The Trials and Tribulations of a Duelist

by Tails9095

CHAPTER 1: Incoming Duelist - Kaji Sumaro

"Duel!" A pair of voices shouted from either end of the dark room they stood in. Then lights emitted from their duel disks, illuminating the room they where in. This revealed silhouettes of the crowd who was watching them. The smell of excitement filled the air, and not far from the two was a huge banner. The banner read 'Duel Monsters Tournament Today!' it explained the duel that the two were playing in. But more importantly, the machines had just exposed the two whom had just shouted out.

One was Katsuo Osimaru, a duelist who was known all around Japan for his famous tournament winnings and unbeatable strategies. He was tall, always seen sporting a Black suit with his greasy gelled brown hair. His personality was one of a fighter, he was bold and always ready to fight, though his fights weren't always for good. The Osimaru family is part of a rich and powerful lifestyle, they were rich. They made their fortunes in a very dishonest way. They would buy and sell rare Duel Monster cards on the black market, which is why Katsuo would always have the best cards available to him. Cheers would fill the air at just the sound of his name, he was always with a group of fans who would loyally follow him like sheep. The card he was best known for using and winning with was the almighty Chaos Quad Beast, a creature of unimaginable power! It was an urban legend that if he played his creature, he would automatically win in just under three turns; because no one has ever lasted that long when it hit the field.

His opponent was Kaji Sumaro, a duelist who was relatively new to the game. But he was really willing to learn and play the game as hard as he could. But compared to Katsuo, he was literally no one. Physically Kaji was much shorter than Katsuo, wearing an old blue windbreaker and jeans. His black hair wasn't jelled like his counterpart. It the hung down, almost over his eyes, in a natural spiky way. Unlike his opponent, he was shy and peaceful by nature. The Kaji family wasn't necessarily poor, but he never really had much money to spend on the Duel Monster card game. Besides, his best card wasn't really worth talking about... His deck needed a lot more maintenance before it would be any good.

"I'll start this duel by summoning my Battle Clown (3, 1200/300) in attack mode!" Kaji called to his opponent, a clown in green camouflage appeared into the air between the two duelists. The horrible vanilla creature struck a pathetic battle pose directed Katsuo. There was a cruel laugh in the crowd directed at the monster and the duelist who played it. This led to an embarrassed Kaji call out to his opponent "That's my turn"

"Battle Clown?" Katsuo shouted with a wicked smile on his face. He crossed his arms around the duel disk as he had to make sure that was really the move. "I can't believe anyone would actually run a card like that! How bad of a rookie are you?" Katsuo mumbled just loud enough for the crowd to hear. This resulted in a laugh through the crowd for a second time. "Looks like I'm going to have to wipe that thing of the face of the planet! Go Armageddon's Soul! (4 1800/1400)" He called out to Kaji as a small black sphere appeared.

"Armageddon's Soul? I've never heard of that card before!" Kaji admitted as he watched the creature fly around the field. But he knew even the most elegant Duel Monsters had a painful effect.

"Yes! Now my monster! Go!" Katsuo commanded as the sphere flew up into the face of the clown. "I will activate Armageddon's Soul's hidden power! It takes control of your Battle Clown for my entire battle phase! Then when the battle phase ends, your clown is automatically destroyed!" He explained as the soul flew into the clown's face, who in turn, turned around to stare down at Kaji.

"That's crazy! How can you do that? That's so powerful..." He trailed off, watching his only defense get lost to a once living creature. Then clown pulled out a dagger, waiting for an order from his new master which came with the shout "Attack!" and it lunged for Kaji. This was followed with Kaji shouting in pain as his life points dropped 1200 points. But the attack wasn't over! Then the clown exploded in a shatter of glass as Armageddon's Soul appeared. It then flew for Kaji, hitting him with a painful 1800 ATK. The pained boy's life points dropped down to 5000.

"I'll be nice and end my turn for now!" Katsuo told him with a small chuckle at the boy's pain.

"That was nice of him" A girl in the crowd called out, it was quickly met with a bunch of 'Yeas and uh-huhs'. This upset Kaji because he knew that Katsuo was just messing with him, like a cat playing with a helpless mouse.

"Fine then, I will just set a monster in defense and one card face down" Kaji explained nervously, staring down at his duel disk as the two cards appeared to the field. A short and uncertain move that was immediately noticed by his opponent.

"I bet... your trying to bluff me... correct?" The man in the suit shouted as he drew his card and started his turn and scanned his hand. "I will summon my Holy Swordsman! (4 2000/0) With this monster on the field, I can pay half my life points to attack with it twice!"

"Another powerful effect monster that he controls, I can't do anything to stop that..." Kaji told himself, his hands trembling in fear. The only reason he didn't just give up was because his face-down monster would save him... But at that thought, Katsuo pointed his finger at the face down monster that Kaji was banking on.

"Now! Armageddon's Soul! Take control of his face down monster!" He commanded as the Soul disappeared under the card. The card then appeared on the opposite side of the field.

"Wait? If can take control of face down monsters?" Kaji was becoming hysterical by how badly he was about to lose to his opponent.

