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A scream tears through the cheerful camaraderie Yugi and his friends had fallen into following the duel with Mako. Up ahead on the path, a boy is thrashing in a large suited man’s arms, shouting for help and demanding to be let go.
Yugi’s heart plummets. He never imagined something like this would happen out here in a dueling tournament.
Tristan and Joey jump into action, launching themselves at the man. They succeed in getting him to drop the boy, but they’re quickly knocked down. Yugi runs up and calls out for the violence to stop.
“It’s in your best interest not to interfere,” the man says. His gaze, hidden behind dark glasses, is impassive. He pulls the boy back up and twists his arm behind him, causing him to cry out. “This duelist has lost his Star Chips and is therefore disqualified. All disqualified duelists must leave the island.”
“I didn’t lose them,” the boy spits. “Someone stole them!”
It’s an odd rush of relief to realize this isn’t some attempt at kidnapping, just some brutish enforcement of the Duelist Kingdom rules. Yugi makes a face but offers to help find the thief.
“The boat leaves in 30 minutes,” the man says, dragging the unfortunate duelist away. “No Star Chips, no dueling. No exceptions.”
The friends backtrack based on the little information the boy was able to give them and linger by the abandoned duel arena. Yugi is hopeful the thief will return to the scene of the crime, looking for more Star Chips to steal. It’s a secluded spot with plenty of cover, so it’s a good place to ambush unsuspecting contestants.
Soon enough, he is rewarded for his patience. The thief jumps out of the bushes and challenges Yugi to a duel with a seething fervor. He is familiar… but it isn’t until he says “This game isn't about heart. It's about power!” that it seals it for Yugi: This is Mokuba Kaiba, Seto’s little brother.
Yugi declares his identity and Mokuba rips his hat and mask off, glaring. “Shut up! My brother is missing because of you! You destroyed him and now he’s left me — and it’s your fault that Pegasus is trying to take over Kaiba Corp!”
Yugi frowns. “What do you mean?” Kaiba, missing? Why would Pegasus want the company?
Mokuba clenches his fists and looks down. “Pegasus told the whole world about how you defeated my brother. You humiliated him, and he wouldn’t go back to work. He just kept talking about Yugi Muto and the heart in the cards and how he had to defeat you. And now Pegasus is trying to take over because you broke my brother!”
His scream, pointing furiously at Yugi with pain in his eyes, strikes deep. Yugi doesn’t know what to say to that.
He remembers hearing himself say something at the end of that duel with Kaiba, like he was speaking with someone else’s voice, a rush of power flashing through him, pointing at Kaiba with intent after Exodia cleared his life points.
“Mind crush!”
He doesn’t know why he said it. He doesn’t know what it meant, but Kaiba had fallen to his knees, mouth agape, eyes vacant, as soon as he did. He knew something had happened. Something had broken deep inside Kaiba… he’d hoped it was just his pride.
But that voice…
It felt familiar and foreign at the same time.
It was connected to what had been happening for months now, ever since he completed the Millennium Puzzle. He knows it.
He remembers losing time, blacking out, and learning later that those bullies he’d faced earlier were now shells of their former selves… or worse. He remembers the criminal at the burger place, threatening Tea. He remembers walking on shaky legs to retrieve the alcohol and cigarettes the restaurant owner directed him to. He remembers his heart in his throat, his blood rushing in his ears, nausea threatening to overtake him. He remembers feeling dizzy, looking up, seeing Tea blindfolded, held at gunpoint. The dizziness spiked. His vision blurred—
And then he was blinking at the arms crushing around him, and Tea was sobbing and apologizing. Asking him if he was okay.
He remembers the smell of something burnt. He remembers his stomach lurching at the smell, knowing what it meant—
No! No. It was the burgers left unattended on the grill. It was the stale oil getting too hot in the fryer. It was his own mind shaking apart under the strain of the crisis.
