Téa Gardner

**Téa Gardner**, known as **Anzu Mazaki** in the Japanese versions, is a childhood friend of Yugi Muto. Téa does not usually play games with Yugi and his friends, but in the beginning of the anime, she could beat Joey Wheeler in *Duel Monsters,* and was later shown to be more than competent against others. Téa is also very good at dancing and wants to be a professional dancer when she grows up.

## Duelist Kingdom

Téa defeats Joey in *Dual Monsters* five times at school, with four of the Duels being offscreen.

Téa draws symbols on her, Yugi, Joey and Tristan's hands to symbolize their friendship before Yugi faces Kaiba, after Kaiba tears up Solomon Muto's "Blue-Eyes White Dragon".

Téa and Tristan sneak onto the boat to Duelist Kingdom to support Yugi and Joey in the tournament. Téa mostly stands on the sidelines giving the boys encouraging speeches.

Yugi and his friends faced Yami Bakura in a Shadow Game of Duel Monsters, where the players are trapped in cards similar to their *Monster World* pieces. Téa becomes the card "Magician of Faith" in the Duel. As she is upset over Joey's sacrifice, she uses her effect to return "Monster Reborn" to Yami Yugi's hand, which allows him to revive Joey.

As they approached Pegasus Castle, Tea wonders if there really are two Yugi's. She thinks back to when she first meets Yugi and Joey at Burgerpalooza. She then wonders what they are doing there and thinks they could get her in trouble since she had to be 18 to work at the restaurant and if they let it slip while she is still in school, she'll get fired and won't have enough money to pay for her dance lessons. As she serves Joey and Yugi their food, she gives a sinister glare and pours ketchup all over their food. She reveals she wants to study dance in New York but instead of laughing, Yugi and Joey support Téa. The next day Tea gets a letter from Yugi saying they found a warehouse in Spring St. for Téa to use as a dance studio. When she arrives, a mugger holds her hostage and Yami Yugi saves her when she blacked out.

Kaiba defeats Yugi in the tournament by standing on the edge of the castle, so Yugi's last attack would knock him off. Yugi relinquishes the Duel to Kaiba. Téa then argues with Kaiba over his strategy. Kaiba explains how Duelists are given one chip and must use it in whatever way allows them to win. Téa argues back that Kaiba only won because he couldn't live without the chip and insists that Yugi won the Duel.

After losing to Kaiba, Yugi no longer has enough Star Chips to enter the tournament finals. Mai offers Yugi her excessive Star Chips. Yugi initially refuses, feeling unworthy. Téa Duels Mai for the Star Chips. Using a combination of Magic Cards, Téa makes her "Shining Friendship" card defeat Mai's "Harpie Lady". Although Mai is able to turn the Duel around, using "Harpie's Feather Duster", she is impressed by Téa's performance and wants to give Yugi the Chips, so she surrenders saying "Harpie Lady" was her best monster and Téa defeated it.

Kemo doesn't allow Téa, Tristan or Bakura to enter the castle, where the finals are held, as they are not finalists, but Mai distracts him long enough for them to sneak in.

Inside they witness Kaiba and Pegasus Dueling. Pegasus was able to predict Kaiba's moves and easily win. Tristan suspects that Pegasus cheated, so that night he talks with Téa and Bakura on the subject. The three inspect the Dual arena and find a hole that shines moonlight directly at the Dual arena. Tristan spots a tower and the three head towards it. In the tower, they are confronted by Pegasus, who uses his Millennium Eye to transport them to another dimension. They wake up and enter a room, where a Shadow Game between two robed men is taking place while others are chanting. The winning man, Pegasus confronts the three and tries to take Bakura's Millennium Ring. Yami Bakura takes over Bakura's body and sends Téa and Tristan back to their rooms and erases their memories.

During the final rounds, Téa cheers on Yugi and Joey in their Duels. She is unable to watch the end of Yugi's Duel with Pegasus, as Pegasus takes the Duel to the Shadow Realm. Despite this Yugi feels his friends are with him in spirit and manages to defeat Pegasus.

Pegasus disappears after the Duel. The gang proceed to a tower, where they find Pegasus' diary, which Téa reads. She learns that Pegasus had a wife Cecelia who died and Pegasus was trying to revive her using the Millennium Items and Kaiba Corporation's technology.

Téa and her friends are taken home by Seto Kaiba in his helicopter.

