37 - Duelist Kingdom: Part 1
The orientation for Pegasus' Duelist Kingdom Tournament was, honestly, a snoozefest.
A mousy, brown-haired man, surprisingly not a buff guy in a suit, went on stage to explain the rules and the expectations for the next 48 hours1See Chapter 34 for the rules if you need a refresher..
I remember the rules being a bit of a surprise to Yugi and his friends in the anime, but it looked like they were very clearly laying things out here.
I was going to ask someone why this was, but at the end of the speech, the man explained that he was a representative of the Japanese National Association of Duelists. A quick head tilt and the weird feeling of info being filtered into my brain followed, and I suddenly knew all about it.
In short, they were the Duelist Union.
No, I am not kidding.
Each nation had one and they advocated for fair treatment of duelists as well as having a part in all of the popular rules duelists followed. (Such as the dispute centers where people could solve domestic issues with duels.)
I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised. If the government ran things with a card game, I suppose the people forming a union to ensure things were fair made sense.
I'm sure that if Pegasus had his way he would have left it all as a mystery, but in order for him to hold a sanctioned tournament, he needed to follow some clearly defined laws - One of which was outlining the tournament rules to competitors beforehand.
Anyway, once that was done, the mousy man wished us luck and retreated somewhere else on the ship. Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood were then called up on the stage and presented with keys to the presidential suites of Pegasus' Cruise ship by the spikey-haired buff dude, whose name turned out to be Kemo.
After they left, with giant smiles and better-than-thou attitudes, we were told to line up so we could receive our own room keys - Another change from what I remembered.
This was because each duelist would be sent back to this ship if they failed in the tournament, and they needed a place to stay and sleep - Thanks once again to the mousy-haired man and NAD!
Mai Valentine practically bolted from her seat beside me as soon as they started handing out room keys, so I, unfortunately, didn't get a chance to tease her any more than I already had.
I quickly got my key and found my room, the equivalent of a studio apartment, and put my bag down before heading to the central common area of the ship.
'Ah, here we go. This was more like the show I remember.' I think with a smile behind my mask.
The common room was a big open plaza with many tables, chairs, and benches set up surrounding a Tiki-style bar. Most of the duelists competing were here talking, having practice duels, trading cards, or generally relaxing. I sat down on a bench in the middle and looked out at the sea of people enjoying themselves before the tournament started.
The trip was going to take about 10 hours, so we had some time to hang out before getting a few hours of sleep for the start of the tournament.
I smiled to myself as I picked out some of the named cast from amongst the crowd.
Mako Tsunami was chatting the ears off of 2 female duelists in a Jacuzzi while they nodded along uninterestedly. Rex Raptor had a small gathering of younger duelists surrounding him and his chest was puffed out in pride as he talked about how he was going to smash the competition. Bonz sat alone at the bar laughing darkly to himself...is he okay? Does he need an adult or a friend?
Mai Valentine had another gathering, this time of older guys, surrounding her as she put on her psychic act and astounded them. Joey Wheeler ran around like a chicken with its head cut off, trading cards with people before showing his trades to an exacerbated Yugi Muto...And Weevil Underwood watched Yugi with a wide smile and a dark chuckle.
I saw him approach the duo and chat with them for a moment before he headed down a corridor of the ship to the right side of the boat with the two protagonists in tow.
'Looks like it is time...' I think with a sigh.
I thought a lot about what to do for this exact moment. Weevil was about to toss 5 of Yugi's cards, the 5 pieces of Exodia, off the side of the ship so that he wouldn't have to play against them.
It was a major dick move, and I know I would have thrown him over in response if it happened to me.
That begged the question; The million-dollar question I had been stewing on for the last week: Do I stop it from happening?
Should I let this happen? Do I set something up to catch the cards after they were thrown overboard? Can I even stop this from happening?
I knew I could.
If I followed them right now, I could make sure Yugi never let Weevil handle his cards.
I could prevent this plot point from ever taking place...
But I wasn't going to do that.
It was a shitty thing to let happen, I knew, and I was probably a shitty person for letting it happen.
Especially when the cards meant so much to Yugi because they came from his kidnapped Grandfather...
