"I draw!" Akia drew her first card with her usual overflowing confidence. She then placed a monster in facedown defence mode and laid a card facedown. "I end my turn."

"My turn, I draw!" Seiji looked at his cards for a second then immediately played his first card. "I use the continuous spell card: Card of Safe Return. With this card on the field, whenever we special summon a monster from our graveyard, we can draw one card.

"A graveyard focused deck?" Mai suggested to Akia.

Akia nodded. "Seems like it... If that's the case, this will be the easiest game ever." The red-eyed girl smiled to herself.

"I'll place a monster in facedown defence position and end my turn," Seiji finished.

"Alright, it's my turn. Draw!" Mai started her turn then glanced at Akia's facedown monster, then at Akia, relaying to her her intentions. Akia smiled and gave her a thumbs up.

"I'll flip Akia's monster in face up attack position. Come out, Different Dimension Warrior(1200/1000). I'll then place one card facedown and end my turn," the blonde woman said.

Seiji and Reiji's faces darkened a bit at the sight of D.D. Warrior.

"That's right, I remember now..." Seiji told his brother, "that Akia girl has some cards that remove other cards from play, but I didn't think they'd come out that early."

"You think her whole deck is like that?" Reiji inquired.

"Last time I saw her play she only had two or three cards that did that. These kind of cards are rare, so I doubt she has enough of them to make a whole deck," his brother answered him.

Akia and Mai were both smiling inwardly at the subtle change in their opponents' demeanour.

"It seems like Mai's plan to agitate them worked," Akia thought to herself.

"Heh. Not going to attack? Well I guess I'll take the initiative! I draw! I use the spell card: Dark World Dealings. Each one of us has to draw a card from our deck then discard a card from our hand," Reiji explained how his card worked.

As soon as everyone did as the card described, Reiji and Seiji took out the cards they discarded and summoned them to the field.

"Behold! Our Dark World Lords Goldd(2300/1400) and Silva(2300/1400)!" Reiji exclaimed.

Erika and Tori gasped.

"That's how they got us...!" Tori yelled out.

"Their Dark World deck allows them to special summon powerful monsters by first discarding them to the graveyard..." Erika explained.

"I'm not done! Remember my spell card? Card of Safe Return activates! Since both me and Seiji special summoned a monster from our graveyard, we each draw a card." Mai and Akia still waited for Reiji to finish up before they counterattacked. "Alright! I sacrifice my facedown monster to summon another Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World(2400/1400)."

Mai grinned. "Not so fast! I activate my trap card: Torrential Tribute which activates when a monster is summoned to the field and destroys all monsters on the field."

"What...?!" Reiji exclaimed.

"Ugh...!" Seiji grunted.

Erika and Tori squealed in joy.

"Tch... I'll set a card facedown and end my turn," Reiji said.

"My turn now? Finally! I draw-" Before Akia could do anything after drawing her card, Reiji interjected. "I'll activate my trap card: The Forces of Darkness! This card allows me to pick two Dark World monsters form my graveyard and add them to my hand. I'll choose the two Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World."

"Geez, when it's finally my turn, I get interrupted..." Akia grumbled before continuing with her turn, "anyway, I'll summon my Banisher of the Light(100/2000) in face up attack mode! I'll also use the spell card Earthquake which switches all the face up monsters on the field to defence position, causing my Banisher to be switched to defend. And now I'll end my turn."

"This should prevent them from special summoning from the graveyard," Akia thought to herself.

"That monster is such a pest..." Seiji commented. "No matter, it's my turn. I set a monster in facedown defence position and end my turn."

In the crowd, a man was hiding, looking blankly at the duel. Through his eyes, someone else was watching the events unfold. "Hmm... Why do I find her so intriguing? Even though I've only met her once..." Marik closed his eyes for a few seconds, trying to regain his composure. He then continued to watch the duel through his rare hunter's eyes.

"It's my turn," Mai started, "Now, I draw! I activate my field spell card, Harpie's Hunting Ground. I will then remove from play a wind monster I discarded to the graveyard thanks to your spell card to special summon Garuda the Wind Spirit(1600/1200). Thanks to my field spell, his ATK and DEF go up by 200 points (1800/1400). I will then activate my equip spell card: Premature Burial. This card allows me to bring back one of our monsters from the graveyard by paying 800 life points. I will bring back Akia's D.D. Warrior(1200/1000)!" D.D. Warrior is summoned to the field in attack position with Premature Burial equipped to it. "I will switch Banisher of the Light(100/2000) from defence to attack position. Now... Time for battle! First, my Garuda will attack your facedown monster!" A gust off wind from Garuda's attack sliced the holographic facedown card, revealing Kahkki, Guerilla of Dark World(300/500) for a split second before it completely got destroyed and disappeared from the field. "Now that I've cleaned up the field, I'll attack directly with D.D. Warrior and Banisher of the Light, dealing a total of 1300 damage."

