5am the next morning, or as I liked to think of it, 5am that night, I heard loud banging at my door plus some words probably not suited for the clearly adolescent voice it came from. Grunting, I got up, and grunted again in annoyance when I realized that I was grunting. I've never grunted before, it was most unladylike, and it just wasn't within the range of sounds that I made! Usually I groaned or moaned, but the change in body obviously had some side effects.

So, grunting and not bothering get out of my pajamas, I opened the door. I looked around at the empty hallway, confused, then looked down at the source of the noise.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you, you big lump!" A kid not too much taller than Weevil, dressed all in green except for a red hat, was screaming at me. I must start reminding people, it doesn't work as well when you had to scream up at your opponent.

"So," he slowed down a little when he saw that he had my attention, "you're the guy who beat Weevil last night."

I studied him curiously, it really wasn't a hard guess, "Rex Raptor?"

"Yep, it is I, Rex Raptor, and I'm here to take back Weevil's cards!" The kid puffed up proudly. "So give it!"

"Sorry," I shook my head, "sold it."

"Sold it? What do you mean you sold it?" Rex was starting to jump up and down again, at this rate, he should get a monkey deck rather than the dino deck he was using.

"Sold it to Kaiba Corp last night." I told him, half truthfully. Perfectly Ultimate Moth could only be summoned with Cocoon of Evolution, a fact that apparently nobody but Weevil knew, or at least admits to knowing. So I had planned on selling this knowledge, and the card, for a lot of money, only it would be best sold as a package with Petit Moth (300/200) and Cocoon of Evolution (0/2000), the latter of which I didn't see in Kaiba Corp last night, so I thought I'd wait a bit.

"Then give me all the money?" Rex Raptor definitely wasn't vicious enough to be a dinosaur, maybe a Chihuahua.

"Isn't that robbery?" I reminded him calmly, it was hard to be threatened by somebody half your size. Being 250lb, I studied him a little more, maybe he was less than 120 lb. He was only like 5'3 or something.

"Then I'll duel you for them!" Rex exclaimed, "You're a duelist, right? So I'll challenge you to a duel, for everything you have!"

I looked up such regulations in depth last night, which states that the challenger can bet up to half of his/her belongings in such a challenge, and the challenged party must match the bet, or become part of the bet themselves.

"I have," I paused to count on my fingers.

1 x Skilled Dark Magician

2 x Slate Warrior

2 x Gear Golem

2 x Copycat

2 x Breaker the Magical Warrior,

1 x Yata-Garasu

1 x D.D. Warrior Lady,

Oh, and that Perfect Ultimate Moth I didn't sell yet, that makes... 12 monsters.

Rex was growing impatient. "I have 12 monsters," I told him.

"All from selling Weevil's cards?" I nodded, "you lucky bastard!" He looked as mad as I had taken the cards from him. "No matter, they'll all be mine soon! So I'll bet thirteen of my best monsters!" So I would be included in the bet was the implied message.

I wasn't comfortable with the brutality of this society, but that wasn't something I could change. So thing being what they were, dueling Rex would be an excellent option to build up some good cards, before I have to face any real opponents.

"Great, let's get things officialised first." I agreed to his challenge, so we left for a dueling stadium, me walking and Rex riding a giant Meteor Dragon (lv 6, 1800/2000). Riding duel monsters were generally prohibited, except for flying monsters for duelists lv 4 and up, as long as it was at least 10 meters above ground. But as the regional champion, Rex Raptor had the privilege of riding one monster he designated (with size restrictions) on the road, and he choose Meteor Dragon.

I frowned at the gathering crowd, my advantages were not hard to see, and I would have preferred to keep them secret, but I guess that wasn't an option at this point.

I was immediately corrected.

By the time we went inside and officialised the duel, there was a clear option that allowed/denied spectators and allowed/denied video records. The more conservative option between the two duelists would be followed, so we have neither an audience nor video recording.

