The outfit for Kaiba I'm using is the Series R outfit, because it's my favorite and you barely see it. If you don't know what it looks like, it's the story thumbnail for your convenience!
"Damn it, I'm not going to lose to you!" One particularly loud and nasty duelist who specialized in dragons, named Brax, yelled across the field to his opponent in a blind rage. The duelist in question, a more level headed player, smirked at the declaration.
"Doesn't look like you have any choice, Brax." The loud one, with a field void of monsters thanks to a handily played Mirror Force, gritted his teeth as he pointed to the cool male with irritation.
"Shut up! You'll never beat me again! Never! I made this deck specifically to tear your pathetic pixies to shreds, Shien! Nothing can stop a dragon!" At this point in the yelling, more people began to gather around the two duelists, wanting to see what all of the noise was about. One of the duelists there was Joey Wheeler, who'd jumped at the chance to enter the new tournament hosted by a mysterious wealthy benefactor. Some rumors had been going around about it being Pegasus, but the fancy male balked at the accusations, claiming that if he'd done it he would have flaunted his latest achievement. They all knew Duke would have told them before the tournament even started, and Kaiba had made it perfectly clear within seconds of the dubbed 'geek squad' showing up at his office unannounced that he hadn't gotten it together either, having simply been invited to participate like everyone else… Not to mention to never, ever burst into his workplace for something so trivial ever again. After a rather heated argument, the blonde's photo had been handed to security…but enough about that, there was a duel to watch.
The two males dueling looked really different, as the loud one was tall, muscular, with a dark tan complexion, short red hair and dark green eyes, whereas the one who seemed to be in the lead wasn't much taller than Yugi, with a lean build, almost translucent pale skin, choppy black hair a little past his shoulders with long bangs with the raven locks being frosted white at the tips and roots, and strange white eyes with a black ring dividing the iris neatly in half, and another separating the iris from the sclera of his eyes to give him an intimidating stare. The blonde watched the two, nothing that the noisier of the pair seemed completely in denial despite how neither player had any monsters. Dude has no monsters, and if his backfield had been any good he would've used them to stop that mirror force to begin with, and since he only has 2200 life points left… All the other guy has to do is summon one powerful monster and that's game… "I'll activate Dragon's Mirror! With this card, I can remove from play five dragon monsters from my graveyard or field to special summon a fusion monster: The Mythic Dragon! Thanks for killing all those weak dragons, genius!" …Or not. Everyone else, Joey included, gasped as the monster was summoned, a great five headed beast with an attack and defense strength of 5000, enough to rival even the fabled Egyptian God Cards. The colder male sighed, feeling more than a little bored rather than impressed, before he activated a card.
"No you don't. Bottomless Trap Hole. Whenever a monster with an attack strength of 1500 or more is normal, flip, or special summoned, I can destroy it. I daresay The Mythic Dragon fits that category." Brax seemed stunned as his most powerful dragon disappeared from the field as quickly as it had been summoned, hitting the graveyard and leaving his side completely empty. No monsters, no magic, no traps. The male scowled as he crossed his arms with a huff. "…I'll take that to mean your turn is over." The smirk on the shorter male's face widened as he drew his card. "You can yell all you want, but you'll never beat my chaos fairies. No one can." Shien chuckled, and then got to work. "First off, I'll summon a card I added to my deck just for you: Victoria!" He set the card, raising a brow as he regarded his long time would-be rival. "For those who don't know, this card is a four star monster with an attack strength of 1800 who can—"
"Just 1800? I'll still have 400 life points left. This ain't over." The more slender male crossed his arms before he tapped his foot in irritation until the male was done gloating over a victory that simply wasn't to be.
"As I was trying to say, Victoria has a special ability…" Just then, the field grew dark, and a monster began to pull from the concrete below their feet to tower behind the duelist. That monster was The Mythic Dragon, and the blood drained from his opponent's face when he recognized his creature standing against him.
"W-what the hell did you do…? Why do you have the Mythic Dragon?! That's my card!" Shien ignored Brax's questions, finding all the constant interruptions more than a little annoying, instead choosing to continue as if the male had never even spoke.
