Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!, but I do own some cards.
Author's Note: All right. I sort of consider this to be slightly AU, since in here, I decided that Yugi and his friends decided to retire from dueling and let other people be the King of Games. This isn't a duel or anything, but it's the lead-up to a huge duel, and it's just the thoughts of the main character about it. Give me your opinions if I should continue the story and feature the duel, or just leave it like it is.
And here we go.
I stood in the hallway, feeling like my stomach was about to explode.
This was it. The big duel. Everyone in Domino City had gathered to watch this duel, it was so huge. The King of Games versus me. The duelist that, only two years ago, everyone had made fun of.
I felt my deck stir, and within moments, I was surrounded by my ace cards. My closest friends, besides Austin and Mike.
"What's wrong, Aaron?" Disc Fighter asked, crouching and looking up at me. He spun his saws idly in his hands, chains hanging from his waist. I could honestly say he was my second favorite monster, not counting how many times he's helped me win a tight duel.
"Nothing, Disc," I said. "Just…nerves."
"That's not the only thing that's bothering you," a voice behind me stated boldly. I turned to face a warrior wearing dark armor with golden trimming, who I could tell was looking at me with a frown on his face, despite him wearing a helmet. His sword was sheathed, which surprised me, considering that he liked to flaunt it around so much. "You're scared that everyone will mock you again. But you shouldn't worry about that," Buster Blader continued. "Unless you lose this duel. Then you will still be severely mocked.
I glared at him. "Gee, thanks." I said sarcastically. "Remind me why you're one of my aces again?"
"But he is right," A quiet voice drew my attention to a holy looking warrior wearing golden-white armor with angelic, metal wings. He had two swords strapped to his waist, and his chest plate had a green orb on it. "You are afraid of being ridiculed again. And that may impair your dueling ability."
I sighed. "Utopia, you're really not helping me here."
"But you aren't helping yourself." A clock with eyes, legs, and arms floated by my shoulder, adjusting his cape and hat as he did so. "You still assume that you will be dealt with criticism." Time Wizard said. "But just think on how much you've improved since last you've dueled him!" He waved his staff around just to emphasize his point. Somehow.
I could still recall those days. I had had a deck with two-hundred cards in it (don't ask why, most of them were in there just because I thought they looked cool. I still don't why they let me duel though. Maybe they were just humoring me.) And I got my ass whooped. Repeatedly. And badly. I mean, some duels I didn't even scratch the other person's Life Points, that's just how bad I was.
Then came that fateful duel.
There was a massive tournament being held in the Duel Tower, with almost every duelist in Domino City participating. And the prize for winning? The title of the King of Games. That's right. Whoever won the tournament was the official King of Games for all of Domino City.
Guess who my first duel was with?
Yep. The future King of Games.
I lost to him, of course, but that wasn't what made it so fateful. What made it change the course of my dueling career was what happened afterward.
After my loss, I was ridiculed by him. My dueling skill was mocked, and my deck was insulted so badly I could almost feel my cards sagging in shame. Normally, this wouldn't have been a big deal. I was used to being made fun of. It was a daily occurrence, just like getting shoved into lockers and punched in the face was. But that was always private. It wasn't made into a public thing.
What made it so horrible was that everyone was there to witness it. And by everyone, I mean everyone. My friends, my family, my classmates, almost everyone in Domino City was there to see it.
And they all laughed at me. Well, my friends and family didn't, but everyone else did. I remember feeling so hurt that people would be this cruel to me. I remember Austin and Mike giving me pitying grimaces. I remember Liz looking sadly at me before trying to give me a reassuring smile. I remembered Henry, one of my tormentors at school, laughing and pointing at me, saying "Look at the little loser! Is he crying? What a dork!" But that wasn't what stung me the most.
What stung me the most was looking in my brother's face and realizing he agreed with everything that the future King had said. After all those years of teaching me how to play Duel Monsters, he had decided that I wasn't worth it anymore. That was what had broken me.
I ran from the arena then, not caring if people laughed at me or noticed my crying. My self-esteem had been completely shattered, and all I really knew was that my deck was the only one that wasn't pitying me or laughing at me.
After that day, I ran from home. I knew it wasn't fair to my family and friends, but I had to do it. I had to find out what life really meant to me. I felt bad, but it was something that I had to do.
