Arc of Eternity

by Tyler Nator

After recovering his memories at the hands of Zone and Infinity, Tyler Nochi resolves to throw his life away, and succeeds. But a chance encounter with a mysterious redheaded man will take him far beyond the world he thought he knew, force him to confront the darkness in his heart, and help him realize that not everyone gets a second chance.

8. Ode to My Family

At the heart of New Domino City stood a building that towered over all there was, not in its size, but in what it represented, what it stood for.

The Kaiba Corporation Headquarters.

The Kaiba Corporation was a company that revolutionized Duel Monsters, taking it from just another card game to a worldwide phenomenon. They developed the first iteration of Duel Disk, revolutionizing the way that Duels were played ever since. They created and sponsored tournaments like Battle City and the Duel Express Tournament, conceptualized the first ever Duel Academy, and pioneered Duel Runners, introducing Turbo Dueling to the world.

All of these innovations changed the face of not only Duel Monsters, but the City itself as well, setting New Domino City up as a melting pot of different cultures and ideals, bringing it to the forefront of the country. And the CEO of Kaiba Corporation, Seto Kaiba, was a Duel Monsters legend, rivaled only by the King of Games himself – Yugi Muto.

And all of that meant nothing, as I didn't know how much of it, if any, applied to KaibaCorp in Neo Domino City.

What I did know though, was that as we walked towards it, led by the KC Guard – men in white and blue, random people would back away from us. A couple walking down the street leading up to the building turned and briskly walked away in the opposite direction as soon as they caught sight of us.

The Kaiba Corporation itself actually seemed quite welcoming. Well, as welcoming as a gaming company with seemingly its own private military force could be. The receptionist greeted us with a weak smile as we entered with the KC Guard in tow, and we were immediately directed through several different rooms until we arrived at a large set of doors that opened as we approached, a huge sprawling room that looked like a palace appearing before us.

I swallowed, a sick, uneasy feeling in my stomach as I was reminded of Sayer's room in the Arcadia Movement, with its sickeningly neat and formal appearance. Though this room in particular, with its crystal chandelier and diamond shape contrasted greatly with the cold metal and flashy fluorescent lights of the prior rooms we'd been forced to make our way through.

We were led into the center of the room, where we were surrounded by four individuals sitting atop thrones of marble, one at each corner. The first was a man in black and gray with wide eyes, a look of… well, it was actually quite hard for me to tell what the look on his face meant, but it definitely wasn't a welcoming one. To my right of that man, in the next corner, sat a woman in blue.

I turned behind me, looking back at where our group had entered from, as a man in orange and red sat atop his throne too, looking down at us with another expression I couldn't discern, but his expression wasn't nearly as alarming as the man in gray's was. Finally, my eyes were pulled to that of a man older than the rest, his thin lips curled into a smile, wrinkles clearly visible on his face even from where I was standing.

"Greetings, everyone. We are the High Council of Neo Domino City. My name is Taki Byakko." The old man smiled.

"I am Gurei Genbu~" the man in gray spoke, sounding just as highly strung as he looked.

"My name is Azul Seiryu." The woman in blue said, looking down at us, uncertainty clearly visible on her face.

"And I am Bordeaux Suzaku." The man in red's eyes shifted to the white-haired old man for a brief moment.

"I'm not gonna remember any of these names…" Tim muttered.

"Where's Mr. Kaiba? He's the one who ordered us here, right?!" Rogét barked.

"He's with company. They'll be dropping by momentarily." Azul explained.

"That's right," Taki smiled, "in the meantime, why don't you explain to us what you were doing with these captives of yours?"

"What I was doing?!" Rogét snapped, "I was simply trying to detain them. They all tried to escape."

"We did escape." Tim spoke up, "I mean, we're not in The Facility right now, are we?"

Rogét turned around to face Tim, swinging wide as though to present a sense of power. "They were inciting Commoners, and threatening to sow seeds of discord in the City!" Rogét snapped. "And these two," Rogét pointed to Tim and I, "since arriving here, have been confirmed to have killed at least five people!"

Tim cleared his throat. "Six, but we can make it seven." He said, staring Rogét down with absolutely no care in how he spoke or came across. Rogét let out a staggered breath, and it was almost unreal seeing him brought to a halt by Tim's words after being so in control during his interrogation with me.

"We weren't trying to incite Commoners, and the only reason we tried to escape was because we were arrested for no reason!" Yuya protested. "As soon as we arrived here in this Dimension, we were targeted by Sector Security!"

Rogét's eyes narrowed. "Dimension…? Did you hear that? He just said that they arrived from another Dimension-"

"Cut the crap, Roger!" Tim snapped. "You know that Tyler and I come from another Dimension, so don't act like this kid coming from one is such a big freakin' surprise. You're all just tryin' to be mysterious and secretive 'cause you feel like you've got something over us! The only thing you have over us is a large nose, and lemme tell you, I've seen larger."

Rogét was seething. "My name is Rogét! Not Roger! The 'T' in my name is silent, and the 'E' is accented, so it sounds like 'A'-"

"Don't care." Tim dismissed.

"Is that so…?" Bordeaux asked softly. "You're… aware that these people all came from another Dimension, Director?"

"Not all of us!" Crow shouted. I turned to face him, an angry look on his face. It was the first time he'd spoken in my company since he found out that I wasn't the Tyler he knew. "I don't know what you want to do with us, Council, but I don't want anything to do with these people…!"

"C-C-C-Crow…" I stuttered.

"We're not here to cause any problems!" Yuya insisted. "We came here to gather support! To find strong Duelists!"

Tim put an arm on my shoulder. "And we're only here 'cause I banged when I should have binged…" Tim said, sounding as though everyone should have known what he meant. When people gave him looks of confusion, he added "Long story."

I remembered then the photos that Rogét had given me, to taunt me, and I rummaged through the pockets of my pants to retrieve them, thinking they might help our case. My heart skipped a beat as I took the photos out to find that they'd been ruined by the water I'd jumped into during our escape.

"Damn it…" I sighed.

"Bordeaux, honestly, I had no idea that these people were from another Dimension until they themselves said so, and clearly as you can see, they have no evidence that I would have even known in the first place. Besides, are we really meant to trust the words of these otherworlders? These outlanders? Do you really value the words of strangers so highly over mine? Surely your personal issues with me aren't blinding you to what's going on here?" Rogét's smug tone quickly caused the sickening feeling in my stomach to intensify. It was clear he was trying to regain control of the 'conversation', and the photos that he gave me – the ones his drones took of Tim and I appearing in the City, and our boat, would have immediately shown the Council that Rogét was aware that Tim and I were from another Dimension since the beginning.

Azul laughed. "What's really going on is you're trying to assert what little authority you have. We've heard all about the Interdimensional War, Duel Academy and the Lancers from one Mr. Akaba." She explained.

"Declan's here…?" Yuya asked.

"And," Bordeaux added, "Mr. Kaiba is inclined to believe him as well."

"That's right," Taki nodded, "we've heard it all."

Rogét's eyes widened. "A-and you believe them?! It's nonsense!"

At the end of the room, the doors at the top of the stairs opened out, a white light sweeping across the staircase as four figures descended down the steps.

"It's not nonsense." A cool, calm voice sounded, the light fading as I saw it was a young man with gray hair, wearing a blue shirt, white pants, red glasses and an oversized red scarf who'd spoken. Beside him stood an older man in a white suit, blue tie, light purple shirt, and dark purple pants. His dark hair came down just below the back of his neck. On the other side of him stood the young girl (I had to remind myself of that fact) in the blue hoodie, clutching a teddy bear in her hands, a vacant expression in her eyes.

Beside her, was a person literally dressed as a ninja. I wasn't sure if they were an actual ninja, or if they were just dressing up as one. It didn't really matter though. I just thought it was kind of weird.

"Declan!" Yuya shouted.

"We came here to protect this place from Duel Academy's invasion, and to try and enlist other Duelists who might be able to help put an end to them." The man in blue explained.

"This is insane!" Rogét cried, turning to the well-dressed man. "Mr. Kaiba, you can't possibly be-"

The well-dressed man put a hand out as if to silence Rogét and my eyes went wide. When I'd heard the name Kaiba, I'd just automatically assumed that they were referring to Seto Kaiba, but this man… he couldn't have been Seto. He was younger than Seto would have been, and his appearance was completely different. It was then that I remembered that Seto Kaiba had a younger brother.

Mokuba…

"I don't want to hear it, Rogét. Declan here has already explained everything to me, and he makes a convincing argument. So…" Mokuba moved from the foot of the steps, walking around our group in a circle. "Are these your Lancers?" he asked, turning back to the man I presumed to be Declan.

"Along with some others, yes." He nodded.

"Hmm…" Mokuba mused, continuing to walk around us. "I was picturing something a little different when you described them to me." Mokuba stopped, his face hanging as he looked toward Crow, Shinji, myself, and a couple others. "And you… you're all Commoners, aren't you?"

"We are," Shinji spoke, glancing at me, "but he isn't."

Mokuba's eyes caught mine, and he seemed very surprised as he looked down at my arm, fixated on my Duel Disk. "Oh, wow!" Mokuba came a little closer to me. "I haven't seen another one of these in years! You mind if I take a look at it?"

I shivered. He was speaking to me. "N-n-no, sure, go ahead…" I muttered, removing my arm from my Duel Disk as Mokuba took hold of it.

"Wow… this really takes me back…" he said, looking over it before meeting my eyes again, "Did you make this yourself?" he asked.

