CHAPTER 1: A FORTUNATE ERROR
A few days had passed since the duel where Seto Kaiba had been defeated by the young duelist named Yugi. Kaiba decided to decline his invitation to the Duel Monsters Tournament at Duelist Kingdom.
One of Kaiba's agents came into his office and told him, "Sir, in America there has seemed to have been a mistake in the printing of a Duel Monsters booster pack. It seems that a small glitch has caused there to be a Blue Eyes White Dragon card printed into a pack of cards."
"So what you're telling me is that a fifth Blue Eyes White Dragon card has been made?" Kaiba asked.
"Correct sir," the man said.
"I want you to find the location of the card and get Jameson on the job."
"I'm sorry sir. Mr. Jameson is on an assignment in-"
"Say no more. This is a hard time, but I'll do it myself. I could use some success to cheer me up. Where is the precise location to where the pack containing the card was sent to?"
"Portland, Oregon. We've hacked in far enough to discover it will be sent to the Genesis Comics & Cards Shop."
"Prepare a flight." Kaiba had a dangerous smile on his face. He would do anything to destroy that Blue Eyes White Dragon.
Anything. * * * Two days later in Portland, Oregon.
With a Duel Monsters City Tournament about a month away, a boy named Ken Richter had to improve his deck, just to get it into better standard. He went into the Genesis Comics & Cards Shop to buy a pack of Duel Monsters cards. He paid for it and went outside.
"Lets see what we have here.." he said opening the pack. He received some decent cards. Flame Cerebrus, Kuriboh, and a few others. Then he got to the last one.
"What the heck?!" he said looking down to see he was holding a Blue Eyes White Dragon. After a moment passed he said, "This has got to be mistake. They're out of print. This can't be real..." "Excuse me," he heard someone say. He looked up to see he was facing a Japanese teenage boy with brown hair wearing a purple robe. "I'm Seto Kaiba. You wouldn't happen to be holding a Blue Eyes White Dragon card there, would you?"
"I can't believe it either," Ken said. "I think this is fake."
"That's not a fake," Kaiba said. "And I'll be willing to pay any price to have it."
"Wait a second!" Ken said. "You're the Seto Kaiba, the undefeated Japanese champion?"
Kaiba looked down and said, "Well, I used to be." Then he quickly looked up, with his eyes sharpened. "Listen, how much do you want for it?"
"It's a good card. I think I'll keep it."
Ken heard Kaiba whisper, "Twice in a month." Kaiba then looked angry. "Listen, I want that card! It's my symbol. I'll buy it or I'll give you any other card for it."
"I don't think so," Ken said. "I'm keeping it."
"Then lets hold a duel. If I win, I get to buy that card. If you win, you can keep the card and get the money anyway."
"Where do we duel?"
"You pick. Don't they have a mini-arena inside this shop?"
"Yeah, I think."
"Then how about it?"
"It's a duel."
Ken and Kaiba stood on opposite sides of the small dueling field on a table and shuffled their decks. Once they finished Kaiba said, "We each begin with 2000 life points. First player to hit zero loses the match. It's time to duel. You move first."
Ken drew five cards. He held a 7 Colored Fish, Paralyzing Potion, Fissure, Acid Trap Hole, and Flame Cererbus.
"I summon the Flame Cerebus in Attack Mode," Ken said, placing a Flame Cerebus card face up. A Flame Cerebrus had an attack of 2100 points and a defense of 1800."
"Impressive monster," Kaiba said. "But I've got something slightly better. I summon the Judge Man in attack mode. Ken looked down to see Kaiba had summoned monster with attack points of 2200 and defense points of 1500. "Attack."
The mini-field Ken and Kaiba were using had a small virtual hologram projector, but you could see the action as the Judge Man charged at the Flame Cererbus, destroying it with a tackle. The attack made Ken's total Life Points go from 2000 down to 1900.
Ken smiled like he was a bigshot. "I expected more from you, Kaiba. A one- hundred life point loss? That doesn't quite faze me."
Kaiba chucked. "The duel has just begun. I have monsters much stronger than that."
