Yugioh Endgame – Duel 28: Some Opening Thoughts

The couple easily make their way up the tallest hill near them to see a majestic but joyless panorama as they stand unwisely near a precipice. Without the metaphysical mental projections known as Ka, they are mortal as the lowest mook.   

“Why go here?” Asks a puzzled Yukio.

“I want to steal the view.” Maya answers. “Look at a granite palace or glass skyscraper. The pharaoh or executive within has great power and an even greater title, but he is caged by the walls of the very city that makes him so strong and important. I was trapped by the same walls when I was World Champion, a ‘Queen of Games’ in title only but really a slave of one game.”

“I agree; the pro dueling world sucked. Go on.” Yukio prods her.

Maya resumes, “We are domesticated animals like cows and pigs. A feral creature, a fox maybe, is not just free but sharper and stronger. It can leap in and out of the proverbial pen and steal anything it wants, even this view.”

“Is being feral the ideal?” Yukio asks, the philosophical side of him hoping for a good answer.

“Yes, and I mean ‘feral’ in an unbiased sense, as being a creature in the ‘wild’, not as a cow in a farm.” Maya says, “Maybe I should become a scaly, feathery, furry, flaming, queer of a dragon full time. I could free myself of every lame construct clouding my understanding of reality and of any dependency on others.”

Yukio casts doubt on these ideas. “You need to fight an opponent. It defines your existence. It was Matthew several years ago. Now, it is the High Mages. Then, it will be some bigshot like Yugi or Kaiba. Then, it will be some ‘secret boss’, maybe that Yifan woman. If there was no enemy to destroy, you would either destroy yourself or make humanity itself the next target.”

Maya barely raises her voice but just enough to cast the shadow of danger “I hope you can answer that riddle, because I thought about it for a long time, and I sure can’t.”

Yukio ignores the warning signs and presses on with assertions. “Speaking of ‘lame constructions’, you are a mother; you must care for our child. Who takes care of Narmer once you’ve achieved liberation? Never mind your sociopathic ramblings of eating your child; nobody will allow it, even if such an abomination was somehow perfectly reasonable.”

“Narmer’s babysitter certainly won’t be you. I don’t see you being a stay-at-home parent either.” Maya accuses her lover. “Like any other pussified leftist, you have enough critiques to write a book nobody will buy outside Williamsburg, but you are incapable of reaching solutions. I’m starting to think your sort are like housewives who must compulsively complain and gossip to somehow feel virtuous, either as a deep intellectual or oppressed victim. Poor you and Narmer, neglected by your brute ‘husband’ who has to work all day to secure the family’s future.” 

Hit by the poisonous arrow, Yukio burns in anger. “If you did not abandon our son three years ago, if you were a responsible person with empathy and not a vile bitch thirsting for power and bloodshed, you might’ve had a point. You clearly don’t care about the people in this revolution we started. You want to show some philosophical point, or beat your adversaries in a game, or prove to yourself how amazing you are to deal with whatever issues you have. You’re ‘pragmatic’, because it makes you look strong and unbothered, it justifies dominating other people, and it excuses you from dealing with people’s vulnerabilities, yours included.”   

Struck in the heart, deeply hurt, Maya retaliates. “You know nothing about the sacrifices I have to make. You will never know how heavy my heart was with sorrow when I had to leave our baby behind or how I shed so many tears they were getting on his eyes. Power and strength are all I have, but I will give it all away to save humanity from stupidly destroying itself. I have been nothing but misunderstood my entire life.”

Yukio paces back and forth, pulling his hair. Maya breathes heavily, suppressing her tears.

“Here we go again, here we go again.” Yukio sighs, “This always happens: we get hot and bothered without each other, we have sex to release the volcanic tension, then we have an ashstorm of an argument.”

“We got into a relationship at the heat of the moment before really knowing each other.” Maya dryly comments. “Narmer is the price we have paid for our mistake. I wanted a gentle and deep man to give me balance.”

“I wanted an outgoing and domineering woman to give me strength.” Yukio adds. “We thought we could compliment each other, but things may not work out like in When Harry Met Sally.” 

Maya sits cross-legged on the dirt. She picks up a stone, looking at it carefully as if deciding whether to keep it or throw it. In the end, she throws it with a heavy heart.

She tells Yukio her decision, “Let’s try things out for one more year. We should do everything in our power to change. We’ll even use Mathias as a marriage counselor for all we know.”

“I believe he’s married.” Yukio alleges. 

“That should help. If we can’t make it, we split, and,” Maya nearly renders in tears, grasping her chest as if doing so stops her crying. “And you can have Narmer.”

Yukio sits cross-legged next to Maya, and they lean on each other with closed eyes for a long time.

“So how was your date – I mean, Duel – with the High Mage?” Maya restarts the conversation with some mischief. “Pounding to death your first bad guy must have been a pretty big deal.”

Yukio recounts the entire ordeal from Arsenal Bug Squad to Orgoth the Relentless. And no, killing his first bad guy was not a big deal, since Anubisius was the kind of neckbeard he would punch in the face anyway.

“He had it easy.” Maya arrogantly snorts. “A high-ATK, beatdown idiot obsessed with preventing monster destruction is exactly the kind of opponent my Deck is designed to crush. I could have smashed his Deck so hard it would have broken in two.”

“That’s what she said.” Yukio snickers.

Maya clasps the back of her head, elbows stretched wide apart. “Speaking of giving up power, when everything is over, I will destroy all my cards and hopefully destroy the Yugioh game itself.”

Yukio is flabbergasted. “Destroying your cards? That is sacrilege! Think how it would hurt your duel monsters if not all duel monsters. Do you have no conscience? Would you not hear the cry of the souls of your servants?”

Incredulous at such talk, Maya brandishes her Sirens. “These creatures manage the fabric of eleven-dimensional spacetime. They are the Fates themselves, holding precedence over any god. Not even Zeus can change their decrees, let alone a brutish Nordic god like Thor or an invincible Egyptian god like Ra. Tearing up pieces of cardboard paper can’t hurt them.”

Yukio has nothing more to say. The blasphemer has a point.

“My ‘sacrilege’ concerns a larger point.” Maya explains, “Back in the day, the story molded the game, and the opponents were mirrors of each other’s hearts. Takashi and the screenwriters made the game reflect the characters and their conflicts, external and internal, the ‘battle of their souls’. Now, the cancerous game molds the story, and it’s crushed by a burdensome meta. Hopefully, I’m chemo Yugioh desperately needs.”

“That’s like a doctor curing a patient of his brain tumor by shooting him in the face.” Yukio remarks. 

“Oh, well. A man can’t have a migraine if he’s dead.” Maya glibly asserts. “I honestly hope no one plays this stupid game ever again after all is said and done. More trouble than it’s worth.”

Maya turns Yukio’s head to face you and the rest of the audience. “Season Four is so big we must split it in two parts like with the last Harry Potter movie. We’re on the last page. Would you like to tell the readers how you feel about the story so far?”

“Excuse me, but I did not consent to this!” Yukio huffs, but he calms down when he sees this is Duel 28 and realizes Season Four is nowhere near done, then he offers criticism. “There is an awkward tone imbalance between pretentious political commentary and fourth-wall jokes. The High Mages are flat characters, really satires of various political viewpoints and obstacles the noble heroes must defeat to get the Millennium McGuffins. There is little character development: I’m still a morality pet, Mathias remains a cool uncle with nothing better to do, Kaiba stays constipated, Pegasus didn’t get any straighter, and Maya remains… a third-rate duelist with a fourth-rate deck.” 

Maya glocks Yukio on the arm so hard the poor man limps away in pain, then she gives her take. “The author doesn’t understand the nuts and bolts of geopolitics very much, and I have no idea why [redacted anonymous] would put such garbage in a Yukio fanfic of all things. How does anyone go from wanting to write a cool fanfic to typing whatever this is? I would say ‘penning’, but it suggests a smug ‘literati’ or an introspective fool from two hundred years ago writing some novel, which is more cluelessly outdated than socialism. [Redacted] needs to think more about philosophy and transhumanism, specifically how technology, machine intelligence, and spacetime/virtual/dimension exploration can change the very nature of our species, but [redacted] must crunch out the remaining Seasons ASAP.”

“Perhaps we should put down the subjects of the next ‘book’.” Yukio suggests from a corner.

“Good idea.” Maya agrees. “We should do the following: develop me and Kaiba by forcing us to deal with our daddy issues, make Yukio deal with his mommy issues so he grows a pair, bring in more Saints (Mathias’ comrades for those who don’t know about Path of Virtue) and OG Yugioh characters, track Sofie’s evolution and conversely Yifan’s devolution, get me to more often fight Maria or whatever the Kisara expy’s name is, make something come out of Kaiba’s dimension exploration as long as it stays concise and doesn’t become Arc-V cancer.”

Yukio adds, “The ‘heavy’ subjects with philosophy or politics are fine indulgences, but ultimately character development is the most important part here. A balanced exploration of themes and character development work better in a ‘real’ book.”

“One last thing.” Maya concludes, “I will make a point how spiritual development is fit for individuals and not for societies. You can’t evolve or awaken humanity as a collective. The most you can do is burn a trail as a ‘spiritual leader’ and get people to follow a trend, but that trend ultimately becomes another dogma or institution. Humanity cannot follow you.”

That said, Yukio clasps the Millennium Key still hanging around his neck, channeling all his Ka into the object until it shatters. Two Millennium Items down, five more to go. 

Created Cards – Duels 25-27

YUKIO’S CARDS:

Dungeon Dice Master
DARK/Level 1/Spellcaster/0 ATK/0 DEF
Tuner
When destroyed and sent to the GY; you can banish this card: roll a six-sided die, and apply the appropriate effect. 1 or 2: Special Summon 1 monster with a six-sided die effect from your hand or GY. 3 or 4: Return 1 card with a six-sided die effect from your GY to your hand. 5 or 6: Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower monster with a six-sided die effect from the Deck.

Dungeon Dice Arena
Field Spell
Once per turn: if either player(s) rolls a die (or dice) (except for this card’s effect), you can have the player(s) re-roll. Once per turn: if a card with a six-sided die effect is targeted by a card effect; roll a six-sided die, then, if the result is 4,5, or 6, negate the card effect. Once per turn: if this card is destroyed by your opponent’s card effect; roll a six-sided die, and apply the appropriate effect. 1 or 2: Shuffle a card with a six-sided die effect (except this card) from the GY into the Deck, then, draw 1 card. 3 or 4: Shuffle 2 cards with a six-sided die effect you control into the Deck (reveal the card(s) if face down), then, draw 2 cards. 5 or 6: Reveal all cards with a six-sided die effect in your hand, and shuffle them into the Deck, then, draw the same number of cards shuffled +1.

Gator Dragon
EARTH/Level 6/Dragon/1600 ATK/1800 DEF
Can be Special Summoned if your opponent controls monster(s) and you control none. If this card battles: roll a six-sided die, and apply the appropriate effect. 1, 3, 5: Increase this card’s ATK by half the DEF of one monster on the field (except this card). 2, 4, 6: Increase this card’s DEF by half the ATK of one monster on the field (except this card).

Warp Gate
Continuous Trap
Once per turn: if a monster you control with a six-sided die effect would be destroyed by battle, it is not destroyed, then, shuffle that monster into the Deck, and Special Summon 1 Level 6 or lower monster with a six-sided die effect from the Deck.

Gilafore
WIND/Level 2/Dragon/ATK 1200/DEF 600
Tuner
If destroyed by battle: Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower monster with a six-sided die effect from the Deck. During either player’s Battle Phase: you can banish this card card from your field or GY and other Synchro Materials you control to Synchro Summon 1 Synchro monster.

Blast Lizard
EARTH/Level 4/Reptile/ATK 1200/DEF 1200
Once during either player’s turn: roll a six-sided die, and apply the appropriate effect. 1, 2, 3: destroy 1 monster your opponent controls. 4, 5, 6: destroy 1 Spell/Trap your opponent controls.

Knight of Twin Swords
EARTH/Level 4/Warrior/ATK 1600/DEF 1600
When this card battles, you can roll a six-sided die 3 times, and this card gains ATK/DEF equal to the total x100 during the Damage Step, then, if 2 of the results were the same, double this card’s original ATK/DEF during the Damage Step. If all 3 were the same, this card can attack again in a row.

Thursday, the 12th Grave
DARK/Level 10/Zombie/ATK 0/DEF 0
SYNCHRO: 1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
Once during either player’s turn: target 1 monster; send it to the GY, and this card’s original ATK/DEF becomes the target monster’s ATK/DEF until the end of the turn.

Grandmaster Strike Ninja
DARK/Level 6/Warrior/ATK 2450
Can shuffle 2 banished monsters with six-sided die effects into the Deck to Special Summon this card from your hand. If this card battles or is targeted by a card effect: you can roll a six-sided die 3 times and this card gains ATK/DEF equal to the total x100 until the end of your opponent’s turn, then, if 2 of the results were the same, banish this card until the end of the turn, and end the current Phase. (When this card returns to the field, its ATK/DEF remains increased.)

Iron Golem Gorogon
EARTH/Level 6/Rock/ATK 1000/DEF 1000
Once during either player’s turn: roll a six-sided die. Treat all columns as numbers 1-5, counting from your right, and destroy all cards within the same column as the result (except this card). If the result is 6, roll again.

Twin-Headed Dragonlych
DARK/Level 3/Zombie/ATK 1000/DEF 1600
Once per turn: you can roll a six-sided die 2 times, and this card gains ATK/DEF equal to the total x100 until the end of your opponent’s next turn, then, if 2 of the results were the same, apply the appropriate effect. 1 or 2: Your opponent takes any battle damage you would have taken from battles involving this card instead this turn. 3 or 4: Can attack your opponent directly this turn. 5 or 6: Can attack twice this turn.

