Dark Yugi (manga)

Dark Yugi (闇遊戯 Yami Yūgi), real name Atem (アテム Atemu), is a character in the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga. This is the original depiction of Dark Yugi, as created by Kazuki Takahashi.

As an Egyptian Pharaoh, Atem defeated Zorc Necrophades, causing himself to be sealed within the Millennium Puzzle and lose his memories, including his name, in the process.

3000 years later Yugi Mutou solved the Millennium Puzzle, causing Atem to reside in his body as Dark Yugi. Initially Dark Yugi would take control of the body to protect Yugi and his friends through the use of Shadow Games, with Yugi unaware of his existence. Major earlier opponents included Shadi, Seto Kaiba and Dark Bakura, with Yugi and his friends eventually learning of his existence. Together with Yugi, he won the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City tournaments, defeating Maximillion J. Pegasus and Dark Marik, respectively, and also learned he was a Pharaoh, whose name had been lost in history.

With the acquisition of the Egyptian God cards, he managed to separate from Yugi's body where he replayed his life as Pharaoh through the Shadow RPG against Dark Bakura. With the help of his friends, Atem relearned his name, and Summoned Horakhty to defeat Zorc Necrophades again. Atem was returned to the present world, where he had to face defeat to Yugi in the Ceremonial Battle to pass on to the afterlife.

Ancient Egypt
In the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Atem was born the son of Pharaoh Akhenamkhanen, shortly before the creation of the Millennium Items. Atem later served as Pharaoh and holder of the Millennium Pendant. He was accompanied by his vizier, Siamun Muran, and the six priests, Akhenaden, Isis, Kalim, Mahado, Seto and Shada.

Palace battle with Bakura
While Atem was about 15 years old, Bakura, King of Thieves marched into the palace, carrying treasures he stole from Akhenamkhanen's grave, and dragged Akhenamkhanen's mummy with him. He said he sought vengeance on what was done to create the Millennium Items.

Having defeated Seto's Galestgoras, with Diabound, Bakura challenged Atem, offering to wager his head for Atem's life, treasure and the Millennium Items. Atem questioned his interest in the items and Bakura blamed Akhenamkhanen for creating such forbidden artifacts of dark magic, capable of forging a contract with the great evil god, Zorc Necrophades. He pushed his foot on Akhenamkhanen's mummy, suggesting he may have do selfish motives, annoying Atem who demanded he not touch the body.

The six High Priests engaged in a ka battle with Bakura, during which Atem walked over to Bakura, pushed him aside and took back his father's body. The priests worried Atem had exposed himself to danger and tried to protect him with their ka. After thinking he heard his father say "justice lies in the name of the gods", Atem ordered the priests to stand down as he would fight. He found himself capable of Obelisk, one of the three Hidden Gods, from the Shrine of Wedju. Bakura and the priests were surprised to learn that Atem was the chosen pharaoh, prophecized the inherit the names of the Hidden Gods and the power to wield them.

Atem warned Bakura that he would not forgive the person trying to steal the Millennium Items, which were forged by his father's dreams of freedom and peace. The two got their ka, Obelisk and Diabound to fight, resulting in Bakura using Diabound's wall-phasing ability to retreat.

Mock battles
The High Priests took part in mock ka battles to prepare themselves for future attacks from Bakura. During one such battle, Atem observed Seto sacrificing his teammates to win. He explained to Seto that a strategy relying on strength can reveal an unforeseen weakness and that true power would never mean hurting your friends. Seto asked what he considered to be power and in request for demonstration, challenged Atem to a mock battle, which he accepted.

Seto, who had hoped to see the power of the Gods again, was insulted when Atem choose to use Kuriboh and ordered his ka, Duos to destroy Kuriboh's slab, before it could materialize. The slab was smashed to pieces, but Kuriboh's power caused a copy of itself to appear on each fragment. A Kuriboh emerged from each piece of the tablet and covered Duos' arm, preventing it from using its sword. Atem told Seto that this was what he meant by power.

City battle with Bakura
Mahado died in a trap he set for Thief Bakura and merged his soul with his "Illusion Magician" ka to become the Dark Magician, who served as one of Atem's ka. Afterwards Atem granted Seto and his troops permission to search the city for Thief Bakura.

Atem heard news of a massacre believed to have been carried out by Thief Bakura. Soon afterwards, he spotted Thief Bakura fleeing from the palace and chased after him on horseback. Atem Summoned Slifer to fight Diabound. Atem allowed Slifer to be struck in order to protect innocent civilians from Diabound's attacks and then got Slifer to force the battle into the sky. However Diabound was able to disappear into the darkness and attack Slifer from behind. Atem pretended to surrender his Millennium Pendant in order to distract Thief Bakura while he had Slifer sneak up on him. However Thief Bakura got Diabound to make a similar sneak attack on the Pharaoh. The priests arrived in time to save Atem and cut off Diabound's hand. Atem sacrificed Slifer, so that Seto's Duos could attack Diabound, but Duos wound up hitting a decoy ka instead. Despite being low on ba, Atem went after Thief Bakura, hoping to stop him killing innocent people. However Diabound destroyed the ground around Atem, leaving him dangling on the edge of a chasm. Thief Bakura took the Millennium Pendant from him, before leaving him fall.

Kul Elna battle with Bakura
Atem survived the fall and shortly after he woke up, was found by Spiria, Shada and his soldiers. Atem then led the troops to Kul Elna to confront Thief Bakura, where he wouldn't be able to kill innocent bystanders. At Kul Elna, the soldiers found the underground cavern containing the Millennium Stone and were attacked by evil spirits inside it. Refusing to let them die, Atem went inside and confronted Thief Bakura. Thief Bakura showed him the stone and explained that the Millennium Items were forged here using a sacrifice of every Kul Elna villager. He then tried to kill Atem with the evil spirits, but the Dark Magician, Mahado, appeared and protected him.

Atem was distraught by the news of how the Millennium Items were created and wondered why his father allowed it. However Mahado assured him that Akhenamkhanen initially had no knowledge of how the items were created and had fallen ill and died shortly after learning the truth. Mahado came close to killing Diabound, but Diabound absorbed the souls of the deceased villagers and became stronger. Isis, Kalim, Mana, Siamun and Seto arrived to help Atem battle Thief Bakura and Diabound. However Akhenadin took the Millennium Items and placed them in the stone, Summoning Zorc Necrophades.

Battle with Zorc
Atem defeated Zorc Necrophades, sacrificing his life in the process. He used his name as part of a spell that sealed a part of Zorc's and a part of his own soul in the Millennium Items. Atem's soul got sealed in the Millennium Pendant. The pendant was shattered and became known as the Millennium Puzzle and was then laid to rest in the Pharaoh's tomb.

Sugoroku's expedition
In the 1960s when Sugoroku Mutou ventured to the Tomb of the Nameless Pharaoh, his companion, Ahmet, shot him in attempt to take the tomb's treasure for himself. However Ahmet was devoured by a monster spirit and Sugoroku was pulled to safety by an apparition of the Pharaoh, who mistook him for Siamun. Afterwards Sugoroku recovered the Millennium Puzzle from the tomb and brought it to Japan, eventually leaving it in his basement at Kame Game.

Money and Knife
Around 1996, Yugi solved the Millennium Puzzle while he was under the pressure of coming up with money to pay Ushio, for his self-imposed body guard fees. This caused the Pharaoh's spirit to inhabit Yugi's body. The Pharaoh's soul, which comes to be known as "the other Yugi" or "Dark Yugi" was missing the vast majority of his memories. He was able to occasionally take control of Yugi's body without Yugi knowing.

Dark Yugi emerged and arranged to meet Ushio at the school at midnight. He challenged Ushio to a Shadow Game, Money and Knife, where players had to grab bank notes off their own hand with a knife. Ushio got greedy and tried to stab Yugi, so he could take all the money for himself. However Dark Yugi dodged the attack and inflicted the Illusion of Avarice Penalty Game on him for cheating. Ushio was put under the illusion that litter and leaves were money, which he showered himself in.

Dice game
A director from ZTV tried to orchestrate a bullying documentary, Caught on Camera: School Violence, by having A.D. Fujita attack Yugi. Dark Yugi confronted the director afterwards and challenged him to a dice game Shadow Game, where the director must roll equal to or lower than him to win. Dark Yugi rolled a 6, but still insisted that the director roll, despite his victory seeming obvious. The director tried injuring Yugi by throwing the die at his face. However Dark Yugi blocked with the Millennium Puzzle, breaking the die in two, making it land on both 1 and 6, totaling 7. Dark Yugi then inflicted the Mosaic Illusion Penalty Game on the director, pixelating his vision.

Silence game
The untalented singer, Sozoji, forced Yugi and Tomoya Hanasaki to sell tickets to his concert, and subsequently beat-up Hanasaki for letting Yugi take his burden of tickets. Dark Yugi emerged and faced Sozoji in a game of silence. The first person to make a sound, lost. Sozoji noticed how Dark Yugi might lose. With Yugi's life on the line, his heart pounded as he got excited about winning. But his heartbeat became amplified by his microphone connected to nearby speakers, making him lose the game. Subjected to one of Dark Yugi's Penalty Games, Sozoji continued to hear his heart beat louder and louder.

One finger BATTLE!
When Anzu Mazaki was held captive by an escaped prisoner armed with a gun at Burger World, Yugi had to serve the convict cigarettes and vodka. Dark Yugi took control and challenged the convict to the one finger BATTLE! Shadow Game, where each player could only use one of their ten fingers. Blindfolded, Anzu could not see who was challenging the convict and thought he sounded like Yugi, but was too confident and daring to be him. The convict choose his index finger, hoping to pull the trigger of his gun. Dark Yugi choose his thumb and used it to flick on a cigarette lighter. Dark Yugi was allowed to light the convict's cigarette, after which he dropped the lighter on the convict's arm, which was pouring vodka. The vodka began to overflow, making it impossible for the convict to fire the gun without setting himself on fire. While Dark Yugi escorted Anzu away, the convict dropped his cigarette, setting himself on fire. After this incident, Anzu obsessed over finding the identity of her rescuer.

Paper Crash!
The alleged psychic Kokurano tried to seduce Anzu, by reading her future, telling her that a wonderful man would reveal himself to her, causing her to swoon before him in love. Anzu hoped this was the man who saved her at Burger World. For Yugi's disbelief in his powers, Kokurano predicted that countless letters would fall from the heavens and bring disaster on Yugi. Later that day Kokurano knocked over bookshelves on top of Yugi. Dark Yugi emerged and realized that Kokurano was making his predictions come true. He rushed to Anzu, who Kokurano had knocked out with a bottle of chloroform. Using the bottle, Dark Yugi defeated him in the Paper Crash! Shadow Game, leaving him unconscious and exposed as a fraud.

Griddle Ice Hockey
During a school festival, Goro Inogashira had his class tear up Yugi's class Carnival Games spot, to make room for their okonomiyaki stand. Dark Yugi challenged Goro to an air hockey Shadow Game, Griddle Ice Hockey, using a block of ice containing a tube of an explosive chemical as a puck and the okonomiyaki grill as a board. Goro dealt powerful blows to the puck, making it difficult for Dark Yugi to keep up. But Dark Yugi, managed to nick the puck with his bat, causing the ice to break with Goro's next blow. The chemical hit the hot surface, causing it to explode in front of Goro.

Dark Puzzle
The teacher Ms. Chono found Honda's love jigsaw puzzle to Miho Nosaka, during a desk check and began reading the message to the class. As she assembled it to find the sender's name and expel him, Dark Yugi turned the jigsaw into a Dark Puzzle Shadow Game, where Ms. Chono felt the pain she was inflicting on others. On completion of the puzzle, her makeup cracked-up, revealing her true ugly self. She then fled the room without expelling anyone.

Coin in sneaker
The Junky Scorpion shop owner sold Jonouchi a rare pair of shoes, but had them stolen back by his Muscle Hunters. Dark Yugi returned to the Junky Scorpion and played the coin in sneaker Shadow Game with the owner to take back the shoes. The owner's pet scorpion was put in a shoe, while both players tried to pull out coins without getting stung. The owner got greedy and tried to kill the scorpion. He failed to do so and got his hand stuck when he tried grabbing all the coins at once. The scorpion left him badly poisoned from a sting.

Duel Monsters
After Seto Kaiba stole Sugoroku Mutou's "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" card, Dark Yugi and Kaiba engaged in a Shadow Game of Duel Monsters. Kaiba secretly added the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" card to his hand, pretending to draw it. He Summoned it and tried to attack, but the true loyalties of the "Blue-Eyes" did not lie with him, so it destroyed itself. Dark Yugi used "Monster Reborn" to revive it and used it and defeat Kaiba. Dark Yugi inflicted the Experience of Death Penalty Game on Kaiba, causing him to believe he was trapped in the Duel Monsters Spirit World, where he suffered death at the hands of monsters.

Landmine Search Network
Yugi called to the Millennium Puzzle to help him find Jonouchi, while Jonouchi was held captive by Hirutani's gang. Dark Yugi located the gang at the "torture chamber" and let one of the gangsters punch him back, to lure them into a puddle. As he stood up, he covertly put a metal bar under an unconscious gangster's arm. He also hung the Millennium Puzzle off a chain over the unconscious boy's forehead. Dark Yugi then challenged the gang to a game, Landmine Search Network; he warned them that there was a time bomb below their feet and it would detonate if they could not find the switch. Some of the gangsters thought that Dark Yugi was bluffing, but Hirutani realized that activating their stun guns in the rain while standing in a puddle, would cause them to get electrocuted. The gang assumed the stun guns to be the switches and advanced to attack Dark Yugi without using them. However Dark Yugi insisted that they did not find the switch. Rainwater trickled down the chain the Puzzle was tied to and off the tip of the Puzzle onto the unconscious member, waking him up. As he woke up, he moved his arm suspended over the metal bar, causing him to let the stun gun he was holding drop into the puddle of water electrocuting the gang.

Trial of the Mind
Shadi, the holder of the Millennium Key and Scales, saw Yugi at a museum. After hearing, Yugi owned the Millennium Puzzle, he used the Millennium Key to enter the room of Yugi's mind. Instead he found two rooms; Yugi's which was filled toys and another for Dark Yugi. Dark Yugi appeared inside his room and invited Shadi in, if he dared. Shadi introduced himself as an unwanted guest, who had come to learn the power of the Millennium Puzzle and if the power was needed he would draw it into his bloodline. Not willing to simply show Shadi the power, Dark Yugi imposed a Shadow Game, Labyrinth Treasure Hunt; somewhere inside the soul was Dark Yugi's true room and if Shadi could find it, then he would find what he was looking for. Shadi accepted the game, but mentioned that once he entered someone's room, he can redecorate it to control the individual or change their personality. Dark Yugi started the game and the place turned into a maze of doors and staircases. Shadi began searching, but the doors were filled with traps. Eventually Shadi was left dangling above a bottomless pit. Dark Yugi saved him and advised that he leave. Shadi parted, thinking he has lost the game, but Dark Yugi assured him it was only the beginning.

