Yumi finally begins preparing for the next tournament through training at Critical Games. Can she handle the stress that comes with it, though?
"Hello!" The well put together woman said in the most pleasant of voices. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you..." She glanced down at a note card in her hand. "Yumi! You can call me Miss Fukukado! Starting today, we'll be training together to improve your skills ahead of the Regional Championship! Let's make lots of progress and have fun!"
While Yumi would normally be overjoyed to have someone that matched her level of enthusiasm as a trainer, Miss Fukukado's brand of peppy was just a bit unsettling. Whether it was the slightly disconcerting look in those scarlet eyes of a person ready, willing, and capable of murder or the wide, gleaming white smile that implied she was barely hanging onto the last bits of her sanity with splintered, bleeding fingers, something about her just seemed off.
But there was no use in thinking too hard about it. This was the person she was paired with, and judging her too harshly before they'd even gotten to know each other would just be rude. "It's nice to meet you," Yumi greeted, bowing to be respectful as her grandmother had repeatedly reminded her before she left that morning.
"Please, take a seat!" she told her, motioning to one of the tall wooden chairs placed on either side of a wide table. Yumi sat down as instructed, looking around to take better stock of the place she'd be spending most of her afternoons from this point out. It was fairly wide open and enclosed on all four sides by walls, no doubt lacking windows in the event someone wanted to use them to spy on one of the duelists being trained here. Two other tables with chairs were positioned a good distance from the one she occupied, though all remained in the same horizontal plane to maximum the room's space.
Not far off was the double doors she'd entered through, giving the whole place the feeling of a gymnasium. As one would expect, three pre-marked fields for dueling were laid out next to the opposite wall one after the other, some sort of machine set up on one end of the furthest. Elsewhere was a refrigerator, a bathroom, and even some lockers. The CG people clearly didn't want their players leaving unnecessarily.
"Before we begin," Miss Fukukado said, "please show me your cards! I want to have a clear idea as to your skill level and current strategies!" Though normal etiquette would prevent someone from asking to see someone's deck before they'd even dueled once, this was more than understandable. Yumi pulled her cards from her pocket and passed them across the table.
Taking the deck, she wordlessly sorted through the cards in record time, smile remaining just as unyielding as before. "This is a funny joke!" she said after setting them down. "Please show me your cards this time!"
"Those are my cards," Yumi said, taking them back with a bit of protectiveness in her motions. "That's the deck I've always used."
"I don't understand why that would be! This is lovely!"
"I beat Rio with that deck, so it can't be that bad." Yumi crossed her arms, feeling a bit hurt that her trainer was already so negative towards her.
Instead of responding immediately, she cocked her head to the side. She was utterly perplexed at what Yumi had just said. "How?" she finally asked, an almost imperceptible twitch at the corner of her mouth threatening to crack her whole facade.
"I played my hardest and didn't give up," she replied, omitting the part where a demon inside her head gave her a new card that nearly killed her opponent.
"That's super!" she replied. She took the note card from the pocket of her gray suit jacket and looked over the information once more, still somewhat in disbelief. To her shock, that information was most definitely included there, as was her recent win at the tournament.
Returning the card to her pocket, Miss Fukukado pressed a button on the side of the table, its previously brown surface lighting up into a cybernetic blue. It was like ones they'd used during the preliminary matches. "Please place your deck on the surface of the table again!" she asked, tapping a few buttons on the screen after Yumi did so.
Every card in her deck was displayed to them this was, further information on each one accessed by pressing its image. "Yumi, what would you say your greatest weakness as a duelist is?" she asked, hoping to feel out some kind of deeper insight into the monstrosity before her.
She had to think on this for a time before concluding, "Maybe how I don't think enough. I'm really good at finding ways out of bad situations, but sometimes I rush into those bad situations on my own."
"And the weakness of your deck?" she asked with a nod.
"I've kind of noticed how a lot of other people can do things with less cards than me. Like, I like having so many options, but I don't like that I don't have a hand afterward."
