Almost a month after the last chapter dropped, this story got the best review I've ever seen. I basically told you all to touch grass and this one person seethed so hard over it that they unintentionally gave birth to a Consoomer copypasta. I spent like half a day making fon of it on Discord with some other dickheads. Good times. This one line they wrote went something like, "Get off that high horse before you hurt yourself falling".
Damn. They sure showed me what for. Guess I gotta pack it in guys. Dude tore me in half with facts and logic.
On a more serious note, this chapter could have been out like two months ago, but I put this fic on the backburner to focus on something else. Splitting my focus resulted in nothing getting done, even though the motivation was there, so I just decided to bang ths chapter out.
You're welcome, Cream Crew.
The Art of The Draw
When I first became aware of the circumstances of my new life, there were a few key events that I started preparing for almost immediately.
"Magical Marionette, attack directly!"
The entrance exam was the first, and I passed that trial with no trouble, but the next big hurdle was upon me, and I needed to get past this hurdle at any cost.
"No!" My opponent wailed, eyes watering. "Please!" They begged, but I didn't heed their words.
I couldn't afford to.
Magical Marionette, buffed by 6 spell counters, even after using two to pop my opponent's last monster, was feeling just as merciful as I was.
"I'm sorry," I turned away from my opponent, unable to face the devastation wrought by my hands. "But there was too much at stake."
"Calm down, it's just a sandwich." Sadie deadpanned.
The sharp glance I gave her made Sadie recoil for a second, before she remembered who and where she was.
"Well, that settles it; Yuji won the last sandwich."
The poor Obelisk girl I was dueling walked off in defeat, probably to buy something else for lunch.
Now, if one was uninformed, they might not understand why this duel was so important to me, or why the stakes were so high for a mere sandwich.
The uninformed were fools.
The school does sandwich draws in the Card Shop (For some reason) on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and among the sandwiches in the bin we all drew from, which probably violated some health code now that I thought about it, was the coveted Golden Eggwich.
Normally, I wouldn't have gotten my hopes up, but today was different. Jaden was serving lunch detention for making a Mokey Mokey effigy in Banner's class.
Jaden had unreal luck when it came to pulling the Golden Eggwich, having pulled it twenty times in a row already. Some people were calling him the Eggwich Master.
Jaden wasn't here to get in my way. Not only that, but the sandwich I was about to pull was the last one, on a day where no one had pulled the Golden Eggwich. This was my time! The day where I finally got a taste of the sandwich that haunted my dreams throughout all of Elementary School!
Shining Draw!
"Gasp!" The girl I just defeated yelled, drawing her a few weird looks from some of the other students in the card shop.
Unwrapping the sandwich, I gulped, almost hesitant to taste my dreams, but I powered through anyway, taking the long awaited bite… Only to recoil at the yakisoba bun I bit into.
"Why?!" I asked God, with silence being the only answer I got.
"Man, I've never seen someone win and take the L at the same time. That takes talent." Sadie snickered, unsympathetic.
"Your TLC can use some work, hot stuff."
The image of Sadie in a nurse uniform my mind conjured up didn't last for long since there were more pressing matters on my mind. Namely, the utter lack of a golden eggwich today.
So Tarzan was on his bullshit already?
"You hate to see it." Ah, Alexis. Here to save me from Sadie the sadistic.
Turning to face the school's unwilling idol, I put on a brave face, unwilling to let my sorrow affect me any further.
Truly, my control over my emotions was unmatched.
"No luck on your end either, I take it?" I asked her.
"Nope. I got grilled salmon. " She shook her head.
It was then that Ms. Tome walked in with her thinking face on.
"That's strange… There was definitely an eggwich in today's batch, but no one drew it." She informed us.
"You think we have an eggwich thief on our hands?" I asked, hoping to plant the idea in everyone's minds. The sooner we catch the bastard, the better.
"A bit of a leap to make after one sandwich went missing." Sadie remarked.
"Maybe, but do you want to take that chance?" I put the question out there for everyone to chew on.
"Look, I'm willing to go full stake-out mode for the sake of my sandwich. If it turned out to be nothing, then all we lost was a single night and in return we all get some peace of mind." I hit them with my sales pitch, before going in for the kill. "Besides, do any of you have anything better to do?"
"I had plans, but I can put it off for another day." Alexis shrugged.
"Will I be getting paid overtime?" Sadie asked Ms. Tome, who cheerfully nodded in response.
"It's so good to see so many helpful students these days." Ms. Tome smiled.
Alexis and I said our goodbyes to Sadie and Ms. Tome, agreeing to meet at the card shop after closing.
"Why are you so gung ho about this?" Alexis asked me while we were walking. "Normally you're the one playing the straight man to everyone else."
It was a fair question and the answer was simple.
I'm bored. Really bored, in fact.
