I awoke early the next morning to a tapping at the window. I groaned and pulled myself out of bed. It was currently 5:30 in the morning, and while I wasn't that opposed to getting up this early, I'd gotten up early the previous day and gone to sleep late. Thus I was in no mood to deal with any sort of nonsense.

Blinking the sleep from my eyes, I got out of bed and looked out the window. Standing there was one Sora Shiunin, oversized lollipop in hand, and a wide smile plastered on his face.

"Good morning, teacher!" he said far too brightly for my current mood.

"Oy vey," I groaned. "How'd you find where I sleep?"

"I followed you home," Sora said shamelessly.

"I believe that's called stalking," I deadpanned. The more tired I was, the snarkier I tended to be. "I suppose you need something extremely urgent, given you roused me at this hour. Where's the emergency?"

"I wanted to learn Pendulum Summon, teacher!"

"Oy vey." I was really starting to get annoyed at the damn kid's chutzpah. "Three things, Sora. I don't teach well before I have breakfast. I don't teach well when I'm still half-asleep and it's early in the morning. Finally, I don't teach well when someone is pestering me first thing in the morning."

"Got it, teacher! I'll see you later at school!"

"Good," I said. Wait a minute, how the hell does he know where I go to school?

After a quick breakfast with the Hiiragi family, during which I discussed the situation with Sora, it was eventually agreed that I would duel Sora at You Show as both part of teaching him Pendulum Summoning and 'working on my own duel style', whatever that was. I understood that people here built their personalities around their decks—or made their decks based on their personality, whichever came first—but in my opinion it was excessive. I used whatever worked best or whatever deck I enjoyed the playstyle of the most. Apparently, it had been decided that Zefra was my signature deck, thus I had to show off its style and uniqueness.

And make summoning chants for it. I was not enjoying that part, as my well of creativity and patience had fast run dry after I had been told that eventually, every Extra Deck monster and significant main deck monster I used would need a chant. Needless to say, I arrived at You Show in a dark mood, something that was not improved by Sora's excitement at seeing me.

"Hello, teacher!" he said, smiling as wide as he had been first thing in the morning. Where the hell did he get that boundless energy? Probably from all the sugar he was constantly eating. I was 90% sure he'd get diabetes before he turned 18.

"Good morning, Sora," I said politely. "Just call me 'Josh', everyone does. And before you ask, we will be dueling soon."

"Got it, Josh!" he said, chipper as ever, as he fell into step beside me.

"Good morning, Headmaster Hiiragi," I greeted Shuzo as I stepped into the building. "Is the Action Field prepared?"

"Indeed it is, Josh! I expect a fiery, passionate duel today!"

"Sure, sure," I said, walking down the hall to the Action Field.

Soon, everyone was in position, with Shuzo up at the controls and Yuya, Yuzu, and the three kids watching on the sidelines.

"Action field on! Field spell: Sweets Island!" Shuzo declared, stabbing a button on the console. Around me and Sora, a sort of candyland rose up, filled with so many sweets I could feel my teeth rotting just looking at it.

"This is amazing!" Sora said.

"Shall we begin?" I asked. Sora nodded.

"The duelists meet at the battlefield," Yuzu began.

"Along with their monsters, they'll kick at the ground and fly through the sky to move around!" the three kids continued.

"Witness dueling's greatest evolution," Yuya declared. "Action..."

"Duel!" Sora shouted. "You were supposed to yell 'duel' too, Josh!"

"Slipped from my mind," I said. "I'll go first, if that's all right with you?"

Sora nodded as I drew my opening five. Zefraath , Zefraxi, Ash, Veiler and Maxx "C" (which was unlimited here) made up my opening hand. It was pretty good, all things considered. I'd be able to get my engine running and have up four pieces of interaction plus Maxx "C". Sure, it couldn't combo, but this was really all I needed going first.

