Oh, and for the record, I have not given up on my other story. It will continue, of course, but the chapters I've been writing just haven't seemed right to me. I'm sure you'll get the next chapter soon enough, for you fans of it. Anyways, on with the show. Welcome to Arcane Tempest!
Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh. In fact, I don't even own many cards. But, the things I do own, are mine. Like most of the characters. And the evil clock. Fear the clock!!
'Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.' A clock ticked several times in a rather bland, dark room. There was a door, a closet, a TV, video games, cards strewn everywhere. There was a desk sat off to the side with a computer on it, and right next to that was a bed. On the bed was a boy, snoring the night away. Or, what was left of the night anyways. The clock on the night stand impatiently read '6:59'. A few seconds pass in silence, nothing but the 'tick tock' of the clock to fill the room with. All of the sudden...
'BEEP BEEP BEEP' The alarm goes off. The clock happily read '7:00', and sung it's beeping alarm. The boy however, didn't budge. At all. The alarm went on for several more minutes. The clock read '7:04', when finally, the door was banged on.
"RICHARD! GET YOUR ASS UP NOW!" The boy still didn't budge. After a few more bangs on the door, the voice suddenly gave up. The alarm went on and on. The clock read '7:06', when the door was kicked. Once. Twice. Finally, the door burst through, flying towards the other side of the room. A very angry looking girl walked in, her long blonde hair ridden with the virus many people call bed-head. She stomps over to the boy's bed and, quite literally, throws the boy off the bed and into the bathroom across the hall. The boy wakes up in a panic, flailing around in the ready made bath that was set up for him. Almost drowning, he manages to compose himself and find his way out of the bathtub in his soaked pajamas.
"WHAT ON EARTH WAS THAT FOR!?!" The girl just laughed as she closes the bathroom door. "It's what you get for keeping that alarm on all morning. Now get ready, I'm not gonna get up this early in the morning just to take you to a dueling exam if you're just gonna be late for it!"
It all came back to the boy. The Duel Academy exams were today! Realizing this, he bathed, clothed himself, grabbed his cards and some notes, and ran straight out the door to the car waiting to take him to his destiny. Literally.
Richard Kurami. Fifteen, 5"3. Abnormally skinny, Japanese ancestry. Pretty normal guy. Yet, this normal guy is standing in the middle of a huge line outside the Kaiba Dome. All these young minds are there for one reason, and one reason only. To gain admittance to the most prestigious dueling school in the world, Duel Academy. People left and right were scanning through their dueling decks, checking notes, or just generally snoozing off while waiting. It was only eight AM, afterall.
"Next." This was a term used several times by the several women at the front entrance of the dome. Richard yawned and walked up to the open table, and passed over his deck for inspection. All of his former energy had expired, and now the only thing keeping him up is half-assed confidence and want. The lady in front of him quickly scanned through the deck, typed the deck list into a computer, and nodded. "Legal. Now, name?"
"Richard Kurami." The lady typed this in the computer. "Age?"
"Fifteen." More typing. "Proof of age, and proof of junior high graduation?"
Richard laid all the required certificates on the table. The lady looked over them, and deemed them legal. Handing them back, she typed more things into that laptop of hers. "Alright, Mr.. Kurami. Take this pass, and head down the hallway to your right. You'll be allowed to take the written exam there. Give the pass to the teacher. Afterwards, you'll be taken to the stadium to take your practical exam. You pass that, and you're in."
Richard received his pass and sleepily limped over to the aforementioned hallway. He couldn't really comprehend the need for a written exam, afterall, half of dueling is practical skill, but, sadly, it wasn't his choice. Walking deeper into the big compound, he could faintly hear the lady behind him say the dreaded word... "Next."
Richard arrived at his destination to see the door locked and several students outside of the room, buzzing around with energy. He just sighed and slumped against the wall, determined to get some sort of sleep before this exam starts. Sadly, it looked like God had another thing in mind.
"Hey! It's not good to sleep right before a big exam, ya know. You'll be all tired and mindless when you take it, and you won't be able to concentrate!" He opened one eye and looked up, only to see a smiling girl looking down at him. She ran her hand through her long, purple colored hair and offered him a hand. Richard sighed and took the hand, picking himself up from the floor. "I couldn't be any less tired then I am right now. I doubt I could get any less tired, to be honest."
"All night cram session?" She smirked. Richard thought for a second, then nodded. "Yeah. That." He couldn't let a girl that he was actually looking up on ways several people had managed to sneak into different colored girl's dormitories at the Academy. The girl laughed and offered her hand again. "I'm Rena. Rena Morimura. Pleased to meet you."
He took her hand and nodded. "Richard Kurami." They shook hands. Just then, two other girls walk up to the two. The smaller of the two spoke first. "There you are Rena-chan! We've been looking alllll over!" Rena laughed and ruffled the smaller girl's golden blonde hair. This only succeeded in aggravating the little girl however, and she just wailed and lifted her hand.