My heart skipped a beat. He asked me a question. And I had no idea how to answer him. From what Joel had said, I assumed that my father (or his counterpart), Daisuke, had made it for the Tyler in this Dimension, but I couldn't be sure. I couldn't trust anything that Joel said. Not when his actions were so different.

"I-I, um…"

"That's not even his Duel Disk!" Shinji shouted. "He took it from him!"

"Really?" Mokuba asked, continuing to tinker with my Duel Disk, activating it. "Oh, so it's like a hybrid of the old model and the new model. That's pretty cool." He smiled, giving it back to me before looking past me and observing our group as a whole. "And hey, criminals or not, Commoners or otherwise, if you were all able to escape from The Facility, you must all be strong Duelists."

"I want to know how strong…" Azul muttered.

"If you're all on our side, like you claim, we'd like you all to participate in the Friendship Cup~" Gurei squeaked.

"Friendship Cup?" Yuya asked.

"It's an annual tournament." Mokuba explained. "Duelists come from all over the country to take part. Some even come from overseas. The winner, regardless of status or country of origin, is given the title of 'King'. You might have noticed some billboards around town depicting our current King, Jack Atlas. He's held the title for the last few years, and he grew up in the Commons before claiming the title."

"The only billboards I've seen are weird ones with words like 'Murppin', 'Zanifer', and 'Lagollis' written on them…" Tim muttered.

"Ever since Jack took the title of King, the Friendship Cup has always been a Turbo Duel Tournament, but if all of you are going to compete, then there won't be much space left for any additional participants. And if we do make space to include all our regular competitors, there'll be at least twice as many Duelists competing. We might need to speed things up a bit, and make it a Tag Duel Tournament instead." Mokuba suggested, turning to Taki.

The way that Mokuba had spoken, inclusive of everyone present in the room, made me shudder. I sure as Hell didn't want to participate in a tournament. I mean, back in the day, I'd thought about participating in the World Racing Grand Prix, and had honestly considered competing, until I was unfortunately unable to compete due to my Duel Runner being destroyed and having to go through rehabilitation after my accident from Dueling that so-called Fake Jack, not to mention getting abducted by Zone.

It might have been fun, sure, but I didn't have time to waste taking part in a tournament in another Dimension. I had to get home.

"You can forget it! Whatever format the tournament is, I'm not putting on a show for the Topsiders!" Crow shouted.

"If you don't want to participate, that's fine. You can go back to being in Rogét's custody in The Facility. Otherwise, if you'd like to participate, we can set you up at the hotel just across from the Seto Kaiba Memorial Circuit." Bordeaux said, raising his eyebrows.

"Shit…" I said so incredibly quietly. So, I technically had a choice. I'd either play in the tournament or go to jail. And I knew that if I did go back into Rogét's custody that it wouldn't be like before. Both Tim's actions and mine had pretty much guaranteed that my treatment at The Facility would be much worse if I were to return, and there would be even less of a chance of me being able to break out a second time.

"I've already agreed to it on behalf of the Lancers. The Council wants to see how strong you are." Declan said, addressing his Lancers.

"This might not be too bad, Crow. Think about it: if we take part in the tournament, we get to show Amanda, Frank and Taren that you're alright. Plus, we'll get a shot at taking down Jack Atlas for betraying us and all the other Commoners." Shinji whispered to Crow behind me. I glanced back at Shinji, only for him to return my glance with a look as though to ask 'What the Hell are you looking at?!'.

Tim raised a hand into the air, as though to direct the eyes of the Council to him. "Yo, can I just go across the street for a sec?" he asked.

"Why~?" Gurei asked skittishly.

Tim pointed to the door we'd entered from. "There's a boat in the Storage Facility that belongs to me. I'd like to go and check on it."

Mokuba raised an eyebrow. "You wouldn't happen to mean the one that was found at the shoreline, would you?" he asked.

"H-how do you know about that?" Rogét asked.

Mokuba turned to him, and without skipping a beat said "I know about everything that happens in Neo Domino City." Mokuba then turned back to Tim. "Is that the boat you're referring to?"

"Yes. It certainly is." Tim smiled.

Mokuba's almost stern expression suddenly relaxed as he smiled back at Tim. "Cool, well I'll tell you what: play in the Friendship Cup for us, and you can have the boat back. How's that sound?"

"That sounds great, but I don't know how to Duel." Tim admitted.

"Really? What? Why?" Mokuba asked, tittering from the group being heard around the room. Mokuba shook his head, sighing. "That's alright. Duel Monsters isn't for everyone. I'm more into Capsule Monsters myself-"

"No, I could Duel if I wanted," Tim said defensively, "as long as I get the boat back at the end of it."

Mokuba nodded. "Of course, of course. As long as you don't mind us studying it in the meantime."

"No, go ahead." Tim insisted. "Let me know if you find out how it actually works, I've kinda just been wingin' it."

"Will do," Mokuba chuckled, "Anyway, if you're going to participate in the tournament, you'll need a partner-"

I jerked my body as I felt Tim wrap one of his arms around my shoulder. "I want this guy." He said with a smile. "Oh, but I don't have a Deck."

"I'll have someone escort you to a card shop first thing tomorrow morning if you'd like." Mokuba then turned to me. "Is that alright with you?"

I tried to speak, but I couldn't get the words out, my lips trembling pathetically. I ended up just nodding instead, hating myself.

"Thanks," Tim peered at the name badge magnetized to Mokuba's suit, "Mokubro! You're alright!" Tim smiled once more.

"You can't just give them the boat for playing in the Friendship Cup!" Rogét snapped.

"Mr. Kaiba can do what he likes~" Gurei squeaked.

"That's alright, Gurei, you don't need to speak for me." Mokuba said, closing his eyes as he took a few steps back, turning to Rogét and reopening them. "I don't see what the problem is with me giving them the boat back, Rogét. If they put on a show for the Commoners and Topsiders, then I'm more than happy for them to have the boat back. Besides, it's their boat in the first place anyway."

"You can't be serious!" Rogét shouted, pointing to me. "Those two are murderers, and by letting them go free, you're-"

Mokuba turned to the KC Guard standing near Rogét. "Can you please escort Rogét from the premises?" he sighed, the men in white and blue bowing before turning to Rogét. Rogét took an uneasy step back as he found himself surrounded, the guards forcing some sort of mask onto his face, immediately silencing Rogét's cries as the formerly confident and supposedly in control man was dragged from the room. Mokuba sighed once more. "I'm sorry about that. Rogét can get a little overbearing at times, but he's the best at doing what he does."

"What are you going to do to him?" Celina asked.

"Nothing. They're just going to take him back to Security Headquarters." Mokuba assured her.

Declan looked at each of his Lancers for a moment, addressing them. "The Friendship Cup will begin in a little over a week. In the meantime, you'll be given the opportunity to go out and find tag partners and strengthen your Decks."

"I'm just thinking," Taki smiled, "that a week is a long time to wait to see the strength of your Duelists. I'd hate for us to wait that long and then find out your Lancers are…" Taki licked his lips, "inadequate."

Celina and Sylvio twitched, Taki continuing to smile. "Alright," Declan shrugged. "Yuya, show the High Council your power."

Yuya straightened up. "H-huh?"

"Yuya can Duel against one of you right now, if you'd like." Declan suggested.

Mokuba's eyes lit up. "I'm up for a Duel." he smiled. "Just let me go get my stuff and I'll be right back."

"H-hey, wait…" Yuya mumbled, but Mokuba had already headed out of the room. Yuya closed his eyes for a moment and turned to Declan. "Declan, we don't have time to enter some tournament! We need to be looking for Zuzu!" Yuya protested.

"Zuzu's going to be participating in the Friendship Cup." He said calmly.

Yuya and Celina gasped. "She is?!"

Declan nodded. "And if this is going to be a Tag Tournament as Mr. Kaiba said, I'm sure you and her could partner up together. Right now, she's perfectly safe. The Council won't let Sector Security harm or arrest her, and we mustn't forget that our main priority is to forge an alliance with the people of this Dimension."

"Which we're all for," Bordeaux spoke up, "if you can prove yourself."

After a few moments, Yuya relented with a sigh and a nod. "Alright, I'm in. Let's do it." He smiled. Declan coolly smiled back, touching his glasses.

I glanced over at Crow, whose eyes briefly met mine before he turned away.

"Hey, C-Crow…" I stuttered.

"What?!" he snapped, turning back.

"I… I meant what I said before…"

"What? 'Fuck you'?"

"N-n-n-no… that you're a good friend…"

Crow's expression softened, the lights in the room dimming as the doors swung open, Mokuba stepping inside, a Duel Disk strapped to his left arm. I assumed it to be a Duel Disk at least, but Mokuba was also wearing a headset of some kind as well that he wasn't wearing before.

We were ushered to move back by the KC Guard and Tim turned to me. "So Yuyaas is gonna be Duelin' Mokubro?"

I nodded. "L-l-looks like it." I was actually really interested to see what kind of Deck Mokuba used, as Mokuba wasn't really known as a Duelist in my Dimension.

"Alright, we'll turn off the Real Solid Vision for this Duel. Don't want to mess this place up." Mokuba fiddled with his headset. "You ready?" he asked, Yuya nodding. "Then let's go!"

"Duel!"

[Yuya: 4000 LP]
[Mokuba: 4000 LP]

"You can start if you want, Yuya." Mokuba offered.

"Alright!" Yuya cheered, "Then I'll get this show on the road! I'll Set one Monster in Defense Position, and Set two other cards face-down!" three cards appeared face-down on Yuya's side of the field. "Let's see what you've got."

