14 3T: The True End Of The Past

"You know you don't have to do this, right?" Joachim looked to the side at the person walking next to him. Grace just gave her a noncommittal hum, refusing to provide him with an actual answer. It was something that has become common since the conversation they had before.

She had become a pouting mess and nothing that he did was capable of changing that. In the first place, his original age was over twenty; the fact that he had to placate a teen while also acting like one was weird.

At least she fulfilled her promise of bringing him to a card shop to get some cards, even if he didn't ask for it, and didn't exactly need them either. 'I swear, if Yugi's grandpa is in there I am gonna lose it.'

Minutes with idle musings like those went by until they eventually arrived at their destination. Fortunately for his sanity, it wasn't grandpa's shop, but a totally different one, albeit with the same small size.

Grace went ahead and entered by herself without showing any strangeness. It was possible that she had come here before to get some cards for her Amazon Deck.

Seeing nothing appealing in just standing there looking at the visage, Joachim decided to follow his companion inside. The interior was nothing fancy, but at least it had everything arranged in a neat order to make it pleasant for customers—something to appreciate.

Some people were already inside, but mostly kids; no doubt excited to build their own Deck out of scrap. 'Huh...' An involuntary smile formed on his face. 'What memories...'

"Ah, welcome. Please look for whatever you like." A voice from the counter at the far back brought him out of his thoughts. Turning to look, he was met with the total opposite of grandpa Muto: a tall and lanky man, yet he also shared that kind elderly smile.

He soon noticed Grace and his smile became even more amicable. "Oh, if it isn't little Grace. Long time no see! Did you come here for something extra to help your Deck? Whatever it is, you should not hesitate to ask!"

Some customers gave an odd look before returning to what they were doing. As for the white-haired girl, she smiled and waved excitedly at the man. "Hello, uncle! Sorry but this time I came to help someone else do just that."

'Oh, so you could talk.' Joachim rolled his eyes but otherwise gave no further reaction to her shenanigans.

"That would be me." He approached the counter with slow and methodical steps to make his presence known. The smile Grace was wearing became a little strained, something he found funny for some reason. However, he knew better than to pick a fight with her.

"Greetings, young man. A friend of this little rascal is also my friend, so you can ask for anything you need. If I have it, I will make sure to give it to you for a discount." The elderly man excitedly said with the same smile from before, making Joachim blink repeatedly for a few seconds.

'He is literally shining. Too bright... Is this what kind people in anime are capable of?'

With a fake cough, he returned to reality. "Thanks, I appreciate it. My name is Marik, and as Grace said, I came here to look for something that could help my Deck."

"It's a pleasure, little Marik. You can call me Genji. But I know youngsters are always in a hurry these days, so we can directly go to the matter at hand. Are you looking for something specific, an archetype, or just general stuff?"

"Just general stuff is fine. I pretty much have everything I need. The only things I lack are some complementary cards to bring my Deck to the next level." His Ra Deck was pretty much good to go. And by that, he meant that not even by adding five copies of each part of Exodia it would improve. It was that bad. But somehow, it was so bad it worked. As for Blue-Eyes... well, adding some cancer traps and spell cards wouldn't hurt.

However, the main reason why he accepted coming here even if he didn't exactly need it was because he needed some Fusion monsters. He doubted he was going to stay here for much longer, but having extra insurance to trick other people in case he was forced into fights was a nice little addition. Something that could complement other Blue-Eyes fusions would be nice as well.

'Even some generic Fusion monster whose materials were only Dragons would be good. It really does not need to be anything fancy.' It was always good to be resourceful, but most of his needs stemmed from the fact that he was not that capable yet. In gamer terms, his duelist level was nothing to sing praises about. There would be a point where he could do some destiny draws on each turn probably, but that was far away, so in the meantime, this was good enough.

"Sure, thing! Give me a second." Having received his order, Genji crouched down a bit and took something from under the counter before placing the thing on top of it.

It turned out to be a catalog with many pictures of cards and their details as well as their price. It was a little worn out, which made him doubt if he had everything in stock.

Seemingly reading his mind, the shopkeeper reassured him. "Don't worry, I make sure to take note to have at least five copies of each card and I restock every month. You can look at this first and then I can show you newer cards if you still want more."

Thanking him for his consideration, he began to browse with rapt attention in case he found something that could be of help. Grace took that opportunity to peer over his shoulders to see what he was going to pick, something that earned a side look from him.

"Have a problem?"

"I said nothing..."

Ignoring the moody girl next to him, he continued with his search. He had to admit it, the man had the Gilgamesh's Gate of Babylon card version in the catalog. It was even in an alphabetical order regarding Archetypes so you could easily find what you were looking for, while the more generic stuff was after the letter 'Z'. He saw Fiends, the retarded frogs, Gladiator Beasts, Antique Gear, Thunder Dragon, the dancers Alexis used, and that he didn't even bother glancing for more than a second, some Dinosaurs, Zombies, etc. It was truly the Holy Grail.

'I would like to use some of them. Unfortunately, that would require me to forget about the other things I want to buy since the money I sto—borrowed from those guys isn't infinite, after all.' Pushing those thoughts aside, he got to the part that interested him.

"Let's see..." What first came into view were really old cards, or should he say, the beginning of the beginning. Poly, Fissure, Dark Hole — Definitely picking that one —, Premature Burial, Magic Cylinder, Metalmorph, Robbin' Goblin, among others.

