Yuto waited at the path outside the Ra Yellow Girls' Dorms, watching as people walked past, some pointing at him and giggling to themselves. Admittedly, Yuto was a little… nervous about how this day was going to go.
"Hey."
He turned to see Yuzu, dressed up as her own Sonata, green hair and all. He waved back to her as she walked closer.
"Waiting for Ruri?"
"Yeah," Yuto admitted. Yuzu laughed.
"She's taking a while—got a pretty elaborate costume. You still look super awkward though," she said. "Not used to dating my little sister yet, huh?" When he didn't reply, Yuzu elbowed him. "I'm just teasing you. Geez, I'm glad you're dating Ruri, yeah? You're a good guy. Is Yuya around here?" Yuto shook his head.
"He went off with Yugo to get a new costume for him."
"Figures," Yuzu said. "I'm going to go find them then. See you!" She ran off, and Yuto smiled as she left, amused. Then, he heard Ruri's voice from behind him.
"Yuto!"
He turned around and he stood there, stunned as Ruri beamed at him. She was in a white dress with peacock feather designs that became more and more translucent the further down the fabric went, with a cape with green feather designs floating behind her. On her head, she was wearing a blue and gold headdress.
"Nice," he managed.
"Oh, that's a Dark World monster, right?"
"Yeah, Zure. Yours is…"
Ruri smiled, a slightly embarrassed smile on her face. "It's not that common of a card, I think. It's Shinobaroness Peacock?"
"Ah, the Ritual Monster, right? Makes sense." He struggled to speak up for a moment longer, and then he held out a carnation. "You look really pretty," he said, hoping he wasn't blushing as fiercely as he thought he was. Ruri gently took it from his fingers, and tucked it into the side of her sling bag.
"Thanks," she said, gently slipping her hand into his. "Let's go, then!"
He nodded, and they started walking together as he carefully tried to curb his blush. (And his grin, because he was pretty sure that he was already grinning like an idiot.) There had been stalls set up all around the island. Some were hired from outside the island, but some were set up by their seniors. They'd be expected to do it too, next year. The first stand that they came across had Sawatari at it, failing to toss a ball into a cup. Yuto chose to avoid that particular 'confrontation' and turned to the other side, where there was a set of claw machines.
"Can we stop here for a bit?" Ruri requested, and he nodded, stepping to the side as she turned towards a claw machine filled with plushies themed off cute Duel Monsters, ones like Baby Dragon and Lock Cat. Ruri seemed to have her eye on one particular plushie though, and with a single coin, she lined up the claw and pulled out the blue bird with a red head.
"That's a Blackwing, right?"
"I think so. I just thought… it was the only one in there, so it looked really lonely. I might give it to my big brother later." She picked up the bird. "Come on! I'll see if I can get anything for you!"
In the end, she was perfectly capable of doing so. She caught an odd yellow chick for him, and she ended up carrying an entire bag of plushies before they were essentially kicked out by the vendor.
"You're really good at this," he said, carrying her bags in one hand and holding her hand in the other.
"There was a shop like this near the park where Shun and I used to go birdwatching," Ruri said cheerfully. "We both went there so much that… ah, it's my most impractical skill, you know?" She giggled, and Yuto smiled at her fondly.
"It sounds fun, though."
"It really was!"
They stopped at a booth selling keychains with famous duos of Duel Monsters, such as the Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl, Mermail Abysstrite and Mermail Abyssgaios, so on and so forth. The woman at the counter smiled at them, tucking her long blue hair behind her shoulders before she looked them over.
"Looking good," she said with a chuckle. "Zure, huh?"
Yuto blinked. "Uh, yeah. Is it that obvious?"
"No, probably not, but I've actually met the guy, so…" The girl twisted her fingers together, before looking back up with a friendly grin. "I'm Rei Saotome. This isn't really my booth, it's sponsored by the school, but I volunteered to help to run it." She sighed, before she pulled out a tablet. "Want a custom one?"
Ruri nodded, holding out her Assembly Nightingale. Rei looked it over, and got to work, drawing up a very cute, very chibified version of the female monster, before she clicked a button nearby on a machine, and a few odd sounds came from the machine. Then, a pendant fell out with the cute bird in it, and Rei gently put it on the table.
