(A/N: Hello, folks. I suppose I've made you wait long enough. Nintendo, please no more Fire Emblem Thre Houses DLC, all right? If I have to play one more playthrough I don't know if my sanity will hold after another 100+ hours playing the same game.
But, in the intervening time, I've been busy. Thanks to EpicLinkSam, I will be lending my voice to the prediction blog for the upcoming Death Battle Gray Vs Esdeath. I'll be using the username The Draconic Hero along with my old deviantART ID image that…seems to have faded out of existence. If I ever do another prediction blog, I'll prolly use the Green Eyes Gold Dragon reskin for Blue-Eyes I have on my profile here, but that's immaterial.
Additionally, I have a discord server now: Draconic Hero Studios. If you would like access, please PM me your username info and I'll add you. Do NOT put it in the review where other people can see it and possibly spam you. I made it as a direct line to all of my fans for my current projects as well as ones currently in development.
I'll be making similar announcements on other projects that are currently ongoing—like Fairy Without Wings whenever I get back to that—but I want to have direct contact with my fans more often now that FanFiction's PM system has turned into a BS kerfuffle.
All right, announcement time is over. Let's get to what you all came here for: the Kaiba Corp Grand Prix! My fingers are flexed and it's time to get started. In the words of Mario: Let's-a-go!)
Sitting in his guest of honor chair, Yami sat equidistant from both duelists to Hajime's left and Ramona's right. He then stood up and swung his arm down. "I declare the start of this first duel to begin."
"As you have the champion's favor, I find it is only fair if I go first," Ramona said, her eyes staring into Hajime's soul. "is that agreeable?"
"Uh…sure?"
"Very well," she pulled the top card of her deck to her hand. "I draw!"
While she was planning her first move, Hajime looked at his hand. He had no spell or trap cards. That's not good, he thought.
"I shall set a monster," Ramona said as the face-down sideways hologram appeared. "Then I'm setting one card face-down and ending my turn."
Talk about a strategy as old as time, Hajime thought. "I draw!" He looked at his hand. Still no spells or traps. This bode poorly. "I summon to the field my Battle Ox!" Hajime declared. The sturdy ox-like warrior snorted as it stood proudly with its 1700 attack points. "Battle-Ox, attack Ramona's face-down monster!"
Battle Ox charged at the face-down monster but was suddenly bound at the wrist by a thorny whip. Ramona's face-down monster was revealed to be none other than Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn, a thin woman that carried a thorn whip with long brown hair, a brown shirt, red eyes and red pants.
With 1,800 defense points, she had just enough bulk to stop Hajime's Battle Ox in its tracks.
Uh oh, Hajime thought.
As Battle Ox was released, Hajime lost 100 life points, putting him at 3,900.
"Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn's effect activates!" Ramona declared. "I now add one Dark Scorpion card from my deck to my hand without revealing it to my opponent. But, I will show it to the judge," she flashed the card to Yami and he nodded in its legality as Ramona placed it into her hand.
"I…I end my turn," Hajime said, practically gritting his teeth.
"Disappointing," Ramona said. "I draw." She drew the top card of her deck.
"Is Hajime okay?" Kazuichi asked only loud enough for his classmates that were sitting with him to hear.
"Maybe he needs to take a shit," Nekomaru said. "When nature calls, nature calls."
"Maybe he's hungry," Akane theorized.
"Ryota" was deep in thought until he hatched onto a possibility and gasped. "Could it be?"
"Well don't keep us in suspense," Hiyoko said.
"Hajime…might have a bad opening hand," Ryota said.
"Yeah, I was afraid you were going to say that," Kazuichi groaned. "Great, just great."
"Hey! Don't talk about him like he's already lost!" Fuyuhiko snapped. He then grinned like he was about to proposition a shady business deal. "The difference between someone of your skill and someone like Hajime is that even when life and luck kick him down, that guy stands up and stands his ground." Fuyuhiko stared up at the stage. "He'll pull through."
Hajime didn't have to hear the conversation from his classmates to know that Fuyuhiko was right about him. Bad hand or no, he'd hold his ground until his life points hit 0.
Ramona now made her move. "I start by summoning a new monster: Dark Scorpion – Cliff the Trap Remover!"
