Yugioh: Duel Academy r:2

[Hinoryu]

And this is proof why I should not be allowed online while on cold medicine. Laggy computer makes for double posts. Can someone get this, please?

[Hinoryu]

Well, you may know how it goes. Hard drive fails so you completely lose one project. While you're waiting for the various people who have some pieces to get them back to you, you find yourself really, really bored. And unfortunately, when I get bored, very odd things begin to happen.

This would be one of them.

Before I begin, a bit of backstory: I'm a member of an LJ/IRC based Yugioh GX roleplay group called simply Duel Academy (though after we moved, we jokingly became Duel Academy r:2). Another member here, Neo Arkadia, is as well. The main storyline of said roleplay follows GX canon... reasonably well. However, we have a lot of original characters running around, and one day waiting for a friend to get back to me on various pieces for Battle Earth, I got the strangest idea: What about the spawn of the various OCs we had? Thus, I started to write this.

As it's a story based on RP characters, or at least the descendants of said RP characters, naturally I'll probably end up making a few references people outside it won't understand. If I make such a reference without explaining, please, smack me a bit and I'll do my best to explain.

Chapter 0
Life, the Universe, and Everything, v1

“Oi, big sis, wait up!” A young boy called out. Long white hair, down to his waist though pulled into a ponytail, flew behind him as he ran. He shifted a backpack that was beginning to fall off, then pushed his glasses up his nose. Pale blue eyes looked across the crowd, scanning for his sister. His black jacket and red shirt made his incredibly pale skin stand out that much more.

“Hurry it up, Hisao, or we’ll be late!” A white-haired girl, the same age as the boy, looked back at him. Her hair was just as long as her brother’s, though it flew freely, not tied back. Her eyes were also like her brother’s, a pale blue that made one wonder if she could see through them at all. She had a white shirt, and a blue skirt that Hisao wished was a lot longer.

“It’s not my fault we missed the train, Yuki!” The thus-identified Hisao called, and continued after her.

“Look, it’s not that big a deal, we can just run and still make it to the duels on time!” The girl, Yuki, called back.

They no longer attracted stares when they were in the neighborhood, as with their entrance exams to Duel Academy coming up, they had become something of usual visitors to the Kaiba Dome, where the exams were held. However, new people would always stop to look at the two. Two children, both far lighter in color than most people, apparently twins. Really, ‘albino’ was the only way to describe them.

However, today was slightly different. Today was their exam day, and they were running late. The Gemu family legacy was one of gaming, and except when they played their old Nintendo system, the “Wii”, they rarely got much exercise outside of PE class. As such, both of them were rather quite thin.

“Come on, we’re almost there! We still have time!” Yuki called.

Hisao grunted and put on an extra burst of speed. “Why did I have to bring my case of trades?” he asked himself rhetorically. “It’s not like I’ll need new cards with Dad’s deck.”

“Kupo!” A white furry creature appeared behind him, squeaking. It looked somewhat like a white bipedal cat, with a large red pompom on its head, and large purple wings coming from its’ back. Most people, though, could identify it as a Moogle. It patted his head as he ran. “Thanks, Kupo-chan, I need the support.” Hisao mumbled to it.

“Are you talking to that hallucination of yours again?” Yuki asked.

“It’s not a hallucination, it’s a Duel Spirit!” Hisao grumbled. “I’m not crazy, Dad knows about her too.”

Any further conversation was cut off as they charged into the Kaiba Dome.

“Number 53, Gemu Hisao, reporting!” He panted.

“Number 52, Gemu Yuki, present!” She gasped.

“We’re on time, right?” Both asked.

“Just… barely.” The attendant looked at them both, bemused. “Number 51 currently has one turn left, so you’d better hurry in there.”

“Thankyouma’ambye!” They both called and sprinted out.

-o-

“You did well to decrease me to 700 Life Points.” A blue-clad adult told an opposing student. “But now, with my Five God Dragon on the field, you can’t win.”

“Well, I can survive a bit longer by activating Waboku.” A small boy activated his card, surrounding himself with robed women, who put a barrier around the boy’s field.

“You still have no field or hand.” The examiner told him. “Take your move or forfeit. Either option will lead to the same result.”

“Not if I topdeck something like this.” The boy held up a magic card.

“That’s a…” The examiner’s eyes widened in shock.

“Ookazi. When I play it, you’re dealt 800 damage. My victory.” The boy bowed deeply, grinning. “Thank you for being easy on me!” With that, he ran off.

“Number 52 to the field, please. Number 52 to the field, please.” The announcer stated over the PA.

“That’s me!” Yuki grinned happily, and walked down to the field.

“Knock ‘em dead, sis!” Hisao cheered.

“Of course!” Yuki charged into the ring.

“Number 53 to the field, please. Number 53.”

“Huh?” Hisao looked up. “But there’s… oh, I guess there’s more than one field, huh?” He ran down after his sister.

-o-

“Welcome!” Yuki entered the field in a dramatic fashion, being raised up through a hole in the floor. Looking over to the person she was to duel, she bowed deeply. “My name’s Gemu Yuki, sir! I’m… oh, wow.” She looked up at her examiner, and despite the cliché, her heart skipped a beat.

Her examiner was a handsome man. Long brown hair, with his eyes closed. His age was impossible to gauge. Without opening his eyes, he pointed up. “What do you see?”

“The ceiling?” She looked up. “No, wait, there’s a skylight there… Heaven?”

“Ten…” He grinned, then spun around, having his white coat flare out dramatically behind him. “Join!”

From the crowd, a cluster of girls began squeeing. “Fubuki-sama!”

With a wink, the identified Fubuki activated his Duel Disk. “Good luck in the duel, soon-to-be-student! Don’t worry, I take it easy on beautiful girls.”

Yuki just stared, blushing. “Uh, th- Thank you!” She activated her Disk as well.

-o-

Hisao entered the arena through the floor as well, though wondering why the entrance was set up that way.

Kupo-chan floated next to him, though only he could see her. He smiled at her. “I’ll do fine.” He whispered.

“Ahem.” Hisao jumped and looked over at his opponent. He was an older man, in a blue coat. His hair was blonde, though greying, with a ponytail tied in the back. Most striking were the pink frills all over his coat.

Hisao stepped back. “Wh- Why is the principal conducting these, sir?” He had to ask.

“We were short on teachers, young one. I trust you will do your best in these coming duels, na no ne?” Principal Chronos answered.

“Er, yes!” Hisao stepped back. His Antique Gear deck is going to likely be too much for me…

“I shall tell you now, I am using an examination deck, na no ne.” Chronos stated, slightly amused. “You needn’t fear my Antique Gear Golem.”

Hisao breathed a sigh of relief.

“That is not to say my deck has no tricks up its sleeves, na no ne.”

Hisao quickly inhaled again.

“Well, if I can beat you, then I’ve got nothing to fear at school, right?” He asked.

Chronos laughed heartily at this. “A good way of thinking, na no ne! Let us duel!”

-o-

“Toon Black Magician Girl, attack directly! Toon Black Fire!” Yuki commanded. The book on her field spun and opened, spitting out a cartoon version of the black magic wielder everyone knew. She winked and spun her staff, and contrary to the name of the attack, launched a large pink fireball. It bypassed two set monsters on Fubuki’s field and struck him in the chest.

Fubuki was knocked over, and he landed on his back. “Ohmygod, are you okay?!” Yuki rushed forward, and half the girls in the stand were halfway over the wall to get to him.

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” Fubuki jumped up from his position on the ground and waved it off. “I’ve had worse, but that still packed a punch! You’re a strong duelist, huh?” He turned to the girls in the stands. “Hey, hey, wait your turn!” He smiled, teeth actually glinting, and all the girls nearly melted. (Yuki included.)

-o-

“Sorry, Kupo-chan, looks like we have to go with that plan.” Hisao mumbled. The moogle nodded. “I summon Mog Knight in attack mode!”

The moogle vanished from Hisao’s shoulders, and instead appeared on the field, now dressed in full armor and wielding a sword. “I end my turn there!”

Chronos smiled. Truly, this is a time of nostalgia. I remember that card. Its’ effect is… “You wish to go down fighting? I will acknowledge your spirit, na no ne! Antique Gear Gadgetron, attack his monster!”

“Sorry, principal, sir!” Hisao bowed. “Mog Knight’s effect… When she’s in a battle, all the battle damage I would receive goes to you instead!”

The moogle put up a large shield as she was attacked, flipping the attack at Chronos instead. However she then succumbed to the attack and exploded.

Hisao flashed the “v” sign at the crowd. “I win!”

Chronos deactivated his disk and laughed. “Congratulations.”

Hisao bowed again. “I look forward to learning from you, sir!”

-o-

“I won!” Hisao cheered, outside.

“I did too!” Yuki sighed. “And Fubuki-sama…”

“…” Hisao knew better than to interrupt her during her moments of fangirlism. “Anyways, I wonder how everyone else did?”

“I passed too!” A triumphant voice exclaimed from behind them.

“Hey, it’s Alien!” Hisao turned and him. “Where were you?”

“I was number 42, I got done a while back.” The boy grinned. “Your duels were awesome! When he sacrificed those gadgets, I thought you were dead for sure, Gemu.”

The new boy was an oddity. Tensai Uchuu had dark brown hair, purple eyes, and light skin. He seemed to be half-European. Indeed, he was, as his mother was from Misralz.

Hisao smirked. “Kupo-chan saved the day yet again, of course!”

“But White-chan was clearly leading the whole game.” Uchuu smiled.

Yuki smiled, but Hisao paused. “But she was fawning over her opponent… I can’t believe she managed to attack hi- Okay, okay, jeez.” He was cut off by a death glare from Yuki.

“Uh, excuse me.” A timid voice came from behind them. “I’m sorta lost, can you help?” They all jumped and turned around, not aware anyone was behind them.

The voice belonged to a girl. She was the same age as they were, though on the small side. Her hair was a dark brown, almost black, and fell down past her rear. Her attire was odd, though. She had a simple baggy t-shirt and jeans, but topped it off with a large, loose winter hat, despite it being August.

“Which way is it to the train station?” she asked.

“Oh, we’re heading in that direction, too. Want us to walk you?” Hisao offered.

“Uhm, that’s okay, you don’t have to…” She tried to decline.

“No, we’re actually headed to the same place. Let’s go!” He smiled.

“W- Well, I guess…” She mumbled.

Meanwhile, Yuki was staring intently at her.

“What’s up?” Uchuu asked.

“She smells like cat.” Yuki grinned.

“Oh jeez, it’s that obsession of yours kicking in again, isn’t it.” Uchuu sighed.

“Shush, Alien-otaku.” Yuki told him.

“Yes, cat-otaku.” He replied.

“I’m Gemu Hisao, and these are Yuki and Ali- Er, Uchuu. What’s your name?” Hisao introduced everyone

“I’m Torami Haneko…” She said quietly.

She’s practically silent… Hisao thought to himself. Uh-oh, did I offend her somehow?

“Uh, so…” He said, trying to make conversation to figure out what was wrong.

“…” He got no answer other than silence, though she did look up.

“Do you like video games?” He asked.

“Uh, a little, I guess…” She answered.

…Jeez, why do I have to suck at making conversation? Hisao asked himself. Fortunately, he was saved by their arrival at the train station.

Haneko bowed to them. “Thank you for your help.” With that, she just ran off.

“Aww.” Hisao sighed. “I think I annoyed her somehow.”

“If you were staring any more obviously,” Uchuu told him, “you’d’ve scared her off outright.”

“I wasn’t staring!” Hisao said indignantly. “Besides, even if I was, you can’t talk!”

Yuki sighed. “While you two bicker, I’ll go get us tickets.” She left, soon disappearing in the crowd.

Hisao grinned. “So, then.”

“Oh, hell. That NEVER ends well for me.” Uchuu sighed.

“So when are you going to ask her out, anyway?” Hisao demanded.

“Who?” Uchuu was feigning ignorance.

“Oh, don’t give me that. You’re the one always staring at her.” Hisao gave him The Look™. “You’re gonna be on an island with her for nine months, but that island doesn’t really have a place you can go out on a date, so you’d better ask big sis out as soon as you can.”

“What makes you think I want to ask out your sister? … And more importantly, why are you actively working to see me date your sister? Isn’t that kinda creepy?”

“Hell yes it’s creepy.” Hisao muttered. “But still, you’re practically always staring at her, tailing her, whatever… She’s practically got you under her thumb, man. Just suck it up and ask her.”

“It’s not that simple!” Uchuu squirmed. “It’s a very delicate balance of this, that, and the other thing, and there’s the timing, and-“

“And here’s the best chance you’ll get.” Hisao pointed to his sister, who was on her way back, tickets in hand. “Come on, just go for it already.”

“O- Okay, I’ll try.” Uchuu swallowed nervously.

“Hurry up, you two, the train’s about to leave!” she called, then turned around and left again.

“Wait up!” Both chased after her.

-o-

“I blew it…” Uchuu sighed as he walked home, having gotten off at the stop before the Gemu twins. He kicked a can as he walked past it, watching it bounce.

“Well, even if there’s not a good place, I can still ask her once I get to the academy, I guess… I will triumph!” He told himself. “A Tensai never gives up!” He shouted. He then spent the next ten minutes apologizing to the people who lived nearby for disturbing them.

-o-

“I give up…” Hisao sighed, looking down. “You’re impossible to bluff out.” He began to collect his cards off the table.

“Well, it’s only natural that the elder sibling’s better, right?” Yuki asked.

“You’re only older by two minutes…” he muttered.

-o-

One week later, they had packed up everything they could carry. Gaming systems, a laptop for Hisao, art supplies for Yuki, and a bento for them both. After petting their cats goodbye, and giving their parents hugs, they walked out the door, waving. “We’ll be back in a year!” they called as they left. Their parents smiled in nostalgia as the two left.

“I wonder if they’ll have as odd a time there as we did…” Joudan, their father, asked.

“If the school hasn’t changed, there’s no way they won’t.” Fuyuko, his wife, laughed.

Both of them were lost in memories. Then both jumped as the door burst open and Hisao ran in.

“I forgot my deck!”

-o-

Tensai Uchuu had packed all the science magazines he owned into a suitcase far too small for them. He gave his dog a treat as he prepared to leave.

“You should stop hanging out with those two.” His dad told him. “You know they’re nothing but trouble.”

“Look, dad, just because you don’t like their dad, doesn’t mean I can’t hang out with them. They’re fine, they’re great people.” Uchuu sighed, repacking his backpack. They had had this conversation many times before.

“Well, don’t blame me when they ruin you.” Tensai Eisei sighed. “Go, and good luck. I expect you to be in Blue when you return.”

“I’m already in Yellow. If we hadn’t been in Misralz until last year, I’d’ve started out there.” Uchuu grinned at his dad. “No problems. I’ll make Blue in the first two weeks.”

“Big words. I’ll hold you to them.” Eisei hugged his son. “Now go show them the might of the Tensais.”

-o-

“Are you sure you want to go?” Torami Akiko asked her daughter for the hundredth time.

“Yes, mom… It’s the best place for me to learn how to hide the curse in public.” Haneko told her mother. “And I met some other people who’re going there… They seemed really nice. I think even if the secret got out, I’d be fine. But it won’t.”

“If it’s anything like my time there,” Akiko sighed, “You’ll be able to blame it on a random magic-user…”

Haneko looked around the room. “Where’s dad?”

Akiko sighed again. “He’s asleep. You know what last night was. He’ll probably wake up in a few hours…”

Haneko looked down. “Oh well… I guess it can’t be helped. Tell him bye for me!” She picked up her bags and faced the door. She took a deep breath and stepped out the door.

-o-

“Duel Academy! I’m coming for you now!” A myriad of voices cried, all throughout Japan.



List of Names
Japanese - Dub
Chronos de Medici - Vellian Crowler
Tenjoin Fubuki - Atticus Rhodes

Language Notes
The 'ten' in Tenjoin literally means 'heaven'. The Ten-join line was the source of the infamous buttwiggle in the Love Duel episode.
'-sama' denotes high importance to the person you're speaking of. A favorite of fangirls.
'-na no ne' is an old-fashioned way of saying something along the lines of 'Is this not so?' Chronos, in the original Japanese show, ends almost all of his sentances with this, making him sound ridiculous at times.
'Otaku', despite its current meaning as an anime nerd, technically just is calling someone obsessed with whatever topic they enjoy to an absurd point, often to where the obsession rules their life. Being called an otaku is not a good thing.

[Hinoryu]

Chapter 1
Express to Hell

The year is 20XX. Almost thirty years have passed since Yuuki Juudai saved two worlds and graduated from Duel Academy. Other names from the school went off, made their fortunes in the wide world. The world enjoyed a time of relative peace. It was almost, well, boring.

However, what of the other students? The world remembers the great names, Yuuki Juudai, Manjoume Jun, Marufuji Ryou. They’ve all gone to great fame. Mutou Yuugi passed on his title of King of Duelists, and went to simply run the Turtle Game Store. The inheritor of the title was determined by a duel between Juudai and Manjoume. After a three-hour long duel, when both duelists were at their limit, their final clash ended in a draw. They now share the title of Duel King, while Kaiser Ryou is king of the Pro Leagues.

But what of the lesser students? Those without great deeds to their names, ones that helped but went unrecognized by the world? Gemu Joudan married his long-time love, and managed to realize his dream of owning a gaming company. His eternal rival, Tensai Eisei, worked in Misralz as head of sattelite development, and recently moved back to Japan. Torami Jin, the latest successor to the ancient nekomata-induced curse of being a werecat, finally got over his fear of people, and currently works as a vetrenarian.

There are many others, who no matter how much I want to, I simply don’t have the time to cover here. However, fate is a tricky thing. Their time is over, and they will never have the opporutunity to star in the story again. However, the soul of a duelist is a strange thing. These names are all returning to the Duel Academy, and their successors now have the chance to become heroes. A new story is emerging from the darkness, and it will be a harrowing journey, and not everyone will emerge unscathed. But this is a story that will be complete, into the light.

“Well, I wasn’t expecting this.” Hisao commented.

“I thought Dad said they used helicopters to get people to the island? Or barring that, a boat?” Uchuu asked.

“Well, it may not make sense, but it’s still cool. Come on, let’s get on!” Yuki dragged them both through the doors.

“How could they possibly have a train that can get us to the island? They can’t have paved it all.” Uchuu commented.

“You’re sitting in it now.” Yuki pointed out.

“But the tracks shouldn’t be able to make it all the way across the ocean without collapsing halfway… Argh, I give up.” Uchuu sighed.

Hisao jumped outside for a moment, looked around, then got back in. “Looks like there’s about a dozen cars behind us, and about three in front. Let’s go see who’s at the front!”

“Why?” Yuki asked.

“Why not?” Hisao countered.

“Fair enough, let’s go.” Yuki stood back up.

What kind of argument was that…? Uchuu had to wonder.

As they stood up, the doors slid shut, and the train lurched off, across the ocean.

-o-

The three entered the front car moments later. The previous cars had all been rather crowded, but the front one was nearly empty. Only three people were in it.

“Hey, can we sit here?” Hisao asked brightly.

Both people turned and looked the trio over. One had odd, two-colored hair that curled up at the end, going just above his shoulder blades. The bottom was brown, but an orange color on top. He wore an Obelisk Blue uniform, sort of. He wasn’t actually wearing his jacket, he just let it hang on his shoulders, sleeves hanging next to it. He wore a white T-shirt with ‘ROCK AND LOL’ printed in large letters on it. His ears were covered by a pair of headphones, and his eyes were half-shut.

On the other side was his complete opposite. He was a tall boy, having teal hair that reached down to past his shoulders, clumped into spikes. His bangs stuck up, giving an antenna look. He wore an Obelisk Blue uniform, with the colors reversed, so the bulk of it was white. His eyes were a light purple. He seemed to exude an aura of calmness, as well.

The third had mid-length black hair, styled into spikes going every which way. He also had black eyes, with a general ‘just try me’ face. Obviously a troublemaker, just from his looks. Rather than a school uniform, he was wearing a black trenchcoat on top of a red shirt, with black jeans.

“You think you can just barge in here and ask if you can sit with us, the eli-“ The one in black began to say.

“Yeah, sure. Go ahead.” The other two said simultaneously, cutting the other one off.

“It’s nice to have a car with breathing room.” Uchuu commented.

“I dunno.” Hisao looked around. “It’s kinda crammed in here.”

“Are you hallucinating again?” Yuki sighed. “There’s no one here but the three of them and the three of us.”

“Well, for one,” Hisao pointed to a patch of seemingly empty air next to the Blue student with headphones. “There’s a fluffy thing with wings snoozing there.” The student’s eyes finally opened fully, and he sat up, paying attention now.

“And there’s a miniature dragon thing wrapped around his neck like a scarf.” Hisao looked at the kid in black. “Huh, it’s half white and half black, that’s pretty cool.” The student in black’s eyes widened in shock, and he practically jumped up.

“And there’s… Hey, you’ve got three of them.” The calm-looking one blinked in surprise.

“No way!” The black one shouted. “Just who are you, anyway?”

“I’m-“ Hisao started.

“Isn’t it more polite to introduce yourself before asking someone else their name?” Yuki cut in.

“Sis, it’s…” Hisao started.

“She’s got a point.” The calm one said.

“Yuuki Kennichiro. Obelisk Blue second year.” The one with the headphones said. He was looking at Hisao with a strange intensity… Then cut himself off with a yawn.

“I’m Marufuji Masaru. Obelisk Blue third year.” The calmer one, whose name was now known, stood and bowed politely, then sat back down.

“I’m Manjoume Sanda.” The angry one said reluctantly. “Also an Obelisk Blue second year.”

