YU-GI-OH! FAN FICTION
Shayla's Story
By: Gema J. Gall
Disclaimer: I always try to give credit where credit is due so... Yu-Gi-Oh! And all associated things like Rex Raptor, Seto Kaiba, and Duel Monsters... are originally created by Kazuki Takahashi and the TV series was created by Junki Takegami. I hope I got the names right. Please don't sue me, I'm
doing my best.
The passengers noisily left the boat. On the top deck a young girl with curly dark brown hair listened as they left. Then she grabbed her backpack and head to the lower levels. She was thin and tall. Her hair was blown all over the place, but she didn't even bother to brush it out of her eyes. She wore baggy flare jeans and a red shirt with the sleeves flared. She walked down the ship like she had been born on it. Never once did she falter in her steps, but her right hand never left the wall. She paused once on the second deck when she heard footsteps approaching.
"I've been looking for you," said a small African-American boy. He was small for his age and very shy. He never looked anyone in the face, finding his shoes more interesting. This was the most he had spoken on the entire boat ride to the island.
"They are departing. We should get off now," he said, running his old sneaker along the edge of the carpet in the hallway.
"I know," said the girl. She didn't move her head to look him in the eyes. "With so much ruckus it would be hard not to know."
"Oh, I was just wondering," said the boy sheepishly.
"Let's just go," she said. She brushed past the boy, always keeping one hand on the wall. They walked to the gangway and left the ship with the few passengers who still hadn't left. As they stepped off of the ship the girl put on a pair of dark sunglasses.
"All contestants are expected to report at the gate of the castle," said a solemn, beefy man at the end of the boat. The boy was quickly intimidated and stepped into the shadow of the girl. She didn't flinch at the sight of him. She walked by without even acknowledging his presence.
"This is where I need your help, Martin," said the girl to the young boy. She stuck out her hand. The boy took it without a word and began to lead her to the large castle in the middle of the island. It appeared to be the only building in the entire Duelist Kingdom.
They walked to the castle with the whole group of duelists who had arrived with them. The boy expertly maneuvered them through the crowd. The girl stumbled a few times on the unfamiliar terrain. But despite the jolts and bumps they endured they didn't let go of each other. The girl kept her other hand on her back pack.
"Watch where you're going," snorted a sarcastic boy after the group had stopped at the foot of the castle. The girl drew herself up to her full height and faced him. Her face was a mask of rage. She slapped him across the face and stormed away. The boy ran to her, grabbed her hand and she stopped.
On the balcony of the castle stepped a man. He was the one credited with inventing Duel Monsters and the reason so many Duel Monsters duelists had been invited to this island, the Duelist Kingdom. He wore a light green dress jacket and had long white hair. His hair went just down below his shoulders and he never bothered to brush it out of his eyes, either. He looked impressive enough, but behind the wealthy display was a cold, cruel smile. He cleared his voice and began to speak.
But the girl was busy thinking about how she had gotten invited to the Duelist Kingdom. She had been sitting at the Group Home's dining table, eating a tasteless meal. Mail call was made like always, but she wasn't listening. She never got mail before in her life. But a package had arrived for her, not a letter but a package. She was sure that it had to be a mistake. She opened the package carefully, laying the letter, which was in the form of several Duel Monsters cards to the side. She felt around the package and found a silly glove and two star chips.
Later that day, when the other orphans wouldn't be around to snicker, she found Martin and got him to read the letter to her. She had been invited to compete in a major Duel Monsters tournament at the Duelist Kingdom for a large sum of money. Attending the tournament would be the head of Duel Monsters himself, Maximilian Pegasus. She was completely surprised that she had even been invited. She had been playing Duel Monsters for only two months. She didn't even think she was good enough to enter a professional tournament.
She had only started playing Duel Monsters because the fad had hit the Group Home no harder than it had hit the rest of the world. Her old boyfriend had taught her to play. She quickly focused back on the opening speech. It hurt her too much to think of her old boyfriend, who was also Martin's older brother.
She shifted her backpack from her left shoulder to her right shoulder impatiently. In it was all of her most valuable possessions; her deck of Duel Monsters cards, extra cards to trade or use to modify her deck, a label maker, a change of clothes, some snacks she saved from the meals on the boat, her walking stick which collapsed into a rod no more than a half foot long, a blanket, her Bible, and the first and last gift her boyfriend had given her. It was the only gift anyone had ever given her directly. She mentally slapped herself for getting emotional. In her life, to show emotions meant to become the brunt of the next joke.
