Bullseye
The hazy light of sunset filtered through the picture windows that overlooked the city into the dark of the empty rec room. Shingo stood from his solitary barstool to retrieve the darts lodged in the poster on the other side of the room, forming a neat line down the center of the smiling face that dominated the page. He plucked the darts out one by one, careful not to bend the tips. Before turning back to his seat, Shingo frowned at the poster. This kid—Sakaki Yuuya, according to the headline—had invented some new method of summoning in his duel against the reigning Action Duel champion, Strong Ishijima. This "pendulum summon" had baffled the audience and Leo Corporation's researchers alike. Shingo sat down, contemplating his conversation with Akaba, absently rolling a dart between his thumb and forefinger. The secret to Yuuya's summon was the "pendulum cards" in his possession. Shingo raised his hand to eye level and aimed. He released the dart with practiced ease, hitting his mark directly between the large reddish eyes. A small smirk lifted the left corner of Shingo's lips. "Bullseye."
Akaba's request was nothing unusual. It was only natural that he would want to inspect the mysterious new cards that the Solid Vision system had accepted without question. At best, it signified a glitch in the system, but Shingo suspected that the Yuuya kid was less clueless than he pretended to be. Hacking into Leo Corporation's computers and reprogramming the dueling system to allow cheating was a serious offense on its own, but to do so with the intention of making a fool out of the mascot of Leo Duel School was unforgivable. It was of the utmost importance that the so-called pendulum cards were confiscated and examined at once in order to prevent similar promotional fiascos from occurring in the future.
Of course, none of this interested Shingo in the least. Akaba had promised him cards in exchange for snatching Yuuya's, and he hadn't even bothered to swear Shingo to subtlety. If he really wanted, all he had to do was walk into You Show Duel School and rip the cards right out of Yuuya's hands. Naturally such an approach wouldn't do, but it was fun to imagine that kid's expression nonetheless. No, Yuuya appeared to be the affable type: trusting, unsuspecting, and ripe for the picking. Shingo buried his second dart in the center of the poster's left eye. This job was almost too easy for his taste. He threw the last dart, which landed just a millimeter off target. "Tch." Shingo slipped his d-pad into his jacket before standing once more. It wasn't any of his concern that Akaba was overcompensating him for the equivalent of stealing candy from a baby; it was better that way, really.
As Shingo strode out of the room, he wondered what it was like to battle the pendulum cards, face to face. Strong Ishijima had been caught off guard, but Shingo was armed with what little knowledge was available. With the proper preparation, he could make them fall to his dueling prowess. Defeating the cards would pose no challenge whatsoever. The power of wielding them, though...Shingo's fingers twitched. As he understood the video footage of Yuuya dueling Strong Ishijima, pendulum summoning wasn't complicated, but there was no question that it was powerful. In the hands of a master, it could prove devastating. Shingo itched for that power. Perhaps he could...test the cards before handing them over to Akaba. Surely he wouldn't mind a field report. Shingo had been given free reign, just so long as he acquired the pendulum cards in the end. And he would, because he was Sawatari Shingo, and he almost never missed his mark.