Hey everyone. This is Time Mage, reporting to you live from the North Campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland. More specifically, the fifth floor, room 516. Since I finished the inventory for the NSRL Project (you can look it up on Wikipedia if you're curious as to what that stands for) lab yesterday, I didn't have anything to really do today. As such, I got to finish this, and even post it (though I had to bum my supervisor's Flash Drive off of her).
I thought I'd have this chapter up soon, but one of the decks was just so crazy that it was hard to use it in moderation. All I can say is that this is perhaps the most intense duel this story has thus far seen! Also, to help make up for the wait, I am (technically) giving you tow duels, though one is just last little bit.
Enjoy!
The Way of the Dreamer
Chapter Seven-Hero's Journey; Nine Virtues
The air was tense to a point that it could practically be seen. However, it was a good thing that it couldn't, because if it were then the hundreds of spectators wouldn't be able to see the duel currently in progress. As the hours of the Duel Festival had ticked by, various match-ups had been seen. However, none was as odd as the one currently in action.
One of the two duelists, a young woman from Ra Yellow with light blue hair, was wearing a pale pink kimono with a purple obi around her waist. On her field was a figure that appeared to be a man. He was tall, somewhat muscular, with long fingers that ended in short claws. He was dressed in baggy pants while a mantle of white material covered his upper body and hung past his waist, where it was synched in by a white belt. His eyes were gold and only added to the feral look in his face, shrewd like a fox, framed by a thick matt of long snow-white hair.
Her opponent, however, was no less confounding in appearance. She had long black hair that hung down to her mid-back, though just bellow the base of her neck it was tied. Instead of her uniform she wore a white top and a red feminine hakama-skirt. On her field was a tall man with silver-blue hair, though he also was not entirely human. The base color for his clothes (which consisted of extremely baggy pants and a loose fitting top with long sleeves which flared out at his wrists) was white. Pink designs flowed over the hems of his sleeves, while a black plate of some material was shaped like armor over his lower torso and upper legs, with a bright yellow sash wrapped around his waist. Bound to him by said sash was a long sword with a triangular blade, but no sheath, as well as an ebony katana scabbard which was empty, its usual occupant now in the grip of its owner.
Most startling of his appearance, though, was a massive length of fur draped over his right shoulder, hiding all of his right arm except his fist, and only that because it was holding the thin katana. The fur didn't seem to serve any purpose, beyond decoration, only adding to its absurdities.
In addition to his elaborate attire, the warrior's face was one of curious work. Thought at first glance very human, one would merely need to do a double-take to notice that his eyes were an unnatural shade of gold, or to realize the small purple crescent moon on his forehead, or his elongated and pointed ears. His face was also seemed to be permanently affixed with a haughty sneer mixed with a cold lack of emotion, except for his obvious koros.
This was the scene that Kazuki and the rest of the student body had before them, and it had been very much like this for the entirety of the duel. Of course, it wasn't the monsters that made it so bizarre, or even the girls outfits that had caused most spectators to either sweatdrop with shock or burst out laughing. No, it was the added dialogue by the competitors.
"You're attack was a good one, Miyako," the one with black hair said with a confident grin. "But if you thought you could kill Sesshomaru-senpai (2700/2500) that easily, you never stood a chance."
"You just got lucky with Tenseiga's barrier effect!" the one with blue hair, now identified as Miyako shouted back, sounding annoyed. "But I'm still gonna prove that he's second rate compared to my ultra-bishi Yoko Kurama (2400/2100)!" The black-haired girl shrugged with flashing a knowing smile.
Looking at her three cards in hand, Miyako grabbed a card from her hand and slipped it into her graveyard. "I'll use Yoko Kurama-san's effect to discard a card from my hand to place a card from my side deck into my hand. Then, because Yoko-san is the only monster on my field, and if he has lower attack points than one of your monsters, I can play that card immediately rather than waiting till next turn, like I normally would have to. The card I chose was one of his most deadly tricks known as Sinning Tree. It will trap Fluffy in a prison of his own sins, keeping him from attacking, defending, or using his effects. Also you will take his level times one hundred as damage each of your standby phases that he's trapped."
All around the silver haired man known as Sesshomaru, or Sesshomaru-senpai in the black haired girls case, sprang a number of plant sprouts, growing rapidly and moving on their own. He simply looked down at them in disgust, not seeming to worry even in the slightest as the vines grabbed at his legs and then continued to grow. Before long he was completely engulfed except for his face, and still he remained entirely passive.
Setting one of her two remaining cards face down, Miyako ended her turn, the face down image appearing to the left of her face up continuous magic card. Without a seconds hesitation, the other girl drew, giving her a full hand of six cards. However, before she could take any other action, the bulbous plant in front of her began to glow an acid green color and her life points dropped a fair amount. (GLP:500)
"Feh, even with Yoko's annoying plants you still couldn't really defeat This Sesshomaru-senpai." As she said this she seemed to not notice the audible grown that emitted from the audience as she once again referred to him both as a lord, but even more so annoyingly in the third person. "However, it seems that if I want to end it this turn, then Sesshomaru-senpai will need to be saved by his little brother. He wont be happy with this, but I hope that he'll forgive me for having to use the half-breed to help him out."
The entire audience now face-fellas she spoke about her monster as if he were real and her jealous lover or some such.
"Do your worst, Ami!" Miyako shot back. "That hanyou can't stop me."
Clicking her tongue in her cheek, the girl now known as Ami slapped a card onto her duel disk. In a flash of light her monster appeared, another young man, appearing to be about fifteen or sixteen, with very light tan skin and snow white hair, though more silky than Yoko Kurama's. He definitely appeared to be related to Sesshomaru, though the resemblance would be miss guessed at just a first glance. He was dressing in some sort of Japanese robes, colored red, with a katana sheathed at his waist. He also had two fuzzy white dog ears on top of his head.
"I summon InuYasha (1600/1600) in attack mode. And when summoned, he is automatically equipped with Tetsuaiga from my hand, deck or graveyard, giving him five hundred additional attack points and the ability to forfeit his attack to deal his attack as damage to all monsters on your field."
Grabbing the hilt of the sword at his waist, the man-dog drew his weapon, a curious golden light burning around the blade as it was pulled forth. To everyone's awe, the blade became massive as it passed through that spark of light, the end result being a curved blade that was at least eight inches wide at its narrowest point (except for the tip of course), and at least an inch thick. It had to weight at least eighty pounds, but very easily could have been as much as twice that weight.