He stopped thinking and let the police officers lead him out. They asked questions he couldn’t answer. His friends did, too. He didn’t know. He didn’t know. He didn’t want to. He couldn’t face it.
It happened again. And again.
A few of his classmates flinched when he walked in, now. Teachers, too. He heard rumors of people around the city turning catatonic or delusional overnight. He recognized some of them. He didn’t know what to think. A feeling stirred inside, a strange kernel of satisfaction. Something purring, pleased. He could almost hear it say It’s better this way. They learned their lessons. You are safe now.
His walks home became less hurried. His bruises faded and far fewer replaced them. Isn’t this nice? he thought. (He did?) (It was a thought in his head.) You are safe. You are safe.
Something was happening. There was something inside him. Something dark and powerful.
But he didn’t hurt anymore. He took the main roads home. He lingered after school to chat with his friends. He didn’t look over his shoulder quite so often.
Could it really be all that bad if it was protecting him? Protecting his friends? And besides, the less people came after him, the rarer these incidents became. It was sorting itself out… right?
It was still a relief when he realized he wasn’t losing time anymore. That when the rare bully closed in on him, he only felt a surge of strength, spoke with a steady voice, felt sparks of creativity light up in his mind and fought his battles with new games he came up with on the fly. Simple ones, like card drawing with various goals, counting games, little feats of dextrous skill, maybe a riddle if the circumstances were right. And for the most part, no one seemed worse off for it. Not like before.
Then came Seto Kaiba, kidnapping his grandfather, ripping up a cherished gift, laughing at him when he spoke about kindness. Then came Exodia, assembled for the first time with Grandpa’s heart guiding him. Then came the voice, speaking with his tongue, calling out words laced with power he didn’t understand, and Kaiba falling to his knees with a terrifying expression of emptiness on his face.
He will learn, he heard in his mind. He will be better for this.
Yugi needed to believe it. So he did.
Now Grandpa is stolen again, but this time with some kind of dark magic, and Yugi is forced to remember the look in Kaiba’s eyes. The strange words in his mouth.
The rush of power.
Pegasus has magic. Yugi is going to need power.
His stomach churns. His hands find the Puzzle. He shakes his head. Kaiba got up and walked away from that duel, ego bruised as it was. He is fine, he’s just taking his time getting over it. He’s not missing. He’s not broken.
Yugi didn’t break him.
While he was distracted, Mokuba had slipped away from his stand and snuck up behind Yugi. He reaches around and grasps for his Star Chips, scooping up a few of them and leaping away.
“Hey, wait!” Yugi yells, grabbing at him, but Mokuba is fast, jumping down and darting toward the treeline. Yugi gathers his remaining Star Chips, holding them close. He isn’t out yet. He takes a deep breath.
“Mokuba, please, you don’t have to do this. I can help you!” he calls out. He honestly didn’t expect it to work, but the boy slows his steps and glances back at him, and Yugi takes his chance. He jumps down and holds out his hand. “I’m really sorry Kaiba took the duel so hard. He… he hurt my grandpa. I had to fight him. But I’m sorry.” Mokuba narrows his eyes and starts turning away. “He’s gonna be okay, Mokuba! I swear, he’s going to be fine.” Please, please don’t let this be a lie.
He senses something inside him respond to his pleas. Something that says Yes, he will return. He will be better for this, remember?
“He’s just figuring things out. You know Seto. You know how he was so full of pride and too focused on power. Doesn’t that hurt? Don’t you want to connect with your brother again? All he had room in his heart for was the company and power. I believe he is taking this chance to change. He’s picking himself back up and learning that there’s more to life than that. He will come back, Mokuba. He’s gonna be okay. And I’m gonna defeat Pegasus and save my grandpa, and I’ll save Kaiba Corp, too. Please, just let me help you.”
Mokuba had stopped and listened, and now he looks at Yugi with tears in his eyes and Yugi can almost hear the same war in his head from over here: He is afraid, but he has to believe. So he does.
