Chapter 12: The Power to Move Forward
"Alright! The number one duelist Tyson makes his triumphant return to the dueling scene!"
It's just a few minutes after one o' clock and Tyson is already revved up for his duel. He makes some kind of strange announcement and draws everyone's attention to himself by pointing to the sky as he does so. He receives questionable glares from practically everyone.
"Well I guess it's better than him narrating the entire duel." Rua thinks out loud. She intended for her brother to hear it but upon looking next to her she quickly sees that he's to into the pre-duel build-up to hear what she says.
"Geez," Akira sighs, "Just how much sleep can this guy operate on?"
The three duelists had met outside of Poppo Time as they unintentionally planned and were ready to start the duel. Akira glances to his left to meet Aki's eyes briefly before she averts her gaze with yet another red face. Aki's weird behavior was really starting to make him wonder but her red face could only mean one thing. Thinking about it, Akira turns to a grinning Tyson with a slightly ticked expression.
"You did something unnecessary…" Akira grumbles with a hint of red in his face.
On the sidelines, the remaining Signers discuss in secrecy.
"So he's the other Signer Aki was talking about?" Crow asks both Jack and Yusei.
"Yeah," Yusei nods, "Although we still aren't sure if he really is a Signer, the mark on his arm is just as real as the others. The only problem is that there are only supposed to be five of us."
"Yusei," Jack's voice interrupts the conversation, "Do you think it's possible that he has something to do with they girl who took your mark?"
Yusei and the others return their attention to the three before them. It was a reasonable assumption given the circumstances. And what's more, Yusei was aware of something that the others weren't. That night, when the group went to check out the explosion downtown, the girl that Yusei ended up carrying to the hospital had the same stone as the one who stole his mark. That girl was with Tyson and Tyson is Akira's friend. In his mind, they were somehow linked.
"Duel!" Aki, Tyson, and Akira declare the start of the match in unison.
Tyson: 4000
Aki: 4000
Akira: 4000
"My turn, draw!" Tyson takes the first turn and draws his first card. "And I'll start by summoning Blizzard Dragon (ATK 1800) in attack mode!" A small, blue winged-dragon appears on Tyson's field letting out a small roar. "I place two face-downs and end my turn."
Akira noticed right off the bat that Tyson had changed his deck from the Elemental Hero one he used during the tournament preliminaries. In addition, Tyson had given him a Blizzard Dragon card so he knew its effect and that it was a pretty powerful card to play right off the bat. But what was bothering him the most was the actual duel's set up. Both he and Aki had four thousand life points apiece while Tyson only had enough for himself. So either Tyson was extremely confident in himself or his new deck was extremely powerful.
"Aki, be careful."
"Right. You don't have to tell me Akira. My turn, draw!" Aki reassures her partner as she takes the second turn. "I summon my Phoenixian Seed (ATK 800) in attack mode." A budding seed with a giant eye appears on the field. "Next, I activate my monster's ability. By sending my face-up monster to the graveyard, I can special summon one Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis (ATK 2200) from my hand!" Aki releases her monster and in its place summons a flower that vaguely resembles a bird. "Now, Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis, attack Tyson's Blizzard Dragon!"
"I activate my trap, Torrential Tribute!" Tyson's face-down flips up and activates. The field is flooded by a large tidal wave as both Tyson's dragon and Aki's flower are swept up and destroyed.
"My monster's effect activates. When it's destroyed, my opponent takes eight hundred points of damage!"
A red aura surrounds Tyson as the simulated pain causes him to cringe and lose life points.
Tyson: 3200
Aki: 4000
Akira: 4000
"Next, by removing a plant type monster in my graveyard from play, I can special summon my Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis (DEF 0) back to my field." Aki's monster is revived as it folds its wing-like petals to defend itself and Aki. "I'll then place two face-downs and end my turn."
Aki ends her turn and returns control to Tyson.
