Chapter 1: The New School Year

"Congratulations," duel proctor Ted told his opponent. "You win the duel."

"Thanks," Bryan said, "but it's not much of a surprise."

Bryan Knight was the kind of guy who had a myriad of talents, and when he learned how to do something, he learned it well. Dueling was just one example, but it was one of Bryan's greatest passions. He played football in high school, but physical activity was rarely as fulfilling for Bryan's character as strategy games. He thrived on exercising his mind more than anything; despite his large, muscular body, Bryan was among the smartest eighteen-year-olds one might meet on the street. Once he traded in his glasses for contacts full time, Bryan's dark hair, his movie star smile, and his charm made him very popular with the ladies.

"What did you think?" he asked his best friend when he once again took his seat in the stands to watch the other duels.

"Not bad," Matt replied. "You managed to take him out in only two turns."

"Yeah, I know. I'm slacking, but you know? I thought the entrance exams for the Duel Academy would be more difficult. This is supposed to be a collection of the best duelists in the country, after all. How are they going to weed out the weak duelists if they use weaker duelists as proctors?"

"To be fair," Matt suggested, "I don't think the weakness is entirely the fault of the proctors. I think the testing decks they picked out for today were probably the real weakness."

Matthew Luther was Bryan's best friend, and had been ever since early high school. The two did nearly everything together, and although they each had some areas where their strengths differed, they shared so many characteristics people often thought they were brothers. They even looked similar—their hair was the same dark color though Matt's curled more, and Matt decided the glasses were a better look for him. Bryan's body frame was much bigger than Matt's, but they were both avid gym-goers and certainly looked like it.

Similarly, Matt was just as talented at Duel Monsters as Bryan. The two even used similar cards when they first started playing. Both friends made use of warrior types as kids. Matt branched off into other monsters, but he still kept a supply of warriors in case he should decide to go back that way. And neither guy ever lacked in confidence.

"Have you caught a glimpse of anyone who looks promising?" Bryan asked.

"Well, this young lady over here with the Amazon deck is pretty decent. Fortunately she's way cuter than any Amazon."

"That's good," Bryan agreed. "Those women in the War of the Amazon scared me. They had faces that could stop a clock."

"Otherwise, I saw a guy with a beastdown deck that looked fairly decent."

"Did you see that Harpy deck earlier?"

"I caught a glimpse of it, but I was really focusing more on that one girl's Dragon deck. It started out fairly decent, but she ended up losing the duel. Apparently she was a better duelist in theory than in practice. Not like that other girl whose dragons focused on the Red-Eyes. She was pretty impressive."

Duel Academy, started by Kaiba Corporation many years earlier, was the premier dueling school for up-and-comers. In order to apply, a duelist must first place at a regional youth tournament or any national tournament. After receiving an invitation from the Academy, the duelist goes to the local Kaiba Corp. factory or sanctioned game shop to take a written examination. Only those who receive a score of eighty-five percent or better are allowed to proceed to the second application step. Currently in full swing, the second step is the practical examination, a field duel against faculty-prepared dueling decks with student proctors.

Due to a twist of fate and a power outage during the night, Matt was the last duelist to apply for the practical exam before the registration window closed. With six dueling arenas open for duels and exactly ninety-seven applicants, that left Matt as the final duelist to apply for the day. After all other duels ended, he was beckoned to the first stage.

"Looks like you're the last duel," Bryan said, "and everyone has to watch."

Matt grinned as he grabbed his deck.

"Fits well, don't you think? They might as well get a glimpse now of one of their two new school champions."

Bryan ginned back and gave Matt a high five.

"It's go time."

Matt entered the arena with his deck loaded and met the duel proctor. He was a senior student named Andy Matsuura, one of the top-ranked duelists in the school. Andy was a student of Japanese descent, which is not uncommon because the strongest duelists tended to be Japanese or American. Andy was of average height and size, had dark hair and eyes, and a friendly smile that rarely left his face. Fortunately for Matt, Andy was only using a test deck rather than his personal deck, vastly increasing Matt's odds of victory, but Matt still felt the honor of dueling someone who knew such impressive strategies as to make it to the senior level.

