Hello! Hope everyone has been well! Going a bit stir crazy but am doing my best to survive. This chapter was a fun one to write as I love to torment Christine. Sadly, this isn't the last time I put her through this. My poor character. Hope you at least enjoy her torment. I also must say that I love Zigfried's accent from the show so I did write in the accent. I hope no one is offended with it; I always loved that accent.
*I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! I only own Christine, my OC. If you recognize anything, I don't own that either!*
After the… duel between Zigfried and the pseudo tag team of Rex and Weevil as well as a quick bite to eat, the gang and I went back to the Kaiba Dome to wait for the announcement of the next round. I worried about grandpa the entire time I ate though. I hoped he and Professor Hawkins were alright. I wasn't given much opportunity to worry though as I was quickly dragged after an excited Jounouchi.
"Spectators and Duelists!" Roland's voice appeared through the speakers in the small room where we and the rest of the duelists were situated. "Round One has come to a close and half of our super 16 competitors have been sent home! So now I give you the elite eight!"
The screen shifted to the duel matchups. "And first up: it's our boy wonder! The undefeated Leon Wilson! But someone is looking to take a bite out of Leon's winning streak! So evacuate the beach and call in the Coast Guard! It's the Man-Eater: Ethan Sharke!"
"Come on!" Jounouchi whined. "Enough with the fancy intros! Let's get to my duel already!"
But wasn't it already on the screen? And he'd have known his opponent after Rebecca's duel. I raised my eyebrow at Jounouchi's excitement. Oh boy…
"That's Jounouchi." Anzu sighed. "Always a model of patience."
"You know you might want to take this time to run through your game strategy." Yugi suggested. "Some last minute studying couldn't hurt."
"Jounouchi hates cramming!" Honda teased, moving to lean an arm over Jounouchi's shoulders. "Which is too bad 'cause he's about to get schooled by that freakazoid who took out Weevil and Rex in one move!"
I gave a quick sigh, suddenly annoyed. Zigfried was just sitting by himself reading a book. That didn't open him up to being called names.
"Could you not call him a freakazoid?" I asked. "It's his taste in fashion. Don't bash him on it."
"Even so, the only thing I'm scare of his that hairdo." Jounouchi huffed, not responding to my request. "Hey, buddy! Pinky the Clown called; he wants his wig back!"
I gave an even louder sigh. I think I was just ignored. Yugi looked up to give me a sympathetic look, shrugging when I gestured at our friends. Thankfully one person was on my side.
"Oh, like you're in any position to be making fun of anyone's hairdo." Rebecca sassed without even looking up from her cards.
I had to stifle a laugh at the expression Jounouchi turned on her.
"I heard that!"
"Take it down a notch, will ya?" Ryuji tried to calm the growling Jounouchi. "You're too high strung to duel."
"Who're you calling 'High strung'?! I'm cool as a cucumber!"
"That's something someone high strung would say." I tried to say but was apparently ignored except for Yugi, who stifled a laugh.
"Oh, yeah, real cool." Honda spoke just a second after I finished.
Jounouchi heard him and spun around to grab his coat.
"I'm not in the mood!" Jounouchi growled.
"You wanna piece of me?!"
The two began to grapple back and forth. I gave another sigh. This was hardly the place to start a fight. What if Jounouchi got disqualified for it? Anzu stepped in as she was closest.
"Can you two grow up for like five minutes?" She asked, an annoyed tilt to her voice.
Their fight then pushed Anzu back a few paces. I tensed to catch her if she fell but she quickly got her footing. "I need some female friends!"
"He started it!" Both Jounouchi and Honda snapped.
Anzu's attention was then taken by Leon, who was quietly watching the whole exchange. I hadn't even seen him there until Anzu turned and spoke to him.
"You okay, Leon?"
The younger boy looked up, as if surprised she noticed him. He then gave a weary smile.
"I guess I just have a case of the pre-duel jitters." Leon admitted. "We can't all be as calm as Jounouchi."
Jounouchi's name broke up the fight and the blond stepped away from Honda.
"Hey!" Jounouchi cheered. "Sure you can! You can't be too bad if you made it to the final eight, right? You just gotta do what I do and believe you're gonna win!"
"Well, that's just it. I'm afraid cause then I'll have to face off against Yugi. Just thinking about it freaks me out."
