The morning sun was shining, the Spring air was clean and pure, and the temperature was nice and mild. It was early enough in the day for the streets to be mostly empty, nearly devoid of pedestrians, shoppers, and even cars, other than a blue Volkswagen Type-2 van that came to a lurching stop outside of a particular downtown game store.

  “Ain’t she a beauty!” Phil cried out through to Solomon, who had ambled out the front door of his store to investigate the noise the engine was making.

  “My my…” Solomon stroked his short grey beard with a hand as he inspected the vehicle. Phil shut the engine off and hopped out, quickly followed by a yawning Jean and Tilla, who’d been catching a few extra winks of sleep in the back seat. “This does bring back memories. This was made… back in the 70s I believe?”

  Phil eagerly nodded. Though even back on Earth he hadn’t been alive to see those times, there was still a strange sense of love that struck him when looking at the vehicles of that era. Thus, when Reiko’s uncle had gotten around to fixing up the old Volkswagen he’d seen in the garage earlier, Phil hadn’t wasted a second before commandeering it for an extremely important purpose.

  “It just got fixed up. We’re on our way to the beach, just figured I’d stop by here first to pick up those decks.”

  Solomon mysteriously chuckled, and without another word he beckoned Phil inside. The interior of the game store was, as expected by the time of day, nearly devoid of people. Only Solomon and Phil were present, though to his surprise, Yugi and his friends quickly came down the stairs upon hearing the bell attached to the front door ring.

  “Sup.” Phil raised a hand of greeting. Yugi, Tea, Joey, and Tristan seemed to be on a mission of similar importance to Phil’s own, considering the purpose in their eyes, even though there was still some amount of hesitation in their stride. In fact, that hesitation almost made them seem somewhat dispirited as well. It almost seemed like they knew what they wanted to do, but weren’t sure exactly how to go about it. Then another bit of movement came from the stairs, revealing the mild face of Bakura Ryou. To Phil's relief, there was no Millenium Ring hanging from his neck at this time. That was good. Yami Bakura always seemed to find a way to become a fucking problem in the manga at the most random of times, so not having to deal with that at this moment was nice.

  “Four decks in total.” Solomon busily introduced, setting each stack of cards on the glass countertop for Phil to inspect. Phil picked up each of the stacks to quickly flip through, nodding his head in satisfaction.

  "Three fun decks and a… oh, a really fun deck." Phil grinned. Mentally, he also labeled the 'really fun deck' as the 'fuck you and fuck your mother deck'. It was pretty damn good, and it would only get better once he spruced it up a bit with cards from his own meager collection.

  “Good!” Solomon said. Then, adding on in an apologetic tone, he continued to speak. “Unfortunately I haven’t yet managed to find all the cards for that deck you requested.”

  Phil shrugged. “No worries mate. They are not quite as popular as some of the other stuff people run. Do you have a rough timeline of when you might get it together, or is this an ‘up in the air’ kind of thing?”

  “I reached my feelers out to a few old friends and colleagues in the field. I await their replies. Otherwise it’s up to the fickle feelings of fortune.”

  That was the thing about this world. Back on Earth, Phil could load up half a dozen websites to buy single cards from and get them shipped to his place in a matter of days. Here? You either had to get lucky with booster packs (which were wildly different than back on Earth, being truly random instead of having themes) or get even luckier by finding them on the ground. Or there was the third option, as Phil liked to phrase it, of getting the super-duper good card from some evil god through a super lengthy ritual that would require something stupid like mass human sacrifice or chopping off the left side of your nutsack to show your devotion.

  All-in-all, it wasn’t easy to get some kinds of cards.

  “So, are you planning on an adventure?” Solomon said with a nod toward the van.

  Phil spread his arms out wide, gesturing to his clothing of choice, a pair of swim trunks decorated with floral designs so bright they could nearly make one's eyes bleed just by catching a glance of them. He was bare-chested as well, and his beard (still extremely scraggly) fell past his neckline to brush against his skin. Perched on top of Phil's head at a jaunty angle was a green bucket hat, with two half-circle strips of fabric recklessly sewn onto the top of it to resemble a pair of eyes, under which was drawn a crazed grin. The hat almost looked like the top part of the head of a rather cartoonish frog.

  “We’re going to the beach, baby!”

  That sentence was enough to instantly capture the attention of Yugi and the rest. Their eyes locked onto Phil like those of a drowning person suddenly spotting a piece of driftwood to clutch onto.

  “Ohohoho, I see!” Solomon exclaimed like he’d just noticed a rather pleasant surprise. “The beach is an hour or two away, so that should make for a good destination on a day like this!”

  “You’re heading there too?” Joey burst out.

  Indeed, it was as Phil suspected. The teenagers were all wearing swimsuits themselves. Clutched under one of Joey’s arms was a small blue cooler, and Tristan was carrying a folded-up beach umbrella.

  “We were going to the beach too, but we forgot the train doesn’t go all the way there…” Yugi groaned. Joey and Tristan echoed those groans, while Tea still looked deep in thought, racking her brains for any sort of solution that didn’t include them having to walk several miles from the train station to the beach.

  Phil made a noise of understanding. Then, he immediately guessed what they were too polite to outright ask. “You guys want a ride? It might be a bit of a squeeze, but I think there’s still room.”

