Yutaka quickly finished adjusting his deck and finally understood why he was the 4th in the nationals. His deck had some rare banned cards and dragon support. It also had many normal beat sticks, but Yuta directly threw them into his card binder. He didn't need any beat stick other than Red-Eyes and maybe Launcher Spider.
At first, he was thinking of putting it away as well, but remembering that in this timeframe machine types were overpowered with being immune to spells and spellcaster-type monsters, he thought he could make use of it.
"You done? Let's go then!" Tristan, who was playing with a worm on the ground by poking it with a stick, finally felt energised. They could finally leave.
"Tristan, you know how to duel, right?" After contemplating for a moment, Yuta posed a question to Tristan. He had some theories about the current ruleset and wanted to push the limits by experimenting on Tristan.
Tristan, on the other hand, noticing that Yuta's expression didn't quite look right at the moment, decided to deny it vehemently.
"Duelling? That's for nerds like Yugi. A true man plays mahjong!" While saying this, Tristan puffed up his chest, hoping Yuta would buy his bluff.
Yutaka squinted his eyes but eventually gave up. He couldn't remember a single time Tristan duelled in the series. He wasn't even sure he had a deck in the first place.
"Okay then, let's go," Yutaka sighed to himself and got up, getting ready to search around to find a passerby to abuse.
"Oh? You are not going to say things like go back?"
Yutaka looked at him with disdain.
"Would that even work? My instincts are telling me if I do such a thing, you will probably kidnap me. So it is better to enjoy it if you can't avoid it."
Tristan looked at Yuta weirdly "...I don't think you are supposed to use that idiom in this context, but whatever. So where are we going? Just randomly look around?"
"What else can we do? Maybe we can try to search around the water sources and what not. I think that's how animals hunt, right? I am searching for someone."
"But we aren't hunting, though? Why would you treat people like animals? Surely we are smarter than them, right?"
"Tristan, you would be surprised how some humans are even dumber than animals."
Yuta picked a random direction and started walking. At this moment a person out of their eyesight walked out behind a tree. It was a teenager with white hair just like Yuta who had a golden ring on his chest.
"Was I wrong? But the power of the Millennium Ring led me to him, so he must certainly have a millennium item hidden somewhere on his body... Hmm, I memorised his face. Speaking of, why does he look familiar?... Not important; first, I need to deal with Pegasus." Then the figure blended into the shadows and disappeared once again.
If Tristan had seen his face, he would have recognised him as their posh classmate Bakura.
But he would have also noticed how different he looked from the normal. Because the one currently inhabiting this body was not Bakura but Yami Bakura.
As for who he is, it would take too long to explain; in short, he was a millennium item hunter, and he was destined to clash with Yugi over the ownership of the Millennium Puzzle.
***
"Wow, you really are unlucky," said Tristan, as they had been wandering for who knows how long without encountering a single soul.
"Tch, you weren't doing any better," Yutaka retorted with annoyance. He was already out of breath, and his head had started to ache.
Damn this sickness!
He swore that once he left this island, he would eat at least a kilogram of oranges every day for a month.
That was when Yutaka caught the whiff of something sweet. It felt like he had smelt this scent before, but he couldn't remember because of this damn headache.
"You are here."
The duo was stopped by a voluptuous blonde woman dressed in a purple vest and skirt with a white tank top underneath.
"I am?" Yutaka didn't know what was going on, so he just replied perfunctorily. The fact that he had a massive migraine didn't help him either.
"Good. Follow me." Then Mai turned back and left, leaving behind a puzzled Yutaka and Tristan.
The duo looked at each other and noticed both were as clueless as each other. But seeing it was a bombshell beauty that invited them Tristan dragged Yuta to follow after her.
What was the worst that could happen?
A duel trap?
That was okay!
He wasn't going to be one to duel anyway.
At worst, Yutaka would lose and be kicked out of the tournament, and that had nothing to do with him, Tristan Taylor.
Tristan had no qualms with selling off Yuta if necessary.
Oh, it was not because he didn't like him or anything. It was because Yuta had already achieved his goal for coming to this tournament.
He never voiced it, but anyone who saw him would know that he was as obsessed with Red-Eyes as Kaiba with Blue-Eyes.
So he must have come to get it back from Rex, and now that he did, the only thing left was the prize money.
But it was different for Joey and Yugi.
One was trying to get money to cure his sister's eyesight, and the other was fighting for the soul of his dear grandfather.
Compared to them Yuta had already achieved his goals, so Tristan indeed wished he would lose so that he wouldn't face Yugi and especially Joey.
Yugi beat Kaiba, the strongest duellist in the world, and Yuta was stronger than the previous runner-up of the nationals.
Whichever of them faced Joey, it would only be a tragedy for him.
Compared to them Tristan wanted Joey to win more, as they were childhood friends.
Sure, Yugi's grandpa's soul was in danger, but he had already lived a long life.
It was more important for Joey's little sister to regain her eyesight, as she still had a long life ahead of her.
Both in relationships and morality, Joey's cause was closer to him, so Tristan was his staunch supporter, unlike Tea, who seemed more in line with Team Yugi.
They arrived in a clearing with a duel arena sitting in the middle.
So Mai had obviously brought them here to duel.
The question was why?
After all, Mai was there when Yuta had beaten Rex, so logically she should have wanted to avoid a strong duellist like him, at least until the finals.
The problem was Yuta already knew Mai's deck, and the same held true for Mai as well since she had glanced at his deck.
Meaning, both sides had no secrets among each other, so it was unnecessary to wait until the finals and get it over with as soon as possible.
Mai also had another aim.