That made a surprised noise escape Yugi and I. He was already worried about the championship round? That seemed like a lifetime away.
"Listen, pal. Just take this one duel at a time, okay?"
"Jounouchi's got a point." Rebecca agreed. "It's too soon to worry about the Championship duel now. Besides, you're gonna have to duel against me before you can get to Yugi."
That made me laugh. That would be a fun duel to watch. Leon looked a little better although still nervous.
"Well…" Leon drawled. "Just make sure you go easy on me, okay, Beck? I've seen you in action; you can be brutal!"
My laugh faded as the door opened, revealing Mokuba with a couple of suits standing behind him.
"Ok, let's get this show on the road!" He announced.
All of the duelists began to climb to their feet, including Zigfried, who placed his book into his jacket.
"Alright!" Jounouchi cheered. "It's go time!"
We all gathered our things and made for the door. I had just caught up after helping Rebecca with some of her flyaway cards after Jounouchi tried to be courteous with Zigfried. It was awfully nice of him to do that…
"Unlike you, I don't rely on luck." Zigfried practically slapped away Jounouchi's kind words of luck.
Ouch. And I defended this guy? Dang. Jounouchi definitely didn't like his words being thrown back so he chased after Zigfried.
"I was trying to be nice!"
There was a moment of glancing around before we moved to follow. When I turned the corner into the main hallway of the Kaiba Dome, Jounouchi was climbing off the ground, growling wildly. "I'll touch more than that!"
"Jounouchi, don't!" Yugi cried out to him.
Jounouchi stopped moving while Zigfried kept walking for a few steps. He stopped when he was a good few feet away, turning his head to look back blankly at Jounouchi.
"If I ver you, herr Jounouchi." Zigfried said in his accent. "I'd listen to my little friend."
Little?! Sure, Yugi was short but he wasn't little!
"Well, I got news for you: you're not me!" Jounouchi fired back.
"True. Because if I vas I'd be a verthless street punk with no talent. Unt, not to mention, appalling taste in outerwear.
"That does it! No one insults my fashion sense and gets away with it! So bring it on!"
"I've vasted more than enough time on you already."
Zigfried moved to start walking again. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a duel to vin."
"Hey!"
Honda immediately moved to stop Jounouchi from charging the man again, wrapping his arms around Jounouchi's torso. The rest of us following slowly behind.
"Hey, man!" Honda huffed. "Save it for the game!"
"Who does he think he's dealing with anyway?!"
Jounouchi then pushed Honda away, though not hard enough to actually push him. "Get offa me! It's time to beat the designer pants of that chump!" Honda went to reach out to Jounouchi again, trying to tell him to be careful, but the blond thundered on.
"He better get a grip or he's history." Ryuji huffed at Jounouchi's vanishing back. "The match didn't even start yet and Jounouchi's letting this guy mess with his head."
"He's just easy to rile up." I hummed.
"You can say that again."
Wow… I was actually heard this time.
"Well, I guess I should be heading out to my match now too." Rebecca sighed.
"Are you ok?" Yugi asked her.
Rebecca lifted her head to look at Yugi.
"It's just that I know Jounouchi really needs you out there to cheer him on. But that means you won't be there to watch me duel."
"My heart goes out to you." Anzu replied in a deadpan to which I elbowed her.
Rebecca didn't seem to hear it, or she simply ignored it, as she was still smiling.
"But you know there is a bright side to this whole thing: I'm planning on staying in this tournament till the very end so you'll have plenty more chances to root for me!"
Rebecca happily skipped away to which Yugi and I smiled at her. What a little spitfire.
"Go get 'em, Rebecca!" Yugi called after her.
She was barely around the corner when Honda turned back around to face us.
"Come on." Honda huffed. "Jounouchi's gonna need all the help he can get if he plans on beating Zigfried."
"No joke." I replied.
I was swatted at by Yugi but I didn't regret it. My amusement was cut short by Mokuba approaching us.
"Yugi, wait." Mokuba breathed gently. "I need to speak to you right away."
We all glanced to each other before turning around. Yugi was at the head of the group when Mokuba began talking again. "So have you noticed any strange behavior coming from any of the competitors?" I wanted to sass something about Vivian but I kept my mouth shut.
"I don't think so." Yugi replied. "What's going on?"
"You have to promise not to tell anyone. If any word of this gets out, it could ruin the Grand Championship and our whole company for good."