Poltergeist Calamity
Trap
Activate when your opponent attacks with a monster with the highest ATK on the field. The effects of all monsters on the field during this card’s activation are negated this turn. Target 1 monster your opponent controls: destroy it, and if you do, Special Summon as many “Poltergeist Tokens” (DARK/Level 1/Fiend/ATK 800/DEF 800) as possible. “Poltergeist Tokens” must always be in Attack Position. A monster that battles a “Poltergeist Token” is destroyed at the start of the Damage Step, and its controller takes 800 damage. Destroy a “Poltergeist Token” that battled after the Damage Step.

Wizard Dragon
LIGHT/Level 6/Dragon/ATK 2400/DEF 1800
Also treated as a Spellcaster monster when on the field.
If Summoned: you can roll a six-sided die 3 times, then, if 2 of the results were the same, apply the appropriate effect. 1, 2, 3: destroy all monsters (except this card). 4, 5, 6: destroy all Spells/Traps. If all 3 were the same: destroy all cards (except this card), and this effect cannot be Chained or negated.

Dark Eye Stalker
DARK/Level 1/Fiend/ATK 350/DEF 300
If Summoned: you can roll a six-sided die 2 times, then, if 2 of the results were the same, target 1 monster your opponent controls; take control of it until the End Phase.

Star Blaster (Errata)
Spell
Target 1 face-up monster you control, and roll a six-sided die. Increase its Level by the die result, then, you can Tribute it to Special Summon 1 monster from the Deck with an equal Level.

Armed Wizard Pazoo
LIGHT/Level 8/Warrior/ATK 0/DEF 0
Also treated as a Spellcaster monster when on the field. During either player’s Battle Phase: you can equip this card to 1 monster you control with a six-sided die effect. A monster equipped with this card gains ATK equal to the ATK of the monster it battles, and it cannot be destroyed.

ANUBISIUS’ CARDS:

Lost Sanctuary
Field Spell
Once per turn: you can Special Summon 1 Insect monster from your hand. If this card or exactly 1 Insect monster you control would be destroyed by a card effect; you can send 1 Insect monster from your hand or field to the GY: negate the effect.

Arsenal Bug Squad
EARTH/Level 3/Insect/ATK 2000/DEF 2000
If Normal or Special Summoned: you can equip 1 this card with Insect monster from your Deck. If this card would be destroyed by a card effect; you can send 1 card equipped to this card of the same Card Type to the GY: this card is not destroyed.

Empress Ladybug of Life
EARTH/Level 8/Insect/ATK 1000/DEF 2000
Tuner
Pendulum Scale 12
If you would take damage from a direct attack while this card is in the GY: you gain that amount of LP instead, then, Special Summon this monster from the GY. Once per turn: you can target 1 Insect monster your control; that monster becomes Level 8.

Pendulum Effect
Once per turn: target 1 Insect monster you control; it cannot be destroyed by card effects.

Dimension Hopper
EARTH/Level 4/Insect/ATK 1200/DEF 1000
Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Special Summon this card by banishing 1 Insect monster in your GY while you control no other monsters. Tribute this card: Special Summon 2 banished Insect monsters.

Dimension Difusion Distortion
Spell
Pay half your LP, then, target 2 or more monsters you control. Special Summon as many monsters from your Deck and Extra Deck as possible by using the targeted monsters as Tributes or Materials. The effects of monsters Special Summoned from the Extra Deck by this card’s effect are negated until the end of the turn. 

Perfectly Polymorphous Great Moth
WATER/Level 8/Insect/ATK 3500/DEF 3000
FUSION: 2 Level 8 or higher Insect monsters
Once per turn: you can shuffle into the Deck 1 monster your opponent Special Summoned from the Extra Deck; gain LP equal to that monster’s ATK. For the rest of the turn, monsters of that same Extra Deck Type cannot be Special Summoned.

Perfectly Polyharmonic Great Moth
LIGHT/Level 8/Insect/ATK 3500/DEF 3000
SYNCHRO: 1 Insect Tuner + 1 or more Insect non-Tuner monsters
Can be Synchro Summoned using 2 Level 8 Insect monsters.
Once per turn: if your opponent activates a monster effect that targets or would destroy an Insect monster you control; negate the activation, and destroy it, then, increase this card’s ATK by its ATK. If this card battles a Level 5 or higher effect monster: increase this card’s ATK by its ATK during the Damage Step.

Perfectly Polydimensional Great Moth
FIRE/Level 8/Insect/ATK 3500/DEF 3000
Once per turn: your opponent activates a Spell/Trap that would destroy more than 1 Insect monster you control: you can negate the activation, and if you do, attach it to this card as Xyz Material. During the Damage Step: you can detach 2 Xyz Materials, and if you do, double this card’s ATK.

Perfectly Penultimate Great Moth
WIND/Level 8/Insect/ATK 3500/DEF 3000
Pendulum Scale 4
If this card would be destroyed: you can place it in a Pendulum Zone instead, and if you do, place 1 Pendulum Insect monster from your GY into the other Pendulum Zone.

Pendulum Effect
Once per turn: you can shuffle 1 Insect monster you control into the Deck, then, add 1 Pendulum Insect monster with 2000 or less ATK from the Deck to your hand.

Perfectly Polychannel Great Moth
DARK/Level 8/Insect/ATK 3500/DEF 3000
LINK 6 (top-left, top, top-right, bottom-left, bottom, bottom-right)  
Can treat Level 8 or higher Insect monsters you control as Link 3 Materials when Link Summoning this card. Monsters this card’s Link Arrows point to can forgo “once per turn” effect limits.

Giant Green Glowworm
EARTH/Level 10/Insect/1900 ATK/ 1300 DEF
If Summoned: Special Summon as many Insect monsters of different Extra Deck Types from the GY as possible (their original ATK/DEF become 0, and their effects are negated). Double this card’s ATK for each Extra Deck Insect monster you control. If this card would be destroyed by card effect, you can return 1 Extra Deck Insect monster you control into the Extra Deck, and this card is not destroyed. 

Mimetic Evolution
Quick-Play Spell
Target 1 Insect monster: double its ATK/DEF until the End Phase.

Class System (errata)
Quick-Play Spell
If a monster your opponent controls battles a monster you control with an equal or greater Level: negate the attack and its effect(s).

Yugioh Endgame – Duel 27: Jolly Green Giantworm

YUKIO: 3150 | ANUBISIUS: 68

Yukio traded two cards with Mathias and Maya before the raid on Anubisius’ poppy plantation, one trap from each respectively. Yukio knows what to do. If everything works out, he can overcome his opponent and claim the Millennium Key.

“My comrade and my partner, please lend me your strength through your cards.” Yukio impleads.

ANUBISIUS’ TURN: “Your death happens now. Perfectly Polyharmonic Great Moth, slay Dragolich!” Anubisius commands. 

As the silvery white moth closes in, Yukio activates Dragolich, rolling “5”, “5”, and “6”. With his monster’s power unlocked, Yukio targets Polyharmonic Moth to receive Dragolich’s rotting breath.

“You idiot! I activate Polyharmonic Moth to negate!” Anubisius thunders, his moth blowing away Dragolich by greeting a wall of wind with its wings.

“Now for Maya’s card! I activate Poltergeist Calamity (Trap) to negate all monsters on the field!” Yukio commands, a host of smokey-colored ghosts flood the field, threatening to envelop Anubisiys’ entire army.

“You don’t learn, do you? My board is unbreakable; I can stop anything you throw at me. I activate Perfectly Polydimensional Great Moth to negate your Trap!” Anubisius announces, and his black moth glows a fiery gold at the wings, preparing to dispel all gods with the powers of light.   

“I have one more trick up my sleeve, Mathias’ card: Divine Wrath (Counter Trap)!” Yukio declares, discarding a card, conjuring a lightning bolt that smites Polydimensional Moth to death.

“Dear Allah, no!” Anubisius cries out in loss and disbelief as Poltergeist Calamity resolves, the ghosts draining the life force of all his monsters.

The ghosts now burrow inside the Polyharmonic Moth to feast on its soul. A moment later, having finished their dinner inside the house of their kind host, the guests burst out as viruses rupturing from a cell and gather on Yukio’s field as four Tokens (ATK 800). 

Anubisius refuses to give up, grumbling, “I’m not beaten yet, you pathetic beta male. Perfectly Penultimate Great Moth, destroy Dragolich.”

Anubisius’ red moth burns Dragolich with winds of fire, though it remains standing (Yukio LP 3150 → 650).

“I activate Warp Gate to shuffle Dragolich into my Deck and Special Summon Wizard Dragon (2400 ATK) from my Deck!” Yukio declares, and out comes a purple dragon, short and stocky, with tense with great magical power bottled up inside. “And I use its effect!”

Three large purple dice appear, rolling “2”, “6”, “4”. Yukio activates Dungeon Dice Arena to roll again, praying his hardest to whatever dice god exists not to let him down. He rolls “6”, “6”, and “6”. He jumps for so much joy his face and chin become comically creepy, for Wizard Dragon gets to unleash its most devastating power. The dragon bursts with the energy of an atomic weapon, wiping out EVERY CARD on the field, its magical energies so strong no player can Chain against it.

“I call cheating! Judge! Judge! JUDGE!” Anubisius shouts in disbelief while his entire board breaks. 

“I actually got 666 on a dice roll. That was hilarious.” Yukio says, eager to rub salt on his opponent’s wound.

“I’m not amused.” Anubisius angrily mutters.

Yukio snickers, “I didn’t break your board so much as smash the entire table Francis style. You gotta’ admit, that was pretty wizard.”

“Please shut up. It’s never coming back.”

“That’s what you think! I’m bringing it back one meme at a time!”

“Just go.” Anubisius grunts, setting a card and ending his turn.

YUKIO’S TURN: “Last turn was two pages long. How tedious. Wizard Dragon, direct attack!”

“Draining Shield (Trap)!” Anubisius reverses, conjuring a barrier, converting Wizard Dragon’s attack into Life Points (Anubisius LP 68 → 2468).

“Oh, fiddlesticks.” Yukio laments. “I activate One Day of Peace (Spell). We both draw a card, and I activate the Foolish Burial (Spell) I drew immediately, milling a monster. I end my turn.”

ANUBISIUS’ TURN: “I use my two Pendulum Monsters to Special Summon a monster from my hand.”Anubisius says.

“Wait, what Pendulum Monsters?” Yukio asks, noticing the two numbered columns behind Anubisius for the first time.

“My Perfectly Penultimate Great Moth.” Anubisius explains. “If it would be destroyed, I can transfer it to a Pendulum Zone instead, and once that happens it lets me put a Pendulum Monster in my Graveyard into a Pendulum Zone as well. I have Penultimate Moth at Scale 4 over here and Empress Ladybug at Scale 12 over there.”

Yukio makes an educated guess. “I assume you’ll most likely Special Summon a Level 8 or Level 10 monster from your hand.”

“You assume correctly.” Anubisius confirms. “I use my Pendulum Monsters to Special Summon the ultimate Insect lurking in Deck, Giant Green Glowworm (ATK 1900)!” 

A large pendulum appears and ponderously swings between the two columns, creating a gateway where the greatest of Anubisius’ monsters appears. No sooner is it summoned does its effect activate, reviving four of Anubisius’ monsters: Perfectly Polymorphous Great Moth (ATK 3500 → 0), Perfectly Polyharmonic Great Moth (ATK 3500 → 0), Perfectly Polydimensional Great Moth (ATK 3500 → 0), and Perfectly Polychannel Great Moth (ATK 3500 → 0).  

“Don’t worry about the moths. Their ATK is 0 and they lose their effects; they can’t hurt you.” Anubisius assures his rival before switching his tone. “But my Glowworm can; its ATK doubles for each Extra Deck Insect Monster out on the field.”

Yukio watches in horror as Giant Green Glowworm bursts with power, its strength rising exponentially (Glowworm ATK 1900 → 3800 → 7600 → 15,200). If Anubisius did not wear a mask, Yukio would see the smuggest face in his life.

Anubisius continues, “On that note, I activate Card of Sanctity (Spell) to refill my hand, then Heavy Storm (Spell) to destroy your back row.”

“But your Pendulum Monsters die too!” Yukio protests as every Spell and Trap in play is brushed away.  

“They are useless now. Glowworm, destroy Wizard Dragon!” Anubisius’ word becomes action, his monster swallowing Wizard Dragon with ease.

Unlike his monster, Yukio is spared any damage since One Day of Peace remains in effect. Anubisius Sets no less than 5 cards in the back row, confident in his impending victory.

YUKIO’S TURN: Yukio considers his hand carefully. All the pieces for a one turn kill are in place, courtesy of his opponent no less. Now is the time to go all in. Win or lose, live or die, succeed or fail; now is the time.

“I Normal Summon Dark Eye Stalker (ATK 350) and use its effect.” Yukio conjures a black, one-eyed fiend, rolling “2” and “1”.

A failure to control Glowworm, but it was worth giving a shot.

“I activate Star Blaster (Spell) and target Dark Eye Stalker!” Yukio declares, and he rolls “6”, so he Tributes his monster to Special Summon the ogre-sized demigod, Orgoth the Relentless (ATK 2500), from the Deck. “And I activate Orgoth’s effect.” 

Yukio casts three dice in the air, praying, “Come on, in the name of Joey and every protagonist’s best friend! For the love of Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, Park Slope, Coney Island, and all other things Brooklyn! Lady Luck, don’t fail me now!”

He rolls “1”, “1”, and “3”. YES! Orgoth grows in strength and gains immunity from destruction (ATK 2500 → 3000).    