"Tell you what," she said. "I like you two. You're pretty cute, especially together." Both Yuto and Ruri immediately began blushing. "So how about this? One of you can duel me for it, and if you win, I'll make both of you keychains for free."
Yuto shrugged. "That's fine," he said, recovering from his embarrassment slightly. "I can take you on. At most, it'll be a fun duel."
"That's the spirit," Rei said cheerfully. Just as they were about to duel, however, a rather obnoxious voice called out, as someone put their hand on Ruri's shoulder.
"Hey, beautiful. Care to ditch the edgelord and come with me?"
The person who had interrupted them was an odd, smug-looking boy who was shorter than Yuto, but definitely looked older. He stepped towards the boy. "Oi. Leave her alone."
"Maybe you can let her make her own decisions?" The boy said.
"He's right," Ruri said with an apologetic smile. "We're here together."
The boy sneered. "Want to duel then, edgelord? If I win, I'll be taking the lady with me."
"She has a name," Yuto said, feeling very annoyed.
Ruri put a hand on Yuto's arm. "He's right," she said. Despite still being gentle and polite, her voice now sounded a lot sterner. "And I'd prefer that you don't talk to him so rudely." She raised her duel disk. "I'll take you on. What's your name?"
"Eita Kyuando," he said. "And sure, I'll take you on too. And after I win, I'll take you out on a date too!"
Worst joke ever.
Take him out, Ruri.
"You're not going to duel for her?" Rei said, sounding both offended on Ruri's behalf and amused at the whole situation. "What if he wins?"
"Ruri can handle herself," he said. "And he won't. She's really strong. Maybe even stronger than me, honestly."
Rei stared at him, before laughing. "Imagine that," she said. "Most duelists back in our day liked insisting on machismo ideals and stuff like that. Dueling for girls. As if we couldn't handle ourselves! I assure you, all of us were perfectly fine on our own, just like you think Kurosaki-san will be fine. And I'm looking forward to seeing how she wins then…"
The duo stood in front of each other, before their duel disks rose up.
"Duel!"
Ruri Kurosaki: 4000LP
Eita Kyuando: 4000LP
"Ladies first," Eita said.
"Gladly," Ruri said in response, holding out a card. "I'll activate Wings of Natural Song. This Spell lets me discard a monster if I control no monsters other than "Lyrical Luscinia" monsters, in order to Special Summon a "Lyrical Luscinia" monster from my deck." She took out a card from her deck. "I'll Special Summon Lyrical Luscinia – Cobalt Sparrow! (1*/0/100/WIND/Winged-Beast/Effect) And with her effect, I can add a Level 1 Winged Beast to my hand." The brown-winged girl gave Ruri a wink, and Ruri nodded back in response, before she took the card from her deck. "Lyrical Luscinia – Sapphire Swallow!" (1*/100/0/WIND/Winged-Beast/Effect)
She picked up the card and another one in her hand, before she placed both of them on the duel disk.
"Sapphire Swallow's effect. I'll Special Summon it and another Level 1 Winged Beast from my hand! That'll be the Level 1 Lyrical Luscinia – Emerald Nuthatch!" (1*/0/0/WIND/Winged-Beast/Effect) She hummed as she reached out her hand again, both winged girls appearing and flying around her. "When Emerald Nuthatch is summoned from my hand, I can limit myself to only Special Summoning WIND monsters this turn to add one more "Lyrical Luscinia" monster to my hand! I will add Lyrical Luscinia – Ruby Raven (1*/0/0/WIND/Winged-Beast/Effect) to my hand, and with its effect, since I have at least two "Lyrical Luscinia" monsters, I can discard it to draw two cards! However, I cannot Special Summon non-"Lyrical Luscinia" monsters this turn!"
Hmm…
He had never seen Ruri play so quickly, so fluidly before. Normally she took it a lot easier.
"And now, I will Normal Summon Kinka-byo (1*/400/200/DARK/Beast/Spirit/Effect) from my hand!" The dark beast appeared, pacing around the birds as they seemed to coo over it.