Seemed a bit dramatic but, with our experiences thus far, I continued to keep my mouth shut. "Remember when the DuelTek computer went berserk and locked us inside the Kaiba Dome?" Mokuba told us about the possibility of the same hacker being one of the competitors and how Kaiba asked him to keep track of things while he kept an eye on the background checks.
"Who do you think it is, Mokuba?"
"I don't have the slightest clue and that's why I need your help. You gotta let me know if you notice anything strange."
"Sure." Anzu agreed, albeit with a slight tilt of her head. "But you do realize that strange things happen to us all the time, right."
"She's got a point." Honda agreed.
"I do admit, some of it's my fault…" I mumbled but trailed away when Ryuji leaned into my shoulder.
"We're not blaming you but…" Ryuji said in a teasing voice. "But trouble does follow you like the plague."
I raised my eyebrow at him, remembering the words I could constantly tell Yami during Battle City. "You combined with us just makes a full-on beacon for suspicious activity." I playfully punched him away but had no time to laugh.
"But I was hoping this time would be different." Yugi's voice was laced with such anger that I couldn't speak.
All the hilarity died quickly. "But so much for that, huh? Just once I'd like to duel in a tournament for the thrill of it and not have to worry about who's trying to take over the world!" The small shiver down my spine revealed that Yami had poked his head out to try and calm Yugi. It wasn't working. "Why can't things be easy for a change. We should be having fun, not hunting down bad guys." Mokuba stared at Yugi's face for a moment before an expression of determination covered it.
"Don't worry." Mokuba told him. "We'll find him soon! I'm not gonna let punk ruin this tournament!"
"Oh yeah!" Honda cheered.
Yugi still looked a little downtrodden so I placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. He still didn't look up.
"You can count on us." Anzu told Mokuba.
"Now let's get out there, watch Jounouchi's duel, and do what we do best, cheer from the sidelines!"
Honda just spoke the epitome of what I do all the time! I didn't know whether or not to feel attacked. There was a small breath before Yugi finally looked up and nodded his head.
"Look at the bright side, there's never a dull moment, right?!"
"That's for sure." Yugi agreed.
We all headed off as a group to where Jounouchi was dueling. Where would it be this time? There were tons of things in the park so Kaiba could have put it anywhere. I peeked at the screens as we passed them, trying to get some sort of hint. Leon looked to be in a Haunted House, the detective and the magician were in a theater, Rebecca was in a Ferris Wheel but… I couldn't tell with Jounouchi's. I then started to get a pit of dread in my stomach based on the signs we were passing. 'Volcanic Pit'?! Oh boy… Hopefully we weren't headed there…
Oh no… we kept approaching the large volcano like structure. Are we gonna turn and just walk past it?
Please?
The gang entered the loading dock for the 'Volcanic Pit' attraction but I stopped at the entrance. It was getting harder to breathe. That silly burn from the first few weeks here could really escalate to this?! I thought I was better! No matter how much my logical thoughts tried to fight it, my legs just wanted to run as far from here as possible.
"Christine?" Ryuji's voice hit me first. "Are you okay?"
I couldn't answer. My mouth moved but no words could escape. "Guys, we got a problem!" I could only faintly hear the rest of the gang and Mokuba run over; my name being called gently but it kept flubbing in my ears. I could only the pounding of my heart in my head. The quick shiver down my spine caught me off guard as well as the hands at my biceps. I looked up, seeing Yami.
"You okay, Mereret?" He whispered, words just barely hitting my ears.
I shook my head. I wasn't ok. "Ok…" My boyfriend looked around like he was trying to see what could have scared me and he quickly realized it. "Volcano… I understand." He turned to the rest of the gang, said something, then turned back to me. "We're gonna go on a quick walk, ok?" I couldn't say anything against him so he gently took my shoulders and led me out of the loading dock. Our other friends looked worried but headed in to support Jounouchi.
Yami and I walked a short distance away and sat down on a bench. It was strangely quiet for an amusement park but that was probably because of all the duels; no one had time to ride a roller coaster. I managed a deep breath, gathering my wits again. Yami's hand settled on my upper back and I turned to him. "Bit better?" I tried to speak and actually found the words.
"Yeah." I managed. "Sorry."
"Don't apologize. It's ok. There's nothing wrong with being frightened."
