(A/N: One thing I forgot to mention in the previous chapter, I will be making original cards from time to time. They're gimmicky for the most part and balanced too. When I ran them by my friend during the point I was outlining this series he said a few original cards he wouldn't have known were original if I hadn't told him. I'm mentioning this now because, well…even the first duel uses some original flavor. I promise to use these original cards sparingly though. Anyway, let's get started!)
Following closely behind Chiaki, Hajime still felt nervous about the whole situation. Part of it was his inferiority complex that he would never be as good as Chiaki, part of it was because he still didn't know if this situation was completely kosher, a no-name hanging out with an ultimate at a prestigious tournament. However, even though Hajime looked as nervous as a long-eared cat in a rocking chair factory, Chiaki was laser focused, marching at a normal pace, eyes on the prize, hands on her backpack straps…which was filled with snacks and her collector tin for cards she didn't use for her deck and was open to trading.
As she and Hajime walked through the streets together, someone called out to Chiaki. Well, more like he whistled at her. "Damn, girl, looking fiiiine. You single?"
Chiaki and Hajime looked towards their right to see a guy in a baseball uniform with short, red hair, blue eyes, and a goofy looking grin on his face. Hajime glanced at Chiaki. "What should we…?"
Chiaki just walked down the street. "Just ignore it, it'll go away."
"Hey!" the guy shouted, jumping out from along the wall he was leaned against, rudely pointing at Chiaki's back. "You can't just walk away from me, don't you know who I am?"
Chiaki sighed. She turned around and tried her best to remain polite. "Listen, you seem like a really nice guy, but I'm in a hurry." She outstretched her arm, palm open. "I'm looking for someone to duel, I'm not interested in a romance subplot right this second."
"Oh so you're a duelist too, huh? Well, why didn't you say so?" The guy held up his lef arm and showed off his duel disk as it sprang to action. "Name's Leon Kuwata, baseball star extraordinaire and not a bad duelist. Chicks dig a pro-duelist."
"Well, I won't argue that part, but I suppose it depends on the girl," Chiaki said.
Ouch, she's being nice, but that has to crush his pride, Hajime thought, wincing.
"Still, if you're challenging me, I'll gladly take you up on the offer," Chiaki said, activating her duel disk.
"Sure thing, babe and when I win, you and I will go on a date."
"If you win," Chiaki corrected. "Because I don't plan on losing." She drew her hand of five cards. "And if we're going with a baseball motif for this duel, then as the away team, I guess I'll go first. Draw!" Chiaki looked at the cards in her hand carefully and within seconds already knew her first move. "I start by playing three cards face-down on the field and one monster card in face-down defense position!" She declared, throwing her arm out wide and sounding competitive.
Hajime was astounded this was so unlike the usually calm, cheerful Chiaki he typically knew. It seemed that when the heat was on, she did have a competitive streak.
However, in an instant, all that hot-headedness cooled off, Chiaki stood up straight and said demurely, "It's your move."
"All right, watch and learn cutie, cause I'm gonna show you what a pro-baseball star turned duelist can do!" Leon declared, pumping his fist. "I draw!" After looking at his hand, Leon grinned ear to ear. "I summon Ultimate Baseball Pitcher in attack position!" Suddenly a monster dressed in a baseball uniform, taller than Leon, with green skin and a catcher's mask with shadows around its red eyes appeared. However, it wore a baseball cap and had a baseball glove. It had 1100 attack points and 1000 defense points. "Also, when Ultimate Baseball Pitcher is summoned to the field, I get to special summon all the Ultimate Baseballs in my deck and hand to the field!" Leon declared with a wink and a thumb's down pose. So say hello to my dream team!" Suddenly, three leather covered spheres surrounded in fire and having cartoony fangs and eyes appeared on Leon's side of the field. Each had 600 attack points and five-hundred defense points. "And thanks to Ultimate Baseball Pitcher's second special ability, it gets 500 attack points for every fire monster other than it on my side of the field and in my graveyard."
