The President Remembered the Name

A KaibaCorp helicopter bearing the "KC" logo moved slowly through the air. Inside, Seto Kaiba, the legendary figure of the Dueling World, sat with one leg crossed over the other as he accepted a tablet from his subordinate.

"President, the emergency at Kaiba Land has been resolved."

The subordinate said.

"A young duelist at the scene successfully defeated the hijacked Duel AI and lifted the venue lockdown. The staff there are inspecting the equipment and investigating how the system was breached."

"Mm."

Seto Kaiba responded as he unlocked the tablet, a slight frown creasing his brow.

This again.

Of course, he remembered something like this happening years ago.

When the world's first Kaiba Land had been completed, they held the KC Cup as the opening event for its official operation.

It was during that tournament that his former business rival, Zigfried von Schroeder, infiltrated the system. He had likewise locked down the Duel Arena Venue and hijacked the Duel AI; unless the AI was defeated, the lockdown could not be lifted.

Fortunately, that damn Yugi had happened to be inside the venue at the time and stepped in immediately to defeat the AI.

What had happened this time was practically a replay of that incident.

But who could it be this time?

Could it still be Zigfried? No, impossible. The reason the enemy had succeeded at the KC Cup eight years ago was entirely because Kaiba had been in the light while the enemy lurked in the shadows. Kaiba had never known he had such a hidden Nemesis. After the KC Cup, there was no way Kaiba would have left him any chance to make a comeback.

Besides, Kaiba Land was no longer in its early construction phase. The system vulnerabilities Zigfried had once exploited had long since been fixed. Kaiba was confident that even if That Guy returned, he should have been unable to breach the system.

Then who could it possibly be?

"President, the recording of the duel with the AI has also arrived," the subordinate said. "Would you like to watch it?"

"Send it to me." Kaiba swiped open the tablet.

Other matters could wait. There was no way he would ever pass up a chance to watch a duel.

Especially when one side of this duel had been a Duel AI personally overseen in development by him, effectively a copy of his True Form. Like Yugi's AI, it should have been classified and never made public.

But since he had the opportunity, he also wanted to see how that random young man who happened to be in the Duel Arena Venue had defeated his copy.

The recording finished loading, and the duel began.

All right, it looked like his AI had gone second. A fairly conventional opening—using the combination of Lord of D. and the Flute of Summoning Dragon to bring out Blue-Eyes and Crystal Dragon in one go. Kaiba gave a slight nod. At the very least, the AI's opening had not disgraced him. This field was passable, more or less.

Now, let's see how the opponent responded.

Kira in the recording said, "Continuous Trap—Dragon Capture Jar! All Dragon monsters are changed to Defense Position!"

Kaiba fell into thought.

Hm. Not a bad idea. The sight naturally reminded him of how Pegasus's Jar of Greed had tormented him into a rage back at Duelist Kingdom.

Kaiba gave a cold chuckle.

That was in the past. He had long since surpassed Pegasus, and tricks like that no longer worked against him.

Then Kira in the recording continued his play.

"Dragon Rider, take control of Blue-Eyes White Dragon! Then Tribute Summon Dragon Slayer!"

Kaiba's smile gradually faded.

"Mirror of the Flashing Abyss, negate the effects activated by all LIGHT Attribute monsters!"

Kaiba fell silent.

"Trap Card—Hell Polymer! Take control of your Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

Watching the AI on-screen get beaten until its image distorted and its system crashed, then become engulfed by a Burst Stream of Destruction from Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, the President silently switched off the screen.

"The boy who won that duel." Kaiba raised his head and asked, "What is his name?"

The subordinate answered, "I believe it's Fujiki Kira. He's from a Duel Dojo in the city. He just passed this year's Duel Academy Entrance Exam and is expected to enroll this year."

"Oh?" Kaiba wore an intrigued expression.

So he was practically half a student under him.

"Fujiki Kira."

Kaiba interlaced his fingers, leaned back in his seat, and gave a low chuckle.

He would remember that name.

Kira followed Mokuba into a stretched limousine over six meters long, traveling toward a KaibaCorp branch office.

"You actually beat Brother's AI. You're pretty impressive," Mokuba said casually in the car. "That's a top-tier AI independently developed by our company. It can handle all kinds of strategies with ease."

"Just luck."

Kira smiled, thinking that their AI had another flaw: its temper seemed pretty bad. It crashed after getting hit a few times.

Come to think of it, he seemed to have helped them uncover another design flaw. Shouldn't they pay him more?

"Come to think of it, were you guys just nearby by coincidence?" Kira asked.

After all, KaibaCorp's headquarters was not here, and Mokuba had arrived so quickly. He must have happened to be in the city.

"Yeah, there's something going on. Brother and I have both been around here lately... Well, it doesn't hurt to tell you."

Mokuba spoke seriously.

"You'd better be careful when you go out at night lately. We've heard that there may be some dangerous people active around here. They like attacking Duelists, especially the stronger ones. They're all desperate criminals."

Kira immediately thought of that chance encounter from a few nights ago.

Yeah, thanks for the warning. They'd already attacked me.

I still had that guy's deck.

"You mean President Kaiba is in the city too? To deal with those Dark Duelists?"

"Yeah. We need to find the people above them, because they have something we need. Ha, I'm getting off topic."

Mokuba smiled, apparently not intending to go deeper into the matter.

"Anyway, don't underestimate them. They're called 'Dark Duelists.' You may have heard some rumors about them, but I guarantee they're far more capable than what you've heard."

"I've heard about them." Kira had seen some rumors online before as well. "There are rumors that someone is already pressuring KaibaCorp to produce equipment that weaponizes Duel Monsters?"

It was only natural that something like this would happen. After all, KaibaCorp had originally made its fortune through arms manufacturing. Until Seto Kaiba took over the group, it had been one of the world's largest arms suppliers. Now, after its transformation, it was one of the world's leading Duel Monsters entertainment companies, with more than half the planet using Dueling Systems they produced.

"But don't worry, that won't happen." Mokuba smiled. "KaibaCorp gave up arms manufacturing the moment Brother took over. We gave it up in the past, and we'll keep giving it up in the future.

"Dueling should be something that brings smiles to everyone, not a tool for war and harm."

Duels Bring Smiles, huh? Kira nodded deeply in agreement.

The people who watched him duel usually did end up smiling.

Still, although President Kaiba's resolve to slash arms development with a wave of his hand was impressive, Kira did want to say that times had changed. Printing cards was way more powerful than building planes and cannons.

"Wait, stop the car."

Mokuba suddenly seemed to have noticed something.

The driver stopped as instructed.

"What is it?" Kira asked.

Mokuba frowned and looked at his watch. Only then did Kira notice that it was not a watch at all, but some kind of electronic device developed by KaibaCorp. Its screen was flickering on and off.

"What's that?"

"A detector that can monitor Duel Energy. And with a reading like this... it could be a Dark Duel!"

With that, Mokuba had already opened the door and jumped out of the car.

After thinking for a moment, Kira followed after him.

They turned through several bends in the alley, and the black mist ahead grew thicker and thicker. As they continued forward, it felt as though they had run into an invisible barrier.

Looking in that direction, there really did seem to be two people dueling.

He didn't recognize the one on the other side, but this one seemed vaguely familiar.

Dinosaur Ryuzaki?

Why was he in a place like this?