Yay! This chapter is done! So, in this chapter we go a little bit back into Blake's past and how he knows Damion, Mikayla's father, as well as the next round of the duel tournament. This round features another one of my OCs, Jarred Daniels. R&R, PM, and Enjoy!


Chapter 9

"So Dad, how do you know Jacob's dad?" Mikayla asked her father. Jacob, Mikayla, their fathers, and Luke were sitting at one of the food court tables eating lunch.

Damion swallowed his food, and said, "Well, believe it or not, we were actually friends when we were in high school."

"Oh yeah," Jacob said. He then asked his dad, "Dad, you said you lived in South Carolina, right?" Blake nodded, and said, "Yes, at first we didn't get along, but after we dueled a few times, we became friends."

Damion laughed and said, "Yeah, I remember it all so clearly, the first time we dueled. Your old man actually pulled a similar trick on me like the one you did, redirecting and negating my attacks."

"Yes, well you did have a bit of an aggressive dueling style; bringing out powerful monsters, but at the cost of losing your other cards. A bit predictable after a few times."

Damion laughed again, "Yeah, guess so." Damion turned his attention to Jacob. "So kid, I'm not one to pry, but what is your battling style anyways?"

"Battling style?" Jacob asked, a little confused.

"Yeah, your strategy. Using all the same attribute or type of monsters, Special Summoning, powering up?" Jacob was at a loss for words at these questions, more so the rate they were being said.

"Well," he replied, a bit uneasily, "I use what I call a Power Stall deck."

"Power Stall?" Mikayla and Damion asked simultaneously.

Blake nodded, "It's a combination of a Power and a Stall deck, which focuses on negating and redirecting opponent's attacks and effects so more stronger monsters can be played later on."

Damion smirked, "Just like your deck, huh?"

Blake nodded once again, and Jacob asked, "Hey, since we have a while before the next round, why don't you tell us about how you became friends?"

"Okay, I suppose I can tell some of it. Well, it all started when I was still in the Duel Academy almost twenty years ago. My parents decided to move out of New Domino City and come to Grand Veil City for a new job opportunity at Kaiba Corporation."


Flashback

The South Carolina International airport was packed with people coming from New Domino City, as well as several other places around the world. Three particular people, a man in his early 40's, a woman in her late 30's-both wearing business clothes and carrying briefcases- along with a teenage boy of about sixteen, were walking through the crowd and into the street. The man's phone was ringing, and he answered it,

"This is Yudara, go ahead." He listened for a moment, and nodded saying "Yes, sir" a few times. He hung up and said to the woman, "That was Mr. Kaiba. He wanted to know if we made it here alright, and told us to make what preparations we need."

The woman looked at the teenager, "Blake, while we're here I want you to be on your best behavior."

"Yes, Mom," the boy said in a bored tone. The man hailed a taxi and they got in, putting their bags in the trunk. The man told the driver the destination, and they were off.

About a month later, the Duel Academy was now in session a couple weeks in, Blake enrolled as a second year. He wore a navy blue shirt with bronze-colored highlights, signifying he was a second year. He was walking through the hallways when he noticed some of the students were having duels in the nearby courtyard. They were using regular duel disks, instead of the recently popular Duel Runners. Blake himself did have a deck of his own, as well as a duel disk, but he didn't duel often. He found his locker, opened it, and took out his cards and duel disk.

"Hey Blake!" Blake turned and saw some of the other duelists were waving over to him, "You wanna duel? We finished ours already." Blake nodded and closed his locker door. He ran out to the courtyard and put on his duel disk, inserting his deck into the card slot.

It activated and he said, smirking, "Okay, who's first?" A slightly taller boy with sand brown hair stepped forward, a flame-red duel disk on his left arm.

"That would be me. Name's Damion." He held out his hand, and Blake reached out to shake it. Before he could, however, Damion pulled his hand away and laughed. "I'm just messing with you, man," Damion said, still laughing. He held out his hand once again and Blake was able to shake it.

