Tournament of Souls

Chapter 14

Editors' Note: Once again, we would like to thank Peace Writer for his review. Yes, Lucien's Gary-Stu-ism is the author's biggest struggle. While he does intend to make him seem a bit too good at most things, and even a bit cocky, he does not intend to make Lucien come across as perfect. The author will continue to work on it. As for the improbability of that amount of money being collected, the author attempted to put the places where Lucien found the coins as logical as possible. He found the money mostly in the shopping districts (referred to as the fat district and the business district respectively) where money is more likely to be dropped. We don't know about you, but we've seen people drop coins in the gutter trying to feed parking meters plenty of times. Sometimes multiple coins. Now we don't know why they don't pick them up sometimes, as it seems stupid to us, but it happens. As for the number of beggars, the author didn't intend to imply that there were many of them. And note that this is just from Lucien's perspective. He has no way of knowing for sure that they are beggars; something of an unfair assumption. However, you do make a good point Peace Writer. One thing though- it was the boy, not Lucien who dropped the card. In fact, the story said "ashamed to have expected the unrequited kindness of a stranger. The boy dropped a card." Other than that, all of your points are valid and the author will work on improving his work through your sage advice. Thank you Peace Writer!

Author's Note: The editors have far too much to say. Next time they should say "Assume that all mistakes were not in fact mistakes on the part of the author unless stated otherwise." It would save a lot of time. Except then they would still need to list the ones that actually were mistakes on my part, which remain far too many. Blast. Enough about me- back to Lucien and Co. Just so you know, West City, and the world in general have different laws and procedures than what you may be used to. So please, do not say I've gotten such and such a law wrong, or that it doesn't work that way. This isn't the world you live in.

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Lucien woke up when Raoul started doing push ups- army style on his bedroom floor. He sat up in bed and glared at Raoul.

"Can't a guy get some sleep these days?"

Raoul stopped doing push ups and stood up gaining the advantage of height. "Not after 9 AM he can't."

Lucien groaned and lay back down."Go get some breakfast and leave me in peace."

Raoul chuckled and made his way to the kitchen. He knew the way; he'd been there plenty of times before.

Lucien thought back to the previous day. Who knew dueling all day could take so much out of you? Then again, maybe it wasn't so much all of the duels as that last duel. Maybe those holograms hadn't been real, but try telling that to all the endorphins and whatever-the-others-are-called-phins running amok in his body. He felt like he had tried to run a marathon. Or maybe that was the several miles long walk/run/jog/crawling pace though actually on only two limbs that had taken it out of him.

I really need to get out more. If I can't even walk a few miles without tiring I'm really out of shape. Well, I did defend myself against a bunch of older guys with better weaponry. Weaponry? So I was in my own little war? A pipe hardly qualifies as weaponry. In any case, they weren't that tough. Not in much better shape than me; maybe worse shape in the case of some of them. And they were just playing with me, like cats with a mouse. It was a fluke that I got out of that in one, not overly blue berry colored piece.

Lucien moaned his way slowly out of bed. No harm in it now that there was no one to hear him. He dropped down and attempted a few push ups. He was pathetic and he knew it. He tried to get up for an army styled one and fell flat.

Almost end of school resolution numero uno: Get some muscle.

Number two: Don't embarrass yourself while you're at it.

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When Monday came round Aliya was at school, same as always with an English test third period. Problem was that even though she had calmed down after the party, everyone else was just getting started.

Spectators had not only gone ape, but rabbit as well. Every time she turned around there were more. By the afternoon, it seemed like most of the female population of the school had found a place in the group of people who had watched Aliya's duels. Of course it wasn't possible, but these good people wouldn't lie either. It was best just to accept what they said.

Few people credited Lucien. The ones around Aliya said that she could beat him. And maybe she could. The student defeats the teacher and all that. In fact, she had beaten him. Most people had; before this tournament. Something was different now. Something had clicked. If about 10 of the human brain is normally functional, and Lucien had used to use about 2 to duel, then now he had amplified that all the way up to around 13 of his brain that he was using to duel.

And I'm making him sound like Jinzo. Amplify indeed.

Still, there was no way to know. If she hadn't lost to what was discredited as "a stroke of luck having the one card in the entire game that can stop you face down on the field. She must have cheated to have Barrel Behind the Door Down!" maybe she would have beaten Lucien. Aliya doubted it.

