"That should do it for now..."
Akia said as she put her slightly changed deck back in her pocket deck holder.
'It still feels somewhat incomplete. This deck cannot guarantee me a win. It just makes my chances a little bit better.'
Akia sighed and started walking around again, trying to find a possible next opponent. While she looked around, she found a very noisy crowd of girls. Annoyed by the screams, but still curious, Akia made her way there only to find a familiar face.
'It's that Seiji guy from Duelist Kingdom. Wait, why are there four people dueling?'
Looking more closely, Akia noticed that Seiji was dueling alongside another guy, who looked almost identical to him.
'Twins?'
They were both dueling against none other than Erika and Tori, the two girls who were all over Seiji back in Duelist Kingdom.
"You girls are done!"
Seiji's partner said.
Erika: "Why are you doing this to us Seiji? We were close back in Duelist Kingdom!"
Seiji: "Close? I was only after your star chips. And you went ahead and gambled them all away! It's your fault I didn't make it to the finals. This time, though, I'll make it there with my brother Reiji."
Tori: "Are we really going to lose...?"
Akia looked at the field. There was a Faith Bird(1500/1100) in defence mode on Tori's side of the field. There were also a few facedown cards there.
Erika: "We're not done yet! I sacrifice Tori's Faith Bird to summon one of my strongest monsters: Gigaplant(2400/1200)!"
"That's a pretty rare card."
Akia turned her head towards the person who said that.
"Ah! Mai-san!"
Mai was standing right next to Akia. She had just gotten there to find out what the ruckus was all about when she spotted Akia.
"She definitely didn't use that card back when I duelled her back in Duelist Kingdom."
Mai: "You duelled her before?"
"Yeah, actually I ran into those two girls and one of the guys. Back then they were all over him. I wonder what happened."
Mai: "Seems like he's blaming them for not getting into the finals."
"What? He was pretty compliant with their plan back then... Besides, he was tricking them."
Mai: "Ugh. I really hate that type of guy. And these girls were stupid enough to fall for it..."
Akia directed her attention back to the field. Erika and Tori now had Gigaplant on their side of the field, and Seiji and Reiji had four monsters on their side.
"Seems like those monsters aren't strong enough to stand against Erika's new monster."
Erika: "I'll attack your Brron, Mad King of Dark World(1800/400) with Gigaplant!"
The attack succeeded and Seiji and Reiji's life points went down to 3200.
"This was the first time they receive damage this whole duel?"
Looking at Tori and Erika's life points, it was a whole other story. They only had 400 life points left.
Tori: "Erika-chan! We might have a chance after all!"
Looking at Erika more carefully, Akia saw that she was still not convinced that things would go smoothly from there. She also noticed her appearance for the first time. Back in Duelist Kingdom, she couldn't care less about her. Erika had long red hair that she kept in a ponytail. Her striking green eyes complemented her hair nicely.
"Looking at her more closely, she's actually quite the beauty."
Mai: "Huh? Don't tell me... you roll that way?"
"No, that's not it! It's just that I never really noticed her before. She was just another stepladder back in duelist kingdom for my ultimate goal of saving my grandpa. Come to think of it, Tori is also kind of cute with her short blue hair and brown eyes."
Mai: "Sometimes you're just plain weird."
Redirecting their attention to the duel, it was now the boy team's turn. They were both smirking, which meant they had something up their sleeve.
Reiji: "Hahaha! Well I guess you had a little hope of winning with your Gigaplant. Too bad I'm going to crush that hope into tiny pieces. I play the spell card Dark World Dealings!"
According to the spell card's effect, every player had to draw a card then discard another.
Reiji: "Get a load of this! I discarded Kahkki, Guerilla of Dark World. According to its effect, when it's discarded to the graveyard, I get to destroy one monster on the field. You know what that means."
Erika: "No...!"
Reiji: "That's right! Say goodbye to your Gigaplant!"
Just as Gigaplant got destroyed, a monster on Seiji and Reiji's side of the field appeared.
Tori: "What's that monster?"
Seiji: "Oh, did you forget about me? I also had to discard one card from my hand. I chose to discard Lucent, Netherlord of Dark World. When it's discarded to the graveyard, I can special summon it to my side of the field."
Reiji: "Isn't it great when your partner actually has useful cards?"
Reiji said as he looked at Tori.
Tori: "...Erika... If it wasn't for me you would've..."
Erika: "Don't say that! You have great cards and great strategy! They're just... out of league..."
It was a big hit to Erika's pride to admit this. Akia was feeling for her a bit.
Reiji: "That's right! And now let's end it. I attack you directly with all my monsters!"
In flash, the duel was over with Reiji and Seiji standing as the victors.
Seiji: "Serves you right. Justice is mine! Now give me your puzzle cards and get out of this tournament!"
Just as Erika and Tori were taking their puzzle cards out, Akia couldn't stand it anymore and stood in front of them, facing Seiji and Reiji.
Mai: "Akia...! What are you doing?!"
Seiji, realizing who she was took a step back and frowned.
Seiji: "You! You're the one who took my star chips back then!"
"Stop playing the victim, you coward!"
Erika and Tori couldn't believe their eyes. The girl that they were blaming for all of this just a minute ago was standing up for them.
Seiji: "What did you say?"
Mai got out of the crowd as well and stood next to Akia.
Mai: "You heard her. I wasn't there for the whole story, but from the gist of it, you played with these poor girls' hearts and decided to throw them away when they weren't useful to you anymore. That's a definite no no, right everyone?"
Mai addressed the crowd who wholeheartedly supported her.
"You did win this duel fair and square, so I won't ask you to not take their puzzle cards. However, I want to challenge you to a duel for their puzzle cards. I'll also add in two of my puzzle cards. How about it?"
Seiji: "Sorry, but I won't fall for your tricks anymore. Reiji and I only tag duel, so if you don't have a partner, then I have no business-"
Mai: "I'll be her partner."
"Mai-san!"
Mai: "That should do it, right? I'll throw in two of my puzzle cards as well."
Seiji: "Interesting... So we will each wage two puzzle cards and if we win this we'll get four each."
Reiji: "Might as well. We can take a couple of women on. Sooner or later all the ladies fall to our feet."
Akia almost gagged at the comment.
"Let's just get this over with..."
Erika: "Akia-san... You don't have to do this..."
"I don't have to, but I want to."
Mai: "We girls need to stand by each other."
Erika's eyes watered a bit and then she finally smiled and nodded quietly.
Tori: "Thank you so much. I would've never thought you'd be willing to do this for us."
"Don't sweat it. It'll be so satisfying when I wipe that smug grin off their faces."
Mai and Akia then went to take their positions and activated their duel disks.
"Ready or not..."
"Duel!"
They all shout as the duel began.