"Wait, so you tellin me you are stronger than Yuta?" Joey looked as if he had seen a ghost.
Not seeing the duel between Yuta and Rex, Mako confirmed that he was stronger.
"Yes, I am. Otherwise, how could I be third while he was fourth?"
"That seems to make sense?" Joey curiously scratched his head as he nodded, but he couldn't help but feel like something was off while Yugi facepalmed.
He wanted to remind Joey that Rex was the runner-up, and he was defeated by Yuta in two turns, which was domineering.
So Yuta was definitely stronger than back when he competed in that tournament. Still, he didn't correct Joey, as that would scratch Mako's pride, and he would want to duel Yuta again, which would bother him. He already looked so weak; he probably wouldn't be able to handle another duel so soon.
Yuta, on the other hand, also sat down cross-legged and gobbled the fish. He didn't care if they bad-mouthed the previous Yutaka. After all, even though they had the same name, they weren't the same person.
Otherwise he would remember how Mako despicably used Umi to hide his monsters under the sea while duelling against him.
He had just lost Red-Eyes at the time and didn't know what to do, and his deck didn't have any strategy, as it was solely a deck that was focused on supporting Red-Eyes Black Dragon. So without a win condition, the deck had fallen apart.
That was why he didn't take his loss against Mako seriously at the time, as his most important mission back then was trying to find a way to get his Red-Eyes back...
Yutaka suddenly frowned and felt like there was something wrong, but he just couldn't put his finger on it.
Was it because of that despicable fisherman who hid his monsters under the sea and didn't even let you attack them? Nah, it was something else.
Meh, if it was something important, he would probably figure it out in the future anyway.
"Now that you guys have taken the bait, you cannot escape! I, Mako Tsunami, the Legendary Fisherman, challenge you to a duel," and another wave hit the cliff at the same time.
Seriously, did this guy have his own VFX team or something?
Why does something cool always happen every time he says his name?
No wonder he is so addicted to announcing himself.
If it were Yutaka, he would also probably do the same.
"You challenge what now?" Joey didn't understand and kept on eating his fish.
Yutaka also waved his hand, indicating he was not interested.
Only Yugi took Mako's declaration seriously as yellow light appeared around him. Suddenly, he had grown taller, and his eyes had turned sharper.
His hair had 3 yellow streaks going through it, unlike before, but it seemed like, aside from Yutaka, no one seemed to have noticed that Mini Yugi had turned into a different person entirely.
Yutaka was correct, as no one had really noticed the change in Yugi before, but he was also wrong.
As, at that moment, Tea was curiously looking back and forth between Yutaka and Yami Yugi.
She became aware that once Yugi accepted the duel, he suddenly started to look a lot like Yutaka did.
She was sure that they must be relatives, but when she had asked Yugi, he had said he didn't know anything about it, while Yuta had never mentioned any connection.
Though in her mind the fact that they were relatives started to make more and more sense. First of all, their resemblance was too strong to ignore, and secondly, even though Yuta didn't know Joey, he still jumped into the sea to save him.
You would not do that for a stranger you never met before.
Not to mention, he had even become sick because of it, and his face still had a slight flush, a clear sign of a fever.
She also did not forget that after he jumped into the sea, he saved some of the Exodia cards and even told Yugi the whereabouts of the missing piece.
Yes, he did not say who had it, but since everyone was at the common area, once Yugi asked for it, the owner would still jump out and trade with him.
He even seemed to feel guilty because he didn't stop Weevil even though he knew about his plan.
Does that mean they are cousins?
They have different surnames, so they must be cousins from Yugi's mother's side. Alternatively, Yugi's father might have had a sister who married someone outside the family.
Tea looked pleased with her deduction as she looked over at Yuta, who was vigorously eating fish.
Noticing this gaze, Yuta gave her a puzzled look.
Why was she looking at him so intently? Did a fish scale get stuck in his teeth or something?
Since the idea took over, it was impossible to ignore as Yuta started to clean his teeth with his fingers. Then he remembered something.
"Yugi catch."
Yutaka threw something towards Yugi, who was on the duel platform, who promptly caught it.
"This?"
When Yugi opened his hand, he saw a star sitting in the middle of it.
"You guys are betting for 2 Star Chips, right? Mako?"
Yuta smirked at Mako as he spoke. Since this guy was going to lose anyway, why not fleece him fully?
Didn't he just say he was stronger than him?
Let's see him prove this by beating Yami Yugi.
This was definitely not revenge for that disgusting match at the nationals.
No, sir.
That was when Yuta for the second time felt like he was ignoring something important, but before he could dig into it, Yugi's words distracted him.
