(A/N: Due to my office dropping the ball—I work from home in these trying times, don't worry—I managed to get a jump start on this chapter when I thought it would take me until the weekend to even begin it. Let's begin this Mechanized Mayhem!)
The American Machine Mastermind stood across from the Self-Proclaimed Psychic as the former smirked. "Since I'm such a generous guy, you can go first, dweeb."
Espa chuckled. "The cosmos told me you would say that. Pray that fate does not turn against you. Now, I draw!" Espa drew the top card of his deck to his hand and looked at the 6 cards. "I'll begin by playing Jinzo Prototype in attack mode!" The blue, discolored, unfinished Jinzo monster appeared with 1,600 attack points and 200 defense points. "And with that, I set a card face-down and end my turn."
"Heh, nice machine, dweeb," Keith said, pulling the top card of his deck to his hand. "Too bad I'm gonna blow it up!"
Espa chuckled. "And just how do you suppose you'll accomplish that?"
"I summon Twin-Barrel Dragon in attack mode!" Keith shouted. The armless biped with a cannon for a face appeared on Keith's side of the field with 1,700 attack points. "And I don't even need to attack to destroy your monster, cause when Twin-Barrel Dragon gets summoned, it has a chance to destroy any card on your side of the field. So say goodbye to your pitiful prototype! Go, Twin-Barrel Dragon!"
Charging up its blaster, Twin-Barrel Dragon fired and destroyed Jinzo Prototype, erasing the monster from the field.
"And now, Twin-Barrel Dragon attacks!"
"As I predicted," Espa said with a smirk, his index finger extended. "Activating Gravity Bind!"
The trap card flipped face up showing a cyber grid with a blue sphere being contained under it. Twin-Barrel Dragon suddenly began to short circuit.
"Huh?" Bandit Keith gaped, jaw slack.
"This trap card prevents all monsters level 4 and above from attacking. As the cosmos foretold. Too bad."
Keith growled.
Yami, in the interest of fair play used the Millennium Puzzle to examine Espa. Nothing he could sense from the young man suggested Espa was using any kind of cheating ability. He did notice an elevated reaction in Espa's spirit, but nothing anywhere close to when Pegasus was constantly spying on is hand.
Increased intuition perhaps? Yami thought and decided to continue to watch the duel closely.
Bandit Keith gnashed his teeth. "Your move, dweeb."
"Of course it is," Espa responded and drew the top card of his deck. "I summon to the field Jinzo #7!" A mechanical monster looking like it was just about ready for the junkyard appeared. It had 500 attack points and 400 defense points.
"Nice monster, dork. But it's way too weak to destroy Twin-Barrel Dragon."
"I'm not trying to," Espa smiled. "When I foresaw that you would be able to destroy Jinzo Prototype without having to attack, it gave me the idea not to play this magic card, Machine Conversion Factory!"
The spell card activated and Jinzo #7 seemed to be given a chrome upgrade with enhanced circuitry. Espa's monster increased in power to 800 attack points and 700 defense points.
"Hey, judge! You sure he's not cheating!"
Yami smirked. "I believe Espa may just be trying to psyche you out."
"What's with that smirk? Are you playing favorites?"
Espa chuckled. "What's the matter, Bandit Keith? Do you lack the power to defy the fate presented to you? I know two men more than capable of defying my psychic powers. Do you lack their conviction? Do you lack their skill?"
"Heh," Keith smirked and then threw his head back and laughed. "HAHAHAHAHA! Me? Fall behind a couple of teenagers?" He glared at Espa from behind his sunglasses. "Get real! I'm Bandit Keith! I'm number one! So bring it you weirdo! I'll counter you with everything I've got!"
"Excellent. Jinzo #7, attack his life points directly!"
"Wait, what?" Keith gasped.
Jinzo #7 charged forward and charged the rod it was carrying with electricity and then smacked the tip against Keith's chest. Bandit Keith was zapped and lost 800 life points, bringing him to 3,200 total.
