Chapter Text
”You okay Pikachu? This four on four is tricky. Hang in there!” Ash exclaimed as his partner recovered from an attack from Dark Magician
“You have speed. But I have Lightning Blade and Excalibur to boost my attack. And I set one card face down to end my turn.” Yugi said as he equipped his Buster Blader and Celtic Guardian with spell cards.
In an exhibition match setup by Kaiba Corp, the King of Games, Yugi Muto, was going up against the World Monarch, Ash Ketchum. The rules were simple. It would be a battle between Ash with any pokémon of his choosing against Yugi with his deck.
On the sidelines stood several of their friends, ready to cheer for them.
“You’ve got this, Yugi!” Tristan shouted from the sidelines.
“Show that twerp how much better our duel monsters are than his pocket monsters!” Joey yelled out.
“We’re with you the whole way!” Téa added on.
“And we’re behind you, Ash!” Brock yelled out.
“Show that ‘King’ the skills of a monarch!” Misty yelled.
“I’ve studied Yugi’s deck in order to determine how likely Ash is to win. The chances are 90% for Ash to beat him without breaking a sweat!” Clemont exclaimed.
“Don’t tell me those stupid numbers are all you got for thinking he’ll win.” Duke responded.
“Don’t make fun of my brother’s work! Only I get to do that!” Bonnie said as she stuck her tongue out at the teenager.
“Duke is right and you have to admit it, kids. Being lucky isn’t going to be enough to beat Yugi.” Mai said less as an insult towards Ash and more as a definitive fact.
“If you think that luck is all Ash has, then you’ve never seen what he can do.” Iris said in a confident tone.
“Indeed. When it comes down to how skilled one is at battling, it’s hard to find anyone better.” Cilan added on.
“Besides, Ash is at his best when he’s the underdog.” said May.
“Mhm. Put Ash up against a wall and he’ll always find a way to turn things around!” said Dawn.
“That’s how he was able to take down Leon!” Goh added.
“So if anyone is going to be able to take down Yugi…” Chloe started.
“It’s Ash!” Serena exclaimed with a confident smile.
“Your care for your friend is inspiring! But let’s see if it’s enough to beat our friend!” Bakura responded.
“Woah.” Ash said before quickly smacking some sense into himself. “Okay guys, it’s our turn now. Pikachu, throw him off with Quick Attack! Everyone else, back him up!”
Upon hearing the command from their trainer, the pokémon charged in. Pikachu quickly zoomed past Yugi’s defenses as Sceptile dueled with Buster Blader using Leaf Blade, Lucario put pressure onto Celtic Guardian with Force Palm, and Krookodile slashed at his Giant Soldier of Stone with Dragon Claw. Pikachu charged into Dark Magcian. The mage bounced him off, but gave him the aerial advantage in the process.
“Great job! Now, Thunderbolt!”
“Pikaaa CHU!”
Dark Magician had little time to react before being struck by lightning.
“Yeah! Get them, you two!” Dawn exclaimed!
“Don’t get ahead of yourself.” Yugi said as he flipped over his face down card. “You forgot about my face down card. Rise, Dimension Sphinx!”
The gem on the sphinx sparkled as Krookodile quickly burrowed underground. Dark Magician began to glow purple as he fired a beam aimed directly at Ash before being destroyed. Ash braced himself for the attack before Krookodile quickly rose from the ground, taking the hit for his trainer. The pokémon tried to play off the attack with a thumbs up, but quickly fainted from the damage.
“Poor Krookodile…” Cilan said wistfully.
“Hey! He tried to attack Ash directly!” Iris called out while pointing at Yugi.
“That’s cheating!” Lana yelled.
”What do you mean cheating? That’s how Yugi duels! Have none of you ever played duel monsters in your life?” Joey said in defense of his friend.
“The rules didn’t say that Yugi couldn’t attack him directly.” Bakura said as he attempted to remember the rules shown on advertisement for the battle.
“That’s because they weren’t in the rules.”
Everyone turned to the back of the room as they heard Seto Kaiba walked in.
“All I said was that Yugi had to use his deck and Ash could bring any pokémon he wanted. However they interpret the rest of the rules is up to them.” Kaiba continued.
