Hello again!
So I have no space bar on my computer right now so writing is interesting. I'm using my phone a lot with voice to text. lol. Which is why typing takes so long. Yay for getting a new keyboard.
My sister also had a baby! She was born 6 weeks early and is growing healthy now at home. Yay new life!
Spoilers: episodes 20-23
Chapter Nine: Vengeance and Annihilation
The duelists lined their Runners at the start. The screams and cheers from the fans were deafening. Griger's monster of an expertly crafted D-Wheel dwarfed Yusei Fudo's recycled junk hand-made tomato-red bike. The sun shone bright against the hefty frame and rims of the muscular duelists gigantic Runner. The cow skull on the handlebars only enhanced the ominous air around it.
"It's one hell of a D-Wheel." Rinai Kaiba tapped her nails against the armrest. Strangely the other occupants of the room remained silent.
"Duelist's! Activate Speed World!" The announcer yelled out. Their engines roared to life as the automated computer systems went into autopilot and Griger took the first move.
"He's wasting no time. Early pressure is his style. Let's see how the Satellite responds." Lazar chuckled, breaking the silence.
As Yusei took his turn, Rinai glanced at her duelist. His expression was hard, eyes watching the bikes drive around the stadium. She recognized it as the same look he had given the muscular duelist the night before right before he punched him.
"Mr. Atlas…" Both Rinai and Jack turned as his handler presented him with a cup of coffee. "You were so busy with your D-Wheel preparations for later, you never touched your coffee. I brought you a fresh cup." He huffed as he took the cup from her, and she walked away with a small bow of her head.
Rinai's eyebrows rose as she scrunched her nose at the familiar fragrance. "Blue Eye's White Dragon brew...really, Jack? That sh*t is so addictive and so bad for your insides. You said you were quitting, and switching to a different flavour."
"It's relaxing." He smirked before taking a sip. "My Handler prescribed that I needed to destress before my duel..."
"Mr. Atlas was not himself this morning when he arrived. I figured the tournament was getting to him. It's just coffee...and it's his favourite..." The bluenette stood to the side of the couch.
"It's still an addiction to a potentially hazardous substance. I've told you to quit, Jack. It's something you should know to stop, before it becomes something to worry about." Crossing her arms, the young CEO turned towards him. "An addiction is an addiction, no matter the circumstance."
"Well, you would know." he responded with a harsh edge to his voice. Turning his face away from the duel for the first time to face her with eyes speaking what his words didn't say. He was hurt by her statement that morning.
"Jack. Not here." Her blue eyes met his lavender ones and she promptly bit her her bottom lip as she looked away. "Drink your coffee." She stood and walked to the viewing window standing beside the Director.
The duel continued with Griger playing strongly and Yusei struggling to not lose his life points.
"And Yusei spins out taking life point damage!" The loud voice of the announcer rang through the stadium as the crowd cheered and gasped with excitement.
Lazar stepped forward beside Goodwin. "Griger nearly hit Yusei when passing him with his speed counters. What's he doing?"
"Playing rough. Too rough…" Rinai crossed her arms and sneered. "He's trying to bully Yusei. He's trying to win, not pull out Yusei's mark. Director Goodwin I…" She stopped as she noticed the Director portrayed a small smile on his face.
"With this behemoth of a monster out on the field, anytime Yusei plays a card he loses lifepoints!" Mikage leaned against the back of the couch raising a hand to cover her mouth in a gasp. "How does someone battle against that?"
As Yusei summoned a monster to the field Lazar laughed out loud. "What a bad play. He knows he's about to lose more lifepoints!"
"That's the point. He's saving his facedown card. This is how someone battles against a monster like this. Careful strategy. It has to be a game changer card he played. Mirror Force perhaps?" Rinai taped her forefinger against her arm. "With Chariot Pile in effect though, those spikes on his tires…"
"Yes...deck destruction does seem more likely. Griger would have to discard a card from his hand to destroy both with both abilities of his Air Ship and Chariot Pile." Jack chips in before taking another sip of his coffee.
