Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Evil from the Past ❯ Kaiba's struggle ( Prologue )

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh, but I might someday. Just wait, you'll see...

Okay, the first few chapters and duels are in Duelist kingdom and it's rules, but the rest are in Battle city with it's rules. There is nothing is this so far to merit an NC-17 rating, but there will be later.

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Seto sat on the rock and thought. It didn't make any sense, none of it. How was Yugi able to defeat Pegasus where he, the world champion duelist, had failed? It was bad enough losing to him, but being saved by his arch rival didn't help his once massive ego any. Maybe Yugi was right, maybe there was a heart of the cards. He looked at his Blue eyes white dragon. It was the most powerful monster in duel monsters, and he had all three of them. Yet, somehow, he had been beaten twice, both by people who claimed that there was an ancient magical energy in these cards...

No, he couldn't get sucked into this. He knew that cards where power, and he was going to prove it. He was going to re-vamp his deck and show Yugi Mouto who the real dueling champion was. This "heart of the cards" was nonsense, and to think he had almost fallen for it. With a few modifications to deal with Yugi's tricks, he would once again take his rightful place as king of duel monsters.

"Excuse me." a strong, rough voice said forcefully. "You are Seto Kaiba right?"

"Yes" He shot back, annoyed that this stranger even had to ask "What do you want?" He asked while turning around to face him. He noticed that this stranger was oddly dressed. He was in black and blue robes with golden streaks separating the lack on the outside from the blue on the inside. His hood, which was also black, completely covered up his face so that he could not be seen.

"I seek the on you call Yugi Mouto" He replied calmly, completely un-phased by Kaiba's arrogance.

What? This was weird. Why were so many people interested in Yugi? And why did they all seem to be freaks in one way or another. However, to say the least, Kaiba was not surprised by this request. It was really more of a statement though, the man hadn't asked anything yet. Kaiba answered with a question, "Why? What do you want with him?"

"That is none of your concern." The man said simply, using the exact same tone he had for the rest of the blunt conversation.

This man was beginning to try Kaiba'salready thin patience. "Anything that involves Yugi Mouto is my concern!" He was beginning to get a little frustrated now. "If you tell me what you want with him I will tell you where you can find him.

The man looked at Kaiba. He could easily force this information out of him, but this was not his style. "Very well" he gave "I seek him to challenge him to a duel" It was half true. He did intend to duel Yugi, but that was not the main reason he need to see him...

Kaiba stood up and gave a fake laugh. "And what makes you think that you have what it takes to defeat Yugi, the only person to ever defeat me in dueling?" Kaiba asked with a grin. That was also a half truth, Pegasus had defeated him as well. It was almost humorous how these ignorant fools always seeked defeat by challenging the best in the game.

The man igored him, "You are wasting my time. Either tell me where I can find Yugi Mouto, or step out of my way." He ordered, not losing his cool.

"Fine then, If you think you can defeat Yugi, then you wouldn't mind showing me your skill" Kaiba challenged.

The man smiled under his cloak. If Kaiba wanted to duel him then that was fine with him. It would be fun to show this arrogant fool his place. "I have no need to prove myself to you, but if you wish I will anyway. I accept your challenge Kaiba, but I warn you, dueling without vision will lead to your downfall"

Kaiba laughed at this. He was another believer of the magic of the cards. A victory against a self proclaimed champion was just what he needed right now, but his flawed beliefs would make it that much sweeter when he won. He unlocked him briefcase and took out the two duel disks, throwing one to the mystery man. "We will duel using my new duel disk technology" he said simply

"Very well" The man said back, not raising his head to catch the Duel disk. "let's begin"

Kaiba: 2000 Mystery Man:2000

"I'll go first if you don't mind" Kaiba said with mock-politeness.

"It makes no difference who goes first for you shall lose either way" The man said, almost laughing.

"We'll see about that" Kaiba said smugly while drawing his first five cards. He put two cards on the duel disk and throw it to the ground. "I play battle ox and one card face down" he said as the holographic image appeared from the spinning disk.

Battle Ox: 1700/1000

The cloaked man drew and gave a small snicker. "I play dark titan of terror in attack mode an two cards face down"

Dark titan of Terror: 1300/1100

Kaiba almost laughed at his obvious move. Why else would he play such a weak monster in attack mode? It was obviously a trap. "I'd be a fool to ignore your face down cards, so I'll activate Heavy Storm" He said activating his face down card. "Then I'll play Mystic horseman and polymerization with my battle Ox to create the Rabid horseman"

Rabid Horseman: 2000/1700

"Now rabid horseman, attack his Dark titan of terror!" His Rabid Horseman charged at the weaker monster. The Dark titan dodged the attack and counter attacked, destroying the supposedly more powerful monster.

