Chapter One
Isabel had been reading in the corner when she was suddenly interrupted by the flurry of motion that had entered the room. She looked up to her see her brothers Jake and Alan shouting excitedly but she couldn't make heads or tails of what it was they were shouting about.
Their father held up his hands, and said in his deep slow voice "Calm down boys." He waited a moment for them to catch their breath and for the echoes of their shouts to fade from the air around them. "Now what is it that's got you so riled up?"
Both boys attempted to be the one to depart the news but Jake got the words out first and therefore won the honor of the telling. "A stranger has been spotted on the road, a traveler! He is traveling on foot and will probably be here sometime tomorrow."
Isabel's family lived in a small rural village. They had enough technology to keep them connected to the outside world but visitors were still rare and therefore special. She went back to reading her book but she couldn't seem to concentrate on it. Her mind kept wandering to the stranger on the road. She wondered what he would be like and why he was traveling.
The last traveler to come through had come into town on a motorcycle and headed straight for the local bar. Everyone had been afraid he would be the type to cause trouble and he did get stupidly drunk but, thankfully, he moved on early the next day.
The last visitor before him however and been an elderly woman making her way south to visit her granddaughter. She has stayed a few days and shared some stories with the children. That was how Isabel had found out the woman had once been a duelist. Several of the boys in town had decks and her brothers even shared one of the few coveted duel disks in the village but Isabel had never before heard of a woman duelist.
After that encounter she had paid more attention to her brothers' duels. She picked up on the rules with a speed that would have impressed anyone who had been paying attention but no one was. Isabel even began to collect cards and build a deck but she did it all on the sly. She was afraid of what would happen if others found out that she dreamed of being a duelist. So she studied the rules and history of the game in secret.
"Isabel!" Her mother's voice interrupted Isabel's private musings. She looked up to see her mother standing over her. "Why are reading in a corner? Anyway I came to ask if you wanted to help me prepare something special for the traveler tomorrow. A traveler on foot is bound to be hungry." Isabel nodded; she loved helping her mother cook. She firmly believed that her mother was the best cook in the village and she was proud to have the honor of learning from her though she sometimes wondered if her mother would be ashamed of a daughter who dueled.
As the sun began to set Judai set up his little camp. He had been living as a nomad for about two years now. He had traveled to large cities, tiny towns, abandoned ruins and crowded museums. When he had first entered Duel Academy he had believed that he was there to improve his skills in the most prestigious and respected card game in the world. However he had been forced to learn rather quickly that Duel Monsters was far more than just a card game. When Pegasus created Duel Monsters he reforged the link between this world and a world beyond and that link was causing the magic to leak and the rules of both worlds to change.
At first Judai had spent his travels searching for the secrets of the past, learning the history of both his world and the other world and trying to understand how they were connected so that he could break the connection and stop the strange terrors of the Shadow Games and other side effects of the link.
He had actually discovered several ways rather quickly. The link had been forged and broken and reforged many times throughout history and each time it brought with it great terrors that would have meant the end of both worlds if not for luck and the right warrior duelists at the right time. Eventually it had occurred to Judai that maybe he was going about this in the wrong way. True, he could break the link now and his world would go back to the way it had been before and Duel Monsters would be nothing more than a complicated card game but how long would it be before the link was remade once again? If history was anything to go by the link would be recreated and who knew what form it would take next time? What if the warrior duelists of that generation failed? Wouldn't it be safer to let the two worlds merge?
Already the link had begun creating warrior duelists of increasing power. Judai was proof of that. His skill was equal to that of the last lead warrior Yugi Moto and only slightly less than that of the Pharaoh Atem, but the duel magic he possessed was more powerful than even the great Pharaoh's. He could see the duel spirits and he had even fused with one of them. That there were others who could also see the duel spirits was proof that the magic that held the two worlds together was doing its best to aid in the transition even as it tore holes in the fabric of their reality. Maybe the two worlds were meant to become one but Judai had inherited a legacy, a duty that stretched back for millennia and all the others before him and chosen to break the link. Was he really going to be the one to change thousands of years of tradition?
His mind had been stuck in indecision, a situation it had hardly ever experienced before and Yubel was as confused as he was and therefore of little help. Finally he had decided that there was only one other person who had a hope of understanding his dilemma and he had set off to find this person. There were faster ways to reach him than this wandering nomadic pace but Judai was willing to take his time. There was still much to discover about the changing nature of duels. He smiled as he thought of the town up ahead maybe there would be some young duelists there.
Judai was never alone. Always Yubel was with him, Winged Kuriboh was never far away, he had Pharaoh to snuggle with on cold nights and Banner was a wealth of obscure knowledge but while they were all great company Judai sometimes still felt very lonely. He tried not to let Yubel know. It hurt Yubel's feelings to know that he was lonely but he could never keep anything from her. She was his partner, his aibou, their souls were fused together and he loved her but she could not provide him with everything.
What Judai missed most when he went for long stretches without seeing another human soul was the excitement and joy of the duel and he could not exactly duel Yubel or Winged Kuriboh. ( He had tried dueling Pharaoh/Banner once, it hadn't ended well.) But there was a town up ahead and if he was lucky it would contain a couple of young duelists. Judai had found that he preferred dueling with children, most adults lacked the passion and joy that children had, that Judai had.
