Disclaimer- No I do not own Yugioh or anything that has to do with Yugioh. The only things I own are the original characters in this fic and the original cards they use.
Chapter 10: Welcome to the shadow tournament
Daniel Pilkington sighed as he watched another classic episode of one of his favorite real life shows. ("Deondre vs. CJ, round I-don't-know-what-the-number-is-anymore.")
He didn't even know what the two of them were arguing about this time. He thought it had something to do with whose deck was better. The two of them were on the verge of coming to blows over their argument, and he knew that when they did it would be best to get out of their way.
Daniel glanced over at all of the collective duelists on the plane and blanched at how many of them seemed to be on the verge of tackling CJ and Deondre to shut them up. He thought it best to slip out of his current seat and head up to near the front to join his sister. He walked past the curtains that separated the coach class passengers and went into the first-class area. Heading up front he saw the familiar blond-streaked brown hair of his sister sitting up front. And luckily the seat next to her was unoccupied. As he approached she smiled at him and waved. "What's the matter Daniel?"
Chuckling, Daniel motioned back to where his seat had been. "Deondre and CJ are getting into a fight right now. I thought it best to escape before I got caught in the fight." The sound of a fist striking a face came from the back of the plane. Daniel smiled as he heard the sounds of the fight between the two of them escalating, though he gulped when he thought he heard someone throw something metal against the wall of the coach class cabin.
Rebecca nodded understandingly and then tugged on his new clothing. "So how do you like your new clothes?"
Daniel put on his best fake smile. "I love them. They make me look so cool." At that point the voice in his head decided to throw in its two cents on the matter.
("You're an idiot when you act like that. Just tell her the truth.")
("You want me to make her cry?")
("Good point. Tell her the truth and I'll kill you.")
("You can't kill me. You're a figment of my imagination.")
("You've never seen A Nightmare on Elm Street?")
Daniel grew pale. ("Good point.")
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Giovan Garlin was reminded of just why he liked being rich. He was in the prime of his life, one of the richest men in the world, had a wife who loved him and he was in control of the most powerful military hardware companies on the planet. And if that wasn't enough, he was currently watching one of the most wanted duel recordings in the world. Only 100 tapes had been made and he owned at 100 of them. "Life is good."
He was lounging in the recreation room of his mansion and was watching the replays of the last recorded duel between Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba. He chuckled as Yugi used the Jack, Queen and King's knight combo to summon his Egyptian God card. "Such an old play Yugi. I hope that you have come up with some better combos for the tournament. Because if you haven't then I am afraid you are going to wind up losing rather quickly. Don't expect your precious Egyptian God cards to save you either." The new rules for the tournament would make playing those all-powerful creatures very difficult. He heard his intercom system beep and he pressed the button to allow the call in. "What is it?"
The voice on the other end crackled slightly and then said, "Mr. Garlin I just wanted to inform you that Daniel Pilkington is currently on his way to the tournament. He's aboard the plane right now."
Garlin tapped his fingers together thoughtfully and nodded. Everything was now falling into place perfectly. Soon the second part of Pilkington's initiation into the Shadow Corporation would begin. "Inform Viper to start the plan."
The voice seemed hesitant for a moment, and then finally added in, "What if he is unwilling to cooperate? The original method of persuasion didn't work so well."
He thought back on that and growled. Tapping a button next to him, the screen in front of him flickered and then brought up the video footage of the duel between Hawk and Daniel, and the disturbing situation that had occurred in the middle of it.
Daniel's body ignored him. It reached down and pressed a button on its duel disk. In a monotone voice it said, "I activate my face-down Monster Reborn card to summon Jinzo back from the graveyard." The earth in front of the corpse shuddered and the green metal armored form of Jinzo rose up from the graveyard, chuckling in its mechanical voice as it recognized the foolish human who had dared to use a trap to destroy it. "And now I shall even the odds for Daniel," said Jinzo angrily, the red lenses of his eyes glowing as they stared down Hawk.
Hawk's eyes snapped so wide open that they looked like they might pop free of their sockets. "What trickery is this!?"
Jinzo chuckled once again and raised its hand up. Hawk shivered slightly as he watched the corpse of Daniel mirror the motion. "There is no trickery here. I will not let you kill this boy. He and I have a purpose that must be fulfilled." Daniel's hand pressed another button on his duel disk and another card flipped up.