"Hey, that's not a WIND or—"
"Yes," Ruri said in her usual polite tone. "But I'm not Special Summoning it, am I?" She took out one card from her graveyard. "Revive, Lyrical Luscinia – Ruby Raven!" The odd red girl emerged, letting out a loud cackle. "And now, unite in the sky! I'll overlay the Level 1 Ruby Raven, Sapphire Swallow, Turquoise Warbler, Emerald Nuthatch and Kinka-byo!" The five monsters flew up, turning into green and purple orbs that flew into a large vortex in the sky. "Birds with beautiful wings! Gather on the battlefield and take brilliant flight! Xyz Summon! Dance in the sky! Rank 1! Lyrical Luscinia – Assembly Nightingale!" (R1/0/0/WIND/Winged-Beast/Xyz/Effect/OU:5)
Ruri's ace emerged in front of her, feathers gleaming with bright light.
"Sapphire Swallow's effect will attach the Turquoise Warbler in my graveyard to Assembly Nightingale as an Overlay Unit! (Lyrical Luscinia – Assembly Nightingale: OU:5 + 1 = OU: 6) And now, I'll activate the Equip Spell Feather-Buried Armor and equip it to Assembly Nightingale." She smiled. "I'll end my turn. And during the End Phase, by discarding a monster from my hand with an equal Level to Assembly Nightingale's Rank, I can deal you two hundred damage for each Overlay Unit she has!" The armour flared up, before bright feathers shot out at Eita, who let out sputtering sounds.
Eita Kyuando: 4000 – 200 x 6 = 2800LP
Burn damage, huh?
"My turn!" Eita called. "And now, I'll introduce you to the Kyuando School for Magic!"
Can I just cringe at this guy? Like objectively, that's the worst name ever. Probably addicted to those old movies, Harry Potter or something… Yuto sighed, deciding to keep an open mind.
"I'll be discarding a card to Special Summon The Tricky (5*/2000/1200/WIND/Spellcaster/Effect) from my hand!" Squares and circles danced around Eita, before a hat appeared, smoke pouring out of it. When it cleared, an odd spellcaster with a blue cape and a question mark as its face appeared. "And then I'll activate Question! Without checking the cards in my graveyard, you must guess what the monster at the bottom of it is!" He smirked. "But you can't, right? Because I just discarded it."
"Yeah," Ruri said. "So what happens if I can't guess it?"
"I Special Summon it! So come to my field, Sangan!" (4*/1000/600/DARK/Fiend/Effect)
The chestnut-like monster appeared.
"Oh," Ruri said.
"People still use that card?" Yuto asked, sounding much less polite. "Well, I guess it's a good searcher, but not much of a Spellcaster…"
"I'll be Normal Summoning the Hand of Nephthys!" (2*/600/600/WIND/Spellcaster/Effect) A strange woman surrounded by flames emerges, letting out a low chuckle. "I'll send her and Sangan to the graveyard to call out the star of the show! Emerge, the Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys!" (8*/2400/1600/FIRE/Winged-Beast/Effect) The infamous fire bird emerged, zooming around and letting out a loud call towards Assembly Nightingale, who let out a high-pitched chirp in return. "Sangan will add a monster with 1500 or less attack points to my hand. And now, I'll have Nephthys attack your monster!"
"I'll activate Lyrical Luscinia – Assembly Nightingale's effect," Ruri said. "I can detach an Overlay Unit to protect all Lyrical Luscinia monsters I control from being destroyed by battle or card effects, and I don't take any battle damage either. Feather Barrier!" (Lyrical Luscinia – Assembly Nightingale: OU:6 – 1 = OU:5)
Bright feathers shot out, blocking off the attack.
"Well, The Tricky will attack your monster!"
"That won't work," Ruri explained. "Feather Barrier lasts for the whole turn."
"Grr… I'll set a card and end my turn!"
"Draw," Ruri said. She glanced forward, thinking for a moment. "I've won," she said.
"Huh?"
"Mystical Space Typhoon. I'll destroy your set card." She pointed forward. "Assembly Nightingale gains 200 attack points for each Overlay Unit that it has." (Lyrical Luscinia – Assembly Nightingale: 0 + 200 x 5 = 1000ATK) She sighed. "She can attack directly. And she can attack once for each of her Overlay Units."
"Huh?"
"So I'll end this immediately. Now, Assembly Nightingale—Avian Gale Quintet!" Five swirls of feathers shot out, knocking Eita down and ending the duel immediately.
