Disclaimer: Take a guess whether I own Yugioh. If you guess right, I'll give you a cookie!

Chapter 26: Defeat in 10 turns

A/N: Okay, I just wanted to sum up what happened last chapter, in case some people were confused. Chiro's first flashback was of his nice peaceful village. It didn't seem to be that special, but later, in another saga of this story, you'll get to see his village truly and why its so important to him. The second flashback was where the seals became one with his body. The third was very important. It basically was the reason that made Chiro finally realize Thalius was an evil bastard. The third would have been much longer, but I had to rush, though I really did want to show Thalius and Chiro battle, you'll have to wait another few Sagas! Well, now that that's cleared up, enjoy the chapter!

The blade met the hands of a certain blue haired youth. "Nice way to surprise someone!" Kou smirked as his body changed back to itself. He twisted the blade until it broke, the tossed the half he held to the side. "How about we continue?" he then asked.

Kamishiro growled and leaped back to his spot, some twenty feet away, in the duel arena. "Fine boy, we'll continue until Chiro finds his worthless pride." Kamishiro spat, taking his deck and siphoning through the cards in it. "Ah, yes, I'll take these two magic cards, now take yours." he motioned to Kou, who blinked in confusion.

"What do you mean, take mine?" he asked, eyeing the two cards that his opponent had removed from his deck.

"Ah, yes, Memories Released isn't just a pretty face, it also has an actual duel effect." Kamishiro stated. "We each take two magic cards and use them immediately, you must go first." he stated. Kou smirked, now knowing exactly what he wanted to do with his cards, he removed two and slid them into his disk.

"I'll activate Mystical Space Typhoon on your Swords of Revealing Light," a torrential wind blew his swords out of the way and then disappeared itself. "Next I play my Card of Sanctity, allowing each of us to replenish our hands!" he snapped six cards off of his deck and Kamishiro calmly did the same.

"Now its time for my move!" he slid the cards he had chosen into his disk. "I'll activate Time Zone Shift, and my Final Countdown!" he said, his LP score dropping.

Kamishiro-4900

Kou-5150

Kou raised an eyebrow at this move. But suddenly, the world within the duel field seemed to speed up. Grass grew at incredible rates, the clouds were flying past them. Bugs and other things moved at high speeds, it seemed only the duelist's weren't affected by the time change. Then, all around the outside of the arena, 20 torches erupted out of the ground, each with it's own red ember. "What just happened?" Kou asked, completely clueless toeither of these cards effects.

Kamishiro looked around the field, and then sighed with happiness. "Isn't it beautiful, the effect of Time Zone Shift allows me to make every turn count as two." he began.

Kou rolled his eyes at such a useless effect. "So what? How will that help you win?" he asked his white cloaked opponent.

Kamishiro motioned around to the ember pots and the flames inside of them. "These fire pots aren't for show. Whenever a turn passes, one of them will go out." he informed Kou, who was still confused.

"What happens win they all go out?" Kou asked suspiciously.

"Simple, I win!" Kamishiro stated. He was obviously happy about this fact. Kou gasped.

"And with that, I'll set two cards facedown, go!" the cards appeared as two of the flames encircling them burnt themselves out.

Kou gulped and drew his next card.

Darkness. Chiro felt himself in the darkness of his own heart. 'I shouldn't have done it!"' he kept saying to himself. 'I shouldn't have listened to Thalius, I shouldn't have betrayed him. I shouldn't have let him live for so long!"' he felt a tear slide down his cheek. 'Damn, I let them die with my stupid decisions, all of them. My friends."' the burning of the village was still clear in his mind.

Chiro's village was very important, as would be any hometown to anyone. The people there had never abandoned him, even after all that had happened. But then, after seeing a simple magic trick, he was ready to go along with someone like Thalius, who wanted to take the world for himself. After emerging from a plan that was meant to kill him, somehow showing an immunity to the murderous power of the Seven Seals, Chiro had done what Thalius most feared. He had become a worthy opponent. So to get rid of this opponent, he would let his sorrow over the loss of so many he cared for be felt. 'That was why the village burned down. He wanted me to feel to sorry for their loss to put up a decent fight."' he thought.

