There are times to rejoice. Times where happiness is almost palpable. In those times a certain blue haired duelist would take a nap under a tree, dueling with his friend Yuto or overseeing his sister becoming better and better in Duel Monsters.
This day wasn't one of those.
Kurosaki looked among the fiery ruins of the Heartland High School, what just an hour ago was a pristine school full of bright minds and budding talents. Now both teacher and student alike were lying beneath the rubble, broken bones and charred flesh reflecting off pools of blood like an oil spill. He could still see the tree under which he tended to sleep. Now it was burning down, leaves and all. A popular hangout spot rendered just another piece of debris. A masked man walked among the rubble, natural like an earthquake.
Kurosaki could tell from his height and build that the man was at around 16 years of age. And from the blood on his hands, he inferred that he was at least partially responsible for the massacre that took place here.
Yet for as young as he was, he blatantly disrespected and mocked the charred remains of some innocent bystander who came to the wrong place at the wrong time.
Already recognizing the weapon he wore on his arm. It was nothing more than a duel disc, just like those that his friends used to play their favorite card game. But the ones these invasors used didn't project holograms of cool monsters out of a trading card game. What came from those duel disks was the genuine article. Dragons whose flames could blow a car away whilst melting it white hot. Beasts that could eat you whole and make your trip down their stomach worse than hell.
These weren't just "Duel Monsters". They were monsters.
The masked kid in front of Kurosaki towered over him, looking down at him like a vulture. "More prey? This might just be my lucky day," the kid said mockingly, putting on a smirk that radiated excitement.
Kurosaki only wanted one thing. To beat his ass to hell and back. The only thing on his mind, more than the pain flowing through him, was to punch him, burn him, and kill him in all sorts of ways. He had never murdered anyone in his life, nor had he ever planned on it. Sure he had some beef with people in charge he didn't feel were doing their jobs right, but he wasn't even close to a delinquent. But that masked man—no, that monster in front of him was bored from this. Bored from killing and maiming people who didn't deserve it. "That's a pretty scary face you're making for someone lying in the dirt," he said, amused with all the trash he was spewing from his mouth. "Tell you what. You seem like a pretty half-decent challenge, what with your duel disk still on you. How about you make my afternoon shift just a little less boring? I promise to at least kill you quickly." He should have ran. He should have stood up and ran away like hell. No way would he survive a duel with someone who destroyed an entire school like it was nothing. Making a run to the police while using whatever debris as cover was probably the smart choice. But Kurosaki wasn't exactly the smartest guy around. "Oh, you wanna duel?" he said slowly standing up, reading his duel disk and steeling his fiery heart. "THEN LET'S DUEL YOU BASTARD!"
Both duelists raised their duel disks and said in unison.
"DUEL!"
Both duelists take out their five initial cards. Kurosaki's starting hand was workable, but his heart was pained upon holding them in his hand. To think that he would live long enough to see a familiar game being turned into this engine of death.
This was all a mockery of the hours where he played with his friends. But before he could say anything the masked man made a twisted smile, probably over how much better his hand was to what he assumed was mine. The urge to break his jaw hand never felt so enticing.
"Now since I have one over the entire school, it's only natural for me to take the first turn," he said haughtily.
Kurosaki could only watch in hate, but that hate softened over his decision. His deck benefiting from going second to demolish the opponent before they could set down many monsters or negations. Taking the first turn would complicate his entire playstyle. But that proclamation of superiority still made him tense even more his muscles.
"First, I set two cards face down. I can only hope they're trap cards so that you'll fall into them like the cornered rabbit you are. Now I normal summon a monster in face up attack position! Come forth, Ancient Gear Massacre Hound!" The monster appeared dangerously close to Kurosaki, prompting him to back away on reflex. At first the beast looked like scraps of metal grinding and whirring around, but it soon began to take the form of a hound in just a few seconds. The hound was completely made of metal and constructed in a rather blocky manner.
It's rust and blood stains along with its continuously changing form made it look like something coming from some body horror movie. But now wasn't the time for him to be wondering about the shape of some stupid monster. Because the masked man continued his plays as if he didn't just summon a devil from hell.
"Once per turn when this monster is summoned, I can deal damage to you equal to the difference of cards on the field by 300 if my only face up cards are 'Ancient Gear' cards! Now, my Massacre Hound, make him suffer!" It was a mistake for Kurosaki to think of how stupidly edgy his opponent sounded, for now the hound separated part of it's scrap and spit it to him. Before he could even try to jump away, the scraps began scratching and piercing into his leg until they found bone. The pain was immense, but Kurosaki simply stood there. He had to think about his next play, and quickly before the blood loss gets to him
But something else happened that shocked Kurosaki to the core.
He didn't bleed, at least not like a normal person would. Instead of blood running down his leg, a metallic substance came out of where scrap net flesh. It was bright almost like mercury but with a distinct shine of its own. A blue splendor, one that made even his Masked opponent take a more stiff stance. But it didn't diminish the pain that Kurosaki felt in the slightest.