  “Doesn’t that kind of van have nine or so seats…” Solomon muttered in a mystified fashion, but as soon as they stepped out of the store to walk up to the van, he made a face as if all his questions were answered. Poking out from the open windows of the van were not just the faces of Jean and Tilla, who had claimed a combined (albeit squished together) control of the front passenger seat, but also of roughly half of the Kitamori family.

  “Alright lads, budge up a bit! We’ve got five more to cram in!”

  Several groans came from the van, accompanied by Solomon’s whole-hearted laughter that saw the elderly man doubled over from the sight.

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  As soon as the van passed the Domino City limits, Phil pressed the pedal to the metal. The van was full to the brim. Jean and Tilla gleefully shared the front passenger seat. Both of them sported a simple golden wedding band on their ring finger that gleamed under the mild Spring sunlight. The windows were rolled all the way down to take advantage of that same mild Spring weather, and also because Reiko’s uncle still hadn’t managed to get the air conditioning working again. Lumina was to Phil’s right, gracefully sitting sidesaddle on the rolled-down window. She had a content smile on her face even as the wind rushed through her short hair.

  In the two back seats sat Tea and Bakura, crammed together alongside the Kitamori’s in a situation where there definitely weren’t enough seatbelts available to fit standard car safety procedures. Reiko Kitamori was with them as well. Her face, which was sporting an expression of amused resignation, hung halfway out of the window just to get some space between herself and the over-excited balls of energy that were her younger siblings. To make things more interesting, Yugi, as was his unfortunate fate for being one of the smallest of the passengers in the van, was sitting cross-legged on top of the luggage behind the back seats with a resigned look on his face.

  However, Yugi’s predicament was nowhere near as frantic as what Joey and Tristan faced. There was no room for them inside the van. It was a simple yet unavoidable fact. However, after a few minutes of digging around in the backroom of Kame Game, Phil and Joey managed to find a few sturdy ropes. And wouldn't you know it, but there were several hooks on top of the roof of the van (doubtlessly made as a mounting system for a luggage roof rack that had been lost at some point in time) where some sturdy ropes could hypothetically be tied off from.

  Phil put his Boy Scout best into tying those ropes to the top of the van, along with making certain they were secured around the bodies of Joey and Tristan. Still, he couldn’t help himself from laughing and whooping gleefully whenever the two boys screamed in pure terror from where they desperately clung to the roof of the van each time Phil accelerated or took a turn.

  It really wasn't as difficult as he thought it would be. Even though his license was from America, and probably not even valid here since it was both American and from back on Earth, all Phil had to do was remember to drive on the left side of the road instead of the right side, and to watch out for speed traps since he'd definitely go to jail for driving without a license and overloading the van like this. Not to mention the fact that Joey and Tristan being tied to the top of the van probably violated every road safety rule in the book. Heck, if the police caught him here, it would probably cause a few brand-new road safety rules to be passed.

  “HANG ON BOYS!” Phil craned his head out the window behind Lumina’s back to cackle loudly at the screaming pair seconds before he took another breakneck turn, eliciting screams of terror from not only them but from every other passenger sans Lumina as he managed to get the van onto two wheels for the briefest of moments. There were, however, more than a few notes of excitement that could be heard past the fear in the screams of Joey and Tristan.

  "AHAHAHAHA!" Phil laughed loudly, swiftly echoed gleefully by Jean, who was barking like a dog out of the window. Tilla was much more restrained, though she was taking full advantage of the situation to snuggle up to Jean. Only the presence of a soft smile on her face betrayed that she was doing it not out of fear for Phil's driving, but for how close physically she already was to Jean from sharing a seat.

  It was beautiful. They hadn’t even reached the beach yet, but even the drive alone was beautiful. The wind whipping through the open windows, the mellow temperatures, the green blurs of trees, hills, and fields occasionally broken up by massive stoney mountains. It felt like his heart was gradually healing from the blood-soaked battlefield of Blue Friday.

  Even the radio was enough to get Phil smiling. He’d spent a solid hour before the trip tuning it until he’d managed to find an American classic rock station (or would it just be ‘rock’, instead of ‘classic rock’, considering this was the 90s?). One song ended and another began, causing Phil’s smile to widen even more. His hand shot up to the radio console to crank up the volume. Even here, in a world that wasn’t his own, the opening guitar solo was exactly the same as he remembered.

  “All our times have come”

  Jean laughed out loud, recognizing the song as quickly as Phil did. “They get this music in Japan? Small world, ay?”

  Phil happily slapped his hands against the steering wheel to the beat of the music. Even Lumina began to nod along, happily bouncing the heels of her flat white shoes against the outside of Phil’s door.

  “Seasons don’t fear the Reaper, nor do the wind, the sun or the rain”

  “We can be like they are, come on, baby, don’t fear the Reaper”

  "Don't fear the Reaper, baby take my hand, Don't fear the Reaper!" Phil and Jean sang out as a tone-deaf duo. Even Tilla's softer tones could be heard underneath their voices, and it wasn't long before the rest of the van's occupants joined in, even though most of them didn't understand the English lyrics one bit.

  “We’ll be able to fly, don’t fear the Reaper”

  “Baby I’m your man, don’t fear the Reaper”

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  The van was empty within seconds of Phil pulling it to a stop in the beach parking lot. Joey and Tristin wasted no time before rushing toward the closest bushes to empty their stomachs. Tea dipped her arm into the cooler Joey had abandoned, withdrawing two bottles of green tea to give to the pair before following Yugi to the dunes at a slow enough speed so that the boys could easily catch up once they recovered. Their walking speed, however, was no match for the gaggle of Kitamori kids sprinting toward the water that was just barely in sight.

