As Kintaro steadied himself, he looked around. Goons on every side, wearing the same trench coats and glasses. Baba had a blue water droplet-shaped badge. Even though he was shorter than Kintaro, Baba had a presence that made Kintaro uneasy. Probably because he has about six bigger guys built like freight cars working for him. He has to have some dueling prowess to get this much help.
"So have you prepared? I have been waiting." Baba said with his duel disk set as well.
Baba motioned to his followers. They pointed Kintaro the edge of a large loading dock. Baba walked down to the edge of another dock parallel to Kintaro's. Now the two opponents were staring at each other, about 40 yards away. Suddenly, the 4x4 portion of the dock that they were each standing on detached from the docks original locations. The tiny docks floated out a bit and stopped, 40 yards across from each other.
"Bring it on short stack." Kintaro said.
4000 - 4000 Kintaro Vs. Masamune Baba
Now standing on small raft like dock, Kintaro saw what Baba was getting at. By luring him out into the bay itself, Baba's sea creatures would gain a field power bonus.
"I can see right through your plan. Don't think it will work on someone like me." Kintaro said drawing his five cards.
"Oh you do, do you? Well, then lets get this started and you can find out," Baba said taking his sixth card. "I'll play one card face down and play the magic card Atlantis!"
Just then, a giant stone city rose out of the sea behind Baba. It's worn down towers and bridges were as real as they could be.
"Then I summon The Legendary Fisherman through the power of Atlantis!" Baba said as a pillar of water shot up in front of him. A Blue haired warrior with spear in hand appeared. "I end my turn."
"This should be fairly simple. I draw. First I'll play Delinquent Duo!" Kintaro said laying down the card.
Two little demon twins appeared in front of Baba.
"Discard the one on the left!" Kintaro shouted.
The blue one tapped one card and the other tapped another. The two cards were sent straight to the graveyard. Another Atlantis card and a Giga Gigagio now resided in the graveyard.
"You still have to pay 1000 Life points!" Baba shouted.
"I know that you dolt. Next I'll play one card face down and summon Berserker Fiend!" Kintaro said laying down a card.
Just then, a tall skeletal beast appeared on the field. It appeared to be an undead demon with a massive Voulge over its right shoulder.
"Is that all you can conjure up? So be it." Baba said.
"That will be it for now, I end." Kintaro said.
Kintaro knew that he could have damaged Baba's life points, but he wanted to see what kind of a duelist Baba was. As Baba drew his next card, a thunderous roar was heard. Distant across the ocean, a storm was brewing. Judging by the looks of it, Kintaro could tell it was headed this way.
"Excellent, a little storm to make the perfect atmosphere. I'll set one card and summon Terrorking Salmon! Fisherman to defense mode. Attack my Salmon King!" Baba rushed.
"Only a first tier duelist would think through his moves like you do. However, a smart duelist thinks about his moves. I activate Mirror Force!" Kintaro said.
A ray of multi-colored light shot out at the raging fish. It twisted and contorted until the beam of light obliterated it.
He's a whole lot tougher than I thought. I'll never beat him. Time to go with plan B.
Baba stared at his goons on shore and then at Kintaro. Reaching under his robes, he pressed a button on a small keypad strapped to his chest. Two pairs of cuffs pounced on Kintaro's feet and ankles from the small platform he stood on.
"What the hell are you trying to pull? You goddamn cheat!" Kintaro yelled as he pulled at his restraints.
"I didn't want to do this, but I have no choice. Kintaro Akechi ends here. You are my only challenge. I must get rid of you in any way possible." Baba said. The storm was now overhead. Rain started to pour and thunder began to crash.
Kintaro almost screeched. The small platform he stood on started to sink. He's going to fucking drown me! Now Kintaro struggled more than ever to release himself. Up to his waist in chilling seawater, the duel disks had retracted. As Kintaro lifted his duel disk from the water, a hand snatched it from his wrist. Barely noticing the chopper above him because of the immense thunder and lightning, Kintaro saw that the goons were flying the copter and that Masamune Baba was now on the original dock. "Give that back you bunch of creeps. Taking the deck, the goons chucked his disk far onto the docks.
"You psychopath! Get me out of here! Do you know who will come after you if they find me dead?" Kintaro shouted as loud as he could.
The half-submerged platform was now returning to its original dock. Kintaro's head was only five inches above the dock. Baba stood over Kintaro, holding Kintaro's deck. As the rain pounded down, and the roar of the clouds persisted, Kintaro looked at Baba with the utmost seriousness.
"I am Kintaro Akechi Kaiba, and I promise you that I'll be your grim reaper you sick freak! It'll be a bright day when I bury you six feet!" Kintaro yelled.
"Very, very touching Mr. Kaiba. However, if I'm not mistaken, THE Kaiba doesn't even care about your existence. To him, you're just Gozoburo's nephew, a speck on the plaque of Kaiba's legacy. We'll see if I get even so much as a dueling penalty for my actions." Baba said.
