OP2: "Back Again" by Daughtry
Chapter 18: "Secrets - Part 1"
"I'm sorry, you want me to start with what?"
"Exactly as I said," said Ciro, tapping his metal hand to the laptop sitting on his center table. "This computer is loaded with about a thousand different duel puzzles. I want you to complete as many of them as possible and see how many you get right."
Mike sat at the table at the center of the cabin, arms crossed as he looked with incredulity from the laptop before him to Ciro, who was sat in the chair to his left facing him. "You want me to spend my first real day of training... wasting time on a bunch of elementary puzzles?"
"Far from elementary," Ciro replied, holding Mike's gaze with sternness. "They all vary in difficulty, but I think you'll find them a bit more challenging than you're expecting. And it's not a 'waste of time,' either."
Mike raised an eyebrow while Ciro leaned in closer to him, asserting himself. "I told you yesterday, kid. There's a great deal of potential inside you that's being held back. And the first step to unlocking it is figuring out which part of you is doing the holding."
Ciro rose from his seat. He turned and paced towards a chest beside the door, which he opened to pull out his jacket, gloves, a black backpack, and his sheathed machete. Mike only continued to bounce his gaze between the laptop and his mentor with disbelief, trying to process whether he had been hearing him right this whole time. Admittedly, he never had any set expectations for how his first day of training would unfold, but he had not pictured running computerized puzzle drills for it.
"This has to be some sort of joke, right?" he said, earning Ciro's attention back as he slipped his gloves on. "I mean, I've already spent more than enough weeks sitting on my ass mulling over every detail of the game just to get here."
Ciro eyed Mike intensely as he shrugged on his jacket. "Well if that was a joke, I must be a piss-poor comedian then," he said with a half-smile. "'Cause you're not laughing."
Mike's face deadpanned while Ciro zipped up his jacket, before slinging his backpack over his shoulders. "I'm going hunting for our dinner tonight," he said. "You keep your focus on those puzzles. If you have to step outside for any reason, try not to stray too far from the cabin. I'll see you tonight."
Before Mike could decide whether to confirm his understanding or protest, Ciro had already clipped his machete to his belt and exited through the cabin door. He listened to his footsteps pace away outside until eventually, they'd receded completely, and he was alone.
For a time he just sat there, tapping his fingers to no particular beat on the table, contemplating whether he even wanted to do the duel puzzles. He briefly considered outright refusal of the task, but that quickly led to realizing there was nothing to do in the cabin otherwise. His phone was useless to him in this wilderness and he hadn't brought any other entertainment provisions with him. Just a few sets of clothes, his duel disk, and his cards. And he hadn't needed Ciro to warn him about wandering into the forest again. After the warning he'd received from Kaneko, and even hearing the unnerving voices of the yūrei mimicking his parents while trying to find this place, venturing out alone into the forest was the farthest idea from his mind.
So, resigning himself, he finally pulled the laptop closer to him and opened it. The screen illuminated to display that the duel puzzle program was already open. Before him was a scrollable list of duel puzzles with different titles. He dragged his fingers along the trackpad to surf through the various puzzles, the seemingly endless number of them making him realize that Ciro had not been exaggerating when he said there were nearly a thousand of them on the machine. Above the box with the list of puzzles was a scoreboard that read: 0 Puzzles Completed | 0/0 Correct.
He checked the clock at the corner of the screen. It was only 8:32 AM. He couldn't even begin to imagine how many of these puzzles he would be able to complete in the time it took for Ciro to return with whatever he managed to kill. Nevertheless, by the time he was finished with this, he'd have his answer.
Heaving one more sigh, he clicked on one of the puzzles at random to begin.
"And we are officially Dexterity High School alumni, baby!"
POP!
"Danny, don't spill it everywhere!" Marina scolded as the champagne bottle in his hand foamed at the release of its cork.
"You seriously couldn't grab a towel before you left your house today?" Josiah asked with a raised eyebrow as Danny held the bottle away from himself, letting it drip on the old trailer's floor.
"I overslept and was in a rush, okay? Lay off!" Danny looked from Josiah to the bottle, seeing the foam recede. "All right, glasses front and center everyone!"
He picked up his own champagne flute as Marina, Josiah, and Violet held theirs towards him, each of which he filled halfway before filling up his own.
