I have boobs.

Dear lord, I have boobs. Where I'm suppose to have those nice pec-muscles that girls love to snuggle in, they're now filled with adipose tissue and dormant prolactin hormones that will allow me to breast feed a baby- oh god, don't think about that!

I shut my eyes and counted to three. Alright, now when I open my eyes, I'll be back in my original body. I'll be back in California, waiting for the thunderstorm to die down and go to the store to get some drinks. I'll be back with my godly body that I had to work for four years to get with the help of surfing, waterpolo, and swimming. Now I'm going to open my eyes and- oh god, boobs are still on my chest...

Though I have to admit, they're a nice set of boobs. I mean they're firm and probably around C's. Not too big or too small, just perfect for- damn it! Focus! You've just been turned into a girl and...

...and why the hell do I feel a sudden wetness between my leg? I looked down at my thighs and saw something that terrified the shit out of me.

I was bleeding...

...down there...

"Miss? Are you ok?"

I fainted.

Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and months turned into a year. I lost all inhibition, as well as hope, that my father would come and pick me up. I had to face the hard fact.

No one was going to pick me up.

It's not like I blame them, after all what father would believe that his son had turn into a daughter in one night? The Father was kind enough to let me stay here as one of workers here. I couldn't really be called an "orphan" cause of my age, thankfully they took me in and took care of me.

I remember distinctively how I was hesitant in asking them...

I watched as the smaller children were playing in the backyard, some were playing cards while others were doing the generic activities that children are often found doing. How lucky, to be young and naïve and letting other feed you. I'm going to have to leave soon because of my age. Not only that, but I know that the church can't support that many people, let alone a bunch of orphans. Most of the things that they get are from donations...

...but there was no chance in hell I was going back on the street anytime soon.

So I had to settle with this option. Standing at the front of the steps leading to the church, was the Father of the church in his every-day robes, sweeping the steps just outside the torii gate placed at the top. The father was a wizen old man, but his kind expression was the highlight for most people's day.

As I got closer, the Father stopped his sweeping and looked up from his work.

"May I help you, Ms. Chung?" I hesitated for a moment. What if this was a mistake? Will he allow it? What will he think of me after I ask him?

And what if he said no?

Seeing the father waiting patiently for his answer, I took a deep breath, and plunged into it. "I'm not from here, and I don't have my Passport to take me back home as well as no money to go back." I blurted, trying to formulate myself as concisely as possible. "I-I have a dad that lives here in Japan, but I don't know where he is at the moment or have any way in contacting him. It's been a year, and I doubt my dad will continue to look for me. I-I know it sounds selfish of me to say, b-but I'd like to stay here until I have a good idea of what I can do..."

The father stared at me for several moments, and I almost thought I hadn't spoken clearly enough, when the man spoke.

"There's always a home here for those that need it," he said. "However this is only a small church, and although there are nuns to help me I am the only priest here. Not only that, but there is barely enough for anyone to feed for themselves as you know, this church is run by the donations that the people give for this church." My head slumped. "However, if you are dedicated, I may be capable of helping you help yourself. The real question is: are you willing to work? Although this is a sanctuary, I expect people to work in order to eat."

"I'll do whatever it takes." I agreed firmly. I had to, if I didn't want to stay out on the street and beg...

"Here," the priest stated with a nod, handing me the broom. "I will make you a room in the guest quarters while you finish sweeping the steps. And please do a good job of it, if you'd be so kind."

Though I was tired, I didn't like the idea of rejecting a favor for someone who would help me. And that it was a priest didn't help settle my resolve against the favor. Dutifully, I accepted the broom and started sweeping.

By the time darkness once more covered the land I had swept all the steps, the courtyard, raked the rock garden, and scrubbed the floors.

Every four hours I had worked, the father had given me bread and water. It was meager in taste and aesthetics, but filling and enough to sate my immediate hunger. I knew that this church couldn't give much, and I'm not going to be selfish and demand more, but it was getting harder and harder as each day passed by.

To put it mildly, I was tired. I've been up for two days in a row, and performing continuous tasks throughout that time.

"Are you tired?"

"A little," I confessed, trying to hide my drooping eyes and slouched stance of a moment ago.

"Does that mean you are ready to give up?" The Father asked. "Because staying here would mean hard work, day in and day out until you have gotten yourself back in order."

"I'll do anything!" I stubbornly declared. I wasn't about to give up. Not when it came to having a roof on my head.

"Anything? Even serving as the janitor of this temple for the duration of your stay?" prodded the pastor.

"Anything!"

"Good," the priest affirmed. "Now, follow me, I'll take you to what will be your room while you are here. You look dead on your feet. You have an early morning to start your duty."

"What am I going to clean tomorrow?"

"You misunderstand, my daughter," the priest corrected. "You will not be cleaning anything tomorrow." That made me blink.

"Huh?"