"Sorry, Karin! I kinda got separated at the line. Oh, sorry, where are my manners. Richard, this is Karin Tsukimura. The taller red haired one is Sanae Eisen. Both of you, this is Richard Kurami, we just met." Sanae simply nodded, while eagerly took and shook Richard's hand. Rena blinked and looked around, seemingly looking for something. "Karin, where's your brother? Wasn't he supposed to be here to meet us?"
"Oh, well, funny story about that Rena-chan! We actually-" The little girl's sentence was cut off as the exam room door opened, and we were rounded up and shoved inside. The trio sat together, while Richard sat in the row in front of them. The exam teacher introduced himself as Professes Takamichi. He told us the various rules, time limits, and other stuff about the test, and then passed it out. Richard quickly opened up his packet and peered at the first question.
Question 1: The Ojama Trio was an unpopular deck choice a few years back. What are the Ojama Colors, and what was the signature magic card these deck types used?
Simple enough. Richard laughed on the inside, most people could answer these questions in their sleep. 'Ojama Yellow, Green, and Black, and the magic card has to be Ojama Delta Hurricane...,' Quickly scribbling these answers down, he went to work on the ninety nine more questions on the test...
"Man that was hard!" Sanae sighed, arms hanging down her sides. Richard had hooked back up with the trio of girls after the test, and they had decided to walk to the stadium together. "Especially that puzzle section! I mean, jeez, how the hell was I supposed to take out a Elemental Hero Flame Wingman with just Gearfried the Iron Knight?"
"Use the release restraints that was in your hand, bring out Gearfried the Swordsmaster, and equip that Lightning Blade.That was the simplest question, actually..." Sanae stopped in her tracks and blinked several times. "...I didn't know that Release Restraints did that!!" Everyone did a mental facevault, and simply just continued walking. Sanae quickly regained her composure and followed suit.
The arrived at the stadium to see everyone gasping in awe. Curiosity getting the better of the four, then ran up to the edge of the dueling arena to see the a pretty heated duel. A tall, green haired girl was staring down the throats of a Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon on the duel proctor's side of the field. All she had was a card face down, and only one card in her hand. It looks like she just took the Blue Eye's attack to the face, as she was slumping slightly from the blast, hologramic smoke rising from the floor.
"She's in a tough situation. Whether she fails or not depends on her card draw." Richard commented. The trio nodded in agreement, and turned their attention back to the duel. The duel proctor was laughing. "Well, little lady, what do you usually do when you're staring down the throats of a three-headed dragon? Your Emergency Provisions might've saved you for a turn, but there's no way you can defeat me now. You should give up to save yourself the pain."
The girl just shook her head. "I draw." She spoke in a monotone voice, and drew. "I play my face-down card, Book of Moon. This turns your Blue Eye's face down." Blue Eye's instantly disappeared, only to be replaced by a face down hologram of a card. "Now, I'll activate Dark World Lightning. This allows me to destroy one face down card by sacrificing a card in my hand. I'll destroy your Blue Eye's by discarding my Goldd from my hand. Now, Goldd returns from the grave because of his effect."
The well-known Wu-Lord of the Dark World appeared, holding his axe menacingly. The face down card on the proctor's side of the field was instantly destroyed, and and to the duel proctor's horror, Goldd instantly charging, swinging his axe at the duel proctor, crushing the rest of his life points. "I win."
"Nice. It was a lucky draw for sure, but a good tactic..." Rena smirked in approval. The girl turned and walked off the stage. The duel proctor sighed, and read off a name from the piece of paper. "Richard Kurami, please report to stage four. I repeat, Richard Kurami, stage four please."
"Well, looks like it's my turn. Wish me luck." Richard hightailed it out of the stands and onto the stage. The duel proctor introduced himself as Professor Donald Fallings. They bowed to each other, then activated their duel disks.
R: 4000
D: 4000
"Duel!" The repeated in unison. Professor Falling's started things out. "Alright, I'll start by summoning Spear Dragon (1900/0) in attack mode!" The small flying dragon appeared on the professor's side of the field, roaring out a small battle cry. "Two cards face down and it's your move."
Drawing, Richard quickly skimmed through his cards. "Hm. Well, we'll counter by summoning up my Gun Mage - Blaze (1800/1500) in attack mode!" A fiery red haired man appeared on his field, dressed in a blue military uniform and wielding a pistol in his hand. "Then, we'll take a lesson from the girl here before me, and activate Book of Moon to flip your Spear Dragon in defense mode." The dragon was instantly replaced with a face down card. "Now, Blaze'll attack your Spear Dragon!" The Gun Mage did a quick spinning trick with his pistol and fired a blazing bullet at the face down card, instantly shattering it. "Blaze also has a trample effect, which means you take the damage like you were in attack mode instead of defense.That's eighteen hundred life points gone." Fallings simply smirked as the bullet soared towards him.