“Snake eyes. How pitiful.” Anubisius sneers, but Yukio ignores him.

With courage emboldened, Yukio activates four more cards. “Monster Reborn (Spell) to revive the monster I milled last turn, Armed Wizard Pazoo (ATK 0)! I equip Orgoth with Diamond Blade (Equip Spell), a second Diamond Blade (Equip Spell), and a third Diamond Blade (Equip Spell)!”

Three enormous swords, clear as glass but indestructible, appear and fuse together, giving Orgoth an even bigger sword to wield (ATK 3000 → 6000 → 12,000 → 24,000). Anubisius raises an eyebrow, but is otherwise self-assured.  

“Orgoth, attack!” Yukio charges, and his demigod rushes to battle.

Glowworm violently strikes at Orgoth, but Orgoth gains the upper hand by impaling Glowworm through the head.

“No matter how hard you try, you will never be anything more than a beta male next to me.” Anubisius states. “I activate Mimetic Evolution (Quick-Play Spell), a second Mimetic Evolution (Quick-Play Spell), and a third Mimetic Evolution (Quick-Play Spell)!”

Glowworm triples in size, turning from merely phosphorous to blazing as the sun, and ensnares Orgoth with its newfound strength (ATK 15,200 → 30,400 → 60,800 → 121,600). 

“My ATK is bigger than your ATK.” Anubisius concludes. “The goddess of victory chooses only the strongest man, and I am that man. You lose.”

Yukio refuses to die without a fight. “This is the biggest dick-measuring contest in Yugioh since forever, and there’s no way in Hell I’m losing. I activate Armored Wizard Pazoo and equip Orgoth so it gains your monster’s ATK.”

The cute Pazoo reconfigures into a sword and casts itself onto Orgoth’s free hand. Orgoth was on the brink of death, its ribs crushing, its breath leaving. Armed with an extra weapon, Orgoth stabs Glowworm through the gut, forcing the creature to let him go (ATK 24,000 → 145,600).

“No! No!” Anubisius angrily stamps his foot, humiliated, forced to cut his losses. “I activate Class System (Quick-Play Spell) to negate your attack!”

Glowworm swats Orgoth away with its tail, adjourning the battle.

“You can’t run away from me, coward!” Yukio fumes. “I activate Double or Nothing! (Quick-Play Spell)! Orgoth gets to attack again!”

The demigod charges into battle once more.

“No! No! I activate Mirror Force (Trap)!” Anubisius shrieks with eyes wide open in fear, springing his final line of defense, the holy barrier blocking the tip of Orgoth’s sword.

Yukio remains high-spirited. “Remember the ‘pathetic snake eyes’ I rolled? It protects Orgoth from all destruction. If you were smart, you’d have a less obsolete Trap Card. Orgoth is like diamond: powerful, indestructible, pure, supreme. You have no chance.”

Orgoth presses on, driving its blades deeper and deeper past the holy barrier, which tries harder and harder to reflect the attack back on Orgoth, but Orgoth presses onward. The demigod pushes both swords to the other side and breaks past the holy barrier, shattering it like it was a glass mirror. Orgoth closes in on Glowworm, its ATK doubling during the Damage Step (ATK 145,600 → 271,200), and slashes the great beast into four pieces (Anubisius LP 2468 → 0). 

Anubisius screams in a high pitch, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

He stops, making Yukio think he finally stopped, but he is only regaining breath.

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Yukio covers his ears in anguish, unable to relish a fresh victory. “Can you please stop? You already lost and -”

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO – urgh.”

Anubisius falls, dead. The Shadow Game took his life, much to Yukio’s relief.

YUKIO: 650 | ANUBISIUS: 68

With his rival gone, Yukio claims the Millennium Key as his spoils of war. Realizing this chapter is already on the sixth page and the Momentum Generator is near exploding, Yukio calls upon his Ka to refit him with the metaphysical armor of Number 39: Utopia. He considers for an instant whether to leave the Millennium Key, letting the atomic blast destroy it for him, but he decides against it. The Millennium Items can be completely indestructible by normal means for all he knows, so he should not take the chance.

Yukio grabs the Millenium Key, and desperately trying to find Hassan, Mathias, and Maya but failing to do so, he reluctantly flies up and away as far as he could, fleeing the nuclear armageddon behind him. He darts with supernatural speed over the Middle East, breaking past the sound barrier, and arriving at the refugee camp outside Cairo within an hour. His powers spent and anxious whether his comrades survived, he collapses to the ground. Several hours later, he wakes up in the Valley of the Kings under the watchful eyes of his comrades, clutching the Millennium Key as if in a death grip.

All the Egyptian comrades welcome Yukio back. Mathias nearly breaks his ribs in a bear hug and slaps him on the back. Hassan clasps his shoulder and congratulates him. Maya embraces him with kisses everywhere. Hassan breaks bread in lieu of giving a toast to Yukio, and everyone has dinner, sharing the big adventure they had as if it was a weekend outing and not a revolution ending civilization as they know it.

Maya, burning with lust, tugs Yukio into a small tent, and an equally fiery Yukio follows her, both eager to relieve the massive tension pent up from their recent adventure. Many sweet moments of kissing, rubbing, grabbing, pushing, and releasing later, the couple falls asleep in the realm of dead kings. They forgoe breakfast the next morning, awkwardly silent as if they have no idea who the other really is or why they have sex to begin with.  

Woman and man wait for the other to break the silence neither understand, the woman in building irritation, the man in tightening anxiety. Strumming her fingers on the ground, the woman decides to make the first move. The woman always makes the first move.

“Come with me. I need to share something with you.” Maya says, pointing to the highest crest she can find. “Meet me on top of the hill.”

Yugioh Endgame – Duel 26: The Pique of Anubis

YUKIO: 3500 | ANUBISIUS: 9200

ANUBISIUS’ TURN: As Anubisius knows, while Yukio has a Zombie monster that is indeed rare and powerful, he enjoys a huge Life advantage. It is only a matter of time and attrition before Yukio dries into dust like the corpse he controls. 

Anubisius announces, “I banish Ultra Cocoon of Evolution (Quick-Play Spell) from the Graveyard to shuffle Doom Dozer into the Deck and draw a card. Now, I Normal Summon Arsenal Bug Squad (ATK 2000) and use its effect to equip it with Illumine Dragonfly from the Deck.” 

His board recovers due to another Insect – actually, thousands.

“I’m returning Thursday back to the grave. Empress Ladybug, pulverize it!”

As the majestic red creature executes the assault, Yukio has no choice but to counter, “I use Thursday’s effect!” 

The giant corpse fells Empress Ladybug with a ghastly spell (banishes because of her effect), then gains her ATK (0 → 1200), which Anubisius planned since he hammers on, “Arsenal Bug Squad, put the dead man down.”

One giant man, no matter how big, loses against the multitude (Yukio LP 3500 → 2700).

Anubisius quips, “Now that is a zombie killer who won’t be in any sequels.” 

“Not gonna lie, that was somewhat clever the way you exploited my monster’s weakness.” Yukio begrudgingly admits to his opponent.

“Of course!” Anubisius scoffs. “Now make your move, young fool, so I can punish you for ever nursing in your heart the audacity to challenge me in a children’s card game.”

YUKIO’S TURN: “As you wish.” Yukio sighs, drawing.

He commands the dangerous bingo machine to start rolling, which it does by pulling its own crank. The result is “1”, so Yukio activates Dungeon Dice Arena to give himself a second chance. Now the machine rolls “5”, and Arsenal Bug Squad spontaneously combusts into a thousand sparks that look like fireflies in the summer night.

“I shuffle the banished Blast Lizard and Knight of Twin Swords to my Deck to Special Summon Grandmaster Strike Ninja (ATK 2450)!” Yukio conjures a tall, wirey, and strong man in tight black clothes.

“Ninja, attack!” Yukio cries, and his monster skillfully hits Anubisius with shurikens at blinding speed (Anubisius 9200 → 6750).

Yukio sets a card and ends his turn.

ANUBISIUS’ TURN: “I set a monster and a back row. My turn ends.”

YUKIO’S TURN: “Dangerous Machine Type-6, spin!” Yukio shouts. The bingo machine rolls “3”, and Yukio draws a card. “Grandmaster Strike Ninja, destroy the facedown monster!”

Chucking a large dagger, the ninja cleaves through the facedown card and the 4-Starred Ladybug of Doom (DEF 1200). With his opponent’s flimsy guard out of the way, Yukio sets two cards and ends his turn. 

ANUBISIUS’ TURN: “If I don’t draw the card I need right now, I’m done for.” Anubisius grumbles. “Might as well believe in the heart of the cards. I draw!”

Yukio cannot help but feel something is wrong. Things are too easy. No way is he going to win soon. This yugioh story does not work like that.

Anubisius happily shouts, “I play Pot of Greed (Spell)! What does it do? Does it do things? Let’s find out!” 

He draws two cards, then continues, “I banish 4-Starred Ladybug from the Graveyard to Special Summon Dimension Hopper (ATK 1200), and I tribute it to Special Summon two banished Insects and make their Level 8!”

A large grasshopper with wings glowing the colors of the rainbow appears, then warps out of existence to bring back Empress Ladybug and 4-Starred Ladybug of Doom. Furthermore, Anubisius uses the effect of Empress Ladybug (Level 8) to make 4-Starred Ladybug of Doom a Level 8 monster.

“Now witness the most powerful card I own! Behold, DIMENSION DIFUSION DISTORTION (Spell)!!! I pay half my Life and use my two monsters as Material to perform every kind of Extra Deck Summon at once!”

Yukio has never heard this card before, and the very idea stretches believability. “Can you say that again? I was not listening -”

“I Fusion Summon Perfectly Polymorphous Great Moth (ATK 3500), Synchro Summon Perfectly Polyharmonic Great Moth (ATK 3500), Xyz Summon Perfectly Polydimensional Great Moth (ATK 3500), Link Summon Perfectly Polychannel Great Moth (ATK 3500), Special Summon from the Deck Perfectly Penultimate Great Moth (ATK 3500), and Special Summon from the Graveyard Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth (ATK 3500)!” 

A monstrous storm of different colors batters the entire field from the six titanic moths beating their great wings of violet, white, black, blue, purple, and red shades. 

Yukio stares flabbergasted. “What in the name of CedarFresh Household Essentials did you just do?”

“I summoned a bunch of monsters in one turn.” Anubisius explains. “It’s perfectly within the rules. It happens in this game all the time.”

“I mean, how did you – I mean, a Fusion and Synchro at the same time – I mean -” Yukio gives up. “It was rhetorical.”

“Of course.” Anubisius sarcastically answers. “You probably think this card is worse than Mystic Mine, but it gives you some breathing room. All my monsters’ effects are negated this turn.”

“Thanks. I’m going to need it.”

“Thank me after you lose, and die. Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth, attack Grandmaster Strike Ninja!” Anubisius shouts to begin his assault, and his servant bats its wings to create a poisonous storm.

Yukio activates his ninja’s effect. Three dice appear, and they roll “2”, “6”, “1”. Yukio activates Dungeon Dice Arena to reroll, but he gets “3”, “2”, “1”. (ATK 2450 → 3150) With such bad luck causing the ninja to fail twice in saving itself, Yukio must use another measure.

“I activate Quaking Mirror Force (Trap)!” Yukio retorts.

“And I activate Solemn Judgment (Counter Trap)!” Anubisius refutes him, causing the familiar Biblical sages to appear and negate Yukio’s trap with divine magic (Anubisius LP 3375 → 1668).

With nothing left to stop it, Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth erodes Grandmaster Strike Ninja with its poisonous wings (Yukio LP 3500 → 3150) – yet the ninja has not died.

“I use Warp Gate to protect my monster.” Yukio says. “I shuffle Grandmaster Strike Ninja to the Deck and Special Summon Iron Golem Gorogon (DEF 1000).”

Anubisius scoffs, “Your little black ball can’t save you. Perfectly Penultimate Great Moth, wipe it out!”

Now the oversized moth with scarlett wings hurls a storm of fire, but Yukio activates Negate Attack (Counter Trap), absorbing all damage. Anubisius stamps his foot in annoyance. He has a full board and he could not win!?

“I activate Sixth Sense, and I call ‘5’ and ‘6’!” Yukio declares, seizing his last change before the turn ends, and he rolls a “6”, letting him draw 6 cards!

“I call cheating! Judge! Judge! JUDGE!” Anubisius shouts in indignation, raising his hand like a referee. 

“Says the guy who used a card that makes Yata look balanced.” Yukio scorns his opponent while flipping him off. 

“Mock me while you can, the tide turns as soon as this round ends and my mega monsters gain their effects.” Anubisius grumbles.

YUKIO’S TURN: “I activate Dangerous Machine Type-6.” Yukio beings. “Ready, roll!”

The bingo machine pulls its own crank, setting itself off, rolling  “4”. Dissatisfied, Yukio evokes Dungeon Dice Arena to retry his luck, but he rolls “6”. The bingo machine explodes, destroying itself.

“It’s not called a dangerous machine for no reason.” Yukio remarks, shielding himself from the blast. “Now, I activate Gorogon! This guy destroys all cards on a certain trajectory depending on what I roll!”

Anubisius scoffs at Yukio’s nativity, wagging his finger, “You forgot my monsters already? I activate Perfectly Polyharmonic Great Moth to negate and destroy your monster!”

“Which one is that again?” Yukio queries. “The names are ridiculously complicated.” 

“The Synchro one.” Anubisius reminds him, and with that his white moth clasps onto Gorogon, destroying it by sucking its life away. (ATK 3500 → 4500)

“Very well. Let’s try again. Dark Hole (Spell)!”

