Going Pro
Chapter 4: Embarrassing Uniform Ante
There was no warning when Jesse showed up at Julia's door around noon that day. He did not call or text. When Julia opened to her door, she stared wide-eyed for several seconds at the blue-haired boy standing on her doorstep. He was just smiling calmly, waiting for her find words as she opened her mouth and tried to speak through her surprise.
"W-what? Jesse, what are you doing here?" Julia stammered as she tried to comb her figures through her messy bed hair.
"I brought you soup," he flashed a grin and then scratched the back of his head with his free hand. "I guess I should've called you first, but I kind of wanted it to be a surprise," he laughed.
"W-what?" she was so confused. She wanted to ask why wasn't he at school.
"You said you weren't feeling well, and since I'm skipping today, I brought you soup to help you feel better," he explained. "When I was little, my grandpa used to make me soup when I got sick. It didn't matter what kind of sick I was, it always made me feel a little better."
"Oh, um," she quickly stepped aside. "Please come in if you like," she offered.
"Sure," he smiled brightly. "I noticed there's no cars in the driveway, are your folks at work?" he asked as he slipped off his shoes.
Julia nodded as she closed the door. "It's fine though," she said. "I don't need anyone to take care of me when I'm just not feeling well."
They both walked into the kitchen, which was brightly lit from the sun in the windows which reflected off the white cabinets, walls, and counters. Jesse put down a zipped lunch carrier and tuned back to her.
"Did you make it?" she asked.
"I tried," he chuckled and then opened the lunch carrier to take out a lidded glass bowl. "Might be too cool now, so you can microwave it to get it hot again," he suggested.
Julia took the dish and opened it. "It looks good! I thought you were a horrible cook?"
"I am," Jesse dropped his head. "My mom made that one."
"…I don't understand?"
"Well, there was kind of two fires and the dog started barking and then the smoke alarm when off after I put them out, so all that woke up my mom, and she made it for me when I told her it was for a friend," he explained.
Julia's eyebrows were high up on her forehead as she listened to him, but as soon as he finished, she burst out laughing. She only had a small, weak laugh, but Jesse still knew she was laughing as hard as she could. Her sides were probably splitting as tears started to well up in her eyes.
'Well, they say laughter is the best medicine, but…' Jesse thought.
"Don't make fun of me," he pouted.
Julia's laugh had already died down to tiny giggles, and she took several breaths to calm herself. "I'm sorry, Jesse, I didn't mean to, but the image of you panicking over a pot of soup while everything that could go wrong happens was simply too much."
"Why would you assume I panicked? I handled it fine, I'm used to fires and other weird things happening," he defended.
Julia nodded and tucked her hair behind her ear. "I suppose that's true."
Once again, like most conversations he had with her, he got the feeling there was something else she wanted to say, but withheld. He often wondered if he should ask about it, or even how to ask about it. However, after considering, he always decided to be patient and if it was important, she would tell him when she was ready.
"Thank you for coming all the way here to check on me," she said quietly. She took a couple bowls out of a cupboard and set them on the counter.
"My pleasure, but it was really nothing," he chuckled.
"You're too giving, Jesse, always putting others' wellbeing before your own," she said, already placing both bowls in the microwave and setting the time.
"What you mean?" Jesse tilted his head.
"You're a good friend, Jesse, too good actually. You're always sticking up for me-for others, and if you keep looking out for people, it's going to get yourself into trouble one day."
Jesse looked down for a second, thinking about her words. Sure, he's helpful sometimes, so he didn't really understand what she was talking about. He's just being himself. "Even if the worst happens to me for the sake of someone I care about, as long as I had the power to help them, then I'll have no regrets."
"Just… be careful okay?"
"I'll try."
"Just so you know," she began after another minute. "Jesse, you don't have to duel tomorrow."
Jesse blinked. "Yes I do."
Julia sighed and sat down at a table with her steaming bowl of soup. "I know…" she said.
Jesse was confused. She just said the opposite a second ago, right? There was always something else she wasn't saying. It was kind of frustrating sometimes. Like always, he wasn't going to pry.
"Have some soup too, Jesse, it's good," she smiled at him.
"Sure, thanks." He sat down with her. "You've kept me out of trouble before too."
"I have?"
Jesse nodded. "You know how I get. I can't help it, I have to do something, but I understand you're worried that something bad will happen, so… thanks for caring," he smiled.
Julia's face flushed a little in embarrassment. "You don't have to thank me, I'm just a worrier."
"Still."
They were quiet as they ate a little. After only a minute, she looked up at him from across the table. "Come up with any strategies?"
Jesse grinned. "You bet I have."
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Jesse wasn't surprised when students gathered all around to watch the duel after school. Duels were still entertaining to watch, and ones like this to settle a conflict didn't actually happen all that often. Chris stood meters away as they both readied their duel disks. Jesse was glad the older boy didn't forget about the challenge.
Their best cards and their uniforms were on the line. Whoever lost would be proven wrong and humiliated. Jesse thought this was going to be fun.
"I put up the card Final Countdown as my ante," Chris declared.