"Then I think we have a place to start!" she said. "First, we should find something for this space!" She pointed to the 15th slot in her Extra Deck, currently blank.
"Actually," Yumi told her, "I kind of have something for that, but it's...complicated." Miss Fukukado cocked her head to the side again. "Well, I got this..." She took the blank card from her pocket. "I don't really know how, but when I need it, it turns into a new card as long as it's in my deck. I'm not going to use it all the time, but I like to have it in case I need it." She quickly realize how absurd this sounded. "It's in my last duel from the tournament. You can check it. Chasm Queen – Telos."
"Super!" she replied, seemingly unwilling to carry on such a bizarre conversation any longer. "In that case, we should work on making the rest of your deck more consistent! What if we tried adding something like this?" She pulled up a card database, dragging a few she searched up onto the screen to show to Yumi.
"These are cool!" Yumi shouted, her enthusiasm quickly dying back down. "I don't think I have those, though. Where would I find them?"
Without replying, Miss Fukukado stood up from her seat and walked to a panel on the wall. Pressing a button, she spoke, "Mister Saburo, please bring a list of cards I'm about to send you! Add in any other rare cards nearby in storage, as well! Thank you!" She walked back over and sat down. "They should be here any moment!"
"Are you sure that's okay?" Yumi asked, fear and guilt slowly clutching at her chest. "I could just look for them myself. I'm already getting so much from the company. Is it okay to give me all these rare cards, too?"
She nodded, explaining, "You are an investment towards Critical Games' future! So long as you continue to succeed as a duelist, it's no problem at all for us to supply you with funds, transportation, and anything else you might need, including new cards!"
The idea that someone would want to invest in her was somewhat foreign, though she accepted it as an agreeable arrangement. Not wanting to be greedy (whatever that would mean in terms of taking from a multi-billion dollar company), she resolved to only keep cards she actually used that they gave her, returning the rest to wherever their storage was located.
Over the next hour, the two discussed her deck in great detail, working out strategies and finding new cards to support it in creative ways. Yumi slowly began to grow more comfortable with Miss Fukukado who, for lack of a better term, accepted her student's "childish" attachment to certain cards. By the end of their workshopping, they had made something both entirely new and familiar at the same time.
"Do you think this is okay?" Yumi asked as she looked over her cards. "Only having two Trap Cards seems a little..."
"It's no problem!" Miss Fukukoda told her. "Your deck is now focused on striking a quick and definitive victory in as few turns as possible! Having more than a few essential Trap Cards would only slow you down!"
Yumi nodded in agreement, understanding what she meant as the possible strategies she could use flashed in her head. "Can I try it out now?" She had to resist the urge to hop or flap for the moment.
"Of course! I'll prepare the computer! If you'd like, you can change into something more conducive to training while you wait! An outfit has been provided in your size and is waiting in the lockers where you placed your things!"
Just as she said, a white tracksuit with purple piping sat folded inside on of the lockers, the CG logo on the left breast like any good piece of merchandise would have. Yumi ducked into the bathroom to change, tossing her old clothes into the locker without care after emerging and slapping her duel disk onto her arm.
"I like how these feel," Yumi said, doing a few stretches and hopping around. "Really easy to move in. The fabric feels nice."
"Okay, we're ready for our first test of your new deck!" She pressed a few keys on the computer attached to the large machine from before. A camera had been set up along the sidelines near the middle of the field, a red light turning on after the final keystroke. "I'll set the opponent to medium difficulty until you get used to what you need to do!" In truth, it was a fairly easy opponent, though she found saying it was medium helped to motivate people.
"You're not dueling me?" Yumi asked as she inserted her deck.
"Of course not!" she said, that unchanging smile of hers seeming to grow slightly wider. "Maybe one day, but for the time being, I'll let our state-of-the-art Critical Games dueling AI assist you! It's been programmed with the duel data of over 100 different high-ranking professional players from across the world, so you'll be able to gain experience against people who may be your future opponents!"
