Day Ten
Part One
When I regained my consciousness, I was once again in darkness. However, it was different from the closet that Yoru had locked me in. It wasn't like I couldn't see anything, it was just that the surroundings we're just... black. I was lying in a corridor that was that wasn't perfectly square, but rather bumpy, with blue glowing windows in irregular distances.
Wait... How did I even get here?
The last thing I remembered was that I was in that closet with Yoru and then, I was here. But how? Was this a dream? Did I pass out again?
Clueless, I got up and decided to walk along the hallway, to see where it lead. When I came across the first blue window, I could see that it didn't show the outside. Well, not literally. It instead showed a moving picture of two children, a girl and a boy, playing on a meadow.
I watched them for a few seconds until I moved to the next one, which was embed into the ground. Just like the last one, it seemed to show a scene from somewhere in this world, this time being that of an old woman in a chair, reading a book with fairy tales.
The third window I reached however made me freeze. It showed the arena in the BRER headquarters. But not quite as I remembered it. One of the doors leading into it seemed to be blown open by an explosion and dozens of grey-clothed soldiers storming in – members of the rebels.
Slowly everything that had happened before my disappearance started to come back to me. The computer voice warning of the rebels that had entered. They must've advanced to the arena, but it seemed like that was their farthest advance for now. Because the other side of the door was guarded by as many soldiers and Director Abe.
"Have you finally calmed to a point where we can talk about how our relationship will continue from this point? I mean, you destroyed two of our security doors, those weren't cheap," Director Abe raised his voice. It was impossible to overhear his taunting voice.
"Return the kids to us. Shun, Sho, Arya, Yuro and especially Minori," Hideo replied calmly, "or we'll continue to destroy doors."
"I have some unfortunate news for you, sadly. The sirs Hayashi are currently indisposed, as is Miss Ishikawa. Miss Seiko is not as indisposed as those three but its better when she stays in bed until she is well again. And lastly Yuro has decided on his own terms that he is better off when he works with us from now on," Director Abe continued in his mocking tone, "On that account, I wouldn't be against it if some of you wanted to change their current occupation. We're always in search for staff, especially when it comes to people who are experienced enough to clean our toilets really well."
While many of the rebels behind him looked like they were just about to jump at Director Abe, Hideo remained largely calm, or at least he was really good at pretending he did: "I'll only ask once. Let us through, or there'll be violence."
"If its violence you want, we shall have violence," the director replied, while starting up the Duel Disk on his arm, "but why don't we handle this like we did in old times Hideo? Just the two of us?"
"I quit duelling long ago Mamoru," Hideo replied, "and you know that. But if you want a battle, man on man, I have someone for you."
The bulky man took a few steps back and a smaller one emerged from behind him, with spiky hair and dirty glasses.
Tsutomo.
"So he's your champion Hideo? I would've expected someone who's more… flashy. But then again, its you whom I'm talking to."
"Shut up," Tsutomo said, "We're not here for small talk. We're here to rescue Yuro."
"Quite a brave boy you are," the director replied nonchalantly, "let me tell you one think about your friend Yuro, he..."
"WHERE IS HE?"
All eyes in the arena darted towards the third door to the arena, from where the cry had come and so did mine through the window.
Especially the soldiers of the rebels couldn't quite believe their eyes, but it was Tsutomo who put their thoughts into words: "Yuro? Is that you?"
"YURO! Where is he?! What did you do to him!?" the boy who looked just like me yelled at all the people in the room simultaneously, "Give him back to me!"
Director Abe, one of the few people who actually knew what was going on, was thunderstruck for a few seconds, before he found his words again: "Yoru… Is everything alright? How did you get out of your room? And what are you talking about, what's with Yuro?"
"Yoru? What? Is that some sick corruption of Yuros name?" Tsutomo asked, but his answer was delayed by Yorus shouting.
"Don't dare speak about him! You took him away from me, return him now!"
"Yoru, please explain, we don't know what you're talking about," Director Abe tried to calm him, but my brother refused to listen.
"I'll rip the truth from your warm bodies!" he screamed, while starting up his Duel Disk, positioning himself in a triangle to Tsutomo and Director Abe, forcefully entering the duel that was about to start.