"Welcome to the Duelist Kingdom," said Pegasus as he greeted the competitors. He continued to state the elimination rules and "special" rules that the contestants would have to find out on their own. The contest was simple enough. Each person would compete against the others for the star chips they had been given. Each player would gamble so many of their star chips against their opponent and the winner would take all. If a person lost all of their star chips they would be deported from the island and eliminated from the contest. But if a person won a total of ten star chips they gained entrance to the castle and the final round.
"Well, that's all. Let the duels begin," concluded Pegasus. People began to drift away and the girl already heard some being challenged to a duel.
"Let's go Martin. Let's get away from this crowd. We can find some secluded spot and wait for the other duelists come to us," she said. She held out her hand and Martin took it without a word. He lead her away from the castle. They didn't stumble so much this time because the crowd had thinned drastically.
They walked without knowing exactly where to go. After roaming around
for a couple of minutes they decided to stop and watch some of the
duels that were already in progress.
The girl wanted to check out the competition before she had to duel.
She was a little afraid that she would be the only amateur among a lot
of professionals. That turned out not to be the case. She could tell
a few people were probably as new to Duel Monsters as she was. She
knew they would be the prey for the better duelists. She also knew
that they would challenge her if they found out she was such a rookie.
"Luckily, I've spent my whole life in the shadows. I can stay hidden
until I'm ready to duel," she thought. She hung around one of the
holo-fields where a well know duelist, Rex Raptor, was dueling a kid
who appeared to be a real rookie. A holo-field was a new invention
from the Kaiba Corporation. Seto Kaiba, the head of Kaiba Corp. was a
mechanical genius. His company had designed the holo-fields which
projected a life size holograph of each monster. It then made life
like recreations of the magic, attacks, and traps used by each duelist
as they duel. The holo-fields also had realistic results which
couldn't be recreated otherwise. For example, a magic card might
protect a monster from an attack, but the holo-field might reflect
that attack on another monster. It was an awesome invention that made
Duel Monsters almost seem real. But the full effect was lost on the
girl.
Seto Kaiba was also ranked the number one duelist in the world. He
had only lost once, and even then it was a complete surprise. A kid
from nowhere named Yu-Gi Motou beat him by summoning the most powerful
card, Exodia. A feat which had never been done before.
A sudden commotion snapped the girl out of her thoughts. The duel was
coming to a close. Rex Raptor was about to win. The girl thought
about the strategies used in the duel. She was already familiar with
Raptor's strategy because she had heard about his tournament duel last
week. It had been publicly broadcasted. Rex Raptor had just lost the
tournament to Weevil Underwood. They had both played expertly and she
had closely examined their strategies, and had found a few flaws. She
knew how the rookie who was dueling Rex Raptor could get out of the
losing situation. Too bad that duelist didn't. He lost the next turn
to Raptor's Two Headed King Rex.
"How tragic," she thought, "It won't be long before they run out of
easy targets. They'll be coming for me next. I'd better disappear
before they find me."
"Martin, let's find a spot where we can duel, but without the crowd,"
she said. She stuck out her hand again and Martin lead her silently
away from that dueling ground.
After following a short path in the wooded section of the island they
came to a bridge by a quiet brook. It was very peaceful there. The
brook babbled contently and the noise from the holo-fields was blocked
by the forest.
"This is perfect," she said, "I'll just wait here until the duelists
come to me. We have awhile for them to spread out, so you can rest
Martin." Martin nodded and curled up near the edge of the bridge and
went to sleep. He never liked large crowds. Every time he was forced
to be in one he would sleep for hours later, almost like he was trying
to sleep off a bad dream.
The girl sat on the end of the bridge, listening for approaching
footsteps. She was beginning to formulate an idea on how and who to
challenge to a duel. She didn't care much for the prize money. Her
main reason for coming to this tournament had been to prove herself,
then to get out of the Group Home for a week. Ever since she could
remember everyone had treated her like she'd never amount to much.
They had said she wouldn't even be able to play Duel Monsters, much
less be good at it. But she was going to show them.
The way she would choose her opponents was to wait until the most
arrogant and obnoxious people came, those she would challenge. She
wanted to cut down their egos. She couldn't stand others who acted
like they were better than everyone else. Everyone acted like they
were better than her, so she would just prove them wrong.
She didn't care about the prize money, just eliminating as many
"brats" as possible. The girl had a strong sense of justice. Deep
down she single-handedly wanted to stop every injustice in the world.
But for now she would settle with making sure only the nicest people
would have a chance to win the tournament; those that had good causes.
