(A/N: Why are so many of you acting like Hajime is beyond saving? Do I seem like Kodaka to you? Jeez, if there's one thing you should know about me it's that I live for the trope Earn Your Happy Ending. Now if you'll excuse me, it's time to 3 on 1 duel!)
As Mai, Ibuki and Komaru continued their journey atop Terry the Mad Sword Beast, a comfortable silence pierced the air after the trio had stopped discussing Mai's very short story about how she went from Casino card dealer to professional duelist.
As the trio came around the side of a lake, Terry took a sharp turn and started slurping up the water.
"Guess the big guy needs his rest," Ibuki said, sliding off its back and stretching. "Hmmmmn! Ibuki could use a little stretching herself!" She looked at the waterfall the lake was connected too. "You know if it wasn't for the whole being stuck here thing, this place would actually be kinda neat."
"No arguments there, hon," Mai said with a smile.
"Hey, you guys, come over here a sec," Komaru called, behind and facing away from Terry.
Mai and Ibuki went over to where Komaru was standing. Right in front of a dense thicket of trees and bushes, a redwood door floated inexplicably.
"Think it's the way out?" Mai asked.
"I don't know, maybe it's a trap of some kind," Komaru said worryingly.
"A trap?" Ibuki said, practically rolling her eyes. "Don't you know when you see a mysterious door in games you gotta open it. That's the rules!"
"I don't think that's how it works," Komaru responded.
"You wanna wander this forest forever?" Ibuki asked.
Mai and Komaru looked at each other only to agree that, no, neither of them did. "But what about Terry?" Komaru asked.
"Oh, he'll be fine. At least I'm not jumping off his back as he falls into a pit in order to grab a flagpole."
"That's…oddly specific," Komaru stated.
"Right. No arguments! Let's go!" Ibuki exclaimed. She grabbed the door handle and pushed it open, her companions walking into its bright white glow with her.
When the trio emerged, they now stood in a well-lit hangar that looked, to Komaru, oddly familiar. "Did...did we make it back?" she stammered. "Are we out of the virtual world?"
"Not a chance. Something's fishy here," Mai said, looking around.
"Ooooh! Cool robot!"
"What robot?" Mai asked.
Ibuki pointed at the yell, black and red robot floating down from the ceiling. "That robot!"
From above, the monster Robotic Knight floated down towards Ibuki, Mai and Komaru. "Greetings, humans. In the outside world, I was known as Nezbitt, former president of new technology at KaibaCorp."
"One of the Big Five," Komaru said fearfully, taking a step back.
"But here in the virtual realm, I am known as Robotic Knight, a creature that represents the power of Machine over man."
"If you were going to do that, why not Machine King?" Ibuki asked, confused.
"Monarchy is outdated," Nezbitt answered her.
"…Touché," Ibuki agreed after thinking about it a little.
"As the tech expert of the Big Five, I designed some of KaibaCorp's most advanced machinery."
"Blah Blah Blah," Mai cut him off. "Are we going to duel or what? None of us care about your sorry, tragic past. You locked us in here. We want out. Nothing you say is going to change that."
"Very well," Nezbitt said and pointed a stern index finger at Komaru. "Then I challenge the young one to a duel."
"M-me?" Komaru stammered, sweating.
Mai put an arm in front of her. "Leave her out of this you scrap heap! If you're dueling anyone, how about taking on a real challenge?"
"Negative. I have already declared my opponent," Nezbitt said firmly.
"And I'm saying that if you want to get to poor Komaru," Mai said, glaring, "You've gotta go through me first!"
"M-Mai…" Komaru said, moved to have Mai standing up for her like that. In the absence of Makoto, it was nice to have someone else willing to defend her.
"I am interested in the girl for her youth. With a pre-teen body and my intelligence, I will have even more years to perfect my work," Nezbitt said.
Mai's eyes shrunk in as a crooked smile appeared on her lips. "Oh…you…sunnuva…" she started to growl.
"Uh…" Ibuki said, poking her index fingers together as she spoke nervously. "Did anyone else just hear glass shatter, or was it just Ibuki?" However, she quickly changed tune as that ADHD brain of hers came up with a brilliant idea. "Lightbulb!" she shouted. "Ibuki's got a great idea!" she exclaimed happily. "How about we all duel?"
Mai and Komaru turned their heads towards Ibuki.
The Ultimate Musician made a sideways V in front of one open eye as a twinkle could be seen within her iris. "I mean, it's no fun to just spectate and Ibuki's itchin' for some action."
"Ibuki, there's no reason for you to risk yourself, let Komaru and me duel in a triangle match. Don't force yourself to get caught up in this," Mai told her.
"No," Nezbitt said, "I like the girl's suggestion. It shall be three on one."
Mai groaned and palmed her eye. Great, now she had two scrubs to worry about. "Fine," she said and then gave Nezbitt a tough look, "But you're going to regret this."
The duel card database floated in front of all four duelists.
"It's time to build your decks for the duel. Simply touch the cards you desire."
At first, Komaru seemed a bit overwhelmed. She'd never done a pickup duel before. She always used her really casual deck at home and she wasn't very good. She didn't know complex strategies or the best monsters in the game. Her only deck was made from cards her friends just gave her and cards she liked that Makoto let her have because he wasn't going to use them.
Before she could break out into a fierce sweat though, Mai put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Easy there, kiddo," Mai said, giving Komaru a thumb's up and a gentle smile, "I've got your back."
"Yeah, but...I've never dueled in a high stakes duel before. Until Battle City, neither had Makoto. We both just played in local tournaments at card shops and rarely, if ever, made it to the semi-finals. I think Makoto only ever won a loser's bracket.
"Well he's a Battle City finalist now and you're his sister," Mai stated. "I'm sure dueling skill runs in the family."
Komaru didn't know if Mai meant what she said, or if she was just trying to be nice. Either way, a little encouragement went a long way for Komaru. And Mai had a good point. She could at least try. If she didn't, well…no, no Komaru didn't even want to think about the alternative. She took a deep breath and brought her fists up by her shoulders, declaring, "Okay! I'm going to do my best."
