Tea Gardner

Tea Gardner aka Anzu Mazaki in the Japanese versions, is a childhood friend of Yugi Muto. Téa does not usually play games with Yugi and his friends, but in the beginning of the anime, she could beat Joey in Duel Monsters, and was later shown to be more than competent against others. Téa is also very good at dancing and wants to be a professional dancer when she grows up.

Appearance
Téa's character design was overseen by Kazuki Takahashi.

In the manga, Anzu originally had a conventional, short hairstyle. Her first color image, seen in Duel 1, featured dark brown hair and amber eyes. As Takahashi continued drawing the manga, Anzu gained more feminine and "cute" facial features. Her hair style became longer and less conventional. Color images from Volume 3 and onward portray her hair as a lighter brown color. Sometimes her eyes are blue and sometimes they are reddish brown. By the final volume of the manga, Téa's hair touches her shoulders. The standard female Domino High School uniform, Téa's usual outfit, consists of a pink coat, a white oxford shirt, a blue tie, and a blue pleated skirt.

In the first series anime, her hair and eyes are of a reddish brown color. Her school uniform color differs; her coat is orange and her tie and skirt are green. In the amusement park episode, she wore a light-green bikini.

In the second series anime, she has dark brown hair and blue eyes. On occasions she wore the school uniform colored in the same manner as in the manga. Her brown shoulder-length hair is sectioned into two layers, consisting of a darker shade of brown inner layer, with the outer layer of a lighter shade.

During the first season of the anime, her usual outfit is comprised of a yellow shirt, which flows like a skirt at her thighs, with a pink waistcoat over it, and a blue mini-skirt. A pair of brown knee-high boots completed the rest of her outfit.

In the second and third season, her clothes consists of a light green sleeveless buttoned shirt with yellow collar, pink and blue bracelets, navy shorts with a light blue belt, white thigh-high socks, and blue platform sandals. She also wears a yellow tank-top with the word "SPIRIT" on it (which was removed from the dub) and a red skirt on occasion in the second season.

She also wears another set of clothes: yellow tube-top, light pink shorts, black thigh-high socks, red platform sandals, and pink jacket. In the fourth and fifth season she wears a dark sleeveless shirt, a red skirt and a pair of white high-heeled boots.

Personality
At the beginning of the manga, Anzu has a spunky, tomboyish personality and was able to scare away Joey (Jonouchi) and Tristan (Honda) after they bully Yugi. She's very kind hearted, strong willed and supportive.

In the second series anime, she and Tristan are basically cheerleaders for Yugi and Joey. She is known among fans for her "friendship speeches". Téa cares about friendship a lot and keeps the group together. She always stands up for what she believes in and will do anything to help her friends.

Duelist Kingdom Saga
The anime begins with Seto Kaiba kidnapping Yugi's grandfather and defeating him in a Duel order to acquire his rare four-of-a-kind card, "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". On doing so he tears up the card so it can't be used against him.Téa draws symbols on her, Yugi, Joey and Tristan's hands to symbolize their friendship before Yugi faces Kaiba, after Kaiba tears up Solomon Muto's "Blue-Eyes White Dragon".

Yugi then duels Kaiba to get revenge. Not entirely conscious of the transformation, he switches to Yami Yugi for the Duel. Yugi learns that Kaiba possess the other three "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" cards as he Summons them. Yami starts to doubt he can win, but thinking of how his friends are supporting him in spirit, he manages to Summon the "Exodia", an instant win card combination. Yami then inflicts the Mind Crush Penalty Game on Kaiba, dispelling his evil side.

In the manga, Yugi's encountered Kaiba much earlier in the series. The anime encounter is an shortened combination of their two previous encounters.

Joey takes up learning Duel Monsters, but proves a weak player after losing to Téa at school. (In the anime, he also loses to Yugi.) Yugi agrees to help him improve and they start by watching the Japanese regional Duel Monsters tournament final at Yugi's house. Yugi explained that he didn't enter this tournament as he had wanted to face Kaiba in a fair Duel in his first tournament. (In the manga, Kaiba was in hospital after receiving the Mind Crush.) The tournament ended with Weevil Underwood defeating Rex Raptor. As Weevil was congratulated by the creator of Duel Monsters, Maximillion Pegasus, he received an invitation to an upcoming tournament.[2 ] [3 ]

After watching the finals, Yugi opened a package he received, containing a gauntlet, 2 Star Chips and a videotape. The tape contained a recording of Pegasus, who invited Yugi to Duel on the spot. Yugi switched to Yami Yugi, upon realizing that this was a Shadow Game. Pegasus won the Duel due to an imposed time limit and took the soul of Yugi's grandpa as Yugi's penalty. (In the manga, Grandpa's soul was sealed in the videotape.) In order to get the soul of his grandpa back he accepts Pegasus' invitation to Duelist Kingdom. Téa and Tristan sneak onto the boat to Duelist Kingdom to support Yugi and Joey in the tournament. Téa mostly stands on the sidelines giving the boys encouraging speeches.

Yugi and his friends faced Yami Bakura in a Shadow Game of Duel Monsters, where the players are trapped in cards similar to their Monster World pieces. Téa becomes the card "Magician of Faith" in the Duel. As she is upset over Joey's sacrifice, she uses her effect to return "Monster Reborn" to Yami Yugi's hand, which allows him to revive Joey.

Kaiba defeats Yugi in the tournament by standing on the edge of the castle, so Yugi's last attack would knock him off. Yugi relinquishes the Duel to Kaiba. Téa then argues with Kaiba over his strategy. Kaiba explains how Duelists are given one chip and must use it in whatever way allows them to win. Téa argues back that Kaiba only won because he couldn't live without the chip and insist that Yugi won the Duel.

After losing to Kaiba, Yugi no longer has enough Star Chips to enter the tournament finals. Mai offers Yugi her excessive Star Chips. Yugi initially refuses, feeling unworthy. Téa Duels Mai for the Star Chips. Using a combination of Magic Cards, Téa makes her "Shining Friendship" card defeat Mai's "Harpie Lady". Although Mai is able to turn the Duel around, using "Harpie's Feather Duster", she is impressed by Téa's performance and wants to give Yugi the Chips, so she surrenders saying "Harpie Lady" was her best monster and Téa defeated it.

Kemo doesn't allow Téa, Tristan or Bakura to enter the castle, where the finals are held, as they are not finalists, but Mai distracts him, long enough for them to sneak in.

Inside they witness Kaiba and Pegasus Dueling. Pegasus was able to predict Kaiba's moves and easily win. Tristan suspects that Pegasus cheated, so that night he talks with Téa and Bakura on the subject. The three inspect the Duel arena and find a hole that shines moonlight directly at the Duel arena. Tristan spots a tower and the three head towards it. In the tower, they are confronted by Pegasus, who uses his Millennium Eye to transport them to another dimension. They wake up and enter a room, where a Shadow Game between two robed men is taking place while others are chanting. The winning man, Pegasus confronts the three and tries to take Bakura's Millennium Ring. Yami Bakura takes over Bakura's body and sends Téa and Tristan back to their rooms and erases their memories.

During the final rounds, Téa cheers on Yugi and Joey in their Duels. She is unable to watch the end of Yugi's Duel with Pegasus, as Pegasus takes the Duel to the Shadow Realm. Despite this Yugi feels his friends are with him in spirit and manages to defeat Pegasus.

Pegasus disappears after the Duel. The gang proceed to a tower, where they find Pegasus' diary, which Téa reads. She learns that Pegasus had a wife Cecelia, who died and Pegasus was trying to revive her using the Millennium Items and Kaiba Corporation technology.

Téa and her friends are taken home by Seto Kaiba in his helicopter.

