Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Chapter 3: Sakura Steps Down, Shin Steps Up
"Destroy her monster, Jurai Gumo, and wipe out the rest of her life points!" Weevil hissed.
Sakura stood in fear. "What can I do?" She asked herself out loud. "I can't do anything to avoid his attack. Kazeyama-sensei said to always be focused on the field, but even my trap card can't help me now."
"It can."
Sakura turned around to find that she standing aside the stranger that was so rude to her before. The man stood tall under his black cloak-like trench coat. He now wore sunglasses that hid his eyes.
"Activate it, quickly!" The stranger whispered.
"But how could my trap card…" Sakura stammered as she looked at her hand. Her eyes widened. "Ooh." She immediately pressed the button above her trap card.
"Say good-bye to your life points, missy!" Weevil manically laughed.
"Not so fast." Sakura shouted as her trap card revealed. "I activate my trap card: Ultimate Offering! This allows me to pay 500 life points to special summon a monster anytime I want, so I sacrifice my Nimble Momonga to summon the Illusionist Faceless Mage, which will defend me against your attack enough to keep me in this duel!"
Weevil grunted in frustration. "Fine, then I'll destroy your mage with Jurai Gumo. It doesn't really matter because all you've done was delay your defeat for one more turn." The giant spider directed its attack to strike down the newly summoned monster, making a significant dent on Sakura's life points.
Sakura: 1200
Weevil: 1000
"It'll be over soon." Weevil snickered. "So make your last move."
"It'll be over sooner than you think." Sakura shouted as she played the cards that would ensure the duel to her. "I'll play the magic card, The Painful Choice, allowing me to choose five cards from my deck. You decide which one I get to keep while the rest go to the graveyard."
Five holograms appeared in front of Weevil: two Dark Magicians, two Magician of Black Chaos's, and the Thousand Knives magic card.
"I will select the Thousand Knives magic card." Weevil said with a smirk. "It's useless since all your Dark Magicians will be in the graveyard!"
"Excellent." Sakura said, her smile growing bigger. "I'll now summon the monster, Mystical Elf (800/2000) in attack mode. Next, I'll activate Ultimate Offering to sacrifice my Mystical Elf and summon my most powerful monster, the Dark Magician Girl!" The holographic projects shot out the image of a female Dark Magician, who seemed deceptively less threatening than its male counterpart. "For every Dark Magician and Magician of Black Chaos in the graveyard, she gains 300 attack points." Sakura explained. "And thanks to you throwing out all of them to my graveyard, Dark Magician Girl now has an attack power of 3800!"
"Big deal." Weevil scoffed. "Its still a tiny fly compared to my ultra powered spider!"
"That's where you're wrong." Sakura countered. "Remember I activated my Ultimate Offering, so my life points were decreased by 500, making it less than yours. So your magic card, Metamorph, backfires on your own monster."
Weevil looked at his monster's attack points which lowered to a mere 2400. "Impossible! Dark Magician Girl's attack will destroy what's left of my life points!"
"That's right." Sakura grinned. "So it's time to finish this duel. Dark Magician Girl, attack Jurai Gumo!"
The female magician flew towards the giant spider and smashed its staff on its metallic hide, releasing waves of darkness unto its shattered form. As quickly as Jurai Gumo disappeared, Weevil's life points dropped, ending the duel for him.
Sakura: 700
Weevil: 0
"Game over, Weevil." Sakura smirked. "Now hand over your Jurai Gumo and get your sorry bugs out of here!"
"I swear you'll pay for this." Weevil muttered as he hesitantly gave Sakura his Jurai Gumo before running away to find more duelists to cheat.
Sakura smiled proudly. This was one of the only duels that she's won without having to rely on lady luck. But she still had one person to thank for her victory. Sakura turned around to find the stranger that had aided her during the duel. To her distress, he was already walking away on a nearby bridge without having said anything. She quickly ran towards the man, wanting to thank him before the opportunity escapes.
"Thanks a lot, mister." Sakura said when she reached the man. "I couldn't have won without your help."
Unsurprisingly, Shin gave no reply.
"I guess you saw that I was a rookie by the way I dueled, right?" Sakura continued, despite the stranger's silence. She started to walk at the same pace as the trench coated man. "Kazeyama-sensei always said that I have potential, but I don't know when I'll actually show it."
The man didn't even nod.
"I actually don't think that I'll ever become a great duelist." Sakura said as she lowered her head. "Sometimes, I feel like I should just quit. But that would dishonor Kazeyama-sensei, and that would be the last thing I would want to do."
Shin again gave no reply; he only continued to walk across the bridge without even acknowledging the girl's presence.
"But don't get me wrong." Sakura said as she made a cheery face. "I love dueling. So I don't think I'll ever stop. I just wish I was better at it."
"You'll get better at it if you believe in yourself." Said a foreign voice behind Sakura, causing her to turn around. The voice belonged to a short boy with spiky red hair and yellow bangs who was accompanied by many other teenagers.
Sakura easily recognized the boy, as would anyone. "Hey, you're Yugi Moto!" she exclaimed. "You were the champion of Kaiba's Battle City Tournament. I'm Sakura Kazekage. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"It's a pleasure to meet you too." Yugi said with a smile.
