Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh GX. Only own the OCS.
AN: I wasn't clear last AN when I explained about Aaron. To the Guest reviewer, if you read the first chapter, you would've saw that he was arrested for what he did. He did get arrested for killing the escapees. He was just exonerated when evidence was brought in that he was being forced to do it by Slade and Jagger or else his family would've been killed. And he is being punished now, even though he isn't in jail. He has to live with the guilt that he killed people to save his family. That's a punishment in of itself, especially since without his pills he'll go off the handle from the guilt.
And that comment about him putting his family's life ahead of others? Of course he cares about his family more than people he doesn't know. Anybody who loves their family would've done what he did and killed the escapees to ensure their safety. If you don't feel the same way, then I don't know how to respond to that.
And when I said no one cared that they were dead, I meant the general public since to them, they were criminals, and it's known that Slade and Jagger ordered their deaths and manipulated Aaron to do their dirty work for them, so no one faults Aaron except for the families of the escapees. Of course their families care that they're dead, I thought that was obvious? Jesse cares too that his dad is dead. You just won't see until Season 3 since he isn't here yet.
Anyways, I'm back to present a new chapter for this story. This is to see more of Misaki and Hikaru's characters. We'll see an archetype in here that may have some of you raising an eyebrow, but it's not exactly a glaring mess of an inconsistency or breaking the way the game is played at this point so I see no harm. Any questions you may have I'll gladly answer.
You might recognize a face here from my Season 1 story.
Enjoy
Chapter 4-
In the Obelisk Blue Girls Dorm, one of the female students was already up despite it being seven in the morning. Classes weren't starting until nine today, so everyone was trying to get some more shut eye. This female student was sitting cross legged on her bed looking over her deck, already dressed in the Obelisk female uniform. Her room was very clean and radiated the sense of respect to keeping it tidy.
It was new student Misaki Haruno, and she had a winning smile on her pretty face.
'This school is awesome! I'm so happy I decided to enroll!' She thought to herself, changing the smile into a grin. 'And with cutie pie Jason here, it's all the more better!'
To compliment the crush she had on the injured Yuki twin, she had two cut out pictures of him plastered on her wall. They were both of his mugshots from his time as a member of The Domino Eight and temporarily as a member of the Red Road Three. Unlike the former, the latter were quickly deformed as they were all exonerated within a few days while the Domino Eight were formed for a month, ending with Jaden Yuki's apprehension by the police.
Misaki gazed dreamily at Jason's pictures. 'Even though he's hurt, he's still so cute.' She added a happy sigh. 'Going through hell, only to emerge from it is an amazing feat. One that I admire greatly.' She frowned just a little bit as she remembered the face of someone she despised. It quickly faded when she saw Jason's picture. 'He gives me the strength and hope that it'll all be okay someday.'
She then remembered another face. 'It sucks that he has a girlfriend, although I'm not too surprised.' She admitted as she looked over her Extra Deck. 'She is really cute too, I'll give her that.'
She smiled as she looked upon her cards. Her deck was similar to what she heard Jaden's was. 'Who knows... maybe if I duel and impress him, he'll start to take an interest in me!' She giggled as a blush worked its way on her face. 'This is gonna be so much fun!'
She didn't want to break up him and his current girlfriend. That would be way wrong and make her a horrible person and she swore to not be one of those. All she was gonna do is make it known that Jason had an option in case things went south for him and his girlfriend.
'I'm ready,' she told herself, satisfied with her deck and reworking all cards she wanted inside. She then uncrossed her legs and jumped up off her bed with her deck in hand. 'Even though it may still be early, I'm gonna go exploring! Who knows...' she grinned. 'I may run into Jason!'
She couldn't wait to duel. She always had a knack for it ever since she discovered the game one day when she was wandering through her town alone. She went through a lot of decks before finding her perfect one, which was the one she was looking at.
'I have to prove that just because I'm a little bit different, it doesn't mean I can't become one of the best!' That was her main goal despite wanting to meet Jason. All too long she's been called weird and it was about time she gave people a different opinion of her persona. She wanted to be known as a respected duelist, not that weird girl that smiled too much.
'Only question is who to duel first...' she tapped her chin thoughtfully. 'Jacey Kins is definitely on my list!' She gave a beaming grin at his picture. 'His brother Jaden too, I guess...' she heard around that Jaden was amazing. 'Zane Truesdale's little brother is here too, so I wanna see if he's as good as him. Chazz seems like he'll be fun and I wanna see if Jason's girlfriend is any good.'
Misaki was hoping to duel her the most. Maybe beating her will have Jason start to have some interest in her. Plus, if you were gonna be Jason Yuki's girlfriend then you, in her opinion, had to be amazing. If not, then you didn't deserve him.
She shrugged joyfully. 'Oh well! I guess I'll see what happens!' She giggled.
Grabbing her black deck box from the desk, she placed her deck inside before strapping it around her waist. She then grabbed her duel disk and strapped it around her arm.
She gave a competitive smirk. 'Duel Academy... Here comes Misaki Haruno, future top ranking female pro duelist!'
Before leaving, she turned around to where she had Jason's pictures up and blew a kiss to each separate picture, feeling they needed to be shown love equally.
'I love you!' She declared before she left her room, ready to start her day.
...
In another room a few doors down, another Obelisk Blue girl was getting ready for her day. Like with Misaki, this girl was an early shiner, used to it after living down south for the majority of her life. Old habits were very hard to break, to which in her case left her extremely bored.
Laying on her bed with her hair in a mess and looking gross was Hikaru Paul.
She groaned. 'Why can't I go back to sleep!' She grabbed a pillow and held it over her face. Unlike Misaki, her room was as dirty as she felt right now; bags thrown on the floor with her clothes from yesterday spread out along with the wrappers of her late night snack. 'I always looked for a reason to sleep longer and now that I have it, I can't!' She threw the pillow off with a huff. 'Goddamn! Might as well do something.'
She sat up from the bed before she spent the next few minutes working to clean herself up. Within the last twenty minutes, Hikaru had worked to make herself into her usual appearance with her spare Obelisk female uniform. The appearance that every guy seemed to like.
'I still don't see why guys think I'm pretty.' She mused to herself before shrugging. 'Whatever. Let's check out the decks.'
Going over to her bag by the foot of her bed, she hoisted it up and slammed it on her desk. She unzipped it to pull out a red deck box and a blue deck box. The red one was labeled with a 'M' and the other was labeled with a 'Z'.
'This school is pretty darn exciting,' she admitted as she looked through the deck with a 'M' on it. 'That Chazz kid put on a good show and from the rumors, the Yukis can really duel.'
She's seen Jaden duel against Chazz when the School Duel was aired and thought he was great. She's never seen Jason duel, but she heard around yesterday that he was just as good as Jaden.
'I really wanna play against them.' She thought to herself. 'I've beaten everyone in my town so many times, it turned into a chore. Even when I built a new deck, it still didn't add anything since I already beaten them so many times before that any and all enthusiasm left a long time ago.' She reminisced. 'I need a challenge and those two can give it to me, especially Jaden.'
Hikaru was never obsessed with guys like most girls her age. She had much time to find someone, so she never rushed into a relationship. She can't even recall if she ever had one.
But there was something about Jaden that caught her attention. Sure he was a little cute, but Hikaru knew that appearances didn't matter. Guys called her pretty and she was a slob underneath her exterior. Plus, the 'good looking ones' always turned out to be assholes.
She guessed she admired him for his recent endeavor. Someone her age going to jail, escaping, outsmarting the police, and then it all turning out to be a conspiracy raveled her. She was awed he made it through that alive and kept his brother alive too.
But his dueling skills is why she was attracted to him. The way he held off against Chazz and defeating him in the School Duel and it was well known that he forced rising pro Zane Truesdale into a draw. That accomplishment alone handed her attention over to him. She admired a strong duelist and Jaden was definitely one.