Yumi was, predictably, absolutely amazed by this. "Then let's get started!" she said, duel disk activating as she announced, "Duel!"
The robot was taking the first turn, it seemed. "Draw Phase. Draw card. Standby Phase. Main Phase 1. Activate Magic Card, Terraforming." Despite no actual cards being in the picture, the field seemed to respond to the machine's play, a holographic version of the card appearing in one of its zones just like it would for anyone else.
"Add one Field Magic from deck to hand. Selection: Justice World." It went on to activate the card shortly after, setting something before summoning a monster. "Summon Lightlord Assailant Raiden. Effect activate. Sending two cards from top of deck."
Neither the Needlebug Nest or Gragonith that were sent would have done much, so it was undoubtedly a plus. Justice World also gained a Shine Counter, adding an extra 100 ATK to Raiden's already boosted 1900. Given that it was the first turn, though, that mattered little.
"End Phase. Lightlord Assailant Raiden effect activate. Sending two cards from top of deck." Lightray Diabolos was first followed by Lightlord Maiden Minerva, her effect activating to send a second copy of Justice World to the Graveyard while the one on the field gained a second and third counter. By the end, Raiden's ATK now totaled 2000.
"Okay, it's my turn! Draw!" Yumi was already seeing the improvements when it came to consistency. There were several options for what plays to make right from the start, none of which involved using up her entire hand just for one Xyz Summon.
In fact, there was a real chance she could win the duel on this turn. "I activate Heavy Storm to destroy all your Magic and Trap Cards!" A gust of wind tore across the opposite side of the field, breaking the set Lightlord Barrier into pieces and sweeping it up. As for the Field, it remained through the removal of two of its counters. Raiden's ATK fell to 1800 as a result.
Either way, getting rid of that Trap was the bigger priority. With that out of the way, she had a clear path to victory. "Next, I'll use the Magic Card, Unexpected Guy, to summon a Normal Monster from my deck. I choose Scaredy Lion."
Thinning her deck down by a single card, she continued with Angel's Charity, drawing three new cards. "I'll discard Armaduriboh and Majesty Guard," she said, concluding the effect. "Next, I banish Armaduriboh to use its effect! I add an Equip Magic to my hand, so I choose Premature Burial."
This deck was frighteningly efficient to the point Yumi had trouble telling whether she was playing the cards or they simply guided her to the right choices. Either way, Miss Fukukado nodded at her from the other end of the field, seeming to be pleased with how she was performing so far. It would be hard to say she didn't feel the same.
"I summon Rescue Rabbit in Attack Mode!" The tiny creature hopped onto the field, adjusting its helmet as Yumi took a moment to stop herself from freaking out over how cute it was. Clearing her throat, she ordered, "Call for backup!"
Standing on its hind legs, the rabbit gripped the walkie-talkie around its neck and began to squeak into it. It vanished into a white beam of light, splitting into two copies of Rusty Swordsman. She raised her hand, declaring, "I overlay my two Level 4 Rusty Swordsmans! Xyz Summon! Take the stage, Great Blackstone!"
In a puff of smoke, the esteemed sorcerer took a bow. Adjusting a pristine white tie, the two Overlay Units flew into its hands to be crushed. "When I detach two of these, I can Normal Summon another Normal Monster this turn. I'll do that now with a second Scaredy Lion."
As her monster appeared on the field to cower, Great Blackstone produced a flower from its sleeve, offering it to the lion. Suddenly, an entire field of flowers sprung up around the two. "Since a Normal Monster was just Normal Summoned, I get to draw a card, then discard a card."
She sent Hat-Trick Magician to the Graveyard, immediately playing the card she'd just drawn. "Instant Fusion!" Dropping to 3000 Life Points, she summoned the Fusion Monster, Rare Fish. "Xyz Summon!" she declared again, overlaying Rare Fish with one of the Scaredy Lions. "Daigusta Emeral!"