"Don't want everybody to see my dinos kicking your butt to next week?" Rex Raptor taunted, I suppose he wanted an audience.

I didn't have time to respond to any taunting, my duel last night with Weevil could only be described as under 'extenuating circumstances'. So this was my first official duel and I was frantically flipping through pages of the rulebook. Thankfully, there wasn't much to learn, just beat your opponent until they can't summon another monster to the field, whether it's because their magic was drained, or they have no monsters, or their LP reached zero, then you win. The stadium was something to get used to, two duelists stood at 1 meter high platforms at the opposite ends of the dueling field, which is about the size of four basketball courts. Everything else was roughly the Yugioh rules I remembered (from last night that is).

"How are you gonna get at me now, Ushio?" Rex shouted from the other end of the field, the only reason I could hear him was because of the microphones and speakers installed beside each platform.

"As the challenger," Rex Raptor did not deserve a banter-match before the beginning of the duel- that was reserved for stronger duelists. I flipped through the rulebook to the part about challenges, "As the challenger, you can go first." I read out of the book.

"Fine then, if you want to lose that badly. I summon my Blackland Fire Dragon (1500/800) in attack mode! But since it's the first move, I can't attack, so you can survive a couple more seconds before my dino stomps you out."

"Skilled Dark Magician," I called loudly, as their master and coach, I had to appear confident, "attack his dragon!" While ordering the attack, I quickly laid three traps down on the field silently. Laying magic cards down allowed for less energy when activating them.

I watched with interest as Blackland Fire Dragon was attacked, flickered in and out of existence, then exploded into thousands of shards of light before disappearing. Now, it's obviously unreasonable to describe light as 'shards' but it was the best description I could come up with.

"Oh yeah, you think that's tough?" Rex should do less taunting and more summoning, unless he was buying time until he recovers and could summon another monster, in which case, good strategy.

"If you don't make a move, I will," I stated into the microphone softly but firmly, the implied threat thick in the air. Truth be told, it would take me a good minute before I could summon another monster.

"Fine then, come forth, Meteor Dragon, destroy his sorry excuse for a magician!" Rex seemed to be able to summon monsters faster than I could. I frowned. If this is Rex Raptor, how much stronger would Joey Wheeler, Seto Kaiba or Maximillian Pegasus be? I never forgot that my chief enemy was also the main character for this show, Yami Yugi (or I guess both Yugis depending on how you looked at it).

Meteor Dragon's attack was 1800, I remember that from the Duel Monsters index I read last night, while Skilled Dark Magician's attack was 1900, but that was only the theoretical maximum strength, it's unreasonable to assume that a monster I just bought essentially off the rack would be as well trained as that of the regional champion. Meteor Dragon being level 6 also gave it the advantage of increasing its attack strength much faster than level 4 monsters.

So, "come forth, powers of darkness, strengthen my mage!" I activated the Dark Energy that I had on the field, just learned it yesterday, it had better pay off. And it probably did. Because of my spell or otherwise, I didn't know, but my magician emerged unscathed, while Rex's dragon was no more.

"Next, I'll bring out, my Slate Warrior," I really only have three monsters with good attack, so I didn't have a choice. "Attack Rex Raptor now!"

"Not so fast!" Rex shouted. I was confused for a second. It was my turn, there were no traces of spell or trap cards previously laid on the field, what could he possibly do?

Then I saw, Rex slit his own palm open and waved it in front of him. Instead of trickling down his wrist, his blood flew out of his hands and into the air like a mist, before disappearing and being absorbed by a truly incredible beast. Covered in dark, metallic armor, the beast stood at 6 meters tall, probably 4 meters wide, to put things into perspective, that's like a two-story building. It gave off a deafening roar as its blood-filled eyes focused on me, sending a chill down my spine.

