(A/N: 1,000,000 words finally exceeded for Dueling Trigger Finger. Woohoo!)

Yami stood up and looked at both Sonia and Aiko. Each girl had their hands drawn and were ready for action. "BEGIN!" He shouted, swinging his arm down.

"Since I'm the director of this little production," Aiko said. She was holding her hands up, pointing them in opposite directions with her palms facing opposite directions. She also had one eye closed. It was like she was trying to capture Sonia in the middle of the frame of the perfect shot. "Mind if I go first?"

"I don't mind that at all," Sonia replied.

"All right!" Aiko exclaimed, bouncing up into the air off one foot, "Then let's do this!" Aiko grabbed two cards from her hand and threw them face-down into the card reader in the spell and trap slot. "Two cards face-down and that's all I'm gonna do this turn."

"Huh? She didn't summon a monster?" Tristan inquired, confused.

"Maybe she has a plan," Téa said.

Sonia nodded and went for the top card of her deck. "All right then, my turn." She looked at the card she drew. "I activate Graceful Charity, allowing me to draw three cards as long as I discard two." Sonia drew three cards and immediately seemed to know which two to discard. "Next, I activate the magic of Monster Reborn! This will allow me to bring back Darklord Superbia from the graveyard!"

Sonia's hunchback, bird-winged, red-faced Darklord emerged from the graveyard with its massive 2,900 attack points.

"Next, I'll—"

"Cut!" Aiko shouted, causing Sonia to stumble verbally and almost hiccup. "Sorry, but I'm gonna have to stop you right there!" Aiko exclaimed, spinning her arm enthusiastically. "But this production can't have guest stars just yet. So, I'm activating Floodgate Trap Hole!"

A trap card flipped face-up, revealing the artwork of a goblin drowning in a pit.

"This trap card forces your monster into face-down defense position and doesn't allow it to switch its battle position."

Darklord Superbia was suddenly morphed into the face-down hologram version of itself.

"A clever ploy, but you've forgotten a key detail," Sonia pointed out astutely. "While you have prevented Darklord Superbia from attacking your life points, his special ability when he is summoned still activates. This allows me to bring back another monster from the graveyard and I choose the other monster I discarded with Graceful Charity: Darklord Tezcatlipoca!"

A monster with an all-black, mechanical body emerged from the graveyard with purple wings. It had an equally massive 2,800 attack points compared to Darklord Superbia and also had 2,100 defense points.

"And now, my monster attacks your life points directly!"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Aiko asked, finger over the button trigger to her other face-down card, "But plot twist!" she exclaimed saying "twist" in a sing-song fashion. "Activating the trap card Draining Shield!"

Tezcatlipoca's fist rammed into the green shield that erected out of nowhere and completely stopped Tezcatlipoca's attack. As a result, Aiko's life points surged, reaching a total of 6,800.

"Thanks for the boost," she said, grinning.

Sonia looked at her hand. I was expecting a Mirror Force, which is why I didn't normal summon a monster. I was not expecting Aiko to be so cunning. Her eyes sparkled. But I guess that's the Ultimate Movie Director for you. Smiling brightly, Sonia declared, "I set one monster face-down into defense mode. That shall conclude my turn!"

"Just in time for my turn," Aiko said and drew the top card of her deck. "Perfect. All right, now that the prologue has concluded, it's time to kick off the post-title scene with this magic card: The Kaiju Files!"

A green spell card emerged face-up on Aiko's side of the field. The artwork depicted a messy desk with papers and an electronic tablet. "Here's how it works, whenever a kaiju monster is summoned to the field, on either side of the battlefield, a kaiju counter is added to this card for a maximum of five counters. It has other neat effects too like being able to destroy kaiju monsters in favor of new ones, but for now, that's all you should be keeping track of. Next! Next! Next!" Aiko said excitedly, holding up another card. "Scene transition! The time is now, but the battlefield is now my field spell: Kyoto Waterfront!"

Holographic water flooded the area around the dueling arena, causing Téa to yelp as she pulled her feet up onto the bar connecting the chair legs.

"Relax," Bakura said, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "It's just fake." He took his dry foot out. "See? Fake."

"R-right," Téa said, letting her feet sink back in.

In addition to the water, a massive spire erected itself behind the Kaiba Dome and the air became slightly mistier.

"Welcome to the Kyoto Waterfront, the hunting grounds of Kaiju monsters," Aiko stated. "What's that?" she said, leaning over, hand by her ear, "There aren't any kaijus here?" She held up a card in her hand with a delightfully cunning smile. "Don't worry, I'm about to fix that. I sacrifice your Darklord Tezcatlipoca, Sonia, in order to gift you the monster Gameciel, the Sea Turtle Kaiju!"

A rumbling occurred behind the stadium as a massive blue turtle monster that looked like its distant cousin was a plesiosaur stood behind Sonia's side of the stadium and roared loudly.

