A/N: Though this takes place in the Arc-V timeline, the story, characters, and many of the cards used are completely original (save some references to past events and characters.) This includes an all new summoning method created by me. This story will assume you're familiar with the core concept and rules of YuGiOh, though more complicated and new techniques/cards will be explained. Also, I'd like to note that a few rules have been changed in this series to accommodate the new summoning method and cards. This story also attempts to deconstruct/reconstruct/subvert many tropes common to the YuGiOh franchise. I hope you enjoy.

"Hey, Yuki! Earth to Yuki! Hey, are you in there?", Daisuke asked.

"Oh...sorry...um...what were we talking about?", I asked, snapping out of my daydream.

"I was telling you that we gotta get ready for our next class. You've been dozing off all day!", he reminded me.

"Right. Thanks, Daisuke.", I thanked him, "I'll try and focus more."

"Is something wrong? You've been daydreaming a lot lately. And you've been staring at your necklace non-stop.", he continued with a concerned tone.

"It's nothing, really. I'm just a little tired, that's all.", I assured him, even though it wasn't true.

In actuality, I've been having these dreams lately. Dreams where my necklace talks to me, telling me all sorts of stuff. Conspiracy theories, and past events that never happened. It happens so often that it can't be a coincidence. This necklace was a gift from my Grandmother before she died, and she told me that it always kept her safe. But now...it's sort of freaking me out. It tells me about this card game people used to play a long time ago, and how it nearly brought the end of the world several times. It tells me how the government forcibly halted the production and use of these cards to prevent any more disasters, and it's shown me what these cards look like. But...we never learned about any of that in history. You'd think something so monumental would be documented, but even when I looked through history books, encyclopedias, and the internet, nothing about this subject came up.

"That concludes our lessons for today. I'll see you all here tomorrow.", the homeroom teacher told us, in what felt like minutes. I wasn't paying attention, and it was already time to go home. Today's lessons went in one ear and out the other, just like yesterday...and the day before. I was gonna start failing if I didn't keep up on my studies. My mom would kill me if I got held back during my last year of high school. As I was packing my things, Daisuke started talking to me.

Daisuke is my childhood friend, and we've been in the same class almost every school year. Now that we're seniors, we're even planning on going to the same college. He's goofy and unreliable most of the time, but he seems to really come through for me when it matters. He really helped me through the loss of my Grandma, and whenever I'm feeling down, he can always cheer me up. That's why we're on a first name basis. Most people think we're dating because of how friendly we are, but I've never thought of him that way. It's probably because I've known him for so long, he's like a brother to me. It was pretty obvious he had feelings for me, but I've never had the heart to outright reject him.

"So, I was thinking we could get some food on the way home.", he suggested.

"I'm not feeling very hungry.", I told him.

"You're not, huh?", he mumbled, rubbing the back of his head. As he was thinking of what else we could do, the boy who sat next to me stood up, getting ready to leave. He was kind of the school heart throb, so a lot of girls were jealous that I got to sit right next to him. His name was Yusuke Tachibana, and he was always so cool and stoic, not to mention super attractive. It's no wonder every girl in school melts around him. He transferred into our class towards the beginning of this school year, and he's been famous ever since. Apparently, his family owns some big corporation, so he's really rich. To top it all off, he's super smart. He's almost always at the top of all the exams. If he was more sociable, he would be perfect.

As I watched him stand up and get his things together, I saw him drop something on the ground.

"Oh! I know! Why don't we stop by the arcade? I'm sure we can find something to do there.", Daisuke continued. I was trying to tell Yusuke that he dropped something, but Daisuke kept talking. I was trying to interject, but he wouldn't stop talking. Before I could tell him, Yusuke left the room. Ignoring Daisuke, I got out of my chair and bent down, picking up the object and looking it over.

It was a plastic container, made of the same material as a pencil box, but it was more square. The top of it could be flipped open, so I took a peek inside. What I saw shocked me, and made me question everything I knew. They were cards. Brown cards, green cards, pink cards. All with different names and stuff on them. These were the cards my necklace told me about. I've seen them before. But...why does Yusuke have them? How come he's never mentioned these before?

