Hinoryu here. Just a few author's notes to get us started.
Welcome to Battle Earth, a fanfiction of Hinoryu's devising. I use characters made by myself and a group of friends. Unless you're a member of Duel Academy r:2 or otherwise a very good friend of mine, don't bother asking if I'll use your character, I won't.
Also, this takes place two years after the ending of the Ceremonial Battle. This, if GX is to be believed, would be about 1998… Well, I'm sort of ignoring that part, act like it takes place, for the most part, in roughly 2007, yet GX won't start for another 8 years yet, if I'm recalling the timeline correctly.
Also, something to remember: The characters are mostly Japanese, and should be assumed to be speaking Japanese unless stated otherwise.
This fic will follow Japanese canon, not the dub. There will thus be no Shadow Realm, no magical Heart of the Cards other than the one mentioned on rare occasion in the Japanese, and there will be no dub names. If you need to know the names… Look 'em up.
There's a few game terms I need to get cleared up before I can start, as well.
First off: They're magic cards, not spell cards.
Next: As per the good Yu-gi-oh fics, most cards will use their real-world effects. Card of Sanctity will retain its' real life effect. The card that allows both players to draw until they have six cards will be referred to as Coins from Heaven.
Also, certain cards that I feel have had their names changed stupidly will retain their Japanese games. This includes Antique Gear monsters, the E-Heroes, the D-Heroes, the Chess Demons, and others as they show up.
I think that's everything. If I've forgotten anything, it will show up when I remember it. Artistic license will be taken on occasion, please deal with it.
That said, welcome to the…
Memorial Tournament.
Many voices in many languages in many countries were all murmuring the same thing. Memorial Tournament. What was it? What's going on? Where and when?
Seto Kaiba sighed. He hung up the phone with Pegasus. He loved his little brother dearly, but even he had limits... He sighed, rubbed his temples, and took a long drink of coffee. How did he get roped into this again?
Ah yes. Mokuba. He came running in one day, yelling he had the greatest idea.
"It's been about a year and a half since the other Yuugi passed on, right?!" Mokuba yelled excitedly. "Let's have a tournament as a memorial thing!" Kaiba paused for a moment.
"A year-and-a-half memorial?" He asked doubtfully.
Mokuba waved his arms. "No, no, no... Two years! We'll need about that long to prepare it... The biggest tournament ever!"
Kaiba raised an eyebrow.
Mokuba's idea had indeed been interesting. Now, five and a half months later, when they were ready to implement it, Kaiba was sorely regretting bringing Pegasus in on it. He never would have if Mokuba hadn't insisted on doing so.
Kaiba would have expected at least a tiny grudge or something. He did steal Mokuba's soul and stick it in a card after all. But Mokuba firmly held that it wasn't Pegasus's fault, it was the creepy eye he had. Once that was gone, Mokuba didn't have a problem with the strange man at all. Especially after he had made it up to Mokuba with the entire series of Funny Rabbit on DVD. Kaiba suspected the real purpose of this gift was to annoy him.
Kaiba shook his head. The new Duel Disks were ready. The stage was set. The tournament was to begin in a week. The invitations had been mailed. Now what?
He was answered by a shrill beeping. Kaiba made a mental note to fire his secretary, and picked up the phone.
--------------------Akihara Ryuuji took a swig from a bottle of milk while reading the newspaper. He looked up at the clock. 6:55 AM... He hated working early hours. Anything before noon was murder. Fortunately, he had another half-hour before he actually had to leave.
He was nothing remarkable to look at. A nineteen year old with spiky black hair, kind of tall. He was thin, but still enough muscle to look after himself. His black jacket was folded over his chair, his nametag still clipped to it. He was in a white t-shirt and jeans. One thing working at a convenience store had going for it, the dress code was fairly slack.
He looked back at the paper, open to the duel section. French champion Napoleon Bonaparte had defeated Italian champion Chronos de Medici, the latter vowing revenge. Some bald kook had started a dojo in Tibet for Cyber-style dueling... Ryuuji wondered who would go to something like that.
Aha, the Japanese amateur rankings. Ryuuji puffed up with pride when he saw his own name... and promptly deflated again when he saw he had sunk from number 47 to 50.
"Miss one lousy tournament and they drop you three ranks..." he grumbled to himself."Like I wanted to miss it? Noooo, it was miss it or lose my job..."
He tossed aside the paper and walked out to his mailbox. "Bill. Junk. Chain letter. Junk. Letter from Mom. Bill. Tournament invitation. Bill. J-" He paused. "Tournament invitation?"
