Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Yu-Gi-Oh!:Duelist of the Stars ❯ Invitation and Declaration ( Chapter 1 )
Yugi and some of his friends are invited to the Duel Monsters World Championships. Yugi has to make an important decision, though, and they are all in for a surprise...
Anime/Manga: Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Drama / Supernatural | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 09.21.2003 | Pages: 3 | Words: 5.0K | Visits: 304 | Status: Completed
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Yu-Gi-Oh!:Duel ist of the Stars
by Amor
Disclaimer:I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. It does belong to various people, among them 4Kids, Upper Deck, Konami, Studio Dice, Kazuki Takahashi, and some other people.
Chapter 1:Invitation and Declaration
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The pharoah sat on his throne, watching over his subjects as they went to market. He liked to watch the common folk barter and talk of trivial matters. He also wanted to make sure no one stole--that would be most unfortunate for them. But all of the citizens knew what the punishment was for rule breaking--both in games and in civilization--and thus would never commit a crime. At least in the Pharoah's line of sight, anyways.
A young attendant ran up to the pharoah's side, his face red from running a long way. "Master pharoah..." he panted. "The high priest Kiaban has challenged you to a Shadow Game."
"Kiaban?" the pahroah said, trying not to let the surprise show on his face. "I never knew Kiaban wanted the throne. But still, I will accept his challenge. He is powerful at the games, and has never broken a rule. Where does he wish us to duel?"
"At the temple," the attendant said, regaining his breath. "He's waiting for you."
"Very well," the pharoah answered. He stood up, and his garrison of warriors did likewise. The pharoah really didn't think he needed them--he could defend himself, if need be--but it gave him comfort knowing that he was protected by another human body.
They marched through the city, until they eventually left the boundaries. The pharoah could see his garrison sweating as they walked through the desert, but he himself was all right. Eventually, the temple came into view. A small building, but one of great importance. The garisson formed two lines, allowing the pharoah to walk in.
"Kiaban!" the pharoah shouted, looking around the decorated temple, trying to find the high priest. "I was informed that you challenged me to a shadow game! Where are you?"
"You were informed correctly," the high priest smirked, stepping out from a hidden doorway.
"Pharoah Yami, I challenge you for the throne!"
"I accept your challenge, High Priest Kiaban," the pharoah said, going through the ancient rites. "And if you should lose, than you shall be reduced to no more than a peasent.
Both pharaoh and priest fell silent, concentrating on the area around them. Slowly, it began to warp in to a world of shadow. The heat of Egypt became the cool of shadow, the bright sun became nothing but darkness. And then, when they were both in the Realm of Shadows, the game began.
"I summon the Hitosu-Me Giant!" Kiaban yelled. A stone tablet appeared, and from it sprang an ogrelike monster. The pharoah frowned. The Giant was a relatively weak opening play. Either Kiaban had some kind of trick up his sleeve, or else he was a worse shadow gamer than the pharoah thought.
"I summon the Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress! Like before, a stone tablet formed in front of the pharoah, summoning a small blue dragon. "Attack!" The blue dragon formed a ball of fire in it's mouth and shot it at Hitosu-Me Giant. The monster was knocked back, almost crashing into it's summoner. The two monsters charged each other, in a fury of teeth and claws, but when it was over Hitosu-Me Giant's shredded essence was floating througout the Shadow Realm. Kiaban winced as his spirit took the damage.
It was Kiaban's move again. He raised his hand, and the pharoah knew he was going to summon another monster. "Yugi, wake up."
"What?" the pharoah asked.
"Get up, Yugi, you're going to be late for school."
Yugi's eyes snapped open, seeing the blurry image of his grandfather waking him up. That's right, he thought. I'm Yugi. Not the pharoah. Yugi.
Rubbing his eyes, the short teenager threw his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up wobbily. His grandfather left the room, allowing Yugi to get dressed. Yugi felt Yami's mental presence stir.
<I had another dream,> Yugi said mentally.
<I know,> Yami simply replied.
<Kaiba was in it too,> Yugi said. <His name was Kiaban, but I knew it was Kaiba.
