Warning: this chapter, and all chapters afterwards, have duel scenes with time skips. Writing fight scenes is hard, but card games are worse!

-Streets of Domino-

"The Duelist Radar said that someone was around here," Johann said to himself as he rode his bicycle, "but I don't see anyone…oh wait, there's someone."

Up ahead was a girl with brown hair and wearing a school uniform. She was constantly moving her head to look around, as if she were looking for something, or someone, in particular. The Duel Disk on her arm confirmed that she was a duelist. When she spotted Johann, she ran up to him and asked, "Will you please duel me?"

Johann stopped and got off his bike. He said, "Sure."

"Oh thank God!" The girl looked relieved. "Every person that I came across didn't want to duel me. I'm Tea by the way. Say, what do you think about friendship?"

"What?"

"Friendship." She annunciated. "What do you think of it?"

"Uh…it's good, I guess."

"Do you believe in the power of friendship?"

"I never really thought-."

"Will you be my friend?"

"But we just-."

"Isn't friendship the greatest thing ever?"

"Jeez, will you just shut up for a minute?!"

Tea fell silent for a moment, then, "Are you saying…you don't believe in friendship?"

"Not with the way you're preaching, no!"

"Duel me, nonbeliever!"

No wonder no one wants to duel her, Johann thought as he shuffled his deck. Both duelists activated their Duel Disks and took their dueling stances.

"Duel!"

Starter Deck vs Friendship!

"Wait, what was that?" Johann asked.

"Our deck names, duh," Tea said, "and judging by the name 'Starter Deck', you haven't even given your deck a decent name!"

"Deck names? Okay, one: who bothers to name their decks? Two: why would you name your deck 'Friendship!'?"

"One: it was in the email that Kaiba sent out a few minutes ago. Naming your deck helps to identify you as a duelist. Two: because friendship!"

"Let's just get this over with. Your move."

"With pleasure!" Tea started placing cards on the duel disk. "I play 'Rain of Mercy', granting us 1000 Life Points each. Next, I play 'Twilight Sparkle' in attack mode."

["My Little Pony" theme plays as Twilight Sparkle (1200/1000) gets summoned.]

"By playing 'Twilight Sparkle', I can summon another pony from my deck, and I choose 'Pinkie Pie'!"

[Pinkie Pie (900/1400) is summoned.]

"And I end my turn."

[Theme ends.]

Johann stared at Tea and her summoned ponies and said, "Wow."

"Not bad, huh?" Tea smirked.

"Okay, one: why play a card that gives us both Life Points? Two: why the **** do you have ponies in your deck?"

"Well, one: because I was trying to be nice. Two: because friendship! With the power of friendship, I am unstoppable!"

-A few minutes later-

"Waaaaah!" Tea wailed as she dramatically dropped to her knees. "How can my friendship deck be beaten so easily? I didn't even get to damage your Life Points directly!"

"It's simple," Johann started to explain, "you have wimpy cards. Ponies aside, no one, I repeat, no one, puts Mokey Mokey in their deck. It's like you deliberately put the worst cards found in booster packs in your deck. I'm outta here."

Johann got on his bike and pedaled away.

"I'm telling Yugi!" Tea bawled at him.

-Another street in Domino-

As he rode his bike, Johann looked at the Duelist Radar on his Duel Disk. He said, "Somehow, I'm able to look at this radar while pedaling. This is just as bad as talking on the cellphone while driving, but I don't think that anything bad-."

"Aaaaaaahhhh!"

The next thing Johann saw was a boy with spikey black hair. As the boy ran out of the way, Johann swerved and fell off his bike. As he got up, he heard the kid shout, "Watch it you jerk!"

"Yeah, bad idea." Johann said this more to himself than to the kid. When he looked at the kid, for some strange reason, he had the urge to yell "shut up" at him. He noticed that he had a Duel Disk and he asked, "Want to duel?"

"You almost ran me over and you're asking me to duel?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. My name is Mokuba, Seto's little brother."

"Kaiba has a brother?"

"Of course he does! I may not be in the tournament, but I'll show you just how great of a duelist I am!"

-A few minutes later-

"Waaaaah!" Mokuba wailed as he dramatically dropped to his knees. "I can't believe you beat me! Seto was right: I'm the worst duelist in the world!"

"Well, to be fair, those koalas did a fair bit of damage." Johann admitted. "Besides, I've already faced duelists worse than you."

"Wait, I'm not the worst duelist in the world?" Mokuba immediately cheered up as he got back on his feet. "Wait till I tell my big brother!"

With a smile on his face, Mokuba ran off. Johann turned his attention to the radar and asked himself, "Okay, where to now?"

