Tournament of Souls

Chapter 22 – State Round

1st Duel - 3rd Match

"You are being very mysterious, and I'm sure you're also wasting my time. But what do I have to waste but time?" – Garth Nix, Sir Thursday

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Lucien stared into the audience where the red haired fiend had just been standing. He had gotten out of the duel station as fast as possible with the intent of initiating a chase, but to no avail. She was gone.

There were five minutes left before the next round started. They were to be in the same arena. Lucien raked the stands with his eyes, but there was no one to be seen. He sat down and sullenly re-read a magazine full of card descriptions. Then the announcement came through.

"After the third round of dueling, all duelists will be permitted to have a one hour lunch break. The third round of dueling commences in two minutes." When it finished ads began to scroll across all available screens for everything from Fred's French Fries (better, leaner, better) to Mini-Pix (your pictures, just mini and now you can get the newer, better, adhesive, Sticky-Pix).

Raoul and Aliya had been conferring on the other side of the bench. Raoul slid over towards Lucien.

"How do you want to manage this next match?"

Lucien shrugged. "I'll take the first duel. You can go next."

"Why so eager to duel all of a sudden?"

"The deck works. I know that now." Lucien's expression didn't invite further questioning. A custodial worker moved invisibly through the background, refilling both teams' coolers and taking away the trash.

"Alright, alright, have it your way." Raoul threw up his hands in mock exasperation. "Just make sure you don't lose."

Raoul moved off to graze on the newly replaced snack bars. Lucien muttered under his breath, softly so he thought no one could hear.

"Don't worry, I won't. My next loss will be the last."

Aliya had moved behind him to speak with him and overheard. She walked away pretending that she hadn't noticed anything but she pondered what she had heard, turning it over in her mind. It didn't make any sense one way or the other. Unless he was planning on giving up dueling the next time he lost. But that was absurd! Lucien had lost plenty of times in the past. It had never stopped him before.

It was like he had an ongoing mantra on playback in his head. 'Duel till you drop, never ever stop.' Now Aliya wasn't sure if it was actually possible to duel to the point of exhaustion as the game didn't take all that much energy, but if it was possible, she felt sure Lucien would do it.

She adjusted one of the hair clips he had given her. Then again, maybe it was possible for a duel to take energy. She had passed out during her duel against Sanchez after all. There had to be an explanation somewhere. She just wasn't sure what.

And then there had been what had happened with Larron. It wasn't natural. Now, it could be supernatural, but such things didn't exist. They plagued the nightmares of the readers of too much fiction, but they didn't come to real life. Did they?

Was there another explanation? Not that she could think of. The most reasonable involved large amounts of hallucinogens that Aliya knew full well she had never touched. And what were the odds on all three of them having the same hallucination? Not good.

It wouldn't have shocked Aliya at all to discover that some divine game was taking place where the gods were betting on the cause of everything. If the cause was drugs, then anyone who had bet on it would be going home rich and the bank would be chased out of the casino scared and penniless.

Of course, none of this was taking place. It was a nice thought though.

The judge returned to his post with two fresh cups of coffee. His trash bin had never been emptied, and it was both smaller and fuller than the ones that the contestants had.

Judging by the number of coffee cups with it, someone was going to get a talking to afterward about consuming too much caffeine on the job. Then the judge in question would be quite glad that his coffee shop of choice hadn't written the number of extra shots on the cups.

Lucien noticed the return of the judge and walked in front of the duel station, anticipating the announcement.

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Mr. Dongard was in a control room with many other men in business suits of the same make and style as his own. The casual observer would find it frightening how much like these men were. Then they would turn around and see the women on the other side of the control room, but it would only be a fleeting glance on the way out the door. Each and every woman wore their hair in a tight bun, with similar if not identical outfits. The uniformity stopped at the name tags that each person in the room wore. For example Mr. Dongard wore a badge which read: Mr. Dongard, Sr. Supervisor of Games Administrations, West City.

Everyone in the room held a copy of the same sheets; the computer read-outs from the previous duels. At the very bottom was a very short entry from the end of a duel.

/ Duel End/ Field Conditions: Lucien Morningstar/Monsters: Indomitable Fighter Lei Lei. Lucien Morningstar/Spell+Trap: Ectoplasmer. Jess Colbert/Spell+Trap: Generation Shift.

Mr. Dongard walked over to the representative from Mach 5's district wielding a document that was the business version of a poker chip. "I want a three page recommendation in my box Monday morning along with the results manipulation codes for the limited release card contest."