  The sun was in full bloom in the sky above, but there wasn’t much heat present even as the hours quickly approached noontime. Jean quickly fell in line next to Phil, who was busy shuffling aside assorted luggage in the trunk to reveal the rusted brown exterior of a portable charcoal grill. It was about as large as Jean’s torso. Next was a cooler that Reiko had put together, filled to the brim with meat, cold drinks, and other essential foods for a beachside barbeque. Even with the five new additions to their group, there was still more than enough food for all. Reiko had made sure of that.

  "Here," Phil grunted as he lifted one side of the cooler. Jean grabbed the other handle, and once the roof pair had recovered, Joey and Tristan worked to carry the grill between each other toward the waiting sands. Even with the mild temperatures it was work that quickly saw the men working up a sweat, one that only intensified once the grill was placed about ten feet from the water and the fire was lit. Phil busied himself with the upkeep of the grill, stoking the fires to the perfect temperatures while Jean set up the sunshade and Tilla tossed scattered the few folding chairs they’d managed to liberate from the garage out around the grill.

  “Here we go…” Phil muttered in satisfaction. He always enjoyed working the grill, even back on Earth. Then he looked over to Jean with a smile. “Hey, all I need now is one of those aprons like that cook had from Burger World, you know, with the ‘Modre, Death, Cook’ written on it? I’d keep the misspelling, of course.”

  Jean looked shocked that he hadn’t thought of that earlier. “Sacre Bleu! I can’t believe we don’t have something like that!”

  Like Phil, Jean was shirtless and sporting a pair of hideous floral swim trunks, with a bright red beach towel draped over his shoulders like a cloak. Unlike Phil, who was wearing his eye-scorching trunks to bring pain to everyone who saw him, Jean's reasoning was that Tilla found them hot, the same way as how he found Tilla’s somber black one-piece swimsuit to be quite good-looking.

  Those two were a cute couple, and even cuter now that they’d gotten married. The ceremony was simple, with only a handful of people invited. Phil was there as best man, Solomon and Arthur were invited as their benefactors, and Reiko was there as thanks for giving them a home. It was just the way Jean and Tilla preferred. Then after the wedding was over, they disappeared for a night. Even to this day, Phil had no idea where they went for their honeymoon.

  The first piece of meat began to splatter on the grill and Phil breathed in the delicious aroma. A second and third followed all the way up until the grill was completely filled with meat, vegetables, and even large chunks of pineapple. Jean cracked open a bottle of juice to hand to Phil, taking a beer from the cooler for himself while he did so. For a moment, Jean’s hand began to habitually drift down to one of the pockets in his swim trunks, but quickly he shook his head with a rueful smile and moved his hand away from the pack of smokes he usually kept in there. Somehow, the man’s will to quit remained strong. It probably helped that Tilla had shot a stern gaze over to him the moment she noticed his hand moving downward. And that Phil had stolen his cigarettes right from his pocket several days ago with Jean’s permission.

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  The day went filled with merriment and laughter. Before the first hour at the beach was over, the burgers were finished cooking on the grill and were quickly handed out to feed ravenous stomachs. Phil didn’t stop there, however. This was going to be an all-day event. The second the last burger disappeared down Joey’s bottomless void he called a stomach, Phil spread out the coals to change the heat to a more slow-cooking style, where he could add several large cuts of meat that would gradually cook over a longer period of time.

  And then, spying Yugi retreating from the water, he called out to the boy.

  “Yo boss, you up for a duel?”

  Phil’s sudden shout made Yugi jump, but soon he eagerly nodded and ran toward the van to grab his deck. Phil settled into his creaky fold-out chair to wait for the boy, but it wasn’t long before he returned, leaving just enough time for the folding food-prep table to be wiped down in preparation for the game that was about to commence.

  “Oh, and if you don’t mind,” Phil leaned close and muttered to Yugi so that no one else could hear, “I want to duel against you this time, and not the other guy. I’ll have a tango with him later.”

  Yugi’s eyes instantly became as wide as dinner plates.

  “You- you know?”

  Phil tapped the side of his nose knowingly. "It’s what I do, I know things. Don't worry. I know he's a good fella. No beef here, 'cept what's on the grill!" Phil added with a laugh. In the corner of his eye, Lumina made her thoughts about his pun well-known by miming the act of vomiting.

  Of course, Phil did refrain from mentioning that he knew Atem wasn't completely good. Sure, the spirit was getting better at not being a complete psychopath, but at this point in time Phil knew Atem still didn’t have too many qualms about killing his enemies if he felt he had to.

  In that aspect he was a bit similar to Phil.

  It was a bit odd though. Phil had to keep forcing himself to call Atem ‘the other guy’, since who knew what would get fucked up if he accidentally leaked one of the most important plot points of the DM series. More than that, he remembered Lumina mentioning that names have power to them. Phil wasn’t completely sure that was the case for all names, but considering Atem’s true name was literally the key to killing Zorc Necrophades, it was pretty safe to assume the name ‘Atem’ contained a metric shitton of power that Phil really didn’t want to mess with.

