Living to Duel

by EternalKing

"When a duel monster spirit comes up and yanks your spirit to another world without so much as a Hello, a guy doesn't have much of a choice but to live in a new world. Hopefully the Me of the other universes wake up soon." SI - No Pairings. Serious story and will be Rated M for themes later on. Contains a lot of world building in the first chapter. Duels will be better after CH 1.

1. Chapter 1

Yugioh Living to Duel

Try and read until the end before passing holy judgement. Duels, interactions, and explanations get better as this is still a prologue-ish chapter. Reading AN is important

Second Chapter has the longer list of decks that will be used, for now, expect Metalfoes, Masked Heroes, Crystrons, Dinomists, Shaddolls, Vendreads, and Noble Knights(not all of these are shown in this chapter, and they aren't the only decks)

Rated M for themes and how serious the story will take itself. NO PAIRINGS BUT ONLY SHIP TEASES.

Plans for this fic. So I intend on pulling stuff from the manga short series for this but it won't be the sole focus of everything in the story nor will it be the only thing I keep in mind. I'm also going to be pulling in characters and elements from the other series including the original because this self insert isn't just going into the world of yugioh or duel monsters, he's going into a REAL WORLD with advanced technologies and supernatural elements. After all, look at the innovation we have alone in entertainment(like games), in this world, Kaiba fucking broke the barrier of time just to settle a duel so I'm absolutely keeping in some of the absurd technology advances to match up with the duel spirits and supernatural shit. With all that in mind I can completely believe Action Duels, Turbo Duels, capsule monsters and the like, all exist in a certain capacity especially when it would make Kaiba and other people even richer. Hell, even synchros and XYZ would exist in a capacity by this point.

I'm using the Japanese versions for a lot of things, but I will pull from the English in certain cases, this also applies to anime and actual in game effects. For example while people think the shadow realm was a giant lie and shouldn't have existed, I don't think it was that bad in certain duels and it does need to exist in some capacity for certain duels(like GX and tragoedia who basically sent people to the shadow realm) and as for card effects we all know Bubbleman was better in the show.

Plot: To put it simply I have Four or so Arcs.

The first year arcs will be some combination of character development and bonding using the lighthearted school events, with a small arc of the Seven Stars(because the SS can only be changed by who Duels I'll mostly focus on the school stuff but while the former won't have life threatening tension it won't be plain and simple) and the manga threat.

Second year arcs will be the Light of Destruction with differences. I may add another threat after or before but in undecided at the time being.

Third year arcs will be the Yubel arcs(with twists to make it non Yubel related at the second half) and then with Darkness overcoming the world(but it also won't be like the anime cuz the anime was on a time constraint so everybody 'died' off screen).

Fourth year is post graduation where elements from the other series really start to kick in and you see how the characters from GX are currently faring in their dreams.

However there will a number of smaller somewhat unconnected series of arcs due me bringing in Kaiba/Pegasus.

While my self insert may 'look' overpowered and perfect in personality I'm not blind to what might be faults, and I do intend on showing them as flaws, just like Jaden/Judai faults having been there in the show the entire time. He will grow as both a duelist and a person. While you might assume that bringing in so many modern cards would make him perfect and unbeatable, anything can happen in a duel(both in real life and absolutely in the world I'm writing). and I've had plenty of cases of playing the game and losing when I had the upper hand. I also intend on using actual real life Duels(using my friends) for some of the less world threatening conflicts to keep things real. Not only that, but despite having my self insert have some really advanced or strong cards, he won't be using some of them often on the account that he knows there will be a consequences or desire(because I don't care for meta and care more about aesthetics).

For example he won't be playing the Blue Eyes anytime soon because those cards are nonexistent in other people's decks in the Yugioh world and this new one I'm writing. It's just I think people are too stuck on the idea that a protagonist needs to stick with a single archetype in their story, hell look at the learning to duel series, konami/red hat had plenty of different decks. My self insert will also be somewhat of an unreliable narrator, helped by the fact that I'm not the most observant of people. And you will also see that he 'grows' into being a better duelist but more as a person. Hell, part of this first chapter is doing just that. Also, no real pairings, but ships will be teased.

And since we're on the topic of flaws and consequences, Judai and the other members will grow earlier, but will in turn face different and more threats. This is because while we all agree that Judai needed to grow, him becoming the Supreme King and killing his own friends really fucked him up. Hell, his ending in the show and movie are kind of bittersweet since a lot of people look at his 'after the show' life as him being a loner and never even seeing his friends that much. Even Chronos/Crowler, who was a real dick and a filler villain for season one, became a good character and we all enjoyed his graduation duel against Judai. While the self insert wants to keep them from being terribly hurt, he also knows that they need to grow as people(like Manjoume/Chazz) in order to live and confront the future threats.

Character traits will also be important in the story, such as Judai's lack of darkness coming into play earlier, and Ryou having multiple effects on the student body due to his style of dueling and his power to show how important he is. Each character will have a purpose and an effect on the story equal to their value(Hayato/Chumley will affect certain events around duel spirits for example but not when it comes to tournaments)

Chapter Start

It started out as a dream, or perhaps it was no dream at all. Either way, the beginning of a new life meant the end of a previous life. I intended on making the best of it. Otherwise, what would be the point in me even coming here.

"Yaaaaa." Yawning sure did get the heart pumping. Not very useful when you're trying to sleep though.

It was a good time to sleep. And it felt good to lie down. My bed was only about average, but it felt like the most comfortable thing in the world. Just about everyone feels something like that at least once in their life.

Drifting away in my thoughts, was the thought that hopefully my dream is a combination of being vivid, creative, and something I can remember when I get up. After all, drawing art, writing stories and making plots for games can also come from my unconscious brain.

I wouldn't mind dreaming about sexy stuff either. Those girls from Senran Kagura and Dead or Alive are real alluring. There's more than just them that I wouldn't mind dreaming about.

Zzzzzzzz...

ZzzzzzZ...

...

...

...

I saw myself being shaken in third person perspective. I was in a dark cloud with something on my wrist and I saw a friend from high school give me something before I blinked and he was gone.

As far as dreams go, not that weird. Although seeing him makes me feel nostalgic. I didn't really graduate too long ago, but I already wish I could go back. The real world sucks.

I realized I had stood up and placed something on the thing on my wrist.

There was a small flash of light and giant white dragon appeared in the darkness and shot towards some sort of dark dragon.

I didn't quite recognize what was going just yet. But it looked cool and terrifying.

A close look showed that the mouth on me was moving, but I didn't hear any words. The only thing I did hear was the roaring and fighting of the dragons.

I heard a sound akin to glass shattering and I had given a smirk before collapsing.

And before I knew it I was back to seeing in first person. I don't know how other people dream, but switching between first and third person was pretty normal for me. I assume it was because of video games.

I pushed myself up, noting it was slow. The object I assumed was on my wrist seemed to instead be on my whole arm and it stuck out. There was a small card that I couldn't read but understood what it meant. The picture on the card was of a feathery beast.

I realized that there was a name, Judgement Dragon, the beast that I had just seen be summoned.

In the back of my head I realize I'm having a yugioh dream. Not surprising since I play an emulator of the tag force games every now and again while also keeping up with the cards being made because I like the aesthetics of it all.

In the very forefront of my mind wasn't about my dream, but rather the feeling that I needed to do something. Again, not out of the norm for a dream.

The Dragon of the Lightsworns dissipated in particles of light while I head a quiet growling. My Duel Disk was gold and had a shining rainbow colored jewel on the wrist component. On the blade I noted that there were two extra tiles extending the blade that were colored bluish. I instinctively knew that these were for my Pendulum Monsters, what few I had anyways.

The duel disk automatically shuffled the deck and when I pulled out the cards, rather than Lightsworns I saw cards with Nekroz at the top. I've never actually played them, but a ritual monster's a ritual monster, so it couldn't be that hard right?

I heard the traditional sound effect of a monster being summoned and saw Summoned Skull or maybe one of his archfiend counterparts being summoned. My life points was stuck at 1800 so it looked like a duel was still going.

I used the card Nekroz Kaleidoscope, which would let me summon a ritual monster by sending a monster from the extra deck to the graveyard. I didn't know how I knew it would work, only that it would.

A synchro black colored monster was sent to the graveyard and I summoned a man in armor colored red and black.

I shouted for him to attack and it was successful.

I wondered how exactly this was gonna end if I couldn't see my opponents life points.

I saw three menacing shades of darkness appear in front of me before disappearing and monster was summoned. It was terrifying, but I couldn't bring myself to be scared. It was huge and stepped off a giant throne. His sword was black and actually looked pretty cool, and his knees had skulls that opened up to reveal something red.

Thunder suddenly struck my Nekroz monster and he was gone. The Archfiend monster swung his sword at me and for some reason I thought this was it.

"Kuri!"

A literal sphere with green tiny limbs shot to the sword and suddenly the monster was forced to sit back down on his throne for some reason.

"Kuri Kuri!" The thing shouted at me. Was it some sort of Kuroboh? Kind of weird looking.

A purple or pink colored archfiend with spikes on the sides appeared next to the throne sitting monster.

I frowned, and I tapped my head wondering if I could win, and something popped out in front of my right eye. My vision was exactly the same, if slightly bluer, but suddenly I could see the attack points and names of the monsters.

Archfiend Emperor, the First Lord of Horror, and Archfiend Commander. They were at 3000 and 2500 attack.

I drew a card, Graceful Charity and played it alongside Pot of Avarice, and appropriately drew and discarded cards.

"With the Power of Rebirth, save your clan from the abyss and hold back the terrors! Gishiki Shoukan!"