The Duel heats up as Yusei finally destroyed Griger's Air Ship monster, only to lose his summoned syncro the same turn. As the muscular duelist catched up to the Satellites Runner, almost lapping him, Yusei used the last cards in his hand to summon back a monster from the graveyard. When Griger finishes his turn, everyone knows if Yusei doesn't win this round, he will lose his summoned monster, and the rest of his lifepoints.
"This is a destiny draw!" the booming voice of the announcer had the crowd cheering again as Yusei drew a monster from his deck summoning it, before using the syncro's power to bring forth a new monster in the shape of a glove with claws.
"That's a strange monster, but it does let him draw! Destiny awaits..." Lazar chuckled, while Rinai grabbed at her forearm letting out a huff of air.
"Show your mark, Dammit! Stop pulling without it…" She whispered as Yusei drew one last time. For the first time in that duel, Goodwin looked away from the window. His expression darkened as he watched the Young Heiress with scrunched eyes grabbing at her forearm, though he turned back to the duel promptly.
"The power of Attainment. There is no doubt in my mind now he has it, mark visible or not…" Rinai gasped out as Yusei pulled an amazing win out of a single draw. Griger's Runner span out throwing him to the ground as he lost control.
The spikes...
She squinted to make sure, but Chariot Pile's spikes were still visible on Grigers tires.
The card he requested...that I had found for him... and given him. It's still visible on his bike...
"How unfortunate." Lazar shook his head.
"It would seems that his abilities as a Signer are still not awakened." Goodwin deadpanned disappointed.
It would mean pre planning...to have that equipment installed to look exactly as the card's hologram...
"What a disgrace, your mission ran shallow after all." Jack muttered as he stood and began walking to the counter to set his cup down.
Which meant he had something to plan for…
As Yusei ran his D-Wheel up to the other duelist's crash site, the announcer screamed out in excitement that the Satellite was the victor of the match. The duelist stood as Yusei's Runner skidded to halt in front of him. Suddenly Griger's voice replaced the announcers over the loudspeakers.
Jack stopped in the middle of the room turning round.
"I concede victory to you. Though I may have lost, I still have to complete my mission! I was going to win the tournament and tell the public what Director Goodwin did. But now that dream too will never come true. That being so, I seek vengeance right here. Look at this. My village that's gone up in smoke." The duelist waved his hand and where there once was a victory screen now showed Griger's village large enough for the entire stadium to see.
"Huh? Halt that footage immediately!" Rinai went to press the microphone hidden by the KC logo on her collar.
"Pay it no mind." Goodwin spoke softly.
"This is my village, my home town! Goodwin used my village as a guinea pig to attempt resurrecting the Crimson Dragon. And my village was…"
"How, how does Griger now of this? Could there be a survivor?" Lazar whipped around to look at Goodwin, but the man stood tall and silent.
"All the villagers went missing. And amongst them were my brother and sister. Yusei, Jack, Miss Kaiba! You must not believe him, You must not give Goodwin, the Crimson Dragon." Running to his bike, he jumped on, forcing a high speed. The muscular duelist whipped around the stadium once before launching towards the viewing platform, a chaotic look in his eyes.
"GRIGER!" Yusei yelled out jumping on his own D-Wheel, hitting the edge of the stadium at a high speed catapulting off and ramming the behemoth Runner with his own. The wheels spun against each other in the air creating an eerie screech breaking off one of the Chariot Pile look-a-like spiked pegs. It propelled towards the viewing platform crashing through the window.
With lightning fast reflexes, Goodwin grabbed the spinning spike cannon in front of his face. It made a horrifying grinding sound, but the hand remained intact. His white glove fell away in shreds to reveal a shining metal hand. Lazar fell to the ground in shock, and Rinai was sure the clown man had wet himself. She, on the other hand, had stepped back in shock when the bikes had collided ready to call in an emergency squad. Now standing a few steps away, her mouth hung open in shock, hand still on her collar.
"Your hand?!" Jack yelled out towards the Director.