Battle City Saga
Seto Kaiba went to fire The Big Five after finding out about their little scheme to take over KaibaCorp. The Big 5 challenge him to a virtual game, and if he wins, they will resign their posts. Unfortunately, inside the game Kaiba's "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" was captured by a "Dragon Capture Jar". Kaiba himself is then captured by the "Witty Phantom", who wishes to sacrifice him to the "Five-Headed Dragon".

Mokuba Kaiba runs to Yugi Muto for help. Yugi, Téa Gardner, Joey Wheeler, and Tristan Taylor all run to KaibaCorp. While Yugi,Joey and Mokuba are in the vitural game,Tea and Tristan try to stop Kemo from unplugging the pods that the boys are in. Yugi, Joey, and Mokuba in the virtual world. On the way, Joey is forced to Duel with Mai Valentine. When she finds out her opponent is Joey (they were both masked), she joins in the search for Kaiba.

On the way they encounter a maze. Joey hears a girl crying and attempts to rescue her. (Mai disgustedly observes that Joey is too easily attracted to maidens in distress.) Joey finds Princess Adena who looks like Mokuba. (Joey initially thinks that the princess is Mokuba, and asks why he is wearing a dress. Mokuba appears behind him and explains that he is there.) Adena says she is about to be the sacrificed to the Mythic Dragon.

The four become guests to a royal feast. Adena explains everything about the Five-Headed Dragon. When they are ready to go vanquish the dragon, Adena is suddenly captured. However it is actually Mokuba in disguise. The remaining three heroes give chase, destroying many obstacles in their way. Finally, they get to the Kaibas. But then, the Big 5 cheat by re-writing the program and summon the Mythic Dragon themselves. After many sacrifices leaving only Yugi and Kaiba standing, they finally vanquish the dragon, by fusing Kaiba's "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon" and Yugi's "Black Luster Soldier" into the "Dragon Master Knight".

Tea is happy that Yugi,Joey and Mokuba are back. Mokuba then tell Kemo that Seto is looking for the. Which makes Kemo and the others leave quickly. Mokuba the thanks Yugi, and his friends for him save Seto. Mokuba then leaves to go find Seto. (In the English version, Yugi and the gang say goodbye to Mokuba) In the Japanese version, Yugi and his friends say that they are going out for Ramen Noodles.

Battle City arc
When Kaiba learns of the Egyptian God Cards, a set of Duel Monsters cards that were purported to be based on three Egyptian Gods (and thus powerful enough to have never been put into circulation), Kaiba, at the request of Ishizu Ishtar holds an elite Tournament with the intention of winning and acquiring all 3 cards while defeating Yugi Muto in the process. The tournament would be held in the streets of Domino City, using a portable Duel Disk holographic projection system of his own design. For his efforts, Seto Kaiba is given 1 of the Egyptian God Cards, The God of the Obelisk or Obelisk the Tormentor (Obelisk no Kyōshinhei in Japanese, literally translated means Giant God Soldier of Obelisk, "The God of the Obelisk" in the English manga).

To acquire the remaining God Cards, Seto Kaiba created the ante rule in the tournament, a rule that the winner of a Duel could take the rarest card from the loser's deck and used a satellite to monitor every duel by adding a device to his new mass production Duel Disks. It is not mentioned in the series what would happen if the Duel was to end in a draw but it was implied that, although winners were entitled to take the rarest card from their opponent, the winner may not have to take the opponent's rarest card; indeed, when Yugi defeated Bakura, he did not take the latter's rare card. As for the tournament itself, entrants in the tournament were given a special transparent card in the shape of a puzzle piece, known as a locator card. Winners in Duels, in addition to the ante rule would also be entitled to take one locator card from their opponent; although, duelists can wager more than one rare card and/or locator card per duel if they wish. Those without locator cards would be eliminated from the tournament, while the first 8 duelists with 6 Locator Cards would move on. The Duel Disks were also used as a method to prevent cheating (although this didn't prevent Espa Roba from having his siblings read Joey Wheeler's cards, Weevil from slipping a copy of "Parasite Paracide" into Joey's Deck, a Rare Hunter from using counterfeits (marked cards in the dub), and Arkana from trimming his cards down to size to draw them easier), as well as a method of helping Seto (himself an entrant) track the progress and location of other duelists.

In a move ostensibly to promote the real-life Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, the tournament used rules that were identical to the trading card game's rules (unlike the Duelist Kingdom tournament) with the major difference that duelists would start a game with 4000 Life Points rather than 8000 Life Points in the real-life game (2000 Life Points in the Duelist Kingdom tournament) for the purposes of brevity. Minor differences include being able to summon monsters in Defense Position (face-up, instead of "setting" face-down) and Fusion Monsters not being able to attack during the turn they are summoned. From hereon, almost all duels in the series would follow these rules.

Yugi asks Téa to go out with Yami. After visiting many shops and attractions, they enter an arcade. Inside Téa beats Johnny Steps in a dance game. Not taking his loss too well, Johnny later catches up with Yugi and Téa and challenges to another game. If she loses she must become his girlfriend. Yami instead challenges Johnny to a game of Duel Monsters. If he wins, Johnny must leave Téa alone. If Johnny wins, Téa must go on a date with him. Yami reveals himself to be Yugi Muto, towards the end of the Duel Johnny recognizes Yugi Muto as the one who beat Pegasus, causing Johnny to surrender and run. Téa stops him to tell him how quitting isn't going to get him far, and he must keep trying to achieve his goals. Afterwards Téa and Yami go to an Ancient Egyptian exhibition to find clues to Yami's past.

Meanwhile, Yugi and the nameless Pharaoh learn from Ishizu Ishtar the Egyptian God Cards and how it may have a connection with the nameless Pharaoh's past. Ishizu warns Yami Yugi of the organization known as Rare Hunters, whose leader, Ishizu's brother Marik, seeks Yugi's Millennium Puzzle and the 3 Egyptian God Cards to drain the nameless Pharaoh of his own powers. Ishizu convinces Yugi that in order to find out more about the nameless Pharaoh's past he must enter and win the Battle City tournament. Helping him along is Joey Wheeler, who seeks to become a True Duelist. Ishizu would later reveal as an Ishtar, a family entrusted to guard the secrets of the nameless Pharaoh's power, her family were effectively locked away from the outside world, and Marik saw it as a lost cause. When Marik was punished for wandering into the outside world, the dark part of Marik was born and only Odion (Rishid in the Japanese versions) their adopted older brother and trusted servant could hold Marik in check.

Although Yugi would enter the Battle City tournament without a problem, Joey, because Seto Kaiba only thought of him in a derogatory manner was barred from entering the tournament. However, seeing that Joey would ante his Red-Eyes Black Dragon, the shop owner, a Rare Hunter, successfully enters Joey into the tournament with the intention of getting his rare card off his hands. Joey, unfamiliar with Seto Kaiba's "advanced rules", had his card taken away from him even before the tournament began and Joey began the tournament by dueling Seeker, a Rare Hunter for it. Although Yugi wins (as well as exposing the Rare Hunter's use of forgeries in the meantime), Joey declines to take his card back saying that he would have to earn it in the spirit of a True Duelist. (In the English anime, Joey declines the card as a way to show that Joey would always be supporting Yugi - the True Duelist subplot was eliminated altogether.) Instead, Joey stakes his Time Wizard (known as Time Magician in Japan) in the tournament - the only other card in his possession that is considered to be rare.

Also cheering Joey on is his sister, Serenity Wheeler who had managed to get her eye operation just in time due to the prize money from Duelist Kingdom that Yugi gave to Joey. Although the operation was successful, Serenity vowed not to remove her bandages until she saw her brother Duel.

