第三章　光のピラミッド
Chapter 3: The Pyramid of Light

Kaiba, having crossed the Pacific to return from Pegasus’ place, had done an immediate analysis on the two cards and quivered with joy, for he was convinced that they had the power to best the Three Mythic Gods.
“You’re scaring me,” said Mokuba as he looked at Kaiba, who appeared to be jubilated.
When he was asked, “What are you afraid of,” he replied, “It’s like you’re being possessed, Big Brother,” and then pleaded to Kaiba, “Come back to normal.”
“What nonsense,” thought Kaiba. “You should be rising to the heights I’m at, as well!” Kaiba then reproached.
At the moment, his older brother is bidding for the apex of the entire dueling world. Long ago, Kaiba and Mokuba were tormented and shunned by the world, but now, on the contrary, they have been given a chance to rule the world. The time for them to get back at the world, which made fools of them both, had arrived.
How many times have they dyed their hands in blood for this very day? Having their adoptive father, Gozaburo, dead, they drove out the Big Five. What had they spent their whole life crossing these dangerous bridges for? Wasn’t it to grab at this chance? Wouldn’t his little brother, Mokuba, be the one to understand this best of all? Kaiba was on edge.
“This isn’t the time to be going on about connecting both our hearts or other sickening things like that! We could rule the world as many times as we’d like by being good brothers!!” By becoming King of Duel Monsters and seizing everything nominally and virtually, the world would move through his own accord; that is what Kaiba believed.
What his brother said made Mokuba go silent. The younger brother tried to deny what his brother had said with his silence, but the older brother took it appositively.
The rift between Seto Kaiba and Mokuba’s hearts had gotten so very wide without them even knowing and there was someone trying to get in that gap in their hearts in secret. Kaiba’s heart, which otherwise has a pure love of gaming, is being directed down a wicked path called revenge. Mokuba, who thought he came off as being possessed by someone, is not incorrect. Perhaps, to the eyes of Mokuba, it looked like an ominous black shadow.

***

The Three Mythic Gods were floating against Dark Yugi in the background.
“Wah ha ha ha, What a spectacular sight, Yugi! But this is the beginning of your defeat!” Kaiba shouted in boast of his victory while at an overwhelming disadvantage. “Now that all the Three Mythic Gods are out on the field, I’m going to activate my God-containing Pyramid of Light!”
“What? God-containing! Could that possible be?” Dark Yugi remembered the sight he saw at Domino City Museum. He hadn’t taken much heed to the triangular lithograph lined next to the Crystal Pyramid when Anzu called out to him. However, the Three Mythic Gods were definitely engraved on it.
(Could this have been what the lithograph was showing!?) Dark Yugi mentally murmured.
“All your Gods on the field will be removed from the game!! Away you go to the dimensional mists!” Kaiba shouted.
Grm, grm, grm grm—. The tossing tremors shake the entire Dome and a wall of light lurches up from the field, splitting between the Three Mythic Gods and the Ring evenly. Had a thousand suns risen? The Three Mythic Gods do nothing but recoil at the intense brilliance.
Jonouchi and Honda were in the Dome’s spectators’ stands looking in astonishment.
“W-What is that…? Jonouchi! A wall of light popped up! Is that thing a 3D image made by the Duel Ring, too?”
“That’s impossible, Honda! It’s too real to be a holographic image the Duel Ring can generate! Even a sound system with bass deep enough shouldn’t be strong enough to bring down the Dome!”
“There’s no doubt about it, then! Is the Dome roof starting to crack!? Are you serious!?”
The particles of light sparkle and spread out. The spots become a surface and create walls of light and the walls enclose the ring from every direction towards the top. In the middle of the dome, with the Ring encompassed, a huge pyramid was created—The Pyramid of Light.
The Three Mythic Gods, Ra, Obelisk and Osiris, having been repelled by the walls of light, disappear from the Dome.
“Look, Jonouchi! The Three Mythic Gods didn’t even do anything and they just disappeared …!”