I used Nekroz Mirror and banished the monsters I discarded, and a red headed beauty who literally lit up the dark area showed up, and the enemy monsters vanished from her appearance. It was like she was a goddess.

"FoOL! DoNoT THiNk I WiLl bE bEaT!"

I saw a really creepy crawly monster scowl at me and suddenly I was drowning in darkness. When it stopped, the red head and ball who saved my ass were gone and my hand was filled with new monsters again. Likewise the field was different. My side was empty of monsters and Chaos Fiend Archfiend in all its burning glory was on the other side.

My hand was nearly filled with monster's, all of whom shared "Bujin" in their name. I think I recognized them. Wasn't this an XYZ deck?

I used graceful charity yet again, discarding monsters in favor of spells.

I banished a monster from the graveyard to summon a thin energy shade in white armor that was really bright. The thing on my eye said it was Hirume. Then I activated a spell card allowing me to summon the graveyard and banished monsters. Then I normal summoned Yamato.

"Overlay! Storming Bujin clad in Unstoppable Steel to slay Evil! Raging Bujin of Incinerating Flames that turn even bonds to ashes! Appear Now Rank 4s! XYZ shoukan! Bujintei Susanowo! Bujintei Kagetsuchi!"

The three monsters stared each other down. The visor(as I have no idea what else it could be) told me that Susanowo's effect raised his attack enough to defeat the monster.

The two attacked, and I finally got an indication there were life points on my opponent as he slipped to 2200. Meanwhile mine were 2100. It was a different number, but it felt right.

Another high level monster was summoned by sacrificing shades of darkness. It was Archfiend Empress, who for an archfiend looked very human, except for the part where she had horns. She attacked Susanowo, but I banished bujingi Ikuta to save him.

Since it was my turn again I played double summon and used it for another XYZ monster.

"Overlay! The Contemplate Bujin that Lights up the Night to reassure its dwellers! Bujintei Tsukuyomi!"

Somehow, a wall of darkness twisted into a negate attack keeping the duel going. Archfiend Empress and more shades were sacrificed to reveal a frightening beast. It was a green monster with bones for armor.

A jashin, a Wicked God. Dreadroot.

It was a divine monster. An impenetrable wall without divine cards. But then I would just have to go around it.

I banished a dark colored Bujin to activate its effect.

"The Dark Sun overshadows its former Allies! Corrupted and Powerful Bujin! Appear! Bujinki Amaterasu!"

I activated the Bujin Regalia Mirror to give her more than 2000 attack due to all the XYZ materials still attached. Then discarded another bujingi to let her attack directly, allowing me to bypass the Wicked God.

"YuO! HwO DaEr OuY!"

The twisted and echoing words made me shiver as the darkness tried to swallow me.

I pulled myself up and I saw different sights as I was elevated. An island with a volcano. A sleek black motorcycle. A futuristic city with bright lights pointing up. A burning comet soaring through the cosmos. Darkness and Light colliding.

Before I knew it it was over and I was back dueling in the shadows.

My life points were at 3100, and the other was at 1400. It was like the original values were trading places slowly.

I had Stardust Sifr Divine Dragon and Red Nova Dragon facing off against some indescribable monster. It was Tierra, Source of Destruction. Looks like I was getting a fireworks show.

"Fi YoU wAnT SOmEtHnG DoEn. dO iT yOurSeLF! i Am NoT enTErtAInEd! DdiE! Ddie!"

The face of my enemy, Tragoedia seemed to decide that dueling was no longer worth it and charged me directly.

Obviously I was not down with that and I flicked a card towards him. It flashed slightly and was replaced by Dark Magician Girl riding a dragon. I couldn't help but think it was badass and continued on. Each card flicked from my deck became a monster. Silent Swordsman. The Ritual Beast clan. The different Extra deck Heroes. The Gem Knights. Psy-Framelord Omega. Inzektors. The Darklords. Noble Knights. Six Samurai. The monster's of World Chalice and Prophecy. Different dragons of different strengths like the Red Eyes, Blue eyes, the Legendary Dragons, the Dimensional Dragons. The monster's I dueled with like the Lightsworn, Bujins, Nekroz, and Stardust dragons.

It was a one sided slaughter.

Or at least, it was for a good ten seconds until the disgusting monster fled away.

I stumbled back and forth and my surroundings were different. I saw myself turning to particles while crying. I saw myself in a red jacket dueling against people with jackets colored Red, Yellow, and Blue, with someone in Red carrying a sack and entering some sort of rip in space. I saw myself look down in boredom while on a throne. I saw myself hold hands with a girl my height. I saw myself in a white room with some sort of mask attached to me.

I got pulled and pushed by the darkness. I was tugged and shoved by the light.

I twisted and turned and suddenly I was on a beach.

My eyes scowled as it was bright and I felt hands on my body.

I heard a voice growl at me. "Ressssst."

---

"Huhh?" I tried to murmur out. Just talking took quite a bit of energy. Not surprising, I was never a morning person.

"You're awake!" A short tomboy cried towards me. Uhhhhh, where was I? Who was this?

"My God it's a miracle!" I guess some doctors were rushing in. God I felt so dazed for some reason.

I fell back asleep almost immediately. No more energy to stay awake I guess...

---

My first few weeks in this new world were interesting to say the least. Aside from the fact I was apparently on a cruise that completely vanished until I showed up on the beach with a locked chest that only opened up to me(and had the belongings of people that weren't me) and brought to the hospital, I somehow had the attention of the Kaibas. An adult Mokuba(his hair was long as fuck too, and boy was I jealous of that) was often visiting, asking me what I remember, and making sure I was alright and such. I was only a little surprised that he didn't have much trouble believing me in that I was sure the cruise(and myself) got caught in some shadow/yami game dark magic shit.

Then there was the girl who was by my side when I woke up, Saotome Rei.

Yes, the real version of an anime character. Who was also apparently old enough to legitimately go to Duel Academy after another year.

Needless to say, it was awkward at first. What with me not knowing any memories of her aside from a fake version of her.

Also, apparently she had a sister, Serena(a long haired girl with a yellow ribbon holding it, her hair color was a weird shade like Rei's, somewhere between purple and dark blue), who I'm fairly certain is from another Yugioh Series but hey, the universe is what it is.

Between those three, Minerva of the Lightsworns, and the Internet, I had my hands full just understanding myself and what type of world this is.

Apparently my name was [Rai] which was at least close to one of my nicknames which would be pronounced [Rye]. My name was written ライエン which was close to ライアー or [Liar] but also [Lying](and I had to wonder why anyone would name their child that). Almost fitting. As if Fate had a word in what my name was because lying was about to be something I'm going to do a whole lot of I assume. My last name was 士気 or [Shiki] which was written with [Morale].

Well, at least I would be able to react to both names.

It was a good thing I was allowed a laptop to pass the time. I needed to brush up on my Japanese, much as it still hurt my brain. Plus I needed to research this world if I wanted to fit in. There was just so much going on that just explaining some of it made my head spin. Especially with how disorganized my research was, what with it being between talking with Mokuba/Serena/Rei, the Internet, and Duel Spirits.

The reveal of Pendulum cards and the different summoning methods had helped given an early realization that this world was not at all like the anime I watched, and definitely a world in its own right.

Pegasus apparently introduced Synchros while Kaiba seemed to introduce XYZ, which kept the two corporates a powerhouse in the duel monsters department. Pendulum and Links seemed to show up out of nowhere, being used by Sakaki Yusho(and it hadn't exactly changed the field too much either). He was a Pro in the Action Duel scene...up until his disappearance a while back, with not even a family to mourn.

It was somewhat of a long shot, but Sakaki Yusho's disappearance and the lack of family got me curious, so I started digging on him and any other missing pros.

He was hardly the only Pro to be missing, though most simply assumed that these Pros were only retired.

Koyo Hibiki and Zarc and Ray Akaba stood out above them all due to me actually knowing them, though my knowledge of Zarc and Arc V in general relied on secondhand knowledge. All three of them seemingly disappeared from the scene.

There were also plenty of people that I knew by reputation but not name from GX that weren't around it seemed. O' Brian's father, that old guy who taught Misawa, that Viper guy who committed suicide.

But it wasn't as if I could do anything, so I just put all that out of my mind.

The disparity between show and 'reality' were eye opening to how serious I needed to be in my research. I was lucky that I, or this body's owner, had won a junior tourney a long while back which gifted him some rare cards, and also that in a combination of luck and 'Duel energy'(for lack of better terms) new cards can be created on the fly(or so certain research papers said). Plus, the whole "this world has everything in yugioh" made me feel really at ease with showing Rei and Serena the cards I had when I asked them to bring me the chest that was with me.

The conclusion of how cards could just be made out of nowhere was something that had been considered even back in season one of the original yugioh as headcanon. However, unlike Joey, Yugi, and Kaiba who all went through that in high tension situations and didn't question it, when it happens to new duelists and something odd happens like fusing two unrelated monsters for a new unreleased monster, they go to someone like Pegasus who then makes it a new card to make it more official since some people called bullshit in those matters. Kaiba Corp. and Industrial Illusions both dedicate divisions to understand and research this type of phenomena.