Ken drew from his hand his mighty Gaia the Fierce Knight monster with an attack of 2300 and a defense of 2100. "Attack, Gaia!" And hologram showed Gaia charging at the Judge Man on his horse, destroying the warrior. Now Kaiba had also lost 100 life points. "I'm not as weak as you think I am, am I?"
Kaiba drew a card and smiled. "I summon the Blue Eyes White Dragon!" He placed down the Blue Eyes White Dragon card which had an attack of 3000 and defense of 2500. An incredibly strong monster. "And I'll place a card face down." Kaiba placed a face-down card in one of the Magic-Trap Card slots. "I won't attack this turn." Kaiba was obviously giving Ken time to be traumatized.
Ken, completely freaked out because he had never faced a monster as strong as the Blue Eyes, drew a magic card called Fissure. Fissure had an effect that could destroy the monster on you opponent's side of the field with the lowest attack. Since Kaiba's Blue Eyes White Dragon was the only monster on his side of the field and it was face up, Ken could use Fissure and destroy it. "I activate Fissure!"
"No, you don't!" Kaiba said, flipping his face-down card up, revealing it to be Ultimate Offering, which has an effect where you can sacrifice 500 life points and send out a new monster. Kaiba sent out a weak monster called Rouge Doll. It was weaker than the Blue Eyes. "Too bad." Since Rogue Doll is weaker than the Blue Eyes, all your Fissure will do is destroy her." And the Rouge Doll was destroyed and discarded as well as the Fissure.
I don't think I can do this Ken thought. The Blue Eyes is too powerful. I'll lose this duel. He'll get my Blue Eyes, and that's the strongest monster I have.
"Give it up," Kaiba said. "Surrender and I'll still pay for the Blue Eyes White Dragon you have." He drew a card and smiled. "I will equip my Blue Eyes White Dragon With two of my Sword of The Deep-Seated magic cards, raising his attack to 4000. And I'll also equip my Blue Eyes White Dragon with the Ring of Magnetism, decreasing its attack and defense by 500 points, but also making it so that Blue Eyes White Dragon will be the only monster you'll be allowed to attack. Now with an attack of 3500, Blue Eyes White Dragon, attack!" The holograms showed the Blue Eyes White Dragon shooting a blue beam out of its mouth and destroying Ken's Gaia The Fierce Knight monster. Ken's total Life Points dropped from 1900 to 700. "Feeling confident now?"
The truth was that Ken felt horrible. As he drew from his deck he found nothing but a weak Mystic Clown (ATK/1550 DEF/1000.) "I'll place this card in defense mode." And he put the Mystic Clown face down. And then he realized he had a magic card in his hand that could save him the duel.
"Defense mode?" Kaiba said. "Getting a little weak, aren't you? I'll just draw from my deck here."
"Stop!" Ken said. "Who said my turn is over?"
"What else can you do?" Kaiba asked.
Ken grinned. His confidence returned. He placed a magic card called Paralyzing Potion on top of the Blue Eyes White Dragon card. "When the Paralyzing Potion is equipped to any monster, that monster can't attack. So right now, you're Blue Eyes White Dragon is useless."
Kaiba definitely looked mad. His prized monster was now unusable. He drew a card and then smiled. "True, my Blue Eyes White Dragon cannot attack. But I'll put down a monster that can." Just then, Kaiba placed another Blue Eyes White Dragon face-up in the field. "Didn't expect my second Blue Eyes to come out so quickly, did you?" Ken's confidence fell once more. "Blue Eyes White Dragon, attack!" And then the standard lighting beam came from the Blue Eyes and destroyed the Mystic Clown. But since the Mystic Clown was in defense mode, no Life Point damage was done. "This duel will be over soon.
Ken drew a magic card called Ookazi, which could automatically do 800 damage to Kaiba's Life Points. Ken placed his 7 Colored Fish monster (ATK/1800 DEF/800) in defense mode. "I'll place this monster face-down and I'll activate this magic card!" Ken showed Kaiba the Ookazi. "Your Life Points go down to 600!"
