Tournament of Souls- Regional
Quarter Finals
"Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick our selves up." Mr. Wayne from Batman Begins
On the bus ride back, Lucien checked his wallet. He would have to walk back from the tournament as he had used all of the money that he had brought on bus fares for the three of them. After they had eluded the police, they had boarded the bus and sat in the back, separately. They were each to worried that someone would want to talk about it. Raoul sat in the row of seats along the back. Aliya and Lucien sat across the aisle from each other.
He still didn't quite believe what he had seen. It was impossible, but it had happened. And he had been powerless to stop it. He had planned for every thing that could have happened. But what had happened couldn't have happened, shouldn't have happened and wouldn't have happened if-
If what? There is nothing that I could have done. I could have attacked that woman, I could have stopped the duel, and saved Larron. If she had the power to get monsters up there, I don't think she would have a problem stopping me. Where did the monsters come from any way? They must have been robots. Yes, of course. They have started making robots that can disappear taking their owner and a body half way to the water with them. Or was she a robot too? What about Larron? Was he just a replica? Then where is the real one? Well they could have been... ok maybe not... Wait, I know! The monsters were holograms! Where did you get that idea Einstein? Where did they come from then, just incase you didn't notice, the duel disks were turned off. I've seen enough of them on tv to know the difference. They must have had some different kind of programming though, because normally they are only fully extended when on. Or the power outage some how affected them and caused them to turn off when they were already extended. There must have been projectors in the observation tower. I would have seen them, they use light to make the holograms and that would have given away the location. Not if they were also making the... shadows around the duel. Then any light would have been hidden. I see the point. How would the projectors know what was in play though? The duel disks were off after all. They were probably a new model of duel disk made to work with that system. They look like they are off, but in reality they are just serving as an information relay to the projectors. How would these hypothetical projectors work if all the power where they would have to have been was out? They need electricity too. They were probably the reason that the power was out. They need a lot of energy and they hadn't prepared the power grid of the tower well enough for it yetso it took all the electricity out of the surrounding lights until it had enough. If that was true, then all the lights would have been out. They were all on one system remember? Odds are that the projectors would have gone out to. It happens all the time in the kitchen at home. You can never run the toaster and the microwave that the same time or the circuit breaker will pop and the kitchen power will go out taking both appliances with it. It was secret though. Maybe it can overload the system and use all the power, but no one told anyone who didn't need to know! Admittedly that is possible. Why would the projector be there in the first place? The board of public entertainment and tourism didn't even want to put in the tower, why would they spend even more money on a duel monsters projector! Yes, but remember why they ended up putting it up? Generous donations from Kaiba Corp. They do all kinds of big tournaments like Battle City right? They are probably planning one here. Ok dreamer, time to return to the real world. Kaiba Corp. is a huge multinational company based in Japan. Now why would they want a tournament here, out of anywhere in the world. We are so close to D.C. that they would just hold it there instead! In any case, no one would make it here. Who would come to a place called West City on the EAST Coast? Why would there be a projector up their then? Simple – There wasn't. Then how? There is no way that I can figure that out. It is something far beyond my power to comprehend. The only thing that I can do is fight it. How? How did it ... do whatever it is that it did to Larron? It dueled him, and he lost. If we ever have to duel for those stakes, we must win. The one who is doing this is a duelist. She will be in the tournament circuit. We need to keep on rising through the ranks until we beat her at her own game. Wait a second, let me think this out like a sane, logical person. This person can somehow pull of the impossible, and is also a terrific duelist. Now if I was an intelligent, sane, logical person, I would tell the police and let them handle it, and if I met her in the tournament circuit, I would drop out so I wouldn't suffer the same fate as Larron. But then again, who said I was a logical person? I'm going to do it. She has taken two to many lives. Now its Larron, but I can assume that Alexandra suffered the same fate looking at the state of her hotel room when I found her...
Lucien fingered the bracelet that he had found there. He glanced back at Raoul to see how he was doing. Raoul was holding his head in his hands and staring at the floor between his knees- the image of mourning. Lucien then looked over at Aliya. She was staring out the window, her eyes red from crying. There was an obvious reason for this – she was mourning Larron's apparent demise. Lucien thought otherwise though. Aliya was a caring person, if she was mourning Raoul's brother, than she would be over there mourning him with Raoul and comforting him. No. Lucien thought. It must be something else. But what?