After Yugi defeats Seeker, he would duel with Pandora (Arkana). In the second series anime, Arkana was "the greatest illusionist and magician since Harry Houdini himself", but his career and "movie star good looks" were lost because of a terrible accident during a simple escape routine. Arkana dismissed his love, Catherine, not being able to let her see him ruined, regretting it all the rest of his life; Marik falsely promised him the return of Catherine if Arkana became a Rare Hunter and defeat Yugi. Arkana plays a Deck that focuses on the Dark Magician. He also uses various Spell Cards to power it up and save it from annihilation. He plays by a rule of Shadow Games, where the loser not only loses his rarest card (and his Locator card) but the loser loses his legs (in the English anime he would get sent to the Shadow Realm). Unlike Yugi, Arkana possesses 2 Dark Magicians. However, after both players were down to their last chunk of Life Points, Yugi uses Dark Magician Girl, whose special effect allows her to gain 300 Attack Points for every Dark Magician in the Graveyard, to defeat Arkana.

After Yugi's duel with Arkana Tea,Mokuba and Solomon succeed in finding him.

Throughout the road to the finals, Yugi faces Marik's Rare Hunters, each of which is kept in line due to Marik's Millennium Rod's ability to exert mind control over others. Marik would use his Rare Hunters in an attempt to win Yugi's Millennium Puzzle and claim the power of the nameless Pharaoh for himself. However, Yugi would prevail each time and acquire an Egyptian God Card, Slifer the Sky Dragon (known as Osiris no Tenkūryū, or Sky Dragon of Osiris in Japan) in the process. He acquires this card in a Duel against one of Marik's mind-controlled slaves, the Silent Puppet (Strings in the English anime) when Marik tries to use a strategy that is thought to have been unstoppable: by combining Slifer the Sky Dragon with 4 other cards.

Joey strives to become a true duelist. First, he takes on Espa Roba, a self-proclaimed psychic who could supposedly predict the future. However, Espa Roba simply uses his 4 little brothers to spy on the opponent's cards using binoculars, until Mokuba caught them red-handed and they promised not to cheat. Joey wins again with a Spell Card - Roulette Spider. He then won Espa Roba's rarest card, Jinzo.

Next, Joey duels Weevil Underwood. Weevil used a cheating method to sneak a Parasite Paracide card into Joey's deck, turning his monsters into Insects. Weevil then used Insect Barrier to make it impossible for insect monsters to attack him. Ironically, Joey was able to destroy Weevil's Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth with the parasite itself and later uses a variety of Spell Cards to destroy Weevil's insects and Life Points. Ultimately, Joey wins the duel with Gearfried the Iron Knight, whose special effect caused it to be immune from the parasite and Insect Barrier. Joey won Weevil's Insect Queen and 2 locator cards.

Joey would gain his last 2 locator cards from Mako Tsunami. For once, Joey didn't rely on luck, but rather the great many new magic and trap cards he got, such as Lightning Blade, Magic Arm Shield, Graceful Dice, Skull Dice and Giant Trunade. Joey won the Fortress Whale (but not the Ritual Spell Card Fortress Whale's Oath, meaning he cannot play it). Mako offered and gave Joey his prized Legendary Fisherman card as well.

In a desperate move to take the power of the nameless Pharaoh for himself, Marik attempts to capture Yugi's friends. Although he fails to capture Tristan and Joey's sister thanks to Duke Devlin and his dice), he does manage to capture Joey and Tea, and force Yugi to duel against his friend, in which both were tied to an anchor and the loser would drown from the anchor falling into the water (a rare instance death is mentioned in the English dub). However, Joey manages to rid himself of Marik's Mind Control when he declines to take his own Red Eyes Black Dragon from Yugi's hand, and Yugi summons the Dragon, making Joey remember both his promise to help Yugi and his favorite card. Marik becomes very angry at the hesitancy of Joey, and decides to take control over Joey's body, but Joey is able to force Marik out. Joey plays to a draw, and both players' keys are released. Joey frees Yugi, but before he can free himself he plummets into the ocean, where he was saved by Shizuka (in the manga, Kaiba saved him). This is probably the only penalty game in the entire Yu-Gi-Oh series to not be censored by 4kids in the form of a Shadow Game.

In the end, the 8 duelists to qualify for the finals were Yugi, Joey, Kaiba, Mai Valentine, Marik (using the pseudonym "Namu"), (Odion) (who everyone was led to believe was Marik), Ryo Bakura (who had won all his locator cards in one duel, despite being injured), and Ishizu.

Téa, along with Tristan, Serenity and Duke Devlin proceed to the KaibaCorp blimp to cheer for Yugi, Joey and Mai in the finals. Roland initially refuses to let them board, as they aren't finalists, but Mokuba talks him into letting them on. Despite Joey's objections, all of them take residence in Joey's room for the finals.

For the quarterfinal round, the duels were to be staged atop Kaiba's airship, the Battle Ship with the draw determined at random.

Yugi vs. Bakura (Yami Yugi vs. Yami Bakura) would be the first duel. Although Yugi would get an early advantage, Bakura plays Dark Sanctuary, whose effect allows Bakura to possess one of Yugi's monsters so that when it attacks, the attack would be negated, and Yugi would lose life points. Bakura also plays the Destiny Board cards, which, when all five are played, would give Bakura an automatic victory. In desperation, Yugi is forced to summon Slifer and win the duel, as Slifer (Osiris) is immune to the effects of Dark Sanctuary.

Joey vs. Odion (Joey Wheeler vs. Odion Ishtar) would be the second quarterfinal match. Although Joey is being done in by Odion's traps, he comes back and ties the match with 200 life points apiece, thanks to the three cards he had won in Battle City, especially Jinzo, which prevented Odion from using any trap cards. However, Odion would play the Mystical Beast Serket, which destroys the three monsters and left Joey wide open. However, as Odion was still posing as Marik, Marik would force Odion to play his counterfeit God Card, The Winged Dragon of Ra (Ra no Yokushinryū in Japan, "Sun Dragon Ra" in the English manga). However, the counterfeit card backfires on Odion, striking down both duelists in the process. Although Joey would win the duel by virtue of Kaiba's edict that the first duelist to stand would be the victor, the dark side of Marik was unleashed due to Odion being unconscious.

Mai vs. Marik (Mai Valentine vs. Marik Ishtar) would be the third quarterfinal, and Mai would be first to fall against Marik, as she is put in Marik's shadow game. Mai takes a clear lead in the duel, outplaying Marik and even managing to get the real Ra card from Marik and summon it. However, for Ra to obey Mai (and thus, for Mai to use the card), Mai must recite the hieratic text on the card. With Mai clearly unable to do so, Marik successfully recites the text, and uses Ra to attack Mai and win, leaving Mai critically injured (in the English anime, she is sent to the Shadow Realm).

The final quarterfinal Kaiba vs. Ishizu (Seto Kaiba vs. Ishizu Ishtar) saw Ishizu, then an eighth "mystery duelist", face off against Kaiba. Although Ishizu prophesizes that she will win, thanks to the ability of her Millennium Tauk (Millennium Necklace) to see into the future, Kaiba manages to systematically destroy Ishizu's deck using Crush Card (Deck Destruction Virus of Death in Japan) and Virus Cannon. Yet, Ishizu manages to play Exchange of the Spirit, forcing both players to switch their Decks with Graveyards, thus leaving Kaiba with only six cards in his deck and Ishizu with her most powerful cards because of Kaiba's virus cards. In desperation, Kaiba attempts to summon Obelisk, while Ishizu, knowing Kaiba's intention, applied the Blast Held by a Tribute trap on Obelisk that would force itself to self-destruct when it attacks, causing Kaiba to lose. When Kaiba summons Obelisk, however, Marik's Millennium Rod [Priest Seto (Kaiba's past life)'s Millennium item] gave him a flashback of his past self and a dead girl named Kisara in front of what seems to look like the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. He analyzes this and trusts in this card so he summons it even if it is a less-powerful card but still having sufficient power to win. Kaiba does so and wins. It is later revealed that Blue-Eyes is actually Kisara (Priest Seto's loved one)'s Ka monster. It also turns out that she sacrificed her life for Seto and her ka monster stayed loyal to Seto. This flashback was Kisara's way to save Seto's future destiny once more.