He then found a small glimmer of pleasure in the fact that Thalius had been unsuccessful, and he was able to fight with him equally. 'And I killed him, with the power of the divine Seal."' he smiled a bit. But then the overwhelming sadness filled him. He looked away from the depths of his own soul. 'I'm sorry Kou, I said I'd help you and Shisei, I said I'd be there for you… I'm sorry."' he thought.

A shimmering blue blade appeared in his hands. He held it to his neck, ready to take his own miserable life. 'To die like this…. I didn't see it coming, I can definitely say that!"' he gulped, feeling the cold steel of the blade vibrate against his pale neck. 'Bye, Kou, Shisei, Namia. The world needs the seals, nor the seal holder, no more."' he cut his neck and blood spilled from the cut freely. It took only seven seconds, for him to lose consciousness for the final time.

Kou looked at his next card with renewed hope. "Alright, I'm about to wipe that smirk off your face with Black Luster Ritual!" he removed a card from his hand and slid Manticore of Darkness (2300/1000) into the graveyard. "When I tribute my Manticore and my Big Shield Guardna, I can bring my Black Luster Soldier (3000/2500) to the field in attack mode!" a new, golden armored warrior appeared and slashed it's blade through the air angrily. "Then I'llsacrifice my new monster for the Ghost Knight of Jackal (1700/1600) in attack mode!" Black Luster Soldier disappeared, an in it's place a new armored Jackal appeared, ready to strike with a deadly looking blade. "Then I'll activate Replay!" his LP split.

Kamishiro-4900

Kou-2575

"I'll use this card to activate Monster Reborn from my graveyard." his golden armored monster, Black Luster Soldier (3000/2500) reappeared and readied for its assault. "Finally, I'll end this duel, attack my beasts!" the three warriors charged, but just as they came close to touching Kou's opponent, four miniature goats appeared on his field, each of a different color. They didn't hesitate to attack these though.

"Hahahaaaa, you ran into my Scapegoat Tokens!" Kamishiro smirked as Kou growled. "Care to end your turn, brat!" he asked.

"I shall, and I'll discard Harpie's Brother, a winged beast, to revive Manticore of Darkness (2300/1000)." he finished.

Kamishiro drew, as two more of the torches went out. "You have eight turns to bring me down boy!" he smirked and slid another card into his disk. "I'll activate my facedown card, White Dragon Ritual!" he slid a card in his hand into the graveyard. "Now I'll discard my Shining Angel to bring forth my Paladin of White Dragon (1900/1200) in attack mode!" he smirked as his new monster glowered at Kou.

"Fat lot of help that will do you, unless you have a Blue-Eyes!" Kou smirked, knowing this was impossible. Seto Kaiba was the owner of all playable Blue-eyes White Dragons, after all.

"Just because Seto Kaiba sees it fit to sacrifice his Paladin for something as meaningless as summoning the Blue-eyes White Dragon, doesn't mean I must have the same disrespect for my monsters!" Kamishiro replied angrily.

"Yeah, yeah, just finish your move!" Kou had to admit, he was anxious to find Namia and Shsei, who he hoped had won their duel, or at least were still dueling.

"Fine boy, I'll activate Book of moon, and switch your Mystic Knight (2700/1200) to facedown defense position." a glowing book slammed down on Kou's monster and it disappeared. "I now attack your facedown Mystic Knight!" he pointed to the defense monster, which the Paladin, a white armored sword wielder, slashed in half. "Because of my Paladin's effect, I can destroy your monster without overflow damage!" Kou's monster was blown to digital dust and Kamishiro took his Paladin off of his disk and slid another card on. "Now, to end my turn, I'll summon Zaborg the Thunder Monarch (2400/1000) in attack mode. And, in case you didn't know, I get to destroy one monster on your side of the field when he is summoned." he smirked as a lightning bolt blasted Black Luster Soldier (3000/2500) to pieces. "I'll set this and end my turn." Kamishiro stated, making two more flames go out.

