Hey There! I'm back with the release of chapter 11! This one was joy to write from start to finish. Although this chapter is a part 1, don't worry too much about waiting too long for part two, I'm hoping to release chapter 12 within the next couple of weeks, so look out for that! Also, I wanna give a shoutout to another new beta-reader who has joined in. Pure Red Crane has done a fantastic job with assistance in both grammar as well as future planning for chapters to come! She's done some great work, and I'm grateful to have her join the team! Of course, Zero Slash One remains a great member to the team as well. As someone who personally hasn't played or watched Yu-Gi-Oh in a couple of years, he's a massive help with keeping continuity as well as making sure the writing still feels like a Yu-Gi-Oh series. Overall, I am greatly in debt to both of them, as am I in debt to you, the readers! Without you reading this series I never would've made it even close to where I am in the story now. We still have a long ways to go, but making it to chapter 12 is an achievement on its own (Fun Fact, but on google docs where I write the series, the doc is roughly 100 pages long!) All in all, thank you for reading and enjoying the series, and always feel free to leave any comments or criticism, I always appreciate a good critique, regardless of how cruel. (Side Note, but there have been a few questions on the reviews about specific plot points. While I'm not going to answer these questions outright, I hope to give better insight in chapters to come. I feel like answering outright will take away from the story, so I hope to answer in the form of writing instead. I apologize)
Anyways, enough rambling, enjoy the chapter!
It was late. The gentle darkness covered the night sky with only a few points of illumination left on the small island. She typically avoided those areas. It restricted where she could go, but that was okay – there were plenty of other locations she could go to. Nimbly, the Maiden leaped from one large redwood tree to another, her small feet only touching the branches for a millisecond before gracefully hopping over towards the next.
How many times had she done this? For as long as she could remember, she had roamed this island. Calming waters, soothing breeze, beautiful nature and buildings – it was a nice location, she supposed. After running around here night after night, however, she began to feel bored. No, maybe not bored perse…Trapped? Perhaps that was the way to put it. Regardless, she realized very early on that she needed to occupy herself with something.
Fortunately, she had also realized very early on that this island was riddled with issues. Drug deals, underground duels, nighttime parties, bullying, stealing were a few of the island's problems. No matter how prestigious the academy, people were always stupid. She felt like it was her duty as the overseer of this island to put an end to it. So, she did. She dueled, she fought, she scared and stopped these foolish people day in and day out. How troublesome it was, but it was part of the job. It was the duty of royalty to rope in the subjects who were acting out.
Suddenly, a series of rapid lights shined in the distance. The colors of the entire rainbow shot out from the forest ground and into the sky, plain to see. It looked like whoever was shining those lights over there weren't doing a good job of hiding themselves. She shifted directions, taking a second longer on the branch to turn her foot and hop towards the direction of the light. Silently she encroached on it, her blue vest raising itself in the air like a glorious cape.
With little to no time, she reached the source, a small clearing amongst the woods. She paused on a large branch and took a look through the clearing of her mask.
Four people? No, it looked like just two. They were standing in the middle of a dueling field, the sharp lines outlined in white paint on the grass. One blue-haired boy walked around with a colored flashlight, shining the light into the sky, while another, a messy dark-haired boy, scoured the area with a pair of binoculars. The dark-haired boy, in particular, stood out. She sifted through her memory before recalling where she had seen him. He was the guy arguing with that other brat during the underground bunker duel.
She put her hand on her mask, feeling the broken portion and the cloth underneath that covered her eye. It took her a bit to recover, but she was back to normal after a few days. The mask, however, was permanently damaged. It was much more fragile now with small cracks here and there, not to mention her right eye had completely fallen off. She had gone back to the bunker to try to search for the chip, but to no avail, and she hadn't had time to find the materials to replace it. For now, the cloth had to do.
She hated to admit it, but she had gotten a little overconfident during that fight. It wasn't her fault necessarily with who she was and what she did, what she had to be. However, she did step a bit too close to the sun. She had better play things safe until she can get the mask repaired at the very least.