## Battle City Tournament

Yugi asks Téa to go out with Yami. After visiting many shops and attractions, they enter an arcade. Inside Téa beats Johnny Steps in a dance game. Not taking his loss too well, Johnny later catches up with Yami and Téa, and challenges Téa to another game with a condition: if she loses, she must become his girlfriend. Yami instead challenges Johnny to a game of *Duel Monsters*. If he wins, Johnny must leave Téa alone. If Johnny wins, Téa must go on a date with him. Yami reveals himself to be Yugi Muto, towards the end of the Duel Johnny recognizes Yugi Muto as the one who beat Pegasus, causing Johnny to surrender and run. Téa stops him to tell him how quitting isn't going to get him far, and he must keep trying to achieve his goals.

Afterwards Téa and Yami go to an Ancient Egyptian exhibition to find clues to Yami's past. Here they meet Ishizu Ishtar, who shows Yami some information about his past as a pharaoh and tells him he must enter the Battle City tournament to learn more.

During the preliminary rounds, Téa encourages Joey along the side lines for his Duels, before being captured by the Rare Hunters along with Joey. Téa is possessed by Marik, who turns her into one of his mind slaves to lure the Pharaoh into a Duel with Joey, who is also possessed by Marik Ishtar. The Duel is set up, so the loser would drown. In the anime, Téa is made to sit on a chair under a large crate. A push of a button would kill her, should anyone else interfere. Téa is then released from Marik's control after she explains the provisions to the Duel and helplessly tries to help Joey break free of Marik's control several times while also doing her best to remain brave and cheer Yugi on, despite the fact that her own life was in danger. Mokuba frees her after Joey and Yugi end the Duel in a Draw.

Téa, along with Tristan, Serenity and Duke Devlin proceed to the KaibaCorp blimp to cheer for Yugi, Joey and Mai in the finals. Roland initially refuses to let them board, as they aren't finalists, but Mokuba talks him into letting them on. Despite Joey's objections, all of them take residence in Joey's room for the finals.

Téa cheers for Yugi and Joey, during their quarter-final Duels. When Joey tells Mai, she wasn't in his dream, which his friends appeared in and jokes about it, Téa seizes him after Mai leaves and tells him off.

During this time, Téa is sometimes being controlled by Marik, since Yami Marik took over his body and he uses her to try to talk to Yami Marik and Ishizu.

## Virtual World

While on their way to the final phase of the Battle City Tournament, Téa and her friends are abducted by Noah Kaiba. After bringing them to his headquarters, Noah separates his captives, sending them to different parts of the Virtual World with different environments. Téa is sent to a large barren canyon in the middle of a desert, alone and with no idea where she is. Worried about her friends and with nothing else to do, she desires to walk down the canyon’s path, hoping to find someone.

As she makes her way down the path, with the hot sun shining down on her, Téa calls out for anyone to answer her. No one answers, her words merely echoing off the canyon walls and rock formations. Stopping for a moment to study the canyon’s formations, Téa starts pondering herself out-loud; she ponders where she is, noting how the canyon is something of a virtual Grand Canyon. She then starts walking again, remarking how the eerie surroundings are creeping her and out and continues pondering where her friends might be. Unknown to her however, as she continues her walk, a strange muscular creature is creeping behind one of the rocks watching her. In its hand is a large stone axe, held tightly as it spies on the unsuspecting girl.

Téa continues strolling down the canyon, oblivious to the stalking creature and complaining about the hot heat. Suddenly, she stops upon hearing the noise of small rocks falling off the right cliff of the canyon. Startled, Téa looks up to finally see the spying monster watching her. Now that she has seen it, the creature makes a quick retreat back behind the rocks leaving Téa scared and confused as to what she just saw. Soon after, however, Téa finds herself, to her horror, surrounded by four cyclopes monsters wearing animal skin clothing and wielding clubs and axes like cavemen. The creatures are live versions of the Dual Monster Hitotsu-Me Giants.

The frightened Téa attempts to stay calm, hoping to not provoke the beasts into attacking her. She tries to make a quiet escape by calmly backing up slowly but her attempt immediately ends in failure with her first step. Accidentally, the back bottom-end of her platform sandal steps on a small pebble causing it to be loudly kicked up. The noise provokes the giants, causing them to roar in fury and begin their assault. The leader of the pack, the giant she spotted earlier, begins the assault by ferociously jumping into the air from the cliff and through in its axe at Téa with lethal intent.

Fortunately for her, the spinning axe does not strike her body but lands behind her feet away. *Unfortunately* for her, however, the axe strikes the ground with such force that said force causes several small rocks with sharp tips to shoot up into the air. One of these rocks heads right towards Téa, striking her as she looks back, hitting her left cheek and giving her a small cut under her left eye which causes her to reel as she *actually* groans in real pain from the attack while covering her wound with her left hand and putting her cute socking-covered knees close together (In the U.S.A. dub,. Tea's cut was censored due to brutal violence).

