Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh nor any of its characters.
"Order 114, Jernigan," the server called out across the cafeteria. I walked up to him and took my food before sitting down at a table in the furthest corner facing the door. It was interesting to see just how good life was within the Arcadia Movement. Custom food orders with no cost to the individual, clothing provided and no issues with the amount of living space. We had the entire skyscraper to ourselves, and all we had to do was obey orders every once in awhile and hone our dueling skills. Despite the authoritarian nature of the place, I was content. I enjoyed my meal in silence until one of the few familiar faces in the room sat down next to me.
"Are we enjoying ourselves, Mr. Jernigan?" Seria asked.
"For now, but I thought we were on a first name basis, Seria. I would hate to have my mood wrecked by the scorn of a friend." I replied.
She kept a simple smile on her face, despite my attempt at flirtation, "I am your doctor, Mr. Jernigan. I must maintain that relationship before all else. Besides, you're barely nineteen, far too young for my tastes."
"You seem a bit young to be a doctor, Seria."
"I'm a prodigy and I know the equipment better than anyone else. How are your roommates?" she replied, stoic behind her smile.
"Are you just here to catch up with me, Doctor Seria?" I asked.
"No, I'm here to make you aware of what is to be happening in your training. Sayer has given directions to your instructors to only test and train your dueling skills." her smile drooped into something resembling a frown.
I glared at her, "Am I to be treated differently from everybody else here? I doubt that I'm particularly special."
"To the outside world, I agree, but in here you are special. As you may recall, you have no capacity to be a psychic duelist because you have no psychic powers. Now could you please answer my question regarding your roommates?"
I gritted my teeth, "Okita makes a dunce of himself trying to be proper and Liquid is looking for a competition where there is none. They both suffer from an acute ID-10-T disorder. I'm guessing that despite their lack of social skills they are both qualified to become psychic duelists?"
"You are correct, their brains work in a different manner than yours, but I'm not interested in the nitty-gritty of the neuroscience right now and I somehow doubt that you are either," Seria answered.
"All that matters is I'm inferior to everybody else in this building right now?" my emotions were running hot and I felt like I was about to explode with rage.
"No," Seria responded calmly. "You are not inferior to them in any way. You may consider the terms 'separate but equal' to apply here. You are intelligent and capable in areas where they are simply not."
After taking a moment to calm myself down, I eventually asked, "Why have you told me about this? Why tell me that I'm being treated differently?"
"Because I fear that the majority of the Arcadia Movement will ostracize you for being different. I don't think that making you an outcast will be healthy for your mental health. I said likewise to Sayer, but he is under the impression that it will drive you to become better than you could possibly be otherwise."
"Then it seems he is correct, Seria. I have no intention of letting any of the psychic duelists show off with me as a punching bag." the rage in my eyes may have been too evident.
Seria sighed, "That is exactly what I was afraid would happen. If you are so inclined as to prove Sayer right then go to your training. If you are ever in need of aid, just let me know." She rose from her seat at my side and began to walk away.
"Wait!" I said, barely containing a yell. "How old are you, exactly?"
She turned around to regard me with a smile on her lips again. "Mr. Jernigan, don't you know that it isn't polite to ask a lady her age? Try picking up a few tricks from Okita's book." She left me speechless, so I finished my food and went to the training area, as instructed.
The so called 'training' was a joke. I meet the two trainers and they give me some speech in complete monotone about how it was going to be difficult, then they try to pull off their best 'spooky' tone. Fools. I knew the real reason for the structure dueling, they wanted to see which structure decks I would choose so that they could make me a custom deck. It was so obvious that I had to hold back a sneer at the cheesiness of it all.
I picked up a warrior deck, a darkness deck, and a dragon deck, just to play into their expectations. I think. I don't know the actual reason for my choices, I just grabbed them randomly. I wanted to see what they could make with the combination. Or maybe a deck is just a deck sometimes, and there was no meaning to the training. Regardless, I beat my instructor all three times, though at times barely. It hardly seemed long enough to be training, only taking up an hour.
The next hour I devoted to the duel puzzles, which were even more of a joke. Early on I made the decision to solve all five that he gave me rather than limit myself to three. The first supposed challenge to my intelligence was a choice between a robot monkey or a jelly bean holding a sword. I couldn't believe that this was their interpretation of "only test his dueling skills." I wanted to smash something, but thankfully, the puzzles gradually became more challenging.
I reached the fourth puzzle, thinking that I had everything figured out, but when I touched one of the cards I screamed. My vision became clouded with white, almost as though I was burning and white was the only color that my nerves could make sense of. And somewhere in the maelstrom of white, I heard a voice, guttural and menacing, "There you are. I was wondering where you went."
