Chapter One: Start Of A Fiery Duel
Approximately one week ago Rikuo had received a challenge to duel, albeit indirectly, from Daisuke Ihachi, the current Japanese champion. Rikuo had never heard of the kid before, and considering he had watched other tournaments on TV it didn't make sense that he hadn't heard of the kid at all. He had won the Japanese National Tournament against some very high ranking plays, and he had won most of them fairly easily. So where did he come from?
That wasn't the only mystery he was facing. The other was where to find Daisuke. Sure the kid had made the challenge, and Rikuo was willing to accept it, but the problem was in finding the kid. The phone book hadn't helped at all, and no searches he had done in any venue had come up positive. The kid had to be a resident of Japan, otherwise he wouldn't be able to compete. But Rikuo still couldn't find any mentions of the kid anywhere.
Turning the page of the last tournament report that he had of the last year in Japan he growled and hurled it aside, to land with the rest of the reports. Every single tournament that might have qualified this kid for a tournament and not a damned thing! He wasn't in any of them! "How the hell did he get into such a high level tournament and win if he didn't win a lesser tournament to get there?"
As far as he could see there wasn't a single way that could have happened unless he was some randomly selected duelist or something, like a wild-card duelist that got picked for the tournament spot for no reason. But the tournament didn't have a wild-card spot, so that was impossible to. "Grrr...it's like this kid doesn't even exist, but I saw him on TV!"
The sound of the door bell ringing caught his attention and he grumpily picked himself up and walked to the door. He yanked it open, and found himself staring at somebody's chest. Now Rikuo wasn't exactly short, though he wasn't tall either. At 5'10 he had often found himself taller than most Japanese citizens. In this case the person standing in front of him was tall enough that Rikuo had to take a full steps backwards and look up a bit to get a good look at him. "Yeah? What is it?"
The man in front of him was, as previously stated, very tall. He was also very muscular, with arms that looked bigger than Rikuo's head. It was like the ape-horse all over again, except this guy had a far more intense look in his green eyes than the ape-horse could ever hope to have. He had dyed blonde hair that hung to his shoulders loosely, and he seemed to be looking through Rikuo. "I'm looking for Rikuo Amero."
The wolf-demon snorted, narrowing his slotted eyes at the stranger. Finally he gave a gruff answer, hoping his voice sounded more intimidating than the stranger's deep bass voice. Having a human sound more threatening than he was could be embarrassing. "That's me. Why are you looking for me?"
"I've been looking for you so that I could find someone else actually. Someone who shouldn't be here at all. I have to find him and take him home before he goes and does something that everyone would regret." Rikuo raised an eyebrow, expressing his confusion while not wanting to fully admit that he had no clue what this guy was talking about.
"Who are you looking for and why would I know anyways?" The big man held out his hand, and Rikuo gave it a glance. He discovered that the man was holding a small picture, or at least small in his hand, that showed a teenager with russet-brown hair wearing a leather jacket and smirking at the camera. It was a very familiar looking teenager...it was Daisuke Ihachi.
"The punk who challenged me. I've been looking for him myself, but I can't seem to find any record of him anywhere. There wasn't even anybody named Daisuke Ihachi signed up at any of the qualifying tournaments. I checked every single tournament report, and not one mention of that name" The big fellow narrowed his eyes, and then a small smile appeared on his features. He brushed past Rikuo, who snarled and started for the bigger man to pull him back, but was forced to stop when the other man stopped abruptly and picked up a piece of paper.
Before he could reprimand the big fellow he noticed the big guy was flipping through one of the tournament reports, the one he had just finished examining. He stopped after a few seconds and tossed Rikuo the paper. "He was there. You just didn't have the right name. Look at the winner of the tournament." The wolf-demon frowned and looked down at the tournament report, his golden gaze coming to rest on the name at the top of the list. It read: Drake. That was all, no last name.
"Daisuke has had that nickname for as long as I've known him. He rarely is called anything else. I myself am one of the few people who ever calls him Daisuke. Thank you for your time Rikuo Amero. If you should find him, call this number and ask for Dalin." The big man, who Rikuo now knew as Dalin, extended a little business card that didn't have a business name on it. Instead it just had a number and a few words in Egyptian on it.
He looked up from the card to say something, but discovered that though he was sure Dalin had just been there, the big fellow wasn't anywhere to be seen now. He had just vanished into thin air. "Damned people don't know how to leave properly. Always vanishing for no good reason. Pisses me off."
Rikuo glanced back down at the tournament report and the name Drake, and then he smirked. Now he had a new lead to go off of, and hopefully this would turn out better than before. He didn't know what Dalin wanted with Drake, but he had absolutely no intention of turning the punk kid in until he was finished teaching the kid a lesson in dueling that he would never forget.
