Disclaimer: Oh bloody hell, you should know by now I don't own Yu-gi-oh.
Chapter Ten: Adam, Eve, and the Loop of Infinity
Twenty-seven minutes had past since Dalin had announced that any of them who he deemed guilty wold have their souls devoured. Roughly ten minutes ago Yugi had approached Rishid to get an answer to exactly what Dalin was. In the process he discovered that Bakura's room was empty, and Bakura was nowhere to be found.
At twenty-eight minutes Yugi and his friends were frantically searching the blimp for any sign of their strange friend. So far they hadn't managed to find even a trace of him. Meanwhile Dalin sat with Rishid, discussing the same thing that Yugi had wanted to discuss. He was afraid, and fear did not suit well with him.
At twenty-nine minutes Yug and his friends had finally given up in their search and had gone to find Kaiba to get his staff's help in locating Bakura. Taichi was busy watching everyone from the security room, nearby the guard lay in a heap, blood slowly draining out of the side of his head.
At twenty-nine and a half minutes Drake Ihachi could be found flirting shamelessly with Kirani, who was either oblivious to his attempts or simply wanted to lead him on. Kensai watched this in good humor and found that he could laugh quite easily about the situation. Ryu on the other hand sat in a corner meditating...or maybe he was sleeping, Kensai couldn't be quite certain.
Autumn and Hinata stood away from the other's in the room and were busy talking heatedly about something. Based on the gestures made towards Ryu, Kensai was fairly certain he was what they were discussing. Perhaps they both had a crush on him? It was peaceful moments like this that allowed Kensai to contemplate his own reasons for being here.
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The wind whistled through the trees, shaking lose sakura blossoms and sending them spiraling through the air. It was beautiful. "Kyaaa!"
Takuya Shinomori snapped his leg out in a neat roundhouse that connected with the punching with such force that the chain snapped, knocking it to the ground. He lowered his leg and dropped to his knees, breathing hard. For the past two and a half hours he had been pounding away against the bag, just a little practice for endurance.
"Quite impressive Kensai, quite impressive. But though you have great skill and strength you can never become a true martial artist the way you are going at things."
Takuya, who had taken the nickname Kensai when he joined the Geokigo dojo, was a tough looking boy of fourteen. He had a very focused demeanor while practicing, but when his master began to speak about such things he became confused, they just didn't mean much to him. He couldn't understand it.
"What does that mean Sensei? I don't understand. Please explain it to me."
His master, a tall man in his fifties with completely gray hair smiled down at the kneeling boy and held something out. "A true martial artist is balanced in both body and mind. You must always remember that." With that his master turned and walked away.
Takuya looked down at what his master and handed him and stared at it in confusion. It was a card with a picture of a warrior in black armor. "Chaos Soldier..."
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At exactly thirty minutes the referree started up the bingo machine, and mere seconds later the first duelist of the next match was selected. "Mai Valentine please report to the dueling field, if you do not report in five minutes you will be disqualified."
Kensai glanced around, trying to see if he could see here, but it didn't seem like she was in the room. She must be with Yugi and the rest of those people. "The second duelist for the next match is Takuya Shinomori!"
Kensai stood, and shook his head in disgust. "I'm forced to face a woman in a duel? What sort of joke is this? Women can't fight and they can't duel, so why must I be the one to face her?"
"EXCUSE ME?" Kensai turned to see Mai Valentine stalking into the room, fists raised, her eyes ablaze with fury. He sighed at this sight. Anger wouldn't accomplish anything, it would only make you slip up. Women were always to caught up in their emotions and that was why they couldn't fight or duel. You had to have a clear head in order to fight successfully.
"I don't suppose it matters. I'll beat you in five turns and then I can get back to resting up. So please, lets get to the dueling field quickly so that we can get this over with." Mai stalked past him, completely ignoring him and entered the elevator. Kensai followed, and she proceeded to continue ignoring him as they rose up to the dueling field.
As soon as they got there Mai chose her spot on the field, letting Kensai take the other. He glanced around to see who had come up, and saw Kaiba, Drake, Kirani, Autumn, Hinata, and Ryu standing there watching. Kirani, Autumn, and Hinata were all glaring at him, apparently upset about his comments about women. Ryu was...well it couldn't be meditating if he was snoring now could it? How he had gotten up here Kensai had no idea.
"You've insulted women in general and me in particular, and that's something I just won't tolerate, so I'll take the first turn and it'll only take ME five turns to beat you!" Mai fiercely snapped a sixth card off the top of her deck and slammed a card down onto the DD2.
"I summon Amazon Pet Tiger(1100/150) in attack modce. I'll set one magic or trap card face down and end my turn." Kensai examined her orange furred monster, wondering whether it had any special effect to make it worth while as its stats were pathetic. Of course it meant she used Amazon cards, something only a woman would do.
Kensai slipped another card off his duel disk and looked at it carefully, the card would certainly work perfectly with his strategy. "I play Painful Choice. This magic card lets me select five cards in my deck and you have to choose one of them. The one you choose goes into my hand, the other four are sent to the cemetery."
Mai watched him carefully as he searched through his deck for nearly a minute before coming up with the five cards he wanted. He approached Mai and showed them to her, revealing two Swift Black Ninjas, and three Wandering Hero Freeds. "I'll select one of your Freeds, just so I can get rid of those ninjas. If you start using ninja monsters I'm going to get really pissed."
Kensai slid the other four cards into his cemetery slot and added Wandering Hero Freed into his hand. He glanced at Mai curiously as he headed back to his side. "What about ninjas pisses you off so much?"
"I had a run in with an annoying guy named Magnum who used ninja monsters, it happened to be a really annoying duel." Kensai started laughing. How perfect could you get?
"I myself had a run in with Magnum. It was my very first duel in Battle City..."
