“Here are your 10 stars!” Keith Howard, currently known as the bandit Keith, was satisfied with his performance, he had sneaked into this competition and got the 10 stars without a single duel, he only had to threaten some idiots, who had worked for him, and lock a group of losers in a cave. (Just wait Pegasus, my revenge is coming!)

“Everything seems correct, you can enter Mr. Pegasus's castle.” The guard guarding the door let him pass.

“Heh, heh, I must be the first to come.”

“You are actually second.”

“And who is the first?!” Since he lost his championship title, he has been sensitive about the issue of being second.

“The Japanese champion, Weevil Underwood, arrived this morning”

“Tch, with such a stupid name he is the national champion.” This did not matter to him, he was the strongest national champion, in his mind, he quickly entered the castle.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Weevil was in a room provided by the tournament host, he was testing new combinations for his deck and analyzing his possible opponents.

“If Wheeler makes it to the finals, I'm going to need a countermeasure for his Time Wizard, maybe like this…” For the Red-Eyes Black Dragon he already had several, from time to time he wondered how Yugi's group was doing, for some reason he felt that it had been a long time since they had seen each other even though it had only been a day. “Ready, I've been playing cards for a long time” His mother is the one who used to get him out of the trance of the games, as she called it “I'm going for a walk to stretch my legs”

During his walk he meditated on the matter of Pegasus.

(No one in this tournament seems to have a good opinion of Pegasus, for Yugi, and his group by association, he is a guy with magical powers who stole his grandfather's soul and for Kaiba he is a corporate rival, as well as a certified cheater, who attempts a hostile takeover of his company and, from what the boys at the campfire told me, he also has his little brother kidnapped, although that last one is debatable... the others are Pegasus's own workers or they don't know him personally) He hoped to know the man for more than a few seconds to form his own opinion of him.

Before he could continue wandering in his thoughts, he heard a commotion nearby and went to check.

“It's Yugi and Kaiba” They seemed to be in a duel that was about to end, given the life points and a quick view of the board. “Why is Kaiba so close to the edge?” They were both playing in tower-shaped sections and Kaiba was one step away from falling into the void, it was a fall of around 10 meters.

“Kaiba is playing dirty! Using that threat to stop Yugi from finishing him!” Joey answered his question, although no one seemed to have noticed his arrival and the hooligan liked to shout out of spite.

“…It must be a joke” It can't be true that Kaiba threatened to kill himself if Yugi defeated him in Duel Monsters, this had to be the most pathetic thing he had ever seen in his life "And he had the nerve to lecture Joey" He had no more words or respect for Kaiba

“Yugi! Cut my throat with your letter if you dare!” The businessman was serious

“What are you going to do, Yugi?” The answer was obvious to anyone with morals, it was not worth dirtying your hands and the game for a lunatic like this, even if this was part of a tournament, If Pegasus had even a modicum of sanity he would kick Kaiba off the island when he got down to a safe position.

“I will, Kaiba!” At Yugi's words, Weevil opened his eyes, but breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that he retreated and Kaiba ended the game.

The insect boy shook his head and seeing Yugi fall to the ground he continued on his way.

In his tower, Yugi cried; He was scared, all of this was too much for him, he couldn't throw away Kaiba's life like his other self was going to do; His friends could only console him.

"You showed weakness in the end... I won, Yugi." Kaiba's serious and hard expression had not changed in the slightest.

“Kaiba…” The puzzle boy just looked at him from the ground.

“If you had had the cold blood to throw me into the ravine you would have won… worrying about your enemy's safety is the dumbest thing a duelist can do!”

“No, Kaiba, you can no longer call yourself a duelist.”

Everyone turned to see Weevil arrive from one of the hallways.

“Weevil?”

"What are you doing here?" Tea and Joey didn't expect to see him in this situation.

“It is also a pleasure to see you again and Wheeler, do you forget that I was the first to arrive at this castle? But if you are referring to this moment, I was able to see the end of the most regrettable duel in history.”

“And who are you supposed to be? “Another of Yugi’s ‘friends’?” The businessman did not seem to remember that he was there when he arrived on the island.

“Your replacement, the current national champion at your service” he began to clean his glasses.

“I see the hyenas didn't waste any time reaching the top.” Kaiba would only recognize someone by his ability.

“You say it, someone worse than a hyena, I will repeat it Kaiba, you are no longer a duelist of any kind, you have just sullied what it means to be any type of player.”

“You'll say it yourself, games are conflicts, a combat between two enemies… it's the same for everything! Cards, chess... do you know the game that God didn't give so that people could play in this world? Life, when I put my life to the limit... Yugi showed weakness and lost the game!

“It's easy to say that the fish lost because it didn't know how to fly, Kaiba, you can make whatever excuses you want, the point is that for all those games there are rules and when you ignore them so blatantly you lose the point of victory... whether it was luck, skill, or any trait that led you to victory is unimportant, here you literally won because you appealed to Yugi's humanity, do you think are all psychopaths who would carry the weight of a life for a game of cards? congratulations, you won by being a worse human being." He put on his glasses to see him directly.

"Is right! You lost yourself, Kaiba!”

“Yes, Kaiba! And don't forget who saved your life! It was Yugi!” Tea and Joey weren't afraid to face it either.

“Grr… Say what you want, it's still a loser's tantrum, I'm taking my stars!” The businessman held up 10 stars before turning to leave

“Say that when you legitimately defeat Yugi or me.” Bug boy understood how he could still put on such airs.

"Don't be discouraged Yugi, we can still recover half of the stars you lost" Tristan helped Yugi up.

