Sometimes the point of an AU is to change things around so that they barely resemble canon; but sometimes, it's just as fun to adhere to canon just long enough to completely and utterly change the course of an event we've already seen unfold.

That's the goal with this part, I think.

I'm pretty sure "SAY GOODBYE TO EXODIAAAA!" is one of the most iconic lines of dialogue in Yu-Gi-Oh!

You could argue that losing his win-button combo was vitally important to Yugi's journey as a duelist, and I'd probably agree with you. In fact, I'm pretty sure I do believe that. But, hey, who's to say there isn't anything interesting to be found by going down another route?

What if we let him keep the Forbidden One?

It sounds pretty fun to me.


.


Mokuba was aware of Yugi Mutou, but only tangentially. He was always going on about his favorite games, and half of them were Seto's favorites too. Mokuba knew Joey Wheeler and Tristan Taylor a little better, because of the chaos they regularly brought to gym class; and he knew Téa Gardner because, more often than not, she was the one who reined them in.

None of this explained how it came to pass that he was spending the evening with them, out on the top deck.

"So," Joey was saying, "kid in the sweater-vest is your brother, huh?"

"He is," said Mokuba, bristling purely on instinct. "He's been looking forward to this tournament for over a month now."

"Kinda surprised I ain't heard of him before." Joey had the bearing of a world-weary sage, but Mokuba suspected the older boy knew as much about professional dueling as Mokuba did about particle physics. "Kid's good. Even Yugi says so."

Mokuba supposed, judging by the way Joey said it, that Yugi was the one who'd taught him to play. From the way they all clustered around Yugi, it seemed that this whole crew believed him to be their ticket to victory. Even though Joey was competing, every word from his mouth so far had told Mokuba he didn't expect to win.

Joey's money was on the scene kid with the leather collar.

"Seto . . . hasn't been playing long," Mokuba said, eventually deciding that he didn't know these people—classmates though they were, ostensibly peers—well enough to get into detail about how Gozaburo Kaiba didn't allow any games or toys in his house.

"Actually," Seto came wading into the conversation, "I've been playing since the first printing!" Seto puffed out his chest. "I just . . . haven't really played in many tournaments yet." His face fell for a moment, but then his eyes sparked with furious confidence again. "But that's all gonna change soon!"

Joey was nodding. "Picked a hell of a time to make your debut, little man," he said, spreading his arms out as he surveyed the scene around him. "I mean, look at all this! For a card game. It's wild, man." He laughed quietly to himself.

Something snagged Seto's attention, and he tugged on his brother's arm. "Moku-nii," he said, gesturing. "Look, look, over there." Mokuba looked over where his brother was pointing. "That's Weevil Underwood. One of the youngest champions on the circuit!"

". . . Weevil?" Mokuba repeated, unable to hide a certain disgust.

"It's a stage name," Seto said, rolling his eyes. "No surprise he's here. I bet Rex is gonna be competing, too." The young Kaiba's grin was almost predatory. "I hope I get to play against them. I hope I get to stomp them."

"I'd get in trouble if I had your confidence," Joey noted, and Seto beamed.

Mokuba crossed his arms over his chest. "Don't get it twisted," he said. "Seto gets in plenty of trouble on his own." He reached out and ruffled the boy's hair. "Don't you, kiddo?"

"I have to make sure you're paying attention," Seto said, looking entirely too satisfied with himself. Then he frowned. "What's . . . Weevil doing over there with Yugi Mutou?" He pointed again. "What's Yugi doing? Where are they . . . Moku-nii, what's going on?"

Mokuba's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "He handed some cards over," he said; Mokuba had sharp eyes, sharper than Seto's. "Four of them? Five."

"Um . . ." Seto turned his attention to Joey. "Didn't you say Yugi Mutou has an Exodia deck?"

"Yeah, um," Joey said, nervously. "Yeah, I sure fuckin' did."

Looking back on this moment later, Mokuba had no idea what initially drove him to the absolute insanity that unfolded in the next few minutes. Perhaps it was the fact that Yugi Mutou looked Seto in the eye; he never acted surprised or offended that a little boy was here to play a game, and he'd even apologized for not accepting Seto's challenge.

Whatever it was, it linked Mokuba Kaiba with these people for the rest of linear time.

When Weevil Underwood thrust his spindly little arm out over the edge of the ship and tossed Yugi Mutou's most valuable cards out into the whipping, windswept waves below, Mokuba's first instinct was to do something about it.

"Hey," he said, a little breathlessly, as the cards floated out and down, out and down, toward the water. "Wheeler."

"A'yuh? What's up, Kaiba?"

"You up for doing something really fucking stupid?"

"Hell yes, I am."

So it was that they vaulted over the safety railing of the Maiden's Lullaby and dropped like stupid, stupid rocks into the savage chill of the rolling ocean.