Yu-Gi-Oh!
Duels of the Actillian
Episode Ten
Beings of the Shadows
Previous from Last Episode
"Good game pal," Joseph replied. "Duel you again some other time?"
"You know it," Dan smirked. "I want to beat you without getting any second chances."
"Yeah, I still want to face your zombies," Joseph said with a grin. "So as of right now, we're rivals."
"Wait, I thought you're rivals with Seto?" asked Dan.
"We're not, he doesn't duel for fun anyways, unless he gets something out of it," Joseph said.
"Okay, we're rivals," Dan said.
Then a sudden thought cross his mind, "Wait a second, what time is it?"
Dan merely looked up at the sky, "Probably forty minutes after midnight."
"Aw crud, I'm late!" he yelled, and instantly runs off. "See ya tomorrow." He runs off, heading to the Kame Shop.
Dan laughs as he watches him, before turning to walk away, vanishing into the shadows of the night.
Episode Ten
Beings of the Shadows
Mr. Moto yawns as he headed into the kitchen, was going to make breakfast since it is morning. Till he realize one thing, "Oh, he's probably sleeping outside the door. Best let him in." He leaves the kitchen and headed to the front door.
He opens the door and takes a look outside and felt the cool breeze of the morning air. "Joseph? Are you there?" he asked, seeing no sight of him.
"I'm right here," said his voice, which came from inside the house.
Mr. Moto gasped in shock, instantly turned around and headed back inside. Then he saw Joseph standing in there, in school uniform and backpack on his back. He was standing in the living room, looking at the small old man.
"H-How did you get in here?! I had locked the doors last night," Mr. Moto said, almost yelled.
Joseph merely shrugged, "Your backdoor was unlocked, locked it for you when I got in."
Mr. Moto looked confused, "That can't be; I made sure all the doors were locked."
"Maybe you forgotten, unless of course someone else unlocked the door after you did," Joseph replied, crossing his arms.
"Hm, maybe my grandson unlocked it for you," Mr. Moto said. "And it's time for him to wake up," he then heads towards the hallway.
"Well I'm off to school," Joseph spoke as he headed to the front door to get his shoes on.
Mr. Moto stopped and turned to look at him, he asked, "You're going this early?" It is early morning after all.
"Early bird catches the worm. And I feel quite energetic from the duel I had last night," Joseph said with a smile, he got his shoes on.
"Knew that was the reason for you being late, how was it?"
"Well, I lost to one great duellist who goes by the name, Necro Masquerade," Joseph replied.
"The zombie pro duellist?" asked Mr. Moto, sounded surprised from hearing it. "I heard he was quite strong, didn't thought he was that strong."
Joseph looks to the old man, he asked, "What do you mean?"
"Well, considering the rank of duelling. My grandson is the King of Games, so he's at the top. Then there are others who would fall in rank two to five. You and Seto are rank two, two of a very few who are expert pros."
Joseph grins, being called an expert pro, "Thanks for the compliment."
"So in ranks, the Necro fellow was rank three, same as Wheeler. But by defeating you, that gave him a chance to be in rank two."
"Aw, poor Wheeler, stuck in rank three," Joseph chuckled, but then became curious. He asks, "Are Tristan and Tea duellists as well?"
"They duelled a few times, but by duellist ranks, their ones who are in rank five," Mr. Moto replied, rubbing his beard with his right hand.
A sudden thought came to mind, so he asked, "Say, how did you know about the ranks?"
"On the internet, there is a site called Duellist Ranks, which was made by Mr. Kaiba himself. It holds duellist bios and level of stars and shows what their rare card they hold," he replied.
Hearing that instantly reminded Joseph of Battle City registration episode, but he became confused on one thing. "It shows duellist bios huh? What's my bio? I don't recall putting one up."
"Actually you did," Mr. Moto said, further confusing the traveler. "When you got your duelling disk, did you put your name in it?"
