THE INVITATION
"Looks like you're in trouble, Curtis."
Curtis Miller sat across the table from his older sister Stephanie. The two of them were playing a game of Duel Monsters; Curtis had recently gotten his sister into the game after talking about it for the last six months, coupled with an incident involving Curtis having his body taken over by the spirit of an ancient Egyptian priest. Ignoring that short incident, Stephanie had started taking an interest in the game, so with Curtis's help, she had bought her first deck one week ago – she was using a Paleozoic Frogs deck, which specialized in special summoning and using Trap Cards in place of monsters.
At the moment, the only monster Curtis had on the field was his Synchro monster, The Legendary Six Samurai – Shi En, a Level Four monster with 2500 Attack Points and the ability to negate and destroy any Spell or Trap Card that would be activated. He had one card face down, the Trap Card Call of the Haunted, and in his hand he held two Spell Cards, Dark Hole – which wiped the field of all monsters – and Monster Reincarnation – which added one monster from the Graveyard to the player's hand. As for Stephanie, she had an XYZ monster, Toadally Awesome – a name which they both agreed was incredibly stupid – a Rank Two monster with 2200 Attack Points and the ability to both special summon a Toad monster and destroy any activated Spell or Trap Card by detaching one XYZ material monster. Curtis was sitting at 1100 Life Points while Stephanie was sitting at 1800.
"Oh, I'm in trouble?" Curtis repeated.
"All I have to do is get rid of your Samurai and the game is mine," Stephanie answered.
Curtis grinned. "See, that would work, if I didn't have this." He played his Spell Card from his hand. "Dark Hole. It destroys all monsters on the field."
"But that means you lose your Samurai, too," Stephanie pointed out as she moved her frog to the Graveyard.
"True," Curtis agreed as he put Shi En in the Graveyard along with Dark Hole. "But that's why I put this down earlier." He revealed his face down Trap. "Call of the Haunted to bring back one monster, and I'm bringing back Shi En." He put Shi En back on the field. "I will attack and that is game."
"That's three games in a row," Stephanie complained as the two of them cleaned up their cards.
"You're still starting out," Curtis said. "You'll get the hang of it. Even Seto Kaiba didn't learn how to play the game overnight."
"You seemed to."
"If you're referring to…that…I only won because Yugi, Joey, and Seto loaned me their strongest cards."
"But it's been six months. You've gotten a lot better."
The door opened as their mother stepped through the door, a wad of mail in her hands. "Hey Curtis, you got something."
Curtis got up from the table and took the envelope from his mother. It was a white envelope with two capital I's for the return address. Beneath those two I's were the words "Industrial Illusions."
"Industrial Illusions," Curtis read. "That's the company that makes the Duel Monsters card game." He ripped the envelope open. Inside was a small card. He opened the card.
The message looked like it had been written by a woman, save for the small fact that it was signed with a man's name – Maximillian Pegasus. Pegasus, from what he had been told, was the man who created the card game after a trip to Egypt; as Curtis had learned practically first hand, the card game was based off of the ancient Shadow Games played during the time of the Pharaohs.
Curtis read the message in the card.
"What is it?" his mother asked; she and Stephanie had joined him, reading over his shoulder.
"It looks like an invitation," Curtis guessed. "Let's see…." He looked at the message again before reading it out loud.
" 'Duelist, you are cordially invited to participate in the Duel Monsters Rose Tournament held at Madison Square Garden in New York City from December 15 to December 17. Bring all your skills, because the best duelists in the world will be here, competing for the title of Duelist of the Roses'."
"A tournament for a card game?" Stephanie asked. "I mean, the game can be fun, but people really show up just to watch people play cards?"
"They do it all the time with poker," Curtis answered as he put the invitation on the table. "Sounds like I've got a week to prepare for this tournament."
"Won't that tie into your school time?" his mother asked.
"I can afford to miss a couple days, Mom," Curtis replied. "I wonder if Yugi and Joey got the same invite?"
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"You got an invite too, huh?" Joey Wheeler asked as he held the invitation in his hand, nestled between his index and middle fingers. "Got mine last night. Guess that white hair pretty boy was impressed with my performance at Duelist Kingdom."
