Hey guys!

This is the second part of today's double update! Last chapter was quite short, so I decided to give you guys a bit extra to enjoy.

I also have a surprise for you guys in the chapter. I hope you all enjoy it!

Now, on with the chapter!

(Not so) Golden Bamboo, but still a Sword

After explaining to Louise the reason for my boundless rage the day before, and she had calmed down, she looked at me and said "Get ready, we're going out today."

"Out where?"

"Into town. It's voidday, so there are no lessons today."

"Okay. Why are we going into town?"

"To get you some new clothes, and a weapon."

Insert opening – "Kirifuda" by cinema staff

[Saa ima da, kazaseyo kirifuda. Kono mirai wa kimi no mono sa] Carlton looks up from the ground, followed by Louise. He draws a card, and places it on the duel disk. A streak of light cuts across the screen, revealing the opening title screen.

[Giragira moeteru. Samenai yume demo miteiru you ni.] Carlton stretches as he wakes up. Sunlight peeks through the window of Louise's room. He picks up his duel disk, places it on his arm, smirks, and walks out.

[Karada ga motomeru. Tsuyoi yatsu ga iru basho wo.] Louise tries to transmute some rocks into brass, and they explode. Kirche, Guiche and Montmorency laugh, while Tabitha cracks a slight smile.

[Kurakura yureteru. Tashikana mono nado koko ni wa nai kara.] Carlton strolls across a black background, with visions of his Duel monsters fading in and out in the background.

[Tadatada motomeru. Chikara no afureru basho wo.] He stops when he meets the Super Quant team standing in front of him. He smirks and gives Red a fist bump.

[Tsugi no tatakai ga boku wo matteru.] Many battles play out, with spells being cast and people falling. A giant visage of Cromwell appears in the sky.

[Atarashii hibi no aizu ga kikoeru.] Pharoah Atem opens his eyes and looks to the right. Carlton opens his eyes and looks to the left. Their eyes lock, and Dark Magician clashes with Red Layer

[Saa ima da, kazaseyo kirifuda. Kono mirai wa kimi no mono sa.] Carlton's fists set alight, and he runs at several soldiers, performing punches and kicks to take them down. Kirche points, and Flame sends a flamethrower. Tabitha flies overhead on Sylphid.

[Sono egao de sekai wo yuraseba, sono ato wa jibun shidai dayo.] Guiche creates a landslide, and Montmorency shoots a jet of water at some soldiers. Princess Henrietta looks longingly out of a castle window.

[Egaki dase, sono monogatari wo. Kimi koso ga shujinkou darou?] Carlton reaches out to Siesta, who's far off in the distance. Louise's eyes glow white, and Carlton, glow gold as he stands in front of her, sword raised against oncoming foes. She raises her wand, and a flash of white overtakes the screen. The final screen shows Carlton, Louise, Guiche, Montmorency, Kirche, Tabitha, and their familiars, all rushing towards a shadowy figure.

"I don't need a weapon. I have my magic."

"For now, you do. But what if you run out, or a new fight starts before you can properly recharge? You'll be left to dry."

"Fair point."

Once we had gotten ready, we were at the school courtyard, walking towards the exit, and when we got to the dirt road, I saw that there was a horse. Hehe, no. I don't f*** with horses. I actually have a fear of horses, but I wasn't about to tell Louise that. "I think I have a faster way of getting us to town."

*sigh* "Go ahead."

Silently thanking Holactie that I wouldn't have to go near that dreadful animal, I drew a "Raidraptor – Vanishing Lanius" and two "Raidraptor – Fuzzy Lanius". I then summoned all three, and overlaid them, chanting, "Obscured falcon, from adversity, raise your sharpened claws! Spread your wings of rebellion! Xyz Summon! Come forth! Rank 4! Raidraptor – Rise Falcon!" I then drew "Rank Up Magic – Skip Force" and activated it, chanting, "Prideful falcon, spread your wings dyed in the blood of heroes! Advance through the path of revolution! Rank Up! Xyz Change! Come forth! Rank 6! Raidraptor – Revolution Falcon!"

Before us appeared a black mechanical bird, that was missing its legs, and had tubes jutting from its wings. It had a blue head, with red and yellow highlights, and was actually quite menacing. Louise looked scared of it, but I just walked up to it, preparing to board it.

"Oh, come on. It's not going to hurt you, and we've not got all day."

"Easy for you to say. This magic is far beyond me."

"Hehe. Let's go, Revolution Falcon."

"Got it sir. Town centre, right?"

"Maybe drop us off a little bit outside of the town centre. We don't want to scare the locals now, do we?"