Afterwards, Yami Bakura (bearing the soul of regular Marik) attempted to defeat Yami Marik in order to win Marik's body back but ultimately lost to Ra's One-Turn Kill, sending Bakura to the Shadow Realm (in the Japanese version, he 'dies').

Vitural World Saga
Aboard Seto Kaiba's airship, the eight Battle City Finals duelists prepare to head for Alcatraz (KaibaCorp Island in the English dub), the site of the semifinal and final rounds of the Battle City (Yu-Gi-Oh!) tournament. However, the trip takes a mysterious wrong turn, and finds itself landing in an undersea fortress - apparently, a mysterious force is set on revenge against Kaiba. Forcing many of its passengers off the ship, the mysterious force leads them into another room, where they reveal themselves to be the Big 5, who are the five former board members of KaibaCorp, who were assumed to be fired by Kaiba sometime before the Battle City tournament for attempting to take over his company from underneath him.

The Big 5 seek revenge against Kaiba for firing them, as well as Yugi Muto (Yugi Mutou in the English manga) for foiling their plans to take over the company on two different occasions by defeating Maximillion Pegasus (Pegasus J. Crawford in the Japanese versions in Duelist Kingdom and the Big 5's Five God Dragon in Legendary Heroes). To do so, they force their participation in their own virtual Duel Monsters tournament, in a similar vein to Kaiba's Legendary Heroes games. There was also an added stipulation: if one of the protagonists were to lose, the Big 5 also threatened to take their bodies for themselves and escape into the real world.

It is also noted by the Big 5 that the virtual tournament would require virtual cards, and thus neither "Slifer the Sky Dragon" nor "Obelisk the Tormentor" could be used by Yugi or Seto Kaiba, although players could freely choose their decks before every duel.

As the group enter the virtual world, however, they find themselves separated: Yugi in a forest near a lake, Téa Gardner (Anzu Mazaki in the manga and the Japanese versions) in a canyon, Tristan Taylor (Hiroto Honda), Serenity Wheeler (Shizuka Kawai), and Duke Devlin (Ryuji Otogi) in and around a castle, Joey Wheeler (Katsuya Jonouchi) in a mansion, and Seto and Mokuba Kaiba in another forest. Each of the separated groups, as it would turn out, would face a different member of the Big 5.

As it turns out, the Big 5 are controlled by Noah Kaiba, the legitimate son of Gozaburo Kaiba, and stepbrother to Seto and Mokuba. Noah had died (or, in the English dub, had his body "rendered useless") in a traffic accident when he was young, but his mind was preserved in the virtual world. He believes that, as Gozaburo's biological son, he is the true legitimate heir to KaibaCorp, and that he, not Seto, should be the one running the family business.

How Noah enlists the help of the Big 5 is unclear, but it was implied that, as a result of the earlier encounter between them and the main characters, the minds of the Big 5 were similarly preserved in the virtual world (In the English dub, the Big 5 reveal that when Mythic Dragon — the monster at the end of the "Legendary Heroes" arc — was destroyed, so were their bodies, but not their minds). In the virtual world, each member of the Big 5 would use a different monster as their Deck Master and their personal avatar.

Gansley, a businessman with a penchant of quoting famous philosophers (in the original) or business acumen (in the English dub) would be the first to duel, against arguably the strongest of any of the main characters - Yugi. Despite wanting to choose his trusted Dark Magician, Kuriboh chooses itself as Yugi's Deck Master. Forced with this choice, Yugi proceeds to duel. Gansley's strategy to defeat Yugi was simple - by using a supposedly invincible sacrifice-and-revive combination, he could force Yugi's monsters to attack Yugi directly, without fear of being harmed. Yet, Yugi is persistent, and eventually has the last laugh - by combining Kuriboh (who Gansley dismissed as "weak") and Rainbow Blessing, Yugi could set up a play which could allow a monster to bypass Gansley's defenses, and attack Gansley directly, which he does to win the duel, using Swift Gaia the Fierce Knight.

As Yugi proceeds to find a way to reunite with his friends, Crump manages to trap Téa Gardner into a duel. Being a competent amateur player in her own right, she chooses a deck of all-female monsters, including "Dark Magician Girl" as her Deck Master, to which Crump scoffs at, citing it as an unwise decision, thinking that Dark Magician Girl would not be effective without her male counterpart (in the English dub, this is replaced by remarks suggesting a perversion towards young girls). As an additional catch, whenever either duelist lost Life Points, part of their body would be frozen, and encased in ice. Despite being at a disadvantage for most of the match, Dark Magician Girl would eventually help Téa by summoning herself to the field and using her own Deck Master ability, allowing Téa to draw the "Sage's Stone" card. With that card, Téa would summon Dark Magician from nearby Yugi's Deck (thus helping Yugi to find Téa) and win the duel.

With Yugi and Téa reunited, the focus shifts to Johnson, who is slated to face Joey Wheeler. Believing he finally escaped the virtual world, and eager to get his hands on Marik Ishtar for what he did to Mai Valentine (Mai Kujaku), Joey discovers that this was an elaborate trap set by Johnson, who proceeds to duel him. Johnson manages to get the upper hand in the duel through a combination of his Deck Master ability, "Clear the Courtroom" (which could, "at the cost of 1000 Life Points", clear the field of all cards), as well as the (somewhat illicit) ability of controlling the outcome of Joey's luck-based moves. Yet, just as it seems that Joey's luck was about to run out, Noah appears and insists that Johnson forfeit the duel for cheating. Joey, in the spirit of a "true" duelist, convinces Noah to let the match continue, knowing well that Johnson would not be able to cheat again, and eventually wins by outwitting Johnson at one of the mind games he claimed to be an expert at.

Tristan Taylor, Duke Devlin, and Serenity Wheeler manage to find each other, yet they find themselves faced off against Nezbitt, who wants to take Serenity's body for his own. With Tristan and Duke willing to protect Serenity from harm, they try to convince Nezbitt that they should take her place, but he settles on a three-on-one duel. Serenity, despite having never played in a duel herself, and knowing little about the rules, is relieved that Tristan and Duke would help her along, but miscommunication between Tristan and Duke would ultimately cost Tristan his Deck Master. Crestfallen over Tristan's sacrifice, Duke manages to use his dice tricks and his signature monster, "Orgoth the Relentless", to buy some time. Convinced by her older brother (who had managed to find her) that she, too, must fight in the spirit of a "true" duelist, Serenity vows to continue playing. Serenity would ultimately deal the final blow in the match, thanks to her Deck Master, "Goddess with the Third Eye", whose ability allowed her to Fusion Summon monsters without Polymerization, using the remnants of Tristan's playing field.

With Nezbitt having won Tristan's body, Nezbitt uses it to kidnap Mokuba, while Yugi and friends seek to restore Tristan, who now resides in the body of a robot monkey (which is actually a brown version of "Acrobat Monkey"). Kaiba, in pursuit of Nezbitt, encounters Leichter (Daimon), the last member of the Big 5. Eager to put Leichter aside, Kaiba tries to use his "Crush Card Virus" (Deck Destruction Virus of Death in the Japanese version) strategy against him, only to fail as he realizes that Leichter's Deck Master was "Jinzo" (Android Psychic Shocker), which destroys Trap Cards. Combined with "Imperial Order", a card that rendered Magic Cards useless, this left Kaiba with only Monster Cards. Furthermore, Leichter would use "Satellite Cannon", a monster that could only be destroyed by Level 8 monsters or above, and whose power increased the longer it is in play (but only while attacking), in an attempt to ensure his victory. However, Kaiba manages to summon "Blue-Eyes White Dragon", a Level 8 monster, in time, and uses it to destroy "Satellite Cannon" and win the duel.

