Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monster GX Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Queen of Dragons ❯ Off to Duel Academy! ( Prologue )

“Morning, sis. Getting up late again I see.” Sammy said, laughing a bit at his sister as she shot a glare at him, and a grin appeared on his face as he stared back at her with an unblinking gaze, “What? I’m just telling it like it is.”

“Shut up brat,” Serena said, as she turned her attention on the table of food that was set out and started grabbing some food.

“Hey, don’t blame me if we’re late. You wouldn’t get up!” Syrus exclaimed as he finished the last of his breakfast as he pushed back his chair and carried his dirty plate to the sink, while checking a nearby wall clock, “We still have twenty minutes to get there before we’re officially disqualified.”

“Then we have no time to waste, because it’ll take us exactly fifteen minutes to get to the stadium, if we run,” Serena exclaimed as she grabbed two slices of toast and a few pieces of bacon and eggs and made it into a sandwich which she munched on as she turned her attention on Syrus and grabbed his hand as she half dragged him out of the room with her, as she glanced over her shoulder at her brother for a second, “Sammy are you still coming to watch?”

“Yeah I’m coming,” Sammy as he pushed back his chair and hurried after the other two as they headed out the front door, stopping long enough to grab his backpack and slip on his shoes as he followed them as they began running down the street, “I wouldn’t miss this for the world Serena.”

“Okay, this is the last time I wait for you to get up, Serena.” Syrus groaned out as he collapsed to the ground for a few seconds, “If this is how it’s like every morning, I don’t see how you do it. I don’t think I can take.”

“That makes two of us, Syrus.” Sammy said as he sat down on the ground next to his cousin as he tried to get his breathing under control once more.

“Sorry, Sy. But at least we got here on time.” Serena said cheerfully, as she glanced up to the registration table that had been set up outside was about ten feet away, and saw the worried looks the group was getting from the people behind the desk, and she wave at them to let them know they were okay, before turning back to the two boys, “Come on, let’s go register before it’s too late. We can rest once we get inside and find Zane.”

Once the group reached the registration table and Syrus and Serena signed in, the group hurried inside the building following the signs that had been put up with directions for the dueling room where the exams were taking place.

Once they reached the room, they could see that several dueling platforms were already in operation as would be students participated in duels with school officials. It didn’t take long for the group to spot Zane who was seated up in the bleachers dressed in his Obelisk Blue uniform with a few other students from the school, and they hurried over.

“You’re late.” Zane simply said without bothering to look up from one of the matches, as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his seat, “where have you guys been?”

“Sorry Zane, but Serena wouldn’t wake up on time.” Syrus said apologetically as he took a seat on the row below Zane as he watched the tournament, and Sammy took a seat next to him, “So we had to wait for her.”

“Hey, we’re not that late! It’s only three minutes,” Serena exclaimed indignantly as she glanced down at her wrist watch to check the time, before looking back up to frown at her older cousin, “We made it in time for the registrations, so unless our names have been called already, it’s not like we’re disqualified yet.”

“You’re still late, Serena. You’re just lucky they haven’t gotten to Syrus or yours names yet, or else you both would have been disqualified,” Zane said as he finally turned his gaze on the blond who was staring up at him with a defiant look in her eyes, “What if you hadn’t made it in time for the registration? The two of you would have had to wait until next year to try again.”

Serena’s face flushed in anger a bit at her cousins words, before she turned away from him and plopped down on the seat next to Syrus and Sammy, and crossed her arms over her chest, “Whatever, Z.”

“Hey quiet down in front!” a snobby boy with black hair dressed in a blue and white school uniform demanded as he glared down at Serena with displeasure, before turning his gaze back to what was happening on the field, “Some of us are trying to watch the tournament and don’t need the distraction.”

“Chill out Chazz, it’s not like your missing anything,” the brown haired girl standing next to him said dismissively as she continued watching the tournament, just as the warning bell rang signaling that the match had come to an end, “The match is over already.”

“Whatever. I don’t care as long as they keep the noise level down so I can enjoy the rest of the matches in peace,” Chazz said dismissively as he looked away and turned his gaze back to the field, as the school officials got ready to call down the next group of challengers, “Some of us here are trying to watch and don’t need any extra background noise, if you don’t mind.”

