Disclaimer: No I do not own Yugioh.

Legends of the Demon Duelist-Chaos Arc

Chapter 11: Espionage madness

Ichigo Pilkington stifled a yawn and sat back to listen. It had been a couple of days since he'd been clobbered by a Rikuo-driven bed, and since then his life had actually calmed down. All he had to do was keep clear of any and all members of the Amero family. Coming near Rikuo, whenever the now child-sized wolf demon actually showed his face, meant a likely beating for who knows whatever reason. And though Ichigo did want to see Eri again…he feared that any attempt would come to the same conclusion. A long and painful session with Rikuo Amero.

So he'd spent the last days doing something that he missed. ("Being a student of the coolest place in the world.") Grinning, the half-demon closed his eyes and pricked up his ears to listen into one of his 'favorite' classes in the world. ("Deck Themes…courtesy of Midas King.")

Up at the front of the room, the gold-clothed professor paced back and forth, continuing his speech. "…and that brings me to today's discussion topic. As I'm hoping from all of you, everyone should be trying to keep a deck theme unique to their own personality." He crashed his hand down onto his desk, waking up some of the Osiris Red students that had been sleeping.

Ichigo had predicted the movement and to protect his hearing flattened his ears to his head right before so. ("You're getting predictable.")

"However," Midas motioned out to the whole room. "What would you ever do if you found yourself facing against a deck exactly like your own?" Though he was trying a bit too hard to be dramatic, he did bring up a good point. And this sparked some thoughts in the heads of some of the better duelists in the room, who had already decided upon their theme.

Midas pointed up into the top rows of the room. "Miss Amero, if you could please enlighten us all as to your deck theme."

Eri, without malice, stated. "It is a dead using both undead and demon monsters to create either a defense lock against the opponent, or if it needs to it can switch to a beat-down style."

The professor nodded. "Very good, you know your deck's strengths. Now, what are its weaknesses?"

This brought the demoness pause. She had never actually thought along those lines before.

"You don't know?" Midas tapped his chin. "When then, perhaps you…"

"The weakness in Eri's deck is that it focuses on too many different effects at once. She runs attack monsters in a deck with cards that are meant to create defense. Though it can be seen as strength, it's actually a weakness because an opponent can exploit holes in either strategy with just a bit of careful planning." Ichigo kicked his feet up onto his desk, his eyes still closed.

Midas felt veins bulge in his forehead. "Alright then, mister Pilkington! Let's see…" He pointed up at Hitokage, who raised his eyebrows at the fact that he has suddenly become the center of attention. "What's the weakness of mister Seijitsu's deck then?"

"Hitokage's deck is pretty effective, but one big weakness I've noticed when playing it is that his deck requires the opponent to have a monster in play for it to work. Therefore, against any kind of trap or magic card deck, he would pretty much be close to defenseless." Ichigo yawned. "Anyone else?"

Eri growled low in her throat. ("You smug little…")

Hitokage simply thought on this suddenly exposed 'weakness' of his deck.

Griff rolled his eyes at Ichigo. "You're seriously getting too swelled of a head."

"I agree." Midas cracked his knuckles and raised his finger. ("Let's see how long you can keep up the smart-ass act!") "Then how about mister…"

Daniel smiled to the classroom as a whole. "Good afternoon everyone, I hope you all enjoyed your lunch." He got some enthusiastic replies, and that's all he wanted. As long as some of the class was paying attention then he was happy.

Ichigo was back in his same position at his seat, eyes closed and smiling slightly. He felt proud of himself.

"I can't believe you pointed out the weakness of nearly every deck in class. How did you even know what some of the other students were running?" Griff rolled his eyes. "Besides…"

Daniel whistled, catching the attention of both Griff and Ichigo. "Excuse me, but I overheard an interesting little tidbit of information during lunch that I thought would make a good topic for today's class." Sitting on top of his desk, the half wolf-demon faced the class. "What's the weakness of your deck?"

"Why don't you ask Ichigo, I'm sure he knows," muttered Adriel under his breath.

"Ah yes, Ichigo." Daniel slid off of his seat and smiled. "So…what's the weakness of Ichigo's deck?"

Everyone quieted down at that. Never before had Professor Pilkington ever selected his son for any kind of demonstration.

Ichigo's eyes opened slightly. "What are you talking about? My deck doesn't have any weaknesses."