Hawk blinked in confusion, he had never seen that card before. "What does that do?" He felt rather stupid asking the question to a Duel Monster.
If Jinzo could smile it would have. "It's the magic card called Repair and Reinforce. This will raise Daniel's life points by twice what he has lost because of his opponent's card effects since his last turn. That means that he gains 8000 life points."
Daniel- 10000
Hawk- 8000
Daniel's body spasmed once more and collapsed. Unlike before though where the nanomachines had been killing Daniel, this time though it looked like they were repairing all of the damage they had done to him.
Hawk screamed in rage. "You dare to interfere with this duel!? Who are you!?"
Jinzo chuckled once more. "That is not for you to know puppet. Now watch as Daniel defeats you. Oh and on that note, tell your master that if he continues to bother this boy the consequences for his actions might be...quite painful." The mechanical monster went silent and seemed less animated than before.
Before Hawk could ask what the Jinzo had meant by calling him puppet, Daniel came to his feet. He wasn't sure how he was still alive, but Daniel wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. If the nanomachines decided to go haywire and not kill him, he didn't have any complaints. ("I don't remember activating Monster Reborn or Repair and Reinforce though.") "It looks like I survived you little nanomachines."
The boy didn't have any idea what had happened, that much was evident. So therefore he had gotten outside assistance from someone. If they tried to put his life on the life like they had before, Garlin didn't have any doubt in his mind that something similar would happen and the boy would be saved from death. "True enough. Kidnap his sister and use her as the incentive for him to agree to the duel."
"As you wish sir," the voice on the intercom crackled.
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Daniel held a tissue to his nose. He had just broken out into a fit of sneezing. ("Maybe I'm coming down with something?")
The voice in his head sneered, ("With your horrible constitution I wouldn't doubt it.")
Daniel wiped his nose once more and glanced towards the back of plane. It was quiet now, so he assumed that Deondre and CJ had most likely knocked each other out while they had been fighting.
("That or the other passengers knocked them out.")
Daniel shuddered at that thought. ("By the way, you normally aren't this chatty. Why are you being so talkative?")
The voice in his head went silent and he actually felt it give the mental equivalent of a shrug. ("I'm not sure. I'm just feeling...extra frisky today.")
Daniel felt his cheeks warm in the form of a blush. ("What an interesting way of putting it.") He glanced over to notice that Rebecca had fallen asleep in her chair. He smiled warmly, tugged a blanket free from the overhead compartment, and then draped it across her and tucked her in. "Have a nice sleep." He stood up and went back to his seat. He needed to duel someone. He hadn't dueled with anyone in a while and he was getting out of practice.
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Amy sighed and collapsed in the nearest empty seat, eliciting groans of protest from the sleeping girl next to her. She had barely managed to get a ticket for the flight back home, and then she found out that her brother couldn't even meet her at the airport. Sometimes that boy was such a jerk that it was almost beyond belief that he had ever adopted her into his family. It wasn't that she didn't like being part of his family; it was just that he was so cold-hearted sometimes.
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Daniel sighed in disappointment. He had come back to find that Deondre and CJ had both knocked each other unconscious when they had been fighting.
("You should have stayed back here to watch them make asses of themselves. It would have been better than the stupid in-flight movie.") The voice in his head whined.
He rolled his eyes and replied, ("Maybe, but do you think it would have been wise to be in their immediate range when they fought?")
The voice went silent and then sighed, ("Good point.")
Standing back up in his seat, Daniel walked up the aisle and into the next cabin on the plane. If those two were going to spend the rest of the flight asleep, then he was going to go and make sure his sister was okay. As he went up to the first-class cabin though he found the spot next to where his sister was asleep was occupied. He didn't really intend to stay up front with Rebecca anyway. He had planned to simply make sure she was okay, and then he'd go and get some sleep.
When he tried to slide past the person though his foot slipped on a airline pillow and he plummeted forward, collapsing right onto whoever was sitting next to his sister. As he silently cursed whoever made airline pillows so small, the voice in his head decided to throw in a comment.
("You have no finesse at all.")