Upon learning that Yugi was coming to visit Professor Yoshimori at Domino University, Shadi possessed Yoshimori, giving him the intention of making Yugi's friends suffer, hoping it would coax Dark Yugi into taking control of Yugi's body. When it became evident that Yoshimori alone would not be enough, he also possessed Anzu, making her his hostage. Threatening to kill Anzu, he forced Dark Yugi to take control and told him to come to the roof in ten minutes for a Shadow Game.

The Shadow Game was the Trial of the Mind. Shadi stood Anzu motionless on a board over the edge of a building. The board was supported by ropes tied to four ushebti, which would shatter when a weakness in Dark Yugi's heart was detected. A fifth ushebti for Shadi's heart held up the Millennium Key, which would slide down to Anzu's hand and return her to normal should Shadi's ushebti break. Seeing Anzu's danger immediately caused one ushebti to break. Shadi proceeded to put Dark Yugi through a series of stages hoping to expose weaknesses in his heart.

For the first stage, Hell Quiz, illusions of zombies climbed out the ground and grabbed onto Dark Yugi. The only way to break the illusion was to determine the zombies true nature, by solving the riddle "What creeps on the ground and clings to the pillars?". Dark Yugi realized that he was the pillar, the zombies were what creeps on the ground and the answer to the riddle was a shadow, making the zombies his shadow.

In the second stage, Dark Yugi played Concentration or Death. An illusion of Ammit held onto him, while he was faced with nine face-down slabs. The slabs' other sides contained images of four pairs and one unmatched image. The slabs represented a mirror and Dark Yugi needed to determine what the odd image was within five minutes or be bitten by Ammit, which despite being an illusion would kill him. Dark Yugi realized that the slabs being a mirror contained images of visible parts of Ammit, so the four pairs were her eyes, ears, nostrils and arms, while the odd one was her mouth.

The last stage, was the Game of Death. Shadi created an illusion of Jonouchi, in his old bully persona. Seeing Jonouchi behave in his old ways, caused regular Yugi to take control for a split second and weep causing two ushebti to break. Dark Yugi and Jonouchi had to take turns tossing the Millennium Puzzle. The direction the puzzle landed pointing was the direction their opponent had to walk and the idea was to make the opponent walk into a bottomless pit. Dark Yugi worried that was a small chance the illusion was actually the real Jonouchi possessed by Shadi. Dark Yugi refused to take his turns, explaining that he trusted that his friend wouldn't kill him. This caused the illusion to stop playing and disappear.

The last rope supporting Anzu's platform began to break, but the real Jonouchi, being chased up the side of the building by the possessed Yoshimori arrived and held it up. Surprised by how the friends supported each other, Shadi's ushebti shattered and Anzu was restored to normal. Jonouchi struggled to hold up the board as Yoshimori pulled at him. This nearly caused Anzu to fall, but Dark Yugi caught her and helped her onto the building. Dark Yugi then instructed Jonouchi to touch the Millennium Key off Yoshimori to return him to normal.

Dark Yugi taught Shadi that unity was a power of the Millennium Puzzle and Jonouchi warned Shadi to leave. Shadi left beaten, but pleased because his bloodline had been searching for someone like Dark Yugi and he may be able to open "that door". Jonouchi and Anzu, unaware of Dark Yugi's existence, noticed how Yugi had been acting different. When they approached him about this, Dark Yugi had already returned control to Yugi and they suspected they had just imagined it.

Digital Pets
Yugi's Digital Pet, U2 developed a persona like Dark Yugi. Using data it incorporated from a connection with Jonouchi's pet, it changed into a more confident powerful form in order to beat the bullysome pet owned by Kujirada.

Maze of Fire
Tomoya Hanasaki, dressed as the hero Zombire, tried to take on a gang, who told him that they had kidnapped Yugi. Hanasaki's father was supposed to pay the gang to let Tomoya beat them, but could not afford the price they demanded. Yugi learned what had happened when he went to Hanasaki's house and met Hanasaki's father. The two of them went to the location on a ransom note found in Hanasaki's room. By the time they arrived, the gang had started attacking Hanasaki and Yugi switched to Dark Yugi. Dark Yugi broke up the fight and challenged the thugs to a Shadow Game. The gang proceeded to chase Dark Yugi, who left a trail of spray paint, starting at a discarded cigarette butt. As the butt burned away, it acted as a fuse and when the paint caught fire it created the Maze of Fire. Caught in the fire, the thugs dashed out of the yard and jumped into the canal. Afterwards, Dark Yugi escorted Hanasaki away. Hanasaki thought he had been foolish for thinking he could be a hero, but Dark Yugi insisted that he could.

Capsule Monster Chess
To get revenge on Yugi for defeating his brother, Seto Kaiba, Mokuba forced Yugi into a game of Capsule Monster Chess. When Mokuba's followers tried taking Yugi's Millennium Puzzle, he switched to Dark Yugi and told them off. Mokuba who was aware that Yugi turned into a different person when he games had hoped this would happen, as Dark Yugi was the Yugi he wanted to defeat. Mokuba used a rigged dispenser to distribute the players monsters. Dark Yugi wound up with mostly low level monsters, while Mokuba got high level ones. Throughout the game, Dark Yugi sacrificed his pieces to lure Mokuba into lining his pieces up diagonally. Dark Yugi then used the special ability of his last monster "Torigun", to destroy all monsters diagonally aligned with it, defeating Mokuba. For a Penalty Game, Dark Yugi caused Mokuba to imagine he was trapped in a giant Capsule Monster Chess capsule.

Russian Roulette Dinner
Mokuba later invited Yugi to Kaiba's mansion. Here he lured Yugi and Jonouchi into a game of Russian Roulette Dinner; a game where players spun a turntable and ate the meal on the table that stopped in front of them, not knowing if it was poisoned or not. Initially Mokuba lied that the food wasn't poisoned and said that they were playing a game where there was treasure hidden in one of the meals. After Jonouchi was poisoned by one of the meals, Dark Yugi emerged and was forced to continue the game if he wanted to get the antidote for Jonouchi. Dark Yugi suspected Mokuba was cheating when he saw how he could eat a meal without any fear of it being poisoned. He then realized that Mokuba was using a syrup bottle as a switch to stop the table when he wanted. Using the Millennium Puzzle to smash the syrup bottle, Dark Yugi stopped a poisoned meal in front of Mokuba. Mokuba's fear of the meal confirmed it was poisoned. Dark Yugi reminded Mokuba of the rules and Mokuba proceeded to eat the poisoned meal, allowing Dark Yugi to claim the antidote to save Jonouchi.

Death T-1 to 3
The next day Yugi and his friends participated in Kaiba's Death-T theme park. They won the first of its games, which were designed to kill them, without aid from Dark Yugi. When Jonouchi battled the Chopman in the last part of Death T-2, Yugi's Millennium Puzzle briefly flashed before Yugi got a plan on how Jonouchi could beat the Chopman.

Distraught by Honda getting trapped in the room of falling cubes in Death T-3, Yugi admitted to Jonouchi and Anzu that he thought there was another Yugi inside him. He explained that since he solved the Millennium Puzzle, there have been times when he blacks out and he thinks that he changes into another person when that happens. He had refrained from saying anything about this before, because he was afraid his friends would think he was weird and leave him. However Jonouchi and Anzu said that they will always be his friends even if there was another Yugi.

Death T-4
In Death T-4, Yugi had to face Mokuba alone in another game of Capsule Monster Chess in a Battle Box. Yugi changed into Dark Yugi, causing Anzu and Jonouchi to knowingly see him for the first time. The game used Solid Vision to make the monsters life-like and the loser was to suffer the "Experience of Death" Penalty Game. Once again, Mokuba used a rigged dispenser to give himself high Level monsters and give Dark Yugi mostly low Level monsters.

Dark Yugi placed his monsters together on the board, while Mokuba's were more spread out. Dark Yugi passed his first few turns, allowing Mokuba to surround his monsters. Dark Yugi then began moving his pieces and allowed Mokuba to defeat two of his monsters in order to line both players' monsters up how he wanted them. As Mokuba used "Armorsaurus" to attack Dark Yugi's "Mogley", Mogley used its dig ability to dodge into a hole, causing "Armorsaurus" to keep rolling until it smashed into Mokuba's "Megaton", destroying both monsters. Dark Yugi got "Ninja Squid" to use its self-destruct ability to take itself and Mokuba's "Zoid "M"" out. Defeating those three monsters cleared a path for Dark Yugi's "Beeton" to get to an evolution square and evolve into the Level 5 "Hyper Beetle". "Hyper Beetle" destroyed Mokuba's Level 4 "Nama Hargen" and then battled his Level 5 "Big Foot", but got destroyed. As "Big Foot" proceeded to attack "Mogley", it fell apart, damaged from its earlier attack. Having defeated all of Mokuba's monsters, Dark Yugi won the game.

Dark Yugi left the Battle Box and following the rules of Death-T, Kaiba inflicted the "Experience of Death" on the loser, Mokuba. Mokuba was surrounded by Solid Vision monsters. Dark Yugi was surprised to see Kaiba do this to his own brother and then pulled Mokuba out to safety. Mokuba was stunned to see that Dark Yugi rescued him. When questioned, Dark Yugi replied that he wouldn't have won had he not had friends reaching out to him. This reminded Mokuba of what Kaiba used to be like and hoped Dark Yugi would be able to revert Kaiba's personality in the next stage.

Death T-5
Dark Yugi proceeded to the Dome Duel Arena for Death T-5. Here he faced Kaiba in a game of Duel Monsters using the Deck Grandpa had given to Yugi.

Near the beginning of the Duel, Dark Yugi had trouble with Kaiba's "Saggi the Dark Clown", whose ATK had been tripled with "Dark Energy". Eventually he beat it with "Gaia the Fierce Knight", only to be overpowered once again by Kaiba's "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". After Kaiba Summoned a second "Blue-Eyes White Dragon", Dark Yugi held them back with "Swords of Revealing Light".

Dark Yugi had three weak "the Forbidden One" cards in his hand. The regular Yugi then imagined Grandpa was speaking to him and Grandpa compared the cards to the Millennium Puzzle, saying they were not meaningless and could be put together like pieces of a puzzle. This reminded Dark Yugi of "Exodia", a monster who could only be Summoned by gathering five cards. He then managed to draw the fourth piece. By the time the effect of "Swords of Revealing Light" wore off Kaiba had brought out his third "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" and Dark Yugi had only 200 Life Points left. Beginning his last turn, Dark Yugi started to doubt he could get the last piece of "Exodia" and was afraid to draw. Thinking of his friends he gained the courage to draw and got "Exodia the Forbidden One". "Exodia" was then Summoned and Kaiba was defeated.

Dark Yugi inflicted the "Mind Crush" Penalty Game on Kaiba. This destroyed the evil part of Kaiba's heart and left him in a coma while he reassembled the shattered puzzle of his heart. Mokuba, who had saved Honda from the room of falling cubes to repay Dark Yugi for saving him earlier, arrived and called Kaiba's guards off from Dark Yugi and his friends. Mokuba told Dark Yugi how Kaiba had changed throughout the years and Dark Yugi explained that when Kaiba is done assembling the puzzle of his heart properly, he will return.

That day, Yugi became aware of all the battles he and Dark Yugi fought together.

Find the Keyring!
Anzu gave Yugi a Lovely Two, a love compatibility tester. Initially it got no reading when near Anzu's Lovely Two suggesting that Yugi and Anzu weren't romantically compatible. The teacher Tsuruoka later confiscated Yugi's tester. When he threatened to smash it and called Yugi, Jonouchi and Honda worthless, Dark Yugi emerged and said that he never loses a game. Tsuruoka then imposed a game, Find the Keyring!. He hid the Lovely Two somewhere in the school. If Dark Yugi, Jonouchi and Honda could find it within an hour, they would get the tester back. If not, they would be expelled and the tester would be smashed.

The game began 30 minutes later after the device had been hidden. Dark Yugi quickly deduced that the tester was within the building, having checked Tsuruoka's outdoor shoes. Anzu who had been bashful, seeing Dark Yugi out, gave him her love tester in the last few minutes of the game, hoping it would be of some help. Thinking people usually hide items where they can see the hiding spot, Dark Yugi went to Tsuruoka's office and Tsuruoka's adamant orders for them to get out confirmed this suspicion. Dark Yugi also believed it was hidden on Tsuruoka's body. With students not allowed to touch him and no way of proving this, Tsuruoka thought he had won. However Dark Yugi switched on Anzu's Lovely Two, which got a reading this time. The noise came from Tsuruoka's head, revealing he had a wig. Honda and Jonouchi recovered the tester, winning the game and Tsuruoka begged them not to tell anyone about his baldness.

Red Paint Lottery
When Jonouchi took part in The Get the Million Game, Yugi overheard the producer and a technician talk about how the game was rigged for Jonouchi to lose so they wouldn't have to give him any prize money and his suffering would boost ratings. Disgusted Yugi switched to Dark Yugi and challenged the producer to a game, threatening to tell about the show being rigged should he not accept. The producer told the technician to play the game to get rid of Dark Yugi.

The game, Red Paint Lottery, was 50-50 chance. Each player pulled a rope, one of which was attached to a paint can. After they pulled their ropes, the paint can landed on the technician's head. This prevented him from pressing the button on the switchboard which rigs the game. The producer was unable to do so himself because the paint had also covered the color-coded switchboard. Dark Yugi inflicted the "Mind on Air" Penalty Game on the producer, causing his greed to show. After Jonouchi won the prize, the producer ran out on set, grabbed onto a camera and ordered the viewers to send him money.

Monster Fighter
Koji Nagumo cheated in a game of Monster Fighter with Yugi, by punching him and stealing his equipment. Yugi then borrowed Jonouchi's fighter, "Killer Emaada" and tracked Nagumo down. He found that Nagumo was selling a lot of Monster Fighter equipment that he had stolen and challenged him to a rematch. This time they played best out of three and Dark Yugi warned Nagumo that it would be a Shadow Game, which Nagumo interpreted as meaning there was no rules.