"Hi, I'm Joey Wheeler." The teenager with the blonde hair introduced. "You might have heard of me, I made it all the way to the Battle City semi-finals."
"Vaguely." Said Sakura. Actually, she had never heard of him before, but it never hurt to be polite once in a while.
"That was an impressive duel you've fought back at the café, Sakura." Yugi complimented. "You and your friend must be pretty good to fend off a cheat like Weevil Underwood."
"Friend?" Sakura asked, immediately realizing that Yugi was talking about the mysterious silent stranger. "That guy? I actually don't know him or anything about him, except that his name is Shin. And the fact that he doesn't talk much."
"Is he a duelist too?" Joey asked with a hint of excitement. "I was gettin a bit bored, so me and Yugi went out to find ourselves some good challenges to duel. You think that guy would prove a worthy duelist against the invincible Joey Wheeler?"
Sakura immediately developed a sweat drop on her forehead. This guy was so full of himself, she thought. How the hell did this Wheeler guy make it into the Battle City semi-finals? But nevertheless, Sakura kept her thoughts to herself. "You can ask him, but I don't think you'll have any luck getting a word out of the guy." She said with a shrug. "I mean, I was trying to get him to talk for like the entire time I was at the café and the most I've ever heard him speak was exactly five words."
Completely ignoring what Sakura just said, Joey quickly ran up to the shrouded man hoping for an opportunity to challenge him. "Hey, tough guy. You wanna duel?"
Shin gave no answer to Joey's challenge, which infuriated the blonde haired duelist. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" Joey shouted as he reached for the man's shoulder.
His hand never made it to the trench coat. With lightning speed, the man had grabbed Joey's hand and stopped it inches from his shoulder. Before Joey could react, he suddenly found himself being thrown to the ground. Everyone was just as shocked as Joey was at the man's reflexes and flowing movement. The man merely glanced at Joey, and then continued walking away.
Gritting his teeth as he got back up, the enraged Joey Wheeler turned towards the stranger. "Don't walk away from me, you coward!"
As the word "coward" left Joey's mouth, the stranger stopped. Joey saw his reaction and smiled. "So you gonna duel or what, coward?"
Without wasting a moment, the man flung around, his trench coat rising in the air. He quickly strapped his duel disk on as he slid his deck into the cards slot. Joey smiled at the stranger's actions and did the same with his own duel disk and deck. An excited grin stood confidently on his face.
And for the second time that Sakura had witnessed, the stranger spoke in his eerie voice. "I am no coward. Let us duel."
Chapter 3: Sakura Steps Down, Shin Steps Up
"Destroy her monster, Jurai Gumo, and wipe out the rest of her life points!" Weevil hissed.
Sakura stood in fear. "What can I do?" She asked herself out loud. "I can't do anything to avoid his attack. Kazeyama-sensei said to always be focused on the field, but even my trap card can't help me now."
"It can."
Sakura turned around to find that she standing aside the stranger that was so rude to her before. The man stood tall under his black cloak-like trench coat. He now wore sunglasses that hid his eyes.
"Activate it, quickly!" The stranger whispered.
"But how could my trap card…" Sakura stammered as she looked at her hand. Her eyes widened. "Ooh." She immediately pressed the button above her trap card.
"Say good-bye to your life points, missy!" Weevil manically laughed.
"Not so fast." Sakura shouted as her trap card revealed. "I activate my trap card: Ultimate Offering! This allows me to pay 500 life points to special summon a monster anytime I want, so I sacrifice my Nimble Momonga to summon the Illusionist Faceless Mage, which will defend me against your attack enough to keep me in this duel!"
Weevil grunted in frustration. "Fine, then I'll destroy your mage with Jurai Gumo. It doesn't really matter because all you've done was delay your defeat for one more turn." The giant spider directed its attack to strike down the newly summoned monster, making a significant dent on Sakura's life points.
Sakura: 1200
Weevil: 1000
"It'll be over soon." Weevil snickered. "So make your last move."
"It'll be over sooner than you think." Sakura shouted as she played the cards that would ensure the duel to her. "I'll play the magic card, The Painful Choice, allowing me to choose five cards from my deck. You decide which one I get to keep while the rest go to the graveyard."
Five holograms appeared in front of Weevil: two Dark Magicians, two Magician of Black Chaos's, and the Thousand Knives magic card.
"I will select the Thousand Knives magic card." Weevil said with a smirk. "It's useless since all your Dark Magicians will be in the graveyard!"
"Excellent." Sakura said, her smile growing bigger. "I'll now summon the monster, Mystical Elf (800/2000) in attack mode. Next, I'll activate Ultimate Offering to sacrifice my Mystical Elf and summon my most powerful monster, the Dark Magician Girl!" The holographic projects shot out the image of a female Dark Magician, who seemed deceptively less threatening than its male counterpart. "For every Dark Magician and Magician of Black Chaos in the graveyard, she gains 300 attack points." Sakura explained. "And thanks to you throwing out all of them to my graveyard, Dark Magician Girl now has an attack power of 3800!"
