Tori wouldn't lie, he's been following the Duel Monsters scene since he was a kid. Always collecting the cards, buying card albums even deck cases for a future duel, even watching the live stream of the tournaments imagining himself as one of the duelists. From Duelist Kingdom to Battle City to the KC Grand Prix. He always rooted for his favorite duelists like the King of Games himself but there was also the silver duelist Seto Kaiba and the Bronze duelist Katsuya Jonouchi. Those three were the ones anyone would look up to. Even his fellow classmates held fan clubs for them, and Tori joined all three. It was hard to pick just ONE duelist over the other.

For now, things were just quiet. Tori shuffled his cards as he went through Industrial Illusions' web page trying to see if there were any news from them. If not, he usually went to Kaiba Corp's page to see if Seto was hosting another tournament. The eighteen year old's gray eyes lit up a little as he scrolled over a newsletter announcement:

Become King of the New Year.

Tournament will be held on December 31st, show the world you have what it takes to be the King of the New Year.

Can you handle it? Can you uphold your title? Prove it by registering.

Deadline: October 24th.

Tori just skimmed through the announcement. This was promising indeed. Clicking the register button he started to fill out his information. His summer was going to be busy. Busy practicing strategies, memorizing the elemental rock paper scissors, and anything else to help him ready for this. And not only that, but he could finally have something gold to display in his room, no...it wasn't just that. He did win awards here and there but those were second place archery trophies and medals, and he was proud of them but, with his school year almost over and taking a step out there he wanted to do something. Maybe this would help. After all, there were those who made their living off tournaments and events, but also this could get him to explore the world and maybe find a solid living. Tori shook his head, now was not the time to worry too much about the future, he had to focus on the now. Staring at the computer screen he went over everything one final time:

Name: Tori Shai

Age: 18

DOB: 12/12/98

Residence: Domino, Japan

Duel Experience: Novice

Deck Type: Spell Casters

And Submit. Tori closed out and shut down before grabbing his spell casters and wallet. He had a lot of training to do, and there was one place a person could go to work on their dueling skills and have fun at the same time. Kaiba Land.

The score was tied…sort of. Tori only had 1500, his opponent, a good friend of his Kevin, had 2000. Only a five hundred difference.

"Come on, where is she?" Tori poked at him. "One Dark Magician Girl, One Trap, One empty." He said. "Which hat will you chose?"

Kevin was frustrated to say the least. "Beast of Talwar! Attack the far left."

The monster charged at the hat, Tori's grin grew a little. Empty or Trap. Empty or Trap. When the 'smoke' cleared, a mirror stood in place, and a good attack point drop on the beast.

"What the hell?!"

Tori smiled."Oh, I'm sorry, it seems you found the Mirror Wall. When attacked, this continuous spell cuts your monster's attack points get cut in half. Making him weaker than my Dark Magician Girl, who is just about to come out for her big debut." He brought the magician out of hiding and smiled."But, first, I think I'll give her a gift. The Black Pendant, give her an extra five hundred points." After the power up he declared an attack on the Beast.

The magician twirled her staff before shooting a wave of magic at the monster. The score was almost evened out. Tori was standing there with a little cheeky grin on his face, Kevin just stood there in disbelief.

"Please tell me your earlier duels weren't a pool shark move." he pleaded.

Tori shook his head. "I'm just doing better at maintaining a poker face and making sure not to stare at my hiding spot." He laid a card face down. "So, what card did you say you would give me if I win?"

"First of all, go blow yourself." Kevin drew his card. "Second of all, suck on this." He laid a card destruction card. "Discard that hand of yours, I trust you as far as I can throw you!"

"Fine by me." Following the card description, both players drew a new hand. A new hand, a new game, a new out come. This was getting heated up. Kevin set a monster and another card face down and stared his friend down. Tori had his famous devil grin from when they were children.

A Dark Magic Veil was put into play, sacrificing 1000 life points, Tori was able to bring forth the Dark Magician himself from the grave. And adding thousand knives, he went to remove the face down monster. Cue a Negate Attack, which was fine, the Dark Magician girl could pick up where the master had left off.

"Do whatever you can, because the next turn is over." Tori promised. "It's your turn, Kev."

Jason just smiled at the scene before him, both were giving their all in this duel. Of course, despite this being a training session to help their friend with the New Year's Tourney, he still felt the need to record this. Mostly for a little comparison to show how far Tori came around. Even now, his friend was landing the final blow with Twin Magical burst. Kevin's life points dropped to zero whereas Tori had five hundred left. That small ball of energy had a triumphant smile on his face. He turned his phone off and went to meet with the two. The stakes were simple, whoever lost got to treat the loser to lunch. Though Kevin raised it by offering a rare card to the winner.