Inside the break room, Joey, who had his mouth stuffed with bacon, swallowed and proclaimed. "The hell was that?"

"Certainly not your stomach, that's for sure," Celeste remarked snidely. "Probably something to do with the duel. Too bad we're not allowed to watch. Sounds like things are getting interesting out there."

Back outside, Sonia marveled at the sight and size of Gameciel. "It's magnificent!" Her attention was then drawn to a siren noise as a glowing yellow orb appeared by the Kyoto Waterfront tower. "Huh?"

"Oh, don't worry about that. That's just a kaiju counter," Aiko stated. "See, for the Waterfront, whenever a card is sent to the graveyard, kaiju counters appear around it just like how the Kaiju Files get one whenever a kaiju is summoned."

A glowing yellow orb appeared above Aiko's spell card.

"And just like the Kaiju Files, the Waterfront can hold a maximum of five counters all on its own. That means I can hold up to ten counters at a time. Also, don't bother trying to destroy it. As long as there's even one kaiju counter on the card, I can sacrifice one to keep the waterfront in pristine condition. Not exactly conducive of most kaiju films, but," Aiko shrugged, "Eh. Liberties." She then plucked a third card from her hand, leaving her with only two. "Oh, and by the way, now that you have a kaiju on your side of the field, I can summon one of my own," she declared, slapping it onto the battlefield in attack mode, "For free! So, behold the King of the Kaiju Monsters: Dogoran the Mad Flame Kaiju!"

Heat emitted from everywhere as Dogoran appeared behind Aiko's field, roaring loudly. It had a massive 3,000 attack points, almost 1,000 more than Sonia's gifted Gameciel.

"Oh, and wouldn't you know it," Aiko said as another kaiju counter appeared above The Kaiju Files, "I get another kaiju counter. That makes three, which means I can activate Dogoran's special ability!"

"Special ability?" Sonia asked, gasping.

"Yup! Yup!" Aiko said, bowing so dramatically that her hoodie's ears wiggled. She smiled brightly. "Most people when they use kaiju monsters are familiar with their special summoning condition and are able to tailor at least a few cards in their deck to work with it to get themselves out of a bad situation, or get the monster on their side of the field. But fewer duelists know that each kaiju monster has a special ability that can only be used when kaiju counters on the field. And I'm one of the only duelists in the world that has not only collected all of the kaiju cards, but sees the potential in using them to their fullest advantage. So now, I sacrifice three kaiju counters from the field! Gooooooooo, Dogoran!"

Dogoran began to suck a hot, glowing breath as the three kaiju counters on the field were absorbed into its mouth, causing the stadium to feel like it was shaking. Aiko pointed her index finger at Sonia. "In exchange for three Kaiju counters, I can destroy every single monster my opponent has on the field with Dogoran. FIRE AT WILL!"

Dogoran unleashed a massive heat blast that utterly eradicated Sonia's side of the field, destroying her face-down mystery monster, her Darklord Superbia and the kaiju that Aiko had "gifted" to her. Many members of the audience braced for impact as the heat and destruction rose to a crescendo and then died down.

Aiko smiled, tilting her head and using her index fingers to point to her cheeks. "Not bad, right? Sure, Dogoran can't attack on the turn when he uses this ability, but just look at your side of the field."

Sonia's field was completely empty. And with only four cards in her hand and Monster Reborn used up, a comeback looked difficult.

"I think I'll end my turn," Aiko said with a cute smile.

Sonia took a deep breath. The rumbling and massive blast gave her a bit of a nasty flashback to when she'd been savaged on by Ra, but she was calm now. And she was more than ready for more. She spoke with her brows furrowed, her voice crisp clear. "I admire your strategy, Aiko, truly magnificent."

"Thank you, thank you," Aiko said, taking bows.

"However," Sonia said, cutting off Aiko's mojo as she froze mid-bow. "While its true that kaijus are powerful, you can only have one of them on the field at a time." She drew the top card of her deck. "I am provided with plenty of chance to make a comeback so long as you limit your field to only one monster."

Aiko giggled cheerfully. "Ahhhhh, this really is just like a movie. Faced with certain destruction from the monster, the warrior princess stands defiantly and prepares her counterattack." Aiko pulled her mini-camera out of her pocket and filmed Sonia. "Hey! Hey! Can I get a one-liner?"

"Oh, um, okay, I…uh…" Sonia stuttered, feeling put on the spot.

"Pleaaaaaaaaase," Aiko asked with a grin behind her camera, sounding as innocent as a child half her age.

Sonia suddenly felt giddy. If Aiko wanted a cheesy one-liner then she was going to get a cheesy one-liner." Thrusting her open palm down at the ground at an angle, Sonia declared forcefully, "Bow down before the magnificent majesty of Sonia Nevermind, Crown Princess of Novoselic!"

"Yes! Yes! You're totally a protagonist type character right now. Give me and my camera everything you've got!" Aiko exclaimed.