<Yugi,> Yami began, sounding mildly irritated. <I know what happens in your dreams. I have the same ones.>
<Yeah, I know,> Yugi said in his mind. He sighed. <I'm just not sure how separate we are. To tell the truth, it's kind of creepy, having another spirit in my body.
They were both silent for a while. Yugi was mostly dressed before Yami though-spoke again. <The duel...it seemed familiar.>
Yugi nodded. <I remember it now. It was our first duel with Kaiba. At least how it began.>
Cutting off the conversation, Yugi exited his room and walked over into the kitchen. As he poured himself some cereal, he wondered about his dreams. Recently he'd been having various dreams where he was the pharaoh. He supposed that they were memories from Yami's past life. There seemed to be many parallels between his life and Yami's--the Kaiba/Kiaban duel being the latest--but at the same time many differences.
After finishing his cereal, Yugi grabbed his deck and carefully placed it in his pocket. His deck was basically the same as the one he had used in Battle City, plus or minus a few cards. He now had all three Egyptian God cards--and had become a target because of it. It seemed that not a day went by without someone trying to steal those three cards. It really was quite a nuisance.
"Yugi," his grandfather's hoarse voice said from the game store portion of the building. "You've got some mail."
Yugi walked downstairs, wondering who could be writing him. The first was a plain, business-sized envelope. The other was smaller, and looked like it contained a more personal letter. Yugi opened the first letter and read it.
Mr. Moto,
You are hearby invited to the Duel Monsters World Championships. You are qualified by both your 1rst-place finish in Duelist Kingdom and your 1rst-place finish in Battle City. The World Championships are a very prestigous tournament, and we congratulate you on qualifying.
With this in mind, here are the rules for the tournament.
-You must have a deck of no more than forty (40) cards
-All Duel Monsters cards are legal, but you may have no more than three(3) of one card per deck.
-Each duelist shall begin each match with four thousand (4000) life points.
-Monsters of Level 5 or higher require at least one sacraficed monster to summon. Level 5-6 monsters require one (1) sacrafice. Level 7-8 monsters require two (2) sacrafices. Level 9+ monsters (God Cards) require three (3) sacrafices.
-The player with the lowest current standings goes first.
-In Double Duels, turn order goes 1A-2A-1B-2B, where numbers represent teams and letters represent duelists.
-In Double Duels, no player can attack on their first turn.
-If any individual player loses three times or more, they are disqualified.
-If any team loses twice or more, they are disqualified
Here is the schedule for the World Championships:
Day 1:Duelists arrive at tournament sight.
Day 2:Tournament rounds determine national team(this does not count towards your losses)
Day 3:Three Swiss(1) rounds of individual dueling
Day 4:Four Swiss rounds of team dueling
Day 5:Three Swiss rounds of individual dueling
Day 6:Team finals between the top four national teams.
Day 7:Individual finals between the top eight individual duelists.
This tournament is generously sponsored by Demon Dice International. This Saturday, please be at the nearest Demon Dice store by 2:00 p.m., where you will be transfered to the tournament location. You may bring one companion.
Thank you in advance for coming to our tournament. Great duelists like you have made the World Championships a success for the past three years, and we hope you'll repeat the favour.
Sincerely,
James Highlond Jr.
CEO of Demon Dice International
Yugi took a moment to let the letter's message sink in. World Championships. It sounded like a good tournament. He normally didn't go to regional tournaments or anything like that, but this was different. He just had this feeling that he should be there. I'll go, he decided quickly.
He recognized the name Demon Dice. It was the company that was responsible for bringing Duel Monsters to the U. S. and other companies. It was also the company that made Dungeon Dice Monsters, among other games. Yugi knew that the nearest store was Duke Devlin's. In previous years, he knew that Industrial Illusions had sponsored the tournament, but since Duelist Kingdom Industrial Illusions had fallen strangely quiet.
Then, just a few months ago, Demon Dice bought out Industrial Illusions, giving them full control of the game. It was a good thing too--with no new cards coming out, the enviornment was getting fairly stagnant. Demon Dice had immediately released a new set, and was planning to release another one next month.
Setting the invitation aside, Yugi opened the next letter.
