Anzu Mazaki

**Anzu Mazaki**, known as **Téa Gardner** in the English version of the anime and manga, is one of Yugi Muto's best friends.

## Evolution

### Appearance

As noted by several characters in the series, Anzu is a very beautiful young woman of medium height, with fair skin, light blue eyes, and a slim build. Arguably her most distinguishing physical trait is the unique style of her hair. Anzu possesses very thick brown hair, with the bangs on the left and right sides of her head extending down to just above her shoulders, and often covered her top forehead and ears from sight. Her hair is also divided into two different layers, with the upper inner layer possessing a lighter brown hue, while the inner layer has a much darker hue.

Throughout the series and manga, Anzu has worn a number of different outfits and clothing. During seasons 2 and 3 of the series, however, during the Battle City and Virtual World Arcs, Anzu wears her signature clothing of the series. During this time, she wears a sleeveless buttoned-up shirt that is light bluish-green in color, with a large yellow collar around her neck. It’s sleeveless nature also leaves the area around her armpits exposed. For pants she wears a pair of dark-blue jean-shorts with a light-blue buckled-belt holding them to her waist. She also wears a pair of white stockings made of cotton that extend from her feet soles to her thighs, leaving only that area of her legs visible. She also wears a pair of light-blue coverless sandals that possess two sets of straps that go over the tops of her feet. These shoes are also platformed and increase her height to a small extent. Finally, on each of her wrists, Téa wears a pair of solid plastic bracelets, with the first on each arm being blue before a pink one.

### Personality

Anzu is arguably one of the purest of heart characters in both the *Yugioh* anime and manga. She is a very sweet and caring individual who firmly believes in doing the right thing no matter what. She is also strong willed and unafraid of voicing her opinion or criticisms of others. She is always willing to stand up for those in need and usually isn’t one to back down from a fight, especially when she or someone she cares about has been insulted or hurt. Arguably, her most defining personality trait is her love of her friends. She believes firmly in a philosophy that emphasizes the power of friendship, believing that any problem can be solved if friends work together to overcome a common struggle. Téa loves her friends more than anything and always wants to be there to support them whenever they need it. This has caused her to be a valuable form of support to many of her friends during their duels, with her often cheering them on. However, her love of her friends has often caused her to suffer insecurities as well, as she is deeply fearful of bad things happening to them and can be let down if she feels she is useless in helping them.

Often Téa exhibits the standard traits of a teenaged woman. She possesses a deep fondness for things such as shopping for cloths and accessories, and has a love of fashion too. She also seems to enjoy dancing and may be into athletics too, namely running. Téa is also somewhat hedonistic, enjoying herself at parties, dancing for excitement, and often eating for expensive cuisine. She also has a very sarcastic sense of humor even during dangerous situations (especially in the English version of the series). Though she loves her friends dearly, Téa is often frustrated by their immaturity and does admit that she wishes she had more female companions. She is unafraid of criticizing them when they do something foolish and will occasionally physically berate them for it too, demonstrating that she has an abrasive side to her, much to their embarrassment.

## Story Arcs

### Duelist Kingdom

Anzu defeats Joey in *Duel Monsters* five times at school, with four of the Duels offscreen.

Anzu 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".

Anzu 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 favorite *Duel Monsters* pieces. Anzu becomes the card "Magician of Faith" in the Duel. As she is upset over Joey's sacrifice, she unintentionally uses her effect to return "Monster Reborn" (Then called "Reborn the Monster") to Yami Yugi's hand, which allows him to revive Joey. Post Yugi's defeat of PaniK, Joey duels Kaiba, who near effortlessly defeats him.

As they approached Maximilion Pegasus' castle, Anzu wonders if there really are two Yugi's. She thinks back to when she first meets Yugi and Joey at Burgerpalooza. In the flashback, having just met both Yugi and Joey for the first time ever, she 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 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 Téa 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 cheats to defeat 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 yells at Kaiba how Yugi spared him. Kaiba says Yugi lost. Téa argues back that Kaiba's forgotten what being human is due to his machine obsession and Yugi’s friends care for him whether he wins or loses a 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". Though Mai would've been able to turn the Duel around had she used "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 Pegasus cheated, so that night he talks with Téa and Bakura on the subject. The three inspect the Duel arena and find a hole that shines moonlight directly at the Duel 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 Corp technology.

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

### Battle City

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-off. 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 causing Johnny to recognize Yugi Muto as the one who beat Maximillion Pegasus, which, in turn, causes Johnny to fearfully surrender and run. Téa stops him to tell him how quitting isn't going to help him and he must never give up achieving 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 info about his past as a pharaoh and tells him he must enter the Battle City tournament to learn more.