"To think that I would have this luck…" the masked man spoke, his tone more calm and composed than before. Could it be that he's more excited? Or was he second guessing himself? Kurosaki, never a man to miss an opportunity, decided to give him a taste of his own snark.
"Bad luck? Scared that you won't win by default? That you'll lose because the only things you know are petty tricks?" The masked man straightened his posture.
"Ohoho, looks like someone's getting a little too cocky," he said haughtily.
"Me, a coward hiding behind cheap tricks? What gave you that idea? Is it the mask? You must be thinking that I'm hiding something, right? You think that my strategies are petty tricks?" His voice was a steady baritone, but had crescendoed into a yell. Kurosaki could only steel himself in the face of this man's madness. And then he ripped his mask clean off. "I was done with having to stick this parasite to my face anyway, just to disappear any doubt of me hiding I'll also throw anonymity to the window, my name is Yuri!" he said.
What Kurosaki had perceived to be a mask was in fact a bug, one as big as half of the man's face. The insect tried to move in vain but slowly died in the man's hand, it's legs moving frantically in search of another victim. Kurosaki raised his view from the strange parasite to his opponent. Now that the bug wasn't obscuring his face he could clearly see the man had pronounced eyebrows and hair colored in pinks and purples. But even though his hair looked ridiculous, his face was anything but that. Blood leaked out from the sides of his face where the parasite had injected it's limbs into. There were holes that should be at least two fingers wide and who knows how deep they went. It's a surprise to see the man still conscious from what could be estimated to be significant blood loss. Kurosaki thought he was gonna be sick from the sight.
"Now my friend, why don't we end this farce?!" the bloodied man said, pulling out yet another card. "I activate 'Double Summon'! This card lets me normal summon another monster onto the field. With that, I choose to normal summon 'Ancient Gear Wyvern' with its effect activating!" And the monster did appear. A mechanical monster with a rusted body and wings. It's gears started to move faster and faster, making a cacophony that resembled the cry of a banshee. "This card lets me add an 'Ancient Gear' card from my deck to my hand. I choose 'Ancient Gear Box' which in turn adds 'Ancient Gear Frame' to my hand!" As the bloodied man added more and more cards to his hand, Kurosaki could only wonder about the lack of crying around him. The only sounds that he could hear were the clashing and whirring of metal from the duel they were having.
"Now I activate my first face down card, 'Polymerization'. This lets me do a Fusion Summon!" A fusion summon, the mark of the murderers that destroyed the city.
Kurosaki's mind wandered for a second into the why of it all. Why would anyone want to destroy this city? No one here could have done anything so heinous to warrant such indiscriminate destruction.
So why? Why?! Kurosaki wanted to collapse to the ground, asking questions he doesn't know the answers to.
But a pulse brought him back to reality. It wasn't the pain on his leg that miraculously kept him standing. It was something deeper, a pulse in the back of his mind. Like a bright light in a sea of flame.
He centered his eyes on the bloodied man in front of him, his mad opponent, as he kept monologuing.
"I fuse Ancient Gear Wyvern, Ancient Gear Box and Ancient Gear Massacre Hound! FUSION SUMMON ANCIENT GEAR MEGATON GOLEM!"
The monstrous amalgamation appeared before them. A giant automaton made of smaller rusty robots towered over them, its six legs and six arms moving like the rusty machine it was. It's body clicked and hummed in a way no machine should, and it stared into his soul with its lifeless lamplight eyes. It was at that moment that Kurosaki noticed something. The man wasn't bleeding from his face anymore. The holes on the side of his face weren't there. It was as if it had healed completely in the blink of an eye, or if it had never appeared in the first place. In that instant, for a reason he didn't understand, a word popped into his head.
"Zarc…"
Kurosaki said that in a whisper, one that only he could hear.
But the man before me grew impatient, and bellowed in his own mocking tone.
"It's your turn, friend! Mind being quick about this? Everybody else is already long gone by now!" Wait, "everybody else"? Now it clicked for him. The invaders have already left the school and he hoped that they also left the rest of the city too.
"Yeah, no problem," Kurosaki replied. "I'll finish this soon enough , bastard. My turn, I draw!" Swiping a card from atop his duel disk, he saw his options. A Raidraptor - Vanishing Lanius, a Raidraptor - Call, a Rank-Up-Magic Raid Force, a Raidraptor - Nest and two Raidraptor - Strangle Lanius. From just taking a glance at his cards, he had already prepared his moves.
"I Normal Summon Raidraptor Vanishing Lanius, and activate Raidraptor - Call!" Kurosaki makes his move. "This lets me summon another Raidraptor from my deck with the same name!" The first mechanical bird appeared easily. It's robotic appearance now made Kurosaki sick just looking at it. His monsters looking similar to his enemy's were already jarring enough, but he couldn't be picky.
