Tournament Stories part 9
I kind of took my time returning to the hotel because I knew that I would beat Jack there, as I had always beaten him to the front gate during the preliminaries. So I listened, somewhat meditatively, to the smooth sound of the automatic doors sliding open to reveal a lobby about 1/4 the way full with people who have already won their first REAL duel of the tournament. Feeling proud that I was one of them, I took the three cards out of the innermost pocket from the pack I had gotten from… J and S (whoever they were) and looked at them. They were those three cards that I won so far. There was the Empress Judge from Jenny, Mr. Volcano from Craig, and Spiritualism from Justin. And although they were good cards in THEIR decks, I felt no need to put them in my own, which kind of made me feel pretty guilty. Sighing slightly after slipping the cards back in the pocket in the pack, I walked further into the crowd to see if anyone was here that I knew. I noticed Jonathan far to my right who was talking, somewhat happily, to some boy with a cowlick and glasses. "He must be making fun of him," I said to myself. Straight ahead and to my left I spotted Em who was happily showing off the Punished Eagle (2100/1800) she had won saying, "He's SO CUTE!" And then she noticed me, waved hello happily and went back to her ego-boosting. Finally, I saw Steve talking to the receptionist who was still as crabby as ever.
"…So then what happens now, when the others get here? Are we going to have to be spoken to by that guy again?" I heard Steve satirically ask as I got closer.
"Kid, I don't know. The ONLY ones who really know anything about the rest of this tournament are the host, officials, and-" she was cut off by someone storming into the room yelling. "Okay, kids- listen up, and listen up well!" It was that short blonde-haired lady! "…her." the receptionist finished her sentence and turned to face the computer because we all heard, "You've got mail!"
"I won't say too much more until all remaining 128 duelists are here. But I CAN say that you will not be having another lecture by Miste- … that guy," the woman had to stop and think for a minute because she was about to say the host's name. And after that announcement, many happy sounds were heard and I even singled out, "That lady is so cool!"
So Steve and I waited by the main door as we chatted, "So what card did you win from whoever you were against?" I asked.
"Oh, I was against some talkative guy named Hector. He really knows the rules, but didn't have that many strong cards…" he paused as he scrambled through his deck. "The card you chose must have been good enough to put in your deck, though, huh?" I jeered as he removed it from his deck and showed me. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped.
"Neat, right? It's a rare quick play magic card called De-Fusion. When a fusion type monster is summoned, I can flip this over and it is instantly returned to the Fusion Deck zone! And if all the fusion material monsters for that card are in my graveyard, I can special summon them face up in attack or defense. It's unlikely that THAT will happen, but the destruction of a fusion monster is good enough for me!" Steve cheerfully continued, "Now… if only I had this card during OUR duel… remember that?" he taunted as we didn't notice Jack walk in.
"And Hector let you take it?" I asked.
"He had to, remember? It's the rules of this tournament: 'The winner chooses one card from the loser's deck.'" Steve recited as he turned to face Jack.
"Hey guys, did you hear? Mike was taken out by another duelist," Jack somewhat sadly reported. "I was walking towards the hotel when I heard Mike commanding his Swordstalker to attack some face down card. And he was winning, too, by 1500 life points. So the face down monster was Launcher Spider (2200/2500); that's bad enough. But then the duelist activated The Reliable Guardian and the machine's defense rose to 3200! That's 1200 points of damage for Mike. And THEN he activated some trap card named Destruction Punch. It must be rare because I've never heard of it before. Usually, a monster whose attack is less than the attacked monster's defense remains on the field, right?" he was actually asking us, so there was an awkward silence that lasted for too long.
"Oh! Uh, yeah. You just get damaged and the monster stays. Why?" Steve answered.
"Well, this Destruction Punch card actually DESTROYS the monster whose attack against a defense card fails. It's bogus! So there Mike was with 1600 life points, and no monsters on the field. I felt so bad watching him lose. Then the other duelist just summoned Overdrive (1600/1500) and Mike lost…" Jack finished as we all went silent. "After the other duelist left, I walked up to him and began to say something. But Mike interrupted and laughed, "It's alright. I never expected to make it this far, anyway. And besides, that 7 Completed he took? I've got lots of `em at home- which is where I'm headed. I'll see you there after this tournament is over. Get as close as you can to the top, okay?" and then he walked towards the main gate," Jack said as he readjusted his pack.
