Author's Note: The duel that takes place in this chapter was actually done in real life between a friend and I, with me writing while the duel took place.
Ambitions from the Heart
Written by: TheDemonHuntress
Chapter 2: Duelist Corner
I almost felt broken after seeing Kaiba walk away again, but his comment stung, and found its way to my heart. Yugi, Tristan, and Joey were nowhere to be seen. Mai and Tea were off in the distance, dragging a disheveled-looking Rex after them.
I wasn't one to seek out duels. Rather, I waited for challenges. I took out my deck, one that I had assembled out of my most powerful cards. Don't worry, Kuriboh, I reassured the card. You belong there.
As if my wishes were answered, I felt a hand grab my shoulder. I turned around to see a duelist who appeared to be a biker. I felt uncomfortable as he looked me up and down and smiled. "Hey babe," he said. "Up for a duel against Rocky?"
I snorted and pushed his hand away from me. "I'm not your babe, but I will duel you." He looked to be a bluffer, as he seemed to be holding a pile of cards and randomly selected sixty cards from it.
"First-timer, aren't you?" I asked as I prepared my duel disk.
He laughed uneasily as he attempted to hide his pile of cards. "Not this one." I could hear him struggle to keep a straight face.
We stood apart from one another as our hologram projectors flew out. This is going to be a pushover, I thought.
"I say that if I win, you have to kiss me!" he shouted.
I laughed to myself as I saw him fumbling with his duel disk. He probably doesn't even know how to use it…
"I agree, but I can assure you that this will be a fast duel!" I replied.
The biker smiled. "Let's duel!"
4000 life points were input, and the duel began.
"I'll go first," he said. "I put one monster in defense mode, and I place one card facedown. And then I'll activate Dian Keto the Cure Master before I end my turn."
Maybe he is a duelist after all… at least he has some rare cards…
I smiled once I saw my hand. Although I had no Trap cards, I held some powerful monsters and magic cards.
"I summon Hysteric Fairy, and I'll have it attack your face-down monster!"
The image of a Guardian of the Throne Room appeared, before it shattered.
"I place one card facedown," I said. "Your turn."
He drew a card as he played Monster Reborn on his Guardian of the Throne Room, and then equipped it with 7 Completed. He then activated Robbin' Goblin and, just as he attacked, I was down to 3450 life points. To make matters worse, I was forced to discard my Warrior Dai Grepher.
I continued by placing one card facedown and one monster in defense mode.
"Going on the defensive now?" Rocky taunted.
I simply smiled. "Don't let your comments get to your brain."
He placed a monster in defense mode before my face down card worried him, and he ended his turn.
Although he didn't attack, he did fall into my trap. My facedown card was not a Trap card at all, but it would keep my opponent wary. I put one monster in defense mode, and another card facedown before ending my turn. He's biding me too much time, I thought.
However, he did not stop his onslaught. He placed a card facedown and summoned Jinzo #7, attacking me directly.
By now, my opinion about this Rocky had changed, as I was losing the duel. It was time to change that around.
I summoned 7 Colored Fish to the field, and attacked his Jinzo #7 with it. I then activated Just Desserts, and Rocky was down to 1200 life points.
I've seen many duelists lose their composure when they've taken a sudden turn for the worse in a duel. This Rocky guy was one of them.
He regained his footing as he activated Solemn Wishes. He placed another monster facedown as he attacked my 7 Colored Fish with his Guardian of the Throne Room. It was 1200 to 2900 life points. But with his Robbin' Goblin' in play, I lost my Hane-Hane.
Now I had only two monsters and a facedown card. I drew Tremendous Fire and used it, leaving our life points at 200 to 2400. It was all that I could do, so I ended my turn.
I had to get rid of Rocky's Solemn Wishes card, which left his life points now at 700. He put another monster facedown before he destroyed my Sangan.
That opened up a new door for me, since many of my monster cards were Effect monsters with low attack points. The card that I just selected would push things in my favor.
"The duel's just about to end, Rocky!" I told the duelist who thought that he would win.
