summoner, sending shockwaves across the ground that knocked everyone off of their feet. Seto scrambled to his feet and pulled Mokuba behind him as the fist swept backwards, slamming into the second tester and sending him crashing into the pillar just feet from the brothers.

"What do you think you are you doing?!" Gozaboro demanded of the creature as the guard that had been holding the younger brother in place drew out his gun and got exactly one shot off before he too was crushed beneath the mighty hand of the Divine Beast.

Seto knew, though. Not that he knew how he knew, but as his eyes caught those of the great beast, he understood that Obelisk only respected strength. The man who had summoned him had NOT earned the creature's respect and had been killed for committing the sacrilege of summoning the Divine Beast.

"S…Seto?" Mokuba's voice wavered as he clung to his brother's shirt, and Seto's stance shifted slightly as he refused to back down. If they ran now, they would lose any chance to earn the creature's respect, Obelisk would easily catch them before they reached the safety of the mansion, and he would not and could not let his brother get hurt by technology he had built.

He snatched up the broken tester's Duel Disk, grimacing for a moment as it sparked upon activation, and reached for his deck, only to realise that it was not there. Right now, he was a child. The deck he had killed to build was not yet within his grasp.

He only had one card to hand. The one Mokuba had drawn for him.

He pulled it from his pocket, something deep within him singing as he slammed it onto the Duel Disk.

Bright white light erupted, not from the holoprojectors, but from him. It shot into the sky and took the form of a huge white dragon, which let out a roar that echoed within Seto's soul as the light dying revealed a Blue-Eyes White Dragon with Seto's own storm-blue eyes.

There was a moment of disorientation as the boy adjusted to seeing through both his eyes and those of his dragon, then there was no time to adjust as Obelisk snarled and lashed out, overextending in its determination to strike down the newly summoned dragon. Blue-Eyes narrowly swooped over the fist that lashed out at it and the divine beast staggered forward a step.

Its huge foot landed on Gozaboro, allowing Seto the satisfying sight of his father's panic before he was crushed below its mighty weight. Not that he got to enjoy it for more than a few milliseconds as Obelisk's gaze turned towards him and his brother. He tensed up and his dragon landed between him and the God monster. Its summoner could feel the lightning building up in his throat before his dragon loosed a tremendous White Lightning Attack that struck the blue brute right in the chest.

And did nothing.

As the divine beast looked down and brushed itself off, revealing that it was unmarked, terror coursed through Seto.

Obelisk only respected strength, and he had nothing to hand he could use to prove how strong he was. His one dragon was nothing compared to the power of this mighty beast.

"S…Seto…"

The sound of his brother's trembling voice, calling him once again, brought him back to reality.

He was Kaiba Seto. He was NOT the weak, scared child he had once been. He was stronger than his.

Mokuba needed him to be stronger than this.

And he would never, ever let his brother down. Not ever again.

Suddenly the twelve-year-old Seto was his rightful age and height again, his trenchcoat settling around him like cloth armour in a swirl of white and pale blue light, his deck filling the slot in the Duel Disk in a burst of the same colours.

He drew a hand of cards as he glowered up at Obelisk.

"You will fall before me. I am Kaiba Seto and I am stronger than you."

With that he held two Blue-Eyes White Dragons and a Polymerization aloft. The dragon that had erupted from his soul swirled together in a burst of light with the two who emerged from their cards, fusing together to become one mighty beast with three heads.

The Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.

Obelisk took a step back as the huge dragon let out a billowing roar, before its eyes narrowed and it lunged forward, aiming for its adversary with one great fist.

It never made it.

The Ultimate Dragon let loose a powerful burst of light and lightning that disintegrated its opponent. The shriek Obelisk let out was lost in the roar of the attack, and Seto had to close his eyes against just how bright the attack was.

And woke up over his desk. The same desk he had been working at all night.

He could hear the sounds of Mokuba's alarm clock going off, waking his brother for school as he slid his chair back with a squeak, disorientated from waking up, only to knock Obelisk's card off of his desk as he moved.

"I am losing my mind," he grumbled as he bent down to pick the card up, bracing for the shock.

Only to find, as he picked it up, that there was no negative reaction from the card. Instead, he could sense a level of trust and camaraderie that had not been there before.

His eyes narrowed as he considered the response. The only thing that had changed was the insane dream he had gone through.

Somehow he had earned Obelisk's respect through his dreams. Not that it made any sense to him.

He huffed and got to his feet, slipping Obelisk into his holster as he moved towards the door.

He would see Mokuba off to school and then he would get himself a coffee and get back to work.

If Obelisk now wanted to work with him, that was fine, but he did not have time for this nonsense.

Honda was a little wary as he approached the school building.

When Bakura had phoned this morning, she had asked him if they could talk before school. He was the one who had suggested the school as a meeting point, both because it was neutral ground and because it would mean that they were not late for class if the meeting ran over.

Not to mention that if she had decided he knew too much and she needed to be rid of him, at least here someone would find the body.

If she did not feed it to the Shadows like she had Hirutani's.

If he was honest with himself, he was expecting today to be the day that the Thief Queen finally informed him what she wanted as her boon for saving his rump at Duelist Kingdom, but he could not truly know what Bakura wanted until she got here.

When he reached the school's athletics track, it was to find that Bakura was already there, sat on the grass and watching the school's archery club practise on the field in the middle of the track.

"Hey," he spoke as he approached, giving her warning before he sat down and trying to avoid startling her. He paused for a moment, taking in the darker eyes and sharper features before adding, "Good morning, Ba-Khu-Ra. What's up?"

"Honda." She sighed, allowing him to sit next to her, closely enough that if he wished, he could have lashed out at her.