“Ohhh I get it.” Ash said as he returned Krookodile to his pokéball.
“Pika!” The electric mouse exclaimed as he hopped on Ash’s shoulder.
“Good thing we brought them all, right, Pikachu?” He asked as he brought out another pokéball.
“What do you mean them all?’” The pharaoh asked with a perplexed look on his face.
Suddenly, a herd of Tauros charged into the arena, kicking up a dust cloud in the process. However, they weren’t the only ones charging in. All of Ash’s pokémon, from Infernape to Butterfree, were rushing in to help their trainer.
Suddenly, everything made sense to Ash’s friends. In the lead up to this battle, Ash had traveled to not just Professor Oak’s lab, but to every region he had traveled to. During these visits, he had encountered all of them and invited them to watch the battle live. Kaiba Corp even paid for their flights, albeit after some bargaining between Yugi and Kaiba. They didn’t realize that the reason he was traveling was so he could bring all of his pokemon to the fight!
“YOU SAID YUGI WAS CHEATING?! YOUR FRIEND BROUGHT AN ARMY!” Joey exclaimed as he saw a small otter-like monster and a luchador-style bird monster rush by the window that was keeping them safe.
“And your friend didn’t let him know that they were allowed to attack each other!” May said in defense of Ash.
“How about we just call it even?” Lillie said as she tried to prevent things from heating up between the groups.
Ash turned his hat around, clearly taking the battle much more seriously now.
“Charizard, I CHOOSE YOU!” He yelled as he threw the pokéball, unleashing one of his strongest monsters.
Charizard roared to the sky before attacking Yugi’s Giant Soldier of Stone. The monster tried to protect itself, but it was incinerated, along with Yugi’s jacket in the process.
“Woo! Show him you mean business, Charizard!” Misty cheered as the dragon appeared on the field.
“From never obeying him to being of Ash’s strongest pokémon…” Brock said with a smile on his face.
Yugi grunted in pain before drawing several cards from his deck at once. He placed them all on his duel disk and instantly summoned an army of his strongest monsters to defend himself, along with a single face down card. Gandora the Dragon of Destruction, Gaia the Fierce Knight, Curse of Dragon, Magician of Black Chaos, Kuriboh, and so many more stood prepared to protect their duelist.
“That’s what we like to see, Yugi!” Tristan exclaimed in support of his friend.
“He’s instantly summoning powerful monsters without needing to tribute them? I guess that shows how few rules there are in this duel…” Bakura muttered to himself.
From there, the battle devolved into chaos. Gandora began to fire its omnidirectional lasers, wiping out nearly every Tauros in an instant. Bulbasur and Squirtle leapt off the back of a Tauros they were riding just in time before firing at Yugi’s side with Razor Lead and Water Gun.
There were several smaller battles going on among the chaos. The Black Luster Soldier dueled Sirfetch’d, Lycanroc battled Silver Fang, and Dragonite took to the skies against Red Eyes Black Dragon.
“Yeah! Get em, Red Eyes!” Joey exclaimed as he looked in the sky to see his strongest monster battle.
“Joey, you gave him Red Eyes?” Tea asked.
“And Time Wizard too! I wanted Yugi to be dueling at his best, and since he’s had my Red Eyes in his deck before and Time Wizard was a gift from him, I thought he should get to use em.”
Even Ash’s friends couldn’t help but respect Joey’s comment. It was clear both sides cared about their friends as much as they possibly could. However, their attention was immediately drawn to what happened next.
Celtic Guardian was swiftly grabbed by Incineroar before the cat tossed him up into the air, immediately jumped up to the elf, and suplexed him back down to earth. The pokémon took time to pose, but this was his downfall as he was immediately hit directly by one of Gandora’s lasers.
“OHHH!” Ash and Yugi’s friend simultaneously exclaimed at the damage dealt to both of the monsters.
“I could feel that one.” Brock winced imagining the pain of being suplexed by an Incineroar.
“Too bad he focused on trying to look macho instead of avoiding Gandora.” Mai said.
“That’s what Incineroars like to do. They’re wrestlers, so they like to be crowd pleasers, even if it hurts them in the long run.” Lana explained.