Seiji and Reiji instinctively took a step back and winced.

"Nice one, Mai-san!" Akia cheered.

"I'll let you pretty boys off the hook for now and end my turn," Mai snickered.

"You really think this is it? Don't make me laugh! You haven't won yet! My turn, I draw," Reiji retorted as he started his turn.

Seiji looked intently at Reiji, hoping that he would get them out of their sticky situation. He didn't want to admit it to anyone, but he was getting pretty anxious about the duel.

"I'll play the spell card: Dark World Lightning. This will destroy your facedown card at the cost of me discarding a card from my hand," Reiji continued his turn

As a result of the effect, Akia's facedown trap card got destroyed.

"Damnit! My Dimensional Prison! But at least the card they're going to discard is removed from play so no Dark World monster effects from the graveyard will be activated," Akia thought.

"I'll set a card facedown and end my turn..." Reiji concluded.

"You're not summoning any monsters? Are you kidding me?" Seiji criticized him.

"Tch. Not like you've been very useful," his brother retaliated.

"What did you say?" Seiji yelled back.

Mai looked at Akia. "Seems like there's a bit of internal conflict. That could work out for us."

"Yeah. Not like we would've lost either way though," Akia agreed.

They then both redirected their attention to the field.

"Alright, my turn. I draw! Time to show off a new monster of mine! I'll sacrifice Mai-san's Garuda the Wind Spirit to summon Great Maju Garzett(0/0)!" The red-eyed girl said.

"0 attack and defence...? Is this a joke?" Reiji scoffed.

"Maju? It's like her other monster that she used in Duelist Kingdom. It also started off with 0 attack and defence points. What's the trick?" Seiji inquired.

"You want to know the trick?" Akia grinned as her Great Maju Garzett's attack went up to 3200.

"What?!" The twins exclaimed.

"You had me worried there for a split second..." Mai sighed.

"How? What's the effect this time?!" Seiji asked for more details.

"Let me explain it to you so that it's nice and clear," Akia started, "my Great Maju Garzett's attack points are determined by the monster that is used to tribute summon it. Basically, the attack of Great Maju Garzett becomes twice the original attack of the monster that is used as tribute. In this case, it was Garuda the Wind Spirit that had an original attack of 1600. There you have it."

"Not good..." Reiji muttered.

Tori held Erika's hand in anticipation. "They're going to win! They're going to beat them!"

Erika nodded eagerly.

"To be on the safe side, I'll put a card facedown. Now... I'll attack you directly with all of my monsters and end this!" Akia exclaimed.

"Not again...!" Seiji whined.

"Kuh!" Reiji groaned.

The whole crowd cheered for the winners. Marik's rare hunter slowly withdrew. "Hmph... Seems like she might be a handful..." His smile, however, betrayed his words.

Akia and Mai took the puzzle cards from Reiji and Seiji. They also each took a card, following the Ante rule of the tournament. Akia, of course, didn't care for their rarest card, so she instead took one card that would benefit her more.

"See? Even if you had been the one to duel against me back in Duelist Kingdom, the outcome would've been the same," Akia said with a smile.

.Seiji frowned, too humiliated to say anything back. Akia and Mai then went to Tori and Erika.

"Here you go girls," Mai told them.

Tori looked at Erika who met her gaze. They then nodded at each other.

"I think we'd both feel better if you two kept those puzzle cards," Erika stated.

"Like you said earlier, we did lose to them fair and square," Tori added.

"You sure about this?" Akia asked them.

"Yes. We'll be cheering both of you on!" The redhead confirmed.

Mai and Akia looked at each other and smiled. They then both said their farewells to Erika and Tori.

"That was my first time playing a tag duel... Glad it was with a good partner," Akia told her friend.

"You definitely didn't disappoint me either, but I don't think I'm cut out for those kinds of duels," Mai answered.

"It did take forever before we got to play a turn," the red-eyed girl complained.

"That's right. Not that I didn't enjoy it. I just enjoyed it... less," the blonde agreed.

"Well at least now I have six puzzle cards and you have four."

"Just two more to go."

"And for me I have enough to qualify already. I want to try and go find Yugi and the rest."

"Alright, you go ahead. I'll go wander about a bit more."

"Meet in the finals?"

Mai winked at Akia. "Definitely."