Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! But I do own this new and, in my opinion, really cool chick. So don't steal her.

Chapter 37: A Magical Lesson

"HOLD ON!" Shisei yelled, slamming his hand card into the duel disk. 'It all comes down to this! Please, I don't want to lose my card!"' he thought as a hologram of his quick play magic card appeared before both of the duelists. "I activate my last card, Angel Dice!" A cute and petit angel with no face appeared, holding a large shimmering white die.

Reiko raised her eyebrows at this last attempt for Sei to save himself. "You don't really think you'll get a five or a six, do you!" she asked. 'This kid is insane, I'd just take the loss without humiliating myself more!"' she thought.

Shisei only pointed to his angel's die. "Go, roll the die Angel of dice!" he commanded. The monster followed his command and dropped the large white die. "You must already know what my angel dice does, right?" he asked Reiko.

"Yeah, it decreases the attack of all monsters on my field by the 100x the number rolled." Shisei nodded to confirm her word.

"And looks like its about to stop." Shisei looked at his last chance. The die stopped bouncing and began to spin on it's axis. 'Five or six!"' Shisei prayed. With one final bounce, the die stood on… 5!

"NO WAY!" Reiko cried in disbelief, her Dark Magician (2000/2100) and Dark Magician of Chaos (2300/2600) suddenly looked a bit feverish, but they lunged and blasted twin dark energy at Shisei anyway.

Reiko-600

Shisei-200

"And now it's my turn!" Shisei smirked and drew happily, ready to bring forth his strategies once more.

"Whoa, I didn't now Sei was such a good duelist." Ryuko frowned in surprise at seeing Shisei save himself and with a "handicapped" deck as well. "He sucked when we were all dueling Kamishiro." The boy had sat down to pull a splinter out of his leg once the duel began, and now it had absorbed further into his skin from his paying such close attention to the duel while ignoring it.

"Yeah, he's good." Namia agreed. "The problem when he dueled Kamishiro was us, actually." she stated. Ryuko looked at her in shock.

"Are you calling me a bad duelist!" he asked, glaring at her.

Namia sighed. "No, otherwise I'd have to insult my own dueling skill too. I'm saying Sei needs to have the field all to himself for most of his strategies to work." she said. "He told me so after a double duel against some of Osmos's lackeys. He doesn't have any monster cards, so all the cards in his deck like Torrential Tribute , Dark Hole, and Needle Ceiling, that destroy all monsters on the field won't effect him in the least." she began, Ryuko suddenly realized what she meant.

"So if we hadn't been there… then he could have used some of his more powerful combos, ones that destroy all monsters and stuff?" he asked. Now he wasn't feeling so great of a duelist. 'Damn, if my monsters hadn't been in the way, he would have been able to wipe Kamishiro off of the field!"' Ryuko thought, not noticing Namia nod. 'I will become a better duelist, for you grandpa."' he thought.

"Ryuko… you okay!"' Namia asked. Ryuko looked up and flashed the peace sign.

"Good as I'll ever be!" he smiled and watched the duel closer, determined to learn something from it.

Shisei slid the card off of his deck and smirked. "I activate Replay on Card of Sanctity!" Both duelist slid the proper amount of cards from their decks. "Then I set three cards facedown, make your move, and attack, if you dare!" Shisei challenged.

Reiko-600

Shisei-100

"I'll just draw for now." Reiko drew and held seven cards. 'Hm, he obviously doesn't want me to feel safe in attacking, which means those cards might be useless to him…"' Reiko began to ponder the odd boy's strategy. 'Come on Reiko, both of you are Magician Duelists, you should know how to win!"' she thought. "I'll summon Blast Magician (1400/1700) in defense mode!" she slid a monster onto the disk, and a red robed and angry looking mage appeared before them. It kneeled down beside it's dark robed mentors.

"I'm not feeling threatened." Shisei yawned but Reiko took no notice of this.

"I'll end my turn now." Shisei looked disappointed, but drew.

"Okay, I'll set this last card facedown, go." he stated.

"Fine by me." Reiko drew, still watching her opponent like a hawk. Then she looked at her cards and smirked. "I play Temple of Chaos Magic!" Reiko smirked. The Dark Magician of Chaos (3000/2800) and Dark Magician (2700/2300) grew a bit taller and their auras grew darker. "My Temple of Chaos Magic gives all Dark attribute spell casters 200 extra attack and defense points, and it allows them to negate trap or magic cards that try to destroy them!" The area around them suddenly became an ancient temple glowing with dark energy. Reiko snickered as Shisei paled. "Sayonara, attack, Dark Magician (2700/2300)!" The monster obliged and swept it's staff forward in a blast of dark magic.

