Chapter 1 — The Ice That Remembers Kings
Satellite District did not welcome the reborn.
It never did.
The boy opened his eyes to rusted steel and broken concrete, the air thick with smoke and static. Above him, floodlights flickered like dying stars. Somewhere in the distance, Duel Runners screamed as engines tore through the night—freedom for those who could afford it.
He lay still.
Not because he was weak.
But because he was thinking.
So this is Satellite, he thought calmly.Same era. Same world. Same timeline.
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.
Yusei Fudo.Jack Atlas.Crow Hogan.
Legends—unfinished.
The boy slowly sat up, silver-white hair catching the dull glow of the lamps. His eyes—cold, sharp, calculating—reflected something deeper than survival. Memories flooded in, not from this body, but from another life.
A world where Duel Monsters was a game.A world where kings were decided by skill alone.
He had grown up loving it.
Studying it.Breaking it.Perfecting it.
"I didn't come here to struggle," he muttered. "I came to win."
His chest tightened—not with pain, but with awareness.
Something stirred.
A ripple in the air.
A psychic resonance—raw, instinctive, untrained but overwhelming. He could feel the duels happening across Satellite. The fear. The hunger. The rage. Cards carried emotion here. Intent. Will.
And his answered back.
Cold.
Restrained.
Absolute.
A Duel Disk lay discarded near him, cracked but functional. When his fingers brushed it, the world froze for half a second.
Not literally.
Conceptually.
A deck materialized in his mind—not random, not nostalgic, but perfectly aligned with him.
Ice Barriers.
Not flashy.Not explosive.Not merciful.
A deck that didn't rush victory.
It sealed it.
"Figures," he said with a quiet smirk. "Kings don't chase. They wait."
The First Duel
They came for him an hour later.
Satellite trash duelists—five of them—circling like wolves. One shoved him hard.
"New kid. Hand over the cards."
The boy didn't flinch.
He activated his Duel Disk.
The psychic pressure exploded outward, slamming into them like an invisible wall.
"You made a mistake," he said calmly. "This isn't a street duel."
The duel began.
Turn by turn, the Ice Barriers locked the field down—attack restrictions, summon limits, effects frozen mid-activation. Every move they tried was denied.
Their panic fed his focus.
And when the air cracked—
Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier descended.
A dragon born of imprisonment and authority.
One card vanished from the hand.One from the field.One from the graveyard.
No explosions.No screams.
Just absence.
When the duel ended, the boy stood alone, snow-like frost crawling across the ground before fading.
The dragon lingered.
Not as a monster.
As a partner.
"You and me," the boy said softly. "We're not here to rule this place."
Trishula's eyes glowed.
"We're here to rule everything."
The King Beneath the City
Word spread fast.
Satellite always crowned kings—just never official ones.
Within months, a new power rose.
Not a gang.
A house.
Built on three rules:
Family
Respect
Tradition
They didn't prey on Satellite.
They protected it.
Food convoys stopped getting hijacked. Children stopped disappearing. Darker forces learned quickly that some territory was no longer free.
At the center sat the boy—now a king in shadow.
To his followers, he was calm. Fair. Absolute.
To enemies?
Ice.
In the darkness, he ruled like a monarch of old—silent judgment, unquestioned authority.
In the light, when he crossed paths with others, he was different.
Arrogant.Unapologetic.Unbowed.
A genius rivaling Seto Kaiba, dismantling duel strategies in seconds. He rebuilt Duel Runners from scrap, improving engines, redesigning frames. He wasn't just fixing machines.
He was planning a future.
A Duel Runner company born in Satellite.
One that would drag the district into the light—even if it meant ruling both light and darkness.
Foreshadowing the Clash
One night, tuning an engine alone, he felt it.
Another presence.
A familiar pulse of resolve and hope.
Yusei Fudo.
The boy smiled.
"So you're gathering allies," he said, eyes narrowing. "Building bonds."
He shut the engine down.
"I don't need friends."
His gaze lifted toward Neo Domino's skyline.
"I'm here to become the King of Games."
Not just of this era.
But of all of them.
Yugi.Jaden.Yusei.
Past. Present. Future.
Ice cracked beneath his hand.
"And when we clash," he whispered, "we'll see whose philosophy survives."
High above Satellite, Trishula roared silently—awaiting the day ice would meet stardust.