After several weeks of preparation and rising anticipation among students, the Cultural Festival finally arrived with its fantastic variety of food stalls, club advertisements, and activities. Yet, at the peak of dawn, before it officially began, Yuya, along with Judai and Yuma, were all woken up by the notification that arrived in their phones in their quiet dorm: a reminder for their mandatory participation for the Costume Race. Although the Sakaki was wide awake, rubbing his tired eyes, he could hear Judai groan right across from him while Yuma continued to snore endlessly. He let out a tired yawn before climbing down the ladder of his bunk and went on to start his morning routine. With a towel around his neck, Yuya walked towards the dorm's washroom and slowly brushed away his teeth as he sluggishly looked at himself in the mirror and mentally noted to fix his messy bed hair.

"Mornin'," Judai mumbled when he came in moments later.

Yuya dipped his head back in response and simply passed the toothpaste to the older roommate, who in turn, nodded out of appreciation. Brushing noises could be heard between the two; it was still too early for either of them to hold a proper conversation. But it was only when they started to splash their faces with cold water did they hear the door creak open once more when Yuma dragged himself into the washroom.

"Good-mornin', Yuya and Judai-senpai."

"Morning."

"Mornin'."

And Judai passed him the toothpaste in succession.

"Tired?"

Yuma squeezed a small amount onto his toothbrush before quietly complaining, "I just really want to sleep more."

"Same, but there's no help to it," Yuya commented after he quickly dried his face with his towel.

After he fixed his hair by dampening down a few strands of horrible bed hair with water, he decided that he was ready to go back and wear his uniform. Once he wore his blazer and adjusted his tie, he decided to sit down on Yuma's bunk and wait for his roommates.

Since they aren't ready yet, I guess it wouldn't hurt to check my deck. Yuya thought as he pulled out his cards from his deck holder.

One by one, he ready through every card his owned, reading every description as thoughts about the race wandered in his mind. Today's festival was one of the academy's biggest and sponsored event that was meant to provide the world some insight into what goes on in the campus. And to see that he was chosen as a participant, an actual representative of the school itself. For sure, Yuya believed, he had to give his very best to show the fun in dueling.

But…

His eyes rested on his ace card, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon. Even though Yuya knew that he was practically the only one who knew the functions in Pendulum Summoning, the other day, Reiji informed him that his unique summoning would be shared with other students. Beta cards were going to be made and used in a demonstration within the academy first before releasing more cards to the entire world. Yuya knew that his mentor was essentially the president of Leo Corporation, which was in alliance with Kaiba Corporation and Industrial Illusions, but he couldn't help but feel bothered.

If anything, today will be the day people besides myself will use Pendulum Summoning… His said in his mind aimlessly. Clutching his pendant, Yuya wasn't sure to feel happy or upset with the fact that Reiji proceeded with the project without consent.

"Hey, Yuya," Yuma called out when he came in the room with Judai following behind. In an immediate response, the Sakaki quickly switched his expression with a more usual, energetic one.

"Yeah?"

Judai gave him a weird look while Yuma continued on without paying attention, "Give us a few moments to change clothes and we can get going."

"Yeah, sure. No problem," Yuya replied, as he went back to look through his deck once more.

Either way, let's take a step forward with courage!

But Judai remained staring at him with a sheer hunch, feeling in his gut that something was going to happen today.

As soon as Yuri entered the stadium, he was instructed to place his deck on some sort of scanner before it was handed back to him. Although it piqued his suspicion, he figured that the school checked for illegal cards this way. Without any further delay, he took his deck and continued on walking towards the clearing in the stadium. Although it was noisy from the enthusiastic audience of students, Yuri looked around to see if he could find Yuya.

"Wait for me, Yuri-kun! I can't believe that you just went on without going with me."

Yuri turned around and to his dismay, he found Dennis coming after him with an intentional, pitiful look.

Sighing, he gave him a hard stare and replied sharply, "I do not have the time to wait for the likes of you. Instead, I have to find my brother."

