It was dinner time at the Yusui family. The family was eating chicken yakisoda. The family of three weren't eating alone as a small guest was joining them. He was a very strange boy. Before eating he tucked a napkin in his neck, put gloves over his hands, and cut slower than a man amputating a person's arm. His fork finally cut through the first noodle of his yakisoda and he ate it like a statue. He didn't move when he raised the noodle and put it in his mouth.

" Can you tell us a little about yourself, Ciel?" Nuo asked.

" I can. But there might be things about me you don't like," he said with a faulted face.

" Where did you go to school?"

" In England. I went to an all boys school. My father thought it would be best if I learned to hang around members of the same sex. And he was right. I'm not one who needs a woman hanging by my shoulder."

" You can speak English? Then I'll speak English when I'm around you. If you were raised in England how did you learn to speak Japanese?"

" From my father. My father knows lots of things, well, because he's been to lots of places. Do I know your wife from somewhere?"

" It might have been from a magazine," Junichi smiled. " I am a model."

" No. I believe the title was Washed-Up Hasbeen's."

" I'm...washed up." A single tear trickled down Junichi's right cheek. That was the first sign before her sudden outburst; Junichi couldn't stand even the smallest of criticism. She excused herself from the diner table and tripped on the marble floor. She quickly got back up and ran up the stairs.

Ciel narrowed his eyes to Nuo who was drinking a glass of milk. Ciel found it funny how Nuo was drinking milk but there seemed to be the same amount of milk every time. " Aren't you going to comfort your woman?" Ciel asked.

" There's no point talking to her when she's crying," Nuo said rubbing his head. " It's best to just wait until she's finished crying. She'll be much calmer after thirty minutes."

Ciel could hear the sound of Junichi's tears echoing through the house. Ciel could guess where Jay found his immaturity. It was tedious. Ciel dropped his silverware and stood up. He looked lingerly into Jay's eyes since they finished the video, and he was going to finish what he came here for."

" Outside-Duel Disks-Now."

OOO

Shadows were forboding Jay and Ciel as they stepped outside. It was 8: 10 P.M. Lights were still on through the windows of everyone's houses, but there wasn't a car or another life walking around, which was just fine with Ciel. He looked unwarily at Jay's deck. It was seen from the LED's installed in Jay's Duel Disk. This deck made Ciel ill. He was curious how such simple strategies, lame cards, and a normal boy could've defeated an academy's instructor's real deck.

So far everything was going to Ciel's script. Carmel didn't ask Ciel to bring the cassette to Jay's house; he insisted to come and give Jay that tape. He forged the idea when Jay summoned his triumph monster.

" Hold on," Jay's father Nuo said. He was dragging some kind of umbrella looking stand out of the house. He turned the switch and the whole front yard was as visible as a football stadium in the middle of a game. " There. It's easier to play your game now. How do you guys decide to go first?"

" Rules of engagement: we shuffle our decks than shuffle our opponents deck," Ciel said.

" I think I should shuffle Jay's deck," Nuo said. " He gets so clumsy at shuffling. Sometimes when he shuffles the cards slip out of his deck and he has to pick them up. It's the same thing when we're playing Poker."

" Sorry. But the rules are we shuffle our own decks and shuffle our opponents deck. Even if your son is terrible at it, it won't matter, I'll be shuffling his deck."

Ciel shuffled his deck by tilting his deck down, grabbing the top ten cards of his deck, and sliding them into different areas of the deck. Jay shuffled his deck grabbing the middle of his deck and sliding it down. He then grabbed the top half of his deck and slid it down. Unfortunately cards slipped out of Jay's deck.

" He is terrible at shuffling," Ciel thought. " Every duelist knows that it's the first five cards that make up your battle strategy. Sure, there is a chance you can draw some good cards over your turns, but if you don't have any useful cards there's nothing you can do to implement a strategy."

The second phase of the shuffling game began. Ciel and Jay met in the center where they switched each other's cards. The moment they were switched Ciel and Jay started shuffling each other's. Ciel didn't want amateurs touching his cards. Amateur's shuffled so bad they hurt the corners of his cards. He let Jay shuffle his cards only for the satisfaction of what Ciel would pick up from his deck. Ciel had a small mirror that looked like a button around his sleeves. He could see the bottom of Jay's cards with his button.