"It's true, there's still time." Bakuro also encouraged him, followed by Joey and Tea.

“Of course I won't give up!” The puzzle girl couldn't waste her friend's trust.

“Well, then we can't waste any more time! We have to get stars anyway!” Joey was ready to run

“Have you used the spare one?” Weevil's words almost made Joey trip.

“Do you think these are batteries and we have extra ones?!”

“Joey, actually… yeah” Tea took out a few stars from her backpack.

"Tea, because you have that, you're not even a participant!"

“You make yourself look bad, Joey won't feel special anymore.”

“This is no time for jokes!” The hooligan pushed Tristan.

“Weevil got many with the Killer player that he defeated and he gave them to me just in case” The girl scratched her head a little embarrassed, she had almost forgotten them too.

“Yes, she gave me an excuse that you would never accept them without you winning them, but what are we seeing now?” Weevil could not see her with the same look of superiority that his mother would give him in the future.

“I-It's an extraordinary situation!”

“This your lucky day just take them, Yugi!” Joey gave him a thumbs up.

“I… I can't accept it…” his words left the group silent. “I interfered in a duel with Kaiba and lost, I can't be selfish and take them, Tea is right, my other self wouldn't take them” he seemed resigned, although Yugi seemed to think that Weevi knew the whole body swap thing.

(Great... now it seems like he suffers from a mental illness) In retrospect he must have realized by the way he acted during his grief (Yugi should seek professional help) The worst thing was that everyone acted as if there was nothing strange.

“That's enough, Yugi! What about your own feelings?!” Joey held him by the shoulders.

"What?"

“The other Yugi has nothing to do with it! I’m talking about what you want!”

“Wheeler is right, if your grandpa's whole thing is so important, are you just going to give up? Just because of what he can say… the other Yugi” Bug boy felt so strange saying it.

(Grandpa...) Yugi realized that his friends were right, he couldn't abandon the person he had sworn to protect.

“I will take the stars” If it wasn't for himself he would do it for his family

"That's the spirit!" Tea was smiling happily for him and Tristan looked like he was going to jump.

“If your other self complains, let me know, Yugi, and I'll kick his ass!” That seemed like Joey's answer to many of his problems.

“Don't worry, I'll continue fighting… Thank you, Weevil, for the opportunity,” he offered a handshake.

“Just say that we are even and leave them alone” He responded without problems, he never imagined that if he made friends he would be among the most normal of the group.

“Alright, a race to the castle!”

“Wheeler... we are right next door” They had to walk about 20 steps

“I got carried away! Alright?!" Everyone was laughing as they headed to the entrance.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Yugi you are disqualified!” As soon as they approached the door, a Pegasus worker stopped them with a big smile of satisfaction.

“You wish, stupid!” Joey held up his friend's glove. “Learn to count! “He has 10 stars!”

"What?!" The guard couldn't believe it.

“See, I have them.” Yugi insisted that he let them pass.

“Hm…of course” he had no choice but to allow her access and inform his boss.

“It's my turn, look at my stars!” It was Joey's turn to show his glove. “Okay, let's get going!” He didn't even wait for the answer.

“W-Wait! Who are these personnel?” The guard pointed to Tea, Tristan and Bakura

“We are the cheering section.” The girl seemed quite sincere.

“Forget it, you can only…” He couldn't finish because the hooligan punched him in the face to knock him out.

“Count the stars in your head”

“…When they arrest you, don't be surprised if I testify against you” Weevil would never be arrested as long as he lived, he didn't know what would be worse, jail or what his mother would do when he got out.

“He deserved it” He doesn't feel sorry.

“The judge should listen to that argument a lot”

“You never waste time, huh? “A voice they recognized sounded behind them.

“Mai!” The group watched as the blonde approached from behind.

“I see we all made it to the final” She showed a star-studded gauntlet “And I think just in time the last boat to leave the island has just left.”

(I guess Rex couldn't get it) Sigh Weevil, he would have liked to play against him again, he guessed that the dinosaur boy couldn't recover after losing his best card. (I hope this teaches him to use his head more) He would contact him when he finished the tournament.

“Have you prepared your best plays, champion?” As they moved through the castle, Weevil realized that Mai was talking to him.

“Always” he adjusted his glasses

“I hope to face that confidence in the arena.” She would show him that it was a bad move to allow him to continue in the tournament.

They both looked at each other with challenging eyes, it seemed that Tea was going to tell them to calm down when Joey ran out to confront a man who looked like a thug.

“Bandit Keith, you son of a bitch! Thank you for trapping us in that cave!”

“Did you manage to get here?” Keith didn't seem too worried.

(He's not even denying it, maybe I should ask Tea what happened when we separated) The only thing missing was that, after a suicide attempt, someone attempted a murder in this tournament.

“I'm going to kick your ass!” Joey raised his arm to hit him

“Could you wait? Shit! The show is about to start! I'll take care of you later.” The bandit didn't look away from the stage below.

"Show?" He didn't seem to have any intention of stopping.

"Look!"

It was the sight of the huge dueling arena, with Kaiba at one end that made Joey stop.

“The duel between Kaiba and Pegasus!”Keith laughed, for him this had to be the semifinal because only the winner deserved to face him, preferably Pegasus so he could rip off his head when he wins.

“That's right, this is a special event for you, finalists of the tournament, be proud for surviving the kingdom of duelists.” A Pegasus worker urged them to watch.

(Pegasus must have a lot of confidence in his deck or methods to show his hand in the opening of the finals) Weevil wouldn't miss a second of this.