"I'll set the pendulum scales with Scale Five Zefraath and Scale One Zefraxi, Treasure of the Yang Zing!" I declared. "Now, I'll activate Zefraath's scale effect! It allows me to put one 'Zefra' monster from my deck into my face-up Extra Deck and have Zefraath copy the sent monster's scale. In this position, I'll send Zefraniu, Secret of the Yang Zing."

"Cool!" Sora exclaimed. "You get a monster from your deck for free, and you get to change your Pendulum Scales!"

I nodded. "Indeed. You see, Sora, setting the Pendulum Scales costs you two cards inherently. For a good pendulum deck to maintain advantage, it needs ways to make up for this loss of value. In my case, Zefraath has its own scale effect which searches another monster from my deck. The scale-changing effect is mostly a bonus; it allows Zefraath to serve as either a high scale or a low scale which increases consistency, but that's more of a minor boost."

"I never thought about that," Yuya said. "My hand is almost always empty after I Pendulum Summon."

"Are you running three copies of Monkeyboard yet?" I asked him.

"Of course not!" Yuya exclaimed. "I need to have a varied lineup of Performapals to keep my deck interesting to watch!"

"And that is a second subtlety of Pendulum Summoning," I said, not wanting this to turn into a festival of insults, no matter how much that would improve my mood. "Pendulum decks also need to run as many searchers as they can to ensure they don't brick, that is, draw hands that do nothing. If you just make a pile of pendulum cards, you'll often finding yourself drawing the wrong scales at the wrong times. Scale manipulation effects can ease this, but searchers are better, since they also create advantage. Speaking of which! I'll pend summon—"

I paused, hearing a cough from Shuzo. Right, summoning chants.

"I mean, uh, 'The power of the Zefra concentrates to split the sky and bring forth the chosen warriors who oppose darkness!' I Pendulum Summon Zefraniu, Secret of the Yang Zing!" I attempted to shrink back after saying this, cringing at what I had just said.

"Zefraniu effect to search, add Nine Pillars" I declared, clambering on to the dragon (sorry, wyrm). "As you can see, Zefraath is not the only searcher in this deck. Zefraniu is another one of the many I use. I'll set a backrow and pass turn."

"My turn, draw!" Sora said, spinning in place as he drew for turn. "That monster looks kind of tough, but it's purely defensive! I'll break through no problem!"

"Hold on," I said. "Destroyed Pendulum Monsters go to the face-up Extra Deck. Even if you do destroy Zefraniu, I'll just bring it back next turn, giving me another search effect. Combined with Zefraath, I'll be getting two extra cards next turn on top of my normal draw."

"I see," Yuzu said. "Josh is always going to have more cards unless Sora somehow finds a way to stop him from Pendulum Summoning."

"Exactly correct, Yuzu!" I said. "Pendulum's greatest strength lies in its recurrence! It doesn't matter if all my stuff gets destroyed, I can just do this all over again. With that in mind, who has any ideas on how to beat a pendulum deck?"

"Destroy the scales," Yuya suggested.

"That can work," I said, "but only if you can prevent your opponent from setting scales later. Remember, destroyed pendulum scales will also go to the extra deck, since they're pendulum monsters. The best way to implement this strategy is to destroy the scales as soon as they are set, and preferably prevent search effects while you're at it."

"Win in one turn," Sora said. "You can't Pendulum Summon again if they've already lost! I activate Polymerization!"

"In response, I'll discard Maxx "C" from my hand. Every time you special summon this turn, I get to draw a card," I explained.

"Good luck using those cards!" Sora laughed. "I fuse two Fluffal Bear with Edge Imp Sabres in my hand! Claws of the demon! Fangs of the beast! Become one and reveal a new form and power! Fusion Summon! Appear, horrifying beast that shreds everything! Frightfur Bear!"

I drew my card silently. Terraforming would open up some interesting lines for my next turn.

"I activate the Action Spell Nanana!" Sora declared. "It gives a monster I control an extra 700 attack points! Now, I activate the Action Spell Double Up! My Frightfur Bear can attack twice this turn, and each time it destroys a monster by battle, it gains 1500 attack!"

