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Intro: 飛べ、ガンダム! by Andrew W.K.
On-screen: The Earth floats in space, a dark ball. Then, a bunch of huge explosions scatter across its surface, before a bright light shines from the middle. The Earth's image is projected into many technicolored copies of it in two rays of light that form a V.
Fire up your soul!
Fire up your soul!
Fire up your soul, Doragon!
Then the show's logo appears, "Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V" while a pendulum sways back and forth in an arc.
Yuya throws on his white jacket while running and leaps into all the action slow-motion can offer.
Make you rush~
Zuzu gets set to run as well, only to get stuck in a freeze-frame as Declan, Crow, Shun, Sylvio, Sora, Gong, and Kuriboh appear beside her.
To the field~!
Yuya slides his goggles over his eyes, and activates his duel disk. Then, he hops onto the back of Odd-Eyes Dragon while giving a peace sign.
If you cherish a bright burning flame
Deep inside of your spirit to fight...
At the sight of many Lava and Swamp Battleguards, Odd-Eyes' eyes flash red and green, and then Yuto pops in with a confused expression.
Your enemy is in your sights,
Burn them up! Burn them up! Ute yo!
Odd-Eyes Dragon gathers breath, and then Timegazer and Stargazer power it up, transforming it into Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon as it finally lets loose a Spiral Flame Strike, blowing away all the monsters.
Wreak your anger as you strike
Double Damage, Doragon!
Odd-Eyes Pendulum Doragon~
Pendulum!
Yuya's friends cheer on the spectacular sight.
Get up on your feet!
Then Sylvio, Sora, and Shun notice something.
Get up on your feet!
Yuya notices it too.
Get up on your feet, Doragon!
Yuya leaps off of the other three to jump up and reach for a card, forming a V with his hand.
Jump and seize~
Declan and Yuya's other friends join in on forming Vs with their hands while reaching to the sky, as if they all wish to high V the sky.
Action Card~!
Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon flies in front of a portal that's blue and purple with the shape of a galaxy while spinning at high speed, and with a roar it explodes out into creation with many colors. Cut away to Superheavy Samurai Big Benkei landing on the ground with a shake, Mozarta the Melodious Maestra swooping down gracefully, and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon touching down on the ground, looking up to smile towards a ray of light in the sky. A pendulum swings with a rainbow trail behind it, fading away as Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon runs down along the Rainbow Road with Yuya smiling on its back.
You forge your way between worlds,
Rainbow Bridge, Doragon!
Odd-Eyes Pendulum Doragon~
Doragon!
The Sledgehammer coughs bloodily, and raises a trembling finger, "Put the Card d-down, now!"
Yuya Sakaki shakes his head with a smile, not breaking eye contact as he adds the Action Card to his hand.
The Stadium is both wowed and confused at this upset! You could even say they've been upset!
"How did this happen? Yuya can't be in two places at once!" Tate asks. "But he could do that eye thing, maybe he can split himself via mitosis to have multiple clones of himself?"
"Nah, that only happens in my dreams occasionally," Zuzu says while making sure her sight is good and well locked onto Yuya.
Gong coughs before Tate can get a chance to follow up on that, and explains, "See, Yuya's the type to pull disappearing acts when his opponents get tunnel vision. He does it with me in our bouts fairly often, to the point it really shouldn't come across as a surprise anymore… were it not for the fact he keeps surprising me."
He points to the tributed clown outfit. "As for how he pulled one over on The Sledgehammer, he used the opportunity afforded to him by Evasion to hide in the woods, then use any branches he found to fill his clown outfit with. When he had his dummy made, he sent it out with his monster Hip Hippo out to search for Action Cards, which it's great at. That Yuya wasn't there to actually get the Action Cards was something even the audience didn't catch onto."
Skip Boyle scratches his chin. "Come to think of it, it didn't even have a duel disk on. If he played anything but Action Cards that affected Hip Hippo while this went on, people would start asking where his other cards were…" He grins. "Not a single move wasted! That's a Sakaki for ya!"
Most of Yuya's friends cheer him on for that, but Frederick squirms. "But, aren't you supposed to be setting up your field every turn? If you don't move as much as you can before your turn's up, your opponent's gonna stop your duel cold!"
Yoko Sakaki taps her fingers along Karen's belly, making the croc wag its legs a bit. "There are some advantages to keeping your cards close to your chest, Frederick. Now keep watch, Yuya's about to show you!"
Skip glances over at her with a puzzled look, then recalls something with wide eyes, and looks back to the match with glee.