She was not planning on betting all of her chips.
Even with a single star chip, she could climb back up again, so if she couldn't eliminate Yuta here, she intended to use this experience to defeat him in the finals.
So no matter what, this situation was a win-win for her.
"How many Star Chips are you going to wager?" Mai asked as if their duel was already a foregone conclusion while Yutaka was trying to wrap his head around the situation.
"None?"
"...If you are not going to duel, why did you follow me then?" Mai felt her blood pressure rising again. Right, for a second she had forgotten how irritating this guy was.
"Because you said to come?" Yutaka looked at Tristan, asking for his support, while the guy had turned his face away and whistled like he didn't know Yuta.
".... ARE YOU A DOG OR SOMETHING WHY FOLLOW SOMEONE JUST BECAUSE THEY CALLED YOU!?" This was it. She was finally going to be a murderer today.
Oh my mother in heaven, please forgive me, as your daughter will take a life today.
Yutaka felt a shiver in his soul from fear. He could see aura flames materialise around Mai to show how angry she was.
He wondered if they were as hot as real flames and wondered what would happen if he touched them?
"...Oh, I am feeling lightheaded. I think I am going to pass out..." Then Yuta fell over into Tristan's arms, who let him down to the ground gently and skilfully as if it wasn't the first time he did this.
"Oh no! Yuta! Don't go to the light, man!" Tristan tried to shake him awake without looking at Mai, who was watching the antics of the duo weirdly.
She didn't know if she was supposed to laugh or get angry.
"...Did she go?" Yuta slightly lifted his left eyelid and asked Tristan, who shook his head to indicate "no."
Truthfully, Yutaka had no intention of fighting against Mai. The reason was simple. If he eliminated her, he didn't know who would be in the finals of the tournament.
He didn't remember exactly everything, but he knew that among the four finalists there was a guy called Bandit Keith. Yutaka was aiming to get rid of him and replace him as the finalist.
Why not Mai, you ask?
Simple, really.
Bandit Keith possessed a rare card named Magic Metal Force, which had the ability to unlock an advanced form of Red-Eyes known as Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon.
It obviously was not a strong card, just a beat stick with 2800 ATK points, but that was in Joey's hands.
He was sure that he could make up a bs effect for it and make everyone agree. He even had some ideas about what kind of effects it could have in his mind.
The anime card was different from the real-life Metalmorph as well.
Magic Metal Force could reflect one spell before becoming equipment and metallising a monster.
So he was sure that he could add a negate effect to that black metal dragon and at least make it somewhat viable.
How will he get the card from Keith after the duel, you say?
Heh. He wanted to remind everyone that Tristan managed to knock out Kaiba Corp security guards along with Joey.
Those guys were literal Ex-Military. So how could Bandit Keith escape his clutches when he had such a strong backing?
This was also the reason why they had not encountered duellists for hours. While searching for a potential experience pack (Duel Kingdom Participant), Yuta was also trying to find Bandit Keith. He didn't remember it exactly, but he remembered Keith was hiding in a cave on the island near a forest. So he was searching the rocky areas nearby to find him.
Since Bandit Keith's defeat was a foregone conclusion, he would rather not defeat Mai and get a random variable in the finals.
He still needed to rely on Yami Yugi to kick the shit out of Pegasus after all, so Yutaka couldn't mess around too much.
"Do not make me call Illusion Society employees to force you into the arena..." Mai sighed to herself and shook her head while reminding the circus duo.
"Do we really have to duel?" Yutaka got up from the ground once she mentioned calling judges, but he suddenly felt dizzy because he got up too fast.
"We do, so how many Star Chips do you have?" Mai replied as she started shuffling her deck out of boredom.
"...Three"
"Three?"
"Yes, three."
"...HAHAHAHA! Did you lose? Who did you lose to? You must have acted cockily and got slapped in the face by reality." Mai started to laugh as she clutched her stomach while tears started to form in her eyes due to laughing too much. She didn't even know why she found the notion of him losing funny, but she did.
Tristan wanted to explain that he did not lose but 'lent' his Star Chip to Yugi, but he was stopped by Yutaka.
"I didn't lose. I just 'lent' my Star Chip to someone." Yuta tried to explain, but he knew that the more he talked like this, the more he would be misunderstood. He was doing this intentionally because he wanted to divert Mai's attention to someone else.
"HAHAHAHA! OH MY GOD! He said lent... LENT... Come on, tell me who did you lose to?" Hearing the word 'lent', Mai thought Yuta was joking, so she laughed, and then she noticed he was serious… so she laughed even harder!
Damn, she really laughed like a 'Harpie' Lady. No wonder they are her favourite monsters.
I wonder what Joey even saw in her, though this part was not canon, and Yuta had no idea that Joey and Mai were not a couple in the anime.
Because of all the online shipping, he always had thought they were an item in the anime after the Duellist Kingdom arc.
"I 'lent' it to Yugi," Yutaka said in a small voice. Clearly unwilling to explain more.
Hearing that it was Yugi Muto, Mai finally calmed down a little. Since it was the guy who beat Seto Kaiba, it made sense. Still, it was cute how he tried to keep defending himself by saying he 'lent' it rather than losing.
"Anyway, three Star Chips, right? Good. I have gathered five, so we are betting for three Star Chips then," Mai declared as she held her stars between her fingers.
Yutaka had also thought the same when he watched the anime, but the way they held the Star Chips between their fingers before declaring a duel really looked cool.
He also wanted to do the same, but they slipped from his sweaty fingers, so he put down his Star Chips onto the console like that was what he had intended to do in the first place.
"Duel!"