Chiaki watched the pitcher's attack power rise to 2600. She looked decisively unimpressed.
Leon didn't notice. "Of course what would a pitcher be without a special technique. That's where this magic card comes in. I play the equip-type magic card, Fairy Meteor Crush. Now when the equipped monster destroys a monster in defense mode, battle damage still occurs, but the calculation is subtracted from your monster's defense points rather than its attack points." Leon held up a card. "And that's not all, I'm also activating Ultimate Baseball Pitcher's last special ability. By discarding one fire monster from my hand, once per turn, I can increase its attack power by another one thousand points."
Hajime looked on in despair. "4100 attack points?"
Leon's baseball pitcher was burning with energy. It looked ready to murder Chiaki with one mighty pitch.
"You activated my trap!" Chiaki declared. "Coffin Seller!" The trap card flipped face-up from her side of the field revealing the purple-bordered card and a man sitting in the middle of a cemetery. "Now whenever a monster goes your graveyard, be it from the field, your hand or your deck, you lose three hundred life points."
Leon's life points clicked down to 3700. "A loss in life points is a small price to pay for a one-turn victory!" Leon declared. "Because I'm activating my final card of this turn, Burning Spear! This equip spell raises my pitcher's attack power by another 400 points, at the cost of some defense of course."
"Chiaki!" Hajime cried out in alarm. She had better have had a strategy or Leon was going to flatten her on the first turn.
"And now, Ultimate Baseball Pitcher, attack her face-down monster!" Leon shouted. "Burning Pitch!"
"Activate face-down card!" Chiaki shouted. "Trap Hole of Spikes!" Another trap card flipped face-up, revealing a stewing purplish pit laden with spikes.
Leon watched his monster, before it could unfurl its arm completely sink into the spike pit and be destroyed into shards of light.
"Not only is your monster destroyed," Chiaki said defiantly. "But you lose life points equal to half its attack points."
"N-no way," Leon stuttered, eyes bulging out of his head. He watched his life points tick down all the way to 1450.
"And since a monster was sent to your graveyard," Chiaki said. "You lose another 300 life points."
Leon's life point counter ticked down to 1150.
Hajime wiped his brow of sweat in relief. "Whew."
With a carefree, empty-headed look on her face, Chiaki said, "It looks like your big play backfired. Better luck next time."
Leon looked about ready to cry. Aw, man, I can't risk attacking with my baseballs, their attack points are too low. "I end my turn," He said, choked up.
"Okay," Chiaki said. "My turn. I draw." She scanned her hand once again to see what she would do this turn. "I play a monster card face-down on the field and I play another face-down card," she said, slapping the card into the slot. "It's your move."
Sweating, Leon wordlessly drew his card. His confident bravado had shattered as he now found himself backed into a corner. Sweating, he looked at the three cards in his hand. "I summon Ultimate Baseball catcher to the field in defense mode!" Leon declared, causing a squatting, humanoid looking creature to appear decked out in full guarded pads and mask and holding up a catcher's mitt. It had 1000 attack points and 1500 defense points. "And when he's summoned to the field, I can special summon an Ultimate Baseball Kid from my hand in attack mode."
A short, humanoid figure holding up a spiked, metal baseball bat took to the field. "And just like Ultimate Baseball Pitcher, Ultimate Baseball Kid also gains attack points from fire monsters, but only from ones on the field. However, the increase is 1000 attack points."
Hajime gulped. Uh oh. Ultimate Baseball Kid's attack power was at 4500.
"Ultimate Baseball Kid, show this girl your homerun hitting power. Attack her face-down monster!"
Lobbing a baseball into the air, Ultimate Baseball Kid pitched it at Chiaki's monster, burning the card up into smoke with a fiery blast. However, from the ashes rose the bane of all duelists, the deadly man-eater bug.
