Episode 15: Precision and Indecision

I sat in the duelist lounge, glancing at the replays of the matches from the previous day as I worked on my deck. All my cards were splayed on the table in front of me, as well as some I'd acquired after the conclusion of the first round. I knew that if I was going to proceed I would have to refine my deck a bit, for some reason it was a bit unfocused and hadn't performed up to expectations in my last duel. Had I really made so many errors in my deck's design? It seemed strange I wouldn't notice some of the weak points that were there, and that I would include some cards but not others. Why hadn't I noticed before? Perhaps I was learned as I got more experience, but it seemed odd that I would so quickly move past my old design from before the accident.

"Making some tweaks based on the duels?" I glanced over to see Bommer had entered the room.

I scoffed, "More like what I felt last round. There were gaps, I'm closing them. Don't flatter yourself."

"Arrogance was not my intention." he apologized.

I had to chuckle at the big boy scout, looking at the large man up and down I could tell he wore his heart on his sleeve, "I'm curious, is the only reason you're in this for the glory?"

He shook his head, "No. Actually, I want to win this for my home town."

"Ah. One of those types huh? Seems like your getting paired up against Yusei will produce a more interesting match than I thought."

"He's a fine duelist. I can already tell not only from his last duel, but from his manner as well."

"I was actually more worried about your quality, forgive me. You come off as a bit naive." moving some cards in and out of my deck I finished my work and put it away as I continued to speak, "I haven't much experience due to my circumstances, but I've quickly noticed that the essence of a man reflects on his dueling."

"But does the nature of one's dueling reflect on the soul of the duelist?" Bommer seemed genuinely interested in my opinion.

"Perhaps."

Bommer grinned slightly, "What does your deck say about you I wonder?"

I stood, "I'm not sure of that myself to be honest."

I walked by Yusei on my way out to the duel field and we stopped to talk. He seemed a bit worried about me, "Are you feeling better? You seemed really upset this morning."

He was referring to my reaction to the replay of Aki's duel with deLauncebeaux. Seeing the crowd and her foe chastising her for no reason had been jarring. Even if her reputation as the Black Rose Witch made their hatred somewhat warranted, it didn't change the fact they were yelling at a victim. "I'm fine now. Here"

Yusei took the offered cards in his hand and studied them, "Are you sure you want to give me these?"

"I still owe you a lot, especially for all the speed spells. Consider that a down payment and a gift. If you can use those right, Bommer will be hard pressed."

Bommer tensed, going a little wide-eyed in surprise. He was probably wondering what I'd handed my friend and if his techniques had truly been seen through.

Yusei however, slid the cards into his deck, moved some cards that were already there to his side deck, and smiled his patented invisible smile, "Thanks, I won't let you down."

I returned his smile and then walked towards the duel field for my match. The passage leading to the area beneath the field was dotted by workers doing some final checks on the repairs, but I stayed focused on my target and took my place on the platform that would lift me to the duel. I wasn't lucky and going against Bommer, or even getting a chance to force Aki to listen to me. I wasn't even going against that arrogant profiler Kinomiya. No, I was getting the hardest imaginable opponent for me. Someone that used a similar deck style that used effects rather than focusing on getting bigger monsters out. Someone that could essentially do everything I could do... faster.

"Everybody listen! We're starting things off with style! Two technical experts whose skills are as sharp as their cutting glares. A war between two elites!" the announcer, of course, was enjoying the prospect more than me, "First, let me introduce the first of our two competitors. A former member of Duel Academy elite Hero Silver rank, we've got the Neo Domino Invitational Champion himself, Kooooyooou KOOOU!"

My platform rose and I appeared on the field in a cloud of dramatic smoke.

The announcer continued, "And his opposition, retired from many tours of service in the United States armed forces, one of the most decorated snipers in the history of our world, Lt. Adrian TRIMMAH!"

In a cloud of smoke the tall and muscular soldier ascended to the field dressed in fatigues, combat boots, and a black muscle tee. He was nearly as old as my father, and likely had unimaginable battle experience. He got straight to business loading his deck into his disk and shuffling. We both activated our disks.

"Duel!"

Koyou: 8000 vs Trimmer: 8000

The duel system chose me for the first turn, so when we both drew our starting hand of five cards, I followed by drawing another. "I'll lead off with a set monster and two set cards. Come on!"