"That was a good move," Mokuba smiled, drawing from his Deck, "bu~ut, I think I've got this in the bag, sorry. I activate my Spell Card, Pot of Desires! By Banishing the top ten cards from my Deck face-down, I get to draw two cards." The mismatched pot, half Greed and half Avarice, appeared on Mokuba's field as his Duel Disk ejected the top ten cards from his Deck. Mokuba then drew two cards with a smile. "Next, I play my Ultimate Dragon Ritual Spell Card, offering the three Blue-Eyes White Dragons in my hand as Tributes to Ritual Summon the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

My eyes widened as three Blue-Eyes White Dragons appeared on Mokuba's field, quickly getting pulled into the center by a whirlpool of fire, the three dragons becoming engulfed in it, a bolt of blue fire breaking apart the field as the massive three-headed white dragon took its place on the field with an enharmonic roar [ATK: 4500].

"N-n-n-n-no way…" I stammered. It looked like, in this Dimension, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon was a Ritual Monster, rather than a Fusion Monster as it was in my Dimension. It sort of made sense in a way. During my brief time in The Facility, I hadn't seen any Fusion Monsters being traded for better privileges, only Normal, Effect, Ritual and Synchro Monsters. What was perhaps more surprising than that however was that Mokuba seemed to be using his older brother's trademark – the three-of-a-kind Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

"Now that's a big dragon…" Tim muttered.

"You think that's big?" Mokuba grinned. "I'm just getting started. Next I play another Ritual Spell – Chaos Form, letting me Banish one of the Blue-Eyes White Dragons in my Graveyard and call out my Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon!"

Five distorted pillars appeared behind Mokuba, moving apart as a bright light came forth in the shape of a pentagon, a truly titanic dragon flying in as though the pentagon was a portal to another world. The silver dragon threw its head back and roared, blue crystals and shining lights embedded in its body, its massive form towering over Mokuba's Ultimate Dragon [ATK: 4000].

"Holy crap…" I muttered. "What is that thing?"

"It looks like this is it, Yuya. I enter my Battle Phase! Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon attacks your Set Monster!" Mokuba pointed toward Yuya's Set card. "Let's go, Blue-Eyes! Ultimate Burst Stream-"

"Not so fast!" Yuya shouted. "I play my Trap Card, Widespread Ruin!" Yuya threw his hand into the air. "Oh yeah! This card activates when you declare an attack, and destroys the Monster with the highest Attack Points on your field, so your Ultimate Dragon's going to the Graveyard!"

In an instant, Mokuba's Ultimate Dragon was evaporated by the blast of a claymore.

"Nice!" Mokuba encouraged. "But I've still got my other dragon's attack! Chaos MAX Dragon, attack! Maximum Burst of Chaos!"

Yuya's Set card was revealed – some weird-looking horse whose body seemed to be made out of radishes [Performapal Radish Horse: DEF: 2000] – as Mokuba's dragon charged its attack in its mouth.

"Oh, by the way, Chaos MAX Dragon has an effect which lets it deal double piercing damage, so you'll be going down in a One Turn Kill!"

Yuya's eyes widened. "In that case, I activate the effect of my Performapal Inflater Tapir from my hand! By discarding it to the Graveyard, I don't take any battle damage this turn!" Mokuba's dragon let loose its attack on Yuya's Monster and a giant flying top hat-wearing purple tapir appeared on Yuya's field, absorbing the damage and leaving Yuya's Life Points untouched, but his field, apart from one face-down card, was now empty. "Also," Yuya continued, "since my Performapal Radish Horse is a Pendulum Monster, when it's destroyed, it gets placed on top of my Extra Deck instead of going to the Graveyard."

"Nice!" Mokuba encouraged. "Your move, Yuya."

"Yuya just barely avoided that one…" Shinji noted.

Declan touched his glasses. "But now Yuya has the advantage. Mr. Kaiba used up his entire hand in his strategy to bring out his two dragons, and Yuya's already destroyed one of them. If Yuya can get rid of Mokuba's Chaos MAX Dragon like he did his Ultimate Dragon, then he'll have control of the field and Mr. Kaiba will have to rely on topdecking to win." He explained.

"Well… yeah, du~uh!" Tim remarked.

Yuya smiled confidently, drawing. "I Summon Performapal Friendonkey in Attack Position!" the familiar shifty-eyed-looking donkey appeared on Yuya's field [ATK: 1600]. "When he's Normal Summoned, I'm allowed to Special Summon a low level Performapal Monster from my hand, so I call on my Performapal Stamp Turtle!" another weird animal, this one a turtle with orange glasses and a top hat clutching a stamp pad and paper in its paws, appeared beside Friendonkey [DEF: 1800]. "Next I activate my Stamp Turtle's effect: once per turn, I can increase the Levels of up to two Monsters on the field, so I'll increase my Friendonkey's Level by one, making him Level four." [Performapal Friendonkey: LV: 4] "Next, I build the Overlay Network! Formed from pitch-black darkness, to fight those foolish enough to oppose it with its treacherous fangs! I Xyz Summon Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!"

Both of Yuya's Monsters turned into blue light as a black hole appeared on the field in front of him, the light getting sucked into it before another burst of light came forth, electricity crackling about the room as a black and purple dragon – much more lithe than Mokuba's own – appeared on Yuya's field [ATK: 2500].

"I don't know what an Xyz Summon is, but that's a pretty cool dragon you've got there." Mokuba smiled. "It's too bad my Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon has more Attack Points than it."

Yuya grinned. "For now maybe, but you should know that Monsters used for an Xyz Summon don't just leave the field once the Summon is completed, instead, they become Xyz Materials attached to the Xyz Monster. And I can use the Xyz Materials attached to my dragon to use its effect, and Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon has a pretty devastating one: if I detach the two Xyz Materials from it, I can then target one Monster you control and have its Attack Points get cut in half. Then Dark Rebellion Dragon's Attack Points increase by the amount of Attack Points your dragon loses! Go! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, Treason Discharge!"

"No way…" I muttered, the wings of Yuya's dragon opening up as purple electricity surged through its body. The dragon roared as the electricity was shot forth at Mokuba's dragon and ensnared it.

Mokuba smirked. "Sorry, but my Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon can't be targeted by card effects."

"What?!" Yuya shouted, eyes wide.

"Show him, Blue-Eyes! Maximum Diffusion!" Mokuba's dragon broke free from the electricity that surrounded it, and Chaos MAX Dragon let out a roar of its own.

"No way…" Yuya muttered, his sentiment mirroring my previous one. "I-in that case, I end my turn."

Mokuba drew. "I enter my Battle Phase and-"

"I don't think so! I play my Trap! Threatening Roar!" Yuya shouted, his dragon letting out a powerful roar. "You're not allowed to attack this turn."

Mokuba shrugged. "Alright, then I guess it's back to you."

Yuya drew. "Since your Chaos MAX Dragon inflicts double piercing damage, there's no point in me switching Rebellion Dragon to Defense Position if it's going to be attacked next turn. I'll just Set one card face-down and end my turn."

"Alright, my turn!" Mokuba shouted, drawing quickly. "I Summon Assault Wyvern to the field in Attack Position!" a black and blue dragon appeared on Mokuba's field, utterly eclipsed by both Yuya's Xyz Dragon and Mokuba's own Chaos MAX Dragon [ATK: 1800]. "Now I enter my Battle Phase! Chaos MAX Dragon, attack Dark Rebellion Dragon! Maximum Burst of Chaos!"

A powerful energy ripped forth from the mouth of Mokuba's dragon, tearing a hole right through the stomach of Yuya's, destroying it.

[Yuya: 2500 LP]

Yuya threw his hand out. "I play my Trap, Performapal Revival! Since my dragon was destroyed, I can revive my Performapal Inflater Tapir from the Graveyard!" the weird-looking purple tapir reappeared on Yuya's field [DEF: 2000].

"Alright then. I end my turn." Mokuba said.

Yuya drew a card and then Set it in his Duel Disk. "I Set one card face-down, and end my turn."

Mokuba drew from his Deck. "I enter my Battle Phase and attack your Inflater Tapir with my Chaos MAX Dragon-"

Once again, Yuya flung his hand out. "I reveal my Command Performance Trap Card! This card forces all Monsters you control into Defense Position, and you can't change their Battle Positions until the end of the next turn." [Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon: DEF: 0] [Assault Wyvern: DEF: 1000].

"How many Trap Cards are you going to play?" Mokuba asked cheekily. "I'm kidding. This is fun." He smiled. "Of course, since there's nothing else I can do, I'm going to end my turn."

Yuya smiled back at Mokuba and drew once more from his Deck. "I Summon Performapal Salutiger!" the royally-dressed tiger appeared on Yuya's field, turning back and saluting him [ATK: 1700]. "Now I switch my Tapir to Attack Position and enter my Battle Phase!" [Performapal Inflater Tapir: ATK: 1000]. "Inflater Tapir, attack Chaos MAX Dragon!" Yuya's tapir inhaled, filling its body with air before blowing out a strong puff of air, corroding Mokuba's dragon until it was completely eradicated. "Now, Salutiger, attack Assault Wyvern!" Yuya's tiger turned back to him and saluted once more before jumping into the air and knocking Assault Wyvern to the ground, Mokuba's wyvern destroyed. "Next I activate my Salutiger's effect: when he destroys a Monster, I'm allowed to add a Performapal Pendulum Monster from my Deck to my hand." Yuya's Deck shuffled a card to the top, which he then drew. "I add Performapal Silver Claw to my hand and end my turn."

"Depending on what Mr. Kaiba draws now, Yuya could win on his next turn…" Declan muttered.

