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Yuugi left the night before without saying much more, thinking that he already made a fool of himself enough. He was just worried for his new friend though. He didn't want Hikaru to accept Kaiba's offer without knowing everything that could happen to him.

He decided to accept though and be by Hikaru's side if anything went wrong. He just hoped he was the one mistaking and things would turn out alright.

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After Yuugi left Akira brought the go ban so he and Hikaru would play their evening game before bedtime.

''You don't actually believe that story, do you Shindou?'' he asked as Hikaru entered the living room with a tray with two cups of steaming green tea and cookies.

''I don't see why he would lie to us, Touya'' defended the bleached boy as he set the tray on the coffee table. ''I spent some time with him and I can tell you that he is not crazy. Why don't we just go there tomorrow and see what Kaiba's new game is about. Who knows it might end up to be fun.''

''Remember that we didn't come here for this, Shindou.'' Testing games was not their job and Akira wasn't sure he wanted to do it.

''Come on Touya….'' Started Shindou as he took two stones out of his goke for nigiri. ''It's go related, and who knows…..you may end up to like it.''

Akira was still considering this. He couldn't say that he wasn't a bit curious how a virtual reality game could englobe his beloved go along with other strategy games. He didn't know much about games but he knew that kids loved them and who knows? This game could even turn up to be educational and bring more kids towards the path of go.

But at the same time, Akira knew that he wouldn't let Hikaru go alone even if he argued with him a bit before. He didn't want to be left out of Hikaru's life anymore.

''I'm black'' he started ''Fine. We'll go there tomorrow evening and see what this is all about but if I don't like it I'm leaving'' Akira finished with a stern look on his face.

Hikaru smiled. It was the first time he felt that he was reaching Akira even though Akira's expression didn't change from the usual.

They played their game as usual but none of them seemed to want to point out any mistakes to the other. For the first time since they declared their rivalry they played a game in silence while they were not at the Institute.

Of course they would not shout at each other at the Institute where they would disturb other players but they would always end up at Touya's salon and discuss the game there until their lungs burned and until their ears hurt, so this silent game was truly a miracle.

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The next evening came faster that expected and Hikaru was really excited. As a matter of fact he was the most excited one from their three members group as they headed to Kaiba Corp. Tower.

As they entered they saw a blond boy with a green coat waving at them.

''Hey Yuugi, buddy, you finally came'' he said coming closer to them and apparently forgetting about the brunet who had been his companion before Yuugi's group came in.

''Hey Jonouchi'' greeted Yuugi. ''These are Shindou Hikaru and Touya Akira'' started Yuugi motioning his hand towards the boys as he said their names ''they are professional go players that are currently teaching at the Game Academy" Akira gave the boy a nod in recognition while Hikaru gave the other a handshake. ''This my friend Jonouchi Katsuya and over there is Otogi Ryuji'' Yuugi continued turning to the other two boys.

The brunet who had been standing with Jonouchi before, came closer to them too.

''So you're go players?'' he asked not bothering to greet them first or introduce himself.

''Yeah…'' said Hikaru.

''Then what are you doing here?'' Ryuji continued not bothering with being polite to some complete strangers.

''We were invited here to test a game.'' This time it was Akira's turn to speak.

Ryuji covered his forehead with the backhand of his left hand, while the other was still on his hip and started laughing loudly.

''What's so funny?'' asked Akira surprised by the other's sudden outburst.

''You won't even last for five minutes in that game…..'' he said still laughing but he was interrupted by someone who cleared his throat right behind him.

The two Kaiba brothers and a green haired kid stood behind him.

''So I see everyone is here. Good. Now follow me in the testing room'' Seto Kaiba went strait to the point.

Akira wasn't very content with the welcoming committee. He expected them to be more polite and at least introduce themselves. The only one he actually recognized was Mokuba and he just assumed that the older one was Mokuba's older brother and the president of Kaiba Corp. Seto Kaiba. He would not be surprised since the older one was just as rude and had the same air of superiority as Mokuba. The boy with green hair was however a mystery to him since not even Yuugi mentioned him before.

They entered a room with several comfortable looking armchairs that had helmets seated on them. The green haired boy climbed the stairs that were on the right side of the room and entered a small room with a glass wall that looked like some kind of control room.

''I'm ready'' he said and his voice was heard ten folded in the large room through two speakers.

''Each of you take a seat and put the helmets on'' ordered Seto and the others had nothing to do but obey.

