A crowd had gathered around the famous game store, that evening. They were hosting a surprise duel monsters tournament, which was still their top game!
The owner and operator, Yugi Moto, had a strong reputation among their patrons for carrying on as close as he could to what the previous owner, Solomon Muto (his grandfather) would have wanted, including prioritizing the experience of their patrons, and keeping the spirit of the Heart of The Cards alive.
Of course, this wasn't just a surprise event, meant to raise peoples' spirits and ease anxieties in the wake of the "freak lightning storm" that had the superstitious citizens wringing their hands.
No, Mr. Moto had ulterior motives...

Inside, all the duelists they had room for on the roster were seated, and ready to begin! There were 32 in total, and people were excited, even if there wasn't a huge grand prize in store for the winner. The people were just eager for a distracting spectacle, and spectating a popular card game would have to do, for now.

From up at the second floor, looking out from the landing, Mr. Muto couldn't help but smile. His long red hair was tied back, although the blonde locks were still hanging free. He wore Solomon's bandana like an eyepatch across his left eye, and he'd long since left behind his blue school uniform, having traded it out for more casual clothing, save the navy great coat he often wore. He smiled to himself, You would have loved this, Grandpa. And... I don't know how well I can support Joey, now that he's lost his sister... We can't find Tristan, either... We're hurting, without your guidance, but... He lifted a card shaped spy glass to his good eye, and scanned the contestants. Our enemies have never acted this boldly, before... Something is wrong, but I know, if we trust in the Heart of The Cards, we'll find stronger hope, tonight...

There were a dozen volunteer referees, but 4 in particular seemed intense as they appraised all the contestants- with name tags that simply read "Valentine", "Gardner", "Wheeler" and "Burke". Remember, Yugi had instructed them earlier, It's not necessarily the winners we're looking for; I'll be watching for the one's with the REAL potential, the one's we need. Trust your instincts, but if in doubt, look for my signal, and issue the "special invitations", discreetly...

The chatter hushed quickly when the shop owner/organizer raised a hand (after putting away his spy glass, before anyone noticed it), "Everyone, thank you for coming to our community morale match! It warms my heart to see this turn out, my grandfather would have been proud to see it! His first priority was this community, that's why we've always been a safe and friendly place for the youth, and everyone who keeps the joy of games in their hearts! It's only fitting we honor his spirit in these uneasy times by coming together, in the spirit of sportsmanship, and friendly competition! With that-" He sliced his hand down in a chopping motion,

Claire Turner

Domino City was one of the stranger places Claire had stopped off in.

Three years on the road had let her see more of the country than most people ever would; let her spend time in multiple cities from the North of the island all the way down to the South, a bunch of smaller towns and literally everywhere in between. She’d been to enough places to be able to have favourites, to be able to make comparisons and liked to think that she had enough experience to identify the vibe a place gave off within a couple of days of arriving. And Domino City? Something about Domino City was off. The kind of off she usually only felt when she’d spent too long in one place and the nightmares that she was running away from caught up to her. The kind of off that had her checking over her shoulder and keeping a close eye on any shadows she passed. The kind of off that had her keeping a hand on the deck of cards in her pocket, as if the monsters in it might protect her somehow.

Claire didn’t think she was going to be sticking around for too long as a result. She’d finish this little event, which unfortunately didn’t even come with any prize money, stop off at the hotel to check out and then get back on her bike. Honestly, maybe even before then; usually duelling like this calmed her down, as well as giving her a good opportunity to meet new people and get some information about the place she was in. But today? Maybe it was the way the judges seemed to be paying extra close attention to all of the duels or the store owner, or maybe it was that weird lightning storm the night before, but the sense of dread kept building.

Across the table from her, her opponent asked her something that she didn’t hear and she missed an opportunity to activate a trap card when she should have. Her opponent missed lethal anyway, but it was enough for Claire to decide to focus on the duel instead of her worries.

“I activate the effect of my Siverd in the Pendulum zone to destroy my Metalfoes Combination, to set Parametalfoes Fusion from my deck. Then I activate Metalfoes Counter in response to summon a Metalfoes from my deck and chain the graveyard effect of Combination to add a Metalfoes to my hand.”

From there the rest of the duel was fairly quick, with Claire summoning two Fusion monsters to bounce their strongest monster with Mithrilium and then Pendulum summoning and attacking for a huge amount of damage with Orichalc’s piercing ability.

Beside her the judge watching their match, an attractive blonde woman with the name tag ‘Valentine’ made a note of her win and moved on to the next pair.That was the first round dealt with at least.

”Ha! You fell for it!” Toby declared with a smug look on his face. On his field was Paladin of Felgrand with Felgrand Dragon equipped to it as well as Dragon Ravine in the Field Spell zone. He also had set two cards in his back row, but only one of them was important for the play he was about to make. Toby had just tried to Normal Summon his Dragon Knight of Creation, to which his opponent had responded by flipping over Torrential Tribute, destroying both the Dragon Knight and Paladin in one swoop.