Joseph recalled after trying it on, before any duelling is allowed, it had a small computer thing to put in a name. He put in Joseph Hikari, and had assumed the purpose was for that if found, people would know who owns it. "I was wondering about that, why?" he asked.
"Well, by registering your name into it, the people who work for Kaiba who watch the duels, record them and rank them on the site," Mr. Moto said. "The whole point is for the duellists to try to rise up in the ranks, make themselves better and find those who they could duel. And of course, the one who has the bio has the right to change it."
"Interesting," Joseph replied. 'Is it possible that Seto knows who Necro Masquerade's real identity?' he asked to himself in thought, after thinking that, it felt annoying actually. "I need to check it out sometime, see ya later Mr. Moto."
"Hold on, Yugi is getting ready, so wait your horses," he replied he turns around and headed back into the hallway.
Joseph watches him go, and once he's out of sight, he quietly said, "Teleport." Moment after, he vanish.
"Yugi, are you about ready?" Mr. Moto called up the stairs.
To his answer, the door opens and Yugi was coming down the stairs, wearing his school clothes as well as carrying his backpack. He smiled to his grandpa, "I'm ready grandpa."
Mr. Moto crossed his arms, "Joseph is waiting at the door, and speaking of him, did you let him in last night?"
Yugi became confused, "No, I was asleep the whole night, why?" They walk together, heading to the living room.
"Hm, I must've forgotten to lock the door then," Mr. Moto replied.
"But I saw you lock the front door, did you lock the store door?"
Mr. Moto looks at his grandson in surprise, "Of course I locked that door, and since you saw me locking the front door. How did he get inside when all the doors were locked?"
They came into the living room and see the front door in sight, and saw no one standing at the front door. "Looks like he's anxious to get to school," Mr. Moto said out of annoyance, he turns to his grandson. "Anything special happening today at school?"
"Nope, nothing really," Yugi replied.
Mr. Moto crossed his arms, becoming very suspicious of Joseph. "Well, you best go catch up, have a good day at school."
"I will grandpa, bye," Yugi said as he put on his shoes and leaving out the front door.
Once he's gone, Mr. Moto went to check the front door knob, checking if Joseph somehow locked picked it.
Yugi had arrived to school, joined up with his friends, Joey, Tristan, and Tea. Of course Joey asked where Joseph was, and Yugi assumes he's already inside. So they headed in, and met up with Marik and Ryou at the lockers. And when all six of them came into the classroom, they saw Joseph sitting at his desk, reading a textbook of something.
"Hey man, why are you reading that?" asked Joey, walking over to him with the others.
"Preparing myself for pop quiz," Joseph replied, has his eyes glued to his textbook.
"How would you know there is one today?" asked Tristan.
"I don't, just being prepared. If there isn't a quiz, at least I learned a bit more knowledge."
Tea chuckled, "Smart idea."
Yugi sat down in his desk beside Joseph, and he asked, "Say Joseph, how come you were late last night?"
"Oh, had a duel against Necro Masquerade," Joseph replied.
"Say what?!" Joey yelled in surprise. "You encountered him before I did?!"
Joseph set the textbook down on his desk and looks up at Joey, he asks, "Well it was in the night, and Necro Masquerade is a Necro Duellist. To find a Necro Duellist, look for very dark areas." He then chuckles, "Of course, I didn't knew that when I met him."
"How did you do against him?" asked Ryou.
"Made one small error and lost the duel," Joseph replied, returning to his textbook reading.
"Oh that's too bad, maybe you'll have a chance next time," Marik said, other students were coming in so it was time to sit down in their desks.
Joey sits at his desk, which is in front of Yugi's desk, and he turned around to look at Joseph. He asks, "Did you battle his ace monster?"
Joseph quietly replied, "Which one?"
"Oh please don't tell me he has three Red-Eyes Zombie Dragons," Joey groans.
'So Necro Masquerade's known rare card on that site would be Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon huh?' thought Joseph to himself. "Only saw one, why?"
"Phew," Joey sighed with relief. "Reason why is because I want to show that guy that the living Red-Eyes is a whole lot better than the dead version."