"Big deal." Weevil scoffed. "Its still a tiny fly compared to my ultra powered spider!"
"That's where you're wrong." Sakura countered. "Remember I activated my Ultimate Offering, so my life points were decreased by 500, making it less than yours. So your magic card, Metamorph, backfires on your own monster."
Weevil looked at his monster's attack points which lowered to a mere 2400. "Impossible! Dark Magician Girl's attack will destroy what's left of my life points!"
"That's right." Sakura grinned. "So it's time to finish this duel. Dark Magician Girl, attack Jurai Gumo!"
The female magician flew towards the giant spider and smashed its staff on its metallic hide, releasing waves of darkness unto its shattered form. As quickly as Jurai Gumo disappeared, Weevil's life points dropped, ending the duel for him.
Sakura: 700
Weevil: 0
"Game over, Weevil." Sakura smirked. "Now hand over your Jurai Gumo and get your sorry bugs out of here!"
"I swear you'll pay for this." Weevil muttered as he hesitantly gave Sakura his Jurai Gumo before running away to find more duelists to cheat.
Sakura smiled proudly. This was one of the only duels that she's won without having to rely on lady luck. But she still had one person to thank for her victory. Sakura turned around to find the stranger that had aided her during the duel. To her distress, he was already walking away on a nearby bridge without having said anything. She quickly ran towards the man, wanting to thank him before the opportunity escapes.
"Thanks a lot, mister." Sakura said when she reached the man. "I couldn't have won without your help."
Unsurprisingly, Shin gave no reply.
"I guess you saw that I was a rookie by the way I dueled, right?" Sakura continued, despite the stranger's silence. She started to walk at the same pace as the trench coated man. "Kazeyama-sensei always said that I have potential, but I don't know when I'll actually show it."
The man didn't even nod.
"I actually don't think that I'll ever become a great duelist." Sakura said as she lowered her head. "Sometimes, I feel like I should just quit. But that would dishonor Kazeyama-sensei, and that would be the last thing I would want to do."
Shin again gave no reply; he only continued to walk across the bridge without even acknowledging the girl's presence.
"But don't get me wrong." Sakura said as she made a cheery face. "I love dueling. So I don't think I'll ever stop. I just wish I was better at it."
"You'll get better at it if you believe in yourself." Said a foreign voice behind Sakura, causing her to turn around. The voice belonged to a short boy with spiky red hair and yellow bangs who was accompanied by many other teenagers.
Sakura easily recognized the boy, as would anyone. "Hey, you're Yugi Moto!" she exclaimed. "You were the champion of Kaiba's Battle City Tournament. I'm Sakura Kazekage. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"It's a pleasure to meet you too." Yugi said with a smile.
"Hi, I'm Joey Wheeler." The teenager with the blonde hair introduced. "You might have heard of me, I made it all the way to the Battle City semi-finals."
"Vaguely." Said Sakura. Actually, she had never heard of him before, but it never hurt to be polite once in a while.
"That was an impressive duel you've fought back at the café, Sakura." Yugi complimented. "You and your friend must be pretty good to fend off a cheat like Weevil Underwood."
"Friend?" Sakura asked, immediately realizing that Yugi was talking about the mysterious silent stranger. "That guy? I actually don't know him or anything about him, except that his name is Shin. And the fact that he doesn't talk much."
"Is he a duelist too?" Joey asked with a hint of excitement. "I was gettin a bit bored, so me and Yugi went out to find ourselves some good challenges to duel. You think that guy would prove a worthy duelist against the invincible Joey Wheeler?"
Sakura immediately developed a sweat drop on her forehead. This guy was so full of himself, she thought. How the hell did this Wheeler guy make it into the Battle City semi-finals? But nevertheless, Sakura kept her thoughts to herself. "You can ask him, but I don't think you'll have any luck getting a word out of the guy." She said with a shrug. "I mean, I was trying to get him to talk for like the entire time I was at the café and the most I've ever heard him speak was exactly five words."
Completely ignoring what Sakura just said, Joey quickly ran up to the shrouded man hoping for an opportunity to challenge him. "Hey, tough guy. You wanna duel?"
Shin gave no answer to Joey's challenge, which infuriated the blonde haired duelist. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" Joey shouted as he reached for the man's shoulder.
His hand never made it to the trench coat. With lightning speed, the man had grabbed Joey's hand and stopped it inches from his shoulder. Before Joey could react, he suddenly found himself being thrown to the ground. Everyone was just as shocked as Joey was at the man's reflexes and flowing movement. The man merely glanced at Joey, and then continued walking away.
Gritting his teeth as he got back up, the enraged Joey Wheeler turned towards the stranger. "Don't walk away from me, you coward!"
As the word "coward" left Joey's mouth, the stranger stopped. Joey saw his reaction and smiled. "So you gonna duel or what, coward?"
Without wasting a moment, the man flung around, his trench coat rising in the air. He quickly strapped his duel disk on as he slid his deck into the cards slot. Joey smiled at the stranger's actions and did the same with his own duel disk and deck. An excited grin stood confidently on his face.
And for the second time that Sakura had witnessed, the stranger spoke in his eerie voice. "I am no coward. Let us duel."