"I apologize to say this, but this was all a test," the priest elaborated. "Designed to measure your desperation, your dedication, your will and humility. Had you not been humble enough to do the chores set before you, you would not have been dedicated enough to survive. Had you not had a strong enough will, your desperation for a sanctuary would surely have taken over, and you would have demanded I help. Someone as impatient as that would never be able to survive long in the world. Now, here is your room. It lacks decoration, but it will be adequate. Sleep, you have a long day ahead of you."

A long day?

Sitting here in this church with hand's-me-down clothes, I somewhat became humbled and opened minded at how I lived around here. Looking back now, I felt somewhat ashamed to live so recklessly. Spending money prodigiously and wastefully.

...well enough of that shit. Let's get back to the story.

Throughout the year, apart from chores, eating, sleeping, and working out, I simply spend the day reading tomes. In fact, I found myself sitting alone, reading a book about chaining cards. Another thing I found out, is that apparently Japan is making Yu-Gi-Oh a mainstream tournament and stuff. So it was rather interesting to read up on 'professional' duelists or 'Duel Monster professors' writing their strategies in a book.

"May I sit here?" I looked up to see one of the nuns staring at me with a smile. In turn, I gave her a surprised look before nodding my head. Sister Agatha sat down across from me and laid a stack of papers and several books down.

"Um…" I probably had an awkward look on my face as the nun gave me a professional smile. She probably figured out that I was obviously uncomfortable, so it was no surprise when she, carefully, told me this.

"If you want, I can work elsewhere," she told me. "However, as you're working here, that automatically makes us associates," the sister pointed out. "And for that reason I should like to get to know you better."

I slowly relaxed at that. "That makes sense," I reluctantly admitted as the sister opened a notebook and took out a pen. "I'm sure that Father Xavier and Sister Cornello have already explained many things to you, however, if you have any questions about anything, please feel free to ask me."

"I will," I paused a moment before adding, "Thank you." the sister nodded and began to work on a lesson plan. With that I went back to reading his book, while I was occasionally writing notes as I read. Not many people knew this about me, but whenever I write something, it needs to be written in a small, neat script of an academic. In fact, most of my teachers comment how my handwriting was very close to how most strict penmanship would write.

"Have you found our library adequate?" she asked me as I looked up form my notes. "You seemed to have found something interesting." I shrugged in reply.

"It's a book about Chaining and Countering." I replied respectfully. "I write things down that I want to remember. There's nothing else for me to do when I'm not doing chores. I might as well make use of the library."

"What…are you working on?" I asked hesitantly, I was trying to make an effort to take part in the conversation, thankfully the woman realized this and continued on with the conversation. "I teach English and American history," she answered. "I'm working on lesson plans at the moment. After I'm finished, I have papers that I need to grade."

I won't lie, when I heard American history I instantly perked up. Possibly because I had one of the best AP US History teacher to teach me. I scored a perfect five and got an A+ in his class. Best yet, I still retained most of the subject, so I'm still that kid who can spurn history references whenever he wants to.

Oh, and I didn't really think about it too much that children in a Japanese Catholic Church in Japan is learning US History.

"What area of American history are you teaching now?" I asked.

"We are currently covering the Great Depression," The sister answered. "My students were instructed to write an essay about one aspect of the New Deal. I have yet to grade them." She indicated a small stack of papers. I gave them a curious look, to which the sister smiled at.

"You may look at them if you wish." I instantly reached over and plucked an essay from the pile. I scanned it for about a minute before scowling slightly.

"This essay doesn't even have a thesis in the introduction and there are only two sentences in the conclusion," I harshly criticized. "And the person didn't even list the facts correctly."

"Would you please show me?" she asked. I gave her a confused look.

"Why?" I asked. "You're the teacher. Can't you see them?"

"Yes," she answered matter of factly. "I only wish to see how you would grade the paper, if you were the teacher." I looked surprised for a moment before shrugging. Putting the essay down, I began to go through it with her, pointing out all of the mistakes with the essays, such as the student's questionable research.

"The content's not bad," I explained. The essay in question had focused on racism within the New Deal. "He's right about minorities being pushed out of jobs by unemployed whites. But FDR couldn't put any guarantees into the New Deal to protect minority workers against racism. If he would have, it wouldn't have passed Congress. It wasn't morally right, but I think he probably did the most he could do politically. Eleanor handled most of the civil rights issues since he couldn't."

"So how would you grade this paper?" she asked me. "Theoretically at least, if you were the teacher." I stared thoughtfully down at the paper.

"Probably a 'B,' or a 'B minus'," I finally answered. "If this paper had the fact more concise, I'd have given it a B plus." The sister gave a satisfied nod.

"Ms. Chung...can you do me a favor?"

In a matter of minutes I found myself grading papers of essay, with my irritation skyrocketing with each paper that I was reading.

Now I know how Mr. Pearl felt when he reads our shitty US History essays.

"Not to be rude, but may I ask what you are doing?"