Kaiba: 1700

"What?!" Kaiba screamed in outrage "My monster was stronger!"

"You didn't pay close enough attention Seto" He laughed "I activated Mystical space typhoon to counter your Heavy storm, then I activated adhesion trap hole, which cut your monsters attack in half, making my monster stronger."

Kaiba was upset at being called by his first name by this fool, but he was even more upset by losing his monster to a stupid mistake. "Don't think that will happen again." he said angrily "I'll put one monster in defense mode and put one more card face down"

Kaiba's opponent drew another card and mouthed "perfect" He put one more card face down and played another monster. "I'll play Kiryu in attack mode"

Kiryu 2000/1500

"Attack his face down card" he commanded of the hologram dragon. The Monster obeyed and sliced through the face down card, revealing the hitosu-me giant just in time to be destroyed.

This was starting to get on Kaiba's nerves. He hated to be on the defensive. He drew and hoped for something that could teach this fool a lesson. His wish was granted as he drew his ultimate monster, the Blue eyes White Dragon. "It's time to end this foolishness" he yelled "I summon the mighty Blue eyes white dragon" The Mighty Beast appeared from the disk and roared.

Blue eyes White Dragon: 3000/2500

Kaiba was surprised to see that his opponent was amused, but not impressed. "How very like you Kaiba to rely on sheer strength instead of trusting in your deck"

Kaiba had had enough. "I'll shut you up you arrogant fool! Blue eyes Attack!"

"Not so fast. I activate Shadow spell. Now your Blue eyes is not only Seven hundred attack points weaker, it also is unable to move."

Blue eyes White Dragon: 2300/2500

Kaiba gritted his teeth. "Very well then" He said calmly. This was proving to be tougher than he had thought it would be.

"If you are finished I will proceed to take my turn" Kaiba nodded "Then I will play one more card face down and summon the Dark Blade"

Dark Blade 1800/1500

"Now witness the power of union" He said knowingly "It is similar to fusion but it does not require Polymerization"

"What?" Kaiba shouted. He had never hear of union before, which was odd because he was the world champion.

"Now Kiryu will unite with my Dark Blade to increase his attack by nine hundred." He said as the Dark Blade mounted the Dragon like a horse.

Dark Blade: 2700/1500

"Now Dark Blade, Destroy his Blue eyes White Dragon!" Kaiba flinched as his monster was destroyed. "Kaiba I told you that If you do not trust in your cards they will fail you"

Kaiba: 1300

"Enough of this!" Kaiba yelled, getting rather angry now. Ill destroy you with the ultimate power of my deck!"

Kaiba Drew. Despite his exterior, he was quite afraid of losing to another maniac. His fear was subdued however when he drew Saggi the dark clown. He planned to use this with his already face down Crush Virus to destroy all the powerful monsters in his opponents deck.

"I'll put one monster face down and end my turn" He said while doing just that.

Saggi the Dark Clown 600/1500

"Then My Dark Blade will attack your monster" He replied, knowing full well what Kaiba was planning to do. The Dragon Rider attacked the Face down Monster but before he destroyed it...

"You've fallen into my trap!" Kaiba yelled meticulously "I activate crush card. Since you destroyed my creature and it has less than 1000 attack points, I can activate this card which will infect your deck with a virus that will destroy all monsters with more than 1500 attack points."

"Not quite" He shot back "I activate Rush recklessly on your monster. This will raise it's attack points to 1300, making it to strong to carry the virus, and leaving my monsters quite healthy" He laughed again. This was even easier than he though it would be.

Kaiba scowled. He wasn't about to lose to another one of them. It was bad enough losing to both Yugi and Pegasus, but this would just be humiliating. He drew again and to his delight, he drew the second of his mighty dragons. "You may have gotten lucky so far, but with no face down card you couldn't possibly be a match for another Blue eyes White Dragon" He set the Awesome creature on the duel Disk and gave it a whirl sending to the field another great dragon.

"Blue eyes white dragon attack his Dark Blade with white lightning!" He yelled with satisfaction. The Blue eyes powered up it's massive blast and fired at the dragon rider.

