Chapter Text
Long ago, when the pyramids were still young, the Egyptian kings played a game of great and terrible power. But these Shadow Games erupted into a war that threatened to destroy the entire world, until a brave and powerful pharaoh locked the magic away, imprisoning it within the mystical Millennium Items. Now, 5000 years later, 16-year-old Yugi Moto unlocks the secret of the Millennium Puzzle. He is infused with ancient magical energies, for destiny has chosen him to defend the world from the return of the Shadow Games, just as the brave pharaoh did 5000 years ago.
* * *
“Hey, Joey! Earth to Joey! Hey, are you in there? It’s your turn!” Yugi waved a hand in front of his friend’s face in an attempt to get his attention. Joey seemed to be stuck on the decision in front of him.
“Oh, isn’t he cute when he’s thinking?” Tristan teased, scraping his knuckles across Joey’s unsuspecting scalp.
Joey swatted at his hand. “Back off, dude! Yugi’s trying to teach me Duel Monsters and I can’t focus with you being an idiot.”
“Drooling Monsters?”
“Duel Monsters, you nimrod!” Joey shot back.
“Sheesh! Whatever you say.”
Téa laughed, rocking back in her chair from where she was seated next to Yugi. “They’ve been at it for hours! Joey’s just starting to catch on and he’s been getting his butt kicked. Yugi’s like an expert.”
Tristan leaned in closer. “An expert, huh? Well, explain it to me, wouldja?”
“Each card has an attack number and a defense number,” Téa replied, “and the first player to eliminate the other player’s life points wins the duel. Not that difficult a concept, unless you’re Joey, apparently.” Joey, ignoring them both, had finally reached a decision on his move. He set a card down on the playing field.
“Pretty good, huh?” he challenged Yugi. But Yugi just smiled as he played his own card.
“Pretty good! But not good enough!”
Joey took a moment to figure out the move that had just been made. “What?!” he yelled when he had finally parsed it out. “A card that powerful totally wipes me out!” The others laughed. A graceful loser, Joey was not.
“You stink at this game, bud,” Tristan said, elbowing Joey from where he had sat down next to him. Joey growled in disappointment. Yugi laughed again, resting a hand on the Millennium Puzzle around his neck. He thought he felt a warmth pulsing through it, like the Puzzle was also pleased with his win. Yugi was half convinced the thing had a mind of its own. He turned his attention back to Joey.
“You did fine, I just have better cards. If you come over to the game shop I can have my grandpa help you build a better deck. That’s how I do it,” he offered.
“Well, what are we waiting for! Let’s blow this popsicle stand.”
“Maybe we can even get Grandpa to show us his super rare card,” Yugi mused as his friends stood with him and pushed in their chairs. They grabbed their book bags and headed out, Tristan still ribbing Joey on his loss, all of them unaware that someone had been listening in on their conversation.
A rare card? Seto Kaiba thought to himself. What are the odds it’s the card I’ve been searching for?
* * *
Yugi held the door to the Turtle Game Shop open as his friends followed in behind him. "Grandpa! I'm home!" he called, knowing his grandpa was probably puttering around the back. The storefront was a single long room on the main floor. The walls were filled with shelves that were filled with games - card games, puzzles, board games. The register was on a counter at the back of the room, and the glass case it sat on contained Duel Monsters trading cards. It took Joey no time to sniff them out. He hunkered over the glass, trying to read the descriptions. Yugi's grandpa appeared from a door that led to the stockroom.
"I see you've brought company!" Solomon Moto laughed. His thick gray hair stuck out in every direction - it wasn't hard to see where Yugi had inherited it - and his voice seemed to fill the room.
Yugi joined Joey at the counter. "Hey, Gramps! I brought Joey to look at the trading cards, but could you show us your rare card? Pretty please?" Yugi knew his grandpa wouldn't be able to resist showing it off.
Grandpa laughed again. "Oh, why not. How could I refuse you. You all are in for a treat; I don't take this card out often." He had reached below the counter and pulled out a small box. Turning it so it opened outward, he lifted the lid. "Here it is! The Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Very rare and powerful within the game. I rarely take it out of the box."
The card, true to name, depicted a large blue-white dragon with long, sharp teeth and even longer talons. Its head was turned to show off its profile. One sharp eye was fixed as if it was staring right back at the viewer.
Tristan rapped his fingers on the counter. "It doesn't look all that special to me! No different from the other cards I've seen, anyway." Grandpa shook his head at Tristan's ignorance.