'I hope that the chance comes soon.' She thought. 'Even though he said he'll duel me whenever, I'm not stupid. I know he's dealing with a lot right now. I don't wanna bother and pester him for one like an obsessed girl... even though I am eager.' She smirked.
She put her first deck back in the box before pulling out her second one. She quickly scanned through it and saw it was good. She didn't have to examine this deck too much since she rarely used it. She only used it when she really wanted to beat someone. She hoped no one pissed her off enough to do that.
She set that deck back in before glancing over to the clock in her room. '8:00... might as well go see what the world has in store for me today.'
She strapped both of her deck boxes to her thigh, her red box on her right side and the blue box on her left. She set her duel disk in a small grey backpack and wrapped a single strap around her shoulder.
'Time to face the day's challenges...' she mused as she left her room.
...
At the card shack, Jason was currently chewing on a bacon and cheese sandwich. While he nowhere near looked it, he was very happy right now. The reason being that he was eating good food. Being in prison didn't exactly allow for a selection of good foods. It was always crap, crap, and more crap. So, to make up for lost time, he ate junk food and greasy food any chance he got.
He was getting a variety of looks as students started walking in to either buy cards, magazines, posters, or to get food too. He got the frightened look from some that had them avoiding him with all of their being, not that he cared. He got looks of respect from a few others, to which he would nod back at them to let him know that he appreciated it. He also, surprisingly, got a few winks from some girls and a couple even blew him kisses. He didn't expect that, so he would either raise an eyebrow and blush or give a wave to them, which made them giggle.
Did he get a fanclub or something? No one talked to him last year outside his friends. Everyone else was either a jerk like Harrington or the brothers Ken and Ryu that Syrus defeated, or tried to kill him like the Shadow Riders. He never chatted with anyone else, and he didn't say that just because he couldn't talk up until the final few weeks of school.
Did people really respect him now? All because he survived being caught up in a conspiracy? That was by far the strangest thing to ever happen to him.
And there was also that one girl... Misaki Haruno, he thought her name was. She was bold, complimenting him outright and saying he was cute. He really did appreciate the compliment since he's never heard that from anyone besides Asami and Alexis on a few occasions. He wasn't blind. He saw she had a crush on him. He found it cute, despite his dark behavior lately.
He just didn't know if he should tell her she had no chance. He didn't want to hurt a fan of his. He already had enough people who hate him and he didn't have patience for people that did. He didn't want any problems that he could avoid. Shrugging, he decided that she can have her fun for now until she tried to kiss him or something. Once she tried that, he wouldn't care and would say something.
He didn't want her as a friend though. He didn't want anymore friends. She seemed really nice but he just couldn't do it right now. He lost four of them due to his new headmaster, he still thought that was stupid on all levels, and wasn't ready for anymore. Hell, if he didn't feel so in debt to Asami, Chazz, Syrus, Alexis, Bastion, and Atticus for everything they've done for him, he wouldn't even wanna be near them either. He didn't even deserve them after all he did. He was still mourning Shane and saw everybody else in his nightmares.
He almost broke up with Asami for real after his exoneration. After everything he did and all the lives he took, he felt he didn't deserve her even more than he already did. He also felt it would help stop him from trying to kill Aaron if he had zero chance of meeting up with him. He really didn't feel like going back to jail and knew he would attack him if he saw him, so he tried his best to avoid that.
He almost smirked. So he wasn't as cold as he thought.
When they went to her house, Asami refusing to spend another second away from him, Jason thought up the difficult words he felt he needed to say. Asami told him she loved him and wanted him and even started to take her clothes off. He saw her body for the first time and they ended up making love. After that, he couldn't break it off with her. Not after what they did.
It still didn't erase his feelings that he didn't deserve her.
"Hey, Jason."
Jason turned his head to see Alexis walking into the card shack. He gave a nod of acknowledgement that he heard her while she gave him a smile in return. Jason knew that Alexis cared about him as a little brother ever since the whole Harrington fiasco, but apparently she had grown more protective of him after he came back from prison.
She said something about how he needs people to care about him so he's not too depressed. She didn't like having friends depressed, she had said. She also stated that it got annoying after a certain amount of time of them moping.
He appreciated it, though. It made him feel warm inside that she cared about him.
"Hey Lex," he greeted back as she walked over to him, taking a spot by his right side. He took another bite out of his sandwich. "What brings you here?"
"Looking for you, actually." She explained. He turned a little surprised. "I wanted to talk to you, but you weren't in your room. Jaden said you came here for breakfast."
"Well he was right..." he smirked. She smirked right back at him. "So... what does the almighty Queen of Obelisk wanna talk to a Slifer about?"
She frowned. "You know I hate that title!"
"Which is why I said it."
Alexis sighed. Sometimes, and she really meant sometimes, she missed it when Jason had no confidence to be near anyone that wasn't Jaden. She had to smile though at seeing how far he's come with his confidence. It was something she was really grateful for about everything.
Jason used the hand that wasn't holding the sandwich to grab her shoulder. "Okay, I apologize for saying it." He shrugged. "I'm trying to keep myself happy anyway I can since... my mind keeps wandering back to yesterday's discovery."
Alexis nodded. Aaron's position as the new Slifer Headmaster.
"If I keep thinking about it... I keep thinking really bad shit." Jason finished the rest of his sandwich, using the napkin he had been holding it with to clean his mouth and hands before throwing it away in a garbage a few feet from where he stood.
He blew his hands. "So what'd you wanna talk about?"
Alexis was a little nervous to tell Jason what she wanted to talk about. Not because she was scared of him, not at all! She still could see the very sweet boy she met last year within him. She just didn't want to make him upset. He was already dealing with a lot and she didn't wanna add to it.
But she felt she needed to do this. It seemed like the right thing to do.
"I actually wanted to talk to you about that..." Jason blinked. "Your anger." He sighed. "I know you hate Aaron for what he did," Jason scoffed. "And I am not here to tell you to forgive him."
Jason seemed surprised to hear that. "I would think you would tell me that." He leaned against the wall. "I know that you don't approve of my vendetta against Aaron." His gritted teeth was proof how hard it was for him to say his name.
Alexis shrugged. "I don't..." she admitted. She then sighed. "I just wanted to talk to you. I wanted to see if I can make you feel better."
"You?"
"Think about it..." she turned to look at him eye to eye. "You can't talk to Asami about how much you hate her father. That's just gonna cause problems for you two and quite frankly, I don't wanna see my favorite couple break up."
Jason had to chuckle. "Favorite couple?"
She ignored him. "Talking to Jaden will only make the bad memories seem worse. You two went through it all together. You guys talking to one another about it will maybe just make your anxiety worse... plus I know there's things you don't wanna tell Jaden."
"What makes you say that?"
"You're not rooming with him anymore."
Jason bit his lip. He cursed Alexis for being so damn smart. She was right. There were things he didn't wanna tell Jaden. Things that'll have his brother chewing him out and maybe even cursing him out for... and a few of them didn't involve his hatred for Aaron in any way, shape or form.
Alexis turned his head back to her by cupping his cheek. "I can't imagine the pain you're in after losing your friends. I can't and don't wanna imagine it. I can see how much it hurts you."
"It does..."
She nodded. "But I will listen to you if you wanna get things off your chest. I won't ever turn you away or criticize you for what you tell me."
Jason cracked a tiny grin. "Shouldn't I see a therapist then?"
"Maybe... but you don't wanna be around other people." She noted. "Being near people you don't know makes you angry. You don't trust anyone."
Damn, she was smart.
Jason smiled. "Can you read my mind or something?"
She smiled back. "I just know you." She awaited to see what he would say. "So... do we have a deal?"
