Jurou went first in his duel against Kisshu, which took place in an alleyway between two buildings. "I draw!" He then looked over his hand and grinned. "I summon Vilepawn Archfiend, with 1200 attack! Per its effect, I must pay 500 life points on each of my standby phases to keep it on the field, but in exchange, you cannot attack any monsters except for it!" He then selected another card from his hand. "I'm not done there, though! I now activate the Field Magic Card Pandemonium, negating all Archfiend monster effects that make me pay life points! I then activate Double Summon, allowing me to make an additional Normal Summon on my turn!" As he selected his card, he thought to himself, "I'll have this duel locked down in my favor with this!" "I summon Terrorking Archfiend, with 2000 attack! With that, I end my turn!"
Kisshu looked over his hand as he drew a card from his deck to begin his turn, trying to find a way out of the situation Jurou had set him up for. As he looked at the card he drew, he found it. "Magic Card Activate! Polymerization! I fuse two Normal Dragon Monsters from my hand to summon First Of The Dragons!"
As First Of The Dragons came to the field and snaked its tail around its owner, Jurou thought to himself in bewilderment, "First Of The Dragons?! That card is incredibly rare! How did a nobody like him get one?!"
"I think you know what this card does," Kisshu confidently told him. "Now, First Of The Dragons, attack his Vilepawn Archfiend!" First Of The Dragons then opened its mouth and fired a ball of light at Vilepawn Archfiend, wiping it off the field with a loud explosion.
JUROU: 2500
KISSHU: 4000
"I end my turn," Kisshu declared. "I wonder if you can come back from that."
"I can and I will," Jurou defiantly told him. "Just watch!" He then drew his next card. "I set a monster and then set a Magic or Trap card, ending my turn!" Curious about Kisshu's monster, he changed subject matters. "I must ask, how did you get your hands on a card as rare as First Of The Dragons? That isn't a card that's usually owned by someone who I've never heard of before."
"If you must know," Kisshu admitted to him. "I stole it. Most of this deck is stolen, actually. Granted, I took most of these cards from a Ghoul, so he probably stole a good chunk of them as well." He then shrugged, feeling indifferent about the matter. "Better in my hands than in the hands of Deep Blue, I suppose. Speaking of, I must make my way to the Battle City 4 Finals, Jurou, and I must face him!"
Jurou was eager to know why someone that seemingly was brand new to the game wanted to face a man who possessed the Sacred Beasts. "Why is that? It's not like you have a chance against him."
"He was originally my boss, my master if you can call it that," Kisshu explained to him. "He betrayed us, and he betrayed his people, however. We all thought he was dead, but... He came back, and he kidnapped my adoptive brothers. I need to free them."
Jurou nodded, understanding his motivations clearly. "I can respect that. Family is important. I just gotta ask, though. Who... No, what are you, and where did you come from? Are you telling me aliens exist?"
"Yes," Kisshu replied rather bluntly and to the point. "We exist. We're actually called Cyniclons, but aliens is how we are referred to by most humans. However, it was not always like this. Many hundreds of thousands of years ago, we lived on Earth, but we were forced to abandon it after several major disasters. Ever since, we've lived in a different planet far away that for many millennia was a hellscape. We had made visits to Earth a few times since then, but our most recent visit prior to now was to originally destroy humanity. Deep Blue was the leader of a movement on our planet that believed humanity was a blight on this world, and he tricked all of us into believing him!" He sighed as he began to get somewhat emotional. "All he actually wanted was power, and he intended on becoming a dictator. He had plans to go around and systematically wipe out or enslave every single other intelligent species on other planets near us, starting with Earth. When me and my brothers realized this, we betrayed him, and a team of girls from Earth finished him off."
"Tokyo Mew Mew," Jurou said as he came to a realization about Ichigo. "You're talking about Ichigo and her friends, right?!"
"Correct," Kisshu replied with a nod. "She led the team that killed Deep Blue and fought us originally. Now, though, Deep Blue is back, and he intends on diving deep into our history to destroy Earth. He also seeks to personally ensure those who betrayed him suffer, as well as to personally kill Ichigo himself."
"I see," Jurou replied, taking it all in. "Well, how much should this concern me? I'm in this because I've had a rivalry with Ichigo ever since she defeated me. I must prove myself by defeating her in this tournament!"
