Chapter 1 - Nine
"I can already see her face smirking at me." - he thought to himself, rushing down the street towards the Central Arena.
"She'll probably say something about how I'm always late, then pretend to be angry at me, I'll apologize and nothing will come of it. The same thing happens when I'm late for my classes, it's practically routine at this point." - his train of thought continued, as he nearly ran into a lamp post
It was one of the hottest days of the year, as was evident by the street being almost entirely empty. Everyone was either at the Arena, watching the International Duel Championship finals, or at home, also probably watching the live broadcast that was going on. The arena was entirely sold out, filled to the brim with people wanting to see the final duel of the biggest dueling series in the world. All fifty thousand of its seats were occupied - except for one.
That seat belongs to Jonas Nielsen, a boy barely above seventeen years of age, who is supposed to be sitting in the front row, close to the action. He is the one currently sprinting towards the Arena as fast as he can, all in support of one of his closest friends - Carla Perry - who was dueling in the finals this year.
"Almost there..." - he thought to himself, as he started running even faster. Running out of breath, and barely standing, he was being pushed forward by sheer willpower.
But, as the more he approached the Arena, the more he knew something was wrong. The closer he got, the more terrified he became. The air was filled with the screams of thousands upon thousands of people.
Everyone that was seated in the Arena mere minutes ago was now rushing to the exits as fast as they could. Ignoring all common sense, Jonas pressed on towards the entrances, as he pushed his way through the masses fleeing the building. Nobody tried to stop him, as even the security guards were making a run for it.
As he entered the Arena, he realized the full scope of the situation. The entire playing field was engulfed in flames.
"What if she's in there?" - he thought, his mind immediately jumped to the stark possibility of his friend's life being in danger. Without hesitation, he started running towards the center of the field, but as the adrenaline rush slowly passed, he realized it might not be the brightest idea to run head first into searing flames.
"CARLA!" - he screamed her name a few times, each time getting no response.
At this point his mind slowly started considering the possibility that she too fled the Arena along with everyone watching, and he darted for the exits as the scorching heat was getting unbearable.
During his entire walk home, he kept telling himself that everything is fine and it was just a simple accident, but deep inside he couldn't help but be deeply concerned. Despite his worries, he slept without any problems once he got home.
The next day he woke up at ten in the morning, and thought he was going to be late for school once again, before realizing it's the summer break. Casually, and almost carelessly, he walked over to the fridge, and took the first piece of food he could find, which in this case was some pudding.
He sat down on the sofa and turned on the TV, which was tuned to the news channel his dad always watches, before realizing he didn't have anything to eat the pudding with and slowly making his way over to the kitchen.
"The local government is currently investigating the causes of what happened at the Central Arena yesterday. We will continue to follow this story as it develops further." - the news anchor said in a monotone voice.
Jonas overheard that, and his mind had finally stopped suppressing the memory of what happened yesterday. He immediately stopped his search for a spoon, got properly dressed, and rushed over to Carla's house. After a brief two minute run, he arrived to find a closed door.
"Okay, nothing unusual, I'll just knock and..." - Jonas thought to himself before he was swiftly interrupted by an old lady next door, who was sitting in her garden without a care in the world.
"Are you looking for that girl that was dueling yesterday?" - the old lady asked, speaking slowly and enunciating each word.
"Yes, have you seen her?" - Jonas replied
"I haven't seen her since she left for the Arena yesterday, but I have seen her parents."
"Where are they?"
"They went to the hospital. A came over last night. I couldn't hear what he was talking about, but her parents were really worried. They left for the hospital and I haven't seen them come home yet."
"It must be because she was hurt yesterday." - Jonas thought to himself, quickly thanked the old lady for her help, and ran back onto the sidewalk. She nonchalantly leaned into her chair, and started slowly dozing off in the morning sun.
"What hospital could she be in?" - Jonas asked himself - "I don't care, I'll visit them all!"
Suddenly, his body decided enough was enough, and his muscles relaxed as all of the exhaustion from yesterday came back to haunt him.
He woke up a few minutes later, laid out on the pavement.