Eita Kyuando: 2800 – 1000 x 5 = 0LP
She stepped forward, seemingly to hold out a hand to the boy on the floor, before Rei stepped forward. "Hey," she said to Ruri. "Don't worry about him, yeah? It'll hurt his pride more if you try and help him out after that."
She guided Ruri back, and Eita ran off the moment he got up.
"That was really good," Yuto said. "As expected."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I mean, I knew you were strong from the moment we met." Ruri let out a cheerful giggle, and Yuto gave her a warm, slightly amused smile. "So this is nothing new."
Rei let out a laugh next to them. "Yes, yes. I can see why you guys are lovebirds." Both of them let out sounds of embarrassment, before Rei picked up her duel disk. "So, she's Ruri, huh? What are your names again?"
"Ruri Kurosaki."
"Yuto Sakaki."
"Oh, you're the Sakaki with the Phantom Knights, right?" Rei let out another chuckle at the bewildered looks on their faces. "Ah, I guess that you guys wouldn't know why I'd know that. You all have met Asuka already, right?"
"Oh, you and her are friends?"
"She was my love rival back when we were in Academia together," Rei said cheerfully, and both Yuto and Ruri gave her shocked looks. "What? It's not like it's embarrassing for me, you know? Well, we ended up becoming good friends anyway, so she told me about you guys!" She folded her hands together. "All good things, I promise. So? Want to have a duel?"
"Sure," Yuto said. "I'll duel you. Can't let Ruri do all the heavy lifting."
"That's the spirit." They took up positions at the front of the stall, and Ruri sat by the side, watching with a smile.
So Rei had been friends with Asuka, huh? And considering how tough Asuka was…
Well, they'd see.
Yuto Sakaki: 4000LP
Rei Saotome: 4000LP
"I'll start," Rei said cheerfully. "I'll activate Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen!"
Oh, so a Fairy deck then? Yuzu used that card too, if he wasn't wrong…
"I'll be activating its effect to Special Summon The Agent of Creation – Venus (3*/1600/0/LIGHT/Fairy/Effect) from my hand since I control no monsters!" Rei smiled. "And I'll activate The Fountain in the Sky!" Another Continuous Spell appeared behind her. "And now, I'll pay 500 life points with Venus's effect to bring out a Mystical Shine Ball (2*/500/500/LIGHT/Fairy) from my deck!"
A beautiful white and misty orb of light appeared in front of Rei.
"And I can do this more than once, so I'll activate it thrice!"
Rei Saotome: 4000 – 500 x 3 = 2500LP
The three balls floated innocently in front of her.
"I'll now Normal Summon Maiden in Love!" (2*/400/300/LIGHT/Spellcaster/Effect)
A cute brown-haired girl emerged, giving a quick bow.
"I'll now overlay two of my Mystical Shine Ball monsters! Beautiful light in the sky, come now and serve the elegant, cute maiden of affection! Xyz Summon! Rank 2! Shining Elf!" (R2/1600/1000/WIND/Spellcaster/Xyz/Effect/OU:2) Rei smiled at him. "I'll set a card and end my turn!"
Huh?
Why would she leave so many of her cards exposed and her hand empty?
Well, he could try and figure that out now…
He glanced at the card he drew. Alright. "I'll Normal Summon The Phantom Knights of Fragile Armor!" (4*/1000/2000/DARK/Warrior/Effect) The odd possessed armour appeared in front of him, floating with no visible body to it. "And since I control a "The Phantom Knights" monster, I can Special Summon this card from my hand! The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots!" (3*/200/1200/DARK/Warrior/Effect)
Rei clapped her hands together as the monster appeared. "Oh, that one's actually kind of cute! Those two are different Levels though, aren't they?"
"I'm fixing that now," Yuto said. "The Spell card, Tannhauser Gate! I can target two of my monsters that have 1000 or less attack points and their Levels become equal to the total of their original Levels!" The two monsters glowed, before stars appeared around them. (The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots: 3* + 4* = 7*) (The Phantom Knights of Fragile Armor: 4* + 3* = 7*) He smiled. "I'll overlay my two Level 7 monsters! Fangs of rebellion gain new power and slash the pall of darkness! Awaken, dark raging dragon that presides over the battlefield! Xyz Summon! Rank 7! Dark Anthelion Dragon!" (R7/S10/3000/2500/DARK/Dragon/Xyz/Pendulum/Effect/OU:2)
His Xyz-Pendulum ace appeared, letting out a defiant roar as light exploded from around it.
