LESSON ONE

Yugi put his Spell Card in the graveyard. Curtis glanced down at his Life Point Counter – 2800 to Yugi's 4900. That last hit really did a number on him, and as far as he was aware, there was no way to bring his monsters or any of his spells and traps back from the Graveyard.

He let out a tiny growl of frustration as he picked up the top card of his deck. Yugi was a good duelist. A damn good one, too. But what was Curtis expecting? Yugi had been playing this game a lot longer than Curtis had; Curtis had only just heard about this game not two hours ago.

He looked at the card he picked up – Shien's Squire, a Level One monster with only 300 Attack Points and 700 Defense Points. That wouldn't do him much good, outside of acting like a meat shield. But that Spell Card – that might help, even a little bit.

Only one way to find out, he thought as he took the card from his hand. "I play the Spell Card Shien's Smoke Signal. It allows me to add one Level 3 or lower Six Samurai monster from my deck to my hand." He sorted through his deck, finding the first card he saw, before shuffling the deck and putting it back. "I can't do much with this monster except put it in face down Defense Position and end my turn."

"My move," Yugi said as he drew a card from his deck. "I Summon the Skilled White Magician in Attack Position." A tall man in white robes and armed with a long scepter materialized on the field. "Whenever a Spell Card is activated, I add a Spell Counter to my Skilled White Magician until he has three, at which point I can special summon Buster Blader from my hand, deck, or Graveyard. But right now, he's going to attack your defending monster." Skilled White Magician's scepter pierced the large hologram card, destroying The Six Samurai – Kamon. "And now, The Tricky is going to attack you directly." The Tricky punched Curtis again, dropping his Life Points down to 1000

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Stephanie Miller smelled like a dirty kitchen. She had just gotten off work at the local diner, and while she made a decent enough pay – even though they were only ones and fives through tips – she was happy to have even a little bit of money in her pocket. What she wasn't happy about was the smell of canola oil stuck to her clothes. It would take several runs through the laundry to wash that smell out.

She and her mother found the door unlocked when they got home. "Curtis!" her mother called. "You home?"

"Out back, Mom! I'm with my new friends."

"Did he say new friends?" Stephanie asked. "That was fast."

They stepped through the sliding glass door leading to the back porch, and nearly collapsed in shock. Stephanie couldn't help but scream, as they saw the two creatures facing Curtis, standing between him and another boy.

"Oh my god," Stephanie breathed.

"Hey, relax," the boy with the messy blonde hair said. "They ain't hurting nobody."

"Mom, Stephanie, they're not real," Curtis said. "These monsters are just holograms."

"Holograms?" his mother repeated.

"That's right," the blonde haired boy said. "You must be Curtis's mom and sister. Name's Joey Wheeler. The guy your kid's dueling? That's my best bud, Yugi Moto. Tea and Tristan – they're a couple of nobodies."

"I'll show you who's a nobody, Wheeler!" Tristan cried.

"Guys, take it easy," Tea said. "The game's continuing."

"What kind of game –" Stephanie began.

"Believe it or not, it's a card game," Curtis said as he picked a card up off his deck. "This might help a little bit. I play the permanent Spell Card Dimensional Fissure." A dark void appeared between the two of them. "Now whenever a monster is sent to the Graveyard, it gets removed from play instead."

"This is too real to be a simple card game," Curtis's mother said. "Why not play something like Solitaire?"

"Solitaire? That's a snorefest," Joey said. "Duel Monsters is much more interesting and fun."

"I set one monster in Defense Position," Curtis continued. "Your turn, Yugi."

Yugi pulled a card off his deck. "By the way, Skilled White Magician gets a Spell Counter for Dimensional Fissure," he said. "Next, I'll sacrifice The Tricky to summon the Silent Magician in Attack Position." The Tricky faded away, and in its place appeared a tall, elegant woman in white wizard's robes, wearing a wide brimmed hat and holding a short scepter. "For each card in my hand, Silent Magician gains an extra 500 Attack Points, giving her a total of 2000 Attack Points, and she attacks your facedown monster." The Silent Magician's scepter slammed down on the hologram of the card, shattering it. "And now, Skilled White Magician attacks you for game." A blast of energy from Skilled White Magician's Scepter hit Curtis, reducing his Life Points to 0.

All of the holograms faded away.

The duel was over, and Yugi was the victor.

Not that Curtis was surprised. How could someone who had just started learning how to play this game beat someone who had been playing it probably since he was a child?

"Curtis!" his mother cried as she rushed to his side. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Mom," Curtis answered. "Really, it's nothing. It's just a game. Yugi was just showing me how to play."

Stephanie took a card off the top of Curtis's deck. "I don't see what's so special about these things. They're just cards."

"To some people, these simple cards are a way of life," Tea said. "We just like to play for fun."

Curtis took the card – Shadow of the Six Samurai, Shien – back from his sister and put it into his deck. "And I'm not going to lie, that was pretty fun. Though I may need some more lessons before I'm anywhere near Yugi's level."

