Two students at Duel Academy were dueling against each other. One of them was a top-ranking Obelisk Blue student, in his third year. The other was a new student in Slifer Red, the lowest rank.
"I fuse my VW Tiger Catapult with XYZ Dragon Cannon in order to summon V-Z Dragon Catapult Cannon!" said the Obelisk Blue student. "I use its special ability to remove your face down monster from the game. Now that you're defenseless, I will attack your life points directly!"
Kokoro, who had been accepted into the Obelisk Blue dorm, happened to walk in on the end of this duel. She watched as the Slifer Red student lost the remainder of his life points.
"You'll never beat me, Slifer slime, no matter how hard you try!" boasted the Obelisk Blue student.
"Why are you so mean to the Slifer students?" ask Kokoro.
"Because they don't belong here," answered the Obelisk student. "They don't even know how to build a proper deck."
As if you do, thought Kokoro silently. V-Z Dragon Catapult Cannon is extremely overrated. If only it had an effect that said, "If you summon this card, you win automatically." But even then it would be worse than Exodia.
Kokoro didn't dare say that out loud. Instead she said, "Well, this is a school. The point of a school is to learn."
"In that case, why am I here?" asked the arrogant Obelisk Blue student.
"Now you've gone too far," said Kokoro angrily. "We all have new things to learn, and I'm about to prove it. Let's duel!"
Kokoro was the only person present who could see the spirit hovering next to her opponent's deck. It looked like a heart-shaped torso with arms and legs sticking out, and a sinister face in the middle. Kokoro glared at the spirit and blew it away with a blast of energy.
One duel later...
"I can't believe my rotten luck!" complained the boy from Obelisk Blue. "I didn't get to summon a single fusion monster!"
"Your luck was fine," said Kokoro, refraining from pointing out that it was his previous luck that was way too good.
"Are you saying that I ran out of skill?" asked the boy angrily.
"Well, no, but..." Kokoro started, but she was running out of polite explanations. That actually is what I mean, she thought, but how am I supposed to tell him that?
The next day, Kokoro crossed paths with Jaen Yuki of Slifer Red. Jaden had heard of the new rising star above all the other Obelisk Blues, and he was itching for the chance to duel her. Likewise, Kokoro had heard of Jaden's impressive records, and she was curious to see what he was capable of.
As Kokoro and Jaden shuffled their decks, Kokoro saw the usual spirit preparing to meddle with their decks. Before she could blow it away, however, Jaden said something that distracted her.
"Is this a new duel spirit?" he asked.
"You can see it?" asked Kokoro.
"Can you?" replied Jaden.
Kokoro regained her focus and zapped the spirit away from Jaden's deck, but she feared that she may have been too late.
"What did you do that for?" asked Jaden.
"Not all spirits are friendly," said Kokoro.
"I know that," said Jaden. "I once fought against the spirit of Jinzo, who was trying to steal three human souls in order to set himself free of his own card."
"That spirit was way more evil than Jinzo," said Kokoro. "And he was meddling with your deck. You should double-check your cards."
Jaden looked at his deck and scanned through his cards. "You think maybe he inserted himself into my deck? I don't see him anywhere in here."
"This isn't the spirit of any card in particular," said Kokoro. "He has a different way of manipulating people."
"Hey, sweet!" said Jaden. "Look at the top five cards I would have drawn. Two Polymerizations and Elemental Heroes Avian, Burstinatrix and Sparkman. I could have summoned Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman on my first turn!"
"Sorry, but now that you've seen the order of your cards, you need to reshuffle," said Kokoro.
"I know," said Jaden. "Talk about bad luck stemming from good luck!"
Kokoro made sure to keep up her spirit barrier to keep the cheating spirit at bay.
"Let's duel," said Kokoro.
"Get your game on!" said Jaden.
Jaden was experiencing similar frustration to Kokoro's previous opponent concerning fusion monsters. Kokoro was feeling similar disappointment concerning he opponents' dependency on luck.
"I summon Neo-Spacian Grand Mole in attack mode!" said Jaden during the late stages of the duel. "I then end my turn."
Kokoro had never seen that card before, but she was doubtful of its strength. She pressed a button on her duel disk to get a closer look at the card. As she read it, her eyes widened.
Neo-Spacian Grand Mole
Rock/Earth/LV 3/900 ATK/300 DEF
At the start of the Damage Step, if this card battles an opponent's monster: You can return both monsters to the hand (without damage calculation).
"Wow, Jaden, that card is amazing!" said Kokoro honestly. It's basically the diamond in the rough among his other cards, she added silently.
"I can't say it's very amazing in this situation," said Jaden. "Normally I would attack your strongest monster without fear, but since all your monsters are warriors, and two of them are Marauding Captain, I can't attack at all."
Kokoro drew a card and added it to her hand. She then played a different card from her hand.
"I summon Exiled Force," she said, "then sacrifice it to destroy your Grand Mole. Then I attack you directly with each of my monsters."
"Good game," said Jaden after his life points hit zero.
"Good game," repeated Kokoro politely, despite her disappointment in Jaden's poor deck.
Later that night...
"Good evening, Agent Heart Breaker," said a voice from Kokoro's secure communicator.
Why did I ever agree to that name? thought Kokoro. It pertains to my mission, but I don't like it.
"Please report the status of your mission," said the voice.
"Not good, Major," said Kokoro. "This whole school is choked with deck-stacking demons."
"That's why you're there," said the Major. "Nobody is better than you at exorcising those demons."
"Unfortunately, that's the only easy part," said Kokoro. "How am I supposed to tell these people that their deck structures are too fragile, and they need to build stronger decks from scratch?"
"Your modesty is one of your most admirable traits," said the Major. "But we are at war against the most evil demon who ever existed."
"Maybe I'm not the right agent for the job," said Kokoro.
"On the contrary, you're the only agent capable of this mission," said the Major. "We've encountered this demon lord before, but we could never defeat him. But ever since we recruited you, he's become next to impossible to find. What does that tell you?"
"He's afraid of me," said Kokoro.
"Exactly," said the Major. "He the world's most evil demon, and you're the only person he's ever feared, because you're the only person who can defeat him. But you can only so so if you stop fearing yourself.
"But this isn't why I called you," continued the Major. "I called to tell you that we have secured tickets for you to attend the dueling arena to see Yugi Muto, the King of Games, duel against Datcher Seaforth, the challenger for the title."
"Do you think watching this duel will lead us to the demon lord we're after?" asked Kokoro.
"It's a small lead, but that's better than nothing," said the Major. "You will be briefed on the ride to the dueling arena."