"Not bad," Kaiba said. "But not too good either." He drew a card and once again did that annoying smile. He turned his new card around and revealed it to be De-Spell, which can destroy Magic Cards. "I'll use this to destroy the Paralyzing Potion you attached to my first Blue Eyes." And then the Paralyzing Potion was gone, allowing Kaiba's first Blue Eyes White Dragon to attack. "Attack, Blue Eyes White Dragon!" And the 7 Colored Fish was destroyed. Again, no Life Point Damage.
Ken then drew a great monster, the Dark Magician. It was one of his strongest monsters. "I'll place this in defense position." And so he did.
Kaiba drew a card and played it, revealing it to be Defense Paralysis, a card that switches all monsters to attack position. "So now your monster must arise to attack mode." When Kaiba saw that it was the Dark Magician he said, "Your deck is almost like.well, never mind. I should attack with my first Blue Eyes, but I'm interested to see what other cards you have in your deck, so I will lengthen the duel by attacking with my second Blue Eyes White Dragon." And so, Kaiba's second Blue Eyes White Dragon destroyed the Dark Magician, leaving Ken's Life Points at 200. "Your move, although I promise you that during my next turn I'll win."
Ken drew a magic card called Tremendous Fire, which had an effect where Ken could do 1000 Life Point damage to Kaiba, but in a side effect of 500 Life Point damage to him. It would be a draw. Then a though struck Ken! "Kaiba, what happens if this duel ends in a draw?"
Kaiba thought for a second. "If it ends in a draw, then nothing happens. I don't get your Blue Eyes White Dragon, and you don't get any money."
Ken grinned. It was the only way to keep his new Blue Eyes White Dragon now. He played the Tremendous fire. "I use the Tremendous fire, where 1000 Life Point Damage is done to you, and 500 Life Point Damage is done to be. Ending this duel in a draw."
"What?!" Kaiba exclaimed. "I can't believe it! What's happening to me.? This can't be.."
* * * Later that night, in Ken's bedroom.
Ken laid down on his bed, staring at his ceiling, his deck in his hand. He had survived a duel against Seto Kaiba. He was proud of his victory, but he remembered what Kaiba had told him after the duel.."Keep that Blue Eyes White Dragon card. Use it in your duels. But if you ever set foot in a Japanese Duel Monsters Tournament, I'll take that card of yours and rip it into pieces.."
It didn't even matter now. The Duel Monsters City Tournament was a month away and Ken thought he would do fine. Maybe even win. Until then, his deck would need more improvement.
* * * Esplin Association Headquarters
The Esplin Association was the host of Duel Monsters City Tournament in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. They were also the owners of many cards and comics shops in the northwestern area of the United States.
The owner, Mr. Wayne Esplin, was sitting in his office handling contracts and orders, when one of his secretaries came in and handed him a floppy disk. "This came in the mail," she said. "It's for you, sir."
He took the disk and popped it into his computer's A: Drive. The disk contained one file: a media clip. Mr. Esplin clicked on the icon with the media file and his Windows Media Player opened up. The movie showed a small bald man with glasses.
The man said, "Hello, Mr. Esplin. I work at the Genesis Comics & Cards Shop and I have witnessed that Seto Kaiba, the number one ranked Duel Monsters duelist has come into our store and had a duel with one of our fluent customers named Ken Richter. The match ended in a draw. We know that the skills of young duelists captures your attention, so I decided to alert you about this young boy. If you would like some more information on this duelist, send me an email at k_thompson9164@genesisshop.com. Have a nice day, sir." The movie ended.
Mr. Esplin turned his chair around to face a window that showed the other towers of downtown Portland. "A skilled duelist.hmm.."
* * * At Portland Middle School.
A week had passed since Ken had his duel against Kaiba. During the first day of the new school year, Ken told his friend Stefan, who was also a duelist, what had happened.
"You against Seto Kaiba?" Stefan said. "Yeah, right."
"I'm telling the truth," Ken said. He took out his deck and showed Stefan the Blue Eyes White Dragon card. "See? It's right there."
Stefan didn't take his eyes off the card. "Wow. No kidding. so the duel ended in a draw?"
"Yeah, right after I used my Tremendous Fire card."