"How? How is this possible?" I stepped back out of instinctive self-preservation, nearly falling off of the narrow platform if it weren't for the railings surrounding me. But I was truly surprised because it was my turn! And he didn't have any tributes on the field! How did he summon Red Eyes Black Dragon? And more importantly still, if we weren't following the yugioh rules I remembered, what rules were we following?

Slate Warrior attacked later, so it was able to avoid the blast, but my Skilled Dark Magician had gone in too far when Rex's dragon was summoned, and didn't have time to retreat before the molten fire from the dragon's breath hit him. Even though he was facing away from me, I thought I saw the look of pure agony as the flames engulfed my mage, and I could have sworn I smelt molten flesh. I was a little sick, especially when my eyes caught a glimpse of Waboku that I placed earlier on the field. He didn't have to get destroyed, not if I had reacted in time. But now that he is, I can't even bring him back, not without revealing I knew Monster Reborn, a highly difficult and secret spell that the previous Ushio had no way of learning. At the same time, I could feel my life force draining, I imagine it's what it would feel like if you were about to die.

"Not so tough now, are you?" Rex was bent forward, holding onto the railing just to stand. I heard his rapid shallow gasps from the speakers, as though breathing was too much work for him. "Now my Red Eyes, destroy that pile of plates!"

"Not so fast," I used the exact words Rex did a couple of seconds ago. Not announcing my spell, I added the Axe of Despair onto my Slate Warrior. "Now, Slate Warrior, attack his dragon!" I cried out as confidently as I could manage.

"That little axe can't save you, Red Eyes, attack!"

Both monsters followed commands exactly. Red Eyes aimed quickly at the tiny humanoid creature at its feet. My level 4 monster, being no more than two meters tall, jumped twenty feet into the air before attacking, slicing Red Eyes Black Dragon and its dragon fire attack cleanly in two.

Rex Raptor clearly took more of a hit this time than before, and collapsed onto the duelist platform. "How? How could you have beaten my Red Eyes?"

I didn't give him time to think that through. I wasn't ready to summon another monster yet, but not being turn-based, I could certainly attack. "Slate Warrior, attack Rex Raptor directly!" I would have called out the attack if I knew, but I didn't. I didn't review that far yet. Slate Warrior leaped up onto the duelist platform and simply kicked Rex off. Rex fell of the platform unconscious.

In retrospect, that second attack might not have been entirely necessary, or merited. But I was stressed, and scared, and possibly scarred for life. So in the heat of the moment, I ordered an attack. So I was glad that Slate Warrior didn't actually perform a full attack, which might very well have killed the kid. Duelists dying in battle wasn't unheard of, it wasn't even rare. It's estimated that there's one human death every 157 duels, but I didn't want human blood on my hands if I could avoid it.

"Good job," I struggled to climb down the platform that I jumped onto at the beginning of the duel. Slate Warrior walked up and knelt at the side of the platform as he helped me down. "Good job," I patted him on the shoulder, "for the duel and for not killing that kid." My warrior nodded, his clear blue eyes never once leaving me.

I tried to walk to Rex Raptor, but wobbled dangerously with my first step. Not trusting my legs to carry me 100 feet, I motioned to the earth-based fiend, "grab his deck for me, alright?" Slate Warrior nodded before getting up to obey the command.

So they obviously understood human language, why can't they speak? Was it just a vocal cord thing? Putting that aside as a question to study later, I pulled out my (still pathetic excuse for a) deck, rifling through till I found Skilled Dark Magician. Its card looked unscathed, as did the magician in the image, but I still thought it smelt of flesh and bone slowly being melted, rather than burned, by molten lava.

"Skilled Dark Magician," I said in as loud a voice as I could muster, which when I heard it, wasn't more than a whisper. The card flashed, and as always, the image turned blank and the mage materialized in front of me.

Before he could kneel, I grabbed him by the arm, looking at him, feeling his body, sniffing him and lifting him up just to make sure he was real. He was slightly taller than me, about 6'3, 6'4. All duel monster must tower over Yugi, my mind wandered randomly as it relaxed, seeing the apparently unharmed magician in my hands.

