Path of a Duelist


Duel 2: He who will be king


"Have you ever heard of Duel Academy Takuya?"

"Is that, that place where they teach you how to play Duel Monsters?"

"Kind of...It's this Island, where people who play duel monsters go to improve their skills. Most people go because they want a pro career and graduating duel academy looks good on any application"

"That sounds so cool!"

"Hahaha, Yeah I know right? Well the thing is...I'm going to be going away for a while..."

"Wh-why, where?"

"Next Monday, I'm going to be going to Duel Academy by boat and I won't be back until Christmas"

"Oh...okay"

"Don't worry Takuya, I'll right to you and mom often and I'll be back before you know it"

"Okay, and when you do, we'll duel again...and I'll win, I swear it!"

"Hahaha, Okay Takuya, we'll duel. I promise"

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"Takuya! Are you ready or what!? Get down here!" roared Miyazaki Toshiro "At this rate you'll miss the boat!"

"I'm coming Grandpa" replied Takuya running down the stairs, nearly crashing into his grandfather.

Toshiro smiled up at his grandson, who stood about a few inches above him. He placed a muscled hand on Takuya's shoulder "Now don't you worry about a thing, I'll take care of your mother while you're gone, you just focus on being the best duelist you can be, okay?"

"Thanks old man" Takuya smiled and patted his grandfather on his bald head "Don't get into any trouble while I'm gone, okay?

The old man's eyes lit up warmly "Now get out of my house"


At the harbour a teenage girl was standing watching as many of the new Duel Academy students piled onto the large cruise liner emblazoned with both the Kaiba Corp. and Duel academy logos. She was wearing a duel academy uniform, consisting of a short sleeved blue coat with white trim, blue miniskirt and blue boots with a white trim. An academy duel disk, grey with a blue trim, adorned her left arm. Her unusually pink hair whipped about her face in the bitter coastal wind as she hugged herself for warmth, her startlingly blue eyes watered in the cold air.

"Miho" came a cry from behind her.

"Chi-" was all she could get out as Chiba through his arms around her, nearly knocking her over as he put all his weight on her.

"Miho, carry me! I'm too tired to walk anymore" Chiba whined.

"Get off me!" Miho yelled punching her friend, knocking him to the ground.

"He's been like this all the way over here" sighed Kamui stepping over the fallen Chiba.

"I can imagine" Miho replied smiling.

Kamui arched an eyebrow "You must be freezing in that" he pulled off his trench coat and placed it over her shoulders, he fixed the long sleeves of the shirt wore under it before returning his attention to Miho.

"Thanks" she said "I swear these uniforms most of been designed by some creepy pervert in some basement somewhere"

"Yeah, they were probably made by some asshole with a schoolgirl fetish"

"I dunno, I quite like 'em" Chiba said placing his arm around Kamui's shoulder.

"Look who's recovered" Kamui sighed face palming.

"Sometimes Chiba..." Miho said walking off.

"She mad?" Chiba asked

"Remove your arm from my shoulder before I break it"


"Ichigo!" came a call from a girl on the other side of the deck.

The white haired boy switched his attention from the sea to the girl running towards him. By most standards she was incredibly beautiful, she had long flowing but oddly crimson hair, emerald green eyes, and full lips. She was dressed in a mostly white obelisk blue girls uniform, which fit her perfectly, and she had a warm smile spread across her face.

If he didn't know her as well as he did, he might've fallen in love with her at first sight like most men "Yui, how've you been?"

"Good" the second ranked duelist said hugging her friend "It's been simply too long"

"Have you seen Jin?" Ichigo asked "I wanted to talk to him about one of the new students"

"Why are bothering with first years Ichigo, they're not worth out time" Yui replied frowning "I'd be surprised if they could even activate a duel disk, let alone actually put up a good fight"

Ichigo sighed "We were first years last year, remember?"

"And even then, I never cared much for first years" She replied.

Ichigo shook his head "A duelist is a duelist, doesn't matter what year he's in"

"Whatever" she replied "I saw Jin earlier; he said he was going to stay in his room until we reach the island"

"Alright thanks"

"Eh I wouldn't go if I were you, there's a giant crowd gathered outside, looking to duel him"


"And Silent Swordsman LV 7 (A: 2800) will now attack you directly!" shouted a blonde-haired duelist , his brown eyes glinted fiercely as his monster, a blonde haired man with a blue trench coat holding a large broadsword leaped forward and sliced his opponent a rather meek looking boy (LP: 2000)

"Awh man" his opponent said as his LP dropped to zero (LP: 0)

"Heh, is that all duel academy has to offer!" the blone haired boy laughed "No one here could ever beat me!"

