1Here we go again. Back to me, Time Mage, and Keiji.
Chapter Four-Cards In Hand
Upon waking, Keiji went about his normal routine of showering, dressing, shaving, and breakfast. By the time he was ready to leave, the sun had already made a great deal of progress in its own morning routine or rising. When Keiji had awoken it was still dark as night, but by the time he walked out the front door, the sky was blue and the low sun burned at his maladjusted eyes.
Walking down the steps toward the ally where he had encountered Ryoushi the night before, Keiji began to turn that event over and over in his head. He had heard a great deal about Darkness Games, but what he had experienced was quite different. He had heard that the monsters were so real that when they were defeated, it could become rather graphic, and that when they attacked directly, it could sometimes be so dangerous it was fatal. He had heard about mass pressure on the mind and soul, wearing the users down, becoming an endurance challenge just as much as a test of skill.
Yet the challenge from the night before hadn't granted him any of this. Aside from the dark bubble that had surrounded them, and fact that the declaration of his Punishment Game seemed to have had some effect on Ryoushi, Keiji felt that the duel was no different from any other he had faced.
No, no, not exactly. There had been one difference, he realized as he reflected back upon the match. He had felt...Different. He had felt...calm? It had felt natural. Yet, how could it have been natural when he had never even seen a real Darkness Game, yet alone been in one before?
Shaking his head, Keiji tried to clear his head while he entered the ally. He couldn't afford to get distracted at work. He had a job to do, and Darkness Games had nothing to do with it.
Of course, this wouldn't work quite like he had been hoping, because as he entered the ally, he realized that Ryoushi's body had moved. It was nowhere in sight. 'Maybe he came too in the middle of the night? Yes, yes that must be it.' Keiji concluded, rising from his knee where he had been checking out the ground near where the duel had been, no clues visible.
"I'll use lunch to check the library for anything I can find on Darkness Games and Dragon Demons." he decided, turning back toward the exit into the mainstream of the city, brushing some of his silver hair out of his eyes.
However, upon reaching the end of the ally, the hairs on the back of his neck began to rise up. Keiji froze, trying to block out all distractions to try and pinpoint whatever it was that had startled him, a skill he had come to rely on during the years he was on his own.
Jumping backward, Keiji wasn't so surprised as he was curious when a steal frame with bars, fit to the width of the ally fell from above and locking into place in Keiji's path like a portcullis. Turning, Keiji noticed a second gate had fallen into place behind him, both about twenty feet high. His nerves maximizing, Keiji began to search about and putting his guard up, expecting an attack to come from anywhere.
"You're very good, Amarai Reiki." a voice echoed off the walls, making it nearly impossible to track. "You noticed my trap and expertly avoided any physical harm. Very well done."
'Another person who thinks I'm this Amarai?' Keiji rolled his eyes. 'I don't have time for this.'
"Excuse me," Keiji called upward, guessing that was where his assailant was. "I do not have time for this. I must get to the school where I work. I am no dragon demon, nor any form of demon for that matter. I don't know why it is that Ryoushi or you would think of me as a dragon demon, but please understand that I it is not me."
The voice laughed, as though Keiji had told some new and highly original joke. "Amarai Reiki, age twenty, and has silver hair." The bounty hunter was listing what little information he had been given for identifying his target. "You were exiled from your royal clan a little over two months ago, and have been trying to blend in with the humans ever since, dodging bounty hunters and demon slayers alike."
'So that's who they're after, and why there's a bounty on his head.' Keiji noted. It was a common practice amongst dragon demons to disown some of their members for one reason or another, which usually led to rebellion and rivalries, leading to the death of at least one member of the clan or another.
"I am merely a man." Keiji tried again. "If you would like, you can check with my landlord or my records, and you'd see that I was both human and have been living in this apartment for the past thirty months." Again the voice laughed, but lighter this time.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you demon? I go and check, giving you the alone time you need to break out of this cage that I spent all night setting up, and then you move to another city. It would take months for anyone to find out that you're not in this city any longer, and then it would be nearly impossible to pick up your trail again for many more months. Sorry, no can do. Now, I think it's time that I killed you and went to collect on that reward the authorities put up."