"Man, talk about energy," Hiyoko said. "She's like an excited child."

"Woohoo! Yeah! Aiko! Turn that energy up!" Ibuki cheered.

Hiyoko sighed, frowning grouchily.

Beginning her main phase, Sonia simply stated. "I'm setting a monster face-down onto the field. My turn concludes."

"Aw, man. Come on, Miss Sonia," Kazuichi sighed.

"Well, she has to do something," Mahiru said to him. "It's not like she can leave herself open to 3,000 points of damage."

"Yeah, but after a cool line like that, you'd think she'd have like some kind of cool plan to deal with Aiko's strategy."

"Maybe she's hoping to draw it while buying herself some time," Fuyuhiko pointed out. "This is Sonia we're talking about after all. A Battle City finalist."

"You're right," Kazuichi said, going from worried to confident. "Miss Sonia has to have a strategy. Come on, Miss Sonia! Win it for class 77-B!"

Sonia smiled at waved at her class. Then she turned her attention back to the duel. "I end my turn."

"Well, I commend your line of thinking," Aiko said as she drew the top card of her deck. "But just like before: plot twist!"

Kazuichi went back to looking worried. "That doesn't sound good."

"I was saving this card since last turn and now you're gonna see why having just one kaiju can wreck your entire deck! I call upon the equip spell magic of Fairy Meteor Crush!"

"Well that's not good!" Tristan exclaimed, backing up his chair.

"Now my kaiju monster has the power to deal damage to your life points, even if your monster is in defense mode!" Aiko exclaimed. "Dogoran! GOOOOO!"

With another breath of intense heat, Dogoran rained down unholy flames onto Sonia's poor monster, laying waste to her face-down Guardian of the Throne Room and its pitiful 1,600 defense points, causing 1,400 points of damage to Sonia's life points, leaving her with 2,600.

"That brings us to the second act, the part where you valiantly try to come up with a brand new strategy after your nearly deadly encounter with your foe. Cause two more attacks like that," Aiko said and gave Sonia a thumb's down. "And you're done!"

She's right. I cannot withstand the might of Dogoran for long in this state. If I'm going to turn this duel around, I need to do it now!

Dark energy seemed to emanate from Sonia's fingertips as she seemed to somehow get the exact card she needed to turn this duel even remotely back to her favor. "I activate the spell card Darklord Contact!" the green bordered card flipped face-up in front of Sonia's field, facing away from her. "With this spell card, I can bring back any Darklord Monster I want back from the graveyard in defense position. So welcome back, Darklord Superbia!"

Darklord Superbia returned to the battlefield in defense position.

"And since Darklord Superbia was brought back from the graveyard, Darklord Tezcatlipoca returns to the field as well, in attack position!"

Tezcatlipoca returned to the field, ready for battle.

"And that's not all," Sonia said. "I will also sacrifice Darklord Superbia to summon a new monster, Darklord Desire!" A fairy-monster wreathed in gold and blue armor was summoned to the field with a massive 3,000 attack points and magnificent red wings. "Thanks to Desire's special ability, I need only sacrifice one fairy-type monster to summon it."

Aiko put her camera away after getting the monster on film and clapped her hands excitedly. "Yes! That's exactly it! You can't run and hide from kaijus! You've gotta take them head on!" Aiko proclaimed, pointing forward with her index finger extended.

"Oh, but I don't intend to take Dogoran directly head on," Sonia said, "For I am activating Cestus of Dagla and equipping it to Darklord Tezcatlipoca!" Tezcatlipoca now had a pair of shimmering gold Cestuses as it clacked them together and threw a couple punches. "And next I activate the special ability of Darklord Desire. In exchange for him losing exactly 1,000 attack points," Sonia said as Desire's attack points dropped to 2,000 as a blue energy gathered in its gauntlets, "I can destroy any monster on the field. And with it, I will destroy Dogoran!"

Aiko looked like a frog with the way her mouth was hanging open and the way her eyes were bulging.

"Bow down," Sonia declared as Desire used a bright blue beam of energy to utterly eradicate Dogoran from the field.

As a result of Dogoran's destruction, a 4th counter was placed on Kyoto Waterfront. And Fairy Meteor Crush made it 5.

"And now, my monsters attack you directly!" Sonia shouted.

"Eeeeeeek!" Aiko exclaimed, as she put her hands up to block and braced for impact as both of Sonia's monsters punched her hard and sent her flying along the arena as she tumbled along the ground, landing face-up as her life points fell from 6,800 all the way down to 1,500.

"Oh dear! Are you all right?" Sonia asked as her life points surged to 5,900 due to Cestus of Dagla's effect.

Getting up onto her knees, Aiko made incoherent burbling noises as she shook her head violently. "I'm okay!" She stood up and dusted off her hoodie. "I'm okay." She took a deep breath. However, her legs were shaking a little.

"Are you sure?" Sonia asked. "You look a little shaken up."