Throughout the duel, the viewers learn of how Seto took over KaibaCorp: In the Japanese version, on Seto's birthday, he and Mokuba were given 2% shares in KaibaCorp. In the English dub, Seto was given ten million dollars; quite how Mokuba acquired 2% of KaibaCorp is never explained. In the Japanese version, Seto had to return one hundred times the investment within one year, while in the English dub, he merely had to return ten times the investment. Seto had shown his cruel business tactics when he accomplished his feat in just one day, and with that task completed, he managed to get the Big 5 into transferring their shares of KaibaCorp to Seto, so that both Seto and Gozaburo had 49% of the company each. However, Seto had blamed Mokuba for leaking the information out to Gozaburo (when in fact it was Seto himself), making Seto's attempt fruitless. When it seemd that Gozaburo had won, Mokuba then threw a bombshell of his own: he'd never turn his back on his brother, and combined with Seto's 49%, his 2% would be enough to oust Gozaburo from power. It is not completely clear what happened to Gozaburo after this; in both the Japanese and English versions he 'disappears', while in the manga, he commits suicide.

Noah manages to capitalize on Seto blaming Mokuba, and convinces Mokuba through brainwashing that Noah is his true big brother, and that Seto was a nobody. This is part of his plan to slowly take everything Seto has of value from him, and the Big 5 was simply a tool for his means - by making a false promise of bodies, he could manipulate the Big 5 as he wished.

Unaware of this, the Big 5 continued to try and take more bodies so that they would not have to share Tristan's, and manage to convince Yugi and Joey into a duel with everyone's bodies on the line, in a winner-take-all duel. During this duel, the Big 5 (who started with 8000 Life Points) manage to summon their signature monster, "Five God Dragon", by tributing their five respective Deck Masters. However, it is destroyed by "Mirage Knight", a monster that was summoned after Yugi and Joey were able to fuse "Dark Magician" and "Flame Swordsman" together (which were, respectively, Yugi and Joey's Deck Masters) to create "Dark Flare Knight", who destroyed itself by attacking "Five God Dragon" and taking no battle damage due to its effect, allowing "Mirage Knight" to be summoned. The duel, however, did not end, thanks to the Trap Card "A Deal with Dark Ruler", allowing the Big 5 to summon a new Deck Master, "Berserk Dragon" - a monster that gradually weakened the longer it stayed on the field. After surviving a round of attacks, Joey, who the Big 5 thought was the weaker link of the two, and was allowed to survive on 300 Life Points, would set up "Dark Magician" by transforming him into "Dark Magician Knight" by using the Magic Card, "Knight's Title", allowing him to use his Deck Master's special ability (which, he explains, would only work on Warrior-Type monsters) and was able to transfer most of the ATK of "Flame Swordsman" directly to "Dark Magician Knight", which was enough to destroy "Berserk Dragon" and win the duel.

With the Big 5 defeated, Noah banishes the five and takes matters into his own hands. He challenges Seto directly, fully intending to take his body in order to escape the virtual world, and claim the position that he believes he deserves. Noah tells Seto that he would win in seven turns, with each turn representing each of the seven days of creation (this detail, like all other religious references, was removed from the English dub). Despite Noah's choice of "Shinato's Ark" (Miracle Ark) as his Deck Master (from which Noah's arc, the affectionate nickname for this story arc, is derived), Seto manages to get into a position in which one of his monsters could attack either of Noah's two monsters and win the duel. However, Mokuba suddenly appears to support Noah, effectively stopping Seto from attacking Noah's monsters for fear that Mokuba would be hurt.

Because of this, Seto had effectively played into Noah's hands: Noah was never in any danger of losing the duel, thanks to another of his Deck Master's abilities that gave him Life Points based on the number of discarded monsters. Now with the upper hand, Noah begins to take control of the duel. Meanwhile, Seto attempts to get through to his brainwashed brother, to no avail. With one last hope, Seto summons his "Blue-Eyes White Dragon", which manages to break Mokuba free of Noah's control. Yet, thanks to his Deck Master, Noah's Life Points continue to rise. Desperate, Seto uses "Last Turn" to force the duel into one final winner-take-all Battle Phase. Seto chooses "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" to attack while Noah chooses his Deck Master to defend. Although "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" wins the battle, the destruction of "Shinato's Ark" allowed Noah to summon "Shinato, King of a Higher Plane", a more powerful monster that destroys "Blue-Eyes White Dragon", allowing Noah to win the duel. As a token of his victory and his apparent worthiness of the title of head of KaibaCorp, Noah turns Seto and Mokuba to stone.

Yugi, however, is enraged over Noah's actions: had Seto not tributed "Different Dimension Dragon" (Twilight Zone Dragon), the duel would have been a draw, since this dragon cannot be destroyed in battle (in the real game, it cannot be destroyed by monsters with 1900 ATK or less). Instead, "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" was summoned so that Seto would save Mokuba (in the English dub, this detail was omitted - Yugi is enraged over how Seto had effectively been blackmailed by Noah earlier when he had used Mokuba as a human shield). He challenges Noah to continue the duel, with Yugi taking Seto's place. With Life Points being 7400-400 in favour of Noah, and no monsters on Seto Kaiba's side of the field (and no cards in his hand), Noah gladly accepts, intending to quickly win, and turn both Yugi and his friends to stone. Should Yugi win, however, he demands that everyone be set free from the virtual world.

Having to duel against a different kind of duelist in Yugi, Noah uses Spirit Monsters, a type of monster that returns to the hand at the end of the turn, and the "Spring of Rebirth" Magic Card to attack Yugi and increase his own Life Points in the process. Although Yugi manages to use "Cyber Jar" to destroy all of Noah's monsters, including "Shinato, King of a Higher Plane" (which Seto forced Noah to Summon to the field as a result of Noah needing a target to declare as a defender for the effect of "Last Turn"), Noah uses another Deck Master ability to pull "Shinato, King of a Higher Plane" back to the sidelines, but with the caveat that Noah now cannot Summon "Shinato, King of a Higher Plane" back to the field for the remainder of the duel. Because of his Spirit Monsters, "Spring of Rebirth", and another Deck Master ability, Noah's Life Points continue to accumulate to the point that Noah simply allows Yugi to directly attack him every turn - an effort that turned largely fruitless as Noah would manage to gain even more Life Points.

Being confident of himself, Noah offers Yugi a chance to forfeit the duel, but for every turn that Yugi continues to play in which Noah is not defeated, one of Yugi's friends would be turned into stone. With time running out, Yugi ends up in a situation where he has 100 Life Points to Noah's 10,000, facing off against Noah's most powerful Spirit Monster (which stayed on the field due to a Trap Card), with nothing on the field and no cards in his hand. Worse, all of his friends are eventually turned turned to stone. It seemed all but lost for Yugi, when he is reminded that even though all of his friends (Seto and Mokuba included) are turned to stone, they are still there in spirit to cheer him on. With a new-found confidence, Yugi draws "Card of Sanctity", allowing Yugi to draw six cards. With these six cards, he revives Seto Kaiba's "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" and fuses it with the two "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" he has drawn to form "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon", and he uses his fifth card, "Quick Attack", to allow "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon" to attack Noah's monster immediately. He then uses his final card, "De-Fusion", to split "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon" back into three "Blue-Eyes White Dragons", and attacks directly with all three, winning the duel.

