SO IT'S BEEN A WHILE SINCE I UPDATED THIS ONE, AND I REALLY DON'T HAVE AN EXCUSE FOR THAT. ALL I CAN DO IS APOLOGIZE AND TRY TO KEEP UPDATING AS MUCH AS I CAN. THANKS FOR UNDERSTANDING, READERS!

NEW YORK CITY

"Geez, why's it so cold?"

Joey rubbed his arms, trying to warm them up, as they climbed off the plane at the airport. In the middle of December, they knew it was going to be much colder than back home – and in fact, Joey had been warned about the cold multiple times – yet he still refused to wear anything heavier than a light green jacket, while everyone else was in sweaters and coats.

It didn't help that the wind was blowing, making it seem colder than it really was.

"We told you how many times to dress warm?" Tea scolded him.

"I didn't think you were being serious!" Joey shot back.

"Go to New York in the middle of winter without a coat," Tristan mocked him. "What's the worst that could happen, right?"

"Shut up, Tristan."

The warmth of the airport terminal met them as soon as they reached the doors. Joey shivered again as his body adjusted to the change in temperature. Everyone else began to unzip their coats, letting the warm air reach them.

Curtis knew there would be a lot of people here – it was New York City, after all, the most populous city in the United States, with a total population of eight and a half million people – but out of all these people, he couldn't help but wonder how many were here for the Duel Monsters tournament. In the last six months, he had learned that the card game was insanely popular, to the point where many people based their entire lives around it. He enjoyed the game, and liked playing against his friends, but he couldn't imagine it being a way of life.

An hour later, their shuttle van arrived at Madison Square Garden. Having never seen it in person before, they all marveled at just how huge it was. With an overall field size of 820,000 square feet, there was a reason it was one of the largest stadiums in the country, if not the world. It was no wonder, then, why Pegasus chose this place to hold this tournament. It could house so many duelists and spectators – each stadium could seat up to 20,000 people, and with five stadiums plus a theater, that gave the entire building enough room to hold up to 102,000 people in total. And judging from the map that Stephanie had picked up at the airport, it was accessible from several major train, bus, and subway routes.

"So where do we go from here?" Curtis asked as they entered the building.

"I'm going to assume we follow the signs," Stephanie said, pointing to a sign reading "Duel Monsters Tournament".

"Huh. How'd I miss that?"

They wormed their way through the crowd, following the signs to the stadium used for the New York Knicks. Thousands of people were already here, some in the stands trying to find a place to seat, some at the various small tables in the room to register for the tournament. Some cameras were being set up so the tournament could be broadcast on television and the Internet – no doubt this was going to be streamed to YouTube – and thanks to all the chatter, it was so loud that Curtis could barely hear Yugi calling him over to one of the registration tables.

"Spacing out there, pal?" Joey asked.

"Sorry; couldn't hear you over this crowd."

They were next in line to register. Yugi stepped up first.

"Name?" the registration officer asked.

"Yugi Moto."

The registration officer pressed some keys on a computer keyboard as he searched through a database. "Yugi Moto. Okay. Says here you were champion of Duelist Kingdom and Battle City, and you run a Spellcaster deck with emphasis on Dark Magician."

"That's right." He was handed a piece of paper. "Guess I still have to list all the cards I'm running, huh? Okay. Um, is there a place where we can do that?"

"If you can't get it done today, don't worry; we'll still be accepting deck lists tomorrow before the start of the tournament."

"That makes it a bit easier, I guess. Joey, you're up."

Joey stepped up to the registration table. "Name's Joey Wheeler, runner-up at Duelist Kingdom and fourth place in Battle City."

"Joey Wheeler….Beast-Warrior deck specializing in supporting Red Eyes Black Dragon?"

"The one and only." He was handed a deck list. "Oh, this baby's gonna be full by the time you get it back tomorrow."

Curtis was next. "Name?"

"Curtis Miller. I'm still just a newbie, so I might not be in your database."

The registration officer scanned the database. "Well, you became a registered duelist following your purchase of a KaibaCorp duel disk, but the deck you're running isn't listed. What deck are you using?"

"A Six Samurai deck." The registration officer typed away at the keyboard, before handing him a deck list. "Thanks."

As Curtis made his way through the crowd to catch up with his friends, he scanned the deck list. It was separated into different sections – his Main Deck itself was also separated into three sections, one each for his Monster, Spell, and Trap Cards; below those were sections for his Side Deck and Extra Deck. There were a grand total of 90 spaces – twenty for each type of card for his Main Deck, fifteen for his Side Deck, and fifteen for his Extra Deck.

