Chapter 9:The Sly Duelist; Kell, Maira's Memories

"DUEL!"

Maira LP: 8000
Kell LP: 8000

"My draw!" Maira looked at the holographic images and then nodded, "Okay, this one?" she touched the card image, which then resulted in multiple options that began to confuse her. Maira still seemed clueless about her new disk.

"Everything okay over there? You don't need any help over there, do you deary?" Kell mocked slyly.

"Shut up! I've got this..." she lightly stroked the hologram upward, making the card fly up and land on the field in face down defense position.

"..."

"Something tells me that's NOT what you wanted." Kell commented.

"SHUT UP! I can do this!" she quickly thought around it. "I'll uh... place these two cards face down." she stroked them down, and the cards fell below the face down monster. "and end my turn."

"Hahahahahaha." Kell laughed at Maira hysterically, as tears of humor came trickling. He often enjoyed Maira's blunders.

Maria glared at Kell.

"Don't worry, you'll get it... eventually." he snickered and was about to draw.

Maira felt pestered and simply replied to her nuisance of an opponent."At least I have one."

Following his turn, Kell's suddenly wore a much more serious look. "Draw card... I'll place a card face down, and summon Soul Thief in attack mode!" A ninja looking monster appeared carrying a large sack and belt with many daggers on it and wore a mask that concealed his face. He glared amusingly at Maira.

Soul Thief LV4 DARK/Warrior
ATK: 1400 DEF: 300

"I'll activate his special ability!"

"Already..?" Maira felt somewhat nervous, wondering what effect Kell has in store for her.

"Once every two turns, I can send a monster card in my hand to the graveyard and one of the monsters on your field as well! I'll choose your face down card!" Kell discarded a card and Soul Thief pilfered Maira's monster's soul from the field and forcibly shoved it in it's bag. Greedily, it snickered at it's prize. " Since I discarded a monster; Frightful Heart, Soul Thief's ability takes effect whenever a monster is sent to the grave; half of her attack is now added to Soul Thief's.

Frightful Heart

ATK 600

Soul Thief
ATK 1400+300=1700

"And now your turn!" Kell ended and passed the turn to Maira with confidence.

Before Maira's monster would succumb to destruction however, Maira went for a counter play. "Hold on!" she activated one of her face down cards. "I play the trap Myth of the Water Nymph! This allows me to negate an effect that targets a face up or face down WATER monster on my field!" Maira attempted to protect the monster that would be taken away by Soul Thief, which was her Saltwater Man-Eater.

Saltwater Man-Eater LV3 WATER/Aqua
ATK: 800 DEF: 800

"Nice, if you summoned that to the field in face up Attack, my Soul Thief would of been destroyed if I tried normal summoning it. Sadly though wasn't." he smirked as Maira mentally cursed her new duel disk. "Alas, I will still have half his attack. I'll chain a Quick-Play spell card from my hand! Desire Crusher!"

Desire Crusher: This card can only be activated when an opponent activates a card or an effect that negates an effect of a card on the field; Negate the effect and destroy it.

"HA! take that!" Maira's Myth of the Water Nymph was destroyed, Maira sweat dropped; tracing down the side of her face. "(Oh no!)".

"Oh yes! now give my monster some power baby!" he overly did a 'Point at the Sky Dance' to celebrate this small victory as Maira's Saltwater Man-Eater's soul was taken and destroyed, granting Soul Thief another increase in Attack.

Soul Thief
ATK 1700+400=2100

"Whoo.. looks like I'm in for a direct attack already, that's not common with you, now is it?"

Maira grinded her teeth together. He was right, she'd never let her guard down so quickly! "It's this darn Duel Disk!"

"Now, Soul Thief! attack directly! Thieving Heart!" commanded Kell as Soul Thief skillfully ran up to Maira and attacked her with millions of daggers that he repeatedly threw and barraged her with.

Maira LP 8000-2100=5900

"Ouch..." Maira said in distaste while holding her arm. Soul Thief jumped back like a ninja to Kell's side of the field.

"I'mmmm~ NOT!~ done yet~" sung Kell, waving his finger in the air.

"...What?...isn't this cruel for a first attack enough?"

"Nope! nothings to much or enough for the great and powerful Maira Yune, right?" Kell continued humming as Maira stared at him awkwardly.

"..."

"I'll play another ability, how's that for mercy? I'll activate Soul Thief's ability; the souls I obtained to increase my Soul Thief's defense instead!" With this call, Soul Thief gathered all its souls and lowered its attacking power to augment its body defense instead.

Soul Thief
ATK: 2100-400-300=1400
Def: 300+400+300=1000

"There, all better. happy now?"

"No.." Maira admitted. "you didn't need to do that."

"Oh.. I think you'll find.. I did." he winked, he was planning something, and Maira knew it, but this was the first time she had fought him since her brother's passing. Maira's thoughts began to wander as it did when she watched Kageru in the Red Nova Prelims.