"InuYasha himself is a half demon, and so his basic power isn't nearly as great as his big brother, who, like their father, is a taiyoukai, or Great Demon Lord. However, the sword his father left for him makes up the difference, because it gets stronger each time it kills an enemy. And, when it kills a powerful enemy, such as a taiyoukai, it can grow to a new level of power by cocky in the blood of the fallen foe."
"I know the history. I've been in the Academy Anime Club just as long as you have, remember?" Miyako huffed, sounding bored. Ami didn't even flinch.
"This ability is emulated here as well. When InuYasha destroys a monster that is level four or lower, Tetsuaiga gains a counter. He gains three counters when he destroys a level five or six monster, and when he destroys a level seven or higher monster, he automatically is set at the maximum of eight. For every counter on Tetsuaiga, he gains an additional one hundred attack points. However, when he has eight, I can sacrifice them to search my deck for any one of several magic cards."
"Fascinating an all, but you forget that you only have this turn before my Sinning Tree finishes you off, and you haven't even destroyed one monster with your puppy-boy." Miyako retorted.
"I know that." Ami grinned back, her attitude of absolute arrogance having instantly changed over to cocky and energetic, as she grabbed another card. "I play Taiyoukai Death, which instantly sets Tetsuaiga at eight counters!" As her magic card activated, a sparkling blue light began to spiral around the large blade that her monster held, her grin growing all the more emphatic. Taking her deck from her duel disk, she fanned it out and scanned the cards over, coming to decision on one towards the bottom, which she added to her hand before shuffling the remainder and returning them.
"I play the magic card, Diamond Tetsuaiga, which equips to the normal Tetsuaiga, giving it newfound powers!" As the magic card activated, the coils of light around the sword tightened around the sword until the natural resistance of the blade's matter came into effect, causing the light to explode, blinding everyone for a moment.
Once sight had returned to everyone in the arena, they ooh-ed and awe-ed at the sight of her monsters new sword. Instead of the thick white material it had originally been composed of, it was now a rigid, glistening blue diamond well-crafted into the exact shape and size of the previous blade.
"This card will first add an additional one thousand points to InuYasha's attack." Ami explained as her monster's power jumped from twenty-one hundred up to thirty-one hundred. "Next, InuYasha can attack all of your monsters at once, though that's kinda moot now, since you only have one monster. Not that it matters, since you're already barely holding in there." she grinned as she nodded at Miyako's life point reader, which displayed for all to see her score. (MLP:300)
In fright, Miyako took an involuntary step back, eyeing the behemoth that InuYasha had become. "You...you had him in your hand all along, didn't you? You've been holding back, haven't you?"
"You could look at it that way." Ami said nonchalantly. "I really did it because That Sesshomaru-senpai wouldn't have liked to fight along side his little brother. And I could never purposely do anything that might make That Sesshomaru-senpai be angry at me."
Again, the audience face-fell as she used the third person for her monster.
"InuYasha (3100/2100), attack with Kongo Souha!" she commanded. With a grunt, the red-robed dog-man swung his sword fully across his front, leaving dozens of massive shards of the same material as the blade in its wake, which flung themselves forward from the force of the swing. They zoomed a high speeds at Yoko Kurama, a wall of needles capable of turning him into a pincushion.
That, however, was something that Miyako refused to allow. Grinning ferally, a sudden change from her obvious feint at fear, she activated her set card.
"You should know better than to corner an animal like a fox, Ami. They have a tendency to show their teeth!" she shouted as her set card flipped up and a translucent screen appeared between her monster and the coming attack. "Mirror Force will protect Yoko Kurama and me, and destroy your monster."
Unable to stop, the wall of diamond shards crashed into the barrier...and broke through, leaving rough holes in the wall with hairline cracks all around them. As more and more spears broke through, the small cracks they left met each other and overlapped, causing the entire obstruction to shatter. Miyku watched in shock and confusion as her monster was pelted by the hail of crystal, an event that, if real, would have left a messy pile of blood, bone, and interns on the ground, though in this case it simply caused Yoko Kurama to shatter.
"Kongo Souha is probably Tetsuaiga's second most deadly attack, and it pops even the most deadly barriers like a soap bubble. When you chain to his attack in this state, he negates and destroys the card." Ami explained. "However, the life point damage dealt is reduced by half." (MLP:0)
Walking over to her fallen foe after the holograms had faded, Ami stood over Miyako haughtily. "Now, say it."
"Fine. You're the official president of the Academy Anime Club." Miyako snorted, suddenly sounding not to care.
"And..." Ami prodded. Miyako responded by looking up at her with fear and denial evident on her face. However, she didn't say anything, causing Ami to prod again, this time more forcefully. "And..."
Clenching her teeth in pain, Miyako suddenly shouted at the top of her lungs "InuYasha and Sesshomaru-sempai are the ultimate bishounens!"
The entirety of the audience promptly face-fell for the third time.
Tears in her eyes, Miyako fled from the arena, hands over her face. Smuggly, Ami shouted after her "Damn straight they are!"
Any member in the audience who had managed to get back into their seat quickly enough quickly fell to the ground again.
"Well, that was fun." Pegasus chimed over the loud speaker as Ami stepped off of the arena. "Although I always liked Kenshin more." This comment was instantly met with a heart-stopping glare from Ami, who had snapped her head around at the comment, glaring straight up at the executive box.
Coughing nervously, startled by the deadly look, Pegasus looked back out into the arena as a whole, mostly just to avoid making eye contact with Ami until she turned away and stalked off. "Anyway, next up is one of the last duels that will be performed for the purpose of advancing one of the combatants dorm, Ra Yellow to Obelisk Blue in this case. Simon Reddington and Tokimi Mikamoto to the arena, please."
As one the two combatants left their benches on the front row and entered the arena. Both were dressed in Ra Yellow uniforms, but that's where the comparisons ended. The young man, obviously Simon, had sandy brown hair, while the young girl, Tokimi, had long, dark green hair that hung straight down and then flared out at the bottom end. Simon wore thick glasses over his dark blue eyes, and Tokimi had dark brown eyes and no glasses. Simon was a few inches short of six feet, and Tokimi had to be at least six inches shorter than he was.
