Yu-Gi-Oh! - Duel 001
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The Puzzle of the Gods is first publication of any Yu-Gi-Oh! media. It was originally printed in Japanese in 1996's issue 42 of the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine. Its first English release was in the Shonen Jump magazine. It has been reprinted in volume 1 of the tankōbon and volume 1 of the bunkoban.
Yugi Mutou is been bullied in school. Protected and comforted by his friend Anzu, Yugi shows her his secret puzzle, that he has been unable to solve for eight years. Although offered protection by the hall monitor Ushio, Yugi is not happy with Ushio's methods.
Contents
Summary
Day 1
It's lunch time at Domino High. The boys decide to play basketball and let the girls play too. Yugi Mutou is offered to come play basketball, rather than play Pop-up Pirate by himself. Yugi declines saying it’s alright, his team would just lose.
Yugi begins to talk in soliloquy, wishing he could play his kind of games with someone. Taking a box containing a puzzle out of his bag, he says his greatest treasure is in this box, but you have to keep it a secret. He gives a riddle to hint what is in the box, “It’s something that you see, but have never seen before”. About to reveal the answer as he opens the box, Hiroto Honda suddenly appears and swipes the box from Yugi’s hands.
He and Katsuya Jonouchi mock Yugi for talking to himself. They tease Yugi by throwing the puzzle across the room to each other, while Yugi tries to take it back. Jonouchi is disgusted by Yugi caring so much for the box. He tells Yugi that he’s going to teach him to be a man. Holding up the puzzle Jonouchi says, “You want this box back? Then Gimme all you got.” Yugi protests shouting “I hate fighting!” They continue to tease Yugi with the box. After looking at what’s inside Jonouchi chucks it across to Honda, saying “How dumb”. However Anzu Mazaki catches the box in midair and exclaiming “If you think it’s dumb, give it back to Yugi”. She tells them off and the two run from the room saying they’ll get her back for this.
Yugi, delighted by the appearance of his rescuer, thanks her, while she explains the boys had been peeking while the girls took their shots, “Never play basketball in a skirt”. Yugi begins to fantasize on that. Anzu appears slightly taken back, but asks Yugi what’s in the box. Yugi offers to show Anzu, provided she keeps it a secret. He reveals the contents. Anzu is impressed by the sparkling gold pieces. Yugi reveals the answer to the riddle, “A puzzle”. He’s never finished it so he doesn’t know what it looks like. Explaining that his family owns a game shop, that sells unusual games from all over the world, he tells that he found puzzle a few years back and that it is a memento of his grandpa. The shocked Anzu shouts out “Your Grandpa died, Yugi!?!”, then calms down thinking that does make it special. Yugi tells Anzu that the puzzle had been found in an Egyptian ruin. Gazing upward he proclaims that the hieroglyphs read “Whoever solves this puzzle shall be granted one wish…” (“Like the dragon balls”) His head drops in shame “… Are you laughing at me?” He reminds Anzu that this is a secret, and Anzu tells Yugi he can trust her. Yugi admits it's depressing that he's been working the puzzle for eight years and hasn't solved it. Anzu tells him not to give up, he has heart in it. She winks and asks Yugi what his wish was. Yugi winks back saying "No way", this one is too secret.
Meanwhile Honda and Jonouchi bump into Ushio, who overhears them talking about bullies. He asks what they were saying about bullies. Jonouchi tells hims to keep out of this. Honda quickly restrains Jonouchi and forces a smile saying that it's nothing. Ushio announces picking on people is bad. Honda quickly agrees. After Ushio leaves Honda tells Jonouchi not to pick a fight with Ushio, and explains that Ushio makes the rules around here, even the teachers are afraid of him. Jonouchi yells that he'll get Ushio someday. He slips his hand into his pocket and reveals a piece of Yugi's puzzle he managed to swipe from the box earlier. He grasps the piece and grins, saying how Yugi won't be able to solve it if he's missing a piece before firing it out the window into a body of water.
