Yu-Gi-Oh! The Unfolding Future
Chapter 1:
"Nero!" a gruff voice from the pitch-black cried. "Some guy called 'X' is here!"
"Who's X?" grumbled Nero, slowly opening his eyes and yawning.
"You know, that white-haired dude, long spiky hair, dark-brown trench coat. He says to get up and get ready for the Duel Academy Entrance Exam."
"Oh, him?" muttered Nero lethargically. Did he change his name or something?
"What's up, Nero?" a young man greeted casually, entering Nero's room.
"'Sup-"
"Remember, it's 'X,' now," he interrupted quickly. With half-focused eyes, Nero blinked and tried to glare at him, but resigned quickly.
"Why 'X?'" he asked as he rose from bed and began his morning rituals.
"It's an awesome name, don't you think?" Nero blinked; instead of responding, he squirted excessive amounts of hair gel onto his hands and applied it to his untidy. black hair, allowing it to spike primarily up and to the left side. After putting on his gray hoodie, he took a belt with a small box and fastened it to his waist.
"You're here early. You must be really excited."
"Who's not?" X asserted as they walked out the door. Outside, the rising sun illuminated the city of Satellite in an ambivalent light. The two of them continued down the rusting stairway.
At the bottom of the stairway onto the cracked sidewalk, Nero aloofly tucked his hands behind his head. "It's kind of a pain, though. Duels are supposed to be for fun."
"Dueling is going to get boring if there isn't anything to gain."
"What's there to gain?"
"I'm aiming for reputation. Duan wants to fight stronger people. Think about what you have to gain."
"I can understand why Duan wants to fight stronger people, but why are you aiming for more rep?"
"Isn't it natural to try to become more well-known?"
"Uh, no? Some of us like the quiet life, you know?"
X's tone dropped to a harsh low. "You'll always live under the shadow of the Ushiyama family if you don't make a name for yourself."
A brief silence fell on them. Nero lightly scratched his head. "...Are we picking up Duan next?
"Yep. Let's roll."
Today is a very exciting day for me. We're going to take the practical exam at Duel Academy. I was so excited that I couldn't sleep last night. In fact, I'm still shaking from-
"Wake up!" bellowed a voice. The young man opened his eyes to find himself being shaken vigorously by a white, spiky-haired man.
"Ungh," he groaned, "A dream?"
"Duan, wake up already!" demanded X.
"Okay, I'm a-" Duan's voice trailed off as his vision became blurry and blacked out.
"Nero." Promptly, Nero dumped a bucket of water onto Duan's face. He quickly sprung out of bed, shivering.
"C-cold," muttered Duan, his teeth chattering. "What time is-" he glanced at the clock. "Oh! It's already eight!"
"Hurry up or we're going to be late!"
"It's good to see you, Nero. I was hoping you would come."
"Yeah, you won't go without us, right? What would have happened if I didn't come?"
"It's enough to participate in the Entrance Exam. I don't need to actually enter Duel Academy. Did you find your reason to go to Duel Academy?"
Nero scratched his head in shallow contemplation. "Kinda. It'd be nice to get out of the house."
"It's okay, you don't have to find your reason right away."
"I'm going though, since you're too homesick to leave without us."
"Thanks. Now, where's my deck?" He hastily picked up the black jacket he was sleeping with and a set of thinly-framed glasses and wore them. Then, Duan took the deck of cards on the table and placed it in the inside pocket of his jacket. "Let me get the money for the bus."
"I got it," said X hastily.
"You sure?"
"Yeah, let's go."
X, Duan, and Nero all hurried onto the bus to New Domino City. After sitting down, they gazed at the window at Daedalus Bridge, the connection between New Domino City and Satellite over the blue ocean. They looked back at Satellite, on the shore of the United States, seeming increasingly smaller and smaller as they traveled away.
"So why did you change your name to X?" asked Duan.
"I didn't like my old name, and doesn't X just sound cool?"
"...Yeah," agreed Duan tentatively. "Why now of all times?"
"This is a new start, you know? This is our chance to escape being a resident of Satellite and to become well-respected in New Domino City. To put away our past and reach for our future!"
"It's not really that bad to be a resident of Satellite, though," remarked Duan thoughtfully.
"We've got nothing going for us in Satellite, though. If we don't take this path, we won't catch up with the other pros. Plus, it's not like there were many strong duelists in Satellite, anyways. It's why you wanted to fight at the Entrance Exam, right?"
