Hello Readers! Welcome to the First Chapter of Dual Guardians, a story written by me, Leengard Ustan, and my pal, Raydark182. Please note that we will be using cards shown in both the Anime and Game, except for Pendulum Monsters.

We do not Own Yu-Gi-Oh or the cards used, only the original characters we have made.

Edited ~ 6/26/16

Chapter One

The First Day

Duel Academy

A clear blue ocean that spread for many miles, overlooked by the shine of the afternoon sun along with small puffs of clouds reflecting off the water's surface. It would've been a scene of tranquility an artist would want to paint if not for the fact that a large helicopter flew overhead, disturbing the peace with the loud noise that came from its wing blades. On the side of the helicopter, there appeared to be a logo that belonged to the International Duel Academy and within its body, it contained that school's newly admitted students, numbering no more than 20.

Inside of it, were a small group of no more than 20 new students that managed to passed both their written and physical exams to qualify entry into the academy. Each ones coming from a different part of the world from different examination sectors.

Having passed their entrance exams, the new students of the were on their way to their new home away from home.

Before long, the chopper slowly descended down towards the landing pad as the wind picked up around the area, spreading what little dust and dirt was around. In a matter of mere-seconds, the helicopter completed its landing and killed its engines, allowing the propellers to slow down and eventually stop.

From their windows, many saw the Academy building, with its six massive pillars surrounding a large dome that was rested up against a cliff and surrounded by forest. Behind the Academy was a smoking volcanic crater. There was also evidence of a beach and docks for ships. The Academy was obviously very large, capable of housing so many students and faculty that there was no way one could feel isolated on this island, though getting lost looked like a definite possibility.

With that out of the way, the single door of the transport opened as a small set of stairs descended from the door allowing the passengers inside to start making their way out. Most of the people were young teens, around the ages of fifteen to sixteen, each one wearing the standard colored uniform of the academy, red, yellow, and blue.

In their hands or on their backs was the luggage that most of them brought for their trip, some having more than others and some only having the bare essentials. One particular thing all of them had were the standard Duel Disks the academy provided as well as special visors that many had in their pockets or elsewhere on their body.

These Duel Disks had circular body with four laterally-placed slots (the bottom-right one being the Graveyard and the upper-left one the Extra Deck), a curved blade, and a small hourglass-shaped touchscreen. During a Duel, the touchscreen displays Life Points and Turn Counters at the top of the screen, and the Spell & Trap Zones on the bottom. Also, by tapping on the word "Enemy", the user can look at their opponent's field. The arm blades, which are normally curved but can be customized, are composed of energy like the same "touchable Solid Vision" used in certain kinds of Duels, and are aligned parallel to the main body of the Disk.

The Visor were an updated model of the old Duel Gazers, looking more like a pair of visor sunglasses rather than a monocle. The standard ones given out by the academy had a simple, mirror quality to the outside of them, though these were just as customizable as the Duel Disks.

Many students had the standard for both, but most customized them in their own particular way from the colors of both objects to the shape of the Digi-Construct.

After a few minutes, the last person exited from the helicopter though many could see he was different, not just from how he looked or hair color, but how he acted as well.

This red-haired student, with what appeared to be a scar on his left eyebrow and standing at a fair height for a normal teen and had semi-tanned skin, wore the standard uniform and had it in proper form. Though only the jacket was left open rather than buttoned. Underneath, he wore a red jersey with the white number eleven. His lower half had semi-fitting pants rather than the standard academy pants and also had red shoes as well, making his whole outfit matching.

The Duel Disk he carried had the standard, circular shape of the Academy Issued ones, but his was solid red in color, had white highlights to emphasis the edges and had a black "V" shape on top of the Duel Disk that extended past the edges of the circle. He was clearly owning the color of his Dorm, as even his Visor, seen sticking out of one of his pockets, was red in color.

Looking around the landing pad, his eyes sparkled with such excitement, remembering how incredible the view was when he was looking out the window of the chopper. The young man couldn't believe that he was finally at the same academy all great Duelist trained in to become amazing, and somehow he had a feeling that he'd soon find himself among them one day.

He quickly composed himself and began to walk forward with the rest of his fellow students, but soon noticed one that stood out from the rest of the crowd.

This student, who was about a centimeter shorter, looked like a total slacker with no attention to his own appearance. He had messy brown hair, like one would have after waking up, and his red jacket was unbuttoned, as well as wrinkled like he had slept in it with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. The brown pants he wore were baggy, like he had gotten a pair that were too big for him. His shoes appeared to be black sneakers and he was wearing a plain black t-shirt.

His own custom Academy Duel Disk was hanging from the bag he had slung over his shoulder. The Duel Disk was customized to look like a kite shield, azure as the primary color with a white "X" across it. The Visor, hanging from his collar, was solid black in color.