In the first round, Nagumo attempted to punch Dark Yugi, but lost concentration in the game as he did so. This left his monster, "Wild Spider" open. It got hit and knocked out of the arena, causing Dark Yugi to win the round. Nagumo felt the pain his monster should have taken and dropped to the floor before he got to hit Dark Yugi. Dark Yugi explained that the players are scapegoats in this game, preventing their monsters from being damaged.

In the second round managed, after throwing a few punches Nagumo made a feint attack and was about to score a direct hit. Dark Yugi was unable block in time, but switched the power off of "Killer Emaada", causing it to flop to one side, hence avoiding the attack. Using the feint strategy too, Dark Yugi was about to hit the weak point on "Wild Spider". However Nagumo kicked him in the side, stopping him. Nagumo then got "Wild Spider" to knock "Killer Emaada" out of the arena and punch it several times in the stomach while it was in midair, causing Dark Yugi to feel the blows himself.

Angered by Nagumo's foul play, Dark Yugi upped the level of the Shadow Game from 1 to 3 as they entered the third round. He warned Nagumo that he wouldn't be able to cheat in this round. As Nagumo was about to lose, he tried to kick Dark Yugi again. However this time, the stolen fighters and "Wild Spider" grabbed onto Nagumo's leg, holding him back. With "Wild Spider" on the floor, Nagumo's field monster was replaced with his own soul as punishment for betraying the trust of his monster. "Killer Emaada" then knocked Nagumo out of the arena, causing Dark Yugi to win the game.

"Time" Cards
Yugi and Anzu went to Domino Park together. Anzu became obsessed with making Dark Yugi appear. When an evacuation was ordered due to a bomb scare, Anzu stayed behind hoping this would cause Dark Yugi to come out and rescue her. By the time Yugi caught up to Anzu she was on the Ferris wheel and Yugi heard from the police that there was a bomb on that ride. The bomber allowed the police to play a card game, which could control the bomb before it detonated in ten minutes. The chief asked if anyone nearby was good at card games, so Yugi switched to Dark Yugi and offered to play the game.

The game, "Time" Cards, required the player to play clock solitaire. After Dark Yugi turned over four cards of the same number, the bomber blew up a car on the Ferris wheel of the same number. Since the game ends when the four kings are turned over, Dark Yugi hoped to turn them over before turning over four of a number corresponding to a car people were in. With seconds left until the ten minutes were up, Dark Yugi turned over the last king, ending the game.

The police escorted the passengers off the Ferris wheel and Dark Yugi told them that the bomber was in car #13 posing as a passenger, since it was the only safe car and the only place in the park where the bomber would have been able to see the cards. To Dark Yugi's discomfort, Anzu then suggested that they get back to their date.

Dragon Cards
Imori was aware that Yugi gained "powers of darkness" after solving the Millennium Puzzle. He stole the Millennium Puzzle in order to lure Yugi into a Shadow Game using Dragon Cards, hoping to take his place as "guardian of darkness" on winning. Yugi was unable to switch to Dark Yugi without the Millennium Puzzle and Imori had studied the game. These factors led to Imori winning and Yugi's soul being sucked into the soul-eating jar to be consumed by the dragons. However as he collapsed onto the table, Yugi touched the Millennium Puzzle, allowing him to change to Dark Yugi.

Had he not touched the puzzle, Dark Yugi said that his soul would have been entombed in the shadows forever. Dark Yugi challenged Imori to a rematch. Unable to become guardian of darkness without defeating "the other Yugi" Imori accepted. Players needed to gather three identical Dragon Cards to Summon a dragon. Each turn a player drew one card from card from the Deck or took the last card their opponent discarded and discarded then one card. Imori got a good starting hand and was soon able to summon Level 5 water and wood dragons; "Shui Long" and "Mu Long". His dragons grew stronger each turn until Dark Yugi completed his sets, a Level 4 earth and level 5 metal dragon; "Tu Long" and "Jin Long".

Imori created a flood with "Shui Long" in an attempt to rust "Jin Long". However Dark Yugi got "Tu Long" to raise the earth, creating a dam. "Shui Long" used its water to strengthen "Mu Long", who stuck its shoots into "Tu Long" preventing it from moving. With it unable to create another dam, Imori got "Shui Long" to use another flood attack on "Jin Long". However since "Shui Long" had given some of its power to "Mu Long", the attack wasn't strong enough to fully beat "Jin Long". "Jin Long" proceeded to slice up and defeat "Mu Long". It then got hit by another flood, this time destroying it. "Shui Long" used its flood attack on "Tu Long", but Dark Yugi got "Tu Long" to use its ground shatter attack to cause the water and "Shui Long" to fall into cracks in the earth. With Imori's two dragons defeated, Dark Yugi won.

For Imori's Penalty Game, his soul was sucked into the soul-eating jar. Since it could only hold one soul at a time, Yugi's soul was freed. Dark Yugi sealed-up the Dragon Cards and thinking that this game brings disaster hoped that nobody would break the seal again.

Super yo-yo
Nezumi lured Yugi and Jonouchi into Hirutani's torture chamber. In an attempt to get Jonouchi to rejoin the gang, gangsters surrounded Jonouchi swinging yo-yos at him and hung Yugi from a hook by the neck using the Millennium Puzzle's rope. Jonouchi refused to rejoin the gang and managed to save Yugi. After Jonouchi took care of five of the gangsters, Yugi switched to Dark Yugi and he and Jonouchi split up. Jonouchi took on Hirutani while Dark Yugi faced the rest of the gang.

Dark Yugi led the gangsters onto a galvanized roof and took out his own yo-yo. He challenged the gangsters to a game, where the last one standing on the roof won. As the gangsters chased Yugi, he swung his yo-yo into the roof, breaking holes in it. Eventually the gang cornered him, but found themselves standing in an area surrounded by holes. The holes and their weight caused the roof to give way below them, leaving them fall.

After defeating Hirutani, Jonouchi apologized to Dark Yugi for getting him caught up in his problems, but Dark Yugi insisted that Jonouchi's problems were his problems too.

Monster World
Yugi, Anzu, Jonouchi and Honda visited their new friend Ryo Bakura, the holder of a Millennium Item, the Millennium Ring, to play the tabletop role-playing game Monster World. Unbeknownst to them Bakura's other self, Dark Bakura, who had his eyes set on the Millennium Puzzle took over Bakura's body and played against them, turning the game into a Shadow Game. Dark Bakura managed to trap the souls of Anzu, Jonouchi and Honda in their avatar miniatures. Confident of the existence of Dark Yugi, Yugi deliberately let Dark Bakura trap him in his miniature, so Dark Yugi could take control of his body. This allowed the two Yugi's to meet for the first time. Yugi and his friends put their lives in Dark Yugi's hands. Dark Yugi rolled the dice to help dictate the moves of his friends. They trusted him to keep them alive and help them defeat Dark Bakura's monster, Zorc, in order to free their souls.

Dark Yugi rolled a critical hit 03 for Honda, allowing him to blast Zorc's hand off. The hand then mutated into more monsters and Zorc left the battle to them. Dark Yugi rolled a super critical 00 for Jonouchi, making him defeat the eyeball monster and a critical 02 for Yugi, causing him to tame Zorc Arm Dragon into an ally. He then revealed that like Dark Bakura he had been using the double hit technique to manipulate his dice rolls. From that point, both players agreed to throw the dice fairly.

The miniatures advanced to Zorc Castle, where a suspicious tower caught their attention. Realizing it was a trap, Dark Yugi belatedly tried to warn them to stay out the tower. The ceiling dropped onto the adventurers' heads holding them in place and revealing an incomplete column in the middle of the tower. Dark Bakura explained that they needed to roll a certain double number to finish the column, so it could support the ceiling and let the group escape, otherwise the miniatures would break under the pressure of the ceiling in three turns. Dark Yugi made two rolls failing to save them. During this time Zorc appeared and attacked the adventurers once. Dark Yugi then realized that the semi-circle patterns on the pillar were parts of an incomplete number, which could be 00, 33, 66, 88 or 99. He then managed to roll a 33, completing the column. Dark Bakura rolled a 12 for Zorc, who attacked immediately after, cutting the tower in two. Due to the characters' high speed stats they were able to escape the attack and get behind Zorc.

By channeling the emotions of his friends into the dice, Dark Yugi rolled more critical hits as his friends attacked Zorc. However due to the Level difference between Zorc and the other characters, the attacks had little affect on him. Using the Millennium Ring to seal the souls of Bakura's old gaming friends into the dice Dark Bakura created brainwashed dice, which he could control. He rolled a super critical 00 for Zorc's next attack, making it strong enough to defeat the others. However as Dark Bakura calculated the damage from the attack on the computer, Ryo Bakura took control of his left hand and altered the damage so that Dark Yugi's friends each had 1 HP left. Dark Yugi realized that something was wrong with Dark Bakura during that calculation and thought it could be the key to defeating him.

Dark Yugi rolled another critical hit, allowing Jonouchi to stab Zorc's eye out. Anzu and Zorc's initiative scores were tied for the next attack, so they rolled to determine who moved first. Ryo Bakura used his left hand to swap the brainwashed dice for regular dice without Dark Bakura realizing. This allowed Dark Yugi to win the initiative roll and get Anzu to heal the party. Ryo Bakura then threw the brainwashed dice for Zorc's attack and forced them to land on a fumble, 99, causing the attack to backfire and damage Zorc.

Dark Bakura impaled his left hand on a model tower to stop Ryo Bakura interfering. Dark Yugi and his friends heard him mention Ryo's name and then suspected that there were two different Bakuras. So for Yugi's next move, Dark Yugi got him to use his taming abilities, targeting Zorc. He rolled a critical 02, allowing Yugi to pull Ryo Bakura's avatar, a Level 13 white mage, out of Zorc's left arm, where the hand had been cut off. As a non-player character, Bakura used his white magic to lower Zorc's defenses, so when Dark Yugi rolled for Honda the attack did more damage than usual, blowing off the side of Zorc's stomach.

Zorc transformed into his final form, Last Zorc, raising his attack and defense. Dark Bakura rolled a super critical, allowing Last Zorc to use his "Zorc Inferno" attack. Bakura created a white magic shield to protect the party, leaving them with only a few HP. Dark Yugi deduced that since Zorc didn't change into this more powerful form before, it must have a weak point and he's using this form as a last resort. He realized that a hole that opened in Zorc's stomach during its last attack must be the weak point. With not enough time for Dark Yugi to attack it before it closed, Pokii, a monster Yugi had tamed earlier, flew into the hole to hold it open. Pokii advised the adventurers to attack him and Last Zorc's weak point together. Refusing to sacrifice an ally, Dark Yugi rolled a critical for Yugi, who used his beast tamer glove to grab Pokii and simultaneously punch through Last Zorc's weak point. Rolling a critical for Jonouchi, he then cut Last Zorc in half.

Last Zorc was still alive after the attack and Dark Bakura planned on making him self-destruct and take destroy the others with him. Dark Yugi and Dark Bakura rolled to see who got initiative for the next attack. Dark Yugi channeled his friends belief into his dice. Dark Bakura sealed a part of his own soul into his dice, creating "doppelganger dice", guaranteed to roll a super critical 00. Both players rolled 00, which would mean a simultaneous attack. However by sealing a fragment of his soul in the dice, Dark Bakura also sealed a Ryo Bakura's soul in them. Ryo Bakura was able to use this to shatter the dice. With no dice, Dark Bakura's roll was invalid and Dark Yugi proceeded to attack, having Anzu blow up the remainder of Last Zorc.

Ryo Bakura's soul was destroyed along with the dice. However, a fragment of his soul still existed within the white mage Bakura miniature. The white mage Bakura asked Dark Yugi to roll for him to let him use his magic. Dark Yugi rolled a 00 and the white mage Bakura was able to transfer his soul back into Bakura's body. After that Yugi and his friends' souls returned to their proper bodies.

Afterwards Bakura made a diorama as a memento of the adventure, including a miniature of Dark Yugi, holding a die.

Prior events
The creator of Duel Monsters, Maximillion J. Pegasus challenged Yugi to a Duel through a television, using what initially appeared to be a prerecorded tape of himself. When the picture on one of Yugi's cards got sucked into the TV, Dark Yugi realized the Duel was a Shadow Game and took over.

Pegasus was able to predict all of Dark Yugi's moves and counter them, which seemed impossible for a prerecording. He also insisted that Dark Yugi take part in his upcoming Duel Monsters tournament should he lose. Suspecting that the videotape contained subliminal messages, Dark Yugi ignored his instincts to Summon the Zombie "Undead Warrior" and instead played "Dark Magician" face-down. Pegasus Summoned "Rogue Doll", which had an advantage over Zombies, only to get destroyed by "Dark Magician". However "Rogue Doll" being destroyed on the tape's footage indicated Pegasus knew that would happen when he made the tape.

With limited film on the tape, Pegasus imposed a time limit, such that if there was no winner after another 15 minutes, the player with the least Life Points would lose. He warned Dark Yugi that a Penalty Game awaited the loser. Although Dark Yugi got ahead at one point, he opted not to defensively guard his Life Points until the time ran out, considering that to be cowardly. With ten seconds left, Pegasus had higher Life Points. Dark Yugi tried making a final attack to defeat Pegasus, but the timer ran out and he lost.

Pegasus showed Dark Yugi his Millennium Item, the Millennium Eye and explained that its Mind Scan power was what let him read Dark Yugi's mind. Using it also he sucked the soul of Grandpa into the TV as Dark Yugi's Penalty Game and a means of forcing him to enter the upcoming tournament.

Yugi gained the ability to sense Dark Yugi's feelings around that time and knew that he felt bad for losing to Pegasus. Dark Yugi blamed himself for what happened to Grandpa and wondered how he could win against an opponent who could read his mind. Regardless he decided to enter Pegasus' tournament to save Grandpa.

Shortly after Yugi soon received his invitation to Pegasus' Duelist Kingdom tournament, he heard of Jonouchi's sister, Shizuka, who needed money for an expensive operation to save her eyesight. Dark Yugi gave one of his two Star Chip entry items to Jonouchi, so he too could compete for the tournament's prize money to pay for the operation. Over the next week, the Yugis and Jonouchi trained for the tournament.

Yugi and Jonouchi were accompanied by Anzu, Honda and Bakura as they went to the tournament. On the boat to the Duelist Kingdom island, Insector Haga threw the "Exodia" cards, Dark Yugi used to defeat Kaiba in Death-T, overboard. Angered Dark Yugi vowed to take out Haga first when they got the kingdom.

As Pegasus explained the tournament rules, Dark Yugi realized that he and Jonouchi needed to win their first Duels, since Star Chips were to be wagered on each Duel and they only had one each. He also became suspicious of why a large island was needed for a card game tournament and remembered Haga saying that there would be new rules.