I looked up from a particularly atrocious essay about Eleanor Roosevelt to see Sister Cornello, another nun that worked for the church, curiously watching me. The grammar was horrendous and the student had gotten all of his facts from only two sources, one which of course had to be Wikipedia. I shook my head as I neatly wrote 'Wikipedia is not a valid source. Next time, try looking in the school library.' at the bottom of the paper.

"I got suckered into grading papers," I scowled after I finished writing. "Sister Agatha somehow got me to do this." Sister Cornello snickered and sat down next to the grumpy me. I pushed a pile of unread papers to the left to give him some room.

"How'd your day go?" I asked. The sister shrugged.

"Morning mass was the same as usual. Oh and the girls and boys are talking about you...speaking of which..." She nodded her head towards the opposite end of the library. Curiously, I looked over to see a small group of teenagers, mostly girls, standing around and gossiping. They were giggling and were glancing every so often at us.

"Great," I muttered.

"It gets better," the Sister grinned. "You should hear what they're saying." I was going to reply that I wasn't interested in what the little pogues were talking about, but curiosity got the better of me. So I focused my senses of hearing to the yammering girls.

"…Sister Cornello is talking to the new girl…"

"She's got bigger boobs than Angela!" a different teenager said. I felt my face redden. It was bad enough to listen to a conversation like that, even worse to hear a comment about my boobs when in reality I'm born as a dude…it was even worse coming from a couple of girls who probably weren't even seventeen.

"She must be the new teacher," a boy said. Some of the girls disagreed, but the teenager persisted. "Dude…she's totally a teacher."

"I don't know," another girl said. "She could probably be just staying here like us?"

Sister Cornello started giggling softly under her breath. I knew that I probably have a strange look on my own face, judging from the Sister's amused expression literally written all over her face. I was suddenly very conscious of the history papers sitting in front of me.

"What'd you think she'll teach?" a girl asked. "Or will teach?"

"Go ask her," a teenager urged.

"I'm not asking her, you ask her!" she replied. A snort escaped from the Sister's mouth. I could tell that Sister Cornello was trying as hard as he could not to laugh. I couldn't see what was so funny. I was getting annoyed, a bit embarrassed, and maybe it was slightly amusing, but still…

"I think she's grading some papers," a girl said. "That means she is a teacher!" How the hell can they tell that I'm grading their damned history papers? I scowled down at the red pen in my hand. Sister's shoulders began to shake as she laughed silently, or almost silently. I easily felt the man's amusement.

"Really?" one of the girls muttered. "Well...I guess she really is a teacher…"

"I ain't a damn teacher!" I bellowed, turning around in his seat to glare across the library. The group of students jumped and stared wide eyed at us. Sister Cornello slapped her face, but still continued to chuckle under his breath, as she recited the Hail Mary prayer for my profanity. This of course didn't help my growing irritation.

"Oh yeah?" One of the girls countered boldly. "Then why're you grading papers?" I scowled at the teenager. She squeaked slightly, but refused to back down.

"I'm…" I paused. The girl did have a point. "I'm doin' a favor for Sister Agatha…now scram and stop oglin' me!" I barked. "I'm above your age limit anyway!" The group of teenagers quickly scattered. Sister finally couldn't hold her amusement in any more. She began to laugh hard and tears started to form in her eyes.

"Sister Cornello!" I whined. "It's not that funny."

"Course not…" Sister Cornell managed between laughs. She paused a moment and tried to collect herself. "I apologize…Professor Chung." She couldn't help adding. Sister Cornello broke into laughter again and I sighed.

We sat for a while and talked quietly, at least after Sister got over her laughing fit, and before long I was grading papers again. I glared down at one of the essays. This one by far had the worst grammar. I sighed again as I soon covered the paper with red ink. Whoever Sarai Demsky was, she was going to be a sad girl when she got her paper back.

While I wasn't experienced enough to really be able to tell the difference between middle school and high school level English, I was fairly certain that the essay failed to meet even fifth or sixth grade requirements. It was certainly not sophomore level English. That much I did recall from my own school days...

"A lot of children are going to be crying when they get their papers back," Sister Cornello observed dryly. I shrugged. If they wanted to do well in school, then they should produce better essays. Besides, not all of the essays were horrible. Quite a few were decent or even good for their grade level.

"Sister Agatha will probably go over them anyway before she hands them back," I grumbled. "I don't really know why she's even making me do this, other than to give me something to do."

"Good practice?" a new voice asked. Father Xavier, the man that allowed me to stay in the church, smiled down at the two before asking if he could have a seat. We motioned towards an empty chair, to which he politely refused.

"Practice?" I asked. Father Xavier shrugged as he peered down at the marked up papers.

"Hmm…" the head priest mused. "A bit on the harsh side…but you not only circled what was wrong, you also wrote how to correctly fix the errors."