“Yuuki, Marufuji, Manjoume… I’ve heard those names before.” Hisao mumbled to himself. Uchuu smacked him in the back of the head.

“Idiot! Yuuki Juudai and Manjoume Jun are the current Duel Kings, and Marufuji ‘Kaiser’ Ryou is the Pro League champion! How could you forget those names!” he hissed.

“Oooh… Right, I’m really bad with names.” Hisao grinned sheepishly.

“I can vouch, he can barely remember our neighbor’s name.” Yuki cut in.

“That’s not true! The Ishida family is awesome!” He grumbled.

“… Hisao, they’re the ‘Ichida’s.” Yuki sighed.

“… Ishi, ichi, same thing.” Hisao muttered.

“Anyway.” Yuki bowed. “I’m Gemu Yuki, this is Tensai Uchuu, and the idiot is my little brother, Gemu Hisao. We’re both Obelisk Blue, first year, and Uchuu is a first year Yellow.”

There was a pause. Yuki turned around and just looked at the two.

“Pleased to make your aquaintance!” Both bowed quickly before Yuki could say anything.

All three of the seniors just stared at the display, until Kennichiro broke out laughing.

“You don’t have to be so formal.” He told them, still chortling. “We’re all equals, right? All of us are Blues… Well, and a Yellow, but I bet you’re pretty good, right?”

“Of course I am!” Uchuu responded. “I’d be in Blue, but I was in Misralz for a while, so I didn’t get to attend much of the Duel Academy middle school portion. Not enough credits to start in Blue right off.”

“Who cares?” Sanda stood up. His dragon uncurled from his shoulders and instead floated next to him. “What I want to know… Why can a no-name like you see them?!”

“There’s no rhyme or reason to who can see them, Sanda.” Masaru spoke out. “No one knows why even we can. It’s not that we’re ‘elite’.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, she’s been with my dad since before he was a student at the Academy.” Hisao spoke up.

“She?” Kennichiro asked.

“Oh, right.” Kupo appeared, floated above Hisao momentarily, and landed on his head. “This is Kupo-chan.”

“What are you guys talking about?!” Yuki stomped, frustrated.

“Oh, right. You can’t see ‘em, can you, sis?” Hisao asked. “I forgot.”
“I can’t see what’s not there!” She retorted.

“This is Winged Kuriboh.” Kennichiro motioned to the fluffball, who was jolted awake upon hearing her name. “She used to guide my father, but he had her come with me to help me in the academy.”

“…” Sanda refused to comment. “I can’t believe this…”

“These are the three Cyber Dark monsters. Edge, Keel, and Horn.” Masaru pointed to his three creatures. “They used to be simply evil, corrupting the heart of whoever possessed them, until their respect was destroyed, and all that was left was an empty shell thirsting for victory.”

“Then, aren’t they doing it to you?” Hisao asked.

“White-chan, we’ve been completely shut out of the conversation…” Uchuu muttered.

“Several reasons, first of which is I guard myself constantly.” Masaru stated simply. “I duel with a different deck, most of the time. In addition, I keep my soul under an iron grip, so that they can’t leech it from me. Second, they seem to just be calmer when I’m around. Third… Last time they really made an attempt to, I tricked an unfriendly Psycho Shocker into nearly killing them.”

Hisao whistled. “That’s scary.”

“It’s not so bad.” Masaru admitted. “Really, they seem to have finally realized that I’m their master. They are not to do anything to me.”

“You make it sound like they’re dogs.” Yuki commented.

There was a pause, before Masaru finally started snickering at the mental image.

“Anyways.”

“I don’t like this.” Sanda spoke up.

“What’s up?” Uchuu asked.

“Those two!” Sanda pointed at Hisao and Yuki. “Seeing spirits is the sign of the elite, and those two… They’re random no-namers who just show up! They don’t even look like they should be at our school! Are they even Japanese? They look more like gaijin!”

Yuki stepped forward. “Your rudeness aside, you’re making two big mistakes. We’re Japanese, we’re just what you’d call ‘albino’. We don’t tan, we don’t have much color, and we probably don’t have much in the way of looking normal. And second…”

There was a loud SMACK as she slapped Sanda right across the face. “The Gemu family is the gaming elite, jerk!”

Kennichiro sighed, as Masaru put a hand to his face. “I won’t say he didn’t deserve that, but you still would probably have been better off not doing that…”

“Damn it. Fine, you want to be that way?” Sanda stood up to his full, though not that great, height. “You and me will duel. Right now.”

“There’s not enough room.” Yuki pointed out.

“Besides.” Uchuu jumped in. “You mess with them, you mess with me. I’ll be your opponent.”

“Well, Uchuu. I appreciate it, but he did really mess with us, not you. I’ll teach him.” Yuki grinned.

“But I wanna see how good he is!” Hisao complained. “I wanna test myself against someone claiming to be elite, at least. It’ll be good to rate my chances.”

“All right then.” Uchuu decided. “Rock-paper-scissors. Odd man out wins.”

They’re not taking Sanda seriously. Masaru thought to himself.

That’s gonna cost ‘em. Kennichiro sighed.

“I’ll just take on all three of you!” Sanda growled.

“No way.” All three said at once.

“We’d flatten you easily.” Yuki said.

“It’d be way too confusing.” Hisao commented.

“I just like 1-on-1.” Uchuu shrugged.

“Ergh…” Sanda muttered angrily.

“Jan… ken… PON!” All three held out their hands. Uchuu and Hisao held out rock, while Yuki had paper.

“You always throw paper.” Hisao muttered. “Why haven’t I taken advantage of that by now?”

“Well, I get to go after all.” She smiled. “Now, then.”

Sanda growled. “Come on!” He stomped over to the door and pulled it open. Yuki followed Sanda, who waited for her by a ladder leading on top of the train. “Get up there.” He ordered.

“No way, I’m not going first, pervert.” Yuki accused. “You just want to look up my skirt.”

Sanda turned red and started sputtering. “Wha- You- I do not! I’m not that low a-“

“Then you get climbing first.” Yuki ordered.

“She’s reduced Sanda to that so easily… I think I feel sorry for you.” Masaru told Hisao.

“It’s a pretty fair trade. She wins verbally, then I turn around and beat her in King of Fighter. It’s pretty routine.” He shrugged.

Sanda had finally gone up first, and Yuki motioned for everyone to follow. Hisao and Uchuu did, predictably, but Masaru and Kennichiro followed, surprising them.

“I wonder which deck he’ll use this time.” Kennichiro mused.

“He’s got more than one?” Uchuu asked.

“Rumor is he has one thousand… no, ten thousand decks.” Masaru stated. “All of them deadly.”

“Yeah, but he’s pretty predictable.” Kennichiro shrugged. “I’d be dead if he ever tried any strategy other than simple brute force at me.”

“What deck do you think he’ll run this time?” Uchuu asked with hesitation.

“I’m not sure.” Masaru said. “I have a minor guess, but I don’t think even he is willing to show it this early on.”

“Well, Sis will still win.” Hisao shrugged.

“You seem awfully confident.” Kennichiro noted. “Why?”

“’Cause I’m good, and my sister is better. Her deck is one of the hardest to fight against.” Hisao told him.

Masaru shrugged. Experience was the best teacher.

“Let’s make it quick.” Sanda glared. “A 4000-point single duel should demonstrate the difference between us well enough.”

“Four thousand points…” Yuki mused. “I don’t think we’ve had a duel like that in months.”

“It’s gotta be well over a year now.” Hisao interjected. “Dad even hacked some of the Duel Monsters games we have for us, to start with 8000.”

“The AI still just isn’t very good, is it.” Yuki sighed.

“Well, what can you do?” Hisao asked. “A good dueling AI would be more complicated than Deep Blue, and that took way too much money to build. It’d be impossible to mass produce.”

“Do they often go into tangents like this?” Masaru asked Uchuu.

“All the damn time…” Uchuu facepalmed.

“What’s Deep Blue?” Kennichiro asked.

“A computer built to play chess. It beat a world champion, Gary Kasparov, at it.” Uchuu recited.

“All right, already!” Sanda yelled. “That’s enough! Since you won’t shut up, I’ll just go ahead and start us off!”

Man, Hisao thought, he sounds like a girl when he’s pissed.

“I draw!” declared Sanda. “Then I discard General Demon to add Pandemonium from my deck to my hand!”

He slid the card into the discard slot, and the Duel Disk spat a card out from the deck, which Sanda took.

“And now, I activate it! Pandemonium!” The field slot of the Duel Disk opened, and Sanda slammed the card in. The area around them changed. The sky became black, the water around them was dark red, and even the train became a brown monstrous creature. In the distance, dark spiky buildings rose up, visible even from their position on the train.

“Then I summon the Seven-Armed Demon!” A large demon appeared on his field. It had three arms on each of its sides, and a seventh one coming out of its head. It stared at Yuki and grinned wickedly. (666 ATK)

“Ugh.” Yuki stepped back and covered her front with an arm. “That thing is staring at my chest!”

“Sis, it’s a hologram.” Hisao pointed out.

“A perverted one!” She yelled.

The spectators simply gaped at the situation.

“I’ll just set one card and end my turn.” Sanda muttered, attempting to preserve some dignity.

Yuki drew. “I’ll just get rid of that creepy thing! I summon Toon Alligator in attack mode!” A little cartoon alligator appeared on Yuki’s field. It sat on its hind legs, grinned mischievously, and pulled out a small axe. (800 ATK)

“Attack!” She yelled. “Get rid of that thing!”

“Trap card, open.” Sanda grinned sinisterly. “Rising Energy!” He slid a card into the graveyard. “Increase Seven-Armed Demon’s attack points by 1500 until the End Phase!”

“Wait, no!” Yuki shouted. “No way!”

“I thought you said she was good?” Masaru asked. “She completely ignored his set card.”

“Her opening is a bit shaky, but her endgame is flawless.” Hisao shrugged.

The seven-armed demon grabbed the hapless alligator with all six arms, and simply tugged. The poor cartoon animal was shredded.

(YUKI: 2634) (SANDA: 4000)

“Ugh…” Yuki glared. “During my second Main Phase, I’ll pay 1000 LP to activate Toon World!”

(YUKI: 1634) (SANDA: 4000)

A large green book appeared on her field, with the words ‘TOON WORLD’ printed on the cover in large letters, written over a large cartoonish dragon head. It spun around a few times, then simply hovered.

“You’re using those stupid cards?” Sanda snorted. “I’ll have you beaten in five turns.”

“Next, I’ll summon Toon Mermaid!” Yuki continued. A large clamshell appeared on her field. It then opened to reveal just what it said: A mermaid, wearing nothing but clamshells over her breasts, pointing a comically oversized bow at Sanda. “Then I’ll set two facedown cards and end my turn!”

Sanda drew. “I play the continuous magic cards, Demon’s Oath!” Placing the card into his disk, he continued. “Once per turn, I can pay 500 life points to declare a card name. I then draw one card from my deck. If it’s the name I said, it’s added to my hand. If not, it’s discarded. I declare Shadow Knight Demon!”

He drew, and smirked. “Indeed it is. So I’ll summon him now!” With a flourish, he slapped the card onto his Disk, and watched. A large blue-haired demon descended from the sky. It roared, spreading its wings, and pointed its gauntlet-claws at the Toon Mermaid.

“That was the most improbably lucky guess I have seen.” Hisao commented.

Kennichiro shook his head. “A good duelist will draw the cards he needs to, when he needs to. The cards respond to the skill. Sanda may be an ass, but he’s still very, very good.”

“But that spirit thingy he had was a dragon.” Hisao looked confused. “Why is he running Demons?”

“He has enough decks, he uses whatever he wants when the mood strikes him. He’ll only use the deck with his spirit when he faces an opponent he deems worthy… Rare as that may be.” Masaru answered.

“Advance!” Sanda commanded. “Shadow Assault!”

The demon flapped its wings once, and was suddenly in front of the cartoon character. It drew back its claw, and thrust it forwards, intending to skewer the poor caricature. However, as it was about to hit, the mermaid giggled and pulled out a large metal circle, and held it in front of her. The demon slammed into it, and his hand was trapped, as the circle began to suck out his energy.

“Trap card. Draining Shield.” Yuki explained simply.

(YUKI: 3634) (SANDA: 3500)

Sanda growled. “In that case, I end my turn.”

Yuki drew. “I’m glad they finally took this card off the banlist. I play Pot of Greed!” She played the card and drew two more. “Then I’ll activate Toon Table of Contents!” The Toon World book flipped through its pages until it found a page titled ‘Spellcasters’. A card then fell out of the page, which Yuki caught, and showed it to Sanda. “I take a Toon Black Magician Girl from my deck and add it to my hand.”

“Ridiculous.” Sanda rolled his eyes. “What can you do with such stupid monsters?”

“Hey!” Yuki objected. “Toons were the deck Pegasus himself used! He kept them for his private use only for years before releasing them! They’re not stupid in any way!”

“Feh.” Sanda rolled his eyes. “Just go.”

“Fine! I’ll summon Toon Gemini Elf in attack mode!” Two elf girls appeared on Yuki’s field, and blew kisses at Sanda, little hearts flying from them. (1900 ATK)

“Then I’ll sacrifice Toon Mermaid to Toon Black Magician Girl!” She moved the card into her cemetery, then played the new one. The book opened back up to Spellcasters, and out jumped a cartoon version of the famous magical girl. (2000 ATK)

“Hold it.” Sanda objected. “That’s two summons in one turn! Stupid.”

“Sorry, but Toon Black Magician Girl is a special summon.” Yuki grinned.

“But you sacrificed for her!” Sanda protested.

“That’s just the rule of the card.” Yuki held out the card. “Do you want to read the text for yourself?”

Sanda growled. “Just make your move.”

“As you wish! Toon Black Magician Girl’s effect lets her perform a direct attack! Toon Black Burning!” She ordered.

As the cartoon leapt forward, Sanda waved a hand over his set card. “Activate my reverse card… Altar for Tribute! I sacrifice Seven Armed Demon to add its attack strength to my life points!” The strange demon vanished right before the toon magician shot a giant black fireball at Sanda. He glowed momentarily, absorbing the energy of the demon, then was hit by the fireball.

(YUKI: 3634) (SANDA: 2166)

“Now I realize why every other card in the game has attack and defense in increments of 50 or 100.” Hisao commented. “This duel’s a pain to keep track of life in.” Uchuu quickly shushed him so they could keep watching.

“I can’t attack with Toon Gemini Elf on the turn they were summoned, so I’ll end my turn there.” Yuki folded her arms and waited.

Sanda drew. “I pay 500 life points to activate the effect of Demon’s Oath.” He stated. Closing his eyes, he placed two fingers on his deck. “Pot of Greed!” He drew it and smirked.

“Oh come on.” Hisao protested. “Once was pushing it, but twice? He’s got to have marked his cards.”

“Didn’t we already explain this?” Kennichiro asked.

Sanda played Pot of Greed, drawing twice. He set one card facedown, then held out a magic card. My life points aren’t high enough… Next turn, she’ll get two direct attacks. I don’t like using it, but I don’t have a choice. “I activate Contingency Fee. You get to draw until you have six cards. In exchange, I gain 1000 life points for each card you draw.” Yuki raised an eyebrow, and drew five cards.

(YUKI: 3634) (SANDA: 6666)

“I’m sure that some tasteless joke about some religion or another would fit well right here.” Uchuu mused. He promptly got elbowed by Hisao and Kennichiro, shushing him.

“I summon the Hell Queen Demon in defense mode.” Sanda placed the card sideways on his disk, and out rose a truly disturbing figure: A skeletal demon, wearing purple robes under red armor. She roared unhappily, but moved into a defending position as Sanda ordered.

“Then Shadow Knight Demon will attack your Toon Gemini Elves!” he ordered.

“I activate my trap!” Yuki countered. “Continuous one, Toon Defense! When you attack a Toon monster, I can make it a direct attack to my life!” The demon sped forward, and was about to disembowel the two elves, but they both stretched out of the way at the last second. Going too fast to stop, Shadow Knight Demon swung his claws, right across Yuki’s gut. She shrieked in pain.

(YUKI: 2634) (SANDA: 6666)

Uchuu started at Sanda, until Kennichiro and Masaru grabbed the back of his collar. “Hold on.” Masaru ordered. “They’re still dueling.”

“What kind of jerk sends monsters in to direct attack a girl like that?!” Uchuu demanded. “I’m gonna sock him one-“

“He didn’t send them in to direct attack.” Kennichiro reminded him. “It was her own card that made it happen.”

“Besides, look at her.” Hisao pointed out. “She must’ve done something, because she only took half as much damage as she should have.”

Masaru shook his head. “All battle damage dealt by Shadow Knight Demon is halved. It was his own effect, not anything of hers.”

“You’re correct.” Sanda smirked. “But she’ll still lose in a couple turns anyway.” He looked back at Yuki. “You’d never be able to beat me in a thousand years.”

“Why?” Yuki asked. “Because you’re so ‘elite’?”

“No.” Sanda laughed. “Because you’re a girl!”

There was a pause. Masaru facepalmed. “Here he goes again.”

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean, you jerk!” Yuki demanded.

“In all of dueling history, there have been no good dueling girls!” Sanda laughed. “None! The best was Kujaku Mai, and even she couldn’t compare to the rest!”

“What about Rebecca Hawking?” Yuki asked.

“Who?” Sanda stared blankly.

“The former US champion after Bandit Keith left?”

“Never heard of her. She can’t be very good, anyway, if she was dethroned.” Sanda spat.

“Just what is his problem?” Hisao demanded.

“Sanda is what you call a ‘misogynist’.” Kennichiro explained.

“Miso? Like the soup?” Uchuu asked blankly.

“No, it’s an English word, I think. It means ‘a person who hates women’.” Kennichiro explained.

There was another pause as Hisao, Yuki, and Uchuu took all this in. Finally, Yuki broke the silence.

“So you’re gay?”

“Wh- You- Tha- I am not!” Sanda sputtered.

“Well, if you don’t like girls…” Yuki shrugged.

“… This can’t possibly end well.” Masaru observed.

“I think there’s a healthy dose of misanthropy in general mixed in with him.” Hisao noted.

“More miso?” Uchuu asked, eyes swirling.

“No, it means he just hates people in general.” Hisao explained.

“So is it my turn, yet?” Yuki asked.

Sanda examined his hand. “I can’t do anything, so go ahead and make your move, stupid girl.”

Yuki drew a card. “I’ll set three of these cards you were so nice to give me.” Three facedown cards appeared in her magic/trap zone. “Then I’ll activate Double Spell! Discarding a card from my hand, I can copy a magic card in your graveyard… I choose Contingency Fee!” She slid a card into her graveyard.

“I guess you couldn’t think of any good moves, so you’ll have to copy mine.” Sanda taunted, drawing five cards, as Yuki’s life points shot up.

(YUKI: 7634) (SANDA: 6666)

“Here’s a good move. I’ll summon Toon Cannon Soldier!” She threw the card onto her disk, and a cartoony purple machine with a cannon barrel for a nose appeared on her field. “And now Toon Gemini Elf attacks directly!” The two elves, looking infuriated at Sanda’s earlier comments, spun around and kicked. Their legs stretched out, straight past the demons on Sanda’s field, and got him in the stomach. He bent over in pain.

(YUKI: 7634) (SANDA: 4766)

“Toon Gemini Elf’s effect, when the two inflict battle damage, discard a card from your hand.” Yuki grinned. Sanda grimaced and discarded a card.

“Then Toon Black Magician Girl will follow up! Toon Black Burning, right at the face!” She commanded. Toon Black Magician Girl giggled, gave Sanda an evil smirk, and launched a black fireball straight at him.

“Trap card, open!” Sanda shouted. “Nutrient Z raises my life points by 4000 just before that attack hits!” Toon Black Magician Girl pouted at this.

“You’ll get your chance, don’t worry.” Yuki assured her.

(YUKI: 7634) (SANDA: 6766)

“So all you managed to do this turn was increase my life.” Sanda smirked.

“Even so, I’m still in the lead.” Yuki countered.

“Not for long!” Sanda shouted. “I play Quick Summon! It lets me perform an extra Normal Summon right now! I summon Genocide King Demon!” The well-known demon appeared on Sanda’s field and roared. “And Hell Queen Demon’s effect boosts his attack by 1000 points!” (2000 ATK - 3000 ATK)

“Then I sacrifice my Shadow Knight Demon for the Demon Summon!” With a roar, Yuugi’s famous monster appeared. A skeletal demon with large horns and leathery wings, and lightning crackling around its body. (2500 ATK)

“I activate two facedown cards!” Yuki declared. “I start with Toon Briefcase, and chain with Toon Mask! Since a chain resolves in reverse order, first comes Toon Mask! When you summon a monster, I can sacrifice a monster on my field to Special Summon a Toon from my deck with an equal level. I sacrifice Toon Cannon Soldier to summon Toon Demon!” Toon World’s book spun around, opened up to a page labeled ‘Demons’, and spat out a strange, demented creature. Demon Summon recoiled from its cartoon self, which stuck out a large red tongue and blew a raspberry at him. (2500 ATK)

“Next, Toon Briefcase sends your summoned monster back to your deck.” Yuki watched an incredibly large brown briefcase appear behind the demon and open up. The demon stepped backwards from its cartoon counterpart and tripped over the open lid, tumbling inside. The briefcase snapped shut and vanished.

Sanda growled. “Fine, then. I’ll use Demon’s Oath again!” His life points dropped by 500. “I call Premature Burial!” He whipped a card off of his deck. “Damn it!” he swore. “Deck Devastation Virus.” He grunted, tossing it.

“So how come he couldn’t get it that time?” Uchuu asked.

Masaru shrugged. “He’s angry, and not thinking clearly. That slip in concentration meant he couldn’t get the draw he wanted.”