"So how do you think Kaiba knew that you had this Blue Eyes?"
"I don't know. But do you think you could somehow hack into KaibaCorp's data and find out for me?"
"Sure, lets go to my house after school."
Stefan and Ken were in were in Stefan's room using his computer. "Okay, it should be set up now. But turn around. I don't want anyone to see how I do this." Ken did as he was told and turned around, only hearing the tapping on Stefan's keyboard. "Done. You can look now."
Ken looked at the screen and he saw a list of different files, all part of KaibaCorp's network. "Click on that." Ken pointed to a file called seto_diary.doc. Stefan clicked on it. A word file opened up and most of it was in text that wasn't real until the boys saw a part of the file that was in Japanese letters.
"I think I'll be able to translate this...alright, it'll take a while. Let's go watch some TV or something."
The boys watched some anime cartoons in Stefan's room until they heard the computer beep, and they rushed over to it. The document had changed. The weird text was still the same, but the Japanese had changed into English. "Let's see what we have here.." They saw a good paragraph of English that read:
Takaishi had alerted me that in America there was some kind of misprint in a pack of Duel Monster cards and that a Blue Eyes White Dragon card was made. I'm going into Portland, Oregon in the United States tomorrow to take care of this matter, because I could never let a Blue Eyes White Dragon card fall into the hands of a duelist that would enter a world tournament and challenged me. It would seem funny that this would happen around now, especially since I had already dealt with the fourth Blue Eyes White Dragon card recently. My plan would be to pay money for the Blue Eyes White Dragon card to whoever gets it.
"Yeah, like that worked," Ken said. "See if there's anything else." Stefan scrolled down the page until they found another two paragraph in English:
I've just returned from American. My plan to buy the fifth Blue Eyes White Dragon from the duelist who had bought it had failed. I challenged him to a duel, and I did not win. But I didn't lose either. It somehow ended in a draw, due to the Tremendous Fire magic card. Well, with the fourth Blue Eyes destroyed and now a fifth one created, there are once again four Blue Eyes White Dragon cards in the world.
But my visit to Portland, Oregon paid off. As I toured the Genesis Comics & Cards shop, I discovered that there would be a Duel Monsters City Tournament taking place. It seems that the Esplin Association, which is the host of the tournament, has a created a prize card for the victor of the competition known as the Golden Eyes Supreme Dragon. A card so incredible it is stronger than the Blue Eyes White Dragon itself. So I have decided to hire a duelist and send him to compete in the tournament for me so that the Golden Eyes Supreme Dragon would be mine. It's a shame I couldn't go. But I still have matters to attend to. There are some things that I have to take care of at the tournament at Duelist Kingdom as well.
"Whoa," Ken said. "That Kaiba creep is sending someone to the tournament to get that rare card."
"All the better reason we should be at the competition," Stefan said.
"You're going to be in the tournament?"
"Of course."
"That's cool. Well, I better get going."
When Ken got home that day his dad asked him, "How was school?"
"It was alright," Ken said.
"Well, a letter came for you in the mail today, from the company that's hosting that tournament you're going to be in." Ken's dad gave him an envelope.
Ken went into his room and sat down on his bed, opening the envelope. It seemed like the real business-type letter. The letter read:
Dear Mr. Ken Richter,
My sources have told me that you have recently held a Duel Monsters match against Seto Kaiba, the Japanese champion duelist, in the Genesis Comics & Cards shop. Even ending a draw against a duelist like Seto Kaiba seems like a great accomplishment, showing us that you are a skilled duelist. It has come to our attention that, even though you've never competed in a Duel Monsters tournament, that we are giving the title of an expert duelist. We realize that your duel against Seto Kaiba wasn't an official match, but it has drawn our attention. We have also discovered that you have signed up for our Duel Monsters City Tournament in Portland, and we can't wait to see you there.
Signed, Wayne Esplin President and C.E.O. of Esplin Association
"Wow, this is getting serious," Ken said. "I'm starting to think it would be better if I never bought that pack of cards with that Blue Eyes White Dragon. Oh well. all I can do now is wait and prepare for the tournament."
