Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ There's Something About Honda ❯ Icarus Island and the Diamond Diabolic ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter 6
~ Icarus Island and the Diamond Diabolic ~


The Blue Eyes Dome, a pinnacle in the Kaiba Corporation building side, was an enormous stadium built in the style of a theme park. Winding in serpentine patterns round the outside were the Blue Eyes Shuttles, stopping at convenient stations along the way. Around that was a theme park that spanned for several acres in general, filled with multicoloured rides and incredible sights. Haunted mansions and such dotted the site, with duel rooms in small clear perplex domes around the main complex, the quad of the main building, made of stainless steel and glass, hosting even more duel chambers. The centrepiece of the whole area was, of course, the Duel Castle, in which the Kaiba Corporation Grand Prix had been hosted first time round. Outside, tiered seating, various layers of balconies and a singular gigantic duel arena off the entrance to the atrium was set up, the place Leon had played Yugi. Of course, the main wonder of everyone there was the strange next part of the dome which had yet to be shown. Just about touching the area where the glass dome covering would fold up over the air, was a large island, suspended by a singular column in the floor, which hundreds of steps wound up to, covered in a gigantic white cloth.
And as the whole 24 qualified contestants stepped in, one week after the death of Pegasus, they couldn't help but feel it was linked to their coming.

Terra, the young vampire duelist who had emerged onto the scene a while back, emerged before them all. Yugi was glad to see she had finally got a job, especially with kaiba corp. Her usually pale face was slightly rosy, her eyes glimmering with glee, her once white hair now flaxen in the general gaiety that shrouded the centre. With a sweep of his cloak, Seto (and Mokuba) stepped out before the others. The Kaiba brothers were in matching suits, made of white, with blood red shirts and tennis shoes. They had long cloaks thrown over their shoulders, buttoned down to the pinstripe fabric, and they set off quite a regal look, framed by the duel castle.
“Welcome, duelists, to the final preliminary round. All of you will once again be paired up, and then, the rounds shall begin in the new stadium that stands above us.”
At this, Seto pointed up at the aforementioned cloaked islet in the sky.
“Now remember guys, there are no real losers now. You've all come so far! And prizes will be handed out in the lobby for all who fail in this round. Due to the amount of teams who qualified at similar times, the amount has been increased to 12 to be allowed onto the ship, meaning no swiss is needed. The knockouts start here folks!” Mokuba set, trying to inject some optimism.
Victor was shrouded by his cronies, keeping away from the others who knew he was the culprit for Pegasus's death (mainly as he was the only person there.) The others were all ready to go, up to their eyes in adrenaline and anticipation. Bakura and Honda had both come in normal trench coats, jeans and shirts (albeit not matching) while Yugi and Jounouchi were both in clothes that were like jazzed up versions of their school uniforms. Anzu was sporting her `summer driving miss daisy' look, as she so fondly put it, while everyone else kept their clothing styles to a minimal.
Terra had now finally spotted Yugi through the crowd, and walked over to begin chatting with him.
“Hey there Terra. Didn't expect to see you around.”
“Me neither. But I was in Romania before the tournament started, and couldn't get here in time.” Grinned Terra, pulling out some photos for Yugi to flick through. Yugi had always loved looking at photos, and these were no different, albeit a bit spooky in a few places. Terra certainly liked those darker corners of life.
“Ok then duelists. It's time for the unveiling of the arena for the current final preliminary round. Terra, if you would be so kind.”
Terra nodded at Kaiba's request, handing the photos to Yugi once more as she swaggered over to the entrance to the castle, pressing a small button the intercom. Muttering a couple of words, the crowd fell silent to see fireworks streaming over the roof of the castle. Qualifiers and tourists alike watched as the sky glittered with a neon shine of primary, secondary and tertiary colours in a spectacular show of pyrotechnics. As the sky seemed to be splitting apart, one of them strayed towards the islet in the air, hitting the fabric and sending it burning to the ground below as the sprinkler system set into life. Not one of the faces wasn't astonished. Set among the neon explosions and burning flames below, the hellish citadel that was elevated before them looked incredibly sinister, and yet astoundingly beautiful.
“Woah…” Mumbled Honda as Bakura clasped closer to his arm, resting his pale head on the leather shoulder of his friend.
“That's just… wow…”
Kaiba lead the astounded group, hypnotised by the steam that was now rising around the fortress as the flames died out, up the stairwell towards the stadium. It was tedious, but the few was easily worth it, being able to see the whole dome stretch out beneath you is something most people would love to see. The tourists were now following up a staircase on the other side to the seating, as the tournament qualifiers stepped onto the patch of earth before the grand gates to the coliseum.
“Once you step through the doors, you will be opponents, no longer teams. People who you worked beside may defeat you. I hope we have that clear.”
Everyone nodded to Seto, who replied with a grunt as he threw open the doors. On either side of them, were several log cabins for each of their teams to rest in, from the look of how many there were. To the left and right spread wings which went into a small shopping village from the looks of it. Before them all loomed the main sight. A gigantic coliseum built of khaki stone that looked as if it could crumble away at any second, and still kept an air of grandeur about it's person. Once again, jaws slacked a couple of inches from everyone who hadn't been involved in the making of it, and with that, each of them found their particular cabin as Isono walked out with a loud speaker.
“Every duelist shall report to the coliseum atrium in half an hour. The first match will be called there.”

