So, this is the first chapter of a story I'm currently working on. I thought I'd throw it out here to test the waters, see if anyone was interested in reading the rest of it.

Pairings for this story include Puzzle/Blindshipping, Tender/Gemshipping, Bronzeshipping, some Polarshipping and eventual Azureshipping. Also, Ishizu and Odion are married and are not foster-siblings, Priest Seto (Seth) and Kisara are married, and Mahado and Mahna are engaged.

Also featuring fem!Yugi, fem!Ryou, and fem!Mariku, because they're so cute!

Chapter 1:

Atemu frowned as he stared out over the horizon from his stance on one of the castle's balconies. He was staying on the island known as Duelist Kingdom, a personal guest of the owner of both island and castle, Maximilian Pegasus.

"Seth," he asked, directing his words back to the room behind him. He didn't have to turn around to know that his cousin was sitting in the room with a book. "Tell me again: when are the chosen duelists going to arrive?"

Seth sighed, wishing he didn't have to repeat himself over and over like this. "Within the hour, my Pharaoh. So just relax and wait for the losers to arrive, alright?"

The young ruler of Egypt stayed where he was for another minute, then turned and walked back into the room, laying down on the bed, deciding to take a nap out of sheer boredom.

Seth, the High Priest of Egypt, couldn't help but roll his eyes. It was well known by everyone all over the world that Pharaoh Atemu was unbeatable at any game he played with anyone, even games that he'd never played before. He always won. Not only was he the King of Egypt, he was the King of Games as well. And he had been for the past several centuries.

Now Pegasus, an old friend of the pharaoh's court, was holding a contest on his island where only the best players could come and compete between one another for the title of the Duel Monster's Grand Champion. Duel Monsters was a game that Pegasus had created years before, basing the characters on the cards off of real monsters that Atemu and Seth and the rest of the court had summoned back in the days of the Shadow Games.

Atemu was hoping that perhaps some of the duelists that were coming to the island, or at least the Grand Champion, would be worth competing against.

Seth hoped that there would be some good competition, too. He was getting sick and tired of listening to his cousin complain about not having a proper rival.

Although, personally, Seth thought that his cousin needed a queen more than he needed a rival, as the young ruler remained unmarried as of yet. Atemu had been ruling Upper and Lower Egypt all by himself with help from no one save the members of his Sacred Court ever since his own parents had died, and that was just over 5,000 years ago!

Of course, Atemu hadn't aged a day since then, either. Neither had any of the members of his Sacred Court, which consisted predominately of members of the royal family; they were guarded against time by special magical spells and artifacts, chiefly the Millennium Items. Atemu had been living in the body of a young man, just barely out of his teens, for the past fifty centuries.

And in all that time he'd never found the right girl for him to marry.

Seth frowned to himself, wondering if the Pharaoh would ever find his Queen. Only then would the members of the royal court be allowed to age the way the rest of the world did. Such was the way of Egypt: they remained trapped in time until the ruler found a suitable bride.

Mahna raced in just then, squealing excitedly as she tackled the sleeping Pharaoh, who in his own turn let out a cry. "Oh, Atemu! Wake up, Pharaoh! Wake up wake up wake up!"

"MAHNA!" Atemu wailed as his ribcage was crushed by the eager magician-in-training who also happened to be his younger sister. "What – what is it?! What's got you so excited?!"

"The boat is arriving, big brother!" Mahna chirped as Seth tried to pry his little cousin off of their king. "The duelists have arrived on the island, and the games are about to start!"

Mahado, who was both another cousin (this time on the side of Atemu's mother instead of his father) as well as the man who was betrothed to Mahna, entered the room just then, Pegasus right behind him.

The royal magician's eyes widened when he saw what his fiance had been up to. "Mahna! Remove yourself from the Pharaoh this instant!"

His little girlfriend stuck her tongue out in his direction, to which he replied by wagging his finger in her face. Soon, the couple were in a corner of the room, bickering between one another.