He scanned the crowd that had gathered around the duel field, set up by the academy so that those who wanted a duel to pass the time before arrival. "So who's next, eh? Who thinks they can take me down? How about you?"

The boy pointed towards a lone duelist with long brown hair. Takuya looked was embarrassed as the crowd turned to look at him.

"You're Miyazaki Takuya right? Your bro was in the pro leagues wasn't he?"

Takuya nodded as the crowd began to murmur. He passed through the whispering crowd readying his duel disk.

"I'm Kawano Kyosuke, soon to be Kaiser of this school" the blonde haired boy said "and you're just another piece of trash in my way"

"I might as well pass time" thought Takuya standing opposite Kyosuke.


Prof. Fujikawa sighed as she scanned the screen of her laptop. Sitting across from her, an old man was doing the same, he was in his late forty-early fifties and may have been one day been considered handsome, his hair (or what was left of it) was black with grey roots and his steely eyes were focused intently on the screen, he was dressed in a blue trench coat, grey trousers and blue boots the obelisk blue uniform.

"Narukami, what do you make of all these results?" Fujikawa asked leaning back in her chair and looking at the older man.

"They are very odd" Narukami began "Compared to most years we have half the normal amount of red, half the normal amount of blues, and nearly double the normal amount of yellows"

"Very few students managed to pass the feeder schools examination, maybe we should get them to revise their course?" Fujikawa said

"Hm, yes, I'll bring it up with Principle Toriyama when we arrive" Narukami replied.

"Maybe it would be best to talk to Miyagi about it" Fujikawa said sweat dropping "He'll actually do something about it"

Narukami was silent for a few seconds "That's a very good point"


Takuya smiled as he stared out over the railing into the dark blue deep below. It had been a couple of hours since his duel with Kyosuke had ended in his victory. Since then he had been challenged by many duelists, he won a few of his duels and had also lost a few too "Man, everyone here is so strong, I can't wait to duel some more"

"I didn't expect anyone to be out here" a voice said behind him, Takuya turned to find himself face to face with a duelist dressed in all black, his black hair, which was longer than Takuya's was flowing in the wind "You're Miyazaki Takuya aren't you?"

"Yeah, and you're Nara Kamui" Takuya replied "I saw you duel, you were incredible"

"Thanks" Kamui responded walking up and leaning over the railing yourself "I saw half of your duel, you were pretty good yourself"

"Thanks, that means a lot"

"You probably get this a lot, but I was huge fan of your brothers" Kamui said "Me and this guy I know used to go to all of his matches when he was in town"

"My brother, eh" Takuya said slightly disheartened "The inevitable topic that always comes up in every conversation, this shadow is so big sometimes it feels like I'm drowning"

"But you're not your brother" Kamui said pushing himself off the railing "Not by a long shot, then again do you even want to be?"

"Huh?" Takuya was confused as Kamui activated his duel disk.

"Miyazaki Takuya, I challenge you to a duel" Kamui stared intently at the brown-haired boy

"Heh, alright" Takuya activated his own duel disk.

Both duelists shuffled their decks before slamming them into their duel disk "DUEL" they shouted in unison and then both drew five cards.

(K: 4000)(T: 4000)

"I'll take the first turn" Kamui asserted drawing a card "I'll start off strong, first I summon my Shinning Dragon (A: 1600)" a large dragon made of glowing light appeared before Kamui.

"This is what you call starting out strong, he only has 1600 atk" Takuya pointed out.

"Hm, I'm not finished" Kamui said selecting a card in his hand "I activate the effect of my Shadowed Dragon, while I control I Light attribute dragon monster I can special summon him to the field! So come on out Shadowed Dragon (A: 1800)" Kamui slammed the card into his duel disk as a large dragon made out of the darkness itself appeared beside his shinning dragon.

"Okay, that's more like it" grinned Takuya

"But I'm not done, since a Dark attribute dragon exists on the field I can activate my Shinning Dragons effect can activate, once while he is face-up on the field I can select one card in my deck and add it to my hand, and I choose foolish burial" Kamui explained as he tore his deck from its holder he quickly searched through it and pulled out the selected card "Now, I'll activate it and send My Destructive Dragon Dystopia from my deck to the graveyard"

"Destructive Dragon Dystopia? I've never heard of that card, is he going to summon it with monster reborn?"