“I detach for the Xyz moth’s effect.” Anubisius declares, and his ashen moth incenerates Yukio’s holographic card with a fiery windstorm, destroying the Spell at its source.

Yukio blusters, distraught and frustrated, “I play Raigeki (Spell)!” 

“And I detach to activate my Xyz moth again courtesy of my Link moth, which lets me forgo a ‘once per turn’ restriction on a card effect.” Anubisius replies, cool and smug, and the next Spell dries up before a single lightning bolt appears.

Nearly defeated, Yukio falls on his knees to his rival’s delight.

Anubisius roars with deep laughter, “What a noob! Thinking nuke cards could actually break my unbeatable board! I have swarming, high ATK, and effect protection all covered!”

Yukio gets lost in the ocean of his mind, and the images of himself, Maya, and Mathias battling as a trio float to the surface. He has always feared being the weakest link, the goofy King Ghidora head, the Ron Weasley, the Slifer, the Bubbles, the Sarah Sanderson, the Karen Smith. He tries thinking of other examples to entertain you, dear reader, but he frankly ran out of ideas.  

Now Anubisius gives his rhetorical question, asking, “Before you kill yourself – in a video game, of course – answer me, what made you possibly think you could challenge me? A simp like you, who slavishly follows a woman, makes a weak and foolish man. You let a woman order men to die in war. I don’t even let women drive.”

Yukio does not know what infuriates him more, Anubisius’ clear ignorance of his love life or the misogyny in general. Not even realizing it, he is once more on his feet.

He shoots back, “First, I fought with Maya plenty of times, and I’m seriously thinking about breaking up with her and taking my son with me because her moral compass is obviously compromised. Second, get your head out of your keffiyeh, and go eat a pig’s dick.”

“That’s blatant Islamophobia right there.” Anubisius points out. “If your Life Points were like your Woke Points you would’ve lost by now.”

“Like you actually care.” Yukio counters. “If anything, Islamophobia helps you since it facilitates America’s involvement in the Middle East, which profits Saudi plutocrats immensely. Boring politics aside, I Normal Summon Twin-Headed Dragonlych (ATK 1000) and use its effect.”   

Two large dice appear from nowhere and roll “1” and “5”. Displeased, Yukio activates Dungeon Dice Arena to roll again, getting “3” and “3”. Yukio nods at the results.

“Good! My monster gains 600 ATK, and there is more. Wanna’ see me teach an old dog new tricks? Dragonlych, attack directly!” Yukio orders, and his zombie dragon hits a shocked and dismayed Anubisius with pitch black, ashen flames. (Anubisius LP 1668 → 68) 

“And I set two back rows.” Yukio concludes, tensely anticipating the massive onslaught waiting for him just around the corner.

Yugioh Endgame – Duel 24: Blitzschach

The high mage Anubisius does not sleep but prepares for war for the enemy is coming. He summons his servants to have his war suit ready, and so they equip their master with armor and weapons fit for his tall muscular body. The servants wrap him in a special bullet-proof nanofiber that resembles the white linen for wrapping mummies, green armored plates, and a thick shell to protect his entire back that also functioned as a backpack for storing weapons.

For the final touch, Anubisius dons a jackal mask, now transformed from man to god. What is a god but a man who has thoroughly mastered the natural and human worlds? Mere mortals still trapped in their bipartite reality struggle for survival with the fittest prospering and the weak perishing. The god rules this world as his dominion, an animal so strong it transcended such a kingdom by having no competition.     

With these thoughts, Anubisius grips his Millennium Key so tightly his knuckles pop. “Let the rats and dogs of the animal kingdom come.” He proudly declares. “The battle begins.”

Meanwhile, among the army of Egyptian soldiers and Ghoul criminals, Maya abruptly changes plans. She will take out Anubisius’s army first, burning herself out, then Mathias and Yukio will take over when drones and other reinforcements arrive. Once they burn out, the army can more easily secure the place and trap Anubisius. If the reinforcements arrive early, Maya will need to call her supernatural backup early.

Maya, realizing the trap her enemies prepared for her at the very last moment, tells Hassan, Mathias, and Yukio of the sudden change of plans. They argue with her that dreams are too uncertain a message. “You are as capricious as a tyrant!” Hassan scorns her. “No better than my father!”

Disappointed and worried, Maya brushes off this attack and stalks to a place by herself to meditate for ten minutes, fusing into her Ka, building up in explosive fire until she becomes a dormant volcano soon to erupt from millennia of slumber. If she cannot persuade her comrades to her strategy, she will force them to battle on her terms lest everyone fall into the trap and be destroyed, and – snap! – six blazing wings erupt from her back, two long horns crest her head, her eyes become the color of the dawn sun, and she brandishes a flaming sword. 

She leaps into battle, mowing down the lawn of poppies into a fiery channel. The first group of soldiers wonder if the rising sun is brighter than usual but night falls on them right afterwards. The other soldiers shriek as if they see Satan himself and desperately fire round after round at the wall of fire, all in vain. The bullets miss the lioness entirely or vaporize from the heat surrounding her. Only one bullet makes it, but it harmlessly embeds in her chest vest.

The drones soon arrive to drop missiles at their target, one almost hitting Maya. She dodges to safety at the last moment but the ricochet from the explosion propels her backwards, and she twists in the air, landing on all fours like a cat does lest she break her neck by falling face first. Then she completely commits to the air, forced to deal with more dangerous opponents. 

“What in the Lake of Cocytus is she doing?” Mathias cries in dismay.

Yukio curses in frustration. “I don’t know, but we must help her!” His bond to the mother of his child overrides his reason, and so he uses the same technique Maya did to partially merge into his Ka, No. 39: Utopia in a few minutes. A bewildered Mathias has no choice but to follow him, somewhat merging with own Ka, Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8.   

Hassan recognizes the situation they are in. The ground attack must not cease and battle must resume immediately. He summons the army of Egyptian soldiers and Ghouls, and they rush to battle. The ground fight is a stalemate of equal bloodshed at first but the scales slowly tip in Hassan’s favor. Yukio and Mathias take to the air to aid Maya in the aerial battle, for she is vastly outnumbered by several hundred drones. 

Whizzing about the sky blooded red from the early sunrise, the three flying warriors seem to flit in and out of existence from one point to another without any moment in between, puncturing one drone after another, like a hive of wasps warding off a rival tribe. With the drones overcome, it is now time to capture Anubisius, duel him, and win his Millennium Item. Time is running out, since the warriors’ halfway form can be sustained for at most fifteen minutes.

Mathias, Maya, and Yukio sunder the roof of Anubisius’s mansion like a crashing meteor, exposing their leader. The terrified Anubisius feels as if stripped naked despite his powerful armor. He fires his automatic guns at them only for the bullets singe to ash from the warriors’ magic aura of fire. He throws several grenades at them but to no avail. Mathias bats one grenade away. Yukio dodges the other grenade, and it kills several of Anubisius’s men on the plantation field below through friendly fire. Maya kicks the last grenade back to him like it is a deadly hacky sack, blowing Anubisius away.

The high mage is reduced to crawling in front of a large chair. Had he not worn armor, the grenade would have killed him. He brandishes the Millennium Key in a last effort to defend himself. Commanding its ancient magic, he attempts to separate the Ka of his assailants from their bodies. The warriors concentrate hard to resist the separation through sheer force of will, but they succeed though with exceeding difficulty, since pulling out a Ka half fused with the Ba is like separating sublime love from carnal desire.   

Mathias, Maya, and Yukio pause to catch their breath, sweat dripping from their foreheads. Maya, being the most greedy for victory and eager to destroy another Millennium Item, whips her flaming sword at Anubisius. The latter considers hiding in a foxhole leading to a vast secret chamber below the plantation doubling as a Momentum Generator.

“Um…” Anubisius formulates a half coherent thought for the approaching Maya. “I’m just gonna let you do your firebending nonsense while I take a vacation and – Look! A dragon!” He points to the sky.

Maya nears Anubisius, intending to cut his fingers off one by one until he duels her. “I’m not falling for that.”

“No, for realsies!” Anubisius pleads, his claim as sincere as his desire to live.  

The man is right. A mighty white dragon with six wings and the power to rival the gods, as bright as the sun in mid day, assaults the three warriors, battering them hundreds of feet in the air. Maria has come to the rescue, her Ka and Ba completely fused as one. With a single shout, Maria decimates Hassan’s army with a terrifying burst stream of destruction. Hassan and a handful of soldiers are miraculously saved by Mathias, who conjures a magical silver shield of dragonhide to protect his comrades at the last moment.

Hassan praises Allah, kissing the ground as he does so, but Mathias falls to the ground all winded out. The cost of defense was too high. The great Blue-Eyes White Dragon prepares for another attack, but Yukio rushes up to her in the air, aiming his blade for the heart. He hopes the medieval fable of a dragon’s weakness being the heart is true, but he never gets to find out since the white dragon bats him away with her wings. The white dragon then prepares for another attack.

A new dragon appears from nowhere, a chimera with the scales of ancient reptiles, the plumage of exotic birds, the gaudy fur of the great cats, and the long face of the apes, another six-winged divine beast with the brilliance of a star. This dragon hits the white dragon in the dead center of her chest with a golden breath of electromagnetic plasma, throwing the white dragon into the horizon and atomizing Anubisius’s mansion in the way.  

The dragon of variegated colors pounces after its rival without a millisecond of rest. The dragons clash in the orange and pink vault above, or do they dance like the wandering stars beyond the planets? They lock burst streams for a moment until their energies violently inflate into a devastating wave that blinds the sun and shatters the earth. All these events take just over a minute. 

Had Maya entered fresh into battle as a dragon she would have lasted a few minutes. But now, already fatigued from warring beforehand, she pushed far past her limit. The feathered dragon collapses on the ground, once more becoming Maya, her naked body gashed, scratched, battered, burned, and bruised.

Yukio rushes to help her up, Hassan following. Mathias briefly ponders, on seeing Maya’s body, if Eve and Serpent were truly one and the same, but the white dragon looming above shatters his reveries. A Ghoul gets a rude idea in his head; he touches Maya’s inner thigh under the pretext of helping her get up. He plans to stealthily grab Maya by the groin when no one is looking, but the pious Hassan, incensed by such outrageous conduct, shoots the Ghoul in the face, ending the lecherous fool’s life.

The white dragon dishes its final onslaught. Yukio conjures a shield of his own, what looks like a white technological marvel from the distant future, and joins Mathias in combat. The two warriors unite into one defense, planted to the ground as a great oak, and together they disperse the white dragon’s lightning torrent. The exhausted beast retreats, flying away to fight another day, vanishing from sight within a second.

Maya, breathing heavily, asks in a hoarse voice, “Where is Anubisius?”

“He most likely ran away.” Hassan answered.

“That cretin!” Maya raves, frothing at the mouth. Smoke might as well billow from her nostrils. “I’ll send that fool back to Fortnite!”

“You’re not even wearing pants.” Mathias teases her.

“I need to destroy that goddamn coward.” Maya insists.

“You need a band-aid and a nappy.” Yukio retorts in good humor. He detaches a small magnetic backpack that miraculously stuck to Maya’s back this whole time. He finds a duel disk inside as well as a small touch-screen device, a device whose function he does not understand, so he decides to ask Maya about it later. Yukio bandages Maya and swaddles her in a blanket while Mathias carries her. 

Two men, one of Hassan’s soldiers and a Ghoul, drags a cowering and shaking enemy soldier before their leaders. “Well, well, look what the cat dragged in.” The Ghouls sneers, thinking himself rather sardonic and clever.

“Wait, how can the cat drag anything in?” The soldier interjects. “There is no ‘in’ out here.”

“Who cares!” The Ghoul draws a dagger to the cowering man’s throat. “Where’s your boss? Your capo with the goofy name? Answer now or I’ll slaughter you like you’re a chicken!”

The man, though shaking, refuses to answer but instead boasts he would gladly die than tell. Yukio orders the Ghoul to stop. He promises the enemy that he would not kill but keep him captive as a prisoner though with reasonable accommodations. He is not a cruel man. “But if you tell me your master’s location, I will let you go. I swear by my blood.” The enemy spills the beans and Yukio releases him, true to his word.

Meanwhile, Anubisius consolidates himself in the secret chamber beneath what used to be his mansion. He really hopes no one finds him. Getting caught in a foxhole is so 2003. Just embarrassing. Next thing he knows, Yukio barges in, making him jump with a start.

“Yo, waddup.” Yukio greets him. “Get ready for the Shadow Realm, big guy.”

Yugioh Endgame – Duel 23: 4.5D Chess

Little Narmer runs to his mother who still sleeps under the green light of dawn. “Mommy! Mommy! Wake up!” He calls, but his mother might as well be a rock. He nudges her, pushes her, jumps on her back, but the mother slumbers. “Mommy, I’m hungry!” He demands, but he gets nothing. He jumps on her again. She remains a stone. He jumps on his mother once more, but she loses no beauty sleep. 

He slams into Maya, who in her dream sees everything happening to her from above, and she wakes up. She expects to see her child by her side and her husband in the living room, but instead topples through the air to meet the harsh yellow light and arid sand of the desert. She sees a sphinx, which barely surpasses her height by sitting on a granite slab, but the beast appears colossal, and its head has the silky black hair, pale skin, and narrow dark brown eyes that can only belong to Yifan.

Maya notices for the first time a legion of men draped in black robes and cowles like the Ghouls, each man waiting his turn in line before admission to the sphinx’s presence. The sphinx poses no riddle but each wise man rattles on and on in monologue for days, weeks, years. His beard turns grey, his eyes get dull and misty, his body shrivels like an old grape, becoming smaller and smaller until he vanishes. The next man meets the same fate, as does the man after that, and the man after that, but the sphinx files her nails in boredom. 