"And where exactly did you manage to sneak off with a bottle of champagne from?" Violet asked as she sat back down at her spot on the couch.
"Eh, my folks have a whole cupboard full o' this stuff," he said as he sat back in his own chair, kicking his feet up on another one. "They'll never notice one missing."
"And the plastic glasses?" said Marina, raising her own as she sat beside her boyfriend, leaning shoulder-to-shoulder against him.
"Dollar Store," he replied with a smirk.
Though she rolled her eyes, Marina couldn't help but laugh at her boyfriend's answer before taking a sip of her champagne.
The three graduates among them had yet to take off their blue graduation robes and caps. The ceremony had started at midday, with the only hiccups to transpire being Danny showing up late, followed by repeatedly getting his spot in the student lineup wrong. From there, what Violet had spent five hours rehearsing nonstop had taken all but an hour and a half to get through. From the speeches given by the school administrators, Dr. Crawford, and the valedictorian and salutatorian; to the reading-off of names, handshakes, and gifting of diplomas by the principal to each graduate.
Marina had cheered for her friends from the crowd, garbed in a white sundress with blue floral patterns and white heels. Once the formalities had concluded, the four friends had converged in the main hall of the theatre to meet with Bulbous, the only parent of the three graduates in attendance. After taking some time to talk and snap a good number of photos, the four of them had departed for the old trailer, wherein Danny had produced the hidden bottle of champagne from his bag.
Josiah finally spoke up from his spot at the table: "I got to admit, after having been held back two years, it feels damn good to have finally graduated."
"I'll drink to that!" Danny said, before swigging the whole of his glass's contents.
"And I'll drink to the fact that Danny somehow managed not to get held back," said Marina with a bemused glance at him. "Despite how little effort he actually put into his schoolwork."
Danny nearly did a spit-take. "Yo, what'd I just say about laying off?!"
Marina sassily took another sip of her champagne, not taking her eyes off her boyfriend.
Josiah turned to Violet, noticing that she'd barely touched her own drink, and had eyes aimed at the floor. He suspected that she must have missed Mike. It had always been expected that he would be there to celebrate their graduations with them, after all. So the fact that at this moment, he was halfway across the world instead...
"I say we take a moment to toast for Mike," he said, earning everyone's attention. "To everything he's done for each of us, everything he's endured, and everything he's accomplishing for his own future."
"Now that's a good toast," agreed Danny, hastily refilling his glass before raising it to the center between them all. "To Mike!"
"To Mike!" echoed the others as their glasses joined his, the plastic containers crinkling against each other before they consumed their drinks.
As Violet lowered her glass, she cracked a half-hearted smile to save face. Though it felt right to celebrate him, her feelings of ambivalence continued to torture her. She wished that she could address it with her friends then and there, but she didn't want to spoil the moment.
Suddenly, from outside the trailer door came the sound of two timid knocks, earning startled glances from everyone gathered. No one else had ever intruded on their secret spot before, and the only other person who'd know to look for them there was Mike—
The train of thought spread across Danny's face in the form of a broad smile. "Oh, no way..." he said with bated breath, before rocketing off his chair and scurrying for the door.
But upon pushing it open with excited expectation, his face fell as his eyes met with who'd knocked on the door. "What in the...?"
"Oh good, I found you guys!" said Duncan with pleasant surprise, hands clasped shyly behind himself. "I didn't see anyone in the yard, so I kinda had to infer you were in here..."
"Duncan, you made it!" Violet said, suddenly chipper as she rose from the couch to stand beside Danny in the doorway. "You're just in time, come on in!"
She moved to let Duncan step inside, while Danny stood in stupefaction as he eyed the newcomer.
"Guys, this is Duncan Reinhardt," Violet introduced him to Marina and Josiah. "I met him at rehearsal yesterday."
"Uh... right," Danny stuttered, his brain barely caught up with the scenario at hand as he closed the door behind him. "And he's here now, because...?"
"Because someone left me bored and alone for five hours," Violet replied with a dirty look at Danny, to which he blinked dumbfoundedly as she looked back to her new friend. "Duncan helped me pass the time, so I invited him to join us today."
