The Virtual Realm arc is a story arc in the Yu-Gi-Oh! second anime series (Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in Japan). The arc does not appear in the original manga.

As the series relies heavily on the knowledge of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, a basic knowledge of the game and its rules will be needed to understand the contents of this article.

Background

Originally created in order to allow for more distance between the anime and the manga, the arc bisects the Battle City story arc and serves as a side adventure for the protagonists. Many of the characters introduced in the Battle City arc, however, appear only in a minimal role.

Plot

Aboard Seto Kaiba's airship, the eight Battle City Finals duelists prepare to head for Alcatraz, the site of the semifinal and final rounds of the Battle City tournament. However, the trip takes a mysterious wrong turn, and finds itself landing in an undersea fortress - apparently, a mysterious force is set on revenge against Kaiba. Forcing many of its passengers off the ship, the mysterious force leads them into another room, where they reveal themselves to be the Big 5, five former board members of KaibaCorp, who were assumed to be fired by Kaiba sometime before Battle City for attempting to take his company from underneath him.

The five board members are Gansley (Konosuke Oshita in the Japanese version), Crump (Shuzo Ootaki), Johnson (Chizuken Oka), Nezbitt (Soichiro Oota), and Leichter (Kogoro Daimon), who are not named in the manga (it is to be noted that the names all contain a common kanji, meaning "big"). They seek revenge against Kaiba for firing them, as well as Yugi Moto (Yugi Mutou in the manga and the Japanese versions) for foiling their plans to take over the company on two different occasions (by defeating Maximillion Pegasus (Pegasus J. Crawford in the Japanese version) in Duelist Kingdom and the Big 5's Five God Dragon in Legendary Heroes). To do so, they force their participation in their own virtual Duel Monsters tournament, in a similar vein to Kaiba's Legendary Heroes games.

In their tournament, players would choose a monster from their deck to serve as a Deckmaster. Each Deckmaster had their own special abilities, which ostensibly could be activated at any time in the duel. The Deckmaster could also be summoned directly to the field at any time and could be used as any other monster. However, should the Deckmaster be lost, so would the game. (However, it should be noted that should the Deckmaster be used as a tribute or otherwise replaced, the new monster summoned would become the new Deckmaster). If one of our protagonists were to lose, the Big 5 also threatened to take their bodies for themselves and escape into the real world.

It is also noted by the Big 5 that the virtual tournament would require virtual cards, and thus the God cards could not be used by Yugi or Kaiba.

As the group enter the virtual world, however, they find themselves separated: Yugi in a forest, Téa Gardner (Anzu Mazaki in the manga and Japanese versions) in a canyon, Tristan Taylor (Hiroto Honda in the manga and Japanese versions), Serenity Wheeler (Shizuka Kawai in the manga and Japanese versions), and Duke Devlin (Ryuji Otogi in the manga and Japanese versions) in and around a castle, Joey Wheeler (Katsuya Jonouchi in the manga and Japanese versions) in a mansion, and Kaiba and Mokuba Kaiba elsewhere. Each of the separated groups, as it would turn out, will face a different member of the Big 5.

Fall of the Big 5

As it turns out, the Big 5 are being controlled by a boy named Noah Kaiba, the son of Gozaburo Kaiba, the adopted father of Seto and Mokuba, who had died (the English anime had Noah's body being "rendered useless" instead) in a traffic accident but whose mind was preserved in the virtual world. Noah believes that, as the true legitimate heir to KaibaCorp, that he should be the one running the company. How Noah enlists the help of the Big 5 is unclear, but it was implied that somehow, the minds of the Big 5 (who were assumed to be dead, or at least in a state where their body was "rendered useless" in the English anime) were also preserved in the virtual world, hence the need to escape in another's body. In the virtual world, the Big 5 typically used their Deckmasters as their avatar: Gansley with Deep Sea Warrior, Crump with Nightmare Penguin (Penguin Nightmare in the Japanese version), Johnson with Judge Man, Bezbitt with Robotic Knight and Leichter with Jinzo (Android Psychic Shocker in the Japanese version).

Gansley a.k.a. Oshita is the first to duel. Despite wanting to choose his trusted Dark Magician (Black Magician in the Japanese version), Kuriboh comes out as Yugi's Deckmaster. Being stuck with this choice, Yugi proceeds to duel. Gansley would reveal Deep Sea Warrior's Deckmaster ability when Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast attacks one of his monsters: by sacrificing two of his own, he can force Yugi's monsters to attack Yugi directly instead. Combined with a supposedly invincible monster revival combo, it seemed that the duel was all but lost. Oshita would continuously taunt Yugi with quotations from famous philosophers in the Japanese version. In the English anime, Gansley taunts him with knowledge of the business world. However, Yugi does not give up, and eventually has the last laugh: by using Kuriboh with Rainbow Blessing and Swift Gaia the Fierce Knight, Yugi manages to attack Gansley directly and win the match.

