A/N: Finally! I'm done! Whew! I'm glad to finally get that off my chest and mind. OK so, I fully realize and understand that this is perhaps the absolute worse story I've ever written, and also that the ending is probably rushed. Sorry about that. I also apologise for the gawd-awful job I did with the duel scenes. I know most of the cards aren't real, the effects are bogus and that the whole thing is terrible in every way. I realize that. But in my own defense, I just wanted to get this done and over with, and I do not expect anyone at all to review this. Anyway, enough stalling, without further adieu, here's the last chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh GX or any of the characters.
"Hey Rini! Wanna duel?"
Rini and her friends all stopped and turned around, noticing the small Ra Yellow boy smiling behind her. They were just walking back from the Slifer dorms and heading towards the school.
"Go on Rei, we'll wait for you!" Jaden said encouragingly.
"Yea!" Syrus added. "I like watching you duel."
That did it.
Rini turned around and smiled at the Ra boy.
"You sure about that Hiro?" She asked playfully.
"I'm sure!" Hiro replied excitedly. "I know I probably won't win, but I'm sure gonna try my best! I've wanted to duel you for a long time!"
Rini felt greatly flattered and her smile widened.
"Alright Hiro, you've got yourself a duel!"
Hiro grinned wide and set up his duel disk.
"Alright!" He cheered enthusiastically. "Thanks Rini! OK, I'm ready!"
"Then let's duel!" Rini shouted. "Why don't you go first?"
"OK! First I play Dandelion in defense mode. Then I lay down two face downs and end my turn."
Rini smiled. The move was a little feeble to say the least, with a feeble monster to finish. But then again, the boy was only a first year and he wasn't in Ra for nothing. She knew better then to underestimate him.
"Alright. I play Gemini Elf in attack mode. Gemini, attack his Dandelion."
Rini watched as her monster attacked and destroyed Hiro's monster.
Off to the side, five people gasped in shock and surprise.
"Is... that a new card?" Jaden asked in confusion.
"It must be." Alexis added uncertainly. "I've never seen it before."
"But... but that monster doesn't go with anything in her deck at all..." Syrus said in confusion.
"He's right." Bastion spoke up. "Having that monster in her deck completely throws it out of balance. What could she be thinking? She had the perfect formula all worked out, her deck was perfect.... What on earth does she think she's doing?"
Chazz snorted and crossed his arms.
"I'm telling you, the girl's lost it. She actually looked kinda cute once, and she ruined that, she used to be all nice and quiet and sweet and now she's all snobby and stuck up to most people, and now she's ruined a perfectly good deck! And to make matters worse, she's crushing on a complete dork!"
The others all exchanged worried looks. Chazz was right -- except maybe for the last part -- Rini had changed, and unless this card was the only one like it in her deck, they all had a feeling she was in big trouble.
"Aw man." Hiro voiced. "You didn't get a new deck did you? I was looking forward to battling your old one."
Rini's smile slipped a little.
"This ones just as good." She countered defensively. Hiro looked a little taken aback.
"Um... OK. Sorry Rini. I guess it's my move again. Since you destroyed my Dandelion, I get to have two Dandelion tokens on my side of the field. Next I play Sunfleur in defense mode. Since it only has five hundred attack points, I use the equip spell Rays Of Sunlight! This gives my monster an extra five hundred attack points. It's still not quite enough, but I'm hoping that'll change the next round. OK Rini, your turn."
Rini looked down at her hand.
"These cards are all weak. And worst of all... I don't know how to use them all."
Rini frowned. She had gotten a new deck, one comprised of all female and girly monsters -- just like Alexis' deck. She had just gotten them that morning and hadn't really gotten a chance to go over them and learn how they worked. This was her
first duel and so far she wasn't doing so hot.
"I play two face downs and end my turn." Rini mumbled. Hiro looked surprised.
"Really? That's it?"
Rini gave him a small glare.
"Of course that's it. If there was more, I would have done it!"
Hiro looked a little hurt.
"Right... Sorry Rini... Anyway, I draw -- and play my field spell Field Of Flowers. This boosts the attack of all flower-type monsters on the field by one thousand. Now my Sunfleur has enough power to destroy your monster, so, Sunfleur, attack her Elf."
Rini frowned as her monster was destroyed. She then remembered her face downs and mentally smacked her forehead.
"I could have blocked that attack!" She scolded herself. She then sighed and drew a card.
"I play Arc Angel in attack mode. I also equip her with Staff of Justice. This boosts her attack power by one-thousand. Arc Angel, attack his Sunfleur!"
"Sorry Rini!" Hiro interrupted. "I play my face down card Tree Hugger! This card takes any attack directed at my flower monsters and aims it back at you."
Rini gasped as her monster fell backwards from the reflected blast.