Mai felt the back of Jounouchi's neck, which was as sweaty as the rest of him. She moaned as he suckled at her neck, embracing her waist. Maybe they wouldn't be having sex anytime soon, but hell, she was going to make the best of what she had. Her gold locks were now in a tattered mess of a fringe, and she giggled as her lover stopped, pausing to look into the now covered sky.
“What is it Jou?”
“I dunno…” He sighed, throwing back his thick hair as he looked around.
“Ever since that night, when Bandit Keith and Mako attacked us… Suddenly, I feel so helpless.”
Mai remembered seeing Pegasus for one of the last moments of his life as she was knocked out. She had seen that Horus kid there…
She began to wonder where he was, and bit her lip as she thought he could be in pain.
“What's wrong Mai?”
The duelling vixen noticed she had a trickle of blood now forming down her lip, and she wiped it away gently with a tissue she pulled out of her jacket pocket. She shrugged it off, hugging the long white gloves that cloaked her lower arm and hands from the lukewarm sun. The two of them looked out at the dusty area by the chalets, and then…
“Can all duelists please report to the main coliseum atrium. The rounds will now be sorted.”
The two of them stepped out to see a leering Varon and a perky Amelda stampeding before them. Everyone else was now streaming into the main entrance, and Mai was the last in, closing the doors as they entered the cool main hall, where classical music hummed away in the background.

Kaiba eyed the crowd of duelists, picking out people he'd love to wipe the looks off their faces. He noticed Mai and Jounouchi trying to look like civilised humans. Somehow, Jounouchi always failed that. Isono and Mokuba were both on either side of the lottery machine, holding the heavy handles as they waited for the message. The LCD screen behind them whirred into action, and suddenly, the face of Noa appeared. The turquoise hair fluttered in the virtual breeze, and he giggled as he saw the stunned faces of the others.
“Welcome to the Kaiba Corporation Preliminary KO stage. We have prepared a list of all 24 competitors in this round. My two assistants here will roll the lottery machine and the two names that appear inside the spheres will be on the screen. Those two people will head to the main coliseum arena for the next part of their challenge.”
The people in the arena nodded, and the two levers were pressed towards the ground. Two silver balls flew out of the gigantic Blue Eyes mouth that made the lottery machine, much like the battle city one, and the two operators checked the names as they appeared on the screen.
SUGOROKU MUTOU
V
MARIONETTE STRINGS
Strings stepped over to Sugoroku, who brushed back his hair and shook hands.
“Call me Solomon.” Grinned the old man. His opponent said nothing. Yugi remembered when he duelled this strange mime. He had held the god Osiris. The probability of him still having the god now Victor (as everyone had been quick to mention) had got hold of it was still quite unlikely, but you could never not expect something when it came to the magic the gods held.

