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Chapter 27: Loss

Kou's next thoughts, after he drew his card, was just to give up, admit defeat, not even look at the card he drew. 'No, Chiro was too weak to duel, I have to win in his place!"' he heard a tiny voice say to him. 'Stop acting so stupid and get up!"' he listened to the tiny voice in his head, and stood up to his full height. "This duel isn't over!" he declared.

"So you say, but you have no monsters on the field. Besides, any monster you could summon without tribute couldn't possible destroy my Thunder Monarch (2400/1000)!" Kamishiro was perhaps a little too overconfident, but Kou knew he couldn't give up.

"I have the perfect combo to take your strategy apart, and here it comes!" Kou said. He slid a card into his disk and its effect activated. "Say hello to Revival of Defenses!" Suddenly, a glowing orb of energy appeared. Soon it began to writhe and bubble, until a new monster formed.

"What in the world!" Kamishiro sounded genuinely surprised. The new monster had a large golden shield and was wearing a purple shirt that didn't hide his bulging muscles. He was kneeling in the defensive position.

"This card allows me to special summon as many monsters with a higher defense than that of their attack in defense mode. They can't switch modes and they are automatically destroyed without damage calculation if attacked." Kou explained. He removed his new monster, Big Shield Guardna (100/2600) from the disk and slid another card on. "Of course, I just wanted my Big Shield so I could sacrifice it for my Penumbral Soldier Lady (2100/1400) in attack mode!" A beautiful woman with a glittering white shield appeared. Though she was pretty, she had a dark glow about her and an equally dark look on her face.

"Your warriors are all to weak to stand up to the angels in my deck, foolish mortal boy!" Kamishiro recited, sounding exactly like a snobbish boy in one of Kou and Shisei's classes.

"My swordsmen may not be up to that task, but my swords lady can easily accomplish it!" Kou smirked and raised his pointing finger. "Now, Penumbral Soldier Lady (2800/1400) attack Soul of Purity and Light (2000/1800)!" Kou finished, pointing at the newest monster summoned on his opponent's field. The female warrior leaped forward and raised her glowing blade. Just before she made contact with the male and female spirit on Kamishiro's field,a bluish-white barrier appeared. It strained for a bit, but then finally over came the force of her blade and blew her into dust.

"I activated my Mirror Force, in case you couldn't tell." Kamishiro said smugly. He expected Kou to fall to his knees in defeat, instead, he smiled.

"Thanks for the help." he slid another card into his disk. "Activate Vengence of the Warriors!" The field shifted once more, this time, rocks and trees began to fall and fly around them. "Now I get to pay the attack points of the warrior just sent to the graveyard in my LP to destroy all monsters on your field!"

Kamishiro gasped as all of his creatures were crushed under a stray boulder or tree. "My monsters!" he screamed in rage and shock.

Kamishiro-4900

Kou-475

"Now I'll set this card and end my turn." Kou stated, inserting his final card into the disk.

Kamishiro drew twice and glared at Kou from underneath his cloak. "I'll make you pay, you bastard!" he stated. "I'll do that by defeating you with the weakest monster in my deck!" he declared. Kou raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, then show me what you got." he smirked, fully confident in his facedown card.

"I'll do that, summon Mystical Shine Ball (500/500) in attack mode!" a glowing golden orb of energy appeared, bouncing up and down like a Kuriboh. Kou snickered but Kamishiro ignored this. "I'll then set two cards facedown, your trap won't work with these!" he said in full confidence.

Kou immediately went into action. "You can't foil my trap if I play it now, I'll activate Call of the Haunted, to revive my Penumbral Soldier Lady (2100/1400) in attack mode!" he declared. Kamishiro only shrugged and finished setting his cards.

"Fine, I end my turn, leaving you only four turns to win!" he snickered in amusement as Kou realized that another four torches had gone out.

'Crap!"' he drew his card.