“‘Fell for it’?” his opponent questioned with a look of skepticism, “Dude, I just wiped your monsters!” and normally he’d be right. Such a play was usually devastating. Unless, of course, the player in question wanted his cards in the graveyard.

”Looks like someone hasn’t been paying attention. Guess you’ll have to learn the hard way. I activate my trap: Call of the Haunted.” Toby flipped over one of his set cards, revealing it to be the trap card in question. He used its effect to special summon Felgrand Dragon from the graveyard, ”When this big guy hits the field, I choose a monster in my graveyard and he gains 200 attack times the chosen monster’s level. So I’ll choose my Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon.” a couple of turns ago, Toby had used the effect of Dragon Ravine to send Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon from his deck to the graveyard. This meant that Felgrand Dragon now had 4800 attack points, ”I’ll enter the battle phase and attack your Gladiator Beast Rynos.” the attack went unchallenged and Toby’s opponent lost 2300 life points as a result.

”Main Phase 2,” Toby announced, not quite done with his turn. ”I’ll discard a card from my hand to activate Dragon Ravine, sending Red-Eyes Wyvern from my deck to the graveyard. I’ll end my turn by activating Wyvern’s effect during the end phase. By banishing it from the graveyard, I can special summon a Red-Eyes Monster from the graveyard. In this case, Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon!”

And just like that, what would have otherwise been a devastating board wipe was instead turned around into a powerful summon of two high-level dragons. Of course, Toby only learned this play because the last time he attempted it, he missed the timing like an idiot and it cost him the duel. In fact, he remembered spotting the exact stuck up girl he had lost to in the crowd of tournament participants. That stuffy rich girl had a way of getting under his skin, and Toby was hoping for a chance to knock her off her high horse today. Between practicing the timing of his combos, and the modifications Toby made to his deck, he was sure he could win this time.

---

Aile watched her opponent contemplating his next move. She had him cornered, but after drawing his last card, from his expression, it was clear that he drew something that could get him out of the situation. Though at any rate, the man probably shouldn't trade his duel monster cards for poker.

Her opponent was clearly not the sort of person that the Duelist Society was searching for.

As a junior member of the Society, Aile was not yet privy to a lot of their ongoing, such as whether that 'freak lighting storm' that had people freaking out and was cited as the reason for this tournament was actually connected to the supernatural side or not. She was, however, aware that the true reason for this tournament was to look for new recruits. Aile herself had been assigned to participate in the tournament to look out for people with potential that the organizers had missed.

Her opponent finally decided what he would do...which was to set a single card face down in defence position.

'...Yes. Clearly not the one the Duelist Society was looking for,' Aile thought.

With his opponent ending his turn only by placing a monster in a defence position, Aile was reasonably certain that the monster he had set down was a flip effect monster. That or he drew a hand trap and just set a monster to help stall. Regardless, it was probably better to avoid attacking the monster and activating the flip effect just in case.

Seeing the cards in her hand, and on the field she had just the solution.

"First, I summon Noble Knight Iyvanne into the field."

She placed the red-haired Noble Knight beside her Noble Knight that was already on the field, Noble Knight Artorigus, before picking another card from her hand, placing it in the spell/trap card zone beside Noble Arms-Gallatin, which was equipped to Artorigus.

"Next, I activate Noble Arms-Arfeudutyr, equipping it to Iyvanne. Iyvanne's effect activate, summoning a single token into the field."

She took the blank cards provided to represent the token, placing it next to Iyvanne. She then immediately picking it back up, along with Iyvanne, before placing them in the graveyard.

"Using these two as material, I summon the link monster Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights. Isolde's first effect activates, allowing me to add a warrior card from my deck to my hand."

It did not really matter, what Aile was aiming for was its second effect. Nevertheless, she added the card Noble Knight Medraut to her hand.

She continued, "Using Isolde's second effect, I'm discarding 4 equip spell cards from my deck to graveyard to summon the level four Noble Knight Custennin. I am then using Astorigus and Custennin as material to XYZ summon Artorigus, King of the Noble Knights."

She noticed her opponent's face souring, the more she continued her play. If Aile had to guess, he was probably complaining in his head how long it took for Aile to finish. Judging from his simple beat-down deck, he was one of those players who still romanticized the old days of Duel Monsters where special summons did not lead to more special summons.

It was not as if Aile did not understand the sentiment, only recently returning to the game herself, but it was what it was.

"Activating King Artorigus' effect, I am now equipping three equip cards from the graveyard to him."

This was part of the reason why she needed Isolde first instead of just XYZ summoning Artorigus directly. Well, she only needed one specific equip card in the graveyard instead of four, she supposed. But she did want that card just in case. She didn't want to leave the slightest thing to chance, after all.

She then placed three equip cards from the graveyard back to the field, and among them was the card Noble Arms-Clarent.

"Activating Clarent's effect. By paying 500 life points, the monster equipped with it will be able to attack your life point directly this turn. Now, as for the battle phase, King Artorigus attacks your life point directly."

With the equip cards on it, King Artorigus had just enough attack to annihilate the last of her opponents' life points, giving her the win.