"He's my brother! I can tackle him if I want!"

"He is our King, and should always be treated with the utmost respect! I still can't get over the way you behaved last night!"

"Look, all I did was ask him if he wanted me to wash his tighty-whities along with mine! I was just doing laundry! What's wrong with that?!"

"You asked him in front of all the guests at our host's banquet and the entire castle staff, and you were carrying the basket of underwear around with you! You were parading the Pharaoh's unmentionables around a castle in which we are guests and there were many other people from other countries viewing both you and the basket of laundry. How do you not see the problem with this?!"

Pegasus watched them with some amusement. "You know, I believe they argue merely for the fun of it."

Seth growled under his breath. "Believe me: it's a lot less amusing after the first two hundred years."

The silver-haired man chuckled, then turned to Atemu, bowing as he spoke. "As I believe I heard the magician girl scream, the duelists have arrived and I am about to go out and greet them. Would you care to join me and see if there are any duelists worth your time?"

Atemu nodded, standing and approaching the wardrobe in the corner of the room. "Yes. I will join you. But remember: if you are to introduce me to anyone, introduce me as Yami Sennon, one of the visiting duelists."

He pulled clothing from the wardrobe as he spoke – a black tank-top and thin leather pants were thrown onto his bed, and they were soon joined by strange looking shoes with buckles on them and many, many belts.

Pegasus nodded, a smile playing on his lips. "'Yami,' hmm? It suits you. As you wish, Yami-boy."

Atemu snapped his fingers then, and soon a white-haired man slunk out of the shadows.

He smirked, making the scar on his cheek stretch and change shape. "You beckoned, your highness?"

"Yes, Bakura. I wish for both you and Malik to accompany me onto the dueling fields to study the challengers." Atem slipped behind a changing screen, removing his regal outfit and replacing it with the new set of clothing that he'd thrown together. He paused, then poked his head out and glanced around, a confused look on his face. "Where is Malik, anyway?"

Bakura frowned. "He raced off to go watch the duelists disembark from the boat. Something about spotting a 'pretty' something or other." He shrugged. "You know those eagle eyes of his; he probably saw some girl who's body he liked."

Atemu offered a wry smile, ignoring the look of disgust that passed over Seth's face. "Yes, you're probably right."

"Don't worry, Pharaoh," the white-haired man told him, his scar tilting with his smirk. "I'll catch up to him and explain your little plan to him." He motioned as if to push to the ruler out the door. "Now run along with Pegasus to see the prospective duelists, already! We haven't got all day!"

Atemu chuckled at the impatience of his bodyguard, who was also one of his oldest friends. "Alright, Bakura, I'm going!"

Soon, the young ruler stood in the crowd surrounding the castle, eager to see the new faces.

Perhaps, one of them would prove to be his perfect match.

tQoG

Bakura wove his way through the crowd, searching for his companion. "Malik!"

He almost tripped over one of the duelists, who was very small in stature. "Hey! Watch where you're going, you pathetic little worm!"

The duelist scowled up at him, pushing a pair of glasses further up his nose. "You watch where you're going, cretin!"

Bakura snarled and continued on, ignoring the obnoxious little bug. Eventually, he spotted a familiar face with blonde spikes sticking up into the air.

Malik was leaned against a nearby tree, his eyes set on a particular person. He had a particularly evil, desirous glint in his eye, which made him look much more dangerous than usual.

"Oi! Malik!"

The other bodyguard glanced up when he heard his name being called, an eerie smile on his face. "Yes, Bakura?"

The white-haired man frowned in distaste at his partner, guessing that he was probably stalking an unsuspecting victim. "What are you doing? Searching for just the right child to molest?"

Malik blatantly ignored him, going back to his stalking instead.

