Disclaimer: No I do not own Yugioh
Demon Duelist Legacy-Dark Soul Arc
Chapter 7: Kaiba's Proposition
Rikuo rubbed his eyes with a claw. He should probably let Daniel take over, but in all honesty he didn't care. If this guest of Daniel's was freaked out by seeing him, then so be it. He walked into the living room saying, "If this isn't important then I suggest you come back tomorrow."
The guest calmly said, "I assure you that this is too important to wait until tomorrow for."
Rikuo froze and slowly removed his hand from his eyes. "Well this is surprising indeed."
"Believe me, I'm not here on a personal visit," Seto Kaiba said.
Rikuo sighed tiredly and un-belted the Howling Sword, setting the weapon down and then collapsing on a couch that was facing Kaiba, who had chosen to stand. "Alright then Kaiba, what do you want? And please make it quick, I'd like to get to sleep soon."
Kaiba narrowed his eyes. "You might want to pay attention, because this involves the Shadow Corporation and their higher-ups." He turned away to look out a window near the back of the room.
"Approximately twenty-four hours ago, the Shadow Corporation began to send out its best men to numerous locations all across the globe. They all had orders to locate a certain target and duel them, then return to their base with the information involving that duel. I myself had an Emissary pay me a visit."
"Did you win?" Rikuo already knew the answer. He didn't like Kaiba much more than his other half did, but he held respect for the duelist.
Kaiba continued to look out the window. "Of course I won. The clown they sent to duel me wasn't even a challenge. However, while I was distracted..." He clenched his fists angrily.
Rikuo decided that it was best not to pry, though Kaiba had his interest now. "So what do they want?"
Kaiba answered that question with a question. "Where were you this evening?"
Rikuo with-held his normal answer to a question like that, which would be to tell Kaiba to shut up and mind his own business, because something in the CEO's tone told Rikuo that he knew. "I had business to discuss with a member of the Shadow Corporation's board. After my business was finished they went back on a deal that we had. Now my resolve to ruin them is only intensified."
Kaiba smiled slightly as if that was the answer he had wanted to hear. "Then I should let you know that you are cordially invited to a special Duel Monsters tournament that is being held by the Shadow Corporation tomorrow ."
Rikuo growled. "Anything held by the Shadow Corporation means bad business for everyone involved in it."
Kaiba nodded. "I'm sure you remember just how much fun you had at the last Shadow Corporation tournament."
Rikuo growled quietly as he recollected just how much 'fun' Giovan Garlin's tournament had been. ("Let's see, Daniel and I were almost killed on numerous occasions, I watched the closest thing I could have to a friend die, and I was put through numerous psychological tortures.") "Oh I had loads of fun Kaiba."
Kaiba snickered a little, once again facing away from Rikuo. "Let me ask you something. How would you like to strike back against the Shadow Corporation?"
Rikuo's full attention was on Kaiba. "I'm listening."
Back still turned, Kaiba smiled darkly. "As you should guess, your friends have most likely been put on the list of 'guests' as well. So have Yugi and the Mutt." He turned to face Rikuo, his face expressionless again. "You know what that means right?"
Rikuo remained just as expressionless. "They've got some kind of crazy plan involving all of us."
Kaiba nodded imperceptibly. "Exactly. So let's give them what they want. They'll get us, but they certainly won't like what we'll be bringing with us."
"Enough Kaiba, give this to me straight. I'm very tired right now and in no mood to deal with this espionage crap." Rikuo accentuated that point with a tired glare. He really was in need a good nap.
Kaiba narrowed his eyes. "They have something of yours and something of mine. In fact, they have something of everyone who is going to be in this tournament. A mutual problem."
Rikuo, even as tired as he was, raised his eyebrows a little. "An alliance? With you?"
Kaiba glared. "Don't try and second-guess me freak. I only came all this way just to make sure that you were coming."
Rikuo glared at Kaiba for the 'freak' comment. ("How can someone who lives in a world like this one still, after everything he has seen, not believe in magic?") "Why would you care?"
Kaiba turned and walked towards the front door. "My reasons are my own. A Kaiba corp. helicopter will be by tomorrow at 8:00 am to pick you up. Make sure you are ready." Rikuo heard the front door open and just like that their conversation was over.
