Chapter 7
"Are you sure this is the right way for us to figure out how Pendulum Summoning works?" Yuya asked as she equipped her duel disk.
"Well Yuya, you can't just watch the footage and come up with multiple scenarios as to why you were able to Pendulum Summon." Yaza stated as he equipped his own duel disk, "We need a way to test which scenario is correct. That way is through dueling. Besides, don't you want to test out the new Arc system we got?"
The teenage girl sighed as a small smile formed on her face, knowing her friend was spot on with his guess. Turning toward the window, she shouted for Gongenzaka to boot up the Action Field. Within seconds, she witnessed the white walls of the room fade away, replaced with lush greenery of grassy fields and flowers. Her mouth opened in awe as she took a moment to appreciate the graphics the Arc Computer generated. With the school's old Arc Computer, the graphics for the Action Field tended to be pixelated. But with the new one, the environment practically looked real.
"Got to admit, this is pretty cool. Now I'm kind of glad I accidentally broke the old one." Yaza commented.
"Oh so now you take the blame. Funny thing, I could I remember you specifically blaming me for the accident." Yuya teased.
With the roll of his eyes, the pink haired boy shouted for his friend to go first. If they wanted to learn the secret behind Pendulum Summoning, he knew they needed to recreate the duel against Sledgehammer. He watched as the fourteen year-old summoned Hip Hippo onto the field, the same Duel Monster she started with the previous day. He furrowed his brows in concern, noticing no changes with the girl's deck.
"Guess Hip Hippo didn't trigger anything." he muttered as he drew another card, "Maybe the key is damage; cards you can only summon when you take a certain amount of damage."
Yuya pursed her lips nervously. She didn't feel like damage was the answer, but with no knowledge as to what was the correct answer, she had no choice but to test the theory. Her body stiffened as she watched her friend summon Aria the Melodious Diva, a monster that looked like a pink skinned woman with a brown and pink dress, on the field. She couldn't explain it, but she always felt uneasy whenever she saw the duel monster. Quickly brushing her unease aside, she readied herself for the attack.
"Alright Aria! Attack Performapal Hip Hippo!" Yaza commanded with his hand out, prompting the Duel Monster to shoot soundwaves from its mouth by singing.
The green and red-haired girl flinched when the shockwaves hit and destroyed Hip Hippo, causing her life points to drop by 800. Although she knew it was part of testing scenarios, she couldn't help but feel bad for allowing her duel monster to be destroyed. She cared for her cards and shared a bond with them; they were things that help her push forward after her father's disappearance. Recalling why the duel was being held in the first place, she glanced down at her duel disk. No new cards were ejected from her duel disk upon receiving damage.
"Hmm." the fourteen year-old boy, began with his arms folded in thought, "Well in the duel in Sledgehammer, you did take a whole lot more than 800 points of damage. Let's try again!"
Upon hearing this suggestion, Yuya immediately shook her head whilst exclaiming "Yaza, if it didn't give me cards now, I seriously doubt it'll give me them later! Maybe it was just a coincidence that I was at low health."
"I guess that's that's true too." the pink-haired teen sighed, "Well that's about all the ideas I've come up with other than just setting the cards."
The female duelist couldn't help but raise her brow in interest at her friend's words. Out of all the possible scenarios they pictured, she never considered simply just setting the cards. Drawing a new card, she now finally held Timegazer Magician in her hand. Examining her cards, she noticed Timegazer and Odd-Eyes were the only Pendulum Cards she held at the moment.
Deciding to test her theory, she pick up the two cards and announced "I set the Pendulum Scale with the Scale Four Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and the Scale Eight Timegazer Magician!"
The instant she set the cards on her duel disk, the word "Pendulum" appeared in flashing rainbow colors. Her eyes brightened with excitement, quickly turning around to see Odd-Eyes and Timegazer floating above her in two beams of light with the numbers four and eight above them. Her heart nearly stopped out of joy, thrilled she had finally figured out the method behind the new summon. But unfortunately, when she tried to summon the rest of her cards from her hand, her duel disk beeped with an error message being displayed.
She nearly fell over in shock. Out of slight frustration, she immediately picked up one of her pendulum cards and slapped it back down, trying to force the summon to work. But each time she did this, the error message persisted. A whine of disappointment escaped Yuya's mouth whilst she leaned her head back.
"I don't get it. I thought I had it. I was able to set Odd-Eyes and Timegazer as scales, why can't I summon any my monsters?" she sighed.