At the same time, however, it was a defining moment in this arc. The removal of Deus ex Machina, or at least one element of it, from Yugi's deck. It forces him to grow as a person and as a duelist, not to mention that it deepens his friendship with Joey, Tristan, and Tea.
Joey was going to jump overboard and try to save the cards - A terribly dangerous and stupid thing to do, by the way - and then Yugi was going to follow to save him from drowning. After which, Tea and Tristan throw over a ladder for them to climb back up.
Declarations of friendship then ensue and they deepen their feelings of trust. Blah, Blah, Blah, you get the point.
The problem was, it was too important of a moment to get in the way of - At least that was how I defended my decision in my mind.
No, I would not interfere...but that didn't mean I was going to do nothing at all. I still planned on helping in my own way.
Yugi needed my help, in fact, to even stay in this tournament at all.
I realized this fact and the most important issue this situation causes once we were onboard and past the check-in: We were allowed to bring exactly 40 card decks and a 15-card extra deck. Additionally, we were checked for extra cards before we were let on board.
This meant that losing those 5 cards would not only hurt his deck, but it would take Yugi out of the tournament entirely.
That, I was not going to let happen.
Lucky for me, I always have all my cards on me (Perks of having a magic card collection and deck builder!), so with this in mind, I follow them after waiting a good 10 minutes.
As I head down the same corridor they just left, I see Weevil laughing merrily back in my direction. When he is near me and finally notices my presence, I stick out my arm to block his path in the ship's narrow corridor.
"Whoa! What's your problem!?!" He yelps as he looks up at me in shock.
"Your actions bear the weight of fate, and not in a positive light. All are judged at the end of their journeys, and the sinners are made to pay the price for their misdeeds. I hope you realize whom you just made an enemy of and reflect on your choices by that time. I answer only to the scales of justice, and your excuses mean little to a God." I say cryptically before removing my arm and walking away without waiting for him to respond.
I was just being petty at this point, really, but I hoped I freaked him out quite a bit. He was a little shit, but he was still just a kid, at the end of the day. If I could scare him onto a better path, then I was happy to do so...Though I seriously doubt my words will impact him greatly...
"What the hell does any of that even mean!?!" Was the shout I heard in response from behind my back, but I ignore him and keep walking forward.
I had more mysterious things to do and a friend to keep in the tournament. It wouldn't be any fun if I didn't get a chance to duel against Yugi at some point in the next 2 days, after all.
When I arrive at the starboard side (right side) of the ship from the corridor, I see a panting Yugi listening to the tail-end of Joey's story about his little sister.
'Ah. So this is when he tells them...Yup, I messed up earlier. Oh well.' I think with an internal chuckle.
I hang back and wait for the story to be finished and for them to pledge their eternal friendship or whatever else they were doing...to be honest, I kinda zoned out thinking about Ishizu for a second...
When I hear them approaching, and Tristan mentioning something about a new sun rising - Whatever the hell that meant - I step out of the corridor in front of the group of four.
They nearly jump out of their skins in fright, just as I hoped.
'Heh. Tea is clinging to Yugi. Cute.' I chuckle to myself, completely ignoring the fact Tristan and Joey were doing the same.
"Wha- Anubis!?! What the hell, man! You gave me a frickin' heart attack!" Joey screams at me, grasping at his dripping-wet jacket. He then pushes Tristan off of him and stands up straight. "Did you...uh...see or hear any of that?"
"I did not, but I know what happened," I answer him mysteriously before turning to Yugi. "You are missing 5 cards now, yes?"
"I...Yes. I guess I am..." Yugi considers before his face pales, "Oh no! That means I only have 35 cards! I can't enter the tournament with only this many! Grandpa! I won't be able to save my Grandpa!" He yells out in realization with panic written all over his features.
"Relax, Yugi. I believe I can help if you would allow it." I offer, doing my best not to chuckle at his face going from despair to elation in 2 seconds flat.
"You would do that?" Yugi asks me in amazement. "But, how? We were checked for extra cards earlier..."
To answer him, I hold out an empty palm in front of myself and will 5 cards to appear.
