Dimensional Warrior Girl: The Winter Tournament
Author: Chaos Valkyrie
First Conceptualized: October, 2003
Posted Chapter 03: January 31, 2004
Updated: December 22, 2005

Disclaimer: Well, since I am female, I guess I can't be Kazuki Takahashi. Darn. Still don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.

Author Notes: All right, so far, she's beginning to realize that she's not in Kansas anymore. Not that she was there to begin with, but hey! Anywho, more info, yada yada yada. Duels and YGO character interaction coming shortly!

Chapter Three: To Exist or Not Exist

It was a few hours later. Jenni had left the apartment, walking back to the area where Perks was located. She patrolled the boutiques and stores along the square. Nothing like a little shopping to help improve her mood, and she wanted to make sure that the bank card did in fact work. She came back to the apartment loaded down with clothes and various trinkets for her new apartment. She may not like being here, but she would make the most of it.

She dumped the clothing and her new bedding in the bedroom, and proceeded to unpack her groceries in the kitchen. Before she had left, she had given the apartment another going-over, and found it to be severely lacking. The apartment had a lot of the bare essentials, a few bare necessities, but nothing more. There was a bed with an uncomfortable looking pillow, and white cotton sheets. There were no curtains anywhere, only some blinds that looked like they came with the apartment. The bedroom also had an empty dresser and closet. There was a small bathroom with a bar of soap and one towel. Period. There was an almost-empty room with large windows, a desk, bookcase, and a wooden chair. The main area had a simple white couch and two small tables, one with a lamp. The kitchen area had a small radio, which she now turned on to a rock station ('Well, at least the music is somewhat the same.') The cupboards had basic groceries and a mug, a plate, and one set of silverware that looked like it had been stolen from a cafeteria. There were a couple of wobbly-looking stools pulled up to the island, where she supposed she could eat her meals. She was beginning to think that the person who stuck her here, nicknamed Spiky (for the hand-writing), must not like her very much. Like she cared. She just wished they knew how to spell her name right.

She smirked as she unloaded the groceries. She took out her new kettle, and after washing it, filled it with water and put her groceries away while it heated up. When it began to whistle, she pulled out one of her newly-washed coffee mugs and made herself some instant coffee. Slurping away, she moved on to her next set of shopping bags and began to unload. A few candles and pillows placed in the living room helped make it seem more lived in, and as for artwork, she would soon take care of that. She dumped a new sketchbook and some sketching supplies in the office room next to the desk. She shelved her new books on the shelf before heading to the bedroom.

She had noticed that half of the people at the park had been wearing leather of some sort, and so she had felt compelled to buy her own pair of leather pants at one particular boutique. Then she threw in a leather biker jacket to match. Some corsets in various shades, like she had seen several girls wearing quickly followed. She also had bought some of her standard jeans and a few more alluring tops to go with them. And a down vest, fuzzy scarf and hat and some fingerless gloves had followed, to complete a snow-bunny look.

Her most ecstatic purchase had been a holster to carry her airplane wing in. She didn't relish the thought of having to wear it all the time, and this she could slip on her belt next to her deck case, and keep her hands free.

After she had finished putting away her purchases, Jenni finished her coffee and headed back out the door. She had promised the lady at the art store that she would come back before they closed at 5 to get the rest of her purchases – an easel and some painting supplies. When she returned, she would settle back into the problem of her would-be non-existence in this world. However, shopping was good for the soul, and she would make the most of it.

To say that Seto Kaiba was pissed would be an understatement. He had been interrupted continuously throughout the day, with pointless meetings and questions about the company's latest projects. He had only meant to come to work for a short while, but ended up spending the whole morning working with idiots. His lunch had been all too short, and what he found when he had hacked into the Stevenson mainframe had not improved his mood any.

"How can this be!" he gritted.

