The next morning, Yuushi barely managed to open his eyes as he slowly got out of his bed. Last night, he didn't sleep too well with faint memories of the events of yesterday making him feel a bit uneasy as he got ready to head out for school. Looking near the wall, he grabbed his red backpack in his room and made his way downstairs after changing his clothes. His mother had already gone out shopping and his father was still at work which left him having to make his own breakfast himself.
"Let's see what we have", Yuushi thought to himself as he started looking at the clock. "Guess I woke up a bit early. If that's the case I'll just make something a bit better for myself. I guess I'll also check the weather for this afternoon and hopefully it won't rain or be that cold."
Yuushi went and got some orange juice as he put bread into the toaster. Looking around in the cupboard for a minute, he managed to find a clear cup to drink out of as he went into the other room and turned on the television to the news broadcast where the weatherman reported the weather being sunny but being colder than usual days.
After the weatherman stopped talking, Yuushi went to the kitchen nearby and got his now-ready toast and filled his cup with orange juice. Lastly, he got some strawberry jam out of the cupboard and a knife as he spread the jam on the warm toast with a grin to himself. Moving his breakfast over to the kitchen, he took a bite of the bread as the news came on.
Right after the news channel's brief theme, there was the news reporter who said that there was 'Breaking News' as Yuushi stared with interest. The television then zoomed in on a few images with the first one being a boy in a hospital bed, another of a girl in the emergency ward, a third of another in a ward room and another boy laying in another bed. Normally, this wasn't too shocking but this was different as each of them shared common characteristics that Yuushi noted to himself. The first was that all those people on the news had silver-tan hair and that their bodies were wrinkled in an abnormal fashion. The next was the blank stare in their stares which even the reporter noted.
The boy muttered to himself after taking a gulp of orange juice. "What happened to them? Some sort of disease? Looked like a ghost possessed them or something."
As the images disappeared off the screen, the reporter looked up to the audience and announced, "The images you have seen were from a relatively recent string of incidents. Authorities have looked into this and they have found that all the people you saw just now were in fact duelists and even more strange is that claims have been made by eyewitnesses that these duelists held something called a Numbers card."
With a bit of surprise, Yuushi continued to watch,"Numbers. That's like that guy and his Number 16: Ruler of Color- Shock Ruler in the mall. The archetype of cards that no one's heard of."
"Authorities have claimed that for the time, the mysterious Numbers cards should be considered dangerous and to report anything you hear about it straight to them. We will have more on this story as developments emerge," said the reporter as Yuushi stopped eating for a minute and shut off the television.
"Not even the authorities know what to do with those. At least it's not just me since it seems that a lot of people don't have answers to what happened yesterday. But..."
Putting down his breakfast, Yuushi grabbed his deck and took a look through it before pulling out Arcanite Magician and looking at it. After remembering the events of yesterday and his opponent, he couldn't shake off the troubling feeling in his gut after seeing the number 16 engraved on his opponent along with the aura that surrounded him and finally the strange summoning involved with Shock Ruler. To Yuushi, the atmosphere was ominous since he couldn't explain any of those events as he closed his eyes and got up. Now he was thinking about the events of the light that first appeared two years ago and how he received Arcanite Magician. On the other hand, there was also his father's warning both yesterday and on his first day to Delta Academy with Ayumi that was resonating in him too.
"Is this what my dad warned me about? If I use something that no one's heard of like Arcanite Magician too much, will I be the next person in a comatose state. Is this the price that the Numbers users had to pay..."
Yuushi ran the possibilities through his mind but through the corner of his eye, he realized it was getting late as his finished up his breakfast and made a run to the door.
Later that day, the final bell rung as students were excited that class was over. Today, Yuushi felt a bit more distracted than usual as he barely noticed that the final bell had rung. However, many students were excited today as Ayumi met Yuushi walking out of Classroom 1-D. Several other students ran past the two as others started to walk in the same direction as the running crowd of students. With a sigh, Yuushi stopped for a moment and looked at the Delta Duel Monsters Tournament poster that was hanging on the wall. Afterwards, he put his hand on his deck holder for a quick moment as a few other people passed by.
