The ESP Duelist
Joey saw a crowd in the street and went to check out what the commotion was about. Rex Raptor had lost to the self-proclaimed psychic duelist Esper Roba. He groaned and gave up his locator card and Serpentine Night Dragon. Esper looked at his audience and asked who else thought they could beat him. He saw that a lot of people were intimidated and didn't want to take a chance. Then he saw Joey behind Rex and recognized him.
Joey had never met Esper Roba before or even heard of him. Rex told Joey not to accept his challenge because he would end up getting overwhelmed by Esper's psychic powers. But Joey was familiar with this tactic and figured he had nothing to worry about. So he ignored Rex's advice and accepted Esper's challenge.
Joey was about to make his first move until he saw Esper place his hands close to his brow and speaking in meditation, calling upon the celestial forces to reveal the cards in his opponent's hand and predict his move. When Joey heard Esper say that the first card in his hand was the Swordsman of Landstar, he was surprised to find out that he was right. But he still didn't believe that Esper really had psychic powers and claimed it was a scam. He placed Giltia the Knight on his duel disk which was a mistake. Giltia was a level five monster and couldn't be summoned unless a weaker monster was sacrificed. Joey was embarrassed and about to lose it. Because Joey lost his first move by default and had no monsters in play, Esper Roba was free to land a direct attack on his life points. He summoned Cyber Raider to the field and dealt 1400 points of damage to Joey.
Tristan went to the hospital to check up on Serenity. He even brought a laptop with him to check Joey's progress in the tournament. Serenity couldn't watch because her eyes were still healing, so Tristan decided to watch the duel and tell her what was going on. He saw that Joey already made a mistake on his first move, but assured Serenity that everything was just fine and the duel was going a little slow.
In the city, Yami and Emily also found out that Joey was in a duel and decided to watch. They didn't join the crowd. They instead went to one of the nearby buildings and watched from the roof. They saw that Esper Roba was intimidating Joey by displaying psychic acts and remembered how Mai did the same thing back at Duelist Kingdom. His talents seemed a bit more convincing, but Yami and Emily weren't too sure.
"Hey, Yami," Emily was saying, "I have a feeling Esper Roba isn't the psychic he claims to be."
Then she and Yami heard voices nearby. They looked down at one of the lower levels and saw four children. They weren't just watching the duel. The older boy had a pair of binoculars and was using them to look at Joey's cards. "I'm pretty sure I see Graceful Dice under his Swordsman."
The second eldest spoke to Esper through his receiver to relay the information. "Okay, big brother. Graceful Dice is under his Swordsman of Landstar."
"It looks like he is a fake," said Yami. But there was nothing he or Emily could do but watch the duel and hope Joey would be able to keep it together and not let Esper psyche him out. They believed in their friend.
Esper got the information from his younger brothers and began putting on the same act by placing his hands close to his head and humming. Joey's frustration grew, but he didn't bother looking at his hand. The boy with the binoculars watched Joey draw. "Hold on, he just drew another Graceful Dice from his deck."
Joey finally made his move and summoned his Swordsman to the field and placed two cards face down. Esper assumed that they were both Graceful Dice. The card had the power to multiply a monster's attack points to the roll of the die. But the rules said that a duelist couldn't activate more than one of the same magic card on the same turn. Esper sacrificed Cyber Raider to summon the Fiend Megacyber, a powerful warrior with 2200 attack points. Joey revealed his first hidden card. It was Graceful Dice and it multiplied his Swordsman's attack points by three, raising his attack points to 1500. Then he activated his second card. To Esper's surprise, it was Skull Dice and it had the power to divide the opposing monster's attack points based on the roll of the die. The roll resulted in a five, lowering Fiend Megacyber's attack points to 440. And because Esper attacked a monster that was stronger than his, the damage came out of his life points. Now he had 2940 life points remaining.
Joey laughed as he saw the look on Esper's face and figured he was on to his ESP sham. He did have Dice cards, but they were hard to identify because of the way he held them in his hand. That made Joey realize that the only way Esper Roba was actually reading the cards in his hand was because he had friends in high places looking at his cards. The crowd watching the duel gasped as Joey explained. Even Rex was outraged to hear that his opponent was cheating. At first, Esper was nervous, but he kept calm and told Joey he was being absurd. Silently, he whispered into his receiver and told his brothers to read the cards right.
But that would never happen. Mokuba came to the roof and found Esper's brothers. He heard from his own brother that Esper was cheating and had help beating his opponents. Kaiba assigned Mokuba as the tournament commissioner, giving him the job to make sure all competitors were obeying the rules and not going through great lengths to break them. "Your brother will never duel in this town again," Mokuba said, taking the binoculars.
The boy he swiped the binoculars from spoke up. "We've learned our lesson. Please give us another chance."
"Our brother's not doing it for the dueling glory, he's doing it for us," said the young brother with the receiver. The boys explained their reasons for their psychic hoax to Mokuba. Their family came from the carnival and was often made fun of. Every day after school, bullies ganged up on Esper's younger brothers and picked on them. But bullies would show respect even to a great duelist. So Esper Roba decided to become a great duelist to keep the bullies from picking on his brothers. It would only stay that way as long as he kept winning duels and his brothers did everything to make sure he would keep winning even if it meant breaking the rules.
