The bus parked into the driveway of the museum, and opened it's doors. For a few, mere, seconds, it seemed as if no passengers were on it, then five high school students walked down the stairs, and out the door.

These five students were Jaden Yuki, Syrus Truesdale, Chumley Huffington, Bastian Misawa, and Alexis Rhodes. They had all been friends for as long as they could remember. There was a very slim chance that they would all end up on the same school bus together, but it happened.

They were all absent the day of the grade's field trip. They were required to go, so it was arranged for the five to all go on the field trip together.

As the tour guide walked out to meet the students, he took a quick look at them. Immediately, he saw Jaden and well assumed they were punks. Jaden's hair was ginger on the top, and dark brown everywhere else. In reality, Jaden had never dyed his hair, the color was (unbelievably) natural.

He kept staring at them, hoping they didn't hear his whimpering, or worse- see him. He started whimpering louder, still hoping the students didn't hear him. As if his prayers had been answered, another tour guide came out from behind him.

"Don't worry, I'll take them. You go take your break.", she said.

"Thank you, Mai. Thank you."

The tour guide ran off, as fast as his legs could take him. Mai looked out. The students were now walking up the stairway, coming to the door- and her. She started with a gentle smile.

"Hello," Mai said, " it's nice to know you'll be taking a tour with this museum today. I'll be your tour guide. Follow me."

Mai kept going, walking past the front doors of the museum as she went. While the rest of the group kept following Mai, Jaden stopped in front of the doors.

"Excuse me," he said, "but isn't this the door?"

"Yes, it is," Mai said, "but I see, you're different from the other kids that come here. You, need to see something special."

Jaden and his friends were confused, but they continued to follow Mai. It seemed like they would never end their walk, Mai stopped at a wall.

"This is the door we'll be going through," she said, pointing at the wall.

"You should get yourself checked. There's nothing there," Syrus said.

Mai chuckled. She walked backwards, right to the wall. She should have been standing against the wall, possibly, she could have fallen down, due to kickback, but she didn't. She was caught between two areas of the wall, one in front of her, one behind her.

"Follow me," she ordered the students, and they obeyed her command.

They walked into a tunnel. It was so lengthy, and deprived of light, that no matter how far or how hard they looked, they saw nothing but infinite darkness, those students. The only light in the tunnel came from the flashlight in Mai's left hand.

"Now," Mai said, "today is June 7th. Does anyone have any idea as to why that date is important?"

Jaden spoke first. "Only one week until we are released from the prison known as school?"

Alexis elbowed him in the side. "School isn't prison," she said.

"No, it's not," Mai said.

"School is indeed, prison.", Jaden repeated.

"No, I wholeheartedly agree with you. I mean, that's not the answer.", Mai informed him.

"Does it mean summer's right around the corner?", Chumley asked.

"No," Mai said, "today is the Day of Duel Monsters."

Jaden took his Duel Monsters deck out of his pocket as he walked with the group. He had never known the game was so important, enough to have a day dedicated to it.

"Shh.", Mai whispered.

Now that they were getting closer to their destination, Mai wanted to keep as quiet as possible, or they would run into...

There was a yell. A person was suddenly in front of the beam of light escaping from Mai's flashlight. "You can't go this way! You'll get us both in trouble! Ancient rules of the... uh... museum administration!", he yelled.

Watchdog Ryou. Mai was hoping not to run into him, he had a tendency to scare people off. That was exactly what Mai was trying to avoid.

"Please, my wonderful watchdog," she cried, "I just want to take these poor souls on a tour! Is that so wrong?! Look into my eyes!", she started wiping her eyes free of tears, "Is that so wrong?!"

Ryou felt fear as he looked into her eyes, tears coming out of them and rolling down her face, colored a murky gray by her mascara. He had never begun to think that Mai could have used a glycerin tear producer to make him think he had made her cry. He was distracted by the fact that she, at least, seemed to be crying, and he thought he had caused it.

"I... I'm sorry, I d... didn't mean to, I... Go right on ahead, Mai.", Ryou said.

As she walked around him, Mai whispered into Ryou's ear, "thank you", and slipped a small kiss onto his cheek on the way by.

