Disclaimer: Happy New Year! We managed to keep the resolution to get some more reviews, but we failed to keep the resolution to get the rights to Yu-Gi-Oh. Oh well…All original cards and characters belong to us, everything else belongs to the creators of the show and card game (for now).
A/N: Thank you to all of our loyal readers and reviewers! Sorry we're posting a little later than we normally do, but it has been a crazy day. Enjoy the new chapter, the first one of 2006! Woot!
A/N: Boring plot stuff ahead, please read any way. Important to the story.
Previously:
Mai had a run in with an old friend of the Yugi team: Mako Tsunami! Unfortunately, the ocean duelist had joined the side of evil! Mai pulled off a victory (barely) and now we return to Domino City for our next exciting chapter!
Chapter 7
True Colors
Joey, Serenity, and Celeste all arrived at the Kami Game Shop at roughly 5:00 pm. Yugi met them at the door wearing his school uniform, as he always did, and the Millennium Puzzle around his neck. His hair was still spiked up, helping to decrease the difference between his height and Joey's.
"Hi Joey." Yugi said, "I thought you were going to be here sooner. What kept you?"
"Sorry," Joey explained, "It took a little longer than I expected to get here. First I had to clean all that stuff from the bottom of the bat cave off my shoes, then I had to convince my mom to let Serenity stay a little longer, since she refused to leave until she knew there was a plan to keep me from taking any more sudden falls."
"Oh." Yugi said, "Well come on in."
Joey and Serenity walked in without hesitation. Celeste followed behind them and Yugi glanced at the new girl and then looked toward Joey.
"Oh Yug, this is Celeste. She looked after Serenity while I was in the bat exhibit." Joey explained
Celeste blushed a bit.
"It was nothing really, just what anyone would have done." She muttered
"Well, any friend of Joey's is a friend of mine." Yugi explained, "Come on, Tristan and Tea are already waiting upstairs."
The group went inside and up to Yugi's room over the store (Grandpa was busy checking the stock room in back) where Tristan and Tea were waiting.
Tristan was wearing his usual brown jacket and blue jeans; he smoothed his brown hair out a little and flashed a smile to Serenity as she entered.
Tea was in her blue denim vest and skirt; she smiled as she saw Joey and Serenity, then looked confused as Celeste entered.
"Sorry," Yugi apologized, "Tristan, Tea, this is Celeste. Celeste, this is Tristan and Tea.
"Alright Yugi." Tristan sighed, "We're all here, given that Duke Devlin is on a business trip in San Francisco and Bakura is studying for finals. Now what did Joey do this time that required us all to meet here again?"
Serenity and Celeste took seats on floor (Tristan tried to move next to Serenity but Tea pulled him back to her side) as Joey retold his tale about his visit to the zoo. He was just about finished when the phone began to ring.
Yugi picked it up.
"Hello, Kami Game Shop. How can I help you?" He greeted.
Yugi was silent for a minute, then a huge smile broke onto his face.
"Oh hey Mai! What's up... uh Mako Tsunami? Yeah... yeah... I know him. He's a pretty good guy...wait he what!"
Yugi's smile faded, and the others, who had been whispering excitedly about the reason Mai may have called, leaned in close to try and hear what Mai was saying.
"Did you just say he attacked you using something called the Elemental Seal of Water? Well who won? He forfeited? Now that can't be the same Mako I know, the Mako I know would never surrender!"
Yugi paused as though listening to Mai list off something.
"Well it sounds like Mako, but that's still hard to believe."
Just then the phone made a beeping noise.
"Look Mai, can you call back in a little while, there is some one on the other line. OK then in a half hour, thanks."
Yugi quickly switched the line over.
"Hello, Kami Game Shop... Kaiba? Why are you calling me... yes this phone has a speaker option."
Yugi pressed a button on the phone and a slight beeping could be heard over the speaker.
"Is that a heart monitor?" Tea whispered.
"Sounds like one." Tristan whispered back.
