Tea's Time to Shine
Magicman: Who's up for more duelling?
(Crickets chirp.)
Magicman: *Swats crickets with fly swatter* Anyone ELSE not want to read the fic?
(Everyone ignores Magicman and continues on with their business.)
Magicman: -_//' Ah whatever. Lets just get started. By the way, this is where I start introducing cards I make up.
***
"Hey you! Are you a duelist?"
Tea and the gang was currently hanging out by a river. The dueling girl had discarded her clothes for a bathing suit and was swimming happily through the water. Yami was sleeping on the bank and Yugi was trying to pick an apple out of a nearby tree. It was kind of funny, watching him jump up a lot, trying to grab the bottom branch. He actually managed to snag it before the shout distracted him and he fell on his butt. Standing up and rubbing said butt, he looked over at the shouter.
The duelling gauntlet gave away her purpose. This duellist seemed normal enough though. Not like Akumu or Zev. Tea was relieved; she'd had enough of crazy duellists for a while. "Yeah, I'm a duellist. What's up?"
The other girl walked over to the edge of the river and stood there with her hands on her hips. "I challenge you to a duel! Get out of there so I can beat you."
Tea groaned. "Oh come on! Today was going to be my day off!"
"Too bad." The girl looked over at the forest. "Will you guys hurry up?!"
From the forest stumbled another two people, a boy and a girl. The trio looked about 13 and they had uniformly brown hair. The girls had green eyes and the boy's were blue, but Yugi thought they were related.
"Aw Chikara, don't be such a spoilsport", the boy whined. "Asuka and I were having fun!"
"Speak for yourself." The other girl shivered. "These woods are creepy. When can we go home? It's just a stupid card game!"
"Shh! Don't insult the game in front of Chikara," the boy stage whispered. "She'll go nuts and sick her monsters on you."
The duellist girl rolled her eyes. "Koji, have I told you that you're an idiot today? But enough of that." She glared at Tea. "Are you going to duel or what?"
Tea shrugged helplessly. "I don't know who I'm duelling!"
The girl straightened. "I'm Chikara Takashi", she announced proudly.
"I've never heard of you."
Chikara scowled. "That doesn't matter! Just get ready to duel!"
Tea sighed and floated on her back for a bit. "Are you sure you couldn't wait a bit? I REALLY wanted to relax for a while before my next duel."
"Why would you want to relax? You're in the middle of a tournament!" Then the look on Chikara's face soured. "Oh, I get it. You're one of those wannabe weaklings who are in it just to have a little thrill." She shook her head in disappointment. "It's people like you who ruin the sport. There's really no challenge in beating a weakling."
"What was that?!"
"You heard me, wannabe."
Tea growled. "You've got some nerve telling that to a complete stranger! Do you enjoy ruining people's days or is it just an accident that you walked by to insult me?" Somehow she managed to look fierce, even while wearing a bathing suit. Chikara wasn't impressed.
"You going to back up those words? Or are they as empty as your duelling talents?"
Tea seemed just about to blow a gasket. Then she seemed to calm down and even smile. "Alright" she conceded, "You win. Lets duel. Yugi? My duelling deck, if you would."
Yugi sighed at being dragged into this. He brought Tea her deck as the arena rose up. One glance told him that things would be interesting. Chikara's half was meadow, but Tea's was water. This would be good. As the girls got into their platforms, Chikara's companions came up to Yugi. Or rather, the boy did, dragging the girl behind him. In what seemed to be a tone of weary resignation, the bow began to apologise.
"I'm sorry about my sister. She really takes her duelling too seriously, and she doesn't like people belittling the game. By the way, I'm Koji Takashi and this is my other sister Asuka. The three of us are triplets, you see."
Yugi politely shook hands with the two. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Yugi, and my sleeping colleague," he chucked a thumb at Yami, who remained blissfully unaware of the proceedings, "is Yami. We're friends of Tea up there."