"Understood. Modifying route. T minus 3 seconds to take off." Huh, he reminded me of Jarvis too.

"You may want to sit down, Louise." I said, strapping myself into the seat on its back.

"T minus 2 seconds."

"We'll be off shortly."

"T minus 1 second."

"Huh?" Louise said, taking a second to register my words. "Wait, wha-"

"Take off!" Revolution Falcon's voice said, and we were off like a rocket.

"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!" screamed Louise. Thankfully, I managed to grab her before she went flying off of the falcon's back, and I was able to drag her into her seat, and secure the seatbelt. With that, we were on our merry way. Well, at least I was.

Kirche looked out of her window when she heard the commotion outside. She'd just been having the most pleasant dream of her and her Darling, burning up in their passion for each other. Needless to say, she wasn't pleased that her dream had been interrupted. As she looked out of the window for the source of the noise, she found it to be her Darling, and Louise?!

"So, she thinks she can keep him all to herself just because its voidday?! Well she's got another thing coming!" And with that, she got dressed, and stormed out of her room.

When we got close to the town, I told Revolution Falcon to drop us off, as we could walk the rest of the way. He nodded, and landed not too far from the town entrance. We dismounted, with Louise looking more than a little shaky. I gave RF a nod, with him returning it, before disappearing into purple motes of light, and returning to my duel disk. I gave Louise a concerned look. "You alright?" I asked.

"Peachy. Could I have a bit more warning next time?!"

"Yeah… sorry about that. I forgot that you guys probably aren't used to travelling that fast."

"So people can travel that quickly in your world? I don't believe it."

I decided not to bring up our modern forms of travel, so as not to fry her brain. She looked unsteady enough on her feet as it was. After giving her a minute to recover fully, we made our way into town.

Tabitha was reading her book as always, enjoying the peace and quiet solitude offered. When she heard Kirche storming through the hallway, she raised her staff, chanting softly, right before Kirche burst into her room, simultaneously ranting and swooning. Oddly enough, no sound was coming from her mouth. Eventually, Tabitha undid the spell, as Kirche was saying, "So we can't let Valliére be alone with my Darling. We must find them now! Can I borrow Sylphid? Pleeeaaase?"

Giving a slight sigh, Tabitha brought her fingers to her lips, and gave a short whistle. Her dragon familiar appeared shortly after, and Tabitha and Kirche both boarded it. With Tabitha giving short descriptions of both Carlton and Louise, and telling her dragon not to eat them, they were off.

As we walked through the town, I noticed that none of the signs on the shops had any writing on them. Curious, I posed the question to Louise. "Louise, how come none of the signs have any words on them?"

"Simple. None of the peasants can read."

"Ehhhhh?" I was visibly taken aback. "None of them can read?! Can they write?"

"The scholars can."

"Wow. That's… something." Yeah, something archaic! Why aren't they taught to read and write?

"None of them need to learn, since they go straight into their family business once they're old enough. Only nobles go to school." Louise said, as if she was trying to justify it.

"How horrible. No school for those who can't afford it?"

"You make it seem as though everyone goes to school in your world."

"That's because everyone does! School is mandatory until you're at least sixteen, and the government pays for it for the entire time."

"Hmph! As if. Everyone going to school? What a joke."

"No, the joke is that there is no room for progress anywhere in this world. Having a system that doesn't foster self-improvement and only expands the divisions between people is truly a sad sight."

Louise didn't seem moved at all by my words. I was about to say something else, but the conversation was cut off by Louise saying, "There it is. The sword shop!"

Sure enough, we'd reached a building that had a sign with a sword on it, and we went inside. There was a man in there, behind the counter, and I saw the way his eyes lit up when he saw Louise walk in. He probably thought that he could try and cheat us. Well, I wasn't about to let that happen.

We walked in, and I started looking around at the different swords on offer, whilst Louise went straight to the man behind the counter, and said, "I need a sword for my familiar."

"Hm. A peasant familiar. That's not something you see every day." The man said. "I think I've got just the sword for you. Give me a moment." The man went through the door behind the counter, and out of our sight. I continued looking around, and saw what looked like a bargain bucket, filled to the brim with old, rusty swords. For some reason I gravitated towards it. I wasn't sure why.

After a short while, the man returned, with what can only be described as flashy. It was a golden 'sword', with a jewel-encrusted hilt and handle. I could immediately tell that the only value from it would come from the price of the materials used to make it, and it would be useless as a weapon. Louise on the other hand…

Louise looked like she had stars in her eyes. She asked the man, "How much does it cost?"

Here we go.

"3000 gold coins." There it is. Even though I don't know the conversion rates, I knew that that was an extortionate amount of money.

