Shiki's first dive into the virtual world might end up being his last. After finding the A.I. known as Eden that his own grandfather created for him, he takes his first trip into Duel Links and already got into trouble. The moment he entered Duel Links, the program didn't recognize his duel disk and instantly sent a security program to capture him. Thinking that surrendering could lead to the termination of Edens, Shiki decides to take on the program in his first duel.

"Okay, I'm ready to duel." Shiki said.

"Hold on. Do you not understand what you're doing? You could get into some serious trouble for this." Aoneko warned.

"Maybe, but if this thing takes Eden, I could lose her. That's not going to happen." Shiki said. After just finding her, he's not going to lose Eden.

"Do you remember how to duel?" Eden asked.

"Yeah. Grandpa taught me a lot about it, and it never left me." Shiki said as he was confident he could do this. "Let's see what we've got!" He said as he activated his duel disk and was all set to go.

"Activation of duel disk acknowledge. Commencing duel procedure." The robot said as a duel disk emerged out of it's chest and had a deck emerge out of it's arm.

"Let's duel!" Shiki said as he and the robot were about to begin their duel with both sides having 4000LP.

"This is freaky. It would make a great video!" Aoneko said as she started recording.

"Duel begin. Turn commences." The robot said as it was going first. "Summon X-Head Cannon." The robot started its first turn by summoning a pretty strong monster with it holding twin cannons on its shoulder and had 1800atk points. "Activating continuous spell: Frontline Base. Effect: summon one union monster once per turn. Activating Frontline Base's effect. Summon Y-Dragon Head." The robot summoned out another monster with it resembling a red dragon with it having 1500atk points. "Setting card. Ending turn."

"That means it's my turn. I draw!" Shiki said as he drew his first card and weighed his options. With this deck once belonging to his grandfather, he wants to do right by them. 'Grandpa, these were once your cards. Now, you've entrusted them to me. I promise that I'll do my very best with them.'

...

Interstellar

Meanwhile, the people at Interstellar were working on what they could with the unrecognized duel disk signal the were alerted about.

"Sir! One of our security programs has located the source and has entered it's dueling operation!"

"Put it on the screen!" The boss ordered. That was when he got a visual and saw the duel going on. "Who is this?"

"Unknown, sir. The account for that duelist was made just moments ago." This was rather strange to him, so he's going to be keeping his eyes on this duel.

...

Duel Links

"Let's get this started! I'm going to start by summoning Edens Witch to the field!" Shiki said as he took his first turn and summoned an android-like being designed after a woman with long green hair in a braid and wore a mask, and it had 1000atk points. Summoning that one monster threw a lot of people off.

"Did he say Edens? I've never heard of that card type before. Isn't that also the same name of that program in his duel disk?" Aoneko questioned.

"When Edens Witch is summoned, I can add any spell or trap card from my deck to my hand!" Shiki said. "I just need to figure out which one."

"If I may, I believe this one will be beneficial." Eden said as she decided for Shiki with a card popping out of his deck. Shiki took it.

"Gravity's Light? Yeah... I think this one might help." Shiki said. "Next, I'm going to activate my Sword of Edens! When this spell is activate, I can instantly summon Edens Valkyrie to the field!" He summoned out another feminine android with her having dark skin and her hair tied back as she emerged with 900atk points. "Edens Valkyrie, attack his Y-Dragon Head!"

"Do what?! It doesn't have enough attack points!" Aoneko said.

"That's about to change! When Edens Valkyrie attacks, her attack points double!" Shiki claimed, and that's just what happened as her attack points rose all the way to 1800. "Attack with Soul Blade Assault!" Valkyrie formed a variety of swords and unleashed them all at once with them slashing against Y-Dragon Head and destroyed it with the robot's life points dropping to 3700. Once the battle was over, Valkyrie's attack points returned back to just 900. "With that, I place two cards facedown to end my turn."

'One of those cards must be that trap he drew with Witch's ability.' Aoneko thought. 'I hope that does help because he left his monsters wide open for a direct attack, and that X-Head Cannon looks ready to fire.'

"Turn commences. Commencing Draw." The robot said as it drew his card. "Activating set card. Activating Call of the Haunted. Effect: summons one monster from my graveyard and equips on to monster. Summoning Y-Dragon Head." It claimed as its robotic dragon came back. "Activating Frontline Base's effect. Effect: summon one union monster. Summoning Z-Metal Tank." That thing summoned out a third monster with it being a yellow tank-like machine with 1300atk points.

"Oh no! Those three together spells big trouble!" Aoneko said.

"When all three are on the field together, they can be banished for a special summon. Summoning XYZ-Dragon Cannon." The robot had all three of its monsters combined together into one and they formed one powerful monster that had a total of 2800atk points.

"Wow! They combine into one!" Shiki said as he seemed amazed.

"Not that thing! This is real bad!" Aoneko said.

"Why?" Shiki questioned.

"It's because of XYZ-Dragon Cannon's ability. Each time that thing discards a card, his monster can destroy a card on our field." Eden informed. "Right now, it's holding three cards. That means it can destroy three of our cards."

"Activating XYZ-Dragon Cannon's ability." The robot said as he was about to start.

"Not happening! I activate my trap: Gravity Center!" Shiki said as he countered that ability. "For this one turn, my Edens and Gravity monsters can't be destroyed!"

"Maneuver countered. Recalculating." The robot said as it was trying different options. "Battle. XYZ-Dragon Cannon, attack his Edens Valkyrie!." The robot decided to go straight for the attack as his dragon unleashed a powerful blast.

"Gravity Center might prevent your cards from being destroyed, but you're still going to take damage!" Eden said. The attack bend around Shiki's monster and blasted him by mistake as his life points dropped down to 2100. The thing about dueling in virtual reality, the impact feels real.

