Ishizu, dressed as Gravekeeper's Priestess, duels Seto Kaiba

Ishizu opened her eyes, momentarily shaken to find a dark room; her experience with the Millennium items and the spirits inhabiting them told her she was either in the corridors of someones mind, or else, the shadow realm. Only... this place didn't quite feel like either of those. Was this some new sorcery? If so, only the evil spirit of the rod or the spirit of the puzzle could have brought her here. That didn't make sense; she'd seen the spirit leave Marik, to her great relief, and she'd heard that the spirit of the ring had been conquered as well. Who could be behind this strange turn of events?

As if that wasn't odd enough, she realized that the room was being darkened even further than it ought to be by the presence of a black veil over her face. When she lifted it, she noticed for the first time that she'd been redressed into the garb of the familiar Gravekeeper's priestess. This manner of dress was not so different from her usual, besides the addition of the veil, but that didn't make her feel any easier. Summoning the ancient monsters from playing cards was one thing... but why would anyone need to dress as one?

Feeling great unease, Ishizu watched as an intimidating presence appeared from the shadows. The mastermind? No... Although he was the mastermind of many schemes, Seto Kaiba could not be behind this. After all, the president of KaibaCorp had proven himself many times over to reject all things mystical. It had been an act of God, or God Card, just to get him to believe in his own intertwined fate with the pharoah. A part of her sighed heavily at the thought that she might have to go through all of that again, but she kept it to herself. Here, he was dressed in a coat resembling his favored card, the Blue Eyes White dragon, white and sharp with silver buttons and buckles over a black turtle-neck and slacks. His brown hair, spiked down just past his shoulders in the back with heavy bangs in the front, cast a shadow over his cold blue eyes. It seemed the CEO life, nor the success of KaibaCorp, had changed him.

"Seto Kaiba... What is this place?" she questioned, keeping her expression and her words even. At this point, she couldn't be sure that he was even real... even Kaiba could be an illusion or simply a dream.

His response was as sharp as ever. He never had seemed thankful for receiving that gift, the Egyptian God card, Obelisk the Tormentor. "You show up to bother me in the first round of this tournament and you can't even remember where you are?" he questioned, his eyes narrowing slightly, as if in disgust. "I don't do repeats, Ishizu. Did your necklace tell you that you're going to win this time? Or have you already forgotten how I outplayed you last time?"

With her nerves kept in check, Ishizu continued. "But what is this tournament? I did not sign up for any such-"

"It's not my tournament, if that's what you're asking. Some no-name loser is behind this venue," Kaiba scoffed. "That means I'm just ready to get it over with. If the pharoah makes it to the final match, then maybe I'll find some worthy competition here. You're just the first of many stepping stones, Ishizu. Consider yourself lucky that you didn't face me earlier in Battle City, or you never would have made it onto my blimp. You haven't changed a bit and I'll bet that low-quality deck of yours hasn't either."

"Listen to me-!" Ishizu pleaded, then clicked her teeth. It was clear to her now that some sort of illusion had a hold of him. He didn't appear aware of anything out of the ordinary. "What will it take to make you see?"

"See what? Your fate mumbo jumbo is all in the past now! Don't you dare drag me back into it!" he complained, clenching his fist and drawing six cards from his duel disk. "I've had enough. If you're going to try and tell me you've foreseen an outcome already-!"

"That's it!" Ishizu interrupted him, then cleared her throat and gave a slight bow, aware that it was not customary for anyone to interrupt the president of KaibaCorp. "My necklace... I'm not sure why it's here, but it may offer me insight." Summoning its powers, she looked into the future and saw something unexpected that she couldn't make sense of. It wasn't just her loss that would end this duel... she would end the duel completely stripped of her clothing, staring into the uncomprehending face of her opponent, who looked as if he'd seen her now for the first time. She almost wanted to see what his reaction would be past that moment...

She wasn't one to embarrass easily, but to Ishizu, fate was gospel. One way or another, Kaiba was going to gaze fully upon her exposed features... and possibly not just Kaiba, either. Seeing this future caused her face to flush and her body to squirm instinctively in a way that was not characteristic of her. "Kaiba... your solid duel system. Will we be using it today?"

"Obviously," he barked in quick answer.

"Have there been any... changes to it? In terms of the physical damage it delivers?" she further inquired.

"Obviously not! What, are you afraid of being thrown across the room again? Even children using this disc experience that! Grow up!" he growled, growing agitated and impatient. "If you're not going to make a move, I will!" Ishizu knew a fear almost as great as when the fate of the world had been at stake. Whatever was going on here, someone wanted to humiliate her and her only chance of avoiding that fate was to defeat Seto Kaiba, the number one ranked duelist in the world ever since the pharoah's departure had left Yugi Muto alone. Sure enough, it took a matter of seconds for Kaiba to play Kaibaman, a card of clear vanity, then use it to special summon his ace monster, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, in all its glorious silver splendor. The ancient rock tablets didn't do it justice... Kaiba's holograms had been much more true to its form in ancient times. Here, it was even worse; she could see it stretch up to where she would have imagined a ceiling must be, roaring into the sky, flapping its wings so realistically that she could feel her dress blown in the wind.

Its massive 3000 ATK wouldn't be easy to conquer... Ishizu had no monster in her hand capable of matching its attack points. For now, all she could manage was to stall.