(Third Person's POV)

"So...if I do that, I'll be living inside this hairpin?"

"I believe it's that item that holds your soul similar to how my puzzle holds my own. Therefore, two souls newly exist in one mind, there will be two soul rooms and you'll live in one of the rooms, at least that's how it works with me" He continues to explain.

Yuji smiled at him, thankfully. "Well then, thanks, and see ya..." She was about to do what he explained.

"And Yuji..." The said girl perk up when she heard him call her name, it was just one day and she already missed getting called by her first name. 'This must what he had felt when searching for his name' She thought sadly. "I still have plenty of questions to ask you" The tri-colored-haired spirit of the puzzle reminded her.

"I know" Was the last thing she said before closing her eyes and focusing back on retrieving the real Tea's soul. 'Hope this works out' A bright light emits from the ancient-looking hairpin and the real Tea is back and looks around in bewilderment. "What..what am I doing here? Am I not in Yugi's house?" Then she spotted Yugi, the real Yugi. "Yugi? What happened in the duel between you and Pegasus?" She heads towards him.

"Tea..you don't remember?" Yugi gives her a confused and concerned look.

'"What do you mean 'I don't remember'? Weren't you dueling Pegasus?"

"But Tea...it's been a day since I dueled Pegasus," Yugi said still looking concerned. "Did something happen?

"What?" That leaves her in complete shock and puzzlement. 'Why don't I remember a single thing?'A thought then enters Yugi's mind. 'Could it be...Tea is experiencing the same thing as me?'

Meanwhile, his other self. 'Yuji Ailene... there's something about you that is really odd'

That night...

'Strange..' The girl evidently couldn't find a way to sleep or even lay down, she just sat on her bed, processing everything out. 'It felt like I had a long nap, I just hope I remembered working on burger palooza before I had this little memory loss'

Tea recalls her friends telling her how she acted yesterday in the duel between Yugi and Pegasus, how different her demeanor is, how everyone thinks she became, even smarter than before, and how Joey told her that she overreached puberty seeing how her curves developed so fast. That comment irked her and the blond earned a smack.

'Could there be an 'other me'?'The idea entered her mind remembering another incident. This time, it's about her childhood best friend, Yugi. She had the same thought when she was first harassed and someone came to save her who looks a lot like Yugi.

She stood up and is about to go out of her room when she felt something slip from her head onto the floor. Her gaze shifts to the strange accessory, she picks it up and examines it. "What's this?.."

...

"...Now, where is my so-called soul room?" Yuji wondered as her eyes first encountered Tea's room which she indubitably knew couldn't be hers. Both of them may have small differences in their looks, however, in terms of skills or capabilities, they are completely different.

Yami Yugi didn't give out much information about soul rooms. Luckily, since she's just a 'typical average girl' with no special magical powers at all but still got herself inside an anime with a famous trading card game with an unknown particular reason for how all this fuss happened. In her whole life, a piece of technology was enough to know everything

She remembered how soul rooms were demonstrated in the anime: Looking through a person's soul room gives a hint of the person's true nature. Who you are, what you are, things you do. To sum it up, it reflects the personality of a person.

Yuji spotted another hall and two more doors that she haven't entered. Two more doors. The other one is different from the door she previously entered.'Back then I thought soul rooms should be facing each other, not only that, how are there other two rooms inside here?' Now, that leaves her in confusion. There are two doors in front of her which means three soul rooms, but who owns the other one if one of the soul rooms belongs to her?

It couldn't be Tea has another soul living inside her.

She tried opening the first and then the second door but it won't budge. "What the freak? It's all locked?" She took a step back looking at the doors and then suddenly she remembered a scene from YGOTAS.

"Geez..of all I could think..." She shook her head and sighed, slightly chuckling to herself. 'Guess it's time for me to deal with doors' Refocusing back on the two doors, her amber eyes narrowed at something from what seemed to be symbols that each door has.

Glancing back and forth at the symbols, she finds it hard to give meaning to the symbols of the first door, since some of them are smudged like it is still unprepared to be unlocked.

