Emiko hummed to herself absentmindedly as she adjusted her Duel Monsters card-shaped locket and the black strap at the top of her new white tube-top, excited to join her second-ever Duel Monsters tournament. She looked at herself in the mirror, making sure she looked cool in her black shorts and putting her wireless receiver in her right ear before sliding her duel disk onto her left arm.
"I guess this is it," she thought, turning and grabbing her deck and putting it into the case on her belt, "I'm joining my first tournament since Duelist Kingdom. I still can't believe Seto is actually letting me compete in his tournament! This will be fun!" She ran down the stairs and through the halls of Kaiba Manor, slipping on her black boots and sprinting outside to get her bike, swinging her leg over and pedalling down into the streets of Domino, where Battle City was to begin in just under an hour.
Yami placed his hand over the Duel Monsters deck on Yugi's bedside table and said, "You have assembled a very powerful deck, Yugi." Yugi sighed.
"What if it isn't good enough to win," he asked, "What if I…What if I can't stop this great evil force?"
Yami said gently, "There comes a time where you simply must believe. This tournament is unlike anything we have ever faced before. The fate of the world depends on us, so you have to be strong and trust in your cards."
Yugi said, "But, there's still so much we don't know."
Yami said, "Our destiny will reveal itself when the time is right. According to Ishizu, an ancient, evil force will return to threaten the world and you and I must defeat it by winning Kaiba's Battle City tournament with these cards." He held up the stack of cards.
"If we believe in the Heart of the Cards, we can unlock the secrets of the past and save the world."
Joey sat on his bedroom floor, an assortment of notebooks, packs of cards, snack wrappers, and his laptop scattered haphazardly around him. He growled, frustrated, "I gotta figure out how to win back my Red-Eyes Black Dragon!" He scratched his head and shouted, flopping backwards onto the ground.
"If I can't get back my Red-Eyes, how do I expect to keep up with everyone else in this tournament? This sucks!"
He sighed and thought to himself, sitting back up and shutting his laptop, "Oh, well, not much I can really do until this thing starts. I might as well call the hospital and check on Serenity before I head out." He stood up and picked up his cell phone off the floor beside him.
"Hello," a familiar male voice said, "Serenity Wheeler's room."
Joey stuttered incomprehensibly for a moment. He yelled into the phone, "Tristan?! Is that you?!"
Tristan laughed and said, "Oh, Joey!"
Joey barked, "What the heck do you think you're doing in my sister's room?!"
Tristan said, "I know how busy you are, getting ready for Battle City and all, so I'm just keeping her company. It's kind of a coincidence that you called, actually. We were just talking about you!"
Joey snapped, "You're the last person she needs hanging around, Romeo! You better not be trying anything funny!"
Serenity said sweetly, "Hi, Joey! Why didn't you ever tell me about your friend? He was telling me all about how he taught you everything you know about Duel Monsters and that you came in second at Duelist Kingdom thanks to his training! I can't believe you have such an awesome friend!"
"A-anyway," Tristan cut in, hastily taking the phone from Serenity, "best of luck out there in Battle City! Don't forget about that super-cool three-card combo I taught ya! Bye!" Before Joey could retort, Tristan had already hung up the phone, leaving him on a dial tone.
"Tristan! I'll kick your lying butt!"
He slammed the phone back onto its dock and grabbed his deck off the floor, still fuming.
Emiko walked through the streets of Domino, dragging her bike beside her as many duelists, young and old, crowded into the center of town, ready for the start of the tournament. She smiled, hearing the explosions of fireworks in the sky. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she stopped.
Ryou Bakura
Recieved 11:46
Good luck! :)
She smiled.
Ryou Bakura
Sent 11:46
Thanks! I'm excited!
She shoved her phone back into her pocket. She walked into the center of the city, locking her bike securely to a parking rack before coming out into the open area. She looked around at all of the competition, her nerves starting to kick in. Behind her, she heard a familiar voice and the sound of high heels jogging toward her.
"Emiko Kaiba? Is that you?"
"Mai," she said, turning to face her and smiling, "You're here, too!"
"Of course, hon! How are you? You and your brothers are well, I assume?"
Emiko nodded, but before she could say anything, Mai said, "What a turnout, huh? Kaiba really knows how to throw a tournament!" She smirked and added, "They're all losers. Mai Valentine's gonna take this victory home." Emiko laughed uncomfortably. Yugi trotted up to them.
"Hey, Mai! Em!"
"Hello, Yugi," Mai said, "I was just telling Emiko that her big brother's tournament is lookin' good so far!" She threw her arm around Emiko's shoulders and continued, "And that I'm not planning to go easy on anyone." Yugi nodded.
"Yeah. There's a lot of duelists I've never seen before."
"Oh," Mai exclaimed, shaking Emiko and startling her, "This is all so exciting!" Emiko grabbed Mai's arm and gently pried her arm off her shoulders.
Yugi asked, "By the way, Em, since you're here, do you know what these things are?" He held up a clear, plastic card with a puzzle-piece-shaped chunk of a map printed on it. Emiko nodded.
"Yes. They're called Locator Cards. Seto's gonna explain it when he makes the big announcement, but basically, you need six cards to qualify for the finals."
"Yugi!"
