Disclaimer: No I do not own Yugioh. So stop thinking I do.
Demon Duelist Legacy Season 3- Dark Soul Arc
Chapter 1: Enter Saito Hiroshi
Centennial High School...A place of learning and enlightenment. A place where young and impressionable minds go to learn of the world...
To quote myself: "Wishful thinking".
Daniel Pilkington stared at his teacher, eyes half-closed. All he heard of today's lecture was something like "Blah blah blah blah test blah blah blah on your notes, etc."
("Just let me kill him please?") Rikuo whined loudly from within his head.
Daniel sighed quietly. ("No Rikuo. No killing the teacher.")
The wolf demon mentally glared at his other half and covered his ears with his hands.
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Eventually the bell rang and class was out. As Daniel lazily followed the crowd of other students, who were pouring out of the classroom in waves, he thought back on the last month and the events around it.
It had started out fine enough. The local card store in the area, Tim Boal's Comic Oasis, had been holding a special Duel Monster's tournament during a special week long break from school. The main prize for the tournament was a three pack of entry tickets for the PQ tournament, which was a special event being held by the famous military hardware company Shadow corp. The top four duelists of that tournament would be given free air fare to Japan, where the Shadow Corporation's actual tournament was being held.
Just a month ago, Daniel had only been a semi-good duelist, and he had just barely placed third place in the shop tournament. Luckily for him his friend CJ had gotten first place and won the tickets, which he had given to Daniel, himself, and their friend Deondre. After a night of being drilled in the techniques of his deck, Daniel had thought himself ready for the PQ tournament.
Of course as Daniel quickly learned nothing ever went as planned in his life. He had done alright in the first round, but then he wound up dueling for his life against this crazy guy who called himself an Emissary of the Shadow Corporation. He had barely managed to win that duel, although he had to admit that it was close game. After that he went on to the top four, which won him the ticket to Japan.
The flight there had been loads of fun for him. He had wound up in another duel with another insane Emissary. That was where he met Rikuo, the wolf demon general that apparently had been reincarnated inside his body.
Rikuo had an enemy in the organizer of the tournament, Giovan Garlin. Garlin was the reincarnated soul of the evil King Kilomet Sestros, who had made Rikuo's life hell in the past.
So what should have been a fun tournament turned into a living nightmare, filled with duels where lives were on the line, and souls were being gambled with. Thanks to the help of Yugi Moto, the King of Games, Rikuo was able to defeat Giovan Garlin and banish his soul from this plane of existence. ("That was a month ago....and now...")
It was back to life as normal for Daniel. Well as normal as it could be. Rikuo was still around in his mind. He had returned to school, returned to having duels that didn't involve him dying if he lost, etc.
As he walked past a group of younger students who were spending their lunch hour trading Duel Monster's cards, they all stopped and stared at him in awe. He sighed and ignored them. Seeing as how he had played the world champion of Duel Monsters to a draw now everyone at school didn't even want to play him at the game. ("Most people would think that world fame is a good thing, but all it has caused me is pains.")
("Keh! Don't complain idiot. It's not like playing all of these weaklings would be any fun anyways.") Rikuo, as always, added his thoughts in just to remind Daniel he could hear his host's thoughts at all times.
("Why don't you go and take a nap or something?")
("Shut up.")
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It didn't take Daniel long to find Deondre, CJ, Allon and Janeam. The five friends always met to eat their lunch near the established 'dueling' field next to the school.
After having to break up about one hundred duels in one day, the school figured out that maybe it would be best to give the student body someplace to hold their duels that was official. So they had built a small collection of tables and chairs, with a grassy field for duels between the owners of duel disks, right next to the school.
Daniel arrived and as always he found his four friends sitting at a table and eating their lunches. Well Allon and Janeam were eating, while CJ and Deondre were dueling each other on the other end of the table.
Deondre tugged on his jersey and shuffled up his cards back into their deck. He looked over at Daniel and smiled. "Well if it isn't the Centennial Wolf himself."
Daniel flinched at the nickname that he had recently been given by the student body. Lately he was being considered something of a local hero, though the wolf part of his title was thanks to Rikuo. ("Did you really need to take over my body when those guys attacked me in the middle of school? I could have taken them?")