Rei simply smiled calmly. "Shining Elf's effect. I'll detach an Overlay Unit and lower that monster's attack points by 500. Bright Grace!" (Dark Anthelion Dragon: 3000 – 500 = 2500ATK)
"That's fine," Yuto said. He glanced across the field. None of Rei's monsters had that many attack points in the first place, so… it might feel like a waste to absorb their strength. Still though, if he did, he could end this in one strike.
So…
"I'll detach an Overlay Unit from Dark Anthelion. I will target your Elf and halve its attack points, before giving those attack points to Dark Anthelion and gaining them as life points! Draining Lightning!" (Shining Elf: 1600 / 2 = 800ATK) (Dark Anthelion Dragon: OU:2 – 1 = OU:1; 2500 + 800 = 3300ATK)
Yuto Sakaki: 4000 + 800 = 4800LP
"Attack Elf! Raging Sunburst Stream!" The dragon lunged forward, shooting out beams of light and lightning that zoom towards Rei.
"I'm activating Draining Shield," Rei said. "So I'll gain life points equal to your monster's attack points."
Rei Saotome: 2500 + 3300 = 5800LP
"Alright," Yuto said cautiously. "I'll banish Silent Boots from the graveyard to add another "Phantom Knights" Spell or Trap from my deck to my hand. I'll set two cards facedown. Over to you, Saotome-san…"
"Don't look so nervous!" Rei smiled. "Honestly, I'm nowhere near as strong as a lot of the others from our age group, so relax." She drew her next card as the monsters had their attack points return to normal. (Shining Elf: 800 - 1600ATK) (Dark Anthelion Dragon: 3300 - 2500ATK) "Here, I'll activate this card. Maiden's Promise. I can only equip this card to a "Maiden" monster, like Maiden in Love. It grants her immunity in battle, and I take a maximum of 100 damage from battles involving her. Oh, and once per turn, I can tribute a monster I control to add one Cupid's Kiss to my hand!"
The last Mystical Shine Ball vanished, and Rei cheerfully added another Spell to her hand.
"I'll equip Cupid's Kiss to Maiden in Love too." She pointed forward. "Now, attack Dark Anthelion Dragon!"
Huh?
Maybe there was an effect or something, but if there was, he could chain his set cards later. He watched as the two monsters collided.
Rei Saotome: 5800 – 100 = 5700LP
"I'll activate Maiden in Love's effect! I can put a Maiden Counter on your monster. (Dark Anthelion Dragon: Maiden Counter: 1) And Cupid's Kiss has its own effect. Since I took damage from your monster while it had a Maiden Counter, I can take control of it!"
Oh.
"I'll activate the effect of The Phantom Knights of Dark Gauntlets! I can send a "The Phantom Knights" Spell or Trap from my deck to the graveyard." He pointed forward. "Dark Anthelion's effect! I'll target Shining Elf. Draining Lightning!" (Shining Elf: 1600 / 2 = 800ATK) (Dark Anthelion Dragon: OU:1 – 1 = OU:0; 2500 + 800 = 3300ATK)
Yuto Sakaki: 4800 + 800 = 5600LP
"Nice," Rei complimented, as the dragon floated over to her field. "Stopping me from using its effect, huh? But now, I'll be having Shining Elf attack you directly!"
Yuto Sakaki: 5600 – 800 = 4800LP
"And now, Venus will attack you directly!"
Yuto Sakaki: 4800 – 1600 = 3200LP
Rei winked. "Dark Anthelion Dragon will attack you directly! Raging Sunburst Stream!"
"I'll activate the effect of Dark Gauntlets and The Phantom Knights of Mist Claws in my graveyard. First, Dark Gauntlets will Special Summon itself since you declared a direct attack. (4*/300/600/DARK/Warrior) And next, Mist Claws will Special Summon itself and another "The Phantom Knights" monster from my graveyard, and it will copy that monster's Level. Revive, Fragile Armor and Mist Claws!" (4*/0/0/DARK/Warrior)
"Well, I'll have Anthelion destroy your Mist Claws!"
"I'll activate The Phantom Knights of Wrong Magnetring," Yuto said. "I'll negate the attack and Special Summon it." (2*/0/0/DARK/Warrior)
Rei chuckled. "Sure, go ahead! I'll end my turn!"