"Don't forget about your journey," An elf wearing leather armor spoke up. Obnoxious Celtic Guard, one of my most reliable friends. "You learned a lot about dueling and improved a lot."
I smiled a little as I remembered those days away from home. I wandered around the country, taking buses when I could and walking when I couldn't. I dueled a bunch of people, who, instead of mocking me, gave me tips and advice. I didn't like it at first, because it just sounded like they were criticizing my cards, but after a while I started to realize that they were just trying to help. So I started following what they said.
Things started to turn around for me.
"You know, the reason you started winning was because of me, right?" A heavily armored warrior hefting a massive hammer over his shoulder jabbed a thumb at himself like he was the best thing since peanut butter. "ME! The Heroic Challenger - WAR HAMMER!" And with that, he slammed his hammer into the ground, causing a loud Bang! The other Duel Spirits shook their heads at this. I noticed Heroic Champion - Excalibur with his head in his hands, and forced myself to keep from grinning.
The first thing that I noticed after applying other people's advice was that I began to win duels. That alone was an astounding feat, because I never won a duel back at Domino City. The next thing was that I started to notice cards that just didn't seem to work for me. I put them into my collection, and then I realized what good cards I had in my collection that I had never noticed. I started putting them in my deck. I got new cards and replaced old ones. I started developing strategies, reading my opponent's strategies.
By this time, I was winning about eighty percent of my duels. Some I had some trouble beating, and others just thrashed me, but one thing that all of them agreed on was that I was a really good duelist.
I had begun to make it in the dueling world.
"And," a goblin in a helicopter, Goblindbergh, spoke from above me. "Don't forget when you first came back to Domino City how you completely owned the shit out of most of the duelists here!"
That was true. After two years of going around the country, I finally decided that it was time to return to Domino City. When I first returned, I stopped to visit my parents and apologize for probably worrying the hell out of them. My mom burst into tears when she opened the door for me, and she gave me such a big hug that I half-believed that she had caused internal hemorrhaging. My dad sort of stared at me for a bit before giving me his own bear-hug (after that, I was sure that I had some sort of internal injury).
Then I visited my friends.
When I found them, Austin and Liz were dueling each other, with Mike and Benedict on the sidelines. When they saw me, Austin and Liz canceled their duel and everyone gave me a huge hug (at that point I was convinced one of my lungs was punctured). Liz even surprised me by giving me a quick kiss on the lips, though she denied it when I asked about it later.
Anyway. Back to my friends.
After all the hugging had finally ended, we had sat down and chatted about what we had done in the past two years. Mike and Benedict were getting ready to go into business sponsoring professional duelists, while Liz was going into pro dueling. Austin, I was surprised to hear, had actually become champion of the National Tournament and dueled the King of Games. "I did pretty well, considering." Austin had said. "He is the best, but I did nearly get him down to 2000 life points before he turned it around. Didn't you hear about that?" He looked at me curiously.
"Er, no. I sort of avoided any news about the King." Despite all these years, I still had an aversion to the best duelist of the world. That, and my brother…
Austin understood instantly and changed the topic to our ace cards. Everyone seemed surprised when I named off my ace cards, mostly because I had more than one. "Well," I replied when Mike asked why so many aces. "All of them have helped me win duels more than once. Besides, what's wrong with having more than one ace?" They didn't have a response to that.
Then it happened. The thing that led me here.
Austin challenged me to a duel. "I want to see how good you've gotten for myself." He had grinned while saying this. "No holding back, all right?"
I agreed, and then we started our duel. He had gone first, wanting to show me how far he had advanced his skills. And he had gotten a lot better, since he managed to summon his ace with just a few cards. Then he turned it over to me, daring me to do the same.
I did better. I won in my first turn.
Everyone seemed kind of stunned at that, myself included. I hadn't been really thinking when I did my turn; I sort of just did things instinctively. But looking back at it, attacking with a monster with 16000 ATK points in the first turn seemed a little excessive. When I tried apologizing, though, Austin just looked at me, and said:
"Dude. You could go up against the King of Games and win."
And that started a journey of me challenging several people in the city until my record was high enough to challenge the King of Games, and now led me here, to this hallway, where I waited for the announcer to call my name.
"Ladies and gentleman, this is your host…" A booming voice echoed from the entrance ten yards in front of me.
Oh god. This was it.