Mokuba didn't seem at all concerned by the fact that Yuya had taken control of the field. Mokuba smiled, looked down at his Deck, closed his eyes and drew. "I activate the Spell Card Monster Reborn, and Special Summon my Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon from the Graveyard!" the transparent image of a green ankh appeared behind Mokuba as his massive three-headed white dragon reappeared on the field [ATK: 4500]. Yuya froze, and Mokuba gave him a thumbs down. "Sorry, Yuya, but this is it – Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon! Ultimate Burst Stream!"

The three heads of Mokuba's dragon charged its attack in their mouths, before throwing their heads forward as multiple streams of light came forth, striking Yuya's chest, the young boy dropping to his knees in defeat.

[Yuya: 0 LP]

"Yuya…" Celina muttered.

"Da~mn, son! You got straight wrecked!" Tim shouted.

"Nah, you did really well." Mokuba assured him, Yuya picking himself up.

"You can't be serious!" Just at the mere sound of the man's voice, I was brought back to that moment in the Satellite, and the last conversation I'd had with him.

You talk about all this shit I've done in the past, but at least I've learned about how to be a decent person. You'd never catch me betraying Yusei or anyone else now! But you… you just do whatever the Hell you see fit. You haven't learned anything, you're more a terrible person now than I ever was!

"Jack…" Mokuba muttered, him and everyone else turning to the tall blond dressed in his familiar white outfit, standing in Gurei's corner and looking down at us.

"That was one of the most disappointing Duels I've ever seen." Jack announced, his eyes moving to Mokuba. "You did well, Mokuba," Jack began, "but I could have defeated Yuya on my first turn."

Mokuba scratched the back of his head. "I'm no Duel King, Jack. I was just lucky that I was able to draw the cards I did."

"Luck?" Jack huffed. "Your brother's Duelist Soul dwells within those cards and you call it luck?" Jack shook his head, turning to Yuya. "And as for you, when you were confronted with the power of Mokuba's Blue-Eyes', instead of rising to meet his power with your own, you cowered in fear and resorted to cheap stall tactics. From what I saw, you lack the power to climb the King's Summit." Jack then turned to Declan. "If these are the best Duelists you've got, I'd hate to see your worst."

"Alright, calm down, Jack. He's just a kid." Mokuba told him.

Once more, Jack shook his head. "Age doesn't matter in the Dueling World. It's all about how good you are. And no matter what, I never plan on losing… to anyone…" he said, the tall blond continuing to look down on us from Gurei's position, no doubt judging us. His eyes narrowed slightly as he looked down at me, shifting his gaze several times between Crow, Shinji and myself. Jack then shook his head, turned and left.

"I actually think he did rather well." Bordeaux's face briefly broke a smile as he turned to Taki. "What did you think, Taki?"

Taki nodded. "I agree. Defeating a Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon is a feat that only two other Duelists have been able to achieve. You should be proud."

"If the rest of you are this strong, then I'm really looking forward to the Friendship Cup~" Gurei smiled.

"Anyway, for those of you wanting to compete in the Friendship Cup, we will soon begin preparations for your stay at the hotel. Once preparations are complete, you will be moved there and be allowed to stay until you are eliminated from the tournament." Azul explained.

"Zuzu and the rest of the competitors will be arriving at the hotel at some point as well." Declan added.

"Best of luck, everyone!" Mokuba smiled. I just kept my eyes on where Jack had stood only moments ago, his outward appearance more or less the same person I'd left behind in my Dimension, and I found myself mouthing his name.

---

"Not bad…" Tim muttered, he and I standing in our shared room at the Holiday Inn Hotel. It was small but not cramped, two beds side by side, a bedside table in-between, and a massive widescreen TV embedded in the wall opposite the beds. The room's curtains were pulled back, giving us a spectacular view of the stadium below, as well as other parts of Neo Domino City as well. The moon was still high in the sky, an eerie glow gently caressing the still waters that separated the Tops and Commons areas.

I removed my Duel Disk from my arm and threw my vest over a chair as I collapsed onto one of the beds, facing the ceiling. I groaned and yawned at the same time. "Oh my God…" I moaned, stretching myself out on the bed. Considering what my sleeping arrangements had been for the last few days, the hotel bed was definitely a step up.

"You good there?" Tim asked, looking down at me.

I rolled over. "Y-yeah…"

"Things have been pretty crazy, huh?" Tim raised his eyebrows. I nodded. Tim moved to sit down on his bed, a fist pressed against his lips as though he was pondering something. "Hey… sorry I kinda thrusted being partners on you without warning. I just figured that it'd be best if we stuck together."

"Th-that's alright." I told him. "Nothing's really sunk in yet. Everything's just been happening non-stop. First Crow and Shinji, then R-Rogét, and now this…" I sighed. "I'll… definitely need a vacation when this is over…" I mumbled. Tim turned to me and smiled for a moment, his smile breaking as his eyes veered from mine. "Wh-what…?"

"What you said before," Tim began, "about life being pointless 'cause everyone's gonna die… you don't really still think like that, do you?"

It was a fair question, but honestly, what answer was Tim expecting me to give? "I-I-I…"

"'cause if you do, then I haven't done anything to help you, and this whole thing has been a waste of time so far."

"A w-w-w-waste of t-time?" I asked. "Y-you're talking as if w-we've-"

"There's no point in trying to get you home if you're gonna bring all your bullshit with you! Leave all that here, otherwise your friends won't want a bar of you." Tim said sternly. "With how you've been acting, I could've just brought you back to life and left you at the shoreline in your Dimension, 'cause it would've been all the same. You've got that look in your eyes like you're gonna throw your life away the next chance you get. I thought I got through to you in the Kmart Dimension."

"You did-"

"Well then what's the deal?"

"I-it's this whole thing! Other Dimensions! Multiple versions of different people! Multiple versions of history! I don't understand! I don't understand any of it!" I snapped, starting to shake. "Everything feels so meaningless… I-I-I can't… I just… I feel so insignificant…"

Tim cocked his head to the side. "You didn't really think your Dimension was the only one, did you? I mean, that's a little presumptuous. 'My world is the only world that exists and there's nothing else beyond that'. Is that really what you thought?"

"I-I-I thought I was done… w-with Joel, with Kobi…"

"You are, Tyler." Tim assured me. "Listen, mate, I get it. You wanted revenge on Kobi and Joel, I get it. I was the same. When my sister died, I devoted my whole life to training, makin' myself stronger so that one day I'd be able to kill the bastard that took her life. Part of it was revenge – I couldn't let that guy get away with what he did, but mostly… it was love. I loved my sister so much, and looking back, I'm sure she'd have been ashamed of how I acted in her name, but everything I did, I did for her, not me. Because she's the most important person in my life." Tim swiveled around on the bed and put a hand on my shoulder. "You might feel small and insignificant sometimes, but never forget that somewhere out in that vast multiverse there's someone who loves you. Doesn't matter what kind of love – empathy, the bond between friends, sexual attraction or unconditional love, someone, somewhere out there loves you. And love is the strongest force we have. Stronger than magic. Stronger than smiles."

"Love?"

Tim nodded. "An old friend of mine once said 'I pity the fool who pities the living, and those peeps who live without love' or something like that."

"I… I-I-I…" I struggled to force my words out. "I-I do want to go home… s-seeing Jack today, i-it made me realize all the more that I can't just hide. I have to face my friends and face up to wh-what I've done. I'm not expecting any of them to forgive me or want to be my friend or whatever. I just want them to know I'm sorry about how I treated them and made them feel. I have to go back… t-t-to apologize." I felt my face get a little hotter. "I-I-I mean, obviously if Luna did want to get back together with me after everything that's happened, and if the rest of my friends did forgive me for all the crap I put them through, that w-w-w-would be great, but it's not r-realistic. I c-c-c-can't just expect everything to be normal, to just forgive and forget. I'm never going to f-forgive Joel for what he d-d-did, ever."

"Are you really gonna let those two derps define you? Forgive them or don't – it's up to you, but take it from someone who did what I'm tellin' you not to, don't spend your life trying to make someone suffer, 'cause once that's over, you won't have anythin' else. I betcha that Kobi and Joel felt really empty inside, and that's why they did what they did. It's all they had, to make you miserable."

It really was. I could see it in Kobi when I visited him in this Dimension. His appearance, his demeanor, the state of the house he'd been living in. In my counterpart's absence, he'd let it all go. And I was damn sure that it was the same in my Dimension.

You ran away from New Domino to the Satellite and you wrote a letter basically throwing me under the bus! You abandoned your mother, and my family life's fucked up because of you!

That's what my Joel had said to me two years ago. Even with my amnesia, I knew that Joel was only trying to make me feel like shit, make me miserable as Tim had said, because Kobi and Joel both had, if not me, nothing else. I'd been welcomed into a new circle of friends that treated me like family, and by doing what I did – betraying them and throwing it all away, killing Kobi and effectively doing the same to Joel – all I was doing was showing that I had nothing else. That all I wanted was for them to die, for them to pay for what they'd done and would do to each and every version of me that existed.

But Tim was right. Hypothetically, if we got the boat back, and I spent the rest of my life traversing across Dimensions, killing every single counterpart of my stepfather and stepbrother, what would I do when I was done? What would I have achieved? And what would I have left?

I wanted to believe there was more to me than that, and there had been before, but I wasn't so sure. "They felt empty inside?" I asked softly. "I felt empty inside. I… fucking hated every moment of my life when I was with them, and for Joel to even… to even try to blame me…!"