Kaiba had pulled up the Tournament database and rifled through the duelist profiles until he found the girl from this morning. 'Jenni Moran, Level 5 Duelist' was listed, along with her picture and a picture of her rarest card, a Red-Eyes Black Dragon. But the rest of the profile was what bothered him. Or really, the utter lack of it bothered him.

For Battle City, Kaiba's staff had analyzed every duelist's capabilities. Examined their decks, their records, everything. Like Battle City, a 5-Star or better duelist was a shoe in, while only select 4-Star duelists were allowed to compete. Anything lower was not accepted. Needless to say, extensive dueling information was required to enter a tournament of this stature.

This girl's profile was blank. Just the front page basics, none of the statistics. A quick search revealed that her's was the only incomplete record in the database. So, this was deliberate. Kaiba knew this had to be internal to Stevenson's company – no one could hack into their system and change their stats. Many had tried, none had ever succeeded. Kaiba doubted that even he could change any of the stats before him, although it was tempting to demote the Mutt once and for all.

'What's the deal with this girl, and why do they want her in this tournament so badly?' he thought to himself. He massaged his forehead, feeling a splitting headache coming on. He planned to get the bottom of this.

Jenni sighed. She couldn't explain any of this. After returning with the last of her purchases, she had called everyone she knew, her college, every number she could think of. They simply did not exist. And here she was, in this strange town that didn't exist (well, to her knowledge) not existing herself. It was all too confusing. Well, at least coffee still existed, but her stomach was about to revolt if no food was offered to it.

She knew she wasn't dreaming, she knew this was a waking nightmare, at least. She took off her coat and pulled out the backpack, and did a more thorough search of her possessions.

First, she set the non-possessions to the side. The mangled airplane/Duel Disk, the cards, the newspaper and magazine. All new to her. They key, the envelope, etc.

She pulled out her laptop and turned it on. While it started up, she pulled out her textbook. Russell/Norvig, Artificial Intelligence. That checked. "Hmm, that's the last thing I remember. I left class, chatted with Drew awhile, and then started towards the 4th Street Building for Photography. That's it."

The computer was almost finished booting. She pulled out her class notes, glanced over them. Nothing amiss. A few diagrams, scribbled explanations, a snide comment about the professor scribbled in the corner, courtesy of Harmony, her best friend. Digging further, she pulled out her camera's padded case. It seemed fine. But digging in the case, she realized her film was missing. She yanked it open. The unused film was still there, but the rolls for her assignment were gone.

Grabbing a sheet of paper and a pen, she started a list.

Missing:

College ID.

Photography assignment.

She delved further in the bag. She pulled out her journal and opened it. All the pages she had written on, glued pictures to, were torn out. Her heart wrenched, and she added that to the list. Her good luck dragon plushie, a gift from Harmony, was still there. Her wallet was the last thing. Dreading it, she opened it. All her cash was still there, but her license and other cards were gone. She added that to the list. She turned to her laptop. She rifled through it, and started to get angry. All her papers, stories, poems, all that remained. Her games too. But her journals were missing. Her personal photographs. Everything that talked about her life was missing.

Then she understood. Everything missing directly linked her to her home world. These things were like reference points. They linked her to her past. With them gone, it was like she had never existed. As if this was the only world she knew. She pulled out her modem cable and linked to the net. She was willing to bet money as to what she would find.

Darkness had settled over Domino. Jenni's assumption had proven correct. She had used various internet searches, but found no trace of herself, her family, her friends, even her schools. Her theory was correct – she had been neatly wiped out of one existence, and thrown into another. She stretched, and got up to make some dinner. Crying wouldn't send her back home, and she really didn't know what else to do.

After she ate her pasta in silence, she looked through the papers again. "Well, at least whoever, um, kidnapped me set me up with some nice digs," she shrugged.

A one year lease on the apartment. Hmm, could she go home then? The bank account was more than she would need to live normally for a year, so she could add to the apartment some more. But this tournament thing confused her. The others were basic living essentials – but why force someone into a tournament they knew nothing about? She shrugged again, got up and looked around. She'd worry about that later. First thing, she did what any girl would do – she planned what she would buy next with this free shopping spree.