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Magnum stood across from him, smirking at the situation. He had two Ninja Master Shoguns on the field, one floating high above on a kite that allowed him to attack directly by sacrificing one monster. He had two weak ninjas in defense mode and his second Shogun in attack, protected by the Ninja Rights Act, which wouldn't let any monster without ninja in its name attack as long as the Shogun he had selected remained on the field. (KLP: 2300, MLP: 4000)
"I'll end my turn after that direct attack, soon it'll all be over since your warriors can't attack me. Two more turns is all I'll need to defeat you, and I already have the monster sacrifices I need!"
Kensai smirked as he drew his card, looking over his Wandering Hero Freed on the field and his face down monster. "I flip my Troop Commander(1200/1900) into attack mode, which reveals his special ability to power up my warriors by four hundred points. (WHF: 2100/1200) Next I play Calling Reinforcements to let me select one warrior sub-type monster in my deck and add it to my hand, shuffling my deck afterwards."
"Very well, continue as you were."
"I summon Marauding Captain(1600/400), whose special effect lets me special summon another level four monster from my hand onto the field, so I summon the second Marauding Captain. His summoning lets me summon yet another warrior type from my hand, so I'll special summon Swift Black Ninja(2100/1200) in attack mode! I'll next play the field card Sogen, powering up all warrior and beast-warrior sub-type monsters on the field."
(Mcs: 1800/600, WHF: 2300/1400, SBN: 2300/1200, TC: 1400/2100, NMS: 1800/1400)
Magnum's hands began to shake as he looked upon Kensai's assembled army of powerful monsters. What was worse was that as soon as the Swift Black Ninja destroyed his Shogun, then he'd be free to cut into his other monsters and his life points. "This can't be happening!"
"Swift Black Ninja, destroy his Shogun!"
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"Yeah, it was a pretty interesting duel. It was a pity I couldn't knock Magnum out of the tournament, but at the time I only had one locator card and he had two."
"Like I care, just make your move already!" Kensai shrugged and picked out the three cards he wanted to play. It would soon be over.
"By removing one light type and one dark type from my cemetery I can special summon one of the strongest monsters in the entire game. Chaos Soldier-Messenger of the Beginning(3000/2500)! I'll also power him up with the extremely rare and powerful equip card, Axe of Despair, to raise his attack strength to 4000!"
Chaos Soldier shimmered into view, and snatched the axe that appeared beside him, arming him with two weapons, his sword and the axe. "I also summon Wandering Hero Freed(1700/1200) in attack mode!"
The next monster that appeared was a blond warrior in armor, with a sword at his side and a red cape flaring out behind him. "Chaos Soldier, attack and destroy her monster with your Chaos Blade attack!" Chaos Soldier swept his blade in a downwards arc, sending a wave of energy at the tiger. To Kensai's surprise the tiger leapt over the wave of energy and charged at Chaos Soldier. With a sweep of its claws, the Chaos Soldier was destroyed. "Impossible!"
"Not at all, my face down Amazon Gypsy card did all the work for me. When activated I select one monster with amazon in its name on the field and swap its attack with the attack of one of my opponent's face up monster. While in battle with that monster the two monster's attack strengths are switched, making your soldier's attack a mere 1100 and my tiger's attack at 4000."
Kensai clenched his fist trying to hold in his anger. His favorite monster cut down on his first turn, and all because he was so convinced that this woman was a terrible duelist that he didn't even consider her face down card! He was an idiot! "Fine then, but now that its not battling my soldier its attack strength is once again pathetic, so Freed will cut it down to size!"
Freed swept his blade through the tiger's neck in one swift sweep, separating its head from its body and destroying it. (KLP: 1100, MLP: 3400) "I end my turn."
Mai smirked and drew her next card. "You really aren't worth my time at all. So I'll set one card face down and summon Cyber Harpy(1800/1300) in attack mode. Cyber Harpy will destroy your Freed!" Kensai stood strong as his last remaining defense was destroyed in front of his very eyes. (KLP: 1000)
"Now that its my turn I'll play Warrior Reborn, to take one warrior sub-type monster from my cemetery and add it to my hand. So of course I select Chaos Soldier and special summon it by removing another light and another dark monster from my cemetery. I also summon Troop Commander(1200/1900) who powers my soldier up to 3400 attack. Chaos Soldier, destroy her harpy!"
For the second time in that duel the surprising happened, three robed men appeared and blocked off Chaos Soldier's attack. "Sorry hon, but I won't let you destroy my harpy that easily. Waboku stops your attack."
Kensai nodded and slipped another card into his duel disk. "I'll just set one card face down and end my turn."
"Alright, now I play Tribute to the Doomed, and by discarding one card from my hand I can destroy on of your monsters, and I'm selecting Chaos Soldier!" Kensai groaned as yet again his Chaos Soldier bit the dust, this time dragged to its death wrapped up like a mummy.
"Cyber Harpy, destroy his Troop Commander!" With a swift sweep of its wings Kensai's Troop Commander was no more. (KLP: 400, MLP: 2700)
"I chained your attack with Attack and Receive, which deals you seven hundred damage. Now that its my turn I think I'll take this duel back under my control. I play Pot of Greed. Next I summon Seven Weapons Hunter(1000/600) in attack mode and select the sub-type of your Cyber Harpy!"
"What does that mean?"
Kensai snickered and gestured to his heavily armed warrior, who put up his sword and looked through his numerous weapons before picking up a bow and arrow. "When I summon this monster I must select one sub-type, in this case Winged Beast, and during battle with said sub-type my monster will gain 1000 attack points during the damage step. To further increase my chances I'll equip him with Fusion Arms Murasame Blade to increase his attack to 1800. I attack!"
Seven Weapons Hunter pierced the Cyber Harpy with a single shot from his bow and arrows, taking it down and destroying it. (MLP: 1700) "I set one magic or trap card and end my turn. Back to you Mai."
Mai drew and weighed her options. She couldn't summon another winged beast type, otherwise he'd just rip through it. She had one card that was capable of defeating the beefed up Seven Weapons Hunter, but there was no telling what his face down card was. "I summon Unfriendly Amazon(2000/1000) and have it attack Seven Weapons Hunter."