“W-What is with these strong winds?!”
Danger didn’t just nip at the buds at the Three Mythic Gods as a red eye formed on the walls of light, sucking up a large quantity of air while swirling like Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.
“Aaaaaah! Honda!”
Jonouchi’s body, which was leaning forward from the spectators’ stand, was caught in the air. Honda quickly reached out for him and his sturdy palm grabbed Jonouchi’s arm. Though, they couldn’t fight the fierce torrent of air.
“Hyaaaaah—!!”
Honda and Jonouchi disappear into the red eye, leaving their pitiful screams behind.
There was one more person watching this scene in disbelief. It was Mokuba, in the control booth that was knocked off its rail in the violent quaking and being suspended in mid-air with the help of several cords.
Mokuba, in the tilted booth, looks down at the entire Dome, grasping onto the hardware. The huge pyramid which appeared in the middle of the field wasn’t an illusion. “This isn’t a Solid Vision System virtual image!” The Pyramid of Light that encloses Kaiba and Dark Yugi now, before Mokuba’s very eyes, was very real; he knows best of all that Kaiba Corporation doesn’t have that sort of scientific power. “If it weren’t for the occult, which Brother always denies of, something like this could never happen!”
The tremors sensate through Mokuba’s body. The cords tethering the booth to the ceiling could snap at any moment.
Before the booth fell, Mokuba barely managed to escape down a rope. In that next instant, the Dome ceiling came crumbling down.
The glow of the Pyramid splits and drifts up from his eyes towards the sky. Ominous clouds swirled in the skies above the Dome.

***

Two figures were running towards Kaiba Dome. Even though Anzu was a young would-be dancer, Sugoroku, the good walker he is, manages to follow in her heels.
“What’s that light!?” Anzu points to a corner of the sky. The light coming from the Dome stood out against the swirling clouds.
“Oh no, we’re too late! According to my experience, having gone on hundreds of adventures and uncovering thousands of ruins, when the forbidden edicts are broken, dark clouds, forbearing tides of ill omen, form.”
“What does that mean!?”
“Let’s hurry! If my hunch is right, something horrible is going to happen! We have to stop Yugi and Kaiba-kun’s duel at all costs!”
“What do you mean!? How do you know those two are dueling?”
“I had a vision while I was unconscious at the museum. In their duel, Kaiba defeats Yugi, but a demon’s giant hand grabs the triumphant Kaiba.”
What does the old man speak of? Since when did he become a prophet?
Anzu, one of today’s children, readily disbelieves what Sugoroku had said. “Grandfather, don’t you think we should go to Kaiba Dome after we go to Domino City Hospital…? You did happen to hit your head when you collapsed at the museum.”
“Hey, you don’t believe a word I’ve said, do you? Don’t believe me if you want, but make no doubts that a dangerous duel is about to go on.”
Anzu couldn’t believe the nonsense that the old man, his age set apart from her own by half a century, was sprouting out. The terrible accident had made the beautiful Kaiba Dome, depicting a hemisphere, to cave in miserably. Even Anzu had to admit that, in the face of reality, something was going on.
Avoiding the scattered rubble, Anzu and Sugoroku proceeded to walk cautiously inside the Dome. Normally there would be a passageway for Duelists heading towards the Ring. By going through the dark concrete tunnel, they should have come out on the green turf field. However, a mountain of debris could be seen cutting off the other side of the tunnel.
“What in the world happened? It’s almost as it caved through in a big earthquake or something…”
“Yeah. And if Yugi and Kaiba-kun are dueling like the prophecy stated, then this isn’t even half of our worries.”
They dart out of a crawlspace into the vast interior of the Dome where Sugoroku and Anzu find Mokuba in one corner, standing still and dumbfounded.
