The next day Zac, Samual and Ammonia met in the local park. It was a beautiful sunny day, birds singing and young families nearby having fun. Each of them brought their cards to discuss strategy and play some practice games. Samual had a tin full of approximately one-hundred cards, Ammonia had one-hundred-and-fifty and Zac was somewhere in-between them. They played some table-top duels on a picnic table with their ready-made decks. Zac got smashed by Samual and had almost beaten Ammonia were it not for her 'Celestial Surge' card that turned the tables of their battle in her favour, just in time.

Samual and Ammonia's battle was also pretty close, but Ammonia ended up winning in the end. Afterwards they went through the forbidden list of cards in the rule book and had to re-arrange their decks and change their strategies. Zac got a few wins after that.

Ammonia suffered the most - her cards were so good that a lot of them were on the forbidden and limited lists. Meaning she had to cut down and trade in, her deck became unfamiliar to her and she lost confidence. This caused her to lose a few battles, but she soon picked up and started winning again.

Zac only had to change a few cards in his deck, but they were good cards. Zac needed a good effect monster to replace his 'Magical Detonation Bug' and strong spell cards to replace the ones on the forbidden list. He ended up replacing it with the new weak effect monster he got in the booster pack the other day, a level-one monster called 'Blunder'.

Zac got a text from Kurisu telling him to bring Samual and Ammonia with him when he went back.

"It must be about the tournament." Zac said.

"We should go then." Ammonia replied, combing a strand of gold-blonde hair behind her ear. The redheaded Samual nodded.

It didn't take long for them to walk back to Zac's house together. When they arrived Zac found he was right: set up on the dining room table was three new duel disk systems.

"Wow!" Samual was amazed and ran over to pick one up. Zac knew Samual wasn't used to new things. Sliding it on his arm he inserted his deck and thumbed the switch but the disk wouldn't open. He frowned "Huh?"

Kurisu walked into view "It's probably not working because you just put your deck in your graveyard slot."

"Oh," Samual replied, a little embarrassed.

"It will take some getting use to." Kurisu explained with his finger in the air. "After you've read the rules you will have qualified for the tournament which will begin in less than one week. Even after the tournament you can still keep the disks for any future games you will be playing."

"We can keep them?" Ammonia asked. "Thanks, Kurisu."

Kurisu just nodded curtly. Samual was silent but then ran up and hugged him. Kurisu shrieked and tried to pull away. Zac laughed, he knew Kurisu wasn't good with physical displays of affection to anyone but him. Samual released him and he looked like he was going to faint.

"You kids...have fun. I'm...going to have a...bath." Kurisu limped away to the bathroom and his decontamination equipment.

"Wow, Kurisu really doesn't like it when people touch him." Ammonia noted.

"Especially children." Zac added.

Samual turned around to face his two friends and looked full of energy "We have a week until the competition starts! I say we head into town and look around to verse someone in a practice match!"

"There will be tonnes of kids in town where the card shops are." Ammonia agreed. "We're bound to find some other kids there with duel disk systems."

Zac smiled "Sure."

He wasn't sure though. His friends Ammonia and Samual were amazing duelists. Zac didn't know anyone who went to their school that could compare to them. He on the other hand...

"Let's go!" Samual yelled and hurried to the door.

Ammonia followed and Zac shouted "Yeah!" hurrying along after them. They walked together until they reached town, their new duel disks secured to their arms with their decks inside. Zac didn't know much about the high-tech devices they carried. He also had no idea how they worked. All he knew was they wirelessly synced in with the closest opened duel disk and created holographic images based on a tiny information chip inside each card.

Zac had of course seen other people play duels with a duel disk, but he had never played with a projector before. The three walked to the centre of a large square walkway that was surrounded by many different card, game and toy stores.

"Okay," Samual began, "I say we each go our separate ways from here. We'll duel and then meet back here after we all win. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Ammonia said. "I can't wait to test my deck against some other contenders." Ammonia had that look in her eye she got when she was looking forward to an opponent's vicious defeat. Samual was just as eager and didn't notice.

"Wait? We're splitting up?" Zac asked, frightened.

"Don't be so scared, Zac." Samual said.

"I'm sure you'll do fine." Ammonia added.

Zac looked down at his toes "You can't know that..." he mumbled.

Samual sighed "You're stronger than you know, Zac." he said kindly.

Ammonia nodded "If you can't verse someone now, how will you possibly duel in a tournament?"

Zac looked up.

"You're right. Thanks guys."

"Well meet back here," Samual repeated, "then you can tell us all about the duellist you smashed." he winked and left. Ammonia smiled and left also.

Zac watched as his two best friends walked off in different directions. He turned around, filled with new confidence, and started down his own path. Not knowing where or who it would lead to.

AN: I have a general idea of where and who it will lead to. Is that a review in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?