"The gang is all here Kaiba so what do you need?" Yugi asked.
The young CEO cleared his throat.
"I was just on the phone with Ishizu Ishtar. She didn't have your number and asked me to contact you on her behalf. Apparently, a strange pair of duelists using something called the seals of wind and earth attacked her and her brother. And I was recently attacked by some punk just this afternoon!"
Yugi looked worried. Glancing over at Joey, he could see that his friend was now paying attention to the young CEO.
"Maybe I should take it from here. You need your rest Seto." Mokuba's voice broke in.
"What happened?" Yugi and Joey asked at the same time.
Celeste and the others leaned in to hear the phone better.
"Earlier this afternoon," Mokuba explained, "My brother was attacked by some weird kid with red hair, a deck full of fire monsters, and, you guys won't believe this, pyrokinesis!"
"Pyroki-whatsis?" Joey asked.
"It means control over fire." Tea sighed, "Some people actually pay attention in Latin class. Pyro means fire, and Kinesis means movement."
"Right." Mokuba said, "Anyway, this kid breaks in, does major damage to our office building, and challenges Seto to a duel. Get this though, Seto actually loses and winds up hospitalized!"
"Whoa, seriously?" Tristan exclaimed, "Just like that?"
"Not really," Mokuba continued, "Seto told me his opponent used something called the 'Elemental Seal of Fire' and the attacker took something from Seto after the duel."
"What did he take?" Yugi asked.
"We haven't figure that out at yet. But afterwards, when Seto recovered after the duel, we had a little duel here at the hospital (at Seto's request), and I won no problem!"
"I didn't know you still dueled." Yugi commented, as he remembered Duelist Kingdom.
"That's the problem. I'm nowhere near as good as Seto! Whatever happened to him, Seto is now even worse than Joey was when he first started playing Duel Monsters!" Mokuba fretted.
"Correction," Seto's voice broke in, "No one could ever be as poor a duelist as Wheeler at any point in his dueling career."
"Oh yeah!" Joey shouted, "Then how come I managed to beat the freak that came after me?"
"Dumb luck, as usual." Seto explained.
"IF YOU WEREN'T ALREADY IN THE HOSPITAL I'D PUT YOU THERE MYSELF!" Joey shouted
As Tristan and Tea worked to restrain Joey, while Serenity and Celeste had a good laugh at the sudden outburst, Yugi turned off the speakerphone and picked up the receiver again.
"Was any one else hurt?" Yugi asked.
He was silent for a second as Kaiba answered.
"No, good. Now listen, Joey and Mai were attacked also, by Mako and some new kid named Brian, and I think there might be a connection. If you like we could compare info by meeting somewhere after school tomorrow. Maybe we can figure out just what is going on here... of course you don't have to believe in any magic or stuff like that... yes I'm sure your capable of handling this yourself, but... what if they attack again and Mokuba gets hurt?"
There was silence for another minute.
"OK at your research facility downtown tomorrow? The day after? Why...oh Ishizu is coming to town? But why? So Marik wont get hurt anymore what hap..."
Another moment of silence.
"I'm putting you back on speaker. The others should hear this."
Yugi hit the speaker button and Seto's voice filled the room.
"Well, yes, it seems both Marik and I lost to these duelists. As you heard my brother say, I'm not dueling at my best. However I've been dueling for the past hour and I seem to be showing very little improvement, though considering how good I was before, it will take a long time to get close to a fraction of my former ability. Maybe if the mutt were out of commission instead…"
Joey gritted his teeth.
"I dare you to finish that sentence." He growled
Serenity grabbed his arm and stopped him from trying to smash the phone. He took some deep breaths to calm down.
Joey looked up at Yugi.
"Since when do we owe Kaiba any favors?" He asked.
"Joey makes a good point." Tea said, "Last I checked, Kaiba was still out to beat you Yugi."
"He might be faking a loss just to trap you!" Tristan warned.
Yugi shook his head.