Bulldozing over people in a single turn got boring a while ago, so I decided to save those strategies for actual threats like… Well, not the Shadow Riders, at least the ones that aren't named Camula, Amneal, or Kagemaru anyway.
The rest of them are complete jokes.
Still, my point stood. I wanted to have fun and playing like a tryhard in a world where people still used cards like Gilford The Legend wasn't fun.
I'm at a point where I can comfortably take on anything that Duel Academy can throw at me, at least in my first year.
The Light of Destruction and onwards was still to be determined, but I have an entire year to grind for that. Jaden should be able to handle that, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared in case my very existence butterfly affects the whole thing somehow.
So why not entertain myself and go native? It's not like everyone else isn't already doing it.
Every single person I've met on this island is weird in their own way.
Starting with the Slifer's, Syrus is a sardonic little shit when he isn't shaking in fear, Jaden is a hyperactive airhead and Hayato is simultaneously one of the most and least impressive people I've ever met in my life.
Onto the Ra's, Bastion is one of the most normal people I know, but he's super socially awkward and I know he has an entire stash of idol cards he keeps hidden in his room. Ryuko has this weird Tsundere tomboy thing going on where she likes to relentlessly bully the people she's close to, but it's cute in its own way.
And the twins? I don't know what their deal was, but there was something going on with those two.
The Obelisk's are an entirely different story. Jasmine is super confrontational and has an ego the size of the moon, Mindy is cute as a button, but is absolutely vicious when she wants to be and she almost always wants to be, but is really good at hiding it, and Alexis is one of the highest ranking students in our year, yet seriously lacks common sense.
I'm almost certain that she thinks the missing Eggwich has something to do with her brother.
If I wanted to be a little melodramatic, then who had the right to say anything about it?
No one, that's who.
"I was really looking forward to that eggwich." I told her, which was also true.
"I see."
After classes were over, Alexis and I, along with Jasmine and Mindy who decided to come along for the ride once Alexis told them about the stakeout, went back to the card shop. Sadie and Ms. Tome were still working when we got there, since the card shop didn't close until 5, so I decided to buy a few things to help pass the time.
Seeing the cardboard box I brought over, graciously given to me by Sadie to hold everything I had just bought, Jasmine quirked an eyebrow.
"And what did you buy this time?" She asked. Jasmine duels often, so she knows exactly how easy it is to make money on this island and isn't surprised in the slightest that I had enough DP to fill a large box with what she might have assumed to be booster packs.
Alexis was in the corner, reading a book and Mindy was sketching next to Jasmine. All three of them were eyeing the box like it was about to unleash horrors beyond their comprehension.
Reaching into the box, I pulled out a single package, displaying it for the three girls to see.
"A starter deck." Alexis said in disbelief. "You bought a starter deck."
It was indeed a starter deck. The face card was a Monster called Moon Magician, a level 4 LIGHT attribute, Spellcaster with 1800 ATK and 100 DEF. She had an effect, but it was a weak burn ability. Even still, that didn't detract from its usefulness as a card.
It wasn't very hard to get a monster with 1800 ATK. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who didn't run a card with at least 1700 ATK, unless they were playing a very specific type of deck.
Still, having a guaranteed way to get an 1800 ATK beatstick and a powerful Quick-Play Spell out of a product was worth the price tag in my opinion.
"He probably bought way more than one…" Mindy giggled.
She was right.
"I bought three of each." I told them. It wasn't like they had a lot of starter decks to begin with. Starter decks don't sell very well on an island where everyone already had a deck of their own that was good enough to get past the Entrance exams.
As it turned out, the only reason the card shop had starter decks to begin with was because the Junior High division used to be on the island alongside the High School, but was later moved to the mainland, so the card shop was left with Starter Decks that weren't likely to sell.
The more you know.
"And what are you going to accomplish with all of those starter decks exactly?" Alexis crossed her arms, which had the unintended effect of pushing her already substantial bust up.
"That's what I'm about to find out."
I cracked open the first starter deck and got to work.
"See, even though these cards aren't that powerful, they are good enough to make a functional deck with." I explained to the three girls.
"Not a very good one." Mindy snickered, resting her chin on her palm while she watched.
"True." I admitted. "At least, not on its own."
I picked up a single card and showed it off, letting the three read its effect.
"Gravity Lash?" Jasmine read. As she read further, her eyes widened. "They put cards like that in Starter Decks?!"
Gravity Lash was a Quick-Play Spell card that let you decrease the ATK of one Monster on the field by its DEF. Most Duelists on the island, teachers and students alike wouldn't scoff at a card like this and would likely consider running it.
A card like that could turn Zane's Cyber End Dragon or Crowler's Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem, two of the most powerful Monsters on the island, into cards that could be run over by another card in this deck.
