What I love about having over one hundred unfinished stories is if I ever hit a roadblock on what to write for one I can always give another one a try, i.e. this one. It's not that I didn't like Yu-Gi-Oh Vrains, it was the second Yugioh series I watched the most episodes off after the original of course but unless I can write myself an overarching story these next few chapters will feel like satire.
"I activate Metaphys Factor. Once per turn I can normal summon a level 5 or higher 'Metaphys' monster without tributing. I set one card facedown and end my turn."
Kaito drew, it was a metallic looking dragon with 2000 ATK and 0 Defense. From experience he checked his banished pile. Most of the cards were also monsters with 2000 ATK and 0 Defense—there were some Ritual monsters meshed in there along with a few spell cards.
Kaito was always at a disadvantage facing Aimi with a new deck, but every time she gave him more time to think about what he could do; " there is never a right or wrong in Duel Monsters just bad knowledge and missing the right timing."
"From my hand I activate the effect of...D-Dry-Drytron AlphaT-Th-Thub-THUBAN!" He fumbled saying that weird name but managed to say it without sounding like a dwarf speaking to an ogre, but don't ask which movie had that. "By tributing..." he double checked the card to see if it distinguished between "send" and "tribute"..."Yes, tribute-by tributing a Ritual monster or another Drytron from my hand or field, I can special summon my Thuban in Defense Mode (ATK: 2000/ DEF: 0)."
Guarding its modesty with its claws extended over its nonexistent gray shoulders was a dragon with many cylindrical tubes on its back and yellow LED eyes without any irises.
"And when he was summoned the viable way of using his effect I can add one Ritual Monster from my deck to my hand...give me three minutes to find one."
Kaito turned his deck upside down and stared at all the cards foreign to him. It was a combination of Fairy monsters and Machine monsters, a gaggle of spell cards but no trap cards. He had only two options: a behemoth white dragon or a figure skater with reddish skin. He had time to read them internally; repeating the description in his head a second time to make sure he wasn't misinterpreting what their effects mean—every duelist at some point thinks a card can do something on first reading but there's always rulings that change the effects.
He picked the machine monster.
He now had six cards in his hand and a monster on his field, his mind focusing on the other level one machine monster.
"I activate the effect of Drytron Zeta Aldhiba in my hand: by tributing a Drytron from my hand or field I can special summon Zeta in Defense Mode. I tribute Drytron Alpha Thuban."
The dragon vanished after a glittering vortex appeared under its feet as a new robotic dragon took its place. This one had a more oval head with glassy blue spikes protruding from its back, purple shield appendages with yellow gems embedded in the middle, glassy blue talons on its feet, and a big smile. It was using the shields to guard itself.
"Effect?" Aimi said nonchalantly.
"Effect." He nodded. "I add a ritual spell card from my deck to my hand. I will add...shit, I don't know. I'll just look for a ritual spell I hope your Lupine hasn't banished."
Kaito looked, he checked the upper right side of the cards to find the insignia for ritual spell of a fire, eventually found one with a Drytron monster he couldn't recognize surrounded by a circlet of computer data.
He had to repeat the name on the card three times in his mind so when he pronounced it for Aimi to hear he didn't sound like there were crumbs in his teeth.
"I activate the effect of Drytron..." He was so busy thinking about the ritual he completely forgot the name of the Drytron monster he placed in his graveyard at the very start of his turn. "The Drytron with carriers on its back. I send one ritual monster from my hand to the graveyard to special summon him from my graveyard."
The monster appeared; now Kaito could see the equipment attached to its back were really plasma guns not carriers and they were black and light green. The underside of its neck was white while the top was light green, its face was light green with small antenna's for ears, bulky arms and legs like a toy action figure, and a long tail with a sharp needle on the end of its tail.
"And since I summoned him by you know how I get to use his effect of special summoning a Drytron monster in my graveyard other than..." he looked down until he was practically kissing the card. "Gamma Eltanin. I pick my only Drytron still in my graveyard, Alpha Thuban."
Thuban's struts were so close to Eltanin they were practically scratching its paintjob. Aimi was impressed by how he managed to summon so many monsters on his first turn with a deck he was playing for the first time. And his attitude, although it was very rude and delinquent, was better than his behavior when she first took him under her care.
"And now, after skimming through my extra deck, I overlay Thuban and Eltanin to summon Rank 1 Drytron Mu Beta Fafnir (ATK: 2000/ DEF:0)."
Both of the machine slash dragons were sucked into tiny three finger podium's before fluctuating into a shimmering green ball. Out of the ball emerged a sparkling royal blue dragon with a cloud-gray neck and miniature double-barrel cannons for hands. Moving around the dragon were two balls of condensed light.
