DISCLAIMER: Owning Yu-Gi-Oh GX would be awesome, but sadly, I don't. So there.

CLAIMER! Ailee Shirayuki is MINE! Deal with it.

~Thanks to Higuchimon for correcting my horrible understanding of Battle Mania and Command Knight (and many other things).

"Zane?"
"Hm?" Zane Truesdale sat in his third grade classroom, eating lunch next to a second-grade girl named Ailee Shirayuki. He put down his chopsticks and looked at her. Even though Ailee was a whole year younger than he was, she was the only girl bold enough to return his gaze.
"Could you… teach me how to duel?" Ailee knew Zane didn't duel in school often, but she had heard enough from her friends to know he was good at it. Their classmates sat in pairs, dueling one another. Every once in a while, a boy would ask Zane to duel, but he would politely decline. Every day for the past year and a half, Ailee had eaten lunch with Zane in silence.
"Sure, why not. What's your reason for dueling?" Zane asked, taking his deck out of its dusty case.
"A man gave me this card, and before I knew it, he was gone." Ailee laid a card down on the table. It was sealed in a protective casing, and the card looked to be in mint condition. Zane took a look at it, and as he picked it up, he read the name.
"Dark Magician Gi-!"
"Don't say it out loud!" Ailee whispered. "Everyone knows Yugi Muto is supposed to be the only person with this card."
"I've never seen this card for real before." Zane gaped in awe.
"I want become a good duelist so maybe someday I can thank him."
After a long silence, Zane handed Dark Magician Girl back to Ailee and set the deck on the desk. "First off, you start the duel with five cards. Every turn, you draw one card. You can have up to five monsters and five trap or spell cards on the field at once. Traps have to be set for at least one turn before you can activate them. There are a lot of types of spell cards, so I'll explain them later.
"Monster cards level four and under can be normal summoned without tributes. Level five and six are one tribute and level seven and higher are two. So those are the basics. Here," Zane said, handing Ailee the six cards in his hand. He then pulled out a second deck and sat opposite her. "You can take the first turn."
"Okay..." They shuffled their decks and drew their hands. "My turn." Ailee took her time, reading each card's effect. "I activate the magic card Double Summon and use it to summon two Command Knights. I'll set one card face down and end my turn."
A nod from Zane put a smile on Ailee's nervous face. "It's my turn. Since you have monsters, I can special summon Cyber Dragon from my hand. Then, I'll activate Different Dimension Capsule. I can choose one card from my deck and place it in the capsule. After two turns, I get it into my hand. I'll set two cards and end my turn."

"What's a plus sign and lightning bolt sign on the magic card mean?" Ailee asked.

"The plus sign is an equip spell. You can equip it to any monster on the field as long as the card doesn't have any specific requirements. The lightning bolt on is called a quick-play spell. It has one of the fastest playing speeds for spell and trap cards. It can be activated from your hand or you can set it and activate it like a trap," Zane explained.
Zane and Ailee continued dueling, and other students gathered around them. Even the instructor stopped class to watch.

The duel became so heated that Ailee and Zane had to stand up to keep from yelling in each others' ears.
"I summon Cyber Kirin! Then I'll play Power Bond to fuse my Cyber Dragons! Cyber End Dragon's attack points are doubled thanks to Power Bond. Attack Pitch-Black Warwolf!"

"Not so fast! I activate the quick-play spell Enemy Controller! I'll switch Cyber End Dragon to defense mode! Then I'll activate Raigeki Break! I discard one card to destroy your Cyber Kirin!"
"Tch! I activate De-Fusion to send Cyber End to my extra deck and resurrect my three Cyber Dragons! I attack Warwolf!"
"I activate the trap Negate Attack! It negates your Dragon's attack and ends the Battle Phase."

"I end my turn."

"My move then. I'll tribute my Exiled Force to destroy one of your dragons! I'll also tribute my Pitch-Black Warwolf to play Swordstalker! I attack a Cyber Dragon with 2800 ATK!"

"I use Sakuretsu Armor! When you attack, your monster is destroyed!"

"Then I'll throw down a face down and end my turn."
"My turn! I use the magic of Polymerization to bring Cyber Twin Dragon to the field!"
"I'll activate my own trap! It's called Bottomless Trap Hole. Since you special summoned your Cyber Twin and it has more than 1500 ATK, it's removed from play."
"This is what you were up to. I activate the trap Call of the Haunted to resurrect Cyber Twin. I can't attack your Command Knights, so I can't do anything but set a face down. My turn is over."
"And so is the duel. I play the magic card Heavy Storm! All your face downs are destroyed!

"I'm not going to let you win that easily! I chain that with Waboku! I take no damage for the rest of this turn."

"Then I'll normal summon Blade Knight and special summon Swordstalker with Monster Reborn. I end my turn."

"That was a close call," one of Zane's classmates commented.

"This turn will end the duel! I'll play Burial from a Different Dimension to put my monster back in my graveyard! Then I'll activate my own Monster Reborn and bring back my Cyber Twin Dragon!"

"That thing pops up more often than weeds in a garden! Even with 2800 ATK, it'll only tie with my Blade Knight!"

"You're not taking into account that I still have cards in my hand. One of them just happens to be Limiter Removal! It double's Cyber Twin's ATK to 5600!"

"Oh no!"

"That's right, Cyber Twin can attack," Zane held up two fingers, "twice!"

Ailee had put up a good fight, but lost the duel.

"Good duel, Zane," Ailee congratulated, putting out a hand.

Zane shook it. "Yeah. Good duel."

Why am I thinking about that? Zane wondered. I don't need to respect my opponent. I don't need the past. I don't need anything except winning.

He had received a letter from Ailee earlier that day saying she transferred to Duel Academy's Obelisk dorm. Zane thought for a moment, then stood up, now clad in dark clothing and wearing eyeliner. He folded his DA uniform and placed it in a cardboard box, along with a sealed envelope and several other things he wanted to forget. Then he taped the box shut and slapped a label on it. He dropped it off at the nearest post office and left quickly.
"The old Zane… is gone."

Well, that's a new story finally started. I am no good at titles, so forgive me if it makes no sense whatsoever.

Please rate/review and favorite. Concrit is most appreciated.

Until the next chapter ~CyberStardust