"Ibuki's all done!" Ibuki exclaimed, her deck loading into her duel disk. "Ibuki's ready to rock!"
Komaru watched Mai pick from the database, but the angle she was standing at made it difficult for her to be able to tell what Mai was actually picking. She then looked back at her own scrolling database and wondered what to do. Should I pick cards Makoto usually does...or should I go my own style? She looked at her companions. Maybe I should pick cards that synergize well with Mai and Ibuki. They are my teammates.
After careful consideration, Komaru then noticed a card scrolling by: Maiden of Macabre. Wait, I remember this card. She touched the card adding it to her deck. As more and more cards scrolled by, Komaru started to formulate a strategy, picking cards from a deck she had started to build hers around at home, but didn't quite have all of the cards to make it work in a professional tournament. Well, now was the best chance to see if her idea actually had any merit. She had faith in Mai and Ibuki to help her out. There were three of them and only one of Nezbitt. They could do this.
"It is time to pick your deck masters, choose wisely," Nezbitt told the trio.
"I pick this one, Magician of Faith!" Komaru exclaimed as one of the weakest monsters in the game appeared at her side.
"I'm picking a staple: Harpie Lady!" Mai declared as her most iconic monster appeared at her side.
"And Ibuki chooses Musician King! Can't duel without my tunes. My deck master helps me change the background music. And I'm thinking Guilty Love. YAHOOOOOOOO!" Suddenly an electric guitar started blaring as Ibuki swayed back and forth to the music, making cat noises to the rhythm of the beat.
Komaru and Mai both looked at Ibuki like she had too many peanuts imbedded in her Snickers bar.
"And I'll be…" Nezbitt started, only to lose his train of thought. "I'll be…" He looked at Ibuki, eyes narrowing as he shouted, "For the love of god TURN THAT DOWN!"
Ibuki waved her hand at Musician king as it drummed on its guitar much softer; it was soft enough for all involved to hear themselves think.
"As I was saying, I'll be acting as my own Deckmaster, Robotic Knight. And just to make this duel more interesting," He said as the floor parted in both directions, revealing orange liquid below Mai, Ibuki, Komaru, and Nezbitt, "We'll be battling above a sea of radioactive waste." The liquid bubbled and made bloop noises.
"Uh oh! It's radioactive!" Ibuki exclaimed, making a face like she was freaking out. "That can't be good!"
"Young lady, do you perhaps come with an off switch?" Nezbitt inquired.
"Nope!" Ibuki exclaimed bluntly with a happy smile.
Nezbitt sighed. It's going to be one of those days, he told himself. He then spoke aloud, "Play by the rules and you won't fall into the pit. There's one regulation in particular I'll be strictly enforcing. Under no circumstances are any of you to discuss your strategy with one another."
Komaru let out a breath of relief. Phew. Glad I decided against a support deck then.
"Break this rule and you'll plummet into the toxic abyss below. As per the rules of many games, the youngest player will go first and play shall continue counterclockwise."
It took Komaru's brain a second to register what that meant. "Oh! Oh, that's me! All right then, here I go!" Komaru drew the top card off of her deck. She looked at her hand. All right! Great starting hand! "I summon to the field, Skilled Red Magician!" Komaru shouted as a man in a bulky red wizarding outfit took to the field with 1600 attack points.
"Next, I activate the spell card: Spell Power Grasp!" Komaru declared, activating the spell card. "This lets me put a spell counter on my magician, and since a spell card was played, he gets an additional spell counter. I also can put another Spell Power Grasp in my hand, but I can only play one of these per turn." Skilled Red Magician began to glow with a violet red aura. "That's all for now, but just wait till its my turn again when he'll inevitably have three. Then you're going down."
Oho. I know that strategy. Komaru's more skilled than I gave her credit for. Mai went for the top card of her deck. Maybe this won't be so bad after all. "My turn. I draw!" Mai drew the top card of her deck. She nodded at her hand.
"Mistress," Harpie Lady cooed, looking at the Cyber Harpie in her hand. "If you play that card, I can activate my special ability."
She talks? Well now, what a soothing voice.
"Holy crap, it talked!" Ibuki exclaimed.
"Do you talk?" Komaru asked, looking at her deck master. Magician of Faith only smiled.
"I summon Cyber Harpie!" Mai shouted as her body armor empowered monster hit the field.
"And now, since a monster was played with Harpie in its name, you can draw a card. And if you drew a winged-beast or another Harpie card, you can gain 500 life points."
"I knew I made the right choice picking you," Mai said as she drew the top card of her deck. "I've drawn Blue-Winged Crown. That means I get 500 life points." Mai's life points increased to 4500.
"All right! Go, Mai!" Komaru exclaimed.
Mai blushed a little. When was the last time she ever had a fan cheering for her so enthusiastically? Come to think of it, she had always been so self-absorbed in her career…did she even have dedicated fans?
It seems this duel will be worth more than just my own freedom, Mai thought with a smile. "Next, I activate the equip-type spell card: Rose Whip, increasing my Cyber Harpie's attack power even further." Cyber Harpie now had 2100 attack points. "That's all I'm doing this turn."
"Then that means it's Ibuki's turn!" Ibuki exclaimed. "Here I come!" She drew the top card of her deck. "I summon Bird of Roses in attack position!" A creature with a big leaf for a body and seaweed attached to a vine for wings, with roses at the tips, and chicken legs and a parrot beak, with a rose atop its head appeared on Ibuki's side of the field.
"Can I…?" Mai looked at her deck master.
"Only if a Harpie monster or if a winged beast type monster is played can my ability activate," Harpie Lady answered.
"But…it's a bird."
"It's a plant!" Ibuki exclaimed.
"It's a…bird," Mai said, looking straight at the creature.
"It's a plaaaaaant," Ibuki insisted.
"Bird of Roses is a plant-type monster that looks like a bird, continue your move," Nezbitt said irritably.
"Okie-dokie. Ibuki's setting one card face-down on the field and ending her turn." The hologram appeared as Ibuki slapped the card into the card reader.