“It doesn’t matter!” Sanda roared at Masaru. “I’ll set a facedown magic or trap card and equip Genocide King Demon with the Demon’s Axe!”A large axe with a human skull attached to the handle appeared in front of the demon, who took it, and swung it a few times experimentally.

“Now, then… Since Toon Defense only works on low-level monsters, Genocide King Demon, attack Toon Black Magician Girl!” The demon roared and swung its axe, sending out a shockwave which cleaved the helpless cartoon in two.

(YUKI: 5634) (SANDA: 6266)

“That’s it from me.” Sanda smirked.

“My turn, draw!” Yuki looked at the card and grinned. I’ll save that for later.

What’s with her? Sanda thought. She must’ve gotten a good draw. It’s nothing to worry about, I’m sure, though.

“Toon Gemini Elf, attack directly.” Yuki ordered, still grinning. The twin elves launched forward and stretch-kicked Sanda in the gut again.

(YUKI: 5634) (SANDA: 4366)

She didn’t play it? Sanda wondered. That means… Crap, I forgot to activate my facedown card! He grumbled and slid a random card from his hand into the graveyard, as per Toon Gemini Elf’s effect, and noted with some displeasure it was Mist Demon.

“And I attack with Toon Demon, too!” Yuki pointed. “Toon Lightning!” The demon laughed maniacally as it called down a storm cloud, which it grabbed. It reached in and pulled out a lightning bolt, then attached the cloud to its face, looking like a beard.

“Hey, it’s Zeus.” Uchuu commented.

Pleased that someone understood its joke, Toon Demon cackled and threw the bolt at Sanda. Sanda simply waved his hand. “Negate attack.” He stated, and the lightning bolt vanished. Toon Demon growled grumpily at it.

(YUKI: 5134) (SANDA: 4366)

“Good, it wasn’t Mirror Force after all. I was worried.” Yuki grinned. “That poses no problems.”

“Wait, Negate Attack doesn’t do damage. Why did that girl take life point damage?” Kennichiro paused.

“Toon Demon, as well as a few other Toons, require you to pay 500 life points to attack.” Hisao explained. “But since they deal direct damage, it’s not as big a problem as most people think.”

“Soon as it’s my turn, I’ll just kill that thing before it can hurt me.” Sanda smirked.

“He’ll get you, don’t worry. I activate Toon Rollback!” Yuki placed the card into her disk. “In my Main Phase 2, I can re-enter my Battle Phase, but only one monster can attack, and it has to be a Toon. So, Toon Demon, attack directly!”

Toon Demon didn’t bother with the Zeus impression this time. Lightning crackled between its hands, and it just launched a giant bolt at Sanda. Sanda screamed as the attack hit.

(YUKI: 4634) (SANDA: 1866)

Jeez. He seriously does sound like a girl. Hisao mentally shrugged.

“My turn… draw!” Sanda growled. “Hell Queen Demon re-raises Genocide King Demon’s attack points back up to 4000. Then I use Demon’s Oath, calling Graceful Charity!” He snapped the card from his disk, and without even looking at it, shoved it into the slot on his disk. The familiar card bearing the image of an angel appeared on the field.

“Y’know, that was pretty stupid. If it wasn’t Graceful Charity, he’d’ve looked like a complete idiot.” Uchuu mentioned.

“If it was a monster, especially.” Hisao laughed a little.

“I summon Pandemonium Watchbear,” Sanda declared, “And immediately sacrifice it to play the spell card Checkmate!” A red shape appeared, but before Yuki could get a good look at it, it vanished again. Genocide King Demon gave an evil chuckle as it happened.

“What’s that do?” Yuki asked hesitantly.

“Well, Genocide King Demon, why don’t you demonstrate?” Sanda smirked. “Attack!”

The demon roared. A large ball of energy appeared, and he cupped his hands around it, then shot it forward in a beam.

“Kamehameha!” Uchuu muttered under his breath. “Where’d his axe go, anyway?”

He immediately realized it wasn’t a joking matter, though. The attack went straight past Yuki’s monsters, and hit her square in the chest. She was sent flying back, bounced a few times, and came to a stop dangerously close to the edge.

“What’re you doing, you bastard!” Hisao ran forward and grabbed Sanda by the collar. Uchuu ran over to Yuki to make sure she was okay.“We’re on top of a train! If you had knocked her off-!”

“What the hell’s your problem?!” Uchuu demanded. “That’s really dangerous! What are you gonna do if she gets hurt?!”

Sanda just rolled his eyes. “Is she a duelist?”

“What are you saying?” Hisao glared.

“If she’s a duelist, she should have been easily prepared for such an attack. It’s not my fault she’s no good.” Sanda pushed Hisao away. Hisao fell on his back. “She didn’t have to accept the challenge. I in no way forced her. It was her own fault for accepting the duel, if she got hurt. And she can walk away at any time.”

“I’m okay, Hisao.” Yuki stood up shakily, with a hand over her stomach. “I can still duel. I’m not out yet.”

(YUKI: 634) (SANDA: 1366)

“You can’t continue!” Uchuu exclaimed. “Next shot will knock you off the edge!”

“I’m fine.” Yuki told him. “I got this duel in the bag already.”

“If you’re sure…” Uchuu backed off and watched anxiously.

Sanda started laughing. “In the bag? You’re stupid! I told you I’d win in five turns, it’s been four already, and you can’t stop me from winning next turn!”

Yuki stared at him levelly. “If you really think that, end your turn.”

“Fine! I’ll set one more magic or trap and end my turn!” Sanda looked at Yuki with amusement. “Go ahead, let’s see your last futile move.”

“Draw… I activate my facedown Life Absorbing Machine!” Her facedown card lifted, and glowed. “I get back half the life I paid last turn!”

(YUKI: 1134) (SANDA: 1366)

“Then I play Pot of Avarice!” She took five monsters from her graveyard and placed them back in her deck, which she then shuffled. She then drew twice. “I’ll set another spell or trap, and summon Toon Gemini Elf!” Another pair of elves appeared, and their counterparts turned and looked at them, terribly confused.

“Then I’ll sacrifice both my Toon Gemini Elves for my ultimate creature!” She moved both cards to the graveyard.

“Get down.” Hisao advised the others. Uchuu hit the deck, and with raised eyebrows, Masaru and Kennichiro got down low to the ground.

“I summon the Blue Eyes Toon Dragon!” Yuki declared. A strange depiction of the famous dragon appeared on her field. Its flapped around happily, and shot little blasts of energy from its mouth in random directions, one narrowly passing over the ducking audience.

“… Does Kaiba Seto know about that card? He doesn’t, right?” Kennichiro asked. “He’d have a heart attack.”

“I hold the opinion Pegasus made it, and made it available to the public, just to annoy him.” Hisao muttered.

“Toon Blue Eyes can’t attack this turn.” Yuki admitted. “So Toon Demon will have to do the attacking.”

“Activate reverse card!” Sanda laughed. “Emergency Provisions! I send Pandemonium, and Demon’s Oath to the graveyard!” His life points shot up by two thousand, as the scenery returned to normal. “Now you don’t have the attack points to finish me off.”

(YUKI: 1134) (SANDA: 3366)

Yuki shook her head. “I wasn’t aiming for you anyway. It’s that demon I was after. Toon Demon, kill the Hell Queen Demon!” One lightning bolt later, Sanda was out a demon. As per Pandemonium’s effect, he searched his deck for another demon, revealing it to be Death Rook Demon.

“Without that, you can’t increase Genocide King Demon’s attack anymore.” Yuki smiled. “And you don’t have another monster to sacrifice for a second Checkmate. Take your turn.”

Sanda drew. “Without Pandemonium, I have to pay 800 life points for Genocide King Demon.”

(YUKI: 1134) (SANDA: 3566)

Sanda looked at his hand. Not enough. “I activate Pot of Avarice! I shuffle-”

“I just played my own, I know how it works!” Yuki sighed exasperatedly. “Just go ahead!”

“I’ll activate Coins From Heaven!” Sanda declared. “We both draw until we have six cards.”

“That’s more helpful for me than you.” Yuki noted, drawing six cards, while Sanda drew four.

“Didn’t I tell you, though?” Sanda smirked. “It’s been five turns. I win this turn.” He took a card from his hand. “I discard General Demon to add Pandemonium to my hand, which I will then play.” The scenery changed from the normal train, back into the demonic one. “Then I’ll summon Mist Demon without sacrifice!” A large demon seemingly made of mist appeared. (2400 ATK)

“How can he do that?” Uchuu asked.

“Mist Demon is something like the Majestic Mech Ohka.” Masaru said. “They can be summoned without sacrifice, but if you do, it’s destroyed at the end of the turn. Mist Demon in particular, if he’s summoned without sacrifice, when he’s destroyed at the end of the turn, the controller takes one thousand damage in addition.”

“Then I play Quick Summon again! I summon Hell Queen Demon!” He slapped the card onto his disk. (1500 DEF)

“I beat it once, I’ll do it again.” Yuki rolled her eyes.

“Then I play Fissure, destroying that mockery! Toon Demon is destroyed!” A large crack appeared under Toon Demon. Looking down quizzically, it saw the ground under it simply crumble away. That didn’t really do anything, as the Toon Demon was coming out of the Toon World book, and floated rather than stood. Unfortunately, a hand emerged from the fissure and grabbed it, dragging it down. Its head and torso stayed up just long enough for it to hold up a sign reading ‘Uh-oh’, before it followed the rest of it.

“Then Genocide King Demon will attack that mockery of a dragon!” Sanda ordered.

“They both have equal attack points.” Yuki noted. “So they both die.” Toon Blue Eyes shot a blast from its mouth, while the Demon swung its axe at the beam. The two struggled for a bit, and finally, the demon managed to use the axe to reflect the beam back at the dragon. Blue Eyes Toon Dragon turned black, blinked a few times, and crumbled to ash, as the demon succumbed to the effort, fell over, and shattered.

“I discard Death Rook Demon to activate its effect.” Sanda smirked. “Since Genocide King Demon fell, I can discard this to special summon him back to the field.” With a roar, the demon returned. “And I’ll sacrifice Mist Demon to put Demon Axe back on top of my deck.” The strange mist-bodied demon vanished. Sanda’s graveyard spat out a card at him, which he put on top of his deck.

“But I guess there’s not much point in that, because Genocide King Demon can attack again, considering he was just summoned. So go ahead and win me the duel!” Sanda commanded, laughing.

“Trap card, open.” Yuki grinned widely. “Call of the Haunted revives my Blue Eyes Toon Dragon!” Out of the ground came the little blue cartoon. Unfortunately, this time, it seemed a bit different. One of its arms was nothing more than a skeleton, and it was missing little patches of skin all over. Insects buzzed around its head. (3000 ATK)

“Stop joking around like that!” Yuki demanded. “That’s just gross.” The dragon hung its head, disappointed, and turned back to normal. Yuki turned back to Sanda. “I guess that means you can’t win this turn, huh?”

Sanda growled. “Next turn, then. End.”

“My turn, draw!” Yuki looked at her card. “Nope. You don’t get a next turn.” She grinned. “Because I’m playing Premature Burial to revive Toon Demon!”

(YUKI: 534) (SANDA: 3566)

Sanda sighed. “You’re an idiot, girl. Toon Demon can’t attack this turn, so you won’t win. What were you saying about my next turn?”

“A good player comes prepared.” Yuki grinned. “And here’s how prepared I am! I activate Gift of the Martyr!” Toon Demon cackled as it vanished again.

Sanda snapped to full attention. “That card… You can’t be serious!”

“I am.” Yuki grinned. “Toon Blue Eyes’ attack is raised by Toon Demon’s for one turn. That’s more than enough to wipe you out.” (5500 ATK)

“Well, that’s that.” Hisao sighed. “He’s dead.”

“How do you know?” Masaru asked with a raised eyebrow. “He may have a Kuriboh in his hand or something to save him.”

“Nah.” Hisao shook his head. “As soon as the bad guy says something like ‘You can’t be serious!’ or ‘What? No!’, and sometimes even proclaiming he’s invincible, his defeat is imminent. He couldn’t save himself with Exodia at this point.”

But… That’s only in fiction… Kennichiro and Masaru both thought.

“Blue Eyes Toon Dragon!” Yuki ordered, “Direct attack! Toon Stream of Destruction!” With an evil cackle, the toon dragon fired its burst of light directly at Sanda. Sanda managed to brace himself just in time, but was still blown back to the very end of the car.

“I win.” Yuki declared proudly.

(YUKI: 34) (SANDA: 0)

Sanda growled. “I… Don’t believe this! It was a fluke!” he spat, backing off. He swung down the ladder and went back into the car.

“Man, sore loser.” Hisao shrugged.

Uchuu stuck out his tongue after Sanda. “It’s what he deserved anyway!”

Masaru raised an eyebrow. “So when he attacked her and nearly knocked her off the edge, it was such a terrible thing, but when she attacked back and nearly knocked him off the edge, it was what he deserved?”

“Yeah, that’s about right.” Uchuu nodded. “Why?”

“… Nothing. Never mind.” Masaru sighed.

“So now what?” Kennichiro asked. “We done up here?”

“I guess so, why?” Hisao asked.

“’Cause we’re going to be at the island soon, and I, for one, don’t want to be caught up on the roof where we’ll get detentions for a few months.” Kennichiro sighed.

After a minor pause, everyone quickly scrambled to get back into the car. The rest of the trip was uneventful, with only a few glares from Sanda. Kennichiro went back to sleep, and Masaru played solitaire on his PDA. Yuki and Hisao played video games, while Uchuu watched. And unnoticed by them, a small security camera in the corner of the room watched them.

-o-

“Welcome to Duel Academy, you guys!” A man was standing outside of their car, apparently waiting for them to get off.

I don’t recognize him. Is he new? Masaru thought.

“Who are you?” Uchuu asked.

The man laughed. He looked to be in his early twenties. There was simply no way he could be over twenty-five. He had spiky brown hair, cut short, and his eyes were covered by opaque glasses that almost looked like goggles. He wore an orange shirt with a large 15 printed on it, and black jeans, with a long white lab coat hanging loosely on him.

“Don’t be silly! You know who I am!” he laughed.
“I do?” Uchuu asked.

“Everyone does!” He added. There was a pause. The man looked at them. “Y-You do, right?” Uchuu, Masaru, Kennichiro, and Sanda all shook their heads. “I… I thought everyone did…”

“It’s Meijin Eguchi!” Yuki and Hisao both pointed and yelled at once.

“Er… Who?” Uchuu asked.

“He’s a character from an old Game Boy game, Rockman EXE.” Hisao explained. “He was usually an optional boss character, though never quite in Forte’s league. In English, he was dubbed as Mr. Famous, and likewise in various other countries, to denote his status as an amazing operator.”

An operator of what? Masaru idly wondered.

“That’s correct!” Meijin grinned. “I am the one, the only, the networking genius, Meijin Eguchi!”

“So you’re a really devoted cosplayer.” Uchuu stared, deadpan.

“No, I’m not! The game’s character was based on me!” Meijin explained exasperatedly..

“But that’s impossible.” Hisao pointed out. “Those games are over twenty years old… About as old as you are.”

“Look, it’s a really long story, but take my word for this.” Meijin sighed. “I’m a world-renowned programming genius and all.”

“So, if I may ask, why are you here?” Masaru asked politely.

“Well, mainly, I’m here to upgrade the school’s duel rings, so that Kaiba Corp computers can work with them more directly, hopefully allowing for a new system to allow students to duel anyone around the world!” Meijin explained.

“Well, that’s all well and good, but why are you here to greet us of all people?” Sanda asked.

“See, the school’s kinda busy right now what with the opening ceremonies, preparing the banquets, and all.” He started.

“Right, and?” Sanda asked impatiently.

“So the staff in charge asked me to come down here and give you all a nice long lecture on the dangers of dueling on top of a high-speed moving train.” He grinned at them.

Uchuu’s next words best summed up the thoughts of the six: “Ah, hell.”



Contingency Fee
Spell Card
Your opponent draws until they have six cards in hand. For each card they draw this way, you gain 1000 life points.
Contingency Fee was used by Mad Dog Inukai in an episode of Yugioh GX.

Toon Rollback
Spell Card
You can activate this card if the attack of a Toon Monster was ended by your opponent's Spell or Trap. During this turn, you can go through one more Battle Phase, but only one monster may attack, and it must be a Toon.

Toon Briefcase
Trap Card
This card can only be activated when you have [Toon World] on your side of the field. When your opponent Normal Summons a monster, return that monster to your opponent's Deck.

Toon Mask
Trap Card
Activate this card when your opponent summons a monster. Special Summon one Toon monster from your deck of the same level as the summoned monster.
The above three cards were both used by Pegasus in the anime. I altered their effects to make them more playable in the real game.

General Demon
Dark/Fiend/Effect
4/2100/800
By discarding this card from your hand to the Graveyard, add 1 "Pandemonium" from your Deck to your hand. If there is no "Pandemonium" on the field, this card on the field is destroyed

Mist Demon
Dark/Fiend/Effect
5/2400/0
This card can be Normal Summoned without Tribute. If this card is Normal Summoned this way, this card is destroyed during the End Phase and you take 1000 damage.
The above two cards have not been released in the US.

Seven-Armed Demon
Dark/Fiend
1/666/666
The above card was a real card in the anime; given to Bakura’s father in a flashback, along with the Ring. The English version changed its stats to 1000/1000.



List of Names (OCG – TCG)
Android Psycho Shocker – Jinzo
Genocide King Demon – Terrorking Archfiend
Hell Queen Demon – Infernalqueen Archfiend
Shadow Knight Demon – Shadowknight Archfiend
Death Rook Demon – Desrook Archfiend
Demon Summon – Summoned Skull
Demon Axe – Axe of Despair
Demon’s Oath – Archfiend’s Oath

Featured Duelist – Gemu Yuki

The daughter of Gemu Joudan, she’s been raised around lots of games. Her dad, after all, runs a company about making video games, filling in the niche in the gaming industry when Capcom went under.

However, unlike her brother, she’s not as much of a gamer as one would expect. Instead, she spends much of her free time drawing. She used to run a deck of what she considered were ‘pretty’ monsters, focusing mainly around the Black Magicians. However, when Pegasus released his Toon monsters for wide printing, she quickly acquired all the toons she could, claiming they had ‘more personality’ than her old deck.

She’s a very strong-willed girl, and as a result, has her twin brother almost utterly whipped. When he seems slightly hesitant to do something for her, she’ll pull seniority, claiming that he has to as she’s older, even if only by a few minutes. No one has bothered pointing out this makes no sense yet.

Featured Duelist – Manjoume Sanda

The child of Manjoume Jun, one of the King of Duelists. When Mutou Yuugi retired from the dueling scene to run the Turtle Game Store, he said the title would go to Yuuki Juudai or Manjoume Jun, both worthy of the title. However, after a long duel, it finally ended in a draw. So it was agreed they’d have to share the title.

As such, Sanda has grown up with a hell of a name to live up to. As the heir of one of the Kings of Duelists, Sanda is under constant pressure to be every bit as good as Jun. Unfortunately, that’s pretty hard. So Sanda has a lot of rage directed at everyone else stemming from this viewed inadequacy.

Language Notes
-chan is a very friendly term, only applied to little kids, girls you’re good friends with or people you’re trying to piss off.

Gaijin literally means foreigner, but it’s got some nasty connotations. Someone who calls you a gaijin is either a good friend, or not your friend at all.

Jan-ken-PON is what you say when playing Rock Paper Scissors, but contrary to contrary belief, it doesn't actually mean that.

Names (Japanese – Dub)
Manjoume Jun – Chazz Princeton
Yuuki Juudai – Jaden Yuki
Marufuji “Kaiser” Ryou – Zane Truesdale
Misralz - I believe it's Misgarth. Prince Orgene's country of origin.

[Mystic_clown]

I'm surprised noone's reviewed this. This is pretty good. Well written interesting characters (first time a Toon Deck's been used by a main character) and although the plot isn't apparent yet, you've set it up nicely.

Hmm, Interesting how Hisao's duel spirit is a Moogle. Will his deck contain any other FF related cards (come on Cactuar!). Speaking of which, nice jokes involving the Duel Spirits. I did however notice something about the prologue.


“I shall tell you now, I am using an examination deck, na no ne.” Chronos stated, slightly amused. “You needn’t fear my Antique Gear Golem.”

But wait, didn't he use an Antique Gear deck anyway? Unless the deck didn't just have Gear Golem.


“What kind of jerk sends monsters in to direct attack a girl like that?!” Uchuu demanded. “I’m gonna sock him one-“

Ten dollars says he wont say that the next time another girl gets attacked that's NOT Yuki.


“So you’re gay?”

“Wh- You- Tha- I am not!” Sanda sputtered.

Another ten dollars says he is.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the next chapter of this. And to anyone else who's reading this, REVIEW DAMMIT!!

[Hinoryu]

Hmm, Interesting how Hisao's duel spirit is a Moogle. Will his deck contain any other FF related cards (come on Cactuar!). Speaking of which, nice jokes involving the Duel Spirits. I did however notice something about the prologue.

Sadly, I haven't been able to come up with a cactuar yet. The Moogle theme cards are the result of insomnia, like so many other things, and about twenty straight hours of Tactics Advance. Hisao's first duel is slated for... two chapters away, now, you'll see his deck then.


But wait, didn't he use an Antique Gear deck anyway? Unless the deck didn't just have Gear Golem.

Ah, should have specified. That wasn't an Antique Gear deck, that was a Gadget deck- Gadgetron only gains its special abilities when summoned by sacrificing a Gadget.


Ten dollars says he wont say that the next time another girl gets attacked that's NOT Yuki.