"That will conclude my turn," Espa stated. "I believe it's your move."
"Damn right it is," Bandit Keith snarled and drew the top card of his deck. He smirked when he saw what he drew. "Bad luck for you, punk! Since you attacked directly, my monster is still on the field. That lets me summon this behemoth! By sacrificing Twin-Barrel Dragon, I can bring out Blowback Dragon!"
Twin-Barrel Dragon vanished from the field, replaced with a bigger, red reptilian-shaped, bipedal machine with an even bigger cannon for a head. It had 2,300 attack points and 1,200 defense points.
"How quick we are to forget. With Gravity Bind on the field, your monster can't attack," Espa reminded Keith.
"Heh, I'm not trying to attack, I'm aiming to take out your trap card!" Bandit Keith declared.
Espa gasped. "What?"
"Say sayonara, punk! I activate Blowback Dragon's special ability, allowing me a chance to destroy any card of the field! Blowback Dragon, take aim and fire at Gravity Bind!"
Espa shook and looked pale.
"What's the matter, dweeb? The cosmos not tell you about this? Oh well, your fault for not being better prepared! Get 'em Blowback Dragon!"
The monster's cannon fired at Gravity Bind and utterly smashed it to smithereens.
Keith laughed. "One trap card, dusted. Now it's your monster's turn. Blowback Dragon, attack Jinzo #7! Rail Beam Blast!"
Blowback Drgon charged up its cannon and laid waste to Jinzo #7, cutting Espa's starting life total in half, leaving him with only 2,000 points.
"We're in the big leagues now, short stuff," Bandit Keith told Espa. "You don't stand a chance against me!"
"I've been looked down on by people all my life," Espa shot back, glaring. "You're not even the biggest bully to underestimate me! Anyone that looked down on me, I shut them up with my cards! And now, I'm going to do the same to you! I draw!"
Yami turned his head towards Espa. For a brief moment, he sensed Espa's spirit increasing before it leveled off back down a little bit above where it had been before.
"What…is that?"
Yami turned his head towards Yugi's astral projection. "You sense it too?"
"Yeah, it's weird. Like, a bottle of energy trying to escape containment," Yugi pointed out.
"Hmm," Yami felt he would have to pay extra attention to Espa now.
With four cards in his hand, Espa looked at his hand to try and figure out a way out of this mess. Keith had an incredibly powerful monster and now Espa had no immediate way of summoning Jinzo. However, his newest drawn card might just save him. I summon to the field Jinzo #3!" Espa declared. The red hued Jinzo appeared on the field with his synthetic fibered, lanky arms. It had 1,900 attack points and 500 defense points.
"And now," Espa said, activating another spell card, "I activate the spell card Mesmeric Control. By activating this spell card, your monster loses 800 attack points."
Blowback Dragon seemed to power down and its attack power was reduced to 1,500.
"And now, Jinzo #3 attacks!" Espa declared.
The red colored machine blew away the weakened Blowback Dragon with a cybernetic lightning blast, shattering it and bringing Bandit Keith's life points down to 2,800.
"Heh. Not bad, dweeb," Bandit Keith commented. "But this duel is far from over."
"I agree, which is why I'm setting one card face-down and ending my turn," Espa stated. I've got to get Jinzo on the field and fast. I can sense it, if I can just summon Jinzo, I can win!
"All right then," Bandit Keith said, "My turn. I draw!" He looked at his still full hand. Heh, dork's only got one card in his hand. He pulled a few cards from his hand. Like shooting fish in a barrel.
"I summon Machine King Prototype!" Bandit Keith declared. A low-tech version of Machine King, missing the finesse of the monster with toy-like robotic limbs and wires connecting it to a chair that was summoned with it, appeared on the battlefield. It had 1,600 attack points and 1,500 defense points. "Machine King Prototype is pretty similar to the finished product. After all, he gains 100 attack and defense points for every machine monster on the field."
Machine King Prototype's singular scanning eye glowed as it gained power, now having 1,800 attack points and 1,700 defense points.