"…Once per turn, she allows me to select one dragon type monster from my opponent's graveyard and special summon it to my side of the field." The smirk he was sporting grew into a dark, toothy grin as he regarded what was in a sense his prey. "And with 5000 attack points, I can wipe out the piddle 400 points remaining after Victoria attacks you, in fact you could even call it… Overkill." He laughed, pointed to the other and boldly declaring his next move. "Victoria, Mythic Dragon, attack Brax directly and end this duel!"
"NO!" The male cried out futilely before twin blasts hit, and his life point counter hit zero faster than anyone had anticipated. "Damn it I'm not losing to you again! Best two out of three!" The other raised a brow, not bothering to vocalize that it already had been two out of three. Soon realizing his mistake, Brax immediately corrected it to his own satisfaction. "Best three out of five!" The people surrounding them began to laugh then, which made the dragon user snarl before stomping over to his rival (at least according to him at any rate), and thrusting a card out towards the pale male. "Fine, here, take my rarest card! I don't care!" Shien took the card, whistling as he looked it over.
"Guardian Eatos, nice," he then quirked a brow and chuckled softly. It was always the same, Brax always carried a rare fairy or a support card that could help his supposed enemy's deck. It wasn't something that Shien understood, but he welcomed the cards all the same after a victory, still… "Aren't you forgetting something else, though?" The tanned male huffed, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a Black Heart, a red heart shaped metal pin with the shadow of a monster in it. It wasn't a creature he, nor anyone else he'd spoken to, recognized. At any rate, Black Hearts were how you measured your progress through the tournament. Collect ten altogether, and you're in the finals. Brax would be his first heart, second if you counted the one given to him at the beginning for participating. In a fashion similar to Duelist Kingdom, they all had belts with slots along them to stick the hearts in, though they were colored differently, a blood red belt with rows of black studs along the top and bottom, with a heart shaped belt buckle to top it off. Really most duelists just had a box or wrapped the belt around their wrist or bag, as it wasn't everyone's style. It just so happened to be Shien's.
"Happy now?!" Brax fumed before turning around in an angry huff and stomping off, absolutely furious that he'd lost once again to his oldest opponent. Shien laughed to himself, shuffling his deck before sliding it into the deck box he'd attached to his bet, casually dusting off his custom designed Duel Disk. It was an ivory color, and designed so that the side section with the field slots looked like a feathered wing. Once the crowd dispelled, he'd started to leave himself only to have someone tap on his shoulder with a surprising bit of force.
"Hey, that was a heckuva duel!" The fairy duelist cast wary eyes to the hand that was still on his slightly throbbing shoulder, then to the brown-eyed blonde who'd placed it there. "Name's Joey by the way, Joey Wheeler." The male gave a passive, strange-eyed stare to the male, reaching up and detaching the friendly hand from his body before offering a handshake, which was promptly and eager taken by the blonde with the Brooklyn accent. Again, it was done with surprising force and it was hard to keep from wincing.
"I'm Shien Yokuo, and thanks." He then began to walk, not exactly wanting to be rude but not exactly up for dueling against seconds after schooling his oldest dueling partner/rival in a big way either. Joey, however, not understanding such subtle hints after years of dealing with the upfront, insulting/abusive attitudes of Tristan, Duke, and of course Kaiba, began to walk alongside him in blissful ignorance of the other's discomfort.
"I haven't seen you around the tournament circuit before, why's that?" Shien's brow twitched, feeling a bit annoyed that his hint had been ignored, but once again not wanting to be rude to someone so… Cheery.
"…I'm new to tournaments."
"Oh, were you in Battle City, or the KC Tournament, or—"
"I'm kinda brand new. This is my first tournament." The blonde stopped in his tracks as the other kept walking, actually picking up his pace slightly to put more distance between him and the stranger, but the other male soon caught up with him in an energetic sprint.
"You're completely new to tournaments and you duel like that?! You didn't even flinch when that guy pulled out The Mythic Dragon! I would've been shakin' in my sneakers!" Shien was starting to find this guy as naïve as he was annoying, assuming that only tournament regulars could play well was a huge misconception.
"I said I was new to tournaments, not Duel Monsters. I've been dueling since I was a kid. Me and my little brothers and sister would play each other, our parents, or Brax every day for hours." Joey blinked at the revelation, motioning with his thumb behind him to where the loud duelist had departed.
"That guy? I never would've guessed that you guys were friends." Once again, a naïve thought process. Shien let out a sigh as he attempted to play tutor.
