Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh, but I do own the characters that you don't recognize. Unless you don't know who Mai Valentine is.

Chapter 19: Announcements

Shisei looked at the card he drew with satisfaction. 'Alright, I have a better chance now!"' he slid the card facedown into his disk. "I set one card and attack your monster with Magician of Black Chaos (2800/2600)." Kou winced, as, even with his monster's bonus, it lost the battle and depleted his LP.

Kou-2000

Shisei-4750

Kou drew. "I'll start with Card of Sanctity!" they each drew until they had six cards, Shisei worriedly, as he was even sooner to deck out. Kou looked at his new hand and smirked. "I'll play, Black Luster Ritual," Kou slid a card down and Shisei clenched his fist. "Now I'll sacrifice my Big Shield Guardna, and my Mystic Swordsman LV. 4 to the graveyard, to bring forth my own ritual creature. Behold, the Black Luster Soldier (3000/2500) in attack mode!" the golden armored creature appeared and glared down at Shisei. "Any last requests?" Kou asked.

"Actually, yes, I'll activate my Astral Barrier Trap card!" an astral shield in the shape of Shisei appeared in front of the Magician of Black Chaos. "Now if you aim to attack my monster, I can deflect the blow with my own body!" Shisei stated, preparing for an attack.

"Okay, you asked for!" Kou pointed at the Astral Barrier in front of the monster on Sei's field. "Your up, Black Luster Soldier (3000/2500), attack Shisei's Magician!" the barrier did indeed block the sword slash from Black Luster Soldier (3000/2500). "End turn!" Kou smirked as he gained some headway in the duel, and Shisei only had a few cards left to play.

Kou-2000

Shisei-1750

Shisei drew. 'Alright, this is going to be my last chance!"' Shisei drew and looked at the card. In complete shock, he looked at his favorite monster and smirked. "Alright Kou, I'll end my turn with one card facedown!" he informed his opponent.

"Draw!" Kou slid the card off his deck with glee. 'I'm actually going to beat Sei, after all of his talk and wins when I was a newbie!"' Kou was simply ecstatic. He had Black Luster on the field, and now, he saw that he had drawn the Buster Blader. "Okay Sei, this is it, I'll set one monster in defense mode, and attack again with my golden armored soldier!" the Black Luster Soldier, responding to it's master's call, lunged over and cut the Black Magician in half. "End turn."

Kou-2000

Shisei-1550

Shisei sighed, seeing his magician turn into digital dust was definitely not the pick me up he needed. "Okay, you want to play that way, then I'll show you!" he drew. 'Okay, I have one more turn after this, then, I'm dead meat!"' Shisei looked at the card he drew and then at his graveyard. 'It could work… but only with a little help from Kou!"' he looked up at Kou, who was laughing gleefully.
"Alright, I now play, Double Spell!" Shisei yelled across to him. Kou stopped smiling and looked crestfallen. "By discarding this card, I can re use a magic card of yours!" he informed Kou.

"What card!" Kou asked, realizing he had only played two spells, none of which should be a help to Shisei.

"I choose: Card of Sanctity!" Shisei informed him. Kou blinked in surprise. "Don't you worry about me Kou, I now play Hidden Book of Spell, and add these two spell cards from my Graveyard, to my deck!" he selected two cards in his ejected graveyard, and place them in the deck slot. "Now I'll also set three cards facedown, end turn." he informed Kou.

Kou shrugged and drew. "Okay, I'll set one more card facedown and attack you with Black Luster (3000/2500)!" his monster slashed at Shisei again, this time, though, he was foiled by a mirror image canceling out some of his power. "Oh no, Mirror Wall !" Kou groaned, seeing his monster lose 1500 attack points. Black Luster (1500/2500). "Okay, I'll proceed to Main Phase 2!" Kou stated, he slipped both of his monsters off the disk and into his graveyard. "I'll sacrifice my monsters, to summon, Buster Blader (2600/2300) in attack mode." his dragon-slaying warrior appeared. Shisei smirked.

Kou-2000

Shisei-50

"Well, looks like you lose, Kou!" Shisei nonchalantly told him. Kou raised an eyebrow.

"How do you figure?" he asked his best friend.

