A Moment of Rest: Beating Pandora
The box began rising from beneath my feet and slowly opened. Inside lay a key. I snatched it up immediately and freed the shackles around my legs. Atem approached, furious at Pandora. As the spinning saw blade drew closer, Pandora’s face twisted in terror and he started screaming.
The one shrieking was Pandora himself. "Save Pandora!!"
Tricked you, huh~ I never swallowed Pandora whole. I kept a spare key hidden in my sleeve just for this. With this, escaping is a piece of cake~ Huh… why… why isn’t my body moving…?
"Uaaaah… please, save me… I’m begging you… Lord Marik…!"
Pandora suddenly began calling for Marik, desperately pleading for rescue. Then—
"The key’s gone…? The key I was holding just vanished!!!"
"Aaaaaaaaaah!!!!!"
Right before the saw blade could touch Pandora’s leg, I—the protagonist—switched back from Atem to Yugi. I sprinted forward, unlocked Pandora’s shackles with the key, and pulled him to safety.
The rescued Pandora seemed to snap completely. He stumbled backward, screaming a woman’s name. "Katrina…. Katrina…!!!" He ripped down the curtain and embraced the female silhouette behind it. When the curtain fell away, he was clutching a mannequin dressed in women’s clothing, muttering incoherently while tears streamed down his face.
"He’s lost his mind… poor bastard."
"It looks like… he’s no longer sane… Pandora…!"
Pandora set the mannequin down and turned toward us. The Millennium symbol on his forehead flared to life as he spoke.
"You’ve turned into someone else! Who are you?"
Marik began explaining everything to Yugi exactly as he had in the original story. Before I arrived in this world, he had been controlling Bandit Keith and manipulating Pandora the same way to summon the Dark Yugi—in other words, Atem.
When Pandora’s gaze finally landed on me, Marik addressed me directly.
Marik demanded my identity once again. He also asked why someone like me was carrying multiple decks. I told him that if he was so curious, he should show up in person, then turned and walked toward the door behind us. Yugi followed. Close behind were An Sujin, Yugi’s grandfather, and Jeon Woo-hyuk.
After that, I decided to part ways with Yugi. He needed to win duels himself to collect locator cards. If I stuck around and dueled for him, he wouldn’t get any. Before we separated, I handed him several spare Black Magician support cards as a gift. We agreed to meet again at the finals, then went our separate ways.
An Sujin and Jeon Woo-hyuk disappeared somewhere too. I wandered alone, racking up victories against several duelists in the area. Unfortunately they were all men, so each win only netted me a measly 1,000 points. Even Exodia and Pandora had only given me 1,000 points apiece.
That was when I spotted her—a female duelist.
"Oh my? Handsome young man over there, how about a duel with me?"
A woman wearing a sleek Chinese cheongsam called out, challenging me. I wondered who she was. The woman in the cheongsam introduced herself and formally issued her duel challenge.
"My name is Vivian Wong. I challenge you to a duel."
For a split second her eyes went glassy, but she quickly regained focus and repeated the challenge. Vivian Wong declared that she would rush straight to the finals, confess to Yugi or Kaiba, and become part of the world’s strongest duel couple. Her deck was built around the Dragon Lady and various other Chinese-themed cards that only existed in the original anime.
But honestly, aside from the theme, the deck was trash. Writing out the actual duel would be pointless since the outcome was obvious, so I’ll skip it. Her magic and trap cards were weak, and her only monster over 2500 ATK was a single Dragon Lady with heavy penalties.
The moment Vivian Wong lost, she surrendered herself to me completely. I led her to a secluded spot where no one could see and sent her straight into my exclusive dimension.
The next one I encountered was surprisingly Rebecca Hopkins—the anime-original girl who had confessed to the regular Yugi. She was also participating in Battle City and ran into me. Her looks were surprisingly decent, sporting a classic American beauty style. (For a more detailed description, check the Yu-Gi-Oh heroines section.)
Rebecca had entered Battle City specifically to meet Yugi in the finals and confess again, so she still had no idea who I was. Why? She had only transferred in today, and her duel with Yugi had happened a few days earlier.
I’ll skip her duel too. Her strongest monster was Guardian Angel Joan, and my Black Magician deck crushed her so hard it was practically a one-turn kill. There wasn’t even time to use any brainwashing techniques. I took her to an empty area and sent her into the exclusive dimension as well.
"Already two? This is easier than I expected."
I had obtained both Vivian Wong and Rebecca Hopkins. Truthfully, I hadn’t planned to collect either of them at first. I’d completely forgotten they were anime-original characters. Their decks were pathetically weak because of that, but hey… I’d still bagged two beautiful women. No complaints here.
Only three women remained. Once I secured Ishizu, An Sujin, and Mai Valentine, my business in the DM world would be complete.
But then there was Kaiba… When I saw how stunning she looked, I was genuinely shocked. I had only turned her into a girl as a joke, but the result was such an overwhelming beauty that I actually hesitated. Should I take her?
"No. I can’t take her. The GX and 5D’s worlds are set in the future after DM, so I still need Kaiba around."
After all, Kaiba is the founder of Duel Academia in GX. The entire 5D’s world was basically built on foundations Kaiba laid down. Taking her now would mean abandoning both of those worlds. So I’d have to face her in the finals instead. Maybe after I beat her I could suggest she develop cryogenic technology to preserve that gorgeous form for a few decades if she wanted to come with me.
That was when it happened.
"Found you… Beomseok…"
Someone called my name from behind. I turned around. There stood An Sujin, the Millennium symbol blazing brightly on her forehead.