He had never made a name for himself in the dueling world outside of Duel Academy but somehow his name had managed to get around anyway. Many of his classmates had gone on to be famous duelists. Zane and Cyrus had recently launched a new form of dueling known as Turbo dueling, Chazz had become one of the most highly paid professional duelists in any league and Johan and Aster had both made it to the top of some of the most elite tournaments and all of them occasionally mentioned Judai Yuki.
They never said much about him but his name had come up often enough that the reporters had made a big deal about the "hidden duelist". The result was when Judai introduced himself in a new town or city most people took the name to be a joke or an alias. At first he had spent a lot of time trying to convince people that he really was Judai Yuki but he had soon discovered that success meant being heckled by people who wanted to duel him not for the fun or the challenge but for any variety of other reasons that seemed to suck the joy out of a duel even for him.
Eventually he had simply stopped giving his name unless he was asked and ignoring anyone who accused him of being a fraud. If that was what they wished to believe so be it, it was just another reason why he preferred to duel with children. He never refused to give advice or help to children. He had even helped a few put together decks that suited their personalities. He could see now why Alexis had chosen to be a teacher. If he hadn't had such an important task to finish he might have even considered joining her, but he was his generation's chosen warrior duelist and he did not have the luxury of choosing his own destiny.
Judai's mind drifted off into sleep and dreams. Dreams of duel magic, of children, of new cards and old decks, of kuribohs and heroes and of the one person who could help him find the answers he was looking for.
Judai awoke when the heat of the morning sun reached his eyes. For a single moment he was a Slifer Slacker looking forward to a day of dueling then the weight of the world settled on his shoulders and he opened his eyes. He ate a little breakfast and fed Pharaoh. It was a good thing the cat wasn't picky, Judai rarely had much variety in his meals while he was traveling.
As soon as he was done eating Judai started packing up his little camp. He was tempted to rush, he was anxious to reach the town, but he had learned the hard way the importance of being careful with possessions when traveling with so few. So Judai packed carefully and with precision making sure everything was in its place but as soon as he was done he took off towards the town at a run. The run felt good and it filled his body with energy but he was soon forced to slow down, the town was a ways away yet. He was enjoying the sun and the excitement that comes before a new adventure when a darkness suddenly gripped his heart. He stumbled. "What was that?" Yubel asked her voice full of concern and fear for her partner.
"I don't know, it felt like a warning but I'm not sure what it was warning of."
Yubel looked at her partner, "Maybe we should choose a different route, bypass the town."
Judai thought about it for a moment. "No, Winged Kuriboh said that this was the shortest path and if anything this is a sign that we should speed up our journey." The truth was Judai was desperate for interaction with corporeal humans and Yubel knew it but Judai kept up the pretense anyway. "We're also running low on food. I was hoping to pick up so more in the town. I don't think there's another one nearby." So they continued on but at a slower pace and Judai didn't seem quite as excited as before.
Isabel went with her brothers and the other village children to the edge of town. They knew it would be about mid day before the traveler reached them but they were too excited to sit at home. It was all their parents could do to keep them from running out to meet him on the road.
To pass the time a couple of boys started a duel. Jake was dueling against Robin. Jake was a good duelist but Robin was considered the best of the boys. Isabel watched the duel from behind Jake so that she could glimpse the cards in her brother's hand. He did well in the beginning of the duel starting out with some swift attacks that cost Robin over half his life points. Isabel thought for a moment that her brother would win. Robin was sure to attack Jake's Swordsman of Landstar on his next turn, if her brother set the trap card he was holding in his hand now he would be able to activate it when Robin attacked and win the match. His early success made Jake overconfident and sloppy, he forgot about protecting his own monsters and ended his turn without setting the trap. A few turns later Robin won.
Isabel put her hand over the deck hidden beneath her skirt. Sometimes the urge to challenge one of the boys and test her skill was almost overpowering. Her favorite card was Black Cat with White Tail, which she had affectionately dubbed Blaca Whit. At moments like this she could almost imagine Blaca Whit calling out to her almost pleading (though never quite, cats don't beg) with her to duel. But Isabel never did, her secret was too precious. Instead she watched the boys and eavesdropped on her father when he helped her brothers refine their decks.
While Isabel had been replaying the duel in her mind Jake had come and seated himself down next to her. Wrapped up in her own thoughts Isabel was completely oblivious to her brother's presence until his hand sneaked over towards the covered bowl she had carried with her. Suddenly her hand shot out with lightening reflexes and she wrapped her fingers around her brother's wrist.
"Oy! Sis no need to be so rough I just wanted a bite you know to console myself for losing." Isabel stared hard into her brother's eyes without letting go of his wrist.
"Find another way of consoling yourself, this here food is for the traveler and you are not getting a bite until he has had his share understand?" Her voice and eyes were so serious that Jake, who was several inches taller than his little sister, backed down. He decided now was not the time to antagonize Isabel, not when she was staring at him just like Mom. The resemblance was almost uncanny and it sent a shiver up his spine.
"Okay, Okay, I won't touch the food you can let go now." Isabel gave him one last glare then released his wrist and moved the bowl to her other side, just to show that she wasn't really trusting him. On the outside she looked haughty and threatening, but it was just for show. On the inside she was beaming, she loved exercising this kind of power over her brothers. She may be small but she had the spirit to make up for it.
The contest of wills between the siblings ended when Clara started shouting. "I can see him! He's wearing a duel disk and I think there's a cat with him." All the children gathered together to watch the stranger coming towards them.