"Well, tomorrow's Saturday, so if you want, you can come by my grandpa's shop and we can help teach you," Yugi offered. "You know, if your mom says it's okay."

"I'm just glad Curtis is starting to make some new friends," Curtis's mother said. "So it's okay with me."

"Cool. Thanks, Mom."

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Curtis spent the next hour in his room, going through his deck. There were so many cards he didn't get a chance to use – Reckless Greed, Great Shogun Shien, The Warrior Returning Alive, Cunning of the Six, Negate Attack, Dark Hole, Shattered Axe….Yugi was such a great duelist, and yet, somehow, either through dumb luck or pity on Yugi's part, Curtis managed to put up a decent fight, taking out nearly half of Yugi's Life Points.

Maybe tomorrow he would learn a few new techniques, get some more cards to help him out, and maybe get the chance to play Yugi again, or even play Joey – he had said that Yugi taught him everything he knew, so why not learn from one of Yugi's past apprentices, right?

"Curtis! Dinner's ready!" his mother called from the kitchen.

Curtis put the deck of cards on the nightstand and hurried downstairs. The delicious smell of meatloaf and gravy met him as he reached the kitchen, making his mouth water; he hadn't realized just how hungry he had been. Then again, he didn't eat breakfast, and all he had for lunch at school was a cheeseburger and some French fries.

"That meatloaf is calling my name," he said as he grabbed a plate off the counter.

"Well, someone's in a better mood than he was this morning," his mother pointed out. "I guess meeting some new friends helped out with that."

"It's making the transition easier, that's for sure," he said as he scooped some mashed potatoes onto his plate, drenching them and the slice of meatloaf in hot brown gravy.

"What were their names again?" his mother asked as they sat down.

"The one I was playing against was Yugi Moto," Curtis answered. "The spectators were Joey Wheeler, Tea Gardner, and Tristan Taylor. They all seem like pretty cool people." He turned to Stephanie. "What about you? Anything fun happen at the diner?"

"I almost kicked an old man in the face for getting a little too – I don't even want to talk about that," Stephanie answered.

"Yeah, let's forget I even said anything," Curtis said as he took a bite of meatloaf.

"So, what were those things you were using?" his mother asked. "Those things that brought your playing cards to life?"

"Duel disks," Curtis said. "They've got these cool holographic projectors that bring the characters on the cards to life. I'll have to show you sometime."

"No thanks," Stephanie said after taking a drink of tea. "It's just a silly card game."

"It's better than doing my nails and staring at posters of Harry Potter," Curtis shot back snidely.

"You little turd!"

"Okay, kids, that's enough," their mother called, instantly stopping whatever argument was about to come up. "Look, it's our first full day here, so let's just try to relax, okay?"

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Curtis was up bright and early the next morning, sitting at the kitchen table with a bowl of Honeycomb cereal. Normally, he was incredibly tired in the mornings, barely functional until he got soda or something in him, but not today. He was so excited for today, so excited for what Yugi and his grandpa could teach him about the game.

He downed the milk in the bowl as his mother came into the kitchen. "You're up early," she said as she prepared a cup of coffee. "Oh, that's right, you're meeting your new friends today, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Curtis said. He went to the sink to wash out his bowl and spoon. "It's probably going to just be Yugi and his grandpa, though." His phone beeped; he'd put it in his pocket, just in case he had to get a hold of Yugi and vice versa. He pulled the phone out of his pocket. There was one new message.

"Was that your friend?" his mother asked.

Curtis checked the message, reading it carefully. "No. It's from someone named Seto Kaiba. I know I've heard that name before – oh yeah, Joey mentioned him yesterday."

"What does he want?"

"He wants to meet me at noon," Curtis answered. He brought up his messenger and found Yugi's number. "Better let Yugi know that I won't be staying long."

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"Say WHAT? That rich jerk Kaiba invited you?" Joey screamed.

Curtis had been surprised to see Joey at Yugi's grandpa's game shop when he arrived; he had been under the impression that it would just be him, Yugi, and Yugi's grandpa, but then there was Joey, who said he also wanted to get a few more pointers from, as he put it, "the master".

That was, until Curtis told them why he couldn't stay for more than a few hours.

"I don't know how he got my phone number," Curtis said.

"When you got your duel disk yesterday, you became a registered duelist," Yugi explained. "All your information was uploaded to the KaibaCorp databanks – birthday, phone number, social security number, pretty much everything."

"I thought this was a city, not a dictatorship."

"Don't worry," Yugi continued. "Kaiba only uses that information to track how many duel disks are in use at the moment, that's all."

"That and call someone first thing in the morning," Curtis said. "But I still don't know why he extended a personal invitation to me."

"Probably wants to brag to you about how he's 'the world's greatest duelist'," Joey said snidely. "When we all know that Yugi here is the King of Games."