Glancing over at the Howling Sword, Rikuo frowned. ("Looks like we're going to be taking the war to the enemy's turf.") He walked over and drew the blade from its sheath, snapping it back and forth in the air. The well-oiled metal felt the energy of its owner and blue-white phantom flames lit up along the blade. Rikuo smiled at the weapon and willed its power to die down. The flames flared up once, and then slowly died. "And this time, I don't intend to leave any of those manipulative monsters standing."
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Daniel was filled in by Rikuo about the basics of his talk with Kaiba. Despite his personal feelings on any matter involving Seto Kaiba, Daniel knew that this was his best chance to find his mother rested in winning this tournament. He stuffed a couple of changes of clothing into his backpack, and then he went over to his work desk.
Though Rikuo had been tired, he had reworked Daniel's deck last night before going to sleep. Daniel hadn't even looked the cards over yet to see exactly what the wolf demon had placed in there, but he didn't doubt that Rikuo knew what he was doing. ("Plus I trust him to make the right choices when it comes to strategy.")
Centennial High School had been paid off by Shadow Corp. to allow Daniel to have about a week off from his classes, which meant that he wouldn't have anything to distract him while he was there.
Daniel picked up his duel disk and felt the solid weight of the device with one hand. ("Here we go.") He looked over at the clock and sure enough, it was 8:00. Turning, Daniel left a note for Rebecca and slipped silently out the front door. He went to stand at the sidewalk to the house, knowing that Kaiba would back up his part of the deal. He took a second to look himself over, just to make sure that he wasn't forgetting anything.
He just let his wild red hair do what it wished, because after changing so many times with Rikuo, he had quickly figured out that no hair care product could deal with him suddenly having wolf ears and hair that is a lot longer than it originally was.
Just for this occasion, he had put on the black and silver leather bodysuit that Rebecca had made for him before he had left for the Shadow Tournament. He smiled at the leather jacket that had come with it, which still had the howling wolf design on the back that Rikuo loved so much. Tugging on the pouched black leather belt that hung around his waist, Daniel sighed and patted the holster attached to it where his deck was stored.
Then his hand trailed to the sheathed Howling Sword that was tied to his waist. While he still didn't like the idea of the weapon being used against humans, he had to remind himself that he didn't intend to hurt anyone except the monsters who had his mother as their hostage.
Minutes later, the silver form of one of Kaiba's helicopters gave down for a smooth landing right in the middle of the street. Daniel nodded back to his house and got on. It was time to get the Shadow Corporation and its insane little games out of his life.
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The first thing he saw when he climbed into the spacious passenger area of the helicopter was a familiar face. "Hey CJ, I see that you got the 'invitation' too?"
CJ Anderson grinned and held up his right arm, which had his duel disk attached to it. "You know it buddy. It looks like Team Topdeck is going to win another world tournament in the same year."
Daniel laughed and tossed his bag into a nearby empty seat. He collapsed in a seat, buckled himself in, and looked out at the window. "Yeah," he replied half-heartedly, "By the time we are done with them they won't know what hit them."
CJ ran a finger through his deck and nodded. "Oh they'll know what hit them. It'll be me and my ultimate new deck strategy."
Daniel turned his head to look over at his friend. "New deck strategy huh?"
CJ smirked and patted his duel disk. "Oh yeah! We'll win this tournament and then the grand prize will be ours!"
Though Daniel wasn't in this for any prize, he had to ask. "What's the prize?"
CJ shrugged. "I don't know, I thought you might know."
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The helicopter's next stop was to land in front of Deondre's house. As it settled down Daniel looked out the window to see his friend. He slid open the side door and smiled. "Hey there D, how's it going? You ready to win this tournament?"
Valeus had learned a lot since last evening about the world he had entered. Apparently a few hundred years had passed, and everything was different about the world as a whole. He had gotten the invitation to the tournament and he decided that might be the best place to start searching for some way to recover his lost power.
He had managed to find appropriate clothing in the boy's room when he had arrived home. For this apparently special occasion, he had put on a plain black pair of pants and shorts, with a long black cloak that he had fashioned from some bed sheets that were in the boy's closet. He had figured out how to use the system known as a 'duel disk' and now had the device strapped to his arm. He had also taken the boy's deck and made a few little changes to it.
For now though he had to assume the identity of Deondre Anderson, lest the boy's friends might become suspicious of him. Climbing into the strange metal box, he crashed down into a seat and nodded. "Sure."
Daniel considered commenting on the strange new look that Deondre was sporting, but then it occurred to him that he was wearing something that looked far stranger. ("I'm not one to offer fashion tips to him anyway.")