Ayumi noticed a bit of a grim look on Yuushi's face as she commented, "Guess the tournament's coming up soon right? You excited?"
With a sigh, Yuushi replied back, "Well, I'm definitely a bit nervous. Maybe excited would be the word you'd use for Hikaru. I don't think I saw him after the bell rang and we left class. He just bolted out the door."
"Just relax, this is just a normal tournament right?", the girl said trying to calm her friend down.
"I know that but still, I want to do as well as I can. I don't think I've been to anything this big," Yuushi added on as he felt a slightly shaky now.
After following the students for about 12 minutes or so, Yuushi and Ayumi reached another building in Delta Academy. Outside were two large doors and a few tournament staff members that were there to either register last minute entrants or to admit spectators of the tournament. There were a decent amount of people in the spectator line and even less in the participant line though Yuushi was still nervous.
A brown-red haired girl showed up behind the two and greeted them, "Yuushi, are you ready for this? There's more people than I thought here."
"I was wondering that myself actually, there's quite a few people in the spectator line that I don't recognize. Maybe I still don't know enough people here," the boy said.
Looking more carefully at the spectator line, Ryoko chuckled and turned back. "No, it's not you being crazy, it's just that there are spectators that aren't from the school. You know, a few parents, maybe other people living near the school or even students from other schools might come to watch. Who knows," she shrugged.
Ayumi interjected himself into the conversation, "There's people from other places watching? I thought it was just restricted to anyone at Delta Academy."
Ryoko pointed to a nearby poster with her thumb. "Nah, it's always been like that. Only the duelists in the tournament are all from Delta. This just makes things a bigger than usual but of course nothing like the pro tournaments or anything. Still, it would arguably be one of the bigger dueling events associated with an academy. So come on, what are we waiting for then."
Chuckling a bit, Yuushi nodded to the two girls as he started to leave with Ryoko. "I'll look around and try to find you then," he said to his childhood friend.
"Alright, I'll wave to you when I see you then. Good luck," Ayumi said to both of them as she went to the back of the spectator line.
Yuushi and Ryoko entered and saw the gym looking relatively normal except the center of the gym was cleared out for a virtual board with the numbers 1 to 8 on them along with a few people standing in between the spectators and the duelists and of course a few rows of spectators already seated. Everyone was talking in groups with some of their friends about presumably the tournament.
"Well...I guess this is what I expected so I can't say I'm too surprised," Yuushi thought to himself while looking around.
Suddenly though, Yuushi was tapped on the shoulder a few times as he turned around and saw Hikaru who was smiling as he started to look around too. Suddenly though, he turned his gaze to the left and waved his hand to someone. Ryoko turned and noticed that there was a younger girl with dark blue-black hair waving back to Hikaru. Ayumi was near that location too as Yuushi and Ryoko waved to the two of them.
"Who's that?", Ryoko said to Hikaru who had stopped waving.
"That's Natsumi, she's my little sister. I was in a real hurry since she was being dropped off by my parents and I promised to keep a constant eye out on her. Luckily though, I met Ayumi on the way in and she promised to keep after her for me. Now I can focus on winning and making sure my sister sees her brother in some action," he said confidently.
Sometime later, after everyone in the audience had settled down, Principal Tsubasa had a microphone in his hands.
"Everyone! Welcome to this year's Delta Duel Monsters Tournament. This is a great chance to see who the best duelist in the school is regardless of age or experience. The top price is some credit at the Delta Card Shop and bragging rights but remember most of all to have fun and let's really see some exciting duels out there! First things first though...", the principal said as he took a slight breath.
"Guess there really is an elimination round," Yuushi muttered out loud.
"What's that?", Hikaru whispered.