-flashback-

Maira finally saw a black car pull up on the road near the playground moments after Kageru left. Maira smiled, and jumped off the swing and into the car.

"Well, well. look whose been climbing trees again." Her father said as he was looking back at her. Maira grinned wider, but then looked puzzled. "I see that little leaf sprouting on your head." She looked up and saw that a brown leaf was stuck in her hair. Feeling embarrassed, she took it off and blushed. "Haha! that's my girl!"

Her father drove her home, and when they opened the front porch, her large dog barked as its way of greeting her. Then it tackled her to the ground. "Camo! Down boy!" Her father said, smiling and moving him off of Maira.

As Maira giggled and petted the dog, her blonde-haired brother; Sam came with toast in his mouth as he leaned back to look at the two coming in from the other hall way. "Mmayyreii.." he said through a muffled mouth. Maira dashed and jumped into his arms. pulling out the toast as the Sam laughed.

"Hey sis, where's my deck?" asked the man as Maira happily pulled it out. "Dad, ya got to tell her to stop taking it. I wanted to duel my friend today, but when I checked to see if my deck was there..-" before he could finish, Maira wiggled out of his grasp and ran up stairs with his deck.

"H-hey!" "she just wants your attention, why not go up there and play with her?" Maira peeked from upstairs. her brother rolled her eyes, and then got down in a runners position. "One...two..." he began to count with a smirk. Maira yelped and ran away, "Three!" he blasted up the stairs after her.

"What's with all the racket?" Maira's mother came in with a big pot of cooking dinner, and her father grabbed her around the waist and smiled to her, "Just some family bonding, hon. just some family bonding, haha."

Upstairs, Maira had prepared the whole playing field, Sam looked around impressed. "Nice.." he said as he sat down. "but you know the rules," he held out his hand for his deck, and she playfully swung her body and then gave it to him bashfully. "You have to say a very special line before I play with you."

Maira pouted and placed her hands on her hips. "Haha, cause big brother Sam says so!" Sam puffed up his chest to look mightier than her. She backed down and laughed, taking in a deep breath, she let out a quiet, "I...love you, Sam."

Sam smiled and embraced her, tickling her and playing around. She laughed and tried to get away, but Sam wouldn't let her go. "And Sam loves Maira!" he exclaimed happily as he placed Maira back down and began the duel. The two enjoyed themselves until the day's end and another day of school would come.

-one day later-

Maira raced out the door. Sam was already getting ready to cross the street. With a leap of faith, Maira launched herself at him, and clung to his leg. "Woah!" Sam looked down, lifting his leg slightly to see Maira with a very upset face. "Heh heh, sorry kiddo. But I can't duel or walk you to school today. I've got a HUGE exam on ancient civilizations, and to be honest.. I loved the lesson. haha." he scratched his head nervously.

Suddenly, a woman tapped his back, "Sammy!"

"Oh! Kiira!" Sam turned and waved.

"Is this yours?" she knelt down to study Maira, who pouted and pushed her head more towards Sam. "Yeah, she's one of those strong silent types. Come on, sis, can you say hello to my girlfriend?" Maira never liked anyone else getting close to Sam, so she shook her head and pouted.

"Aw, she must be shy." added Kiira. "Whelp, we have a test. you sure you want to take her to school with you as a…. heehee, carry on?" she giggled and stood up.

"Nah, the little tike needs to move on." he gently got her off his leg and shooed her own her way.

As Maira walked away, she took another look back to see the two kiss, "Bleh!" she said loudly, sticking her tongue out and running off.

As she made her way to school, she dodged the group of girls she usually saw before class and walked around the back to where the basketball courts were. she had 10 to 5 minutes to spare, so she looked to the gym closet and found some baseballs, basketballs, jump ropes, etc. and started playing around with each.

When she went back to the class halls a group of girls she evaded earlier saw her and started whispering to the others. "Isn't that the freak?" "Yeah, like, the one who sits by herself in recess and plays a card game by herself?"

"What a weirdo, get some friends."

"Oh, I know right!"

The girls laughed as they silenced themselves while Maira walked by, griping her backpack. Her eyes were hidden as she looked to where her next class was and wait for school to end. She would then climb up the trees after school and imagined of Duel Monsters. She would come up and make up cards and stuff, and whenever she "borrowed" Sam's deck, despite not knowing some of the cards, would then start playing a duel by herself, which allowed her to gain plenty of knowledge and experience in carving her own strategies.

-back to the duel-

Maira's thoughts returned to the duel and she quickly proceeded"My turn... draw!"

"Hope you don't mess up this time, sweety!" hollered Kell.

"...What'd you call me?" Maira twitched with anger. "He's going to die, even with this duel disk, he's going. to. DIE." Maira gave off a grim look at Kell.