Overall, the appearance of the student made many wonder if someone had made a mistake, or if that person had a mental disorder.

Little did anyone know, these two students would have adventures that would shake the foundation of the academy.

Auditorium

Before long, some of the academy's employees came to greet the students and inform them about a special opening ceremony that many of them would participate in before heading to their appropriate dorms. After the announcement, the students began making their way inside of the academy, unaware of what lied ahead of them.

Once inside, they saw one of the biggest rooms ever laid eyes on with an entire crowd of murmuring students, each one talking with another as they tried to wonder what exactly was going on. Many were guided by the employees to empty seats, each one in a section based on the color of their uniforms.

Because of this, the two students sat next to one another.

While the brown-haired slacker student didn't seem too interested in what was going on, his eyes were closed and he was simply listening to music on his phone, the excited red-haired one was simply amazed by what he was seeing around him. There wasn't just people from Japan, but from other nations in the academy. He couldn't help but chuckle in amazement.

After a few more minutes, the sound of speakers turning on caught the attention of everyone as they turned their eyes towards the stage. The lights soon dimmed as the TV screens around the arena began turning on, focusing on the podium with the appearance of a woman coming into view.

She was a relatively tall woman with tanned skin and a semi-large bust that made some of the male students blush when they saw her. She had blond hair that reached about the middle of her back, and blue eyes underneath a pair of wire-rimmed glasses. Not only that, she wore a green suit over a white button-up, with a blue cravat held in place by a gold cross pin. The suit looked like it had been freshly pressed, having a very crisp and clean feel. She also wore equally clean white gloves and freshly shined black shoes.

The slacker opened one eye when the general hubbub died down, revealing it to be hazel in color, and uncovered one of his ears. He was still clearly far from interested in what was going on at the assembly, and his attitude was starting to annoy the more enthusiastic guy to his right.

Soon enough, the red-haired student was about to say something, but was cut off by his neighbor.

"Jeez, when I applied to this place, I didn't think they'd still do any of these boring ass assemblies..." the slacker muttered with a tired sigh, yawning loudly and catching the attention of some of the others around him.

Seeing some of the faces looking towards them, the red-haired student looked over with a look of annoyance on his face.

"Hey, show some respect dude, this is the world's best dueling academy!" He replied in a hushed tone, trying not to talk so loud. The reply he got was only the sound of a scoff, making him start to growl, but soon stopped when the sound of the speakers turned on, catching his and everyone else's attention.

After taking a moment to clear her throat, the woman began to speak.

"Thank you all, I am fortunate to be in the presence of so many new and returning students this year, for those who don't know me. My name is Annebelle Ward, Fifth Head-Mistress of the International Dueling Academy. Many of you have come from separate branches or have applied in your own hometowns and for coming all this way, I thank each and every one of you."

She paused for a second to clap as it soon started to cause everyone in the audience to clap as well, swirling around excitement in the arena. The Head-Mistress continued to speak after everyone had completely stopped clapping.

"Now, to begin, as many of you know, this academy was founded to act as the gateway for the future of Dueling, the best and brightest who strive here go on to accomplish great things and earn incredible honors. Even if not everyone makes it to this, never forget the most important thing of this academy: As long as you have found the path in life and you can still have fun Dueling, then anyone can be an incredible success. Once again, I look forward to seeing the next great generation of Duelist show what they're made of, thank you."

With that last remark, everyone got up from their seats, minus the slacker, and applaud with loud enthusiasm at what she said to them. All they knew was that their first years of this academy would shape up to be one of the many amazing ones to come.

Slifer Red Dorm

The assembly had ended and all the students were sent off to find their individual dorms of Obelisk Blue, Ra-Yellow, and Slifer Red, to get settled in their rooms and decompress from the long trip. There was also some excitement about the Welcoming Dinner from many students of the Blue and Yellow dorms, though most excitement seemed to die down for those who were assigned to the Red Dorm.

The new Slifer Reds were welcomed by the sight of a building that looked like a low rent apartment complex. It had four floors with eight rooms on one side and eight more rooms on the other side. The dorm had a very dull and pedestrian feel to it overall, but some had hope that would be much more cozy on the inside.

The boys started going on the upper levels while the girls were assigned to the lower levels, allowing each gender to have their own space and privacy as dictated by Academy rules.

After entering, the red-haired man looked down at the piece of paper he was given with the schedule and number for his room. He was assigned nearly at the top level of the building, meaning that he would have to climb up as he found that the elevator was out of order.

Once he found the stairs, he began making his ascent upward and eventually found himself on the fourth floor, right in front of the room he was assigned to. Moving in closer to the door, he knocked a few times and waited while putting his right ear to the door to listen.

