AN: Sorry if duels don't actually work like this, but I've never played the card game and I'm working off the 4kids version.
"Good luck." Yugi smiled a bit nervously as she looked across the playing field at Atem.
"You seem nervous." Atem stated, shuffling his cards.
"This tournament the first time I've played anyone other than Joey and my grandpa," Yugi admitted awkwardly. "Especially in an actual dueling box."
"Don't worry about it, you're doing fine. You have to have some sort of skill to beat Seto," Atem assured, giving her a confident smile. "With how you've been doing today I would never have guessed."
Yugi blushed at the praise, looking down at her card set up to hide it.
"Alright, draw your cards!" Mr. Crawford called in his silly voice.
"Don't think I'm going to go easy on you," Atem smirked as he started pulling his first five cards.
"Don't think I want you to," Yugi replied with a smile, also drawing.
"I'll go first." He smirked looking over his first five cards. Dark Renewal, Exchange, Swords of revealing light, Big Shield Gardna (100/2600), and Sangan (1000/600). "I place two cards face down and then end my turn." He stated, placing Big Shield Gardna and Swords of revealing light facedown.
"Alright…" Yugi said, looking nervously at the face down cards. She looked at her own five cards: Mirror Force, Breath of Light, Griffore (1200/1500), Polymerization, and The Eye of Truth. "I'll play two face down cards and Griffore in attack mode and end my turn." She said, putting Mirror Force and Breath of Light on the board.
Atem drew, receiving Celtic guardian (1400/1200).
"I'll play Celtic Guardian in attack mode and then play the magic card, Exchange!" He announced. Both he and Yugi showed each other their remaining cards, him taking Polymerization and her taking Dark Renewal. "Now Celtic Guardian, attack Griffore!" The guardian charged, but before he was able to do any damage he ran into an invisible wall and bounced back, lowering his attack points by half (700/1200). "Mirror force!" Atem realized immediately, frowning when Yugi nodded back. "I put Celtic Guardian into defense mode and end my turn."
Yugi drew Miakiu the Magical Mist and sweat-dropped in exasperation. At this rate the duel would never go anywhere!
"Griffore, attack Celtic Guardian." She said, realizing only a moment later that Atem was smirking. She tried to call of the attack, but it was too late. Big shield Gardna appeared in front of Celtic Guardian and destroyed Griffore, lowering Yugi's life points from 4000 to 2600. "I'll activate Breath of Light." Seeing that Atem knew exactly what this meant, Yugi activated the card that simply wiped Celtic Guardian and Big Shield Gardena off of the board because they were earth-based monsters. "I end my turn."
Atem drew Heavy Storm.
"I play Heavy Storm." Said storm wiped away Mirror Force as Atem smirked. "Then I play Sangen in defense mode and end my turn."
Yugi drew Rude Kaiser (1800/1600).
"I play Rude Kaiser in defense mode and then end my turn."
Atem drew Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress (1400/1200).
"I play Winged Guardian of the Fortress, and then combine it with Sangan using Polymerization to create: Sangan, Guardian of the Fortress (2400/1800)! Sangan, Guardian of the Fortress, attack Rude Kaiser!" Sangan did as told, destroying the Rude Kaiser but not lowering Yugi's life points due to him being in defense mode. "I then end my turn."
Yugi drew Summoned Skull (2500/1200).
"I play Summoned Skull in attack mode and then use Miakiu the Magical Mist." She did as she said, destroying Sangan, Guardian of the Fortress and lowering Atem's life points from 4000 to 1600. "I end my turn."
"Good move," Atem commented as he drew his ace card: Dark Magician (2500/2100).
"Thanks," Yugi replied happily.
"I activate the Swords of Revealing Light!" He smirked as Summoned Skull was frozen in place. "Then I end my turn." He needed a boost of power for his magician if he was going to destroy Summoned Skull, and he now had three turns to do it by.
Yugi drew Dark Magician, but didn't play it. She knew Atem had something planned and wanted something in the reserves.
"Your turn," She said.
Atem nodded and drew once more, smirking as he saw Horn of the Unicorn.
"I play Dark Magician and then equip Horn of the Unicorn (3200/2800). Dark Magician, attack Summoned Skull!" Summoned Skull burst into a million pixilated bits as Yugi's life points dropped from 2600 to 1900. "I end my turn."
Yugi drew De-spell and smiled.
