Chapter 2: School days
When Alice woke up she was back in her normal clothes but she had busy day ahead, "so what is this school" Astral asked "a school is a place you go to learn, say you wanted to learn more about this worlds history, there is a class you go to in school where you learn about it" Alice explained "observation 1 humans go to a place called school to learn things, so would anyone their know about me and where I'm from" he questioned "well I'm not sure they would, thinking about it can other people even see you" she wondered "I mean when you appeared nobody else even noticed you" she reasoned "yes, it does appear that way" Astral said "well it looks like we should get going" Alice said before they left for class
It wasn't long after that Alice arrived in class "Quiet down, class we have a new transfer, this is Alice Gehabich please make her feel welcomed and Alice I'm Mr. Kay your homeroom, math, IT teacher, alright then go find an empty seat and we'll begin" Alice then moved to a seat as class began
When Class end Alice noticed most students leaving "I wonder where they're going" Alice said aloud "duel period, it's were the students are free duel or study before going home or just go home" Shark said "Shark" Alice said shocked "you didn't know I went here, now you better get going if you want a chance to duel someone" he said before starting to walk off "wait why are you being nice to me" she asked, to this Shark was a bit stunned 'what type of guy do I come off as' "because you seem nice, besides I want you to improve" he said "huh" was Alice replied "that duel yesterday, you were pretty good for a newbie so I would like to duel you again but not right now, for now I want you to be a better duellist the next time we go head to head, well I'll see you later" Shark said making his exit.
Alice spent the period watching other students duel 'okay I think I get how the game works' she was thinking, before taking a look thought her deck "all and all well balanced with different options for wining" Astral said "oh hi Astral, where have you been" she asked him "the golden key, it really is a peculiar place" he said as she pulled the key out of her pocket "you should be careful not lose that" Astral said making Alice examine the key more "there's a hole, I could put some thread through it to wear it" Alice stated "if that would reduce the risk of lousing then I recommend doing it" Astral said stressing the importance "okay I'll do it when we get back" she said
After the school day Alice was taking a short walk back to the dorm when the lights around the streets and other electronics started to go haywire "what's going on" Alice said "I don't know is this normal" Astral asked "no not really" she said as they quickened their pace back to the dorm "what was that" Alice wondered
The rest of the day went by pretty fast as Astral found himself inside the golden puzzled by what connection it had to him and how Alice acquired it, when Astral left the golden key he expect Alice to be sleeping, but she wasn't
(3 hours earlier)
When Astral had gone back inside the golden key Alice thought it was time to go to sleep but she couldn't, the full effect of what she done as masquerade finally was able to fully set in 'how could I do it, all those horrible things' she thought as the memories of being masquerade went through her mind as she started to cry in to the pillow for hours
"I'm a horrible person, I don't deserve to be happy, have friends or anything, and trash like me shouldn't even go on living" Astral found Alice talking to herself while crying into a pillow 'she appears distressed, however I do not know the cause, perhaps I should let her be for now and find out how to improve her mood' Astral thought to himself before disappearing back into the key before she could notice him.
The next morning Alice went to school like the morning before but when she arrived in class she noticed error on all the electronics "sorry class but because the yesterday's system hiccup our systems are offline today" Mr. Kay said "since we can't do any math how about a duel tournament" someone in class suggested "well it's not on the curriculum both sure" Mr. kay said as the class started duelling each other, at this point Alice sat out to make sure that she knew everything about the game, When class was over Alice headed to library, since the system got restored a little after class, and there were some books Alice needed to check out
Alice was so wrapped up in her work that when she had finished it was late in the afternoon and Alice was ready to leave, when she noticed that another student had entered the library she was about to leave when the student cried out, "ahh I didn't mean to launch anything" he said "what happened" Alice asked him startling him even more "you see, all those system malfunctions yesterday were caused by a hacker, so I was trying to investigate, when I just accidently launched the virus" he said going back to the computer "what are you doing" Alice asked "I'm tracking the source of the root kit if I can pin point the location this computer was accessed from then we can find we're the criminal is, I got it" he said getting up "I'll go with you" Alice said and boy thanked her, and the two left for the location
The two were nearly to the location when the boy said "I'm Caswell by the way, a first year" as they going to the location "I'm Alice" she said before Caswell looked at her "Alice, as in the Alice that beat Shark the other day" he said "yeah that was me" Alice replied as the reached their destination that looked to be a giant tower
"he should be in here" Caswell said as they entered "so finally put the pieces together" Mr. Kay said from the centre of the tower "what Mr. Kay" Alice said in disbelief "don't you get it, he's the criminal behind the virus" Caswell stated "that's one way to put it, I am glad you could follow the clues, I wanted you to be here when the virus went, well viral" Mr. Kay said before taking off his glasses and it was then Alice and Astral saw the number 34 on Mr. Kay's neck "a number" Alice said 'so that's it' before Astral spoke "you must duel him, the number has consumed his spirt in order to reason with him, is to break the numbers hold" with this Alice nodded "alright Mr. Kay I challenge you to a duel and if I win you stop the virus" with this Mr. Kay said "you want to do duel me, very well Alice I'm happy to oblige, but why do you think you can defeat me" with this Alice said "because I have to" after saying that a purple light engulfed Alice changing her clothes from the school uniform to masquerade's outfit (without the mask) and her hair turning blond (but keeping its shape) a purple tattoo going over her eye and with the final step her duel disk appearing on her arm "lets duel" they both said
