Chapter 15: Third Degree burns
Shisei had been watching his friends, Kou and Namia's, match in horror. For Kou had fallen behind greatly as Namia reduced his LP to a staggeringly low 2300 in the first few turns of the match. She was still at full. But the drastic difference in their LP counts weren't the reason he was looking at the field in horror at the moment. It was because a black sphere had suddenly appeared around the arena. And it looked just like the sphere from Kou's duel against the dead man.
"Don't worry, your friends will be okay." Mai, who had remembered her previous duel in the realm of evil, assured a horror struck Shisei. To her surprise, Shisei turned sharply and looked at her oddly. "What?" she asked the younger duelist.
"You know something about that thing, don't you?" he inquired, rather more forceful than he would have normally. "What is that thing, and why has it appeared now?" he asked, still forceful.
Mai hesitated, she never liked reliving her memory of the shadow realm with anyone, this boy was no exception…. But then she realized why Shisei wouldn't be shocked to see the realm of darkness. 'He must have already been to the Shadow Realm… and he lived."' she suddenly felt more at ease about explaining her experiences. "Okay, that thing down there… Its called the Shadow Realm." she started. "It can take your soul, or your memories, depending on the terms of the match." she said.
"Well, what is your soul?" asked Shisei, then he quickly added. "I mean, what does it stand for?" he figured he was being vague, but he didn't want to involve Mai in his and Kou's problems.
"Oh." Mai suddenly realized Shisei was the type of person who would never really be able to believe in magic, he was to observant and logical for that kind of thing. "The soul doesn't stand for anything, if you lose it in that realm, you'll be empty and emotionless." she told him plainly.
Shisei just stared at her for a moment, then suddenly he stood bolt upright. "I've just thought of something!" he was remembering his ordeal with Osmos when the tournament had started. "See ya!" and he was gone before Mai could blink.
Kou glared at the Soul Eater as she drew from within Namia's body. 'Okay, we have a major problem, I'm down to my last standing in LP, and she's just getting started, how can I beat her?"' he asked Chiro. 'And while your thinking, whose Thalius?"' he continued his inquiry.
'Hold on, first of all, we can't destroy her creatures anymore. Or we'll be burning our LP away with them."' Chiro thought to him. 'Next, all you need to know about Thalius is that he's a bastard whose burning in hell, where the bitch across from us will soon be!"' Chiro growled.
'Okay, I'll have to take your word for it."' Kou didn't feel at all like getting on someone else's nerves, and apparently Thalius was a touchy subject for Chiro.
"Here comes the hurt!" the soul eater slammed a monster down in attack mode. "Say hello to Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV4 (1600/1000) and I'll place behind my dragon, one card, your move." the Soul Eater was obviously enjoying her duel. "Oh, and by the way, I'll keep eating the poor girl's soul, until about half an hour is up… Then she'll have no soul left!" the Soul eater laughed manically and licked her stolen lips.
"Then we'll just have to stop that!" Kou stated, nervously sliding his duel disk a bit further up his arm to see the time on his watch. 11:15. They had till 11:45. He then drew. "I'll set one monster face down, end turn!" he told her.
"That was your last mistake, I'll activate, Shadow of eyes!" the trap flipped and glowing eyes seductively brought Throwstone Unit (900/2000) out in attack mode. "Now, Horus, blow that puny mon-" she cut off as all of the monsters on the field switched to defense mode. "Ah, your Zero Gravity, no matter, that was just a formality, I'll now switch my monster into attack mode, and play Heavy Storm!" Kou gasped as all of his last defenses shattered. "Then I'll set two more cards, and activate my second Backfire trap." the cards appeared as she said, and her lethal trap activated again. "End turn." she smiled.
"You bitch!" Kou was starting to feel some of Chiro's rage build up inside him as he drew and added the card to his four card hand. "I'll sacrifice both of my monster's for the mighty Sword Hunter (2450/1700) he smiled, confidence renewed as the mighty monster jumped from the card in attack mode. "Now, Sword Hunter (2450/1700) attack her Horus!" the warrior obliged and slashed at the beast, only to stop and be destroyed as a fire swept over it.
"Ha, you fell right into Widespread ruin, when it is activated, your strongest monster in attack mode is destroyed!" she threw back her head and laughed. Kou growled and set the rest of his hand in his M/T zone.
"Go!" he glared at her.