The second door seems to be more unlocking than the first. So, she drew more of her focus on it.

"Let's see..." The first symbol represents the shape of her ancient jewelry, the hairpin. Next is an archer's arrow, and the last looks like a duel monster card placed in defense.

"The hairpin, an arrow, and a shield...what could they represent?" Yuji noticed the symbols are surrounded by numerous squares but the squares below the readable symbols are the only ones different in color. The hairpin has three squares, the arrow has two squares, and the shield has ten squares.

It goes like this:

(Just think this is the hairpin, but now gives the clue)

(the squares)

(the arrow)

(Again, think of it as a monster card in defense mode)

"A word guessing game..? Cool. Hopefully, this door can understand English" She murmured jokingly. The latter then first starts at the three blank squares. "Hmm..what else could that hairpin thingy resemble? Perhaps, it's not just the word 'hairpin'...At first, I thought it was a tiny scepter but by looking at it closely it also reminds me of the millennium key..." She paused until she realized something.

"Wait..the millennium key? The first word is key!" Out of the blue, the word appeared on the squares and surprisingly, they are in English! 'Thank goodnesses'

"Now, time to proceed on the next word" Her eyes moved to the next two blank spaces. "This has to be easy...just by looking close enough at the arrow, its tip is pointed on its following word which hints from the word key 'to' the word blank". The word is 'to' "and 'To' appeared in the spaces.

"The last one has ten blank spaces?" A perplexed look made its way to her face. Why does her soul room even lock her out in the first place? 'Unbelievable'

"The word can't be 'defense', however, for sure it has some relation to the word" She closed her eyes thinking of another word for 'defense' Barrier? Guard? To shield from?—Heck no, that has more than ten letters and it'll look weird in the phrase.

If she were in a duel, why would she place her card in defense mode? Because if a monster is in defense, her life points will remain unaffected unless the opposing card has a damaging effect. This only means if a monster card is in defense, it is more likely to give 'protection' to her life points. 'So that's the word'

As if the door could read her mind, the word appears in the blank and the door swings open. "Cool. This door can read minds" _'~~This door is a freaking freak'~~_

"Phew. I never thought it was just that simple" She opens the door wider for her to enter but as she entered, she didn't take another step when.

Something or either someone jumpscares the brunette causing her to step back and lose her balance. "You did it!" An unfamiliar voice cheered jumping in front of her. Wait, isn't that—?

"Magician's Valkyria..?" Yuji blinks. 'A card came to life and it can talk...why am I not surprised?' The Valkyria who seems to hear her thoughts grew a tick mark.

"I am not just some card, I am the protector of all spellcasters, I may be seen as a weak one but nothing can beat my ability if it is wisely used on the battlefield" The valkyria's once buoyant look turns into a serious one.

"Anyways, we've been waiting for you!" Her expression switches to being worried. "An uninviting spirit came across this soul room and now they're trying to claim it as their own!"

Yuji, once again having the same baffled look thought. 'Is that even possible?'

"I'll explain everything once we got through this" The valkyria forces a grin on her face, and she spins her scepter preparing to battle. A ghostly intruder then came in, a taunting smirk plastered on his face. "I've been waiting for this...!! And looks like it's the right timing!"

"What is he about to do?" Yuji whispered to the valkyria in front of her.

"Those are souls from the dark...they came hunting for a vessel" She replied as she grips her scepter in front of her, then raised it above. The scepter glows and the valkyria aims at the intruder. "Mystic Scepter Blast!" Yuji watches in amazement as a green ball of light blasts toward him.

But the intruder seems to have some sort of barrier to protect himself and the blast itself starts to bounce back to the valkyria. Before she could react, she was hit and flung back.

"Magician's Valkyria!" Yuji went behind her before she flew straight to the hard wall. As a result, it was the brunette's back that end up hitting the wall. Funny. It's like he has an invisible 'Magic Cylinder' with him.

The Valkyria gapes in shock, forgetting that the brunette was still on the ground. "What just.. happened? Impossible!" 'Could it be he's a—!!! No way! It's been a millennium since they exist!'