Tsutomo: 4000 LP
Yoru: 4000 LP
Mamoru: 4000 LP
"Abe, if you would explain who the fuck that boy is?" Tsutomo addressed his original opponent, while drawing his starting hand.
Director Abe, who looked distraught from Yorus outbursts, took some time to answer: "Well, if you insist. We created two artificial human children in our labs. BL1 decided to refer to himself as Yuro, so we took the liberty to call BL2 Yoru. In hindsight, it might have some bitterness to it, but it winds up aesthetically."
"Alright, so he's a carbon copy of..." Tsutomo started out, but seemed to search for words, "our friend? Can I assume that our friend has gone nuts at this point too?"
I hadn't, at least that was my opinion, as I was still sane enough to notice that Tsutomo was spacing out on my name, so Yoru wouldn't start throwing temper tantrums again about him mentioning it.
"He's not, at least I hope so. To be honest I had no idea that both of them got out of their confined rooms," Director Abe answered.
"Alright," Tsutomo responded, "I've defeated that guys clone before, so I guess I can deal with him as well. I Normal Summon 'Al-Lumi'raj'!" The first monster that the Solid Vision had to produce in this duel was a large rabbit-like creature, with a single horn that resembled that of a unicorn.
Al-Lumi'raj: WIND / Wyrm-Type / Level 3 / 1600 ATK / 1000 DEF
"While my monster is face-up, all face-up monsters will lose 300 ATK and DEF for each of their Levels," the boy continued.
Al-Lumi'raj: 1600 ATK → 700 ATK / 1000 DEF → 100 DEF
"I then Set two cards and end my turn," he finished, as the two cards materialized on his field.
"My turn!" Yoru yelled, "I draw!"
He immediately picked a card from his hand and placed it on the field: "I Normal Summon 'Bloom Dragon Servant'!" The monster that appeared on Yuros field was a female warrior, clad in heavy red armour, including especially heavy arm guards, with lavender veils loosely draped over it.
Bloom Dragon Servant: LIGHT / Warrior-Type / Seedling / Level 3 / 900 ATK / 900 DEF
Bloom Dragon Servant: 900 ATK → 0 ATK / 900 DEF → 0 DEF
"Bloom Dragon… what?" Director Abe asked confused, but Yoru continued without paying any attention to him.
"While my opponent controls a monster, I can immediately let 'Bloom Dragon Servant' blossom! Bloom Summon!" The warrior lady was enveloped by a yellow cocoon, which then started to change colours to red. "Burn though the chests of anyone who dares to stand in my way! 'Contagious Hatred Bloom Dragon'!"
When the cocoon vanished, it revealed a large serpentine dragon. It had red, stony skin with orange lines pulsating along its length. It spotted two wings on its back, however, those we're tiny and looked like charcoal, forcing the dragon to lean on its two massive arms that clung to the ground like tree trunks. Lava was dripping from its massive jaw like slobber.
Contagious Hatred Bloom Dragon: FIRE / Dragon-Type / Bloom / Level 7 / 2500 ATK / 2000 DEF
Contagious Hatred Bloom Dragon: 2500 ATK → 400 ATK / 2000 DEF → 0 DEF
While the dragon was severely weakened by the effect, it still made the same impact on me as when I saw it for the first time and it seemed to be the same way for Director Abe and Tsutomo.
"That is… unexpected," the older man was eventually able to put his thoughts into words.
"What is this piece of shit?" Tsutomo asked, albeit not tremendously concerned, given the effect of his monster supposedly weakened the opposing dragon.
Instead of answering, Yoru simply Set his entire hand on the field: "I Set five cards face-down and end my turn."
And with that move, the turn had moved to Director Abe. However, the man seemed to hesitate.
"What's wrong old geezer? Did all your attitude from before go down the drain when you saw the dragon?" Tsutomo asked.
"You'd know if you had payed attention for once, you insolent boy!" the Director snapped at him, "it's not the fucking dragon. I actually thought that BL2 might create a card like this along the way to mirror BL1."