During the preliminary rounds of the tournament, Téa accompanies and encourages Joey along the side lines for his Duels, before being captured by the Rare Hunters, being held by her *neck which causes her to gag* very briefly along with Joey. The hunters take them to a warehouse at the docks where they keep them locked in separate rooms. The hunters lock Téa alone inside a compartment filled with nothing but cardboard boxes while Joey is tied to a chair in another part of the building. She attempts to escape by standing on some of the boxes so that she could reach a window in the room.

The boxes can’t support her weight, however, causing her to fall just as her hand reaches the window. Soon later, Mokuba, who had also been kidnapped by the Rare Hunters, is locked in the same room as her. The two then work together to escape by stacking all the room’s boxes together so that they can climb towards the room’s skylight. As they climb towards it, however, the Rare Hunters enter and begin climbing after them, causing the stack to collapse. Though Téa falls and is restrained by the hunters, Mokuba manages to escape, promising to come back with help to rescue her.

### Possessed by Marik

After this, Anzu is possessed by Marik Ishtar (off-screen) who turns her into one of his mind slaves, with her eyes having no sunlight reflection in them as her voice merges with his (In the original Japanese version only, Marik's voice takes over Anzu's completely), and while she's being controlled, Anzu is moving around much slower than usual; said evil spirit taking over the good Marik uses these slaves to lure the Pharaoh into a Duel with Joey, who is also possessed by the same man. The Duel is set up so the loser would drown. Anzu is made to sit on a chair which restrains her hands and feet while under a large crate hanging from a crane. A push of a button will release the crate and crush her, should Yugi refuse to Duel Joey or anyone else interfere.

Anzu is then released from Marik's control after she is forced to explain 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. During the Duel, Kaiba's remote controls his helicopter to ram the crane into the water in order to save Anzu. upon seeing this, the Rare Hunter holding the control to the crate attempts to push the button but is stopped and knocked unconscious by Kaiba. Said chopper successfully knocks the crane into the water thus saving Anzu’s life. After Mokuba manages to free her from the chair, she joins her friends in attempting to stop Joey and Yugi’s duel but are unable to free them in time before both are pulled under the water. When it seems as though both are doomed, Anzu drops to her knees in crying despair, only to be shocked and relieved when Yugi rises to the surface and later when Serenity Wheeler, who has regained her eyesight, rescues her brother from underwater. Anzu, along with Tristan, Serenity and Duke Devlin (the latter 2 having recently become new friends of theirs) 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 his room for the finals.

Téa cheers for Yugi and Joey, during their quarter-final Duels. After the former’s first duel against Yami Bakura, Téa joins her friends in tending to Bakura after he is injured. Together with the others, she takes him to his room to heal. While watching over him while he is asleep, however, they notice that the Millennium Ring is missing, causing them to worry. Despite this, as midnight approaches, the gang decides to go back to their rooms to get to bed. Téa, however, is the only exception to this. Still worried about Bakura, she volunteers to stay behind and watch over him, sitting on a stool next to his bed as her friends depart. After she is bided good night by them and viceversa, Anzu takes some time to stare down at Bakura seemingly hoping that he will awaken soon. But soon her expression turns dull and her eyes lose their lighting reverting to a more. darkish hue. It is then revealed that Anzu is still under Marik’s control. What’s worse, it is revealed that the Millennium Ring was actually in Anzu’s possession the whole time. With her friends out of sight and earshot, the possessed girl takes it out of her pocket and holds it over the unconscious Bakura as it starts to glow. As it does so and just as the episode ends, the girl begins to give off some sinister giggling as mentally Marik watches the scene through his mind slave’s eyes.

### Possessed by Marik again

Throughout the remainder of the night, Marik keeps Anzu firmly under his control as she stands guard over Bakura, all the while continuing to hold tightly onto the mystical artifact in her hands. No longer sitting, she instead stands firmly like a statue over her friend with a blank expression on her face, as if stealing out into nothingness. At some point in the night, Anzu is unknowingly visited by Shadi, who uses his powerful magic to keep himself invisible. During his visit, Shadi approaches the girl the from behind, his footsteps as silent as his flesh is invisible. Because of this, neither Téa nor her controller know he is there with her. Walking to her left side, Shadi takes a moment to look at her, recognizing that his Millennium Key prevents her from seeing, hearing, or sensing his presence. Though he recognizes that she is being controlled by an evil force, the specter makes no attempt to free the young lady from Marik’s control, instead choosing to keep himself hidden until the time is right. Despite this, it is implied that he pity’s the young maiden, and partly doesn’t free due to recognizing that she is not in any immediate danger despite being possessed. After examining Bakura and pondering both recent and future developments, Shadi quietly leaves the room, disappearing into thin air, leaving the mind-controlled Téa standing guard, completely oblivious to what has happened next to her.

