Mokuba Kaiba

Mokuba Kaiba (海馬 モクバ) is a character appearing in Yu-Gi-Oh! Season 0 and Yu-Gi-Oh1 Duel Monsters. He is Seto's younger brother.

Personality
At the beginning of the manga, Mokuba is very mean and will go as far as trying to trick Yugi Muto to get back at him for defeating his older brother. Mokuba is a gamer who specializes in Capsule Monsters Chess (Capmon), but is not as good of a gamer as his brother. He is so committed to avenging his brother's humiliation, he uses several extreme measures, such as having his friends brandish a machine gun, a knife, and a stun gun in one manga chapter to coerce Yugi to play Capsule Monster Chess with him.

In Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, Mokuba is eternally devoted to his brother Seto Kaiba and is constantly by his side. He is more naive and good-natured, and will do whatever his brother tells him to. He also seems to trust Yugi and his friends more than he did previously. There is a part in one episode when he saw (Yami) Yugi watching him from another building when he was about to kick some brothers out of the Battle City grounds, when he considered, "You know, I bet Yugi would give them another chance!" He must really respect Yugi as he starts to think like him.

In the original Japanese version of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, Mokuba tends to omit honorifics when referring to people other than his older brother. He also has a habit of calling Jonouchi "Jōnouchi no yarō"; (that bastard Jonouchi). Mokuba politely refers to his older brother as "nii-sama" (honorable older brother). He is very forgiving, especially to his brother. Even after Noah hypnotized him, and brainwashed him into forgetting who Seto and the others were, Mokuba forgave him and treated him like a brother (they are actually step brothers)

In the second series Yu-Gi-Oh! anime (Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters), Mokuba is a kind-hearted boy who is naïve to the ways of the world. He succeeds in befriending Yugi and his friends; his brother does not approve of this. Mokuba does not duel in the first series anime. He only duels in the second series and manga. Mokuba has an unlucky streak of being kidnapped by Seto's enemies forcing Seto to show his kinder side and rescue him, and is, in fact, the only person his brother is shown to consistently care about more than anyone or anything.

Background
At a young age, Mokuba and Seto were orphaned. Their actual surnames are unknown. Their mother died when Mokuba was born. Their father died supposedly in an accident when Seto was eight. Their relatives used up their inheritance and left them at the city orphanage.

Seto was bright and intelligent, which led to many prospective parents wanting to adopt him, but Seto swore to protect his brother at all costs, and wanted Mokuba adopted with him, which all had refused. Whenever bullies would pick on Mokuba, Seto would always stick up for him, including jumping a child to get back a toy plane that he had taken from Mokuba.

Although Mokuba was insistently happy at the orphanage, Seto had always aspired greater things for both of them and looked to the future.

When the former head of the Kaiba Corporation, arrived at the orphanage to perform a publicity stunt, Seto saw the chance to challenge him a game of chess, with Gozaburo forced to adopt Seto and Mokuba should he win. Mokuba was five at the time. Seto won by studying Gozaburo's chess methods.

Six years later, Seto took over the company. In the second series anime, it showed that he had used Mokuba to do so. Seto planned gaining 51% of the company in order to overthrow Gozaburo. Seto deliberately leaked this information to Gozaburo and accused Mokuba of telling Gozaburo. Mokuba sided with Gozaburo, who allowed Seto to gain 49% of the company, believing that Mokuba would give him his 2%. Gozaburo was fond of making his enemies think they were winning against him so they would look worse when he beat them, which Seto based his plan around. As Seto planned, Mokuba switched sides last minute giving his 2% to Seto.

Duelist Kingdom Saga
Mokuba was originally imprisoned by Pegasus on a high tower in Duelist Kingdom, in order to force Seto Kaiba to come and duel Pegasus to rescue Mokuba. However, Mokuba escapes from the tower by a rope of knotted bedsheets, which only go a small way down the tower. After a rather nasty fall, Mokuba steals a boy's deck and his star chips, leaving him to be kicked off the island. Yugi and his friends find the boy and promise to help him. They go back to the scene of the crime. Mokuba jumps out of the bushes and challenges Yugi to a Duel. The only cards he played were Man-Eating Plant and Krokodilus. Mokuba's identity then gets found out, and he explains that after Yugi beat Seto in a Duel, his brother had gone away and abandoned him, and that it was all Yugi's fault.