"I suppose." Duan closed his eyes, recalling all of the duels he had been through, but an image of a pitch-black dragon with metallic claws and stubby wings remained vividly in his mind. In his memory, he stood between it and a man in a black cloak, surrounded by a ruined structure. The man's vile smile widened as he pointed at the projections of face-down cards surrounding him. With one glance at his face-down cards, he saw razors immediately fly towards them and serrated them before the cards shattered into pixels. After Duan's face-down cards vanished, he watched the man in the black cloak cackle before pointing at him. On that man's signal, the dragon spewed dark vapors that enveloped him. "I won't lose. I will definitely make that miracle occur!"
"Pft! You don't need a miracle to win; you're strong enough already to win without one."
"Oh, lucky! Guys, look! I found 20 bucks!" Nero waved a 20 dollar bill in front of the two of them. Duan shook his head, dumb-folded by his good fortune.
"Read the atmosphere," stated X after snatching the bill from Nero's hands. "Nero is lucky enough to win, I guess. I don't know about myself."
"If you believe in yourself and your cards, then a miracle will definitely occur!" Duan said almost automatically.
X's eyes narrowed, his expressing sliding down in disapproval. "Don't tell me you still believe in the heart of the cards."
"Well, I think it does have some truth to it," said Duan thoughtfully. "It basically means to have confidence, courage." X didn't respond.
A massive island filled with large buildings, the largest one towering high into the sky, labeled "KC", came into view. The bus drove off the bridge onto the island. Many signs floating by read "Welcome to New Domino City!" Nero's eyes scanned the surroundings before being overwhelmed by all of the flashing lights and bustling activity. Satellite seemed pale in comparison to New Domino City's livelihood. Everyone and everything seemed to sparkle.
"Next stop, Duel Academy," said a voice over the intercom.
"We're here!" shouted X, unable to hold his excitement. "This, you guys, is where we go pro!"
"Yeah," said Nero dully.
"The people at New Domino City may be much stronger than we imagined," said Duan.
"We'll be fine," said X dismissively. "You said that we should have confidence in ourselves, right? We're the best in Satellite anyway!"
Duan nodded in acknowledgment slowly and watched X and Nero leave. "There are those stronger than even me," he uttered under his breath before following them out.
After getting off the bus, the three of them followed the crowding young students to a towering glass building. At the front, it was labeled "DA" in large, cursive letters. The three of them stood at the end of the crowd of students.
"This place is huge," commented X.
Nero peered forward, then drooped his head. "This line is huge. How long as we going to wait?"
"Probably a while," replied Duan. Nero's head drooped again.
"We could have avoided this if you didn't oversleep," remarked X irritably.
"Sorry." Duan's head drooped as well.
"It's cool." Nero raised his head and patted Duan's shoulder.
After straightening his posture, Duan peered at the crowd ahead of him. "There are a lot of people entering, though."
"They're all from New Domino City," X commented after a quick glance of the crowd. "Just how many people are there?"
"How can you tell?" asked Nero.
"Look at how we dress. Then, look at them."
From a quick glance, Nero noticed the vast majority of students cleanly dressed; many of them were in suits or buttoned-up shirts, and for those who weren't; their clothes had no wrinkles, no stains, no frays, and bright, unfaded colors. "Oh, I get it. What about people from Satellite?"
"I see one, maybe two?" The people who seemed like they came from Satellite were rare, but they stuck out in the crowd because of their tattered, dirty clothes and unkempt hair. "They're like a black stain in the midst of a bright picture."
"Well, yeah, but you sound like you're insulting us Satellite folks."
"Hey, I'm not going to pretend that I'm proud of being from Satellite. I didn't really like it much there."
Nero took a glance at Duan, who was looking away distantly. Turning back to X, he merely shrugged. "Whatever you say."
When it was finally their turn, X stepped forward to the counter. "I'd like to register, please," he requested.
"Your name?" the receptionist asked.
"X," he replied coolly.
"X?" she repeated. "Like the letter X?"
"Yep." She paused briefly, then searched through the few cards remaining.
"Did you register as 'X?'" whispered Duan with a small hint of concern. X gave Duan a grin and a nod. Duan face-palmed. "You've decided to change your name from the start."
"Okay, X, you're letter A. Here's your temporary card and a Duel Disk." She handed him a card with his likeness, number, and name on it, along with an arm-sized contraption. It had several slots shaped like the cards they carried, along with several buttons on its underside. The top part had a red globe of lustrous, thick glass and surrounding it, what appeared to them to be cooling vents. X slid the bottom part of the duel disk onto his left arm, allowing it to lock in place.
"I'm X, not 'A,'" he added quickly.
