1Okay! So, first off, Thank you for staying with me so far. And thank you to those who left reviews.
I'd like to give a special thanks to AskDuelistYugi for helping me out with the duel.
Notes are at the end.
KameKame has entered the chat.
S_Corp has entered the chat.
KameKame: He certainly has heart, and he seems to know what he is doing. What exactly are you struggling with about him?
S_Corp: Everything. He reminds me too much of that mutt friend of yours!
KameKame: Are you two still fighting? Well, what do you want me to do, you weren't really specific in your email.
S_Corp: What goes on between Jonouchi and I is none of your damn business. As for the kid, train him. If he's going to be showing his face in my tournament, I expect him to give it everything he has. And from what I've seen, this kid is going to be chewed up on the first match.
KameKame: It is my business! Jonouchi-kun is my friend, Seto!
S_Corp: That's where we differ: See, I don't need petty friends to get me to be one of the best. But I guess there are few like me.
KameKame: No, all you want is someone to warm your bed in a one night stand. ;)
S_Corp: Okay, I'm not talking to you anymore about this. Are you going to Train the kid or let his dreams be crushed?
KameKame: You sure drive a hard bargain, Seto. But, I'll accept, besides. It might be fun to see you squirm under the next King.
S_Corp: Never going to happen.
S_Corp Left the chat
KameKame: hehe, looks like this is going to be interesting. Why stop at New Years?
KameKame Left the chat.
Thunk.
Tori loaded another arrow and aimed at the bull's eye. He spent all weekend practicing different combos, and experimenting with various traps. This was one of the ways he could finally relax and release some stress, just a few solo rounds of archery. Not like there was much to do on Monday, his two friends had to leave for the states yesterday so any duel training would have to be through that duel simulator that was constantly rigged. Pulling the string, he let the arrow fly and hit the center again. Maybe he should go to the game shop, get a new pack of cards then maybe try his hand at that duel simulator at Kaiba Land, maybe he could get his mind off the Monday Blues.
Collecting his arrows, Tori went back to his room to put the archery equipment away and to snag his wallet and the spellcaster deck case. Though, he was a collector himself, the one he really made a deck for was spellcasters. Everything else was in a card album that was hidden away on the bookshelf. Just something to look through and smile when he was under the pressure of school. Giving a small smile to his room, he turned and left for the day and off to the bus station, one stop to the game shop for new cards, then it was off to Kaiba Land.
The Light Tram was always his favorite mode of transportation, instead the annoying poster ads, he was greeted with a live news report or any form of video ads. Mondays were famous for the news as during this point in time the only other people that took the tram were business employees and tired interns. Tori shook his head and leaned on the handrail, focusing on the interview with Seto Kaiba.
"What should we expect for the new tournament you are hosting?"
"As we all know, Yugi is still the undefeated King of Games. This is merely to bring a new challenger to the field, to give the next generation a shot at going after someone on the top of the food shelf."
"Will you be participating in this?"
"Don't ask questions you know the answer to." Seto said sharply. "I will be there to oversee it, but not as a participant. After all, someone has to sign the winning check."
So it looked like a prize money was included in the winnings. Tori just shrugged. The prize money was a promise he could get behind on, he could put that away for his travel plans and maybe one or two miscellaneous items on the side. Twenty minutes passed by before the tram stopped at Main Street. Tori hurried off to avoid being shoved around by the rushed interns and other businessmen and into the late afternoon sun. No doubt he would be murdered by the lunch rush, but it was worth the challenge. Tori looked to the town and took everything in, thirteen years, well soon to be fourteen years of living here and this town was forever changing. Everywhere you looked an old building was being remodeled to fit with the times or the technology is always out of date whenever Kaiba Corporation came out with the next latest invention. Though, it was KC that came out with the Light Tram and it was faster and more efficient than the buses in the past. Smooth sailing, on a set of rails, environment safe. Heck, even Kaiba Land had it's own update, before it was a regular old indoor amusement park with dueling platforms, now? Well it still had the old classic rides and more, but the duels were more interactive with the new duel disks and the holograms of the monsters really gave them life. Made them look more alive than their previous versions.
"Hey! Ever heard of keeping up with traffic!"
Tori snapped back to reality and moved to the side to let the angry passerby move through. Of course, with the new changes some things will forever remain the same. He brushed his onyx hair out of his eyes and moved on towards the Kame Game shop, just a few blocks from main street it was settled in a suburban area, or 'classic domino' as some people dubbed it. Due to the area being a close community the buildings couldn't really be remodeled too much so they kept their classic rustic charm about them. Classic Domino was still pretty populous due to being home of said game shop, the best part was on certain days, and on certain times, games and toys were on sale!
Entering the store with enthusiasm, Tori looked over the shelves. Board games were on sale for the day as well as whatever cards were on display on the counter where a young male slightly older than him was at, tapping away on a tablet. Tori went up to him and cleared his throat, "Excuse me?" he called out.
"Be with you in just one second." the man said.
Tori took the time to take in his features, black hair with red stripes in a ponytail, golden bangs hanging lazily on the side of his face, and dark pink sunglasses with specks of rhinestones covering his eyes. Strange appearance but, who was he to judge. The man turned the tablet off and set it aside before turning to Tori.
"Pardon about that," he said. "Mr. Kaiba was wondering if I had any cards to spare as consolation prizes for the upcoming tournament."