Principal Tsubasa continued on, "Since we have quite a few duelists today, we will have sudden death one against one elimination matches where the winner is not eliminated. This continues until we narrow things down to the last eight contestants. There will be four ongoing duels with our officials overlooking the matches. The computer will randomly select the duelists and the field they will go to. Each duelist's name can only be generated once per round to face any opponent and after two rounds, we should be down to our last eight contestants."
Yuushi, Hikaru and Ryoko looked around at the other duelists for a moment.
"After the elimination round is over and we're down to our last eight fierce duelists, they will have their chance to walk up and randomly generate their own place in the bracket. After the tournament bracket has been decided, the final eight participants will enter a single elimination tournament. This is different than the elimination round as the winners of each match move up and will know their next opponent in advance. Duelists may not receive outside help which includes outside cards or advice. Duels will take place one against one with both duelists having 4000 Life Points at the start of the duel. If you have any questions, feel free to ask a referee or myself for clarification. Now without further delay, let the dueling begin!"
Everyone clapped and cheered as Principal Tsubasa sat back down near a wall and looked on as the Delta Duel Tournament commenced. He was happy that so many people turned out and he was looking forward to things himself.
Duels started as various monsters were summoned and AR vision was simulating everything happening. As time passed, Yuushi won his first duel with an attack from The Tricky as he took a break and looked over at the other duels.
A girl had just XYZ summoned a ninja wearing black and purple armor as it swung down destroying a green cactus monster. The girl announced her next move as the ninja drew out its other sword looking at a man-eating orange-pink plant, "Since I removed an Overlay Unit from Blade Armor Ninja earlier this turn, I can have this card attack once more!"
Like the girl commanded, Blade Armor Ninja slashed down through the other plant on her opponent's field as the girl with the ninja won her duel.
A few duels later, Hikaru was the next person dueling. A few turns had passed with cards played such as Laval Gunner, Laval Lancelord, Searing Fire Wall and Statue of the Wicked and Hikaru made the final attack of the duel.
"Searing Breath!", the boy shouted out.
Lavalval Chain shot out a blast of red flames that directly hit his opponent as his duel ended as well with Hikaru looking over to his sister Natsumi and smiling. "Yeah, did you see that sis? I won!", he shouted to the audience.
Principal Tsubasa made his back up to the center of the gym and made another announcement, "Let the second round begin!"
The next round started as Yuushi was one of the first duelists in the second round of the elimination round.
His opponent was a slightly older boy but Yuushi looked at his opponent who only had 500 Life Points left while he had 1200 Life Points and it was his battle phase now. On his field was Pitch-Black Power Stone and a Spell Drain facedown as his opponent had two cards in his hand. As for monsters, Yuushi had a Flux Magician with two Spell Counters and 2600 ATK against his opponent's Alien Shocktrooper which was a reptile creature with black armor socketed with blue gems. Alien Shocktrooper only had 1900 ATK.
Yuushi shouted out an attack while looking at the field hoping this would be the final attack, "End the duel!"
Flux Magician charged up its fist with electricity as it dashed forward punching Alien Shocktrooper and destroying it with that one punch as the AR vision faded with Yuushi's picture in the aftermath having the 'WIN' mark over it.
"Ugh," Yuushi's opponent said with a bit of disappointment in his voice. "Not even past the elimination round," as he walked off and decided to continue watching from the sidelines.
With the audience clapping, Yuushi felt a bit embarrassed but walked off to the sidelines as well where Ryoko and Hikaru were.
"Congratulations Yuushi," Ryoko said as she looked at her deck.
"You were in a bit of trouble there," teased Hikaru back as he looked at the next duel which was about to be over too.
Yuushi gave a light sigh and smiled a bit, "Yeah. I was but..."
"Oh tell me later," Hikaru shouted as he ran off seeing his name announced, "Tell me later after I win."
Ryoko chuckled a bit, "Aren't you a bit too overconfident?"
The blue-black haired duelist stopped and turned around to his friends for a moment, "Hikaru Aoki won't disappoint his sister by losing and not even making it past the elimination round. No, I'm going to win this thing so I can't lose here!"