"Oh?" Daniel knew he was walking a fine line here. If he spoke too much on the weaknesses of Ichigo's deck, he would make it too easy for his son's rivals to get the upper hand in a duel. ("However, I need to convince my son to pull his head out of his ass and think about his strategy.") Pulling a card out of his pocket, he flipped it over to show it to the class. "Your deck uses the magic card Polymerization to fuse your Cyber Shadows together and create fusions with incredible power. What happens though, if someone uses this?" The card he was holding was a trap. "Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell is a counter trap card that requires you to discard a magic card from your hand to activate. When you do so, you can negate a magic card. Also, your opponent will no longer be allowed to use that magic card for the rest of the duel."

Ichigo knew all too well what his father was getting at. "So what would I do if someone sealed away my ability to fuse monsters?"

"Right." Daniel nodded slightly.

Ichigo pulled his deck out of his pocket and held up a card from within it. "The field magic card Fusion Gate allows me to still fuse my monsters together. Therefore, I possess more than enough methods to get out my best monsters."

Daniel placed the trap down on his desk and pulled out another card. "What about this? The continuous trap card Fusion Cancel prevents monsters from coming together through union or fusion effects, so even Fusion Gate can't stop that."

"What, am I facing some kind of deck that hates fusion?" Ichigo sighed and held up another card. "Mighty Immunity is a magic card that counts as Polymerization for Cyber Shadows. The fusion that will be created cannot be stopped by pre-negation effects, and during the turn it is summoned my opponent cannot activate trap cards as well."

Daniel pursed his lips slightly. "Fine…then how about this…you take on the deck these cards are in right now and we'll see how well you do."

Ichigo stood up and shrugged, shuffling his hand into his deck. "Sure, let's play."

Daniel walked over and picked a duel disk located under the teacher's desk. Turning it on, he slid the deck into it. "This should be quick, and pay attention everyone. I'll be testing you later on this." Sliding the disk onto his arm, he smirked and drew six cards. "Duel!"

Ichigo picked up his duel disk and turned it on, drawing five cards. "You really want to embarrass you?"

Daniel shrugged and slid two cards into his disk. "I set two cards face-down on the field and summon Makyura the Destructor (1600/1200) in attack mode." A purple warrior appeared on the field and silently waited for a command. "Since this isn't my real deck, losing with it won't matter much. End turn."

Ichigo drew. "Yeah, this doesn't even feel like you dad. It feels like facing any old deck."

("Careful Ichigo….or maybe you think that this is just an examination deck. If so, you're quite wrong. This deck is a brain-child of mine that was meant to test your deck's progress.") Daniel smiled slightly and waited patiently.

Looking his hand over for a few moments, the half-demon smiled. "Magic card, Pot of Greed, activate! This lets me draw two cards." He slid two cards off of his deck and added them to his hand. Glancing at the two drawn cards, he sighed and threw one onto his disk. "I was hoping Pot of Greed would give me something strong enough to defeat your monster, but since it didn't I'll just summon Cyber Shadow-Trainer (300/1200) in defense mode." A grizzled grey-bearded man in a black body-suit appeared on the field in a crouching position. "Then I set one card face-down on the field. End turn."

Daniel drew. ("You've got a lousy bluff, but I'll bite.") "Makyura, attack Trainer!" The warrior leapt forwards…and then slid to a stop a few inches from the monster. "Let me guess, a trap?"

"No, a quickplay magic card." Ichigo held up his face-down card. "Alert Tripwire lets me negate all attacks from you this turn and draw one card from my deck for every Cyber Shadow in play." He slid a card from his deck and smiled.

Daniel closed his eyes and smiled. "Good, I was hoping you'd draw some cards. Reveal face-down card, Rude Greed's Reverse!" One of his face-down cards flipped up. "This card activates when you draw cards during my turn because of one of your own effects. Because of such a rude act, I get to draw three cards." He slid three cards off of the deck and added them to his hand. "Then I set one card face-down on the field and end my turn."

Ichigo drew slowly, his eyes narrowed. "So you want to play rough huh? Alright, well then let's play!" His hand sped up and snapped the card the rest of the way off of his deck. Looking at it, he smirked. "Now it's time to play seriously! I sacrifice Trainer to summon Cyber Shadow-Moonblade!" (2000/1700) A blond-haired woman appeared on his field. "This monster's special ability lets me discard a card from my hand to take one Polymerization magic card and one Cyber Shadow from my deck and add them to my hand."