("I don't think you're one to talk about finesse, figment-boy!")
"Excuse me," a female voice said, "Could you please get off of me?"
The voice already knew what was going to happen, ("And now you'll go speechless. Then you'll stammer out an apology. Then you'll promptly pass out.")
Daniel pulled back a bit to find himself staring into a pair of dark blue eyes. He felt his heart start to pound and a blush start to rise to his cheeks. ("Please don't be a cute girl, please don't be a cute girl.")
The voice did the mental equivalent of rolling its eyes. ("You really should get off of her, regardless of how cute she is.")
Daniel suddenly realized he had been lying on this girl for over a minute now. He slid back a bit more to see that the girl had long chocolate brown hair. His cheeks got steadily warmer and he slid back more, finally taking in the girl's whole body.
As said before her deep blue eyes and chocolate hair created a startlingly smooth mixture of color, and the soft contours of her face definitely fell into Daniel's range of cute. She was cute. ("Cute....girl....") Her frame, while small was definitely in shape, which he could easily see even though she was wearing a loose t-shirt and a long skirt. She couldn't have been more than 5'5", but at the moment Daniel's mental state regarded her like a giant compared to him. ("Cute....gi..gi...") He started to feel his eyes roll back into his head.
("......") For once the voice didn't have anything to say on the matter.
"Are you okay?" Amy waved a hand in front of the guy's unblinking eyes. His cheeks seemed locked in a permanent blush. She decided that since he was still staring at her then she would stare at him back.
She had to admit he had some redeeming qualities though. His bright red hair was resembled something like a bird's nest though, and his brown eyes were almost the same shade of color as her hair, which she found rather odd considering how deep a brown her hair was. He had a nice build too, a little on the lean side, but then again she really didn't like muscle-bound guys much. His clothing on the other-hand was interesting. She had to admit that he looked pretty good in his black and silver jumpsuit.
Daniel somehow managed to fight off the urges to collapse in an unconscious heap in front of her. Instead he looked down at the ground and blushed some more. "Sorry about that."
Amy giggled at his shyness. "Hey no harm done. I'm Amy Hiroshi," She extended her hand to him.
Daniel took it tentatively and suddenly felt his throat get very dry. ("Control....self....") "Daniel Pilkington."
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A short while later Daniel felt a lot better now. In a sleepy huff Rebecca had awoken when her brother had landed on Amy and in a desire to get some quiet she scooped up her stuff and went to coach class to use his seat. She made sure to beat him severely with her airline pillow on the way by though.
So now Daniel was sitting next to Amy and both of them so far were having a pretty nice conversation. Daniel wasn't even sure what he was talking about with her, he was mostly trying to run his body on automatic so that he didn't get a nosebleed or anything from being in such close proximity to a cute girl. He took a sip of the water he had ordered and then they continued to talk.
Amy was having a lot of fun talking to Daniel. He certainly had some interesting things to say. She noticed though that he had a slightly far away look in his eyes, and that he seemed to move almost mechanically. "So what are you headed to Japan for Daniel?"
Daniel chuckled weakly and rubbed the back of his head. "I'm going to participate in the Shadow Tournament that is going to be held there."
Amy blinked in surprise. "Oh? I'm meeting my brother there because he will be entering the tournament."
It was Daniel's turn to be surprised. "Your brother is a duelist?"
Amy blushed slightly. "Yeah. He's a powerful one too. One of the top fifty in Japan."
Daniel took a sip of his water. Something was bothering him. He threw a question out to the voice in his head. It had been doing the mental equivalent of just sitting in the front of his mind quietly. It normally would slink back into his skull when they weren't talking. ("What's the matter with you?")
The voice forcefully said, ("Declare her as your mate.")
Daniel did a spit-take with his water.
Amy blinked in confusion as Daniel's eyebrows scrunched up. He stood up and excused himself before marching off to the restroom. She scratched the back of her head and then shrugged. She laid back and waited for him to return. She was so relaxed she didn't even feel when someone clamped a hand across her face and poked her in the neck with some kind of needle. She didn't even get a chance to scream before she passed out.
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("WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT!?") Daniel veritably screamed into his head.
The voice yelled back, ("Either you go right now and declare her as your mate or I promise that the next time you go to sleep I will kill you!")