She locked her eyes and ears on the two. They were still searching. The blue haired-boy looked back at the other as he continued to wave the flashlight.
"Hey, is this even working?" he asked the other.
"Relax, we've only been out here for a few minutes," the binocular boy muttered. "Just give it time…It'll work".
"How long are we gonna be doing this for anyways?"
"As long as we need to. Now shut up and wave."
The boy looked back at the sky and continued to wave the flashlight. Maybe they were waiting for someone? Or perhaps they were looking for someone. Yes, that seemed much more likely. They were hunting, trying to signal some being and draw them close. Wait...could they be?
The Maiden pondered it. She supposed it wasn't out of the question. They could possibly be trying to draw her out. An interesting change of pace – she never had someone actively looking for her. She slipped a bit closer into the leaves. She decided to watch for a bit, and then decide whether she should play along.
The impatient flashlight holder once again looked at binoculars-boy. His arms were already getting tired.
"You see anything yet?" the blue-haired boy inquired.
"Nope, just trees and leaves," the other quickly responded. He shifted his head around the clearing, looking intently at the local shrubbery. He browsed around until he reached the location where she was. He paused for a moment, looking seemingly at the exact position where she was at. Cautiously, she slipped further into the darkness. For a brief minute, the two locked eyes. They stood there staring into each other's round pupils, trying to decipher what their intentions were.
After a brief moment, however, the boy immediately shifted his attention elsewhere. She breathed a hushed sound of relief. It appeared that he had not seen her, after all. For that short second, they had made eye contact, but it had seemed like he did not make contact with hers in the end.
The boy finished his rotation around the perimeter, then breathed a sigh of disappointment. He put the binoculars down and started into the woods with his retinas.
"Mmm, I see," the boy responded. He took in his surroundings, the breezy air, the smell of nature, and the sound of the waves in the distance.
"See? See what? You see something?" the boy with the flashlight instantly asked upon the realization that the other may have seen something. The other boy immediately pushed the impatient one lightly.
"Shut up. You're ruining it," the boy muttered as the flashlight boy immediately quieted down. The boy once again scoured around. He took a breath in before he suddenly snapped back towards the Maiden's direction.
"I know you're there!" the boy shouted out. "Why don't you do us a favor and stop hiding yourself!"
The Maiden's eyes widened. At such a shocking and surprising statement like that, she had no choice but to listen to his request. Nimbly she leapt off of the tree branch to the grass, the blades of green giving off a rustle. Quietly, she stepped into the clearing. In an instant, the boys locked eyes onto her.
"So, you did see me," the Maiden remarked.
The boy smirked. "Nope, I didn't see you at all," he admitted. "It was a bluff, a trap, and you walked right in."
The Maiden looked at him, intrigued by the boy who fooled a person such as her.
"You are?" she asked the boy.
"Ace," the boy answered. "We've met before."
" Yes, I remember. You were arguing with that other fool," she swiftly recalled.
"Oh, and I'm Sapphire!" the blue-haired boy jumped in. "So, you're the Mystery Maiden, huh?"
"Mystery... Maiden?" she questioned. "Is that what they call me?" She stopped and pondered it. "It's not bad, I suppose. Although I'd much rather they referred to me with my proper title."
"And what would that be?" Sapphire asked. The Maiden puffed out her chest with pride.
"I am none other than the Princess of this Island, the Supreme Overseer of this collection of rocks and nature, and you shall refer to me as such!" she boldly declared.
"Yeah, I will be doing no such thing," Ace quickly responded.
The Maiden shot a glance at the dark-haired boy. He stared back, showing no signs of fear or doubt. What was his game here? Clearly, he had some ulterior motive. She paused briefly before turning back towards the woods.
"Well, if all you wanted was to say hello, I'll be taking my leave now. There's plenty of other stupid students like you that I need to deal with," she said.
"Oh, hey! While you're here," the blue-haired boy called out. "You wanna duel real quick? It'll be fun! We're right in the duel field, too!" he said as he showed off the perfectly drawn-out field in the grass just waiting to be used.