"Awesome. My turn then." Tyson draws his next card and smiles upon seeing it. This causes the other two to tense up. "I summon Luster Dragon (ATK 1900)!" The beautiful dragon is summoned to the field. "But he won't be hanging around because now I'm gonna release him to special summon a monster from my hand!"
The sapphire dragon lets out a loud roar as it is consumed in a pillar of light that extends to the sky. Akira and the others hold their arms in front of their faces to shield their eyes.
"Now make way for one of my strongest monsters, Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon (ATK 2800)!" Tyson holds his hand up to the sky as the terrifying dragon crashes down onto the field. Its metallic body looms over the field, as it lets out a roar and sets its sights on Aki and Akira.
"What? He was able to special summon a strong card like that from his hand?" Crow asks allowed from the sidelines.
"Of course," Jack nods his head as he understands the situation, "That boy is obviously using a power deck. To overwhelm your opponents with powerful monsters is the number one rule of dueling with such a style. It is only natural that he would have a monster like that in his deck."
"Dragon, beatdown, and…" Akira holds his hand to his chin and speaks to himself. He was taking apart Tyson's new deck strategy but something was still off. There was a missing element and he knew it. Waiting for Tyson's next move, Akira looks over at Aki and her monster.
"Next I'll play the spell card Giant Trunade which returns all spell and trap cards on the field to the respective player's hand!" Tyson activates his spell card causing a fierce wind to pick up. The two cards on Aki's field are swept right of the field along with the one on Tyson's field.
"Now Red-Eyes, attack her Amaryllis with Infernal Darkness Flare!"
Tyson commands his dragon and it responds almost simultaneously. The dragon roars as it gathers crimson energy in its mouth and fires it out all at once completely destroying Aki's monster.
Tyson: 3200
Aki: 3400
Akira: 4000
"Don't forget," Aki speaks while enduring the simulated pain, "when my Amaryllis is destroyed, you take eight hundred points of damage!"
Tyson simply smiles as his life points drop again. This causes Tyson to receive solid glares from both Aki and Akira.
Tyson: 2400
Aki: 3400
Akira: 4000
"Hey Yusei, why'd he go and do that?" Rua asks curiously. "Didn't he know that he'd take more damage if he'd attacked Sis's monster again? What's up?"
Yusei continued to watch the dragon duelist carefully. Before he'd seemed like a rather goofy and carefree person. But now, Yusei could see that he was a powerful, if not top-notch duelist.
"No. Actually what he did wasn't a bad strategy at all. If Tyson had let Aki's Amaryllis connect with its initial attack when it was summoned he would have taken four hundred points of damage. Next, because Amaryllis is destroyed after it attacks, Tyson would've taken and additional eight hundred points of damage. So instead he opted to destroy Aki's monster when it was attacking and take the eight hundred instead of the full twelve hundred."
Rua grumbles to himself as he holds his hands up and begins counting off on his fingers.
"Naturally, to maximize damage, Aki would use Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis's effect to special summon it from the graveyard to deal an additional eight hundred while at the same time protecting her life points." Crow continues with the observation. "My guess is Aki picked up on the fact that Tyson had a grasp on her monster's effect and decided to place some traps on the field should he summon a powerful or multiple monsters. But he even saw through that and managed to break through Aki's defense and summon a powerful monster."
The group turns their full attention to Akira.
"So now, unless Akira does something to stop him, Tyson can finish off Aki in his next turn." Yusei foresees a premature end to the battle.
"I think I'll throw these two face-downs and end my turn." Tyson ends his turn with a playful smile.
"My turn! Draw!" Akira wastes no time starting his turn as he draws his card. He quickly places the new card in his hand as he shuffles them around in his hand to figure out the best combo he can create this turn. "The card he returned to his hand, what was it?" Akira trails off into his own little world as he continues to rapidly shuffle around his cards.
Tyson and Aki look over at him in amazement. The level of thought he was putting into his move was both amazing and somewhat weird. But something was beginning to click in the back off Aki's head. She recalls a young boy doing the same thing as Akira was now. That boy would soon become well known as the Red Ace of Duel Academy. "Akira…" Aki's words drift off almost with a slight sound of fondness.