"Your room is inside," the receptionist stated, ignoring X and pointing to her left. "Follow one of the guides and you'll reach the waiting room." X entered the building and waited on Duan and Nero.
"I wish we could use our Duel Disks," said X when Duan and Nero walked through the sliding doors.
Nero stared at his Duel Disk in disappointment. "Me too. They don't have our blood, sweat, and tears on them."
"It can't be helped," stated Duan. "We have to make modifications so that they'll register with the Duel Academy's network."
"What nonsense are you spouting, Duan?" said Nero, raising his voice for a falsely dramatic effect.
"Uh, never mind," Duan said quickly. "This place is huge, though."
"This room is bigger than my apartment," remarked Nero. Like the rest of New Domino City, Duel Academy looked extremely tidy; white, perfectly smooth walls, a metallic, lustrous floor, well-polished glass windows, and brightly illuminating lights.
"This is only the first floor. How many floors are there?"
"I think about 20? 30?" remarked X. "The outside looked pretty impressive, but the inside of the building looks bigger than the outside."
"We got different letters, right?" He glanced at his card, which was labeled "C," then at Nero and X.
X gave Duan and Nero an acknowledging nod. "I'll meet you all on the winning side."
"Good luck, guys," said Nero.
"Same here," Duan said. The three of them walked their separate ways.
X entered the waiting room, filled with students looking over their decks and pacing around. Even the lockers in what X believed to be the locker room were highly polished, appearing very lustrous even in the ambient lighting. He sat down at an open spot on the bench. I wonder how the Mist Valley deck plays. Even though I know what the examiner's deck is like, I don't know any of the cards. How do I prepare for it?
"'Sup, brotha," said the man sitting next to him. X turned to him. One glance showed that he too, was a resident of Satellite. His clothes were even more worn out than his, and the loosely fitting jacket adorned with blunted spikes, his tarnishing silver-colored ring, and the seemingly irrationally-placed bald spots around his spiky hair reminded X of one of those gangsters that always lurked around Satellite. "There are way more chicks here than I thought," he said idly. X did not reply. "What deck do you use?"
"None of your business," he replied tersely.
"What? If I tell you what deck I used, would you tell me?"
"Nope."
"What gives, bro?" he demanded angrily. "Think you're special or something?" X turned and glared at him with a rune glowing in his left eye. "Whoa! What are you?"
"Rune Eyes."
"Oh, so you really are special, I see," the man said, attempting to speak nonchalantly, but X could hear the underlying jealousy in his tone. "Which part of New Domino City did you come from?"
"I'm from Satellite."
"What? I could have sworn you were from New Domino."
"What's it to you?"
"Honestly, Satellite ain't that bad. I haven't been there, but the rumors about it are total BS."
This guy isn't from Satellite? "Rumors?"
"You know, Satellite people are nothing but a bunch of thugs, criminals, poor people that are going downhill."
"Don't compare me to them."
"Whoa, insulting your own crib?"
"Just because I was from Satellite doesn't mean that I have to love every last bit of it. I'm different from them."
"Hey, hey, you need to learn some manners. Even if you don't like it, you should at least defend the place where your father-"
At the mention of the word, "father," X abruptly rose from his seat with wrinkled eyebrows and irate expression. His voice became threateningly coarse as he spat out, "Don't. Talk. About. My. Father."
"Okay, okay; chill, bro," the student said nervously, backing up and raising his hands.
"Shut up."
Those words triggered an overwhelming irritation in the student's mind, causing him to stand up with a similar angry expression. "Hey! You wanna have a go here?" The student brandished his Duel Disk and slid his deck into a slot. Just before X reached for his deck in his trench coat, an assistant called out a number. "I'll remember you," he said before stepping out the door. "The name's Lance." X merely watched him leave, then sat down and waited.
Duan stepped into the waiting room anxiously. A male student sat, crowded among many female students. His clean clothes and well-groomed blonde hair and fair skin gave him the air of an aristocrat. Even the people surrounded him gave off that same air, with their brightly colored, glittering dresses.
"Just Judgment!" he proclaimed coolly. The female students instantly squealed in response.
"So popular," mused Duan to himself. He glanced at himself, tattered clothes, fading green shirt with blotches of bleached spots scattered about, and well-worn slacks with rips at the bottom of the slacks and across his knees. He felt the social distance between him and the blonde student unsettling.
A lone girl sitting away from the crowd scoffed. "Hmph, how ridiculous." Her scowl on her full lips and wrinkled eyebrows gave off an intimidating air. She was also dressed cleanly, a dark-brown one-piece dress, but she seemed far more humbled than the other New Domino City residents; she sat down more casually and crossed her arms.
