Yu arrived at his duel entrance exam ahead of schedule. He saw a few matches in progress as he took his seat. His number was 102, and according to the nice lady at the entrance they were on 89 at the moment. He took a seat up in the stands and watched some of the ongoing battles.
"Come on Yukiko, Kick his ass!" A girls voice shouted from nearby. Yu turned his head to see a girl with a bowl cut wearing a green jacket on shouting vigorously at a match that was in progress. Yu turned to look at the match that she was shouting at.
Duel:
Yukiko vs DA examiner
There was one monster in the extra zone belonging to the examinee.
Isolde, two tales of the noble knights.
Link 2
1600 attack
The examiner had 2 monsters in his pendulum zones.
Igknight Crusader
Lvl 3
2/2
1600 attack
300 defence
Pendulum zone
Igknight Templar
Lvl 4
7/7
1700 attack
1300 defense
Pendulum zone
"Now because I have monsters in both my pendulum zones I can pendulum summon. This lets me summon any pendulum monsters in my hand which are between the levels noted on the two pendulum monsters." Then examiner explained to the girl, Yukiko. "So now I summon Igknight's Templar, Veteran and Gallant"
Igknight Templar
Lvl 4
7/7
1700 attack
1300 defense
Attack mode
Igknight Veteran
Lvl 6
7/7
1300 attack
2700 defense
Attack mode
Igknight Gallant
Lvl 6
2/2
2100 attack
2200 defense
Attack mode
The three monsters all heavily mechanical and using guns as swords appeared on the field. "Now I will sacrifice the Templar and the veteran to summon my Igknight Champion."
Igknight Champion
Lvl 8
2800 attack
2300 defense
Attack mode
The monster appeared on the field looking like a giant warrior robot. "Now for his special effect. I can send one of my igknight monsters back to my hand. And one of your cards gets sent back to the deck. Say goodbye to your monster, and your life points. Attack." The Examiner yelled.
Yukiko - 1200
"Now It's your go." The examiner said.
"Alright, I draw," Yukiko said calmly taking a card from her deck. She then held it up to show the examiner. "I activate the effect of Glife the phantom bird." She placed the card in the graveyard and a card popped out of her deck slot. "This lets me add the field spell, golden castle of Stromberg, to my hand. And I'll just go ahead and place it on the field now."
"Now I'll play the monster 'Cinderella' in attack mode. A girl in an elegant blue dress with blonde hair appeared on her field before the giant robot.
Cinderella
Lvl 4
300 attack
600 defense
Attack mode
"Now thanks to her effect I can special summon my pumpkin carriage to the field in defence mode. Then finally, because the golden castle is out Cinderella gets her shoes too. Letting me equip a pair of, glass slippers, from my deck to her, giving her 1000 attack points."
Pumpkin carriage
Lvl 3
0 attack
300 defense
Defense mode
Cinderella
300 attack 1000 = 1300
"Now I'll give her some more. I equip the two copies of 'Glass slippers' in my hand to the princess."
Cinderella
1300 attack 1000 1000 = 3300
"Now destroy his Igknight champion," Yukiko called. Cinderella put her hands together in prayer and her fairy godmother appeared next to her. She pointed to the Igknight champion who looked on in confusion. The fairy godmother went up and cast a spell at the monster and it blew up in a massive explosion, unbefitting the character causing it.
Examiner - 3500
"Haha, you show em Yukiko." The girl in the stands called to her friend.
"Your friend is doing very well," Yu said as he sat next to the girl.
"Uh hu, Yukiko is like the best duelist in Inaba." The girl said before sitting and turning to face the newcomer. "I'm Chie, Chie Satonaka, nice to meet you."
"Likewise, I'm Yu Narukami. Have you had your duel yet?"
"Yep, won it fair and square, none of that pendulum summon nonsense. Everyone knows you only get to summon one monster per turn." She huffed.
"Probably a bad time to mention that I use pendulum monsters too," Yu said.
"Well I'm sure you don't cheat like this guy," Chie said staring angrily at the man who had just summoned more monsters in defence mode and one Gallant in attack mode, all of them level 5 or 6 and each with over 2000 points. As the monsters stood on the field staring down at the dangerous princess in front of them.
"I can see why you don't like them, seeing them like this," Yu said humorously. "But I'm sure your friend will pull it off."
"Now gallant destroy her pumpkin carriag-" His monster was destroyed and he took damage."
