"I attack you directly and that's game," Anzu crossed her arms.
"I lost again!" Katsuya groaned.
"Man, you're horrible at this!" Hiroto laughed.
"I don't get it…I built my deck with the strongest monsters I had!"
"You can't win with just strong monsters, you need spells and traps to support them!" Sugoroku frowned at his pupil, "We can do this again later, it's time for the Duel Monsters finals!"
"I heard that they got some really good participants this year!" Yugi entered the room with snacks and soda in hands.
"Why didn't you join? You're technically the reigning champion, right?" Katsuya had just finished pocketing his cards.
"I made a decision, I'll only enter a tournament again to face him."
"Kaiba?" Anzu asked.
"Yeah…I want to face him properly. I went to visit him yesterday and he's still catatonic. They got the best medics in the country treating him, but Mokuba is losing hope. It's been a few months, after all."
Katsuya gritted his teeth, "I don't care! I'll never trust that psycho!"
Yugi frowned at his friend, but said nothing. Soon, the duel started.
"Welcome to the Duel Monsters national finals!" The presenter said, "For the thousands of Duel Monsters fans in the country, this is one of the most important days in the year! Out of the 200 participants that managed to get in this tournament, only two remain! But only one champion will take the trophy home tonight!"
The door opened, revealing two teenagers, "The participants arrived! From the east, we have Insector Haga! A fourteen years old insect specialist! And from the west, we have the dinosaur specialist, the fifteen years old Dinosaur Ryuzaki! May the game begin!" The duelists entered the duel box and started shuffling each other's decks.
"Hey, Yugi. Who'll win? Bug brain or dino-boy?" Katsuya asked his friend.
"I don't know. Haga is famous for his many tactics, but dinosaurs are some of the strongest monsters around."
The duel went for a few turns, Ryuzaki quickly overwhelmed Haga with his powerful monsters, "Now, by banishing two dinosaur monsters from my graveyard, I can special summon the Ultimate Conductor Tyranno!" A tyrannosaurus with electricity running through its body roared on the field.
"Wow, bug-brain got no chance," Katsuya said.
"I wouldn't be so sure," Anzu frowned, Haga didn't seem fazed by the powerful monster.
Haga laughed.
"What's so funny?!" Ryuzaki frowned.
"I activate from my hand, my Parasite Paranoid's effect! I'll equip it on your dinosaur! Turning it into an insect type!" A worm came out of the monster, wrapping itself around its target.
"So what?" Ryuzaki cringed at the grotesque effect.
"That's not all! I'll activate my quick-spell, Cocoon of Ultra Evolution!" A golden cocoon appeared on the field, "By tributing an insect monster with an equip card from either side of the field, I can special summon an insect monster ignoring its summoning conditions from my deck! Say goodbye to your lizard!" The monster disintegrated, "I'll summon the Metamorphosed Insect Queen!" The new monster crawled out of the cocoon.
"I end my turn!" Ryuzaki closed his eyes in acceptance.
"I'll attack you directly! Victory is mine!" The insect queen obliterated Ryuzaki's life points, earning Haga his victory.
"Wow, I didn't see that coming!" Katsuya said as the rest of the group nodded.
The presenter lifted the winner's hand, "And now, to give you your trophy and prize, we have a special guest! The creator of Duel Monsters himself, Pegasus J. Crawford!" The doors opened, revealing a young man with long hair carrying a trophy.
"Congratulations, you're also invited to the international tournament that my company will be sponsoring!" Pegasus said in perfect japanese.
Sugoroku turned the television off, "Well, can't say i'm surprised," He left the room.
"Me neither!" Yugi said, "Haga has some very good strategies!"
"Man, powerful monsters really can't compare to a good combo! Yugi, Anzu, teach me!" Katsuya grinned.
"Yugi! Someone left a package for you!" Sugoroku returned with a big box in his hands, "There's no name on the return address."
"Weird…" Yugi opened the package, it had a glove, two star-shaped chips and a videotape, "And what's this supposed to mean?"
"Let's watch the tape!" Katsuya put the videotape on the player.
The video started, revealing a familiar face, "Hey! It's that Pegasus-something!" Katsuya pointed out.
"Greetings! I was disappointed that Yugi Muto, the real champion who defeated Seto Kaiba, was not in the tournament. I heard you're very skilled!" Pegasus smiled, "Well, let's get to business, shall we? I want to test your skills! I challenge you to a duel with this recording!"
"A duel against a video record? That's no challenge!" Sugoroku said.
"Build your deck in front of the monitor," Pegasus put his own deck on the table that he was sitting on, "You have five minutes."
"Fine!" Yugi took out his deck and a few extra cards and started building it.
"You're going to do it?" Hiroto frowned.
"I'll take any challenge!" He shuffled his cards, "I'm ready!"