A brown haired man wearing glasses and an outfit matching Meane's emerged onto the battlefield. He had 1,200 attack points and 1,000 defense points.
"And now, I reveal my face-down card: the continuous trap Tag Team Turmoil!"
The card artwork showed Cliff and Meanae slapping five as they walked past each other.
"Here's how it works," Ramona said. "As long as I have two or more Dark Scorpions on the field and as long as one of them is in attack position and another is in defense position, I can swap the attack and defense positions of those monsters. In addition, the monster swapping into attack position can swap their attack points with the attack or defense of any other Dark Scorpion on the field, including themselves. So now, Meane the Thorn and Cliff the Trap Remover swap positions and Meanae now has 1,800 attack points!"
Slapping a high five as shown in the trap artwork, Meanae now stood in front of Cliff the Trap Remover as he crouched behind her with his pitiful 1,000 defense points.
"Now! Meanae the Thron, attack Hajime's Battle Ox! Rose Whip Lash!"
Battle Ox was destroyed and Hajime's life points were brought down to 3,800.
"Just so you know, the effects caused by this trap are permanent, so Meanae will have 1,800 attack points for the rest of the duel. And now, I add another Dark Scorpion card from my deck to my hand," Ramona said, taking the card from her deck, showing it to Yami, gaining his approval and then shuffling her deck. "Now, I set a new card face-down and end my turn. It's your move," she told Hajime.
He nodded and finally, finally he'd drawn a Polymerization. The tide had officially turned. "I activate Polymerization, fusing together my Cannon Soldier and my Giga Tech Wolf in order to create Labyrinth Tank!"
The massive 2,400 attack point blue tank and its spiky red drill appeared. "Labyrinth Tank! Use your Labyrinth Drill and destroy Meanae the Thorn!"
"Activate Trap card!" Ramona declared. The trap she revealed was a picture of Meanae looking at a boulder rolling towards her down a narrow corridor. "Dark Scorpion – Trap Alert! When my opponent attacks a Dark Scorpion monster or activates a trap on their turn that targets a Dark Scorpion monster, I can activate this card. First, I can negate the trap or attack. Then, if an attack was negated instead of a trap, the damage I would've taken from that attack is directed at my opponent instead."
"Wha-?!" Hajime was so shocked that his stubborn cowlick stood straight up.
Meanae, running straight at Labyrinth Tank, vaulted over the machine and then lashed Hajime with her whip, causing him to recoil and stumble backwards to the result of 600 points of battle damage, leaving him with 3,200 life points.
Kazuichi slapped his forehead. "Man, she keeps nickel and diming him for points left and right."
"That's part of her strategy," Peko pointed out. "Each time Meanae deals damage, Ramona can fetch a card from her deck, thereby allowing her to advance her strategy while closing in on Hajime's life points."
"As Meanae has dealt battle damage to you," Ramona said, "I can now add another Dark Scorpion card to my hand."
She showed the card to Yami again and then shuffled her deck and added it to her hand.
"My turn's over," Hajime said.
Ramona drew the top card of her deck and added it to her hand. With a full hand of 7 cards thanks to constantly replenishing it with Meanae, Ramona had plenty of resources for a big play. "I'll start by activating the spell card Cost-Down," Ramona said, slipping an extra card to the graveyard to pay for the cost. "This will let me to summon Dark Scorpion – Gorg the Strong without having to sacrifice a monster!"
A bald, hulking man with 1,900 attack points emerged on the battlefield carrying an unfriendly looking Morningstar. "And now Hajime, I welcome you to the Dark Scorpion Lair!"
Ramona activated a spell card placed in her field spell slot as the battlefield now had a look to it that combined a mine, a cave and a thief's den, leaving the card's "Lair" title rather appropriate.
"Now that the Dark Scorpions have home field advantage, they all gain a special effect. Whenever I attack my opponent with a Dark Scorpion monster, I can cut that monster's attack points in half, but in exchange, they can attack my opponent directly. Additionally, that Dark Scorpion switches to defense mode. Additionally, Dark Scorpion monsters in face-up defense position cannot be destroyed by battle."
That's not good, Hajime thought.
"Gorg! Meanae! Cliff! Attack Hajime directly!" Ramona shouted.
