Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or Death Note, Code Geass, or Spiral or Boogiepop or Kingdom Hearts
If you want the full story, check out my GX story Broken Dreams, or just stick with this ^^
Author's Note: Just something I'm writing for fun, don't expect me to update too often. Anyway yeah there's a major resemblance to Spiral….Man I wish I could write something that good.
. . .
The sixteen-tear-old teen smiled as he fanned through the cards in his deck. "Looks like everything is in order," he said to himself. He quickly rose from his chair and examined himself quickly. He adjusted his red tie and began smoothing on some wrinkles in his beige slacks. He adjusted the collar of his white shirt and picked a piece of fluff out of his black hair. "Heh, I can't wait to duel someone with my new deck, I'm going to blow them away for sure." He glanced around the empty classroom, looking for another student. "Guess I better go find someone, maybe I can go check out the dueling club."
"Do you always talk to yourself like that, Ryan?" Asked a girl.
"Shizune!" He complained. "What have I told you about sneaking up on me?" His warm blue eyes stared at the girl in shock. She had short blonde hair and wore the school uniform, a white and pink sailor fuku. "Stupid ninja girl."
"So, I hear you're looking for someone to duel," she said with a smile. She reached for the deck case strapped to her left thigh. "I'm game if you are."
Ryan reached for his Duel Disk but stopped. A loud scream pierced the air and caught his attention. "Did you hear that? Shizune, where did you?" He sighed as he spun around to see his friend running out the door.
"Hurry up, it came from the library," she told him.
Students poured into the hall and clogged the path. Ryan forced his way through the crowd, trying to make his way through to the library. "What do you think happened?" He called out to Shizune.
"I have no clue," she answered. She was having much better luck with her trip. She worked her way through the sea oh students by weaving around everyone in her way. She ducked under one person and crawled through another's legs. "Sorry, pardon me, coming through," she said with a smile.
Ryan struggled to keep up with her progress, but smiled when he found a way to move past most of the crowd. He slipped through a small gap in the mass of people and reached for the library door. He gripped the cold metal handle tightly in his hand and tried to push the door open. It wouldn't budge. "Oh, right," he slapped himself on the head as he slid his ID through a scanner on the side of the door. A light flashed green and the door opened. 'I hate these things. They really want to keep track of our every movement.'
The cold air gushed out as he stepped onto the grey carpet. "What happened?" He asked.
The crowd of students turned to him quickly. Ryan saw a small girl huddled in the corner, crying. The librarian stepped toward Ryan and shook her head. "Don't worry too much, she's fine. Someone just stole her deck. She said her brother gave it to her for her birthday. It really means a lot to her."
Ryan smiled. "I understand how important a deck can be to a person." He grinned. "So, what's your name?" He asked the crying girl.
"My name's Maki," she sniffed.
"What kind of deck was it?" Ryan questioned further.
"A-an Elemental Hero deck. I'm a huge fan of Judai's so I always wanted to try using a Hero deck, but I could never get the right cards. My brother worked so hard to get those cards for me; I don't want to tell him the cards were stolen."
"Well, dry your eyes, Maki. I swear to you I'll find your cards. Just tell me everything and I guarantee you I can figure out who stole your deck."
"And how are you going to do that?" Shizune asked from behind him.
"Ah!" Ryan fell over. "Shizune, how many times have I told you? Stop sneaking up on me." He looked around at the library as he stood up. Countless books lined dozens of shelves. They were mostly tidy except for a small patch of books nearby. They looked like someone had knocked a few over.
Maki wiped her eyes dry and cracked a smile. "Thanks so much. So, tell me what do you need to know?"
Ryan grinned. "Well, that's easy. First of all, where did you leave your deck, do you keep it in a deck case, where were you, and how long were you gone?"
"I, I left my deck on that table over there, I had it in a black deck case with my name on it" she said, pointing to an empty table. "I left to go to the bathroom; I know I shouldn't have left it. I should have taken it with me but I didn't think anyone would steal it. I just needed to wash my hands. They were sticky from the orange I had for lunch. I was gone for only about two minutes."
"Wait, counting or not counting the time it took to walk to the restroom."