A few days had passed since the duel where Seto Kaiba had been defeated by the young duelist named Yugi. Kaiba decided to decline his invitation to the Duel Monsters Tournament at Duelist Kingdom.
One of Kaiba's agents came into his office and told him, "Sir, in America there has seemed to have been a mistake in the printing of a Duel Monsters booster pack. It seems that a small glitch has caused there to be a Blue Eyes White Dragon card printed into a pack of cards."
"So what you're telling me is that a fifth Blue Eyes White Dragon card has been made?" Kaiba asked.
"Correct sir," the man said.
"I want you to find the location of the card and get Jameson on the job."
"I'm sorry sir. Mr. Jameson is on an assignment in-"
"Say no more. This is a hard time, but I'll do it myself. I could use some success to cheer me up. Where is the precise location to where the pack containing the card was sent to?"
"Portland, Oregon. We've hacked in far enough to discover it will be sent to the Genesis Comics & Cards Shop."
"Prepare a flight." Kaiba had a dangerous smile on his face. He would do anything to destroy that Blue Eyes White Dragon.
Anything. * * * Two days later in Portland, Oregon.
With a Duel Monsters City Tournament about a month away, a boy named Ken Richter had to improve his deck, just to get it into better standard. He went into the Genesis Comics & Cards Shop to buy a pack of Duel Monsters cards. He paid for it and went outside.
"Lets see what we have here.." he said opening the pack. He received some decent cards. Flame Cerebrus, Kuriboh, and a few others. Then he got to the last one.
"What the heck?!" he said looking down to see he was holding a Blue Eyes White Dragon. After a moment passed he said, "This has got to be mistake. They're out of print. This can't be real..." "Excuse me," he heard someone say. He looked up to see he was facing a Japanese teenage boy with brown hair wearing a purple robe. "I'm Seto Kaiba. You wouldn't happen to be holding a Blue Eyes White Dragon card there, would you?"
"I can't believe it either," Ken said. "I think this is fake."
"That's not a fake," Kaiba said. "And I'll be willing to pay any price to have it."
"Wait a second!" Ken said. "You're the Seto Kaiba, the undefeated Japanese champion?"
Kaiba looked down and said, "Well, I used to be." Then he quickly looked up, with his eyes sharpened. "Listen, how much do you want for it?"
"It's a good card. I think I'll keep it."
Ken heard Kaiba whisper, "Twice in a month." Kaiba then looked angry. "Listen, I want that card! It's my symbol. I'll buy it or I'll give you any other card for it."
"I don't think so," Ken said. "I'm keeping it."
"Then lets hold a duel. If I win, I get to buy that card. If you win, you can keep the card and get the money anyway."
"Where do we duel?"
"You pick. Don't they have a mini-arena inside this shop?"
"Yeah, I think."
"Then how about it?"
"It's a duel."
Ken and Kaiba stood on opposite sides of the small dueling field on a table and shuffled their decks. Once they finished Kaiba said, "We each begin with 2000 life points. First player to hit zero loses the match. It's time to duel. You move first."
Ken drew five cards. He held a 7 Colored Fish, Paralyzing Potion, Fissure, Acid Trap Hole, and Flame Cererbus.
"I summon the Flame Cerebus in Attack Mode," Ken said, placing a Flame Cerebus card face up. A Flame Cerebrus had an attack of 2100 points and a defense of 1800."
"Impressive monster," Kaiba said. "But I've got something slightly better. I summon the Judge Man in attack mode. Ken looked down to see Kaiba had summoned monster with attack points of 2200 and defense points of 1500. "Attack."
The mini-field Ken and Kaiba were using had a small virtual hologram projector, but you could see the action as the Judge Man charged at the Flame Cererbus, destroying it with a tackle. The attack made Ken's total Life Points go from 2000 down to 1900.
Ken smiled like he was a bigshot. "I expected more from you, Kaiba. A one- hundred life point loss? That doesn't quite faze me."
Kaiba chucked. "The duel has just begun. I have monsters much stronger than that."