The 5 cards I was giving him were Sword Hunter, Serpent Night Dragon, 7 Colored Fish, Prevent Rat, and Fissure. The first 4 were decent cards that I was never going to use (7 Colored Fish has been replaced at this point and I doubt I will use it again.) as well as my 4th copy of Fissure. I could probably sell it, but I figured this is a great way to ingratiate myself with the main protagonist.
I expected them to just pop into existence like they always had before, but even I was surprised when a gathering of shadows appeared in my hands and transformed into the 5 cards instead. It was like watching a black flame burn paper in reverse. My palm was empty in one moment, and then, emerging within whisps of darkness, the cards were suddenly there in the next.
'Huh...Thanks for the assist, system...?' I offer, turning it into a question at the end. I honestly have no idea how or why this just happened. My cards had never appeared like this before...
I snap out of my confusion a second later to continue my act. Thank all the Gods I had my mask on or I would have looked as slack-jawed as these four were.
"I believe these will serve you well, though I doubt anything could replace the power of Exodia."
It was just an offhanded comment. Another ambiguous phrase for the ever-mysterious Anubis to say, but the necklaces around my neck vibrated, as if in agreement with my statement.
'Jeez, first the system does a weird magic trick, and now the necklaces are vibrating in response to my words...Today is turning into a weird day...I wish Ishizu was here to explain anything of what just happened to me!'
"You...Those cards...They just appeared out of thin air!" Tea exclaims, still holding onto Yugi despite him being a head shorter than her.
"And what was with that black smoke!?!" Tristan agrees.
"T-Thank you, I will use them well." Yugi gets out stiffly.
I nod to him and turn to make my escape.
No one stops me.
Okay, let's break that last scene down, shall we?
Be super mysterious and stuff? Check.
Freak everyone out? Check.
Freak even myself out... Check.
That was 3 out of the 2 things I wanted to accomplish...So, overall, I will count it as a success...I guess?
I head back to my room and call Ishizu right away to explain what I just went through while I still have service. She is as baffled as I am and we spend the rest of the evening talking and sharing ideas on what it could be and mean.
I finally let her go so that I can get 6 hours of sleep, and surprise myself with how quickly I fall asleep. I think she just has a calming effect on me, so I blame and thank Ishizu.
My alarm wakes me an hour before we are supposed to make landfall and I join the rest of the duelists out on the bow, or the front, of the ship as we watch Pegasus' Duelist Kingdom Island come into view.
I smile widely from behind my mask at the sight.
It was time for me to shock the world and claim my spot as one of the best.
I was aiming to win, but I would be satisfied if I could make it to the semi-finals. It was a lot of Plot Armor to work through, after all, and I can only do as well as my cards and luck allow.
'I am going to steal the show and win me some glorious prizes.' I think, and, it would appear the system agreed with me, as at that moment a black screen with golden hieroglyphics appeared before me.
The prizes were looking mighty glorious indeed.
Alright, so, GX kinda takes place ten years after the original, but it's hard to prove even one year passed, Yugi is still wandering around, Kame Game is in operation by the grandpa and all that. It just says ten years but could just as easily be one. Also, 5D's, instead of being at a date is 20XX, so all we know is the 20th century. My head cannon is that 20XX is 2010, because it would allow the first discovery of ENER-D to line up with exactly one year before Kaiba invented solid light, and in the manga, solid light gets more solid the more ener-d you put into it by… driving faster? Which implies that solid light runs on ener-d Anyways, that would also put the world-spanning Zero Reverse event at exactly when duelist kingdom happens. Things line up very well. So I made an entire timeline.
THIS TIMELINE IS WRONG! See my comment for a timeline that's RIGHT!
1960
Solomon Muto gets the Millenium Puzzle.
1982
Yugi and Seto's generation is born, go to school and get bullied by Tetsu Trudge.
1996
Ener-D discovered?
1997
They go off to duelist kingdom
Zero Reverse happens while they're gone????