"Eh? You could buy a mansion with servants for that price!" Louise exclaimed, thankfully not falling for it.

"A high-quality sword is worth as much. This sword was made by a master Germanian alchemist, so it is very rare, and very valuable."

Louise sighed, looking into her purse. "I'm not going to have enough money to buy that until next month…"

Deciding to step in, I said to the man, "Thank you, sir, but I don't think that that sword is for me."

"Huh?" Louise said, looking at me, somewhat surprised.

"Well, that sword looks very ornamental. Rather than using it in battle, it seems like it should be used in a ceremony of some kind. I wouldn't really want anything that flashy anyway. Do you think you have something a bit more low-key?" At this, the man scowled at me, realising that he wouldn't be able to stiff us so easily.

"Looks like you know what you want in a sword, ay mate?" I heard a voice say. I was instantly on guard, my hand on my duel disk, ready to fight. It may seem like an overreaction, but it was only the three of us in the store, the voice was definitely male, and I'd been watching the salesman the whole time. "Who's there?" I said, looking around cautiously. "Show yourself!"

"Calm down, man. I'm down here!" I followed the voice to the bargain bucket, and picked up the sword closest to me. It was very old and rusty, but I could sense that there was something special about it. "Hey!" The sword greeted. "My name's Derflinger! What's yours?"

"Carlton," I responded, still confused as to how I was talking to a sword.

"Well Carlton, how about you drop a few gold coins and take me out of this place?"

"Shut up, Derf! You're ruining my business!" the salesman shouted

"Well you shouldn't have tried to con these people!" Derflinger retorted. "Whaddya say, Carlton?"

At this moment, the situation fully hit me. I was holding a talking sword. So what if it was a bit rusty. Any inanimate object that talks is definitely going to be useful. "I'll take him."

Louise gasped, and shouted, "You can't seriously be thinking of buying that piece of junk!"

I smirked. "Watch me." Turning to the salesman, I asked, "How much?"

"One thou-" he began, before…

*BOOM!*

A huge explosion shook the ground. "Louise!" I shouted, completely out of reflex.

"It wasn't me! Honest!" she said, putting her hands up defensively. The salesman was cowering behind the counter, completely ignoring us.

"Ok. Let's go check it out." I said. Louise nodded, and we both ran out of the shop, to the source of the noise. We found a sight that made my blood freeze. It was an anthropomorphic ox, which was covered in red armour with gold trimming, and holding a battle axe. It was "Battle Ox", but it'd been summoned, and was going on a rampage! It had blown holes in several buildings, and citizens were running away from it in fright.

"What is that thing?" Louise cried.

"It's… it's… A duel monster!" I shouted in panic.

Louise's eyes went wide, and she looked at me, equally panicked. "Then that means…"

"The shadow realm is somehow connected to this world." I said gravely. Of course, nothing is ever easy. Battle Ox was stronger than several men, as evident by how it was easily fighting off several royal guards without breaking a sweat.

"At any rate, we need to take it down." I said, fastening my cloak. Since I'd shown skill at using magic, the Academy had granted me my own cloak, which I was very thankful for in this moment. It had a hood, so I'd be able to fight without drawing attention to myself. It also covered my clothes, so I wouldn't stand out too much in my modern outfit. "Take care of Derf, Louise." I said, handing the sword over to her. I then quickly drew and activated "Big Bang Shot", igniting my hands and feet. With that done, I ran towards Battle Ox, my fist raised, ready for a brawl.

When Battle Ox noticed me charging towards it, rather than running away from it, it started charging towards me. Just before we collided, it swung its axe down on me, trying to cleave me in half. I caught it, and twisted it out of its hand, before throwing it away. Don't bring an axe to a fistfight!

I then jumped up, and kicked it in the chest, knocking it back, and gaining me a little bit of distance. I used this chance to summon Green Layer. When the resulting tornado dispersed, I gave him quick commands. "Coordinate with Louise, and make sure that everyone in the immediate vicinity is evacuated!"

"Yes sir." He said, and flew off.

Battle Ox got back up, and started charging towards me, significantly more animalistic than before.

Insert BGM – You Say Run

I charged as well, and met it head on, our fists colliding. We both went for a right hook, and our fists met again, making a small crater. We both went for a left hook, and we made the crater even deeper.

Seeing that straight on assaults wouldn't get me anywhere, I decided to use my agility to my advantage. Battle Ox was by no means slow, but it was heavy, so it would take extra effort to follow my movements. I jumped onto a wall of one of the houses, and propelled myself off of it, towards Battle Ox, hitting it with a punch. I then kept going, and landed on the wall across the street. Battle Ox went to charge at me, but I jumped off of the wall again, going over its head, kneeing it in the face, stopping it in its tracks. It turned around, a sizable dent on its face from the impact, its eyes glowing red with its intense rage. It roared, and charged at me again, intent on pulverising me.