"Of course I did," I replied, somewhat surprised. "How're they supposed to learn what they did wrong if they don't have any examples?" It was exactly like trying to teach children how to grow up. How could I, a part time babysitter, expect the kids that I take care of to do something right without showing them the correct way to fix their screw ups?

Father Xavier smiled again as he pushed up the glasses that had slipped down his nose.

"You've some connection with children, correct?" the Father had asked. I nodded, not knowing where this was going.

"Then your primary role is that of a teacher," the other man pointed out. "I imagine that Sister Agatha realized this and was testing the waters, so to speak."

"I only babysit for part time," I pointed out. "Not how to write an English sentence without tripping over yourself." I reached over and picked up the essay by the Demsky girl. "And I swear, if this essay was a mine field, this girl would've been killed even before she made it to the second paragraph."

Sister Cornell smiled, apparently amused by the analogy. The Father's eyes twinkled with hidden humor as well but it was covered with a frown.

"Is that Sarai Demsky's paper?" I raised an eyebrow and nodded. The Father sighed as he took the essay and scanned it.

"She's one of our more troubled students," Father Xavier explained. "Her mother left her at an orphanage when she was still a toddler, in order to protect her from her abusive father. No one of course wanted to adopt a child with a father like her around. She ended up on the street and grew up with a gang for a family for about nine years. We found her about a year ago and brought her to the church, but…"

"But the kid's having problems," I finished. Father Xavier nodded.

"Many of the children that come here have emotional or psychological problems," Father Xavier told me solemnly. "We do the best we can to help them, but some like Ms. Demsky have many issues to work through. The Church is the first real education she's ever had."

Suddenly, I felt slightly guilty for the remarks I'd made about her. However, I still stood by what I'd written. The girl wouldn't learn if she was babied. None of the people here, especially Sister Agatha, seemed to be the type to pass a student if she couldn't meet the educational requirements.

"How is she even passing?" I questioned as the Father took off his glasses to clean. "She has several tutors," Father Xavier answered. "However, she's a rather stubborn individual. Ms. Demsky is trying; however…she is still having problems with her school work, as well as dealing with her classmates. We may have to hold her back next year."

I took the girl's paper back from Father Xavier and frowned slightly at it. I...wasn't surprised anymore by the essay's atrocious writing. The kid, after all, hadn't had any structure or education growing up. What bothered me even more was that there were a lot more children growing up like her.

"Father..."

I looked at the man. I really didn't know what I would do, or if I could even do anything. I'm not a teacher or a counselor, I'm just a kid like everyone else; and if Father Xavier or Sister Agatha couldn't do anything more than they already were, then I sure as hell couldn't do anything to help the little girl...

"What are available for me to tutor?"

However, I did at least want to be able to put a face to the girl's name.

The father smiled, "Tell me Ms. Chung," he began, and when he finished I was completely thrown off at what he was implying me to teach.

"How good are you at Duel Monsters?"

That was a year ago.

"GWYNN!"

And let me tell you that year was veeeeeery long.

There was a loud squeak and a thud when the petite culprit jumped and smacked her elbow against the wall. I pushed away the door and glared down at a pink haired teenage girl. Megan Gwynn, stared into my eyes with fear. I guess this is one of the benefits of being a girl. Since most girls aren't good at fighting, they resort to using tactics like screaming or just being pissed off...and boy does it work like a charm.

"I-I didn't do a-anything..." Oh, so she was going to lie about it, was she? What was it with teenagers and short memories? I already busted her ass once before and I knew for a fact that everyone in this damn church know about me and my anti-prissy-ass attitude. If someone fucked something up, they know I'm not going to be nice about it

I may not be Sister Agatha, but I was damn scary when I wanted to be, and after being changed to a girl only made that aspect even worse. I decided to remind her about this. I smirked when I slowly lowered myself onto the girl, who was now trembling in terror at what I was going to do. I immediately slammed my fist onto the wall next to her, making her jump.

"Don't you test me. You know I hate liars...right?" I drawled. The teenager gulped and suddenly looked very worried. Good. She had reason to be, even if I had to go slightly soft on her for being a kid and not one of the boys that I occasionally beat up for being dumbasses and bullies.

"For detention, you get to clean the girl's lavatory with a toothbrush," I told her. "And don't think on trying to cheat or not do a thorough job. I'll have Sister Agatha check on it."

Slightly soft. If she'd been a boy, she'd be cleaning the bathroom with a potato.

"With a toothbrush?" she whined. "The whole lavatory?"

"Everything," I told her firmly. "Every inch of floor, stall, sink, shower, wall, and toilet. If you keep whining, you can do it with a potato. After that, I'll discuss with Father Xavier for your later punishment for the stunt that you pulled for the Saturday Mass."

See, I could be quite generous.

The girl sulked and walked off as I shook my head. All the kids needed were a little discipline. Friar Summers, the newest member of the church, was too soft on them. Sister Agatha was sometimes too, but then again, student rarely disobeyed her.

They knew not to.