The three Dark Scorpions leapt into action with Gorg clubbing Hajime across the chest for 950 points of damage, bringing him down to 2,300 points. With his dagger, Cliff slashed Hajime along the chest dealing 600 points of damage, bringing Hajime down to 1,700 life points. And Meanae dropped Hajime down to a mere 800 life points with her attack.
"Thanks to dealing damage to you, all of my monsters' effects activate," Ramona declared. "First, Meanae allows me to add yet another Dark Scorpion card from my deck to my hand. Next, Cliff allows me to send the top two cards of your deck directly to your graveyard, and Gorg the strong lets me return your Labyrinth Tank monster to the top of your deck. Oh, but I suppose it goes to the top of your fusion deck instead," Ramona said.
"Man, I'm starting to see what makes this chick so ruthless," Tristan commented.
"You may as well give up," Ramona said. "Honestly, I expected better of you, Hajime Hinata," Ramona said. "But I guess some duelists just have bad duels. It's over."
Lots of murmurs went throughout the audience. Was Hajime, the Ultimate Duelist, about to lose to some no name Middle Schooler?
Hajime quickly silenced such murmurs. "Sorry, Ramona, but this duel isn't over. Sure, things might look hopeless and I'm backed into a corner, but there's still one card in my deck that could turn this entire duel around. All I have to do is draw it."
"But the chances of that are—"
"Don't tell me the odds," Hajime said. "I will draw it," he said as a flash of a golden aura surrounded him for just a moment, "I just have to believe," he said, going for the top card of his deck, "In the Heart of the Cards!"
Drawing the top card of his deck, Hajime nodded. He'd gotten just what he needed to turn this duel around. "I activate Card of Sanctity!" Hajime declared. "Now we have to draw until we're holding six cards!"
Ramona drew two cards and Hajime drew three.
"You've made a terrible blunder," Ramona said. "By adding cards to my hand, you only give me more opportunities to destroy you."
"Hajime, maybe, but that's why I had faith that I would draw this card. Thanks to you sending two of my monsters to the graveyard, you thinned my deck out a little. So now, behold this magic card: Card Destruction!"
Ramona was so shocked that her eyes went back to normal. "Wha…?!"
"Now we both have to discard our entire hands and draw brand new ones!" Hajime exclaimed.
"No! My combo!" Ramona exclaimed.
But, rules were rules. All twelve cards went straight to the graveyard.
Yami gave Hajime an approving thumb's up and a smirk for never giving up and having his faith turn everything around.
With a fresh, full hand, Hajime was ready for action. His first order of business? Get rid of that Field Spell, or at least buy himself some time. Fortunately, it seemed like he had the cards for the job.
"I activate another Polymerization!" Hajime exclaimed. "This will allow me to fuse together Inpachi and Blazing Inpachi to create Blaze Fenix, the Burning Bombardment Bird!"
The armored phoenix emerged from the mixing of the two monsters and let out a cry and showing off its 2,800 attack points.
Ramona stared up at the fiery monster as embers trickled down into her field of vision. "B-big deal," she stammered. "On my next turn, you will lose the duel," Hajime said.
"We'll see about that," Hajime said. "First, I'm setting a card face-down." A spell or possibly a trap card appeared face-down on Hajime's side of the field. "Next, I'm setting a monster," Hajime stated, placing a monster face-down as well. "And finally, I activate the special ability of Blaze Fenix. For every card on the field, not just mine, you take 300 points of damage. I have three and you have 4, that's seven, for a total of 2,100 points of damage."
Ramona gasped as, without having to attack her monsters at all, Blaze Fenix set her field ablaze, reducing her life points down to 1,900.
"Yeah!" Kazuichi cheered, rising from his seat. "Way to play it, Hajime! You got this!"
"It's not over quite yet," Ibuki said. "If Hajime takes a direct attack from Meanae or Gorg from the effect of Ramona's field spell, it's all over." Ibuki stood up and took a big breath before cheering. "COME ON, HAJIME! DON'T LOSE!"
Hajime gave Ibuki a reassuring smirk and thumb's up in response and then turned his attention back to Ramona. He'd given his best effort. The rest was in the hands of fate now.