“Mokuba-kun? What in the world…” Anzu bit back her next words. The walls of light past Mokuba covered her field of vision. It was so huge that she couldn’t look over the entire thing. It was only after she got out of the tunnel did she recognize the Pyramid of Light towering over the surrounds. The Pyramid of Light surrounded the entire Duel Ring. In the middle of the walls of light, the red eye symbol swirled around. “This really seems unreal…”
“Mm-mmm…it’s so bizarre yet so beautiful…I’ve been around the world but I’ve never seen a sight this beautiful…”
“Mokuba-kun, what is this thing!?”
“I don’t know…but this isn’t Duel Monsters! Something like this couldn’t be created even with Kaiba Corporation’s technological capabilities.”
“Was Yugi dueling?”
“Yeah, Brother and Yugi should be beyond those walls of light…”
“Yugi!” Anzu unconsciously ran up to the walls of light.
Bsshh! A plasma ran from the red eye. Sugoroku had moved quickly, despite his old age; maybe it was his resurgent of his younger days as an adventurer that pushed his body. Before the lightning reached Anzu, Sugoroku quickly held her under his arm and protected her by falling to the ground. The spear of electricity narrowly bore into the ground right beside them.
“Are you okay, Anzu-chan?”
“Thank you, Grandfather…But what is happening? What on earth is this Pyramid of Light thing!?”
“The prophecy says that when the King of Light defeats the King of Darkness and enough light is fulfilled, the King of Destruction will be reborn.”
“When enough light is fulfilled…”
“Mm-hmm. When I saw this pyramid filled with light, I knew that this was it.”
“So you mean that if the prophecy goes unchanged, the King of Destruction will be revived!?”
“I don’t believe that!” Mokuba ran up before they even knew it. “Brother doesn’t believe in those tall occult tales either.”
“Believe it or not, there’s nothing but light filling our eyes at this very moment!”
“Are Yugi and Kaiba-kun still dueling inside there?”
“If the vision I saw was a premonition, it’s probably still going on. And while Yugi might lose, Kaiba, being victorious, will be in mortal jeopardy! We have to stop that duel, at all costs!”
“I can’t believe that Brother is…” Mokuba regretted ever asking Yugi to get back his brother’s heart. He should have asked him not to fight no matter what, even if it meant betraying his brother. He screamed “Brother!” towards the Duel Ring, but didn’t get a response.

***

The inside of the Pyramid of Light was wrapped in a peculiar silence. There was no way for Dark Yugi to know the true nature of the walls of light while in the ring. Glancing all around, the walls of light were all uniformly spread across them. When he looks up, the four walls were grouped at a single point a dozen or so meters above them. It was definitely a rightside-up pyramid, a pyramid created by the walls of light.
(Is this an image made by the Virtual System too?) Dark Yugi reached out to a wall right behind him from the Duel Ring.
Bsshh! The plasma turned into a purple glow which ran into the palm of Dark Yugi’s hand and in between the wall of light. At that very moment, the Eye of Wdjat on the Millennium Puzzle around his neck was wrapped in plasma. Yugi’s face seemed to be overlapping the Millennium Puzzle and it grimaced in pain.
(Other Self!)
“What’s wrong, Partner?!”
(I can’t hold on! I can’t stay here any longer! I’m being dragged off somewhere! Aaaaah! I can’t hold on!) Yugi’s voice grew distant with a dreadful scream.
“Partner!” Dark Yugi was bewildered. He could no longer hear the breathing of his other self, which he sensed right next to him not even a few seconds ago. (Partner! Please answer me! I can’t hear your voice…) Dark Yugi looked at Kaiba who stood without batting a lash. “What is going on here!? Weren’t you denying the existence of a Game of Darkness in duels?!”
“Ha ha ha ha! That’s right. It seems you were shocked at the Gods vanishing like that, but I had calculated this as well. This is the effect the Pyramid of Light possesses,” Kaiba replied with a relaxed look on his face. “Duel Monsters begins by reading the chips fixed inside cards with the Duel Disk System. The central computer analyzes the program, which it reads, and creates a 3D image using holograms.”
“Are you saying that this is one of your so-called holographic images?”