Trimmer calmly drew, his steeling gaze analyzing the field and the possibilities, "Let's test the waters shall we? I summon Koa'ki Meiru Urknight." a heavily armored centaur appeared on the field with a hefty 2000 attack. It was huge for a level four. "Next, I will activate the continuous spell Core Transport Unit. With this card's effect I discard Dandylion to add one Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru from my deck to my hand" an effect activated in the grave, "When Dandylion is sent to the grave, I special summon two Fluff Tokens to my field in defense mode." two fluffy seeds appeared, "Next I activate the effect of Koa'ki Meiru Urknight. By revealing the Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru in my hand, I special summon Koa'ki Meiru Crusader from my deck in attack mode." A ludicrously buff knight appeared with a solid 1900 attack."

The crowd gasped at the impressive summoning of four monsters in a single turn. I was too busy gritting my teeth in annoyance to be impressed, not that I couldn't handle it.

"Crusader attacks our set monster!"

My set monster flipped, revealing Dawnbreak Gardna, a warrior monster with 1500 attack and only 500 defense, at least until, "I activate a quick-play spell: Unleash Your Power! With this, all Gemini monsters I control gain their effects. Gardna's pretty simple. He guards! His original defense increases to 2300." Dawnbreak Gardna was suddenly wreathed in light.

"Huh?" Trimmer flinched as he took the backlash from his repelled attack.

Koyou: 8000 vs Trimmer: 7600

He glared at the monster, whose defense was too high for him to get through, "I end my turn with this card face down. Both Urknight and Crusader will self-destruct unless I send an Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru to the graveyard or reveal a Beast-Warrior type monster in my hand." they shattered, "I allow them to be destroyed."

"During the end phase, the side effect of Unleash Your Power kicks in, setting Dawnbreak Gardna. Now I draw!" I did so, smiling, "I summon Rose, Warrior of Revenge."

"A level four tuner." he noted.

I looked at him, and his face-down. His poker face was flawless, but his statement, completely calm, made me suspicious. Plus he let both his monsters be destroyed. He had two tokens, so he was either just using them for defense, or was going to tribute them. Again I would follow my gut. "I flip summon Dawnbreak Gardna, then attack Fluff Token one with Rose and Fluff token two with Gardna."

The two monsters were destroyed, his face down wasn't an attack negater. His grimace and slight nint of shock revealed he had expected synchro, which meant he had a synchro counter as his face down, though I didn't know what it could be. Instead of going for a synchro summon to follow-up as I planned, I kept my field as it was, "Turn end."

Trimmer grumbled as he drew, "You're a sharp one. Seems you read right through my move. This could get interesting. Though the audience might get impatient." He looked at his draw, "Or not. I summon Koa'ki Meiru Bergzak!" a well muscled man in a white mask with two blades and 2000 attack appeared, "Bergzark can attack one more time if he destroys a monster in battle."

I instantly ran through possible scenarios in my head based on which monster he attacked and he instantly cut out half of the possibilities when he declared, "Bergzak attacks Dawnbreak Gardna!"

I weighed my options, then went the safest route. It wasn't the time to be taking risks, "I activate Kunai with Chain, switching Bergzak to defense and equipping to Rose, Warrior of Revenge. Thus her attack goes up to 2100."

"Dammit." Trimmer discarded, "I discard another card to activate Core Transport Unit. Turn end. I send the Iron Core I juts retrieved from my deck to the grave to maintain Bergzak."

I drew, then eyed that face down of his. I knew it countered synchro, and probably wasn't torential tribute. If it negated summons outright, I would be out of luck, but could force him to use it. If it destroyed them, I could capitalize when he didn't expect it. "Let's see how long you can save that trap to counter my synchro shall we. I wonder if you'll use it to stop me from summoning: Evocator Chevalier!" my faithful crimson warrior joined the field. I caught Trimmer's body language. It was only slight, but he's eyes had twitched. Naturally, we had to have eye contact for be to notice this, and I was able to let Trimmer know what I had discovered by grinning.

That trap countered all kinds of summon. Knowing that, I could play around it. In fact, he had made a grave mistake not using it on Evocator. All I needed to do to destroy it now was draw Supervise. For the time being, I would make him pay in pain. After all, Bergzak only had 200 defense. "I'll destroy Bergzak with Gardna, then attack you directly with Chevalier and Rose."

Bergzak shattered, then Evocator and Rose rushed in for their strikes straight to his life points. He wavered a bit and stumbled, but didn't cry out, despite the massive damage.

"Next, Rose's effect activates. When she deals battle damage to a player, she deals 300 points of effect damage." a storm of roses erupted from the edge of of the woman warrior's blade, cutting into Trimmer's life even further.