"Finally, my turn," Nezbitt thought. "Ah, perfect. I summon Overdrive in attack position!" Nezbitt summoned what appeared to be an RV fused with a tank with a gatling gun on top of its roof. It had 1600 attack points and 1500 defense points. "Next, I activate the continuous spell card, Machine Assembly Line." Nezbitt said as the card activated. "While this is active, all machine type monsters on the field gain 200 attack points. And, when a machine is destroyed, I may salvage two scrap parts from it and collect them with this card. At any time I may halt my assembly line and salvage a monster whose level equals the number of scrap parts I've collected."
"Retire a whole assembly line? Think of the workers you'd be putting out of business. How could you?"
"Ha! Everyone knows that only robots work the best assembly lines. Human labor is far better suited to programming and driving the delivery trucks. And one day even those jobs will be taken over by the machine. But that is far from the point. I now activate Machine Conversion Factory, giving my monster an extra 300 attack and defense points."
"Uh oh, that tank is now as strong as your Cyber Harpie, Mai," Ibuki pointed out.
"Indeed, but I'm not interested in the Harpie. Overdrive! Destroy Skilled Red Magician!"
"Eek!" Komaru exclaimed as the gatling gun opened fire and she crouched down as her magician was torn to shreds. She stood up, bullet free, as her life points fell to 3500, monsterless.
My combo! Komaru whined internally.
"Now, I set two cards face-down onto the field," Nezbitt stated. "My turn is complete."
Unaware of the duel against Nezbitt, Chiaki and Yugi had crossed the meadow and now were walking through a tunnel down by a beach, surrounded by coral and glow bugs. Chiaki, still having all the things in her backpack, had a flashlight to light the way, and Yugi's Millennium Puzzle also gave an additional glow, though not as powerful, to help guide their way.
"How much longer do you think this tunnel goes on for?" Yugi asked Chiaki.
"No idea," Chiaki said, "But keep your hands on the right side wall. I don't want to miss anything."
"Right," Yugi said, using the wall as a way to mark his and Chiaki's progress so they wouldn't get lost.
Suddenly Chiaki stopped as water dropped from the ceiling.
"What is it?" Yugi asked, almost bumping into her.
"Footsteps," she answered, "And I think I hear chatting too." She perked up her ears. "This way."
She stepped towards where there was a T intersection in the cavern, where she and Yugi were along the left side of the cap. She shut off her flashlight and encouraged Yugi to do the same with his puzzle's light. She peered around the corner as her and Yugi's eyes adjusted to the darkness.
"I'm telling you, I know I saw something," a Brooklyn accented voice said.
"Just like you saw a pizza about thirty paces back?" A sassy, feminine voice responded.
"So I confused pepperonis and cheese with a bunch of flowers. Bite me! I'm hungry!"
Yugi bolted from his crouched position. "I know those voices! Chiaki! Turn on the flashlight! Joey? Celeste? Are you there?"
"Yugi?" Joey's voice perked up as he came dashing down the south path of the intersection, walking right into the path of Chiaki's flashlight. "Yug!" Joey exclaimed, sweeping his little buddy off his feet and giving him a friendship noogie. Yugi smiled and chuckled. The two best friends were happy to see each other.
"Is it just the two of you?" Celeste asked as she appeared in the dark cavern.
"Yes," Chiaki said. "We haven't seen anyone else until now. What about the two of you? Have you seen anyone?"
"Nope, just the two of us," Celeste said.
Chiaki grew more apprehensive, a nervous frown taking up her face. Hajime…where are you?
As Chiaki grew more and more worried about Hajime, Komaru took her second turn for her duel against Nezbitt.
"Just a…minor setback," she said, referring to the loss of Skilled Red Magician.
"Komaru! Activate my special ability," Magician of Faith said.
"Huh?" Komaru asked, only to watch Magician of Faith tap her scepter to her graveyard and Spell Power Grasp popped out. "Wait. I can have this back?"
"As your deck master, I can activate my normal effect during your draw step. If there's a spell card in your graveyard, you can bring one of them back to your hand."
"That's…so awesome! All right! I'm back and better than ever. And I'm kicking off my second turn with Skilled Blue Magician," Komaru said, playing a blue variant of the monster she played last turn. "But this isn't going to go the route of what you did to me before. Cause I activate another Spell Power Grasp, giving Skilled Blue Magician 2 spell counters thanks to its effect and Spell Power Grasp's own effect. I also get to put another spell power grasp in my hand, completing my set of three. And finally, I remove Skilled Red Magician from my graveyard," she said, ejecting the card and holding it up. "This gives one more spell counter to Skilled Blue Magician. And now that he has three counters, I can sacrifice him to call on the mighty Gaia the Fierce Knight!"
Skilled Blue Magician created a runic circle below him and channeled all of his power, fading and giving way to the famous horse riding, jousting lance wielding knight. The famous monster stood with 2300 attack points and 2100 defense points.
"All right, Komaru!" Ibuki exclaimed.
"Take this!" Komaru shouted, "Go, Gaia the Fierce Knight! Spiral Shave attack!"
Gaia's horse neighed as the rider charged forward.
"Sorry to disappoint you, little girl, but I activate my trap card: Sakuretsu Armor. This trap card targets any attacking monster and destroys it."
"Oh no!" Komaru exclaimed, watching the trap card surrounded Gaia in sharp metal, crushed and destroyed him.
"Ha! So much for your big comeback," Nezbitt mocked.
"Y-yeah, w-well…m-my friends will get you for this! I just know it."
"Ha! We'll see."
"We will," Mai said. "My turn?" she asked Komaru. Komaru nodded at her. "Right then. I draw." She drew the top card of her deck and looked at her hand. Perfect. "I activate the field spell Rising Air Current! This increases the attack value of all wind monsters on the field by 500 points, while lowering their defense by 400."
"Eheeeheeeheee!" Ibuki laughed happily. "Ibuki's Bird of Roses gets a boost from that! It's wiiiind!"
Mai smirked and then stated, "I summon Blue Winged Crown in attack mode, allowing me to draw." She did not draw a monster so she did not gain life points.