"Oh, are you ready for the exam?" asked Duan as he approached her slowly.
She glanced once at him from top to bottom, then lowered her arms. "The opponent is Flamvells," she replied. "They don't stand a chance."
"Flamvells?" Duan had oftly heard of the archtype of cards, but he wasn't familiar with their playing style. "How did you know that?" She raised her eyebrow slowly.
"Did you not read the email you got after applying to Duel Academy?"
"Oh, that email?" Duan's mind wandered to the moment that they got the email allowing them to take the practical exam for Duel Academy. "I didn't read the deck list. My friends and I weren't too fond of reading the deck lists of the people we were about to face."
"You do know that the point of this is to see if you could study and prepare against a specific opponent, right?" Duan's eyes averted sheepishly, then regained eye contact with her.
"Oh, I didn't read that part either," he said with a small nervous chuckle. "I'll just trust in my deck."
"May I see it?"
"Sure." Duan handed her his deck of cards. She shifted through them, quickly, at first, then again carefully, raising her eyebrow at each card she saw. "How can you be so sure?" she asked before returning Duan's deck. "I've never seen a deck like this."
"This deck and I have fought many battles together."
Before she could speak, the assistant called out a number. "That's me." The girl stood up and walked slowly out the door, waving casually. "My name is Percia. Good luck."
"My name's Duan! Nice meeting you! I hope to see you again soon!" As he stood up to wave good-bye, he noticed that she was much shorter than the assistant. When she left the room, Duan lined himself with the assistant and compared her height with his own. "She's a lot shorter than she seems."
Nero entered his waiting room, a large lecture hall. While looking for a place to sit down, he noticed a dark-haired girl sitting by herself. Like the other people he'd seen so far, she was cleanly dressed, but the most noticeable feature to him was her well-endowed figure revealed by her frilly, black dress. The other duelists seemed to avoid her. He didn't know why, so he approached her and waved. She gave him a tart smile.
"Hello there," she said with a small giggle. "I've had my eye on you for a while."
Surprised but somewhat flattered, Nero raised an eyebrow but returned a meek smile. "You have?"
"Do you handle pain well?"
Nero's smile immediately dropped as he began to back away slowly. "Uh, no?"
She giggled again. "Too bad. I've wanted you to become my toy." Nero stood up, but she tugged the sleeve of his hoodie. "What about your two cute friends from Satellite?" she mentioned, then Nero's face began to pale. "I've heard that Satellite people are very durable. Oh, who should I pick? The tall, durable one, or the short, fragile one? Maybe I could have them both!" While repeating herself, she began to drool slightly while shaking her head like a shy little girl.
Nero tugged himself away from her grasp. "I don't know what you're talking about! What's a Satellite?"
"The Eye of Wdjat knows everything," announced the girl as Nero took a step away from her. She pointed at the marking drawn by eyeliner.
"What's an 'Eye of Wdjat?'" Abruptly, the girl stood up, her face no longer wearing that tart smile.
"You're a duelist and you don't know what the Eye of Wdjat is?" She took a deep breath and began to rattle off facts rapidly, but an assistant interrupted, calling out a number. "Oh, that's me." Her expression returned to normal, including that tart smile. "I'll save this lesson for another time. Toodle-loo, cute Warrior Deck boy."
Sighing, Nero collapsed into his chair. "Warrior Deck boy? Does she know about our cards?" Thinking about it, he wasn't able to draw any conclusions and shrugged. "Eh, whatever."
"Last participant!" the assistant called. X, Duan, and Nero stood up and stepped out of the waiting room, anxious to take the practical exam. "Do you know the rules, entrant?"
"Yeah," the three of them answered as they entered the nearly empty, but vast arena. The arena had been split into eight subdivisions by metallic walls, each subdivision the size of a small gym. They only saw a handful of spectators sitting by, many of them with their arms folded or slouching slightly.
"There is no time limit. You pass automatically if you win, but the examiner may still pass you based on your performance if you lose." The assistants signaled X, Duan, and Nero to enter the separate sections of the arena.
Good, X thought to himself. Even if I don't win, I can still make a good impression on the examiner. That's what I do best, anyways.
"There won't be any need," stated Duan. "I'll fight like I always do and win."
The re-run of episode 250 of "Duel Monsters: The King of Games" is coming up tonight, Nero mused to himself. Oh, pass me based on performance? Well, that's cool and all, but I'd rather win.