The armored woman took a swing at the taller man with her blade, but he managed to avoid it and launched an arrow directly at Mai. During this moment of distraction the Unfriendly Amazon scored a hit to the warrior's chest, killing it instantly. (KLP: 200, MLP: 700) "You should know by know Mai, that if you attack, then you'll have to receive. Your attack activated my second Attack and Receive trap card, doing the seven hundred damage to you, plus three hundred extra because of the first one in my cemetery."
"Oh shut up. I end my turn." Kensai smirked despite the fact that he was behind and in a bad position. He needed something good otherwise he'd lose pretty quickly. The one disadvantage of Mai's female warrior was that she had to sacrifice a monster to it during her next standby phase or she'd have to destroy it, and since she had no monsters and couldn't summon during the main phase, that could work to Kensai's advantage.
He drew and laughed in triumph. "Mai, I just drew one of the cards in my deck that can insure my victory. I just drew Swift Knight Gaia(2300/2100). When he's the only card in my hand I can special summon him to the field, which I will!"
Mai involuntarily stepped backwards as the powerful knight road out of his card and onto the field. Not only was it more powerful then her warrior, but she had nothing to block the attack with. "Gaia, attack and destroy Unfriendly Amazon!"
The knight charged across the field and speared Unfriendly Amazon with his joust, hurling her backwards and destroying her. (MLP: 400) The score was almost tied and now Kensai had the strongest monster out, whereas Mai's field was empty.
Mai snagged her next card and let out a sigh of relief. She now had the cards to beat him without giving him the satisfaction of knowing that she had to use his monster to win. Now she could beat him her way. "I play Monster Reborn to revive the monster I discarded for Tribute to the Doomed's effect, Harpy's Pet Dragon(2000/2500)." The dragon took the field, letting out a shrill cry of defiance. Gaia's mount whinnied and pawed his hooves against the ground, agitated by the presence of Mai's dragon.
"You see, no woman should fight or duel, its their emotions that cloud their judgement. You refused to revive my Chaos Soldier from the graveyard because it was mine, and I insulted you. Here you are, trying to succeed with your own strength, when had you borrowed from mine you could have won."
Mai smirked and slapped down her next card with glee. "Apparently you don't know my dragon's effect. It gains three hundred attack points for every Harpy Lady on the field. Since the monster I'm summoning is Cyber Harpy(1800/1300) my dragon's attack increases to 2300, equal to your knight's attack strength. Harpy's Pet Dragon, roast that knight!"
Kensai stood strong as the dragon's fire burnt his knight to a crisp, even as the knight stabbed his joust into the dragon's belly. Both of them exploded into holographic particles at the same time, leaving Kensai wide open for a direct attack. "Cyber Harpy, show him what us ladies can do!"
The harpy swooped down and tackled Kensai, knocking him into the railing directly behind him. It was all over. (KLP: 0) He sighed as the projectors deactivated and the ref declared Mai the winner. "Congratulations Mai, I guess I was wrong about you were capable of." He extended his hand to her.
She strode past his outstretched hand, refusing to shake it. "Whatever. Maybe losing to a woman will make you change your opinion of us. But...good job anyway. For an amateur that is."
Kensai shrugged and jumped down from his place on the field, ready to relax for the next thirty minutes before he got to watch a hopefully exciting duel. Maybe Mai was right, maybe women could duel. Maybe he'd find out, two of the six remaining duelists were women, so chances were that they'd be paired up against a man. As he entered the elevator he noticed one thing that just made his day.
Ryu was still fast asleep.
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Twenty-five minutes had past since the duel between Kensai and Mai, but Yugi and his friends had been unable to find Bakura. Giving that up, Yugi had gone to speak with Rishid, and had learned what Dalin had learned.
Yugi was shocked to discover that Dalin was merely a human incarnation of an Egyptian demon called Ammut, the Devourer of Souls. Apparently this beast played a large role in the process of judgement after death, for when a person was judged to have a heavy soul, they were given to Ammut who would devour their soul.
According to Rishid the myths about Ammut were only part of the truth. It turned out that Osiris had created Ammut in order to keep the Shadow Realm from growing stronger, because whenever a person with a heavy soul was cast down, the darkness in their soul would feed the Shadow Realm and make it stronger. By devouring those souls, Ammut was actually steadily weakening the Shadow Realm.
At twenty-six minutes after the previous duel, Drake was busy flirting with Kirani again. Just as before she seemed totally unaware of his efforts. Hinata and Autumn were arguing once again about something or another, and Kensai sat cross-legged in a corner meditating. Ryu...was still sleeping.
At twenty-eight minutes past, Yugi was deep in conversation with his other half about what they had just learned. His friends stood outside his door, listening in to his conversation, trying to find out about Dalin. Dalin himself stood at the very front of the Battle Blimp and on top of it. The wind whipped about him at dangerous speeds, but not even a single hair on his head shifted. He stood there and contemplated what he was, wondering exactly what role he would have to play. There had to be a reason that he had been incarnated in a human form.
At that same moment, Taichi Nobuki was staring at the Millennium Rod, Millennium Ring, and Millennium Eye, contemplating them. However he was not alone in his contemplation, for from within a dark corner of his mind, the dark spirit that had possessed Malik watched very carefully. He had cut a deal with Taichi Nobuki, and his hikari's soul was devoured in order to save the dark spirit.
Taichi had told him that he was going to lose to Dalin and have his soul devoured. The dark spirit had laughed this off, thinking that it would be impossible for someone to beat him while he possessed Ra. However, when Taichi explained how he knew, the dark spirit was forced to cut a deal. At the last moment, right before his soul was to be devoured, Taichi would use his magic to switch the part that was taken. Dalin had devoured the soul of the real Malik and he remained unaware of this.
At thirty minutes, Ryu was still sleeping. "The first duelist in the next duel is Autumn Kurai. Please report to the dueling ring immediately." Autumn nodded and headed to the elevator, Kensai, Drake, and Kirani at her heels.