("There were ten of them. It was either turn you into your half demon form or have you get beaten senseless.")
He knew that his demon half was right, but that didn't mean that he liked it. Because of that the entire school had found out rather quickly that he was a wolf demon. ("At least half of one anyway.")
("Once again idiot, you shouldn't be complaining. You should appreciate the fact that I have turned you into a 'hero for the weak', and all that crap.") Rikuo's tone was so haughty that it just reinforced Daniel's opinion on the whole matter.
What was his opinion? The entire situation sucked. ("Do you have to get me involved at all though? Just because you see someone bullying someone else doesn't mean that you need to take over and scare that person off. It's bad enough that most of the school is afraid of me, but lately I've been getting offers from the principal to be some kind of hall monitor.") Once again, Daniel didn't like this kind of attention. Rikuo was thrusting him into situations he didn't want to be part of. ("I bet Yugi and Yami don't have problems like this.")
("That's because I'm not like the Pharaoh. I prefer a slightly more active life with my host. Besides, Yami is an ancient spirit that resides in Yugi's puzzle. I, on the other hand, am part of you until you die.")
Deondre snapped his fingers in front of Daniel's face a couple of times to get him out of his reverie. "Yo Daniel, stop talking to Rikuo and pay attention."
Daniel held back a blush and sat down with his friends. "Sorry about that, guys. Lately Rikuo's taken it upon himself to play superhero for every oppressed person he sees, whether it be on the school grounds or on the street. I'm starting to get worn down from playing the part of the Centennial Wolf, protector of the innocent, etc. I just want to be Daniel Pilkington, protector of himself and nothing more."
CJ shrugged and took a bite out of his BLT. "Why are you complaining? You're a half demon dude. You've super speed, super strength, super senses..."
Daniel slammed his skull into the wooden table. "Stop reminding me! I never wanted any of those things though! I wanted to be a world class duelist, not a freakin demon!"
Allon sipped his drink. "From what I've heard as of late, everyone considers you both."
Janeam nodded sagely. "You should be embracing your new gifts, not shunning them."
("I'm glad that not all humans are as stupid as you.")
Daniel's only answer to all of it was to bang his head into the table again.
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Right outside the school a limousine pulled up into the parking lot and smoothly came to a stop.
The door in the back opened and a teenager climbed out. He was about 16, 5'8" tall, with brown hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a marine blue school uniform and attached to his arm was some kind of steel gauntlet with a deck of Duel Monsters attached to it. He walked up to the front of the limousine and mouthed "Wait here" to his driver. Then he went around to the side of the school and approached the dueling field. He was here for one purpose only. ("Daniel Pilkington...you and I have business to discuss.")
His eyes took in the groups of people gathered at the dueling tables, and then finally he saw the faces of CJ and Deondre Anderson. ("Those are his teammates, which means he is most likely nearby.")
Deondre was the first person to notice the guy's approach. Within the span of two seconds he figured out two things about this guy. The first was that he was here on some kind of business. The second was that this guy reminded him way too much of Seto Kaiba. ("They even look similar.") Memories of the CEO of Kaiba Corporation flashed through his head and he shivered involuntarily. Kaiba had been so cold-hearted that Deondre had always wondered if the guy was human.
The teenager walked up the five and looked coolly at CJ. "Where's Daniel Pilkington?"
CJ growled at the condescending tone in the guy's voice. He pointed casually at Daniel, who still had his face embedded into the wood of the table. "He's Daniel. Now who the hell are you?"
The guy narrowed his eyes at CJ's curt tone. "I am Saito Hiroshi, and I am here to challenge Daniel Pilkington to a duel."
Daniel muttered from his spot where his face was still pressed into the table, "I didn't bring my deck with me today."
Saito frowned and crossed his arms across his chest. "Do you even know why I am here?"
Daniel lifted his head up from the table and frowned at Saito. "No. Should I care?"
Saito's next sentence caught Daniel's attention completely and fully. "I'm here with information concerning your mother."
Within the span of three heartbeats Daniel was standing up. "Let's duel!"
Deondre casually threw in. "You just said you didn't have your deck with you though."
Daniel rolled his shoulders in a half-hearted shrug. "I lied."
