Chapter 1. A Sudden Awakening

“C’mon man! We gotta go or we’ll totally be late!” I heard someone pounding on my door to try and wake me. In my half asleep state I forgot to really ask what was happening, and rolled off of my bed with a wham. “Ugh…” I winced in pain, and focused on it to wake me up. I groggily opened my eyes to see a room I was unfamiliar with. “What the…?” I looked around to see I fell from the bottom bunk, of the bunk bed I was sleeping in. The room was small, and I saw the bright sunlight streaming through the small gaps in the curtains on the only window.

I got up and moved the curtains aside to be assaulted by the bright light. “Ahh!” I winced from the sudden exposure, but my eyes slowly adjusted. When they did I could figure out what that constant noise was from. I slept in a beach house, but instead of a beach, it was a rocky drop off that led to certain death. “Where the…?” I said under my breath as the door opened itself behind me. I quickly looked back to see a kid with lots of brown hair in a bowl cut, and wearing a red jacket.

“C’mon dude! Banner told me to get you because you slept through breakfast!” The boy walked over with a large grin with a happy go lucky attitude. “You ok man?” He then looked at me with concern, and I felt I had to play it cool. I felt like I knew him from somewhere, but I had a hard time placing it. “Yea… I just hit my head getting out of my bed, and I think my mind is joggled.” He tries to stop a laugh, but fails. “Pfft! Who says that word!? It’s alright if you are still a little scared of your first day at Duel Academy! Just have fun dueling is what I say!”

My mind froze at what he just said, but I followed him with my gaze as he went over to the desk in the room, and picked up a GX Duel Disk. My eyes widened as he picked it up, and checked the deck slot for cards. “C’mon we gotta go!” He smiled as he handed me the ‘what I hoped to be’ replica, and shoved me out the door while I grabbed the red jacket instinctively on the hook. Heading outside the door, I found myself on the upper balcony of the building in the corner room, and the stairs on the opposite end.

I put the jacket on as the boy held out the duel disk to give me. I looked at him confused as he laughed again at my reaction. “You must have hit your head pretty hard! This is yours! I already have mine!” He held up his other arm to showcase the Duel Disk adjourning it. I slowly took it out of his hands and looked at the glowing blue display. ‘Rakki Ichido, DP 0’ I just stared at the display and slowed my walking speed. The boy laughed a little as he dragged me to keep up the pace.

“Oh! I don’t think we ever introduced ourselves! My name is Jayden Yuki! Nice to meet ya!” My head snapped over to look at him again, and the resemblance was uncanny. My jaw dropped a bit as I kept just staring at him in shock. He looked back to see my expression and laughed some more. “This is the part where you tell me your name dude!” I shook away some of my confusion, and said the name on the Duel Disk in a half awake voice. “Rakki Ichido…” Jayden thought for a second before nodding and smiling. “Lucky once? That’s not a bad name!”

‘Is that what it meant? I don’t agree at all! Who would only want to be lucky once! My life sucked because of bad luck plaguing me! And if this is what I’m starting to think it is… Luck is everything!’ I felt myself wallow in despair for the fitting name I had been given.