"No thanks," the Maiden quickly responded.
"No?" Ace said intrigued. "Then how about a little incentive?" He shuffled through his pockets before pulling something out. Curious, the Maiden turned around to see what he could be offering. There, in his hands, was a shard of a white stone with a small red eye painted onto it.
"My mask piece!" the Maiden exclaimed. "How did someone like you find it?"
"Right? Why don't we make a deal?" the blue-haired boy jumped in. "A two vs. one duel! If you win, you can get the shard. If we win, though, you have to reveal your identity!"
Ace gave the boy a slight push as he leaned in closer.
"Hey, are you stupid?" he whispered. "It was just supposed to be me and her. How would a two vs. one duel work anyways?"
"I know that was the plan, but come on!" the boy exclaimed. "You really want me to say no to dueling against a vigilante who looks straight out of a superhero movie? Hell no!"
He then turned back towards the Maiden, directing it towards her. "Look, it's simple. We have 4000 life points while you have 8000, and then you take turns after our turns. It would go Ace, you, me, and then back to you."
"That's way too complicated. There's no way she would accept," Ace replied, once again whispering.
"I can hear you, you know," the Maiden interjected. "And I accept."
Ace stepped back, a tad surprised. "Really?"
"Regardless of what rules you apply…" the Maiden said as she pulled out a small, blue duel disk attached to her hip. She placed it onto her arm, and instantly the disk latched on, making boot-up sounds and lights. "I don't plan on losing."
"Rather bold of you," Ace remarked as he followed suit, stepping back towards the end of the field as he prepped his duel disk. "Better hope that boldness doesn't come to bite you in the ass later."
"And you better hope that your snarky comments don't come back to bite yours either," she coolly replied.
The blue-haired boy grinned. "Looks like it's settled then!" he said as he jumped back to stand next to Ace. He slammed a small duel disk on, letting it boot-up before grabbing the end of a blue cloth tied to his hand and unraveling it.
"My name is Sapphire Anderson! Duel Power 6,782!" Sapphire shouted. He then swung the headband around his head, tying it around. "And I'm taking you down!"
"Bring it on then!" the Maiden shouted.
"Duel!"
Maiden: 8000
Ace: 4000
Sapphire: 4000
"I'll take initiative!" Ace declared as he took out a card from his hand and swiftly placed it down. "I play Union Hangar!"
In an instant, massive industrial pillars rose from the ground. Inside, the pillars contained capsules with robotic creatures remaining dormant inside. The pods rose further and further until they stopped around the height of the trees surrounding them. "By activating this card, I can immediately add one light machine monster to my hand." From his deck, another card quickly shot out, replacing the card he had used.
"Next, I'll normal summon C-Crush Wyvern to the field!" Ace continued as a small mechanical dragon clad in purple came shooting down from the skies. It gave a robotic cry as it halted in midair, getting into position. (1200,2000)
"And when I normal summon a Union monster, my hangar allows me to attach another one from my deck to Crush Wyvern, so come on down, B-Buster Drake!" From the pillars above, a pod opened up. It shot out another robotic creature, this one in green. It dropped onto the ground behind the purple robot before a wire shot out, attaching itself to the Wyvern.
"Not bad, I suppose," the Maiden commented, a bit satisfied at the young duelist's performance.
"I'm not even halfway done!" Ace picked back up. "Because next up, I have Monster Gate!" The spell card revealed itself on the floor before a shiny blue vortex appeared from thin air, absorbing both the Wyvern and the Land Dragon into it.
"By tributing my monster, I can special summon another one from the top of my deck!" Ace swiftly pulled out a card from his deck, quickly taking a look at it before placing it on the field. "And it looks like the monster today is none other than Ash Blossom, in defense mode!" From the vortex appeared a small, ghostly girl with bright pink hair and a white dress. (0/1800)
"Maybe I should've held back my compliment," the Maiden once again remarked. "All of that work sacrificed for a small child with no attack points."