"Yuta, I can not accept this, I—"
"I am not giving it to you. I am just lending you one Star Chip until the end of this duel so that you can take both of Mako's Star Chips and kick him out of the tournament. Think of it as my revenge."
"As always, thank you for the freebie, Yutaka. A fisherman would never turn down an accidental catch."
Before Yugi could say anything, the duel started. So right now both parties were officially betting 2 Star Chips.
Yami Yugi felt a warm feeling in his heart. Yuta was obviously caring about him, but he was still making excuses because he didn't want him to be burdened.
Yuta must be a tsundere.
If Yuta could hear what he was thinking about, he would have denied it vehemently and ask Yami Yugi why he was writing and directing a play by himself. He was obviously taking revenge against Mako Tsunami, so why did it suddenly turn into this strange melodrama in your mind?
"My turn! Draw!"
Mako took the first turn as Yugi was distracted trying to return Yuta's Star Chips.
"You must be careful, Yugi. The sea is a capricious woman. You can never know what she hides beneath the surface. I summon my monster!"
Even though Mako declared he summoned a monster, Yugi was unable to see anything. His first thought was if something was wrong with the machine. After all, it was still a new invention, and they were scattered around the island haphazardly. Maybe this one was affected by the seawater? However, it didn't take him long to see a shadow appear on Mako's side of the field.
"Why can't I see your monster?" Yugi asked calmly.
"Didn't I tell you? You can never know what's beneath the sea's surface. If you want to find out, why not attack them?"
Yuta on the stands felt like he was having a brain aneurysm.
This was why he didn't like the early Yu-Gi-Oh! anime.
There were no apparent rules.
You could summon high-level monsters without sacrifices.
Cards didn't have a specific explanation.
The game was played with basically good faith.
If you could convince your opponent, that was how the card worked.
"Makes sense," answered Yugi as he nodded his head.
No, it doesn't make sense! Yuta screamed internally.
"My turn! Draw!"
"I summon Celtic Guardian in attack mode!"
[Celtic Guardian] [EARTH]
[LV: ★ ★ ★ ★]
[WARRIOR / NORMAL]
[An elf who learned to wield a sword, he baffles enemies with lightning-swift attacks.]
[1400 ATK / 1200 DEF]
"Now, my monster, attack his creature hidden in the sea!"
After Yugi ordered him to attack, the cannon fodder swordsman rushed towards the edge of Yugi's rocky area, but when he arrived, he just looked around and scratched his head and shrugged his shoulders before returning to his old position.
"What happened? Why didn't his attack go through?" asked Tea towards Yuta. She wanted to ask Joey at first, but he didn't seem reliable, so she turned towards the best duellist in the group, who even came in 4th in the nationals.
"Tch, because of bullshit, that's why." Yuta didn't take Tea's question seriously, but he still answered with his true feelings. However, to the ones not in the know, it sounded as if he were dismissing her rudely.
"Oi, watch it pal!" Joey gave Yuta a death glare. As he had thought, he was being rude just for the sake of it.
"Hahaha, your offensive is meaningless, Yugi. This is deep sea, not one of those shallow lakes or rivers you would encounter in forests, which is your Celtic Guardian's hometown. Since it is his first time seeing the sea, of course he doesn't know how to swim in it!" Mako boasted about his 'perfect' tactic.
"See, as I said, because of bullshit!" Yuta was getting so frustrated that he wanted to pull out his hair.
How did this even make sense? Like what? Celtic Guardian is an elf, so he likely does not know how to swim in the sea?
Who even comes up with stuff like this?
What's even more frustrating was everyone around him was going along with this.
"Oh, that makes sense! Then how is Yugi going to attack?" Joey asked, expressing his concern for Yugi.
"I end my turn," Yugi said unwillingly as he looked at the cards in his hand and thought about the ones in his deck, trying to come up with a solution.
"My turn! Draw!"
"Fiend Kraken attack Celtic Guardian!"
"Your creature is underwater; how can it attack my Celtic Guardian that is clearly on land?" Yugi asked Mako and trying to convince him that it was impossible.
However, as it hadn't been that long since Yami had escaped from the Millennium Puzzle, his bullshit powers were not that strong yet, so it was denied by the opponent.
"Haha, you must be joking, Yugi. Kraken is a monster known for sinking countless passenger ships with its strong tentacles. So it will obviously drag and drown the Celtic Guardian in the sea. Now go! Fiend Kraken! Graveyard Pull!"
As Yugi watched helplessly, his Celtic Guardian was dragged into the sea by the Fiend Kraken. It tried to ward off the tentacles with its sword, but it was no use. There were too many for him to cut it all off.
