All the Duel Rangers were back at Duke's place, when suddenly Mai got a call from her sister.
"Hello, Mai." A dull and moody female voice sounded from Mai's phone. "This is your sister, Maria Valentine. Meet me at House of Valentine on Ventura Boulevard, I have got something I want to discuss." Maria hung up.
"Listen everyone." Mai announced. "My sister wants me to meet her at the House of Valentine, so we can't keep her waiting."
"I didn't know you had a sister!" Tea was amazed.
"I never really liked her that much." Mai began to remember how she was jealous of her sister. "My family was very wealthy as the owners of the House of Valentine, the headquarters of the Valentine fashion brand, but they seemed to only care about Maria and never much cared about me." Mai remembered how her sister got whatever she wanted. "After my parents died in a car crash, Maria was left in charge of the House of Valentine, leaving me all alone until I discovered Duel Monsters."
"Wow, that's interesting." Tea was fascinated by Mai justifying her disdain for her sister. Everyone got on the bus to meet Maria at the house. When they arrived, Mai knocked on the door. Maria answered, seen with a dull frown expression and black hair matching her black suit that had a white shirt and green tie to boot.
"Hey Mai-Mai, It seems you have grown up since we seen each other." Yugi was confused about why Maria called Mai "Mai-Mai".
"Mai-Mai is a nickname Maria would call me as a kid." Mai explained. "Come, I will show you inside." Maria led the crew inside. They were greeted by the servants, seen wearing purple button down shirts and black pants.
"These are my servants and the security guards of the Valentine House." Maria explained. "Careful, they come equipped with Uzis so you don't want to piss them off." Maria walked everyone through the development room.
"Wow!" Tea looked at the seamstresses hard at work.
"Those must be the Oompa Loompas of fashion!" Joey joked.
"Indeed they are." Maria replied. "My seamstresses are hard at work designing quality items to go on the market." Maria led them to her office, which was a big purple room with a green rug on the floor. Maria's desk had a computer with a purple mousepad, where she would order fabrics from elsewhere and use it to make the designer clothes.
"Maria, what do you have to say about Mai?" Yugi wanted to know.
"What is with you Mai?" Maria was mad at Mai. "You were supposed to be the heir to the Valentine family but you ended up with that band of dweebs!"
"Gee Whiz!" Joey shrieked. "Did Kaiba give you grumpy lessons or something?"
"Believe me, Kaiba has got nothing on me." Maria snarked. "His company is always being hacked or bought out, but no one is worthy of hacking or buying out Valentine, because we are not to be trifled with."
"Maybe the reason is that no one WANTS to buy out Valentine, because they don't see us as worth anything!" Mai lashed out at Maria. "Yugi and Joey taught me the value of friendship because they cared for me, while you are just stuck with that selfish attitude and outdated image of the company! No wonder you run this company into the ground!"
"Enough talk, let's duel!" Mai went to duel her sister in a round room with a piano. Mai was up.
"I play two cards facedown and summon Harpie Lady 1 in attack mode!" Mai announced. "She gives an attack bonus to all Winged Beast monsters on the field, including herself!"
It was Maria's turn.
"I play Raven Lady 1 in attack mode!"
Raven Lady 1
Level 4
Attribute Dark
Type Winged Beast
Attack 1500 Defense 1200
"It has an effect which increases its attack points by 300 when it is summoned, and it also gets the benefit of your Harpie Lady since it is a Winged Beast monster."
"A 2100 attack monster on the first turn?" Joey gasped. "This lady means business!"
"Raven Lady, attack Harpie Lady with Raven's Claw attack!" Mai was down to 3600 Life Points.
Mai was up.
"I activate Rope of Life, which lets me revive my Harpie with 800 additional attack points, meaning it has 2400, so it's stronger than your Raven!"
"Damn!" Maria was scared. "How could she do that?"
"Go, Harpie Lady, attack Raven Lady!" Maria was down to 3700 Life Points. Maria was up.
"I lay two cards facedown, then I summon my Mob Boss Crow to the field, but in order to do that, I have to remove a Winged Beast monster from play, and I choose my Raven Lady!" Maria removed Raven Lady from the game.
Mob Boss Crow
Level 6
Attribute Dark
Type Winged Beast
Attack 2400 Defense 1000
"That's not all it does, it also requires you to pay up some protection rackets each time you lay Spell or Trap Cards facedown, and it's 300 Life Points each!"
"That's terrible!" Tea squealed. "Hang in there, Mai!" Mai was up.
"I can't lay any cards facedown, because if I do, I will lose Life Points." Mai thought to herself. "But I can still play Spell Cards." Mai made her move.
"I play Shameful Burial, which lets me send two cards from my deck to the graveyard!" Mai sent two cards from her deck to the Graveyard. "This activates my Gold Amazon Idol's special ability! If it is sent to the graveyard by a card effect, it is Special Summoned to the field the turn it goes to the graveyard!"
Gold Amazon Idol
Level 2
Attribute Light
Type Fairy
Attack 0 Defense 2200
"That's not all!" Mai announced. "It also lets me Special Summon two Amazons from my deck to the field, and I choose Amazon Map and Amazon Catapult!"
"Ha!" Maria laughed. "What's an old piece of paper gonna do?" Maria was still laughing. "I wouldn't even wipe my ass with that thing!"
"It lets me Special Summon another Amazon as long as it has 1500 or less Attack, and I choose Amazon Reflector!"
