Circle City. The dueling hub of a city that people gather to so that they can...well, duel, obviously. What else would people ever do in the world besides play a children's card game? This story begins in Circle City's Duel Academy, where - as happens once per semester - an academy-wide Duel Monsters tournament was preparing to begin. The top three winners would receive a nice healthy chunk of extra credit, and the only fee for joining was a promise to show up. This was where legends began and where rising stars took to the sky. In Duel Academies. And as with any tournament, there were plenty of different kinds of decks being brought to the table.

That wasn't all that was being talked about in Circle City, though. Also hot in local talk were mysterious kidnappings. Or at the very least, that's what they were being called. Somebody would go missing for a few days, only to turn up dead somewhere. Cause of death always remaining unknown, it's a criminal mystery that has been taking lives and peace of mind in Circle City since not long after the Spirit World Collision started six years ago. Rumors say they're connected, but there's no evidence to support the rumor. Even Duel Spirits aren't sure what's causing it, only intensifying the mystery of the Spirit World Collision...

"Attention, students and staff," a girl's voice said over the school's intercom systems. Barring newer students, many would probably recognize it as the voice of the Student Council President, Kimberly Black. "At this time, anybody who signed up for the academy tournament is to head to Duel Arena B. Again, anyone in the tournament is to go to Duel Arena B. Thank you." In fact, the announcement had come from within Duel Arena B; this and Duel Arena A each having their own separate buildings from the main building and dorm building of the Duel Academy, all on-campus. Indeed, today was the start of it all.