I found myself being led into the belly of the beast. The depth of the abyss, if you will. Granted, it wasn't really all that bad, I'm exaggerating. Cupcakes were very interesting to me. I'd be willing to sell my soul for one of those things. Actually, I think I already did…
"Shu? You look like you're lost in thought. Do you not want cupcakes?" the girl who was dragging me towards the object of my greed snapped me out of whatever trance I was in.
"Huh? Oh, Sayori, it's nothing. I'm just a little nervous," I replied.
No lies there. I really was nervous. I didn't know who I'd be meeting when we get into that clubroom. It could be anyone. Literally any kind of person could be waiting in that room. Will they even like me? Sayori smiled, wiping away most of that doubt with that one adorable action of hers.
"It'll be okay. The others are really nice. I think you'll like them, Shu," she reassured me. "Come on! I really don't wanna be late."
"You're already late. Remember?"
"Oh yeah. I am. Well, we'll just have to make sure we aren't really late, then!"
"Of course…"
A part of me didn't want to visit this club. This...Duel Monsters club? I'm pretty sure that's what it is. I've never touched the game before, but Sayori's been all over it as far back as I can remember. Good for her, I guess. It was never my kind of thing. I was always more into anime and video games than stuff like card games. So why exactly was I heading to a school club dedicated entirely to a single card game?
Again, I really like cupcakes.
"Here we are!" Sayori delightfully announced when we reached what I could only assume to be the clubroom's door. "Are you ready, Shu?"
"I'm as ready as I can be."
"Awesome! Here we go…!"
She pushed upon the door. Inside was a rather spacious, albeit generic room. Lots of desks and cupboards and things like that. It was probably a random classroom they hijacked for their club. As soon as we came in, three people turned their gazes right towards us. They moved their heads so quickly that I was worried they might've snapped something.
"Hey, everyone! Here's that new member I talked about!" Sayori announced to those other three. I took the liberty of closing the door since she forgot to do that. "Meet Shujinko Tanaka! You can call him Shu."
Each of them were silent.
"Uh, hi?" I greeted.
The purple-long haired one quickly averted her gaze away from me, sputtering something incoherent. The small pink haired girl - she sat next to the purple haired one on the desk they were doing something card game related at - sighed, as if she disapproved of me for some reason. And then the brown-haired beautiful one...hey, wait a second. Do I know her?
"Ah, Shujinko! What a nice surprise," she said to me. "Welcome to the club!"
I soon become wordless as I realised the situation I was in. Somehow, someway...a Duel Monsters club found itself full of incredibly cute girls. How did that even happen?! And there's cupcakes here too?! This club might not be so bad after all.
"Why I don't I introduce you? Shu, meet Natsuki, Yuri and Monika. And of course, there's me too, but you already know who I am," she devolved into giggles. "Wait, you already know Monika?"
"That's right. We were in the same class last year," Monika explained our situation for me. "It's nice to see you again, Shujinko. Rather, I should be calling you Shu, since it seems like you're joining our club."
"It's nice to see you again as well, Monika. I haven't actually decided if I want to join yet. I'm still scoping this place out," I respond to her.
"What's the point of that? If you like Duel Monsters, it's a no brainer if you wanna join!" Natsuki, the first year girl, stated.
"To tell you the truth, I've never actually played the game before…"
At that, all of the club members aside from Sayori, who simply stood there while smiling, turned to face me with a sharp and surprised look unlike anything I'd ever seen before. I was certain something snapped this time. They gaped at me with an expression that was so unnecessarily strange. Was it really so surprising that I'd never played Duel Monsters before?
I didn't have any time to think about it. They all shifted in unison, seeming to put into practice some kind of routine they'd spent years working on together.
Each of them grabbed the cards they were already playing with and then put them aside. Yuri carefully leaped over to a closet and pulled out a pair of differently coloured boxes. Natsuki positioned three chairs in front of the desk they were at previously, while Monika received one of Yuri's boxes and seated herself back at the desk. Sayori then pushed me over to the opposite side of the same desk, practically shoving Yuri's other box into my grasp.
Before I realised it, I was sitting on the desk, facing Monika, who carefully retrieved a deck of cards from her box. The others took residence in the three chairs Natsuki moved over. I took Monika's inaudible advice; I did the same thing she was doing. A deck of cards was also in my box. I leered at it.
"What's this?" I asked.
"Oh my god, he doesn't even know what a deck looks like...he's hopeless!" Natsuki commented.