Hell, it made sense too. Why create a card like the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon when there's only like four of Blue Eyes in existence(and the odds of them being with one person smaller than a decimal). I even noted that the Blue Eyes White Dragon was a rare card like in the show, but it now had a few dozen copies in the entire world and instead more cards that treated themselves as a Blue Eyes. In fact while the Blue Eyes White Dragon was still the greatest card in its archetype, there were Blue Eyes cards with attack equal to the Red Eyes Black Chick and Black Dragon. Not only were there more cards in that deck, but there were also other cards and archetypes that I didn't know about that were around. It was sobering, and also not surprising with a hint of exciting. After all, this world was built on Duel Monsters, and even all the cards on my world wouldn't be a quarter of the amount made and designed here. I was always interested in card designing for the game and in casual duels with my...friends lead to us using some fun casual OC cards(casual in the sense they don't automatically win and are fun to use).

But luckily, I should be fine when it comes to using my cards, in fact I wonder if this means I can find new monsters to summon with Super Polymerization or Polymerization. After all, even in the Duel Monsters Lore certain 'tribes' or archetypes had fused together against threats which translated to cards like Gusto Emerl. It was worth experimentation at least, I might even make new cards like the Sage version of Dark Magician, just hopefully not as useless.

And while there were unfortunately no 'complete' list of cards made, it did seem to me that there was nothing resembling a ban list, which made my life easier. Of course I had no intention of following anything like that in a Shadow Duel. There were only certain restrictions, like monster reborn being limited to one copy.

I did note that while you could just search for some famous people with rare cards, their exact decks were never shown. Same with other Pro duelists. I had taken this chance to look up duelists I know and see if I could find them. Apparently Johan exists in this world, he even has Rainbow Dragon but rarely uses him. And the King of Games apparently has aces in the form of Silent Magician, who is called his Mightiest Magician, but he often brings out Dark Magician unless his opponent is tough enough to bring out the female Magician. And Jonouchi was pretty famous for having incredibly good luck, Red Eyes Black Dragon, and turning the tables on his opponent. There were others naturally, Edo Phenex dueled Pros all over the world with a combination of the Destiny Heroes and Vision Heroes(as a Hero user I was happy to note that his cards were rare, not one of a kind, as his father while now handicapped was still alive), the Hibiki Siblings(though reports are scarce since one is a teacher and the other seemingly vanished from the world) and their Darklord and Hero decks. I even found Amon who while not in the Pros was rumored to be close to entering. I wondered if his life was closer to the anime or manga forms of GX.

Researching the Pros even lead me to research something that could lead anyone to their defeat. Partially due to Jonouchi.

Luck.

While it was clear that luck did play a big part of the game, it was noted that duelists had a tendency to swing towards one side of the spectrum more than another, and when testing luck against various decks, a duelists luck could be on a different spot of the spectrum with some decks more than others. I wondered if it was because of Duel Spirits. I know they have a limited capacity to affect the game on their own, and maybe they just didn't match up with certain duelists. It would make sense, seeing as even in GX's last season Judai just wanted to get his duels over with, and his deck followed a pattern of ruthlessness.

Other than actual serious research, I spent a good amount of time lazing around. Watching anime and video game walkthroughs were pretty telling of the current society. Not taking into account the really serious themes, a lot of them touched on Duel Spirits story wise. In fact with how big Duel Monsters were, I wouldn't be surprised if the anime and video game cards were also actual dual spirits. Kinda like Kaibaman(a surprisingly good anime).

That thought was also slightly scary given how crazy powerful some of them were, but I tried not to think about it.

Physical Therapy was a bitch, though it didn't take unbearably long for me to get the okay to not need that. Apparently my body here was much stronger than the one I had. Made sense since the physical strength of people in this world was literally crazy sometimes. Plus unlike me, this guy actually cared to work out when not in school. All I did was join my sports teams in high school(in my defense though, I joined Track, Cross Country, Volleball, and Tennis all at the same time).

Mokuba(san) mentioned that the principal would just let me transfer in to Duel Academy if I couldn't recover in time, so no rush there. Apparently other me was already registered to take the exam alongside Serena. With no other choice except to live in this world I figure Duel Academia would help me figure myself out.

I wondered if I could convince anyone to help me get a Duel Runner. But then again, I was still fifteen at the moment.

I actually really wanted to join the Turbo Races and Action Duels that they had on this world. While normal duels were the most loved, the other types of duels and entertainment were enjoyable for the extra excitement that they added. Although normal sports such as racing and football were still just as big as they were in my world.

Anyways, since I don't really have much to do, I've also taken plenty of journeys into the Other Realm. Getting to know duel spirits was as fun as you would expect. The Kuribohs and Toon Monsters were hilarious to be with(even if I don't use the latter), and the female monsters usually made me nervous with how attractive they were even though they didn't do anything. That was mostly just my awkwardness with hot girls playing in.

Some of my cards in the chest were locked away(as in the cards didn't want to fight with me) but a good bunch were available still.

Talking duel strategies and the best edits of a deck with the people in them was weird though.

Before I knew it a few months had passed by. I still haven't dueled anyone. I wasn't really brave enough to traverse the hospital and ask around so I mostly kept to my laptop.

I did get to talk to Rei and Serena a lot. Never would have guessed I'd end up being a childhood friend with a character from an anime at any point in my existence. She didn't seem very lovestruck, though she did praise strong duelists a lot like Ryo Marufuji(or Zane alternatively). Maybe being childhood friends with a duelist on the path to becoming a pro and her sister being who she was Rei was pretty disillusioned with or used to strong duelists. She even had Lightsworns already, which was only a deck I remember her having in Tag Force as an Obelisk(apparently Other me helped her make it).She told me a lot about the other me, and it looked like he was pretty similar to myself.

It was embarrassing to know that she knew all my passwords (interestingly, the password patterns all fit the ones I used). Apparently I (this world's me) left copies in different places in my room which she found on her own.

She was pretty snoopy.

It was nice using her to gauge how this world was outside of using the internet, which I knew better than to just believe. She even helped me study so I could pass the written exam for DA.

Serena wasn't quite as talkative as Rei. Not in the sense that she didn't want to talk to me, but in the sense that she was even more socially awkward than me, only didn't realize it. Without Rei to translate for me, I might have been put off by the girl. I never got to watch Arc V so I wasn't sure how to interact with her-though I did keep up with the cool cards that showed up in the anime. Her deck were the same lunalights(or I suppose I should say Moonlights). To be honest, other than knowing she probably wasn't Rei's sister in the anime I didn't know much about her. Hell her voice alone surprised me showing how much I knew about her. She seemed pretty prideful, not wanting to duel me since I was reconstructing decks and that I didn't really have any memory of dueling.

She said that it was because she wasn't some guinea pig to test decks on(I was pretty annoyed at that) but then Rei just said that Serena wanted my first duel with her to be a serious one so we could be on equal footing.

Eventually, I was let out of the Hospital with all my things after three months, and Mokuba(san, have to remember that) left me his number if I remember anything about the cruise or if I was in any trouble whatsoever.

I only had a month until the exam date. But that was more than enough time.

I was allowed back into my family's home, which was ironic to say since it was just a stranger's home to me. It wasn't terribly big, but the girls lived next door and constantly barged in to keep me company(well, Rei barged in and Serena followed). Their parents also constantly invited me for dinner.

Considering that buying food was my only option, I usually(always) accepted, especially since Rei wouldn't quit badgering me if I said I'd just eat out.

I ended up spending my time in my Duel Spirits Realm specifically with certain groups, since they were the ones I would be using often in public.

Though a few of them preferred to not talk to me, despite me somehow having their cards.

The Lightlords as I should remember to call them shut me out still aside from Minerva and the Dragons, according to the others they still felt guilty in bringing me here that they didn't feel worthy of being used, I just figured that they refused to let anyone else other than my counterpart use them. Either way, they weren't for me as of now. I was tempted to just give them to Rei since she was familiar with them, but I figured it would be too odd, especially when I(he) helped make a Lightsworn deck for her(the tiny differences between my Lightlords and her Lightsworn were odd though).

It was hectic with all the work I gave myself and me getting distracted by entertainment crap. I was never good with focusing on work. Though by work I mean studying for the exam. Researching the similarities and differences between worlds was pretty interesting though, so it wasn't hard to keep going.

Looking into my own history was pretty exciting too. I wasn't really famous, but I did find that I did have some sites and blogs dedicated to me(it also felt a bit weird). I've(he's) won more than enough Tournaments. Which grabbed a lot of cash. Though apparently most of it was just placed into the bank. Apparently there was a few tournaments a couple months ago for some tickets to a Kaiba cruise. I (unluckily) won some for my parents, and I noted that one of the winners was a Californian with the name of Jesus(as in Hey-Seuss of course) who looked like one of my friends. The one from the dream shadow duel. The thought of him being gone freaked me out more than I'd like to think, so I just tried to distract myself by absorbing information about the world, it's entertainment, and my cards so I don't fuck up in a duel.

I probably shouldn't have bothered with that second one, but I couldn't help it. All work and no play has never worked out in my favor. Of course neither had all play and no work if my grades in Senior and Junior year were any indication.

Before I knew it, the exam date arrived.

---

I couldn't help but feel my stomach twist as Serena and I walked in a very large building. Despite my studying and previous knowledge of the game I wasn't sure I could pass the exam for Duel Academy. While there's a chance Mokuba-san would just recommend me in, I didn't want to have to rely on that. It felt like it would shame Other me.

I walked alongside the other teenagers who looked just as nervous. Serena just looked confident and wanted to get it over with. Well, I assume she was confident because of her pride, I could only tell she wanted to get this over with since I and everyone else had the same face.

I fingered my earphone that were hanging from my neck and readjusted the one in my ear when we reached a line to a table leading into a room. I needed to chill out or something. Luckily plenty of Musicians were the same in this reality. Being able to have easy-to-listen-to access to Japanese artists like Nano(not to mention Reol and One ok Rock) meant listening to songs like Magenta or Hysteria was easy and great for a distraction. Apparently she was a duelist too and used a music artist archetype deck that reminded me of her overall music style. It was actually pretty interesting to see celebrities I knew since they were all interested in Dueling in some capacity.