Ah, speaking of Summers, the pogue would probably lecture me later for being "too harsh" on the students and that they "weren't old enough to be pushed around." Whatever. I respected Brother Summer and even liked him a bit for his laid-back attitude, but we also disagreed on how to handle discipline problems. Walking inside the kitchen, I poured myself a mug of coffee and sat in one of the available seats.

I took a sip of coffee as I thought about the girl that I've been tutoring with for the past year.

Sarai Demsky.

I spent the last hour and a half helping her build a deck of her own. She made significant improvements in the short time he'd been with me, but a lot of work still remained.

Though it did make me wonder why the Father had asked me to tutor Duel Monsters, of all the things that I could have done for Sarai. I shook my head in bewilderment. It's Father Xavier, he's been a little weird since the first day I met him. I placed the mug on the table and reviewed my opinion on Sarai.

Sarai Demsky was a good student. She tried until she got something right, no matter how long or hard she had to work at it. She had a tough start, but it was necessary at the time.

In order for her to actually interact with the things that I was trying to teach her, which was apparently Duel Monsters, I had created a little puzzle that would have to make her focus on creating the right deck for her own taste and work on the field. It had taken the challenged student a while, but she had finally managed to construct, deconstruct, and reconstruct her deck after those multiples of tires.

"How'd it go?" Sister Agatha asked, sitting down next to me. I knew she was referring to the today's session.

"Fine," I told her. "Father Xavier is thinking about allowing me to work with the other students. In the mean time, I'm going to start showing Sarai how to use some conjunctions with her monsters and spells or traps." Sarai might not be skilled enough to employ multiple of combos right off the bat, but she's been getting better through this whole year and...

...what the hell is that noise?

The sound of arguing drew both of their attention. A slightly heavy Caucasian accent, mixed with the distinct sound of a worried but a very familiar voice, drifted in from outside.

"Father Xavier?"

The two of us quickly rushed outside, where a crowd of children stood, some were staring at it fear in their eyes, others were standing there, not knowing what was going on...

...but when I saw Father Xavier on the ground, with blood on his mouth, I knew that it wasn't looking good.

I scowled at the man standing in front of Father. I wasn't sure what had started the argument this time, but I was positive that it was all that man's fault. If the father had in all actuality started the argument, I chose to ignore it. After all, I felt that whatever Father Xavier said was unintentional and maybe whatever the Father criticized had been justified.

"What you got against me anyway?" the frustrated man finally asked, I noticed that he was wearing a dark hawaiian shirt and jeans, what made me alert was the fact that the man was rather large. Muscles ripped from places that weren't covered from his clothes, and the rings on his fingers implied that he was rather wealthy. "You telling me that I can't even spend an hour or two with my beloved daughter?"

"I don't have anything against you, sir." That made me blink, Father Xavier was...angry? The pastor even growled. "But I will not let you get close to Sarai Demsky! Not while I'm still alive!"

That man...don't tell me...

"That's Mr. Demsky?" I whispered to the Sister next to me with shock. Just how the hell did he find out that his daughter was here in the first place?

"Shut up, you ain't so great yourself!" the man shot back. "You can't just waltz into family business and get in between it! Now hand over my daughter or else..."

"Or else what?" everyone turned to me as I stepped forward, "Sarai Demsky called Sanctuary, you even attempt to pull her out of the church and the police will be all over your ass." It doesn't matter if your in America or Japan, the call for sanctuary is something that no one should screw around with. Especially considering that it's a catholic church and how the catholic faith has a very strong influence in the world.

The father growled in response. "And who the hell 're you suppose to be?"

"A teacher," I growled back, "I'm Sarai Demsky's tutor for Duel Monsters."

To my ever ire, the punk suddenly began to laugh. "Duel Monsters? Please, that girl can't duel for shit."

Although I was thinking that he was going to question about me tutoring Duel Monsters of all things, I was slowly getting frustrated with the man in front of me. No wonder father was getting irritated with the man. "Sarai can duel, and I'll bet you that Sarai will be one of the best damn duelist in the country of Japan."

"Bullshit!" The man roared, "That girl can't read, what chances does she have to even win a match!"

"Because she made a deck." I tersely replied. "Because she took the time and effort to build a deck, because she struggled to make one even though she was handicapped to begin with. Sarai Demsky has potential."

The abrasive father began to laugh. "Potential? Girl your looking at potential, I'm one of the best duelists in the pro-league! From the way I see it, none of you guys have talent to even make it to the top."

...is that a challenge?

"Sarai!" The said girl jumped as I looked over at the already fearful girl. "Give me your deck." Sarai looked as if I had two heads protruding from my forehead. "Your dad doesn't think you can win with the deck that you made, well I'll prove him wrong. Dead wrong."

"B-But..."

