善良妈妈的朋友

Chapter 28

The room was dark, lit only by the light of the small desk lamp and the street lights outside Yugi\'s window. It made the shadows all the darker, wavering against his walls as he sat hunched over his desk, fingers working quickly as he twisted and turned the golden pieces, trying to find the right way to lock them together. He saw now that the puzzle was taking on a pyramid shape but even then it was hard for him to get everything lined up just right. It was... it was almost like the puzzle was doing all it could to stay broken. To remain the jumbled mess it had been when he\'d first received it.

His back ached from being in that same position for so long but still Yugi worked. He set down one piece and grabbed enough and after a few moments was able to figure out how to rotate it to fit into the teeth of another. And those two, in turned, formed a corner that locked into the main body...

It was all coming together so quickly! Far quicker than before. He\'d spent months working on this puzzle and not even getting two pieces to connect together but tonight everything was beginning to fall into place! The puzzle was coming together and he felt the need, the drive, to see the ancient relic at long last be made whole once again!

The door to his bedroom creaked open and Yugi barely glanced away from the puzzle to see that it was just his grandfather coming in. Most likely to check on him... from the cramps that suddenly flared up in his stomach Yugi realized that he had missed supper.

"Yugi, would you come out of there! You need to-" his grandfather stopped, staring at the bits of gold on Yugi\'s desk, which the boy had been unable to hide before the old man spotted them. "...you thieving little bastard."

"Leave me be, I\'m almost done!" Yugi exclaimed, turning from the enraged form of his grandfather and focusing once more on the puzzle.

"Almost... you stole from me! ME!" He rushed forward and grabbed Yugi\'s wrist, squeezing it hard and giving the boy a shake. "Your whore of a mother abandoned you on my doorstep. You forget that? I provide for you, give you food and shelter... and you STEAL from me?!?" Spittle flew from his lips and the words left his tongue like a whip\'s crack. "You\'d be dead without me! And you take what is MINE?!"

"Why do you care?" Yugi snarled as he ripped his arm free from the old man\'s grasp. He glared at his grandpa as he wrapped his arms around the puzzle pieces, ready in case the old man suddenly decided to lunge for the relic and try and reclaim it. "This was just sitting in your room, gathering dust!"

"I was solving it!"

"And failing!" Yugi shot back. "You\'ve had this puzzle for over a decade and couldn\'t even get two pieces together! You didn\'t even notice it was gone! I\'ve had it for months and you didn\'t even realize it! You\'re only mad because I\'m about to do what you never could: I\'m going to solve it."

"You... what?" That caused the old man to pause, to finally see just what Yugi had been doing. "You... you solved it?"

"I have!" Yugi said, excited. "No one else in the world could have done it... even you couldn\'t do it... but I did." Yugi snapped another piece into place and took a breath, holding out the final bit of gold that was needed to finish the Millennium Puzzle. "I did it. And everyone is going to know it. I\'m going to reveal to the world that I managed to solve the Millennium Puzzle and then everyone will have to notice me!" His smile fell as he thought of the laughter from his schoolmates, how the teachers constantly dismissed him, how his entire life had been spent as merely a footnote rather than someone the world saw and respected. "No more ignoring me... everyone is going to know I\'m the best!" He flashed a smug grin at his grandfather. "Even better than you. You couldn\'t solve it... but I did. I solved it. And with this I\'m going to go places! I\'m going to get money, and power, and-"

Pain exploded across his head.

His face collided with the desk, nose shattering as he struck the corner, and he fell down on the ground in a crumpled puddle of limbs. A kick to his gut had him curling in on himself, but that only left his back exposes and he cried out when another strike sent agony raising across his spine. He tried to wiggle away but his eyes were swirling... or the room was... or maybe nothing was spinning at all. He couldn\'t tell anymore. He tried to crawl away only for a sharp pain to fill his ankle, the snap of the bone as it shattered. He howled and sobbed, twisting back and forth till a meaty hand grabbed his hair and forced his head up.

"G-grandpa?" he whispered, coughing up a wad of blood.

The old man considered him for a moment before he slammed Yugi\'s face down into the hardwood floor, breaking his right eye socket completely.

"That was my puzzle, boy," his grandpa hissed. "I found it in that tomb. Me. I risked the traps. I fought my way out of Egypt. I did all of that... and if you think for one SECOND I\'m letting you take all the glory you are wrong." He slammed Yugi\'s head down again before he walked over to the desk and took the puzzle, holding it up and staring at it with an intent gaze that would cause any living creature that saw it sent their way to shiver in fear and loathing. "You were always a fool, Yugi. Wasting your life dreaming of being someone bigger and better and never doing anything about it! Lazy brat... you just expected the world to give you all you wanted! You never worked for it! \'I want to date this girl, grandpa!\' \'I wish we had more money, grandpa!\' \'Why don\'t I look like the other guys in the shower, grandpa?\' Pathetic! When I was your age I was off exploring the world and making my fortune, rubbing elbows with the rich and powerful, stealing from the lost civilizations, and making sweet love to the most beautiful of women. But you never even considered that, did you? You just expected life to give you something for absolutely nothing. For money to rain from the sky, everyone to respect you, and pussies to fall on your shriveled dick!"

He slowly slotted the final piece of the puzzle into place.

"Life doesn\'t give you things... you have to take-"

Outside the Kame Gameshop the windows lit up with a golden light, flaring briefly before the shadows returned. And then everything was still and quiet... until a voice chuckled in the inky black of the night and a boy screamed as he became the first of many sacrifices.