With the duel won, Yugi demands that Noah free everyone from the virtual world. However, Noah reveals to everyone that, in the process of entering the virtual world, they were all knocked out and placed in virtual reality pods (not unlike those used by Seto in the Legendary Heroes arc). Everyone is later shocked to find that it was Gozaburo, or at least, a digitized copy thereof, who had attempted to trap everyone in a complicated plan to take over the world by trapping everyone in the virtual world (In the Japanese version, Gozaburo was going to use missiles positioned in space to manipulate the world to his will). Desperate to tell the world of Gozaburo's impending atrocity, they are determined more than ever to escape the virtual world. With Noah willing to help Yugi and company despite his duplicity, they follow him to a large door that was said to be a secret backdoor that Gozaburo had not discovered and closed. However, Noah's true colors are revealed as they trap Yugi and friends within their own recent memories, although all would eventually free themselves from the trap.

Meanwhile, Noah and Mokuba discover a virtual replica of Domino, in which Noah tricks Mokuba in order to escape the virtual world in Mokuba's body. Noah (as Mokuba) then aims a missile-armed satellite in order to destroy the undersea fortress (and thus the virtual world), and proceeds to leave on a helicopter alone. However, once there, he experiences a change of heart due to Mokuba's willingness to forgive Noah (and even helps convince Seto to find a way to create a new, if somewhat artificial, body for Noah), and proceeds back into the fortress, only to find the satellite controls having been destroyed by Marik. With only 60 minutes until the fortress is destroyed, Noah begins working on a way to save everyone.

Meanwhile, Seto, being too smart to fall for their trap, proceeds to the virtual KaibaCorp headquarters, where Gozaburo waited. Gozaburo challenges Seto to a duel to see who was worthier of running KaibaCorp (similar to how Seto had played chess with him as a child). Gozaburo quickly finds a way to discard the five pieces of "Exodia the Forbidden One" (using "Painful Choice") in order to summon "Exodia Necross", a monster which, as long as the five pieces of "Exodia the Forbidden One" were in the Graveyard, it is immune to virtually every card (The Left Leg, Right Leg, and Left Arm granted Necross immunities to Magic Cards, Trap Cards, and Monster Effects respectively) and grew more powerful with every battle it was involved in (Exodia's Head prevented it from being destroyed from a monster attack while the Right Arm ensured that its ATK increased by 1000 points whenever it engaged in battle).

Although Exodia Necross seemed unstoppable, Seto realized that, like himself with "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" so long ago - ironically before his defeat at the hands of Exodia, Gozaburo is using the power of only one monster, believing that it alone would win the battle for him. By using the "Soul Demolition" Trap Card, Seto manages to remove the five parts of Exodia from play from Gozaburo's Graveyard, weakening it so that "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" could destroy it and win the duel.

As the countdown to impact reaches eight minutes, Joey, Tristan, Téa, Duke, and Serenity manage to escape the virtual world thanks to Noah's help, but Noah asks Yugi to stay behind to help save Seto. With everyone safely out, Noah then proceeds to put himself back in the Virtual Reality pod in order to save Mokuba and trap Gozaburo in the virtual world. Yugi and company make it back to the airship, which escapes just in time to avoid being destroyed by the missile.

The airship proceeds towards the Battle City Finals, completing the originally-planned trip. Meanwhile, Mokuba mourns for the stepbrother that he only briefly knew.

Battle City Finals Saga
In the semifinal round, taking place upon Alcatraz Tower (not titled in the English anime, in which it is known only as "KaibaCorp Island"), a special, massive mechanical tower located on a lone island, the four duelists fought in Battle Royal mode, with the first two losers playing in the first semifinal and the two survivors playing in the second. Both Marik and Kaiba wanted to duel Yugi for their own reasons, while Yugi wanted to duel Joey so that he couldn't duel Marik. Joey, however, wanted to duel Marik in hopes he could free Mai from the Shadow Realm (and, in the process, get revenge on Marik). The four-way duel started with Kaiba going first, Marik 2nd, Yugi 3rd, and Joey 4th. Joey did well in the beginning turns of the duel, mainly thanks to Yugi's intervention. However, Joey finally convinced Yugi to let him play without his guidance so that he could prove to himself that he didn't need Yugi's help to duel well against the best of the best. During the next turn, Joey was able to set up the duel so that, in his attack on Kaiba, he deflected the damage done to himself into Marik, making him the first loser. In addition to this, he took out his only monster while attacking Kaiba, who, in the next turn, destroyed all of Joey's life points. In the end, Joey (and by extension, Kaiba) got what they wanted.

In the first semifinal Marik vs. Joey (Marik Ishtar vs. Joey Wheeler) like Mai, Joey was subject to a Shadow Game, with each duelist being drained of life as each monster is destroyed. As Joey is pushed back by Marik's traps and monster effects, Joey manages to create a short comeback with reviving Jinzo after Marik is unable to name it as the bottom card of his graveyard with the effect of Question, and later with Gilford the Lightning. However, the comeback was short-lived as Marik revives Ra and uses its Egyptian God Phoenix and One Turn Kill abilities to bring Joey to the brink of defeat. However, Joey, to Marik's surprise, manages to remain standing, and he summons Gearfried the Iron Knight in an effort to attack a wide-open Marik. However, Joey collapses before making his attack, and Marik wins. Had this duel not been a Shadow Game, Joey would have won.

As Yugi prepares to face Kaiba, Téa informs Yami that she would rather he didn't Duel, as she is afraid of what might happen to him, but Yami tells her he need to Duel Kaiba to Duel Marik so he can save the world and she understands and lets him go. She stays back with everyone to try and help Joey but is still cheering Yugi on.

With Joey being in critical condition (in the English anime, he is said to be "fighting the shadows" of the Shadow Realm), Yugi is forced to battle Kaiba when more pressing matters were at stake (namely, Jonouchi's health). The Yugi vs. Kaiba (Yami Yugi vs. Seto Kaiba) duel was evenly-matched, as Yugi's attempt to summon Slifer was countered by Kaiba's attempt to summon Obelisk. The two God cards would be summoned in successive turns, and after more jockeying for power with magic cards, the two evenly-matched God cards would destroy each other. With both God cards gone, Kaiba resorts to summoning his three Blue-Eyes White Dragons, while Yugi would have Red-Eyes Black Dragon, Joey's "soul card". Kaiba would force the duel to end by playing Final Attack Orders, making both players discard all but three cards from their decks and prohibiting the defense mode. Using his three cards, Yugi manages to combine Dark Magician (Black Magician in Japan) with Buster Blader to form Dark Paladin (Black Paladin in Japan), and, along with Diffusion Wave-Motion, to win the duel. As the tournament rules states, Kaiba is forced to give up Obelisk.

During the duel, as Red-Eyes Black Dragon was being played, Joey manages to regain consciousness. In the Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duel Monsters anime (but not in the manga), he promptly challenges Kaiba to a duel for third place, just for fun. Kaiba declines, believing that dueling Joey would be beneath him, but Joey manages to convince him to duel. Although Kaiba would win, Joey reveals that Kaiba had simply allowed anger to get the best of him in both his duel with Yugi and with Joey (as witnessed by him once taking control of Blue Eyes White Dragon in their duel - a card considered to be Kaiba's prized possessions, and Kaiba using another Blue Eyes to destroy it).

Near the end of Yugi and Kaiba's Duel Joey wakes up and at first doesn't remember anything but slowly does. Then he asks Téa if Yugi started the Duel yet.She tells him he did and Joey wants to go immediately. Just then the doctors show up,but Joey demands to go and Téa tells him not to because so many people got hurt and he was just in critical condition. Joey says he made a promise to Yugi and he has to be there for him which reminds her of what Yami told her before his Duel. Then Joey, Téa and Tristan go to the Duel Tower just in time to see the ending of Yugi's Duel.