I noticed that my flames were weakening a bit, so I decided to finish this fight now. I could last a while, but Battle Ox would probably beat me in a stamina fight. As it charged at me, I focused on my target: its legs. I pushed of the wall even more forcefully than before, shooting myself directly towards its legs. I stuck my leg out to the side, in order to sweep it. It was successful, and it was disoriented. Pushing my mana into my right fist, I drove it straight into Battle Ox's chest, sending it directly upwards.

Bouncing off of the wall I next found myself on, I angled myself upwards. Don't ask how I did it, because even I couldn't tell you. I shot up towards it like a bullet, and when I was directly above it, I raised my right leg straight up, and delivered a devastating axe kick, that sent it to the ground like a meteor. I then flipped around in the air, and launched myself straight down, but landed properly before I hit the ground. Battle Ox did not land properly, and made a huge crater in the ground, bouncing up out of it from the force.

"Hey." I said. "I've got a little bit of advice for you before I send you back to the Shadow Realm. Tell all the monsters there that if they try to invade this world and wreak havoc, they'll have a meeting with my fist!" I saw fear on Battle Ox's face. Good. My message was getting through.

"You've probably never heard these words, but you'll understand the meaning soon enough!"

I raised my open hand to the sky, and what looked almost like a star appeared in my palm.

"Go Beyond!" I shouted

I closed my fist, and reared it back. It started glowing white.

"PLUS!"

I drove my fist forward, right into Battle Ox's stomach.

"ULTRA!"

It seemed as though there was an explosion where my hand met Battle Ox's stomach, and sure enough, Battle Ox went flying. It was like a rocket. It went sailing through the sky, even dispersing some clouds along the way. I eventually saw a black portal open up in the sky, and Battle Ox flew directly into it. With that, I knew that my job was done.

End BGM

I sighed in relief, and sat down on the ground, tired from that last bout. It seemed as though just quoting All Might was enough to tire a man out. I closed my eyes, and started contemplating this situation.

*CLAP*

*CLAP*

*CLAP*

This immediately brought me out of my introspection. Several townspeople had exited their homes, and were looking to see if Battle Ox was still there. I guess when they saw me sitting there, they realised I'd beaten it. That was why they were clapping.

"Our Saviour!" I heard someone cry out. Then more people started saying it. Then it turned into a chant.

They started getting closer, and before something happened that could risk exposing my identity, I decided to leave. Knowing they would follow me, I thought up a quick plan, and hoped it would work. Putting on my calmest voice possible, I said to the people, "There is no need for thanks. I was merely doing what is right."

At this, their looks of admiration grew even stronger.

"Until next time, citizens!" I gave them a two-finger salute, drew "Swords of Concealing Light", and activated it, turning myself invisible. I crept out of the crowd, and ran into an alleyway. Once there, I turned off my magic going into the card, turning me visible again. Lowering my hood, I let out a deep breath. People would probably think I'm a superhero, so I thought it was best that I hide my identity. I'd rather not have that attention.

I then heard a voice in my head. "Sir."

It shocked me for a second, before I realised who it was. "Green?"

"Affirmative."

"How are you… Did I level up again?" I asked excitedly.

"Affirmative. Now you can telepathically communicate with us."

"Cool. Onto the next matter, were you able to find Louise?"

"Affirmative. We evacuated everyone we could find, although some decided to wait in their homes."

"I noticed. Loads of people started pouring out when I finished off Battle Ox."

"I see…"

"Thankfully I had my hood on, so they didn't catch my identity."

"I believe that's for the best, Sir."

"Yeah, me too. Anyway, where are you two?"

Green gave me their location, and I was able to meet up with them.

Once I found them, I decided that it was best to try and draw as little attention to myself as possible. Green returned to my duel disk, and I once again used "Swords of Concealing Light" to become invisible, whilst I followed Louise to the clothes shop. It was a good thing too, since the clothes shop was actually one of the shops that I bounced off of during my assault on Battle Ox. Thankfully the damage wasn't too bad. The wall was slightly caved in, from when I jumped off of it.

When we went inside, I deactivated "Swords of Concealing Light", allowing myself to become visible again, whilst Louise stepped forward and called for the tailor.

"Ms. Quinn? Ms. Quinn, are you here?"