  Plus there was all the important character development the Pharoah needed to go through on his journey to get his name back, and the fact that the dude was strong enough that he didn’t really even need to know his name until the very end anyway. That was also why Phil felt pretty comfortable with staying out of Death-T in favor of dealing with his own yakuza-related problems. It was still tough from what Phil heard, but there was no fucking way Yami fucking Yugi was going to lose there.

  “Alright. Just for fun?” Yugi hesitantly nodded. Phil let out a cheer, holding out his fist for Yugi to catch in a fist bump. He didn’t expect anything super crazy from the little dude yet, but it would be quite interesting to see how strong he was before his ceremonial duel against Atem.

  Phil gave a wolfish grin. "Naw let's put some stakes in this. Winner… hm," He turned his head toward the grill. "I got a real fucking good rack of ribs on the grill right now. I brined them last night, did all the prep. Bet you can smell them, right? That savory smell poking out past the scent of grilled pineapple? That's the ribs. The winner gets to take the best part of the ribs. The juiciest piece. The fall off the bone as soon as you look at it piece. The piece that will kill you not because it’s poisonous, but because it’s so heavenly that your body will give up life to go right into nirvana’s arms as soon as the first bite passes your lips.”

  “Deal.” Yugi’s eyes were sharp, almost to the point that Phil thought they might cut into his skin at any moment. The kid really seemed to want that prize.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  Phil didn’t blame him. He wanted it too. He’d been smelling those damn ribs for a while now. He’d dreamed about them sitting pretty in the fridge during the brining process. He’d die for those ribs.

  "As the challenged, I'll let you choose." Phil graciously said. Yugi put his hand on his chin in thought and eventually chose to go second.

  Phil: 4000 Yugi: 4000

  The deadly duel of the grilled ribs had begun.

  “AHAHAHAHA!” Phil laughed uproariously once his turn began. “YOU FOOL! DO YOU THINK I’LL LET YOU GET THOSE RIBS WITHOUT A FIGHT!” Phil’s righteous declaration was enough to draw the eyes of not only the rest of the group but everyone else on the beach and within a mile radius. “Let’s kick things off with a bang! I summon the one, the only, the creature of whom I refuse to recognize the name change, Frog the Jam (700/500) in defense position!”

  Unlike in the battle box or during the previous shadow games, there were no holograms, nor did any realistic monsters appear. It was just cards being placed on a small folding table on the beach, while a grill sizzled a merry song and an excitable Frenchman spectated the duel. Tilla was completely ignoring them in favor of the book in her hands, the cover of which suggested it to be a rather gruesome murder mystery.

  Yugi's eyes widened upon seeing the monster. He glanced down at its stats, then up to meet Phil's gaze, and then back at the angry-looking green frog. He clearly suspected Phil had a plan, since otherwise that monster wouldn't have been worth summoning in any situation.

  “Ooohhh momma, it’s all comin’ together,” Phil said in a deep voice as he rubbed his hands together. “I set two and pass.”

  "I… draw?" Yugi still seemed confused, yet underneath that confusion, Phil could see a small amount of the courage he knew would gradually build in the otherwise-timid boy given time and chance to do so. It was but the briefest of glimpses at the boy who would eventually duel on equal ground with the Pharoah himself.

  “I don’t know what you mean to do with that monster of yours, but here goes nothing!” Yugi cried out. “I summon A Man with Wdjat (1600/1600)! Its special ability allows me to look at one of your face-down cards when it is summoned, along with during each of my standby phases! Phil, show me the card closest to your deck!”

  Phil let out a whistle of appreciation upon seeing the old card, one that showed a picture of a strange man in a red robe with smoking purple palms and an ominous Millennium Eye in his forehead. That was one he’d used back in the day in those good ol’ playground duels of his youth.

  “Sure thing. It’s a trap card, Attack of the Cornered Rat. If any of my level three or lower normal monsters battle, I can reduce the attack points of your monster by multiples of 100 via paying the same amount of life points.”

  Yugi made a noise of understanding. “Ah, that’s a good card! And it’s continuous, so it will stay on the field until I destroy it. That… makes battling a bit scarier haha.”

  Despite his unsure words, Yugi did not lack any sort of conviction in his eyes. Now was the time that his mind was fully absorbing the state of the game he played most frequently. There was an answer to this, Phil knew for sure. The question remained, which one would Yugi arrive at?

  As that question was answered, Phil couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

  “Mystical Space Typhoon!” Yugi confidently declared. “This spell card will destroy your Cornered Rat trap card before it can do anything!”

  “You got it boss.” Phil lazily sent the card into his graveyard. There wasn’t much else he could do to stop that classic quick-play spell card of Yugi’s. “Hope that wasn’t the wrong choice. Remember, I still have one more face-down sitting pretty on my field.”

  Was it a bluff? Was it? Are you sure Yugi-boy? Phil kept an easy smile plastered across his face like he was a conman sitting at a poker table as those thoughts ran through his mind.

  Yugi furrowed his brows. “A Man with Wdjat, destroy that Slime Toad!”

  “Frog the Jam!” Phil reminded him through gritted teeth. “I refuse to recognize the name change!”

  Still, that didn’t change the fact that Frog the Jam was destroyed by Yugi’s monster, eliciting a sigh of relief from Yugi as Phil’s other face-down remained unused.

  “One face-down card and that’s it for me.” Yugi declared.