No sound came from the door, meaning that his roommate probably wasn't in there, so he decided to open it with the key that was given to him and let himself in. Upon entering, he saw that the room was a fairly spacious room with brown-wooden walls with one light in the middle of the white ceiling. In the middle of the room were two individual desks, next to two individual beds with red sheets and covers.

His excitement turned sour when the teen looked to the other bed, seeing the very same brown-haired person he had gotten into an argument with at the assembly.

It wasn't too clear whether he was asleep or if, like at the assembly, he was just listening to music with his eyes closed. Though what got him irritated was how he left his side of the room. Not one day in and already, the slacker had come in, tossed his bag on the desk and then flopped onto the bed. His Duel Disk was propped up in the chair, there was school supplies already strewn about the desk haphazardly and, upon closer inspection, it looked like a closet had thrown up all its contents into the room floor on that side.

The red-head soon calmed down and decided to ignore his roommate for the time being while he began unpacking his bags, grabbing some clothes and placing them inside the drawer that he was provided. In a matter of minutes, most of his stuff was packed away and neatly organized. He was finishing up the last of his things away when something on his roommate's side of the room caught his attention.

The only thing that looked to be put anywhere nicely was a Deck on the desk with nothing surrounding it in the only clean spot seen. Made sense, this school was all about dueling, so why wouldn't one take care of their Deck?

The redhead felt curiosity begin to take hold as he wondered what sort of Deck his slacker roommate had, leading him to go forward a bit while navigating through the mess on the floor. He slowly reached towards the deck, planning to only take a look at one card and find out what archetype he had. His fingers were mere centimeters away when a voice made him jump out of his skin.

"What are you doing?"

The sudden voice made Nick stop and turn to see his roommate now propped up on his elbow, showing a serious expression on his face after noticing where the red-headed teen's hand was reaching for.

"S-sorry, I just wanted to see what kind of cards you had, that's all..." He remarked in an honest tone, seeing his roommate now standing up and walking over to his deck, grabbing it and putting it in his black case on his belt.

The tension was thick in the room as the two teens continued to stare at the other, waiting for one of them to say something, anything at all. Deciding to try and at least be friendly, the red-headed teen cleared his throat before extending his hand.

"I'm Nick Brood, it's nice to meet you."

"Barclay Fyfe." the slacker replied, taking Nick's hand in a firm grasp and giving it a single shake before letting go to head to their door.

"W-wait! Where are you going?" Nick asked, a little worried that his peace treaty had failed.

"Huh?" Barclay glanced over his shoulder at the door, he still appeared to be annoyed. "To that Welcoming Dinner thing they were going on about earlier."

He opened the door and stepped out, saying something that sounded like "And if you're so curious about my Deck, we can Duel after that."

The last part snapped Nick out of his daze, caused by how surprised he was that his roommate would be so formal with him. Remembering that he hadn't eaten yet, the red-haired teen grabbed his own deck from his bed, and went after Barclay.

The two would soon find out that their new home would be more interesting than they ever imagined.

Dorm Dining Room

The dining area was just large enough for all of the students to fit in, but only just. The room was an odd combination of dull and bright, the off-white walls seemed to both absorb and reflect the cheap fluorescent lights that hummed above them. The tables were a series of the typical long cafeteria tables, though these had stools rather than bench seating.

Barclay had grabbed a seat by the door and Nick took the one across from him, leaning back as they waited for everyone else to arrive. Once everyone was seated, from the double doors, a man burst in pushing a large buffet trolley that was covered with a large cloth that had lei patterns on it. Many of the new students looked with wide eyes at what was in front of them, but what really caught their attention was the person behind it all.

The man was pale and nearly six feet tall, with blond hair messy hair reaching his shoulders as well as sunglasses on his face. However, what he was wearing was even more shocking. His outfit was clearly Hawaiian, he wore a Malo, which made some of the female students blush slightly, shell necklaces, bracelets and anklets, and a lei around his neck.

"Aloha kakou!" he shouted with enthusiasm. "Welcome to all! Welcome to the Slifer Red dorm! I am the Head of this Dorm, Kanoa! Now I know all of you are tired and would like nothing more than to just eat and go to sleep, but in celebration of those who passed the Entrance Exam, tonight we will be having a Luau!"

After saying that, Kanoa pulled off the cloth and revealed a very large buffet to them all. There was roasted pig, poi, roasted, baked, fried and boiled Breadfruit, Tako poke and several other dishes that no one could remember how to pronounce. He even told everyone that everything they saw had been personally prepared by him.

"Feel free to call me Mr. Kanoa, or just Kanoa, we like to keep it pretty laid back here at Slifer Red!"

With that, everyone cheered in excitement as they began to get up from their tables to go towards the buffet to grab their own food from the feast. Before long, Nick and Barclay both decided to go dig in themselves as the lines started to die down with most of the Slifers already having their plates.