Taking it as the sign of trust it was and realising that she might actually consider him a friend now after all they had discussed together, he did not hesitate to make an offering that he had yet to make to any of his other friends: "Hiroto."

The Thief Queen blinked at him for a moment, confusion obvious, then a small smile graced her features. "Thank you, Hiroto. Does Sen have the same permission to use your given name?"

It took him a split second to work out who she meant, then, realising that she meant Amane, he nodded. "You both have that permission."

The smile grew slightly as the Thief Queen leaned back on her elbows and watched the clouds go by. "So I'm guessing you'd like to know why I asked you here?"

"I'll admit I'm curious," he allowed, staying sat up right, keeping an eye out for trouble since Ba-Khu-Ra was allowing herself to relax around him. He figured that she would appreciate it.

He was right, and she gave him a grateful glance before turning her eyes skyward again and letting out another sigh. "Do you have a deck?"

That was not what he had expected and he frowned slightly. "No?"

"Can you get one?"

"Why?"

"I need someone to practise against. I'm entering Battle City."

"But you don't play card games."

At his incredulous statement she huffed and sat up to glower at him. "Doesn't mean I can't. Duel Monsters and Diaha, the ancient battles I waged against the Pharaoh, aren't that different. I'm just out of practise."

He paused, realising she was serious about this. "I can get a deck, that's not a problem, but you realise I'm probably not the best person to practise against? I'm not a competitive Duelist."

"No," dhe allowed, relaxing slightly at his capitulation, "but do you honestly think it's a good idea for me to spend too much time around Yugi?"

"I've been thinking about that since our last talk. You've got better self-control than you've been showing recently. If you didn't, you'd have killed her at Duelist Kingdom. You had the chance more than once. You're just letting your emotions get away from you because of everything you've learned," Hiroto huffed, noting the scowl that formed at his comment.

"Oh, I'm sorry that I'm a little het up over finding out that everything I believed was a lie and that I doomed my soul over someone else's mistake." Ice leaked from her tone and darkness swirled around her.

"That's just it, not everything was a lie." Honda shrugged, making her hesitate, and the shadows die down. "Yeah, you were wrong on who betrayed you, but you were betrayed and nearly killed. Just not by who you thought it was. Heck, from what we heard from Mahad, the Pharaoh was still defending you when the rest of the palace thought you betrayed her. Why didn't you talk to her and find this all out back in Egypt?"

The Thief Queen looked away. "I tried to get into the palace to demand answers, but security had been ramped up. I couldn't get to her. So I had to act, and once I'd attacked the palace once…"

"Everyone was more willing to believe the lies about you getting the Pharaoh poisoned." Honda nodded, understanding. "Still, I'd have thought you'd be wanting to help Yugi find out the truth, rather than lashing out like this. Or rather, letting the demon lash out."

Ba-Khu-Ra was about to snap out that it was not like she had a choice, when it hit her. The emotions that the demon was using to manipulate her were based on false facts. The Pharaoh had not betrayed her, so all that anger and hurt she had built up over the years was aimed at the wrong person. The constant reminders that the Pharaoh had betrayed her and she needed to destroy her were wrong. If she could hold on to that thought when those emotions were trying to drown her, she might, possibly, be able to hold Zorc back better than she had been.

It was not like his goals and hers were the same. He was actively trying to end the world, while she needed more from it. She needed the Pharaoh's name and the Millennium Items to get what she wanted. Plus she now had reasons to not burn everything on her way out. She did not want Sen to die and, frankly, she liked Honda. Ending the world would end them, too, and add more innocent blood to her hands.

Not to mention that if recent events had proved anything, it was that she and Zorc were more separate than she had believed. He could still pull her strings, she had sealed that fate when she had signed over her half of the soul, but she was not him anymore then he was her. In fact, considering his willingness to throw away the other half of her soul to find another, more pliable host, she had no doubt that if it came down to her soul against his life, she would lose out.

She knew she was doomed anyway, but she did not want that for Amane, whose half of the soul was, mostly, unblemished by her crimes and who was more her own person than Thief Queen. If she could keep her sister safe, Amane had a chance if she followed the right path.

That hope for her sister's future, the same hope that had led to her making a deal with Azra, that made her admit, "I will do what I can to prevent further outbursts, but I have never been the most stable person, and, quite frankly, Sen is not okay. She needs time with you lot to ground her or Zorc is going to be able to manipulate her, too."

Hiroto nodded thoughtfully, running a hand through his hair. "Can I make a suggestion then?"

"I'm listening."

"Meisa learned how to play Duel Monsters from Yugi. If you want to be as good as her, and I'm assuming you do..." When she nodded, he continued, "Can I suggest you let Amane join Domino's Duel Club?"

"Why would I want my host to join Mutou's Senshi?"

"Because it gives her time with her friends and allows her to practise not just against me, and I'd be there too to keep you both safe, but everyone else Yugi's teaching. You've seen how well her lessons improved Jonouchi's game, now imagine getting to practise against everyone she's applying those lessons to in a saner time frame. Then you can draw from her memories and experience. Plus I'm sure that as long as you were careful about not putting up your illusion, so the others didn't know it was you out and about, you'd probably be able to get some practise yourself."

"The Runt would sense the switch, but it's not a bad idea," the Thief Queen mused, leaning back on her elbows again to watch the sky. "You'd still practise against me at home, though, right? As well as at the club?"

Hiroto nodded, easily able to work out that she wanted to spend time with him where she could be herself, not just around others where she would have to pretend to be her host. "Of course."

"I guess we need to get decks then."

Author Note: After this chapter I'm going back to a once-a-month update schedule. The hours have ramped up at work and I can't keep up the writing pace of twice monthly updates. Chapters will be released on the 1st of the month for the foreseeable future.