Eddie handed Aster a brochure. As he glanced over it, he realized it was about the Dueling Championship of the Americas. He noticed the date of May 1997, and assumed the next one would be in May of the following year. Nine months from now, he counted in his head. Aster had never heard about the competition.
"We are not going to waste time in pointless local competitions. How do you feel about this being your debut?"
He inspected the cover, 34 duelist had participated in the previous tournament held in Mexico City. All the contestants were from the american continent, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. The more he read, the more he felt his stomach doing somersaults. He could tell it was a fierce competition, not only on the day of the tournament, but on classification process. One of every each country of the continent, well almost all of them, were participating. How many were in the United States alone? While in some countries, names repeated themselves over the years, he imagined the madness of the classification process in the US; almost like a tournament on its own.
"I think it's a good place to start"
"When does classification start?"
"It has already started, this week to be precise...you can watch them on the tv, but with the World Series I doubt anybody pays attention."
Aster flipped through the pages, he noticed that the winner of that competition had been none other than Eddie himself.
"Why did you quit?" Aster asked suddenly. Eddie shrugged, and quickly changed the subject.
"What do you say?" He placed his brown eyes on him, a smirk on his face across his lips.
"Don't tell me...I'm already registered." Aster sighed, by Eddie's expression it was pretty obvious Aster didn't have much of a choice.
"Let me say this, I only did it because I think you are ready".
"Isn't it a bit soon?" I mean, I just begun my training three weeks ago!"
"Well, the actual tournament is in eight months, I think by that time you will capable enough to win it". He made a brief pause:
"I have no doubt in my mind you will qualify".
The brown haired man said nothing else and walked with Aster towards the cafeteria. The boy imagined there was no more discussing about the topic. He was going and that was it. Yet, Eddie seemed to genuinely believe in him. Aster wouldn't lie that his blind trust was placing him on edge. He had to perform, and he had to do it well.
Eddie turned around to face him before opening the door in front of him.
"By the way, how is D doing back at Domino?"
Mr. D had called, again. Part of Aster wished that D had not left as soon as they had arrived to the US, but even from the distance he was taking care of him, at least, in his way. D had never insisted on Aster on calling him "Dad", strangely, the word had never escaped Aster's lips by accident either. He was aware that D was not his father, in fact, he was perfectly aware they were two different people. D considered Aster should grown independant, which was the reason he allowed Aster much more space than his father did. D focused on Aster learning skills. If he was hungry, he should learn how to cook for himself, supervised at first, but nevertheless manage on his own.
He heard as D spoke about Domino and the Championship. He explained about the celebratory dinner they were having that night. In his own words, "as a way to show that Kaiba Corporation was all for fairplay and team play". Even miles apart, he could tell D was rolling his eyes at that.
"You'll have to go to lots of events when you become a pro-duelist". To the boy the words of his legal tutor sounded more like a warning. He knew Aster wasn't exactly the social butterfly of any group, but he had told him that if he wanted to be successful he had to be friendly with strangers.
"Maybe Miles will be there!" Aster interrupted D. "Have you seen him? What about Jade?"
D sighed at the end of the line.
"He is travelling, again."
Aster understood that was the end of the topic. Time and time again he had asked about the Tremblay's since D has returned to the city, yet D seemed to avoid the topic. He wasn't surprised that Miles was travelling, he always was. Most of the time, Jade's mom joined him, but he wondered if Jade had gone to the stadium to see him. Maybe she had asked about him? He doubted it, after all, Aster still hadn't time to reply to her first letter... D suddenly asked to speak to Sartorius, which Aster found it strange. He glanced over at Sartorius who was shuffling and flipping his tarot cards as he muttered to himself. The teen turned towards him expectantly.
"Uh...D wants to talk to you."
Sartorius calmly walked towards Aster and gracefully grabbed the phone.
"Hello, yes."
"I see…"
His expression turned to one of surprise.
"Yes, I thought about it...But, don't you prefer doing it yourself?"
"Still, I think he should be the one who wants it."
Sartorius handed back the phone to Aster.
"What was that about he asked?"
