Chapter 1- The Invite’s List

It was about mid-afternoon in the office of the CEO of Kaiba Corp. The boss was sitting at his desk, typing at his computer, and altogether thinking of the duel monsters tournament that he was planning on hosting. He wore his favorite white suit with a blue tie that perfectly matched his deep blue eyes and his favorite monster.

He stopped typing for a moment and put his hands together and against his forehead. “Alright, all of the tournament guidelines are planned out, now I just need to determine who I’m going to invite to participate.” The man named Seto Kaiba said to himself. “Roland, get me a list of all the winners of all the major tournaments within the last year.” Kaiba ordered as he hit a button on the office phone on his desk. “Right away, sir.” His employee responded from the other end. Kaiba paused again in silent thought for a moment and then his little brother came bursting through the office door.

“I have the papers, Seto!” The little boy with spiky black hair called as he dashed in. “That was fast.” The older Kaiba brother stated. “Yea, Roland already had the list ready, so he sent me to deliver it.” Mokuba Kaiba explained. “Well then let’s have a look at it. Here, pull up a chair, we’ll go through it together.” Kaiba offered as he took the list and began looking through it. Mokuba sat down in one of the office chairs and pulled it next to his big brother.

“Well as master of ceremonies for the tournament, do you have any first suggestions?” Kaiba asked for his brother’s advice. “Well, you definitely want Yugi because he’s the current duel monsters champion, right?” Mokuba asked. “Yes, the way the tournament is going to work is that we will have sixteen contestants battle for the tournament crown. Whoever comes out on top out of the sixteen will not only hold the tournament title, but will have the honor of dueling Yugi for the world championship title.” Kaiba explained.

“So all we have to do is find out who the other sixteen contestants are, right?” Mokuba clarified. “That’s correct.” Kaiba responded. “Well let’s start off with the big tournaments. Here’s the winner of the United States National Championship: Rebecca Hawkins. I think she’s a likely choice.” Mokuba offered as he pulled out a paper with her picture on it. “Hmm, she’s a bit of a brat, but a skilled duelist nonetheless.” Kaiba commented as he thought back to when they met earlier when they were trying to take down Dartz and his organization. “We’ll take her.” He decided.

“Ok, one down, fifteen more to go. Here are the top two winners of the European Championship: Zigfried Lloyd and Leon Wilson.” Mokuba said as he handed Seto two more papers. “Alright, they seem strong enough.” Kaiba stated as he added their papers to the invited pile. “And here’s the winner from the Asian Championship: Vivian Wong.” Mokuba added as he handed his brother another paper. “Ok, now we need eleven more.” Seto said as he threw those papers into invited pile too.

“Ok, let’s hit the next continent. Here’s Abe the Monkey Man from Africa and Shane Jordan from South America.” Mokuba stated as he tossed his brother the next two papers. “Great, now nine more.” Kaiba said indifferently as he added those two papers to the invites pile.

“Ok from Australia, we have… wait this name seems really familiar! Didn’t this guy work for Dartz?” Mokuba asked as he handed a paper to his brother. “Hmm, let’s see. Valon, yes the name does seem familiar. But if he’s a good duelist then I suppose we can let him in.” Kaiba decided as he added his paper to the pile as well. “Alright halfway there, now let’s look at all the specialty tournaments that have taken place recently.” Mokuba continued as he flipped through some of the papers.

“Hey, Seto take a look at this one; it’s the winners from the International Tag-Team Duelists’ Tournament, James Alvarez and Kristiann Baluta.” Mokuba offered as he handed his brother the two papers. “Hmm, these kids kind of look familiar… But they definitely have some skill, so we’ll take them.” Kaiba admitted as he added their two papers to the pile.

“Wow, look at this, they had a tournament not too long ago with contestants battling for the spot of Antarctic Champion.” Mokuba laughed at the absurdity of the title. “Really? Well that makes no sense, but the winner must be good. Who was it?” Kaiba asked as the joke went over his serious head. “Some guy who calls himself Ice.” Mokuba replied as he held up the file. “Let’s take him too, then.” Seto Kaiba conceded as he added the paper to his file.

“Ok then, only five more seats left. I like this guy, he reminds me of one of my favorite authors.” Mokuba said as he handed a file to his brother. “William Miller, hunh? Yes, I suppose we could take him too.” Kaiba conceded as he added that file to his stack. “Hmm, there’s not too many people left to choose from now. Hey look at this! They hosted a tournament strictly for intellectuals at a library in New York last year. And here are the top two winners: Fortune Salim and Dylan Fay.” Mokuba explained as he handed another two files to his brother. “Then let’s have them.” Kaiba again admitted as he took the files.

“Alright then, there’s only one major winner here left then: Jessica Philips, the supermodel. Not only has she won numerous beauty pageants, but she’s won plenty of duel monsters tournaments too.” Mokuba explained as he gave his brother yet another file of a duelist. “Hmm, she’s not that beautiful, but its dueling skill that will win in this tournament.” Seto Kaiba remarked smartly as he put her paper into his pile.

“But we still have two seats left.” Kaiba stated. “Well yes, but the only other tournaments were Pegasus’s Duelist Kingdom and our Battle City. Personally, I think we should invite two people who did well in both tournaments: Mai Valentine and Joey Wheeler.” Mokuba stated his opinion. “What?! You want to invite a dweeb like Wheeler to compete in the most prestigious duel monsters championship ever thrown? Get real!” Kaiba retaliated. “I know you don’t like them, Seto, but they are good duelists and Yugi might be more willing to come if we invite those two.” Mokuba argued. Kaiba thought for a moment and then finally cracked. “Fine, but only because I don’t have anyone else in mind.” He conceded.

“That’s great then, big brother! Now we have all sixteen contestants picked out. Should I send out the invitations?” Mokuba asked. Again Kaiba thought for a moment and then gave his answer. “Actually I would like you and Roland to go see each contestant personally and deliver the invitation. I think that would boost the popularity and interest of our tournament.” Kaiba told him. “Ok then, we’ll head out tomorrow.” Mokuba said as he grabbed the stack of sixteen papers from his brother and headed out the door. After his brother was gone, Seto Kaiba sat back in his chair and sighed. “Now that everything is prepared my company is ready to host the greatest tournament ever thrown. Soon the KC Grand Championship will begin.” Kaiba said to himself as he returned to typing away on his computer.