Lumen: No worries, my friend, that won't be the last we see of Zack. He's just taking a reprieve for a while. And now there's room for other developments – the least of which not being the Jade factor!
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Normally, it didn't take Chubs a long time to digest something. This was an obvious fact to any who even caught a glimpse of him. There was no mistaking – he was a big guy. He downed pizza, pasta, and steak with the best of them.
But this... this had caught him utterly flatfooted.
"Whoa," he breathed, as he inspected Kyle's brand-new Duel Monsters card. "That's amazing. You're sure you won this fair and square? You didn't bribe him somehow?"
Kyle laughed. "Bud, I'll bet you half my savings Zack has more money than I do. There's really no way I could bribe him to give this card up. Besides, why would he have me duel him for it only to give it to me in exchange for money afterward?"
"Good question. Let me know when you figure it out." Chubs whistled once more, then handed the card back to his friend... though not without great effort. "So what's Zack up to now?"
Kyle shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know. He said he was going to be gone a while."
Chubs raised an eyebrow. "Running scared or something?"
"Like I said, I don't know. But if he's running scared, he says it's not 'cause of Jade." Kyle offered a wry smile. "Said she was mine to deal with now."
"Well, she is," Chubs agreed. "Speaking of whom... what're you gonna do about her?"
"Ehh. She'll come after me in due time, no doubt, once she figures out Zack doesn't have Sanga anymore." Kyle sat back, shuffled Sanga into his deck, then set the deck down and crossed his arms. "Whatever his reasons, he says he'll be giving me discounts on his web store, which may prove handy."
"Let's hope so. Your deck still seems to lack the kind of unity I personally think it's important to have." Chubs struck upon a thought, evidenced in his expression. "You could conceivably put together a deck list... then go ahead and buy the cards you don't have, and insert the ones you do."
"Hm. I may work on that." Kyle sighed and looked around his apartment. "Meantime... I'd best start thinking about packing up. Graduation is next month and then summer classes start in June. Gotta get ahead, y'know."
"Yeah, I know." Chubs offered a sigh of his own. "Don't take it the wrong way or anything, but once you're out of here, I'm gonna miss you. I don't have too many dueling buddies. Hell, I barely have any buddies period."
"We'll set something up," Kyle answered. "Maybe you could start an online dueling club. I've heard of that happening."
"Hm. Possibly." Chubs regarded his friend with interest. "You're still chasing after Monica, aren't you?"
"I wouldn't call it 'chasing after her'," Kyle replied.
"Well, I would. You're still insane for even trying. But I guess she must've stood Xander up 'cause he won't go near her now. Or, considering a couple of the bruises I saw on him, she might've given him the old one-two."
"Bah. Any football player could've done that during practice," Kyle responded dismissively.
"It's the off-season, Kyle," Chubs pointed out.
"Whatever. There could be any number of reasons he gets bruised. Doesn't have to be Monica."
"True." Chubs got to his feet. "Well... think I'd best be heading out. Still got some unfinished homework."
"Go for it."
Chubs made his way out the door. "See ya."
It was only after the door had swung closed that Theoris' voice returned. Someday you will have to teach me further about the customs of your culture.
Doesn't access to my memories give you all the information you need?
Access gives me information, but it does not show me how to interpret that information. Anything I hear of in relation to current events or modern technology, I must take with... how do you say it? "A grain of salt".
Kyle chuckled. I suppose that's true. So what do you want to know?
I am assuming that when Chubs refers to your "chasing after Monica", he means that you are attempting to become romantically engaged with her. Is this assumption accurate?
Kyle couldn't help but turn slightly red at the bluntness of the interpretation. Nevertheless, he conceded, Yeah, that's about right.
And you are indeed making this attempt, then?
I'm... not sure, really. What I'd like is for the two of us to stop being enemies. The entire enmity thing is just too stupid to bother with anymore. I have better things to do with my life than hold a grudge against her.
Then allow me to reassess the situation. You wish to hold some sort of peace between yourself and Monica. Chubs takes this to mean that you wish to become romantically involved with her. Where is this connection made?
It's made in that my behavior was so radically different before you and the shield came along. Oh, we hated each other to the core. Now, for the first time in my life, I actually want to be nice to her. Since it's such a huge shift, I think Chubs is assuming I'd follow through in completely contradicting my previous behavior, rather than just stopping short of "let's be friends, Monica".