'What doesn't exist?'

Yuji winced and stood up. 'I didn't even take the hit..but that hurt pretty bad..' Her eyes shift back to the spellcaster and then to the intruder who roared in the laughter of wickedness. His voice looks somewhat insane too. "You think that'll work on me!"

"You're a Hekan, aren't you?" Magician's Valkyria lowers her scepter to be less threatening. She realized if she keeps up her battling front, she won't get answers from him any soon. Meanwhile, as for Yuji, it's like she's about to lose her cool at any moment. 'Everything here is like a puzzle ...I don't even know if this is still the same show I watched..if 'Confusion' kills, I would be dead by now

The valkyria peeks a bit in the brunette's direction. "Oh right. I forgot that you can read minds" ' Guess the best way to see how this plays.. is to keep silent'

"You're not the chosen spirit! A vicious soul like you must disperse from here!" She eyed him warily.

"Too bad...I can't, after all this is the perfect chance of being resurrected! As a Hekan, I must abolish those who tried harming our Princess so how can't I be the chosen spirit!"

'Princess what now..?'

"We're not trying to harm the Princess, we're saving her from all of you...Hekans!" Magician's Valkyria argued.

"And how am I involved in this? Oh yes, you are indeed Heck-ans!" Yuji adds.

"You knew the game of Duel Monsters, don't you? Why don't we settle this in the duel? Whoever wins will have the hairpin" Once he mentioned 'duel'. Cards and a dueling arena magically appeared.

'I forgot to add that...Life is such a phenomenon' "Fine. It's all settled"

Magician's valkyria glances back at the brunette and nods. "If this is the only way...then you have all my trust, this duel will also prove you worthy to be her chosen spirit" Even though Yuji can't quite comprehend any of those 'chosen spirit' hocus-pocus. She puts her bewilderment aside and stands straight to concentrate on their duel.

"I'll take part in this as well" The spellcaster turns herself into a card to Yuji's deck.

"Let's go by the season 1 rules" Yuji suggested.

"What..?" A bemused look made its way to his face.

"Oh...I mean where you don't use any tributes or sacrifices to summon a level 5 monster and above" Yuji tried to make him understand what she was saying. "Let's go by these rules then..our main goal is to bring our life points to zero..and I'll go by the other rules you'll do in this duel"

"Interesting! Now let's get this over!"

"Duel!"

Yuji's LP: 2000

??? LP: 2000

"I'll go first!" Yuji scowled as he harshly slap his card on the monster zone. "Swordstalker in ATK mode!" A dark attribute warrior-type monster with fiend-like horns, swinging a sword appeared on the field. "I set one card face down. I end my turn"

Swordstalker Lvl. 6 (2000/1600)

"Just to let you know, this is no normal duel" He informed

"This iS A ShAdOW gAme...Got it" Yuji mocks making him glare at her.

"This isn't a shadow game either, but any battle damage inflicts real pain" He grinned.

"My turn. Draw." 'Now it's time to test these cards I got' The card I drew is one of my favorite cards. "I summon Maha Vailo in ATK position"

Maha Vailo Lvl. 4 (1550/1400)

"Then I play the equip spell, Bound Wand. With this, Maha Vailo gains 100 ATK equal by its level"

Maha Vailo 1550 - 1950

"Maha Vailo's special ability activates, any number of equip spell cards equipped to this card gains another additional 500 ATK points"

Maha Vailo 1950 - 2450

"I set a card face down. It's my Battle Phase, Maho Vailo attack his monster" Yuji declares. "...Sacred Lightning!"

"Not so fast! I activate my trap card, Mirror Force!" Luckily, Yuji has already prepared for the incoming trap. "Then I flip up my Quick-play spell! Mystical Space Typhoon"

Swordstalker was still destroyed and sent to the graveyard.

??? LP: 2000 - 1550

??? groans and then smirks. "This duel is just the beginning"

"Everyone says that when the duel is about to end" Yuji retorts at the thought of wiping that smirk plastered on his face. "And I'll be the one to end it"

"We'll see about that.."

To be continued*