His eyes bugged out. "It's from Kaiba Corp!" He was suddenly back on cloud nine. "Yes! My luck is turning around! Despite my ranking, Seto Kaiba himself realized my amazing talents and thus invited me to a special tournament!" he cried.
He tore the letter open and began to read.
"To Akihara Ryuuji, our regards. We are pleased to announce the beginning of the Memorial Tournament.
Every single duelist in the world, pro, amateur, or otherwise will be there."
Ryuuji sighed dejectedly again. He wasn't that special after all, it seemed. He continued reading, though.
"Please report to the Domino Plaza tonight at 3 PM for further information.
-Seto Kaiba and Pegasus J. Crawford."
Ryuuji's eyes bugged out again at the last line. Duel Monster's creator and biggest supporter teaming up for something like this? It would be incredible. He had to attend. There was only one problem.
His boss.
--------------------"No." The word was like a guillotine.
"But boss!" Ryuuji pleaded. "This is the biggest tournament in history! You have to let me!"
Ryuuji's boss, a thickly-built woman who resembled a small gorilla, loomed over him. She was rumored to once have been put on trial for murder. She got off, but no one dared shoplift from her store. Ryuuji cowered under her gaze.
"You've missed enough work with all those other tournaments. How am I supposed to keep a business running with my employee never being here?" she asked.
"Besides," another voice sneered. "You'd never get far with that deck."
"That voice... Jigokubana Shin." Ryuuji muttered with venom in his voice.
A tall, lanky man walked in. He looked to be about the same age as Ryuuji, though similarities ended there. He wore a black shirt and jeans that made his thin appearance seem slightly bigger. A trench coat over the clothing gave a slightly intimidating appearance. He had black hair with red streaks through it. But his eyes contrasted everything else. A piercing blue that held nothing but utmost contempt for Ryuuji.
"Who else?" he smirked. "But like I said, go ahead and stay out of this tournament. After all, a second-rate duelist with a deck like that could never beat me in it... A beatdown deck that any idiot could use." He laughed contemptuously.
"Why you... You think a sneaky little bastard like you is any better?!" he shouted.
"Yes. You forget our win-loss ratio. 99 wins, 7 losses... Or are you going to give me my hundredth?" he smirked. "Can a pathetic ronin who is stuck working at a second-rate convenience store come close?"
"Second-rate?!" Ryuuji's boss practically shrieked.
Shin turned to her and bowed. "Sorry, my mistake. Third-rate."
Something in her head snapped. "Akihara. Beat this guy senseless and you can have the time off for this tournament."
Bowing deeply, Ryuuji shouted. "Yes ma'am!" Turning to Shin, the two of them nodded grimly and stepped outside, Duel Disks at the ready.
They stepped into a secluded alley so no one would interfere. Ryuuji looked Shin in the eye. Tension built up until it could practically choke a person.
Finally, Ryuuji threw an arm around Shin. "You did it, man! I owe ya!"
Calmly removing Ryuuji's arm from his shoulder, Shin sighed. "Yeah, yeah. Did you have to wake me up so early for it? I was sleeping rather comfortably when you dragged me into it."
Ryuuji grinned. "Where this time? Your couch? Your table? Your oven? Oooh, I know, that dumpster out back!"
Shin simply gave him a deadpan look. "Sleeping in odd places is actually more resting than one of those strange Western beds. And you know my problem with futons."
"Yes, yes, I know. Random things living in them... I still maintain that was just a stray cat, not a giant rat like you were yelling." Ryuuji laughed.
Shin sighed. "Anyways. Shall we head over to the Plaza? We have time to spare, but if there will truly be every duelist around there, we should get there before the crowd."
--------------------A man clad in a white cloak giggled to himself. "Shall I kill them all? Shall I kill myself? Death, dead, die, doom. Such a funny thing. Let's bleach the world... change it all... pure..." He collapsed, giggling, as his cloak flew off.
What was under it would disturb the most imperturbable people. The man appeared to be in his thirties. He had long, shaggy hair, and his face looked as though it hadn't been shaved in about two weeks. However, the most disturbing thing about him was his color.
He was white. Not Caucasian. He was simply pure white. It was as if his body had been simply purged of any and all color. Even his eyes, where a normal iris would be black, as a pure, unsettling white. His hair, his clothing, his fingernails... As he laughed, even the inside of his mouth was white.
He looked like nothing more than a drawing. Black lines gave him a defining form, but aside from that, inside those lines, was just white, like paper.
The man forced himself up to his knees. And still giggling, he coughed up blood, also pure white, and collapsed into the puddle of blood that had formed.