"Counting. I was only in there for about twenty seconds. I didn't even use soap; I just wanted to rinse my hands."
Ryan smiled. "Okay, just give me some time and I'll piece the pieces together."
"Oh really?" Shizune sighed. "Since when are you some great detective?" She teased.
Ryan simply nodded with a smile. "Just give me some time," he said as he walked toward the exit door. 'There are two doors, one coming in and one coming out. Sure you could go either way with a door, and nobody would really care if you went out the in door, but I'm sure the librarian would at least notice if someone waltzed in and out, right? No, they could have been looking for a friend.' His mind searched though the possibilities."Anyone acting suspicious lately?" He asked the librarian. "Like say, they just came in for a few seconds and left?"
More students filed in through the door and joined the gathering.
"No, not that I would really notice," she admitted. "People come and go all the time."
"Well, I'll trust your memory on this. So, assuming that's true, the thief would either have been in here before Maki, or they'd have to be someone who remained even after Maki left for the restroom. So, Maki, what did you do when you got out of the restroom?"
"I saw that my deck was missing from the table and I screamed. I ran over and searched everywhere. I even looked in my bag, thinking I might have put it in there and forgotten."
"Hearing a scream would attract most people's attention. It'd take someone extremely callous to just ignore you. So I assume most people would have turned to you and asked you what was wrong."
"Should you really be making so many assumptions?" A female student asked.
"Yeah, she's right," another student agreed.
"Work with me people," Ryan sighed. "Just, give me the benefit of the doubt." He pondered over things for a moment. "I'll admit I'm no L, Lelouch, or Ayumu, but it's easy to see the problem here. The window of timing is too small for someone to steal the deck under normal circumstances. They probably didn't even realize they had to be in that much of a rush. They probably assumed Maki had to pee, so they would have tried to act casual to avoid suspicion. That means that they'd be taking their time, and she could have caught them at any second. Now, if we can shrink the window of opportunity we can come to a conclusion.
"I know I'm basing a lot of what I'm saying on assumptions, but I'm sure that the thief didn't walk out of here with the deck. One question"
"You mean, he's still here?" Shizune asked. "How do you figure?"
"It's really simple," Ryan said with a smile. "Nobody can get in and out of the library without using their ID right?" Ryan waited for the other students to nod. 'Time to pull off a little sleight of mind,' he thought.
Ryan cleared his throat. "If someone did steal Maki's deck and they tried to leave, they'd have to swipe their ID to get out. Then, when Maki came back from the restroom, she'd begin a frantic search for her deck. Someone, the librarian or another student, would notice and ask what was wrong. Surely, the librarian would call campus security. Duel Monsters cards may be made of cardboard, but they're often more expensive and valuable than even jewelry."
"Yeah, I did call them. They must be taking a while to get here," the librarian stated.
"This means that the phone call will easily provide a record of the time the theft occurred," Ryan deduced. "And the school would easily be able to check the records of who came and went from the library. It's an easy way to narrow down the list of suspects. The police could easily handle it from there." Ryan raised his pointer finger at the roof. "So naturally, the one thing to do would be to wait until a crowd gathered. Then he could easily slip out with some of the other students. The records would be all messed up and there'd be no way of telling who was and wasn't here."
The students nodded in reluctant agreement. 'Of course, using a stolen ID would have been faster, but that isn't what happened.'
"Wait," the librarian asked. "How could he be sure there'd be a crowd?"
Ryan smirked as if the answer was obvious. "People are nosy. Campus security would get here eventually, and a crowd would follow."
Ryan grinned. "Of course, he can't hold on to the deck, the police might get here and search the students. So obviously, the deck is still hidden somewhere in the library."
Maki smiled. "Really? It's still here?"
"I'm willing to stake my life on it." The boy smiled. "And to top it off, it probably isn't very far from this desk." Ryan paused a second. 'Good, nobody noticed the flaw in what I said. Not that it matters too much. Either way I'd still get what I need.' Ryan laughed. "So all we have to do is search everywhere to find the deck. Anyone willing to help?"
"Sure, I guess."
"Why not?"
The students all happily agreed.
