OP1: "Raining" by Art Of Dying
Chapter 14: "Weakness - Part 1"
The light emanating from the closet was just enough for Mike as he sat at his desk, poring over his strewn deck on the smooth surface.
He was clothed only in jeans, his upper torso wrapped in white bandages, covering the numerous burns and scrapes he'd received during his duel two nights before. His eyes were fixed on the cards before him, desperate to push that night's events out of his mind as he prepared for his Pro Circuit practical test the following evening.
He'd spent nearly the last forty-eight hours bedridden, after his friends had helped bring him back to Violet's apartment. There, Bulbous and Violet had tended to his injuries, which was his last fragment of memory before blacking out from the pain. And in the time he spent loosely falling in and out of consciousness, he'd been rendered powerless to stop his mind from consistently replaying his confrontation with Liam Carson.
Over and over, he watched as every move he made proved futile against him. Over and over, he winced as he felt Cyber End Dragon's triplicated blast scorch his entire body. And, worse still, over and over Liam's harsh words echoed in the chasm left in his fractured spirit:
"You promised that you'd give me a real duel when we next faced off."
"You let yourself be consumed by your anger... an error I would've expected from the duelist I fought two years ago."
"If that's how you plan on dueling the Romans... you'll never be able to save Casey."
Relief only came when he finally managed to awaken without his body feeling like it was on fire. And in the few hours since then, he'd decided to bury himself in preparing for his upcoming test, hoping the distraction would provide him the slightest sense of peace.
But the more he tried to focus on improving upon his old strategies, the more he found himself losing sight of why he was even bothering. The whole reason he'd set his sights on joining the Pro Circuit was because of Liam—so he could give him the real duel that he'd promised him; to show him how much stronger he had become since their first match in Frontier Haven. But despite everything he'd survived throughout the last two years there, and all the training he'd endured to earn his chance to duel Liam again... all of it had amounted to just about nothing against him.
He tore his gaze away from his cards, glancing up to the ceiling with a low grumble. Having been wrong about Liam's involvement in Casey's kidnapping had been bad enough, but nothing hurt worse than the idea that he was probably right about being incapable of saving her. It should've been the last thing on his mind at that moment, since Aeron had promised to let him know when he'd secured a lead on her whereabouts. But no matter how he tried to push it out of his head, the idea of failing to save her from these new "Romans"—the idea that she could die, all because he still wasn't strong enough—petrified him to his core...
"Hey, you're awake."
Mike withdrew from his thoughts, spinning in his chair to see Violet as she peered into his room, a relieved smile on her face.
"Hey..." Mike managed a half-smile of his own as she entered his room, clad in her maroon bathrobe. "Yeah, woke up a little while ago."
Violet sat herself down on Mike's bed, facing him. "How are you feeling?"
He let out a mumbled groan, scratching the back of his head. "Been better, but... I'm all right, I guess."
Violet nodded, before clasping her hands together somewhat shakily. "So listen, uh..." she nervously started. "I just wanted to say..."
Mike kept his eyes on Violet's as she exhaled sharply, struggling to find her words. "Look, I know what happened the other night was hard on you... and there was probably a lot said that you didn't want me or the others to hear."
Mike remained silent as his eyes dropped, which told Violet she wasn't wrong.
"But I thought that, maybe," she continued, "since it's all out in the open now, perhaps you might finally be ready to talk about it...?"
Mike was quiet for a moment as he contemplated Violet's words, before heaving a sigh and meeting her eyes again. "I appreciate what you're trying to do for me, I really do," he assured her. "But right now, I'd rather keep my focus on prepping for my test tomorrow, if that's all right."
It was Violet's turn to go quiet as she stared into her boyfriend's oceanic eyes. She wanted to keep prying; to learn why this friend, "Casey," meant so much to him, and to figure out why he was so hesitant to open up to her about the details of this whole conundrum. But she knew that was a risk all on its own; if she pushed too hard, she ran the chance of him crawling further into his shell than he already was, and that was the last thing she wanted.
So in the end, she only gave him a stiff nod. "Okay..." she uttered, defeated. "Guess I'll just... leave you alone, then."