"My draw," Ramona said. With a new hand of seven cards, her strategy had been thrown into chaos, but it really didn't matter. All she needed was one attack to end the duel…or did she? There's no telling what sort of strategy a master duelist like Hajime Hinata might've come up with. She grabbed a spell card from her hand. I must be careful.
"I activate Mystic Space Typhoon to destroy your face-down card!"
Ramona's tornado went barreling towards Hajime's face-down card.
Got you, Hajime thought.
Suddenly, a trio of dynamite sticks wrapped in a chain was secured to Blaze Fenix. There was an old timey clock attached to the dynamite.
"What the heck?!" Ramona exclaimed.
"Blast with Chain," Hajime stated, "This trap card works like Joey Wheeler's famous Kunai with Chain, albeit a little differently. Sure, a monster of mine gets a 500 point boost, but if the card is destroyed by my opponent while it's equipped, I can target any card on the field and destroy it. And with this one blast," he said, pointing at Ramona's field spell, as Blaze Fenix grappled the chain in its beak, "I'm taking down the entire lair!"
With its neck strength alone, Blaze Fenix launched the ticking dynamite at the gaggle of Dark Scorpions as it landed in front of the three thieves crouched on the ground in semi-circle. All of their reactions were of priceless shock as their eyes grew larger than their heads momentarily with cartoonish sound effects of alarm and panic rose in each of them. Cliff immediately picked up the dynamite and tried to disarm the clock only to pass it to Meanae who handled it like a hot potato and then just haphazardly chucked it to Gorg who wanted nothing to do with it and pitched it to Ramona.
"Don't give it to me you idiots!" Ramona shouted and pitched it at Cliff's face as one of the sticks broke the bridge of his glasses just as the timer ran out and the whole side of her field went KABOOM!
The Dark Scorpion Lair began to crumble and fall apart and Ramona was left coughing at the cloud of dust. When it settled, only a conspicuously large rock remained on her side of the field. It was tossed aside as Gorg the Strong lifted the rock and shoved it over causing it to dissipate as it landed on its other side. All three Dark Scorpions huddled down again back into defense position; no damage done to the members themselves.
Even if Hajime plays a monster next turn, he can't destroy me with just Blaze Fenix now that two cards have been eliminated from the field, Ramona thought. She looked at the remaining six cards in her hand. Her best course of action now was a plan to deal with Blaze Fenix so that it didn't destroy her life points. With Hajime having so few points to protect himself, if she could take out Blaze Fenix and his face-down monster, she could easily wipe out the last of his points with a direct attack. It's either that or stick to defense. She gave another look at her hand. If I'm going down, I'm going down swinging. "I activate the equip spell: Dark Scorpion Crossbow! And I equip it to my favorite Dark Scorpion: Meanae the Thorn!"
A heavy crossbow was now saddled in Meanae's arms. Meanae loaded one bolt.
"First, my monster gains attack power equal to its level, so that's 400 points."
Meanae's attack power rose to 2,200.
"Wait, if the boost is based on the monster's level, why not give it to Gorg?" Hajime asked.
Gorg scratched his bald noggin with one finger and then shrugged.
Ramona explained. "Dark Scorpion Crossbow can only be equipped to a dark attribute warrior monster that's level 4 or lower. Gorg can't use it."
"I…see," Hajime said. Well, at least her explanation was adequate.
"Now then, where was I?" Ramona asked rhetorically, pausing a moment. "Oh yes, Next, I activate another equip spell: Dark Scorpion – Anti-spike Armor! And I give this armor to Gorg the Strong!"
Gorg was suddenly outfitted with jet black armor with the Dark Scorpion's Emblem in white on the back and front.
"This equip spell increases the equipped monster's attack and defense points by 300 for every trap card in my graveyard for a total of 600 points." Gorg now had 2,400 attack points and 2,100 defense points. "Additionally, the monster is immune to the effects of spell cards and trap cards activated on my turn controlled by my opponent."
"That means even if Hajime is using a defensive monster, Ramona's gonna pulverize with that big guy!" Ibuki exclaimed.
"Oh no, poor Hajime," Serenity said, her eyes turning sad with sympathy.
"Relax," Tristan said. "He's still got Blaze Fenix and neither of her monsters are strong enough to destroy it."
"I now enter the battle phase," Ramona declared. "Now, Meanae, take aim!"