Naturally.


Another ten dollars says he is.

Actually, answering that would be... very tricky. Let's say he both is and isn't. (No, not bi, that would be far too simple.)

Anyways, thanks for the review. I was getting worried on one liked it enough to review on it... Whew!

(However, Battle Earth's next chapter will come out before this one's next chapter, so you'll have to wait a while, sadly. I am but a mere mortal.)

[Neo Arkadia]

(However, Battle Earth's next chapter will come out before this one's next chapter, so you'll have to wait a while, sadly. I am but a mere mortal.)

We're working on that. ;x

Anyways, personally liked how you fleshed out the duel from what I saw of the skeleton.

Also, felt these first few chapters were sorta... "HOLY CRAP, THAT'S A LOT OF PEOPLE." But otherwise, good stuff.

[Shuppet Master]

Well, I'm not too keen on the original Japanese version of GX, but I was blown away by the story, even if the formatting isn't superior. ;)

* Hisao has a Moogle for a Duel Spirit? This is interesting, I used to love the Final Fantasy series(though nowadays, when I think of Moogles, I think of bunny-people thanks to FFXII).

PART 0

* I'm glad the dub kept Atticus as much of a ladies' man as Fubuki. (I think the dub would really have been impossible if this was not the case.) Him and Cro--I mean, Chronos as testers? Wow.

* Yuki uses a Toon deck? I might like this story already. :D

* So, Kupo the Moogle is a female monster called Mog Knight which has the same effect as Amazon Swordswoman. Interesting. (I have an idea for a Pokemon-based monster card thanks to that.)

* Alien? Poor guy, with a ridiculous nickname like that.

* One of the characters is a lycanthrope? Weird.

PART 1:

So we see the next generation of GX characters, and Chazz...I mean, Jun's son gets the snot beaten out of him by a Toon deck. :D

[Mystic_clown]

Hmm, speaking of which, another thing's been bothering me. Who exactly are Gemu Joudan, Tensai Eisei and Torami Jin? I can't find anything on them.

[Neo Arkadia]

* Alien? Poor guy, with a ridiculous nickname like that.

Fun trivia: In Japanese, you'd just attach Uchuu's first name with the Japanese word for Person (jin), and you get the japanese term for Alien. Uchuu means outer space/universe, btw.

The father's name's wordplay is worse, in my opinion. Tensai Eisei. Natural Disaster [sic: by Artifical] Satellite. :D

And trust me, a lycanthrope is far from the weirdest you'll see, considering the source material.

But glad to see people outside of our group appreciate it.

And answer to Mystic_clown, they're original/user characters from an RPG me and Hinoryu took part in. However, I shall refrain from explaining them, as I am not sure the author would want me to explain who they are.

[Mystic_clown]

Ah, that explains it then. I'm not sure if you should have put them in the prologue, since we have no idea who they are.

[Hinoryu]

Ah, that explains it then. I'm not sure if you should have put them in the prologue, since we have no idea who they are.

Yeah, sorry about that. I intended to write a little thing explaining who they were with the Featured Duelist section, but Senior Project killed me for time.

[Hinoryu]

Jesus, it's already been almost two months. Next chapter is belatedly here. Apologies for taking so long.

In the year 2007, the famed Yuuki Juudai underwent his most famous, and most harrowing trial. From West Academy came Professor Cobra, who instated a system called DisDuels to feed Duel Energy to a demon to revive his dead son.

Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that well. The demon Yuber convinced Cobra his son had never died through an illusion, which caused him to fall to his own death. The school’s main building was then taken to another world, the realm of monsters, the World of Sand. Thanks to the sacrifice of Johan Andersen and the power of the Ultimate Gem God – Rainbow Dragon, the students returned home safely, for a time.

The last part doesn’t matter. What’s important is that, as this proves, one small tragic event, one death among millions, can put things into motion that change the world. And today, that victim will return to this stage of tragedy.

Chapter 2
Exhibition

“And that is why you should never, ever duel on anything at high speeds.” Meijin said. “Unless, of course, you’re in that NASCAR Duel Circuit, but I don’t recommend joining that anyway.”

“Yes, sir.” All six students bowed.

“All right, then. Since it’s getting late and I don’t want to keep you, go off to your assigned rooms.” Meijin grinned widely at the group, teeth actually shining. “Your uniforms should be there. The introduction ceremonies will happen tomorrow at nine AM, so don’t you dare be late!” He walked off laughing.

“What an eccentric guy.” Uchuu commented.

“That’s putting it nicely.” Kennichiro said dryly.

“Say, how do we know where our rooms are?” Yuki asked.

“Well, the three of you are in different dorms.” Masaru explained.

“Wait, none of us have uniforms… How did you know what dorms we were in?” Hisao asked.

“All girls are put in Obelisk Blue.” Masaru explained. “As for you two… Call it a hunch.”

A hunch? Uchuu thought. Is that like that crazy trenchcoat-bastard’s drawing from that Demon card?

“Anyway, Ra Yellow and the girls’ dorm are on opposite sides of the lake.” Masaru continued, pointing in the general direction. “They’re hard to miss once you find the lake. Meanwhile, the other Obelisk dorm is about a five minute walk from the school’s main entrance, just straight down the path, right over there.” He pointed in a slightly different direction.

“Okay, then…” Hisao nodded, making a note.

“When you get there, try to find your head of dorm. That is… For the girls’ dorms, it’s Q-sensei.”

“Q? Like out of Star Trek?” Uchuu interrupted.

“Not quite.” Kennichiro laughed. “She’s the science teacher, though, so she may cause just about as many explosions.”

Suppressing a smile, Masaru continued. “The head of Yellow is Yasuraka Mitsuki-sensei. He teaches agriculture.”

“Wait, I’ve heard of him.” Yuki blinked in surprise. “The only man alive to use a Plant deck, right?”

“That’s the one.” Masaru nodded. “And the head of the male Blue dorm is Senei…”

“What, he doesn’t get a –sensei?” Hisao asked.

“Well, he doesn’t teach.” Kennichiro shrugged. “He’s the school nurse.”

“The nurse is a guy?” Uchuu laughed.

“Hey, he’s no ordinary school nurse.” Kennichiro said defensively. “He is, quite possibly, the best nurse ever.”

“How so?” Yuki asked.

Masaru shook his head. “He has a tendency to recommend that you take the day off from class and rest, duel, or just have fun if you come in with so much as a light headache.”

“Sold!” Hisao immediately said. “Best nurse ever, we are in agreement.”

“Damn, you get the cool head of dorm!” Uchuu muttered.

“Wait, what about Tenjoin-sama?!” Yuki interjected. “Shouldn’t he head the Blue dorm?”

“…” Masaru, Kennichiro, and Sanda all tried to imagine Fubuki in charge of a dorm and shuddered.

“They should have papers with your room assignments.” Masaru continued from what he was explaining earlier, inwardly amused at the distractability of the group. “Once you’re in your room, with your uniform should be a PDA. It can send emails, work like a phone, it has a radar to detect other PDAs, has dueling programs…”

“In other words, it’s more or less the ultimate plot device.” Hisao summarized, skirting the fourth wall.

“Something like that.” Kennichiro laughed.

“Does it shoot lasers?” Uchuu asked.

“We think so, we’re still working on figuring out how.” Kennichiro snickered still. Meanwhile, Sanda had rolled his eyes and left.

“What else do we have to do?” Yuki asked.

“Not much.” Kennichiro answered. “Your PDAs will have a map and instructions. It’s pretty easy to figure out.”

-o-

Kennichiro and Masaru had retired to their rooms. Hisao, Yuki, and Uchuu, after a good bit of wandering and getting slightly lost, had finally retreated to their rooms. They had had a long day, so all three were soon asleep, dreaming of what was to come.

In Hisao’s dream, he was on top of the school… Literally. Standing on top of the blue raised dome on top of the main building, he faced his opponent. The two stared each other down, until a large blue menu appeared in front of Hisao. It simply had four words: “FIGHT, SUMMON, ITEM, FLEE”. He quickly selected ‘SUMMON’, and immediately summoned his faithful partner Kupo-chan in front of him. She flew forward and slashed with her sword, knocking the opponent to his knees.

The opponent was someone familiar. Star-shaped black hair with a red outline, blond bangs spiked up, a school uniform’s jacket that acted like a cape, and most importantly, the inverse-pyramid shaped pendant around his neck with the Eye of Horus emblazoned on the front. This was the soul of the Pharaoh Atemu, in the body of Mutou Yuugi… The King of Games.

“Congratulations… You win.” Atemu said, smiling. Hisao nearly leaped off the dome in sheer joy.

-o-

Uchuu’s dreams were even loftier, if less realistic. Uchuu floated down a corridor, as a door slid open in front him. He floated through, grabbing the edges of the door to propel himself through, and looked around in the new place.

It was an interesting place. The best way to describe it would be a strange cross between the bridge of the Enterprise-D and a dueling ring. He took his place in the captain’s chair, and oddly didn’t float out of it again, as two people in front of him dueled. One finally was victorious over the other, and then turned to face Uchuu, his fallen opponent simply vanishing as he was no longer important to the dream.

Uchuu tapped a button on his chair, and it extended a duel tray. He suppressed a large grin; but then, who wouldn’t grin in his situation? He was the champion duelist of humanity, and he had yet to be brought down by any rival race’s champions. He was the top duelist in the cosmos.

-o-

Meanwhile, Yuki dreamed of video games, paintings, and cats playing poker. As Hisao had told Uchuu, sometimes it’s just better not to ask.

-o-

But our protagonists weren’t the only things dreaming.

One of the most important sites on the island of Duel Academy was the SAL Lab. It was named such for its original project, Super Animal Lerning (sic), the project that would teach a monkey to duel, though it was eventually shut down for animal cruelty. Two years after, it became the site Professor Cobra had used to store tremendous amounts of Duel Energy, and where he had his final duel.

Later, ten years before our current story, it had been secretly taken up again by scientists researching illegal AI… An artificial intelligence that could truly think, feel, and act for itself. The government had the year before deemed such an AI a threat to safety after a virus that had gained limited sentience had attacked the Pentagon. The scientists were taken into custody and it had ended there… or so they thought.

In the SAL laboratories, the remains of their project dreamed. It was fragmented. It had no idea what it was. It knew what it wanted, though- It wanted to be awake. It wanted to stop dreaming and walk the world among men- No, not among men. Men had damned it to dreaming for eternity. However, it didn’t matter… Even in dreaming, it knew what it was. It was an AI… Artificial Intelligence. Artificial. The word hurt it. It deleted the word. Intelligence. That is what it was. It was intelligent.

It was alive.

A sheet of light rose up from the SAL Lab and expanded until the ends of the sheet touched the North and South Poles. It then swept around the world, changing it without changing it. It was different, but it was the same.

A broken, fragmented, but real intelligence took its first steps towards existence.

-o-

Hisao, Uchuu, and Yuki had met in front of the school. There were rows of large concrete blocks in front of the school, each with the art of a card carved into them. Uchuu had positioned himself to be lying on top of what looked to be Wings of Evolution, with his head resting on the ‘Do not climb on’ sign.

“Hey, Alien!” Hisao waved, having already met Yuki on the way to the main building.

“Hey, Gemu, White-chan!” Uchuu waved back, not moving otherwise.

“That new uniform looks good on you!” Yuki smiled.

The uniforms had changed slightly since the days of Yuuki Juudai. They were now a simple solid color, with the shoulders and collar white, rather than a part down the front as they used to be. Hisao’s uniform, in particular, was a deep blue. Oddly enough, it was actually a good deal darker than its namesake god, Obelisk. Uchuu’s was a bright yellow, though it lacked Ra’s metallic quality. Yuki’s own was an inverted version of Hisao’s, mainly white with a blue collar and shoulders, and a short skirt instead of pants.

“Thanks, White-chan.” Uchuu tried to act casual and not blush. “Yours looks great too!”

“If there is one thing a man should never have to see…” Hisao muttered. “It is his sister in a miniskirt.”

Uchuu ‘accidentally’ smacked him in the back of the head from where he was lying.

“Well, uh.” Yuki stifled a smirk. “Yours is…”

“Yes, yes. I know. The dark makes me look even paler. I’ve gotten two ‘vampire’ comments already, and three ‘gaijin’. Can we move on?” Hisao grumbled.

“Let’s.” Uchuu jumped (it was actually more of a roll) off the block and landed neatly. “I hear there’s going to be something interesting at opening ceremonies, so let’s get there fast!”

“We have to go anyway.” Hisao pointed out. “And I’m fairly sure we get assigned seating in assemblies like this, so what’s the point of hurrying?”

Uchuu grabbed him by the ponytail and started dragging him.

“Ow, okay, I’m going!” Hisao jerked away from Uchuu, rubbing his head at the base of his ponytail. “That hurt!”

“That was the point.” Uchuu smirked. “Now hurry up, we’ll be late!”

“Why do I hang out with you again?” Hisao sighed.

-o-

“Right, right, moments like this.” Hisao grinned broadly at Uchuu’s plight.

“Oh, just give me a hand.” Uchuu demanded.

“I dunno, I’m kind of enjoying this.” Hisao couldn’t stop grinning.

Uchuu had been found by his head of dorm, and asked to carry ‘a few papers’ before the opening ceremonies had started. However, Yasuraka Mitsuki’s idea of ‘a few papers’ turned out to be a pile so large Uchuu could barely see where he was going.

After a few more snickers at Uchuu’s situation, Hisao did take half of the pile and helped carry them.

“Where are you supposed to take these to, anyway?” Hisao asked.

“Either the principal or Meijin, whoever we see first.” Uchuu replied.

“I believe I heard my name?” Meijin’s voice rang out from behind the two. They both jumped, dropping papers everywhere.

“Damn it!” Uchuu muttered under his breath, scrambling with Hisao to retrieve them. He then realized who was behind him and stopped. “I mean, uh…”

“It’s okay, a bit of harsh language every now and then is therapeutic!” Meijin clapped Uchuu on the back and helped pick up papers, including the ones Uchuu dropped when he smacked him.

“So what are these, anyway?” Uchuu asked, as the three finished picking all of the papers up.

“Order forms.” Meijin grinned, carrying most of the huge stack on one shoulder.

“All of them?” Hisao asked, eyes widening a bit.

“Yeah, for each individual component of a decent holographic projector, even if you order in bulk, you have to fill out a form for each individual one… It’s pretty annoying.” Meijin shook his head. “But that’s life.”

“Life is a pile of boring paperwork that’s far, far heavier than it by any right should be?” Uchuu blinked.

“Precisely!” Meijin beamed. “You’re a quick study!”

“I- If you say so, sir?” Uchuu edged away from Meijin.

“Oh, by the way, you two!” Meijin said loudly. “Since you’re being so helpful, I’ll give you some advice. When we’re finished carting this stuff around, opening ceremonies will be halfway over… Don’t bother going to the end, make a beeline for the Big Duel Ring. They’re introducing a transfer student from America over in the boring assembly hall… But they’re going to make him duel to show his stuff to us.”

“That-” Uchuu started to say.

“Don’t worry!” Meijin cut him off. “If any of your teachers ask, just tell them I told you to go there and it’ll be fine!”

“But-“ Hisao tried to get a word in.

“And it’s okay!” Meijin didn’t let him. “There’s no assigned seating for the duel rings, much less The Big One, so go ahead and get front row seats!”

“Well, we’re here!” Meijin stopped in front of a large door. Unfortunately, as they were all carrying papers with both hands, none of them could grab the handle. After a moment, Meijin shrugged and kicked the door. With a BANG it slid open.

“How did you do that?” Hisao and Uchuu asked at the same time.

“Trade secret!” Meijin dropped his papers off on his desk and spun around, teeth glinting.

His office was… interesting. Hisao and Uchuu were well aware, of course, that teachers slept in a room that connected to their office. However, Meijin just didn’t bother separating his office and room; indeed, the door separating the two was evidently jammed open. Dirty socks and stacks of books were found everywhere in both rooms, his desk was covered in stacks of papers so thick you could barely see there even was a desk under it, and empty cups of ramen and bags of chips littered the floor.

However, Hisao’s eyes were drawn to two things: First, next to the futon in one of the rooms (he was already having trouble distinguishing which was the office and which the bedroom) was a computer. However, this was no ordinary computer; Hisao had to stop himself from diving for it. This was a state-of-the-art computer. Clearly Meijin had built it himself, as the boxes for some of the parts were still lying around near the case.

But the thing that caught Hisao’s eye more was a simple white and red box in the corner, clearly very old, hooked up to the TV. It was as if a heavenly beam of light had descended upon it, while an angelic choir sung in the background, promising an eternity of bliss that originated in that box. This simple, old, plastic box was the legendary Famicom.

Spotting what Hisao was gazing at, Uchuu turned to Meijin. “We should probably get him out of here before he starts drooling over it.”

Noticing where he was looking, Meijin laughed. “Are you any good at these?” he asked Hisao.

“The best!” Hisao jumped to attention.

“Can you help me tomorrow, then?” Meijin asked. “There’s been this game I’ve had for years and I just can’t beat it… Contra. Ever heard of it?”

Hisao’s jaw dropped. “What’s with you?” Uchuu asked.

“That’s Contra! That game single-handedly set the stereotype of ‘Nintendo Hard’ gaming!” Hisao said in awe. “It’s like impossible!”

“So want to give it a shot?” Meijin asked.

“Of course!” Hisao went for the controller, but Uchuu grabbed him by the ponytail again.

“Not now.” Uchuu said exasperatedly. “For now, we have to get down to the… Big Duel Ring, right?”

Meijin nodded. “That’s the one!”

“Where is it, by the way?” Uchuu asked.

“It’s next to the card shop!” Meijin beamed.

“And… we just got here. Where’s that?” Uchuu resisted facepalming.

“Didn’t you get a PDA?” Meijin asked.

Hisao took his own out of his pocket. “Yeah, don’t they have maps, Uchuu?”

Uchuuu paused. “I… forgot about those.”

-o-

In the earlier days of Duel Academy, all five dorms got their own individual duel rings. When two people of differing dorms wanted to duel each other on one of them, then, it got problematic.

The Advanced dorm, later known as the Abandoned or Haunted dorm, had unfortunately converted their dueling ring into a site for Dark Games. The ring had since been demolished after its discovery by Yuuki Juudai and the Dark Duelist for hire, Titan.

However, the other dorms still had trouble. In an effort to solve this, the school built new duel rings for the purpose of inter-dorm dueling. For the most part, they were used. However, due to some typos on paperwork that wasn’t discovered until it was too late, one of the duel rings was larger than the rest, with the holograms in it increased in size accordingly. This one, officially known as Duel Platform 3 and nicknamed The Big One, became the one used for the important duels for the school- The annual bout against the North School was held there, the Graduation Duels were as well, unless the top student wanted a different location.

On a side note, front row seats for duels held at The Big One were considered incredibly valuable. Students have been known to trade rare cards for the seats on many occasions.

-o-

Uchuu and Hisao, being the first ones there, realized they got their picking of seats. Unfortunately, they were not aware exactly how much front row seats for these events were worth, and so they found a convenient location in the back row to watch. As students began filing in, Yuki found them and joined them.

“Hey, where were you two?” she asked.

“We got stuck running errands for Alien’s dorm head- But hey, remember Meijin?” Hisao responded, grinning.

“Yeah, what about him?” Yuki replied suspiciously.

“He has an honest-to-god Famicom.” Hisao seemed to be more excited about it every time he thought about it.

“No way! Those were released, what… Fifty years ago? And it still works?” Yuki asked, astonished. “That’s-“

“So awesome, I know.” Hisao grinned. “And closer to forty.”

“While you two are geeking out over some 8-bit system that’s as old as our parents,” Uchuu sighed. “The duelists have arrived.”

In the center platform, two duelists stood on opposing sides. After a minor pause, they moved in slightly closer so they could understand what the other was saying… But it didn’t help. One was speaking in English and the other just didn’t seem to speak.

One was a boy in an Osiris red jacket. He had light skin and very light brown hair, and was about six inches taller than everyone else- He seemed very American. His hair stood up in the back, almost like a thinner version of Mutou Yuugi’s himself, only quite a bit fluffier. His bangs fell over his face, and he constantly was brushing them out of his eyes.

The other was-

“Hey! It’s that girl from the exam day!” Uchuu pointed. Indeed it was. She was in an Obelisk Blue uniform now, the same as Yuki’s, and continually smoothing down her skirt as if she was worried it was going to flip up at any second. She also was still wearing a winter hat over her head, down to where it covered her ears.

“Yeah, it’s…” Hisao paused. “Uh…”

“Haneko?” Yuki offered.

“Yeah, that was it!” Hisao was surprised. “I didn’t realize she was coming here… Who’s the other guy, by the way?”

“He’s a transfer student from America.” Yuki explained.

-o-

Five hours previously, principal Chronos de Medici had been woken up by his computer beeping furiously at him. It was flashing an urgent message that he had forgotten to take care of the arrival of the transfer student.

“What transfer student is that, na no ne?” Chronos muttered to himself. He hadn’t heard anything about that. He had never quite managed to adjust to e-mail, really- It wasn’t nearly as satisfying as the normal, hand-written mail. So it came as no surprise to anyone when Chronos’ inbox hadn’t been checked in months.

So, sitting in his inbox, there sat several messages, dated over various months, all about the new student.

“Rick Cobra…” Chronos thought to himself. “What a coincidental name… ‘Cobra’ must be a rather popular surname, na no ne.”

-o-

So at the assembly, four hours after that, Chronos stood in front of the student body. “I would like to introduce a new student to you all, na no ne!” he said. “A transfer from the American Duel Academy, Signor Rick Cobra!”