Amazon Reflector
Level 4
Attribute Light
Type Spellcaster
Attack 1300 Defense 2300
"Then I sacrifice my Golden Idol to Normal Summon Amazon Pillar!"
Amazon Pillar
Level 4
Attribute Earth
Type Rock
Attack 0 Defense 2500
"Once Amazon Pillar is summoned, normally I would take 2000 points of damage, but thanks to Amazon Reflector, the damage is dealt to you instead, so I turned my own curse into an attack!"
"YEA!" Joey cheered. "You got this, Mai!" Mai gave the thumbs up to Joey. Maria was down to 1700 Life Points.
"There's more where that came from!" Mai was not done. "I use Amazon Catapult to sacrifice Amazon Pillar so it skewers your Mob Boss Crow and deals 300 Life Point damage to you, but thanks to my Pilar's ability, if it is destroyed, normally I would lose 500 Life Points, but thanks to Reflector, the damage is dealt to you!" Maria was all the way down to 900 Life Points.
"All I gotta do now is declare an attack!" Mai began. "Go, Harpie Lady, finish off Maria!"
"Not so fast!" Maria snapped. "I activate Sakuretsu Armor which destroys your Harpie Lady!" Mai's Harpie was down, but she was not out.
"My move." Maria was up. "I activate Call of the Haunted which lets me summon a monster from my Graveyard on the field and I choose Mob Boss Crow! Then I activate Snatch Steal, taking control of your Amazon Catapult." Maria was ready to play her boss monster. "I sacrifice your Catapult and my Mob Boss Crow to summon Raven's Pet Dragon!"
Raven's Pet Dragon
Level 7
Attribute Dark
Type Dragon
Attack 2200 Defense 2700
"Once per turn, I can remove from play three Raven Ladies from my deck, giving my dragon 300 extra attack for every Raven Lady monster removed from the game, so I have four Raven Ladies removed from play, giving my dragon a whopping 3400 attack points!"
"GEEEH!" Joey shrieked. "That dragon's got 3400 attack points!"
"I'll be fine, Joey." Mai reminded Joey.
"Raven's Pet Dragon, turn her Amazon Map into ashes with with Dark Flame Blast!" The map was destroyed. Mai was up.
"I noticed you have no regard for your Raven Ladies, throwing them away like trash just to power up your big dragon." Mai was quick to criticize her sister's strategy, as she had been learning from Yugi.
"They are mere pieces of paper!" Maria lashed back. "They mean nothing to me!"
"As Yugi once said, a true duelist cares about his or HER cards, and does not dump them like her ex boyfriends."
"You tell 'em, Mai!" Joey cheered Mai on.
"Yea, you go girl!" Tristian added.
"Foolish peasants!" Maria was being driven insane. "You know nothing about me!"
"WRONG!" Mai protested. "I know you're a big fraud that cares more about the well being of your fame and fortune and less about what really matters, the people around you." Mai began her move.
"I play Amazon Discovery, which lets me bring back my Amazon Map and I sacrifice my Amazon Map and my Reflector for Amazoness Dragon!"
Amazoness Dragon
Level 8
Attribute Earth
Type Dragon
Attack 2900 Defense 2000
Mai's Japanese OST theme played in the background as Amazoness Dragon was summoned.
"It gains 500 attack for every Amazon monster in the graveyard, which I have five Amazon monsters in the graveyard, so it has 4400 attack points, making it strong enough to win this duel!"
"I still have some facedown cards!" Maria added.
"That is where Amazoness Dragon's other ability comes in." Mai explained. "If I discard my entire hand, all Spell and Trap Cards will be wiped clean from the field, including my own!"
"NOOOO!" Maria shrieked. "This is impossible!"
"Now Amazoness Dragon, attack the Raven's Pet Dragon and win the duel!" Maria's dragon was destroyed, sending Maria's Life Points down to 0.
"I lost." Mai came to comfort Maria.
"It's ok sister, it's just fine." Mai went to the dining hall with Maria. "We will have a banana cream pie together." Mai and her sister went to the dining hall and asked the servants for a banana cream pie. Once the servants got it, they brought it to Mai and Maria.
"Why are we having pie at a time like this?" Maria complained. "Our company is failing, I lost a duel, and I am a failure as a duelist and as a fashion entrepreneur."
"No you aren't." Mai cut a slice of the pie for Maria. "Besides, the point of the pie was to teach you a lesson."
"What's that?" Maria was unsure what a pie had to do with anything.
"When I met Yugi, he came from an Egyptian background, and I learned from him by trusting in the value of friendship and respecting my cards." Mai explained. "Joey taught me to duel fairly and never cheat." Mai carved a slice for her. "Tea taught me the value of sisterhood, and Tristian taught me the value of true strength.
"All of this sounds like you talking about your friends, what does this have to do with me?" Maria was concerned.
"It is important to draw wisdom from a variety of sources, including other people and other cultures." Mai concluded. "If you draw wisdom from just your own ego, your image becomes rigid and stale."
"I haven't thought about it like that before." Maria began to eat the pie.
"The different peoples and cultures of this world are many slices of the same pie, many parts of the same whole." Mai explained. "Don't think of them as separate, because they are not." Mai took a bite of the pie. "Oh and that is one delicious pie."
"Thanks for the insight, Mai." Maria held her hand to shake with Mai. "Let's eat this pie together, because we are the Valentine Sisters, and nothing is holding us back!" They began eating together in peace, happily bonded as sisters and friends.