Her monster was a magnificent looking bluebird with a red feather crest over its eyes. It had 1600 base attack points and 1200 defense points, but those changed with Rising Air Current to 2100 and 800 respectively. "And now, I attack with Cyber Harpie! Rose Whip Lash!"
Cyber Harpie, with 2600 attack points thanks to Rose Whip and Rising Air Current, slashed apart Overdrive, blowing it up. Nezbitt's life points fell to 3500 as two pieces of scrap were salvaged and given to his Machine Assembly Line.
"And now, I attack directly with Blue Winged Crown!"
"Sorry to disappoint you, but I activate my other trap card: Counter Gate! This nullifies your attack and allows me to draw one card. If it's a monster, I can summon it to the field." Nezbitt drew as Blue Winged Crown was pushed back by the barrier emitted by the trap card. It flapped its wings hard and perched back at Mai's side.
"Excellent, I've drawn Twin-Barrel Dragon and I shall immediately summon it to the field. And when Twin Barrel Dragon is summoned, its special ability activates. If I am lucky, I am able to target any card on the field and destroy it." He pointed at Ibuki's Bird of Roses. "And I select Bird of Roses."
Twin Barrel Dragon fired two direct hits at her Bird of Roses, destroying it. "Eek! Hey! What did I do to you?" Ibuki shouted, looking panicked and taken off guard.
"It is your turn next. I simply took away a battle option," Nezbitt said. Given he had no trap cards on the field, he needed to make sure Ibuki couldn't overrun his 1900 point beat stick.
"I'm setting a card face-down," Mai said. "My turn is over."
"Back to Ibuki then!" Ibuki exclaimed, making her favorite V for Victory pose with one eye open and her hand making a sideways V in front of it. "I draw!" She exclaimed excitedly, holding out the I. She looked at her hand and then stated. "I summon to the field, Papa-Corn!" A corn on the cob with stringy pale blond hair, angry eyes, toonish gloves, carrying a knife, and wearing a cape appeared. It had 1200 attack points and 800 defense points.
"Ibuki!" Komaru exclaimed, almost whining. "That monster's way too weak."
"Nuh-uhhhh!" Ibuki shot back, cocking her head to one side. "Cause Mr. Corn here gets 1000 attack points if there's a field spell on the field." She then smiled brightly. "So thanks to Mai, my monster has twenty-two hundred attack points!" Papa Corn's attack power surged to 2200. "And now, not to sound corny, but, you're gonna get creamed! Papa Corn, go! Corn Poker attack!"
Ibuki's monster darted forward and struck Twin Barrel dragon right where it's neck and body met and destroyed it, Nezbitt's life points falling to 3200 as a result.
"Yahooooooo! We've got the lead!" Ibuki exclaimed.
"A minor setback," Nezbitt stated, as Machine Assembly line salvaged two more scrap pieces.
"Ooh! Ooh! Komaru said that earlier! It's like an echo chamber in here! ECHO!"
Nezbitt did his best to drown out Ibuki's…irritatingly loud voice. "I draw," he said. He looked at his hand. "For starters, I will sacrifice my Machine Assembly line to bring back Twin Barrel Dragon. Next, I will use its special ability to target Rising Air Current." He stated, pointing at the field spell hologram image.
Twin Barrel Dragon scored two direct hits again, shattering Mai's field spell.
"Ungh," Mai declared, putting her arm up to shield herself from the reflective light.
"And since the only field spell on the field was destroyed, Papa Corn goes back down to 1200 attack points."
"Crap!" Ibuki exclaimed, knowing what was to come. However, Nezbitt wasn't done just yet.
"I now summon to the field Sergeant Electro!" Nezbitt declared as a white machine with a laser sword for a right arm appeared, its head looking like a motorcycle helmet. It had 1600 attack points. "And thanks to Sergeant Electro's ability, once per turn I can permanently disable any of my opponent's face-down cards on the field. However, right now there is only one. Isn't that right, Miss Valentine?"
Mai watched her face-down card short circuit, but it didn't disappear.
"When technology doesn't work, it doesn't always combust. But if you want to repair it, sometimes you'll need to fork over a hefty repair bill. Fortunately, I am willing to give everyone leniency with this: Card of Sanctity. Now we must all draw until we are holding six cards. Think of it like recharging your batteries."
"Isn't there a card named that or something?" Ibuki asked.
Nezbitt ignored her. "And now, I play the continuous spell card Clockwork Night! This card converts all of my opponent's monsters into machine types and lowers their attack points by 500, which means, Miss Valentine, that your deck master special ability will only activate for your Harpie monsters while this is on the field."
Mai gnashed her teeth, but said nothing.
"Additionally, all of my machine monsters gain 500 attack points."
"Wha—why do you get such an unfair bonus?" Ibuki demanded to know.
"Because I have superior technology," Nezbitt stated bluntly and pointed at Komaru. "And now, I'm shutting the young one down. I now have enough fire power to attack you directly and take you out of the game. First, Twin Barrel Dragon shall attack!"
"Komaru!" Mai shouted in concern as the twin laser cannon blasts knocked Komaru down on her ass, bringing her life points from a comfortable 3500 to a concerning 1300.
"And next, Sergeant Electro attacks. Goodbye, Komaru Naegi." Nezbitt gave her a thumb's down. "You simply are obsolete."
Komaru saw her very life flash before her eyes as Nezbitt's monster hovered towards her at fast speeds. However, as it neared, suddenly an unimaginably loud noise ricocheted through the air. Ibuki was suddenly screaming at the top of her lungs and playing an electric guitar shooting flames out of one end, performing a duet with Musician King. The sound waves were so powerful that Sergeant Electro was blown back as the concentration of sound energy seemed to suddenly emit from in front of Komaru's duel disk.
"Aaaaaargh! What is...that?" Nezbitt demanded to know, covering his non-existent ears in agony.
Ibuki stopped jamming and held up one hand in an upright V-shape, smiling brightly, both eyes closed. "What? You didn't think all Ibuki could do was listen to her tunes, did you? Musician King's got one hell of a deck master special ability: Death Metal Disruptor! Once per turn, Ibuki can stop an attack if it would cause her or an ally to lose the duel."