"Oh, it's fine" Tori assured. "It's been all over the news after all. You must be pretty busy with duelists coming in for new cards huh?"
"As well as everywhere else." he tilted his glasses forward to meet Tori's eyes. "Are you a duelist yourself?"
"I am, sort of. I've been spending my summer working on different plays and combos. My theme is Spellcasters." Tori looked down to the counter. "Ah, anything you would recommend?"
The man had a small smile. "I might." He stood up and went to flip the open sign to close. "But it's going to come at a price."
"I have a feeling money isn't what you're going to be asking." Tori took his deck case out. "Is it a duel you're asking me?"
The smile just grew. "I have a card table in the back room, show me the results of your summer duels that you seem to be confident about."
"Consider the match won." Tori grinned and followed him to the back.
"Before we begin, I'd like to know your name."
"It's Tori, and you?"
"Just call me Yami." he smiled. "Let's begin the duel then, Tori."
This was bad. Tori had a look of panic in his eyes. The duel started out in his favor, he knocked this man's life points down to 2500, by either experience or sheer dumb luck, Tori was down to his final 500. Playing field wasn't exactly even either. Tori had no monsters and his opponent had Dark Magician and Curse of Dragon on the field as well as a facedown. One final attack and he was done for!
"You show that kind of weakness on the field and your opponent will take advantage of it." Yami mused. "Take a few breaths, relax. This is just for fun between us after all."
Right. Fun. Tori closed his eyes and tried to settle himself. There could be a way out of this, but even so there's that face down he has to worry about. Whatever, he had to chance it. His draw. Tori looked at the card and smiled, this could help.
"First I'll play Dark Hole which sends all monsters on the field to the graveyard."
"Which I will counter with De spell." The man flipped the card over. "Canceling all magic effects."
Tori silently cursed. Okay, there went that plan."On second thought, I'll just lay this card face down and summon a monster in defense mode."
Yami smiled at him. "You played with honor, for that I applaud you. I'll have my curse of dragon rid your face down monster. Then my dark magician at your life points directly."
"Hate to break this, but, my face down?" Tori flipped the card over. "Negate attack. Sorry Curse of Dragon. No attack for you."
"Your face down still isn't safe from the dark magician." Yami pointed out. "Leaving you defenseless next turn."
Okay yeah, there was that. Tori smiled and held up a card, "I think I'll bring someone from your graveyard if you don't mind." Monster Reborn. "Come on back Valkyrion and take care of that dragon for me!"
"You really should be more aware of your opponent's side of the field. You forgot about the face down." Yami had a small grin. "Go, Mirror Force. Congratulations, you just wiped out your own life points."
Duel. Over.
Tori started to collect his cards. "I guess I still have a lot to learn huh?" he said with disappointment.
"Yes, you do." Yami reshuffled his cards for a bit. "You also need someone to properly teach you. Self teaching can only go a long way."
"I doubt I'll find someone that won't ask for an arm and a leg." Tori put his cards away.
"I wouldn't be so sure. My family and I used to train duelists in the past, one of our students became the Bronze duelist."
Tori looked up at him in surprise. "You trained Katsuya Jonouchi?"
A small nod. "Indeed, I did. And I intend to train you as well, Tori."
"Train me?" he repeated.
Yami nodded with a grin. "What do you say?" he asked. "You don't want to lose in Kaiba's tournament, believe me."
Tori raised an eyebrow. "Really? It's not like I wouldn't go down without a fight."
"I've seen that, but there might be better duelists out there, heck, there will be better duelists at the tournament, and losing comes with a bitter aftertaste in your mouth." Yami pointed out.
Tori raised his eyebrow a little, it sounded like he had experienced with what was going on in tournaments. Then again he did seem to know Kaiba on a certain level. He was sure Kaiba wouldn't just call any store for some consolation prizes. People knew Kaiba. Well, not in that way, but he had a reputation. Anything even related to it meant serious business.
"Have you ever competed in tournaments before?" Tori asked as he was cleaning up the cards, Yami doing the same.
"Oh, well, I wouldn't say I've ever been in many… I've had a lot of invites from other places that aren't organized by KaibaCorp, yet I haven't really responded to them. I rather keep it to the shop and the more important duels, you could say."
Yami licked his lips, feeling nervous and uneasy, that alone brought Tori's full attention. The next question was, did he dare press on or did he just leave well alone? Well, he did wanted to take advantage of the training offer so it was probably best not to back him into a corner.
"I see." was all he said. "Well, in any case. I accept your offer, Yami." Tori put his cards back into the case and stood up. "So, when do I meet you for training sessions?"
That brought the other at ease. "I have a yearly pass for Kaiba Land. Meet me there every day at five thirty."
"But doesn't that place close at seven? We're only going to have two and a half hours to train."
"Don't worry too much about the time. Just be sure to show up."
Tori nodded. "Alright, I'll meet you tomorrow at five thirty." He promised. "Have a good day, Yami."
"You as well."
* Yugi runs the Kame game shop. He's wearing his hair in a ponytail and sunglasses to keep from being mobbed by fans.
*Yugi is using Atem's nickname [Yami] as an Alias, again to keep from being mobbed by fans.
*Seasonal Passes are amazing. What's more amazing than a seasonal pass to Kaiba Land? VIP ACCESS CARD!
*From here on out, chapters are going to start/end in either a chat room or some other messaging media.