Truth be told, Jason was thinking about it. He didn't wanna talk to Jaden and Asami, less some things would be said that could ruin his relationships with them both. Alexis was right for that. It would only be bad. As much as he cared about Chazz and Syrus, the former would chew him out similar to how he did when Chazz first attempted to talk to him and Syrus couldn't handle what Jason had to say.
Maybe he did need to talk; get some load off of his chest. He knew holding things in would only lead him to either saying or doing something stupid, and lord knows that he's done a lot of that already. But he also didn't wanna throw all his problems onto Alexis. He didn't think she had to listen to him rant.
He sighed. "I don't know..." he answered. "I wanna say yes, but I really don't think you need to listen to me rant."
Alexis expected this. She guessed Jason would say something like that, but she wasn't gonna take no for an answer. Jaden wasn't taking her offer, saying something like how he was fine and he could figure it out on his own. That led to an argument this morning before she set off to find Jason. If she couldn't help Jaden, she could at least help Jason.
"I don't need to..." she agreed. She smiled. "But I want to." She revealed. Jason didn't know what to say. "You're one of my best friends, Jason. Seeing you hurt like this hurts me too. I can't stand seeing you so angry when you're supposed to be sweet."
Jason frowned. "I can still be sweet..."
"Yeah, but we all want you to be that way all the time again."
Jason blinked. "Did Asami send you?" He asked. It was very painfully obvious how much Asami disapproved of Jason's anger towards her father. She tried talking to him about it after they had sex, but Jason didn't wanna and shot down any and all attempts she made to talk about it. He felt bad for blowing her off, but he didn't want to force her to pick a side between them. That wasn't fair for her. If she talked with him, she might think he was nuts and abandon him and side with her dad or she, by some bizarre power, may side with him and hate her father.
He did not want that to happen, no matter how much he hated Aaron.
Alexis shook her head. "Nope. I'm doing this of my own accord." She held a hand up. "I swear on my status as a duelist, I'm doing this on my own."
Jason laughed. "Alright, I believe you... and I guess I'll take you up on your offer..."
Alexis smiled. "Good, now I don't have to put you in a headlock and force you." They both laughed at that. Alexis looked to her PDA. "Classes are gonna start in an hour and I skipped breakfast to come talk to you." She turned towards the counter. "Guess I'll go get a sandwich."
Before she walked away, Jason grabbed her hand, forcing her to stay put.
Jason sighed before he said, "Alexis..." he then smiled. "Thanks..."
She gave him another small smile before she leaned and kissed his cheek. "No problem..." she nodded before she left to buy her sandwich.
Jason touched the spot where she kissed him, blushing at the feeling. He afterwards smiled and started walking off out the store...
Only to meet up with an angry Obelisk Blue student. He was standing at a tall 6'1, Jason having to look up to see his face. He was a black haired boy with the hair reaching the back of his neck. His green eyes were peering down at Jason.
To which Jason peered right back.
"What!" He barked out, proving Alexis' earlier theory about him having no patience for people he didn't know.
The Obelisk growled. "Why did Alexis Rhodes kiss you!? A Slifer punk!?"
Jason almost laughed. Seems like Alexis' fanclub was still strong, despite her dating his brother. Maybe he could have some fun with this. He had to or else he was gonna end up in a fight and Jason couldn't handle those right now.
He would end up killing him.
"Because she's my best female friend." He said. "She's like my older sister and we love each other. Not like that should matter to you..."
"Steve!"
"Steve..."
"Well I heard around that she's the best female Obelisk!"
Jason nodded. "She is, with Asami Elric right behind her. Where're you going with this?" Jason already felt his hands balling.
Steve smirked. "Because with her as the best female and me as one of the top new freshmen in Obelisk, she should be with the best!" Oh great, Jason deadpanned. He was one of those guys. "Asami Elric is hot too, but Alexis is just a little bit hotter!"
"Maybe..." he felt Asami was prettier than Alexis. He always did. Still, it didn't mean that he didn't think Alexis wasn't beautiful, because she was. He just wanted to egg this guy on.
Steve laughed. "Awww, little Slifer Red has the hots for Alexis Rhodes! Too bad she'll never be with a criminal like you."
"You weren't at the arena yesterday, were you?" Jason sweatdropped.
Steve shook his head. "No... why?"
Jason smirked. "That lovely lady is my girlfriend." He revealed.
Steve gasped. "Which one!?"
Jason grinned. "Take a guess..." oh this was fun. He had to do this more often. He felt like Jaden right now when he used to mess with someone. For the moment, he felt normal... and he liked it.
Steve growled. "Since Alexis kissed you, I'm gonna guess it's her!"
"No comment..." Jason neither confirmed nor denied this guy's statement. He knew he could convince Jaden and Alexis why he was doing this if rumors spread. They may even agree with him since he was honestly having fun right now, but he also knew that they wouldn't like him going about it the way he was.
"That's it!" Jason laughed when Steve jumped back. That was too easy. The guy snapped and Jason wasn't even warmed up yet. Steve pulled out his duel disk and flared it to life. "We're gonna duel and when I win, you have to stay away from Alexis!"
Jason sighed. It was similar to the whole Harrington bit, only with him having to stay away from Alexis instead of being her fiancé. He was glad Jaden took that over. He didn't like people being a prize for a game.
"I'm not gonna duel..."
Steve smirked. "Scared you'll lose to me?"
"No, I'm scared Alexis will kick my ass for going through with this." He was telling the truth here. Alexis was scary when angry. "So if you'll step aside, I'll be on my way..."
Steve didn't budge. "I figured a criminal like you would wanna fight." He taunted.
"If you know who I am, then you should know I've killed people... a lot of them." Jason said. "So please enlighten me on why you're egging me on when I won't blink twice over wrapping my hands around your throat and choking the life out of you?"
His patience was close to gone now. Another remark and Jason was leaping like a hungry tiger. He may not kill him, but he definitely will beat his ass. Jason was not frightened by the height disadvantage. He had ways of making it even ground.
"Because you won't do anything violent after what happened." Steve explained. "Since you're not on the lam anymore, you can't fight since you'll be apprehended and arrested again."
He held the duel disk up. "So come on. Either you duel or we're not going anywhere."
Jason growled. He did have his duel disk in his backpack with him, but he really didn't wanna duel with Alexis as a condition.
A loud whistle broke off their argument.
Jason looked past Steve to see that it was that girl Misaki. She didn't look thrilled.
"What's going on!?" When she saw him, she immediately blushed and turned pleasant. "Hi Jason!" She waved. He gave a half wave back.
Steve looked to her. "Who're you?"
"I'm Misaki Haruno! Why are you bullying my Jason!?" She demanded to know.
"Your Jason?" The boy himself asked.
Misaki turned redder. "Sorry... what're you doing to Jason?" She corrected.
"I'm just looking for a friendly game is all." Steve smirked. "But Jason doesn't wanna get his hands dirty."
Jason held his face in his hand. He really hated this guy.
Misaki beamed from an idea she just got. "I'll take Jason's place!" She saw this as her chance to impress him. Maybe if she dueled and beat this guy, Jason might appreciate her sticking up for him and take an interest in her. "And when I win, you leave him alone!"
Steve smirked. "Fine, but if I win, then you go on a date with me."
Misaki gagged. "Ewww... I only like one guy and you're not him!"
'It's me isn't it?' Jason asked himself with a sweatdrop.
She afterwards groaned. "Fine... but you won't win!" She flared her own disk to life. Jason took a step back, no hanging in the doorway of the shack entrance.
Steve grinned. "We'll see about that, Cutie." He drew his opening hand as she did.
"What's going on?"
Jason turned around and saw Alexis behind him with a egg white sandwich in her hand. She looked at the two people in front of them. "Why's that girl who has a crush on you about to duel that guy?"
Jason sighed. "You really don't wanna know..." he warned.
