After finding the rooms that were assigned to them, the Duelists were summoned to the dining room to eat while getting the details of how the tournament would go from here on out.
"Oh man! I'm starving!" Jounouchi yelled out while salivating.
"This chicken is so good!" Honda exclaimed with a full mouth.
"Hey, don't hog all the food to yourselves!" Akia called her friends out.
Pegasus was watching the scene, amused by how well his plan was going. He wasn't expecting the girl with the Millennium Scale to actually make it this far, yet there she was, right where he wanted her. She was able to make it even with the Star Chip Hunters making sure there wouldn't be an extra finalist. It was time to announce who will be dueling who.
"Alright everyone, settle down," Pegasus requested the finalists' attention.
Everyone's gaze shifted to the silver-haired man.
"Considering we have one more Duelist than predicted, one of you will have to Duel more times than others. If you look in front of you..." The tournament organizer announced.
As the duelists looked in front of them at the bowl of soup that was just recently served to them, an eye, made out of gold emerges from every plate.
"Ah! Gross!" Jounouchi shouted in disgust.
"Inside of those, you will be assigned a number that will pit you against the one with the same number as you," Pegasus explained.
Akia picked the eyeball that was floating in her soup and opened it. A slip of paper was inside. As she opened it, she found the number 1 written on it.
"If everyone can now show your slip of paper to everyone," the man invited them to do as he said.
They flipped the paper towards the others, getting a good look at who would be their opponent.
Keith had number 1 also written on his paper. Akia assumed this meant he was her first opponent. That was totally fine by her. She was looking forward to wiping the floor with him. Yugi and Mai had 2-A written on their paper. Jounouchi had 2-B written on his.
"Well, that settles it. The first match will be Mutou Akia against Keith Howard. The second match will be Mutou Yugi versus Kujaku Mai. The winner of that match will be put against Jounouchi Katsuya. The Duels will begin tomorrow, so you better prepare well. To claim your prizes, you will need one of these two cards that were sent to you," Pegasus told them.
Pegasus took out Glory of the King's Hand, a card depicting a golden treasure, and Glory of the King's Opposite Hand, a blank card.
"Oh no! I don't have any of those! Maybe Yugi... No, we both want the same card. We don't want the Glory of the King's Hand, since it's just the prize money," Akia started to panic, but then she felt someone tapping her on the shoulder. She turned to her left and saw Mai handing her her Glory of the King's Opposite Hand.
"Mai-san..." The red-eyed girl whispered to her friend.
"Isn't that the card you need? You're not after the prize money anyways," Mai explained her reasoning.
Akia smiled at Mai and took the card, "thank you so much! You're a lifesaver!"
Mai smiled back at Akia, "don't mention it. Just make sure you don't lose a single Life Point to that asshole, unless it's really necessary."
"Haha, you don't like him either, Mai-san."
"Who would?"
"Good point."
They both quietly giggled, trying not to attract too much attention from the subject of their conversation.
After the meal, everyone wished each other goodnight and went to their respective bedrooms.
"Finally alone! I really needed some peace and quiet after all that's happened," Akia sighed to herself. She then laid down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. A lot of things were going through her mind. She had gone through a lot to get where she was. The Star Chip hunt, meeting Mai, the Evil Spirit in Bakura's millennium ring. Bakura's feelings... that hug, that warmth... She also wondered why she pushed him away. It felt so nice, yet something felt wrong about just accepting it. She knew why. Akia still hadn't let go of that boy named Marik. She felt so silly that she was so hung up on something that happened so long ago. She didn't even remember how he looked like back then. Even if she did see him again, she wouldn't recognize him, and neither would he. Then... Why hadn't she let go already?
She lightly punched the mattress beneath her with both her fists out of frustration. She was sure that if she just let Bakura in, she would just forget about Marik. But... That's what she was afraid of. She didn't want to forget him. There was no logical explanation to this, but she just didn't want to forget him. Ever.
She needed to clear her head. She started looking at her deck to prepare herself for the next day's match. Now that she was thinking about it, she didn't even know anything about Keith other than what he had done to her friends. Her deck right now could handle most cases. But most was still not enough. The problem was that she made the best possible deck out of the cards that she had. No, she thought, there must be other combinations. She would try to make an even better deck, even if it was by just one card. Since her deck heavily focused on removing cards from play, she needed to add more things that accelerate that process...
Akia worked on her deck for a few hours, before calling it a day. She took the Glory of the King's Opposite Hand that Mai gave her and tucked it under her pillow. She also took her deck and put it on the nightstand that was right next to her bed. She took her Millennium Scale and stared at it for a bit. She never thought she would ever use it so much. Granted, she only used it when she found it was necessary, but she was starting to become desensitized to the harm that she caused her victims. She definitely won't need to use it in the next matches, since they were monitored by Pegasus himself along with his bodyguards. That relieved her, making her feel a bit less guilty about what she did previously. She just hoped that the effects were temporary. They were on the Spirit of the Ring, but maybe he was a special case.
As she was thinking that, the Millennium Scale lit up. Akia then felt a presence behind her. She quickly turned around and found someone that she never thought she would see again.
"...Shadi...?" The black-haired girl called out his name.
He looked exactly the same as when she saw him when she was a kid. That didn't make sense to her. How could still look the same after all these years?
"The vessel of the Red Eyes Black Dragon, Akia. You were having some regrets about your use of the millennium scale," Shadi stated.
"Ah! Yes, but... how did you get here?" Akia asked him.
"I am not of the physical world. For years now, I've been wandering the earth for one purpose."
"Wait, are you saying that you're dead?"
"I've been dead for a few years now, yes."
"How come..." Akia was going to ask about how he's been manifesting, but she had a more pressing question in mind, "what's that purpose?"
"All will be answered in due time. As for the millennium scale, it traps people's souls. The wielder then has complete control over these souls."
Akia looked at the millennium scale with a terrified look. She really did take their souls.
"I... So I basically... killed them..."
"No, they are just in a state of unconsciousness," Shadi explained, "however, if they stay in that state for too long, they will eventually die."
"I have to... to do something to help!" Akia was frantic. It was not her intention at all to put people's lives in danger. She just assumed that it couldn't be that bad. Maybe it was just her wishful thinking, something that could put her consciousness to rest.
"Like I said, you have complete control over their souls, therefore you can release them if you wish, or you can keep them trapped."
Akia's face instantly brightened at that sudden ray of hope, "so I can help them then! How do I release them?"
"Just concentrate on your item and what you want it to do."
"Oh, of course...!"
Akia then closed her eyes and held her millennium scale close. She then felt something getting released, then another... The two souls that she took away were restored.
"Thank you so much, Shadi, I also wanted to ask..." When Akia opened her eyes, no one was there, "...about Marik."
She looked around, confused at this whole situation. Did Shadi appear just to help her out, or was there another purpose? Unbeknownst to her, Shadi was always keeping an eye on all the wielders of the millennium items. He would rarely intervene, considering that his mission was only to inform those individuals of their true fate at the right time.