"Mirror BL1? Does that mean Yuro has..." Tsutomo started.
"Don't dare mention him!" Yoru shot at Tsutomo, reacting to his only trigger word so far.
Ignoring the furious boy across the field, Director Abe continued to address Tsutomo: "Just look at the card he Summoned before the fucking dragon. 'Bloom Dragon Servant'. Can only be used to Summon 'Bloom Dragon' Monsters. Does it click in your head yet?"
"Not really."
"Bloom Dragons aren't official cards damnit! The only existing ones are Stealth Scales and Contagious Hatred and those we're created by BL1 and BL2! How can someone have Bloom Dragon support cards?!"
"You mean he… created it as well?"
"Yes, that's what I mean… but I'm not sure why he would waste a blank card for that. His Dormant Worm deck has more than enough ways to quickly Bloom Summon, that's why we gave it to him anyway. But I'm trying to figure that out."
"My turn, I draw," he eventually started his turn, "And I Normal Summon 'Iron Chain Palm'!" From the image of the card the director had played, a tall tree started to emerge, with various merges chains forming the trunk, five oversized chain links forming the leaves.
Iron Chain Palm: EARTH / Plant-Type / Seedling / Level 3 / 1500 ATK / 1500 DEF
Iron Chain Palm: 1500 ATK → 600 ATK / 1500 DEF → 600 DEF
"While face-up, Iron Chain Palm will gain 100 ATK for each card in my opponents Graveyard. Due to this game being a Battle Royal, both of you are my opponent, but since only one card has hit the Graveyard so far, the boost is spare for now," he continued.
Iron Chain Palm: 600 ATK → 700 ATK
"Chain!" Yoru yelled, "I activate my Set card 'Bloom Dragon Dominance'! After activation it equips itself to Contagious Hatred and will raise its ATK by the ATK of all monsters you Summon until the End Phase!" Behind him, the weakened dragon let out a roar which made both opposing players take a step back.
Contagious Hatred Bloom Dragon: 400 ATK → 1100 ATK
"Geez, another Bloom Dragon support card… How many blank cards does that guy have?" Tsutomo asked and when he said that, it slowly started to dawn on me when I thought back to the closet Yoru had brought be into yesterday.
"Well, I cannot battle on the first turn of a Battle Royal, neither do I want to, thus I will also Set a card," Director Abe said, "and end my turn."
Contagious Hatred Bloom Dragon: 1100 ATK → 400 ATK
"Then its me again," Tsutomo said, "and I'll move into battle without Summoning a monster. Al-Lumi'raj, attack the Bloom Dragon!"
The rabbit darted forward and tried to pierce the dragon with the horn, but Yoru intervened: "I activate the effect of Contagious Hatred! When it battles I can target a Level 5 or higher monster on the field and have my Dragons ATK become equal to that monsters, just 300 points higher! I'll have it target itself!"
Contagious Hatred Bloom Dragon: 400 ATK → 700 ATK
And suddenly, both monsters were equally strong.
"Do you think I don't read cards?" Tsutomo said, "I activate my Set card 'Empty Thinking'! When a Wyrm-Type Monster I control battles, I can use this card to make its ATK become 0, while having you take all Battle Damage from this Battle and destroying your monster at the end of the Damage Step!"
Al-Lumi'raj: 700 ATK → 0 ATK
"I activate my Set card as well," Yoru intervened, "'Bloom Dragon Pride'! It will prevent my Bloom Dragon from being destroyed by card effects until the End Phase, and will inflict 500 Damage to you each time a card is sent to your Graveyard this turn! Also, if you bothered to actually read, Contagious Hatred makes us share all Battle Damage when it battles!"
Almost on command, Contagious Hatred vomited a surge of lava onto the tiny rabbit, effectively melting it on the spot.
Yoru: 4000 LP → 3300 LP
Tsutomo: 4000 LP → 3300 LP
Mamoru: 4000 LP → 3300 LP
"How come I'm caught in the crossfire as well?" Director Abe asked, before answering his own question, "I see, it makes all players share the Damage. Lovely."