"In response, I'll activate the counter-trap Nine Pillars of the Yang Zing, which negates the activation and shuffles the card into your deck, then, I destroy a 'Yang Zing' card I control. In this case, I'll destroy Zefraniu, Zefraniu effect to search. I'll add Zefra War." I jumped off of the wyrm before it exploded into holy light that enveloped and destroyed Sora's Action Card.

"You're still wide open," Sora noted. "Battle! Frightfur Bear attacks you directly!"

"On attack declaration, I activate Zefra War from my hand," I said.

"A trap card from the hand?!" Yuya exclaimed.

"Since I have 'Zefra' monsters in both my Pendulum Scales, Zefra War can be activated from the hand," I explained. "I target my Zefraxi and Sora's Frightfur Bear to destroy both."

"Aww," Sora whined. "I was hoping to attack this turn. Well, I guess I'll just set one card face-down and end my turn."

"Draw for turn, standby, main." The card I'd drawn was another Veiler, which wasn't exactly helpful here. "Activate Terraforming for Oracle. Activate Oracle, search Zefraniu. Scale Zefraniu, activate Zefraath sending Zefraxi to the extra deck." I was in the zone now, just going through my usual combos. "Pend summon Zefraniu and Zefraxi. Zefraniu search Providence, Zefraxi makes Zefraniu a tuner." I could see the line to lethal. "Activate Providence, search Zefracore. Normal Zefracore, synchro for ten, make Baronne. Baronne effect pop the backrow. Combat. Zefraxi in, Baronne in for lethal."

"It's over so soon?" Sora asked, rubbing his head where Baronne had hit him. "That was only three turns!"

"That's how my deck works," I said proudly. "In addition to being stupdily recursive, it can assemble lethal quite easily. When playing against me, you cannot give me room to breathe. You do that, and I win."

I then turned to face Shuzo. "I've decided that that's my dueling style. Simple, efficient, and powerful. I'm not here to show off needless flashy combos or draw out the duel."

"But that isn't fun to play against," Yuya protested. "If your deck just wins instantly if your opponent doesn't stop you, then it's boring. The duel ends too quickly!"

"I'm going to be blunt here—" I began

"Like you weren't before?" Yuzu snarked.

"—my deck is a lot more powerful than what you guys are bringing. When decks of such disparate power levels are matched against each other, yes, the game becomes boring. However, if you guys were to bring decks of a similar power level to mine... I think you'll find the game even more fun and interactive than usual."

"The problem with that statement, Josh, is that nobody else plays decks like that," Shuzo responded.

I nodded. "It would require a large cultural shift for people to start dueling this way, but it's not like the cards to do so don't already exist. Nekroz, Burning Abyss, and Shaddoll are all available to use. Handtraps like Maxx "C" and Effect Veiler exist. All it would require is a shift in deckbuilding and play philosophy—something which I'm more than willing to teach."

"So that is your chosen path," Shuzo said. "You want to create a new era of dueling. Why, then, are you in this school?"

"I'm ninety percent sure I have to be in school by law," I said. "This school is at least more receptive to an exchange of ideas than, say, LDS. Besides, I did need to learn about dueling culture here, and my skill in Action Duels could use some improvement still."

"This philosophy stuff is boring," Sora said. "I'm going to go get ice cream."

"I'll go with you," Yuzu said. "Do you even know the way to the place?"

"Given how much sugar he consumes, I have no doubt that he found all the places that sell it within minutes of setting foot in Maiami City," I deadpanned. "I'll go with you guys as well; I should be keeping an eye on my student."

"Are you really serious about your goal?" Sora asked me as we walked back from the ice cream place.