She bowed and drew. "My wish is your command!" she slid a card into her disk. "Now I'll activate, Level Up! This allows me to send my Horus to the graveyard," she began, Horus looked back at her reproachfully. "To summon a much stronger version… BEHOLD Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV 8 (3000/1800)!" she screamed, as a raging fire erupted on her previous dragon, and it emerged with a new set of features. "Now, Horus, End this duel, directly attack him!" she yelled, the beast obliged and spewed black flames over at Kou, who pressed his quick play activate, ignoring as best he could the flames that sprung up and reduced his LP due to Backfire.
Kou-1800
Soul Eater-8000
"I'll activate, Shrink, this will bring your monster down to half of-" he was cut off before he got to finish.
"FOOL, MY BEAST NEGATES SPELL CARDS!" she laughed while Kou went to his second to last facedown trap card, his last hope.
"I'll play one of Chiro's cards, Negate Attack!" he smirked as his LP were saved yet again. The Soul Eater just shrugged. "I'll set one more card and end my turn." and so she did.
'Chiro, were really running out of options!"' Kou thought to his counterpart.
'I know, just.. Defend, yeah that's it, defend."' Chiro told him, he was biting his fingers from all the pressure on them. Kou took a deep breath and set one monster.
"I'm done." he told the creature in Namia's body.
"Fine, I'll now draw." she add the card to her hand with the same evil smile on her face. " I'll activate one of my favorite cards in this worthless girl's deck!" she smirked and slid a magic card into the slot. "Its called, Third Degree Burns!" flames swept out in front of Kou, who jumped back on instinct. This was a mistake.
"AGH!" he shrieked as the skin on his back was seared by the hot fire which erupted behind him as well as in front. "What the heck is with this place!" he touched what was left of the skin gingerly, tears in his eyes from the pain.
The Soul Eater tossed her head back and laughed. "You felt your monster's pains last time, this time, you'll have your own to deal with!" her smile widened as she drew. "Now, my trap card has a simple, yet devastating effect, whenever I use a fire monster to destroy another type of monster, despite what mode its in, we both lose half of the destroyed monster's attack in our LP!" she elaborated.
Kou suddenly noticed that the flames were pouring up around Namia's body as well. 'If we don't do something, your girlfriend is gonna be soulless fried chicken."' Chiro commented. Kou glared to him as the Soul Eater declared her next card.
"Next, I'll activate Flame Shield, which protects me from direct damage as long as I have a fire monster on the field!" she laughed hysterically again, as Kou gulped. "Now, Horus, send his monster into oblivion!" the winged monster sent a spew of black fire that hit the defense monster, Kou's Warrior of Zera (1600/1600).
Kou-1000
Soul Eater-8000
'Chiro, I hate to say it but, I'm done for, I'm down to my last draw."' Kou weakly slid a card from his deck, still smelling fried skin from his previous singing.
'Don't be an idiot,"' he heard Chiro respond. 'WE ARE GOING TO WIN!"' Chiro encouraged him. Kou looked at the card.
"I'll first use Disgraceful Charity, to draw three cards, and you up to three cards if you can!" he did so and smirked. While the soul eater scowled and discarded what was left of her hand. "Okay, now I'll activate my second trap, Natural Selection!" a larger version of Horus (3000/1800) appeared on Kou's side of the field.
"What?" the soul eater asked bewildered. "Why do you have a dragon monster in your deck?" the soul eater was confused as to the sudden change. "And how did you summon Horus LV 8 (3000/1800) without the use of the other dragons?"
Kou motioned to the Natural Selection trap. "Simple, Natural Selection clones one of your monsters… and then destroys the original!" the false Horus flew down with a mad glint in its eyes, and bit into the neck of its counterpart. The true Horus roared in pain as it was eaten fully by the other dragon.
"NO!" the soul eater saw her monster eaten and growled low in her throat. "It doesn't matter, so you got rid of my monster, now you lose 500 LP as well!" she then reverted back to her cruel smirk.
Kou-500
Soul Eater-8000
"I'm not done by a long shot!" Kou smirked. "Now, activate Pitch Black Power Stone!" a stone that was indeed, pitch black appeared, it had more power than the strongest fire emitting from the Shadow Realm. "Now I get to put three spell counters on this card, and move them one by one to another card during my standby phases." Kou now looked worried, as he stared at his last two not activated cards, one facedown, and another, the last in his hand. 'Please, let this work!"' he thought.