Saito reached into his coat and pulled out a copy of the steel grey gauntlet the he was wearing. "You won't need your duel disk for this duel. We'll be holding the event right over there." He pointed over at the grassy field.
Daniel took the gauntlet and he figured out where the deck slot was, but he didn't see anywhere to put his cards or his graveyard.
At Daniel's confused glance, Saito smirked superiorly. "Don't worry about those things. You'll understand when we begin." He turned on his heel and walked over to the field.
Daniel slid his deck into the gauntlet slot and frowned. ("Something about this thing is...strange.")
("It's radiating spiritual energy.")
It didn't matter to Daniel. This duel was important to him. He walked past the slowly gathering crowd of onlookers and took his spot across from his opponent on the field.
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CJ, Deondre, Allon, and Janeam all took their spots at the front of the crowd.
"Hey Deondre, why did Daniel accept this duel so suddenly?"
Deondre glared at Saito half-heartedly while he spoke. "Do you remember what the original promise was for the winner of the Shadow Tournament?"
CJ nodded. "Yeah, they were supposed to get one wish fulfilled."
Deondre knew that it didn't matter if he told CJ, but it still felt awkward explaining this. "Daniel's wish had been to find out the truth about his mother. He had never gotten to know her before she had mysteriously vanished. Every time he would talk to his father about it he would get nothing. So if this guy actually has information concerning the whereabouts of Daniel's mother, then he's going to go to the ends of the earth and back to get it."
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Daniel still didn't understand how this game was supposed to work if he didn't have anywhere to put his cards, but he didn't care. ("I'll beat this guy at any game he wants if it will get me that information.") "So how exactly do we play this little game Saito?"
Saito closed his eyes and began to recite something quietly. It sounded a little like some kind of mantra. Around his body an aura of ghostly white energy developed, the pulsing spirit forming something like a grid above him. "This is the dueling field. This duel is known as a spirit duel, because you will be using your own spiritual strength to summon the monsters from your hand to the field." His superior smirk continued. He knew that as long as they were playing by his rules he would have the adavantage over this fool. ("He's just a human. It'll take most of his spiritual power just to summon the most basic of monsters.")
Daniel knew what this meant. ("Rikuo...")
("I'll deal with him...")
("Sorry, but he is mine. This duel involves my mother, and therefore I've got this guy in my sights.")
Rikuo went silent for a few seconds. ("...Alright. Don't you dare lose.")
Daniel felt a slightly stinging sensation as his red hair lengthened to his lower back. His eyes itched as they changed from being brown to golden-amber. He felt the black wolf's tail of Rikuo's form sprout free of a hole in his jeans that he had recently added just in case of situations like this one. The most recent addition to Rikuo's form finally manifested itself as his ears were shifted and moved to the top of his head, where they stretched and warped until they looked exactly like a pair of wolf's ears, fur and all. Over time, as Rikuo's bond to Daniel strengthened, the boy's demon form looked more and more wolf-like.
There was only reason Daniel was changing now though. It was to tap into Rikuo's reserves of spiritual energy so that he could play Saito in this spirit duel. His eyes slowly opened and watched Saito appraisingly. "All right, let's get this game underway then."
Saito felt his superior smirk disappear as he realized just what he was facing. ("So he's a demon?") If there was one thing he wouldn't have expected, it was this.
("No matter though, I will crush him beneath my feet.") He drew the top five cards off of his deck and threw them up into the air. They arched and grew almost as tall as he was. Then they landed in a half circle around him and became wreathed in his energy. "I hope your control over your spiritual energy is good demon, because if it isn't then you're going to find yourself hard-pressed to keep up with me."
If there was one thing that could be said about Daniel, it was that he was a quick learner. He already had his five cards floating in front of him, each one glowing with the black-red energy of his aura. "Trust me, if anyone is going to be hard pressed in this duel it will be you."
To be continued...
Next Chapter: The Spirit Duel begins
Author's notes: My computer has punished me for being alive. It crashed and I had to reboot it, meaning that Demon Duelist Legacy original copies are gone. There's still a disk with seasons 1-3 on it, but that's at my house, about 700 miles away.
This website has some strange tendencies to kill off chapters of my story, so I am putting the arcs into separate stories, in hopes that this fixes that problem. Don't expect super-speed on this though, because I don't have the original copies to work with.