Author's note: I hope you are enjoying this so far. I thought I had better share something with you now: Since I started this project, I was thinking of maybe making Gohan a Duelist later on in the story. Any feedback on whether I should or shouldn't would be greatly appreciated, and also if I should, what cards do you think I should include? Anyway, on with the story. Please read and review.
Chapter 2: Gohan in Duelist Kingdom
Since the day Yugi finished assembling his Millenium Puzzle, Gohan seemed to notice that things were taking a strange turn. The events Yugi was telling Gohan about indicated to him that the former had actually been making friends with some of his former tormentors, while others were succumbing to some form of punishment. However, what intrigued Gohan most of all was that; somehow, he could sense something or someone else inside the Puzzle. It was something dark, powerful and yet, somehow, he could also sense a great deal of confusion.
The first Gohan got to see of this new presence was during one incident where Yugi's grandfather was abducted. At the time he was just flying to Yugi's game shop to visit him, but when he landed, someone phoned and then he, Yugi and his three friends Joey, Tea and Tristan were off to another location. Once there, Gohan saw something that must have been truly agonizing to Yugi: Solomon Muto was badly injured. Another man, Seto Kaiba, claimed that this was during a Duel with him, but Gohan couldn't see how playing a card game could so badly injure Mr Muto. However, as Kaiba proceeded to deepen the wound by tearing up a treasured card, then Gohan saw, for the first time, the presence inside the Millenium Puzzle take form. At first he was surprised at the effects of this presence taking hold of Yugi: for one he was taller, he was also a lot more confident than Gohan had ever seen him and his hair had undergone a slight change.
The most intriguing part for Gohan was what happened after Yugi, with this new presence having taken over his body, and Kaiba faced off in a Duel Monsters game with the former winning. The presence possessing Yugi unleashed some sort of destructive energy at Kaiba, yet it seemed to do little to no physical damage at all. Gohan was confused; while he had seen many types of energy attacks in his life, from Krillin's Destructo Disk, to the Ginyu Force's attacks, especially Ginyu's body change ability, to Frieza's strange grip that killed Krillin, hell, even using some energy attacks that would seem strange to ordinary people (such as his father's Kamehameha wave), this new attack was something else entirely. He couldn't quite understand why someone would use an attack that didn't cause considerable damage until he questioned Yugi about this, and heard that he crushed the evil in Kaiba's heart.
From there, things got weirder. Gohan was there when a video from the Duel Monsters creator Maximillion Pegasus arrived, stole the soul of Yugi's grandfather and demanded Yugi participate in the Duelist Kingdom tournament if he wants to get Solomon back. Gohan decided that, after the cursed videotape incident, he couldn't just walk away from these strange happenings. Goku, after hearing from Gohan what happened, decided to accompany him to Duelist Kingdom with Yugi not only because these events were interesting, but also because the Androids, whom the Saiyan hybrid from the future warned them about a few years ago, were going to attack soon and they needed to train, but at the same time, they needed to look out for their friend.
They soon, however, hit a bit of a snag. They had no trouble reaching the boat taking the Duelist Kingdom participants to the tournament location, but apparently, they did not have the entry requirements: at least one star chip among other things. Yugi, who was with them when the guards made it clear that they couldn't board, was quite disappointed, but Gohan tells him they'll stay behind. However, neither he nor Goku had any intention of letting Yugi go without their support, so they waited until the ship began its voyage and then flew straight to it. However, when they got there, Gohan could see Yugi and one of his new friends, Joey Wheeler, struggling to stay afloat in the rough sea. He immediately dived in and retrieved them, taking them back aboard the ship. Yugi was quite surprised, and asked why Gohan said he and Goku were staying behind, to which the latter responded "That was just something we said to appease the guards! Did you really think we would just sit back and not help you try to save somebody you love?"
The rest of the trip was quite eventful. Gohan and Goku quite enjoyed meeting Joey, Tristan Taylor and Tea Gardner, as well as playing a sort of hide-and-seek game whenever one of Pegasus's men looked outside the ship in their general direction (they weren't really supposed to be on or near the ship). Yugi also occasionally asked Gohan if he was going to get a Duel Monsters deck, to which he would always reply "I don't think I'm really cut out for that type of thing. Maybe sometime later I might, but I don't think I'd be able to now." Yugi was quite disappointed at this, because he thought, unbeknownst to Gohan, that he would make a great player.
