03x17 - Journey's End

[bunniefuu]

[electronic game sound effects]

- So the story of your life

just entered the final
chapter, Playmaker.

- [grunts] Ai...

- But your story doesn't
have to come to an end.

Instead, we can build a
perfect virtual world together.

A world where you and
I can live in peace

just like you wanted.

- Ai...

- So what do you say?

- My answer is no.

I'm sorry Ai, but
I can't join you

because then I would have to
abandon everyone else here.

You see there are two
different kinds of peace.

Your idea is to leave this
world and its problems

and make a new one,

a perfect world that's
free of w*r and conflict

but that doesn't achieve
the second kind of peace,

which is peace of mind.

Even if our new
world seemed perfect,

I could never forget the
friends I left behind

or thought I had to let the
real world fall into ruin.

And as long as my memories
exist, I'll never be at peace.

And I think you'd feel the same

even if you wouldn't admit it.

If we want to achieve
true lasting peace,

then instead of running
away from our problems,

we have to try and solve them.

That's why I won't turn
my back on the real world

to join you.

- I see.

So in other words,

you're ditching the best
friend you could ever have.

- No, you're wrong.

I haven't dumped you, Ai.

I want you to remain in
the real world with me

to try and save it

because the real
world is worth saving.

It's a world where even
someone broken like me

could find friends.

After the lost incident, all
I cared about was revenge.

But luckily there were
people and programs who cared

about me and who I
learned to care for too.

I guess we're all
broken in some way

but it's going to take all of us

to solve the world's problems.

And that includes you.

- If only everything
was that simple.

- [Playmaker] But it can be.

- No, it cannot.

- [Playmaker] Yes, it can.

- Playmaker,

Your solution is just not
going to work, all right?

I won't give up that easily

because I know there
has to be a solution.

A solution that leads to
true peace for all of us.

But I need your help.

So let's finish the
journey we started.

- Sorry, you took your best sh*t

and it sounds nice and all,
but it's too late, Playmaker.

- Ai...

- All I'm saying is that

I've passed the point
of no return, pal.

So let's finish this duel

and see who survives.

[electronic action music]

You're up, Playmaker.

The fate of mankind rests
in the palm of your hands.

- [Playmaker] Ai's right.

This next card will
determine everything.

It's my turn.

I draw!

- Before you do a thing, I
activate my trap card, AIQ.

This trap should slow you down

because when this
card is in play,

we're both only allowed to
link summon once per turn.

- I'm only able to
summon one link monster?

- I mean, I'd prefer
it if it was zero,

but I'm a nice guy.

Just thank me later.

- If you are going
to limit my options,

then I have no choice
but to find new ones.

When I have no
monsters on my field,

I can banish my spell
card, sign net ritual,

and a ritual monster
from my graveyard

to summon two sign net tokens.

So I exchange cyber's
magician for two new monsters.

[electric beeping]

Next, I'm activating a
spell card from my hand.

Drastic draw!

This spell card's
effect allows me

to banish all
monsters on my field

to draw three
cards from my deck.

And when there are no monsters
on my side of the field,

I can automatically summon
linkslayer from my hand.

I'll follow that by
summoning cyber's wizard.

And now since I have a cybers
type monster on my field,

I can summon back up
secretary to join them.

- Our first monsters.

I see what you're up to.

You're hitting me in the fields

but that's not gonna
stop me from dueling you.

- I can't stop you from dueling,

but I can stop you from winning.

By banishing borreload furious
dragon from my graveyard,

I can revive a dark
attribute link monster.

Rise up, higher walls
dragon darkfluid!

Here I go.

If I'm only allowed to
link some in once, huh

then I'll make sure
to make the most

of it by creating
the ultimate circuit.

The summoning conditions require

at least two effect monsters.

[electronic explosions]

Link the circuit.

Forge the bond that connects
the real with the virtual.

I link summon link four
access code talker.

- This is quite the surprise.

No cards in your hand and
you summon a new code talker.

Impressive.

- Well, if you think that
is impressive, watch this.

If I summon access talker
using a link monster,

it gains 1000 att*ck points
for every link that it had.

My darkfluid had five links.

So access code talker
gains 5,000 att*ck points.

- I got all tingly scared

when you said that
with so much passion

till I realized the arrival
has more att*ck points

than that fellow.

- That is true.

But accesscode talker
has another ability.

By banishing a link
monster from my graveyard,

I can destroy one
card on your field

and it can use this
ability over and over.

As long as the next
monster I vanish

has a different attribute.