Koyou: 8000 vs Trimmer: 3700

Mei's Perspective

"Wow." the large man named Tanner flinched at the sight of the brutal attacks, "No offense, Professor Kou, but your son is a real monster."

Dad only grinned. Nearby, the twins sitting with us looked to Tanner with incomplete understanding.

He explained, not really to anyone in particular really, "Seeing through that trap card like that, then using it against him. Koyou's got the upper hand to an extreme here. Especially now that he's got another monster. Trimmer's got a summon counter of some kind I think, but with that pumped up tuner on the field, Trimmer dare not play it against anything but a synchro monster. Eventually he'll have to use it. Koyou can just keep summoning and summoning otherwise. Then Koyou can synchro all he wants."

I nodded, "All because Koyou put Kunai on Rose. If he'd made the rookie mistake of boosting his weakest monster, he wouldn't have so much power over the duel right now."

Tanner stared intently at Trimmer drawing, "I'd go after the tuner. Gotta break that kind of hold on you up."

Dad's piercing gaze was focused on Koyou instead of the player whose turn it was, "If it's not off the field next turn, then this duel will be over. Other than getting rid of Rose, there's no hope."

"He could draw Mirror Force." Tanner argued.

Dad shook his head, "It won't work. My gut tells me it won't. Rose is the only way."

Trimmer was in action, "I set a monster, then set a card."

"Mirror Force. This is over." Dad said with certainty.

Leo gasped in admiration, "Wow! How can you tell?"

I kept my attention on the field as Koyou drew, "That's too hard to explain."

Koyou, smiling wide, went in for the killing sequence Dad had foreseen. I could sense it. It was amazing. Against Baron, Trimmer had torn the guy to pieces, but Koyou was dominating Trimmer. The early going had been really tight, but one opening was instant death. It truly was a sniper battle. "I activate Hidden Armory, at the cost of my normal summon and one card from the top of my deck, I add Supervise to my hand. Next, I equip Supervise to Chevalier, activating him as an effect monster then send Supervise to the grave for his effect, destroying your earlier set card!"

"No!" a card called Automatic Laser was cleaved in two and destroyed, "Next, I tune my level four Rose, Warrior of Revenge with my level four Evocator Chevalier!" the two monsters broke into the regular stars and rings as they sprang into the air. "Fist of stone, crushes bone. Breath of fire, purges ire! Synchro shokan! Charge on through, Black Brutdrago!" The closest thing to an ace monster my brother had, a truck-sized gray dragon made for devastation, crashed down on the field.

A whimper beside drew my attention, Luna was clutching her arm and wincing. I placed a hand on her shoulder, "Are you okay?"

Leo panicked a little, "Luna!"

She forced a smile, "I'm alright. My arm just burns a little, that's all."

"I'd hardly consider random burning sensations a little thing." I retorted.

"It's nothing really."

I looked to my father, who seemed to be trying to put pieces of a puzzle together in his mind.

Koyou, meanwhile, was making his move, "I discard Future Samurai from my hand for Brutdrago's effect: Preemptive Punishment!" A hologram of the discarded card appeared and was inhaled by the dragon, before being spat out again as a ball of flame that destroyed the set Mirror Force."

Trimmer freaked out, "What the hell? Impossible!"

Koyou was smiling, and there was a strange aura around him. Nothing visible, but it was as if he was enveloped in something the frightened me, something angry and destructive. "I attack your set monster with Gardna!"

The target was crushed and and effect activated, "You destroyed Koa'ki Meiru Boulder. I add another Koa'ki Meiru Crusader to my hand."

"Congrats, I direct attack with Brimstone Bash!"

The dragon rushed in and surrounded itself in flames, slamming into Trimmer with enough force to send him flying backwards, even flipping over once, "Gahh!"

Koyou: 8000 vs Trimmer: 700

I half expected Trimmer to start bleeding from the mouth as he stood, "What a feel. Your virtual impact is monstrous!"

"Watch your tongue." the ominous feeling around Koyou grew stronger. "I set one card. Turn end."

Trimmer groaned in pain as he drew, " I activate-"

"Monster Reborn." my brother interrupted, his eyes trained like a laser sight on Trimmer.

"How did you...?" shaking it off, "Monster Reborn! Reviving Koa' ki Meiru Urknight from the grave! I activate Iron Core Transport, discrading Crusader to add Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru to my hand. I reveal it, the use Urknight's effect, special summoning Koa'ki Meiru Prototype in attack mode!" A four legged robot appeared. "I tribute Urknight for Koa'ki Meiru Valafar!" A huge fiendish man loomed over Trimmer. It had the same attack as Brutdrago: 3000.