Haga
Dark Yugi followed Haga into a forest, where he was challenged to a Duel. Wanting to immediately eliminate Haga, Dark Yugi bet his Star Chip and his life, so that he could win both of Haga's Star Chips. Seeing their surrounding landscape reflected on the Playing Field, combined with Pegasus' choice a multiple terrain island for the tournament, Dark Yugi suspected that monsters were to be powered-up by the field they were placed in. Knowing Haga secretly planned on using this information against him, Dark Yugi was able to counter by also choosing a field to power-up his own monster.

With the terrain, powering-up his Insect-Type monsters and granting them initiative, Haga overwhelmed Dark Yugi with barrage of monsters and Set a Trap Card which would destroy all Dark Yugi's monsters on attacking. However Dark Yugi destroyed Haga's monsters using "Mirror Force" He withdrew his own monsters with "Monster Recovery" and used a weaker monster, "Kuriboh", to detonate Haga's Trap at minimal loss.

With his trap distracting Dark Yugi from attacking his "Larvae Moth", Haga was able to equip it with "Cocoon of Evolution" next turn. Using "Burning Land" to rid the cocoon of its field power bonus and attacking it with "Gaia the Fierce Knight", Dark Yugi forced the contained moth to prematurely emerge as "Great Moth", rather than its perfectly ultimate form.

Being earthbound, "Gaia" was unable to attack "Great Moth", so Dark Yugi fused it with "Curse of Dragon" into "Gaia the Dragon Champion". Although "Gaia" and "Great Moth" had equal attack, "Great Moth" used its poison pollen to weaken "Gaia". Dark Yugi washed the pollen away with "Magic Mist", but "Gaia" was still defeated by "Great Moth". However the mist had dampened "Great Moth" and Dark Yugi played "Summoned Skull", whose lightning-based attack was powered by water. "Summoned Skull" destroyed "Great Moth", defeating Haga and eliminating him from the tournament.

Mai and Jonouchi
Dark Yugi encountered Mai Kujaku afterwards and suspected that she wanted to Duel him. However Mai challenged Jonouchi, saying it was not wise to immediately face Yugi, so she wanted to win Star Chips off the weaker opponents first. Although their friends tried talking Jonouchi out of accepting her challenge, Dark Yugi advised him to do his best. Jonouchi was initially put at a disposition by Mai's alleged psychic powers, but Dark Yugi reminded him of the riddle "What is something you can show, but can't see?", as a nod to Mai's perfume. Jonouchi then picked-up on Mai's Aroma Tactics strategy and later went on to win the Duel.

Kajiki
As Dark Yugi and his friends searched for food, they stumbled upon fish cooking over a fire on a cliff. Following Jonouchi and Honda's suggestion to steal it, they soon found out that it belonged to Ryota Kajiki, who unbeknownst to them had left it their as bait for opponents. Kajiki shared the food with them, but then challenged Dark Yugi to a Duel, having lured him to the terrain of his choice, the ocean. Both players wagered two Star Chips.

Kajiki hid his monsters within the ocean and performed stealth attacks on Dark Yugi's monsters, which were Summoned on the wasteland portion of the field. Dark Yugi Summoned "Silver Fang", which he powered-up with "Mystical Moon", but Kajiki defeated it with "Leviathan", whose attack flooded most of the land area. Dark Yugi played "Giant Soldier of Stone" in the last bit of wasteland, giving it 2600 DEF. As Dark Yugi planned, Kajiki's monsters surrounded the land. Dark Yugi then switched "Giant Soldier of Stone" to Attack Mode and attacked the "Mystical Moon", destroying it. "Leviathan" had only been able to flood the field due to the high tide created by the moon. With "Mystical Moon" gone, the tide returned to normal stranding Kajiki's monsters on the shore. Dark Yugi then destroyed them using "Curse of Dragon" and "Burning Land", defeating Kajiki. The two players parted ways afterwards, wishing each other luck in the tournament.

Mokuba
Dark Yugi and his friends spotted one of Pegasus' men, Saruwatari, forcefully removing someone from the island for losing his Star Chips, despite his objection that they were stolen. Dark Yugi and his friends soon encountered the thief, who then challenged Dark Yugi to a Duel, wagering five Star Chips. The thief's lack of a Duel Glove, led Dark Yugi to realize he was not invited to the tournament. The thief quickly proved to be no match for Dark Yugi, so he tried grabbed a handful of the Star Chips and running. However Dark Yugi stopped him and removed his mask and bandanna, revealing the thief was Mokuba Kaiba.

Although he was mad at Dark Yugi for leaving his brother Seto, in a coma after Death-T, Mokuba's motive was not revenge. He explained how Pegasus needed to defeat Yugi in an official Duel to take control of KaibaCorp. Mokuba thought that if he could get Yugi disqualified, Pegasus would not be able to Duel him. He also told them he had been kidnapped by Pegasus, while defending KaibaCorp, and Dark Yugi agreed to help Mokuba.

Ventriloquist of the Dead
As Mokuba tried to give Dark Yugi the Star Chips he had taken, Saruwatari interrupted saying the transaction was against tournament rules. He grabbed Mokuba and confiscated his Star Chips. Jonouchi objected that two of the Star Chips were Dark Yugi's. Saruwatari repeated that the only way to get Star Chips was by dueling, so Dark Yugi challenged him to a Duel. Saruwatari declined, saying he does not play games, but arranged an opponent for him, the Ventriloquist of the Dead.

The ventriloquist intimidated Dark Yugi, by impersonating Kaiba through a puppet, which he had claim to house Kaiba's soul, in seek of revenge. He also used the real Seto Kaiba's Deck, as demonstrated when he Summoned "Blue-Eyes White Dragon".

The ventriloquist used "Stop Defense", to keep Dark Yugi's monsters in Attack Mode, while he overpowered them with "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". Dark Yugi defeated the first dragon, by hiding his monsters with "Magical Hats". When "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" attacked a hat, hiding "Spellbinding Circle", it was weakened enough for "Dark Magician" to destroy. Dark Yugi was unable to defeat the second "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" and was about to lose. However the dragon refused to attack and the Kaiba puppet fell from the ventriloquist's hands, while instantaneously the real Kaiba woke-up from his coma.

Dark Yugi Summoned more monsters, including the "Mystical Elf", who began chanting a spell. Eventually the third "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" was drawn and Summoned. Dark Yugi reflected its attack with "Mirror Force", but the ventriloquist blocked with "Negate Attack". Dark Yugi used "Monster Reborn" to revive a destroyed "Blue-Eyes White Dragon", which "Mystical Elf" powered-up with her spell, allowing it to destroy the ventriloquist's dragon and defeat him.

Angered by the ventriloquist's mockery of the real Kaiba, Dark Yugi inflicted a Penalty Game on him, causing him to believe he was haunted by a puppet of himself. Dark Yugi took Kaiba's Deck from the ventriloquist and realized that Saruwatari had secretly left and taken Mokuba with him.

Jonouchi and Ryuzaki
Mai set-up a Duel between Jonouchi and Dinosaur Ryuzaki. Dark Yugi planned on helping Jonouchi. However Jonouchi specifically asked him not to help, as he wanted to win on his own. Dark Yugi agreed with Jonouchi's decision and returned control of his body to Yugi. When Jonouchi was in danger of losing, Yugi tried to help him, but Dark Yugi talked him out of it. He explained that Jonouchi was also battling himself and if they help him beat Ryuzaki, he would still lose to himself. Jonouchi managed to win the Duel without help from either Yugi.

Player Killer of Darkness
During the first night of the tournament, Yugi and his friends camped with Mai. Suspecting Anzu had a crush on Yugi, Mai got the two of them to meet-up alone. Yugi thought that Anzu really wanted to see Dark Yugi and was about to change to him, but Anzu told him not to and convinced herself that both Yugis were the same person.

Mai was forced into a Duel against the Player Killer of Darkness, in which she lost all her Star Chips. The Player Killer then challenged Yugi, who switched to Dark Yugi and vowed to win back Mai's Star Chips. Since Mai had eight Star Chips and Dark Yugi only had six, he bet his life to make up for the difference. To ensure Dark Yugi kept his word, the Player Killer snapped a wire rope around his neck, so that he could choke him to death if he lost. Dark Yugi was okay with the conditions, but warned the Player Killer that he would suffer a Penalty Game, if he lost.

The Player Killer used "Castle of Dark Illusions" to hide his side of the field in darkness. After drawing "Swords of Revealing Light", Dark Yugi showed it to the Player Killer and predicted he would win after five turns. Suspecting the Player Killer had a "Reaper of the Cards", Dark Yugi baited it into getting caught in "Spellbinding Circle", where it later got destroyed in the crossfire of an attack. With the reaper removed, Dark Yugi played "Swords of Revealing Light", illuminating the Player Killer's side of the field and preventing him from attacking for three turns. Over the three turns, the Player Killer built up his defense with "Yellow Luster Shield", while Dark Yugi Summoned "Gaia the Dragon Champion" and used "Catapult Turtle" to launch it at "Castle of Dark Illusions", breaking its flotation ring. When the effect of "Swords of Revealing Light" wore off, the castle fell on top of the Player Killer's monsters, who were unable to run due to the "Yellow Luster Shield", and the Player Killer's Life Points dropped to 0.

Dark Yugi inflicted a Penalty Game on the Player Killer, causing him to believe he was being hanged. Dark Yugi tried returning the Star Chips to Mai, who refused to take them, until Jonouchi helped convince her. Mai considered them to be a loan and said she was unworthy of facing Dark Yugi until she paid him back.

During the same night, Kaiba arrived on the island and received his Deck back from Yugi. Before leaving, Kaiba said that he would be one who beats Pegasus and take back what he almost lost. Yugi then switched to Dark Yugi, who told Kaiba that he and his friends were also fighting to protect what they hold precious and he would be the one to defeat Pegasus.

Meikyû Brothers
Jonouchi went missing in the morning. The Millennium Puzzle showed Dark Yugi a vision of Jonouchi dueling underground, leading him and his friends to find Jonouchi in a cave after he defeated Ghost Kozuka. Before they could leave, Bandit Keith had his companions, who ambushed Jonouchi, block the cave exit with a boulder. Searching for another way out, they entered an underground maze, which led them to the Meikyû Brothers. In order to exit, Dark Yugi and Jonouchi needed to defeat the brothers in a Team Labyrinth Duel.

The Meikyû Brothers used "Labyrinth Wall" to turn the field into a maze and presented a riddle, where Dark Yugi and Jonouchi needed to discover which of the two doors the brothers guarded led to the surface. As a hint, the brothers said that one of them would only tell the truth and the other would only lie. Each of them claimed they guarded the true door and offered to answer one question from each of Dark Yugi and Jonouchi. Jonouchi asked the brothers which door they were guarding and both of them pointed to Meikyû the Younger's door, implying Meikyû the Elder was the liar. However Dark Yugi was cautious since both brothers had said "one of us always tells the truth and one of us always lies", whereas as a pure liar and a pure honest man should not both say the same thing. Not outruling the possibility that they were both liars, Dark Yugi suggested that they play on, while he figured it out.

The brothers played monsters, which benefited from the labyrinth setting. Jonouchi managed to save Dark Yugi's "Celtic Guardian" from "Wall Shadow" using "Axe Raider" and "Kunai with Chain". Dark Yugi and Jonouchi kept their monsters together to protect each other, but the brothers split the group by rearranged the walls with "Magical Labyrinth". As the brothers began taking out Jonouchi's monsters, Dark Yugi used "Mystic Box" to displace "Dark Magician" and take out "Jirai Gumo" and "Labyrinth Tank" at once. The brothers' "Dungeon Worm" hid underground and used hit and run attacks, until Jonouchi used "Salamandra" to allow "Flame Swordsman" to send an attack into its wormhole and scorch it. The brothers then gathered their final component to Summon "Gate Guardian".

The components; "Suijin", "Kazejin" and "Sanga of the Thunder" could attack monsters anywhere in the labyrinth and block attacks directed at each other. "Suijin" flooded the field to attack "Flame Swordsman". "Dark Yugi" took advantage of the water it left, to carry an electric attack from "Summoned Skull" towards "Suijin" and used "Spellbinding Circle" on "Kazejin" to prevent it blocking the attack. The brothers dispelled the circle afterwards. Dark Yugi and Jonouchi fused their monsters into "Black Skull Dragon", which was immobile being too wide for the corridors of the labyrinth, which was only crossable via ground units. Meikyû the Younger used "Ryoku" to halve Dark Yugi and Jonouchi's Life Points and add them to the ATK of "Kazejin" and "Sanga". Dark Yugi moved "Dark Magician" up close to "Gate Guardian" and used "Monster Reborn" on "Suijin" to block the next attack from "Gate Guardian". Jonouchi used "Copycat" on "Ryoku" and power-up "Black Skull Dragon". Dark Yugi then used "Shift" to swap the position of "Dark Magician" and "Black Skull Dragon", allowing the dragon to attack and destroy "Gate Guardian".

With the Meikyû Brothers defeated, Dark Yugi and Jonouchi, each had 10 Star Chips, enough to qualify for the finals, but in order to exit the underground, they still needed to choose the correct door. Dark Yugi remembered Meikyû the Elder being considered the liar for pointing to the wrong door earlier, but the clue only said he would speak lies and he did not speak in that instance. Dark Yugi considered the "Mei" door, the "Kyû" door, both doors or a secret third door could be the exit. Although given five minutes to look for another door, Dark Yugi sat still. The brothers seemed to confident the wrong door would be chosen for a game of 50-50 chance, so he assumed both were lying and would say whichever door he chooses is wrong. Dark Yugi showed the brothers he had written "迷" (Mei) on one coin and "宮" (Kyû) on another. He put the coins on the table under his hands and said that the coin he leaves under his hand would show which door he chooses. He lifted up one hand revealing the "Kyû" coin. The brothers assumed this meant he was choosing the "Mei" door. Bakura, who had unknown to anyone was being controlled by Dark Bakura, tried to warn Dark Yugi that Kyû was the correct door. The brothers agreed with Bakura, but said it was too late for Dark Yugi to change his mind. However Dark Yugi revealed that he had also written "Kyû" on the opposite of the Mei coin and put both coins Kyû side up, meaning Kyû was his choice. Having already said Kyû was the right door, the brothers had to let them leave. Dark Yugi wondered if Bakura had figured out the brothers trap too and credited him distracting the brothers for stopping them discovering his two-sided coin.

Kaiba
When the group arrived at Pegasus Castle, Kaiba stood before Dark Yugi, saying they were fated to Duel again. With 10 Star Chips, it appeared Dark Yugi had nothing to gain from this Duel. However noticing something different about Kaiba, Dark Yugi accepted the Duel. The two of them stood on connected towers and used Kaiba's Duel Disk technology, which had a different rule setting. They each bet five Star Chips, so one of them could enter the castle.