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Less than an hour later, the helicopter arrived at a nearby landing strip. As it settled down to the ground, Daniel looked out to see Seto Kaiba waiting for them. "And there's the man himself." He grabbed his bag and slid the door of the passenger area open. Climbing out, he found himself for the second time today seeing a familiar and friendly face. "Hey Yugi, how have you been?"
Yugi Moto smiled back at Daniel and shrugged. "I can't complain, though I still have a little bit of jet lag from flying half-way across the world."
Daniel smirked and stepped forward. "Well let me be the first to welcome you to America and all of its....er....stuff!"
Yugi laughed and the two duelists walked past Kaiba, catching up on things.
Valeus stepped forward next and smirked to Kaiba. He reached into his pocket and pulled out three cards that he had been holding onto. He extended them to the CEO. "I assume these are yours?"
Kaiba looked down at his three Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards and his eyes widened a little. "How did you..."
Valeus handed the cards to Kaiba and walked past him chuckling. ("It was worth losing them just to see that look on his face.")
CJ trailed behind him, hoping that Joey was somewhere around here. He had lately found himself missing the blonde-haired duelist. Their last duel had been one of the best CJ had ever had, and he wanted to see if he could get a rematch out of Wheeler.
As everyone headed inside, Kaiba was still standing in place, staring down at his three dragons. ("So we're back together. Excellent. With your help then I will rescue Mokuba from those monsters.") He slid the three cards into a pocket and turned to head inside. Now it was time to go and meet the Shadow Corporation.
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An hour later Daniel and Yugi were having a practice duel alongside the empty hangar bay. Kaiba had said that they would have a couple of hours before his jet would be ready to take them to the tournament location, so they may as well get some practice in while they had some down time.
Yugi- 1000
Daniel- 2500
Daniel grinned as he motioned to his field. "Give it up Yugi. I've got you trapped." He already had managed to summon both his Jinzo (2400/1500) and XYZ Dragon Cannon (2800/2300) to the field. It was true that he didn't have any cards in his hand or on his field other then his two monsters, but Yugi wasn't much better off.
Yugi drew and slid a card into his duel disk. "Don't count me out yet Daniel. It's true that you have two powerful monsters on your field, but I've got two face-down monsters and my Swords of Revealing Light out. That means you can't attack me until they run out of power, and that won't be for two more turns." Yugi tried to ignore the fact that he didn't have anything else except the card he had just drawn. He looked at it and smiled. "I set this face-down and end my turn."
Daniel drew and slid the card into his graveyard. "I discard to use the special ability of my Dragon Cannon, which will destroy your Swords of Revealing Light and leave you wide open to my attack." The red, yellow and blue tank charged up all of its lasers and fired them all at once, blowing the green swords of light away and leaving Daniel able to attack.
"Now I'll have it take out your first face-down monster." The tank whined as its weapons lowered to point at the card. "Energy Barrage!" It unleashed a wave of lasers that tore the face-down monster apart.
"Next up is the big man himself! Jinzo, Cyber Shock Attack!" The green armored humanoid chuckled coldly and charged a ball of black energy between its palms. It hurled the ball and blew the other face-down monster into dust. "End turn. So take your last draw Yugi."
Yugi drew and smiled. "I'm afraid the only person who is going to lose today is you Daniel." He slid the card into his disk. "Monster Reborn, revive his Wolf Demon Lord (2400/1000) from the graveyard to my field!" The ground in front of him shuddered and the armored form of the demon samurai appeared on his field.
Daniel chuckled. "Alright Yugi, I'll bite. What's your plan?"
Yugi flipped up his face-down card. "Now I play the magic card Pot of Greed, which allows me to draw two cards from my deck." He drew his two cards and looked relieved. "Wow, for a second there I thought I might not be able to pull this off."
"You can't just leave me hanging like this Yugi, what's your plan?" Daniel was really intrigued now.
Yugi slid one of the cards into his duel disk. "Dark Magic Curtain allows me to pay half of my life points to special summon the Dark Magician (2500/2100) from my deck to the field." A giant black curtain fell over the field and when it moved aside the purple-robed form of Yugi's favorite monster stood on the field.
Yugi- 500
Daniel- 2500
Daniel frowned. "You can kill Jinzo, but my XYZ Dragon Cannon is way too tough."
Yugi slid the last card in his hand into his duel disk. "Remember when Yami and Rikuo battled against Giovan Garlin Daniel?"
"Who could forget?"
