Ancient Tournament

Chapter one: The shadow duelist

The sun rose steadily over the small but well known city, the home town of the King of Games, Domino city. It had been six months since the Pharaoh was put into his peaceful sleep, a lot was different now that he was gone. None of them wanted to admit it but things were much better with the pharaoh around, life in general was much more exciting. Their group of friends had spaced itself apart, Tea moved to California for the summer, Joey got a job and didn't have much time for dueling, and Tristan was always visiting his younger brother Terry on the weekends. Yugi was now a junior at Domino High School, school had also become a dull place without the pharaoh. Yugi suddenly awoke to the intense rays of the sun, he quickly shielded his sensitive eyes from them. He yawned and stretched his arms into the air. He slowly got up from his bed and peered at the clock, it was twelve 'o clock in the morning. His alarm had been set to seven but for some reason it hadn't gone off. He yawned again then headed for his kitchen which was above his grandpa's card shop, he could hear him cleaning up the shop before it opened in thirty minutes. Yugi grabbed a small bowel and poured in his favorite cereal and some milk, he was finished within three minutes. The phone rang a second later, he picked it up to find that it was Joey.

"What's up Yugi?"

"Nothing much, I was just on my way to the bakery."

"Change of plans, I'm getting off early and just wanted to know if you'd like to hang out."

"Yeah sure where do you want to meet?"

"The Archeiological center in about an hour, okay bye", Joey hung up the phone.

Yugi rushed to his room and quickly got dressed. When he was done he ran down to the shop to say bye to his grandpa, however he was gone. Yugi searched everywhere in the shop but could not find him. He walked out the door and grabbed his bike, he rode around for almost an hour until he finally found him at the park sitting on a bench. Yugi approached him but stopped when a man in black stepped in front of him.

"Yugi Moto?"

Yugi nodded to the man's question then asked for his name. He gave him no answer, he just turned to his grandpa and approached him. Yugi's grandpa stood still as if he were a statue. Yugi continued towards his grandpa but was stopped by the man's voice, "You're grandpa has been consumed by the shadows, if you want him back you'll defeat me in a shadow game. If I lose, you get your grandpa back, but if you lose you'll give up the information of the whereabouts of the pharaoh's tomb and you will lose your soul!"

"What... I thought this was over, I guess it never ends. Fine we'll duel."

The man smiled then said, "Meet me here at ten tonight or you'll never see your grandpa again."

Yugi nodded then watched as the man and his grandpa disappeared into the shadows. Yugi rushed back to the card shop, grabbed his duel disk and stuffed it in his backpack, then he took his bicycle and rushed to the Archaeological center; he was ten minutes late.When he arrived Joey gave him a confused look, he explained everything to him. Joey was shocked but kind of relieved, he already missed the action.

"What are we going to do?"

"The only thing we can do, duel him Yugi!"

Yugi nodded,"Alright, why did you call me here?"

Joey walked into the center and Yugi followed, they went down many long halls and flights of stairs, through doorways and down elevators to lowest floor before the basement. They walked into a room that was well lit by several lamps. Joey walked into the room and pointed at two stone tablets that were in dusty display case. Yugi slowly approached them, when he was up close he could see that they were Egyptian artifacts. Each tablet was half the size of Yugi and nearly forty pounds. Yugi looked at the inscriptions, he could somehow read them. They said: So come the great power of the five Egyptian Tablets of the dark lord, a power with held in these tablets with a strength tenfold that of the Egyptian Gods. Darkness and destruction are all that come from the power of the tablets, once released nothing but the power of a pure hearted duelist can stop it. It will all end when darkness is complete and all hope is lost, only then shall the, the inscription was destroyed beyond that point.

"This is bad Joey, I think whoever that guy was, he was looking for these."

"Then let's make sure he doesn't get them, I'll tell the security that there's a thief who's looking to steal these things. Then they'll up the guards for sure, and you can beat him in that duel tonight; they'll be safe for certain."

"I hope your right, but I'm not sure if he's the only one after them.", they both started the long journey to the top floor. When they reached the top floor they were greeted by a young boy, he was a couple years younger than Yugi. He wore a short sleeved black shirt and blue jeans, his hair was blonde and-brown and spiked in all different directions, and on his feet he wore an expensive pair of sneakers. He gave a quick "hello" to Joey and a respectful "hello it is very nice to meet you" to Yugi. He, of course, had no idea who this boy was but Joey did.

"Eh Yugi this is my new pal from work Tai, and you know that this is Yugi of course", Joey introduced them to each other.

"It's nice to meet you too Tai."

"If you wouldn't mind Yugi, I'd like to duel you."

"Sure, where and when?"

"Oh... um how about the park and now."

"Yeah I have to be there later on so that's fine with me, let's go", they all headed to the park.

They reached the park and took their dueling spots, Yugi pulled out his from the backpack and slid it on.Tai's dueldisk had already been on, they both activated them and began the duel.

"I'll go first Yugi."

"Alright", Yugi said while wondering what cards he'd have.

"To begin with I'll set this monster in face down defense mode, and then I'll place to cards face down to end my turn. Your Move Yugi."

Life Points:

Tai: 4000 Yugi: 4000

"Okay, first I'll summon the Witch of the Black Forest in attack mode."

ATK/1100 DEF/1200

"When my monsters destroyed I get to take a monster with a defense of 1500 or less from my deck to my hand, now I equip the magic card Black Pendant which increases my monsters attack by 500! Now attack his face down monster my witch. Yugi's monster shot a dark beam at the face down card, after the smoke cleared Yugi saw that his monster was still there, it was some kind of reaper.

"Ha, you look confused Yugi. This is my Spirit Reaper, you see he can't be destroyed by normal attacks, only magic and trap cards can destroy it! Anyways it's my turn again," he drew a card and was happy with the outcome.

"This doesn't look good",Yugi thought.

"Now I summon my Nin-Ken Dog in attack mode!"

ATK/1800 DEF/1000

"Then I activate the magic card Mystical Space Typhoon which allows me to destroy one of your magic cards, so say goodbye to Black Pendant", a giant thunderbolt destroyed Yugi's card.

"Ha, now you lose 500 lifepoints for the destruction of my card", Yugi laughed.

"It matters not, Nin-Kin Dog destroy his witch", the ninja like dog sprinted across the field and slashed Yugi's monster with a katana.

"No", Yugi yelled as his monster was destroyed," So, I still get to grab a monster."

Yugi quickly searched through his deck and grabbed the Summoned Skull and put it into his hand.

Tai: 3500 Yugi: 3300

"Your good Tai, this should be a fun duel", Yugi drew a card from his deck.