"Don't think this is over! Bloom Dragon Pride still has some damage to deal to you!" Yoru yelled at Tsutomo and was right; Both Tsutomos monster and Trap were sent to the Graveyard and he was supposed to take 500 damage for each.
Tsutomo: 3300 LP → 2300 LP
Also, as a result to Al-Lumi'raj leaving the field, several ATK values on the field changed.
Contagious Hatred Bloom Dragon: 700 ATK → 2500 ATK
Iron Chain Palm: 700 ATK → 1600 ATK → 1800 ATK
"I might as well use this little bit of Damage for my own good," Director Abe suddenly said, "I use my Set card 'Relapsing Chain'! It will allow me to sent cards from the top of your Deck to the Graveyard equal to the multiple of 100 of Damage I took!"
Both Tsutomo and Yoru took the top seven cards of their decks and sent them to the Graveyard and while the Director didn't pay any heed to Tsutomos, he looked in utter shock at Yorus.
Iron Chain Palm: 1800 ATK → 3200 ATK
It seemed like my thoughts had been right: All the seven cards Yoru had sent were blank.
His deck was nothing but a stack of forty blank cards in this duel.
It seemed like Tsutomo and Director Abe had realized just as much as I had.
In this duel, Yoru could to anything. Any card his twisted mind could think of, he would just create at his will. He didn't seem tired. He didn't seem like was restraining himself. He was using his power to the fullest and I knew that this power had no limits.
Author-made cards:
Bloom Dragon Servant / LIGHT / Warrior-Type / Seedling / Level 3 / 900 ATK / 900 DEF
Can be used for the Bloom Summon of a "Bloom Dragon" Monster if your opponent controls a monster. During your Standby Phase, if this card is in your Graveyard and you do not control a face-up "Bloom Dragon" Monster: You can Special Summon this card. You can only use this effect of "Bloom Dragon Servant" once per duel.
Iron Chain Palm / EARTH / Plant-Type / Seedling / Level 3 / 1500 ATK / 1500 DEF
Can be used for a Bloom Summon while its ATK is 3000 or higher. This card gains 100 ATK for each card in your opponents Graveyard. If this card is destroyed by battle: Send the top 5 cards of your opponents deck to the Graveyard.
Contagious Hatred Bloom Dragon / FIRE / Dragon-Type / Bloom / Level 7 / 2500 ATK / 2000 DEF
1 Level 2 or 3 Seedling Monster
If this card attacks or is attacked: You can target 1 face-up Level 5 or higher Monster; This cards ATK becomes equal to the targets ATK + 300, also, both players take any Battle Damage a player would take from battles involving this card. These changes last until the end of the Battle Phase. Once per turn, during either players Battle Phase, if another monsters effect is activated: You can pay 1000 LP; negate that effect and if you do, all Battle Damage your opponent takes is doubled until the End Phase. You can only control 1 face-up "Contagious Hatred Bloom Dragon".
Bloom Dragon Dominance / Continuous Trap Card
After activation, equip this card to a face-up "Bloom Dragon" Monster you control. If your opponent Summons (s) Monster(s): The equipped Monster gains ATK equal to the Summoned Monsters ATK until the End Phase. If you control a face-up monster that is not a "Bloom Dragon" Monster: Destroy this card.
Bloom Dragon Pride / Normal Trap Card
During this turn, face-up "Bloom Dragon" Monsters you control cannot be destroyed by card effects, also, until the End Phase, if a card(s) is sent to your opponents Graveyard while you control a face-up "Bloom Dragon" Monster: Inflict 500 LP Damage to your opponent. You can only activate 1 "Bloom Dragon Pride" per turn.
Empty Thinking / Normal Trap Card
If a Wyrm-Type Monster you control battles an opponents monster: You can make your battling monsters ATK 0; Your opponent takes all Battle Damage you would take from that battle, also, destroy your opponents battling monster at the end of the Damage Step.
Relapse Chain / Normal Trap Card
If you take less than 1000 LP Battle Damage while you control a face-up "Iron Chain" Monster: Your opponent sends cards from the top of their deck to the Graveyard equal to the multiple of 100 LP Battle Damage you took. You can only activate 1 "Relapse Chain" per turn.