"Why don't you pick this one?" Grace pointed her finger at a particular card, that being Mirror Force. Joachim thought about it for a second before shaking his head in denial.

"Why not? It's a good card. You can completely turn things around with it." She was right, except... at this point in time, getting an opponent's monster to the graveyard was a demerit. Not to mention, with Pendulums about to arrive, Mirror Force was literally a waste of space.

"Sometimes destroying a monster works against you. I prefer to look for something that I can't do already by battling or with a monster effect. For example, these two cards. They are marginally better." He pointed to Quaking and Drowning Mirror Force. Although Drowning Mirror Force required you to be attacked directly, something that can actually be forced, the fact that it could send all attacking position monsters to the deck was a pretty hard counter against Pendulums, especially here where rarely anyone used Counter-Traps.

Grace seemed a bit unconvinced, but she still agreed with his point. "Well, it's your choice in the end. Just make sure not to regret it later!"

"You sure have a tight leash around your neck, huh."

"Actually two."

"Life is hard on you, young man."

"Yeah, tell me about it."

"Are you two done goofing around? We don't have all day." Grace immediately went into sulking mode once she realized they were making fun of her.

"Sorry, sorry. Don't get angry." After a little chuckle, he resumed his quest for good cards, all the while making Genji write down the ones he was choosing.

Eventually, he reached the end after procuring a good amount of cards. However, when he turned the last page, something fell off of it. Curious, Joachim reached down to pick it up. The moment he did and took a look at what it was, he almost dropped it out of surprise.

"This monster card...?" He would obviously not be shocked even if a Sacred Beast was inside a card. No, what really brought a surprise to his whole being was the fact that there was an honest-to-God Spirit inside. How did he know? No idea, he just did.

"Hm? I wonder... I have never seen such a card. Maybe someone left it by accident when they were picking something for themselves before?" The shopkeeper appeared clueless, scratching his head in confusion at the development.

"Well, it must be fate, so why don't you take it? Since it isn't mine to be with I won't charge you anything." With a shrug of his shoulders, Genji automatically took his hands off the matter.

"Isn't that irresponsible? What happens if the owner comes back?" Grace didn't seem to be amused at the older man's declaration. Marik already had enough problems now thanks to them with the Professor. What if the true holder of that card went to look for trouble with Marik as well? Wouldn't that make her indirectly at fault? She didn't want that, and it was definitely not because she was worried about him. It was absolutely not the case.

"Don't worry, little Grace. Most people just go straight for what is on display. Actually, I have not taken out this catalog in a long, long time. The person probably forgot about it by this point." He reassured her with a wave of his hands as if her worries were nonsensical.

"Well, I am not going to say no to a free card..." The thing was, he had this feeling that something fishy was going on, but he couldn't really tell why. Not to mention, it was something...unique inside of the Archetype. "I guess this is going to be my new companion. Welcome aboard, buddy."

"You talk to cards?" Grace looked at him strangely yet she only received knowing smirks not only from the teen but from the elderly man as well. "Hmph. You both are crazy."

When she was going to turn her head around to pout in a typical tsundere fashion, she noticed a white figure behind the dark-skinned youth. However, it was gone as soon as she blinked, and no matter how many times she rubbed her eyes and looked at the position of that weird hallucination, nothing appeared again. 'Strange... I could have sworn I saw something...'

"Anyhow. Now that that is done, I will bring you the cards that you requested." Genji bid a temporary farewell and went to the back of the place; returning a few moments later with everything he purchased. It seemed he had everything neatly ordered to know where each card was because it didn't take a long time to have everything ready.

"I already marked the prices with the discounts. You can take a look at the recipe if you want." Joachim did just that. The guy seemed quick with maths as he applied different discounts depending on the value of the card and still got the numbers right.

"Looks good. Thanks for the discounts, by the way." After taking the money out of his pockets, he did a quick count and pay for everything he bought. Although he doubted he would use it for something, he still was left with some change left.

"Hey! I was going to pay for you! And where did you get the money from in the first place?" At Grace's accusatory tone, he simply averted his gaze, not wanting to make eye contact under any circumstances.

"Community Service..." Which was, technically, if you stretched laws a bit, right?

"Fine, don't tell me. Anyway, we need to go. I bet Gloria will be excited to see new cards." She maybe, maaaaybe took pleasure in seeing how his face paled considerably at her words. Of course, it wasn't, in any shape or form, some petty revenge on her part for making fun of her and acting like a jerk.

"Bye, Uncle! I will make sure to tell my sister that you are doing fine!" Her goodbyes said, the silver-haired girl took the hand of his companion and dragged him out to his doom.

"Huhu, please come again, and give your sister my greetings as well. Also, try not to be too hard on the young lad." He watched them disappear as Grace agreed to the first part of his words but kept silent on the second, bringing a wry smile to his face. 'Ah... these kids never change.'

Once they were out of sight, the smile finally disappeared from his face, replaced by a nostalgic look instead. Sighing a bit, he began to lose himself in his thoughts. 'Good grief, old friend. You never reacted up until now. What's with the sudden desire to leave? Was I that unpleasant to be with? Sigh... I wish you all the best, Trishula, you are going to need it. After all, around his neck is not a leash, but a rope.'

The roar of three dragons was heard in the distance. A sign of parting with the old to meet the new.

(A/N: I am moving to ff btw. See ya and Happy New Years as well as Merry Late Christmas!)