"Then I put up my Butterfly Queen," Jesse said.
Another boy from the Duel Monsters Team stepped into the center of the unmarked arena. "One match starting with four-thousand Life Points and Battle City rules," he announced. "The coin toss determined Chris makes the first move."
Jesse didn't care if he went first or second. He turned on his duel disk and they both declared the start of the match. "Duel!"
Jesse: 4000
Chris: 4000
"First, I draw!" Chris stated and he looked over the six cards now in his hand. Smirking he lifted a card and slipped into the magic and trap section. "I activate the card I put up for the ante, Final Countdown!" Jesse's eyes narrowed. He wasn't expecting such a rare card to be played so early in the duel. "By activating this card, I pay 2000 Life Points, and after twenty turns, meaning ten of my turns, I automatically win the duel, no questions asked."
"Pretty confident you'll still be around that long," Jesse observed.
"I am, but it this doesn't mean I need Final Countdown to win, you probably won't even last long enough to see the effect in action," Chris said. "But my turn is not over yet, I now activate Ookazi which inflicts 800 points of direct damage to you."
Jesse cringed.
"Is he allowed to do that on the first turn?" Julia asked from the sidelines.
Jesse nodded. "Yeah, but most people don't play like that." Julia's eyes widened slightly upon hearing that, and then she glared at his opponent.
"But my turn isn't over yet, I now place Giant Rat (1400/1450) in defense position and I'll end my turn." The card's hologram appeared before them and Jesse understood why Chris went for such a offensive approach. The guy didn't draw any better monsters. His deck might be unbalanced.
Final Countdown's counter began, counting one turn of twenty. That card will force this duel to be short. Though that doesn't mean it can't be even shorter.
Chris: 2000
Jesse: 3200
"Alright, I draw," Jesse said as he drew a card and looked over his hand. "First I play a spell card, Soul of the Pure to gain back the 800 Life Points I just lost, and then I lay a card in facedown defense position and one card in my Spell and Trap card zone. That's it for now."
Unfortunately, that was the best he could do at the moment. However, with all the facedowns, he could make a pretty good counter soon.
Chris: 2000
Jesse: 4000
"Playing defensive, huh? Whatever, I draw," Chirs said. "First I play the spell Stop Defense," he said and Jesse's only monster card was forced to flip over into attack position. It was 4-Starred Ladybug of Doom (800/1200). "Shoot!"
Jesse smirked. "I guess that means you know about my monster's flip effect, which destroys all level four monsters on your side of the field. Say goodbye to your Giant Rat."
"Tsk, whatever, I've got more in store for you than just that," Chris said. "I summon Pitch-Black Warwolf (1600/600) in attack position, and due to its effect, you can't activate any trap cards during the battle phase."
Jesse frowned, knowing what was going to happen next, and he wouldn't be able to stop it due to that effect.
"Attack Pitch-Black Warwolf that whimpy 4-Starred Ladybug of Doom," Chris commanded. As soon as the monster was gone, Chris continued with the second main phase instead of skipping to the end phase. "Now I activate Final Flame to inflict 600 points of direct damage.
"Not so fast, I activate the trap Magic Jammer, which negates the effect of your spell card," Jesse said as he hit the button on his duel disk to reveal the card on the field. After the effect, their spent cards were placed in the graveyard.
Chris: 2000
Jesse: 3400
"My turn, I draw," Jesse said. He didn't have anything in his hand that was strong enough to take on Chris's monster. However, there was something that might work. "I place a monster face down and end my turn."
Chris: 2000
Jesse: 3400
"I'm not afraid of your facedown, now I draw," Chris said. He now had two cards in his hand. "I summon Masked Dragon (1400/1100) in attack mode!" The red and white dragon appeared on the field next to his Pitch-Black Warwolf. "Now, Masked Dragon, attack his face down!"
Jesse smirked and flipped the card over on his duel disk. "You just activated my Man-Eater Bug's flip effect. This card destroys one of your monsters and they are now both sent to the grave, and I choose to destroy your Pitch-Black Warwolf. With his only other monster gone, it forced the battle phase to end.
"I end my turn…"
Chris: 2000
Jesse: 3400
Only five turns have passed since Final Countdown was activated, but the only damage Chris has taken so far was the cost Final Countdown required during the first turn. Jesse really needed to step up his game if he was going to survive this duel. This guy wasn't actually half bad, though quite aggressive. If the duel kept up like this, with no damage being dealt for several turns, then Final Countdown would force the duel to end.
"Draw," Jesse said as he looked as his cards. "Come on out, Needle Honey Bee (1500/400)." The insect monster appeared and buzzed. "Attack Masked Dragon (1400/1100)!"
Chris wasn't able to defend against the attack and his monster perished and was quickly sent to the graveyard.
"And that's it for now," Jesse ended his turn hesitantly. He was expecting Chris to activate the effect of his monster, which would have allowed him to special summon a dragon-type monster from his deck as soon as Masked Dragon went to the grave. There either weren't any more cards like that left in his deck, so Chris was too hot-headed and distracted to pay attention to his own cards. This could be his fatal mistake after dueling so well.