Crump a.k.a. Otaki would somehow trap Téa a.k.a. Anzu in a duel as Yugi searches for a way to find her. Téa chooses a deck whose monsters are all female, and Dark Magician Girl (Black Magician Girl in the Japanese version) as her Deckmaster. In the Japanese version, this causes much ridicule from Otaki, who thought that Black Magician Girl would not be effective without Black Magician. In the English anime, this was replaced by Crump's crude "dirty old man" remarks about Téa's or Dark Magician Girl's appearance. Despite being in danger of being frozen to death (both in terms of health and in terms of life points), Dark Magician Girl would help Téa out, and, by summoning herself onto the field and using her Deckmaster ability, allows Téa to use the Sage's Stone card to get Yugi's Dark Magician onto the field, which easily gave Téa the victory.

With Yugi and Téa a.k.a. Anzu reunited, the focus shifts to Johnson (Oka) against Joey (Jonouchi). Believing he finally escaped, and eager to get his hands on Marik, Joey is tricked by Johnson, who proceeds to duel him. Johnson manages to get the upper hand in the duel through both his Deckmaster ability, which could, at the cost of life points, clear the field of all cards, and by controlling the outcome of Joey's luck-based moves. Despite Noah's insistence on having Johnson forfeit for cheating, Joey, in the spirit of a True Duelist, insists the match be continued, and eventually winning by outwitting Johnson at one of the mind games he claimed to be an expert at.

Next, Nezbitt (Ota) challenges Serenity (Shizuka). With Serenity knowing little about the game, Tristan (Honda) and Duke (Otogi) decide to take her place instead, both to protect her and to get her attention. Nezbitt settled on a three-against-one duel, in which miscommunication between Tristan and Duke would ultimately cost Tristan his Deckmaster, and thus the duel. With Serenity crestfallen over Tristan's sacrifice, Duke manages to use his expert dice tricks along with his best monster, Orgoth the Relentless (Blood Orgoth in the Japanese version) to buy some time. Just like her older brother, Serenity vows to continue in the spirit of a True Duelist, and manages to use her Deckmaster's special ability to automatically Fusion summon monsters and win the duel.

With Nezbitt having won Tristan's body, Nezbitt uses it to kidnap Mokuba, while Yugi and friends seek to restore Tristan, who now resides in the body of a robot monkey. Kaiba, in pursuit of Nezbitt, encounters Leichter (Daimon), the last member of the Big 5. Eager to put Leichter aside, Kaiba tries to use his Crush Card Virus (Deck Destruction Virus of Death in the Japanese version) strategy against him, only to fail as he realizes that Leichter's Deckmaster was Jinzo (Android Psychic Shocker), which destroys trap cards. Combined with Imperial Order, a card that rendered magic cards useless, this left Kaiba with only monster cards. Furthermore, Leichter would use Satellite Cannon, a monster that could only be destroyed by seven-star monsters or above, and whose power increased the longer it is in play (but only while attacking), in an attempt to ensure his victory. However, Kaiba manages to summon Blue Eyes White Dragon, an eight-star monster, in time, and uses it to destroy Satellite Cannon and win the duel.

Through the duel, the viewers learn of how Seto took over KaibaCorp: In the Japanese version, on Seto's birthday, he and Mokuba were given 2% shares in KaibaCorp. In the English anime, Seto was given ten million dollars, while how Mokuba acquired 2% of KaibaCorp is unclear. In the Japanese version, Seto had to return one hundred times the investment within one year, while in the English anime, he merely had to return ten times the investment. Seto had shown his cruel business tactics when he accomplished his feat in just one day, and with that task completed, he managed to get the Big 5 into transferring their shares of KaibaCorp to Seto, so that both Seto and Gozaburo had 49% of the company. However, Seto had blamed Mokuba for leaking the information out to Gozaburo (when in fact it was Seto himself), making Seto's attempt fruitless. When it seemd that Gozaburo had won, Mokuba then threw a bombshell of his own: he'd never turn his back on his brother, and combined with Seto's 49%, his 2% would be enough to oust Gozaburo from power.