Dear Yugi,
You may or may not already know this, but you have qualified for the World Championships. I hope you will attend--it would be bad publicity for a duelist of your calibur not to.
But I have more important issues to write about. You have all three Egyptian God cards. Any one of these cards holds a great amount of power. You know you are unstoppable with them. It seems to me that perhaps one duelist holding all the cards unbalances the tournament.
Just to make it fair, I suggest you do not use all of the Egyptian God cards. In fact, I humbly suggest that you donate your Obelisk the Tormentor to myself, who was given it by Ishizu herself.
Please consider what I have to say. I shall see you at the World Championships.
Sincerely,
Seto Kaiba
Head of Kaiba Corp.
Interesting, Yugi thought. It was true--with all three Egyptian God cards, he was practically invincible. After all, he had been on a winning streak even with no God cards. Maybe Seto was right. It would even the playing field a bit. Besides, it wasn't as if this tournament was like Battle City--there wasn't anything riding on it but a title.
"Yugi, you're going to be late for school!" Yugi's grandfather shouted. The shorter boy blinked. He had been so caught up in his mail, he had forgotten the time. Quickly throwing on his backpack, he rushed out the door.
* * *
Yugi couldn't concentrate in school that day. He was too busy thinking about the upcoming tournament, about what Kaiba had said, about his dream, about just about everything but Math. Unfortunately, they had a test that day. Yugi had only answered half the questions, he was so deep in thought.
"Yugi?" a polite voice said, snapping the duelist back to reality. "It's your turn." Yugi sighed as he drew his card. It had turned out that both Joey and Bakura were also invited to the tournament. Bakura, however, was being fully controlled by the Millenium Ring during Battle City, and thus wasn't as great a duelist as one might expect. So Yugi was playing with him to help him learn. It was lunchtime, and they were eating after quickly inhaling their lunch.
He was still playing with the deck his other self had assembled though. Currently he had just played out Dark Necrophia, his strongest monster, and destroyed Yugi's Giant Rat with it. Yugi had been able to search out a Magnet Warrior Gamma and put it on the field thanks to Giant Rat's effect. Now he had the Magnet Warriors Beta and Gamma out on the field, as well as a face-down card. Bakura had Destiny Board out, but only the first letter.
Yugi looked at the card he had drew. It was the Winged Dragon of Ra. Even if he only had two monsters out on the field, he knew he could summon it this turn. Something seemed wrong about winning so easily. I wonder if I could even beat Bakura without an Egyptian God card. I would've been toast if I hadn't drawn Slypher in Battle City. It would be disheartening for Bakura to be beaten so easily.
<Do it, Yugi> Yami said suddenly. Yami was also letting Yugi duel for himself, but still monitoring his playing. <No one will be going easy on him in the World Championships.>
"All right," Yugi said boldly. A crowd had began to gather to watch them play, as most people in the town of Domino now knew of the "great duelist Yugi." "I'll activate my Trap card Ultimate offering." Yugi flipped over the card. "Then I'll summon Neo the Magic Swordsman, in attack mode!" Yugi played the 1700 power monster on the desk. "Then I'll pay 500 life points to use Ultimate Offering's abilities to give me another summon this turn!" Tea, who had volunteered to keep track of their life points, crossed off the number 3200 and replaced it with 2700--Yugi's Life Points "And now I'll summon the mighty Winged Dragon of Ra!" The gathered crowd gasped as Yugi placed all three of his monsters in the discard pile to summon the Egyptian God card.
"Hey!" one of the kids asked. "Why does it have question marks in it's power and touhgness boxes. What's that mean?"
"What it means," Yugi said dramatically, "Is that my monster has the combined attack and defense strength of the three monsters I sacraficed." Yugi realized that he was enjoying the attention. That wasn't like him.
"That means..." Tea said, doing some quick math. "It has an attack strength of 4900 and a defense strength of 4400!"
"That's right," Yugi said. He could have done the math himself, but he didn't want to boast. "Now, I'll attack Bakura's Dark Necrophia."