"Hehehe... Let's... reset it... the purity of... nothing..." With that, he simply ceased to be. The outlines that formed him faded, and color seemed to leak through the weakened lines... Not his own color, though. He became slowly translucent, then transparent, and then simply nonexistent.
In his place was a simple white shred of an aura. It looked, realizing its host had just faded from existence, and gave a mental shrug. Oh well. it thought, as it floated out, to rejoin its' main body.
--------------------Shin sighed. Apparently, many others had had the idea of getting there early. It didn't help that he was being dragged along by Ryuuji.
"Hey, there he is! I knew he'd be here. Hey, Stephen!" Ryuuji yelled.
Shin winced. Did he have to be so loud? And who was Stephen, anyway? An American?
Shin was answered by Stephen himself appearing. At first glance, he appeared to be fifteen. Black hair in a mullet. Simple blue T-shirt and jeans, and a kanji tattoo on his upper arm. 長江女神... Choukou joshin?
Shin paused in thought. Choukou was the Yangtze River in China. The Yangtze River goddess...? Some obscure religion, perhaps?
"HEY SHIN!" Ryuuji yelled in his ear, snapping Shin out of his thoughts, reflexively smacking Ryuuji. "Ow... Hey, don't zone out like that!"
"Sorry." Shin apologized in a tone that made it perfectly clear he was anything but. "What were you saying?"
"Well, after you went off to wherever, I met Stephen here and we started hanging out a lot. He's a pretty good duelist; I bet he could beat you." Ryuuji grinned.
"..." There was a pause. "First off, 'Stephen'? You don't look American."
"I'm not." Stephen said, talking for the first time. Shin noted his voice seemed a bit lower than he expected, throwing his previous assessment of fifteen into slight doubt. Perhaps sixteen? Certainly no older. "My name's Suta Han'u. But it sounds like Stephen, and I like Stephen better."
"Ah, very well." Shin nodded. "Also... If I'm right about dates, school just got out for the summer. Don't you have summer homework to do? Putting it off can make you fail college exams... Like this guy."
"Actually, I graduated back in April... I'm 18." Stephen muttered, cutting off protests from Ryuuji.
Shin processed the information calmly. There was a long pause.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" He asked, finally.
"I'm 18."
"..." Shin apparently could not reply.
"I think you broke him, Stephen..." Ryuuji said quietly, poking Shin in the arm. He was slightly worried when there was no response.
"You were just as bad." Stephen reminded him.
"I was not!" Ryuuji protested.
"You asked for my ID three times."
"Did not!"
"And I wasn't even buying anything that'd need ID..." Stephen sighed.
--------------------As Shin readjusted his view on the world, a stranger bumped into them... literally. Ryuuji stumbled forward as the back of his head was thwacked soundly by a large camera. "Son of a- OW!" he yelped.
"Oh, sorry!" the new arrival said. Ryuuji, once he could see straight, got a decent look at her.
She was a couple years older than him. Messy was a good word to describe her. She honestly looked like she had just crawled out of a closet. Light purple hair, cut mostly short, though there was a small ponytail in the back. Her clothes (a light blue button-up shirt and blue jeans) were both extremely wrinkled, with a pen tucked behind her ear, and carrying a large pile of camera equipment so she could barely see where she was going.
"I can't see much right now... Can you give me a hand?" She asked. "My name's Hoshino. Jouhou Hoshino, reporter extraordinaire!"
"You're a reporter? That explains the camera equipment..." Stephen said, with his firm grasp of the obvious.
"Huh... If you're a reporter, how come I've never seen you on the news?" Ryuuji asked, with his usual grasp, or lack thereof, on diplomacy.
"Er... well..." She stumbled. "You just... must... not have been watching the right channels! Yeah!"
"If you say so..." Ryuuji sighed.
"Hey, help me set this up!" She demanded.
"Huh? But I don't know ho-" He tried to protest.
"Just do it!"
How annoying... Shin thought to himself.
--------------------After some fumbling, they got it set up. Just in time, as Kaiba's face began appearing on the screens. With a solemn expression, he began speaking.
"Welcome to the Memorial Tournament." he said calmly. "First, I will answer what I'm sure most of you are wondering. Why is this a memorial tournament?
"That answer is simple. Two years ago today, a duelist died. Not just any duelist, either. This duelist was one of the few I would consider my equal in dueling... Perhaps even greater than me. Yet despite his skill, he wasn't famous. He received no credit from the world for his incredible duels. A man only ever defeated twice, and only one of those was a fair victory.
"He had an abnormally long life... It seemed he could not die until he was defeated in a duel. Once he was defeated, he was allowed to put down his sword and rest.
"He was an Egyptian man named Atemu. Remember his name... He could out-duel the gods themselves."