"There are only four of them in the world," he explained, "and this one is priceless to me."
"Speaking of price, I'm ready to trade!" Joey said. "Not for the Blue-Eyes," he added quickly, "but Yugi said you'd probably have some other good cards to get me started."
Grandpa was interrupted by the bell at the front door. Someone had just walked in. "Can I help you?" he called past the group at the counter.
"If you can't, it certainly wouldn't surprise me," came the acerbic response.
Yugi turned at the sound of the voice and elbowed Joey hard. "It's Seto Kaiba!" he whispered. This caught the attention of both the other boys.
"Doesn't he have some fancy company to run? The heck is he doing down here?" Tristan whispered back. But Kaiba overheard that one.
"Not that it's any of your business," he said snidely to Tristan, "but I came to see the card."
That took them all aback. "Are you into Duel Monsters, too?" Joey asked, confused but also intrigued. "Maybe we could all duel together sometime! I could beat someone new for a change."
Kaiba turned to face him at that. "Me? Duel you? I'd have more of a challenge playing Solitaire," he taunted. "I'm the number one ranked duelist in Japan and the favorite to win the Duel Monsters Championship. You wouldn't last two minutes against me. I know an amateur when I see one."
Joey, always one smart remark away from losing his temper, flared up at the insult. "Oooo, I'm shaking," he mocked the older boy. "Maybe you'd like to settle this with fists instead of cards?"
Yugi grabbed Joey by the arm, none too gently. "Joey, stop!"
But Kaiba's attention had turned. He had glimpsed the card that Grandpa so greatly treasured. "So it is here! The Blue-Eyes White Dragon," Kaiba said in disbelief. Grandpa closed the lid to the box and pulled it to himself.
"Is there anything else I can help you with?" he asked Kaiba.
Kaiba swung the briefcase in his hand up onto the counter and opened it to reveal stacks upon stacks of Duel Monsters cards. "I'm willing to trade you all of these for that Blue-Eyes," he offered, "or if you don't want to trade, name your price and I'll pay it." Yugi and the others stood speechless to the side.
Grandpa didn't have to think about his decision. "This card isn't for sale, I'm afraid. I'm aware of its rarity but it was a gift, and that has given it a heart that is worth more than you could ever pay." He set the box back below the counter.
This answer did not sit well with his customer. "You're kidding. You'd give up thousands, even millions of dollars for a card because it was a gift?" he sneered. "Senile old fool." He closed up his briefcase, looking briefly to Yugi as he turned to leave. "You should talk some sense into him if his old brain can still comprehend that kind of thing." And with that he exited the shop as abruptly as he had entered. The bell rang as if relieved to see him go.
Kaiba didn't spare the shop another glance as he climbed into the back of his town car. Heart of the cards. How stupid, he thought to himself as the car pulled away from the curb. Cards are about power and how you wield it, and one way or another, I will get my hands on that Blue-Eyes.
* * *
Grandpa was busying himself in the back of the shop the next day when he heard the bell ring. It was too early for Yugi to be home from school, so that could only mean there was a customer waiting. Grandpa came to the door to find himself facing three gentlemen in suits who looked wildly out of place in the shop, and not a little unfriendly.
"My master, Seto Kaiba, challenges you to a duel," said one of the men. "You are to come with us right now and we'll take you to him."
"And if I refuse?"
The man reached up to adjust his sunglasses. "I'm afraid I must insist."
Grandpa nodded. "Very well, then. Let me get my deck and I'll be happy to teach your master a lesson."
* * *
"Do you know if your grandpa got any new cards in today?" Joey asked. The sun was bright, not a cloud in the sky over Domino City. Yugi shifted the weight of his backpack as the four of them approached the shop.
"Maybe! One way to find out," he replied as they went through the front door. "Grandpa, I'm home!"
After a moment of no response, Tristan poked his head through to the hallway that led to the store room. "Uh, Yugi, are you sure he's here?" he asked. Yugi frowned.
"The door was unlocked. He should be here somewhere."
"Maybe he had to run out?" Téa suggested.
Yugi had just made his way to the counter when the phone on the wall rang. He answered.
"Hello, game shop."
"Ah, Yugi. Perfect timing," came a smug voice from the other end.
"Kaiba?"
"Your grandfather is here visiting," Kaiba continued, "but he's not feeling well. Why don't you come by and pick him up."
“What have you done, Kaiba?!” Yugi cried. But the line had gone dead.
Yugi turned to see all three of his friends watching him with anticipation. He looked back at them with a grim expression. “We need to get to KaibaCorp, now.”