~Present Day~

"Just let them go!" Tristan declared, struggling against the men The Professor had ordered drag the teens along into his lab. "Just take me... they are nothing!"

The Professor chuckled at that, the sound distorted by his mask. "You are under the delusion that you can barter with me. You have nothing to offer Tristan." He let out an amused huff. "Just take you... I already have you. I don\'t normally accept payment of something I already possess." He pointed to a set of tables and Tea, Tristan, and Yuri found themselves being dragged over to them, forced to lie down against the cold, unyielding steel. Steel bands were placed around their ankles and their wrists, locking them in place while the Professor began to move around the room, checking over his experiments to see if anything new or interesting had occurred while he\'d been away. "I will admit though that it is rather admirable that you aren\'t trying to sell each other out. That happens more often than you\'d think. The wails I\'ve heard when family turns on each other in a desperate attempt to save their own skin. It never works, of course... if you are brought to me there is little use for you in the grand scheme. Still... it always is amusing when a parent sells their child to try and save themselves-"

"You\'ll never get away with this!" Tea snapped.

The Professor shot her a look and though much of his face was hidden she could tell he wasn\'t impressed by her outburst. "That tired old cliché? Why not just tell me that I\'ve fallen into your own trap or that I have no idea what I\'m doing." He walked over and patted a glowering Tea on the check. "Dream something a bit more... original... darling."

"Why are you doing this?" Yuri asked as the Professor silently commanded his men to disappear and leave him in peace. "What are you doing?"

"Now those?" The Professor pointed his finger at the detective. "Those are good questions. The right questions." He began to move around them, examining machines that didn\'t... quite look like machines. Or at least machines of the modern age. There were parts that were, of course. Computer screens and modern switches and the like. But there were also elements of the previous century, with copper tubes and exposed snaking wires coated in rubber. Tubes filled with rising and falling liquids of various neon colors and balls filled with thrumming electrical currents. And far older things... ancient things. A section of stone, rough cut from the wall of some structure built thousands of years ago, forced into the mess of mechanical devices like a part of a demented abstract artist\'s piece on the folly of men\'s rise.

All of these the Professor moved about, carefully looking over, clicking his tongue at times when he paused at one piece before making an adjustment then moving on.

"Let us tackle the second one first, shall we?" he said, never turning to face the three restrained people. "Duel Monsters is a complex game with a very complex origin. Far older than you might assume. Pegasus didn\'t create the game he merely rediscovered it... no, that isn\'t quite right. That makes it sound like it was a game to begin with. It was never such a thing. Pegasus discovered a ritual, ancient and dark and powerful, and as so commonly happens what was once black and forbidden becomes tame and common place. It is brought to heel, altered and twisted, until it is finally made just acceptable enough for society. You see it all the time, you know? The dark fairy tale of violence and destruction made into a sweet little story a mother whispers to their child before bed. Red Riding Hood storming the den of the wolves and brutally slaughtering them all so she might make herself a cloak only to be trapped forever in the darkness of the cave? It is watered down, pieces removed, and you get the familiar tale." He paused. "Well, familiar to me."

"So what?" Yuri said, twisting her head so she could look in his direction. "Pegasus found some dark magic spell and used it to make money?"

"Now you\'re catching on!" The Professor stated, pleased. "The ritual it was based upon was a way to allow the Pharaoh of Egypt to maintain control over his lands. And just like as it is now one held onto power through a single thing... more power."

"How convenient," Yuri said dryly.

"An arms race. But rather than nukes and the like they turned to more savage ways or... more mystical." He held out his arms wide. "The Shadow Games. A cute name for a violent and deadly art. The Egyptians learned that life was divided into two. There is the Ba... the soul. It is what keeps us alive, of course... makes us who we are. But there is another... the Ka. A manifestation of who we truly are... what we truly are. Monsters... demons... angels... beasts... creatures. All these things. They are the sum total of our entire existence. Not just what we\'ve done but what we\'ve felt, what we\'ve longed for, dreamed of, desired. Loved. Hated!"

The Professor gripped Tea\'s table, body tense and nearly shaking as he spoke, making the three swallow and keep silent, fearful of what he might do. There was... something about him. A raw intensity that came only from... a zealot.

"And then a great Pharaoh learned how to bring forth the Ba. The monster within. To pull them from a soul... till they lived and the body... didn\'t. And so-"

Tristan suddenly lunged forward and it was a wonder he didn\'t snap his own spine in his attempt to yank himself off the table.

"Hey!" The Professor scolded. "Hey! Calm it the hell down!"

"We\'re not going to allow you to twist us into some attack dogs!" Tristan roared.

"They didn\'t turn people into monsters, don\'t be silly," the Professor scolded him. "They ripped out a part of their soul that was represented in physical form as a monster, there is a difference." He reached over and patted Tristan\'s cheek. "And I am not interested in that."

"Then... why did you-"

"I was explaining," he said slowly, his voice taking on a tone of mock sweetness that helped remind the three that this man, despite what he was wearing and the title he gave himself... was Edwin. Another version, from a world where things had gone different... but still Edwin. The cockiness. The confidence. The way he held himself and spoke with knowledge that he should never have had.

And that made it all the worse.