Ushio later meets Yugi and asks him if Honda and Jonouchi were bullying him. Yugi replies that nothing is happening to him. Ushio explains that victims often defend their attackers. He assigns himself the position of Yugi's bodyguard.
After school
Yugi meets Anzu just before he goes into his home. The two of them go in. Anzu screams as she sees Sugoroku Mutou, Yugi's grandfather. She looks at Yugi and asks him through gritted teeth why he said his Grandfather was dead. Sugoroku screams that he's not dead and Yugi said he meant it was going to be a memento.
As Yugi and Anzu go upstairs to work on the puzzle, Sugoroku tells Yugi that the puzzle is beyond his understanding. The team of archaeologists who took it from a pharaoh's tomb all died mysterious deaths. The last said with his dying breath "The Shadow Games". Anzu gets worried, but Yugi thinks Shadow Games sound cool. Sugoroku makes an attempt to grab the puzzle, but Yugi runs saying that he just wants to sell it.
Day 2
The next day at school, Ushio greets Yugi, wanting to show him something. He leads Yugi to Jounochi and Honda where they lie beaten up. Yugi tells Ushio that this is too much and asks Jonouchi if he is okay. Jonouchi grunts asks Yugi if he's happy now. Yugi explains that it's not true, he didn't ask Ushio to do this. Ushio continues to attack Jonouchi, but Yugi protests, he won't let Ushio do this to his friends. Ushio jokes about Yugi calling them his friends and imposes a bodyguard fee of ¥200,000. For ¥200,000 Yugi can hit the two all he wants. Yugi continues to stare at Ushio in shock. Ushio interprets it as Yugi not being satisfied until Jounochi and Honda are beaten up some more and proceeds to attack, but Yugi stands in his way refusing to let him hurt the two. "If you want to hurt someone, hurt me!" Ushio insists that he hates picking on people, but this isn't bullying it's a warning, showing him what will happen if he doesn't pay up. Jonouchi is shocked at Yugi standing up for them as Ushio beats Yugi. Ushio then leaves the three of them warning Yugi if he doesn't pay, he'll hurt him with this as he holds up a knife.
That night while Yugi was trying to work out what was to be done about Ushio and his fee, he couldn't help but work on his puzzle. Unlike other days, solving the puzzle seemed a lot easier that day. Yugi quickly began assembling the puzzle until there was one piece left. Upon realizing the last piece wasn't in the box he quickly began scavenging his room in search for it. He began to sob about not being able to get his wish, before his Grandfather came in. Yugi told him how a piece was missing and Solomon began to encourage him, he'd put eight years into making it, he should have more faith his wish will be granted. Solomon then produced the last piece. Yugi hugged Sugoroku for finding it, but Sugoroku said that it wasn't him who found it, that a friend of his had come by earlier, he was soaking wet even though it wasn't raining. A flashback showed Jonouchi approaching Sugoroku's shop. Jonouchi had asked Sugoroku to give the piece to Yugi. Yugi inserted the last piece into its position on the puzzle while Sugoroku walked away. Something strange began to happen to Yugi and the Eye of Anubis appeared on his forehead.
The Shadow Game
Later that night, Ushio waits at the school after being called out there by Yugi. Yugi appears sitting on a nearby vaulting horse. This time Yugi has an air of confidence around him and looks slightly different while also wearing the now-solved Millennium Puzzle on a lace around his neck. Ushio asks for the money and Yugi holds it out saying he's raised it to 400,000, but it wouldn't be fun to just hand it over. "How about you play a game with me?" Ushio is shocked at first but declares it to be interesting. Yugi asks Ushio for his knife and sets it next to the money saying that's what they need for the game. Ushio get's anxious as he wonders what kind of game involves money and a knife. Yugi explains the rules.
- Each player takes turns putting the money on top of their hand and stabbing through the money with the knife.
- Each turn, a player must take more than one bill.