Is this sort of assumption common among your culture?
These days, it is. It's expected that a change that radical would inevitably lead to some kind of romance, or at least hopes for one.
...Would you object to having a romance with her?
Kyle hummed to himself for a few moments. Hard to say, really. Since I can't really project what would happen in such a relationship, I can't really say whether I think it'd be a good thing. Certainly, if nothing else, it would be fascinating.
There was a knock on the door. Kyle glanced up. "Yeah?"
Dead silence beyond the threshold.
Kyle frowned, then got to his feet and took a couple steps toward the door. "Who's there?"
"...I accept."
His frown deepened. "Monica?" He approached the door and opened it; sure enough, there stood Monica Zocallos, staring resolutely at him.
"You challenged me to a duel. So I'm accepting the challenge."
He blinked once, twice. "When did I challenge you?"
"The night I was here, McCraine. I didn't have my deck then anyway, but I've got it with me now, along with a duelist calculator, and if you insist on being so thickheaded, I guess my coming over here was a waste of my time. Just like I figured dueling you would be." She started to turn to leave.
"Hold on, wait a sec," Kyle said. "If you're wanting to duel, fine, let's duel. I just figured it was something to do to pass the time."
She turned back to look at him. Curiously – thankfully, in Kyle's opinion – there was no glint of hatred in her gaze. Equal mixtures of boredom and exasperation, maybe, but no hatred. A slight hint of condescending, but not nearly to the extent he might have expected from her. "Yeah, I know. What do you think I'm doing here? Asking you on a date? I'm bored, and I have it on good authority that your dueling skills are improving."
"You're saying you think I might actually be a challenge for you?"
She snorted, and more condescending entered her gaze. "Don't flatter yourself, McCraine. That chubby friend of yours is more of a challenge than you are. But you were the one that offered the game, not him. So, if you're finished being an idiot, let's get on with this. I need to practice for the next tournament. I figure with all the commons you have, I'm gonna be running into a lot of the same."
He rolled his eyes. "I don't know what makes you think I have a bunch of commons. I've got considerable funding, same as you."
"Fine, so you have money. Now are you going to let me in, or are we going to duel in the doorway? If the latter, please, do let me sit down so I can get more comfortable."
Kyle pursed his lips and stood aside to allow her in. "Fine, just so long as you don't complain about the state of my apartment."
She glanced about the place for a few moments, then looked back at him. "You've got nothing to worry about in that area. You seem to know how to keep a clean house."
Did I hear right? She just gave me a compliment?
Perhaps, in not so many words, she did.
She pulled the portable tray away from the arm of the couch and then went over to Kyle's desk and pulled his rolling armchair away from it. Obviously she was expecting to duel while sitting upright. But when she realized that both the tray table and the armchair towered horribly over the couch seats, she sighed and looked back at their owner. "All this work and it looks like we'll have to do this on the floor."
Kyle waved at the chair and tray dismissively. "I'll take care of those later, since you're impatient to get this underway."
"Good." She plunked herself down onto the floor, then pulled a metal deck case out of her pocket – which she'd had to unbutton in order to access its contents.
Kyle whistled. "Serious about that Blue-Eyes, aren't you?"
She glared up at him. "When are you ever going to get over the fact I have one?"
"Probably never," he admitted. "I'm surprised Kaiba hasn't heard about it yet. Surely someone would have let him know by now that one of his old cards was sighted."
"You said it yourself just now, McCraine, it's his old card. Mine now. Besides, what good is the card to him if he's been on such a losing streak lately?"
"Losing streak?"
"Jeez, McCraine, what hole have you been hiding in?" She rolled her eyes, pulled her deck out, and began to shuffle it. "He lost to some unknown kid over in Japan. Kid pulled out Exodia. First time anyone had ever heard of Exodia coming out in a holographic duel. And then just recently there was a big tournament off Japan's coast, Duelist Kingdom. Kaiba got in but lost to Pegasus."
Kyle frowned. "I thought the Blue-Eyes cards were his trump cards. What's he got going for him without them?"
"New copies, of course," she responded in exasperation.
"What?"