Ken drew from his hand his mighty Gaia the Fierce Knight monster with an attack of 2300 and a defense of 2100. "Attack, Gaia!" And hologram showed Gaia charging at the Judge Man on his horse, destroying the warrior. Now Kaiba had also lost 100 life points. "I'm not as weak as you think I am, am I?"
Kaiba drew a card and smiled. "I summon the Blue Eyes White Dragon!" He placed down the Blue Eyes White Dragon card which had an attack of 3000 and defense of 2500. An incredibly strong monster. "And I'll place a card face down." Kaiba placed a face-down card in one of the Magic-Trap Card slots. "I won't attack this turn." Kaiba was obviously giving Ken time to be traumatized.
Ken, completely freaked out because he had never faced a monster as strong as the Blue Eyes, drew a magic card called Fissure. Fissure had an effect that could destroy the monster on you opponent's side of the field with the lowest attack. Since Kaiba's Blue Eyes White Dragon was the only monster on his side of the field and it was face up, Ken could use Fissure and destroy it. "I activate Fissure!"
"No, you don't!" Kaiba said, flipping his face-down card up, revealing it to be Ultimate Offering, which has an effect where you can sacrifice 500 life points and send out a new monster. Kaiba sent out a weak monster called Rouge Doll. It was weaker than the Blue Eyes. "Too bad." Since Rogue Doll is weaker than the Blue Eyes, all your Fissure will do is destroy her." And the Rouge Doll was destroyed and discarded as well as the Fissure.
I don't think I can do this Ken thought. The Blue Eyes is too powerful. I'll lose this duel. He'll get my Blue Eyes, and that's the strongest monster I have.
"Give it up," Kaiba said. "Surrender and I'll still pay for the Blue Eyes White Dragon you have." He drew a card and smiled. "I will equip my Blue Eyes White Dragon With two of my Sword of The Deep-Seated magic cards, raising his attack to 4000. And I'll also equip my Blue Eyes White Dragon with the Ring of Magnetism, decreasing its attack and defense by 500 points, but also making it so that Blue Eyes White Dragon will be the only monster you'll be allowed to attack. Now with an attack of 3500, Blue Eyes White Dragon, attack!" The holograms showed the Blue Eyes White Dragon shooting a blue beam out of its mouth and destroying Ken's Gaia The Fierce Knight monster. Ken's total Life Points dropped from 1900 to 700. "Feeling confident now?"
The truth was that Ken felt horrible. As he drew from his deck he found nothing but a weak Mystic Clown (ATK/1550 DEF/1000.) "I'll place this card in defense mode." And he put the Mystic Clown face down. And then he realized he had a magic card in his hand that could save him the duel.
"Defense mode?" Kaiba said. "Getting a little weak, aren't you? I'll just draw from my deck here."
"Stop!" Ken said. "Who said my turn is over?"
"What else can you do?" Kaiba asked.
Ken grinned. His confidence returned. He placed a magic card called Paralyzing Potion on top of the Blue Eyes White Dragon card. "When the Paralyzing Potion is equipped to any monster, that monster can't attack. So right now, you're Blue Eyes White Dragon is useless."
Kaiba definitely looked mad. His prized monster was now unusable. He drew a card and then smiled. "True, my Blue Eyes White Dragon cannot attack. But I'll put down a monster that can." Just then, Kaiba placed another Blue Eyes White Dragon face-up in the field. "Didn't expect my second Blue Eyes to come out so quickly, did you?" Ken's confidence fell once more. "Blue Eyes White Dragon, attack!" And then the standard lighting beam came from the Blue Eyes and destroyed the Mystic Clown. But since the Mystic Clown was in defense mode, no Life Point damage was done. "This duel will be over soon.
Ken drew a magic card called Ookazi, which could automatically do 800 damage to Kaiba's Life Points. Ken placed his 7 Colored Fish monster (ATK/1800 DEF/800) in defense mode. "I'll place this monster face-down and I'll activate this magic card!" Ken showed Kaiba the Ookazi. "Your Life Points go down to 600!"