"I must have passed out." - he thought, slowly rubbing the back of his head to check if there was any bleeding.
He was still determined to find the hospital Carla was in, but this time common sense got the best of him. After much deliberation, he decided to go home and have a rest.
"I can always look for her some other day. If she knew I was passing out on the sidewalk because I want to find her, she'd probably get really angry at me, as she always does."
He quietly laughed at the thought, and headed straight home. Barely making it up the stairs, he entered his bedroom, and collapsed onto the bed out of exhaustion.
He woke up four hours later to the sound of his mom coming home. He waddled out of his room and walked down the stairs.
"Hey mom, how was work?" - he asked to be polite. She answered briefly, but he didn't actually listen to her as there were far bigger things on his mind at the moment.
"What did you eat?" - she asked.
"N-nothing..." - he mumbled in reply - "I wanted to eat something, but I rushed over to Carla's house to try and find out what happened yesterday" - he continued, absentmindedly looking at the pudding cup still sitting on the table in front of the TV.
"And did you find out anything?"
"No, her parents weren't home, but their neighbor said they went to the hospital." - his mother's eyes slightly widened at this comment - "Are there any replays of the duel?" - he asked his mother who worked for a local TV station.
"There are replays, but all footage cuts out before the fire happens. The same thing happened on the live broadcast as well. Our tech department is investigating what happened but they won't be able to recover anything. The footage is too badly damaged."
"And what about the people who were there."
"Our news team tried contacting them, but most of them didn't reply, and the ones who did were in a state of complete shock and not really helpful."
She continued talking about her day, but at this point Jonas was already halfway up the stairs.
"Okay, I'll make something to eat!" - she said begrudgingly when she realized her son wasn't listening to her anymore.
Jonas went back to his room, laid down on the bed, and stared at the dull white ceiling with a million thoughts running through his head.
Over the next few days, Jonas tried to find out any information he could about what happened to Carla. He went to her parents' house every few hours for a week, but most of the time they weren't home, and when they were, they were entirely unhelpful. Their conversations would always follow a similar pattern.
"What happened that day?" - Jonas would ask.
"There was a freak accident with the Solid Vision System." - her parents would reply, each time with less and less conviction.
"What happened to her? Can I see her?"
For reasons Jonas couldn't quite understand, this question was never met with a concrete answer, as her parents would either dodge the question and change the topic, or, as was more often the case, tell Jonas to leave their house.
"Why won't they answer me?" - he wondered to himself during each defeated walk home - "They just keep dodging the damn question! Maybe she's..." - his mind immediately considered the stark possibility that Carla was dead. Whenever this happened, he would just shake his head and keep on walking.
Despite facing constant rejection every time he would try, Jonas kept visiting the Perry household out of desperation, hoping he would find out something this time. As the weeks went on, these visits became less and less frequent, as he slowly started losing what little hope he had left of ever getting an answer.
By the end of the month, Jonas and his family moved to a coastal city a few hours away, called Neo Ragusa.
His father worked for the National Duel Committee, and is the one who has to make sure that a city is able to host the International Duel Championship. Due to the Central Arena still being heavily damaged from the fire, this year's host was chosen to be Neo Ragusa, and the family had to move there.
Jonas kept protesting right until the moment they got in the car and started driving towards the coast. As he watched the green hills and dense forests roll by, he calmed down and thought to himself:
"Maybe... just maybe, a change of scenery isn't too bad."
Six months later
"DUEL!"
Jonas watched his two friends, Marco and Daniel, face off against each other for the third time today, as they dueled to fill time during the thirty minute breaks between classes.
He met those two about five months ago, when school first started. He was in a new city, so he had to meet new people. The first few weeks felt really awkward, but during one of the half-hour breaks, Jonas noticed the two dueling at one of the school's arenas. Thinking he had nothing better to do, he started watching the duel. This repeated a few times before Marco and Daniel invited him to join in. Jonas accepted, without hesitation.
"And on that day, we became friends." - Jonas quickly stopped reminscing about the past and started paying attention to the duel, even though he saw these monsters countless times before.
