As it turned out, there were very few people even close to the castle, unlike what Rex had suggested, and the rest of the group had hoped. There were enough, of course, for a sparse handful of star chips to be earned between Yugi and Joey, but not much more past that. Even ranging further out was for nothing. Either people were being eliminated on day one faster than Phil could ever imagine, or they were keeping a wary distance from Yugi and Co.

  It was not until another hour passed that Phil belatedly remembered even that was a plot point which had happened in the manga. In the manga, by the time Duelist Kingdom happened, Yugi had such a fearsome reputation that a large majority of the duelists on the island flat out avoided him for fear of losing all their star chips to the boy who defeated Seto Kaiba. With that being the case, it was not hard to believe people were avoiding them here as well, especially with a group the size of theirs. They had eight people in total wandering around looking for prey, for Pete’s sake. A blind man could avoid them with ease.

  Moreover, it wasn't like Phil could guide them much anyway. On the off chance, he'd ended up dropping by the rough location of where he remembered Mako's spot being in the manga, but the coastal battle box was long deserted – the only indicator of its former occupant being an extinguished campfire nearby and the faint smell of fried fish. That was it. With Mako being in the wind, that was all of the day one opponents for Yugi and Joey that Phil could remember. Weevil was taken by Phil, Mai and Rex both fell to Joey, Mako was who knows where, the puppet dude was dropped by Yugi, and same with Mokuba. That was all of the canon day one, unless Phil was forgetting someone.

  He hoped not. For all his decent amount of familiarity with the original Duel Monsters run, Phil was still human and knew he could very well forget various details, regardless of their levels of importance.

  Was that it for day one then? Night was already creeping up toward the island, even if the sun hadn't fully set yet. Night would bring Yugi's duel with Panik, and then all would be well until Seto Kaiba's arrival on the island in the morning. Then… Phil tilted his head slightly in thought while he stared at the forest in the distance.

  After Kaiba showed up… would it then be the Bonz duel… right? Immediately after would come the forced underground section against the Gate Guardian twins whose names Phil could never remember… then the castle itself.

  Phil shook his head. The rest of the group had halted. There were still no other duelists in sight.

  “I think they’re all scared of you, Yuges!” Joey laughed wholeheartedly, but no sooner than his laughter began that his smile morphed into an expression of worry. “Wait… how many chips do you have? I only have four!”

  Yugi glanced down at his dueling gauntlet. “…Six.”

  “I have four – my starting two plus the two Weevil donated to my glorious cause.” Phil added.

  “None here! No dueling glove either…” Jean cheerfully held out both of his hands to make ‘zero’ symbols with his fingers.

  “One.” Rex snorted, though he seemed to find his low count of star chips to be more amusing than annoying.

  "Dude you're fucked. No way to get nine more chips before the semis start at this rate."

  Rex turned to point toward Phil with an accusatory finger, but he suddenly began to laugh. "Yeah, I know, right? It's fine. Call this me being in it for the love of the game. Besides, never say never!"

  Phil let out a whoop and bumped fists with the dino duelist.

  A lack of opponents willing to donate star chips put them in a real pickle. But what could be done about it?

  Nothing. Jack squat. At least, for now. That fact was wordlessly agreed upon by all the duelists present. Day two, however? A new day would always bring new opportunities.

  Right. Hopefully

  Phil began to set out the cooking gear while Joey and Tristan galavanted around looking for wood to burn. It felt like only a few minutes ago they'd sat down for lunch, but here they were with evening upon them. That realization hardly helped with the slightly off-kilter feeling that had been coursing through Phil's body all day. He hadn't felt like this the last time around, doubtless in part due to how little knowledge he had about the GX timeline. Now in DM, Phil could tell much more easily when the canon timeline wasn't proceeding according to expectation.

  Even Mai Valentine's reappearance near the end of the day hadn't done much to soothe that feeling. She was still there, chatting happily with Tea near the sidelines. If Phil hadn't known better, he'd have thought Mai had experienced an abrupt personality change to be so nice to Tea, perhaps having even been mind-controlled by an alien. But he knew this was just her gathering information while also trying to earn a little bit of relaxation overnight. Joey couldn't figure it out at all. He kept casting wary glances over to Mai, as if he half-expected her to challenge Yugi out of the blue the moment the spiky-haired boy let his guard down.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  It was not until night had properly fallen that something happened. Phil was shaken awake from where he lay in a sleeping bag underneath a tree.

  “Phil! Yugi’s missing! So is Mai!” Joey whisper-muttered loud enough to wake up the rest of the camp. Tristan was standing right next to Joey, practically a ball of nervous energy that bounced up and down, back and forth. Leaves rustled from overhead, soon followed by a red beanie as Rex's groggy eyes poked out from behind the branches of the tree in which he was nestled in.

  “Seriously Wheeler?” Rex grumbled, “You know what time of the night it is?”

  Phil rolled his eyes. Only he knew it was around the time for their little date with Panik. Mai would get her ass handed to her, Yugi would get revenge, and that’s all she wrote.