Bakura sighed as he tossed Dark Necrophia into the discard pile. "That brings my life points down to zero. You win, Yugi." Seeing the lost look on Bakura's face, Yugi wasn't sure it was worth it.
Yugi didn't like it either. He had only won because he had drawn Ra--not because he was a better duelist. Well, you were a great duelist to win Ra from Malik... His mind feebly argued, but it didn't comfort Yugi. Maybe someone like Mai would have enjoyed that victory. But not him. He liked duels where he won by the skin of his teeth. Not like this one, where he had mercilessly steamrollered over his friend.
* * *
Later on in the day, Yugi was walking home from school with Joey, Tea and Tristan. Bakura lived in the opposite direction, so he wasn't with them. The four of them were talking and joking--normal stuff that teenagers did. They had reached a lull in the conversation. The air seemed strangely quiet.
"So," Joey said, breaking the silence. "I figure Yugi's pretty much got this tournament in the bag. Am I right, guys?"
"What makes you say that?" Yugi asked.
"Well, I mean, look at you," Joey said., as if it were something anyone would know. "You've got all three Egyptian God cards, and you were King of Games even before that. I mean, just look at what you did this afternoon. Forty-seven thousand attack points..."
"Do you want it?" Yugi said abruptly.
"What?" Joey said stupidly. "Are you feeling all right, Yug?"
"I'm serious, Joey," Yugi said. "I mean, I want to give everyone a fighting chance at the tournament."
"Okay, whatever you say," Joey replied, growing a smirk. "I might as well take advantage of your momentary delerium."
Yugi fanned through his deck and picked out Ra. "Here you go," he said, handing it to Joey. "It's all yours."
"Hey, did he just give that guy Ra?" someone behind the group said.
"Can I have Obelisk?" another boy asked.
"Okay," came another voice, a girl's. "But I want Slypher!"
"Okay," Tristan said. "Now's the part where we run madly away from the Egyptian God card-hungry mob."
* * *
They got away quite easily, actually--they were just kids, and not that many of them. The problem was, Yugi couldn't get his mind off of the tournament. All he did during the next two days was related to Duel Monsters. He read strategy articles on magazines and webpages, went through his deck and made minor edits about ten times, and read up on the other competitors. The only piece of homework he did was a free essay for Japanese that he chose to write about Duel Monsters.
The days passed by in a blur, and before he knew it, it was Friday night. He was still reading up about the competition--right now it looked like his biggest competition was, as always, Seto Kaiba. But still, he looked up most of the other world champions and comitted them to memory. He was sure that he was saying stuff like "Angela Sienna, Italian National Champion, known for playing decks that revolve around Exodia..." in his sleep.
His grandfather had forced him to go to bed early that night, saying that he needed rest. Still, he stayed awake for a couple of hours, filled with anxiety, until he fell into a troubled sleep.
...he was dueling Tea...they were on Kaiba's blimp...but Dimitri Bellvoir was going to blow it up, but who exactly was Dimitri Bellvoir...Dimitri Bellvoir, French national champion, uses Fusion deck...but then his grandfather told him that it was a double duel, and Seto Kaiba had just played Ra...
...the blade pierced through the pharoah's back, sending pain through his body. Instantly, the pharoah spun around, but he couldn't see the assassin. But Pegus had seen it, and pointed out a figure hiding in the shadows. The pharoah's lips snarled. He hated assassins. He could feel the poison seeping through his bones. He cried out, and banished the assassin to the shadow realm, but he was still poisoned. As he faded away to blackness, he held out a hand and reached for something...anything...and then the blackness...
* * *
Yugi woke up the next morning and slowly got dressed. After putting his deck in his pocket, he went downstairs and ate a large breakfast. He wasn't sure what kind of food they had at the tournament (they had to have food somewhere, if they were supposed to be staying here for a week), so he was eating up now. He also grabbed some candy bars and stuffed them into his bag.
At around elven o' clock, he headed over to Tristan's place. They had all agreed to meet there, as it was closest to the Demon Dice store. After bidding farewell to his grandfather, he walked down the street at a moderate pace. He took this opportunity to talk to Yami.