Once they both stood in the squares on the floor marking their positions, they activated their duel disks and both pulled five cards free, and Simon then grabbed a sixth. Looking his cards over, he was startled when Tokimi spoke. (TLP:4000)(SLP:4000)
"Before you try anything, I have a card to play." she called out. Simon was about to voice his objection and the obvious violation of the rules, but she cut him off. "You're a senior here and you've never heard of a card activating from the deck? Well, here it is for you. It's call Cast Into the Abyss and it activates the instant the duel starts. Both players may select up to fifteen cards in their deck and remove them from play. For every three cards removed that player may draw one card." she explained as the magic card was ejected from her deck and she slipped it into a magic zone. Then she pulled out her deck and fanned it out, quickly finding the cards she wanted. Then, as an afterthought she added "Any card that activates an effect from out of play may not be chosen."
Immediately after Tokimi had explained the card, Kazuki's head began to spin, realizing the potential to such a move. 'In a standard forty card deck, a player will start out with thirty-five cards in their deck after drawing this opening hand of five cards. Then down to thirty-four after activating Cast Into the Abyss. If they remove the full fifteen cards, then they drop their hand down to nineteen cards, and then down to fourteen after drawing five cards from Cast Into the Abyss's second effect. Finally, after drawing their first card for their turn, they would have shaved their deck down to barely over one quarter of its full size! Amazing!'
Fanning out nine cards with their backs facing Simon, Tokimi tucked them into her back pocket. Once that was out of the way she pulled three cards off of the top of her deck, giving her eight in hand, and she hadn't even taken her first turn yet. Eyeing him impatiently she finally asked "Are you going to remove any cards?"
"Oh!" Simon started at her sudden question. "Um...no, no I'm not." he answered, looking back down at his six cards. "Can I continue, please?" Sighing loudly, she nodded. Suddenly, to everyone's surprise, Simon's personality seemed to do a one-eighty as he suddenly stood up straight and raised the level of his voice as he chose a card. "I summon Virtue Hero-Reverence (1100/900) in attack mode!"
A figure appeared on his field dressed in green clothing that seemed to be some sort of light armor, both protective and allowing for freedom of movement. The head was covered by a similarly colored helmet with a white mask covering the entire face, except for two small holes for eyes, which allowed for emerald light to show through for eyes. Also strapped to his back was a long curved sword, shaped like a katana but with a much larger blade, and so the base of it was dulled with a second grip, making it a two-handed weapon.
"While this monster is in play, all Virtue Heroes gain two hundred attack points, including himself." Simon explained as the green eyes flashed brightly for a second as the mans attack points rose to thirteen hundred. "I also set one card face down and end my turn."
From his seat, Eizan sighed heavily, his annoyance obvious, earning him curious glances from all the other teachers. Once they saw who it was, many of the older teachers understood and turned back to the duel, but Katsu stilled seemed oblivious, and so he asked "What is it?"
His head still hanging slightly, Eizan explained, his tone very somber. "In all my years as a teacher, I have never been more frustrated than I am with Simon Reddington. He's from a Eurpean family of old money, so he's never had to strive for anything in his life. When he got to the academy, he was admitted into Ra Yellow, and so began a downward spiral for him. Dayu became a sort of in-direct mentor for him. He never drew out Simon's full potential, and so now Simon struggles greatly. You may recall how I told Dayu that he was no teacher because he lets his students pass without any real work on anyone's part. And now, because of that, Simon is still only a middle-ranked Ra Yellow, even though he'll be graduating at the end of the year."
Back in the arena, Tokimi had just drawn from her now much smaller deck, increasing her hand size to nine, nearly twice the normal starting size. Looking the cards over, a mischievous glint in her eyes, she grabbed one up and slapped it down into a monster zone. What appeared was a a long, sleek machine, obviously a flying ship of some sort from a science fiction movie. "This is Victory Viper XX04 (1500/1000). And I'm going to use it to play my magic card, Gradius Missile, allowing me to skip the attack of a Gradius or Victory Viper to instantly destroy one monster on your field."
The tip of the flying device opened up, revealing a missile launcher. With a puff of smoke, the missile discharged, soaring through the air and crashing into the green-armored hero, resulting in a small explosion.
"Also, Gradius Missile allows me to activate my monster's ability as if it had destroyed your card in battle. When that happens I get to choose one of three effects and activate it. I'm choosing to create a Victory Viper XX04 Option Token (1500/1000), which inherits all of the stats of my monster."
Next to her monster appeared a red cylinder, rather small compared to the fighter jet. However, that would soon change, as the cylinder shifted around and expanded, finally turning into an exact copy of the monster she'd summoned earlier.
Now down to six cards, the normal number a duelist would have on their first turn, Tokimi didn't seem at all interested in slowing down as she grabbed another card from her hand and slipped it into a magic zone. Mysteriously, her Victory Viper XX04 vanished, as did the copy of it. What appeared in their places were two new fighters, though their armor wasn't as thick or as detailed, and the one on her right didn't have as many weapons, though the one to her left had at least twice as many.
"The magic card, Victory Viper Downgrade, sacrifices a Victory Viper on my field and allows me to summon two new Victory Vipers of a lower rank from my hand. Since I sacrificed an XX04, I got an XX03 (1200/1000) and an XX01 (1800/600)." she explained, showing her hand which now consisted of just three cards now. "Also, you're probably wondering where my Option Token went. Well, when the Victory Viper or Gradius used to create an Option Token leaves the field, the token is destroyed. However, with my Downgrade card, any Option Tokens lost in the sacrifice have half of their attack points added to my life points." (TLP:4750)
Gabbing another card from her hand, she slipped it into a magic zone and an enlarged image of the magic card appeared on her field. Everyone watching quickly noticed the infinity symbol in the upper right corner, meaning it was a continuous magic card. "Victory Viper Attack Formation increases the attack points of all my Victory Viper, Gradius, and Option Tokens by two hundred for each one in play." she smiled wickedly as both of her monsters rose by four hundred points. "And guess what, I get to attack now. Victory Viper XX03 (1600), Victory Viper XX01 (2200), attack his life points directly!"
Rotating their laser canons to focus on Simon, both ships began to charge their attacks. If they connected, Simon would be down to a mere two hundred life points, and it was only Tokimi's first turn!
At the same time, both ships let loose their attacks, striking Simon head on. Doubling over in pain, Simon clutched his chest, grimacing. Taking a minute to breathe deeply through clenched teeth, he let his lips tug up into a bit of a grin. "Activate...face down card...Nutrient Z!"