"You're welcome," Ryou answered, breathless, his face red.

Mai and the group walked past him, and Mai turned on a switch. Several lights turned on, and the students seemed amazed.

"Children, this is the beauty of Japan!", Mai announced.

The children looked around. There was a large Japanese flag hanging on one of the walls. There were two high standing bookshelves, one filled to the top with manga, the other filled to the top with anime disc sets. In between the two bookshelves were two framed pictures, one depicting the Japanese attacking Pearl Harbor (that was unnecessary, Bastian thought), and the other was a hand drawn sketch of one of Japan's most famous landmarks, the Tokyo Tower. There was a low standing table surrounded with small pillows, with sushi, dumplings, yakisoba, a side dish of wasabi, and more spread all out on the table.

Syrus was standing in awe in front of the bookshelves. "Look at all the manga here," he exclaimed, "I could just stay here and read it all for days!"

"You'd probably die from starvation or dehydration before you could finish it all, Syrus.", Bastian said from behind him.

Syrus rolled his eyes. No matter what he dreamed, or talked about, Bastian always found a way to ruin it for him. He walked away from the shelves, attempting to avoid Bastian as mush as possible. Syrus stopped as he saw Chumley walk up a flight of stairs and stare at a giant book on a stand, closed. Syrus didn't walk up the staircase, he just stood at the bottom of it.

"What are you doing, Chumley?", Syrus asked.

"I'm inspecting this book here. Look at it. The cover is leather, but it looks identical to the back of a Duel Monsters card!", Chumley exclaimed.

Syrus took a Duel Monsters card out from his pocket to look at and compare with the book. Chumley was right! Both the book and the card had a dark brown background, with (seemingly) randomly placed lighter brown lines on top, creating the image of a vortex that would absorb everything surrounding it.

"It seems that you've found the Book of Duel Monsters," Mai said from behind them.

She walked up the staircase, and Syrus followed in her wake. The other students saw what was going on, and decided to follow Mai, Syrus, and Chumley onto the platform that held the Book of Duel Monsters.

"This book holds stories," Mai said, "a whole collection of them. Some of them," she flipped to a page that showed two people right opposite each other, a large stone tablet in front of each of them, "are true."

Jaden read the title aloud. "Ancient Duels? That sounds cool!"

"And others," Mai flipped the book to a page that showed a boy, he looked no older than 16, holding a golden rod in his hand, facing what seemed to be a living pyramid in battle, "are legends, myths, half truths, rumors..."

"...lies.", Alexis finished.

Mai nodded. "I'll tell you one of the stories in here, but first, you have to meet a few people."

Mai stepped back, and the students did the same. It took them a few minutes, and a bit of following Mai's eye contact, but they eventually noticed a large mural on the wall behind the Book of Duel Monsters.

On the left, there was a painting of a woman in a long, white robe. She had a band on her forehead that had a large emerald in the center, and her silky black hair reached her waist. Her picture depicted her as facing out towards the left, like an angel.

On the right, there was a painting of a man, this time, in a long black robe. His hair was a mess, but it was long, reaching his shoulders, and it was a silvery white color. He had two large black dragon wings, black, as well. His eyes were slits, and they were dark brown. His picture showed him like a black colored devil, facing the opposite way of the woman.

Right in between the two paintings was a painting of a blond haired man in a golden robe. He was holding two candles, one in each hand. The one on the left was aflame, bright and melting away. The one on the right, however, was extinguished, the wick black and charred.

"The woman on the left," Mai said, "is Goddess Ishizu. She loves all mankind and believes that their hearts are pure and true. The man on the left is Heathen King Bakura. He thinks mankind is not so pure, just like him."

Alexis looked at the man in the middle, confused. "Who's he?", she asked, pointing at the center.

"Well," Mai said, "that's Candle Maker Joseph. He keeps everything in balance. Let me show you this."

She walked over to a box on a small side table, which looked like a three-dimensional Duel Monsters card. She opened it, to reveal multiple wooden figures, all arranged to fit perfectly in the box.

"Do you see all these figures? They represent real people in our story, just like you and me. Now," she flipped to a page that showed three children in front of a town gate, "just listen, as I tell the story..."