"That really sucks…" Steve said. I slowly nodded in agreement as we all went quiet for a few seconds.
"So I guess you won YOURS, though, right?" I asked. "What card did you win?" I tried to cheer up our atmosphere.
"Well, it's not really rare or anything. But here it is," he took the top card off of his deck resting snugly in his duel disc. It was Numinous Healer. I got minorly annoyed as I was seeing this card for the fourth time during this whole tournament. "I get so irritated by people who use direct damage as a working strategy. So I'm going to start loading up my deck with life point recovery cards!" Jack smirked as he slid it back onto his deck.
"But what card did YOU win?" Jack asked me as Steve rapidly nodded.
"Uh… I reached in my pack and took out the three that I won. I grabbed the Spiritualism and accidentally dropped the Mr. Volcano.
"Well, okay. This card I won a few minutes ago, and this one I won from…" and I suddenly realized that Craig's best friend was right next to me.
"Hey! That's Craig's favorite card! …Oh well. He's got loads more in his "useless deck" at home," Steve said as he smiled, surprisingly.
Just then, something suddenly crossed my mind, "Wait! Jack! Did Mike say that he'd see you back HOME?" I asked.
"Yeah. We live in the same town, actually. But I never knew him because he's so much younger. We found this out during our practice duel last night. Though, I must say, it was hard to concentrate with Doug always going monster, magic, monster, trap-"
"No, wait! Is Doug here?!??" I whirled around and frantically began looking across the massive number of people also in the lobby. From where I stood, I couldn't see him.
Thankfully, he walked right in the main doors a few minutes later humming a catchy tune. And we were still standing there. "Doug!" we all exclaimed at once. I don't know about the rest of them, but felt kind of corny saying his name at the same exact time like in one of those anime cartoons…
"How'd it go?" Jack asked. "Did you win a cool card?"
"Ha- DID I?! Just see for yourself!" Doug said as he quietly began humming again as he searched through his deck. "I can't even believe I beat him!" Doug said as he dramatically turned the card around. To our surprise, it was, "…Molten Destruction?" I asked a bit confused. "Ha ha ha ha ha! Boy, did I have you three going! Yeah, that clueless-looking guy couldn't duel ANYBODY without making stupid mistakes. Sometimes I wondered if he even knew what attack mode was! And I picked this card because you wouldn't believe how many fire cards I have. And this is exactly what I was looking for! …And I heard the news about Mike. I, literally, bumped into the guy who beat him who was talking to his friends. He pretty much ignored me as he ran by saying, "Jeez! That Mike kid was a cinch to beat! And I got this 7 Completed card to make my machines even stronger!" and his friends laughed along with him," Doug finished as that familiar megaphone squeaked. That short lady was getting ready to speak again.
"Alright, listen up! All 128 of you are either pretty good duelists, have cheated so well that you're this far, or have had really weak opponents!" and many evilly friendly laughs were heard. "Anyway! For the next round of this tournament, you will be allowed to choose your next opponent." "YES! Finally!" it was that kid from before. I guess he had beaten his friend… "Once you have picked your opponent, you are to report to me and wait for the okay to go out there and duel. Pick your opponents now! I expect to see 64 pairs within the next 10 minutes!" And with that, people rushed away from their friends so they wouldn't be stuck to duel against each other.
Steve immediately picked the loud mouthed guy who wanted these duel discs to entitle us to choose our opponents, and he accepted. With a sigh of relief, he looked at me and gave me a "thumbs up" before I even began to move.
Doug was being attracted to Em because of the huge number of duelists she was turning away as she said, "Like, NONE of you look like you will present a big enough challenge for me!" Noticing this and remembering how tough she was, I said to Doug, "Uh, you don't wanna duel her. Try going over there," as I pointed in some random direction. "Hey, you're right! She's MUCH more sassy!" and he walked off, so did I.
Jack was just standing there, knowing someone would come by eventually.
I looked for someone that appeared tough. I looked all around. But before I could go up to someone I thought would be tough, someone came up to me. "Hey, you. You wanna duel me? Think you can handle my skill?" some guy a little taller than me with his arms crossed was challenging me in that kind of intimidating tone of voice. "Ugh," I thought. "It's one of THOSE guys who through their might around… much like the guys in gym class. Y'know I've always wanted to make one of them pay…" "Sure, I'll duel you," I said as soon as he had asked.