"Good gam—"

As she reached out for a handshake, her opponent scoffed, "Tch. This is why modern duel monsters suck. What was that? Summons after the summons, and then just completely hitting my life point directly for 3500 damage?"

"I somewhat understand the sentiment but such is the current—"

"And you! Look at you, you're probably just some rich girl who used daddy's money to buy all the rare cards!"

"..You are not exactly wrong, but such is the nature of a trading card game—"

"Bah! Excuses, excuses!"

Aile sighed at the unreasonable man. She simply ignored him and stood up, leaving the table. The man made further commotion as she ignored him until eventually, one of the staff, with the nametag 'Wheeler' escorted him outside.

She then noticed the man with the staff with the nametag 'Burke' approaching her.

"You all right?" her current guardian in Domino City asked her.

"Hmm...? Oh, that troglodyte earlier? I don't pay people like him any mind, so don't worry, Bill."

William Burke sighed, "Troglo—? Come on, yeah, he was kinda asking for it, but seriously, you should work on that sharp tongue of yours."

Aile shrugged, "What was wrong in calling a man with such behaviour a troglodyte? A person considered to be reclusive, reactionary, out of date, or brutish. Fitting perfectly, no?"

William sighed again, "Never mind. Anyway, I assume you don't think he has the potential?"

"Obviously not. What about on your side? Anyone catch your eyes yet?" Aile replied.

William nodded, "Yeah. Valentine notes a girl using metalfoes. Goes by Claire Turner. Oh, and I also saw that kid you beat in that last tournament, you know the one with the dragon deck? Kid's pretty good too."

"Tobias Westen?" She sighed, "He's here, is he?"

Tobias Westen was a boy a year below her in Domino High School. She had known him by reputation. And she had met—and beat him—in a previous tournament that she entered to familiarize herself with modern rules since she stopped playing Duel Monster after her father became distant.

The boy took his defeat rather personally, though on Aile's part, she...really did not care about it. No, Duel Monster was not why she found the boy so irksome. It was the fact that in school, she had added so much to her headache. He has a bit—well a lot—of a rebellious streak. The teacher had tried all they could to discipline him, including taking him off the baseball team despite being their star player. Sadly, it only exacerbated the problem. The teachers were at their wits' end, and they did not want to do anything to push the issue too much because that would be liable to cause problems. Naturally as was the case with all things the faculties cannot be bothered with, it fell to the teachers' general gofer, to the student council. Meaning her, as the student council president.

She had tried talking to him, of course, only to be dismissed by the boy as he ran off—unfortunately, her stamina was nowhere as good as a baseball star player, former member or not. And he still keeps causing issues, which led to the teachers complaining to her, which increases her headache.

...Aile wondered if beating him up in Duel Monster would be considered a form of stress relief.

---

The last 48 hours of Henry Palmer’s was, to put it frankly, a series of twists and turns that left him confused, terrified and left him with bouts of headaches. That shameless homewrecker whose name is Beatrice barged into his house, destroyed the door and announced that he is due for a family reunion he never asked. He then expected his day to be annoying but he was willing to give them a chance.

But no, they decided that it wouldn't be a straight affair.

They needed to take on a few ‘side quests’, using her words some smelting in order to make him worthy of blood. If you ask him, it only turned his apathy to cold restrained hate. He wasn’t sure if it was the purpose.

Furthermore, he has no choice but to bend his knee because he doesn’t want to suffer the same fate as the door on his house. He still values his life.

Regardless he needs to focus he has a duel to finish, in front of him is a large man who had been matching him every turn, unfortunately for him Henry’s deck grow stronger as his graveyard get larger and he found his opening sooner than him.

“I banish Grapha and Fabled Dyf in my graveyard to special summon Chaos Creator to the field.” he announced as he started the final turn of the game.

“I activate–”

“Solemn Judgment, your handtrap is negated.” he announced as he foiled the enemy’s final gambit. He wished he had more copies of this card but the ridiculous rarity stopped him, regardless that was the game.

“With that out of the way, I special summon Grapha with Chaos Creator’s effect. Head to battle phase and attack for game.”

“Good game.” his opponent announced as he offered a handshake, he accepted it as a show of sportsmanship. After that he took his cards off the table and returned to his waiting seat.

“That was too close.” his ‘guardian” Beatrice announced as he took a seat beside him. She ‘lost’ her match earlier but was allowed to stay for ‘moral support’.

“But your sidequest only states that I need to play in this ‘surprise’ tournament, not win it.” he spat back as he took a sip of coffee from his thermos.

“True.” she muttered between her giggles. "But I do hope that you’re giving it your all, holding back will defeat the purpose of this sidequest.” she muttered in a more menacing tone as her face creeped closer.

“Don’t worry, I don’t see any reason to do that. I’m actually quite interested with the card packs that’s going to be the prize.” he reassured her before he shoved her back to her seat.

Still taking a tournament seriously was the point of the sidequest? The more I learn about my family, the more confused I feel.