I nodded in response. I considered asking him to take up my style, but decided against it. Regardless of the fact that he was beginning to grow on me, he would be a formidable antagonist later on, and there was absolutely no reason to make him any stronger. Then again, I was hungering for a challenge. Since getting here, I hadn't felt the least bit pushed during a duel, and I was swiftly growing bored. It would be nice to have a worthy opponent.

"—going to teach me your style?" Sora finished, and I realized that I'd zoned out.

"Sure," I said. "I'd be happy to teach you if you're willing to learn... and you don't knock on my window at half past five in the morning."

"That was one time!" Sora complained.

"You only get to use that excuse after we have a history," I said. "Currently, you are less than twenty-four hours in."

"Guys," Yuzu said, interrupting our deep and meaningful conversation. "Sawatari's up to something. Those two over there—" she pointed to two LDS students "—were talking about how 'Sawatari will do whatever it takes to crush Josh into the dirt'."

"That sounds mildly concerning," I said, while internally I was cheering. If I remembered correctly, this was when Yuto would arrive. "Sora, go deliver the ice cream to the rest at You Show. I'll go take care of the problem. Yuzu?"

"I'll go with you," Yuzu said. "I know you're a strong duelist, but Sawatari isn't above using dirty tricks."

"I want to go too," Sora whined. "It'll be fun to watch you beat that uncool Sawatari guy, teacher!"

"As your teacher, I order you to go deliver the ice cream," I said firmly.

With an annoyed "fine", Sora took off.

"Isn't that abuse of authority?" Yuzu asked me. "Especially since you're not officially his teacher."

I shrugged. "Perhaps it is. Let's not lose our trail."

"Good day, Sawatari," I said as I entered the warehouse. "Pleasant weather outside, no?"

"What are you doing?" Yuzu asked.

"Just let me do the talking," I said. "And how are you three fine gentlemen doing on this day?"

"You!" one of Sawatari's goons snarled. "I remember you! You humiliated me!"

"Sorry, I don't remember doing that," I said.

"You beat me in that duel!"

"You'll have to be more specific. I win duels against a lot of people."

"When you prevented me from taking Kenji's deck! I'm Itsuki, remember?"

That did sound vaguely familiar. A few days ago... oh, right, the duel I had shortly after I arrived. "Oh, that duel. I meant no ill will, I just didn't want to see a kid lose his deck."

"Duel me again!" Itsuki declared. "This time, I'll beat you!"

I suppressed a laugh. "Yuzu, here's the plan: I win against this guy, you duel and win against Sawatari, they agree not to bother us or other You Show students, and then we go and have ice cream. Sound good?"

"I can do that," Yuzu said. "Sawatari! I, Yuzu Hiiragi, will be your opponent!"

"This will be the perfect opportunity to test my new deck," Sawatari said. "I, Neo Shingo Sawatari, will crush you like the insect you are!"

A flash of black appeared in the corner of my vision, and then a masked guy with purple hair and a long black cloak appeared in front of us.

"I'll be taking this duel," the purple-haired guy said. "I can't let you get hurt again."

"I have never seen you before in my life, and in case you didn't notice, we had something going here. I think you can wait three minutes if you want to duel that badly. Yuzu, do you know this guy?"

"Three minutes?" Sawatari protested. "Neo Shingo Sawatari will not be defeated that easily!"

"Sorry," I said. "I meant no disrespect. Of course you won't be defeated in three minutes." Sawatari brightened at this, but before he could make another stupid boast, I continued. "Two is a much better estimate." I was getting a bit carried away, but this was too much fun.

"Why, you!" Sawatari growled.

The purple-haired guy had removed his mask at this point. "Don't you recognize me, Ruri?" he asked with a sad smile.

"Yuya?!" everyone in the room except for me exclaimed. I could see the facial resemblance, but you'd have to be far more colorblind than I was to not see that the guy's hair was freaking purple, and I had difficulty telling purple from blue most of the time.

"I'm pretty sure that's not Yuya," I said. "I'll go call him; he should be back at You Show."

"Are we going to talk or duel?" Itsuki demanded.