But anything is possible…

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It wasn't until the next day, Tuesday that anything important actually happened. It isn't every day that Lucien was called out of class by the loudspeaker. Admittedly it was something of a relief, it was the last period of the day and he had already finished the quiz. On second thought, being marched off by policemen wasn't exactly the best thing that had ever happened to him.

His rights were explained to him, and he was told why he was there. Evidently he had done some serious damage to one of the people whom had attacked him on the first day of the tournament. If Lucien hadn't still been sporting bruises, he would have forgotten about it, or tried really hard at any rate.

In any case, he was being charged with armed assault or some such thing. The West City judicial system was somewhat sloppy. Cases like this turned up every day and got thrown out on technicalities. Why should is be any different?

This should probably bother me. I should just get off on self defense though. Still, what was amazing was that the kid would need plastic surgery if he was ever going to look the same. The reason the arrest had been so delayed was that he had hidden the fact that his nose had been broken and some of the surrounding tissues severely damaged, and the damage had gotten worse over time. Admittedly the police hadn't told him the last part, but he could figure that out for himself.

The part that he didn't quite believe was that he had done all of that damage on his own; a kid with a bit of PVC pipe. It must have been the thug who got hit with the bit of metal piping that broke off. At the time it had seemed like a gift from above. Now it was some of the worst luck he'd ever had.

Now if only he could get a half-way decent lawyer instead of whomever the county coughed up…

Worse, what was his mother going to say?

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Lucien's mother didn't say much. The police decided that since he was a juvenile, he would be tried as a juvenile, and that he wouldn't have to stay in jail before the hearing (thanks again to the bizarre local judicial system). The only good thing that could be said about it was that she broke down into tears quickly enough so he could be alone in his room with his books and his cards; alone with all that paper, he could believe that he needed nothing and no one else.

Then he got hungry.

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Aliya was the first to discover what had happened. After school, she had looked for Lucien all over. He wasn't at his locker, in the library, or at the bus stop. There weren't that many solitary corners in the school, but she checked all of them. Then she remembered that he had been out of class over the intercom. She hadn't considered this as a serious option previously as he never got into trouble. Well, rules are made to be broken after all.

The problem was, no one in the office wanted to tell her what had happened. In the end, she had to pull out a few tricks that the adults in charge could never resist. She slowly got more hysterical until she was practically in tears. After glancing around the office, a secretary took Aliya aside.

"Lucien was taken away by the police. Now if he's done anything to you, you can just tell me, ok hun?"

Aliya stared at her for a moment before breaking away and dashing out of the office. Soon enough she slowed down. Her mother was going to be picking her up any moment. And it wasn't like she could run to the police station and find out why they'd taken Lucien. They arrested Lucien. No, they can't have. He hasn't done anything. Not Lucien, he's the last person who would break the law, unless he had good reason. That's it. He must have had a reason. But why didn't he tell me?

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It wasn't until the next day that she found out what had happened. Lucien was back at school. Somehow or another, via the one or two 'eye witnesses' the entire school knew what had happened. Normally he was ignored. Now people watched him fearfully, avoiding him at all costs. It was as if at any moment, he was going to strike, pull out a knife and start slitting throats with a dreadful methodology. Even Aliya could imagine it.

Even worse, he was acting just as he always did, as if nothing had changed. Maybe for him nothing had.

It didn't help that he had chosen to wear all black. He was wearing his oft neglected glasses, but their slim oval lenses had slid halfway down his nose and didn't help his image any.

Normally someone would have remarked and asked why he wore all black. He would always say it was just the first thing out of the closet. Now for the first time, Aliya doubted. She tried to catch his eye in the hall or during their few classes together, but he didn't respond. He was no where to be seen during lunch.

During the break after lunch (it hadn't been called recess for over a year, recess was for little kids), she headed outside trying to dodge her usual group of friends. When Aliya stepped into the grey outdoors, she scanned the area for any sign of Lucien. He wasn't anywhere on the play ground that she could see, not even his usual spots where he would curl up with a book.

She took another step forward and tripped over a stray skateboard and almost went down the small flight of stairs headfirst. She turned back in frustration only to see Lucien trying to slip back inside.

"Lucien!" She called after him. He turned as if he hadn't noticed her.

"Oh, hey Aliya, how are you?"

"I'm fine; it's you I'm worried about!" She grabbed his wrist, and he let her drag him back outside. "Why were you dragged off by the police yesterday? I know it's just some kind of misunderstanding-"

Lucien chuckled breaking her off mid thought.