"My monster's effect activates!" Chiaki declared competitively, "Man-Eater Bug, destroy Ultimate Baseball Kid!"
"Not so fast! I activate Ultimate Baseball Catcher's special ability. If Ultimate Baseball Kid would be destroyed by something other than battle, he can negate the effect and take his place. So my monster is safe!"
The two duelists watched as Man-Eater Bug pounced towards Ultimate Baseball Kid, only for the catcher to jump in the way and get mauled by the bug as both were sent to the graveyard.
"Coffin Seller's effect activates!" Chiaki declared. "You lose 300 life points since your monster was sent to the graveyard."
Leon's life point counter ticked down to 850. "I am getting sick and tired of that coffin seller, so I'm gonna destroy it."
Chiaki tilted her head, confused. "How?"
"Simple, see Ultimate Baseball Kid has another special ability, by tributing one fire monster on my side of the field, I can 500 life points worth of direct damage. On top of that, when Ultimate Baseball is sacrificed specifically for this ability, it's able to destroy any 1 card on your side of the field as long as it's a magic or trap card or a face-down monster."
"A clever strategy," Chiaki said, actually looking slightly distraught.
"Your damn right it is! Ultimate Baseball Kid, pitch it to her. Sacrifice my Ultimate Baseballs and destroy, in this order, her Coffin Seller!" Ultimate Baseball kid smashed the Ultimate baseball straight into Chiaki's coffin seller, destroying it and causing Chiaki to lose 500 life points. "Her face-down monster!"
Chiaki's monster had one of the Ultimate baseballs sail right into it and she lost another 500 life points as it burned up into nothing.
"And lastly, one of her face-down cards!" Leon declared. Another one of Chiaki's face-down cards was destroyed, leaving her with only one: Magic Jammer and she was now down to 2500 life points.
"Next turn, all I gotta do is play a monster card with 1000 attack points or more and you're history. All the monsters in my deck are fire-attribute so my Ultimate baseball kid can always have his special ability activated. And even if I fall short, I can just sacrifice that monster to lower your life points another 500 points." Leon grinned smugly. "So get ready for that date because this duel is over!" Leon declared, giving Chiaki a thumb's down.
Chiaki tilted her head and looked confused again. "I don't think it's quite over yet."
Leon smirked, leaning back a little. "Oh yeah, you think so? Cause last I checked," Leon pointed rudely at Chiaki. "You've only got one card in your hand! So unless you're expecting to draw your way out of this." He drew his other arm back into a fist. "You may as well give up now."
"Leon, I get that your all pent up, but your strategy has one flaw."
"And what flaw is that?"
"Well, just look at your field," Chiaki said.
"Huh? What's wrong with my…field?" Leon then noticed it now. He had less than 1000 life points and a monster on the field with only 500 attack points. All Chiaki needed was one monster with 1500 attack points or more and he could kiss the rest of his life points goodbye. "Oh balls!"
"Judging from your reaction I take it you don't have a face-down card to protect yourself. I guess it's my victory after all. I draw." With two cards in her hand, Chiaki instantly reached for the card she didn't draw. "I play Bistro Butcher in attack position!" Suddenly a blue-skinned, gremlin looking monster carrying a huge carving knife appeared, dressed in an orange-stained outfit.
"Eight…EIGHTEEN-HUNDRED ATTACK POINTS!" Leon cried out in agony.
"Bistro Butcher! Attack Leon's Ultimate Baseball Kid and end this duel! Butcher Slice!"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Leon shouted, clutching his hair with his hands as his monster was destroyed and his life points were reduced all the way to 0. He sunk to his knees in defeat and tears, cards spilling out of his deck onto the ground.
Chiaki marched over to him. "May I see your deck. I'm here for my victory card," Chiaki said.
Leon whined as he forked over his deck to Chiaki. Skimming through it, she found a card that caught her eye. "I'll be taking Battle Footballer if you don't mind. It's best suited to my playstyle."