"I don't think Kaiba would go that far guys. Granted he's been pretty sneaky and conniving in the past, but faking a loss just to get to me isn't his style."
"I can still hear you." Seto grumbled, "And like I told you before, we can meet at my research facility, seeing as my office is being refurbished. Once we know what we're dealing with, we should be able to put a stop to this. After all, these duelists can't be that good. I checked the list of Battle City duelists and there are no records of the ones that attacked the Ishtars or me, though I could check on the other two. In any case, I'll see the lot of you in two days."
With that, Seto hung up leaving the group just staring at each other
Suddenly Joey sat up and looked at Celeste
"What was it you said about underground tournaments back at my house? I've never heard of those."
The rest of the group looked at the new girl who had been sitting quietly this whole time.
She looked up slowly.
"It's pretty simple to understand. Underground tourneys are often held by private card shops that want to see what local duelists are using. For instance if 70 of your local customers use Spellcasters then if you keep a good stock of Spellcasters and related cards your more likely to do good business." Celeste said in a soft voice as she stared at the floor, "There are also a lot of really good duelists who don't want to turn pro that will attend. That way they can duel and avoid attention."
"Then maybe these attackers have been going to these tournaments." Tea theorized, "That would explain why Kaiba wouldn't recognize them."
"Or it could just be that Kaiba is a conceited jerk." Tristan pointed out.
"You know, I always thought underground tournaments were the sorts of tourneys that punks or bullies would go to just to play with an ante rule when no ones around." Joey stated.
Celeste seemed greatly offended.
"Well some people do that, but most underground tournaments are just harmless card shop games. I'm glad to say I don't participate in any of those back-alley tournaments!" She huffed.
Everyone sat around for a minute or two until Yugi spoke up.
"Ummmm…OK, I hate to say it but there's nothing else we can do here. So why don't we split until school tomorrow. I'll tell Mai about the meeting when she calls back, and maybe you can meet us after school Celeste." He said.
"That won't be necessary." Celeste grinned, "You go to Domino City High, right?"
"Yes." Yugi stated.
"Well, I'm going to be attending it to!" Celeste said with a smile, "I might see you guys there, and maybe we can duel Yugi."
Tea opened her mouth to speak when Joey cut her off.
"Wait, you're going to our school?" He asked.
"Yeah. I'm sort of here on a summer exchange program." Celeste explained, "I take Japanese as a second language back home and my teachers agreed to let me come here and attend school as part of the student exchange program."
"Wow, that's awesome!" Yugi cheered, "You're so good at Japanese I never would have guessed you came from another country!"
"Yeah, it's a great program." Celeste said glancing at the clock, "Whoa, look at the time! Sorry, I have to go. I told my group I'd meet them around 5:30 and now I got to go or I'll be late!"
"I think we'd all better call it a night." Yugi stated.
The others nodded in agreement and headed out the door.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Later that evening, after dinner, Yugi was up in his room again, looking through his cards.
"It would seem that trouble is beginning to brew." A voice echoed in Yugi's mind.
Yugi looked up from his deck, and smiled as he saw a taller version of himself, the spirit of the pharaoh (otherwise known as Yami) sitting in the chair by his desk.
"Looks like it partner." Yugi sighed, "And if these duelists have gone after Ishizu, Marik, Mai, Kaiba, and Joey, then chances are they'll be after me at some point."
"Yes…" Yami agreed, "But there appears to be some form of pattern behind the attacks."
"What do you mean?" Yugi asked.
"The five who have been attacked so far, do you realize what they all have in common?" Yami queried.
Yugi thought for a minute, images of past matches involving those duelists flashing through his mind.
And then it dawned on him.
"They were all in the top eight at Battle City!" Yugi exclaimed.
"Yugi, keep it down!" Grandpa Mutoh shouted up the stairs, "I've got a lot of work to do!"
"Sorry!" Yugi shouted back.
"But you're right." Yami pointed out, "And I believe that the victims so far have been chosen because of Battle City."
