A.N. Ruby of Raven here!

I know I shouldn't be starting another long fic since I already have about five still in the making, but my friends want to see this idea come to life and I, apparently, can't find it in myself to refuse them. So, bear with me as I take you on an odd adventure that is far too plausible a challenge for the King of Games and, his right hand man, Seto Kaiba.

This story takes place right after Episode 4 in the anime 'No Game No Life' or after Volume 1 for the mange. (Don't worry, I'm working on reading more of the manga so I can add in some stuff from it too, and not make this fic purely anime biased.) This stoy, from the 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' stand point takes place about a year after Yami and Yugi's final duel with some obvious Alternate Universe type differences.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! and I don't own No Game No Life. If I did, this story would be an actual thing in both of their plot-lines for obvious reasons.

Chapter 1: Needs More Challenge

Humanity... No matter how hard they'd try, they'd never truly win. Such short life spans they had. If they could beat him, then that'd be something. As it stood, Sora and Shiro would eventually die; no one would be able to replace them. They had no true magic like the others, but they had genius minds that no other in his universe would have.

He needed more of them. More genius, more games.

Tet couldn't let humanity die out, but sooner or later, Sora and Shiro would, bringing humanity down with them, even if they somehow became gods. Humanity would need something more than just this. They'd need a teacher, which the siblings clearly were not. Sure they could teach the humans how to be confident, but not how to truly defend themselves from enemies.

Now, the one and only God was not for blood and war, but some higher beings might warrant it, and the siblings would not be willing to bring it or properly find an appropriate substitute for it. They were more light.

What Tet needed was dark. Humanity needed both sides of the coin, for better or for worse.

The darkness he was looking at had lived far beyond other humans, never dying and always being reborn.

Even if Sora and Shiro fell, these two would remain. Darkness always remains.

"The fuck?!" the brunet's eyebrows furrowed in confusion and frustration.

His online poker game wasn't going as planned and it didn't help that his partner was there reading the comments from the other players. The smaller man was sitting in the chair next to him, slurping his noddles from the takeout box obnoxiously as his eyes twinkled with amusement.

"Mm, looks like this KaitoKid is close to winning." The other teen didn't bother to respond, so the slighter man continued, "I wonder what his strategy is with all his talk of a 'Poker Face,' hm?"

The CEO growled at that. "It hardly matters in an online poker game. No one can see your face!"

The ex-pharaoh smirked. "I'm afraid you're wrong about that."

"Can it, Yami!" Why his biggest rival was even still here, the business man didn't know. He had come over for dinner via an invite from his younger brother and, somehow, it had turned into this. Honestly, he should have known something was up when Mokuba disappeared right before their food arrived, leaving him with babysitting the annoying midget. Somehow this led to him, Seto Kaiba, playing online poker due to the shorter teen's prodding.

The tri-colored haired teen only rolled his eyes at Kaiba's reaction to his input with a slight chuckle. Sometimes it was too easily to rile the brunet.

Left on his own to finish the game, the CEO managed to win at the last minute, figuring out KaitoKid's strategy, which involved a healthy dose of cheating that the guy called 'magic,' to which both teens snorted their disbelief.

"Magic?! Is that what they call magic these days, Kaiba?" the Egyptian asked, eyes narrowed.

"No, it's what they call hacking the game," the taller teen calmly responded to the other's anger.

Yami crossed his arms over his chest, stewing in his chair, takeout box empty on the floor beside him. "Magic..." He knew the player KaitoKid was probably only joking, but the gag rubbed him the wrong way along with the other forms of 'magic' he saw on TV, passing acts of sorcery with people pulling rabbits out of hats and the like. He snorted again in contemptment.

The former high priest smirked, but it slowly fell as he contemplated how he had the ability to use it; what people make a mockery of, true magic. He had yet to embrace the shadows that followed him, and he suspected that was why the shorter duelist had started coming over at least once a week at his brother's prompting. Yami was hell-bent on getting him to play games that he swore would bring out his shadow energy if he was stressed enough.

He sighed. "Just let it go, Yami."

"I will not! It's an abomination," he fumed.

"Yes, I'm sure it is."

'Bing'

"It is! I suppose you just don't want to admit that you know what true magic is after all this time. It must irk you to a certain extent, no?"

"What irks me is that you think I can use your mythological magic and you won't leave me out of it."

'Bing!'

"Seto, we both know you have the ability to-"

"Shut up, Mouto. I'm done being involved in your shadows, monsters, and magical 'mumbo-jumbo.' Leave me out of it!"

"But Seth-"

"DO NOT call me that!"

'BING!'

"Kaiba, what was that noise? It came from your computer."

Confusion swept over the taller teen's face, taking in the screen. "It's an invite..."

The ex-pharaoh simply raised an eyebrow at this. "For what?"

"Poker."

"Okay...?" The short answers weren't doing anything for the spiky haired duelist. What was so odd about an online invite? Wasn't that a good thing? "Someone else wants to test your skill?"

"Hmm..." The keys on the keyboard sounded as the CEO typed; the look of confusion only grew as he did so. "Hmm..."

The shorter teen sighed. "Kaiba, what is it? Another hacker?"

He growled, eyes narrowed. "No, that'd be simpler!"

"What is it then?!" The King of Games wasn't able to comprehend the coding that flew over the monitor; his eyes became slits, waiting for an impending attack that he seemed to think might just come out of the screen(stranger things had happened).

"This asshole can't be for real!" he continued, furiously typing, "There's no way he can't just not exist!"

"What?!" Yami's head snapped down from looking at the ginormous computer screen mounted on the wall to Seto's face. "Isn't that-?"

The businessman snorted. "I know, right? It can't be possible." He didn't bother sparing the midget a glance, his face bathed in the artificial blue light that illuminated dark room.

"Hm..." The shadows stirred. "Perhaps it is magic, then."

"Don't be ridiculous. There's no way shadow magic can be used for this."

The ex-pharaoh smirked. "And you would know, wouldn't you?"

The taller teen realized his error a little too late and sighed, slowing in his frantic movements on the keyboard. "I only ran a few tests-" A chuckle interrupted him.

"I'm sure you did." Vibrant blue eyes glared at him from the taller teens pale face. "I'm also sure your 'magical' intuition is what made you trace the invite before accepting it, or do you trace all messages you get to see if they are of this world?"

An angry blush stained the younger teens face. "You little-"

'Click'

They both gaped at the screen.

"I don't remember clicking anything."

"Neither do I."

The game had begun.

A.N.

I apologize for any errors in this, I have no beta and I'm really just posting this as I finish writing the chapters since I'm doing NanoWrimo and apparently this has become a fic I'm going to chug, at least, a good portion through for it. So, enjoy!

Also, I hope you all liked the Kaito Kid references in this chapter for those fans out there who enjoy that anime and the like. ;)