Alexis shrugged and leaned on him, Jason wrapping an arm around her shoulder as she continued to eat her sandwich. "Okay then..."
"Duel!"
Misaki: 8000
Steve: 8000
"Ladies first!" Misaki said as she drew. "I'll set one monster and end my turn." She finished as a lone card appeared on her field facedown.
"That's all she's gonna do?" Jason asked. "Not even one spell or trap to protect her?"
"Maybe the monster is the trap." Alexis shrugged.
Steve smirked smugly as he drew his sixth card. "If that is all you got then this'll be easy." He looked over his hand. "Since I have no monsters out, I can special summon the Steelswarm Cell from my hand!"
Appearing on his field was a black metallic insect looking creature with a silver insignia on its back of what looked like a devil. It glared and growled at Misaki. (ATK: 0/DEF: 0)
Misaki eeped. "Ewww, it's nasty!"
"What's Steelswarm?" Jason asked, looking to Alexis, who seemed to be surprised. "What's wrong, Lex?"
She regained herself. "This archetype came out while you and Jaden were..." he nodded, sparing Alexis from having to say more. "Anyway, Syrus battled these things in that tournament that gave you and Jaden the money. Little guy got knocked around badly by these things before winning."
"They're that dangerous?"
She nodded. "Very dangerous, Jace."
"And since that was just a special summon, allow me to summon my Steelswarm Caller in attack mode!" Appearing next to the black egg was a tall black creature with wings that had an orange pattern. The same insignia was seen on the wings. (ATK: 1700/DEF: 0)
"Now allow me to attack your facedown monster with my Caller! Attack with Steel Swoop!" Steve commanded.
The monster used its wings to fly over to Misaki's facedown card, delivering a powerful kick to the creature. The monster that flipped up was a turtle with an emerald shell. (ATK: 0/DEF: 2000)
Misaki: 8000
Steve: 7700
Steve gasped while Misaki giggled cutely. "Say hi to my Gem-Turtle. When he's flipped up, I can add a certain spell card to my hand." She took out her deck and looked for her desired spell. She smiled. "Anything else?"
"Just a facedown." Steve concluded, rather annoyed.
Jason nodded. "That was clever on Misaki's part. Fooled him into thinking she had nothing when in reality, that was her game from the start."
The freshman Obelisk barely contained her excitement. 'He complimented me!' She was now more determined to impress Jason.
"My turn," she drew. "Now I'll play that spell card I collected. The spell card Gem-Knight Fusion!" She held up a spell that showed a bunch of various gems swirling together. It looked like Jaden's Miracle Fusion.
"Now I fuse Gem-Knight Garnet and Gem-Knight Obsidian from my hand to fusion summon Gem-Knight Zirconia!"
A red armored monster with a fist of fire and a black armored monster with a necklace of jewels appeared before they swirled together. Appearing out of the swirl was a large and buff silver jeweled creature with a purple cape that caused a mini earthquake when he landed. (ATK: 2900/DEF: 2500)
"And I'm not finished yet," she giggled. "Since Obsidian was sent to my graveyard by an effect, I can special summon one normal Gem-Knight from my graveyard." She took out a single card. "Guess who fits the bill?"
Garnet returned onto the field, fist in flames and ready to go. (ATK: 1900/DEF: 0)
"Wow..." Alexis gasped. "That was impressive!"
Jason nodded. "I agree..."
Misaki was close to bouncing up and down in excitement. 'He's really complimenting me!' She cheered.
Steve stared at the two monsters. "Like I'm scared of them."
"You should be, especially when you're about to lose life points!" She grinned. "Zirconia, be a dear and take out his Steelswarm Caller for me!"
The large Gem-Knight obeyed and raised its giant arm up before landing it on top of the monster, creating a big dust cloud.
Misaki: 8000
Steve: 6500
"Now Garnet will destroy your Cell!" The second Gem-Knight ran forward before launching a right hook that took the other monster off the field. "And I'll place two facedowns and end." She concluded, having a hand of two.
"I can see why she's in Obelisk," Alexis noted.
"But I didn't know the Gem-Knights revolved around fusion," Jason stated, a little bit surprised. "Guess I should keep up with new archetypes." He said.
Alexis smiled. It was nice to see Jason act this way. Calm and happy. If only he could be this way all the time, then things could move back to the way they were before.
Steve drew his next card, having four. "I'll admit, that was a decent move..." he looked his hand over. "But now you forced me to take things a little more seriously..."
"Well bring it!" Misaki declared. "I'm ready!" She turned to Jason to see if she could see any admiration coming from him. To her disappointment, she couldn't read his expression.
Steve smirked, "I'll start things off by activating my facedown card, Infestation Ripples!" A trap flipped that showed what seemed to be the head of Steelswarm Caller rising from a swamp. "Now I pay 500 life points to revive my Steelswarm Cell from the graveyard!"
The black bug looking creature reappeared for a second round. (ATK: 0/DEF: 0)
Misaki: 8000
Steve: 6000
Misaki squinted her face upon seeing it. "Ewww, I already got rid of that thing!"
Steve gave a small grin. "Well then you'll hate me using Inferno Reckless Summon to bring out the other two from my deck."
Misaki shivered when two more Steelswarm Cells appeared by the first one. (ATK: 0/DEF: 0)×2
She then smiled. "Well I can get two more Gem-Knight Garnets from my deck too." Two identical copies of her fire fist Gem-Knight appeared and took up her last two monster zones. (ATK: 1900/DEF: 0)×2
"You're gonna need them," Steve warned. "Now I play the spell Double Summon, so this turn I can normal summon twice this turn!" He took two more cards from his hand. "Now I'll sacrifice two of my Cells to summon Steelswarm Mantis and Steelswarm Girastag!"
Misaki watched as two purple holes opened under two of the three Cells. Appearing out of them were two more large black armored creatures. One looked like an insect, complete with two metallic arms that looked like spider legs. It also had what resembled a scorpion tail coming out its back. (ATK: 2200/DEF: 0)
The had a rocket launcher for a right hand, a large black tail that floated around behind his back, and a helmet of the insignia of the Steelswarms. (ATK: 2600/DEF: 0)
She gasped at the second one. "That's a seven star monster! Why'd you only sacrifice one monster!?"
Steve laughed. "Since I used a Steelswarm as a sacrifice, I only needed one." He explained. "And now to activate their abilities!" He pointed to Mantis. "Since Mantis here was tribute summon, I can pay 1000 life points to to revive my Steelswarm Caller."
The other monster that Misaki faced reappeared on the field, not looking too pleased for being destroyed. (ATK: 1700/DEF: 0)
Misaki: 8000
Steve: 5000
"And now my Girastag's effect activates, which allows me to destroy a card on your field and regain 1000 life points."
Misaki watched in horror as the rocket hand of Girastag pointed towards her Zirconia. The next second, a rocket fired out and blew away her monster in a giant dust cloud.
Misaki: 8000
Steve: 6000
"Oh man," Alexis said. "Things aren't looking good for Misaki."
"Now I'll wage an attack on two of your Garnets!" He declared as the two new Steelswarm monsters rolled in for an attack, destroying both of Misaki's creatures with ease.
Misaki: 7000
Steve: 6000
"And my last card facedown will do." He concluded. "I hope this isn't all you got, Cutie." He smirked.
Misaki frowned. "Don't call me that!" She took her next card, having three. She looked her hand over. 'Let's see which one of my friends can work the best.'
"I activate the second ability of Gem-Knight Fusion!"
"Second effect?"
Misaki grinned. "Uh-huh! By banishing one Gem-Knight from my graveyard, I can add it from my graveyard to my hand!" She pocketed her Obsidian as she took her spell back.
"A fusion card that recycles?" Jason asked. "Man, Jaden would be jealous if he saw." Secretly, he was impressed by it. Misaki was good. The duelist in him was slowly itching to face her himself.