Keiji barely had time to deduce as he heard a loud bang and the ground next to him popped and a tiny crater formed. The hunter had shot at him! Fortunately, he had missed, but just barely.
Not wasting time for the killer to realign his weapon, Keiji bolted to the side, but was cut off by a brick wall. Turning around, there was another brick wall, with a steel cage on either end. He was trapped. He could only run so far, and he could only dodge bullets for so long. Pushing off of the wall, Keiji felt a fragment of brick cut the skin on the back of his neck, a bullet having fired when he moved, destroying a brick and firing a piece of shrapnel at Keiji's body. Tripping, Keiji began to roll, two more shots barely missing him.
"Stubborn dragon! Die!" the hunter shouted, firing the last two rounds in his clip. "Fine, if you want to be that way, I'll have to use something that doesn't need to be as accurate."
Sweating with fear, Keiji took the thirty second pause to try and catch his breath, while also checking the bullet holes in the ground in an attempt to determine where the tracker was, but he didn't have time. Hearing the clicking of a gun being prepped, Keiji jumped to the side and began to roll again, this time it seeming like an explosion had gone off behind him. Stopping in a crouch, Keiji looked and saw a much larger hole than the previous ones, this one made up of dozens of smaller ones.
'He's using a shotgun!' he realized. Quickly Keiji realized he only had one chance at escaping alive. He'd been extremely lucky thus far to have avoided the shots he had, but he didn't want to overtax the spirits that were guarding him. Rising to his feet, he heard another click.
"Wait!" he shouted. When the impending gunshot did not go off, he took it as a signal to continue. "It's obvious that I can't convince you that I'm not this Amarai, and I guess that you're used to demons lying to you about such things. However, if you'd at least give me a chance, I'm sure we can resolve this."
"I'm not a negotiator, demon. I just kill, and then I collect."
"Perhaps," Keiji took a deep breath, wincing in pain slightly as he realized that he had been hit by the last attack, a few of the small shotgun pellets having struck his right ankle, which he hadn't realized while his adrenaline had been pumping. "Perhaps we could have a Darkness Game. Surely you have the skills to start one up. If you win, I go with you. If you win, you let me go and admit I'm not a demon." Reaching into his bag, Keiji began to withdraw his Duel Disk, which he took with him to school, since some students would hold mini tournaments before and after school. Also, it gave him what he needed to discipline some of the more problematic students in a way that didn't force him to monitor detention or to physically hard the students.
"Sorry, Amarai." the hunter once again shouted. "I can't initiate Darkness Games. You'd have to."
"Except I am not a demon, and so I cannot initiate one either." Keiji called, trying to bite back his fear. If neither of them had the skills to begin a Darkness Game, then he would die, without a doubt.
"Well, if you really want to keep up the human act, even in a time like this, I can't knock some sense into you." the voice growled, and Keiji's eyes widened. "But I think we can make it work." The sound of metal scraping against itself suddenly filled the ally, and when Keiji looked up, he saw a man in khakis, a black shirt, and alligator boots descending, standing on the fire escape ladder that was sliding down, explaining the noise.
Hopping to the ground, the figure tossed something to Keiji, who snatched it out of the air. Meanwhile the man began to fit a Duel Disk to his left arm, speaking to Keiji as he did so. "Fit that onto your arm, demon. This is the twenty-first centuries version of a Darkness Game."
Keiji did so, wondering exactly what this man meant. More than likely the device that was attached to the leather arm band was a device with which the hunter planned to use to deal his own version of a Punishment Game, but how it worked exactly, Keiji had no way of knowing. Although he didn't like the idea of what this device could do, Keiji chose to comply, certain that the man wouldn't tell him until it was secured and activated, but it was better to face the unknown over certain death. With a sigh, he fastened the leather strap around his right upper arm, the weight of the small black box slightly evening out the weight of the Duel Disk on his left arm..