"The Pharaoh did it because he needed power and thought that the creatures were the way to do it. An army of monsters made from the worst criminals in his kingdom. A good idea... but flawed. The monsters began to grow weak over time, needing strong warriors... champions, if you will... to wield them. Because there is a unity. Ba and Ka. The Ka powers the Ba, the Ba protects the Ka. But why?" He looked at the three of them but when they refused to answer him he let out a sigh of annoyance. "The Ka... the soul... it is energy. The greatest fuel that ever existed. The Pharaoh had known this all along but got so focused on his army of monsters." The Professor shrugged. "The King is... wiser."

The Professor gestured at the machines. "The Ka must be gathered so that it can be used properly. But it is crude oil to the gasoline we need... it must be refined. And the best way to purify it and strengthen it is through duels. Pegasus was kind in that regard, though I doubt he thinks that considering the King used his own game to claim his soul." The Professor chuckled darkly at that. "Now... the King could duel on his own... and does, because there is something to say about the personal touch, but to get to the scale we need Champions are needed. But therein lies the problem... not enough people play anymore. At least to the level that the King needs. Its rather wasteful to find people, train them, send them out... only for them to lose to a heroic sort with delusions of justice. And if they are given one of the modern made items..."

"That\'s what that... thing in Serenity\'s head was?" Yuri asked. Always the cop. Always asking questions.

"It was. A trusted few are given replicas of the Millennium Items. The King holds the true ones close. But again, when they lose that is a waste. Thus... where I come in." He stroked one of the machines. "This device will teach the three of you in a few minutes everything there is to know about Duel Monsters. Competitive Mastery placed directly into your minds. Amazing, isn\'t it?"

"And what? We\'re supposed to then help him because we\'re thankful for that?" Tea demanded. "No chance."

"I know," the Professor said. "Which is why the next step is to make you his loyal minions."

"Brainwashing," Yuri said with disgust and a touch of fear.

"More that I nudge things to... his view. The brain is an amazing thing. One can justify anything."

"Like you are right now?" Yuri shot at him. "Doing this to innocent people."

"No one is innocent," The Professor said. "You need to get that through your head. Your world may be lighter than this one but there is still darkness in everyone." He paused, looking them over. "You are thinking right now that your precious Edwin would never do this, aren\'t you?" The Professor chuckled. "Maybe... but let me ask you this: If Edwin had the chance... what would he do to me?"

"Kill you," Yuri said without thought. "He\'d kill you to protect us."

That... seemed to surprise the Professor. "Hmmm."

There was a flash of golden light...and Tea, Tristan, and Yuri began to scream.

~MC~MC~MC~

"It\'s amazing," I said as Solomon led me to a particular building, "one can change so much. Gain power, wealth, fame, all of that... get every dream they always wanted! And yet they still end up going back to where they started." I let out an amused huff. Because of course where else would the \'King of Domino\' place his throne than Kame Game?

The little card shop was exactly the same yet also altered greatly. If one took their hands and placed them on either side of the building, covering up everything but it, then it looked almost exactly as the Kame Game Shop from the anime. There were minor changes... the windows were a bit darker, the paint a bit fresher, the welcome sign on the door missing, but it was Kame Game, just as I\'d seen it both on the show and the few times Yugi had asked me to come by to help with something (mostly to help him determine what to do with cards he wanted to remove from his deck... he\'d taken my idea to sell the Exodia pieces I\'d gotten from him to heart and was doing the same with cards he no longer needed). A cheerful little shop owned by a small business owner.

It was only when one pulled their hands away that they saw that Kame Game was like the bio-luminous bulb at the end of an angler fish\'s antenna and the true monster lay behind it.

It reminded me a bit of UP! and the old man\'s house, sandwiches between two massive buildings. Except not quite because it wasn\'t so much a sandwich and more that Kame Game was a boil that was growing off of the massive multi-story building that had swelled out behind it. Work was still being done, with the upper parts of the building still little more than steel beams that formed the skeleton, but already the new addition was swelling out of Kame Game, cold steel and glass.

"Hmm?" Solomon said, glancing back at me. It was just the two of us, no guards... at least none that I could see. I wasn\'t under any delusions that this man didn\'t have people ready to spring out and attack me if I made a wrong move.

\'Or perhaps he doesn\'t. Perhaps he\'s so confident in his power that he doesn\'t need guards. Marik is like that... Dartz too when you get down to it. They have minions to do their bidding but no one to protect them. Because they always think they are strong enough to handle any threat on their own.\'

Out loud I said, "You\'ve made yourself a crime boss, set yourself up as the King of Domino... but couldn\'t let go of the shop, could you?"

"Of course not," Solomon stated, as if I had said the dumbest thing a human being could possibly utter. "A waste to do so. I put good money into it. Blew several fortunes into building it up, getting a client base that knew I wouldn\'t bat an eye over whatever stolen goods they\'d bring me..."

"You could have sold it," I pointed out, deciding to poke the bear just a touch. You found out the truth about someone when they were frustrated. Their guards were dropped and the real them shone through.

Solomon scoffed at that. "To who? A rival? I control Duel Monsters... I am Duel Monsters. I would never give this shop up to anyone. Ever."

And that was the telling line. \'I would never give this shop up\'. Because I had a feeling that was the heart of the matter: the greedy old man couldn\'t stand the idea of someone else holding something of his, even if he\'d sold it away and made more than enough money on it. I could offer him the world, make him forever immortal and young, with every desire coming true... and he\'d still stew over what he\'d been forced to give up in order to get it all, no matter how small. Tolkien had described Smaug as an old man who had forgotten he owned something only to go into a rage when it disappeared; that was rather fitting for this version of Solomon Muto.