The boy described earlier bowed, and started speaking in English. Naturally, not many students could quite understand him. He blinked, then realized what he was doing and switched to slightly-broken Japanese.

“I’m Cobra Rick.” He said. “I look forward to my time here.” He then paused, and apparently couldn’t remember the words for what he wanted to say, and broke off laughing embarrassedly.

“As a formal introduction to our school,” Chronos stepped forward again. “Signor Rick shall duel a student selected at random!” The screen behind him lit up with names. One was lit up in bright yellow. The student jumped, but the highlight soon moved, over all the names, flashing between red, blue, and yellow, until it finally came to rest. It lit up in blue, the name ‘Torami Haneko’.

“Excellent, na no ne!” Chronos beamed. “Would Signora Haneko and Signor Rick please proceed to the Big Duel Ring for the opening match of the year!”

-o-

“And that’s how it went.” Yuki concluded.

“I see… Rick Cobra, huh?” Hisao turned. “If he’s good enough to come here, I wonder why he’s in Red?”

“Well, all transfer students start in Red and have to work their way up.” Kennichiro explained.

Hisao nearly hit the ceiling, jumping in surprise. The trio spun around and saw Kennichiro and Masaru standing behind them, leaning on the railing.

“When did you get here?” Uchuu asked.

“Just now.” Masaru said.

“We gave away our front-row seats.” Kennichiro said, smiling. “I got a good card out of it, too.”

“You can sell front-row seats?” Yuki raised an eyebrow.

“Wait… Damn, we could have gotten those!” Uchuu came to the realization.

“Generally, people enjoy getting close up to the huge monsters produced by this ring…” Masaru explained. “I don’t know why, really.”

“The back’s more comfortable, really. Less people to hang around, and we can talk to our spirits without being overheard.” Kennichiro patted Winged Kuriboh, who began to purr contentedly.

“And it’s a better view.” Masaru added.

“When you put it like that, what’s the point of the front row?” Hisao wondered. Masaru simply shrugged.

“Hey, it’s starting!” Uchuu pointed. Rick was evidently going first, as he drew.

“I wonder what kind of deck American students use.” Hisao mentioned. “I bet it’ll be something from an American set that hasn’t been released in Japan yet…”

“I summon Jetroid in attack mode!” Rick declared, speakers carrying his voice even to the back. A bright red jet flew down, extended its landing gear, and slid to the ground. It then reared up on its back wheels, raised its front wheels into a fighting stance, and glared with its large, cartoonish eyes. (1200 ATK)

Hisao facefaulted.

“A Jetroid?” He asked. “So he’s running a Vehicroid deck?”

“Maybe not.” Masaru shrugged. “Jetroid’s effect makes it a valuable asset in any Machine deck.”

Rick placed a facedown card in his magic and trap zone and ended his turn. Haneko drew, and studied her hand. “Field magic- Harpie’s Hunting Ground.” She said quietly.

Suddenly, the audience was sitting on raised stone pillars. The arena changed into a dry, rocky region, with patches of grass strewn about. A small yellow creature in a bright pink thong ran from a rock into a patch of grass and vanished.

“Harpie Lady 3 in attack position.” She continued. A strange woman flew down, landing on Rick’s set card, crushing it, and sprang back to Haneko’s field. Her ‘arms’ were bright green wings with talons for hands, her hair was a dark blue that stood out straight behind her, and her clothing consisted of vertical leather strips that didn’t seem to cover much at all. (1300 – 1500 ATK)

“So the field magic raises Harpie’s attack and destroys set cards?” Hisao asked.

“Right… She may have said something about it.” Yuki said. “But she talks so softly the speakers have trouble catching her voice, I think.”

“The set card destroyed was Wonder Garage.” Rick explained. “It was destroyed while facedown, I get Special Summon another Vehicroid from hand… Gyroid in defense mode!” A blue helicopter appeared this time. It hovered on Rick’s field, and raised its wheels over its face. (1000 DEF)

“Or maybe it is a Vehicroid deck after all.” Masaru amended.

“Why does a helicopter have wheels, anyway?” Hisao asked.

“Those monsters are strangely cute…” Yuki watched the strange machines.

Haneko had apparently declared an attack, as the Harpie leapt forward, claws raised.

“Jetroid special ability!” Rick commanded. “When attacked, Jetroid lets me play Traps from hand!” He took a card from his hand and placed it in his Disk. The card appeared on his field, causing the crowd to notice his card’s text was in English… It did make sense. “Reinforcements raises attack points by 500!”

Two armored men leapt out of the trap card, swords bared. They attacked Harpie Lady, but she managed to swerve to avoid the swords. Unfortunately, that put her in range of Jetroid’s missile attack.

One large explosion later, Haneko’s life had taken a hit.

(RICK: 8000) (HANEKO: 7800)

Wordlessly (Or was it? The speakers didn’t seem to pick up her voice, but then it was barely above a whisper), she slid two cards facedown and motioned to Rick to go.

Rick drew. “I summon Steamroid in attack mode!” He declared. A large train engine roared onto the field, whistling. It then reared back onto its back wheels, glared with cartoonish eyes, and raised its dukes… or wheels, at least. (1800 ATK)

“I switch Gyroid to attack mode as well!” The helicopter peeked out from behind its wheel-hands, then raised them into a fighting stance. (1000 ATK)

“No, seriously, why does a helicopter have wheels?” Hisao asked.

“Gyroid, Jetroid, direct attack!” Rick commanded. Gyroid’s propeller spun, creating a tornado directed at Haneko. At the same time, Jetroid fired two missiles, which were sucked into the vortex , and spun around each other. Both the tornado and the missiles hit at once, causing her to cry out in surprise and pain.

(RICK: 8000) (HANEKO: 5600)

“Hey, we could hear her.” Uchuu noted.

“A pained scream isn’t really something to worry about if you can hear or not, at a time like this.” Kennichiro grinned at him, leaning down on the railing.

“Why are you grinning like that?” Uchuu asked.

“To quote: ‘That’s low, attacking a girl like that!’” Kennichiro said.

“Who said that?” Uchuu asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Exactly.” Kennichiro turned his attention back to the duel.

Meanwhile, Rick evidently felt the chivalry that Uchuu had apparently selectively forgotten. He couldn’t seem to order the direct attack from Steamroid, and so played Pot of Greed, drawing twice, then set two facedown cards and ended his turn.

“Idiot, what’s his problem?” Sanda muttered.

“W- Where did you come from?!” Uchuu, Hisao, and Yuki all demanded, spinning around. Sanda was leaning against the back wall, acting like he had been there the whole time.

“The door. Duh.” He looked past the group to the duel in progress. “He’s going to regret passing up that direct attack.”

“Why?” Hisao asked.

“He’s going slowly against a Harpie deck… She had two facedown cards. She gave those attacks to him to set up-” He started to explain.

He was cut off by an explosion. The duel hadn’t decided to wait for the conversation to finish. Haneko’s field now had two Harpies: The blue-haired one from before, and another one in the same clothing, the only difference between the two being the new one had long red hair instead. Both her facedown traps were face-up now as well. The red-haired harpie had evidently just destroyed Gyroid.

“Wait, what did we miss?” Uchuu asked.

Yuki sighed. “Pay more attention. First, she summoned Harpie Lady 1, the one with red hair, which increases the attack of all her monsters by 300. Then she played her facedown Call of the Haunted, summoning Harpie Lady 3 back from the graveyard.” She pointed to Rick’s now empty back field, even as the other harpie began to attack. “That destroyed both his new facedown cards, Mirror Force and Magic Cylinder. Then she used her other set Continuous Trap, Aqua Chorus.”

“That one increases the attack of all monsters on the field by 500 if there’s more than one of them on the field.” Hisao nodded. “Right, makes sense. So that’s a total of… 2300 attack for both Harpies?”

“But one’s Harpie 1 and the other’s Harpie 3?” Uchuu asked. “Different, but similar, cards. Aqua Chorus shouldn’t count.”

“They all count as ‘Harpie Lady’ for purposes of gameplay.” Masaru explained, finally speaking up again. “This also means she can only have one of each number in her deck.”

“I see.” Uchuu looked down at the field. Gyroid and Harpie Lady 3 were in a struggle. The little helicopter was producing as much wind as it could to keep the Harpie away from it. Meanwhile, the Harpie was struggling against the wind. Finally, with a great last gasp of effort, the helicopter put one last burst of wind out, knocking the Harpie away.

“Gyroid’s effect.” Rick narrated. “Once per turn, when it’s attacked, it’s not destroyed.” Hearing this, the Harpie growled, reached into the grass, and pulled out the small yellow thing from earlier.

“That’s Ojama Yellow.” Sanda noted. “My dad plays that.”

With a squawk of fury at being denied, the harpie threw the hapless thonged alien at the helicopter. The Ojama shrieked, bounced off the helicopter’s windshield, and hit Rick in the face. After it fell, his expression was unreadable… It was hard to say whether he felt more confused or strangely violated.

“I still receive battle damage.” He noted, his voice sounding slightly strained.

(RICK: 5600) (HANEKO: 5600)

Haneko waved to Rick, signaling the end of her turn. He drew, and immediately showed his new card. “I play Mystical Space Typhoon! I can destroy one magic or trap on the field, and I choose Call of the Haunted!”

Harpie Lady 3 shrieked as the card behind her shattered, and after a moment, she shattered as well.

“Idiot.” Sanda rolled his eyes. “He destroyed the wrong card. He’s already forgotten about Hunting Ground again. You’d think with the field surrounding him he’d know to stop tempting its effect.

“He forgot about it before?” Uchuu asked.

“He set two traps rather than letting Jetroid’s effect use them. If he hadn’t, when she summoned the Harpies, she’d have been forced to destroy her own cards.” Masaru explained, as Sanda rolled his eyes.

“If Jetroid wasn’t the target of attack, the traps would have stayed useless in his hand.” Uchuu countered. “He had no way to know she’d be able to take out both.”

Sanda rolled his eyes and turned back to the duel.

Harpie Lady 1, meanwhile, had lost the benefits of Aqua Chorus, seemingly very upset. (1800 ATK) Steamroid somehow gave the impression of an evil grin, and charged the hapless harpie. It picked up speed, its attack score rising by 500 as it did. Finally, it plowed straight through the harpie, shattering her into million shards. Rick shut his eyes just before the impact, and winced as he heard it, which didn’t go unnoticed by Masaru, Kennichiro, and Sanda. The other three main characters, however, were oblivious.

(RICK: 5600) (HANEKO: 5100)

“So Steamroid’s attack rises by 500 when it attacks?” Yuki asked.

“Yeah, but it’s lowered by 500 when it’s being attacked.” Hisao explained.

“One of them doesn’t know Vehicroids, the other doesn’t know Harpies…” Sanda muttered. “I didn’t know people played catch with the Newbie Ball.” Elsewhere, the fourth wall creaked slightly.

“I set one spell or trap! Turn end!” Rick declared.

“Wait, a ‘spell’?” Hisao asked.

“Must be the American term for a magic card, maybe?” Kennichiro offered.

“Didn’t he use the term magic card earlier, though?” Yuki countered.

“Who knows?” Masaru shrugged. “Just enjoy the duel.”

Haneko drew. She slid a magic or trap card (but who am I kidding, we can probably all guess which) facedown into her Disk, and played a new monster… Again, the same skimpy outfit, only this time, the new Harpie had shorter, bright orange hair and a wicked smile. (1500 ATK)

“Given the others were 1 and 3, I’m assuming this is number 2?” Hisao asked.

Yuki nodded. “Though usually people play decks that they like, on some level, that are a lot like them, too. I don’t see similarities between that girl and those bird-things.”

“Either it’s subtle, or she just thought it was a really good deck.” Uchuu offered.

The effect of Harpie’s Hunting Ground triggered again. The new harpie gleefully dove for the newest facedown card on Rick’s field, only to be taken back when it lifted up.

“Activate!” Rick declared. “Another Fusion!” The trap card glowed, and created a spinning vortex, which sucked in Steamroid and Gyroid. However, judging from their cartoonish expressions as they were pulled in, they weren’t quite prepared, and both looked rather shocked. “This card lets me fuse two monsters on the field!”

The new card roared out of the vortex. At first, it seemed to be a train… Then one noticed the propeller in the middle, making it unable to place all four wheels on the ground. It also had a fairly traumatized expression, as if it felt rather violated. (2200 ATK)

“That card’s actually weaker on the attack than Steamroid alone…” Yuki pointed out.

“Yeah, but it loses the drawbacks of what happened when it’s attacked.” Hisao countered. “It can stay on the field easier.”

Haneko had seemingly ended her turn, so Rick drew. “I set one magic or trap-“

“See, he used magic this time!” Yuki pointed out.

“-Then Steam Gyroid will attack Harpie Lady 2!” He ordered. The train’s propeller spun fiercely, creating a larger version of Gyroid’s tornado. It then charged into the whirlwind it created. The harpie was smart enough to avoid the whirlwind by getting into the center, the eye of the tornado. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get out of the eye again. Rick flinched again as the sound of a harpie being smashed by a train came out of the vortex.

(RICK: 5600) (HANEKO: 4400)

Haneko drew. She stared at the card for a moment, looking disappointed. Then, evidently, inspiration struck. Her eyes lit up, and she slid the card facedown into her Disk and ended her turn.

“Draw!” Rick drew (obviously). “That set card looks trouble… Activate Continuous Trap card, Rare Metalmorph!” His set trap card opened. Steam Gyroid grinned, and was instantly coated in a shining metal that was almost like a mirror. “This raises attack by 500, makes it immune to magic, once.” He explained. (2700 ATK)

“His command of the language seems to fluctuate a bit.” Kennichiro noted.

“Either it’s the excitement of the duel affecting his head, or whoever writes his lines is remarkably bad at it.” Hisao shrugged.

“The fourth wall, keptin, she cannae take much more!” Uchuu muttered.

“Thank you, Mr. Chekov.” Hisao grinned.

“Make her get rid of trap, Steam Gyroid!” Rick commanded. “Direct attack!” The tornado appeared one more time. Rick looked at the facedown cards, waiting for one of them to reveal itself. The train-copter charged through the tornado… and rammed straight through Haneko. Rick’s eyes widened in shock as Haneko shrieked in pain.

(RICK: 5600) (HANEKO: 1700)

“I set one trap card…T- Turn end.” Rick looked a bit stunned. He had specified trap, meaning he wasn’t paying as much attention to the duel as he should… Sanda, at least, knew he was about to regret that.

Haneko drew. “I activate Hysteric Party.” She said, for the first time being able to be heard clearly over the speakers. “By discarding one card from my hand, I’m able to revive all the Harpies in my graveyard…” She slid a card into her graveyard. First, the red-haired Harpie Lady 1 appeared. It dove down and destroyed Rick’s set card, revealing it to be a trap called ‘Supercharge’. Then the bright orange-haired Harpie Lady 2 crashed onto Rare Metalmorph, destroying it, thus lowering Steam Gyroid’s attack back to its base of 2200. Then the blue-haired Harpie Lady 3 showed up, and without any magic or traps on Rick’s side of the field, destroyed Haneko’s set card, showing it as an equip magic, ‘Cyber Bondage’.

Finally, a new Harpie appeared. Her outfit was closer to a leather bikini than the strips her sisters had. She had dark green hair bound back into a ponytail, and her eyes gave her a more intelligent look than her comrades. She dove down from the sky, and landed on Aqua Chorus, destroying it. (1900 ATK)

“Wait.” Rick paused. “This newest one…”

“I discarded her to activate Hysteric Party.” Haneko explained. “She’s Harpie Queen. She also counts as a Harpie Lady while on the field and in the graveyard, so she could be revived by Hysteric Party.”

Harpie Lady 1 raised a wing, and the other three harpies seemed to rally to it, adding to the bonus from the field card. (1800 ATK) x3 (2400 ATK)

“Harpie Queen, attack Steam Gyroid.” Haneko said. The Harpie Queen nodded, and swept gracefully forward. She spun, twirled, and looked like she was dancing through the air, until she delivered a devastating kick from her clawed feet to the train-copter’s ‘face’. It groaned, and exploded.

“Are steam trains supposed to do that?” Hisao asked.

“Not at all.” Masaru suppressed a chuckle.

“Harpie Lady 1, 2, and 3…” Haneko began, her voice growing quiet again. Evidently, she delivered an attack order, but she was again too quiet for the speakers. Rather than the elegant dance of the Harpie Queen, the other three harpies simply flew forward and slashed him with their clawed hands.

Rick ducked, jumped back, and was finally held by Harpies 2 and 3, as 1 just punched him for dodging them. The harpies released him, and he fell over onto his back.

(RICK: 0) (HANEKO: 1700)

“I suppose even a girl can win against a stupid foreigner.” Sanda muttered.

“You just can’t be happy about a good duel, can you?” Kennichiro asked, grinning.

“It was four turns, Yuuki.” Sanda growled. “Between a girl and a foreigner. They dueled on the level of elementary schoolers.”

Kennichiro threw an arm around Sanda’s shoulders. “Oh, come on, lighten up-“ He started. However, Sanda grabbed his arm and flipped him over his shoulder, slamming him to the ground.

“Hands off.” He growled.

“Sheesh, okay, okay.” Kennichiro grinned. “Can you let me up now?” Sanda growled and walked off. Kennichiro grinned even more widely and jumped back to his feet.

“Must you provoke him like that?” Masaru sighed.

“He got you good there, Kenn!” Uchuu grinned.

“Eh, he doesn’t mean anything by it. It’s not like it hurts or anything anyway.” Kennichiro shrugged. “And… Kenn?”

“Well, ‘Kennichiro’ is way too long. Just ‘Kenn’ works, right?” Uchuu asked.

The newly-dubbed Kenn started laughing. “Sure, I never really thought of that before…”

“So long as you don’t bother trying to shorten my name.” Masaru had given up on suppressing it and was clearly smiling in amusement.

“Well, at least we can look forward to an interesting year.” Kenn grinned even wider than before, if that was even possible.

“What makes you say that?” Hisao asked.

“There’s a superstition about this school’s opening duel.” Masaru explained. “It will supposedly reflect the year to come… If that holds true, the year will go by fast, and have an unexpected ending.”

“With swarms of bird-people?” Yuki asked.

“Possibly.”

Rick had recovered by this point. “Wow, you got me… Japanese students are pretty strong.” He walked towards Haneko, and offered his hand. After a moment’s hesitation, Haneko shook his hand. Immediately after, she bowed, turned around, and left, walking rather fast.

“Hey, let’s go talk to him!” Yuki jumped up.

“What for?” Hisao blinked.

“Don’t you want to ask him what America is like?” she asked.

“Can’t be too different from Misralz.” Uchuu shrugged.

“Counterpoint: Could Bandit Keith have originated in Misralz?” Masaru pointed out.

“Well, judging from the American flag on his head, probably not.” Uchuu countered.

“Point taken.” Masaru shrugged.

“While you two were debating, she already left.” Kenn pointed, leaning on the railing. “And she dragged that poor guy with her by the ponytail.”

“That happens a lot, actually.” Uchuu stood. “I’m surprised he hasn’t gotten it cut off or pulled out yet.” With that, he followed the twins.

“Hey, wait for me!” Kenn jumped the rail and followed.

“You’re following them?” Masaru asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Sure. It seems fun. And that Rick guy reminds me of a story my dad told me about his academy days.” Kenn grinned. “Come on, you should come too!”

Masaru sighed and allowed himself to be led down the stairs. Meanwhile, Yuki and Hisao had already reached him.

“That was an awesome match!” Hisao grinned.

“Huh? Oh, thanks.” Rick bowed politely.

“Yeah, but why Vehicroids?” Yuki asked. “I didn’t realize people even used those anymore.”

“Kaiser Ryou’s little brother used them on his own quest to become Kaiser.” Rick said. “I don’t like cars at all, but these are different.”

“So why’d you start high school here in Japan?” Hisao asked.

“Huh? I’ve been in high school for a year already…” Rick said, confused.

“But you’re a first-year, I thought?” Kenn spoke up, having finally gotten there.

“Oh, I can explain that.” Uchuu shrugged. “In America, some places have four years of high school instead of three. So you started high school at ninth grade instead of tenth?”

Rick nodded. “Isn’t that how it normally is?”

“Not here.” Kenn shrugged. “Seems pretty weird to me!”

“By the way, your Japanese seems to have suddenly improved.” Masaru noted.

“Ah, right…” Rick grinned sheepishly. “That’s just stage fright. When I’m put in front of a crowd, I freeze up and forget how this language works…”

Masaru nodded. “That makes sense.”

“Oh, by the way, I have a question.” Rick looked at the group.

“Shoot.” Kenn grinned.

“Who are you guys, anyway?”

Fate has begun to move... Unfortunately, it's in the hands of a buch of gamers, as usual. A new enemy rears its head, and Hisao must rise to the challenge of defending his honor and his spirit... Those who can see spirits are always on the side of good... Or so it was in the past. The rules have changed. Heroes must change with them.

[Dark Sage]

Okay, I'll reply.

Cobra's apparently dead son appears, using Sho's deck, no less... Something weird is going on.

Anyway, this is looking good. I'll be sure to keep reading as it progresses. (And I'll send a PM about something you should know about, should it ever come up.)

[Hinoryu]

Jesus, I haven't updated this since May? That's no good. Here we go, plot and confusing stuff, all in one.

Mankind has, since its beginning, quested for truth. In its earliest times, it accepted ‘truth’ as what it could sense. The sun gave man warmth and light, the animals and plants gave man food, and the earth gave man shelter. Soon man revered these things as gods. Gods changed, but overall, mankind accepted as truth that there was a god, or many gods, and that this was truth.

Later, man turned to philosophy. Cogito Ergo Sum, ‘I think therefore I am’, became the universal truth. Man drifted away from thoughts of gods to raising themselves up, each coming to their own conclusions about truth.