"Just don't do anything too stupid," Bakura muttered. "Listen: we have some orders."

tQoG

Duelists all gathered around the castle like a swarm of hungry locusts, listening eagerly as Pegasus explained all about his little competition. But, all to soon, his speech was over and the duelists scattered themselves around the island.

The Pharaoh and his two favorite bodyguards also found themselves wandering the island.

"So, 'Yami' is it?" Malik asked, walking beside his cousin Atemu through the forest. The royal family was a large one, and Malik's mother had been the younger sister of Atemu's father. "What did you think of all those duelists? See any you like?"

Atemu, or "Yami" as it was now, shrugged. "They are all children. It... would almost seem unfair to combat them."

Bakura shrugged in a dismissive fashion, half his face enshrouded by darkness.

They were interrupted by triumphant laughter.

Following the sounds, they finally reached a clearing where several teens stood surrounding a dueling arena. A green haired duelist with glasses gave his star chips to the winner, then slunk off in defeat.

Bakura snickered, evidently recognizing the loser's face. "I was hoping that little worm would be the first to leave the island. What a pest!"

"I wonder who the winner is...?" Yami wondered. "They must be good if they beat Weevil Underwood."

"Who?"

"One of the international Duel Monsters champions. He's actually a very good duelist." He looked over to the crowd of teenagers, wondering who the winner was. "It would take a player who's either very skilled or very lucky to defeat him."

"You mean aside from you?" Malik grinned. "Well, why don't we go see who the winner was?"

Yami nodded, and the three of them headed over towards the crowd.

"Excuse us," Yami began. The teens all turned to look at the newcomers. "We couldn't help but overhear. Did one of you really beat Weevil Underwood?"

"One of us sure did!" A boy with dirty blonde hair and a loud voice cried out, hugging a much smaller girl and ruffling her spiky hair. "My li'l gal pal Yugi beat that bug-boy single-handedly, like it was nothing!"

"Stop it, Jou!" The girl squealed.

Yami smiled at the girl, finding her to be very cute and pleasing to look at. She was on the petite side, with sparkling violet eyes and black hair that she had dyed, making the bangs appear blonde and causing the tips of her black hair to become magenta; it actually looked similar to Yami's hair. She also wore a unique blend of clothes, pulling a punk goth sort of look, contrasting strongly with her innocent looking face.

"I take it you must be Yugi, then?"

"Uh, yeah," she blushed shyly but held her hand out to shake with him. "I'm Motou Yugi. And you are...?"

"I am called Yami Sennon," Atemu answered as he shook her hand, remembering the name he'd made up for himself. "This is my cousin, Malik, and our friend, Bakura."

He grinned. "They're not as scary as they look."

Yugi smiled and gestured to the crowd around her. "This is Jounouchi, Honda, Anzu, Kaiba, Mokuba, Ryou, Mariku, and Otogi. Um... they're pretty much exactly the way they look."

Everyone smiled and waved as their name was mentioned, except for Kaiba, who looked away with a short grunt, and Mariku, who shrunk away as if to hide.

Yami raised an eyebrow as he looked around at the crowd. "Are all of you duelists?!"

Most of the kids laughed and shook their heads.

"Only Yugi, Jou, Kaiba, and Mariku," the one called Anzu explained. "Honda, Mokuba and I can't duel at all, and Ryou and Otogi are just here for kicks."

Otogi grinned. "I just enjoy watching two losers battle it out; I figure I could defeat everyone on this island with half my deck tied behind my back." He turned to wink at the spiky-haired girl. "Everyone except for Yugi, of course."

"Yeah!" Honda came up on the other side of Yugi, and both he and Otogi lifted her onto their shoulders, ignoring the squeals of protest that escaped her. "No one can defeat out little Gēmu no Joō!"

Gēmu no Joō. Queen of Games.

Yami raised an eyebrow at the girl's nickname and exchanged a quick look with Bakura and Malik.

Things were about to get very interesting on the island.

Welp, that's chapter 1. Let me know what you thought of it, and I may post more!