Surprised by this, Tokimi watched as the trap card resolved. She, and just about anyone else in the room understood the power of the trap card, increasing his life points by four thousand before damage was dealt because the attack of his Victory Viper XX01 had been over two thousand. (SLP:4200)
"You gained a net total of two hundred points. Nice." Tokimi noted as she looked at her two remaining cards in hand. "I play the magic card, Optional Wingmen!" After the magic card had clicked into place in the duel disk, many of the spectators, Kazuki included, were surprised to see two new copies of her monsters appear on the field. "This card is useful when I need some Option Tokens, but you don't have any monsters to destroy. Each Victory Viper that dealt life point damage to you but did not destroy a monster this turn gets an Option Token as if it had destroyed a monster!"
"And since she has two new Options on the field, as well as Victory Viper Attack Formation..." Kazuki muttered under his breath, trailing off when the holographic displays of her monsters stats came up, showing that each one had gained four hundred more attack points.
"I think that's enough damage for one turn." Tokimi laughed light-heartedly, fanning herself with her one card in her hand. "I'll be in Obelisk Blue in no time."
"Not if I can help it!" Simon called back, drawing a card forcefully. Rising to his full height, he sucked in a much air as he could through his nose, then slowly exhaled through his mouth, looking somewhat more relaxed as he did so. "Time for a quick restart, so I play Reload to shuffle my other four cards into my hand and then draw four new ones." Shuffling the cards into his deck, he pulled the new hand of cards free, glancing continuously from those he now held, up to Tokimi's field, then Tokimi herself, then his cards, then his deck, then Tokimi's field again, then at the cards in his hand...
"Stop fooling around and just make a play!" someone in the audience suddenly shouted. Simon, who had been busy looking around and so he was easily started, jumping into the air and letting loose a squeaky "yelp!" However, rather than speeding him along, it simply evoked a howl of laughter from the audience as a whole, causing Simon to cast his gaze down to the ground in frustration.
"I'll show you!" he suddenly shouted, surprising even himself, bringing an abrupt halt to the laughter as he snapped his head up, grabbing a card in the same motion. "I set three cards face down," he did so, a large image for each card appearing in front of him. "And then I summon a monster in defense mode and end!"
"Draw!" Tokimi called even before Simon was finished saying "end". "Alright glasses boy, I'm playing the magic card, Life-Slashing Treasure to draw until I hold five cards." she called, drawing four more cards from her already thin deck. "I summon Gradius (1200/800) in attack mode!"
The monster she summoned was perhaps the most simplistic of those she had played thus far, it's body smooth and shining, meaning it had very thin plating. The forward part of it was split down the middle as well, a few gun turrets visible in the space between the two halves.
"Next is Gradius Manufacturing, allowing me to sacrifice monsters on my field to summon that number of Gradiai from my hand or deck. So I sacrifice both of my Option Tokens to summon the other two Gradiai." The moment she finished speaking, her deck spat out the two cards she needed, which she placed onto her duel disk on either side of the first one. Snatching another card from her hand, she rammed it into another magic slot and another permanent magic card image appeared. "This is Gradius Limitless Options, which I'd explain, but I prefer to give a demonstration of how it works instead."
Fiddling with one of her remaining two cards, she finally snapped it around, displaying the image for Simon to see. The picture on the magic card was split into three pieces, one showing a Gradius and then a form of light above it in roughly the same shape as the jet. The second image was of a two-barrel cannon strapped to the bottom of some platform. The final image was of what looked like a solar panel.
"Gradius Power-Up is one of my more devious cards in my deck strategy. It allows me to summon one Gradius Option monster from my hand, deck or out of play for every Gradius I have in play. Gradius Option are just like Option Tokens, only they're actual cards. Also, I am allowed to equip each Gradius with a Solar Leveler and a Cyclone Laser, also both from anywhere that they might reside." she explained, pausing for dramatic effect, a truly wicked, yet very playful grin on her face.
Simon continued to look at her quizzically, not sure what she was getting at. Kazuki, on the other hand realized what she was implying, and his eyes grew wide with shock. It was all coming together very suddenly!
When Simon did not respond in any way to Tokimi's words, she sighed and reached behind her back, returning it with the nine cards she had removed at the very beginning. Turning them around and fanning them out, Simon gulped when he saw that, arranged into groups, there were three identical magic cards, then three identical effect monsters, and then another three identical magic cards.
No one said a word while Tokimi slipped the cards into her duel disk, all six of them...
"That's cheating!" someone suddenly shouted from the stands. "That would mean that she has eight magic cards and eight monsters on the field, when the maximum is five each!" With the tension broken, other members of the audience began to murmur their words of protest, agreeing with what had been said. Eventually, Pegasus himself stood up and lifted his arms, calling for quiet.
"Allow me to explain." he coyly smiled. "Because of Tokimi's card combination she has made a completely legal move. Her magic card, Gradius Limitless Options, makes it so that Option Tokens and Gradius Option monsters do not take up monster zones." This explanation was met with a variation of responses, but for the most part the people seemed to accept this, though he still hadn't explained the magic cards. "Also, Gradius Power-Up states that the equipment cards she plays with its effect do not take up magic or trap zones. As such, she still has three empty magic slots, though her monster zones are indeed full."
"Thanks, Mr. Pegasus." Tokimi smiled brightly.
"My pleasure." he responded as he returned to his seat.
"You didn't have much of a life when you were a kid, did you?" Kaiba more so demanded than asked as Pegasus crossed his right leg over his left and relaxed.
"Oh, what makes you say that, Kaiba-boy?"
"Video game based cards?" Kaiba questioned. "You must have played that game through most of your childhood to still remember enough about it later on to make the cards."
"Oh Kaiba, you silly little boy. I didn't play Gradius until I had already begun putting Duel Monsters into circulation. It's actually a very riveting story. Want to hear it?"
"No."
Pegasus, however, didn't seem to hear Kaiba, or he had just asked so as to be courteous, since he promptly started into a monologue. "I had decided to take a break from making the cards, a vacation from work, if you would, but the weather at my island was so horrendous that I simply couldn't partake in my usual activities, which included sunbathing while reading Funny Bunny, or watching Funny Bunny on tape (The DVD hadn't been released yet, but I did make a note to order my companies legal division to look into acquiring production rights for such a task the day I got back to work)."