Danny squinted suspiciously as he opened his mouth to speak again, but Marina had already risen from her seat and extended a hand to the newcomer. "Well it's nice to meet you, I'm-"
"Marina Livesey, yeah," Duncan awkwardly finished for her, shaking her hand gently with both of his own before looking to the others in turn. "I, uh, know all your names. You all each had something of a reputation at school; especially you, Josiah."
"Right..." Josiah said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah, I think I might've pantsed you a couple of times before. Sorry about that, by the way."
"Ah, it's fine," Duncan insisted with a nervous laugh. "Gave me an excuse to finally buy a belt!"
His laughter continued as the others looked to him with smiles. Danny remained rooted to the spot as he eyed Duncan skeptically. There were several factors about this character's sudden arrival that threw him off, but it seemed that the others had already accepted him into their celebration, and he wasn't in any mood to make a scene.
"All right, well," he said after a pause, stepping past the others to plop back in his chair, "sit wherever you'd like. There's champagne if you want. We actually just had a toast for our friend Mike, who's off in Japan training up for the Pro Circuit."
"Oh yeah, Violet mentioned something about that," Duncan recalled as he sat down on the couch beside her, taking a flute. "So he's likely training under the new Master Rules, right?"
"Probably," said Josiah. "Honestly I'm not sure I like what they're doing with the game, getting rid of first turn draws like that."
"For real though," Danny agreed. "What're they gonna do next, nerf the extra deck?"
"Somehow, I doubt Imanok Industries would do something that stupid," said Josiah, though he sounded more like he was trying to convince himself.
Danny raised a concerned eyebrow at Josiah for a moment before looking again to Duncan. "So, I take it you're a duelist yourself?"
"Oh, well uh," Duncan stumbled over his words as he poured his champagne, "I mostly duel online. My family's kinda broke, so I don't own a lot of good cards."
"Uh-huh," Danny nodded. "Well, are you any good?"
"I mean, I've won a couple tournaments," he said, "so I guess I'm doing something right."
Despite how he felt about this Duncan character internally, Danny couldn't help but curl an impressed lip. Marina, meanwhile, opted to change the subject: "So you were part of the Senior class too, right? Any idea what you want to do now that you've graduated?"
"Well, I originally wanted to go to trade school for computer sciences," he said, "but, again, no money for it, so I might as well have tried applying to an actual college."
"Now see, that's why I said 'screw college'," said Danny with a finger pointed at the ground. "It's all just a big scam anyway. I'd rather go into an entry-level job and work my way up!"
"You mean like how you think you can become a Pro duelist by working as an usher at the stadium?" Marina said with a side-eyed glance.
"Hey, all I've gotta do is meet one right person and it could happen!" Danny shot back. "Besides, we can't all be brilliant-minded scholars landing internships like you!"
"Wait, you have an internship?" Duncan repeated with surprise.
All eyes landed on Marina, causing her cheeks to flush. "Heh, yeah... I actually just received my acceptance letter yesterday for a paid internship with NeronTech."
"Wait, that big quality-of-life improvement company?" Josiah asked with arched eyebrows.
"Yeah, they're hiring me on to work through my senior year," she explained. "Long as I do good and keep my grades up, there might even be a full-time position waiting for me there after I graduate."
"That's really incredible," said Duncan.
"Well, that's what she gets for being the smartest girl alive," Danny said with a flirtatious nudge at his girlfriend's arm. "Right? Amirite?"
"Stop flattering me, I'm not going to say something nice about you or your career choice."
"Eh, worth a shot."
Duncan chuckled before turning to Violet. "How about you? What's your plan for the future?"
"Well, my dad's working on re-opening his deli," she said, "so when that's finally done, I figure we'll both just move back into the upstairs, and I'll work for him in the shop."
"So keeping it in the family then," Duncan said with approval. "That sounds nice."
Violet flashed him a smile, while Danny turned his head to the last one in the group to share thus far: "What about you, Josiah? You got anything in the pipeline?"
Josiah hesitated a moment. "Well, I'm definitely not staying at Park n' Shop, that much is for sure," he said. "But honestly, I haven't really figured out what I want to do yet... whatever it is though, it has to be something meaningful. Something that would've made my mom proud."
Danny nodded. "Well I'm sure whatever you settle on, it will," he said, to which Josiah smiled gratefully before raising his glass once again.
"To the future, then," he said.
The others each followed suit. "To the future!"