She detached an Overlay Unit from the new monster to activate its effect. "I use Emeral's second effect, summoning a non-Effect Monster from my Graveyard. Come back, Hat-Trick Magician!" Almost as soon as it arrived, she was already declaring another Xyz Summon. "Castel the Avian Musketeer!"
The bird creature loaded its weapon, taking aim at the opponent's monster. "I detach two Overlay Units from Castel. Return Raiden to your deck! Sharp Shooting!" The bullet soared through the air, striking Raiden in the chest. It was slowly pulled in on itself as it was forced off the field, leaving the opponent wide open.
"Let's go, everyone! Direct attack!" The trio of Xyz Monsters launched an all-out assault on the computer, dropping its Life Points to 0 in an instant. "That was great!" she cheered, hopping up and down and taking her deck out to look at it again. "I don't think I've ever been able to play this well before!" She was a bit proud that most of her new cards weren't even that hard to find, either, assuring her that it was still largely her skill doing the heavy lifting as opposed to a bunch of powerful and unobtainable cards.
"That was a good first test!" Miss Fukukado said with a small round of applause. "I'll increase the difficulty and start again! Do you need to change anything in your deck before we start?"
Yumi shook her head. "No, this is great! I'm ready to go!" And go she did, playing over 40 duels before the end of the day's training session. Despite the rapidly increasing difficulty, she only lost to the computer twice, both times being more a matter of bad luck than being overpowered or playing poorly.
Sucking down the contents of a water bottle, she sighed loudly and stretched her back. "Ready for more!" she announced.
"Unfortunately, our time is up for today!" Miss Fukukado told her. "We'll meet here again at the same time tomorrow!"
"Oh," she said with a twinge of disappointment. "Okay, then."
"We'll begin by covering the Side Deck before returning to more practical training! In the meantime, please research these people on your own!" She handed Yumi a folded piece of paper containing a list of names and some preliminary information about each of their owners. "These are a few prospective players in the upcoming Kanto Regional Championship! In order to better prepare you for facing them, we'll need to cover them more in depth at a later date once your deck is more established!"
"Right," she said with a nod. "Oh, do I get to keep these clothes? They're nice."
"Of course!"
"Nice. I guess I'll be out now. Thank you for training me today." Yumi headed off shortly after wearing her training clothes home. It was odd to have such a structured schedule now, almost like she was part of a school club. If nothing else, it would surely cut down on the number of days she spent wandering the streets looking for something to do while she waited for a friend to meet up after club activities let out for the day.
Making her way home, she described the day's training to her grandmother as they ate dinner, mentioning several times how much she liked the new clothes they gave her. After washing her clothes and taking a bath, she flopped onto her futon and began looking up some of the names she'd been given.
Just as she did, however, he phone rang. "Guess what!" she yelled in place of a greeting.
"What?" Sakuya asked, completely unfazed by the shouting.
"I just had my first day of training!" she said, rolling back and forth on the ground.
"They better be treating you right. If their training isn't good enough, I'm coming back there to do it myself."
"No, it was great!" she told her. "I dueled a bunch and my trainer helped me figure out how to make my deck run a lot faster. And they just gave me a bunch of new cards. Plus this really cool tracksuit."
"Acceptable," she declared. "When do you go back?"
"Tomorrow. We're going to make me a Side Deck and talk about some of the people who could show up to the tournament."
"That's smart. I was actually planning to tell you about that soon. Have you done any research on your opponents?"
"Not yet, but I have this sheet of paper with some stuff on it." She flipped open the page and scanned the five names listed on it. "It's got some stuff on their wins and loses and the cards they use. I was going to start looking up more stuff after I got off the phone with you."
"I won't keep you for too long, then."
"No! I want to talk more!" She returned to rolling back and forth on the ground. "I wish you were here. You could just come with me to practice."
"That would be nice." Sakuya kicked her feet up against the wall of her dorm room from where she laid in bed. "What about school? Are you staying on top of your homework and studying?"
