Kaiba looked at the smiling person in front of him with all too familiar black hair and green eyes. For a moment he was taken back as the faces overlapped, despite the age and gender difference they looked extremely similar. The memories might have been long, but Kaiba's brain processed them all in less than a single second.

-

He drew his opening hand, and then his first card for turn. She also drew her opening hand and had a cocky smile on her face. One that made her seem sure that the duel was already won. She was wrong, he had not only one but three copies of the most powerful card in Duel Monsters. It stung that she just gave them to him as if they were valueless, but if he won here, they would remain his.

"Whatever old hag, I normal summon the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, set two cards face-down, and end my turn!"

He was so sure of victory. On the very first turn he had summoned the unstoppable Blue-eyes White Dragon, and he even had a Trap Hole and Negate Attack as traps ready.

"I'm gonna have a talk with Pegasus about these stupid rules you play by." She murmured, and then she drew a card and smiled. "Let's see what you're playing, I'll use the spell card The Forceful Sentry! I can take a sneak peek into your hand and force you to shuffle a card of my choice back in."

He revealed his hand of three cards, ready to see her face of fright. He had not only one copy of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon but two! No matter what she did she would have to face the wrath of TWO mighty dragons on the next turn! She remained quiet.

"What's the matter, realizing that no matter what you choose I'll have another BLUE-EYES WHITE DRAGON to take you DOWN!?!" He was getting excited, agitated. This pounding in his chest, he wasn't sure why. He was supposed to be composed. She must be strong; his instincts must be telling him that she's a worthy foe.

"Why are you playing this card?" This... caught him off guard.

"What?"

"Your Hitotsu-Me Giant. Also, your deck looks thicker than good oatmeal, how many cards did you toss in that pile? How did you manage to draw all three Blue-Eyes in that pile anyways?"

"Cease your stupid questions and duel me!"

"You don't get it." She sighed. "Whatever, it's easier to show you. I activate the spell card Painful Choice."

It was a spell card that allowed her to reveal five cards from her deck, and he would choose one to add to her hand while the rest would rot in the graveyard.

"The five cards I reveal are three Witch's Apprentice and two copies of Cannon Soldier. Which one are you going to add to my hand and which ones go to the grave?"

Kaiba frowned. Witch's Apprentice was a two-star dark spellcaster effect monster with a 550/500 stat line with the ability to raise the attack of dark monsters by 500 and lower the attack of light monsters by 400. Cannon Soldier however was a four-star dark machine effect monster with a 1400/1300 stat line that had the ability to tribute a monster to deal 500 points of damage directly to the opponent. An incredibly powerful effect that could decimate a quarter of an opponent's life total.

"I'll let you have the Cannon Soldier; might as well let you have first blood." He scoffed. In reality he was waiting for her to walk into his trap hole.

She nodded and then looked at her hand, and finally sighed.

"First, I'll activate Premature Burial, by paying 800 life points I can special summon a Witch's Apprentice from the grave and then equip this card to her, if this card is destroyed, she's also destroyed."

??? 2000 - 1200

"I know what that weak card does. It not only can't get something from either graveyard, but you pay an incredibly high life point cost as well as making the monster also die to things that would otherwise only remove spells!" She talked trash about HIS Hitotsu-Me Giant. Of course, he wouldn't miss the chance to point out her idiotic ways.

"Right. Anyways I'll activate Giant Trunade to return all spell and trap cards on the field to the hand, including my Premature Burial. However, since it was not destroyed, I get to keep my monster. Anyways dearie if you've been paying attention, you're already dead. I'll give you a moment."

Sure, the effect of her Witch's Apprentice made his Blue-Eyes only at 2600 and increased itself to 1050 but what else could she do, get another Witch's Apprentice? That would lower his attack at 2200 and increase their to only 1550 it was still... the Cannon Soldier. His Trap Hole was returned to his hand as well as the Negate Attack! This duel was already over.

"Kid stop stressing.  I'll use my Premature Burial on Canon Soldier."

??? 1200 - 400

Seto Kaiba's heart stopped for a brief moment. Was she giving him the win?

"Next I'll normal summon another Canon Soldier from my hand. Now ENTER THE BATTLE PHASE!" She then stopped for a moment and then laughed.

She had two cannon soldiers with an attack of 1900 which obviously wasn't enough to take down his mighty Blue-Eyes with 2600 attack.

"Oh my, it looks like in my old age I might have made a tiny bit of a mistake. Onto main phase two then."

Kaiba felt like he was about to laugh at this old woman's foolishness until she showed him her next card.

"I guess I'll just have to use Monster Reborn and get back another Witch's Apprentice, afterwards I'll tribute all of my monsters to my Cannon Soldier's effect and deal 2000 damage to your life points. Oh my, is that all of them?"

Seto Kaiba 2000 - 0

His heart stopped and he dropped his hand of cards, the dragons and his knees hit the ground at the same time. 

"Nooo, impossible! The Blue-Eyes White Dragon is invincible!"