"Sarai." This time my voice was more gentler than before. "This is going to sound corny as hell-" I rolled my eyes when the nuns as well as Father Xavier began to murmur the Hail Mary prayer, "-but you made your deck with love. Something like that is damn near- oh come on! Damn is seriously not all that bad of a word!" I screamed at the nuns as they prayed the Hail Mary five more times.

"As I was saying, something like that is going to be impossible to beat." I finished, although I made myself look like an ass in front of everyone, I'm hoping that Sarai would get the hint and let me use her deck.

Apparently she did as she boldly, but slowly, stepped up and handed me her deck case.

"Fine, if that's how you want to do it!" The man snapped his finger as one of the women came out with a case, opening it up, the man pulled out what appears to be an...armguard? No wait, it has a protrusion of a wing like form. The device slowly hummed as light blinked on the red L.E.D. The device brightened as the wing spread, revealing five squares as well as five rectangular squares that were empty. Two large hole gapped in the center as the man slid his deck into the device...

...oh and did I mention that the device had a bat like theme? Stupid, right?

"A duel disk..." one of the kids murmured as the man crossed his arms.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Bring out your duel disk..." The man smirked, "Or are you so damn poor that you don't even have one?"

"S-Shut up!" I screamed out only to feel empty, it's true that we're poor and we don't have something like a duel disk, still I can't back down from a challenge, not now. "I don't need any fancy gizmos to beat you!"

"Actually you do." We all turned around to see Sister Agatha holding a duel disk. Although it was dusty and old it was still, nevertheless, a duel disk. Handing it to me she gave me a smile.

"Although I'll have to be cleanse and punished later for saying this but..." She points at the snob of a man, Sarai's father.

"Kick his smug ass off of our church."

I placed the deck into the duel disk with a smirk. "With pleasure Sister." The device began to shuffle the deck as it spat out five cards. We both took them out while the number rose.

"Duel!" We shouted as the life points hit 4000.

Duel Start!
? (Joshua) = 4000
Mr. Demsky = 4000

Mr. Demsky began the duel on his Draw Phase. "Get ready, cause it's about to get heavy! I summon forth Infernalqueen Archfiend in Attack mode!"

Now this is the first time I've ever dueled with a Duel Disk. So imagine my surprise when I watched a large, bone-covered creature in dark robes appeared on the field, screeching it's lungs out as if I've done something wrong.

Infernalqueen Archfiend
Attack: 900
Defense: 1500

It was so surreal, everything felt so...real. The breath that the creature was emitting, the sweat, the looming effect that it was giving off almost made me fall on the ground...almost. Finally I regained my voice to question what was in front of me.

"An Archfiend monster?" I voiced out weakly as the man flashed me a cruel smirk. "Yeah, and now that this card's out, each and every monster, that has Archfiend in its name, gains 1000 ATK points!" Purple fog seeped into the Archfiend's body as the queen of the Archfiend grew in size.

Infernalqueen Archfiend
Attack: 900 + 1000 = 1900
Defense: 1500

I regained my confidence, as I realized something important about the Archfiend archetype. "Hey, in order keep an Archfiend monster on the field, you have to pay Life Points during every Standby Phase of your turn. Since it's Infernalqueen, you lose 500 points every Standby phase!"

"That's where you're wrong." Mr. Demsky chortled sinisterly, confusing me for a second before I realized what he was implying.

"Crap...don't tell me you have-"

"That's right! I play the field spell card, Pandemonium!" The man inserted a card into his custom duel disk, causing a bright luminescent to shine across the field, forcing the others to cover their eyes. I couldn't see, but I heard Father Xavier and the nuns began to gather the children together as they began to murmur a hefty prayer to ward them against the evils around them. When I opened my eye, I couldn't blame their reaction; hell, if I can, I would run over there as well.

When the light faded away, the field changed into a disturbing room with bone statues of horrid monsters and bone-laced walls and a lava pool in the middle of the field. In short?

It looked like hell.

"Ah fuck..."

"Ah fuck is right!" Mr. Densky declared. "Now with this baby on the field, I don't have to pay Life Points in order to keep my Archfiend on the field! Also, if they're ever destroyed outside of battle, I get to place another Archfiend of a lower level right into my hand!"

I cursed as I looked at the deck that Sarai allowed me to use. Nothing in this deck will allow me to destroy that field spell. Now this is going to be a whole of a lot harder than.

Luckily for me Infernalqueen is only a level 4 monster, so the best he can take out is Bishop or Rook. But on his next turn if he's able to bring out the Pawn, then it's going to get irritating, especially with the effects that each Archfiend has...

"I know what you're thinking, bitch." Mr. Densky turned to the Sarai, "You think you can beat me and take her away from me. But it's never going to happen, and you know why? Cause I'm going to find her and I'll find a way to take her back." Sarai began to tremble at the thought.

