Somewhere, in a dark room.
Clang!
Something shattered on the floor.
"Idiots! Morons! You're all useless trash!"
A man in a white coat, in a rage, kicked the long table, sending it tumbling and scattering everything on it onto the ground.
"Professor... please calm down..."
"Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down?"
Principal MacKenzie from the American Duel Academy, in truth the body of Tragoedia, turned and glared furiously at his two subordinates.
Under his gaze, the two men lowered their heads and dared not meet his eyes.
"I gave you clear instructions. I granted you power—power enough to challenge the world's strongest.
And this is how you repay me?"
"Such a simple order—was it really that hard?"
"Did you have to just give it away?"
"And not only did you lose, you gave away the cards I entrusted you with—my power as well?"
He was furious that Elinor had lost so easily and handed over Mercury.
Even Tragoedia couldn't always know every move his pawns made. Otherwise, in the manga, Reggie wouldn't have been able to plot against him and challenge Professor Midori.
By now, several Planet Series cards had already been lost.
He felt like he was just giving out planets for free.
It was no exaggeration.
Ever since Tragoedia had awakened in modern times, he'd found himself fated to the legendary Planet Series and had spared no effort, using every resource to collect all nine cards worldwide.
Yes, when the Planet Series was created, the world still recognized nine planets, so there were nine cards. If they made them today, it would only be eight.
Even with Tragoedia's power, collecting all nine was no easy task.
The nine cards were scattered among different people, in different countries. Some, like Koyo, were world-famous duelists using the Planet Series as their ace; at least he could use brute force to take them.
But some owners were extremely low-profile, never flaunting their possession of a Planet card. So Tragoedia had to search the world, investigating who had them.
Thanks to his powers of mind control and interrogation, he could extract information others couldn't even dream of.
Still, it took him ages and a lot of resources to get the few cards he now had.
He'd then handpicked his favorite duelists and given Planet cards to his subordinates as their trump cards.
Not only were they powerful, the Planet cards were the best vessels for Tragoedia's power. He sealed his own strength in them, boosting his underlings while making it easy to possess them at will.
And now, these idiots had wasted several already.
All that effort just to help the Duel King for free!?
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got, until a storm of darkness exploded from his body, briefly revealing his true form's shadow. The invisible force smashed all the furniture in the room, nearly crushing his two subordinates.
But they only lowered their heads, not daring to utter a word, just gritting their teeth and enduring until the boss calmed down.
After a while, the storm subsided. Tragoedia seemed to have vented enough, stepped back as if to sit at the table and catch his breath—
But as he lowered himself, he realized the chair had been smashed to pieces by his tantrum. Awkwardly, he hung in the air for a second, then snorted and straightened up again.
His subordinates kept their heads down, not daring to speak.
"Mercury has also fallen into enemy hands," he said coldly. "We need to change tactics. Things can't go on like this."
He turned, his gaze icy.
"I said before, do not approach Duel Academy Island. And don't go after Joey Wheeler either. Wait for my orders.
Anyone who disobeys and acts on their own will become my nourishment."
"Yes, Professor." One subordinate quickly bowed.
The other said, "But Professor... we've already found out what we need. The White Feather Spirit and Feather of Ma'at are both on the academy island, aren't they? Shouldn't we go retrieve them?"
Tragoedia was silent for a few seconds.
Then he walked to the window, his jet-black pupils gleaming with hidden light.
"Seto Kaiba—seems to be the reincarnation of one of the seven priests I hated so much back then."
"Huh?"
Both subordinates were startled by the sudden change of topic.
"Hmph."
Tragoedia snorted, hands behind his back.
"Seto Kaiba's company basically controls half the dueling world," he sneered. "Interesting. In fact, I still have old scores to settle with the Pharaoh and those priests."
He paused, then suddenly threw back his head and laughed loudly.
The two subordinates exchanged worried glances.
Was the Professor about to send them after Kaiba next?
Fight Kaiba?
Seriously?
…
Meanwhile, at Duel Academy Island.
In the dense forest, vines and weeds half-covered a dry well. The well wall was mottled with age, covered in moss. Dim light barely filtered through the well mouth, vanishing into the darkness below.
In the cold, damp world at the bottom of the well, several figures sat.
"Seriously?"
A short, skinny man sat on the ground, muttering.
"The boss is really coming? For real?"
"Finally. We've waited so long... I thought the boss had forgotten about us."
This time, the speaker was a tall, burly man.
"Finally, we can get back to work," he said in a rumbling voice. "This mission's taken forever."
On a rock nearby sat a woman idly twirling a whip.
"Never steal anything from the poor!"
"Uphold the three rules of thievery!" a bespectacled man chimed in.
"As thieves, it's our duty to restore the honor of the trade!"
They all raised their weapons and bumped them together in the air.
"The Dark Scorpion Burglars!"