"Have you thought about a manager? I think it's key that we get you one as soon as possible"
It was not exactly the answer Aster had expected.
"I...I...no? I'm not even a Pro duelist, yet?"
D chuckled.
"What about you being my manager?" Aster asked.
"I knew you would say that" D lowered his tone, "But with an active career I don't think I can be your manager, Aster."
"But...I don't know anyone else! You know more people than I do"
"What do you think about Sartorius?"
"Sartorius!" the kid turned to look at the card reader who stared back at him. He was still standing next to Aster, he imagined he could barely hear their conversation. The teen shrugged.
"Does he want to be my manager?"
"It's just a suggestion, I think it's better if the three of us talk about it in person."
As they were saying their goodbyes over the phone, D said one last thing:
"But seriously, think about it."
When he handled the box with all the cards organized, Eddie Wilde rose an eyebrow. Aster wondered if he had done something wrong. The brunette grabbed the box with both hands and they walked through the hallway towards the arena.
"Is...something wrong?" the silver haired boy asked worried.
"No...not at all!" Eddie excused himself "Actually...that was pretty fast". Yet Aster felt it was not fast enough. Between his classes and trainings, he only had a few hours at night to organize the box. If Eddie gave him another one he promised himself he would finish much faster. However, taking its time had been useful in the end. He had read through all the the 1023 cards inside the box and classified them type. Afterwards, he organized spell and trap cards alphabetically, and monster cards by star levels. In the process, he wrote his thoughts in a small notebook.
"Aren't you going to check them?" Aster wondered out loud. His mentor chuckled.
"I trust you did a good job" he made a brief pause as he gestured with his head the door of the arena. The boy opened it. "Yet, if that makes you sleep at night I will give them a look."
"I…I also wrote down some combos" Aster pulled out the small green notebook from the middle pocket of his hoodie. He was surprised Eddie stopped him.
"Oh no, that is yours. This little notebook of yours should be like a teenage girl's diary: don't show it to anybody."
Eddie removed a blue notebook from his pocket trouser.
"It is a good idea to carry it around, specially in tournaments".
If Eddie Wilde had his own notebook, he imagined D had one as well, although he had never seen it. Perhaps Maximillion Pegasus and even Yugi Moto owned one. He wanted to ask if that was the case. Perhaps it was kept top secret, after all, what was more valuable than looking at the mind of the King of Games himself. The way he thought about the cards, about dueling...He would pay anything to see it!
As it was decided Aster was going to partake in the Championship of the Americans, saying his training had become intense would be considered an understatement. Despite the increased hours in dueling, Eddie insisted that his education remained intact. Always with a reassuring smile telling him, "You can handle it". Aster was unsure, yet part of him was scared of telling Eddie his insecurity. Maximillion Pegasus had been paying for everything: Eddie's salary, their apartment, their food, and would pay for all the trips necessary to qualify to the tournament...If he didn't have some potential, would Pegasus invest in him?
"Does Pegasus sponsor everyone?" he asked drawing a card. He placed it in face down position and ended his turn. While his life points remained with 1500, Eddie had 2500. But Aster knew he could turn it around.
"Only with those he considers he has potential."
As Eddie declared an attack, Aster activated his trap card, D-Shield, ending his mentor's turn. As Eddie began his turn he popped the question:
"Would you like to try using another deck?"
Aster was not going to lie that the idea had been wondering in his mind after watching D at the World Championship. He had already seen D win the local tournament, yet the deck he was using was not the same of the World Championship. While the rules said one had to remain with the same deck throughout a single tournament, duelists were allowed, and even encouraged to change them between tournaments and minor competitions.
Ever since his dad created them, Aster had never departed from his Destiny Hero deck, and the one time he did, one of his most important cards was stolen. Using another deck, almost felt like not being himself at all. he knew that there were other decks, and other cards, he had used them in the past...Would he have won the local tournament and catch Pegasus eye had he not used the Destiny Heroes? Could he have beaten Pegasus using another deck?
Besides, using the deck was if his father was standing next to him everytime he dueled. Like he was supporting him, cheering him on.
