Yu-Gi-Oh Spirit Duelist Prologue

Raynor’s eyes trembled as he slowly opened them. The first thing he saw was a wooden ceiling not far from him.

“Huh?” He swiftly realised that he was not in a familiar place.

With a motion, he sat up and looked around. It was not that big of a place. Some sort of room.

“A bunk bed? And why does it smell like mould?” He commented as he slowly moved out of the bed and got down from the upper bed. Now that he was out, he could look around and figure out what was going on.

The first thing he noticed was a mirror on the other side of the room. He walked over there and inspected himself.

“W-What the!” His eyes widened as he realised that he was not himself! His hair was a bit wild, still black…but like he was like some sort of anime character! 

“W-What the fuck!?” He complained as his eyes trembled from disbelief.

‘What is going on!? Why? For who? For what? So many questions!’ For a second, he just stood there, trying to process this development, before snapping out. He might figure out something by looking around.

Maybe he can get more answers…

So next thing he did was walk over to the table and check the drawers…

What he saw at first glance was not something he could have guessed in a million years…

“...Yu-Gi-Oh…cards?” He gently took them. Quickly realising that they were not normal paper, he remembers from his early school days…

They were more like a fusion of solid plastic and some strange elastic material. Something that won’t wear down easily.

But then he wondered… why… until he saw what was leaning against the table.

A red duel disk…

The teen stared at it for a second before his eyes widened.

“...Holy shit…holy fuck…no…way…”

Duel disc, cards, small wooden room… red jacket…

He swiftly dashed out of the room and got outside.

Raynor ignored the gentle breeze and the sound of waves as he looked into the distance.

What he saw was a building of yellow, like a fortress, or more like a futuristic building. Further away, there was an active volcano…

“Holy fuck…this is Dueling Academy…” He commented in shock and horror, before turning around and walking back into his room. He closed the door and swiftly walked to the bunk bed, got into the upper bed and got under the blanket.

For the next couple of hours, he repeatedly commented how fucked he was…

He realised how fucked he was… sure… people might save the world, but there are literal spirit monsters who can eat souls… There are forbidden gods locked away, who can awaken anytime, then yandere duel spirits and all sorts of crazy shit!

This was only from the top of his head!

However, while he was terrified, it only lasted for a couple of hours.

As time goes on, the feeling numbs down… to some extent.

For one, he was hungry; for another, he couldn’t brood in the bed, for the third… even if it was a crazy place, he could still enjoy it while it lasted!

**DING**

[Conditions have been met!]

[Activating Spirit Duelist System!]

A strange feeling washed over him as he felt something awaken inside of him.

[Spirit Duelist System will allow you to experience the world of Duel Monsters to the maximum!]

[Once nighttime arrives, in your sleep, you will be transported to the Spirit Realm where you can fight, collect and improve your powers.]

[However, as a side effect, you can’t collect cards in a normal way. For each normally added card, the spirit realm will be locked away for a week.]

At first, Raynor was happy that a game-like window appeared in front of him.

He wanted to scream out of happiness, but then he started to read…

The teen realised that he was fucked up! Duel Monsters Spirit Realm is not a simple place! He could lose his soul there, and it would be game over in the most literal and horrifying way!

‘But then again… I don’t think they have booster packs in this world. The card game is way different here. I doubt I can easily get Red-Eyes Black Dragon… not to mention Blue-Eyes White Dragon.’

“This is so gambling… damn… I need to risk my life to get good cards, or don’t… and get average cards.

Honestly… this situation is so much Yu-Gi-Oh like that I can’t get angry.

I mean…everyone here is risking the world’s fate on a card game.” Raynor shook his head as he pressed [OK] and another set of blue windows appeared.

[In Duel Monsters Spirit World, everything operates in legitimate duels; you can win cards and spirits, so good luck!]

With that said, the windows were gone, and a strange feeling washed over him.

At that moment, he could tell that something had changed in his very being.

Not that he can do anything with it.

Regardless, he got out of his bed and walked over to the table. He opened the drawer and took his cards.

He began to inspect what he got.

…

…

…

“Feral Imp, Horned Imp, Jellyfish…” Raynor’s eyes trembled as he was in complete disbelief.

He only has two monsters at level 4, who are at 1500… that’s horrible. He used to have piles upon piles of monsters that used to be at 1900 attack points, the limit of level 4 normal monsters in old Yu-Gi-Oh..

Like Luster Dragon, Gemini Elf or Vorse Raider…

He used to have them at the limit…

‘Well, at least in video games. The only time I played a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh was on pc, like Power of Chaos series and Yu-Gi-Oh GX Tag Force and Spirit Caller.’

Honestly, he never was an over-the-top player… so it is a bit strange that he was sent to this place.

Regardless, he went back to checking his cards…

‘Only two monsters who need tributes…’

Raynor singles out two cards…

A Level Six Dinosaur Monster Megazowler with 1800 attack power and 2000 defence.

A weak monster…and his strongest is a level Seven Dragon Ryu-Ran… with attack power at 2200 and Defence at 2600.

Basically… he is fucked with these kinds of cards…

He then checked his spells and traps.

There are two copies of the classic Negate Attack, Reinforcement, Two Pronged Attack, Magic Jammer…

And for spells, there is a considerable amount of decent stuff. 