"And since he was-"
"I activate my trap card, Metaphys Dimension. When you special a monster I can special summon a banished Metaphys monster. I summon Metaphys Tyrant Dragon (ATK: 2900/DEF: 2500)."
Aimi's monster was as majestic of a dragon as any dragon could be, big and strong with eyes so galvanic they were almost identical to diamonds, sparkling white underbelly with three purple jewels embedded in its palms and upper neck, blue wingspan with gold all over the protection of its wings, flowing azure hair and a light purple snout.
"And now that that is over, when I summon my Drytron Mu Beta I'm allowed to send a Drytron card from my deck to my graveyard."
Kiato looked through his deck and sent a Drytron to the graveyard, a ritual monster.
"And now, I activate the ritual spell card Meteonis Drytron. With this card I can send machine monsters to the graveyard to summon a ritual monster from my hand...or my graveyard. Also, with Fafnir's effect I can detach materials from him to use them as materials instead."
The two condensed balls shinned for a fleeting second before they both shattered into pixels. The pixels had become a sift of dust that moved from the Xyz monster to an empty spot on the duel field, and then they started to materialize a new monster in the empty spot.
They now got to see the new monster in all its white and light blue glory, a behemoth dragon with small red eyes, metal circles on its back wrists with golden flames brimming inside, and giant fans for wings with burning blue flames searing out.
"Meet Drytron Meteonis Quadrantids (ATK:4000/DEF: 4000). And when he's summoned with monsters whose levels are two or less, he can destroy every spell and trap card on the field. Sorry, but that means Metaphys Dimension doesn't get to banish a card on my field like what happened in our last duel."
The big dragon flew up, squeezed its arms and legs tightly before hurtling then gliding as its body smashed through the cards while the cards pixels glanced off an unfazed Aimi.
Apathy, "But unlike Call of the Haunted even if my trap left the field my monster still stays."
"That would be scary if I didn't remember it did that and planned a way around it like a not so dumb person would," Kaito said with a short lived smile on his face. "I attack your Tyrant Dragon with my Quadrantid, and before the attack hits home I'll activate Limiter Removal from my hand. This will double my already powerful monster to eight thousand attack points, enough to destroy your monster and deplete your life points."
"Good job." Aimi simply said.
The big dragon soared towards Tyrant Dragon before being engulfed in blue flames giving it a raging phoenix-esque appearance. It rammed right into Tyrant Dragon smashing it into over a thousand pixels that caromed off Aimi.
Aimi: 0
The holograms faded from the field. Kaito thought he was done getting emotional over a trading card game, but winning in the first turn with a deck he hardly knew anything about was amazing show of strategy even for a cynic like him.
"I guess this means I am finally good enough to go after Playmaker IRL, right?"
Aimi said nothing to him. When she finally did something other than look like a dead fish, she bonked Kaito on the head with a calculator from the twentieth century—something too old to work but was like carrying around a tiny fuzzy toy in her pocket.
"This is why we never try getting you into tournaments too soon. You watch people play games, you win a few games, you forget the world wasn't made to be a showoff in card games, and then you think you can do better than everyone in this game. Here's a helpful piece of advice: quit a children's card game while your still ahead because all that follows afterwards is more defeat and enemies."
Kaito's mentality took a downgrade when he puffed out his checks and looked at her with a small-eyed glare. Aimi didn't even look him in the eyes when she stood up and walked away, stopping only to talk to the store manager.
"Thank you for selling us those cards; we'll be back to get your next set three months from now."
"No problem," he smiled. "Maybe someday I'll invite you two to my granddaughter's wedding."
She walked up to the door before turning around to get a look at her "responsibility".
"Well, come on. There's no one else here to play card games with. Everyone is too busy being at home playing virtual card games."
"Virtual." The store owner chuckled. "Life may not have been so fun when I was growing up, but we managed to not be so busy and so fragile with all this 'virtual' mumbo-jumbo."
Kaito took a deep breath, made sure his cards were safe in their sleeves, placed them all in his deck box, put the deckbox in his jacket pocket and power walked to the door trying to be careful not to bump into anything. Next time he was going to play a game in a store with his cards in a lunch box and a water bottle in case he got thirsty.
In a house in complete darkness giving it the look for a dark pit, a man shrouded in darkness was playing a video of Duelist Kingdom; Jounouchi versus Marik all while a camera was recording him. On the inside he felt worse than the sprawl of his house, but when the camera was on he did his best to smile.
"Hi, I'm Silvercrow8008 and welcome back to another reaction of the Heroes Journey."