How did he lose? What happened. What she did... she could have won if SHE went first, before he even had a chance to act. This wasn't just a defeat... this was a humiliation. The deal was that if he won, he would get to keep the cards but if not she would get to make a single request. Well, she was still just a single old woman, he could easily overpower her, or he could call security. They were in HIS company to duel.

"No single card is invincible; a deck is all about finding the individual cards that work together to create the strongest strategy. In this case I had a strategy that abused the fact that this world's rules are bullshit, as well as a backup plan to simply beat over your Blue-Eyes using a reanimation strategy and boosts from Witch's Apprentice. Perhaps a control strategy would've been viable as well to easily mop up the win, more consistent perhaps but I didn't want to do that."

She was spewing a lot of things but only a few words stood out to him.

"This... world?"

"Oops, guess the A.I. aren't supposed to hear that. Heh tell you what, I'll let you keep the cards and give you a PDA." She said as she threw him a black rectangle. On instinct he caught it.

"What is this thing?" He asked as he examined the black rectangle. It felt smooth to the touch. He then followed up with another question as he narrowed his eyes. The deal was that he would get to keep the cards if he won, but as much as he hated to admit it, he lost. "Also, what's the catch?"

"It's a Personal Dueling Assistant. Once you put it on, it will never come off unless your arm does. Also putting it on brings incredibly intense pain unlike you've ever experienced. It reads your very DNA and all of your memories to become something tailored to you. It contains information, strategy articles, and all the tools needed to change anyone with enough determination into a legendary duelist. Haha, you might even be able to level up, that'd be hilarious. Regardless, the most important thing is it allows you to do this."

She lifted up her sleeve to reveal the same black rectangle on her arm.

"Duel Disk mode, activate." It expanded before his eyes. He could clearly see monster zones, a deck slot, and even spell and trap zones. A machine to play Duel Monsters while standing? Ridiculous, why would anyone want to do that. Then she slapped a card down. A bright light flashed and soon a thundering roar.

He felt the wind from the wingbeats and roar. His heart pounded as the flash was over and revealed in front of him something he thought he could never see up close like this. It was... almost real.

The legendary dragon that was an engine of destruction, virtually invincible. With a body and eyes of light blue despite the name, it was the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Up close. As soon as it appeared it was gone, and she was walking away.

"I have to go talk to Pegasus now, not much time. Like I said that PDA can't be taken off, and it's powered by Duel Energy. Duel Energy is converted into credits and to get credits you need to duel and do missions that it lists. Let's just say your Duel Energy and credits may or may not be linked to your very own life. So I suppose you should do the missions like your life depends on it if you were to ever put it on. There's probably a lot of money in making the Duel Disk mode using your technology and selling it to the general public as well.  If it's only the Duel Disk portion you could use it yourself if you never want to put on the PDA. Anyways I have a grandson that I'm sending to Japan, he loves to duel, and I think he can communicate something to you by dueling you that I can't. Duel him with all of your strength. That's the catch, bye."

The door slammed with a thud, and he was left stewing on her words as she managed to leave the building. There wasn't any need to call security, there was no need for violence. He lost, but what did he lose? His pride? He lost that when he cheated against Gozaburo to be adopted. His time? Well, that was far worth it for the cards. 

What did he lose? He felt in that moment like he had lost something incredibly precious to him. Something super important. He looked at the ground to see the Blue-eyes looking up at him. Faintly he could almost hear it roar but shook his head. 

"Seto! Are you alright?"

Footsteps came out in a hurry, and the boy tripped in his rush to get to Seto.  Seto Kaiba shook his head, if that old hag could wear it so could he. He also made sure to make a mental note that anyone with a PDA was probably a true Duelist.

Do the missions like his life depended on it? What silly challenges did she have for him? He grabbed the black rectangle and noticed a spot on the bottom to attach to his arm. In the next moment he felt a needle pierce deep in his bone.

The pain radiated for a moment, but he simply stood up and gritted his teeth. The black rectangle changed colors and soon it showed a screen.

Registering Duelist, Seto Kaiba. Then it changed to a different interface with multiple options. He pressed on 'missions'. His starting credits were 3000, he made a note to make sure it never dropped to 0 until he was ready to die.

Mission 1 -Pat and assure the Moki

Pat Mokuba's head and tell him you're fine

Reward - ???

Failure - Lose 3000 credits

Seto Kaiba grit his teeth, what foolishness. His brother clinging onto the vestiges of brotherly love was obviously the actions of a loser. Whatever.

"I'm fine Mokuba." He said as he gently pat Mokuba's head. Mokuba looked up at him with a large smile and slight wetness in his eyes.

"Right Seto!" 

For some reason Seto felt slightly lighter after that. He looked at the screen.

Mission complete!

Reward - Mokuba's Smile and Brotherly Love, 150 credits

-

The shock and memories were interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Seto, are you alright?"

"I'm fine Mokuba." He replied in tandem with a head pat. Instantly Mokuba's face lit up brightly and Seto felt just a tiny bit lighter for some reason. "I was just caught off guard by that woman's ridiculous wealth again. I thought there were only 4 copies of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in existence, and she gave me three, I didn't realize it was as common as Pot of Greed to her."