Yu-Gi-Oh: Across the Ages Book 1: The Pharoah's Reincarnation

Written by: IdolGirlGold

Yuudai didn't think he could be having a worse week than the week that it rained for 6 days straight. But apparently, he was.

Yuudai Arashi was a high schooler at the Kin Gin Kami High School. He was 14, he loved history and mythology, and he was a great duelist. Well, most high-schoolers are not duelists where you come from. But in Yuudai's world, almost everyone was a duelist. And all the decks there were too! But let's get on with the story before I end up getting too excited about Dueling.

Yuudai was having a bad week. Oh wait, did I mention that already? Anyway, this week, Yuudai had lost 5 duels and won 0. He got a D- on all his tests, barely passing, and was getting slapped more than often by his friend Chika. Who could be having a worse week than that?

At the moment, he was at the Game Shop. It was a historic place, the very place where the King of Games was raised! Yuudai was fascinated, so he dragged Chika (Yes, the one slapping him every 5 minutes) to look at it with him.

Chika was a smart girl who loved botanics, but hated history. She always wondered why people focused on the past instead on now or the future. So when Yuudai made her come with him to some old historic place with nothing to do with plants, she was very annoyed.

"Yuudai, let me go! I have things to do too, you know," Chika shouted at Yuudai, who wouldn't let go of her wrist. "The world doesn't bend to your will!"

"Yeah, but it would be no fun without someone with me. It's be a great experience for you too!" Yuudai retorted.

Chika snorted. "Yeah, if they turned the place into a greenhouse."

Yuudai protested, "Besides, what if what happens last time I was alone happens again?"

At this Chika relented. "OK, fine. But next week you're coming with me to the largest greenhouse in the country!"

Do you want to know what happened last time? Then I think it's time we took a trip to a few weeks earlier. (Yes, weeks. It wasn't that long back, so don't think that we will get to see Yuudai's backstory. That's later.)

A few weeks ago, Yuudai and his rival Kenji Asaka were having a friendly duel on the school roof. The LP count was 300 to 1500, and Yuudai had the 300. It was Kenji's battle phase.

"I attack your Shining Angel with my Dorogan, the Mad Flame Kaiju!" Kenji declared.

Dorogan has 3000 ATK, much more than Shining Angel's measly 1400 ATK. As Shining Angel disappeared from the field, Yuudai yelled, "I activate Honest's effect from my hand! During the Damage Step, I can discard Honest to give my Shining Angel the same amount of ATK as your attacking monster, in this case, Dorogan, the Mad Flame Kaiju!"

"What!? You had that in your hand!?" Kenji was very surprised as his LP dropped from 1500 to 100. His Dorogon disappeared from the field as it was sent to the Graveyard

"And I chain Shining Angel's effect!" Yuudai added. "When it is destroyed by battle, I can Special Summon one Light monster from my Deck with less than 1500 ATK in Attack mode. I Special Summon another Honest!" Honest appeared on the field in all of its 1100 ATK glory.

Readers, if you have no idea what just happened, put down this book and pull up the latest Yu-Gi-Oh TCG Rulebook and read it 10 times, or until you know the rules.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Kenji lamented. At that moment, Kenji's phone started ringing. Kenji checked who was calling him. "Oh, great, Chika's calling me about how I was supposed to help her with her garden. I don't want to go deaf from her yelling!"

"We'll pause the duel. After that I'll buy you a hearing aid!" Yuudai joked, pressing the pause button on his Duel Disk. All the monsters disappeared from the field in a flash of light.

"But… You know what, fine. Don't blame me if I can't hear anymore!" Kenji relented. He opened his phone as he stepped inside the school. "Hey, Chika…"

Yuudai started to relax. Whenever he was around Kenji, he felt boxed up, like he shouldn't be there. Dueling with him was fun and all, but sometimes, things didn't feel right. But he didn't have time to ponder about that, because just then something strange happened. As he sat down, the world went black, but he could still see himself. He tried calling out, but his mouth wouldn't work. Then the visions started.

He saw the King of Games, Yugi Muto, dueling Atem, a pharaoh from 5000 years ago. Then, he saw the famous duelist Judai Yuki, who could communicate with Duel Spirits, merging with the Duel Spirit of the Yubel card. After that he saw the Turbo Dueling King (Yusei Fudo) dueling Jack Atlas, the former King. And after that he saw this glowing blue alien thing forming the overlay network with the boy named Yuma Tsukumo, the person rumored to hold the mysterious power of Zexal, and then he saw the best Entertainment Duelist in the country, Yuya Sakaki, turning into a demon. Finally he saw the hero of the VRAINS Network, Playmaker, Dueling the leader of the Knights of Hanoi, Revolver.

All the while, Yuudai was not thinking about the strangeness of this, but how awesome it was to see all of these Duels and moments from history that he had never seen before, like the Crimson Dragon showing up, or the Millennium Items dropping into nothingness. But then the visions stopped.

A day later Yuudai woke up in the hospital to find Kenji and Chika sleeping at the foot of his bed. They cared so much about him that they refused to go home until Yuudai was admitted out of the hospital a day later because of a concussion he had gotten.

Well, we have to get on with the story.

Yuudai was reading a plaque in front of the Game Shop that read:

This is the most sacred ground to all duelists, for here is where the King of Games, Yugi Mutou, grew up and lived. We will always remember this amazing Duelist's victories against Seto Kaiba and Maximillion Pegasus. May his spirit always believe in the heart of the cards.

Chika was reading a botany magazine intently, having no desire to learn about history. Sure she was a Duelist and she respected the King of Games, but botany was far more interesting.

In the midst of this normal scene, a voice called out to Yuudai. History…

"Wha- Who's there!?" Yuudai was not expecting anyone to scare him like that. "Chika, did you hear that?"

Chika did not answer. In fact, she wasn't even moving. Yuudai looked up and saw birds in mid-air, wings in mid-flap. No, Yuudai frantically thought. No, no, no, this can't be what I think it is...

It is what you think it is… The voice called out again. I have stopped time for a chance to talk to you.

No! Yuudai knew from watching movies that whenever time is stopped something bad was about to happen. He needed to find out who was talking to him! Yuudai tried listening for where the sound came from, but it seemed like it was coming from everywhere. He didn't recognize the voice either. All he could figure out was that it was a male.

The voice called out yet again. Research your past…

Research my past!? Yuudai had thought of that before but none of the websites about ancestry in the World Wide Web had any info. So why was this creep so curious?

It seemed like the person talking to him could read his mind. It doesn't matter what I want. Of course the World Wide Web has no info about you, because you are so diverse. So diverse, that that you can unlock a great power.

OK, now this was getting confusing. "I don't care about that! Make time flow again!" Yuudai commanded.

The last words Yuudai heard from the man were: Research you past, and unlock the greatest power…

Chika looked up from her magazine. She had the strangest feeling that something had happened, like a supernatural event. She wanted to ask Yuudai, but he was staring into space like he always did when the teacher gave a long lecture.

"... Yuudai?" She tried.

He fell forward and collapsed.