"But why attack Battle City finalists rather than contestants from the Grand Championship?" Yugi asked, "That was the last major tournament we participated in after that whole Orichalcos experience."
Yugi and Yami both shuddered. Neither of them wanted to remember how close they had come to meeting their end at the hands of Dartz and his Seal of Orichalcos. The Grand Championship that took place just a few weeks later had almost been as bad, with A Kaiba Corp. rival that few had ever heard of stepping up to try and overthrow the corporate giant.
Things had finally begun to calm down during the last several months. Yugi still could barely walk around in public without a pack of duelists trying to challenge him, but the hype had started to die down a little bit.
Yami was the first to stop reminiscing as he spoke up again.
"It's possible," He stated, "That they aren't going after Grand Championship duelists because there were a few duelists, like Mai, whom Kaiba was unable to invite to the tournament."
"Yeah!" Yugi exclaimed, "And Mako wasn't in that tournament either, but he was at Battle City. Maybe the reason he never showed up after Battle City was because he joined up with this new group."
"Exactly." Yami declared, "Possibly even competing in those underground tournaments Celeste mentioned."
"Speaking of Celeste, what do you think of her?" Yugi asked.
"I'm not sure." Yami said, "To be honest, I sense something…odd about her."
Yugi looked back down at his cards, and carefully put his deck into its holder on the nightstand.
"Well, she seems cool." Yugi stated, "But you're right, there's just something about her…"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next day, Yugi and the gang were hanging around in their third period history class, around Yugi's desk. Tea was sitting at the desk next to Yugi (despite the fact it wasn't her assigned seat), Tristan was standing next to Tea, and Bakura, wearing his school uniform and doing his best to keep his shoulder length white hair out of his eyes, was in his assigned chair in front of Yugi. Joey was in his science class down the hall, the one class he didn't share with his friends this semester.
The school year was drawing to a close, with final exams just around the corner, and the teachers had been pushing the students throughout the month. About five minutes of downtime between classes was all that Yugi and his friends had to talk.
"Sounds to me like they're after Battle City duelists." Bakura commented, after hearing about the meeting he had missed.
"That's what I thought." Yugi agreed.
"But then, why wouldn't they be after me?" Bakura asked.
"Well, you never officially signed up for the tournament, did you?" Tristan asked, "They probably figured you cheated your way in and weren't worth the effort to hunt down, or something like that."
"I guess…" Bakura started.
Then the teacher called their attention to the front of class.
"Excuse me class! I would like to introduce Miss Celeste Hikari. She will be studying here for a short while as part of a student exchange program from America."
Shocked, Yugi and the others looked up to the front of the room and were surprised to see their new friend standing there, wearing a pink and blue uniform like Tea's with her hair held in a bun by an elastic band.
"Hello everyone." She said with a shy smile.
The teacher looked around the class.
"Mr. Mutoh? That seat which Ms. Gardener is occupying at the moment doesn't have an assigned student, correct?" He asked.
"Ummm... yes sir." Stammered Yugi.
"Excellent! Miss Hikari please take the seat on the right of Mr. Mutoh. Ms. Gardener I believe you have an assigned seat next to Mr. Taylor, so would you sit there now." The teacher requested.
Tea opened her mouth to protest, but Tristan took her bye the arm and the two of them headed for their desks over by the window. Celeste walked over to Yugi and primly sat in her new seat, smoothing out her skirt and leaning a bit toward him.
"Some coincidence, eh Yugi?" Celeste mused, "I never expected us to have a class together!"
"I know what you mean." Yugi whispered, "Hey, you asked if we could duel sometime, how about at lunch?"
"Sounds great!" Celeste whispered.
Tea, in the meantime, was watching out of the corner of her eye.
"Who does that Celeste think she is?" She thought as she watched the girl flirt with Yugi.
"Tea, is something wrong?" asked Tristan
"It's nothing!" Tea snapped back.
