"You know, here I thought that there would be nothing but duelling at this school." Harry commented as he took three cards form Alexis and placed them in order. "Not that I would mind if that was the case but this is nice."
"You do know there's a tennis team, and a soccer team, and a spa here right?" She quipped as she also took three cards. "Two hundred." she added throwing chips into the centre.
"Yeah I've seen the tennis court. How's your engagement going by the way? Got the flowers picked?" He threw the same chips. "Call"
"Jaden doesn't even know what an engagement is." Alexis responded showing her cards. "Three queens."
"He's a kind soul, not the brightest but there isn't a shred of darkness in his body. Straight." He showed her the cards and collected the chips.
"Are you?" Was all she said in response dealing the next hand.
Harry shushed her by betting three hundred and leaving it at that. When she called he took two new cards and watched as she took three. "Speaking of Jaden, what's this I hear about you and him having a stake out in the cafeteria? Is that what it's called these days?"
"Shut up!" She shrieked. "All in."
Harry called. Watching her reactions to everything as he did so.
"Flush." She called out slamming her cards on the table.
Harry looked at his cards, and at Alexis. "Fold." he said throwing his cards. As he did so the door to the room they shared crashed open with a bang startling him and causing the cards to go off the table.
"HARRY!" The voice screamed before noticing the other occupant in the room. "Lex?" His face brightened at seeing the girl. "Good, now I don't have to look for you, come on." he said dragging Harry out of the room without another word.
Alexis looked around Harry's now empty room, noting he hadn't even taken his decks with him. And the cards they had been using were now scattered on the floor. Looking at the cards he had thrown she couldn't help but gasp in shock.
Four aces lay on the floor.
"So what was it you wanted us to see Jay?" Harry asked not even bothering to question what the Slifer was doing in an obelisk dorm. When Jaden didn't answer him and kept dragging him, he looked back to Alexis only to see she was just now leaving his room, taking his case with her as she did. "Jay!" He called.
Resigning himself to his fate he let himself be dragged all the way to the campus building. As he drew closer to the building a feeling began to creep up into his chest. Like the beat of a drum inside his body.
"Jaden." He called to the Slifer for another time. Perhaps it was his tone or the fact that he was now resisting being dragged. "Where are you taking me?"
"It's the most awesome thing Harry, you have to see." The two finally arrived at the card shop and Jaden finally let go of Harry who shrunk back from the large crowd back to where Alexis who had just arrived was standing. She handed him his case and he nodded gratefully. "Look" Jaden said turning to them and pointing on the wall.
Harry suddenly knew what that feeling of power was. He also knew why Mahad had been so silent the past few days. The king of games had left his deck. And it was here. The two cards belonged to the same spirit and Mahad was finding it hard to be with Harry without Yugi consciously telling him to go.
'Did you know about this?' He mentally asked the Black Luster Soldier.
'No, Mahad has been avoiding me as well'
Harry just knew something was going to go wrong. A school full of teenagers and a legendary deck, hell even the professors would take a shot if they could.
"Yugi's deck is here?" Alexis asked Jaden who nodded. "How do we see it?"
"Which deck is it?" Harry asked causing many to look at him in curiosity. Including Jaden and Alexis.
"What do you mean which deck" The Queen of Obelisk asked him.
"Well Yugi has several. His actual deck, which has dark magician and the like. He has a deck that revolves around the magnet brothers and the Kuriboh brothers. A toy deck. He does live in a card shop he has lots of decks."
Everybody stared in shock at this revelation, so focused on the fact that it was a deck of Yugi's, they never even wondered which one it was. Harry used this distraction to sneak to the front of the line and smile politely at Ms. Dorothy. "May I have two tickets please?"
Receiving the tickets he walked back and handed one to Alexis who followed him as he left the crowd, still in shock.
'You know which deck it is' The Chaos Magician said as he appeared beside him. 'Mahad would be here if it was any other.'
'Yeah, but they don't need to know that. If what I think will happen happens, then I'm using both of you to fight Mahad.'
To be honest he had just been putting it off. While he loved each and every card in his decks the only reason he had more than one was because of their incomplete nature. With that Black Luster Soldier by his side he could finally put together the deck he needed.
The magician nodded and vanished to inform the other spirits of his deck. All the while Harry simply turned to Alexis and asked, "Lunch?"
Lunch with Alexis was fun. Dinner in his dorm was fine. Standing outside the room with Yugi's deck was downright boring. Sure it was interesting, the spirits of the deck called out with their power and he responded with pulses of his own, but that just got them more excited seeing as how they recognised him.
Then he saw a shadow. Crossing the corridor and entering the room. Oh he could have stopped it. But the feeling of Yugi's spirits made him think twice. He would let it be stolen. And with a great resounding crash, it was. He followed the thief towards the docks and watched as he looked through the cards only once before putting them into his disk.