"He's not my friend. He's my neighbor, completely different category. You don't have to be friends with someone you spend a lot of time with." The blonde opened his mouth to respond, presumably something else cheery or to debunk his statement given how his brows had knitted together in an attempt to understand or convince, but thankfully the higher pitched voice of a short male with strange, strange hair from across the street interrupted him.
"Hey Joey! What are you doing? You've going to fall behind! I've already got three Hearts!" The Brooklyn born, or at least accented, male balked before he proceeded to run across the street… Luckily for him it was void of traffic, or he likely would have been flattened. …Hasn't this guy ever heard of looking before leaping? He could have died. The thought was more passive than flustered, unfeeling white eyes staying on the energetic blonde as he joined his friends. He even waved back to the male with a chuckle, though not with the same vibrant abandon as Joey.
"Hey Shien! We should get together and duel sometime!" The sheer brightness of that smile caused the prompted male to nod dumbly before he left, not wanting to break the strange guy's heart in front of his gaggle of grinning friends. How could they all smile so brightly without blinding each other? The thought made the male shiver as he walked down the street, hoping he didn't bump into them again lest he go blind himself… Hard to duel when you can't see your own cards, after all. It was at that moment he finally looked up from his own feet to see a man in a dark red trench coat/clock blocking his path. He blinked, not liking the suddenly heavy feel to the air or the smirk on his partially obscured face, instead turning to take an alternate route only to see another man in the same trench coat.
"…" He paused for a long moment before he turned yet again to take another route, only to see a third male. "…" He stopped dead in his tracks once again, and then simply went to go back the way he'd came from. That path was not blocked as well. "…That's not creepy or menacing at all." The quiet male mumbled to himself, not pleased at being boxed in by what looked like a group of cultists. The men all began to laugh in unison, something that struck Shien as incredibly 'not' creepy. "…Are you guys going to let me in on the joke…?" The one in front of him sneered as he crossed his arms before letting out a loud snort.
"The joke is you, that pathetic show of skill earlier! We'll be taking your rarest card, Lourell, Envoy of the White Dragon, for someone who can make better use of it!" The mention of that particular card made him go even paler, as it was one that he hadn't dared to even put into his deck lest it be stolen from him. It was something few knew about due to all the precautions he'd taken, and these odd card stalkers had proven they hadn't been made in vain. The question was, however, how on Earth the men had found out he even had that card as he'd never made it into a public spectacle since he'd acquired it…
"If there are any rare White Dragon cards, I'll be the one winning them." The five males turned abruptly at the sound of a new voice, each blinking from surprise as they saw the one, the only…
Seto Kaiba.
The icy eyed brunette cast an irritated glance as everyone seemed transfixed on him, mouths agape like landed fish. Usually such a reaction wouldn't bother him, he was a millionaire CEO of a world famous company with equally famous Duel Monster skills… What bothered him was that the clear would-be victim of whatever violence these latest freak shows was staring right along with them. It was mind boggling that someone would stop to question that they were getting help, but then again it probably wasn't often the male met someone like Kaiba. Though the way he was staring… It was a bit different. He was actually smiling, a small, controlled smile, but a smile all the same. For a split second the blue eyed male had been tempted to smile back, but the urge passed as soon as it had come. Instead the millionaire boldly strode past the first bumbling duelist brandishing a blood-red altered Duel Disk to stand next to the male they'd surrounded, making a mental note that the smaller male's Duel Disk was more impressive in its own alteration, the side 'wing' as some called it being reshaped into an off white feathered… Well, wing, while the rest had been re-colored the same ivory color with highlights of sky blue and gold. He had toyed with the idea of customizing Duel Disks as either a prize to winners or as a new subset to the product line, but in the end it had proven too expensive for such mediocre results as a simple color change. The stranger's results however were, in a word, exquisite. Perfect. Something that didn't seem altogether surprising considering the pale duelist's clothes, which struck him as 'artsy' if he had to give a label to it. The shorter male had on a loose white button up dress shirt with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows, and curious stitching all over it reminiscent of Frankenstein's monster, the pushed up sleeves showing off heavy gothic leather fingerless lace up gloves. Underneath the button up, and tucked into the likewise stitched skin tight black pants that were themselves tucked into knee high black lace up boots, was what seemed to be a skin tight black t-shirt with a white logo from… Wait… The millionaire had to take a moment to chuckle. The logo was the infamous overlapping KC that represented his own company.