"…Right?" Tristan asked, sweat dripping down his face.
"This is why you constantly lose, Tristan," Téa said, palming her face in shame.
"When the monster equipped Dark Scorpion Crossbow attacks, it gains 100 points for each level star of the monster its attacking. That's another 800 points."
Meanae took aim at Blaze Fenix, her attack points surging up to 3,000 points, and fired. She nailed the bird through its armor plating and causing it to crash to the ground and explode into shards of light. This resulted in 200 points of damage to Hajime's already dwindling life points, leaving him with 600.
"And now that Meanae has dealt you damage, I can return my Dark Scorpion Lair from my graveyard to my hand!"
"You can do that?" Hajime asked.
"I can," Ramona nodded. Her eyes went back to doing the kaleidoscope thing. "Meanae can fetch me cards from my deck or from my graveyard as long as they have Dark Scorpion in the name."
"That's true," Yami said. And to show he played no favorites, added, "I commend your strategy, Ramona."
Ramona nodded to Yami and then turned back to Hajime.
"This duel is likely over this turn, but in case it isn't, I want to remove any chance you have at victory away from you. Gorg, smash his monster to bits."
"I can't watch!" Serenity exclaimed, covering her eyes.
In the stands, Mukuro tossed a kernel of popcorn into her mouth. Junko was missing out on what she would consider a despair spectacle.
"If you share, you can have a hot dog," Homura said, offering one to Mukuro. They wordlessly exchanged snacks.
Gorg stormed towards Hajime's monster and attempted to pulverize it with his hammer. However, a loud CLANG resulted from the impact and Ramona's eyes reverted to normal when she saw just what she struck.
It was the worst-case scenario to Dark Scorpion duelist. Facing down Gorg, smiling with its serrated teeth in all its silver glory was Cyber Jar.
Hajime let out a sigh of relief he didn't realize he'd been holding. He then pointed straight at Ramona, "Cyber Jar's effect activates! All monsters on the field including itself are destroyed!"
Gorg was immediately sucked up into the vacuum effect of Cyber Jar. Cliff tried to run only to trip over his own tied shoe laces and was carried off via suction into the uncaring void. Meanae desperately tried to lasso her rose whip around Ramona's duel disk for dear life as her crossbow was forcibly removed from her back, but even her grip on her Rose Whip eventually waned and all three Dark Scorpions were carried off into Cyber Jar's pocket dimension inside itself, which then detonated, no card to be heard from again.
"Now, we each draw five cards and summon or set any monster that can be normal summoned or set to the field," Hajime explained. He drew the top five cards of his deck. He nodded as he declared, "I set all of my monsters face-down." Three monsters were set face-down, leaving Hajime
Ramona nodded and drew five cards of her own, holding a total of ten cards, she was only able to play two. "I summon to the field, the fearless leader of the Dark Scorpions: Don Zaloog, along with the other member of the Dark Scorpions: Chick the Yellow!"
Don Zaloog and Chick appeared together, each readying their weapons.
"Don Zaloog, destroy Hajime's monster on the far left, my left!"
Don Zaloog, darted forward and sliced the card to ribbons, a transparent image of Ancient Brain appearing as it was utterly destroyed.
"Chick, destroy the monster in the middle with your thieving hammer!"
Chick nodded and took a swing at the monster, destroying Hajime's Tainted Wisdom. Luck was certainly not on his side right now.
"And now, I re-activate Dark Scorpion Lair!" Ramona declared, bringing the lair back to the battlefield. "You have to destroy me this turn, Hajime. Good luck with that with only one monster on the field. And just to leave you with no kind of mercy, I activate this spell card: Mustering of the Dark Scorpions! Now, I can summon the three remaining Dark Scorpions from my hand to the field, giving me the whole set!"
The five team members immediately imitated the card artwork to show off their formation only to then ready and arm themselves, ready for Hajime's next turn.
"You have no chance at victory. Surrender now," Ramona told him. "Because I'm also placing two cards face-down onto the field. It's your move."