"You…" Komaru stammered.
"Hmm?"
"YOU ROCK, IBUKI!" Komaru cheered.
"Hell yeah, I do! Girl power!" Ibuki exclaimed.
"Well," Mai exhaled, "I think you just shaved a few months off of my life with that little stunt."
Ibuki laughed and then cooed, "Meow! Sorry, didn't mean to keep it a secret. But the show's truly beginning now." Ibuki held her guitar and gave an unusually tough look. "Ibuki even managed to somehow summon her favorite guitar! Don't worry, Komaru! I got your back!" She then smiled. "It's all on you!"
"With the way she's been playing, she'll only succeed in digging her own grave," Nezbitt scoffed.
"Don't be so sure," Komaru said, pumping herself up. "I've still got a full hand, buster and I ain't afraid to use it! Let's go!"
"Hmph. So overconfident, but that's humans for you. I now set three cards face-down and end my turn."
Komaru drew the top card of her deck and declared, "I activate my deck master special ability to bring Spell Power Grasp back to my hand. And next, I summon Skilled Black Magician!" She declared as a black-clad magician similar to the blue and red one she played in turns prior took to the field. "And next, I activate the field spell: Magical City of Endymion!" Komaru exclaimed as a majestic and ruinic looking city suddenly became the new surrounding battlefield for the duel rather than the empty hangar. The radioactive waste pit remained though. "And since I played a spell card, that's a point for Skilled Black Magician."
"What is the meaning of this ancient looking city."
"You're about to find out," Komaru said. "Cause my turn's gonna be a doozy! First, I activate Spell Power Grasp, giving Skilled Black Magician a spell counter and giving two to my Magical Citadel of Endymion."
The city itself seemed to glow with bright, mysterious light.
"Now, I activate Mystic Space Typhoon, destroying your Clockwork Night spell card."
The typhoon shattered the spell card, returning all of the girls' monsters to normal. "That's now three counters on Black Magician and three on my magical citadel. Keeping track? Don't worry, you won't have to for long. Because now, I tribute Skilled Black Magician to summon one of the most famous monsters in duel monsters. Say hello to the iconic monster of the King. Of. Games. I special summon DARK MAGICIAN!"
Yugi's favorite monster took to the field. Anyone would recognize it and its stats.
"YEAH, KOMARU! WOOOO!" Ibuki exclaimed, playing a brief guitar riff.
"And I'm not done yet!" Komaru exclaimed. "I now remove Skilled Blue and Black Magician from my graveyard," Komaru said, holding them up as she received them from her duel disk. "And this lets me add two more spell counters to my magical citadel, for a total of five."
The bright, reddish pink light glowed to the point that Nezbitt had to shield his eyes, same for Komaru and Mai. "And now, I equip Wonder Wand to Dark Magician, bringing its attack point total up to 3000. Like this, it could take on even Blue Eyes White Dragon. And that also means, that my magical citadel now has 6 counters on it. And lastly," she said, holding up a single card, "I'll remove all six," she swiped the card across her shoulder line, facing the card's image face-down over her shoulder, "So I can summon this!" She slapped the card on the reader. "Behold: Endymion, The Master Magician!" A black and gold armored magician carrying a long scepter with a golden crook and a purple, crystal orb embedded into it appeared. It had 2700 attack points and 1700 defense points. You've been mocking me all duel, but now, this Magical Girl is ready to shine. Dark Magician! Dark Magic Attack!" Komaru declared, fanning out her palm in sync with her monster. Ha! Beat you to it, Makoto! Makoto only got to mimic Yugi's Dark Magician, but she actually got to play the card and call it herself.
The world turned photonegative as Dark Magician's powerful magic utterly destroyed Twin-Barrel Dragon, bringing Nezbitt's life points down to 1900.
"We're not done yet," Komaru said, drawing her arm back and then raising it to the sky excitedly as a random cowlick in her hair suddenly flipped up and curled to one side. "Endymion attacks your Sergeant Electro with Mysterious Magical Force."
Endymion shot a bunch of purple orbs of light out of his scepter and all of them slammed into Sergeant Electro, destroying it. Nezbitt's life points now rested lower than Komaru's at only 800.
"Go for it, Mai! Finish him!" Komaru exclaimed.
"I don't think so!" Nezbitt shouted. "I activate my face-down card Emergency Assembly." The card's artwork depicted a golem hastily being made from scrap parts. "This allows me to summon a machine token with attack and defense equal to the 400 times the levels of all of the machine-type monsters in my graveyard, but it is destroyed at the end of my next turn. And I count 12."
Suddenly, a gigantic mechanical golem made from the different pieces of all the machines in Nezbitt's graveyard. It towered over everything Komaru, Mai and Ibuki had on the field with a massive 4800 attack and defense points.
Mai drew the top card of her deck, unsure what to do. That monster was huge. It could crush literally anything she could throw at it and all she had was her Cyber Harpie at less than half its attack points.
"Mai!" Ibuki called to her.
Mai looked at Ibuki, giving her a thumb's up. "Go on the offensive. Trust in Ibuki!"
"Go on the offensive? Do you see the size of that thing?" Mai shouted, pointing at it.
"I thought I said, no discussing strategies."
"We're not discussing strategy," Ibuki said. "Ibuki's just giving Mai a suggestion. It's up to her if she takes it. So it's not violating the rules. You're a machine so you can only do things in absolutes. …DON'TQUESTIONIBUKI'SLOGIC!"
Nezbitt shook his head and palmed his robotic eyes. Today was not his day. The sooner he shut that girl up the better. Not even his most chatty coworkers were this loud and annoying.