"I know this is hard for you."
The boy looked at Eddie.
He approached and patted his head.
"You really place lots of emotional value in dueling, huh?"
His mentor looked slightly puzzled, yet intrigued.
"I just don't understand it…"
As they shuffled their cards, Eddie spoke again:
"Of course, every duelist has their own special deck; yet a real duelist is one who can win using any deck." He placed the deck on his duel disk. "We both have four packs bought at random. Meaning we have equal chances on winning."
The man placed a card on his trap and magic card zone, and a monster in defense face-down position and ended his turn. Aster couldn't even look inside the packs: as soon as he tore them open, Eddie instructed him to shuffle them. He brief peek at some of the cards as they moved in speed succession mixing between each other, but he had no idea what was in his deck. Given the odds, perhaps they had a card or two in common. In his turn, Aster placed Acrobat Monkey (ATK 1000/DEF 1800) in face up defense position as well as two card facedown. He choose not to attack, ending his turn.
"Acrobat Monkey, huh?" Eddie said rather mockingly.
"Didn't you say that a good duelist is someone who can win using any cards?" Aster replied back defiantly. Aster could see a half smile forming on the man's face. As beaming with confidence as he sounded, deep down he wondered if this was a good idea at all.
In his turn, his mentor sacrificed his monster to tribute summon Big Tusked Mammoth (ATK 2000/DEF 1000). He then activated his spell card from his hand, Giant Trunade returning all the face down cards on the field to each of their owner's hand.
"Big Tusked Mammoth has an interesting effect, the turn in which your monsters are summoned, you cannot go into your battle phase." Eddie declared an attack on Aster's monster, but because it was in defense position, Aster did not lose any points. The man placed a card on his magic and trap zone and ended his turn.
Aster drew, and followed his movement by placing one card face down in his magic and trap zone. Looking at his hand he couldn't find anything to to fight Big Tusked Mammoth, although it didn't matter. He would be unable to attack anyways. He was certain that Eddie would not tribute summon Big Tusked Mammoth, so the only way to destroy it was indirectly, by a spell or by a monster's effect. He sighed frustrated, he still hadn't found the card which allowed him to do that. On the other hand, he noticed Freed the Matchless General (ATK 2300/DEF 1700) was on the farthest corner of his deck. Yet, he could not summon it. He noticed Eddie was staring at him, was he becoming impatient? He placed a monster in face down defense position and ended his turn unsatisfied, the only thing he could do was buy time.
As Eddie began his turn, Aster activated his trap card, A Feint Plan. With this, he prevented Eddie to attack his monster, even if he would not receive battle damage, he could at least allow him to have one monster on the field to use for Tribute Summoning. Eddie revealed his spell card, Card Destruction, which made Aster curse internally, watching as Freed the Matchless General was placed to rest in his Graveyard. Both players drew a new hand. Then, Eddie summoned Amazon of the Seas (ATK 1200/DEF 1400), and ended his turn.
On the bright side, Aster still had a monster on his side on the field, although not very powerful, his life points were secure. He placed down a second monster in face down attack position, and another card on his magic and trap zone and ended his turn.
"I think it's time we get moving things" Eddie commented as he summoned 7 Coloured Fish (ATK 1800/DEF 800) in attack position, and launched an attack on the face down monster that was positioned on Aster's right side. As it was Mystical Elf (ATK 800/DEF 2000), the card was not destroyed. Eddie ended his turn without adding new cards to the field.
First, Aster flipped summon his other facedown card, Man-Eater Bug (ATK 450/DEF 600), activating its effect and getting rid of Big Tusked Mammoth.
"I agree, I think we should begin to shake things up" he answered snarky.
Next, he sacrificed Man Eater Bug and summoned, Curse of Dragon (ATK 2000/DEF 1500). He launched an attack 7 Coloured Fish, making Eddie lose 200 life points. Aster remained with 4000, while Eddie had 3800.