"I assume you're ready, yes? Let's duel for…10 minutes, that's enough time I guess," He set a small timer on his table, "Whoever has more Life Points at the end, wins. I'll take the first turn," Pegasus smiled as the world around Yugi turned black and white.
"What?" Yugi looked around him, "Guys, do you see this too?" They didn't answer, "A shadow game…" Said Dark Yugi as he assumed the body.
"Bingo!" Pegasus smirked, "As I said, I'll take the first turn."
Duel
Yugi: 8000
Pegasus: 8000
Turn 1
"I'll set three cards and end my turn," Pegasus smiled.
Turn 2
"I draw! I'll activate the Magician's Souls effect from my hand! I'll send the Dark Magician from my deck to the Graveyard! Then, I'll send Magician's Souls to the Graveyard to revive the Dark Magician!"
Dark Magician: LVL 7/Dark/Spellcaster/2500 ATK/2100 DEF
"The Dark Magician, huh? That's a good card," Pegasus said nonchalantly.
Dark Yugi frowned, "What's his trick? How is he reading my mind? Or rather, reading my cards?"
"Let me guess…You were going to use the spell Dark Magic Attack to destroy my set cards, am I right?" Pegasus smirked, "That would be very inconvenient, so I'll activate my trap card Bottomless Trap Hole and banish your Dark Magician!" A kind of energy came out of the card into the TV.
"Dark Magician!" That was one of his most reliable cards.
"C'mon! Why so serious? You don't need to glare!" Pegasus put his hand on his chest in an exaggerated way.
"He's mocking me!" Yugi gritted his teeth.
"Go on, Yugi. Time is running," Pegasus smirked.
"Since I control no monsters, I can normal summon Gaia, The Magical Knight with no tributes!"
Gaia the Magical Knight: LVL 7/Light/Warrior/Effect/2300 ATK/2100 DEF
"You're going to use the effect to special summon Curse of Dragon The Cursed Dragon, draw Spiral Fusion and summon The Magical Knight of Dragons, right? Can't have that happening! I'll activate Infinite Impermanence to negate its effects! I'll also activate my third and final trap, Threatening Roar! You can't declare an attack this turn!"
"...I end my turn…" Yugi frowned, "He countered me perfectly!"
Turn 3
"I think now is the perfect time to come clean, I didn't duel you just for fun! If you lose, you'll have to take part in a tournament that my company will host! A tournament to determine who's the true king of the duelists!" Pegasus smiled.
"King?"
"Yes! I wanted Seto Kaiba to join too, but I heard that he's not available…Of course, the winner also wins a big sum of money and another prize even more valuable, but you'll have to find that out."
"Not interested."
"I think you misunderstood something here, Yugi-boy…You don't have a choice! it's not like you can beat me, anyway."
"Make your move, Pegasus!"
"You're no fun…I'll set two cards face down and end my turn."
Turn 4
"I'll normal summon the Artillery Catapult Turtle!" Time was running out!
Artillery Catapult Turtle: LVL 4/Water/Aqua/Effect/1000 ATK/2000 DEF
"I'll tribute it to special summon the Curse of Dragon, The Cursed Dragon from my hand!"
Curse of Dragon, the Cursed Dragon: LVL 5/Dark/Dragon/Effect/2000 ATK/1500 DEF
Yugi added Spiral Fusion to his hand with Curse of Dragon's effect, then summoned Gaia, The Magical Knight of Dragons.
Gaia The Magical Knight of Dragons (Gaia The Dragon Champion): LVL 7/Wind/Dragon/Fusion/Effect/2600 ATK/2100 DEF
Gaia The Dragon Champion: 2600 ATK → 5200 ATK
"I'll destroy the face down on the left!"
Gaia The Dragon Champion: 5200 ATK → 2600 ATK
It was Magic Cylinder.
"I'll attack you directly with my Gaia!"
"I activate my trap card Negate Attack!" Pegasus smirked, "Negating your attack and ending your battle phase!"
"I end my turn," He was in a good position now, he just needed one more turn to cause damage to Pegasus.
Turn 5
Pegasus laughed,"That was a fun duel, Yugi-boy. You're even better than I expected!"
"Stop stalling!" Yugi said.
"Sorry,sorry…it's just a little sad that our game will end this way…I activate my spell card, Hinotama!"
Yugi paled.
"I'll inflict just the extremely low count of 500 damage to you!"
Yugi: 8000 LP → 7500 LP
"Your turn~" Pegasus said in a playful tone.
Turn 6
00:04
Yugi drew his card.
00:03
"Battle!"
00:02
"I'll attack you directly…"
00:01
"With my Gaia!"
00:00
The timer stopped before the attack could land.
Yugi punched the ground, "How did I lose to a recording? What was his trick?!"
"See, Yugi. You will come to my tournament, whether you want to or not! Penalty game!" Pegasus said as a bright white light flooded the room, returning color to the world..
"What happened?" Katsuya looked around, "Gramps!" He noticed Sugoroku lying on the ground with his eyes completely lifeless.