"…Nice shirt." The icy eyed male smirked, one brow arching as he turned to face the male more fully, allowing the KC emblazoned on the flared collar of his white coat with blue interior so that there was no doubt about who he was. The other's eyes, which Kaiba noted with a bit of humor to also be artsy and unusual, immediately went to the logo, then back to the sapphire orbs with a mischievous glint in his own moon-white orbs.
"…Nice jacket." The other returned the CEO's smirk with his own, the crooked line of his mouth prompting his own smirk to grow. That, combined with the odd clothes, odd eyes, odd hair, confident posture and stare… It made for an unnerving look, but unlike the scuttling little fish now rallying their courage to confront the two duelists, Seto Kaiba was not intimidated easily. Rather than give the robed cowards the lion's share of his attention, he motioned to the personalized Duel Disk on the male's arm.
"What do you say about becoming better acquainted? Specifically, I'd like to discuss your design work on my Duel Disk system. After we take care of these small fry, of course." The other, to the millionaire's immediate relief, laughed, nodding slowly rather than spouting some nonsense about friendship or seeking a peaceful solution or finding out why the fools were after them… Though he made a mental note to inquire about that so-called 'Envoy of the White Dragon' that the men had mentioned. A thin black brow rose, pointing to the men with that same skewed mirror like image of the infamous Kaiba smirk, the other hand going to his hip.
"I take these two, you take those two? Or tag team four on two?" Normally the idea of double-dueling in any way, shape, or form, completely and utterly disgusted Seto. There wasn't any way he would share his victories, let someone else take credit for something he did, and then turn around and spout some ridiculous claims about friendship and teamwork being the reason they survived the round… He'd gone that route with Yugi one too many times, and each time he swore bile crawled up his throat and stayed there. One day he was sure he'd choke on it. However… He found the idea of dueling with this one, someone who wasn't that happy or that depressed, who didn't seem to spit on friendship or crawl all over it, and could actually work with technology, didn't upset him at all. His choice of companies to endorse on his person didn't hurt the cause either. Seto's lips twitched from their smirk to a smile for a split-second, so brief that neither the CEO nor newcomer registered it.
"…Tag team four on two. Those two move first, then me, then those two, then you."
"Giving me first shot at them? That's gentlemanly of you, Mr. Kaiba." The dragon duelist chuckled, and the pair moved into position, not paying the slightest bit of attention to the four strangers squabbling over something or other. It could have been an argument over turn order. It could have been gloats over their supposedly imminent victory. It could have been threats of death or card theft. It didn't matter, not to either of the more collected duelists shuffling their cards and setting their Duel Disks, the CEO paying special attention to how smoothly this newcomer into his personal universe's own machine worked perfectly, not a stall or hiccup to suggest it had been modified. That impressed him where the geek squad, specifically the monkey boy, had failed. Suddenly referring to him as the new one, other, or duelist in his mind seemed disrespectful, so while the other four were getting their decks ready, he paused, turning to look at the male with intensity in his icy eyes, who looked back at him with a passively curious light to his own divided white orbs.
"You know my name, but I don't know yours." It wasn't a request, more of a fact, but he was certain the other would know how Seto wanted him to respond.
"It's Shien, Shien Yokuo." A small smile formed on the face of the shorter male, who just barely made it to the millionaire's chest. Another smile threatened to break out on the taller duelist's own face, but it was morphed into his usual smirk. It was what he felt most comfortable sporting, almost like a second emotional skin.
"Well, Shien, are you ready to wipe these fools out so we can talk?" The other— No, Shien, laughed softly, in a kind of light way as if this duel would be no challenge. Kaiba liked that.
"Whatever you say, boss." After a short second to register that he'd been called 'boss' instead of the usual 'Kaiba', 'Sir', or 'Moneybags', the CEO turned to face the four men opposing them, could see that Shien had done the same in his peripheral vision. A united front, and unlike with Yugi, Joey, or anyone else he'd dueled with, it didn't make him feel queasy. Instead it left him confident. Empowered. That new surge of spirit flooded throw him, giving his smirk at the men drawing their cards an extra dollop of condescension.
"Go on then, little fish, the sooner we get this started, the sooner Shien and I can talk…" He laughed in supreme confidence knowing that he would win even if it did turn out that the other wasn't as good with cards as he was with tech. "It's your move."