Yugi begins to preach, but he looks up and realizes Mokuba has disappeared. Mokuba reappears next to Yugi and steals his star chips. Yugi gets Mokuba to see the error of his ways, and they all run to try and not let the boy get kicked off the island. All they succeed in doing is getting Mokuba captured again. Yugi agrees to duel for his freedom, and wins. But Pegasus's thug, Kemo, takes Mokuba anyway, and lock him in a deep, dark dungeon.

Seto reaches him, and just as he is about to free Mokuba, Pegasus shows up and steals Mokuba's soul, forcing Seto to duel Yugi in a largely unfair match with Mokuba's soul on the line. Seto gains an advantage through Crush Card and Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and is set to win, when Yami counters with an indestructible wall of Kuribohs through Multiply, keeping his Life Points safe. Yami then backs him into a corner by "fusing" his Mammoth Graveyard with Ultimate Dragon, making it decay and lose 1200 attack points each turn because they couldn't properly fuse. In desperation Seto backs away to stand at the castle's edge, telling Yugi he will die with his dragons, implying that if he couldn't save Mokuba, his life wasn't worth living. (In the English version, Seto backed on to the ledge, knowing Yugi wouldn't attack him and let him get hurt, therefore letting Kaiba win the match). Not wanting to see Seto die, Yugi allows him to win the duel, only to see Seto lose his soul to Pegasus after Téa won Yugi the right to enter into the main castle. In the end, Mokuba gets his brother back, and Seto wins his soul back as well.

Legendary Heroes Saga
Seto and Mokuba come back from Duelist Kingdom and go back to KaibaCorp. Seto goes straight to the Big Five to get revenge on them for what they did to him and Mokuba. They manage to convince him that they did what they did to help Kaiba, not hurt him. To prove this, they tell him that they have finished the virtual world stimulator that they had been working on. Kaiba, who became very eager to test it out, decided to wait to fire them after he tested the stimulator. Mokuba was very against it, but Kaiba decided to do it anyway. While inside, it became very apparant to Kaiba that the Big Five had rewired the stimulator and he became caught by a ninja.

Mokuba, realizing it was a trap, swiped Kaiba's deck from the chair and ran to get help. He recruited Yugi and his friends to help him. They went to Kaiba's personal lab for more chair stimulators to get into the virtual world. Mokuba, Yugi, and Joey entered the world while Tea and Tristen stayed behind to stand guard.

When inside, they first enter a graveyard where they run into 3 monsters. Mokuba shows Yugi and Joey how to summon a monster. They then run into a fairy Named Iru that leads that to an old town. In there, Yugi suggests they split up to look around the town for clues about Kaiba. An old lady told Mokuba that she saw someone with a prisoner going towards a mountain and the only way to get there was to cross a large desert.

They try crossing the desert that’s after the town but get hit by a twister. They all end up back at the town with Mokuba shaken from the twister. An old man tells them that to cross the desert they need a special monster, a Niwatori card. In order to get it they must enter a tournament and win against the champion, Madame Butterfly. Joey goes up against the champ using the name Senor Porky. The champion turns out to be Mai, and then she realizes it’s Joey she decides to help them out by getting the card by force and the running for it. While crossing the desert they run into a monster but Joey gets rid of it.

When they finally reach the temple after the desert Mokuba runs towards it, desperate to see his brother again. when everyone catches up to him they open a door inside the temple and see a maze. they soon hear a girl scream, making Joey run to help her. However, they are all ambushed by labyrinth tanks and only manage to escape thanks to Yugi using Magical Hats. they then see Iru again and it leads them to a princess named Adina, who looks exactly like Mokuba (except a girl). They then find the exit but it is blocked by a Gate Gaurdian. Yugi and Joey defeat it using polymerization on Red-Eyes Black Dragon and the Summoned Skull and then adding Dragon Nails.

Adina, thankful that they had saved her, took took them to her castle where they discussed the Heroes of Legend. Soon, however, the castle is surrounded by monsters. One of them captures Mokuba, who was dressed up like Princess Adina and then taken to the castlein the sky, to where Kaiba is.