  “Then I’ll draw and leap right into a move of my own! Check out my trap card, Common Charity! Honestly, it’s a shame you didn’t destroy this one instead of Cornered Rat. I coulda’ activated it in response. Anyway, that’s all water under the bridge. Common Charity’s gonna let me draw two cards, and then I either have to banish a normal monster from my hand or pitch my entire hand to the graveyard. Fuck that second option. I’ll banish Change Slime.”

  Once the two cards were added to his hand, Phil grinned like a shark finding himself before a scrumptious five-star buffet.

  “For my next trick, I summon Atlantean Pikeman (1400/0) in attack mode! Following that, my spell card, Swing of Memories, will revive Frog the Jam (700/500) until the end of this turn. Then, as the final part of my three-card uber-cool combo, I activate Thousand Energy! This spell card increases the attack and defense points of all my level two normal monsters by 1000 points until the end phase. Then, in the end phase, they all die. And wouldn’t you know it, but both of my monsters are level two normals!”

  “High risk, high reward.” Yugi muttered to himself.

  Atlantean Pikeman (1400/0 – 2400/1000), Frog the Jam (700/500 -> 1700/1500).

  “Battle phase! Those ribs are mine, you miserable dog!” Phil gleefully shouted, overacting his every word to amp up the cheesiness of the duel. “Frog the Jam, destroy A Man with Wdjat!”

  “Hah, not before my trap card activates! It won’t stop your attack, but Gift of the Mystical Elf will still increase my lifepoints by 300 for each monster on the field!”

  Phil hummed to himself in thought. “Three monsters in total, so 900?”

  “Right.”

  Phil: 4000 Yugi: 4900

  “Not bad, but my monster’s attack still goes through. And after that, Atlantean Pikeman is free to attack directly!”

  Yugi had no response to that other than to watch his life point counter decrease.

  Phil: 4000 Yugi: 2400

  “I’ll set one card face-down and end my turn, meaning both of my monsters will be destroyed.”

  “That’s a bit… reckless?” Yugi hesitantly phrased it like a question, as if he was worried Phil would get angry after hearing it. However, Phil met that question with a smile.

  “Go big or go home dawg. Besides, I have a plan and the decks I play are used to this kind of movement. If you think about it, the graveyard’s just a second hand, after all.”

  “A second hand…” Yugi pondered over the words, but he didn’t seem to quite get it just yet. Maybe the ‘other guy’ knew a bit better, but with Phil’s request at the start of the duel, he had a good idea that Atem was probably trying to stay out of the duel, even abstaining from giving advice. If so, that was good. Phil wanted to fight Yugi by himself. Atem could be some fun left for another day.

  “Well, I don’t know for sure what you mean by that, but don’t blame me for this when you left your field right open! I summon Green Gadget (1400/600) in attack mode. When that happens, its effect activates! I get to add one Red Gadget from my deck to my hand!”

  Phil sat up a little straighter with a broad grin on his face. “Gadgets!” He exclaimed in pleasant surprise, looking at the cute, green-colored mechanical monster. “Hot damn that’s an oldie but a goldie.”

  “It was recently released this year?” Yugi once more phrased his words like a bewildered question.

  “Ah fuck off. Kids these days…” Phil said in mock anger.

  “Green Gadget attacks you directly!” Yugi declared after giving up on deciphering Phil’s antics.

  “Ah, I’ll have to veto that.” Phil flipped over his face-down to reveal a card that showed a knight in full armor standing in the middle of a ruined castle corridor. “This continuous trap card, Birthright, will revive a normal monster from my graveyard. You know what I’m gonna pick. Even though Frog the Jam’s a brother of mine, come back on out, Atlantean Pikeman (1400/0)!”

  Yugi put a hand to his chin in thought, an action which Phil cheerily mimicked, and went even further, by mysteriously stroking his beard.

  “They have equal attack… so I could…” Then Yugi glanced at his hand and shook his head. “No. I won’t re-declare my attack. I activate the spell card Swords of Revealing Light, place one card face-down, and end my turn.”

  Phil’s beard-stroking intensified. “Damn boi, unless I draw something real good, looks like I’ll just have to sit pretty for three turns.”

  It was as Phil said. Swords of Revealing Light was another classic spell card, one that would hang around for three of Phil’s turns to prevent any of his monsters from attacking during that time. Meanwhile, Yugi could attack whenever he wanted to.

  Phil drew a card and tried not to let the disappointment show on his face upon seeing it wasn't anything that could destroy spell cards. Then he glanced at Green Gadget. The fact that Yugi hadn't taken the mutual destruction that would have happened if Green Gadget attacked Phil's Pikeman said a lot. It said that his face-down was probably that one trap monster that got an attack boost whenever all three gadgets – red, green, and yellow, were on the field with it at the same time. Otherwise he could have crashed the monsters together and still had a follow-up next turn with the Red Gadget searched via Green Gadget. Then that Red Gadget would have grabbed a Yellow Gadget.

  "Swords is to buy time to summon…" Phil murmured to himself as he stared at the playing field. He nodded and then set his cards down for a moment to amble over to the grill and check on the meat. Noticing it was still going as well as it could be, he took his place back at the folding table.

  “Smell that?”

  Yugi nodded, completely serious. “Yes I smell that.”

  “Them ribs?”

  “Yeah those ribs smell really good.”

  “Damn right. That smell’s what you’re fighting for.”