"And that's not all, I'm also activating Magnet Circle level 2!" Bandit Keith declared. "This lets me summon a weaker machine monster from my hand to the field. And I choose Dharma Cannon! In defense mode!" Keith declared as the red cannon monster appeared with its robotic eyes. It had 900 attack points and 500 defense points. "And now that there's another machine monster on the field, Machine King Prototype is now just strong enough to cross circuits with your Jinzo #3."
Espa recoiled.
Keith laughed. "I know all about the Jinzo cards, punk! I'm not dumb enough to waste an equip card while you've got Jinzo #3 on the field. Now get ready to roast cause its time for these machines to take each other out! Go, Machine King Prototype! Suicide attack!"
It was a mutual machine massacre as Machine King Prototype and Jinzo #3 waged war on each other and it looked like they were going to blow each other up.
However…Espa started laughing.
"What's so funny?" Bandit Keith demanded to know.
"Of course I knew that you weren't foolish enough to use an equip-type magic card on your next monster, that's why I planned ahead just in case! Activating Jelly Cannon!"
"I'm sorry, what kind of cannon?" Keith stuttered.
The trap card depicted a bunch of gelatinous rectangular prisms being fired out of a tiny cannon as the cannon appeared on the battlefield and then blasted a bunch of gelatinous material all over Machine King Prototype!"
"Now your monster gets shuffled right back into your deck!" Espa declared, index finger extended, smirking with pride.
"Y-you can't!" Keith stuttered, sweating.
"I just did," Espa responded.
Keith grumbled and began shuffling his deck. Yami watched him carefully. He did his best to make absolutely sure Keith wasn't engaging in stacked shuffling, but it looked like nothing of the sort was occurring.
"All right, if that's how we want to play the game, I'm gonna set one card face-down and end my turn," Keith stated. He now had almost completely emptied his hand, leaving him with only two cards.
"My turn," Espa stated and drew the top card of his deck. His draw could not have been more fitting.
"I offer up Jinzo #3 in order to summon none other than the original Jinzo!"
The green armored machine monster appeared on the field, spreading its arms like it wanted a hug as light shined off its futuristic armor. Then, a laser shot from both of its eyes and zapped Keith's face-down card.
"What? Hey! My face-down!"
Espa folded his arms and laughed. "You should know better than to set traps in Jinzo's presence. And now, I'm powering it up with the magic card: Amplifier!"
A cranial helmet was attached to Jinzo's head, increasing its attack power by 500 points.
"And not only does Jinzo gain 500 attack points immediately, but he also gains 300 more points at the beginning of each of my turns," Espa stated. "Now, Jinzo! Cyber Blast!" Espa declared.
Jinzo let loose and destroyed Dharma Cannon, absolutely destroying it. Keith's field…was empty.
Bandit Keith looked shocked at first, but then he chuckled once. "Heh," he then leaned forward, laughing silently before throwing his head back and laughing wildly. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Yup, he's lost it," Téa said as she, Tristan and Miho all looked at Keith with a glazed look.
"What's so funny?" Espa asked.
"You are, dweeb!" Bandit Keith said, extended his big index finger at Espa. "For a psychic, you sure are easy to fool!"
"What are you talking about?" Espa wanted to know.
Keith tapped his finger to the side of his forehead. "I had a feeling you were trying to summon Jinzo. It's your favorite card after all, so I completely baited you into thinking that as long as you could get it on the field, you were home free."
"No…the cosmos…favored you?" Espa wondered, body shaking, heart pounding in anxiety.
"Ha! I don't rely on something as intangible as the cosmos or whatever. I put my stock in good old logic. And here's some logic for you. When you destroyed Dharma Cannon, you activated the special ability of a monster in my hand! Say hello to Desperado Barrel Dragon!"
A massive red and green monster with three laser cannons attached to its body appeared, roaring ferociously. It had 2,800 attack points and 2,200 defense points.
"What? How did you summon a monster on my turn?" Espa gasped.
"Because, dweeb, that's how my monster works."