"Every time you summon a monster or lose Life Points, that device will inject you with a slow-killing toxin. Once you win, it will inject you with the antidote, which will neutralize the poison before it can kill you. That is, unless you try and drag this out for more than half an hour. After that point, the poison, no matter where it is injected to, will reach your heart, which will begin to decay, but which will also force the poison into your arteries, from which it'll be pumped rapidly through your bloodstream, and then there's no hope for you." the man explained. However, Keiji also noted that the man didn't have such a device on his arm. Apparently, Keiji would be the only one who might die. Then again, the possibility of death was still much better than the certainty.
"Let's duel!" they both shouted, drawing their cards. However, the hunter was the first to draw a sixth card. "To start things off, I, Ichiro Zuki will set one monster in defense mode, and end my turn." (ILP: 4000)
Drawing a card, Keiji decided to take his time in thinking up a plan for counter attacking. The instant he summoned, he'd be poisoned, and then he wouldn't have time to think up elaborate strategies. Best to plan as well as he could now to prepare for the future.
"I summon Ranger of Nightfall (1800/1500) in attack mode." A sharp stab of pain interrupted Keiji's thought process for a second. Assuming it was the needle injecting the poison, he turned back to the duel while a man in forest clothes and a navy blue cloak and hoisting a shorthanded axe appeared. "Now I'll use his special ability, sacrificing him to special summon any two Ranger's from my deck to the field whose levels are each four or less." Shattering into pixels, Keiji slipped the card of his monster into his graveyard and pulled out his deck, searching for the two cards he had already decided upon. Slapping them onto his Duel Disk, Keiji smiled, even as two different needles pierced his skin. It was a good plan.
The first new Ranger was dressed in black, with a black cape that was decorated with streaks of light at random places. The second was in brown clothes with a green cloak. "Ranger of the Eclipse (1900/1900) and Ranger of the Falling Stars (1700/1400)." Grabbing two more cards, Keiji slipped them into his magic zone. "I set one card face downand play my magic card, Starry Night, which will raise the attack points of every Ranger on my field by 300."
As he spoke, a face down card appeared in front of Keiji while the sky above the field suddenly turned dark with hundreds -no thousands- of stars, giving a very celestial look to it all. Both of Keiji's monsters smiled, barely visible with the new lack of light. They were now in their own environment. They were outlaws who moved by night, and they were good at it. (Eclipse-2200) (Falling Stars-2000)
'He only summoned a monster, without any further protection. It's a wall. Most monsters that are used as a wall have a defense around two thousand.' Keiji analyzed the field. 'If I want to beat him quickly, I'll have to use Ranger of the Eclipse first, since he has a much higher chance of destroying whatever it is that this guy set. Ranger of the Falling Stars won't do as much damage when I attack directly, but it'll still cut Ichiro's Life Points in half. Plus, if it's a flip-effect monster, he'll go after Ranger of the Falling Stars with it, and I can use his effect to negate it.'
"Ranger of the Eclipse, attack his monster!" Keiji ordered. Retrieving a crossbow from his cloak, the ranger took am and fired an arrow at high speeds. Just before the arrow connected, Ichiro's face down monster appeared, displaying a set of stakes with some sort of fibrous substance hung from them, forming a net, and with a human face pushing out from the center. However the arrow kept going and tore through the net with ease. As the barrier faded away, though, the feminine face let loose a horrid shriek and Keiji's monster gripped his head before disappearing as well and the shot was ejected from Keiji's Duel Disk.
Beating him to the question, Ichiro explained. "Wall of Illusions (1000/1850) will return any monster that attacks it to its owners hand." Nodding, Keiji placed the card back into his hand before continuing.
"When Ranger of the Eclipse destroys a monster, I may place one card from my graveyard back into my hand, so I'll shuffle Ranger of Night back into my deck. Now, Ranger of the Falling Stars, attack directly!" Drawing his short sword, the man in the green cloak charged the field and slashed at Ichiro, who was forced backwards a bit, but nothing worse. (ILP:2000) "End." Keiji finished, looking at his watch. 'Five minutes have passed. Not bad, but still not good, either.'