"That would be because of my golden castle's special effect. Whenever you attack with a monster it is destroyed, and you take damage equal to half the monster's attack.
Examiner - 2450
Yukiko drew, then took 10 cards from the top of her deck and placed them on the ground next to her. "Thanks to my golden castle I need to remove 10 cards from my hand every standby phase, but I won't need them to beat you. Without any face-down cards and an empty hand, I know that you have nothing that can stop my pumpkin carriage's effect." Yukiko said pointing at the examiner past his monsters.
"I love this part." Chie pointed out to Yu.
"My Cinderella can attack directly as long as it is on the field," Yukiko revealed and her cinderella approached the enemy and kicked him between the legs. Yu winced but then remembered that it was just a hologram and the guy was fine, mostly.
Examiner - 0
"Well done young lady, with your results on the written exam and a battle like that I have full confidence you will succeed in the academy." The examiner said walking over and shaking Yukiko's hand.
Will examinee number 90, please come to the field, your test will begin shortly.
Yu and Chie sat and watched Yukiko approach.
"Good job Yukiko," Chie said hugging her friend once she got close.
"Thanks, Chie, looks like we will be at duel academy together now," Yukiko said returning the hug.
"Excellent duel. Destroying the Champion instead of attacking directly was a masterstroke." Yu commented
"What do you mean?" Yukiko asked genuinely confused.
"Well if you had attacked directly, you wouldn't have beaten him and he could have used his champions effect to remove your Cinderella, then the turn after he could remove your field spell. Leaving you wide open to an attack." Yu explained as Chie and Yukiko separated and sat down to watch the rest of the duels.
Yukiko gasped in realisation. "You're right, that could have happened."
"Wait you just realised that now," Chie asked in exasperation
"In the heat of the moment I kinda, forgot I could attack directly," Yukiko explained.
Chie looked on in exhasperation at her friend's admission. Yu just chuckeled. "Well if you make the right move on instinct then I guess it's fine. The names Yu Narukami, nice to meet you," he extended a hand for Yukiko to shake.
"Oh, I'm Yukiko Amagi, it's nice to meet you." Yukiko shook his hand and smiled at him.
The three watched as a girl dressed in an orange sundress with her brown hair in pigtails walked up to the instructor that Yukiko just beat. The two nodded and they started their duel.
"That girl looks familiar." Yu said quietly.
"You know her?" Chie asked.
"No, I don't think so, I think I've just seen her somewhere," Yu explained.
"Now that you mention it, her hairstyle looks familiar, maybe she's from Inaba too," Yukiko said.
"If that was the case why would Yu recognise her?" Chie asked sitting forwards to look at the two of them.
Yu looked over to the duel, he could see from the girls perspective and could barely make out some of her cards. Three monsters a spell and a trap. Not a bad opening hand depending on the style of deck you run.
Duel
Familiar-looking girl vs DA Examiner
Girl - 4000
Examiner - 4000
"First I'll place a card faced down, Then I activate Necrovalley, this Field spell gives all gravekeepers monsters 500 points in both attack and defence." The examiner said. "Now I will summon gravekeeper's descendant."
Gravekeeper's descendant
1500 Attack
1200 Defense
Attack mode
"But don't forget about necrovalley." The examiner said as the effect from his field spell increased the stats of his monster.
Gravekeeper's descendant
2000 Attack
1700 Defense
Attack mode
"Now I'll activate my hidden temples of necrovalley spell card. I can only use this card if I have both necrovalley and a gravekeeper's monster on my field. But this prevents you from special summoning any monsters. Your move, rookie." The examiner taunted good-naturedly. Clearly, he wasn't trying to antagonise the girl, but he probably had a quota of trash talk he had to do for the exam.
The girl just looked tired. As if she had just gotten back from a day of work and now she had to deal with this. It wasn't a face Yu liked seeing on anyone's face when they duel. "I activate my Mystical space typhoon," The girl said in a really resigned tone and placed the spell on her duel disk. "This destroys your field spell,"
"Damn it." The examiner removed both the field spell and his continuous spell since it required both a monster and the field spell.
"Not a bad move." Yu said. "She got card advantage pretty easily there."
"Card advantage?" Chie asked confused. Yu looked at her like she had grown a second head. 'Has she really never heared the term before.'
"Basically it's where you use fewer cards than the opponent to remove more of theirs. Like there, she just used one spell to get rid of two of his cards."
"That's a pretty advanced technique," Yukiko noted. "How did you know about that?"