He pounded his fists on the sink of the small bathroom. ("I just met her. I can't just declare her as anything to me. What kind of figment of my imagination are you anyway!?")
The voice snorted, ("I'm the one with enough guts to actually risk having interest in a girl, you coward!")
("I was talking to her, wasn't I?") Daniel thought defensively.
The voice smiled smugly, ("Don't bother lying to me fool, I know your thoughts too well.")
Daniel growled and for the thousandth time wished his voice had a corporeal form so that he could strangle it. ("I'll show you! Just watch me! I'll....I'll...I'll ask her out on a date right now!")
The voice hid its smile. It knew he was simply too easy to trick. It almost felt guilty.
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Daniel stomped out of the restroom, only to find Amy gone. ("Where'd she go?") He blinked as he noticed a letter addressed to him on her seat. Picking it up Daniel tore it open and pulled free a piece of paper.
Dear Daniel Pilkington,
We have your sister. She will not be harmed as long as you come down to the cargo hold of the plane. The stewardess in the back of plane knows who you are and will not stop you. Bring your duel disk and deck.
Daniel snarled and charged into coach class, snatching his disk out of his bag without even slowing down and running right to the hatch. As the letter had said the stewardess didn't stop him as he climbed down the ladder behind the hatch and into the darkness.
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Daniel had to maneuver his way around several crates before he finally arrived at a large open space in the cargo bay. The area had been recently cleared and there were holographic projectors set up around the area. He wasn't paying attention to that though. He was paying attention to what was hanging by a chain up in the air before him.
Someone had strung Amy up and left her dangling a few feet off the ground. She was still unconscious.
"Do not worry about the girl, she is alright." A man wearing a black cloak that obscured his features stepped out from behind a pile of luggage and took his position in the makeshift arena. "Welcome Daniel Pilkington. I am so glad you came." He threw his cloak aside to reveal a limber man in a black jumpsuit similar to Daniel's. He had no hair except for a long black pony-tail that hung from the very back of his head. He opened his eyes and revealed that they were orange with the pupils being slotted like a snake's. "I am Viper, an Emissary of the Shadow Corporation."
Daniel's duel disk clicked into place. "Then let's get this over with."
Viper held up his hand. "Not so fast. First I think it would be a good idea to explain that will count as a duel for the Shadow Tournament."
Daniel shrugged. "Am I supposed to care?"
Viper's smile revealed a pair of fangs in the place of his upper canine teeth. "You should care boy because that means the special rules are in place." He pulled a small glowing cube out of his pocket. "This is the COC (Cube of Chance). During the Shadow tournament before each duel the two duelists will roll this dice. Depending on what number comes up the rules of their duel will change accordingly. If a one comes up, then it will be a normal duel. If a two comes up, then the duelists will both have 4000 life points instead of 8000. A three will mean that the two duelists will use the deck master system during their game. Four removes the rule for tributing monsters to summon higher level creatures. A five will mean that both players start with only two cards at the beginning of the game instead of five, and finally a six means that both players switch decks and duel using their opponent's cards."
Daniel scowled, "How is that supposed to make this tournament fair?"
Viper threw the dice across the field. "It's not supposed to be fair, that's the point!" It bounced and rolled until it came to a stop on a four. "Ah, that means that for our duel we don't need to sacrifice to summon high level monsters." He drew his five and grinned. "Ready?"
Daniel drew his five cards and growled out, "Ready whenever you are monster."
Viper hissed and waved his hand outwards, "Then allow me to be the first to welcome you to the Shadow Tournament! Though your stay in it won't be a very long one!"
To be continued...
Next Chapter: Surviving Viper's Poison
Author's notes: Hey there everyone. Before I start babbling let me remind you to please review this story. It's nice to now that people are reading. Be brutally honest too when you evaluate my work. I promise you that I can take it.
Alright, next order of business is the new rule system for the Shadow Tournament. I came up for this a while ago and the more I thought about it the cooler it sounded to me. This way you really can't expect what to get in your duel. Also, before I type out the duels, I actually roll a real six-sided die to see what the COC says. None of this is planned out.
See you later. Tune in for the next exciting episode of "Demon Duelist Legacy".