“Zane, why don’t you introduce us to your friends? We all already know Syrus over there,” another boy dressed in a yellow school uniform asked, as he looked down at the three newcomers with a curious look on his face as he stared directly at Serena with interest, as he held out a hand towards her “but I don’t believe we’ve met your other companions. Hello, I’m Bastian Misawa, and who might you be?”

“Hi, I’m Serena Tsukino. I’m Zane and Syrus’ cousin.” Grinning a bit, Serena reached out and took Bastian’s offered hand and shook it for a few seconds before finally releasing it, as she nodded towards the others in greeting, “I’m here to enroll in Duel Academy if I can get in.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you too. Zane I’m upset with you,” Bastian said as he turned his gaze on the blue haired teenager with a semi accusing look on his features, “Why didn’t you tell us you had a cousin enrolling at Duel Academy with Syrus before now?”

“Hi, I’m Alexis Rhodes nice to meet you.” Alexis said, smiling warmly at the other girl, as she stood up and took a seat next to Serena, before waving a hand in Chazz’s direction and rolled her eyes, “The sourpuss over there is Chazz Princeton. Don’t pay any attention to how he acts around you, because he’s always like that.”

“Hey! I do not!” Chazz exclaimed indignantly as his face flushed a bit in embarrassment, and causing Serena to giggle at the sight, while the other’s laughed at Chazz’s reaction.

“Hi, I’m Sammy Tsukino!” Sammy said s he stood up and turned to face the others with a friendly grin plastered on his face, as he turned in his seat so he could face the older teens, “I’m also Zane and Syrus’ cousin.”

“So could you guys tell me what to expect about Duel Academy if I manage to get in? Zaney wouldn’t tell me much about it” Serena asked as she looked around at the other teens and eyed their uniforms for a moment before continuing, “What’s with the different colored school uniforms?”

“Blue uniforms are for students who live in the Obelisk Blue dorms,” Alexis sad, settling back in her seat as she explained how the school dress code worked, “Yellow is for the Ra Yellow dorms, and Red is for the Slyther Red dorm.”

“Once you pass the exams, and depending on the score the judges give you once you pass the exams here,” Bastian added in, as he settled back in his seat on the bleachers as he turned his gaze, “You will be put into a dorm room based on the grade you get here.”

“So which dorms are considered the best at the academy?” Serena asked, confusion filling her as she looked at each of her new friends as she inspected their school uniforms.

“Isn’t it obvious? Everyone knows that Obelisk Blue is for the Elite Duelists, Ra Yelow comes in second place,” Chazz said causing everyone to turn their attention back on him as he spoke, “and Slyther Red is dead last in the ranks. Anyone not assigned to either the Obelisk Blue or the Ra Yellow dorms are losers and slackers who just can’t hack being in the big leauges.”

“Don’t listen to Chazz. Even if you don’t immediately get into Obelisk Blue now,” Sebastian said as he glared over at the other boy for a moment, before turning his gaze back on Serena once more, and gave the blond an encouraging smile, “you’ll have more than enough time to try proving yourself as a Duelist at the Academy.”

Just then there was a loud squawk from the overhead loudspeakers as a voice came online.

“WILL THE FOLLOWING PARTICIPANTS PLEASE HEAD FOR THE ARENAS AS THEIR NAMES ARE CALLED? THE FOLLOWING NAMES ARE: SYRUS TRUESDALE, REPORT TO ARENA 1, SERENA TSUKINO, REPORT TO ARENA 2...”

“I guess that’s our cue,” Serena said as both her and Syrus stood up, and started making their ways to the arenas, “wish us luck, you guys.”

“You’ll need it if your going to have a chance of making it into Duel Academy,” Sammy called down, smirking a bit as Serena shot him a dark look over her shoulder, before turning back around and continued down the bleacher steps after Syrus.

The instructor was a young woman in her twenties with long black hair tied into a ponytail, and violet eyes, dressed in a yellow teachers version of the school uniform.

“So you are Serena Tsukino? Nice to meet you, I’m Lora Kane, and I’ll be your opponent today during,” Lora said as Serena arrived at the assigned arena, as the two traded decks and shuffled them before handing them back to each other, “Don’t think I’ll be taking it easy on you now.”

