Original Yu-Gi-Oh Series
Parallel
Chapter 031
Originally Written: Wednesday, April 13, 2022 736AM to 801AM
. . . . .
"Seto!" Mokuba struggled against Duke's grasp. "What are you doing standing next to those guys!? Seto!"
Pharaoh frowned, eyes focused on Seto. 'This, I can't say I understand, Yugi.'
"Why are you doing this!?" Mokuba shouted. "Why did you leave me!? You shipped me off like some pet you didn't want anymore! Why!?"
"Because I don't need you anymore." Seto didn't look at him when he spoke. "I never did, really."
Mokuba froze, like something had shattered within him. He fell both deathly still and silent in moments.
"Dude..." Duke spoke, holding Mokuba close. "Was that last line necessary?"
Serenity pressed her hands against her ears, distressed. "T-That's not true. He's lying. No one says that about their siblings. N-no matter how tough things get. Especially when they haven't done anything wrong."
Mai wrapped her arms around her.
'...Let me take this one.' Yugi nearly growled
'Are you certain? This reeks of Duelist Kingdom, but worse.'
'Let me take this one.' Yugi repeated.
Pharaoh relinquished control. Yugi walked forward, and put a hand on Mokuba's shoulder. Mokuba's head snapped up and wide eyes looked at Yugi, tears streaming down his face.
"You're really this salty about Duelist Kingdom underneath all that geek, huh?" Yugi looked at Seto. Then at Joey standing next to him, with his duel disk on his arm. "And you suck at dueling so bad you not only won't partake in a duel yourself, my classmates duel so much better than your guys, you had to take them just to feel like you had a chance at beating me. It's not even worth saying your name." He dropped his hand from Mokuba's shoulder and walked forward. "Well then, it won't help you much, but bring your best shot."
"Pardon me, but are you going to duel, or just stand there wasting oxygen?" Seto replied, completely unphased.
"We'll duel, and waste oxygen, obviously." Bakura walked forward, leaving the others to follow.
Yugi stopped himself from sighing in relief. Bakura kept saying "My Pharaoh", and Yugi didn't know if that applied to him or not. He found it interesting how half of every duel was pretty much a race of who trash talked their opponent badly enough to make them mess up first. He didn't think it'd apply here though.
"I'll take Joey, if you take Kaiba." Yugi said, strategizing before the duel even began. It was a truly beautiful location for a tag team duel. The circumstances for it absolutely sucked though.
Bakura looked at the dueling pier platform that had been set up. He dropped to Yugi's height and whispered to him. "I suppose this is a bad time to say this, but even though I've dueled him, I never actually beat Seto."
Yugi felt a pit form in his stomach. "Don't tell me no nonsense right now, Bakura." He turned to face him, "I am winning by the skin of my teeth." He whispered.
"You did fine against Strings, and Lumis and Umbra." Bakura tried to placate him.
Yugi folded his arms. "Strings had no mind, but I nearly lost anyway, and Lumis and Umbra couldn't work together. That's not the same thing. These are two mentally capable individuals who will be working together."
"Can I pretend you're putting on a show right now for Marik?" Bakura scratched his cheek. Tristan looked at him with concern, so Bakura looked at the group and smiled sheepishly.
"For the love of God, shut up." Yugi barely held in a hysterical laugh, "Put that dueling brain to use and keep Mitsura-Kaiba whatever-persona-he's-come-up-with-now off my ass."
"I will do my best, Pharaoh." Bakura saluted him with a smile. Both walked to the pier that would stand as their Dueling Platform and took their places across from Joey and Seto. Joey stared at him with creepy blank eyes not unlike Strings'. It wasn't unnerving on rare hunter's faces, but from Joey...Nightmare fuel city.
A rare hunter locked a shackle to his ankle. Bakura's as well. Another one latched shackles to Joey and Seto's ankles.
"Nothing funny. Any level of cheating will be rewarded with this crate dropping on Tea Gardner's head." Seto spoke. He continued, going over the particular set of rules for this duel. "You have a maximum of three minutes to make a move, including stating you end your turn. If you don't, you automatically forfeit. The winner's key is in your opponent's box. You will need to work out which key is yours. The duel will last a maximum of an hour. After an hour, the anchor attached to us will drop, leaving the winners with a mad dash to free themselves and the losers to be dragged to their watery graves. Good luck. You'll need it."
Because Seto heavily implied your key may not be in the box of the person across from you, you must drop both players' life points down to zero. Your partner can't lose because that would permanently lock one of the boxes, so you could be left standing, win the duel and still drown. And you must make a move within the time limit. Nothing else mattered. Yugi wondered how much of this was Marik's idea, and how much was Seto's.
A/N: Much harsher, nearly impossible rules to comply with for this iconic duel.