Turn 1 - Daniel (LP - 4000 / Hand - 5 / Field - X)
"Why the hell did I choose to go first?" - Daniel exclaimed, looking at his hand - "This is a horrible hand!"
"Stop whining and play!" - Marco said in response, trying to sound threatening while being anything but.
"Fine! Using my Scale 2 Igknight Cavalier and Scale 7 Igknight Margrave, I set the Pendulum Scale!" - he proclaimed, as two heavily armoured warriors appeared either side of him. On the left, a predominantly pink warrior sporting several daggers, and on the right, a figure in red metallic armour, with both his hands holding something that can only be described as a combination of a gun and a blade.
"Now I activate the effect of Igknight Cavalier - by destroying both Igknights in my Pendulum Zones, I can add 1 FIRE Warrior monster from my deck to my hand."
The two warriors disappeared from the Pendulum Scales as quickly as they appeared, as Daniel revealed the Igknight Paladin he added to his hand.
"Now, I'll use my Scale 2 Igknight Paladin I just added, as well as the Scale 7 Igknight Templar in my hand to set the Pendulum Scale once again!" - he said as his two Igknights once again appeared either side of him. The one on the left was sporting dark grey armour with lavender-coloured highlights, while the one on the right was covered in pitch-black armour with bronze highlights. Both warriors also held rather large blades in their right arms.
"Now, from my Extra Deck I Pendulum Summon Igknight Cavalier (FIRE/Warrior/Level 5/ATK 2400/DEF 1200) and Igknight Margrave (FIRE/Warrior/Level 5/ATK 1500/DEF 2500)"
The two monsters that were in his Pendulum Scales not too long ago now appeared in front of him, with Cavalier being summoned in attack position, and Margrave in defense.
"I'll set one card face-down and end my turn."
Turn 2 - Marco (LP - 4000 / Hand 5 / Field - X)
"It's time for the good part then!" - Marco proclaimed, again trying to sound cool, and again failing at it - "I draw!"
"I Normal Summon Deskbot 003 (EARTH/Machine/Level 3/ATK 500/DEF 500)."
A yellow robot, the size of a small dog, appeared in front of him. Attached to its left arm was a compass, and to its right arm a ruler, and the entire rest of its body seemed to be composed of various household objects.
"When this card is Normal Summoned, I can Special Summon a Deskbot monster from my deck, and I summon Deskbot 002 (EARTH/Machine/Level 2/ATK 500/DEF 500).
Deskbot 002 was largely similar in both size and appearance to Deskbot 003, except green instead of yellow. The tiny robot was waving around its left arm, which had a mechanical pencil in it, pretending it's shooting a gun, before it stopped messing around and settled on the field. Marco continued his turn.
"When Deskbot 002 is Special Summoned, I can add any Deskbot card from my deck to my hand" - he said, adding Deskbot 008 to his hand.
"Now, I use my Scale 1 Deskbot 008 and Scale 10 Deskbot 007 to set the Pendulum Scale."
Two slightly larger robots appeared either side of him, on the left Deskbot 008, a predominantly pink robot with a book in its hand, and on the right Deskbot 007, a yellow bot with both its hands holding one half of a pair of scissors.
"I like Deskbot 008, it's like Igknight Cavalier but less cool." - Daniel remarked.
"Be quiet, I'm about to end this duel!" - Marco replied - "Thanks to Deskbot 002, all Machine-Type monsters I control except for itself gain 500 attack!"
Deskbot 003: ATK 500 + 500 = 1000
"How is he going to end this duel?" - Jonas overheard a passing student - "He has two very weak monsters on the field." - the student continued on his way, and Jonas didn't reply to him, instead quietly smirking because he knew what was coming.
"From my hand, I Pendulum Summon Deskbot 009 (EARTH/Machine/Level 9/ATK 500/DEF 500)!" - a robot, larger than all other Deskbots (which didn't mean much, because it was still slightly smaller than Marco) appeared in front of him, its body covered in various household objects - from a stapler on its shoulder, a paint brush in its left hand and a large pair of scissors in the right, down to its feet which were covered in pencils.