In his turn, the brunette activated the spell card from the field Sword and Shield, which swapped attack and defense points of the monsters in the field: one the one hand Amazon of the Seas had a total of 1400 points of attack, while 1200 of defense; Mystical Elf had an attack of 2000 and a defense of 800 and finally Curse of Dragon had an attack of 1500 and defense points of 2000. Next, from his hand he activated Axe of Despair, and equipped it to his monster, Amazon of the Seas. which had an increase of 2400 attack points in total. He choose to attack Cursed Dragon making Aster lost 900 points. Now, the tide had turn in Eddie's favor, as Aster remained with 3100 life points, and Eddie with 3800.
In Aster's turn, Sword and Shield as destroyed, and all the monster's attack and defense points were restored to their original position. On the other hand, Amazon of the Seas, still equipped with Axe of Despair had a total of 2300 points of attack and 1400 of defense.
He drew a card and cursed himself internally. None of the cards in his hand made much sense. Two one star monsters, and bunch of spell cards cards which were pretty much...useless. But he couldn't just skip his turn without summoning anything. He summoned Dream Clown (ATK 1200/DEF 900) in attack position...and that was it? It was the strongest monster in his hand at least. He checked his hand again, on the farthest corner he saw The Warrior Returning Alive. Activating the spell card, he special summoned Freed The Matchless General (ATK 2300/DEF 1700).
"Well done, always remember your Graveyard can be an extra deck at times" Eddie commented as he began his turn.
Aster was surprised as Eddie simply placed a card face down and ended his turn. No attack, nor change in positions occured. As Amazon of the Seas had the same attack as Freed he would be unable to attack it; he imagined that even if he equipped Freed, Eddie probably had a card which would either stop the attack, end his battle phase or anything similar...He glanced down at his own face down card, just like he had. The kid activated Dream Clown's effect by switching it to defense position to destroy Amazon of the Seas. Yet, Eddie smiled satisfied and activated the card he had placed in his previous turn, Guard Mines. Amazon of the Seas remained on the field, Dream Clown was destroyed, and Aster suffered a loss of 500 life points. Aster remained with 2600 life points, while Eddie kept his 3800 points.
Aster fell on his knees, defeated. Only a 100 life points between them, almost, but not enough. Of course, without his Destiny Heroes victory was much more difficult. He was unsure how to feel. Part of him felt he had lost on purpose, just to prove himself that victory without his Destiny Heroes was impossible.
Eddie approached him and lend him a hand.
However, Aster did not take it and stood up on his own. He refused to look Eddie in the eye, a wave of emotions rushed over him.
"I have dueled without the Destiny Heroes before…" he muttered.
"But, not using them...feels wrong. I don't want to win without the Destiny Heroes"
"Let's make an agreement." His mentor proposed.
Aster finally looked him in the eye.
"For the qualification process, you will use your Destiny Heroes, if you are not confident without them I cannot let you walk out like this to a match."
Aster sighed relieved, it looked like a good plan.
"But, only when you beat your Destiny Heroes I will be convinced that you can win the Championship of the Americas."
"What do you mean?"
"A match just like our first one. A deck made of booster packs and your Destiny Heroes, except you are the one who uses the booster packs…"
Aster chuckled at the suggestion.
"But I beat you that time!"
"What are you scared you won't be able to do it again?"
Aster bit his inner cheek. The wave of negative feelings had been replace for an inner fire. A new challenge, which Aster could not resist. If he could beat his Destiny Heroes he could beat anyone.
D victories in the World Series accumulated until reaching the climax of him making it to the finals undefeated. Yet, Aster slowly began following his footsteps in accumulating victories in the classification process for the Regional Championship of the Americas. D had told him that some duelists back in Domino had began to talk about him, of course, all thanks to D who had been the one bringing up the topic. The man had made that crystal clear.
"The world is watching you, Aster. Trust me, they are all nothing but amateurs over here, you could easily beat them in two turns" D told him. By the sound of his voice, Aster could tell he sounded bored.
"I don't get why the age requirement of the World Series is 15...Guess you need to wait six more years!"