Espa, scared out of his mind, looked to Yami for support. The age old Pharaoh could only nod solemnly that Espa had kind of stepped into this one.
"Don't feel bad. I mean, I am a former champion after all," Bandit Keith responded, sliding his hands into his pockets. "Now then, since you're out of cards, I'm gonna take my turn now." Keith said and went for the top card of his deck. "Let's see what we got here. Ah. Perfect. I activate my own Machine Conversion Factory and make Desperado Barrel Dragon powerful enough to destroy your Jinzo!"
Espa bit his thumb. This was bad.
"Desperado Barrel Dragon, wipe him out! Initiate Shock and Awe!"
Three green blasts were fired from Desperado Barrel Dragon and wrecked Jinzo completely, causing it to fall and shatter as Espa lost the strength in his legs and dropped to his knees. He was short of breath as his life points fell to 1,900. No cards in hand. Nothing on the field. And one direct attack could wipe him out.
"Yeah, that's the face you should be making. Hey, ref. Call it. This guy's completely given up."
Yami shook his head. "Espa has neither placed his hand on his duel disk, nor declared he is surrendering. The usual time allowed for a duelist to make a move will commence."
"Tch, whatever. More time for me to bask in my glory," Bandit Keith said, smirking widely.
On his knees, Espa was in a blind panic. He could hear the mocking laughter of the world. He'd come so far just to fail. This was the one duel he had never had any intention of losing. When Espa made it to the finals of Battle City with Bandit Keith nowhere in sight, his reputation had skyrocketed, but there were still naysayers that needed to be shut up. People still doubted him. And, as always, he had only one way to shut them up: by dueling.
I have to be the best duelist I can be. If I don't…my brothers…my family…I have to support them all…
He could see illusions of Gundham and Hajime disappointed in him. He was at least able to stand up to them. And Bandit Keith…he wasn't like them. He was looking down on him.
I…can't lose, Espa thought, getting up on one knee, making a fist. He punched the ground. I won't! "I'm not done!"
Espa bolted to his feet, swinging his fists down at his sides.
Hmm? Yami's head whipped in Espa's direction as that energy he was feeling seemed to spike. More notably, his hair was beginning to be pushed up from a seemingly invisible force.
"I can sense it," Espa said, tilting his head back, a faint aura glowing around him. "The power of the cosmos flows through me." He gave Keith a stare as his eyes glowed with faint turquoise and pink energy. "I absolutely will not lose. I'm done being afraid and I am done with you looking down on me." He chuckled. "Prepare yourself…"
Espa drew the top card of his deck. "I summon to the field Reflect Bounder in attack mode!"
A mechanical monster with mirrors attached to its body appeared on Espa Roba's side of the field.
"Mutual destruction," Espa Roba said and then explained. "If you attack Reflect Bounder, your monster's attack will be reflected back at you, and you will lose the duel, while I will only take 1,400 points of damage, not nearly enough to defeat me."
"Heh, not a bad strategy, kid. I don't know what's up with the freaky light show, but neither it nor your monster scares me. Cause I've got a better solution! I summon to the field Ground Attacker Bugroth!" The mini mech appeared on Keith's side of the field with 1,500 attack points and 1,000 defense points.
Espa seemed unimpressed.
"Time to crush your monster! If I can't destroy it by battle, I'll just have to crush it with raw force! I activate Desperado Barrel Dragon's effect!" All three guns aimed themselves at Reflect Bounder with precision accuracy. "Duel's over, dweeb. Fire away, Desperado Barrel Dragon!"
"You will fail," Espa said with a bored tone as all cannon's malfunctioned, not a single one landing on Reflect Bounder.
"Wh-what?" Keith stuttered. "You gotta be kidding me!"
"Will that be it?" Espa asked.
Keith growled. His monster couldn't attack on the same turn that it used its special ability. "Yeah, that's it."
"Good, my turn," Espa said. He drew the top card of his deck. "I'm setting a monster," Espa stated. "And next, I use Reflect Bounder to destroy your Ground Attacker Bugroth."
