Title: Result of Evolution
Characters: Ryou, Saruyama, Inukai
Chapters: 1-1||Words: 1,561
Genre: General||Rated: G
Challenges: Diversity Writing: YGO GX canon: E25, past tense; One Character Boot Camp, Ryou, #37, accept; Include The Word Boot Camp, YGO, #40, hope;GX Month 2021, day #8, Miracle Draw Notes: This takes place during episode 65, when Ryou's in the underground. That duel was epic and so pivotal! Summary: If he can summon Cyber End Dragon, then he can win. That's what Ryou's always thought. So what does he do when his plans are halted at every turn and the only answer is one he hesitates on?
One quick glance at his opening hand told Ryou that this wasn't going to be an easy duel. He couldn't be certain of what his opponent had, but just based off of his cards, it would not be easy to manage this.
He'd always been able to figure out his strategy just from the first hand. What he saw here wasn't the strategy he was used to. He could see the bare bones of it in the back of his mind, but it would require more time to see the whole thing. Time he would have to buy for himself.
If he wanted to be honest, if he'd had this hand during any of his Academia day duels, he wouldn't have cared. He would have known without a shadow of a doubt that nothing his opponent could do would be able to counter his tactics. Now he wasn't so certain. Now he knew that there were other people out there who were every bit as good as he was – and in one case, at least one who was better.
But this was different. He was in the underground. How good could the duelists here be? He could manage this. He would make it back to the pros.
All he needed to do was win this duel.
So he got to business. He set Call of the Living Dead face-down - he would use that to call back Cyber Dragon at some point. He didn't doubt for a second that this opponent would find a way to destroy his monsters. Better to be prepared for it.
Then he activated Time Capsule, considering quickly which card to set into it. Fusion was an option, or Power Bond. Either one could get him Cyber End Dragon and once he had that, there wasn't anything that could stop him. He'd won so many duels with Cyber End.
If he'd been able to summon that against Edo – and if he'd noticed Edo's face-down card -
But the vaguest thought, something too thin to even be considered a strategy, but something else altogether, a mere whisper of an idea, offered a different solution.
Overload Fusion? The problem with that one was that he couldn't use it to summon Cyber End Dragon - it was only capable of summoning a Dark-Attribute Machine-Type Monster. He had very few of those in his deck. In fact, the only one that he could think of was -
Chimeratech OverDragon. It would work with the setting of Call of the Living Dead - he would need a Cyber Dragon on the field. But he wasn't sure.
His eyes flicked first to the far side of the field where Inukai awaited, then back to his hand. He could feel the pressure of eyes on him, the spectators and those of Saruyama as well. He had to make his decision in a heartbeat.
He slipped Overload Fusion out of his deck and set it aside for later. He couldn't imagine what situation would lead to him calling that monster - he'd set it into his deck as a desperation move, but no one had ever pushed him to the point he'd been that desperate. He wasn't sure if that could even happen now.
But then Inukai began to duel - and it was clear in the first few seconds that his deck had all but been designed to destroy a Machine-Type deck - his type of deck. Was it by accident? Or had Saruyama done this on purpose?
From what little he knew of his so-called 'manager', he wouldn't have been even remotely surprised. He wondered what else he hadn't been told. Would it be possible to even leave this place before the end of the duel?
No. Even if there was, he wasn't going to leave. Not unless it was in victory. He would do this. Somehow. Somehow. Then he would shake the dust of this place off of his feet and never think of it again. It had been a mistake to come here.
Future Fusion - he could summon Cyber Twin Dragon, and deal massive damage to his opponent. Maybe even enough to defeat Inukai. He did the math in a heartbeat – the first attack would destroy Clone Slime, and the second could possibly do a direct attack. Clone Slime did have an effect, though, so that would have to be considered. He wasn't sure what that effect was, though.
So maybe he couldn't win just yet. Regardless, Cyber Twin Dragon wouldn't be able to attack until the turn after it was summoned and that would, unfortunately, give Inukai time to counter it.