  “What I’m… fighting for?”

  Phil got up and started pacing aggressively. “Yeah! If you beat my ass, you get first pick at those ribs, right? It’s what you’re fighting for! Yeah! Any duel, no matter the stakes, you gotta have something to fight for! Whether it was your gramps at Death-T, or these ribs at whatever the hell this beach is called! Or even your friends! It’s all something to fight for!”

  Yugi’s face took on a look of contemplation. “Okay… I think I get it…”

  “Yeah!” Phil began pacing even faster. He could feel it. He was getting in the flow. In the zone. Memories flowed through him of a certain wrestler he’d watched in his youth. Before he could stop himself, the words were pouring out of his mouth. Of course, that was only if he’d wanted to stop himself in the first place. He kinda didn’t right now.

  “Yeah! I tell you, you gotta rise to the top, oohh yeah. It’s the cream, my little small brother. The cream will rise~ to the top, oohhh yeah. Only the winner gets the first crack at those ribs, or whatever else is on the line, man. I am the cream, you are the cream, and we’ve gotta rise~ to the top! And I tell ya, only one cream can be at the tip-top, little man. Only one cream can really rise~ to the top.”

  Phil stopped and dramatically pointed right toward Yugi. “YOU WANT THOSE RIBS BOY?”

  “Yes!”

  “THEN YOU’D BETTER FUCKING BEAT MY ASS LIKE A DAMN DRUM, BOY! ME, I WILL CRAWL OVER A MOUNTAIN OF BLADES FOR THOSE RIBS, BOY! OHHH YEAH! I WILL SWIM THROUGH A SEA OF FIRE, JUST SO THE CREAM CAN RISE TO THE TOP OH YEAH! NOTHING’S GONNA STOP ME! AHAHAHAHAHA!”

  Then as suddenly as he started, even as half the people on the beach had turned their eyes toward Phil in awe of his outburst, Phil took a seat once more to play his next card.

  “I sacrifice Atlantean Pikeman to tribute summon the strongest normal monster support card that’s not a normal monster, the crimson knight of flames, Knight of the Red Lotus (2100/1800)!”

  Sure, it was weaker than a Dark Magician, not to mention a Blue-Eyes. But it was a cool card and Phil even had a deck built around it at some point back home, though he couldn't remember what had happened to it. It probably got re-absorbed into his rather large collection at some point in time, never to emerge again until Phil could get the time to make a valiant search through the tens of thousands of cards contained within.

  Stats weren’t the end all be all, however, for the Knight of the Red Lotus was not played entirely for its 2100 attack points. No, it was for its effect.

  “I activate the effect of my monster!” Phil shouted to Jean’s loud approval. The Frenchman had gathered close to the folding table. In his hands was a slab of grilled pineapple stolen from its rightful place next to the ribs. Phil should have probably fixed him with a dirty look, but honestly, he couldn’t blame the guy. If their positions were reversed, he’d have done the same. And probably more.

  “Once per turn, this card lets me special summon one level four or lower normal monster from my graveyard.” Phil explained. He didn’t have to dig through the small stack of cards, for his obvious target was right on top. “I’ll bring back Atlantean Pikeman (1400/0). That’s it for me. Two turns left.”

  Indeed. With Swords of Revealing Light on the field, there was truly nothing else Phil could do other than build up his fortifications and wait for the three turns to run out, unless his next couple draws were to show an out to the situation.

  “Draw.” Yugi furrowed his brows at the field. Yet, he didn’t seem overly concerned. “I summon Red Gadget (1300/1500) in defense position, which lets me add a Yellow Gadget from my deck to my hand. Then I follow that with one card face-down and end my turn.”

  Phil gave an easy grin the second his draw phase ended. “Red Lotus will bring back Frog the Jam in defense position. He won’t be staying for long though, because I activate the quick-play spell card I just drew, Order to Charge! By tributing my Frog the Jam normal monster, I can destroy your Green Gadget!”

  Those words made Yugi’s complexion pale slightly, causing Phil to not internally pump his fist in his mind, but physically pump his fist in obvious celebration. Yugi could still search for another Green Gadget, but would that leave enough time to make his move? Hopefully not since that trap monster, Stronghold the Moving Fortress (if he recalled correctly), got up to around 3000 attack points with all the gadgets on the field. And that was something Phil couldn’t be arsed to deal with. Heck, maybe Yugi would be on one copy of each of the gadgets. That would be nice. Obviously he could have held Order to Charge until Stronghold was summoned, but that was boring. Smart, but boring.

  “Turn end. One turn left.”

  “My turn!” Yugi shouted with a bit more force to Phil’s approving smile. “Before my draw phase ends, I have a gift for you, Phil! Here’s my continuous trap card, Shattered Axe! By selecting your Knight of the Red Lotus, I can make it lose 500 attack points during each of my standby phases!”

  “Which means my monster will immediately lose 500 points…” Phil summarized.

  “Exactly.”

  Knight of the Red Lotus (2100/1800 -> 1600/1800).

  “Following that, in my main phase I summon Yellow Gadget (1200/1200)! Yellow Gadget lets me add a Green Gadget to my hand from my deck!”