"Mostly," she said. "My grades are actually better than last semester, but I guess I could be doing better. I just wish it wasn't so boring and hard to focus on."
"Just keep trying your best. I'm here for you if there's anything I can help with. It's probably going to be tougher now that you've started training."
"I'll be okay. I can handle it. Plus, you've got enough to worry about without me. How's your book?"
Sakuya cleared her throat. "Well, it's...coming. I'm taking things in a different direction from before."
"Like what?" she asked.
"You know. A different direction. It's kind of shifting away from adventure to more slice of life. The setting is still the same, so I thought maybe that would be kind of interesting and different to explore a fantasy world like that. But it's still pretty early, so I don't really have much written."
"You should send me some pages sometime," Yumi said. "I want to see what your writing is like."
"Maybe when it's a little more complete," she said, embarrassed at the idea of showing Yumi her work in such a sorry state. It was bad enough with one person reading everything, but at least he was a teacher and wouldn't always be around.
They talked for the better part of an hour before eventually signing off, Yumi returning to researching her opponents and taking notes next to the ones already there in pencil. She even got the jump on her training and found a few others who were reported to have won invitations, writing down some of their details on the back of the page.
She fell asleep forgetting to do her homework, rushing to finish it in the morning. This marked the beginning of a cycle for Yumi. She'd wake up in the morning, finish last night's homework (potentially skipping breakfast to do so), go to school, head to practice, research, then sleep.
As anyone with sense could tell you, this wasn't a sustainable model. It only took about a week before the stress began to show. Though Saturday and Sunday provided some respite with the absence of school, the constant dueling was beginning to wear on her on its own. Not even just mentally but physically, having taken to wrapping her right wrist in medical tape to help with the soreness she'd started to feel from drawing cards over and over.
Even so, she did her best to put on a brave face to others. She could handle it, she told herself. There was no reason to worry others since she'd get used to it eventually. Other professionals probably had it much worse, so if she wanted to say she was even half as dedicated to her dream as they were, she'd just have to deal with all of this.
It was around lunchtime the following Tuesday in which things hit their breaking point. Yumi picked at her food, taking smaller and slower bites than normal. Ami had asked earlier if she was feeling sick to which she replied she was "just a little tired" and that it was nothing to worry about.
"Hey, look what I found," Suzy said, gathering Ami, Yumi and Kaguya around her phone in the center of their pushed together desks. She pressed play on a video, the shaky cameraman taking a few seconds to focus on the action.
The action in question was the finals of the Chiba tournament, specifically a spot near the end where Yumi was about to summon Telos. "You never mentioned you had a monster like that," Suzy said. "Why haven't you ever used it against me?"
"Secret weapon," Yumi said sleepily.
"Rude," she replied, continuing to watch as Telos secured victory.
"Don't they have, like, professional video of this somewhere?" Kaguya asked.
"Yeah, probably, but I like to see the stuff people take on their own. It's more personal. Plus..." She scrolled down. "There's comments on these."
"You have fans!" Ami told her, reading out a comment about how Yumi was really inspiring for following her dream at such a young age. This helped to brighten her mood a bit.
"The other kid's getting kind of wrecked," Kaguya said, seeing several negative comments about Yuu ranging from her perceived poor sportsmanship to more crass insults related to her skin tone. Given there was only about 10,000 views and a couple hundred comments, seeing that many in a row was kind of a big deal.
"That's not fair," Yumi said. "Yuu fought hard. No one should be saying bad things about her." Her defense of the other child came to a halt after seeing the look on Suzy's face. "What?"
"Oh, nothing," she said, scrolling past something she'd been reading. "Nothing important."
"I want to see," she told her, holding her hand out for the phone.
Suzy waved her hand and held it away. "It's nothing," she insisted.
"Then let me see," she said, reaching over the desk to grab at the phone.
After a few seconds of struggle, Suzy relented despite her better judgment. "Fine. But it's really not worth it. Just people being gross." She brought up the comment that had started all this and handed the phone off.
