Damn, an entire month for a chapter? What is this, A Restrictive Game? Not much to say honestly. I hardly wrote at all until like last week, so there you go. Why didn't I write until last week? Well, I simply didn't feel like it.
It was the day before the promotion exams, and as I was looking over my Dragon deck, Queen's Knight appeared before me in spirit form, an eager grin on her face, which was out of character for the normally stoic knight.
'My lord, we've found him! We found Joker!' Queen's Knight informed me with pride.
'Joker? Neat. I've been wondering what made him so special.' What kind of spirit could have made the three Face Card Knights so excited?
'Why, my winning personality, of course!' Queen's Knight grinned, transforming before my very eyes into another knight entirely.
This knight was blonde, same as the other's, but unlike the others, his face was covered by a white mask with a red smiley face on it. Above his mask he wore a red and purple armored fool's hat.
His armor matched his hat's color scheme, only with black as a base color. He wielded a longsword in his right hand, and a round shield in the other.
'We really do live in a society.' I joked.
'Indeed.' Joker nodded, even though he had no idea what I was talking about.
'MY LORD!' King's, Queen, and Jack's Knight shouted, coming into my room in a flash of light. 'That knight isn't who…' King trailed off once the three of them noticed Joker.
'Yeah, I noticed.'
(Later)
So, the original plan was to go into the exam with my Dragon deck, but with Joker's inclusion into my deck, along with all of the goodies he brought with him, I just had to go with my Face Card Knights as I'd taken to calling them one day after they politely asked me to stop referring to them as Poker Knights.
Turns out, the honorable knights aren't big fans of gamling, except for Joker of course. He's a big fan of most of the things his fellow knights dislike.
With the added spirit buffs, along with the bond I have with King, Queen, and Jack, the Face Card Knight deck is without a doubt my most powerful. Sixteen out of the twenty two main deck monsters are all spirits, and the deck has a shit ton of floating effects, so I'll never run out of options.
"Yuji." Yumi greeted me with a nod as we met up on our way to class.
"Yumi." I greeted in return. "You ready to ditch the yellow jackets?" I asked her. If there was anyone who deserved to advance, it was Yumi Yoshizawa.
"Yeah, mustard isn't my color." She joked, a small smile on her face.
We got to class with a few minutes to spare, and spent our time talking about anything that crossed our minds, as we usually do. Soon enough, Banner pulled up, handed out tests, and we were off to the races.
This exam was a bit more difficult than the entrance exam, but that wasn't saying much. The hardest problem was 'Name at least three cards each that negate Spell cards and Trap cards. Bonus points if you can list cards that do both'.
Jinzo, Royal Decree, Wiretap, Magic Jammer, Solemn Judgement, Dark Bribe. GG 2 EZ no re.
Jaden popped in like half an hour into the test or something. If Crowler was overseeing the test today, he'd have thrown a fit, but thankfully for Jaden, we had the mild mannered Shadow Rider in disguise, Lyman Banner.
Hooray.
(Yumi)
Yumi had only ever been interested in one thing, and that was Duel Monsters. She had other hobbies of course, like Origami and watching the Kaibaman show, although she'd never openly admit to that last one, but Duel Monsters was her passion, nothing could come close to it.
That's how it was until she met Yuji Rengoku.
Growing up, her aloof demeanor tended to push people away, so making friends was hard for her, and her near single-minded interest in dueling didn't do her any favors, especially with the way she played.
As it turns out, no one liked having their entire hand forcefully discarded, so she caught a lot of flack from butthurt opponents that couldn't even last until the 4th turn.
...And they had the nerve to call Monarch's quick shots.
She thought it was all sorts of stupid. After all, if her playstyle wasn't meant to exist, then why did Industrial Illusions keep putting out so many cards that encouraged it?
The fact that Delinquent Duo exists at all is a green light in her book.
Whenever she so much as told someone what kind of deck she used, she could almost feel the disdain roll off of them in waves. If not disdain, then at least disapproval of her 'cowardly' playstyle.
Then she met Yuji, who not only liked her deck, but also went out of his way to help her improve it.
Yuji quickly became her best friend, and lately Yumi's been feeling really dumb whenever she was around him, or thought about him.
She had no idea what was going on, but despite how stupid he made her feel, she wanted to be around Yuji even more, which just proves that she's becoming even dumber!