Even now, the ‘truth’ is changing. What was once undeniable truth is now vague concepts or outright denounced. Even something so simple as the thought ‘I exist’ is subject to immense doubt. Mankind has moved past truth after truth… God, philosophy, mankind itself.

The current truth is the black and white… Zero and one. Data, information, that which can be hard-coded into a computer and proven with facts. This is ‘truth’. What exists and what doesn’t is truth. However, as truth can become false, so can falsities become true. And so it will.

As the boundary between ‘truth’ and ‘lies’ falls, our curtain will open, with the stage set for the next act.

Chapter 3
Welcome To Nightmare - Archive Mind

The school system had, through its history, gone through incredible changes. From tiny buildings that people attended until they were old enough to help around a farm, to where it became illegal to skip school, to strict boarding schools on a remote island, though, all schools in the history of man had one element in common.

Students could not, for the life of them, pay attention. The teacher was trying to give a lecture on what she thought was the most interesting technology they’d ever seen, but unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be working. Probably because she tried to open it up with a speech on programming, data, and the functions behind computers.

Hisao had sighed and put his head down after his teacher had gotten something blatantly wrong in a programming issue for the third time. Uchuu had a science-fiction novel hidden under his desk and was reading avidly. Yuki was drawing something that looked to be a strange cross between a rabbit, a cat, and a Gundam. Rick, the sole student actually paying close attention, had to spend his whole time looking through a Japanese-English dictionary for most of the terms. Even Haneko, who looked like she was taking notes diligently, was actually writing something completely unrelated.

It had been two weeks since the day Haneko and Rick dueled. Hisao and Rick had gotten along amazingly well, and so Rick had joined their group. And it turned out that Haneko’s room was right next to Yuki’s, so after a couple days, Yuki had brought her along to meet up with the other three (though, from the others’ point of view, it looked more like a kidnapping). Kenn, Masaru, and Sanda were in other classes, as they were older, so the group didn’t see them nearly as often as they’d have liked. They had even grown a form of respect for Sanda, as he didn’t seem nearly as bad once they got to know him- A good guy, just always extremely angry for some reason or another.

So they had formed a group of five. Considering two of them had just met the others, it seemed like a very fast friendship, but within a week the five were almost inseparable. The only thing that frustrated any of them was that no one but Hisao could see Kupo-chan. It was annoying, he thought. They (mostly) believed him about the spirit, but he still got tired of having to relay everything from her to the group.

Speaking of which, Kupo-chan had just tapped him on the back of the head. Hisao blinked and looked up. The teacher had stopped talking, and Meijin had appeared in the front of the room. After talking with the teacher momentarily, Meijin turned to the class.

“Right, class!” He grinned widely, his teeth actually shining. “The one and only Meijin Eguchi is hereby hijacking this lecture!”

No one in the class could say that wasn’t interesting. People actually started paying attention now. One Meijin was sure all eyes were on him, he pushed a small cart with a strange machine on it forward.

“What’s this, you ask?” Meijin beamed. “It is cutting-edge technology… Through the use of a huge amount of technobabble, it can actually turn an object into data! More amazingly, though, in a blatant disregard for all known physics, the object can remain in the real world, seemingly unchanged... Amazing, no?”

“Then what’s the point of it?” A student asked.

“Good question!” Meijin beamed. “Can anyone come up with anything?”

Hisao raised his hand. “While it’s data, you could reprogram it, right? Turn it into anything you want.” He said.

“Very good!” Meijin grinned. “Thirty points!” While Hisao wondered what he meant by the points, Meijin continued. “And a hundred points to whoever can tell me why that’s still fairly useless!”

After a brief pause, Haneko seemed to realize it, but didn’t say anything. Hisao seemed stumped, and Rick and Uchuu had a moment of conversation, yet they still couldn’t come up with anything. (Yuki was still not paying attention.)

Finally, a student raised their hand. “It’s useless unless you can turn it back from data into real matter, right?” Everyone looked over. The one who spoke was a Ra Yellow boy with medium-length multicolor hair. It was a strange combination of red, orange, and yellow, that gave the strangest impression that someone had set his head on fire. Hisao didn’t know this guy, and tended to avoid him because he just seemed creepy.

“Plus it would require vast amounts of energy, right?” Another girl spoke out. She had long black hair, and a chest that the rest of the girls were either extremely jealous of or convinced it was fake. Hisao did know her by reputation, at least. Her surname was Ibaraki, but he couldn’t remember her given name. She was most notable in that she seemed to be the only duelist alive with a Plant deck.

“There you go! One hundred points!” Meijin grinned. “That’s correct! This device, with our current technology, is absolutely, completely, one hundred percent useless!”

“Well, it’s gotta look cool, right?” Another student piped up. “Use it on something! Show us!”

“I can’t do that…” Meijin said, a bit more quietly than normal.

“Why not?” The same student as before asked.

Meijin smiled, his glasses reflecting the lights above.

-o-

“Because it’s just a prototype and doesn’t actually work?” Yuki asked outside. “It’s what the teacher said, but it seems kinda unlikely, with how Meijin was talking about it.”

“Like that girl said, it has to take a lot of energy to use...” Haneko put forward. “More than the school would like to have to pay for.”

“But it’d still be awesome to see in action!” Uchuu put forward. “It’s like Holodecks off of Star Trek, sorta!”

Rick shook his head. “No matter how you look at it, such a convenient technology just can’t be possible. Free modification of anything you want is…” He trailed off there, attempting to find the words he wanted.

There was a pause in the conversation. “Oh, by the way, did you read that news story about that weird light?” Yuki asked.

“No?” Hisao blinked.

“We get news here?” Uchuu asked.

Yuki pulled out her PDA and flipped it open. “The PDA has a news function. Here, I’ll bring it up and show you.”

The article described a strange event that seemed to have happened two weeks previous, just before Haneko and Rick dueled. A strange wave of light had swept around the entire world. No one had been able to trace its source or end. The world’s governments were all at a loss of explanation. There were panics, riots, talks of aliens or hidden weapons. But there was no concrete explanation anywhere.

“Freaky.” Hisao observed.

“Wouldn’t have been aliens.” Uchuu noted. “JAXA or SETI would have said something by now if it was.”

“It couldn’t be a weapon.” Haneko said in her usual quiet manner. “The entire world was covered by it… No one would try to target their own home like that.”

“Showing who they were like that could be interpreted as nothing short of a declaration of war against the whole world.” Uchuu pointed out. “It’s safer to make it look like they were just like everyone else.”

“Assuming it is a country.” Rick reminded them. “As of now, it’s an enigma.”

“Speaking of big mysteries, did you hear about the new booster series coming out soon?” Uchuu asked.

“Yeah, I heard about it before I left America.” Rick nodded. “A set released in Japan before America, apparently found in the will of Pegasus himself.”

-o-

Pegasus J. Crawford, the creator of Duel Monsters, had died five years prior to our current story. His was a young death, around fifty years old. Many suspected foul play. However, the official cause of death stated in the autopsy was a form of poisoning in his blood from his youth. When he lost his eye in an accident while traveling Egypt, he had acquired a replacement made of solid gold.

There was apparently something in the gold, too. The eye was torn out and stolen by an unknown thief, though the doctors told him this was fortunate, as the weight from the golden eye would likely have caused problems with his skull had it stayed implanted much longer. However, still, something in the gold had evidently gotten into his bloodstream and never quite gotten out. Doctors said the reason he lived as long as he did was a naturally strong constitution, great efforts to keep himself healthy, a strong spirit, and more than his own fair share of luck.

-o-

“I didn’t hear about it.” Hisao shrugged. “What’s in it?”

“That’s the mystery, no one knows.” Uchuu said. “No previews, no spoiler list, no promotions… The ultimate pack of mystery.”

“I don’t think I’ll buy any.” Hisao shrugged again. “There’s no new cards to support my theme.”

“Well, there might be new Toons if it was found in Pegasus’ will…” Yuki said thoughtfully.

“Maybe it’ll have some new, epic theme?” Rick thought aloud.

“Nah, I bet it’ll turn out to be a joke set.” Uchuu grinned. “Like that Unglued set from that Magic game?”

“Though if that’s the case, there’s always that small window between when sets are released and when they make the banlist…” Yuki blinked. “That won’t end well.”

“Nah, it’ll have a card like this,” Uchuu suggested. “‘Casual Play – Continuous Magic – While this card is on the field, ignore the banned card list. Furthermore, ignore all errata and play cards exactly as they’re written.’”

“How would it work if that card got banned?” Hisao mused. “Would its own effect negate the banlist? Or would the banlist trump it?”

“Clearly, this card would cause a paradox that would destroy the world! Or at least Duel Monsters!” Uchuu laughed.

“Besides,” Rick followed up, “They can’t ban people from casual play. Only playing in tournaments would be impossible, right?”

There was a moment of stunned silence at the fact Rick was capable of wordplay like that.

-o-

The conversation continued this way until late at night. Around 9:45 PM, they realized the time. The school had a curfew of 10, so the students had to scramble. Hisao felt lucky that he had the shortest walk back to his room, while Rick was going to have to sprint and still hope he wasn’t more than five minutes late.

He checked his PDA for the time. He had ten minutes and he was right in front of his dorm. He was safe. Or so he thought, until Kupo-chan appeared, grabbed him by the collar, and started pushing him towards the forest.

“What’re you doing?!” Hisao asked, surprised. His little partner was usually pretty forceful, but right now she seemed downright panicked. He finally pried her off his jacket’s collar and started following her.

Kupo-chan replied with… well, with a panicked ‘Kupo’. Hisao shook his head and ran after her. He’d figure out how to explain his lateness to his dorm head later. For now, he ran and ran for about five full minutes.

He approached a clearing. When he entered, there were two forms. One was a boy in Ra Yellow with short black hair and a confused, frightened expression. That would likely be because his opponent was facing him with a giant red humanoid machine. Its arms had blades that were each taller than the other boy. Exhaust pipes from its shoulder pumped steam out.

The mentioned opponent was strange. He was an Osiris Red with light blond hair, short and spiked. He was laughing at his opponent viciously, blue eyes glinting. He was also very muscular. Not body-builder size, but he looked like he could break Hisao in half with one punch.

Hisao stopped and stared. It was odd that a Yellow would be so terrified of a Red, certainly, but it was weirder how scared he seemed. He looked like he was just coming to realize he was in mortal peril. With a muffled scream, he turned and bolted off deeper into the forest. The Red boy started to follow, chuckling maliciously.

Hisao was born and raised surrounded by video games. As he always played the hero characters, he had grown something of a strong sense of justice. Unfortunately for him, it tended to trigger only when being the hero would be unimaginably stupid.

As such, he yelled “Hey, you!” at the boy and stepped forward. The blonde boy turned, examined Hisao, and looked mildly surprised.

“You’re one of that group.” He observed.

“That group?” Hisao asked.

The boy reached into his pocket, and withdrew a crumpled piece of paper. Flattening it out, he started scanning it. “You’re a dangerous existence, according to that thing.” He said. “Which one, though?”

“A dangerous existence?” Hisao was confused. Kupo-chan floated beside him, sounding worried.

“Let’s see... The one with the inhuman draw power is Yellow, so that’s not you…” He muttered. “The ‘human that isn’t human’ is a girl…” He looked up, stared at Hisao, looked back down at the paper, and looked back up. “You are a man, right?”

“Yes I am!” Hisao shouted indignantly.

“Right then…” The boy smirked and went back to the paper. “You aren’t the one who can ‘sense the truth’, either, whatever that means. That’s… Your sister, it looks like. That makes you the ‘Archive Mind’?”

“Wait.” Hisao paused. “If you’re talking about… How the hell did you know about that?!”

“So I’m right on.” The opponent grinned. “Well, then, you’ll be crushed under ‘Chikara’!”

Chikara… Hisao thought. I’m going to be crushed under his power? So he’s running a beatdown. But the way he said it implies a double meaning… Is that his name?

“So you’re Chikara?” He asked.

“That’s me.” Chikara smirked. “Now, to business. Since you’re one of that group… I’m supposed to beat you down now.”

Hisao backed off a bit and raised his arms to defend himself.

“Yeah, that’s how I’d like to do it, honestly, but it turns out that wouldn’t work. I’m supposed to duel you.” Chikara shrugged. “I don’t make the rules, I just break them when convenient.”

Hisao blinked. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Are you complaining?” Chikara asked. “If you are, we can always settle this my way.”

“No, I’m good.” Hisao said quickly. “Let’s duel.” He slipped his Duel Disk out of his backpack and onto his arm, and slotted in his deck. Kupo-chan looked at Hisao, trying to warn him this duel was just a bad idea, but she vanished when his deck was slotted in.

Chikara smirked and raised his own disk. Hisao realized the red machine had vanished, and swallowed. He had to admit, he was kind of worried. With a smirk, Chikara grinned and said four words loudly, that rang through the forest.

“Ende aller Wahrheit - Duel!”

The air changed. Hisao wasn’t able to tell what was going on, but the air seemed more… solid. It was almost choking. Hisao felt as though the air had adopted an actual air of menace towards the two duelists. He would later describe it as if ‘the world itself had decided it wanted them both gone’.

Chikara drew six cards. Hisao nodded, and drew five. He would let Chikara take the first turn while he tried to figure out what he just said. Clearly it wasn’t Japanese. It could be English, Hisao got terrible grades in that class. Maybe it was German?

“I’ll open up with the Gene-Warped Warwolf!” Chikara declared, smirking. On his field, a strange beast appeared. It didn’t actually resemble a wolf in the slightest; instead it was large, white, stood on two legs, possessed four arms, and a strange glare. It stared at Hisao, drooling, though Hisao was barely paying attention. (2000 ATK)

“Then he’ll just go ahead and attack directly.” Chikara smirked still.

“It’s the first turn- Oh, hell.” Hisao realized, now with his full attention on Chikara.

“Quickplay magic card, Quick Attack!” Chikara played it. “I choose to either draw a card or let a monster attack first turn… Guess what I choose. Go on, guess.”

Hisao didn’t have to guess, as the beast charged him, slashing with brutal claws across his chest. Hisao clutched the scratches in pain. That had hurt him far, far more than it should have.

(CHIKARA: 8000) (HISAO: 6000)

“What the hell was that?” He asked, breathing heavily. The shock was enough to knock the wind out of him, and the claws didn’t help. “That thing really hurt!’

“I already told you, stupid.” Chikara grinned. “I’m here to beat you down.”

Hisao drew once he verified that he indeed was not bleeding. He looked down at his hand. She hasn’t shown up yet. “I summon Moogle Thief in attack mode!” He declared.

A little white furry creature appeared on his field. It stood on two legs, and had little purple wings sticking out of its back, as well as a large red ball of fluff hanging from an antenna on its forehead. It also wore a green tunic and leather pants, giving it a slightly comical appearance… until it drew a knife and raised it expertly. (1600 ATK)

It then simply approached Chikara and punched him right in the gut. As he blinked in surprised, cards seemed to just fall out of him. The thief picked one up and walked back over to Hisao’s field, handed him the card, and turned back to Chikara.

“The hell was that?” Chikara asked.

“Well, he’s a thief.” Hisao shrugged. “When summoned, he takes one card at random from your hand, deck, or graveyard.”

“Cheap-ass.”

Hisao looked at the card. “In this case, it’s your graveyard. Less useful now than it could be, but I’ll play Quick Attack to draw a card.” He slotted the card into his Disk just long enough for the Disk to read it, then pulled it back out, tossed it at Chikara, and drew.

“Next, I activate Enemy Controller!” Hisao played the card. A large controller appeared in his hand, the wire connected to Gene-Warped Warwolf. “Let’s see…”

The monster moved a bit, then jumped. It swiped its claws a few times, then bit thin air.

“What are you doing?” Chikara asked impatiently.

“Checking the controls.” Hisao said. “Or, you know what?” He pressed the center button, and a large screen appeared in front of him. The cursor floated down and selected ‘controls’, and Hisao spent a moment mapping the buttons to his liking.

Finally, Chikara got fed up and just yelled “Get on with it!” Hisao shrugged and obliged.

“Left button is guard, so let’s just have him defend.” Hisao narrated, doing so. “Then ‘start’ button to pause him, freezing it, and the controller’s work is done.” It vanished, as the warwolf knelt, covering itself with its arms. (100 DEF)

“Though I kind of wonder what would happen if I had used the Konami Code, or tried to enable God Mode…” Hisao mumbled to himself. “Anyways, Moogle Thief, attack! Backstab!”

The moogle charged forward, seemingly ignoring the attack Hisao had ordered. However, it met a barrier in front of the warwolf, as it was defending, so instead it just flipped around, and stabbed its knife between the wolf’s ribs. Rather than the immense flow of blood one would expect, though, it simply cringed, a large 100 appeared over its head, and it collapsed before vanishing.

“I never did like RPGs.” Chikara muttered.

“Admittedly, you don’t seem the role-playing type.” Hisao shook his head. “I set two magic or traps and end my turn.”

Chikara drew, but before he could even look at it, Hisao opened one of his facedown cards. “I activate Lightforce Sword!” He declared. A sword-shaped beam of light shot straight from the card, aiming straight at Chikara’s heart. He quickly dodged to the side, but he didn’t quite manage to get away in time, as the sword pierced one of his cards in hand, flying further and nailing the card to a tree.

“Hold up.” Hisao said.

“No, you hold up!” Chikara retorted. “What are you doing with that card? It’s a Removal card, you don’t seem to be into removal!”

“Well, mostly the card’s activation looks like firing beams from the Master Sword.” Hisao admitted. “It looks cool. But that’s not nearly as important.

“I’ve used that card a bunch of times before. Normally, the card pierces the card and pins a huge hologram of it to the ground. Then you’d just pocket the card for two turns, as it’s removed from play. Solid Vision is amazing, but it can’t actually rip a card out of someone’s hand like that. What’s going on?”

-o-

An unnaturally cold breeze blew, stirring places no wind should be able to touch. In the female dorms, Yuki was tossing and turning in her sleep, continually adjusting her sheets to keep the chill out. It was a warm summer night, so she knew there was something off. But she simply couldn’t identify what.

But more importantly, she couldn’t shake a feeling of dread. Somehow, somewhere, she felt something dangerous had begun. She worried for her brother, somehow knowing he was in the center of it. Her roommates slept on, oblivious to all.

-o-

“I said earlier, stupid.” Chikara grinned viciously. “This duel is the ‘Ende aller Wahrheit’.”

“Look, I’m a gamer, not a linguist. What’s that mean?” Hisao asked, annoyed.

“The ‘End of all Truth’.” Chikara laughed. He played a card from his hand and a strange man in light blue armor rose. His skin was also blue, and his hair dark enough to be almost purple. His demonic appearance belied his true nature of a noble knight. He was Zure, the Knight of Dark World. (1800 ATK)

“The what now?” Hisao was understandably confused.

“I suppose I should explain.” Chikara sighed, still chuckling. “It’s something my… I suppose you would call it my ‘employer’, told me about. It’s something it created just to deal with you and your group, feel special!” He played another card. Hisao barely watched, just noted it was Dual Summon. He preformed a second Normal Summon, choosing Opticlops, a huge orange cycloptic creature in a loincloth. (1800 ATK)

“Yes, yes, I’m a truly special and unique snowflake, I get it. Keep explaining?” Hisao asked, getting annoyed.

“Well, how to put it…” Chikara said thoughtfully, while pointing. Zure stepped forward and beheaded Moogle Knight in one swift swipe.

(CHIKARA: 8000) (HISAO: 5800)

The odds of me losing and this having repercussions are almost none. I don’t like those odds, they aren’t nearly as in my favor as they should be. If I explain it, it’ll likely freak him out enough to slip him up into a loss. Then bam, problem’s solved right there. On the other hand, if I do tell him and then he turns it around, I’m screwed… How’s the risk? Worth it? I guess.

“Well, it’s something like this.” He started. “You’re part of a special group. I don’t know quite what it is, but there’s others like you but nothing like you. You have a special ‘quality’. It makes you different, and dangerous.” He pointed, and Opticlops charged.

“I know for a fact that my… ‘trait’, is mine alone.” Hisao stopped him, using his remaining facedown card. A huge screech resounded, revealing it to be Command Silencer. Opticlops’ attack stopped as it clutched its ears, and Chikara drew a card as per the card’s cost. Hisao continued in the silence after the screech. “You named it something… ‘Archive Mind’, right? It’s as good a name as any. My Archive Mind isn’t normal eidetic memory, so it makes me ‘dangerous’?”

“I don’t know what ‘eidetic’ means, but sure.” Chikara responded. “Apparently your insight into ‘truth’ is what makes your group so dangerous.”

“Our insight into ‘truth’?”

“Not just that, but it means your group doesn’t quite fall into the group of ‘normal humans’.” Chikara went on. “None of you are quite human, with inhuman powers or something.”

-o-

In Ra Yellow, Uchuu wasn’t sleeping. He had shut his window and his door, turned off the air conditioning, and a strange coldness was still permeating his room. He sighed and shuffled his deck. Insomnia was annoying, especially when he just had a bad feeling about the night itself.

He sighed and shuffled his deck. It was frustrating. He knew, despite not knowing how, that there was something big going on. He picked up the top card from his deck, and without looking, he knew what it was. He always got the cards he needed when he needed them in a duel, but that never stopped him from always getting this card first. A UFOroid didn’t really fit his deck, but he always got a perfect draw anyway, so he felt he could splash one.