With that, he ran off to face his next opponent. The duel was intense as it reached the eighth turn as Hikaru saw a good opportunity to attack as he went all out.
"I activate Rush Recklessly! Now destroy Machina Fortress!", Hikaru shouted as he slammed down his Quick-Play Spell Card onto his Duel Disk as his Lavalval Dragoon charged with intense speed destroying the blue and white tank-cannon-humanoid machine.
His sister shouted, "Alright! Nice duel! You're the best!"
Though Hikaru couldn't hear Natsumi exactly over the applause, he looked over to her and Ayumi while walking back as he nodded and smiled making his way back to Yuushi and Ryoko.
"Yeah! Yeah!", shouted Hikaru as he smiled to himself.
Ryoko looked at the boys and said, "Good job. We all made it past the elimination round."
"On the other hand, with us having three out of eight spots, there'll be a good chance that two of us will have to face off against each other in the first round," calculated Yuushi as he looked over to the tournament bracket.
Hikaru took a look at the bracket too and chuckled, "You're not getting nervous are you Yuushi?"
Yuushi looked back, "No. Well, maybe a little bit but I'll be fine."
"That's good. After I win, I don't want to hear any excuses or anything!", commented Hikaru.
Ayumi and Natsumi were at the stands as the audience looked at the final duel of the elimination round in awe. A boy commanded his warrior monk to punch as it launched a projection of its own fist towards the helpless opponent. With a direct hit, the boy with the monk nodded to himself as the duel was over. After a bit of shuffling, the final eight duelists were standing the center of the gym as the tournament bracket was virtually displayed above everyone's heads.
"My brother's really strong!", Natsumi said looking down with a smile.
Ayumi smiled a bit and looked down too, "Yeah, he's pretty good."
A bit of time passed as everyone was set up for the brackets to be set as Principal Tsubasa came on stage once again to explain what was happening.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the final matches of the Delta Duel Monsters Tournament is about to begin. The duelists will hit this button standing my right which will generate a number to be stored in the computer. For suspense purposes, numbers will not be revealed until all eight of the contestants have had a chance to generate a number. It will be once again a single-elimination format with two duels going on at the same time until the final two duelists are decided. We will then take a short break so that the duelists can rest up and give you all a duel worthy of the finals where the winner will be known as the best duelist in Delta Academy! Are you all ready?", the principal enthusiastically shouted.
With a large cheer from the crowd, Principal Tsubasa stepped more to the side and pulled out his own virtual datasheet, "Then without further ado, let's start. The first duelist chosen to try is Ryoko Mitsuya!"
The girl went up where the principal said and hit the red virtual button. After the screen above signalled that the pick was finalized, Ryoko went back to where Yuushi and Hikaru were standing.
Eventually the next two duelists were announced as the fourth duelist to pick a spot was Yuushi.
"Good luck, Yuushi!", Ayumi shouted out as Yuushi looked over to her.
The boy approached and hit the button just like everyone else as he walked back to his standing spot but now he was getting nervous and for a moment had his palm over his deck cover.
The sixth duelist to pick was Hikaru who pumped his fist into the air and cheered as people cheered with him, especially his younger sister.
After the final duelist picked, the screen above started to glow a faint red as everyone looked up. After a few moments, the names of duelists started to appear in the displayed tournament bracket as there was even a number to indicate what they had picked. The eight slots were filled out as everyone looked up in anticipation and a collective awe.
As shown, the tournament bracket went as follows:
1. Ryoko
2. Yuushi
3. Masaki
4. Kawamura
5. Sakura
6. Yamato
7. Raima
8. Hikaru
All eight duelists briefly looked around the room as they eyeballed each other before the tension returned back to normal.
"Guess I picked two," Yuushi observed to himself before looking over at Ryoko who looked back at him.
"It's us two against each other," Ryoko said with a smile.
Hikaru grinned a bit himself and looked over to the two of them, "Oh, good luck you two."
The first four duelists took the center stage and stood apart from each other. On the left side was Ryoko against Yuushi and on the other side was Masaki against Kawamura.