Another crinkle of plastic glasses, followed by a moment of quiet as the five consumed their drinks. But as Josiah lowered his glass, his face suddenly seemed to light up.
"Hey, you know what I just realized?" he said, aiming his question at Danny. "We haven't had ourselves a proper rematch since we started hanging out."
Danny's expression morphed to mirror Josiah's. "Huh... I hadn't even thought about it, but yeah; you're right."
"Well, we do have all these new cards that we got with Mike before he left," he continued, his lips curling into a competitive smirk. "What would you say to whipping them out for a little test run?"
Exhilaration began to course through Danny's body as he matched Josiah's gaze. "Are you challenging me to a Graduation-Celebration duel right now?"
"I mean, only if you're up for it," Josiah replied with a glint in his eye. "Unless you're worried I might beat you again."
"Oh, like hell!" Danny exclaimed as he stood from his seat. "I've taken nothing but losses against you over the last ten years, and I'll be damned if I don't break that streak today!"
Josiah beamed at this response. "I'll take that as a 'yes', then. Let's do this."
The two stood and began making their way towards the trailer door, whilst Duncan was the only one among the others whose expression had turned to confusion. "Wait, are they really about to do this now? Like, out of nowhere?"
"Honestly, this is how half of our hangouts tend to go anyway..." was Violet's response before she, Duncan and Marina stood and exited the trailer, following the other two.
Outside, Danny and Josiah stood about 10 feet across from each other, their gazes intensely locked as they shuffled their decks. To the side stood the other three friends, with Violet and Marina being the only ones with expressions that spoke to how par for the course this was for them. Duncan, on the other hand, couldn't help but look from one duelist to the other with agitation.
"So, like, who are we supposed to be rooting for here?" he asked. "I mean, they're both our—I mean, your—friends, right?"
"Honestly, we usually tend not to take sides whenever the guys duel among themselves," Marina admitted, a moment passing before she leaned in closer to Duncan, lowering her voice. "Although, considering Danny hasn't won a single duel against Josiah for the last ten years, maybe root for him just a little bit."
Duncan nodded affirmatively while the two duelists finally inserted their decks into their duel disks' slots.
"All right, Danny," said Josiah as his duel disk whirred to life, "ready to show me what you're made of?"
"You better believe it," Danny replied as his disk also activated. "I'm not the same pushover you started kickin' around in third grade. So get ready!"
The two exchanged smirks as they dealt their first five cards, before crying out: "LET'S DUEL!"
- DUEL -
[Danny - LP: 4000] VS [Josiah - LP: 4000]
"Feel free to take the first turn," Danny offered, "since you're not allowed to draw for it anymore."
Josiah scoffed. "Fine by me, but don't think that'll give you a fighting chance," he said, taking a card from his hand. "I'll start by summoning my Cryomancer of the Ice Barrier tuner monster!" [LV: 2/ATK: 1300]
"And then I'll activate a spell card called Ties of the Brethren! So for the low cost of 2000 life points—" [Josiah LP: 4000→2000] "—I can special summon two different monsters from my deck with the same level, type and attribute as a monster already on the field! So with my Cryomancer being a WATER-attribute/aqua-type, I'll call on my Prior and Secret Guards of the Ice Barrier!" [LV: 2/DEF: 400] [LV: 2/DEF: 1600]
"The good news for you is that I can't special summon any more monsters for the rest of the turn, or conduct my battle phase," Josiah went on, "not that it matters. Now I'll set a card face-down and end my turn."
As the set card materialized, Danny observed Josiah's field through lidded eyes. Of course he'd managed to fill up his field on the first turn. And as he recalled how his Ice Barrier deck had played against Mike, he realized there was likely more to this setup than met his eye.
"Lemme guess," he said, "you called on this certain set of monsters 'cause they have some sort of defensive capabilities."
Josiah smirked. "You'd be right," was his reply. "While my Cryomancer shares the field with another Ice Barrier monster, level 4 and higher monsters can't attack; while my Secret Guards keep my Ice Barrier monsters from being targeted by your monsters' effects."
"That figures," Danny said as he drew. "Guess I'll just have to match your little defensive with one of my own, then. I'll start by summoning my Machina Gearframe!" [LV: 4/ATK: 1800]
"And thanks to his effect, his summoning means I can add any 'Machina' monster I want from my deck to my hand!" he said. "And I think I'll take out my Fortress!"