"Activate, Scapegoat, giving me four defensive Sheep Tokens (0/0)!" Shisei flipped his quick play card and the Dark Magician blasted a brilliantly colored sheep out of it's way. With consent from Reiko, the Chaos (3000/2800) monster charged forward and did the same.

Reiko growled as Shisei stuck his tongue out. "I'm done then." she glared as he drew.

"I start my move with Mystical Space Typhoon!" Shisei smirked as another mighty storm appeared and rushed over to blow down the black as night walls of the temple the duelists stood in. Reiko yawned as her Dark Magician of Chaos (3200/3000) spun his staff around and canceled out the storm. "No way!" Shisei looked at her incredulously.

"That's right, my temple's second ability allows me to sacrifice a monster to it, and cancel out a destruction effect! As well as give all the correct monsters another boost of 200! " she smirked as the Dark Magician, which had begun to look pale, burst into digital dust with horrible screams, while her Dark Magician of Chaos (3200/3000) got even more powerful. "Sorry, Dark Magician, I will avenge you!" she said. Shisei growled as he realized what this meant.

"Fine, I activate one of my bluff cards, Pot of Greed!" he drew twice, as every one does after activating such a common card. 'What… This is!"' he looked at the card in horror, not remembering putting it into his deck. 'Dedication through Darkness and Light.."' Flashes from his recent time with his now deceased best friend came to him as he remembered how he had solved puzzles in order to save Kou. How he had grown up looking to Kou for different kinds of advice, and giving him advice as well. 'I'm not dueling here for fun…it's for Kou."' He looked up with an odd emotion on his face.

"What!" Reiko asked, not sure she understand his expression.

"I just realized something Reiko. And as much as I hate to admit it, I realized this because of someone very evil." he looked at the card with a faint smile as he set it facedown. "I will win this duel and this tournament, whether I want to do it for me or not. I have to do it for my friend." he pressed another button to play a facedown card. "I activate Call of the Haunted and revive the Dark Magician to my field, then I play Curse of Fiend, and switch the modes of all our monsters." he finished his turn without giving anything about the card away.

"Well, I'm glad you have a reason to win. I fight for myself, I freely admit it, but then again, if you duel to save someone you love, then your fighting for yourself too." Reiko pointed out. Shisei shook his head.

"I'm fighting for my best friend, otherwise I wouldn't fight at all, finish this, if you can." Shisei commanded.

"I can, if you don't know, my Blast Magician has the ability to remove spell counters from himself to destroy monsters. And since he has been gaining counters each time we play magic cards, I remove two and blow your Sheep Tokens to oblivion!" The red robed mage formed a ball of energy in his hands and shot it at the tokens, which exploded upon impact. "Then I switch both of my monsters into attack mode, and attack Dark Magician (2100) with Dark Magician of Chaos (3200/3000)!" the mages squared off momentarily and the Dark Magician fell to his knee and was blown to pieces.

"Thank-you, Dark Magician." Shisei uttered a farewell as his monster was blown into digital dust.

"You lose, I attack you directly with Blast Magician (1400/1700)!" It was soon to be over, as the fiery Spell caster blasted red energy at Shisei.

"Nice try, but I activate Mirror Force!" Sei's card flipped and actually worked. A barrier of white energy appeared and blasted the attack of Blast Magician back to him, while the Dark Magician of Chaos only spun out the attack.

"Your card did almost nothing, I still have my mightiest monster and it has all of it's attack power to wipe you out next turn. For now, I'll set all but this one card facedown." Reiko yawned and set four cards as Shisei drew his "final" card.

'I fight for Kou, Chiro, Namia, and Ryuko too, so please my deck, don't let me down."' These thoughts went through Shisei's mind and he was wondering why he didn't think of these thoughts every time he got into a duel for his soul. Why was this duel so important to him? 'Because, it shows me my reason to duel!"' he figured. He drew and looked at the card before sliding it into his disk. "I play Return From the Different Dimension and pay half my LP,"

Reiko-600

Shisei-50

"to let both of us bring as many monsters as possible back from the other dimension." Dark Paladin (2900/2400) and Buster Blader (2600/2300) both returned to him. "Next comes my own Heavy Storm!" he smirked as Reiko only shrugged, her facedown cards being nothing that she'd use anyway.