"Now the first round of the Delta Duel Monsters Tournament will begin! Duelists, prepare yourselves!"
As the principal finished, all the duelists activated their D-Gazer and got their decks ready.
"I'm against Ryoko. Come to think of it, I'm not sure what sort of deck she has and right now, I don't think she'd tell me. Still, I have Endymion and if I really need to, I can use Arcanite Magician. I know that I can use it but the problem is that...will I eventually end up like those guys I saw on the t.v.," Yuushi thought to himself as he activated the AR vision on his glasses.
"AR Vision, link established!", the mechanical female voice announced as even the audience was ready for the duel.
The D-Pads, D-Gazers and Duel Disks were now ready as the duelists got ready with their hand close to their deck
"Duelists, are you ready!", the principal shouted out to everyone. "If so, then..."
With a step back, Yuushi looked at Ryoko who prepared herself as well.
"Duel!"
Yuushi- 4000 LP
Ryoko- 4000 LP
"Maybe my dad was right. He is a scientist after all...but still, no, it's not just him. Even I'm a bit worried about this card. What do I really know about it? My dad couldn't analyze it after it fell from the sky so nobody really knows where Arcanite Magician came from"
After a bit of thought, he heard another voice from his opponent, "Yuushi, you know you have the first move right? Don't tell me you're nervous about this tournament now!"
Yuushi looked up at Ryoko and noticed that he hadn't even drawn his five cards. The audience started to mutter a bit as Yuushi realized that she was right.
"It's not the tournament I'm worried about. In any case, I'll worry about Arcanite Magician a bit later but right now..."
After a few quick swipes, Yuushi had drew his initial hand and shouted, "I have the first move. I draw!"
With a sixth swipe over his deck, Yuushi had started the first turn of the duel. I summon Defender the Magical Knight in ATK mode."
A card was materialized on the field near Yuushi as a warrior with a dagger appeared as it held a massive blue and golden shield encrusted with a red gem to its side. With nearly full body armor in a similar blue and golden fashion, the red gem started to glow as the shield was momentarily covered in a red aura (ATK: 1600, Level 4, SC: 1).
"Defender the Magical Knight's effect activities when it is normal summoned allowing it to gain a single Spell Counter," Yuushi declared as he got three other cards in his hand and added on, "In the magic and trap zone, I'll set down three cards. My turn's over!"
"My turn then, draw!", Ryoko announced as she now had six cards in her hand.
Looking at her hand, she liked what she saw. "First I activate the Field Spell, Divine Wind of Mist Valley!", the girl said while her Duel Disk opened up and revealing the slot where field spells went.
Yuushi knew the potential dangers of having an opponent control the battlefield and activated one of his set cards. "I use the Counter Trap, Magic Drain. I can negate the activation of a Spell Card, then destroy it afterwards but..."
Before Yuushi could finish his sentence, Ryoko sent a card from her hand to the graveyard as electricity surrounded the Counter Trap before it turned into pixels and disappeared.
"I know, I know. Normally if I let that go through, it would work as you said but that card gives me a choice. I can discard a Spell Card like Spring of Rebirth in order to negate your card. Come on, I've seen you duel a few times so I know that card already," she happily said.
The battlefield shook as a huge crack suddenly split Yuushi and Ryoko off from each other. The crack had a rainbow light contained within and as the crack got more severe and bigger, the light erupted from the ground blinding everyone nearby. As the light subsided, Yuushi noticed that he and Ryoko were standing on two different cliffs separated by a valley. The valley was the source of the rainbow light as Yuushi's hair started to sway with the sudden updraft that occurred.
"I activate the Spell Card, Winds of Change! This Spell Card can only be activated if Divine Wind of Mist Valley is on the field. Afterwards, I have to send a Winged-Beast Wind Attribute monster with 'Mist Valley' in its name to the graveyard and I choose Mist Valley Baby Roc. Right after though, I get to draw two cards."