  “They’re probably having a duel. Either between themselves or with a night-owl duelist.” Phil’s simple reply avoided his internal thoughts, which couldn’t be explained without broaching the existential crisis of being characters in a Japanese comic book.

  But Joey wasn’t finished.

  “Tea’s gone too!”

  Phil cocked his head slightly. In the manga… wasn’t it something like the duel starting, then soon after that the rest of the squad showed up to cheer? Right. And they couldn’t see inside the duel box because of the darkness Panik brought out. So why was Tea gone while the rest of the cheer squad remained at camp? Coincidence? Was she already at the box? But if so, why didn’t she wake anyone else up? Nor could it be something as mundane as wandering off to find a tree. Mai’s little pop-up shower included a camp toilet. Phil put a hand on his head… and then he paused. If Tea wasn’t with Yugi watching him curbstomp Panik… did she find a different player killer?

  Did that mean Santa Phil was about to find a nice free dueling gauntlet to put under the Christmas tree of a good little French boy? Along with an unknown number of star chips oh so nicely collected in advance from duelists who were too much of a pussy to directly challenge anyone within two miles of Yugi? In an instant his mind was made up. Phil stood and snapped his fingers decisively. No matter which scenario it was, they’d prepare for it all.

  “Right. Let’s split if everyone’s alright with that. Three groups of two, give a shout if you see anything. Don’t go too far. Jean and I for the dream team. Joey and Bakura go the other way, and Tristan and Rex, if you don’t mind, you two take the final third. That spreads out some muscle if we need to rumble along with two pairs of eyes in case she’s just lost or taking a walk. The higher chance is that Tea’s with Yugi and Mai spectating if they’re in a grudge match like I think they might be. If so, give her some shit over not letting us know about the free entertainment. Who knows? It’s probably a whole nothingburger.”

  Surprisingly, even though he was new to the party, Rex hopped out of the tree to join Tristan without a word of complaint, merely seeming mildly curious about what the outcome might be. A somethingburger or a nothingburger? An interesting duel to watch or a case of someone getting lost in the forest at night?

  Phil split off with Jean to begin the search. It wasn't easy. Despite being close to the castle and decently far from the forest bits, there was still little moonlight coming from the heavens to work with. Without light, it was harder to see tracks or even battle boxes themselves unless someone was actively dueling inside of them.

  “You don’t seem worried?” Jean offhandedly remarked. He was staring at the forest in the distance with a distasteful expression.

  Phil followed his gaze and winced as the repressed memories of being lost in that leafy shithole for several hours came right to the forefront of his mind. Was that where all the duelists went? Inside the forest? Were they stumbling around like Phil and Jean had been earlier?

  “Naw. Tea’s a smart girl. She can take care of herself-“

  The rest of Phil’s words were cut off when he took a step forward and only air met the bottom of his shoes. Jean could no longer be seen, replaced by a thin slice of moonlight that disappeared quickly behind a small wooden trap door. The descent was quick, starting and finishing almost faster than Phil could fully process to dump him out onto a wooden chair. He was no more than six or seven feet down.

  “A trapdoor? Seriously? That’s gotta be an OSHA violation.” Phil muttered in irritation. More than that, his ass hurt like blue blazes from hitting the chair at the end of the sudden fall. “This is some Looney Tunes meets Vietnam bullshit. I don’t know if I should look for a rabbit or run from an airstrike.”

  He looked around. A small, underground room. Claustrophobically so. It looked eerily similar to the inside of a battle box, but not as much metal and glass as he was used to. Yet there were still the usual pipes and wires to be seen, each a part of the system that created the solid vision holograms of each card played. A special underground one? One with occupants, three in total. Phil in his wooden chair off to the side for one. A strange man with short black hair, piercing eyes, and a duel glove with two empty rows for star chips on the opposite side of the table to make two. A player killer? Most definitely. No one else had that type of two-row glove. And facing the player killer as number three, in one of the two chairs sitting directly at the table meant for duelists?

  It was Tea Gardner, looking very out of place and very confused. There was a deck right in front of her. Phil didn't realize she even had a deck in the first place. No cards had yet to be drawn, though the life point counters were up and running. How a duel was even about to happen, considering Tea's complete lack of a glove and star chips, was unknown.

  Other than those three, there was no one else in the box at that moment. Phil could only hope the player killer would see sense soon and close up the trapdoor. Even one or two more duelists falling through it would make the already small space unbelievably cramped.

  He glanced at the names on the life point counter.

  Tea Gardner: 4000 Depre Scott: 4000

  Depre Scott? Who the hell was that? The name did sound slightly familiar, like it had been mentioned to him in passing. But by whom and in what context?

  “Another one… You’ll have to wait in line after the girl, I’m afraid...” The man’s voice was stoic. Each word was spoken in a strangely calm and even slightly halting way, as if he was pausing ever so often to savor his own words, or perhaps to look at it in a kindlier way, to consider his next word a bit better.

  “On the other hand,” Phil continued speaking his mind without heed for the chilling atmosphere of the underground battle box or the serious introduction of the stoic player killer, “I think the owner of this island does have some sort of weird fetish for cartoons.”

  https://discord.gg/jfRn8j5GaE!