Maya recalls reading book after book on philosophy, politics, and literature during high school and college, determined not only to find some answers, to find things to believe in, but also to beat the white man at his own game. Well, it seems the old men are playing themselves. The sphinx gives Maya the side eye as if Yifan is asking her if everything she has done was a waste of time. 

Maya ignores the creature and sets out in the desert alone only to realize she is on a planet made of shattered glass. She meets someone else in this desert, a tall man with broad shoulders and stern countenance garbed in his trademark white trench coat. It is Kaiba, but Maya sees the fractured reflections of Sofia’s face in the shattered glass everywhere. 

They duel instantly and, as soon as they do, the sun transforms into a satellite, which then expands in a crystalline dome enveloping the entire world. Maya executes a strategy, but it fails miserably, like Kaiba knows exactly what she is doing, what she is thinking. Maya wonders why in frustration until she sees the cards in her hand reflected off the dome. 

Maya throws the duel disk at the dome, shattering it, and the crystalline shards fall on her like solid rain. She fears she will die but then wakes up, seeing her son by her side. Maya hugs and kisses him like she has not seen him for years, and she goes to the kitchen to make pancakes with her husband, but everything vanishes as a mirage in the desert, and she encounters Yifan as the sphinx once more.

Maya startles, noticing she is deep in the ocean inside the small submarine she used to escort Sofia half round the world and back. Where’s Sofia? She might as well wear a red and white shirt because she is nowhere to be found. Maya does not even know why she is ten leagues beneath the sea in the first place. What country would she go to? North America? She is the most wanted terrorist. Europe? Same. Africa? Looking at the same place over and over again never finds what is lost. Asia? Yifan rules the land with an iron fist in a leather glove, and she would probably screw with Maya in the real world as well as in dreams.

Maya gives up, returning to Egypt. She meets Hassan, also meets Yukio who brought Mathias along. Narmer is understandably not there but Maya still feels like there is a whole in her chest. They discuss a strategy to take out Anubisius, the next high mage with a Millennium Item. Their plan is to secretly send a small task force to Anubisius’ poppy plantation and raid it. Maya, Yukio, and Mathias only use their Ka after Anubisius sends reinforcements to do maximum damage with the few precious minutes they have to exert such great magical power. Then everyone is dismissed. 

Maya returns to the Ghouls hideout to sit on her throne as their new leader. Maya adjusts herself many times in discomfort, her butt hurting more than after Yukio gets kinky with her. How did Malik sit on this thing? Pandora, now the underboss, and several goombas give Maya their obesciences. “What shall be your bidding master…” Pandora stops, having no idea how to address his new superior. “Master Maya? Miss Maya? Mistress of All Evil? Your Malignancy?”

“Please stop.” Maya groans.

Pandora gets sillier. “Darth Maladicta? Satine the Satanic? Empress of Eternal Darkness? Stalina the Sinister? Ghoul Goddess? Shadow Game Sorceress? Duchess Dunkelheit?”

Maya settles on a name. “‘Miss Maya’ should be fine.”

“That hardly sounds evil or threatening.” Pandora objects. “You sound like a schoolteacher who has to watch over petulant children.”

“That’s exactly how I feel.” Maya puts it bluntly. “And I will show you how much fear I can put in two innocent little words.”  

With that in mind, Maya gathers her Ka as if itching for a fight and summons every Ghoul to the main hall of their hideout. She explains to them Hassan’s plan. “I need you to fight an army and burn a poppy plantation to the ground. My friend, Hassan Mubarak, needs you to supplement his army, but he must see which thieves and prostitutes among you have the fortitude to even begin training, so you’ll begin tryouts at his place first.”

“Ooh! I love tryouts!” Adam squeals in delight, jumping up like a puppy. “Give me a G! Give me an H! Give me a – ”

“Pandora, kill him.” Maya quickly orders. When Pandora fails to obey, Maya pulls out a small but lethal gun and fires a bullet into Adam’s head. The Ghouls watch in stunned horror as the body of their comrade falls to the ground and his life instantly disappears. Maya brandishes a butterfly dagger at Pandora, causing the underboss to squeak in a panic. “Disobey me again and Adam will ruin your afterlife forever.”

Clarence manages to speak up despite being terrified. “You know, Malik would brainwash us before killing us, and he never sent us to fight actual wars either. Evil masterminds monologue first and make convoluted plans later. You’re being too straightforward. Very unprofessional.”

“Let’s try this again. Pandora, kill him.” Maya orders. Pandora instantly draws his own gun and ends Clarence’s life. The Ghouls are so stiff with fear they might as well be statues. 

Maya smirks with amusement and gives them comforting words in a sardonic tone. “Listen, you must simply obey me. I don’t want your love, admiration, or even respect. This is not the mafia. There are no blood ties here. Only my will exists. There is no way but my way.”

Three Ghouls point their guns at Maya. “We don’t have to listen to you.” They declare, firing their weapons. Maya easily catches each bullet between her fingers, astounding the would-be killers.

Maya pops her fingers, one by one, at a leisurely place. “Force lightning Akhenaten style.” She then leans forward as if about to say something grave and important. “Boo.” The Ghouls cower back in fear. 

“Was that really necessary?” Pandora timidly asks. “I mean, you have a gun.”

“I overdid it, didn’t I?”

“If I may say so, yes. And, honestly, I can tell you’re new to the whole evil mastermind thing. I get the feeling you’re desperately winging it to establish your authority.”

“You are correct.” Maya admits with a certain innocent candor. 

She reaches for an iPhone. “I believe you guys use your own underground Internet called the ‘Dark Cloud.’ Correct?” The Ghouls quickly nod. “Pandora, what’s the WiFi password around here?” She receives the password, muttering while carefully typing it. “Password… One… Two… Three…” A moment later, and all is set. “You now have the coordinates to Hassan’s location. Be there tomorrow at nine before noon. No excuses for being late.”

“Um, I accidentally left my phone at home.” One of the Ghouls says in a sheepish tone.

“Then share with a friend.”

“Can I go to the bathroom?” Another Ghoul asks.

“Not until I dismiss you.”

“But Miss Maya, I really gotta go.” He whines.

“You will literally become a soldier tomorrow. Get some discipline.”

Before Maya takes her leave, she says, “Pandora will be your substitute teacher while I’m gone. If any of you misbehave, he will tell me and I will deal with you personally. And you,” She points to a Ghoul shivering near the pile of ashes that was once his comrade. “Get a broom and put your friend in a ceramic pot. At least give him a decent burial.”

The next day, Hassan arrives with his army to put the Ghouls through boot camp. Though the Ghouls are clearly no strangers to violence and subterfuge they lack proper military training and discipline, and it is up to Hassan to put them through a crash course to set them reasonably straight. 

Maya oversees the training just in case Hassan’s army teaches a Ghoul a technique that can be used against her, but she teaches no one her black arts. She uses the time to reflect on the dream she had, puzzling its meaning. Yifan taught her how to reach people through dreams and Maya taught it to Sofia in turn. The strengths of dreams are the ability to travel to different worlds and communicate to people in a way that cannot easily be detected. However, the communication itself is vague at best.

Yifan and Sofia were trying to tell Maya something, but what? Maya dismisses Yifan’s boastful message as a pretentious taunt, at least for now. Sofia is a different matter. Why did she disguise herself as Kaiba? Would Kaiba use his space station to somehow see through Maya’s tactics when they dueled? It doesn’t make sense. Maya would sing something to be a cheerleader of sorts, but she concludes that this chapter fills enough pages as it is. 

A month of intensive training passes. Maya spars with Yukio and Mathias several times and spends her free time looking for Sofia in vain. The leaders gather their forces and march for days through the Middle Eastern desserts at night, camping near Anubisius’s plantation.

A Ghoul lights a cigarette and comments, “Blood and opium, huh. Such is life. Such is death.” The man behind the cowl must have been an arts major before turning to crime. His comment has the trappings of philosophy but not its substance.

Mathias, Yukio, and Maya huddle together on the eve of battle. Mathias and Yukio have been talking to each other for a while and Mathias decides to speak to Maya first. “Your decision to lead the Ghouls was disturbing on many levels. I know we need reinforcements for our revolution but why not train the displaced people living in tent cities?”

Maya answers, “The Ghouls are a ready supply that needed little training. They also provide many resources since they are an international crime syndicate. There is no room for a clean conscience in a war this big. This is not a crusade. It is impossible to be a good soldier and a good Christian.”

Mathias refutes her. “I disagree. You say you’re pragmatic but it’s really about convenience and power. The means justify the ends. There is no point in fighting for freedom and the planet when you betray your very principles by letting criminals run amok. The Ghouls will make the world a less safe and less free place to live. Even in times of darkness, one can be a good Christian.”

Maya counterargues, “The alternative, possible human extinction while a handful of despots govern a burning planet, is much worse. The Ghouls will at most do childish antics like raping and murdering some people. I will deal with that problem later. When the war is won, I will make the Ghouls disappear. The new world is not for me or them. I will be the bad guy to make the dream of countless people come true. Those are the sacrifices I’m willing to make.”

Mathias shakes his head, clutching his glowing pendant. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve lived for over a century thanks to my philosopher’s stone, and I’ve seen countless men fall to darkness in this way. They thought they could separate themselves from their dark deeds but they became their dark deeds. Man cannot defeat his sinful nature.”

Yukio holds Maya’s hands. “Heed his warning. Also, be careful with Sofia. You went out of your way to save her a few chapters back. People now know she is your weak spot, and they will exploit it. I wish you treated our child with as much love.”

Maya pushes Yukio away. “How dare you say that! I would die for Narmer!”

Now the army sleeps as much as it can, for it will attack before dawn. Maya, with her eyes closed, suddenly understands her dream. Kaiba and Anubisius know of Maya’s tactic. She is stepping into their trap. “Oh…” She says flatly. “Oh… Shrink-and-an-Enemy-Controller.”

Yugioh Endgame – Duel 22: Dark Clouds in the Sky, Christmas in July

Skipping while I tweet.
Anakin hates sand.
No snow on the street.
Start a cool rock band.

Not a single sound.
New York is real bright.
Eerie all around.
Gentrified and tight.

Blah blah blah! Blah blah blah!
How does this song go?
I’ve heard it all day and night.
On the radio.

Sofia sings in cheerful tone, making up the words as she goes along. This causes Jolene to giggle, confused but entertained anyway. “Sofia, it’s July. It’s not Christmas.”

“Yes it is, over…” Sofia pauses. It is Christmas at the time this chapter is posted, but the sun right now scorches the world Sofia lives in. She trails away, “Over there…”

Sofia feels a small itching resentment towards Jolene for ruining her small moment of fun, wanting nothing more than to forget her humiliation at the Ghouls for kidnapping her and dispatching her in a duel. Worse, she now as to work with those same people. 

Speaking of work, they have to see the high mage Martis himself at the Freedom Tower. The two women report to his office shortly thereafter. Jolene, the artist of the two, notices how Martis’s office is cluttered with modernist furniture, the extreme contrasts in color and design hurting her sensitive eyes. Sofia, the awakening apprentice, smells a certain anxiousness from the high mage, something suggesting a hollow heart trying in vain to fill itself.

“You girls are late.” He sternly rebukes them. “Your computing skills are needed more than ever to protect us yet you go to Starbucks or Sephora or wherever. We’re taking my jet. Mr. Kaiba is setting a plan in motion.”

Jolene gets triggered from such comments but knows better than to argue with Martis about misogynistic stereotypes. Sofia appreciates the remarks. The more her enemies think her frivolous the better she can subvert them. Martis summons his bodyguards to escort them to the jet and soon everyone is thousands of feet in the air.

“We used to have a rock band.” Jolene recalls. “Yukio made it up and we would sometimes play in a bar to raise money, way back when were just Team Dark Duelists. The band had a bad name, but Yukio was always thinking of changing it.”

“What was it called?” Sofia asks with respectful curiosity. 

“Blood Velvet.”

“Yeah, it does need to be changed.”

So Jolene and Sofia spent the time coming up with a better band name, something dark, something edgy, something mystical, a counterculture icon. Magic Spiral? No, too bland. How about Mystick Spiral? – With a “c” and “k”! – No, they’ll get sued. Why not Blood Spiral? Enough with the spirals already! Dizzy Lizzy? Jolene claims Sofia’s suggestion as a stage name but gives it back to her. Sofia has the dark looks to pull off the “Lizard King satire” better. Strange Plays? Not striking enough, and not everyone is nostalgic over 90s video games anyway.

Jolene and Sofia never settle on a new band name. Before they know it, they are off in a helicopter to a rocky island shore. They see a pole in the distance so tall it went past the sky. Later they recognize it to be a sky elevator. No way! It is the KaibaCorp space station!

Martis escorts Jolene and Sofia once they land to meet Kaiba himself at the base of the elevator. The greetings are civil but short. The four of them enter the elevator and skyrocket past the sky of the earth. The pearl blue earth, the black horizon of outer space, and the sun’s unfiltered white rays cutting through the line separating both are a breathtaking view. Jolene and Sofia would have appreciated the grand sight a lot more if the g-force of the elevator did not make them feel like their bowels were being squeezed out of their bodies.

Everyone reaches the space station on top where Kaiba leads them to a computing room with a projection of the entire world on display. Kaiba points to the many nodes placed on each major city. “KaibaCorp uses a Crystal Cloud network, which not only gives someone the chance to duel anyone else on earth but also keeps track of each duelist at all times. A duel disk not only uploads data from a duel to the KaibaCorp main computer it also recognizes different users. No duelist can hide their location from me or suppress their permanent record.”