"So, any reason why you decided to drag me along on this tour instead of handing me off to the Professor and his tender mercies?" I asked as Solomon opened the game shop (no lock because who would be foolish enough to try and steal from him) and led me inside. It looked nearly the same as in my world... a few more bars on the windows, perhaps, and the glass cases were reinforced and I was sure there was a gun under the register but the same. Solomon breezed past it all and made his way to the back down that led to the new hulking addition, motioning for me to follow.

"I wanted to deal with you myself," the old man said simply. "Been a while since I took matters into my own hands, you know? They tell you it will be fun to be the boss but it gets boring when everyone else is doing things for you."

"Please, you love bossing people around."

"...yeah," Solomon admitted. "But that doesn\'t mean there aren\'t times when you want to take care of things yourself. And you? You gained my interest when you killed Serenity Wheeler."

"From a certain point of view," I replied, keeping my tone flippant so he had no idea how much Serenity\'s fate still bothered me. "Are you dead if your body keeps living even with the soul gone?"

"Something I\'ve thought about," Solomon said with a dark chuckle. "I suppose it\'s similar to the question of if a king is to blame for what his people do."

The large room we entered wasn\'t done, still having much needed to be seen too before it could be called complete. But attempts had been made to give it an sensation of regal grace, that was clear. It would be a throne room. Where the King of Domino would hold court. Less Egypt though and more the Red Keep from Game of Thrones. I could see where they\'d begun to apply fake stone to the walls, matching the real stone floors. Pillars with pencil marks on them that would guide the artists that would carve Solomon\'s history into them. Plain windows that I imagined would be replaced by stainglass ones. I could imagine the carpets that would be placed down and the banners hung from the ceiling. And at the very back of the room, standing on a dais, was the massive stone throne that Solomon made his way towards. Because of course the throne had been the first thing he\'d seen to completing.

"But the fact remains that you stole a Champion from me. She was MINE. Belonged to me." He growled out those words, possessive and clinging. "And you hold one of the Millennium Items." He settled onto his seat which I only now realized had been built from the Millennium Tablet, which was supposed to hold the god cards and the Millennium Items. Several were placed within it already: the Eye, scales, the Necklace, the Key. The Rod missing, as was the Ring and the Puzzle. And no god cards, which was a good thing as I really didn\'t want to have to deal with those puppies at the moment. "One I already hold," he said, pointing at his world\'s version of the Millennium Key. "So tell me how you ended up with one of your own?"

"Would you believe I\'m from another world?" I asked lazily... though that wasn\'t how I was feeling. No, I was racking my mind trying to think of a way out of this mess.

"Yes," the King stated. "I\'ve lived an eventful life... other dimensions aren\'t a shock for me."

"Don\'t suppose you are the one that brought me here."

"No," he said with a glower. "Why would I want you here? You are getting in the way of my work."

"Then let me and my friends go and we\'ll be on our merry way." I shrugged. "I\'m not the hero type, not when it\'s not my world."

"You expect me to believe that."

"Believe what you want. My beef isn\'t with this world where up is down. I only killed Serenity because she tried to enter my mind. Had she left me be I would have happily been on my way."

Solomon leaned forward on his throne, a smirk forming on his lips. "When I first gained the Millennium Puzzle I was startled to find that it was far more than a relic of a forgotten age. It contained something powerful- no. No, that is me being rude. SomeONE very powerful. The soul of a boy... one that might have changed the world as we knew it." His fingers went towards the Puzzle, grazing its surface lightly. "Though how is another matter. The boy\'s father crafted the Millennium Items and naturally the child assumed they would be passed to him upon his father\'s death. But then people began whisper in his ear... why wait? The man was old but not so old that he might not rule for decades. Why should the boy waste the best years of his life, of his prime, serving his father when their kingdom was just beging him to take control? Every year his father lived was one less year the boy would have on the throne, after all. He was young... strong... he could make his mark upon the world far better with half a century on the throne. The Pharaoh was weak. The prince was strong.

"And so he struck out, murdering his father in a bloody coup that saw have the court chopped down and the Nile running red... but the boy sat the throne. But just because one is strong enough to swing a sword doesn\'t mean they are strong enough to rule. Not that he had even swung a sword. He just gave the command and it took his advisors telling him the time was now for him to finally gain the will to do so. Once he was on the throne he didn\'t know what to do with it! He didn\'t know how to rule. His father had hidden so much from him that now he would never learn. So he tried to act as his father had but he was a pale imitation. A copy that no one wanted or desired. And the advisors that had come to him when he\'d just been the heir and told him that it was his time to rule? They now said he should just enjoy himself and let them lead the kingdom. He couldn\'t have that so in what might have been his only showing of a backbone he had them gutted and left to rot for the crocodiles to feed upon.

"So now the boy was completely on his own. He of course brought in new councilors but they were weak like him, merely toe lickers who kissed his robes and told him how wonderful and wise he was. And he bumbled from one mistake to the next. He selected a priest who was bewitched by a white haired witch who soon had a cult that worshipped her and the great dragon that haunted her dreams like she was the next Horus. He betrayed his teacher in the mystical arts all so he could fuck the man\'s student, making her his concubine only for her to prove to be barren and a whore who slept with any man or beast that had a cock. He spat on ambassadors who asked for new deals and sentenced to death any that said he was anything but perfect."