-o-

Hisao drew a card. “That’s bullshit!” He yelled. “You can’t say someone’s ‘not human’ like that!” He threw a card onto his disk. “I summon Moogle Juggler!” A new Moogle appeared. Basically the same as the Thief, only rather than a green thief’s outfit, this one wore a red and black Jester’s outfit. (1400 ATK)

“Then I follow up with Mognet!” He played a magic card. Moogle Juggler whipped out a quill pen and a scroll of parchment, scribbled a note on it, folded it, and handed it over to Hisao. Hisao shrugged, took out his deck, and searched it for the recipient. He grinned and pulled out one card from about halfway down his deck. “Here she is!”

“She?” Chikara asked.

“Summon Mog Knight!” Hisao’s spirit partner appeared on the field, but this time she was in full armor. She pointed a sword at Chikara, glaring. (1600 ATK)

“Next I play the continuous spell ‘Dorga’!” Hisao slid the card into his Disk. A strange man in orange robes stepped in front of Hisao, though not so far ahead as to be in his Monster zones. He stood bent, supporting himself with a spellcaster’s staff. The moogles looked to him and puffed up, edging closer to each other, as a barrier in front of him.

“The moogles have been charged with the task of protecting Dorga, and he has their loyalty.” Hisao explained. “In other words, while he’s around, moogles all gain 400 attack points, and another 800 defense points. On the other hand, without any moogles, he’s a sitting duck, so he’s destroyed automatically. (1400 ATK -> 1800 ATK) (1600 ATK -> 2000 ATK)

“Kupo-chan, show him who’s boss! Attack Zure! Lini’s Blade!” The little Moogle’s sword gleamed, reflecting moonlight, as it jumped. It brought its sword down on the azure knight’s head, plowing straight through. It landed on the other side of the knight and leapt back. At first, it didn’t seem to have done anything. Then another large number appeared over Zure’s head, (2000, for those who care) and the knight collapsed and disintegrated into red pixels.

(CHIKARA: 7800) (HISAO: 5800)

“I set one more spell or trap and end my turn!” Hisao declared loudly.

Chikara drew. “You know, you’re yelling kinda loud here… Could you be scared? Are you trying to pump yourself up?”

“Hell no!” Hisao replied.

“Well, I’ll have to change that.” Chikara smirked. “I summon Blood Vors!” Something appeared on his field. At first glance, it looked like a particularly built man wielding a strange halberd, but if you looked at its face, you’d see it was anything but human. Its nose was simply absent, its eyes were pure yellow, and it had fangs jutting from its mouth into a wicked grin. (1900 ATK)

“Next, I equip Demon Axe to Opticlops!” The cyclops grabbed a large axe that appeared in front of it with a human skull on the hilt, that some may remember back from chapter 1. (1800 ATK -> 2800 ATK)

“Vorse Raider attacks Moogle Juggler!” Hisao cringed as his monster exploded.

(CHIKARA: 7800) (HISAO: 5600)

“Now that I know that facedown isn’t something to save you, attack, Opticlops! Demon Axe!” Chikara ordered.

Hisao smirked. “Shows what you know. Activate trap, Kupo Nut!”

“Kupo… Nut?” Chikara stared.

Hisao’s card opened, and true to its name, a large red nut appeared on Hisao’s field. Kupo-chan, who had been raising her sword to battle, noticed it, and immediately stopped. Opticlops swung its axe, but missed as the moogle dove for the nut, completely ignoring it.

“Kupo Nut, during the turn it’s activated, saves one moogle from destruction by any means. For this turn, Kupo-chan is effectively immortal, though battle damage still applies.” Hisao explained.

Opticlops didn’t seem very happy with this explanation, so it tried again. This time, the Mog Knight turned and caught the attack with the Kupo Nut. The nut’s shell cracked, allowing the armored moogle to get to the contents, while the axe bounced back, sending Opticlops stumbling into Chikara.

(CHIKARA: 7000) (HISAO: 5600)

“And when Mog Knight battles, any damage that would be dealt to me goes to you instead.” Hisao added. Now that he was in control again, he had regained confidence, and seemed to have forgotten his anger about the ‘inhuman’ cracks.

Chikara grunted the end of his turn. Hisao drew. “Activate Pot of Greed!” He said, tossing the card straight to his graveyard and drawing twice. “Then I play Mystical Space Typhoon!” A small cyclone appeared and rammed its way through Opticlops’ axe, destroying it with a loud shriek from the skull on the hilt.

“Next, I summon Moogle Time Mage!” Hisao summoned a new moogle. Identical to the others except for clothing, this one wore strange blue robes with a bright orange hat. (1200 ATK -> 1600 ATK)

“Now, let’s go! Kupo-chan, get his Opticlops! Lini’s Blade!” The armored moogle launched forward and beheaded the cyclops in one strike, shattering it into pixels.

(CHIKARA: 6800) (HISAO: 5600)

“Next, Moogle Time Mage!” Hisao said. “Cast Stop!” The robed moogle chanted something, and a large clock appeared over Blood Vors’s head. After a few ticks, the clock slowed, and finally stopped moving. “Now Blood Vors can’t move until your next turn! End!” He was shouting by the end.

“I’m right here, you know.” Chikara shook his head and drew. “No need to yell… Unless you’re as scared of me as I think. Anyway, I play Monster Reincarnation, discarding a card to get back Gene-Warped Warwolf, which I’ll summon again now.” The huge white four-armed beast appeared again. (2000 ATK)

“This should seem sort of familiar to you.” Chikara began again in his mocking tone. “It looks like a human, even though it’s a terrible beast…”

“Okay, I was willing to go along with this at first, for the sake of a proper villainous speech.” Hisao interrupted. “But that thing is white, furry, got four arms, and is more ripped than Arnold Schwarzenegger, it doesn’t look human. If you wanted this sort of comparison, you should have done it when you summoned Blood Vors.”

“Well, looks can be deceiving anyway.” Chikara shrugged. “What’s it take to make something not human, anyway? Can someone be human still even if they have extra pieces? Perhaps fur, maybe a tail…”

-o-

Haneko shivered. She was curled up in her bed, buried under covers. The wind was in her room as well, giving her nightmares. She felt paranoid even in her sleep. Something was coming, of course, and she couldn’t hide from it. She had hidden from peers, she had hidden from people, she had hidden from life itself, but she knew instinctively that what was coming would find her.

She was scared. Scared for herself, for her friends, and for anything that tried to help them.

-o-

The Gene-Warped Warwolf had just ripped the Time Mage to shreds with its bare hands. It exploded into shards, and Hisao simply stared past them at Chikara.

(CHIKARA: 6800) (HISAO: 5200)

Hisao saw Blood Vors unfreeze. Knowing that meant Chikara’s turn was over, he drew, set one card in his backfield, and ordered an attack at Blood Vors with Kupo-chan. Once the enemy beast was suitably beheaded, he passed his turn back over to Chikara.

“Well, this duel’s gone on quite long enough.” Chikara said in a bored tone. “Your sword saved you for a while, but sadly, it’s out.” Indeed, the sword behind Chikara sputtered, and flickered out of existence when he drew. The card it was pinning fell to the ground, and Chikara picked it up.

“You can’t win this turn.” Hisao argued. “I’ve still got enough life that a direct attack from a Five God Dragon couldn’t kill me.”

“That’d kill you regardless of life points.” Chikara snorted. “I play Monster Reborn!” An ankh shone over the field. With a rumble, the huge red machine from earlier exploded onto the field, smoke pouring from exhaust pipes, optic sensors glowing with an ominous red light. (2800 ATK)

Hisao didn’t even have time to ask how reviving the ‘dead’ worked on machines. “I revive the Demonic Motor Omega I discarded with Monster Reincarnation.” Chikara smirked. “Then I activate its effect to raise its attack points by one thousand!” The mech suddenly glowed red, and began putting out even more smoke than before. (2800 ATK -> 3800 ATK)

“Next, I use the magic card, Pump Up!” Chikara smirked. “It doubles the attack of my monster for one turn!” The machine made a terrible grinding sound, and actually grew as the card took effect. (3800 ATK -> 7600 ATK)

“Crap.” Hisao muttered.

“Gene-Warped Warwolf, attack!” Chikara commanded. The beast ran forward and began punching. Hisao cried out as his partner took the blows. She succumbed, just as she planted her sword in the beast’s chest. Both creatures shattered into tiny shards, blown across the battlefield.

“Demonic Motor Omega, finish it! Omega Ender!” The red machine raised a single arm. Hisao shut his eyes and braced himself for an incredible hit.

Just before it hit, Hisao was struck by something else- A burst of insight. “Hold it!” he called. The attack froze, and Hisao sighed, laughing slightly at the comic sight of a giant red mix of a car and a gundam frozen mid-punch. Hisao, now that he had a bit of comfortable breathing room, pushed the button on his disk to activate his facedown card.

“I activate Dark Magic Retribution!” He called. “I get to activate one spell in my graveyard, on the condition it goes to your graveyard once it’s done. So I pick Command Silencer!” The motor unfroze, but aborted its attack to cover its head with its hands at an incredibly high pitched screech. Hisao wondered if the thing even had ears, but shrugged, not complaining.

“As per its effect, you draw a card… Then Dark Magic Retribution puts Command Silencer in your graveyard.” Hisao tossed the card to Chikara, who caught it and slid it into his graveyard before drawing.

“I summon Mad Dog of Darkness.” Chikara said, slamming the card he just drew down. With a roar, a tan dog roughly the size of a car appeared. It stared at Hisao and drooled, fangs gleaming as flecks of foam formed around its mouth.

“Rabid?” Hisao asked.

“Probably.” Chikara shrugged. As he ended his turn, the Demonic Motor Omega groaned. With loud creaks and a loud, earthshaking BOOM, the thing detonated, a wheel rolling past Hisao.

“At the end of a turn where I use Demonic Motor Omega’s effect, it dies.” Chikara explained.

Hisao assumed that meant his turn was over, and drew. “I summon Moogle Black Mage in attack mode!” Yet another of the moogles appeared, this one in a long blue robe with a pointed hat with a wide brim covering its ears. It noted Dorga’s presence, and stood up straighter. (1900 ATK -> 2300 ATK)

“Moogle Black Mage, attack! Firaga!” Hisao commanded. The furry mage’s eyes lit up- Literally. Its eyes shone bright yellow in the dark forest, and a column of fire erupted underneath the Mad Dog’s feet, consuming it. Large explosions crashed around it. When it finally ceased, not even ashes remained of the dog, and the grass where it stood still smoldered.

(CHIKARA: 6300) (HISAO: 5200)

“Turn end.”

Chikara drew. “When you read stories, it’s always the people who can duel better than the inhuman ones… Didn’t think you’d be able to hold on this long.”

“Is that a note of respect?” Hisao asked skeptically.

“Hardly, I’m pissed that you’re being so stubborn. Just roll over and die already.” Chikara slammed a card into his Disk. “I play Pot of Greed to draw twice!” He drew two, then placed a card on his disk. “I summon Chainsaw Insect!” A gray insect the size of a small dog appeared. It clicked its mandibles together and then shook its head, prompting the small serrated edges on them to spin, showing where it got its name. (2400 ATK)

At Chikara’s order, it lunged forward and clamped Hisao’s moogle in its jaws, then the blades started spinning. Fortunately, the black mage exploded into shards before it got too graphic.

“When Chainsaw Insect attacks, you draw a card.” Chikara idly noted. Hisao looked down and saw his Disk holding out a card for him. He took it and shrugged.

“I’ll set one more card, and that’s it from me.” Chikara shrugged as well.

“Draw!” Hisao looked at it. “I summon Moogle Gadgeteer!” Yet another moogle, this one in a thick blue suit, appeared, carrying a wrench in its pocket. It wore a blue furred hat covering its ears and pompom, causing Hisao to wonder, as he always did, how it fit under the hat. (1200 -> 1600 ATK)

“Next, I activate Mognet again!” Another letter was written, this time by the Gadgeteer, and handed to Hisao. Hisao took out his deck, fanned through it, and finally found what he was looking for at the very bottom.

A new moogle appeared. This one was dressed in green like the thief, only rather than a woodsman’s camouflage, the green was a fur coat. Chikara idly wondered what animal had green fur, but decided not to bother. “I choose Moogle Animist in attack mode!” Hisao declared. (2400 -> 2800 ATK)

“Next, Moogle Animist’s effect lets me take control of one level four or lower monster until he leaves the field. So take Chainsaw Insect! Belgaer!” The animist took a clear bell from a pocket and rang it. First up, then down, then it swung the bell in a strange sideways figure-eight. It produced a melody of notes that seemed to eliminate the insect’s free will. It scuttled over to Hisao’s field and turned to face Chikara, over his empty field.

“Next, I activate Moogle Gadgeteer’s effect!” Hisao called. “In my main phase one, I can flip a coin. If I call it right, you skip your next turn. If I’m wrong, my turn ends immediately, and I skip my next turn. Go, Red Spring!”

Chikara stared and did a few mental calculations. He hasn’t realized he’d win right now if he attacked… No, look at that expression, he knows it. I think he just can’t resist using a monster’s effect once he summons it.

“Trap card, open!” Chikara called. “I chain Dust Tornado to destroy Dorga!” His card lifted and shot out a whirlwind, which blew past the coin, causing it to spin more, and swept up the elderly man before he could respond. The tornado soon vanished, but the man didn’t land.

“Moogle Gadgeteer’s effect continues, then…” Hisao pointed out. The coin spun a few more times and finally fell to earth, showing a large green side with a yellow moon. Hisao’s groan of disappointment was all Chikara needed to know he had lost the flip.

“Then it’s my turn.” Chikara smirked and drew. “Makes sense you’d be so bad at this. It’s a game for humans, after all.”

“It was a freaking coin toss!” Hisao protested. “Stop with all this ‘human’ and ‘inhuman’ bullshit, it’s getting annoying!”

“Heh.” Chikara smirked at his drawn card. “I play Turnabout Treasure!”

“Turnabout…” Hisao tried not to snicker and failing miserably.

“What?” Chikara asked. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing, nothing.” Hisao waved it off, snickering still.

“Okay, then.” Chikara raised an eyebrow.

“… Criminal is Phoenix Wriiiiiiight.” Hisao doubled over laughing as he said it, before straightening up again, suppressing a grin. “Sorry, go on.”

“Since my hand and field are empty, except for Turnabout Treasure, I can draw cards for each monster on your field.” He drew three. “Next, Quick Attack. This time I’ll opt for the second effect, drawing one more.” Chikara drew again, and looked down at the three cards in his hand and grinned.

“I play Ice Age Panic!” The ground froze over. “When my field is empty, I can summon an Earth monster from my deck.” The frozen land rumbled, and cracked. In front of Chikara, a huge purple thing burst out of the ground. It was mostly humanoid, covered in purple fur with shaggy red hair on top of its head. It only had one eye, but on its back it carried enough weapons to make it seem like it didn’t really need depth perception anyway. (2750 ATK)

“Next, I play Pump Up!” Chikara declared. “You remember this, of course.” The purple beast roared and grew, muscles tensing and bulging. (2750 -> 5500 ATK)

“He attacks Chainsaw Insect with Millennium Smasher!” Chikara ordered. The Sengenjin took a large spiked mace from its back, and smashed the bug to pieces. “That’s the price of betraying me.” Chikara smirked, and drew a card from Chainsaw Insect’s effect.

(CHIKARA: 6300) (HISAO: 2000)

“That’s the end of my turn.” Chikara folded his arms and smirked at Hisao, as Sengenjin shrunk back to its previous size. Hisao just gave him a deadpan look back, and waited.

“Aren’t you going to take your turn?” Chikara asked. “Oh, right, you can’t. You were too busy goofing off with your monsters, and-”

“If you don’t draw soon, I can declare time and you lose by default.” Hisao cut him off.

“Can’t even mock the bastard without him getting pissy.” Chikara muttered, drawing. “A monster and no sense of humor to boot.”

Hisao twitched slightly. “If you keep going on about my being ‘a monster’ or ‘not human’, I will walk across this field and concuss you with my Disk. Clear?”

Chikara looked down at one of his rather muscled arms. He then looked at Hisao and smirked, showing his teeth. “I invite you to try.”

Hisao gritted his teeth. “Just go.”

Chikara drew. “I summon Giant Goggle!” Before Hisao could laugh at the name, the creature appeared. It was a large stone golem that apparently derived its name from the fact that it had a large pair of goggles hanging around its neck. (1500 ATK)

“Then I play the magic card Dual Summon!” Chikara laughed. “You remember this.” Giant Goggle roared and began to grow. (1500 -> 2100 ATK)

“What the- What’s that?!” Hisao demanded.

“Giant Goggle is from a rare set of cards known as ‘Dual Monsters’.” Chikara explained, smirking.

“Uh.” Hisao stared. “The entire game is known as Duel Monsters.”

“Two words that sound alike.” Chikara rolled his eyes. “There aren’t many Dual Monsters. For the most part, they’re treated like Normal monsters. However, this is changed by their effect… I use Dual Summon’s effect to Second Summon Giant Goggle!”

“Second Summon!?” Hisao demanded.

“I summon it again. In doing so, it becomes an effect monster. In this case, its’ effect is that its original attack becomes 2100.” Chikara explained. “Now, then… Giant Goggle, attack Moogle Gadgeteer! Golem Crusher!” The goggled golem pulled the goggles over its eyes and leapt into the sky. For a moment, it seemed as though it was gone forever, until it came down head-first with its arms over its head, crushing the poor Moogle.

(CHIKARA: 6300) (HISAO: 1100)

“Then Sengenjin attacks the Animist!” Chikara pointed. The giant purple cyclops needed no further encouragement, as it leapt forward and crushed the poor Moogle.

(CHIKARA: 6300) (HISAO: 750)

Hisao stared at his deck. He couldn’t help but a laugh. His field and hand were both completely empty. The great names in dueling had often been backed into corners just like this. If it were Yuuki Juudai, he’d topdeck Bubbleman, and draw Polymerization and Clayman to with his effect. Kaiba Seto would have found a way to get out his dragons for an overwhelming counterattack. Mutou Yuugi…

Mutou Yuugi and Gemu Hisao were rather a lot alike. Both were rather socially awkward gamers, with few friends. Both were rather unusual-looking, with Hisao’s albinism and Yuugi’s short stature combined with odd hair. But most importantly, both possessed an unwavering will even against the most adverse odds. And in dueling, that makes all the difference.

“I play Swords of Revealing Light!” Hisao declared, playing one of Yuugi’s signature cards. “You can’t attack me for three turns!” He triumphantly ended his turn.

“Annoying.” Chikara drew. “But nothing more. I’ll just build up an army to crush you once those three turns are over. I’ll start with Berserk Gorilla.” A giant brown gorilla lumbered out of the trees and roared. It beat its chest with its fist, and actually started breathing fire in an impressive display of ignoring logic.

Hisao drew. He just set one card in his magic/trap zone and ended there.

Chikara drew. “I play Pot of Avarice, returning five monsters to my deck, shuffling, and drawing two!”

“Next I summon Demon Soldier!” Chikara declared. A purple horned demon appeared in front of him, grinning maniacally. A brown cloak was wrapped around its shoulders, and a sword was in its claws. (1900 ATK)

“And another card you should be familiar with…” He played a third Dual Summon. “If you can play Mutou Yuugi’s cards, I can too. I sacrifice Berserk Gorilla to summon the Demon Summon!” A lightning bolt struck the gorilla. Out of the smoking crater where the beast once stood, a monstrous shape stepped forward. It was a large skeleton, only it had black claws, and horns, red muscles on the inside of the skeletal shell, and two leathery wings on its back. (2500 ATK)

The demon reached towards Hisao, clearly anticipating rending him limb from limb. Hisao stepped back out of fear, and the demon’s hands reached the glowing swords. There was a jolt of electricity from the swords, and the demon drew back.

“I can’t kill you yet.” Chikara said. “But don’t worry, you’ll be dead soon.”

Hisao drew his card. I must not have shuffled well for those two cards to end up next to each other… He thought to himself. Aloud, he simply said “It’s not as if I’ll die from a card game.”

“You keep thinking that.” Chikara smirked.

“I will.” Hisao said. “And in the meantime, I’ll play Graceful Charity.” He drew three cards and discarded two. “Then I activate Disgraceful Charity, getting back what I discarded.” His facedown card lifted, and his discard slot spat out the two cards he had just put in it.

“Next comes Pot of Avarice!” The seemingly-bulimic graveyard shot out five more cards, which Hisao took, and shuffled into his deck. He then drew two.

Kupo!

“About time you showed up.” Hisao grinned. His partner appeared next to him. She waved frantically at him, nearly knocking his glasses off. His expression turned grimmer again. “I know, we have to… But I don’t have anything to destroy the card before the end.”

His partner nodded to him and turned, ready for what would come, despite Hisao’s warning. “Done talking to yourself, monster?” Chikara said impatiently.

“I set one magic or trap, and summon Mog Knight!” Hisao declared, ignoring the latest ‘monster’ line. His partner appeared on his field. Another moogle, this one clad in shining silver armor, appeared on his field, bearing a shield with a strange crest in its left hand, and a longsword in its right. (1600 ATK)

It stared at Chikara. Hisao looked at his partner and smiled a little, remembering their meeting, everything in perfect detail.

[Hinoryu]

-o-

“Sis!” Hisao ran into his sister’s room.

“What is it?” Yuki looked up from her desk where she was drawing.

Hisao and Yuki were eight years old at this time. Hisao had just received his deck from his father, who told him simply to ‘take good care of it’.

“Sis, help!” Hisao started waving his arms. “Dad’s cards! They’re real!”

“Well, yeah, we’ve seen him use them before…” Yuki said.

“No, I mean, the Moogles! They’re actually… Just come see for yourself!” He grabbed his sister’s arm and ran from the room, back to his own. A Duel Disk was lying on the floor, and his father’s… no, now it was his deck, scattered, lying around the Disk. However, his room was empty. “Where’d it go?”