"I'll start by summoning my Twilight Warrior- Ehr (ATK 1500) in attack mode." Akira's trademark warrior is summoned to the scene and stares down the dark dragon with determination despite the difference in their power. "Next, I'll play the field spell Moonlight Rose Garden."
A special slot on Akira's duel disk is opened allowing him to play yet another unique card. This time it was a field spell and its magic took affect quickly. The streets were soon paved in luminous white roses and the sky turned dark. The moon appeared in the sky above them and illuminated the field with its magnificent glow. The only thing more beautiful than the moonlight was the glow of the white roses in reflecting off the white warrior's armor.
"I'll place three face-downs and end my turn."
"What!" Aki expresses her sudden disbelief at her partner's move.
"He's not gonna do anything…?" Tyson mumbles a line of disbelief as well. If he wanted to now, he could easily defeat Aki. Even though this wasn't a standard team duel and Aki's loss wouldn't end the match for Akira, it was still a rather harsh move for him to make.
"What's he doing? Is he abandoning Aki?" Crow yells in frustration from the sideline.
Hearing this Aki gazes over at Akira and recalls them image of the injured boy lying beneath her. At that moment, more than anything, she wished for him to make eye contact with her, but he wouldn't. Slowly, memories of solitude and loneliness begin to sink in as betrayal sweeps over her. But then she remembers the night before and the few other times the two had actually talked. Akira had been nothing but open with her and downright weak if one wanted to be critical about it. If there was one thing Akira wasn't going to do, it would be to betray her.
"I trust you…" Aki says this aloud not for Akira to hear but more so that she herself could hear it.
Akira casually looks over at Aki with a puzzled face and shoots her a goofy smile and a dismissive wave. "What're you getting so serious about? It's just a game right?"
Aki smiles and nods before directing her attention back to Tyson.
Tyson grins to himself and draws his next card to begin his turn. "Man, you sure do act different when you duel dude. Nothing like how you are normally. But I guess that's a good thing."
Akira raises his eyebrow. He wasn't exactly ready to have a serious conversation nor did he exactly take complements well. When he thought about it, it was almost like he was intentionally being oblivious. Then again, maybe that's what gave him his dueling edge.
"Remember that feeling," Tyson continues to talk as he picks around with the cards in his hand, "and never forget it. Otherwise you'll get nowhere and you will always be looking behind you trying to convince yourself you're moving forward."
Akira is taken by surprise. Tyson may not have meant it, but his comment made too much sense to him. Akira recalls his dream and how he was lost due to misdirection. Even if it was hard and confusing, the fact that he actually decided to face his problem without an actual plan has gotten him this far and it was the only way he knew how to more forward. Maybe that's one of the things he lost when he stopped dueling and went off to control his psychic powers. Someone like Tyson would probably call it the "Spirit of the Duelist".
"If you turn your back to your enemies, they can see what you're burdened with. And once they see what you have to bare on your shoulders," Tyson moves his attention from Akira to Aki, "they'll take it away from you." This causes Aki to blush looking frantically between Akira and Tyson. "So stop crying and show me what you've got! If you can't even beat me then you might as well quit, Akira!" Tyson recalls the conversation Akira and Aki had the night before and then the conversation he and Aki had before that.
"You know…when I met him, he did tell me one thing; why he was looking for you and all."
Aki lifted her head up slowly. Aki turned her head to Tyson and the two's eyes met. Aki met Tyson's nonchalant gaze with an intense, determined stare that was also vulnerable stating that she wanted to know.
"Three words. I like her." Tyson said so with a smile.
Aki continues to glance over at Akira's face hoping for eye contact, but she had to keep averting her gaze to hide her bright red face. The boy made her mad for some reason and the fact that he was growing on her more and more upset her even more.