'Okay, now this is going great.' Ryan watched the students as they began searching around for the deck. They checked inside the desks, under bookshelves, and behind stacks of books."
Maki nearly tripped as she dashed off to find her cards."Aren't you going to look too?" Shizune asked.
"Nah, I'm lazy. How about you?" Ryan asked with a sly smile. He looked around at the searching students. "Shizu-" his friend vanished. "I hate when she does that."
"Anyone find it?"
"No not here."
"Keep looking."
They spread out and moved farther away from the desk. "I guess I will start looking," he said loudly. Ryan sighed as he moved to a far away shelf. He shuffled some books around. 'Boogiepop? It looks interesting. I should read it sometime.' He counted off the seconds in his head. 'Time to kick things into action.' He quickly returned to the table. He smiled at a boy with dark blue hair and silver eyes. "So, you're a really slow searcher."
"Hey, I'm trying my best," the boy protested. He looked like he was a bit younger than Ryan.
"Oh really? Then empty out your pocket." Ryan commanded.
"Hmmm, looks like I've been found out," the boy removed a black deck case from his pocket. "I thought I'd be able to hide it behind some books for now and go back later. When the search began, I got worried. So I decided to slip it in my pocket for now and hide it in the restroom in the middle of the search. Then I'd just come back for it later, after everyone left. So tell me, how'd you know it was me?"
"It was a gamble," Ryan explained. "I knew where the deck was, it had top be somewhere close by and the books on the shelf were messy enough. I hoped that when the search began, the thief would head straight toward it. You didn't want anyone else to find it. You seemed awfully fixated on that spot, but you never found the deck. I figured you were the thief and you still planned to steal it. I have to ask though, why'd you go through all this to steal a deck?"
The boy smiled. "I suppose I can tell you, after I give the deck back to Maki. Just one thing, don't tell her I stole it, 'kay. Just pretend I found it."
"And why would I do that?" Ryan asked.
"Because, if you don't then I won't tell you anything I know about the Octogram."
Ryan's eyes narrowed into a fierce glare. "Okay, fine, you win. But in exchange, tell me everything!"
"How 'bout no? The worst that happens for me in this situation is that I run from the police. You on the other hand, desperately want to know what I know. So, in the end, you stand to gain the most, and that means I have all the bargaining chips." The boy walked toward Maki. She searched frantically for her cards. A pile of books waited at her side. "Yo', Maki-chan, I found your deck."
"Oh my God, thank you so much Ethan," she cried as she threw her arms around the boy,
"I don't know what I'd do without them."
Ryan only growled as he watched this. 'That bastard. They're friends! Who would steal a friend's cards like that?'
"Hey, Ryan," Ethan called out to the boy. "Meet me at Ashford Park in half an hour, we'll duel there!" He smiled as he turned to Maki. "Okay, let's get these books cleaned up."
"I'm out of here," Ryan sighed.
"Where are you going?" Shizune asked.
"Gah!" Ryan gasped as he fell over. "To the park. Ethan said he wants to duel me there in half an hour."
. . .
Ryan sighed as he sat on a wooden bench. Wild green grass grew everywhere. It was completely untamed, nobody bothered to take care of it. 'Something isn't right. That was all too easy. What am I missing?' Ryan thought it over. He turned to the metal statue of Winged Kuriboh in the corner. "So, what a I missing?" He asked his reflection.
"Wow, you're talking to yourself?" A voice taunted from behind the statue. "I was starting to think you're smart but maybe you're just crazy."
"You're late, Ethan." Ryan rose to his feet and started shuffling his deck. "So, let me guess the conditions. I win, you talk, you win, then I leave you alone?"
Ethan smiled. "Poor Ryan, you don't seem to understand a very simple fact. You aren't dealing with a normal person here. This won't be an ordinary duel. When the duel is over, if you win, you get five questions. However, for each Spell you use, I take away one question. If you lose, however, then I'm taking your deck as my own then."
"Heh, good thing I won't lose." Ryan chuckled.
"I'm glad you're so confident. Let's begin."
