The Power of Friendship
I started playing Duel Monsters about two years ago when it had just come out. I had bought myself a starter deck and a few booster packs with the money I had gotten for my birthday, I didn't pull anything overly spectacular, but I could make a fairly good deck out of it.
It was centered on Shadow Ghoul and a few combo's that I thought were fairly nasty, but I had fun mostly. I wasn't at the tournaments too be the best, I was just there to have fun. I had a descent record at the local card shop, 25 wins to 9 losses, and I could hold my own in a battle, even against our best duelist.
I had gotten a summer job that year, and I began to play Duel Monsters less and less, until I hadn't played for over four months. I decided to stop playing, as I was happy making money, and I would rather make money then miss out on a shift or two for a card game.
It was later that year, around Christmas time that I signed up for an Extended Student Exchange Program, which would start the first of the next year. I already had the money to pay for the ticket to Japan, so I just wrote them a check and waited for the exchange to start.
I worked for most of the time, doing my class work. I never had any friends there, and I didn't really want any either. I took my spare time, and in the year that I had too prepare, I had a grasp of the Japanese Language that most Japanese students of my age had. I had once been told that I had a I.Q over 200, I just thought that the schoolwork was easy, I mean, who couldn't make a fraction out of a logarithm?
I was sixteen when I left for the airport, and I would be in Japan working and living there until I was twenty-two. I didn't mind though, I didn't have anything that would really keep me around. My family was pretty much split up, my Brother and Sister lived with my mother in Idaho, so it was just me and my father, who drove big rig trucks for a living, so he wasn't around very much either.
Now, I'm not saying that he was a 'Bad Dad', but he just never really cared much about me after mom left, but I'm not going to get into that. I went to the airport on my motor scooter, hauling my little trailer that held my suitcase and other things. I got to the airport and put the suitcase and motor scooter through the baggage check, then my carry on duffel bag.
I got onto the plane alone, the others had already gotten on their flight hours ago, and were most likely part of the way there. I sat down, in the aisle on the left side of the plane and set my duffel bag down underneath me.
I grabbed out my only two compatriots on this flight, a notepad with a pen, and a book. I looked down at it; it was the only gift my father gave me for my birthday. I hauled the massive book up and onto the tray, then looked at the cover; 'War and Peace' shone back at me from the leather bound book, the lettering in gold leaf.
"Dad… sometimes you surprise me," I said with a chuckle, and I cracked into the massive literary monster. The flight took 20 hours, what with the stop over in Cairo, and I arrived in Japan in the wee hours of the morning, 5:30 a.m. to be precise. The only problem was that it felt like it was 5:30 p.m.! I stepped off the loading dock and into the terminal proper at about 6 a.m. and collected my baggage.
I had the address of the people that I would be staying with, a Mr. Solomon Motou, and I doubted that he would be out here this early, so I hooked up my baggage trailer to my motor scooter, and began to walk the machine out of the terminal.
When I got to the reception area, I saw a older gentleman with a orange bandana on his head, standing there with a young man whom had the most outrageous hair I had *ever* seen! It was nearly purple it was such a dark red, and it had blond spikes in the front! The young man was holding up a sign that had 'summers' written on it in big black magic marker with al sorts of decorations on it. I walked forward softly, putting the scooter on its kickstand, and I walked towards the two of them.
"You must be Mr.Motou," I said, bowing as I did. The two of them nearly leapt out of their skin and turned to me. I had a small smile on my face, I hadn't intended to scare them, but people said I had a silent walk. The young man looked up, *way* up, and he smiled. I think the kid was maybe five foot four inches tall, and since I stood an even six-foot-five, I dwarfed the young man.
Now, I was no Bronze Adonis, I was overly skinny, with long, spindly limbs. They used to call me 'spider-boy' back in school. The older man smiled to me and nodded.
"That I am, and you must be Keith, right? And just call me Grandpa" he said with a chuckle. The boy had an odd pendant around his neck, and large inverted pyramid with the Eye of Ra on it.
"I like your necklace, young one" I said, rubbing a small pin on my vest.
"Thanks, I like your pin too" he said, his voice bright and chipper.
"Name's-"
"Keith Summers, I know, we got a package on where you came from a few weeks ago"
"Well, since I'm so well-known around here, can I ask you-"
"Yugi! Yugi Motou!" he said, taking my hand in his and giving it a firm shake.
"Aren't we eager?" I said with a soft smile. Yugi chuckled and walked to Mr. Motou's car, well, it was a mini-van in all respects, and it was already pretty full!
"I brought some friends, I hope you don't mind" Yugi said a little apprehensively.
"No, but where am I going to put this?" I asked, patting my motor scooter. Mr.Motou smiled.
"We can put it on the roof, and you can sit in the back so you can get to know everyone. Joey!! Tristan!!
Get out here and help me with this!!" he called. Two of the guys got out of the minivan, smiled at me, and I watched with my heart in my throat as they hefted over $1500 worth of machinery onto the roof of the minivan, then tied it down with a few bungee cords. I was a little apprehensive, I was never good at first impressons, and I really didn't like the idea of being cramped in the back of the small van.
"So Keith, what do you like to do in your spare time?" Yugi asked. I looked at him and shrugged.
We all piled into the van, which I noted was actually a full sized, eight-seat van. During the ride, Yugi
introduced me to his friends, and Joey was babbling on and on. But I did pick up one thing; He mentioned Duel Monsters. I had brought my deck, as I might find someone to play with, but I wasn't sure.
"You play Duel Monsters?" I asked.
"Damn straight I do! Came in second in the Duelist Kingdom Tournament!"
"Oh… cool. I was wondering… you wanna have a game when we get back and I'm settled in?"
"Sure! And I'll even go easy on you!!" he said with assurance in his voice. Yugi looked at me.
"You had better be careful, Joey's pretty good!"
"Hey, it's all fun, ain't it?" I said with a small smile. To say that I was as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs would've been a gross understatement. I fished my deck out from within the confines of my duffel bag and began to idly shuffle it.
Well, this is the first chapter of a Yu-Gi-Oh! Story that I hope will be good. Oh, and by the way, the deck my character uses will not have any super-powerful-made-up-special cards that these fanfiction's usually have. If anything, the only place you'll see those are in a certain bad guys deck. Please Read and review.
Signed;
Your friendly Neighborhood Death Jester.