Wordlessly she slid down to the ground, placing her goggles over her eyes. It frustrated her to no ends. She invented a new summoning method that granted her victory in a duel that would bring honor back to her father, yet has no memory of doing so. She wanted to continue using the Pendulum Summon, bringing smiles to everyone as she repaired her father's name bit by bit. But she couldn't do that, not when she had yet successfully to recreate the summon.
Noticing his friend's distress, Yaza hummed in thought, allowing his blue eyes to glance up at the two Pendulum Monsters still floating above the teenage girl.
Out of all the things in the scene before him, one thing captured his attention. It was the numbers above the two monsters, the four and eight. He knew they weren't numbers describing what level the monsters were. Timegazer Magician was a Level Three monster and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon was a Level Seven monster. He recalled his friend before she set the two cards, referring to the two as "Scale Four" and "Scale Eight." With that question answered, all he was left to ask himself was what was the importance of the scales.
Deciding to gain answers, he asked "Say Yuya, you mentioned Scales. What was Stargazer Magician's Scale number?"
Upon hearing this, Yuya's eyes widened in shock. Quickly pulling her goggles back on her forehead, she pulled out her deck and searched for Stargazer. Within seconds she found the card with the image of the magician dressed in white. Her breath hitched slightly with her heart racing in panic and hope. On the card, it detailed the Pendulum Monster as Scale One.
"On the recording, I said I was able to summon any monsters between Level Two and Seven." she noted to herself, her red eyes narrowed in concentration, "Those numbers are between one and eight. Odd-Eyes is Scale Four and I only had level three monsters in my hand. I wonder."
Deciding to test the theory, she stood up once more and removed the two set cards. Her hands slightly trembled, fearing her theory would only end in yet another failed attempt. But despite this, she was still willing to try.
Taking in a deep breath, she announced "I set the Pendulum Scale with the Scale One Stargazer Magician and Scale Eight Timegazer Magician!"
In that instant, the familiar two beams of light appeared with the two duel monsters hovering above the dueltainer. But instead of the error message appearing like before, a glowing portal appeared in the sky. Three lights shot out from the from the portal, taking the form of the duel monsters Yuya had in her hand at the time. She was left speechless as a grin slowly crept onto her face. Unable to to contain her joy, she cheered loudly, her fists thrust high into the air.
"Yaza, I did it! I Pendulum Summoned!" she laughed ecstatically, "I understand it now, I can keep on using it!"
Yaza couldn't help but smile at his beaming friend. Seeing her filled with so much happiness felt satisfying and strangely nostalgic for him. Though his happiness changed into shock when the teenage girl practically leapt into his arms for a hug. Due to the hug catching him off guard, he yelped as he crashed to the ground. He groaned as he blinked his blue eyes, finding his vision filled with red and green hair. Realizing his friend was on top of him, a blush formed on his face.
"Oh sorry about that Yaza. Guess I got a little too excited there." Yuya apologized with a bashful grin, pushing herself up into a sitting position.
The fourteen year-old boy was unable to utter anything, too flustered to come up with a response. All he could do was stare with his mouth hang open. Fortunately the embarrassment faded when he saw the teen girl stood up and hold out her hand for him. Much to his confusion, the scene triggered an image in his mind. For a few brief seconds, instead of seeing Yuya, he saw a man with white and green hair that shared the teen's face. He groaned in response, squeezing his eyes shut and shaking his head. Yet when he reopened his eyes, he saw the teenage girl standing before him once more.
"Yaza, is everything alright?" Yuya asked, noticing the strange silence in her friend.
The pink-haired boy blink silently, still baffled by the strange vision. He opened his mouth, intending to speak his worries, yet once again a strange voice advised him against doing so.
"Again, that voice again. First it told me not to tell about the shadow, now its telling me not to tell about that guy I saw with Yuya's face. But why, are these thing connected?" he thought in concern, "I don't know, but both that shadow and that guy give me an uneasy feeling. If this voice doesn't want Yuya to know about this, then I better listen."
Refusing to let his friend catch on, he smiled as he replied "Well gee, I did get knocked over by you. Consider me a bit dazed."
Without another word, he accepted the hand extended to him and pulled himself up.
"Are you two done flirting now? I was hoping maybe I can test my deck against Yuya's now that she knows how to Pendulum Summon." Gongenzaka stated over the intercom.
Upon hearing this, the two teen's faces turned bright red as they shouted "We weren't flirting!"