  Phil let out a sigh of resignation once the funny-looking yellow mechanical monster hit the field. He wasn’t getting out of seeing Stronghold, was he? Not likely, seeing that he still had one more turn of being blocked by Swords of Revealing Light, and then Yugi could summon the Green Gadget to make a complete set. However, other than summoning Yellow Gadget, there was nothing else Yugi could do this turn, as Phil’s Red Lotus was still slightly stronger than any of Yugi’s monsters on the field at the moment.

  “The moment of truth…” Phil muttered to himself. “Does this deck hate me, or does it love me? Time to find out.” Phil drew a card. His face took on a conflicted look. “Seems like the answer is yes to both. I’ll switch Lotus to defense, same with my Pikeman. I’ll also summon back my dearly departed Frog the Jam (700/500) in defense position. Turn end.”

  Yugi had a smile on his face like he couldn’t believe this was happening, even as he took Swords of Revealing Light off of the field.

  Knight of the Red Lotus (1600/1800 -> 1100/1800).

  "I summon Green Gadget! Then, now that I have all three colors on the field, I can use my trap monster to its fullest potential! Phil! I hope you're ready to give up those ribs, because I summon the ultimate steel defender, an unmatched machine of ages past, Stronghold the Moving Fortress (0/2000)!”

  Even as the trap monster made its appearance, Yugi brushed forward to casually explain its simple ability.

  “While I am forced to summon it in defense position as a downside to its effect, while all three colors of gadget are on the field, Stronghold gains 3000 attack points! Pretty cool, right?”

  Stronghold the Moving Fortress (0/2000 -> 3000/2000).

  “Very much so. I didn’t realize it has to be summoned in defense position. Makes it kind of pointless for me to have switched my Pikeman’s position. Ah well, you live and you learn.”

  Yugi paused upon hearing those words. “You… predicted this?”

  "Yes sir I did." Phil readily agreed. "Only two reasons to play gadgets. Either as a tribute engine or to support Stronghold."

  “And why did you expect me to play Stronghold?”

  “I expected both. You're the type of guy to play Stronghold while also knowing that seeing it is up to the luck of the draw. With a few high-level monsters you can make the gadgets be useful even without seeing your trap monster.”

  Yugi sat back in his chair. For some reason, he truly didn’t seem to have expected Phil to respond that way.

  “That’s what he said too…” Yugi muttered. Phil arced an eyebrow. Of course Atem would say that. Dude was a pretty solid duelist even looking past all the fate manipulation bullshit or whatever it was called that let Atem draw exactly what he needed at any given time.

  “Well, don’t expect me to ignore this gift horse of yours!” Yugi continued. “My gadgets, attack! Destroy Slime Toad and Atlantean Pikeman!”

  “Frog the Jam!” Phil fruitlessly cried out once more as the two cards were sent to the graveyard.

  “Then why does it say Slime Toad on the card!”

  Yugi's now-insolent tone was almost devoid of the hesitation it once possessed as he argued with Phil over something that didn't matter all that much.

  “Because Pegasus or Kaiba or whoever renamed this card is a cunt!” Phil raged back.

  “Yeah? Well you should accept the name change! What if the card likes it better? I end my turn by the way.”

  “I tell ya’,” Phil snorted derisively. “I’ve talked it over with him, and the little dude wants to wear Pegasus’s skin like a coat for an insult like that. Frankly I don’t blame him. I draw.”

  Phil’s grin threatened to split open his face. “Now, I do see you have a pretty thicc monster on the field. Wouldn’t it be a shame if someone used a certain equip card on it! Check this out, the card I drew last turn, Ekibyo Drakmord! By equipping it to your Stronghold, this spell will disable its ability to attack and it will destroy your monster at the end of the second of my turns after activation!

  This card was a favorite of Phil’s from the more budget side of GOAT format. Cheap as dirt, solid removal (if a bit slow), and it had an extra special quality. Namely, if Ekibyo Drakmord succeeded in killing a monster, it would return itself to Phil’s hand to be used again. Left unchecked, it could wipe a whole field at the pace of a crippled snail. Still, it was better than nothing considering Phil didn’t have any other way to kill it at this moment.

  “Ekibyo Drakmord…” Yugi slowly said the unfamiliar name to himself. “I haven’t seen that card before.”

  “It’s somewhat obscure.” Phil readily admitted. “Anyway, I’ll just summon back my Atlantean Pikeman in attack mode through Red Lotus’s effect. Then, you know what’s next~.”

  “I know what’s next.” Yugi groaned. “I got greedy.”

  “Nah.” Phil waved his pessimism off with a relaxed gesture. “Unless you could have destroyed my Knight of the Red Lotus last turn, this was always going to happen. It’s the problem with needing some weaker monsters to stick to the field to power a stronger monster. Why deal with the Stronghold when I can murderize a much easier target? Heck, it isn’t even greed, you just got unlucky not to draw into a trap that could defend your gadgets. I’ll have my Pikeman destroy your Yellow Gadget.”

  Phil: 4000 Yugi: 2200

  This one action meant that the attack points of Stronghold the Moving Fortress also plummeted back down to zero.

  Stronghold the Moving Fortress (3000/2000 -> 0/2000).

  Phil passed his turn back to Yugi. The kid's gloom didn't last long, not for any effect by Phil's words, but from seeing his next card.

  Knight of the Red Lotus (1100/1800 -> 600/1800).

  “Well, you stopped my Stronghold strategy for now, so here’s part two! By sacrificing Red Gadget, I tribute summon Curse of Dragon (2000/1500)!”