"Not just that card either. Take a look at this." I drew their attention to another card. A Monster this time.
"Not bad!" Mindy smiled, taking the card and looking it over.
None of these starter decks were particularly powerful, but they were full of good reprints and only cost about 300 DP each.
For around the price of six booster packs, I was able to buy a functioning deck. Triple that price, and I could put together a deck that could very likely beat every single fodder duelist on the island… In the right hands, of course.
"With three starter decks, you have an entire playset of those cards…" Alexis realized.
"Now you're getting it!" I smiled at Alexis. "You can actually make a pretty good deck with three of these and some of these cards would work well with some of my other decks too."
Most Duelists disregarded starter decks. It was hard to bond with a deck that was pre-made, which meant their draws weren't guaranteed to be as good as they otherwise would be with a personalized deck that they made themselves. Even without an actual spirit living inside of your cards, you can still bond with a deck and influence your draws to some degree, not that most people recognized the phenomenon for what it was.
More than that was the fact that most of these cards weren't very powerful to begin with. Two-Pronged Attack, Mask of Darkness, Leghul, Golgoil, Three-Headed Geedo, Banner of Courage, Reinforcements, Castle Walls, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow, Jar of Greed, etc…
Most people wouldn't give those cards the time of day, and that was a quarter of the deck.
All of this led to a preconceived notion that starter decks were trash products. I fell into this mindset myself until I actually saw Moon Magician on the front of the deck. I thought starter decks would have cards like Fusionist in them, which inspired me to make a deck with them, just to screw with people by beating them, but as it turned out, they were actually pretty decent.
By the time the card shop had closed, I had opened all three Moon Magician decks and laid every card out on the table. Jasmine, Alexis and Mindy had decided that we'd all build this deck together, and like any man who knew when he was outnumbered, I caved.
Sadie had just finished clocking out and sat down with us, idly scrolling on her phone while occasionally glancing over at the cards.
I was debating the merits of putting Hinotama in the deck with Jasmine when Sadie tapped my shoulder, drawing my attention to the card in her hand.
"This one looks cute!" Sadie smiled, handing it over to me.
"Mystical Donator?" It wasn't a bad card for the time period. It was a level 2 Monster with an effect that let you either gain Life Points or increase the ATK of a Monster you control by reducing its own ATK to 0 for that turn.
The card art was indeed cute, featuring a chibi Pope-looking kid holding a bible, or at least something resembling it.
"Is it any good?" Sadie asked.
Sadie didn't play Duel Monsters, though she knew which cards were valuable, since it was necessary for her job.
"Yeah, it's pretty good. You want me to add it to the deck?" I asked, pulling Sadie into the deck building process.
By the time Ms. Tome came back, we had finished building the deck, and had already done a few test draws with it. Every single starting hand was usable, but starter decks were generally built like that, so I wasn't surprised by it.
"You four look like you're having fun!" Ms. Tome laughed. "I brought you kids some Onigiri to chow down on while you wait for this 'Eggwich Thief'."
Later into the night, just as Jasmine was ready to call it a night, we heard footsteps coming from the storefront.
Grabbing my Duel Disk and one of my decks, I ran out ahead of everyone else to confront the Tarzan ripoff that stole my eggwich from me.
"Stop!" I ordered the thief, Damon, I think his name was. I didn't expect him to actually stop, and he didn't. Instead, he chose to use the sandwich cart as a battering ram, using it to break through the metal shutters and run out of the store, escaping with the eggwich.
"There actually was an eggwich thief?!" Jasmine yelled.
"Told ya!"
"Was that Tarzan?!" Mindy shouted, no doubt excited to meet the Tarzan.
"Never mind that, he's getting away!" Alexis pointed at the man who had just jumped off of the academy roof, landing on a car, completely smashing the roof of the vehicle.
"Follow me!" I ordered, silently sending a command to a few of my spirits to track the guy down.
A few minutes of chasing later, and we were at the waterfall where Jaden dueled this guy in the show, cutting him off from his escape route.
"Nowhere to run now!" I yelled, amped up from the impromptu jog.
"Taizan!" Ms. Tome gasped behind me, having recognized the thief.
Even his name was a Tarzan joke…
"You know this weirdo?" Sadie asked.
"His name is Taira Taizan." Ms. Tome revealed, going into his tragic backstory about how he couldn't top deck for shit.
"That's right." Taizan nodded. "No matter what I tried, my draws never got better. Only after I trained against nature itself was I able to improve. Now, I can predict my draws down to the very card!" He boasted.
"That's cool and all, but what does any of that have to do with my eggwich being stolen?!" I pointed an accusing finger at Taizan.
"We have a score to settle, you feral douche!" I activated my duel disk. "You guys don't mind if I take him on, do you?" I asked Alexis, Jasmine and MIndy.