She knew some really needed the money for one reason or another. She
had decided that when only the most deserving people were left she
would withdraw from the tournament. That would give the kids at the
Group Home something to talk about.
But first she had to start dueling. Time was passing and no one
seemed to be coming in her direction. She really didn't want to leave
her place by the brook. She sighed and listened to Martin's quiet
snoring. She decided to wait a little longer here.
Then she heard footsteps approaching. The girl bent her head down and
pulled out he
collapsible stick. Then she froze.
A teenage boy approached. He had light green hair that stuck up in
the back. He wore a black starter jacket and torn jeans. He had a
large hoop earring in his left ear. He looked back and forth between
the two unmoving figures. He didn't know what to think. Then he
shrugged his shoulders and walked toward the bridge. He had just
reached it when the girl stuck out her walking stick to its full
length and put it in front of him to stop him from crossing the
bridge.
"If you want to cross you have to answer three questions," she said.
"What?" he asked gruffly.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"My name is Shawn," he replied.
"Why are you here dueling?" the girl asked.
"Duh. For the prize money," he responded.
"Then will you duel me?" she asked her final question. She wasn't at
all impressed by his
attitude.
"Fine," he said. He pulled out his pack of Duel Monsters cards and
the girl reached in her backpack and felt around for hers.
"So what's your name?" he asked while she was fishing around for her
cards.
"Call me Justice," she replied. She changed her name on a weekly
basis.
"Fine, Justice," he said, "Ready to lose?"
"Don't get cocky," she said, pulling her cards out of her backpack.
"Martin wake up. We have a duel." He woke up and walked to her side,
rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"Let's trade our decks to shuffle," said Shawn. That was standard
procedure for a Duel Monsters battle, shuffling each others decks.
They exchanged decks. Martin's eyes never left his friend's deck or
Shawn's hands. She took his cards and began shuffling.
"What's this?!" exclaimed Shawn, looking at her deck. The words on
her cards had been printed over with the label maker. All the
writings on her cards were three dimensional.
"It's so I can read them," replied Justice simply.
"What do you mean?" he asked but trailed of when she took off her
sunglasses to face him.
"You're blind!" he exclaimed, "You can't play Duel Monsters!" He
stood there for a moment with his mouth open. The girl felt her
temper raise. She hated the way people treated her because she was
blind.
Shayla's Story
By: Gema J. Gall
Disclaimer: I always try to give credit where credit is due so... Yu-Gi-Oh! And all associated things like Rex Raptor, Seto Kaiba, and Duel Monsters... are originally created by Kazuki Takahashi and the TV series was created by Junki Takegami. I hope I got the names right. Please don't sue me, I'm
doing my best.
The passengers noisily left the boat. On the top deck a young girl with curly dark brown hair listened as they left. Then she grabbed her backpack and head to the lower levels. She was thin and tall. Her hair was blown all over the place, but she didn't even bother to brush it out of her eyes. She wore baggy flare jeans and a red shirt with the sleeves flared. She walked down the ship like she had been born on it. Never once did she falter in her steps, but her right hand never left the wall. She paused once on the second deck when she heard footsteps approaching.
"I've been looking for you," said a small African-American boy. He was small for his age and very shy. He never looked anyone in the face, finding his shoes more interesting. This was the most he had spoken on the entire boat ride to the island.
"They are departing. We should get off now," he said, running his old sneaker along the edge of the carpet in the hallway.
"I know," said the girl. She didn't move her head to look him in the eyes. "With so much ruckus it would be hard not to know."
"Oh, I was just wondering," said the boy sheepishly.
"Let's just go," she said. She brushed past the boy, always keeping one hand on the wall. They walked to the gangway and left the ship with the few passengers who still hadn't left. As they stepped off of the ship the girl put on a pair of dark sunglasses.
"All contestants are expected to report at the gate of the castle," said a solemn, beefy man at the end of the boat. The boy was quickly intimidated and stepped into the shadow of the girl. She didn't flinch at the sight of him. She walked by without even acknowledging his presence.
"This is where I need your help, Martin," said the girl to the young boy. She stuck out her hand. The boy took it without a word and began to lead her to the large castle in the middle of the island. It appeared to be the only building in the entire Duelist Kingdom.
They walked to the castle with the whole group of duelists who had arrived with them. The boy expertly maneuvered them through the crowd. The girl stumbled a few times on the unfamiliar terrain. But despite the jolts and bumps they endured they didn't let go of each other. The girl kept her other hand on her back pack.