Téa has no time to worry about her injury despite its pain. The giants move in closer to her position, causing her to flee. The terrified Téa yells with all her voice, begging someone, anyone, to help her (In the original Japanese version of this episode, Tea calls out for Yugi to help her). Her pleas go unheard with no one coming to her rescue as her cyclops pursuers chase after her. She tries her best to run away but her attempts to flee prove all for naught as she has fallen into the Hitotsu-Me Giants’ trap. The whole time, the leader with only two only two other pack members have been chasing Téa towards the rock formations of the canyon. Hiding behind the rocks, is the fourth member of the pack, waiting silently for her to come to his position so that he may ambush her.

The monsters’ plan works perfectly, the leader and his two pack-mates force Téa towards the rocks where their fourth member is hiding where he soon reveals himself just as she attempts to run by. The monster looms over her with its claws ready to strike her down as it stares down at her with murderous intent. Cornered and nowhere left to run, all Téa is able to do is stare up at the beast with a look of pure and utter horror. With the girl at his mercy the fourth Hitotsu-Me Giant slashes down at her with his claws, forcing her down hard onto the rock floor of the canyon, painfully knocked into a state of unconsciousness (This scene was censored in all versions of this episode around the world for its graphic content).

Soon after being incapacitated, Téa’s unconscious body is soon surrounded by her Hitotsu-Me Giant hunters. The giant who gave Téa her cut, the pack’s leader, then grabs the unconscious girl and throws her over his right shoulder, his large muscular arm pressing her socking covered legs onto his chest to carry her steady. He then orders his pack to move out as they begin their journey back to their lair. The leader is the one in front with the others walking behind, all following as he continues to carry the insensate Téa down through the canyon, her thick beautiful hair falling upside down as she dangles down the leader’s back.

Eventually the giants climb a large hill containing a big hole in its center which leads to the cave where they have made their den. The leader then brings Téa to the center of the cave where there is a huge stone shelf with a flat surface. Without sympathy for his lovely prey, the leader hurls Téa off his shoulder down onto the stone surface of the shelf. Landing right on her side first, Téa strikes the stone surface releasing a loud groan as she hits. She then starts groaning in visible pain as her body squirms from the impact. Just as she stops moving, the leader and two other pack members loom above her, visibly amused by her agony as their eyes glow and eerie red.

Hours later, drops of water from an above stalagmite fall onto Téa’s scratch, causing her to awaken. Coming to, she ponders where she is having not remembered how she arrived. Soon though, she hears the sounds of the Hitotsu-Me Giants in their den below in the bottom of the cave. The leader of the pack notices her awakening and gives her a vicious snarl causing her to briefly jump in fright, now fully remembering how the beasts attacked and carried her off to their cave. Téa’s cut continues to sting which causes her to wince in real pain. Trapped on the stone shelf with her cyclops captors below with no way of escape, Téa's situation continues to worsen.

Eventually the giants start boiling a huge cauldron filled with hot water. Téa correctly deduces that the giants brought her back into order to feast on her flesh as their dinner. Using a loose vine, she manages to climb on the walls of the cave towards the hole in the ceiling. However, the giants hear her escape because their meal knocked down some small rocks by accident and soon follow after her. She manages to reach the top first and though she is nearly out of breath, she has no time to rest as the giants are halfway out of the cave. She makes a desperate run for it and manages to get very far ahead by the time they reach the top.

The giant who knocked her unconscious attempts to stop her from escaping by throwing his axe at her. Fortunately like before, the axe misses instead landing right before Téa’s feet. This close call causes her to run even faster as the giants charge after her. While she does manage to outrun them, her second escape attempt is soon halted when she runs to a large ravine overlooking a running river. The giants continue running and though they are very far behind her, with no where to go, Téa will soon be back in their clutches.

However, she notices an old wooden bridge not far away and runs towards it. When she makes it, she hesitates in crossing, fearing the bridge will give out due to how obviously rigidly it is. Through the memories of her friends however, Téa builds the courage to cross and make her way to other side. But she is not even halfway across when the Hitotsu-Me Giants arrive and start crossing after her. Téa barely manages to keep ahead of them as she cries out in fear for someone to help her. Then, just as the giants are about to reach her, the bridge gives out from their combined weight and collapses. While the creaming Téa holds onto the half of the bridge that manages to hang off the cliff, her former captors are not so lucky as they fall to their deaths in the raging river below. With the giants now dead, Téa climbs up the bridge to safety, complaining the whole way about the day and ordeals she has had.

## Waking the Dragons

Téa is on the roof of the school wondering why Yugi left early. Joey and Tristan come up; they're wondering the same thing. They end up finding Yugi at the museum. Later they find out that someone stole the Egyptian God Cards. Yugi has a Duel with Gurimo, which is where they learn about the Seal of Orichalcos.