After giving my papers and applications, the staff pointed towards my seat and I walked over. Serena was sitting in front of me so I had a good view of her hair.

After what felt like a Millennium(ha!) the test started as all examinees were in.

The beginning questions were about as simple as could be, or at least it was for me. That was because they were about the different summoning methods, which for one reason or another all exist in this world.

I completely guessed on the ones that asked 'how' they discovered the methods, but the questions about how they worked or the ones on how to perform it successfully were incredibly easy.

There were even questions on far more theoretical sides of dueling such as Duel spirits and the creation of cards and why some worked and some didn't. They all required small essays, and honestly I wondered why a few were even there. I guess it'd end up important to know if someone believes in that type of thing or not if they run into some situation on the island.

But then I reached the hardest section. Given that cards during duels hid their effects from the other duelist without an expensive duel disk set, it was important to understand how to play your deck beforehand. This would explain why so many questions were about different types of spell and trap cards, identifying their effects from your opponent, what the timings would be for certain card effects. There was only so much information you can get during a duel and taking too long would skip your turn, not to mention reading effects would distract you from the duel.

Won't lie, some of the questions were easy, others... not so much.

For example, given that I relied almost entirely on reading card effects all the time, my knowledge of how many cards could do this or that were limited to only my decks. Hell, even when I knew what my cards could do I still read the descriptions just to make sure I wasn't misremembering them.

Boy was my lack of ability biting me in the ass.

I noted to myself(wait, that's redundant, who else could I note to during an exam), the last portion of dueling questions reminded me of the scenarios that had to be passed in one of those yugioh games. It would describe the hand, the graveyard, and the field, and the examinee would have to figure out how to successfully pull of a strategy or take out the remaining life points of the opponent.

I wish I could say I aced it, but honestly passing these things even in the games took me several tries. I was just no good with cards I've never used often. I probably took way too much time trying to pass them and I wanted to kill myself after every solution that didn't make the life points zero after my calculation.

This exam definitely shows why Duel Academies are considered Elite in the show. There's more than a thousand questions. Some multiple choice, others requiring written answers. And the timeframe of the exam left barely enough time to finish it.

Honestly the only thing that let me race through the exam was the tag force games since I've read every card in those games at least once, so I could at least make an educated guess on what the answers could be.

Except for anything involving chains. Seriously fuck those. Anything involving spell chain or trap chains and I was useless since I never used them or even understood them beyond they happen nearly at the same time.

Interestingly enough, there were also basic General ed questions, showing that while Duel Academy didn't focus on them, that they didn't brush them off like some fans liked to headcanon for fun.

Luckily the history questions were simple enough that even my Wikipedia based knowledge of Japan and the world that I wasn't too worked up about it, especially the questions about America.

The science questions gave plenty of information in the questions themselves that you could pull the answers from them, so that was a breeze too.

Math hadn't pulled anything complicated out. Since Duel Academy was the equivalent of a high school, the math difficulty wasn't past Algebra, so even for me who never went past Calculus had it easy.

English almost wasn't worth talking...

About...

...

...

...

Huh?

Oh great. I fell asleep. Again. I always can't help but take a small nap during tests like this. Even the AP exams I took in my junior and senior years weren't safe from my ability to sleep.

Usually it was never blatant. Or at least it wasn't most of the time. This time I fell asleep with my head pointing to the test. I hope nobody noticed that, well I was mostly glad Serena didn't notice because she probably would have kicked my ass. It looked like I was out of it for ten minutes or so I should be fine time length wise. Usually these quick power naps energize me enough that my pace quicken up so I could blast through to the end of tests.

Now where was I? Ah right. English. I was always perfect with English, it was real easy in school and it was easy now. Especially since it was Japanese level English, which was so basic I had to laugh.

I wasn't as genki during the Japanese portion, but luckily I did well enough on the account that it was middle school level and a combination of me knowing plenty about the Japanese language and me suddenly understanding more about Japanese beyond what little I knew. The sudden knowledge was scary, but I wasn't going to be mad about it as long as it wouldn't kill me in the future(I also really hope I didn't jinx myself or state something ironic, no matter how much Minerva told me I would be fine I was still wary).

In fact I wonder why these general questions were in another packet that we were given advice to work on last. Maybe Duel Ability trumped general knowledge of what was important in the world. Then again, this was an academy for a sport. I suppose it can somewhat be compared to certain college or university level schools like for art.

Not that I would know anything about those. I never even went to college yet.

By the time my exam was collected I had answered every question. I had double checked most of my answers and only second guessed a pretty small percentage of questions, which for a thousand plus question exam, was still a pretty significant amount. Luckily my little nap energized me like always.

I usually finish tests with time to spare, but this time I had a good fifteen minutes to wait. And that was after checking my answers.

So naturally I did what I always did in times like this and slept.

Sometimes I(and my friends) wonder how I pass my tests, but then again this test was comparatively easier than anything I went through in high school. After all, a majority of them were about a game I enjoyed playing and a minority of them were questions at the level I practically instinctively knew the answer to them. After all, while my memories of the lessons were hazy, they were still easy enough that I didn't really need to bust my brains over them. I didn't ace it, but I passed with an 80% at least.

Actually, taking this exam made me wonder about my future here, assuming I stay. Maybe I could become some sort of card designer? It was either that or a writer for games and books and such. I wonder if I need any degrees for those.

Meh. I'll deal with it when it comes to that time. Something tells me I won't shrug off my future here as easily as I did before. Or at least that's what I hope.

With the exam over I left the building with the other possible classmates and Serena. Some looked horrible, some looked confident, others just glad they can do something else not boring.

In other words, every student looked like most teenagers did after a big test. Nothing special really. The dueling exam was going to be on another day. From what I've read up about it online, they first score the written exam, and then if the results were so terribly below the requirement you wouldn't even be allowed to Duel. Of course apparently you could plea that your ability to Duel was better than your common sense(or book knowledge since that's what the exam really was. I just call it common sense since that's what any Senior in High School would think, or at least the non dumb ones anyways).

I had time to mess around at least since I doubt I failed. In fact the first thing I'm going to do is spend these two weeks playing games, reading light novels, watching anime and tv shows and movies, see if I can socialize with people on this world using my worlds common sense and mannerisms, and hang out with Serena and Rei seeing as they're my only friends.

Oh. I should probably add studying my cards and dueling others too. I wanted to enter Duel Academy since it was the easiest thing to do, but it would also probably just set my future in stone. And by that I mean let the options I want most be easier to achieve. Of course I had less selfish motives in the sense that Duel Academy is probably where some major supernatural events happen for the next few years, and I'd prefer to help out and make sure I'm still alive and the world not destroyed, something I'm sure my cards could help do.

Though when it came to making decks, there were only two things I cared about; efficiency, and aesthetics. They were completely at odds, but luckily (ha) Heart of the Cards helped with that.

---

It's only been a day since the written exam and I figured the smart thing to do would be to make sure I could actually duel. If I'm being honest, most of my duels against actual people never ended well. Granted that's because my friends always had stupidly overpowered cards and followed whatever the meta was while I cared more for the aesthetics, but it still counts. Hell, even when playing the tag force games against an AI I still lost pretty frequently, and if I'm forced to duel for my life or for an important video game or something, I don't really think I'll be able to retry until I win.

So I looked up dueling spots online. I could have just challenged my possible classmates after the exam, because I think everyone there looked like they wanted to duel and unwind, but I didn't want to get a reputation or anything, especially because of my 'rare' cards and/or lack of skills.

Also, I forgot my cards.

I'm trying to get rid of my real world habits. Not having a duel disk or a deck was extremely inconvenient(especially since you could hook your ID and bank to your duel disk), not to mention some people would look at you funny. It's the equivalent of forgetting your phone in the real world.

Anyways, the Internet was naturally the best place to look for something like this. Not only did the internet have porn from all over the world, it also had anything you ever needed to know.

Such as the fact that there was a large Kaiba Corp and Industrial Illusions card shop that was attached to a very large building where people duel each other. Kind of like a gym, or a building with a bunch of tennis courts. You see these types of things in other games and anime too. Like Beyblade or Custom Robo. Nothing special.

Of course that was a bit too public, not to mention I didn't want to be officially recorded. I wanted to use a mask so I could practice with some of the cards I know for a fact don't exist yet, and I doubt I'd be allowed in such an official building with a mask and a giant cape functioning as a cloak.

I definitely wasn't going to hit the Underground either. I freaking hate pain and was an amateur, no matter how good my cards were, entering that is suicide. Luckily there are plenty of alleys, parks, and shops that hold regular gatherings, one of which happens to fall upon today.

I was wearing a Blue Eyes White Dragon hoodie that was a size larger than what I would wear normally, but I'm trying not to show who I am. I even borrowed Rei's duel disk since mine is so recognizable. It completely covered by upper face and I even had a small face mask just in case.

It was a shop, not small but not incredibly huge like the KC and Ind. Illusions one. And since duelists also enjoy having fun more, some would cosplay, so me covering my face was nothing new. On the bright side, there was a lot less gender separation in interests so it wouldn't be a sausage fest. While girls could still be looked down upon in this world, it was generally, very, very, equal to them. If I had to guess, the amount of girls who like duel monsters here probably outnumbered all the girls who did in my world with just a tenth of the former.

I looked through the eyeholes of the hoodie, so my face was still mostly covered. It was like those Spider-Man or Minecraft Creeper jackets where the front would zip up, but I wasn't too confident in my enunciation so I just forewent it. I'd be annoyed if my opponent couldn't hear me.