Noah manages to capitalize on Seto blaming Mokuba, and convinces Mokuba through brainwashing that Noah is his true big brother, and that Seto was a nobody. This is part of his plan to slowly take everything Seto has of value from him, and the Big 5 was simply a tool for his means - by making a false promise of bodies, he could manipulate the Big 5 as he wished. The Big 5, unaware of this fact, plan on taking their share of bodies, by force if necessary. With the five sharing control in Honda's body, they challenge Yugi and Jonouchi to a duel (with the Big 5 given 8000 life points instead of 4000) with everyone's bodies on the line, winner take all. In their duel, the Big 5 manages to summon their Five God Dragon by tributing their five Deckmasters, but that fell to Mirage Knight, a fusion of Black Magician and Flame Swordsman (Honoo no Kenshi), the respective Deckmasters of Yugi and Joey a.k.a. Jonouchi. However, the duel did not end, thanks to a trap, which allowed the Big 5 to summon Berserk Dragon, a monster that weakens the longer it stays on the field, as their Deckmaster. After surving a round of attacks from the Big 5, thanks to a weakened Flame Swordsman and the Silver Dollar trap card, Joey, who the Big 5 thought was the weaker link, manages to activate Knight's Title, which transforms Dark Magician to Dark Magician Knight (Black Magician Knight), a monster strong enough to destroy Berserk Dragon and thus win the duel.

Seven Turns of Creation

With the Big 5 defeated, Noah banishes the five and takes matters into his own hands. He challenges Seto, fulling intending to take his body and escape the virtual world. Noah tells Seto that he would win in seven turns, with each turn representing each of the seven days of creation (this detail, like all other religious references, was removed from the English version). Despite Noah's choice of Shinato's Ark (Miracle Ark) as his Deckmaster (from which "Noah's arc", the affectionate nickname for this story arc, is derived), Seto manages to get into a position in which one of his monsters could attack either of Noah's two monsters and win the duel. However, Mokuba suddenly appears to support Noah, effectively stopping Seto from attacking Noah's monsters for fear that Mokuba would be hurt.

Because of this, Seto had effectively played into Noah's hands: Noah was never in any danger of losing the duel, thanks to another of his Deckmaster's abilities that gave him life points based on the number of discarded monsters. Now with the upper hand, Noah begins to take control of the duel. Meanwhile, Seto attempts to get through to his brainwashed brother to no avail. With one last hope, Seto summons his Blue Eyes White Dragon, which manages to break Mokuba free of Noah's control. Yet, thanks to his Deckmaster, Noah's life points continue to rise. Desparate, Seto uses the Last Turn trap in order to force the duel into one final battle phase, winner-take-all. Seto chooses Blue Eyes to attack while Noah uses his Deckmaster. Although Blue Eyes wins, the destruction of the Miracle Ark allowed Noah to summon Shinato, a more powerful monster that destroys Blue Eyes, thus giving Noah the victory. As a token of his victory and his apparent worthiness of the title of head of KaibaCorp, Noah turns Seto and Mokuba to stone.

Yugi, however, is enraged over Noah's actions: had Seto not tributed Twilight Zone Dragon, a monster with a revival capability, for Blue Eyes, the duel would have been drawn. Instead, Blue Eyes was summoned so that Seto would save Mokuba (in the English version, this detail was omitted - Yugi is enraged over how Seto had effectively blackmailed by Noah earlier when he had effectively used Mokuba as a human shield). He challenges Noah to continue the duel, with Yugi taking Seto's place. With the life points being 7400-400 in favor of Noah and no monsters on Seto's side of the field (and no cards in hand), Noah quickly accepts, intending to quickly win and turn Yugi and friends to stone. Should Yugi win, however, he demands that everyone be set free from the virtual world.

Having to duel against a different kind of duelist in Yugi, Noah uses his spirit monsters, a type of monster that is returned to the hand at the end of a turn (and cannot be Special Summoned), and the Spring of Rebirth magic card to attack Yugi and increase his own lifepoints in the process. Although Yugi manages to use Cyber Jar to destroy all of Noah's monsters, including Shinato, Noah uses another Deckmaster ability to pull Shinato back to the sidelines (but now Noah forfeits the ability to put Shinato back onto the field), and the duel continues. Because of his spirit monsters, Spring of Rebirth, and another Deckmaster effect, Noah's lifepoints continue to accumulate to the point that Noah simply allowed Yugi to directly attack him every turn - an effort that turned largely fruitless as Noah would manage to gain even more life points.

Being confident of himself, Noah offers Yugi a chance to forfeit the duel, but for every turn that Yugi continues to play in which Noah is not defeated, one of Yugi's friends would turn into stone. With time running out, Yugi would wind up in a situation where he has 100 life points to Noah's 10,000, facing againt Noah's most powerful spirit monster (which stayed on the field due to a trap), with nothing on the field and no cards in hand. Worse is that all of his friends have been turned to stone. It seemed all but lost for Yugi, when he is reminded that even though all of his friends (Seto and Mokuba included) are turned to stone, they are still there in spirit to cheer him on. With a newfound confidence, Yugi draws the Card of Sanctity, allowing Yugi to draw six cards. With these six cards, he revives Kaiba's Blue Eyes and fuses them with the two Blue Eyes he has drawn to form Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, and uses his fifth card, Quick Attack, to allow Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon to attack Noah's monster immediately. He then uses his final card, De-Fusion, to split Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon back to three Blue Eyes White Dragons, and attacks directly, winning the duel.