Turn 1: Mr. Kay 4000LP
"I believe the first move is mine, I draw and place a monster in face down in defence mode"
Turn 2: Alice 4000LP
"Alright I summon Silent Magician level 4 in Attack mode" level 4 ATK 1000 "next I place one card face down and end my turn"
Turn 3: Mr. Kay 4000LP
"It's my turn I draw"
"Not so fast when you draw a card my Silent Magician gains 500 ATK points" Alice said
"Alright first I summon crash bug Y, with that done I activate the crash bug road spell card from my hand, now we each chose a level four or below monster then we each summon a monster in our hand with the same level, I chose crash bug Z"
"My Silent Magician is a level four monster and the only monster I have in my hand with that level is my chocolate magician girl" Alice said "right" astral said be before Alice she summoned chocolate magician girl level 4 ATK 1600
"Don't you see you've set me up for victory I flip summon crash bug x, now I overlay my three crash bugs and summon number 34 terror-byte" Rank 4 DEF 2900 "I'm activating terror-byte's special ability to take control of one of your monsters, so I'm taking your chocolate magician girl level 4 ATK 1600 and attacking you with it"
Chocolate magician girl attacks Silent Magician loss 100LP
"Your defeat is coming, but for now I place one card face down and end my turn"
Turn 4: Alice 3900LP
"ok I draw, first I activate dark magical curtain, by using this card and cutting my life points in half I can summon Dark magician" level 7 AKT 2500 – Alice 1950 LP "and now summon Gagaga magician, I can now activate Gagaga magician's special ability to change his level to seven and now I can tribute my Gagaga magician and Dark magician to special summon the Sorcerer of Dark Magic" level 9 ATK 3200 "now I place two cards face down and end my turn" "since your Sorcerer of Dark Magic isn't a number card it can't destroy terror-byte, however since it is now the most powerful card on the field it may have been wroth summoning" Astral said
Turn 5: Mr. Kay 4000LP
"I activate terror-byte's ability to take control of your Chocolate magician girl again but this time will be different, because I'm activating these two continuous spells, now with infected mail once a turn any level 4 or below monster on my field can attack you directly but after it attacks its destroyed and since its on my field I'll attack you with your Chocolate magician girl"
"Activate your trap card" Astral told Alice "right, activate negate attack, now your attack is stopped and the battle phase is over"
'Since the attack didn't go through crackling doesn't activate, not that that matters now one direct attack and she's done' Mr. Kay thought before say "alright then I end my turn with a face down"
Turn 6: Alice 1950LP
Alice was about to take her turn when the room started to rise "what's happening now" Alice said as reached the top "from up here will have the best view in the city to see the effects of the bug" Mr. Kay said
"it's our turn, but we need to end this quickly if your teacher gets out a monster with 2000 ATK or more that's level 4, it's over" Astral said "then was it a bad idea to use dark curtain" Alice asked "no it was a good set up, and we didn't have those continuous spell cards to worry about at the time, but we need a way to attack" he finished "alright I draw, perfect, alright I play monster reborn to bring silent magician back from my graveyard, now I overlay my silent magician and Chocolate magician girl to XYZ summon Number 39: Utopia" Utopia 39 Rank 4 ATK 2500 "I activate dark pendant and equip it to utopia for a gain of 500 ATK" Utopia ATK 3000 "now utopia attack terror-byte"
Utopia destroys terror-byte, no damage
"Now I activate my trap, magician's circle with this card I can summon a spell caster type monster with 2000 or lower ATK, so I summon the dark magician girl, now my dark magician girl and Sorcerer of Dark Magic Attacks you directly"
Dark Magician girl and Sorcerer of Dark Magic combined ATK 5200
Mr. Kay 4000LP – 5200LP = 0LP
Alice win
With the duel won Astral claimed the number card and a part of his memory with it, "Mr Kay? Mr Kay? Wake up!" Alice said as Mr. Kay groggily comes to, sitting on the floor back to his usual self, "What're... all you guys doing here" Mr. Kay said "Hurry! You said you'd stop the viral countdown" Caswell said "The viral countdown... I can't. The viral release doesn't have a cancellation code" Mr. Kay said with less than 50 seconds left on the clock Alice and Caswell started to panic "Aah! We're doomed! It's all over" caswell said, but as the clock ran out the city was quiet what're you guys shouting about over here" Mr. Kay asked and Alice answered him a bit unsure "Your virus weren't you trying to crash the city's systems and cause panic and chaos" with this Mr. Kay is a little shocked and said "Why would you think I'd do something like that… I'll admit that during my preparations I accidentally caused a little trouble, but..." he was a little hesitant to continue "so what were you doing" Alice asked her teacher "well you see I was looking at the patterns in the city's night lights, and I noticed that they seemed to be forming an incredibly complex matrix code. With my duel gazer, I scanned the pattern, and realized it was just one optical fragment away from being and exact replica of the Crashbug Q-code! And I realized, the museum's dome isn't normally lit up at night, if you use your duel gazer, you could see it" he explained, and with this Alice turned to look at the sky where she saw the Crashbug under the full moon Crashbug throwing its bombs, filling the sky with holographic fireworks. "so all of this was trying to get that to appear" she reasoned "yes, sorry if I caused you both too much trouble, but look at Crashbug's card description" he said offering Alice, as she read the card "Crashbug is an electric spirit that eats the bugs in our lives. Sadness, doubt, frustration no bug is too big for Crashbug, If you see Crashbug on the night of a full moon, it brings you good luck" as Alice finished caswell said "don't you get it, yet, In the end, Mister Kay just wanted everyone to have good luck" he said as the three marvelled at the sight Astral was thinking 'observation number two, Number cards affect people they change them, they seem to amplify their individual wants and desires, almost to the point they take over... I need to remember that' he thought
After that they all returned to their homes and Astral didn't know why but for that night Alice slept soundly, without waking up once.