"I accept your challenge Tyson!" Akira states this with a grin as his eyes flash a bright blue and the infinity mark on his forehead appears yet again. "I activate my face-down, Battle Mania! During this turn, all face-up monsters my opponent controls are changed to attack position this turn and cannot change their position. In addition, those monsters have to attack this turn!"
One of Akira's three face-downs flips up and activates.
"Hmph. I don't know what you're thinking but I like that you're finally all fired up buddy! I'll start off by activating my Red-Eyes's special ability. This lets me special summon a dragon-type monster from my hand or graveyard. And I choose my Blizzard Dragon!" Tyson's Blizzard Dragon is removed from his graveyard and resummoned to the field just as powerful as it was before. "Now, Blizzard Dragon, attack Aki with Blizzard Burst!"
Tyson's dragon flies forward with a mighty roar and unleashes a stream of snow and ice from it mouth.
"I activate my face-down to protect Aki, Half or Nothing! With this card's effect, you have to choose either to halve the attack of all your monsters until the end of the battle phase or end the phase all together."
"I choose to halve my monsters' attack." Tyson holds his hand up to his chin and says so with a grin.
The strength of Tyson's two monsters in cut in half just as Blizzard Dragon's attack closes in on Aki causing her to bring her arms up to shield herself from the driving snow.
"Next, I activate another face-down, Staunch Defender! You see when my opponent declares an attack I get to select a monster on my side of the field. Then, for the rest of this turn you can't select another monster as an attack target and you have to attack with every monster on your field. And since Ehr is the only monster on my field and has 1500 attack points, say goodbye to both of your monsters!"
Blizzard Dragon's attack stops early much to Aki's surprise and doesn't even reach her. Instead, the blue dragon changes its flight path and positions itself to attack Akira's warrior. It pulls back its wings and flaps them forward with great strength sending out an icy gale to destroy Akira's Twilight Warrior.
"But that's not all! You see, with my Moonlight Rose Garden field spell active, any monster that attacks one of my Twilight Warriors looses 500 attack points until the end of the battle phase. So your monster becomes even weaker!"
"No way!" Tyson almost jumps and drops his cards at the sudden turn around.
A gale of white rose petals encircles Tyson's dragon and reduces it attack points even further from 900 to 400. Akira's brave warrior then waste's little time lunging forth and slashing the dragon in half with one powerful blow. Tyson shields his face from the aftershock as the simulated pain sinks in.
Tyson: 1300
Aki: 3400
Akira: 4000
Next, Tyson's Red-Eyes flies forward charging a ball of dark energy before firing it at Akira's monster. The dark dragon is encircled in white rose petals just as its ally was and its attack power drops accordingly. Akira's warrior jumps back into the air with its sword raised high above its head for a decisive blow.
"Grrr. I activate my face-down card, Reinforments, to cancel out the effect of your field spell!" Tyson makes a last ditch effort to preserve his life points. With the trap card activated, Tyson's dragon gains attack points equal to the ones it lost due to the field spell. However, it still wasn't enough as Akira' Ehr still manages to cleave the dragon in two; destroying it.
Tyson: 1200
Aki: 3400
Akira: 4000
"He really did it! I don't believe it!" Crow is surprised by Akira's move. "Not only was he able to defend Aki, but he also destroyed Tyson's monsters and dealt 1200 points of damage."
"Yeah," Yusei nods with a smile, "Akira is certainly a good duelist." Yusei's smile turns back into a serious face. "But something is still off."
"Why would Tyson set up a two on one duel knowing Aki and Akira's skill levels?" Jack finishes Yusei's thought.
Tyson takes off his cap and scratches his head. Akira just made a pretty impressive move. Using Battle Mania to make sure that the replay drawback to Staunch Defender wouldn't occur after using Half or Nothing to severely weaken his assault was something else. But he was prepared for this too. No, this is what he wanted. Seeing his plan come together made him smile happily.