Leo gasped, "So fast! He had nothing on the field a minute ago!"

Trimmer laughed, "You duelists are all the same, relying on aces to win, I can't be beaten simply by calling an ace! Even 100 life is as good as 8000! I'm not at any disadvantage! I can come back from nothing in the blink of an eye! This was a delightful fight, but I activate Iron Core Armor!" Valafar was adorned with a ridged breastplate, "Now when he attacks, the target loses attack equal to one hundred times Valafar's level! Battle! Prototype, destroy Dawnbreak Gardna!"

Koyou barely flinched.

"Valafar! Attack Brutdrago!" The demon lunged, Black Brutdrago losing 800 attack from the armor effect. My brother's dragon collapsed and melted into magma, from which a Blazewing Butterfly rose.

"When Brutdrago is destroyed it revives a gemini with it's effect active already."

Koyou: 6800 vs Trimmer: 700

Trimmer smirked, "Pitiful. Turn end. To avoid losing Valafar to the self-destruction of Koa'ki Meiru, I sacrifice Prototype through its own effect."

I chuckled, "My brother is a monster. Summoning Blazewing like that."

Leo looked over, "What about it?"

"Blazewing is weak looking, but revives monster from the grave by tributing itself, similar to the effect Brutdrago just used. Rather than summon his true target on Trimmer's turn, Koyou summoned the weaker looking Blazewing to trick him into a feeling of security. Trimmer fell right into Koyou's pace at the start and is still being playing like a puppet."

Koyou drew, "I activate Blazewing's effect, tributing it to revive Future Samurai in attack mode, with it's effect active."

Trimmer froze, having forgotten about the discarded Future Samurai, just as Koyou wanted him to. "Wait, NO!"

"Future Samurai's effect! I remove the Rose, Warrior of Revenge in my grave from the game and destroy Valafar!"

Despite being pretty much twice the strength of Future Samurai, Valafar was sliced in half like butter and shattered, "GAH!"

"Direct attack!" Future Samurai sprang into the air and came down with a lethal-looking falling slash, as if straight out of an anime. Trimmer was fine, but beaten.

Koyou: 6800 vs Trimmer: 0

Dad stood up, for some reason having only a contemplating expression, and walked out as the announcer cut those, "OOOOOOH! The sniper takes a headshot! The early game standoff concludes with a blinding strike and a flash of sublime technique! Koyou is headed to the semi finals!"

Luna let go of her arm, "Oh, the burning stopped!"

On that bit of info, I followed Dad out, catching up to him as he fretted in the lobby, "Dad, what's up? You walked right out after the match. You didn't look happy about it."

He smiled, "So you're worried about me?"

I looked away, feeling awkward all of a suddenly, "O-of course. You're my dad. Even if I haven't been acting much like your daughter these past few years."

And with that, all my previous ill-treatment towards him was forgiven, "I'm sorry to worry you. I was just thinking about things."

"Be more specific." I implored, "I get the feeling I should know about this."

He smiled again at my concern, then tried not to frown, "I'm sure you saw it too. That strange aura around him. Then there was Luna's reaction to Koyou summoning Black Brutdrago."

"Something's strange about Koyou?"

He shook his head, "Both of you."

I didn't have any idea what he was talking about.

"You didn't think it was strange that it your duel with Koyou you drew a card that wasn't in your deck?"

I'd honestly forgotten all about that strange card, "But Koyou didn't pull that. All his cards were familiar."

"Still. He's in a similar state. I was worried this would happen when you mother told me we were going to have children."

"What are you talking about?"

"You kids have inherited more than my knack for reading people. I'm sorry."

"You mean we're becoming...?"

"Pretty much psychic duelists."

I was devastated. My mind flooded by the devastation Aki's power was capable of, and off the level of power my father had always claimed he had. I remembered Misty's vision of disaster. Tears flowed freely from my eyes, "Why? Why did this have to happen now!"

Dad hugged me, and even though he could be easily blamed for this, I accepted his comfort and assuring words. I felt a little better just from not making that mistake again. Meanwhile, the speakers announced that a surprise match was about to begin.

Next Chapter: Bonds and Betrayal

Set in stone events: Professor Frank antics, Yusei duels Bommer with new cards, and MURDER? (cue dramatic music) Somebody dies next chapter! OMG!

A/N: Wow. I just realizes I just wrote this whole chapter in one sitting. I usually need a break or two. I'm impressed with myself. :)