As they were being led away to the duelling location, Tristan and Mokuba were having a talk about his actions. Yuta also wanted to know, but he would rather not get chummy with Mokuba; after all, the kid just tried to 'borrow' his prized Red-Eyes. So it was lucky for him that Tristan took the initiative to ask.
"So who did you want to duel anyway?"
"It was... it was Yugi Muto," Mokuba answered after some inner struggle. Now that his fate was in the hands of Yuta, there was no need to keep it a secret anymore.
"Why?" Tristan asked befuddled.
"It's complicated. Pegasus was the one who spread the rumour that Seto lost to Yugi.
The board members of the Kaiba Corp didn't like that.
They said it reduced the public's trust towards the company or something along those lines.
However, anyone can see that this was Pegasus' ploy to take over the Kaiba Corp, but the board members didn't care.
They promised to help Pegasus in his acquisition of the company IF he defeated Yugi in a duel.
According to them, this could salvage the company's reputation.
So I thought if I could borrow a deck and defeat Yugi myself, everything would be fine or something like that."
"That's stupid." Yuta couldn't help but comment.
"How so?"
"The point was Yugi needed to lose a duel.
It wouldn't matter if he lost to Pegasus or YOU.
If Pegasus had beaten Yugi, they could have claimed that they brought in a stronger duellist as the Kaiba Corp. CEO. If Yugi lost, they could have said he won by luck or cheating.
So even if you defeated Yugi, it wouldn't matter.
In fact, you should counterattack by claiming that Yugi is a Duel Monsters genius capable of defeating anyone, which makes Kaiba's loss to him understandable.
That way you could have fought against Pegasus.
Actually, this Duellist Kingdom tournament is a wonderful way to do that.
As long as Yugi wins the tournament and defeats Pegasus, the father of Duel Monsters, it would prove those previous claims, resulting in rumours dying down.
Think of it like this.
If a homeless man suddenly earns a million dollars, it would be a remarkable achievement that makes headlines on national TV; however, if a billionaire earns a million dollars, it would be considered normal, and therefore, no one would pay attention.
"We can't do that! My brother is eventually going to defeat Yugi. So how can we make him be some sort of duelling genius? Wouldn't that backfire once my brother succeeds?"
"Quite the opposite actually, it would make Kaiba even more famous.
Imagine this: the previously strongest martial artist in the world was one day challenged by an upcoming younger kid.
He didn't take it seriously and lost.
He believed he had lost either due to the kid's luck or because he had not taken the fight seriously enough.
However, the kid continued to defeat other strong martial artists, demonstrating that his victory over the previous strongest was not due to luck.
Noticing this, the ex-king started to train again, and once he was sufficiently successful, he challenged the kid once more, and after defeating him, the king reclaimed his title once more.
If there was a movie like this, wouldn't you watch it?
If we frame this scenario with Yugi and Kaiba, the outcomes would remain unchanged. Public would eat it. Instead of the Kaiba Corp. losing trust, the public would trust it even more."
"Yuta... don't tell me you are also a rich kid like Kaiba, having your own company? Are all the people with Eyes cards rich? Is that the condition to be able to get your hands on one?" Tristan asked curiously.
Yutaka, on the other hand, looked at him disdainfully. This Tristan's mind sure worked differently.
"First of all, it's not Yuta but Yutaka.
Secondly, no. My family is pretty normal. We run a magic shop, and my mother is an archaeologist.
So it's usually just me and my sister at home along with grandma who looks after the shop.
Basically, I am just a guy you could find anywhere. Maybe not everywhere since I am excellent at Duel Monsters, but yeah."
What he said was not a lie.
The previous Yuta's family indeed had a Magic shop.
That's where he had picked up magic tricks as a child.
Because he had albinism, he didn't like going out, as his skin was sensitive to the sun.
When he was younger, he even had to wear hats and long sleeves everywhere, as he could easily get sunburns and other medical complications.
In fact, when he was a kid, he was even short-sighted, so he would bump everywhere and fall down.
All of which resulted in him spending most of his time at home.
Though it wasn't that bad.
As he grew older, his condition got better.
His eyesight fixed itself, and he didn't need to be conscious of the sun anymore when going out.
Still, he preferred to cover himself if possible, but that was more due to habit rather than physical discomfort.
Real Yuta didn't know about why he got better, but he had some ideas about how.
