Adrien was forever grateful to the Gorilla. He really did love his bodyguard since he was a lot more parental than the other adults in his life.
Currently, the child model was browsing through a card shop that he had asked the Gorilla to take him to. Adrien had recently gotten an email that he had been accepted into the Francois Dupont Duel Academy. Though, he was one-hundred percent sure that he was only accepted because he was a famous model for his father's fashion company. He knew that it was the wrong way to get into the school, but he loved dueling.
While he was a model for his father's company, dueling was what Adrien loved the most. His mother had been a really good duelist and she and he had a lot of little duels together when he had been little. He used an extra deck that his mother had since he was too young to really have a deck of his own, but he loved every second of it. But after his mother disappeared six months ago, his father locked up his mother's cards and never let him touch them.
So, that was why he was not at the Garden Family Card Shop. It was one of the most well-known card shops in Paris. It was run by the Garden family, a family of Greek citizens that moved to Paris since they were given a golden opportunity to open a card shop in the city of love. The youngest of the family, twins Lyon and Vallia, were actually both students of the duel academy as well from what he knew.
He browsed the shop to see if there were any cards that he could connect with. His mother had used a deck of fairy cards, but he wanted something he had personally chosen himself.
"You obviously look like you need some help," a male voice with an accent said.
Adrien nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden voice. Turning around, he saw that it was Lyon Garden. He could easily see why he was known as the Ice Prince given that he was dressed entirely in silver, white, and blue. Plus, his bright blue eyes were very cold even with a sense of warmth in them.
"You're Lyon Garden," Adrien was shocked.
"I know," Lyon smirked. "I also can see that you are definitely a newbie to the world of dueling. But, you also have a great love for it."
"You can tell all that about me just like that," Adrien could not help but raise an eyebrow.
"I have always been able to tell who a person is," Lyon says. "It's better to see inside of a person's true heart than it is just seeing good in others. Call me the ultimate realist."
The way he spoke definitely had a level of coldness to it that added to the fact that he was known as the Ice Prince. Not that Adrien could really blame him since having the best card shop in Paris also meant that a lot of wannabe duelists would try and cozy up to the family in order to try and get the best cards out of them.
"I...I used to play with my mother's cards," Adrien tells Lyon. "I loved playing with her, but I never had my own cards."
"You came to the right place, then," Lyon went behind the counter. "We have starter decks, custom decks for those that order them, decks of specific archetypes, and many other things in the shop. We also have duel disks for those that do not already own their own. My older brother, Apollo, also teaches new duelers on the weekends."
"No wonder your shop is so popular," Adrien said.
"We do our best," Lyon smirked. "So, do you have an idea on what special summoning technique you want to focus on?"
Adrien had to think about that. His mother's deck only used special summoning when it came to regular monsters. She did not have any fancy monsters like fusion, synchro, ritual, XYZ, pendulum, gate, or link monsters. Adrien knew about them, but he never got the chance to use any of them. And he really wanted to.
(AN: Gate summoning/gate monsters are my own original idea. It will be explained more as I continue the book.)
"I think I would want to use fusion summoning," Adrien decided.
"That is a very good choice," Lyon got out the decks that they had that all had fusion monsters. "These are all decks that all have fusion summoning as part of them."
Adrien looked at the decks. There was certainly plenty that he could choose from. Looking at them, there were definitely some that caught his eye. The Amazon, Fossil, Melodious, Lunalight, Elemental Hero, Destiny Hero, Cyber Dragon, Gladiator Beast, Gem-Knight, Gem-Beast, and Gravekeeper cards all looked very interesting to him. He definitely had to take a few minutes before he decided which to use.
His hands hovered over them until he decided which of the decks that he wanted to choose as his own.
"The Elemental Heroes," Adrien picked up the deck.
Lyon smiled. "That is a very good choice of deck. Would you also like to buy a deck holder and a duel disk as well?"
"Yeah, that sounds good," Adrien says.
Adrien ended up choosing an emerald green deck case to match his eyes. He also went with a duel disk that would look like a long curved blue blade.
(AN: I will be using duel disks inspired by those from 5D's and Zexel.)
"I hope to see you in school soon," Lyon says. "It has been a while since we have had any fresh meat."
"Fresh meat," Adrien was made a little nervous as he saw the smirk on Lyon's face.
"Lyon, don't scare the poor boy," said a female voice.
Adrien turned and saw Lyon's sister, Vallia, enter the shop. Vallia was the complete opposite of her twin in terms of how she presented herself. She was known as the Flower Princess because of her more sunny personality as well as how she always had flowers in her hair.