"And now I'll play it to fuse my Garnet with the Gem-Knight Sapphire from my hand to fusion summon a new monster!"
A monster in sapphire armor appeared as he and Garnet jumped into the familiar swirl with jewels flying out as they jumped in.
"Too bad they aren't real." Alexis shrugged.
"I don't need anymore money," Jason said. "After digging up that stash, me and Jaden are set for life."
Alexis turned to him. "Didn't you get that $100,000 for taking down Brian Phillips?" She asked, Jason nodding in response. By his expression, he didn't want to talk about it anymore.
Jumping out of the portal was a red jeweled armored knight wearing a long blue cape that flowed behind him. He also had a large axe. (ATK: 2500/DEF: 1300)
"This is my Gem-Knight Ruby!" Misaki introduced. "And now I'll summon out my Gem-Knight Alexandrite in attack mode!" She slapped her second to last card on her duel disk, a white armored knight with many different jewels embedded in his armor appearing. (ATK: 1800/DEF: 1200)
"And now thanks to my monster's ability, I can sacrifice him to special summon a normal Gem-Knight monster from my deck!"
In the place of Alexandrite came a new silver armor monster. This one had a knight helmet that covered his face. He had blue crystals sticking out of select parts of his body. He also had a blonde ponytail running down his neck. (ATK: 2450/DEF: 1950)
Misaki grinned. "This is Gem-Knight Crystal!" She introduced.
"Very good," Alexis complimented. "Now let's see what she does with it."
Steve didn't look worried.
"Now let's attack! Ruby, take out his Steelswarm Caller with Ruby Rage!" She command as her monster brought down its large axe down on the monster.
Misaki: 7000
Steve: 5200
"Now Crystal, take out his Steelswarm Mantis!" The silver armored knight pulled a crystal out of his wrist and threw to the Steelswarm, impaling it in the chest and destroying it.
Misaki: 7000
Steve: 4950
"You're done, right?" Steve replied bored.
Misaki shook her head. "Nope! I reveal my first facedown, Pyroxene Fusion!"
"A trap card fusion!?" All three asked as her facedown flipped up to show a Gem-Knight absorbing many types of gems.
"Jaden, you are gonna be amazed." Jason shook his head as he watched this. Alexis laughed at Jason's remark.
Misaki grinned at the reaction. "Now I can fuse the Crystal on my field with the Alexandrite Dragon in my hand to fusion summon my Gem-Knight Seraphinite!"
A jeweled dragon appeared briefly before it and Crystal jumped back up into the portal. Like before, jewels flew out from the fusion hole. Appearing out was a white armored knight with a long blue cape and sapphire sword. There were also angel wings on its back. (ATK: 2300/DEF: 1400)
"Destroy his Steelswarm Cell!" The new Gem-Knight ran forward and attacked, destroying the final bug like creature. She grinned. "I end my turn!" She folded her arms over her chest, satisfied with her work.
Even after that last round, Steve wasn't worried. He drew his lone card. "I play Spellbook Inside the Pot." They each drew three, both having a hand again. "And now I'll play the Recurring Nightmare spell card. Now I can add two Dark monsters with zero defense back to my hand." He took his Mantis and Caller.
"Now I'll set this monster and these two facedowns to end my turn." Steve concluded, three reversed cards appearing on his field.
"What's he up to?" Jason mused.
Misaki drew. "Thanks to ability of my Seraphinite, I can have another normal summon once a turn. So now I'll summon both Gem-Knight Lazuli and Gem-Knight Emerald!"
The first monster that appeared was a beige colored monster that looked like a little girl. She had green eyes and two long strips that flowed down her back. (ATK: 600/DEF: 100)
The second monster looked like a miniature Gem-Knight Crystal, but with green armor and an emerald embedded in the chest area. (ATK: 1800/DEF: 800)
"Now I play Ruby's special ability. Once a turn, I can sacrifice a monster with Gem in its name and have him gain ATK points equal to the sacrificed monster. I choose my Lazuli!"
The young Gem-Knight disappeared as Ruby grew stronger. (ATK: 2500-3100)
"And since Lazuli was sent to the graveyard by a card effect, I can add a normal Gem-Knight to my hand from my graveyard." She selected her Garnet.
"She is good," Alexis nodded. "Able to find many ways to keep her hand full and summon out multiple strong monsters."
"It is impressive." Jason agreed.
This time, Misaki couldn't hide her excitement. "Thank you, Jason! It means a lot to me that you said that!" She bounced up and down from her spot.
Jason sweat dropped. Alexis laughed and gave him a pat on the shoulder in reassurance.
Steve was impatient. "Can you hurry it up!?"
Misaki huffed. "You're trying to win a date from me and this is how you act?" She couldn't believe it. "Oh well... Ruby, attack!"
"Threatening Roar cancels your battle phase!" Steve's trap activated, halting Misaki's monsters.
"Fine, I end my turn."
Steve drew. "And now it's time to get serious." Misaki gasped. "I reveal my facedown card, Ultimate Offering. Now I pay 500 life points to summon an additional time." He grabbed his monster card. "But I'll flip summon Steelswarm Caller!"
The insect looking monster made a return. (ATK: 1700/DEF: 0)
"Now I'll play Pot of Greed!" He drew two more times. "Now I summon Steelswarm Genome."
A creature that resembled an alien blob appeared in the familiar black armor of the Steelswarm monsters. (ATK: 1000/DEF: 0)
"And then I'll play First Step Towards Infestation, which allows me to return my Steelswarm Girastag to my hand to draw one card." Girastag disappeared from the field as he drew.
"Now I pay 500 life points to summon out another Steelswarm monster by sacrificing my Genome!"
Misaki: 7000
Steve: 4450
A black hole opened under Genome, a large light shooting out and dragging the monster down. Appearing in its place was a large demonic looking monster with black armor and a crazed grin. He also had a scorpion like tail coming out his back. (ATK: 2800/DEF: 0)
"Meet Steelswarm Cacustag and thanks to his ability, since he was summoned with two sacrifices, which Genome qualified as, I can blow away all monsters on the field."
"What!?" Misaki gasped. She watched in horror as every monster self destructed, leaving only Cacustag on the field.
"She's defenseless!"
"Now I pay 500 more points to summon out Steelswarm Sting." He continued, summoning out a mosquito monster that had orange wings and eyes. (ATK: 1850/DEF: 0)
Misaki: 7000
Steve: 3950
"And I'll do it again to sacrifice my Sting for my Girastag again, whose effect will take out your only facedown card left." He traded in Sting for the more powerful Steelswarm. (ATK: 2600/DEF: 0) Like Steve said, Misaki's facedown was destroyed. "And that gives me 1000 life points."
Misaki: 7000
Steve: 4950
"This guy is something else." Jason mused.
"I think you're right." Alexis nodded. "In one turn, he wiped Misaki's field clean and
"Both of you attack!"
Cacustag laughed manically as he shot out a sphere of dark energy that hit Misaki in the chest. Before she had time to recover, Girastag launched out a rocket that hit her and knocked her on her knees.
Misaki: 1600
Steve: 4950
"I end my turn." He folded his arms over his chest. "Next turn you lose and we get that date." He smirked. "I promise I won't be as cruel as I am right now."
Misaki glared. "I'm not gonna lose..." 'Not while Jason is watching me.' She drew, having four. She smiled at her findings. "First I play Junk Dealer to revive my Gem-Knight Emerald and Gem-Knight Crystal, but with half their points."
Both of the Knights appeared in a kneeling position. (ATK: 1800-900/DEF: 800-400) (ATK: 2450-1225/DEF: 1950-975)
"Now I'll resummon Gem-Knight Garnet!" The flaming fist Gem-Knight hopped down in between both of the newly arrived monsters. (ATK: 1900/DEF: 0) "Perfect, now the pieces are all in place."