Ryan 4000 5 Questions
Ethan 4000
"I'll go first," Ethan chuckled. He spread his six cards out in his hand and carefully selected one. "I'll set three cards face down and summon my Purring Dragon in attack mode." A cute black cat with dragon wings appeared on Ethan's head. (300/200) It purred peacefully as it curled into a ball for a nap. "Your turn, Ryan."
Ryan drew a sixth card and frowned. 'Another spell huh? Looks like I'm either going to give up my questions or be stuck with a bunch of dead weight in my hand.'
"Here's a little something you might like to know. While my cat is on the field, I am not allowed to negate the activation of any spell cards. In exchange, you simply must activate a Spell Card each turn or else you take 1000 points of damage during your endphase."
"Looks like I'll need to get rid of your kitten." Ryan decided. "I summon the monster card, Child of the Blade, Mars!" (1100/1400) A blonde haired boy in a green tunic appeared on the field. "Now here's where things get interesting, I pick a face down spell or trap and I can do one of two things. I can either make it easy and guess if it's a spell or trap and then check. If I'm right, the card is destroyed and you take 500 damage. Or I can make things more challenging by going for bonus points. I can guess what kind of spell or trap it is. If I'm right, the card can't be activated in response, is destroyed, and you take 1000 points of damage. If I'm wrong, I take 1000 points of damage. The fun part, of course, comes from the fact that I can use this effect once per turn, so even if I'm wrong this turn, you better activate that card or I'll destroy it next turn."
"So I have a fifty-fifty chance of losing a card and taking 500 damage. Good thing that card has a weak attack or else I'd be in trouble." Ethan chuckled.
Ryan pointed at the middle card. "Normal Trap, Scrap Iron Scarecrow!"
"What?" Ethan gasped as his face down card revealed itself. Mars leaped forward and chopped the trap to bits. The infamous scarecrow turned to rust in the wind and blew away. Ethan's Life Points tumbled.
Ethan: 3000
"No way, how did you figure out what card I played."
"Sorry, Ethan, I'm not one to reveal my tactics to an opponent so easily." Ryan teased. "Anyway, I would love to attack but you would just use your Mirror Force on me. So instead, I'll play one card face down."
"How did you know I had a Mirror Force face down?" Ethan demanded.
"I end my turn," Ryan said casually. Ethan's cat flew forward and scratched away 1000 Life Points.
Ryan 3000 5 Questions
Ethan 3000
Ethan drew his next card. "Dammit, you're better than I thought. I normally protect my cat while watching my opponent try to ration his spells so that he won't run out. But it seems like you've got some sort of gift or figuring out my face downs." Ethan smiled. "I can't let you keep that card out too much longer, so I'll summon Ethereal Murder Blade." (1600/1400) "While he's on the field you take 300 damage each time you activate a spell."
"Sounds like you've got an interesting deck, Ethan. Damned if you do and damned if you don't," Ryan pointed an accusing finger at his opponent. "Don't think you're going to beat me with such simple tactics."
Ethereal Murder Blade simply grinned. It looked like a large suit of blue armor with two glowing pink and green blades in each hand. "Go, Ethereal Murder Blade, kill his monster."
Ethan's card charged forward and swiped at Mars. The young warrior raised a sword to retaliate, but his foe's blade cut through his own. Mars rolled through Murder Blade's legs in an effort to escape, but the larger monster brought his foot down on the young card's back. Ethereal Murder Blade laughed silently as he crushed his prey beneath his foot. He brought his sword down and plunged it through Mars' body.
Ryan 2500 5 Questions
"I'll switch my cat into defense mode."
Ryan drew his next card. "So, I have to get rid of two more of your cards before I can even consider attacking. Mirror Force and Magic Cylinder." Though his lips remained calm, Ryan's eyes smiled brightly. Ethan growled.
Ryan stared at his newest card. 'Giant Trunade. I could easily return all his cards to his hand and attack with my monster. But I want to keep those questions.' He sighed. "I summon the monster card, Child of the Blade, Vincent," (1300/1500) His new monster had messy black hair and a red tunic. "Vincent's effect lets me guess the top card of your deck in a similar fashion to his friend. Of course, there are more options this time around. Easy mode tacks on monster, while hard mode gives me normal monster, effect monster, and ritual monster. Kind of a tough challenge that not even I'm that good at. However, that doesn't mean I'm ready to give up just yet. If I get easy mode right then you take 700 damage. If I get it wrong then you add that card to your hand." Ryan smirked. He considered his options. "I'm going for Hard Mode. I'm choosing, Normal Spell card."