Like Ryoko said, after sending her monster to the graveyard, a blast of wind flew from the valley picking up two of Ryoko's card from her deck with it as she caught both cards as they flew in the wind. Yuushi could hear the slight shriek of a bird as he looked around but saw no creatures.
"Oh yeah, that's right. Since Mist Valley Baby Roc was sent to the graveyard from my hand, I can special summon it to the field!"
As she finished, up above the clouds, Yuushi noticed a bird creature swoop in. It was a small red feathered bird although its head had no flesh and you could directly see its skull (ATK: 400, Level 2 Tuner).
Yuushi scowled a bit after seeing a tuner monster on the field already.
"She's going to Synchro Summon...maybe I should too but..."
"I also summon Sonic Duck."
With another cry from the winds, Yuushi noticed another monster joining Baby Roc above. This bird was a larger green one with a red scarf around its neck It finally landed on a tall mountain as Baby Roc was flying around it (ATK: 1700, Level 3).
"Now I tune Baby Roc with Sonic Duck!"
The bird emitted a final cry as the intensity of the wind increased and turned the monster into two shining stars which turned into two green rings surrounding Sonic Duck. The duck became transparent with an orange outline as it turned into three shining stars being surrounded by the two green rings.
"Watch as I summon the Synchro Monster, Vortex the Whirlwind!", Ryoko shouted as she put the Synchro Monster onto her Duel Disk.
As the card materialized, a brown female bird-human with green armor emerged as she flew in the sky. A trail of wind followed her as she spun her green chain above her in a circular fashion (ATK: 2100, Level 5).
Yuushi prepared himself for the inevitable attack as Ryoko looked up and said, "Get ready! Vortex, attack Defender the Magical Knight now!"
After spinning its chain around over its head to a high velocity, the chain shot out towards Defender as the tip was about to crash with Defender's shield. Yuushi's monster took a defensive stance as the chain crashed into the shield but it bounced off though Yuushi's monster was knocked back significantly as dust picked up on the ground as it slid. The dust consumed Yuushi for a second as it blew past him.
Yuushi- 3500 LP
Ryoko- 4000 LP
Grinning a slight bit, Yuushi explained, "Once per turn, I can remove a Spell Counter from Defender in so that it is not destroyed."
As Defender gained its footing once more, the monster took a heavy sigh (Defender SC: 0).
Ryoko nodded but added on, "But you still took battle damage off that. Anyways, I'll put this card facedown and then it's your move, Yuushi!"
With a nod of acknowledgement, Yuushi drew and looked at his card. Right afterwards though, Ryoko had already revealed her facedown card which was a trap. A brown tornado emerged out of the Trap Card as the tornado blew Yuushi's right set card into the air as it was blown right off the field.
The girl noticed the card and added on, "I just destroyed your Trap Card, Ready for Intercepting!"
Yuushi wasn't exactly pleased with Ready for Intercepting gone but went with the flow of things.
"I normal summon Alchemist of Black Spells in ATK mode!"
A spellcaster appeared that was wearing mostly dark-purple robes with gold trimmings on it. It's face was covered but on in its left hand, he was holding a small green scroll (ATK: 1200, Level 4).
Ayumi looked on from the stands, "Two Level 4 Spellcasters, I know what monster Yuushi's knowing of."
Yuushi watched excitedly as he shouted out his next summon, "I overlay Level 4 Defender the Magical Knight with Level 4 Alchemist Of Black Spells."
The red spiral portal opened up in the middle of the valley as Defender the Magical Knight turned into a slightly yellow glowing ray of light and Alchemist of Black Spells turned into a green ray as both were drawn into the portal. An explosion triggered as Yuushi's XYZ monster started to appear.
"I XYZ Summon, Flux Magician!"
The runed magician appeared out of the portal as it put its scroll on its back with two bright orbs surrounding it. (ATK: 1800, Rank 4, OU: 2)
Hikaru looked at Yuushi and Ryoko's duel with excitement, "Wow a battle between a Synchro and an XYZ. Yeah!"