The Dark Magician and the Wolf Demon Lord were slowly being pulled into each other now, their bodies melding together to create one creature. "When the stakes were down they managed to pull through thanks to the power of teamwork. Let me give you a reminder that sometimes the strangest combinations work the best." The melded creature looked almost exactly like the Dark Magician, except that had red lines on its cheeks and it was wearing red and black robes. "This is the return of the Dark Magician Lord!" (3500/2500)
Daniel bit his lower lip. He had forgotten that the Dark Magician Lord was a possible fusion. ("This won't be good at all.")
Yugi pointed at the XYZ Dragon Cannon. "Howling Magic Blast!" The magician raised its staff and unleashed a wave of blue-white flame that consumed the tank, shattering it.
Yugi- 500
Daniel- 1800
Yugi nodded to Daniel. "End turn."
Daniel drew and sighed. "I have no choice but to switch Jinzo to defense mode." The metal monster fell to one knee and crossed its arms across its chest. "I'll also set this card face-down. You're up Yugi."
Yugi drew and placed his new monster card down. "Thanks to its special ability, I can special summon Dark Gaia of the Gale (2300/2100) if he is the last card in my hand." A knight on top of a purple horse appeared on the field and charged, slamming its lance right into Jinzo. The machine monster exploded, leaving Daniel wide open. "Now Dark Magician Lord, Howling Magic Blast!" The spellcaster raised its staff up and aimed it right at Daniel.
"Now that Jinzo is off the field Yugi, allow me to disappoint you! Reveal Ring of Destruction!" Daniel's face-down card flipped up and a metal ring with grenades attached to it appeared around the neck of the Dark Magician Lord. "This will destroy your monster and deal its attack in damage to both of us!" There was an echoing click and the magician exploded, spraying the field with smoke.
Yugi- 0
Daniel- 0
Yugi laughed and walked through the smoke to meet Daniel halfway across the field. "That would be the second time that a duel between us has ended in a draw."
Daniel grinned and shook his opponent's hand. "True. I guess that maybe we are fated never to finish a duel with a definite winner in mind." He turned to head into the hangar. "Let's go see if the jet is ready."
Yugi nodded and followed, though he had to really wonder how it was that Daniel could pull off the same move against him twice.
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A few hours later the six duelists (Joey was there, by the way) find themselves aboard one of Kaiba's jets, headed towards the disclosed location of the Shadow Corporation's tournament.
Yugi sighed and stared at his deck. ("I don't think I can make my strategy any better.")
("Maybe you should take break then Yugi? You're going to be very busy in just a few hours after all.") Yami didn't sound very worried about them losing this tournament, but Yugi couldn't blame the ancient spirit for any of it. He was, after all, technically the real king of games.
("So, have you said hello to Rikuo yet Yami?")
("I tried to enter Daniel's mind to find him, but so far all of my efforts have been thwarted. I think he is sleeping.")
Yugi looked over at the snoring form of Daniel and smiled. ("I can't imagine how tiring it must be to have an ancient demon inside you.")
From within his mind Yami coughed sharply. ("I think you have a little bit of experience with ancient spirits.")
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("I can feel you coming to me, Blade of the Wolf.")
"Milord? Are you alright sir?"
"I'm fine. All of our honored guests should be arriving soon. Make sure they are given the proper welcome."
"Of course."
As he watched his servant leave, he laced his fingers and looked down at his desk. ("The Legendary Weapon cards. Twelve in all. Each one powerful in its own way. Yet one of the mightiest was the Blade of the Wolf.") He smiled at the three cards that sat in front of him. ("Dagger of the Fox, Fang of the Snake, and Bow of the Bird. These three weapons will be more then powerful enough to overcome Rikuo. Yet there exists another of the twelve weapons that remains out of my reach for now. So close and yet so far away...")
He turned in his chair and looked out at the ocean glittering in the day-time sun. "Let's play a little game Rikuo. The winner walks away with five of the Legendary Weapon cards in his control, and the loser..." He chuckled, "...well it won't matter, now will it?" He stood and slid the three Legendary Weapon cards into his coat pocket. Off in the distance he could see the slowly approaching form of the Kaiba Corp. jet. ("Let the Tournament of Dark Souls begin.")
To be continued...
Next Chapter: Divide and Conquer
Author's Notes: Sorry if I am being too slow with my updates. I wanted to make sure that this chapter included all of the needed information. Just wait, because the next chapter is going to have a duel in it that definitely is worth reading about. Trust me.
As always, review if you can, because that is my motivation to write faster...