"You never let me have my fun," Lyon playfully pouted as his sister used his shoulder as an armrest.
"Your fun involves you using that Ice Prince persona to scare the living daylights out of people," Vallia giggled.
"I still don't see what is wrong with that," Lyon smirked.
"Brothers," Vallia shook her head fondly at her brother's antics.
Adrien could only just stand there awkwardly. He felt like a third wheel even though Lyon and Vallia were siblings and not a couple. But, they were twins, so it was only natural that they would be able to just talk to each other like no one else was around. Made him think that if the two of them ever teamed up for tag duels, their opponents would be seriously doomed.
"You... You two do attend the FD Duel Academy, right," Adrien finally spoke up.
Both twins nodded.
"It had the best reviews for duel schools when we moved here," Vallia said. "We attended duel school in Greece, so we wanted to continue that education here since we are living here currently."
"We also went to a duel school in Japan when we lived there a couple of years ago," Lyon tells Adrien.
"So, you three speak Greek, Japanese, and French," Adrien was amazed.
"Our father's parents are also American and still live in the states, so we also speak English as well," Lyon said.
That certainly threw Adrien for a loop. He would figure that the twins were smart, but he did not expect that they would be this smart. He spoke English as well, but he only spoke Mandarin and French other than that.
"Wow," was all that Adrien could say.
"We would appreciate you keeping the fact that we lived in Japan to yourself, please," Vallia requested.
"I will," Adrien said but was confused. "But why?"
"Japan is known to have some of the best duelists in the world," Lyon explained. "Like Yugi Moto and his brother Atem. Not to mention Jaden Yuki and Seto Kaiba. If people find out we lived there, we would be bothered so much by those trying to use us for those types of connections."
"Oh," Adrien said. "I can understand that. I am a model and the son of the fashion company owner, so you know that I also have people wanting to be around me for favors. Especially those that either want to meet my father or want to work for my father."
"Isn't your father a recluse that has not left his house in almost a year," Lyon raised an eyebrow.
Vallia slapped her brother on the shoulder.
"You do not just ask a question like that to someone," she scolded him.
"I don't mind, actually," Adrien says, calming Vallia down. "Yeah, my dad does not leave the house. I don't know why, but he just never leaves."
"Well, we won't pry," Lyon stated.
"Since you two attend the school, can you tell me anything about it," Adrien asked them.
Adrien paid for the deck, the deck holder, and his duel disk. But they all continued to talk as he did this. He was starting to like these two. Since he had grown up very isolated from a lot of people because of his dad being so overprotective, the only other person that Adrien really counted as any kind of friend would be his childhood friend, Chloe Bourgeois. It was another reason why he wanted to go to the duel academy. Because he wanted to make more friends.
"Well, there are different classes and clubs based on dueling skills as well as summoning techniques that are used," Lyon tells Adrien. "I personally use gate summoning while my sister uses XYZ summoning."
"There is also a very fun little rivalry between some classes," Vallia giggled. "It is all in good fun, so it never goes too far. It is really only individual students that do not get along instead of entire classes hating each other."
"That is actually so cool," Adrien said.
"There are always dueling between classes as part of exams," Vallia says. "There is a written part, but there are also duels between the classes to see how our skills have increased as well."
"I mostly just feel sorry for those that have to go up against those like Kagami and Luka," Lyon chuckled.
"I am guessing that those two are really good," Adrien said.
"The two of them are some of the best duelists in the entire school," Vallia says. "Kagami is also from a family of champion fencers and is part of the school team. She is a very fierce opponent that is known for having probably the mother of all poker faces."
"Luka is also the twin brother of our friend Juleka in our class," Lyon also tells Adrien. "He may be one of the nicest guys that you can ever meet, but his dueling is no joke. He and Juleka say that their mom is basically a pirate, so you can definitely say that they were both raised to fight for anything that they want."
"You two certainly know some unique people," Adrien could not help but smile.
"When you have been to as many places as we have, you tend to always be able to find interesting people to interact with," Vallia shrugged. "Otherwise, life would be so boring."
"Plus, we have a saying in our family," Lyon said. "Being normal is vastly overrated. In other words, we pride ourselves on being unique since normal is just boring."
Adrien was about to ask about their own class when he got a text on his phone. It was the Gorilla telling him that they needed to get going before Adrien's father learned where they were because of the tracking stuff he had on Adrien's phone.
"I have to go now, but I hope to see you two in school," Adrien quickly packed up all of his purchases and left the card shop.
"You are usually not that nice to new people," Vallia tells her brother.