[Yugi: 2000 → 1800]
"Oh no! Yugi, you can't give up now!" shouted Tea, as she was worried about him. Trying to encourage Yugi so that he can find a way out of this predicament.
Seeing his friends supporting him, Yugi reminded himself of his resolve once more and drew a card that could turn the situation around.
"I summon Beaver Warrior!"
[Beaver Warrior] [EARTH]
[LV: ★ ★ ★ ★]
[BEAST-WARRIOR / NORMAL]
[What this creature lacks in size it makes up for in defence when battling in the prairie.]
[1200 ATK / 1500 DEF]
"Then I activate a spell card from my hand, Sword of Deep-Seated, and equip it to my Beaver Warrior!"
[Sword of Deep-Seated] [SPELL]
[EQUIP SPELL CARD]
[The equipped monster gains 500 ATK/DEF.]
A purple sword with engravings appeared in front of Beaver Warrior. It first looked at its shabby sword, then at the big sword in front and decided to discard its original sword for the new big one.
[Beaver Warrior ATK 1200 → 1700]
"Now Beaver Warrior! Attack Mako's monster!" Yugi ordered Beaver Warrior to attack with utmost confidence, which confused Yuta.
He didn't question if Beaver Warrior could locate and attack the monster. Yugi might come up with some nonsense to justify his actions.
"Ha! But your Beaver Warrior can't find the Fiend Kraken under the sea, so how can it attack?"
As soon as Mako said that, the Beaver Warrior reached the edge of Yugi's area and looked around confusedly, but this time Yugi was not silent!
"That's not necessarily true, Mako!" he replied as he shook his index finger.
Then in front of Mako's eyes the Beaver Warrior stretched and jumped into the sea to find the Fiend Kraken.
"How is that possible!?" Mako looked in disbelief.
"Mako, it seems like you don't know that Beavers are expert swimmers known to spend their entire lives in water. So, of course, my Beaver Warrior can swim and find your Fiend Kraken."
Even though it was bullshit, Yuta couldn't help but nod his head. 'As expected of the nameless pharaoh who even gave Zorc a brain aneurysm with his BS.'
When Beaver Warrior jumped in, they could finally see Fiend Kraken and its ATK points.
[Fiend Kraken ATK 1200 → 1600]
Due to the field bonus, it had a 30% bonus to its ATK and DEF points, but it was not relevant at this juncture. Even with the bonus, it was still weaker than Yugi's Beaver Warrior.
"Because Beaver Warrior is also a creature of the sea, it should also get the field bonus," Yami Yugi argued.
Once he was in the sea, Beaver Warrior started to look around excitedly.
[Beaver Warrior ATK 1700 → 2250]
However, Mako was not to be outdone. He took a Phoenix Wright objection pose and replied to Yugi.
"Even if beavers are aquatic creatures, they only live in freshwater environments, not seawater. So this boost is denied!"
Then, Beaver Warrior began to sniff the air and made a gagging gesture as its ATK points decreased.
[Beaver Warrior ATK 2250 → 1700 ]
"That may be true, Mako." as he started words like this, Yuta knew that another bout of bullshit was going to start again, so he listened curiously, wondering what Yami Yugi was going to spew this time.
"But you see, you seem to be forgetting my Beaver Warrior's equipment."
"No, it can't be!"
"Yes! This sword used to belong to the tyrant of the sea who dominated all the seas around the world. Now that it has returned to its natural habitat, the strength it bestowed upon my Beaver Warrior has doubled!"
As Beaver Warrior started to get seasick, his Sword of the Deep-Seated started to glow purple and strengthened him once again. He puffed his muscles to show how strong he had gotten. Now no beaver back home could defeat it!
[Beaver Warrior ATK 1700 → 2200]
Seeing the rabid beaver in front of it the Fiend Kraken tried to escape, but it was soon cut apart by the Beaver Warrior, becoming sashimi.
[Mako: 2000 → 1400]
As Yugi finally managed to crack Mako's fierce sea tactics, the peanut gallery all cheered except Yuta, who looked at the sky with a dead expression.
He couldn't do it.
In all his good conscience, he wouldn't be able to lie as straight-faced as Yugi. Even back when they were kids playing Yugioh in the school playground, they hadn't made up this much bullshit (though he did not play yugioh in the playground as a kid, his point still stands).
If anyone had dared to utter the same nonsense that Yugi did in the playground, the card duel would have escalated into a physical duel.
"Kuh! You might have defeated my Fiend Kraken, but there is still more that the sea can offer! Don't get complacent, Yugi!"