"Don't forget, I get to return monsters too, and I choose D.D. Paladin Girl (3400/2900) who has a grand attack of 3400!" Reiko informed him. "And Temple of Chaos Magic prevents any Dark Spell casters from going to the removed from play pile, so my monster won't be leaving next turn!" she smirked.

"then I activate Scroll of Bewitchment, to change D.D. Paladin Girl to a Light monster!" Reiko growled, but was happy this depleted Shisei completely and totally since he had no hand and only one card facedown. "Then I end my turn with Dedication through Darkness and Light, a card given to me by Higentaka Osmos!" Shisei commanded his card to activate and it blasted his Buster Blader into oblivion. His blood ran cold when no Dark Paladin reappeared. 'No it was a fake!"' he thought.

"Smooth, now you lose!" Reiko announced, drawing her card. Just as she called her attack, the world shifted and Shisei's second Dark Paladin Card (2900/2400) which he had placed on the disk, burst into flame when the Dark Paladin was destroyed. Reiko blinked in confusion as a Dark Paladin, though this one with a much colder look and red energy blasting around him from the sky. Then his attire changed more and it had purple markings glowing everywhere around it.

"Say hello the Dark Paladin of Chaos (3200/2700) in attack mode." Shisei smirked at his newest monster. The card on his disk stopped glowing it's brilliant red and changed forever into the monster before them. "He has the ability to add a magic or trap card from my graveyard to my hand!" Shisei took a card back and smirked. "My turn yet?" he asked Reiko.

"Go!" Reiko said, half frightened, half annoyed. 'That thing still only ties with my monster, he can't win next turn at least.

"Now don't be mad because you lose, just accept it, I activate the card I took back, DNA Surgery!" he smirked as the trap made Dragons of all the monsters on the field. "Now my monster gains 500 attack points for every dragon removed from play, in our graveyards, and of course, in our hands!" he smirked as the Dark Paladin of Chaos (4400/2700) grew even deadlier looking. "Don't forget about your Temple of Chaos Magic's effect to increase the attack of all Dark Spell casters too!" Shisei was giddy with excitement at having such a strong monster on the field. "Now, Paladin, blow her monster to oblivion!" the Paladin raised it's blade and cut the Chaos Magician (3200/3000) in half with it's attack. "End game!" Shisei stated proudly.

Reiko-0

Shisei-50

Reiko looked at the Magic and Trap duelist with utter admiration and shock. "That was an excellent duel!" she finally admitted. She removed the two cards on her disk and the last finger that the group needed. "As I promised, I give you my Dark Magician of Chaos. And I also want you to have this." she handed him the Dark Magician he always wanted, the finger, and her Temple of Chaos Magic card.

Sei's eyes went wide, Namia and Ryuko rushed over to congratulate him and were shocked by his third prize. "I couldn't-" Sei began.

"No, you are the best Dark Magician Duelist I've ever had the pleasure of dueling, you deserve it." she stated. Shisei nodded. "There is one question I had though, where did you get that last card, Dark Paladin of Chaos?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'd never heard of it either." Namia and Ryuko said at the same time.

Shisei took out Dedication through Darkness and Light and his two newest cards. "I…It says that it can be Special summoned when Temple of Chaos Magic is on the field and I play Dedication through Darkness and Light." Shisei told them. He looked up to Reiko and then looked at his Dark Paladin. "I… I don't need this really, not anymore." he handed the card to the shocked girl.

"Th-thanks!" she sputtered. Shisei nodded and looked toward the castle.

"We have to go, but thanks for such a great duel. I learned something from a friend…" he looked at the card Osmos gave him. "and an enemy."

Reiko turned about to leave, but she spun on her heel. "Oh, one more thing…" she bent and kissed him on the cheek, then with a wink, left through the woods. Sei grabbed his cheek for a moment, and the moment lasted for a long time.

Namia sighed and grabbed him by the ear, to which he took no notice. "Ryuko, grab his feet, getting to that castle could take a while." She said. Ryuko sighed, but obliged and helped her drag Sei off.


Next time: The end of the tournament is fast approaching, and Osmos, as crafty as he is, gives our trio a challenge behind Yugi's, Kaiba's, and Joey's backs. They are dared to win against Yugi, Kaiba, and Joey to save to soul of Kou. Will they accept and prevail, or has their dueling luck run out? Find out next time on Duel Monsters Maximum!

A/N: I'm sorry for the delay on this chapter, but I decided to reedit the earlier chapters since some of them don't have the spaces and things in them. But I put two chapters up this time, so you can't hate me that much. Sayonara!