"The second duelist is Ryu Shigeru. Will Ryu Shigeru please report to the dueling ring imediately." Silence followed. Hinata rolled her eyes and looked around for a moment before spotting Ryu, sleeping.
"Honestly Ryu, you could sleep through the end of the world." Grinning to herself she grabbed a glass of punch from the food table nearby and stalked over to Ryu. He'd wake up, but he might be a little upset with her.
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Autumn giggled furiously as Ryu took his spot across from her. He glowered back at her, trying to ignore how cold it was with the wind blowing against his now wet t-shirt. "Look, I don't want to duel you Autumn, so lets just get this done with as quickly as we can."
Autumn managed to nod through her giggles and Ryu continued to glower as he drew his opening hand of six cards. "I'll summon Dark Zebra(1800/400) in attack mode and place one card face down behind it. That's all for now."
Autumn finally managed to calm down as she drew her sixth card, however she seemed rather upset about something. "Ryu...I don't want to duel you either. So forgive me for letting Misuno take over."
"Huh?" Ryu got his answer fairly quickly as Autumn's demeanor changed, her brow furrowed and she seemed to focus more as well. The oddest part was that her hair seemed to be rougher then it had before, spiking out in several places.
"I set one monster in defense mode, and play the Swords of Revealing Light!" Glowing green swords slammed down to lock Ryu into place for three turns.
"All your doing is stalling. Who are you anyway?" Misuno laughed and opened her hand. A golden light formed in the shape of a staff and slowly that staff materialized. Ryu didn't even have to look to know that on the head of it was the same eye that appeared on every other Millennium Item.
"I am the dark spirit that resides within the Millennium Staff. I was forced into this staff along with my twin sister roughly five hundred years after the creation of the item itself. Now I inhabit this girl and when I'm needed I take control. Its not as good as actually being alive, but being able to truly see, hear, and breath for a short time is astounding compared to what I can do without her." He smirked and motioned for Ryu to continue.
"I don't know why Autumn accepts you being in her body, but that's her decision. For myself, I wouldn't want a single part of some inner spirit like you. Now watch out as I sacrifice Dark Zebra for the Summoned Skull(2500/1200) and equip it with Horn of the Unicorn, boosting its power by seven hundred points!"
The demon appeared and let out a fierce roar, seconds later a glowing silver horn appeared on its forehead. The demon attempted to swat it off, but after several unsuccessful attempts it gave up. Misuno smirked and snapped a card off his deck. "I set one monster in defense mode and end my turn. Back to you lover boy!"
Ryu rolled his eyes and grabbed another card. He couldn't let this annoying jerk get to him, all he had to do was keep dueling and he'd be fine. "I summon Battle Ox(1700/1000) in attack mode, and equip Summoned Skull with Malevolent Nuzzler boosting his attack by another seven hundred points!"
A demonic woman appeared out of the card and stepped up to the demon, massaging his shoulders. Next to the skull now stood a fierce minotaur wielding an axe, both monsters appeared ready for battle, but the swords still kept them from attacking. Misuno drew his next and let out a highly exaggerated sigh. "It's a pity that you weren't a better duelist Ryu, otherwise this might have been more fun than it is. I guess I'll just have to end it right now."
Ryu's eyes widened and he looked over Misuno's field. All he had was two defense monsters, and there was no way those two monsters could win him the duel so quickly. "You're bluffing, you can't win in one turn with the kind of cards you've got out."
Misuno smirked and slowly pulled one card from his hand and placed it on the field, picking up his first defense monster as he did so, sacrificing it. "Allow me to explain something about this deck. You see it has parts of myself, my twin, and Autumn in it. I supplied the dark, my twin the light, and Autumn supplied the deadliest factor of all. Her loop combos!"
The card Misuno had just played appeared on the field, and from it burst forth the Gilfar Demon(2200/2500) a monster that Ryu knew as sort of a weaker counterpart to the Talwar Demon. "Loop combos? What the hell are you talking about?"
"I'll show you. Gilfar Demon, attack his Summoned Skull!" The flying demon let loose a stream of fire from its mouth, but the Summoned Skull merely batted the fire aside with one of its wings. Then the demon retaliated with a bolt of lightning that struck the Gilfar Demon and blew it into pieces. (A/MLP:1800)
"I don't know what you're playing at, but by attacking you not only got a face full of my Summoned Skull, but you also got hit by the added power from my Reinforcements cards, boosting him during that brief moment by five hundred points."
Misuno smirked and motioned to his other monster, which had just appeared on the field. It was a small humanoid creature made out of leaves. It had pathetic stats of (900/400) but as he watched they decreased to (400/400). "What's going on Misuno?"
He smirked and clenched his fists tightly together. "It's the Loop of Infinity! You see, when Gilfar Demon goes to the cemetery he may become an equip card on one monster, decreasing that monster's attack by five hundred. I equipped him on Leaf Fairy, whose effect sends Gilfar to the cemetery again and deals five hundred damage to your life points. (RLP: 3500) Of course since Gilfar is in the cemetery I can equip him onto a monster, namely Leaf Fairy, once again activating its effect. (RLP: 3000) Are you beginning to get the picture?"
The cards fell from Ryu's hands as he dropped to his knees in horror. It was impossible! If the same thing happened every time then soon enough...(RLP: 0) He closed his eyes and groaned as the referee announced his defeat. It just didn't seem possible that he could have lost so quickly, or that such a deadly combo could exist.
"Thanks for the duel Autumn, even if it didn't last very long."
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Author's Note: THE LOOP OF INFINITY DOES NOT WORK! Just a little note there. Once Leaf Fairy was put out the ruling on Gilfar Demon was changed so that it didn't activate if Gilfar is sent to the cemetery and an effect is activated such as Leaf Fairy's 500 damage. So it would go to the cemetery but not become an equip card again. That is all.
Next Time: Drake finally gets his chance to show his stuff in a duel in the finals, but his first opponent can only be one of three people. Kirani, Kaiba, or Taichi? Who will he face and what does his duel have in store for him? You'll just have to read to find out.