When Joey tells Mai, she wasn't in his dream, which his friends appeared in and jokes about it, Anzu seizes him after Mai leaves and tells him off.

After Yami Bakura's loss to Yami Marik, the good Marik possess Téa's body to request Ishizu for help.

### Virtual World

#### Being Hunted

As the KaibaCorp blimp traveled to the Duel Tower, it was sucked into an underground lair by Noah Kaiba. Anzu along with Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Duke Devlin, Serenity, Mokuba and Seto Kaiba emerge from the blimp to investigate (Anzu, particularly, was awakened out of shock due to being possessed by the evil spirit of Marik Ishtar earlier). Here they are sucked into the Virtual World. The gang encounter Noah and the Big Five, all of whom seek revenge on Seto Kaiba and require a body to return to the real world.

They then get separated and Anzu ends up being transported to a large canyon in the middle of a desert. Regaining consciousness and finding herself in the Virtual World for the very first time, Anzu simply goes "Oh great, now what?" (In the original Japanese version, Anzu, dazed and confused after waking up, simply asks herself where she is) Wondering where her friends are, Anzu has no choice but to travel through the desert with the hope of finding her friends. Wanting to make her journey more interesting, Noah sets a trap for her.

She wanders deeper into the canyon, her footsteps echoing, clearly heard as her stylish blue platform-sandals strike the desert ground, hoping to find her friends, unaware that she is indeed not alone in her eerie surroundings (Anzu's footsteps, however, are not heard in the U.S.A. dub). As she wanders deeper into the canyon she calls out if anyone is out there but receives no reply (In the original Japanese version, after asking herself if her current location is virtual reality too, she remains silent as she walks).

Believing herself to be alone, she talks out-loud to herself as she continues down the gorge, remarking how it is similar to a virtual Grand Canyon as she takes a moment to stop (Again, in the original Japanese version, she remains silent as she walks). Though she finds the landscape creepy and uncomfortable, she then continues to travel through it, still hoping to find someone (In the original Japanese version, Anzu simply reminds herself that she has to find everyone).

Anzu is oblivious, however, to the fact that she is being watched. Behind the rock formations of the canyon lies a strange single-eyed humanoid creature that is stalking her as she continues on her way. In its hand is a large stone-bladed axe. Unaware of the beast, Anzu continues to walk all the while complaining about how hot it is. Anzu than starts going quiet, deep in thought both about wondering where her friends are and how to get out of this strange place (The camera has Anzu's beautifully skinny legs being zoomed in).

Her walking finally comes to an end soon when she hears the noise of rocks falling from the cliffs on the right side of the canyon. When she looks up, she sees the large creature that was stalking her looking right down at her. Realizing he has been spotted, the beast makes a hasty retreat back behind the formations (Here, Anzu's beautifully short, brown-layered hair can be viewed from behind). Anzu is startled by the monster and openly questions what it was (In the original Japanese version, Anzu simply asks herself "What?"). Her question is answered when four savage cyclopes, Hitotsu-Me Giants, emerge from behind the rocks and surround Anzu. Wielding stone aged weapons and wearing animal skin clothing, the giants have their eyes set on Anzu, staring at her intently as they lurk atop the cliffs and down on the rocks of the canyon. Caught off-guard by the monsters' arrival, Anzu unleashes a loud “I’m surrounded” as she comes to realize her situation.

After looking at her hunters and pinpointing their positions, Anzu faces herself forward trying to stay composed as she formulates a plan to get away. Though scared, Anzu makes an attempt to leave peacefully without provoking the predators. She nervously thinks to herself to just stay calm and walk back slowly, believing that so long as she doesn’t do anything to upset them, they won’t attack her (In the original Japanese version, she simply takes a step back without thinking). With this in mind, she very slowly but nervously takes a step back with her left foot. As this happens, Anzu opens her right hand due to her fear and puts her left one close to her face in a fist for similar reasons while her beautifully short hair sways a bit to her left with her movements.

But her plan quickly ends in disaster for her with this very first step. As soon as her cute stylish platform-sandal touches the ground, its back hilt steps unevenly over the tip of a loose pebble. Pressing down on it, her foot causes the pebble to fling off the ground, which creates a small but sudden noise to occur. Just as the pebble is flung away from Téa’s left foot, it twists a bit to the right. When Anzu hears the sound she has made, she lets out a small gasp, knowing that her mistake shall prove dire for her *life* (She doesn't gasp when the pebble is flung away in the original Japanese version). When the giants hear the pebble being tossed, they are spooked and are soon enraged by the noise and thus, with their leader’s signal, a loud roar echoing across the canyon, they begin their attack.