“I don’t expect you too, Ms. Kane.” Serena said, smiling a bit as she took her deck back and put it in the card slot of her duel disk, “May the best duelist win, I say.”

As they turned away from each other, as they made their way to their separate corners of the arena, a slight commotion by the entrance of the stadium. Turning her attention towards the double doors, she saw that the doors had been flung open with a bang by a teenage boy with brown hair who was trying to catch his breath for a moment before heading over to the judges station.

As she watched, after a few minutes of arguing with the judges the boy that was soon interrupted by a phone call, the boy turned and moved off to one of the arenas that was further down the row from her own, where an instructor stood waiting impatiently.

‘I wonder who he is? It looks like their going to let him duel despite him being late,’ Serena thought silently to herself as she turned and continued on her way to the other side of the arena platform and stood ready.

“Are you finally ready to begin, Serena?” Lora called out, impatience filling her voice at the delay.

“I’m ready whenever you are,” Serena said as a slight smirk appeared on her features, as she put her hand on her deck and pulled out six cards, “Lets Duel!”

“Nice move, kid. But not good enough. I call forth Queen of Autumn Leaves (ATK: 1,800/DEF: 1,500) in attack mode and Celtic Guardian (ATK: 1,400/DEF: 1,200) in defense mode!” Ms. Kane exclaimed as the two monsters instantly appeared on the field, in ready positions, “And I order Queen of Autumn Leaves to attack Nekogal #1!”

Queen of Autumn Leaves immediately charged forward sending a shower of razor sharp red leaves straight at the catgirl, who let out a loud shriek of pain before disappearing in a blast of sparkles.

“Nice going, but by destroying my Nekogal #1, you activated her special ability,” Serena said as a face down automatically appeared on the field and another cat girl appeared on the field “which allows me to automatically summon her sister card, Nekogal #2 (ATK: 1,900/DEF: 2,000) to the field from my deck in defense mode.”

Serena took a moment to look at her current card hand, before pulling out a card and sent it to the graveyard before pulling out a new card from her deck, and grinned when she saw what it was.

“I’ll summon Maiden of the Moonlight (ATK: 1,500/DEF: 1,300) in attack mode,” Serena said as the new monster appeared on the field in a kneeling position.

“I’m going to switch Harpies Brother into Attack mode and equip him with Horn of the Unicorn,” Serena exclaimed as she placed the Spell Card down on her duel disk, and a long silver horn instantly appeared in the middle of Harpy’s Brother’s forehead, “Any monster equipped with that horn instantly gains an increase of 700 ATK and DEF points (ATK: 2,500/DEF: 1,300) for as long as it’s equipped.”

As his attack and defense points went up, Harpies Brother reached up for a moment to finger his new appendage before shooting a dark look in Serena’s direction, with an accusing look on his face that obviously said ‘Thanks a lot’, as a scowl appeared on his features.

‘Oh get over it, H.B., you know the horns only temporary,’ Serena said smirking a bit at the look she was receiving from her Duel Spirit, before turn back to the task at hand, “Harpies Brother, attack Queen of Autumn Leaves directly!”

Spreading his wings apart, Harpies Brother leaped into the air and charged straight for Queen of Autumn Leaves, and swung out with one clawed hand and neatly sliced the Plant type in half, causing her to let out a shriek before she disappeared in a flash of light.

“Thanks. Maiden of the Moonlight, you’re up next!” Serena cried out, just as the other monster launched her own attack at Ms. Kane, “I activate her special effect that lets her attack your life points directly!”

“I don’t think so! I activate the Trap Card Magic-Arm Shield!” Ms. Kane exclaimed as the facedown card flipped over and revealed itself, “With this card I can have your attacking monster go back and destroy one your monsters that’s in defense mode, so say goodbye to your Nekogal #2!”

As the Trap card activated, Maiden of Moonlight froze in the middle of starting her attack on Ms. Kane, before turning around and redirecting the attack on Nekogal #2, and the catgirl disappeared in a flash of light with a loud screech, as Maiden of Moonlight returned to her spot next to Harpies Brother.

“I’ll end my turn without doing anything else,” Serena said.

“Fine then, I’m going to switch my Celtic Guardian into attack mode, and activate the Spell Card Graceful Dice!” Ms. Kane exclaimed as a little imp holding a large red dice appeared on the field and threw the dice into the air, “The way that card works is that my monsters attack and defense points will go up a hundred points times whatever number the dice lands on.”