"I admit, Amarai, that was an excellent opening play. One worthy of your lineage." Ichiro growled while drawing a card, giving him six, twice that of Keiji. "I play Tiny Pound Hammer to shuffle my hand back into my deck and then draw a new hand of the same size." Placing the five remaining cards back on top of his ejected deck and swiftly shuffling, Ichiro drew a new hand, and seemed somewhat pleased with what he had drawn. Selecting another card, he made his play.
"I activate Cost Down to discard one card and then downgrade the levels of my monsters by two for the turn. That will allow me to summon this monster in defense mode." While placing the magic card and the discarded cards into his graveyard, a card appeared in a horizontal position in front of Ichiro, leaving him with two cards in his hand. "The card I discarded was a magic card called Tailcoat Summon and can activate from my graveyard, allowing me to special summon a monster from my hand if I summoned a monster which is normally high leveled. Since the monster I summoned is normally greater than a level four monster, it is considered as such, and so I can summon this other monster that was downgraded, known as Criosphinx (1200/2400) in defense mode."
What appeared next was a sphinx unlike any Keiji had seen before -and he had seen many. It had the body of lion, but unlike other sphinx monsters, it had the head and wings of an eagle. Although not exactly threatening in appearance, it also had a strong look in it's eyes, meaning it would not give in without a fight.
"I'll set one card face down. I end my turn there." Keiji completed, leaving himself with no cards in hand.
'Just one face down card.' Keiji pondered. 'And he set it as an afterthought. That means he's got a lot of faith in that face down monster of his. Or maybe it's because of the effect of his sphinx that he has so much faith. I don't know what Criosphinx does, though. Keh, don't let yourself get distracted with that right now. For now, I'll assume he's running a Bounce Deck, meaning both his sphinx and his face down monster would have an effect dealing with sending my monsters back to my hand. As such, it would be better to trigger it this turn, while I can deal with it, rather than leave Ichiro with more resources. Sadly, I don't know many of the bounce strategy cards, since they aren't very widespread in the dueling mainstream.'
"I re-summon Ranger of the Eclipse (1900+300/1900) in attack mode, and I'll have him attack your set monster!" Drawing forth the arbalest, the black caped warrior fired his arrow at the horizontal card, the image changing to that of the monster that it was. It was, in truth, a small model of the actual sphinx statue in Egypt, made of stone. The arrow shattered on impact.
"Guardian Sphinx (1700/2400) is much stronger than most monsters, in respect to its defense score. Anything else?" Upon seeing the monsters defense points, Keiji instantly realized that his monster, even with the power up from Starry Night, was still too weak to break through, meaning Keiji would lose Life Points. (KLP:3800) As the Life Point counter ticked down a small amount, Keiji gasped as he felt another needle burry itself under his skin, injecting a tiny bit more venom to his bloodstream.
"Also," Ichiro smirked, holding out his hand. "I activate Shield Backlash. When you attack a monster with a higher defense than your monsters attack, this trap card destroys all attack mode monsters on your field." Grimacing, Keiji watched as a wave of purple light shot out from the trap card and dissolved his two Rangers. Glancing at his face down card, Keiji added one more, and ended his turn.
Frowning at the card he had drawn, Ichiro kept it in his hand and then placed his hands on his Guardian Sphinx card. "I switch Guardian Sphinx to attack mode and have it attack you directly." Suddenly, and much to Keiji's utter shock, the statue seemingly came to life, lifting itself from the position it had always been in to stomp over to Keiji's field, paw outstretched to stomp on the young man, who was pressing a button on his Duel Disk.
"I activate the card I set on my first turn, Command Silencer, stopping your attack and letting me draw one card." he explained as a totem pole with a speaker in the mouth of one of the carved animals appeared, emitting a loud shriek. The statue froze, placed it's foot down, returned to it's previous position, and returned to a crouch.