"I couldn't bare to do anything related to my furry friend while it was storming outside; it just didn't feel right. For Funny Bunny, it needs to be sunny and quiet outside, a reason why I normally read it at the island, where there are fewer distractions."
"Either get to the point or shut up." Kaiba threatened.
"You have no taste in art, did you know that Kaiba-boy?" Pegasus commented, raising his eyebrows with a bemused look. "Anyway, I do digress. In my dispair I decided to try and come up with some new game ideas, whether for Duel Monsters, or maybe some new games. But no matter how hard I tried to focus, the harsh sounds of the wind or the clap of thunder or dancing of the rain continued to interfere with my thoughts. So, I decided to sit down and play some video games, and the first one I picked up with called Gradius. It was a simple game, just the task of flying through space in a two-dimensional world, blasting as many enemies as you could. And that is just what I needed. A simple task, but one that would engage my mind in some creative capacity, to give me the kick-start I needed."
"As a tribute to the miracle that enabled me to continue with Duel Monsters, the game that had been a ray of hope when I was in the depths of writers block, which had pulled me from the deep of unhappiness, I created a special set of cards just for it."
As Pegasus wrapped up his story, Kaiba shifted his eyes over to the side, a smug smile on his face. "You're a very sad man, you know that?"
Back in the arena, Tokimi was explaining her new cards now that the audience had been pacified. "Cyclone Laser powers up my Gradiai by three hundred points and trample, while Solar Leveler is a bit more interesting. When the Gradius equipped with Solar Leveler attacks a defense mode monster, its attack points are set to one hundred more than the defense of the target monster. Nothing amazing, yet very useful all the same. Finally, anything I do to enhance the power of my Gradiai will also be done to my Gradius Options."
Eyes wide, the crowd watched as the attack points of her monsters rose, not to mention the fact that she now had her own small fleet of eight monsters, powered up by various equip cards, plus her Gradius Attack Formation.
"Gradius (3100/800), attack his defense mode monster!" Seconds after the command was issued the twin lasers mounted to the bottom of one of the Gradiai swivelled around for a moment, locking onto Simon's defending monster. In a burst of light it fired two blue lasers, incinerating the card and then firing a second small blast at Simon himself, though because of Solar Leveler it wasn't too much. (SLP:4100)
"Activate trap card, Virtue Signal!" he shouted above the roar of her monsters engines and the ringing of the explosion. "Like any other Hero set, this card allows me to special summon a Hero pertaining to this set from my deck. However, unlike other Signal trap cards, Virtue Signal allows me to special summon any level five or lower V-Hero, whereas others would limit me to a level four or lower."
From his deck popped a card, which he snatched up and slapped down onto his duel disk. What appeared was a figure in gray and black armor, light in design much like the previous monster, but with a decorative leather mantle draping over both the front and back. In his hands he held a short-handled scythe with a chain reaching out of the handle and a heavy weight with prongs on the other end, which he held in the other.
"Virtue Hero-Loyalty (2200/2200)!"
"There's no way he can stand up to me!" Tokimi shouted back.
"You don't quite understand." Simon called. "Virtue Hero-Loyalty gains three hundred attack points for every V-Hero in play, as well as one hundred for every V-Hero in my graveyard."
"Twenty-seven hundred doesn't even hold a candle to my Gradiai or Gradius Options and their thirty-one hundred points, let alone my other, stronger Vipers." Tokimi smiled, though she did shift her eyes over to Simon's set cards, an expectant look in her eyes.
Just as expected, another of Simon's set cards revealed itself, this one a quick-play magic card. "I play Reward of Valor, which activates when one of my monsters gains attack points, and allows me to draw three cards." Quickly he did so, drawing three cards. Finally, his third set card revealed itself. "Hero's Rule 3 Five Fighters allows us both to special summon as many level four or lower monsters from our hands as we can. Your field is full, so you can't, but I can." he explained, slapping all three of his new cards down.
First of his new monsters was a man in light blue armor and wielding a trident. "Virtue Hero-Faith (1400/1900)!" Next was a man in light brown armor with a single sword at his waist. "Virtue Hero-Obedience (1500/1700)!" Finally, a man in dark blue armor with a bow made of gold appeared. "Virtue Hero-Wisdom (1600/1300)!"
"Now their effects kick in. Faith powers up all V-Heroes by four hundred points, and Wisdom does the same, only three hundred. Then Obedience gains another three hundred for every V-Hero in play, plus I now have three more to add power to Loyalty!" he explained as a variety of bright auras appeared around his monsters, intermingling and increasing their various attack scores by varying amounts.
"You've got spunk kid. I end." Tokimi smiled as she put her last card face down, much to everyone's shock. Instantly they broke out into a flurry of questions, everyone wanting to know why she had let him off the hook, despite the fact that she could have mowed him down right there and then.
"My turn?" Simon asked. Then, after a moment he considered everything else she'd said. "KID!" Huffing, he drew a card. "I don't need your pity. I can fight just fine on my own."
"That's not why I forewent my attack. I was impressed by how well you assembled that army, and I want to see how you use it. It wouldn't be any fun otherwise." Tokimi smiled, adding in a wink at him, catching Simon off guard.
"Whatever." he shot back, finally looking at his new card and beginning to smile. "Tokimi, would you like to know why I use Virtue Heroes? Let me tell you. When I was a kid, I was always fascinated by any story about any kind of hero. Comic books, fairy tales, cartoons, and anything else. Now, most kids my age liked the same stuff because they enjoyed the action. But for me...for me it was the mythology of the Hero that I loved. The ideal of the chivalrous knight or the honorable samurai. The determined champion fighting for his pride. That is what I love about heroes, and that is why I have counted myself amongst their ranks." As he explained, Simon found himself straightening up his body, his face becoming more determined and his mind clearer. All around him people in the crowd looked at him with looks of bewilderment and marvel at his declaration. Tokimi simply smiled.
"Cool story. I like your style, kid." she applauded.
"I'm no kid. In fact, I'm way ahead of you, first year. Go, Heroic Virtue-Charity! This allows me to draw one card for every V-Hero I have in play, so that's four!" he called, again replenishing his hand. "I play Need for a Hero which allows me to special summon any Hero card from my hand or deck in exchange for five hundred life points!" (SLP:3600)
With a beep, Simon's duel disk released a card from his deck, which he promptly placed into his final monster zone. The new monster was dressed in black armor and carried a staff which had a curved blade at one end and a bulb with three curved prongs on the other. "Virtue Hero-Justice (2500/1900)! And he's one of my favorites. First he powers up all Virtue Heroes I have by one hundred times their level. That's justice, after all, giving everyone strength depending on their seniority."