I opened the hand that had been burned so long ago. If I thought about it, I could still see the dark red burn stretch across my palm. That moment… feeling the flame licking at my skin… I had put it out quickly enough but… My body seemingly remembered the danger it presented. Yami's hand suddenly blocked it, moving to hold it. "Does it still hurt?" I shook my head.
"No. It's fine."
Yami was silent as I lifted my head to look at him. "Do I have to go in there, Yami? Please say I don't have to." My boyfriend gave a gentle sigh, moving to wrap his free arm around me. I clutched onto his jacket, trying to hold back tears.
"I would but Jounouchi needs you in there, just as much as he needs all of us. It'll keep him calm and, hopefully, clear headed."
I gave a giggle at that despite the fear still coursing through me. Hopefully was the key word in that entire statement. "There's nothing to be scared of in there. The Volcano bit is just aesthetic. From what Mokuba says, it's just water in pipes, lights and a couple of heaters. There's no eruption and, while there is minimal flame, it's kept far away from where the duel will be." I gave a whimper into Yami's jacket and his grip tightened. "I promise it's gonna be okay." There was a moment of hesitation but I eventually nodded. Yami wouldn't lie to me about this nor would he try to play it down just to get me inside.
"If it does erupt, I'm gonna be real mad."
"And you'll have every right to be."
There was another breath before I pulled away. "Ready?" I nodded and the two of us headed back into the loading dock. Yugi had taken over again, helping me into the cart and off we went. It wasn't too long a trip to get to where the duel was but, hopefully, we weren't too far away.
"Christine?" Yugi asked and I turned my head. "You never told me how you got burned."
"I didn't?" I gave a hum, wondering how to tell him. "Well… Do you remember that director? The one who came to school?"
"The idol incident?"
Yugi's expression made it clear he did remember. He looked less than amused.
"Yeah, that… Um… well… Yami and I went after him. There was a game and…"
I lifted my hand to look at where the burn had been. "I burnt the film he had recorded of you and Jounouchi; I wanted to get rid of the footage so that no one else could use it. The flame enchantment didn't go out when I wanted it to so it spread beyond just my finger and to my palm. I put it out easily enough but it was hot enough to burn me rather quickly." I lowered my hand to give a playful shrug. "And that's the story." Yugi gave me a playful elbow and I peeked over to see him smiling.
"Thanks. It's nice to know I have friends who look out for me."
I gave a smile, leaning over to give him a half hug. I'd risk every burn possible if it meant Yugi and the rest of the gang were safe.
Soon enough, we arrived at the duel location. Our friends quickly cheered at me climbing out of the cart, helping me onto the small rock base they were standing on. The room was fine, lukewarm, but fine.
I'd be fine.
Most of the heat was coming out from Jounouchi's ears, which were steaming from anger. He didn't even notice Yugi and I had arrived as he was so mad. Hopefully, he could gather his wits. The two duelists set up their duel disks and began the duel.
"Alright, Herr Jounouchi." Zigfried's voice carried clearly across the large cavern. "Since you're clearly at a disadvantage in so many vays, vhy don't you make the first move?"
"He's just messing with your head, man!" Honda shouted at Jounouchi.
"Yeah!" Ryuji agreed. "Don't freak out! Remember stay focused."
I didn't think their words of calming worked.
"Try to keep up!" Jounouchi cried out.
Jounouchi drew his hand and I immediately knew – just a gut feeling really – that he had a terrible hand. That feeling just… it gets you. I know.
"Gee." Honda deadpanned. "I wonder if he's got a bad hand?"
"I'm gonna say yes." Yugi agreed.
"No argument here." I added on.
Jounouchi stared at his hand for a moment before Zigfried began to taunt again.
"You're beginning to sveat!" Zigfried commented good naturedly. "Is the molten lava getting to you or is it something else?"
Molten….? I shook my head. It's not real lava! It's not real lava! Kaiba would have a lawsuit if that were the case! That lawsuit would probably be from me… I shook off the thoughts again and focused on the duel. This fake volcano wouldn't get me!
Jounouchi, growling, played a card face down and ended his turn. It seemed that was all he could do. Zigfried, still awfully excited, started his turn with Graceful Charity. I watched him draw three cards then pick two from his deck then finally, to end his turn, he placed one card face down. Neither of them had monsters! This was interesting… Maybe he was egging Jounouchi on to attack him or something. I didn't like it.