Mai looked at Ibuki's trap card and then at Ibuki's stupidly wide grin and innocent disposition. She took a deep breath. Trust in someone else. How long had it been since Mai had ever had to put blind faith in another human being? She briefly recalled when Joey caught her after she fell from holding a flagpole, following her victory over Jean-Claude Magnum. Okay, what about before that? Mai thought and could not recall a single time. She sighed. Well, Joey, I hope I can't count your genuine kindness as something unique. If this works, I'll have to thank you later…for restoring my faith in the kindness of others. "I sacrifice Cyber Harpie and Blue-Winged Crown to summon Harpie's Pet Dragon."
Mai's magnificent, pink dragon entered the battlefield with 2000 attack points, 2500 defense points and a very throaty roar.
"And because Harpie Lady is my deck master, it gains 300 attack points from standing next to its master," Mai said as a leash appeared on Harpie's Pet Dragon, connecting it to Harpie Lady. "And since I played a monster with Harpie in its name, I can draw a card." Sadly, it was not a monster yet again. She gave one last look at Ibuki, then flashed back to her time spent in Duelist Kingdom and briefly to the moment Joey caught her. She then took a deep breath. "Harpie's Pet Dragon, attack that scrap heap with Giga Flare Blast!"
"Fool! You'll wipe out your only defense!" Nezbitt shouted.
"No she won't because Ibuki's got her back! DANANANA NA NA!" Ibuki exclaimed, riffing on her guitar. "Activating, Ibuki's face-down card, Metalmorph. Now Harpie's Pet Dragon gets a killer metal coating of body armor!" Ibuki said as Harpie's Pet Dragon got a gnarly look and glowing red eyes. "And since the monster equipped with Metalmorph is attacking, this means it gets half the attack points of the monster it's attacking. So buh-bye scrap golem! You're going down—"
"To slag!" Ibuki and Mai declared together, giving it a thumb's down.
Harpie's Pet Dragon's Giga Flare destroyed the machine token Nezbitt had created and brought his life points down to only 600.
"Yeah! Teamwork!" Komaru shouted. "How's that Nezbitt?"
"Ha! Don't act as if you'd one, for when you least expect it, the machine army will rise up against you, such as with this trap card: Judgment Day!" The card depicted a bunch of Mechanical Soldiers all lined up in a formation. "When a machine-type monster I control is destroyed, I can activate this card and summon three machine type monsters from my deck. The only restriction on those monsters is that each of them cannot have more attack points than half of the destroyed monster's. And since my emergency formed golem had 4800 attack points, all of my monsters can have up to 2400 attack points each. And I summon Machine King, Blowback Dragon, and Launcher Spider."
The three machines took to the field, standing as a stalwart army against Mai, Ibuki, and Komaru's forces. Most intimidating of them all was Machine King, who, even though his base attack was 2200, his attack power increased to 2500 thanks to its special ability.
This…might be a problem, Mai thought.
As Mai contemplated if she had any moves left to make for her turn, Chiaki, Yugi, Joey and Celeste proceeded onward, Chiaki lighting the way with her flashlight. Eventually, her light shined itself on an unexpected figure leaned up against the wall.
"Nagito?" Chiaki asked.
"Yup, it's me," Nagito said with a calm, gentle smile.
"What're you just standing around for?" Joey asked.
"I had a bit of bad luck," Nagito said. "Chiaki. Can I borrow your flashlight a second?"
Chiaki handed it to him and Nagito flashed it towards the ceiling, showing how he'd fallen through what appeared to a very long and very wide pitfall trap.
"You look surprisingly intact for that long of a fall," Celeste pointed out.
"Luckily for me there was a hanging tree root towards the bottom. I grabbed that and then let go after a few seconds and fell the rest of the way. I was about to decide which way to turn when I heard footsteps. If you all came from one direction, then the exit must be in the other."
"That's genuinely how these things go," Celeste stated.
"Nagito, have you seen anyone since you got here?" Chiaki asked.
"Nope, been all by my lonesome until you four showed up."
"We need to find the others fast. Come on!" Yugi declared, spearheading the rush down the other end of the tunnel.
"I happen to agree with that," Nagito said as he brought up the rear as the other four ran past him. I want to bear witness to when Kaiba and Noah's hopes clash after all and even when Kaiba confronts his stepfather. That will truly be a hope worth witnessing.
As Mai could not think of anything else to do for her turn, it now fell to Ibuki's third turn of the duel.
"All right! Here we go!" Ibuki declared and drew the top card of her deck. "Yes!" she exclaimed. "Perfect. Ibuki starts by tributing Nezbitt's Launcher Spider!"
The two monsters disappeared, confusing Nezbitt. "Wait. Wait. WHAT?!"
"This lets Ibuki summon Thunder King, the Lightningstrike Kaiju to his side of the field." The gigantic Kaiju monster emerged on Nezbitt's side of the field with its intimidating 3300 attack points.
"You must have a brain as tiny as your voice is loud giving me such a powerful monster."
"Oh, I'm not giving it to you for free. Ibuki's, as it's often called, setting up. Cause now she activates Hammer Shot, which destroys the monster on your side of the field with the most attack points." A giant wooden mallet slammed Thunder King over the head and converted it into Thunder Paste.
Mai and Komaru looked at Ibuki with glazed looks.
"And the point of that was?" Nezbitt asked.
"I took away a resource."
"And you left him with Machie King!" Komaru shouted.
"Don't worry, Machine King isn't a problem in the long run. Just trust your old pal, Ibuki," Komaru.
I know it worked for Mai, but having to do that worries me, Komaru thought.
"Now, since summoning Thunder King didn't count as Ibuki's normal summon, she gets to set a monster and she's also shifting Papa Corn to defense mode and ending her turn."
"Finally!" Nezbitt exclaimed, happy to have his turn again. "Soon this duel will be over and I can finally go back to the real world working on advanced technology."
"Ooh! Ooh! Like the next generation of gaming software?" Ibuki asked.
"No! Nothing like that! Like rockets and tanks! After Seto Kaiba took over KaibaCorp, he forced me to make cutting-edge gaming software and I hated every second of it."
"What?! How could you hate making games?" Komaru shouted indignantly. "I'd love a job like that!"
"Yeah! Games are fun!" Ibuki exclaimed, not getting Nezbitt at all.
"Games are for children!" Nezbitt shouted.