"Go for it." Alexis shrugged. "This whole thing was your idea anyway."
"I didn't even believe the eggwich thief existed in the first place, so do your thing." Jasmine nodded.
"Have fun, Yuji!" Mindy waved from beside them, completely unfazed by any of this.
The ball was in his court now. Of course, with how things usually go on this island…
"Alright then." Taizan activated his own duel disk. "I'll show you the results of all my hard work!"
"Duel!"
"I'll take the first turn then!" Taizan drew.
"I activate Unexpected Dai! When I control no Monsters, this card lets me special summon one level 4 or lower Normal Monster from my deck! I'm special summoning Bokoichi The Freightening Car in defense mode!" A red train car with an angry face was summoned to the field.
Bokoichi The Freightening Car
LVL 2
500 ATK / 500 DEF
Okay, but why tho?
"Next I activate Machine Duplication. Which lets me special summon two copies of a Machine monster on my side of the field with 500 or less ATK points from my deck!"
Two more angry red train cars were summoned to the field and attached themselves to the original.
All that was missing was the engine.
Knowing this guy's luck, he already has it in his hand.
"Now I summon Dekoichi The Battlechanted Locomotive in attack mode!"
Doesn't that card have to be set to get its effect off though?
This time, instead of a red train car, it was a purple train engine, which promptly attached itself to the front of the three Bokoichi, forming a complete train.
Dekoichi The Battlechanted Locomotive
LVL 4
1400 ATK / 1000 DEF
"When Dekoichi is summoned, I get to draw a card!" Taizan did exactly that. "And then I get to draw another card for every Bokoichi on my side of the field!" He drew three more cards.
"Four cards, just like that?" Jasmine gasped on the sideline.
"Duuuude…" I groaned. "Is this what Ran went through when I dueled her?"
"Now I activate Pot of Greed!" Taizan drew two cards with a triumphant laugh.
Poor Ran. If this is what I put her through, then I owe her an apology. I actually forgot what it was like to play actual Yu-Gi-Oh rather than just Duel Monsters. This still isn't anywhere near that, but it's closer than anything else I've seen so far.
"I'll set two cards face down, and end my turn." And what a turn it was. He drew six cards outside of his normal draw, and I had a feeling he was keeping most of them close for a reason.
I barely remembered what deck he played in the show, but I knew it involved some gimmick revolving around guessing which cards he'd draw.
There was no use in standing around trying to remember what he played though. Not when I was already dueling him.
"Draw!" Taking a look at the cards in my hand for the first time, I came to a startling realization.
This was the deck I just finished making out of those starter decks I bought…
"Time to put my money where my mouth is I guess." I sighed. I had a good hand in all honesty, but I wouldn't be ending this game right off the bat. Well, it's not like this is some world ending catastrophe that needs to be stopped right this second, so I can afford to play around a bit.
"I activate Hinotama!" Yeah, I decided to put Hinotama in the deck after all. Instantly getting rid of an eighth of my opponent's life points wasn't that great of an effect, but it was something.
"This card deals 500 point of damage to you!"
Four fireballs erupted from my side of the field, striking the ground around Taizan, who merely grunted at the impact.
Yuji: 4000
Taizan: 3500
"Now I summon Leghul in attack mode!" I genuinely never thought such a sentence would come from my lips in either lifetime, but here I am.
Leghul, a large (for an insect) beige and purple centipede-like creature with huge mandibles appeared on my field, loudly clicking its mandibles together, or whatever bugs do to make that sound.
Leghul
LVL 1
300 ATK / 350 DEF
"What?" Taizan deadpanned, completely underwhelmed by my monster.
"Yay! Go Yuji!" Mindy cheered, but I could tell she was screwing with me. Alexis and Jasmine could tell too judging by the snickers they failed to hide.
"Yeah yeah, laugh it up!" I waved off the peanut gallery. "You won't be laughing when I do this!" I threw a spell card into my duel disk and its image flashed onto the field for everyone to see.
"Double Attack! By discarding one Monster from my hand to the Graveyard, like my level 2 Mystical Donator here, I can give one Monster with a lower level than it an extra attack this turn!"
Leghul stood a bit straighter. Double Attack had it chomping at the bit to tear into Taizan.
Soon, little buddy. Soon…
"Now I activate Premature Burial!" No one looked shocked or confused by the card, except for Sadie and Ms. Tome, that was, since they didn't know much about how to play Duel Monsters.
I decided to explain it for their sake.
"By paying 800 life points, this card lets me special summon one Monster from my Graveyard and equip it with Premature Burial. If Premature Burial is destroyed, then so is the Monster it's equipped to." I explained.
Taizan: 3500
Yuji: 3200
"Come back from the great beyond, Mystical Donator!" The chibi pope kid rose from the ground with a flick of his cape, ready for battle.