"My parents are duelists. Though they are mostly known in foreign circuits." Yu said. "I've had complex techniques drilled into my head since I was a kid."
"Oh, that expalins it. We'll need to get you to tutor us once we get to the academy." Chie said, smiling before turning back to the duel field then she shouted. "Is that Yosuke?"
Following her line of sight, Yu looked and saw a brown-haired boy with one monster, a girl with a mecha suit in his extra monster zone facing off against 3 monsters in defence mode. It looked like the examiner was using a pretty standard stall strategy. 'he isn't taking advantage of his deck's innate strength against this kind of stalling, he probably will get a low mark for it, but he will probably win.' Yu thought to himself.
"Yosuke?" Yukiko asked.
"He moved into our class 3 months ago. His father manages the Junes in Inaba. Thought I can understand how you forgot about him, he's not really anything special" Chie explained to her friend.
"Is he a friend of yours?" Yu asked, looking at the duel again, It was a pretty simple win but he was overcomplicating it.
"Kind of, I guess, I mean we are classmates, I just wasn't expecting him to be trying out for Duel Academy," Chie said.
"No way, Trickstars? Hang on she looks kind of like..." A guys voice could be heard shouting from nearby. This drew Yu and the girls attention back to the duel they were watching. Indeed the girl had summoned a Trickstar monster. The snow-white hair and the staff indicating that it was the most powerful monster in the archetype Carobein.
Trickstar Carobein
Lvl 5
2000 attack
1000 defense
Attack mode
"Not so fast, I activate Torrential Tribute. Now say goodbye to your monster." the examiner said, revealing his faced down card. Both monsters were destroyed.
"And that leaves you wide open." The girl said sounding less annoyed than earlier. Clearly, this duel was letting her get rid of some stress. "I play Trickstar Lilybell in attack mode."
Trickstar lilybell
Lvl 2
800 attack
2000 defense
Attack mode
"Now she will attack you directly." The girl said happily. The fairy Idol rushed the opponent and smacked him with her bell.
Examiner - 3200
"Oof." The Examiner said as his life points were struck. The girl ejected a card from her graveyard.
"Lillybells effect lets me add a trickstar monster from my grave to my hand whenever she deals battle damage, Like my Carobein." The girl collected her hand and grabbed a card "Now I'll use my 'Trickstar Lycoris' special effect to special summon her and return Lilybell to my hand." The girl said happily something dawning on her. A short fairy with mid-length black hair appeared in a pink dress wielding a sword.
Trickstar Lycoris
Lvl 3
1600 attack
1200 defense
Attack mode
"And due to Lilybells effect, I can special summon her back to the field. And she can attack again."
Examiner - 2400
"And so can Lycoris." The girl was outright smirking like she was possessed now.
Examiner - 800
"And I set two cards faced down." She said before letting her opponent go.
"Alright, I draw." The examiner said taking a card from his deck.
Examiner - 600
"What the hell." He asked.
"Whenever you draw a card Lycoris here gets to deal 200 damage to you for each card you draw." The girl said before revealing her face down cards. "And these two trickstar reincarnations will make sure that you are-"
"It's Risette!" A boy yelled out from the crowd.
"It is, I knew those cards looked familiar." Another guy said.
"You think she will be in Obelisk?" A guy asked.
"Obviously, an Idol-like her in Slifer get real." Another called.
'Risette' started looking down at that statement.
"Would you like us to continue in private?" The examiner asked her calmly.
She shook her head then said. "It's fine, I activate my Trickstar Reincarnation. You lose your hand then draw a new one. And since there's two you need to draw 12 cards and lose the first 6, and you take 200 damage for each." She was back to sounding stressed now, all the stress relief she got from the duel completely wasted.
Examiner - 0
"Alright, Well done, welcome to duel academy." The examiner congratulated her.
"Thanks." She shook his hand smiling again, though it was strained.
"A one turn kill." One of the voices from earlier said.
"Is she really that good?" Another asked.
"Nah, I bet that fight was scripted just like all her other ones." The first voice said.
The girl took off at that, It looked to Yu like he was crying. The examiner looked disappointed at seeing the girl run off crying, but he had a job to do.
"Will examinee number 96, please come to the field, your test will begin shortly." The Tannoy system called for the next challenger. Yu looked to the field and saw the boy Chie mentioned earlier was just about to win his duel. He had finally switched his Sky Striker ace - Kagari for Sky Striker ace - Hayate. Since she could attack directly, even if she had lower damage than Kagari, who got stronger for each spell in the graveyard.