"Watch where you're going," snorted a sarcastic boy after the group had stopped at the foot of the castle. The girl drew herself up to her full height and faced him. Her face was a mask of rage. She slapped him across the face and stormed away. The boy ran to her, grabbed her hand and she stopped.
On the balcony of the castle stepped a man. He was the one credited with inventing Duel Monsters and the reason so many Duel Monsters duelists had been invited to this island, the Duelist Kingdom. He wore a light green dress jacket and had long white hair. His hair went just down below his shoulders and he never bothered to brush it out of his eyes, either. He looked impressive enough, but behind the wealthy display was a cold, cruel smile. He cleared his voice and began to speak.
But the girl was busy thinking about how she had gotten invited to the Duelist Kingdom. She had been sitting at the Group Home's dining table, eating a tasteless meal. Mail call was made like always, but she wasn't listening. She never got mail before in her life. But a package had arrived for her, not a letter but a package. She was sure that it had to be a mistake. She opened the package carefully, laying the letter, which was in the form of several Duel Monsters cards to the side. She felt around the package and found a silly glove and two star chips.
Later that day, when the other orphans wouldn't be around to snicker, she found Martin and got him to read the letter to her. She had been invited to compete in a major Duel Monsters tournament at the Duelist Kingdom for a large sum of money. Attending the tournament would be the head of Duel Monsters himself, Maximilian Pegasus. She was completely surprised that she had even been invited. She had been playing Duel Monsters for only two months. She didn't even think she was good enough to enter a professional tournament.
She had only started playing Duel Monsters because the fad had hit the Group Home no harder than it had hit the rest of the world. Her old boyfriend had taught her to play. She quickly focused back on the opening speech. It hurt her too much to think of her old boyfriend, who was also Martin's older brother.
She shifted her backpack from her left shoulder to her right shoulder impatiently. In it was all of her most valuable possessions; her deck of Duel Monsters cards, extra cards to trade or use to modify her deck, a label maker, a change of clothes, some snacks she saved from the meals on the boat, her walking stick which collapsed into a rod no more than a half foot long, a blanket, her Bible, and the first and last gift her boyfriend had given her. It was the only gift anyone had ever given her directly. She mentally slapped herself for getting emotional. In her life, to show emotions meant to become the brunt of the next joke.
"Welcome to the Duelist Kingdom," said Pegasus as he greeted the competitors. He continued to state the elimination rules and "special" rules that the contestants would have to find out on their own. The contest was simple enough. Each person would compete against the others for the star chips they had been given. Each player would gamble so many of their star chips against their opponent and the winner would take all. If a person lost all of their star chips they would be deported from the island and eliminated from the contest. But if a person won a total of ten star chips they gained entrance to the castle and the final round.
"Well, that's all. Let the duels begin," concluded Pegasus. People began to drift away and the girl already heard some being challenged to a duel.
"Let's go Martin. Let's get away from this crowd. We can find some secluded spot and wait for the other duelists come to us," she said. She held out her hand and Martin took it without a word. He lead her away from the castle. They didn't stumble so much this time because the crowd had thinned drastically.
They walked without knowing exactly where to go. After roaming around
for a couple of minutes they decided to stop and watch some of the
duels that were already in progress.
The girl wanted to check out the competition before she had to duel.
She was a little afraid that she would be the only amateur among a lot
of professionals. That turned out not to be the case. She could tell
a few people were probably as new to Duel Monsters as she was. She
knew they would be the prey for the better duelists. She also knew
that they would challenge her if they found out she was such a rookie.
"Luckily, I've spent my whole life in the shadows. I can stay hidden
until I'm ready to duel," she thought. She hung around one of the
holo-fields where a well know duelist, Rex Raptor, was dueling a kid
who appeared to be a real rookie. A holo-field was a new invention
from the Kaiba Corporation. Seto Kaiba, the head of Kaiba Corp. was a
mechanical genius. His company had designed the holo-fields which
projected a life size holograph of each monster. It then made life
like recreations of the magic, attacks, and traps used by each duelist
as they duel. The holo-fields also had realistic results which
couldn't be recreated otherwise. For example, a magic card might
protect a monster from an attack, but the holo-field might reflect
that attack on another monster. It was an awesome invention that made
Duel Monsters almost seem real. But the full effect was lost on the
girl.
Seto Kaiba was also ranked the number one duelist in the world. He
had only lost once, and even then it was a complete surprise. A kid
from nowhere named Yu-Gi Motou beat him by summoning the most powerful
card, Exodia. A feat which had never been done before.