"There is something different about him," Lyon replies. "Something in his eyes that tells me he is a lot more than just a model with an overprotective parent."
"Well, since he is a model, that does mean he has a lot of practice putting on masks and other things to hide how he really feels," Vallia says. "There is a reason why I hate that teen and child models are actually a thing. No teenager or kid should have to deal with the pressures that came from always having to try and be society's definition of 'perfect."
"He told me that he used to use his mother's cards when he would play with her," Lyon tells his sister.
"That definitely says a lot about him," Vallia said. "Some of the best types of dueling memories are made with the parents they have that also duel."
"It will definitely be fun to see what he can do with a deck of his own," Lyon admitted. "While he may be a little out of practice, he will most likely be quite the opponent once he gets used to his new deck."
"He chose the Elemental Heroes deck, right," Vallia asked as she watched her brother put away the other decks that Adrien had not chosen.
"That's right," Lyon tells her.
"That definitely is a deck that provides a challenge when truly mastered," Vallia said. "After all, Jaden Yuki is one of the most well-known duelists in the world."
"Not as much as Yugi Muto and his brother Atem, but Jaden also is a very good duelist," Lyon says.
"Do you think that we should have warned him about brats like Chloe and sore losers like Max," Vallia asked her twin.
Lyon shrugged. "There is no better way for him to learn than to learn the hard way."
Vallia giggled. "You can be really evil when you want to be."
"Not evil, but just a realist," Lyon stated. "Sometimes, you have to experience the downsides of life to really learn that they are out there."
"If there is one thing that I know about you, it is that you really love slapping people with reality," Vallia giggled again.
"Well, I see no reason for rose-tinted glasses," Lyon says. "I think that the world would be a lot better if reality is what people see and not just everything being sunshine and rainbows. It only leads to things like letting bullies run free, never standing up for yourself, and thinking that a slap on the wrist is the best way to make bad people change their ways."
"You really hate Bustier, don't you," Vallia knew who her brother was mostly talking about.
"The woman needs lessons on how to be a teacher," Lyon stated. "Plain and simple."
Vallia could not help but agree with her brother.
*****Meanwhile, In A Cliche Villain's Lair*****
A man stood in the center of the room, covered by shadows. In front of him was a truly adorable little creature. Floating in the air was a little lavender-colored creature with little purple wings and a darker purple swirl design on its forehead. But even as adorable as it was, the poor thing looked terrified of the man in front of it.
"So, you are the kwami of metamorphosis. Nooroo," the shadow man glared at the creature. "You would give me the power to turn others into superpowered human beings."
"Y...Yes," the now-named Nooroo stuttered out. "My power is empowerment and my power is used to create hero champions."
"Which means that it can also be used to create supervillains," the shadow man evilly smirked.
"But my power if not supposed to be used that way," Nooroo weakly protested.
"I am your master, so you will do as I tell you," the shadow man yelled at the creature.
"Y...Yes, master," Nooroo could not disobey the orders from the man that owns his card.
"The ladybug and black cat mystical cards are also in Paris, correct," the shadow man demanded an answer from Nooroo.
"Y...Yes, master," Nooroo answered. "I... I can sense them, but I can't tell their specific location. Just that they are in the city."
The man glared even more at the creature, making Nooroo float a little farther away from him. He had hoped that when his card was found, it would have been found by a good person. Unfortunately, that was not the case. And with a power like his, that was not a good thing.
"I will get my hands on them no matter what it takes," the shadow man declared. "Nooroo, dark wings rise!"
There was a flash of dark purple, sending out a wave of magic that was only felt by certain creatures. A floating little turtle creature, another kwami, shook as he felt it.
"Master," the creature cried out as it flew right to an old man that was in the room with him. "I felt Nooroo! He's in evil hands! What do we do!?!"
The old man turned to look at a gramophone that he had in the room.
"It is time, Wayzz," he told the kwami. "The ladybug and black must be activated to get back Nooroo and his mystical card. Or Paris will be doomed to very dark times."
Somewhere else in Paris, two other cards were glowing inside of the decks of two others. A glowing white card in one deck and a glowing pink card in another. It made the owners look at each other as they were well aware of what that meant. Two more kwami floated next to the two of them.
"Looks like we are going to have a very interesting year," the boy said.
"Beware, you two," a floating little wolf warned them. "Nooroo's power is very strong. You will need to prepare for really tough opponents."
"We will do our best," the girl says.
"Your best is what is going to be needed," a floating monarch butterfly kwami warned them. "Hopefully the ladybug and black cat will be out there as well."
The two humans nodded in agreement.