“The Duel Disk System isn’t just some toy. Its technology is on the level of some military secrets. So, it’s frustrating that only Pegasus’ Industrial Illusions is the only company that can develop the programming which taps into its latent potential to its fullest.”
“So you mean you never expected that you would see a result this great, right?”
“Yeah…Even with my Simulation System, I’ve failed to recreate the God cards, after all. Even if we could predict what effect the Pyramid of Light would have on the God cards, it could possibly be enough to create a projection of this magnitude. But, on that not-so-distant day, I will call, not only the Duel Ring hardware, but the Card Programming software, or in other words, all of Duel Monsters, my very own!”
“Your vaulting ambitions will be your demise.”
“Hmph…Sorry, but I’m not a man who’d be content with just the title of Duel King. The three God cards which have been impossible to analyze and the Pyramid of Light which not even the God cards can come close to…Once I analyze its program, Kaiba Corporation will reach new levels, which is to be the greatest business giant in the world!” Kaiba’s eyes appear to be shimmering. “I am a Duel God! I shall become divine creator of all duels!!”
“Wait! You still plan on continuing with the duel!?”
“Of course I do! My turn isn’t over yet! The duel will continue as the countdown to my victory!!”
“It’s about time you realized! You’re being possessed by something!” Dark Yugi uttered the same thing that Mokuba, the younger brother, had. “I activate Cyclone! It destroys one Magic or Trap card on the entire field!”
The duel continued at Kaiba’s pace. He destroyed Yugi’s Holy Barrier – Mirror Force, summoned Peten the Dark Clown from his hand and attacked directly. Dark Yugi’s Life Points drop to 3500.
A sharp pain coursed through Dark Yugi’s body and a blue glow escaped from his body. Neither Yugi nor Kaiba were aware that this was the glow of the life force which controlled his very essence.
(What was that pain and damage I felt when my Life Points decreased…?) Yugi found the sensation different than usual and winced. (Don’t tell me that this is…) a sense of foreboding flashed in his mind.
“Then, I place a card face-down and end my turn.”
The duel continued within the strange space, which was encompassed by walls of light on all four sides, as if nothing had happened. Dark Yugi tried fighting back. He summoned Magician’s Valkyria and assaulted Peten the Dark Clown, with the results of the battle being perfectly obvious.
When Kaiba’s Life Points drop from 3400 to 2300, the glow of his life force oozes out of his body. An intense pain instantly coursed through Kaiba’s body as well. (Grr…What’s this pain…?) The pain, which couldn’t possible come from the Virtual System, was probably something which Kaiba, who has a hate for all things illogical, couldn’t accept. Yet, in preparation for his next move, the pain was not engaged in Kaiba’s mind set. “Something as insignificant as this won’t affect me in the least! You fell into my trap! With Peten the Dark Clown acting as the catalyst, my Virus Combo is activated! The Permanent Trap, Absolute Destruction – Genocide Virus!”
The card turned with its face up on the field was Absolute Destruction – Genocide Virus. It was one of his forte cutthroat strategies. Dark Yugi must randomly send ten cards from his deck into the Cemetery.
“My life deck…!”
“It’s my advanced Virus Combo. Your ‘life’ is going to decrease with each passing moment.”
The tentacles of the Virus destroyed ten cards in Dark Yugi’s deck and discarded them into the Cemetery. Kaiba’s combo didn’t stop at that. The special effect of the Peten the Dark Clown sent to the Cemetery Special Summoned a new Clown from the deck.
Though Dark Yugi was able to make a reduction in Life Points, Kaiba’s field has not changed a single bit before Dark Yugi attacked. Instead, things had gotten worse for Dark Yugi.
(I’m sorry, my life deck It’s my fault that you guys got sent to the Cemetery without even proving yourselves…) He ended his turn with his face look grim. This Virus Combo attack was a serious blow to Dark Yugi, who had a bond with his Duel Spirits. The psychological pain from the actual dueling damage was great.