“Welcome, duelist fans, to the preliminary knockouts of the Kaiba Corporation Grand Prix! After our spectacular musical prologue, it's time for our first two competitors.”
“We missed the music?”
“Shut up Honda.” Snapped Anzu. Bakura clasped Honda's arm and nuzzled his face in it. Anzu snorted and turned back to the arena. From one annexe emerged the nervous old man, clasping his deck as he wondered onto the gigantic dais in the centre of the coliseum. Yugi and Jounouchi stood at the sidelines, waiting for Strings to emerge. The opponent finally came out of the shadows, leaping onto the stage with a possessed vigour in his eyes. Victor had a wry grin spread over his face behind them, and Pandora stood beside him. The six of them glared at each other as the two duelists stepped up.
“May the duelists please present their decks to be shuffled.”
Two men with towels draped over their hands took the decks onto their soft carriers, and with a swift motion, the deck was placed into a small machine clipped to their belt, and pulled out again, fully shuffled. Both of the two duelists pulled out duel disks, and the commentator started again.
“Our two fierce opponents today are Solomon Mutou, owner of Kame Game…”
A loud cheer came from Anzu, Jounouchi, Otogi, Shizuka, Yugi and Honda.
“Versus the silent striker, Marionette Strings.”
Loud, sonorous jeering came from the opposite side of the arena, where a small cluster of people in the infamous purple togas sat leering at the domino students.
“Let the duel begin!” Called Isono, waving a chequered flag. A gigantic scoreboard was behind the two of them, and suddenly, the life points clocked up and a time wizard animation gave an enigmatic show to prove that Solomon would start the game off.
“I'll start off by activating foolish burial to send my Intense Makyura the executioner to the cemetery.” Stated Solomon, placing the spell down as he flicked through his deck and pulled the card out to place in the discard slot.
“When Intense Makyura is activated, I can play one trap from my hand without setting and use any copies of that card in my deck as well. So I'll use rock throw.”
Solomon picked up two cards from the deck that he had seen when finding Makyura, and the deck slot shuffled his deck, as he placed the three cards onto the disk.
“With rock throw active, I can discard three rock type monsters from my deck to do 1500 damage to your life points. So I'll discard my hex-sealed fusion of earth and two Dummy Golem from my deck to do that damage.”
A pulsating clod of earth, lined with mutated crystals, and two large grey monoliths faded away into the cemetery after delivering severe tackles to Strings. He landed on his back, and Victor shoved him back up as he stumbled over to the arena once more.
“Now I'll summon beta the magnet warrior in attack and end my turn.”
Yugi grinned as he saw a familiar monster, a stone soldier with horseshoe magnet hands and feet emerged, black button eyes staring out of the perfectly circular orb of a face. The attack score of 1700 flashed up on the scoreboard as Solomon ended his go. Strings mutely drew a card, and placed down his monster, a woman in a tight leather cat-suit and a pale, painted face emerged from the ground, holding a skull in her grasp as she caressed it with a long, cow skin-clad finger. The score of 0 appeared on the board next to the card image.
“Strings has just summoned the fearsome Amateur Mime, a monster that has an effect only active when he plays a particular card. But does he have it in his hand? That is our question!”
Obviously, Strings did hold the card, and with an smug grin he placed it into the ejected field slot. The card disappeared back into the disk, and the prism projector whirred into live as a cage of silver lines formed over the duelists, and then disappeared.
“Marionette's `illusion cage' is the special field card for mime monsters. When it's played, every mime gains their special ability, and the player gets 500 life points and an extra summon every turn. That means that the effect of his Amateur Mime comes into play, along with the general mime ability to copy the opponent's attack and add it to their own, which through the boost from cage gives mime a total of 2000 attack points.”
The sombre monster's attack points grew in total, and Mime pointed at the magnet warrior. The woman threw the skull at Beta, which clasped around the rotund head, allowing the mime to morph itself into a black and white clone as it smashed Beta with a swift kick to the torso. Solomon saw his life points clock down to 3700.
“Luckily, the mime effect only works during the mime owner's turn. But what's this? Vengeful Bog Spirit!”
A cold mist crept around the field, making Solomon shake his legs to get the heat back into them.
“Damn… Now my monsters can't attack the turn they're summoned… Now he can freely use the effect of his mimes.”
Strings ended his turn, and Solomon drew a card.
“I'll set one card and summon one monster face down in defence, ending my turn.”
The brown oblong that was placed vertically was accompanied by a horizontal one before it. Solomon felt the sweat grow on his forehead. He needed his plan to work.
The mime box appeared for a second, and from Strings' hand another Amateur Mime appeared.
“When two of those monsters are on the field, the player will get another mime summon. So now he gets another special summon to bring out…”
A man, far more muscular than the female monsters beside him, but still in a leather cat suit, formed onto the field, with painted skin and fair blonde hair.
“Macho Mime has the ability to negate the activation of spell cards that specifically designate him. And now we see Strings' normal summon.”
A man, that was most certainly not a mime, appeared in a veil of swords from the earth. His hair was thin and blonde, his armour rusting.
“Marauding Captain? Now he gets another summon!” Roared Solomon, before the commentator could get another word in. Next to marauding captain emerged a female mime, more muscular and confident than the amateur ones. In her hands she held the faint outline of a near invisible flute.
“Charmer mime has the ability to take any serpent or dragon monster the opponent summons. That means Solomon's ancient dragon is completely useless!”
The old duelist cursed his luck as he saw Mime attack with his first mime, the only one that could attack this turn. The attack raised to 1300, the attack of the face down monster and then…
Slam.
The chunky rock monster smacked the woman away, the defence of 2000 dominating her puny attack strength as Strings' life points clocked lower.
“Ouch! Solomon learnt the way to get around the effects of mime by giving his monster a total defence of 2000, countering the attack boost of 300 and the 1300 he gains normally. That's 400 more damage to strings!”
The life point total fell to 2100 and Strings ended his turn.
“I'll play my face down card, mythological age. Allowing me to return my beta in defence mode.”
The neutral monster formed beside the larger and more chunky ally, and disappeared once more.
“Now I'll play heavy storm, destroying your mime box and your vengeful bog spirit, and then play my card of sanctity, to make my hand six cards again.”
The fog disappeared into a tempest of immense strength, and the faint cables snapped away from the arena.
“Now, I'll tribute my beta, gamma and alpha warriors, two from my hand, to summon valkyrion the magnet warrior.”
Next to the rocky defence position creature, a thin, muscular metal critter appeared with no real emotion about it's form.
“Now for my final trick. I'll remove my three magnet warriors and the three monsters from rock throw to summon an almighty new dragon, a rock type dragon, with a current attack of 4200!”
Strings was now shaking as a turtle like dragon, rearing a leathery neck and flexing the muscles beneath it's rock hard spiked shell emerged to the field.
Before anyone could say anything, the magnet warrior had sped over to marauding captain, dealing 2800 damage and leaving strings with 100. Megarock dragon roared, and with a blast of energy, an Amateur Mime was gone from the field. Strings saw his life points hit 0 and collapsed to the floor.
The silence that had come as the final strike had been delivered shattered. Thousands of people screamed in glee as Solomon won the first duel of the tournament. Kaiba had nothing against it. Victor had been disgraced and he had shown just how intense this tournament would be.

“Now don't fret folks, we'll have the second duel ready in ten minutes.”
The differing players wondered back to the main lobby, all but Strings, who was limp on the ground, not moving. Victor picked him up, and let two bodyguards carry the form off.
How lovely. Another tribute for the urn of Zork…

Honda and Bakura were towards the back, Bakura nuzzling against Honda's shoulder.
“I wonder who'll duel next.” Sighed Bakura, whispering it gently against the leather shoulder of his companion.
“I have no idea.” Sighed Honda, wrapped an arm around Bakura's waist. Isono and Mokuba were now back up on the stage, and Noa appeared.
“I hope you all enjoyed the first match?”
Everyone began to chatter at Noa's rhetorical question. The young boy grinned and let the next two balls fall into the draw.
“The two balls for players Sugoroku a.k.a Solomon Mutou and Marionette Strings have been eliminated from the draw.” Announced Isono, just in case anyone really cared. Two balls fell from the maw of the dragon, and they were opened. The machine saw which balls were missing and showed the names on the screen.
RYOU BAKURA
V
PANIK ?????