Chapter Ten: Adam, Eve, and the Loop of Infinity
Twenty-seven minutes had past since Dalin had announced that any of them who he deemed guilty wold have their souls devoured. Roughly ten minutes ago Yugi had approached Rishid to get an answer to exactly what Dalin was. In the process he discovered that Bakura's room was empty, and Bakura was nowhere to be found.
At twenty-eight minutes Yugi and his friends were frantically searching the blimp for any sign of their strange friend. So far they hadn't managed to find even a trace of him. Meanwhile Dalin sat with Rishid, discussing the same thing that Yugi had wanted to discuss. He was afraid, and fear did not suit well with him.
At twenty-nine minutes Yug and his friends had finally given up in their search and had gone to find Kaiba to get his staff's help in locating Bakura. Taichi was busy watching everyone from the security room, nearby the guard lay in a heap, blood slowly draining out of the side of his head.
At twenty-nine and a half minutes Drake Ihachi could be found flirting shamelessly with Kirani, who was either oblivious to his attempts or simply wanted to lead him on. Kensai watched this in good humor and found that he could laugh quite easily about the situation. Ryu on the other hand sat in a corner meditating...or maybe he was sleeping, Kensai couldn't be quite certain.
Autumn and Hinata stood away from the other's in the room and were busy talking heatedly about something. Based on the gestures made towards Ryu, Kensai was fairly certain he was what they were discussing. Perhaps they both had a crush on him? It was peaceful moments like this that allowed Kensai to contemplate his own reasons for being here.
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The wind whistled through the trees, shaking lose sakura blossoms and sending them spiraling through the air. It was beautiful. "Kyaaa!"
Takuya Shinomori snapped his leg out in a neat roundhouse that connected with the punching with such force that the chain snapped, knocking it to the ground. He lowered his leg and dropped to his knees, breathing hard. For the past two and a half hours he had been pounding away against the bag, just a little practice for endurance.
"Quite impressive Kensai, quite impressive. But though you have great skill and strength you can never become a true martial artist the way you are going at things."
Takuya, who had taken the nickname Kensai when he joined the Geokigo dojo, was a tough looking boy of fourteen. He had a very focused demeanor while practicing, but when his master began to speak about such things he became confused, they just didn't mean much to him. He couldn't understand it.
"What does that mean Sensei? I don't understand. Please explain it to me."
His master, a tall man in his fifties with completely gray hair smiled down at the kneeling boy and held something out. "A true martial artist is balanced in both body and mind. You must always remember that." With that his master turned and walked away.
Takuya looked down at what his master and handed him and stared at it in confusion. It was a card with a picture of a warrior in black armor. "Chaos Soldier..."
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At exactly thirty minutes the referree started up the bingo machine, and mere seconds later the first duelist of the next match was selected. "Mai Valentine please report to the dueling field, if you do not report in five minutes you will be disqualified."
Kensai glanced around, trying to see if he could see here, but it didn't seem like she was in the room. She must be with Yugi and the rest of those people. "The second duelist for the next match is Takuya Shinomori!"
Kensai stood, and shook his head in disgust. "I'm forced to face a woman in a duel? What sort of joke is this? Women can't fight and they can't duel, so why must I be the one to face her?"
"EXCUSE ME?" Kensai turned to see Mai Valentine stalking into the room, fists raised, her eyes ablaze with fury. He sighed at this sight. Anger wouldn't accomplish anything, it would only make you slip up. Women were always to caught up in their emotions and that was why they couldn't fight or duel. You had to have a clear head in order to fight successfully.
"I don't suppose it matters. I'll beat you in five turns and then I can get back to resting up. So please, lets get to the dueling field quickly so that we can get this over with." Mai stalked past him, completely ignoring him and entered the elevator. Kensai followed, and she proceeded to continue ignoring him as they rose up to the dueling field.
As soon as they got there Mai chose her spot on the field, letting Kensai take the other. He glanced around to see who had come up, and saw Kaiba, Drake, Kirani, Autumn, Hinata, and Ryu standing there watching. Kirani, Autumn, and Hinata were all glaring at him, apparently upset about his comments about women. Ryu was...well it couldn't be meditating if he was snoring now could it? How he had gotten up here Kensai had no idea.
"You've insulted women in general and me in particular, and that's something I just won't tolerate, so I'll take the first turn and it'll only take ME five turns to beat you!" Mai fiercely snapped a sixth card off the top of her deck and slammed a card down onto the DD2.
"I summon Amazon Pet Tiger(1100/150) in attack modce. I'll set one magic or trap card face down and end my turn." Kensai examined her orange furred monster, wondering whether it had any special effect to make it worth while as its stats were pathetic. Of course it meant she used Amazon cards, something only a woman would do.
Kensai slipped another card off his duel disk and looked at it carefully, the card would certainly work perfectly with his strategy. "I play Painful Choice. This magic card lets me select five cards in my deck and you have to choose one of them. The one you choose goes into my hand, the other four are sent to the cemetery."
Mai watched him carefully as he searched through his deck for nearly a minute before coming up with the five cards he wanted. He approached Mai and showed them to her, revealing two Swift Black Ninjas, and three Wandering Hero Freeds. "I'll select one of your Freeds, just so I can get rid of those ninjas. If you start using ninja monsters I'm going to get really pissed."
Kensai slid the other four cards into his cemetery slot and added Wandering Hero Freed into his hand. He glanced at Mai curiously as he headed back to his side. "What about ninjas pisses you off so much?"
"I had a run in with an annoying guy named Magnum who used ninja monsters, it happened to be a really annoying duel." Kensai started laughing. How perfect could you get?
"I myself had a run in with Magnum. It was my very first duel in Battle City..."