1998
They go into Kaiba's computer and duel Noah
1999
Battle City
2000
Anubis Attacks
Paradox Attacks
Aigami attacks, Yugi and Seto turn 18
2001
Yugioh R
2002
Atleanteans and Orichalcos arc
The Grand Championship
2003
Travel to Egypt memory arc thing-y
2004
YuGiOh GX starts - Jaden bumps into Yugi on his way to school. Also all of the evil shadow stuff happens Tetsu Trudge goes missing.
2005
Genex Tournament
2006
Americans visit Duel Academy
Paradox attacks
2007
Graduation
20XX? (cannonically, Yusei is 17 at the start, 17 years after Zero Reverse, the sabotage and destruction of the first Ener-D plant, run by the (still alive) Seto Kaiba)
So let's go with 2010, meaning that Ener-D was discovered in 1996, which lines up with the creation of Kaiba's first Solid Image programs. So
2010- Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, and Yusei is on the run from the police, including a still alive Tetsu Trudge. And later they fight some Wild West cowboys, one of whom is Joey Wheeler's cousin, Jesse. Who is alive.
Sometime after that is Zexal, but I never liked that one anyway so it won't get plotted. Besides it canonically takes place in a different universe altogether so it's not possible to actually plot. Why does everyone do multiverses?
Okay, I made too many edits because I wasn't happy with my memory, so here is the updated canon timeline. So it's actually useful.
-8000
Atlantis gets eaten by the Great Leviathan about the same time Red Nova loses to the Crimson Dragon and friends.
-3000
Crimson dragon fights the rest of the Earthbound Immortals at the same time.
-1000
The whole egyptian saga.
Illiaster of 5D's fame forms.
1960
Solomon Muto gets the Millenium Puzzle.
1982
Yugi and Seto's generation is born
1992–1996
Yugi goes to school and is bullied by Tetsu Trudge
Death-T (and the first battle Boxes, so Ener-d comes first)
1997
They go off to duelist kingdom
1998
They go into Kaiba's computer and duel Noah
Sherry's family gets murdered over a piece of paper that a robot from the future lost. (They're here by now)
1999
Battle City
2000
Anubis Attacks (the canon one)
Paradox Attacks
Battle City V2 (Nobody Cared Though)
Aigami attacks, Yugi and Seto turn 18
2001
Yugioh R (Nobody Cared Though)
2002
Atleanteans and Orichalcos arc
The Grand Championship
2003
Travel to Egypt memory arc thing-y
Officially known as Dark RPG, turns out.
Canonically, Zane Truesdale enrolls in Duel Academy, which founded based off of the legendary god cards of four years ago and the sacred beasts Pegasus decided were a great idea in that time.
2004
YuGiOh GX starts - Jaden bumps into Yugi on his way to school.
Jaden is 15, so he was born in 1989. Generation X indeed.
Also, All the shadow duelists and stuff.
Tetsu Trudge kidnaped by Trueman
2005
Zane's graduation, Tyranno enrolls.
Genex Tournament
2006
Americans visit Duel Academy
Yubel kidnaps everyone to an alternate reality. That's a while arc, then rainbow dragon shows up and decides to save everyone but Jesse so they have to go on a rescue mission? I forgot this whole part.
In going to another dimension Jaden accidentally goes to dark works instead and fuels Brron, who has the strongest card but didn't play it so he lost.
Then there's the supreme king, the best duelist of all time who is jaden from the future after taking that title from someone else (headcannon says Jack Atlas), and then he fights Nightshroud again? Who's back for some reason I forget?
NOW Paradox attacks.
2007
Graduation.
Also, at some point before this is all of Aster Phoenix and the Society of light, which I can only remember because they played the card satellite cannon which I own. I don't think Kaiden had Yubel then? And there was something about a princess who played Des Frog and it was a prince? Also aster has daddy issues. Don't remember where that goes. Sometime before they graduated. Also after the supreme king? Maybe? There was a whole cruel light vs gentle darkness thing? I think?? Was there???
20XX? (cannonically, Yusei is 17 at the start, 17 years after Zero Reverse, the sabotage and destruction of the first Ener-D plant, run by the (still alive) Seto Kaiba)
So let's go with 2008, meaning that Ener-D was discovered in 1991, which lines up with the creation of Kaiba's first Solid Image programs. On second thought, maybe it doesn't take place a year after GX, seeing as Jaidendidnt enter the professional scene at all, and that would have put Yusei at the same age as Zane. Which is… actually pretty cool.