"Huh?" Jason and Alexis asked.
"I play Particle Fusion!" Misaki flipped over her second to last card, which showed all gems of her monsters flying off into a bright light. "Now I send all three of my monsters back to the graveyard to summon out my best monster!"
A bright light surrounded them as her three Gem-Knights jumped into a hole that appeared above them. Coming out was a warrior in platinum armor while wielding a long sword, ready to be swing at any time. (ATK: 2900/DEF: 2500)
"Meet my Gem-Knight Master Diamond!" She grinned.
"Wow..." Alexis awed. "He looks powerful."
Jason nodded in agreement.
"Since he was summoned with Particle Fusion, I can banish the spell and target another Gem-Knight, like Zirconia, and have him gain his ATK points until the End Phase."
Steve gasped in shock as Master Diamond was encased with a bright light. (ATK: 2900-5800)
"And let's not forget that its power increases by 100 for each of the Gem–Knight in the graveyard as well due to his ability!" She held up her disk. "And with ten, that's another 1000 points!" Master Diamond's aura grew brighter. (ATK: 5900-6900)
Steve sighed in relief. "Still not powerful enough to wipe me out." He commented. Misaki's next card made him shut up.
Megamorph.
She smiled cutely. "What? What was that you were saying?" She asked as her Diamond grew even more powerful. (ATK: 2900-5800-9700) She then frowned. "Don't pick on Jason again! Diamond, destroy his Cacustag and the rest of his life points!"
Her Diamond swung his large sword and made a clean cut that destroyed Cacustag with no trouble. The explosion rocked Steve and made him fall on his back. Jason and Alexis would've stumbled too had Jason not grabbed her and lean against the wall for support.
Misaki: 1600 (Winner)
Steve: 0
Misaki jumped up and down. "I won! I won my first duel here at the Academy!" She cheered.
"She is good..." Jason nodded. Now that he saw this, the duelist in him wouldn't mind going a round with her. It would definitely be fun given that her deck was fusion based as well like Jaden's and his own Masked Hero deck.
Misaki turned to look at Jason and Alexis, both stepping closer to her. Alexis nodded. "Very impressive comeback, Misaki. I can see you earned your place in Obelisk Blue."
Misaki bowed. "Hearing that from the best girl duelist on the island means a lot to me." She thanked. She blushed as she looked at Jason. "I know you could've won, but I wanted to show you my abilities." She shyly said. "What'd you think?"
Jason gave her a small smile. "You are good." She gasped in happiness. "Maybe we can have a match someday."
He was interrupted when Misaki hugged him. "Yes! Yes of course I wanna have a match with you!"
"No hugs!" Jason stated as he wrestled his way out of her grip. He really meant it when he said he didn't wanna be her friend. Admiring her skills was something completely different than that.
Misaki looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "But I would love that match with you."
"Well it can't be anytime soon," Alexis said. "Class starts in ten minutes."
Misaki gasped. "I can't be late on the first day!" She started off in a jog before turning back to Jason and Alexis. "See ya around!" She blew Jason a kiss before she took off towards the classrooms.
The Slifer groaned and blushed. "I thought I said no!"
Alexis smirked. "You said no hugs. You didn't say she couldn't blow you kisses. You gotta be more specific with your admirers or they'll keep coming back." Alexis warned playfully.
"I suppose you should know that." Jason sighed.
Alexis pecked his cheek again, getting his blush to redden even more. "Damn straight."
...
A few hours later, Syrus found himself walking around the campus. He was currently inside the main academy, passing by the Obelisk Duel Arena. Classes had just finished for the day and he was thinking about whether to go right back to the dorm or to maybe see if he can get some new cards for his deck.
The tournament that he, Chazz, Bastion, and Atticus entered this summer to get money for Jaden and Jason showed him that he had potential. He had made it to the final four of the tournament before losing out to Takashi, a guy that used a Rock deck. He only entered so he can try and help his friends. He never expected to make it pass the elimination round.
He had a real wake up call when he knocked Takashi down to less than 500 life points. He felt overwhelming joy that maybe he could win, that maybe he could win the tournament and prove to everyone that he was as good as Zane, who didn't enter the tournament as he was partaking in other duels to look for a sponsor.
But he also knew that he had a lot of work to do. He had lost due to Power Bond's effect. Takashi used Necro Gardna to keep himself alive. While he proved he had potential, he knew he still had a lot to work on to really be as good as he could be.
He wanted to be an asset, not a hindrance.
He sighed as he took a moment to stop. "I don't know what to do..." He mumbled to himself as he pulled out his Power Bond card. "I was so close to winning because of this card, but it is what made me lose." He sighed again as he put it away. "Do I keep it in, hoping to be as good with it as Zane? Or do I try and find my own way to be a great duelist?" He had so many questions and no way to get an answer. The only person that would have an answer to this would be himself. No one else could answer for him.
He was rattled when he heard a voice behind him. "You? A great duelist?" A very familiar voice asked him. "That'll be the day."
Syrus slowly turned to see, in an Obelisk uniform with messy blonde hair and an obnoxious smirk, Ken, a duelist he defeated last year to defend Zane.
He gave a nervous stare back. "W-What's up?" He gulped. Despite defeating this guy once already, Syrus was very jumpy about confrontation. Even more so after seeing just how dark humanity can descend.
Ken chuckled. "Just heard you talking about trying to be a great duelist. It made me laugh, so I thank you for that." He answered.
Syrus couldn't help but feel offended and angered. Ken just seemed to conveniently forget that Syrus defeated not only him, but his brother Ryu as well. He was starting to see just how far arrogance could go for some Obelisk students.
"But I'm here for one thing..."
"And what's that?" Syrus asked, feeling a little scared. Like he mentioned earlier, he was more jumpy after the events of the summer. Plus, he heard a line like that from the men Slade and Jagger hired. While Ken no where near meant the same thing, Syrus still couldn't help but be reminded of what happened.
He visibly relaxed when Ken simply turned on his duel disk. "I'm gonna beat you down as revenge for both me and my brother. He would love to do it himself, but he couldn't be here today."
"I don't have a duel disk or my deck." He left them in his dorm room since he was working on his deck late last night and rushed out this morning to avoid being late. He only had some of the cards he left in his deck box that made up his Side Deck, Power Bond being one of them.
Ken smirked. "Oh well, guess that means that I win by default."
"Am I interrupting something?" A new voice pierced through with a southern twang to it.
Syrus and Ken both turned their heads to see Hikaru standing a little ways by the entrance to the arena. Syrus could already feel his face heating up at the sight of her while Ken simply scoffed.
Hikaru examined the two of them, recognizing Syrus as a friend of Jaden's, before looking to Ken. "Are you bothering him because he's a Slifer?"
Ken shook his head. "He could be a Ra, Obelisk, or whatever. He's defeated me and I just want my revenge."
Syrus didn't know how to feel about that.
"Even so, what's it to you? This is none of your business."
Hikaru glared. "Well I'm making it my business. You're scaring the poor boy to death."
"I'm not really scared," Syrus tried to say confidently, but it came out a little bit squeaky. The tension building up was affecting him. He could very easily guess where this was gonna go.
Hikaru spared him a tiny smirk while Ken ignored him all together. "This is between me and Truesdale here. Don't bite off more than you can chew." Ken warned.
"Truesdale...?" Hikaru mumbled. She then looked over to Syrus again. "I knew you looked familiar. You're Zane Truesdale's little brother." She acknowledged.
Syrus nodded, feeling both peppy that Hikaru was talking to him and annoyed that she called him as Zane's younger brother. Well she wouldn't know him any other way, so he guessed it was all right.
"Yeah, I am..." He answered.
"I gotta say, I saw you duel in that tournament in Domino this summer on the live feed they were broadcasting."