<Yami,> he asked cautiously. <Since the fate of the world isn't hinging on this tourney or anything...would you mind letting me duel? You know, instead of you?>
<I suppose,> Yami responded, sounding a bit surprised. <But why would you want such a thing?>
<It's just that...> Yugi sighed audibly. <I just want to be able to duel on my own, without relying on someone else's help.>
Even if he was nothing more than a spirit, Yugi could feel Yami nodding. <A wise decision. But I wouldn't be so certain about this being a regular tournament. Trouble seems to follow us.>
Yugi nodded in agreement to that, but was sceptical. However, there was no more time to talk because Tristan's house had just come into view. Yugi sprinted up to the doorstep and rang the bell. To his surprise, Joey's sister Serenity opened the door. "Oh, hi Yugi," she said energetically.
"Hi," Yugi responded confidently, but a sudden flare of tournament nervousness filled him. Shaking it off, he went inside. Joey and Tristan were sitting on the couch, watching TV. A forgotten duel lay on the table.
"Hey Yug," Joey greated him nonchalantly as Serenity sat down on the couch. Yugi realized that she must be coming to the tournament with Joey. As he sat down, he glanced at the forsaken game on the tabletop. One of the players--presumably Joey--had a Red Eyes Black Dragon out, and the other player only had a Science Soldier to defend.
Seeing Yugi's eyes wander to the cards, Tristan quickly scooped up his deck. "Oh, hey Yugi," Tristan said. "Me and Joey were dueling, but we decided we'd rather watch TV instead."
"You mean you'd rather watch TV than get clobbered by my Red Eyes Black Dragon," Joey teased.
"If you want to duel, Joey, I'll play you," Yugi said.
"Okay," the taller boy said as he began to shuffle his deck. "But I warn you Yugi...I'm not gonna be easy!"
The two duelled a couple times. Yugi won most of the time, but once Joey got Ra out and completely decimated Yugi's defending forces. Soon enough, though, Tea and Bakura had arrived, and it was almost 2:00. So they headed over to the Demon Dice store. There were a few customers, but none of them looked like true duelists.
"Looks like you guys are the first finalists here," Tristan said.
"I wouldn't count on it," a familiar voice said cockily. Duke Devlin stepped out from the shadows, tossing a pair of dice in the air and catching them in his fist repeatedly.
"Duke?" Yugi asked, surprised. "You're in the tournament?"
"God, Yugi, don't you research the competition?" Duke said as he swaggered towards the group. Yugi felt a flash of colour come to his face; he had done a lot of research on the competition. "I'm currently ranked #3 in regional duelist tournaments, so I was invited. Admittedly, I'm not as good at Duel Monsters as I am at Dungeon Dice Monsters, but I have some skill." He said that last line with a smirk, as if being a good enough duelist to get invited to the world championships was nothing to write home about.
"Oh, get off your high horse Duke," a familiar female voice said. Sure enough, Mai Valentine stepped through the game store's automatic doors next. "You know you only qualified because half of the Battle City finalists couldn't."
"Yeah, that's what I was wondering about," Yugi said. "According to the tournament website, only the top 8 of the last major tournament in the region qualified. That would have been Battle City. So how are you in there, Duke?"
"That's easy," Duke said dismissively. "Seto Kaiba is currently registered in the American region, and Ishizu Ishtar in the Egyptian. Not to mention that Marik and Odion have just about fallen off of the face of the earth since they were defeated in the finals. So, they took the top four regional champions, one of which happened to be me."
"But who are the others?" Bakura asked curiously.
"That would be me," a nasal voice said as the store's swinging doors opened again. Yugi groaned inaudibly as he faced Weevil Underwood, accompanied by Rex Raptor. "And Rex here, but I'm better than him."
"No you're not!" Rex protested. "You just keep playing dirty."
"Well of course you'd consider it that way, Rex," Weevil remarked. "Your only strategy is to smash the opponent's face in with your Dinosaur cards."
"I've learned from you Weevil," Rex bit back. "I bet my new monster could wipe the floor with you!"
"Oh, what is it," Weevil said sarcastically. "Another Serpent Knight Dragon? Really, my Insect Queen could kill that monster without even absorbing any insects..."