"It's nice to meet you, Matt," Andy said. "Are you ready to start your exam?"

"Are you kidding?" Matt replied. "I'm only sorry you're stuck using a test deck rather than a deck with some real power in it."

Matt and Andy took opposite seats at a computerized table with electronic plates designed to read electronic codes in duel cards. Electronic duels allow permanent records of duels—which makes record-keeping more automatic—and enable three-dimensional holograms of cards and their effects. The holograms add a sense of realism to duels and excitement for those involved. A miniaturized, portable version of the holographic technology is available in the form of a Duel Disk, but many freshmen do not own one, at least not until they get accepted to the Academy.

Andy smiled and nodded. "Then let's get this duel underway. You take the first turn since you are the applicant."

"May I request you start?" Matt asked.

"I guess that's okay, if you're sure," Andy replied.

Permit a brief departure from the story for a quick summary of the rules of dueling. A duel deck consists of monsters, spells, and traps, totaling a minimum of forty cards. Monsters are how a player defends himself/herself and how a player attacks the opponent. A monster's star level determines the ease with which it can be played: With up to four stars, a monster can be played right away; with five or six stars, a monster requires another monster already on the field be sent to the Graveyard (discard pile) in order to be played; with seven or more stars, a monster requires two other monsters be offered as tribute. A player can normally summon only one monster per turn, but there are card effects that allow Special summons, which have no limit per turn. On the dueling field, a player can have a maximum of five monsters at a time.

A player can activate spells from his/her hand immediately for various effects. Generally spells are discarded immediately after use, but certain spells have lasting effects and certain spells can be placed on the field and activated at a later time. Traps cannot be activated from the hand; a player has to leave the trap on the field for at least one turn before he/she is allowed to activate it. A player can have a maximum of five spells and/or traps at a time unless one of the spells is a Field spell—they have separate zones on the dueling field and do not count toward the five-spell/trap limit.

Card effects vary so widely that many times are these general rules broken, but these are the basic rules of the game. To clarify some terminology, take a moment to read the following. "Life Points" (LP) are the heart of a duelist during a duel; when LP hit 0, the player loses—as a side note, LP can never have a negative value. "Normal summon" means to play a monster face-up; the opposite is to "set," which means to place a card (monster, spell, or trap) facedown. While a card is facedown, only the owner may look at it; the opponent doesn't get to know what it is. "Flip summon" means to take a facedown monster and flip it face-up; some monsters gain special effects this way, and sometimes it's simply necessary to hide a monster for a few turns. "Special summon" means a monster is summoned by a special card effect and not by normal summon. "Chain" is the term when multiple card effects activate in sequence. "Direct attack" is when a monster attacks and the opponent cannot defend against it; likewise, "direct damage" is damage dealt directly to an opponent's LP.

Andy took the first turn and set a monster in facedown defense mode. Matt commented on Andy's slow start, but Andy assured him, "Slow and steady is not just a cliché."

Bryan leaned close to an attractive blonde sitting nearby in the stands and commented, "You'll like this. Matt has a nice Yugi Mutou deck."

Matt drew his first card and looked over his opening hand. He didn't have a single monster card; he only had a trap and five spells. Despite Bryan's early praise, Matt might struggle with a hand like this. He did have one spell that could allow him to summon a monster from his deck, but it was an expensive card. Still, he didn't see much choice right now; no monster meant no defense.

"I'll play Dark Magic Curtain. At the cost of half my LP, I get to special summon Dark Magician (7/2500/2100) from my deck to the field."

Andy chuckled at this point. Sure, Matt had a big monster on the field, but he flushed 4000 LP to get him there. In a typical duel, the players start with 8000 LP and try to get the opponent to 0. Matt already accomplished half the duel in Andy's favor.