Jounouchi was quick to laugh at how Zigfried couldn't summon a monster. The other man wasn't offended, he only glanced at the camera facing the duel, then checked his watch. I checked my own, seeing it strike directly on the hour.
Just as Jounouchi drew a card, pillars of the liquid pretending to be lava shot out of the pool around us. The shoots behind Zigfried shot flames nearly to the ceiling. The temperature jumped probably five to ten degrees! I gave a shriek of fright moving to cling to the closest person.
"Why don't you turn down the flames?!" Honda's voice was loud in my ears; I must have been clinging to him.
"One small problem!" Mokuba barked back. "This isn't part of the attraction!"
"That's not funny!" Ryuji snapped. "Especially for Christine!"
I simply clung to Honda even tighter, lowering my head so that all I could see was his brown jacket. I couldn't see the duel but I was content.
The sounds of the duel could just barely hit me from where I had hidden inside Honda's jacket but I refused to look up. As long as I couldn't see the pillars of flame, I wouldn't panic!
Hopefully…
My window in the duel was the complaints of my friends.
"He's not even gonna summon a monster?!" Honda gasped.
"Whatever Zigfried's strategy is, I don't get it." Anzu mused.
"What strategy?" Ryuji huffed.
Not being able to see, I could only assume he was doing something weird. He didn't play a monster… He really was trying to trick Jounouchi into something.
The blond must have been really mad as his next shout was able to hit my ears.
"I don't know if ya noticed but the duel's right here!" Jounouchi shouted over to Zigfried. "You could at least have the courtesy to look at me when I'm about to kick your butt, wise guy!"
I couldn't hear Zigfried's response as the smooth accent was lost in the chaos. Jounouchi's barks in rebuttal were heard but not him.
"Don't listen to him!" Honda shouted.
There was silence again until there was a loud explosion. Hesitantly, I peeked out from Honda's jacket. The pillars of fire had gone away, to which I was thankful, so I pulled my face away completely. Ginzo was now on the field and had just attacked Zigfried. The suave man now looked man, eyes glaring right at Jounouchi. "That's showing them, Jounouchi! You da man!"
Honda's excited gesture nearly made me fall over. I let go of him and worked to calm myself again.
"I think I've embarrassed you enough for now. So go ahead, Ziggy."
Zigfried really didn't like that… I was now able to hear the man's response.
"You ver much better off when I vas ignoring you." Zigfried practically hissed. "But zat's over! Because now you've gotten my attention!"
That didn't sound good. "So, not only will I defeat you, but I'll send you down in flames. Unt it all begins now!" Zigfried pulled a card from his deck to begin his turn and I knew he had pulled a good card from the smile on his face. "Zis card should look familiar; it's ze same one I used to devastate the last two fools." Uh oh…
The card was called 'Ride of the Valkyries' and the moment he played it the pillars of fire returned. Immediately frightened, I gripped onto Anzu this time. She gripped me in return like she was keeping me away from the flames. I couldn't hear the duel because of the loud flames exploding around me but I could faintly hear the sounds of… horses?
"Oh no!" Yugi's cry hit my ears because of my increased closeness. "One more attack and he's done!"
Not this early! I wanted to scream at Jounouchi to do something but another pillar of flame burst up just as I raised my head, lowering me into submission.
"Oh man!" Anzu and Honda gasped.
"Jounouchi lost the duel!"
There was a moment of pause before Yugi's tone changed completely. "Jounouchi's still in!" I peeked my head around, fighting off the panic, to try and see what had happened. The face down card Jounouchi played earlier had flipped up now. Did it give him enough life points to survive the attack? I assumed so if he was still in the duel.
Just then, the heat shut off. The loud pillars of flame had died down so I felt safe enough to lift my head again. The horses were gone now and Zigfried was defenseless. Anzu released me as she gave a sigh of relief.
"Finally, the heat's off." Anzu sighed, moving to keep a hand one me just in case there were any relapses.
"I'd hate to see the gas bill." Honda said and I cracked a smile, that would be an expensive bill.
Mokuba glanced over at me then over to the tracks of the attraction.
"I should check with Seto and see what's up." Mokuba announced.
One of the carts returned and whisked him off. There was no stopping him was there.
"You ok, Christine?" Ryuji asked. "That was a lot of flame…"
I gave an attempt at a playful shrug.