The leader, the first giant she spotted, is the first to strike. After his loud roar, he unleashes a ferocious attack on his terrified prey. He jumps off the cliff seemingly towards her and while in midair he throws his weapon, an axe, which spins through the air, seemingly coming straight for Anzu as she looks up in shock and horror. However, the leader is merely using this attack as a distraction. While Anzu is focused on his attack, one of the 4 giants (off-screen) sneaks away unseen and hides behind some rocks a good distance from Anzu’s position towards the left part of the canyon. As the girl deals with his comrades, this giant hides himself behind the rocks without her knowing, waiting for his chance to complete his part of the plan that he intends to finish for his friends.

As he begins to sneak away, his leader’s axe misses Anzu’s position, instead landing several feet behind her. Its impact on the rocky ground, however, flings many small but very sharp rocks up into the air that scatter in all directions. One of these rocks lands on Anzu just as she is turning her head towards where the axe hit the ground with an oddly stern look on her face. The small yet sharp-pointed rock hits Anzu in a spot on her upper-left, leaving a small bleeding wound under her eye (In the U.S.A. dub, the rock merely hits against her cheek and doesn’t leave any wounds at all though it still caused some serious pain).

After the leader’s "failed" attack, Anzu places her left hand on her wound, groaning as she reels from the pain of her cut while putting her beautifully cute socking-covered knees closer together from said pain despite the fact that everything in the Virtual World is supposed to be a total illusion. But she has no time to rest and ponder this mystery, as even though they aren’t attacking yet, the other giants move closer to her position, their weapons and claws seemingly ready to strike. Anzu quickly notices this as one of the giants takes big steps towards her from her front. Upon seeing this, it takes Anzu literally only a second to react. Frightened and knowing she can’t just walk away, Anzu makes a desperate run for it. Seeing an opening Anzu flees towards the left side of the canyon; the girl wastes no time in fleeing towards that direction in the hopes that it will lead to a way out of the canyon and away from the monsters as they begin to pursue after her. With her mind only focused on escaping, Anzu ignores the pain of her gash and runs off towards what appears to be her only hope for survival.

By doing this, she has unknowingly done just as her attackers wished for her to do. She fails to notice that only 3 giants, including the leader, who has retrieved the axe he used to indirectly cut her, are after her. She is unaware that while she was distracted by the axe, the fourth giant slipped away behind the rock formations, waiting for her to come to his position next trap her. Now she is unknowingly running to his position in fright as the other giants chase after her to ensure she goes nowhere else. She is running into another trap. As Anzu frantically runs, she desperately calls for someone to save her, but nobody replies to her screams; no one will come to her rescue (In the original Japanese version, she calls out for Yugi to save her). Despite this, she successfully manages to stay ahead of the three giants pursuing her from behind, seemingly as if she will soon be able to outrun them entirely and escape.

Finally, however, the third phase of the giants’ plan begins and succeeds; Anzu has been driven to the hidden one’s position and now he can make his move. Revealing himself, the hidden giant leaps from behind the rock and cuts in front of Téa by just a few small inches, stopping her in her tracks. With a loud gasp, she takes a small step back with her fists clenched in fear, and looks up to see the giant, towering over her by several feet as he stares downs at her ready to strike. Her face filled with horror and her body frozen with fear, all Anzu can do is let out a final small tremble of her voice and look up helplessly as the cyclops readies to finish her off (In the Japanese version, she releases a second gasp after being cornered). In but a second, the Hitotsu-Me Giant, with a murderous stare, enters into a striking position, pointing his left-clawed arm at Téa while raising his right arm high in the air before bringing it down with all his might.

The beast’s claws vertically and very painfully slash the petrified young woman, striking her in the stomach*,* and ending the Hitotsu-Me Giants’ hunt and completing the leader’s plan. (This scene was censored in all versions of the episode for graphic imagery). With this single blow, Anzu (off-screen since this episode cut to the Kaiba brothers wandering through the virtual forest, instead the giant is only seen lunging its claws) silently falls down to the desert floor, her body slamming hard on the rocky surface and landing right at her attacker’s feet as he looks down over her; the pain being too much for her to remain conscious. With her subdued, the hidden giant proceeds to watch over her, until his comrades arrive to join him.