"Okay, sheesh…" Tristan muttered as the teacher called the room to order.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After history came math, one of the many classes that Yugi shared with all of his friends, including Joey. As before, Yugi and his friends were surprised (and in Tea's case slightly angered) to discover that Celeste shared this class with them!
"Pretty weird huh?" Celeste asked as she took the desk behind Joey.
"You sure you didn't plan it this way?" Joey whispered.
Celeste giggled a little.
"You don't need to worry about that Joey, I'm just as surprised at my luck as you are." She assured him.
As class got into full swing though, Celeste was beginning to wonder about her luck.
"No matter where you go math is still boring." She said to herself.
Her train of thought was derailed as she looked at the shadow cast by Joey's desk.
Celeste gasped sharply as a hand began to reach out of the shadow! Closing her eyes, Celeste began to take deep breaths in order to keep from screaming.
"You okay?" Joey asked.
Celeste glanced under the desk and saw the hand had vanished.
"Fine," She whispered, "Just a headache."
"Alright then." Joey whispered.
And with that, he returned to trying to focus on taking notes without falling asleep like Celeste nearly had.
"Jooooeeeey…" A sinister voice whispered.
Joey blinked in surprise, then glanced around the room. Seeing no one, he returned to his notes.
"You're mine now Wheeler." The voice whispered again, "Just look down here…"
Joey gulped as he heard that, and carefully glanced under his desk…
Just in time to see the hand coming out of his shadows again and grab his ankle!
Joey screamed and jumped backward, falling over Celeste's desk and pitching them both to the floor.
The teacher looked up.
"Mr. Wheeler while I'm sure it's a major event for you to actually comprehend something, the rest of the class would like to learn, so if you would please stay in your seat, I could continue." She requested.
Gasping for breath, both Joey and Celeste got to their feet. Joey carefully checked under his desk, resulting in many snickers from his classmates, before sitting down.
Yugi looked over at his friend and caught his eye. Joey just adopted a look that said, "We need to talk."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Down in the school's basement, Brian Hokage was pacing back and forth, muttering to himself.
"Well that was a bust." Brian muttered angrily, "I wouldn't have guessed Joey could escape my grip. And that scream ensured I can't try that again anytime soon…"
Suddenly an orb of yellow light appeared in front of him. It glimmered brightly, reflecting and refracting in an agitated manner.
" I suppose that was your handy work? Don't bother denying it I saw the whole thing!" A voice echoed from the orb, "You need to be more careful. You nearly ruined my cover!"
The dark duelist focused his thoughts to complete the connection.
"Look, we both have a job to do. Maybe you could hurry up a little, seeing as your target will not just hand you his talent." Brian retorted
"Just make sure you and the others stay out of my way." The ball requested.
The ball began to fade and Brian broke his part of the connection.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After class, Yugi and the others met in the hall outside of the classroom as they tried to calm Joey down (with little success).
"HOW CAN I POSSIBLY BE CALM !" Screamed Joey, "That freaky dark duelist is after me and he's nearby!
"Now just try and take some deep breaths." Tea suggested.
"Deep breaths…" Joey muttered, "Wait a minute, Celeste was breathing hardbefore I was attacked!"
Joey stared at Celeste.
"You saw it too, didn't you?" He accused.
Celeste backed away a bit.
"Yes I saw it." She admitted, "But things like this don't happen where I'm from, shadows stick to the ground and don't jump around like Peter Pan's does on a sugar high! I thought I was dreaming, math tends to make me do that."
"Well either way, we need…to…be…" Yugi began to explain.
Then he noticed a shadow hand reaching out of the floor from behind Joey.
"JOEY!" Yugi shouted.
Joey turned around and ducked, just as the top half of Brian's body came out of the shadow of the open classroom door.
"Hang on there Wheeler, we need to talk!" Yelled Brian.
Joey stepped back, away from the figure climbing out of the shadows, when suddenly a light bulb above Joey's head flared with brilliant light. Brian screamed as the shadow he came out of was dissipated, causing him to vanish, then the bulb shattered.