Hajime grit his teeth and sweat a little. Ramona really wasn't giving him an inch. His only options were either to wipe her entire field or destroy monster with enough force to cause 1,900 points of damage. And with only one monster on the field, four cards in his hand—the last of which rested on the top of his deck and he'd yet to draw it—he'd have to summon a monster with 2,900 attack points or more and hope and pray that her trap cards wouldn't just blow up whatever he summoned and ruin his hard work and effort.
However, as Hajime drew the top card of his deck, fortune seemed to smile upon him as he drew a Polymerization. This was it. This was the end game. But…would this work? Ramona still had two cards face-down.
No, I can't second guess myself, Hajime thought. It was all or nothing now. "I activate Black Pendant! This spell card equips itself to any monster on the field and I choose Gorg the Strong, raising its attack power by 500 points."
Ramona was confused. Why would Hajime increase her monster's attack points?
Meanwhile, the Dark Scorpions were all admiring the new jewelry accessory Gorg acquired, each one thinking of what they would do with the money they would get for selling it.
"And now, I activate Polymerization!" Hajime declared. "Fusing together the Molten Zombie on my field with the Robotic Knight in my hand to form Ignition Beast Volcannon!"
A machine monster with two turbo-charged fire cannons on its shoulders and the face of a rhino that had a shark fin growing out of the back of its head, stormed the field with 2,300 attack points.
"What's Hajime gonna do with that?" Hiyoko wondered.
In class 78's seats, Homura knew as her eyes sparkled. She knew that card. She loved that card. "Blow it up! Blow it up! Blow it up!" she chanted.
"Happy to oblige!" Hajime exclaimed, able to hear her. Ignition Beast Volcannon rocketed towards Gorg the strong and grappled it like it was preparing to do a spinning pile driver. The other Dark Scorpions backed away.
"What's going on?" Ramona asked. "And why aren't my trap cards working?"
"Because I'm not attacking," Hajime explained. "Your monster is about to go sky high in response to my monster being summoned and once both are destroyed, your going to take damage equal to your monster's original attack."
"But that means…and with Black Pendant…" Ramona gaped, her eyes now in their normal state.
"This duel is all wrapped up," Hajime said. "Sorry, Ramona, but this is over. Ignition Beast Volcannon! Self-destruct! End this duel!"
Homura began scarfing popcorn as the Dark Scorpions ducked and took cover, Chick under a table, Cliff behind a rock and Meanae and Don Zaloog each attempting to use each other as a shield.
Gorg's face, though the beefy man remained silent, said it all: this was gonna suck.
An explosion bigger than the one caused by Blast with Chain ruptured through the entire arena as Ramona put her hands up in front of her chest and forehead, "Arrrrrrrrrrgh!"
The resulting blast destroyed Gorg and took Black Pendant with it, dealing a total of 2,300 points of damage to Ramona, more than enough to defeat her. The Dark Scorpions all lay in a heap, singed all over, smoke rising from their bodies, and Ramona's life points fell all the way down to 0.
On the big screen behind Yugi a little 8-bit chibi Ramona fell over with a twister sprite over her head representing unconsciousness as a Hajime sprite smiled and waved its arms up and down making a happy dance with the word WINNER under him to show that he'd won.
"This duel is over! Ramona's life points have hit zero. The winner of this duel is Hajime Hinata!" Yami declared.
People cheered. Despite the early game nightmare, Hajime stuck to his guns and never gave up and, in the end, he had claimed victory.
He walked over to Ramona and extended a hand. "That was quite a duel he said. I look forward to the day we duel again."
Ramona's eyes sparkled with competitive spirit. She slapped Hajime's hand like she was giving it a sideways high five then brought her hand back around and firmly shook it. "You're a good duelist," she said. "I can see why Kitty Bat likes you."
"Kitty…you know Chiaki?" Hajime asked, confused.
"We're in the same raiding community," Ramona said. "I don't know if she'd call us friends, but we're acquainted."
Hajime smiled. "Well, after the tournament, why don't you get reacquainted. You could meet our son."
"Your…what?" Ramona asked flatly.
"Uh, why don't we go to the break room and talk about it over some snacks."
Ramona's tiny pigtails flipped straight up and erect like little wings in response to the idea of junk food. She then darted at full speed past Hajime in the direction of her precious snacks.
Starting to see why they get along, Hajime thought. He then departed from the arena. One victory down, four more to go. And then, his rematch with Yugi. And this time, he thought as he clenched a fist and looked back at the spikey haired judge, he absolutely would not lose.