"I\'m guessing this story doesn\'t end with him living a long and happy life," I said dryly.

Solomon glared at me for interrupting him before he took on his amused tone once more. "No, it does not. A group of rebels began to rise up, to bother and torment the boy king. Rallying the people, harassing his chosen guards and warriors... it was so stressful. The Pharaoh whimpered and whined daily. \'Why don\'t they love me?\' he would ask more than once. \'I\'m the Pharaoh!\' He sought answers, removed and killed more of his advisors, until he finally found a general that could help him. Strong, powerful, young as well, like him. Truly a perfect match. And suddenly the attacks stopped. The rebels were driven off. The Pharaoh was pleased!" Solomon paused. "Well... until his general, Bakura, drove a blade into his belly and revealed that he was the rebel leader all along. That everything had been designed to make the boy so desperate he would turn to him.

"The General though wasn\'t in the mood to merely allow the boy king to die and go to the underworld of the Field of Reeds. No... he wanted him to suffer. So he used his own dark magic to seal the boy\'s soul inside the Millennium Item the Pharaoh wore around his neck then shattered it into pieces. He then locked away the Items, so they might never be used again, and began his own reign over Egypt. A sadly calm and just one which is just so boring.

"When I found this puzzle the spirit of the boy pharaoh appeared before me. He told me his whole story, everything I\'ve told you. And he said that together we could do amazing things." Solomon let out a snorting laugh. "I used his soul as the second sacrifice to grant myself power. It didn\'t matter how he squealed and pleaded with me that he wasn\'t a threat to me, that he just wanted to live... I knew the dangers of letting a threat linger." He leaned forward once more and locked eyes with me. "And I will not have you become my Bakura."

"So what?" I asked, staring him, "Is this where you try and rip my soul out of my body? Serenity tried that and... you know what happened to her."

"I do," Solomon said with a slight chuckle, pushing himself up and off the throne. "But I am not Serenity Wheeler. I am not wielding one of the modern items. Mine is the original-"

"And so is mine," I said coolly, willing the Millennium Key out. "And I know how to use it."

"Do you now?" Solomon said, interested. "That one was one I couldn\'t figure out, I\'ll admit. The Puzzle was... well, I have a close and personal connection to that." He stepped down from the dais and began to circling the room, eyeing me up as he continued his orbital path. "The Necklace I learned of from its last wielder... the gravekeeper boy squealed its secrets before I killed him, same as his whore of a sister who thought she could hand him over to me in exchange for her life. The Eye Pegasus tried to use against me, before I ripped it and his other one out of his skull. But the Key? That one has been a mystery."

I didn\'t say a word, not wanting to give him any hints about how the Key worked. Instead I just kept an eye on him, feeling a bit of comfort from having an item with me, ready to protect me against whatever the King of Domino was going to throw at me.

"But yes, this is the part where I take your soul. But first I must... power it up. Get the energies within it flowing. Or, to put it another way, season the meat."

"I already fought Pennywise," I told him. Solomon frowned at that and I waved it off. "Nevermind, you were trying and failing to intimidate me?"

"Yes, well," Solomon said with a rather jolly tone that did nothing to put me at ease, "for all the failures of the Pharaoh I have come to see that he was right about one thing: Battle is the best way to truly make one\'s Ka grow stronger."

"So we\'re going to duel, aren\'t we?" I complained. The King looked at me and I rolled my eyes. "Different fucking dimension and it still comes down to a duel. I mean... seriously, just for once I\'d like the fate of the world to come down to writing a nice essay. Maybe how much of Albania is spared determined by how well I cite my sources."

Solomon glowered at me. "Do not mock me."

"I\'m mocking the situation, not you," I pointed out, activating my stolen Duel Disk. "Let me guess, if I lose this thing will suck my soul right out of me and I\'ll be banished to a world of pain and torment and blah blah blah?" I sighed and took out a deck. "And what do I get if I win? Not falling for the same mistake twice."

Solomon let out a sigh, it clear he thought this was a waste of time because he was going to win. Because of COURSE someone who openly declared themselves a King of a city without even controlling it would believe that there was no chance they could ever fail. "I\'ll let you go."

"With my soul intact," I demanded.

"...fine."

"Nice," I said even as I planned to never let him at my soul. I silently imagined a lock upon my leg, one that tethered my soul to my body, and my finger was the key, turning the lock and snapping it shut so that nothing could hope to break it open. I felt a slight... pinch... and then nothing and mentally sighed in relief as the Key did its thing. "Well then, your grace... let\'s duel."

"Yes," Solomon said, walking back to his throne and sitting down, a dueling platform rising up in front of him and sliding over his lap so he could have our battle in luxary and comfort. It was clearly just a duel disc that had been modified to lock into the platform but still I had to admit as much as the man came off as an arrogant little prick he did have the right idea when it came to sitting in a nice comfy chair while dueling. The throne was even padded!

He pulled out his deck and began to shuffle it, the motions lazy yet also casual and filled with ease. It was clear that Solomon knew his way around a deck and I vaguely remembered that my version of Solomon Muto had been a famed gambler and adventurer who had made his fortune traveling the world taking on wild bets and conquering every game he could find.

Inserting my deck into my duel disc I shot out the hologram generators and drew my opening hand. "Who goes first, your grace?" I asked in a mocking tone.