He was gonna turn this fight around for the life of him. The second bird appeared just as fast as the first. "I activate Raidraptor - Nest from my hand which lets me add a Raidraptor if I control at least two Raidraptors!"
The cry of the new mechanical bird sounded as Kurosaki took another card from his deck. "The chosen card is Raidraptor - Mimicry Lanius, which I special summon using the effect of my first Raidraptor Vanishing Lanius !" he continued with his play. "And now with my second Vanishing Lanius, I special summon a Raidraptor - Strangle Lanius from my hand!" His plays moved forward, but the man wouldn't let him have it that easily.
"Oh but my dear friend! I think it's my time to activate a card" The man's words were laced with conceit, his tone mimicking those of a child before returning to his haughty baritone. "I activate Grisaille Prison! With this, you can't do an Xyz summon! Sorry for freezing your plays, you dirty xyz user. Not!" And with the flip of that card, Kurosaki was paralyzed. All of his plays depended on his Xyz summons. He couldn't destroy even a single card without them! A great impotence surged through him before he refocused on the man before him, but he looked…odd. Like he was talking to someone else.
"I'm telling you, I'll be fine," he said to himself. "Just one more turn and I'll win, Professor! …Yeah, yeah I have to see your son in the pendulum dimension." A professor? He seemed to be some sort of higher up if he was ordering this guy around.
"I end my turn," Kurosaki said. "It's your play now!" Upon further observation he forgot to set a card to bluff. Having his xyz summon being rendered moot was the worst thing to happen in this matchup.
But strangely enough, the man began turning translucent. He slowly began fading away as if he was only a mirage. Once he realized that, he changed when he realized that. Now his expression actually further deformed himself. Regardless, he brandishes his duel deck and takes his turn.
"My turn! I activate from my graveyard the effect of my Massacre Hound in the Graveyard, one Ancient Gear I control can attack all monsters that my opponent controls at the cost of banishing this card in the GY. Now DISAPPEAR YOU XYZ SCUM!" As the monster raised his hands to crush Kurosaki and his birds, he could only think, why was it this way? Why did this massacre happen? Why, why, why?! This rage burns and crackles within him like a spark bursting into thunder. And without him realizing it, he defiantly shouted a single word.
"KERAUNOS!" A single flash of light from the sky and the formerly masked man was no more.
No tattered clothes, no blood, no ash. He disappeared without trace, but Kurosaki knew, he knew that he will be back from wherever these invaders came. He could ponder on the how and why all he wanted, but Kurosaki was tired. He fell onto his knees, letting himself catch a breather as he wondered if Ruri, Kaito and Yuto were still alive.
Of all the places to wake up in, it wasn't in his bed nor on a couch in a friend's home. Instead, Kurosaki woke up in what appeared to be a shelter of some sort. The smell of smoke hit him first, the scent so strong he thought someone's dinner was catching on fire. It was probably Yuto trying to impress Ruri again. For all his efforts, he just didn't have the talent for cooking in him. But when he came to his senses he noticed something odd. He wasn't the only one here. There were probably dozens, maybe a little less than a hundred people here, most of them around his age and possessing a duel disk. Looking even closer to them, he found all of them were injured in some way, varying as much as a couple large bandaids on one guy to missing legs on another. Kurosaki stood up in an effort to assist when a strange feeling shocked him as soon as he put his foot down. It was his leg, the very same leg where he received the damage effect from that hound. What was once flesh and blood was now a shiny metallic color that reflected the light perfectly. His leg didn't seem to hurt for the most part so he put off worrying about it for the time being. He had more pressing matters to deal with.
Kurosaki quickly made his searches for an exit from the ruins, desperate to see what had become of his friends. When he finally found his way outside the first people he saw were Yuto and Kaito. Good, those two were safe. Both of them had torn clothes but no serious injuries that he could tell from a glance. What was interesting however was the presence of a blond girl at their side.
"Yuto!" He called out to them. All of them turned their heads to face Kurosaki as he made his way towards them. "A friend of yours I presume? Because he may just be another Master." Kurosaki understood nothing of it. Forget whatever a "master" is, he just went to the side of his friend and grabbed him by his arms.
"Yuto, are you alright? Where is Ruri?! She was with you before that huge invasion, right?!" At this, Yuto could only avert his eyes in shame. "We were separated…" he said gloomily. "I don't know where she is…"
As all of them looked to the ground hoping for the best, the blond girl said as if nothing had happened.
"Oi, you must have some balls if you're just gonna ignore me like that," she said, her temper rising by the second. "If you'd like to keep 'em, then you ought to hear me out, damn it." More surprised than actually scared, Kurosaki listened closely. "Good, now we can get formalities out of the way," she said.
"I am Mordred. Knight of Treachery, son of King Arthur, and the true heir to the Pendragon throne."
And that's all for this little prologue, thanks for reading and I wish all of you a good day! Please review as much as you like, I will answer all of the Reviews on the next chapter.