She pushed herself off his bed and began pacing back towards his door. She made it as far as resting her hand on the doorknob before she heard him say, "Hey, Violet?"
She turned on her heel to see as Mike flashed her a small smile. "I love you."
Her heart fluttered slightly at those words as she smiled back at him. "Love you too," she answered, before exiting the room.
The door closed behind her, and she leaned back against the wood as the smile fell from her face.
- The Next Day -
"So, he still ain't budgin', huh?" Danny asked as he walked alongside Violet, Marina, and Josiah down the bustling school hallway. "Can't say I'm all that surprised."
Violet shook her head. "I just thought he'd finally open up to me more after all this time, you know?" she said with frustration.
"I hear ya," Danny sympathized, folding his arms behind his head. "But I think whatever's goin' on with him goes a bit deeper than what we saw the other night."
"That doesn't give him a pass to keep hiding things from Violet, though," Marina retorted, shooting her boyfriend a look. "Much less from the rest of us."
Danny's expression morphed into a frown. "Well, I mean, I'm not saying it does, but—"
"I think what Danny's trying to say..." Josiah cut in, "is that none of us really understand the full scope of everything Mike went through while he was in Frontier Haven. Hell, for all we know, perhaps we're better off not knowing, as it were."
"Yeah, that," Danny confirmed as they stopped in front of Violet's locker. "Oh yeah, speakin' of, sorry again for not tellin' you about the whole Mark and Frontier Haven thing sooner."
"Nah, don't be," he replied as Violet collected the contents of her locker. "It wasn't your place to tell me, I get it. Right now, I'm just trying to... y'know... process it."
"Don't blame you there," Danny said. "A cursed scar that turns dueling damage real? Trust me, I wouldn't have believed it either if I hadn't watched my hoodie go up in smoke myself."
"Guys, can we please refocus here?" Violet slammed her locker as she turned back to face them. "I kind of don't know how to deal with what I'm feeling right now!"
The other three exchanged uneasy glances, before Danny let out a sigh. "All right, look; hard as it is, I think we just need to give Mike a little more time," he admitted. "I mean, he said he would open up to you when he's ready, right? And he eventually came 'round to telling us about the Mark and Frontier Haven, too. We just gotta let him move at his own pace."
A shadow of uncertainty flashed across her face. "You really think he will?"
"I really do," Danny said with confidence. "I've never known the guy to go back on his word, and I doubt he's about to start with you."
A hopeful smile finally managed to spread across Violet's lips as Marina looked to her boyfriend with crossed arms, impressed. "Well just listen to you, trying to be the voice of reason."
"Never thought I'd see the day," Josiah cracked.
"Watch it," Danny shot a side-eyed look at him. "You're still the new guy in the crew, remember?"
As Marina and Josiah only continued tearing into Danny, Violet couldn't help but broaden her smile as she looked to them. It gave her comfort to know that, even if Mike couldn't always be there for her, she still had the best friends she could've ever asked for by her side.
"Oh, good; you're all here."
The four friends' heads all swiveled to look where the voice had come from: there was their principal, approaching them from the opposite direction of the student traffic flow.
"Oh hey, Dr. Crawford!" Danny greeted as the man stopped before the group.
"I trust you each pulled through your final exams okay?" he asked.
"You know it!" Danny replied enthusiastically. "I put all my effort into studying for 'em last night!"
"By that, you mean you crammed for two hours after finishing your five-hour Grand Theft Auto marathon," Marina corrected him.
Snickers escaped from Violet and Josiah as Danny's lips pursed. "Y'know, one of these days I'm gonna have some dirt to spring on you..." he muttered.
Marina rolled her eyes. "Right."
Dr. Crawford, meanwhile, merely cleared his throat before continuing: "In any case... I'm glad I caught you before you left for the day. I had a special invitation I wanted to extend to you all."
Josiah raised an eyebrow. "An invitation to what, exactly...?"
5:14 PM. A mechanical click told Mike his duel disk had fastened to his arm.
He was now fully clothed again, and just about ready to head out to Dexterity High for his practical test. There was only one thing left that he needed.