Aster had never thought about his age as an obstacle for his career as a duelist. Eddie had hinted that he would probably be the youngest at the Regional Championship of the Americas. Just like D was suggesting that it would happen the same in the World Series. He heard D babble his mathematics next to the phone, thinking out loud how to get Aster to the World Series sooner.
"...you will be 14 in the nearest tournament, they are always in August...but you will be 15 in December…"
Aster felt butterflies in his stomach. Eddie, D, even in his brief call with Pegasus and Sartorius they all talked to him as if he was already a Pro Duelist with an impeccable victory record. D referred to him as if it was the most logical conclusion that he qualify and even win the World Series, suggesting over the phone to fake a birth certificate for him to participate in two years even. But yet, his training session of the day had showed him he still had a long way to go.
He looked over at the pile of cards which Eddie had given him, once again. They had remained untouched since he returned home. For the rest of the day, Eddie had suggested of using different decks. While Aster had managed to achieve victory twice, deep down he felt it was simply out of pure luck. Was he really that capable duelist everyone referred to him as? Part of him felt like an imposter.
He was, but only when he used his Destiny Heroes.
"Aster...are you listening to me?" D interrupted him when he noticed the boy had gone quiet and did not react to the conversation.
"Yeah...I'm a bit tired, I think I'm going to bed now."
"If you have trouble you can ask Sartorius...everything becomes clearer when you know destiny is on your side."
He lied in the dark looking at the ceiling. The words D had told him making rounds in his head. Being a duelist was much more than a winning or losing streak, Aster also knew the difference between a Professional duelist and an amature one was that one was getting paid to duel, while the other wasn't...and that was it? If an amateur duelist could win using any deck, wouldn't that make him, well, more skilled? His thoughts went in circles, and they jumped from one thought to the next, spiralling in his brain without making much sense.
It was his fault, he knew he had underperformed compared to the last three weeks. Part of himself still believed he did it on purpose, for nothing; just to prove a point to himself; which only led him to frustration and disappointment. He put on his slippers and slowly made his way towards Sartorius room, knocking twice.
He heard the noise of the bed cracking, yet he tell the light was turned on.
"Hey" Sartorius moved aside to let him in.
"Could...could you read my fortune?"
Sartorius made no surprised expression and nodded.
He began shuffling his cards, and separated them in three small decks.
"What would you like to ask?"
"Will...will I participate in the Regional Championship of the Americas?"
Sartorius raised an eyebrow.
"Is that all you want to ask?"
No, it wasn't.
"Yeah."
He instructed Aster to pick one of the three decks. The one he felt the most "attached" to, whatever that meant. The boy pointed at the one in the middle. Sartorius began flipping them one by one.
"Yes."
Aster held his breath expectantly, he had the feeling Sartorius wanted to say more.
"Yes, you will participate in the Regional Championship of the Americas. I see lot's of success in your professional career. Like a flower, it's blooming." He looked at him with a calm smile. He then returned his violet eyes to the five cards on the floor.
"While I do see success, I see at the same time lots of inner struggle. I see a bumpy ride ahead, and lot's of insecurities in yourself...But I do see a good outcome in the end, nevertheless."
He gave a half reassuring smile.
"To conclude, a satisfactory but not an easy ride."
"How are you?" Aster inquired suddenly.
"Good, thanks" yet Aster noticed his lower lip trembled.
"Have you...seen anything else about the light?"
"I haven't figured anything else." he answered rather sharply. Quickly, he apologized for his tone.
"I would prefer if you...don't get involved...When the time comes, you will know." Sartorius said. The boy felt a bit awkward simply ending the conversation as such. Besides, despite what Sartorius had told him, he still had a lot on his mind. He doubt he would get much sleep.
"Would...you like to have a quick duel?"
Hello, hello!
Sorry for the long pause. Had writters block :/ I guess it's part of being in quarentine...I'm a bit less motivated to do stuff.
But anyways, longer chapter for a change :)
I kinda felt that I was being a bit...too easy on Aster; time to step it a notch! While I don't like seeing him lose, I do imagine his training had lots of ups and downs...Nobody reaches the top without sacrifices and challenges :)
Anyways, enjoy the reading!