"Me, of course," Solomon said as he drew his cards. "Tell me, in your world, do decks reflect their owners?"

"They do."

"I thought as much. There are some things that remain eternal, even beyond the different realms. Decks are merely vessels for Bas and a person can\'t help but select one that matches the secrets they keep within their souls." He looked over his hand. "Take my deck, for example. I first built my wealth by exploring the world, seeking out the mysteries that baffled the greatest minds of both science and mysticism. It is how I first gained the Millennium Puzzle, so I felt it only fitting to build my deck around such things. The mysteries of the world, hidden from sight... but just because they are hidden doesn\'t mean they aren\'t real. Waiting. But first, if we wish to discover the unknown... we must toss aside all we do now. To open our minds."

"Dear lord do all you megalomaniacs speechify like this?" I muttered under my breath. "Someone didn\'t learn from Syndrome..."

Solomon held up a card. "I activate Card Destruction, forcing us to both discard our entire hands and draw new cards." He smirked as he set his hand aside. "Did I hurt your strategy? Did I play my cards right? Or have I helped you out?"

I merely raised an eyebrow at that and the King glowered when I refused to answer, merely placing my opening hand into my graveyard.

"There is no use hiding anything from me, Chaos," Solomon said. "I watched your entire duel against the Professor. I know what kind of deck you are running: that spell counter magician deck. I am ready for you and your Endymion. Every gambler learns how to count the cards and see the tells. And looking at you right now? You are all out of aces."

On a warm summer\'s evening

On a train bound for nowhere

I met up with the gambler

We were both too tired to sleep

"What... what is that?"

"Just Troy," I said with a sigh. "He likes to play music... actually I\'m surprised you noticed as most times people don\'t even comment on it. Huh." I looked around before finally turning back to Solomon. "Well? We\'re waiting."

"Be careful what you wish for, boy," Solomon snapped at me, clearly not liking the young buck not showing the elder stag the respect he felt he was owed. "I\'ve already sent one mystery to the graveyard when I used Card Destruction... it wasn\'t merely designed to harm you. By sending my Ogopogo to the graceyard I am able to send a similar monster to the graveyard." He smiled. "Curious, isn\'t it?"

"Danger."

"Yes, you are-"

"no," I said, cutting his taunt off. "That\'s the deck you are running. A Danger! Deck." Solomon stared at me in surprise at that and I smirked. "I have one myself." Granted, that was in the real world, before I\'d been dragged into this strange alternate reality... well, the strange alternate reality before THIS strange alternate reality. But still I had built that deck and had a general idea how it ran. Normally Danger! was used as an engine but I was willing to bet that this being an anime, even a twisted alternate reality version of one, Solomon was running a pure Danger! deck which meant the entire focus was summoning his big monsters as quickly as he could in order to pound me down with their raw power.

\'Is he going to be in for a surprise,\' I thought to myself.

So we took turns a-starin\'

Out the window at the darkness

The boredom overtook us

And he began to speak

"You still haven\'t told me how you got your Key or what it can do," Solomon told me, "but I can tell that you are someone good at grasping onto something forgotten and lost to the world and not letting go. So... let\'s see how good you are at grasping another." He lifted up a card from his hand, flipping it to reveal Danger! Mothman before setting his entire hand onto the dueling platform, causing the cards to suddenly flash onto the field. "Can you find my monster, Edwin, before he strikes?"

I looked over the 4 cards, knowing that the odds of me finding him were slim. But that didn\'t matter too much with the Danger! archtype because if you selected the wrong monster they were sent to the graveyard... and trigger an effect that could be rather nasty.

"Farthest left," I finally said and the card flipped up, revealing Brain Control.

"I suppose that is rather fitting," Solomon taunted, "seeing as you don\'t have a brain."

"Cute, did you get Bruce Vilanch to write your material?" When Solomon merely stared at me again, brow furrowed in confusion, I merely waved my hand dismissively at his monster. "Just summon the damn beast."

He said, "Son, I\'ve made a life

Out of readin\' people\'s faces

Knowin\' what the cards were

By the way they held their eyes

Even as it appeared on the field Mothman seemed shrouded in the shadows. I could make out its basic shape, with the long cloak-like wings upon its back, the large fuzzy head and antenna, and the bright headlight-like eyes that blinked before it hissed at me. Solomon merely smiled as he drew his card, ending his turn with his first crypto on the field, ready to feast on my flesh or just stand on a bridge and foretell doom when it got the chance.

"My turn, I suppose," I said as I looked over my hand, deciding it was time to really begin screwing with Solomon. "I set one card on the field and activate Fires of Doomsday, allowing me to summon to two Doomsday tokens to my side of the field. And I end my turn." I merely smiled as the two smoke fiends appeared on the field, staring at the Mothman without any terror or fear that Solomon probably felt his monster should inspire.

"What is this? Some new way to generate spell counters?" Solomon asked.

"It\'s a mystery," I said simply. "Solve it."

So if you don\'t mind my sayin\'

I can see you\'re out of aces

For a taste of your whiskey

I\'ll give you some advice"

The King grit his teeth at that, clearly not used to someone back talking him ever since he\'d used the Puzzle to begin seizing control of Domino. But he quickly shook off his annoyance and shifted back to mocking pleasure. "It doesn\'t matter. Your little tokens are merely a weak barrier against my monsters. Speaking of..." He held up another Danger monster, this one resembling a bipedal wolf-like creatures. "This... is Dogman."