Ryou looked at the machine, hoping he hadn't heard his name get called. The shadowy man in the corner grinned with a sinister smile, crinkling his old face with glee. The two stared at each other down the lobby from each other, and eventually stepped out into the main coliseum for their duel.
A dancing seahorse in a business suit walked off the podium as the two dark duelists stepped on. Their disks clicked into place and the narrator began, as the time wizard image said Panik would start.
“This duel is between Panik, a former employee of the late Pegasus J. Crawford, and Ryou Bakura, one of the eight duelists who made it to battle ship at the first Kaiba Corporation tournament. Both of them run similar decks, but which one will work best in this battle for the crown of supreme duelist?”
To fulfil my contract with Mokuba I must win…
The life points clocked up, and Panik drew his sixth card.
“I'll activate call of the mummy, allowing me to summon one zombie from my hand. So say hello to my precious regenerating mummy.”
Panik swiped the card down onto his disk, and with a spurt of black energy, large clumps of decaying flesh formed onto the field, turning into a neutral looking, naked, man. The attack score counted at 1800.
“But that's not all. Now I'll activate dragged down to the grave, sending my pumpking the king of ghosts to the graveyard.”
Bakura flicked through his hand to pick a card.
“I'll choose my portrait's secret.”
The two cards were placed in the discard slots as they each drew a new card.
“Now I'll use my pot of greed, drawing two cards. Then I'll use book of life to bring back pumpking, and to remove your portrait from the game. Now, I'll set a monster and use book of taiyou, flipping it up into Castle of Dark Illusions.”
Two books opened on the field as a brown rectangle emerged. The first one sucked up the card from Bakyura's graveyard as a monster Yugi remembered from his duel with Stan appeared, a gigantic ridged orange sphere with a sinister grin spread across it's vegetable face, long tendrils seeping out onto the field. Next to it appeared a castle in defence mode, a crumbling citadel with a band of black around it's landmass base. With a sudden shriek of anguish, a veil of darkness covered Panik's field after a book of gold spread over the face down oblong it was originally. The attack counters for each monster grew as the castle sat in defence mode with 1930 defence.
“My pumpking's attack is now 2100 while my mummy now has 2000. And now it's your move.”
Bakura drew. His hand looked the same as always, except his monster had been replaced with a gelnia. He had just drawn a dark ruler Ha Des, and already, he had a plan.
“I'll equip your castle of dark illusions with my axe of despair.” Announced Bakura, throwing down his spell. The castle's attack rose to 2300. Panik looked at his opponent with a worried expression.
“What is your pathetic axe going to do? Power me up to death?”
“Possibly. For now I'll activate pandemonium and then summon my terrorking archfiend.”
From the earth around them, creeping pastel vines of rock, tall towers with no significant build, twisting and turning silhouettes emerged onto the field as a single chess piece floated down, zapped by the creeping décor and making it a fearsome soldier of battle, lined with bulging skeletal muscles.
The audience tried to make out the two duelists among the creeping shadows of their fields. Jounouchi looked down among the mangled mess of a stadium to see the castle shatter under the force of a heavy sword that the chess monster had whipped out. Panik's field was exposed as his two monsters lost their attack bonus. Bakura set two cards, and ended.
“You'll pay for that you twerp!” Roared Panik, drawing a card from his deck to show his now two card hand.
“I'll play offerings to the doomed, destroying your precious Terrorking.”
The crucifix emerged behind Terrorking as a jar of communion wine was poured over it's skull head. With a roar of anguish, it disappeared into the darkness with a flash of flame.
“Now I'll use this, my card of sanctity!”
Bakura added three cards to his hand and looked at Panik as he plucked through his deck for the desrook he received from pandemonium. Panik now had a malevolent grin spread across his face, crinkling his every feature as he saw the card that could win him the duel. Heavy storm…
Not so fast!
Panik's grip on the card went lax. The crowd behind him couldn't see his spell change to a different card entirely. In fact, no one saw Victor do anything to Panik at all. In a flash of his hand, the field card Bakura had played disappeared. The floor burst open with ice, and a seal similar to the kanji off the castle erupted around them. Before anyone could intervene, the arena had turned into a diamond version of the castle of illusions, and was now hovering above the stadium…

She wasn't sure what it was about him. Maybe it was the blonde hair with almost black lowlights. Maybe it was the dull, heavy-lidded eyes. Maybe it was the gently tanned skin, that almost seemed to sparkle in Autumn sunshine. Whatever it had been with Horus, Corgi had been fascinated.

It most certainly not been his intellect, as he had none of it. Just like Katsuya Jounouchi, Horus Fletcher was a trouble maker at heart, a rebel in a relatively peace society. After reading about the duel between his idol Jounouchi and a fierce biker punk named Varon, Horus was desperate to become like them. Freewheel duelists with passion for their loved ones at heart. He had never known his father. His mother had always denied his very existence, always dreading the day he discovered about how he was born, and until then wrapped him in cotton wool to protect him from any idea that he had another parent.
Looking back on it, Corgi realised that Ms. Andromeda Fletcher was correct in what she did. To be told you were the son of a billionaire known the world over? That was too much shock for even a headstrong teenager. Back then, Corgi had just been `the girl across the road' or more correctly, `the thing across the road' due to adolescent sexism, but had always had an eye for Horus.
His friends had been quick to catch on, and young McDougall had fallen on the support of her best friends Cherie and Wendy, who had been supportive during the period after her first `female bonding moment,' (which Corgi realised soon after was a perfect name for it, it was an evident blood pact between annoyance and maturity, quite literally) and were now just as much so as she had her first flight of fancy. Wendy was the least supportive. She had been in a relationship with a boy named Robin for several months now, and she had a state of pre-relationship amnesia that prevented her from helping, and made her yap on about the passionate moments she loved so much, which if anything, made Corgi feel worse.
Cherie was amazingly shy, her light flaxen hair curled due to the amount of times the young lass had twiddled it round her delicate, yet long, fingers. Due to this, she understood little of a casual relationship and only knew of the sort of feelings that could quite easily have been made into a side story in `The importance of Being Earnest.' So Corgi was left to be with the only friends who did understand her.
Dogs.
Her parents ran a large kennel out of town, and had been the ones to name her Corgi. They had thought the last part of the surname, `dougall' was a destined name for kennel owners, but the young redhead blamed it on their love of the Magic Roundabout. However, she had to admit, she loved dogs. But much to many people's surprise, Corgi dogs weren't her favourite. She much preferred Beagles, and she loved Snoopy, spending many evenings curled up with her large Golden Retriever `Stallion' and a good PEANUTS strip book. It was her sort of evening.