With a sigh, Ichiro reached for the card, lifting it off of the plate a few inches. "During my turn, I can flip this monster face down." he explained as the image of the statue vanished and was replaced by a horizontal card. "Go ahead Amarai, drag this out. You only have twenty-one minutes remaining before the poison kills you. I don't need to be offensive, I just need to hold out that long."
Not bothering to correct this man as to what his name was, Keiji bit back his lip. Of course, he was right. Nine minutes had passed, and thirty was just the estimate for how long it would take for the poison to reach his heart. With the extra doses he had received over the last few turns, it was possible it might take effect sooner.
'No, don't get distracted. It's just what he wants.' Drawing a card, he looked over the four in his hand.
"I summon Starlight Ranger (1500+300/1300) in attack mode. Then I'll end my turn." he finished, unable to do anything else.
"Now I can show you what my Guardian Sphinx can really do." Ichiro smiled while placing his drawn card into his hand. He then grabbed the face down card on his Duel Disk and flipped it up into attack mode. Again the stone sphinx appeared, battle ready. "When I flip this monster up manually, it returns all of your monsters to your hand." he laughed as Keiji's only monster was thrown from the Duel Disk and snatched out of the air. "Now my Criosphinx activates its effect, discarding one of your cards from your hand whenever one of your monsters is returned to your hand." Sighing, a spectral hand reached out of Keiji's graveyard and pointed at one of the cards in his hand, which he slipped into his graveyard.
"Now Guardian Sphinx, attack!" Again becoming animated, the ancient statue closed the gab between it and Keiji and lifted its paw. At the last second, Keiji jumped to the side, easily dodging the oncoming attack. However, the damage was still there. (KLP:2100) "End."
As he drew, Keiji felt a sudden wave of dizziness overcome him. Touching his right hand to his temple, he blinked a few times to try and clear his slightly blurred vison. 'The poison. It's begun to affect my body. I have to finish this fast. However, as it stands, summoning monsters would be a wasted effort and would only cost me more cards from my hand.'
"I set one card face down and end my turn." Keiji finished, leaving him with three cards yet again.
"Not summoning monsters to try and protect your in-hand cards?" Ichiro asked, seeing right through Keiji's plan. Obviously, Keiji wasn't trying anything original. "Well, if that's how you're gonna do things, I guess I'll just finish you here. I summon Hyper Hammerhead (1500/1200) in attack mode." A brown scaled dinosaur appeared on the field, its head shaped, very fittingly, like a hammer, jumping up and down in a frenzy. "And I'll flip up Guardian Sphinx into attack mode, and have them attack and finish you off."
In a fit of energy, the dinosaur leapt across the field and craned back its head for an attack. However, Keiji refused to let it. "Go face down card, Polarization Prism, which takes the damage I would be dealt, and instead deals it to your monster, draining him of his attack points." As the head came swinging down, a crystal appeared around Keiji, holding firm against the attack before thrusting the lizard backwards and dropping its attack points (0/1200). However, this did not stop the massive statue from days long past from attempting to crush Keiji, who once again sidestepped the attack, but still took damage, and again a needle pierced his skin. (KLP:400) Flipping the sphinx face down, Ichiro nodded, signaling the end of his turn.
Drawing a card, Keiji noticed that his arms were both shaking. 'Fifteen minutes left.' Again shaking his head, he wiped some sweat from his brow, noticing the rise in his temperature. "I summon..." he paused and panted for a moment. "Starlight Ranger (1500+300/1300)." Once again the light blue cloaked warrior appeared, tightly gripping his staff. "Attack Hyper Hammerhead!" he commanded. The Ranger lifted his staff and used it as a pole-vault to cross the field and fling himself into a flying kick, crushing the dinosaur under his heal. (ILP:200)
"Fool, any monster that battles Hyper Hammerhead is returned to your hand." Ichiro taunted as Kieji picked the card up off of his Duel Disk and returned it to his hand. Then the ghostly hand reached up from the graveyard and selected the returned Ranger, which Keiji discard. "You've defeated yourself by clearing your field for me."