"Not bad," Kaiba said. "But not too good either." He drew a card and once again did that annoying smile. He turned his new card around and revealed it to be De-Spell, which can destroy Magic Cards. "I'll use this to destroy the Paralyzing Potion you attached to my first Blue Eyes." And then the Paralyzing Potion was gone, allowing Kaiba's first Blue Eyes White Dragon to attack. "Attack, Blue Eyes White Dragon!" And the 7 Colored Fish was destroyed. Again, no Life Point Damage.
Ken then drew a great monster, the Dark Magician. It was one of his strongest monsters. "I'll place this in defense position." And so he did.
Kaiba drew a card and played it, revealing it to be Defense Paralysis, a card that switches all monsters to attack position. "So now your monster must arise to attack mode." When Kaiba saw that it was the Dark Magician he said, "Your deck is almost like.well, never mind. I should attack with my first Blue Eyes, but I'm interested to see what other cards you have in your deck, so I will lengthen the duel by attacking with my second Blue Eyes White Dragon." And so, Kaiba's second Blue Eyes White Dragon destroyed the Dark Magician, leaving Ken's Life Points at 200. "Your move, although I promise you that during my next turn I'll win."
Ken drew a magic card called Tremendous Fire, which had an effect where Ken could do 1000 Life Point damage to Kaiba, but in a side effect of 500 Life Point damage to him. It would be a draw. Then a though struck Ken! "Kaiba, what happens if this duel ends in a draw?"
Kaiba thought for a second. "If it ends in a draw, then nothing happens. I don't get your Blue Eyes White Dragon, and you don't get any money."
Ken grinned. It was the only way to keep his new Blue Eyes White Dragon now. He played the Tremendous fire. "I use the Tremendous fire, where 1000 Life Point Damage is done to you, and 500 Life Point Damage is done to be. Ending this duel in a draw."
"What?!" Kaiba exclaimed. "I can't believe it! What's happening to me.? This can't be.."
* * * Later that night, in Ken's bedroom.
Ken laid down on his bed, staring at his ceiling, his deck in his hand. He had survived a duel against Seto Kaiba. He was proud of his victory, but he remembered what Kaiba had told him after the duel.."Keep that Blue Eyes White Dragon card. Use it in your duels. But if you ever set foot in a Japanese Duel Monsters Tournament, I'll take that card of yours and rip it into pieces.."
It didn't even matter now. The Duel Monsters City Tournament was a month away and Ken thought he would do fine. Maybe even win. Until then, his deck would need more improvement.
* * * Esplin Association Headquarters
The Esplin Association was the host of Duel Monsters City Tournament in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. They were also the owners of many cards and comics shops in the northwestern area of the United States.
The owner, Mr. Wayne Esplin, was sitting in his office handling contracts and orders, when one of his secretaries came in and handed him a floppy disk. "This came in the mail," she said. "It's for you, sir."
He took the disk and popped it into his computer's A: Drive. The disk contained one file: a media clip. Mr. Esplin clicked on the icon with the media file and his Windows Media Player opened up. The movie showed a small bald man with glasses.
The man said, "Hello, Mr. Esplin. I work at the Genesis Comics & Cards Shop and I have witnessed that Seto Kaiba, the number one ranked Duel Monsters duelist has come into our store and had a duel with one of our fluent customers named Ken Richter. The match ended in a draw. We know that the skills of young duelists captures your attention, so I decided to alert you about this young boy. If you would like some more information on this duelist, send me an email at k_thompson9164@genesisshop.com. Have a nice day, sir." The movie ended.
Mr. Esplin turned his chair around to face a window that showed the other towers of downtown Portland. "A skilled duelist.hmm.."
* * * At Portland Middle School.
A week had passed since Ken had his duel against Kaiba. During the first day of the new school year, Ken told his friend Stefan, who was also a duelist, what had happened.
"You against Seto Kaiba?" Stefan said. "Yeah, right."
"I'm telling the truth," Ken said. He took out his deck and showed Stefan the Blue Eyes White Dragon card. "See? It's right there."
Stefan didn't take his eyes off the card. "Wow. No kidding. so the duel ended in a draw?"
"Yeah, right after I used my Tremendous Fire card."