"Sure, sure, we can duel," I said as I punched in Yuya's number. "Edgelord guy, would you mind letting Yuzu fight her own battles? Sawatari isn't exactly a threat."

"He's LDS—" the dark-cloaked boy protested.

"Doesn't matter, he doesn't even know any Extra Deck summoning methods," I said as I watched Itsuki summon what was basically a vanilla and set two backrow. "Yuya? You at You Show?"

"Yeah, I'm still here at You Show, what's up?" Yuya's voice filtered through my duel disk's cheap sound system.

"Stay where you are, Sora should be there with the ice cream shortly. Yuzu and I have gotten a bit held up." I started my combo by activating a few searchers and setting scales.

"Oh? What happened?"

"Not much, just Sawatari plotting something or other. I'm dueling one of his goons who I apparently have a bit of a history with." I pendulum summoned three monsters, including Zefraxi.

"Did Sawatari steal someone's deck again?" Yuya asked.

"I sure hope not. Say, on an unrelated subject, do you tend to dye your hair purple and black, make it extra spiky, and go around dressed like a total edgleord?" I asked, performing a synchro summon and using Oracle of Zefra's effect to grab some extension.

"No, I don't do any of that, and that seems like an oddly specific question," Yuya responded. "I'm waiting to hear the context for that one."

"Some guy with the same face as you but with that hair and that sort of clothing is standing next to me right now," I explained as I dismantled my opponent's board. "He also confused Yuzu for someone else. Any ideas who that might be?"

"No idea. I've never seen someone like that, but it's possible that someone just randomly looks like me. Hey, Sora's here with the ice cream!"

"Good to know; see you in a bit!" I hung up as I dealt lethal damage to Itsuki. "Good game, Itsuki," I said, extending my hand.

"I can't believe I lost to someone who was on a phone call the whole time..." Itsuki groaned. "The humiliation!"

I glanced over to see how Yuzu's duel with Sawatari was going. Contrary to my taunts, it seemed somewhat evenly matched, though the game was slowly turning in Yuzu's favor. She had the Melodious monster that prevented battle destruction and targeting out and was walling up while maintaing advantage with Shopina, but was struggling to find an out to Sawatari's Mega Mobius. Eventually, she managed to trick Sawatari into attacking into her set Mirror Force, leaving him wide open and letting her get in for lethal. It was a well-executed strategy, but it also highlighted all the problems with her deck. It was slow and relied on setting up a lock that was easy to out, and it had trouble getting past big monsters. It also lacked any form of interaction and the card advantage it generated was minimal.

"Ten minutes," I said, glancing at my watch. "Congratulations, Sawatari! You surpassed expectations by four hundred percent!"

"I don't need your false praise, Joshua!" Sawatari yelled. "I'll get you both for this defeat!"

"Yuzu, I suggest you go back to You Show now," I said, ignoring Sawatari. "I'll have words with this idiot momentarily."

"Wait," Not-Yuya said. "I want to know who you both are."

"Well, that's good news," I said happily. "I also want to know who you are!"

"I'm Yuto," he responded.

"Joshua Cohen, but everyone calls me Josh. Nice to meet you," I said. "And this is Yuzu Hiiragi. We both go to You Show Duel School."

Yuto shook my hand awkwardly.

"I'm LDS' top student, Neo Shingo Sawatari!"

"Nobody cares!" Yuzu yelled.

"LDS, huh?" Yuto asked, pulling Sawatari up by the collar of his school uniform. "What do you know about Academia?"

"Academia? Never heard of it!" Sawatari said. "Put me down, you crazy asshole!"

"Fusion summoning! Does LDS teach it?"

"What?"

"'What' isn't any kind of summoning method I've ever heard!" Yuto said.

"As much as I hate to interrupt a good Samuel L. Jackson, impression, I would like to advise you not to allow bodily harm to come to Sawatari," I interjected.

"What? Why?!" Yuzu said.