Kaiba continues the duel straightforwardly with his traditional cold expression, reaching the seventh turn. Kaiba summoned his Death Gremlin, used Treasured Cards of Life-Whittling, and drew until his hand had five cards.
Descent of White Dragon, Knight of White Dragon, Attack Guidance Armor, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Fusion; these were the five cards collected in his hand. Kaiba activated the Descent of White Dragon Ritual Magic, using Death Gremlin as a sacrifice, called forth Knight of White Dragon to the field through its Ritual Summon and then conducted battle.
Yugi’s Life Points drop again, from 3500 to 3200. His life force being sucked out of his body, Dark Yugi wore a look of anguish on his face. (What could this pain that I felt even before be!? Once my Life Points reduce, it’s almost as if my life force is being rung from my body…) Dark Yugi was trying to unravel the mystery of the mysterious sensations he felt. He follows a blue, shining vapor escaping from his very body. (What’s that?!) Dark Yugi noticed the red eye hovering on the walls of light. His life force dissipates into that red eye. (I sense it…these are dark powers without a doubt! Kaiba hasn’t noticed?!)
However, Dark Yugi’s deduction was interrupted. Employing his best specialty patterns, Kaiba could see nothing more than winning in sight.
“Knight of White Dragon’s special effect Special Summons the Blue-Eyes White Dragon from my deck!” The Knight of White Dragon switches positions by being wrapped in light and fading away while a blue shine emerged up on the Ring. Gweergh! A strange cry rang throughout the Ring. “Heh heh heh…Now that you’ve lost your Three Mythic Gods, you lack the power to be called Duel King. My monster will put you to and end”
Emerging from the glow was Kaiba’s soul card, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. The dragon with a silver shine displayed its sublime appearance. Dark Yugi’s Life Points are 3200 while the Blue-Eyes White Dragon’s attack power is 3000. If exposed to the dragon’s destructive flames, Dark Yugi’s fate would be put in a very precarious situation. The dragon’s jaws open slowly, but Kaiba didn’t give it the order to battle.
(Tch…He’s summoned Blue-Eyes.) Dark Yugi’s face looks impatient.
“You’re saved for now, Yugi…” Kaiba grinned. “A Blue-Eyes White Dragon Special Summoned by Knight of White Dragon’s effect cannot attack in the turn it’s summoned. Then, I’ll place a card face-down and end my turn on that.”

***

Yugi was in the darkness. A small point of light spreads and looms over his view. “M-Mmmm…” He woke up and looked around. “Where am I…? What happened!? Other Self, can you hear me?” Wrapped in silence, was in the area that could answer. Yugi took another look at his surrounding view. “The Mind Labyrinth…?”
The Mind Labyrinth is another world inside the Millennium Puzzle, and there is a Mind Room, where the soul of the nameless Pharaoh has spent several millennia alone.
While Yugi remains in that room when he and the Dark Yugi switch places, he, the nameless Pharaoh, has remained there alone for an eternity in his time. Every time Yugi visits this world, he has thought of the Pharaoh’s loneliness and cried.
However, what sits before his eyes now is different from the view he’s used to. The passageways, stairways and corridors are all intricately in disarray across the confines. The stairways that were upside down which made it unclear which way to climb them and the corridors which cut off in mid-air made it seem that this mind was in disarray.
Feeling something indescribably and very wicked, he glanced at the surrounding scenery in blank amazement. “This isn’t the same old Mind Labyrinth! I’ve never seen this scenery before! My Other Self’s Mind Room is missing. Unless I find his Mind Room, I won’t be able to communicate with my Other Self.”
Yugi carefully crossed a crumbling stone bridge with determination; he has to find the Mind Room and escape these confines. “Where is my Other Self’s Mind Room…? If I don’t find it, I’ll probably never be able to get to the real world again.”
He saw a door to a room behind a crumbled stone wall. “It’s a door! Is that the one!?” Yugi pulls on the handle, but he has a hard time as it is caught on something. “Ummm!” He opens the door with all of his might to have a tremendous amount of sand come gushing out. “Aaaaah!!” Yugi ran in a mad rush, almost being buried in the sand.