"Coming! I'll be there in a second!" I heard a somewhat elderly voice say. True enough, the tailor walked out from a door, and she was a slightly elderly woman, quite short, at least compared to me, but she looked happy. I don't know how exactly to describe it, but she had this aura of contentedness to her, as though she were fulfilled. It was very interesting.

"Ah, Louise! Have you come to get your uniform fixed again?" The woman asked.

"Not this time, Ms. Quinn. I've actually come to get some clothes for my familiar."

Ms. Quinn then turned to me, and lightly gasped. "A human familiar? Astounding."

I grinned sheepishly at that.

"Anyway, what kind of clothes do you want?" Ms. Quinn asked me.

"Well, I'd like some casual clothes, some formal clothes, but I'd also like you to make some modifications to my cloak."

"Really? What kind of modifications exactly?"

"I'd like you to turn it into a jacket."

"Oh? Whatever for?" Louise also turned to me, confused.

"Well, you see, I was the one that just dispatched that raging ox monster…" I trailed off a bit, knowing that the fight had caused some damage to the shop.

"Really? Well, I must say, job well done." Ms. Quinn said, smiling.

"Seriously? I thought you'd be mad, because of your wall." I said, turning to said wall, to assess the damage.

"Oh, nonsense! You prevented the monster from levelling the entire town. A little bit of damage is to be expected, and besides, it's nothing that can't be fixed." Hearing her say that took a large weight off my shoulders. I had, in fact, made the right choice.

"Back to the reasoning." I said. "You see, I would like to minimise the number of people that know my identity, so I was thinking of using illusion magic on my cloak, but that could only change the colour, not the shape or texture. So I figured, why not change the cloak entirely? It's already been imprinted with my magic, so making it look like a cloak again would be no problem."

"Ah, I see. A very interesting take. A hero who wants no credit." Ms. Quinn mused at the apparently novel idea. "Very well then, I'll take on this request. It will take a while, but I'll be able to do it. It'll be ready in time for the Familiar Exhibition Festival."

"Thank you." I said. "I'll draw up a design for how I want the jacket to look."

"I'll get some paper and pencils."

After I'd drawn the design, I decided on the formal wear that I wanted. I'd have the basic attire, but the jackets were what I wanted to focus on. One for each Egyptian God. I drew three trenchcoats, and styled them after the Egyptian Gods. A sapphire blue one for Obelisk, a ruby red one for Slifer, and a golden yellow one for Ra. I also drew an obelisk blue jacket, since I would be able to transform it into any of the three dorm jackets. I then gave some basic designs for casual wear, Louise paid her, she took my measurements, and we were on our way. It felt as though I'd missed something, but I couldn't quite place my finger on what it was supposed to be.

Kirche and Tabitha were searching the entire town for Carlton and Louise, but at this point, they'd already left. Kirche was whining, and Tabitha was only half paying attention. That was, until they came across a crater in the middle of the street, with similar ones on the sides of the buildings on the street. There were some townspeople around, talking about it, so Kirche went up to them and asked what had happened.

"An ox monster was wreaking havoc, when suddenly a cloaked hero charged at it, and fought with it equally, before using a punch to banish it back to the hell from whence it came. It was truly spectacular."

"And this hero, how did he fight?"

"Hand-to-hand combat. He covered his hands and feet in flames, and attacked the monster without fear. It was truly astounding!" The villager replied gleefully.

"Hm, I see. Did you find out the identity of this hero?"

"Unfortunately not. He didn't seem to want any recognition or reward for his heroism. He said he was just doing the right thing."

"I see. Well thank you."

"It's no problem ma'am."

Turning to Tabitha, Kirche lit up with joy, squealing like a schoolgirl. "Did you hear that, Tabitha? My darling must have jumped in heroically and saved all of these people! Ah, I feel like I'm burning up already!"

Tabitha turned around and gave a short whistle, summoning her dragon.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Kirche asked.

"Not here..." Tabitha said quietly, getting onto Sylhid's back.

"Eh?"

"Leaving..." The dragon took off, and grabbed onto Kirche with one of its hands, putting her on its back.

"Wait, what?! I didn't even find my darling!" Kirche cried out.

The rest of the journey home was quite noisy.

Hey people!

They're here! Yes, Duel Monsters will be appearing in this fanfic, however, only as minor villains who simply need to be dispatched back to the Shadow Realm. But, you never know, some more powerful creatures may be waiting to make their appearance...

With that said, leave your suggestions for Duel Monsters that Carlton will have to fight. I want the audience to get engaged with the fanfic. Preferably they would just be simple monsters, because I don't really want any big bad antagonist material to be wasted in a two paragraph fight. I may make a poll on this, so keep an eye out for that too.

Until next time!