"Relax, I don't currently have monster reborn in my hand" Kamui said as he placed his monster into the graveyard "Now I end my turn with a face-down card" Kamui said as a card appeared behind his monsters.

(K: 4000)(T: 4000)

"Alright, My turn!" Takuya declared ripping a card from his deck "Yes, I can empty his field with this hand"

"Someone's happy" quipped Kamui "He's ignoring my trap card"

"You would be too, if you had my luck" replied Takuya slamming a card into his duel disk "I activate the spell card Polymerization, I can now send the Illuminated Beast and Illuminated Knight in my hand to the graveyard to fusion summon my Illuminated Were-Beast!" Takuya said as his monsters, a white wolf with golden eyes and a golden haired knight in white armor distorted and then spun in a circle of gold and white, and then from the circle a large anthropomorphic wolf in ripped golden trousers appeared on the field. (A: 2400)

"A monster that could take down a Red-Eyes, and on your first turn no less" Kamui said unfazed

"And I'm not done, you seem to like Dragons, so I'm going to summon a dragon of my own!" Takuya said as he placed a card into his duel disk, a golden Wyvern with white markings and glowing blue eyes appeared beside his Were-Beast, it let out a roar as it stretched its powerful wings "This is my Illuminated Wyvern (A: 1800), and now I move to my battle phase!"

"Come at me, it'll only end up helping me in the long run"

"Were-Beast, destroy his Shadowed Dragon!" Takuya shouted, his monster then lurched forward scratching at the dark dragon, only to be stopped by a field of energy.

"I activated my draining shield. Your attack is negated and I gain LP equal to your monsters attack points" (K: 6400) Kamui said as his face-down flipped face-up.

"Woops, I forgot about his face-down" Takuya thought undeterred "My Wyvern will now destroy your Shinning Dragon!" Illuminated Wyvern let out a large fire ball which collided with Shinning Dragon, which exploded into a shower of pixels "Now My monsters effect activates, I gain LP equal half your monsters attack points (T: 4800)(K: 6200)

"You've still got a long way to go if you want to catch up with me in the Life point department" Kamui said calmly.

"I set two cards and end my turn" Takuya said as the two cards appeared behind his monsters.

(K: 6200)(T: 4800)

"Draw" Kamui said taking a card from his deck "Time to up the ante a bit"

"What do you mean?"

Kamui didn't answer, instead he replaced his Shadowed Dragon with another card in his hand "I sacrifice my Shadowed Dragon to summon my Deathguise Dragon!" as he said this a large black wyvern with red markings all over its body made out of some organic crystal appeared before him.

"Deathguise Dragon (A: 2400)?" Takuya asked as the monster appeared.

"Hm, he's a powerful card, unfortunately he doesn't gain his trampling effect because he wasn't summoned by tributing a light monster" Kamui stated placing another card into his duel disk "I activate the spell card Dragons Spite, by removing a dragon in my graveyard from play, provided it was destroyed by battle, I can destroy one monster on your side of the field, I choose my Shinning Dragon and your Illuminated Were-Beast"

"Oh no" Takuya said as the ghost of Shinning Dragon flew out of Kamui's graveyard and into Were-Beast, the monster grabbed it's head and shrieked in pain before exploding into a shower of pixels.

"Now, Deathguise destroy his Wyvern, show him what a true Dragon is!" Kamui shouted as black flames shot out of his monsters mouth, destroying Takuya's monster.

"Gah" Takuya grunted as he was hit by some of the black flames (T: 4200).

"I end my turn"

(K: 6400)(T: 4200)

"My turn" Takuya tore a card out of his deck, he stared at the card the only one in his hand and pressed a button on his duel disk "Light of Renewal, now I draw two cards, and at the end of the turn I must discard two cards"

"Top decking already?" Kamui mused

"Heh, I've got very little to work with" Takuya said drawing a card "Looks like I'm going to have to use this card already" Takuya said pressing another button on his duel disk "I activate the face-down Call of Illumination spell card, by paying 500LP I can add a light monster from my deck to my hand (T: 3700), I choose Illuminated Barbarian!" Takuya said adding pulling the card out of his deck "And now I'll summon him to the field in attack position"

Kamui arched an eyebrow as a man dressed in white fur armor and holding a golden bladed axe appeared (A: 2400) "So you're going to destroy both of our monsters?"