Mystical Donator
LVL 2
800 ATK / 800 DEF
"Mystical Donator has an effect, you see!" I exclaimed with a flourish.
"As his name would suggest, he's a generous little guy. By decreasing his ATK points to 0 for the rest of this turn, I can either donate those points to another monster, or increase my life points by the same amount! I'll increase my Leghul's ATK points by Mystical Donator's!" Mystical Donator opened his not-bible, which I've decided to call his Bibble, and a bright light erupted from the book, which surrounded Leghul, increasing his ATK while dropping Mystical Donator's.
Leghul
LVL 1
1100 (+800) ATK / 350 DEF
"Now, in case you weren't aware, Leghul's a sneaky little fella. Even if you have a stacked board full of Monsters, this guy can attack you directly!" I gestured to Leghul, who was even more eager than before to tear Taizan a new one.
"And with Double Attack…" Taizan trailed off, seeing where I was going with this.
"That's right! Leghul, attack Taizan directly!" Leghul sprung forth, completely ignoring Taizan's monsters for him, sinking its mandibles into the thief's forearm.
Yuji: 3200
Taizan: 2400
"One more time, Leghul!"
Yuji: 3200
Taizan: 1300
"Now I'll set two cards and call it a turn!" If I had a copy of Rush Recklessly in my starting hand, then it would have been game over right then and there.
Leghul and Mystical Donator's ATK points returned to normal,
"Before my Draw Phase, I'm activating Miracle Draw!" Finally, the gimmicky villain of the week bullshit I was expecting from the very beginning.
"During my Draw Phase, I can declare the name of one card. If I draw that card, Miracle Draw inflicts 1000 points of damage to you, but if I call it wrong, I take 1000 points instead." Taizan elaborated on his card's effect.
"You're playing a dangerous game, jungle boy." I mocked Taizan.
"Maybe so, but my wild draw has yet to fail me. Now behold! My next card will be… Drawler!" Taizan revealed the card he drew to be exactly that, and a beam of red energy shot forth from Miracle Draw, impacting me square in the chest.
Yuji: 2200
Taizan: 1300
"No way!" Jasmine gasped. I understood her completely. He may have thinned his deck out considerably, but there were still nearly thirty cards to choose from in his deck, assuming he ran a 40 card deck.
If he had three copies of Drawler in his deck, which is likely, and didn't draw any of them on his last turn, then the odds that he'd draw it increased considerably. Even then, the odds that he'd draw the card he declared was 11% at most.
What? Duel Monsters and card games in general were as much about probability as they were about anything else. Even with all the spirit bullshit normally on my side, there's no way I'd ever ignore something so integral to the game. There's a reason so many people ran duplicates of cards that had hard once per turn effects in a game where the outcome is usually decided less than five turns in.
It was during my internal nerd out that Taizan decided to continue his turn, drawing me out of my thoughts.
"First, I'm going to activate Mystical Space Typhoon! Say goodbye to your facedown in the middle!"
Just like that, the Gravity Lash I was holding onto in the incredibly likely event that Taizan would summon something capable of running over two Monsters with less than 1000 ATK was swept up in a tornado and destroyed.
"Hoh?" Taizan hummed. "That card would have been quite dangerous."
"Now I summon the Drawler I just drew in attack mode!"
A stone statue with a steamroller where its legs should be and attached to its arms materialized onto the field, with a whopping zero ATK, but I knew better.
"When Drawler is summoned, I put every card in my hand on the bottom of my deck, and then my Drawler gains 500 ATK and DEF points for each card returned this way!"
Taizan had 5 cards in his hand outside of Drawler.
Drawler
LVL 3
2500 ATK / 2500 DEF
"Now, Drawler! Attack Leghul!" Drawler rolled over to my side of the field, ready to flatten Leghul and take my life points out with it.
"As if!" I yelled, activating my second face down. "I activate Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!"
A scarecrow wearing a helmet and goggles appeared in front of Leghul, stopping Drawler's attack in its place. The confused Monster rolled back over to Taizan's side of the field, where it sighed in defeat at not meeting its mark.
"What?" Taizan eloquently vocalized.
"When one of your Monsters declares an attack, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow negates it, then it sets itself again." I explained.
Saved by one of Yusei Fudo's staple Trap cards. The fanboy inside of me was jumping for joy.
"Fine then! Dekoichi, attack Leghul!" That, on the other hand, made the fanboy inside of me retreat deep inside.
Leghul stood no chance against the angry train, and was flattened like a bug against a windshield, which it kind of was now that I thought about it.
Taizan: 1300
Yuji: 1100
"I end my turn." Not like Taizan could do anything else.
1100 life points left… That's the lowest I've ever been, and if I didn't draw something good, then Taizan would completely roll over me on his next turn. On top of his Drawler and Dekoichi, he still had 3 Bokoichi's to beat me down with, so even if I turtled up and relied on Scrap-Iron Scarecrow for protection, he'd still win.
