Chapter 2: The Invite and the Mystery of Osmos
Kouichi Nandao sat, bored, in his math class. He was so bored, his mind had been drifting off. The latest of his reminiscences was of how he had learned a new combo from Sei in duel monsters. 'Yeah, I can't wait to use that combo!"' he thought of the exact cards that he wished he could play in a duel. 'Unfortunately, Sei always whoops me before I get any of the cards I need to cream him!"' he sighed as he thought back to Sei's latest win, with a combination of Monster Reborn, Magic Cylinder, Change of Heart, and Swords of Revealing Light he had obliterated the boy in 4 turns. "ARRGH! I even got my Sword Hunter onto the field too!" he jumped up and yelled out to no one. He was given a detention at the end of the class.
"I can't believe I got a detention, I mean come on, who doesn't talk in class, right Sei?" Kou questioned his best friend after the class had ended.
"I don't talk, actually." Shisei said, smiling nervously. He had, after the great victory that Kou pulled out of his hat, put his anger at him for the missed tourney behind him. And now he just enjoyed handing Kou his butt in a duel. "So don't go on talking about how you shouldn't have been written up." Sei said as the last bell rang and the two walked out of the doors, and down the sidewalk of the main school street. "Hey, want to come over to my house for a while, you can help me organize my deck." Sei asked as he turned toward his house.
"Yeah, no doubt, and you may not want to let me see your deck." Kou said smirking. He wouldn't want an unfair advantage. " I mean, I don't know what's in your deck except for about 10 cards." he thought back and began to name the cards that he had seen. He switched around and began to walk backwards toward Sei's house. Big mistake.
"KOU, WATCH OUT!" Sei yelled, seeing the danger and ducking and rolling forward out of its way.
SREECHHH! A car, the threat that Shisei tried to warn the other boy about came to a halt just before hitting the him. "WHAT THE F DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING KID!" the driver of the vehicle, which was a limousine, got out of the car and yelled at the young Swordsman.
Kou, who looked like a deer caught in headlights, began to slowly climb to his feet, as he had fallen over when the car roared up right next to him. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I promise I shall do whatever I can to make this up to you." he started, almost as though it was an automatic reaction. "Please forgive me for…" Kou began to think of the mistake that he had just made, luckily, he was spared from making one up, as the passenger of the limo stepped out.
"Now now Siegel," the figure said, as he stepped within full view of the two confused boys. " I think that you should be a little bit calmer, after all, we weren't the ones in danger of being hit by a car." the man smiled at the boys with an expression of extreme calm and control.
The man that had stepped out of the limo was tall and silver haired, with a pony tail that reached his back. Approximately 6'2'', and he wore a business suit that made him look older than he actually was. His chauffer was a big burly man with black hair in a laid back fashion, and he also had blue eyes. His height was approx. 6'5" or more.
"So now, you must be Shisei." the man that had stepped out of the limo said, he looked at the blond boy with a smile on his face. He then held up his hand to silence the question that Kou began. "No, I don't need to explain how I know your name, unless of course," he reached into the limo and removed two duel disks from the seat inside. "you care to challenge me in a duel monster's match?" he questioned, then he tossed the disk to the other boy, already knowing the answer. Or at least he thought he did.
"I'll duel you!" Kou yelled, jumping and intercepting the duel disk. "Got that, you owe me an apology for nearly running me over anyways, so come on." Kou slipped his deck into the deck slot. After his duel with the boy a while ago, he decided to watch some of the other duelists around the world duel, such as Yugi Moto, and that helped him to learn the more complicated areas of the game, and he also picked up to how to use a duel disk. And now, eager to duel against anyone, he turned on the disks, and the holo projectors flew out and landed on the side lines as his opponent did the same.
"Oh well, I suppose the sooner I get to show Mr. Aragashi my skills, the sooner I get to do what I came here for." he drew and the LP scores were set.
Kou-8000
Man-8000
"Now lets begin, you go first as I challenged you." he said after drawing his fifth card.
"Okay, then I'll summon Axe Raider (1700/1150), in attack mode!" he roared as he slid the card into the first free monster slot. "Whoa, these are nice." Kou said as he saw the beautifully rendered monster version of an Axe Raider. "Now I'll set these two cards face down, and end my turn.