#### Taken Prisoner

The other giants (off-screen) soon arrive; they all look down upon the unconscious girl, lying face down and moaning in pain at their very feet, showing that she's at least still alive, but unfortunately, she can’t escape due to her injuries. Rather than finish her off, the Hitotsu-Me Giants, including the leader, have other plans for their lovely catch. Though the hidden Hitotsu-Me Giant was the one that caught and subdued her, the leader of the pack takes the honor of toting the pack’s prize. He scoops the defenselessly unconscious Anzu off the ground and then throws her over his right shoulder, her stomach landing on his bare shoulder, before wrapping his right arm around her cute socking-covered legs just below where the skin of her thighs is showing and pressing them both into the right side of his chest, while holding his axe with his left hand. With the girl now draped over his shoulder, the leader orders his pack to march through the canyon and return to their home, with the leader marching in front while the others follow close behind. Almost walking beside him is the giant that struck down Anzu with its claws, having received the honor of marching in front of the others due to knocking her out.

After only a few minutes of walking through the canyon, the giants’ virtual creator, Noah Kaiba, checks in on their progress. Sinisterly laughing, Noah is pleased and entertained as he watches the giants marching through the canyon with Téa draped over their leader’s shoulder. Taking a second to watch using some of his virtually limitless virtual image screens, he giddily remarks “Looks like Téa’s met my Hitotsu-Me Giants” (Noah says this in the English dub, but in the original Japanese version, Noah looks at the screen silently). Originally, the screen shows the beasts from a distance, with their backs turned away from it as they march, leaving only Anzu’s upper body visible. From this angle and distance, the screen shows the unconscious girl’s head falling right at the center of the leader’s back while her hands dangle just above his waistline. Despite this, the screen’s current image lacks a clear view of Anzu’s face. Then, wanting a closer view, Noah zooms the screen in on their position, specially centering on Anzu, wishing to see her expression as she is being carried off.

The screen then shows her face with her head pointing towards the left, allowing the right side of her face to be seen: her eyes closed due to being unconscious, her mouth slightly open as she breathes, her sleeveless right arm gently touching the leader’s spinal muscle and her beautifully thick and brown-layered hair falling completely upside down as her upper body hangs down his back. And with each step the leader takes, Anzu’s face on the screen moves up and down. Deciding to move on to other matters, Noah shifts the screen away as the giants silently carry her deeper and deeper into the canyon (in the original Japanese version, the leader’s growls could be heard as he carried Anzu). Sometime later, the giants march out of the gorge and up atop a hill. At the very top lies a large hole, the only entrance and exit to a huge stalagmite-filled cave.

Climbing down into their den, the giants lay down their weapons before dealing with their unconscious captive. The leader carries Téa up a stalactite-like stone structure in the center of the cave, with two others following behind him. Once at the top, the leader enters into a hunchback position, with Anzu now laying down on his back instead of hanging upside down, her face hidden behind her bangs with her right elbow on top of the leader’s spine. Then without sympathy or respect to his lovely prisoner, the leader growls softly as he once again begins to inflict great physical pain onto Anzu. Rather than place her down gently, he simply throws Téa off his shoulder down onto the flat but solid stone surface of the structure (The leader doesn't growl at all in the U.S.A. dub). Removing his arm from Anzu’s lovely skinny legs, he moves his right shoulder forward causing the unconscious girl to be thrown off briefly into the air. As Anzu falls towards the ground, the hair blocking her face gives way, revealing more of her face. While her eyes are still hidden behind her bangs, her mouth begins falling open and her gorgeous arms reach up above her captor as she falls. As she gets closer to the ground, Anzu's body turns towards the right.

With her right elbow and hip landing on the stony surface first, Anzu releases a large and agonizing grunt as she hits the ground (In the original Japanese version only, after making her agonizing grunt, Anzu also releases an agonizing gasp). After the impact, Anzu lays down on her right before she starts to usher moans of pain as her body begins to squirm, struggling on the uncomfortable surface she now has to lay upon (In the original Japanese version only, after making her agonizing gasp, Anzu then makes a very brief and very soft grunt). Reeling from the pain, her hands tighten into fists, her knees moving up towards her chest, and her face filled with a frowning expression of utter discomfort and struggle.

Watching this, the leader takes a step forward after she finishes squirming, with his enormous foot landing just mere inches away from Téa’s feet. The sheer impact of his stomp causes the ground to shake and a loud noise to echo throughout the cave, but it is not enough to awaken Téa, however, as the pain continues to swell throughout her body. Just as she stops squirming and lays still on the ground, the leader looms over her with two of his tribemates. The three savage cyclopes take amusement in the girl’s suffering*,* smiling as they look down on her. As they delight at the prospect of the feast to come, their single red eyes begin glowing. They then climb back down the structure back into the den below, taking some time to rest and relax before dinner, leaving Téa alone on the structure, defenseless.

