Anzu Mazaki is Yugi’s childhood friend. Whenever Yugi would get picked on, she would always be there to get him out of trouble and give him an encouraging word.

“You need to be tougher, Yugi” Anzu would often say.

Anzu began working as a waitress to earn money so she can study dance in New York City. Her school won’t allow her to have a job, so she kept it a secret from her friends.

One day, unbeknownst to Anzu, Yugi and Jonouchi followed her to her place of work — Burger World. They had become suspicious of Anzu’s behavior and decided to investigate what she was up to. Anzu confronted them after they were seated in the restaurant, but Yugi and Jonouchi promised not to tell.

As Anzu went to greet another customer, she suddenly got held hostage by an escaped prisoner. He blindfolded Anzu and sat her down at a table, then he made Yugi serve him booze and cigarettes. Anzu tells Yugi to stay back, but this only causes the prisoner to slap her in the face. Using the newfound power bestowed upon him from the Millennium Puzzle, Yugi becomes enraged and transforms into his alter-ego and challenges the prisoner to a Shadow Game. He asks the prisoner to choose one of his ten fingers to move during the game, the other nine are to remain frozen. The prisoner chooses his index finger because it’s all he needs to squeeze the trigger of his gun. Yugi chooses his thumb. (They never specify right or left.)

As Anzu listens to the two men talk, she thinks the one who initiated the game sounds like Yugi, but more confident.

The escaped convict is about to fire his gun, but Yugi uses his thumb to start a lighter. The escaped convict orders Yugi to light his cigarette as his last act on Earth, but after he does, Yugi places the lighter on the prisoner’s hand, the hand that is pouring the booze. If the prisoner moves his hand, the lighter will fall and ignite the vodka, which is currently pouring onto his lap. Yugi pulls Anzu away before the escaped prisoner drops the cigarette and lights himself on fire.

Anzu removes her blindfold so she can see who her savior is, but when she opens her eyes, all she sees is Yugi. From then on, Anzu fell in love with “the man who saved her with a game,” whose identity she did not know.

A few months later, Anzu teamed up with her friends Yugi, Jonouchi, and Honda to fight through Kaiba’s maniacal Death Theme park, “Death-T”. Using her rhythm skills, she was able to guide her friends through the third trial with the falling blocks. Everyone managed to make it out…except for Honda. His shirt got caught between two of the blocks, and another block landed in front of the exit before the heroes could rescue him. Yugi becomes enraged that his friend got trapped. Anzu and Jonouchi notice that something is wrong with Yugi and ask what’s happening.

“There’s something I’ve kept secret from you,” says Yugi, “I think there’s another me inside myself that I don’t know about. I was afraid that if you knew, you might leave me.”

Anzu reassures Yugi that they will be friends no matter what. The three heroes proceed to the arena where Yugi will face the younger of the Kaiba brothers in a game of Capsule Monsters Chess. Before Yugi steps onto the field, he assures Anzu and Jonouchi that he won’t be afraid of his other self any more. Anzu and Jonouchi watch as Yugi transforms. He looks back and confidently announces that he will win this duel. And now, Anzu knows the identity of “the man who saved her with a game.”

In the beginning of Chapter 41, we see Anzu sitting in her bedroom. She appears to be writing in a journal, but her mind keeps drifting as she realizes she keeps thinking about Yugi – the other Yugi. Now that she knows the true identity of the man who saved her with a game, Anzu is putting her plan into full motion – her plan to lure and catch the one she loves.

Testing Love

We now go to Yugi’s house where we get our first glimpse of Yugi’s mother. Mama Muto (we don’t know her name) calls to Yugi and tells him he’s going to be late for school. She enters Yugi’s room and is surprised to see socks spread out all over the floor, and Yugi sitting and staring at them.

“Yugi, what are you doing?” asks Yugi’s mom.

“Mom, don’t talk to me right now! I’m trying to concentrate,” shouts Yugi. He flips two of the socks over, both of them have a heart symbol on the other side.

“I did it!” cries Yugi. This is the first time we have seen Yugi creating his own games. This game is called Sock Concentration. It’s played like the Concentration card game, but instead, you use socks with symbols drawn on them.

“I’m training my sixth sense,” says Yugi.

“Never mind that,” says his mother, “Anzu came over, she’s at the front door.”

“Mom, why didn’t you tell me that first?”

“You told me not to talk to you.”

Yugi rushes out the front door where he sees his friend Anzu there to greet him. Anzu asks if Yugi wants to walk to school together.

Wow, I get to be alone with Anzu all the way to school, thinks Yugi.

Anzu and Yugi talk about how the results of their exams are going to be posted today. Yugi says he, Jonouchi, and Honda are going to play a game with the test scores and the loser has to buy the others burgers.

“Oh, that reminds me,” says Anzu, “Have you seen these?”

Anzu pulls out of her pocket a small keychain in the shape of a heart. It looks like a key chain game similar to Tomagotchi.

“I haven’t seen it before,” says Yugi.