Shisei and Namia had exited the forests of the large island and were now on their way up through the mountains. They wanted to find duels closer to the castle so they could either report to the special session if they acquired enough fingers first, or leave quickly if not. Seeing as how they won 2 fingers off of Blocker and Piercer, they had 2 with them, and Kou still had his, they had one hand worth of plastic fingers.

"I'm tired, we should stop here!" Namia stated. Surprisingly enough, Shisei seemed just fine with the long and miserable trek through the forests of the island. Namia moaned and plopped down on a rock to unstrap her hiking gear and take off her shoes.

Shisei smiled and leaned against a tree, taking off his windbreaker and wrapping it around his waist. "Just imagine though, me dueling Yugi Moto!" he felt as though he had fallen into a dream world when he pictured this.

"The only thing I want to imagine is winning that prize!" Namia said. Shisei nodded. But then realized something.

"What is the prize?" he asked he had been so excited about the session, that he had forgotten to find out the prize for winning.

Namia looked at him in surprise. "Whoa, you mean you don't know!" she asked alarmed at Shisei, the smartest person she had ever met, not knowing such a thing.

Shisei blushed and nervously cleaned his glasses. "Iforgottoreadwhatitwas." he said very quickly. This was, for some reason very embarrassing for him.

Namia smiled politely and took out her pamphlet. "The prize for the winners of the Dragoon Island Tournament," she began to read. "that is those three that complete their "Hand of Fate", that's the fingers," she commented to the side of her reading. "and those that win in their special session, as well as against Higentaka Osmos, shall receive the ranking of #1 in the team rankings and each of the three duelists will have a box (24 Boosters, 9 cards per pack) of supremely rare, one of a kind, Legendary Duelists booster series cards." she finished.

Shisei's eyes misted over as he pictured holding just one card from the legendary booster series. Each card was an original, one of a kind card created by a partner company to Industrial Illusions. Supposedly the series had a new variation of Blue Eyes White Dragon. He then turned to Namia with a dreamy expression on his face. "Go now." he removed himself from his leaning position on the tree and walked, dreamily away.

"SEI!" Namia yelled after she realized he was forgetting to grab his hiking gear. "You forgot your stuff!" she yelled. He didn't even turn around. She cursed men and her horrible luck, then climbed to her feet, grabbed both of their things, and rushed after the young boy.

Ryuko looked at the two as they disappeared into the forest. Then he took his deck out of his duel disk and started to look through the cards. 'That booster series they were talking about, my Blue-Eyes.."' he thought. Slowly a tear formed on his cheek as he thought about how horrible a way the card came into his hands. 'I'm doing this for you, grandfather!"' he told himself.

He stood up, now perfectly serious in his endeavor. He was about to leap out of the tree he had repositioned himself in, and challenge Namia to a duel, but he suddenly heard… CREAK! He paused and looked down at the branch he had stood up on. Slowly, very slowly the branch was cracking under his weight. As slowly as he could, he reached his hand up and grabbed for the branch above him, not fancying another twenty or so foot drop.

'Almost got it!"' he thought, his middle finger touching the wood on it. He almost had his hand around it, when, with an almighty lurch, the branch gave way. "Damn!" he uttered for the split second he was suspended in midair, then he fell, once more, onto the forest floor.

Shsei was snapped out of his reverie by the sound of a crash. He turned to Namia, who, breathing heavily, managed to catch up with him. "Did you hear something just now?" he asked again.

Namia shoved both of their hiking gear into his arms. "Yeah, you taking our stuff the rest of the way up the mountain!" she shouted, aggravated. Shisei blushed and forgot about the sound of the poor Ryuko, who was twitching, just as before, a few feet away.

Kou felt the pressure of the duel on his shoulders. 'Damnit Chiro, how come you had to get caught in such a duel that you'd die!"' he thought to himself. If what Kamishiro had said before was true, then he would permenately separate Chiro and Kou, and because Chiro wouldn't have a seal, he'd have to either find another body to share, or die.

"Tick-tock, the clock is ticking boy." Kamishiro said.

