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Theodore was one of six children kidnapped during the [[Lost Incident]], during which he was subjected to experiments via VR Dueling.<ref name="ep50">{{episode|Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS|50|ref}}</ref> During the Incident, he was defeated using the monster "[[Despair from the Dark (anime)|Despair from the Dark]]", which caused him to develop an intense fear of that monster.<ref name="ep60">{{episode|Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS|60|ref}}</ref> After being recused, he was taken to recover in the hospital. His grandparents came to visit him and later took him home, tearfully informing him that [[Takeru's mother|his]] [[Takeru's father|parents]] had died in an accident while searching for him.<ref name="ep52">{{episode|Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS|52|ref}}</ref>

Theodore lived with his grandparents for ten years, but often skipped school and believed his life had effectively been at a stand-still since the Lost Incident. He also gave up Dueling.<ref name="ep52" /> [[Kiku Kamishirakawa|Kiku]] found him napping on the wharf one day and told him off for skipping school as the schol had called his grandfather, but Theodore claimed it was pointless. As they walked through the marketplace, they saw [[Ryujiro Mizunuma|Ryujiro]] and [[Kotaro Mizunuma]]'s gang harassing another boy, and Theodore scared them off. [[Flame (character)|A voice]] called Theodore's name from a television, but when Theodore looked again he didn't see anything, and Kiku hadn't heard anything. When he got home his grandmother sent him to the dojo, where he sparred with his grandfather, who admonished him for his decisions. Theodore managed to get an opportunity to throw his grandfather, but didn't. That night, he heard the voice speak to him through the television again, telling him the words "[[LINK VRAINS]]" and "[[Yusaku Fujiki|Playmaker]]" (though he mistook them for "Link Brain" and "Playmater"). The next day, he heard Ryujiro discussing the terms that the voice had mentioned, and he roughly asked what they were. Ryujiro explained that Playmaker was a famous Duelist who Dueled in a virtual world popular in [[Den City]] called LINK VRAINS, where he defeated the [[Knights of Hanoi]]. Intrigued by the prospect, Theodore met up with Kiku to read about them on her tablet, and he learned that Playmaker was a hero of LINK VRAINS, as were [[George Gore|The Gore]] and [[Skye Zaizen|Blue Angel]]. The voice spoke to him through the tablet, now also mentioning his past and the word "Duel", and Theodore nearly dropped the tablet, much to Kiku's anger.<ref name="ep61">{{episode|Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS|61|ref}}</ref>