Since this was the world of card games, he suspected that the reason he got better must be because of it.
As he got better as a duellist, he got more in tune with his deck, which included the Duel Spirits.
It must have strengthened his body over time.
Just to reiterate, the previous Yuta was not a bad duellist.
He was someone who was even a contender for the title of national champion. So he must have a strong bond with his deck and Duel Spirits.
Still, because the body itself was weaker than normal, he didn't display any inhuman feats and instead just got better, reaching the level of your average joe.
That begs the question: what would happen if Yuta got 2 more Red-Eyes?
Even putting in a single Red-Eyes had alleviated his sickness.
So would he instantly be a superman like Kaiba after putting two more into the deck?
It was a hypothesis that was certainly worth a try.
"We are here, and this is your opponent, Ghost of Seto Kaiba!"
"Impossible! My brother couldn't have died!" Mokuba shouted in disbelief.
"You are wrong, Mokuba. I have died and become a ghost, but I clawed my way out of the Shadow Realm just to exact my revenge on Yugi." The ghost replied as he looked towards Yuta.
He felt like there was some sort of misunderstanding here, but it was too bothersome to correct it, so he decided to let it slide.
Anyway, the guy in front of him was definitely not Kaiba.
The real Kaiba would never utter words like 'ghosts' or 'shadow realms'.
So this was obviously an imposter.
"Well, since we are going to duel anyway, let me ask you, Kaiba.
How did you die, and most importantly, which religion was right?" Yutaka asked as he took his place in the duel arena and started to shuffle his deck casually.
"...What?" The ghost asked, flabbergasted.
This was not the reaction he was expecting.
Why did this guy suddenly go off script?
Shouldn't he have claimed he was not the real Kaiba first?
Then he would shock him by summoning the Blue-Eyes White Dragon and let him doubt himself.
"You heard me.
You see, I am actually a deist. I believe god exists but he just doesn't care about humans... anyway let's not get into a religious debate here.
You see, there are countless mythologies and religions on earth.
Almost all of them claim that they are the one true religion and all the others are nothing more than lies.
Normally, there would not be a way to prove which one is right... since, you know, you need to die first to confirm. And usually once someone dies, they don't come back.
But here we have a real-life specimen.
Someone who 'clawed' his way back from the Shadow Realm. So I assume Shadow Realm exists then.
What kind of an afterlife is it?
Is it like the Land of Hades like in Greek mythology? You know, tartarus, erebus and all that.
Or is it like the Christianity hell, with flames as far as your eyes can see?
Maybe it's like the Yellow River of the chinese mythology where you have to drink the forgetting soup made by Grandma Meng so that you can reincarnate in a clean slate or-"
"Enough!" The ghost's head started to turn from all the unfamiliar terms.
"Yeah, sorry, sorry. I start rambling when I am interested in something and then lose sight of myself. Anyway, so, what kind of a place is it?"
"...It was just… dark..." The ghost made up something since he didn't want to break his character on the spot, as it was indeed something a ghost was supposed to know.
What kind of a ghost wouldn't know about the afterlife?
Yutaka looked towards the ghost with disdain.
Back in his world, Yuta's, or rather Darren's, intelligence was above average.
It was not him being humble or boasting.
He was just slightly above the average line. He was not like someone who was just on the cusp of the genius line trying to downplay themselves to humble brag.
In fact, the only thing he was better at than your average joe was his ability to play card games.
In the other kind of games, he was just mediocre.
But when it comes to card games, be it Pokémon, Legends of Runeterra, Hearthstone etc. He always managed to reach the highest rank.
Of course, he mostly managed that by netdecking (finding deck recipes online and copying them) instead of creating his own unique decks.
This meant that he could never truly reach the number one spot. Still, he was always amongst the highest ranks.
This didn't mean he didn't try to make his own fun decks.
He did.
However, none of his decks were good enough to be considered meta, except for one deck in Legends of Runeterra, but that's beside the point.
The point was he was only exceptional when it came to card games.
But here is the thing.
This world was created based on the rules of card games.
So when you add one plus one, you get two, meaning he started to feel like a genius here.
This was not a metaphor or him feeling delusional.
Ever since he woke up in this world, he could remember everything clearly, and it wasn't difficult to come up with card strategies.
He had even started to remember scenes from the anime, which he couldn't remember before, as if he had just watched the episode.