"No you don't."

"I don't what?"

"You don't know. You think I've done something. You just aren't sure what. The difference between you and them is that you're going to find out. The rest will wait for you to tell them."

Aliya was exasperated.

"To tell them what?"

"What I'm about to tell you of course."

"Get on with it!"

She didn't know which was worse. That he got on with it, or that he was so infuriatingly calm about it.

"I've been charged with assault. During the first day of the tournament, some guy tried to cheat. He lost and ran. I followed him. No good reason to do so, but I'd lost my temper. Evidently he was the sole surviving representative among his little group of friends, and after he told them what had happened, they all ganged up on me. I'm not entirely sure why. By some miracle I defended myself with a bit of PVC pipe. One of their pipes, made out of metal, broke and a piece of it went flying into one of their noses. It will need plastic surgery, and odds are it will never look the same. Why should it? His nose didn't look to special to begin with, odds are he'll have it done up nice and straight."

Jokes at a time like this? What's he playing at; you'd think that he's proud of being a criminal.

"Why were you only apprehended today then? Why not when it happened, on Friday?"

"Evidently the fool hid it until this afternoon when his mother saw it and reported it to the police."

"But it wasn't your fault, it was self defense, and it wasn't like you even broke his nose. It was an accident; you can't be held accountable for that."

"The way these people tell it, I walked out of the card store, picked up a metal pipe, and started beating at them with some kind of demonic strength. And there is no evidence against it. The rest slowly turned up with all kinds of bruises and such that I'd never seen before. I'm certain I didn't inflict most of them."

"Most of them?"

"Well, I must admit to having gotten a few shots in, after all, if I hadn't, there would be a nice Lucien shaped stain on the wall right in between the door and the graffiti skull." The bell rang, and Lucien slipped off and disappeared around a corner before Aliya could speak.

She decided that Lucien needed help. And that he was going to get it. As soon as she got home, Aliya called Raoul.

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Thursday afternoon they were all at the courthouse. Raoul had called a team meeting, and turned it into a confessional. Lucien had told them every detail of what had happened during the fight, right down to how the pipe had broken on the wall above his head, and the end of it had gone flying into his attacker's face. Aliya, her parents, and Raoul all were in agreement that Lucien should get off without any punishment.

Aliya's mother had driven them up to the courthouse for Lucien's preliminary hearing, where according to West City law the prosecution would make their case for why there was enough evidence for it to go to court. Lucien's state granted lawyer (Aliya's parents had to convince him not to try and represent himself, and then he had to convince them not to find him a better lawyer) was then supposed to make it seem like there wasn't enough proof to make it seem even vaguely possible that Lucien was guilty of anything.

The preliminary trial began, and while Lucien had to sit up at the front next to his lawyer, a young man you seemed much too energetic to have the job of a trial lawyer, his friends sat at the back of the court room. About fifteen minutes into it, no one had gotten anywhere, and Raoul needed to go to the bathroom. After a few minutes of whispered argument between him and Aliya as to whether it was more disrespectful to try and search out a bathroom, or to go where he sat, a court official came up and asked if they would like to be excused from the courtroom. Raoul accepted and left his backpack next to Aliya, and as he and the official left, Aliya could hear him saying, "So, where are the refreshments in this joint?" Hopeless.

Ten minutes later, the trial was still going on, and Raoul still hadn't come back. Aliya slipped out the door as quietly as she could, but her exit didn't go unnoticed. A minute or so later, a man of imposing figure excused himself from the shallow pool of back suited spectators and made his way out.

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After relieving himself, Raoul had gone to search for a snack. After a brief search, he found some vending machines out near the entrance to the building. Problem was he didn't recognize half of the brand names. And he had thought that he had known all of them. They were a tad pricier than average too. Just as he had decided on a packet of gourmet mustard flavored pretzels, he heard Aliya walking down the hallway. She was trying to stomp along angrily as Lucien might have done, but she didn't have quite the same effect.

"What are you doing? Lucien's fate could be decided at any moment, and here you are, buying snacks. Come on, let's go."

Raoul ignored the tugging on his arm and inserted a two dollar bill. "Just let me get my pretzels."

Aliya was flabbergasted. "Pretzels! What do you-" Then she was cut off by Raoul's kicking at the machine. There was a nice foot shaped dent near the bottom that worked well for the purpose.