"My turn! Draw!"
As Mako drew, Yuta finally recollected himself. Thankfully he had managed to OTK Rex in that duel; otherwise, who knew what kind of bs he would have come up with?
In his anger, Yutaka would have probably beat him up and been kicked out of the tournament.
Now aside from winning, Yutaka had another reason to pursue OTK tactics. It was for his own mental health.
No.
He couldn't watch this atrocity anymore, so Yutaka decided to go back and adjust his deck.
Joey had stolen *ahem* confiscated Rex's deck because he broke the rules and tried to run away.
Seeing as he was the runner-up, his deck should have some rare cards. He had no hope for monsters, but his spells and traps should at least be okay, right? Even if he couldn't find anything else, just the Polymerization and time machine themselves would be enough for him.
One was the core of Red-Eyes itself, and the other was a possible key to a different Red-Eyes monster called Red-Eyes Retro Dragon, so he wouldn't be making a loss.
Now that he remembered, there was also his original deck. Which he kept in his black trenchcoat. It was the deck he used before losing Red-Eyes to Rex, so it had a lot of dragon support cards...
Wait a minute!
Why did he 'remember' it now?
That was when Yutaka had noticed that he had this body's original memories...
When did that happen?
Normally wouldn't recovering memories have great fanfare, like a splitting headache or something?
Oh, right...
He spent most of his waking moments either duelling or adjusting his decks. The rest was spent constantly passing out. Not to mention because he was sick, he already had headaches. No wonder he hadn't noticed it until now.
"Where are you going, Yuta?" Tea stopped Yuta as she noticed him leaving quietly. Since she suspected he and Yugi were relatives, she was keeping a close eye on him, hoping to get him to confess if possible.
If Yutaka knew her thoughts, he would be dumbfounded.
Just when did Yugi and Yutaka become relatives?
They didn't even have the same surname, for fuck's sake!
Not to mention he wasn't as "unique"-looking as that starfish head. He was just suffering from albinism, that's all.
There weren't any similarities between them at all.
He couldn't even bullshit like Yugi, let alone be relatives.
"Well, Yugi is going to win anyway. There is no need to waste time here. I still need to adjust my deck and find myself an opponent to duel with. Two people are okay, but three people are pushing it. If we move together, none of us will be able to make it to the finals," Yuta said as he just made up an excuse to leave.
He couldn't very well say that the duel itself was giving him mental damage in real time, could he?
"What about your Star Chip?"
"Yugi will return it to me when we next meet. Bye."
As she watched him leave, Tea got worried again. What if he passed out again all alone in the forest?
No, that can't happen.
Then she pulled Tristan to her side and asked him to follow Yuta.
"Why?"
"He said two people might be okay, but three people was too much. That's why he decided to leave the group and find an opponent for himself. Can you just hang out with him during the day and make sure he doesn't pass out and die somewhere? When the evening comes, you can also bring him back to have dinner, right? I mean, he doesn't look like someone that can feed himself in a forest..."
Tristan thought about it and agreed that what Tea said made sense. She would still be here to cheer on Joey and Yugi by herself. Tristan wasn't alright with sending her to follow Yuta either.
Even though he had good feelings towards the guy who knew what he could do to her once they were alone.
As for Joey... well, they would probably tear each other apart, so that only left him as the option.
"Okay, once I am gone, make sure Joey doesn't do anything too stupid." Tristan agreed and ran towards the direction where Yuta left from.
After leaving the group, Yuta found a big rock which he could sit on and started to rummage through his backpack and took out his card binder and black trench coat. Now that he thought about it he should have worn it sooner.
It also went well with his white pants and shirt, which had a red demonic eye on it.
Nothing to explain; his original body was into metal, so that explains the look.
He was just glad that the only thing black was the trench coat. Speaking of which, he wondered which band this logo belonged to.
It looked intriguing; maybe he should give it a listen himself when the tournament is over.
It should be called Sons of Sauron, I think?
The original body had a positive impression of the band based on his memories, but that was not the same as experiencing the music himself.
"Hey dude, why did you leave early?" Tristan caught up to Yuta and found him sitting on a rock going through his backpack.
"I said Tea the same thing. Yugi is going to win anyway, so why waste time?"
"You really believe in him that much, huh?"
"No? It's just—"
As Yuta was about to explain himself, they heard a shout through the forest.
"I! DESTROY! THE! MOON!"
"Welp, it's over, I guess." Now Yuta regretted leaving early. Even though he didn't like the early anime and even forgot most of it, everyone knew about the famous scene, so maybe he should have stuck around to see it despite the risk of mental damage.