Everyone waited with baited breath, as they watched the dice hit the ground and roll around for a few seconds before it finally came to a stop on the on the number... FIVE.

“Celtic Guardian (ATK: 1,900/DEF: 1,700), I order you to attack Maiden of Moonlight directly!” Ms. Kane shouted, and the elven warrior leaped into the air and swung his sword at Maiden of the Moonlight, and the other monster disappeared in a flash of light, “And I’ll end my turn here, your move kid.”

‘Perfect. I was wondering when these two were going to show up,’ Serena thought silently to herself as she placed the cards in her hand, ‘Now all I have to do is play them and...’

“I summon Lord of Dragons (ATK: 1,200/DEF: 1,100) to the field in attack mode!” Serena said as she put the card down on her duel disk and the warrior immediately appeared on the field, “and equip him with the Spell Card Flute of Summoning Dragon, which enables me to call forth two dragons from my deck! Lord of Dragons start playing!”

As everyone watched, Lord of Dragons immediately brought the flute up to his lips and started playing a soft melody on it.

“Using Flute of Summoning Dragon, I’m going to call forth my Red-Eyes Black Dragon (ATK: 2,400/DEF: 2,000),” Serena said as each card materialized on her duel disk, as their names were called out, “and my Meteor Dragon (ATK: 1,800/DEF: 2,000) in attack mode”

Within seconds, the entire dueling arena was filled with two towering dragons of different sizes standing on opposite sides of Harpie’s brother, as the four monsters glared down at the teacher who took an involuntary step backwards before stopping herself.

“I’m not finished yet! Next I’ll play the Spell Card ‘Polymerization’ and fuse my Meteor Dragon and Red Eyes Black Dragon together,” Serena said as the two monsters body’s started glowing and merged together to create a brand new dragon type monster, “to create Meteor Black Dragon (ATK: 3,500/DEF: 2,000)! And I’ll end my turn.”

‘Damn it, I didn’t think she’d pull out a monster like that so soon,’ Ms. Kane thought silently to herself as she looked disdainfully at her current hand, as she discarded three cards to the Graveyard and pulled three new ones from her deck and sighed, ‘With that Harpies Brother and Meteor Black Dragon on the field known of my current monsters will put a dent in them.’

“I activate the trap card Skull Dice. It’s effect is the same as Graceful Dice,” Ms. Kane said as she looked back up at Serena for, as she placed the card down and a black clad demonic imp appeared on the field holding a large red dice, and instantly tossed the dice into the air, and hit the floor with a clatter, “only difference is it subtracts 100 attack and defense points times the number the dice lands on from all of my opponents monsters that are currently on the field.”

The dice rolled around the floor for a few seconds before it came to a stop on the number three.

“So what? Both of my monsters are still stronger than yours!” Serena said as she watched as Meteor Black Dragon (ATK: 3,300/DEF: 1,700), Harpie’s Brother’s (ATK: 2,200/DEF: 1,000) and Lord of Dragons (ATK: 900/DEF: 800) attack and Defense points went down 300 points.

“You can’t blame me for trying. Though it does give me an advantage over at least one of your monsters” Ms. Kane said with a slight shrug of her shoulders, as she turned towards her Celtic Guardian, “Celtic Guardian attack her Lord of Dragons directly!”

Celtic Guardian immediately charged forward straight for Lord of Dragons, and swung his sword slicing the other spell caster monster in half, and Lord of Dragons disappeared in a flash of light.

“Nice try Ms. Kane, but looks like I win this duel,” Serena said as a slight smirk appeared on her features, as she started calling out to her monsters, “Meteor Black Dragon, attack her Celtic Guardian directly! Chaos Burning Blast!”

Meteor Black Dragon raised back it’s head and unleashed a large blast of black fire straight at Celtic Guardian, and the flames completely enveloped the elven warrior just he disappeared in a flash of light.

“That was a good duel, Serena. I couldn’t have done better myself” Ms. Kane said, smiling at the blond as the two of them shook hands, “I’m looking forward to seeing you in Duel Academy at the beginning of the school year.”