When she and Horus had turned 15, it was announced that the two of them had been arranged to be married since they were children. Both of them, for whatever reason, were shocked. Neither had heard of arranged marriages outside of Bend it Like Beckham or perhaps The Kumars, and both of them were excited in some way.
A few months later, the two of them went on the Yu-Gi-Oh Pro circuit, flying from Glasgow, taking stops along the way to finally reach Domino, the duelling capital of Japan, and perhaps the whole world. The two got married by a Shinto Priest they had yet to learn the name of (and perhaps never will) and were then, for some reason, abandoned.
No one knew precisely what happened. Wendy and Cherie told Corgi that her parents had been in a bust up, Mr. McDougall moving to Darlington to get away from his once spouse. Ms. McDougall had later been killed in a car crash while in tears one evening, and the father had no detached himself from the family. Horus' mother had simply got up and left, never letting Horus know it was because of what Ms. Fletcher knew. Her friend, an archaeologist and superstar in Egypt, Isis Ishtal, had recently flown in to give a report on the mysteries of Ka and Ba at a seminar in the country, and the mother had never been seen after that night. Only Isis knew what had happened after that, but the parent was never claimed as dead, only missing.
However, the two were now stranded with dwindling funds in Japan. Their only way was to do well on the pro-circuit, and they did, somehow.
Both of them received high acclaim for beating some of the best players in the East, both using controversial decks to the society, albeit ones that worked very well.
And yet, both of them had now lost to Mai, Isis and Vivian, and they were now fallen stars, like Haga and Ryuzaki, and stuck with people they didn't like on their teams. And thanks to them, they were labelled losers. Oh, the humour of it all.

The two young teenagers, soon to start at Domino High School, watched the large LCD screen of the next duel in the Icarus Island tournament. The rest of their bracket was there as well, and all of a sudden, the announcement began.
“Will the young Horus Fletcher report to the stadium? His duel will be against Osaka Mai. I repeat, will Horus Fletcher report to the stadium.”
There was a clumsy resolution and Corgi kissed Horus on the cheek as he stepped into the darkened doorway towards the arena. A girl was perched on the wall of the arena furthest from him, a short red blouse with rolled up white cuffs, a lavender skirt, long, baggy azure socks, thick aging loafers and flowing lavender hair that almost covered her pale face and dull green eyes. She hopped down as a spotlight fell on the arena, a large crowd now gathering in the seats with an excited mumble. Horus placed his deck in the duel disk. The name Mai brought back bad memories, and he wanted to banish them. Maybe this duel could do that. He began to wish he'd taken Croquet's advice back at Industrial Illusions and built a new deck out of the available cards there. Now he was stuck with his trusty deck filled with aging cards. Damn it.

Kaiba, Yugi and Raphael had chased down to the base of the decrepit fortress in the sky. From the building itself, a single axis of amethyst came cascading down in a rugged elegance. It curved in at the centre, spreading out at the base, making the connection between the two arenas look like a discarded apple core. Somewhere up there, Bakura was duelling.
“This looks shockingly like the Seal of Ice trap card…” Mused Raphael, pulling it out of his duel disk.
“Maybe it is true what they say. Maybe Victor does use the very essence of Duel Monsters.”
Yugi looked at Kaiba, realising how paranoid he had become recently. At least he had begun to believe there were powers at work. Though maybe the injuries his brothers sustained had proven that. The three turned now to see Victor, Catherine and Pandora, craning their necks to stare at the fortress above them. Victor gave the three of them a sinister look.
“That son of a…”
Yugi's curse was drowned out by a loud screech as a pod that looked like the spell canceller monster card raced up to the fortress and planted it's long steel legs in the side. A camera spanned out, fixating itself atop the area. The duelist's only hope that Ryou was still alive, and to an extent Panik, was through that tiny machine.
“Hey there guys and dolls, and welcome back to the third Kaiba Corporation tournament. Here today the duel between Strings and Solomon ended to make way for the duelists of darkness, Ryou Bakura and Panik, a worker for the late Pegasus J. Crawford. With a single card from that middle-aged eliminator, the tables have turned, and now we have cameras set up around the stadium. We can only hope the best for our duelist duo.”
The audience applauded nervously, not sure whether to be happy or annoyed. Honda had now leapt down to meet the others, and couldn't help but feel an evil emanating from the sinister stadium. Vivian was now standing behind him, and she too felt a malevolence like no other. All she could see were the dead arising round her childish form all those years ago. The old woman's words, the redhead's deck, and the death of her family.

Horus also had thoughts clouding his mind, but he wouldn't let them get in the way of his duel. He remembered how Vivian now held one of his Mystic Swordsmen, and hoped it gave her luck as he plunged into the deck slot and pulled out six cards, as he was going to start.
“I'll begin by summoning marauding captain, which allows me to special summon my mystic swordsman lv4 to the arena.”
The floodlights now closed in on the copper-clad and bronze haired hero, accompanying a soldier in indigo and cream attire, holding a broad sword against his just as stocky shoulders, a fierce gleam in his dreamy eyes, something you rarely, if never saw in the real world. He set a card and ended his turn, letting Osaka take her turn.
“I'll set two cards face down.” Announced Osaka, “And activate heavy storm.”