**************
Magnum stood across from him, smirking at the situation. He had two Ninja Master Shoguns on the field, one floating high above on a kite that allowed him to attack directly by sacrificing one monster. He had two weak ninjas in defense mode and his second Shogun in attack, protected by the Ninja Rights Act, which wouldn't let any monster without ninja in its name attack as long as the Shogun he had selected remained on the field. (KLP: 2300, MLP: 4000)
"I'll end my turn after that direct attack, soon it'll all be over since your warriors can't attack me. Two more turns is all I'll need to defeat you, and I already have the monster sacrifices I need!"
Kensai smirked as he drew his card, looking over his Wandering Hero Freed on the field and his face down monster. "I flip my Troop Commander(1200/1900) into attack mode, which reveals his special ability to power up my warriors by four hundred points. (WHF: 2100/1200) Next I play Calling Reinforcements to let me select one warrior sub-type monster in my deck and add it to my hand, shuffling my deck afterwards."
"Very well, continue as you were."
"I summon Marauding Captain(1600/400), whose special effect lets me special summon another level four monster from my hand onto the field, so I summon the second Marauding Captain. His summoning lets me summon yet another warrior type from my hand, so I'll special summon Swift Black Ninja(2100/1200) in attack mode! I'll next play the field card Sogen, powering up all warrior and beast-warrior sub-type monsters on the field."
(Mcs: 1800/600, WHF: 2300/1400, SBN: 2300/1200, TC: 1400/2100, NMS: 1800/1400)
Magnum's hands began to shake as he looked upon Kensai's assembled army of powerful monsters. What was worse was that as soon as the Swift Black Ninja destroyed his Shogun, then he'd be free to cut into his other monsters and his life points. "This can't be happening!"
"Swift Black Ninja, destroy his Shogun!"
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"Yeah, it was a pretty interesting duel. It was a pity I couldn't knock Magnum out of the tournament, but at the time I only had one locator card and he had two."
"Like I care, just make your move already!" Kensai shrugged and picked out the three cards he wanted to play. It would soon be over.
"By removing one light type and one dark type from my cemetery I can special summon one of the strongest monsters in the entire game. Chaos Soldier-Messenger of the Beginning(3000/2500)! I'll also power him up with the extremely rare and powerful equip card, Axe of Despair, to raise his attack strength to 4000!"
Chaos Soldier shimmered into view, and snatched the axe that appeared beside him, arming him with two weapons, his sword and the axe. "I also summon Wandering Hero Freed(1700/1200) in attack mode!"
The next monster that appeared was a blond warrior in armor, with a sword at his side and a red cape flaring out behind him. "Chaos Soldier, attack and destroy her monster with your Chaos Blade attack!" Chaos Soldier swept his blade in a downwards arc, sending a wave of energy at the tiger. To Kensai's surprise the tiger leapt over the wave of energy and charged at Chaos Soldier. With a sweep of its claws, the Chaos Soldier was destroyed. "Impossible!"
"Not at all, my face down Amazon Gypsy card did all the work for me. When activated I select one monster with amazon in its name on the field and swap its attack with the attack of one of my opponent's face up monster. While in battle with that monster the two monster's attack strengths are switched, making your soldier's attack a mere 1100 and my tiger's attack at 4000."
Kensai clenched his fist trying to hold in his anger. His favorite monster cut down on his first turn, and all because he was so convinced that this woman was a terrible duelist that he didn't even consider her face down card! He was an idiot! "Fine then, but now that its not battling my soldier its attack strength is once again pathetic, so Freed will cut it down to size!"
Freed swept his blade through the tiger's neck in one swift sweep, separating its head from its body and destroying it. (KLP: 1100, MLP: 3400) "I end my turn."
Mai smirked and drew her next card. "You really aren't worth my time at all. So I'll set one card face down and summon Cyber Harpy(1800/1300) in attack mode. Cyber Harpy will destroy your Freed!" Kensai stood strong as his last remaining defense was destroyed in front of his very eyes. (KLP: 1000)
"Now that its my turn I'll play Warrior Reborn, to take one warrior sub-type monster from my cemetery and add it to my hand. So of course I select Chaos Soldier and special summon it by removing another light and another dark monster from my cemetery. I also summon Troop Commander(1200/1900) who powers my soldier up to 3400 attack. Chaos Soldier, destroy her harpy!"
For the second time in that duel the surprising happened, three robed men appeared and blocked off Chaos Soldier's attack. "Sorry hon, but I won't let you destroy my harpy that easily. Waboku stops your attack."
Kensai nodded and slipped another card into his duel disk. "I'll just set one card face down and end my turn."
"Alright, now I play Tribute to the Doomed, and by discarding one card from my hand I can destroy on of your monsters, and I'm selecting Chaos Soldier!" Kensai groaned as yet again his Chaos Soldier bit the dust, this time dragged to its death wrapped up like a mummy.
"Cyber Harpy, destroy his Troop Commander!" With a swift sweep of its wings Kensai's Troop Commander was no more. (KLP: 400, MLP: 2700)
"I chained your attack with Attack and Receive, which deals you seven hundred damage. Now that its my turn I think I'll take this duel back under my control. I play Pot of Greed. Next I summon Seven Weapons Hunter(1000/600) in attack mode and select the sub-type of your Cyber Harpy!"
"What does that mean?"
Kensai snickered and gestured to his heavily armed warrior, who put up his sword and looked through his numerous weapons before picking up a bow and arrow. "When I summon this monster I must select one sub-type, in this case Winged Beast, and during battle with said sub-type my monster will gain 1000 attack points during the damage step. To further increase my chances I'll equip him with Fusion Arms Murasame Blade to increase his attack to 1800. I attack!"
Seven Weapons Hunter pierced the Cyber Harpy with a single shot from his bow and arrows, taking it down and destroying it. (MLP: 1700) "I set one magic or trap card and end my turn. Back to you Mai."
Mai drew and weighed her options. She couldn't summon another winged beast type, otherwise he'd just rip through it. She had one card that was capable of defeating the beefed up Seven Weapons Hunter, but there was no telling what his face down card was. "I summon Unfriendly Amazon(2000/1000) and have it attack Seven Weapons Hunter."