Daniel narrowed his eyes. ("Someone apparently wasn't listening when I said this deck was meant to oppose your strategy.")

Sliding a card from his hand into his graveyard, Ichigo removed the two cards he was looking for. "Ready pops, because here's Polymerization!"

Daniel motioned to his set card. "Yeah right, how about you open your eyes. Reveal Fusion Cancel! This continuous trap will prevent my opponent from using any fusion or union as long as it is in play."

Ichigo slid the Polymerization that he has planned on using into his graveyard. ("I didn't forget…I just wanted you to bring out you anti-fusion cards.") Sliding two cards into his disk, Ichigo licked his lips. "End turn."

Daniel drew. "It's time to teach you a thing about fusion. I sacrifice Makyura to summon out Wings of Destruction!" (2200/1800) A huge black-winged raven appeared on his field. "Attack Moonblade now!" Opening its beak, the monster screeched and sent a wave of energy ripping towards Ichigo's monster.

"Sorry, but I reveal my face-down card! Go Shadow Force! This trap card lets me negate all attacks from you this turn and transfers the attack of the negated monster to one of my creatures!" A silver barrier of light stopped the attack transferred it Moonblade. (4200/1700)

Daniel held up his other set card. "Now then, go Seven Tools of the Bandit! This counter trap card lets me pay 1000 life points to negate one trap card." The barrier faded away and Moonblade's attack dropped to normal. (2000/1700)

Daniel- 3000
Ichigo- 4000

Moonblade threw up her hands and slid backwards as the energy blew against her.

Frowning, Ichigo pointed at his struggling warrior. "Moonblade's special ability allows me to drain her of 500 attack points once per turn to negate an attack." (1500/1700)

Daniel slid a card into his disk. "I set one card and end my turn then."

Ichigo drew…and looked up from his hand to meet eyes with Daniel. "Brain-child or no, you need to work a little harder on that deck. Anyway, this duel is done." He slid a card into his disk. "First I play the continuous magic card Cyber Shadow Mainframe! As long as this card remains on the field all Cyber Shadows will gain an extra 500 attack points!" (2000/1700)

"That might have helped a turn ago, but after using Moonblade's effect she is no longer able to help you against my Wings of Destruction." Daniel glanced at his Fusion Cancel for reassurance. ("Moonblade is my Everest in this fight. He can't form anything more powerful than her.")

Ichigo pointed at his face-down card. "Sorry pops, but you're finished! Go Shadow Theft!" The card flipped up and Fusion Cancel shimmered onto Ichigo's field. "This trap card lets me steal one face-up magic or trap card from my opponent as long as I have a Cyber Shadow in play!"

Daniel's eyes widened. ("Shadow Theft….crap…")

Ichigo held up the rest of his hand. "It's over dad! Go Polymerization!" A glowing vortex of darkness appeared in the air above him. "Now I fuse Cyber Shadow-Sentinel (1500/1300) and Cyber Shadow-Relay (0/1600) together to create Cyber Shadow-Scanner (1850/1500) in attack mode!" A bipedal robot appeared on his field with a satellite dish on top of its head. "When this monster is summoned all face-down cards on your field are revealed! Any traps and effect monsters are destroyed!"

Daniel blinked in surprise as his face-down Magic Cylinder flipped up and shattered.

Ichigo smirked and slapped a card down. "Cyber Shadow-Soldier (1600/1600) in attack mode!" A medium-sized humanoid in a black-bodysuit appeared on the field. "Cyber Shadow Mainframe raises their attack strength!"

Cyber Shadow-Moonblade (2000/1700)

Cyber Shadow-Scanner (2350/1500)

Cyber Shadow-Soldier (2100/1600)

("Oh you must be kidding me….") Daniel paled.

Ichigo pointed at Wings of Destruction. "Scanner attack! Sound Crusher!" Scanner released a throbbing wave of sound that shattered the raven.

Daniel- 2850
Ichigo- 4000

"I'm not done yet! Go Soldier and Moonblade!" Both warriors launched forwards and slammed their elbows into Daniel's stomach, winding him.

Daniel- 0
Ichigo- 4000

Turning off his duel disk, Ichigo saluted his father and sat back down.

("That didn't go as planned.") Daniel slowly came to his feet and faced the completely silent classroom. All of the students were staring at him. They couldn't believe he had lost.

Ichigo was smiling to himself for the rest of the day. Though he had only defeated a test deck of his father's, it still felt like a win in his mind. ("It's time for the 'I'm the greatest' dance.")