"His family's rich; they'll probably sue and try to hurt You Show as well," I explained.

"Good point," Yuto said, dropping Sawatari to the floor. He landed with an exaggerated moan of pain.

"I suppose you two could probably go back to You Show now. I want to give some stern words to Sawatari and his goons."

Yuzu shrugged and exited the warehouse, with Yuto following her. Once the warehouse was empty, I turned to address the LDS students.

"Gentlemen, I have a proposition for you," I said, spreading my hands. "I know our past meetings haven't exactly been... amicable... but I'm willing to overlook that."

"'Not amicable' is a bit of an understatement!" Itsuki protested.

I ignored him and continued my speech. "I am developing a new style of dueling. This style is not your typical Action Dueling style. It's not meant to entertain. It's not centered around a gimmick like fortune-telling or cooking. No, this new style has its own merits. It is fast, efficient, and brutal. It generates quick and consistent wins. The power of decks that follow this style is unmatched. And I, in my unlimited generosity, am willing to teach this new style to you fine people."

"Just like that?" one lackey I didn't know the name of said. "No catch?"

"Well, I would appreciate a few generous donations, but it's not exactly required. I'll teach anyone who's willing to listen and follows my ground rules," I said.

"What exactly are these 'ground rules'? We become your slaves?" Sawatari asked, clearly suspicious.

"Nothing like that," I laughed. "The rules are simple. Rule one: play fair. No cheating, no stealing cards, no taking hostages, no other underhanded tactics." I sent a pointed look at Sawatari. "Rule two: don't use dueling for violence. Do not duel in a way to intentionally harm your opponent. You're here to win a card game, not leave your opponent in a body bag. Those are the two big ones. Break those, and I'll never teach you again. Lastly, rule three: be willing to listen. I may tell you to put cards in your deck that look weak at first, or tell you to completely switch decks to something that seems weaker, but I know what I'm doing. It's fine if you don't take all my advice to heart, but at least try it before dismissing it. That's all."

"That's really it?" Sawatari said.

I nodded. "I'm not going to pressure you into learning from me; you can quit at any time if the style doesn't suit you." I wasn't expecting them to follow through with it anyway; they'd get stuck unlearning whatever they already knew or just take me as some sort of crackpot and refuse instantly.

The chorus of positive reactions was also unexpected.

"We'll meet here tomorrow after classes," I said. "Feel free to tell anyone you like about this, ah, study group. I'll teach anyone who's willing to learn."

I walked away from the warehouse smiling. That had gone far better than I'd hoped. I'd managed to avert the whole Yuto/Yuya confusion and hopefully stop LDS' attempted takeover of You Show before it even had a chance to start. On top of that, I had started construction of my own personal army. Reiji may have had a complex plan to select and put together the Lancers, but I had more dueling experience and game knowledge than he did.

Speaking of which, I needed to figure out a way to meet with Reiji and form an alliance. Problems for later, I suppose.

Author's Note: This chapter was difficult to put together. I'm still not happy with the sheer amount of exposition and heavy-handed philosophy in the chapter, but the anime does the same thing if not worse, so I eventually considered it good enough.

We have plot now! Yuto is here with the mistaken-identity subplot stopped before it could start while Josh is beginning his machinations. The pacing is probably going to slow a bit past this chapter as the number of plot threads increases, but it hopefully won't drag.

I plan to heavily feature the following decks in the next few chapters: Burning Abyss, Shaddoll, Nekroz, Brilliant Monarch, Clown-Blade, and Infernoid. I'm actually curious what the meta here would look like, as it doesn't exactly match any TCG or OCG format. I still need to codify a banlist and cardpool for this story.

Speaking of cardpool, I've decided against including future archetype support, but cards that exist in both the anime and TCG will have their TCG effects unless otherwise stated (notably, Monkeyboard and the Dark Contract cards lack hard once per turns). This is a massive boost to the Battlewasp and Fluffal archetypes, among others.