He knew himself.
He was a net-decker, not skilled at creating original decks.
Then how could he suddenly be able to create functional decks from a pile of trash cards?
But he managed to do exactly that.
Because of his circumstances, he had not questioned it before.
After all, he was anxious someone was going to get Red-Eyes before he could.
Also, he started to doubt the intelligence of the people around him, with the only exception being Yugi.
The things that seemed obvious to him were things that surprised these people.
Like what happened with Mokuba before and also with the ghost just now.
"Oh? Then why would you use the expression 'clawed'?
Using that means you have overcome a great struggle to come here, but suddenly, you give a dull expression like it was only dark.
I mean, I get it.
You are only doing your job.
You are just somebody dressed as Kaiba trying to psych Mokuba or me out by claiming to be a ghost, but didn't you even study your role first?
Like, think about it yourself for a second.
If you met a ghost yourself that you were sure would not harm you, wouldn't you ask about the afterlife first?
What?
Were you expecting me to deny that you were a ghost?
Then you would summon Blue-Eyes to prove you were real?
Get real for a sec.
Assuming someone really hired you, it could only be Pegasus.
And Pegasus is the guy who created the game.
Who is to say if he just didn't create fake Blue-Eyes cards specifically for this occasion?
After all, that's his job, right?
Making Duel Monsters cards, I mean.
Also, why didn't you just claim that a mortal wasn't privy to information about the afterlife since it was a matter of faith; hence why you were barred from sharing anything concerning it.
Honestly, couldn't Pegasus find a better guy?"
"Umm, hey Mokuba? Why does this ghost seem more unreliable by the second the more Yuta speaks? He isn't really your brother, is he?" Tristan asked Mokuba.
"...He is a fake. Definitely. He can't even answer such simple questions. How could he be the real Seto?" Mokuba regained his wits.
He didn't feel there was anything wrong with what Yuta asked.
In fact, he felt like those kinds of things would be what Kaiba himself would search and look around for if he found himself in the afterlife.
Though he didn't believe in superstitious stuff like that, so the first thing he would do would be confirming whether he had truly passed away.
If he did, he would be studying the rules of the place… and how to conquer it.
"ENOUGH!" The ghost hit the duel arena in front of him angrily, but inside he was sweating like bullets.
What was up with this weirdo?
They didn't even start duelling yet, and he already figured out his plans.
"Fine, fine. Let's just duel. It's not like I can lose to someone who is using someone else's deck, right, Mokuba?" Yuta turned and winked at Mokuba, who finally seemed okay.
Remembering his blunder with Yuta's deck, Mokuba finally felt at ease.
There was no way Yuta could lose to this fake who dared to copy his brother's deck.
***
At the same time, Seto Kaiba was sneaking into his own mansion.
Yes, he had fallen so much that he had to sneak inside a mansion he lived in.
The place was crawling with Pegasus' goons, but Kaiba needed to get inside.
Underground, inside a secret lab, there was a supercomputer that could connect to the Kaiba Corp satellites.
He needed to use it to locate the whereabouts of Mokuba and find Pegasus.
Of course, since it was his own home, it wasn't hard for Kaiba to find his way to the lab undetected.
Inside the lab, Kaiba quickly located Mokuba through the satellites thanks to the card he left him, which contained a tracking chip, and he witnessed the scene of Yutaka trashing his imposter.
At the same time, he also got curious about the afterlife himself, assuming it existed, of course.
Though as a firm believer of science, soon he despised that mumbo jumbo.
There was no way a place like the afterlife could exist.
Why?
For an afterlife to exist, it must consist of either an infinite mass or a mass that is constantly expanding.
Why?
Because, assuming every soul is unique rather than recycled through reincarnation, it would mean that there would be an infinite amount of human beings.
To house the said population, the afterlife would need to be infinite as well, but an infinite mass can't scientifically exist.
So it was scientifically impossible for the afterlife to exist as well.
That's why Kaiba decided to laugh in the face of anyone who believed in the nonsense of the afterlife from now on.
Though Kaiba also decided to reward that unknown duellist facing his impostor because his words seemed to have calmed down his brother.
Kaiba was someone who always paid his debts, and he would never forget a favour. Though once he paid the favour, their relationship would return back to neutral, so don't expect him to be buddy-buddy with anyone.