'He's right.' Keiji scolded himelf. 'If I had been thinking clearly, I would have equipped my Ranger with the card in my hand, and would have had the power to finish him off.' Setting a card face down, he ended.
"Game, set and match." Ichiro laughed. "If you think your little bluff will do you any good, you're sadly mistaken. I saw the despair in your eyes after your monster returned to your hand. You don't have anything to save you." he laughed. Keiji normally would have said something to try and toy with Ichiro's head, but his own head was currently swimming, and a battle of wits was currently a lost cause. "Hm, with a dragon hide I could made a new coat to go along with my boots." the hunter continued to laugh.
"Take your turn!" Keiji nearly shouted, using far more energy than he knew was wise. Again reaching for his head, he tried desperately to clear hi vision. 'Just keep focusing on your face down card. Do NOT forget about the face down card!'
"Fine, not that it matters. I flip over Guardian Sphinx, who will attack you directly, ending the game, and releasing the remainder of the poison into your bloodstream." Once more the stone beast appeared and raised it's paw.
"Go..." Keiji gasped, trying to reach his Duel Disk to activate the set card, but his muscles were slowing down, and they burned. "Weakening of Attack is a quick-play card that negates the attack and ends your battle phase." he explained, still trying to reach the activation button. 'Come on!' With a final burst of desperation, Keiji managed to punch his knuckle into the button, and the card flipped up, stopping the attack.
"Fine, you got one more turn." Ichiro grunted, flipping Guardian Sphinx face down. "Then again, I doubt you'll survive to play it out. Even if you did, I'm not too worried about the power of a nearly dead demon's brain."
Reaching for his deck, Keiji winced as his body protested completely. He felt as though he had been standing still while holding a bag of rocks in each hand for days, while his head seemed to be in the clouds. 'I refuse to lose as an innocent man! I will not be a demons scapegoat!' he told himself, trying to bring his mind back to reality.
Much to his surprise, it seemed to work, and his arm drew the card without and trouble. For just a few seconds, Keiji felt like he could think clearly, and he felt warm. Not the burning feeling of the poison, but a warm, gentle feeling. Brushing it off as an effect of the poison nearing its final stage, he slapped the drawn monster onto his Duel Disk, and a man in a cloak the color and pattern of sunset appeared.
"Sunset Ranger (1200+300/900) is summoned the instant I draw him, although I would have summoned him regardless." he uttered, reaching for another of his cards. "I play Shooting Star Bow, an equipment magic card that will lower his attack points by one thousand. However, since I'm equipping him with a card, Starry Night gives him two hundred more attack points per equip card (700)."
"Why bother? Even with its base attack strength, it wasn't nearly strong enough to defeat my monsters. You're screwed." Ichiro shrugged. Then, after a quick afterthought, he suddenly realized something. "Unless your Shooting Star Bow has another effect."
"It does." Keiji breathed deeply. "It allows the equipped monster to attack directly." Raising the bow, the outlaw knocked an arrow, aimed, and fired. The arrow whizzed by Criosphinx and the face down Guardian Sphinx, nailing Ichiro in the chest. He stumbled backwards a bit, and then snarled deeply before turning his head away in frustration. (ILP:0)
Keiji, on the other hand, was just relieved as he felt one final needle penetrate his skin and administer the antidote, which was obviously much faster in action than the actual poison, and he felt the first signs of relief quickly enough.
"As promised, Amarai, I will release you for now." he snarled, pulling out a remote control and pressing a button. The gates on either end of the ally instantly began to rise. "You do realize I won't be the last one, correct?" Keiji slumped down against the brick wall, barely hearing the other man. Snorting in defeat, Ichiro walked away, leaving Keiji alone in the alleyway.
Glancing at his watch, Keiji realized that the first period of the day was starting right now! That meant he was late, and in Japan, late is a bad thing. A very bad thing. Something Keiji couldn't afford.