"He did beat my Red-Eyes Ultimate Dragon with that zombie, don't cha know?" Joseph replied, and Joey gawks at him in surprise shock. "Everyone has their likes and dislikes, their own favourites. Besides, that card is one wicked card, and bane to other Necro Duellists out there, I can already see why he's top Necro Duellist."
Joey groans, "Great, now I got a headache."
Kyle and Seto had come in and sat down in their desks, Seto ignoring Kyle while Kyle was waving at the group.
As Joey turned around, Yugi asks, "So how did you get into the house, since all the doors were locked?"
"One of them was unlocked actually," Joseph calmly replied. "Which was confusing though, but I'm quite glad that he left the door unlocked."
"It still confusing, I saw him lock the front door, and he claims he locked the store door," Yugi said.
Joseph got one sweat drop, "Oh, thought that the store door was the front door?"
Yugi was surprised, and now thought of it. It was late night; his grandpa was probably so tired that when he tries to lock the store door, he probably dreamt he did. "Hm," Yugi thinks about it.
The sounds of the bell ringing, signalling the classes to begin. And moment after, the teacher comes into the classroom.
"Now class, time for a pop quiz," said the teacher, giving a smile once she stood at her desk. Simultaneously, all the students groan, while the only ones who didn't were Joseph and Seto. Joseph was grinning, closing his textbook and brings out his pencil.
While so, Yugi and his friends have one thought in mind, 'How the heck did Joseph knew there would be a pop quiz?'
By lunch time, everyone in that class had finished their pop quizzes and handed them in. Then of course, the ones who probably did well were Joseph and Seto. Then at lunch, most students headed to the lunch room.
While Joseph, instead of going to the roof, he headed to the computer room. And once in there, he goes onto a computer, and get to the Duellist Rank site.
"Now let's see these bios," he asked as he saw the site. Then he checks the list of duellists, he wasn't surprised to see well over a thousand registered duellist names.
He finds the search part, and sees he could pick one of five ranks, so he picked rank two. It shortens the list quite a bit, and the names had a group of stars beside them, and by the looks of it, rank two has the stars between seven to ten. And by looks of the list, the top one who has ten stars was Seto Kaiba.
And under Seto Kaiba's name was his name and fake last name, Joseph Hikari, and sees that he has ten stars. Joseph looked surprise a bit; there was also a symbol of how many wins and loss. And ever since he got the duelling disk, he won once against Kaiba, and lost once to Necro Masquerade. Heck he sees that Necro Masquerade's number of stars is ten as well.
"So by defeating Kaiba, I'm instantly registered as ten stars?" asked Joseph, sounded a bit surprised. "And with Necro beating me, he got ten stars too." He then sees that only he, Seto and Necro have ten stars, and all the rest of rank two has either seven to nine stars.
"Now what about my bio?" he asked; he pressed his name with the mouse, and in an instant, a bio of him came on screen. It has his face on it, by the looks of it, probably got it from a security cam. "No doubt Seto is the one who made my bio." He also sees that the rare card that shows with his bio is Five-Headed Dragon.
Under his name, he sees the age, says 19. "Good guess on his part," he said, and looks under it, seeing the height, saying 6'03". "It's 6'04" you moron," Joseph said in annoyance and made the quick change on that, typing in the numbers. Then sees the information, and he quietly read it to himself, "Joseph Hikari is an expert duellist who has beaten Mr. Kaiba with his first time use of the duelling disk. He is also the long lost older brother of Mr. Kaiba, and is attending Domino High school at the moment. He also has a bit of amnesia."
Joseph looked very annoyed, "Alright, time for a complete change here." He then erases the information, and typed in his own. After he finished writing his own information, he read it quietly to himself, "Greetings, I am Joseph Hikari, I am an exchange student from Canada, and will be heading back after my month time here in Domino has ended. So any duellist out there in Domino, know that I am also a temporary guard for the King of Games, in order to get to him, you must get pass me. Good luck in finding me."