Now Sofia understands why the Ghouls still wear masks and cloaks. It is not just a tradition from back when Malik was their leader, it keeps them anonymous.

It is like Kaiba reads Sofia’s mind for he continues. “Still, a conniving dog like the terrorists we deal with can hide in other ways. He can hide his appearance to create an alter ego. He can reconnect his duel disk to an outside network, an underground Internet. Switching duel disks at regular intervals does not work if he is connected to the Crystal Cloud, but it can work if he is connected to a separate network instead.”

Sofia notices how all the nodes link not only to each other but gather to a point above the earth. “Why is there an extra point?” Sofia ventures.

Kaiba ignores the question, an action that tells Sofia all she needs to know. “Jolene, Sofia, you are the best programmers and hackers I know.” He says. “Your job is to help me find the terrorists’ underground network, their ‘Dark Cloud.’ This is not a request but an order from your employer. You two will stay with me in the space station until I decide to leave. You will have vital information and therefore cannot leave the station under any circumstances.”

But Kaiba is not heartless. He summons Mokuba to show the two women how the good services he will provide the two women to somewhat compensate for conscripting them into a new job. Such services include gaming centers, a library, a gym, and a luxury bedroom, a place they would live together in more comfort than if they stayed on the ground. 

Sofa thinks back to when she had a sparring session with Maya on the southernmost coast of South America. She told Jolene she went to the gym for the whole day, a lie that kind of made sense since Maya used a spaceship-submarine-thing to quickly whisk Sofia from one side of the globe to the other. “What if Kaiba somehow knows, and now he is hinting at me that I cannot make any more lies?” Sofia asks to herself in worry.

She calms herself down, knowing that worrying is useless. It is very unlikely Kaiba knows anything. Even if he did, how could he prove it? He needs Sofia. Her worry reveals her fear, not reality. An idea suddenly strikes her while she is in this train of thought. Glad to focus on something, she nearly voices an opinion but cuts herself short. 

Kaiba glances at her. “You have something to say? Speak.”

Jolene gently nudges Sofia, a reminder to be careful with her words. Sofia nods, then speaks. “You run a corporation that can completely destroy everyone’s privacy since the Crystal Cloud links to the entire Internet. Through that Internet, KaibaCorp has control of every satellite with nuclear warheads on earth.” 

Jolene knows what Sofia is implying, and she quickly shakes her head in an attempt to dissuade her friend from being too outspoken. Sofia ignores the warning, determined to speak the truth but in a tactful way. “I have the feeling you want to leave your stepfather Gozaburo’s legacy behind, hence why you completely revamped KaibaCorp from manufacturing weapons to manufacturing gaming machines. Yet looking at all the power you have, all the weapons you indirectly own, I believe Gozaburo would be happy if he had your position.”  

Kaiba raises his finger, about to say something, but does not make a sound. He broods over the issue instead. It was an idea he worried over for a long time but no one brought it up. Now someone put his thoughts, which used to exist only in his head, out in the open. A murky impression became a clear statement. He replies, “A fair criticism.”

Kaiba ponders another issue. He sits down on a chair and swivels it to face Sofia. “I have an extra task for you. Once we find the ‘Dark Cloud’ I want you to infiltrate the terrorists. You used to be on Maya’s team in the 13th World Championship, meaning you have a special relationship with her. You are to make contact with her again, befriend her, and bring her to me. I will dispatch her in a duel for the world to see before imprisoning her.”

Sofia finishes his thoughts, “You want to humiliate her before the world to prove her wrong and deter anyone from following her path. Locking her away will cut off the snake’s head.” Sofia’s new role as a double mole is too big to sink in yet.

“Hmm.” Kaiba murmurs as he strokes his chin. “Sofia, do you sympathize with Maya’s cause in any way? You can be honest with me.”

Sofia replies, “I don’t know how to feel about it. Most of the world is suffering under poverty and oppression, so rebel terrorists killing the high mages makes sense. Still, Maya seems like the kind of person who’s more interested in revenge or shits and giggles than fighting for a cause.”

“I see.” Kaiba then starts typing into a computer. “Enough chatting. Your work starts immediately.”

Jolene and Sofia set to work immediately, with Mokuba giving them drinks every once in a while. Sofia’s new position as a double mole now fully sinks in. Now what is she gonna do?

Yugioh the Dark Dimension – Duel 30

Duel 30 – Deal With the Devil

Threatened, Maya flipped the switch to her hotel room, revealing the intruder. “Xiaoyi! What are you doing here?” Maya exclaimed in shock.

“I’m here to give you an offer you can’t refuse.” Xiaoyi answered with a kind smile. “Please, sit down.”

Maya shut the door behind her, astonished. “You can’t be serious.” She said to herself. “You are the greater-scope villain after all, the one who secretly pulled the strings behind the entire tournament. Even I couldn’t count the number of plot holes in your scheme.”

“Well, Matthew did let the cat out of the bag. I should have chosen someone with more to lose, then he would be quiet.”

Maya pounced on Xiaoyi as a lion does on its prey, pinning the woman to the wall, chocking her so hard Maya bore marks on her fair skin with her nails. Xiaoyi did not flinch so much as blaze with bright light for an instant the way a Millennium Item does. The blow easily sent Maya across the room, crashing her against the wall so hard the wall cracked. Maya hung in mid air, petrified by the curse.

Xiaoyi hovered near Maya in a carefree manner, amused. “What a brave girl you are to challenge me, even after fathoming my powers. I understand my revelation and the trials I gave you were stressful, but touch me again and I will kill you in the blink of an eye.” And Xiaoyi let Maya down, who collapsed to the floor, doubling in pain, and opened the window, enjoying the spring breeze. “Shall we do business?”

Maya had no choice to admit she had to agree to Xiaoyi’s terms. She could not challenge Xioayi and she was sure Xiaoyi would incinerate her or something just as bad if she tried running away. “What do you want from me?”

“I want a partner. I want you to help me destroy civilization.”

“What?” Maya could not believe this. “I never took you for the anarcho-primitivist type. Why would you want to such a thing anyway? I want to know more about your involvement in Egypt. How did you manage to orchestrate the whole thing besides using dark magic Egyptian powers? You want me to be your partner, then tell me the truth!” But Maya knew she could not take anything Xiaoyi said at face value. That would be stupid in the extreme.

Xiaoyi sat on the bed, inviting Maya to the same. “First things first: I don’t think I need to tell you that democracy in America, or anywhere else, is a sham. Gernand de Laclose was the Executive Director of the one of branches of the World Bank Group. I was an employee before I promptly killed him, and took his place. Explaining how I climbed so high up the corporate ladder at such a young age involves a tedious history of lying and bribes I would rather not get into. I even make myself look far older when on the job because I doubt my ‘colleagues’ would trust a twenty-six your old with the world’s affairs.

“The World Bank can finance almost any country it wants. It ostensibly exists to aid developing countries and what have you. It is made of five subdivisions, each subdivision run by a board of directors, whose members agree on an action before it is passed. Getting what you want is not as difficult as you think despite such bureaucratic obstacles. Banks around the world put sticky fingers in each other’s pockets and get chummy with superpowers and mega corporations all the time. The rulers of mankind are many different people, but we all protect each others’ interests. It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.”

Maya demanded, “I know how banks and big business work. Get to the point already.”

“Alright. kiddo.” Xiaoyi winked at her naïve pupil. “Gernand and me funded Heishin Mubarak through ostensibly funding the Egyptian government, and we even got some help from the CIA while at it too, which gave weapons to the Ghouls and Heishin’s army. I gave Heishin and Matthew some magic as icing on the cake. You killed them both, so I’m a bit low on peons.”

Maya skeptically raised an eyebrow. “I find that hard to believe. What was the point of it all?”

“I told Heishin about the Book of Isis, so he would waste his time finding a mystical artifact. Matthew just wanted to kill you, which was motivation enough, I guess. Either way, the MacGuffin itself isn’t that important; the point was test everyone to find a future partner. Whoever won the treasure hunt would be mine, and, since you found Egypt’s ultimate Easter Egg, you won. Congratulations!”

Xiaoyi gave Maya her outstretched hand. “Produce the Book for me. I know you have it. You wouldn’t dare leave it with anyone else, even your husband.”

Maya reluctantly handed Xiaoyi the great Book; there was no getting around her. Xiaoyi flipped through the razor thin emerald pages, delighted the Book revealed its secrets to her.

“Do you not know the history of this book?” Xiaoyi asked, and when Maya shook her head, Xiaoyi answered. “In legend, Isis herself wrote this book; the goddess was Egypt’s supreme magic user who even knew Ra’s secret name. Long after that, the great demon god Zorc influenced scribes to copy parts of the book to produce a secondhand volume, the Millennium Tome. Long after that, around the Amenhotep Dynasty, Akhenaten deciphered the Tome, using the knowledge he learned to create the Millennium Items. The rest is history.”

“So the Book of Isis tells you how to create Millennium Items, or recreate them.” Maya concluded.

“Indeed.” Xiaoyi pointed to what looked like footnote at the bottom of an emerald page. “Slay ninety-nine humans; smelt gold for seven days, adding the bodies of your victims into the recipe; create Millennium Items; profit. I learned almost all dark magic from Gernand, but with this Book I can complete my powers and teach them to you.”

Maya asked, “What makes you think I will say yes? Why would you want to destroy civilization? You are profiting from civilization very well.”

Xiaoyi gently sighed. “The same reason you are annoyed at being King of Games. I doubt you want to keep playing a boring children’s card game. You are all too aware how powerless you truly are in changing the world, how useless it is in trying to change the system while working within it; your cynical behavior during your career betrays the fact. And don’t give any of that I-marched-with-activist-groups-and-gave-donations crap. Your many comments, sparsed here and there over the years, reveal your disillusionment. You want to really change the world? Join me.”

“I decline.” Maya stated flatly. “I can manage on my own.”

But Xiaoyi would not relent. “Let’s play a game; not a shadow game, a normal trifling game. If you were president of the world, and you could implement any policies you wanted, what would you do?”

Maya took a while to think things through, then summarized her thoughts, “I would take away all the money and power I can away from big business and give it back to the American people. Big business will have to pay most of the taxes; money will go back to government services (the usual stuff like education, healthcare, roads et cetera), and welfare programs can slowly work to rebuild America’s middle class, and help pull people out of debt and poverty. Crooked bankers and CEO, like you Xiaoyi, would be jailed or executed for treason. Universities, prisons, and banks will no longer be privately owned.

“I know one hole in this plan. America and all first world nations have so much wealth because they plundered other parts of the world for centuries. Well, I imagine I can slowly undo that while fixing things at home. Once America becomes a good enough nation, we can slowly give back to third world countries by investing in them. We build their government and education and infrastructure and so on, and in turn they become our allies and partners. It will take a long time, but it could balance out the inequality.”

Xiaoyi listened to Maya in rapt attention, taking everything she said seriously. Xiaoyi said, “Very good. I used to think the same thing, but it won’t work. Here’s why: the vile CEOs will never give up their power without a violent revolution, and neither will the government because the two are one. Europe is no utopia, least of all because, at bottom, corporate masters still rule their servants; they sheathe their iron fist in a leather glove. Even if you have your way, your government will not last, because it will still be capitalism and a civilization, and both cannot last by their very nature.

“Look around you, Maya: the buildings, roads, cars, laptop, Internet, everything. We get it all by taking more resources from the earth than we can return. Once we run out of oil, coal, trees, and iron, the whole infrastructure will collapse. We dug ourselves into our graves; first by building the whole system on cheap fuel, then by meshing everything into one big system that draws all its powers from a few resources. The earth is the lifeblood to the whole system, but the earth is dying.

“It will take millennia to repair all the damage. We don’t have millennia, and even if we did, the masters of mankind would never do it. They would lose their power doing so, and they are so busy oppressing the rest of humanity to keep the system in check they would never have the time and energy anyway. Renewable resources won’t work, because they’re not efficient enough to replace old energy, and just making them burns ever more fuel to kill the planet. You’re scheme is noble, but it cannot work.”

Maya put her hands on head, shaking her head. She knew all of these uncomfortable facts but buried them for a long time, knowing they nullified almost everything she did. She suspected that liberal movements in the first world were a sham to some degree or another, but she stopped herself from knowing the full truth.

Still, Maya would not lose the game so easily. She forcefully said, “I don’t believe in your fatalist Decline of the West bullshit. We always have a choice when faced with challenges, and how we respond to them determines our future. Did you ever think how many millions – no, billions – of people would die if we carried out your scheme? You and me would be remembered as the vilest human beings in all of history, and justly so.”

Maya’s energetic rebuttal made Xiaoyi gently smirk; she had a lot of spunk! Xiaoyi persisted still, “I don’t care if you believe in Spengler or Toynbee; civilization will die no matter what we do. But we have a choice in how we can die. We can turn the crash into a gentle landing, but that would mean persuading the very people who will never listen to the likes of you. We orchestrate the crash and get it done over with in a few decades, stopping nuclear war while we are it. Or we can let everyone die from a long, agonizing decline, only to finished off by nukes. Are you so afraid of your reputation; to be a good guy even if everyone dies? The choice is yours.”

Xiaoyi clasped Maya’s with her own, and revealed one future to Maya: The earth prospers under Maya’s scheme. War and disease are no more, and all human beings rejoice. They develop machine technology more and more, merging with the machines into androids, then lose all physical bodies to live in a machine supercomputer in space that draws its nature from the sun. All human life from every era of history exists within this program, each human within his little universe. Twelve superhuman gods manage the entire matrix, but each thousand years the computer gets closer and closer to crashing. One day, it crashes within one seven thousandth of a second, and all human life is deleted. 