So he couldn't take down that monster because of its Equip Spells, and it would steal his monster, huh?
Yuto smiled.
Was that it?
Sure then.
"Draw," he said. "I'll send Wrong Magnetring and Fragile Armor to the graveyard to draw two cards." Yuto held out his hand to his two monsters, who both turned into dark swirls that dove into the ground below him. "I'll overlay the Level 4 The Phantom Knights of Dark Gauntlets and The Phantom Knights of Mist Claws!"
"Oh, so you're bringing out your ace?"
"Formed from pitch-black darkness, to fight those foolish enough to oppose it with its treacherous fangs! Now, descend! Xyz Summon! Rank 4! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!" (R4/2500/2000/DARK/Dragon/Xyz/Effect/OU:2) His dragon emerged, letting out a howl.
But Rei immediately smiled. "I'll activate Shining Elf's effect to lower your dragon's attack points by 500!" (Shining Elf: OU:1 – 1 = OU:0) (Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon: 2500 – 500 = 2000ATK)
"I'll banish Fragile Armor from the graveyard to discard one and draw one. Next, I will banish The Phantom Knights of Ancient Cloak (3*/800/1000/DARK/Warrior/Effect) from my graveyard to add a "Phantom Knights" card to my hand."
"Nice! That's a lot of searching!"
"Thanks," Yuto said with a chuckle. "I'm not done though. I'm going to take back Dark Anthelion from you. And to start that off, I'll Normal Summon The Phantom Knights of Ragged Gloves. (3*/1000/500/DARK/Warrior/Effect) And since I summoned a "The Phantom Knights" monster, I can Special Summon The Phantom Knights of Stained Greaves (3*/1200/600/DARK/Warrior/Effect) from my hand!" Two more of his shadowed warriors appeared around him. "And I'm going to overlay my Level 3 Stained Greaves and Ragged Gloves! Souls of knights who fell on the battlefield. Revive here and now, and become the light that breaks the darkness! Xyz Summon! Appear, Rank 3, The Phantom Knights of Break Sword!" (R3/2000/1000/DARK/Warrior/Xyz/Effect/OU:2)
One of his other most reliable Xyz Monsters appeared, holding out his sword.
"Sorry, Break Sword," he said. The monster nodded, giving a short bow. "I'll activate his effect. By detaching one of his Overlay Units, I can destroy a card on your field and on mine! And guess what?"
Yuto grinned, filled with an odd ecstasy.
"Your monster is protected from battle, not from card effects."
Rei nodded, smiling.
"Break Sword will destroy itself and your monster!" The duo of monsters vanished, and fittingly, the duo of Equip Spells exploded a moment after.
"Good job," Rei said.
"And Break Sword's materials return as Level 4 monsters." (The Phantom Knights of Stained Greaves: 3* + 1* = 4*) (The Phantom Knights of Ragged Gloves: 3* + 1* = 4*) He glanced at the duo of odd Xyz Monsters in his Extra Deck, before shaking his head.
He had no need to bring out those cards.
"And now that your monster isn't around, my Dark Anthelion returns to me." The pair of dragons let out roars. "I'll have Dark Rebellion activate his effect and target Venus! Treason Discharge!" His ace shot out bolts of lightning that bound the fairy's legs together, knocking it to the ground. (Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon: OU:2 – 2 = OU:0; 2000 + 1600 / 2 = 2800ATK) (The Agent of Creation – Venus: 1600 / 2 = 800ATK)
He nodded to his dragon. "Take down Venus! Rebellious Lightning Disobey!"
Rei Saotome: 5700 – 2000 = 3700LP
"I'll banish Venus from my graveyard with The Fountain in the Sky's effect to gain life points equal to its attack points!"
Rei Saotome: 3700 + 1600 = 5300LP
"Anthelion! Raging Sunburst Stream!"
Rei Saotome: 5300 – 2500 = 2800LP
"Ragged Gloves and Stained Greaves!"
Rei Saotome: 2800 – 1000 – 1200 = 600LP
"It's a pity that you couldn't finish me off this turn," Rei said gently.
"It's fine," Yuto said. "I guess that just means that you're strong enough for this." He flipped the card in his hand around.