" So his deck is primarily based on Earth attributes, he mostly uses Beast type monsters, his only strong monsters are the one's seven and eight stars, he only has a few strong level four star monsters, his Spell and Trap cards boost the power of his monsters and protect them from destruction, and he has no Fusion Monsters. He has cards to protect his monsters, but only the greatest leaders know when to sacrafice their soldiers from their vanguard to advance their legion."

Jay finished shuffling Ciel's deck and gave it back to him. Ciel did the same for Jay's deck. They both walked to the other side of the lawn, turned around, and their Duel Disks opened. Four digit numbers appeared on their small screen: 4000.

" Since we're battling on my house, I'll go first," Jay said picking up the top card of his deck. " I summon Prevent Rat in Attack Mode." A blue wormhole opened in front of Jay. Out of the wormhole popped a green rat with two eyes and a small red eye over his eyes, and blue armadillo armor on his back (500/2000). " I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

Ciel drew one card from his deck. Like every diligent duelist Ciel looked at every card in his hand thoroughly and pondered his moves. " I play Foolish Bural. I pick one monster card from my deck and put it into my Graveyard. I choose Treeborn Frog." Ciel searched through his deck and slide Treeborn Frog into his Graveyard, than shuffled his deck. "Prevent Rat has more defence power than attack power. Only two people would place them in Attack Mode. Idiots or people who're using them as a trap. He wants me to summon a monster to attack his card, than he'll destroy it with one of his Trap cards. I'll be wide open for an attack if he does that. But his tricks are obvious." Ciel picked up one card from his hand and activated it. " I play the Spell Card Heavy Storm. This card destroys all Spell and Trap cards on the field-and since I don't have any Spell or Traps on my field only yours will be destroyed."

A giant storm blew out of the ground and thrashed on the field. The storm was so mighty that Jay had grasp tighter on his cards so they wouldn't blow away. Ciel stood there without any problems because he didn't have a field to be blown away.

" I activate my Trap card!" The card on Jay's right side flipped up. It was the picture of a red pig with its soul moving out of its body. " Beast Soul Swap! With it's effect I can return one Beast monster on my side of the field to my hand and summon a monster with the same level."

" I see. The plan wasn't to destroy my monsters. He just wanted me to summon a weaker monster so he could put his monster in defence mode. Not bad...for a beginner."

Prevent Rat turned into a Duel Monster card that was blown into Jay's hand as Beast Soul Swap and Jay's other facedown card was destroyed. Jay swapped a card from his hand and planted it on his Duel Disk. It was to Ciel's annoyance that Prevent Rat emerged on the field, curled up in a protective blue ball.

" You summoned the same monster?" Ciel said.

" Beast Soul Swap said it had to be a monster with the same level," Jay smirked, " it doesn't say anything that it can't be the same monster."

" Good move, son!" Nuo's dad cheered. " Taking out Heavy Storm on the first turn is a very good strategy. Now he can't destroy any of your other face downs."

" His son just lost two of his cards and he's cheering for him. I'd like to see him cheer after he gets a load of this." Ciel took two cards from his hand and placed them into his Graveyard. Than he showed Jay a Spell card and slid it in his Graveyard. " I activate the Spell card Polymerization. I fuse two Fusion Monster substitutes to summon a Fusion Monster. I fuse Flame Manipulator and Masaki the Legendary Swordsman to Fusion Summon Flame Swordsman." The ground in front of Ciel burst with flames. A sword made out of flames came first, next came a rumbling sound as a man holding a double-edged flaming sword appeared on the field (1800/1600).

" Ah!" Jay screamed. " I-I never seen a monster like him before."

" It's alright, son," Nuo said. " Flame Swordsman may be a Fusion Monster, but he is also a Normal Monster. Your monster has more defence than his. He can't hurt you."

" Some good fatherly advice," Ciel scoffed. " It's true Flame Swordsman can't beat Prevent Rat, but I have something much more terrifying. I tribute Flame Swordsman and summon Caius the Shadow Monarch! (2400/1000)

" Monarch? What's a Monarch?" Nuo said.

Nuo's question was about to be answered as the sky accumulated with darkness. Nuo walked to the door to protect himself from the rain. A drizzle of rain never came down; just as a creature with palliated dark armor and gray helmet appeared. It was wearing a visor with red light glowing through. The creature's hands surged with dark balls it zapped towards Jay's monster, and Jay's monster exploded!