Upon meeting his brother, Mokuba set him free and gave back his deck. Kaiba disapproved of Mokuba asking Yugi for help and wasn’t thankful to Yugi, Joey, or Mai. Unfortunately, the Big Five decide to make the Mythic Dragon appear even though there were no sacrifices. The dragons first target is the person who doesn’t have any monsters to defend himself with: Mokuba. Joey, however, ordered his Red-Eyes Black Dragon to take the hit therefore losing the game and disappearing. Then Mai gets hit and is taken. Yugi tries to convince Kaiba work with him by summoning his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon but Kaiba refuses. The Mythic Dragon goes to attack Kaiba, but Mokuba, the only one realizing that the attack was for Seto, pushed Seto out of the way but got hit, leaving his brother devastated.

In the end, Kaiba and Yugi worked together and defeated the mythic dragon. Afterwards, Adina turns out to be the Mystical Elf, and brought back Joey, Mai, and Mokuba. Reunited at last, everyone leaves the virtual world. After they return to the real world, Mokuba tells Kemo that Seto is looking for him. Which make Kemo and the other run, not wanting to see Seto getting angry with them. Mokuba then thank Yugi and his friends for helping him get Seto back. The Mokuba runs to find Seto in the building. (In the English version, Yugi and his friends say goodbye to Mokuba.) But in Japanese version ,Yugi and friends yell that they are going to eat Ramen Noodles.

Battle City Saga
During the Battle City tournament, Mokuba is the Battle City commissioner, calling violations and penalties when needed. While his brother duels, Mokuba wanders around town. The first violation he sees is performed by the Roba brothers. While the eldest, Espa Duels, his brothers use binoculars to see his opponent's hand. Mokuba tackles Espa's brother, and is about to throw Espa out when the younger Robas tell Mokuba about how their big brother protects them from bullies by winning duels. This reminds Mokuba of his relationship with Seto, and he does not disqualify the Robas, commenting that big brother stories get him every time.

As Mokuba walks away, he is ambushed by Rare Hunters and kidnapped. He is tied up and dangled from a helicopter, which flies over his brother's head. The Rare Hunters make Seto duel with Yugi against infamous tag team duelists Lumis and Umbra. The loser of the Duel would plummet to their death (In the English anime they would be sent to the Shadow Realm) While they duel, Mokuba is taken to a warehouse, and locked up there with Tea. Together, they construct a tower of boxes, and Mokuba manages to escape, but Téa is captured before she manages to escape. Mokuba takes a helicopter to pick his older brother and Yami Yugi up to tell them what has happen. Mokuba believes everything that Yami Yugi has told him,and Seto about him being a legendary Pharoah.Mokuba also witness Yugi's duel with Joey (who is under Marik's control). He and Seto hatched a plan to free Tea,after seeing Joey breaking free of Mari's control. Tea is free from the chair with Mokuba's help,and see that Yugi is free from the chains. He also sees Serenity saving Joey. He is later seen being thanked by Yugi for all thier help,and happily walks away with Seto. He and everyone else are seen in the Domino statium preparing to go on the Kaiba Blimp to to the final Battle City tournament in the air. He sees Odion,and mistakely thinks that he is Marik, and comments that Oidon kidnnaped him, in order to get to his older brother and Yugi. When Kemo notices Tea,Tristan,Duke,and Serenity trying to aboard the Blimp. Mokuba tells Kemo that he isn't even a duelist,and that he is usually let on board.Mokuba then asks Seto if Yugi's friends can see the finals. Seto tells him to do what he wants. Mokuba then tells Yugi's friends that they can see the battle city finals,which shocks Kemo. Mokuba was then seen with Seto,when he tells Yugi to put Slister the sky dragon in his deck. He also told Kemo that Seto can not be bother,and needs to rest up for the finals.

Virtual 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 for foiling their plans to take over the company on two different occasions by defeating Maximillion Pegasus in Duelist Kingdom and the Big 5's Five God Dragon. 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 in a canyon, Tristan Taylor, Serenity Wheeler, and Duke Devlin in and around a castle, Joey Wheeler 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 version, 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 version, 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.

Voice Actresses
Japanese : Junko Takeuchi

English :