"Sorry, sorry," Aiko said, skipping back to her original position. She rubbed the top of her head. "When I directed my first ever movie, one of the set pieces fell on me." She put her hand behind her head and smiled nervously. "I've coped poorly with scary situations and physical trauma since." She then laughed nervously.

"My, and you can take direct attacks during a duel?"

Aiko dropped her smile and let her arms fall to her sides. "Not gonna lie, it really does suck to feel a little traumatized every time I get hit with a direct attack from a really big or scary monster, but I'm not gonna let that stop me from enjoying the game."

Aiko ejected her kaiju monsters from the graveyard and held them up. "But the kaiju monsters are so big and huge. I feel like as long as I have them on my side, the smaller guys don't seem so scary."

Sonia's eyes sparkled. "Ah! So that is why you made your kaiju deck! That's so adorable!"

Aiko puffed out her cheeks. "Hey, just cause I wear this hoodie and have rosy cheeks doesn't mean you can treat me like a little kid. Until a few months ago, I looked more mature than Hiyoko."

"Up yours you Pikachu lookalike, bitch!" Hiyoko shouted indignantly from the audience.

Mahiru covered her mouth. "Hiyoko! We have a child with us! What are you going to do if Hajime or Chiaki start hearing Izuru use bad language?"

"I…" Hiyoko started to protest only to look at happy baby Izuru. She blushed and hung her head. "I'm sorry."

Aiko gave Sonia a smile. "Please don't worry about me. I chose to participate in this tournament and I'm gonna give it my all. A director can only be afraid of one thing and that's that people won't appreciate their vision of creativity."

Sonia smiled. "Aiko…I feel like I understand you a little bit better now. It's a shame our classes don't hang out more often."

Aiko giggled. "You know, horror movies aren't my thing, but that doesn't mean I don't know what's good. Maybe when this is over, I could give you a few Indie recommendations."

"Truly?!" Sonia exclaimed, ecstatic. "I would most greatly appreciate that. Right then," Sonia said, now more determined than ever to see this duel to its end, "I'm setting one card face-down and ending my turn."

Sonia now only had two cards left in her hand.

"All right then, time for a little payback," Aiko grinned. "Gotta admit, wasn't expecting you to blow up my kaiju with a monster effect, but that doesn't mean I can't bounce back from it. For starters, since there are currently three kaiju counters on Kyoto Waterfront, I can add one kaiju monster from my deck to my hand." As Ramona had done last duel, since the effect did not require her to show the card to her opponent, she showed it to Yami and then placed it in her hand. "And now, I'm going to activate this spell card: Summon Dice!"

The spell card's artwork reflected a six-sided die surrounded by rocky debris.

"Here's how it works, a six-sided die is rolled and if it's a 5 or a 6, I can summon any monster from my hand. If it's a 3 or a 4, I can bring back a monster from my graveyard."

"What happens if it's a 1 or 2?" Sonia asked.

"Uh…I'm going to hope it doesn't come to that," Aiko said nervously. "Gooooooo, Summon Dice!"

The die hologram was fired out of the artwork and rolled and bounced along the arena, landing face-up on 5.

"Yes!" Aiko exclaimed, pumping her fist while jumping her joy. "Time to turn this duel back around! I special summon Gadarla the Mystery Dust Kaiju!"

A scary looking moth-like beastly insect with blue wings loomed over Aiko's side of the battlefield. It then let out a thunderously high-pitched cry that caused many spectators to cover their ears.

It had 2,700 attack points and 1,600 defense points.

"And now, since a kaiju monster was summoned, Kaiju Files gains a kaiju counter." A glowing orb was added above the spell card.

"I don't get it, she's acting like she wanted to summon that monster, but if she summoned Dogoran from the graveyard, she could've wiped Sonia's entire field," Tristan said. A kaiju counter was added to Aiko's Kaiju Files magic card.

"She must have some sort of plan," Bakura stated.

"Now, by removing three kaiju counters from Kyoto Waterfront, I activate Gadarla's special ability. Gadarla! GOOOO!"

Three kaiju counters were absorbed by Gadarla from Kyoto Waterfront as its wings beat rapidly, spreading blue dust particles everywhere. This dust seemed to make Sonia's monsters sick as they both took a knee.

"Ah! Desire! Tezacatlipoca!"

Desire's attack points dropped to 1,000 and Tezcatlipoca's dropped to 1,650. Both monsters were covered in blue, poisonous dust.

"Thanks to the poisonous power of Gadarla, all other monsters on the field lose half of their attack points. And, unlike with Dogoran, Gadarla can still attack."

Yugi's friends gasped. "That's why she wanted a 5 or a 6!" Téa exclaimed.

"Look out, Miss Sonia!" Kazuichi exclaimed.

"All right, Gadarla!" Aiko exclaimed, "Destroy Darklord Desire with your tornado breath attack!"