Down at the castle, Yuya looks at his hand one final time, shuffling the cards around a bit, and announces, "And now, I draw!"
The spirits of his duel monsters appear around him, a select few to be exact: Performapals Whip Snake and Sword Fish, Stargazer Magician, and his prized Odd-Eyes Dragon. He has some internal dialogue with them: "Your time to show off will come later guys, I promise. For now, I need all of your help with this next draw, please!"
His monsters look over at Battleguard King, and his master's two set cards. They acquiesce.
(Rec. BGM: Apollo Justice "Troupe Gramarye Theme")
He gives a grateful smile. "Thank you. Now, my left conceals…" He collapses his hand behind the Action Card. "And my right…" He takes his right hand away from his card hand with the palm facing down towards the deck of cards in a smooth motion. A deep breath, "...tells the truth!"
He draws from the duel disk, and brings up what he drew. He now holds seven cards with both hands, and spreads them out in an arc. Yuya smiles at the sight of Miracle, Timegazer Magician… and five other new arrivals?
From the stands, Skip and Yoko sport devious grins.
"Been a while since we've seen someone pull off 'The Magician's Draw,' hasn't it?" Skip asks.
Yoko shrugs, "I've seen him do it till I had to put band-aids on his blisters. For his first time doing it in front of a crowd, it was pretty good."
"Huh?" Zuzu asks. "What's 'The Magician's Draw'? It looked like he just drew normally."
Skip knowingly taps his nose to his increasingly confused daughter while patting her shoulder.
"Tell me, Dad! You're hiding something!" Zuzu pouts as she stomps the pavement below them, a slight fissure in the concrete.
The current headmaster of You Show Duel School looks to Yoko Sakaki, who shrugs. Then, he looks down at the other members of You Show, who he all had to get their parents to sign membership contracts for. Lastly, he looks at Gong, heir to a rival school. Friendly rivals, but still. "I'll tell you the details later."
Zuzu frowns. "Later? Why not now?"
He shrugs with a sheepish grin, "These three can't sign NDAs on their own. For now, just know that it's only something a duelist can pull off when they place a great deal of trust in their deck. Oh dang, what's happening now!?" He points back at the field showily, leading everyone else to look in that direction.
"How!?" The Sledgehammer rages as he supports himself against the parapet. "How could you have known an Action Card was right behind me!?"
Yuya smirks, and raises his pendant. "It is said that Before History, mystics would use magic tools to help point them in the right direction of water, gold, and sales."
"Wha, really?" The Sledgehammer asks in disbelief.
"Hahaha, no!" Yuya laughs, twirling his pendant around a finger. "The reason I found this up here is because I took some time to view the duel from your angle." Yuya raises the pendant in front of his face to look at it cross-eyed for a bit. "For about a minute, all I could think about was, 'Why is the champion, renowned for sending his opponents to the hospital, not trying to stuff me in a body bag himself?' From all I've seen of your duels, it's an odd sight for you to be so patient… unless you had a reason to be."
"Heh, so you've seen me duel?" The Sledgehammer asks. Even Sakaki's own son was a fan-
"Only in a rerun," Yuya responds cheekily to The Sledgehammer's mounting frustration. "And because I took the time to uncover your plan while distracting you with mine, that's how we got here."
The Sledgehammer grits his teeth, and stands. "Talk it up all you like, all you've done so far is clown around! Battleguard King is still dominating the field, and you haven't even scratched me!" he bellows, then wipes some blood from the corner of his mouth. "For all those cards in your hand, you still haven't defeated me!"
"So I should have gone for the kill while you had this Miracle stored away?" Yuya asks.
"Yes! The point of a duel is to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women!"
"But if I dueled your way, I would lose."
"Because you are weak! Only real pros can stand in this arena! Even your daddy understood that!"
(Rec. BGM: Spirit of Justice "Smile, No Matter What")
His father… Yuya brings his goggles down over his eyes as he recalls a memory.
A young Yuya eats cotton candy while holding his father's hand. He asks his father, "Dad, how come you don't go for uh, Oh Tee Kays? I heard some people in the crowd talking about it."
"OTKs?" Yusho Sakaki asks. "One Turn Kills, huh? Well, it's not my style. I like to have matches where both players get to…" Yusho pauses to swing his son up into the air, and catches him, "Play!"
"Hehehehaha!" Yuya laughs as he's set back down on the sidewalk. "Yeah, it's fun to play!"
Yusho grins, "And don't forget, when you're dueltaining, there's a crowd. That's people who have gathered to watch you play. When I consider the best move to make, I think about how fun it'd be to watch, either right then or later when it pays off. If the show's over before it can begin, what would the crowd think?"