The card popped out from his deck zone, which he took before continuing: "And with its effect, I can discard both it and my Green Gadget to then call it back from the graveyard! So roll out onto the field, Machina Fortress!" The tank-like monster with arms burst from the dirt of the construction site before him. [LV: 7/ATK: 2500]
"Okay, getting to discard itself for its own summon cost is seriously OP," Josiah said, knitting his brow.
"Eh, gotta love a broken game sometimes," Danny said with a shrug. "Now for my Machina Gearframe's other effect: Union Equip!"
The humanoid mech suddenly retracted its limbs into its own body, becoming a winged platform that soared over to Fortress, scattering and attaching parts of itself across the tank's frame.
"So that's your new Union monster in action, then," Josiah said with crossed arms. "Impressive."
"Yeah, well unfortunately that's where his usefulness to me ends since I can't battle," Danny mourned. "So instead, I'll throw this card face-down and end my turn."
He watched the set card materialize with a smirk. The card was his secret weapon for this duel, the card that would finally secure him his first victory against Josiah. All he had to do was bide his time and wait for the opportune moment...
He looked back to Josiah as he drew his next card. "Back to me, then. I'll start by calling on my Strategist of the Ice Barrier!" [LV: 4/ATK: 1600]
"And you might recall his effect," he said, "which lets me discard an Ice Barrier monster like my Dance Princess to draw another card!"
He carried out the effect, eyeing the new card he'd picked for a moment. "Next, I'll reveal my continuous trap card, Powerful Rebirth!" he said as the set card flipped. "This card special summons a level 4 or lower monster from my graveyard with 1 extra level and 100 more ATK and DEF points! So let's welcome my Dance Princess of the Ice Barrier!" A blue-haired woman emerged before him within a pillar of ice, from which she broke free with an athletic twirl. [LV: 4→5/ATK: 1700→1800]
Danny blinked. "Huh, guess it's true what they say. Every good deck needs a good waifu."
"I'm gonna pretend I didn't just hear you say that..." Josiah said, a bead of sweat dropping from behind his head, "and go into using my Dance Princess' effect!
"By revealing any number of Ice Barrier monsters in my hand, like my Pilgrim," he explained as he flipped one of the cards in his hand, "she can send that many set card spell or trap cards of yours back to your hand!"
Danny watched as the dancer girl strode up to his set card and swiftly kicked it back towards him, the card shrinking to normal size by the time he caught it in his hand with a look of annoyance. "Dude, seriously? That ain't cool."
"Doesn't need to be," said Josiah as he pointed between his Cryomancer and Strategist, "because now I'm gonna tune these two monsters into something a lot cooler!"
Cryomancer transformed into two emerald rings, which Strategist flew through to become four stars, before all was enveloped by a pillar of light. "Synchro summon!" Josiah cried out as a new beast emerged from within the brilliance. "Hunter of the arctic tundra: Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier!" [LV: 6/ATK: 2000]
Danny let out a low whistle as Dewloren bared its teeth at him. "So lemme get this straight," he said, "the Ice Barrier's extra deck arsenal spans from dragons, to tigers? That's freakin' wild."
Josiah laughed. "Well wait 'til you get a load of my beast's effect: by returning any number of face-up cards on my field to my hand, he can raise his ATK power up by 500 points per card for the turn!
"So by returning my Prior, Secret Guards, Dance Princess, and my Powerful Rebirth trap back to my hand," he said as each named card faded from his field, "my Tiger's ATK goes up by 2000 points!" [ATK: 2000→4000]
"Whoa, it doubled to 4000 ATK?!" Duncan yelped. "That's some serious power for just the third turn!"
"All of which I'll be putting to use scrapping that Machina Fortress!" Josiah went on as he pointed to Danny's monster. "Dewloren, attack with Frozen Fangs!"
Dewloren let out a vehement roar before sprinting rapidly towards Machina Fortress, prompting Danny to action: "You forgot that since my Fortress is outfitted with Gearframe, he can take the fall in Fortress' place!"
"But you'll still take the damage!" Josiah reminded him as Gearframe detached its scattered parts from Fortress, reforming in its humanoid shape and engaging in a short brawl with Dewloren that it lost, before shattering. [Danny - LP: 4000→2500]
"So even after his set card was bounced back to his hand, he had a strategy in place to keep his Machina Fortress from getting destroyed," Marina said with admiration. "He's really not leaving anything to chance in this duel."