Asuka yawned and glanced at her nails, bored. Clearly, she didn't care about the proceedings. Koji looked interested. "Is your friend any good? She'll have to be. Chikara really goes nuts when the duel starts. No mercy and all that. Besides, she's really good herself. She won the local championships back home. I tell you, she was never so insufferable as she was in the days after that. She was always showing off her medal and saying how she was going to be the best and all that. Sometimes I just wanted to throw something at her-"
"Will you shut up for once?!" Asuka snapped. "It's bad enough that I have to hang around for the card games. I don't have to listen to your babbling either."
Koji looked affronted. "I'm hurt! My dear sister, you really need to relax too. Get out and have fun for once! Life isn't always about money and boys, you know."
"It's not about camping on rocks and getting bug bites either!"
Yugi just kind of stared at the sibling interaction.
Back on the duel field, Tea was sizing up the competition. "So, how many star chips do you want to bet?"
"I have four stars now, but I'm going to double them when I beat you!" Chikara smiled as she lay down her wager. Tea nodded in agreement.
"Fair enough. Four stars."
This caught Yugi's attention suddenly. "Tea, are you sure that's a good idea? If you lose, you're out of the tournament!"
"Don't worry Yugi. I have everything under control."
"Control? You don't know what control means. Tea, is it? A pretty name." Chikara's smile turned mean. "The name of a weakling."
"My friends don't think so", Tea shot back. "And their opinion actually matters to me. Do you have friends who'll back you up?"
"It doesn't matter. There's only room for two in the duelling arena. Friendship is just a distraction to take your mind off what needs to be done."
"And you don't see anything wrong with that?! You're insane!"
"No, I'm just determined. But enough talk, wannabe. It's time to duel!"
The trash talking done, the duel was under way at last. Tea flipped a coin and won, choosing to go first. The girls drew their starting hands and prepared to have it out.
"I'll start off with Dancing Fairies (1700/1000) in attack mode" she called out, playing the card. The trio of fairies flew happily above the surface of the water, giggling and pirouetting with each other. Tea smiled at them. They were one of her favourite cards. "You move."
"Alright then. I'll defend with one monster and end my turn."
Tea frowned thoughtfully at the glowing square, marking the card. 'It's probably a trap' she thought to herself, 'But I won't have a better chance to disarm it. I have stronger monsters, so I can afford to lose my fairies.' "I'll attack your monster with Dancing Fairies!"
The fairies suddenly began to spin and dance at faster speeds. They began to glow a faint blue colour and when they were done gathering energy, they fired a magical attack at the card. A couple of small lizard men with wings vaporised under the assault. But when the dust cleared more had taken their place.
"What the-?"
"You attacked my Troop Dragon (700/800) monster. When they're destroyed, I can special summon another one. And now that it's my turn again....." Chikara drew a card and shrugged. "This won't do at all. I'll just have to end my turn."
Tea growled. She knew when she was being insulted. "Fine then, you're so smart then dodge this! I'll switch my fairies to defence mode and summon Gemini Elf (1900/900) to destroy your troop dragon again! Attack with Tag Team Assault!"
The elves materialised and immediately launched into a whirling attack on the dragon card. The monster didn't stand a chance and was blown away, but yet another Troop Dragon took its place. Chikara yawned widely, revealing a set of shiny white teeth. "Don't you have anything better to do?"
"Clearly I don't. But I've almost gotten rid of your stupid dragons."
"You really don't stand a chance, you know."
Tea scowled. This girl was really pissing her off! "You're the one hiding behind a weak monster!"
Chikara allowed a hint of a smile to reach her face. "I'll set one magic card and end my turn."
Tea drew and hesitated before her move. Chikara was so confident that she'd win. It was almost like she had some master plan. Deciding that her lifepoints were safe for now with two monsters to guard them, she decided against summoning another monster. "First I gain a thousand lifepoints due to my Dancing Fairies' ability." As she spoke, a cloud of fairy dust surrounded Tea, increasing her lifepoints. "Next I'll destroy your last Troop Dragon with my Gemini Elf." Tea watched as the elf twins pulverized the dragon. "Then I'll set one card facedown and end my turn."
"Good. Because now I've got you right where I want you."
Tea felt a feeling of dread as Chikara drew her card and smirked at it. "I have everything that I need now. I play Polymerisation and reveal my facedown card, Signed In Triplicate!"