To her absolute confusion, Yumi found herself reading a graphic description of some sexual act this (possible) adult claimed to want to perform on her, apparently uncaring that she was a child or that this was a public forum. The several likes seemed to indicate few others were all that concerned.
Shaken, she tried to find something else positive. Despite a good dozen or so posts of support or more general approvals of the duel, she couldn't help but focus on the next negative she found that hurled gendered slurs at the two of them.
She couldn't help herself from scrolling further, almost laser focused on finding more terrible comments like these ranging from calls to have her disqualified as some kind of cheater to vague threats of harm to others talking about how they couldn't wait for her to grow up with less-than-wholesome implications. It didn't seem to matter how much support people were showing her, as every disapproval was far more passionate and unnerving.
"Are you okay?" she heard, nearly jumping out of her seat at the feeling of Ami's hand on her shoulder.
Yumi passed the phone back to Suzy, hoping to hide that her hands were shaking. "Yeah. It was nothing important. These people are a bunch of a weirdos with too much time on their hands." She stood up and stretched. "I'm going to the bathroom real quick. Be back in a minute."
Though she tried her best to appear like everything was okay, her abrupt exit was evidence enough something was amiss. Yumi successfully made it into a stall and locked the door before she broke, clutching her knees against her chest and smothering choked sobs and labored breaths with her hand to avoid anyone hearing her.
She told herself she was being irrational and that none of that should have affected her. She was a professional now, she said. Professionals deal with much worse and would never act this way. Somehow, none of this made her stop crying. In fact, it only made things worse.
"Yumi, let's talk." It was Suzy, evidently having come to check on her. Doing as best a job as she could to straighten herself up, Yumi emerged from one of the doors a mess of tears and snot, weakly forcing a smile. "Sorry," she managed to say between panicked gasps for air.
Suzy simply walked towards her and pulled her into a hug. "Sorry I let you see all of that," she said, rubbing her back and trying to help her breathe easier. "It's okay. Just a deep breath in and out."
She did as she was told, trying to hold in air for more than a second before the next gasp forced it out of her. "S-" She tried again. "Sorry," she repeated.
"You didn't do anything wrong," Suzy told her. "Just breathe. It's okay." Though she'd begun to lapse into English, the intention of her words was clear enough on its own. Yumi was slowly beginning to return to normal feeling overstimulated and exhausted. "Maybe you should go talk to the nurse. You could go rest there for a little bit."
She shook her head. "I can handle this. I just want to go back to class. Lunch is almost over."
"Are you sure?" she asked, doubt evident in her voice. Yumi nodded all the same, wiping her eyes and sniffing. "Then let me show you something first." Suzy turned on one of the faucets, water running from the tap. "Put your hands there."
Yumi placed her hands under the water. "Can you tell me what that feels like?"
"Water," she said dryly, unsure of what else she was meant to say.
"Yeah, but describe it. What's the temperature?"
"Cold," she replied.
"What else?"
She thought for a moment, her hands acclimating to the chill as she did. "The pressure. It's kind of high."
"What about the color?"
"Just water color. Kind of clear. A little bit blue."
Suzy nodded. "Can you tell me your name?"
"You know my name."
"Trust me. Say your name, how old you are, where you live, where we are now, and anything else you can think of that you know is 100% true."
Though she couldn't understand the reason behind all of this, Yumi did as she was told. "I'm Takano Yumi. I'm 12. I live in Chiba. I'm in the bathroom at my school. It's lunchtime. I'm wearing a school uniform. I have a deck of cards in my pocket." She looked to Suzy for any further instruction.
"Good. Now take a deep breath and hold it for ten seconds, then let it out." Following her instructions, Yumi felt like she could pass out from exhaustion at any moment. "How do you feel?"
"I guess..." She had to think on that. "Not as bad." At the very least, she wasn't crying or unable to breathe anymore.