"And with Dewloren's ATK boost expiring during the end phase, he'll be able to counterattack next turn," Violet added.
Meanwhile, Josiah let out a huff as his Tiger King prowled back to his field. "You lucked out this time, Danny," he commended, "but you'd better hope that luck holds out. I'll set two cards face-down before ending my turn." [Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier - ATK: 4000→2000]
"Then it's my turn!" Danny said as he drew, a wide grin coming to his face as his eyes met his new card. "Oh, you're in for it now... I activate a little spell card I like to call Foolproof Fortress!"
"Foolproof Fortress?" Josiah repeated. "Wait, is that the one—?"
"Hell yeah it is!" Danny said as he tossed a level 10 monster into his graveyard. "In exchange for letting you have an extra draw, I get to discard a monster with a higher level than a Machina Fortress I control to have its ATK power doubled!"
Josiah drew his granted card with apprehension as he watched Danny's monster suddenly enlarge to twice its original size, nearly rivaling the size of their trailer as it towered over everyone gathered. [ATK: 2500→5000]
"Damn, that's even higher than what Josiah's monster was able to reach last turn!" Duncan realized.
"And it puts Danny in the position to even win if it can land an attack on Dewloren," Violet figured with wide eyes.
Danny pointed to Josiah's icy feline. "Now, to take you out along with all nine of your kitty cat's lives!" he said. "Machina Fortress, take aim and destroy that Tiger King with Ballistic Blaze!"
The large cannon atop Machina Fortress swiftly rotated its barrel to point at Josiah's Dewloren, locking onto its target before firing a blue beam towards the creature with pinpoint accuracy.
But Josiah was prepared: "I reveal my trap card, Tidal Advantage!" he countered as his set card flipped, from which a cyclone of ocean water burst to envelop Fortress's laser as it made contact with Dewloren, who roared angrily from the pain of the blast.
"This trap not only halves the ATK of a monster that attacks one of my WATER monsters," he explained, "but it also keeps that monster from being destroyed in battle!"
A watery veil seemed to form over Machina Fortress's shape, its metal frame creaking as it reverted to its original size, its ATK boost lost. [ATK: 5000→2500]
"And with that ATK value change, the amount of damage I take from your attack is severely lessened," Josiah added on. [Josiah - LP: 2000→1500]
"Tch," Danny clicked his tongue. "And you warned me not to press my luck... I'll throw down two cards face-down this time. You're up, Josiah."
"Then I draw," he said as he dealt his next card, before taking a moment to examine the six cards he held.
As he did, Danny grit his teeth. He had never asked for much over the course of his life. He'd rarely ever had anyone else around to even ask for anything as it were. And yet, for whatever reason, no matter how much of a clown he'd made of himself in an effort to make friends and be liked, the universe had sent Josiah to be his tormentor for the majority of his formative years. Even after he'd befriended Mike, save for not being victimized as often as before, he felt like he'd become a second fiddle to his friend at best, but otherwise the same helpless dork he'd always been at worst.
So even though he was facing Josiah as a friend now, it didn't matter. This duel was his chance at retribution—his chance to finally gain some self-respect back. And no matter how tough Josiah was, he wasn't about to let that slip from his hands.
Finally, Josiah began his move: "All right, first I'll call my Dance Princess of the Ice Barrier back to the field!" [LV: 4/ATK: 1700]
"And I'll once again use her effect to reveal the Prior and Secret Guards I returned last turn in my hand," he said, flipping the two cards, "and send those two set cards of yours back to your hand!"
Dancer began repeating her earlier recital, swiping at both set cards with one leg and forcing them back to Danny's hand as his face deadpanned. "Okay, I'm gonna have to ask you to stop bouncing my backrow cards, otherwise it's gonna get real old, REAL quick."
"Guess I'll have to try varying it up then, so you don't get bored," Josiah said. "Now I'll activate my Moray of Greed spell card, which lets me shuffle any two WATER monsters from my hand into my deck, and then draw three cards!
"So I'll put my Prior and Pilgrim back," he placed the cards atop his deck, the disk automatically shuffling the cards for him before he picked his new three.
