Disclaimer: No I do not own Yugioh or anything to do with Yugioh. The only things I own are my characters and the original cards they use.
Chapter 9- Preparation (Part 2)
Daniel narrowed his eyes, almost mirroring Kaiba. "Don't take me lightly. I'm not as easy to beat as you think."
Kaiba snorted and pointed at Daniel. "We shall see. Blue-eyes White Dragon attack with your Burst Stream!" The enormous dragon roared again and powered up its blast. "Now die you insolent fool!" The dragon released its attack in one lump of energy, the explosion even bigger than before. This time the very structure around the dueling area was cracked and damaged because of the blast.
Kaiba chuckled at the roiling smoke cloud where his opponent had been standing. No one could have withstood that blast and stayed conscious at the same time. As the smoke cleared though his chuckle cut off in his throat.
Daniel smiled through the glowing blue-green field of energy that had absorbed the force of the Burst Stream. "What's the matter Kaiba? Surprised?"
Daniel- 3100
Kaiba- 8000
Kaiba quickly recovered from his surprise. "What did you do? How did you increase your life points and negate my dragon's attack?"
Daniel slid one of his face-down cards into the graveyard slot on his disk. "I activated Draining Shield. When I use it I can negate the attack of one of my opponent's monsters and raise my life points by the negated attack total."
Kaiba pointed at Daniel. "Vorse Raider will take you down then!" The Vorse Raider licked its tongue across its fangs again, and launched across the field, blade in a striking position.
Daniel braced himself for what he knew was coming, but it still caught him off guard anyway. The blade slammed into his shoulder and for a moment he could almost feel it cutting his skin, and then the pain became less intense, though he was still driven to one knee from the force of the blow.
Daniel- 1200
Kaiba- 8000
Kaiba's expression had gone from a cold smile to an expressionless glare. "I set one card face-down. End turn."
Daniel slowly came back to his feet and drew. "Alright Kaiba, this is where your start losing. I set one card face-down and one monster in defense. End turn."
Kaiba drew. "You're simply delaying your loss fool. Give up."
Daniel glared murder at Kaiba. "You dare to hurt my sister, and then try to brush it off like nothing?"
Kaiba shrugged. "She'll live. Now Blue-eyes White Dragon, Burst Stream!" The dragon unleashed another spray of energy that instantly destroyed Daniel's monster.
Kaiba pointed straight at Daniel. "Now Vorse Raider will finish you off!" The Raider flew across the field, weapon raised to strike again.
Daniel watched its approach and waited for the right moment. Finally, when the Vorse Raider was within inches of him, he pressed a button on his duel disk. "I reveal Final Judgement! This trap destroys all dark attribute monsters on the field, meaning your Vorse Raider isn't a threat anymore!" There was a flash of light and the Vorse Raider screamed in pain right before it dissolved.
Kaiba continued to remain emotionless through all of it, though Daniel noticed that his fists were slightly more clenched that before. "Don't think you have any kind of victory over me fool. I set this monster in defense and end my turn."
Daniel drew and grinned. "I play the magic card Swords of Revealing Light!" The air around Kaiba's field shimmered before swords made of green light rained down upon his monsters. They slammed into Kaiba's Blue-eyes White Dragon and his face-down monster, freezing both cards instantly. "Now for the next three turns you can't attack me. End turn."
Kaiba drew his next card and took on a fairly predatory look to his face. "I reveal my face-down Mystical Typhoon, which will destroy your Swords of Revealing Light!" The swords of light around Kaiba's dragon shuddered and then shattered.
Daniel's happiness at being able to buy time for a strategy was instantly gone. His hands slowly went to his sides and he hung his head downwards. ("It's over. I'm sorry Rebecca, I failed.")
Kaiba pointed at Daniel and allowed himself a slight genuine smile. He loved it when he broke the opponent's will. "Blue-eyes White Dragon, show him that his pitiful antics can't defeat your power!" The dragon snarled and began to build up its attack, the gathered energy getting so big that the dragon seemed to be having trouble keeping it all contained within its jaws.
Daniel- 0
Kaiba- 8000
Daniel held his head down in shame as the Burst Stream blast overtook him and he lost consciousness.
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Daniel looked around him and saw nothing but darkness. ("So did I die? Did Kaiba wind up killing me?")
"You don't get that easy of a way out," an angered voice said.
Daniel snapped his head around in confusion. "Who said that!?"
The voice seemed like it was on the verge of screaming, "You failed to protect her! Weakling!"
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Daniel woke up screaming. He eventually calmed down and realized that he was in his bed at home, and not in some dark abyss. Slowly he slid free of the covers and looked at the clock. It read 2:30 in the morning.
He sighed and trudged downstairs, collapsing on the couch in the living room and looking up at the ceiling. ("I lost to Kaiba. I shouldn't be that surprised though because he is the second best duelist in the world. I should be amazed I lasted as long as I did.") It didn't help him feel better though. It didn't matter how powerful of a player Kaiba was, Daniel had a purpose behind that duel. He should have won.
("You fear that you aren't good enough?")
("You have that right.") Daniel sighed weakly. ("I should not have lost.")
("I'd advise you to stop beating yourself up idiot. You are going to have to go against more powerful duelists than Kaiba in the near future. Being uncertain of your dueling skills is just going to insure your loss in the Shadow Corporation Tournament.")
("You suck at being motivational.")
("I'm not trying to be motivational fool. I'm trying to make sure that you won't make an idiot of yourself in the tournament.")