All five of them race back to the pier where the disqualified duelists are picked up, only to watch in dismay as the boat is already sailing away, carrying the robbed boy with it.
“You lied!” Joey accuses the man at the dock, the staff member who had hauled the boy off. “We still have a minute left! Call the boat back!” The man regards him with an indifferent stare.
“Please,” Mokuba says, holding out the Star Chips he’d stolen. “Bring him back. He didn’t lose, I took these. I want to give them back.”
The man gives him a derisive sneer — and slaps the chips out of his hand. Then he’s holding Mokuba’s wrist in a vise grip and Yugi’s heart is racing, aching. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
“Hey!” Joey and Tristan are ready to tackle the man in an instant, but a threatening hand at his belt keeps them back — and sends a bolt of fear down Yugi’s spine. Then a tremor follows it, like something stretching and yawning awake inside him. A low hum of static crackles under his skin.
“Let me go!” Mokuba cries, wriggling futilely even as he’s lifted off the dock.
He’s so small, smaller than even Yugi. It wasn’t long ago at all that Yugi can remember being so helpless, yanked around and taunted.
He flexes his fingers and feels his heartbeat stutter, like it’s trying to catch a new rhythm. He bites back venomous words and calmly asks the man to put Mokuba down. He gets a familiar sneer for it and he resolutely does not flinch away.
“Thanks for catching this for us. This one is going back in his cage,” the man says, squeezing harder on Mokuba’s thin wrist and making him yelp. “Little bugger escaped. Pegasus has been looking for you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Escaped?”
“Stop it!”
The others’ shouts stumble over each other and Yugi’s mouth feels dry. The edges of his vision darken with a strange unnatural shadow, flickering and shifting like static.
“No! Put me down! Y-you’ll never get away with this!” Mokuba spits, trying to claw at the man’s face but he’s just so small, he can’t reach. Something in Yugi wilts in sympathy, in pity. Mokuba needs to go after the man’s fingers, he thinks. Dig his nails into the flesh. If he digs hard enough, maybe he’ll get him bleeding. Maybe they’ll get to see proof that he’s alive, see it dripping down his hand, maybe even smell it—
Yugi jolts, blinking, a bitter taste on the back of his tongue. The arguing and useless squirming had continued while his thoughts had sunken into that… strangeness.
He doesn’t have time to worry about that right now, not when the man is starting to drag Mokuba away, hauling him like a prized catch while everyone shouts.
“My brother will save me!” Mokuba cries, clearly trying to be intimidating but he’s only a kid and he’s scared. “Seto will stop you! You’ll never win!”
The man stops, chuckling, a low, insulting sound. It gets louder, Mokuba continuing to hiss and spit and twist.
“Seto?” The man lets out a short, barking laugh. He reaches into his breast pocket. “Seto is dead, kid.”
Yugi feels twice as many hearts stopping in his chest.
No.
Mokuba goes still, rigid.
The air feels thicker, somehow. Yugi’s chest is tight and he feels that familiar dizziness — familiar in the way panic has always been, but also from it. The Puzzle. The voice.
Is it here now? Is it listening? Is that why it’s like his pulse is echoing in his veins, why there’s static on the back of his tongue, why he feels like he’s looking through someone else’s eyes?
“Threw himself out a window, just like your coward of a father,” the man continues.
Mokuba thrashes back into motion, screeching and finally, finally clawing at his hand, pulling himself up with newfound strength and oh, yes, good — a satisfied shiver runs down Yugi’s spine as teeth close around a wrist, nails drag angry red lines over pale skin and the man shouts and drops him. Mokuba crashes to the ground and in an instant Tea is at his side and Tristan and Joey have launched themselves at the man.
He evades their first lunge, shaking his hand (why is it disappointing to see only pink lines and indents, no skin broken, nothing bleeding?) and fixing his stance down the end of the dock.