Yuya nods, one of his eyes on his father while the other focuses on the cotton candy. "So… OTKs are bad!"
Yusho laughs, ruffling his son's hair. "I wouldn't say they're bad, I just don't do them."
Yuya is confused. "But you're the greatest duelist ever, if you don't do it, it's a bad way to play!"
"'Greatest ever'? …maybe. But not always!" Yusho scratches his stubble. "Every style has its own ways of being great. There's a great many fans of OTK styles, and I've dueled many who've tried to pull a One Turn Kill on me. Funnily enough, some of the matches I've had with those players ended up being pretty fun with how every move was like walking on a tightrope."
"What about the other matches?" Yuya asks.
"The ones that weren't?" Yusho considers with a smirk. "Well… with Action Cards, you can put a stop to your opponent's plans pretty quick, and when their engine is suddenly stalled, the only thing they can do is sputter. If they're good, they'll have a back-up plan in place. If they don't, they lose."
"So… draw all the Action Cards before them!" Yuya grins with a fanged smile.
"You can only hold one," Yusho wags his finger. "And don't forget about your opponent's other cards either. One set card on their field, sometimes even one in their hand or grave, can mean curtains for you!" The number of times his opponents really thought so little of him that they really thought his face-down could be ignored were many… and also the times when they fell for his bluff of a face-down Smile World. Oh, those were great!
Yuya's eyes start to swirl. "That's a lot of cards to think about…"
"Hahaha," Yusho laughs. "Well, you'll get it eventually. You've always been a good multi-tasker." Yuya's tests always had great doodles on them! "For now, just remember that everyone has their own way of dueling, and if you do your best to treat them and their cards with respect. You'll go your way, and they'll go their way, back and forth, doing bigger plays each time! Like a pen-"
"I want my dueling to be like yours, Dad!" Yuya smiles up at his father. "I wanna go your way!"
Yusho smiles back. "You can't!"
"Huh?"
Yusho taps his top hat with the goggles on it. "Every duelist has their own way of dueling. One day, you'll find your own!"
"Okay…"
Yusho then removes the goggles with the star on them from his top hat, and puts them on his son's head. "But for now, it wouldn't hurt if I gave you some pointers."
Yuya examines the goggles. "These are mi- wait, you'll teach me?"
"Of course!" Yusho promises. Then, he pokes Yuya's new goggles. "You'll be my 'Star Pupil'!"
"Daaaaad!" Yuya pouts, his cheeks puffed out. Then, his lips quiver. "Pfft. Hahahahah!"
"Taking the time to understand my opponent while preparing my own show for them," Yuya smiles while watching his pendant sway back and forth, "is the way I du-"
-WHOCK-
The Sledgehammer's fist meets Yuya Sakaki's face, sending the boy off his feet and flying back into the tower's stairwell.
(Rec. BGM: Danganronpa "Buzzkill")
He lands on the projected stone the wrong way, and goes tumbling down the rest of the steps. From within the castle, Yuya lets out a pained groan that echoes up through the tower… "Ouch!"
Atop the castle, The Sledgehammer raises his fist in triumph. "Hahaha, take all the time you like down there! You can have three, no, four, make that a hundred years, then maybe you'll have something worth seeing!" As he laughs some more, he feels the strains easing up throughout his body. Sure, Clown Boy had pulled a fast one on him, but not only was he still a child, he wasn't even going for the throat! Looks like today's gonna be another easy win-
"-ooooo!"
The Sledgehammer stops laughing for a moment to figure out what that noise is. "'Ooh'?"
"Booooooo!" he hears a girl shout from the stands.
The Sledgehammer snaps his fingers and points at the heckler. The holotron zooms in on a pink-haired girl with a pinker face. Eyes are glaring daggers, teeth are grinding, and steam is wafting from her breath. The camera zooms out a bit to show that the people around her are of similar dispositions. "Who dares!?" he asks.
"This girl!" Zuzu points at herself with a thumb. "Y'know something, Yuya had the right idea. Here!" She flips the bird, mosaics kicking in a second later. "You're a third-rate, no, fourth, make that a hundredth-rate duelist!"
The Sledgehammer glares at her, then smirks. "Aw, looks like I've angered Clown Boy's girlfriend. Well sweetie, you'll want to look the other way for the next part. It's gonna get ugly!"
On the holotron, the footage of Yuya getting sucker-punched replays over and over. However, this also broadcasts his words to the stadium, sports bars, and those at home watching on pay-per-view. Oddly enough, what he was saying about dueling his own way, along with the sight of his cheek contorting around a fist in slow-motion, manages to strike some chords.
