Chapter 93 Kaiba: The Blue-Eyes White Dragon Has A Lot of Attack Power
For now, let's look away from Mokuba, who was holding a hand full of Fodder Monsters and couldn't decide which to Summon, and return to Hayato.
Climbing out of the tent, Hayato stretched comfortably in the early morning sun. He and Bakura once again set out on their journey to find prey.
Regarding Mokuba stealing his Deck and dueling glove, Hayato had actually anticipated it. After all, in the original timeline, this was how Mokuba met Yugi and the others. The only difference was that the person who got robbed was a random passerby they didn't know.
Because of this, Hayato had been cautious last night. He only embedded a single star chip on his dueling glove, hiding the rest. As for the Deck in the metal box, aside from stuffing the three Ojama brothers inside, it was filled with N-Rank Cards he had discarded.
If things went as expected, Mokuba would probably still go after that guy Yugi and try to eliminate him to get him disqualified, right? Hopefully, he has fun using that pile of Normal Monster cards.
Looking at the ten star chips in his hand, Hayato embedded them one by one into his glove. The one Mokuba stole was his original ten-slot glove; the large twenty-slot glove was still in Hayato's possession.
"What a refreshing morning. Waking up without having to hear the racket from the Ojama Monsters is as pleasant as welcoming the first day of the new year in a brand new, perfectly fitting pair of underwear." Sucking on a piece of candy, Hayato checked his Deck. "I just wonder what kind of duelists I'll meet today."
Just as Hayato finished speaking, a familiar voice suddenly came from behind him: "Your name is Hayato, isn't it? And the other one is Bakura?"
The unique voice allowed Hayato to identify the speaker even without turning around. But why was this guy here? Turning to look at the man in the long trench coat carrying a briefcase, Hayato greeted him, "Yo, if it isn't my classmate Seto. It's been a while."
"Classmate Kaiba? You were invited to the island too?" Bakura, standing to the side, was a bit confused. He didn't remember seeing Kaiba on the ship. If he had come by boat, he surely would have been the center of attention for all the duelists on board.
"Hmph, whether or not I participate in a tournament like Duelist Kingdom doesn't depend on whether that guy Pegasus invites me, but on whether I *want* to participate," Seto Kaiba said arrogantly. "But you, why aren't you with Yugi?"
"Duelist Kingdom invited a considerable number of duelists to participate. Although we get to see all sorts of Decks, on the other hand, there are too many people. So that guy Pegasus came up with this idea." Hayato raised his dueling glove. "Collect star chips to qualify. That's why Yugi and I separated."
Kaiba was Kaiba, after all. He immediately understood the purpose of the star chips: "Eliminating the weak to select the strong, is it? However, even if a weakling defeats countless Fodder Monsters, it doesn't mean they've earned the right to compete on the same stage as a Dragon."
That being said, Kaiba secretly took note of Pegasus's move, thinking that if he were to host a large-scale dueling tournament one day, he could definitely modify Pegasus's rules and apply them.
"Well, those are the rules, anyway. If you want to enter Pegasus's castle, you need to collect ten star chips," Hayato said, lowering his arm. "No matter what his business with Pegasus might be. After all, every duelist who comes to this island has a wish they've entrusted to their Duels."
"Hmph, those are Pegasus's rules. Why should I follow them?" Kaiba's face was expressionless as he snorted coldly and started walking toward the castle. Hayato's meaning was already quite obvious: *You, Kaiba, don't even think about running off to the castle early. Get back here and collect your star chips like an honest person.*
And Kaiba's answer was: *I refuse.*
"Tsk, what an annoying guy." Hayato watched Kaiba ignore him and head for the castle. Although he knew that even if Kaiba didn't collect ten star chips, Pegasus would still let him in to get his hands on KaibaCorp, Hayato was still annoyed by it.
"Hey, Seto, Duel me." Hayato called out to Kaiba. "If I didn't know, I might have pretended not to, but you're declaring right in front of me that you're going to use your special privileges to take a shortcut. I can't just let that slide."
"Hmph, a mere Fourth-Rate Duelist dares to challenge me? You dare defy me, the wielder of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon?" Kaiba turned his head, his expression grim. The information in his words also made Hayato frown—the plot seemed to have changed somehow?
Hayato remembered that in the original story, Kaiba was attacked while researching new Duel Disks. Although he escaped, his Deck, containing the three Blue-Eyes, fell into the hands of Pegasus, who was behind the attack. That Deck was given by Pegasus to an impersonator posing as the "deceased" Kaiba, was then taken into Yugi's keeping, and only later returned to Kaiba's hands.
But now, judging by Kaiba's words, he hadn't even met Yugi yet. So was the Blue-Eyes still in his possession?
After a moment's thought, Hayato recalled that in the original story, for some unknown design reason, Kaiba's briefcase was stuffed full of random cards, everything from Great Moth and Change of Heart to Red-Eyes Black Dragon. But despite having room for all those cards, Kaiba hadn't carried his own Deck with him, which made absolutely no sense.
But from Kaiba's posture now, it was obvious his Blue-Eyes hadn't been lost; he was carrying it with him.
"It's just a Blue-Eyes. It's not like it's never been defeated before, right? There are Duel Monsters stronger than Blue-Eyes, you know. Like Exodia, Exodia, and... Exodia." Hayato maliciously provoked Kaiba.
"You insolent whelp! How dare a mere Fodder Monster be so arrogant. I've decided. I will use my invincible Blue-Eyes to inflict total defeat upon you, making you so afraid you'll never touch Duel Monsters again!" Kaiba's temper truly was explosive, especially when Hayato repeatedly brought up the time he was obliterated by Yugi's God Draw of Old Exodia.
Furious, Kaiba took his Deck out of the briefcase he was carrying. But just as he was about to toss the newly completed experimental Duel Disk to Hayato, he saw that Hayato was already standing in front of a Duel Stage that had risen from the ground nearby.
"I'm not using that weird-looking Duel Disk. What if you try to cheat or pull some trick?" Hayato said, already standing on the Duel Stage's elevator. "If we're going to duel, we'll use this Duel Stage!"
"Hmph, you Fourth-Rate Duelist! I, Seto Kaiba, would never do such a thing!" Kaiba said, also stepping onto the elevator opposite Hayato and ascending.
*'You can't be too sure about that, Mr. 'Kaiba the Sore Loser Who Jumps Off Buildings','* Hayato thought to himself. He would never admit that the real reason he didn't want to use Kaiba's experimental Duel Disk was because he thought it would be exhausting to play with.
(end of chapter)