-The park-

Yugi was sitting on a swing with a cheeseburger in his hand. After defeating several duelists, he decided to take a break and have lunch at the park. With everyone caught up in the tournament, he was sure no one would bother him here.

"Yugi!"

Just as he was about to take a bite out of his burger, he heard a familiar voice call out to him. He raised his head and saw Tea running towards his direction. Staying seated, he asked, "What is it, Tea?"

"Some friendship-hating jerk beat me at a children's card game!"

"And you're telling me this…why?"

"Yugi, tell me: is my deck wimpy?"

"Well, let me have a look at it."

Yugi set the burger on his lap while Tea took out her deck. After a minute of looking through her cards, he said, "Ah ha ha ha…heh, I hate to tell you this, but your cards suck."

"They do? Why?"

In his head, Yugi heard the voice of his Yami say, What's wrong with your deck, you ask? Let me count the ways…

Trying to ignore him, Yugi tried to be nice, "Well, take out this Mokey Mokey, for one thing…"

And get rid of those damn ponies, for Ra's sake!

"You're also going to need a few more powerful cards…"

"What about the power of friendship?" Tea asked.

Oh "ha ha ha".

"What?"

"Do I need to put more faith in the power of friendship?"

Oh gods, she's serious about this.

"Well, you can believe in the Heart of the Cards, but it can only take you so far…"

Just then, there was a beep from both their Duel Disks. They both checked the radars on them.

"Yugi!" Tea exclaimed. "A duelist is coming this way!"

"Yeah, Tea, I can see that." Yugi said with sarcasm in his voice.

They both looked up when they heard footsteps approach them. Walking towards them was a teen with short red hair. Tea pointed at him and said, "He's the one who beat me!"

The boy looked at Yugi and said, "I recognize that crazy hair. You're Yugi, the King of Games, aren't you?"

"Okay," Yugi started, "I know what you want, but I just got here with a cheeseburger. Can you at least wait until I finish eating before we duel?"

"Alright."

-One cheeseburger (with introductions) later-

Johann was both excited and nervous to be dueling Yugi. To think he would be dueling against the King of Games himself! He could barely contain himself.

"Oh boy," Johann said as he got into his dueling stance, "I can't believe I'm actually dueling Yugi."

"Kick his ass for me, Yugi!" Tea cheered from the sidelines.

"You ready to do this, Johann?" Yugi asked.

"Duel!"

Starter Deck vs Baby Panda

"Don't know what's with the 'Baby Panda', but okay." Johann shrugged. "I'll start this off by summoning 'Baron of the Fiend Sword' in attack mode."

[Baron (1550/800) is summoned.]

"Well, I'll just place this monster face down, then." Yugi said.

"And I'll attack it."

[Monster is revealed to be Mystical Elf (800/2000). Johann loses 450 LP.]

"Dang it." Johann muttered.

"Gets them every time." Yugi smirked. "I'm going to win the duel at this rate."

-A few minutes later-

"Waaaaah!" Yugi wailed as he dramatically dropped to his knees. "I thought I had you!"

"No!" Tea exclaimed. "How could Yugi lose?"

"I won," Johann said, "but I thought your deck was a lot better than this?"

Yugi dropped the overdramatic act and stood up. He explained, "Well, truth be told, I was using a weaker deck on purpose. Seriously, if I had my good deck, I would have wiped the floor with your butt. Still, even with this deck, you're the only one who has beaten me so far, and that goes to show how wimpy the other players are."

"Hey!" Tea snapped.

"Okay," Johann started, "with you having said that, I feel cheated out of my victory now. Next time we meet, use your good deck."

"You sure about that?"

"It won't feel right unless I beat you at your full strength."

"Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you."

Hearing these parting words, Johann walked over to his bike, which he left leaning against a lamp pole, and pedaled off. Tea turned to Yugi and asked, "Say, Yugi, why are you using a weaker deck?"

"It's all part of my strategy, Tea." Yugi explained. "I want to raise these rookies' hopes up before I absolutely obliterate them in the finals."

"Yugi, that sounds evil. Is that really your strategy?"

"Well, it's the Pharaoh's, actually. After all, since I'm the main character, we can't let some nobodies win the tournament, can we?"

Tune in for the next chapter.

Mokey Mokey (300/100) really is a worthless card, but it would make a good coaster for my drink.

"Hey big brother," Mokuba called out as he entered Kaiba's office, "guess what: I'm not the worst duelist in the world anymore!"

Without looking away from his computer, Kaiba said with doubt, "Really."

"Yeah! You see, I can be a good duelist after-."

"Shut up, Mokuba, I'm busy trying to find the jerk who made that lame 'pregnant Jupiter' comparison to my ego in the last chapter."