Still, I made this deck, and I know damn well that most of the cards in here can whoop his ass any day of the week.
"Draw!" The card I just drew proved that point exactly.
"I summon Moon Magician in attack mode!"
Moon Magician
LVL 4
1800 ATK / 100 DEF
"Now I'm going to activate Mystical Donator's effect and give Moon magician a much needed ATK boost!" Mystical Donator's Bibble graced Moon Magician with it's light, boosting her ATK by 800.
"Now, Moon Magician, attack Dekoichi! Bright Moon Blast!" Moon Magician raised her scepter, taking aim at Dekoichi, and fired a white sphere of light at it.
Yuji: 1100
Taizan: 100
Taizan grunted at the impact, but was otherwise unbothered.
"That was a good move, but I still have life points!" Taizan boasted.
"Oh really?" I sarcastically asked. "Funny thing about that… See, just like Mystical Donator, Moon Magician's a team player! Whenever she destroys a Monster by battle, you take an additional 100 points of damage for every other Monster on my side of the field!"
"No! How?! I practiced my draws for so long!" Taizan bemoaned his impending loss.
"You might have made the right moves, but my deck is one variable that even your Wild Draw can't account for! Go, Moon Bomb!"
Moon Magician raised her staff, in Mystical Donator's direction, urging the small Monster to lend her its energy, a request the chibi pope obliged, raising its Bibble in her direction and feeding her its energy.
Once she had her fill, Moon Magician swung her scepter at Taizan, dealing 100 points of damage and wiping out the last of his life points.
Yuji: 1100
Taizan: 0
+703 DE
"Thanks, guys." I whispered to my Monsters. Even if the cards themselves didn't have spirits in them, treating your cards with respect would only ever lead to good things.
Glancing over at Taizan, I saw Ms. Tome consoling him, urging him to come back to school.
I'll leave them be for now.
"Tonight's been awfully exciting." Sadie walked up to me. "Kind of makes me want to pick up Dueling, you know?"
"Really?" I figured if Sadie didn't want to duel before, despite growing up in a world where Duel Monsters was the most popular game in the world by far, then she'd never get into it.
"In that case," I removed the Super Starter Deck we all made tonight from my Duel Disk and held it out for a wide-eyed Sadie to take. "You'll need a deck to start."
Before that though…
Mystical Donator - 20 DE to bind spirit
(Yumi, earlier that day)
It was a nice day to be in the Obelisk Blue Rec center. The Rec center was a two story warehouse-like building that stood between the Obelisk Blue boys and girls dormitories, and served as a hang out for most of the students in the elite dorm.
Sports fields, game rooms, vending machines, a weight room, an indoor and outdoor pool, and even a sauna attracted bored students like moths to a flame. Yumi herself frequented the Rec room when she felt like getting some fresh air.
Of course, when dealing with the narcissists of the blue dorm, it was inevitable that her down time would be interrupted by something dumb.
She was just minding her own business, sitting in the lounge, reading a Duel Monsters magazine, when all of a sudden, some girl came up to her with her friends and challenged her to a duel.
As it turns out, Yumi beat her close friend so badly that he hasn't dueled since then, which was actually kind of funny.
"So, who's your friend again?" Yumi asked the angry girl while she grabbed one of the Duel Disks that were kept in the Rec center.
"Joseki! That name ring a bell?" The angry girl sneered at her.
"Okay… So let's assume it doesn't."
Yumi had no idea who that was. She didn't duel that often, or at least not as often as someone like Yuji did, but she liked to think that she'd remember an opponent.
"Seriously?!" Angry Girl yelled. "You don't know Gaia Power Joseki?!"
Her friends noticeably cringed when she used that moniker. Yumi assumed it was self-given or something like that.
Everyone knows that forced nicknames are lame.
Gaia Power Joseki, though? Oh!
"You mean that guy who bragged about his Mosaic Manticore before Yuji stomped it into the dirt?" Yumi recalled him clearly now. He went up to Yuji one day, looking to impress some girl and got his ass handed to him.
What Yuji did to him was filthy…
Of course, instead of leaving it at that, he decided to challenge Yumi to a duel instead, hoping to recover some of his shattered pride.
It happened pretty often. Out of Yuji's close friends, Yumi was pegged as the easiest target for a revenge duel. Bastion was a known wiz kid, Alexis, Jasmine and Mindy were too well known and liked to be considered acceptable targets and the Slifers Yuji hung out with were too low on the totem pole for anyone to care about.
That left her, Yumi Yoshizawa, the girl who played that one deck no one liked. If anyone could manage to beat her in a duel, it would offset the blow to their reputation an OTK at Yuji's hands dealt, especially back when they were both in Ra Yellow.