“You’re a liar!” Mokuba shouts. “He’s alive! You’re lying! My brother would never—!” He chokes on it, tears already streaming down his face.
“See for yourself!” The man finally pulls his other hand from his breast pocket to brandish a card — a Duel Monsters card.
“No!”
He turns it around.
It’s Blue Eyes White Dragon.
“No!” Mokuba screams.
It’s a distant sound, swallowed up by the fog squeezing around Yugi’s head, clogging his nose, his mouth, his ears, pushing into his eyes until they water.
Everyone else has gone silent. Not that he could hear much, anyway.
Oddly, the shadowy static doesn’t hum louder. It doesn’t crackle and creep into his vision the way he expected, for some reason. Inside, he feels a chill, shuddering, clenching, a tight point in his chest.
And his pulse throbs with shock, confusion, denial, anger, fear, and then a deafening pounding of guilt guilt guilt guilt.
No, he thinks desperately, and he hears an echo in his head.
I didn’t—
He should have—
But I—
I didn’t mean—
His thoughts overlap in a painful cacophony. The voice, it’s here, isn’t it? Something constricts in his throat and he knows. He knows. It’s here. It’s listening. It’s panicking, too.
It’s mourning.
It’s always been powerful, confident, certain. When Yugi felt his strongest, it’s like he could feel a hand guiding him, feel someone else speaking with him, a proud, eager energy crackling within him. But now? Now, he’s never felt more fear, more guilt. Now something shrivels inside, pulling away from his bones, from his skin, trying to get as far away from reality as possible. The emotions reverberate inside him and there isn’t enough room to hold it all. It pours in from some unseen tap, crashing through a dam he hadn’t realized was even there before, and it cries and… and… Yugi wants to comfort it. Wants to tell it It’s okay. He could be lying. We don’t know—
I killed him.
The doubled-up racing pulse, the icy panic, it all stops and collapses into one tiny point, a knife stabbing him in the chest and stealing his breath. Guilt, guilt, guilt, fear, regret, sorrow, apology.
Instinctively Yugi cradles the Puzzle against his chest and he imagines he can feel it throb in time with his own heartbeat, an aching thing.
He’s… apologizing?
No… it’s the voice. The voice inside bursts with regret and I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, so insistent and forceful and desperate Yugi has to bite his own tongue to stop the words from spilling out.
He doesn’t know what to do with it. He reels, grasping at words and coming up empty. He just holds the Puzzle and blinks away tears.
It’s…
It’s not okay, but… but…
I didn’t mean it.
I know.
Joey’s voice cuts through the fog, yanking Yugi’s attention.
“That’s a nice card.”
His head is bowed, his fists clenched at his sides, holding himself together, but his voice… it’s far too calm.
And then he raises his head, staring the man down and, with a coolness that Yugi hasn’t heard since he solved the Puzzle: “Did Pegasus give it to you?”
One heart stumbles and the other follows a fraction of a second later. Understanding jolts through him, lighting up like a firework behind his eyes.
Of course. Of course. The possibility, the hope rockets through him, a raw, stinging kind of relief like dragging his palms over pavement. Like scrubbing soap into grated skin. Like pressing on a bruise.
This man is employed by Pegasus, the creator of Duel Monsters. Having a Blue Eyes means nothing, Pegasus has every card. This is not proof. This is a cruel bluff. Seto Kaiba is out there and when they save Grandpa, they will save him and Mokuba, too.
Yugi presses his fingers into the Puzzle, feeling the edges of each piece, the scored lines criss-crossing the gold, almost like he’s reassuring himself it is still put together, still whole. He would never let it fall apart. It hums with grief and relief and the static on his tongue simmers and slides away, and Yugi is suddenly overtaken with a deep exhaustion.
It’s okay, he calls inside, and feels something slither up his spine and curl beside his heart, and somehow, it’s comforting. We’re okay.