It didn't look like anyone wanted to duel just yet. In fact they looked like they were interested in something.

"I'm totally going to enter Duel Academy! I'm sure I aced the written exam, and the practical duel is in the bag for me!" Ah, so that's it.

Given the time of year, they're probably just bemoaning Summer's End (and I curse Japan's shorter vacation time, though it was at least not like Real Japan's school year). While also somehow being excited to get back to school, especially in this guy's case. His green hair style was somewhat familiar, but I figure it's just me seeing things.

I walk up to some of the girls, not because they were girls, or because they were cute(great bonuses though) but because they were cosplaying as what I assumed would be their favorite cards in one way or another. They would be the last people to comment on my hoodie.

"Hey, who's the guy bragging? I'm new around here."

"Oh, well it's nice to meet you. My name is Kami. The braggart over there is Kura. The two of us are trying to enter Seto Kaiba's Duel Academy. Anyways, he isn't so bad, his attitude, I mean. His deck leaves a lot to be desired with how many risks he likes to take, but he's just trying to have a bit of fun right now. Most teenagers our age don't get to enter those prestigious academies. You have to be the best of the best to get in. A lot of us upcoming duelists just end up at a Major City's school if they really want to pursue dueling still. "

Oh, I think I remember that guy actually. From the tag force games. No wonder he felt familiar. Even this girl, I remember her name from those games too. That being said, it's not like Kura and Kami were very unique names.

Wait, shit, she introduced herself to me, what name do I use! Do I mention I'm going to Duel Academy too!?

"Names Rei. Nice to meet you too. I think I took the written exam in the same building as you or the other guy." Oh real smooth man. Use the name of someone you're associated with. Well, maybe it was for the best. I never did like coming up for names on the spot. Hell even playing Pokémon I used google to search up things I wanted to name my Pokémon. Then again, that's because I was narcissistic enough to use the names of Gods and Goddesses.

"Woah really? I hope we both get in." She said excitedly while her friends(well, assumed friends) congratulated me for being able to make it and wished me luck. We started some small talk and apparently they also thought about applying but the moment they remembered it was on an Island decided to apply to one of Kaiba Corps mainland Lesser Academies. We began to talk about electives and hobbies(mostly because we were on the subject of school so I started talking about how someone I knew, or rather me, had some cool electives and wondered if the duel academies would have some form of that) and even about our decks. I mostly kept them talking about their decks because it was clear they've had their decks for months or years compared to my weeks and I didn't want my inexperience to show. Of course they were happy to comply but I honestly didn't think I'd remember their decks let alone their names after the day.

Eventually I accidentally let slip that I'd never actually been to one of these because I was pretty introverted and shy about talking with others.

"Really?" One of the other girls, Lucy, I think, said surprised. The others didn't seem to think my words were right either.

"Well, I kinda just forced myself here so by the time I walked over, it was too late to turn back, y'know? Whenever I reach a point of no return in some fashion, I kind of just stop caring and do what I want to do. I mean, it's not like I hate talking to people, I'm just a bit awkward with it. I have friends, good ones, but when it comes to new people, a part of me just tenses up before I know it."

"Well, maybe you'll grow out of it? And anyways, you're pretty easy to talk to. We can tell you're a friendly guy who likes to have fun like anyone else."

How the hell did they get that from our like, twenty minute talk? Is this a women thing?

Man. I was so terrible with genuine compliments too. I wonder if my hood is blocking my cheeks. I don't think I'm a blusher, but my friends(those ones girls too by the way) like to point fun at my red cheeks whenever I legitimately get embarrassed. Which doesn't happen very often.

"Um. Thanks. By the way, do things always take so long until we all duel?"

"Oh. Well usually we're a bit faster getting to it, but the upcoming school year always gets us talking a bit more. You should head to a duelist gathering on Halloween, now those are pretty interesting." Luigi said. Wait, I mean Lucy.

"We can duel right now if you want." A male voice chipped in. Where have I heard it before...

"Rei right? Kami said we're gonna be classmates; so why don't we duel right now for fun? I'm always up for a duel against someone new, especially with the practicals coming soon."

Every time someone calls me Rei my heart pounds. I hate lying like this when they're so nice, not to mention I don't want to be caught. Plus, constantly being called another's name pisses me off. I wonder if this is what Sora and Roxas feel.

"Sure. I don't mind. I came here to see how others measured up." It was only after the sentence came out that I realized I was stupid, here, where these people are connected deeply to their pride, it wasn't easy to shrug off an insult, perceived or not.

This was proven with some narrowing eyes turning to me and the murmuring of the crowd. I decided to ignore it and focused on my beating heart. This was it. My true First Duel. My dream shadow Duel doesn't count since I wasn't exactly lucid.

My right hand rises up to my hood, pulling it to reassure myself my head is covered. At the same time, Rei's duel disk extends. It was just the standard duel disk, like the one at the end of the yugioh series and the first one Judai had before Duel Academy, but I still thought that powering it up was cool.

"Duel!" My opponent shouted out.

A second after I said, not exclaimed, was, "Duel."

Unfortunately while it wasn't my intent, I felt like I wasn't getting along with this guy given the look he was giving me.

I took a look at my hand. It didn't look half bad. I wasn't sure what cards he used or if he ran any anti summon cards, so I'll have to-

"I'll go first! I'll play Ancient Rules and summon my Zoa! Then I'll play Fiend's Sanctuary and sacrifice the summoned Metal Fiend Token to play Beast of Talwar!"

You're fucking kidding me right? A 2600 attack monster and a 2400 attack monster on the first turn? Still, if he had waited for me to go, my life points could've taken a hit. Unfortunately for him, the deck I intended on using today was one I actually knew how to play even in my world. But I'm glad he didn't drop any trap cards. The two Fiends were intimidating enough. Either way, nothing would be accomplished waiting. Although that superior look he was giving me was beginning to piss me off.

"My draw."

The card I drew was Pot of Greed, so I knew what I was going to do. I already had a polymerization(or Fusion) and a de-fusion, so if I had any luck, I'd grab some more monsters to fuse. I only had one trap card that would stall me a turn if this didn't work out. Even so, I really hoped this would work, stalling and defending was not at all my priority with this deck.

"You're way too quick to act." I didn't shout, not wanting to seem too cocky, though I wasn't sure it worked all that well. Oh god please let this work. I only had one monster in my hand as is, but hopefully drawing some more cards will help.

"I play Elemental Hero Bubbleman, and with his effect I draw two cards, now I play Pot of Greed and add another two." This...this was actually a really good hand to turn the tides. Maybe I was being too nervous for no reason?

"I activate the spell card Fake Hero! It allows me to special summon one Hero from my hand, and I'll bring out Stratos! With his effect I'll bring an elemental hero to my hand. Now I'll play Fusion!" Oh I really wasn't sure what hero to use but I didn't have a lot of time to think. Good thing the extra deck didn't really have limitations(which would explain why Judai always had a monster to fuse). "I use my two monsters on the field to summon the The Twisting Hero! Descend! Elemental Hero Great Tornado!" The green cloaked hero glared with his red eye at the fiends.

"2-2800 attack points!" The other guy responded.

"That's not all, he also halves the attack of all monsters on your field. But I haven't ended this just yet. I use the card I drew from Bubbleman-Fusion, and use the two monsters I got from Pot of Greed! I fuse Elemental Hero Heat and Lady Heat to bring forth the Hero of Fire! Elemental Hero Nova Master! I attack with both my monsters!" 1600 and 1300 damage from Great Tornado and Nova Master was crushing considering he summoned two high caliber monsters. "But that's not all! I use De-Fusion on Nova Master!" The red themed heroes joined the field at Nova Master's exit. With Heat's added attack and Lady Heat's effect, he would have no chance to save his life points. "Heat! Lady Heat! Attack!"

The two flew forward with fire covered fists and knocked what's his name over.

"WOOOOOOAAAAAAH!" The explosion of the crowd made me jump.

"Holy crap he ended this in one turn!"

"I thought for sure Kura had this in the bag! His high level monsters combined with Ancient Rules are ruthless!"

"This new guy's amazing."

"He went overkill on Kura too!"

I wondered what they meant by that before tensing up in realization. I forgot that casual duels outside of tournaments usually held only 4000 life points unless otherwise stated. I brought Heat and Lady Heat assuming I would have another turn. Heat's effect increased his attack three times due to the amount of monsters I had, and Lady Heat would have done some serious burn damage with four monsters on the field.

Still, a one turn Duel was nowhere near the amount of experience I needed if I wanted to pass my practicals. I was lucky this time. I needed more. More practice. More victory.

"Anyone else." My words seemed to stop the crowd for some reason. They began to look at each other, seemingly waiting for a response. They were afraid of going next after a showing like that.

"I'll have a go." One of the girls, a brunette with glasses, seemed to stand forward as if it was an accomplishment. I say that because she couldn't help but give a flushed smile as the crowd cheered her on. Well, I don't really blame her. Only a true introvert wouldn't smile at a crowd cheering for them. In another world I'd say they were cheering her on because of her Tour Guide from the Underworld costume. In this one, they praised her courage and wanted to wish her good luck.

I gathered my deck and placed it back in the disk. Using the Omni Elemental Heroes was somewhat cheap, or rather, using Heroes in general was pretty cheap I admit, but kindness and aesthetics wouldn't get me anywhere if I wanted to learn how to duel for my exam and for the future. I could use my fun decks later on when I have less worries.