“Now where have I head that before?” Clemont chuckled as he thought of Ash’s Hawlucha.
Above the chaos of the dust cloud and Gandora’s lasers, Ash and Pikachu flew on the back of Charizard, commanding their team from above. Ash commanded Charizard to use Flamethrower on the monsters below before raising his keystone glove to the sky.
Down below, Lucario mega evolved, promptly destroying Black Luster Soldier and Gandora with a single Aura Sphere.
“Yeah! Take them down, Lucario!” Goh cheered.
”He managed to take down Gandora! That’s a huge advantage for Ash!” said Chloe.
With one of Yugi’s best crowd control monsters gone, Ash went even harder on the offense. Pikachu used thunderbolt to attack Yugi from above, but the King of Games blocked the attack with a barrier formed by the millennium puzzle. Infernape, Lucario, and Sceptile also tried to attack Yugi directly with a combination of Flamethrower, Steel Beam, and Solar Beam. However, the trio’s attack was stopped by Kuriboh, putting itself in harms way to protect Yugi. Yugi took the opportunity to command Summoned Skull to attack. The fiend began to glow before releasing electricity from its body directly aimed at Charizard. The dragon couldn’t dodge the move in time, leading to him, Ash, and Pikachu falling down to earth.
“ASH!” All of Ash’s friends yelled out.
Suddenly, an ultra wormhole appeared in front of the moon. From the portal came Sogaleo, charging down from the sky and saving Ash, Pikachu, and Charizard before landing on the ground, ready for battle.
“Nebby!” Lillie and Lana shouted joyfully.
“WHAT?! ASH HAS A LEGENDARY POKÉMON?!” Goh yelled, shocked at how this was never brought up during their adventures in Alola.
The rest of Ash’s friends were just as starstruck. Ash had befriended many legendary pokemon before, but never had any of them considered him their master. The trainer had truly come a long way from Pallet Town.
“If you think that overgrown house cat is legendary, then you’ve seen nothing yet!” Joey exclaimed.
Yugi drew a card and raised it to the sky. The power of the summoning process alone parted the clouds as a pair of giant wings began to manifest. The serpentine-like body coiled around the outside of the arena before it revealed its menacing face. Slifer the Sky Dragon had been summoned.
“Slifer!” Téa shouted, still amazed by its very existence after all these years.
Ash’s friends were in awe at the sight of Slifer. Its size alone made it look less like a mere duel monster and more like a full blown Kaiju.
Slifer immediately began to attack the enemies below it. With a few blasts of Thunder Force, several of Ash’s pokémon, including Sceptile and Mega Lucario, were sent flying.
Some of Ash’s friends had become nervous after seeing the raw power of the Egyptian God Monster. If even mega evolution wasn’t able to beat it, what could?
“Ash has been through worse.” Serena said to break the silence.
“If anyone could come back from this, it’s him.” She said definitively.
“You’re right. This is Ash we’re taking about. He’ll find a way to turn this around.” said Brock.
“I think we’re about to see how he plans to right now.” Clemont said as he pointed at Ash.
Ash threw a giant pink pokéball into the sky, covering the arena in a flash of light and a puff of pink smoke. As Yugi blocked his eyes from the giant flash, he didn’t notice that his shadow had gained a smile of its own. From his shadow rose a purple beast, licking his lips as he transformed.
“Gehehengar… GENGAR!” Gigantamax Gengar bellowed as he used G-Max Poltergeist.
The haunted objects flew towards some of Yugi’s monsters, destroying Summoned Skull, Buster Blader, and Celtic Guardian in the process.
“Great job, Gengar!” Chloe cheered in excitement.
“Gengar is exactly what we need to turn this around!” Goh exclaimed.
“Hahaha huh?” Gengar’s laughter was cut short as he quickly depowered from his gigantamax form.
He looked down to see a bright light beaming directly at him. Yugi was using the millennium puzzle in an attempt to seal the ghost pokemon away.
“GeEeEn!” Gengar panicked as he struggled to fight back against the power of the puzzle.
“Gengar!” Bonnie yelled, worrying for the ghost as it was being sealed.