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Lucien was right. Although Aliya was shocked, scared, and deeply saddened by Larron's fate, she has other things on her mind. She had just gone through a similar though process to Lucien's, and had come to the same conclusion – That what had happened up there was impossible, as magic doesn't exist. She had also realized that in order to fight the one who had done it, she would need to duel them. That was where she had encountered a problem.
If I need to duel that woman for my life, how do I know that I will win? I lost to Amy. The one who is doing this is clearly an expert duelist, otherwise she wouldn't be able to do what she does. If I loose to some girl off the street, what chance do I have against an expert? Even if I do win two more duels, that will mean that I am in the top 10, and I might be picked for the team to go to the state championships. The only way I'll be picked though is if Lucien or Raoul wins and picks me, no body else will pick the 9th or 10th place duelist. If they pick me for the team, I'll just weigh them down. It would be better if they chose a duelist who could stand up to that woman... like Amy... Aliya imagined what would happen with Amy on the team. They would take the world by storm, and Lucien and Raoul would adore her... in the meantime Aliya would be at home catching the duels on television.
"Hey Aliya, what's wrong?" Lucien inquired as he sat down next to Aliya, stopping her reverie
"Do you really need to ask? After what we just saw?" Aliya was clearly irritated that Lucien knew that she was upset. He always knows when something's wrong, and he always comes to help. Sure it's nice of him, but someday I will have to fend for myself.
"Are you saying that the only thing that is upsetting you is Larron's demise?"
"Isn't that reason enough?" Aliya said softly, still trying in vain to convince Lucien that nothing was amiss.
"Yes, but if that was the case, you would sympathize with Raoul, and be over by him instead of on your own. Do I have to guess why?" Aliya remained silent and stared at the floor, so Lucien, rather than taking the hint and going away, started guessing.
"You asked Mr. Dongard, and found out that you are matched up against Amy in the first round." Aliya looked up, shocked. How could he have gotten so close? Am I that easy to predict. However, to Lucien's dismay, she shook her head.
"You lost your duel?" Aliya was staring at him, eyes open wide in surprise. He got the hint.
"You lost your last duel to Amy?" Aliya nodded meekly.
"Aliya, think this through. It isn't the end of the world. Just win two more duels, and you will be in 10th place, if you win three, 9th. Either one of those scenarios, and you can still be on the team. If I win, I'll pick you, if Raoul wins, he'll pick you. And even if someone else wins, they might just pick you. It doesn't matter that you lost to Amy, just win two more duels, and you will be on to the state championship." Aliya spoke, her voice quaking.
"But what if I don't win? If I lost to Amy, how am I supposed to beat two more people if I wasn't good enough to beat her." Lucien looked into her eyes for a bit, until Aliya looked away, embarrassed.
"Because, if I'm right, her deck was stacked against you. She knows your strategy, and would have kept cards in her side deck to stop you. Here in my guess at what happened. The duel was the usual back and forth with you ending up on top. You pull on of your massive damage combo's on her, and she counters with a Barrel Behind the Door and you lose." If it wasn't that she already was amazed at Lucien's ability to guess these things, Aliya would have fainted. But all she could do was nod.
"You'll be fine then Aliya. Just duel your best, and you will make top 10, and make the team." That's what I'm worried about. If I make the team, I'll drag you and Raoul down. Lucien seemed to think that was the end of the conversation, but Aliya spoke up.
"I'll keep dueling if you promise me one thing."
"That would depend on what it is. I would never walk off a cliff unless I knew there was a net ready to catch me." Aliya smiled a bit at his metaphore.
"Promise me that you won't select me for the team if you win."
"What? If I didn't select you for my team, I would be crippling myself! There would be one team mate that I couldn't completely trust, and we would never succeed. I need you. Plus, regardless of how many times you have lost against Amy, that doesn't matter. You are one of the best duelists that I know. Maybe you couldn't beat them, but I bet that you would stand a chance against Yugi Mouto, Seto Kaiba, or Joey Wheeler. Yeah, you heard me. The three best duelists out there, you could take them on and not be ashamed of yourself afterward. If I'm the team captain, I need you for the team."
"Do you mean that?" Lucien raised an eyebrow.