"What was that you were saying before?" Tristan asked as the shadow reappeared.
Brian began to climb out of the floor again, the crystal in his necklace shimmering with deep purple light.
"Forget what I said before. RUN!" Yugi shouted.
Yugi, Joey, Tea, Tristan, and Celeste all took off down the hall as fast as they could. Brian fully pulled himself out of the floor and started after them.
Bakura was left standing all by himself, watching as the others headed down the hall.
"So that was the duelist of darkness, eh?" Bakura muttered as a cruel grin appeared on his face, "How interesting…"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yugi and the others were continuing down the hall, trying to find somewhere to escape from Brian. The lights behind them were shattering as Brian passed under them, causing the hallway behind them to be clouded in shadows.
"Yugi? The cafeteria is on the left, right?" gasped Celeste as they approached an intersection.
"Yeah," Yugi confirmed, "but why…"
"Talk later." Celeste said quickly.
The teens turned left and reached the lunchroom in no time. Throwing open the doors, they ran inside (Joey pulling the doors closed behind them), and Celeste began to tip the tables onto their sides.
"Why is she…" Joey started to ask.
Suddenly the shadow of one of the tables began to move toward Joey.
"Watch out!" Tea shouted, running to the table and knocking it onto its side like Celeste had.
The shadow of the table was immediately dissipated by the fluorescent lights overhead.
"Oh, that's why." Joey said, eyes wide.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Outside the cafeteria, Brian reached toward the door, but just as his hand closed on the handle a flash of light nearly blinded him and forced him back.
"OK, OK, I get it you want me to leave them alone. But once you engage your target I'm taking another crack at Joey." Brian muttered, "Best of luck to you…"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It took about ten minutes, but Celeste and the others had managed to shadow-proof the cafeteria.
As Tea leaned back against one of the many upturned tables, taking a seat between Yugi and Tristan, she had to admit Celeste had come up with a good idea.
"We should be safe till lunch." She thought as she began to doze off a little, "Or until that dark guy finds a way in here…"
"Hey Tea, try to stay awake!" Tristan shouted.
Tea jerked herself back into a sitting position.
"Sorry Tristan, I guess things got a little to exciting for me there." She blushed.
"Yeah, well, next time you doze off try to drool on your own shoulder." Tristan muttered as picked up a napkin and wiped it across his jacket.
Tea blushed a little, then looked around.
"Hey, where's Bakura?" She asked.
The others glanced around and realized that their white haired friend was missing.
"Well, we know these new duelists aren't after him, right?" Yugi asked.
"How can we be sure?" Tea countered, "That dark guy may have grabbed him!"
"I wouldn't worry." Celeste assured them, "From the sound of things these guys haven't tried to hurt anyone other than their intended targets."
"Besides, if anyone was their next target, it would be you Yug." Joey pointed out.
"You're right." Yugi sighed, "Now maybe we should try to figure out what else we know about these guys."
"Well, we know the one that came after me used dark monsters." Joey pointed out.
"Yeah," Tristan agreed, "And the didn't Mokuba say that the one that attacked Kaiba used fire monsters?
"And Kaiba mentioned Marik and Ishizu got attacked by some people using earth and wind!" Tea exclaimed.
"Plus Mai said Mako used the 'Seal of Water.'" Yugi nodded, "Earth, Dark, Fire, Wind and Water…Wait, those are all elements in Duel Monsters!"
The others nodded in agreement, then Tea looked up.
"Wait, I thought there were six elements in the game." She pointed out.
"That's true." Yugi said, "The last one is Light. So I guess, by process of elimination, I should face a duelist using creatures of light, and a seal to match."
Celeste, who had been completely silent, was listening intently but slowly backing up.
"So then where would the duelist of light be?" Joey asked.
Celeste suddenly spoke up.
"Why, where the light is brightest of course." She said.