"Haw! Great. My name's Zach. But you had better call me Z. K." he said.
"Alright, I'm (my name)," I said as we went up to that short lady. She tapped on some palm pilot after she asked us our names and she replied, "Okay! You can go."
He instantly LED me to some out of the way location where nobody walked by.
"You ready to lose? Cuz I'm ready to win! You better pray you don't have any cards that you'll miss, because I guarantee that I'll choose your RAREST!"
Now this wasn't too intimidating, but it did make me choke up a bit on the inside. There's something about the cards in your deck, rare or not, that makes you never want to part with them, and losing any one card would all but destroy me.
"Enough talk, let's just duel!" I angrily decalred.
We shuffled each other's decks, walked far away and turned our systems on. Our holographic emitters sped away and stopped at the proper distance. We drew five cards after agreeing that he went first. So he drew a sixth card, "This is perfect! I summon Woodland Sprite (900/400) in attack mode! Next, I equip him with Mask of Brutality, Lightning Blade, and Salamandra! His attack shoots up to 1900!" he triumphantly announced. "But why equip him with those cards if only one of them boosts its power?" I asked. "You'll find out right now! NOW I'm sending these three equip magic cards to the graveyard to inflict 1500 points of direct damage to your life points! HA HA HA!" he chaotically yelled. "WHAT! HOW?!?" I asked in a state of confusion and shock at the sudden drop in my life points from 4000 to 2500. "It's the Woodland Sprite's effect. For every equip card equipped to it that is sent to the graveyard, you lose 500 life points! But I'm not done yet. Say hello to Tremendous Fire! You lose another 1000 life points, whereas I only lose 500. NOW you only have 1500, and it's still the first turn! HA HA HA HA! But now it's your turn. So hurry up so I can beat you!" Z. K. said. I drew a sixth card and looked at my hand.
I was so annoyed. I've never had so many rare cards in my hand at the same time. Then again, I've never had so many cards that I couldn't be able to play in my hand at the same time. In my hand was Monster Reborn, Polymerization, Gravity Bind, Magician of Faith, Red Eyes Black Dragon, and Dark Necrofear. I set my Gravity Bind, and put my Magician of Faith in defense mode. "Your move," I said as he drew a card making his hand total two.
"Great. Now it's time to further kick your butt! I summon Mucus Yolk (0/100) in attack mode and equip it with Malevolent Nuzzler, bringing its total to 700! And now, like its effect allows me to, I attack your life points directly!" As soon as he said that, the ugly glob of jelly structured itself and focused its purplish red eye at me. A beam of light formed in its eye and was launched at me. It made full contact and brought my life points down to 800 with an intense sting. "RRRggghhh… I guess attacks hurt!" I whispered to myself. "And this is the best part! Because Mucus Yolk damaged your life points directly, its attack will rise by 1000 points at my next standby phase! You're already doomed, kid! Feeling like a loser yet? It won't be long until the rarest card in your deck is mine and you are off this island! Now draw!" he demanded as I noticed he didn't attack my Magician of Faith.
I drew one of newest cards, thankfully, Dark Dust Spirit. I began to chuckle. "It's time to even the score, Z. K." I said as he blinked, undaunted, at me. First I'm sacrificing my face down Magician of Faith to summon Dark Dusk Spirit (2200/1800)! This card has a killer effect once it's summoned. As soon as it appears on the field, ALL face up monsters are immediately destroyed, excluding this one!" I grinned as I pointed to the eerie dark creature in front of me. "NOO!!" Z. K. yelled as my zombie rose his hands high into the air with his palms facing the sky, releasing musty brown dust that seeked out and destroyed every monster he had on the field, leaving his field wide open. "And now I'll use this card, I said as I slipped my Monster Reborn into the center magic zone slot. "Crap!" he replied as he took a step back. "I'm reviving your Woodland Sprite and attacking you with both my monsters!" I yelled as my zombie and plant cards poised themselves for attacking. The Woodland Sprite slashed at Z. K.'s side with a particularly sharp stick, and my Dark Dusk Spirit used his intensely sharp nails to gash all around where he was standing, all the while I heard small and halfway muffled cries of pain from this "macho" dude. "Guess what!" I taunted. "You've just become the victim of my largest direct damage attack in my entire dueling career: 3100 points! What say you now when you are losing with 400? Hmmm? My turn is over, so now my spirit card returns to my hand, like its effect requires it to do. And if your next card isn't a monster that you can play, don't expect me to hold back, you understand?" I said as he suddenly realized that he had no cards in his hand. I could see a bead of sweat gather right above his right eyebrow.
