Justice is Served

Fifty feet above the duel, a bright light emerged, however the duelists could not see it. Walking onto thin air from the Dimension of Light, Illeya and Mateo appear, and Mateo looks down at the ground with wide eyes. Illeya chuckled. "You are safe here. Think of this like an overlapping of the two dimensions. You are both on Earth, but also in the Dimension of Light. Many call this the Plane of Sight. Look, down below at the duel at hand."

Mateo looked down, and gasped as he saw that there was a Duel of Darkness in front of Yusei's house. He couldn't see the other duelist, but he recognized the left-handed Shiho on the other side of the duel field. "Shiho! What the hell are you doing?"

"He can't hear you. This overlapping allows us to see into this dimension, but we cannot physically affect it." Illeya replied. "Currently, the Darkness believes you to be too feeble to fight back, and that you can be easily be defeated. Shiho, here, challenged this Dark Duelist to a duel in hopes of winning and saving your life."

"Regardless. Shiho shouldn't be dueling. This isn't his fight."

"Au contraire. This is just as much his fight as it is yours."

"What do you mean?"

"Were you under the impression that there were no other beings as powerful as the Crimson Dragon?" Illeya pondered. "Why do you think he bears a Mark of the Dragon, almost identical to yours, but glows in azure blue."

"There are other Dragons like that?"

"There is one other. And you will find him soon enough. But regardless, your friend duels down there." Illeya sighed. "And all we can do is stand and watch.

"There's nothing you can do to stop me! Ha ha ha ha!" He pointed at Shiho's monster. "Poison Emperor! Use Arsenic Sword Slash on Azurian Grand Prosecutor!"

The Poison Emperor drew one of its poison coated swords and launched at the Grand Prosecutor, slicing it in half, causing it to explode into shards of holographic pieces and shooting a force of energy towards Shiho. "Aaaaaaugh!"

Shiho: 3100 LP-2200 LP

"Wait, is he speaking Japanese?" Mateo asked, and she nodded. "Unless Shiho understand Japanese, he's in way over his head."

"How so?"

"In Duel Monsters, you have to state the abilities of cards that have immediate effects or effects that activate under a condition of battle. That's the rules." Mateo explained. "By speaking Japanese, that guy down there is following the rules in such a way that allows him to have the element of surprise without technically being considered cheating."

"Can you understand Japanese?"

"Damn right, I can. But that's only because when I was growing up, I met and stayed with a lot of people." He replied. "One of them was this lovely Japanese family, they taught it to me. And if I'm not mistaken, that voice sounds like the missing Japanese ambassador, Sasuke Nakahara."

"If you want to keep playing the game cheaply, then fine!" Shiho drew a card from his deck. "I summon Azurian Bailiff! And because I've summoned him in attack mode, I can use his attack mode special ability, which allows me to select one monster you control, and prevent it from attacking! Now go! Lock him up!"

The Azurian Bailiff held its hands out on front of them, and made a gesture of closing a sliding door and locking it. On the other side of the duel arena, the Ambassador watched as a large iron cage formed around the Poison Emperor, preventing it from attacking on its next turn. "Now that your monster's been impounded, it's time for me to attack! Since your Poison thingy doesn't completely leave the field, that means he can't attack on the next turn! And since your monster's attack is one 1300, my Bailiff has more than enough attack to wipe it out! Attack!"

"Shiho, no!" Mateo called, realizing what was about to happen. "It's no use!"

Azurian Bailiff launched several projectiles at the Poison Emperor, causing it to explode. Still, however, the Ambassador's Life Points were unscathed, and the Bailiff was coated in poison. Nakahara started to laugh. "Did you really think it would be so simple? True, my monster is still locked behind your iron cage, but it will still drain your monster's attack away and temporarily give it to my monster!"

"Yeah, yeah, talk as much as you like." Shiho grunted. Looks like his monster definitely has a special ability that negates damage. Like before, he didn't discard or activate any other cards to stop the damage. While unfair, what he's doing isn't technically cheating. It's just encrypting his cards so that I can't counter act them.