"That's much better, for now at least," Josephs said with a grin, saving it. But then feeling curious, he said to himself, "He says he wears a mask, so…" he went to check Necro Masquerade's info, and when it loaded up the bio, image, and card, he sighed, "thought so," Necro's image was shrouded in black smoke with a silhouette of someone's head, pretty much hiding what he looks like.
Then of course with his bio, age and size says their unknown, as for the information. He quietly read it to himself, "I am the Guardian of who sleeps eternal, who dare comes to disturb their rest will fall. Anyone who commits corruption will fall. Peace to gentle strangers, evil doers beware."
Joseph thinks about what it says, than he chuckles quietly, "Joey must be really dense. The ones who sleep eternal are ones who are dead. And the only places where the dead rest would be graveyards. And by the sounds of it, he's a justice bringer. He might as well be the Ghost Rider, but eh." He shrugs, and focus his gaze on Necro's rare card, Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon. He quietly said, "If he has that special zombie field card, then he'll be far stronger."
He exits the bio, than press the X button on one search bar to get out of seven-to-ten star section, returning to the huge list. Thinking about a few things, he types in Domino City to narrow down the list, and it does so.
Seeing it being a big list, he shrugs, "Eh, I'll just write down the names I face, than look them up." And then he log out. "Now to get back to classroom," than he heard and felt his stomach growling for food. He rubs it, "Don't worry, I'll be getting ya a nice cheese pizza after school."
It growled again, and Joseph ignored it as he got up and headed out the computer room.
Chad stood in front of his locker, looking down at his three lackeys with his arms crossed. "Report," he ordered.
The skinny one spoke out, "Boss, we followed him till nightfall, till Larry here revealed we were there."
The fat one groaned, signifying he's Larry, "I didn't see the stick, don't put the blame on me, heck you should put it on Louie, he spoke out."
The small one glared at Larry, he happens to be Louie, "Well we wouldn't need to run if it weren't for you. And you Lee, you pushed Larry which made him step on the twig."
Chad looked annoyed, "Enough of your bickering, now what did you boys learn?"
Lee the skinny one spoke out, "Sorry boss; that punk has mainly been talking to the dweebs."
"Yeah, till we followed him into the park, that time he was with another exchange student, Kyle," said Larry.
"That's when things get weird," said Louie.
"How weird?" asked Chad; waiting to hear what they learned.
"They're crazies!" Larry spoke out loud.
Louie nodded, "Yeah, they talk about strange things, Synchros, XYZs, Animalia, Men in Black, and some other junk. They even think they can do magic."
"Yeah, those two must be insane or something," Lee nodded as well. "They even said like timeline, spirit world, and some guy name Atem or something."
Larry nodded, "And Kyle made fun of him about living with some dragon called De Ragan; he's probably very crazy about one of his cards."
Chad was a bit surprised of hearing the news, "So these two should be in a mental institute, or they're just retards. Now, did you see what deck he uses?"
Each lackey groan and lower their heads in shame, and Lee spoke, "No, we didn't see his whole deck. We saw his ace though."
"He uses Five-Headed Dragon," Larry spoke out.
Chad looked surprised and smiled, "The Five-Headed Dragon, the strongest dragon monster." He imagines wielding such a deck, he slowly grins, than he looks to his lackeys. "Okay boys, now for the next phase, go steal his deck, and make sure he doesn't come to school tomorrow. I want him gone, but bring me his deck."
"Yes boss," each lackey saluted with a smile.
Hours later, by the end of the day, the students got their quizzes back and saw their scores. Seto being the obvious student with a 100%, while Joseph and Kyle got above 95%. Yugi, Tristan, Tea, and some of the students are in the 80s percentage, while Joey and few lucky ones managed to get above 50%.
And right now, Joseph was getting his shoes on, same as Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Tea Kyle and Seto had already left. So did Ryou and Marik, so as he put on his shoes, he listened.
"So what are you doing for today, Yugi?" asked Joey, looking to his buddy.
