~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~&&~Hikaru no Duel Monsters~&&~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"In Duel Monsters there are three main types of cards" started Yuugi while they were sitting at a table in a room at the Go Institute. They had no other place to go and since they barely met Hikaru thought it wasn't such a good idea to go at his place. They made sure the room was empty and they didn't disturb anyone but they wouldn't be interrupted either. "The monster cards" he said showing Hikaru an orange card with the picture of a fluffy little monster with Kuribou written on the top "magic cards" Yuugi put the Kuribou card back in his deck and instead took out a green card called Fusion "and trap cards" this time he took out a red card named Holy barrier mirror force.
Hikaru noticed that on every magic and trap card was written the effect that it had. On the monster cards were the special effects, the attack points, defense points, attribute and the type of monster. There were also some little stars which he didn't know what were for.
He looked in awe at the large variety of cards in Yuugi's deck and something told him that there were many other new cards he hadn't seen yet.
"In order to play a good game you must carefully choose the cards in your deck and combine all three types of cards. Let me show you." Yuugi looked through his deck and put two cards in front of Hikaru "This is Dark magician. As you can see he's quite strong with his 2500 ATK points but sometimes it's not enough so you can use Book of secret arts on him to make him stronger or Magic hats to hide him and buy some time. You can also put him in the grave and that would make Dark magician's disciple, Dark magician girl stronger. You can also use Fusion on him and another monster to get a stronger monster. There are many ways to use a monster."
Yuugi's explanations went on with ways of summoning monsters by sacrifice, fusion or special summoning which also explained the little stars on the monster cards, the graveyard, types of magic card, trap cards and so on.
After a while Hikaru started to understand the basics but it was only then that he realized how hard the game really was. It was just like go, it took a lot of time to learn how to build up a good strategy and a proper deck.
After a couple of hours he felt ready for a game so Yuugi took a game board and a golden box out of his backpack. Hikaru stared at the box in awe. It was covered in what looked like Egyptian hieroglyphs, it had an eye on the front side and it seemed to match the golden pendant Yuugi had around his neck.
Yuugi opened the box and gave it to him.
"These are my other cards. I don't use them in my usual deck but you have everything you need there to build a proper deck with them. You can borrow them so we can play."
Hikaru took the box and looked at the cards inside.
"Can I borrow these too?" he asked showing Yuugi three cards that looked different from the others. "They're monster cards right? They also seem to be the strongest monsters you have." One of the monsters had 4000 ATK and 4000 DEF and Hikaru thought it was the most powerful monster Yuugi had. The other two were weird since they only had question marks for ATK and DEF but Hikaru liked them.
"You'd better not use those" said Yuugi noticing what cards Hikaru was talking about.
"Why not? What's wrong with them?" Hikaru didn't understand why Yuugi didn't use those cards in his deck in the first place and why wouldn't he let him use them either. He also noticed concern and maybe even a little fear in the other boy's eyes. What was with those cards?
"Those are the Egyptian God cards" explained Yuugi "They're one of a kind and are very powerful. Trust me it's the best to leave them out." What Yuugi said didn't make too much sense but Hikaru decided that if they were one of a kind it might be better to leave them out, so he turned to the other cards and started building his deck with Yuugi's help.
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A few days had passed and Hikaru did nothing else but play Duel Monsters with his new friend. He had even called off his meeting with Touya saying that he had been sick and couldn't make it.
He told Waya how much fun he had playing Duel Monsters with Yuugi and called him to join them, so they took turns and play against Yuugi with the deck Hikaru had built before.
"You're right it is a cool game" exclaimed Waya "Hey Yuug, can you become a pro at this game?"
"You mean like professional go players or shougi players? No. Dueling is not a job, it's more like a duty and a calling" he said remembering the years he spent with his friends and with Atem saving the world. It was his duty. He was the only one who could do it since Atem was sharing his body.
Without noticing he touched the puzzle around his neck.
"But there are tournaments and they are really popular" continued Yuugi.
"Cool" said Waya "Ok, so it's my turn, right? I draw and then I call out Bubble man and since he's the only monster I have I can draw two more cards, then I equip him with…" but he didn't get to finish his turn because the door opened and Touya Akira burst in and looked around.
Flashback
Akira had a match that day and he was just about to go home since Hikaru called off their meeting when Morishita-san greeted him.
"Ah Akira-kun. Good afternoon! Did you have a game today?"
"Good afternoon!" replied the green haired boy with a slight bow "Yes I did."
"How was your game?" asked the young pro.
"It went well, thank you. I won." Akira stated the obvious. Morishita didn't expect any other answer either, it was just the polite thing to ask a pro colleague who had just come out of a match.
"So are you on your way to meet with Shindou-kun?" asked Morishita since he knew about the routine the two rivals had.
"No, I'm going home. He called yesterday and canceled our game. He said he wasn't feeling well."
"That's strange. He didn't look unwell today, or the other day..." started the young pro.
"You saw him today? Where?" interrupted Akira.
"He entered room 10 on the first floor. He was with Waya-kun and another boy I didn't recognize."
The statement was enough to make Akira angry. Shindou had lied to him and cancelled their game for no reason at all and he wasn't about to leave things that way. He will go there and demand an explanation from Shindou and it better be a good one.
"Thank you. Good bye!" he said and bowed in a hurry, then ran up the stairs.
End of flashback
"What's the meaning of this?" the green haired boy demanded with a voice full of anger and a piercing look in his green eyes.
Hikaru was puzzled. He wasn't expecting Touya to be there. "Touya! What are you doing here?" he asked a little surprised and a little scared.
"I should be the one asking you that!"