"Oh!" Rei's eyes widened. "I didn't know you could…"
"I guess," Yuto said with a shrug. "I don't like to, really. Polymerization! I'll fuse The Phantom Knights of Ragged Gloves and The Phantom Knights of Stained Greaves!" He takes the card from his Extra Deck, feeling a little hesitant.
He hadn't been able to bring himself to use Fusion Summoning for a long time. Even when he included this card recently, he hadn't expected to actually use it.
"A hollow predator dwells in the hell behind the noble warriors," Yuto began. "Betrayed and cruel soul who fell from knighthood, ascend now with your cold weaponry and strike down your prey! Fusion Summon! Level 7! The Phantom Knights of Tattered Whip!" (7*2000/1000/DARK/Warrior/Fusion/Effect)
A strange chestplate appeared, thin vines slipping out of the cracks in it. A light blue glow surrounded the rim of the chestplate, and from below, it was connected to a skeletal steed, one that couldn't be identified as a horse, donkey, bird or… anything. From its left arm, a long sword was fused to the armour. Meanwhile, on its right arm, a long whip lashed out, thorned and covered in streaks of dark metal.
"It's kinda plant-like, right?" Rei said.
"Yeah," Yuto said. "It's actually… well, never mind. It's a Warrior though. I'll activate Tattered Whip's effect. Once per turn, I can banish a DARK monster from my field or graveyard to Special Summon one of the same Level from my deck. I'll banish Ragged Gloves from the graveyard to Special Summon The Phantom Knights of Torn Scales (3*/600/1600/DARK/Warrior/Effect) from my deck." He nodded to Tattered Whip. "When a DARK monster is Special Summoned while Tattered Whip is on the field, I can gain 400 life points and deal you 400 damage! Relentless Thorn Whip!" The whip slashed against both Yuto and Rei's sides, and both of them winced.
Yuto Sakaki: 3200 + 400 = 3600LP
Rei Saotome: 600 – 400 = 200LP
"And now, I'll banish Stained Greaves from the graveyard to Special Summon another "The Phantom Knights" monster from my hand, like The Phantom Knights of Cloven Helm!" (4*/1500/500/DARK/Warrior/Effect) He pointed to Rei, who was just watching with amusement. "Finish her off! Relentless Thorn Whip!"
Yuto Sakaki: 3600 + 400 = 4000LP
Rei Saotome: 200 – 400 = 0LP
Rei clapped her hands together. "Nice! Could you pass me that Dark Rebellion for a moment? I'll sketch it for you." Yuto nodded, passing her the card. After a moment, she passed back two cute keychains of their monsters. Ruri giggled, picking up the one of Dark Rebellion.
"We can swap," she said.
"Sounds good," Yuto said, placing the Assembly Nightingale one on his bag. "Thank you for the duel and the keychains, Saotome-san."
They walk off, and Ruri turns to him. "I didn't know you could use Fusion Summoning," she said.
"Yeah," he said. "Yuri taught me. Guess that was something we all did—we all taught each other."
"Same," Ruri said. "Serena taught us the Fusion Summon, all of us."
"Oh, you too?"
"Yeah." Ruri slipped her hand into his, and they carried on walking forward. "I'll show you some time."
Yuto smiled at her. "Yeah," he said softly. "I think I'd like that."
They blushed at each other, before they carried on.
Rei let out a soft laugh as she turned to the right. "Having fun in that tree, Kaiser?" She said.
Shun Kurosaki stepped out from behind the tree, and Rei gave him a wink.
"Relax. Yuto Sakaki seems like a pretty nice guy. Your sister could do worse."
Shun walked off, and Rei sighed. Well, she tried. That Kaiser was even more overprotective than his predecessor. Seriously…
Maybe she should call up Ryo and Sho later.
They'd get a kick out of this.
A/N: Hi, guys. So you might be wondering why this chapter took so much longer. Well, one thing that I can say is that it's because I had to rewrite the whole thing XD Well, I was originally writing this chapter with a duel between Ruri and the Quiz guy that no one remembers, but when I was about to finish the duel, I took a good look at it and this conversation took place:
Myself: "Are we really going to put this shitty chapter on the internet? Come on dude, have standards."
Me: "I'm tired though, and I have exams next week."