"Uh huh," Leon moaned.
"Oh and I guess I won your locator card too," Chiaki said.
Leon handed it to her as well, also without getting up off the ground.
"Thank you," Chiaki said. "Come on, Hajime."
"Uh, yeah," Hajime said following after her.
When they were quite a distance away, Hajime said to Chiaki, "Man, that was close."
"Close?" Chiaki asked, sounding confused.
"Well yeah, I mean…you…didn't think it was?" Hajime asked, changing his tone.
"Not at all," Chiaki said. "He was a total amateur. I had three face-downs and he was looking for a big one-turn victory. Any competent duelist would know to save a big move like that for when it really counted. I was never in any danger. I've seen your deck. You could've easily beaten him."
"I don't know, I mean, he had 4500 attack points."
"Attack points aren't everything you know. You need to stop having such little faith in yourself. The next person we come across, you should duel them. If you win, it'll get your confidence up," Chiaki told Hajime and then gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I'll be right on the sidelines cheering you on. I can't help you duel, but I can make my reassuring presence a strength you can draw from so you don't panic. Just like your presence is reassuring to me." Chiaki's smile brightened. "That's why I wanted to travel with you today. It's no fun if you duel all alone."
"Chiaki," Hajime said, feeling relief. "Thanks."
"No problem," Chiaki said. "Now then, we should probably head for the town square as soon as possible. It'll be a good spot to get our bearings straight and we should have a lot of prospective duelists in our sights. Plus, you have less of a chance of being mugged."
"Well, like I said before, I'll follow your lead," Hajime said.
Chiaki laughed happily and the two headed off together. However as they walked side by side, two creep in an alleyway poked their heads out. They looked sleep-deprived and had wild haircuts, one had red hair like a burning flame itself, the other had muddy brown hair that looked just as unkempt as the dirt it shared a color with. They were dressed in dark cloaks with gold chains affixing the cloaks around their bodies.
"So, what do you think, Edan?" the shorter, brown haired guy said, glancing up at his taller, more muscular companion.
Edan pulled out a photograph of Chiaki that was taking at a gaming convention. She was sitting down with a controller in her hand, competing in a fighting game tournament. He glanced from the photo to the back of the girl's head walking away from him and his buddy. "I'd say it's a match, Craig. That's the girl that caught Master Marik's attention, Hope's Peak Academy's Ultimate Gamer."
"What do we do about the guy?" Craig asked.
"Well, the way I see it, we spring ourselves on her when they separate. I mean, a gentleman would wait outside for a lady to use the toilet, get what I'm saying."
"Ahhh, I like the way you think," Craig said, snapping his fingers and smirking.
"Of course, we shouldn't keep Master Marik waiting, so if we can't ambush the girl, we'll just nab both of them and bring them to him. The boy may prove useful after all."
"Brilliant strategy, Edan," Craig said.
"Well thank you," Edan said with a proud smile.
Craig looked onward, clutching the side of the building that made-up the edge of the alleyway. Chiaki Nanami, he thought. Your fate is sealed. You will be captured and forced to serve our Master Marik. You will become, his face contorted into a grin of villainous glee, a Rare Hunter!
(A/N: Oh like Chiaki wouldn't be targeted by the Rare Hunters. She's Hope's Peak Academy's Ultimate Gamer after all. But we won't be focusing on her and Hajime next chapter. There's a method to my madness and I've got more than just those two to juggle, like how the anime would shift between Joey and Yugi throughout Battle City. And don't worry, we will get to see Yugi, Joey and the other members of the Yu-gi-oh cast eventually, but like I said, only if their duels are different or deviate from the canon. And to avoid spoilers, I won't say what's what. You'll just have to join me next time for the next exciting chapter of Dueling Trigger Finger. And, as always, from all of me, to all of you, let your hearts stay human and your wrath draconic. Ja ne!)