"That was years ago, wasn't it? You need to move on." Tim pressed, sighing. "Listen, I don't wanna lie to you, so I'm gonna just lay everything out for you: You know how I told you about magic and all that? You know, that school that I'm a teacher at? Well, there are spells that can… remove or alter an individual's memories. And I know of a couple people there who could perform such spells on you, to rid you of all your… depressing wangst."

"R-really?"

"Let me finish." Tim said sternly. "Where we are now, there's no one who can help you, and you know what? Even if I could get ahold of someone right now who'd be able to remove those troublesome memories from your mind, I still wouldn't, and you know why? Because it wouldn't matter! Whether or not you remember something doesn't change the fact that it happened! You can't just block things out because it's 'too hard' for you! You have to face your fears and move on! And you have, you've done that! Kobi and Joel are gone now! So move on! The past has shaped you, like my past has shaped me, like everyone's past has shaped everyone. But don't let the past keep you from being who you want to be! I mean, surely you don't want to be a whiny brat your whole life, right?"

"Is that… is that really how you see me? Just some whiny brat…?" I asked softly. "'C-c-cause you know, I-I was starting to see you as a friend…"

Tim sighed. "I've told you before. I see all this potential in you, but you're weighed down by all this crap you've had to go through. Just… let that go. I know it's easier said than done, but if you keep bringing yourself back to that negative mindset, if you keep thinking about killing yourself or how much you want to die, you're never gonna escape it, no matter how much you try or say you want to."

I exhaled a slow, shallow breath. "Y-yeah-"

"Then there we go. Forget about Kobi and Joel. Focus on your friends. Focus on me, us. You and me – we're gonna own this tournament, get the boat back, go home, and you're gonna fix everything with your friends, alright? Forget about the Joel in your Dimension. He probably hasn't been givin' any thought to you, and you shouldn't give any thought to him. If what you told me is true, then the fact that what happened happened should be proof enough that Joel doesn't care and he never did. If you care about the fact that he doesn't, he's won." Tim sighed. "Do you get what I mean?"

"Yeah, I kn-know…" I mumbled.

"A'ight, good." Tim smiled, reaching over and ruffling my hair a little. "Anyhow, I think it's time you and I got some sleep, my young friend."

I sighed, nodding as I looked around for any sign of a clock in the room, but there wasn't one. And if it hadn't have been for the moon outside, the City would have been pitch-black. It had been such a long night. Almost unreal.

I got off my bed, removing my shoes and pulling the covers back as I slid underneath them, Tim doing the same in his bed. It didn't take me too long to get comfortable, Tim sighing as he turned to face me. "Go~od night, Tyler."

"Good night, Tim." I smiled back. He was right. In everything he said, he was right. I turned over to face the moon outside the window. "Tim?"

"Yeah…?"

"Thanks… thanks for sticking with me…"

"No problem, Broseph…" Tim hummed.

Giving any thought.

I looked up at the moon and wondered if Luna had been thinking of me, my last waking thought a thought of her.

---

A synthesized bell dinged as Tim and I walked in through the door of Rathie Kurumizawa's card shop, two KC Guards following behind. I knew that because there was a sign out the front of the shop, and not because I'd been in before. I had gone to card shops a couple of times when I was younger, but the most recent time I'd gone was just before heading off to Rex Goodwin's Mansion with Luna, Yusei and the others.

There was only one other person in the card shop aside from the staff, a person who, after seeing the KC Guards, looked as though he would rather have been anywhere else. He stopped rummaging through Booster Packs, took one look at us, smiled cautiously and left the shop.

"Well, hey… we got Weeaboo Jones over here…" Tim muttered, looking at the various figurines of female Duel Monsters propped up on a shelf behind the counter. "Anyway, what do we need?"

"Well, apart from a Deck, you'll need a D-Duel Disk as well." I pointed to a display case that had a whole bunch of different-colored tablets in it.

Tim nodded, walking over to the display case and looking at the different tablets. There wasn't really any difference between them aside from the color. "The gold color's pretty sick…" Tim muttered, walking over to the counter. "Yo! Weeaboo Jones! Can I get one of those gold Duel Disks?"

"Uh, the name's Rathie, and yes you can. What color hard light would you like for the blade?" he asked.

"Gold. Just everything gold. Gold is for winners, and you're lookin' at the biggest winner in the multiverse."

"What?"

"Don't worry about it."

Rathie sighed, turning behind him and grabbing a box with a tablet on the front of it, handing it to Tim. "Here you go. The instruction manual's inside, be sure to read it." He then turned his attention to the KC Guard. "I, uh… I'm assuming this is High Council business, yes?"

One of the guards nodded. "Yes. These two are to be entering the Friendship Cup this year by order of the Council. The Kaiba Corporation will reimburse you for any products we take from here today."

"Ah, that's much appreciated." Rathie smiled, reaching behind him once more, this time sliding two small booklets across the counter. "If one of you is asking for a Duel Disk, I'm going to assume you're a beginner. You might want to give this a read too. It's the official Duel Monsters Rulebook."

"A rulebook?" Tim asked. "What am I? A ruler?"

"Th-th-thank you v-very much…" I smiled, inwardly hating the fact that I stuttered as I took one of the rulebooks. It was clear that I needed a refresher, as the rules for Dueling in this Dimension seemed to be at least slightly different to the rules in my own. Tim neglected taking his rulebook, so I took his as well, stuffing both into my pockets, planning on making him read through it later.

"You can also have these too." Rathie slid two folded over game mats across the counter. "These'll help teach you where cards get placed on the field."

"Th-thank you…" I nodded, taking the mats.

"Okay…" Tim tapped the side of his leg as he looked over at the box of packs on the edge of the counter that the other man had been going through before he left. "Cards…"

My eyes drifted to the packs of cards hanging on the wall behind the counter.

I knew it was a different Dimension to my own, but there were so many Booster Packs I had never seen before – one was called Age of Discovery. Another was called Valkyrie's Rage. Thankfully though, there were many older Booster Packs I did recognize – the Dark Beginning and Dark Revelation sets to name a few. I wasn't sure if the packs had the same cards in them that they did in my Dimension, and there was no way of me knowing for sure, as I couldn't see a computer or anything that I could use to look up the cards in the packs, but I didn't have anything else to go on. I just had to assume that, more or less, the packs that I recognized were the same ones in my Dimension.

"Hey, Tyler, which one of these is just Monsters?" Tim asked, holding up two different Booster Packs – Land of the Titans, and Threat of the Dark Demon World.

"I don't know, but hopefully, n-neither of them. A good Deck should have a combination of Monster, Spell and Trap Cards."

Tim looked down at both the packs, and then back up at me. "What's the point if I can't just attack?"

"Well, Spell and Trap Cards can be really useful to help your Monsters out. Y-you saw with Yuya's Duel against Mokuba, didn't you?" I glanced over at the KC Guard. "Uh… Mr. Kaiba I mean. How… how Yuya was able to take down his Blue-Eyes Monsters by combining the use of Monsters with Traps." It felt weird for me to say Mokuba instead of Seto Kaiba when referring to his Blue-Eyes. "A-and then Mr. Kaiba won by using a Spell Card?"

"If you say so…" Tim muttered, putting both packs back.

"But, it's all about what you feel comfortable playing. There's no point in trying to use a Deck that you don't click with. We need to get you something that's easy for you to understand, and that you can adapt to quickly."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, are you saying I'm stupid?" Tim asked.

"N-no, that's not what I'm saying at all. I-it's just that this game can get pretty complicated. It's best to start with something easy and build up from there. The Dark Beginning packs might be a good idea for us to start with. They'll help you get a f-f-feel for things." I turned to Rathie, and opened my mouth to ask 'Can I get five packs of Dark Beginning 1 please?', but of course, my dumb speech impediment prevented me from saying anything, my mouth hanging open as I stood there in silence like a complete retard. I edged away from the counter and turned to Tim. "W-w-w-w-would you mind… t-t-t-talking for me?" I asked.

"Yeah," Tim threw his head back, gesturing to Rathie, "can I get Dank Beginning 1 and 2?"

"Dark Beginning? How many would you like?" Rathie asked.

"All of them!" Tim roared.

Rathie looked to the KC Guards who nodded, reaching behind him and grabbing the Booster Boxes of both sets and sliding them across the counter. "Are you trying to pull the Exodia pieces?" Rathie chuckled. "Good luck. There hasn't been a Duelist in history that's been able to get all the pieces together in a Deck, much less even Summon Exodia."

I raised my eyebrows. That didn't sound quite right to me. After all, I knew of the King of Games, Yugi Muto, and how his first victory over Seto Kaiba came about only because Yugi was able to Summon Exodia.

Did that mean that Yugi Muto, or at least a version of him, didn't exist in this Dimension?

I shook my head. Yugi Muto had to exist, I thought. After all, my counterpart possessed a Deck that was very similar to Yugi's, as was the case with me when I was younger. Perhaps the evolution of Yugi's Deck took a different path in this Dimension. One that didn't include Exodia at all.

That had to be the most plausible. Everyone knew the story, after all. How the National Champion, 'Insector' Weevil Underwood, threw Yugi's Exodia cards overboard on the way to Duelist Kingdom. There had to have been different timelines or Dimensions where Weevil hadn't succeeded, and Yugi continued to use Exodia, and evolve his Deck with Exodia as its centerpiece, but this obviously wasn't one of them. No, this was a Dimension where Yugi never Summoned Exodia in the first place. Supposedly, no one had ever Summoned Exodia.

"Listen buddy, I don't even know what Exodia is, so keep your stupid comments in your pocket." Tim grabbed both the boxes and turned back to me. "Anything you want?"

"I don't know…"

"Alright, we'll take one of everything then." Tim smiled like it was no big deal.