There was a moment's silence as everyone took in this knowledge. Ryuuji wondered what this had to do with the tournament.
"Atemu's only passion was for dueling. Battle City was one of his favorite events... So this time, we're blowing Battle City out of the water." Kaiba smirked. "Welcome to the Memorial Tournament... Battle Earth."
The crowd suddenly began to murmur excitedly. Battle Earth? What did that mean? Then it was-
Kaiba resumed speaking again. "The entire Earth is the battleground... Even off of Earth. If you somehow make it into orbit, duel there anyway. The moon is fair game. Anywhere you can meet and duel is part of the tournament. Kaiba Corp will have transportation to carry you - Show them your Disk and as long as you're in the tournament, passage is free.
"Every duelist in the world is taking part. There are a few exceptions, though. Certain top-tier duelists, myself included, will be Eliminators in the tournament. Mutou Yuugi, Katsuya Jonouchi, and even Ishtar Malik are as well.
"There is a new form of Duel Disk to be used in this tournament. Loss of this disk will lose you any chance at victory, so guard it with your life."
Ryuuji
paused. "So it's just a really big Battle City..? That's hardly
worth the fuss.
Shin
elbowed him in the ribs. "Shush, he's still talking."
"The conditions for victory are simple. Get into the room where the finals are held."
'So what's the catch...?' the assembled crowd wondered.
"However, you will have to find the room yourself... And figure out how to get in."
There was a collective sigh from the crowd.
"Once you're strong enough, though, the Duel Disks will direct you to certain people... They can advise you on how to make it to the room. Now, onto the main part...
"I'm incorporating a new system into this tournament." Kaiba stated. "It is called the Personal Ability system... And it will show the true strength of a duelist.
"These new disks, using new Disclosure technology, will, at the start of your first duel, show you your ability. As you duel, it will measure your emotions, decision-making, and will as a duelist, and your ability will evolve accordingly. Winning duels will make your ability grow stronger. Losing will make it weaker. And if your ability gets any weaker than how it starts out, you're out of the tournament.
"This ability is unique to you. No one else you duel will have your ability. You can activate it at any time during the duel, unless the ability requires otherwise. The ability cannot be chained to. Sometimes, they will have costs... Those costs cannot be negated. Not even by Spell Economics.
"Think
of it like a Deck master system, just with yourself as the master."
"What's
a deck master system?" Ryuuji asked. Shin and Stephen just
shrugged.
"Also, this tournament shall use a custom ban list. You will receive a copy of the ban list when you get your Duel Disk. All gaming stores that sell Disks have gotten a shipment of the custom Disks to hand out to participants. Construct your decks around this.
"And while I'm on the subject of rules... This tournament will use Super-Expert rules. Duels begin with eight thousand life points instead of the usual four-thousand. Monsters may have different effects from usual. The Industrial Illusions web page has a list of the monsters affected by these errata. Be sure to look out for that.
"And for the part you've been waiting for... The prizes.
"The prize is simple. One billion yen from Kaiba Corp, or its' equivalent if a foreigner wins. And Industrial Illusions will make one card for you of your design. Any card. A card more powerful than the Gods themselves, if you choose. The only limit is your imagination."
A murmur rippled through the crowd. Any card? Whatsoever? Most of the crowd had already forgotten about the money in favor of that card.
"Now then..."
There was a sudden roar from a helicopter above. A ladder was hanging from the bottom, and hanging onto that was Seto Kaiba himself. Standing on the ladder with his trademark white trenchcoat billowing. He shouted to the crowd, somehow able to be heard over the loud chopper.
"The tournament begins the instant you get your disk! If you have the guts and the skill, rise to the top!" He smirked down at the crowd.
Ryuuji stared up at him. The man who wielded the three Blue Eyes White Dragons... The greatest dragons. The rarest and most famous. Ryuuji wondered... if he won the tournament, he'd get a card even rarer and more powerful than the Blue Eyes. If he won the tournament...
Kaiba looked down at the crowd. Ryuuji looked up at the helicopter. And the two briefly locked eyes. Ryuuji grinned widely. Kaiba turned his head and continued surveying the crowd, apparently without noticing.
"The Memorial Tournament... Battle Earth shall begin now!" He shouted. With that, the helicopter rose up and flew off. The crowd waited a moment, then, almost all at once, shot off in all directions to find their favorite gaming store to get their disks. Ryuuji, Shin, Stephen, and Hoshino were soon the only ones left in the place.
--------------------Ryuuji wished he was among the bolting crowd, actually. However, he somehow found himself helping Hoshino packing up her equipment. He sighed.