"Oh yeah? Then explain me!" Mai demanded. "Duel Monsters is a multi-million, possibly multi-billion world-wide phenomenon that rakes in cash beyond cash in tournament fees, spectator seats and airplane tickets, not to mention all the sales that go into all of the new expansions."
"Tell me, Miss Valentine," Nezbitt lectured. "Will your trading cards save you when missiles are launched at your hometown? Negative. Will they save you when armed soldiers are fighting in the streets, bullets flying everywhere? They will not! Technology is meant for warfare! Children's card game! Absurd!"
"Says the guy playing it!" Ibuki exclaimed, pointing out the hypocrisy.
"It is my only choice!" Nezbitt lamented, grinding his non-existent teeth. "You think I want to be stuck here? As soon as I get out, I'm going right back to my research, never to touch a blasted duel disk as long as I live!"
"Sheesh, somebody needs a hobby, or a new girlfriend!"
One could almost hear the sound of glass cracking as shreds of what remained of Nezbitt's sanity fractured. "I've had just about enough out of you, young lady! If you do not come with an off switch, I will invent one for you!" Nezbitt's robotic body suddenly hovered onto the field. "Robotic Knight is now in play. And with that, I will now activate Polymerization, fusing myself together with Machine King to create…"
Nezbitt was cut off as lightning rained down and his body fused with Machine King's, creating a giant white and red robot with cannons for days.
"Perfect Machine King!" Nezbitt declared, sounding deeper in voice than before. "And with this new body, made from a near indestructible alloy, I'm more powerful than ever before."
"I told you that you should've destroyed Machine King!" Komaru shouted at Ibuki.
"Eheh heh," Ibuki said nervously, poking her index fingers together. "L-Look at it this way, at least his deck master is on the field. If we take it out we win the duel."
"You won't," Nezzbit said. "First, I gain power from every machine on the field, including myself. And thanks to the fusion, my power output has increased by 500%." Nezzbit's attack power soared from 2700 to 3700. "Next, I activate my face-down card: Backup Soldier, letting me bring three machine monsters back to my hand. And now, I'll finally activate my deck master special ability. By discarding three monsters from my hand, I can deal 500 points of damage to each of you."
Komaru, Mai and Ibuki were all shot by lasers and brought to 800, 4000, and 3500 life points respectively. "Next, I will activate Heavy Storm to destroy every other spell and trap card on the field. So say goodbye to your trap card, Miss Valentine."
Mai's last line of defense for the good guys, Mirror Wall, was blown away and destroyed, and Komaru's Magical Citadel was also blasted to bits. Metalmorph and Wonder Wand met a similar fate.
"Thaaaaat's not good," Ibuki stated. "And it's going to get even worse," Nezbitt said and pointed at Harpie's Pet Dragon. "I activate Blowback Dragon's ability to select and destroy Harpie's Pet Dragon."
Blowback Dragon lit a fuse and shot a hole straight through Harpie's Pet Dragon, destroying it.
"Whoa. Three for three! What do you polish those guns with? Ibuki wants some of that luck."
"It's not luck, it's technological maintenance," Nezbitt insisted. "And speaking of technology, I activate another Clockwork Night, once again converting all of your monsters to machines and lowering their attack points, boosting my Perfect Machine King to be strong enough to wipe out any of you with one blow."
"Ah Ah Ah!" Ibuki chimed in. "Don't forget—"
"I have not forgotten about your deck master! SHUT! UP!"
"Wow. Rude." Ibuki said, having no upbeat comeback to that one. Seriously, what crawled up Nezbitt's ass she thought, unwilling to look at herself as the culprit.
"First, I shall annihilate Papa Corn," Nezbitt said, taking aim at the monster, blasting it into popcorn with his mighty cannons. "And next, I shall destroy Endymion with Blowback Dragon."
Komaru now fell all the way to 200 life points with only Dark Magician for company.
As Endymion exploded into tiny light shards, on a platform viewing deck above the duel's level, Chiaki, Celeste, Nagito, Joey, and Yugi burst through to see what was going on.
"Hey, check it out! There's a duel in progress!" Joey exclaimed.
"Who's dueling?" Chiaki wanted to know.
"Joey! Yugi!" Mai waved to her friends.
"Hey, it's Mai!" Joey exclaimed, sounding excited. "Mai! You all right?"
"In a bit of a pinch, but I think we'll pull through!" Mai exclaimed happily. Seeing Joey just now tremendously lifted her spirits.
"Huh? We?"
"It seems like their opponent isn't dueling just Mai," Nagito pointed out.
"Correct," Nezbitt stated. "This duel is three on one and I am about to crush the opposition with overwhelming fire power."
"Perfect Machine King," Chiaki stated. "Interesting choice. You must really like robots."
"I do. And one day, I will build the Ultimate War Machine Robot."
"An Ultimate Robot?" Nagito pondered. "I'd like to see that one day actually."
"Joey!" Ibuki exclaimed waving.
"Ibuki! Hey!" Joey waved at her. "Hang in there! You can do it!"
"Yeah, Ibuki's got the perfect plan! You showed up just in time to see her win!"
"Ha! As if you ever could manage that. My firepower is clearly superior."
Ibuki just laughed. "Teeheehee. You'll see."
"Hmm?" Celeste then noticed something. "Yugi, isn't that…" she pointed to Komaru.
"Huh? Isn't that Makoto's sister? Whoa, and she has the Dark Magician on the field. Awesome!"
Komaru's inner fangirl squealed at Yugi using the world awesome to describe her, even indirectly.
Celeste then took stock of the field. "The odds are certainly against them."
"I agree," Chiaki said. "But, I believe in our friends. They won't lose," she said seriously.
"Let's hope you're right," Joey said.
"Hope?" Nagito's ears perked up. "Yeah, let's hope. If we all hope together, they're all sure to be all right."
"Whose turn is it?" Joey shouted down to Mai.
Mai pointed to Komaru. Komaru swallowed. Her turn now felt like it had a 20 ton weight attached to it with so many spectators. Mai put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, you'll be fine. Just try to do something akin to damage."