He looked to his desk, where his deck sat neatly reassembled. In his mind, it almost seemed as though his cards were taunting him, exploiting the doubt that Liam's words had planted in his heart.
No. It's too late for second thoughts now.
His hand reached out and grasped the cards, which he inserted into their respective duel disk zone before stepping out from his bedroom.
The door closed behind him as he walked out to the living room. The television was mutely displaying stocks and business news as Bulbous sat on the couch, his focus on a laptop and a few small mountains of papers spread across his coffee table. No doubt all part of his effort to reopen his deli.
Mike observed the scene with a look of slight confusion. "Violet's not home yet?"
Bulbous tore his gaze away from the small screen to look up around the room, his eyebrows knit. "Now that you mention it," he said, perplexed. "Haven't seen her since she left for school this morning."
"I see," Mike said, his expression fallen.
Seeing the disappointment on his face, Bulbous now rose from his seat and began making his way over to Mike. "I know that this might not mean as much to you as it would coming from her," he said as he stopped in front of him, placing an encouraging hand on his shoulder. "But how's about a wish of 'good luck' from her old man?"
Mike's smile managed to return to his face. "That means a lot more than you think," he told him. "Thank you."
Bulbous beamed before pulling Mike in for a hug, which the latter looked ready to contest for only a moment before just accepting the embrace. The man had been his parents' best friend before their passing, and he'd been the closest thing to a father figure in his life ever since. And after everything he'd done for him in the years since then, it was the least he could do for him in return.
The two eventually parted, and Bulbous looked down to Mike with adamance. "Now get outta here," he said. "And go kick some ass."
Mike's smirk broadened slightly as he gave a firm nod, before brushing past Bulbous to exit through the apartment door.
The summer sun was just beginning to set as Mike approached the large double doors of his old high school's entrance about half an hour later.
As he drew closer to Dexterity High, his eyebrows arched with surprise when he noticed his old therapist standing before the doors, his hands clasped behind his back as he seemed to patiently await Mike's arrival.
"Dr. Crawford," he acknowledged as he stopped in front of him.
"Hello, Mike," Dr. Crawford replied as he reached out to shake Mike's hand. "Pleasure to see you, as always."
"Likewise," Mike said as he took Dr. Crawford's hand. "Though I gotta say, I didn't expect to see you here tonight. Does this mean you're my test opponent?"
A small chuckle escaped from the principal's lips as he retracted his hand. "No, not this time," he corrected. "As a matter of fact, your opponent has yet to arrive.
"But while we're waiting for them," he now spoke as he paced backwards to the school's doors, "I suppose now's as good a time as any to give you your pre-test surprise."
Mike's head cocked with interest as Dr. Crawford reached out to one of the doors, opening it to allow four familiar faces to emerge:
"Hey, there he is!" Danny cried out enthusiastically as he, Marina, Josiah, and Violet exited the school, bringing a wide-eyed look to Mike's face as the shock set into him.
"What—you guys...?" he uttered with bewilderment. "What're you all doing here?"
"What do you think we're doing here, genius?" Josiah asked back. "We're here to watch you ace your practical test!"
"You didn't honestly think we were gonna let you go into it without giving our support, did you?" Marina chimed in.
Stunned gasps managed to escape Mike's throat before he turned back to Dr. Crawford. "But aren't the practical tests supposed to be strictly closed?"
"Normally, yes," Dr. Crawford admitted with a sly smile. "But I might have taken the liberty of pulling a few strings so your friends could be here to witness it."
"And we're really glad he did," Violet finally spoke up as she stepped up to Mike, giving him the brightest smile she could muster. "We wouldn't have wanted to miss this for the world."
Mike remained stunned silent for a moment, the expressions on his face detailing his flailing emotions as the moment washed over him, before taking Violet in his arms as he met her with an impassioned kiss. Her face lit with shock for only a moment before being replaced with bliss as she returned his amore. After he'd been incapacitated for more than a day, and spending his conscious hours since in requested isolation, it'd almost been like she'd forgotten what his love had felt like. But in that instant, all of the butterflies and affection had returned, filling her insides with the warmth she'd always craved from him.
Now, as they separated with wide smiles on their faces, Mike looked to her. "Thank you..." he spoke warmly, before shifting his eyes to his friends. "All of you... you guys really are the best."