* * *
It took them little time to take a cab to KaibaCorp and even less time to find out from the woman at the front desk which floor Kaiba himself was on, but it felt like an eternity to Yugi. The elevator door opened and he was greeted by the sight of his grandpa crumpled on the floor. Yugi dropped to his knees beside him. “What happened?!” he asked, his heart pounding. “A-are you okay?” He took his grandpa by the elbow to try to help him prop himself up. Tristan was quick to move to Grandpa’s other side to do the same, and between them, they helped Solomon to his knees.
“Yugi,” Grandpa said in a breathless voice, “I . . . failed. I wanted . . . to teach that Kaiba a lesson about dueling – and teach him to show people respect – but . . . I lost.” Yugi gripped his grandfather’s arm tighter.
“It’s fine, it doesn’t matter – “
“How’s the old man feeling, hmm?” came a drawl from behind them.
“Kaiba, you dick!” Joey snapped, “What did you do?”
“We had a duel, is all, with each of us betting our rarest card as the prize. But I guess it was just too much stimulation for the old fool.”
Téa, too, was having a hard time controlling her anger. “You should be ashamed of yourself!” she spat, but Kaiba was unmoved.
“It was fair. And look at what I won!” He pulled the Blue-Eyes White Dragon from his pocket just long enough for all of them to register what it was – and then he tore it in half. Yugi’s eyes widened, stunned. But there was something else – something dark and angry inside him, like a tidal wave about to break over the bow of a ship at sea. Something, or it almost felt like someone, was pushing at the edge of his consciousness, threatening to overwhelm. His heart kept beating faster.
“The Blue-Eyes is indeed a rare and powerful card,” Kaiba continued, “and now this one will never be used against me.”
“How could you – “ Yugi was struggling to get words out. This thing in his head was making it difficult to focus. But then Grandpa was trying to get his attention.
“Yugi, take this,” Grandpa said, and Yugi felt something being placed in his hand. He looked down. His grandpa’s deck.
“Grandpa – what?”
“I built this deck myself,” Grandpa said, “and I . . . taught you everything I know. Take them, Yugi. Finish . . . what I started. And maybe after all . . . Kaiba will come out of this . . . with a heart.”
“But you need help! I’m not going to just run after Kaiba because – “
“We got this, Yugi,” Joey said. “Don’t worry about him. Go kick Kaiba’s ass.”
Yugi and Tristan had moved Grandpa to a bench in the wide hallway and he sat back on it gratefully, still trying to catch his breath. Yugi stood, torn on what to do. Téa joined them and she gestured for Joey to come over too, out of Kaiba’s earshot. She crowded them close until the four friends were in a tight circle. She was digging through her purse.
“All right, gang,” she said, having found the black marker she was looking for, “it’s not a blood bond but it’ll do. Put a hand in the circle with mine.” The three boys did as they were told, and Téa drew a smiley face on their combined hands.
When she was finished, Joey inspected his part of the smiley closer. “Okay. What gives?”
Téa snapped the cap back onto her marker. “I hereby declare this the official symbol of our friendship. From now on, wherever we go, the other three will be there in spirit whether we like it or not.” Yugi couldn’t help but smile at that.
Téa was quickly back to business. “Tristan and I will help your grandpa and Joey will stay with you for the duel,” she said in a tone that brooked no argument. Kaiba hadn’t moved from where he’d been behind them. Yugi turned to his grandpa again, but he was waved away. “Go on, I’ll be fine,” Grandpa said. Still reluctant, Yugi turned to Kaiba.
“Okay. Let’s duel.”
* * *
The dueling arena was huge, with a podium at each end for the players to stand in. The stands around the stadium provided seating for where there would normally be an audience. Yugi stepped up the platform to take his place. The presence in his head was too much to ignore at this point, massive and unyielding.
“I designed this virtual stadium myself,” Kaiba was explaining. “Impressive, isn’t it? I think you’ll agree it adds a bit more life to the game. We each begin with two thousand life points. The first player to hit zero loses. Are you ready to play, kid?”
It was like a switch being flipped in Yugi’s mind. Suddenly he was merely a passenger, observing everything from inside his own mind but no longer in control. Someone else had stepped in – into his mind and into his body. He could feel a pulse coming from the Millennium Puzzle like a heartbeat. Whoever this was Yugi could tell two things – this being was very powerful, and he meant Yugi no harm.