"When was the last time that I said something that I didn't mean?"
"When you said that you liked the sweater that your grandmother got you."
"Well I did... that is I would have if it was a few sizes larger so that it would fit me." They both laughed about that incident. After she got her breath back, Aliya said,
"Ok, I'll be on the team, with one condition."
"What would that be?"
"That you prove that you can lead us by comforting Raoul." Aliya nodded toward Raoul sitting in the back. Lucien looked nervous.
"I can't do that! You know fully well that I have never been any good at dealing with people, especially when their sad. I always try to make things seem logical, and it never works."
"You'll do just fine. The way he is now, you can't make it any worse. Either you go over there and help him, or I start looking up psychologists."
"Fine, just don't blame me when everything gets messed up." Lucien stood up, angry, but calmed down as he walked over to Raoul, sat down next to him and began to talk. Aliya couldn't hear what was said, but by the end, Raoul's spirit had returned.
As they exited the bus, they heard a fuss in the card store, and hurried to investigate. As they opened the door they heard Mr. Kiwasaki saying to Mr. Dongard,
"You can't eliminate them! I know these kids, they wouldn't have wandered off unless something important was going on." Mr. Kiwasaki was facing away from the door, but Mr. Dongard raised a hand to calm him and said,
"It is irrelevant, as they have arrived." The Japanese man turned, flustered.
"Where have you been! You've had me worried about you. I've had to use all my leverage to keep him from disqualifying you!" Before any of them could utter a simple, 'thank you', Mr. Dongard came up to them, and faced Mr. Kiwasaki, calm as ever.
"Excuse me Mr. Kiwasaki, but I will handle them." He turned back to Aliya and company.
"Do you have any reason why I shouldn't disqualify you?" Lucien spoke,
"We had some business to attend to."
"More important than your pathway to fame and glory? Two of you are in the top eight, and the third has the potential to top ten. What could be more important that you children had to attend to?" Before Lucien could retaliate, Raoul spoke up.
"We were attempting to prevent my brother from committing suicide. If you have been listening the local AM news station on the radio, you would know that he was about to jump off the main street bridge." Without any apparent remorse for his harshness Mr. Dongard responded.
"I am sorry about that. I am glad you were able to prevent it." This display of callousness, left even Raoul speechless, but it angered Aliya.
"We didn't stop him. He's dead."
"I'm sorry to hear that. I would understand completely if any of you would like to retract from the tournament." This was the last straw for Aliya, and she barely refrained from yelling.
"We are going to continue, now if you would be so kind, would you tell us who we are dueling?" If Mr. Dongard was offended by her sarcasm, he didn't show it.
"The pairings will be announced shortly. We were waiting for your arrival."
"Fine, now get out of our way, we have a tournament to take by storm." Aliya stormed past Mr. Dongard, with Lucien and Raoul trailing behind.
"Bastard." She whispered under her breath. Even though she had said it softly Lucien somehow heard her.
"Watch your language Aliya." This was an old joke between Lucien, and the entire school. Anytime anyone said anything even mildly vulgar, he would reprimand them. There are few things funnier than the principle addressing the school, and saying 'damn' when he couldn't find his notes, and from the congregated students, Lucien saying, 'No cursing sir!'.
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Lucien smiled inwardly as he corrected Aliya's language. It looked like everyone was recovered from Larron's demise. Except Larron himself, but there was nothing that he could do about that. He sat down along with everyone else, and waited for the seating announcement to be made. After a few minutes, Mr. Dongard returned, and stood infront of the 16 people present, using the microphone even though it was clearly unessacery.
"Ok, the seating arrangements are as follows. At Table One, we have Lucien vs. Lily, Table Two, Amy vs. Todd, at Table Three, Raoul vs. Max, Table Four, Jonathan vs. Alicia. Now on to those who are attempting to make top ten, at Table Five, Aliya vs. Michel..." Lucien moved on to table on to face his next opponent.
His opponent was already there when he arrived. She had straight, blonde hair that reached past her shoulders, and she wore a pink shirt with a denim vest. Lucien sat down.
"Let's get started, shall we?" Lucien took out his deck and started to shuffle.