"I'm ok." I replied. "Not looking at it made it easy to avoid another incident."
"Let's just hope this ends quickly before it starts again." Honda breathed.
"Agreed. I'm gonna be real mad if that happens."
I took a quick breath, calming myself. I may be in a fake Volcanic Pit but I was ok. I was doing well for being near a large pillar of fire for the past few minutes. I could last a little while longer. I opened my eyes to focus on the duel, for real this time!
Jounouchi started his turn by playing Swordsman of Landstar and going to attack Zigfried directly. The man countered by playing a trap card, Frikka's Mediation, stopping his attack immediately at the cost of removing a monster from the graveyard. The blond then played a card face down to end his turn.
Zigfried started his own turn by playing something I immediately didn't like. Nibelung's Treasure allowed Zigfried to pull Nibelung's Ring from his deck and play it on Jounouchi's side of the field as well as drawing five new cards. It stopped Jounouchi's Swordsman from attacking while letting him draw two cards per draw phase. What was he planning? Then the goddesses came out: one with dark blue hair, another with long pink hair, and the last one with short blonde hair. Oh boy… My friend Austin at home used those three in his deck and it wasn't pretty what they did to an opponent's deck.
"Now let the fun begin with the Goddess Skuld!" Zigfried called and the dark blue haired goddess lifted her staff. "Activate your Scepter of Revelation!"
A dark pink circle slid across the field and I knew this wasn't going to end well. "Each turn from now on, I'm able to see the top three cards in your deck unt rearrange them any which way I please." Jounouchi did so, showing his displeasure with the flick of his wrist to show his cards. Zigfried moved them with the middle card on the top of the deck while the first card went to the bottom and third card remained where it was. The Goddess Verdande's power then activated, letting Zigfried 'guess' the type of card that was on top and, if he was correct, Jounouchi had to play it in face down defense position. Zigfried guessed a monster and, to no one's surprise, he was correct, so Jounouchi was forced to play the card. Then finally, the Goddess Urd activated her power. If Zigfried guessed the identity of the monster that was on the field, it was automatically removed from play.
Everyone gasped as Panther Warrior was removed from play, his form lifting into the pink sky like design that Zigfried's cards created. "Aw, parting is such sweet sorrow."
"First he took out Jinzo and now it's Panther Warrior?" Yugi gasped.
"But those are Jounouchi's best monsters!" Anzu whined.
"Not anymore." Honda huffed helpfully.
I didn't say anything – nothing I could say would make anyone feel better – so I kept my eyes on the duel. Jounouchi went to start his turn but Zigfried's plan had more to it than just tearing Jounouchi's deck apart. Nibelung's ring's effect was explained to the blond and when he tried to get on with his turn, Zigfried jumped in again.
"I'm really getting tired of this." I huffed and Anzu nodded her head in agreement.
The Curse of Nibelung's ring activated once Jounouchi had drawn his second card. If he had drawn any monsters by the effect, he has to send it to the graveyard. Of course, Zigfried already knew which monster was there so he chuckled when Jounouchi sounded surprised.
This was what he had been planning for the entire duel.
But Jounouchi wasn't out just yet.
He activated Dangerous Machine Type Six, allowing him to perform different actions each turn based on what number he rolled. He didn't activate it, instead letting Zigfried move. His goddesses activated and Jounouchi lost Goblin Attack force to them. He then placed a card face down and ended his turn.
This next turn, Dangerous Machine Type Six rolled a three, letting Jounouchi regain the card lost by Nibelung's Ring. He summoned Sasuke Samurai in an attempt to attack him. Unfortunately, Zigfried prepared for that by playing Loge's Flame, stopping any monster with 2000 or less attack points can't attack. Jounouchi tried to get around this by playing Graceful Dice to boost the attack power of his monster but only rolled a three when he needed a five or a six to get enough points.
With Zigfried's turn, his goddesses activated again and Jounouchi lost Gearfried the Iron Knight. He was going to run out of monsters at some point. Zigfried then played Swan Maiden, letting him summon a Valkyrie from his hand and he chose the one with the blue hair…. What was her name again? I had no chance to think about it as her sword went flying towards the Sasuke Samurai. It was deflected by Jounouchi's Silver Dollar trap card, protecting any monster with less than 1000 attack points. Phew!