Daniel smiled slightly and went back up to his room. He didn't know why but he felt better now that he'd had his little therapy session with the voice in his head.
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Three weeks later...
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The three weeks had passed by rather quickly for Daniel, and he had started to have more conversations with the voice in his head, much to his dismay. He rubbed his eyes and looked his new deck over one more time, before smiling and sliding it into his duel disk. ("It's as good as it is going to get until later in the tournament.")
He had received a video about a week ago detailing the tournament and what its rules were. They were going to be playing with the 8000 life point rule and with tributes. There was also a special system that they were going to explain when the duelists all arrived at the island. He grimaced when he remembered one part of the video though. It had said that every duelist would lose his rarest card when he lost a duel, which ticked him off to no end. ("One bad hand and I'll lose Jinzo.")
He knew it couldn't be helped though. He trusted in his deck and in everything that it represented. It represented his determination to win this tournament and have his wish fulfilled by the Shadow Corporation. It represented his belief in the power of his monsters. Most of all though it represented his desire to utterly destroy Seto Kaiba.
Ever since he had lost to Seto Kaiba three weeks ago he had become completely focused on strengthening his deck. He smiled grimly at the thought of facing Kaiba with his own deck and his own cards. He would win that duel no matter what the odds and what the stakes. It was a vow he had made. ("And I never back down from my vows.")
"Morning big brother!" His sister gave him a big hug and even with his thoughts lingering on the Shadow Tournament, he couldn't help but smile and hug her back. "Morning little sister."
Rebecca threw him a smug look and pointed upstairs. "I know the tournament flight is about five hours away, but I want you to head up to my room. Remember the promise you made me?"
Daniel sighed and nodded. ("I get to play fashion doll for my sister. What a lucky guy I am.")
("Bah! You spoil her too much fool!")
("Oh shut up, you'd spoil her too.") Daniel trudged up to Rebecca's room, knowing the next couple of hours were going to be rougher than any duel he has ever been through.
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Daniel sighed as he got out of the cab to the airport. He shouldered his duffel bag and looked himself over. ("I look like someone straight out of an anime.")
His sister had gotten rid of his normal jeans and t-shirt wardrobe, replacing it with an almost pure black body-suit with the only non-black parts of it being the shoulder, knee and elbow areas, which were all a faded silver color. Draped across his shoulders was a leather jacket with the outer jacket being black and the inside of the jacket being the same faded silver as the other parts of the body suit. She had given him a black belt with numerous pockets and a deck holder that rested on his hip. Both were pure mixes of black and silver. For a finishing touch she had added in a pair of black combat boots to match the outfit.
("You understand that you look like you are into...")
("Shaddup before I take you straight to a psychiatrist so he can help me get rid you.")
("You wish I was that easy to get rid of.")
He smiled slightly at that and marched into the airport, ignoring all of the strange looks he was getting.
Finally he had arrived at the gate for his flight to Japan, where the Shadow Tournament was going to be held. Daniel looked around at all of the gathered duelists and blushed at how almost all of them were wearing casual clothing.
("You on the other hand look like you are seriously into...")
("You're treading on thin ice buddy.") Daniel slipped past a few groups of duelists until he saw the two people who he had been hoping to find on this flight. "Yo Deondre! CJ!"
Both of his dark-skinned friends looked at him and stared as he ran up to them. For a moment neither of them spoke, and then as one they collapsed on the floor laughing.
Daniel's face turned as red as his hair, and he dropped his bag onto a chair next to him.
CJ recovered first and got to his feet, brushing himself off. For the occasion he was wearing a black jersey, a pair of black button-up pants and a black cap. If he were to stand perfectly still in a dark enough area he would be invisible. "So Daniel, what's with the outfit? You want to let us know about some of your private hobbies?"
Daniel's face was glowing red at this point. Though he normally could keep his temper in check when it came to his sister, he was considering that this was one of the few times he could get away with yelling at her.
Deondre came to his feet next, barely controlling himself enough to not keep laughing. He was wearing a white undershirt with a jersey too, but his jersey was black, red and had white stripes going down the sides of it. He was also wearing a pair of black sweat pants and to finish his ensemble he had a black do-rag (Forgive me if I spelled it wrong, it's one of those words I can't spell.) wrapped around his head. He spared embarrassing Daniel anymore and simply nodded in greeting to him.
Daniel collapsed in his seat and grumbled, his face finally starting to lose its blush. ("Can it get any worse?")
"Heya bro!" His sister was jogging towards him with a backpack on. "I changed my mind about coming along with you. I just purchased my ticket for your flight."
As Deondre and CJ both snickered at him, Daniel could only think one thing.
("Damn you Murphy's Law.")
To be continued...
Next Chapter: Welcome to the Shadow Tournament
Authors notes: Okay, I have a lot more to talk about this time. First off I know that I'm pretty bad with descriptions, and if anyone else could actually write a better one and send it to me, I'll use it. Yes I'm that bad.
Secondly, for all who thought that the constant "into" references about Daniel's costume was something sexual, get yer head outta the gutter. They meant extreme anime fandom when they mentioned hobbies. :P
Thirdly, just in case any of you didn't know Murphy is the guy who came up with all of those hilariously negative laws. The one Daniel was referring to was that if you ever say it couldn't get any worse or anything to that equivalent, the the situation will inevitably get worse.
Anyhow, thanks for reading my fanfiction. Review if you can, because I like to hear if there is anything you guys might want me to do with the storyline. Remember that your opinion counts in this story.
P.S. I need more duelists for my guys to go against. Whether you post the character in the review or e-mail it to me, send it in.