"Save the world?"
Kira asked.
Sarina nodded.
"My brother… I don't know when it started, but he became very strange," Sarina said. "He's a man with two faces now.
"One gentle face, and one demonic face that gets pleasure from steering the world toward destruction."
"I knew it," Kira nodded. "So you noticed too."
Sarina lowered her head.
"My brother and I… we were born with the power to see through others' destinies. That power manifested when we were very young, but it was never a blessing—it was a curse."
She let out a long breath.
"Yes, a curse. Because of it, everyone who noticed shunned us. Almost everyone we knew felt uneasy, and eventually no one interacted with us at all.
"That's why the bond between my brother and me became deeper than that of ordinary siblings.
"But that very brother suddenly changed one day. Thinking back, it must've been around that time—"
Sarina stood, and with a light wave of her hand, the surroundings shifted.
Flickering yellow candlelight, a sinister manor. A slightly younger Sartorius sat at a table; opposite him was a man in black with a scarf concealing his face.
This was a scene Sarina had programmed and constructed in the virtual world, a reconstruction of that day.
"At my brother's fortune-telling parlor, someone came. He brought a card and asked my brother to read it. I sensed a baleful power from that card immediately."
Sarina spoke.
"I told my brother that night to throw it away, but—"
The image shifted. Sartorius stood in a gloomy room, raising a card high, his expression twisted with ferocity. Light spilling from the card formed a cage that trapped him within.
"My brother had already been taken over by that card," Sarina said. "It's a terrifying Hero card, born to guide the universe to ruin—one that awakened the being called the Source of Destruction."
Kira nodded. He knew what it was: the very card Aster had been searching for—the ultimate Destiny Hero, Destiny Hero - Plasma.
The person who brought that card to Sartorius back then was none other than Aster's current guardian—the true culprit who killed his father and stole Destiny Hero - Plasma at the time—the pro duelist known as The D.
By leveraging Destiny Hero - Plasma and the power residing in it, he even claimed a world champion title for a time. But the Light of Destruction was no longer in Destiny Hero - Plasma; only the remnant power once possessed by evil remained in that card.
Even so, that residue was enough for The D. to thrive in the pro scene.
The Light of Destruction that once inhabited Destiny Hero - Plasma, upon encountering Sartorius at the parlor, quickly judged him a superior vessel. Coveting Sartorius's talent, it transferred from the card into Sartorius's body—and has remained there to this day.
"With my current strength, there's nothing more I can do. My brother was always stronger than me to begin with, and now with that evil power he's even stronger.
"So there's only one thing left for me."
Sarina stood, resolute.
"I'll log into the Digital World, and I've no intention of coming back out. I'll digitize my soul and guard my brother forever—"
"No need."
Kira cut her off.
Sarina froze.
"Because I'll act."
Kira suddenly smiled.
"Don't worry; I understand what you've told me. The evil power dwelling in Sartorius—I might know a thing or two about it."
Sarina hesitated.
"I know you're very strong," she said. "But the evil power in my brother's body is not to be underestimated. And he has an evil plan. If I don't digitize—"
"The satellite plan, right?" Kira said.
Sarina's eyes widened as she looked up at him in shock.
As if to say, how do you even know that?
That was exactly Sartorius's plan—or rather, the plan of the Light of Destruction.
It involved a prince of a small nation named Prince Ojin. Though from a minor country, they had developed a world-class satellite codenamed "SORA," said to have the ability to burn all life on Earth to ash.
Of course, it was odd that a small nation would have such exaggerated tech, and even stranger that the key to unlocking such a dangerous system would be carried around by the nation's prince.
Especially in a world where you can get anything by dueling—this was like letting a three-year-old parade around with the equivalent of an entire vault in his arms.
So unsurprisingly, in the original story, Sartorius beat Prince Ojin in a duel, took the key, and tried to use "SORA" to "purify" the world.
But if we go by Yu-Gi-Oh logic, perhaps that nation felt the key was safest only at the prince's side—because the prince was the strongest duelist in the country.
After all, in this world, no treasure is safer in any vault or under any army's guard than on the person of a top duelist.
Prince Ojin debuted with supreme confidence in his dueling, famed for his OTK tactics.
In his duel with Sartorius, he indeed showed the prowess of a top duelist—or more precisely, draw power. A perfect opening hand, going first, he fielded a 4000 ATK Satellite Cannon on turn one and then top-decked a Mischief of the Time Goddess, going for a first-turn FTK that almost deleted Sartorius on the spot.
Who could've guessed Sartorius "printed" two cards on the fly—hand traps that bricked Ojin to death before Sartorius's turn even started. This became the only recorded ZTK in Yu-Gi-Oh history: Zero Turn Kill.
Judging from that OTK destiny-power performance, Prince Ojin might really be someone. If not for Sartorius's reality-bending hand traps, most duelists wouldn't even get a chance to play before getting instantly wiped.
Sarina looked at Kira, eyes shimmering.
Even she didn't know the whole plan; since falling under evil control, Sartorius no longer fully trusted her and wouldn't share important details.
So she decided to digitize her soul and dig up the truth herself. In the anime, just before Satellite "SORA" launched, a digitized Sarina—manifesting as a cyber ghost—hacked "SORA" and forced it to pause, buying crucial time for Jaden sent to blow "SORA" up.
"You even know about 'SORA'…"
Kira smiled. "I know more than you think. Don't worry, I can save your brother. Though I might need a little cooperation from you later—are you willing?"
Sarina, you don't want your brother to remain under the Light of Destruction forever, do you?
Sarina pondered for a few seconds, then nodded.
"Okay."