"Grandpa! Pegasus, what have you done?!" Yugi screamed.
"It's time to show you how I've been able to read your hand," He pushed his hair aside, revealing a golden eye in the place of his left eye.
"A millennium item!" Yugi gritted his teeth.
"I can use my Millennium Eye to see into your heart, Yugi-boy!" Pegasus showed a Duel Monsters card with Sugoroku's picture on it, "Meet me in my duelist kingdom, Yugi, and your grandfather will be returned, you should call an ambulance! A soulless body can't take care of itself!" The CEO's image vanished, smiling maliciously.
Katsuya quickly called an ambulance while Anzu ran to get Yugi's mother, Hiroto stayed behind to comfort the short teenager, but his mood didn't improve.
"Morning, guys!" Ryou greeted his friends.
"...Hey…" They sighed.
"What happened?" He asked.
They explained the situation to him, Ryou listened with attention.
"So this 'Pegasus' has a Millenium Item…"
"He not only has one! He ripped his own eye out to shove the item on the socket!" Katsuya cringed, remembering the shiny golden eye on the foreigner's face.
"Maybe if you go to this 'Kingdom' of his, you'll find out the secret behind the items…" Ryou crossed his arms.
"The problem is that we have no idea of where this place is!" Anzu frowned.
"Maybe he'll send the invitations later?" Hiroto said.
"Maybe…I just want to know why he did this, what if he doesn't return my grandpa's soul?"
"Don't get depressed! It won't solve anything!" Katsuya put his hand on Yugi's shoulder and squeezed it lightly.
"I'm not that depressed, but my other self is."
"You learned how to talk with the other Yugi?" Ryou asked.
"Not really, but I can feel his emotions, if that makes sense. He's sad, guilty, angry…it gets overwhelming sometimes but I'm dealing with it just fine."
"The other Bakura talked with me sometimes," Ryou closed his eyes, "He whispered in my ear, tried to convince me that he was just my conscience, tried to influence me…I'm just glad that you don't have to deal with it."
"The other Yugi is nice! He used to be very scary but he mellowed down a lot with time," Yugi smiled.
"Scary is an understatement…he was a psychopath!" Anzu cringed.
"That's not very nice, Anzu," Yugi frowned, the other soul in control of his body, "Just kidding," He smirked, "I…did many things I regret…When I woke up in Yugi's body for the first time, it was confusing…I had no self awareness, I saw myself as just part of Yugi, maybe that's why I remembered everything he did but he had no recollection of when I was on control? Well, it doesn't matter now. I just wanna get Gramps' soul back."
"I wonder if Pegasus knows something about what the Millennium Items are…Both the Ring and the Puzzle have a soul inside them, but the Key doesn't look like it has one…I mean, who even created those things? For what purpose?" Ryou frowned.
Yugi got up, "I need some time alone. I'll be back before class starts," He walked away, lost in his own thoughts.
Dark Yugi stared at the horizon, the roof was a great place to reflect.
What was Pegasus' objective? Was he after the Puzzle? If so, then why make this mockery of a tournament instead of going directly after him? And if he was after the Millennium Items, then why don't go after Anzu's Key too? And why did he never contact Bakura, when he had the Ring for years? Nothing about this made any sense.
He tried to see the good side of this, maybe he would finally get some answers? Who or what was him? The other Bakura talked about them being both spirits, but he didn't have a chance to ask more about this since the Ring disappeared after their RPG. If he was a spirit, then why was he in the Puzzle? And why was Yugi the only person to be able to solve it? Both Yugi's grandfather and father were great with puzzles, even better than Yugi himself, but they never managed to crack it. Was Yugi special in some way? Was he destined to solve it? He felt something in the back of his mind, Yugi was also equally confused.
He heard the door open, he instinctively knew who it was, "I'm surprised you found me so easily. Need something, Anzu?" He asked before turning around.
"I just knew how to find you, I guess the Items really attract each other," She walked to his side, "Worried about Grandpa?"
"Yeah…Why did Pegasus kidnap his soul? Why does he want Yugi in his tournament so much?"
"Maybe he's after your Puzzle?"
"That was what I was thinking, but he probably saw you wearing the Key during our duel, if he's really after the items, why didn't he invite you too?"
"Don't know and don't care, I was going there regardless!" She smiled.
"Why?"
"Did you really think that we would let you go alone? We're all coming with you! Me, Jonouchi, Honda, Bakura…We're not letting you do this alone!"
"I'm not alone, I'm a one-man duo," He smirked.
"Doesn't matter, maybe you and Yugi can do this on your own, but that's not the point! We want to be there too!"
"...Thanks," He smiled. Yugi was also grateful for the support.
"You can keep brooding on the roof, but Yugi needs to go to class! Let's go! We have 3 minutes!"
Dark Yugi returned control of the body to its owner, Yugi ran back to class a little happier than he was in the morning.