"So shall we?" He asked the thief taking a deck out of his case and slotting it into his own disk.
"You wish to duel me?" The thief's voice sounded like Yugi, but Harry had spent liberal amounts of time with him so that was just annoying. "I am the king of games after all."
"Yeah, sure, Dimitri the cookie cutter that's who you are." Harry responded drawing cards. "Now come along, people will be coming soon and it's been too long since I've duelled Yugi's deck."
"Very well pretender, I know who I have duelled and you are not one of them."
Harry growled and waited.
"DUEL" The two combatants screamed.
"I'll go first." Harry said calmly as he drew the card. "I'll play Queen's Knight in attack mode." He said watching as the Lady rose from an arcane circle. "Next I'll play one face down and end my turn."
"Then it's my turn." Dimitri said also drawing a card. "And I activate Polymerization to fuse Berfomet with Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts in order to Fusion Summon Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast in Attack Position. And then I'll attack your Queen's knight."
Harry did nothing but watch as his monster was destroyed. Yugi's deck thrived on his opponent fighting back and for now he wouldn't. When he fought back he would win.
"Shall I go then?" He asked rhetorically as he drew his card. Stretching his powers he could feel the presence of other students as they began to arrive. Alexis and Jaden stood out having spent so much time with them but other than that they were indistinguishable. "I activate the spell card Black Magic Ritual."
"What!"
"Oh so you've heard of it. Well you see with this card I can special summon Magician of Black Chaos so long as I remove a total of level eight. But in this case I offer my Ritual Raven as the sacrifice." The raven briefly appeared on the field before it burst into flames. "Arise Magician of Black Chaos!"
The blue skinned shamanistic Dark Magician appeared on the field twirling a staff. Meanwhile the true chaos form stood beside Harry with his arms crossed. Harry was going to enjoy this duel no shadows, no time limit, and no lives on the line.
"Now destroy Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast, Chaos sceptre blast!"
Chimera exploded into a thousand pieces with a wave of the magician's staff. But Berfomet soon appeared after.
"When Chimera, is destroyed it allows me to summon Berfomet in its place."
"I know the card pretender. I play one face down and end my turn."
Dimitri drew. "I activate the spell card Swords of Revealing Light stopping your attacks for three turns. And activate monster reincarnation, by discarding one card_"
"You'll get back the only monster in your grave, Gazelle. But I'm not stupid, you want that card in your grave."
"Correct. I play one face down and summon Gazelle in defence mode. And end my turn."
"My turn then. And I reveal my face down, Call of the Haunted. This lets me retrieve one card from the grave and bring it home. And I choose my darling Queen's Knight. Next I play King's Knight, and since the two knights are on the field I'm allowed to summon Jack's Knight in attack mode"
"Not so fast, I activate the trap card. Coffin of Dark renewal. Your monster and my own are now used in a ritual to revive the one and only Dark Magician from my graveyard."
Mahad appeared on the field next to Gazelle, Berfomet having been used in the ritual to summon him. Harry's smile turned into a predatory grin at seeing the Dark Magician on the field.
"But he won't be around for long, for I play a card that will give him the power to match your Magician. I play Dedication through Light and Darkness!"
Harry cursed while thinking to the spirit beside him, 'What the hell was Yugi thinking, putting one of your cards in his deck' Harry thought to the Chaos Magician. Unlike Mahad, there was no spirit in this card. 'You and I both know that Yugi knew someone would try to take his deck here.'
'We may be in trouble then. If I'm in there, and Mahad is in there. Well then it's not too much of a stretch for him to be in there as well.'
Harry nodded as Dark Magician of Chaos appeared on Dimitri's field. 'Does it ever strike you as odd that my deck is a copy of Yugi's bar the chaotic elements? I mean sure there are differences but take a look.'
'Yugi and you are two very similar beings. Both wielders of great power. Both chosen of the gods. But Yugi was chosen by only two monsters. Mana and Mahad. You on the other hand have all of us. So why should you have different decks when you are so very similar people?'
Harry smiled at the answer to a question that had long since plagued his mind and nodded in thanks to his spirit. Stretching his senses he could feel half of the student body watching. Time to show off.
Dimitri continued. "And since I've summoned Dark Magician of Chaos, I can take one spell card and return it from the grave to my hand"
"I end my turn." Harry said knowing what would happen.
"Then I shall make a move. Now attack King's Knight, Chaos Sceptre Blast!"
Harry: 2800/Dimitri: 4000
"I end my turn."
"Let's end this." Harry said shocking Dimitri, he had expected fear, his opponent was facing Yugi's cards. But Harry had one better, he had faced Yugi.
"First I play the spell card pot of greed to draw two cards."
"Next I activate the spell card Spell Economics which means I no longer have to pay life points to activate spells. So I'll start with this, Dark Magic Curtain, which immediately lets me play a spell-caster from my deck but also lets you play a spell-caster as well. "
"I'll play my Dark Magician Girl!" Dimitri said causing the female student of Mahad to appear before the two.
