Chapter 21: Is Fate Irrevocable?

Although Weevil looked quite short, that was only in comparison to tall guys like Joey and Hayato. In reality, he stood at 1.6 meters tall, exactly the same height as a certain ultra-germophobic soldier. His full-force charging tackle caught Yugi completely off guard. Yugi had no time to react, and could only grab tightly onto the round table bolted to the deck and the five cards in his hand.

Even so, a single copy of Exodia the Forbidden One—specifically the piece symbolizing the head and torso—slipped from Yugi's fingertips.

Yugi and Weevil lost their balance and crashed to the ground together. However, Weevil, who had initiated the attack, scrambled up a step ahead and lunged toward Yugi to snatch the cards once more, only to be struck squarely in the face by Hayato standing nearby. A fist the size of a sandbag landed right on Weevil's nose, sending blood spraying everywhere. His nose was knocked violently to one side, looking just like an overturned oil and soy sauce shop where salty, sour, and spicy tastes all burst forth at once.

Just as Weevil was about to pick himself up again, men in black suits swarmed forward and pinned him firmly to the deck, subduing his limbs. His face made zero-distance contact with the wooden planks, and muffled groans escaped his mouth continuously. This time, even if he wanted to bite someone, he couldn't.

"Are you alright, Yugi?" Joey's hand was stained with blood from Weevil's bite, but compared to those crybabies who shed tears and throw tantrums over a mere scratch on the finger, wrapping themselves in bandages and rushing to the hospital, he was far tougher. Enduring the pain, he came to Yugi's side and helped him up.

Yugi climbed to his feet, one hand pressing against the back of his head. "I'm fine, Joey."

Weevil's sudden charge had almost knocked Yugi overboard from the third-tier deck—much like Cruella's birth-mother's dogs crashing into Cruella's foster mother. Even though it failed, when Yugi hit the deck, the back of his large head collided heavily with the railing, leaving him feeling somewhat dizzy and disoriented.

Yet when Yugi directed his gaze toward the Exodia cards he had been clutching so desperately, he instantly sobered up. "Exodia! Grandpa's cards are missing one!"

At that moment, the Exodia cards in his hand were shockingly reduced to just four. The four ordinary limb pieces were still there, but that single, most crucial "head" had vanished without a trace.

Suddenly realizing something belatedly, Hayato shoved the security guards aside, grabbed Weevil by the hair, and yanked his head up from the deck. He saw Weevil's cheeks bulging as he chewed on something, his face smeared with blood streaming from his nose, yet he wore a sneer as he glared at Hayato.

Hayato was no gentle saint. Seeing Weevil glare at him with such a provocative gaze, he landed another punch straight into Weevil's eye socket. The blow split the corner of Weevil's eye and caused his eyeball to bulge, resembling an overturned silk and satin shop where reds, blacks, and purples burst forth all at once. Seeing stars and plunging into darkness, Weevil's mouth gaped open involuntarily, revealing the object he had been swallowing.

This guy simply refused to give up. He had actually swallowed the piece of Exodia the Forbidden One that Yugi had dropped, and by now, he had already bitten clean through half of it with his teeth. Even if they were to gut Weevil right now to retrieve the card fragments, it would be impossible to restore a card shattered so thoroughly.

*Is this the inertia of the plot? Grandpa Sugoroku is destined to have his soul sealed by Pegasus, and Weevil is destined to tear Exodia apart.* Hayato felt the world's profound malice. Was everything in this world preordained? Were all people merely slaves to fate?

Filled with rage, he instead laughed out loud, delivered another slap across the unconscious Weevil's face, and shocked him back to wakefulness. That single slap felt like a grand Buddhist water-land ritual where chimes, cymbals, and gongs all rang out together, jarring the passed-out Weevil awake.

Grasping Weevil by the collar, Hayato vented all his pent-up frustration onto the man before him. He raised his fist to strike again, but just as it was about to descend, someone grabbed his arm.

It was the men in black who had helped Hayato subdue Weevil moments earlier. One of them caught Hayato's raised fist, while two others grabbed Hayato and Weevil respectively, tearing Weevil from Hayato's grip and swiftly pulling the two apart.

"Let go of me!"

Hearing Hayato's demand, the man in black maintained a completely expressionless face. "I'm sorry, Mr. Hayato. Although you are an honored guest, this Mr. Weevil is also a participant invited by Mr. Pegasus."

"This very participant just used disgraceful means to tear up someone else's cards a moment ago!" Hayato pulled his hand back from the security guard's grasp and tried to reach Weevil, but a human wall formed by several guards blocked his view. He could only catch a glimpse through the gaps as two guards hoisted Weevil by the armpits and carried him down the stairs.

"You guys should just revoke that insect bastard's qualification right now." Joey's expression was equally unsightly. He felt a mixture of anger and guilt, knowing that if he hadn't let go out of pain, Weevil would never have succeeded.

"We do not have the authority to revoke a contestant's qualification, regardless of what he does on this ship. As long as he does not directly endanger the lives of other contestants, we must follow Mr. Pegasus's orders to bring him to 'Duelist Kingdom,'" the man in black told Joey, his indifferent tone suggesting he cared nothing for human lives.

Yugi clutched the back of his head. Despite his usual gentle and forgiving nature, he was now thoroughly enraged. "To wantonly destroy Duel Monsters cards that someone cherishes so dearly—that guy Weevil doesn't understand the heart of the cards at all. If Pegasus were here, he would definitely—"

"Would definitely revoke Weevil-boy's qualification, right, Yugi-boy?" The man in black suddenly spoke, interrupting Yugi's words. Yet the voice coming from his mouth sounded thoroughly bizarre, and strangely familiar to Yugi. Suddenly, his eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at the sunglasses-wearing man in black. "Pegasus!?"

"Yes, I am!" The security guard, who had been exceptionally solemn just a moment before, suddenly beamed like a cheerful child, flashed a thumbs-up at Yugi, and spoke playfully. As the guard lifted the bangs from his forehead, Yugi and the others saw the symbol of the Eye of Wjat tattooed right upon his forehead, emitting a faint golden glow in the night.

"This deck of Exodia cards is indeed quite precious. Seeing it bitten to pieces by Weevil-boy through this puppet made me feel quite a pity too, just like when Kaiba-boy tore up the fourth Blue-Eyes. Should I say he truly lives up to being the plant-eating 'insect' Weevil?" the man in black, controlled by Pegasus, said in Pegasus's signature peculiar cadence. "However, regretfully, I will not disqualify Weevil-boy for such a minor reason."

"Although I care deeply about Duel Monsters, my passion for the game is quite all-encompassing. In my eyes, the tournament schedule of this Duelist Kingdom is far more important than a mere single card."

"Because it is the 'love' to which you have devoted your entire mind and body, you have poured your heart and soul into it to the point where you completely cease to care about anything else, isn't that right, Pegasus?"

"Precisely correct, Hayato-boy. To understand me so thoroughly, I truly wonder who the real master of the Millennium Eye is."

Listening to Pegasus's strange verbal tics, Hayato looked at the security guard controlled by him. "I heard you plan to introduce new rules in this tournament, right? To prevent other duelists from struggling to understand them, how about holding a demonstration duel right in front of your castle?"

"We'll wager our respective stakes just like in an official match. I've already found an opponent for you: myself and that insect Weevil."