A sudden commotion snapped the girl out of her thoughts. The duel was
coming to a close. Rex Raptor was about to win. The girl thought
about the strategies used in the duel. She was already familiar with
Raptor's strategy because she had heard about his tournament duel last
week. It had been publicly broadcasted. Rex Raptor had just lost the
tournament to Weevil Underwood. They had both played expertly and she
had closely examined their strategies, and had found a few flaws. She
knew how the rookie who was dueling Rex Raptor could get out of the
losing situation. Too bad that duelist didn't. He lost the next turn
to Raptor's Two Headed King Rex.
"How tragic," she thought, "It won't be long before they run out of
easy targets. They'll be coming for me next. I'd better disappear
before they find me."
"Martin, let's find a spot where we can duel, but without the crowd,"
she said. She stuck out her hand again and Martin lead her silently
away from that dueling ground.
After following a short path in the wooded section of the island they
came to a bridge by a quiet brook. It was very peaceful there. The
brook babbled contently and the noise from the holo-fields was blocked
by the forest.
"This is perfect," she said, "I'll just wait here until the duelists
come to me. We have awhile for them to spread out, so you can rest
Martin." Martin nodded and curled up near the edge of the bridge and
went to sleep. He never liked large crowds. Every time he was forced
to be in one he would sleep for hours later, almost like he was trying
to sleep off a bad dream.
The girl sat on the end of the bridge, listening for approaching
footsteps. She was beginning to formulate an idea on how and who to
challenge to a duel. She didn't care much for the prize money. Her
main reason for coming to this tournament had been to prove herself,
then to get out of the Group Home for a week. Ever since she could
remember everyone had treated her like she'd never amount to much.
They had said she wouldn't even be able to play Duel Monsters, much
less be good at it. But she was going to show them.
The way she would choose her opponents was to wait until the most
arrogant and obnoxious people came, those she would challenge. She
wanted to cut down their egos. She couldn't stand others who acted
like they were better than everyone else. Everyone acted like they
were better than her, so she would just prove them wrong.
She didn't care about the prize money, just eliminating as many
"brats" as possible. The girl had a strong sense of justice. Deep
down she single-handedly wanted to stop every injustice in the world.
But for now she would settle with making sure only the nicest people
would have a chance to win the tournament; those that had good causes.
She knew some really needed the money for one reason or another. She
had decided that when only the most deserving people were left she
would withdraw from the tournament. That would give the kids at the
Group Home something to talk about.
But first she had to start dueling. Time was passing and no one
seemed to be coming in her direction. She really didn't want to leave
her place by the brook. She sighed and listened to Martin's quiet
snoring. She decided to wait a little longer here.
Then she heard footsteps approaching. The girl bent her head down and
pulled out he
collapsible stick. Then she froze.
A teenage boy approached. He had light green hair that stuck up in
the back. He wore a black starter jacket and torn jeans. He had a
large hoop earring in his left ear. He looked back and forth between
the two unmoving figures. He didn't know what to think. Then he
shrugged his shoulders and walked toward the bridge. He had just
reached it when the girl stuck out her walking stick to its full
length and put it in front of him to stop him from crossing the
bridge.
"If you want to cross you have to answer three questions," she said.
"What?" he asked gruffly.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"My name is Shawn," he replied.
"Why are you here dueling?" the girl asked.
"Duh. For the prize money," he responded.
"Then will you duel me?" she asked her final question. She wasn't at
all impressed by his
attitude.
"Fine," he said. He pulled out his pack of Duel Monsters cards and
the girl reached in her backpack and felt around for hers.
"So what's your name?" he asked while she was fishing around for her
cards.
"Call me Justice," she replied. She changed her name on a weekly
basis.
"Fine, Justice," he said, "Ready to lose?"
"Don't get cocky," she said, pulling her cards out of her backpack.
"Martin wake up. We have a duel." He woke up and walked to her side,
rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"Let's trade our decks to shuffle," said Shawn. That was standard
procedure for a Duel Monsters battle, shuffling each others decks.
They exchanged decks. Martin's eyes never left his friend's deck or
Shawn's hands. She took his cards and began shuffling.
"What's this?!" exclaimed Shawn, looking at her deck. The words on
her cards had been printed over with the label maker. All the
writings on her cards were three dimensional.
"It's so I can read them," replied Justice simply.
"What do you mean?" he asked but trailed of when she took off her
sunglasses to face him.
"You're blind!" he exclaimed, "You can't play Duel Monsters!" He
stood there for a moment with his mouth open. The girl felt her
temper raise. She hated the way people treated her because she was
blind.