Ash quickly commanded Naganadel to save Gengar. The ultra beast quickly aimed a Sludge Bomb at the duelist, causing him to prioritize protecting himself with a barrier and allowing Gengar to fly away.
Ash’s friends all sighed in relief.
“Do you think he mistook Gengar for an evil spirit instead of one of Ash’s pokémon?” Tea whispered to Joey, unsure how Ash’s friends would feel hearing her call Gengar an evil spirit.
“I wouldn’t blame him. Just looking at it gives me the creeps.”
Yugi quickly dispelled the ooze, only to see Ash Greninja rushing up to him.
“THERE HE IS!” Serena, Clemont, and Bonnie all exclaimed at once.
“GRENINJA!” Ash yelled out while raising his first to the air.
“Gre-nin JA!” The ninja frog exclaimed as he struck the millennium puzzle with an upward Cut from his water kunai.
The strike broke off a piece of the millennium puzzle, blasting Yugi back and destroying the puzzle in the process.
“ATEM!” Téa cried out.
“Atem?” Misty asked as she heard the brunette yell with clear concern in her voice.
“Doesn’t she mean Yugi?” Chloe wondered.
”NOOOOOOO!” Atem yelled out as he was flung backwards by the blast.
“I’m sorry, partner.” Atem thought as a bright light encompassed his body.
“Don’t worry. It’s my turn now.” Yugi responded as he got up, now in control.
“Why does he look different?” Bonnie asked.
“I’m not sure. Maybe the pyramid he had around his neck empowered him?” Clemont theorized.
“Uh, guys? Why is Ash still getting ready to attack?” Goh asked nervously.
Yugi stood strongly against the army that stood on the other side of the field, still hidden by some residual dust outside of their silhouettes and Sogaleo’s glowing blue eyes.
“You’re right. Why is he?” May wondered.
“He defeated all of Yugi’s monsters. That means he should win, right?” Dawn asked.
She wasn’t wrong. Yugi had no remaining monsters on the field. All of them had been destroyed in the massive battle by either Ash’s monsters or by Gandora’s lasers grazing them on accident.
“The duel will only end when one of them is unable to keep going. Yugi is still standing and Slifer is still ready to battle, so this duel won’t end until someone is unable to continue fighting.” Kaiba explained.
“That’s insane! Yugi can't be attacked by all of Ash’s pokémon at once! He’s going to get seriously hurt!” Misty exclaimed with anger in her eyes.
“Your argument fell apart the moment you assumed Yugi lost.” Kaiba responded without even looking in her general direction.
Yugi…” said Téa, worrying that her friend was in serious danger.
Yugi moved his hand to his deck.
“I just need to believe…”
Yugi could feel Atem’s soul still inside him, moving with him as one as he drew from his deck.
“In the heart of the cards!”
Yugi placed down four cards as he prepared his final assault.
First, he used Monster Reborn to bring back Dark Magician.
Second, he summoned Dark Magician Girl to aid her mentor in the upcoming clash.
Third, he summoned Obelisk the Tormentor and the Winged Dragon of Ra.
Finally, he fused the three Egyptian God Monsters.
“Who’s that pokémon? Ash asked in shock at what Yugi was doing.
“HORAKTHY! GODDESS OF LIGHT!” Yugi exclaimed as his ultimate monster entered the battle.
“THE GODDESS OF LIGHT?!” Goh screamed.
“This is too much! Even for Ash!” Cilan exclaimed.
“This is too far! You’re the one who is running this event! Do something!” Chloe pleaded to Kaiba.
“Mokuba, set the audience shields to full power! Don’t let anyone get hurt by whats’s about to happen!” Kaiba said into his earpiece, essentially ignoring the reason why Chloe told him to do something in the first place.
”This is it! Magicians, Black Burning Magic!” Horakthy, Djoser!”
The magicians put their staffs together and shot a powerful purple laser. Horakthy joined them by shooting a giant golden beam.
Sogaleo cased itself in a giant ball of fire as it used Sunsteel Strike to clash with the beams. The clash sent multiple of Ash’s pokémon flying.
“NEBBY!” Lillie yelled out in worry for the legendary pokemon.