Players' hands could only contain up to five cards at a time. The five were also considered to be on the field with one set as the main monster. Kaiba took advantage of this by attacking cards in Dark Yugi's hand and Dark Yugi took advantage of it by using "Shift" to force Kaiba to attack the "Dark Magician" he had not Summoned.

Kaiba used "Mystic Lamp" to retreat "La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp" and reflect Dark Yugi's attacks. To stop Kaiba hiding the lamp, Dark Yugi exposed Kaiba's hand with "The Eye of Truth", which also revealed that Kaiba could be planning on fusing his "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" cards. Dark Yugi used "Mystic Box" to allow Dark Magician to destroy both "La Jinn" and the lamp.

Kaiba used the virus "Crush Card", disallowing Dark Yugi from having any monsters with 1500 or more original ATK and soon afterwards, fused his "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" cards into "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon".

Dark Yugi used "Multiply" to create a legion of "Kuribohs", which destructed on impact, creating explosions to block the ultimate dragon's blasts. With "Living Arrow", Dark Yugi used "Polymerization" to fuse "Mammoth Graveyard" with "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon", creating an unstable fusion, which decayed each turn weakening, until it had less ATK than Dark Yugi's "Celtic Guardian". "Celtic Guardian" cut off one of the dragon's heads per battle and Dark Yugi planned on winning by cutting off the second head.

However, Kaiba stepped backwards one tile for every 100 damage he took, putting him in danger of falling from the tower to his death if his Life Points reach 0. He then used "Monster Reborn" to revive one of the dragon's heads in full health with 3000 ATK. Though hesitant at first, Dark Yugi remembered he had to save Sugoroku and concluded he could not lose. He declared an attack, but before it could go through, Yugi took back control of his body and called it off. Kaiba proceeded to win by attacking "Celtic Guardian" with the revived head. The battle left a scar on Dark Yugi's memory, as Yugi and his friends later found the memory behind one of the doors in his soul room, with Yugi commenting on the pain as he approached the door and witnessing what was beyond it.

Seeing how he could have let Kaiba die, Yugi came to fear Dark Yugi, and his confidence in himself. When Mai arrived and offered to give him her six extra Star Chips, Yugi refused thinking Dark Yugi would not have taken them. However Jonouchi and Mai told Yugi that it was also about he wanted and that he was fighting for things more important than pride. When Yugi took the Star Chips, Jonouchi offered to take care of Dark Yugi if he gave him any hassle over the decision.

Prior to the finals
After Pegasus defeated Kaiba and trapped his soul in a "Soul Prison" card, he revealed that Kaiba had been fighting to save Mokuba. Yugi then got mad and switched to Dark Yugi, who warned Pegasus that he would not forgive him and vowed to defeat him.

One of Pegasus' men announced that the finalists would need one of the two cards, which they had received with their invitation to the tournament, "The Honor of the King's Right" and "The Honor of the King's Left". Dark Yugi hypothesized that the "Right Hand" granted the winner the prize money and the "Left Hand" the right to face Pegasus. Jonouchi had neither of the cards and ran the risk of disqualification, so Dark Yugi gave him "Right Hand" card, since he needed the prize money and kept the "Left Hand" card, since he needed to face Pegasus.

At the finalists dinner party, Dark Yugi, Anzu, Jonouchi and Honda were surprised to see a portrait of Shadi, reinforcing Bakura and Dark Yugi's suspicions that Pegasus had more information on the Millennium Items. They also saw a portrait of Cyndia and wondered who she was. During the meal, Honda, wanting to repay Mokuba for saving his life at Death-T, asked Dark Yugi if he could save the Kaiba brothers when he defeated Pegasus, to which Dark Yugi agreed, despite acknowledging that he and Kaiba may be his enemy forever. The finalists found Millennium Eye replicas in their soup, which contained letters pairing them up for the next round. Dark Yugi was to face Mai, while Jonouchi was to face Keith.

During the night, Yugi admitted to Anzu that he did not like how he always needed to be helped by other people, including Dark Yugi and vowed to one day become strong enough to not lose to Dark Yugi. The next morning, Grandpa, told Yugi that he balances Dark Yugi; When Dark Yugi becomes overconfident in his abilities and loses his heart and sense of justice, he needs Yugi's help.

Mai
Dark Yugi regarded Mai as a weaker opponent he just needed to beat before getting to Pegasus. Not giving the Duel his full attention, he almost immediately lost two of his strongest cards to Mai's "Mirror Wall". Mai reminded Dark Yugi of his "something you can show, but can't see" riddle and said he would not be able to defeat her without figuring out the answer. Dark Yugi drew "Dark Magician", who was strong enough to defeat "Harpies' Pet Dragon", but not while Mai had "Mirror Wall", so he played it in Defense Mode and Set "Mirror Force" to destroy Mai's monsters when she attacks. However Mai used "Shadow of Eyes" so that her "Harpy Lady" would use pheromones to force Dark Yugi's monsters into battle. "Dark Magician" attacked and his ATK halved by "Mirror Wall". Mai used "Harpy's Feather Duster" to remove "Mirror Force" and proceeded to attack and destroy "Dark Magician".

Seeing how well, Mai was playing, Jonouchi thought he was lucky to have beaten her earlier. However Mai explained that Jonouchi won because he knew his weakness, accepted it and became stronger to overcome it. She learned from that Duel that a Duelist's courage is truly tested when they lose, not when they win. A strong heart is born, when one is prepared to lose, she stated and asked Dark Yugi if he had that courage. Remembering his Duel with Kaiba, Dark Yugi realized that he was afraid to lose, while Yugi was not. He admitted that he did not want to face that fear and the strength of Yugi made up for his weakness. That was what he could show, but could not see.

Fully focused on the Duel and with Yugi by his side, Dark Yugi drew "Brain Control". With it, he took control of "Harpies' Pet Dragon", which Mai informed him wouldn't attack its master, the "Harpy Lady". However Dark Yugi Summoned "Catapult Turtle" and used it to launch the dragon at "Mirror Wall", destroying both and subtracting half the dragon's ATK from Mai's Life Points.

Mai was able to win by attacking "Catapult Turtle" with "Harpy Lady". However Dark Yugi's confident eyes combined with his face-down card, convinced her not to. She instead used "Kaleidoscope" to multiple her "Harpy Lady". Dark Yugi revealed that his face-down card was a bluff, "Monster Recovery", and used it to return the turtle to his Deck and draw five new cards. With "Shadow of Eyes" in play and none of his cards strong enough to beat the harpies, Dark Yugi thought he had lost. However Anzu calling the harpies "sleazy" reminded him how the pheromones work, so he played "Mystical Elf" in Defense Mode. Being the same sex as the harpies, she was unaffected by the pheromones. Mai revived "Harpies' Pet Dragon" with "Monster Reborn" and defeated "Mystical Elf".

Dark Yugi used "Swords of Revealing Light" and stalled for three turns while he brought out the components to Summon "Black Luster Soldier". With "Black Luster Soldier", he attacked and defeated "Harpies' Pet Dragon". On her next turn, Mai surrendered, unable to win and not wanting to see her harpies injured.

Dark Yugi thanked Mai for reminding him what he had lost sight of and Mai promised to become stronger from her loss.

Jonouchi and Keith
Dark Yugi watched Jonouchi and Bandit Keith's semifinal Duel. He considered Jonouchi to no longer be an amateur and this to be his hardest battle so far. He didn't provide any help to Jonouchi and credited Jonouchi's success in the Duel to his courage as a duelist, rather than luck or miracles.

Pegasus
Following Jonouchi's victory, Anzu thought Jonouchi and Dark Yugi would have to Duel in the finals. However Dark Yugi said that the Duel would be pointless since they both have the same goal and dueling would only expose more of their tactics to Pegasus. Jonouchi was okay with skipping the Duel as he knew Dark Yugi was the only one capable of defeating Pegasus, but asked if Dark Yugi was really okay with being given the extra baggage of fighting for him. Dark Yugi replied that he will win because he is fighting for Jonouchi, like how Jonouchi won because he was fighting for Shizuka. Dark Yugi received "The Honor of the King's Right" from Jonouchi and got ready to face Pegasus. Pegasus also considered them dueling to be unnecessary and prepared to face Dark Yugi.

Before the Duel, Dark Yugi got Pegasus to promise to release the souls of Grandpa and the Kaiba brothers if Dark Yugi won. Dark Yugi presented the cards "The Honor of the King's Right" and "The Honor of the King's Left" and Pegasus asked if Dark Yugi knew why the "Left Hand" card was blank. Dark Yugi correctly guessed that his soul would be sealed in that card if he lost, causing himself to be displayed in the picture.

Using his Mind Scan, Pegasus dominated the first few turns of the Duel by reading Dark Yugi's mind. He also used "Toon World" to turn his monsters into Toon versions, allowing them to dodge attacks. Yugi suspected that Pegasus was only able to read one of the Yugi's minds at a time. He managed to communicate with Dark Yugi and suggested a Mind Shuffle strategy; Yugi and Dark Yugi would alternate turns and swap back control before Pegasus could read their mind. Dark Yugi hid "Dark Magician" inside "Magical Hats", but Yugi managed to choose which hat it went under. Pegasus read the mind of Dark Yugi who didn't know where "Dark Magician" was and attacked the wrong hat. On the next two turns, Yugi drew and Set "Mirror Force" and "Living Arrow" and switched to Dark Yugi, before Pegasus could read his mind. Pegasus used "Magic Neutralizing Force" to remove the hats and attacked "Dark Magician". However Yugi took control and used "Living Arrow" to get "Magic Neutralizing Force" to target Pegasus' cards, negating "Toon World" and allowing "Mirror Force" to destroy Pegasus' monsters.

Pegasus explained that Egyptian wizards used to battle using monsters sealed in stone tablets and that he created Duel Monsters to bring these games to the modern world. Since he considered himself to be against a worthy opponent, he changed the Duel to a Shadow Game to recreate these battles. The nature of the Shadow Game made it difficult for Yugi to endure, so Dark Yugi took control for most of the remaining Duel.

Pegasus used "Relinquished" to absorb Dark Yugi's monsters as shields. Yugi took control to give Dark Yugi time to think of a plan without having his mind read and managed to play "Dark Magic Ritual" face-down, but after two turns, Yugi collapsed. When Pegasus tried reading Dark Yugi's mind again, an apparition of Dark Yugi's friends appeared and blocked him. Pegasus tried using "Jigen Bakudan" to destroy the monsters absorbed by "Relinquish" and damage Dark Yugi. Dark Yugi used "Mystic Box" to free "Dark Magician" from "Relinquished" and put "Jigen Bakudan" in its place. He then took control of "Relinquished" with "Brain Control" and used "Dark Magic Ritual" on "Dark Magician" and the monsters equipped to "Relinquished" to Summon "Magician of Black Chaos". Pegasus fused "Relinquished" with "Thousand-Eyes Idol" creating "Thousand-Eyes Restrict", whose eyes paralyzed Dark Yugi's monsters. When "Thousand-Eyes Restrict" tried absorbing "Magician of Black Chaos", Dark Yugi used "Multiply" on "Kuriboh", causing multiple "Kubibohs" to intercept and be absorbed instead. The "Kuribohs" exploded on impact, blinding the eyes on Pegasus' monster. This freed "Magician of Black Chaos", who attacked and destroyed "Thousand-Eyes Restrict", defeating Pegasus.

Aftermath
Keeping his word, Pegasus freed the souls of Grandpa and the Kaiba brothers. He told Dark Yugi that the Millennium Items possessed an evil intelligence, prompting Dark Yugi to ask Pegasus how he received the Millennium Eye. Pegasus explained how the death of his lover, Cyndia led him to Egypt, where he met Shadi and secretly followed him to an underground temple. He was denied exit unless he became the holder of a Millennium Item, so he was put on trial by the Millennium Eye, which choose him as its holder and showed him a brief apparition of Cyndia.

Jonouchi wondered why Dark Yugi didn't give Pegasus a Penalty Game. Anzu suspected that since Dark Yugi came from a Millennium Item, hearing that the items possessed an evil intelligence couldn't have been easy for him and by inflicting a Penalty Game, he would only be proving it right.

Croquet gave Dark Yugi the prizes and Kaiba's Duel Disk briefcase. He explained that Pegasus had wanted to take over KaibaCorp so he could use the Solid Vision technology to create a lifelike vision of Cyndia. Dark Yugi and his friends were with Mokuba when his soul was restored and brought him to his brother. To repay the favor, Kaiba brought Yugi and his friends back to Japan in his helicopter.

Dungeon Dice Monsters
In this arc, Dark Yugi didn't appear much, since the Black Clown stole the Millennium Puzzle from Yugi, and Yugi won it back from beating Ryuji Otogi in a game of Dungeon Dice Monsters. However, during the game, the Black Clown shattered the Puzzle. After the game, he accidentally lit the store on fire, and Yugi solved the Puzzle just in time.

Prior events
While Yugi recovered in the hospital from the fire, he and Dark Yugi constructed a new Deck together.

Anzu questioned Yugi as to whether he had made a new wish when he reconstructed the Millennium Puzzle. Yugi admitted he had not thought about making a wish, but had hoped he would see Dark Yugi again while he solved it. Soon afterwards, Anzu admitted to herself that she was probably wrong in thinking Dark Yugi was a part of Yugi that the Millennium Puzzle brought out. It was what she wanted to believe, but now thought that he may be a separate person who came from the Millennium Puzzle and wondered what would happen to Dark Yugi if the puzzle had to be brought somewhere in Egypt.

Before leaving the hospital, Dark Yugi told Yugi that he doesn't remember his name or where he came from. He just knew that he existed while Yugi wore the Millennium Puzzle and wondered what would happen to him if if the Millennium Items were to be placed in the Millennium Stone. However he said he wanted to stay with Yugi forever moreso than get back his memories. Yugi wept that he agreed and offered to share his memories with Dark Yugi.

Yugi told Anzu at school that Dark Yugi had been feeling down but wouldn't tell him about it. He asked Anzu if she could go out with him on Sunday to cheer him up. Dark Yugi wasn't told about this until almost last minute. Yugi annoyed Dark Yugi by making him go on the date alone.