The woman who represented that district quickly wrote off a note and handed it to the secretary who was standing at her elbow, yet had been unnoticeable until the moment she handed him the slip of paper. The secretary scampered off on an unknown mission while his boss offered Mr. Dongard a cup of coffee.

The benefits of winning are always worth the trouble.

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Lucien shook hands with the captain of the opposing team, Galactic Games. He didn't bother to take notice of what he looked like. It wouldn't matter in the end. The result would be the same, win or lose.

It would have to be a win. Lucien reached the top of the duel station first, and the team captain sent up one of his team mates, wearing a t-shirt proclaiming 'How many scientists does it take to change a light bulb? Just one, but you need to give him the time to take it apart.'

Both duelists inserted their decks. Lucien's gem turned black as his opponent's turned into a black and pink vortex. Several teenaged bystanders winced. It looked like a Goth and preppy girl had been stuck in a blender. The sad things the programmers had come up with.

The spinner appeared, and Lucien lost the spin. He was unperturbed.

Lucien Morningstar: 8000

Galactic Games 2nd Lieutenant: 8000

Lucien winced as he realized what the opposing captain had planned. He's sending me up against the weakest one, expecting me to tear through him. Then he thinks he'll be able to outclass Aliya and Raoul by using higher ranked duelists. We'll see just how wrong he is.

… But not too wrong. That would involve me losing to this sissy. That would be sad.

And Lucien's opponent was almost certainly deserving of the title 'sissy.' It was true in every sense of the word. He wore an effeminate face and air, and his fingernails were discolored from a distance. Closer examination would prove the presence of nail polish in a discreet shade of blue.

It seemed that strange people flocked to the game of duel monsters. Lucien, once again discounting the appearance and personality of his opponent, only paid attention as the duel began.

As he announced his move, it was discovered that the strange duelist also had a slightly higher voice than might be described as normal. "I will set a monster face down and place two cards down behind it. I end my turn."

Lucien drew, but before he could make his move his opponent spoke. "You ought to know; I wield several rare cards which you have probably never heard of."

Lucien muttered "Girly man" in an inaudible tone before replying. "I very much doubt that. Even so, I am no stranger to the unknown and will doubtless be able to fight your cards effectively."

The boy smiled faintly. "Suit yourself, but you have been warned."

Sure I have. It seems to me that he's just trying to intimidate me the only way he can.

"Well, I'll start off my turn by playing Meteor of Destruction. As long as you have over three thousand life points I can play this card and inflict 1000 direct damage upon you."

Lucien Morningstar: 8000

Galactic Games 2nd Lieutenant: 7000

Lucien's opponent screeched. "It burns!"

His team captain rolled his eyes and yelled up at him. "It's just a hologram you ninny. Now get over it and duel!"

Lucien decided not to wait for his opponent to mentally prepare himself. "I'll follow that up by setting two cards face down and summoning Goblin Attack Force (2300/0). I think I'll just end my turn there."

His opponent still looked slightly miffed, but after he had drawn his face brightened. "Oooh, now you'll pay."

"Cash, check, or credit?"

"Pain!"

Lucien blinked a few times in disbelief. "Hey, your village called, they're missing their lunatic. Can somebody call the men in white coats?"

The loudspeaker interfered with any further commentary. "No insulting or otherwise showing disrespect for one's opponent!"

To Lucien's surprise, his opponent spoke, defending them both. "What insults? This is just friendly banter between two duelists." To add emphasis, he screeched, "So stay out!" Strange, other than the interjection it sounded almost scripted.

He breathed a few deep calming breaths before actually starting his turn. "I flip summon the first of those cards I told you about; Hare – Servant of Curran #1." A small black rabbit appeared on the field.

Lucien cocked his head to one side. "Now, I've read some about that card, but why don't you tell the audience what it does?" I can't remember a thing about the card other than that it has several effects involving Curran.

The boy smiled primly. "When this monster is flipped, I must special summon one, Ebon Magician Curran (1200/0) to the field in attack mode. As long as Hare – Servant of Curran #1 is on the field, Curran is unaffected by your trap cards. Also, Hare – Servant of Curran may not be attacked as long as Curran is on the field. Now, meet one of the stars of my deck, Ebon Magician Curran."

The child magician appeared and flicked its whip. It must be said that she completely failed to look dangerous, having the face and clothing of a child.