Kou gulped. 'This guy is insane, he just keeps coming out of the wood work with unstoppable comboes!"' He drew his next card with more than a little anxiety. "Hey, why did you come after us anyway!" Kou asked suddenly. Kamishiro raised an eyebrow and then shrugged.

"Osmos thought it would be a good idea to get Chiro separated from you, as you can't possibly know how irresponsible he is." stated Kamishiro nonchalantly. "He has no right to use the Divine Seal." he finished.

"Where is this seal anyway?" Kou was just plain curious now.

"No one has been able to find it, so far Osmos speculates it is in the city of Tokyo." he said. Kou nodded, thinking of where you'd be able to find a glowing Egyptian symbol. "Now if you will please discontinue your stalling." he finished. Kou bit his lip so much it bled, but slid a card into his disk anyway.

"I play Pot of Greed!" he took two more cards off his deck, glanced at them and sighed. "I'll switch Ghost Knight (1700/1600) and Manticore (2300/1000) to defense mode. End turn." he watched sadly as two more of the flames went out, leaving twelve embers. This meant Kou hadsix turns. Three of which were his own."I won't lose!" he declared as Kamishiro drew.

"You don't really have a choice, I'll remove my Maha Vailo and my Dunames the Dark Witch from play, and bring forth, Soul of Purity and Light (2000/1800) in attack mode!" A beautiful woman in a glowing white dress appeared over a young and stern looking man. "This monster decreases the attack of all your monsters by 300 during your battle phase, so don't try anything!" Kamishiro smirked as Kou gulped. "Now I'll attack your Ghost Knight of Jackal (1700/1600) with my Soul of Purity and Light (2000/1800)!" the two created a glowing orb of energy between them, and shot the Jackal apart with it. "I'll also attack with my Thunder Monarch (2400/1000)!" his next beast created a growling ball of thunder in its hand, and shot the Manticore's head off.

Kou looked at the defense that Chiro had built for him in sadness. 'I failed. I can't stop this guy!"' he realized, looking at his hand, he sighed and watched two more flames go out. 'Chiro, I'm sorry."' he did, however, place a hand on his deck, and drew. But the draw he performed, was one without hope, without anything, but despair.

The young brown haired boy smiled as he slid from one tree to another, easily following the blond boy and girl below him. 'Hah, and these guys were supposed to be smart!"' Ryuko thought, sliding silently from a higher branch, to a lower one.

After Blocker and Piercer had failed to defeat Shisei and Namia, Osmos had sent Ryuko (extremely reluctantly) to duel and, hopefully, eliminate Shisei and Namia. Now Ryuko was going to follow them until he felt the time was right for his entrance. 'Got to be smooth!"' he kept telling himself, smirks crossing his boyish face. 'One…Two…NOW!"' he leapt from the tree, fully intending to surprise his opponents… Unfortunately, he didn't fit an extremely strong gust of air into his jumping equation. Being that he was still so young, he weighed to little to resist the wind.

"AH!" he screamed as the gust carried him over the forests and trees. Then he realized how amazing it was to fly and spread his arms and legs. "I'M FLYING, I'M FLYING! WOHO!" he yelled to the world. BAM! Suddenly he found himself directly against a tree, after a bone shattering impact, he had fallen into the forest once more. CRASH! With no more warning, several tree branches and pinecones collapsed on the poor boy, who just twitched.

Shisei stopped walking and looked around. "Did you hear something?" he asked Namia.

Namia looked around and shook her head. "Nothing, lets keep moving!" she said. They then walked off, neither of them hearing Ryuko, who was only a few feet away and buried under shrubbery, moan in pain.

Next time: Kou desperately tries to turn things around in his duel against Kamishiro, but all of his best moves are countered. A small glimmer of hope may be all that Kou needs, but the question is, will he manage to get it? Find out next time on Duel Monsters Maximum: Dragoon Island Tournament!

To John: Chiro blames himself because he trusted Thalius when he should have figured Thalius was evil.

To Rex: Thank you once more, but I'll be fine. After all, even if my card names do suck, you guys, the readers, will have to deal with it, not me! (Smiles evilly.)