"Ah, but it looks like you're missing the point," Ace replied. "The point of the Monster Gate was not to bring Ash Blossom in, but to get Crush Wyvern out. Because when both Crush Wyvern and Buster Drake are sent to the Graveyard, I can both search and special summon another Union Monster!"
Another card shot out of Ace's deck, floating in the air before Ace caught the card and immediately played it. "I'm bringing in A-Assult Core!" Once again, another machine came hurling down from the pillars, this time a yellow scorpion arose. It readied its stinger as it prepared for battle. (1900/200)
"Hey, do you think you can speed it up a bit?" Sapphire yawned, clearly bored out of his mind. "I'd really like to play sometime within, like, this century."
"Shut up! There's a lot to this!" Ace shouted back. "This deck requires a lot of combo pieces and planning – something a simpleton like you wouldn't understand!" Ace sighed before turning back to the field. "Besides, there's only one more step now." Ace raised a card to the sky.
"With A on the field, and B and C in the grave, I banish them and special summon their combined form!" From a dark vortex, the purple wyvern and the green dragon shot back out on the field, immediately shooting straight for the scorpion. The three collided, their parts flying into the air and giving shape to a new creature.
"Dragon, Wyvern, and Scorpion. Combine to create a machine that trumps all! ABC BUSTER DRAGON!"
From the scrap of the three arose a massive machine. With the tank tracks of the scorpion, the wings of the wyvern, and the head of the dragon, the amalgamation roared in anger, ready to eliminate its next target. (3000,2800)
"And with that, my turn ends," Ace finally concluded, lowering his arms and watching the Maiden's next move intently.
The Maiden once again gave a click of the tongue, the signature sign of the royalty's annoyance. He had drained through a lot of cards, as well as a lot of her precious time, but the result was definitely nothing to scoff at. 3000 attack points was a big number. She looked at her cards. Yes, 3000 was big, but if they were playing a numbers game, she was confident that she could go higher.
"Fancy move," she said as she pulled out a card from her deck. "But your hard work is about to be destroyed!"
With no hesitation, she immediately began taking action, slamming one of the fragile cards in her hand down.
"I play Banishment of the Darklords, letting me add a Darklord card to my hand!" Following the activation of her spell, a card came shooting out of the deck, the Maiden grabbing it effortlessly. "I add Darklord Nasten to my hand, and I'm summoning him right away!" She took two more cards from her hand and inserted them into a small slit. "I discard two 'Darklord' cards to bring Nasten out on the field!"
From a dark opening in the ground arose the wretched creature. With its fearsome minotaur-like body, it reared before giving a loud roar, challenging the metallic creature. (2600,2600)
"And with Nasten on the field, I can use his effect-"
"-To pay 1000 life points and activate Darklord Contact from the graveyard to special summon Superbia," Ace finished her sentence. The Maiden instantly stepped back. "Sorry to burst your bubble, princess, but if you think you can beat me with the same strategy you pulled with Gregory, then you're sorely mistaken." He grabbed one of the remaining cards in his hand and discarded it. "Because with Dragon Buster's quick effect, I can discard a card and banish one of yours!"
"Banish?" the Maiden gasped.
"Oh yeah, it's gone, gone," Ace replied. "Show her, ABC!" he commanded as the metal monstrosity charged up one of its blasters. A dark, purplish particle shot out from the end as it created a dark vortex right in front of Nasten. The beast roared once again as it attempted to gallop away, but to no effect. In little to no time, the vortex vanished, leaving the Maiden wide open. "And with Nasten banished, your little graveyard plays are ruined, am I wrong?"
"Tch!" the angry princess snarled. "Lucky shot." She took another card and set it. "I set a card and end," she reluctantly stated.
She looked at the smug-faced boy, her face engulfed in rage. He had come prepared. As long as that machine was on the board, she was going to have a tough time getting anything on her board set up. If they were just destroyed, it would be no problem since most of her plays were fueled by the grave. Banishment, however, was a great alternative way to stop her. It was a strong power. However, it wasn't like that power didn't come at a cost. She looked at the boy's hand. It only had one card in it. He was only as powerful as his hand size, and it was about to run out.