Mysterious Man: 1700

To Kaiba's surprise, the Dragon was destroyed but the warrior remained. "What happened?" he asked, very shocked.

"It's simple" The man said "when you attack a union monster, you can only destroy one of the monsters at a time"

"It makes little difference, you will lose this duel one way or another" Kaiba said confidently.

"My deck will show me the way to victory" He looked at his newly drawn card "My faith rewards me with curse of the masked beast."

That reminded Kaiba of what Yugi had said In their first duel. How could he have had so much confidence when he was so far behind? "My faith rewards me with Gaia the fierce knight!" He had yelled as he drew exactly the card he needed. If was as if he had known all along that his cards wouldn't let him down...

He was snapped back to reality as his opponent spoke "This card requires a sacrifice, so I will play the Dark Assassin in defense mode"

Dark Assassin: 1200/1200

"Now I will sacrifice my Dark Assassin and my Dark Blade to summon the Masked Beast!"

Masked Beast: 3200/1800

"Masked beast Destroy his Blue eyes White Dragon!" He yelled. The stronger monster teared through the dragon like it was made of tissue paper, and with it went a little bit of it's masters soul.

Kaiba:1100

Kaiba was distraught. How could this have happened? Not even Pegasus had been able to rip through his forces like this. The one thing he did know was that win or lose, he wasn't about to duel cowering in non-existent corner. Whatever his destiny was, he was going to face it with pride and dignity. Of course, he wasn't about to admit any of this to his foe, so after he collected himself, he cam back with a definitive "You'll pay for that."

He drew what threatened to be his last card of the duel. Looking at it, he decided to play it immediately "I activate Pot of Greed, so that I can draw two new cards." One of his new cards was monster reborn. He could bring back his Blue eyes,but that wouldn't help him right now as it would just be destroyed again. He decided to wait for a ore opportune time. Now was the time to stall. "I summon one monster in defense mode and put one card face down. That ends my turn"

"I hope you weren't relying on that face down card much because its going straight to the graveyard. I activate Heavy storm to destroy it." The virtual hurricane blew away the face down card, revealing it to be Negate Attack before it was destroyed. "Hoping to stop me for only one turn Kaiba? I didn't know you where that desperate."

Kaiba smiled "Actually I was hoping you would waste your Magic card on my weak trap so that I could play a stronger one next turn." He bluffed. The fact was that he had no idea how he going out get out of this mess, but he wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that.

He didn't fall for it though. "Whatever you say Kaiba. Masked beast, attack his face down card" The Monster slashed through the hidden monster. It was the Ryu Kishen Powered. "Now I will put two cards face down and end my turn" He had no cards in his hand now, they were all on the field.

Kaiba drew another card and immediately put it face down. He was sure he could win now. "First I will put one monster face down, then I will activate Monster Reborn and Take My Blue eyes White Dragon back from the card Graveyard." He snickered. He couldn't believe that he had ever doubted his inevitable victory.

"Kaiba you are so predictable. I activate Dragon Capture Jar" The newly resurrected Dragon was sucked into the jar as it was sealed, trapping it there.

"I thought you might try that, which is why I activate my face down monster Dragon Piper's special ability"

Dragon Piper: 200/1800

"He will free my Blue eyes from your jar and put him back on my side of the field" he said confidently, thinking that he had won. "Now I activate shadow spell to tie up your Masked beast and make him vulnerable to my dragon's attack!"

Masked Beast: 2500/1800

"Blue eyes, Destroy his Monster!"

"Not so fast Kaiba. You fell for my real trap. I activate creature swap. Now we each pick one of our opponent's monsters to take control over. I pick your Blue eyes and you have no choice but to take my weakened Masked beast"

Kaiba was in complete shock. How could he have lost another Blue eyes to this clown? Reluctantly he gave up control of his Blue eyes and took the stranger's masked beast.

"I switch Dragon Piper to defense mode and end my turn" Kaiba said. He still wasn't about to give up, this duel wasn't over yet.

"Blue eyes White Dragon, destroy the Masked Beast" He said solemnly, then he whispered under his breath "Farewell my friend" He knew that it was only hologram, but he had always considered the Masked Beast his companion and it pained him to destroy it.

Kaiba: 600

Kaiba had no more cards in his hand and only the Dragon Piper on the field. He was going to have to draw something really good if he was going to stay in the game. He reached for his next card...