Besides, if the GX manga taught me anything, it was that a duelist had to be ruthless, and had to have a strong deck. Although the latter was just my own take on it since the anime took more liberties in their decks and duels.

My other decks, a Familiars Possessed and a ritual deck based off of Demise and Ruin, were both decks I wanted to focus on as well, the former was much weaker than the other two, but I thought struggling with it would be good for me, since the archetype was completed and had even more support in this world rather than my own I couldn't curb my desire to use it. The latter was just as powerful as my Heroes but would be limited as well due to my only being able to activate Demise's effects to clear the field only once. (I should look into more life point gaining trap and spell cards for that deck)

Oops. My mind was wandering off again. I ended up staring the other girl down. She looks a lot less confident for some reason though. I readjust my hood unnecessarily and laid my left hand on my waist since it was getting pretty tired.

"Duel." I started it off this time since I was late before and tried to raise my voice so she could tell I was taking her seriously. For some reason she flinched but activated her duel disk as well.

I didn't really remember her name, but I believe that she said her deck was full of equip cards and Warriors. However her deck lacked what many pros did-an Ace Monster. She placed all her hopes on spell cards. Too bad I didn't like using XYZ monsters or I would have brought out my Noble Knights and showed her how important an ace was, especially considering she didn't have any cards to defend her equip spells if she equips so many of them in a row. Luckily for her I don't run any card negates since they aren't my style. I drew my cards and took the proper dueling stance.

"I'll go first." She looked pretty nervous so I figured she'd feel better if I couldn't attack. For some reason she shifted in place, not at all relaxed.

My hand had two monsters, one field spell, and two stall traps. Good enough for me. No fusions, but I had more than a few copies. As long as it wasn't Parallel World Fusion I would be good for a few turns. A normal Fusion spell would help only if I still had monsters on my field or hand, but Miracle Fusion would be completely perfect.

The card I drew ended up being Hero Signal. I'll just bring out Woodsman than. I don't run my The Earth given how nonexistent I thinks it's supposed to be but the two fusion material for it are pretty effective on their own.

"I'll summon Elemental Hero Voltic in defense mode and place a card face down." Not the most impressive move after the last spectacle but it couldn't be helped.

"I'll summon Marauding Captain and with his special ability summon Freed the Brave Wanderer!"

Seriously?! What's with the double summons? Well, at least these aren't as strong as the last swarm. And I really don't have much room to talk with a Hero deck with so many ways to fusion in a row. Still, I had to be careful not to let this run too long with me on the defensive. I didn't have too many cards that would get rid of the back row.

"I activate the Equip Magic Magic Blade - Ice Sword to Marauding Captain, boosting his attack by 500 points. Then I add Legendary Sword into the mix, boosting his attack by another 300!"

Smart move, boosting the only monster I could attack.

"Now Freed! Attack Elemental Hero Voltic!" With only 1500 defense Voltic stood no chance. "Now go Marauding Captain!"

"Not so fast! By destroying Voltic, you activated my trap card Hero Signal. Now I can bring out a Hero, and I choose Elemental Hero Forestman."

With an equal attack and defense, her warrior was forced to back down.

After placing a card face down she ended her turn. I'm positive that it's a trap to stop me from attacking or a trap that will boost her monster's attack.

"Draw!" Elemental Hero Ocean...well then, "I activate Forestman's effect and add a Fusion to my hand! I use it to fuse Featherman and Ocean from my hand into Elemental Hero Absolute Zero!" The water attribute Hero burst into the field in a cloud of ice. "Absolute Zero, attack!"

"I activate the quick play spell Rush Recklessly!" Absolute Zero was pierced by The Legendary Sword and I lost 200 life points.

I bit my lip before shouting out. "You've activated Absolute Zero's effect! Now that he's removed from the field you lose all your monsters." A cold breeze entrapped her monsters in ice before crumbling away, clearing her field. "I'll play one card face down and end my turn."

On the bright side of all this, my opponent began to look even calmer. I felt bad that she looked pretty nervous.

"I summon Dark Blade and equip him with the Wicked-Breaking Flamberge - Baou!" I noticed that her new equip spell was already in her hand. I was lucky she didn't equip that card to her Marauding Captain or I might have been in some trouble. "Now Dark Blade destroy Forestman!"

"Sorry but I'll be taking back those life points from before, with a bonus." My trap card flipped up to reveal Draining Shield. A transparent barrier stopped the black knight from destroying Forestman. My life points also increased by 2300.

The girl frowned before placing another card face down. The two probable traps were beginning to worry me, but worrying wouldn't get me anywhere.

"I'll add another Fusion to my hand and place a card face down and end my turn."

The girl smiled as she summoned another monster. Ben Kei. He had low attack but his effect allowed him to attack as many times as equip cards attached to him. She revealed one of the cards I thought was a trap, Horn of the Unicorn, and equipped it to him alongside Fusion Sword Murasame Blade.

Why would she put an equip spell face down? Hmm. Maybe it was to bluff me out. And if I had destroyed it she would have just gotten it back.

Still, given Ben Kei's effect, I'll be done for if he begins to attack. The extra 1500 attack placed him at 2000.

"Go Dark Blade!"

Dark blade didn't move at all.

"W-what? Dark Blade attack Forestman!"

I gave her a few seconds to notice my revealed trap before deciding to just speak up as she didn't notice. "Hero Ring here is an equip card in its own right. Any face up monsters with 1900 or more attack cannot target Forestman." And that means that as long as he was in defense mode he was safe.

It was only after she gripped her cards harder that I realized the crowd was talking.

"Man look at him. He's just stopping her at every turn."

"I thought he was done for."

"Why isn't he doing anything?"

"Is he screwing with her?"

Whatever. I couldn't help what they were thinking. No matter how untrue it all was.

I had a duel to finish. "Draw! And because it's my turn, Forestman gives another Fusion spell card." The drawn card was Captain Gold. Well, this wasn't ideal, but I can make do.

"I activate the Field Magic Skyscraper!" I placed the card in the duel disk and waved my arm at the same time buildings began to sprout between and around us. While it was once day, not it was nighttime.

"Now I summon Captain Gold onto the field! And With this Field Spell, every time an Elemental Hero with less attack battles with your monster, mine gain an extra 1000 attack points! So Gold is free to deal you some damage!"

I sent Captain Gold to attack Dark Blade dealing 800 damage.

I ended my turn.

"I play the equip spell Cursed Armaments to Captain Gold!" Captain Gold? Why would she do something like that? "Now he loses 600 attack!" Oh, that explains a lot. "Ben Kei attack!"

Captain Gold tried to get away but was pursued and defeated. Luckily Forestman was safe, but ended up being equipped with those Cursed Armaments. If that card stayed on the field than even all the Fusions in the world wouldn't help me now. As it was, if Forestman switches to attack, that's a pretty large amount of damage waiting for me even with Hero Ring.

I didn't bother announcing my draw. But I looked and saw Clayman. This wasn't great, but with a Fusion already with me, even Gaia would help. Still, with the amount of attacks I can get hit with, keeping him in my hand might not be for the best. "I place a monster face down and end my turn." I might be able to fusion, but I wanted to be both aggressive and defensive. I couldn't be sure that The Shining or Gaia would live through her turn if summoned. Gaia might have been able to win the duel, but I wasn't sure off the top of my head and I didn't want to spend too long thinking or risk losing if wrong.

She drawed and summoned a monster, the card she just drew. "Command Knight here increases the attack of all my monsters by 400."

My next turn passed by without me adding anything to the field.

The same couldn't be said for her. "I use the magic card Stop Defense on your Forestman!"

Shit.

She attack Forestman with Command Knight, dealing damage, while Ben Kei went for a direct attack after destroying Clayman.

"I discard a card from my hand and use its special effect to summon Forestman in defense!"

My remaining life points were safe due to a special little card I added to my deck, one that I didn't have to worry about being out of place or too rare. Kuriborhn. The cute saintly kuriboh Pokémon- I mean, monster. Its second effect was mostly useless, but I added the card anyways due to his urging. Plus, kuribohs were useful for stalling.

Also, with how cute the Kuriboh relative was I couldn't help but let him have a place in the different decks.

I was weak to cute things that could fight back. Go figure.

My life points were safe for now, but I really needed a card to turn the tides.

At least I didn't have to worry about my monsters' attack decreasing due to my last turn.

The card I ended up drawing was Fusion Birth. In my world it was never printed, but it was here. It held the blue and light purple colors of Fusion. Talk about a real destiny draw, if it works out.

Well, not like I could do anything else at this point. "I activate Fusion Birth. First I'll send the top five cards from my deck to the graveyard." Sparkman, Miracle Fusion, Parallel World Fusion, Voltic Spear, (please be a monster-please be a monster) and KING OF THE SWAMP YES. "Since two of the cards were fusion materials, I can summon an Elemental Hero."

The girl stiffened up and I couldn't contain my inner weeb. (In my defense though, all duelists were weebs in one way or another)

"Warrior of electricity, merge together with the encompassing king! Fusion Summon! Light the city with your hope and Spread your wings for Justice! Shining Flare Wingman!"

The white metal clad hero indeed shined the dark city. "And with Seven Heroes in the graveyard, Shining Flare Wingman gets an increase of 2100!" With a total of 4600 attack, it didn't look like she had much of a chance if that face down card didn't help.

"Shining Flare Wingman, attack Ben Kei." I said calmer than I wanted to. I kinda wanted to shout it out and do a happy dance but I guess it would make her feel shitty. Plus if it didn't work out I'd just look stupid.

My Hero flew past Ben Kei who was destroyed by the glowing winds dealing 2200 damage. Then SFWm's effect dealt 500 damage.