#### Escaping the Cave

Hours pass as Téa lies unconscious on the structure until a drop of water from a stalagmite lands on her face. Said drop lands right on the cut of her left cheek, with water searing into her flesh and stinging her. Groaning as she comes to, Téa finally awakens and to her surprise, she finds herself laying down on her right side on the stalactite where the leader placed her. Upon awakening, she initially has no memory of how she arrived at the cave, or even where she is, inwardly joking that it is “definitely not her day” (Only in the U.S.A. dub). As she ponders a way to escape, she hears a loud roar echo throughout the cave. Scared at its familiar sounding, she openly asks what it was (In the original Japanese version, the roar doesn't happen and Téa, still dazed and confused after regaining consciousness, asks herself where she is). Down below, at the bottom of the cave are the Hitotsu-Me Giants, lurking, resting, and relaxing after their successful hunting trip.

The Hitotsu-Me Giant leader is among them and is the first to notice that she has awakened, after hearing her voice from atop the pillar. Looking up at her, the fiendish creature gives her a threatening snarl as a means of both scarring her and ensuring that she knows her place as their prisoner. Upon seeing her captors down below, Téa gasps in fear as the sight of the monsters causes her to instantly remember the attack in the canyon. As she finishes recalling the events, Téa suddenly winces in pain as she once again feels the pain of her cut, which continues to bleed (In the U.S.A. dub, Téa’s cut isn't bleeding and it simply starts stinging her).

As it continues to hurt, she places a few of her cute little left fingers on it to hold back the pain while her wincing continues (In the original Japanese version, Téa, inwardly so, yelps in pain over her wound). Once the pain dies down a bit, Téa begins processing the recent events, remembering certain things about her situation that don’t make sense. Her mind flashes back to when she encountered the digital flower upon first arriving in the Virtual World. In the flashback, when she attempted to touch a patch of flowers upon first arriving in the Virtual World, her hand passed right through it, demonstrating how everything in the Virtual World is supposed to be holographic illusions. Keeping this in mind, however, her mind then flashes back to her traumatic encounter with the Hitotsu-Me Giant leader and ponders how his attack in the canyon was able to cut her face.

Once the pain of her cut has relatively dyed down completely, Téa removes her fingers from her wound (Making one last very soft pained wince), while silently pondering how the giants are able to touch her despite supposed to being holograms. As she does so, she mentally complains to herself about how the Virtual World is “a little too real for her”(Only in the U.S.A. dub). Unable to think of any answers, her thoughts then turn back to her current situation and what to do next. Trapped on the shelf and the cyclopes down below, Téa has seemingly no way of escape. With the situation appearing hopeless, Téa begins to despair. Not wishing to antagonize her captors down below, she keeps quiet and only communicates to herself by thought rather than speech. With her situation so dire, her thoughts turn to her friends, pondering that she hopes the others are “better off than she is” (In the original Japanese version, Téa actually wonders if the Hitotsu-Me Giants are going to “*end” her)*. With nothing else to do, she decides to spend some time watching the beasts from the shelf as they continue to lurk below. Though they are aware the girl is awake, they leave her be for the time being, convinced she has no way to escape what they have in store for her.

Eventually, the giants then bring out a huge cauldron filled with boiling hot water and light it over a fire. As the water inside boils, Téa believes that they are readying for dinner. The leader releases a sinister laugh as he boils the cauldron, looking forward to the feast to come; a feast that includes Téa’s flesh. Realizing this, Téa gasps in fear and instantly looks for a way to escape before she is turned into “Téa soup” (In the original Japanese version, Téa simply tells herself that she has to escape). Téa, frantically yet quietly, then searches for a way out of the cave before the giants come to retrieve her. Noticing that the only way out is the hole in the ceiling, Téa finds a loose vine and begins to climb along the walls of the cave.

However, her feet end up kicking down some rocks alerting the giants to her escape (In the original Japanese version, the sound of rocks tumbling down doesn't play as Tea didn't kick them down and the grouped Hitotsu-Me Giants simply find out about their prey's escape). Furious that their meal is getting away, the giants shake their weapons and all of them start roaring in anger towards Téa on the wall. Seeing that she has been noticed, Téa screams to herself that she is “busted”, and begins to hasten her climbing as the giants continue their roars, before giving chase (In the original Japanese version, after the grouped Hitotsu-Me Giants start roaring in anger over Tea escaping from them, Tea gasps and simply tells herself that the monsters "found her").

Her hastened speed pays off, however, as she soon manages to make it to the top (By this time, Téa's wound disappears). Reaching up, she manages to grab onto the outer sides of the hole-entrance and manages to, with all her strength, pull herself out. The long climb, though, has left Téa nearly out of breath and feeling exhausted upon arriving to the surface. As her upper body reaches the surface, she falls to the ground with her face in the dirt, breathing very heavily as she takes a moment to rest from her body’s stress and the relief that she has “made it” out of the cave (In the original Japanese version, Tea doesn't say anything and just continues breathing heavily). After a second, Téa then rises to her feet but remains tired from her ordeal to the point of almost staring out into space.