"Also, thanks to my Sunfleur's special ability, because you failed to destroy him with an attack, you take five hundred points of damage."
Rini's eyes bugged as her life points dropped to a mere eleven hundred.
"What a special ability!" She thought in awe. "How can a tiny flower monster be so powerful??"
Rini shook her head and frowned.
"Then I switch my monster to defense mode and end my turn."
Hiro drew.
"I play Baby Daisy in defense mode. Because of my field spell, it gets another one thousand life points. I also equip it with the spell card Miracle growth, which sort of ages him a little. Now he's a full-grown flower, and with him, his attack points grow too. Daisy also has a special ability; if none of the monsters on your side of the field are flower-types, it can attack you directly."
Rini swallowed hard as the pathetic looking flower monster attacked her and knocked her lifepoints down to six hundred.
"Oh no!" She thought in a panic. "I'm going to loose!"
"And that ends my turn." Hiro said, sounding very proud of himself.
Rini swallowed again and placed her hand on top of her deck.
"I've only got one chance to do this... this draw could be my last. Come on deck, if there's anything good in there, show me now!"
Rini drew and pulled out a card. Starring down at it, she realized in awe that this card may just the the one and only card that could save her.
"Alright Hiro. I play Rose Goddess in attack mode. I also equip her with the spell cards crown of flowers and rose whip. And because she's a flower type monster, thanks to your field spell, she gains an extra one thousand attack points. Due to her
special ability, she can attack three monsters in one turn."
Rini watched and waited as her monster attacked and destroyed Hiro's two monsters and one of his tokens.
"Now, thanks to the effect of Rose whip, if one or more of the monsters she attacked was a flower-type, you lose five hundred life points for each one."
Hiro starred in awe as his life points dropped to four hundred.
"I still have one monster left, and thanks to it's special ability, if you have no monsters on your field with an attack above three hundred, it gets to attack you directly. So, Arch Angel, attack him and end this!"
Hiro starred in awe as his life points depleted. After a long time, he finally grinned wide and ran up to Rini, clenching his fists together in front of him excitedly.
"Thanks so much Rini! That was so awesome! I really thought I had you there for a while, but just like always, you came back and won! You're so awesome! Wait til I tell my friends I dueled you! Thanks again!"
Rini nodded and Hiro bolted away. Normally she would be blushing up to her ears with flattery and embarrassment. But not this time. She had never won with less than half her life points, but this time she'd very nearly lost.
Rini looked down at her new deck and frowned.
"This isn't my deck... this is wrong..."
But before she could further her thoughts, her friends all ran up to her, smiling and patting her arm and shoulder approvingly. It was hard to accept their praise when she felt as terrible as she did.
"Thanks guys." She said absently.
The group was about to leave to go to classes when a loud voice boomed over the intercom and echoed over the entire school grounds.
"Attention all students." Chancellor Sheppard announced. "Classes are cancelled for the rest of the afternoon. All students are required to report to the gymnasium immediately for a surprise duel."
Rini and the others all looked at each other before turning and heading inside the school.
When everyone arrived at the gym, they all took their seats.
"Now then, is everyone here?" Chancellor Sheppard asked. "Good. Let's begin. This afternoon will be dedicated to a few practice duels, courtesy of Dr. Crowler. We have selected a few students to duel this afternoon. Those of you who don't get to duel today will be expected to cheer on your fellow classmates nonetheless. Now then, the first group of duelists to duel will be Rini Yumi and Carson Hiegel, Jeremy...."
Rini tuned out the rest of Chancellor Sheppard's words as her mouth dropped.
"No..." She said in horror. Syrus placed a hand on her shoulder.
"What's wrong Rini." He asked in concern.
"I... I can't duel him! Not today!"
"Why not?" Jaden asked in confusion.
"B-because I... I don't have..."
Rini looked down at her deck and frowned. The others all understood immediately.
"Don't worry." Syrus said encouragingly. "You'll do fine. You just beat that kid outside with this deck."
Rini's frown deepened.
"Yea but, he was just a first year Ra student. Carson is the top duelist in Ra yellow!"
Syrus smiled at her.
"That's OK. You can do it, I know you can. We all do. We'll be here rooting for you the whole way."
The others all agreed and encouraged her in their own way. Rini sighed miserably and stood up, then proceeded to walk down to the dueling arena.
As she decended the stairs, Rini passed Dr. Crowler and paused. He had his arms crossed and his nose in the air.
"Sir... I can't do this.... I.. this isn't..."
Crowler looked down the length of his nose at her.
"This is for your own good Ms. Yumi. As I said before, you're an excellent student and I intend to prove it. You don't need to and shouldn't dumb yourself down, or change who you are for anyone, especially some Slifer Slacker boy. If this is the only
way to prove it to you, then so be it."
Rini frowned deeply.