He slowly drew the top card, trying to look cool at the same time. But I could tell he was worried. He reluctantly looked at the card and immediately set it in defense mode. "I can safely say that this duel, as close and surprisingly competitive it was, despite my opponent's built like a twig, is almost over! Make your move, kid!" Z. K. said. He had a faint smile on that just beamed out, "I won!"
So before I drew, I thought for a second. "I've got 800 life points left. If that were a monster of 1700 attack points or higher he would have won, unless he's afraid that my face down card is a trap, which it is. But that defense card must either have enough defense to kill me or a killer flip effect, that I would be triggering if I were to summon my spirit card again and attack. I don't think I like this…" I finished thinking as I drew my last card. It was my favorite equip card of them all- Sword of Deep-Seated! This duel was two motions away from being over! But first, I'd soften the blow with a little talk, "Y'know, I never knew of people that actually used direct damage as a working strategy for a way of dueling. Has this tactic worked for you many times before?" I asked as he lowered his eyebrows in suspicion. "Of course. I've won lots of duels back home with my deck. I owe most of my success to my Mucus Yolk. But I didn't know cards like your Dark Dust Spirit even existed! I would have won by now if it weren't for that undead dork you've got in your hand second from the left!" he said as I felt kind of scared of his accurate prediction. But then I realized that he must have seen where I put it in my hand, and then I felt stupid. "Anyway, you're a good duelist. And I want to make sure you know that even-" I was quite rudely interrupted, "SHUT UP! Just make your move and quit stalling for time to think. It's annoying!" Zach yelled. "Alright, fine," I paused and placed one card right under the Woodland Sprite. "I'm equipping him with my Sword of Deep-Seated which raises his attack to 1400! And now I'm unequipping him and sending my equip card to the graveyard, to finish off the rest of your life points!" I triumphantly said, "It's all over."
"Oh! HELL no! That dumb Jonathan kid told me that you were easy to beat! And I was one turn away from blowing your sorry butt back wherever you came from…" and he paused as he picked up his face down card and showed it to me. "Looook!" he said in a kind of squeaky voice. "Holy crap!" I responded. It was none other than the Lady Assailant of Flames. If I were to attack, or let him take his next turn, my life points would have gone down to exactly zero! I would have lost! And he would have taken my rarest card! "That was a tough match, dude," I said as he put his cards back in his deck in the middle somewhere. I did the same.
Zach let out a sigh. "Okay, you won. What card do you want? I've got at least two of everything, so it doesn't matter which one you pick.," But before I chose, I said to him, "Hey. This duel would have been a lot more FUN if you didn't rely on direct damage all the time. Did you notice how short it was?"
"SO? That's the way I like `em."
"Never mind." I abruptly finished up and picked a Numinous Healer mainly because everyone else has one, why can't I? I looked at the letter and number combination at the bottom of the picture, "Pharaoh's Servant, huh? Well, this IS a good card…" I said to myself as Zach turned away. He went back to the hotel to get his belongings and go towards the main gate. I actually looked out to the main gate on the main path going back to the hotel. It looked like a pretty seaport. But I focused on the walk ahead of me, and almost bumped into Em who was laughing to herself.
"Em? Are you okay? Did you win your latest duel?" I asked her who was surprised to see me.
"Huh? Why would you think that I -? Oh, cuz I'm laughing. No! It's funny! Well, not the me, like, losing part. But the card that she chose from my deck! See, okay- I was, like, winning: 2350 to 1200, and it was her turn. Then she all of a sudden activates Shield and Sword which, like you know, switches all face up monsters' attack and defense. And I was like, "Oh no! Now my Spirit of the Harp (800/2000) has, like, almost NO defense power!" So anyway. She flip summons a Man Eater Bug (450/600) which wasn't affected by the changes in attack and defense. But anyway, my fairy card is gone and I take an attack from the disgusting bug which brings me down to 1900. But then, like, she ALSO had a face up Castle of Dark Illusions (920/1930) whose stats where switched, and so with absolutely no cards on the field, I suffered a 1930 damage hit, and she won. But right! The funny part! She didn't take my Wingweaver, or Soul of Purity and Light or ANYTHING like that! She took my Harpie's Feather Duster."