Since Yugi won he moves onto the finals to Duel Yami Marik but first Joey challenges Kaiba to a Duel to see who gets third place. Before the Duel starts Marik takes over Téa body so he can go talk to Ishizu. He then tells Ishizu that he needs to confront Yami Marik and runs off to the Duel Tower to do so. Yami Marik is already up there trying to figure out what happened during Yugi and Kaiba's Duel then he gets annoyed and throws the rod, which lands near Téa. She picks it up and is holding it up at Yami Marik while Marik is talking to him. Yami Marik ends up getting the rod back, and he tries to get rid of Marik with the rod. Then Ishizu comes up just in time to stop him. Marik then tells Ishizu to forget about him and stops taking control of Téa. She is knocked out for a while, and Yami comes up to find out what happened to Téa and starts talking to Yami Marik, and he eventually leaves. Yami then talks to Ishizu about what was going on, and Téa wakes up not knowing what happened. Yugi decides to not tell her that Marik was taking control of her. They go back down to see how Joey's Duel was going and they tell her that he lost so they get ready for Yugi's Duel with Marik.

Before the final Yugi vs. Marik (Yami Yugi vs. Marik Ishtar) match takes place Kaiba is convinced Yugi cannot win, yet he cannot allow Marik to win, both for his personal reasons and for the greater good. He believes he has the perfect card to defeat Ra, being Devil's Sanctuary (Fiend's Sanctuary), which he gives to Yugi. Again, Marik turns the duel into a shadow game, in which the loser must forfeit their alter-ego. Marik discards Ra in his first turn, with the intention of reviving Ra for one turn at a time. Yugi, meanwhile, manages to quickly summon Slifer, but Marik simply revives Ra to deal with it. Marik then tries to use Ra's One Turn Kill against Yugi, but Yugi forces Marik to stop the attack with Devil's Sanctuary, creating a token so that, when attacked, would redirect the damage to Marik, causing him to lose. Marik saved himself by playing De-Fusion (Marik is considered to be fused with Ra when utilizing the One Turn Kill ability) - thus, all of Ra's attack points are transferred to Marik's life points, and Ra, without any attack points, deals no damage to Marik. Yugi then quickly turns one token to three with Multiply, summoning Obelisk with them, and reducing Marik's life points to 700.

Yugi's triumph would be short-lived, as Marik would combine Metal Reflect Slime and Revival Jam to create an indestructible "Egyptian God Slime". With Yugi unable to attack with Obelisk, Marik revives Ra once again to destroy Obelisk, but Yugi revives Slifer to block the attack (The move would be illegal in the real game). Then Yugi uses Soul Taker to defuse and sacrifice the God Slime, allowing Obelisk to use its special ability, Soul Energy Max, which would give Yugi an automatic victory should Obelisk's attack be successful. The attack fails, but Marik manages to revive Ra once again. This time, Yugi sacrifices Obelisk and another monster for his trusty Dark Magician, and along with Dark Magician Girl (Black Magician Girl in Japan), activate Ragnarok (Dusk of all Cards in Japan), which allows, at the expense of all his monsters, Yugi to finally destroy Ra, and, as Marik was using One Turn Kill at the time, most of Marik with it. The two sides of Marik begin to fight, the good side attempting to take control and allowing Yugi to attack as a way to atone for his actions, while the evil side attempting to stop Yugi's attack. With the help of a strugging Odion, the good side prevails. When the smoke clears, the good Marik has control of the body, and the Dark Marik is now his sacrifice. Marik forfeits his sole remaining life point, destroying his other self, leaving Yugi the last man standing. Yugi is now the owner of the three God cards, as well as the keys to unlocking the nameless Pharaoh's past.

With the tournament behind him, Kaiba prepares to destroy the duel tower - the supposed place of his victory over the past before Yugi had beaten him, and the place where his hatred now resided. As the airship could not function, everyone was effectively trapped on the island - if it were not for a helicopter that had managed to arrive as Jonouchi was recovering from his duel with Marik. Everyone would part ways soon after, Marik, Ishizu, and Odion back to Egypt to start a new life, Duke back to the United States to sell his Dungeon Dice Monsters game, Kaiba and Mokuba to build their new American amusement park, and the rest to new adventures. Marik surrenders his Millennium Rod to Yugi and also gives him the Millennium Ring, which Dark Marik won from his duel against Bakura. Yugi has also acquired the three most powerful cards: Slifer the Sky Dragon, Obelisk the Tormentor, and the Winged Dragon of Ra. However, the story did not end here as another menace awaits them.

The following day Téa was showing Serenity around town and remembering everything that happened during Battle City. Serenity eventually has to leave. Téa is sad at first, but Serenity tells her that it's ok and that they will always be friends. After Serenity leaves Téa is thinking about how she's not ready to say goodbye to Yugi and realizes that she should just enjoy the time she has left with him. Then she catches up with Yami.

Waking the Dragons Saga
Téa is on the roof of the school wondering why Yugi left early. Joey and Tristan come up; they're wondering the same thing. Between classes, Yami took control of Yugi's body and skipped out of school to go to the museum, with Egyptian God Cards to uncover his memories. Yugi asked why they were going alone. Yami replied that it would be too depressing to say goodbye and just wants Yugi to see him off. (In the English version, there was no mention of why they were going alone. Instead Yami said that he felt the Egyptain God Cards pulling him to the museum.) However, Téa, Joey and Tristan caught up with him outside the museum and reminded him that they are a team. Inside Yami held the Egyptian God cards up to the tablet, but something held him back. The group heard a scream and dashed outside, finding a large number of living Duel Monsters in the city.

One night, a group of perpetrators break into the Kame Game Shop and steal the three God Cards from Yugi's grandfather Solomon Muto, who had been given the cards for safekeeping. Giving chase to the thieves, they eventually encounter Gurimo, a mysterious man in a cape. Gurimo is collecting souls for the group, and plans to collect the souls of duelists by defeating them in a duel. To this end, he uses "The Seal of Orichalcos" card, a Field Magic Card that could not be dispelled and prevented outside interference, with only the winner of the duel being able to escape and the loser having his soul taken by the Seal. Although Gurimo manages to unleash the power of "Obelisk the Tormentor" against its former owner, Yugi eventually wins the duel but ultimately fails to recover the God Cards.

The God Cards eventually arrive in the hands of Dartz, who sacrifices their power to awaken his Great Beast, The Great Leviathan.

The next day they run into Rebecca, and she calls Yugi her boyfriend, which Téa doesn't like. She takes them to see Professor Hawkins,who starts talking about how the monsters coming to life could have something to do with Atlantis. After that, everyone heads home.

Later they're all at Yugi's house. Yugi gets a package from Pegasus with a video. Pegasus asks Yugi to come and see him right away. The next day they go on a private jet then in a limo. The limo breaks down so they have to walk for a while, Téa is able to get a driver to stop and give them a ride to Industrial Illusions.

The third Legendary Dragon, "The Claw of Hermos", would be unlocked by Joey Wheeler (Katsuya Jonouchi): when Yugi and his friends receive a video from Pegasus (as it turns out, shortly before he is defeated and his soul sealed), who implores Yugi and his friends to travel to America and retrieve a card holding the key to defeating their then-unknown threat. At Pegasus' Industrial Illusions HQ however, they are locked inside the building, where Mai Valentine (Mai Kujaku) emerges to battle Joey. During this duel, Yugi & friends discover that Mai had been wandering the Earth after their Battle City tournament: although she finished in the Top 8 she was always overshadowed by Joey, and continually traumatized by her loss to Marik Ishtar (in which she was physically and emotionally seriously scarred). Determined to become stronger at any cost and never wanting to lose another duel again, Mai eventually wound up with Dartz, eagerly accepting his offer of becoming stronger, not realizing that the power of the Orichalcos would be her undoing.

The change in Mai's behavior would, as it turns out, be partially due to Valon, the second of Doma's three Swordsmen, who had cared for Mai in her time of need, and wanted her to move on with her life by defeating Joey (effectively also doing his work for her). When Joey appears to have the upper hand in the Duel (thanks to "The Claw of Hermos"), Valon uses his Orichalcos stone to break the seal, rendering the match a no-contest and allowing both Mai and Joey's souls to survive.