Griff and Krieger both stared at their roommate like he had lost his mind. "I personally think someone has gotten just a little too egotistical about the skill of their deck." Griff wished there was something he could do about it. But he'd already tried to defeat Ichigo earlier today during lunch and had been defeated. ("Whether I want to admit it or not, he's as good as he believes himself to be.")

"Hey Ichigo!"

The half-demon stopped in mid-dance and looked over at the owner of the yelling voice. "Hey, it's mister Stanhope!" Stanhope was the owner of the on-island card store. If it wasn't for him then Ichigo would have never gotten the necessary cards to defeat Eri and free himself from her penalty game, and as such he was always willing to help out the old man whenever he could. "Is there something you needed moved?"

Chuckling, the gray-bearded old man waggled a finger in the air. "Actually, I thought I could finally repay you for all of the help that you have given me over the last two months."

"There's no need for any kind of repayment, I owe you for lowering the price on that pack of cards." Ichigo blushed slightly at how kind mister Stanhope was always being with him.

Stanhope shook his head. "No, I can't let you simply work for free in my shop and not at least try to offer you a hand." Glancing around conspiratorially, he leaned in closer. "Just between you and me, there's a special pack of cards that will be arriving tonight. Have you ever heard of the Legends of Espionage booster pack series?"

Ichigo's eyes grew enormous. "You…mean…."

Smirking at the fact that he had caught the boy's interest, Stanhope nodded. "That's right…it will be in tonight at about ten o'clock." Turning away, he smiled and winked to Ichigo. "Just thought that you might like to know." With nothing left to say Stanhope walked off down the trail he had come from.

Griff and Krieger, thanks to demon hearing, had heard it loud and clear. "So…what's the Legends of Espionage series?"

Ichigo had switched to his 'today is a good day' dance. "The Legends of Espionage set is a special side set made only for a few special warrior decks. And mine is one of them!"

Griff rolled his eyes. "Great, so your deck is going to get even better."

Krieger sighed. ("I don't think Ichigo needs another ego boost today.")

Ichigo was too busy dancing to care.

Much later that evening Ichigo was standing in front of the store tapping his feet impatiently. ("Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on….")

Griff rolled his eyes. ("Why did I even bother coming along?")

Krieger sighed and waited quietly next to his roommate.

An explosion from inside the building immediately caught all of their attention. All at once they ran in and the first thing that caught their eye was the huge hole in the back wall of the shop. "What happened in here?"

Stanhope coughed a couple of times and pointed out the hole. "Someone just grabbed the shipment!"

Ichigo narrowed his eyes and rushed out after the culprit. He didn't have to run far though, because just right outside of the building was not only the box of arriving packs but the person behind it.

It was a blond-haired boy of about 5'7' in height, and with hazel eyes similar to Ichigo's. "You must be Ichigo Pilkington." Standing slowly, the medium-built boy flexed his hands against the black gloves and bodysuit he was wearing. "I knew you'd be here."

"I don't care what you do with the rest of those cards, but there's one pack in there that is mine!" Ichigo struck a dramatic pose and pointed at the box.

Stanhope, Griff and Krieger all face-fell.

"You must mean the Legends of Espionage pack," the boy held up a single pack of cards that had a silhouette of a man holding a small pistol on it. "This was my objective, and the only way you'll get it is to beat me in a duel."

Ichigo smirked and removed his backpack. A few moments later he was wearing his duel disk. "Oh really? Well then get ready to lose."

Lifting up his left arm, the boy narrowed his eyes. "Don't worry, I don't intend to. In fact…" He threw the pack over to Griff with incredible accuracy. "Hold that for me."

Ichigo rubbed his index finger under his nose. "I won't be losing to the likes of you. My Cyber Shadows are tougher than they look."

"Cyber Shadows?" The boy looked surprised…and then interested. "This should be fun. My name is Richard, by the way. So let's begin!"

Ichigo- 4000

Richard- 4000

To be continued…

To Seeker of the Soul: Right on both accounts.

To Rex: I would of, but it is about Chaos more than Kuribohs.

To G.O.T Nick: You are exactly right sir!

To Bobbomp: Ryu's allowed to have jokes too.

To Anime Albino: Dislike Esmin?

To GryphinWyrm7: Don't worry about it. Your story will progress fine, you just need to keep at it.

To Hogwarts-Knight: Sorry friend, but I really don't disclose information about my characters if I can avoid it.