"Damned machine, even you high class things eat my money! It's classist!"

At this point, a deep belly laugh rolled over them. "Oh, I wouldn't be so sure of that, it has stolen money from those richer than any of us. And the politically correct term is 'biased by class.'"

The two friends turned to face the owner of the voice, who turned out to be a rather large man in a trench coat over a business suit. He held out a hand (which they shook in turn) and introduced himself as Adolfus Beurreginsky (pronounced Burg-in-skee), a local defense lawyer. It turned out that Aliya had heard of him, because he had headed the defense in several well publicized cases, both there and in the capital. As soon as introductions were over and done with, he pulled a key out of his pocket and approached the vending machine.

"Everyone who works here has a key to the vending machine, because this old thing has never worked properly. Give me a hand here, will you?" He and Raoul moved the machine away from the wall, and the lawyer unlocked the back. "What was it you wanted?"

"The mustard flavor gourmet pretzels." Raoul said making a bit of a face. Mr. Beurreginsky turned around just in time to catch it and laughed.

"I'm afraid that I agree with you there. Sometimes a guy just needs a bit of well processed junk food, not all this gourmet stuff." He chuckled and tossed Raoul the bag of pretzels before locking up the vending machine. "So, what brings the local champions to the courthouse?"

Raoul explained the situation to the lawyer, who nodded every so often. When he finished, Adolfus was silent for a moment. Then he stroked his chin, rather as if he had a beard saying,

"It seems to me like your friend is going to need a better defense than that buffoon the state gave him is going to put up. The prosecution is being led by an old- colleague of mine." The way he said it made it clear that they had never helped each other with vending machines. "He knows what he's doing. I've seen him get more good men in jail than I care to think about. He gets some kind of pleasure out of punishing people; guilty or not."

Just then, Raoul got what seemed like a shocking new idea.

"Well, if you don't like that guy, why don't you defend Lucien?"

Aliya rolled her eyes, but the lawyer smiled. "I was wondering when you would catch onto that. I would be glad to defend your friend- on one condition. You need to duel me, and win."

Aliya's eyebrow went up like a shot. "How much money will it cost? No one does something like that for free."

"That's why I want to duel you. My only price is that you all do your best to get this town a name for itself. If you can beat me, Raoul, at least two of the members of the team are good. No offense, but that is all that is truly required. As long as two members of the team consistently win, the third member is irrelevant."

"That… almost makes sense." Aliya looked confused, but realized that she wasn't going to get a better answer. Raoul didn't care about the reasoning, he just wanted to duel, and get his friend out of the hole that he'd managed to dig for himself. If Raoul thought in metaphors, the only thing he'd be thinking about would be the size of the shovel. Since he doesn't, it is slightly irrelevant, though interesting.

In any case, Raoul was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, though the lawyer remained impassive.

"Do you have your deck with you Raoul? If not, I can wait."

"Oh no, I have it." Raoul went for his pocket and stopped halfway. "Damn, I must have left it in my backpack. Just give me a minute. Raoul started to jog down the hallway, but Mr. Beurreginsky stopped him.

"You may want to have me get it. The court marshals have been known to get over excited when they have someone to keep out of the courtroom. Their job is terribly dreary I'm afraid. I'll get it for you. Meet me at the duel station across the lawn." At that the lawyer began to stride down the hall, as Raoul and Aliya walked in the other direction.

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As soon as Adolfus arrived, the duel began. Both males who were normally talkative became suddenly solemn as soon as the duel station turned on. Raoul's 'gem' turned purple, his opponent's became ying-yang symbol. Aliya had already decided that the Kaiba Corp. technology had some way of reading the decks, therefore Raoul's turned the same purple as the Dark Magician, and something in Adolfus's deck had caused it to decide that a ying-yang was the most appropriate representation.

Adolfus Beurreginsky (AB): 8000

Raoul: 8000

The spinner appeared with purple and black and white striped sections. After a few spins it ended on a striped portion. The lawyer would be going first.

"I will set a monster, and one card face down. Your turn." Raoul drew and began to formulate his plans.

"I will also set a monster, and I will set two cards down behind it. Your up." Aliya was already getting bored of all the setting. She didn't have long to wait. It was the lawyer's turn again.

"I flip my face down monster, Dice Jar (200/300)." Raoul stared open mouthed.

"What are you using that for? I must say, I may have overestimated you. That card is just as likely to help me as it is you." The lawyer shrugged.