"Who is she, Big Brother?" Mokuba asked, staring at the profile his brother had sitting on his desk. Needless to say, it was unusual for his older brother to have pictures of anyone (besides Mokuba, of course) on display. Much less a girl.

His brother grunted, looking up from his laptop. "A new mystery duelist," Seto said.

"But why did you print out her profile?" Mokuba pressed, smirking at his older brother.

Seto raised one eyebrow. "It's not that kind of interest. Someone wants her in this tournament, setting up a fake profile to get her into it. She doesn't strike me as a typical Duelist. I want to know why they want her in this so badly."

"You mean, who she is, what kind of trump card she holds, that type of interest?" his brother asked him.

"Yes, and I'll need your help to find out more about her," Seto told him, ignoring his brother's suggestive tone.

Finally settling her mind to the trials at hand, Jenni sat down to finally read the paper. She didn't like being stuck in this world, but she thought she had better play along, for now. The front page article on the Daily Times was about the Winter Tournament. The article explained about the Duel Disks and talked about its creator and the Stevenson man, blah blah blah. But it did include a basic diagram of the disk, so she put down the paper and pulled out the duel disk and cards.

"All right, according to the article, I fit it onto my arm like so – ouch!" she yelped as she pinched herself with disk. She rubbed her arm. "Not too heavy, but not very comfortable either. Let's see, I insert the cards, um, here," she said, fitting the deck into the slot, "and turn it on here." She looked at the button. The picture showed projectiles shooting forth from the disk – she didn't think her landlord would like holes in the wall, so she refrained from turning it on. "This thing," she said, holding up the black cube, "is not a subversive device bent on world domination, but a locator cube. I need eight of these to make it to the semi-finals. Hmm. Considering I've never played this game before, this should be interesting, to say the least."

She pulled the cards out of the disk and shuffled through them. She sorted them by color first. "Hmm, Red-Eyes Black Dragon, eh?" She liked the look of him – he looked, well, almost cuddly. Maybe not the word everyone would use to describe him, but she thought so. "Dark Witch, Gemini Elf, pretty cool." She flipped through the cards, reading those that had directions.

She pulled out the magazine from before. The picture on the cover was of some big white dragon, not quite so cuddly. She flipped to the article inside, which talked about the tournament and game in general.

"Hubba hubba, hello again, cutie!" she said, eyeing one picture inside. Apparently, the dragon on the cover was a Blue-Eyes White Dragon ("Who named these things? A 5-year-old?") and Kaiba owned three of the four in existence. "Well, I hope I get to duel you, Kaiba-cutie!" She'd probably get her ass kicked, but at least she could drool.

The article talked about strategy ("Hmm, better get me some of that!") and tournament rules. It also showed a picture of the last tournament winner, some strange spiky-haired kid, dressed in a lot of leather and buckles. ("Don't any of these kids have parents? And just where are the Fashion Police?") The Duels officially began tomorrow, and she had about eight days to win seven more cubes.

Well, first things first. She understood the hint that she was supposed to compete in this thing. And, unless her mysterious provider wanted her cube for an easy finals ticket, she assumed she was supposed to make it to the semis. So, statistically, she needed seven cubes to get to the finals. If she "dueled" once a day starting tomorrow, she'd have seven, hopefully, by next Monday (one week from today, according to the paper.) Then, if she lost a duel or two, she had time to recoup before next Wednesday, when all Duelists with eight cubes were to meet at the park. But, first things first.

She sighed, then hooked into the internet and searched for "Dueling for Dummies."

End Notes: Well, I'm not sure about what the minimum duelist level was allowed into BC, but I figure a 5-star would be good enough to enter, but on the lower end of the tournament's dueling skills. Also, she's no Mary Sue – she knows she couldn't win a duel to save anyone's life right now. Hence, Dueling for Dummies! Look for actual YGO/OC character interaction next chapter!