- The game continues until the money is gone, and the players would then keep any of the money they stabbed.
- If a player tries to take the money by hand, or quits, they forfeit all the money to the opponent.
Ushio begins to wonder if this is really Yugi before agreeing to start. They played Ro-Sham-Bo (rock-paper-scissors) to decide who went first. Yugi won and went first. On his turn, he got less than ten bills. He reminds Ushio, that if you use too much strength, you will stab yourself. The point of the game is to control your greed. Ushio goes and gets over 100,000. Later in the game, the money was running out, and Ushio thought he would get the rest. Then, his right arm began to be tremble. Yugi explained that it was now controlled by his greed and asked would he sacrifice his hand to get more money. Ushio, said there was a way he could get the money with one stab without hurting his left hand, before lunging the knife towards Yugi. Yugi jumped away and said that he thought Ushio wouldn't be able to follow the rules. Ushio started sweating and pointed out the Eye of Anubis as it appeared on Yugi's forhead. Yugi explained that it is only seen by those who trespass in his soul. He pointed at Ushio yelling Penalty Game. Greed. The illusion of avarice! Ushio started to see money falling everywhere, due to the illusion of avarice. Yugi left, keeping the money.
Day 3
The next morning students saw Ushio showering himself in leaves and rubbish, thinking them to be money, wondering what happened to the gruff Ushio. Yugi could not remember the events of last night apart from finishing the puzzle. While walking down the corridor celebrating, he bumps into Jonouchi. Jonouchi asks him how he's doing and says that he also has a treasure and asks Yugi if he wants so see it. Yugi says "yup". But Jonouchi laughs and says that he can't. "It's something you can show, but can't see." Yugi begins to think and Jonouchi tells him that the answer is friendship and thanks Yugi for showing him they're friends. Jonouchi dashes off saying he'll see Yugi later in class, thinking , how could he say such corny stuff. Yugi runs after him calling him back saying he forgot his shoe.
Anime adaptions
First series anime
This chapter is redone in the first episode of the Yu-Gi-Oh! first series.
Differences include:
- Instead of playing Kurohige Kiki Ippatsu (Pop-up Pirate), Yugi is building a card tower.
- Why the girls were invited to play basketball is not revealed.
- Honda is not Jonouchi's crony, but a rejected candidate for class president and junior custodian. He is not entirely in favor of how Jonouchi treats Yugi and even tells him off at times.
- Miho Nosaka becomes a main character in this series. In this episode, Jonouchi and Honda use buying her lunch as an excuse to leave after Anzu appears.
- Jonouchi returns the piece of the Puzzle to Yugi after Yugi gets beaten up by Ushio, rather than give it to his Grandpa to pass on.
- The Shadow Game with Ushio was completely changed and involved reaching the top of a dome, by turning over regular playing cards.
Second series anime
The second series starts much later in time, so the events of Yugi solving the Millennium Puzzle are skipped. The viewer is briefed in on this information at the start of episode 1.
Joey (Jonouchi) and Tristan (Honda) being beaten-up by Ushio and Yugi trying to defend them appears in a flashback in episode 3.
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light
The film Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, shows Yugi solving the Millennium Puzzle under different circumstances. He's simply at home working on the puzzle, not stressed over paying Ushio. He looks through some instructions as he constructs the puzzle and is not missing the last piece. Upon completion, he is confronted by a number of Duel Monster Spirits. Dark Yugi then takes control and vanquishes them. Afterwards, Yugi regains control of his body, not sure of what just happened.
The prologue in the novelization of the film expands on this, making it more like the manga. It included Jonouchi retrieving the missing piece and Sugoroku passing it on, as well as explaining how Yugi got the Puzzle and spent 8 years trying to solve it. There is no mention of Yugi using instructions, but does include the monster spirits vanquished by Dark Yugi. Afterwards, Dark Yugi looks at his reflection to see his new form. He asks who Yugi is and states that he doesn't know who he is himself.