"WHAT! You had a Harpie's Feather Duster?!??" I exclaimed. "Jeez. How come I can't have rare cards like THAT?" I thought to myself.
"Yeah, I did. But the funniest thing was that even though it was the rarest card in my deck, I've got another one at home! Isn't that hilarious!!" and then she continued to laugh as she cheerfully got up. "Yeah… everyone I'm encountering today has backups of their cards..." I distantly said once again looking at the main gate overviewing the ocean.
"But then I guess you're out?" I looked back at Em.
"Yeah, I'm out. But it's weird how I was beaten. She's got so many powerful cards. And she was dressed in so many black things, too, except her red tank top. That's not a way to be dressed in this oncoming heat. I think her name was Sarah, if I remember correctly?" she went quiet for a second as I heard a distant "Noooo!" obviously from a duelist losing.
"Anyway, I wanna check into a super modern deluxe room on the top level of the ship before it's taken," she began as she headed towards the main gate. "There's one more duel today in a few hours. And I don't want any of the 32 more to be coming on this boat to be in my room! See ya around, (my name)! I hope you make it to at least the top 16!" she wishfully shouted as I just stood there waving goodbye.
I stopped waving a few seconds later and turned to face the hotel. About halfway there from where I was, I felt a sharp pat on the back. It was Jack. "Found you!" he said happily. "Who were you waving to back there? Did you just beat her in a duel?" he asked. He was still lugging around that heavy pack that he got from his mom. It made me laugh.
"No, that was Em. We've recently become friends. She had just gotten beaten by some girl named Sarah… she thinks," I answered as we kept walking. He broke a one minute silence by saying, "Hey! Look at the card I won a few minutes ago!"
"Another life point recovery card?" I asked
"You got it! Here it is." And he showed me the card.
It was Soul of the Pure. It increases one's life points by 800. He beamed as I gave it back to him. "So was the person you won that from a tough duelist?" I asked as I could still faintly see Z. K. on the path way ahead of us, about to enter the hotel.
"Oh jeez. Was he ever! He played so many cards that I've never heard of before like Kabazauls (1700/1500), Aqua Spirit (1600/1200) and some really odd card called Chosen One. You heard of it?" he asked as I nodded in agreement. "So did you choose the monster for him?" I replied.
"No. I chose the card all the way to the right. Then the cylinder thingy stopped and faced it. I didn't think it was going to be the monster- and it wasn't. It was some trap card with some guy being blinded by a spotlight or something. So then three cannon-looking things popped out of the cylinder and ignited the virtual cards and the whole display vanished. So he just set a monster, I attacked it with one of my monsters, and then attacked him directly with my other monster and I won." Jack happily finished.
"Won… by how many life points?" I asked him to clarify his margin of victory.
"Uh… 700," he responded a bit embarrassed.
700 life points! These duelists were definitely getting tougher. I took a good look at Jack. He obviously seemed anxious for something. I bet he was thinking about how much longer he'd be lasting in this tournament. I began to doubt MYself too…
The rest of the walk to the hotel was silent.
In the hotel (I made sure I got in first), we were surprised to find that there were already six duelists who had already completed their previous duels randomly wandering around the lobby, occasionally stopping to look at the different kinds of pictures dotting the many walls. I walked up to the receptionist after asking Jack to stand by the door in case someone we know comes through the doors. After catching her attention by accidentally knocking over her pencil jar, I put them back in and asked, "Um, is it true that there will be no more official duels for a few more hours? I've heard this from a friend and wanted to verify it with you," I stopped to turn around after hearing my name. I turned around to see Jack with Doug!
"From what I've been told, I don't know! Jeez! I'm just some person hired to take room numbers and what not for the hotel! All I know is that there will be 64 duelists in here soon, nothing more! So please tell all your friends to ask that short lady when she comes in again and NOT me," and then she spilled her coffee and rushed out of the room.
"Shoulda guessed…" I said to myself as I walked back over to where Doug and Jack were standing, discussing… their favorite female card. Ha… "No way! The Mystical Elf has blue skin! Are you crazy? The Unfriendly Amazon is MUCH more-! Oh, (my name)! Hey, what's your favorite female card?" Doug asked.
"…In terms of attack and defense or something else?" I sarcastically asked not actually intending to give an answer if he had said "something else."