"Next, I'll put my Dewloren's effect to use, and send my Dance Princess back to my hand so he can gain 500 ATK!" Josiah continued, the blue-haired woman fading from the field once more, causing Dewloren's power to increase. [ATK: 2000→2500]
"So now his ATK's the same as my Fortress's," Danny pointed out. "What are you aiming for, some kinda suicide tactic?"
"Not quite," was Josiah's reply. "As a matter of fact, my Dewloren's part in this is actually over, so now I'll activate my De-Synchro spell card!"
Danny's eyes widened as Josiah explained: "As the name suggests, this card disperses a Synchro monster on my field and returns it to the extra deck, and then special summons the materials I used to Synchro summon it in exchange!"
Dewloren took on an ethereal form full of six stars that then split into two, the separate shapes each holding two and four stars before reforming into Cryomancer and Strategist again, respectively. [LV: 2/DEF: 0] [LV: 4/ATK: 1600]
"And now that he's back on the field, I'll use my Strategist's effect and discard my Secret Guards to draw another card," he said as he carried out the effect.
Danny shook his head. "Gotta admit, I'd be lying if I said I didn't admire how resourceful that deck of yours can be sometimes."
"Honesty's a wise policy," Josiah conceded, "but it won't save you from what's coming next. Once again, I'll tune my level 2 Cryomancer to my level 4 Strategist!"
Danny watched as two emerald rings and four stars replaced the monsters on Josiah's field, culminating into a light from which, this time, a dragon of ice only slightly smaller than his Gungnir emerged. "Synchro summon!" Josiah called out as his dragon floated above his field. "Soar over the frozen plains! Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier!" [LV: 6/ATK: 2300]
The three sideline spectators marveled at the sight of this new creature; however Danny's expression took on a look of disappointment. "Man, after seeing a tiger, I was kinda hoping for, like... a dinosaur or something next," he said. "Not another dragon."
"So sorry to disappoint you," said Josiah. "Now, for my Brionac's effect! By discarding a card from my hand, I can send your Machina Fortress back to yours!"
"Oh, what the hell?!" Danny exclaimed as Brionac flew across the field, firing a breath of cold wind that was surprisingly strong enough to lift Machina Fortress from the ground, launching it back towards him as it quickly shrank back into a card that he once again caught.
"Okay, when I told you to specifically stop bouncing my backrow cards, this was NOT what I meant, and you know it!" Danny said with outrage. "But since you went out of your way to target my Fortress, I suppose I'll reward ya with his effect: I get to pick a card in your hand for you to discard!"
The four cards that comprised Josiah's hand appeared as projections before Danny, who smirked. "Think I'll take my revenge against your Dance Princess by getting rid of her!" he said with a point of his finger.
Across the field, the Dance Princess in Josiah's hand glowed momentarily before shattering, which Josiah watched before looking back at Danny. "Too bad for you, that won't matter in the long run," he said, "because now I'll have my Brionac attack you directly! Icy Breath Barrage!"
The ice-scaled dragon took to the skies, unhinging its jaw before letting loose a exhale of pointed ice shards that flung themselves straight through Danny, who braced himself against the onslaught, the shards landing around him hitting the dirt and dredging up a cloud of dust that engulfed him. [Danny - LP: 2500→200]
"He managed to clear Danny's field and launch a direct attack on him?!" Duncan uttered with awe. "That's insane!"
"And now he's down to only 200 life points," added Violet. "He's barely hanging on by a thread."
As the dust settled around him and he regained his visibility, Danny felt his heart pumping furiously while his weary eyes locked onto Josiah and Brionac hovering over his field. Not that it mattered since it had been sent back to his hand again, but now his life points had dipped too low for him to use his big win card safely. But despite this setback, he held onto the fact that he at least still had life points left. And so long as he did, he wasn't about to give up hope for winning this duel—
"Now to finish this."
His eyes widened at these words as Josiah's last set card flipped to reveal a familiar image: "I re-activate my Powerful Rebirth continuous trap!" Josiah said with a new air of seriousness, "which I'll use to call one of my level 4 or lower monsters back from the graveyard with 1 extra level, and 100 more ATK and DEF!"
Duncan and Violet had been rendered speechless, their mouths hung open as they eyed Josiah's trap. This was really it then: as soon as his revived monster hit Josiah's side of the field, he would be able to finish Danny off with one last attack.