Syrus gasped. "You did!?" Now he couldn't help but wonder what her opinion was. Thinking that made him blush more. He's only seen Hikaru twice and he already had gotten a crush on her. He felt like Jason last year with Asami.
Hikaru nodded. "You were good. You use Roids well. Although more practice could be needed. I don't mean to be rude, but there's always room for improvement."
Syrus nodded understandingly. "I totally get it. Always need to pass your limits, am I right?" He gave a sheepish grin that would make Jaden proud. Well... the old Jaden anyway. Syrus wasn't too sure about this one.
Hikaru nodded with a small smile. "Exactly."
"Hey!" Ken shouted, getting tired at both being ignored and for Syrus seemingly hitting it off with a cute girl. His shout made Syrus jump in his spot while Hikaru sighed. "Truesdale can't duel, so that means I win."
Hikaru seemed to briefly think something over before she shrugged. Both boys watched as she took off her backpack and pulled her duel disk out.
"I'll duel. If it means shutting you up, then I'll gladly do it." She pulled out her deck from her blue deck box. "Ready to get trounced?"
Ken glared as they both went to stand on the platform. Syrus was left on the side of it, watching.
"I won't lose to you," Ken declared as he put his deck in. "I'll incinerate you."
Hikaru now had an idea of what his deck was, but didn't voice anything. Her response was shuffling her deck and putting it in before activating her duel disk.
"Duel!"
Hikaru: 8000
Ken: 8000
"I'll start..." Hikaru drew her sixth card. "I'll simply place this monster facedown and end my turn." She concluded as one card appeared on her field.
Syrus blinked at the weird move. "That's all she's gonna do?"
Ken laughed. "This is gonna be easier than I thought." Hikaru didn't respond to his remark. Ken drew. "I'll begin by activating Dark World Dealings. Now we both draw and then discard a card."
Hikaru shrugged as she complied with the effects.
"Then I'll remove my monster, Ultimate Baseball Kid, to special summon out Inferno!"
Appearing on his field was a head made of flames with a sinister grin. (ATK: 1100/DEF: 1900)
"I'll summon out my UFO Turtle in attack mode!" A robotic looking turtle appeared by the head of flames. (ATK: 1400/DEF: 1200) "Now I'll go for your facedown monster with UFO Turtle!"
The robotic turtle breathed fire towards Hikaru's facedown monster. Amongst the flames was a mechanical bunny with red eyes and 'Love It' imprinted on the head in blue. (ATK: 800/DEF: 100)
It was destroyed easily.
"Aww man!" Syrus whined. "Hikaru's monster didn't stand a chance."
Despite it all, Hikaru smirked. "That was my Mecha Bunny. When it's flipped up, I can select a card on the field, like your Turtle, and deal 500 points of damage."
Ken groaned as a red aura surrounded him.
Hikaru: 8000
Ken: 7500
"And another Bunny comes to my field." She finished as another facedown card appeared on the field.
Ken growled. "Well I'll attack with my Inferno anyway!" He said as his second monster unleashed another flame attack towards Hikaru's second Bunny.
"I select Inferno." She chose.
"Well when Inferno destroys a monster, you lose 1500 life points." Ken smirked. "Looks like I'm ahead, huh?" He laughed as Inferno's flames continued to Hikaru.
Hikaru: 6500
Ken: 7000
"I'll place my final Bunny facedown." She slapped her third copy on her disk, not at all fazed by his attack.
"I'll end my turn with two facedowns." Ken concluded.
"Hikaru lost way more than Ken did from both her attacks." Syrus frowned. "It's not looking good for her."
"Don't count me out yet, Little Red." Hikaru said. "I haven't even begin to warm up." She revealed.
Ken scoffed. "With monsters like that, I'm not all that interested to see what you have."
Hikaru drew instead of responding, knowing her cards would do all the talking for her. "First I'll flip my Bunny up and select your Inferno again."
Her Bunny flipped up as another red aura surrounded Ken.
Hikaru: 6500
Ken: 6500
"And now my little friend will go to the graveyard as I sacrifice it to summon something else..."
In the place of her Bunny came out a very familiar and well known monster. It was a tall humanoid in a dark green suit, a bald head and had a pair of optic goggles and a metal mask on his face. (ATK: 2400/DEF: 1500)
Syrus immediately gasped at the monster. "Jinzo!"
Ken was also shocked. "But that means..."
Hikaru nodded. "Your traps are useless..." she nodded over to his Inferno. "Jinzo, attack with Cyber Energy Shock!"
Jinzo prepped a ball of energy and threw it to the flaming head, bowling it up instantly.
Hikaru: 6500
Ken: 5200
"And now I'll equip Jinzo with Amplifier so I can use traps and place a card facedown to end my turn." She concluded as a robotic helmet appeared on Jinzo's head.
Ken was not happy at a third of his deck being shut down. He underestimated her and was now backed in a corner. He needed to find a way out. He would not lose to someone associated with Truesdale.
He drew his card, having two. "I'll switch UFO Turtle to defense mode and set another monster to end my turn." He ended as his turtle took a knee and a facedown monster appeared.
Hikaru drew, having four. "I'll attack UFO Turtle with Cyber Energy Shock."
Ken was confused. "Why? I'll just be able to summon another one."
Hikaru nodded. "Yeah, you're right..." she held up a card that showed a wrecking ball crashing into a wall and sending a machine flying. "But my Aftershock card allows my Jinzo to deal piercing damage." She explained.
Ken was horrified as Jinzo's attack went on ahead and inflicted damage to him anyway.
Hikaru: 6500
Ken: 4000
"I'll special summon another UFO Turtle!" He brought a second turtle to the field. (ATK: 1400/DEF: 1200)
Syrus was in awe. 'Wow... She's amazing.' He felt his face heat up. He immediately realized what he was thinking and regained his composure.
Hikaru shrugged. "I end."
Ken glared. "Are you even trying!?" He was angered by her nonchalant attitude towards the whole duel.
She angered him more by shaking her head. "Why would I have to try? You're not exactly giving me a reason to do so."
Syrus almost laughed.
Ken snatched the next card from his disk. "I'll make you regret those words." He looked at the card he drew and smirked. "I'll play Pot of Greed!" He drew twice. "I'll activate two copies of Meteor of Destruction!"
"Hikaru!" Syrus gasped out as two balls of flames flew down and struck the female Obelisk. She kept her ground, despite the pain.
Hikaru: 4500
Ken: 4000
"Now I'll flip summon my Thing in the Crater!"
The facedown monster flipped up to show a black creature that was encased with flames. (ATK: 1000/DEF: 1200)
"And now I'll attack..."
"Huh?" Syrus asked. "Why would he do that?"
"Because of his special ability..." Syrus turned around at the new voice, seeing both Asami and Jaden walk in the arena. "When destroyed, that allows Ken to summon any Pyro monster from his hand."
Jaden nodded. "It's dangerous if done right." He smirked down to his friend. "So..." he kneeled down to his ear. "Spending time with Hikaru, Sy ol buddy?" He teased.
Syrus turned redder than his blazer. "What?" He whispered. "No! She's only doing this because I don't have my deck!"
Asami giggled. "You don't have to be defensive." She said.
Hikaru looked over to see Jaden, immediately feeling something build in her chest. She shook it off so she could focus on the duel.
"What're you two doing here?" Syrus asked.
"Walking around," Jaden explained. "We were just finishing up our final class with Professor Sartyr. We heard commotion going on, so we decided to check it out."
"Class ended awhile ago," Syrus reminded. "What were you two doing so late?" He asked.
They both got embarrassed. It was Asami who answered. "Jaden fell asleep and I tried to wake him up."
"We both got caught and had to listen to Professor Sartyr tell us about why it's not good to fall asleep in class." Jaden finished.