"Not bad for a first duel, huh?" Mokuba asked after things had calmed down for a few minutes. "What did everybody think?"
The crowd cheered.
"Then let's waste no time at all and get on with the second duel!" Mokuba declared. The mystery duelists in brackets 3 and 4 were revealed.
Kazuichi rising from his seat with a fiery declaration of "All right!" was to be expected when the names shown were Aiko Umesawa and Sonia Nevermind.
Kaiba took the microphone. "Sonia Nevermind and Aiko Umesawa, please report to the dueling arena now. All other duelists, please stay in the competitor's spectator zone."
It didn't take long for Sonia and Aiko to emerge side by side with Aiko darting towards the far end of the arena and Sonia stopping at the end closer to the entrance.
"I'm so excited!" Aiko exclaimed. "Two big tournaments in a row and I get to compete with a finalist from the last one!" She pulled a small video camera out of her hoodie. "Hey, Sonia, how about a few words? I'm making a documentary!"
"Uh, well, this is…so sudden," Sonia stuttered. "Oh, um, I…uh…"
"All right, maybe later," Aiko said and put her camera away. She spun around and strapped on her duel disk. "I didn't get pretty far in Battle City, but I was at least a competitor. But you, you're a finalist."
"It was…not as grand as it seems," Sonia said, swallowing.
"Ohhhh, is this about what happened with you and that crazy guy, Marik? Sorry, I didn't mean to make it weird," Aiko apologized.
Sonia smiled, shook her head and curtsied. "No," she said. "The Sonia that was tormented by the Shadow Realm is long since gone. I've been healed thanks to my friends. Otherwise," she said, strapping on her duel disk. "I wouldn't even be able to put on my duel disk."
Aiko smiled. "I'm glad. Personally, I don't like horror movies. I don't like giving the people watching my films emotional discomfort, despair and agony. I want them to cry when they're sad, get excited when they're happy and invested and laugh when it's funny."
"Oh, but horror has so many fun aspects to it. Like in Friday the 13th when Jason Vorhees—"
Aiko held up a finger, turned green and covered her mouth.
"Aiko?"
Aiko suppressed her urge to vomit. "Sorry, I really, really don't like horror movies, slasher movies especially. They freak me out. I like clever young adult sci-fi thriller's and B-movie action cheese."
"Well, even if our favorite genre's differ," Sonia said, flexing her arm like Rosie the Riveter, "That doesn't mean us gals aren't gonna have a spittin' good duel!"
"Spittin?" Aiko asked confused. "Not sure about your slang, but I agree. Any fellow cinephile, regardless of genre, can't be a bad person. Sonia, I'm looking forward to a fun duel."
"Thank you, Aiko. And may the best cinephile win," Sonia told her.
"Oh don't worry, I will," Aiko said and took out a mini clapperboard from her opposite hoodie pocket where her camera was. "Aiko Umesawa vs Sonia Nevermind! First person face-off! Aaaaaaand!" she snapped the clapperboard. "Action!"
She stuffed it away as both girls drew five cards to their hands, life points going up to 4,000.
"Let's Duel!" They both declared. The second ever duel of the Kaiba Corp Grand Prix had officially begun.
(A/N: And that'll just about do it for Duel #1. I hope you liked how much I improvised making the Dark Scorpion archetype an actual threat. Granted, Hajime was off to a rocky start what with not having any spell or trap cards in his opening hand—mulligan rule for Yugioh WHEN Konami—but these things happen. I feel it makes his win all the more impressive and his talent all the more deserved. Also, if you think the rule about not letting Gorg use the crossbow is strange, I'd like to remind you that if the card was real that Konami is already a bunch of silly people that let Revendreads be the disaster that it was so don't even me.
Anyway, next up: Aiko Vs Sonia. The Ultimate Princess takes on the Ultimate Movie Director in a duel that's certain to be interesting. Will our beloved princess prevail over the pika-powered pint-sized director? Or will Aiko deliver a shocking plot twist you will never see coming? Place your bets now and I'll see you all for 104 very soon. And until then, as always, from all of me, to all of you, let your hearts stay human and your wrath draconic. Ja ne!)