  “Oohhh” Phil audibly gasped in joy. Another classic card! This yellow dragon with its weird muscle-colored red spots wasn’t anything crazy, but it was still a level five monster with 2000 attack points. That wasn’t too shabby. Especially since…

  “I can now destroy your Knight of the Red Lotus!” Yugi cried out in joy. “Curse of Dragon destroys your Knight! Green Gadget, I command you to the fate of mutual destruction! Destroy Atlantean Pikeman!”

  That was the fate of monsters with the same attack points. If they both battled while both being in attack position, both of them would be destroyed. Phil’s field was empty now. He clicked his tongue as Yugi’s turn ended. Drakmord would return to his hand at the end of this turn, but that would still leave Curse of Dragon free to run wild alongside any additional monsters Yugi managed to draw.

  “Mmm, those ribs do smell nice.” Yugi smiled.

  Phil let a mock frown cover his face. “This kid! Taunting me? I will flip over the table. Don’t make me.”

  “You won’t.” Tilla called out in an amused tone from where she was reading her book.

  Phil tilted his head in thought. "Yeah… not here at least. Maybe if my opponent was a huge dick I'd consider it. Whatever. I’ll throw down a face-down and to go my end phase, which will see your Stronghold fall before the power of whatever the fuck Ekibyo Drakmord is.”

  Both duelists looked long and hard at the card art that displayed several blue monsters screaming and drooling in agony. Phil looked at Yugi. Yugi looked at Phil.

  “I have no idea.” They said in unison.

  “Jean?” Phil beckoned the man over to get his opinion.

  “Constipation?” Jean helplessly offered. The rat bastard was chowing his way through another piece of grilled pineapple. From just a glance at the grill, Phil could see it was the last one, too. Rat bastard.

  Phil smacked his fist in his palm. “Sure. Why not. They’re dying of constipation. I wouldn’t wish that fate on anyone.”

  “I’ll… draw… with that in mind.” Yugi said, shooting a weird look at the two brothers. “I’ll reinforce Curse of Dragon with the summon of Gamma the Magnet Warrior (1500/1800). Then… I’ll activate Monster Reborn? I think I’ll summon your Knight of the Red Lotus (2100/1800) to my field.”

  “Oh fuck.” Phil exclaimed. One Curse of Dragon could be dealt with. Add on a 1500 beater and his Knight? “It’s so over isn’t it.”

  “My monsters will attack!” Yugi declared.

  "It's so over… not! We're so fucking back let's go!!!" Phil stood up for greater effect as he flipped over his face-down card. “Soul Resurrection! This continuous trap card will let me take a normal monster from my graveyard to summon in defense position! Come one back, Frog the Jam (700/500)!”

  Then Phil sat down as if nothing happened. “Yeah. I know. My hopes were on you not drawing anything good.” He said mournfully. “I assume you use Gamma to take down my Frog the Jam, while Curse of Dragon and Red Lotus attack directly?”

  Yugi nodded.

  Phil stuck out his hand. Yugi met it in a surprisingly firm handshake. “That’s 4100 in total damage for sure. Good game dude. You earned those ribs.”

  “Good game.” Yugi echoed.

  “Losing Attack of the Cornered Rat hurt you far too much.” Jean commented with his hand on his goatee. Phil began to stroke his beard so they could look wise together.

  “Mhm. After that I just lost too many resources. If I hadn't wasted my Order to Charge on Green Gadget and stuck it on Stronghold instead, then leaving the Drakmord to immediately deal with the Curse of Dragon, I think that might have kept me in the game for a bit longer… though Red Lotus still would have died… I did kind of place a bet on Yugi only having one Green Gadget instead of two or more. Shouldn’t have yolo’d it. Bad decision.”

  What Phil did leave out was that since the stakes were nice and low, he truthfully didn't have much of a problem with making reckless moves for the fun of it. He wouldn't have done such a thing in a shadow game. Admittedly he also wouldn't have been playing this deck in a shadow game given any other choice, but that was beside the point.

  “And that Red Lotus was the key card to your strategy. I think you are right, though. If you had held the Charge instead of doing that thing where you be reckless in search of more interesting situations, you could have hung on long enough to find a solution to the problem.” Jean concluded.

  “Aye. Half my cards need to sacrifice weak normal monsters for fuel to activate them, and Red Lotus keeps bringing them back for more. Still… not bad. I think I can spruce this deck up a bit more to be better next time.”

  Then Phil shook his head and laughed. “Jeez. Lucking out with A Man with Wdjat to see my Cornered Rat, and then having the Mystical Space Typhoon readily available to deal with it pronto… I gotta say, your luck isn't much worse than the other guy's, Yuges. Well, good game again. I think those ribs are about done. Yugi, if you grab the plates and Jean, if you scream bloody murder for the water crew to come on in, I think we can start round two of the feast. You can claim your prize then, Yugi.”

  A pointed look from Tilla, however, stopped Jean’s scream in its tracks, and the man simply trudged out to the water to give a much quieter call for food.

  “You have my boy whipped, don’t ya?” Phil chuckled, though he knew Jean truly didn’t mind at all.

  Tilla smiled. “He simply knows better now.”

  “The fate of all married men.” Lumina mused. “I bet you’ll be like that someday too.”

  “Yeah right.” Phil snorted, turning his attention back to the grill. “That would be the day.”

  https://discord.gg/jfRn8j5GaE!