A sharp, annoying voice caught the trio's attention and they turned to see three familiar faces. Emiko and Mai both sighed. Weevil Underwood, a small boy with short blue hair cut in a bowl cut and wearing insect-themed gold glasses, Rex Raptor, another boy, a little taller than Weevil with long, brown hair and wearing a red beanie, and Mako Tsunami, a young man wearing a blue cross-body martial arts-style robe and tight shorts, his dark hair spiked up under a wave-patterned bandana, all walked up to them. Emiko perked up.
"Mako!"
Mako stretched out his right arm and said as she shook his hand, "It is wonderful to see you again, Emiko Kaiba."
"Likewise," she said.
Rex growled, "I'll never forget how you played me like a chumposaurus at Duelist Kingdom, Mai. You will be going down this time!"
Weevil cackled, "And, Yugi, next time we duel, you won't be so lucky!"
Mako said, "Emiko, I would be honoured to take you on in a duel. We shall see how much you and Yugi Muto have improved since our last duels!"
Emiko and Yugi nodded. Mai sighed, ruffling up her long, curly hair. Emiko looked down at her watch and said, "Guys, Seto's announcement should be any minute now! It's almost noon!"
"Alright, let's settle this later," Rex said, baring his teeth threateningly.
Weevil sneered and turned to walk away.
Mako and Rex nodded and scattered, Mako giving them a wink and waving goodbye as he turned to leave. Mai smiled and said, "Alright, you two, I should be off, too. See you around." She turned the opposite direction of Rex and walked out into the crowd. Yugi looked at Emiko, who nodded.
"Ready, Yuge?"
"Ready."
In her headset, she heard a crackling sound, followed by the monotonous drawl of her older brother's voice.
"Seto Kaiba. Sound check."
Emiko reached up and pressed her microphone button.
"Copy, Seto. Emiko Kaiba. Soundcheck."
Seto said, "Copy, Emiko."
Mokuba said, "Copy both of you. Mokuba Kaiba. Soundcheck."
Seto said, "Copy, Mokuba."
Emiko repeated, "Copy, Mokuba." She looked at Yugi, who was looking at her, confused. She explained, lowering her voice, "I'm one of the tournament's rule enforcers. I'm wearing this earpiece just in case I need to contact my brothers."
"Oh, I see."
All of a sudden, Seto Kaiba's voice echoed through the streets, broadcasted from an unknown speaker.
"Greetings, duelists. Welcome to Battle City."
"Well," Yugi said, "Here we go."
Everyone kept looking around, confused by the phantom voice of Kaiba, but Emiko turned to look in the direction of Kaiba Corporation's building. In the sky, flying closer and closer to town, was an enormous blimp. It was blue and white, emblazoned with the Kaiba Corporation logo on both sides. A huge television screen hung down from each side of the bottom of the flying machine and loudspeakers hung in many directions to make sure his voice could be heard loud and clear by the entire city. She muttered, "'Welcome to Battle City', alright. He knows how to make an entrance." Yugi nodded.
"It's finally time for you all to put your duelling skills to the test," he chuckled, "I hope none of you entered my tournament looking for mere friendly competition. Battle City is gonna be an all-out war; however, before the tournament begins, I figured I should let you know what you're in for, in case you wanna back out now." Emiko sighed.
"Let's start with my new duel disks. Everyone that I have decided was good enough to enter has received one. With it, you can duel anytime, anywhere. In addition, they contain a tracking chip that allows me to watch every move you make."
Hushed chatter began around Emiko, but she kept her eyes up on the screen, mimicking her brother as he loaded his deck of cards into his duel disk.
"Now, let's talk about the most important rule of this tournament."
He pulled his Blue-Eyes White Dragon from his deck, presented it to the audience below, and continued, "The loser must fork over their rarest card to the winner. If you don't have the guts to lose your precious cards, then I strongly advise you to forfeit now."
Emiko bit the inside of her cheek and thought, "My rarest cards right now are White Dragon Ritual, Paladin of White Dragon, and my Luster Dragons. Nowhere near as powerful as some of my brother's cards or Yugi's. Even Joey's got better cards than me. I guess I don't have to duel anyone I don't want to, but still. I am a little worried about losing those cards. Maybe I shouldn't compete."
"And anyone who's foolish enough can challenge me to a duel, since I, along with my little sister, Emiko, will also be competing in this tournament."
Yugi muttered, "I thought so." Emiko shrunk down, suddenly worried that she'd be a target.
"Geez, thanks a lot, Seto."
"Don't get your hopes up, though, because I intend to win and there's one duelist out there that I simply can't wait to defeat. Oh, yeah. Speaking of winning, only the eight best duelists will make it to the final round and these Finals will be held in a hidden location." He smirked and continued, holding up one of the plastic Locator Cards, "In order to find the location of the Finals, you'll need to collect six of these Locator Cards, one of which came with your duel disk. Every time you win a duel, the loser will also give up a Locator Card, which, when all six are stacked on top of one another, will produce a map of Battle City and reveal the location of the Battle City Finals." He tucked his locator card back into his jacket.
"But the Finals are a long time away and most of you will be eliminated way before that anyway. Alright. Everything I just said and more can be found in my tournament rulebook, but remember: only one duelist can come out on top and be named the number one duelist in the world. Now, let the Battle City Tournament begin!"
Cheers erupted through the streets of Domino, now Battle City. Emiko sighed and said, putting on a smile, "Well, Yugi, let's do this!"
"Right!"