Dark Yugi and Anzu first went to a coffee shop, where they spoke about their futures. Dark Yugi didn't know where he was going and said that he knew Anzu could make her dream to study dance in America a reality. Next they went to a card store, where Dark Yugi purchased a Booster Pack, which included "Lightforce Sword". At the arcade, Anzu was challenged to a game of Virtual VS by Step Johnny. Dark Yugi advised her to ignore him, but Anzu refused to back down from a challenge and defeated Johnny. Afterwards Dark Yugi told Anzu of his dilemma; He could go to Egypt and find out where he came from, but if he didn't go looking things would stay the way they are. While he wants to find out about himself, he doesn't want to leave Yugi. Although Anzu wanted him to stay, she told him to stay honest to his own heart. With that in mind, Dark Yugi decided to go to The Art of Egypt exhibition at the museum to find clues to his past.

Inside the museum, Dark Yugi and Anzu saw the Tablet of Lost Memories, which depicted 3000 year old Egyptians identical in appearance to Dark Yugi and Kaiba. Dark Yugi was certain that he the pharaoh depicted and wondered why Kaiba was also on the tablet. Ishizu Ishtar, the possessor of the Millennium Tauk greeted Dark Yugi and told him that he needed to gather the seven Millennium Items in order to regain his memory. Although she had an item herself, she assured him she was not an enemy, but the enemy he was soon to face is the holder of the seventh item. On leaving the museum, Dark Yugi asked Anzu not to tell Yugi what they had learned in there.

Shortly afterwards, Dark Yugi and Anzu were greeted by Mai, who teased Anzu a bit about being on a date. She was surprised to find that Dark Yugi was unaware that there was a duelist gathering at that location for the proclamation of a huge Duel Monsters tournament. Kaiba then appeared and announced that the Battle City tournament was to take place in Domino City in two days time.

Dark Yugi opted to take part in the tournament, but was unhappy with the ante rule. He valued how rare a card is by how precious it is to its owner, so he refused to take rare cards from his opponents should he win. With that in mind, Yugi became suspicious that Dark Yugi was entering the tournament for another reason. The day before the tournament, Yugi received a free new model Duel Disk due to his level 8 duelist rating in Kaiba's database. Yugi and Dark Yugi stayed up all night preparing their Deck. In the morning, Dark Yugi admitted to Yugi that he was entering the tournament to find out about himself and Yugi didn't ask any further questions.

Before the tournament, Kaiba told the participants that they each had a Puzzle Card. They needed to wager them in Duels until they got six. Stacking six cards would reveal a portion of a map and a light would appear indicating the location of the finals.

Exodia Rare Hunter
Jonouchi confronted a Rare Hunter Ghoul, who had taken his "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" the night before. Dark Yugi interrupted and challenged the Rare Hunter to a Duel. Considering the Rare Hunters to be scum, Dark Yugi wanted to eliminate him from the tournament immediately. Jonouchi was about to tell Dark Yugi the Rare Hunter's Deck type, but Dark Yugi stopped him saying he had no right to know his enemy's strategy beforehand. He began to ask the Rare Hunter's name, but then decided it didn't matter and prepared to Duel. The second the tournament began the Duel started.

As the Rare Hunter focused purely on building up his defense and changing his hand, Dark Yugi realized that he was planning on Summoning "Exodia". Using "Lightforce Sword", Dark Yugi forced "Right Arm of the Forbidden One" out of the Rare Hunter's hand and used "Chain Destruction" to destroy it and all remaining copies in the hunter's Deck. Unable to complete "Exodia" without the "Right Arm", the Rare Hunter had no way of winning.

The Rare Hunter became possessed by Marik Ishtar, who controlled him through the Millennium Rod. Marik introduced himself and said that he had entered the tournament to get the third of the Egyptian God cards, which was in the possession of someone in the city. He warned Dark Yugi that the Rare Hunter he fought was the weakest of the Ghouls. With him defeated, Dark Yugi was given his Puzzle Card and Jonouchi's "Red-Eyes Black Dragon". Lastly Marik warned Dark Yugi that a Rare Hunter possessing an Egyptian God was lurking in the city and if Dark Yugi was to face him, it would be instant death.

Dark Yugi tried returning "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" to Jonouchi. Despite his attachment to the card, Jonouchi refused to take it without earning it. He asked Dark Yugi to promise to face him in a Duel if he proves himself as a true duelist in the tournament. Dark Yugi agreed and as they parted ways, thought to himself that he had been waiting to hear those words. He later explained to Yugi that by holding Jonouchi's favorite card, they're giving him something to fight for and make him show his true strength.

Pandora
Marik arranged for Pandora to prepare for a Duel with Dark Yugi and also keep an eye on his friends.

It struck Dark Yugi that the Rare Hunters must have known that Jonouchi had the "Red-Eyes Black Dragon", since winning it was the only advantage they had to dueling him before the tournament had started. He wondered how they knew Jonouchi had the card and Yugi realized that it must have been though the card shop, where they got the Duel Disks, since the clerk there had seen Jonouchi's rare card, when he checked his rating. Dark Yugi assumed that the shop must be a front for Rare Hunters and raced there.

Inside Dark Yugi saw his duelist information on the clerks computer. A projection of a "Dark Magician" then came out of the screen and introduced his master, Pandora, the true user of the "Dark Magician", who was about to Duel Dark Yugi. Dark Yugi explained that cards and duelists choose each other based on trust and when the two hearts are bound by trust, the card's true power will display. He accepted the challenge to show who was the true master of the "Dark Magician". Both players feet were clamped in place for the Duel, such that buzzsaws would cut off their feet if they lost the Duel.

When Dark Yugi suspected Pandora was using the stripper technique when he shuffled his Deck, so he used "Card Destruction" near the beginning of the Duel to combat this, sending "Dark Magician" to Pandora's Graveyard. Dark Yugi and Pandora quickly Summoned "Dark Magicians", which equally matched each other as they fought backed with combinations of Spell Cards. Pandora considered his monsters to be his slaves and used "Ectoplasmer" to sacrifice them to damage Dark Yugi. Due to the effect of "Ectoplasmer", Dark Yugi's "Dark Magician" sacrificed itself without command to protect him from Pandora's "Dark Magician". Finally Pandora used "Dark Magic Curtain" to Summon another "Dark Magician", thinking Dark Yugi, who had only one "Dark Magician", couldn't use it too. However Dark Yugi was able to Summon "Dark Magician Girl", who was strengthened by the "Dark Magicians" in the Graveyards, including the one Pandora "betrayed". "Dark Magician Girl" destroyed Pandora's "Dark Magician", winning the Duel for Dark Yugi.

Dark Yugi was about to leave Pandora have his feet cut off, but Yugi took control and saved him.

The Doll
Yugi expressed concerns that the Ghouls were trying to kill Dark Yugi and confessed that he knew Dark Yugi was entering the tournament to regain his memories. Although part of him wanted Dark Yugi to stay the way he was, Yugi thought that might be because he had become too dependent on him to protect him and his friends. Not wanting to "trap" Dark Yugi or stay dependent forever, Yugi considered it his duty to help Dark Yugi regain those memories.

The Yugis were then confronted by The Doll, who was possessed by Marik and had the Egyptian God "Slifer the Sky Dragon" in his Deck. Through the Doll, Marik challenged Dark Yugi to a Duel.

Dark Yugi became suspicious of Marik playing "Humanoid Slime" in Attack Mode, despite its low ATK and high DEF. He predicted Marik's Fusion Summon of "Humanoid Drake" and was able to counter with "De-Fusion". Next Marik Summoned "Revival Jam", which kept regenerating after it got destroyed. Using "Jam Breeding Machine" to Summon "Slimes" and "Nightmare Steel Cage" to stop Dark Yugi attacking, Marik got three "Slimes" and Sacrificed them to Summon "Slifer the Sky Dragon".

Dark Yugi afraid to move in the presence of "Slifer", as he could feel the power flowing from it. Marik explained that the ATK of "Slifer" was 1000 times the number of cards in his hand, giving it 3000. On Marik's next turn, "Slifer" had 4000 ATK and it attacked "Buster Blader", who had 3100 ATK due to his effect. Dark Yugi used "Lightforce Sword" to take a card out of Marik's hand, lowering the ATK of "Slifer" to 3000, meaning it would be destroyed by "Buster Blader". However Marik used "Jam Defender" to get "Revival Jam" take the hit instead of "Slifer" and revive itself. He used played "Card of Safe Return" to draw three cards whenever "Revival Jam" came back. With 5000 ATK, "Slifer" defeated "Buster Blader".

Dark Yugi Summoned "Dark Magician Girl" in Defense Mode and Marik revealed another effect of "Slifer"; When an opponent's monster is Summoned "Slifer" subtracts 2000 from the ATK of DEF of an opponent's monster depending on its battle position and destroys it if it goes to 0 or below. Dark Yugi used "Magical Hats" to hide and protect "Dark Magician Girl" and then hid "Spellbinding Circle" and "Magic Cylinder" under the remaining two hats. Next turn, Marik used "Infinite Cards", so "Slifer" wouldn't be bound by the hand size limit. In his Battle Phase, he attacked the hat containing "Dark Magician Girl". Dark Yugi responded by using "Magic Cylinder" to reflect the attack back at "Slifer" and "Spellbinding Circle" to hold "Slifer" still and make it weaker than the reflected attack. However "Jam Defender" caused "Revival Jam" to take the attack instead and when it revived Marik drew three more cards. Marik explained that cards like "Spellbinding Circle" will only affect Gods for one turn and after it wore off, he destroyed "Dark Magician Girl" with "Slifer".

Not seeing any way of defeating "Slifer", Dark Yugi dropped to his knees. However Kaiba appeared and demanded that Dark Yugi get on his feet. He refused to watch one of the few people he recognizes as a duelist shamefully lose and considered himself to be the only one capable of defeating Dark Yugi. He told him not to be intimidated by the face of God and assured him that nothing is infinite. Noticing a limit to the power of "Slifer", Dark Yugi came up with a plan to defeat it.

Dark Yugi revived "Buster Blader" in Attack Mode with "Monster Reborn" and got it to attack the 13000 ATK "Slifer". "Revival Jam" blocked the attack and got destroyed. Before it fully regenerated, Dark Yugi took control of it with "Brain Control", leaving it regenerate on his side of the field. Since it had less than 2000 DEF, it was destroyed by "Slifer, only to regenerate again. A loop was formed where it constantly regenerated and Marik drew three cards with "Card of Safe Return" after each iteration. Dark Yugi explained that the power of "Slifer" was limited by the number of cards in its controller's Deck and when Marik was unable to draw any more cards, he lost.

Through the ante rule, Dark Yugi received "Slifer the Sky Dragon" and The Doll's Puzzle Card. Kaiba then challenged Dark Yugi to a Duel, but was interrupted by The Doll as Marik used him to warn Dark Yugi that the Rare Hunters were about to put his friends in danger. Dark Yugi then fled to find his friends.

Rare Hunters
On his way to his friends, Dark Yugi was stopped by two Rare Hunters who challenged him to Duels, threatening to have Jonouchi killed if he refused to accept. As the Rare Hunters tried to decided who would face Dark Yugi first, Kaiba arrived and suggested they make it a Tag Team Duel. He assured Yugi he was doing it because he wanted rid of the Rare Hunters, not because he cared about Yugi's friends. Using the Egyptian God "The God of the Obelisk", Kaiba quickly defeated the two hunters.

Dark Yugi and Kaiba also defeated another Rare Hunter and the Ghouls reported it as an emergency that the two had teamed-up and both had Egyptian God cards. However Marik arranged for two assassins with Decks to beat Gods to target them.

Masks of Light and Darkness
KaibaCorp managed to track Jonouchi using their satellites and reported his location to Kaiba. Dark Yugi thanked Kaiba, but tried telling off for mocking Jonouchi.

Before they could get to Jonouchi's location, one of Marik's arranged assassins, Mask of Light leapt at them and attached a Duelist's Chastity Belt to Kaiba's Duel Disk. The other assassin, Mask of Darkness showed them that he had the key necessary to remove the belt. To get back the key and to avoid having Jonouchi killed, Kaiba and Dark Yugi had to face the two Rare Hunters in a Tag Team Duel on top of a tall building. The game was set up so that the glass below each player would shatter if they lost, causing them to fall to their death. To win both players of the opposing team had to be defeated.

Mask of Light and Mask of Darkness' strategy was based on teamwork. Mask of Darkness played monsters, while Mask of Light backed him up with Spell Cards. Kaiba on the other hand had no intention on relying on teamwork and planned on defeating the Ghouls himself. Even after Dark Yugi saved him from losing, he claimed he did not need his help.

The Ghouls made some of Dark Yugi's cards effectively unusable and cost him Life Points each turn through "Mask of Accursed" and "Mask of Dispel". With "Mask of Restrict", they prevented them or any of Dark Yugi and Kaiba's cards being Sacrificed. With nothing in his hand of use without Sacrifices, Dark Yugi contemplated playing "Card Destruction", but worried he could lose Kaiba's trust by causing him to discard something important. However Kaiba egged him into doing it saying cards requiring sacrifice may as well be in the Graveyard. After Kaiba blocked an attack that would have defeated Dark Yugi, Dark Yugi played "Card Destruction" and Kaiba revived his discarded "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" with "Monster Reborn". Kaiba credited the move to using his team mate rather than teamwork. However Dark Yugi showed him the power of unity by telling him to attack "The Masked Beast", which had more ATK then "Blue-Eyes" and then revealing the "Archfiend of Gilfer" he had discarded was weakening the beast and allowed "Blue-Eyes" to defeat it.

The Ghouls halved the ATK of "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" with "Mask of Weakness" and attacked it with "Nuvia the Wicked". However Dark Yugi used "Mystical Rift Panel" to transfer the effect to "Nuvia", causing it to get destroyed in battle. As the Ghouls bickered over whose fault that was, Kaiba began to see the power of unity.

Mask of Light Summoned "Masked Beast of Guardius" and planned on attacking "Alpha the Magnet Warrior", which would defeat Dark Yugi. Kaiba instead coaxed him into attacking "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" by threatening to make it stronger next turn. Dark Yugi Summoned "Gamma the Magnet Warrior" and merged it with his "Alpha" and "Beta" into "Valkyrion the Magna Warrior".

Dark Yugi declined Kaiba's orders to avenge "Blue-Eyes" by killing "Des Gardius" with "Valkyrion", warning him that anger and vengeance can throw off a duelist's judgment. Once Kaiba thought clearly and realized that "Valkyrion" was a decoy and the power of unity was Dark Yugi's trump card, Dark Yugi attacked. "Des Gardius" was destroyed, but its effect equipped "Mask of Possession" to "Valkyrion" giving control of it to Mask of Light. When he tried attacking Dark Yugi with it, Dark Yugi used "De-Fusion", splitting back into "Alpha", "Beta" and "Gamma". Kaiba used "Soul Exchange" on the three of them to Summon "The God of the Obelisk", which he used to attack and defeat Mask of Darkness.