Can’t they really just go and leave him alone, he wasn’t really interested with the people who abandoned him when he was an infant.

---

Lucy hid her mouth behind her hand, silently laughing at her opening hand. A dice jar, a samurai, a roulette spider, a second coin toss, a fairy box, and an ordeal of the traveler. A wonderful start.

Her opponent was a young man that, judging by his uniform, had come here straight from the local high school. He eyed Lucy carefully, before pulling his own draw. If she remembered right, the boy played Blue Eyes, in some vain attempt to imitate Seto Kaiba ... But, judging by that blossoming expression of his, Lucy could only assume that he'd found himself holding a brick, as those cards often did.

Her grin only widened behind her hand, and when it was removed to instead hover over her cards, she did not even make the slightest attempt to banish it from her face. The boy, of course, noticed that, and glared. How fun!

Though Lucy had never bothered to actually remember her opponents name, she had actually dueled him a few times in the past. Twice, to be specific. Both at the same little card shop. In other words, he was fully aware of the kind of deck she played, and since he had very clearly bricked his hand, both of them knew there was nothing he could do to stop her before she started.

Especially since Lucy had won the coin toss, like always.

Practically radiating a smug aura, Lucy declared her choices. "I'll set one card face down, in defense position~..." The boy made a face at that, already piecing together exactly which card it was. "And, I'll set two cards in my backline!" Her tone was light, almost playful, and it only served to make her opponent's face grow more pinched.

Her grin remained strong. "I pass~."

The boy, on the other hand, looked on the verge of swearing... It took him some moments, moments that only made Lucy's grin grow wider, but he did, eventually, make a move.

"I... set one card, and... pass..." He said through gritted teeth. As she'd thought, the boy had bricked. He crossed his arms. She laughed unkindly.

Coming upon her turn, she drew, and found herself with a Cup of Ace. Unneeded, but it would be an amusing thing to use, especially if she lost the coin flip. Ah, she could already imagine hope coming to the boy's eyes, if she were to land two tails...

Lucy would save it for later, in case the duel dragged on and she became bored.

Still grinning like a cheshire cat, Lucy made her move. "I place Sasuke Samurai #4 in attack position, and declare an attack on your face down monster~! And, since it's Sasuke Samurai attacking..." But, before she could finish, her opponent cut her off. "We've done this before- just call the coin already!" Ah, the boy was certainly frusterated, wasn't he?

How fun!

Her grin morphed into something else, a placating smile that some might call mocking. "Of course, of course, how could I forget... ah, what was your name again?" The boy bristled, but said nothing. Expected.

"No matter, heads!"

The coin was flipped, the monster was destroyed, and with a grimace, the boy deducted the damage from his life points.

One more turn, then. Before the true gamble.

She passed, and the boy went once more. Ah- he'd drawn something good, it seemed.

"I set one monster, and activate Lightning Storm, destroying your backrow!" Or maybe he hadn't.

Lucy, accordingly, removed both placed cards from her backrow to the graveyard, and seeing her opponent pass once again, drew once again. She didn't even bother to read what she'd drawn, though. This little game was about to end.

"Heads, again." She called. Utilizing the Samurai once more. Of course, she called it right, and of course, the monster was destroyed. Her opponent seemed resigned, to anyone who looked. She couldn't blame him. After all, he knew what was coming.

Entering the second main phase... Dice Jar was flipped up.

Two dice met the table. One a five, one a six.

That was the end of it.

"A fun distraction." Lucy said, standing from the table. "I hope to see you again."

Her opponent grumbled as he stood, walking off to presumably go see how his friends were fairing in their matches.

Though Lucy might not have a friend here, she figured it would be for the best to follow suit and check out how other matches were going, if only to kill time.

She doubted many other matches would finish so fast, after all.

---

"SHIT!" That was all the girl could say as her opponent summoned her first monster... The freakin' girl used Sky Strikers!?



"Sorry about that, that's why Magical Mallet is my favorite Spell card, hehe." Luna said as she picked up her cards.

"I really need to ditch the Bamboo Sword cards in my deck, anyway. I bricked once you had Egyptian God Slime out. Good game."

"I could tell. Yeah, good game."

The two shook hands and stood up, collecting their decks. As she did, Luna wasn't quite sure why she was here. She wanted the packs, yeah, but why was her first instinct to go to a game store when she got to Old Domino City? Familiarity? Was there such a thing for someone in a new town, or worse yet in her position? She sighed and went off to an empty table as near a corner as she could get and began shuffling her deck. Having totally forgotten her standard playing card deck and having to really ration her money, she decided to substitute her Duel Monsters deck for it.

Shuffle twice, draw six cards... So she did. She placed the cards in a pentacle with a sixth card in the center, all face-down. She spun the outside cards once, clockwise, and then began divining her fortune from the top right point.

The first card she flipped was Cyber Jar. Renewal, a new chance that's neither good nor bad, but a strong possibility of taking things too far... Nothing new there. Taking things too far was Luna's MO.