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Drake had been amused by the duels he had been in so far while here, but he hadn't gotten any real challenges. That was the whole purpose behind his challenge to Rikuo Amero, to get the ultimate challenge. Sure he could find Yugi or Kaiba and duel them, but he'd dueled both of them and won before. This would be a new and interesting challenge.
Flipping through his cards he found himself once again drawn to a few of them. They were important cards to him, and he felt that they would be critical in the upcoming duel. He slowly altered his deck, not so that it would be better suited to facing a machine deck, but so that it would fit in some new cards he had acquired quite recently.
He could have sought out Rikuo with magic, but he thought it was better this way. After all, if Rikuo had no intention of dueling him, going looking would be fruitless. If Rikuo was determined enough to take on Drake because of the challenge, then he'd take the duel to Drake.
Satisfied that he had finished constructing his deck, Drake slipped it into his pocket and put the duel disk onto his arm. Finally he slipped on his trench coat and headed out the door of the hotel room. He had picked a hotel close to the worst part of town for a very specific reason. "Let's see how well people in this place can throw down."
Smirking he cracked his knuckles and seated himself onto his Kawazaki. Swiftly he clipped his helmet on, and then he was off at high speed. There was no better way to relax before a tough duel than to ride around on a motorcycle and then go beat the crap out of people. At least to him there wasn't.
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After three days of futile searching Rikuo had discovered once again that Daisuke Ihachi, or Drake or whatever the hell else he wanted to be called, didn't exist. At least not according to any normal records he didn't. Then again, neither did Rikuo. Which was pretty useful, considering he didn't have to pay taxes. Of course Jasmine had been the one to figure out how to buy things without any real identity, but he took half the credit. He had said they needed to.
So, now that he was thoroughly frustrated and bored to tears, he was going to vent some anger and some energy. He had decided to go for a run, and he had been doing so for the past hour, bounding over houses at top speed. His other intent was to head into the nearest dueling center and defeat some duelists, while disguised of course.
Unfortunately for him, all of his intents were totally thrown out the window when the smell of blood reached his sensitive nose. He skidded to a halt, perched on top of a three story apartment building, and took in a big whiff. It took him a few seconds to figure out exactly where it was coming from because he had to sort through older blood smells and other equally annoying scents. But once he had it, it was locked in. "Blood means violence, and violence means tension release. This is gonna be fun."
He spanned the distance in several leaps, and landed on top of a run-down building overlooking an alley. To his surprise it wasn't a gang fight as he had initially thought, it was just a regular brawl. But the most surprising part of it was that it was one against six, and the one man, who was a blur of action, seemed to be winning.
The single man threw his body weight into an oncoming thug, dropping him to the ground with a knee to the chest. Then he grabbed the thug's head and swung him around into another one of the six men. He was struck in the back of the head with another man's fist, but he recovered quickly and kicked his newest opponent in the groin. He then followed it up by kneeing that man in the face, crushing his nose.
As the man made his next attack, Rikuo saw something very interesting. He had a silver DD2 on his left arm, and he was now using it in fully extended form as a weapon, slashing and pummeling his enemies with it. And it appeared to be quite effective. Suddenly Rikuo smelled smoke, and watched as the fighter pressed the projection button on the disk and launched the two holo-projectors, each one hitting a thug square in the face, dropping them instantly.
He was definitely interested in a human who could handle himself this well in a fight, but he was here for stress relief, not to be a spectator. He hurled himself down off the roof, his feet crushing a punk beneath his weight. He smirked at hearing the crunch of bones, and then he moved in at incredible speed, making sure to keep his fists closed and his blows relatively light.
In seconds the last of the men was down in a heap, and Rikuo felt slightly satisfied. He brushed his hands on his pants and turn to make a comment to the other man, only to get a fist right in the face. He hit the ground hard, and shook his head in annoyance. He could feel a bit of blood welling up in his nose. "What the hell was that for?"
"Jack ass. I could have handled those losers easy enough, I didn't you to help out. I walked into this fight on purpose to relax myself, not so I could get 'saved' by some arrogant jerk off." Rikuo snarled and launched to his feet, ready to give his assailant a piece of his mind. To his surprise he found himself face to face with the handsome youth with russet-brown hair that had challenged him on TV weeks previous. This was Drake!
Drake noticed in that moment the wolf-ears and wolf-tail that the guy had, along with his slotted golden eyes and shaggy black hair. Brushing a hand through his own hair he smirked and called back his holo-projectors. "I can't believe it. Rikuo Amero, here in a little alley trying to play hero. I don't suppose you were actually looking for me to duel were you?"
Rikuo grinned and plucked his duel disk from the bag on his back and slid it onto his arm. Then he took his deck out and shoved it at Drake. The other duelist grinned and took the deck before handing Rikuo his own. The two duelists started shuffling. "Actually I was looking for stress relief myself, relief from the stress of trying to find you. The actual finding part was just an accident, but I'd say it turned out well. Believe me, you're going to regret that challenge."