Remove Traps, De-Spell, Germ Infestation two copies, Graceful Dice, Yami Field Spell, followed by two Stim Packs, then damage-dealing spell two copies by the name Hinotama.

The spells and traps made him sigh in relief… With such cards, he can work something and maybe survive for a bit.

After checking them, he found a belt that he could hold his deck with. It was a leather belt with a magnetic hold. It was impressive, just like the duel deck, which looked futuristic.

Honestly, only Kaiba would invest this much in a card game.

‘Well, it stops being a card the moment soul banishment comes into play.’

With that thought, Raynor left the Slither dormitory and walked towards the school building. 

As he was getting closer, he noticed how humongous it was.

No wonder… everything was inside this building, so once he arrived, he began to explore. 

Raynor noticed teenagers dressed in red, yellow and occasional blue uniforms.

‘Is it just me, or are girls only dressed in blue? What the hell with this sexism? How am I supposed to know how good they are in a duel when they are dressed in Obelisk Blue?’ The teen frowned as he walked inside the school building.

The air conditioner immediately made itself obvious, it was a sign of relief for him as the island is goddam hot!

First thing, Raynor walked to the card shop.

When he saw cards being sold one by one and under a glass panel, the recently awakened Duel Academy student realised that it was just how he imagined.

Forget about booster packs and entire collections. Nope, if you want to make a new deck, you need to collect the cards one by one.

He walked around for a bit, checking the cards. 

He checked the rarity and tried to understand how it works.

‘Vorse Raider 30 thousand DP, Mirror Force 25 thousand DP… Call of Hounted 10 thousand points.’

Raynor read from the main looking table before checking the others. He noticed that his favourite traps, Reinforcement and Trap Hole, were only worth 5 thousand…

Now he wonders how the point system works.

So check it out, he pulled out a device, it was a pager, a pseudo-like phone, he can check the details over there.

He saw messages left by the principal, which were mostly automated.

When Raynor saw the numbers, his expression turned deadpan.

For fights between two Slifers, one can win around 16 points. 

A Slifer gets 100 monthly points.

‘No wonder obelisks don’t want to battle slithers, they will get pennies as a fight between obelisks, they wager in hundreds if not thousands.’

‘Oh shit… if you get into negative, they can expel you.’ Raynor saw the warning. It was competitive!

Before he put the device away, Raynor saw that he had a hundred points.

A starting sum for a Slither.

‘Well, whatever… not that I will buy anything anytime soon.’

With that said, the new duelist left the shop and the academy together, and he went back to his dormitory.

The first thing he needs to do is understand the classes and schedules. 

For promotion to Ra, he needs good grades and to win the promotion duel, which happens every semester. Regardless, he needs to ace the exams. 

As he studied the rules, classes, and the material, it turned out that he needed to know the cards.

Which was hilarious to some extent. After all, he has been playing this game for a while. He knows the basics very well. While he doesn’t know all of the newer cards or the effects, he can guess to some extent.

So he is not in a bad position.

Eventually, evening arrived, and Raynor went to get some food in the canteen before going to sleep.

As he was napping, a strange feeling of leaving his body washed over him. Before he knew, he was standing in a grassy wilderness with a forest in the distance.

When he looked around, he realised that he was standing close to some sort of ruins… clearly there was a civilisation of some sort that built pyramids and… played duel monsters?

“Yugi’s Egypt? No idea…doubtful…” Honestly, he has no idea; however, he didn’t stay in one place, as he began to walk towards the forest.

If there is a forest, there should be some sort of source of water. 

Water means life…

‘If it even works the same way as in the world of physical life.’

Honestly, he has no idea, but it was worth testing out.

After walking for half an hour, he finally arrived at the forest, which was where he would finally test out his mantle of duelist…

~~~

As Raynor was crossing the forest, he heard evil laughter. For a second, he wondered if he should check it…

He only hesitated for a second, as in the end he needs to face and fight, so why not now?

Thankfully, he followed his gut, and sure enough, he found darker pink like monsters pick on a girl with brown hair. She has a familiar armour and hat.

‘Dark Magician Girl? No…’ 

For a second, he wondered, but then he realised it was Magician’s Valkyrie. A level four monster.

“Oi! You three pink thingies.” Raynor revealed himself.

“Huh? A human? I think it’s our lucky day, boys!” 

All of a sudden, all of the attention was on him.

“Let’s duel. Let that girl go.” As he said that very seriously, the girl dashed to him and, all of a sudden, jumped into his hands.

All the ‘cool’ behaviour he had was gone; instead, he blushed as he didn’t expect her to be that affectionate!

“My Hero!!!”

“W-What?” He was confused, as he didn’t know what to do. He ended up hugging her.

“Let me help~!” As she said, the girl glowed white and was gone… 

Raynor was baffled, but then he saw his cards glow.

‘She joined my deck?’

“Hahahaha, this is great! Not only will I get your body, but I will get that Spellcaster!” The pink fiend-like creature and his buddies glowed, they all glowed white and rushed into one spot, becoming a cloaked individual, it looked like a ghost dressed in a dirty brown cloak with a duel disk from the Duel City Era…

“LET’S DUEL HUMAN!”