"Now now, Natsuki. Simply because he is not knowledgeable about certain objects that we are familiar with does not mean that he cannot learn. We must have faith in him," Yuri had regained whatever composure she lost earlier when she caught herself staring at me.
"Yeah! Don't worry Shu, I know you'll do good!" Sayori added.
I raised an eyebrow. "...Do good in what?"
"Are you dense, boy? You have a deck in your hand. That means you're about to play the game, idiot!" Natsuki so helpfully explained to me.
"Wait, what? I don't even know how to play! You can't just force me into this!" I complained.
"Relax, Shu. We don't want to force you into playing with us. However…" Monika smiled. "Cupcakes only go to those who play."
I groaned in my mind. "Alright, how do you play?"
"Let me explain," Monika smiled.
And so, I soon became enthralled into the world of Duel Monsters. I drew five cards from the top of my deck, as did Monika. I was allowed to go first since I needed to learn how the game even worked. We each played Monster cards, Spell cards and Trap cards as I received instructions as to how they all functioned in the context of the game. Being more experienced than me, Monika blew through all of my defences. Yet there were occasions where I broke past her offence to deal direct damage to her life points.
I won't lie. It was fun. Really fun. Although I was practically being bullied by her monsters, I still had a great time. Things got even better when Natsuki brought out her cupcakes. That alone made this little club visit worth it. Duel Monsters was just the icing on the cake...the cupcake. Heh.
In the end, Monika beat me. She eliminated the entirety of my 4000 starting life points while she remained at a comfortable 2100. And I wasn't upset about it in the slightest.
"So, Shu, what do you think? I hope your defeat hasn't soured your opinion of the game or our club," Monika asked me after Sayori and Natsuki stopped celebrating their leader's victory.
"No, not at all. I loved it," I told her. There was no way I could lie. "Even though I lost, it was really fun. Thanks for showing it to me."
"You're welcome, Shu. It means a lot to me that you had a good time," Monika smiled again.
"Yay! Shu liked the game! I've been meaning to get him into it for so long but he always refused and now I'm so happy that he's finally played it and I'm even more happy that he liked it and-" Sayori managed to say in a single breath.
"Sayori. Relax," Natsuki interrupted her. "Breathe."
She did just that. Her excitedness calmed down a bit after doing so.
"I'm sorry! I was just so happy…" she apologised. "Since you liked it, Shu, does that mean you'll be joining our club? We get to do this every day, you know. We'll have you play against everyone here! Oh, I can't wait to duel with you!"
"Perhaps we can attempt a tag duel?" Yuri suggested.
"A tag duel? Heh, can't wait to show off my tag force…" Natsuki folded her arms in some attempt to make herself look cooler. It worked?
"Would that not be 'the force of my tag duelling prowess'?"
"Hey, this isn't a literature club or anything like that. We don't criticise grammar here, we criticise duelling technique! Speaking of duelling technique...boy, yours is terrible. Sure you got a few hits in there, but that's just because Monika was holding back. If she wasn't, you'd be down instantly," Natsuki criticised me.
"Hey now, I'm a beginner. You can't expect me to be the best right off the bat," I refuted.
"Hmph," the pink-haired elf folded her arms again. "Whatever."
Monika coughed, catching everyone's attention. She even got Sayori to pay attention, who'd been spending the last few minutes searching the circumference of her lips for any trace of cupcakes. She seemed disappointed when she had no luck in that area.
"Anyway! Shu, I must ask that you make a decision. Will you join our club?" Monika asked, a sense of finality coming from her voice. It felt kinda ominous, though I'm sure that was just to...well, I don't know.
"Uh…" I retreated to my thoughts.
I really did have fun. The complex yet simple nature of the card game, being cheered on by my childhood friend, eating cupcakes all while being surrounded by the cutest of girls. Natsuki was right. It really was a no-brainer.
"I'll join," I soon conceded.
And then a collective 'hooray' rang through the mostly empty classroom. Even Yuri joined in on the celebration - she didn't seem like the type to do that. But hey, who cares? I was now part of an awesome club where I got to play an amazing card game with new, good friends.
That's all I could ask for.
Author Notes: Hello! This is an idea I've had stewing around inside my mind for a while now. What if DDLC was actually DDDMC? Or, DDYC. Basically, the literature club plays Duel Monsters instead of doing poetry. We're going with Duel Monsters instead of Yugioh since because why not. Felt more authentic to me that way.
If you're a fan of my other stories, don't worry. This is just a little project of mine. I'll get to something bigger eventually.
Hope y'all enjoy this fic! Don't forget to leave a review and a follow! I'll see you next time.