Satisfied that he had shuffled his opponent's deck well enough, he handed it back and got his own in return. Both of them grinned widely and shoved the decks into their disks, ready to do battle. Or at least so it seemed. Drake jerked a thumb over his back, pointing at a sleek black motorcycle that was propped up there. "This alleyway isn't the best place for a duel that's bound to be as explosive as this one. If you think you can keep up with my bike, I'll show you the way to a better place to duel."
"Can I keep up? You better just make sure you don't go too slow that I lose you." Drake just grinned and headed to his bike. Then they were off, Drake zipping along the road on his motorcycle and Rikuo following along on his own two feet. It was actually harder to keep up than Rikuo had anticipated, because Drake drove like a maniac, not even bothering to pay attention to regular traffic laws.
He just weaved in and out of traffic and when a stop light was in the way he went up on the sidewalk to bypass it. In short he was a general menace to society on his motorcycle and a menace to others with his fists. Rikuo was starting to like this guy already.
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The place that Drake had led them to was much bigger than the alleyway had been. In fact, it was big enough to hold multiple duels at the same time. It looked like it was an abandoned warehouse, what with the chains and barrels sitting around in odd places. "This is it then huh Drake? You really think you're up to this duel against a guy who saved the world?"
"You aren't the only one who has saved the world before. I'm a member of that club too. And believe me, I'm more than ready for this. The question is, have you gotten rusty over the past couple of years, or do you still have what it takes to duel with the best?" He snapped his disk into place and activated it, the life points counting up until he was completely set to duel. (DLP: 8000)
Rikuo grinned and triggered his own duel disk, the projectors flying off to complete the virtual dueling field. He hadn't dueled in quite some time, but he was sure this was going to be good. After all, if Drake really was the Japanese Champion and had saved the world at some point, then he was probably a good duelist. "I don't know how tough you are, but I guess I'm about to find out right? So here we go!" (RLP: 8000)
Both duelists quickly drew their opening hands of five, and then Drake drew a sixth card. He was going to take the opportunity to go first. Drake took a look at it his hand and smiled, thinking about exactly what he was going to do. "I'll summon Illusive Magician(1900/1600) and then I'll set a card face down. See if you can keep up Rikuo, okay?" Drake's monster was a blue robed magician that looked like a younger form of the Dark Magician. Rikuo was confident he could crush it.
The wolf-demon surveyed his own hand, smirking at what he saw. He was going to not only crush Illusive Magician, but teach this little punk what he could do. "I'll summon Mechanical Chaser(1850/800) to the field! Next I'll add this magic card: Limiter Removal! This doubles Mechanical Chaser's attack, setting him at thirty-seven hundred! Now Mechanical Chaser will attack!" The little weirdly shaped monster extended its arms to great lengths towards Illusive Magician, who stood ready and waiting.
Suddenly Drake's face down card flipped up, and Mechanical Chaser began to get smaller. "You've triggered MY magic card: Shrink! It's the exact opposite of Limiter Removal as it cuts your monster's power in half. Illusive Magician, counterattack!" The magician raised his staff and sent a stream of blue energy forwards. The energy swept over the extended arms and then engulfed the shrunken Mechanical Chaser, blowing it to pieces. (RLP: 7950)
"You walked into such a basic trap Rikuo, or should I say quick-play? The first exchange is mine, and I'm not impressed with your skills so far. You'll have to try harder." The wolf-demon scowled and took one of the other cards from his hand and slid it into the slot on his disk. It appeared in front of him face down, awaiting a potential attack by Drake.
"That was just the first move. Believe me, I've got more. After all, I don't know what to expect of you, but I can tell you this. No little spellcasters are going to even slow down my machines, so don't get cocky. Oh, and it's your turn remember? So go ahead and make my day." Rikuo folded his arms, the way he was holding his body projecting a confident aura. But Drake didn't know Rikuo well enough to be sure if that confidence was just a bluff or not. So he'd have to work it out on his own.
Drake drew his next card, giving him a total of five, and then he looked out at Rikuo's mostly open field. Even if it was a trap, it would most likely only stop one attack. So he'd be better off with having two monsters, and he knew just what monster to summon. "Get ready Rikuo, because these so-called 'little spellcasters' are about to make a bit dent in your life points. I summon you, Skilled Dark Magician(1900/1700)!"
Rikuo stood calm and confident even under the stealing gaze of one magician in blue and another in black. Together they had enough power to nearly cut his life points in half, and all he had was a single face down card. The duel was just getting started, but he was sure it was going to be an exciting one. He could already feel his pulse starting to race with the thrill of the duel. "Bring it on." XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Author's Notes: I decided to put it at about the same average length that Wolf General does it, just to see how it turns out. It will still be done in my writing and dueling style though.
Wolf General: Hope you enjoy it.
Time Mage: Speaking of Dalin....
Original Cards
Drake: Illusive Magician