“ASH, GET OUT OF THERE!” Dawn screamed.
Greninja and Naganadel prepared to strike in order to help out Sogaleo, but Yugi used Swords of Revealing Light, freezing both of them and nearly all of Ash's other pokémon in place.
“SOMONE STOP HIM!” May yelled.
“CALL OFF THE MATCH! THIS HAS TO END NOW!” Brock yelled at Kaiba, but the duelist simply ignored him.
The blinding lights of both the swords and Horakthy left Pikachu speechless. It felt as if he was staring at the afterlife itself. However, right when he was about to give up, Ash placed his hat on his partner’s head.
“Pikachu… let’s finish this. Together!”
“Pikachu!” The mouse pokemon exclaimed as he fist bumped and gave his trainer a high five with his tail.
“That movement… he’s going for a Z-Move!” Lana exclaimed.
“ASH, YOU IDIOT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Iris shouted.
As Ash and Pikachu moved in sync, it was as if one could see Ash’s entire journey in a single movement. A journey from a boy who used electric type moves on a ground type to someone who could act as a mentor to teach others how to battle. From a boy who struggled to survive his first day as a trainer to a hero who helped save the world several times. From a boy who lost his very first gym battle to the best trainer in the world.
“How do we stop him?” Chloe asked with an extremely worried tone.
“I don’t know! I’m not even sure he hears us!” Clemont responded.
“ASH! DON’T YOU REALIZE YOU’RE GOING TO DIE IF YOU KEEP GOING?! JUST GRAB YOUR POKÉMON AND RUN! IT’S OKAY TO GIVE UP!” Misty desperately yelled in hopes that Ash could hear her.
Serena remained silent throughout all of this, but Misty’s words in particular stood out to her.
She remembered those words he told her on that faithful day all those years ago.
“Never give up until it’s over…” Serena muttered to herself. What was once so inspiring about Ash was about to lead to his downfall.
“ASH!” She cried out his name, but her words, and everyone else’s, were drowned out by his last.
“TEN MILLION VOLT THUNDERBOLT!” Ash shouted with a fiery passion in his voice.
“PIKACHUUUUUUUUU!” Pikachu screamed with just as much passion as his trainer as he fired multiple colorful beams of electricity towards Yugi’s side of the field.
“What is he doing? That move definitely isn’t as strong as Horakthy!” Tristan exclaimed.
“He’s not aiming for Horakthy!” Mai said as she pointed to where the attack was heading.
“HE’S AIMING FOR THE MAGICIANS!” Joey exclaimed.
“If he hits the magicians, Yugi’s life points will go to zero!” Téa shouted.
“And without the millennium puzzle to protect him, he’ll be vaporized by the attack!” Bakura added on.
It was at this moment that Yugi’s friends realized just how much danger Yugi was in at that moment.
“YUGI!” His friends all yelled at once.
The Z-Move was headed directly for the Dark Magician duo. But right before it hit them, Yugi smiled.
“Thank you, partner.” He thought.
“You activated my trap card! Magic Cylinder!” He shouted as he revealed the face down card set earlier by Atem.
“With it, I’ll send your Thunderbolt back to attack your life points directly!”
Sogaleo was already struggling to hold back the combined power of Dark Magician, Dark Magician Girl, and Horakthy, but the additional power of the Z-Move was too much. Sogaleo gave in and was consumed in a rainbow colored light, along with Ash and all of his pokemon.
“ASH!” All of his friends screamed as they covered their eyes to avoid being blinded by the light.
Once the light was gone, Yugi looked over to the other side of the field. Ash and all of his pokémon had been turned to stone from the raw energy of the attack. And yet, Ash’s statue had a smile on his face, surrounded by his pokémon who all supported him to the very end.
Yugi smiled.
“That was an awesome duel, Ash.” He said as he walked off of the field while giving a thumbs up.
Everyone on both sides was left speechless.
To Ash’s friends, they had seen the greatest person they ever knew reduced to a statue.
To Yugi’s friends, they had seen their friend in the closest duel he ever had and nearly lose his life.
To all of them, and everyone who watched the battle, they saw the World Monarch be dethroned by the King of Games.