Her second card, opposite Cyber Jar on the top left point, was Loris, Lady of Lament. Another card of new beginnings, though much more of a "second" chance than Cyber Jar. It made sense given that this was her second attempt, but it also meant there were pitfalls ahead. She'd have to be careful.

Her third card, the bottom right point, was Scapeghost. Pretty obvious answer, she was either blaming someone unfairly or would be blamed for something unfairly, but whoever it was that was blamed would come back stronger. She would have to check the next card to get more context.

Fourth, the bottom left point of the star, was Swords of Concealing Light. She'd be in a slump for a long while, and her enemies would take advantage. She could only hope that those enemies weren't her family.

The final card of the star was Metal Reflect Slime, one of her go-to cards. Also fairly obvious, she would be on the defensive but likely to be victorious in the end. Finally, she flipped the center card...

Upstart Goblin. An excellent representation of her current situation. Starting from nothing, giving her enemies something nice but gaining something in return. Leaving her horrible aunt and uncle would have made them happy, she was sure, so learning that she'd at least thrive from it was nice.

A perfect reading. Even the positioning was great! Victory through renewal, a dip in prosperity, unfair decisions leading to trouble, and a new start for everyone. She was content with that, but she wished it had been better for her. So she decided to check a card, not for the reading, but to just see what fate had in store in the moment.

Luna placed her hand on the rest of her deck, and closed her eyes. She slowly pulled the top card off the pile... And opened her eyes.

Juragedo... She'd be helping someone soon, in a big way, it seemed.

One by one, as the tournament progressed, the referees, when given confirmation, discreetly issued special invitations to those participants they saw had the potential they were looking for...

They couldn't exactly go flashing the viewers around, or customers would confuse it for new merchandise and start asking questions, but the owner managed to confirm what they could all sense. He gave nods when they looked to him, and allowed the match to go on as normal.

All the Duelist Society needed to do now, was wait and hope their prospects could follow simple instructions:

1. Open Once You Are Alone, No Sooner

2. Tell No One You've Received This Invitation

3. Come to Old Domino City Cemetery at Midnight Tomorrow Night, For An "Invite Only" Secret Event

4. Further Instructions At Cemetery Gate

5. Come Alone

6. TELL NO ONE

---

Aile was in a bad mood as she arrived at the cemetery the night after the tournament, her mind could not help by wander to the tournament itself. She had won the entire tournament, but her performance itself was subpar. There was that round against Tobias, that she was looking forward to for 'stress relief', and while she did beat him handily, she made a critical mistake of missing the timing for Sacred Artorigus. She did beat him thoroughly—because his deck was not optimal, to say the least—but her mistake marred what should have been a cathartic victory for all the troubles the younger boy had caused her...Even more irksome was the fact that he was also one of those given the special invite, meaning she possibly had to deal with him even more now.

After that, she advanced into the next round, where she faced another one who had been given a special invitation, Claire Turner. She did better than her match against Tobias, and advanced to the final round, where once more, she faced someone who was eventually given the special invite Anthony Arden. While she ultimately won the match and thus, the tournament, she once more made a mistake. She had forgotten that Merdaut became a five star with an equipped card, and thus can't be used to XYZ summon the 4 star, King of Noble Knight Artorigus, only to also forget that Borz also can become a 5 star if equipped with an equipped card she had on her hand, thus allowing her to XYZ summon the 5 star Sacred Artorigus. And probably the worst part of that final match was that she had the impression that her opponent had bad draws, meaning she also couldn't say she won that match due to sheer skills.

And that fact frustrated Aile. She was well aware that rather than pure skill, her deck—which was only possible to be constructed due to her very well-off financial situation—played a major role in her victory. And while that was simply the nature of a trading card game, it was not good enough for Aile. She would have been frustrated with her performance if it was but a mere card game, but now that she knew it was connected to a secret underground society? Simply relying on her deck alone wouldn't cut it.

She sighed, as she joined the rest of the society's members as part of the welcoming committee for those given the invites at yesterday's tournament.

Toby was almost tempted to just leave after he was eliminated. He didn’t, though, not wanting to be rude to the game store owner or to the other players. But watching Aile win again and again, eventually even taking the final match? That made him burn and seethe even more than he already had been. He still thought back to that aggravating turn, where he drew Felgrand Dragon from his deck. It was the worst possible thing that could have happened. Felgrand Dragon could only be special summoned from the graveyard, and even then only after it was sent there from the field. Ideally it was supposed to be equipped to one of his Felgrand warriors directly from the deck so that it could be sent to the graveyard via their effect and summoned from it later. But drawing it to hand like that? With no Paladin or Guardian to equip it to right away? Of all the absolute rotten luck. Aile won because she had a bunch of powerful cards she bought. But she also won largely because of Toby's abysmal luck of the draw.

Bah! Who was he kidding? Everyone in this tournament was able to summon a bunch of powerhouse cards from their extra deck. And here Toby was with his barely-functioning structure deck that had no extra deck monsters of its own to use. He had to face it, there was no way in hell he was winning this thing. Not really. But finally, it all ended and Toby could get out of there without looking too much like a sore loser. But before he did, one of the judges slipped him something on his way out. It was some kinda envelope, with its only note being to not open until he was alone. Seemed weird, but Toby took it anyway, once again not wanting to be rude and do or say something that would get him banned from the shop.