"I guess it's time for Phase Two." Tyson speaks under his breath and places the cap back on his head. "I play the spell card Cards of Consonance. By sending a dragon-type tuner with 1000 attack or less from my hand to the graveyard, I get to draw two cards." Tyson plays his spell card and discards the last card in his hand and draws two more. "Next I activate my trap, Call of the Haunted, to revive the monster I just discarded. Be reborn, Disaster Dragon (ATK 1000)!" Tyson's last face-down finally activates and with it comes a golden dragon that appears on the field with a small roar. "Next, I'll normal summon Red-Eyes Wyvern (ATK 1800) to the field." Yet another smaller dragon appears on the field. This time it was a black dragon with red eyes.
Aki grasps the situation and so does Akira. Tyson was far from done and it was likely that he was just now getting started.
"It can't be!" Rua yells aloud from the sidelines.
"Synchro Summon!" Yusei realizes Tyson's plan and is surprised that he still had such powerful moves left to make.
"Now, I tune my Red-Eyes Wyvern with my Disaster Dragon!" Tyson's black dragon soars high into the air as the golden dragon follows behind it and turns into four green rings which soon enclose the wyvern. "Lone lights cluster amongst sound and fury! Their overwhelming might will shake the earth and illuminate the skies!" The black dragon becomes nothing more than an outline of its former self and a row of four lights before it and the four rings are consumed in a burst of light that crashes down to the ground behind Tyson. "Make yourself heard, Hopeless Dragon (ATK 3000)!" The light is shaken off by a fierce wind caused by the unfolding of the dragon's dark wings. Its gold and obsidian black body loomed over the battlefield with its mighty roar practically shaking the foundations surrounding it.
"Incredible! It's even stronger than his last monster!" Aki steps back as she looks up in awe of Tyson's new monster.
Akira glances at his partner and then redirects his attention to Tyson.
"Now the fun really begins. Let's see who's will is stronger Akira!"
The sun cannot reach them where they are. Bring and his partner Iori wait in the dark dining hall as a familiar water duelist approaches them with a less than friendly grin.
"Well, well. Long time no see." Kairi greets Bring and Iori in a near mocking manner. "Well it seems like you're finally Bring in both name and station huh Jason? Even though I don't think someone who had to try twice should be allotted such a high rank, I guess the master has his reasons." Kairi laughs slightly with a shake of the head and a shrug.
Bring doesn't pay her any mind. He wanted to duel her and handle her now, but if there was one thing he'd learned was that water and fire cancelled each other out. He'd risked too much to come this far and couldn't afford to loose it now.
"I guess it has been awhile. Wake now, right?" Bring simply responds with his usual tone.
Wake, formerly known as Kairi, turns up her nose to the street urchin causing Iori to shoot her an aggressive glare. If it had not been for Bring, the two would already have enough reason to be fighting right now.
"That's enough."
A new voice calls from the darkness and directs the trio's attention to the younger, but slightly older, boy approaching them from the next room. He was wearing all white in contrast to the darkness and had well groomed blonde hair giving an air of sophistication. He closes the book he was reading before looking into the eyes of the others causing them to almost freeze.
"Send…?" Iori's mumbles only loud enough for Bring who was next to her to hear.
Send turns back towards the room he entered from, stopping yet again to look over his shoulder. As he did so, Bring's eyes were able to focus enough to see the silhouettes of four more people standing in the shadows just beyond Send.
"If you're done quarreling, the master is ready now."
Featured Cards:
Note: Sorry guys, can't reveal too much about these cards because they'll ruin the surprises next chapter.
Moonlight Rose Garden
Spell/Field Spell
Any monster engaging in battle with a "Twilight Warrior" monster loses 500 ATK until the end of the battle phase. (Second effect to be revealed!)
Hopeless Dragon
8 Star/FIRE/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/ATK 3000/DEF 2000
[1 tuner + 1 or more non-tuner monsters]
(Effect to be revealed!)
Disaster Dragon
4 Stars/FIRE/Dragon/Tuner/ATK 1000/DEF 1000
(Effect to be revealed!)