Ryoko wasn't as excited though as Yuushi declared his monster's ability, "Once per turn, I can detach an Overlay Unit from Flux Magician to deal 400 points of damage to you and gain 400 Life Points. Additionally, Flux Magician gains a Spell Counter which will give him 400 more ATK."
Flux Magician roared as a surge of lightning hit Ryoko as she felt a slight shock before staggering back a bit (Flux ATK: 1800+400= 2200 ATK, OU: 1, SC: 1).
Yuushi- 3900 LP
Ryoko- 3600 LP
"Now I'll play Spell Power Grasp. My Flux Magician gain a Spell Counter and I can add another Spell Power Grasp from my deck to my hand, like so."
Looking through his deck for the same Spell Card, Yuushi found it and revealed it to Ryoko before adding it to his hand (Flux ATK: 2200+400= 2600 ATK, SC: 2).
Yuushi wasn't finished though he waited for Ryoko to stand up firmly on both feet before moving on, "I attack Vortex the Whirlwind, your only monster, with Flux Magician!"
As Flux Magician charged up another blast of lightning, Yuushi revealed his Trap Card, Magician's Circle, as the runes on his Spellcaster started to glow. A green complex magical circle with yellow and red patterns appeared beside Flux Magician as Magical Marionette appeared. The red-caped puppeteer brought out its wooden puppet as it chuckled (ATK: 2000, Level 5).
"The Trap Card, Magician's Circle, allows me to look through my deck and special summon a Spellcaster-type monster with 2000 or less ATK when a Spellcaster declares an attack. Of course, you can special summon a monster if you have a Spellcaster with 2000 or less ATK too," Yuushi said as he hoped Ryoko didn't have any.
Ryoko paused for a moment and looked through her deck, "Nope, no Spellcasters here."
With that, she put her deck back as the Duel Disk shuffled it.
After the shuffling was over, Flux Magician's hands were surrounded with lightning as it shot out bolts of lightning destroying Vortex the Whirlwind as a blast of wind knocked her back again.
Yuushi- 3900 LP
Ryoko- 3100 LP
Though the wind was howling, Yuushi could still hear Ryoko declare something, "When Vortex is destroyed in battle and goes to the graveyard, I can special summon a level 4 or lower Winged-Beast monster from my deck."
After a few moments the wind stopped and revealed a white-haired human except it had brown wings and was holding a sword in one hand and a targe in the other (ATK: 2000, Level 4).
"That's Mist Valley Falcon. Ryoko can't declare an attack unless she sends a card on the field that she controls to her hand. On the other hand, my Magical Marionette still has a lot more potential left in it and can beat out Mist Valley Falcon next turn. Besides, a 2000 ATK monster is pretty nice and it has a powerful ability," Yuushi reasoned to himself as he ended the battle phase without announcing a second attack.
Looking at Flux Magician, Yuushi kept thinking for a moment, "As for Flux Magician, I'd also better keep the ATK points. 2600 ATK is good not only for the high value but it should help against the ace of the Mist Valley deck"
"My turn's over!", Yuushi shouted.
As Yuushi called for the end of his turn, suddenly he heard several explosions followed by a deep echoing chuckle. Both Ryoko and himself noticed it as the thunderous boom from the explosion distracted both of them as the explosions kept continuing one by one.
After turning their heads, a huge cloud of smoke from the other duel covered their own battle. They found out the source of the rapid booms were from the other duel, more specifically a rain of cannonballs from above blasting the other battlefield. Through the black smoke, they noticed something with a red eye as they heard the shout of a gun being shot through the smoke.
"What's happening over there?", wondered Yuushi as the laughter and cannonballs ceased with the other duel being finished.
A boy with light brown hair was walking away silently with his right arm raised in victory as he put it back down. On the other hand, the other orange-yellow haired boy was looking on before sighing to himself.
Masaki- 2800 LP- WIN
Kawamara- 0 LP
Principal Tsubasa shouted, "The second duel's winner, Masaki Otobe!"