When Yugi, Joey, Tea and Tristan disembarked, they were greeted by Pegasus at the castle on the island. When Gohan and Goku touched down after them, they were greeted by bands of Pegasus's henchmen who wanted to throw them off the island for arriving illegally and not being duelists. Gohan actually found a bit of amusement in beating down everyone who tried to seize "that miniature little punk". Maybe it was his Saiyan blood; maybe it was the fact that these people continuously underestimated him; maybe it was something else but Gohan liked practicing his fighting skills on people who wanted to remove them by force. Eventually, they found Yugi's first duel just in time to see him, or rather the presence inside him, crush the regional champion and Insect card user Weevil Underwood like a bug, and from then on, Gohan cheered for Yugi in his duels in between training with Goku and brawling with another pack of Pegasus's goons too arrogant for their own good.
Things seemed to be proceeding smoothly until Yugi got to the castle and Seto Kaiba challenged him to another duel. Gohan was there when the unknown presence that seemed to have taken to taking hold of Yugi during duels decided to risk the death of Kaiba (who had positioned himself on top of one of the castle battlements) just to win the lousy card game. Gohan was shouting at Yugi to try and regain control over his body, arguing that those actions were completely unlike how he would normally respond, despite him having Saiyan blood. While Yugi did manage to regain control, Gohan could tell he was quite shaken by what he had almost done. The duel was lost, and so too was Yugi's will to duel. Gohan guessed that Yugi was probably deeply traumatized by the malevolence exhibited by whatever lived inside the Millennium Puzzle, but he knew this: Yugi was getting far too despondent. Proof of this was how he showed his tail: Gohan could see how Yugi usually hid his tail right underneath his belt due to there being a bit of a bulge around his waistline, and now it was gone, leading Gohan to believe that the tail was just hanging down in his pants as it still wasn't visible.
Yugi eventually regained his motivation due in part to one Mai Valentine, and with that, he, she, Gohan, Goku, Ryo Bakura (whom they had recently met on the island), Joey, Tea and Tristan were ready to enter the Duelist Kingdom castle and the semi finals. It went relatively smoothly until Yugi's duel with Pegasus, against whom he had to fight to release his grandfather's soul. It was later on in the duel that Gohan sensed something else quite intriguing. Significant as it was, it was not the fact that Pegasus could somehow generate some sort of malevolent energy of more or less the same sort as the spirit inside the Millennium Puzzle. No, what intrigued Gohan the most was, not long after Pegasus surrounded both him and Yugi in a sphere of this dark energy, he sensed something that hadn't happened since the battle with Frieza on Namek. The dark wall partly disappeared and revealed Yugi grunting quite a lot, calling up lots of energy, his hair rising and flashing gold, and generating a golden aura around himself. This continued for a few minutes until Yugi's blonde locks were pointing toward the sky, the spiky portion of his hair also ascending with only the 5 big spikes of it could be seen, and it remained golden for a minute longer, but then, the golden aura vanished, Yugi's hair went back to normal and the dark energy enclosed him again. Gohan immediately asked Goku if that was what he thought it was, and was surprised to find out it was true: Yugi had become a Super Saiyan.
Gohan and Goku joined the efforts of Tea, Tristan and Joey to try and reach Yugi, and, unbeknownst to the two of them, they actually helped blind Pegasus' Millennium Eye. After the duel ended, Yugi asked Gohan about what happened to him, to whom Goku replied: "Well kid, you have become a Super Saiyan. I am also one" and then transformed into his Super Saiyan form, with similar effects happening to him.
"But Goku, how did I become like this?" Yugi replied, still confused.
"Explain what happened inside that sphere of energy, and maybe I can enlighten you."
"Well, Pegasus had taken the duel to the Shadow Realm, and my body couldn't survive it, but there was only one thing on my mind: I needed to survive and release Grandpa's soul. Then something just started burning violently inside me. I couldn't tell what it was, I thought maybe the Millennium Puzzle was helping me, but it felt like this burning sensation, this… flame, was coming from inside me. All I could feel while that flame was burning was determination, and lots of anger. A lot of that anger was at Pegasus for stealing Grandpa's soul."
"Well, there you have it Yugi. The power to become a Super Saiyan comes in response to a need, not a desire. You were put in a situation where you couldn't survive, but you needed to survive to carry out a greater cause, and that triggered your transformation. It will still take a while to master, but you're well on your way there," Goku told him.
He and Gohan stayed with Yugi as he went searching for Pegasus, as he received the prizes from one of the assistants and as he returned to Domino city and saw his recovered grandfather. They only left for Mount Paozu to resume training after an incident where a girl named Rebecca Hawkins attacked Yugi for "stealing" a card.