Yugi and crew got to their feet just in time for a wall of light to push back Joey, Tea, Tristan, and a pile of tables.
Yugi stared at the person who had sent the light.
"Celeste! You mean that you're…" He stammered.
Celeste just smiled.
"The Elemental Duelist of Light, that's right." Celeste explained.
Yugi gasped as he and Celeste were both lifted up by platforms of light, like the old duel stations of Duelist Kingdom. In front of each of them appeared a dueling mat made from light, and circle of light surrounded the field, obscuring Yugi's view of the outside.
"Hey, you said we could duel during lunch. Would you like the first turn?" She asked.
Yugi just stared at the circle around him, to stunned to speak.
"I guess not." Celeste sighed as a sphere of light appeared in front of her and a deck of cards dropped onto her mat.
Yugi gasped as a hand made of light pulled his cards out of its holster near his waist and placed his deck in front of him. He hurriedly pulled five cards off his deck as Celeste drew six from hers.
Finally, numbers made of light appeared over both of them, indicating their life points.
Celeste LP: 8000
Yugi LP: 8000
Celeste smiled as she held up the six cards in her opening hand.
"Well, let's get started with this: the ELEMENT SEAL OF LIGHT!" Celeste declared.
In a burst of light, a yellow five-pointed star appeared on the ground between Yugi and Celeste. Yellow star shaped tattoos appeared on Celeste's body and her eyes began to glow with yellow light.
"Of course, the Seal of Light will increase the attack of my creatures of light by 200 points, so I'll summon White Ninja (1700/800) in attack mode." Celeste declared.
In a burst of light, a man dressed in a pure white ninja gi appeared in front of Celeste.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joey and the others were watching from the outside through the wall of light, which was giving everything a yellow tinge. Joey just shook his head.
"That move didn't make any sense White Ninja can only use its effect if it's flip summoned. So why would she open with it in attack mode?" He asked.
Tea looked on fearfully as Celeste held up a new card.
"I think we're about to find out." She muttered.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A sudden blast of energy shot down around the White Ninja, transforming it into a cloud of vapor as Celeste placed her card on the field.
"What was that?" Yugi shouted.
"That was my Mystic Wok, which will destroy one monster that I control so that I can increase my life points by its attack points." Celeste explained, "And now I'll activate one of the powers of my Seal of Light. By discarding a monster from my hand, I'll increase my life points by half of the monsters attack points. I think I'll discard The Creator Incarnate (1600/1500)."
Celeste pulled a card out of her hand and placed it in the graveyard pile, on top of her ninja and her spell. Immediately, a ghostly image of a man in golden armor appeared and dissolved into sparks which swooped around Celeste, increasing her life points alongside the Mystic Wok's vapors
Celeste LP: 10500
Yugi LP: 8000
Yugi just stared at the swirling vapors and sparks with an appalled look on his face. In a bright flash of light from his Millennium Puzzle the appalled expression was replaced by one of justified anger as Yami took control.
"You needlessly sacrifice your own monsters just to increase your life points!" Yami fumed, "How dare you disrespect your cards in such a manner!"
"Excellent!" Thought Celeste, "It seems that my master was right. This must be the soul of the great pharaoh, the one who originally sealed the Shadow Games. Best not to let him know that I know…"
Celeste grinned and responded to angered ruler.
"Not just to increase my life points Yugi." She explained, "I'll now remove both of the monsters in my graveyard from play to special summon Soul of Purity and Light (2200/1800)."
Celeste took two cards off of the graveyard area of her mat, and placed them to the side. Behind her appeared a silvery female spirit, which wrapped its arms around the elemental duelist's shoulders as it was covered in yellow stars.
"Now I'll end my turn by playing the Pot of Greed." Celeste declared as she placed the common spell into her grave and drew two new cards.
Yami drew his first card of the duel.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tea in the mean time was staring at Celeste's monster.
"Uh… I think that there's something wrong with that Soul of Purity and Light Celeste has. It looks… a lot meaner than the one I have." Tea observed.