“It’s a portable love tester!” explains Anzu, “It’s called ‘Lovely Two’. You type in your name, birthday, and blood type. Then, you go around and press the button. If you press it when you’re next to another person with a ‘Lovely Two’, and they’ve got the same waveform as you, then both ‘Lovely Two’s’ make a noise like a little bell ring. When that happens, you’re supposed to be perfect for each other.”

Anzu holds up another one and says, “See, I’ve got two of them, so you can keep that one!”

Anzu gave me a present, thinks Yugi, Could this mean?

“Say, Yugi, want to see how we fit together?”

“O-Okay”

Yugi enters his information into the key chain and compares it with Anzu’s…but nothing happens. Yugi is disappointed, but Anzu hasn’t lost hope.

“Our biorhythms must be off today,” she says.

Playing the Wrong Game

The two eventually arrive at the school where they can see the exam scores posted to the wall. Yugi, Jonouchi, and Honda pull out their score cards and are ready to play Yugi’s new game. He calls it “The Achievement Test Bingo Game”.

Each player previously filled out a 5×5 grid with numbers 1-50, then they look at the top 50 scorers of the exam. For each boy, they are to fill in the corresponding number with a black marker, and for each girl, they are to use a red marker. The player with the most lines horizontal, vertical, or diagonal wins.

“Darn, not even one line!” says Jonouchi.

“I got one,” says Honda.

“All right! I got three lines,” says Yugi.

“You really never lose, do you?” says Honda.

As promised, Jonouchi has to buy everyone hamburgers.

“Now what could be so fun about the achievement test scores,” says a teacher.

Yugi and company turn around to see Tsuruoka, the Guidance Counselor.

“So you think that test was a game?” continues Tsuruoka, “Maybe that explains the scores you got!”

Tsuruoka notices something dangling from Yugi’s shirt pocket. He pulls out the love tester keychain that Anzu gave him.

“You can’t bring games to school, you know,” says Tsuruoka.

Honda and Jonouchi try to get Tsuruoka to give the keychain back to Yugi, but Tsuruoka just responds by saying unskilled slackers like them have no right to talk back to a teacher. The guidance counselor tosses the keychain onto the floor and tries to smash it, but seeing the gift that was given to him by his dear friend almost get destroyed causes Yugi to transform into his alter-ego.

“We have skills, skills you could never match,” cries Yami-Yugi, “I never lose a game!”

Anzu is thrilled to see Yugi’s ‘other self’.

“Is that so?” says Tsuruoka, “Then why don’t we play a game, eh? The rules are simple! I’ll hide this game somewhere in this school! If you can find it within one hour, you win. On the other hand, if you don’t find it, the three of you will be expelled.”

Yugi accepts the challenge.

A Game of Hide-and-Seek

Thirty minutes later, the game begins. Yugi begins searching inside the lockers, but can’t find it. Jonouchi and Honda come with a wheelbarrow and shovels.

“Thanks, but it doesn’t look like Tsuruoka went outside,” says Yugi, “I checked his shoes in the teacher’s entrance. There’s no sign that he went out!”

The three heroes keep searching for the keychain. Forty minutes pass and not one of them have managed to find it. Then, Anzu approaches.

“Yugi,” calls Anzu, holding out her love tester keychain, “I thought my game might be helpful.”

“Anzu, this is just what I need!” cries Yugi. He accepts Anzu’s keychain and heads towards the teacher’s lounge as he has a sneaking suspicion that’s where Tsuruoka is hiding his keychain.

Yugi, Jonouchi, and Honda come barging into the teacher’s lounge.

“You can’t come in here,” screams Tsuruoka, “students aren’t allowed.”

“You just confirmed my suspicions!” responds Yugi, “The pocket game is in this room!”

Yugi explains what he realized only a few minutes ago. He realized that someone like Tsuruoka would use the privileges of a teacher to hide the keychain somewhere students can’t get to. Since students aren’t allowed in the teacher’s lounge, that would be the best place to hide it. Even further, students aren’t allowed to touch a teacher, so the absolute safest place to hide they keychain would be on Tsuruoka’s body.

“You wouldn’t dare touch me with your filthy hands,” screams Tsuruoka, “I’d expel you.”

Yugi only has one other option. With thirty seconds to go, he holds up the keychain Anzu gave him. Anzu prays that the two will connect this time, and the bell on the other will ring. (I don’t want to be that guy, but I don’t understand why Yugi doesn’t just enter his own credentials in Anzu’s keychain. Surely, that would cause Yugi’s to ring.)

Yugi presses the button. Suddenly, they hear the bell chime.

“The sound’s coming from Tsuruoka’s head!” says Jonouchi. He and Honda pounce on him, but once they have him on the ground, Tsuruoka’s hair disappears. They soon realize that the guidance counselor is wearing a wig, and that’s where he hid the keychain — inside his wig.

“Please don’t tell anyone,” says Tsuruoka.

“Looks like we won, Yugi!” says Jonouchi.

“Thank you, Anzu!” says Yugi.

Anzu thinks that whenever she sees the other Yugi, she’ll hear the sound of that bell in her heart.

Images from the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga were obtained from https://www.viz.com/shonenjump/chapters/yu-gi-oh