Reflect Bounder fired forward with several mirror-like blasts and utterly eradicated Keith's machine monster, dropping Keith's life points to 2,600.
"My turn has concluded," Espa said, a shadowed look cast around his forehead.
"Hey, Pharaoh, do you think?"
Yami nodded. "Espa…did he awaken to true psychic powers?"
"Should we stop the duel?" Yugi asked. "He could be cheating."
"No, I haven't noticed him doing anything wrong yet…the only thing I'm sensing is that this power is very similar…to the heart of the cards."
"My move, punk! I draw!" Keith pulled the top card of his deck to his hand. He grinned when he saw what he grabbed. Perfect. "I summon to the field Mechanicalchaser!" A spherical monster appeared with 1,850 attack points and weapons and protrusions sticking out of several places on the sphere, parts of the monster welded together. "And I don't mind losing 1,850 life points if it means wiping you out! Time to take out your Reflect Bounder!"
Mechanicalchaser drove its spear into Reflect Bounder, which fired back a powerful blast and destroyed Mechanicalchaser. The blast tore through the robot and slammed into Bandit Keith, causing him to stumble back and clutch his chest. His life points plummeted below Espa's, leaving him with only 750 points.
Espa merely stared back at Keith as his own life points fell to 1,750.
"Now that that's taken care of, Desperado Barrel Dragon can destroy your face-down monster with ease!"
Espa's monster turned out to be the green-clad Jinzo – Jector. Its 2,000 defense points were plenty, but nowhere near enough to stop Desperado Barrel Dragon.
"Foolish," Espa uttered.
"Says you! I'm setting a card and ending my turn!" Bandit Keith declared.
Espa glanced at it and then glanced at Bandit Keith. "It's my turn."
He drew the top card of his deck. "The time has come…to finish this. I'm setting a card," Espa stated, setting only a single card face-down. "My turn…is concluded."
Bandit Keith laughed like Espa had just told a funny joke. "You're screwed, dweeb! I don't care what kind of face-down card you've got cause it ain't gonna come close to taking me down, you got that!"
"…" Espa did not respond with words, merely a stare.
The guy's just cocky. Well I'll show him. His card's probably Mirror Force or something. All I gotta do is attack him directly and the duel's over. "Mechanicalchaser, wipe him out!"
"Predictable," Espa stated and revealed his face-down card. "Mind Control."
A psychic energy wave rippled from the card and Bandit Keith saw his Desperado Barrel Dragon get pulled to Espa's side of the field as though pulled over by an invisible crane.
"Huh?"
"Your arrogance became your downfall, now you will be destroyed by your own hubris, just as the cosmos foretold," Espa said calmly, arm extended, palm open. Somehow, his aura became projected onto Desperado Barrel Dragon and lit up the cannons all on their own.
"You punk! This ain't over! Cause I activate my own trap card: Metalmorph! This'll jack up Mechanicalchaser's attack points significantly! You're done, dweeb!"
Metalmorph's mechanical armaments surrounded Mechanicalchaser, increasing its attack power to 2,150. Then, thanks to Metalmorph's special ability, as Keith's monster drew near his possessed Desperado Barrel Dragon, Mechanicalchaser's attack power grew again, reaching a staggering 3,700.
Desperado Barrel Dragon fired back with three powerful shots, but they all missed wildly, landing near Keith, who braced himself on instinct from the particle effects.
Espa winced. His attempt to use Desperado Barrel Dragon's special ability had failed. This was going to hurt.
Mechanicalchaser impaled Espa's stolen monster and then plunged its spear into Espa, causing the impact to force the teen to stagger backwards. Espa held one arm and panted, his life points falling to 1,150.
"Yield yet, punk?" Keith asked.