"I play De-Spell." Both Horn of the Unicorn and Swords of Revealing Light disappeared. "I play Dark Magician and end my turn."
Atem and Yugi looked at each other a moment before their eyes shifted to their monsters and their lips quirked in amusement.
Then the moment was over and Atem drew another card, smirking when he saw it was the Spellbinding Circle.
"I play Spellbinding Circle on your Dark Magician and then end my turn." Atem said.
Yugi drew Magical Hats, but frowned since she couldn't very well use them on a spell-bound monster.
"I pass. Your turn."
Atem drew Mystic Box.
"I activate Mystic Box!" He declared. "Sorry, my friend." Atem muttered. He could've sworn his Dark Magician nodded at him, as if to tell him it was alright, before both Magicians were encased in boxes. The box on his side was impaled by several swords, causing the watching crowd to gasp. Then both boxes opened, one Dark Magician, Yugi's, stepping out. But on Atem's side of the field.
"My Dark Magician!" Yugi gasped in surprise.
"Yes, but now he is under my control. Dark Magician, attack!"
Yugi's life points dropped to zero and the crowd's cheers were deafening. It wasn't often that someone other than Seto Kaiba ever had even a chance of beating Atem.
"Nice job." Atem congratulated the smaller teen as they reached out to shake hands. It wasn't often that he met someone worth dueling that wouldn't pitch a fit if he won.
"You too! That Magic Box trick was great!" Yugi agreed. Their hands touched and a spark seemed to go off, making them pull back almost immediately. "Static electricity," Yugi muttered after a moment. Atem just nodded in agreement and they hurried over to their respective friend groups.
Joey groaned, having lost $20 to the betting ring.
"I told you not to bet." Malik sighed. Joey just pouted in return.
"Come on guys, we need to go see Ishizu." Yugi said as they got out of school later that day. All of their classes had been shortened considerably (try ten minutes a class). Joey was tempted to skip again, but she needed to know what classes she had. Fate seemed to hate her, as every single one was with Kaiba and only four had Yugi.
"Yeah yeah, we're comin'." Joey muttered, trudging after the other three. She looked just bored, but she was on high alert and had an excuse to keep an eye on all three other girls at the same time. Joey knew her old gang wouldn't take very kindly to being beat by someone as wimpy as Yugi, and didn't plan to let Yugi out of her sight anytime soon.
"Here are the keys, Ryo." Yugi smiled, handing said girl the keys as they approached Yugi's grandpa's car that they had all shared since they had started driving. Ryo was the designated driver every time they got together, and for good reason. Malik wasn't so bad, but she got distracted pretty easily; Yugi was an excellent driver, but everyone pulled her over a lot because she looked like a kid; and Joey was a crazy driver. Speeding, cutting people off, yelling profanities, and rude hand gestures were mainstream when she was in the driver's seat. As well as anyone else riding in the car fearing for their lives.
One calm and utterly uneventful car ride later, they all filed into Yugi's house.
"Hello girls."
"NYAAA!" Joey practically flew backwards, hitting the back of the couch and flipping spectacularly over it, only to land on her back on the ground once more.
"Hi Ishizu." Malik greeted blandly as the other two rushed to see if Joey was alright.
"ISHIZU! How do you do that?!" Joey yelled, shooting into a standing position and sort of whining at the older girl. Ishizu only smiled serenely at her, causing her to scowl. The spell-renewal thing went really fast, and soon enough the four were walking back out to get pizza and go to the arcade, all paid by Joey as she had promised earlier.
We have two factoids today!
Factoid #8: I'm working off of the theory that Yami made Yugi better at games over the course of the series to the point that Yugi surpassed him but before they worked together Yami was better at dueling than Yugi. So it was only Yami's influence that Yugi was able to beat him in the ceremonial duel, which means in this story Yugi is really good but Yami is currently better. (Is that cannon already? If it is, then hazzah for me! And a mental smack for stupidity.)
Factoid #9: So for the first duel between Yugi and Atem I started out by numbering each of the cards in their decks (I picked two different decks of Yugi's) and having my sister pick random numbers for each. Then I realized that I wanted Atem to win, and so turned to the heart of the cards! So basically I got tired and started picking their cards for them. Heart of the cards! As a side note, I'm never writing a full duel again. They're boring for me to write and I don't particularly like reading them either. I'll stick with the winning moves, thank you very much.