Thankfully, he's eased up on that lately, but it didn't completely stop the onslaught of challengers she normally got after Yuji was done beating the stuffing out of an entire squad.
It was usually the weaker ones that came looking for a fight anyway, so she hasn't lost once. In fact, Yumi was confident in saying that she had the most impressive Duel record in their year after Yuji.
But that didn't stop people from bothering her, so it wasn't really with much in the end.
"Alright then, so you want to get revenge for your friend?" Yumi didn't know why she bothered asking.
"As if!" Angry Girl scoffed, before smirking dangerously. "You kicked Joseki's ass. If I beat you then I'll be able to lord it over him forever!"
"Seriously…?" Yumi muttered, fed up with the kids at Duel Academy.
It was always something with these people. Yuji might actually be the only normal person she knows and even he seemed to be hopped up on the crazy juice everyone else was drinking lately.
Was it something on the island doing this to people? There were some outlandish characters on the mainland, but rampant stupidity was nowhere near as concentrated there as it was on Duel Academy Island.
"Alright, let's get this over with." With that said, Yumi held her right arm out, activating her duel disk.
"You took the words right out of my mouth." Angry Girl grinned.
Maybe the name didn't fit her anymore.
Sad. Yumi really liked the nickname she gave the other girl.
"Hey," Yumi softly called out. "What's your name?"
"Rie." The girl answered. It was only then that Yumi took the time to look at her opponent.
Rie had neck length light brown, almost blonde hair with two bangs falling down from her forehead that framed her face. She had a spunky look to her now that she wasn't staring Yumi down.
They both activated a dice roll on their duel disks. Rie rolled a two while Yumi rolled a four.
"I'll take the first move." Yumi announced.
"Draw!" Her starting hand was alright.
"I summon Witch of The Black Forest in defense mode!"
A woman with long purple hair clad in a black robe crouched materialized on her field, crouching down onto her card.
Witch Of The Black Forest
LVL 4
1100 ATK / 1200 DEF
"Now I'll set four cards and end my turn."
Other than the four face downs, it was a pretty lowkey start.
"Draw!" Rie clearly drew something good judging by the smile on her face.
"I activate my Trap card, Drastic Drop Off!" Yumi wasn't about to take any chances with that card. "Whenever you add a card to your hand, Drastic Drop off forces you to discard it."
"Now, by discarding one card from my hand, I can chain Trap Reclamation to Drastic Drop Off. This card lets me add the Trap card I chained it to back to my hand when it's sent to the Graveyard!" Yumi discarded her last card, and it was quickly replaced by Trap Dustshoot.
"Damn!" Rie cursed, knowing she'd have to deal with Drastic Drop Off again.
"Since you have at least four cards in your hand, I activate Trap Dustshoot!"
"Trap Dustshoot lets me look at your hand and return one Monster back to your hand."
The only Monsters Rie had in her hand were a level 4 Insect called Roachie and Saber Beetle. What was more interesting though, was that Rie had Level Up! In her hand.
What kind of LV Monsters could she be using in an Insect deck?
"Roachie is going back to your deck!" Roachie could special summon a level 3 or lower Insect from the deck upon its destruction, so taking it out of the equation was just the smart thing to do, and that's without even mentioning the fact that it was the only summonable Monster in Rie's hand.
Already having seen Rei's entire hand, Yumi knew that all she could do was set the Call of The Haunted she was holding onto in hopes of using it later.
Predictably, that was exactly what she did.
"Go!" Rie growled. Yumi, being the affable sort, obliged her request.
"Draw." Ouch… Tough luck for Rie, Yumi supposed.
"I summon Breaker The Magical Warrior in attack mode! And when he's summoned, he gains a spell counter that give him 300 ATK points!" The iconic spellblade was a relatively recent addition to her deck. Her father gave it to her, along with another card as a going away present right before the school year started, and Yumi slotted them into her deck immediately, replacing the Dark Blade and Aqua Madoor she originally had.
Breaker The Magical Warrior
LVL 4
1900(+300) ATK / 1000 DEF
"Now I'll activate my Trap Card; Powerful Rebirth!" At this point, the realization that she was about to lose began to creep up on Rie's face, and Yumi had the good fortune of being able to experience her classmate go through all five stages of grief in less than five seconds.
"By targeting a level 4 or lower Monster in my Graveyard, I can special summon it with its ATK and DEF increased by 100 and its level increased by 1." Yumi explained as the ground split open.
"I'm targeting my level 4 Defender, The Magical Knight! Come out Defender, in attack mode!" The other Monster her father gave her erupted from the ground, sword and shield raised for combat.
Defender, The Magical Knight
LVL 5(+1)
1700(+100) ATK / 2100(+100) DEF
"Now I'll switch Witch of The Black Forest to attack mode and attack you directly!"