Espa's psychic energy pulsed as he stood upright, feeling fine. He laughed and smirked widely, his lips contorting in a rather disquieting manner. "Not even if my life depended on it! With my psychic powers, I will crush you! Now! I activate Pot of Greed, letting me draw two cards!" Espa pulled the two cards to his hand. "First, I activate Premature Burial! By giving up 800 life points, I'm able to resurrect any monster from my graveyard, and the card I choose is, of course, Jinzo!"
Espa's life points fell to 350, but now, he had the stronger monster on the field.
Espa chuckled as the very air seemed to rumble under the force of his psychic power. "And now that Jinzo has returned to the battlefield, your monster loses access to Metalmorph!"
"N-No!" Keith sweated as Jinzo's laser blast negated the effect of Metalmorph, but left it on the field dropping Mechanicalchaser's attack points to its original 1,850 points.
"But that's not all," Espa said as he let go of the card in his hand as the card floated in midair by some unexplained phenomenon. "I must thank you, Bandit Keith. By pushing me into such a corner, it seems I've finally awakened to my true potential. Now," Espa very suavely snapped his fingers as the floating card flipped around, revealing Jinzo – Lord, "Witness your demise! In exchange for Jinzo classic, I summon Jinzo – Lord!"
Jinzo classic faded from the field as Jinzo – Lord dropped onto Espa's duel disk with telekinetic force. The purple clad monster stood on Espa's field with its brain veins pulsing at 2,600 attack points strong.
"No! This can't be happening!" Keith exclaimed, backing up.
"Well now, look who's backed into a corner," Espa chuckled. Keith felt himself back up into an invisible wall seemingly erected inexplicably. "You who looks down on others, you will be defeated by monster as a byproduct of your own recklessness. If you had used Desperado Barrel Dragon to destroy my monsters rather than attack recklessly with Mechanicalchaser, perhaps you would've won. But that's what you get for underestimating me. This duel," Espa said, snapping his fingers again, this time above his head, "Is over."
Jinzo – Lord charged up his Electro Cyber Blast as Keith turned pressed his back to the invisible wall Espa generated and prepared for the inevitable finish.
With one final attack, Jinzo – Lord finished the war of the machines, blowing up Mechanicalchaser and dealing exact damage to Keith's life points to drop them all the way to 0. More than that, the ricochet of the blast pushed Keith through the invisible wall and caused him to be thrown to the edge of the arena as his head craned back over the step.
"I win," Espa stated as he stopped emanating his psychic powers, his hair ceasing its floating effect.
On the big screen, chibi Bandit Keith had fallen over and chibi Espa Roba was flapping its arms up and down with the "WINNER" below it.
Keith got up and growled in frustration. "Yo! Ref! What the hell gives? You gonna call this cheater a cheater or what?"
Yami looked at Keith with a confused eyebrow raise.
"Don't look at me like I have two heads! You saw all that freaky power he was doing! He had to have hacked something or done some weird thing with that psychic bunk and rigged his draws."
"Rigged my draws?" Espa asked, smirking. "Calling me a cheater? Yes, let's call my victory into question when you were the one who so slyly switched a card while your hands were in your pockets."
"WHAT?!" Keith shouted indignantly.
"It's on the side of your body Yugi can't see from his seat," Espa said. "I didn't notice it then, but your mind is like an open book to me now and my what a filthy mind it is."
"Hey! Ever heard of privacy!"
"Roland!" Mokuba shouted. "Check Bandit Keith's right pocket!"
Roland got up behind Bandit Keith.
"Hey! You can't treat me like this!" Bandit Keith shouted.
"Oh, but he can," Kaiba said with a smirk, stepping up onto the stage. "It's in the contract you signed. Did someone forget to read the fine print? Anyone suspected of cheating agrees to have their clothes searched accordingly. So, let's see what you have in your pocket."
"If my intuition is correct, when you slid your hand into your pockets, you exchanged your monster Launcher Spider for Machine Conversion Factory."
"How…could you possibly know that?" Bandit Keith asked, awestruck as Roland fetched the suspected card out of Keith's pocket.
Kaiba glared at Bandit Keith. "Get this cheater out of my tournament," he told Roland.