As he finished explaining tendrils of light extended out of the body of the new hero and into the other four, increasing the attack power of each one. Since it was a level seven, it gained seven hundred life points, while Loyalty gained five hundred and the others all grew by four hundred. Loyalty and Obedience then grew again by a further three hundred, since there was now another V-Hero in play.
"Nice!" Tokimi squealed as she looked at the now super-charged army of heroes which could now easily match her space ships. Yet, despite the situation, she seemed more thrilled than anything else.
"That's the way they are. They get stronger from having each other on the field, like any real team of virtuous heroes should." Simon declared, his tone reflecting the pride he had in his monsters. "Virtue Hero-Loyalty (5100), attack Victory Viper XX01 (3400)!"
Swinging the pronged end of his chain around rapidly, the gray armored hero built up speed before smashing said end into the ground, the chain seeming to extend infinitely. Seconds later there was a small rumbling in the ground, and then dozens of sprang out of the ground, flying in all directions around the target monster, effectively binding it in place, many of them doing damage as they punctured through its armor. Then, with a quick leap into the air the mantle-bearing hero raised his scythe and slashed down, splitting the star ship in half. (TLP:3050) Also, with its destruction, Tokimi had one less of her monsters on the field, so her Attack Formation card caused all of her monsters to lose attack points, though it was a nominal amount.
"Virtue Hero-Justice (3900), attack a Gradius Option (2900)!" Raising his staff over his head, the dark armored warrior released a battle cry that sounded like "For Great Justice" before slashing down, drawing scattered snickers from many students in the crowd, even as the carbon copy fighter was destroyed, again decreasing the attack points of the remaining monsters on Tokimi's field, as well as her life points. (TLP:2050)
"Obedience (4100), is next, and he's going to really lay it down, because not only does he get pumped up for every V-Hero in play, but I can also skip the attack of a V-Hero on my field to let him attack again. So he's going to attack three times now, first for himself and then again for Faith (2500) and Wisdom (2700)!" Unsheathing his sword, the intimidating form of the Virtue Hero closed in on Tokimi. With three lighting fast slashes, he cleaved the remaining two Gradius Options and the Victory Viper XX03 in half.
However, to Simon's surprise, the pieces of the three monsters instantly began to pull back together, appearing to have never been destroyed in the first place. Not only that, but Tokimi's life points hadn't changed!
"Before you can ask," Tokimi cut a stunned Simon off. He responded by pushing up his glasses, the weight of them having begun to pull them down the bridge of his nose in all of his excitement. "I activate my set card?-Gradius Shield. It comes into play with three counters on it, and I may sacrifice a counter to prevent the destruction and reduce battle damage to my Gradius, Options and Victory Vipers to zero."
"She could have used that card earlier on," Kazuki said allowed, though no one seemed to hear him. "But she let him destroy her monsters and lower her life points. Then again, he wasn't exactly thinking it through. If he had he'd have known to target her Gradiai first, since when they're destroyed it would destroy the Gradius Options, decreasing each of her monsters attack points by four hundred each battle instead of two hundred."
This sentiment was reinforced as Tokimi explained it to Simon, who looked absolutely furious with himself as he realized his mistake.
Over in the teachers seats, Kita leaned forward and asked Eizan "Why is she going easy on him?"
"Because she realizes that he isn't fighting at his best. However, she'll be disappointed when she realizes that Simon doesn't know how to fight at his best. He's managed to float through each year because Dayu made it so, pairing him against significantly weaker opponents."
"Also," Katsu decided to add. "She was impressed by the way Simon responded to being cornered the way he was. She let him force her into the same corner. Now she's going to show her power."
Back in the arena, Tokimi was waiting as Simon looked his remaining three cards over. Setting all three of them of them, he ended his turn, an abashed look on his face. Tokimi responded by drawing swiftly.
"First, my ?-Gradius Shield receives one counter for every two Gradius, Option, or Victory Viper I have in play. I have six, so that's three new counters." she commented as her continuous trap card's holographic image began to glow vibrantly. Holding up her single card in hand, she turned it around, revealing a green border. "Gradius Laser powers up all of my Gradius-related monsters on the field by five hundred, and even though it's only a normal magic card, the power boost will remain as long as these monsters do." Instantly a pair of thin barreled guns appeared on each of her monsters fronts.
"Now that evens things up a bit. Gradius Option (3200) will attack Virtue Hero-Faith (2500)!" Even before the command was completely issued, the new guns on the monster charged up and fired, combined with the two beams from the laser gun mounted on the bottom of the fighter. The light blue hero tried to use his trident as a barrier, but was still easily overwhelmed by the blast. (SLP:3400) Now, without Faith on the field, all of the remaining V-Heroes also lost four hundred attack points each.
"Now my second Gradius Option (3200) will attack Virtue Hero-Wisdom (2400)!" Another blast of four lasers was released, incinerating the dark blue hero. At the same time, it dropped the attack points of the remaining Heroes by three hundred since Wisdom was no gone, taking his power boost with him. (SLP:2600)
"Next the Gradius (3200) whose Option you destroyed last turn will attack your Virtue Hero-Justice (3200), destroying them both!" This time, rather than firing an energy attack, the space jet burned to life, shooting across the field and ramming into the black hero, but at the same time being impaled by his bladed staff. In an bright explosion, both monsters vanished from sight.
Since both monsters were now gone, Tokimi's remaining monsters now lost two hundred points, while Simon's two remaining monsters lost a number of points, dependent upon their levels. Not only that, but now that three V-Heroes were gone, both Obedience and Loyalty had lost a total nine hundred points each from their own effects, though Loyalty did still get three hundred more from the new Heroes in the graveyard.
"I'm going to activate my Heroic Virtue-Sacrifice!" he called as his trap card flipped up, revealing the image of a man in some sort of costume or uniform with a cape stood in front of a similarly dressed man, arms outstretched to the sides as a sword was brought down on his shoulder. "During this turn I get to draw two cards for each V-Hero destroyed in battle. That's three so far, so I get six cards!" he said as he drew the new cards.