Xiaoyi shows Maya another branch of time: Mankind prospers once more, as Yugioh is taken to its highest level. Momentum is created, a perpetual motion machine powering all of society, allowing a phenomenon called riding duels to exist. But power corrupts; and human beings once more become wicked. Momentum, becoming sentient over the centuries, manifests monsters in real life, embodiments of the evil within people’s hearts, using them to terrorize humanity. Later, Momentum reverses, and all human infrastructures implode. All life on the planet becomes extinct. 

Xiaoyi reveals to Maya several more visions, all leading to the death of the human race. Then Xiaoyi reveals her last vision, a small extent of her power: A young woman bursts from the surface of a large river in a black forest, naked and clutching a fish in her hands. She tears off the fish’s flank and swallows it raw, before throwing it before a morbidly obese man. Later, that man, her master, is kidnapped, and the woman transforms into a huge, terrifying black dragon with fiery red eyes, with some reassures of a large bat. The dragon decimates an entire military base, recuing her master, before returning to human form. She promptly knocks the obese man out, quick to wipe out all his short term memory with magic so he would forget ever seeing her with such power, even giving a tiny morsel of it.

The two women returned to the humble hotel room. Maya fell to her knees, devastated, barely able to absorb all she saw. Xiaoyi’s spirit Ka was something Maya had never seen before or could even comprehend until now.

“Why?” Maya croaked in a coarse voice. She did not believe that Xiaoyi cared for humankind. Not one bit. She nonchalantly caused the deaths of thousands of Egyptians and tens of duelists, with the arrogance of a god. Why would she care now? Lastly, Maya asks, “What is your endgame?”

“I do because I can.” Xiaoyi stated, and then revealed to Maya her final plans.

Maya at last understood. Xiaoyi was insane. Yet Maya still insisting on challenging her enemy, despite that she witnessed her strength. Perhaps Maya always needed to thumb her nose at authority since childhood. “But why?”

Xiaoyi, irritated with such a stupid question, made what was perhaps the biggest mistake of her life. She said, “Do I need to give you more incentives? I cannot let you leave alive if you refuse to join me. I revealed too much. Know this: I have all the time in the world to find another partner, and I have other candidates around the world who can take your place. If you don’t join me, someone else will.”

Maya saw within Xiaoyi a deep darkness, not just Xiaoyi’s darkness, but her own, and the darkness of the entire human race. No one could stand against that darkness, unless Maya conquered the darkness from within. Maya or Sophia could only challenge Xiaoyi once they learned her secrets. Xiaoyi had indeed tested Maya well, but not in the way she thought.

“Yes.” Maya whispered softly, surrendering.

“I can’t hear you.”

“Yes.” Maya assented, louder this time. “I accept. I will join you.”

“Bravo!” Xiaoyi clapped her hands together; her dark murderous features instantly vanished, and she now seemed an innocent little girl. “Gernand and me spent over a decade preparing for our fateful day. I merely need to tweak a few little things and we’re all set. You, Maya, are the final piece to the figurative Millennium Puzzle. I could not be more proud of you.”

And she handed Maya a tiny note. “You will see coordinates to a location within Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Be there by next week, or I will find and kill you wherever you are. As I say once more, the choice is yours. Sweet dreams.” And she left the hotel room, leaving Maya stranded.

—————————————–

Maya reunited with Yukio and her baby boy at the end of the weekend. They spoke of how happy they would be, their plans together, a house they could one day buy, the day Narmer would walk for the first time, sending Narmer to school, attending parent-teacher conferences, paying for Narmer’s college, celebrating many Christmases to come together with Jolene, JC, and Sophia as family.

All this talk nearly made Maya weep in despair. None of it would ever come to pass. She would abandon everyone to save the human race from Xiaoyi, a devil in a woman’s body. There was no way she could make them understand, so she kept quiet. The couple spent their last day together at Central Park on May 23, celebrating Yukio’s twenty-fourth birthday, enjoying every moment in happiness. It was the best final gift Maya could ask for.

Past midnight, in that fateful morning, Maya quietly packed her bags, kissing Yukio one last time while he lay sleeping. Baby Narmer awoke, and so Maya cradled her son one last time, rocking him to sleep, singing to him the songs mother sang to her when she was a child. Once Narmer went to sleep, she laid him in his cradle, and kissed him one last time.

Sometime later, Maya visited Sophia’s hotel room in New York City, and told Sophia everything; all the coming darkness of night. Sophia remained skeptical at first, but when she say Maya cry she knew Maya was telling the truth. Maya offered her hand to Sophia. Only together could they defeat the darkness. Sophia accepted, and packed her bags. Together, the two women stole into the night.

Yugioh the Dark Dimension – Duel 29

Duel 29 – Declining the Challenge

Two months later on Valentine’s Day, Maya gave birth to a healthy baby boy in hospital, with Yukio present. The parents named the child Narmer in reference to the land wherein he was conceived. There was not a sweeter time of year for a child to be born. Yukio watched mother and child with joy and amusement, seeing such a fierce mother melt into goo nursing her baby. Later that month the couple merged their finances, in essence marrying.

Later that month all of Team Baby Blast Furnace; Maya, Yukio, Sophia, were invited to the The Duel Network to talk about Yugioh and the tournament they won. They accepted the challenge, but first the chancellor of the New York Duel Academy took the team out on a tour of his school. Maya and Yukio both tried to enter the academy and failed five years ago.

The trio gave something of a lecture in the main hall; the chancellor gave them notes telling them exactly what to say, which they did. Students then asked them questions, which were more revealing than any answer they made up. Sophia remarked how the students acted exactly like her adopted brothers and sisters, completely sheltered. At least Pegasus’ children were once orphans. Maya grew furious, but bottled her anger; she tore the chancellor’s notes apart during the lecture.

————————————-

And within due time, our heroes arrived to The Duel Network talk show, and even some other finalists arrived, presented by none other than Gail Aphor.

APHOR: “Today! All new! A fascinating celebrity gamer meetup! World Champion Marina Bozuslowsky, teammates Yukio Fujiwara and Sophia Yanova, rival finalist Maria White, and finalists Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood GIVE IT UP! We’ll go inside their dueling adventures next! Let’s give them a big round of applause, people!

“So, Maya – can I call you that? – What’s it like being the King of Games? How does it feel to be the first woman and the first black person to be world champion?”

MAYA: “As long as the Huffington Post and Jezebel don’t embarrass me, I’m fine. I feel very happy and grateful being world champion – who doesn’t? – I always wanted to be a great duelist and rock the boat, but I never thought I could be King of Games. To be honest, I went into this tournament because I needed to pay the bills, being a finalist would have been enough. As for all the talk about race and gender, I’d rather have that discussed in a more level-headed and intellectual environment than reality TV.”

APHOR: “What, we’re not smart enough for you? You want to only talk to an academic elite? – Can I get that, people! – Everyone loves a true duelist!”

SOPHIA: “You willingly rocked the boat, Maya. You can’t runaway from people’s reactions now.”

MAYA: “I’m not running away. I know how easily the so-called masses bastardize complex social issues and make asses out of everyone. And perhaps I simply changed. I was a different woman before the tournament than now, so perhaps I became a bit more mature.

“As for said social issues; I’m very proud to represent women and black people everywhere. All my life society told me, explicitly and implicitly, that I could never amount to much; that I lacked the intellectual and creative potential. That was a big motivation for me challenging the status quo. Forcing conservative dorks to eat their own words is very satisfying; I freely admit.

“But being a big role model becomes a curse over time. People will revere you as an idol, sure, but they will soon try to control you like they own you. I can’t be everything to everybody, but I guarantee you, idiots will try to manipulate and abuse me into acting exactly the way they want for the pettiest of reasons. They will not listen to anything you say or follow your example. They will kill you by turning you into a celebrity.”

AUDIENCE MEMBER 1: “Why you gotta’ throw shade like that? How can my little girl look up to someone who calls me, and other people of her race and gender, ignorant savage morons? Honey, I’ll show you how to throw shade! Talk like that and you’ll be the least popular world champion of all time!”

MAYA: “I don’t care. This is boring. Can we please talk about the Yugioh game itself?”

WEEVIL: “To be honest, I kind of miss the good old days when Yugioh didn’t have all this political garbage in it. I just wanna’ win and have fun.”

APHOR: “Okay guys, calm down a bit. – Shut up, Weevil! – Maria, what do you think about Yugioh right now?”

MARIA: “Yugioh is dying, and rogue duelists are killing it. You could only use a few decks back in the day, sure, but that gave duelists a standard to aspire you. They had to netdeck each other but they also had to tweak their decks a bit to get ahead. That was creative; that was like netdeck Inception. But now there is no standard; a duelist can win with whatever God forsaken trash if they have the brains to do it. Any loser with a good strategy can easily surpass even the God Cards these days. Once the gods were a force of destiny. Now they’re just another archetype. A dueling world that stands for nothing will fall for anything.”

APHOR: “I’m getting a pretty mixed vibe from the audience right now. So Maya, how would you respond to that?”

MAYA: “People have been saying ‘Yugioh is dying’ since forever. If I had a dime each time someone said that, I would never have to duel again. Yes, netdeck Inception is pretty interesting, but without new duelists challenging the old, the game will stop evolving. Pegasus creates new cards every weekend, so expecting the same meta deck to remain for all eternity is unreasonable.

“Regardless, Pegasus will always keep a metagame because he profits from it. He creates a new banlist forcing you to buy expensive new cards, which also forces you to sell old but good cards to afford said new cards. Next year, Pegasus creates new cards and a new banlist, and the cycle repeats. Kaiba updates his toys and gives them planned obsolescence, just like Apple does. Kaiba and Pegasus don’t care about the game anymore. For them, it’s all about keeping the capitalism machine running until Yugioh one day implodes on itself.”

AUDIENCE MEMBER 2: “You ain’t a commie, are you, ma’am? Because I’ll tell you right now, communism is just as bad as fascism, and if you’re a commie you might as well be a Nazi. Why don’t liberal arts colleges speak about communism as the evil it is, just like we all do about Nazism? Did you know, Stalin was just as bad as Hitler!”

REX: “And we passed Godwin’s Law.”

APHOR: “Shut up, Rex! – Maya, how do you respond to that?”

MAYA: “I don’t respond to people that stupid. I talk to whomever I want. No one is entitled to my time and attention, no matter how famous I am.”

APHOR: “A true duelist wouldn’t disappoint their fans. Yukio? Sophia? Any thoughts?”

YUKIO: “I agree with Maria a bit. Yugioh used to have a nobler aspect to it. Back then, Yugioh had real sense of honor and competitive spirit, which was a good thing no matter how dumb the ‘honor of the duelist’ is. Now being a duelist is about having a career, just like in a corporate office. It’s all about money.”

SOPHIA: “I would like to address the many deaths that occurred during the tournament. I am deeply ashamed of it all. I would never have gone to the tournament if it would mean getting so many people killed. I’m so sorry!”

AUDIENCE MEMBER 3: “BULLSHIT! We gotta’ lock her up!”

MAYA: “Don’t feel guilty, Sophia. Let me wipe your tears. Matthew and his Ghoul underlings forced us to fight for our lives. Calling us murderers would be like blaming the victims in the Saw movies.”

YUKIO: “Not the best example, Maya.”

APHOR: “I heard you guys visited New York City’s Duel Academy. Can you tell me what that was like?”

MAYA: “The kids are spoiled and sheltered, and learn nothing about the real world. Academies do them more harm than good. Imagine if there was a basketball academy that taught kids nothing but how to play basketball. No algebra, no literature, no history. Nothing. Then you dump those poor kids into the real world with no life experience. Only a few of all basketball players become superstars; the rest starve. Yugioh is the same way. Even child prodigies have no guarantee surviving.”

TRAVIS: “Not cool, man! My name is Travis T., and I’m the number one duelist in the academy! No one disses my school and gets away with it! I challenge you to a duel! Right here! Right now! If you lose, not only do you apologize to everyone you hurt today, you give me the title of King of Games!”

MAYA: “I decline your challenge.”

AUDIENCE: “Gasp!”

TRAVIS: “A true duelist never declines a challenge!”

MAYA: “I just did. First of all, you have no right to challenge me. You don’t walk into a corporate boardroom and demand to become senior administrator. The same applies here. Win a national tournament, and maybe I will accept your challenge. Second of all, you’re no match for me. I would tear you apart in ten seconds, you brat. Third of all, even if you beat me and become King of Games, you will burn out fast and die young. You don’t know how to manage money, manage a busy schedule, handle debts, or avoid getting screwed over by every conman in the world. You’ll end up sucking dick for meth within a few months, and show business won’t shed a tear.”

AUDIENCE: “BOO!”

YUKIO: “You just had to piss everyone off, Maya!”

AUDIENCE MEMBER 2: “What foul language!”

MAYA: “Get bent, asshole. Now if you excuse me, I must take care of my child.”

Jolene, who was tending the infant at this point, tried her best to comfort the little creature, which was wailing from all the terrible noise and shouting around it. Jolene returned the child to its mother. Gail Aphor ensconced her guests away as much as she good, but could not fully save them from the ravenous audience. Though blocked by security, the audience harassed the guests as much as it could.

The third audience member screamed, “She’s making controversy! She’s doing it all for money!”

————————————-

The poor baby would not calm down, and both parents blamed themselves for going to the talk show. Yukio, Sophia, Jolene, and Maya all traded time with the infant until they calmed it down, putting it fast to sleep. Yukio then fell to blaming Maya for causing such turmoil during the talk show, with Maya retorting how she had to stand her ground; followers are vicious creatures that could never be appeased. It was their first argument as a couple, and it was so severe they nearly divorced.