"That has yet to be seen. For the benefit of our newly gained audience," Indeed, several park goers had stopped to watch the duel "I will recite the effect. We each roll one die. The one who gets the lower number takes damage equal to the number that their opponent rolled multiplied by 600. Unless of course their opponent rolled a six in which case they would take 6000." A holographic wooden die appeared suspended on each field. The dice rolled themselves. Raoul got a five, and Adolfus was left with a three. Raoul laughed out loud for a moment, and stopped when he heard Adolfus.

"I activate my face down card; Dice Re-Roll. This card allows me to have any roll of the die caused by an effect, re-done." The die rolled again. They were tied at five. Once again, the dice rolled. This time Adolfus came out on top with a six, when Raoul was stuck with a four.

"Sorry kid."

AB: 8000

Raoul: 2000

"There's nothing to be sorry for. That was a perfectly clean shot, if a bit risky."

"Good, now that we're sure that there are no hard feelings, I summon Jirai Gumo (2200/100). Then I play Second Coin Toss, which, once again for the benefit of the audience, allows me to re-flip any coin toss. This card however, is continuous." The giant spider appeared on the field and behind it a goblin tossing and catching a coin.

"Jirai Gumo, attack. As you know, when I attack with this monster, I must flip a coin, and call it. If I'm wrong, I lose half my life points. I think it will be heads." A holographic coin appeared and flipped, and landed on tails. The lawyer motioned towards the goblin sitting on his back field, and the coin flipped again. And landed on tails. Again. The lawyer frowned as his spider ripped apart the face down Skilled White Magician (1700/1900) and his life points lowered.

AB: 4000

Raoul: 2000

"Well, since it's in attack mode I'll have Dice Jar attack you as well."

AB: 4000

Raoul: 1800

"Then I'll just set a card face down and end my turn."

It was looking like it was about to be one of the quickest duels that most people had ever witnessed. They just weren't entirely sure who was going to win. Then again, from a spectator's perspective that's a fairly minor point.

Try telling that to your neighbors Monday night during the football season.

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Lucien was getting bored out of his mind. His lawyer was pacing the floor as if it was some kind of legal drama, while the judge propped up his head with one hand while scratching at something on his desk. Honestly he couldn't blame his friends for leaving. I just hope they've found something more entertaining to do. Not that it would take much. Well, at least his lawyer was having fun.

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It was just Raoul's second turn, and things were already looking bad. He looked over his hand, and didn't see an immediate solution to his current predicament. He drew. Now things were beginning to look up.

"I summon Blast Magician (1400/1700)." In a whirl of flames, the red armored magician appeared swinging its scythe.

"Then I will activate my face down card, Pitch Black Power Stone. When it's flipped it automatically gets three spell counters on it and once per turn I can move one of them to a monster that uses spell counters. I'll do that now." One of the gems on Blast Magician's scythe began to glow.

"Then I'll play Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your Second Coin Toss. That adds another spell counter to my magician." A second gem glowed.

"To end my turn, I'll set one card face down."

The lawyer smiled, but as soon as he had drawn, Raoul prevented him from speaking.

"Before you do anything, I activate Thunder of Ruler during your standby phase. Now my life points are safe for this turn."

The lawyer sighed. "That they are my friend. I can only activate my face down trap card, Good Goblin House Keeping. This allows me to draw one card, and then another card for each copy of this card that are already in the graveyard. Then I must return one card from my hand to the bottom of my deck." He drew a card, and then after some thought, placed another at the bottom of his deck.

"Now I will set two cards face down and pass to you."

Raoul grinned broadly.

"First of all, I will summon Apprentice Magician (400/800), and add a spell counter to Blast Magician by its effect. Then I will move a fourth counter to it from Pitch-Black Power Stone. From the look on you face I take it that you know what that means?" Amazed, the lawyer nodded.

"Good. Now I will remove all four spell counters from Blast Magician to destroy your Jirai Gumo." The glows of the four gems were removed from them, and with a wave of the scythe, were flung towards the giant spider, which was incinerated.

"Now, Blast Magician, attack the Dice Jar which has been so kindly left in attack mode."

The lawyer grinned and flipped up a card. "I activate Fairy Box. Now if I can flip heads, your monster's attack will become zero." A box formed around Dice Jar, and at random intervals it would come up out of a hole sticking its tongue out, and once with a sign saying "Whack-a-Jar". The coin flipped, and landed on tails. The lawyer looked around in vain for his Second Coin toss only to remember that it had been destroyed. Dice Jar had been scythed.