Bakura managed to wake from his stupor, leaping up to find his duel disk sealed in a pile of faint green ice beside him. He gingerly stepped towards it, leaning his hand over to check the ice, and felt it.
It wasn't cold.
It wasn't even ice.
It was crystal.
He turned round to here a sickening crunch, and Panik emerged from in the foreground, sweeping a heavy fist to punch Bakura on the cheek, sending him sprawling over towards a crumbling parapet. He seemed to be on the fusion of castle of dark illusions and pandemonium. A decrepit castle. An ageing fortress. His arena. Panik pulled out a single card, placing it on his duel disk. Bakura could see through his foggy vision that the card was blue, but not the same marbled cerulean that a ritual monster was. It was the blue card everyone dreaded. Not blue eyes. Nothing as puny as that. Panik had a god, and it was about to be summoned.
Just as the Egyptian entity was being awoken from a slumber, so was Bakura's ring. It glimmered in a slightly mischievous way, giving the spirit of the child no energy to protect himself from the being inside. His body became taller, slightly more muscled, with more defiant lines of his face, bold and gothic. Yami No Bakura pulled a card from a box on his hip, and placed it on the newly formed Dia Dank on his arm.
“What do you think you're doing?” Rasped Panik as a violet light sprung from behind his rival, strong enough to match the blue flames licking around the duelist as old and decrepit as the arena.
“Foolish mortal, you thought you could beat me in a normal duel? This is a Game of Darkness, and I will be the victor.”
Panik screamed and recoiled as he saw his duel disk turn into a matching dia dank. It was crumbling, aged, sagely in the ways of magic. Suitable for his monster. The God Obelisk appeared behind his new keeper, and began to charge at his opponent.
“Diabound?”

From the billowing winds that surrounded Horus, he saw two small golden reptiles appear, baring miniature fangs at their foe. Mai grinned devilishly, just like her creatures.
“Now I'll tribute the two of them for my almighty creature. Say hello to Black Magician.”
Behind her, a man in deep purple armour, mint-tinged skin and flowing blonde locks emerged. Beside Osaka, they had very little in the way of differences in appearance. Horus groaned, but was glad his waboku could chain.
“Oh well, I'll set two magic or trap cards and end my turn.”
Horus drew a card and looked at his hand. Four cards to try and destroy that magician with.
“I'll activate United we stand, giving my Mystic swordsman a total of 3500 attack.”
The captain handed the other monster his sword, and the swordsman nodded in approval.
“Now I'll summon another monster, my DD Assailant. Now my Mystic Swordsman has 4300 attack!”
Beside the two other warriors, a sandy haired man, draped in clothes that fitted snugly to his torso and chin, and belts wrapped around a pair of khaki pants to clothe his legs, emerged and handed his broadsword the aforementioned mythical paladin.
“Now, Swordsman, attack her Black Magician directly!”
Horus flinched, closing his eyes as Mai clicked the quick-play button on her duel disk. Enemy Controller.
“With this spell, I can take your DD Assailant by sacrificing Black Magician.”
The tall monster disappeared as the crouching creature appeared on her field, speeding forward and taking hold of Mystic Swordsman. In a surge of twilight stardust, the two monsters disappeared into the warps of time and space, leaving 1400 life points for Osaka to manipulate.
“Now my marauding captain, attack her directly!”
Once again, a trap card flipped up. This time, the image showed a darkening graveyard, wisps of gentle smoke lifting from the graves.
“My cry of the living dead, the call of the haunted, will bring back Black Magician to block the attack.”
The warrior slammed against the sage creature before him, and with a blast of black ethereal power he was shattered in a storm of data. Horus now only had 2700 life points, and he wasn't best pleased. He had just lost all his monsters in one go.
“I'll set one card and end…” Groaned Horus, the box appearing before him as Osaka made her hand one card.
“I'll activate pot of greed, giving me a total of two cards in hand. Now, I'll summon Breaker the Magical Warrior and use my spell card, baptism of light and darkness.”
As the regal crimson spellcaster emerged in a swarm of sea blue sparks, the other monster whirled round, forming into a thinner, more dark warrior. His skin was now turquoise, his hair bushy and black. He was clothed in buckles and leather much like DD Assailant had been, and brandished a long violet and onyx staff with a ball of lapis set in the cradle at the end.
“With breaker's effect, I can use a token to destroy your trap card. So say bye bye to…”
The field was clogged with four pastel rams, each one bleeting as it was played.
“Not so hasty! My four goats will sit proudly in the front line to protect my remaining life points.”
“Ye of little faith, Mr. Fletcher.” Grinned Osaka, plucking a spell from her cemetery. It was the that Horus remembered Dark Magician of Chaos' special ability. When it was summoned, it could take one spell from the owner's cemetery and play it. And enemy controller would prove to be his downfall.
“With my enemy controller, I'll move a scapegoat token into attack.”
2800 power would wipe out his life points. He flicked through his hand, hoping for something that would save him. Nothing. He would lose almost on the dot.
“Dark Magician of Chaos, attack the goat and wipe out his life points!” Mai announced, throwing a defiant index in the direction of the now proudly standing sheep. Horus screamed as his life points were destroyed in a shocking blue blast, his dreams of winning shattered. His felt his deck tumble from the duel disk, falling, falling like his hopes.

Corgi was wondering why Horus looked so down. He was followed by Osaka, who's eyes were large but just as neutral. She turned back to the main screen to see the arena the commentator had mentioned earlier. A huge emerald castle suspended on an axis of icy rock was being given a close up, and there was the duel. The unconscious form of Panik was seen suspended just before he fell. Bakura had placed down five monsters on his duel disk, and with a gleam of golden light, his body returned to the young child he had been before. His opponent didn't move as the flames disappeared from around him. Diabound faded away, as did the other monsters. Bakura's life points were 100, barely enough to stand another hit.
As Corgi saw the win being calculated on the virtual scoreboard behind her, for both Mai and Bakura, she heard a scream come from the on-screen audience. The castle had no shattered apart, along with the stream of stone that held them up, and it was now plummeting towards the arena.