Josiah brushed under his nose with his finger as he grinned, while Marina leaned shoulder-to-shoulder against Danny as they smiled heartily to their friend. Dr. Crawford, meanwhile, now turned his attention away from the touching moment to glance down the road, his ears perking at what sounded like an approaching engine.
"Sounds like your opponent has arrived," he announced.
All eyes now turned to where Dr. Crawford's had shifted: a shined, black car was pulling up to the curbside before Dexterity high, coming to a gentle stop before the engine went silent. From the driver's seat, a neatly-dressed chauffeur exited the car, and moved to open the rear door behind his driver's side. And from there, emerged the last person any of the five friends expected to see:
"Hello there, Mr. Harper," County Dame's Mayor greeted as his form rose above the car. "I'm glad to see you actually got here early, for once."
Everyone else's jaws dropped to the ground as Mike looked to the suited politician with raised eyebrows. "Mayor Copperson..." he uttered with perplexity. "You're my practical test opponent?"
"Correct," Mr. Copperson confirmed as he rounded the car he'd arrived in, stopping to face Mike from across the high school's walkway. "I was the one who saw that you got your Pro Circuit classes, after all; and I've since had every intention of being the one to see you off from them.
"So what say you, Mr. Harper?" he said as his chauffeur approached him from the side, equipping him with a purple duel disk that fastened to his left arm. "Do you accept my challenge, or do you think you don't have what it takes after all this time?"
Mike's expression hardened as he took in the Mayor's words. "I've made it this far, Mr. Copperson," he answered steadfastly, raising his own duel disk arm. "I'm not about to back down now."
A small smirk formed on Mr. Copperson's face. "Good," he said. "You've already passed the first part of your test: the test of your vitality."
The Mayor's eyes now shifted towards Dr. Crawford. "I trust you have a space prepared for our duel, Skeldon?"
"Of course," the spectacled principal answered, his hand motioning to open one of the high school's double doors. "If you'd all follow me, please."
Dr. Crawford led them to Dexterity High's gymnasium; an open, white-walled space the size of a common basketball court. Both Mike and Mr. Copperson stood at opposite ends of the room, facing each other as they intently shuffled their decks in preparation for their duel. Above them, a strip of floor forming a small racing track aligned all four walls of the overhead space, the edges closed off by metal railings so nobody would fall. This was where Violet, Danny, Marina, Josiah, and Dr. Crawford stood, looking down below as they waited for the duel to begin.
"Man, am I the only one who thinks this is just a little too weird?" Danny asked as he looked to the formally-dressed man across from Mike, earning glances from his friends.
"What do you mean?" Josiah replied.
"I mean, our Mayor is the one deciding whether or not Mike gets to graduate from his Pro Circuit classes!" Danny explained. "I mean, it was one thing that Mr. Copperson managed to land those classes for him, but what gives him the authority to determine if he's Pro material or not?"
"Heh... I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you're not aware of his dueling history."
The four friends' eyes turned on their principal at this odd sentence from him. "What 'dueling history'?" Marina inquired.
"Well, this may come as a surprise to you," Dr. Crawford said, "but Andrew and I used to attend the Duel Academy in Crest City together."
"Wait, WHAT?!" Danny flabbergastingly said, matching the level of intense astonishment on the others' faces. "You two attended one of THE Duel Academies?! For real?!"
Dr. Crawford let out an amused chuckle. "Yes Danny, 'for real'," he answered, his expression turning to one of reminiscence as he looked down at Mr. Copperson. "See, Andrew and I grew up together as kids, and we once dreamed of becoming the best Pro Circuit duelists in the world. So we enrolled at the local Academy for our high school years, and we managed to climb to the tops of our classes, driven by nothing but our burning ambitions.
"But, eventually..." Dr. Crawford's expression fell slightly. "We came to realize that our goals had shifted. Instead, we started wanting to make more of a difference here, rather than just accumulating fame and fortune while traveling the world. So when we graduated, he went on to pursue politics, and I pursued psychology and education.