"Good God, McCraine, get with the program! You're sure you're not into drugs or anything, right?"
"Reasonably certain."
"Good, because I'm not dueling a druggie." She sighed. "Anyway. Kaiba somehow cajoled Industrial Illusions to make him extra copies of the Blue-Eyes cards. No idea; for all I know he sold KaibaCorp to them for the exchange and then somehow got it back. So officially, he's got his cards back. Which is probably why I haven't had him knocking on my door."
He shook his head. "That doesn't make sense, though. From what I hear, Kaiba loves those cards not only because of their power, but also because of their rarity. Wouldn't he still be chasing after the originals?"
"Probably," she allowed. "Which is another reason I should duel a lot. There are a few people around here with some remotely good cards. If I can take on even a shadow of what Kaiba's supposed to have... I'll be doing pretty well. Now, for God's sake, get out your deck and let's duel."
--
They finished their first game quickly. Monica, dismayed with how easily Kyle was beaten, challenged him to a second.
The second game turned out much like the first. He managed to last perhaps two turns longer. He proposed a third.
The dueling continued through seven games, all with the same end result. Monica won each and every one.
She leaned back and sighed. "McCraine, even for an amateur, you really suck."
"Thanks," he scoffed, "you're a pretty good duelist yourself."
"Look, McCraine, I'm not going to tread lightly on what little career you have in Duel Monsters. Just because you're an official duelist doesn't mean you're a good one, and as we keep dueling, it's pretty obvious why."
"Oh, please do enlighten me."
"It's not your strategy, first off. You have a good, solid strategy going. But you only have one strategy, and therein lies your problem."
"Oh? And what's my one strategy?"
"To defend yourself until something decent comes around for you to use." She shrugged. "In case you hadn't noticed, that strategy's not doing you very well here."
"I'd noticed, thank you. Any suggestions as to what I should do about it?"
"Well, first off, get some better monster cards. You defend way too much. You need to be able to go on the offensive and stay there. Keep your opponent down. Force him into the defensive. And stop making your moves so obvious."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You're playing all your normal monsters face-up and all your effect monsters face-down. It's too obvious. If you're gonna play a monster at all, play it face-down. That way it's not an invitation to your opponent to destroy it – or fall for a trap you've laid."
"Hm. Think the defensive strategy would go over better if I did that?"
"Honestly, Kyle, I have no idea how you managed to make it this far without doing that."
He blinked. Did you hear what I heard?
She referred to you as "Kyle". It is this you refer to, correct?
Yeah. Maybe things might work out better than I'd hoped.
She scoffed and shook her head. "You definitely need better help with this than your friends seem to be giving you."
He raised an eyebrow. "Is that an offer to teach me?"
She hesitated. "Would you even want me to give you tips on the game? What good would they do you if you don't have the cards to make the trick happen?"
"Let me worry about which cards I have and don't have. I just want to know how I can become a better duelist. Like you, for instance."
"Don't mock me, McCraine."
He raised his hands. "I'm not. I recognize you as a good duelist, okay? Everyone around here acknowledges that."
"Good, and they'd better not think otherwise."
"Right. So?"
She frowned. "What's up with you? All this time you've been an asshole. What happened to you to actually start being nice to me all of a sudden? Trying to scare me or something?"
He emitted a slight sigh. "To be honest, that was the original intention."
"Why?"
"To get you to stop tormenting me every time we passed within a half-mile of each other."
To her credit, she didn't get to her feet and walk out then and there – though she wouldn't have denied that this was her first instinct. "You said original intention. What, were you starting to feel sorry for me after that thing with Xander?"
"It was before that, actually, that my attitude started changing."
"So what is it you want now?"
"To have a relationship that isn't based on animosity and spite."
She chewed the inside of her lower lip a moment. "You know... you're rather eloquent when you want to be."
"So I've heard," he replied wryly.
She narrowed her eyes. "Why pursue any kind of 'relationship' with me at all when we're probably not going to see each other in about a month anyway? Ignoring how wrong that sounds."
He shrugged. "Closure, I suppose. One major thing I can resolve before I leave."
"Again, why? What point is there?"
"Look, I've already made my share of enemies around here. If I ever do pass this way again – and I don't intend to – I'd just as soon make sure that there'll be some friendly faces here. It's not like I can go back to my parents."