"Kaiba!" His enemy interrupted "You could still win this duel if you trust in your deck and the heart of the cards"

Kaiba had just about enough of this nonsense. "That's enough! Stop trying to fill my head with your delusions of some ancient magic. I duel with power and it is that power that shall defeat you." He was determined to win. Determined to prove that he was right. No magic gibberish was going to stop him from regaining his rightful place as king of duelists. He went back to his deck. Whatever card he drew, he knew it would lead to his opponents downfall. He picked up the card slowly, and then, as if mocking him, his deck gave him the card he needed the absolute least right now.

Dragon Treasure.

How could his deck have failed him? It gave him the card that would have meant giving him the edge earlier. By powering up his Blue eyes, he could have defeated the Masked Beast in the first place, but now it was to late and the card that would have been his salvation was now just wasted space in his hand. "I end my turn." he said solemnly Would it have been different if he had trusted in his cards? Now he would never know, it seemed so hopeless now.

"Blue eyes, destroy his Dragon Piper!" The cloaked man yelled. Victory was so close now he could almost taste it. "Then I will put one more card face down and end my turn"

Kaiba looked back down at his deck. If he didn't draw a monster or a helpful Magic card Right now it would be all over. For the first time in his dueling career he was actually asking his deck for help. How could his deck actually help him though? The order had been decided when he shuffled. How could anything he thought now change that? It's not like the cards can re-arrange themselves. Unless they decided an order prior to a duel...

He mentally laughed at himself. He was starting to sound like Yugi, talking about the cards as though they had conscience. No, they were just cards, and he knew he was about to draw one that he needed. He picked up Graceful Charity. "Okay then, I play Graceful charity, now I pick up three cards and discard two of them."

The first card was Negative Energy. That wouldn't help, Saggi was already destroyed. The Second card was Mystical Space Typhoon. No, Destroying a magic card would not save him now. The third card was, the last of his unstoppable beasts, The Blue eyes White Dragon! "Ha ha!" he laughed "I knew my blue eyes would come through for me again." He discarded the other two cards "I summon The Third and Final Blue eye White Dragon!" He yelled "Then I will add this Magic card, Dragon Treasure to make him stronger than yours!"

Blue eyes White Dragon: 3300/2500

"I told you it was my strength that would win this duel and it has" Kaiba said, regaining his arrogant composure "You where a fool to ever believe in that Hocus Pocus"

"Even after all that you still don't believe? Well, it looks like my faith is stronger than your will because I activate Vile germs, which will lower your Monsters attack by 300 points every turn, starting with this one. He had almost considered letting him win to show him the power of the cards, but if this was going to be his attitude about it, then he would surely show him his place.

Blue eyes White Dragon: 3000/2500

"What? No! he did it again" Kaiba said under his breath. Could he be cheating? No, that wasn't possible. The duel disk prevented any cheating.

"If you're through, it's time for your blue eyes to lose another 300 attack points"

Blue eye White Dragon: 2700/2500

"And now, Destroy his Blue eyes, my Blue eyes" The Dragon obeyed and destroyed it's own brother via his masters command.

Kaiba:300

It was at that point that it really hit Kaiba. This person had never lost control of the match. Not once had one thing happened that had phased him. Kaiba drew the Sword stalker and put it in defense mode.

SwordStalker: 2000/1500

Almost as Kaiba had expected, he had been prepared for that too. "I activate Stop Defense to put your monster in attack mode, and now It's time to end this duel. Blue eyes, finish off his swordstalker and the rest of his life points!" Kaiba was blown back as he was destroyed by his own monster.

Kaiba: 0 Mystery Man: 1700

And so ended one of the shortest DuelsKaiba had ever been in. Usually it was he who wiped ou his opponent so quickly, but this time he was on the recieveing end. "I told you that your lack of vision would be your downfall" He explained "Now, hold up your end of the deal, where can I find Yugi Mouto?"

Kaiba had almost forgotten about that. To him, the most important part was that he had lost, again. "Head towards Pegasus castle and you'll find them" he said without making eye contact. He felt shamed to have lost again. There was a time when he was the best, but recently he had been tossed around by people who claimed to understand something he didn't.

The cloaked man walked off towards the castle, leaving the now broken Kaiba in his wake.

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Okay, that's it for chapter one. Please R&R. I'll try to have chapter two up within a week, but no promises.