Toby eventually did open the thing once he was back home and sulking in his bedroom. Cemetery? Midnight? Alone? This had “suspicious” written all over it. In fact Toby was pretty sure he’d seen a horror movie once that started out kinda like this. Any sane person would toss the invitation and forget about it. And for a while he did just that. Toby actually crumpled the note up and tossed it in his trash bin before he went to bed and fell asleep.

Toby ended up cutting school the next day. He had no desire to risk running into Aile and dealing with her, especially after having lost to her for the second time in a row. Instead he spent almost the entire day at the Old Domino Batting Cage. Toby had a habit of spending a lot of his free time here, especially when he wanted to vent his frustrations into hitting homers or if he just wanted to think. Not only that, this was the only way he could even play baseball anymore after being cut from the team at school.

If Tobias was being completely and totally honest with himself, then between baseball and duel monsters? He loved baseball just a little bit more. He played this sport for far longer than he ever played any card games. Whether it was little league when he was a kid, or with the Tigers on the high school team. He had more fond memories of playing ball than playing cards. But these days, the cards were the only thing he could actually competitively play. Or what passed for competitive play, given his lousy excuse for a deck.

Later that evening, after Toby made it back home and heard an earful from his mom about skipping school, he found himself sulking in his bedroom once again. The cards of his dueling deck were spread out on his desk, him having spent a bit of time looking over them and trying to figure out which ones he should eventually replace. Unfortunately, his knowledge of this game was still pretty lacking, and so in the end he frustratingly decided to leave the deck alone for the time being. And that was when he remembered the weird invitation he was given yesterday.

”Tch, geez…” he muttered to himself, ”I must be out of my freaking mind.” With no more time left to think this over, Toby hastily dug the crumpled up invitation out of the trash bin and stuffed it into his jacket pocket. Then he gathered his deck and snuck out into the chilly night. From there, it was a matter of making his way to Old Domino Cemetery. The note said there would be further instructions at the gate, so that’s where Toby stopped and waited.

Until he saw her, that is.

"Oh come ON!" Toby groaned with frustration, "SHE'S here too? As if I don't have to deal with the pampered princess enough at school during the day..." he added, his voice trailing off into incoherent grumbling.

---

“We can fix this in an hour..”

The tournament all things considered went well, admittedly he was annihilated in the semi-finals by someone who knows to actually play the game but being one win away from the finals is not bad, especially for someone who never touched his deck for months.

His semi-final even blurted out advice for him to improve his deck, shame that he doesn’t have time to apply his ideas.

“You should’ve really made steps to improve your deck!” he remembered Beatrice whining as she left. She ordered him to follow the message he received to the letter, implying consequences if he didn’t follow.

But does she need to break his window to prove the point? Just force choking his neck would make the message clearer and cause less property damage.

He handed the payment to the repairman, at least he managed to make her shoulder the repairs for her house. Small mercies.

---

Henry takes another sip of coffee as he walks to the gate of the cemetery. He is the type to wake early instead of sleeping late, which makes him rely on the substances to stay awake.

He wasn’t the first person to arrive though, there was a guy that he saw to be one of the participants of the tournament who came first, is that going to be a pattern?

Then waiting in front of the gate was the tournament’s champion, her name was Al-something? She used that very complicated and definitely expensive Link Deck. He had given up on the game when they introduced Pendulums to be honest.

Taking his time to observe her mannerisms, he noticed a few things. She was waiting for him or at the very least, he is one of the people she is waiting for which means she knew more about this ‘side-quest’ than he did.

Deciding that there is nothing to lose, he approached the blue-haired girl.

“So why did you know why we’re here? This place was a terrible spot to play a card game due to you, respecting the dead thing.” he asked while taking another sip of coffee.

---

It was two hours after Luna had obtained her invitation, and she was still fuming about her loss in the tournament.

Gaaaaaaaaaaaahh!!! I can't believe I made such a basic mistake!

It's called a basic mistake because it's easy to make and lots of people would make it.

Shut up, me, what do you know anyway!?

Well, at least she wouldn't be making the same mistake in the future. Special Summoning in attack mode when the battle phase isn't over and her monsters were in the hundreds of attack points, what was she thinking!? Similar thoughts hounded her despite her best efforts to drown them out with music all the way until nighttime. It was because of these thoughts that she didn't pay any attention to the envelope she was given for participation, nor why she received one when others didn't, until she was ready to go to sleep on a park bench. Finally somewhat calmed down, she opened it to read what was inside.

Well, this was suspicious. Luckily, it was suspicious in the cool way, but whoever decided they had to say "tell no one" twice in a six step (if you count the words on the outside of the envelope) set of instructions might want to get checked for paranoia. Still though, she had nothing better to do other than putting distance between herself and her family, so she decided to show up. The worst that could happen was that she'd waste a day in Old Domino City, right? Well, that or kidnapping, but it was better not to think about that.