"Wait, are you the same monster I bought last night?" My monster nodded, though his expression clearly indicated that he didn't understand the question.

"So he didn't die and you didn't replace him?" The man (correction, monster, but he looked so human) I was still grabbing by both arms shook his head, wincing a little at the pain I was no doubt causing him. Oh God, the pain! He was just burnt alive by dragon flames.

'Did it hurt when you die?' that question was at the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't voice it. 'Does it hurt when you die every time at the hands of monsters stronger than you? Do you wish you could leave and not be bound by the confines of your man-made prison that we call a card?' But I knew it wasn't going to make a difference, not to me. I needed monsters to survive, I needed to win duels to make sure I would not be trampled on, enslaved or killed by whatever wacko duelist that decided I was easy pickings, I needed to make sure even Yami Yugi can no longer erase me from the face of this earth. Sure, he was the protagonist, but surely I'm from a higher plane. I could be god!

So it didn't make a difference whether my monsters bled, hurt or died, repeatedly, while in my service. It didn't matter enough. So I didn't ask. I did let go of his arms, instead putting my around him and hugged him tightly, hiding my face so he wouldn't see my powerless desperation. The mage stood still, leaving his arms by his side while I put all my guilt and apologies into this wordless gesture he would probably never understand.

"First duel?" a paramedic approached me, smiling. They had already tended to Rex, and he was just looking at me to make sure.

"No," I shook my head. I had made a decision when I came into this world that I would not lie if I could avoid it. I would be lying enough as it is, anymore and I would almost certainly confuse them, "but the first time I lost a monster."

"Ah," he smiled comfortingly, "the first time is always the hardest, but it gets easier, you'll see."

'Easier for whom?' I secreted seethed but didn't voice the question, no reason to take it out on him. "Do you play too?"

"Nah," he shook his head, "never got up the guts. Had a couple of friends who did though, now they're either dead or rich."

I managed to smile back at that, "risk and reward, right?"

"Okay, so I can see that you're doing alright, do you feel like walking around?" The paramedic saw I was more emotionally stable, and move on to the second part of his examination.

"I think so," using Skilled Dark Magician as support, I stood up and walked around a little, first slowly, then more confidently and comfortably. I was utterly exhausted in more ways than one, but if my monsters, who fought and burned and died, were still standing, there's no reason I shouldn't be.

"Good," satisfied with my health, the paramedic patted me on the shoulder before he left, "and if you need anything, our office is downstairs in B127."

Of course there would be a clinic near the duel stadium, it's only practical.

Seeing the other human had left, Slate Warrior showed me the deck he took from Rex Raptor.

I scanned Rex's deck, mostly half-assed dragon-based monsters and a few non-dragon cards worth taking. I looked at our pre-duel agreement again, I was entitled to 13 of the 20 cards he brought. I decided to trade away the cards I took from Rex's deck. I just put their master in the hospital, they must resent me. And if they didn't resent the man who put their master in a coma, I didn't want them.

I scanned each card I took into the machine before putting it into my deck, then handed the rest to the duel modulator, who basically deals with the legal and medical aspects of each duel.

"Come on, guys," I motioned to the two monsters still by my side, it felt wrong to immediately put them back into cards after they just fought for me, "let's blow this popsicle stand." I don't know why I said that. I say weird things when I'm stressed/tired. "Which reminds me, do you guys eat?"

I was greeted with uncertain looks as they followed me out of the stadium, "you know, eating? Food?" I opened my mouth and pretended to eat a sandwich. A chuckle beside me reminded me of how stupid that must have looked.

"They can eat," one of the guys doing routine post-duel damage check-up said, it seemed like everybody knew more about this duel monsters thing than I did. "But they don't need to, and it doesn't help. They just take up more energy to digest the food and get rid of it."

I nodded my thanks, and walked confidently out of the stadium, my two monster in toll.