'It will, just believe in your deck."' Chiro reassured, though he was also praying to himself.
"Well, done yet, your down to your last 500 LP, and I still have all of mine." the thing in Namia's body stated, twirling Namia's hair around her fingers. "You can't possible win without killing Namia anyway!" she laughed. "The only way would be to use a high level of magic I'm sure you don't know, to separate my soul fragments, from her soul." she elaborated.
'Chiro, is she telling the truth!" Kou questioned, eyes wide. Chiro didn't respond. 'Chiro, Chiro… CHIRO!"' Kou yelled throughout his soul. "ANSWER ME!" this he yelled out to the entire realm of shadows. He growled when he received no answer and glared back at the Soul eater, who smirked triumphantly. 'I cant' quit now, no matter what!"' Kou thought, he slid the last card he held into the disk. "I play…"
Shisei pumped his legs furiously, desperate to figure out the mystery before Kou was kidnapped, tortured, or worse. 'What's going on, what kind of Logo was that, it looked like… No, Osmos can't be a rare hunter!"' Shisei tried to convince himself of this, but it wasn't working. 'Just got to find that limo!'" Sei suddenly stopped, spotting Osmos and Siegel, Osmos's limousine driver, sitting at a table with three other men.
Each of the men in the NDA were laughing and drinking wine. Siegel looked out of place, standing like a stone statue in the middle of a party. "A', ya' know wha' wou' be wicke'?" the jack-o-lantern one started.
"What, Seamus?" the calculating, younger one asked.
"I think he was going to say," Osmos cut off the reply, and twisted around in his seat, looking dead at an approaching Shisei. "we should invite Mr. Aragashi in our little fiesta." he smiled kindly, which nearly made Sei puke, and stood up and strode over to the blond. It just dawned on Shisei how tall he was. "I suppose you wish to know how your friend is, eh?" Osmos asked, looking down at Sei.
The other men turned away, but Shisei could tell they were straining to hear every word of the conversation. "Yes!" Shisei responded boldly. "What did you do to the arena!" he glared. 'Should I tell him I know the symbol on their jackets?"' he thought it over, but before he could decide, Osmos took out a deck of duel monsters cards.
"You can save them both, Mr. Aragashi." he sat down, and smiled at Shisei. Shisei looked shocked.
"What do you m-" he got cut off as Osmos held up his hand. He was just one of those people, you knew to listen to.
"Mr. Aragashi, I will give you your own challenge, one you must complete in thirty-no," he studied his watch. "sorry, you only have fifteen minutes to solve this challenge." he smiled and began to draw cards. Shisei readied his duel disk. "Now, now, don't jump to conclusions, notice, I've stopped at three cards!" he smiled and looked at the three. He then took out a pen and notepad from his pocket. The other NDA members watched with interest.
"So what am I supposed to do?" Shisei questioned.
"You have however much time you need for each, so long as it isn't over 15 minutes." he slid the paper to Shisei. "On that paper are the names of three duel monsters cards. Now you will tell me whichever of the cards I could have imagined to put on the paper. The letters might be mixed up, you might have to translate the mixed up word, or many other things." he smirked. "You can give them to me in English, as that is how I've written them." he sat down to watch a befuddled Sei.
"So all I have to do solve three puzzles?" he questioned. Osmos nodded. Shisei smirked and looked at the list. Yugi Moto was the king of games, but Shisei Aragashi was the king of puzzles.
The List
1.Otrdnao lawl
2.Tvnrmr Vou
3.Dedication Through Light and Darkness
Next time: As Kou duels for his and Namia's life in the Shadow Realm, Shisei solves two of the three puzzles. Unfortunately Osmos tricks Shisei into missing the third. And just as Kou gets the lead he needs, the Soul Eater summons the Phoenix of Gold Fire, can Kou win before time is up? Find out on the next Duel Monsters: Maximum!
To Rex the Emerald Dragon: Thank you for your advice and kindness. Oh, and Chiro's Seal mystery will be revealed, but sometime around the actual Dragoon Island tournament, which is still a few chapters away, so don't stop reading!
A/N: Okay, I realize I didn't explain the puzzle thing really well, but here's a better explanation. Osmos put down the name of three duel monster's cards, but each of them is mixed up in some way, such as scrambled letters or mirror writing. You can try and solve it too, send me your answers and note all those that got it right. But just don't guess at the third one, you'll probably get it wrong (no offense). Well, goodbye, and review!