"But Andrew never truly wanted to leave the dueling field entirely, so he used his acclaim from the Academy to receive special training to become a sort of part-time Pro Circuit 'talent scout,' if you would," the principal explained as he turned back to his students. "That's how he was able to provide Mike with his Pro Circuit training course—and why he'll now be the one to see how far Mike has come from it."
The four friends were stunned silent for a moment as they let this information sink into them. "Wow..." Danny eventually spoke up as he glanced back and forth from Mr. Copperson to Dr. Crawford. "Guess a schooling like that explains how you managed to give Mike a serious run for his money when you two dueled."
"But then that begs the question," Marina cut in, directing her following words to Dr. Crawford: "Between the two of you, who would you say is stronger?"
A curious look now appeared on Dr. Crawford's face. "Huh... to be honest, I don't know how to answer that question," was his reply. "I really can't remember the last time he and I sparred with each other.
"But I'll say this," His tone now shifted to become more serious. "Between our dueling styles, I was never a fan of utilizing extra deck monsters; I've always preferred keeping my strength in my main deck. Andrew, on the other hand, has always used the same Fusion-based tactics since our days in the Academy, to my knowledge. So I'd say that gives him a wider variety of strategies than I do."
"So what you're saying is that Mike's potentially up against an even stronger opponent than you, who he barely managed to defeat then," Danny said as he and the others looked back down to the duel that was about to begin. "Great."
Violet, meanwhile, remained silent as she looked down to her boyfriend on the gymnasium floor. Though his expression displayed his usual assertiveness, she could see the same anxiety he'd had during their conversation the night before in his eyes.
Is he still THAT rattled from his duel with Liam...? she silently questioned as she bit her lip apprehensively.
"All right, Mr. Harper," Mr. Copperson finally called out to Mike across the gymnasium as he inserted his deck into his duel disk. "Ready to show me how much you've learned?"
"Ready as I'll ever be," was Mike's answer as he too placed his deck in his duel disk, prompting both duelists' duel disks to spark to life before they each drew five cards.
"LET'S DUEL!" was cried out between them.
- DUEL -
[Mike - LP: 4000] VS [Mr. Copperson - LP: 4000]
"Since this is your test, I'll take the first move!" Mr. Copperson said as he drew. "I'll start with the spell card, Gladiator Proving Ground! This lets me add any level 4 or lower Gladiator Beast monster from my deck to my hand, like my Bestiari!
"Then, I'll summon my Bestiari to the field!" he continued. [LV: 4/ATK: 1500]
"And to end my turn, I'll lay two cards face-down," he concluded as the set cards materialized. "Now let's see what you've got, Mike."
"With pleasure!" Mike shot back as he drew. "I'll kick things off with an old favorite: the continuous spell, Constellar Star Chart!
"Then, I'll summon my Constellar Pollux!" [LV: 4/ATK: 1700]
"And with his effect, I'm allowed to normal summon another Constellar monster this turn! So I'll now release him to advance summon Constellar Virgo!" [LV: 5/ATK: 2300]
"Now for my Virgo's effect," Mike continued. "I get to special summon any level 5 Constellar from my hand in DEF mode! So come on out, Zubeneschamali!" [LV: 5/DEF: 1400]
"And thanks to him, I can add another Constellar monster from my deck to my hand! So I'll add my Sombre!"
"Nice!" Danny exclaimed as he watched Mike pull the card from his deck. "Now he's got two level 5 monsters on the field! And that means—!"
"That I'm going to overlay both of them to build the overlay network!" Mike finished as his two monsters were absorbed into a spatial portal. "Xyz summon! Come on out, Constellar Pleiades!" [RK: 5/OUs: 2/ATK: 2500]
"And with his successful Xyz summoning, my Star Chart's effect activates, letting me draw another card!" Mike explained as he drew.
"Now I'll use my Pleiades's effect!" Mike went on. "By detaching an overlay unit—" [OUs: 2→1] "—he can send your Bestiari back to your hand!"
Pleiades set himself to move in on Bestiari, but only cleared a quarter of the field before Mr. Copperson said, "I don't think so! I reveal my counter trap, Gladiator Beast War Chariot!