"Fun stuff. You hold in there, and I like that." Tokimi encouraged. "However, let's see if your life points can keep up. I order a Gradius (2900) to attack Virtue Hero-Obedience (2100)!" Firing a set of four lasers, the star jet easily overpowered the now weakened hero, destroying him and taking another large chunk out of Simon's life points. (SLP:1600) Not only that, but now without another V-Hero in play, Loyalty lost three hundred more attack points, though he then promptly gained one hundred because another V-Hero had entered the graveyard, setting him at an even three thousand.
"Oh..." Tokimi suddenly squealed. "I must have miscounted. I forgot that your Virtue Hero-Loyalty gains one hundred points for every V-Hero in your graveyard." she nervously laughed while rubbing the back of her head. The audience face fell again for the first time since the duel between Ami and Miyako. "I guess that means I can't destroy him this turn, huh? Well, I'll switch all of my monsters to defense mode and that'll end my turn, since I don't have any cards left in my hand."
"Before you end," Simon called, pointing to his set card on his left. "I activate Heroic Virtue-Chivalry, which returns all V-Hero monsters destroyed this turn back to the field during the end phase!" As he spoke, the four destroyed monsters returned to his field, and again their attack points sky rocketed.
Drawing a card, giving him seven to Tokimi's zero, he smiled with a cocky grin. "I set three cards face down," he began, giving him four set cards on the field to back up his super-charged army. "Next I'll have Obedience (4100) attack three times, once for himself and again for Wisdom (2700) and Faith(2500) in order to destroy your Gradiai, and thereby your Options, as well as Victory Viper XX03!" he shouted as the brown armored fighter drew his sword and charged in. Slashing swiftly, he was startled when barriers appeared to intercept all three of his attacks!
"You forgot about ?-Gradius Shield having three counters on it, so I used it to block all three of my monsters." Tokimi explained, and Simon again looked taken aback, obviously having indeed forgotten about the trap card.
"Well, I can still have Loyalty (5100) and Justice (3900) take out your Gradiai!" he shouted as the scythe and staff both cut through their intended targets. Folding his four cards back up, Simon ended his turn. Tokimi drew.
"I play Card of Sanctity, so we both draw until we hold six cards." she called, activating the card instantly. Simon drew two cards, ands he drew six.
Looking her new cards over, Tokimi seemed to be thinking something through. After a minute her face split wide with a grin, and she grabbed at one of her cards. "It's been a fun duel Simon." she said, fiddling with the cards. "But it's gotta end. I'm only sad that you didn't try harder so that it could last longer."
"What are you talking about?" Simon demanded. "I've been trying my hardest, and it's because of that and the power of my Virtue Heroes that I now control the field."
"You only think that you do." Tokimi smiled back, taking her card and setting it into a magic zone. "!-Gradius Mega Crush activates if I have a Gradius or Victory Viper in play, which I do, and it then destroys all of your monsters or all of your magic and trap cards on the field. I'm going to destroy all of your set cards."
Soaring into the air, her Victory Viper XX03 was engulfed in light. Pulling back, it did what could be considered a back flip for a jet, leaving a trail of light in its wake. Then it surged toward Simon's field, shooting past his monsters and smashing into his set cards. The resulting explosion shook the entire arena, and when the dust had cleared, all four of Simon's set cards were gone, and Tokimi's ship had returned to its place at her side.
"Next I play Gradius Extra Man to special summon a Gradius card from my graveyard, so I revive Victory Viper XX01 (1800+400/600)!" she called, the detailed star fighter appeared on her field, guns at the ready. "I'll follow that play up with my Gradius Konomi Code, which needs a Victory Viper or Gradius in play to activate, and it allows me to pay fifteen hundred life points to take three cards from a list that includes Victory Viper Attack Formation, Gradius Missile, and a few others, from my deck or graveyard and add them to my hand. I'm choosing three cards from my deck." she explained as he life points dropped and she fanned her deck out, which now had only about seven cards in it. Grabbing the three cards she wanted, she shuffled the remainder up and returned them.
"All three cards are known as Power Capsule, which can only be activated if I have a Victory Viper XX03 in play. I have one in play, but it wouldn't matter, since all of my Victory Vipers are treated as being an XX03. Anyway, it allows me to activate one of its effects, and I'll use all three to generate three Option Tokens of my XX01 (1800+1000/600)!" she called as she played all three of the searched cards and three new copies of the larger, stronger star ship appeared.
Taking another card from her remaining three, she played it and the most familiar magic card appeared, the grinning green pot. "Pot of Greed to draw two cards." Doing so, she now held four cards. "Next is Renewal of the Triplets to special summon all three of my Gradiai back to the field from the graveyard." All three lightweight ships appeared, further increasing the power of her army, and for the first time since Tokimi made her declaration, Simon looked worried.
"And now it's time for the mother ship!" Tokimi called, holding one of her cards out from the others. Then, with the same hand she picked up her Victory Viper XX03, XX01, and three Gradiai and placed all five into the graveyard. "I summon Gradius-Ultimate Victory Viper (?)!"
The newest ship was, to say the least, an intimidating piece of machinery. It hovered in the air above Tokimi, it's shadow eclipsing three quarters of the entire arena. Its armor was obviously thick, shimmering in the light. There were various decorative aspects of it in the way it was designed as well. Finally, the armaments...it had at least sixty laser barrels all around it!
"This monster's attack and defense points are equal to the number of Gradiai and Victory Vipers sacrificed to summon it times seven hundred, so it now inherits thirty-five hundred attack points, plus eight hundred more from Victory Viper Attack Formation!" To say the least, Simon gulped.
"But the Option Tokens should have been destroyed when the Vipers were sacrificed..." Kazuki mumbled to himself. Then realization struck him. "Unless when summoned, all Option Tokens on the field change and become copies of Gradius-Ultimate Victory Viper!"
Startling even himself when he said this so loud, Kazuki clamped his hands over his mouth embarrassed, his eyes shifting around as people began to look at him. Tokimi, however, smiled up at him and nodded.
"He's right." she said, redirecting herself at Simon. "All three tokens are now changed from Victory Viper XX01 Options to Ultimate Victory Viper Options." she explained as the three tokens began to shift around and their shapes finally came to a halt, perfectly mimicing the behemoth of a ship she now had, only much smaller versions. "And Gradius-Ultimate Victory Viper has one more effect. When summoned, I get to activate his effects a number of times equal to the number of times the cards sacrificed to summon it did. Since I used three Power Capsule's, that counts as three times. As such, I create three more Ultimate Victory Viper Options! However, it's still not enough. I want a full fleet of monsters, and so I play Gradius Recycling, which lets me remove any monsters from my graveyard with 'Gradius' or 'Victory Viper' in their name and create an Option Token on my field of a Gradius or Victory Viper currently in play!" she shouted, placing her hand against her graveyard, which began to shoot cards out into her hand.