"Hm? Whatcha got there?", Daisuke asked.

"N-Nothing!", I shouted. He pulled back, shocked at the forcefulness of my statement.

"Sure doesn't sound like nothing!", he argued.

"I gotta go!", I shouted back, grabbing my bag from my desk and quickly exiting the classroom.

"Wait! What about the arcade?!", Daisuke shouted.

"We'll go there tomorrow! Promise!", I shouted back. When I got to the hall, I quickly looked around for Yusuke, but I didn't see him anywhere. I ran down the hall to a couple girls hanging out, and asked them where he went. They pointed me further down the hall. So, I kept running, asking people along the way where he went, but they didn't lead me outside the building. They were leading me further into the school. Eventually, my trail stopped at a dead end, underneath the stairs.

Where did he go? Did he really go this way? There wasn't a door anywhere for him to go into. Did he got upstairs maybe? As I glanced around, I noticed a hatch on the ground. It looked like it went into the basement. But...why would he go down there? I guess it was my only lead, so I opened up the hatch and looked inside. It wasn't totally dark. There seemed to be light coming from down there. I didn't know why a basement would be lit up unless someone was down there, so I decided to go down. I put one foot on the ladder, then slowly and carefully descended. I didn't know what was down there, so I didn't want to dive head first into trouble.

When I reached the bottom and looked behind me, I saw that I wasn't in a basement at all. It was a long and wide tunnel that was lit up by small green lights on the walls and ceiling. It was like...an escape tunnel, or something. It definitely wasn't a basement. Maybe a sewer? But, it didn't smell bad, and there was no water, so it couldn't be. More importantly, though, why is something like this under the school? From what I know, there was never some kind of war in this area. This couldn't have been built for some kind of emergency purpose. Who built it anyway? If it was for some military purpose, why put it under the school? As I looked around the tunnel, examining everything to try and make sense of it all, I saw footprints on the ground that weren't mine. If those students were right about where they saw Yusuke go, then he probably came through here. But...why? Why would he come to such a suspicious place?

I guess I wasn't gonna find out by standing there, so I began to follow the prints, further and further down the tunnel. It was really cold down there. Even though it was summer, it felt like I was standing outside in the middle of winter. I held the box of cards tightly in my hand as I continued down the path, but as I was nearing some kind of intersection, I stopped for a moment. I took the cards out of the case to examine them, looking through each individual one.

"Miracle Dragon"..."Dead Zone"..."Mirror Force"..."Blind Angel"...these names were so random.

"Trap Card"..."Spell Card"..."Monster Card"...They all had unique pictures on them, and they all had something written in a small box beneath the picture.

"When an opponent's monster declares an attack: destroy all Attack Position monsters your opponent controls.", one of them read. I didn't understand at all, but they looked like they all worked together somehow. It was definitely like my necklace said. They were from a card game. But, I wondered what the rules were. As I looked through each card, I became more and more interested.

As I got lost in examining the cards, I heard footsteps behind me, but I didn't pay much mind to it. First they were walking, then running. Before I knew it, there were bright lights shining at me. I turned around and was partially blinded by them. I couldn't see who was shining them at me.

"She's got cards!", I heard a man shout.

"Get down on the ground, now!", another shouted. They sounded like police officers. But, why were they yelling at me? I didn't do anything wrong!

"What did I do?!", I shouted at them.

"I said, on the ground!", he repeated. Just before I was about to submit, someone jumped in front of me. They were wearing a long coat with black gloves, and they had something glowing on their forearm, but I didn't get a good look at it. A moment later, I heard a sparkling sound, then there was a bright flash that blinded me and the men stopping me.

"Damn it!", I heard them shout. I agreed with them. That hurt my eyes. As I was still blinded, I felt someone grab my arm and pull me further down the tunnel. It probably wasn't the men after me, but I still didn't know who it was who jumped in at the last moment. All I could do was follow them and hope for the best. I mean...they saved me. Probably...