Dennis endured the usual insult but informed him anyways, "If you're talking about Yuya, I think he's over there, talking with Yuki-kun and some other Osiris Red student."

"What?"

Yuri followed Dennis's pointed direction and recognized the tomato head.

"Do you want to go ov-"

He didn't wait to hear what Dennis had to say any further. Yuya was all he wanted to see.

"Yuya-!"

"Attention duelists!"

A booming voice interrupted Yuri and made him stop at where he was. Everybody, including the audience, fell moderately silent as their attention was directed toward the main displayed screen that focused on the podium which slowly appeared from the floor of the stage, introducing the headmaster of the entire academy, Kaiba Seto. His icy cold expression instantly scanned all of the participants before him before he proceeded to give his speech.

"Fellow students of Neo Domino Duel Academy. This is your headmaster, Kaiba Seto. I am here today to tell all of you participants that you were selected to showcase this introductory event of our honored school. Your full participation will be rewarded and I will only expect the best from the best. That is all."

Yuri mewed out of pure interest towards Kaiba's bold, yet boring speech. It appeared that the headmaster wasn't satisfied with "friendly" competitions like these, even though he was forced to show some respect, given by his position. Perhaps, this moment could be one where he can stand out from the rest in order to get closer inside NDDA's inner system. Then, maybe, he can get some clue of his father's whereabouts. But Yuri let out a sigh.

Our surname is honestly a dead giveaway for what we're here for.

As soon as Kaiba took his seat, which was in the middle of the other principals, another voice came on.

"Thank you very much, Headmaster Kaiba! It is an honor to hear your words of approval for this exciting event," A man said through the microphone. With a very spontaneous appearing pompadour and a bright, hot pink suit, Yuri figured that he was the MC for today's event. Albeit, he groaned from the amount of thrill that was resounding through the MC's voice.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Costume Contest! Today, I am your host!"

The crowds were cheering loudly from the exhilarating vibes that were resonating throughout the stadium. Besides Yuri, the rest of the other participants waved and smiles for the welcoming screams. The Sakaki continued to listen to the MC without much interest in his eyes.

"It's absolutely fantastic for all of the excitement! This year's race will be great as every other, along with the rules that will challenge the participants today! Everybody listen!"

In response, both of the crowd and the participants cheered at the top of their lungs. Much to Yuri's chagrin, he felt absolutely disgusted with the pure positivity of his peers.

Make this end…!

"So here are the rules: First, players will be given three Action Cards while they wear generated costumes of their deck master, a chosen mascot of their decks. As soon as the signal is given, they must tag up in pairs of two with a student that is from a different course than their own. With their partner, they must either tag duel others or successfully find hidden Action Cards in order to pass through each stage around the island."

...You must be joking. A partner? Yuri listened in disbelief.

"If a player's deck master is ever destroyed or sent to the Graveyard in a duel, or if they run out of Action Cards, they are disqualified from the race. The competitor who finishes the race with the most amount of Action Cards wins."

The rules were simply quite basic and straightforward. Either find Action Cards per stage or force your way through by having a tag duel. The only problem...was the first and most fundamental rule of the race: Yuri essentially hated people.

But the MC wasn't done explaining yet as he went on saying, "For this year's deck master theme it is...the weakest and lowest leveled or ranked monster! So let's get the costume party rolling!"

At the mark of a switch, the Action Field in the stadium activated Solid Vision that enveloped every participant with a blinding light. As soon as it dissipated, the reaction from the audience gave the participants pure dread. All of them truly looked like their weakest monsters.

"And can you look at that, folks? Behold the sight of various monster costumes!"

Yuri completely stopped. His thoughts and his own movement were suspended for a brief moment when he realized that he had just turned into wearing a freaking plant costume.

…

Yuri was silent from burning anger and embarrassment.

"Are you kidding me…?"

On the other side of the field, other complaints and murmuring could be heard from the contestants.

"I...I can't move.."

"Hey, at least your costume isn't as embarrassing as mine."