It took a while to figure out where the cemetery actually was, but she ended up getting there at about seven minute after midnight, having trouble following the directions she was given to get there in the dark.

Claire Turner

What was that about leaving? Wasn’t she supposed to hop on her bike and skip town as soon as the tournament was over?

Domino City was weird, but before she had received that totally-not-ominous note from one of the judges at the card shop she was willing to dismiss that weirdness as just a feeling at the back of her neck. Now though? She was certain that there was something off with this place. More than off; she was certain that this note had some kind of connection to the monsters she had been running from for the past couple of years. Monsters that just happened to bear more than a passing resemblance to the monsters from the very card game she had been playing when this note had been given to her.

This place was dark in a way she couldn’t explain; she could feel it. And maybe it wasn’t just all in her head after all.

So she did the stupid thing and instead of taking the shortest route she could to anywhere that wasn’t here, Claire found herself stopping her bike at the main gates to the cemetery in the middle of the night. Surprisingly, she wasn’t the only person there; several other faces she recognised from the store were there too, waiting for whoever had invited them to show up; or maybe just trying to build up the courage to go inside.

The kickstand dropped into place and Claire stepped off of her bike before removing her helmet. She shook her hair out, using the extra time to steel her own nerves before she turned and approached the gathered crowd. “Looks like there’s a whole party here! But why are we all waiting outside? Instructions are supposed to be on the gate, yeah? What do they say?”

The instructions were, indeed, in an envelope taped to the front of the gate.

It read,

"ENTER THE CEMETERY, CLOSE THE GATES BEHIND YOU.

TAKE THE LANTERN PROVIDED, YOU'LL NEED IT.

STICK TOGETHER AS YOU FOLLOW THE MARKED PATH INTO THE TREES. FROM THERE, THERE IS ONLY THE ONE PATH TO A CLEARING AND THE HIDDEN PLOT WITHIN.

LET THE HEART OF THE CARDS GUIDE YOU ALL.

SEE YOU SOON."

---

Aile saw Tobias groaning the moment he saw her, before approaching the gate reluctantly, all the while groaning. She couldn't quite make out what he was grumbling about, but she was reasonably certain it wasn't anything flattering.

She sighed, "Trust me, it was not as if I was jumping at the fact that you have been chosen either. So the feeling's mutual. You would most likely have questions, but I will address them later once everyone is here."

After a while, more people showed up, those who had received the invitation and chose to show up, at least.

Aile then spoke up, "Good Evening, everyone. Thank you for coming. We've seen each other in the tournament, but allow me to once more introduce myself, my name is Aile Schulze. I am supposed to be your guide this evening, so to speak. You are here because the organisation I am representing would like to extend an invitation for all of you to join us. To put it in simple terms we are a group consisting of skilled duelists who are involved in the more...'esoteric' aspects of the Duel Monster Trading Card Game. It is not something that I can explain easily, but I believe that it will become clearer in the course of this evening's activity. Further instruction, as Miss Turner had pointed out, is on the gate, you may peruse it at your leisure. Meanwhile, I will address questions you may have, though keep in mind, I am not privy to everything or have permission to answer certain matters."

”’Esoteric’...?” Toby repeated back to Aile, ”What’s that supposed to mean?” She was being just as cryptic as the notes were. As if Toby needed any more reason to dislike her. But it sounded like she wasn’t going to be able to give any full answers right now. Terrific.

But that wasn’t the only thing she said that stuck out to him. ‘Skilled duelists’, that was what she said the group was. And they wanted him of all people? The guy who only advanced a single round the other night using a deck that even he couldn’t deny was… budget… at best? Toby’s hand rested on the deck box clipped to his belt.

He wanted to ask “Why me?” but he got the distinct feeling that Aile didn’t have the answer to that, given how she greeted him. The only way he was gonna be able to ask that is if he met someone higher up the totem pole. And right now the only way to do that... was to follow instructions, at least for the time being.

”It says to follow the marked path, right?” he asked, pointing to the note and the lantern hanging nearby, ”Well, how hard could that be?” His vote was clear. They should just follow the instructions and get this over with.

---

“Huh…” was the only answer he gave. He listened to Allie’s explanation, of course things won’t be normal. And decided to throw a confused guy a bone.

“Esoteric for the most part, means supernaturally obscure.” he provided as he finished drinking his coffee in one gulp, he would be sleeping in the morning at this rate but unless he find something that can make Beatrice step back, it would remain to be an always present part of his life,

“That esoteric side of Duel Monsters, it involves psychic bullshit right?” he asked, recalling the two incidents at his house. “Because it would explain my last few days!”

Regardless he began taking a lantern and walking along the path. The faster he could finish this ‘card game occultism’ the more time he would have for his normal life.

Claire Turner

Claire was quiet in the wake of Aile’s little introduction. Normally she would try and socialise with the group, liven things up and leave her mark in people’s minds, but right now she couldn’t do anything but focus in on what the younger woman had just said.