The Sledgehammer spreads his arms after his taunt, and now is the part where his fans cheer!
"...yeah!"
"Uh… go Sledgehammer?"
"C'mon, just beat him already, why don'tcha!"
…he waves his arms up a bit. Amp it up a little, people!
A stylish boy sitting with his chums lets out a bored groan. "Ugh, bring Clown Boy back already, I've seen just about enough of you! At least when he makes a fool of himself, it's on purpose!"
A boy in a soccer jersey hears that, and gets emboldened himself. "Your game sparks nothin' but boredom! You don't even know where the goal is!"
Soon it begins to spread. "Your win record is 100% BALONEY!" yells a guy with Star bling on. "Duel with the monsters!"
"Sakaki's eyes were much shinier. See, Mr. Champion's have already popped some blood vessels! Why?" a girl asks before breaking out into laughter.
"Duhhh, I'm The Sledgehammer, I summon big monster and tell it to hit things with big stick!" a boy mimics with a shinai. "And when that don't work, I beat them up!" He bops his own head with the shinai, and drops it. "Oops! Good thing I broke my own hammer like a dumbass!"
"I have looked into the future and seen your duels there, champion… they put me right to sleep!"
"Quiz time! How many Sledgehammers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? The Answer: You don't screw in lightbulbs with a sledgehammer, you moron!"
"Your dueling is a perfect waste of time, just long enough for me to show you how to prepare a dish so simple to get right, even you could follow along!"
The Sledgehammer is confused. He looks from side-to-side, scoping out the crowds. His fans are still there… but subdued? What is going on right now? To his chagrin, he feels the Strains kicking in once more.
"Chief is still fishin' for a reaction? Let me see if I can reach him from here…" A guy with a fish hat spits out some chewing… gum, and hooks it on the line of his ever-present fishing rod. Then, he whips it so hard that the wad goes flying!
Nico Smiley tugs at his collar, smiling. This is bad. If people are getting tired of his client's schtick, then that's it for The Sledgehammer. So long as they had the crowd's approval, anything goes! Clotheslines, Suplexes, a Chainsaw, you name it!
But if The Sledgehammer didn't have the crowd on his side, then the court of public opinion could easily become the court of sports regulations where the majority of his talent's playbook would be torn to shreds.
With that in mind, Nico Smiley sends The Sledgehammer a message. "Smiley here! You need to win. :)"
The Sledgehammer turns his head in response to the ping on his duel disk while a wet wad zips past an inch away, and opens the message, immediately responding, "No shit? Just watch, I'll have that boy running scared! Or crawling. Depends on when he surrenders." (The Sledgehammer was an excellent one-handed typist, just like he was an expert at signing autographs one-handed or wielding his sledgehammer one-handed. Venting out his frustrations with a good pounding session really does wonders at letting the tension out. Don't tell anyone, but he mainly does it single-fisted because whenever he uses both hands, the shaft snaps in half.)
Another ping. "No can do, Hammertime. In a situation like this, you can't win by default. That won't win the crowds back. You need to win the duel! :D"
The Sledgehammer grits his teeth. "Winning by default," huh? So be it. He'll play the game! "Whatever, you all can do as you've always done, and watch me go to work! My turn, DRAW-"
-doink!-
Before he can draw a card, Hip Hippo leaps over the parapet and lands on The Sledgehammer's head, then hops off down into the stairwell to his master.
"Rrrrrrghhh!" The Sledgehammer growls as he attempts to spike his hair back up.
"Nuh uh uh, still my turn!" Yuya shouts up from within the castle. Then his voice pipes up from the stadium's speakers, and his selfie cam shows him lounging on a throne. "Sorry for taking so long everybody, but the good news is, I'll be raking it in with the Tooth Fairy tonight! Now, with the time I have lef…" His eyes widen. "Oh shoot, I got twenty seconds!"
The whole crowd leans forward to witness a duelist about to scramble with his moves.
Gong stands with his arms crossed, tapping his strap. Yuya's done this with him before, and got him to walk right into a trap since he thought Yuya had pulled something out of his rear end, when in fact he had been stowing away a whole armory of secret swords inside a clown car. So he wasn't worried as his friend started slapping cards down haphazardly.
"And after setting three cards in my Magic zones, I play the field spell, Sky Iris! …and end my turn," Yuya says with a smile that's missing a canine.
Gong's bushy eyebrows furrow a bit and his grip tightens.