"Sure sweetie. Here, you can shuffle my deck." Imitation Valley Girl accent, learn how for 35c, limited time offer. Really, are you here to duel, or to make a fashion statement? Lucien passed her his deck, and shuffled hers. When she passed his back, she hadn't shuffled it, so Lucien shuffled it himself before drawing five cards. Lily drew six.
"Well lookie here, it looks like I drew six cards instead o' five. I'm sorry hun, but why don't I just take the first turn?"
"Don't call me 'hun'"
Lucien: 8000
Lily: 8000
"Ok, darlin' I'll just set two cards face down, and summon Cure Mermaid. That'll be all." Lucien was irritated that she had continued calling him names, but took his turn.
"I will set a monster and play Card Destruction. I will use my discarded Night Assailant's effect to bring back the Morphing Jar that I discarded. I'll set two cards as a finish. Your turn." Lily picked up her next card with a smile.
"First durin' my stand by phase, Cure Mermaid gives me 800 life points."
Lucien: 8000
Lily: 8800
"Now I'll play Swords of Revealin' Light. You can't attack for three turns, and as an added bonus, I get to see your monster."
Smiling, Lucien flipped over his Needle Worm.
"Gosh darn it! I loose the top five cards of my deck." Lucien noticed that one of the cards she discarded was a Life Absorbing Machine. Why would that card be in her deck? She doesn't seem to have a lot of costs in it.
"Now I'll summon my favorite card, Injection Fairy Lily." That would explain it.
"First I will reveal the continuous trap Life Absorbing Machine, which I run in triplicate. Now I'll attack your Needle Worm with my Cure Mermaid." Lucien flipped over one of his traps.
"I'm afraid that my Gravity Bind stops that. You probably shouldn't attack with your Injection Fairy Lily either, even though you can get through my Gravity Bind. That costs 2000 to get its attack high enough to get past my worm. As if you needed more of a reason, you wouldn't do damage."
"Well I guess I'm just stupid then, because I'm going to attack. I'm also going to raise its attack by 3000 by paying 2000 life points. I'll also activate Meteorain." Oh boy, that means I take damage.
Lucien: 5200
Lily: 6800
"To finish my turn, I'll just set this card down. Your turn. Oh, and don't forget that I gain half of what I paid from Life Absorbing Machine." Lucien already knew Life Absorbing Machine's effect. What he was worried about is how he was going to pull off a deck-out. He wouldn't be able to use the Robbin' Zombie he had face down if he couldn't get direct damage in, and with Injection Fairy Lily there, he would just take damage afterward. With the set up that Lily had, she was effectively paying 200 life points for the effect. He would have to rely on flip effects. Lucien drew his card. Bingo.
Lucien: 5200
Lily: 7800
"I'll set one card face down, and I will set a monster. End."
"Is that really all that you can do? I expected more at this level of competition. At the start of my turn, Cure Mermaid gives me life points."
Lucien: 5200
Lily: 8600
"I hope you've realized this, but I can pay for my Fairy Lily 'til the cows come home. Now I will just attack with my Lily, and since I get to wait until the damage step to activate the effect, I can see how strong your monster is before payin'!"
"That's fine by me, as my face down monster is Cyber Jar. If you know what's good for you, you won't activate Lily's effect. Its only 500 damage." Said Lucien as he flipped the card up.
Lucien: 5200
Lily: 8100
"Since it's been flipped, I've decided to tribute it to the trap card, Assault on GHQ. The effect still happens, but I get to send the top two cards of your deck to the grave. Oh, and since you activated it, after all of our- well your, monsters are destroyed, you have to draw your cards first." Lily drew five cards, and showed them to Lucien. Injection Fairy Lily, Graceful Charity, Fissure, Sangan, Life Absorbing Machine. She put both monsters in attack mode.
Lucien showed her his, he had gotten Vampire Lord, Morphing Jar, Pot of Greed, Needle Worm, Robbin' Zombie. He set both monster's face down. Lily didn't think about her next move, just took it.
"I'll attack the monster on the left with Sangan." Lucien flipped up Morphing Jar.
"What a waste, I loose Pot of Greed along with the rest. Shame."
"Well I just got a hand of good cards. Now Injection Fairy Lily, attack his other face down. Since I already know that it's Needle Worm, I'll pay."