"With this card," he explained as an armored chariot materialized around his Bestiari, "Any monster's effect that's activated while I control a Gladiator Beast monster is negated; and then that monster is destroyed!"
The Bestiari-driven War Chariot now began hurdling forward, colliding with Pleiades's charge with enough force to push the star-studded warrior back, causing him to groan for a moment before Bestiari leapt from his vehicle, using its wings to slice Mike's warrior in half, destroying him.
Mike's eyes narrowed as he watched his monster die, while Bestiari returned to Mr. Copperson's field as the latter looked to his opponent skeptically. "Come now, Mr. Harper; that was too careless for any Pro Circuit duelist," he goaded. "Or did you not learn anything over the last few months?"
Mike let out a low growl. "I'll just set these two cards face-down," he finished as his set cards materialized. "That ends my turn."
Mr. Copperson let out an unsatisfied grunt. "How unfortunate," he said as he drew his next card. "I suppose this means I'll have to force you to start taking this seriously! I summon my Gladiator Beast Darius!" [LV: 4/ATK: 1700]
"And now, with both Bestiari and Darius on my field," he said as he raised a hand to the sky, "I'll merge them together with the power of Contact Fusion!"
All eyes went wide as both monsters leapt into the air above him, morphing into each other as a swirling purple vortex was created in their place, opening to allow another winged, armored creature to descend upon the field as Mr. Copperson cried, "Take flight, Gladiator Beast Gyzarus!" [LV: 6/ATK: 2400]
"Okay... I'll bite," Danny said as he looked to the Mayor's new monster with astoundment. "What the HELL is Contact Fusion?!"
"A type of Fusion that merges two monsters on the field without the use of a Fusion card like Polymerization," Dr. Crawford explained. "For Gladiator Beasts, their Fusion monsters are special summoned by shuffling the required materials from the field back into the main deck."
"So he gets a powerful new monster while also getting to recycle the other monsters that made it," Marina mused with a concerned glance. "That sounds slightly overpowered."
"Indeed; it's why the Gladiator Beasts are a limited-print series," Dr. Crawford admitted. "And if you think they're overpowered now, just wait until you see what their Fusion monsters are capable of."
Mr. Copperson pointed towards Mike's side of the field as he continued: "Now, for my Gyzarus's effect! When he's special summoned, he can destroy up to any two cards on the field that I choose! So say goodbye to both of your set cards!"
Gyzarus used his wings to create two miniature tornadoes, each of which were shot towards Mike's face-down cards, prompting him to raise a hand over one of them as he countered, "Reveal, Breakthrough Skill! This card drains your monster of all its effects for the remainder of the turn!"
"Think again, Mr. Harper!" Mr. Copperson shot back as his own set card flipped. "I chain my Parry trap card! With it, by returning my Gladiator Beast Spartacus from my hand to my deck, your Breakthrough Skill trap becomes the only card with its effect negated!"
Large gashes formed across Mike's trap as the tornadoes finally reached their targets, revealing the other set card to be Mirror Force before both were blown away to oblivion.
"And with your field wide open now, my Gyzarus will attack you directly!" Mr. Copperson declared as his monster followed his order, swooping in for a dive attack that shot straight through Mike, staggering him. [Mike - LP: 4000→1600]
"That one attack knocked off more than half of Mike's life points...!" Josiah uttered with wide eyes.
"C'mon, man! Don't let this guy knock you around like that!" Danny shouted encouragingly.
Mike managed to regain his posture as Gyzarus floated back Mr. Copperson's side of the field as the latter said, "I'm afraid your worries aren't over yet; for now, my Gyzarus's other effect activates:
"See, at the end of any battle phase where my Gyzarus did battle, he's then allowed to return to my extra deck!" he explained as the Fusion monster morphed into a purple ball of light, which then floated back into Mr. Copperson's duel disk. "And in doing so, I'm allowed to tag in two other Gladiator Beast monsters from my deck to take his place!
"So come to me now!" he cried out as two beams of energy burst from his duel disk, taking shape on his side of the field, "Gladiator Beast Augustus, and Gladiator Beast Retiari!" [LV: 8/2600 ATK] [LV: 3/ATK: 1200]
"And with both of these monsters summoned by the effect of another Gladiator Beast monster, they each have their own special effects to activate!" Mr. Copperson continued. "First, my Retiari's effect can banish any card in your graveyard; and I have just the one in mind!"