"I'll activate Dimension Wall. You take the battle damage from the battle instead of me!" The bullet instantly ricocheted off the card and returned to Richard, who used his duel disk to block it.
R: 2200
D: 4000
"Well damn...I'll lay a card face down and end my turn, then." Professor Falling's smirked and drew his card. "Well now young one, prepare to see a real deck at work!!"
"Elemental Gun Mages, huh?" Rena shrugged. "Honestly, I see those cards as much as I see Ojamas. I wonder if he's managed to make a good deck outta them..."
"I hope so. Otherwise he won't stand a chance." Sanae commented, chin on her hand and elbow on the railing. The spectated the duel with interest, while a few bleachers behind them, the green haired duelist stared at the duel with seemingly no emotion. However, she would not take her eyes off the duel, even to look at the other duels going on. A boy slipped into the seat next to her, hand running through his black hair. "What's got your interest this time, Yuu?"
"This boy. There's something about him that seems familiar. I know I've never seen him before...maybe he reminds me of someone I beat." Yuu continued to look on at the duel, and the boy smirked. "Hm...Gun Mages? Pretty new deck idea. We'll see how he does, I suppose, maybe if you continue watching you'll remember." Yuu shrugged. "Maybe."
"I'll sacrifice the Cave Dragon in my hand for the effect of White Dragon Ritual!" A ritual table appeared on the film, and then a big four legged dragon appeared on top. The dragon was instantly shattered and an energy from the body flew around the field for a few seconds, only to take the shape of an armored knight riding what looked like a retarded, misshaped Blue Eye's to Richard. "This allows me to summon my Paladin of White Dragon. Now, I can sacrifice this card to summon a Blue Eyes from my hand or deck. Luck have it I have one in my hand!" The Paladin instantly shattered, only to be replaced just as fast by a big bulky blue dragon that was instantly was locked in an intense staring contest with Blaze.
"Well, I'm good for now atleast. He can't attack once he's summoned like that." He sighed and wiped the swear off his brow. It'd be embarrassing if he were defeated on the third turn. "I don't need to attack. I'll activate Burst Stream of Destruction! This allows me to wipe the entire field of monsters, at the sacrifice of my attack, which I can't do anyways!" Blue Eyes let out a roar and breathed a blue stream of energy across Richard's field, destroy completely destroying Blaze in the process. He smirked and let the turn off to the younger man. Richard scowled slightly and drew. "Well there goes that idea...Hm. Alright, let's try this. First, I'll activate my face down card, Spirit Barrier! Now while I have a monster on the field, I can't be hurt by battle damage." Fallings simply smirked at this.
"Well, you might want to summon a monster for the effect then, boy." Richard shot out an open palmed 'stop' sign to the professer. "Calm down, I'm not done. I'll then summon Gun Mage - Ice (1500/1000) in attack mode!" A light blue haired woman in the same military uniform as the previous Gun Mage appeared, gun in hand, on his side of the field. "Now, Ice, fire at Blue Eyes!"
"What the heck are you doing Richard!?!" He could hear the trio yelling in unison behind him. He shrugged it off and continued the attack. Ice drew the sword across her back and ran towards the blue dragon. The blade flashed with icy power as it was slashed across the dragon's skin, but then she couldn't do anything as the dragon stomped on her, shattering the hologram with ease. Her sword flew towards him, however an invisible barrier stopped it before it hit. "And I don't take any damage because of Spirit Barrier. And from your expression, I suppose you remember what Ice does?"
Fallings was well aware of what Ice did once she was destroyed in battle. His dragon immedietly started flash freezing, ice quickly covered its leg, then its thigh, then its entire body, then finally the head, the entire dragon was encased in ice. "Yes...it freezes the monster that killed it, meaning it won't be allowed to attack or switch battle position until your next turn."
"Right. Now, I'll activate Last Will, allowing me to special summon a monster from my deck with 1500 or less attack points if I had a monster that was destroyed this turn. And I'll summon Gun Mage - Tempest (1500/1400) in defense mode." With tempest green hair, Gun Mage - Tempest appeared in a gust of wind, holding her sword out in front of her with her gun in the other hand. "Now I can activate this card in my hand, Wind Wall! Only being able to play it while Tempest is on the field, it completely protects Tempest from being destroyed, period, until the beginning of my next turn. And with Spirit Barrier on the field, my life points are safe from normal damage calculation!" He beamed with pride as he said this. A faint wind surrounded Tempest, proving strong enough to protect her from the strongest of attacks. "To end, I'll place one card face down and finish the turn."