Not only that, but whenever she saw Yuji and Mindy talking, she got this really unsettling feeling in the pit of her stomach, as though something was wrong.
Watching them walk off hand in hand had Yumi clenching her fist as if she was about to punch something.
Yumi didn't know what that dumbass was doing to her, but she's going to get to the bottom of it one of these days!
-The Greatest Showman-
So the practical portion of the exam takes place in order of dorm placement, so that meant I had to sit through every Slifer in the academy stumbling their way through their duels.
It wasn't all bad. Syrus beat his opponent pretty soundly with his Solidroid Alpha, a card I didn't even know existed, although he made a few mistakes here and there, probably because he doesn't do the best under pressure, and the fact that he slept half of the written exam away wasn't a good sign either.
Still, a win is a win, so that's cause for celebration regardless. Now that he knows he can do it, Syrus might be able to get past his own fear and advance to Ra Yellow come the exam taking place in the last trimester of the school year.
Hayato underperformed, as expected, although he did manage to scratch his opponent's life points, and he was going up against Takuya, one of the better Slifer's to begin with, so that's something at least.
Takuya was definitely advancing to Ra Yellow if his performance was anything to go by. Takuya ran a Warrior deck, with the Gilford monsters as his ace's.
Jaden's duel was interesting to say the least, if only because he went up against another Slifer, instead of Chazz, who's real name I recently found out was Jun Manjoume.
Yeah, apparently someone back in prep school said that he walked around like he was, and I quote, 'The Big Chazz' whatever the hell that was supposed to mean, and he liked the name so much that he started calling himself that, or so Jasmine told me.
What a tool.
Needless to say, Jaden cleaned the poor girl's clock on the 6th turn with a direct attack from Elemental Hero Mariner of all things.
Disa was unfortunately matched up against Ryuko, and despite making all the right plays, she got torn apart by her.
Once Ryuko got Burning Dragon on the field, it was all over for Disa, who had been playing rather defensively, using cards like Secret Village of The Spellcasters alongside her Hecate monsters (cards that were really rare back when they were still being printed let alone today) to keep Ryuko at bay.
All Ryuko had to do after summoning Burning Dragon was activate her face down Tyrant Wing, and let the two copies of Solidarity she had on the field do the talking for her.
Ryuko was advancing for sure, and Disa might also get a pass. Even though she didn't win, if the proctoring professors thought she did well enough, then they could advance a student, even if they didn't win their match.
The only notable duel after that, at least for me, was Masha's. She busted out St. Joan of all things, and took the duel after pulling a De-Fusion during the battle phase.
Then, it was time for the Ra Yellow's to duel, and I was called out to join the first batch of duelists.
My opponent? Bastion Misawa.
Damn, I kind of forgot about Bastion if I was being totally honest. He just kind of does his own thing for the most part, so it's easy to lose track of him.
If I recall correctly, it's his forgettable presence and need for approval that got him brainwashed by Sartorius in season 2, so I should probably make an effort to prevent that.
"I hope you're bringing the heat today, Bastion." I taunted him, engaging my duel disk.
"I think you'll find that I brought something else entirely." Bastion snarked back.
"Since I won the coin toss, I'll be going first." I declared, surprising Bastion for a moment.
"That's new." He remarked.
"Draw!" Already, I had a starting hand that I could commit acts of violence with.
"I activate Joker's Straight!" The image of a spell card featuring the three original Face Card Knights crossing blades appeared on the field.
"By discarding one card, I can Special Summon one Queen's Knight from my deck, then I can add one King's Knight, or Jack's Knight from my deck to my hand." I discarded Jack's Knight.
Queen's Knight came out in defense mode, kneeling with her shield raised.
"Joker's Straight also lets me Normal Summon the monster I added to my hand." I revealed, drawing a concerned look from Bastion, who knew exactly what was coming next.
"I summon King's Knight in attack mode!" My second knight, clad in golden armor rose up with a flourish, brandishing his sword and shield.
"When King's Knight is summoned while I control Queen's Knight, I can special summon Jack's Knight from my hand, deck or graveyard!" Jack's Knight came out in attack mode, and just like that, I had three of Yugi Muto's most iconic monsters on my field, but I wasn't done.
"Now I'll activate the effect of Joker's Knight in my hand!"