"And now Hayate attack him directly again."
Examiner - 0
"Well done, though it took you a little longer to realise that you could have countered my strategy than I expected." The examiner said shaking the boy's hand.
"Yeah, well I got it in the end," Yosuke said before heading for the stands, he spotted Chie and Yukiko and decided to go and say hi to them.
Yu however was looking towards the exit that the girl, 'Risette, was what they called her, I kinda want to go check on her.' He thought. "I'm gonna go check on that girl." Yu got up and left saying that not waiting for the other two to acknowledge him. As he went through the door the girl took Yosuke arrived to meet with the girls.
"Hey there you two," Yosuke said walking up to them.
"Hey Yosuke, did you win?" Chie asked.
"Yeah I wiped the floor with that guy," Yosuke said proudly before excitedly following up with. "Anyway did you see Risette was here?"
"Risette?" Yukiko asked. "Some of the others were yelling that earlier, is it a card?"
"No, she's an Idol. She's pretty popular thanks to her looks and her voice. Rumor was that she was planning on taking a break and heading to duel academy. I'm not sure she could pull it off though. I mean most of the duels she's had were scripted." Yosuke said.
"We saw her duel. She got a one turn kill, or well, she killed him on his second turn, but it was just when he drew so she basically OTK'd him." Chie explained. "I think she will be fine."
"Yeah, Yu was singing her praises for her first move and he only seemed more impressed as she went along." Yukiko said.
"Yu?" Yoskue asked.
"Yu Narukami, I met him during Yukiko's duel. He was impressed with Yukiko too, but his parents are international duelists so he's like super educated on this stuff." Chie explained. "He said he had to do something and left."
Meanwhile, Yu had found the girl he was looking for.
"Hey there." He said calmly.
"What do you want?" She seethed through tears, not bothering to look at him.
"Did you shuffle your deck?" Yu asked.
"Of course I did." The girl said.
"Then it wasn't scripted," Yu said.
"Of course it wasn't!" She yelled at him.
"Then what does it matter what they say. You duel extremely well, there is no need to be down about that." Yu said.
"I dunno, I just want people to not see 'Risette' the unbeatable Idol, I want people to actually see me Duel, really duel, no script." She said.
"Then do it. You've got three years at duel academy, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to make a name for yourself there, ms. Risette." Yu said.
"Rise." The girl said.
"Rise?" Yu asked confused.
"Risette is the Idol. Rise is me, Rise Kujikawa." Rise said.
"Alright then Rise, I'm Yu Naruk-" He was interupted by the tannoy.
"Would Examinee 102 please come to the duel arena." A different voice than the rest of the students got called Yu's number.
"Guess I've got to go duel. Hey cheer me on will you, I know I'll duel my best with a cute girl cheering me on." Yu said.
"You sound confident." Rise said.
"I am," Yu replied with a smile.
"Well, then I suppose I should cheer for the other guy, make it fair." She said with a smile and wiping the remaining tears.
Elsewhere, Dr Vellian Crowler was furious. 'Who the hell does she think she is. That blasted woman sending her damn whelp over here' He was near tearing his hair out thinking of how to get rid of the cause of his anger.
'Yu Narukami, that blasted woman has only gone and sent her Son here as well. It was bad enough that her brothers around all the time, and don't get me started on that brat of HIS. I need to fail him, but he aced the written test. And the Deck he is up against stands no chance against him, now if he were to duel the brat then he could show him up in front of everyone and that would be. "The perfect plan."
Yu approached the arena to see that it was now empty.
"You are the last Duelist for the day." His opponent said. He was wearing a strange vest that seemed to act as his duel disk. He looked vaguely like a woman, but it was hard to tell.
"Alright then, I'm guessing you will be doing the exam?" Yu asked.
"Indeed, I am Dr Vellian Crowler, head professor and department chair of techniques at duel academy. I decided that since you performed so well in the written exam you would be better placed against an opponent closer to your skill level."
"Oh really, where is he?" Yu asked without a hint of sarcasm
"That's it, slacker. Let's duel." Crowler yelled getting ready.
Duel
Dr Vellian Crowler vs Yu Narukami.
"Ready?" Yu asked.
"Of course I am, I just said let's duel." Crowler yelled.
"Of course I am my lord." a female voice said from behind Yu.
