Yu-gi-oh: Rise of Arcadia
Chapter 3: A Rival's Match
HeroSpirit: "Dang, I've been writing these chapters like crazy."
Haru: "Guess watching the anime again inspired you."
HeroSpirit: "Guess so, I need you in another duel."
Haru: "Bring it on! My little puff balls are ready for the challenge!"
HeroSpirit: "That didn't sound right."
"Yo Haru! Hurry up man, we're going to be late for school!" I heard Ryo call to me from the living room.
"Just hang on guys, I'm coming!" I called back, packing up my books into my backpack with a sigh. I didn't feel like going to school today. Maybe it was because of the recently cold weather, or maybe it was because I didn't feel like taking the test that our instructor promised us we'd have today. Believe it or not. I don't go to your average school. I go to Duel Academy. A prestigious school for learning the fundamentals on how to play duel monsters. It sounds stupid from your perspective, I know, but in the world that I live in, a lot of people make a lot of decent cash on the dueling circuit. You know those kids in your class who always want to grow up to be pro athletes when they grow up and make millions? In my world, all of those kids want to become pro duelists, and take on the big leagues, and that's exactly what this school was made for. The only reason I was in this school, however, was because it was free enrollment. Yes, I know what you're thinking, a prestigious school with free enrollment? That's only because the school has generous donators such as Kaiba Corp, and Master of Ilusions Inc. Of course, both companies that finance duel monster card production.
I zipped up my backpack and looked over to my bed, in which my new duel disk in which I got yesterday laid. I thought about it for a moment, and picked it up.
"Sure, why not."
I unzipped my backpack and stuffed my duel disk in. This was a dueling school I was going to, and I didn't feel like using those duel disks that are school owned. Not only did the wrist straps on those things chafe like crazy, but they were so heavy that they hurt your arm after just a few minutes of dueling. As I pocketed my newly found deck, I ran into the living room where the twins were waiting for me.
"Come on guys, we only have ten minutes to run over there!" I reminded as I rushed out the door. The school was within walking distance of our house, and it was about a 25 minute walk. However, we had to stretch those minutes into ten if we were to make it on time. The twins nodded as they were right on my tail.
After a hectic time getting to school, we made it through the door at the precise moment the bell rang. Pretty lucky if you ask me. As I stopped and leaned on the wall to rest, I could hear our instructor, Ms. Godfrey, talking to someone down the hallway. I couldn't make out what they were saying though due to my loud panting, and I didn't bother to look up because of my exhaustion.
"I really shouldn't have brought my duel disk, it only made it harder to run fast. I mean really, my disk is suppose to be lightweight!"
I saw Ms. Godfrey walk up to us trying to catch our breath, and we all stood upright when she approached.
"Morning children, did you construct your decks for the test today?" she asked in her usually sweet voice. Why she always calls us children I'll never know, since we're almost old enough to drive.
"You bet Ms. G, my guild cards are going to wipe the floor with whoever I match up against!" Ryo bragged. I couldn't help but chuckle at this, as I had defeated Ryo just yesterday with my deck so easily. Ms. Godfrey smiled at this, and looked over to me.
"Haru, I didn't see you take any school-owned cards home yesterday, are you going to be ok for this test? Or do you need a pre-built one?" Ms. Godfrey concernedly asked. I suppose your wondering how I was suppose to participate in this test if I didn't have a deck at the time. Well the answer is usually you play with school-owned decks and cards that are picked for you. Usually the night before a big test, the school lets you take an entire case of the cards home with you and then you spend most of the night constructing a deck of 40 cards out of the ones in that case. Why did I not take a case home yesterday you ask?... I completely spaced it out.
I was about to answer Ms. Godfrey before Ryo interrupted me.
"No worries Ms. G! Haru's got a real deck now, a deck of his own!" Ryo informed. I was about to say something before Ms. Godfrey began to speak.
"Oh, really? Well that's very nice, Haru. I'm guessing you got it for your birthday?" she asked me.
"You bet he did!" Ryo once again interrupted.
"From who?"
I was expecting Ryo to answer for me again, but when he didn't I had to think of something. I couldn't just tell her it showed up on my doorstep with no sending address. That'd make it look like I stole it.