A massive tornado blast shot out of Gadarla's mouth and utterly pulverized Sonia's monster, bringing her down to 4,200. A counter was added to Kyoto Waterfront, leaving it with 3. There was now a total of four kaiju counters on the field.

"Next, I'll place one card face-down onto the field," Aiko said. "My hand is empty, so now it's your turn, Sonia."

Sonia nodded. "I draw." She pulled the top card of her deck to her hand. She looked at her face-down card. I could end the duel now, but…I also worry of Aiko's face-down card as a counter. She looked at the cards in her hand. Sadly, at present, she had no better alternatives.

"I activate my face-down card, Darklord Enchantment!" The trap card flipped face-up revealing artwork depicting Ixchel. "By sending Tezcatlipoca to the graveyard," Sonia said as a 4th and 5th orb were added to Kyoto Waterfront, "I can take control of your monster until the end of my turn!"

"Uh oh," Aiko remarked with a blank look.

Gadarla switched sides on the battlefield and flew to Sonia's side, temporarily shading the center of the arena. Then it howled at its former master.

"Gadarla, attack Aiko directly and wipe out the rest of her life points!"

Gadarla began to suck in a powerful wind into is mouth to blast it at Aiko.

"Not gonna happen!" Aiko grinned. "I plot twist your plot twist!" She revealed her face-down card. "Say hello to Counter Gate!" Aiko revealed her face-down trap card of a dragon coming out of a gate and locking fists with whatever was charging at it. "Not only do I negate your attack," she said as Gadarla stopped sucking in air, "But I also get to draw one card." Aiko said and drew the card, looking at it and nodded. "So much for your decisive blow. I'll take my monster back now, if you don't mind."

"Yes," Sonia nodded. "I end my turn."

Gadarla flew back to Aiko and landed behind her on top of the dome, a screeching noise emitting from its mouth. "My turn."

"Miss Sonia's completely unprotected!" Kazuichi exclaimed. "Why didn't she play a card?"

"Maybe she gave up?" Hiyoko theorized.

"Don't be ridiculous! Miss Sonia would never give up!" Kazuichi shouted.

"Well she better have something planned, or this is gonna hurt," Nekomaru pointed out.

Aiko looked at the two cards in her hand. Nothing she could do with them right now. Besides, Sonia was wide open. "All right, Gadarala! Direct attack! GOOOOO!"

Gadarla screeched and unleashed a powerful gale force blast, hitting Sonia directly. Mahiru, Kazuichi and several other members of their class were awestruck that Sonia just let the direct attack happen. Sonia was thrown back across, bouncing three times as she landed on her back. Even Yami and Yugi were a bit surprised.

"Is…is she okay?" Mahiru asked.

However, after a few seconds, Sonia sat up, putting her hand on her head, groaning as her life points plummeted all the way to 1,500, even with Aiko's.

"Good," Yugi said allowed, but only Yami could hear him. "She's okay."

"You all right?" Yami asked her, familiar with the last time Sonia took a direct attack savagely like that.

Sonia got up and methodically dusted herself off. She gave Aiko a tough look. "A brutal blow, but not enough to sunder a princess."

"Sonia?" Yami asked.

"I'm fine," she responded. "Aiko, I must thank you." The horrific flashback of being beaten down on by Ra played out in Sonia's head. "The last time I took a direct attack of that magnitude, it left me traumatized, as did my brief trip to the Shadow Realm. But…" she shook her head. "That was a shadow game. Even during the fight against Dartz, the monsters were very real. Your attack just now," Sonia's gaze flashed with unwavering determination, "reminded me that this is just a game. A game I'm very good at. While, strategically speaking, I had to take your attack, I was worried if I could take it." She smiled a little. "But…I took it. And you know what? I'm glad I did because now I've no reason to be scared." She swung her arm out at her side. "Not every duel is out to kill me. I can be strong." With a deep breath, Sonia bellowed out, "Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please? Your princess has returned!"

"Wait, I'm confused, did Sonia not completely get over her trauma or something?" Mahiru asked.

"Actually, psychological trauma comes in multiple stages," Mikan quickly explained. "Sonia might've been able to facer her fears to pick up a duel disk, but I guess now she finally learned to conquer them."

"That's Miss Sonia for you," Kazuichi said. "She's gonna win now, right?"

"I mean…I'm a nurse, not an expert on dueling," Mikan replied. And after an awkward pause added, "I'm sorry."

"Hey, come on. I suck at dueling too," Mahiru said.

"Yeah, besides, this is a really close match," Ibuki said. "But yeah! Let her have it, Sonia! Show him why you're not just the Ultimate Princess, but also the Dark Queen!"

Sonia nodded. "Is that your turn Aiko?"

"Er…I guess so?"

"Then I…" Sonia said and went for the top card of her deck as energy seemed to course through her, "…shall draw!" She blinked in surprise when she saw what she drew. Then she smiled. "I activate the spell card Double Summon! This allows me to normal summon two monsters this turn! And I'll start by summoning Queen's Knight! In attack mode!"