Baba pulled himself back into the chopper and smiled. Then he reached into his coat and smiled one last time. Kintaro then sunk down. Staring with blurry vision and a breath of air held captive in his mouth like prisoner. The platform then stopped, six feet deep. Almost like the platform had been toying with him it had stopped at a height where Kintaro's nose was but an inch from the rippling surface.
Consciousness fading, Kintaro drifted into a cosmic state of mind. No feeling, just being. I'm dead, I have to be. Expecting his life to be flashing in front of his eyes, Kintaro awoke with a start.
Pondering, he looked up at the bright blue sky. The rain and clouds had been gone for a while. Water still clung to his body like his own skin. Breathing heavily, Kintaro looked around. He was still at the dock, still inhabited with crates of cargo. He sat up and looked around yet again. A woman in a wetsuit stared at him from a distance; she stood next to an SUV. Aside from being alive, the first thing that startled him was the necklace he was wearing. He had been wearing the pewter sword pendant for a while, but it was different now. The sword was now colored and bright. The blade was shimmering silver and the tang a shiny black with gold filigreed. The handle was now in a wave shape.
Kintaro got to his feet and realized something. My deck! As he reached into the silver box on the side of his belt, he felt like he would pass out again. Empty. Wet, but empty was the box that once carried his beloved deck. I must of lost all of them to the ocean. No, wait . . . that heartless bastard took them!
"Excuse me sir, are you all right?" The woman said.
She was a bit shorter than Kintaro, but she was beautiful. A smoothly shaped body and straight, silky, red hair. The wet suit complimented her figure perfectly. Kintaro was good at fooling people when it came to his feelings, he had to be.
"Yeah I'm cool. Just a little wet, I must have slipped on the dock." Kintaro said walking to her left.
"Well . . . do you need anything? You just appeared out of the water like you had been in their for hours. I had been diving for the past four and I was about to leave until I saw you." She said.
". . . Four hours? Well, to make a long story short, I'm alive and pissed. Now I need to go so nice meeting you and good-bye." Kintaro said.
I played that one pretty good. Kintaro thought smoothly.
"Hey macho, I found this under the dock." She said frustrated. Her voice was a little bit more of a deeper tone now.
Kintaro looked in disbelief. It was a card he hadn't seen in ten years. The White Paladin. Kintaro's father's favorite and rarest card. It also happened to be number six on the all time rarity list. You had a better chance of getting hit by a meteor and struck by lightning while holding a winning lottery ticket.
". . . Th-th-thank you." Kintaro said snatching the card from her grip.
"I found it just floating through the water. I figured it was rare because it's completely mint! The water did no damage to it." She said.
"Y-yeah. That's odd. This was my father's card, but he died a decade ago and never told me what he did with it." Kintaro said calming down.
"I'm Chi, and you're Kintaro Kaiba." Chi said.
"So Chi, how do you know who I am?" Kintaro questioned while straightening his shirt.
"It said your name on the I.D. tag on this duel disk. I don't know what happened, but by the looks of you, I'd say you've been panicked for a little while. And you look similar to Kaiba." Chi said looking at the duel disk.
"Yeah, nearly dying can do that to someone. And I don't look a thing like that asshole." Kintaro said coldly.
Kintaro took the duel disk but didn't put it on. He had no deck to put it in anyways. Then Kintaro looked over at the car Chi had been standing at before she rushed over to him. There was a change of clothes next to a duel disk.
"So what kind of deck do you use?" Kintaro asked.
"What? I don't duel!" Chi said.
"Then who's Disk did you swipe?" Kintaro said looking towards the truck.
Chi blushed a bit and then looked at her feet. Looking back at the SUV, and then Kintaro, she spoke.
"It's only a hobby. Most girls my age are more interested in clothes and makeup. Sure I like that stuff, but I love the challenge of Duel Monsters. It makes me feel like a nerd." Chi said blushing still.
"Well you're the best looking nerd I've seen in awhile." Kintaro said walking away.
Blushing even harder now, Chi felt the flitter of butterflies in her stomach.
Kintaro knew he needed to remake his deck. It was going to be hard after losing all those cards. He still couldn't help but remember his childhood, watching his father duel with one of the greatest Warrior Decks of all time.
He remembered seeing the White Paladin many times. Always striking down his father's opponents. Then one night, a group of men in cloaks broke into the house, looking for his father. They stole his father from his own home. Kintaro ran though the dark roads, screaming and following the men. He saw them take his father into an alleyway, and shoot him. The lead "hunter" then took his father's deck and pushed Kintaro against the alley wall (Kintaro had ran at him). Just before his father died, he had said to Kintaro, "Be strong . . . always fight to the end. I love you . . . son. Cough, cough D-Don't, for . . . get that."
Walking down memory lane again? Kintaro thought harshly. He knew his father never kept that card in his deck unless he was dueling, so it seemed like destiny that it would return to Kintaro. "Time to climb the dueling ladder . . . again."