Mokuba's heart went out to the boys as he listened to their story. It made him reflect on his younger years when his big brother protected him from bullies. Even so, Mokuba couldn't ignore his responsibilities as commissioner. But the boys promised they wouldn't give Esper any more information on his opponent's cards. Mokuba saw Yami and Emily and wondered if they had been watching all along. He thought that they would let them go and they seemed like they learned their lesson. "This is your last chance," Mokuba softly warned. "If he cheats again, it's no more Mr. Nice Guy." Hearing that, Esper's brothers cheer and agree to keep their promise. "Big brother stories get me every time," Mokuba sighs, rubbing the back of his head and blushing.
Esper didn't hear his brothers through his receiver and wondered what was going on. Because of that, he decided to drop his ESP act and duel with his skill. He even said he could still win even without his ESP. For now, he played a card face down. It was Joey's turn again. He played a card face down, then summoned Alligator's Sword and attacked Esper directly, lowering his life points down to 1440. Joey knew that if he attacked Esper directly with his Swordsman, he would win, but Esper wasn't willing to give Joey that opportunity. He revealed his hidden card Mind Control and used it to control the Swordsman of Landstar. Joey knew what this was about. Because his two monsters had the same number of attack points and if Esper used his card the first time Joey attacked, the result would end in a stalemate. So Esper waited until Joey attacked the second time not just to save himself, but to sacrifice the monster.
By sacrificing Joey's Swordsman of Landstar, Esper was able to summon his most powerful monster. It was a machine-type warrior named Jinzo. Not only did it have 2400 attack points, but it also had the ability to destroy trap cards in play. This was bad news for Joey because the card he had face down on the field was a trap and now it was gone; making Alligator's Sword vulnerable to attack. To end his turn, Esper equipped Jinzo with the magic card Amplifier. Now Jinzo's attack points were raised by 500. By attacking Alligator's Sword, Joey lost 1400 life points.
Joey's traps were rendered useless, but he was still allowed to use magic cards. And he was about to try his luck with a magic he trusted for a long time. He played Baby Dragon and Time Wizard together. Esper Roba was familiar with this effort, but told Joey it wouldn't be enough to help him. Nonetheless, Joey gave the Time Roulette a spin. The arrow landed on a time machine and Baby Dragon transformed into Thousand Dragon. Joey was looking forward to seeing what effect the time magic would do to Jinzo, but was shocked to see that nothing happened. It turned out that Jinzo's armor was made from a combination of adamant and titanium that would not age, rust, or corrode for thousands of years. Jinzo destroyed Thousand Dragon with its Cyber Energy Shock and brought Joey's life points down to 700. After that, Jinzo received 300 attack points from the Amplifier.
Joey was beginning to feel like his luck had run out. There wasn't a monster strong enough in his deck to stand against Jinzo and he had nothing left to defend himself with. Joey drew his card and played Scapegoat and four lamb tokens appeared on the field. It was Esper's turn again. He summoned a monster called Reflect Bounder to join Jinzo. Esper Roba had the perfect shield and sword. Any monster that tried to attack Reflect Bounder would end up destroying itself and Jinzo would continue to grow in strength with its Amplifier. It had 3200 attack points now.
Joey lost two of his tokens to Esper's monsters. Esper continued to torment Joey and tell him to surrender. Joey was thinking about taking Esper's word and quitting until he heard Téa's voice. Joey lifted his head and saw her in the audience with Yugi's grandfather. They were looking for Yugi until Téa got a call from Tristan and told her to find Joey instead because he was watching the duel with Serenity. Téa gave Joey the message and reminded him that his sister believes in him.
Hearing Téa's words of encouragement and mentioning his sister's name helped Joey to remember what he was fighting for. He stood up straight and drew his card. He had one last turn to change the game. He placed his hand on his card and prayed for the Heart of the Cards to see him through. It was actually going to be more about faith than luck now. The card he drew was Roulette Spider, a magic card that could help Joey win or lose. For the price of half of Joey's life points, the Spider attached itself to Jinzo and brought it to the center of the field. A roulette web appeared on the field. The move would work like this: Jinzo would spin around and destroy whatever it pointed to; a monster or a player. That was the risky part. But Joey believed and was going to take his chances.
Jinzo spun around for a long time. Esper was really nervous and felt like he was more at risk than Joey was. Losing the duel wouldn't just mean losing a locator card or his rarest card, but his respect as a duelist. That meant that his brothers were also at risk. If Esper lost, his brothers would become the victims of bullies again. Finally, he told his monster to stop. Jinzo's spinning slowed down and it finally stopped and pointed at Reflect Bounder. It attacked with its Cyber Energy Shock. Reflect Bounder absorbed the attack and reflected it back at Jinzo before it was destroyed. Because Jinzo had 3200 attack points and Reflect Bounder had 1700 points, the damage came to 1500 life points; more than enough to defeat Esper Roba.
Seeing him on his knees, everyone in the audience begins saying sarcastic remarks about Esper's psychic act. Joey walked up to Esper and admitted that it was a tough duel, but his opponent played well. But Esper wouldn't accept Joey's kindness or defeat. He just stayed on the ground whining about his concern for his brothers.
Then Esper's four brothers appeared and congratulated him. They weren't sad or angry at their big brother for his loss and agreed with Joey that he played an awesome duel all on his own. It didn't matter to any of them that their big brother lost because he would always be their hero no matter what. That made Esper happy to hear them say that.
"Here," Esper said, presenting his locator card and Jinzo to Joey. "You deserve these. I'm sorry I cheated. You beat me fair and square, and next time we duel, I'm playing totally legit."
"I'll hold you to that," Joey said and began walking. He stopped for a minute. "You know, we're a lot alike, Esper. You've got your brothers and I've got my sister. And we're always there to support each other when we need to. And with that, nobody loses." And Joey and Esper went their separate ways.