Rook was absently watching the Duelist Kingdom tournament. He didn't really care about the dueling, and most of the duelist were well below his standards.

There was only one reason he was even bothering to watch the feeds.

Vil, whenever he had a little too much to drink, sometimes spoke of his past. Rook was somewhat aware that Vil had followed in his father's footsteps and had changed his name to get away from a very obsessed stalker.

A few things stood out, which Rook had dutifully cataloged but hadn't expected to come up.

One, Vil had commented on being a professional duelist before he turned to modeling. Two, the beginning of said career started in a tournament known as Duelist Kingdom, and he had been in the finals. Three, he was much, much shorter during that time, and had a massive growth spurt.

Rook watched the feeds, hoping to catch a glimpse of his beloved Vil. However there were no duelists under that name.

There was one that piqued his interest, if only because of his outlandish hair style. He had red, black and gold hair that spiked upwards almost in a star shape, with golden bangs. He wore an odd upside down pyramid around his neck that looked like an antique, and appeared to be made of solid gold.

His skills were fairly good, even to his inexperienced eye.

Rook mostly skimmed through the video feeds, and was about to give up hope when he noticed something about the odd teen.

During some of the duels, the teen would shoot up about six inches or so, and would drop another six after it was over. Even more fascinating was the way his aura darkened, almost like an Overblot but far more dangerous.

Rook knew by sight that the man was a king, regardless of whether that dark aura surrounded him. It was absolutely fascinating, and he could put up with watching duels if it meant observing this effect.

Watching the young man...Yugi Muto...rise through the tournament rankings was fascinating. While he was clearly a superior duelist, he wasn't arrogant about it. He took the time to give his opponents small bits of advice to improve their game and their deck.

The thing was, Yugi looked ridiculously familiar to him. It was the little things that had Rook obsessively rewatching the duels, and the small bits between them. He couldn't pin exactly what it was, but it was the way Yugi moved and how he spoke. It was the fact that his outfit was perfectly coordinated, and how cultured his voice was.

It really bothered Rook, and he felt like he knew that teen.

Then came the finals, and Rook's interest only skyrocketed. Yugi was among the small number, which made his interest grow exponentially.

Vil had mentioned being in the finals, and so far he hadn't seen anyone who remotely resembled him. The only person there who even had purple eyes was Yugi.

As they progressed, Rook's sense of familiarity only got stronger.

Everything came to a boiling point when Yugi won the right to challenge Pegasus.

The day of the duel...

Rook was setting up his laptop to watch the duel, as he had already invested a lot of time and energy into this tournament and wanted to see how it ended. So far he hadn't seen Vil at all, and it bothered him because he knew his beloved Roi du Poison wouldn't lie to him.

He was about to take a drink from the water he had gotten when Yugi stepped onto the stage.

The glass clattered to the ground from his senseless fingers, and he paid no mind to the fact his pants were now drenched from the water.

His mouth was agape in disbelief, seeing the radiance that had stepped out of the shadows and onto the dueling platform.

He knew that aura intimately, and his heart swelled in his chest realizing he had finally found him.

Yugi wore a fashionable jacket that had peacock feathers embroidered along the sides. His hands were painted with a familiar coat of dark purple nail polish. His eyes were lined expertly with a shade of purple that accented his eyes and made them pop. He was wearing a pair of thirteen centimeter heels and walked with the grace of long experience. His hair was pulled back slightly in a familiar braid, and he even had the hair clip holding it back.

It all clicked why he had been unable to find his beloved Roi du Poison... he had been using his old name, rather than the one Rook knew him by.

Rook's heart was pounding in his chest, as he watched his beloved Roi du Poison all but dominate the match with the royal grace he was so familiar with. Every move, every play was calculated. He devoured every moment of that duel with glee, knowing he finally had a proper lead to tracking down his king.

Vil's modeling schedule was too sporadic to track him down that way, and he'd never get anywhere near his beloved. Besides, he knew how Vil hated distractions while working.

The moment the duel ended with his beloved Vil's victory, Rook knew what he had to do.

He had to meet this...Yugi Muto...and ascertain if he truly was Vil.

Now the only question was how was he going to get there. The boy lived halfway across the world after all.

After the duel...

Yugi stepped off the dueling platform feeling darkly pleased.

To be fair, he had caught everyone but Bakura and Jounouchi off guard with his outfit. He had caught Pegasus looking over his ensemble with open approval, though he'd never voice it on live camera.

"Okay, I have to ask...where exactly did you get the outfit, heels and make-up from?" asked Mai, openly interested.

"I had it on me, since I knew that we would likely be traipsing around the island for close to a week. No way am I wearing heels while doing an ungodly amount of walking," said Yugi. "As for the make-up, I always have a bag on me."

"He made us change too," said Jounouchi. "But at least he didn't do the make-up."

"It's a bad idea to share that sort of thing with multiple people. Seven only knows what you might catch from it," said Yugi primly.

"Yeah, I was more interested in where you got them in general, especially the make-up," said Mai.

"Oh. I can give you a list, but I tend to favor the high end brands," said Yugi. "Let me know which ones you like best, and I can see what I can do about sending some your way."