"I love it!" Jounouchi taunted. "A rich snob gets stopped by a measly dollar!"
Zigfried didn't seem too upset at being blocked, continuing to smile across the field. Jounouchi started his turn by activating his machine. It rolled a three again, giving him back his second drawn card. He then activated Roll of Fate. The number he rolls, the number of cards he pulls. Was Jounouchi going to try and use luck to win? This is going to be interesting.
Well… Luck was on his side for the moment as he rolled a six. I wish I could have seen his face as I could feel the smile all the way from back here. Giant Trunade would make me happy if I pulled it against these three divas. With it, he manages to get rid of Nibelung's ring, the goddesses, Loge's Flame as well as the face down card…. Wait, why did it flip up? "Hold on! That Trap Card should have been blown off the field!"
"Apple of Enlightenment automatically activates when it's taken off the field. Which allows me to draw one more card from my deck."
With the removal of Loge's Flame, Jounouchi is now in big trouble as Zigfried is now able to summon Valkyrie Brunhilde, the most powerful of them. For every Warrior and Dragon card on the field, she gains 300 extra attack points. I hated thinking it but… this wasn't going to last much longer.
Jounouchi then sacrificed his Swordsman of Landstar, freed from Nibelung's ring, to summon Maximum Six. Luck kicks in again when Jounouchi rolls a six and can add 1200 attack points to his monster's 1900, jumping it to 3100. The blond then plays another luck-based card, Star Blaster. By sacrificing Sasuke Samurai, he can roll a dice and can potentially summon a high-level monster. Luck strikes again with a five from the die. Since Sasuke Samurai had two stars and he rolled a five, he could summon a seven star monster! Red Eyes! I've missed that dragon!
Brunhilde had an annoying special ability that kicked in when Maximum Six attacked. She can avoid destruction by giving up 1000 defense points which she used both times Jounouchi's monsters attacked her. Zigfried took damage both times she would have been destroyed, lowering his life points to 100 points. It was so close! "You should have ended this duel when you had the chance!"
And here it comes.
Zigfried played Enchanted Sword Nothung and equipped it to Brunhilde, raising her attack points by 400; she now had 2800. Now she could take out Red Eyes! "According to the Legend of Nothung, it was the world's greatest Dragon slayer!"
"Say what?!"
With a swing of the sword, Red Eyes vanished into the pink sky like Jounouchi's other monsters. Zigfried also played Rainbow Bridge Bifrost. Brunhilde is now going to get 500 attack points for every monster Zigfried has removed from play. I didn't want to remember how many he got rid of over the course of the duel.
Jounouchi then played Compensation Mediation, another card reliant on luck. Zigfried picked two cards from his graveyard and shuffled them with Compensation Mediation. If Jounouchi picked his card, he was safe but if he didn't…
I thought too soon.
When Swan Maiden lifted, I knew it was over. Zigfried was a tough opponent.
Zigfried didn't stick around much longer after that so we all had a moment to step over the tracks to comfort Jounouchi. He was kneeling on the ground like the loss physically pained him. I felt bad, especially when Honda started talking.
"Big deal." Honda huffed. "So you blew the entire tournament on a lousy game of chance."
"I guess you must have just run out of luck." Ryuji added on.
"Na!" Anzu obviously tried to soothe. "Jounouchi wins his duel with talent, not with luck, guys."
"Oh…" Honda started again. "So Jounouchi didn't lose because he has no luck, he lost because he has no talent!"
Jounouchi was quick to pick himself up after that.
"So that's how you cheer me up?!" Jounouchi barked. "Then it's time for me to spread a little cheer of my own!"
Quickly jumping to cling to Yugi's shoulders, I moved out of the way so Jounouchi could chased Anzu, Honda and Ryuji around the rock platform. The three laughed as the blond chased them around and I couldn't help but laugh as well.
Ah, Jounouchi's temper. He'll one day get a hold of it.
Ah... Poor Jounouchi. He's always getting picked on by everyone. Oh, yeah, Bakura?
Bakura: Hm?
Were you the one to take my donuts?
Bakura: *Starts to sweat nervously. Looks to Marik like he'll protect him.*
Marik: *Glares profusely, refusing to help.*
Bakura: No?
The questioning in your tone says otherwise... *Narrows eyes.*
Bakura quickly makes a getaway with Robyn right on his heels.