I couldn't see the crowd, but I did hear them going crazy at my move.

"Holy crap that attack power is ridiculous!" It absolutely is.

"Is this what he was aiming for!?" Hahaha of course not. I just went with the flow of my cards and my inability to calculate off the top of my head.

"Look at the way bided his time for the comeback!" Now that's somewhat true.

"He turned a disadvantage into an advantage!" I guess I sorta did. She did destroy most of my monsters after all.

Now even if she puts Command Knight or another monster in defense, my H - Heated Heart will finish this off.

She also looked like she knew this wasn't a favorable situation. But the card she drew made her look relieved, so I was worried it was a mirror force or negate attack. If it was magic cylinders I was fucked. Because outside of Masked Hero Acid(wasn't in this deck combination btw), I had no way of dealing with Traps and Spells.

"I equip Command Knight with Mist Body and switch him to defense mode!"

Oh. That was relieving. "I activate H - Heated Heart and attack Command Knight! Because of its effect my monster deals piercing damage! Finish this!"

"N-no way!"

SFWm shot a light beam that went through the cloudy body of the knight and slammed into the girl, finishing her off.

"REI! REI! REI!" The crowd chanted my fake name. I couldn't help but smirk and raise my duel disk covered arm making them cheer even louder(I was really regretting the fake name, maybe I should have sucked up the fact I would get a reputation, but at least if the lie comes open I can just pretend they misheard me). The field spell wore away and I saw Kula or whatever look less sore about being one turn killed by me after another victory by me.

Maybe it was the adrenaline from two wins and the crowd cheering, but I couldn't help but want to continue. Especially since practicing was my goal. I may be winning now, but I could easily start to lose I'm sure.

"Anyone else!"

I looked around and saw some nervous looks.

I knew I put up a good show, but I didn't want them to not want to duel me. I frowned, and some people looked incredibly nervous and afraid as if I had just asked them to explain how Dark Magician should be used in front of the King of Games.

Why did they look so nervous?

"Come on. There's no point in being a duelist if you're not gonna try an overcome a challenge. I've won twice, but that doesn't mean I'm perfect. I'll take you on in pairs if that will boost your confidence." I mostly said that hoping they would understand that I didn't want to stop and that I was just really lucky for my first duels, but my choice of words may have screwed me over as an older couple who looked like college students stepped forward. Oh shit.

"Duel!"

"D-Duel."

I need to choose my words better.

---

In the end. I spent five hours at the gathering before leaving to grab some food.

So far my record was 45-9 in wins to losses with my Elemental Hero deck. After a particularly bad OTK against that Kuma guy again nobody seemed to want to duel me anymore and were just content to watch.

I felt pretty bad, so I switched over to my Familiars possessed deck and told them what it was in advance, alongside me believing it was a weaker deck than my heroes.

That seemed to do the trick and I began to get more duels. I even tag dueled with some people like that blue haired girl. So with my familiars it was a pretty clean 23-17. Though most of that wasn't One on One. Anyways, I don't want to think about it. I already know I still need practice with non Fusions or non rituals anyways.

It occurred to me that with a record like that, I was going to have to switch up what monsters I use during the entrance exam. There were a few students that were going to DA that had come by when word spread out about an unbeatable duelist that was going to DA and it would be troublesome if the Omni Heroes gave me away especially to those two students that were there from the beginning. In this case my little Rei name stunt backfired.

Good thing I had dozens of decks still. The fake name was so I could hide the fact I had a bunch of decks, but in this case it let me use other decks without being called out in a different fashion. I think.

Pretty good day and it wasn't even lunch. Well, it was a little past lunch, but it wasn't dinner!

I grabbed some Fast Food(and boy who woulda thought that some brands were universal) and sat down inside, wanting to cool down.

"That was quite the show you put up."

I looked up wondering who would be rude enough to actually sit down with a stranger especially in japan before legitimately choking on my food in surprise.

That multi colored hair was as crazy now as I always thought it was, but he made it look good.

"O-omae-!"

He placed his finger to his lips and smiled before eating his own burger.

I drank my soda while trying to calm my suddenly fast beating heart.

"I see that you know who I am. Mokuba-kun asked me if I could visit you. I've recently returned to Domino for some charity work."

I merely nodded while trying not to focus on my pounding heart.

"This may come across as a surprise, but I've actually heard of you, from, let's say mutual friends which is why I came to visit you."

"?"

He looked over and I realized he placed a deck facing up. The first card was familiar, on the basis that I've been using it for the last few hours.

"Kuribohrn here doesn't often come out to talk, but he seemed rather insistent on me checking up on you."

I couldn't help but give the little bugger a look. A heads up would have been nice! Oh god I must have looked like such a chuunibyou not to mention just arrogant in general.

"Now I thought I'd let you know that the spirits have informed me what happened to your memories, as well as the duties they're giving you."

I couldn't help but look away from him. Why was this happening? Also, what spirits? And what did they say?

Wait. "Are my cards connected to some of yours?"

He chuckled. "Yes and no. They are aware of what happens in the other dimensions. So your presence was not something to be overlooked. But in some cases, like Kuriborhn here, because my bond with them isn't very strong, they often comes and go as they please. I expect that once your inner potential grows you will find that your spirits are still trying to connect with you even in this world."

"Wait, does that mean I'm going to be constantly hounded by the Spirits in this world too?" I heard a chime of different echoed Kuri's which answered my question. "Neat?"

The King of Games finished his food. "Kuribohrn and the others' mentioned that you are trying to prepare yourself for Kaiba's practical exam for one of his academies."

"Um. Yes."

"Well in that case, why don't you follow me? My friends will join me at a private place to catch up. Why don't you test your skills against us? And afterwards, we can talk about your...let's say situation."

I wipe my hands on a napkin. I wasn't done with my burger but I couldn't bring myself to eat right now. Also I'm not too sure it'll be me testing my skills and more sure it'll be me losing. But I suppose the sting of defeat is something I'll get used to eventually.

Also I really wanted to meet them.

Just as I affirmed that I would come with him, I realized that the entire restaurant has been staring at me, well, my company.

"Ano-do you think we could go?" I felt shy though the older man just laughed. He placed the deck into my hands and motioned me to follow.

I really hope I don't make a fool of myself later.

---

I made a complete and utter fool of myself.

I knew I didn't have much of a chance to win against the King of Games, but getting my ass handed to me 1-59 was really stinging. I even pulled out the cards I told myself not to use in order to avoid the attention and he still crushed me.

HELL, he freaking took my Familiars deck and the Kuriboh deck and completely dominated me! How does any of that make sense!

Even against his other friends my record was about three to four wins to about thirty losses. I only beat Jonouchi once due to his luck and the other wins aren't worth mentioning since they were due to some of them not being Pro duelists.

My pride is hurt. Badly.

It was a...good experience I suppose. Outside of meeting them anyways.

I'm not too sure I'll ever want to duel against Yugi again. Even his dueling presence kind of made me scared that I screwed up my turns.

I wonder if my presence affected the other duelists from before?

Nah, I'm not that good.

Still, on the bright side Yugi handed me some temporary hair dye and a mask. The former for when I complimented his hair and mentioned wanting to change my hair color for awhile now(I dyed my hair back in high school but it's been a long time since then) and one of japan's signature "I'm either sick or don't want people to see my lower face" mask because I wanted to get more experience without getting any rumors associated with me.

I don't know where the mask came from but apparently the former was for when he wanted to explore without any admirers.

Made sense to me.

Still, it was really dark out now. The half moon peering down at the bright city was a nice site. There were still plenty of people out and about too.

This probably wasn't going to be a good idea, but I was going to go to another dueling site. After getting as trounced as I did, I needed to reaffirm my skill.

No, maybe that wasn't being honest.

I guess I just wanted to remind myself that I can still win.

I shook my head. I shouldn't think like that. I looked down to my phone as it's been ringing. "Yo Rei!"

"Don't "Yo" me! Where are you! You shouldn't be out so late! I told you not to be like my sister!"

I rolled my eyes. "Rei. It's been a month since I've been out of the hospital, three months since I've woken up, six months since I've been found. I'm going to need to sharpen up my duel skills if I'm gonna make it into DA."

"Then why didn't you bring me with you! I'm so bored what with sis spending the day dueling a bunch of would be classmates. She told me to just stay here since I would bother her or something."

Honestly I just didn't want to be associated with her. As in depending on what cards I'll end up using I don't want either; A-questions from Rei, or B-rumors that could connect Rei and I with super rare cards. Although Serena seemed to have the same intent, in the sense she wants to duel away from her sibling and I.

Well, Rei did seem pretty worried. But I really didn't want any-

"Alright, I'll send the location of this dueling park. I'm on the way now so I don't have to wait in line."

Well, like I said before, I was weak to cute things that fought back. I'm very bad at saying no to girls.

Well, anyone really, but it made me feel better if I pretend it's just girls.

I wasn't really sure if a thirteen year old following a fifteen year old at night was a good idea but Domino had nearly no crime.

Well, this world in general didn't have much crime. On the bright side, I wasn't twenty anymore. Otherwise I'd totally get my ass locked in jail.

"Oh! That's super close to the house. Just let me turn off your PC and I'll be there right now!"

"Ya, I chose it because it had an announcer and it was close to my-wait, are you in my house? And on my PC?"

"Yes?" She said as if wondering what the problem was.

"How did you even get in?!"

"Oh, I've had a key copy since forever. Anyways, should I bring my Lightsworns? Want me to grab any decks?"

The way she shrugged that off concerns me. Why does she even have a copy?