Shisei drew. "I figure like this, I'll activate, Change of Heart, and bring your monster to me!" he informed a shocked, but still not worried, Kou. "Now I'll activate, Polymerization, and let your monster and my monster become: The Dark Paladin (2900/2400)!" a mighty creature, with eyes burning red like those of a true warrior, appeared, still in Dark Magician's robes of violet. "Now, end this duel Dark Paladin, directly attack Kou's LP!" the monster obliged and slashed its blade as Kou activated a magic card.

"Hold on, the party's just started, I think I'll play Shrink, which will split your mons- WHAT HAPPENED TO MY MAGIC CARD!" Kou looked, in complete shock as his card was destroyed.

"I get to discard a card from my hand, and negate the effect of spell cards, sorry Kou!" Shisei informed him. Kou looked incredulously at his magnificent win, which just turned into a horrible loss. And there Sei stood, proudly looking at him. "Nice match, buddy." he flashed the thumbs up.

Kou-0

Shisei-50

Kou came to his senses he flashed the thumbs up back, and the audience cheered in happiness at seeing such a great comeback. "Well, looks like you won!" Kou stated, as Shisei nodded and the announcer's voice rang out.

"Now for the prize to be presented!" the three tournament packs were shown over the large screen and given to Shisei, who was now blushing redder than a tomato. "Okay, and now that that's out of the way, one of our sponsors would like word with you." the announcer said. People craned their necks to see who it was. But there was no need, Higentaka Osmos was being displayed on the large TV screen, smiling that horrible polite smile of his.

He took the microphone from the announcer and stood between Kou and Sei. "Hello, everyone." Silence fell across the room, as everyone focused fully on Higentaka. "I have had a hidden agenda in hosting this tournament," he began. Some frowned, some nodded in full acknowledgement. Kou felt like twisting around and punching the silver haired man. "Now, the entire purpose of this tournament, for me, was to find competitors for one of the next biggest Duel Monsters tournaments anywhere." he stated. Soon the picture n the vidscreen had changed to show one of an island. The island had many waterfalls and plains, but the most noticeable feature, was a large, clearly visible from the bird's eye view, boulder in the shape of a…

'Chiro, is that a dragon?"' Kou asked the mysterious Chiro. To his surprise, he received a mental nod. 'Does this mean were talking again?"' Kou questioned. He felt odd, asking it as though he thought he should apologize.

'I never said we weren't." Chiro replied simply. Kou smiled to himself. 'Now listen, this could be important!"' Chiro gruffly commanded. Kou rolled his eyes. But Shisei was thinking along the same lines of Chiro, apparently, as he elbowed Kou in his ribcage. Chiro didn't seem to notice but Kou glared at the blond, who didn't look sideways at him.

"This prestigious tournament will beheld on the infamous, Dragoon Island!" Osmos told them, people whispered excitedly, talking about getting tickets and thins of the sort as Osmos finished the sentence. "As I was saying." the audience quieted down once more. "As I was saying, this tournament will be one of the greatest events in dueling history… So, naturally, it can only be attended if you are invited." everyone groaned. "Which brings us to my point of tonight, this is indeed going to be a tournament to remember, and these two boys proved their worth, by working their way from the level of rookie, to the level of pro." he smiled and put his arms over the shoulders of Shisei and Kou, who both felt as though they would puke. "So they will, two weeks from now, be boarding a boat with renowned duelists like Yugi Moto, Seto Kaiba, and Joey Wheeler, for this tournament!" the audience exploded into applause, and Shisei and Kou were let go off.

Shisei and Kou slowly backed out of the arena, waving and smiling in false happiness to please the crowd. At least Kou's happiness was false. "What are you doing!" Kou looked at Shisei, annoyed that his best friend was actually enjoying the attention from the crowd when he needed to discuss the whole tournament deal with him. "We need to talk!" he finished, taking Shisei forcefully by the arm and dragging his best friend off.

"HEY!" Shisei yelled over the roar of applause for him, the new champion. "I was enjoying this!" Shisei wrenched himself from Kou's grasp and then willingly, though still a bit reluctantly, walked with him through the throng of the crowd and into the darkness of the night.