"Not quite, I activate the Equip spell Illuminated Shield, first I pay 300Lp (T: 3400) and now my monster can't be destroyed by battle" Takuya said as a white shield with a golden dragon emblazoned upon it attached itself to his Barbarians arm.

"A powerful card, any drawbacks?" Kamui asked still unfazed.

"This guy is unflappable" "Eh yeah, if my monster is equipped with another equip spell Illuminated Shield is sent to the graveyard" Takuya replied before pointing at Deathguise Dragon "I pay 500LP because of my monsters effect, now Barbarian, destroy his Dragon!" (T: 2900)

Kamui merely stared calmly as his monster was hacked to death by his opponents Barbarian.

"Next, I'll set one card face-down and end my turn, which means I've got to discard the last card in my hand due to my Light of Renewals effect" Takuya said placing the card into his graveyard, Kamui either didn't notice, or didn't care about the little smirk that appeared briefly on Takuya's face.

(K: 6200)(T: 2900)

"I've got to ask" Kamui said drawing a card "Before we continue, is it true that Katsuya disappeared?"

"What do you mean? Of course it is" Takuya replied "The media isn't covering up some big conspiracy, one day...my bro just vanished"

Kamui nodded "I know what it's like, to be stuck in someone's shadow, my father was a pro duelist too, Nara Kazuki, he was known as the Dragon King before he retired"

"I've heard of him, my bro duelled him before" Takuya nodded "His ace was Chaos Emperor Dragon"

"Yes" Kamui replied "However just because we're in the same boat doesn't mean I'm going to lose this duel, or that we'll become best friends!"

"I wouldn't have it any other way"

"Hm, time to stop holding back, I activate double summon, this allows me to summon twice this turn" Kamui said as a small black dragon with white markings upon his body appeared in front of him "I summon my Chaos Dragon (A: 200)"

"Uh oh, I think I know what's coming next"

"My Chaos Dragon can act has two tributes for the summon of a Light or Dark Dragon type!" Kamui shouted as his dragon was replaced by a white and red humanoid dragon, it had battered torn wings and a beard like appendage upon its face, it's eyes glowed an unearthly blue "Appear before me Heavenly Dragon Utopia!"(A: 3000)

"So your ace finally appears!" Takuya said grinning "I am gonna need a miracle to get out of this one"

"One of my aces" Kamui corrected "You see my Utopia works off my Dystopia and vice versa"

"You're Dystopia?"

"My Destructive Dragon Dystopia, the card I sent to the graveyard during my first turn" Kamui said as his Dragon suddenly let out a world shaking roar "When Destructive Dragon Dystopia is either on the field or in the graveyard, Utopia gains the ability to deal damage through defence!"

"If you had card rotator I'd be really screwed"

"I don't, but that doesn't matter!" Kamui shouted raising his hand to the sky "Utopia, attack his barbarian, Blinding Burst Stream!"

Utopia roared and let loose a large beam of white energy from its gaping maw. Takuya's Barbarian merely raised the shield on its arm and grunted at the attack hit it.

"Your monster may not be destroyed, but you still take damage!" Kamui pointed out as Takuya was hit by a stray beam of energy.

"Heh" (T: 2300)

"I end my turn"

(K: 6200)(T: 2300)

"It's all set up, I just need that one card and I can pull through this" Takuya said pulling a card from his deck in a slashing motion, he grinned "I activate my face-down card Monster Reborn!"

"What are you going to revive, your Were-Beast?" Kamui questioned "It won't matter, you've already lost"

"The duel hasn't been decided yet, I'm going to summon my ace card Illuminated Paladin" Takuya said as aknight dressed in white armor with gold trim and a long flowing gold cape. A long pony tail of golden blonde hair flowed out from his helmet and he had piercing blue eyes. In one hand he held aloft a white longsword with golden edges and a golden handle, in the other he held a circular gold shield with a white dragon with wings outstretched emblazoned on it (A: 2500) "Now this duel is over!"

"A bold statement for someone with less than half my life points" Kamui said matter-of-factly.

"What's the one card in Duel Monsters, which would be of use in a deck made primarily of Light monsters?" Takuya asked "It was one of the questions on the entrance exam"

"Honest, obviously" Kamui replied

"Well guess what I drew this turn" Takuya said, Kamui merely smirked in reply "Least it's kind of a response" "Go Paladin attack his dragon, Shinning Blade!"