Mike looked down at his duel disk with narrowed eyes, watching as his Pleiades was forcibly dispatched from his graveyard, giving him no choice but to place it in his banished zone.
"I know what the Sombre that you added to your hand last turn is capable of," Mr. Copperson said as he watched Mike. "And I won't let you use it to add your Pleiades back to your extra deck so you can use him again.
"Now, for my Augustus's effect!" he continued. "He can special summon any Gladiator Beast monster from my hand in DEF mode! So I special summon my Gladiator Beast Noxious!" [LV: 5/DEF: 1000]
"And my Noxious also has an effect that triggers when he's special summoned by a Gladiator Beast," he said as a card popped from his deck. "He can send any other Gladiator Beast monster from my deck to the graveyard; like my Laquari!"
Mike's eyes were hard as he watched County Dame's Mayor place the card in his graveyard. "So you went from one to three monsters almost instantaneously," he figured. "I gotta admit, you're an even more skilled duelist than I expected you to be."
Mr. Copperson let out a short laugh at these words. "Well thank you, Mr. Harper," he accepted the compliment. "And I must say, it's refreshing to see a duelist with such humility, especially one in the face of less-than-favorable odds.
"But I'm afraid that won't save you from what's about to come next," he said as he raised his hand to the sky once again, opening another swirling portal. "For now, I'll merge my Augustus, Retiari, and Noxious to perform a Triple Contact Fusion!"
Everyone else's eyes widened as they watched Mr. Copperson's three monsters follow Bestiari and Darius's example, flying into the purple vortex to combine their forces to create a new, massive creature.
"Be born!" Mr. Copperson cried out. "My Gladiator Beast Andabata!" [LV: 8/DEF: 2800]
"All right, Doc, you SERIOUSLY undersold just how overpowered Mayor Copperson's deck is!" Danny said in a panic as he and the others watched the Mayor's beast plant its feet on the gym floor.
"Yeah, but even with that thing's size, look at the mode he put it in," Josiah pointed out. "It's only got 1000 ATK, but 2800 DEF."
"So he's on the defensive now after putting up a strong offensive," Marina reasoned. "An almost-flawless strategy."
"And there's more where that came from!" Mr. Copperson said, bringing all eyes back on him. "See, my Andabata has an effect that activates once he's summoned, calling forth any level 7 or lower Gladiator Beast Fusion monster from my extra deck while ignoring its summoning conditions!
"So come and join my field!" Another bright vortex opened before him, allowing yet another creature of impressive size to emerge as he cried out its name. "Gladiator Beast Gaiodiaz!" [LV: 7/ATK: 2600]
Mike's teeth clenched as the massive, armored beasts stared him down like predators before their prey. "So your monsters rely on their effects to special summon each other so that they can use their own unique effects," he figured. "And combining them with 'Contact Fusion' creates monsters that later tag out for the materials you returned to the deck initially so you can fuse them again."
"You're starting to get the picture," Mr. Copperson confirmed with a grin. "Now I'll move into my main phase two, and activate the spell card, One Day of Peace! With it, we both get to draw an extra card, but then neither of us can take any further damage until the end of your next turn."
Both duelists drew their cards in silence before Mr. Copperson concluded: "I'll end my turn by setting this card face-down."
His set card materialized before him as he looked back up to his young opponent. "Now Mr. Harper, here's your second chance to show me what you're really made of," he said as he held his arms out invitingly. "So come on! Show me what a real duel looks like!"
"Real duel... real duel... real duel...!"
Mike winced and his empty fist clenched as those words reverberated in his mind again: first in Mr. Copperson's voice, before slowly morphing into Liam's haunting words that had stayed with him—tormented him—in the time that he'd spent unconscious...
Above the duel field, Violet had immediately taken notice of Mike's freezing up at those words, which all but confirmed her earlier suspicion about whether his duel with Liam was still getting to him.
I've never him this unnerved in a duel before, she thought as she raised a hand to her heart. His duel with Liam got to him even worse than I thought... probably because of that other friend of his... Casey...