Flashback end


"Our duel lasted for quite a while, attracting the attention of several other students, faculty, and staff," Blake said. "I had drawn out the battle for quite a while, using cards like Swords of Revealing Light and Nightmare's Steelcage to prevent him from attacking."

"Yep," Damion said, "and by the time he had ran out of those, he had a lot of high level monsters on the field. I think two or three were at least level nine." Blake chuckled for a bit and looked over at his son. He was shifting through his cards and stopped at one. It was a trap card, Cemetery Bomb, and Jacob was looking at it like he couldn't read the text.

"Anything wrong Jacob?" Blake asked him, causing Jacob to sharply look up.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied.

A tone was played over the intercom and a voice said, "Attention, all duelists please report to the stadium, the next round will commence in ten minutes."

Jacob stood and said, "All right, wish me luck guys." He made his way back to the dueling stadium and was directed to a waiting area. Once all the duelists were present they were directed back into the stadium.

"Welcome back duelists," the voice of Kaiba said as they entered the stadium, "welcome to the second round of the tournament. In this round, we will be bringing back an old relic." The floor began to rumble and the duelists began to murmur in confusion. The four corners of the square space around them opened up and four large devices rose up from the ground. All four were identical, a gray rectangular platform with two platforms on the short sides. The opposite sides were each colored in red or blue, and had two digital screens.

"To many of you, these are ancient, obsolete hunks of hardware; you'd be right about that." Some of the duelists and half of the stadium laughed. "These dueling fields will be your next battlefield, and remember the rules remain untouched. However, since we only have four the round will be spilt into two sub-rounds. Please activate your duel gazers for the roster."

Jacob activated his duel gazer as the screen flashed to life. The photos of the duelists turned into a stack of cards once again and began to shuffle and sort themselves. They flipped over once they were paired up and they were bordered with red or blue. "If your ID is in red, you will be the first eight to participate. Blues follow once all red duels are complete." Jacob found his picture among the reds, against another unknown duelist.

His information flashed before him just like before and he looked at the info. This time he was up against a guy named Jarred Daniels, who looked about his age and had dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and his deck was mostly FIRE attributes. The duelists were told to go to their positions, and Jacob found his opponent already heading for a platform. He soon followed and entered the blue side platform. He looked at the layout before him and saw it wasn't that different from the original duelmats; two rows of seven spaces, along with a screen that displayed the opponent's side of the field. There were two screens above it that displayed their Life Point count, still set at 2000.

"Hey!" Jarred shouted from across the field. Jacob looked up and Jarred said, "You ready to duel man?"

Jacob smiled and said, "Heck yeah. Just to let you know, I intend to win."

Jarred chuckled, and said, "Well then, in that case I won't hold back."

"Duelists, begin!" A coin appeared on the digital screen and Jacob called it; heads. The coin flipped and bounced, landing on heads. He selected to go first, and the duel began.

Jacob: 2000
Jarred: 2000

Jacob drew and looked at his hand. Among them were Swords of Revealing Light, Alexandrite Dragon, Gusto Egul, and Kurigoh. 'Alright, time to start strong.'

"I summon Alexandrite Dragon (ATK/2000), then I play Swords of Revealing Light and set one card face-down." Jacob's monster appeared on the field and the swords appeared around his opponent's field, meaning no matter what he summoned he couldn't attack. "Your move Jarred."

Jacob: 2000
Jarred: 2000

Jarred drew and said, "Okay, I summon Neo Flamvell Sabre (ATK/1500-2100)." A humanoid with flaming hair wielding a fiery serrated sword appeared on his side of the field. The monster also had a reptilian tail and his skin was light blue. "Because you have no cards in the Graveyard, Sabre gains 600 ATK. I'll add a face-down and end my turn."

Jacob: 2000
Jarred: 2000

Jarrod drew and saw it was Mirror Force. 'Perfect.'