Touya was right and Hikaru didn't know what to say. He had lied and Touya had the right to be angry and demand an explanation. But he didn't have a good one, not really. What was he supposed to say? 'You know, I'm tired of listening to you criticize my every move so I decided to take a break from our games' or maybe 'I thought you were looking for another rival and I didn't need to show up anymore' no…neither would work.
Fortunately for the speechless Hikaru, Waya did have something to say.
"Well maybe he was tired of you telling him what a worthless rival he is and he decided to have some fun with his friends instead."
Waya had hit a vulnerable spot, Akira's ego, because the second one gave Hikaru a glare that could just as well make Hikaru dig his own grave in order to get away. He looked at him as if Hikaru had revealed their most intimate secret (their conversation) to a total stranger.
It's true that Akira told Hikaru that he wasn't good enough to be his rival but he didn't mean that. Hikaru knew that too but his rival's words still hurt. A lot.
Maybe he lied just to get away for a while and maybe he wanted to give Akira a lesson too. He wasn't sure.
Waya's words were like a dagger in Akira's heart. He always knew Hikaru had many friends he hanged out with. Everybody liked Hikaru and Akira could live with that as long as he had his games with Hikaru every week at his father's salon.
Akira didn't have friends. Sometimes that hurt, when he felt lonely he wished he did have someone by his side…but no one was there. He had his go. Yes, he loved go. Go was his friend. Whenever he felt lonely he grabbed a book of tsumego and tried to solve them, it made him feel better. Or maybe it only made him forget for a moment that he was depressed.
But he didn't need friends. He was a pro player and didn't have time to waste with worthless activities, not if he wanted to be the best. And that's exactly what he wanted. As a pro player he only needed a rival to be complete. It took him a lot of time to find someone he could call a rival but the rival finally appeared with the name of Shindou Hikaru. He wasn't going to let Hikaru go, he wasn't going to lose him.
"I'm only trying to make him improve his game by pointing out his mistakes" started Akira.
"What about you, Touya? Don't you ever make mistakes? Don't you think you have something to learn from me too?" this time it was Hikaru who spoke.
"I can still count on my fingers how many times you managed to beat me, which means you have a lot more to learn. Running away from our games won't help." Akira never gave up.
"Well maybe you should do something else from time to time, something fun if you know the meaning of the word."
Akira went closer to the table where the other three boys sat and saw the already started Duel Monsters game.
"Is this what you canceled our game for?" he shouted.
"Yes" answered Hikaru just as angry "I'm learning how to play Duel Monsters."
The statement was too much for Akira. He felt betrayed, left out of something important like Hikaru's life. Ever since he met Hikaru and they became rivals, Akira believed that he held a special place in Hikaru's life, a place that he deserved after all that hard work, a place that he could keep with hard work. Now however he didn't know what to believe anymore. It was as if their rivalry wasn't as important to Hikaru as it was to him. Was Hikaru really going to leave him just to play some ordinary game?
Akira left the room without another word. There was nothing more to say.
"That's right, go and find another rival in your father's go salon" shouted Waya but Akira was already gone.
It was a moment of awkward silence after that.
"I'm sorry for that" Hikaru broke the silence. "It's my fault that all this happened"
"Forget about him it's not worth it. It was his fault in the first place." Waya tried to cheer him up "Oh well I have to go. I promised Isumi to meet up with him and play a few games. See you later!"
Waya left leaving Hikaru and Yuugi all alone in the now very quiet room.
"Shindou-kun will you teach me how to play go?" the sudden question took Hikaru by surprise. How did Yuugi know that he wanted to play go at that moment?
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Atem?"
"Yes Yuugi."
"Do you know how to play go?"
"This game didn't exist in ancient Egypt and I've never seen it while I was with you."
"Would you like to try it?"
"Yes, I'd like that. I'd like to play a game for once knowing that the fate of the world isn't in that game."
"All right then" Hikaru took a portable go set from his back pack and explained the basics "That's about all. You'll learn the rest by playing." He gave Yuugi the black stones "Why don't you put nine stones before we start."
Yuugi grabbed a stone and almost placed it on a star but then changed his mind.
"No…I'm fine like this" he said as he placed the first stone, starting the game.
Hikaru placed a white stone, then black again, white, black, white… He looked at Yuugi and noticed that the boy was concentrating hard on their game, he was very serious…and more mature…se looked changed. He dismissed the thought. How could he change? But he did look different and he did play extremely well considering that it was his first time and…..he was holding the stones properly.
By the time Hikaru decided that it was time to give the board a proper look he was loosing. How was that possible?
"Are you sure this is the first time you play?" he couldn't believe it was. He remembered how long it took him to learn how to hold the stones properly, this boy couldn't have done it right the first time.
"Yes."
Yuugi's voice sounded different, deeper but Hikaru dismissed the thought again.
"Hikaru, he's no ordinary player."
"You noticed too Sai? I thought it was just me."
"No, I saw it too…Hikaru let me play him, you are already loosing."
He was loosing. Badly.
The game went on black, white, black, white…
"What's wrong Atem?"
"Something has changed in his game…"
"What do you mean?"
"He's playing a lot better and his style is slightly different."
"Maybe he didn't want to give all he had for your first game but then realized that he had to do better than that."
"No, it's not that... He realized a while ago that he was losing but the game he played only changed later."
"What do you think it means?"
"I don't know."
Black, white, black, white…
"He's the strongest opponent I had in more than a thousand years"
"I see that too. I would have lost a long time ago but with you playing I'm not worried. You can win, right Sai?"
"I'll try but I can barely keep up. It's hard to believe that it's his first time."
"Yes it's like he's the king of go or something."
"Or king of games…"
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Note: I decided to put Juudai's deck in the story too but here it belongs to Yuugi.
R&R pretty please