"What is that?!"
Chikara was only too happy to explain. "By giving up half my lifepoints, I get to copy one magic card I play by three. So instead of playing one Polymerisation card, I have three, and I'm going to put them to good use. I fuse Flame Manipulator and Masaki the Legendary Swordsman into the Flame Swordsman (1800/1600), Time Wizard and Baby Dragon into Thousand Dragon (2400/2000), and Red Eyes Black Dragon and Summoned Skull into Black Skull Dragon (3200/2800)!"
The sky seemed to darken and a contract appeared on the field, bearing three signatures. One of the signatures flared up and the Flame Swordsman appeared in a burst of fire. The second signature flared and the Thousand Dragon arrived in a rush of wind. The final signature disappeared and the Black Skull Dragon seemed to materialise out of a cloud of darkness. All three seemed to glow with a freaky inner light. Chikara laughed at the look on Tea's face.
"I wouldn't blame you for giving up now! But I hate quitters."
Yugi gasped. "Wow! I didn't even know that card existed!"
Koji nodded. "It's unbelievably rare. Chikara just pulled her classic knockout move. There aren't many people who can pull out of this. They usually get pulverized in the next turn or so."
Asuka looked over at the monsters and sighed, unimpressed. "I don't see what's so fascinating about this little game."
Koji shook his head in disgust. "Someone is staring down the mouths of three of the strongest monsters n our sister's deck and you don't feel anything for them? Sometimes I wonder if we're really related."
"So do I."
Yugi sighed and returned to the duel. Chikara seemed to be gloating some more. Glancing over at the tree, Yami was still asleep. Sighing, he hurried over and shook the ex-pharaoh. "Wake up! Tea's in a duel!"
Yami grumbled something in ancient Egyptian, interspersed with English. Yugi sweat dropped when he heard the words 'Hang he that disturbs my sleep' and shook harder. "Wake up!"
"Hunh.....?" Yami woke up finally, just as Chikara ordered an attack.
"Flame Swordsman, destroy the Dancing Fairies with Flaming sword of battle!"
The Swordsman cut through the fairies like they were made of lint. The explosion finally caught Yami's attention.
"Whoa!" he said when he checked out the playing field. "What happened?"
"Tea's in trouble." Yugi summarised sarcastically. "What more is there?"
"Not a whole lot, apparently." Yami looked at the field more closely and sighed in relief. "It's not as bad as it looks. Tea has a few options, and she has a big lifepoint advantage. It won't be easy, but she can get out of this trap."
Koji was listening to the conversation and snorted. "My sister may be obsessed with the game, but she never loses. Your friend is toast. Face it!"
"You don't know Tea."
"I don't have to."
Chikara snickered at the action on the shore. "It seems our groupies are at each other's throats. Lets give them something to argue about. Black Skull Dragon, attack her Gemini Elf with Molten Fireball attack!"
The dragon opened its mouth, revealing a searing furnace, and launched its attack. The fireball screamed toward the elf twins but was suddenly stopped by three sages in blue robes. Their prayers negated the fireball, leaving Tea's monster and her lifepoints unscathed.
"My Wobaku trap protected me. It's not over yet."
"It will be soon enough! There are only a handful of monsters that can take out mine, and I doubt you have any of them in your deck!"
Tea scanned her hand hurriedly. Unfortunately, her opponent had a point. And with all her star chips on the line she was in a jam. She had nothing in her deck that could stand up to that huge dragon, and anything smaller would get diced by the backup monsters. 'I've got to think of something, or I'll be going back to Domino sooner than I really want to!'
***
Magicman: Dun, dun, dunnn.....
Pegasus: You know I'm sure there are qualified musicians that could make the sinister music for you. Then you wouldn't have to humiliate yourself like that.
Magicman: Where's the fun in that?
Pegasus: Granted.
Joey: Hey! She stole three of my monsters!
Tea: Oh come on. You're not the only one who uses those monsters. Just like how Yugi isn't the only one who uses the Dark Magician, no matter how much he may want to think so.
Joey: Yeah? Well.....you're mean!
Tea: A wonderful comeback. I'll see you next time people.