The red armored, blonde knight appeared with 1,500 attack points and 1,600 defense points.

"And with my second summon, I shall bring to the field King's Knight!" The kingly looking knight appeared on the battlefield with his massive sword.

"This strategy looks familiar" Yugi stated.

"Yes, but I don't believe Sonia is attempting to summon an Egyptian god," Yami said to his counterpart with a smirk.

"And since I have both Queen's Knight and King's Knight on the field, I can special summon Jack's Knight!"

The final knight of the trio appeared as Sonia excitedly held out her spell card, "Now I activate Polymerization to fuse them all together! Now, behold the absolute strongest monster in my deck! Arcana Knight Joker!"

Not summoned since her duel with Bandit Keith, Arcana Knight Joker stormed the field in his purple-haired, black and gold colored outfit glory. He also boasted a rather impressive 3,800 attack points.

"Shame all that effort is about to go to waste," Aiko sighed, shrugging. "I activate Gadarla's special ability. By removing three kaiju counters from the field, I'll cut that monster's attack points in half!"

"Sorry, but I don't think so," Sonia said. "I activate a quick-play spell: Forbidden Chalice!"

A woman holding up a goblet was shown on the card artwork.

"This card increases the attack points of any monster on the field and I choose Gadarla!"

"…Huh?" Aiko asked, dumbfounded, watching Gadarla's attack points go up to 3,100.

"Of course, forbidden liquid tastes sweet, in a manner of speaking. So sweet in fact that until the end of this turn, your monster loses its special abilities!"

Aiko stared up at Gadarla as its wings started to appear discolored. "What?"

"Joker! Attack! Strike down Gadarla now! Wild Card Slash!"

Grasping hold of his sword, Joker took to the air and spun around like a whirlwind before grasping the blade with both hands and swinging down, splitting Gadarla in half and creating a massive, windy shockwave that blew Aiko off her feet, causing her to scream and land on her back. Fortunately, her hoodie broke her fall for the damage to the back of her head.

She grunted as she sat up, life points ticking down to 800. "Not bad," she groaned.

"My hand is empty, so it is now your turn," Sonia told Aiko.

"Yeah," Aiko said, getting up, "Sure. Gotta say, this is the best duel I've had in a while. You really live up to the reputation of being both a princess and a Battle City finalist." Aiko filmed Sonia again. "I'm totally gonna remember this duel."

Sonia smiled and laughed. "I am happy that you are having fun."

"Yeah, and I'm not gonna let your monster stop me. I'm gonna keep playing until its over. The director has a vision and my vision is that the duel goes until the very last card is played. And so," Aiko said, going for the top card of her deck, "I DRAW!"

Aiko looked at the three cards in her hand. "I activate the magic card, Project: Anti-Matter!" The construction of an mechanical Dogoran was shown in the card artwork. "Here's how it works. By banishing a Dogoran, the Mad Flame Kaiju from my graveyard, I can special summon Super Anti-Kaiju War Machine Mecha-Dogoran!"

Mecha Dogoran arrived on the battlefield with a loud, booming cry. However, while the card artwork depicted Mecha Dogoran as having yellow eyes. This one's eyes were blood red.

"Um, is something wrong with your monster?" Sonia asked.

"Nope, that's just the special power of my magic card," Aiko explained. "When special summoned by the effects of Project Anti-Matter, Mecha-Dogoran gets to start with 1,500 attack points instead of 0."

Mecha-Dogoran growled as its life points climbed to 1,500.

"And next, I activate its own special ability. By removing two kaiju counters from the field, I get to remove a kaiju monster from my graveyard," she said, removing Gadarla from her graveyard, "And now I equip it as a spell card to Mecha-Dogoran, increasing its attack power by that monster's attack points!"

Mecha-Dogoran roared as its attack points surged from 2,000 to 4,200.

"That's not good!" Téa exclaimed.

"Mecha-Dogoran, take her down! Absolute Ion Cannon! GOOOO!"

A cannon emerged from Mecha-Dogoran's chest and absolutely disintegrated Arcana Knight Joker from the field, reducing Sonia's life points to 1,000.

"Yeah! See that? That's the power of technology!" Aiko exclaimed, pumping her fist. …I think Kotomi's starting to rub off on me, she thought, feeling a bit out of her element momentarily. She cleared her throat. "And just so you know!" she exclaimed, clutching her duel disk arm to her chest as she pointed at Sonia, "I can keep using this ability as long as I have kaijus in my hand or graveyard to make Mecha-Dogoran even more powerful! So unless you wipe my monster from the field, I'd say victory for me is assured! So tell me, what do you expect to do with no cards in your hand and nothing on the field, while I have the strongest kaiju of them all, Mecha-Dogoran!"

The kaiju reared back its head and roared.