Full of sand, he once again progresses through the labyrinth and finds another door. “Other Self!” Yugi grabbed the handle, praying that this would be the Mind Room. “This has to be it…” He musters up his strength to open the door with all of his might. In the room, something wriggles noisily. “Huh?” Yugi looked carefully; wriggling about were a countless number of scorpions. They raise their poisonous tails, which claim lives with their stings, over their heads and close in. “Gaaaaaah!!”

Where did he pass and how did he get to where he was now? Yugi sat down in a passageway, out of breath. A blue glow flows over his head. It is the life force that escaped from Dark Yugi’s body, or in fact, Yugi’s body itself.
“What’s that? What a pretty glow,” he murmurs carefree, unbeknownst to the true nature of the glow.
Yugi, intrigued by its beautiful light, chased after the life force’s glow. The corridor immediately turned into a dead end. Blocking his path was an astonishingly high, monolithic door. The life force’s is sucked up in a small crevice between the door and wall.
“What is this…?” Yugi touched the door lightly, and whether it was a mechanism of some kind, the huge stone door menacingly moved and made a crevice which could easily let a single person through. Yugi carefully walks forward. It reeked of mold from a cellar that hadn’t been entered in years.
“I wonder what kind of room this is.” About ten of his school’s gymnasiums could probably fill the grand hall that he surveys. The fire of several dozens of candlesticks arranged on the stone bridge, which was unreachable even with your arms held out, couldn’t even illuminate the ceiling.
Hundreds of sarcophaguses lined both sides of the central passageway that was paved with stone and an altar, also forged in stone, formed at the end of it. The glow of the life force is sucked into the red eye.
In the darkness, a mummy had been in a long slumber for around three thousand years. Shining in the shady world was the crystal Pyramid of Light embedded in its chest. In its center, a red eye set with lazuline jewels was also shining. These were the mummy and Crystal Pyramid that had disappeared all of the sudden from the museum. The gemstones were the places where the life force’s glow ended up.
Taking in life force, the decayed body is wrapped in a blue light, and a fresh and youthful body forms back over the dried skeleton. Muscle grows and skin forms. The eyeballs, which without any white in them were black like an animal’s, in the dark and gaping wide eye sockets shined. The mysterious chant of the ancient priests rang throughout its regenerated eardrums from somewhere. The chant even reached Yugi’s ears.
“Huh!? What are those voices…?” Yugi looked in the large hall, searching for the singer of the chant.
The voices were echoing from the hundreds of sarcophagus. Something heavy makes a very deep scraping sound; it was the sound of the lids of the sarcophaguses coming off.
The lids drop with a crash and the things inside simultaneously stand up. Yugi couldn’t believe his own eyes. They were warriors, clad in ancient armaments, breastplates, swords and spears. The bodies of the decaying mummies stood up from their sarcophaguses, joints creaking, and followed the central stone pathway.
Yugi was standing in the mummy warriors’ way.
“Eyaaaaaaah!!” letting out a pitiable scream, Yugi forced his shaking legs to move and fled. Around the same time Yugi was in the midst of a nightmare, two boys were wandering the Mind Labyrinth. It was Jonouchi and Honda. The two arrived, looking at around at everything like country mice lost in a city, in the unfamiliar scenery.
The space enclosing every direction with stone walls intricately form several floors. Even the stone-paved path they had been walking on was sitting atop mountain upon mountains of balconies.
“Jonouchi, where did we end up? The Dome’s underground sewer system?”
“Don’t ask me! How should I know what you don’t know?!” Jonouchi was pretty testy.
“S-Sorry. But still, even though you’re acting as stupid as me, I think you’re acting just a little bit more stupid.”
“The ‘acting as stupid’ part was unnecessary, but you definitely have a point. My conclusion, though, is that it looks like this is somehow gonna work out to be one hell of a mess…”
“So in other words, you have no idea what’s going on, do you?”
“That seems to be the case, I guess.”