She felt a heavy feeling begin to weigh on her heart again, but she grasped to the guardrail to lean slightly closer in as she shook her head defiantly, pushing the thought from her mind. Now wasn't the time to be contemplating what Mike's true feelings towards her were. Right now, more than anything else, he needed her to believe in him.
"Mike!"
He was jolted from his thoughts as he glanced up to his girlfriend with surprise. "Don't let those words get to you!" she called to him, "You've already made it through so much, and I know you'll make it through this, too! Just remember that we're all right here behind you!"
Mike's expression softened as he took Violet's words in. Everyone else beside her, meanwhile, all looked to her with dumbfounded looks at this sudden outburst from her. Never had they heard her speak up in such a way during a duel, even to Mike, as she usually tended to keep to herself while watching.
"Ms. Alyssum, was it?"
All eyes shifted to County Dame's Mayor, who was now looking up to the purple-haired teenager with steely eyes. "As charmingly sentimental as that was, there's a reason why this is usually a closed examination," he spoke firmly. "I'm going to have to ask that you and your friends refrain from making direct contact with Mr. Harper again; or else I'll have no choice but to disqualify him from the duel."
Violet swallowed hard as her error sank into her, her anxiety shared by the others next to her. Even Dr. Crawford began adjusting his glasses agitatedly as he said, "Wow... I must admit, I'm surprised how lenient Andrew was there..."
Meanwhile, Mr. Copperson now turned his attention back to Mike, whose nerves were finally calming as Violet's words set into him, helping him regain his composure again before looking to meet the Mayor's gaze with a renewed sense of confidence.
"All right, Mr. Copperson..." he said, placing two fingers to his deck. "I may have underestimated you at first, but I won't make that mistake again. So get ready, 'cause I'm coming at you with everything I've got!"
ED1: "Behind Blue Eyes" by Limp Bizkit
Author's Notes
*gasps as I emerge from my grave* WHEN THERE'S NO MORE ROOM IN HELL, THE AVENGER SHALL WALK THE-
... oh... hi. Didn't see you there.
Anyway, yeah, so I'm not dead. 'Least, not for lack of trying. There's a good reason why this took WAY longer than I expected it to, and here's the short version of it: halfway through December last year, I got evicted from my previous residence, and all at once my entire life started crumbling around me. Since then, I've been running around like a madman trying to keep the pieces in place, and I've since spent a fortune on super glue to keep it all together. At the time of this writing, I've now relocated to a new (temporary) residence, and things are finally back to... something like normal?
Okay, with that outta the way: if you're a fan of my primary beta reader and BFF on here, Master Of Anime224, then you probably read in the last A/N of his story, Reality's Curtain, that there's a super special awesome Yu-Gi-Oh! project in the works between him and I that's set to take off this year... yeah. That's very much still a thing. In fact, if it weren't for both my untimely eviction AND the time I've devoted to working on THAT, this chapter might've come out sooner than later.
Without directly divulging what this project is... I'll give y'all these two tidbits of information: the project centers around Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, and it's NOT going to happen here on FF.N.
There'll be more updates on its progress as we go along. We're both SUPER stoked to introduce this project to the world, and we can't wait for you guys to bear witness to it.
Oh yeah, speaking of him: today's shoutouts go out to MOA, and also Sunflesh, for their beta work once again (pleasures as always). Also, MAJOR shoutout to my real-world friends and fam for seeing me through these last few difficult months. I owe you guys the world, seriously. Thank you.
Last but not least, here's the Chapterly Question (or CQ, as Assassinkai aptly abbreviated it): In this time of my life where music has been my most constant grounding mechanism, I wanted to ask y'all about your thoughts on MOD's current opening and ending themes (if you don't mind bothering to give 'em a quick YouTube search; seriously, links are on my profile): how do you interpret them with the story so far? And what do you think the next theme songs will/should be? (Those are coming after next chapter!)
And as always, thanks to YOU, my readers, for being so great. Now, I've gotta run and get back to work on MOA and I's super special awesome project. So until next time, stay awesome.
REVISED ON: 7/15/2020