"Okay, I summon Kurigoh to my side of the field." The puffball appeared and cooed, turning to Jacob and giving a wink. Jacob nodded and said, "I activate his first ability, which allows me to Special Summon two more Kurigoh to the field." Two more Kurigoh's appeared, and Jacob continued, "Now I activate their second ability, which allows me to attack directly! Kurigoh Dash!" The three Kurigoh's slammed into Jarred at high speed, taking a huge chunk of Life Points. "I place one card face-down and end my turn."

Jacob: 2000
Jarred: 1100

Jarred groaned as he drew his next card. If this kept up, it would be a one-sided battle. The card he drew was no use to him, but another card was. "I play the spell Hand Destruction. This forces us to discard two cards and then draw two new ones." Jacob looked in his hand and saw he had only two cards, Gusto Egul and Divine Sword - Phoenix Blade.

He placed them in the Graveyard and drew two cards, Goblin Attack Force and DarkFlare Dragon. "Now I activate Pot of Duality. I have to reveal three cards from the top of my deck, then I can place one in my hand and the other two get shuffled back into my deck." Three cards were shown on the field: Spiritual Fire Art - Kurenai, Laval Lancelord, and Creature Swap. Laval Lancelord and Creature Swap disappeared, meaning he selected the Fire Art card.

"Now I summon Flamevell Firedog (ATK/1900) and place two cards face-down." A dog-like monster leaped onto the field. It appeared to be made of lava and brimstone.

Jacob: 2000
Jarred: 1100

Jacob drew his next card, Blazewing Butterfly. "Okay, now my Kurigoh's attack you directly again!" The Kurigohs floated up to eye level and dashed past his monsters, ramming into Jarred. "Now Alexandrite Dragon attacks Flamevell Firedog! Jewel Hide Energy Blast!" Alexandrite Dragon blasted a beam of energy at the magma dog and it exploded into multiple polygons. "Your move, Jarred."

Jacob: 2000
Jarred: 100

Jarred drew and growled in anger. "Okay, I activate Spiritual Fire Art - Kurenai! By tributing Flamvell Sabre, I can inflict 1500 points of damage."

"I don't think so," Jacob said, flipping over his first face-down card.

"Dust Tornado?!"

"That's right, and I'm going to use it to destroy your card." A massive wind began to blow and Jarred shouted, "I'm afraid your Dust Tornado won't save you from the damage."

"Who said I was going for your Fire Art card?" Jarred became shocked when his second face-down was revealed, Backfire, and was destroyed. "I know how your deck works. I've faced it before. I figured you were going to chain that Fire Art with another Trap Card. So now its going to the grave!" Fire began to spread from the Trap card and engulfed Jarred's Flamvell Sabre, destroying it and sending the flames towards Jacob. "I guess that ends my turn."

Jacob: 500
Jarred: 100

Jacob drew and looked at Jarred. He was even worse than what Mikayla looked like when she was about to be defeated, like the attack had broken him as well. He sighed and decided to end it and get it over with.

"I sacrifice two Kurigoh to summon Super Conductor Tyranno (ATK/3300)!" The field began to shake and a green-skinned dinosaur rose onto the field. As it stood pieces of silver and purple colored armor attached to it. Once it was completely on the field it roared loudly, attracting the attention of the other duelists and spectators. "Super Conductor Tyranno, attack! Super Electro Blast!"

Super Conductor Tyranno opened its mouth, a ball of electricity forming in its mouth. It then roared, firing the ball of electricity at Neo Flamvell Sabre. It exploded into polygons and the ball of electricity continued towards Jarred and exploded in front of him.

Jacob: 500
Jarred: 0
Win: Jacob

Jarred was thrown off the platform and landed on the concrete floor. Jacob jumped down from his platform and ran over to him. "Hey, you okay?" He helped Jarred up and he began to laugh. Jacob was confused, he was actually laughing even after he lost.

"That was awesome!" he shouted, laughing even harder. "That was the best duel I ever had!" An official came up to them and asked if he was okay. Jarred said he was fine, and said to Jacob, "I have to thank you, man. I was on a winning streak for so long I thought about quitting undefeated. But you, you gave me that sense of loss that nothing else can give me." Jacob was unsure if he was trying to make him feel guilty or proud.