Though she clearly longs to rest, she has no time for such things. Upon hearing a noise behind her, Téa, with a tired look on her face and a struggling grunt of her voice, looks back to see the four Hitotsu-Me Giants climbing up the walls of the cave after her. With this sight, Téa’s exhaustion soon turns into worry about the monsters as she has one thing in her mind as her thoughts of resting disappear. Instead, her mind is now focused on one thing and one thing alone: running away from the monstrosities as fast as she can. After exclaiming, horrified, over the “one-eyed freaks still coming” (In the original Japanese version, Téa simply tells herself that the Hitotsu-Me Giants "are coming"), the girl makes a desperate run down the hill.

She has gained much distance by the time the Hitotsu-Me Giants reach the top but still, they are undeterred. The giant that ambushed and knocked her unconscious in the canyon is among the first of the pack to reach the top. Now armed with an axe of his own, he intends to attack her again, only this time he has no desire of holding back. Now he intends for his attack to be lethal. He furiously throws his axe at Téa, hoping to prevent her escape. Thankfully for her, the axe misses its target landing but *a mere few inches* away from Téa’s feet, right on the side of a small cliff she is standing over. The axe lands before her, just barely missing the monster's target's feet, which causes her to briefly stop her running as she screams a terrified “woe” clearly in shock of such a close call (In the original Japanese version, as the axe lands right before her feet, Tea simply gasps in shock at such a close call). With no time to lose, however, she regains her senses and continues running for her life as the Hitotsu-Me Giants chase after her while running on all fours.

As she once again finds herself running from the savage brutes, Téa frantically shouts out to the monsters to leave her alone, her fear of being recaptured growing ever worse. Though the monsters hear her pleas, they don’t understand them, unable to recognize them as anything other than the sounds of a wild animals shrieking terrified sounds as it runs from its predators (In the original Japanese version, Téa just keeps her silence while running for her life). Despite their speed, however, she manages to outrun them and is seemingly on the verge of escaping them for good. As she continues to run, unleashing loud screams as she pushes herself to go faster, the giants soon begin to fade off into the distance behind her, while she continues to increase her speed (In the original Japanese version, Téa doesn't scream as she pushes herself to run faster and, instead, simply starts running faster).

But Téa’s efforts soon prove all for naught as she ends up being driven to a dead-end in the form of a large chasm with a raging river at the bottom. Realizing at what she is running towards, Téa’s sprinting comes to an abrupt halt just a few feet before the cliff. Shocked at nearly falling into the ravine and realizing she is now trapped, Téa takes a moment to stare down the cliff in horror. Upon regaining her composure, she asks to herself on what to do now (In the original Japanese version, Tea whispers to herself a fearful "Oh no"). She makes desperate turns to her left and right, frightfully looking for something, anything, that can help her escape. Remembering her pursuers, Téa looks back to see them in the distance.

They are still some yards away, but still running on all fours towards her position, still intent on finishing her off. To her horror, she realizes she is cornered and frantically continues searching for an escape route (In the original Japanese version, Tea keeps her silence while looking for an escape route from the monsters). Upon taking another look to her left, she sees something in the distance, an old rope-bridge, presumably having been built by the Hitotsu-Me Giants for crossing the ravine. With nowhere left to go, she then makes a dash for the bridge; as the giants get ever closer, their huge forms become larger behind her as they hasten their speed. Upon arriving at the foot of the bridge, Téa’s running comes to an abrupt stop as she takes notice of two predicaments that now hinder her escape.

Looking down, Téa takes note of the sheer depth of the canyon, which, to her increasing unease, is where the river’s current has greatly accelerated and with now being filled with huge protruding rocks. The fearful Téa acknowledges this predicament as “not a small drop”, realizing that if she falls into the ravine, she would surely drown in the current even if she did not strike one of the rocks first. Even worse, the bridge is in extremely poor condition, being very rickety and just barely being held together by the old ropes around it. Not only that, but she must also watch her step, for the bridge is filled with gaps. For steps the bridge contains a large number of small logs, each being at least 2-3 feet apart from each other. If Téa is not careful, she could easily step between the logs and fall to her doom.

After nervously examining the rope bridge, Téa quickly looks behind to see that the Hitotsu-Me Giants are still a fair distance away but are only moments away from reaching her position. With the bridge’s poor condition and the giants getting closer to her position, Téa despairs and cowers in fear. With a look of sadness and unease she stares intently at the rope-bridge only to have her vision become blurred as she begins to give in to her fears. She closes her eyes, seemingly accepting that she has no hope of escape and that the giants will reach her soon enough. However, as she closes her eyes, she remembers the powerful bonds she has made with her friends. Upon opening her eyes again, the memory of their friendship inspires her to face her fears and cross the bridge. Armed with a new look of determination on her face, Téa walks forwards and takes her first steps onto the rickety bridge that but a moment ago she could find the courage to walk upon.