"You're going to regret doing that next turn," the Maiden added.
"Oh ho, you're sorely mistaken. There's not gonna be another turn!" Sapphire exclaimed, excited to finally have his turn. "Because now it's my move!" he proclaimed as he drew a card. He looked at his cards with a smile. "Oh yeah! Now this is a hand!" He took a card and slammed it down.
"I'll start with That Grass Looks Greener!" the boy declared as the card appeared. "With this card, if my deck has more cards than yours, I can discard cards until I have the same amount, and I just so happen to run a 60-card deck!"
"And since you have 34 cards currently in your deck-" Ace added on.
"-I discard a whopping 20 cards!" Sapphire finished as a series of cards came spewing out of his deck. Sapphire grabbed the pile before placing them all into the graveyard. "Now we're all evened up, aren't we?"
The Maiden twitched at the extremely bold play. "For what purpose would you be so interested in doing such a thing?"
"You're about to find out!" Sapphire exclaimed before pressing a button on his duel disk. "When Gem-Knight Lazuli is sent to the graveyard, her effect activates, letting me add a normal monster from my graveyard to my hand!" At the press of a button, a hole in the duel disk began to glow as it sent two cards out from its depths. "And not only that, but since two Lazuli were sent to the graveyard, I get to add two to my hand instead!" Sapphire continued before grabbing the cards and putting them with the others.
The Maiden analyzed the boy's hand. That starting play was clearly worth it. His deck seemed to benefit from a discard like that. Not only that, but most of those cards he most likely never would have drawn anyways, so it was a win-win on both ends. It was an intelligent start from what she assumed to be an unintelligent boy.
"But that's just the start of the fun! Because next, I'm normal summoning Gem-Knight Alexandrite to the field!" He proceeded on as from below arose a shimming bright warrior cloaked in white armor with shining stones placed on it to give it a sort of elegance. The knight stood at attention, waiting for the next command. (1800/1200)
"Alexandrite's Effect activates!" Sapphire called out. "By tributing him, I can summon another gem knight from my deck, so come on down, Gem-Knight Crystal!" As quickly as the knight appeared, he vanished, shattering into beautiful shards of crystal and rock before fusing back together to form a more decorated, white knight. It stood there with confidence, proud of its rank and shine. (2450/1950)
"So, you summoned a level seven normal monster," the Maiden commented. "Congratulations, I hope you're not too proud."
"Oh, I got plenty more where that came from!" Sapphire coolly responded as he once again pressed a button. "When the Card 'Gem-Knight Fusion' is in my graveyard, I can banish a 'Gem-Knight' monster from my graveyard and add the card to my hand!" Once again, the card appeared from a bright spot on his disk. Sapphire grabbed the card and, without a second of rest, placed it back on the field.
"And I'll activate that right away! Sending three gem knights from my hand to fusion summon a monster!" he declared as a bright glowing vortex suddenly appeared, sucking the cards Sapphire had offered as sacrifice. From the glittery vortex, a new figure came rushing in.
"Madam of the Stone, let your radiant elegance appear before me so that you may command your knights to victory! Fusion Summon! Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant Diamond!"
From the vortex entered a rock warrior of feminine physique. Her shining armor and flowing red cape displayed her beauty as she drew a blade of equal elegance. With confidence, the royal mistress pointed her sword towards the Maiden, commanding the knight beside her to take action, which he did obey, getting into a battle position. (3400/2000)
"I activate her effect! By sending Gem-Knight Crystal to the graveyard, I can special summon another Gem-Knight fusion monster to fight beside her!" On hearing Sapphire's command, the Lady in Diamond rose her blade towards the sky as the loyal knight beside her broke apart once more. The glowing remains began to sparkle as the rocks rose to the top of the blade and began to swirl around it.
"King of the Stone Knights, Ruler of the Rocks! Come forth to fight alongside your mistress, and show your might! Appear! Gem-Knight Master Diamond!"