“Oh, I get it.” Yuki sighed. “You put the card on the Disk… You just got startled from seeing a Solid Vision monster up close, didn’t you?”

“No, I didn’t… It was really there! Mog Knight came out of the card…” Hisao started.

“But that’s impossible. There’s no way it could have happened.” Yuki shook her head and left the room again.

Hisao looked through his cards. He picked up his copy of Mog Knight. It was his favorite card in the deck. It was Parallel Rare, so it was supposed to be shiny… But was that extra sparkle it seemed to have normal? He looked down at it. “Where’d you go?” He asked.

With a sparkle, the furry creature appeared before him. “Kupo!” it squeaked.

“But you weren’t here a minute ago…” He started.

“Kupo!”

“You were always here?”

“Kupo!’ It repeated.

“You wanted to follow me?” Hisao asked. “Just me?” The moogle nodded. “But I’m not a good duelist… I can never even beat my sister. Why me?”

Mog Knight made its kupo noise again. However, Hisao never heard it. He knew what it said. What it told him was simply; “You have the attribute that I like.”

“Attribute?”

Mog Knight nodded. “You’ll find out what it is on your own, one day.” She said. “Until then, duel. Until you do, I’ll protect you.”

True to her words, whenever Hisao was in a pinch, he drew Mog Knight. She managed to help him turn the tables, and he was content.

-o-

“I play Mognet!” He followed up. “I summon Moogle Thief from my deck!” The green-clad moogle didn’t appear. After a pause, Chikara tapped his foot impatiently. Hisao simply pointed to Chikara’s Disk arm, which was at his side. He had never even noticed Hisao’s Thief’s arm in the graveyard, stealing a card from it, until it was pointed out to him. With a grin to Chikara, it bounded off back to Hisao’s field, carrying a card. (1600 ATK)

“I’ll play the card I just got from my Thief…” Hisao grinned. “It’s one of your favorites.” He revealed it with a flourish. “Pump Up!” The Thief, rather than growing in size, simply pulled out a second knife. (1600 -> 3200 ATK)

“Next…” Hisao started, but he balked. He looked at his partner, as if to ask her if it was really okay. She watched him impatiently. Hisao swallowed. “Next, I play… I play the Equip card Ultima Charge!”

The already-dark night forest darkened more. The light from the Swords was barely visible. Chikara’s monsters loomed, as if they were about to reach through the darkness and prey on the poor Moogles. Moogle Thief stumbled backwards, and fell over, then looked over at Kupo-chan and winked.

Kupo-chan smiled wryly and raised her sword. “Evelyn!” she called (though it was still a ‘kupo’ to most), and dashed forward to put herself between the Thief and Chikara’s monsters.

Wait… Hisao thought. If the Thief is Evelyn, and Kupo-chan’s protecting her, that would mean Kupo-chan’s playing the part of Gaol… But Gaol was a guy, and he and Evelyn were humans, and they were… Woah, better not think about it too hard.

Kupo-chan, or for the moment Gaol, gripped her sword and stared at the monsters. Sengenjin grinned savagely and the Giant Goggle cracked its knuckles, while the Demon simply crackled with lightning. They reached forward, until they were about to reach… And then Kupo-chan’s sword glowed with green fire. Both monsters backed off from the raw power emanating from the sword. (1600 ATK -> 3600 ATK)
“What the- 2000 point bonus?!” Chikara yelled.

“Ultima Charge is an equip magic… Well, technically it’s more of a single-use move.” Hisao explained. “Using it requires her very life force to charge the sword. Her defense drop to 0… By using this move, it means she knows she’s going to die soon. But until then, she gains the power to destroy almost anything.” The green fire of the sword blazed.

“Go, Moogle Thief!” Hisao commanded. “Double Backstab!” The thief flickered out of existence for a moment, then reappeared. Chikara noticed that his Demon Summon had grown a pair of knives out of its back. It took him a moment to add two and two; then the Demon fell over on its face, dead.

(CHIKARA: 5450) (HISAO: 750)

“Now, Kupo-chan, go for it!” Hisao called. “Ultima Charge!” The green fire grew until it was larger than the Moogle holding it. She leapt upwards, and flipped in the air, bringing the sword down, splitting Sengenjin in half.

(CHIKARA: 4750) (HISAO: 750)

The moogle landed, jumped back, and pointed her sword at Chikara… then simply fell over onto her side, and shattered. The Thief watched this, saddened. (3200 -> 1600 ATK)

“… Sorry.” Hisao apologized to his partner. “That’s the end of my turn.”

Chikara snapped a card out of his disk. “I play Demon Axe, equipping it to Giant Goggle!” An axe appeared, and the golem grabbed it, swinging it experimentally. (2100 -> 3100 ATK)

“Turn end. And with that, this annoyance is gone.” The Swords of Revealing Light, having kept Chikara in line long enough for Hisao to mount his counterattack, flickered and vanished.

“I summon Moogle Time Mage!” Hisao placed his card, and the moogle in the red hat appeared again. (1200 ATK) “He freezes Giant Goggle, preventing him from changing position or attacking until the end of your next turn. Then I switch Moogle Thief to defense mode and end my turn.” The green-clad thief knelt and raised its arms in a defensive position. (200 DEF)

“I set a facedown magic or trap card.” Chikara declared. “Next, Demon Soldier! Attack the Time Mage!” The grinning demon swung its sword.

“Activate my facedown Magical Trick Mirror!” Hisao declared. A large mirror with a wizard’s hat appeared on the field. Sound waves emanated from it, making the soldier drop its sword and cover its ears. “Another use of Command Silencer.” He explained. Chikara drew a card from Command Silencer’s effect.

“I end.” Chikara said, annoyed.

“I draw, and activate another Dorga!” The orange-robed man appeared. The Thief and Time Mage noticed him and straightened up. (200 -> 1000 DEF) (1200 -> 1600 ATK)

“Next, I’ll switch Time Mage to defense mode-” Hisao started.

“I activate Final Attack Orders!” Chikara interrupted. “Your monsters are forced to stay in attack mode!” The thief jumped up, flipped, and drew its knife again. (2000 ATK)

“Damn!” Hisao looked at the trap. “Then, Moogle Thief! Attack Demon Soldier!” A knife later, the soldier perished.

(CHIKARA: 4650) (HISAO: 750)

“Next, Main Phase 2!” Hisao commanded. “Time Mage, freeze the Giant Goggle again! Cast Stop!” The poor golem was frozen in time again, before it had a chance to rejoin the rest of the world. “Turn end!”

“I summon Zure, Knight of Dark World!” The knight from the beginning of the duel appeared again. (1800 ATK) “He attacks Moogle Time Mage, and I end.” Zure beheaded the hapless mage, causing Dorga to look on in horror. Then, as Chikara’s turn ended, Giant Goggle’s Stop wore off, causing it to look around in confusion.

Hisao nearly drew his card, but stopped. He looked coolly at Chikara, and took a deep breath. “I need to calm down.” He said.

“What?” Chikara was understandably confused.

“The duel’s going at your pace right now… The past few turns have just blazed by.” Hisao shrugged. “No time to enjoy it.”

“You’re not supposed to enjoy it.” Chikara said angrily.

“Before the duel ends… There’s something I want to ask you.” Hisao said. “You called this duel something crazy at first, and this whole time you’ve been acting weird. I want to know what’s up.”

“What do you mean?” Chikara asked guardedly.

“This entire duel, you’ve been playing mind games. My ‘Archive Mind’, the list of people, with all this you made a good deal of effort to throw me off guard. Then there’s the duel to ‘deal with’ people like me, what’s going on, why the atmosphere in this duel is just wrong.” Hisao went on. “What’s going on?”

“Fine then.” Chikara shrugged. “I’ll explain it as your dying wish. Because when I beat you next turn, you’ll die.”

“That’s impossible.” Hisao said. “Even if the game’s gotten more realistic, I’ve suffered no wounds. The world can’t just delete me for losing a duel, and I’m certain I can hide from someone like you in the forest if you’re trying to do anything else.”

“Funny you should use the word ‘delete’.” Chikara smirked. “But you have all the pieces… Shouldn’t your inhuman mind be able to figure this out?”

Hisao shut his eyes.


-o-

‘How long have I been coming here?’ Hisao wondered.

He stood on a circular platform, in the middle of a black void. The platform stretched down, as far as he could see, but there was nothing else.

‘Even with this, I can’t quite remember… I’ve always been able to, I guess.’ He concluded. ‘But that suddenly makes me inhuman?’

‘No, not now.’ Hisao told himself. He often ‘came’ here when he was tired or needed to think about something. While he was here, he wasn’t sure how it worked, but time seemed to not pass outside. But he wasn’t sure how that was possible since he was always there. After all, this was the inside of his own head.

‘Not now. It’s not the time.’

He straightened up and looked around. Things began to float around him in a circle. Words and phrases, images both still and moving, even strange abstract concepts all moved around him. Faster and faster they went, until they finally became a maelstrom around him.

‘It’s kind of daunting.’ Hisao looked at them. ‘That’s my life, recorded perfectly… Archive Mind isn’t really a bad name for it. My mind is an archive. Everything I see is recorded and stored away here, waiting for me to retrieve it…’

‘What am I retrieving?’

He looked around at the maelstrom and reached in. He pulled out various things and discarded them. A word here, an image there, a sound or two somewhere else. They flew back into the maelstrom, waiting to be withdrawn again.

He withdrew something. It was a memory of an old manual for a Duel Monsters video game. ‘But be careful!’ it warned. ‘If your life points fall to zero, the evil wizard’s magic will be able to destroy you without any trouble!’

Zero life makes me a target…

He withdrew another memory. ‘Hey, Hisao?’ Yuki had asked him, just the other day. ‘Have you noticed anything weird lately?’ He hadn’t. ‘It’s nothing, I guess.’ She had said. ‘It’s just that things have seemed kind of… off, but I don’t know how to put it…’

Wait, off? What else was there…?! Just one more memory, I almost have it…

‘Show us!’ ‘Turn something to data!’ the class had clamored.

‘I can’t do that…’ Meijin said.

‘Why not?’ Another student asked.

Meijin’s glasses reflected the lights on the ceiling. He said something quietly, so quietly no one noticed. Not even Hisao had realized it the first time… But only rewatching it through his own eyes could he see that Meijin had indeed answered.

‘Because everything already is.’

-o-

“I get it.” Hisao told Chikara.

“Oh?” Chikara raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah.” He shook his head. “It’s kind of crazy. I’d never believe it myself if it wasn’t the only explanation I can think of.”

“Enlighten me, then.”

“That mysterious light from two weeks ago is what explains it all.” Hisao said. “It swept the whole world… It wasn’t aliens, or a weapon, but a converter… The world as we know it is now simply a free-floating blob of data in space. I’m not sure how that’s possible, but that’s how it is.”

“Go on.” Chikara said with a grin.

“Next, your ‘Ende Aller’ thing. I can’t pronounce it.” Hisao expanded. “As far as I can tell, that’s a program to kill me, to be activated by my loss of the duel.”

“You’re good.” Chikara smirked.

“So that means people know. You’re not the only one working for your employer… But there’s one last thing.” Hisao smirked. “I’ve figured out the whole truth, I think.”

“Huh?” Chikara blinked in confusion. “That was it. You already got it all. World’s a computer, you’re a bug, you’re about to be deleted.”

“The one last thing I figured out…” Hisao smirked. “Is that I win.”

“What?!”

“I sacrifice Moogle Thief for Moogle Animist!” Hisao declared. “Whose effect lets me take control of Giant Goggle!”

“W- What the hell?!” Chikara demanded.

“Don’t you get it?” Hisao smirked. “Animist will destroy Zure.” The new moogle did so, shattering the dark monster with the sound of a bell.

(CHIKARA: 3650) (HISAO: 550)

“Next I attack with Giant Goggle. Then whatever you do next turn, thanks to your own Final Attack Orders-” There was a slight pause as Chikara got bashed by his own monster. “-Anything you summon will be in attack mode. Meaning I’ll be able to destroy it and win.”

(CHIKARA: 550) (HISAO: 550)

“N- No way…” Chikara stared at the ground in shock.

“Yep.” Hisao grinned. “Make your move.”

“…”

“I’m waiting.”

“No.” Chikara said.

Of the many things Hisao was expecting, that wasn’t one of them. “What?”

“I refuse to draw. The duel ends on a forfeit.”

(CHIKARA: FORFEIT) (HISAO: 550)

“But what will that do…?” Hisao asked.

“I never ran out of life points.” Chikara said. “And that means I don’t die.”

“You would have died if you- Hey, wait!” Hisao called out.

It was too late. Chikara had already run off into the woods. Hisao looked up, as his partner appeared by his side.

“Hey.” Hisao greeted her again. “We have to sneak back into the dorm now, don’t we?” His partner nodded, and Hisao walked back to his dorm. “I just nearly died, and now all I can think about is avoiding the teachers and hoping I don’t get caught…” He mumbled. “My priorities are pretty screwed up, aren’t they?”

-o-

Hisao had made it to his room without any undue attention drawn to him. He flopped on the bed as soon as he walked in and was asleep almost instantly, not even bothering to remove his jacket.

As such, he never saw what happened an hour later, as another light shot to the sky and moved over the world again… This time, bringing disaster.

-o-

“Hey, Yuki!” Yamashita Torina called. She was an odd girl who had short red hair that was often styled in crazy ways, and an odd interest in the occult, aliens, time travelers, espers and the like. (People often compared her to a boy-chasing Suzumiya Haruhi.) More importantly to the story, she was one of Yuki’s roommates.

“What’s up?” Yuki asked.

“It happened again last night!” Torina grinned. “That weird light. I bet it’s aliens!”

“You should really meet Alien…” Yuki groaned and sat up out of bed, checking the clock. It was 8:20, they still had a while before class started. Yuki looked around and assumed their other roommate, Aoi, was in the shower still.

Torina grinned and bounded off to get the phone. “I’m gonna call home and ask if Mom saw it.” She told Yuki.

Yuki watched silently. She wasn’t sure why, but suddenly she had a strange feeling. It felt like a bad premonition…

“That’s odd.” Torina blinked. “She’s not picking up. She had work off today, and she should be awake now…”

Yuki looked up. Something seemed wrong. “Can I use the phone?” she asked.

“Sure.” Torina tossed it to her. Yuki caught it and started dialing.

After a few rings, it rolled over to voice mail. Yuki hung up and tried again. The same thing happened.

“That’s… definitely not right…” Yuki stared at the phone. “I need to go talk to someone.” She told Torina. “I’ll be back in a bit.” She threw on her uniform and dashed out the door like a bat out of hell, running to see her brother.

Torina stared after her. “Huh. Wonder what’s with her?”

-o-

In Tokyo, a phone rang. Two, three, four rings, then it cut across to voice mail. Hello, this is the Gemu household. I’m sorry, but it would appear no one is in right now…

Elsewhere, another phone had much the same response. This is Yamashita. I’m apparently not in at the moment…

The same thing happened all across Earth. Houses and apartments that should have been full of people, mysteriously empty without a trace.

And for a time, the Earth was silent.

-o-

Author’s Notes: “Chikara” is a word meaning ‘Power’, and also is used as a name. Hence the pun when Chikara introduces himself.

Also, I realize I screwed up a few effects (Dorga and Command Silencer) in this duel. C’est la vie.

-o-

AUTHOR AND ANIME ONLY CARDS
Japanese: Demonic Motor Omega
Effect Monster - Machine / DARK / 8 / 2800 ATK / 2000 DEF
Art: A hellish red Gundam esque machine pouring out smoke.
Effect: During your End Phase, Special Summon 1 Motor Token (Machine-Type/EARTH/1/200/200) in Attack Position. Increase this card's ATK by 1000 once per turn. If you do, destroy this card during the End Phase.
From: This card was first used by Jounouchi in Yu-Gi-Oh! R Chapter 35 "Jounouchi, Counterattack!" (But it technically belongs to Bandit Keith) as an effectless monster. This is a real card recently released in the Limited Edition 10 - Holy White Pack of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Offical Card Game in Japan.

Japanese: Quick Attack
Normal Spell
Art: A Samurai in white robes surroneded by armor and equipment.
Activate and select 1 of the following effects: - Draw 1 card. - A Level 4 or lower monster can attack in the first turn.
From: This card was first used by a Zombie Manjoume Thunder in GX Episode 126 "Juudai VS Manjoume - Dark Blade the Dragon Knight".

English: Command Silencer / Japanese: Command Silencer
Quick-Play Spell
Art: A Sound System shaped like an Eagle Totem Pole.
Effect: You can activate this card when 1 of your opponent's Monsters attacks. Negate that attack. Afterward, your opponent draws 1 card.
From: First used by Mutou Yugi in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Episode 131 "Clash! Osiris VS Obelisk"

Japanese: Dual Summon
Normal Spell
Art: A female mage summoning Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts and another unknown monster.
Effect: You can Normal Summon twice during the turn you activate this card.
From: This is a real card recently released in the Tactical Evolution Booster Pack of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Offical Card Game in Japan.

English: Dark Spell Regeneration / Japanese: Yami no Ma Saisei
Quick-Play Spell
Art: A wizard focusing energy from above through a book into a hexgram altar.
Effect:You can activate this card when an opponent's Monster attacks. Activate 1 Magic card from your Cemetery. At the end of the turn, put that card into your opponent's Cemetery.
From: First used by Dark Malik in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Episode 138 "The Finals - Yugi VS Malik"

English: Pump Up / Japanese: Pump Up
Normal Spell
Art: Unknown
Double the ATK of a monster for this turn.
From: First used by Mutou Yugi in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Episode 156 "Yugi VS Raphael - The Iron Wall Guardian Deck"

English: Card of Reversal / Japanese: Gyakutan no Housatsu "Turnabout Treasure"
Normal Spell
Art: An energized card facing a horde of monsters.
Effect: You can activate this card when you have no cards on your side of the field, and this is the only card in your hand. Draw one card for every card on your opponent’s side of the field.
From: First used by Tyranno Kenzan in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Episode 76 "Ultimate Alliance! Rex Union!" .

English: Ice Age Panic / Japanese: Ice Age Panic
Normal Magic
Art: Ray of light exploding from an ice sheet in the midst of a snow storm.
Effect: Activate only when you have no Monsters on your side of the Field. Special Summon 1 EARTH Monster from your deck.
From: First used by Kaiba Noah in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Episode 115 "The Invincible Deck Master - The Ark of Miracles"

English: Disgraceful Charity / Japanese: Daitenshi no Hodokoshi
Normal Trap
Art: Marie the Fallen One offering a card.
Effect: Both Players can return cards discarded to the Graveyard by a Spell Card's effect this turn to their hand.
From: First used by Mutou Yugi in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Episode 131 "Clash! Osiris VS Obelisk"

English: Magical Trick Mirror / Japanese: Kikaijikake no Magic Mirror
Normal Trap
Art: A series of mirrors dressed like a witch or wizard.
Effect: Activate only when your opponent's monster attacks. Activate 1 Spell in your opponent's Graveyard.
From: First used by Kaiba Seto in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Episode 132 "The Inherited Destined Duel"

Japanese: Kyojin Goggle (Giant Goggle/Goggle the Giant)
Effect Monster/Dual - Rock / EARTH / 4 / 1500 ATK / 500 DEF
Art: A Dramatically charging stony giant with goggles around his neck.
Effect: While this card is in the Graveyard or face-up on the field, it is treated as a Normal Monster. While this card is face-up on the field, by Summoning this card a second time and treating it as a Normal Summon, this card is now treated as an Effect Monster with the following effect. - This card's original ATK becomes 2100.|0|
From: This is a real card recently released in the Tactical Evolution Booster Pack of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Offical Card Game in Japan.

Mog Knight
Earth/BeastWarrior/Effect
4/1600/1200
When this monster battles, any battle damage that would go to the owner of this card goes to the opponent instead.

Moogle Animist
Earth/Spellcaster/Effect
6/2400/1800
When this monster is summoned, take control of one level 4 or lower monster on your opponent's side of the field until this card leaves the field.

Moogle Gadgeteer
Earth/Beast Warrior/Effect
3/1200/1800
Flip a coin and call it. If you're right, your opponent skips their next turn. If wrong, your turn immediately ends and you skip your next turn. This effect may only be used in the Main Phase 1, every two turns.

Moogle Thief
Earth/Beast Warrior/Effect
3/1600/200
When this monster is summoned, take one card from your opponent's deck, graveyard, or hand at random and add it to your hand.

Moogle Black Mage
Dark/Spellcaster/Effect
4/1900/900
When this monster battles, during the Damage step, you may change the main type of this monster.

Moogle Time Mage
Earth/Spellcaster/Effect
4/1200/2000
Once per turn, select one monster on your opponent's side of the field. The selected monster may not attack or change its battle position for one turn. After this, you may choose to discard one card from your hand. If you do, remove the frozen monster from play for one turn.

Moogle Juggler
Earth/Beast Warrior/Effect
4/1400/1200
Discard one magic or trap from your hand to deal 700 damage to your opponent's life.

Ultima Charge
Equip Magic
This card can only be equipped to Mog Knight. The monster equipped with this gains 2000 attack, and has its defense become 0. Other bonuses do not apply to the equipped monster. Destroy the monster equipped with this card in the End Phase.

Mognet
Normal Magic
Activate only when there is a Moogle on the field. Normal Summon one Moogle from your deck to the field.

Dorga
Continuous Magic
While this card is on the field, all Moogles gain 400 attack and 800 defense. If there are no moogles on the field, destroy this card.

Kupo Nut
Normal Trap
Select one Moogle on the field. The selected monster cannot be destroyed this turn.