"Ha ha ha! Okay, never mind. Anyway, aren't these duels getting so tough? I barely won mine against that girl you pointed out to me," Doug sifted through his deck for his newly won card. "Her name was Lindsay. And she had some weird monster cards! She had Invitation to a Dark Sleep (1500/1800) which prevents one of my monsters from attacking as long as it is face up on the field. She has a Dreamsprite (300/200) which changes the target attacked when I attack. And the one I most remember was Fire Sorcerer (1000/1500) which requires her to sacrifice two cards from her hand to the graveyard in order to directly damage me for 800 points," he took a breath as he showed us the card he won (obviously fire related). It was Salamandra! "But then how many life points did you win by?" Jack said as I got ready to take out the Numinous Healer card that I won from Z. K. who actually passed behind me on his way out. I noticed him ijust/i leaving as I turned around after hearing the door open.
"I won by 900 life points," Doug reported. Doug then asked while I was turning my head back towards them, "So who was your latest opponent, what card did you win, and how many did you win by?" "And give us another clue to your favorite card!" Jack interjected.
"A ha ha ha! Alright. My opponent was some tough guy named Z. K. I won this from him," as I showed them the trap card, "And I won by 800 life points. And now for another clue to my favorite card… It's got 1700 attack points, it's got an o in its name, it's not a dragon type, it isn't wind or earth, AND…" I paused purposely to get them a bit irritated. "It's level 4," I ended my hint as we all noticed Steve wasn't here yet.
"Anyone seen Steve?" I asked as the main door slid open. We watched who walked through and were disappointed to see that it was Steve's opponent, that guy who always wanted our duels to be not chosen for us. He ran towards a group of 4 other boys and enthusiastically greeted them. Jack and Doug groaned at the loss of another party member. I listened to what the five were saying, "Cool, John! You got a De-Fusion! That's a pretty rare magic card! Who'd you win it from?" "Eh, some kid named Steve. He was good enough- to be BAD!" And I turned back around having heard enough.
"Well, he's gotta come back to get his stuff at least, right?" Doug asked.
"I don't think so. He had his pack with him when he left, remember?" Jack replied.
"But he'll say goodbye, won't he?" Doug said back.
"…I don't know," Jack said.
Unfortunately, he never showed up. We only assumed that he went to the cruiseship. We weren't really SAD, but thought it was disappointing to have beaten by someone like HIM, and I tilted my head to the right a little to hear one of them say, "Yes! The only room in this hotel with undefeated duelists so far!"
A few hours later after everyone went for walks and just returned to their rooms for a little rest, the short woman showed up again and just asked us to gather around. It seems that 64 people are easier to deal with than 128.
"Your host is most pleased with everyone's performance here. And you are all one more duel away from $250 dollars. But half of you will be going home with nothing but a few good memories of the last two days. Well then, you'll be happy to know that for this next duel, you can again pick your opponent. And the same rules apply as last time. You've got 10 minutes. Go!"
Instantly, Jack, Doug and I split up. I don't know who they paired up with, but I know that Jonathan was eyeing me a few times as if to say, "I'll deal with you later!"
Yet he never approached me.
However, I finally found out who the S in J and S was! It was Sarah, the one who beat Em! And she said to me, "You've survived this long. That's good. But now it's time for me to take you out of this tournament, and time for you to give me your Black Skull Dragon!" I was very apprehensive about dueling her and was most probably going to back out had she not said, "Don't even think about backing out. All of us know about your card. And it's only a matter of time until we get our hands on it. And I WILL win it from you in our duel!" Sarah said. "The rare hunters always get what cards they want!" and she laughed low enough for only me to hear it.
"You know, you can just buy some Metal Raiders booster packs and cross your fingers," I said to her- who wasn't too impressed with my response. I continued, "What! It's not even that rare of a card! Why do you want it?!??"
"We want all rare and powerful cards whether we have them already or not. Every rare hunter's goal is to construct the perfect deck containing only the rarest and strongest monsters and magic. And besides… we don't feel like spending money…" her little speech suddenly lost its power when she finished that. I began to not take her too seriously. Looking for another reason to stall I said, "Y'know, black isn't that good of a color to be wearing on a day like this. The sun is so hot today and-" I was interrupted. (I seem to get interrupted a lot)
"Enough of this. We are going to duel now, prepare to lose!" So we registered with that short lady and we headed out the hotel's front doors.