AB: 2800

Raoul: 1800

"Now, Apprentice Magician, attack directly."

AB: 2400

Raoul: 1800

"I end after setting one card." Adolfus drew a card.

"First I must pay 500 life points to keep Fairy Box on the field."

AB: 1900

Raoul: 1800

"Then I activate my second Good Goblin Housekeeping to draw two cards." Once again, he returned a carefully selected card to the bottom of his deck.

"Now I'll play one of the cards I just drew. Reasoning."

Raoul looked puzzled.

"Reasoning?" He thought for a moment. "Oh yeah, I have to select a monster level, and then you pick up cards until you reach a monster, and if I guessed wrong on the level, you get to special summon it."

The lawyer nodded. "Now guess."

Immediately the African American boy responded, "Four."

The lawyer picked up card, depositing them in his graveyard one by one until he smiled and showed the card to Raoul and placed it on the field.

"I have drawn a level seven monster; Barrel Dragon and it is special summoned."

Raoul gazed at the monster in awe. "I love that monster. I gave that to my brother to use in his deck. I- I can't fight against it."

Adolfus scowled. "I'm glad that you like my monster, but you need to get rid of the silly notion that it would be betraying your brother to go against it."

"My brother is dead."

The scowl deepened. "What would your brother think if he saw you stalling because your opponent played his monster? Do you think he'd be proud? No! He'd be ashamed that you were giving up opportunity for some absurd reason. I would know. I always wanted to be a lawyer, to defend the innocent, just like my father. When he died, I didn't want to go into law school because I was afraid that I would dishonor him. Look at me now, I'm a well known and respected lawyer, more than my father ever was. And some days I look up and know that he'd be proud of me. Raoul, forget your doubt, and do what needs to be done."

Raoul nodded. "Alright, and thanks for the pep talk. Go on with your move."

"Very well. Now I will attack your Apprentice Magician with Barrel Dragon for the win."

"I think not. I chain with my trap card, Nutrient Z. When I would take 2000 or more damage from an attack, I gain 4000 life points before I take damage." Apprentice Magician was decimated by cannon fire.

AB: 1900

Raoul: 3600

"Now as you should know, Apprentice Magician allows me to get another spellcaster with two or fewer stars face down. Continue your turn."

"In that case, I will play another Second Coin Toss." A second gem on Blast Magician's scythe began to glow.

"Now I will set a card face down and use my Barrel Dragon's ability to try and destroy your face down monster." Three coins appeared in the air and flipped. Two of the three landed on heads. The face down Old Vindictive Magician was destroyed.

"It is your turn." Raoul closed his eyes and drew. When he opened them he jumped up and punched the air.

"Now I've got this game in the bag. First I will move the last spell counter from Pitch-Black Power Stone to Blast Magician. Now I play Premature Burial to special summon Skilled White Magician from my graveyard at the cost of 800 life points."

AB: 1900

Raoul: 2800

"Now I will activate Blast Magician's ability to remove all four spell counters on it to destroy a monster with 700 attack times the number of spell counters or less. Namely your Barrel Dragon." The mechanized monster was decimated.

"Now I will tribute both of my monsters for Dark Magician. Now I can play Dark Magic Attack to rid your field of Fairy Box along with any other troublesome traps." The lawyer shielded his face as his back field, including a copy of Skull Dice was obliterated.

"Dark Magician, attack directly!" The magician repeated its previous attack, this time targeting the lawyer.

AB: 0

Raoul: 2800

As they dismounted from the duel monsters projector, the lawyer dusted himself off. As he led them through the thinning spectators, he congratulated Raoul on his dueling skills and when they met Lucien waiting on the front steps of the courthouse said,

"Well my young friend, you've just gotten yourself a new defense lawyer."

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Adolfus had been correct in assuming that the state given lawyer was no good. The case was going to go to court. But now that Lucien had a decent lawyer, things were looking up. When he had tried to say that he was in debt to Raoul, it had been insisted that they call it even.

Unfortunately, on the other side of the case, the same gang that had fought Lucien was planning its revenge. One thing was for sure, it wasn't going to be fair, even if it was going to use the legal system. And once again, Lucien would be helpless it intervene, depending on his friends to save him. It won't be the last time either.