"Not sure Joey," Yugi replied.
"You know the best thing for you to do, Yugi," Tristan said with a smile, causing everyone to look to him. "You and Joseph having a duel."
"That sounds like a great idea," said Tea, grinning.
"Sure," Yugi said as he turned to Joseph, "if it's alright with you."
But suddenly there was a loud stomach growl, most of the gang look to Joey. He waved his hands in front of him as he said, "That wasn't me!"
"That was my stomach," Joseph groans as he rubs his belly.
"Did you skip lunch?" Joey asked, and Joseph nodded.
"You shouldn't do that," Yugi said.
"I was planning to go buy a large cheese pizza for supper," Joseph said.
"PIZZA!" yelled both Tristan and Joey, both of them smiling. Joey spoke out after, "Can we join ya?"
Joseph merely shrugged, "Sure, if you want too. But you're paying for your own drinks."
"Thanks, you're a real pal," Joey grins and pat's Joseph's shoulder with his right hand.
"What are we waiting for, let's go!" said Tristan. "First pizza, and then your and Yugi's duel!"
"Uh, can we postpone the duel till this weekend, I prefer to do a bit of shopping today," Joseph asked, looking to Yugi.
"Oh okay, sure," Yugi replied, he looked confused and he asked himself in thought, 'Why does most duellists who come to challenge, and yet Joseph wants to wait longer?'
"How come not tomorrow?" asked Tea.
"I have a date," Joseph replied, the group started to walk, headed to the exit of the school grounds.
"With who?" asked Tea; wondering who it is.
"He has a date with Ella," Joey said before Joseph could mention it.
"With her?!" said Tristan, Yugi, and Tea at the same time, they were very surprised.
Tristan shook his head and looks to Joseph, he said, "Dude, you're going to need all the luck you can get. One wrong move and like all the other guys before you, you're going to the hospital."
"Joey already mentions that," Joseph replied, kept on walking. The group followed, they walk together as they left school grounds, having a conversation.
While the three lackeys appeared, they looked around the corner, looking at their backs. Then they slowly began to follow.
Hidden within the shadows of a very dark room somewhere in the city, several beings stood, conversing with each other. Each of them wore black hooded trench coats with black boots and gloves. There were many of them, ranging in height of four feet to six feet and five inches tall. While in the far back, four beings that aren't covered in cloaks are hidden in the darkest of shadows.
Then one of the cloaked beings called out, "Silence, our Lord is about to talk to us."
In an instant, all the black coated ones fell silent and stood tall. Then on a wall right in front of them, a big TV screen came on, and a face of a masked being, a mask that is half white and half black, while also covered in a black hood, only faint small red hairs stick out.
"Sir!" each black coated being said in unison as well as saluting.
"My warriors, our time is nearing at hand," said the masked one. "But now, a new player came into the mix, a possibility that this being will help us complete our goals, or try to ruin us."
Then there were sounds of typing, than on the screen, the masked being was moved to the left as a picture came on screen. A face of Joseph Hikari, and the masked being spoke, "This duellist has successfully defeated Seto Kaiba, meaning he is one of very few who will try to thwart us, or aid us."
"What do you want us to do, my Lord?" asked one of the cloaked beings.
"My Titans," said the masked one, now focusing his gaze upon the four who are hidden within the shadows. "You four shall continue with the main plan. While all of you, my warriors. I want you all to find this Duellist and challenge, defeat him a duel. When he loses, he will join us, than he will be a valuable asset to take down the King of Games. Now go, my warriors, and do not fail me."
"Sir!" yelled the dark coated members as they saluted, than when the TV screen went off, now covering the whole room in darkness. The warriors headed to the doorway, headed out of the room.
Soon only four beings remained, the four Titans. Their bodies hidden in the shadows, than moments after, disappeared completely.
What is Joseph planning to get? Will Chad's lackeys succeed with their goal? And who's this Masked One and his forces? Find out next time on YuGiOh! Duels of the Actillian!