"Hey!" Mr. Densky looked over at my direction, "You leave Sarai out of this! I'm the one you're dealing with right now!" I roared. Mr. Densky sneered "Fine, take your best shot. It's going to be impossible to beat Archfiend on your first turn. Especially since your deck is from that useless whore-"

"What did you say?" I whispered dangerously as I venomously gazed into the man's eyes. There were some things that I tolerated, but being called a bitch and calling my student a whore is something that no one should trend over. Apparently he didn't get the message as he smirked. "I called her a whore, what else-"

"SHUT UP!" I screamed. "She's your daughter for fuck sakes! How the hell can you call your own flesh and blood a whore!" He gave me a toothy smile. "I just can, and I'll say it again. She's a useless whore with a useless deck for a whore."

That did it.

"You know, I was going to go slow to extract humility out of you, but after that? I think I'm just going to end it here." He burst out a loud, boisterous, laugh. "End it here? Yeah right, as if you can-"

"I can and I will, because this deck is worth fifty times more than you're stupid archfiend. In fact..." Looking at my sixth card, I activated the spell card.

"..I'll start things off with Card Destruction! This forces us to discard all of our cards into the Grave, the flip side is that we both draw the number of cards we discarded to our grave." He cursed, but followed as we discard our hand before drawing a new hand.

"Now I activate Gem-Knight Obsidian's effect!"

"Gem-Knight?" Mr. Densky questioned as a dark colored knight surfaced from the ground, with a chain of round obsidian swirling around him.

"When Gem-Knight Obsidian is sent to the grave form my hand, I can special summon one level four or lower normal monster in my grave. So I summon Gem-Knight Tourmaline from my grave in attack mode!" The armor on Gem-Knight Obsidian began to crack all over. The knight gave one last groan before bursting into million pieces, revealing another knight in place of the dark armored knight.

In it's place, a bright yellow armored knight stood, with a large yellow Tourmaline in it's chest. The knight raised it's arm, creating a lighting bolt like sphere in it's hands.

Gem-Knight Tourmaline
Attack: 1600
Defense: 1800

"You honestly think that'll really affect my Infernalqueen Archfiend in any way? Her attack power is higher than that pathetic knight-"

"Next I activate Gem-Knight Lazuli's effect." In a flash, a pixie like female emerged. Like every other Gem-Knight that emerged on the field, she had a gem-based armor as a dark blue lazuli gem shone, contrasting with her grayish armor.

"When Gem-Knight Lazuli was sent to the grave by a card effect, she can bring one normal monster from my grave back into my hand!" The pixie giggle, morphing into a small, florescent, ball. Swirling around my duel disk, it entered in the grave slot. A card ejected from it. Pulling it out I took out a spell card from my hand.

"Now I'll play the spell card, Gem-Knight Fusion! Fusing Tourmaline and Sapphire that I got back from my grave, a new knight will emerge!"

From the hole that Obsidian emerged from, a hot geyser shot out as a figure fell from the sky. Landing with one knee on the ground, the knight stood. Standing next to the yellow knight a rather skinny, but a shiny, knight extended it's arms out creating a wall of cool water around. Tourmaline soon electrified the wall as the water created a massive waterspout as the electrified tornado surrounded the two.

I couldn't help it. It looked to epic for me not to do it.

I had to make a kick ass monologue.

"Two will become one, and from one will come a great power! Watch as they merge their mights! Together, the one will deliver the lightning of justice!" Thunder struck in the center of the waterspout as a shadow formed inside the tornado. It was hard to see, but they could tell the figure was large and had a cape.

"Fusion Summon! Let's rock it, Gem-Knight Topaz!" the figure turned as a yellow, jagged, blade cut through the winds, dispelling the tornado. A forest-green cape fluttered from the winds as a massive orange colored knight kneeled, with it's bladed tonfa's pointed outward. It stood up, it's Topaz gem shining under the hot sun. Electricity surged around it's armor as the knight simply flicked it's free hand to the side, getting rid of it instantly.

Gem-Knight Topaz
Attack: 1800
Defense: 1800

"You've got to be kidding me," Mr. Demsky muttered as he began to laugh hysterically, "All of that to summon something pathetic as that? I knew that Sarai deck was shitty, but to think that the best you could do was summon something like that?"

Although it wasn't said out loud, I could tell that the people behind me were questioning why I would summon a monster like that. I even heard Sarai mumble how her deck wasn't all that good...

"Don't insult Sarai." Everyone looked at me as I point at Topaz. "This card...this monster. You wouldn't understand. You'd never understand how Sarai cherish these cards..."

"Gem-Knight?" I looked at the cards in front of me as Sarai nodded her head. "Not that I don't like your decision to pick Gem-Knights, I mean they have a kick ass ability, but why-"

"T-They were w-with me the whole time..." I stopped as Sarai's head fell. I could instantly tell that she was holding in her embarrassment. "T-These were the only c-cards t-that were at the orphanage at the time..." She clutched onto Gem-Knight Crystal. "I remember...this is the last thing mom left for me before..."

A droplet of tear fell onto the wooden floor.