"Now I will activate my trap; Numerical Nimbus. This card allows me to take one monster on my side of the field that includes a number, indicated by the number symbol (#)-" It wasn't clear how he did it, but as he said those two words, his facial expression indicated parentheses, and the symbol so that it was practically spoken. This is in fact possible. Politicians do it all the time, and so do lawyers. And real estate salesmen. And executives. As a matter of fact, all the people wandering around who you suspect are actually aliens do it. They wouldn't be aliens without it. Off in the conference room, Mr. Dongard marked down the duelist as 'potential executive officer material.'

Unfortunately the duelist wasn't so thoughtful as to pause to allow for the time to think of all this. "- and return it to my deck in order to summon a monster with exactly the same name except for the number which must be no more than one different, more or less. I will now send Hare – Servant of Curran #1 to my deck in order to special summon Hare – Servant of Curran #2 (1350/1700)."

This monster looked different than the last. Rather than being black it was a shade of grey, and now it was rather taller and wore a butler's uniform. Now that he had seen the first, Lucien thought he knew the effect.

"This one increases Curran's attack and shares the ability of its predecessor to not be an attack target as long as Curran is on the field, correct?" I had no idea what the actual stat increase was, but the digital display helped me out there as it showed the new attack (1600/0).

"That is correct. And now in order to stop your attacks completely, I will attach Raregold Armor on to Hare. Now you may attack neither monster as you both must, and are unable to attack Hare."

I think I may regret my decision to change decks some time soon. This one attacks much more frequently than the last, clearly a statistical error on my part.

"Are you done then?"

"Of course I am," Said the effeminate duelist with a hand motion. "I've just been waiting for you to ask."

"Would you mind surrendering?"

"Not at all, but I wouldn't survive the trip out." He said with a nod toward his teammates and the stands. A green sunhat bobbed in and out of view like a tropical island in a storm of spectators.

Lucien cocked his head to the side. He hadn't seen the sunhat and so missed an entire level of meaning. "In that case I'll just have to make my move. I'll set one monster face down and play Tremendous Fire."

Lucien Morningstar: 7500

Galactic Games 2nd Lieutenant: 6000

"That will be all for my turn."

His opponent flipped a card, grinning. "I'll activate a trap during your end phase. It's called Ojama Trio and this is how it works. Three Ojama Tokens are placed on your field in defense mode, and these tokens may not be tributed for larger monsters. Whenever one of them is destroyed you lose 300 life points. But seeing as my turn just started," he said drawing a card. "That will be the last of your worries. Ebon Magician Curran's special ability activates. It causes you to lose 300 life points per monster on your side of the field."

Curran cracked her whip which had extended by several yards.

Lucien Morningstar: 6000

Galactic Games 2nd Lieutenant: 6000

Lucien glared as his opponent continued. "I don't really have much to do. I can just wait like this until you run out of life points. I'll set another two cards for backup and end my turn."

Lucien looked at the card he had drawn with disgust. I hope there's no Hare-Servant of Curran #3. That could get irritating. I'm already sick and tired of these creatures.

"I'll activate my set trap card during my standby phase. The trap is Destruction Ring and this is what it does. I destroy one monster on my side of the field and we each take 1000 damage. The monster I choose is the one I set last turn, Mecha-Dog Marron (1000/1000). When this monster is destroyed by a card effect, you lose 1000 life points. Feel the pain."

A chain reaction was set off with the combined explosions of Destruction Ring and Mecha-Dog Marron. Illusory smoke billowed around the two combatants, obscuring them completely.

A paper bullet hurtled through the air hitting Lucien in the chest and bouncing down onto the floor. He picked it up and pocketed it out of habit. Schools pressed recycling hard those days.

Lucien Morningstar: 5000

Galactic Games 2nd Lieutenant: 4000

When he pulled a card out of his hand he saw that one of his fingers had a streak of silver on it. By now the smoke had cleared and he was suspicious. He had already been set on edge by the use of the card that had set his house on fire and expected the shadows to leap out and seize him at any moment. He took out the paper and began unfolding it. As soon as he caught a few letters he knelt down as if to tie his shoe. It was embarrassing, feigning tying his shoe for no apparent reason in front of the crowd, but well worth it.

The paper contained a note written in silver eyeliner…

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Mr. Dongard returned smiling from a highly profitable coffee break. The loss of that idiot last round had been turned to his advantage. The higher ups had made a decision that had been related to Mr. Dongard and his peers by a secretary; "It has been decided that any duelist may decided to have his slash her own name placed on the board in place of their team slash ranking. Such a decision may also be made by a team captain, parent and slash or guardian, or administrative supervisor."