Eventually, the white receded. I had lost track of time listening to the voice's words through my pain over and over and over again, so I was surprised that once the pain had finally subsided I was being shaken by one of my instructors.
"It is alright, the puzzle is over, you've won." he seemed desperate and shaken up about something, the fear in his eyes splayed across his face under his bangs.
Still out of it, I answered, "H-how is the puzzle over? I've just been screaming this whole time. Where did the voice come from?"
"Look, kid. I don't know about the voice, but you solved that puzzle in record time, then you started screaming 'Attack' for five minutes straight." he helped me up to my feet. I tried to look around but wasn't able to get past my instructor's guiding influence towards the door.
I turned back to look at him once we got past the threshold of the door, "What card did I touch just before I started going crazy?"
"Let me put it this way, kid. I would never recommend letting you touch a Lightsworn card ever again. Go to your room for now, and go to the highway to the east tomorrow. We've recommended you as skilled enough for duel runner training." and so I left with new instructions and many unanswered questions.
"Ah! Just who I wanted to see! Wilhelm Jernigan!" I heard Sayer's voice behind me just after I'd gotten in the door to the main building and turned to go to my room.
I turned around and bowed slightly, "How may I be of service to you Sayer?" I was too tired to try to fight him like I wanted to.
"I heard that you just completed your duel training, is that correct?"
"It is, Sayer," I responded, refusing to meet eyes with him. Something about his eyes was terrifying me.
"Come help me sharpen up Akiza. Just dueling her should be enough to restore her confidence in herself, don't you think?" Sayer said, motioning for me to follow him as he turned away.
I said nothing in response, choosing to follow him as I was ordered to. I won't let him make a punching bag out of me. I. Will. Not.
Akiza and I stood across from each other in Sayer's office. Sayer ordered us to duel one another, telling Akiza to think of me as "light training." I sincerely hoped that he meant that as using minimal amounts of psychic powers, or else I would have wanted to hurt him.
"You must be exhausted. Thanks for dueling me anyway." I didn't see any malice or superiority in her face as she spoke. In fact, I was shocked to see a kind face filled with sympathy.
Sayer looked like he wanted to say something, but I cut him off, "Let's do this."
Akiza: 4000
Wilhelm: 4000
Akiza: Turn 1
I raised my dull, silver duel disk as Akiza raised her rose-tinted one. "I'll go first," Akiza said.
"Fine by me," I replied dryly.
She smiled wryly, "I'll start by activating Black Garden, then I'll set two face-downs." The room, already lush with dark hues of green, became covered in black vines that wrapped around the inexplicable pillars and Sayer's desk. Sayer looked at me with a glint of joy in his eyes. A thorn on the vine nearest to me bit into my leg. I pulled away in surprise as blood seeped into my white pants, creating an obvious stain.
"I can see by the apprehension and fear in your eyes that you now realize what this is, Wilhelm. Akiza, even when she is at her weakest, can and will draw blood without hesitation." Sayer cackled while Akiza had a look of worry on her face, looking to Sayer for strength. The sight was almost sickening. Sayer continued, "She doesn't have sufficient control over her powers yet to do anything other than destroy. But her powers have become so refined over the years, she can control where her force goes. I'm sure that in no time she'll have complete control. You're just practice."
Silently, and with a look of fear in her eyes, Akiza placed a monster in face-down defense position.
Wilhelm: Turn 2
"My turn," I said, trying my best to forget the voices in my head earlier. "I set three face downs and summon Psychic Snail." Instantly, some of the black vines wrapped around the cyborg snail, digging their thorns into my monster.
Psychic Snail: 0950/1200
"What did you do to my monster?" I cried, watching my creature hold back its groans of agony.
"Look," Akiza pointed to her own side of the field where an evil-looking rose had just sprouted out of the nest of thorns on the floor.
Rose Token: 0800/0800
"Fine then, be that way. Psychic Snail, attack!" I said through my teeth. The snail powered up a blast of energy despite the thorns and threw it at the overgrown rose. Akiza responded by activating her trap card: Dimensional Prison. Both the ball of energy and my snail were removed from the field as though they had never existed. I grimaced, at least he was spared from the thorns.
"I end my turn." I relinquished control of the field.
Akiza: Turn 3
Akiza, finally having gotten back the courage to speak after she drew a card, said, "I summon Lonefire Blossom to the field and you get a Rose Token of your own." As the Rose formed at my feet in the center of my field a blazing bud erupted from the thorns on her side.
Lonefire Blossom: 0250/1400
"Good for you, I hope that you won't mind if I say that you can't attack this turn," I revealed one of my face-downs, Threatening Roar. She merely nodded in apprehension before sacrificing her Rose Token to special summon Tytannial, Princess of Camellias in defense position and another Rose Token sprang from beneath my feet. Then she activated Lightning Vortex, discarding a card to destroy both of the tokens that I had accumulated.