"I summon Servant of Catabolism and attack your life points directly!" My monster card had just enough attack points to take out Rocky's remaining 700 life points.
"WHAT?!" he shouted. "I was winning… you couldn't even stop my Guardian of the Throne Room!"
"I didn't have to, Rocky…" I replied. "Like you said, I went on defense, and instead decreased your life points by using cards that would do direct damage to you."
My explanation still wasn't enough for Rocky. Geez, the guy couldn't handle a loss!
But he finally quit his complaining after due time.
"Well… good duel," he managed to say. "I guess you'll be wanting something?"
"Nah," I said. I packed up my things and bade him farewell before heading into the direction of where Mai and Tea had gone.
Sure enough, I found Mai and Rex in the middle of a duel. Somehow, I could imagine that Rex had been forced to duel, because he looked like a tortured soul at the moment.
"Hey Belinda!" Mai shouted as I came across the duel.
"Hey Mai, having fun?" I asked as it looked as if she was dominating the duel.
"Of course," she replied. "Now we've got three girls to make fun of Rex here…"
I could've sworn that Rex blushed. But he quickly hid his face and shouted, "It's your turn!"
Mai looked at him slowly. "I know," she said. "Maybe you want to survive a bit longer?"
"So…" I whispered to Tea, "Mai's winning, right?"
"Yep," she answered. "He seems to be holding back on her, or he really isn't the duelist that I take him to be."
It was no matter. Turns out that Tea and Mai were right- Mai ended up winning the duel over a disbelieving Rex.
An hour from when we had first split up at the water fountain, we all found ourselves together again. Joey was talking about some incredible duel he had, with Tristan reminding him of all the details he had missed. Yugi was caught between the two guys, who were now arguing about how badly Joey beat the other duelist.
"You've come really far as a duelist, Joey," Yugi ended up saying. "But there's always-"
"Didja hear that, Tristan?" Joey asked, pulling off one of his jerk-smirks. "Even Yug here says that I'm good! I know I'm betta than that Moneybags, too!"
"Calm down, Joey…" Mai said with a delicate touch on his shoulder. "At least we know that you beat the guy fair and square."
She had chosen her words carefully, and they worked. This time, hearts sprouted from Joey's eyes, and I didn't listen to any of his following babble.
"So what'd you do, Belinda?" Tea asked as we were all calmed down.
"Well, I won a duel against this biker guy…" I said, remembering what had happened the past hour. "Oh yea! I also saw Kaiba again."
"Again?" Mai asked with a mischievous tone.
"No, nothing happened," I replied, knowing Mai's invisible question. "Not anything having to do with him, but he's made a new sort of duel disk."
"Really?" Joey interrupted. "These things are startin' to hurt my arm afta wearin' them all tha time… so what's it like?" He nudged his duel disk impatiently.
"It's actually sorta like a laptop," I said. "Only it's a lot smaller, and you can hold it in your hand. But basically, it works the same way, with some new features."
"Sounds cool enough, eh, Yug?" Joey elbowed Yugi a bit harder than intended.
"Yea," Yugi replied. "Maybe he's setting up for another tournament?"
"I doubt it," I said. "I think that he was a bit embarrassed after losing in his own tournament last time… maybe he's got better things to do, like working on his company?"
Joey laughed. "If that's any reason, I think tha' rich boy is realizin' how I get closer to beatin' him every time… next time I face him, he'll be sorry he eva called me a mutt!" He clenched his fist in the air threateningly, while Mai and I sighed.
So after Joey finished his bragging speech that I'm sure all of us have heard one time or another, we headed off down the street, before I saw one of Kaiba's company buildings loom in the distance to the right of me.
Perhaps it was impulse, but I took a furtive glance in that direction, and saw none other than Kaiba standing in front of the building. And he actually smirked at me before he went inside the massive building.
"I saw that," Mai whispered.
All I could do was nod, as I was left confused once again about the duelist who showed up near me the more than I wished to see him.
Review, as always...