yo, greel here. this is my first fan fic, so i'm going to upload one chapter, and if u think i should keep going, please say so.

"Your attention please." Mr. Kamigawa paused to let Joey scramble to his seat. "Thank you. For the final few weeks of this school year, we will be having a new student. Her mother is on sabbatical from California. I hope you will welcome her with open arms."

"Can't see why she's here if its just for a few weeks," whispered Joey.

"It's NOT for a few weeks, sabbatical lasts months. She'll probably be here all summer," whispered Tea.

"Oh." Joey turned his attention back to the front of the classroom, where the new girl was now standing.

"I believe there is a seat behind Mr. Wheeler. In the back, there."

As soon as the girl sat down, Joey turned around to face her.

"HI!" he shouted. One of the girl's eyebrows shot up.

"Hello," she replied. "Do you always shout when you greet people?"

"Almost always," said Tea sardonically.

"So, whats your name?" piped up Yugi.

"Latulla," she replied. "You must be the Tea they were telling me about." She nodded at Tea, who grinned.

"I'm Joey."

"And I'm Yugi." Latulla jumped.

"No way! THE Yugi Moto? The one who won the Duelist Kingdom AND Battle City tournaments?"

"That's me."

"Jeez, I never thought you'd be so wimpy looking. No offence or anything," she hastily amended.

"Don't worry, everyone says I'm wimpy."

After school, they met in Yugi's grandfather's shop, where Latulla met Tristan. And thus Latulla joined their quartet.

During the remainder of the school year, they discovered Latulla's dueling skill. Yugi had assumed that she could duel, because she knew about him and the tournaments he'd won. By the end of the school year, he knew that she wasn't just any duelist. She was good. She defeated Joey and nearly defeated him, but he pulled out his Dark Hole before she could deliver the final blow. Though she had never tried her skill against or even met Yami.

But it was because of this that he also included her when he told Joey about the invitation. It was the week after school ended. Tea and Tristan were out of town, so it was just Yugi, Joey, and Latulla.

"Whoa, whoa, slow down Yug. You say you got an invite to some tournament."

"Yes."

"A duel monsters tournament."

"Yes."

"Who would throw a tournament right after the end of the Battle City tournament?" asked Latulla.

"No clue," replied Yugi.

"But registration is tomorrow?" cut in Joey.

"Yes."

"WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SOMETHING SOONER?" shouted Joey and Latulla at the same time.

"Because the invitation just came today."

Naturally, the three of them submitted decks. All three of them were admitted and told to return to the registration office the next day.

The next day found them waiting anxiously outside of said office. Actually, there was a whole crowd of duelists waiting outside the office.

Finally, after what seemed like years, the doors opened and the hoards of duelists swarmed in. Everyone was led to the upper floors of the office. Here, there were rows upon rows of mechanical pods.

"No way," said Yugi and Joey.

"What?"

"Virtual Reality," replied Yugi.

"We have NEVER had good experiences with virtual reality," added Joey. Latulla's eyebrows raised but before she could ask anything-

"Attention please." The babble stopped. "Attention. We will now explain the rules for the tournament. The entire tournament will take place in virtual reality. When you lose a duel, you will be ejected from the system. The Battle City rules for sacrificing creatures to summon stronger ones apply. Each player starts each duel with 8,000 life points. When you enter the system, you will find that you have a small computer chip. Do not lose this, you will need five to pass on to round two. You will receive one chip every time you win a duel. Now select a pod."

Latulla did so, climbing into the nearest pod.

"In the right-hand arm rest, there is a slot for your dueling deck. Once you have closed the slot, you will enter the tournament world."

Latulla placed her deck into the slot and closed it. Suddenly, the pod evaporated. Her stomach followed closely as she felt herself falling... falling... falling...