She takes it very slowly, stepping one foot at a time, all the while mentally telling herself not to look down (In the original Japanese version, however, Téa keeps her silence while she crosses the bridge). She nearly slips, however, as one of her platform shoes slides down the edges of one of the logs, causing her to look down anyway and briefly panic, stopping in her tracks. She then begins walking again, all the while mentally reassuring herself that she can make it. But then, the bridge unexpectedly suffers from a sudden movement, causing her to stumble before recovering her footing. When she looks back, she sees how close the Hitotsu-Me Giants are to the bridge. Though she attempts to hasten herself, she is slow to get across, as the deteriorating conditions of the bridge make it difficult to hold her feet on each plank.

One of her steps ends up slipping and passing down between two of the logs, causing her right foot to stumble and slide down the gap between the two logs, nearly getting it stuck. By the time she regains her footing, however, she is not even half-way across when discovers what caused the bridge to move. Taking a look behind her, she sees that the Hitotsu-Me Giants have finally reached the bridge, with the giant that threw the axe at her leading the way and having already grabbed onto the bridge, which caused her stumble. Under the leader’s orders, the hidden Hitotsu-Me Giant leads the way across the bridge as they continue their attempts to recapture her. But as they take their first steps onto the bridge, the logs already begin to crack and break from the beasts’ tremendous weight.

Noticing this, Téa once again attempts to reason with the monsters, telling them to stay away as the bridge will collapse from their overwhelming weight. They do not understand her and continue crossing after her. Immediately after, takes notice of the rope holding the bridge together is beginning to rip apart, causing her to gasp in horror as she takes a look at it. All the while, the giants hasten their crossing towards her, their huge body weight making the bridge increasingly shaky and unstable, causing Téa to briefly stagger and stop her movement as she struggles to maintain her hold on the bridge. As she stops the Hitotsu-Me Giants continue their movement, becoming only a few feet away from her in a matter of seconds.

Regaining herself, Téa desperately tries to cross faster, yelling fearful pleas for someone to come and save her. Like before in the canyon, no one answers (In the original Japanese version, Tea simply screams "Oh no!"). To make matters worse, as the giants continue to gain on her, the bridge becomes increasingly sturdy and unstable with Téa struggling to gain any more ground. She is soon reduced to hugging the left side of the bridge, desperately trying to move forward but is becoming ever slower. Eventually, the rickety condition of the bridge gets so bad that she soon finds herself unable to move forward anymore, with her gasping in fear as she comes to a halt, offset by the movement of the bridge.

The giants meanwhile are unhindered by the bridge’s unstable movement and gain quickly, becoming mere inches away from reaching her. But before they can reclaim their lovely prize, the bridge finally gives out under their weight and breaks in two. Both Téa and the Hitotsu-Me Giants scream as the bridge falls apart and they fall. However, only the giants fall to their deaths in the raging river below, as Téa has managed to hang onto a half of the bridge that is still hanging from the top of the other side of the canyon. Hanging from the surviving portion of the bridge, Téa watches as the beasts that attacked, incapacitated, kidnapped, and intended to eat her fall into the river and drown. Despite her tormentors' deaths, Téa has no time to celebrate, as now she must climb to safety before the surviving portion of the bridge can fall down as well.

Realizing this, she sarcastically says that she thinks she's had about enough of this place, before beginning to climb the remains of the old bridge to the top of the cliff. As she climbs upward, Téa notably maintain her sarcastic wit and sense of humor despite the horrifying ordeal she has been through, humorously complaining the whole way about her ordeal with the beasts and bridge (In the original Japanese version, after the giants die, Téa tells herself that she refuses to die here herself. She then shouts to herself, as the sentence itself echoes, that she won't give up). Shortly post Yugi's defeat of Gansley, she reaches the top but passes out shortly after arriving, exhausted from all the running and climbing she has done along with the stress the Hitotsu-Me Giants gave her.

### 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 tank 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. Once they found Yami, everyone had to join in the final battle with Zorc Necrophades. During said final battle, when her monster "Fire Sorcerer" was destroyed while fighting, Tea and her friends felt pain while fighting and Zorc was soon vowing to send her and her friends into the darkness 1 soul at a time. Soon, she, alongside her friends, gave Yami 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 while 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 runs after him, though Joey stops her, also tearful alongside most of the Pharaoh's friends. All witnesses of said last match then run narrowly in time to escape, look up at the sky in Egypt ending the anime once the last words are spoken.