It was true, Sonia hadn't a single card in her deck that could wipe out Mecha-Dogoran. Maybe not in my deck, she thought, but maybe…in yours! She desperately drew her final card. This would make or break the duel. And she drew the exact card she needed

"I activate Pot of Exchange!" Sonia declared, holding up the card all the way out in front of her. "Now we must both draw two cards from each other's deck."

"Whoooooooa! Talk about your plot twists," Aiko exclaimed, so shocked that the ears on her hoodie were sticking straight up and wiggled slightly. "What's mine is yours and what's yours is mine."

The two approached each other and put their hands on each other's decks.

"Not sure what you're hoping to find," Aiko said. "There's not a card in my deck that'll stop Mecha-Dogoran the way it is."

"Maybe so," Sonia said solemnly. "But I've no other option and I'm still willing to try."

"All right then," Aiko said, plucking the top two cards of Sonia's deck. "Give it your best shot."

Sonia nodded and pulled the top two cards from Aiko's deck. The two then went back to the initial positions. Sonia looked at the cards in her hand. "Th-this is…"

"So, did you get what you were hoping for?" Aiko asked.

"You bet I did!" Sonia exclaimed. She flexed her arm like Rose the Riveter. "Let's do this, y'all!"

Y'all? Aiko thought with glazed eyelids.

"Since you have your own kaiju monster on the field, I can summon this one! Super Anti-Kaiju War Machine Mecha-Thunder-King!"

A metalized version of Thunder King emerged on the battlefield with 2,200 attack points and 2,100 defense points.

"Man, did somebody put a 2 down on the developer's notes instead of a 3. What a letdown," Ibuki said, disappointed. "Using Metalmorph on the normal Thunder King looks way cooler too." Ibuki gasped. "Wait! Does this mean the data from Ibuki's duel with Joey in Battle City was used to make a legitimate card?!"

"You're overreacting," Fuyuhiko said, rolling his eyes.

Back on the battlefield, Aiko was hunched over, knuckles on her hips, grinning. "Aha! That one? That's what you were hoping to pull? Mecha-Thunder-King doesn't even have a good special ability unless I'm against enemy kaijus. I only have him in my deck cause he's got a good resurrection ability if I gotta discard him. What do you plan to do with that, huh?"

"Aiko, how many of my cards are you holding?" Sonia asked seriously.

"Two, duh," Aiko said.

Sonia nodded. "Which means I drew two as well. Mecha-Thunder-King is only half of my counterattack."

"Wait, but then what could you have possibly drawn that…aw, crud," Aiko said, sweating, backing up.

"I activate the equip-type magic card Gravity Blaster!" Sonia declared. "This special magic card can be equipped to any machine type monster."

"…why would you put a card that limited in a kaiju deck?" Fuyuhiko mumbled.

"I mean, like three of the kaiju monsters are machine types," Ibuki pointed out. "It makes sense. That's like a third of the monsters in the entire lineup."

"Besides, Gravity Blaster's a killer card," Kazuichi said. "Why wouldn't you run it if you've got some killer machine types?"

"Why, what's it do?" Mahiru asked.

"Well, I'll tell you what it's about to do. Win Miss Sonia the duel," Kazuichi said. "Just watch."

A powerful cannon was mounted on to Mecha-Thunder-King's back. "I activate the power of Gravity Blaster. First, Mecha-Thunder King's attack power gets raised by 400 points."

The silver machine's attack power raised to 2,600.

"And next, I attack!" Sonia declared. "With the power of Gravity Blaster!"

"Wha—Is she insane?" Hiyoko gaped.

"Nope, she's Miss Sonia," Kazuichi said, smiling. "Gravity Blaster's got a killer effect, during battle, it negates all of the special abilities of the monster opposing the monster its equipped to."

"So?" Hiyoko asked.

"Mecha-Dogoran gained 2,700 attack points cause it absorbed Gadarla. You're not dumb. Do the math," Kazuichi told her.

"Would you just spell it out instead of being cryptic?" Hiyoko snapped as Gravity Blaster began charging. "God you piss me off!"

"That…would take out all her life points," Mikan pointed out.

"Not. Helping," Hiyoko grumbled as the cannon continued to charge and the arena began to shake. Aiko looked more and more worried by the second.

"So Aiko loses?" Murasame asked Matsuda.

Matsuda nodded. "Gravity Blaster will bring Mecha-Dogoran back to 1,500 attack points thanks to Aiko's spell card," he said as Mecha-Dogoran's attack points were reduced to exactly that amount. "After that, it's simple subtraction."

"900 points of damage," Madarai said.

Murasame sighed. "Poor, Aiko. She gave it her best shot though."

"Fire at will! In the name of Novoselic!" Sonia declared, one arm extended, the other hand clenched at her hip, like some sort of anime protagonist.

Aiko braced for impact as Mecha-Thunder-King fired its Gravity Blaster at her weakened Mecha-Dogoran and utterly blasted it to pieces.