Komaru nodded at Mai. "Right."
She drew the top card of her deck. "I activate Magician of Faith's deck master special ability to bring Mystic Space Typhoon back to my hand. "With it, I'm going to destroy your Clockwork Night!"
"Whoa, déjà vu," Ibuki said as the typhoon ripped through the spell card.
"Next, I activate this spell card, Magical Blast, dealing 200 points of damage for every spellcaster on my side of the field."
Dark Magician let fly a pink energy blast and hit Nezbitt with it, reducing his life points to 400.
"And since Clockwork Night is gone, I can destroy Blowback Dragon with Dark Magician." This is so awesome. I get to do it twice. In sync with the monster, Komaru declared, "Dark Magic Attack!"
The world once again went photonegative as Nezbitt's only other monster was destroyed, bringing Perfect Machine King down to 3200 life points.
As it became Mai's turn and she drew a card, she looked at her hand. She wanted to be the hero of this battle, she really did, but she couldn't impress Joey like that with what was in her hand. All she could do was set a monster and end her turn.
"Don't worry, Mai," Ibuki said. "It happens. But now, it's Ibuki's time to shine. And it's G-A-M-E O-V-E-R! Gaaaaaame Over!"
"Preposterous."
"You're prepostemous!" Ibuki said, getting the word wrong on purpose. "You made a mistake putting your deck master on the field cause now Ibuki's gonna take you down with a whoosh, bang and a flash."
"You're bluffing."
"HA! You wish!" Ibuki exclaimed. "Ibuki activates Monster Reborn! This lets her bring back Thunder King from the graveyard on her side of the field.
"WHAT?!" Nezbitt shouted. He couldn't believe it. This annoying little brat. SET. HIM. UP!
"Game. Set. Match. Eheeheehee!" Ibuki laughed. "Come on back Thunder King!"
Ibuki's temporarily owned Kaiju returned to the field with a loud roar from all three of its heads, towering over Nezbitt by its necks and heads. "Go, Thunder King!" Ibuki shouted with a big smile on her face. "Triple Lightning Blast!"
The lightning tore into Nezzbit, ripping his robot body apart. "NO!" Nezbitt shouted as he was destroyed in a cracking blast of lightning. "This…cannot…BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Nezbitt then disappeared.
"Awrite! Ibuki won the duel!" Ibuki exclaimed.
"Hey, don't act like we didn't help!" Mai exclaimed.
Ibuki laughed. "Ibuki wouldn't do that. You guys were great. She couldn't have done without ya!"
"Thanks, Ibuki," Komaru said, "Really. We'd have been sunk without you." She looked petrified momentarily. "If you weren't around…if it had just been me and Mai…I might be…and I said you shouldn't have…"
"Awww, it's okay," Ibuki said, giving Komaru a hug. "No need to act like a sad puppy. Ibuki forgives you. She's just glad your safe."
Komaru gave Ibuki a comforted hug back.
By the time she let go of Ibuki, Yugi, Chiaki and the others had found a fire ladder down to the ground level and were checking up on her, Ibuki and Mai.
"Joey!" Ibuki exclaimed, happily bear hugging her friend and band mate.
"Heh, good to see you unhurt, Ibuki," Joey said, ruffling her hair.
"Meow!" Ibuki cooed.
"What about me, Joey?" Mai asked semi-pouty.
Joey smiled warmly. "Yeah, you too. Mai. Good to know those dumb suits don't have your body." He then cracked a big grin. "Course if they did, I'm sure they'd give it back in five minutes."
Mai, frowned, eyes narrowing and then she socked Joey a good one across his temple. "Hmph!" she sneered, turning her head away.
Celeste observed this and thought, What a strange relationship they have. This is friendship?
Komaru looked around, noticing a striking absence of Makoto. "You guys haven't seen my brother, have you?" she asked.
Yugi shook his head solemnly. "No, we haven't seen Makoto." He then smiled kindly at Komaru. "But you were awesome out there, Komaru. Not everyone can wield the Dark Magician like that. Nicely done."
Komaru broke out into a big grin. I just got a compliment from Yugi Mutoh. THE Yugi Mutoh. EEEEEEEEE!
"I don't suppose any of you have seen Hajime, either?" Chiaki asked.
"Sorry, hun. We've been together the whole time just the three of us," Mai told her.
This only served to really put Chiaki on edge. There weren't very many of her friends left to find. Please, Hajime. Please be with someone I trust. She hated to think he was all alone, or worse, defeated.
Yugi, ever the voice of reason and hope, spoke up, "Our friends have to be around here somewhere. Come on, let's look around."
Agreeing to work together, the seven teens, plus Mai, walked through the back end of the hangar—the area Nezbitt had been guarding—and continued on their adventure to find their friends and escape Noah's virtual prison, unaware, and uncaring of the danger that awaited them.
(A/N: And we go from an extremely funny chapter to an extremely AWESOME one. Gosh, I should've been in bed an hour ago, but I had too much damn fun writing this chapter. I have been meaning to get to it for god knows how long. I know that it might come across as a bit anti-climactic given Nezbitt only used his deck master special ability once and had the least amount of life points all duel. (Hell, Mai only got touched once), but the important thing to remember is that Nezbitt was only dominating Tristan, Serenity and Duke because 2 of those three are complete amateurs and Duke is more familiar with dungeon dice monsters. See, Nezbitt? This is what happens when you duel actually competent people! There's so much to love in this chapter from Komaru having a chance to shine, to Ibuki being awesome and her unexpected Big Damn Heroes moment, to Mai's call backs to her character development. It's just…ahhhhhh.
I cannot talk about what happens next, only that it will be a rather short chapter. Or, alternatively, I might combine it and 46 (and maybe even 47) depending on length since there is a lot of character interaction to cover. Once 47 is done we will, unfortunately, hit a mini-hiatus while I rewatch the rest of the arc following the Leichter duel just so I know what I'm doing with the blimp team. No, I have not forgotten about them.
But until then, as always, from all of me, to all of you, let your hearts stay human, and your wrath draconic. Ja ne!)