The armored woman took a swing at the taller man with her blade, but he managed to avoid it and launched an arrow directly at Mai. During this moment of distraction the Unfriendly Amazon scored a hit to the warrior's chest, killing it instantly. (KLP: 200, MLP: 700) "You should know by know Mai, that if you attack, then you'll have to receive. Your attack activated my second Attack and Receive trap card, doing the seven hundred damage to you, plus three hundred extra because of the first one in my cemetery."
"Oh shut up. I end my turn." Kensai smirked despite the fact that he was behind and in a bad position. He needed something good otherwise he'd lose pretty quickly. The one disadvantage of Mai's female warrior was that she had to sacrifice a monster to it during her next standby phase or she'd have to destroy it, and since she had no monsters and couldn't summon during the main phase, that could work to Kensai's advantage.
He drew and laughed in triumph. "Mai, I just drew one of the cards in my deck that can insure my victory. I just drew Swift Knight Gaia(2300/2100). When he's the only card in my hand I can special summon him to the field, which I will!"
Mai involuntarily stepped backwards as the powerful knight road out of his card and onto the field. Not only was it more powerful then her warrior, but she had nothing to block the attack with. "Gaia, attack and destroy Unfriendly Amazon!"
The knight charged across the field and speared Unfriendly Amazon with his joust, hurling her backwards and destroying her. (MLP: 400) The score was almost tied and now Kensai had the strongest monster out, whereas Mai's field was empty.
Mai snagged her next card and let out a sigh of relief. She now had the cards to beat him without giving him the satisfaction of knowing that she had to use his monster to win. Now she could beat him her way. "I play Monster Reborn to revive the monster I discarded for Tribute to the Doomed's effect, Harpy's Pet Dragon(2000/2500)." The dragon took the field, letting out a shrill cry of defiance. Gaia's mount whinnied and pawed his hooves against the ground, agitated by the presence of Mai's dragon.
"You see, no woman should fight or duel, its their emotions that cloud their judgement. You refused to revive my Chaos Soldier from the graveyard because it was mine, and I insulted you. Here you are, trying to succeed with your own strength, when had you borrowed from mine you could have won."
Mai smirked and slapped down her next card with glee. "Apparently you don't know my dragon's effect. It gains three hundred attack points for every Harpy Lady on the field. Since the monster I'm summoning is Cyber Harpy(1800/1300) my dragon's attack increases to 2300, equal to your knight's attack strength. Harpy's Pet Dragon, roast that knight!"
Kensai stood strong as the dragon's fire burnt his knight to a crisp, even as the knight stabbed his joust into the dragon's belly. Both of them exploded into holographic particles at the same time, leaving Kensai wide open for a direct attack. "Cyber Harpy, show him what us ladies can do!"
The harpy swooped down and tackled Kensai, knocking him into the railing directly behind him. It was all over. (KLP: 0) He sighed as the projectors deactivated and the ref declared Mai the winner. "Congratulations Mai, I guess I was wrong about you were capable of." He extended his hand to her.
She strode past his outstretched hand, refusing to shake it. "Whatever. Maybe losing to a woman will make you change your opinion of us. But...good job anyway. For an amateur that is."
Kensai shrugged and jumped down from his place on the field, ready to relax for the next thirty minutes before he got to watch a hopefully exciting duel. Maybe Mai was right, maybe women could duel. Maybe he'd find out, two of the six remaining duelists were women, so chances were that they'd be paired up against a man. As he entered the elevator he noticed one thing that just made his day.
Ryu was still fast asleep.
***************************
Twenty-five minutes had past since the duel between Kensai and Mai, but Yugi and his friends had been unable to find Bakura. Giving that up, Yugi had gone to speak with Rishid, and had learned what Dalin had learned.
Yugi was shocked to discover that Dalin was merely a human incarnation of an Egyptian demon called Ammut, the Devourer of Souls. Apparently this beast played a large role in the process of judgement after death, for when a person was judged to have a heavy soul, they were given to Ammut who would devour their soul.
According to Rishid the myths about Ammut were only part of the truth. It turned out that Osiris had created Ammut in order to keep the Shadow Realm from growing stronger, because whenever a person with a heavy soul was cast down, the darkness in their soul would feed the Shadow Realm and make it stronger. By devouring those souls, Ammut was actually steadily weakening the Shadow Realm.
At twenty-six minutes after the previous duel, Drake was busy flirting with Kirani again. Just as before she seemed totally unaware of his efforts. Hinata and Autumn were arguing once again about something or another, and Kensai sat cross-legged in a corner meditating. Ryu...was still sleeping.
At twenty-eight minutes past, Yugi was deep in conversation with his other half about what they had just learned. His friends stood outside his door, listening in to his conversation, trying to find out about Dalin. Dalin himself stood at the very front of the Battle Blimp and on top of it. The wind whipped about him at dangerous speeds, but not even a single hair on his head shifted. He stood there and contemplated what he was, wondering exactly what role he would have to play. There had to be a reason that he had been incarnated in a human form.
At that same moment, Taichi Nobuki was staring at the Millennium Rod, Millennium Ring, and Millennium Eye, contemplating them. However he was not alone in his contemplation, for from within a dark corner of his mind, the dark spirit that had possessed Malik watched very carefully. He had cut a deal with Taichi Nobuki, and his hikari's soul was devoured in order to save the dark spirit.
Taichi had told him that he was going to lose to Dalin and have his soul devoured. The dark spirit had laughed this off, thinking that it would be impossible for someone to beat him while he possessed Ra. However, when Taichi explained how he knew, the dark spirit was forced to cut a deal. At the last moment, right before his soul was to be devoured, Taichi would use his magic to switch the part that was taken. Dalin had devoured the soul of the real Malik and he remained unaware of this.
At thirty minutes, Ryu was still sleeping. "The first duelist in the next duel is Autumn Kurai. Please report to the dueling ring immediately." Autumn nodded and headed to the elevator, Kensai, Drake, and Kirani at her heels.