Yugi and Vivian were thrown back by Honda and Raphael, as Kaiba brought out a trap card and placed it on his duel disk with a burning white light.
“Holy Barrier, Mirror Force!”
As the stone shattered and fell towards the crowd that was now stampeding from the stands, a translucent shield appeared above the remaining duelist, protecting them from the shower of diamond. Victor watched the carnage with a glint of anger in his eyes. Kaiba was ruining his plans again.
As the wall faded, a huge chunk of stone fell down almost right next to him, sending a wave of dirty sand over him and Victor as Catherine and Pandora ran out, the girl being led out by the illusionist.
“Come on my sweet, back we go…”
“…”
Yugi and Vivian saw Kaiba stumble out, covered in dirt. He looked as refined as ever, if only by the fact he was holding Bakura in his shaking arms.
Panik lay with 3000 life points left on his life point counter. Somehow still awake, Bakura chased away from Honda's grip to check at his opponent, hoping the duel could still possibly continue.
“Panik, hey, wake up, we have to continue.”
There was no answer. Bakura gasped and turned over the body, looking at the stunned look of horror as the field card faded from the disk, turning back into Heavy Storm. The man's forehead where the eye had been was still warm, like a heating oven, as Bakura touched it gingerly. Victor came over, scooping up the body in front of Bakura.
“What are you going to do to him?” Roared Yugi, glowing as he became his mature form once more.
“Nothing much. Just what every redundant member of my society has to suffer.”
Yami No Yugi and Ryou watched as Victor carried away the seemingly bulky form of Panik into the darkness, shrouding them into the mysteries of whatever their society involved.
“Well, it seems Bakura wins by default in that round, but… OH MY GOD!”
The commentator screamed as she dropped the microphone and chased from her compartment into the lobby below. The foreign reporter looked at her fleeting steps, and gave a look of concern.
“What in the world?”
He never would know. The last thing he saw was a marbled blue fist crunch through the glass, sending his corpse sprawling across the floor, glass imbedded like icy daggers into every area of his body, scars of heart caressing his charred face.
Panik may be gone. But Obelisk wasn't.