"You made a Yugi Mutou deck?" he asked, trying not to sound too condescending.

"Is that a problem?" Matt asked, basically challenging Andy to mock his cards.

"No. Just noticing that you can always tell a new kid because they think they can model their decks after someone famous and actually win some duels."

Matt grinned. "I might not make fun of new kids," he suggested. "I'm about to take the lead, I think. If I play the spell Thousand Knives while a Dark Magician is on the field, I can destroy one monster you control." Needless to say, he selected the facedown monster Andy set earlier. Andy's field was now empty. "You're wide open," Matt commented. He kept staring at his cards the whole time he spoke. "I'm going to play the equipment spell Megamorph." When Andy gasped, Matt chuckled and said, "Yeah. You know that one. It doubles my Dark Magician's (+5000) attack points because my LP are lower than yours. Now I'll attack you directly." With that one attack, Matt went from a 4000-to-8000-point deficit to a 4000-to-3000-point lead. "I'll set two cards on the field and end my turn." Matt 8000 / 2 = 4000: Andy 8000 – 5000 = 3000.

Andy gave a friendly smile as he drew. "That was pretty good," he admitted. "But don't forget Megamorph's other effect."

"Other effect?" Matt repeated and looked down to read his card more closely. "Oh, look at that. It says that if my LP go higher than yours, my Dark Magician's (-1250) attack points get cut in half."

"That's right," Andy mocked. "I'll summon Exarion Universe (4/1800/1900) to the field."

"Cool card," Matt said when he saw the shiny foil. "What does he do?" Apparently he was a better comedian than he realized because a few of the spectator girls giggled in response to the question. Andy laughed more heartily. He was comfortable admitting that he didn't like the fact that Matt had two unknown cards, but he was also confident that Matt hardly knew what he was doing given that he didn't even know about Megamorph's side effect and never heard of Exarion Universe.

"He can reduce his attack points to deal piercing damage," Andy explained. "But I don't need to worry about that when your monster's not even in defense mode. Now let's go ahead and force your hand. I'll attack Dark Magician (1250) with Exarion Universe (1800)."

"Okay," Matt said as he slowly lifted the back ends of his facedown cards to remind himself what they were. He paused a moment, then repeated, "Okay. I got it. I'll play Magic Cylinder, a trap that negates your attack and deals damage to you equal to your monster's attack points. But, I'll chain to it Tailor of the Fickle, a quick-play spell that lets me take Megamorph off of my monster and put it on yours. Now as I recall, a chain resolves in the reverse order of activation. That means Dark Magician's (+2500) points return to normal and Exarion Universe (+3600) gets a boost, and then Exarion Universe's attack is reflected at you directly. Right?"

Andy was shocked. As one with reasonable math skills can conclude, that last turn ended the duel; Andy suffered 3600 points of damage against his mere 3000 LP. Matt 4000: Andy 3000 – 3600 = 0.

"I must say I'm impressed," Andy said. "You were right about the test deck being weak, but even against my personal deck, yours would put up a strong showing if you played like that."

"I appreciate the praise," Matt said.

"Welcome to Duel Academy," Andy told him. "I get the feeling I'll see you around the campus."

Matt and Bryan reconvened and joined the class of freshmen who managed to pass both the written tests and the practical exams. The new class totaled forty-four of the ninety-seven who applied. Bryan, of course, thought the class was still much too big, but Matt reminded him that a bigger class meant more girls, even though duelists comprise largely a male population. And it didn't matter how many students there were; they were going straight to the top, and no one would stop them.

"Congratulations, freshmen," Headmaster Corbin West told the crowd. "You are indeed the best and brightest of the country. Be aware that as long as you are at Duel Academy, you will be tested constantly. Written exams will assess how well you understand the game, and practical exams will assess how well you are able to duel. I know each and every one of you will make us proud in your stay here.

"Welcome to Duel Academy."