"And I'll play my own DARK MAGICIAN!"
Harry's Dark Magician burst from the Dark Magic Curtain and suddenly the field around the two duellists got darker. Light began to drain from the area being absorbed into the wicked Dark Magician.
"But, I have the only Dark Magician." Dimitri stuttered, breaking character as he did.
"No, I have several, like this card, I activate the spell card Dedication through Light and Darkness. Look familiar?" He asked.
The shade next to Harry vanished to be replaced with The Black Luster Soldier, who simply looked at him, in no words demanding to be played next.
"And like you said, I get one free used Spell card, and I think I'll take Pot of Greed."
'No,' Dimitri thought, 'this can't be happening. I have the deck of the king of Games and he's matching me, where did he get these cards.'
"Next I'll activate the pot of Greed, drawing two more cards. And I'll use one right now, go premature burial! This card would normally cost me eight hundred life points but thanks to spell economics I can bring one card from my grave with no cost, all I have to do is equip it with this card. Rise again Dark Magician."
The Black Luster Soldier was begging to be summoned at this point even going so far as to poke Harry in the shoulder, not that he could feel it.
"An impressive move but have you forgotten about my Swords of Revealing Light?"
"On the contrary, I'll get to them. I just wanted to summon one card before you had the chance." Harry replied.
"And what card would that be?"
"I remove my King's Knight from my grave, and my Ritual Raven_"
"You can't have that card!"
"To summon another monster of Chaos. I summon Black Luster Soldier, Envoy of the Beginning!" He shouted. 'FINALLY' his monster shouted in his mind before vanishing and appearing from a vortex on the field.
"But you still can't attack me till your next turn."
"Again with the swords." Harry commented. "Fine, fine I'll get rid of them." He flipped over a card from his hand showing it to Dimitri, but not the crowd behind him. At least until he played it. "I activate, Mischief of the Time Goddess." The air around the two began to distort for a moment before settling. "Now it's my next turn's battle phase, making the swords go bye bye."
Just as he said it the swords of revealing light faded away leaving nothing between Harry and Dimitri.
"Now, since I have a soft spot for the ladies. I'll start with your lifeless Chaos Monster. Black Luster Soldier, do the honours."
'With Pleasure!' His monster mentally responded before slicing Dimitri's in half
Harry: 2800/Dimitri: 3800
"And as I'm sure you know, when he successfully destroys a monster, he gets to attack again. But since a Dark Magician was placed in your graveyard, you're Dark Magician Girl gains another three hundred attack points, so unfortunately she has to go."
Dimitri: 3600/Harry: 2800
"Now my Dark Magician attack his Gazelle with Dark Magic Attack!" Much like the years before the world was shrouded in darkness for a brief moment and an almighty roar could be heard before an explosion, Gazelle was gone when the lights returned. "Next I'll attack with Queen's Knight!"
Dimitri: 2100/Harry: 2800
"Dimitri, you stole another person's deck and claimed it as your own, it betrayed you for this reason. Dark Magician of Chaos, attack him directly with Chaos Sceptre Blast!"
Dimitri: 0/Harry: 2800
"Now hand it over" Harry said as he lowered his arm and walked towards his fallen opponent. "And listen, I get not making your own deck. It's a personal thing and to create your own and use it against another's requires confidence that not many have. But try Dimitri, you won't win unless you do." Taking Yugi's deck he felt a rush of energy run up his arm as the spirits greeted him. "Now I won't tell Yugi about this. And they won't tell the Chancellor."
He pointed to the cliff side where nearly all of the student body was watching in shocked silence as one of their own having taken down Yugi's deck. He then left without another word.
He was soon met by Alexis who had ran from the cliff to meet her friend.
"Harry, what was that. You never played those cards before!" She said as she hugged him excitement rolling off her in waves.
"That is what happens when I mix my decks my dear. I've never done it before, the formula, as Bastion would say, was never complete up until recently."
Alexis nodded as the two made it back to his room. "Why did your father send you here anyway?" She asked disturbing the silence as they crossed the threshold. "You clearly have skills with a deck."
Harry smiled and jumped on his bed. "To have fun and be a kid again." Was all he said. "When I discovered my powers a lot of things began to happen, my Dad thought it would be best if I went away for a while. This way, I got to be around people my own age for once."
Alexis had no idea what he meant by that. But she figured he'd tell eventually.
Harry just rolled over on his bed to face her. "So, poker?"
Alexis blushed as she remembered what he'd done the last time. "Fine but if I win you and I duel."
Harry just nodded and jumped off the bed. "I'll do you one better, you win and I'll give you another one of my painting cards. I think you'll like this one."
Remembering the first and knowing he probably had the pair to that one too. How could she refuse?