The couple briefly split. Yukio taking the baby with him since he deemed Maya an unworthy mother, causing Maya to break into tears for her baby, overcome by a mother’s instinctive despair. Jolene and Sophia found Maya a hotel room for a few days, and stayed with her for a few days to comfort her.

Heart-broken, Maya wandered to a soup kitchen in the west side. Slumping her head on the meal tables, she stared at every homeless person she could find. Her parents drilled within her an intense fear of becoming homeless. If they didn’t pay rent, they would get evicted and become homeless. If Maya acted out, her father could lose his job and they would become homeless. If Maya didn’t do well in school nor go to college, she would become homeless. If Maya did not win a big Yugioh tournament, she would fail to pay her debts and become homeless.

Never did it occur to Maya’s parents, or even Maya herself, that “the homeless” were human beings. Understanding this for the first time, Maya wondered if playing so much dumb Yugioh was even worth it. Maybe becoming homeless was the better choice. They seemed happy in the soup kitchen, but that was probably a lie.

A volunteer, an old man, tall and clean-shaven approached behind her, and said, “I remember you!” Maya turned around. It was Greg, the old homeless man the team knew from four years ago. Maya greeted him joyously; and they talked through the whole afternoon.

Greg, it seemed, used part of the team’s prize money to rebuild his life. He managed to get a job in human resources and lived in public housing. It was no rags-to-riches story, but it was a miracle, or so he said, and Maya agreed. Maya told him her own story, feeling ashamed how she, someone who did have a rags-to-riches story, could be so unhappy. Greg reminded her, jokingly, that Hollywood actors did drugs and went to mental hospitals for a reason.

The two bade each other farewell. Maya called Yukio, telling him she was sorry for everything, and Yukio said the same. They would move back together after the weekend and promised to never argue again. Next time, they would work things out like rational mature adults, which, I’m sure you know, most couples are.

Maya went to a hipster bar and had a few good old shots, happy she could drink again as she was no longer pregnant, played darts a bit, danced, and returned to her hotel room. Though everything was dark inside, Maya could see the body of a woman.

Yugioh the Dark Dimension – Duel 28

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I have many duties to do outside writing, so I must power through the last three odd chapters. Enjoy! 

Duel 28 – Spring Showers in December

Maya rose from bed; she got real tired of entering scenes by waking up. It was so lame the author even began a story with her main character waking up from bed. Maya hated being passive like that; that was how Maria should begin a scene. She took her time to explore her room because it was surreal: a hospital room so white it was like a generic afterlife scene in a movie. She noticed an ivee penetrated her arm and punched the port to make sure she was alive. ARGH! She was alive!

Maya wanted nothing more than to leave the hospital right now, but she was still weak, and the doctors would sedate her if she tried a “daring” escape anyway. So she sat down and watched a few channels from the small flat screen TV bolted to the ceiling. “Let’s see what went on in the world while I took a nap.” Maya mumbled to herself, turning on the news.

KAIBACORP AND INDUSTRIAL ILLUSSIONS CONTINUE COURT TRIALS
REPORTER 1: “Good morning New Yorkers! I am Dave and this is Susan. We continue our story where Seto Kaiba and Pegasus Crawford, leaders of the two biggest corporate giants of the gaming world, are continuing to undergo a tidal wave of lawsuits following the 13^th Battle City World Championship. Their prosecutors, including Amnesty International, the United Nations, and grieving parents of deceased duelists, are charging them with violations of international law and crimes against humanity. Susan, can you fill us in on the details?”

REPORTER 2: “Certainly. According to Ali Treki, President of the United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Kaiba and Mr. Pegasus purposefully hosted their tournament in war torn Egypt to generate controversy and boost ratings, a trick commonly performed in reality television. There is nothing quite like a gladiator death match, at least that is what Mr. Kaiba and Mr. Pegasus thought. But was all the death and turmoil in Egypt worth it? We now turn to Hernandez de Istulto, expert economist, President of the Cato Institute, and pioneering investor of BitCoin.”

ECONOMIST: “Thank you, Susan. As of now, the exact motives of Mr. Kaiba and Mr. Pegasus are still unknown to us. Their behavior defies any good judgment of rational self-interest. Yes, as you said, they obtained controversy (i.e. attention), boosted ratings, and gained huge widespread appeal from duelists around the world, but at what cost! Surely, such a speculation had too high risk and too little reward.”

REPORTER 2: “Do you think their behavior reflects the huge boom and bust of the 2008 economic crisis? They seemed to have so few restrictions on their power, it’s as if they became deluded and thought themselves free of consequences.”

ECONOMIST: “No, no, no. A benefit to the corporation benefits the economy. It improves the competitive process that improves the individual and is inherent to such a good economy. Mr. Kaiba and Mr. Pegasus are the best businessmen in their field. It is unlikely they would endanger their businesses so recklessly: it defies rationality.”

REPORTER 1: “Thank you for your contribution, de Istulto. Now we turn to Jeremy for an eye-witness account of the trial at hand.”

CORRESPONDANT: “Thanks again, Dave. We see a massive crowd of people surrounding the courthouse at this moment. OOF! OUCH! They’re practically bulldozing past me right now. Hey, you there! What brings you to witness this occasion?”

PROTESTER: “We are protesting KaibaCorp and Industrial Illusions for their corporate greed and crimes against humanity. Did you know that Kaiba uses slave labor in Taiwan to make duel disks?”

CORRESPONDENT: “No, I did not know that. Are any duelists protesting right now?”

PROTESTER: “Well, you should know! I am a duelist. Sadly, there are a small number of duelists – they’re the basement-dwelling type – who defends Kaiba and Pegasus. They claim Political Correctness has gone mad and gamers are facing censorship from journalists.”

CORRESPONDENT: “Who are these people?”

PROTESTER: “As I said, basement-dwellers. That’s why you’ve never heard of them.”

CORRESPONDENT: “So why bother telling me about them?”

PROTESTER: “Maybe too much time on the Internet distorts your sense of reality.”

CORRESPONDENT: “I’ll say!”

REPORTER 1: “There you have it folks, on-the-ground action from Jeremy. He’ll be live in the court house right after this commercial break.”

Maya found herself enraptured in the details of these strange events, when a nurse came to her room, speaking. “Oh, thank goodness you’re awake! I never thought I’d see the day! You have visitors.”

Maya shut the TV off. All her friends quickly arrived. Everyone cried in excitement and hugged each other in a moment of pure joy, one that once in a blue moon. – Even Rex and Weevil came all the way from Japan! And Mathias came to check her out too!

“Thank God you came back!” Mathias exulted in prayer; while Yukio explained to Maya she was in a coma for three months. Maya looked dumb in surprise, and Yukio told her it was indeed true.

Everyone exchanged gifts, and Maya received first edition prints of all the link monsters she used in the tournament; a consolation Pegasus gave to all finalists after the tournament, monster cards printed before their official release. Likewise, Pegasus, being a man of his word, gave Maya a check of 2 million dollars. Maya held her prizes, astonished; she struggled so hard to earn the prize money, and it sat in her hands, all of it.

But Maya felt a deep guilt. She had paid for her prize in blood, not just her blood, but Matthew’s blood, the Ghouls’ blood, the blood of every other duelist who died. Yet she felt a weird kind of excitement knowing she fought such an epic battle and triumphed in the end, almost smelling the blood of her enemies on the cards, arousing her the way a shark becomes when smelling its prey. But the guilt remained.

Maya pushed away her prizes, and she was almost about to destroy them when Mathias stopped her. He spoke very sternly, “I know how you feel but destroy your prizes and everyone would have died in vain. Maximus and me lost our dearest family when we accepted our divine gifts and became Saints. We chose to use our gifts to aid the world. You must do the same.”

Yukio comforted Maya by putting his hand on her shoulder. “Look, if a Catholic is telling you not to feel guilty, maybe you shouldn’t.”

Maya listened to reason, something she didn’t do often. “I hope Stella is fine, back in Iceland with her family and comrades. Maybe I’ll finally see my dad; maybe he’ll be nice since I don’t depend on him anymore. Yes, that would be very nice.”

Everyone became dark and solemn in look, and Maya, looking at them, knew all too well what it meant; she knew happiness never last long, least of all with her. She asked what their saturnine looks meant, and Sophia answered, “Stella and Hannibal became brain dead soon after you won. You’re father died while you were in a coma.”

Maya shivered; the room seemed to become frigid. She really loved Stella, despite everything that happened between them, while she had no idea how to feel about her father. He ruined Maya’s entire childhood and the scars he left behind darkened her character and her life forevermore. He was the source of all the evil in Maya’s life, but that evil was all she had, and now the evil died she might as well fall through the floor. Maya instinctively touched her abdomen, feeling the substantial bump in it. What was this?

“You’re pregnant.” Sophia said joyously as Yukio clasped Maya’s hand, and Maya clasped his. Maya had no idea what to do or even how to feel for the hundredth time this year.

——————————————-

Seto Kaiba and Pegasus Crawford underwent their trail for months on end but a solution was met at last, and the news all too eagerly reported on it.

KAIBACORP AND INDUSTRIAL ILLUSSIONS BAIL OUT
REPORTER 1: “Good morning New Yorkers! I am Dave and this is Susan. Today a major development occurred in the lawsuit against Mr. Seto Kaiba and Mr. Pegasus Crawford. The two CEOs were charged for twenty years prison and their companies charged with 3 billion dollars, but both were recently bailed out. Susan, if you may fill us in on the details.”

SUSAN: “Of course, Dave. The various businesses partners of KaibaCorp and Industrial Illusions; including Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, Google, even NASA, paid the bailouts for Seto Kaiba and Pegasus Crawford. They also saved both companies from bankruptcy, but the heavy cost of the weighty lawsuit was enough to send thousands of employees out of work.

“Yet there could be more to this story. WikiLeaks has just disclosed a document between the American CIA, the Pentagon, Industrial Illusions, and Kaibacorp, which concerns a KaibaCorp blueprint for building a space station linked to the earth by an elevator. Why would Mr. Kaiba, after disbanding his father’s military operations when he inherited the company, want to return to military projects? What is the end of such designs? Could Kaiba have made a deal with the devil? – Hold on, I just received a letter at my desk. What do you mean I’m fired!?”

REPORTER 1: “Oh ho ho! Someone was unprofessional for a moment there! In other news, another sex tape of the Kardassians was released online, where it has been shared all across the Internet. Uh oh! Looks like somebody forgot to make sure what happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas!”

In either case, life rolled on as usual on all corners of the globe. Maya spent the next few months settling her affairs, boring chores leaving scarce time to spend with her friends. Not drinking or smoking pot for nine months due to her pregnancy was the least of her inconveniences. She first paid back all her debts so she would not evicted, but later sold her scant Chicago apartment to buy well-to-do quarters in the upper east side, a place she wanted to live in since forever. Then, she judiciously donated her prize money to charities and research projects she deemed best. – She did not give Amnesty International one damn sent. She canvassed for them before. She knew what those pricks were like.

Maya then moved from matters of the world to address matters of the spirit. She visited Iceland so as to aid Stella’s grieving family pay for the funeral expenses, but the family rejected all her money and spat in her face. Maya accepted their rebuke, and did not punch them in the face as she would otherwise do, as she was dealing with grief herself. She was now an orphan, just like Kaiba. “Eh, at least I wasn’t adopted.” Maya joked to herself while traveling back to New York.

Paying for her father’s funeral was a far easier task. For one, Maya did not have to deal with any family issues. Both her father’s and mother’s parents disowned their offspring when the children married out of wedlock, and Maya was glad of the fact for the first time in her life. Two families made of such bigoted fools did not deserve to attend her father’s funeral.

Maya made it a simple affair, inviting no one but Yukio, JC, and Jolene to the Long Island Cemetery. Mathias had long returned to Ireland; Rex and Weevil to Japan; and Sophia to Pegasus’ home in Las Vegas, only to pack her bags and move out to God knows where. Maya and her friends lowering her father in the grave themselves – Maya insisted on it – There, mother and father would remain together while their child, free from their grasping shadows, would live and die far away, where they could not reach her. Their simple tombstones read thus:

ALEXANDER BOZUSLOWSKY
OCT. 17, 1956 – SEPT. 25, 2009 

SHARBAT ALI
NOV. 19, 1962 – JUN 30, 1997 

A grim but interesting fact: Maya buried her father on her twenty-third birthday: Dec. 15, 2009. Maya had been so busy attending to other affairs; she paid the morticians to leave her poor father’s corpse a mummy pumped with formaldehyde and frozen in an ice chamber, in part to exact futile revenge on the man who once was. Her father made her alone from everyone else and forced her to wait for years to undo the damage he did to her, a process Maya would never finish. Thus, Maya made him wait, alone and frozen, before granting him the right to rest with his wife in peace.

JC put flowers on the grave, Jolene put precious drawings she made when a child, Yukio read a poem (or song) he wrote for this moment, and as he recited his work a small shower of rain gently fell on the small party: as if it was spring. Then sun refused to leave as he usually does as the solstice draws near; instead he cast his light on the world with all his might.

Tyrant men flaunt all their great might
Then die, forsaking their rights
To the earth, once in lovely gold,
Entombs them in dark wintry cold.

The sun, ever giving, returns
As meek flowers grow from bones,
As Spring’s gentle rainy showers
Nurtures young, yearning Sunflowers.

The gods have died; not one shall rise
To wipe the tears from my eyes,
But our strong hearts burn and glinter;
We alone bring Spring to Winter.

The gentle rain had washed all the dirt from the two tombstones away. With clean hearts and clear minds, the friends returned to life and celebrated the future with dance and play that day.