"I got it from my... great uncle in... uh... Africa..." I lied.
"Stupid lie, stupid stupid stupid!"
"Well that's very nice! I'm glad you'll be able to use your own deck rather than one from the school." Ms. Godfrey smiled as she started walking over to our classroom, which was about to be holding class. "Make sure you go over it and make sure it's at least or more than 40 cards!"
I couldn't help but feel guilty lying to my teacher, but harm could it have been? I have my own deck, big deal, it's not like I took it from someone. The package on the box was meant for me. It said so on it.
Thinking about the box suddenly reminded me of that symbol that I saw on the box next to my name. That broken down lantern that I saw on the box, what could it have meant anyway. I started to wonder about this, thinking it might have been a symbol for the mail company that delivered it, but then again...
"Haru, you ok?" I heard Riley suddenly ask.
"Huh? Oh yeah, why?" I replied snapping out of my thought.
"You had a worried expression on your face there for a moment." Riley pointed out.
"Did I?"
"Did I?" I quizzed.
"You know Haru, you should probably make sure that your deck is at least 40 cards, Ms. Godfrey won't let you duel with it in the test we're taking if you don't have at least 40." Ryo advised as we walked into the classroom, taking our seats.
"Yeah, you're probably right." I sighed as I took my deck from my pocket. I sat down in my seat waiting for the bell and started to count my cards. Although, almost immediately after I had taken it out, my deck was snatched.
"Well, what do we have here." I heard a familiar voice say. I looked up to see that Takuya was the culprit to my suddenly stolen deck.
If you looked up snob in the dictionary, you would see the definition: "a person with an exaggerated respect for high social position or wealth who seeks to associate with social superiors and dislikes people or activities regarded as lower-class". Then right next to the definition, you would see the words "See also: Takuya Nakama." Takuya was the big, pompous rich kid. His family paid for everything he wanted and more. Legend has it that Takuya's deck costs more that any of us will ever make in our lifetimes. Legend also has it that Takuya's deck is filled with cards that the Master of Illusions, AKA the creator of duel monsters, made himself. I never believed any of those rumors. A deck is a deck no matter how you look at it, and every deck can be beaten.
"I see you got yourself some new cards." Takuya snickered as his combed-back hair shined in the light that he and I were next to. "What the heck are these things? Fur balls?" he arched his eyebrow at the cards in my deck as he went through them. I immediately snatched the deck back and growled at him.
"They're called Kuribohs, and I don't need you bugging me while I'm in the middle of counting my deck, rich boy." I barked. Takuya simply stayed calm at this, and snatched the deck back, continuing to look through them.
"Look at these things! They barely have any attack points. Don't you have anything else besides these?" Takuya chuckled. I snatched my deck back once more and stuck my tongue out like some sort of immature elementary school kid.
"These 'things' are all I need. Don't you have a mirror to go to and admire yourself?" I snapped back. Takuya seemed rather aggravated by that last remark, and slid his fingers through his sleek, blond hair a little ways.
"You better hope you aren't matched up with me, loser. If you do, I'll personally wipe the floor with your weak little cards." Takuya threatened. I hoped that I wouldn't get paired up with him too, because if I did, I'm sure he'd keep his promise. I managed to shake this off though, and continue counting my cards.
I would have guessed that with a pre-built deck there would be at least 40, which was the mimimm requirement for any duel monsters deck. By the time I finished counting, the bell had rang and everyone was starting to head to their seats. Ryo sat beside me in class, and leaned over towards me.
"Well?" he asked. I scratched my head.
"It's weird, but this deck only has 39 cards in it. I counted three times over." I admitted. Ryo arched his eyebrow.
"39? You're one card short there, buddy."
"I know, do you think Ms. Godfrey will notice?"
"Probably not, it's only one card. Unless she's psychic I doubt she'll find out."
"You think so?"
"Tell you what, if you feel that bad about it, I'll give you one of my cards I have left over."
"Nah, I'm good. I just want this test to be done with."