"Thanks to the effect of Deskbot 002, Deskbot 009 gains 500 attack!"
Deskbot 009: ATK 500 + 500 = 1000
"Next, I use the effect of Deskbot 003, and use it to boost its own attack by 500 points for each Deskbot card on the field! And I count 5 Deskbot cards!" - a green glow appeared around the small yellow robot, its attack steadily rising, and when it ended, Deskbot 003 jumped up in the air with glee.
Deskbot 003: ATK 1000 + 2500 = 3500
"Well done, you can count." - Daniel said sarcastically.
"I'm not done yet" - Marco interrupted him" - "Now I activate the effect of Deskbot 009, allowing it to gain attack equal to the total attack of all other Deskbot monsters I control!" - he said, as Deskbot 009 slowly increased in size, proportional to its ATK value.
Deskbot 009: ATK 1000 + 4000 = 5000
"Battle Phase! During the turn I use its effect, only Deskbot 009 can attack, but that will be plenty to take you down."
"That bot sure is massive, but I still have my Trap Card" - Daniel thought to himself, but was quickly interrupted.
"I'm sure you remember, but I'll remind you once again, if Deskbot 009 attacks, you cannot activate any cards, which means my attack will go through uninterrupted!"
"Crap, you're right!" - Daniel exclaimed - "How did I forget that?"
Marco continued his attack, not paying too much attention to what Daniel was saying.
"Just because you can't activate any cards when 009 attacks, doesn't mean I can't."
Daniel's eyes widened slightly, and Jonas kept on watching with a smile on his face, because both knew what was coming.
"I activate Limiter Removal, which doubles the attack of all my Machine-Type monsters!" - Marco revealed the Quick-Play Spell in his hand.
Deskbot 002: ATK 500 x 2 = 1000
Deskbot 003: ATK 3500 x 2 = 7000
Deskbot 009: ATK 5000 x 2 = 10000
"ATTACK!" - Marco shouted slightly too loudly, pointing his finger at Daniel's attack position Cavalier.
"You'd think that after all this time I'd learn to summon my monsters in defense position." - Daniel thought to himself, before being blown away by 009's attack.
Daniel: LP 4000 - 4000 = 0
"Another duel, another OTK!" - Marco said happily.
"Yeah, only because I bricked!" - Daniel replied, frustrated - "Anyways, let's go for another one!" - he continued, returning to his usual, happier self.
"There's no time." - Jonas interrupted the two of them - "There's only a few minutes left until class starts."
"Oh, right." - his two friends replied simultaneously, with clear disappointment in their voices.
"Come on, you guys will have time for more duels after school. We only have one class left today anyways."
"Are you going to try qualifying for the IDC this year" - Daniel asked Jonas - "Marco's already qualified to participate in the group stage, and I'm only a few wins away."
"I don't know." - Jonas replied.
"Your winning percentage is 77%, which is way over what you need to apply." - Daniel continued
"I said I don't know!"
"I mean I'm only asking to be polite. To be honest, I've already talked to our head teacher and she's agreed to sign you up this year."
"You did what?" - Jonas turned to face Daniel, who had a grin on his face - "Well I guess I have no choice then! You git."
Daniel couldn't help but burst out in laughter at Jonas' attempts to be angry.
"By the way, if we ever duel against each other in the championship, you're going to lose." - Jonas said - "That's a promise!"
"Sure, if you say so!" - Daniel replied, barely managing to stop himself from laughing further.
"I guess I'm participating in the Championship this year." - Jonas thought to himself, as the school bell rang, signalling the start of class.
"Who knows, with any luck I might find the duelist who was with her in the Arena when the incident happened."
Almost seven months on from that fated day, Jonas had almost never thought of Clara anymore. Since his family arrived in Neo Ragusa, he thought of her less with each day, and his memory of his once friend faded with time.
"The change of scenery certainly helped." - he thought.
Despite this, from time to time, he remembered how desperate he felt in the days after the fire, and thought that maybe tomorrow will be the day when he finally finds out what happened. But he never does.