"Arrrrrrrrgh!" Aiko exclaimed, doing her best to hold her footing as her monster was destroyed and the last of her life points fell to 0. She then sunk to her knees. "Paaaaaah, I lost."

On the big screen behind Yugi, a chibi Aiko fell over with a twister sprite above her head as a chibi Sonia flapped her arms happily up and down with a WINNER underneath the sprite.

"This duel is over!" Yami declared. "Aiko's life points have hit zero. The winner of this duel is Sonia Nevermind!"

Cheers around went from the crowd as Sonia approached her school mate and extended her hand. "Need help?"

Aiko took her hand to get to her feet. "Yeah thanks. Can I have my cards back?"

Sonia and Aiko gave back their cards to each other.

"You're a fabulous duelist Aiko. I would be more than happy to duel you again."

"Nuts to that!" Aiko exclaimed, eyes shining. "I want you to star in my next film! Do you know how good of an actress you are! You need to star in my next movie!"

Sonia's eyes shined as she sounded positively ecstatic. "I would be thrilled to star in your movie, Aiko!"

Aiko took Sonia by the arm. "Then I'll tell you what I tell all my star actors. Let's do lunch." They started to walk to the break room together. "So I have this idea about a princess that's also a secret agent that solves conspiracies with a talking snake that only she can understand. The plot starts when…" And Aiko just kept rambling on and on about her movie pitch, but she'd had Sonia hooked before she'd even begun.

"That moment when even another girl has a better chance at scoring with Sonia than Kazuichi," Hiyoko snickered.

"Hey! Shut up!" Kazuichi shouted.

Once Sonia and Aiko were clear of the field for a few minutes, Mokuba got up on the arena. "Let's call in our next contestants. Please turn your eyes to the big screen!"

Everyone looked at the 5th and 6th brackets as two names were revealed.

Kaiba accepted the microphone from his little brother. "Rafael Nevermind and Leon Wilson! Please report to the dueling arena now!"

Much as with Sonia and Aiko, it didn't take long for Rafael and Leon to appear. The differences in their statures were quite staggering though. Leon was shorter than even Aiko, while Rafael rivaled Kaiba in terms of height, not to mention the muscles.

"Um," Leon said, staring up at Rafael as they stood at the center of the arena. "May the best duelist win?"

Rafael looked at Leon and silently acknowledged him with his stare, only to turn his head and look at Yami. "Pharaoh," he said, staring at him. "When I win this tournament, everyone will know that the day you lost to me was no mere fluke. Even if you got your title back, I will crush you."

"Huh?" Leon was confused. Rafael had said it so quietly that he was the only other person besides Yami to hear it. "Pharaoh? Defeated?"

"Rafael, even if you don't win this tournament, I would not mind a rematch now that you are free from the Orichalcos, but you should currently focus on your opponent in front of you," Yami told him.

"Hmph, this little runt is hardly worth my time. I'll end this duel swiftly," Rafael said and stepped over to his part of the arena.

"Yugi?" Leon looked up at Yami.

Yami smiled at Leon. "Just duel your heart out, Leon."

"Right," Leon nodded and headed over to the side of the arena opposite the duelist's entrance.

I'm not gonna let him intimidate me, Leon thought. I have a reason to be here. I didn't come all this way just to lose.

Eatos, Grarl, Elma, Dreadscythe, everyone. I'll be counting on you all, Rafael thought.

He and Leon began to draw their hands. Their life points went up to 4,000. The third duel of the Kaiba Corp Grand Prix was about to begin.

"Let's Duel!" Rafael's gravely voice collided along Leon's pre-pubescent tenor tone. An unexpected matchup had begun to unfold.

(A/N: Round 2 over! For those of you that guessed Sonia would win, congratulations, you get points. And those are only pretend points unless you're a part of my Discord server: Draconic Hero Studios. If you would like to join, you're welcome to. The community's starting to build and I would be happy to have you, just PM me your username and your four digit #. If I don't get both I can't add you. Don't leave your info in your review where spammers can see it. But yes, I'm running a contest with prizes at stake for DTF. If you want to get in on the action, you should join the discord server. It's becoming a great way for me to get to talk to my fans. Come join and have fun. We have virtual cookies.

But anyway, what did you all think of Aiko? I worked really hard to give her some character compared to the less than two minutes of screen time she spent alive in canon. I'm hoping to give 77-A as a whole that kind of treatment before we reach The Tragedy. And yes, Kaiju Deck. She's the Ultimate Movie Director. It had to be done.

Next up though is a matchup I don't think many people saw coming: last season's antagonist Rafael against season 5's new face, Leon Wilson. How will Guardians fare against Leon's strange and unusual deck? Place your bets now, or you can wait to find out on the next exciting chapter of Dueling Trigger Finger! And until then, as always, from all of me, to all of you, let your hearts stay human and your wrath draconic. Ja ne!)