Literally the only thing keeping this timeline of 2008 from making sense is that the rest don't have major careers right now. Maybe they got hit by a truck. The whole cast of both shows. At once.
2006 (yeah, we're back here again. I'm making the timeline, you can suck it.)
Jack Atlas steals Yusei's Stardust Dragon and duel runner and escapes the Satellite to become the world's greatest duelist, the 'master of faster' which is a name he unironically picked for himself. He was 15, since this happened two years before main plot.
2008
Yusei builds another duel runner, escapes Tetsu Trudge the police officer, who lets him go after a duel because Yugioh, and enters the Fortune Cup Tournament, watching Jesse wheeler, joeys alive cousin win a duel. Then Yusei is caught and arrested for being a signer first, and it sent to a facility for rehabilitation, and gets a lot of exposition, before gathering a deck of cards from the prisoners who aren't allowed to have them, and shelling the prison warden, who, because he lost the duel, lets all of the prisoners go. Because Yugioh.
For some reason the same group that arrested him earlier to stop him from entering the tournament now forced him to enter the tournament, and he is somehow still qualified and on time. Also he got his cards back from the prison warden.
Later but not a year later Yusei duels in the Actual Fortune Cup, and becomes King of Turbo Duels, which is also lame but better than Master of Faster.
2009
All that Signer stuff starts to matter as the dark signers start to appear, and their evil plot is to open a portal to the netherworld in the… the… B.A.D. part of satellite town. I love 5D's so much if you can't tell. Shame there's only one 5D's fanfic on scrubblehub.
Fight against dark Signers, hundred of people outright die whenever they play an earthbound immortal. Lucky it's not the protagonists. Anyways the good guys lose, and an evil god shows up.
Rex decides to perform a ritual turbo duel against crow, Jack, and Yusei, and it sounds like it won't work if they don't accept but they do and win and then and only then does the crimson dragon eat the king of the netherworld. It's like it couldn't before these people finished playing this card game. Because Yugioh.
2010
Rex's evil organization start scheming and announce another tournament before figuring out what evil thing they're doing, and only later get an ancient stone tablet that tells them… something I think?
Anyways, first Yusei needs to duel the Meklord robots from the future, and a dude named Vizor from the future who teaches him the only thing that can stop the robots from the future, which he can do but it doesn't work when he does it.
Jack has a whole side arc with sector security because someone else played an archfiend card. Mini kaiba?
2010-2011
Yusei revives a letter from Barbra, a person he doesn't know that tells him to come to a place he can't leave because 'Kalin Kessler needs you help', so he goes, and gets caught and becomes enslaved (wat, 4kids okay-d this arc?) because Barbra betrayed him.
Lawton almost wins a 2v1 agains Yusei and Kalin but is stopped by bad RNG and Crow and Jack Deus ex Machina-ing into the duel (they were duelling along the walls of the mineshafts the slaves had to work in.) Lawton blows up the city and sector security arrests the entire town.
2011
The World Racing Grand Prix starts.
That's a fun arc
Jack goes on a training arc where he loses to a child because he became terrible at the game and only plays big monsters, not small ones. Seems like he would need to beat a child to be the undefeated champion, but hey, it's Yugioh. Anyways, by playing a weak card he kidnaps and ancient god's souls and puts it in his card.
Yusei duels a cup Ramen
The gang break into a science lab, where they find out about the time travel and stuff, that evil guys used to 'get rid of troublesome duelists' (wow, they might have gotten hit by a truck. Implies that Zero Reverse might actually be what killed them too, like if it destroyed every duelist at battle city it would explain only trudge surviving.) instead of undoing this, or the villains using it to get rid of their current problems, nobody mentions it until the tournament ends. The only plot relevance this has, is so the previous protagonists don't show up. This was their backup plan after Paradox's attacks from earlier didn't work, meaning the targets were the two other protagonists. If you're going with one solid timeline, then this time travel already happened.
