My Time in Battle City [Tales of Luna, Book 1]

Chapter 9

"I do. That's what I came to talk about." Seto said taking another glance at Joey before continuing. "I've been rewatching the footage of your duel."

"You are recording our duels? I always knew you were a creeper, Kaiba!" Joey said, only to be ignored.

"It would seem that summoning Slifer has-" Seto paused for a second as if considering his next words carefully. "-has altered something."

"Altered something? That's not vague at all, big brain man!" Joey chimed in again. "How do you even run a global company like that?"

"Neither you nor Strings seemed to be taking real damage until he summoned Slifer." Seto specified, then reluctantly added. "Yugi used to talk about these- these shadow games in which duelists lost their souls or lives in the game. I'm not one to believe in superstition-"

"You were literally trapped in a card with Mokuba because of Pegasus, dude!" And still, Joey was ignored a third time.

"-but it's the only thing I can think of that remotely makes sense. This Strings, must have somehow activated a shadow game in your duel." Seto stated as his expression softened slightly. "The moment he did so, he made his choice. It was either him or you. I'm just glad you are okay."

Luna wondered if that would happen every time someone summoned an Egyptian god card. That hadn't been the case in the anime.

"Have you used Obelisk in a duel yet?" Luna asked Seto, who shook his head.

"Only against an AI." Seto answered as his hand seemed to mindlessly hover over his deck on his belt. "Though, it did destroy the Duel Station."

"So you knew?" Joey said as he got up and grabbed Kaiba by the collar of his coat. "You knew this was dangerous and you still let the tournament go on?"

"Of course, fool!" Seto said, grabbing Joey's wrist and forcing him to let go. "The entire point of this tournament was so that I could get all three Egyptian god cards! Plus, Marik is still out there with a card that can actually kill people. If we call it quits now, we may never catch him."

Joey stared at Kaiba for a second before scoffing and turning to Luna.

"See? That's the kind of guy Kaiba is. Always having an agenda. He had his eyes on the god cards since the beginning." Joey said as he went back to his bed and grabbed his jacket. "Now with what he said, what do you really think he is here for?"

Luna knew that the Battle City tournament was specifically to gain all three god cards. That was no secret to her. But she wondered.

"Did you come here to check in on me?" Luna asked as she also stood up, albeit slowly. "Or for Slifer?"

Seto looked taken aback. He hesitated for a moment before replying.

"Don't be ridiculous, Luna." He said as he approached her. "I would never take Slifer from you without a duel."

To his credit, he seemed to regret it just as the words left his mouth.

"And there it is." Joey said as he got between Seto and Luna. "Either way, like you said, Marik is still out there with a god card that can kill real people. We'll play along in your tournament just to stop him. But that's it. Let's go, Luna."

She still wanted to stay by Seto. But Joey was right. Seto had always been driven by ambition and hunger for power in this era. He still hadn't faced everything that DSoD Kaiba had gone through. She couldn't trust that this Seto would remain by their side when it counted if it meant letting go of his ambition.

After all, this was no longer just about having fun in dueling, this was definitely bigger than any of them. And so, she offered Seto a brief sad smile before turning around to leave with Joey.