"My turn, then." Fallings drew his card, then immedietly let out a laugh. "Alright, then. I'll activate my newly acquired card, Confiscation! By paying 1000 life points, I can take a look at your hand and discard a card from it."
R: 2200
D:3000
He reluctantly showed his hand. The cards appeared on big hologram cards, they showed the cards Foolish Burial and Gun Mage - Thunder (1500 / 1500). Fallings rubbed his chin in thought, then nodded as he decided. "Discard Thunder from your hand." He stuck it in his discard pile, then turned the holograms off. "Alright then, Mr. Kurami. I'll help you out a bit. I'll activate the card, Grave Digger! This card allows us to remove up to three monster cards from our graveyard, drawing a card for each removed. I'll remove Cave Dragon and my Paladin, and draw two cards." He drew his cards. "Alright, I'll discard all my Gun Mages and draw three."
Fallings nodded at this, and then peered at his new cards. "Well then, Mr. Kurami, I'm sorry, but this is over. I'll summon Lord of D. to the field!" A man appeared in bone dragon armor on his side of the field, looking in disgust at the frozen Blue Eyes next to him. "Now I'll activate Flute of Summoning Dragon! This allows me to summon two dragon type monsters to the field. And I choose my second Blue Eyes White Dragon and the Twin Headed Behemoth!" The Lord of D. blew a flute at its hip, and an awe inspiring two-headed dragon appeared on the field, next to another huge blue dragon. Tempest looked on at these monsters with little worry due to her wind wall field. "Well, I can't do much about that Spirit Barrier, but next turn your monster will be gone, along with your life points! Your move." As he said this, the ice caging the first great blue dragon cracked and shattered, freeing the Blue Eyes from its prison. Richard looked worried at this, but he shook it off and drew.
"Well, well, well...looks like we're done here. I'll activate Foolish Burial! This card allows me to take a card from my deck and add it to the graveyard. I choose my Gun Mage - Rock. (2000 / 0)" A bulky Gun Mage in the same uniform appeared, dirty brown hair appearing slightly under the hat. He was instantly dragged down underground by two hands. Sanae and Karin looked on with confusion. "What's he doing? That's not going to help him at a time like this..." Rena just smiled, however. "I believe I know what he's trying to do...if I'm right, he's already got this won." The other girls looked at her with even more confused eyes now, while Rena just simply looked on at the rest of the match.
"Now then, I'll activate Soul Release, to remove Rock from the game. After that, I'll activate my face down card, Return from a Different Dimension! By paying half my life points, I can resummon all the monsters I've removed from the game for a turn!" Instantly, a portal opened up above Tempest. Blaze, Rock, Ice, and a new addition Thunder appeared from it, each taking their place side by side. Tempest stood and sheathed her sword, opting to take an attack pose with her gun instead.
R: 1100
D: 3000
"Now, I'll activate the trump card of the Gun Mages, Arcane Inferno! By sacrificing their attack, I can destroy as many cards on your side of the field as I have Gun Mages! So, five gun mages, only four monsters protecting you? I'm not math wiz, but I think that's more then enough to destroy your field!"
Each gun mage took position next to each other, and pointed their guns towards the dragons and their lord. In a impressive show of speed and skill, each gun mage fired a volley of bullets into them, each a different element related to that gun mage. They utterly destroyed each monster in a hail of elemental bullets. "And I trust you know what the second effect of Arcane Inferno does. I'm allowed to deal 600 points of direct damage for each gun mage I have! Let's hit it, guys!" The gun mages quickly reloaded their pistols, then fired a second volley straight into the professer. Putting up his duel disk in a slight attempt to protect himself, he was hit by yet another hail of bullets. He slumped to the ground on his behind as his life points whittled away to 0. "Impressive..."
R:1100
D: 0000
Game win: Richard Kurami.
The trio of girls erupted in cheer, each sending their own congratulations in a loud wave of cheers. Richard had to cover his ears as the holograms disappeared from the field. He walked over to Professes Fallings and helped him up, smirking proudly. He shook his hand and then he left the stage, only to be swamped with praise from his newfound friends. While in the bleachers above them, Yuu and her friend looked on with interest.
"So, he removed his Gun Mages from the game in order to get them all out quickly in one turn in order to use Arcane Inferno...Heh, I would've never thought to use them like that." The boy commented. Yuu nodded in agreement. "True...this will be an interesting year. Maybe we will find someone to help us afterall, Randall." He gave her a thumbs up, and stood up. "Well, it's my turn now. Do I get a kiss for good luck?" Yuu looked at him blankly. "...Randall, you will never, ever, in a million years, get my affection. Deal with it." He held his chest over his heart like he was just struck with a bullet. "Aghh! So mean! Fine, fine! We'll see, eh? Hehe." Yuu sighed as he left, and she turned her attention back to Richard, who was now prepping the the trio for their duels. "He is an interesting character...he might just be able to help us out. Maybe."