In the sky above the duel field, a halo begins to form. Colors billow from the circle as it grows bigger, eventually forming a hole in the sky, and above it, a rainbow cone stretching into infinity. Plus, it makes the moat around the castle super pretty.
"What is that hole for?" one wonders. "What is on the other side?" The audience stares up at the oddity with wonder and desire on their faces. "Will something appear from it?"
"七升工弓 工弓 冊了 升口心三!
工七 山月弓 冊月刀三 下口尺 冊三!"
Yuya's face twists. "Pipe it down some, Xiangke Magician!" he whispers to the card in his hand while cleaning his ear with a pinky.
"內三人三尺, 了口臼 弓七臼戶工刀 人三弓弓三心!
了口臼 山工心心 弓臼官冊工七 七口 冊了 巨尺三月七內三弓弓!
水內三三心 官三下口尺三 乙-月尺匹!"
"Yeah, I didn't catch any of that. But next turn, I could swap you out for Stargazer and Wonder Balloons. How does that sound, buddy?"
"..."
"That's better!" Yuya smiles, checking his screen. "Now what's Sludge the Jammer up to?"
Battleguard King rips off the top of the castle to have his snarling face loom over Yuya menacingly. The Sledgehammer stands in his monster's hand, doing the same.
(Rec. BGM: Dual Destinies "Suspense")
Yuya grins up at them sheepishly, arms behind his head. "Why, Mr. The Sledgehammer, sir, what a surprise!"
The Sledgehammer leaps from his monster's hand, and ground pounds in front of his opponent.
Yuya shrugs, "How nice of you to drop in- OW!"
The Sledgehammer grabs Yuya by his leg, and drags him to the center of the throne room.
"Ah, careful, ouch ouch ouch, that's still tender!" Yuya bites out while squeezing his eyes shut.
The Sledgehammer drops Yuya like a sack of potatoes, and circles the boy.
Yuya gets up on one leg, and then puts a hand on a newly appeared Hip Hippo beside him for balance. "So, what's it gonna be now, Champ? Gonna toss me off the side, power bomb me into the projector, take a swing at my bread and butter again?" he asks while lifting his goggles, showing off a bruise on his cheek, nose, and a ring around one of his eyes.
The Sledgehammer grins evilly to show that he's a bad egg in case it wasn't clear. "Nah, that's too easy. For you, I'm gonna bring it back to the classics. Just a straight up duel, you and me."
"Uh huh, uh huh. I hear you," Yuya nods. He hops onto Hip Hippo, "Hi Ho, Hippo! Hyah!" The Hippo takes off for the edge of the castle, while Yuya whoops, "Whoop, whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop, whoop!"
The Sledgehammer narrows his eyes… and grins. "I activate my own Field Spell! Battleguard Battlecage!" He slams the card down.
In front of Yuya and Hip Hippo, a steel fence slams down in front of them. Yuya braces himself on his steed while wincing with his bad leg, and Hip Hippo slows himself down but still walks into a bar. "What kinda joke is this?" Yuya asks while rubbing the pain from his monster's snout.
The Sledgehammer gestures to a metal cage blocking them in on top of the castle, able to be seen by the whole audience. "You can thank Corporate for it! With this new card designed by the Leo Corporation, there's nowhere for you to go but down, Clown Boy! Ahahahahaha!"
Yuya and Hip Hippo grimace while The Sledgehammer laughs, the music building in tension to the perfect point to transition off of!
In the office of the current CEO of Leo Corporation, a 16 year old male spins around in his swivel chair while playing Duel Links. "Would I like to use the effect of 'Aroma Gardening'? Sure, why not," the teen muttered while starting a chain that ensured his opponent would never amount to anything for the next 30 minutes.
A suited man with sunglasses barges in, "Sir, I have urgent news!"
The phone in his hand is tossed into the ficus as Declan Akaba swivels around, his hands steepled in front of his lips. "Yes."
Claude begins, "The Sledgehammer has just-"
Declan's glasses gleam brightly in warning.
Claude shakes his head while holding his hands up, "No, it's not another one of those cases. This time, he's using one of the new cards we gave him!"
Declan nods, and picks up a remote, turning on a projector. The duel between Yuya and The Sledgehammer is projected in his office, the action going on right in front of him while he sits there watching behind his desk. "Ah yes, Battleguard Battlecage. I hope we can see plenty of useful data from this showing." That's all you could do with The Sledgehammer at the helm. "... Claude, when were these new cards given to The Sledgehammer?"
Claude scrunches his face, then looks at his tablet, pulling up some emails. "About a year ago."
Declan nods with a sigh, "Of course they were."