"Alright, now I draw." the man said as he got ready for his attack. "Now, summon Vorse Raider (1900/1200)in attack mode as well as Pot of Greed!" he declared. "That lets me draw two cards!" he slipped the cards off of his deck and smiled. "Next comes Dark designator, so I get to name one card, if you have it in your deck, you take it from there." the man continued.
"Woah, you're actually helping me?" Kou couldn't believe it, his opponent was going to give him a card.
"Now the card name I declare is… Axe of Despair!" the man shouted out the name in full confidence that his opponent had the equip magic card in his deck.
"Okay, I have no idea why you would want to give me such a card but…" Kou slid the card from his disk and shuffled the deck. "Anything else to help me?" Kou questioned.
"Actually, there might be, first I'll set three cards and activate the magic of Exchange!" he smiled evilly as he gave his opponent the Summoned Skull (2500/1200) in his hand, and then he took the Axe of Despair card. "Since that went off without a hitch, you must have known that exchange makes us give each other a card from our hands." he smiled and then slid the last card into his duel disk. "Now, you must know what's coming next, I'll equip my monster with the Axe of Despair that I took from your hand, and then attack your much weaker monster. Go Vorse Raider (2900/1200) attack his Axe Raider (1700/1150)!" he smiled again and then watched as the LP score of his opponent was dropped.
Kou-6800
Man-8000
"Okay, my turn, and I'll draw!" Kou slid a card from his deck and frowned. 'Not even my Big Shield Guardna (100/2600) can withstand an attack from that, and even if it could, It would be switched into attack mode afterwards anyways."' he sighed as he thought this." Okay, I'll set this monster face down in defense, and that's it for me." he smiled, trying to act like he had a chance to turn the duel around.
"You're a fool boy, you should know that you have to be an expert to even stand a chance at beating me." he laughed almost maniacally as he drew his card. "Alright, now I'll play another Pot of Greed." he slid the card into his graveyard after its activation. Then, drawing two cards, he began to smile. "Okay, now I'll summon, Gradius (1200/800)! In attack mode!" he smiled as the monster jet appeared on his own field. "Now, Gradius, attack his defense!" the man yelled.
"Hold on!" Kou pressed a button on his duel disk and a facedown card flipped itself. "Now I activate, a quick play magic card, The Reliable Guardian, which will increase the defense of a monster by 700 points!" Kou smiled, he was gonna lose a lot of LP, but at least he got some damage of his own off of his opponent. "Now my Big Shield Guardna shall make you lose 2100 LP!" Kou yelled happily at the decrease in his opponent's life points. "Now my Big Shield is in attack mode (100) so you can make me lose major, which I know you will, so just attack." Kou cried out, almost in frustration that he was on the defense again so soon.
"My, aren't you perceptive, well now I will in fact attack, and I'll activate two reinforcements-" he was cut off by the activation of another trap.
"Unfortunately for you, I activate the trap card, Trap Jammer!" he yelled as the card flipped. "Now I'll discard this card from my hand to make you lose your Reinforcements trap!" he let the trap do its stuff, foiling one of the man's reinforcements.
"No matter, the other Reinforcements still gives my monster 3400 attack total!" the more experienced duelist roared with happiness. "So you lose 3300 LP and your useless monster." he said.
Kou-3500
Man-5900
"You know, you seriously need to get a life!" Kou yelled as he drew his card. Taking a quick glance at it, he did a double take and smirked. "Okay, now I play the magic of Chosen One!" he slid the card into his duel disk, as well as two others for the card's effect. "Now you pick a card to decide whether I lose a monster, or Special summon one!" he smirked as he let chance take over.
'Damn, this could decide the duel…"' the man thought to himself, then he chose the right card." I'll chose the card on the right side of that thing." he pointed to the holographic chooser in the middle of the cards set down.
"This duel is just about over, now I Special Summon, thanks to your guess," he winked to annoy the man. "the mighty Sword Hunter (2450/1700)." he said as he slid the card into the monster card slot. "Now you'll see its power, attack his Gradius (1200/800)!" he yelled.
"Hold on, activate trap, the Magic Cylinder!" the man yelled as he pressed the button that redirected the attack. "It'll shoot your attack right back at you and your LP, sorry, but your attack didn't work!" the man laughed again as he saw the blue haired boy's reduce in LP.
Kou-1050
Man-5900
"Okay, but I'll still set these two magic/trap cards and end my turn." the two magic/trap cards appeared just as he stated, facedown. Kou began to sweat nervously as he watched his opponent draw his card. Shisei did the same thing. "Give me a break, you can't lose Kou" he shouted to his friend, but Kou was to sick with worry to respond to his friend.