"The second duelist is Ryu Shigeru. Will Ryu Shigeru please report to the dueling ring imediately." Silence followed. Hinata rolled her eyes and looked around for a moment before spotting Ryu, sleeping.
"Honestly Ryu, you could sleep through the end of the world." Grinning to herself she grabbed a glass of punch from the food table nearby and stalked over to Ryu. He'd wake up, but he might be a little upset with her.
********************
Autumn giggled furiously as Ryu took his spot across from her. He glowered back at her, trying to ignore how cold it was with the wind blowing against his now wet t-shirt. "Look, I don't want to duel you Autumn, so lets just get this done with as quickly as we can."
Autumn managed to nod through her giggles and Ryu continued to glower as he drew his opening hand of six cards. "I'll summon Dark Zebra(1800/400) in attack mode and place one card face down behind it. That's all for now."
Autumn finally managed to calm down as she drew her sixth card, however she seemed rather upset about something. "Ryu...I don't want to duel you either. So forgive me for letting Misuno take over."
"Huh?" Ryu got his answer fairly quickly as Autumn's demeanor changed, her brow furrowed and she seemed to focus more as well. The oddest part was that her hair seemed to be rougher then it had before, spiking out in several places.
"I set one monster in defense mode, and play the Swords of Revealing Light!" Glowing green swords slammed down to lock Ryu into place for three turns.
"All your doing is stalling. Who are you anyway?" Misuno laughed and opened her hand. A golden light formed in the shape of a staff and slowly that staff materialized. Ryu didn't even have to look to know that on the head of it was the same eye that appeared on every other Millennium Item.
"I am the dark spirit that resides within the Millennium Staff. I was forced into this staff along with my twin sister roughly five hundred years after the creation of the item itself. Now I inhabit this girl and when I'm needed I take control. Its not as good as actually being alive, but being able to truly see, hear, and breath for a short time is astounding compared to what I can do without her." He smirked and motioned for Ryu to continue.
"I don't know why Autumn accepts you being in her body, but that's her decision. For myself, I wouldn't want a single part of some inner spirit like you. Now watch out as I sacrifice Dark Zebra for the Summoned Skull(2500/1200) and equip it with Horn of the Unicorn, boosting its power by seven hundred points!"
The demon appeared and let out a fierce roar, seconds later a glowing silver horn appeared on its forehead. The demon attempted to swat it off, but after several unsuccessful attempts it gave up. Misuno smirked and snapped a card off his deck. "I set one monster in defense mode and end my turn. Back to you lover boy!"
Ryu rolled his eyes and grabbed another card. He couldn't let this annoying jerk get to him, all he had to do was keep dueling and he'd be fine. "I summon Battle Ox(1700/1000) in attack mode, and equip Summoned Skull with Malevolent Nuzzler boosting his attack by another seven hundred points!"
A demonic woman appeared out of the card and stepped up to the demon, massaging his shoulders. Next to the skull now stood a fierce minotaur wielding an axe, both monsters appeared ready for battle, but the swords still kept them from attacking. Misuno drew his next and let out a highly exaggerated sigh. "It's a pity that you weren't a better duelist Ryu, otherwise this might have been more fun than it is. I guess I'll just have to end it right now."
Ryu's eyes widened and he looked over Misuno's field. All he had was two defense monsters, and there was no way those two monsters could win him the duel so quickly. "You're bluffing, you can't win in one turn with the kind of cards you've got out."
Misuno smirked and slowly pulled one card from his hand and placed it on the field, picking up his first defense monster as he did so, sacrificing it. "Allow me to explain something about this deck. You see it has parts of myself, my twin, and Autumn in it. I supplied the dark, my twin the light, and Autumn supplied the deadliest factor of all. Her loop combos!"
The card Misuno had just played appeared on the field, and from it burst forth the Gilfar Demon(2200/2500) a monster that Ryu knew as sort of a weaker counterpart to the Talwar Demon. "Loop combos? What the hell are you talking about?"
"I'll show you. Gilfar Demon, attack his Summoned Skull!" The flying demon let loose a stream of fire from its mouth, but the Summoned Skull merely batted the fire aside with one of its wings. Then the demon retaliated with a bolt of lightning that struck the Gilfar Demon and blew it into pieces. (A/MLP:1800)
"I don't know what you're playing at, but by attacking you not only got a face full of my Summoned Skull, but you also got hit by the added power from my Reinforcements cards, boosting him during that brief moment by five hundred points."
Misuno smirked and motioned to his other monster, which had just appeared on the field. It was a small humanoid creature made out of leaves. It had pathetic stats of (900/400) but as he watched they decreased to (400/400). "What's going on Misuno?"
He smirked and clenched his fists tightly together. "It's the Loop of Infinity! You see, when Gilfar Demon goes to the cemetery he may become an equip card on one monster, decreasing that monster's attack by five hundred. I equipped him on Leaf Fairy, whose effect sends Gilfar to the cemetery again and deals five hundred damage to your life points. (RLP: 3500) Of course since Gilfar is in the cemetery I can equip him onto a monster, namely Leaf Fairy, once again activating its effect. (RLP: 3000) Are you beginning to get the picture?"
The cards fell from Ryu's hands as he dropped to his knees in horror. It was impossible! If the same thing happened every time then soon enough...(RLP: 0) He closed his eyes and groaned as the referee announced his defeat. It just didn't seem possible that he could have lost so quickly, or that such a deadly combo could exist.
"Thanks for the duel Autumn, even if it didn't last very long."
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Author's Note: THE LOOP OF INFINITY DOES NOT WORK! Just a little note there. Once Leaf Fairy was put out the ruling on Gilfar Demon was changed so that it didn't activate if Gilfar is sent to the cemetery and an effect is activated such as Leaf Fairy's 500 damage. So it would go to the cemetery but not become an equip card again. That is all.
Next Time: Drake finally gets his chance to show his stuff in a duel in the finals, but his first opponent can only be one of three people. Kirani, Kaiba, or Taichi? Who will he face and what does his duel have in store for him? You'll just have to read to find out.