~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~&&~Hikaru no Duel Monsters~&&~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Shindou, wake up! I'm not going to be late on my first day because of you!" shouted Akira while knocking on Hikaru's door.
"I'm up, I'm up" came the answer from a half asleep Hikaru.
"The car will be here in half an hour. You better be ready by then or I'm leaving without you."
Why did Touya have to be so neat and punctual? Hikaru found that really annoying sometimes. After all it was Touya who kept him awake last night to play go saying that he needed his evening games he used to play with his father when he was at home.
Half an hour later Akira was dragging Hikaru out of the hotel and into the parking place where a black car was waiting for them. After taking them to the Academy outside the city the driver showed them where the bus station was and left.
"Come on Shindou, we still have to find the headmaster" said Akira but Hikaru was too stunned to listen. The Academy was the biggest school he has ever seen and it most certainly didn't look like any school he had ever seen before.
"Right, coming" but they didn't need to go too far because a familiar face was waiting for them on the main building's steps. "Yuugi" shouted Hikaru excited ignoring the just as excited ghost next to him "What are you doing here?"
"I teach here and when I heard that you were coming I offered to be your welcoming committee and guide so welcome to the Domino City's Game Academy" he gave the boys a bright smile.
"Aren't you too young to be a teacher?" asked Akira still not believing and how can you blame him since this city seemed pretty unusual even though he wouldn't admit that.
"I'm older than you and you are teachers here…so why are you asking?"
"We're professional go players. Age is not important when you're a pro" explained Akira.
"Well dueling is not a job, not yet anyway so I can't be a pro but as long as I'm good enough I can be a teacher."
"Isn't it pointless to teach a game when you can't even become a professional player? I'm talking about teaching it in school of course."
"This academy is less than five years old but I'm sure that in time Duel Monsters and other games will be treated just like go and chess. Everyone who comes to study here is aiming to work in the game industry. Most of them are aiming for the Kaiba Corporation or even Industrial Illusions."
Kaiba Corp. sounded familiar to the go players. That Mokuba kid said something about his brother being the president of Kaiba Corp. but the other name didn't mean anything to them.
"So what is with this Kaiba Corp. and Industrial Illusions anyway? Yesterday a kid named Mokuba Kaiba waited for us at the hotel and he said that his brother was the president of Kaiba Corp. and he owned the city." Hikaru asked for details.
"Shall we go?" asked Yuugi showing them the door then he continued "He was right. Seto Kaiba is the president of the largest game corporation, Kaiba Corp. This entire city is built around his game industry. As for Industrial Illusions, Maximilian Pegasus, its president, is the one who created Duel Monsters or shall I say recreate it. The game exists the way it does now thanks to them."
"Recreate it? What do you mean?" Yuugi laughed sheepishly at the last question.
"It's a long story…maybe we should leave it for some other time. It's time for classes anyway." He led them in a large room with many tables with go boards, near a wall there were some computers and a large TV screen. "The headmaster said that you are free to reorganize the class if you have to. I have to go now so…bye!"
"Hey Yuugi! Why don't you come over at the hotel this evening for a game and don't forget to bring your decks?" said Hikaru excited and the other nodded in agreement, then left.
Hikaru and Akira didn't have enough time to look around the room when the students started to enter and take their seats in front of the gobans. None of them paid too much attention to the new comers except for a girl with long blonde hair.
"Are you lost?" she asked.
"We're the new professors" answered Akira. "Could you tell us where can we find the game records?" Akira went strait to the point. He seemed to know where he was supposed to start from and by the end of the day he had a pretty good idea about the level of each their students based on the records at least. He also reorganized the class in a structure similar to the insei school, with two classes and the promotion system. He also announced that from the next day on Hikaru and he will play each student shidougo, not only to personally test their level but to help them improve as well.
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The day passed fast and since they didn't have the afternoon game sessions at the hotel they decided to take a look around the city.