The next day they run into Rebecca and she calls Yugi her boyfriend, which Téa doesn't like. She takes them to see Professor Hawkins, who starts talking about how the monsters coming to life could have something to do with Atlantis. After that, everyone heads home.

Later they're all at Yugi's house. Yugi gets a package from Pegasus with a video. Pegasus Asks Yugi to come see him right away. The next day they go on a private jet then in a limo. The limo breaks down so they have to walk for a while, Téa is able to get a driver to stop and give them a ride to Industrial Illusions.

Later on, they are on a train to Florida, but the train splits apart for unknown reasons, separating Téa and Yami from Joey and Tristan. Most of the time Téa is trying to help the Pharaoh from in toning down his pain about losing Yugi while she herself is also upset. After a while they just focus on finding Joey and Tristan. They are reunited later when Kaiba's plane crashes post his victory over Alister and then they are all taken back by Kaiba's helicopter to go to stop Dartz.

Kaiba's company was taken over by Dartz. Joey runs off to Duel Valon and Mai. While Joey Duels, Tristan, Téa and the Pharaoh go to look for him, but when they find him he lost his soul.

After the Pharaoh's Duel with Rafael the gang goes to Dartz in Kaiba's helicopter. Kaiba and the Pharaoh Duel Dartz; after Kaiba loses the Duel due to Martyr Curse and Orichalcos Shunoros shortly post Rafael losing his soul when his Seal of Orichalcos backfired on him once he learned Dartz was responsible for his 3 henchmen's tragedies, the Pharaoh continues while Téa, Tristan and Mokuba are unconscious and eventually defeats Dartz.

Yugi, Kaiba, and Joey come back and Mokuba, Tristan and Téa wake up. Seeing Yugi back they have a group hug. Then they're off to finish off Dartz. Téa wishes Yugi good luck as he, Joey and Kaiba have their last battle with Dartz and Yami Yugi defeats The Great Leviathan. The group then goes for their next adventure.

## Grand Championship

Téa doesn't have a prominent role in the Grand Championship arc, but as always she's Yugi and Joey's cheerleader throughout their Duels.

Téa also meets and despises Vivian Hawkins, an extremely powerful Duelist (More powerful than even Yugi at one point), because of her feelings for Yugi and personality. She also develops a habit of saying the line "I need some female friends" whenever the others start getting on her nerves.

## Dawn of the Duel

Téa, Tristan and Joey accompanied Yugi to Egypt so they could help the Pharaoh figured out his memories. She also had noticeably had a change in clothing, and was now wearing white heels, a red skirt and a black sleeveless top. The Pharaoh presented the Egyptian God cards to the Tablet of Lost Memories, and was pulled into the Shadow RPG, where he would find out his memories. However, after discovering that Yami Bakura followed him, the gang went after Yami.

Later, Téa figured out that the key to stopping Bakura was to tell the Pharaoh his real name, as it was also the key to unlocking his memory. The gang was betrayed by Tristan, who was possessed by Bakura and almost killed, but jumped to a cliff and saved themselves. Téa pulled Yugi up, who was hanging onto Joey and then both her and Yugi saved Joey. When they found Tristan, he revealed that he had been possessed by Bakura and Dueled Yugi.

Téa noted that Yugi had to Duel without Yami. Yugi still won, though. When they found Yami, they gave him his name by thinking of the symbols and putting them on a necklace-like item. Yami then remembered who he was and revealed that his true name was Atem. Atem was then able to Summon The Creator of Light to destroy Zorc Necrophades. The gang then returned to the real world.

### Ceremonial Battle

Téa is mostly seen torn with the idea of Atem passing on the spirit world. As she believes that, though he deserves to reunite with those in his past and finally achieve peace, she also doesn't want him to leave because of the feelings she has for him. Thus, she usually appears having this mental debate within herself, with the outcome ending in her crying. However, whilst dealing with this emotional turmoil, she displays a happy facade to the rest of the group, especially around Yugi and Atem.

During the beginning of the Duel, she outwardly supports Yugi to win but inwardly wishes Atem to be victorious so that he can't leave. However as the Duel progresses she increasingly cheers on Yugi to the point where she shocks herself on how she changed sides of who she wanted to win.

However though Yugi won the Duel in the end, her feelings for Atem had not weakened and she is saddened to such an extent of the possibility of him leaving, that just as the spirit of the Pharaoh is about to pass through the gates of the afterlife, she tries to run after him however her attempt is stopped by Joey. All witnesses of said last match then look up at the sky in Egypt ending the anime once the last words are spoken.