Marik Ishtar has been in a bad mood lately, very bad indeed.
He has been preparing for a long time to end the fate of the Gravekeeper Race and exact revenge spanning three thousand years. This Duel City Tournament is the final stage of his revenge plan.
He made thorough preparations to stir up trouble in this tournament, determined to make that Nameless Pharaoh's Soul pay the price. However, he didn't expect things to go awry from the start. Before he could formally declare war on Yugi, he suffered consecutive setbacks, even losing the Sky Dragon, one of his trump cards...
...But it's okay!
As the leader of the Ghouls Group and the second strongest Duelist in the entire village, Marik had prepared a backup plan.
In the original Yu-Gi-Oh! DM series, Marik had an extra trick up his sleeve. In the anime, he sent a puppet with the Sky Dragon to challenge Yugi. After losing, he immediately dispatched the Ghouls to capture Yugi's best friend, Jonouchi, and used the power of the Millennium Rod to brainwash Jonouchi, forcing him to turn against Yugi.
Yes, the same Marik who always followed the rules, with morals and principles, even punishing his subordinates for cheating during a duel. After losing the Sky Dragon, it seemed he abandoned his bottom line.
He didn't follow procedures or use cards to capture Jonouchi. Instead, he sent a bunch of burly men to pin down Jonouchi and Anzu to the ground, stunning them with punches and kicks before dragging them back to a warehouse for brainwashing by Marik.
Later, he deliberately arranged a death duel between Jonouchi and Yugi, where whoever lost would be plunged into the depths of the ocean, a cold-blooded duel in the literal sense.
At this moment, Marik was sitting with crossed legs in a dark corner, playing with the six Puzzle Cards he had collected, while imagining Yugi's despair when facing a brainwashed Jonouchi, snickering sinisterly.
...At this point, you might ask, Marik hasn't personally played a single card in the Duel City Tournament so far, his puppet lost, so where did he get these six Puzzle Cards?
Of course... they were given by subordinates!
So, when character profiles online say that Marik has an all-loss record throughout the Yu-Gi-Oh! DM series, not winning a single duel and being dubbed the undefeated myth, it might not be an exaggeration.
In the anime, he lost whenever he played cards himself, and even the six Puzzle Cards for advancement were given by subordinates—in other words, he never even won against passers-by in recorded history.
Then, in Marik's own memories, he seems to have never won a game against his sister either.
If it were just that, it wouldn't be so bad. There was a time when Marik shared a body with the anime's final hidden boss, Dark Bakura, and dueled against his own hijacked body, Dark Marik.
The ultimate boss of Yu-Gi-Oh! DM, the holder of the Millennium Ring, and the embodiment of darkness, Great Evil God Sock (the true form of Dark Bakura) listened to some of Marik's suggestions and adopted his recommended strategy, only to lose...
This illustrates that others losing at cards is due to their own ineptitude. But Marik is different; his ineptitude is unique, such that even the legendary Great Evil God Sock (though not very skilled at cards) lost while partnering with him!
When he was a teammate, he managed to lose with Great Evil God Sock!
Although he never won at cards himself, Marik can brag about this forever.
Marik had already dispatched subordinates to track and monitor Jonouchi the entire time, and now it was almost time to take action.
He closed his eyes and unleashed the power of the Millennium Rod to connect with the subordinates stationed near Jonouchi.
"How's the task I entrusted you with?" Marik asked imperiously.
The startled Ghoul, hearing the boss's voice in his head, shivered involuntarily: "M-Marik, sir!"
"Have you captured Jonouchi Katsuya yet?"
"Well... not yet..."
"What?" Marik was furious, "Why haven't you taken action yet?"
The Ghouls member was on the verge of tears: "Please calm down, Marik sir. It's because... we just can't find an opportunity when he's alone. There's always a bunch of weirdos hanging around Jonouchi..."
"?" Marik was puzzled, "Weirdos?"
Fed up with the chatter, he directly activated the power of the Millennium Rod to forcibly enter the Ghoul's mind, sharing the man's vision.
The Ghouls member was caught off guard: "Ah~"
Marik used his eyes to look around and quickly spotted Jonouchi, surrounded by a group of...
...dummies?
Experienced Gravekeeper bigshot Marik was a bit dumbfounded. His first reaction was to suspect that the Millennium Rod had been damaged somewhere over the millennia, receiving images poorly, showing him some hallucination.
He saw a group of jumping, silly dummies—judging from the Duel Discs on their arms, they should all be Duelists, each behaving as if they were having a festival.
There were even a few performing behavior art he couldn't understand.
For example, there was one guy who liked to spin in circles while talking to people.
And another guy... Marik couldn't quite tell from the Millennium Rod's vision if he was human, since the guy had a ridiculously large headpiece on, making him resemble a hippopotamus, like a theme park mascot selling balloons...
...What the hell is he wearing?!
Though the tournament rules don't include a "no bizarre costumes" clause, would anyone really dress like that?
At least dress like a person, please?
However, the rather obtuse Jonouchi seemed to accept these strange setups, believing the dummies' behavior art was customs brought from their hometown.
After all, the world is full of wonders, and Kaiba said the Duel City Tournament allows talented Duelists from other parts of the world to register. Perhaps these weirdos are from some isolated place with peculiar customs?
Upon learning that the dummies were fans of him, the "Duelist Kingdom runner-up," Jonouchi's vanity swelled, and he ended up getting along quite well with the dummies...
"Tch." Marik bit his teeth.
If such a group of dummies was always around, he figured he'd never find an opportunity to catch Jonouchi alone. It seemed his plan to use Jonouchi as leverage against Yugi was doomed to fail from the start.
The Ghouls truly had nothing going right in this tournament.
"Continue to monitor him for me." Marik ordered darkly, "If an opportunity arises, take action. If not, so be it."
He huffed heavily, "Looks like I'll have to let Yugi advance steadily for now, and it's not too late to sanction him in the second round.
For now, the Ghouls' strategic focus will temporarily shift to Kaiba Seto."
Originally, Marik had no grudge with Kaiba. All he sought was the Pharaoh's Soul within Yugi.
But when his sister Ishizu handed the Obelisk card to Kaiba, Marik started paying attention to this man. He then noticed that the ancient stone tablets unearthed in Egypt depicted the Millennium Battle, where a priest facing the Pharaoh and wielding the White Dragon bore a slight resemblance to Kaiba.
He was even more curious why the Three Egyptian God Cards, which should be used only by those related to the Millennium Items, would obey Kaiba, who had never possessed any Item in this life.
Thus, a wonderfully (doomed) new plan formed in Marik's mind.
He planned to approach and capture Kaiba Seto, using the Millennium Rod to brainwash him and uncover Kaiba's hidden secrets!
He had a hunch that Kaiba was closely linked to the fate of the Gravekeeper Race.
"However, Kaiba Seto is a tough man, very vigilant, not easily caught." Marik said calmly, "But I've heard he has a brother he treasures very much.
Currently, his brother is already in our hands, and I need you to allocate some manpower to take him there. We plan to use his brother as leverage to force Kaiba Seto to comply.
Kaiba holds the Obelisk the Tormentor, and I hold The Winged Dragon of Ra. Although I have the upper hand, we must act prudently..."
The Ghouls member instinctively asked, "Hey? Don't you also have Slifer the Sky Dragon?"
Marik: "..."
"...Ah! Ah ah ah! Forgive me, Marik, sir! Spare me!"
The poor Ghouls was dead—more precisely, brain-dead. The consciousness that was his being had been taken to the dark abyss to feed some unknown entity, leaving behind only an empty shell.
Marik scowled.
Curse it, bringing up the sore subjects...