"It should concern you greatly," Kisshu adamantly replied. "I get you have a rivalry with her, but you need to put it aside! This is literal life and death we are talking about! Now, it's my turn!" He then drew his next card. "I summon Blizzard Dragon, with 1800 attack! For its effect, I target your Terrorking Archfiend, rendering it unable to change its battle position or attack until the end of your turn! Now, Blizzard Dragon, attack his set monster!"
As Blizzard Dragon began to fire a flurry of snow and ice from its mouth towards Jurou's set monster, he revealed his other set card and declared, "Reverse Card Open! Blazing Mirror Force! I redirect your attack at all Attack Mode monsters you control, and then we both take damage equal to half of the combined attack of those monsters!" Blizzard Dragon's attack was then redirected at itself and First Of The Dragons, destroying both of them and causing Kisshu to look on in horror.
JUROU: 0250
KISSHU: 1750
"Damn it," Kisshu muttered to himself in anger. "I end my turn!"
"My turn," Jurou replied as he drew a card and looked over it. "Looks like this is the last turn of the duel. I sacrifice my set monster to summon Summoned Skull!" As Summoned Skull took to the field, it charged its hands with lightning and readied for an attack. "Now, Summoned Skull and Terrorking Archfiend, attack him directly!" Both monsters then fired flashes of lighting at Kisshu, wiping out the rest of his life points. Since this was not a Shadow Game, Kisshu did not feel the lightning hit him, and simply stood with a neutral expression as his life points hit zero.
JUROU: 0250 (WINS)
KISSHU: 0000 (LOSES)
"Now," Jurou spoke to him as he walked over. "I believe you owe me ten D-chips."
"Right," Kisshu replied as he grabbed ten of them from his bookbag on his back as he set it down on the ground. "Alright, here's ten D-chips."
"Thank you," Jurou replied to him as he took them. "By the way, I do genuinely wish you luck. I understand exactly why you're motivated to defeat him." He then began to walk away from the scene, moving on to whatever came next.
Kisshu remained silent, but on the inside thanked him for his kind words. Even so, he still felt that he was not taking the threat Deep Blue posed to humanity as seriously as he should have. "Thank you, Yamamoto Jurou. However, you still don't get the full picture. Deep Blue is going to kill you and everyone else if he succeeds. This isn't just about a card game anymore. This is life and death!"
...
Meanwhile, Ichigo sat in her room, looking over all the Duel Monsters cards she owned as she rebuilt her deck for the finals, which would occur starting on July 11th. As she placed her cards carefully, she looked over a piece of paper and said to herself, "Okay, so for the finals, I gotta write down a deck list, and I cannot use any other cards than what's written down." The finals would involve a two-sided bracket of 128 players, 64 on each side, culminating in the final duel at the end. It would be the largest series of finals ever held for a Duel Monsters tournament, necessitated by the large amount of participants in the preliminaries.
Her other self, Dark Ichigo, then appeared next to her and looked over the cards. "I can help you if you want, Partner."
"I should be fine for now," Ichigo replied to her. She then opened up a locked case located on her dresser and peered inside, looking at the three sets of Exodia her other self had won on the first day of the preliminaries. As she grabbed one of the sets, she looked them over in her hands. "These cards could give me a way out if I run out of options."
"Are you sure you want to use Exodia?" Dark Ichigo was concerned about the possibility of Exodia going into the deck. "The deck is at 50 cards already. Besides, who knows what we could unleash if we use it. These aren't normal duels, after all. If we're up against an ally of Deep Blue or Deep Blue himself, it's gonna be a Shadow Game."
"It's a risk I'm willing to take," Ichigo replied to her as she showed her the cards. "Besides, we may come out of this without ever having to use them. They're there if we need to fall back on something, though."
Dark Ichigo sighed, realizing Ichigo was going to put them in anyway, even with her warnings. "I suppose so. You're gonna put Osiris in, right?"
"Of course," Ichigo nodded. "Why wouldn't I?" The two then shared a brief laugh. "Ah yes, other me, I am so not gonna put in a piece of cardboard with a tiny computer chip inside that happens to carry the literal embodiment of an Egyptian God and is almost unstoppable when up against most other decks."
"Partner," Dark Ichigo told her as she placed a hand on her shoulder. "We are going to come out of this victorious. Trust me." Ichigo nodded, trusting her fully, and then went back to building her deck. The two of them would face off against the most powerful opponents they had ever seen yet, and fully expected to face off against Deep Blue at some point. It would be difficult, but they were determined to win.