You're probably wondering by now why we all need our decks to take a test in class. Well, this test we had today was a duel performance test. Meaning that we would all be paired up with a random classmate in our class, and then we would be graded on how well we do against them. It seemed like an unfair way to do things, as all of us have different skill levels. If I got paired up with a good duelist, I'd get a horrible grade. Then again, I'd also feel bad getting paired with a horrible duelist because I'd be making their grade bad. I hoped I would get someone in which I could have an even matchup against, that way both of us would at least get a decent grade.
"Alright guys, everyone settle down, I have the match-ups for your tests today. Blocks one and two will be dueling today, and blocks three, four, and five will be dueling tomorrow." Ms. Godfrey informed as she typed a little on her computer to reveal who our opponents would be. The wide screen that took the place of a blackboard started to flicker, and showed the matches for our duel performance tests. I looked closely at the board just as Ryo did along side me, and once I found my opponent, I gasped.
"Somehow I saw this coming."
There right next to my class picture was Takuya's. This of course meant that I would have to duel him for my duel performance test. I started to roll back into my seat, knowing I was in for it.
"Wow Ryo, tough luck." I heard Ryo say once he found out who my opponent was. "But hey, think positive, maybe you'll beat him this time."
"I'm not going to beat him Ryo, I never beat Takuya. In my time here at Duel Academy I've dueled Takuya 11 times, and all 11 of those times I lost to him, and I lost to him horribly."
"Yeah, that's true. You have to remember though that you were using the school's cards all 11 of those times, and you may not have to worry with a deck of your own." Ryo reminded as he leaned back in his seat.
"Get real Ryo, I've only used this deck once so far, and even though I beat you with it, I beat you because you're a horrible duelist." I sighed. Ryo nearly fell out of his seat once I said this blunt remark.
"Hey! What makes you think I'm a horrible duelist!" Ryo growled at me. I looked up in front of the class, and then back at Ryo to reply.
"Tell me Ryo, how many duel performance tests have you taken at Duel Academy so far?"
"Including my retakes? I think it's 23." Ryo replied, relaxing a little.
"Now tell me how many of those performance tests you actually passed." I glared. I instantly saw Ryo blush at this.
"Um... one."
"And what was the only reason you passed that test?"
"Uh...be- because... the teacher had a family emergency and had to leave early."
All I could do in response to that was nod my head. It was true, Ryo wasn't a very good duelist, but he enjoyed the game, and I had to admire his determination for it. Every time I saw him fail a duel performance test I would always have to hear him ranting about how he would blow that test out of the water next time. I couldn't think about that though, I had to think about my upcoming duel with Takuya and what I was going to do about it.
The class was given 30 minutes to adjust their decks accordingly to their opponents. That is, if you had any knowledge of your opponent's deck or if you had any extra cards to replace your current ones with. Both of which I didn't have any of.
"Hope you're ready to get slaughtered, loser." I heard Takuya snicker as he left the classroom for the duel arena. I couldn't help but shiver. Only Takuya knew what he'd do to me in a duel. Reluctantly, I got up from my seat and prepped myself for the upcoming battle that I was going to be forced to face. I sighed at this, and stood from my desk as everyone started to leave for the arena. Riley and Ryo came by my side as I walked.
"Haru, you going to be ok? You're duel is in the first block." I heard Riley ask.
"Yeah, I'll be fine, I might as well get it over with while I can." I answered, opening the door to the arena. You know how big high school gyms usually are? The duel arena was our gym. It had four separate duel spaces of you to duel on. Duel spaces are basically a bunch of white chalk lines on the floor. Each space containing 20 rectangular spaces for cards and whatnot, and a designated zone for the duelist was marked as well.
"Alright class, block one take your designated duel spaces and begin your test." I heard Ms. Godfrey instruct. I saw Takuya give a sort of evil smile at me as he made his way to the duel space where he'd be waiting for me.
I gulped, completely unprepared for this moment, let alone what was to follow. As I started to shake, I felt two hands on my shoulders. Each of these hands belonged to both Riley and Ryo.
"Relax man, we'll be watching and cheering you on." Ryo encouraged as he gave me a classic wink and thumbs up.
"Yeah, I'm sure with your new deck you can put mr. million bucks in debt." Riley added as he gave a friendly smile.