"Yes sir." She said timidly, then proceeded to descend the stairs.
When Rini finally reached the bottom, she stood in front of her opponent, who smiled at her kindly.
"Ready?" He asked.
"No..." She thought miserably.
"Ready as I'll ever be." She replied instead, forcing a fake smile.
"OK then. Lets begin."
Rini nodded and Carson drew a card.
"I'll go first. I play Galaxy knight in defense mode. I also equip him with Star Staff. I then place two cards face-down and end my turn."
Rini swallowed hard and looked down at her cards.
"I play Lovely princess in attack mode and equip her with crystal tiara..." Rini said nervously. "That boosts her attack points by one thousand. Lovely Princess, attack his knight."
Carson smiled.
"Sorry Rini, I can't let you do that. Thanks to the effect of Star Staff, if any monster who isn't space oriented trys to attack my knight, it's automatically destroyed."
Rini gasped and Carson gave her a lopsided smile.
"I thought you were well-practiced in all the spell, magic and trap cards Rini? Are you feeling OK?"
Rini starred down at her cards miserably. She wasn't feeling OK. Her mind was in utter turmoil and her heart was being pulled in too many different directions. These cards weren't her own. She had no connection with them, no bond, no past. Heck, she barely even knew how to use them. She'd missed many opportunities to win the duel early with Hiro, and she had forgotten many of her trap and spell cards. Half of them she didn't bother to play because she didn't know how. Even now, the cards in her hand were so alien to her.
Rini squeezed her eyes shut. She'd done all of this for Syrus. She'd changed everything about herself, even her deck -- and she hated it. She hated the way she looked now, the way she was acting and most of all, she hated the fact that she had abandoned her deck just to impress someone. All because she wanted Syrus to notice her. Well he did notice her. He had noticed her all along. So maybe he didn't like her as more than a friend, and maybe he hadn't quite talked to her lately because he liked someone else. Well that was OK, she couldn't change the way he felt. She felt good being herself and horrible being someone else. Enough was enough.
"Rini...? You OK?"
Rini opened her eyes and looked at Carson to see that he was eyeing her worriedly. Looking up at her friends and around at others, she could see that they were all worried about her too -- especially Syrus.
Finally, Rini looked back at her opponent.
"No I'm not OK." She said firmly. "I'm not OK because I'm not me!"
Rini kicked off her high-heels and pulled out the long blonde hair extensions. She then removed the deck in her duel disk and tossed it, allowing a random first-year girl in the front row to catch it.
"I'm sorry Carson, I can't duel you. Not while I'm someone else and not without my deck. These last few days have been nothing but a joke. I was sick of not being noticed -- at least by someone special to me -- so I decided to change who I was. I changed my looks, most of my personality, and even my precious deck. And ya know what? I hated it! I did all this for one person, and it didn't get me anywhere. He still doesn't feel the same way about me as I do him, and you know the funny part? He's the only one who didn't notice. Even Jaden noticed! That's pretty bad! -- No offense Jay."
"Hey, none taken." Jaden called from the stands. Rini continued.
"So you see, until I get my old deck back, I can't duel you Carson. I'm sorry."
"So let her go get her deck!" A random person shouted from the crowd. This was seconded again and again by more and more people until most of the arena was cheering for Rini to fetch her deck.
Chancellor Sheppard looked down at the two duelists.
"Well, that's up to her opponent. What do you say Carson?"
Carson smiled at Rini and shrugged.
"Sure. I mean, how am I supposed to know who's better if one of us isn't even at the top of their game. You can't give it your all if you don't have you heart in it right?
Chancellor Sheppard smiled.
"Well put. There you have it Rini. Go get your real deck."
Rini beamed and looked over at Carson.
"Thank you!" She said gratefully, then turned and bolted towards her dorm.
Rini flew to her room and quickly ran inside. She changed as fast as humanly possible into her own clothes and shoes and and sighed happily. She then ran to the bathroom and ran her hair under hot water, scrubbing and scrubbing until every
last strand of blonde hair was back to it's purple and blue hue. She then ran a towel through it roughly, thanking the stars that she'd chosen temporary dye, then ran from the bathroom, grabbed her deck and bolted again from the dorm.
No more than fifteen minutes later Rini was back in the arena again, her hair having dried by now from the long run.
"Sorry I'm late!" She said as she skidded to a stop in front of her opponent. "Had a few things I needed to take care of."
Carson smiled at her.
"No problem. I'm just glad things are back to normal. Love the new look by the way, much more you."
Rini beamed playfully at his teasing words and put her deck in her duel disk.
"OK, now I'm ready. Let's duel!"
Rini finished the duel with twenty-five hundred life points and the entire arena broke out into deafening applause and cheers. Her opponent gave her one last smile and walked up to her, extending his hand.