"You mean my Insect Queen, Weevil," Joey interrupted. After rummaging through his pockets for a minute, he flashed the rare card he had won from the insect duelist. "And I beat you at Duelist Kingdom too, Rex. And won your rarest card as well." Joey was now showing off his Red Eyes Black Dragon too. "I must say, thanks though. I never could have got through Duelist King-"
Joey was interrupted by Rex's shoulder slamming into his side. The sudden attack caused him to drop the two cards he was holding. Weevil immeditely responded by scrambling to pick up the fallen cards. Joey responded to Rex's attack with a rough shove, and it looked like the two would continue fighting. The crowd that had already began to watch the argument was now forming a ring around the duelists.
Serenity and Tea burst through the crowds, each restraining one of the boys. "Let me go," Rex snapped at Tea, who was all that was holding him back from going at Wheeler with flying fists. For some inexplicableb reason, Yugi felt a pang of something like jealousy.
"Come on, big bro," Serenity urged. "It's not worth it!"
"As much as I would like this debacle to continue," Duke said, his voice rising above the crowd. "The plane has arrived."
Plane? Yugi wondered, but his thoughts were put aside when Duke began ushering them towards the elevator. The ground floor was the real store, the other floors were used for offices and dueling arenas. After a long and slightly cramped ride up, there was a metallic ding! and the door opened. They were on the roof. Outside was a moderately small plane. An official-looking man stood outside the plane's open entrance.
After a moment of uncertain silence, the man barked "You may now board. Please state your name and reason for being here as you do so."
Yugi was the first to step up. "Yugi Moto, first place in Battle City, first place in Duelist Kingdom."
Tea followed him. "Tea Gardener, in the company of Yugi Moto."
Joey followed. "Joey Wheeler, fourth place in Battle City, second place in Duelist Kingdom."
Following him was Serenity. "Serenity Wheeler, in the company of Joey Wheeler."
Bakura came next, his nervous demeanor showing on his face. "Bakura Ryou, fifth place in Battle City."
Tristan suddenly realized he should be following Bakura, and jumped up to do so. "Tristan Taylor, in the company of Bakura Ryou."
Mai snorted, and stepped up. "Mai Valentine, sixth place in Battle City, third place in Duelist Kingdom."
Weevil impatiently followed. "Weevil Underwood, first place in regional tournaments."
Immediately following him was Rex. "Rex Raptor, second place in regional tournaments."
Duke Devlin stepped up too, casually tossing dice in the air. "Duke Devlin, third place in regional tournaments. But you probably all ready know me, right?"
The inside of the plane was rather small, to Yugi's surprise. He sat next to Joey and Tea. There was a period of silence as they waited for the eighth duelist. Finally, after about ten minutes, someone came bursting in. "Sorry I'm late, I just got into the city half an hour ago. Mako Tsunami, fourth place in regional tournaments."
"Hey Mako!" Yugi waved as the sea duelist entered the plane. While they had only met once, and thus could hardly be called friends, they both respected each other as duelists and as opponents. Mako took an unclaimed corner of the seats.
After about five more minutes, a crackly voice came over the radio. "Attention all finalists and companions. We will soon be lifting off. We urge that all passeners wear their seatbelts." Then, the plane took off. Yugi's stomach jumped. He had never liked planes--or helicopters, for that matter. Kaiba's fascination with them was one of the many things that made Yugi dislike him.
All of a sudden, something threw Yugi back into his seat (he had been leaning forward.) It felt as if a hurricane was blowing him back. He gritted his teeth, sure that his skin would tear off. And then, it stopped.
"What was that?" Yugi moaned, clutching his stomach.
Tea glanced out the window and gasped. "Yugi...we're in space!"
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(1) For those who don't know, Swiss is a tournament structure that sorts out the players into skill levels. Basically, the first round is usually organized randomly, or by alphabetical order, or whatever. Then, after that, the winners of that round play the other winners, and the losers play the other losers. This continues, eventually making sure that a player's skill level is matched. This is the structure that is used for most tournaments of chess, Magic:the Gathering, and I'm sure lots of other games.