The stones collided together as a bright shine flooded the area once more. From above came a superbly decorated knight, wielding a massive greatsword covered to the brim with various gems. It looked up, lifting its massive blade and readying to battle alongside Lady Brilliant. (2900/2500)
With his plays finished, Sapphire gave a smug look, puffing out his chest. "Well? Isn't my deck cool?" he proudly stated, clearly happy with the results of the turn.
"Need I remind you, who exactly fixed that deck of yours?" Ace looked at Sapphire, raising one of his eyebrows.
"Neo fixed the deck," Sapphire corrected. "You didn't do shit."
"I was the one who gave you those cards in the first place!" Ace exclaimed, turning fully towards Sapphire. "Why don't you pay me back for them by showing a bit of respect?"
"Pay you back? I already paid you with actual cash! Isn't that enough?" Sapphire rolled his eyes. "Jeez, get off your frickin' high horse already."
The Maiden twitched as she overheard the two boy's conversation. Neo? That name rang a bell for some reason, despite the fact that she had never heard of that name ever. She searched her memories, but found nothing. And yet, it was nagging at her still like it was someone she should know, and yet for some reason, her brain was omitting the identity.
She shook herself out of it. There was a time and place to think about that later.
"Just shut up and finish her off," Ace said, frustrated. "The more you talk, the more it makes me want to start taking her side."
"With pleasure," Sapphire smirked, prepping for an attack.
"Finish me off, you say?" the Maiden scoffed. "I'm not the best with numbers, but I think you're a couple thousand off."
"Well maybe you should count again then," Sapphire replied. "Because when Gem-Knight Master Diamond is on the field, he gains 100 attack points for each of his loyal subjects in the grave. And currently, with all of those cards in there, there's a total of 18 Gem-Knights ready to back him up!" The caped king rose his great blade up to the sky, as the spirits of his fallen comrades caused the blade to shine with brilliant colors, invigorating the ruler to fight. (2900 + 1800 = 4700)
"You're kidding!" the Maiden exclaimed, flabbergasted.
"Oh yeah, I wasn't kidding when I said there wasn't gonna be another turn," Sapphire smirked. "Finish this, you two! Take out all of her life points with one fell swoop!" he commanded as the two knights instantly began to rush towards the Maiden.
"I activate Half-Unbreak!" the Maiden frantically declared. The card arose from the ground and wrapped Master Diamond in a bubble. "I take half damage from Master Knight's attack!"
The Maiden's trap, however, could not protect her from both strikes, as before Master Diamond could encroach, the Lady Diamond came slashing at the Maiden first, a gust of wind blowing upon the girl as she braced herself. The mask upon her face crackled at the impact of the wind.
Maiden: 4600
Then came the big strike. From above came the slash from the shining great blade. Despite being cloaked in a bubble, the effects were still grand as another gust of wind came in contact with her body. Once again, her fragile mask cracked. This time, a crack ran down from cheek to cheek horizontally. The piece fell as her chin and mouth became clear to see.
Maiden: 2070
The Maiden slumped downward from the shock of the sudden attack. She had gotten carried away yet again, diving headfirst into a fight she clearly wasn't prepared for.
"Aww, man!" Sapphire said, frustrated. "Well, looks like you get another turn, after all. Oh well, can't complain too much about playing more!"
She staggered upwards as she analyzed her two opponents, who turned to face each other. Sapphire was raising his hand, reaching out for a high five. Ace turned around, refusing, but Sapphire kept prodding. He pushed his hand closer and closer before Ace had no choice but to high-five it. Lightly and reluctantly, he tapped his hand on Sapphire's.
They were totally different, not even remotely similar. One was cunning and intelligent, playing slowly and outmaneuvering her, while the other played brash and boldly, hitting hard and thinking later. They were so different, but that difference made them formidable together. They covered for each other. Like a sword and shield, the dark-haired boy protected the two as the other laid down attack after attack.
The two duelists turned back towards the Mystery Maiden before stepping backward. With a bit of discomfort, their eyes laid upon the massive, excited smirk on her face and a small, faint glow of gold piercing through the white cloth covering her eye.
Perhaps this duel was going to be far more interesting, after all.