"Heh, come at me" Kamui replied as the Paladin jumped up into the air brandishing it's blade which shone with an incredible golden light

"I discard Honest to activate it's effect, since my Monster is a light monster, it gains attack equal to the monster it's battling (A: 2500-5500)!" Takuya said placing the card into his graveyard, his monster gain shinning angelic wings as it's attack points soared.

"Hm, I activate the effect of the spirit dragon in my hand" Kamui said placing a card into his graveyard "his effect is similar to honests, but works when a dragon attacks or is attacked, and instead of that dragon gaining attacks points, the opposing monsters attack becomes zero"

"What!?" Takuya gasped as a ghostly black dragon flew out of Kamui's graveyard and into his monster, his monster was then surrounded by a black aura as his sword shattered. (A: 5500-0)

"I told you the duel was over; I just wanted to see what else you could do!" Kamui said as his dragon shot a beam of blinding light from its mouth; it engulfed Takuya's Paladin and then Takuya himself.

"Grah!" Takuya cried out as his world became light (T: 0)

(K: 6200)(T: 0)

"In the end, you were only able to inflict minor damage to me" Kamui said walking away "If you want to escape your brother's shadow, you'll have to do better than that next time"

Takuya sighed watching Kamui's retreating form "He's right, Katsuya never would have lost so easily" Takuya pushed himself up into a standing position.

"Regardless of whether or not you were able to do any significant damage, it was still an intense duel"

Takuya turned around to see a smiling boy behind him. He was wearing a duel academy uniform which was made up of a white blazer with yellow trim, grey trousers and yellow shoes. He had aqua blue hair and his eyes were a soft amber colour.

"Sorry to startle you" the boy said "I came up to get fresh air and I caught you guys in the middle of your duel, I didn't say anything because I didn't want to interrupt"

"Oh" Takuya replied "I'm Miyazaki Takuya"

"I'm Kagutsuchi Sora" Sora said offering his hand to Takuya, who took it in his and shook it "I'm a second year Ra Yellow student" Sora walked over to the railing and leaned against it looking deeply into the water "I have to say, you don't duel anything like your brother"

"Another fan?" Takuya asked joining Sora "He was always so talented; I don't think I'll ever catch up"

"You're worrying too much, there are guys like the Kaiser and that Kamui guy who start off with enormous power and there are guys like us, we start of middle of the road, not particularly good, not particularly bad" Sora said raising a finger "But as we meet more duelists we get better ourselves, one day you will beat Kamui"

"Regardless, it was still a fun duel" Takuya said smiling

"I'm glad to hear" Sora said "Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go sleep, we arrive at duel academy in like twelve hours and I need some beauty sleep"

"Night" "What a strange guy"


As Sora had said the boat arrived at duel academy twelve hours later. Takuya shouldered a bag as he disembarked, he was ushered into a large crowd with the rest of the first year students as the second and third years disappeared into the distance.

"Hello" boomed Vice-Principal Miyagi's voice through a megaphone "I am Vice-Principal Miyagi, first off I would like to welcome you to Duel Academy"

There was roar of approval from the crowd. Miyagi paused until it died to down and then continued "Behind me teachers have a list of names, boxes of equipment and such, form an orderly queue and you will get your academy issued gear and dorm assignments"

Takuya was swept along by the crowd as they rushed to form queues. IT took twenty or so minutes for Takuya to reach the top of the queue. He was met with an old man with greying black hair staring at a computer.

"Name?" Prof. Narukami asked

"Miyazaki Takuya" Takuya replied.

"Miyazaki Takuya" he scanned the list before clicking on a name, he turned around and pulled out a box from the middle of three piles of boxes behind him "Here you go, Ra Yellow, scored pretty high on the written and practical test"

"Thank you sir" Takuya said taking the box from the old man.

"Your room number is 207, there's a map application on PDA within that box" Narukami said didactically "There is an assembly on at half-five and a welcoming dinner in your dorm after that"

"Thank you sir" Takuya repeated.

"IT would be best for you to head over to your dorm, change and then drop off your luggage"

Takuya nodded.

"Oh and welcome to duel academy" Narukami said "Next!"


Next Time,

Takuya has finally made it to duel academy, and after his duel with Kamui can't wait to see what other duelists there are. Interested in discovering more about his new roommates he challenges them to a duel.

Takuya: I'm not going to lose!

?: We'll see about that