But the best of them all was, in fact, a certain Osiris Red student; an annoying nuisance Yuri can recognize with his blatant costume. It was another Osiris student in a pink chick costume who pointed it out.

"Judai...could that be..?"

Judai tried patting himself down to see any changes until he reached to his head, where he could feel two, feathery wings sticking out. It was quite a simple costume, one that Yuri couldn't help but simply chuckle under his breath.

"My...head. But, I'm- I'm not-!" Judai stammered out of confusion.

The same friend of his just laid his hand on Judai's shoulder, out of both pity and possibly, comfort(?).

"Just accept it. You are a KURIBOH."

A pause was given for Judai to realize this revelation and he sank to his knees while his wings simply drooped.

"I..never thought my hair could be so similar to that of a Kuriboh...Like, Yusei, I love my monsters, but this is just..."

Yusei replied back bluntly, "Hey, as much as I appreciate my monsters, dressing as a pink chick isn't really my thing. You got away with a lot."

"Well, there's not much we can help you out on that. For now, we have to be looking for par-"

Yet another voice cut him off in this entire frenzy of confusion and humiliation.

"YUYA!"

Yuri whipped his head around to see Yugo, with metallic magnets attached to his head, running over to his younger brother who was sporting a normal turquoise raincoat. As soon as he also started to approach them, he was able to see Yuto, who was also trying to catch up and reunite with Yuya. But Yuri wasn't going to let this chance go; so with his best efforts, he tried skittering over with his plant costume.

"Yuri-niisan! It's great to see you-" Yuya began to say before his brother cut him off.

"Yuya, I am sorry, but just partner up with me and not with this fool."

Yugo retorted back, "Hey, I'm the one who asked first!"

"It's only obvious that Yuya should go with me over you."

As the two started to bicker, Yuto came with Shun behind him, where the latter became astounded over the argument.

"Woah. Never thought that your brothers were like this."

Meekly, Yuto responded back with an embarrassed facepalm, "It's honestly embarrassing..."

In this typical situation of the Sakaki family, Yuya tried to alleviate his brothers' conflict over him as best as he could, but to no avail. The oldest finally stepped in to separate Yugo and Yuri from their pointless quarrel.

"Look, we all want to tag team with our little bro. Why not just rock-paper-scissor this out?"

Yugo crossed his arms and reluctantly replied, "Fine by me."

"Hmph. He would not be able to get anywhere with a partner like you."

"What did you say?!"

"Cut it out."

Yuto looked straight at Yugo and Yuri sternly, who both, in turn, averted their looks from each other.

"A-Alright. Here goes...rock.."

"Paper…"

"Scissors!"

With the winning hand, Yugo triumphantly took his younger brother's hand and held it up like a trophy and cheered on for himself, "Hehe! Gotcha suckers! Yuya and I are gonna win this!"

Turning to Yuya, he told him enthusiastically, "We're gonna be the best, lil' bro!"

Just then, the MC took the microphone and jubilantly announced that the final preparations were completely made.

"Now, duelists! As soon as the blank is fired, you can start dashing high-speed with your partner and battle this competition out! Best of luck...and LET'S START!"

The countdown began and Yugo sneered at his older brothers with a wide grin.

"Meet us at the end of the race, if you can make it!"

"Yugo-aniki! Wait for me!" Yuya called after his fiery brother who started to move closer to the front line as he turned his head back to give his other two siblings with an apologetic expression.

And with the blank shot indicating the start of the race, people began to run with their partners together. Yuri and Yuto had a dark expression on their faces as they were left behind to collect a consensus of their growing annoyance. Their eyes glinted in a slight glow as they attempted to stay calm to strategize against Yugo.

Yuto said it first.

"...Yuri, let's have a truce for once."

Yuri followed along with no retort as he simply answered back, "Agreed. We cannot allow that scoundrel of a brother let Yuya lose."

Okay...Really sorry that this came out really late. Had lots of stuff to do. Honest.

I'll be uploading the next part asap. So be sure to like and comment if ya liked (or even hate) this chapter! Thanks!