---

The last time I'd built a Deck was when I teamed up with Zone to kill Joel and destroy New Domino City. I'd been given an opportunity to build a Deck from perhaps the largest card collection in existence, and while Tim and I hadn't accrued anywhere near the same number of cards that Zone had, it was still an impressive collection.

And at least this time, I was doing things for the right reasons.

I wanted to strengthen my own Deck with some of the cards that we'd gotten, but the most important thing was making sure that Tim had a Deck of his own to Duel with first. I could have completely forgone making any changes to my Deck, but if Tim didn't have a functional Deck by the time the tournament started, we wouldn't have stood any chance at all.

Besides, part of me didn't really want to make any changes to my Deck, because it wasn't mine. It was my counterpart's. I didn't feel right taking things apart and changing things when he'd obviously built the Deck how he wanted it. And they weren't just cards, they were Duel Spirits too, and everything needed synergy. If there was no harmony within the Deck itself, it wouldn't have worked anyway, no matter how many powerful cards I threw in.

I turned to Tim to see him ripping packs open left and right, not really even caring if he damaged the cards in the process.

"Whoa, you might w-want to take it easy there, Tim." I cautioned.

"I know what I'm doin'," he insisted, but he clearly didn't, as he seemed more interested in the packaging than he did the cards themselves. Cards were getting strewn about on his bed, but Tim would just reach over for the next pack and open it without even looking at the cards he got from the pack he'd just opened.

"Aren't you going to check out what cards you got? You know, th-the main reason we got these packs?"

"I'll look at them later…" Tim mumbled, "right now I'm busy."

I sighed, reaching over and grabbing a pile of cards from Tim's bed, taking it upon myself to at least make a start building a Deck for him. It wasn't going to be a good Deck by any means – I'd readily admit that I wasn't very creative when it came to Deck Construction, but I wasn't building him something for the tournament anyway. No, I'd decided I'd build something to at least help him start to understand how to play the game first and foremost.

I started putting in all kinds of different cards even if they didn't fit together thematically. Monsters like Beaver Warrior, Giant Rat and Penguin Soldier, together with Spells like Mystical Space Typhoon, Monster Reborn and Upstart Goblin, and Traps like Trap Hole, Call of the Haunted and Seven Tools of the Bandit.

Obviously, once Tim had gotten the hang of things, I'd help him build a proper Deck to the best of my ability with all the cards we had, but my line of thinking was that even if Tim had the most powerful Deck in the world, he'd still lose if he didn't understand the basic rules of the game.

"Okay," I shuffled Tim's Deck, "s-s-so… here's a Deck I just wh-whipped up to help you get started. Why don't you read through the rulebook and give the r-r-r-rules a quick r-read?" I suggested, passing Tim's Deck to him, which he took.

Tim's eyes widened and narrowed as he looked over the cards in the Deck I'd built for him. "Nah, man, some of these cards are lame. Gotta put some cool ones in." Tim said, shuffling through the Deck and taking out a few of the cards I'd put in and replacing them with others.

"Um… m-m-maybe w-we should just try and get the b…basics down before we go making any changes to the Deck." I suggested.

"Bruh, you saw Yuyass, right? He had a Deck full of circus animals, and they got wrecked by Mokubro's rad dragons. I want something like that, like a bunch of those Exodias that Weeaboo Jones was hyping up."

"I'm not sure about that, Tim. The man at the card shop seemed adamant that the Exodia cards were hard to pull. Besides, just because a card looks strange doesn't mean it's not powerful. P-p-p-p-please, Tim. Y-you've asked me to trust you, now please, trust me. I'm not the best Duelist, but I've been in my fair share of Duels. I helped defeat the Dark Signers, and I went up against one of the Three Emperors of Yliaster." I sighed. "I know those names probably don't mean anything to you, but trust me. Let's just try and get the hang of things now with this, and we can make whatever changes you want to the Deck once you're more comfortable with the game and know what kind of Deck you want to run."

"Alright, alright, I trust you." Tim smiled, shuffling his Deck but keeping the cards he'd added to it. I took both of the game mats and unfolded them, placing them together. "We do shuffle these, right?" Tim asked.

I nodded. "S-so, when we're playing in the tournament, we'll be using our Duel Disks, which will shuffle our Decks for us, but for now, yeah, that's fine."

"Cool."

"Okay, place your Deck face-down on the mat where it says 'Deck Zone', and we're ready to go." I smiled.

[Tyler: 4000 LP]
[Tim: 4000 LP]

"Now, I'll explain all the Tag Duel rules later, so d-d-d-don't worry ab-bout any of that now. L-let's just do a one-on-one Duel. We each start with four thousand Life Points – or LP."

"Okay, so how many cards do we draw?" Tim asked.

"Okay," I prepped, "so we draw… five cards at the beginning, and then if it's," I could feel it inside, knowing that I was going to stutter, "then if… i-if it's y-y-your turn first… you don't draw… but if you're going second, you do. That's why I lost two thousand Life Points when I went up against that Sector Security officer, 'cause I drew when I wasn't supposed to. Apparently, if you perform an illegal move in this Dimension, you lose two thousand Life Points as a penalty." I shook my head. "Anyway, l-let's draw five." I said, Tim and I drawing five cards each from our Decks. "I'll go first to give you an example of wh-what you can do."

"Go ahead," Tim nodded.

"Now, since I'm going first, and this is the first turn of the Duel, I don't draw." I reiterated.

"Uh-huh…"

"But on my n-next turn, I can draw. This is called the Draw Phase, we have one of these at the start of our turns." I continued to explain poorly, thanks to my speech impediment.

"Okay, gotcha."

"Alright," I looked down at my hand, "I will activate a Spell Card called Magical Contract Door," I placed the card face-up onto my mat in a Spell and Trap Zone.

"Uh-huh…" Tim peered over at the card.

"This card allows me to give you a Spell Card from my hand, and that gets added to your hand, and then I get to add a high-level Dark Monster from my Deck to my hand." I handed Tim the Magical Dimension from my hand. "So, I'm now allowed to go through my Deck – in normal gameplay, you're not allowed to randomly go through your Deck during a Duel, unless a card says so." I picked my Deck up, quickly thumbing through it and taking out a card, showing it to Tim. "So, I will select my Magician of Dark Illusion, and I'm going to add that to my hand."

"Okay," he said as I added the card to my hand.

"Then, I shuffle my Deck. You pretty much always have to shuffle when you search your Deck for a card." I told him, shuffling my Deck before placing it back down on the mat in the Deck Zone. "Now that Magical Contract Door's effect is finished, I place the card in the Graveyard, and that part's done."

"Uh-huh…"

"So, now I'll Normal Summon my Celtic Guard of Noble Arms." I said, placing the card from my hand onto the field face-up [ATK: 2100].

"Oh, yeah…" Tim once again peered over at the card.

"He's in Attack Position, so vertical, and he's got twenty-one hundred Attack Points." I explained, rotating the card so that Tim could get a better look at it. "When we play with the Duel Disks, there's a screen on the tablet, so you'll be able to get a better look at the cards your opponent plays."

"Right…"

"Now, since this was the first turn of the Duel, I'm not allowed to attack, so I'll end my turn. Now it's your turn, and you get to draw a card."

"I see…" Tim drew from his Deck, looking over his hand. "These green ones, the Spell Cards, are you allowed to put those face-down?"

"Yep."

"Okay, that's good." Tim went back to looking at his hand. "This one card I've got says something about a Special Summon, but that's a bit beyond me at this stage. So, instead, I'll play this guy, King of Yamimakai." He said, placing the card onto the mat.

"Yeah, you can't actually do that." I interjected.

"Huh? Why not?"

"See how there's five stars on the card? That's the Monster's Level. Monsters that are Level five and six need one Tribute before they can be Normal Summoned."

"But your Celtic Guard guy's got one hundred more Attack Points than mine."

"Doesn't matter. When it comes to a Normal Summon, it's the Level that matters, not the Attack Points."

Tim sighed. "Well that's stupid…"

"Now, if we were playing in the tournament and you did that, you'd be able to keep that Monster out on the field, but we'd take a two thousand Life Point penalty, but since this isn't a tournament, we'll forget the penalty and you can just play another Monster instead."

"Okay," Tim retrieved King of Yamimakai, "well, then, instead, I'll put a face-down Defense Monster," he said, Setting a card onto the field before looking back to me. "Can you only Summon one Monster a turn?" he asked.

"Yeah, only one. Unless it's a Sp-Sp-Special Summon. You can only N-N-N-N…" I stopped, attempting to start again, "only N… only Normal Summon once per turn." I sighed. "Sorry."

"It's alright," Tim assured me, "take your time."

I closed my eyes and took a moment to try and recompose myself. "Yeah… one Normal Summon per turn, your turn, unless another card says you can perform another one."

"Okay, well then, I'll just keep that Monster and put a face-down card behind it." Tim Set another card. "Just to get it out of my hand. And then… I'll end my turn."

"Cool, well, now I can draw, since it's not the first turn of the Duel anymore," I drew from my Deck, "and I Set a card face-down." I did just that, placing Dig of Destiny face-down. "Now, in a normal situation, I would enter my Battle Phase and attack, but I can't do that, because my Celtic Guard of Noble Arms can't attack as long as I have any cards in my hand. So it's your turn."

"That's handy."

I nodded. "It's part of the reason why I can Normal Summon him without a Tribute, while you have to Tribute a Monster for King of Yamimakai – he doesn't have a drawback."

