The tournament day has arrived, and I'm not going to waste your time with a long authors' note!

Kaiba's tournament, the "Millennium Tournament," was to be held in a strange town called Domino City. No one had ever heard of this small, crime-ridden town. Well, maybe a few people had…

"I'm not going to run into a parallel version of myself, am I?" Yugi wondered out loud.

"I'm standing right here," Atem said.

"You know what I mean!" the younger flailed.

The rules of the tournament were to be explained at the clock tower in the center of town. Atem didn't know if he should feel nostalgic, or be disappointed in Kaiba for his lack of originality. Hundreds of people from around the world had gathered for the first ever Bakugan tournament. There were many familiar faces, like Julio and Clouse. Many of the participants had helped fight Naga a year ago. Some of the people were new to the game, but if you were a Bakugan player in Domino City today, it meant you were one of the best players in the world.

Yugi scanned the crowd. He spotted a few Ghouls, but he knew there had to be more. The Ghouls were here, he knew it. Shun was thinking the same thing. He was going to find out who these people were. Yugi, Duel Master K, and especially Atem and Kaiba. He promised himself that by the end of the tournament he'd have everything figured out.

Dan was ready to redeem himself. He was going to prove he deserved to be number one, and that he could do it again. Runo was scanning for Hector. She had every intention of "extracting her revenge" as Kaiba had said.

No one it the entire crowd, not even the Ghouls, knew what to expect. The veil of secrecy was about to be lifted. Kaiba's continence appeared on a TV monitor on a skyscraper overlooking the clock tower square. Stories below it, the man himself stood on a high platform.

"Welcome!" Kaiba's voice boomed over loudspeakers around the square. "Your presence here is proof you are the most powerful gamers in this world! As such, I Seto Kaiba, hereby welcome you to the Millennium Tournament!" The crowd cheered. "First, I'll explain the special rules that will be observed during every game in the tournament. Player killer cards are strictly forbidden in this tournament. Your presence here is a testament to your skills. As such, you should use them and not rely cheep tricks to win. The other change I've made is to remove the limit on the number of Bakugan you can use in a duel. You can use as many of your Bakugan as you need to win. Each battle will be a fight to the death!" The crowd cheered again, even Atem and Yugi, which surprised the Brawlers. They had never seen those two so passionate about anything.

When the roar of the crowd died down, Yugi thought for a moment and said, "So now it's kind of like the beginners rules of Duel Monsters."

"Seems like a step backward to me," Atem sighed, "but whatever."

"I've increased the number of Life Points the duelists start each game with for that reason," Kaiba continued, "to 800. As for the tournament rules themselves; there are tournament staff through this city. Find them to collect a set of these keys," Kaiba said holding up a white key in one hand and a black one in the other. "Win a duel against one of the tournament staff members to get one of the keys. However, if you obtain a key and lose to another competitor, you must surrender any keys you've obtained. Only the top sixteen will be permitted to enter the doors behind me. The finals will be a round robin tournament to decide who goes on to the final round to face a mystery opponent. If you win that final duel you will be declared the champion! From this moment forward, this place will be known as Battle City!"

The crowd cheered again. Kaiba handed the keys to an assistant standing next to the podium and vanished into the crowd.

"The tournament will begin at 8 o' clock sharp. Any participants who meet each other after that are obligated to fight." The non-descript man said.

"That means we have twenty minutes to scatter throughout Battle City," Atem said.

"This is gonna be sweet!" Dan exclaimed.

"But wait," Alice chimed in, "How will we know who are the people with the keys?"

"I believe the idea is that we don't," Marucho said, "so we are forced to battle everyone we see."

"That's the idea," Atem grinned, "but it's not that hard to figure out who the real targets are…"

"What do you mean?" Julie asked.

"This tournament is run by the Ghouls. They're the ones with the keys," Yugi explained.

"But how do we know who the Ghoulies are?" Julie asked, unsatisfied.

"That's easy," Shun sighed, "The Ghouls are the ones staring at us."

The group looked around. Indeed, there were quite a few people paying them particular attention. It made Runo shudder. Dan just got ticked off. The square was emptying. The players were scattering through Battle City.

"We should split up," Atem suggested. "Once the tournament starts we'll all be rivals." Everyone agreed and went their separate ways. It didn't take Yugi long to find who would be his first opponent. Shun and Dan also found Ghouls to fight.

Kaiba was approached by one of the Ghouls. "Sir, where are you going?" the Ghoul asked.

"To go participate in the tournament, where else?"

"But sir, I thought you told us that any player in this tournament was an enemy of the Night Ghouls…"

"Exactly."

The last thing that Ghoul saw was Kaiba's briefcase right before it slammed him in the side of the head.

Atem wondered. The mystery duelist is K, he thought. I have to win the tournament to face him. And the faster he got those keys, the faster that would happen. But first he'd have to get through Kaiba and Yugi. This tournament was meant to pick the strongest opponent to fight K. And since Kaiba is working with the Ghouls to hold this tournament, he won't know to try to escape until it's too late. Not bad, Kaiba…

"You're Atem Mutou, are you not?" a voice asked.

Atem turned, "That's me."

"My master has offered a handsome reward for your head on a platter. And I intend to deliver him your head on a platter… literally!"

"You can come and try then," Atem smiled.

"Game Start!"

I think I like this chapter, but I'm not in my right mind at the moment so I can't say for sure. If there are mistakes I apologize, but I nearly died today, so I'm a little stressed. No seriously, I was a wire fence away from being gored to death by a Sika Deer today. But he didn't get through, so it wasn't that bad.