To Hikaru's surprise Akira didn't refuse or complain whenever the bleached boy wanted to enter a game store or an arcade yet he refused to play. He instead waited patiently for Hikaru to try the games and watch other people play.
Suddenly a crowd in the street caught their attention and Hikaru dragged Akira closer to see what was going on. Two boys around eleven years old seemed to be fighting for something.
"Give it back, it's mine" shouted one of the boys fisting his hands.
"No. You lost it and I found it. You know the rule finders keepers losers weepers" said the other with an air of superiority. For a moment there Hikaru and Akira thought they were going to start a fight right there on the spot.
"Isn't anyone going to stop them? Someone might get hurt." asked Akira and a boy who seemed to cheer for the one who lost something explained:
"No…they're not going to fight, they're going to duel. Michi will definitely win and get his card back." Then he turned to his friend and shouted "Go Michi show him what you can do!"
"Game on!" shouted the boys in unison pressing the on buttons on the devices they had on their wrists.
"What are those?" Hikaru asked no one in particular but expected an answer from the boy who talked to them before.
"Don't you know anything? They're duel disks. They're 3D hologram projectors specially created for Duel Monsters."
"Duel disks? Why didn't Yuugi mention them before?" asked Hikaru annoyed.
"Did you say Yuugi?" asked the kid "Do you know Yuugi Mutou?"
"Yeah….why? Hikaru was still puzzled.
"I'm his biggest fan. Wait 'till Michi hears this. Can you ask him for an autograph for me?"
"I guess but… why?"
"Why do I want an autograph from Yuugi? Geez, I don't know. Maybe because HE'S THE CHAMPION OF THE DUELIST'S KINGDOM TOURNAMENT. You really are stupid."
"I'm not stupid!" shouted Hikaru
"Right" said the boy bluntly. Hikaru wanted to tell him some more but the duel in front of him and the 3D holograms were things he didn't want to miss so they both turned to watch the duel and for Hikaru it was the most amazing thing ever.
"Wasn't it great Touya?" he asked his rival on their way to the hotel.
"I guess"
"You guess?! It was better than any video game ever made!"
"If you say so" Akira was still not very impressed. OK he was but he would never allow himself to behave like a child and shout out loud like his bleached rival did. "Alright it was entertaining" he finally admitted.
"You're finally being honest Touya. You can't lie to me. I saw you gasp when that kid called that giant spider. It was a good thing Michi had that Jinzo guy to save him."
"I only gasped because I don't like spiders. That's all."
"Relax….it was just a hologram" Hikaru assured his rival. "There's nothing to be afraid of."
"I wasn't afraid only it was ugly and the eggs it laid were gross." The face Akira made when he said 'gross' made Hikaru laugh out loud.
"You know Touya you should try this game sometimes it's really fun."
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They arrived back at the hotel and went to eat something before Yuugi came. After what happened today Hikaru had so many questions for Yuugi like why didn't he mention the Duelist's Kingdom Tournament or those awesome hologram projectors or the fact that he was a champion.
Akira had his questions too. He knew even less about Duel Monsters than Hikaru did but he had to admit, at least to himself, that it was an interesting game and the holograms made it look so…real especially when the duelists put their hearts in the game.
He knew that feeling and understood it well. He too put his heart in go especially when he played against worthy opponents like his father, or Shindou, or Sai. He started to accept the new game and noted in his mind not to shout at Shindou when he played it with Yuugi. In fact he might even decide to look at them play for a while, it could be interesting.
There was a knock on the door and Hikaru went to open it.
"Hey, you forgot to tell me so many things about that game AND about you" he started without even inviting Yuugi in.
It was a good thing that Akira didn't forget his manners "Aren't going to invite him in first or do you want the entire hotel to know that you have a visitor."
The conversation started again as soon as they were all seated in the living room with glasses of juice in front of them.
"So when were you going to tell me that you are a champion?" asked Hikaru.