The evil guys are also participating in the tournament for some reason, in a tag duel format, then they all combine into one person, who loses, so Yusei wins the tag duel. This has no plot relevance.
2012
Some time later the bad guys, using resources they got from somewhere. (Probably Yusei Fudo Merck from the tournament) gather the resources to make a thing they could have made before but didn't for no reason.
Sherry betrays the team after seeing that the future was a robot apocalypse, and reveals this betrayal by standing next to the bad guys in the next scene.
It is revealed that the useless bad guy from before, Aporia, is back and there's also two more and their boss.
This is the scary arc, so all the bad guys are doing shadow duels, but these are robots form the future so instead of shadow magic they electronically connect a persons life points to their life, and it does this by connecting to their heart and sending electrical signals, which theoretically should result in a heart attack on defeat. Kids show.
Antimony duels Yusei and one ups the throng vizor showed him before by doing that but better, but this time is doesn't matter and Yusei wins, but he accidentally creates a black hole and gets sucked in and maybe dies.
I love 5D's
Antimony, who made friends with Yusei because he is also Vizor who met him one time, and Bruno who is a homeless guy who lives with them, so he sacrificed himself to the throne he black hole off. Somehow.
Aporia fuses with Yusei's duel runner so they can duel Z-One who is named after the card that he killed Sherry's parents over that he lost 14 years ago. Yusei wins.
I'd say it's next year but this one is NEXT MONTH
everyone had graduated from school and is ready to head abroad except for Crow who is now a policeman despite the extensive criminal record. (I guess that's also erased when you win a duel) Jack is doing a big tournament to reclaim his title and Yusei challenges him to a duel because everyone is going their own ways now. Yusei wins by having the bigger creature, destroying Jacks character development and life goal.
Aliza leaves to study medicine, and Leo and Luna go to live with their parents, Jack becomes a professional second place tournament player, and the whole story ends.
Yes, that's actually the ending. They do not change the inevitable future apocalypse. They do not use the time machine. They don't save their friend who is trapped in a black hole for all eternity. They do not get rid of the super advanced robot that turned into Yusei's duel disk. They do not save any of the lives that were lost before, and they leave the evil organization still intact.
— ZEXAL is in a different world, and also is bad. No timeline for you.
@Lionide wow... 5D it's a bit ... crazy ...
@Lionide didn't Arc-V Confirm That 5ds and gx are different realities? Also Its possible that Gx and Dm are different also and just have some similarities such as seto kabia existing but sense it's a alternative Version of him things went differently that should solve the timeline issue right? Thou I guess Paradox f*cks that up somewhat so it could be alternative timelines ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@BlakeChoasStorm They are alternate realities, but they are caused by the Meklord robots. At some point in the past the robots, starting in the time of 5D’s (after GX in the original timeline), realized that the world is doomed. Duelist and GX aren’t affected by the timeline change at all but you can point out small things like that in the anime Yugi still has the puzzle necklace when he shouldn’t, since battle city was long over by that time. The alternate reality aspect and Paradox attack sequences are a result of the time travel that the robots used to kill good duelists. The Paradox attacks movie shows the first attempts to kill the past characters, probably using the Zero Reverse incident that blew up all of Domino City, including Kame Game. This killed ecery duelist that could beat the robots but Kaiba, which is why I think it happened during duelist kingdom, where Pegasus gathered all of the worlds good duelists. Then the robots tried to take over during 5D’s which didn’t work, so they time travelled back into the past and killed a ton of people, including at least Kaiba, Pegasus, Ishizu, Yusei, Jack Atlas, Sherry’s entire family, and the cast of GX. In this fixed timeline Gozaburo took over KaibaCorp, and Mokuba dedicated a statue of Blue-Eyes in his name, KaibaCorp and Industial Illusions mostly failed and were replaced by Heartland. This is the Zexal timeline. I think. This implies that the most critical arc with Yu-Gi-Oh!’s most enduring antagonist, the Meklords, happened entirely offscreen. This is a plot line I’m always looking for in a fanfic. I haven’t really bothered much with Arc-V, though I have a general idea of it, and I have no clue about Vrains or anything after it. So the lore I know might be entirely outdated.