"Shin, how did I get roped into helping her again?" He asked exasperatedly, when he nearly dropped the camera for the third time.
"You're a sucker." Shin stated simply.
"What?! Hey!"
"It's true." Shin sighed. "You've never been able to refuse anything a girl asked you, you know."
Stephen nodded. "I haven't even known you that long and even I can vouch for that."
"That's not true! I can-" Ryuuji started to say.
"Hey, can you carry this, too?" Hoshino interrupted, holding out a notepad.
"Huh? Oh, sure." Ryuuji shuffled a few things around in his arms and took the notepad. Shin and Stephen sighed simultaneously.
They managed to drag Hoshino's equipment back to a nearby hiding spot. Behind a few bushes, they found Hoshino's bike, and a couple duffle bags to carry the equipment in.
Shin sighed. "Hanging around you is always exhausting, Akihara. Why is that?"
"Because he gets us roped into things like this." Stephen stated.
"I'm not that ba-"
"Yes you are." All three others cut it. Shin and Stephen looked at Hoshino, curious as to why she had agreed.
"I met you ten minutes ago and it's obvious." She shrugged.
"That's just harsh..." Ryuuji sighed.
--------------------Ryuuji, being the sucker he was, got stuck inviting everyone back to his apartment for everyone to go through their decks before the tournament started. Shin had managed to grab a copy of the new ban list from a store on their way back. Hoshino was actually looking it over, surprising everyone.
"I never thought you were a duelist." Stephen noted. "Just a reporter with nothing else to do."
Hoshino nodded. "Actually, I'm fairly good, I think. My deck has about a seventy percent win ratio... Oh, excellent... My main support went from one per deck to three!"
"So what kind of deck do you run?" Ryuuji asked her.
"Ah-ah..." She grinned. "You'll have to wait for the tournament to find out."
"Man... I don't want to duel any of you first round in the tournament." Ryuuji mentioned. "I don't want to end up knocking out someone I know so early on."
"Or getting knocked out by someone you'd have to see again." Shin added. Ryuuji glared at him.
"Anyways." Ryuuji looked at the building before him. "Second floor, apartment 4. Careful not to step on the neighbor's cat." He led everyone inside, with only minor mishaps involving Stephen trodding on the poor cat's tail, and everyone entered his apartment.
--------------------After taking off their shoes in the entryway, Stephen made a mad dash and got the big chair in the living room. Shin calmly followed and seated himself on the couch. Hoshino elected to stand and look around while Ryuuji ran into the kitchen to fetch drinks.
Looking around the room, Hoshino noticed one thing: Dragons. They were everywhere. Models on the shelves, posters on the wall, even his book collection was mostly dragons. European dragons, Chinese dragons, Hollywood dragons... Even a figure of what looked like Grendel. Hoshino laughed to herself quietly. Now she knew what deck to expect from this guy... As if she couldn't have guessed it from his name.
Ryuuji came back in with sodas, and handed them out. "Hey, let me see that list." he told Shin.
"Very well." He handed it over.
"Hey, look at this! Monster Reborn got returned to one per deck." Ryuuji opened up a couple drawers hidden under the table, revealing several large rows of cards.
"Yata Garasu is still banned, though." Stephen noted. "There's probably a lot of people happy about that."
"Both Envoys are banned." Shin commented. "I thought Kaiba himself used the Chaos Emperor Dragon... Odd that he'd limit himself in such a way."
"Not necessarily." Hoshino countered. "He is the best player around. I bet he felt like handicapping himself to keep it interesting."
"That could be." Shin conceded. "What's this card? 'Tsukuyomi'? Don't recall running into it before."
"It's one of those spirit things that no one uses, I think." Stephen told him.
"There's a good reason for it. Too hard to keep a stable field." Ryuuji muttered. "Keeping them on the field requires a spell card... And unless you've got the money to shell out for a Judgment of Anubis, you're leaving yourself wide open using those cards."
"What about Curse of Royal?" Shin pointed out.
This banter continued for a while, with some card trading and haggling in between. Finally, Ryuuji stood and announced:
"Well, our decks are as good as they're gonna get, so let's go get our disks..." He grinned widely, then yelled in English. "Let's get this party started!"
Outside his room, a terrified cat fled from the yelling, nursing its' injured tail.
Next
chapter, the tournament starts proper, as Ryuuji faces an opponent
who has a decktype he has a lot of experience against... And only
seven wins to ninety-nine losses. But unfortunately, this opponent's
strategy is different enough from the one he's used to to keep him
completely off his usual game...
Can Ryuuji win when all of his good monsters are in the Graveyard before he can even draw them? Next chapter will reveal... In "Hellfire".