“Playtime is over, Kaiba! It’s time to duel,” this darkness, this yami, called back to Kaiba. His voice was deep and echoing and it took Kaiba by surprise. It sounded off from the Yugi he was familiar with. But the game had begun.
“Then let’s go. I begin by summoning Hitotsu-Me Giant in attack mode!” Kaiba laid the card on the screen in front of him. On the playing field, the beast warrior appeared, fixing his one large eye on Yami in front of him. Yami took a step back from his spot on the platform.
“He’s brought the monsters to life!” he exclaimed. From the stands, Joey was similarly in awe.
Kaiba laughed. “It’s my virtual simulator. It creates lifelike holograms of every Duel Monster.”
“So this is how you beat my grandfather! Well, it’s my turn now.” Yami placed his card on the screen. “I call on Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress!” The blue dragon materialized onto the field and Yami wasted no time calling his command. “Fireball attack!” The Winged Dragon loosed a massive fireball at his opponent. The image of the Hitotsu-Me Giant shattered like a mirror and was gone from the field.
“Seto! Are you all right?” Mokuba Kaiba had heard there was duel happening and had sought out his brother as quickly as possible. The older Kaiba brother could be reckless. Mokuba arrived just as Kaiba’s life point counter dropped from 2000 to 1800. But his brother was paying no attention to anything beyond the duel itself.
“Well played, Yugi. Not bad for a beginner. But let’s see how you deal with this.” A new card was placed on the screen and a moment later its image appeared on the field.
Yami eyed the new monster in front of him. “Saggi the Dark Clown? He has hardly any attack strength,” he pointed out to Kaiba.
“True, but if I combine it with my Negative Energy Generator magic card, it multiplies his attack by three, making him stronger than your dragon. Dark Clown, attack with dark light!” The clown did as ordered and Yami’s dragon shattered the same way Kaiba’s giant had. Yami watched his life point counter tick down to 1600. Across the field, Kaiba was grinning at him. “As you can see,” he said, “combining cards can be very effective.”
He’s good, Yugi thought, He knows every aspect of this game. But Grandpa put all his skill into creating this deck and I have to believe there’s a strategy in here somewhere. He was acutely aware that while Yami may have been in control, Yugi’s mind was still his own, though he was sure Yami could hear his thoughts. But even this body felt different than Yugi's own - it was taller, older. It was like he had completely traded places with someone else, but because of the Puzzle, their minds remained linked. But regardless of being displaced Yugi wanted to win, and it didn’t matter which of them was in control – he could tell that this dark spirit had the same desire for victory. Yugi watched as Yami drew a card. Ah, this one is useless, it can’t beat the Dark Clown. I’ll have to use it in defense mode to protect my life points. Yami set the card facedown.
Kaiba’s turn again. “Ha! That won’t save you now. Dark Clown, dark light attack!”
The facedown card shattered. Kaiba watched his opponent’s face for any sign of disappointment. “You’re not faring any better than the old man did, Yugi. Different player, same weak deck. You have nothing to beat me with.”
“I have more faith in these cards than you know, and it’ll get me further than your spite will ever get you,” Yami called back. He drew a card and smirked. “And my faith rewards me with Gaia the Fierce Knight!” The knight appeared on the field, his horse gearing up to charge. “Gaia, attack!” Saggi was quick to fold under the weight of the stronger monster, and Kaiba’s life points dipped to 1300.
“Hell yeah, Yugi! You got this!” Joey cheered from the sidelines.
“Your move, Kaiba,” Yami said, pleased with the advantage he had just gained.
Kaiba gave him a dark look. “This will be over sooner than you think,” he said as drew his next card. He smiled. “Well, look at that. I call on the Blue-Eyes White Dragon!”
“What?! We all watched him tear that card in half!” Joey voiced what he and Yugi were both thinking.
Kaiba laughed as his Blue-Eyes appeared on the field, larger than life and just as fierce as the depiction of it on the card itself. “Did you think your grandfather was the only one to possess this card? Blue-Eyes, attack!” Gaia stood no chance. There must have been more to this virtual game than Kaiba let on because Yami could feel the shockwave from the destruction of each card, and the waves from the more powerful attacks threatened to push him off the platform. The rush of air left him a little breathless. His life points went down to 900.
Across the room, Kaiba couldn’t help but look satisfied. “Your Fierce Knight is destroyed. Faith or no faith, you will be defeated, Yugi. Power is what determines the win; faith is for losers. There’s nothing in your deck that can hold up to a single Blue-Eyes . . . so what hope do you have against two?” Kaiba flashed the card just long enough for Yami to see that he did indeed hold a second dragon, and before long it was on the field next to its counterpart. “Why don’t you just surrender now, Yugi?”