Chris: 1900
Jesse: 3400
Chris drew his card and looked over his hand. "That one hit didn't do you any good, I'm about to get those points right back."
"…Great."
"I activate Dian Keto the Cure Master to increase my life points by 1000, but that's not all, I also activate Tremendous Fire with deals a devastating 1000 points of damage to you and 500 to me." The flames spread wildly and they both took damage.
"Jesse, are you okay?" Julia called to him.
Jesse shook it off. "Yeah." Many of the students were cheering from the display and rooting to either side.
"That's not all, I'll set a monster face down and now end my turn," Chris declared.
Chris: 2400
Jesse: 2400
"I draw!" Jesse looked at his hand. He had a plan. "First I'm summon Insect Knight (1900/1500) and then I'll equip him with Insect Armor with Laser Cannon which adds 700 attack points to an insect-type monster, giving him a total of 2600."
The monster powered up and the spectators whooped and awed.
"Go Insect Knight, attack that facedown," Jesse declared and the card was revealed to be Skull Dog Marron (1350/2000). It was sent to the graveyard without enough defense points to defend from the powered up Insect Knight. "Now Needle Honey Bee (1500/400), attack him directly!" Jesse ended his turn after that.
Chris: 900
Jesse: 2400
Chris drew his card and paused. He looked up at the two monsters staring him down on his empty field. There was obviously nothing he could do with the single card now in his hand. Final Countdown's counter was not even halfway to an automatic win.
"I put one card in facedown defense." He ended his turn.
Chris: 900
Jesse: 2400
Jesse was about to gloat that he was about to win, but he knew better. That facedown could have a wicked flip effect. He drew his card and skipped to the battle phase. "Attack that facedown, Insect Knight (2600/1500)."
The card flipped over to reveal a normal summon, Takuhee (1450/1000) a winged-beast. It was sent to the graveyard. Chris's field was wide open. It appeared he was going to see his defeat through to the end.
"Now Needle Honey Bee (1500/400), attack him directly one more time and end this duel!"
Chris: 0
Jesse: 2400
The crowd of students that had been gradually growing throughout the duel cheered and hollered, making a commotion. As the dust settled. Jesse cleared his duel disk and put his deck away and turned off the device.
He was about to approach his opponent to tell him it was a good duel and that he didn't want his best card or the uniform from winning. Jesse would rather convince him to apologize to Julia for what happened the other morning.
"You cheated," Chris accused.
Jesse heard Julia gasp behind him. He didn't realize she followed him and was mere steps away. Meanwhile, the other students began to mutter questioningly.
"I did no such thing, and you know it, Chris," Jesse said. All respect he might have gained for the guy during the duel vanished just like that. Being a sore loser and claiming someone cheated just because he lost was low and disrespectful as a duelist.
"Liar, I'm not giving you my best card."
Jesse's eyes narrowed. "You lost fair and square."
Julia tugged on Jesse's sleeve. "How can you prove you didn't cheat?"
"I can't, and there wasn't a referee watching the duel to falsify it either," Jesse explained.
"Actually, there was." An adult stepped through the crowd of students. It was the Duel Monsters Team adviser, Mr. Von, who also taught physics. He was a man of average height and build with short black hair. "You're deck is still unbalanced, Chris, and if you keep breaking the rules, you're going to be kicked off the team entirely, you should know better than to go picking fights when you're still on probation from your last transgression."
Chris didn't respond, but instead he ripped off his uniform jacket and threw it to the ground before storming off. His friends didn't follow him and everyone looked at the teacher.
"You have a pretty good game, ever think about joining the team?" Mr. Von asked Jesse.
"Thought about it, yeah," he responded.
"How about you follow me to my classroom, even if you don't want to join the team, there's something else that might interest you," he said.
"Am I in trouble?"
"No, no, just come with me."
Jesse nodded and looked back at Julia and motioned for her to follow as well. She was going to ask what it was about anyway, so she might as well see for herself. As they left, so did the other students as it was the end of the day and it was time to go home. Many of them were talking about the duel.
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Author's Note:
First: My first attempt at writing a duel. I duel in real life and played one of the handheld games, so I have a little experience to go off of besides the anime and manga. I debated with myself a great deal about whether to use 4000 or 8000 Life Points. I have no idea what is preferred for fanfiction. The fandom might be divided on this.
Second: Remember when I told you in chapter 1 that if you liked "Johan" better than "Jesse", you could copy&paste the chapter into your preferred text edited and use Replace All? Turns out this site has updated to disallow highlighting/selecting text in the body of a chapter. There are ways to get around it, but seeing as I won't condone theft (which is the only reason this update would come about), I will not post such work-arounds publicly, despite how annoying this kind of limitation is. Hopefully, the admins will change it back someday. If you do not have a select/highlight work-around and need to inform me of a grammatical error, please PM me with the chapter location and re-type just enough of the sentence so I can find it, and include with the error/correction in parentheses.
Edit: 26 July 2014: Addressed an error in the duel. I don't remember if it was actually an error or not, or if the mock deck I was playing with really didn't allow for something to happen. Still, addressed now.