Myself: "Then write it after your exams. This is shit." *flushes chapter down the toilet*
So yes, this is how I forced myself to rewrite the entire chapter. Sorry for the delay. I know I probably could have just released it and worked on rewriting it in my own time, but… trust me, it was a really bad chapter. So I swapped out his Quiz deck for something that gave me less heart pain to write, and we ended up with this Spellcaster deck that specialises around Riddler-like cards and also Special Summoning. Hope that works out for you guys. And besides, he just gets crushed by Ruri in this, which is pretty fitting.
On the bright side, that also allowed Saotome Rei to make her appearance in this story a lot earlier than expected! She's not a particularly major character here, but I did enjoy letting her interact with Yuto and Ruri. She'll probably appear more in a later arc. As for now, she keeps her Maiden in Love deck, but she's also added in some additional cute Fairies and Spellcasters to give her deck more power. (Also to continue competing with Asuka.)
Oh, and yes, Yuto's Fusion Monster. Well, this was admittedly… not going to happen here. Like I said, the Rei addition only came after I rewrote this. Originally, this would have been used in a later chapter. But I guess this is as good of a time as ever. Yuto will probably still use Xyz the most though, so… this card won't show up as much as I want it to, but yes.
Yuto and Ruri are still in a bit more of the shy phase now, but don't worry, they'll settle in soon and stop being so embarrassed about being teased. *finger guns* Hopefully the next chapter will come out soon, though I plan to update Oathbreakers before I come back to this. See you around. Oh, and chapter previews:
Chapter Preview: Chapter 20—Ice Ladies
Rin isn't sure how she got stuck with Yugo, but she supposes that it's not that bad. Either way, she ends up bumping into the previous Miss Duel Academy, Olga, who decided not to run that year. While she originally intends to challenge her predecessor, Yugo ends up jumping the gun and challenging her first…
Chapter Preview: Chapter 21—Carnival Fun
The start of the Duel Monster Spirit Day is bright and happy, and Yuzu and Yuya are just having fun going around. Then, all of a sudden, Yuzu challenges Yuya to a duel...
See you next time! Thanks to everyone for the favourites, follows and reviews! :) I see that so far, Serena is one of the favourites. I'm not really surprised, but feel free to tell me more about your opinions! Always interested :p
~ Blaise
OC Cards:
Wings of Natural Song
(Spell)
If you control no monsters, except "Lyrical Luscinia" monsters: You can discard 1 monster; Special Summon 1 "Lyrical Luscinia" monster from your Deck. You can only activate 1 "Wings of Natural Song" per turn.
Lyrical Luscinia - Emerald Nuthatch
(1*/0/0/WIND/Winged-Beast/Effect)
If this card is Normal or Special Summoned from the hand: You can add 1 "Lyrical Luscinia" monster to your hand, but for the rest of the turn, you can only Special Summon WIND monsters.
Lyrical Luscinia - Ruby Raven
(1*/0/0/WIND/Winged-Beast/Effect)
If you control 2 or more "Lyrical Luscinia" monsters, and if you have no non-WIND monsters in your GY: Discard this card; draw 2 cards. You can only activate this effect of "Lyrical Luscinia - Ruby Raven" once per turn. You can only Special Summon "Lyrical Luscinia" monsters on the turn that you activate this effect.
Feather-Buried Armor
(Spell/Equip)
This card can only be equipped to a Winged-Beast Xyz Monster. During your End Phase: You can send 1 monster from your hand to the GY with an equal Level to the Rank of the equipped monster; your monster takes 200 damage for each Xyz Material that Xyz Monster had. During your End Phase, if you have no cards in hand: Destroy this card.
Maiden's Promise
(Spell/Equip)
Equip only to a "Maiden" monster. That monster cannot be destroyed by battle, and all battle damage (min. 200) you would take from battles involving it becomes 100. You can tribute 1 monster you control: Add 1 "Cupid's Kiss" to your hand.
The Phantom Knights of Tattered Whip
(7*/2000/1000/DARK/Warrior/Fusion/Effect)
2 DARK monsters
This card is always treated as a "Predaplant" monster. Once per turn: You can banish 1 DARK monster from your field or GY; Special Summon 1 DARK monster from your Deck with the same Level. You can only activate this effect of "The Phantom Knights of Tattered Whip" once per turn. If a DARK monster is Special Summoned: Your opponent takes 400 damage, and if they do, you gain 400LP.