"Oh, well what do you know, now I'll summon, Gradius's Option (?)!" the man yelled as he slipped the card onto his duel disk. "Now you'll see the power of this card, I can only Special Summon it when I have a Gradius on the field, and it will gain the attack and defense of the Gradius that I choose!" he commented. "The only thing is, when Gradius is destroyed, my Gradius's Option (1200/800)is also destroyed and sent to the graveyard." he stated. "Now, do you wish to activate your trap, it won't help you!" he smirked once again. "Now, Vorse Raider, Attack his monster!" he called his attack and waited to see the opposing monster destroyed.
"Activate trap!" Kou shouted out. He pressed the activation button on his duel disk, once again. "Now, you'll see the power of my Blast with Chain trap." he smirked triumphantly as the card flipped. "You see, when blast with chain is activated, my monster is equipped with this card, and it increases its attack by 500 points, so it has 50 more attack points than your monster." Kou jumped up in the air triumphantly.
"Alright Kou! That's the way to turn things around!" Sei yelled his support for his best friend.
"Thanks Sei." he nodded toward Shisei and then turned his attention back to the duel. "My Sword Hunter (2950/1700) now has more attack power than ever!" Kou watched as the monster was destroyed and a 50 LP amount was deducted from the other player. "And now your monster is treated like an equip card to mine, sorry, but your dead next turn!" Kou bragged.
Kou-1050
Man-5850
"Ahh, very interesting, but your monster can't survive for long." his opponent stated.
"Yeah, yeah, so you say, but now you will see my next brilliant move!" he set a magic/trap card and ended his turn.
"Ooh, now I'll activate the-" he was cut off by his opponent's interjection once again.
"Hey, now, what's your rush, your going to lose soon anyway!" he yelled as his trap card flipped, his opponent saw the Just desserts trap and flipped his own card.
"Your card won't work on me, because I activate Mystical Refpanel, it will shift the target player of a card to another player! So you lose 1000 LP instead of me!" Kou paled at his plight.
Kou-50
Man-5850
"Oh no, Kou, don't lose!" Sei yelled out to encourage his friend. But Kou was to out of it to hear him. "Kou, come on, you can still turn this duel around, he isn't invincible!" Sei shouted, but his support wasn't helping the other boy at all.
'I have no chance of winning with these cards."' he thought and sighed.
"Now that your done with your little sideshow, you lose, now I summon, Rainbow Flower(400/500), which is a monster that can attack your life points directly. Just in case you thwart my plans, which I doubt, I'll switch my other creatures to defense mode." he stated , finishing his laughter as the other boy dropped his cards in defeat. "DIRECT ATTACK MY CREATURE"
Kou-0
Man-5850
"KOU!" Sei rushed towards his best friend as he fell to the ground. " Are you all right!" he asked, worried that the intensity level on the Duel disk was up to high, it had happened before, and had made some of the duelist like Joey lose in Battle City.
"My name is Osmos, and I have come to show you how weak you and your friend are, but if you can improve your skill and win the upcoming Japan Regional Tournament…" the man who previously had no name smiled slightly. "Then you will be allowed to participate in something much more unique…" he emphasized the last word. And then, he walked toward the limo, turning once more to say: "Oh yeah, you can bring your idiotic wimp of a duelist to be your back up. Though he won't help Hahahah!" he smiled once more and then departed with Siegel before either boy could say a thing.
"So what now?" Kou asked, he looked at Sei once he was back on his seat, he wanted more than anything to win a match against Osmos. He didn't know why, but he just hated that guy's guts, so he was ready to duel in any tournament that he could re duel him in.
Shisei took out his deck out and said: "We should check out this tournament!" he replied enthusiastically. "After all, its pretty much a once in a lifetime opportunity! We might become famous!" he finished. Kou nodded, standing up to full height and adjusting his backpack.
"Well, let's go home." he said, departing into the streets of his Tokyo neighborhood, just like he always did after school, same old same old. For some oddreason, however, he didn't feel as if his life would stay the same for long.
Next time: The tournament begins and Osmos gives a new meaning to fear when he takes a guy into the shadow realm. But why does he seem so interested in Shisei himself? Find out on Next time on Duel Monsters: Maximum!