Mai looked incredibly pleased.

Yugi was just glad this nonsense was over with. Pegasus had not been expecting three different personalities in one body...or the fact that Yugi had dressed up so well for something as mundane as a duel.

Either way, he had left one hell of an impression on the dueling world.

~~*~*~*

Mokuba was in deep trouble. He never expected the board to pull a stunt like this, and to use his brother's pods no less. He didn't know why, but he ran straight for Yugi's house, hoping the other teen would at least know what to do.

Either that, or the weird spirit that kept possessing him would. Mokuba wasn't blind or an idiot. There was no way he'd gain that sort of height and change in personality without some sort of explanation. The closest he could come up with was repeated possession of some sort.

The second Yugi saw him, he ushered Mokuba in. The poor kid was drenched beyond belief.

"So your brother is trapped in a virtual reality pod, and they're likely to pull the plug if we don't get him out fast?"

Mokuba nodded.

Yugi sighed, as he had mostly forgotten about this mess.

"Let me make a few calls," he said.

It took fifteen minutes for Jounouchi and Bakura to arrive.

"So dragon boy fell into a trap?" said Bakura.

"Odds are they'll have their thugs try to pull the actual plug, so I'll need you to run interference. Jou, you're coming with me into the pod," said Yugi.

"Got it," said Jounouchi.

"And...actually, Mokuba, do you know anything about the specs we're dealing with?"

"Um...not much," he admitted. "I know Seto was really looking forward to getting them up and running for a long time."

Yugi went up to his room and got something.

"Do you know if it can handle having something like this installed, at least temporarily?"

Mokuba looked at the odd memory card.

"Yeah, I think we can install that. Why?"

"I've been trying to confirm something about the programming on this thing for ages," explained Yugi. "If I'm right, then getting your brother out will be much, much easier."

At the very least it would confirm that ORTHO was bonded to the memory card. No way their half-assed programming would be able to deter an AI.

Bakura just looked happy at the thought of stabbing someone and likely being paid for it.

Once they were in the lab, Mokuba looked around for an empty pod.

"I think we can install it in this one. Seto kept complaining about it being glitchy, so it's not set up for any test subjects."

With a bit of help, as Yugi was incredibly fussy about the card not being damaged in any way, they were able to install it. Mokuba had to blink when he saw the download screen.

"Looks like it'll take a while for it to be ready."

"We'll head in then," said Yugi. "Bakura, if anyone comes near this room with intent to mess with it, stab them. We'll deal with the bodies later."

"With pleasure," said Bakura smirking.

Mokuba was rather tense, watching from the outside. So you could imagine his surprise when he heard a slight noise from the empty pod. Looks like that memory card had finished whatever it was doing and had uploaded into the game. He wondered what it was that was on there, and why Yugi was so protective of it.

Inside the game...

Yugi had very little warning, though honestly he couldn't complain.

"Vil-senpai!!!!!!"

Yugi let out a slight yelp as he was tackled to the 'ground' by a very enthusiastic ORTHO.

Jounouchi stared at him.

"Uh...Yug? Who is that?"

"Oh thank the Seven," said Yugi with relief. "I was worried something might have been damaged with you trapped in that thing for so long."

The one currently cuddling with him was a boy who was about thirteen or fourteen, with pale skin, robotic features and flaming azure hair. His eyes were a piercing gold color, and he looked at Yugi with open admiration and fondness.

"Thank you for taking such good care of my core, Vil-senpai," said ORTHO happily.

"Sorry it took so long to find something to upload your data, but it was hard to find anything with the right specs."

"Understandable. Idia-nii did make my body custom, and he was always upgrading me. Most of the tech here is too low grade to handle even half of my processing capabilities," said ORTHO.

Yugi ruffled his hair affectionately.

"Can you contact your brother?" he asked.

ORTHO shook his head.

"The pod you uploaded me onto doesn't have internet capabilities, and I'm barely at a third of my full capacity."

"Can you undo the programming keeping us trapped in here?" asked Yugi.

"Yup! It won't take me more than ten minutes at most. Whoever made the patch isn't very good at all," said ORTHO cheerfully.

"Yugi, who is this?" asked Jounouchi slowly. Though being near the kid was setting off all sorts of overprotective big brother instinct he had.

"This is ORTHO Shroud," said Yugi cheerfully. "He's...complicated."

ORTHO waved at Jounouchi with good cheer.

ORTHO went to work disabling the patch that had been added, as the code was very different from the source material.

"Whoever programmed this is decent, but Idia-nii is better."

Yugi immediately started snickering. The most Kaiba ever accomplished was a virtual duel system. Idia had created a functioning AI after his brother, complete with multiple bodies.

There was absolutely no comparison.

ORTHO had them all out in less than fifteen minutes. Yugi immediately removed the memory card, as Seven only knew what Kaiba would do with an AI that had it's own distinct personality.

He was determined to track down Idia Shroud and give him back the card, because if Jounouchi and Bakura had their memories, then it was pretty much guaranteed that Idia would have them as well.