After long training sessions, nightfall had come once again. Yuya's hands clenched her sheets tightly with her body tossing and turning. In her dream, she found herself standing atop of Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon with the sound of cheers surrounding her. Her eyes glanced worryingly at the faceless crowd. She couldn't explain it, but their cheers felt unsettling. Returning her attention to the stadium, much to her surprise, she was not alone. Standing by Odd-Eyes were none other than three dragons with a rider on each. Unfortunately, she couldn't tell who the riders were due to their bodies being silhouettes of light; that being blue, green, and purple.
She didn't know who the figures were, yet they felt familiar to her. Suddenly, without warning, she saw the blue glowing figure turn their head toward her. The teenage girl suddenly felt herself overwhelmed with emotions of sadness and anger. Lifting her hand to her face, she was shocked to learn tears had began pouring from her eyes without her knowledge. Before she could even question her strange emotions, the figure extended their hand out to her. In that instant, she felt as if she had entered a calming trance. Without any hesitation, she reached out for the figure's hand. As she did this, there was only one thought on her mind, and that was to become one.
Right as she was about to touch the figure's hand, a bright light filled her vision with a female voice crying out her name. Yuya sucked in a sharp breath as her eyes snapped wide open. Her hands trembled as she ran them through her hair, trying to recall her dream. Yet no matter how much she tried, she couldn't completely recall it. The only thing she could see was the blurry image of a figure made of a glowing blue light.
"Ugh, is it just me, or am I getting plagued more than usual with these bizarre dreams I can't remember?" she groaned as she laid back, "Why does the weird stuff always keep happening around me?"
But unknown to Yuya, she wasn't the only one experiencing the mysterious dream.
Yuto shouted as he awoke in a panic. His brow was covered in a cold sweat as his body trembled. Taking a frantic look at his surroundings, he saw he was still in the same place he had fallen asleep; the storage warehouses of Maimi City. Recalling the reason why he was now in the Standard Dimension, his jaw tightened whilst his body tensed. Fortunately, he was provided a distraction in the form of groaning. Turning to his left, he saw a tired Shun sitting up, still clearly tired as he rubbed his eyes.
"Gee Yuto, why don't you yell louder. I think I can still hear in this ear." the green-haired teen grumbled with a yawn.
Seeing his friend was still clearly tired, Yuto sighed in apology "Sorry about that. It's just I had another nightmare. Like the others I can't remember it all that well. Only thing I remember was this figure made of a glowing red light."
"Glowing red light, that's a new one. Didn't your other nightmares usually involve a dragon." Shun commented, drowsiness still lingering in his tone.
The fourteen year-old silently nodded his head.
Letting out another yawn, the older teen advised his friend to ignore the nightmare and return to sleep.
While he intended to do so, Yuto didn't quite fall asleep immediately. His gray eyes glanced up to the sky, memories filling his mind of often sitting under the night sky with Ruri. Taking in a deep breath, he settled back on the ground.
As his eyes slipped close, he whispered under his breath "Ruri, just hold on. Shun and I will get you back, no matter what."
With the last of his words, he fell into slumber.
The next day, at Miami Second Middle School, Yuya drowsily tried paying attention to the teacher's words. Due to her nightmare, she wasn't able to get much sleep that night. Her mind grew foggy with the desperate need for sleep. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to fight urge, prompting her to slump over her desk.
Yaza panicked the instant he noticed the red and green-haired girl fall asleep. His panic only grew when he saw the teacher finish writing out the question, calling upon Yuya to answer it.
Acting on instinct alone, he whacked his friend's arm lightly. Much to displeasure, this action didn't quite worked like he had hoped.
Upon being woken up from the whack, Yuya jolted out of her seat, announcing her Pendulum Summon whilst doing so. It took a few seconds for it dawn on her that she was not in the middle of a duel, rather she was in the middle of class. She slowly and nervously lowered her arms as the teacher marched over her with a strict glare.
"Sakaki, does this look like a classroom or a dueling arena?" the teacher said, his arms tightly folded across his chest.
Due to the growing nervousness, the teen smiled nervously and replied "If I say dueling arena, will I not get in trouble?"
Yaza was completely floored by his friend's answer. He couldn't help but groan as the teacher dragged the fourteen year-old over to the front of the class, demanding she write the answer on the board. Much to his relief the rest of the school day proceeded as normally. Once classes were over, he glared annoyingly over at his bashfully grinning friend.
"Look Yuya, I know you were excited you figured out how to Pendulum Summon. But please, try to remember you have a life outside of dueling." he scolded.