"I'm going, I'm going!" Kou responded, slipping his card off of the deck. He saw it and smirked. "I'm about to show you my next move, I'll activate Reasoning!" Several cards floated around him as a green tailored man in a turban appeared on his field. "Now you select a level star of monster!" Kou declared.

"I select…" he eyed his facedown card and smirked. "I select level four!" he yelled.

Kou drew one card, then discarded it, another met the same fate, then he stopped on the third. "My card allows me to draw cards until I come to a monster. If the monster I draw is the level you selected, then I discard it as well as the other drawn cards, if there are any. If not… Then I can special summon it!" he smirked and slid his favirote monster into the disk. "Say hello to Total Defense Shogun (1550/2500) in defense mode!" A mighty general of defense appeared, a long mane of black hair and his large broadsword flowing behind him.

"HA! Your useless fighter can't hope to attack angels and survive, while Mystical Shine Ball (500/500) may be weak, it's still useful, now just attack or end your turn!" Kamishiro was clearly growing impatient, Kou only wagged a finger.

"Uh-uh uh, I'll wait until my next turn!" he said. Kamishiro shrugged and drew. Kou was now sweating, he was only a measly three turns away from his chance at victory and he'd just wasted one of them.

"I'll switch my angel to defense mode. End turn." Kamishiro stated. Kou gulped.

'This is my last turn!"' Kou thought. "I draw!" he prayed, putting all his faith in any and everything into his deck. He kept his eyes closed until the card was drawn. Opening his eyes, he saw the card and smirked. "Your about to see my riskiest card, I activate Mystic Recycler!" he slid his card to the field and took another from his graveyard.

Kamishiro raised his eyebrows. "What does it do?" he asked, he sounded exhausted now.

"Simple, I pick one card in my graveyard and shuffle it into my deck!" he did this, a smile apparent on his face. "I chose Mystical Space Typhoon!" he told his opponent. He did this. "Now if I draw the type of card it is, monster, trap or magic, on this, my final draw, then I get to take that card and play it!" he shuffled his deck and looked at it. "Ready?" he asked, inserting his deck into his deck slot.

"Finish it, if you can." Kamishiro said.

"I draw!" he slid the top card of his disk, and smiled. "I drew, Warrior Returning Alive, a magic card!" he smirked and a tornado blew across the field toward the Final Countdown.

"Nice try, but you aren't that lucky!" he declared. "I activate Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell!" he told his young opponent. "Now I discard my Monster Reborn to negate your Mystical Space Typhoon's activation!" he smirked as the storm died down and Kou watched in horror as his own magic card's second ability kicked in, and his turn ended.

"My card states that my turn ends immediately after I use its effect, whether it works or not." he said, realizing his last hope was gone.

"Then I'll draw." Kamishiro drew twice and smiled evilly at him. "I end my turn!" he declared. The last of the flames went out. Glowing white light surrounded Kou, and the Astral form of the collapsed Chiro, still pale and sickly, appeared. "As per the stakes of our duel… Die, both of you." Kou wasn't ready for what came next.

The ground broke apart and a glowing, black winged creature appeared. It had the symbol of death on each of its seven wings. A cloak and a hood that was attached covered everything on it but its glowing red eyes. "YOUR MINE!" it roared. A schythe appeared in its hands, and it swept it back and then brought it forward too quick for even Kou to follow. He heard a wooshing sound, but felt no pain, as he left the world of the living.

Next time: Kou has fallen, just as Osmos has planned, but unfortunately, Shisei and Namia have yet to be defeated. Osmos didn't send Ryuko out for nothing though. Namia recieves the challenge of facing the young duelist, but her underestimating him is a big mistake. Will she fall to the boy's Dragons? Find out next time on Duel Monsters: Maximum!

To John: Remember when you asked about that Blue-eyes? Sneaky, huh?

A/N: Whew! Another chapter done! But I'd like to thank all my reviewers and alert you all that I'll be back on full time updating, which means at least a chapter a day! This story doesn't have too much longer now, but don't worry, there are another four sagas that I have yet to type up. So keep reviewing, and if you haven't been, please, out of the kindness of your heart, review!