"Joker's Knight?" Bastion wondered aloud.
"Yup!" I confirmed. "See, Joker's Knight can be special summoned from my hand, so long as I chuck one of his fellow knight's from my deck to the graveyard. I'll send Queen's Knight to the Graveyard to bring him out in attack mode!"
Joker's Knight
2000 ATK / 1400 DEF
"Not only that, but he also takes on the identity of his fallen comrade! Go, Joker's Masquerade!" Joker changed forms, taking the form of Queen's knight, only with his coloring and mask.
"Now I'll activate Pot of Greed!" I drew two cards, putting me at four. I drew into Joker's Wild, and King's Knight, which was perfect.
"Now I'll set three cards, and call it a turn. During the end phase, I can send one of my Knights back to my deck, and add Joker's Straight to my hand. I choose the Jack's Knight I discarded to use Joker's Straight in the first place." I sent Jack's Knight back to the deck and passed it over to Bastion, who stared back unflinchingly.
"I see you managed to overcome that weakness of yours, if it could even be called that in the first place." Bastion observed, drawing as he did so.
"I activate Miracle Rupture!" Huh? I thought he was gonna bust out his Water Dragon deck.
"By sending one Rock type monster from my deck to the graveyard, I can draw one card. I'll be sending Magnet Ape Epsilon to the grave." Magnet Ape? Did Bastion even have a card like that in GX?
"Now I'll summon Magnet Eagle Delta in attack mode." A red and white eagle mech flew onto the field, looking suspiciously like something you'd market to children.
Magnet Eagle Delta
1200 ATK / 1300 DEF
Am I about to square up against a Megazord? It feels like Bastion's setting up for a megazord…
"When Magnet Eagle Delta is normal summoned, I can special summon one Magnet Ape Epsilon, or Magnet Crocodile Zeta from My Graveyard!" The ground cracked open, and a brown ape-like mech climbed out of it.
Magnet Ape Epsilon
1700 ATK / 500 DEF
"When Magnet Ape Epsilon is summoned, I can Special Summon a Magnet Eagle, or a Magnet Crocodile from my hand! Come on out, Magnet Crocodile Zeta in attack mode!" This time, a murky swamp formed on Bastion's side of the field, and from its depths, piercing yellow eyes glared at me. The beast within, a mechanical crocodile crawled onto Bastion's field.
Magnet Crocodile Zeta
1600 ATK / 1200 DEF
"This one lets you special summon a monster too?" I asked, almost expecting it. Something about Bastion's play-style seemed familiar to me.
"Indeed it does, but only when it's normal summoned unfortunately." Bastion faux lamented.
"Still, that doesn't mean I'm done! I activate Magnet Fusion!" I fucking knew it! He's about to bust out a Megazord!
"Oh hell no! I activate Magic Jammer!" I pitched King's Knight to the grave, and that was that, or so I hoped.
"When I have all of the required Fusion Material on the field, Magnet Fusion can't be negated!" Bastion countered, taking the wind out of my sails.
"I fuse Magnet Ape, Crocodile, and Eagle to fusion summon Electromagnetic Magnedragon!" What came forth from the combined Zords was not a Megazord like I had initially hoped, but a metal dragon that kind of looked like a cross between a snake and Big O.
It was kinda cool looking.
Electromagnetic Magnedragon
Level: 8
EARTH
3500 ATK / 1500 DEF
"Wow…" I whispered, looking up at the mechanical beast hovering above the field.
"Indeed. Not only that, but when I fusion summon it using only monsters on the field, I can add one of those monsters back to my hand. I'll add Magnet Eagle Delta." So not only did Bastion bust out three monsters in one turn and use them to summon an absolute unit of a boss monster, but he did so while maintaining a nearly full hand.
"I tried to build the perfect deck to counter your every move for weeks, Yuji." Bastion began. "I thought if I kept at it, then I could eventually figure out the perfect way to counter each and every single thing you threw at me no matter what deck you used."
"And I'm touched that you put in so much effort." I lightly ribbed him.
"If only it were that simple." Bastion smiled. "No matter what I tried, you surpassed my expectations with every duel, stomping out each and every attempt made by others to defeat you, even though many of them were strategies I hoped to implement."