"It's my turn! And during my standby phase, my Poison Emperor reforms to the field, draining half of your monster's attack!" The Ambassador pointed to the poison splatter that seeped off the Bailiff, draining half of its energy in the process, as the Poison Emperor reformed behind the iron gate. "Luckily for you, my monster cannot attack. But this one can. I summon the Legendary Six Samurai – Kizan!"

"Uh oh."

"Attack Azurian Bailiff!" Legendary Six Samurai – Kizan drew his sword and charged, obliterating the Azurian Bailiff, and sending a wave of energy into Shiho.

Shiho: 2700 LP-1700 LP

"Damn it! Looks like I've got no choice!" Shiho pressed a button and extended his arm outward. "I activate the trap card Unlawful Detainment! This card can only be activated when a monster I control was destroyed. It lets me switch the battle position of the monster that attacked, and then I can summon the destroyed monster from out of my graveyard! So come back to me, Azurian Bailiff!"

Nakahara growled as Shiho's monster returned to the field. "Fine. I'll just destroy it again! Remember, because my turn is ending, my Poison Emperor is freed from the iron cage! And he's got 2300 attack points!"

To prove his point, he pointed at the iron cage as it vanished. Shiho gulped. Azurian Bailiff could lock up that monster again, but then he would just summon another monster to destroy my Bailiff, preventing me from keeping it locked away! What would Mateo do?

"It's my turn! I draw! And my first action this turn is to find your poison thingy in contempt and lock him away for another turn!" Once again, an iron cage formed around the Poison Emperor, but the Ambassador chuckled. "You got something to say?"

"All you do is hide behind your law based deck. But newsflash for you, the law was made to be broken!"

"Yeah, yeah. Bailiff! Destroy Kizan!" After several of the Bailiff's projectiles strike him, Kizan is destroyed. "Ha!"

"Shiho, don't get cocky."

"It's my turn! On this turn, I believe I will set this card facedown. And that will be all I can do for this turn."

"Looks like I might have you on the ropes now! All I have to do is find a way to destroy that poison thing once and for all!" Shiho shouted ecstatically. "It's my turn! I draw!"

"And I activate the Skill Tax trap card! This card causes you to lose 300 life points to activate a monster's effect!"

"I activate Azurian Bailiff's special ability!" Shiho shouted in confidence. "I'm gonna lock your monster up for another turn!"

Shiho: 1700 LP-1400 LP

"Wait, what? How did I lose Life Points?"

"This isn't going well for Shiho. At this rate, he's not gonna last for long."

"Regardless, all we can do is stand and watch." Illeya replied sadly.

"This isn't fair! How do I fight back when I don't know what's coming for me?"

"It's my turn! I set one card facedown and end my turn!"

"My turn! I can't risk using Bailiff's special ability again. I'll have to aim for some defense." Shiho decided. "So in that case, I switch my Azurian Bailiff to defense mode!"

"Good, Shiho. That's smart. Now just ride this next turn out, and you should be fine."

"You don't seriously think that I will allow you to hold off my assault with a measly defense monster, do you?" Nakahara laughed maniacally. "I activate the spell card Stop Defense! This forces your monster to be placed into attack mode! And since you weren't willing to shell out the Life Points to keep the Poison Emperor trapped, he can now lay siege to your monsters!"

"Oh, no, Shiho!" Mateo cried out as the Poison Emperor drew its sword and destroyed Shiho's Azurian Bailiff, sending a shockwave of energy to hit Shiho and causing him to cry out in pain.

Shiho: 1400 LP-400 LP

"Illeya, there has to be something you can do. I can't sit and watch my friend die." Mateo turned to Illeya. She sighed.

"There may be a way. According to the Ancient Rules, you can't descend from on high or rise from being low into a duel unless you take the role of the combatant. That means that for you to help, you have to take over for Shiho." Illeya replied. "That's the only way to place yourself in that seal."

"Do it."

"As you wish." She closed her eyes, and Mateo started to glow white. In the middle of the duel arena, Shiho picks himself up off the ground as the light hits, and as it subsides, Mateo stands before him. He outstretches his hand towards Shiho. "Give me your Duel Disk."