Lucien: 5200
Lily: 6100
"I'll set a monster face down, and pass the turn to you hun." As Lily said the last word, Lucien's eye started to twitch, but Lily seemingly didn't notice. Lucien however, looked at his new hand, and was somewhat pleased.
"I will simply set a monster, and another card face down. That is all." She may be confident, but I don't think she even sees my strategy.
"Really, I'd think you could do something to at least try and hurt me? In any case, I'll play Mystic Wok, so I can sacrifice my Sangan, and gain 1000 life points."
Lucien: 5200
Lily: 7100
"Then by Sangan's effect when it is sent to the graveyard, I will take my last Injection Fairy Lily from my deck, and add it to my hand." Lucien raised an eyebrow.
"Third? You only have one on the field."
"I'm afraid not sweetums, ya see, I'll flip my face down... Injection Fairy Lily!" Oh boy, this is going to hurt. Good thing we don't have the holograms yet, or it would hurt more than just my life point score... but how much would getting stuck with a giant needle hurt?
"Then I'll summon my final Lily, in attack mode. I'll also equip it with Fairy Meteor Crush. I'll have my new Fairy Lily attack your face down card!" Lucien flipped over a Needle Worm.
"That would by my last Needle Worm. I take it that you activate Lily's effect?"
"Of course I do dahlin'." I don't care if I loose or win, just end this duel so I can escape the name calling.
Lucien: 2400
Lily: 5100
"Now I will attack for the win with my other Lily!" Wha? I really aught to have paid more attention, I hadn't realized that she could have killed me so easily. Good thing I set this trap just in case.
"I'm afraid not, you see, I this trap. I activate Negate Attack! Your attack is negated, and your battle phase ended. Oh, and just incase you didn't know, your out of cards. That means that during your next draw phase you loose. I'll pass my turn. Good game." Lily was furious. Evidently she hadn't noticed how thin her deck was getting. At any rate, she had never thought of deck out as a legitimate win condition.
"What in tarnation!" Lily yelled, her face flushed.
"I want a judge! That can't be right." Mr. Dongard walked over.
"I am the presiding Head Judge. What is your query." Lily looked puzzled.
"What's a quarry got to do with this? I don't need no stones."
"Querry, it means an inquisition..." Lily was still baffled.
"What is your question. You called a judge, did you not?" Now that she could understand the plain language around her, Lily collected herself and got properly angry again.
"I most certainly did. This boy says that because my deck run out, he wins!" Lucien smirked. Her grammar ran out right along with her deck.
"Well, I'm afraid so. It is in the rule book. So Lily, you are out of the running for first place I'm afraid, but you can still try and get a position as high as 5th place. What will it be." Lily was furious. She collected her cards and stomped out the door yelling.
"Why you yella bellied cowards! You can't even win games fair! I'm gonna take this to Industrial Illusions!" Well there goes the neighborhood. Oh well, property values were too high anyways. Mr. Dongard chuckled, and said to himself more than anyone else as he walked away,
"That would be possible if she owned over 30 percent of their stock or was phenomenally rich. She fits neither specification." He walked off to the counter to mark down that Lucien had won, and Lily had taken 8th place.
Lucien was satisfied that he had gotten to the semi finals. He was now one of the top four duelists in town that was for sure. He wandered off to see how Raoul and Aliya's duels were going.
If he had known how hard those duels were going to be, he would have run.
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Editors' Note: Though we are not sure where any other character would have run to, nor how fast, we would like to assure all readers that Lucien would have run, leapt, hurdled, and dived to the location of Raoul and Aliya's respective duels, possibly under going asexual reproduction so that he could be in both places at the same time. That is all.
Author's Note: Some how I have acquired a set of alternate personalities that have the tendency of editing this story. How this has happened is beyond me. I am sorry that this update is late, as the computer I had it saved on was removed from my dwelling, and left in this odd predicament; I was forced to re-write it on a different computer. Seeing as I generally write my responses to my reviewers, those were lost so I have nothing to say. I can only remember one question and I will respond to that.
To Whom It May Concern: The italics and bold italics are Lucien's thoughts. Whether the bold italics are an alien presence, or simply Lucien arguing with himself, you may decide for yourself. However Lucien says that it is him, arguing with himself, so that is probably what you should believe as well. I personally think that unless you talk to yourself, there is something wrong with you. I agree with that statement. Me too.