Back at the hotel room, Kou had just finished glaring at Shisei. For Shisei had the brilliant idea to give his own mom a play by play of the match, in which his victory was secured by Kou's own carelessness. He twisted a few details as well, insisting to his mother that he got down to 1 LP and then destroyed Kou, who had "a bazillion LP" with an impossible combination that Yugi Moto couldn't have pulled off. "Well, now that you know my brilliant victory, I guess you'll be allowing me to ride home with Kou tomorrow!" Shisei asked hopefully. After a small argument that Kou only heard one side of, they had it all planned out. "Okay, bye mom!" Shisei hung up and yelped in pain as Kou gave him a noogie.

"Oh yeah, I had a bazillion LP, smooth Sei, real smooth!" Kou smiled. He may have lost the match, but he wouldn't lose this. Shisei stopped struggling, which was Kou's signal to stop. "Anyway," he began. "I wanted to ask you about this whole tournament. Are we going to go?" Kou asked.

Shisei felt it was odd that Kou would ask his permission. "Well, I guess, I mean, Osmos was obviously preparing you for something like this." Shisei finished. He looked up, and gasped. Standing where Kou was just at, was none other than Chiro.

"Sorry for the abrupt change kid, but I told Kou I had to say my piece!" he began. Shisei nodded, faintly acknowledging Chiro's large fangs and slitted golden eyes. "Um, er, I guess this is really our first formal meeting, so hey." he raised a hand in a waving motion, Shisei nodded faintly.

"So what is your piece exactly?" he asked, now turning back to his focused, observant self. "Does it have something to do with Osmos?" he continued to inquiry.

Chiro looked out the window. "I don't know why, but I feel like… I know that island, so I already asked the kid, Kou, I mean, if we were going." Chiro said, pushing his silver hair out of his eyes. "Now I'll understand if you don't want me to b-" he was cut off.

"Were all in this together, whatever the hell Osmos is doing around here… Your with us!" Shisei held out his hand. Chiro blinked for a few seconds, then took his hand.

"Yeah!" Shisei jumped as an astral version of Kou appeared along side his counterpart, Chiro. Chiro blinked in surprise. "Don't ask, I don't know how I did this." Kou stated. Chiro and Shisei looked at each other, and then they both laughed, eventually, Kou joined in to, and they laughed harder and harder through the night.

Osmos walked into a dark room. He saw his three partners standing and waiting for him. "Ah, you undoubtly wish to know of my progress with the God Snatchers Operation." Osmos said. The crew nodded. "Well, I think you will be pleased." he continued, now smiling, he turned on the light. "We have our subject!" the men looked at Osmos, who raised his finger and pointed. At first, you wouldn't have thought anyone was there, but surely enough, there was a young boy, very young, no older than Namia's second opponent in the tournament, Stopper. He looked up and smiled at them.

"My name is Ryuko… The true Master of Blue Eyes White Dragon!" the boy stated. He had a youthful growl. He was average height for about a ten year old. He had glaring cold eyes of green and his brown hair was in a braid that touched his shoulders. He certainly didn't look like a master of any dragon. The men raised their eyebrows. Ryuko, seeing their doubt, turned to Osmos, readying his deck.

Osmos smiled. "Show them!" he exclaimed.
The boy removed a card from his deck. Rain was splattering against the window. As he flipped the card over, thunder struck, covering the gasps of all the men in the room. The card the boy showed them, was most definetly, a Blue Eyes White Dragon…

Next time: Kou, Shisei and Chiro approach the time that was designated for the tournament, all the while preparing and tutoring each other in dueling. Now the time has finally come for the Dragoon Island Tournament, the stakes are announced, and the competitors are ready and waiting. Can the trio hope to match the intense skill level of the Island's competitors? Find out next time, on Duel Monsters: Maximum.

A/N: Be honest, how many expected Kou to win? Oh, and don't expect me to update as quickly as I have been lately. I'm still in school, so I got to have a week off for winter break, but come Monday, I'm back in school, so I will post chapters as much as possible, hopefully two a week. Don't stop reviewing though!

To Rex the Emerald Dragon: Hope it was a memorable match, but it was hard with Shisei having only magic and traps.