Walking away from Ms. Kane, Serena heads back towards the bleachers to wait to hear the results of the exams, and as she reached them she saw that Syrus had already finished his own duel and was seated back on the bleachers next to Zane.

“Nice going, sis,” Sammy said, grinning as he watched his sister climb up the bleachers and take a seat next to him, “That was a great duel, though I’m surprised you didn’t have a spazz attack the whole time.”

“Thanks Sammy, that means a lot coming from you,” Serena said, grinning a bit as she reached over and ruffled Sammy’s hair, causing the younger brother to swat her hands away, “So Syrus how’d you do?”

“I think I did pretty good,” Syrus said, sounding a bit nervous as he settled his glasses on his nose as he looked back at the battlefield, where the latecomer was still dueling, “That instructor was pretty tough to beat.”

“I’ve seen better duels than that.” Chazz said dismissively.

“That’s good to hear,” Serena said as she followed her cousins gaze as the group watched the last remaining duelist fight, “So does anyone know who the new guy is? I saw him come in late.”

“I think they said his name is Jaden Yuki.” Bastian said.

“I’m surprised they even let him compete since he came in late,” Chazz said with a haughty tone in his voice as he also watched the final duel boredly, “If he couldn’t bother getting here on time then they shouldn’t have let him compete at all.”

“Not everyone thinks the way you do, Chazz,” Alexis said as she glared at the brunette boy for a moment before turning her gaze back to Jaden’s duel, “He’s pretty good though, I’ll admit.”

“I can’t believe he has Professor Crowler dueling against him.” Zane said, eyes narrowing a bit as he watched Jaden summon the Spark Man Hero monster to deal with one of Crowlers own monsters, “Crowlers hard to beat in a duel, unless you have strong monsters in your arsenal.”

“Well he looks like he’s doing okay right now.” Serena said with a slight shrug of her shoulders as she turned to watch Jaden’s duel with Crowler, cheering on the brunette every now and then while the duel continued on.

It wasn’t long before Jaden’s battle with Crowler finally ended, with Jaden beating Crowlers Ancient Gear Golem, that the duels were finally officially over, and all of the students everyone who took part sat around in the bleachers waiting for news of which dorms they would be assigned.

It didn’t take long before the speakerphones squawked to life as everyone was instructed to head for the judges desk to get their dorm assignments, and both Syrus and Serena headed down.

A few minutes later the duo were back clutching folded sheets of paper in their hands, and took seats on the bleachers once more.

“So what did you guys get?” Alexis asked as she tried to peer over the duo’s shoulders to see the papers for herself.

“I’m in Slyfer Red.” Syrus said, disappointment evident in his voice as he stared at the paper sadly, “I was hoping that I’d at least make it into Ra Yellow dorms.”

“Don’t get upset over it, Sy,” Sammy said as he put a comforting hand on his cousins shoulder, “Slyther Red can’t be that bad.”

“Yeah, Syrus. Besides you’ll have more than enough time to move up in ranks later on at school,” Zane said as he looked at his younger brother for a moment, “so you might be able to leave Slyther Red and move to one of the other dorms later.”

“If you say so Zane,” Syrus said with a small sigh, as he tucked his letter into his pockets, as he turned towards Serena with a questioning look on his face, “Which dorm did you get into Serena?”

“I got the Ra Yellow dorms.” Serena said smiling a bit as she looked down at her paper once more, “This is great!”

“Hmph! I don’t see why you’re so happy.” Chazz said with a loud snort as he looked down at Serena from his seat, “Ra Yellow’s only the second best dorm in Duel Academy.”

“Whatever, Chazz.” Serena said as she continued reading her letter for a moment before her eyes widened for a second, before quickly stood up again, “Syrus we got to go. The letter says we have to go get fitted for our uniforms.”

“Okay, I’m coming,” Syrus said as he stood up and followed Serena back down the bleachers, as they started following the growing crowd of new students on their way to get uniforms.

Just as they were about to reach the rooms, Serena bumped into Jaden who was also on his way to the fitting rooms, and the two teens got knocked off their feet.

“Ow!” Serena cried out as she hit the floor butt first, and getting the wind knocked out of her in the process, “Not again!”

“Serena are you okay?” Syrus demanded as he stepped forward to help her back to her feet, “Your not hurt or anything?”