"Eventually, I figured it out." Bastion held his arms out, gesturing towards his dragon. "I'd use your own strategies against you! I'd come right out the gates with a beast you couldn't hope to match, all while maintaining enough resources to mount a comeback should I need to!" Holy shit, that's actually really impressive.
"Now for the second part of Magnedragon's effect!" There's a second part?
"When I add a monster to my hand using its effect, my dragon gains ATK equal to the monster I added to my hand!"
3500 + 1200 = 4700
Holy shit, that's a lot.
"Now, it's time to battle! Electromagnetic Magnedragon, attack Joker's Knight! Electro-Wave!" Bastion commanded. His dragon sent out a wave of electricity from its wings, shocking Joker's Knight into non-existence.
"I activate Defense Draw! I take no damage and I get to draw a card!" Joker's Knight still got destroyed though.
"Even still, Electromagnetic Magnedragon's other effect activates!" Oh shit. "When it destroys a monster by battle, you take damage equal to that monster's ATK! Electromagnetic Pulse!"
Megnedragon glowed with an aura of electricity before it exploded outwards, poised to deal a game ending 2000 points of damage.
Despite not having any mass, Solid Vision duels always made you feel something whenever you took damage. Whether that's a feature of the Duel Disk that's meant to make duels feel more real, or Spirits manifesting themselves in some way, I have no clue since I never thought to ask my small army of Duel Spirits, but either way it kind of hurts.
If I had to compare it to anything, it'd be like one of those gag shock toys, rather than the massive wave of electricity it actually was.
Bastion: 4000
Yuji: 2000
I just barely dodged an OTK...
Disa must be seething over not being allowed to stream this.
"Shit Bastion, that was awesome!" I congratulated him after a moment.
"Oh." Bastion coughed, unused to praise it seemed. "Why thank you, Yuji."
"Now I'll set one card, and end my turn." Bastion ended.
"During the end phase, I can send one of my Face Card Knights from the graveyard to the deck, and add Joker's Knight back to my hand. I'll send Queen's Knight back to my deck." Now my hand was sitting pretty at three cards.
"Draw!" Another Joker's Wild, sweet.
"From my hand, I activate Thundespeed Summon! This card lets me normal summon one level 10 monster from my hand, but if I have Queen's Knight, King's Knight and Jack's Knight on the field, then I can add one level 10 non-Dark monster from my deck to my hand and normal summon it!" Bastion perked up at the mention of a level 10 monster, not that I could blame him.
Level 10 monsters were damn near impossible to find, except for that one card no one can use, so the mere mention of one was enough to get people's attention since it usually meant that big things were about to happen.
"I'm adding Arcana Triumph Joker to my hand, and tributing King's Knight and Jack's Knight to summon her!" Arcana Triumph Joker was essentially Queen's Knight's evolved form in appearance, clad in shinier red armor with gold accents throughout it, and gems lining both her armor and weapons.
Arcana Triumph Joker
LV 10
LIGHT
? ATK / 2500 DEF
"Arcana Triumph Joker gains 500 ATK for every card in our hands!"
4000 (8x500) ATK
"Now I'll activate her effect!" I declared with a grin, which visibly set all sorts of alarms off in Bastion's head. "By discarding one card, I can destroy all face-up cards of the same type that you control. I'll be pitching Joker's Knight to destroy your Magnedragon! Triumphant Annihilation!"
The red jewel on Arcana Triumph Joker's armor glowed before sending a wave of red light over to Bastion's side of the field, consuming his dragon. When the field was clear, nothing was left of the powerful creature.
"Next, I summon King's Knight in attack mode, and you know what that means! Come on out, Jack's Knight!" Once more, the three Face Card Knights were on my field.
"They won't be sticking around for long though, because I activate Joker's Wild!" I flipped over my trap card.
"See, Joker's Wild works by sending a spell card that lists my three knights on it to the graveyard, and takes that card's effect as its own." I explained. "The card I'll be sending to the grave is Face Card Fusion!" The mounting horror on Bastion's face told me all I needed to know about how the rest of this duel was gonna go.
"Face Card Fusion lets me fusion summon one LIGHT Warrior type monster using monsters from my hand, or field as materials, but if I have a Face Card Knight on the field, then I can use a monster from my deck as material too."