Jonouchi and Honda had been carrying on with an unproductive conversation.
“Waaaaaah!!” A scream could be heard coming from somewhere.
“Is that voice…!?”
“Yeah, no mistaking it. That’s Yugi’s voice!”
Both of them had their ears peeled.
“I’m sure I heard it from here.” Jonochi pointed to a floor below the balcony. The stone-constructed pathway continued into darkness. Yugi’s screams of “Eeyaah! Eeeyaah!” resound from the heart of the darkness below.
“What’s Yugi making all that ruckus for? Did something make him happy or something?”
“We’re over here! You hear?!” As soon as Honda yells, the two of them gasp the unbelievable sight. Yugi, having rushed out from the darkness, had a pallid look on his face. Mummy warriors, moving choppily like a bunch of rusted robots, pursue him from behind. “Eeek! Wh-What are those?!” Honda yelled.
Jonouchi, who was half ready to flee himself, tightened up the look on his face sternly. “But you can’t say stuff like that! I’m not gonna let Yugi fall prey to those mummies! Honda, grab my legs!”
“Right! I get you!”
Jonouchi, making Honda hold both of his legs, hung himself over the balcony. Practically hanging upside down, he reaches over to the bottom floor.
“Yugi, right here! Keep running over here!!”
The face of his friend turned upside down appeared at the edges of running Yugi’s field of vision. “Jonouchi-kun! Honda-kun!” He had no time to be weltered in emotions over their reunion, the swords and spears of the mummies behind him were drawing closer.
“Grab hold of my hand! Come on, hurry!!”
“Mm-hmm! Got you!!” Yugi reached out but it wouldn’t reach. “No good! Jonouchi-kun, I can’t reach up there at my height! Those guys are chasing me. The two of you just try and get out of here by yourselves!”
“What the hell are you talking about, dummy?! You’re not so narrow minded as to think that we’d abandon our best friend to save ourselves, are you?! You agree, Honda?!”
“Y-Yeah, I’m fine either way, but it’s not easy trying to just hold you alone! Hurry up and save Yugi already!”
“Yugi! Listen! It’s either life or death! Jump towards my hand! Put the pedal to the metal and jump!”
“Mm-hmm! I understand!” Yugi concentrated like he didn’t even have experience in a gym test. He packed all of the strength in his body into the tips of his toes and kicked the stone pavement with all his might. The palm of Yugi’s hand, extended in midair, Jonouchi grabbed it tightly, in fear of letting it go. Yugi’s body weight shifts on Jonouchi’s shoulder all at once.
“Ugh!” Jonouchi endured it.
“Grrrm…” The strain on Honda, supporting the weight of both Yugi and Jonouchi, was even greater. Jonouchi and Honda had the strength of friendship backing them; the two were filled with strength.
Yugi slowly draws himself up, and not a moment too sooner. The tips of mummies’ spears swiped at Yugi’s legs.
“Ready…and up…!”
With both of his friends’ strength, his small body was pulled up in a single motion.
Dooomf! With momentum left, the three rolled on the hard stone floor. The three were wrapped more in the feeling of relief of having escaped the mummies than the pain coursing through their entire bodies. They took a deep breath and looked at each other.
“Thank you…Jonouchi-kun, Honda-kun…”
“Heh heh…It was nothing…”
The rowdy Jonouchi and Honda were uncharacteristically bashful about being thanked right to their faces.
“By the way, Yugi, what are you doing here!?” Honda questioned blankly.
“You asked me that but…I haven’t the slightest clue either.”
“Honda, you idiot! Stop asking questions like that!”
“But there’s a whole lot that I don’t understand! What in the hell were those things chasing Yugi!? Where in the hell are we!?”
“We’ll talk about it later! They’re coming!” Jonouchi pressed.
The armed mummies were trying to reach the upper balcony where Yugi and the others were. The three realized that running away took top priority over unraveling mysteries right now. Yugi, Jonouchi, and Honda, putting up with their aching legs, made a break for it.