"Oh you worry too much Yaza." Yuya replied with a small laugh, "Honestly the only time you give me that glare is when you're about to smack me with your paper fan."
"I'm actually very tempted to bring it out. I do carry it with me everywhere." the pink-haired teen replied, his voice carrying a hint of a threat.
As the two made their way to the school gates, the noticed three small children waiting excitedly for them. Yuya immediately recognized the chubby boy and the red-haired girl as Futoshi and Ayu, but the blue-haired boy she did not know. Searching her memories, she immediately recognized the child as the one who had watched her duel at the school with his mother.
"Yuya Nee-chan, this is Tatsuya. He said he saw your duel against Sledgehammer and really wanted to meet you." Ayu said happily, nudging Tatsuya a bit closer to the teenage girl.
"Go on, just say hi." Futoshi urged with a huge grin.
Doing his best to hide his nervousness, the young boy spoke up "I really admire you. The way you defeated Sledgehammer and had fun with your duel monsters, all of it was amazing. I had my mother sign me up to attend You Show Duel School. I'm hoping to learn more from you Onee-chan."
Yuya was taken back. While she knew people were impressed by the duel, she had never expected to be immediately looked up to as a mentor. It too amazing for her to comprehend that she couldn't help but smile brightly at revelation. For a brief moment, she wondered if she was feeling the same pride her father would from both her and Yaza looking up toward him.
"Can we go over to the school and watch you duel?" Tatsuya asked.
The fourteen year-old girl didn't need any time to think as she immediately agreed, prompting the three children to cheer out of sure excitement. But before she could take a single step, without warning, three suctions cup darts stuck to her face directly in between her eyes. She stared in confusion at the objects as Yaza pulled them off of her face.
"What wa-" the teenage boy began to ask.
But much to his surprise, he found himself cut off by a suave male voice commenting "Triple Bullseye! I believe that scores me one-hundred and fifty points."
Standing before them was a teen with brown hair and blonde bangs, wearing the school uniform. His pale-blue eyes were slightly narrowed with a smirk painted on his face, clearly showing off his smug nature. He chuckled as he made his way over to Yuya and lifted up her hand with both of his.
"Name's Shingo Sawatari, I attend Class One. I've been meaning meet you ever since I've watched your duel with Sledgehammer. It was quite thrilling and insightful." he introduced himself with a wink.
Yuya was left speechless, both confused at how forward the teen was being with her and why he had chosen to begin his introduction by throwing darts at her face.
"That new technique you used, Pendulum Summon I believe you called it, was so amazing!" Shingo praised as he pulled the girl's hand close to his chest, "You must show me the method behind the Pendulum Summon. It would be such an honor to watch such a talented duelist such as yourself."
The red and green-haired girl was stunned. A blush managed to form on her face with her allowing nervous laughs to escape her mouth.
Unable to take the sight anymore, Yaza growled angrily as he pulled his friend's hand out of Shingo's grip and shoved his darts into his chest. He didn't understand, but the way the blonde-brunette was acting deeply annoyed him. Grabbing ahold of Yuya's hand, he began dragging her off as he reminded her that she had promised a duel for the children.
But much to annoyance, he was only able to walk a few steps till he heard Shingo say "If you want to show them the Pendulum Summon, there's a more fitting stage for that."
The two teens turned around to see Shingo smirking with his hands in his pockets.
"Until five, we can use the LDS Center Court. I've got a reservation." he stated.
Yuya couldn't believe what she was hearing, prompting her to immediately exclaim "LDS Center Court?! That LDS Center Court?!"
With his smirk growing, he showed off his LDS badge pinned to the collar of his black shirt. Smugness laced his words as he explained his position as not only one of the top students at the dueling school, but also as the son of the mayor. With these factors, he was able to easily acquire a reservation.
Yaza was clearly against the idea. Not only did he wish to step foot in a rival dueling school, but he had a growing suspicion toward the smug teen. He wanted to voice his disinterest, yet he found himself silenced by the children's excitement.
Glancing over to Yuya, he saw her simply smiled as her red eyes silently pleaded for him to allow her to accept the teen's offer. Letting out a defeated sigh, the fourteen year-old relented.
The three children cheered happily. Unable to wait, they took off running, two of them pulling Yuya along by her wrists with a hesitant Yaza trailing behind. But as they began their trek toward LDS, they failed to notice the dark smirk that formed on Shingo's face.