The glass below Mask of Darkness was blown up, but he used a parachute to save himself from falling to his death. Dark Yugi urged Mask of Light to give up now that his partner was gone, but Kaiba still insisted on crushing his enemies. However Marik took control of Mask of Light. Through him, he informed Dark Yugi and Kaiba that he had used this Duel to assess their Decks and instructed Dark Yugi to come to his friends.

Kaiba took two Puzzle Cards from Mask of Light's unconscious body and gave one to Dark Yugi, bringing them both to six Puzzle Cards each, enough to qualify for the finals. Putting them on his Duel Disk Kaiba found the location of the finals, but Dark Yugi was uninterested. Mokuba then arrived by helicopter, having tracked Jonouchi's location.

Brainwashed Jonouchi
Kaiba learned about Marik's brainwashing power from Dark Yugi. He brought Dark Yugi to Jonouchi via the helicopter because he was interested in confronting Marik, the leader of the Ghouls and because he wanted so see what Dark Yugi's "answer" to what good the "power of unity" would be if he was forced to fight his friend.

The helicopter arrived at Domino Pier, where Dark Yugi found Jonouchi had been possessed by Marik. Dark Yugi made attempts to snap him out of it, but was unsuccessful and challenged to a "Duel of Death". To force Dark Yugi into accepting, Marik revealed he was also possessing Anzu and threatened to make her swallow a poisonous pill.

At the Arena of Death, Dark Yugi and Jonouchi had their hands cuffed onto a 300 kg anchor, which was set to plunge into the sea after 40 minutes. Each player had a box at their feet containing a key to their handcuff, which could be opened by defeating their opponent. Dark Yugi was told to leave "Slifer the Sky Dragon" aside, so it wouldn't get pulled into the water if he lost. As he did so, he also added Jonouchi's "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" to his Deck.

Jonouchi quickly got the upperhand, using Spell Cards that were meant to be Forbidden in the tournament. Dark Yugi didn't want to kill Jonouchi and struggled to think of a way to win back his heart. Yugi asked Dark Yugi to let him fight the Duel instead, saying Jonouchi saved him before and now it's his turn to save Jonouchi. Dark Yugi argued that the Duel was difficult, but Yugi insisted anyway. Dark Yugi agreed under the condition that he could take back control if things got worse. Marik, who wanted to get revenge on the Pharaoh, Dark Yugi, specifically was unhappy with this move.

Dark Yugi remained at Yugi's side to provide guidance, but Yugi asked that he remain quiet and watch. He was shocked by Yugi's decision to use "Exchange" while "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" was in his hand. However Yugi knew Jonouchi wouldn't take "Red-Eyes", because he promised Dark Yugi he wouldn't take it back until their Duel after Battle City. When Dark Yugi feared the Duel was getting too dangerous, he tried to take over, but Yugi removed the Millennium Puzzle preventing him from doing so. Yugi said that if he didn't become strong by himself, Dark Yugi would never be able to leave him.

When Yugi got the Millennium Puzzle back, he had managed to return Jonouchi to normal and the Duel had ended in a DRAW with both players surviving. Dark Yugi was impressed, having learned from Yugi that in kindness lies the greatest strength of all and believed that one day Yugi would surpass him in every way. Afterwards Kaiba told Yugi to tell Dark Yugi that he had given him the "answer".

Prior to the finals
Yugi went to Domino Stadium for the finals, where he boarded the Battle Ship blimp, along with the other finalists and his friends. Marik was a finalist, but posed as an ally "Namu", while his companion Rishid posed as Marik. Kaiba addressed Dark Yugi's decision to not use his Egyptian God during the preliminaries and said he would not accept that in their battle. Afterwards, the Yugis added it to their Deck for the finals.

Dark Bakura
Yugi and Bakura were paired up for the first of the quarter finals and Dark Yugi quickly learned that he was facing Dark Bakura rather than Ryo Bakura. Dark Yugi asked if Dark Bakura was after his Millennium Puzzle again. Dark Bakura did not give a straight answer, but said he wanted to win "Slifer the Sky Dragon".

Dark Bakura spent his first three turns Summoning monsters in Attack Position, which Dark Yugi trounced and quickly lowered Dark Bakura to 750 Life Points. However Dark Bakura revealed that his seemingly weak moves were necessary to Summon "Dark Necrofear". Dark Yugi destroyed "Dark Necrofear" using "Dark Magician Girl" and "Magic Formula", but this allowed Dark Bakura to use her effect. Her Marionette's Spirit began possessing Dark Yugi's monsters without Dark Yugi knowing which one it was. The possessed monsters attacks would backfire on Dark Yugi, damaging him and recovering Dark Bakura's Life Points.

Since "Dark Necrofear" was destroyed, Dark Bakura was able to use "Destiny Board". A Ouija board appeared on the field and the spirit of "Dark Necrofear" began spelling out "DEATH" with one letter per turn. Dark Yugi would lose if it completed its message.

Using "The Dark Door" and "Dark Spirit of the Silent", Dark Bakura restricted Dark Yugi's attacks and forced him to attack with the possessed monsters. Dark Yugi used "Monster Recovery" to clear his own field and Summoned "Kuriboh". The spirit had to possess "Kuriboh", which Dark Yugi targeted with "Chain Destruction", destroying "Kuriboh" and the spirit with it.

With the Ouija board spelling "D-E-A-T", Dark Yugi used "Monster Reborn" to revive "Dark Necrofear" preventing her using the board from the grave. However Dark Bakura used "Deja Vu" on his next turn, returning "Dark Necrofear" to his Graveyard and "Dark Magician Girl", "Gamma the Magnet Warrior" and "Kuriboh" to Dark Yugi's field.

With one turn to win, Dark Yugi drew and Summoned "Slifer the Sky Dragon". Since the marionette's spirit had been revived with "Kuriboh", Dark Bakura tried possessing "Slifer", but the spirit was unable to possess a God.

Dark Bakura was about to lose, however Marik used the Millennium Rod to return control of Bakura's body to Ryo Bakura. Rishid posing as Marik explained that Ryo in his injured state could be killed if struck by "Slifer". Dark Yugi didn't want to attack, but with a time limit on his move, he was going to lose if he did nothing. However Dark Bakura despised Marik's method of winning and took back control of Ryo's body. He assured Dark Yugi that he would survive and told him to attack. Dark Yugi complied and won the Duel.

Jonouchi and Rishid
As Jonouchi dueled Rishid, who posed as Marik, Dark Yugi took control of Yugi's body to ask Jonouchi the "something you can show, but can't see" riddle. Jonouchi initially believed it was his Deck, as he could see it, but not the card he was about to draw. Dark Yugi grew suspicious of what the ark of Rishid's "Royal Temple" was protecting and suspected it was "The Sun Dragon Ra", but had a hunch that Rishid shouldn't have that card. When Jonouchi accused Rishid of not being Marik, the enemy who was being shown, but not seen was the answer given to Dark Yugi's riddle. Seeing Rishid use a fake "The Sun Dragon Ra", Dark Yugi got a glimpse of one of the effects of "Ra". After Rishid's defeat, Dark Marik took control of Marik's body and identified himself to Dark Yugi and the others.

Mai and Dark Marik
Put off friendship by Jonouchi's earlier exclusion of her, Mai told Dark Yugi and Jonouchi not to come to her Duel with Dark Marik because she didn't need them cheering for her. Despite this they still came. Dark Yugi realized that the Duel was a Shadow Game and unsuccessfully tried talking Mai out of retreating. He noticed that Mai was seeing illusions and after warning her what they were and not to let them break her, Mai was able to suppress them. He saw the Sphere Mode of "The Sun Dragon Ra" and learned it was necessary to read a hieratic inscription in order to Summon it through Ma's attempt to Summon it. Marik held Mai still with his torture cards and prepared to attack her directly with "Ra". Fearing Mai was about to die, Jonouchi tried moving her and Dark Yugi ran between them and Ra to intercept the attack.

Kaiba and Ishizu
He watched the duel between Kaiba and Ishizu, the woman from the museum. He witnessed her defeat. Afterwords, she gave the Millennium Tauk to Yugi.

Battle Royal
There was a 4-way duel between Dark Marik, Yugi, Jonouchi, and Kaiba. The first two losers will be facing in the first semi-final rounds. Jonouchi and Marik were beaten, meaning Jonouchi and Dark Marik were paired up, and Kaiba and Dark Yugi were paired up.

Jonouchi and Dark Marik
He was watching their duel, and told Jonouchi to stay strong, and was happy for him when he almost won. Jonouchi lost when Marik demonstrated "Sun Dragon Ra's" second special ability, Egyptian God Phoenix. Since this was a Shadow Game, it should have disintegrated Jonouchi. After, Jonouchi was sent to the hospital, where Yugi and all of his friends were sad over Jonouchi's loss.

Kaiba
Kaiba tried to Summon "The God of Obelisk" at an early stage, but Dark Yugi manages to counter both his attempts. Kaiba stole "Slifer the Sky Dragon" from Yugi's Deck using "Voice of the Heavens". However Yugi took it back with "Exchange", which he had been planning to use on "Obelisk". Yugi and Kaiba each managed to Summon their respective Egyptian Gods. Eventually the two Gods attacked each other and after a number of alterations each ended up with 4000 ATK

The battle of Gods caused Dark Yugi and Kaiba's consciousness to be transported to an ancient city. Here they saw the Sorcerer Seto and Nameless Pharaoh battle. The Sorcerer Summoned Blue-Eyes White Dragon from a tablet and the Pharaoh countered with Dark Magician. The two returned to present time. Kaiba asked if Yugi had the same vision as he did. Yugi claimed that their Duel is related to the one from 3000 years ago, and Kaiba said their Duel is destined.

Kaiba and Yugi continued the Duel. They quickly Summoned "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" and "Dark Magician" respectively. Kaiba used "Lord of Dragons" and "The Flute of Summoning Dragon" to bring out his other two "Blue-Eyes White Dragons". Yugi used it to Summon Jonouchi's "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" from his own hand. Yugi blocked the attacks from two of the three dragons, destroying one of them and "Lord of Dragons" in the process. Kaiba used "Monster Reborn" and "Polymerization" to Summon "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon", but Dark Yugi played "Double Spell" copying Kaiba's last two Spell Cards, allowing him to Summon "Dark Paladin". Yugi told Kaiba that if he stands at the top filled with hatred, he won't find real victory. He'll only have to find new hatred, and his future will be filled with endless hatred. Kaiba attacked "Dark Paladin" with "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon", but Dark Yugi used "De-Fusion", splitting the "Ultimate Dragon" into three "Blue-Eyes White Dragons". He used "Diffusion Wave-Motion", allowing "Dark Paladin" to attack all three of them, winning the Duel.

Kaiba thought Battle City was his tournament, the entire event was designed so that he would be victorious, he wanted to put the memory of his adoptive father behind him and be crowned the world's best duelist atop his Duel Tower. Despite coming so close, his victory slipped away from him. Yugi compliments Kaiba on the Duel, but Kaiba said he doesn't want his pity. Yugi admitted Kaiba is a strong duelist, but he was defeated by the monster in his heart called "hatred". Yugi pointed out how friendship helped him win, but Kaiba said that everyone is alone in this world and he doesn't want any pals to slow him down. Yugi called that sad, to which he just scoffs. Kaiba accepted his defeat and angrily gave Yugi his "The God of Obelisk" card, as per the rules of the tournament.

Dark Marik
Dark Marik turned his Duel with Dark Yugi in the finals into a Shadow Game that gave him a clear edge; when Dark Yugi lost Life Points, Yugi Mutou's body would fade away, and when Dark Marik lost Life Points, the original Marik would fade away. While Dark Marik would survive if Marik didn't, if Dark Yugi lost, both he and Yugi would be destroyed. Discarding "Ra" on his first turn, Dark Marik helped Yugi get "Slifer the Sky Dragon" out so he could destroy it himself with "Ra", which he succeeded in doing with God Phoenix. He reclaimed his "Monster Reborn," giving Dark Yugi a last chance to draw. Dark Yugi didn't even look at the card before he Set it, but Dark Marik wasn't interested. He brought out "Ra" again, this time using its One Turn Kill effect to raise its ATK and prepared to attack. He also revealed that he had taken the Millennium Ring from Dark Bakura, revealing that he was behind Bakura's disappearance to the group at large. When Dark Marik attacked, Dark Yugi revealed the card Kaiba had given him - "Devil's Sanctuary," which forced Dark Marik to attack himself. Dark Marik was forced to use the "De-Fusion" that Dark Yugi had given him through "Exchange," separating himself from "Ra" and boosting his Life Points. Yugi then Summoned "The God of the Obelisk" and attacked Dark Marik directly, badly injuring him, but Dark Marik created a clone of it called "God Slime." He used the Slime to stall until he could revive "Ra" to destroy "Obelisk," with God Phoenix, but Dark Yugi prevented this by using "Slifer" as a shield. Dark Marik simply re-revived "Ra," and began to boost its ATK via One Turn Kill, only for Dark Yugi to sacrifice the "God Slime" to activate the effect of "Obelisk," boosting it to infinite ATK. Thanks to "Ra" being higher on the Divine Hierachy, Dark Marik blocked the attack, and prepared to finish Dark Yugi off, attacking "Obelisk." Dark Yugi responded with "Dimension Magic," that would destroy "Ra." Dark Marik, knowing that Dark Yugi didn't want to destroy the original, taunted him, claiming that Marik wouldn't survive the shock even with a single Life Point left. By this time, Rishid had woken up and made Marik realize that he had to accept his responsibility for being a Tomb Guardian and the death of his father. With this confidence, Marik overpowered his evil self and urged Dark Yugi to attack him. Dark Yugi did so, destroying "Ra." The shock of the monster's destruction while Dark Marik was fused to it allowed Marik to retake control, putting Dark Marik in the position of the sacrifice. Dark Marik begged his other self to work with him, but his efforts were in vain. Marik forfeited, reducing his Life Points to zero and destroying Dark Marik.

Afterwords, Marik showed Dark Yugi and everyone the carvings on his back, much to their horror, thinking that this is how they remember the Pharaoh. He read the secrets, however right after, Kaiba told everyone that the island will blow up in a few minutes (he wanted to do that to leave the burden of his his adoptive father, and losing to Yugi). They all escaped with Kaiba escaping without them in his jet.