"Don't flaunt it, Joey," Yugi said. "Curtis isn't here to hear about any of that."

"Yeah, I got a little bit of time for a lesson or two before I have to go meet this Seto Kaiba person," Curtis agreed. He took his deck out of the slot on his duel disk and set it on the counter. "Yugi trounced me yesterday."

"Yeah, but you put up a good fight," Yugi said as his grandpa started flipping through Curtis's deck.

"Which is weird, because didn't Joey say that the Six Samurai deck went to the regional championships?" Curtis asked.

"A deck is only as good as the duelist using it," Grandpa said. "Lesson One, Curtis. Know your deck. Learn your deck. And when you do, you can beat even the strongest monsters."

"And like I said, Curtis, you don't become a master duelist the moment you pick up a card," Yugi added. "And like you saw yesterday, if you have the proper Spell Cards, you can make even the weakest monster the most powerful in your deck."

"And that's not taking into account that Yugi didn't even use his signature card yesterday," Joey said.

"Signature card? What's that?" Curtis asked.

Yugi reached into the little pouch attached to his belt and produced a card depicting a man in purple robes, carrying a green scepter. "This is my favorite card in the game – the Dark Magician. He's never steered me wrong. And with an Attack Power of 2500, he's also one of the strongest monsters in the entire game."

"That's pretty cool," Curtis said as Yugi put the card back into the pouch.

It was then that he noticed the necklace Yugi was wearing. "Doesn't that thing get heavy?" he asked. "Your necklace, I mean. It's a gold pyramid attached to a chain. Doesn't it weight you down?"

"Not really," Yugi said, clutching the upside-down pyramid in his hands, showing Curtis the strange eye symbol on the front. "And it's not exactly a necklace. It's an ancient Egyptian artifact called the Millennium Puzzle."

"I got it for Yugi a few years ago on a trip to Egypt," Grandpa explained. "I figured it'd make a great birthday present."

"And boy did it," Yugi added. "Granted, it took me a long time to put it together, but when I did, I made a wish on the Puzzle – I wished for a true friend; I didn't have many friends when I was a kid, outside of Tea. But the Puzzle; it brought all of us together – Me, Tea, Joey, Tristan, Bakura, and it's all thanks to the spirit living within the Millennium Puzzle."

Curtis squinted his eyes skeptically at Yugi. "You're telling me there's a ghost living in that thing?" he asked dryly.

"Not a ghost, exactly," Joey answered. "It's actually the spirit of an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh."

"Right," Curtis snarked. "And I'm a Power Ranger."

"Back to the topic at hand," Grandpa said, bringing everyone's attention back to Curtis's deck. He picked up two cards – the Trap Card The Emperor's Holiday, and the Spell Card Heavy Storm. "These are two decent cards, Curtis, but I should tell you that if you were to compete in any Duel Monsters tournaments, they're banned."

"You mean, illegal?" Curtis asked.

"Only in official tournaments," Grandpa answered. "For casual play, they're free reign. There are a lot of banned cards for tournaments." He pulled a box out from under the counter and opened it, bringing out two Spell Cards, one showing a pot with an evil grin painted on it, and the other one showing what looked like some kind of dagger. "Pot of Greed and Monster Reborn, for instance, were some of the first cards to be banned from official tournaments."

"Okay, but why?" Curtis asked.

"Pot of Greed lets the player draw two cards from the deck, and Monster Reborn brings back one monster from either player's Graveyard,"

"So what's so bad about that?" Curtis wondered.

"Well, some players were found having several copies of Pot of Greed in their decks, and Monster Reborn can bring back any monster from either Graveyard," Joey answered. "That means that if I'm playing someone in a tournament, and they use Monster Reborn, they can bring back my Red Eyes Black Dragon if it's in the Graveyard."

"And if you just keep drawing cards with Pot of Greed, you'll run out of cards to draw and lose by default," Yugi continued.

"So one was banned because it can bring back a really powerful monster, and the other was banned because it was being spammed?" Curtis asked.

"That about sums it up, yes," Grandpa said. He continued flipping through Curtis's deck. "Looks like you could use a few more cards, Curtis."

Curtis looked up at the nearby clock. "That may have to wait," he said. "I've got to get going if I'm going to meet Seto Kaiba." He took his deck back and placed it in his duel disk.

"Well, good luck with that," Yugi said. "But before you go – if Kaiba challenges you to a duel, don't be surprised if you lose to him, too. He doesn't hold the title of World's Greatest Duelist for no reason. But if you do have to duel against him, I'm going to give you one piece of advice: Trust yourself, trust your deck, and trust in the heart of the cards."

Curtis said noting – at least, nothing out loud. Heart of the cards? he silently scoffed. First he thinks he has some Egyptian king living in his necklace, and now he believes these cards are alive? They're just firm pieces of paper with drawings on them. I mean, I'm not going to deny anything he or anyone else says, but that doesn't mean I have to believe it, either.