- What? By my count, there
are six link monsters

with different attributes
in your graveyard.

- That's right.

And that means
access code talker

can now use its
ability six times.

I'll start with my earth
attribute transcode talker.

I vanish it to destroy
ignister island.

Access integration!

[monster grunts]

- When ignister island is gone,

I have to destroy
all my monsters,

which is what I would
scientifically call
a very bad thing.

So it's a good thing that
I have gatchiri @ignister

because it's ability
prevents my monsters

from being destroyed
once per turn.

- But since you have
one less card in play

the arrival loses

Next, I'll activate accesscode
talker's ability again.

This time I banish my
water attribute splash mage

to destroy your
gatchiri @ignister.

Go, access integration!

[monster grunts]

Go, access integration!

The arrival loses another

- When gatchiri is destroyed,
its ability activates.

It prevents you from using
your special abilities

to destroy one of my monsters.

And no surprise, surprise,

the monster I'm
protecting is the arrival.

That means accesscode talker

can't blow it up.

- How about your other monsters?

I banish my fire
attribute proxy F magician

and destroy gussari @ignister.

Go!

That's another 1000
att*ck points gone.

I banish my wind
attribute X slayer

to destroy your dark white.

Then I banish my light
attribute link cross

to destroy AIQ.

Finally, I banish my dark
attribute decode talker

to destroy compromise.

- By removing all the
other cards on my field,

you drop the arrival's
att*ck points down to 7,000.

Huh, and that makes your monster
stronger than my monster.

- Yes. Here goes
accesscode talker

att*cks the arrival
to end this duel.

- Don't count your
chickens, Playmaker.

By banishing gussari
@ignister from my graveyard,

both our monsters att*ck
points drop to 3000.

It's a double callow.

How's that meat bag?

You thought you had some
tools under your belt

but your pants are dropping

because you weren't wearing
a belt to begin with.

Meanwhile, I can use
gussari's ability to revive

dark templar @ignister
from my graveyard.

It appears that I'm the only one

who has a monster
in play, Playmaker.

- Yes, maybe for now.

But I'll change
that with my combo.

When my cyberse link monster
destroys your link monster

in battle, my spell card sign
at closure returns the card.

It vanished back
to my graveyard.

And that card is the
track recoded alive.

- [Ai] He banished
that card forever ago

so he knew I'd forget about it.

Playmaker was setting
me up from the start.

- I activate recoded
alive's effect.

When I have no monsters
in the extra monster zone,

I can banish recoded alive

to re-summon the decode talker
that's already been banished.

- Decode talker?

But dark templar can't
be destroyed by a monster

with the same number
of att*ck points.

So even if decode
talker att*cks,

only your monster
will be wiped out.

- If that's the case,
I'll end my turn.

- Yeah, and any hope of winning.

It's my turn.

I draw.

Well, it's been fun,

but this will be my
final turn, Playmaker.

- [Playmaker] And it's been
a memorable journey, Ai,

from beginning to end.

[dramatic music]

- Question, Playmaker.

Do you think I was a
good teammate for you?

Be honest.

- No. You were the worst
strategist I have ever met.

- Oh, well. I guess
I asked for it.

- Hmm.

- Dark templar.

att*ck decode talker.

[metal clinks, monster grunts]

Now's the moment I
activate tide strike.

When a monster is destroyed,

the owner takes damage
equal to its att*ck points.

So you lose.

Bye, Playmaker.

It was nice knowing you.

- I'm not going anywhere.

I activate code hack!

Now whenever you
activate a spell card,

I can vanish this trap
card from my graveyard

to negate your spells effect

and increase decode talker's
att*ck points by 700.

Decode destruction!

[expl*si*n]

Ai.

Ai.

- I guess I lost.

- If you hadn't played
that spell card, Ai,

you would've won the duel.

- Maybe, but what use is second
or third guessing myself,

if I had a penny for
every move I regretted,

I'd have zero sense.

But I don't regret a thing.

As a matter of fact, this is
exactly the outcome I wanted.

I can tell you now it's
about the simulation.

See, I didn't really give
you the whole picture.

It's not that I lied to you
exactly, but I did fib a little.

Well, okay, I fibbed a lot.

Truth is I never went
extinct in any simulation.

Instead, I survived
every single time.

'Cause no matter what I tried,

you would always sacrifice
yourself to save me.

[yells]

- But I finally came up
with a way to best you

at your own game.

- Ai, you sacrificed
yourself for me?

- I guess this means
I passed my hero test.