‘Esoteric’; it didn’t necessarily mean what she wanted it to mean. It was just another word for obscure, hard to understand; the esoteric aspects of Duel Monsters could just refer to, like, damage step rulings or something. It didn’t have to have anything to do with what she was running from. This society the blonde mentioned could just be really dedicated to niche rulings for all she knew.

But she knew it wasn’t.

A bunch of wannabe judges wouldn’t arrange a midnight meeting in a cemetery and set up a lantern lit path through the darkness just to invite them to discuss the deeper aspects of chain links. Claire knew what this was. Something only further confirmed when one of the other invitees mentioned ‘psychic bullshit’; for that to be the first thing they thought of when they heard the word esoteric was telling. She wasn’t the only one experiencing weird things.

Impatiently, Claire stepped after the other duellist and grabbed a lantern of her own. “Let’s not waste time then. Let’s meet this society of yours.”

A sudden, but heavy fog set on the cemetery as the group made their way to a cluster of trees. Feint lights could also be seen, here and there, flitting about aimlessly, and even some distant whispers...

Once in the trees, the wandering lights ceased. The night was eerily silent; no rustling leaves, no wind, animals or birds. Eerier, still? Even the sounds of the city were gone, as though they were suddenly in the middle of nowhere!

Eventually, the endless foggy woods opened up into a clearing- even the fog stayed at bay, swirling, billowing at the edges. The clearing was brightly lit under the light of the moon.

And in the center of the clearing stood the judges from the tournament, plus 1 more they didn't recognize (a balding man with a pony tail and dice earrings!?) and the owner of the shop where the tournament was held!

They all turned, some looked disappointed (presumably with the turn out), but the one in the green trench coat just looked annoyed.

The Shop owner was the one to speak up, "Aile, I'm glad to see you made it safely. I was beginning to worry; after the last incident, I was beginning to worry about any of us travelling alone...

"I'm sorry to see not everyone invited made it, but for those of you who came, you have my deepest respect.

"I apologize for what seems like pointless theatrics, but as devoted Duel Monsters players, I'm sure you appreciate the importance of rules and instructions..." He spread his arms wide, gesturing to the clearing around them. "This place seems to be the safest, perhaps the only safe place, to gather when the moon is full. Perhaps some among you sense it; that rising intensity as you walk alone, like you're being followed, yet when you turn around, there is nothing? Strange noises in the night, that you try to assure yourself is merely the wind? Your eyes 'playing tricks on you'?"

The blonde woman stepped forward, "If any of this sounds familiar, you should trust your instincts, because it's true! We don't know how, exactly, but for a long time, now, well..." She trailed off, suddenly hesitating, as if she realized what she was about to say sounded insane.

That was when trench coat spoke up, in his thick, Brooklyn accent, "Ya parents lied- Monsters are real, they hide in the shadows, and hunt us by night. And the only weapons we have to fight back against the perils of the night-" He thrust a hand in the air, holding a hand of Duel Monsters cards, "-are these."

The brunette woman spoke up, this time, "Please, we understand how this might sound, but if you just trust us, we can prove it to you! All of you were chosen, because you have a unique talent, a gift that makes you like us! With our help, you can learn to use it, and help us fight the monsters, and protect the people we care about!" She held out what looked like bulky Duel Monsters cards, for them to take, but they had lenses in the center, like a viewer or magnifying glass!

The shop owner resumed control of the introduction, some kind of device on his wrist opening up as he spoke. "My name is Yugi Moto, and I am a Duelist. We are part of the 'Duelist's Society', and you are here because we are inviting you to join our fight! If you accept, you have only to look through the viewer..." He raised is arm, the machine now level with his chest, some kind of glass bauble positioned in such a way that if it were lit, it would be like shining a flashlight under his chin.

((those who look through the viewer will see the pail green glow, not just emitting from the duel disks all these people are wearing, but swirling here and there around the clearing!))

---

Responding to several remarks regarding her 'esoteric' comment, Aile replied, "Technically, esoteric does not specifically refer to the occult, but in this case, yes, I could confirm that I am referring to more occult things. I was avoiding the term because usually, people are less receptive to it, but it seemed all of you are more open-minded. That's good."

Probably more open-minded than she was when she found out about it.

She continued, "In any case, if you would follow me, I'm sure the rest would explain it in more detail."

Aile then led them deeper into the cemetery, until they reached the clearing where the rest of the duelists gathered.

The Shop owner was the one to speak up, "Aile, I'm glad to see you made it safely. I was beginning to worry; after the last incident, I was beginning to worry about any of us travelling alone...

"I'll let you take over the explanation from here." Aile said with a nod, as she joined them on the other side.

She then listened as Yugi and the rest started to provide explanations.

As Yugi raised his duel boards to allow the rest to see through the spirit viewer, Aile followed suit.

"As you can see, I also have one. These things are called Duel Boards and the magnifying glasses Spirit Viewers. In case some of you think these magnifying glasses are some sort of optical illusion prop that caused you to see those green glow, I can assure you that those are real. We call them 'Ectoplasm'."