But before Cyber Twin Dragon could even appear, Inukai countered it, negating the activation of Future Fusion. As if that weren't enough of an insult, he offered Ryou a very sadistic choice - either summon a low-level Machine-Type or deal a thousand points of damage to Inukai.
It wasn't an easy decision. If he takes the damage, he'll have six thousand still. But if I can summon a monster, I have a better chance to cause real damage. That went through his head in a matter of breaths. He summoned out Proto Cyber Dragon, and sent it blasting towards Inukai's Clone Slime.
Only to learn there was a reason it was called Clone Slime - it switched out with Acid Slime, which was destroyed, and delivered eight hundred damage to Ryou himself.
Only seven hundred left. Ryou hadn't ever felt so cornered. Even when he had fought against Juudai, he'd so easily been able to think his way out of any situation. Now he felt as if nothing he did mattered, as if no move he could make would bring him a victory. His head throbbed, though if it were from hunger or thirst - he'd not eaten before coming here - frustration - or from the fact Inukai so expertly and effortlessly countered him - he didn't know. He wasn't sure if he cared. He just wanted this to be over with.
I have three hundred life points, he realized after the attack of Multiple Slime sent Proto Cyber Dragon to the graveyard. It's going to be over soon. If I draw one more Machine-Type monster... He could get around it if he could summon something straight from the deck, but if he drew - then it was all over.
This would also be the turn where he got Overload Fusion into his hand. This would be the last turn for him, one way or the other. If he drew a monster, then something would destroy it. If he didn't, then he -
Wait. Something clicked. A strategy - a plan. A simple, clean, and clear thought, as he drew his card and saw what it was.
He had Power Bond in his hand. Now he'd drawn Cybernetic Fusion Support. He had three Cyber Dragons in his graveyard, so he could do this.
He could summon Cyber End Dragon. The risk remained; he had nothing that could counter it. Inukai had seven thousand Life Points; Cyber End would have eight thousand. Multiple Slime had fifteen hundred attack points. Inukai would still survive it, unfortunately. But it would give him time. Time to finish this. And he would at least have summoned Cyber End Dragon. He wouldn't be so damned frustrated.
Or at least that was his hope, that died a brutal death a breath later when Inukai activated Slime Hole. Now he had fifteen thousand life points, and Ryou had only a hundred and fifty.
His gaze fell on the card he'd most recently added to his hand - Overload Fusion. He knew the monster that he could summon - needed to summon. Only this monster would give him victory. Nothing else could do it.
And he wanted that victory. After all this time, he admitted it to himself. Respecting his opponent didn't mean a thing to him anymore. How could it, when his opponent didn't respect him, went out of his way to wreck every plan that Ryou made, and mocked him every step of the way? Even Edo had been better than this.
Respect could die a horrible, painful death. What he wanted was victory, and if that meant he would rip it away from Inukai then he would do so.
I think the deck wanted me to do this from the beginning. Here was Call of the Living Dead. There had been Time Capsule, so that he could get Overload Fusion into his hand at just the right moment. He knew that he'd never had the same talent for hearing spirits that Juudai had, but perhaps it didn't matter now. He had something better.
He had victory.
He'd heard what Saruyama kept on calling him throughout this duel. Hell Kaiser. He liked the sound of that. This duel - this underground - it was a place of Hell, without a doubt. A place that he would master and control. This wouldn't be his last duel here, not by a long shot.
But it would be Inukai's. And it would be the last duel for anyone who dared to face him.
Hell Kaiser unleashed his full power. And knew that it wasn't enough. It would never be enough. But he enjoyed seeing his opponent fall, and knowing it was the beginning of his new life.
The End
Notes: Strictly speaking, Overload Fusion in the anime probably could be used to summon Cyber End. But I thought it was more fitting to use the real effect. Ryou's duel against Inukai is one of the most pivotal of his career, and quite frankly, Saruyama had him read like a book. All that Ryou did before this was, for the most part, summon Cyber End and blast. He needed to learn actual tactics. Like Saruyama said, if he couldn't summon Cyber End, then he never knew what to do, and no one ever tried to stop him, so he wasn't learning or growing. But Hell Kaiser changed all of that.