While the other duel concluded, Yuushi and Ryoko looked back to each other.
"Guess whoever wins here will face Masaki then," Yuushi said to her.
Ryoko drew a card and looked, "Yeah and that person will be me."
Yuushi prepared himself for the possibility that Ryoko just drew a great card.
"I'll put this card face down first," the girl stated as a card appeared in her Spell/Trap zone as she summoned a monster, "Now let's summon out the tuner, Mist Valley Shaman."
Beside Mist Valley Falcon, a black armored female bird-human with white robes and yellow hair emerged as Yuushi noticed that she had yellow gloves too, or so he thought as they were really the monster's feathers. The feathers were connected to her hands as he noticed that the hands were really claws (ATK: 1200, Level 3 Tuner)
"I use Mist Valley Shaman's ability! Once a turn this card gains 500 ATK until my end phase if I send another monster I control to my hand like Mist Valley Falcon," she announced.
Mist Valley Falcon turned into a light green beam that went back to Ryoko's hand as the wind of the valley picked up. The shaman also started to faintly glow with a faint green aura (Mist Shaman ATK: 1200+500= 1700 ATK)
"What's the point of that? You have less monsters now so you can't tune that tuner monster with anything," Yuushi said to Ryoko.
The girl looked around the field a bit in response as the rainbow light in the valley erupted. Yuushi looked on with amazement then surprise as he saw an image form in front of him. The rainbow image and the wind faded away revealing a second Mist Valley Falcon (ATK: 2000, Level 4).
"You see Yuushi, once a turn thanks to the effect of Divine Wind of Mist Valley, if a faceup Wind monster I have returns to my hand, I can special summon another Level 4 or lower Wind monster to take its place from my deck!"
Yuushi analyzed the point of that move as he realized that she basically expanded the size of her hand with another monster now for basically no cost. "So that's what this Field Spell does..."
With a smile, Ryoko continued, "I'm going to tune Mist Valley Shaman with my Mist Valley Falcon."
On her command, Mist Valley Shaman closed its eyes as it turned into three shining orbs that surrounded Mist Valley Falcon before turning into three green rings. Mist Valley Falcon took flight as the rings followed him before he turned transparent and disappeared leaving behind four shining orbs parallel and in-between the rings. A bright light shot through the rings as the Divine Wind of Mist Valley picked up. The sky slowly turned black as clouds were changing shape while Yuushi and his monsters looked up.
"The power of Mist Valley graces through the winds! Soaring above with the strength of the storms! Synchro Summon! Descend, Mist Valley Thunder Lord!"
A thunderbolt shot down in front of her as a flash of light rose from the struck location. There was a yellow flash and suddenly black wings emerged from the lightning as it faded. Attached to the wings was a large green-golden muscular birdman. It had a small red-orange crown with similarly colored markings on its chest and back as it spread out its arms revealing metal hooks at the end of both arms (ATK: 2600, Level 7).
Yuushi looked at his hand and noticed that he didn't have any monsters as he looked back at Mist Valley Thunder Lord. "Yep, that looks like the ace of the Mist Valley archetype all right. I just hope that it is and that Ryoko doesn't have something I've never heard of in a Mist Valley deck..."
Original Cards
Winds of Change
Spell Card
This card can only be activated is there is a 'Divine Wind of Mist Valley' faceup on the field. Send 1 "Mist Valley" Winged-Beast monster that is WIND Attribute from your hand to the graveyard, then draw 2 cards.
Chapter 10 Preview
Hikaru: Phew, we got past the elimination rounds.
Yuushi: Don't let your guard down, it'll be tougher from here on out.
Ryoko: Those cannonballs though, just what cards did he use?
Ayumi: Hey, Ryoko. Yuushi's pretty good so you'd better pay attention to your duel.
Ryoko: I know, I know. Yuushi, you'd better pay attention yourself you know
Yuushi: Chapter 10: Brewing Storms. Looks like this duel is about to get good, but there's just one thing...