But Playmaker, one last thing.

Seriously, I wasn't
a good teammate?

- No you weren't,

for three reasons.

One, your strategies
rarely paid off.

And if they did, they
paid off for our opponent.

Two, you would go out of
your way to distract me

from focusing on the duel.

And three, you would reveal
our secrets to our opponent

making it easy for
them to counter us.

So for these reasons

you were never a good
dueling teammate,

but you were a great friend.

A friend that I
will never forget.

- I won't forget you either.

Guess it's time to go.

But before I do, there's
one more thing I wanna say.

It's that I know I could be
overly entertaining, Playmaker.

Sometimes even too much fun.

And that during our duels,
my jokes too hysterical.

- That isn't important now, Ai.

- No, it's important

that I get this off
my chest, Playmaker.

Those times I cheer
till my voice hurt

and rarara-d you when
the chips were down

and hurt my back from
carrying you to victory.

All those times are
definitely the times

I'm gonna miss most
of all, Playmaker.

- Not me, because I'll
miss all our time together.

- Thank you, Playmaker.

You were a good
friend for a meat bag.

I mean,

it's time for me to say bye.

Yusaku.

[electronic whirring]

- Ai!

Ai!

- Absolutely! Coming right up.

Hey Cal, two hotdog
sandwiches with the works.

- [Cal] Ah.

- Hard find good help
with your sandwich shop

these days, huh?

- Right. It's almost like
he wants to get fired.

But it's great
having him around.

We can finally make
up for lost time.

You know none of this could
have happened without your help.

- That's sweet of you
to say and everything.

But you know Yusaku is the
one you should be thanking.

Speaking of, have you heard
anything from him at all?

- Not a peep.

He's gone AWOL since
his duel with Ai.

- Huh, I see.

After all the
times he helped me,

I never had a chance
to really thank him.

- You might yet because he's
still somewhere out there.

- I thought you said he's gone.

- Yeah, but that doesn't mean
he won't come home someday.

And when he does,

I'll have a couple hot
dog tacos waiting for him.

- Colter, hot dogs aren't tacos.

Who'd be silly
enough to think that?

- Okay, try this.

If you reroute the traffic
from node six to node nine,

that switch should enable
you to free up bandwidth.

- [Mr. CEO] How's
it going, Hayami?

- [Hayami] Busy, Mr. CEO.

- [Mr. CEO] Busy
good or busy bad?

- Everything's
going super smooth.

We've finished Link Vrain's
Global Network expansion

that goes far beyond Den City.

So we've linked duel
lists around the
world with each other.

And they're making friends
from Antarctica to Zimbabwe.

- Keep up the good work, Hayami,

because it's our mission to
keep Link Vrains operational

so that our friend always
has a home to return to.

- Faster!

- Too late!

We're gonna be bugged out!

- Well, at least you two are
finally making some headlines.

- So you want me to take
the left or the right?

- Your call.

Lead the way.

- [Announcer] That
was gortastic!

The Link Vrain's Invitational
Tournament has a new champion.

- Yeah! [laughs]
[crowd cheers]

- Awesome. Gor's our hero!

- I want a duel
too, just like Gor!

- You wanna challenge the champ?

I'll take on all
of you porkchops!

- Link Vrains is growing
at an exponential rate

and so will the threats from
all the hackers out there.

- That's true, but
I pity any hacker

who has to contend with
the Knights of Hanoi

to think that the three of us
are now the ones responsible

for providing security
for Link Vrains.

- How about a field
trip into Link Vrains

to purge those unwelcome
guests from our systems?

- [Kiku] I'm not
sure about this.

You know how scared
I am of heights.

- [Soulbuner] Don't worry,
I'll be by your side, Kiku.

- [both] It's time to
link into the Vrains.

- Oh wow.

- Welcome to Link Vrains.

This is version three
point something.

I can't keep track.

- Oh hey, hold up a sec.

That's Soulburner.

He has a girlfriend?

Don't get jealous 'cause
you have Blue Angel

waiting for you.

- You saved this whole world?

Theodore, you're a hero.

- Come on. Not really.

If you wanna meet a real hero

then someday I'm gonna
introduce you to Playmaker.

- Really? Where is he?

- I don't know, but he's
somewhere out there, searching.

- Searching?

- Yeah. For a friend.

- Do you think Playmaker
will ever return?

- Of course I do,

because his greatest rival
is standing right here

and he never backs
down from a challenge.

- [Playmaker] Wherever
you are my friend,

I'll fight.