None of the other supervisors was willing to put their clients' names up for fear that they would be humiliated. Mr. Dongard had seen a reporter's notes. The loss would be going down in infamy. Nowhere had the prediction been made that the terms 'a Jess Colbert loss' or 'a loss of Colbert proportion' would come into use and that was practically a guarantee.

The smile slipped from Mr. Dongard's face when he saw what was on the screen. His client was kneeling down, apparently tying a shoe lace during the middle of a duel. Didn't he realize what people would think? The people read too many novels. They would naturally assume that he was reading a love note slipped to him unseen, or crying his eyes out at his terrible position. They might even think he was reading a note that was a part of some secret conspiracy to take over the world. People would think of such absurd things.

It didn't help that Lucien had that long, dramatic, last name either. He sounded like a celebrity already. No need to ask him to change his name when he reached stardom. But it was too impersonal. Lucien would need to be a people's man.

Mr. Dongard smiled. With a slight edit would come the induction into a higher level of bureaucracy. If Lucien won of course, but that was a minor point.

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Steal one of my monsters

Lys

The note looked rushed. If it was not for the signature Lucien would have thought it to be incomplete. As it was he doubted that the author had been given time to write their full name out. On that note, no pun intended, there was only one person who could have authored the note: his opponent.

But why would his opponent want him to steal one of his monsters? And did he want Lucien to physically take the card, or play a card to bring it to his side of the field? Either way, it made very little sense. Why would he want Lucien to do either of those things in the first place? None of it made sense.

Lucien came to a decision and formulated his move. It was almost too perfect really. "To begin my turn I will summon this card; Amazon Archer. Then I will use her special ability to sacrifice two monsters on my field to inflict 1200 direct damage to your life points. So first I will sacrifice two of the Ojama Tokens which you so kindly gave me."

Lucien: 4400

Galactic Games 2nd Lieutenant: 2800

Lucien blinked at the change in the display. Not only had his name been truncated, but his life points had gone down. Then he remembered. Ojama Tokens deal me 300 points of damage each when they are destroyed. I need to keep that in mind.

"I'll repeat the maneuver with the last token and Goblin Attack Force."

Lucien: 4100

Galactic Games 2nd Lieutenant: 1600

"Finally I will play Brain Control, paying 800 life points to seize control of Ebon Magician Curran."

Lucien: 3300

Galactic Games 2nd Lieutenant: 1600

Lucien's opponent who he now took to be called Lys quietly flipped one of his face down cards that showed the image of a goat diving in front of White Magician Pikeru. That gives away more than he might wish.

"Are you going to tell us about this wonderful card of yours?" Lucien was ticked by his opponent's sullenness.

"It's called Royal Body Double. This card may only be activated when a monster with Curran or Pikeru in the title is targeted by a card effect. It creates a Body Double Token with the same stats as the targeted monster and switches the target to the token. So you just stole the body double token." Lys drew an object out of his pocket and slipped it into a slot at the side of the compartment, presumably it was the token and the slot for the purpose of exchanging the control of cards.

When the token came through, it turned out to be a quarter. The strange thing was this quarter had things stuck to it. Lucien peeled one off; it was a very small picture of Lucien about to smash in a gangster's nose with a metal pipe. The other was a picture of Lucien in the same position, but with his eyes closed and no pipe.

What the hell?

Lucien was in a daze. He couldn't make sense of it. He pocketed the Sticky-Pix and placed the quarter on his field. A holographic image of Ebon Magician Curran appeared on his side of the field.

"I sacrifice the token and Amazon Archer itself to deal more damage to you."

"I'll chain to that, A Rival Appears! This card allows me to special summon a monster in my hand with the same level as a monster on your field. And the token I gave you has the same level as White Magician Pikeru. Of course this does nothing to stop the damage."

Lucien: 3300

Galactic Games 2nd Lieutenant: 400

"I'll end my turn."

"Well I draw and then Pikeru-"

Lucien cut Lys off with a hand motion and flipped a card. "Pikeru does nothing, this ends here. I flip this card during your draw phase. Go Just Desserts. It deals you five hundred in direct damage for each monster on your field. You have three which is three too many."

Lys smiled as both duelists walked down from their platforms. Lucien walked to the middle where he had shaken hands with the other team captain earlier and beckoned his defeated opponent over.

Lys came and Lucien looked him sternly in the eye as if he had committed some misdemeanor. "Here's your quarter."

Lucien pressed it into his hand, maybe a little harder than necessary, and turned back toward his teammates. Out of his range of sight Lys turned the coin over in his hand before making a quick dash for the restrooms. Not only was his team captain looking at him angrily, but his make-up had started to run.