"Here you go, one graceful dice." Kevin handed the card to Tori. "Blow on it to get a six."

Tori accepted the card and smiled. "Good duel, Kev." he walked out of the arena with him. "I think a few more training sessions and I should be ready to go."

The three friends walked out of the arena and back out to the streets. The afternoon sun was starting to die down into the sunset. Tori just winced at the sight before hesitantly looking at his watch. It was almost six o clock, they really were working their asses off in there. Kevin just shook his head and nudged his friend.

"A few more training sessions my ass." He wrapped an arm around him. "Come on little idiot, let's get you fed before you duel yourself to starvation."

"Hey! I'm pretty good at taking care of myself."

Jason laughed and wrapped his arm around as well. "Yeah, when someone has to remind you. You had Siri programmed to remind you when lunch and dinner is!"

"Only for school!" Tori pouted. "And maybe the weekends."

The three friends just laughed and walked off into town. It seemed like nothing could ruin this day, if anything today would be getting quite interesting. The dueling arenas had a program to keep records of people's progress and dueling skills, it helped make it easier to invite certain people in certain events. After all, Kaiba Corp wasn't one to bring in amateurs and the likes. At the main building, a team of workers kept watch on the screens and the playbacks. One woman stood up and made her way to the office of Seto Kaiba with a play by play.

"Mr. Kaiba, you might want to see this." She handed the tablet to him. "He seems to have potential."

The CEO grabbed the tablet and watched the duel before him, his bored expression was slowly turning into a scowl. 'He seems to have potential' his ass! Predictable moves, sloppy use of trap cards, over confidence, the list could go on for miles. What was this? A carbon copy of Jonouchi? It was just too painful to watch.

"Kid will be eaten alive if he joins a tournament, who is he?" He turned the video off and went back to work.

"His name is Tori sir. He signed up to join the New Year's Tourney." the worker replied.

"Definitely won't make it past the first round. Ready the rejection letter, someone needs to let him down gently."

"Yes sir, Mr. Kaiba." The woman bowed once and left the office.

Seto shook his head and went back to work, this was just a waste of time. If he had a dollar for every duelist thinking they could keep up with the big leagues, well, he'd be even richer than he was today. Still, that cocky attitude got Katsuya through the finals of other events and he was titled bronze, not to mention he was one of the most recognizable duelist, one of the more important ones, so he couldn't really be too hard on such plays. No, he couldn't worry about past contests and events. He had the New Year's to focus on. He had to make sure the timing was perfect, the winner had to be announced as the ball dropped. Not to mention he had to find someone to make the trophy, then there were the constellation prizes. He was way too busy to worry about an amateur duelist, or a Jonouchi copy cat.

"Mr. Kaiba? The Rejection Letter as you requested." The assistant handed Seto the letter before leaving again.

Seto looked it over; "Dear Duelist, I will admit, you seem to have some skills. However, your skills are not needed for this particular tourney. To save you from humiliating yourself I'm afraid I have to reject your entry. Perhaps in the future you may be able to take part in something extreme. My condolences."

There, everything was in order. All he had to do was sign it and then have it mailed.

"For fuck's sake." He slammed the pen down and tossed the letter to the recycle bin before turning the tablet back on. "I'm going to regret this, I know I am." he muttered as he opened up the email function.

To: KameKameGame

From: K_corporation

Subject: You might want to see this

[Video attachment]

"Help this idiot out. Train him. Do whatever you can to get him in the top ranks. I will pay you whatever you want. Just help this idiot."

Seto.

Send.

Okay, so that's chapter one. A few notes:

First of all, I'd like to thank my amazing friends for helping me with this. For reading, giving advice, or even encouraging this idea. So thank you; Ask-Henry-Yugi-Tudor, Brittany, Yugi-no-Puzzle, Mai-Valentine, and anyone else who I missed. You guys are amazing. And I love you all!

Second, this was slightly inspired by Yuri On Ice. The idea of a top medalist [or duelist in this case] taking on someone as their student and helping them win the gold just interested me. So, That's where this is most likely going to go. There is probably going to be a relationship in here. If not, then I change the tags.

Third and finally, I am open to any help and suggestions so if you throw out some help in the comments that'd be great for future chapters!