"Ugh. No it's fine. I mostly just want to practice. The Lightsworns are a bad match up with my Heroes in a tag duel. And I don't need any other deck. But oh boy do I have a story for you when the night is over."

"What story?"

I couldn't help but smile at what her reaction and what other people's reactions would be.

"Well, it's not my proudest moment, but it's a great story. But like I said, I'll bring it up later."

The time it took for me to get to the park was about fifteen minutes, longer than I expected. I looked around for Rei and called her on my phone.

Suddenly I was pulled by my arm and I was about to rip it away before noticing it was Rei with a hat that she forced her hair in.

"C'mon! I saved you a spot! You're up to Duel now!"

"What? Ugggggh I'm already tired from walking here." I really need a license. I wonder if I can get a duel runner?

"Don't complain! And you better not lose! If you don't want to duel with me, at least give me a show!"

She pushed me into a little set up away from the gathered fans of duels. There was a crowd in some bleachers overlooking what looked like a dip in the level of ground from a skating park.

"Oh, Yo Shiki-kun! Good to see you again. Saotome-kun explained everything already. You just go out there and have fun." The man said as he left to talk to the crowd.

I looked at Rei who knew what I was going to ask. "We've gone here a lot since it's close to our neighborhood. We aren't really close to Mizusuhi-san, but he knows us pretty well."

Rei pushed me down into a ramp. "Anyways. Just go out there and have fun! I'm sure you'll do just fine on the practical exam." She gave me a thumbs up and shooed me away.

Geez, she sure was pushy.

Still, this was the perfect opportunity to see how I duel under a literal spotlight. Since I've confirmed my Heroes were the ones I'm both the best and comfortable with I should spend one last night with them.

"And thus walks in our two duelists! First we have Masaru! He's here to improve his dueling skills for the Duel Academy Practical Exam and is on a winning streak!"

Another DA soon to be student? C'mon what is with this luck? Maybe it's literally the universe or something trying to screw with my plan to stay on the DL in the exam?

"And next we have a mysterious duelist here to crush his opponents for fun! Clad in a Blue Eyes Hoodie, show some love for this challenger!"

Oi, with a description like that...I look over to Rei who has a teasing look on her face as she sticks her tongue out at me. Seriously Rei that description makes me sound like an asshole. Which, granted, isn't wrong. But it's not as if I want people to know that.

The announcer went on to flip a coin and call the results. After a few seconds I called out that I would go second. I enjoy attacking after all. Plus my heroes were more suited to attack most of the time.

Oh look, he's making his move.

"I activate the Field Spell Gaia Force!"

A forest began to spring up from the ground and in the background an incredibly large tree that partially blocked out a fake sun stood out to me.

"Masaru starts out with a field spell to power up his monsters!"

"Now I summon Karate Man and equip him with Big Bang Shot!" The other teenager struck the same pose as his monster.

Wow, they really did look right together. Bona fide partners if I've ever seen them.

Looks like this one'll be interesting. Karate mans effect would be dangerous next turn.

Well, not that particularly worried. I really, really hope that face down card he just placed down wouldn't stop my summons. Negates were the worst to deal with.

"I play Fake Hero allowing me to special summon Elemental Hero Stratos! With his effect I get to add a Hero to my hand, and I choose and normal summon..." I look at my hand and then at the spell card I was about to play. I wanted to take advantage of the field Spell, but I suppose this works just as well. "Masked Hero Fountain!"

The blue themed hero landed and water sprung forth. The Masked Hero whose torrents shielded the weak crossed his arms towards the karate geeks.

"Now I play Mask Change II! With this I'm allowed to bring out another hero using Fountain after discarding! Torrential Warrior, Corrode the defenses of the enemy in newly donned armor, Henshin! Masked Hero Acid!" Fountain's mask changed and paved the way for his suit to cover his tanned body in purple. The water transformed hero pointed his weapon at the duelist. "When he's summoned, all spells and traps on your field are destroyed! Acid Rain!"

The shocked face on this other guy made me feel smug. I had Edgeman in my hand, so the Necrodarkman I discarded would come in handy next turn.

Ah, how I love a good stomping.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Rei later freaked out about as much as expected of the news that I got crushed by a bunch of celebrities. ("That's incredible! You remember that's super incredible right!? It's insane!?")

I really didn't like describing how I got my ass kicked, but describing how cool or strong the monsters were was free game.

Serena told me off for losing so much, and not so subtly hinted about making sure she was there if I ever meet them again.

I decided against mentioning I had Joey- I mean Jonouchi and Yugi's numbers. Neither of them were the type to badger me about them, but I knew that they would let it slip somehow. Probably during a duel I'm having against someone and they're on the sidelines, the two of them held me on a small sort of pedestal that they would mention it as a compliment but it would just be a drag for other people to know.

Speaking of a drag, today I decided to join Serena in her dueling other DA hopefuls. I told her my reasonings for why I wasn't going to use my Lightlords or my Heroes, and while she thought that I shouldn't care about getting a reputation, she approved of my desire to be able to play with other great decks.

Serena apparently beat all the Hopefuls yesterday at her own tourney, and this time they're going to have a tag duel tournament, which is where I come in, and why I'm coming in, seeing as Serena honestly doesn't have any friends at all(or at least, she's only friendly with classmates, but friends with me).

I figured I could take things easy and pull out my Fire Fist and Six Samurai, but I eventually realized if we lose Serena will be unbearable, so I'd just use an edited version of my Heroes. Either pure Masked, or Pure Elemental.

In the end, Serena still couldn't help but press her questions about my reluctance, and for the first time, we came to blows...

---

Now I'm sure people won't have a very high opinion of the SIOC but that's okay because he's going to grow. Even his decks will begin to see more variety as time goes on as he has much less reason to hide his cards. This first chapter is meant to showcase his personality(through his own eyes) so some flaws of his are mostly subtle. For example, he has a high focus on victory and tries to brush aside his losses and excuses them. You'll also notice that the details aren't very vivid in the beginning, this is due to the carefree nature of the duels and his skills, he doesn't really think beyond the basics. As for the Heroes, well, they're my favorite so they're getting a lot of focus for the first few chapters but I'm going to have it so every few duels with the Heroes get equaled up with duels using other decks.

Characters will have a mix of their anime and manga decks like I said. For example Manjoume will have both the Ojamas and a dragon deck. This is because both paths lead to similar lessons. L&D dragon will show that his pride and power are warranted, but will lead to him being arrogant while also wanting to prove his own power. But the ojamas will show him that power and strength isn't cut and dry and can come from others/bonds. This will lead to a more lighthearted but sometimes still as quiet as the manga Manjoume. And Judais deck will be a cool mixture that I don't want to spoil just yet.

Feel free to recommend good yugioh gx fics that you might think I need to take pointers from. State of the Meta, CCC path to the King, The fifth factor (though not a gx story) Hiyuusha(author), Higuchiman's oneshots(author), and cypsiman2's gx stories(author) are going to be very strong examples of how I will shape the fic both similarly and differently. For example none of them really shape the world of Yugioh in the same vein I am(I think) which is something I want to focus on. I will be shaping the world as a very much REAL world so lines like in SotM where people treat dueling as only a card game will be sparse because like it was noted in the chapter, dueling is its own thing by this point(for example nobody thinks fights/duels are odd in martial arts/supernatural/fantasy worlds and nobody would ever think Pokémon/digimon battles are weird either, even in the real world Wrestling/MMA/Boxing is not seen as weird) likewise despite what it looks like on the surface DUELING IS VERY MUCH MAGICAL in its own right. And if anyone has read the CCC yugioh fic then I'm going to be different in the sense that moments like "wait this is Japan why do we speak English" or "sempai is too old school and polite" won't exist because it just won't make sense here. On a meta level you can consider this world a mix of GX/ArcV/Vrains and the real world. GX because that's the setting, the last few yugioh series because it has elements of the previous series, and the real world in the sense that things actually have an explanation(like cards being made out of nowhere is legitimately a thing that can happen because there are worlds full of legitimate Duel Spirits and people research it)

I've also rewatched the different series for this so I'm sure I'll eventually bring a healthy dosage of long but not too long Duels like they've become lately. I'll be keeping things mostly GX level with 5ds level for really strong duels because if you pay attention to the duels there's a big difference. But that doesn't mean OTKs won't happen either. And by the way, for some reason people have a really big mistaken(or warped) view on yugioh and their duels because they associate it too much with real life(like state of the meta). That being said, nobody wants Duels like Vrains or real life where a single turn takes twenty minutes.

Hell, Part of the reason I'm throwing in more extra deck monsters is because like it or not, they're a pretty big symbol behind the "Power" of duels and such. There is actually an in story reason as to all the summoning methods exist, but the meta reason is basically so that if my character uses post GX decks which is rare in a gx SI it can be more often rather than not.

So as for the chapter, yes despite what I said in the beginning I never quite showed my character outwardly struggling or even losing, as I said a few paragraphs before, that's on purpose for now. I also put in Serena not to just add a character but instead to connect with the last arc. Now as for Rei, I totally upped her age for a meta reason(I wanted to) but I'm going to have her do important things rather than be there and whatnot as a result of my meta decision. Nobody will get paired up romantically but ships get teased not for the same or pleasure of it, but because the romantic feelings are important to the characters and they are teenagers. They won't be at the forefront of course, for example Asuka won't care about how she looks, but may find herself thinking about it around Judai, and I'll be doing this type of stuff because understanding Love(romantic or not) is important to growing up, which is an ending theme of GX and an overall subtle theme in this story.

The meta reason for my name being what it is- I went with a symbolic name.

Card Modifications/OC cards

None