"Quick question," he asked Yugi as he caught up to them. "What if I have more cards than the allotted spots? I mean, what if I have more than twenty Spell Cards, or something like that?"

"Well, you could always continue the list on the back," Yugi said. "The judges count them."

"Well, look who it is," a high pitched, nasally voice called out. The voice belonged to another boy, about their age, wearing thick, wide-rimmed glasses, and his hair was cut short and combed out into a bowl cut.

"Who's that?" Curtis asked.

"That's Weevil Underwood," Tristan answered. "He was the regional champion a couple of years ago."

"And when it came time for Duelist Kingdom, he was the first one to be sent home after Yugi whooped his butt," Joey added. "Of course, he deserved it for destroying Yugi's Exodia cards."

"Still sour about that?" Weevil asked in a mocking tone.

"You destroyed some of my grandfather's prized cards," Yugi shot back. "That's not exactly something someone forgets, not like losing a duel."

"And each of those defeats was deserved too, you cheat," Joey sneered. He leaned over to Curtis. "I'd watch this guy if I were you, Curt. He's got a bad habit of sabotaging an opponent's deck before a duel to make it so that he has the upper hand. It's how I ended up getting that Parasite Paracide card."

"You wound me, Joey Wheeler."

"The truth hurts, don't it?"

Another boy approached them, this one wearing a dark beanie cap over his messy black hair. "Not as much as getting thrashed, eh, Weevil?"

"Surprise, surprise," Tristan said dryly. "Where there's Weevil, there's Rex Raptor."

"Did you think I'd miss a chance like this?" Rex asked. "Rumor has it that the one who goes all the way to the top gets the chance to duel Pegasus himself."

"And you believe it?" Curtis's mother asked.

"Whether it's true or not, lady, is something I'm going to find out for myself," Rex answered. "So prepare yourselves to get stomped by my dinosaur monsters."

"Not if my deep sea denizens wash them away first," said a tall muscular man. "Yugi Moto, Joey Wheeler, pleasure to see you again, friends."

"Hey Mako. How've you been?" Yugi greeted.

"You know this guy?" Curtis asked.

"Mako Tsunami," the man answered. "I specialize in water-based monsters."

"Which works in the water, but we're on dry land, so your fish are just seafood for my Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth," Weevil taunted.

"Not if my Fortress Whale has anything to say about it," Mako shot back.

"Fortress Whale is a Ritual Monster, so even if you had Fortress Whale's Oath and the proper materials in your hand or the field, you'd still have to have the actual monster in your hand to summon it," Rex reminded him.

"Don't tell me how my own monster works, Raptor," Mako hissed. "And if I remember correctly, my whale washed your little dinosaurs back to extinction."

"Is this a common occurrence?" Stephanie asked.

"Between duelists? Sometimes," Yugi answered.

"And if you ask me," a woman's voice said, "it's kind of childish."

That voice belonged to a tall, beautiful woman with flowing blonde hair, dressed in a white tube top and low-cut purple jacket. Like the other duelists, a duel disk was strapped to her arm. Curtis couldn't help but stare as she walked over to them, her hips rolling with each step. He found himself scanning her gorgeous body, his teenage hormones briefly taking over his thoughts.

"Nice to see you again, Mai," Joey greeted.

"Somehow, I knew you and Yugi would be here, at least," Mai said. She pointed a thumb in Curtis's direction. "So, who's the tagalong?"

Curtis blinked and shook his head, hoping that no one would notice that he had briefly spaced out while checking out Mai's body. "I'm Curtis. First tournament here; just started playing the game."

"A novice, huh? Well, I'll be honest, I'd be surprised if you make it past Round One, newbie."

"Some encouragement would be nice," Stephanie said.

"It's rare that a noob lasts longer than Round One," Rex said. "You could say Joey's the exception, but then again, he's always had Yugi there holding his hand."

"How about that hand break your face apart, Rex!" Joey screamed.

Tea put herself between them, keeping them from coming to blows. "If you two are going to fight, save it for the tournament and let your cards do the fighting, okay? I don't think anyone wants to get thrown out before the first round tomorrow."

Yugi checked the time on his phone. "Speaking of which, I think we'd better get going. We have an early start tomorrow, so I think it'd be a good idea to get to the hotel and fill out our deck lists."

"Yeah, fine, whatever," Rex grumbled. "See you posers for Round One tomorrow."

The other duelists dispersed. Curtis took just a brief second to eyeball Mai again.