"I used to have really bad panic attacks, too. My therapist taught me how to do that, so now whenever I'm feeling bad, I can control it." She pulled out a handkerchief and wet it under the running water, wiping Yumi's face for her. "When you start to feel like one's about to happen, start listing things you know are true like you just did. Stuff that's real. It helps a lot."
Cleaned up as best she could, Yumi leaned on Suzy as they walked towards the classroom. "Thank you," she mumbled, all the strength in her body nearly used up. "I should go to sleep."
"Yeah," she agreed, changing course for the infirmary. "It's okay to talk about stuff that's bothering you, too, you know. We'll listen. It's really cool that you're like a pro duelist already, but I bet it's really hard to handle. You don't have to do everything alone."
Barely conscious, Yumi nodded and let out a sigh. She collapsed onto the nearest bed available once they made it to their destination, sleeping for the rest of the school day before continuing on with her routine as if nothing had happened. Now, at least, she would be slightly more equipped to handle it.
Cards Used in Order of Appearance
Terraforming
Normal Spell Card
Add 1 Field Spell from your Deck to your hand.
Justice World (Realm of Light)
Field Spell Card
Each time a card(s) is sent from your Deck to the Graveyard, place 1 Shine Counter on this card. All "Lightsworn" monsters gain 100 ATK for each Shine Counter on this card. If this card would be destroyed by a card effect, remove 2 Shine Counters from this card instead.
Lightlord Assailant Raiden (Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn)
LIGHT
Level 4
Warrior/Tuner/Effect
1700 ATK/1000 DEF
During your Main Phase: You can send the top 2 cards of your Deck to the GY, then if any "Lightsworn" monsters were sent to the GY by this effect, this card gains 200 ATK until the end of your opponent's turn. You can only use this effect of "Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn" once per turn. Once per turn, during your End Phase: Send the top 2 cards of your Deck to the GY.
Needlebug Nest
Normal Trap Card
Send the top 5 cards of your Deck to the Graveyard.
Lightlord Dragon Gragonith (Gragonith, Lightsworn Dragon)
LIGHT
Level 6
Dragon/Effect
2000 ATK/1600 DEF
This card gains 300 ATK and DEF for each "Lightsworn" monster with a different name in your Graveyard. If this card attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent. During each of your End Phases: Send the top 3 cards of your Deck to the Graveyard.
Lightray Diabolos
LIGHT
Level 7
Dragon/Effect
2800 ATK/1000 DEF
Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by having 5 or more LIGHT monsters with different names in your Graveyard. Once per turn: You can banish 1 LIGHT monster from your Graveyard, then target 1 Set card your opponent controls; reveal that target, then place that target on either the top or bottom of the Deck.
Lightlord Maiden Minerva (Minerva, Lightsworn Maiden)
LIGHT
Level 3
Spellcaster/Tuner
800 ATK/200 DEF
When this card is Normal Summoned: You can add 1 LIGHT Dragon-Type monster from your Deck to your hand, whose Level is less than or equal to the total number of "Lightsworn" monsters with different names in your Graveyard. If this card is sent from the hand or Deck to the Graveyard: Send the top card of your Deck to the Graveyard. During each of your End Phases: Send the top 2 cards of your Deck to the Graveyard.
Heavy Storm
Normal Spell Card
Destroy all Spell and Trap Cards on the field.
Lightlord Barrier (Lightsworn Barrier)
Continuous Trap Card
When a "Lightsworn" monster you control is targeted for an attack: You can send the top 2 cards of your Deck to the Graveyard, then target the attacking monster; negate the attack.
Unexpected Guy (Unexpected Dai)
Normal Spell Card
If you control no monsters: Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Normal Monster from the Deck.
Scaredy Lion
EARTH
Level 4
Beast
1300 ATK/ 1000 DEF
Angel's Charity (Graceful Charity)
Normal Spell Card
Draw 3 cards, then discard 2 cards.