Meanwhile, Duke Devlin, accompanied by Weevil Underwood (Insector Haga) and Rex Raptor (Dinosaur Ryuzaki), would manage to break into the building and unlock the doors. Seto and Mokuba Kaiba would also appear, and all of them would help Yugi find the card that Pegasus claimed would help Yugi end the threat of Doma - yet, when they find it, it is blank.

The third swordsman, Rafael, would later challenge Yugi. Rafael claimed that Yugi and his friends are fighting for the wrong cause, and that Rafael was a noble hero out to save the world. He claimed that mankind was inherently evil, and that the Orichalcos exposed the darkness within the souls of mankind - thus the need for them to be sealed by "The Seal of Orichalcos".

However, as Yugi dueled, he finds himself easily outmatched by Rafael's Guardian Monsters, which he refused to allow to go to the card graveyard. After Rafael plays the Spell Card "Exchange", Yugi finds himself with "The Seal of Orichalcos" in his hand. Not wanting to lose yet not wanting to play the Seal, the two souls of Yugi would debate over whether to use the card. Blinded by the desire to win at any cost, Yami (in control of Yugi's body during the Duel) ignores Yugi's pleas and plays the Seal in order to power up his monsters. Using the ability of "Catapult Turtle", he sacrifices monster after monster to wear away at Rafael's Life Points, even sacrificing his trusted "Dark Magician" and "Dark Magician Girl" in the process. Yet, Rafael is able to survive and use the situation to his advantage by summoning "Guardian Eatos". Eatos would use the spirits of Yugi's own monsters to defeat Yugi.

As the Seal slowly circles around the fallen Pharaoh, however, Yugi realizes that two souls reside within one body, and allows the seal to take him instead, sacrificing himself so that the Pharaoh would survive. Meanwhile, Weevil and Rex, after seeing the power of the Orichalcos, seek to have the power for themselves.

The Pharaoh, despite the attempts of his friends to cheer him up, became distraught over the loss of his other self. Meanwhile, as the Pharaoh and company continue to travel.They are on a train to Florida. Most of the time Téa is trying to help Pharaoh from being upset about Yugi while she herself is also upset. Weevil isolating Yami and Téa Gardner (Anzu Mazaki), while Rex finding Joey and Tristan Taylor (Hiroto Honda). Thus, the two Duelist Kingdom rematches were slated to begin, only with much more on the line. While Joey would have little trouble dispatching Rex with the help of his "Claw of Hermos", Timaeus would seemingly abandon the Pharaoh, forcing him to win the duel without it. He would ultimately prevail against Weevil with the help of "Breaker the Magical Warrior", which, along with its ability and "Berserker Soul", allowed it to attack Weevil repeatedly as long as the Pharaoh drew and discarded monsters - which he did ruthlessly. Téa would implore the Pharaoh to stop - long after he had beaten Weevil - just as Yami was about to discard "Dark Magician Girl". Just then, however, the moving train would head off a cliff, although they would survive, having been rescued by a mysterious person.

When the Pharaoh came to, his saviour would be revealed as Ironheart. Ironheart would lead the Pharaoh into the Valley of Lost Souls, where he found the spirit of Yugi. Yugi confronts the Pharaoh, and implores him to face himself through a duel, with both players sharing the same deck. In this duel, Yugi would bring forth "The Seal of Orichalcos", and would use a similar strategy to what the Pharaoh had used against Rafael. The Pharaoh ultimately wins the duel after successfully countering Yugi's moves. Despite not wanting to lose Yugi again, the Pharaoh promises to save him.

Just as he was about to leave, however, Dartz, who had been observing the Pharaoh's activities, conjures a spell to bring forth an Orichalcos Soldier. While dueling the Orichalcos Soldier, however, the Pharaoh realizes that Timaeus is his only hope of winning, yet he cannot use it as he does not have the card in his deck (after having given it to Ironheart, believing him to be unworthy of the card's power). Ironheart and his family (consisting of grand-daughter Chris and pet wolf Skye) would sacrifice their lives to deliver the card to Yugi, who uses it successfully to defeat the Orichalcos Soldier. With the darkness within himself defeated, the Pharaoh could finally move on, and hope to find and rescue Yugi, wherever he may be. After a while they just focus on finding Joey and Tristan.

Kaiba's company was taken over by Dartz. Joey runs off to Duel Valon and Mai. While Joey Duels, Tristan, Téa, and the Pharaoh go to look for him.

Valon, in his perspective, saw Joey as the big obstacle in Mai's life, and vowed to take him down in her honor, while Joey wants to take down Valon, believing that Doma is to blame for turning Mai against him. When their duel inevitably begins, Valon uses his deck of Armor Monsters - mostly 0 ATK and mostly 0 DEF monsters with devastating effects, to literally form a suit of armor around himself, intending to literally beat Joey senseless. Likewise, Joey is forced to defend himself with a suit of armor of his own, formed from his trusted Red-Eyes Black Dragon. The two would physically punish each other throughout the match, with Joey coming out in front.

The duel between Valon and Joey would arouse Mai's interest, and Joey would be forced to duel her in order to set the record straight. Joey, tired and physically beaten from the previous duel, is unable to concentrate on the duel, yet manages to deal serious damage to Mai - yet, he manages to reach out to her just as Joey is about to lose. Mai would ultimately not attack Joey (and win the duel), but Joey collapses in exhaustion, allowing "The Seal of Orichalcos" to take his soul. Taking the fallen Hermos with her, she proceeds to confront Rafael, the last of the three swordsmen, where it is implied that her soul was also taken. But when they find him he already lost his soul.

When Rafael confronts the Pharaoh again, he hands the Pharaoh "The Claw of Hermos" (which he had picked up from Mai's soul-less body), and promises to defeat the Pharaoh like he did before. This time, however, it is instead Rafael who uses the "The Seal of Orichalcos", to the Pharaoh's horror (up to that point, it seemed that Rafael was not the type of person who would use such a card); after Timaeus detroyed Eatos, and like the Pharaoh before, Rafael would proceed to sacrifice his trusted Guardians, all to power up his deadliest Guardian, "Guardian Dreadscythe" - a guardian who could be revived simply by discarding a single card. Determined to set Rafael free, and see the errors of his ways, the Pharaoh takes it upon himself to destroy Dreadscythe by any means necessary, and he does so with the combined power of Hermos and "Guardian Eatos" - Rafael's most trusted Guardian.

With Rafael seeing the error of his ways, he uses a final magic card to resummon all his Guardians, at the cost of the remainder of his life points. Though Rafael loses, his soul is surprisingly not taken since he found the light in himself, as souls are taken because of the darkness inside of someone. Rafael proceeds to tell the Pharaoh and company where to find Dartz.

After Pharaoh's Duel with Rafael the gang goes to Dartz in Kaiba's helicopter. Kaiba and the Pharaoh Duel Dartz; after Kaiba loses the Duel the Pharaoh continues while Téa, Tristan, and Mokuba are unconscious.After Yami wins the duel, the souls of Yugi, Joey, and Kaiba are liberated from the Orichalcos, Dartz sacrifices his own soul, allowing the Great Leviathan to be revived and fusing himself with the Great Beast to control it.

Mokuba, Tristan, and Téa wake up. Seeing Yugi back they have a group hug. Then they're off to finish off Dartz. Téa wishes Yugi good luck as he, along with Joey and Kaiba, have their final battle with Dartz. She tells Mokuba to stay with them,while Kaiba,Yugi and Joey battle Dartz. After the duel is over Tea,Mokuba ,Seto,Joey and Trustan are reunited wIth Yugi on the beach.

Grand Championship Saga

Capsule Monsters Saga

Dawn of the Duel Saga