Tytannial, Princess of Camellias: 2600/1400
She looked up at me, "I end my turn."
Wilhelm: Turn 4
I drew and did my best to smile, "I activate Twister, losing 500 of my life points to destroy this Black Garden." A whirlwind sprang up on the field, but then I saw Tytannial throw the blazing bud that was Lonefire Blossom into its path, disrupting the tornado, but not before my life points had been breached.
Akiza: 4000
Wilhelm: 3500
I looked at Akiza with wonder, who, thankfully, replied, "I can negate an effect and destroy the card by sacrificing a face-up plant type monster."
"Oh," I said as I shrugged. "Then I suppose that it's a good thing that I have another one in my hand." I activated my second Twister, costing me another 500 LP, but the Twister grew again and tore up the garden, knocking a few barbs my way, but I was mostly able to ignore the mounting scratches on my person due to the relief of no longer having to deal with the garden and its vile roses.
Akiza: 4000
Wilhelm: 3000
Akiza's eyes were in shock. Apparently, the loss of her garden was enough to start taking the duel seriously. Sayer's voice soothed her, "Don't worry, my Black Rose, it will still be easy to destroy this whelp."
Ouch.
"I'll take a page out of your book, Akiza, and summon my own plant to the field. Meet my Mystic Tomato!" I said overdramatically. I immediately regretted my decision, thinking about how much of a fool I looked like.
Mystic Tomato: 1400/1100
"And now I'll have it attack your face-down!" I ordered, knowing that the tomato was nothing to the Princess' defense. Again, I regretted my decision when the card was revealed to be Lord Poison, who, when destroyed, only summoned Lonefire Blossom back onto the field in face-up defense position.
Lonefire Blossom: 1400/0500
Having no cards in my hand or tricks left up my sleeve I acquiesced, "I end my turn."
Akiza: Turn 5
Akiza drew and immediately activated the only card in her hand: Miracle Fertilizer, with which she brought out her Lord Poison in attack position.
Lord Poison: 1500/1000
She had not even considered switching the positions of her other monsters when she declared the attack against my tomato.
"Unfortunately, Akiza, I must deny you that attack by activating Nightmare Wheel against Lord Poison," I responded with a cocky smile.
Akiza cocked her head with a grin of her own, "How unfortunate for you, then, as I must now activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your wheel." I could feel the pull of the winds around me, chilling me to the bone. The attack went through and it felt as though venom had splashed onto my sleeve: probably because it had. My sleeve burned slightly and singed my left arm, causing my duel disk to lower slightly.
Akiza: 4000
Wilhelm: 2900
"Thankfully, my luck is not yet gone. The tomato's destruction has allowed me to call forth Krebons from my deck." a creature with no body but thin, purple attire rose from my central monster card zone.
Krebons: 1200/0400
"Then I will end my turn, Wilhelm."
Wilhelm: Turn 6
I drew and smiled slightly, activating Big Bang Shot from my hand and increasing Krebons' attack points by 400. I will not be her punching bag, or so I thought.
"It seems that we are both living draw-to-draw, Mr. Jernigan," Akiza said wittily. "But have you forgotten Tytannial's effect? I'll sacrifice Lonefire Blossom to negate and destroy your equip spell before it truly has a chance to take effect." instantly, my hopes were dashed as Tytannial once again flung the bud in my way.
"Then I… " I sighed. "I end my turn."
Akiza: Turn 7
Akiza drew a card and her eyes twinkled, "I activate Mark of the Rose, taking control of your Krebons. Then I'll switch my Princess to attack position. Lord Poison, attack!" I took the full brunt of his venom and it seared my garments, leaving burns on my chest and a massive hole in my shirt.
Akiza: 4000
Wilhelm: 1400
I was barely able to stand as she lowered her eyes in sympathy, "I'm sorry, Wilhelm. You didn't even get a chance to use your Trap Jammer." My eyes opened wide shock, despite the pain, How did she know?
"Akiza," Sayer admonished. "Finish him off."
Her eyes still filled with sympathy, she ordered the attack, "As you wish, Sayer. Tytannial, use blossom burst." I was surrounded by roses, but immediately they lost their petals, creating a whirlwind around me. It cut into me on every side, opening my burns into new wounds and often crossing over my older cuts. The final attack blew me back into one of the pillars, adding a black haze to my vision.
Akiza: 4000
Wilhelm: 0000
As I fell unconscious, I could hear Akiza pleading for my forgiveness before Sayer told her to go take the rest of the day off. Then I finally blacked out.