Akira wished he was given more details about what was going to happen. Ryuji's words got to him more than he wanted to admit and he wanted to find out what the other had meant when he said that they wouldn't last in the game for more that five minutes, before entering the game world.

He threw Hikaru a quick look but the other boy seemed confident and not at all concerned. Then he looked at Yuugi. It seemed to him that Yuugi was hesitating a little but said nothing. Akira didn't expect him to quit now, after coming this far but he still wondered how no one had any questions to ask. Maybe everyone else has been in a virtual reality game before except for him and maybe Hikaru. Maybe they already knew what was going to happen next.

After all of them put their helmets on and were seated comfortable in their armchairs Akira heard Seto's voice.

''Ready. Turn it on Noah!'' so the green haired boy's name was Noah….

Akira found himself in a white room and soon after him the others appeared as well one after another.

''I will explain the game now, so listen carefully because I'm not going to repeat myself'' started Seto. Akira was amazed. This boy could be more polite with his guests considering that they were the ones doing him a favor and helping him test his game, yet he was cold and calculated. ''You may have already noticed the bracelets you all have…'' Akira looked at his left hand's wrist and indeed he had a metal bracelet that kind of looked like a wrist watch with colored buttons ''…they are mini computers with a holographic projected screen. I will now explain what the buttons are for. The blue button is the card archive. Before we start I will ask each of you to build a deck. Choose carefully because you will not be able to access the card archive after the game starts. The green button is the world map. Since this is a RPG game you will have to travel in this world and defeat different monsters and opponents before you can fight the boss monster. You will be able to activate this button as soon as we enter the game world. The yellow button is your backpack. Here you will find all the collectable items and boosts that you receive or buy during the game and last but not least the red button witch shows your life. You will start with a certain amount of life points, whenever you are hit by an opponent you loose points and these points can be regenerated with collectable items. And there are also the 3000 life points you will receive at the beginning of each duel. Any questions?''

Akira definitely had questions. ''We're go players why do we need a deck of cards? And what's that about dueling?''

''You will have your chance to play go, don't worry about that but you can't expect someone to save your life all the time because you don't have a deck. This game's card archive was created to include all the Duel Monsters cards that exist and it also has an additional special archive that was created for this game only.''

''If you look in the archive you will understand what brother means'' Mokuba completed.

Akira already didn't like where this was going but it was too late to back out now. At least now he began to understand what Ryuji had meant before. He had never played Duel Monsters before. How did Seto expect him to build a deck?

Hikaru pushed the blue button and a list of cards appeared in front of him on a holographic screen. He was amazed to see how many different cards there were. There were so many options and so many powerful monsters but he remembered what Yuugi told him when he built his first deck with Yuugi's spare cards.

Flashback

''You shouldn't always look for strong monsters. Remember that strong monsters are hard to summon, and besides there are low leveled monsters with useful special abilities.'' Yuugi pointed out.

''But I'm never going to win against a strong monster like this'' Hikaru pouted. ''you didn't allow me to use the Egyptian god cards and now you tell me Exodia is no good either?"

"You need to have all the five Exodia cards in your hand in order to summon it, which means you won't have much of anything else. Are you sure you are ready to play a game with only one or two cards in your hand that you can actually use?'' Yuugi explained patiently.

No, of course he wasn't. He was just a beginner at this. As much fun as the game itself was Hikaru hated to build up decks. He never got right the balance between the three types of cards and especially between lower and higher leveled monsters.

End of flashback

He found some monsters that he found suited for his deck and he selected them but then he noticed some magic and trap cards that had go stones shapes on them.

''Touya look…'' he approached the green haired boy who was having trouble in building his deck. Hikaru pointed on his screen a trap card named The ko rule then showed Akira the cards special effect ''it says that when activated this card will not allow your opponent to attack one of your monsters, however you can attack the monster who's attack you blocked during your opponent's turn.'' So they had go related cards…was this what Seto meant when he mentioned the special card archive? This card didn't look like it was taken out of the Duel Monsters game…

Was this how they were supposed to play go in this game? With Duel Monsters cards? It was definitely not what Akira had in mind but he had no other choice so he scrolled his own archive at the go related cards and started building a deck.

The other players had already finished building their decks. Seto, Yuugi and Jonouchi had their regular decks while Ryuji had a deck resembling his Dungeon Dice Monsters preferences and Mokuba went for a Capsule Monsters related deck. Hikaru and Akira were the last to finish their deck building and as soon as they pressed the blue buttons closing the archive the white room disappeared and they found themselves on a field full of flowers not far from a forest.

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