"Just remember, I'll be looking for you in Duel Net once I get it." Jacob laughed and they high-fived. A horn sounded and Kaiba's voice was heard again.

"Congratulations to our first four winners. Unfortunately, due to a malfunction in Duel Terminal 3, we'll have to take a brief intermission while it's being repaired." Jacob stepped over to the side of the duel terminal he and Jarred used. On the side in bold blocky text was a large "D-3".

Jarred tapped his shoulder and asked, "Hey, you okay man?"

Jacob looked away from the duel terminal, nodded and said, "Yeah, yeah I'm fine."

"Okay, c'mon man. We got time to kill."


Meanwhile, up in the VIP box, the footage from terminal three was being watched from the summon of Super Conductor Tyranno to the end of the duel in a loop segment. Seto Kaiba and his brother Mokuba were watching the footage diligently. "Mokuba," Kaiba said to his brother, "is there any record of psychic behavior in the Yudara family?"

"Were looking through all the data records," replied Mokuba, who was scrolling through a tablet, "but so far nothing has come up with the name Yudara."

"Then look beyond the name Yudara," he snapped. "His mother's maiden name, both his grandmother's maiden names, go as far as his great-grandmother's if you have to. I want to know if Jacob Yudara is a psychic duelist or not. If he is, I want him kept under close surveillance."

"And if he isn't?"

"Then he should be considered a mere nuisance."

Mokuba scrolled through the tablet more, typing something every once in a while, then said, "Hey, I think I found something." He handed the tablet to Kaiba, who looked at the screen. It showed Jacob Yudara's family tree on his mother's side up to his grandmother. One picture was highlighted, which was next to his mother. He tapped the photo and information came up about the woman.

"Akiza Izinski? Is this data reliable, Mokuba?"

"As reliable as it gets."

"Good. Bring up the tournament roster." The large screen shrunk down into a smaller window and the tournament roster grew to fill the screen. Kaiba began to tap the tablet a few times and typed quickly on the panel. He tapped enter and the four winners from the first part of the second round came up. He tapped the tablet again and the pictures shuffled themselves. Once they came out, Jacob was paired with a duelist. He made the photos reshuffle themselves again and again and each time he got paired with the same duelist.

"Now, let's see how far he'll get in this tournament while I choose his opponents."


Ooh, Kaiba riggin' the tournament roster?! What a cheat.

Kaiba: And yet you made Jacob win this round?

*nervous laughter* I'll explain that next chapter. Is there anything else I was forgetting? I know I was forgetting something.

Jacob: I believe it was this *hands me a piece of paper*

Ah, yes. I went to the wiki and looked up signature cards, there is actually a page for that, and I decided to make a list of the cards that are officially off the lists for all duelists (save for a few exceptions):

Egyptian God cards

Blue Eyes White Dragon

Red-Eyes Black Dragon

Toon Cards

Relinquished

Thousand-Eyes Restrict

Yubel Trio

Exodia set

Sacred Beasts

Stardust Dragon and its future forms

Red Dragon Archfiend and its future forms

Black Rose Dragon

Ancient Fairy Dragon

Power Tool/Life Stream Dragon

Black-Winged Dragon

Earthbound Immortals

Thor/Loki. Lord of the Aesir

Odin, Father of the Aesir

Meklord Emperor Skiel/ Wisel/Granel

Meklord Astro Mekanikle/Dragon Asterisk

Fortissimo the Mobile Fortress

Malefic Cards

Number Cards

Galaxy-Eyes/Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon

Super Dreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max

Nelson Andrew's/The Sparrow's Deck

The exceptions are as follows:

1) If the duelist who participates is the actual owner of those cards (for example only Luna can use Ancient Fairy Dragon)

and 2) If the card was proven to be given (such as Jacob receiving Black Rose Dragon)

I am still accepting OCs, especially from those who said they would submit OCs but have not done so yet. R&R, PM, and keep on Dueling.