"I'll fuse the King's Knight and Queen's Knight on my field, along with a Jack's Knight from my deck to fusion summon Arcana Knight Joker in attack mode!" A ray of light descended onto the field, and from within it came one of the most powerful Fusion monsters in the game.
Arcana Knight Joker
LV 9
LIGHT
3800 ATK / 2500 DEF
Arcana Knight Joker was one of those cards that had a slightly different effect here than it did in either the anime, or in real life.
See, normally Arcana Knight Joker could negate a card effect that targeted it by pitching a card of the same type. It wasn't that great admittedly, which sucked because I fucking love that card.
Here though? Arcana Knight Joker lets you get its effect off whenever your opponent activates a card that targets any card on your side of the field.
That's right, Arcana Knight Joker is a target negation card here, although there's still that discard catch.
Still, Bastion knows damn well what this card does, and the look on his face tells me that there's nothing he can do to stop the beatdown coming his way.
"Arcana Triumph Joker, attack Bastion directly! Triumphant Display!" At this point, Triumph was down to 3000 ATK, so I wasn't getting the kill in a single attack, but that was alright.
"I activate Magic Cylinder!" Bastion desperately played, although he knew it was all for nothing.
"As if!" I yelled, activating Arcana Knight Joker's effect. "By pitching a card of the same type, Arcana Knight Joker can negate any card effect that targets a card I control. I'll discard Joker's Wild to negate Magic Cylinder."
Yuji: 2000
Bastion: 1000
"Arcana Knight Joker, take the duel! Arcana Blitz!" And with five slashes all done in the span of a second, Bastion took the L.
Yuji: 2000
Bastion: 0
+1105 DE
The holograms turned off, but my knight's stood on the field for a second to kneel before me as they faded out.
"Dude, that was nuts! Seriously, I was this close to taking that L!" I congratulated Bastion. I meant it too. My Arcana Knight deck is without a doubt my absolute strongest. The fact that he was even able to touch my life points to begin with completely floored me.
Alexis and Ryuko may have done better as far as damaging my life points went, but Alexis went up against a bunch of low level Warriors and my Insect deck is nowhere near as good as my Arcana Knight deck.
If either one of them went up against this deck, I actually would have OTK'd them… Which is why I won't use it that often. I like winning as much as the next guy, but using a deck with cards that good is just unnecessary.
"Is that so? Well, I suppose I should be proud of accomplishing that much." Bastion chuckled. "Still, don't think that I'll be satisfied with putting up a good fight."
"With any luck, next time we duel, we'll both be wearing blue, eh?" I nudged him.
"You might be wearing blue, but I won't accept the promotion until I'm the best duelist on the island, and that means beating you, among others." Bastion resolutely declared.
I think turning down a cushier dorm room and extra DP was kinda dumb, but who was I to judge?
-The Greatest Showman-
"I'm finally leaving the tool shed!" Ryuko celebrated alongside Masha and Disa. Turns out, the twins have been paying Ryuko to coach them in dueling, which was responsible for their rapid improvement.
As usual, everyone came over to my room to celebrate. Syrus was handing out free ass-whoopings to Bastion and Jaden in Mario Kart 8, which included Duel Monsters as DLC. Seeing Mokey Mokey catch Exodia with a blue shell was an experience to say the least.
Despite not being promoted, Syrus was in good spirits. He did win his duel after all, and rather easily too, so a lot of his fear has outright left him, which was good for the guy. Hayato, seeing so many of his fellow losers get promoted, was also in a good mood, and was grubbing away on some pizza.
Mindy, Jasmine and Alexis were all at the Girl's dorm tonight, although Mindy did 'congratulate' me earlier.
my promotion to Obelisk Blue was confirmed. I'd be set to move in at the end of the week. Bastion declined his promotion, as he said he would, but Yumi was heading to the blue dorm with me. She absolutely crushed her opponent; Some douche that kept talking down on her deck.
Ryuko, Disa, Masha and even Takuya were advancing to Ra Yellow. Jaden, like Bastion, declined his promotion for some reason. It's not like he wouldn't be allowed to bunk at the red dorm even if he was in Yellow, that's what Syrus did in season 2 after all. He could even keep wearing his red jacket, since Duel Academy was surprisingly lax about dress code.
Eh, it's really none of my business what Jaden and Bastion choose to do.