"Ah," Tim noted, looking over his hand again as he drew, "so many Spell Cards…"

I chuckled. "Sorry, I just thought I'd better throw something together quickly for you. We'll work on your Deck once you have a better understanding of the game and you figure out how you want to play and what you want to do."

Tim nodded. "What if… I wanted to Summon this guy," Tim showed me a Beaver Warrior in his hand, "am I immediately able to Tribute him for King of Yamimakai?"

"No, Normal Summoning Beaver Warrior would count as your… as your one N-Normal Summon for the turn. A Tribute Summon is classed as a Normal Summon. If you wanted, you could Tribute the Monster that you've already got on the field." I said, pointing to Tim's Set card.

"I think I'll just Normal Summon this," Tim said, placing Beaver Warrior onto the mat [ATK: 1200], "and then I'll just end my turn."

"Well, I think that's a good choice, strategically, because as long as I have cards in my hand, I can't attack with Celtic Guard of Noble Arms." I explained.

Tim scratched the back of his head. "I probably should have put Beaver Warrior in Defense Position, right? Sideways?"

"Well, y-yeah, you could have, but as I said, I can't attack you anyway yet, so…" I trailed off. "Face-down Defense Position I mean, not face-up. In my Dimension, you can Normal Summon in face-up Defense Position, but here, you can't, and doing so would, again, cost you two thousand Life Points as a penalty."

"I'm not sure I understand, but I'm just gonna say 'yes'."

"Okay…" I chuckled, drawing. I looked over the cards I had in my hand. "I'm going to end my turn again, 'cause I can't attack if I have cards in my hand, so it's back to you."

Tim closed his eyes as he drew. "Please not a Spell Card…" I heard him mutter. Tim opened his eyes and I couldn't discern from his expression if it was in fact a Spell Card that he drew. "Alright, I'm going to Tribute my Beaver Warrior," Tim slid the card into the Graveyard, "and Normal Summon King of Yamimakai." [ATK: 2000].

"Nice." I encouraged.

Tim paused. "Um… and then…"

"Remember, my Celtic Guard of Noble Arms has one hundred more Attack Points than your King of Yamimakai, so if you attacked, my Monster would win."

"That's alright. I've got a plan." Tim told me. "I play my face-down, this pink one, DNA Surgery, which apparently lets me change the type of all Monsters on the field. So, I'll change all the Monster types to Spellcaster. And then, uh… I play Magical Dimension, the card you gave me, to Tribute my King of Yamimakai – which is now a Spellcaster, to Special Summon another Spellcaster, and then I can destroy one Monster on your field."

"Okay, have you got a Spellcaster in your hand?" I asked, "'cause DNA Surgery only works for Monsters on the field, not in the hand."

Tim smiled. "It just so happens I do… although it's not as good." Tim picked King of Yamimakai up. "So, this is a Spellcaster?" he said, his tone phrasing it like a question.

"Yes." I confirmed, Tim placing the card into the Graveyard.

"So I Tribute him to play this." Tim placed Left Arm of the Forbidden One onto the field in Attack Position [ATK: 200]. "And now, I can destroy that guy." Tim pointed to my Celtic Guard of Noble Arms and I placed him in the Graveyard.

"I didn't put that in your Deck. Is that one of the cards you slipped in?" I asked, referring to Left Arm of the Forbidden One.

"Well, that guy said that Exodia was good." Tim shrugged. "I thought I'd put the pieces in my Deck."

"Yeah, but the objective is to keep the pieces in your hand. Exodia's effect only works if his head and all the other pieces are in your hand."

"The other pieces?" Tim asked. "How many pieces are there?"

"Five, including the Left Arm you've got out."

"Oh…"

"Why? How many did you put in your Deck?"

"I dunno, three?"

My eyes widened. "H-how'd you manage to get three?"

Tim shrugged. "I dunno, I guess I'm just lucky."

"And are they three different ones?"

"Yeah, I got, uh… a leg and two arms, 'cause I skimmed the rulebook and it says you can only have up to three of the same card in your Deck."

"Each piece is a different card."

"Oh… this game is weird…" Tim muttered.

I shook my head. "Anyway, um… we'll figure that out later. Let's keep going."

"Okay," Tim nodded. "…Whose turn was it?"

"Yours."

"Right… well I will utilize my Set Monster, and flip him into face-up Attack Position." Tim Flip Summoned Giant Soldier of Stone [ATK: 1300]. "And I will enter my… my Battle Phase, was it?" Tim asked. I nodded. "And attack with both."

"Alright, awesome. So since I don't have any Monsters on the field, the Attack Points of both Monsters are subtracted from my Life Points, so I lose fifteen hundred, and that takes me down to twenty-five hundred." I briefly, poorly, explained damage calculation.

[Tyler: 2500 LP]

"I like this Deck." Tim smiled innocently.

"We'll make a better one. Anyway, I activate my face-down Trap Card, Dig of Destiny." I flipped the card over. "Since I took b-b-b-b-battle damage, I'm able to draw a card from my Deck." I drew, and then placed Dig of Destiny in the Graveyard. "Is that the end of your turn?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Okay. I now draw for my Draw Phase." I said, doing just that, looking over my cards once more. "I Set a Monster in Defense Position, and then I Set one card face-down." I placed two cards, Clear Kuriboh and Dimension Reflector, down onto the mat. "Your turn."

"Alright. I draw a card." He verbalized, looking over his cards for a while. "I end my turn."

"Okay. I draw." I smiled at having drawn Apple Magician Girl. "I Set one card, and I Normal Summon Apple M-M-M-Magician Girl…" I turned away in disgust at my speech, nevertheless placing the card onto the mat [ATK: 1200], preceded by a face-down Spiritual Swords of Revealing Light.

"Oh, hey, it's Red. Go eat an apple, why don't ya."

I cracked a little. "She's got, uh… twelve hundred," I could feel a stutter coming up, so I repeated to try and push through it, "twelve hundred… twelve hundred Attack Points… so I enter my B-Battle Phase, and I attack your Left Arm of the For…bidden One with my Apple Magician Girl."

"Okay, so what happens now?"

"Well, since Monsters are battling, we look at the difference in Attack Points between the two, subtracting the lowest number from the highest. So twelve hundred minus two hundred, which is one thousand, and that is subtracted from your Life Points."

[Tim: 3000 LP]

"Right…"

"And then your Left Arm of the Forbidden One is destroyed, sent to the Graveyard."

"Okay,"

"I end my turn."

"And what a turn it was." Tim smiled, drawing. "Okay, so I'm a little confused about Exodia, when you have all the pieces in your hand, does that mean…?"

"You win, yes."

"Okay, nice…"

"But you've only got three pieces in your Deck, right? And even if you had all five, you've lost your Left Arm of the Forbidden One – that's in the Graveyard now, so, you can't get-"

"Too bad I don't have some way to… reborn a Monster…" Tim raised his eyebrows.

I started laughing, instantly knowing what card he'd planned to use. "No, but that brings it back to the field, not your hand."

"Oh, damn it… I didn't plan that out…" Tim had an uncharacteristically defeated look on his face before he sighed. "Well, anyway, for this turn I'm going to use Monster Reborn." Tim placed the card from his hand onto the field.

"Okay. Just to clarify, you can also use it to Special Summon something from my Graveyard if you wanted to. But the only Monster I've got right now is Celtic Guard of N-Noble Arms, and you w-w-wouldn't be able to attack with him anyway."

"That's okay. King of Yamimakai is way cooler." Tim said, moving the Monster from his Graveyard to a Monster Card Zone and then placing Monster Reborn into the Graveyard [King of Yamimakai: ATK: 2000].

"Yeah, alright-"

"He's the best."

"Right."

"So, I'm going to… attack! King of Yamimakai attacks Apple Magician Girl!"

"Okay, I activate Spiritual Swords of Revealing Light." I flipped over my Trap Card. "This card stops the attack at the cost of one thousand Life Points."

[Tyler: 1500 LP]

"I've been stopped…" Tim said sadly.

"Apple Magician Girl remains on the field."

"Am I allowed to attack her again?" Tim asked.

"Yes, you can attack again with your Giant Soldier of Stone if you want, but Spiritual Swords of Revealing Light is a Continuous Trap Card, like your DNA Surgery, which means I can activate its effect each time if I want."

"Will that cost you Life Points?"

I nodded. "Yes. Each time I activate the effect, I have to pay one thousand Life Points as a cost."

Tim shrugged. "Well then either way, I'm gonna attack with my Giant Soldier of Stone."

"In that case, I activate Apple M-Magician Girl's effect, to Special Summon from my hand, Kiwi Magician Girl." I placed the purple-haired Spellcaster onto the field [ATK: 1800].

"Go eat a kiwi, why don't ya."

"Right, well, um… Apple Magician Girl's effect switches the attack target to Kiwi Magician Girl."

"That's mean."

"And then the attacking M-M-M-M-Monster's Attack Points are cut in half. So, Giant Soldier of Stone's thirteen hundred Attack Points becomes six hundred and fifty. Now we calculate the damage. Since my Monster is stronger, you take the difference in Attack Points as damage to your Life Points. That's eleven f-fifty."

[Tim: 1850 LP]

"And does my Giant Soldier of Stone die?"

"Yes."

Tim looked down at the card and picked it up. "Sorry, guy. You rocked while you were with us." Tim then placed the card into the Graveyard.

"It's still your turn."

"Wait, it's my turn?" Tim asked.

I nodded. "Yep, you attacked with your Monsters in your Battle Phase."

"Oh, alright, yeah, I'll end my turn."

I drew. "I'm going to Normal Summon Berry Magician Girl." I said, placing the card onto the field [ATK: 400] and waiting for Tim to say what he'd said the two previous times I'd Summoned a Magician Girl. "Aren't you going to say anything?"