She pouted. "I didn't even fall asleep."
"And I said I was sorry." Jaden apologized. It just happened. One moment he was awake and the next he was passing out. He suspected it had something to do with his lack of sleep last night.
Asami smiled. "I know..." She gave him a hug as she quickly kissed his cheek. "I'm not mad."
Jaden laughed, blushing a little bit. "Yeah, I know."
Hikaru got more annoyed than she should've.
"I still think that's really cool..." Syrus noted. They looked at him confused. "That you two and Jason and Alexis can be affectionate like that with each other." He explained.
Jaden shrugged. "It just means we all love each other as family. Family can kiss and hug and all that stuff."
Asami nodded. "Agreed. We know that Jason and I love each other and that Jaden and Alexis love one another. It's no big deal."
"Hey!" Ken brought the attention back to the duel. "Can we continue!?"
"We never said to stop." Jaden shrugged.
Ken glared but allowed his monster to continue the suicide mission to Hikaru's Jinzo. The cybernetic monster prepped another ball of energy as it destroyed the Thing in the Crater.
Hikaru: 4500
Ken: 2600
"And now I can summon any Pyro monster in my hand." He grabbed one of his two remaining cards. "I'll summon Pyrotech Mech- Shiryu in attack mode!"
A pillar of purple flames engulfed part of Ken's field. When the flames settled, it was a blue bird with wings made from the purple flames. It flew above Ken. (ATK: 2900/DEF: 1800)
"Destroy her Jinzo!" He command as the bird cawed and unleashed a deadly stream of purple flames that engulfed her Jinzo. The flames were so powerful that Hikaru had to cover her face with her duel disk.
Hikaru: 4000
Ken: 2600
"UFO Turtle, attack her directly!" The turtle charged and headbutted Hikaru.
Hikaru: 2600
Ken: 2600
"Now that Jinzo is gone, I can play my two facedowns; go Meteor Flare and Reckless Greed!" He shouted as both his cards flipped up. "First Reckless Greed let's me draw twice at the cost of drawing for my next two turns." He did. "But now Meteor Flare let's me discard two cards and deal 2000 points of damage since your life points are over 3000."
"What!?" Everyone shouted.
Hikaru grumbled. "Damn, this is gonna suck." She mumbled. She braced herself as a pillar of flames appeared beneath her and engulfed her, making her scream.
Hikaru: 600
Ken: 2600
He laughed. "Oh man this is fun! I was hoping to pay Truesdale back for last year's defeat, but attacking and beating you is just as satisfying."
Syrus glared. He really hated how Ken was mocking Hikaru. She stood up for him and he appreciated that greatly. To see her get hurt because of it angered him.
Hikaru breathed. "Damn... Well, nothing I can't come back from." She said.
Ken laughed. "You're about to lose and you still think you can come back?"
Hikaru nodded. "Don't count me out until my life points are zero." She warned. She drew, having four. "I'll play my Pot of Greed." The grinning pot appeared to allow her to draw before shattering.
Hikaru drew. "Time to win."
"Oh, sounds like she has a plan." Asami mused.
"I summon Jinzo – Returner in attack mode!" He announced as he placed the card on the field. Everyone raised an eyebrow as the light materialized into a gruesome humanoid with yellow goggles. He wore a black jumpsuit and large, spiked, golden shoulder pads. His mouth was even stitched closed. (ATK: 600/DEF: 1400)
"A kid Jinzo?" They all asked.
Hikaru nodded. "Yep, now I can play the Psychic Wave spell card!" She declared, showing off a spell card depicting an underground duelist facing against Jinzo and Jinzo– Returner. "With a Jinzo– Returner on the field, I can send a Jinzo from my deck to the graveyard and deal damage equal to Returner's ATK!"
Hikaru discarded Jinzo as Returner prepared a mini ball of psychic energy and threw it to Ken.
Hikaru: 600
Ken: 2000
"Then I'll play Soul Release to remove both Jinzo's from play." She pocketed both her cards.
"And now I play Spell Economics so I don't have to pay points to do this..." She took her second to last card. "I play Dimension Fusion to bring both Jinzos to the field!"
Two carbon copy's of Jinzo appeared ready to fight. (ATK: 2400/DEF: 1500)×2
"Now I reveal my facedown card..."
"Traps can't be played with Jinzo out!" Ken shouted.
"Who said it was a trap?" Hikaru smirked at Ken's dumbfounded face. "I play Gift of the Martyr to raise one Jinzo's ATK points by the other's."
One Jinzo dissolved into purple energy and was subsequently absorbed by the other Jinzo, making sparks shoot out of his body. (ATK: 2400-4800)
Ken gulped.
Hikaru smirked. "I win..."
Jinzo prepared a Cyber Energy Shock that was the size of a basketball. It shot towards Pyrotech and once connected, caused an explosion that rattled the arena.
Hikaru: 600
Ken: 100
"Jinzo- Returner... Finish him."
"But my Turtle is still out!" Ken protested.
"Returner can attack directly." Hikaru explained, making Ken sweat as he realized that he lost.
Jinzo- Returner prepared a tiny ball of energy, but it was enough to send Ken to his knees when hit by it.
Hikaru: 600 (Winner)
Ken: 0
The holograms disappeared. "That's all," Hikaru said as she descended down the arena.
Jaden, Asami, and Syrus were impressed to say the least. "She's amazing!" Asami gasped.
"I didn't even know Jinzo had other cards to it." Jaden added, more intrigued than he has been in the last few weeks. That duel Hikaru wanted was looking very good for the near future.
"I think I'm in love..." Syrus whispered, gasping right after at hearing that slip out his mouth. He hoped to god no one heard that. He was visibly glad that no one did.
Hikaru nodded to Syrus as she walked up to them. "Now he'll think twice about going for revenge." She stated.
"Thank you." Syrus bowed.
Hikaru smiled. "I was happy to be of help." She turned away. "I'll see you guys around." She spared a final glance to Jaden before she walked out the arena.
The three were left in the arena, all still stunned by Hikaru's final move. She was definitely gonna make this year interesting outside of the drama that was still going on.
Haou and Yubel appeared behind Jaden, the latter looking to the former as he shook his head to the unasked question. Yubel frowned before she nodded and disappeared.
Haou stuck around as he carefully examined Jaden's aura. Making out the small traces of black, he sighed as he faded away.
Jaden was getting angrier and more unstable as the days rolled on. Any longer and he will make the city of Domino regret their choice to put Jaden back on the street.
End of Chapter 4 of Gentle Darkness vs. Light of Destruction
How do you like Misaki and Hikaru? Misaki's cute and energetic while Hikaru is more focused and calm.
Jaden may not look it, but Haou is right at the end. We'll see Jaden's instability next time.
I hope you guys liked the little JasonxAlexis and JadenxAsami stuff. This isn't a romantic thing. They just love each other as siblings and care about each other after all they went through. Their friendship is actually big in the coming chapters.
We got Gem-Knights as a thing! Hopefully you all liked the surprise. I'm gonna have a fun time with Misaki's duels. Hikaru's too since she has two decks, one a Machine/Jinzo, points for you if you can guess where I'm going with this, and one that you'll see later.
I should let you know that we're gonna have a lot of character development stuff going on. We'll be hitting a lot of emotional stuff before Aster returns. I need to address Jaden's and Jason's recovery from the trauma they went through over the summer. That's a reason why this chapter was late. I was planning a bunch of chapters that'll showcase Jaden and Jason's recovery. We're gonna have a lot more this story than a redo of Season 2.
Plus I was helping to design a few new archetypes for my brother's upcoming GX story. I'll be co-writing it with him and will be handing him my OCs to use. This includes Jason, Asami, Misaki, and Hikaru. More details will be enclosed in the opening AN next chapter.
Hope you leave a review and have a nice day.
Next Time: Chapter 5