Holding up all the cards, she fanned them out for all to see. "Three Gradiai, three Gradius Option's, Victory Viper XX01, Victory Viper XX03, and Victory Viper XX04!" she named as she shoved the cards into her back pocket and nine smaller versions of the massive monster above her appeared all around it. All told, it meant that Tokimi now had sixteen monsters on the field, each with a base attack of thirty-five hundred, plus another thirty-four hundred from Victory Viper Attack Formation!
"This, Simon, is what I meant when I said trying your best!" Tokimi shouted as Simon looked up at her monsters, his body seemingly paralyzed. Taking one of her two remaing cards, Tokimi activated it. "And now, the final touch! United We Stand! It powers up the equipped monster by eight hundred for every monster I control, and I'm equipping it to Gradius-Ultimage Victory Viper! And don't forget that anything I do to him get's added to all of his Option Tokens!"
Ludicrous was the only way to describe the seen. Tokimi now controlled a massive fleet of sixteen monsters, each with an absurd attack power of nineteen thousand and seven hundred attack points! Brought together, it would equate to more than three hundred thousand attack points!
"Gradius-Ultimage Victory Viper (19700), attack Virtue Hero-Justice!" Simon didn't move at all, completely frozen in place as the juggernaut of a monster charged it's weapons...
And then vanished.
Blinking in surprise, Tokimi remained in place, arm extended and pointing at Simon. Both field were suddenly clear, and Simon was still standing, petrified.
"Um...what happened?" she finally asked, eyes still blinking wide in confusion.
"So sorry, truly I am." Pegasus said, rising to his feet. "However, I'm afraid that such an attack with the holograms could be both fatal to Simon, as well as everyone else here. Not only that, but it would probably short circuit the power."
"So...did I win?" Tokimi asked.
"Of course. I'd say that was rather undeniable. Crangradualtions and entering Obelisk Blue." Pegasus smiled down.
Simon still did not move.
Seeing this, Pegasus motioned over his shoulder and his assistant pulled out a cell phone and barked some orders. A few minutes later some men in white coats and a stretcher came in, picking Simon's catatonic body up, placing him on the stretcher, and wheeling him away.
As they carted Simon off, one of them spoke into his own phone for a moment. Pegasus's assistant, know by the name of Croquette, closed up his phone and approached his employer, whispering something in his ear. Pegasus responded by breaking out into hysterical laughter while the audience at large looked at him, confused and horrified that he could laugh in such a situation.
After a few minutes he regained him composure and explained, "I'm sorry, we'll need to wait a few minutes. It seems Sir Reddington had a bit of an 'accident' and we can't continue until the arena has been sanitized." he explained, earning a wide spectrum of looks from people, including disgust, horror, amusement, confusion, and many more.
Tokimi, however, simply remained in the arena, oblivious of everything else as she danced around chanting "Obelisk Blue! Obelisk Blue!"
XXXXXXXXX
Ten minutes later the arena was clean, Tokimi had returned to her seat (though she was still quietly singing to herself), and it was time for the next match. Rising to his feet, Pegasus spread his arms out wide and smiled widely.
"My children, it has been an amazing day. However, it will soon be coming to a close. Only two more duels remain. Sadly, we've come across an unexpected problem. The duel that was set to go next had one of its competitors fall ill today. Without him, it we miss out. As such, I have spoken with your principle, and we have come up with a solution. One student will be chosen at random to face off in the next duel. If they succeed, then they will be handsomely rewarded by I2!"
With this explanation, Pegasus had ensured that a maximum level of tension had been set. Just about every student in the audience now locked their gaze on the large screens above the arena used to project enlarged images of the field to people in the stands. Now it was being used to show a montage of student profiles that zipped by at lightning speed. Everyone wanted the chance to duel and be indebted to by Industrial Illusions...
Finally, the images on the screen began to slow down, though for a while they were still going by too fast for anyone to distinguish anything. At this time, Pegasus chose to speak again; "Katsuya Seikai from Obelisk Blue, your opponent will be..." The images finally stopped.
Eyes narrowing, Eizan and Katsu glared at the screen and the image it displayed, though Eizan's was softened by the bemused grin he had on his face.
From his seat, Kazuki stared, eyes wide. He couldn't believe it.
"Katsuya, your opponent will be Kazuki Katsura from Osiris Red!"
To Be Continued...
HOLY MONKEYS OF DOOM AND PERIL! That's a lot of attack points!
Wow...I don't know what I could say to follow that duel up. I mean, seriously! That was NOT my original plan! But as I was getting to the final move, I realized just how doable it was, and so I decided to go for the uber-kill.
To fans of Hero decks, I apologize. However, that Gradius deck is just so combo-crazy that it was a struggle just to keep Simon alive as long as I did. Besides, the Gradius deck kicks ass, that it does, and Simon went out with a bang.
Anyway, the V-Heroes are my own creation, as are the Heroic Virtue cards and Heroes Rule 3 Five Fighters. It was a deck I was already toying with making, and when Gearfried the Iron Angel submitted Simon to me, it was too easy to make it work.
The Gradius deck is by G.O.T. Nick, though Tokimi was made by myself. I also made a bunch of the Gradius cards (mostly the special Token generating cards) and I changed the effect of ?-Gradius Shield. However, the base idea was Nick's, as well as the vast potential for such an outrageous combo. Plus the uber-cool combo of Cast Into the Abyss is his, since he made that card as well.
Seeker of the Soul, finally, provided Renewal of the Triplets.
Also, none of use owns the rights to the game Gradius. That'd be those guys over at Konami. Nor do I own InuYasha or Yu Yu Hakusho. If I did, then they wouldn't have been as good as they were.
Anyway, next chapter should be interesting, ne? Possible plot thickening? Your damn right!
Next Time-Kazuki has been brought into a duel against Obelisk Blue student Katsuya Seikai, a vicious and powerful duelist. Kazuki, despite his past trials, is ready and willing to fight back with his all, and maybe even earn a it of respect finally, as well as make a name for himself. But what is Pegasus after?
Next Time-Light at the End