"I'm not really a champion" said Yuugi looking worried. "Pegasus organized that Tournament to test my skills after I defeated Kaiba and he kidnapped my grandfather and Mokuba to make sure that both Seto and I went to that tournament."
"That's outrageous" said Akira fisting his hands in his lap "How low can someone go for a game?"
"It's not just a mere game" started Yuugi with a sad voice. His grandfather's kidnap was something he didn't want to remember but the images came back one by one: his grandfather's face on the duel card, then Mokuba crying for help, then Kaiba after failing to save his brother, then the duel with Pegasus, the final fight against the Millennium eye and the Toon world. "Duel Monsters is real. It might sound silly but it is."
"Of course it's real we played it didn't we?"
"That's not what I meant….I mean…" But Yuugi was interrupted by a knock on the door.
Akira opened and to their surprise Mokuba was standing happily in front of him.
"Hello" he said "Oh Yuugi's here too, great" he let himself in and Akira closed the door behind him. They all waited curiously for the little boy to start telling them why he came in the first place. "My brother needs your help."
"With what?" asked Yuugi curious.
"Do you remember the virtual reality game he designed last time?"
"How can I forget? Kaiba got trapped in it by the big five and we had to fight them to save our lives."
"Yeah, well sorry about that but my brother and Noah designed another virtual reality game and it's even better than the first one. He wants you to test it."
"Well…the big five are gone so I guess it's safe."
"Then come at the Kaiba Corp. Tower tomorrow evening at six, all of you" Mokuba turned to leave but he was stopped by Akira's voice.
"What do you mean all of us? We play go not Duel Monsters?"
"Oh right I almost forgot. This virtual reality game includes all sorts of strategy games. There will be a whole team testing it my brother and I included. See you tomorrow!"
Yuugi had a bad feeling about this. In the past few years everything related to Duel Monsters was nothing but trouble: the Duelist's Kingdom, Marik and his organization, Kaiba's virtual reality game and then his tournament for collecting rare cards, the fight against the Atlantian power of the Seal of Orekalcos, Noah and last but not least their journey to get Atem's memory back when they fought Bakura. He just knew that something was going to happen again.
"What's wrong Yuugi?" asked Hikaru. His friend didn't look so good and he was a little concerned. Ever since Mokuba left Yuugi seemed to be lost in thoughts.
"Maybe I should tell you all I know about Duel Monsters" he said.
"What are you talking about?" asked Hikaru.
"It might sound like a silly story but it's all true. A long time ago in ancient Egypt a pharaoh created seven sacred objects holding the gods' powers called the millennium items in order to save the world from evil. He had six trusted people to guard six objects and he gave his son, Atem the last one, the Millennium Puzzle…They used these items to lock the evil inside people's hearth in stone tablets. That evil appeared in front of them as monsters and they had to tame these monsters so they could do no more harm. That's how Duel Monsters actually started. They used the tamed monsters to fight against more powerful ones. Those people protect the sacred items even now. Then Maximilian Pegasus found out about these monsters and he decided to bring the ancient game back to life. Back then he also had the Millennium Eye entrusted to him, that's how he kidnapped my grandfather."
"It is scientifically impossible for such magic items to exist." Akira folded his arms over his chest annoyed. "It sounds more like a story you would tell your little brother before bedtime" he continued.
Hikaru looked at him offended. He agreed with Akira in a way but Sai's story wasn't less fantastic so he didn't hurry to jump at a conclusion just yet. He was sure that Yuugi knew that too and he must have had a good reason to tell them that story.
''You may not believe it but it's true. Once these objects get you into the Shadow Realm there is no way out unless you win the duel." Suddenly Yuugi became silent. He wandered why he expected the two boys to believe him in the first place. The story was as if taken out from a fantasy book but it had been his reality for a while now and it was hard for him to ignore it.
Several other great Duel Monsters players have encountered evil forces who used the power of the Duel Monsters cards in order to serve their porpoises and had to work hard to save the ones they cared for.
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