“I’m fine, Sy, I didn’t break anything,” Serena said as she gave her cousin a reassuring smile for a moment, “Though the only thing that hurts is my butt.”

“Hey, I’m sorry about that.” Jaden exclaimed as he pushed himself to back to his own feet, as he stared apologetically at Serena, “I didn’t see you until it was too late to stop.”

“It’s okay. I’m used to stuff like this happening, so there’s no harm done,” Serena said as she used her hands to brush off her clothes for a moment as she looked back up at who had knocked her down, “Hey your Jaden Yuki, right? I saw your duel.”

“You did, that’s totally sweet,” Jaden said as a big goofy grin appeared on his face, as he returned Serena’s smile as he looked her over for a moment before recognition hit him, “Hey, I think I saw your duel too while I was fighting Professor Crowler. You were in the arena in front behind Crowler?”

“Yep, My name’s Serena Tsukino,” Serena said still smiling as she reached out to offer her hand to him, and he took it and shook hands “and this is my cousin Syrus Truesdale.”

“It’s nice to meet both of you guys.” Jaden said.

“We only caught the last few minutes of your duel and you did great.” Syrus said, as the trio started walking again in the direction of the fitting rooms, “So what dorm did you get assigned to?”

“I got put into the Slyther Red dorms.” Jaden said with a small laugh, before glancing over at the other two, “What dorms did you guys get?”

“I’m in the Yellow Dorms.” Serena said.

“I’m in the Red ones too.” Syrus said as he let out another sigh. “Hey that’s cool Syrus, maybe we could be roomies together when we get to Duel Academy. Or hang out,” Jaden said smiling again as he reached up to rub the back of his head, just as they finally reached the fitting rooms, “That is if you don’t mind. It’d be nice to already know someone there.”

“Sure I wouldn’t mind hanging out.” Serena said, as she moved towards the door marked for the girls fitting room, “It’d be fun.”

“I wouldn’t mind either.” Syrus said as he and Jaden moved towards the closed door that led into the boys fitting room, “I’ll see you in a bit, Serena.” “See you, Sy.” Serena said just as the bluenette disappeared through the doors, though at the moment her eyes were on Jaden, “See ya later, Jaden.”

“See ya, Serena.” Jaden said as he waved to her as he walked through the doors after Syrus, and the door shut behind him.

Serena stood back and watched as the double doors closed behind both boys, before she let out a small sigh and turned towards her own door and stared at it for a full minute, without making any moves to open it.

‘Looks like this is going to be the new start of my life. With new friends and everything.’ Serena thought silently to herself, as she pushed opened the double doors, and walked into the fitting rooms, and door shut behind her with a click, ‘I wonder what the future is going to hold for me, after all this is over?’

==================
Author’ s Notes:
So what do you guys think? Is it good or bad? Horrible flames won’t be tolerated.

So what do all of you think of Serena as a duelist in this story? Did you like her duel with Ms. Kane? I know it seems a bit short, but I didn’t feel like making the duel continue for very long. I also know it seems like Serena’s seems a little OOC, but I decided to make her different than what she originally was. If she’s going to survive what happens at Duel Academy in the coming years, she’s going to need to change anyways.

A warning for those of you who don’t like ‘Serena-Somebody else’ pairings, before you make rude reviews comments about how wrong or stupid the story is, and how you hate it simply because of the chosen pairing, go reread the Timeline at the top of the story since I basically explain exactly why she’s not with Darien. I’m also saying now that even if she DOES get her memories back, she’s STILL not going to get back with Darien. It’s my story and I’ll pair Serena with whoever I want, if I want to.

Another thing, what do you guys think of my choice in Serena’s Duel Monster spirit? Harpy’s Brother, or Icarus, is a cool monster, and the only one from the Harpy series cards that we’ve never seen in the anime.

For now, she’s still going to still be the same sweet bubblehead she’s always been, but with a little more attitude. Harpy’s Brother has a bad influence on her, I think. lol

The prologue is only showing how Serena met the GX gang, but I’m thinking of skipping ahead a few years in the next chapter, instead of trying to completely rewrite the entire Yugi-oh GX series, except maybe in flashback scenes, to include Serena in it, so let’s just say that everything that happens in the cannon Yugi-oh GX series included Serena in it. lol