Armaduriboh
DARK
Level 1
Fiend/Effect
300 ATK/200 DEF
During your opponent's turn, when an attack is declared involving a monster you control equipped with an Equip Card: You can discard this card; make the attacking monster's ATK 0 until the End Phase of this turn, also it cannot be destroyed by that battle. You can banish this card from your Graveyard; add 1 Equip Spell Card from your Deck to your hand.
Majesty Guard
Normal Trap Card
Monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle this turn, also halve all damage you take this turn. During either player's turn, except the turn this card was sent to the Graveyard: You can banish this card from your Graveyard; halve the battle damage you take from one opponent's monster this turn.
Premature Burial
Equip Spell Card
Activate this card by paying 800 LP, then target 1 monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target in Attack Position and equip it with this card. When this card is destroyed, destroy the equipped monster.
Rescue Rabbit
EARTH
Level 4
Beast/Effect
300 ATK/100 DEF
Cannot be Special Summoned from the Deck. You can banish this face-up card you control; Special Summon 2 Level 4 or lower Normal Monsters with the same name from your Deck, but destroy them during the End Phase. You can only use this effect of "Rescue Rabbit" once per turn.
Rusty Swordsman
EARTH
Level 4
Warrior
1500 ATK/1000 DEF
Great Blackstone
LIGHT
Rank 4
Spellcaster/Xyz/Effect
2500 ATK/2000 DEF
2 Level 4 Normal Monsters
When this card is Xyz Summoned: You can detach 2 Xyz Material from this card; during your Main Phase this turn, you can Normal Summon 1 Normal Monster from your hand, in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. If you Normal Summon a Normal Monster while this card is face-up on the field: Draw 1 card, then discard 1 card. (You can only gain each effect once per turn.)
Hat-Trick Magician
DARK
Level 4
Spellcaster
1200 ATK/1500 DEF
Instant Fusion
Normal Spell Card
Pay 1000 LP; Special Summon 1 Level 5 or lower Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, but it cannot attack, also it is destroyed during the End Phase. (This is treated as a Fusion Summon.) You can only activate 1 "Instant Fusion" per turn.
Rare Fish
WATER
Level 4
Fish/Fusion
1500 ATK/1200 DEF
"Fusionist" + "Enchanting Mermaid"
Daigusta Emeral (Daigusto Emeral)
WIND
Rank 4
Rock/Xyz/Effect
1800 ATK/800 DEF
2 Level 4 monsters
Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then activate 1 of these effects.
● Target 3 monsters in your Graveyard; shuffle all 3 into the Deck, then draw 1 card.
● Target 1 non-Effect Monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target.
Castel the Avian Musketeer (Castel, the Skyblader Musketeer)
WIND
Rank 4
Winged Beast/Xyz/Effect
2000 ATK/1500 DEF
2 Level 4 monsters
You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then target 1 face-up monster on the field; change it to face-down Defense Position. You can detach 2 Xyz Materials from this card, then target 1 other face-up card on the field; shuffle it into the Deck. You can only use 1 "Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer" effect per turn, and only once that turn.
Kind of enjoying the fact I've had this and an entire other chapter already written for the last month. I've been getting a lot done lately.
I hope Yumi learns to manage her stress better. Panic attacks in the school bathroom are always pretty suboptimal. She probably should have been in therapy following the whole attempted homicide stuff, but at least learning about grounding should help her out a bit.
Another major power boost to her deck this chapter, too. Honor Fukukado's sacrifice, since she used up the last of her willpower getting it to be like that without compromising Yumi's theme. The end result is pretty good, all things considered.
I normally don't do this, but if you're looking for something post-Halloween that could turn out to actually be scary, I've just written a Silent Hill thing you can check out. An actual 0 people have read it so far, which just speaks to how absolutely dead this franchise is. It sucks, too, because I was actually pretty happy with how it turned out. Managed to use my meandering writing style to my advantage to make everything feel kind of surreal and off putting. Planning to do more chapters, but if literally no one is going to read it, I might not bother.
Not much else to say now. Next chapter's going to be a ride. Thanks for reading. Always remember to ignore the comments.