"Yes, sir," Roland said.
"What the—I'm being framed! Set up!" He exclaimed, struggling. "This doofus is doing something weird! Let me go! Let me go!"
A couple more Kaiba Corp employees helped remove the struggling Bandit Keith from the premesis.
Hmm, note to self, Kaiba thought. I'll need to find a way to stop cheating like that when multiple cards of the same name are being run in someone's deck. Single copies of cards would automatically be flagged as not being inserted into the deck zone upon a duel's start so if Machine Conversion Factory wasn't flagged, then Keith had to be running multiple copies.
"Kaiba," Yami looked over at him.
"Relax, Yugi," Kaiba said. "There are some things that human error won't catch. I'll be reviewing the duel record myself later."
Yami nodded.
Kaiba looked at Espa. "As for you, I don't know what kind of weird hocus pocus you're bringing into my tournament, but if you cause a ruckus," Kaiba jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "You're out of here, got that?"
Espa was unfazed. "I can assure you that my abilities are nothing like Marik's. I've no intention of ruining your tournament."
Kaiba raised his eyebrows and gazed down as Espa, but said nothing. It was hard to tell if he was unconvinced or just had nothing to say.
Not wanting to possibly get on Kaiba's bad side, Espa ran off back to the break room.
In order to save some PR, Mokuba got in front of the camera. "Sorry about that, folks. We know you didn't need to see a circus like that. But we promise we'll be right back with more dueling after this commercial break!"
After some advertisements ran across the TV sets for the folks watching at home, the Kaiba Corp Grand Prix was back live and the combatants for match number five were getting ready to be announced.
"Everybody having a good time?" Mokuba asked the crowd. Cheers went through the audience. "Glad to hear it, cause now it's time to start up the next match! Turn your attention to the screen as the ninth and tenth brackets are revealed!"
Class 77-B went freaking ballistic with cheers, clapped hands and stomped feet when they saw one of the names.
"Chisa Yukizome and Earl Williams! Please report to the dueling arena now!"
It did not take long for either duelist to arrive. Yukizome passed through the entrance first, walking to the far end of the arena, waving to her students with a big smile. This prompted Ibuki to stick her pinkies in her mouth and whistle loudly.
Hiyoko had a big banner that she lifted up with Nekomaru's help that said "#1 Teacher! #1 Duelist" on it, the calligraphy handmade by Hiyoko herself.
Elsewhere in the stands, Munakata and Sakakura sat together. Yukizome blew a kiss to the audience, waving with both her hands, but the wink that followed made it clear to Munakata that that was supposed to be directed at him, causing him to blush.
Earl stood there, looking over at his assistant who stood off the stage by Mokuba. "You got the camera rolling? Good. Eeeey, what's good everyone? London Kuriboh here and it's time for my first duel. That bird there," he said, gesturing the camera to focus on Yukizome, still waving to her classmates like an excited child. "That's who I'll be dueling. Wish me luck because this is one-hundred percent live."
Yukizome stopped taking in the cheers and applause and faced her opponent with her hands folded neatly in front of her apron. "So, are you ready to get your butt kicked?" she asked with a happy smile. "It's really a shame you made it all the way out of the preliminaries just to lose to me in the first round."
"I really must apologize for the misunderstanding, Miss Maid" Williams says with a grin on his face "but I came here to win!" His fans in the crowd cheer at that announcement before silencing themselves quickly when they saw he had more to say.
Chisa's smile turned into a grimace. "What did you call me?"
Williams' brow furrowed as he said in a confused tone. "That's your job, right? Maid? Or are you a Secret Agent? Or a Secret Agent Maid like in those videos I watch by myself when nobody else is around?"
"I'm a housekeeper!" Yukziome corrected indignantly. "There is a difference!"
"What?" Willaims balked. "I've heard there's a homelessness problem over here and you're keeping houses all to yourself? For shame!"
Yukizome took a deep breath. "Look, I get you're making jokes for your little fan club, but I will not tolerate such rudeness. I am an expert duelist and you will respect. My. Skill."