"Put mr. million bucks in debt?...What kind of analogy is that?"
All the same, I nodded to this, taking off my backpack and reaching into it for my duel disk. Once I grabbed it, I slid it onto my arm where the wrist strap activated and locked the disk in place on my arm. It was from there the duel disk would begin it's transformation into a full fledged duel disk.
"Here goes nothing." I said to myself.
"Hope you're ready for a beat down, because I'm itching to tear up some life points." Takuya snickered. I growled at this, as cockiness like that bugged me like heck.
"Let's just get on with it, rich boy." I glared.
"Fine then." Takuya smiled.
"Duel!"
Haru: 4000 LP
Takuya: 4000 LP
"I'll go first!" I insisted as drew from my deck. I examined my hand only to get an unpleasant surprise.
"Great, all I have in this hand right now is a few traps, a spell card, Kuribon, and... Halo Kuriboh?"
You remember that useless card I was talking about earlier, right? Halo Kuriboh was that monster. Now, before you say anything, I know that my past experience with this deck and it's so called "useless" cards were pleasant, but Halo Kuriboh was a different story entirely. Unlike my other Kuriboh cards, Halo Kuriboh had no special abilities, I checked. Not only that, but it wasn't a tuner monster, it had the same attack points as the others, and the same level. It was a genuine useless monster that I had no idea why I didn't take out of my deck. Regardless of this, I shook it off and began my turn.
"I'll place this card face down, and summon from my hand, Kuribon (300ATK/200DEF)!" I called as I slammed my monster card into the monster card slot. A blue portal opened at the front of the field, and a small fur ball flew out and landed itself precariously floating on my fiend.
Kuribon didn't exactly look menacing, quite the opposite in fact. It looked more like a girlie kind of monster. The only differences between Kuribon and it's Kuriboh counterparts is that it had a tail. A small rat-like tail with a big red ribbon tied to the end of it. Kuribon was also accompanied by big, full lashes on it's large eyes. I wasn't exactly proud to have it on my field, but it was better than having Halo Kuriboh.
"Cute puff ball you got there loser, are you going to activate the 'makeup set' spell card next?" Takuya smiled.
"Why you little."
"I end my turn." I sighed. As Takuya drew from his deck.
"Alright then, I summon Gemstone Beast to my field in attack mode! (2200ATK/0DEF)" Takuya cried as he slapped down a monster card. Another blue portal appeared on the field, only to have fly out an odd looking, tiger-like creature completely comprised of tons of random, precious gems. This beast was made of rubes, sapphires, emeralds, pearls, I'm pretty sure I saw topaz in there somewhere, but anyway, back to the duel. "Next I activate my beast's special ability! Thanks to it's effect, I'm allowed to attack you directly as long as I skip my battle phase next turn!"
"Crap!"
As I saw the Gemstone Beast lunge at me, it jumped right over my Kuribon and was seconds away from slashing at me with it's claws made of diamond. I had to think fast.
"Reveal face-down card!" I cried. "Miniature Defender!" I pointed to my face down card on the field as it flipped up, revealing a purple trap card with a picture of a little mouse holding a shield and sword.
"Huh?" Takuya grunted.
"My Miniature Defender trap card is activated whenever you wage an attack while I have a level one monster on my field. With it, I can negate your attack and switch my Kuribon to defense mode!" I explained. My Kuribon went into action as it jumped into the air and smacked Gemstone Beast once with it's little tail. This somehow knocked Gemstone Beast down to the ground and sent it crawling back to Takuya's field. Once this was done, Kuribon started to curl up it's tail and duck it's head, signaling it going into defense mode.
"Due to Gemstone Beast's effect, when I use it's ability I have to switch it to defense mode until my second end phase." Takuya growled as he switched his monster's battle position. "Next time, loser."
"I don't know if I'll have a next time at this rate."
My thoughts were nearly on the mark, with the cards I had in my hand, I wouldn't last much longer.
To be continued...
HeroSpirit: "The epic duel shall continue!"
Haru: "I hope I can win this one.
Ryo: "Of course you will, you're the main character!"
Haru: "The main character loses occasionally, especially in yu-gi-oh."
Ryo: "Good point."