With new adrenaline in his veins and the poison neutralized, he stood up again, and returned to his morning routine; the part where he walks to work.
Lunch had finally come, something Keiji had thought would never arrive. He was still so afflicted by the poison that work had felt like worse than normal and the hours seemed eternal. However, his body was once again functioning normally, albeit beyond exhausted. However, he couldn't afford to lose the hours now, because if he missed them now, he'd be dead if he ever reached a point in which he couldn't conceivably come to work. He'd just been chewed out enough by the principal in a lecture about responsibilities to the students and such. Keiji had opted to omit the details of why he was late, and had lied, saying there had been a construction project new his apartment that had slowed all traffic of every kind to a halt. Something that, in retrospect, wasn't really a lie, since Keiji was the only traffic down they alley most of the time, and Ichiro had said he had built that cage over night.
Pouring over the book in front of him, Keiji began to try and find something on Darkness Games to explain the odd feeling he had the night before. So far he had learned about the ten level scale for Darkness Games, the fact that there were some humans gifted enough to tap them, and the effects that they had on the weak-minded, but nothing about how a Darkness Game could feel...normal?
"This is interesting." he noted, taking out a pad of sticky notes and a pen. "'Some humans have, over the ages, become so violent towards demons that they have dedicated themselves to the eradication of the demon genome. Sometimes this hostility results in Orders of demon slayers, pseudo-cult organizations that make it their purpose in life to destroy demons and 'protect humanity'. Some have-'" Keiji stopped, the bell ringing. Sticking a note on that page, he closed the book and stood up.
It was time to make up for his screw up this morning, meaning he was stuck giving the lecture in biology about half-demons. It was a subject few teachers liked to give, since it was such a controversial subject. Although Keiji enjoyed lecturing, this one was, without a doubt, a true punishment, and when combined with the stress effects of being poisoned, terrified the most witty of professors.
Stepping into the classroom, he put his bag on the table, grabbed up some chalk, and began to scribble on the board.
"Class, today we will be talking about humans and demons crossbreeding..."
To Be Continued...
There you go. Another chapter done, and in record time by me. This will be one of the last duels Keiji will have that wont be so serious. Next time we see him, be prepared for a long and harsh duel!
Also, all Ranger cards are created by me, Time Mage. So were Tailcoat Summon, Shield Backlash, and probably just about any other card you didn't recognize (Or it belongs to Seeker of the Soul), with the exception of Polarization Prism, which is a card from Yu-Gi-Oh R, the current manga series.
Review Responses (Note, I will be responding to the last chapter that I posted)-
Gearfried the Iron Angel- Good to hear from you. Keep on enjoying, and expect the first chapter of my sequel to Battle City sometime over the next week.
G.O.T. Nick- Yeah, wish we could have you on the team, but, like you said, you don't have the capacity, sadly. But, it's good to hear that you liked my last chapter and the new cards so much.
Noble Paladin- Hope this was equally kickass. And yes, dragon demons are rare, hence why Amarai is so sought after.
John- Don't underestimate a D.D. Deck that one of us makes (That one is a hybrid of cards by all three of us). The metagame doesn't apply in the universe of our fics, so we can make whatever kinds of decks we please that could kick ass, even against a Chaos deck.
Raine Vindicare- That's funny. You know why it's so funny? Because you couldn't make any Ranger cards right now, even if you wanted to, because you don't yet know how they work. I've gone out of my way to keep from revealing the main strategy behind them, so you could make some, except they wouldn't work in Keiji's deck.
Neo Arkadia- Strap in for the long ride.
See ya.
Welcome back to my side of the street, ladies and gentlemen. This is your head Demon Expert Wolf General. Amarai is still on the run, and because of his condition all he can do is run. However, the Shadow Trackers and their mysterious employer are still after him, and this time it's a duel where there is more than just his life on the line. Check it all out in "Sealed? Cyber Dragon Lockdown!"