Magicman: Who's up for more duelling?
(Crickets chirp.)
Magicman: *Swats crickets with fly swatter* Anyone ELSE not want to read the fic?
(Everyone ignores Magicman and continues on with their business.)
Magicman: -_//' Ah whatever. Lets just get started. By the way, this is where I start introducing cards I make up.
***
"Hey you! Are you a duelist?"
Tea and the gang was currently hanging out by a river. The dueling girl had discarded her clothes for a bathing suit and was swimming happily through the water. Yami was sleeping on the bank and Yugi was trying to pick an apple out of a nearby tree. It was kind of funny, watching him jump up a lot, trying to grab the bottom branch. He actually managed to snag it before the shout distracted him and he fell on his butt. Standing up and rubbing said butt, he looked over at the shouter.
The duelling gauntlet gave away her purpose. This duellist seemed normal enough though. Not like Akumu or Zev. Tea was relieved; she'd had enough of crazy duellists for a while. "Yeah, I'm a duellist. What's up?"
The other girl walked over to the edge of the river and stood there with her hands on her hips. "I challenge you to a duel! Get out of there so I can beat you."
Tea groaned. "Oh come on! Today was going to be my day off!"
"Too bad." The girl looked over at the forest. "Will you guys hurry up?!"
From the forest stumbled another two people, a boy and a girl. The trio looked about 13 and they had uniformly brown hair. The girls had green eyes and the boy's were blue, but Yugi thought they were related.
"Aw Chikara, don't be such a spoilsport", the boy whined. "Asuka and I were having fun!"
"Speak for yourself." The other girl shivered. "These woods are creepy. When can we go home? It's just a stupid card game!"
"Shh! Don't insult the game in front of Chikara," the boy stage whispered. "She'll go nuts and sick her monsters on you."
The duellist girl rolled her eyes. "Koji, have I told you that you're an idiot today? But enough of that." She glared at Tea. "Are you going to duel or what?"
Tea shrugged helplessly. "I don't know who I'm duelling!"
The girl straightened. "I'm Chikara Takashi", she announced proudly.
"I've never heard of you."
Chikara scowled. "That doesn't matter! Just get ready to duel!"
Tea sighed and floated on her back for a bit. "Are you sure you couldn't wait a bit? I REALLY wanted to relax for a while before my next duel."
"Why would you want to relax? You're in the middle of a tournament!" Then the look on Chikara's face soured. "Oh, I get it. You're one of those wannabe weaklings who are in it just to have a little thrill." She shook her head in disappointment. "It's people like you who ruin the sport. There's really no challenge in beating a weakling."
"What was that?!"
"You heard me, wannabe."
Tea growled. "You've got some nerve telling that to a complete stranger! Do you enjoy ruining people's days or is it just an accident that you walked by to insult me?" Somehow she managed to look fierce, even while wearing a bathing suit. Chikara wasn't impressed.
"You going to back up those words? Or are they as empty as your duelling talents?"
Tea seemed just about to blow a gasket. Then she seemed to calm down and even smile. "Alright" she conceded, "You win. Lets duel. Yugi? My duelling deck, if you would."
Yugi sighed at being dragged into this. He brought Tea her deck as the arena rose up. One glance told him that things would be interesting. Chikara's half was meadow, but Tea's was water. This would be good. As the girls got into their platforms, Chikara's companions came up to Yugi. Or rather, the boy did, dragging the girl behind him. In what seemed to be a tone of weary resignation, the bow began to apologise.
"I'm sorry about my sister. She really takes her duelling too seriously, and she doesn't like people belittling the game. By the way, I'm Koji Takashi and this is my other sister Asuka. The three of us are triplets, you see."
Yugi politely shook hands with the two. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Yugi, and my sleeping colleague," he chucked a thumb at Yami, who remained blissfully unaware of the proceedings, "is Yami. We're friends of Tea up there."