"Are you okay?!" Aoneko called.

"That hurt." Shiki complained.

"I suppose that's because about the virtual reality giving you a reality-like experience. Can you keep going?" Eden questioned.

"Yeah. My grandfather taught me not to give up until the duel is over. Even when it seems like you're going to lose, you keep going and face defeat instead of running." Shiki said.

"Ending turn." The robot said.

'That's weird. I wonder why that thing didn't use his monster's ability to destroy his other face-down.' Aoneko thought. 'Those things follow logic, and logically it would have been smart to destroy his other face-down. Unless, whatever that Gravity Light does, it must have concluded it wouldn't help him now and isn't concerned about it at the moment.'

"Using Gravity Center was a smart move since you took less damage, but what will you do now?" Eden questioned. "Neither of your monsters are strong enough to destroy that thing. Setting up a defense would be pointless when that thing can use it's effect to destroy your cards."

"I didn't do it so I would take less damage." Shiki said.

"What do you mean?" Eden questioned.

"Something else my grandfather taught me." Shiki said. "He taught me that I should treat the monsters in my deck like they were my friends. That means you don't sacrifice them, and you try to protect them. I played that trap for that very reason." Aoneko heard that part and was rather touched by it since most duelists wouldn't see it like that.

"I understand. This deck is actually designed to try and do just that, which is why it seems perfect for that." Eden said.

"That's right. I know my grandfather would want that." Shiki said. "I'm going to follow his example. I'll treat my monsters with respect and won't just toss them in the graveyard. That might be difficult to do in a duel, but it's the way my grandfather taught me. It's my turn!" He's going to duel the way his grandfather taught him; and that means he'll respect his monsters, protect them as best as he can, and believe in them. He drew his next card and it ended up being good one. "And my grandfather always said that if you're nice to your friends, they'll be nice to you." He said as he got himself a powerful monster with quite the ability.

"What did he get?" Aoneko questioned.

"When I have two Edens or two Gravity monsters on the field, I can summon this monster without a tribute. This card was the ace of Grandpa's deck." Shiki claimed. "I summon Edens Demon King!" Shiki brought out the ace of his new deck. What he summoned out was a well built robot with a skull-like face with a flowing cape and had yellow horns for a head. It also had 2500atk points. When this monster was summoned, it left quite an impression on others.

"Did he say Demon King?" Aoneko questioned. "Unbelievable. "Edens" and "Demon" sound like opposites or conflicting ideals, but this monster sounds like it can be both." Aoneko didn't know what it was, but she could tell there was something special about this monster as just it's mere presence brought down some sort of pressure. "Still, it's not strong enough to beat that cannon."

"It might not be that strong now, but that's about to change once I activate Gravity's Light!" Shiki said. "This trap card gives all my Edens monsters and extra 500atk points!" All three of his monsters were energized with them having 3000, 1500, and 1400atk points.

"With all those attack points, our chances of victory are 99.9%" Eden calculated.

"Let's finish this! Edens Demon King, attack with Gravity Fist!" Shiki ordered. His king went on the attack as he gathered gravity right into his fist and smashed it right against Dragon Cannon with it being completely crushed and destroyed with the robot's life points dropping to 3500. "Now my monsters are free to attack you directly! Edens Witch, attack with Ether Magic!" His witch used an attack that was like magic and unleashed it upon the security bot. It got blasted hard with its life points dropping to 2000. "And now Valkyrie can attack you directly, and don't forget that her attack points still double." Valkyrie attacked once again with her attack points now becoming 2400. When that happened, she slashed against the robot and caused all of it's life points to drop to zero.

"System terminated." The robot said with it breaking apart into data.

"Amazing..." Aoneko said as she couldn't believe it. "He was able to beat a security bot when they're suppose to be tough to beat, and made it look easy. Just who is he?" Aoneko wondered who he was because he seemed amazing.

...

Interstellar

"Sir, the security bot has just been terminated! It lost the duel!"

"I can see that." The boss said as he didn't like this. "Who is this guy? He has very rare cards, and he managed to beat one of our security bots?" He didn't like how the events turned out. "Send out more to apprehend him. If he managed to escape, alert the other executives. Tell them that Justice is calling for a meeting."

"Understood." This Justice sounds like he's not going to let Shiki do whatever he wants so easily. If his name is any indication of himself, he'll make sure Shiki faces it.

...

Duel Links

"That was pretty cool. I've never seen cards like yours before." Aoneko said. "On top of that, I think I got a great video. You were awesome."

"I was?" Shiki said as he was being a little awkward, but he thought this was his chance for something. "Um... Would you perhaps like to be friends?"

"Huh? Friends?" Aoneko questioned. That was rather weird of him to ask. She thought it over since he is new, but he did alert the security of this place. So, she's not really sure if she should socialize with him. On top of that, he might look a little scary, but he seems rather nice.

"Yeah... My name is Shiki."

"You're not suppose to say you're real name." Aoneko said, but that was when she realized what he said. "Hold on. You're Shiki? As in...Shiki Grandbell?" However, there was no more time to talk. They all heard alarms and saw more security bots coming.

"As much as I would like to explore around here, I think it might be best that we leave." Eden said.

"Really? Already?" Shiki questioned.

"Don't worry. We'll come back. I suggest that you do the same, Miss Aoneko. We certainly don't want you to be in trouble just by being mistakenly associated with us." Eden said and caused the two of them to logout. When they left, Aoneko couldn't believe it.

"Was that really Shiki?" Aoneko questioned. She couldn't believe that was the same guy she ran into earlier. If that's the case, she knows where to find him. As she logged out of there herself, the both of them aren't aware that they just stumbled upon a brand new adventure.