"Heard about that," she mused. "Not a good time staying with them, huh?"
"I wouldn't be here otherwise."
"Suppose that's true." She shook her head. "This is so weird. I think this is the only conversation you and I have ever had where one of us wasn't actively pissed off at the other one."
"Nah, just passively pissed." He chuckled slightly. Even Monica had to smile at that. "So... uh... where're you headed after high school?"
She shrugged. "Shouldn't make much difference to you one way or the other, should it?"
"I'm just curious, s'all. But if you don't want to talk about it..."
She shrugged again. "Like I said, makes no difference. But I'm headed off to college. Trenton University, out in Oregon."
His eyes widened. "Oh, you cannot be serious."
She frowned. "Why not?" But before he could even answer, she noted the look on his face – and her own expression changed. "Wait. Don't tell me. That's where you're going."
"Yeah! Going for an English major out there!"
"Huh. Go figure. The world's smaller than I thought." She offered yet another shrug. "English isn't really my forte, I'm afraid. I'm doing Business Management."
"Wow."
"Yeah. Maybe we'll run into each other out there, depending on the classes. Might..." She hesitated.
He raised an eyebrow. "Hm?"
"Might..." She shook her head and grinned a grin of disbelief. "I can't even believe I'm saying this... but... it might be nice... to see a friendly face there."
At this, he couldn't help but smile himself. "There you go. See?"
"See what?"
"Look, I really would prefer to be a friend than an enemy. Of course, that all depends on whether you want me to be your friend or not."
She frowned and narrowed her eyes further at him. "There's something you're not telling me. I can see it."
He considered this, then nodded. "Yeah, there is. But if I told you now, I don't know if a friendship would exist between us at all. You'd probably be too pissed off at me to think about it."
"I'm a big girl, McCraine. I may have my tantrums, but if I get one, I'd prefer to have one after acquiring information as opposed to being denied it. Only a fool chooses ignorance."
His lips twisted to one side, then sighed. "Okay. Remember the day you started getting those yellow roses?"
Her eyes widened. "You know about them."
"It goes beyond that. I'm the one who's delivering them."
"Why?"
"I wanted to be nice. After hearing about your uncle–"
"My family's none of your business, McCraine," she snapped angrily. "I don't go prying into your personal affairs. I'd expect the same courtesy – though what would you know about courtesy?"
"If I didn't know anything about courtesy," he replied evenly, "I wouldn't have given you anything in the first place. I knew you were suffering. So I decided to do what I could to help. It was supposed to be something to help you feel better. But I knew you wouldn't take them from me directly. They had to be anonymous. So I gave them to you without a signature, and hoped it might help."
"Yellow roses. To signify friendship. What, did you think I needed a friend?"
"Frankly, yes. Beyond those girls that'd been hanging around you until that point..."
"Oh." She scoffed. "Them. No, they weren't friends. They just wanted to say they hung out with me to cash in on some sort of pseudo-fame around the school."
"I figured as much. So I thought, maybe you might like to know someone cared."
She shook her head. "I don't understand. You and I have hated each other for so long, McCraine. Why stop now? It couldn't be just because of my uncle. Almost sounds like you're being like those girls, getting in with me..."
"Monica, no. That's not it. I've already got my own brand of infamy. Or I used to. I'm done with all that now. I just want..." He exhaled. "I don't want to be the face you think of when you think of the devil, all right? I've gotten into a better standing with everyone else. I just want you to see that I've changed."
"That's becoming more obvious with each passing second. I honestly can't say whether I like what you're becoming or not." She gathered up her cards and pocketed her duelist calculator.
"Come this summer, you may yet find out."
"Yeah. Sure." She got to her feet and made her way to the door.
"Monica?"
She stopped at the door and sighed. "What do you want, McCraine?"
"To know that you'll be okay."
She was silent for a moment... and then shook her head once. "I don't know."
She stepped out of the apartment. And once the door closed...
She bit her lower lip in an attempt to stop an oncoming smile.
And failed miserably.
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Perhaps things will indeed go better than Kyle had originally hoped for, hm? Next up, Kyle makes the big move and comes across someone he didn't expect to see in Oregon. Stay tuned! And please review while you wait!