Asuka yawned and glanced at her nails, bored. Clearly, she didn't care about the proceedings. Koji looked interested. "Is your friend any good? She'll have to be. Chikara really goes nuts when the duel starts. No mercy and all that. Besides, she's really good herself. She won the local championships back home. I tell you, she was never so insufferable as she was in the days after that. She was always showing off her medal and saying how she was going to be the best and all that. Sometimes I just wanted to throw something at her-"
"Will you shut up for once?!" Asuka snapped. "It's bad enough that I have to hang around for the card games. I don't have to listen to your babbling either."
Koji looked affronted. "I'm hurt! My dear sister, you really need to relax too. Get out and have fun for once! Life isn't always about money and boys, you know."
"It's not about camping on rocks and getting bug bites either!"
Yugi just kind of stared at the sibling interaction.
Back on the duel field, Tea was sizing up the competition. "So, how many star chips do you want to bet?"
"I have four stars now, but I'm going to double them when I beat you!" Chikara smiled as she lay down her wager. Tea nodded in agreement.
"Fair enough. Four stars."
This caught Yugi's attention suddenly. "Tea, are you sure that's a good idea? If you lose, you're out of the tournament!"
"Don't worry Yugi. I have everything under control."
"Control? You don't know what control means. Tea, is it? A pretty name." Chikara's smile turned mean. "The name of a weakling."
"My friends don't think so", Tea shot back. "And their opinion actually matters to me. Do you have friends who'll back you up?"
"It doesn't matter. There's only room for two in the duelling arena. Friendship is just a distraction to take your mind off what needs to be done."
"And you don't see anything wrong with that?! You're insane!"
"No, I'm just determined. But enough talk, wannabe. It's time to duel!"
The trash talking done, the duel was under way at last. Tea flipped a coin and won, choosing to go first. The girls drew their starting hands and prepared to have it out.
"I'll start off with Dancing Fairies (1700/1000) in attack mode" she called out, playing the card. The trio of fairies flew happily above the surface of the water, giggling and pirouetting with each other. Tea smiled at them. They were one of her favourite cards. "You move."
"Alright then. I'll defend with one monster and end my turn."
Tea frowned thoughtfully at the glowing square, marking the card. 'It's probably a trap' she thought to herself, 'But I won't have a better chance to disarm it. I have stronger monsters, so I can afford to lose my fairies.' "I'll attack your monster with Dancing Fairies!"
The fairies suddenly began to spin and dance at faster speeds. They began to glow a faint blue colour and when they were done gathering energy, they fired a magical attack at the card. A couple of small lizard men with wings vaporised under the assault. But when the dust cleared more had taken their place.
"What the-?"
"You attacked my Troop Dragon (700/800) monster. When they're destroyed, I can special summon another one. And now that it's my turn again....." Chikara drew a card and shrugged. "This won't do at all. I'll just have to end my turn."
Tea growled. She knew when she was being insulted. "Fine then, you're so smart then dodge this! I'll switch my fairies to defence mode and summon Gemini Elf (1900/900) to destroy your troop dragon again! Attack with Tag Team Assault!"
The elves materialised and immediately launched into a whirling attack on the dragon card. The monster didn't stand a chance and was blown away, but yet another Troop Dragon took its place. Chikara yawned widely, revealing a set of shiny white teeth. "Don't you have anything better to do?"
"Clearly I don't. But I've almost gotten rid of your stupid dragons."
"You really don't stand a chance, you know."
Tea scowled. This girl was really pissing her off! "You're the one hiding behind a weak monster!"
Chikara allowed a hint of a smile to reach her face. "I'll set one magic card and end my turn."
Tea drew and hesitated before her move. Chikara was so confident that she'd win. It was almost like she had some master plan. Deciding that her lifepoints were safe for now with two monsters to guard them, she decided against summoning another monster. "First I gain a thousand lifepoints due to my Dancing Fairies' ability." As she spoke, a cloud of fairy dust surrounded Tea, increasing her lifepoints. "Next I'll destroy your last Troop Dragon with my Gemini Elf." Tea watched as the elf twins pulverized the dragon. "Then I'll set one card facedown and end my turn."
"Good. Because now I've got you right where I want you."
Tea felt a feeling of dread as Chikara drew her card and smirked at it. "I have everything that I need now. I play Polymerisation and reveal my facedown card, Signed In Triplicate!"