They walked over to find the biggest person that they ever saw, standing nearly over six feet above them, making them feel like bugs compared to him. Though the man's attention wasn't on them, it was on the large plate he was carrying as he finished placing the last of his meal on it.

This man was extremely tall, big, and clearly muscular even under the uniform. Plus, he had a very intimidating face. His black hair had a clean cut with bushy eyebrows, a huge nose, and thick full lips. He wore the red jacket unbuttoned, it didn't look like he could've buttoned it if he wanted to, with straight, semi-loose black pants and white shoes. Under the jacket he wore a clean white shirt.

He was even taller than Kanoa, making everyone in the room feel even shorter than they normally would have. He glanced down and saw Barclay and Nick.

"Oh! Sorry! Am I in the way?" he asked, giving a quick bow and an apology before placing one massive hand under the platter of a plate he had and held the other one out to the two. "I'm Takashi Matsumoto, it's nice to meet you."

Although the two found themselves in awe of the giant in front of them, Nick couldn't help but smile and extending his hand towards the giant to shake.

"Nick Brood, pleasure to make your acquaintance. The stalking guy behind me is Barclay."

"Bon Clay?" Takashi repeated, twisting his face in confusion at the name he just said.

"Bar-clay." the guy in question repeated with a pained smirk on his face.

"Oh! Sorry!" Takashi said with an embarrassed smile before giving yet another bow. "I'm not too good with foreign names."

"It's no problem." Barclay replied, sighing a bit and walking forward to begin grabbing some food. "Long as I've lived in Japan, no one's really gotten my name right the first time anyways."

"You from somewhere else?" Nick asked before he could stop himself, grabbing some food as well.

"The UK originally," Barclay answered absentmindedly as he stared at one of the dishes no one could remember the name of. "Parents got a job in Japan so we moved. Half my life's been spent in the Land of the Rising Sun."

"Wow, interesting. I'm from the U.S, specifically around the west-side." Nick added as he grabbed one of the plastic cups of fruit punch that Kanoa brought in.

"It's incredible that you two come from different lands, I've practically lived most of my life in Japan." Takashi remarked as he and the other two finished getting their food and went towards one of the tables to eat. The three sat in neutral silence as the only sounds heard were that of the utensils hitting the plate to grab food.

Not being one who enjoys silence, Nick decided to break the ice.

"Look Bar, I know the two of us didn't get off to such a hot start, but what do you say we bury the hatchet and start fresh? Really try and make the best of things and become friends?"

His offer followed with his hand extending to shake.

"You're pretty hell bent on being friends..." Barclay muttered, looking at his roommate's smile for a bit before sighing and giving his answer. "Sure, why not? We're roommates, might as well get along."

He shook the offered hand, leaving the two to give one another a smile, feeling like it was the start of a wonderful friendship. However, the mood soon turned when a third, and very large hand, covered both of theirs. The two looked at Takashi, a little shocked, more from the sheer size of his hand than anything else.

"Oh! Sorry!" Takashi remarked with a shocked tone, taking his hand back and rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "I was just so moved by that display that I wanted to be friends with you both as well!"

Both of the teens looked at one another, raising an eyebrow to each other before turning back to the large student in front of them.

"Yeah! Let's all be friends!" Nick remarked with a wide grin on his face. Barclay simply sighed and gave a nod, turning his attention back to his meal as he finished.

After a complete hour of talking, the Trio began to notice that some of the other students were getting ready to head back to their rooms. This caused Nick to look up from his Deck that he was seeing, looking to find that it was getting late.

As Barclay yawned and scratched his head in a lazy manner, he stood up and declared that he was going to bed, but was stopped when something grabbed his jacket.

"Hold on there, don't tell me you already forgot?" The red-haired teen questioned, causing the brown-haired teen to simply look over his shoulder with a dazed expression on his face.

"Our Duel dude! You said it before, so how about before we end the night, you vs me!"

Right as he said that, Barclay's expression changed from dazed to focused, almost completely erasing any sign of laziness from his face.

As soon as Nick said that, everyone stopped their talks and eating to turn towards the trio's table, especially the Head of the Dorm, who raised his sunglasses and smiled.

"Alright folks, we got ourselves a Duel!"

With that, everyone cheered in excitement, all of them looking forward to seeing just what kind of battle the duo would show them.

Ray here, thank you all so much for looking at our new Fanfiction and we appreciate those that have read and reviewed. As you can tell, it is newly updated and we will be doing that for the chapters we've posted. Also be advised, the duels beforehand were done poorly and we won't really be changing it, but we have improved in the future chapters so I hope it will make it better. Once again, thank you all for your support and stay tuned for Chapter 2: The Sword-Assault Battle.