The greying man dropped the spikes, and it hit the ground with a resounding heavy thunk.
Griger let out a deafening scream and the crowd went silent. Not wasting any time, Goodwin pulled up many computer view screens over the stadium addressing the crowd.
"Everyone in attendance! Please rest assured I have a responsibility as the Director of the Public Security Maintenance Bureau to protect you all. No matter what happens, I will protect you all, even if it means my life!" During his speech he hid his metal hand behind his back. The crowd applauded and cheered. The occupants of the viewing platform however were still stunned in silence.
As security approached Griger, he stood and placed his hands behind his back. They immediately pulled his hands further behind him and escorted the duelist from the stadium. Lazar picked himself off the ground and excused himself.
"Are you surprised, Jack? I lost this arm in an accident you see." Goodwin asked.
"I'm actually more surprised that it is not in your file, Director. I assume something of that nature would have been documented. Care to explain why it has been covered up?" Rinai snapped at him.
"It's in my file, that I was in an accident. The fact that I lost my arm and got a replacement should have been included. I guess it wasn't." He smirked.
"We'll talk later." Rinai sneered, taking an intimidating step towards him.
"The next duel is about to start! Let's all see how the Witch handles herself against the Profiler." Miss Saguri having recovered, now sat beside Jack on the couch. Seeing the tension, she tried to calm it down...for Jack's sake.
"Yes." Rinai turned away from the Director back towards the dueling field.
The Witch took the first turn and summoned her Black Garden field spell. The Profiler, during his turn, used his people reading skills and the research he had done on her to try to get into her head.
"What's he doing?" The blonde duelist asked.
"These ways of dueling do exist. The man known as Kinomiya is a duelist called The Profiler." Goodwin began.
"Indeed. He extensively studies his opponents profile before his matches to compose his deck." Lazar chuckled.
"So he plays head games to win." Rinai finished. "I was given many names. He seemed interesting, so I invited him to the tournament."
The witch landed a direct attack, but the Profiler laughed it off. He mentioned to her how he had done his research. How he knew her. How he knew her eyes.
"You're a Psychic Duelist, Aki Izayoi!" He exclaimed.
"So he came to the same conclusion I did." Rinai whispered.
The Profiler continued to tell her how he knew of her powers. How she hurts people with her powers. How everyone's afraid of her. Aki seemed to not let what the man was saying get to her and continued with her battle strategy. After her next attack however, his comments began to interfere with the red-headed duelist's decisions. He told her how when she was five she won a duel throwing her father against a wall and setting her house on fire. The Profiler went on to say how the thrill of winning her first duel awakened her dormant powers inside Aki's subconscious mind.
Now sufficiently distracted, she ended her turn caught in an internal struggle.
"The man is good at head games. It seems she's falling for it." Lazar laughed cruelly.
As the duel continued Aki became more and more violent with her attacks. Watching the Profiler fall to his knees, Rinai pressed the mic on her collar. "I want an emergency first aid team available to walk into the stadium as soon as this duel ends."
Finally on the attack, Aki's opponent summoned a monster that if un-countered she would lose. Taking the bait head on, The Witch syncro summoned her Black Rose Dragon. Aki's anger rose activating her mark. Rinai slid onto the couch between Jack and his handler, grasping at her head. There was little room between them, so she found herself twisting towards Jack subconsciously gripping at him with her marked arm glowing, his own arm glowing between them.
"Oh my God…" she cried out gripping at Jack harder. "Someone get a medical team down there...she might actually kill him."
"Right away!" Jack's handler rushed out of the room, allowing more room on the couch. Rinai moved off him, and gripped the cushion below her.
Aki's mark shone as her dragon was destroyed by her opponents spell card. It didn't faze her though, as she used a trap card to dissolve the rest of her opponents lifepoints.
"A Signer." Jack whispered.
"It's all consuming…" Rinai went green. "Her anger... hatred...and fear…" Pitching forward, the Signer fell to her knees and vomited on the carpet.
"Rinny!"