"What is that?!"
Chikara was only too happy to explain. "By giving up half my lifepoints, I get to copy one magic card I play by three. So instead of playing one Polymerisation card, I have three, and I'm going to put them to good use. I fuse Flame Manipulator and Masaki the Legendary Swordsman into the Flame Swordsman (1800/1600), Time Wizard and Baby Dragon into Thousand Dragon (2400/2000), and Red Eyes Black Dragon and Summoned Skull into Black Skull Dragon (3200/2800)!"
The sky seemed to darken and a contract appeared on the field, bearing three signatures. One of the signatures flared up and the Flame Swordsman appeared in a burst of fire. The second signature flared and the Thousand Dragon arrived in a rush of wind. The final signature disappeared and the Black Skull Dragon seemed to materialise out of a cloud of darkness. All three seemed to glow with a freaky inner light. Chikara laughed at the look on Tea's face.
"I wouldn't blame you for giving up now! But I hate quitters."
Yugi gasped. "Wow! I didn't even know that card existed!"
Koji nodded. "It's unbelievably rare. Chikara just pulled her classic knockout move. There aren't many people who can pull out of this. They usually get pulverized in the next turn or so."
Asuka looked over at the monsters and sighed, unimpressed. "I don't see what's so fascinating about this little game."
Koji shook his head in disgust. "Someone is staring down the mouths of three of the strongest monsters n our sister's deck and you don't feel anything for them? Sometimes I wonder if we're really related."
"So do I."
Yugi sighed and returned to the duel. Chikara seemed to be gloating some more. Glancing over at the tree, Yami was still asleep. Sighing, he hurried over and shook the ex-pharaoh. "Wake up! Tea's in a duel!"
Yami grumbled something in ancient Egyptian, interspersed with English. Yugi sweat dropped when he heard the words 'Hang he that disturbs my sleep' and shook harder. "Wake up!"
"Hunh.....?" Yami woke up finally, just as Chikara ordered an attack.
"Flame Swordsman, destroy the Dancing Fairies with Flaming sword of battle!"
The Swordsman cut through the fairies like they were made of lint. The explosion finally caught Yami's attention.
"Whoa!" he said when he checked out the playing field. "What happened?"
"Tea's in trouble." Yugi summarised sarcastically. "What more is there?"
"Not a whole lot, apparently." Yami looked at the field more closely and sighed in relief. "It's not as bad as it looks. Tea has a few options, and she has a big lifepoint advantage. It won't be easy, but she can get out of this trap."
Koji was listening to the conversation and snorted. "My sister may be obsessed with the game, but she never loses. Your friend is toast. Face it!"
"You don't know Tea."
"I don't have to."
Chikara snickered at the action on the shore. "It seems our groupies are at each other's throats. Lets give them something to argue about. Black Skull Dragon, attack her Gemini Elf with Molten Fireball attack!"
The dragon opened its mouth, revealing a searing furnace, and launched its attack. The fireball screamed toward the elf twins but was suddenly stopped by three sages in blue robes. Their prayers negated the fireball, leaving Tea's monster and her lifepoints unscathed.
"My Wobaku trap protected me. It's not over yet."
"It will be soon enough! There are only a handful of monsters that can take out mine, and I doubt you have any of them in your deck!"
Tea scanned her hand hurriedly. Unfortunately, her opponent had a point. And with all her star chips on the line she was in a jam. She had nothing in her deck that could stand up to that huge dragon, and anything smaller would get diced by the backup monsters. 'I've got to think of something, or I'll be going back to Domino sooner than I really want to!'
***
Magicman: Dun, dun, dunnn.....
Pegasus: You know I'm sure there are qualified musicians that could make the sinister music for you. Then you wouldn't have to humiliate yourself like that.
Magicman: Where's the fun in that?
Pegasus: Granted.
Joey: Hey! She stole three of my monsters!
Tea: Oh come on. You're not the only one who uses those monsters. Just like how Yugi isn't the only one who uses the Dark Magician, no matter how much he may want to think so.
Joey: Yeah? Well.....you're mean!
Tea: A wonderful comeback. I'll see you next time people.