"Yuji." Yumi smiled, handing me an Origami swan.
I bought a round table for everyone to sit on, although with how many people usually end up in my room, there's often not enough space for everyone. Still, with everything going on, Yumi and I were the only one's sitting here, and she's been making Origami animals for me.
"Oooh~!" I gleefully took the offering. "And I thought the hummingbird was cool."
"Mn." Yumi nodded. "This one and the chicken are my favorite shapes to make. I can teach you if you want."
"I'm down." I agreed.
A few hours later, the party was over and everyone finally took their asses back to their own rooms. Don't get me wrong, they're not a bother or anything, but sometimes you just need some time to yourself.
Unfortunately, that time has to wait. After nearly three weeks, I finally saved up enough DE to make a big boy purchase. I've been spending most of my DE on upping my BP so that I could bond with more spirits, and my star level, for the extra DE.
Now though? I have over 28000 DE to blow, as well as some left over incase I need it, and I know exactly how I'm gonna blow it.
Red-Eyes Black Dragon - 20000 DE to bind spirit
Oh hell yes!
The card slowly began to absorb my DE, until the entire thing was glowing white. Soon enough I was rewarded with a great roar that only a dragon could make.
There it was, in the flesh, or whatever it is you call it when they don't have a body. Barely able to fit in my room while crouching so that he didn't clip through the ceiling, was the Red-Eyes Black Dragon.
'Human' Red-Eyes greeted almost dismissively, befitting his nature as a dragon.
'Dragon.' I greeted back unflinchingly. I will not bitch out when staring down a dragon, no way. I did this song and dance before with Wattaildragon, so I already know how it goes.
A dragon would never allow itself to be bound to a little bitch, unless it was already in card form, in which case, it really didn't have much of a choice. That's the tricky part about binding spirits, they could always just refuse and fuck off elsewhere, even with massive amounts of duel energy being used as a lure, it was just that, a lure.
Red-Eyes could refuse my offer and fuck off back to the spirit world, or whatever card he was already bound to if he was to begin with, so I had to make a good first impression.
'You wish to call upon my power? Tell me why I should help you and I'll consider it.' Red-Eyes offered an olive branch.
It's go time.
'Other than the fact that you're Red-Eyes Black Dragon? I think there's some goober on the island that uses a Red-Eyes deck. Just some feelings I've been getting is all. Call it my Duelist intuition. All I know is that they're an edgy try-hard that's up to no good and I wanna blindside the fucker by beating them at their own game.' At the mention of someone using a Red-Eyes deck, I could tell that I had his attention. Now, I just had to go in for the kill.
'There's also the whole "Dragon of Potential" thing. If there's one thing I've learned about Duel Spirits, it's that there's always more to them than what Industrial Illusions has put out.' Despite not having any eyebrows, I could somehow tell that Red-Eyes was raising his.
'So you want some of that unreleased, huh?' Red-Eyes rhetorically asked, amused. 'I'll tell you what; You handle that Nightshroud clown, and I'll give you some of that good-good.'
'Nightshroud?' I questioned, stunned that Red-Eyes somehow knew his name.
'I peeked through his deck. The guy's a brainwashed school kid. If you can't even beat him then there's no way I'm letting you make a fool of me by misplaying even more of my cards. Either way, I'll stick around since your other spirits have some high praise for you, even Wattaildragon, the smarmy prick. I swear, he gets his own law in the Ancient Rules, and all of a sudden he's king of the world.' Red-Eyes complained. He's a lot more casual after all the 'who are you and what do you want?' stuff was over and done with, I noticed.
'In the meantime, I'll just chill out in my card until you need me for something. A dragon's gotta get their beauty sleep after all.' Red-Eyes joked as he flew back into his card.
Cool. Now I can finally get some sleep.
I had a lot of trouble figuring out who I wanted Yuji to duel for the promotion exam. Initially I was going to have Yumi as his opponent, and I even set her up for it, but I decided against it. Her deck would be an honest to god pain to write. I already have a hard time keeping track of cards without all the discard effects. It will happen eventually though, just not yet.
Because I know some of you have room temperature IQ; Yes, the Magnet cards have radically different effects here than they did in Zexal. That was intentional.
Red-Eyes makes his appearence. I imagined him sounding like Steve Blum, or more specifically, like TOM from Toonami.