"Oh neat!" I declared with a grin. "Michigan represent! You have a Red Dwarf in there too? Then it would be a real-"

"Would you shut up and just duel!" Solomon demanded.

"I can duel but shutting up? Kind of hard for me... I\'m a puckish rogue." Solomon laid his hand on the reader, his only response. "Far left again." The card flipped over... and I actually did leap back a bit when a massive sea serpant leapt up from the card, soaring in the air for a moment before diving down into the field before shattering. "Well that was..." I trailed my hand up, pressing my fingers to my neck to check my pulse.

"You located a monster... but not the one you wanted. And thus my Dogman is now able to appear on the field!" The beast (which was not a werewolf because it never became a man and was always a canine) the king of the lupins, leapt onto the field and threw back his head, letting out a howl that sounded just as much as a human scream as it did the call of a wild beast. "And not only am I able to draw a card to replace my Dogman in my hand you sending Nessie to the graveyard activates her effect, which allows me to add a Danger! card from my deck to my hand." Solomon took out his deck, carefully looking it over before nodding to himself and claiming one card, which he instantly set on the platform. "I will now set one card on the field before taking out those Doomsday tokens! Dogman! Mothman! Destroy Edwin\'s tokens!"

I watched as the cryptids leapt forward, Dogman savagely lashing out at one Doomsday token while the other one faced Mothman\'s screech. It would have made for an impressive battle if my tokens weren\'t just smoke demons that dissipated the moment the monsters got close. They weren\'t battlers... they were there to distract and to serve. That was all.

And they\'d done their part perfectly.

So I handed him my bottle

And he drank down my last swallow

Then he bummed a cigarette

And asked me for a light

"Activate my trap card: Trap Trick!" My deck popped out of my duel disc and I began to go through it. "I can banish one trap card from my deck to set another on my field and then, if I choose, instantly activate it. And I choose to do just that, activating Metaverse!" The field suddenly changed, gridlines appearing over it, flashing brightly as the throne room was covered by digital patterns. "And this trap card allows me to select one field spell from my deck and activate it!"

"Ah yes... your Citadel," Solomon said, slowly reaching for a card in his hand. "I\'m afraid that it won\'t do you much good when I play this: Prohibition!" The spell flashed on the field, revealing a wall with a list of new rules and commands by some heavy handed dictator. "By declaring the Citadel of Endymion I am able to prevent you from using its effect, locking you out of many of your strategies and wasting your Metavere!" He smirked at that and then to just add to his villainy he chuckled as well. "You were a fool to face me, Edwin Chaos. I know how to play this game far better than you and I never lose!"

"Yeah, that\'s real interesting... activate Lair of Darkness."

And the night got deathly quiet

And his face lost all expression

Said, "If you\'re gonna play the game, boy

You gotta learn to play it right"

Now it was my turn to smile as Metaverse finished transforming the field, causing the throne room to become a massive cavern filled with jagged rocks and glowing green mist that seeped up from the cracks in the stone. Shadows filled the air and a crushing sensation permeated everything, oppressive and strong.

"What... what trick is this?"

"A Trap Trick," I said darkly. "You prepared for my Endymion deck... but that is the deck of Edwin Chaos. Your man captured my friends... so to get them back I need to be someone else." I thrust my arms out wide. "I\'m the Guardian Devil... welcome to my Kingdom!" A card popped out of my deck. "This deck is nothing like you\'ve seen. All your little plots and card counting and strategies will mean nothing when facing with the horrors that wait within my deck, ready to serve their lord. The rebellion has begun, my liege... can you hear the people sing?"

You\'ve got to know when to hold \'em

Know when to fold \'em

Know when to walk away

And know when to run

"Other than Troy," I muttered.

For the first time I saw a sliver of doubt appear in Solomon\'s face. Just a small glimpse, nothing more. A hint that things weren\'t exactly going as he thought they should. I wondered how many games he\'d won by actual skill in his long life as the Legendary Gambler and how many had been bought through cheats and tricks. If it was the latter it must have been a true body blow to suddenly find such plots ripped away from him, forcing him to play honest.

"Now it\'s my turn! Draw!" I took my card and smiled as I saw it. "First I play Allure of Darkness, allowing me to draw two cards at the cost of banishing one Dark Monster from my hand or I lose the entire thing. Luckily I already have a dark monster so there is no risk!" I drew two cards before banishing one, refusing to reveal what I\'d cast off; that would be making things easier for Solomon and I had no interest in doing anything of the sort for the old man. "Now then, I activate Enemy Controller!" The game controller appeared on the field, floating before me. "Now, normally I\'d have to sacrifice one of my monsters in order to take control of one of yours. But Lair of Darkness has two interesting effects. The first turns every monster that dwells in the Lair into a Dark Monster... now that doesn\'t matter much to either of us so let\'s move on to the second effect. In the Lair what\'s yours is mine... and mine... and mine. I can treat your monsters as my own, tributing your Dogman to take control of Mothman for one turn!"

The canine crypto howled in pain as he shattered and a cord shot out of the controller and latched onto Mothman, the crypto struggling before its eyes changed from red to blue and it flew over to my side of the field.