Marina, meanwhile, kept her eyes fixed on her boyfriend, observing every line of aggravation in his face. Though she'd mostly feigned neutrality with Duncan earlier, she'd had no other hope but for Danny's victory in this duel. She knew better than anyone what this duel with Josiah—this opportunity—meant for him personally, but now it looked like it was about to be ripped out from under him again...
ED2: "Leave Out All The Rest" by Linkin Park
Author's Notes
And I have returned with the next installment! Sorry to make this another two-parter, I know, but with everything I had to fit into this entry, it had to be done. I promise I won't make you guys wait too long for the second half, tho. I'm on a bit of a more regulated schedule and I've been churning material out when I can.
This is all thanks in part to my best bud Master Of Anime224, with whom I have created what we're calling the "RealityVerse." Henceforth, all our original YGO fics exist within our own little contained canon. He also recently published another story occupying another corner of our 'Verse, which I'll be recommending in detail down below. But for now, I just wanna shout a big thanks to him for being a pal and crafting this new universe with me, as well as being my editor just as I am for him. And we've got some seriously exciting stuff planned for our 'Verse as well, so keep an ear on the ground for it.
Also, shoutout to NovaZardX for his enthusiastic support and love not only for this story, but everything that comes outta MOA and I's brainchild. Dude went out of his way to review EVERY chapter of mine in detail in the same fashion I do, and if I could, I'd hug him for it. I dropped a recc for his own all-original YGO fic last chapter, so if you haven't yet, go check it out!
Now then... the chapter. I managed to go SEVENTEEN without needing to, but I finally hit the wall I couldn't break. This entry saw the first use of an all-original card: Danny's "Foolproof Fortress" spell. I never expected this story to see an original card, mainly cuz I'm not good at coming up with these kinds of things, so I've got MOA (once again) to thank for thinking it up for me. Also, yes, that ABSOLUTELY was a dunk on Konami for the stupidity that was Master Rule 4 (I've waited YEARS to make that joke), and yes, "Imanok" Industries is Konami spelled backwards. That's 'Verse canon. We have no shame.
Last but certainly not least, here's today's CQ: Cast the characters of Mark of Death. Any number of 'em. Whether live-action actors, or just voice, English or otherwise, or other fictional characters. Hell, maybe not even those, it could be some random person you saw on the street once, get creative! I'm curious as to who you envision when you read this story, so feel free to share! Just know there's only one correct answer for one specific character, and only one person I'm expecting to get it right.
*UPDATE* I got some interesting responses in regards to this CQ. As such, allow me to share my own envisioned cast for MOD:
Mike Harper - Steve Burton
Violet Alyssum - Alyson Stoner
Danny Stark - Shia LaBeouf
Marina Livesey - Christy Carlson Romano
Casey Maretta- Michelle Rodriguez
Josiah Sullivan - Clifford Chapin
Liam Carson - Vincent Corazza
Aeron Mortimer - Steve Blum
Dr. Skeldon Crawford - Robin Atkin Downes
Mayor Andrew Copperson - Ted Lewis
Bulbous Alyssum - Christopher Rager
Duncan Reinhardt - Todd Haberkorn
Damian White - Benjamin Diskin
Samael - Jon Curry
Keir - Thomas Jane
Seth Harald - Steve Staley
Jared Harald - Tom Welling
Ciro Savalas - Manu Bennett
Right then, that's my time. I'ma get to work on part 2 now. So 'til next time, stay safe and stay awesome.
Recommended Stories
"Yu-Gi-Oh! The Golden League," by Master Of Anime224: Meet Billy Blake, a homeless chap in Britain with barely a pence to his name and too many he owes to others. But his destiny changes course upon meeting a mysterious woman who is not as she first appears to be, gifting him with a deck so he may yet turn his life around. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, Billy begins his grand climb to the top to join the best of the best in the dueling world, in the Golden League. It's a brilliant piece that I would've loved even if I weren't helping to create it to an extent, and I'm sure you will as well, so go check it out!
Original Cards
Foolproof Fortress [Normal Spell]
Discard 1 machine-type monster from your hand and target 1 "Machina Fortress" you control that is a lower level; double the targeted monster's ATK until the end phase, and if you do: your opponent draws 1 card.
REVISED ON: 7/15/2020