"You've certainly come a long way since then, Joey," Yugi Moto said; he, too, was holding an invitation, though he was in the middle of putting it in his pocket. "Pegasus must see that too."
"If you're talking about the duel between the two of you, then I can't say I'm surprised," Tea Gardner put in. "You two gave it your all then."
"Given what was on the line, are you really surprised?" Tristan Taylor asked.
Curtis sat down on the bench; the five friends had convened at the small park just outside of school after class had let out. As he had expected, both Joey and Yugi had gotten an invitation, and he was sure that Seto Kaiba had gotten one as well, and there had been a lot of talk about the previous tournament Maximillian Pegasus held at his personal island, called the Duelist Kingdom. Joey and Yugi said that Pegasus was a different person back then, thanks to the influence of the Millennium Eye, which also, according to Yugi, allowed him to peer into his opponents' mind and see what their strategies would be.
And after what happened six months ago, that incident with the ancient Egyptian priest Heishin, Curtis was willing to believe them.
"I'll be honest, Curt," Joey said, "I'm surprised you got an invite. You're still just a newb."
"So were you once, and you participated in that Duelist Kingdom tournament," Curtis corrected him.
"Technically, Joey was never invited to that one," Tristan said. "He entered illegitimately."
"How about I come over there and illegitimately rearrange your face, Tristan!" Joey yelled. "Besides, I was still able to help my sister get that operation, wasn't I?"
"Only because of Yugi," Tea answered. "But you're right; you entering that tournament did help Serenity."
Curtis had met Joey's younger sister a few times in the last couple of months. She was only a couple of years younger than them, and he would be lying to himself if he said he didn't think she was absolutely adorable.
"So when's this tournament?" Tristan asked.
"In one week," Yugi answered. "I already booked my plane ticket."
"Same," Curtis put in. "Well, my mom did. She's coming along, and so is Stephanie."
"How's she doing with her dueling skills, anyway?" Joey asked.
"Still learning, but she's coming along," Curtis answered. "By the way, Joey, did you get your plane ticket yet?"
"Yeah, I'm all over it."
"Okay. But you may want to bring a jacket," Curtis said. "This time of year, New York's pretty cold."
"How bad can it be?" Joey asked with a dismissive wave of the hand.
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Jefferson held the invitation in his hand. Finally, a chance to get close to Pegasus, a chance to avenge his father. Of course, he still had to wait a week, and then there was the snow – according to the forecast, another bad snowstorm was due to hit just after the tournament began – but none of that mattered.
He checked his deck again to make sure everything was set. It had taken him months to set up this deck; he was running a Dark Abyss deck, which he was sure would be more than a match for Pegasus's Toon deck.
Prepare yourself, Pegasus. I'm coming for you.
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Curtis flipped through his deck. Over the past few months, he added some new cards to his Six Samurai deck, including two Bujin cards – the Beast-Warrior Bujin Yamato and the Beast Bujingi Turtle, who he would use to XYZ summon his new XYZ monster, the Rank Four Beast-Warrior Bujintei Susanowo – as well as the Trap Cards Mind Drain, Reinforcements, Quaking Mirror Force, and Half or Nothing, along with a Synchro monster called Lightning Warrior and another XYZ monster called Number 51: Finisher the Strong Arm. Along with those, he had made himself a fifteen card side deck, which consisted mostly of Spell and Trap cards, with only one monster, Tenkabito Shien. He was still nowhere on the level of Seto Kaiba, Yugi, or even Joey, but those new cards, coupled with how his skills had been improving, helped build his confidence. He also removed two copies of Shien's Squire, since he only needed one to Synchro Summon The Legendary Six Samurai – Shi En, as well as the Trap Card The Emperor's Holiday and the Spell Cards Different Dimension Reincarnation, Dimensional Fissure, and Creature Swap.
So Curtis's deck was now at the maximum sixty cards with a two card Extra Deck. He hoped it would be enough; he recently learned about Pendulum Summoning and he knew that Industrial Illusions was going to announce a new summoning technique called Link Summoning sometime in the summer. Chances were, he wouldn't make it very far; he'd consider himself lucky if he got past the first round. But he had his friends backing him up, and he had his newfound belief in the Heart of the Cards.
Like Joey said, how bad could it be?