"Uh… that's berry good." Tim smiled. "Alright, eat a berry, why don't ya."

"There we go." I smiled back. "Okay, I activate Berry Magician Girl's effect, and add a M-Magician Girl Monster from my Deck to my hand," I once again picked up my Deck and went through it, "I will add Dark Magician Girl to my hand, and end my turn."

"Thank you. Okay, I draw a card." Tim sighed at the card he drew, muttering "another Spell Card…" under his breath. "I will play the Equip Spell Card Horn of the Unicorn, and equip it to my King of Yamimakai, which grants him an extra seven hundred Attack Points." [King of Yamimakai: ATK: 2700].

"Nice."

"And I will attack Kiwi Magician Girl with King of Yamimakai."

"Awesome!" I encouraged. "So now, the difference between our Monsters' Attack Points, nine hundred, is subtracted from my Life Points, and Kiwi Magician Girl is destroyed."

[Tyler: 600 LP]

"So how long does Horn of the Unicorn stay equipped to my Monster for?" Tim asked.

"That stays equipped until he is destroyed, or I play a Spell Card like Mystical Space Typhoon or something to get r-rid of it."

"Okay, I see." Tim nodded. "Moving on, I will activate this Spell Card, Change of Heart." Tim placed the card from his hand onto the mat. "With this, I can target one Monster that you control, and I can take control of that Monster-"

"Yeah, but y-you can't attack 'cause you've already attacked with King of Yamimakai, and you're now playing a Spell Card."

"Wait, you can't attack?" Tim looked at me, puzzled.

"Sorry, I should have explained Phases a little better. You can only activate Normal Spell Cards, like Change of Heart, during your Main Phase. If you move from your Battle Phase and go to your Main Phase 2 to activate a Spell Card, you can't then go back to your B-B-B-B-Battle Phase. You can only go through each Phase of a turn once, unless a card effect forces you to skip or repeat a Phase."

"Ah, so there's only one Battle Phase, but there's two Main Phases?"

"That's right. W-w-w-what you could have done is play Change of Heart in your Main Phase 1 either before or after using Horn of the Unicorn on your King of Yamimakai."

"So did I just waste this card then?" Tim asked.

"Yeah, but don't worry about it. It's all a learning experience, and I should be explaining things a little better."

"Well, I'm gonna stick to my guns and target Berry Magician Girl, and make her move one Zone over."

"Actually, the Monster you target moves to your side of the field."

"Well there we go."

"And then-"

"But I only have control until the end of my turn, right?" Tim asked.

"Yes, and this is your Main Phase 2, so y-you can't really do anything with her." I clarified too late.

"Can I Tribute her?"

"Yeah, sure, if you've got a Monster that requires a Tribute to Normal Summon, you can Tribute both her and King of Yamimakai if you need to, since you haven't Normal Summoned this turn yet. Have… have you got a Monster that you can Tribute Summon?"

"No, I wish I did." Tim chuckled. "If I had, would that mean the Monster I Summoned at the end of this turn would go to your side of the field?"

I shook my head. "Nope. Cards that switch control of a Monster only work for the one Monster unless it specifically states otherwise. But, but that's a very good strategy. You can use cards like Change of Heart to take control of an opponent's Monster, Tribute it for something stronger, and then attack with that Monster, and that'll still be yours after the End Phase of the turn, and the opponent won't get their Monster back. You could even take control of an opponent's strong Monster, and Tribute it for a weaker Monster, which w-w-would still be an effective use for it, 'cause they'd lose a powerful Monster."

"Right, I think I get it…" Tim stretched. "Well, anyway, I end my turn."

"Okay, so, Berry Magician Girl returns to my side of the field, and I get to draw a card at my Draw Phase." I drew. "I'll Set a Monster face-down and end my turn." I placed Marshmacaron face-down.

Tim drew from his Deck and I flipped over a Trap Card. "I activate my Trap Card, Dimension Reflector, and with it, I can target two M-Monsters I control and B-B-B-Banish them, so I B-Banish Apple Magician Girl and Berry Magician Girl, which means they don't go to the Graveyard, they're removed from the game."

"Okay," Tim nodded.

"Then, I get to target one Monster – your King of Yamimakai – and Dimension Reflector becomes a Monster-"

"Wait, so a Trap Card can be a Monster as well?"

"Yep. Certain cards can be treated as more than one type of card if its effect allows it. In this case, Dimension Reflector is treated as both a Monster and a Trap Card, so you could still use something like Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy it." I shook my head. "Anyway, that's a whole other thing. My Dimension Reflector becomes a Monster with the same Attack Points as your King of Yamimakai – twenty-seven hundred." [Dimension Reflector: ATK: 2700].

"Right…"

"But that's not all. Dimension Reflector now inflicts that same amount of Attack Points as effect damage directly to your Life Points, so you take twenty-seven hundred points of direct damage."

"Damn it…" Tim muttered.

"Since you only have eighteen-fifty Life Points left, your Life Points drop to zero, which means I win the Duel."

[Tim: 0 LP]

"So that's it then? Game over?" Tim asked.

I nodded. "Yep…"

Tim sighed. "Damn, that's messed."

"So what do you think?"

"This game is so weird!" Tim shouted. "Like, okay, I get it, watching the Monsters fight each other with Real Solid Vision looks dope, but stripping that away, and having to deal with stuff like Tribute Summons, Special Summons, Flip Summons, Phases, which cards are Continuous and which ones aren't, Graveyards and Banished Monsters. It's just like… what?"

"That's not even counting the things we saw with Yuya and Mokuba last night, Ritual Summons and Xyz Summons. And on top of that, there's Fusion and Synchro Summons. Yuya said something about a Pendulum Summon that one time, which I'd never heard of until then. Each Dimension that has Duel Monsters in it probably has their own cards and Summon types and there's probably a whole bunch of different Special Summon techniques that exist for the game… yeah, it can be a bit daunting."

"I just want something easy, where it's like you pick up cards and then you win!" Tim huffed.

"Well, there is Exodia. You've already got what, three pieces out of five?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty lucky like that." Tim smiled. "Is that something I should play then?"

"Whatever you feel comfortable playing should be fine, Tim. I'll back you up as best I can. Anyway, let's forget about the Deck building for a moment, take a step back, and talk about what you could have done differently during our Duel…"

---

Tim and I spent the rest of the day really just going through all the rules and making sure that we both understood them. I found it quite easy to get myself up to speed, though there were a lot of things that the rulebook didn't cover, such as the aforementioned Fusion, Xyz and Pendulum Summons, the former of the three being the only one I really knew anything about.

One of my concerns was the 'Illegal Move Penalty' which was confirmed to be an anti-cheating measure that was a main component to the Duel Monsters game in this Dimension. I had to make sure that when I was teaching Tim the rules that I didn't get confused between what was legal in my Dimension and what was legal in this Dimension and end up teaching him the wrong rules as a result.

My main concern however became apparent to me as Tim and I went back over our Duel, so that I could show him where he could have made better plays, and I realized that I could have made better plays. It was fine for Tim to make mistakes – he was a beginner, still learning. But he was learning from me, so I couldn't afford to make any mistakes or misplays.

I had learned something though: I really had no idea how to use my counterpart's Deck.

The light of the sun was just barely touching the sky, a deep purple, as Tim slept, crashed on top of his bed with about twelve different Decks worth of cards all around him. I turned over to the bedside table, taking my counterpart's Deck into my hands as I attempted to speak with the Spirits. "Hey…" I whispered, "Can any of you hear me?"

The Spirits of Apple Magician Girl, Magician of Dark Illusion, and Berry Magician Girl appeared beside me. "We're here…" Apple Magician Girl smiled.

"Listen, um… I just… I want to say… with… with all this stuff that's happened recently, my Duel against that Sector Security officer, my Duel just before with Tim, a-and the whole Friendship Cup thing coming up, I-I think it would be best if I… if I build a new Deck, like, from scratch."

"Have we done something wrong?" Apple Magician Girl asked softly.

"N-no, of course not. It's not you guys – it's me. I don't know how to use you to your true potential. I'm sure if my counterpart was here right now, he would, but…" I shook my head. "Okay, like, just before, I had that Dimension Reflector card on the field for ages, not even realizing that its effect could have won me the Duel way earlier if I had've just read the damn thing…" I exhaled. "Working things over with Tim, I've realized that a tournament isn't time for experimentation. I-I think it would be best for me, Tim, a-and you guys too i-if I built a new Deck for this tournament, with cards I actually know how to use in it. I just don't want to let Tim down. I-if we lose because… because I don't know how to use the cards in my own Deck properly, I'm not just screwing things up for myself, but for Tim as well. It would suck if I lost, but it would suck even more if Tim lost because of me."

I kept my eyes on my Deck, averting the eyes of the Spirits, not wanting them to think that I blamed or hated them for my own inadequacy, that I was just going to abandon them. I wasn't, but I couldn't lose. I had to win.

"That's fine. Do what you need to do to win." Magician of Dark Illusion spoke.

I looked up from my Deck and into the eyes of the Magician of Dark Illusion, the only part of his face I could actually see.

Apple Magician Girl nodded. "Just know that we'll still watch over you and keep you safe."

"Thanks, guys…" I smiled. "I… I promise… I'll do the best I can…! For all of us…"

Even though I wasn't using my counterpart's cards, I knew with the Spirits watching over me, and with Tim's support, that even if I faltered, I'd have the strength I needed to overcome not only my own personal demons, but whatever trials the Friendship Cup presented as well.