Indeed, the creature that was floating behind Celeste had a fierce angry look on its face, in addition to its yellow eyes and star shaped tattoos, instead of the peaceful look that the card was known for.
Tristan just shrugged.
"Maybe the seal messes up the monster's appearance somehow. I mean the Seal of Oricalcos always did." He reminded everyone.
"That's it!" Joey shouted.
Tristan winced.
"Hey! I'm right here you don't have to shout!" He yelled at Joey.
"Sorry," Joey apologized, "but I just realized what this seal and the Seal of Darkness remind me of. Both of them have weird symbols in the center of them, strange letters on the outside, and they can't be removed by normal means. Just like the Seal of Orichalcos did! I'll bet that they're somehow connected!"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yami placed one card onto his field.
"I'll summon my Obnoxious Celtic Guardian (1200/1400) in defense mode." He declared
An elven warrior in green armor appeared on one knee in front of Pharaoh.
"And just so you know, he can't be destroyed by a monster with more than 1900 attack points." Yami pointed out, "That's all for my turn."
"Don't worry, I know." Celeste said
Celeste drew another card and smiled.
"First, I'll summon White Magician Pikeru (1400/0) to field in attack mode." She declared.
A pool of light appeared in front of Celeste, and a young girl in pure white robes jumped out, waving a scepter that was almost as large as she was. Immediately, she was covered in a tattoo identical to Celeste's
"Isn't she cute?" Celeste asked, "Now I'll activate Exchange, forcing us to each take a card from the others hand."
"How will that work if we can't…" Yami began.
Then the two duelists began to float toward each other until they were both hovering over the center of the field.
"Never mind." The spiky haired duelist sighed.
Celeste looked at her opponent's hand and plucked a card away.
"I'll take the Book of Secret Arts and you can have this, the only card left in my hand." She said with a grin.
As the two duelists returned to their proper places, Yami looked at the card he had been given.
"Cestus of Dagla!" he thought "But this card can only be used on fairy type monsters, and I only have one in my deck! Ah well…I guess I'll have to make due."
Celeste in the mean time placed her new card into an open spot behind Pikeru.
"I'll equip the card you gave me to my White Magician, giving her an extra 300 attack points, so now she's strong enough to beat your monster without triggering its special ability." Celeste announced.
Pikeru looked up as a spell book appeared from nowhere, and hovered down to her eye level. Pikeru smiled and tucked the tome under her left arm, and eldritch energy began to surround her body.
"Now, White Magician Pikeru (1700/0), attack his Guardian with white magic!" Celeste ordered.
The small girl laughed and gave her magic staff a spin, firing a blast of white energy at Yami's lone monster. The elven knight groaned, and then vanished in a burst of light.
As Yami blinked to clear his eyes after the flash, Celeste pointed toward him.
"Now Soul of Purity and Light attack with silver spirit ray!" She commanded.
The silvery maiden raised one hand and launched a beam of light toward the opposing duelist, who let out a cry of pain as the beam struck him.
Celeste LP: 10500
Yugi/Pharaoh LP: 5800
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Yugi!" Joey shouted from outside the wall of light.
"Don't bother shouting for him." Said a strangely calm voice, "He can't hear you."
Joey spun around and screamed.
Brian smiled wickedly as a cloud of darkness rose up behind him.
"You ready for our rematch Wheeler?" He asked.
To Be Continued…
Whoa! Celeste is one of the Elemental Duelists, Joey is in a major jam, and just what the hell happened to Bakura? If you want to find out, you'll need to wait for our next chapter
Prisms
See you then!
Elemental Seal of Light
Spell Card
Field
This card cannot be removed from the field. As long as this card remains on the field, increase the attack of all LIGHT monsters on your side of the field by 200 points. The controller of this card may treat all monsters on his/her side of the field as LIGHT monsters. Once per turn you may discard one monster from your hand and increase your life points by one-half of the original attack points of the discarded monster.