"Yeah, see, about that," Williams said, unfazed, shuffling his deck, "When I was growing up we didn't have dueling maids, or men dressed in tight leather pants with multi-colored hair. You people do anything to get attention these days. Back in my day, we didn't have fancy effect monsters with text so small you need to squint, and nothing made sense! It was a glorious time, an age of over the top hamminess and glorious nonsense! By the Queen, those were the days!"
"Oh my god," Yukizome said, massaging her temples, "You're one of those people. The kind of player that yearns for the original ruleset when you could only attack once per turn."
"How dare you!" Williams responded disingenuously. "I'll have you know I'm entirely open to new things. But there comes a point when the demand for novelty threatens to remove what makes a game enjoyable to begin with. Why at the rate we're going I wouldn't be surprised if they end up having to add new sections to duel disks just to keep up with all the ways to special summon! Where's the fun in a game where you have to keep track of so much you might as well be playing football? And I mean real football, not the rugby knockoff the Yanks play."
Yukizome took a deep breath. She'd had enough of the silliness and wished to dive straight into the match. She had Dogoran in her deck and fantasized briefly about summoning it for a direct attack. And that sounded absolutely therapeutic right now. With a straight face, she asked. "Are we going to duel or are you going to stand around making jokes for the better portion of an hour?"
"Clearly you don't watch my livestreams," Williams responded. This prompted an unconscious twitch from under Yukizome's right eye. "But you're right," Williams said. He dropped his voice several octaves like he was trying to imitate Yami. "The time for talk has passed. It is time to shuffle our decks and D-D-D-D-DDDD-DU—" Earl suddenly broke out into a coughing fit. Before Yukizome could ask if he was all right, he held up his finger. And then after some forced coughs, he said, "I'm fine. Air down the wrong pipe. Now, where was I? Oh yes," He went back to doing his best Yami impression. "It's time to shuffle our decks, get down to business and…" he did his normal voice. "play a children's card game."
He got blank eyed stares in return.
He briefly glanced at all of them. "What? I'm not risking another coughing fit. Do you know how hard it is to do perfect voice imitations of people? I'm amazed I still have vocal chords."
Perfect? Yukizome thought with a glazed look.
"Well, I suppose we should actually get started, don't you?" He did his best Seto Kaiba impression. "If you're at least a halfway decent housekeeper, you'll be cleaning up my mess by the time this is over."
Yukizome smiled and anyone could easily see the daggers behind her too sweet expression. "Well then, I guess I should get out my broom." She said and put her game face on as she went to draw her hand. "So I can use it to sweep you out of the arena when this is over."
"As far as one-liners go, 6 out of 10. But, as they seem to say in this country—"
"Let's Duel!" Both duelists declared simultaneously.
The stage was set for Earl Williams aka London Kuriboh to take on Chisa Yukizome. The fifth match of the first round of the Kaiba Corp Grand Prix had officially begun.
(A/N: And that'll do it for the fourth duel of the Kaiba Corp Grand Prix. Next is a duel that I've been planning ever since I knew London Kuriboh would be a thing. A not well-known fact about me is that I used to play League of Legends—haven't touched it since Braum was new due to multiple factors, none of which were hating the game. And while I was a LoL fan, I knew about the gag between the characters Volibear and Zilean. The joke being that Zilean will say that "back in his day, we didn't have giant armored bears as champions". Yes, folks. You are getting Yukizome vs London Kuriboh because of an old, tired LoL meme XD. I make no apologies.
For those of you participating in the contest on my Discord server, your points for your bets have already been allocated. I will let you know on the server when betting is open again. And if you're not part of the Discord server and want in, you can PM me on this website or over on deviantART.
I'll take your thoughts on Espa developing his psychic powers to this extent. 50 bonus points for anyone on my server that PMs or DMs me with correctly guessing its significance XD.
Anyway, until next time, as always, from all of me, to all of you, let your hearts stay human and your wrath draconic. Ja ne!)