Panic started to seize me. Thoughts of jeering faces and mocking laughter filled my mind. I couldn't do this. I started to back up, shaking my head. "Guys, I can't. I can't do this-"
Then a hand clasped my shoulder, firm but reassuring. "Yes. You can."
A sudden sense of calm washed over me. I knew who it was immediately before looking over my shoulder. Even though all these other monsters were my aces too, this was my true ace. My favorite card in the game. The one that I always drew strength and reassurance from.
Dark Magician looked down at me, his blue, red-trimmed armor gleaming. His eyes, a dark blue, gazed down at me. He looked almost like a parent: supportive, but willing to put me back on the right track in a heartbeat, even if I didn't like it. "You don't have to live by the opinions of others. You can find your own strength, strength to believe in yourself and your courage. Even if you lose, you can improve, and one day, you will be able to beat him. It might be tomorrow, it might even be today. But I will not allow you to leave this place without attempting to win."
I gazed into his face and nodded. "Right. Thanks." My confidence was suddenly back. I looked forward, and walked towards the entrance. My friends vanished, all but Dark Magician, who walked beside me. I felt as if the world could throw everything at us, and we wouldn't be fazed. I had my closest ace with me, and that wouldn't change a thing.
I emerged from the hallway, looking around at the spectators. All of the stands were filled with screaming, cheering fans. I saw my mom and dad standing at the railing with my friends, cheering for me. As I looked at my friends, I saw their ace monsters come out and acknowledge me as well. Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon stood behind Austin and gave a roar of welcome to me. Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon rose behind Mike, gazing at me with a kind of bemusement in its eyes. Cyber Dragon coiled around Benedict, while Cyber End Dragon floated behind them, both giving an electronic bellow upon seeing me. And beside Liz, Mobius the Frost Monarch nodded curtly towards me. Eventually, my eyes tore away from them, and landed upon the King of Games.
My brother smirked at me from the other end of the arena, his arms folded, his custom Duel Disk shaped after his favorite monster already active. As I walked to my designated spot, I saw his deck glow, and suddenly I was staring at all of Matt's ace monsters.
Armed Dragon Lv. 7 snarled and dug its claws into the ground, spikes emerging from almost every place in its body. Horus the Black Flame Dragon Lv. 8 screeched and breathed out dark flames, its cry sounding like an eagle. Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End gave a roar that separated all the clouds above us, and then looked superiorly down upon me. Blue-Eyes White Dragon growled and raked the ground with its deadly sharp claws.
But none of those managed to freeze me in my tracks like Matt's two true ace cards did.
Red-Eyes Black Dragon gave a snort as it saw me, spitting out a large amount of flame as it prepared for battle. And above that, Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon seemed to collect shadows around itself, until it seemed like it was covered in darkness. But the darkness couldn't hide those demonic eyes, which seemed to stare deep into my soul and say, You aren't worth any of my time. I stood there, petrified by those terrifying eyes. I couldn't do this. It was just too hard-
Then Dark Magician grasped my shoulder again, and I felt calm again. I started forward.
The dark dragon then saw Dark Magician beside me, and the shadow parted from it, revealing its true, metallic form. It gave a bellowing roar, drowning out all the other dragon's cries. It seemed to be welcoming a rival, almost boasting a challenge. Dark Magician responded by twirling his staff and releasing a burst of magic that silenced the other dragons, besides Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon and its original form.
I gazed into Matt's face as I stopped about ten feet in front of him. "Hey, Matt." I said.
Matt smirked. "Aaron. I can see you've gotten stronger. But is it enough to beat me?" He held his arm out in front of him, displaying his Red-Eyes Duel Disk. Its Life Point counter suddenly set itself to 8000 points.
Hopefully, I thought, but I didn't respond. Instead, I activated my own Duel Disk - a standard one, nothing fancy - and slipped my deck into its slot. My own Life Point counter set itself to 8000 points.
This was it. The beginning of our long-awaited rematch. No holding back. I stared into Matt's face. No matter what way the duel went, I could tell this would have a huge impact on our lives.
"And now the duelists are all set! Brother versus brother! The ultimate case of sibling rivalry! This is sure to be one heck of a duel, folks!" The announcer practically yelled into his microphone.
I grinned slightly at this. That at least was one thing everyone could be sure of. Then I refocused. I looked at Matt, and we both shouted:
"LET'S DUEL!"