Ethan picked up the top card of his deck and laughed. "Ha-ha, looks like you're not as good at guessing the top card of my deck as you are with my face downs. What happens now?" He revealed his effect monster.
"Since I got it wrong, I take 1000 damage. And since it's a monster, you Special Summon it to your side of the field while ignoring Summoning Conditions. If it had been a spell or trap and the timing was right, it would have activated without a cost. Otherwise it would go to your hand." He explained the possibilities. "That and I take 1000 damage."
Ryan 1500 5 Questions
Ethan sighed. "Do I have a choice, what if I don't want to Special Summon it?"
"Sorry, it goes to your field."
A large black golem appeared on Ethan's field. (3000/1000) 'Abyss Golem normally goes to my opponent's side of the field. His effect makes it so that if his controller doesn't activate a spell each turn, his opponent steals 1000 Life Points. That bastard planned this.'
"I end my turn," Ryan stated.
The cat gleefully attacked him. Ethan drew and smiled.
Ryan: 500 5 Questions
Ethan looked over his hand. 'I should have the strength to end this now. If not, then at least I have a spell to activate at the end of the turn.' He stared at the lone spell in his hand, Monster Reborn. 'I should save it for the end of the turn, just in case he wipes my cards out.' "Go, Abyss Golem, attack Vincent."
Ryan smiled. "I activate the Trap Card, Blade Waltz. When a Child of the Blade is attacked, I can discard three cards of the same type to end your turn. So I ditch the three spells in my hand to end your turn."
A dark aura engulfed Ethan and flew toward Ryan. "Damn it, since I didn't activate a Spell, Abyss Golem gives you 1000 of my Life Points."
Ryan 1500 5 Questions
Ethan 2000
'This guy is a genius.' Thought Ethan.
'Looks like I lucked out when he got that Golem.'
Ryan drew his final card. A smile appeared on his face. "I summon Child of the Blade, Ven." (1400/1600) "Now I'll use Vincent's effect. I'm going to go for easy mode now. The top card of your deck, is," he waited a moment. "Spell Card!" It was purely a guess.
Ethan grunted as he revealed his Spell card. "Yeah, it's a ritual spell. So what, I discard it?" Ryan nodded. Ethan slid his card away.
Ethan 1300
"So now Ven's effect comes into play. I pick a card in your hand," Ryan pointed to the latest addition to Ethan's hand. "Spell Card!"
"So what happens now?" Ethan asked as he revealed his Monster Reborn.
"You discard it and take 600 damage."
Ethan 700
'Poor fool,' thought Ryan. 'He gave it away when he looked worried upon summoning aAbyss Golem. Free 3000 point beatstick? What's not to love? Obviously he didn't have any spells, so he freaked. But then he grinned when he drew his card.'
"Now I'll end this." Ven burst into four rings that surrounded Vincent. "Metal sings a sorrowful melody. Resonating elegies as blades clash. Blood is drawn and soils the innocent Earth. A cold sting bites the soul. Synchro Shokan, Child of the Blade, Kirima!" (2200/1000) A brown haired warrior materialized in a burst of light. "Once per turn I choose a Child of the Blade in my grave and copy its effect. So I'm picking Mars." He pointed at the left most face down. "Normal Trap-Mirror Force."
Kirima slashed through the trap card and reduced Ethan's Life Points to 0.
"I win," Ryan said with a smile. "So, five questions, right."
"Sure, I'll answer five of your questions, if you can catch me first!" Ethan laughed as a white haired female raced her blood red D-Wheel onto the field. He quickly climbed on behind her. "So long, Ryan Akimoto! It was fun dueling with you. You're almost as good as your cousin, Yuu. He took the same challenge and obliterated me."
The D-Wheel sped away before Ryan could even take a step forward. "Wait a minute, how do you know Yuu?" He tried to chase after them, but he was far too slow.