Needless to say, with nothing but a face down Call of The Haunted and no monsters in her Graveyard, Rie didn't stand a chance against the three Spellcasters.
When her Monsters were done attacking, and the Solid Vision dust was cleared, Yumi breathed a sigh of relief.
Losing wouldn't have been the end of the world, but no one likes being beaten, especially in a competitive school like Duel Academy.
With the both of them being Obelisks, Yumi was sure to get a decent payout from their duel.
Nice.
"Can I go now?" Yumi asked Rie like she didn't just stomp her into the dirt.
Rie, thoroughly demoralized and with a dead look on her face, simply nodded, muttered a quiet "Sorry for bothering you" and left, her friends consoling her on their way out of the rec center.
Now Yumi could finally get back to her literature.
-The Greatest Showman-
"And the guy just kept going on and on about how I was going to turn out like all of his other 'victims' if I didn't pay attention in class more!" Jaden recalled the… Odd events that transpired not so long ago near the abandoned dorm.
Titan was a bit different here than he was in the show, which was a trend I've become used to by this point.
Instead of being a cut throat dueling mercenary, he was a corny performative duelist that tried to scare Jaden straight by beating his ass in a game of cards, which would have been a lot more effective than it sounded, given the nature of the world all of this was taking place in.
That is, if he succeeded. Instead, Jaden demolished Titan, who ended up running off with his tail between his legs.
"A greater foe, there shall never be." I opined.
"Titan will live on in our memories." Jaden played along.
Crowler was running late for some reason, so we had to find some way to entertain ourselves before class started.
Syrus was working on his Warrior deck. He got his hands on a copy of Little Winguard and a few others that would work better than the weaker vanilla monsters that came with every copy of the deck like Doron and wanted to make some last minute changes before class started.
Good on him.
Hayato was busy with a sketch and Ryuko was… What was Ryuko doing?
"You've been pretty quiet today." I turned to Ryuko. That wasn't normal for her. Her head was on her desk, but she was clearly awake given the way she was drumming her hands on the desk.
"The mustard dorm is lame…" She groaned, and the source of her bad mood finally dawned on me.
Ryuko got dragged into one of the Ra dorm's infamous study sessions.
"Ha ha." Yumi deadpanned. As someone who went through one of those nerd fests, she knew what it felt like going to class the day after.
To have your free time stolen by the machinations of those who would see your free time reduced to nothing all in the name of academia, just to have even more schoolwork shoved in your face the next morning was an experience that wasn't terrible enough to complain about, but bad enough that it left you feeling drained the next morning.
We may have been in the blue dorm now, but the scars of Ra Yellow had yet to heal.
Before I could offer my condolences to Ryuko, our leisure time was interrupted by Dr. Crowler coming into the classroom, a locked briefcase in one hand and a thermos in the other. He looked to be in a good mood given the rush he was obviously in.
"So sorry for the delay, students!" He apologized, speed walking over to his desk. "I had to pick up the prize for today's tournament!"
The what?
"Oh shit, that's today?!" Ryuko perked up, her previous exhaustion all but forgotten.
"Indeed, Ms. Matsumoto! Although I'll have to ask you to mind your language." Crowler chuckled.
"I'm sure you'll all be delighted to know that today marks the end of our unit on Warrior monsters," Crowler smiled. "And to celebrate, the sixteen of you who've earned the highest marks will be competing in a tournament where the winner will receive an upgraded version of the deck you were all given at the start of the unit, with a few rare cards thrown in for extra motivation!"
"Now!" Crowler clapped his hands, the interactive whiteboard behind him turning into a tournament bracket with sixteen names on it, my own among them.
"Let's begin!"
Yuji Rengoku
DE - 14360 DE (+60 per day, +60% DE)
DP - 647213
BP - 85/125 (6000 DE to upgrade)
Stars - 6 (16000 DE to upgrade)
Mind - 85
Body - 85
Chaos - 85
Am I great, or what? I wrote this chapter on and off over the course of almost three monsths, so there's bound to be some mistakes and inconsistencies that I missed.
So, Yumi finally gets her moment in the spotlight! Writing her deck was a pain in the ass. I originally had her use chain strike on Rie's first turn, but the card interactions and effect resolution wasn't something I wanted to spend too much time learning about. I don't get paid for this shit.
The main plot of GX is still brewing in the background, only with a few minor tweaks. Since Alexis was with Yuji, she wasn't there for the Titan incident, and the Eggwich situation was resolved pretty early on. Since the duel with Titan happened outside of the abandoned dorm, the security bitch from season 1 didn't run up on them the next morning, which means no expulsion duel... Yet.
Also, our first tournament arc is here! I for one, am very excited to show off the bizzarre little cast of characters I've been cooking up over the course of the story.
~Get Creamed On~