Project R.A.
Yako Tenma blamed the Yugis for the death of Pegasus during Duelist Kingdom. So he kidnapped Anzu and had a Solid Vision projection of her accompany Yugi, who believed it to be the real Anzu, for a while. During that time Tenma controlled a Solid Vision version of himself which he used to challenge Yugi to a Duel. Dark Yugi Summoned "Slifer the Sky Dragon", which Tenma countered with "The Wicked Avatar", a card he had created behalf of Pegasus, who had designed the card but hesitated to create it. "The Wicked Avatar" took on the form of a dark "Slifer". As a higher ranked God it was immune to the effect of "Slifer" and destroyed it in battle. Tenma then caused the Solid Vision Anzu to disappear and told Dark Yugi that she was to be sacrificed for Project R.A. and he would need to come to KaibaCorp if he wanted to save her.

Accompanied by Jonouchi and Honda, Dark Yugi went to KaibaCorp. At the entrance they were confronted by Deschutes Lew, who gave Dark Yugi a "Soul Prison" card containing Anzu's soul. Deschutes explained that he was one of thirteen Card Professor mercenaries Dark Yugi would need to defeat if he wanted to save Anzu. Dark Yugi dueled and defeated him, earning a key card, allowing him to enter the next block of the building.

Dark Yugi then faced Tilla Mook, who was to get a cash reward of $100,000 (US) if she defeated him. Dark Yugi won and gained the next key card. As they proceeded to the next stage, Jonouchi picked up a "Booby Trap" card, triggering a trap, separating Jonouchi and Honda from Dark Yugi. Dark Yugi proceeded to defeat Kirk Dixon and later Maico Kato, earning the next two card keys.

Although not all the Card Professors had been defeated, Tenma appeared before Dark Yugi. He had now perfected a "Wicked God" Deck and challenged Dark Yugi to a Duel, where he could see Anzu if he won, but would surrender his Egyptian God cards to Tenma if he lost. Dark Yugi accepted the challenge and managed to Summon "Valkyrion the Magna Warrior" at an early stage. Not knowing the extent of the power of "The Wicked Avatar", he hoped equipping "Valkyrion" with "Lightning Blade" would suffice. However Tenma Summoned "The Wicked Dreadroot". "Dreadroot's" fear power halved the ATK of "Valkyrion," allowing the Wicked God to destroy it. Dark Yugi tried to use "The Sun Dragon Ra" to combat "Dreadroot," but Tenma negated the Summon with "The Selection." Dark Yugi was shocked at how good his opponent was, and Tenma proceeded to power up "Dreadroot" the next turn with his "Divine Evolution," which was able to even affect a God card. Refusing to give in, Dark Yugi, instead of Summoning an Egyptian God like Tenma expected, brought out the Fusion Monster, "Arcana Knight Joker," and defeated "Dreadroot" by negating its fear power with "Spellbinding Illusion," then powering up "Arcana Knight Joker" to the point that it could destroy it. Before he could claim victory, Croquet ended the Duel, and Yako Tenma appeared on a videoscreen. He had been at the top of the building the whole time, while Dark Yugi had been Dueling his twin brother Gekko Tenma, who had been taken over. Yako showed Dark Yugi Anzu's soulless body, and he explained the purpose of the R.A. Project - to ressurect Pegasus in Anzu's body. Gekko explained to Dark Yugi that Anzu's spirit could be contacted by placing her card in his Duel Disk, and the two shared a moment together, Anzu encouraging Dark Yugi to keep his hopes up as Dark Yugi desperately vowed to save her. Exhausted from the battle with the Wicked God, Dark Yugi retreated into the Millennium Puzzle.

When Depre Scott challenged Yugi, Dark Yugi was ready to step in, but Yugi refused, requesting to fight with his own Deck this time. Dark Yugi agreed, but offered to take over if the need arose, and wished his partner good luck. After Depre had Yugi on the ropes, he told Yugi to call out Dark Yugi. Dark Yugi stepped in, telling Depre that his partner would win without Dark Yugi's help. Yugi did so, but Gekko, who was fighting alongside them, was defeated by Richie Merced and the duo were trapped, unable to progress further. Jonouchi, who had made his way to the control center, opened the door for them, and Yugi and Gekko raced on. When they were opposed by Cedar Mill, Dark Yugi emerged and dispatched him with "Slifer the Sky Dragon," thinking that they were coming for Yako (and also allowing Kaiba to stop the R.A. Project.) He and Gekko later ran into Bandit Keith, but Jonouchi and Honda finally rejoined them, though Dark Yugi was forced to clear up the misunderstanding that arose due to Jonouchi not knowing that Yako had a twin. He tried to warn Jonouchi about Bandit Keith, who eventually threatened to shoot Jonouchi (who had been dismissing him). Jonouchi told Dark Yugi that he'd beat Keith himself, reassuring him that he'd win. Dark Yugi warned Jonouchi not to get careless, and he and Gekko took the elevator up to the Apex Arena, where Yako and a defeated Kaiba awaited.

Kaiba wasn't surprised to see Dark Yugi, knowing that only he could defeat him. After Yako talked with Gekko, he addressed Dark Yugi, pointing out that even if he didn't actually murder Pegasus, his victory over him as good as did the deed. Dark Yugi replied that his fight with Pegasus was a battle between Duelist, and requested that Yako release Anzu. Yako replied that he couldn't, and gleefully asked Dark Yugi if he liked the punishment of the Wicked Gods. Kaiba encouraged Dark Yugi to Duel him and defeat the Wicked Gods.

Dark Yugi gained an early advantage by defeating Yako's "Beast King Barbaros" with "Arcana Knight Joker," but Yako used the destruction of his monster as a chance to Summon four weaker ones. Dark Yugi was unable to destroy them all in time, and Yako brought out the third Wicked God, "The Wicked Eraser," which grew stronger for every card on Dark Yugi's field. Dark Yugi was able to briefly halt "The Wicked Eraser," but Yako simply sacrificed it to Summon "Gaap the Divine Soldier," triggering the effect of the "Eraser" to destroy all the cards on the field, leaving Dark Yugi defenseless. Yako also used "The Wicked Avatar" to power up "Gaap," revelaing that he already had it in his hand. He reduced Dark Yugi to 300 Life Points, but Dark Yugi used his destroyed "Cross Counter" to activate his "Stairway to the Underworld" and Summon his Emissaries of Darkness. Yako was able to gather enough sacrifices to bring out "The Wicked Avatar," and reduced Dark Yugi to 99 Life Points. Dark Yugi countered with "Union Attack," but was again countered by Yako. Yako then played "Fiend's Sanctuary," reflecting Yugi and causing "The Wicked Avatar" to take on Yugi's form.

Horrified that his partner seemed to be attacking him, Dark Yugi countered with "Swords of Revealing Light" and refilled his hand, Setting up three face-downs. Yako destroyed the "Swords" early, and claimed that "Yugi" couldn't wait to attack him, claiming that Yugi hated him, as Dark Yugi had stolen everything from him. Dark Yugi was floored, and he wondered if it was true, but Yugi stepped in, and denied Yako's claims, stating that Dark Yugi had broadened his own horizons, and he'd gained all sorts of things. Dark Yugi retook control after Yugi vowed to destroy the embodiment of Yako's wrath. Yako attacked, but Dark Yugi countered by bringing "The God of the Obelisk" back and powering it up with the "Divine Evolution" card and its "Soul Energy Max" ability, causing "Avatar" to mimic it and both Gods to destroy each other, freeing Anzu and returning Yako to normal. Despite Dark Yugi telling him that their Duel wasn't over, Yako almost surrendered, until Gekko urged his brother to continue. Yako did so, and they fought on even ground until Dark Yugi brought out his two Magicians to destroy Yako's "Beast Machine King Barbaros Ür," and wipe out his Life Points. He then ran to meet his friends as they arrived at the top of the building.

World of Memories
As Yugi and his friends talked about going to the museum to recover Dark Yugi's memories, Anzu expressed concern that by regaining his old memories, Dark Yugi might lose his memories of his time with them. However Dark Yugi assured her that he wouldn't forget them so easily. After school they went to the museum and met Bobasa, who was safekeeping the Millennium Key and Scale and told Dark Yugi he must go to the Memory World. Inside the museum, Anzu bought a cartouche pendant for Dark Yugi that he could write his real name on when he remembered it. By holding the three Egyptian God cards up to the Tablet of Lost Memories, Dark Yugi's soul got sucked into the tablet, leaving no trace of himself in Yugi's body.

Dark Yugi's soul was brought to a table in the museum, where he played the Ultimate Shadow RPG with Dark Bakura. The setting of the RPG was the Pharaoh's Memory World. The game was a recreation of the Pharaoh's past made using the Pharaoh and Zorc Necrophades' memories. The events in the game were largely the same as the past, although it was possible to make changes. Dark Yugi's characters consisted of his Ancient Egyptian self and companions from when he was Pharaoh. Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu, Honda and Bobasa entered the RPG as non-player characters to assist Dark Yugi, while a fragment of Dark Bakura's soul entered to aid Dark Bakura and Zorc.

Dark Yugi's consciousness partly existed within the Memory World, where he relived the last moments of his life as Pharaoh, initially unsure what was happening. He mistakenly called Siamun Muran "Grandpa" and asked him to explain what was going on. Thinking the Pharaoh must be nauseated, Siamun briefed him on a few things from his lost memory. The Pharaoh witnessed a ka battle and noted similarities between it and Duel Monsters, as well as Priest Seto and Seto Kaiba.

The Pharaoh relived his battles with Bakura, King of Thieves. However before he was supposed to be beaten by Diabound and have the Millennium Pendant stolen, Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu and Honda arrived to help him. Yugi replenished his ba gauge, allowing him to Summon Ra and defeat Diabound. Yugi then explained to the Pharaoh that this was the world of his memories and they were searching for his real name. Dark Bakura playing the RPG was unhappy with the changed events and used one of his hourglasses to use Zorc's power to rewind time. This time the Dark Bakura NPC distracted Yugi and his friends, so they were unable to save the Pharaoh. Before being found by Spiria, the Pharaoh briefly encountered Hasan, who identified himself as the one who watches memories and warned him that a great battle was coming.

As the Pharaoh and the priests battled Bakura and Diabound in the chamber at Kul Elna, Dark Yugi at the RPG table used their cards to control their actions. Dark Bakura used another hourglass to freeze time, allowing Akhenaden to collect the remaining Millennium Items from the priests and place them in the stone, Summoning Zorc Necrophades. With Dark Yugi's characters frozen and Zorc at full power, Dark Bakura only needed to attack to win. However thinking one-sided games were no fun, he told Dark Yugi that his key to winning might be in his NPC friends. Dark Yugi pointed out that he had Seto on his team and if Dark Bakura was play the roles of his characters by their personalities, he should have Akhenaden stop Zorc attacking since Seto is his son. Dark Bakura asked if Dark Yugi would give him the Seto card in exchange for not attacking, but Dark Yugi declined. Dark Bakura got Zorc to disregard Akhenadin's parental emotions and attack. However Hasan appeared and shielded Dark Yugi's team from the attack. Zorc put so much power in the attack that Bakura's capacity to stop time ended. They were then transported above ground to battle. During the fight, Zorc killed Shada and Siamun. Yugi and his friends then arrived, and was told to picture the Pharaoh's name on the cartouche, so Dark Yugi could read it, as his name was the key to defeating Zorc. He read the name, which was Atem, and summoned the three Gods to summon The Creator God of Light, and she defeated Zorc. However, they noticed that Seto was missing, went back to the palace, only to find a dead Kisara, and Akhenaden possessing Seto. They battled, with Akhenaden/Seto using The White Dragon, and Atem using the Dark Magician (Mahado), with Akendan the victor. However, Kisara's ka entered Seto's mind, and killed Akhenaden. Later, Atem gave the throne to Seto, and went back to the real world, where he had one more battle to do.

Ceremonial Battle
The Yugis were brought to the Shrine of the Millennium Stone by Marik, Ishizu and Rishid. There, Yugi and Dark Yugi's souls were seperated, and fought the Ceremonial Battle. Dark Yugi managed to summon Obelisk, but Yugi defeated him by weakening him with "Crumbling Axe" and strengthening his "Silent Swordsman" with "Turn Jump". Yugi later defeated Atem's "Dark Magician" and "Dark Magician Girl" with a combo involving "Silent Magician" and "Card of Sanctity". Yugi activated "Gold Sarcophagus", so Yugi had to put a card inside the sarcophagus, and if Dark Yugi activated the same card, then the effect shall be deactivated. During the final turn, Dark Yugi summoned "Slifer the Sky Dragon" using "Monster Reborn", as he had secretly discarded "Slifer" on his first turn. However, Yugi activated "Gold Sarcophagus", and revealed the card inside the box, which was "Monster Reborn", thus deactivating the effect of Dark Yugi's "Monster Reborn". Yugi then attacked Dark Yugi, causing him to lose, and, after a touching good-bye, pass on to the afterlife, where his spirit reunited with his Egyptian friends and family.

The Dark Side of Dimensions
Pharaoh Atem is mentioned by Sera and Aigami, who still refer to Yugi as "the vessel of the pharaoh". He is mentioned when Yugi holds his cards to his chest, prompting Tristan to realize that he was thinking of the Pharaoh, saying that it was impossible for anyone to forget him. He is later shown in a vision seen by Joey Wheeler, and then by Yugi himself. Both are startled, but reassured at the sign of his presence.

Duel Academy
At Duel Academy, Dark Yugi is considered to be a legendary Duelist. Jaden Yuki thought of him, Kaiba, Jonouchi and Mai when he said that he was not gong to back down in his Duel against Ryuga, like how the legendary Duelists never gave up.

Duel Monsters Deck
Dark Yugi uses a "Strategy" Duel Monsters Deck, which is usually the Deck he shares with Yugi. He plays very flexible strategies, preparing him for any situation.

In the World of Memories and Project R.A., Dark Yugi uses a Deck distinct from Yugi.

Capsule Monster Chess pieces
The first time Yugi faced Mokuba, he used the following Capsule Monster Chess pieces.

When Yugi faced Mokuba in Death T-4, he used the following Capsule Monster Chess pieces and also evolved "Beeton" into "Hyper Beetle".

Monster Fighter figure
Dark Yugi used "Killer Emaada", which he borrowed from Jonouchi, when he played Monster Fighter.

Monster World figures
Dark Yugi rolled for the following pieces while playing Monster World against Dark Bakura.

Ka
Atem summoned the following ka.

Duels
The Duels from Yu-Gi-Oh! R are of disputed canon.

Penalty Games
Dark Yugi subjected his opponents to the following Penalty Games.

Millennium Puzzle
The following were created with the power of the Millennium Puzzle.

Natural
The following Penalty Games were done through natural means.

Other
One of the Penalty Games was done using the Dragon Cards.