You never count your money

When you\'re sittin\' at the table

There\'ll be time enough for countin\'

When the dealin\'s done

"Now to give him some company." I selected a card. "Did you know that the Lair was originally supposed to be a prison? The worst souls sent down there to pay for their sins. Guarded over by those that could turn a blind eye to the screams and pleas of those locked within this darkness. But you can\'t soak a place with evil and expect it not to affect those that dwell there. The Lair fed off the darkness and, in turn, cast out just as much darkness. Cruelty is an infection... it slowly takes hold and spreads. Where once you merely turned a blind eye to the wickedness of others you soon begin to notice it... and decide that if they are evil it is okay for you to embrace your own darkness, because you aren\'t as bad as them. Until one day you justify yourself into believing that you had it all wrong... you need to be worse. To lord it over them. And so the guardians of the Lair and the damned souls became its overlords, far worse than the souls they were originally supposed to watch over.

"The Lair once had a Warden... one who guarded the gate and would not let any souls escape. But now he prowls the darkness, seeking more to drag into the pit of oppression. Allow me to introduce you to him. Behold Ahrima, The Wicked Warden!" The three eyed demonic dog burst onto the field, stopping between two jagged pillars of stone and letting out a roar better suited for a lion than a canine. The green wisps of damned souls shuddered at their jailer\'s appearance before choosing to drift off to other parts of the Lair. I silently thanked the fact that I could summon monsters in defense mode, as it was a massive help with what I had planned. "And now I activate his special ability: By tributing one monster I control I can draw a card. And since I\'ll lose control of your Mothman at the end of my turn I think it is far better than I just get rid of him now! Ahrima, show him the power of darkness!"

My Warden leapt onto Mothman, the cryptid trying to flee but it was unable to escape. Ahrima sank his fangs into the insect and shook it hard till it shattered, a card sliding off the top of my deck and into my hand. I looked over at Solomon who glowered at me, clearly not happy with how I was using his monsters to help myself.

\'Never mind he was do the same in my position... greed is such a powerful thing for our Gambler King.\' Out loud I stated, "But that\'s not all. You see there was one that tipped the balance in the Lair... a creature sent down to be punished, who Ahrima and the rest of the jailers were supposed to keep locked away forever. But with their corruption he went from their prisoner to their king... and when one is sacrificed in his Lair he comes forth, drawn by their blood. So from my graveyard, sent there by your own Card Destruction, I special summon Darkest Diabolos, The Lord of the Lair!"

The green fog suddenly shifted to purple miasma as the cracks in the ground grew larger, racing up and down the field and causing the hologram of the lair to tremble. I stood there, smirking even as Solomon did his best to appear unmoved, as the clawed hand of my monster burst through the floor, followed by a second. From the fissure came Diabolos, the great black dragon heaving himself free of the Earth, chains snapping and links raining down amongst his taloned feet as he let out a savage roar to make clear to all who ruled the Lair. Ahrima bowed to his lord and master before the two turned as one towards Solomon and his empty field.

"Every gambler knows

That the secret to survivin\'

Is knowin\' what to throw away

And knowin\' what to keep

"Now then... let\'s see what card you\'ve set to save yourself," I said, knowing that someone like Solomon wouldn\'t have set a card on the field that wouldn\'t protect him. A true gambler always hedged his bets, after all. "Diabolos, attack the king\'s Lifepoints directly-"

"I activate You\'re In Danger!" Solomon said, the trap card flashing onto the field, followed shortly by three facedown cards. "Now it is time for you to choose your fate, Edwin Chaos. You\'ve stumbled upon the domain of one of my Danger! monsters. But which one... that is the question. Select one of these cards to choose your destiny and let us see what the wilds have in store for you."

"It\'s worked out well for me so far," I said with a shrug, "so let\'s go with far left."

The other two cards disappeared, to be shuffled back into Solomon\'s deck, which the final card sank into the field... before booms began to echo throughout the Lair. Diabolos merely narrowed his eyes, snarling at the intruder, who soon emerged from behind Solomon\'s throne. It was a huge hairy beast, blue of skin and black of hair, that nearly reached my dragon\'s height. His long claws were crimson that matched the scraps of cloth he\'d tied around his arms. And, of course, there were his very... big... feet.

"Danger! Bigfoot is more than a match for your dragon, Edwin! So attack him with your Diabolos, if you wish. Slay him! You won\'t get the win you were expecting though..."

"I end my turn," I said simply. "There is no need to attack when the threat will soon pass." The effect of the trap card activated and Bigfoot shattered. "Your field is empty again, Solomon... so let\'s see what you can do!"

But before the King of Domino could say a word there was a chirp and he looked down at his platform, smiling slightly as he read something. "Hmmm... you wish to see what I can do? I\'ll be happy to show you!" He clapped his hands and the doors to the throne room suddenly became visible, opening wide.

\'Cause every hand\'s a winner

And every hand\'s a loser

And the best that you can hope for

First walked in my evil doppelganger and even though I couldn\'t see his features I could tell he was wearing an absolutely smug look on his face. He motioned towards the door... and three figures walked in. Their movements were rigid, almost militaristic. They marched forward, eyes never moving, never glancing at me, no acknowledgement that they even knew I was there as they moved to stand next to Solomon, flanking him.

"You are obsessed with saving your friends?" the King of Domino taunted as he gestured at Tea, Tristan, and Yuri, who stood their wearing the King\'s duel disks and holding themselves as his new honor guard, they eyes milky white. "Oh... it is FAR too late for that!"

Is to die in your sleep"

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