"Not a chance," Yami said, "and now I play the magic card Swords of Revealing Light, which prevents your monsters on the field from attacking for three turns." Glowing white swords appeared, forming a ring around the dragons. Kaiba looked unimpressed.
"How desperate. What good will this delay do you?"
He's right, Yugi thought, What do I do? All I have are these cards that look like a bunch of puzzle pieces. Unless . . . what happens if I put them all together? There was something familiar about them. Like a memory he couldn't quite place. It was his turn to draw. Yami lifted the card only to reveal he had picked up another piece. Wait a minute - could this be Exodia? Grandpa told me about him once, but there are five pieces and I need them all to summon him.
Kaiba wasted no time on his move. "Draw any card you like but it won't change the outcome. My dragons are frozen for another two turns but my new monster is under no such spell - the Judge Man, with an attack power of twenty-two hundred." The monster struck at Yami's side of the field, destroying his target with ease. Yami flinched back from the air wave that followed. His move.
The card he drew was a familiar one - the Dark Magician. Yami set him in attack mode. He won't stand a chance when the dragons are freed, but he'll do for now. "Dark Magician, attack his Judge Man!" A crack of light came from the magician's staff, and the Judge Man was no more. Kaiba's life points followed, now down to 1000.
"A sacrifice that doesn't even faze me," Kaiba said, "and even though neither dragon can move for one more turn, I still have this - the third Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
Yami watched in disbelief as the third dragon appeared. He had little time to think before Kaiba called the attack, and there was nothing to be done as his Dark Magician was destroyed and his life points knocked down to 400. "On my next turn all three dragons are free to attack. This game is over no matter what you draw. You were never a match for me," Kaiba said.
Kaiba had all three Blue-Eyes all along! Yugi thought frantically. He only wanted Grandpa's so it couldn't be used against him. My only chance is to summon Exodia. But I need one more piece and the odds are against me . . .
Yami reached for a card, but it seemed to move, to slide away from his grasp.
What's going on? The deck is sensing my doubt! Yugi faltered.
Then, for the first time, Yugi felt the dark spirit in his mind address him directly, the stronger mind turning inward to speak to the host of the body he shared. Don't lose focus, Yugi! Yami said, Don't lose faith. Concentrate. We have what it takes, and the heart of cards will guide us. Yugi could see the ink on his hand from where Téa had marked him.
If my friends believe in me, there's no reason I can't believe in myself.
"Draw your last pathetic card so I can end this, Yugi!" Kaiba's voice snapped him back to the moment.
"My grandpa's deck has no pathetic cards, Kaiba. But it does contain -" Yami held up the card he had just drawn for Kaiba to see. " - the unstoppable Exodia!"
"NO! That's not possible!" Kaiba cried. "No one's ever been able to summon him!"
Even as he spoke, the five pieces of Exodia were assembling on the field. The monster towered over Kaiba's dragons. Yami called out his final attack. "Exodia, obliterate!"
All three dragons were wiped from the field in an awesome display. Kaiba's life points hit zero. Mokuba stared in disbelief. Seto never loses!
Kaiba was bracing himself against the summoning screen with both hands, head hung low. "But . . . how? How could I have lost?"
"You only play for power, Kaiba. Your weakness is within your heart, and if you truly wish to see it, open your mind!" Calling on the power of the Millennium Puzzle, Yami reached out a hand, gripping Kaiba's consciousness, and with a surge of magic, Kaiba felt his mind unlock. He dropped to his knees, overwhelmed with the feeling. The light from the Puzzle faded and Yami released the magic.
"Maybe now, Kaiba, you will begin to see."
* * *
Yugi had stepped back into his own body as soon as the duel had ended, the dark spirit withdrawing to his corner of Yugi's mind. Yugi and Joey got back to the shop as quickly as they could. "Grandpa?" Yugi called, running to the hallway that led to their apartment. "Grandpa, are you here?"
The boys stepped into the living room and were greeted with the sight of Téa, Tristan, and Grandpa waiting for them, all three immediately asking a million questions about the duel. Yugi dropped onto the couch next to Grandpa, letting out a sigh of relief. All was well.
* * *
"Mr. Pegasus, sir. Our uncontested champion Seto Kaiba, he's . . . well, he's been defeated in a duel by someone named Yugi."
"Hmmm," Pegasus mused, his all-seeing Eye flashing in the dark.
This is going to be
so
much
fun.