"You really are something Rini Yumi." He said admirably. "I was glad I got the chance to duel you and I'm glad you decided to get rid of everything holding you back. Whoever this person is, he's one lucky guy."
Rini returned his smile.
"Thanks."
Just then Jaden and the others came running up to her with huge smiled on their faces.
"Way to go Rini!!" They all shouted excitedly. "You were awesome."
Rini smiled as she accepted all their praise and hugs.
"Thanks guys." She said happily. When they were all done, they all -- save Chazz -- smiled at her.
"Welcome back Rei." Jaden said happily. The others mimicked him.
Rini beamed.
"It's good to be back."
Alexis elbowed Chazz who sighed in annoyance and crossed his arms.
"Welcome back Rei." He said, pretending to sound annoyed and indifferent.
"Thanks Chazz."
Her eyes then fell on Syrus, who, for the first time, smiled at her shyly.
"Glad you're back Rei." He said with a smile. "I like you much better this way."
Rini's heart skipped a beat.
"Thanks Sy. That means a lot coming from you."
Syrus tilted his head to one side.
"Really? Why?"
Rini blushed.
"Um, well... because it does."
"That's not a very good reason Rei." Jaden said suggestively.
"No, it's not." Bastion added. "Why don't you tell him the real reason?"
Syrus gave her a questioning look and and Rini's blush deepened.
"Ummm.... Well.... Syrus, I... The reason...."
Rini bit her lip and looked away from Syrus.
"You're the reason I did what I did..... I really like you Syrus... I have for a long time and .... and I know you just want to be friends and I'm OK with that now. I just wanted you to know."
Syrus' face suddenly appeared in front of Rini and she was a little surprised to see that he was not only beaming at her, but blushing wildly as well.
"Who says I just wanna be friends?" He asked shyly. Rini gave him a surprised look and Syrus blushed harder and spoke again.
"What if I said I liked you too?"
Rini's jaw dropped.
"I think I'd drop dead with a heart attack." She said softly. Then something clicked in her head.
"I thought you liked Alexis?"
This time Syrus looked surprised.
"Huh? Why would you think that?"
Rini blinked at him.
"Well... because.... because..... I don't know! It just seemed like it, I was so sure you did!"
Syrus blinked at her, then smiled again.
"I don't like Alexis.... at last not like that."
Rini's eyes clouded with confusion and Syrus smiled again.
"I've always kinda liked you Rini." He said shyly. "Maybe not quite as much as you, but I did. But I never had the courage to say anything cause you were so.... so out of my league."
Rini's head reeled.
"Out of your league?" She repeated in disbelief. "What in the name of duel monsters is that supposed to mean?"
"Well..." Syrus began slowly. "I mean, you were always popular, and really smart, and you're an amazing duelist."
Rini smiled.
"I had a lot of friends Syrus. That didn't mean I was popular. Besides, most of my friends were yours too."
"No they weren't." Syrus replied sullenly.
"Yes they were... are." Rini insisted. "You just don't realize it."
Syrus looked at his feet and scuffed his shoe.
"Anyway, now that you know, and... ya know, not that-"
Syrus's sentence was cut short and his eyes widened as Rini tilted her head and pressed her lips to his. It was only a small, affectionate kiss, but a kiss nonetheless.
The group all around them immediately erupted into loud whoops and cat calls. Both Rini and Syrus blushed furiously. But Rini was smiling.
"Guess it would have been easier to just confess my feelings first huh?" She whispered to Syrus. Syrus smiled shyly.
"Yea, that would have been a lot easier." Syrus whispered back.
"Come on you guys." Alexis said, grinning at the two. "Let's go sit down and watch the rest of the duels."
"Sounds good." Jaden agreed.
Rini looked at Syrus and noticed that he was watching her through the corner of his eye. She laughed lightly and laced her fingers with his.
"I'm not out of your league Syrus." She whispered in his ear. "And you have no idea how long I've waited for this."
Syrus gave her a smile and squeezed her hand lightly.
"Well now you don't have to wait any more." He whispered back. He then leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to Rini's cheek. Rini smiled wide and followed her friends up the stairs. When they all reached their seats and sat down, Rini got comfortable and leaned over to lay her head on Syrus' shoulder. Syrus blushed again but smiled proudly. He slipped an arm around her shoulder and laced his free hand with hers.
Rini smiled happily as she starred down at the duels going on below.
"No more lies or pretending." She vowed solemnly.
It took her a while and a few trials to learn it, but she now understood; honesty really is the best policy. Rini turned her head towards the stairs and saw looking at her. He gave her a smile a small smile and a nod, a silent gesture that told her she did good and he was proud of her. She smiled back and returned his nod.
"Thank you Dr. Crowler." She thought gratefully. Crowler turned forwards again and Rini snuggled closer to Syrus. She was done changing, now it was time to start living.