Chapter 1: And so it begins.
It was five o'clock in the afternoon, and, having returned from work about an hour ago, Stella Nova, aged 19, and feeling that she had something to prove, was finally outdoors once again, meeting with all the friends she had left behind when she left school and instead of going on to university went out and got herself a job.
Unlike many people her age, particularly the girls, she was into the gaming craze that was duel monsters, and wasn't bad when she actually duelled either, possessing a deck that had the ability to deal serious damage to an opponent's life points within the first few turns of a duel, then following up to finish her adversaries off.
Amongst her friends and duelling colleagues she was considered to be the best duellist yet, but deep within she knew, whether it was false modesty or not, that there were many duellists better than her.
Then, just as she met the old gang just outside the local "Devlin cards and dice emporium", which was their hangout point, mostly because the place had the facilities to hold real duels, but also because the manager of the local branch, old Mr. Khan, was the father of one of the duellists in the group, a commercial came up on the big screen TV in the emporium's foyer. It was a new commercial, starting with TV footage from the last ever public duel between Seto Kaiba and Yugi Motou, where Yugi had played "Ring of Destruction" (IOC-SE3) against Kaiba's "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon" (P3-01) to force a draw in the first turn. Then, a voice, one that sounded like Seto Kaiba himself, announced, "In five weeks time the Kaiba Corporation will be holding a special duel monsters tournament, the winner of which will have the chance to face either of the retired Duel Monsters champions, Yugi Motou or my brother Seto Kaiba, to a duel to end all duels, the event of the decade, if you will."
Huh, the voice, which had sounded so much like Seto Kaiba, although they had not seen the speaker, had claimed that it belonged to Seto's brother- what was his name? Uh...Oh, yes, Mokuba or some such.
The voice continued, telling them that anyone who was interested should sign up at any one of a number of places, most of them run by the Kaiba Corporation, for example, Kaiba Land (all branches), Kaiba Burger (the subsidiary company run by Mokuba Kaiba), but also at various larger branches of "Devlin's card and dice emporium".
Then, a voice came from behind her, "Hey, Stella, you hear that, each of us has the chance to challenge the champions of duel monsters, it'll be the ultimate duel off a lifetime!" The voice, she realised, belonged to Ahmed Khan, the manager's son and one of the better duellists in her circle of friends.
He was of Indian origin, and three years younger than her at sixteen years of age. "You want to compete?" he asked, "My dad has me registered for the tournament, so we can get you registered as well, if you want. The prize money for the top eight competitors is a minimum of $20,000...with a double for each extra round you take part in."
It was a long shot, she thought, but taking part in a tournament like that would be fun and would tax her to the limit, she thought, and followed her friend to the counter where his father would register her for the tournament.
Meanwhile, in another city, Jet Kypper was heading home from yet another shift of waitressing, telling herself that she'd quit the job if only she didn't need the money to get through university when she went in the autumn. Parking her motorbike, she locked it away in the garage before going inside. She picked up the assortment of post and newspapers from off the mat inside the door, sorting through them as she made her way to the lounge. Finally, she thought, the duellist world (which she had subscribed to only a couple of months back) had arrived; this month it was only a couple of days late, but hey, the postal service in Britain was going to hell in a handbasket anyway. That was interesting, she thought, spotting the advert that jumped out as she flicked through, a worldwide duel monsters tournament, prize money for the top eight, all expenses paid, and it would be fun in any case. She wasn't doing anything then that she couldn't cancel, and she had that fortnight booked off from work as holiday anyway.
In Canada, in a small town near one of the major cities, Christian Zenevas had just heard about Kaiba Corporation's new duelling tournament. This was excellent news he thought, turning down his hi-fi so that loud music would not have disturbed his plans to claim this latest title, as the premier duellist of all time. Last year he had come second in the Canadian national tournament, only for the tournament winner to die horrifically in a car crash a few weeks later, leaving him as Canada's best duellist on record. He would of course enter this new tournament, but first, he thought, he would see how his deck and strategy could be improved upon with the addition of a few of the newest cards around. Whatever happened, he was going to prove himself a ranking duellist in the world once and for all, destroying even the might of Kaiba's Blue Eyes Shining Dragon, if he could.
Karina Tsada looked up from her cat, Sylvia, the post had arrived, and her father said their was something for her. It wasn't only that she was one of Japan's top duellists since Yugi and Kaiba had retired, having even won the world under-20's title once (last year), but she was also in a variety of other clubs for strategy games, almost outsmarting people for a living, if you will. She ran downstairs to collect her mail, reading the top item even as she went upstairs, which resulted in her tripping over the top step and landing face-first in the upstairs hallway, but that was normal. She scanned through her mail, the only real things of interest being an offer on cat toys at the local pet store, and...ooh, Kaiba Corporation was hosting a worldwide duel monsters tournament, and she was invited to participate as a guest of honour, perhaps even winning the right to challenge Seto Kaiba or Yugi Motou to a duel if she won her way through the rest of the tournament.
A word from the author: This author does not own, has not owned and will not own Yu-Gi-Oh, which is owned by Shonen Jump and its licensees. He does however own the plot line of this story, and any unofficial cards used in this story (there probably will be a few at the very least, but then the game's had 16 years to develop). All existing cards will be treated as such, with a set code given in brackets, (e.g. IOC-SE3). For those wondering about the original version of this story, check out my bio, where, right at the bottom (sorry folks but there may be a lot of waffle before you reach it Reader Advisory: Lethal Waffle Content), there is details on what happened to the original attempt at this fic, and my thoughts on the actions taken.
Thank you for reading, Sedition rules and good night (you can all go to sleep at any time of day now if you just read this first).
MP signing off.