"She could have been like those other kids and forgotten about their mom or dad...but not Sarai! She held onto every precious memory that she had for her mom! This deck...this deck is to show not only for her determination to change her life 180, but to remember her love for her mother! Something that you can never give to Sarai!"

"Ms. Chung..." Sarai whispered.

I pointed at the orange Gem-Knight, "Topaz is symbolized as one's friendship to another! It's faithfulness and loyalty is rivaled to no one! Watch Sarai! Cause Topaz will show you how far his loyalty will go!"

I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, but for a second I could see Gem-Knight Topaz tilt it's head over to Sarai and gave a firm nod before looking back at Infernalqueen Archfiend. "Now attack!"

"You idiot!" the man screamed, "You can spout those speeches as much as you want, it doesn't change the fact that your monster is weaker than mine-"

"I activate Gem-Merchant's effect!" The man stopped mid-way as a wizen like Gem monster emerged. It radiated 'magic' especially since it was wearing a witch hat.

"By sending him to the grave, I can boost Topaz's attack and defensive power by 1000!"

Mr. Densky's eyes widened in shock. "W-What!"

Gem-Knight Topaz
Attack: 1800 + 1000 = 2800
Defense: 1800 + 1000 = 2800

Gem-Merchant gave a nice loud 'ho' as it flew right into Topaz's body. Gem-Knight Topaz's body altered into lightning, and in a blink of an eye, the lightning pierced through the Archfiend. The queen screeched before shattering into million of pieces as the lightning morphed back into the orange colored knight, kneeling right in front of Mr. Densky; it's green cap fluttering behind madly.

"Gem-Knight Topaz's effect activates! Whenever Topaz destroys a monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard, instead of the damage difference, it instead inflict damage equal to the ATK of the destroyed monster!" Throwing one of the tonfas into the air, Topaz used it's free hand to punch Mr. Densky right in the stomach, making the man doubling in pain.

Mr. Densky: 4000 - 1900 = 2100

"Y-You bitch," he gasped out, "I activate Pandemonium's effect!"

"Go ahead!" I boasted while I pointed at the sky. "Because Gem-Knight Topaz's second effect activates!" Everyone looked at me. I could tell that they were wondering what I meant when Topaz had a second effect.

"Gem-Knight Topaz can attack twice on each battle phase!" His eyes augmented, horrified. "Topaz's power is 2800, meaning..."

Behind Topaz's helm, it's eyes twinkled as the knight leaped into the sky. The Fusion monster grab hold of the twirling tonfa that was still in midair. Defying the laws of gravity and mass - as the knight flipped behind, with it's head pointing downward - it placed it's foot onto a cloud as if it was solid and pushed off and charged.

While falling the knight transformed into lighting and crashed onto Mr. Densky. Hollering in pain, as electricity surged his body, the knight teleported back in front of me as it twirled it's bladed tonfa's expertly before turning it's back to the stunned, and charred, Mr. Densky.

Like a generic samurai movie, the man fell after Topaz kneeled; sheathing it's weapon into two steel sheaths behind him.

Mr. Densky: 2100 - 2800 = 0

When the hologram faded away, Sarai gasped as Gem-Knight Topaz looked at the stun orphan, and gave her a thumbs up before vanishing. I quickly took off the duel disk on my arm and ejected all the cards that were in the graveyard.

"H-How..." The man moaned as he slowly got off of the ground. "I-I'm a Division 2 Pro-league duelist! How the hell can a third-rate duelist...with a fourth-rate deck beat me?"

"Because this ain't no ordinary deck." I glared at the abusive father in front of me. Pointing a thumb at Sarai I continued, "You call yourself a pro, but you don't even know how to take care of your own deck. To show adoration and a fond appreciation for them- don't even try to argue with me."

The man closed his mouth.

"I know people, even newer duelists that take care of their cards better than you. Then there are people like Sarai. Your daughter, the one you called a whore, had these cards for almost ten years; keeping them in perfect conditions and keeping them as a memoir of her mother. Someone like you can never destroy that bond."

When Mr. Densky scoffed defiantly, I sighed in frustration. He was a lost cause.

"Until you understand what I'm saying, don't you ever show your ugly face in front of this church ever again." Sarai walked over to me as I handed her back her Gem Knight deck. Tears were threatening to come out of her eyes as I pulled the girl into a hug. Soon she was drenching my shirt with her sobs. Did I give a damn? After this? I could careless.

The sound of soft clapping caused everyone to turn around. Standing in front of the entrance, next to several men dressed in a nicely groomed tuxedo and sunglasses, was an effeminate man with a very straight, shiny, silver hair. Dressed in a red suit, he looked rather ridiculous. But when I heard the orphans, as well as the nun and Father Xavier, chatter beside me excitedly I knew I was missing something.

He was eyeing me and Sarai with an intrigued twinkle in his blue eyes.

"Well said, young miss. Well said indeed." Maximillian J. Pegasus Crawford applauded.