"So how do you think Kaiba knew that you had this Blue Eyes?"
"I don't know. But do you think you could somehow hack into KaibaCorp's data and find out for me?"
"Sure, lets go to my house after school."
Stefan and Ken were in were in Stefan's room using his computer. "Okay, it should be set up now. But turn around. I don't want anyone to see how I do this." Ken did as he was told and turned around, only hearing the tapping on Stefan's keyboard. "Done. You can look now."
Ken looked at the screen and he saw a list of different files, all part of KaibaCorp's network. "Click on that." Ken pointed to a file called seto_diary.doc. Stefan clicked on it. A word file opened up and most of it was in text that wasn't real until the boys saw a part of the file that was in Japanese letters.
"I think I'll be able to translate this...alright, it'll take a while. Let's go watch some TV or something."
The boys watched some anime cartoons in Stefan's room until they heard the computer beep, and they rushed over to it. The document had changed. The weird text was still the same, but the Japanese had changed into English. "Let's see what we have here.." They saw a good paragraph of English that read:
Takaishi had alerted me that in America there was some kind of misprint in a pack of Duel Monster cards and that a Blue Eyes White Dragon card was made. I'm going into Portland, Oregon in the United States tomorrow to take care of this matter, because I could never let a Blue Eyes White Dragon card fall into the hands of a duelist that would enter a world tournament and challenged me. It would seem funny that this would happen around now, especially since I had already dealt with the fourth Blue Eyes White Dragon card recently. My plan would be to pay money for the Blue Eyes White Dragon card to whoever gets it.
"Yeah, like that worked," Ken said. "See if there's anything else." Stefan scrolled down the page until they found another two paragraph in English:
I've just returned from American. My plan to buy the fifth Blue Eyes White Dragon from the duelist who had bought it had failed. I challenged him to a duel, and I did not win. But I didn't lose either. It somehow ended in a draw, due to the Tremendous Fire magic card. Well, with the fourth Blue Eyes destroyed and now a fifth one created, there are once again four Blue Eyes White Dragon cards in the world.
But my visit to Portland, Oregon paid off. As I toured the Genesis Comics & Cards shop, I discovered that there would be a Duel Monsters City Tournament taking place. It seems that the Esplin Association, which is the host of the tournament, has a created a prize card for the victor of the competition known as the Golden Eyes Supreme Dragon. A card so incredible it is stronger than the Blue Eyes White Dragon itself. So I have decided to hire a duelist and send him to compete in the tournament for me so that the Golden Eyes Supreme Dragon would be mine. It's a shame I couldn't go. But I still have matters to attend to. There are some things that I have to take care of at the tournament at Duelist Kingdom as well.
"Whoa," Ken said. "That Kaiba creep is sending someone to the tournament to get that rare card."
"All the better reason we should be at the competition," Stefan said.
"You're going to be in the tournament?"
"Of course."
"That's cool. Well, I better get going."
When Ken got home that day his dad asked him, "How was school?"
"It was alright," Ken said.
"Well, a letter came for you in the mail today, from the company that's hosting that tournament you're going to be in." Ken's dad gave him an envelope.
Ken went into his room and sat down on his bed, opening the envelope. It seemed like the real business-type letter. The letter read:
Dear Mr. Ken Richter,
My sources have told me that you have recently held a Duel Monsters match against Seto Kaiba, the Japanese champion duelist, in the Genesis Comics & Cards shop. Even ending a draw against a duelist like Seto Kaiba seems like a great accomplishment, showing us that you are a skilled duelist. It has come to our attention that, even though you've never competed in a Duel Monsters tournament, that we are giving the title of an expert duelist. We realize that your duel against Seto Kaiba wasn't an official match, but it has drawn our attention. We have also discovered that you have signed up for our Duel Monsters City Tournament in Portland, and we can't wait to see you there.
Signed, Wayne Esplin President and C.E.O. of Esplin Association
"Wow, this is getting serious," Ken said. "I'm starting to think it would be better if I never bought that pack of cards with that Blue Eyes White Dragon. Oh well. all I can do now is wait and prepare for the tournament."