"Yes, and now with your... Hippopotamus Guard...? (4 0/2000) not blocking you I can finish you off!" Katsuo announced as he looked down at the monster that Kaji was using to stay alive for the turn. "Now my monsters! Attack his life points directly!" He announced, the Hippopotamus led a small charge directly at Kaji. Then the hippo exploded and the Soul whacked Kaji with a second 1800 attack. This pushed Kaji back a few feet. Then, they were followed by the Holy Swordsman who slashed at Kaji and took his life points down to 1200. This dropped Kaji down to the floor.

"At least that's not the game... I still have another turn to attack" Kaji told himself with a weak smile, standing up weakly. "Are you finished with your turn?" He asked.

"Do you just not listen?" Katsuo called coldly at the smaller duelist with a raised eyebrow. He lifted his arm and pointed to his swordsman "I will activate my Holy creature's special ability. It allows for him to attack again with just a small cost of half my life points" His points dropped from 8000 down to a lower 4000 amount.

"Oh... Darn..." Kaji mumbled to himself as he backed away slowly, the monster ran at him with it's sword drawn. It slashed at Kaji and took him down to 0 life points.

The crowd cheered as Kaji dropped to his knees in defeat, a small trail of smoke coming from his duel disk. Katsuo walked towards the kneeling opponent, staring down at him with a pair of green eyes. They were met by a pair of blue ones looking up. "Good luck in the tournament, but I don't think you will get far..." He told the new duelist coldly, then turned and walked off from the practice match to his cheering fans.

Kaji was now sitting dully in the food court of the Duel Monsters stadium, glancing around to the different things the stadium offered. It was built much like an American Football stadium, a large open area in the middle for duelists to duel as the entire circling area was for a crowd. Behind the stands where halls filled with either food or card vendors. The thought of this led him to feel around in his pocket for any money that he could use to buy some cards and improve his deck. But he was sadly disappointed, completely broke. He looked down at his watch to see that he had just an hour before the tournament would start. So he then decided to just spend the next hour walking around. As he did, he found himself drawn to a large card shop. As he wandered in, he started to explore through the rows and rows of packs. But then he had noticed a spiky haired person approach him from behind the counter.

"Why hello there!" The person called as he walked up to Kaji cheerfully "Seeing your interest in the packs I think it's safe to assume your a duelist?"

"Yes, I duel" He replied, glancing over at the older figure, the guy was about 25-26 years old. The strange thing was guy had huge spiky haircut that was a mix of three different colors; purple, black and blonde. "I just don't have enough money in my life for cards"

"I can help you if you want..." The kind guy offered, stopping as he waited to learn the young duelist's name

"Oh! It's Kaji Sumaro" He answered with a small bow to the taller figure.

"Alright, just let me see your deck" He asked, walking behind the counter. The counter was a giant glass case filled with rare and expensive Duel Monster cards. Behind the counter was a wall of shelves, the shelves were crammed full of binders from different sets. They were set up chronologically. Personally, Kaji didn't envy the one who had to organize the store.

"Thank you!" Kaji responded cheerfully, pulling his deck out and handed it to the guy. He took it and started to quickly flip through the cards. As he inspected the deck he gave out small chuckles at the card choices. When he finished he plopped the deck onto the counter and turned back to the wall. He pulled out one binder, flipping through it and pulled out a bunch of cards. Then he moved to another binder and then another. It took only a few minutes, but the kind duelist was able to create an entire deck from scratch.

"Alright, the deck is based on stalling your opponent and burning them of their precious life points" He explained as he showed Kaji the cards and how to use them.

"W-what do you want me to do to pay you back?" Kaji replied, awkwardly staring at the deck in his new friend's hand.

"Well... " He asked, taking the stack that was Kaji's old deck "How about, I give you that deck for these? It sounds like a good deal!" He was obliviously ripping himself off to be nice to his friend.

"Deal!" Kaji replied joyfully as he took the deck, putting it into his deck box on his belt. He smiled and bowed again to the kind duelist. Kaji then turned to leave until he heard the employee call him back.

"Wait! I almost forgot the key card for the deck" He called to Kaji as he reached down udner the counter for a small box. He pulled it out and placed it down onto the counter and opened it. Inside was a single card, pretty important too because the box was lined with some sort of silk-like fabric.

"What card is it?" Kaji asked as he stared at the card, not recognizing it.

"This is a very rare and powerful card" The worker explained as he pulled it out and handed it over tenderly. Kaji glanced down at the card and read the name of the card that he just received

"White Magician Pikeru..." He whispered, the card gave off a strange pink aurora when he took possession of it. He tried to figure out what the light was coming from until he was distracted by a small beep from the intercom. The first round pairings were being put up! "I have to go!"was turning and started to leave "Wait- I just realized I never got your name" He called, half turning back to the counter, halfway out of the store.

"Oh! It's Yugi! Yugi Muto!" He called with a small smile as Kaji quickly left the store. Then he put the box away and walked out from behind the counter. As he started to restock one of the packs they were running low on a small thought crossed through his head "Well... He must be new..." he told himself with another small laugh. "But, he won't be so new after today... that, I am sure of..."

To Be Continued...

In the next chapter of The Trials and Tribulations of a Duelist:

The first round of the tournament is about to begin! But wait, who am I playing?

Kaji Sumaro VS. Katsuo Osimaru!

What? I have to duel him in the first? Well let's just hope this Yugi guy is any good at making decks. And on a side note, what's with that strange card and the mysterious light?

It's all in the next chapter:

Chapter 2: Unforeseen Circumstances

Cya next time!