Horus had already sped out of the front doors of the mall, followed by Corgi and Osaka Mai. This was the moment the tournament would be about. Adrenaline. Thundering down the plaza towards the Domino High complex and then turning towards Kaiba Land, they were halted onto by a road crossing. The colour red had halted them, and the car had now stopped on the road in front of them. It was as crimson as the warning. Corgi was wondering if this was some mental endurance test. If the man in the car (as the sports car was so incredibly macho) winded down the window to ask what two words could sum up the emotions at that point, the two words would have been `kick car.' Something was going on, and she may be able to help. She wanted to be seen on camera at least once. The window did wind down, and the person inside was none they knew. His skin was pale, his mouth was firm jawed and protruding, with thick lips and jumbled teeth. His pale blonde hair was in a carless mop, his clothing just that of an ordinary elementary school teacher. Beside him sat a face Corgi knew. Tanned, exotic and beautiful. It was Ushebti. Behind her, now leaning over to swap radio stations, was Pierre, in all his French gothic glory.
“Do you need a lift to Kaiba Land?” Grinned Ushebti with a friendly wave, obviously happy to see the relative of Pegasus, who had become a good companion to her over their time as a team.
“Yeah, thanks.” Beamed Horus, sliding into the back with Osaka. There was a single chair in the back area, and Corgi sat in it without a word, as the car kicked off and sped down the road towards the challenge that awaited them.
“Who is this guy, anyway?” Asked Horus, leaning over to whisper to Pierre.
“This is Chronos-sensei. He's a history teacher at Domino High.”
Pierre turned to Mai who had just answered, and Chronos grinned with a look of `just trust the girl' as he looked back to driving. They were now nearing the staircase, and he sped up as they reached the steps.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Getting you to Obelisk.” Snapped Chronos, obviously his love for history overtaking him. The car jumped up the stairs and then clattered through the main centre, filled with wooden chalets. The group shielded their eyes as the glass door shattered upon the car's force, the metal frame splintering every which way as the car (which Corgi had now noticed was not a Japanese make) sped down the glossed marbled corridors, arriving at the doorway to the stadium. Two guards made a vain attempt to stop the school children and the Italian sounding teacher from screeching onto the main arena, each of them leaving their seats and pulling out their decks.
“Out comes my Behemoth, king of all animals!” Announced Corgi, throwing a monster onto her duel disk. A gigantic maroon mammal, sharp fangs and protruding horns included, swept out of the projector and charged at the opponent. The hound passed straight through the monster's rocky flesh, and looked vexed as it landed on the other side.
“Our holograms aren't solid, they can't phase that thing!”
Mai certainly wasn't an optimist in matters such as these. Corgi placed two spells on the disk and waited for the others to make their moves.
“Horus lv6, I summon you!”
“Creator Incarnate, I summon you!”
“Flame Ruler, I summon you!”
Ushebti, Horus and Pierre respectively had now summoned their avatar monsters. A hawk like dragon made of pewter like metal, a man in glimmering golden armour and a naked, muscular, dark man dressed in only a ragged red coat swept out onto the field and attacked. The audience had all but left, only the friends of Yugi left sitting there with their duel disks ready. Bakura and the others were now caught on the rim of the arena, a berserk obelisk about to destroy the stadium. With a flash of gold, Yugi and Bakura got up, their faces aging, their bodies becoming more mature and supple. Yami No Yugi and Yami No Bakura stepped up, duel disks in hand, and chased over to the others.
Chronos had now summoned his `Mechanical Gear Golem' and was proceeding to try and defeat the god, both of a similar height, but failing spectacularly.
“He can't do this on his own. He can't beat Obelisk.” Moaned Osaka, looking for a card in her deck that might help.
“Oh shut up, will you?” Roared Corgi, flicking through her own deck for other options. Osaka had now set two spells and summoned a monster. Pikeru, the White Magician. A cute girl in white robes and a hat modelled on a sheep token. The massive creature reared it's malformed body, and slamming a fist into the ground, Pikeru was destroyed.
“The pain is more than any simulator…”
Corgi leaned over her ally, watching as she spewed up blood and her lifepoints fell to 1200. Obelisk clenched the stocky machine Chronos owned, and picked up Behemoth by the scruff, making them form into blue lights and empower his fists as he threw them towards the girl duelists, about to finish off their life points when…
“Pikeru's Circle of Enchantment!”
Osaka's trap opened up, sealing the two females in a ring of golden light and pink stars, an adolescent giggle showing the advent of this barrier. The sky was now beginning to patter down with rain, and a bolt of thunder struck somewhere far to the north, blinding Chronos for a second as he was knocked off his feet by the god, sprawling into the far wall as a sickening thud beckoned his unconsciousness. His life points were now 0, removed by the almighty beast's power.
“Dark Magician! Dark Magician again! Magician of Black Chaos!”
The red and purple mages, along with the slim ritual form of Mai's monster appeared on the field. The trio of Yugi's creatures stormed over to the opposite side of the stadium, sweeping their staffs at the beast and failing, each of them being crushed in a flurry of power as Corgi flipped up her spirit barrier. Yugi's life points were safe, for now.
“My three Dark Magicians, my three Magician of Black Chaos!” Roared Osaka, picking up five cards from her sideboard and one from her deck and chucking them onto the disk, slotting a mage into the spell section. Each one of them was further crushed by Obelisk, a deafening roar as he killed once more.
I get what yugi was doing…
Corgi didn't understand what Mai was grinning about, what could possibly be so useful as to killing your own monsters?
“Horus level 8! God of World Creation! Phoenix Nephtys!”
The three demigods were still being batted back by the deity, but their duelist's didn't care. They would take as long as they needed to beat it.
“Phoenix! Attack him again with your wing blast!”
The golden bird swept through the night sky, bursting the dark clouds with golden streams of discarded feathers. A stray fireball of electric blue smacked against it's chest as it released a storm of wind, sending it spiralling to the ground, sending waves of spinning, blackened sand into the face of Pierre, who screamed as his body distorted and his life points fell to 2800. The corpse of his monster faded away in a burning effect, leaving him injured on the ground. Yugi chased over, taking Ushebti by the arm and whispering into her ear the plan they needed to accomplish. She chased over to Horus, and Yugi went over to Pierre, as Mai informed Corgi of just what they were trying to do. Bakura was now dodging like a gymnast as a barrage of hits came flying into the ground around him like tiny meteors. His sweaty, desert tanned skin was now speckled with black. Raphael was restraining Honda from running over and helping, as was Isono and other bodyguards stopping the hoard of Yugi's comrades running down to the sand to help.
“Yugi's our friend you buffoon!” Snapped Rebecca, her grandfather not trying to calm her. The guards closed in on them, circling them in the seats so they couldn't get out. Anzu screamed as a punch landed almost right next to the stands, sending rock and sand alike in a tempest over the crowd.
“Horus, attack Obelisk alone!” Roared Ushebti with a tinge of uncertainty in her voice. The gods clashed, and only the marble monstrosity remained standing. Ushebti took damage, leaving her with 3000 life points, while the Creator and Obelisk had a punch fight, resulting in Horus collapsing with the strain of the 1700 damage he received. Then, Mai and Yugi brought out their decks once more.
“Corgi, now!”
The beast had now launched itself at the three fallen duelists, and she flipped her last trap.
“Mirror Force! Protect!”
A wall of glass formed before the rampaging creature, beginning to shatter under the weight of it's fist.
“Osaka, Mutou, do your thing!” Cried Ushebti. She and Corgi placed their hands over Mai's duel disk, Horus and Pierre clasping the wings of Yugi's. The two magician duelists placed their monsters on the field with a roar of triumph as the glass shattered above them.
“BLACK MAGICIAN GIRLS! ARISE!”
Everything went quiet through the deafening cries of Obelisk. His fist shattered the glass, sweeping downwards at the group. Blasts of lightning shook the floor as his fist was about to strike. The black magicians and black magicians of chaos appeared as ghostly apparitions behind the two beautiful blondes, dressed in skimpy armour and ribbons. The demigods appeared behind the two girls, passing on their ability to exist in reality with Obelisk to the two apprentices. Their attack points increased by 1500 and then a further 1200. 4700 total attack each. With a combined might of 9400 power, they raised their wands up high and beheaded the creature surging down upon them, as they chased into the blinding destruction that was about to reach everyone. The golden beam subsided, the demigod's holders collapsed, Corgi fainted into Chronos' lap and Osaka clasped Yami No Yugi round the waist. A faint steam arose from the carnage of the coliseum, as Seto brushed his messy hair with a clammy, shaking hand. He had never known his creature had been able to cause so much damage, and yet it had been beaten by Yugi. As always.

Paramedics gingerly streamed in, taking the injured away to the infirmary wing to heal. Yugi and Mai were also guided away with Corgi, and Bakura followed after, bustled off by the Matron. The others look on as Seto sorted out his dusty jacket and turned to them all. He made one final message before sweeping his brother and guards away.
“The next set of duels will happen tomorrow. Please return to your chalets. I'm sure you'll need sleep. After all, the fun has only just begun!”