Here's chapter 7 of my Yu-Gi-Oh GX fanfic. Last time Tao met up with an old friend and was challenged to a duel by old companion Kazuya Shirayuki. After a near stalemate of a duel the two now only differ by fifty life points and now both true powers of their decks are about to be revealed.
DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.
Duel VII: Raging Winds Ahead; Tao v. Windragon Shiron, Part 2
"Tao answer me this; what is your intention from coming here? What is so important that you've had to lie from these people, but more importantly what is your goal in coming here? If you don't answer these questions I'll force the answer out of you."
Jason, Destiny, Locket, and Amun all looked with disbelief at Kazuya's bravery and Tao kept a stern look on his face while Kazuya took his draw. Kazuya looked at the card he drew and began to laugh.
"With this, the real duel starts here! I summon Windragon-Shiron (1900/1400) in attack mode!" as Kazuya placed the card into the empty slot the card revealed itself as a western dragon with a pilot's cap. "Next, I play the spell card Halo Tornado! With this while I control my good buddy Shiron I destroy all your monsters!" After playing the card a giant whirlwind with small bits of debris began to strike the four monsters on Tao's side of the field and continually battered them until they were reduced to dust in the wind. "Next I attack with Windragon Shiron; go Tornado Slicer!"
The dragon breathed in and shot out of its mouth a continual stream of wind that blasted almost straight through Tao dropping his life points from 2600 to 700. Panting but still determined Tao looked at Kazuya as he simply chuckled and pointed at Tao.
"You have obviously gotten weaker bud. And I don't tell that to everyone," he said as the Windragon shared in his amusement.
"Healing…" Tao said under his breath.
"Huh?" Destiny said as the rest looked at Tao.
"I need these scars healed to fully move past what happened all those years back," he said with his head down. "And to do that I need power; powers of the past, powers of possession, and power to see that which hasn't happened."
The rest of the students looked at him crippled by the attack when Destiny noticed something strange about his scars. They seemed to be larger than the first time she saw them.
"I've already taken the Jewel of Excalibur and the Scarab of the Pyramid and I won't let you stand in my way from moving on for the first time in my life! My draw and I play Balance Destroyer, whenever I have two Yin monsters, two Yang monsters, and one Wu Xing monster in my graveyard I can remove them from play and destroy all my cards in my hand and on the field to discard all cards in your hand and have us both draw five cards as well as have our life points even out based on the average between the two," Tao explained.
As the five-pointed star appeared again from earlier and spun around the two of them it produced all the effects as Tao described leaving both Tao and Kazuya with 1675 life points.
"And balanced is restored," Tao said drawing his five cards and watching Kazuya doing the same. "Now why don't I change up my game as well, by summoning Chinese Spirit Da Shu (1000/0) in attack mode," he declared as a black and white rat took the field.
Destiny, Locket, Amun, and Jason all looked at the monster and were dumbfounded by its appearance.
"Anyone mind explaining?" Locket asked.
"Astrology," Destiny said. "That rat is part of twelve symbols that represent one's personality like my zodiac cards. These are all symbols in Chinese mythology that each represent a year and continue in that cycle for every year."
The rest of the group looked at her surprised while Tao kept a straight face while looking at Destiny who seemed to be hurting inside.
"With my Chinese Spirits I have several powers; number I can attack you directly by cutting their attack points in half, also they count as both light and dark monsters, and specifically for Da Shu he can trick you into discarding one card from your hand and then I either A, keep you from activating said type of card if it is a spell or trap, or B, cut the attack points of a monster in half should the card discarded is a monster," Tao explained. "Da Shu; Trickster Gaze!"
The rat looked at Kazuya intently and jumped up and bit the middle card revealing it to be a monster card with the picture of a sapphire bird on it. Da Shu's eyes then averted to Shiron whose attack was half to 950.
"Now Da Shu, attack, Flowing Swarm!" the rat then called out as a large amount of water came out that flooded the area and destroyed Shiron dropping Kazuya's life point gauge to 1625.
Kazuya kept his head down and lifted it up to be found smiling even though his dragon had been destroyed.
"You know what, Tao? I couldn't be happier you destroyed Shiron…or at least his base form," Kazuya said much to everyone's shock.
"Hmm," Tao contemplated. "I'll set down two face-down cards and end my turn."
"Fine, my draw and I remove from play my Windragon Shiron to summon from my hand Spiritual Windragon Shiron (2000/1400)!" he declared as he summoned a monster that looked similarly like to the other Windragon Shiron but had armor on its arms and lower legs. "And by this card's effect I can bring back one of the wind monsters in my graveyard, and I choose my Eclipse Falcon (2700/2000) which means I can summon it to the field automatically." He said as the black and white falcon took the field again. "Now my Spiritual Windragon Shiron attacks your rat, Spiritual Tornado Rage!"
"Hold on! When you attack I activate my trap card, Balance Spectrum! As long as this trap remains active in order to attack a monster on my side of the field with the lowest attack you have to attack with your strongest monster!" he said pointing to the falcon. "Which means you falcon has to attack me!"
The students all looked at Tao with surprise because based on simple that would mean he would lose automatically. Kazuya chuckled and accepted the trap and attacked with Eclipse Falcon.
"What now, Tao?" he asked confident in his win. "When this attack connects you've lost! Light and Shadow Break!"
The falcon placed its wings in front of its face and removed them from their place to send out a beam that looked similar to the Yin and Yang symbol that attacked and destroyed Da Shu in an instant. Still in the dust Kazuya grinned only for that smile to dim as he saw Tao standing with a total of 675 life points and with a black and white ox on his field.
"How did you do that?" Kazuya asked surprised.
"It's a rare trap card called Balance Replacer; activated only when my opponents declares an attack this card makes it so I take no battle damage this turn and by sacrificing my Chinese Spirit monster and paying life points equal to its combined attack and defense I can automatically summon another Chinese Spirit like this Chinese Spirit Niu (600/2100) from my deck," Tao explained.
Kazuya looked at Tao impressed and conceded the turn to him.
"My draw! I summon from my hand Chinese Sprit Hu (1600/1000) in attack mode!" Tao said as he summoned another black and white monster, this time a tiger. "Next, from my hand I play the spell card Balance Gathering! With this I can special summon one of Chinese Spirits from my deck, like Chinese Spirit Tu (1200/500)!" he declared as he summoned from his deck a black and white rabbit.
"So what? You got yourself a nice little zoo here, what does it do for you?" Kazuya asked tauntingly.
"This! By halving the attack of two other Chinese Spirit monsters my rabbit can attack you directly this turn!" Tao explained as both the tiger's and ox's attack dropped down to 800 and 300 respectively. "Tu, Nature Strike!"
The rabbit jumped over both of Kazuya's monsters and then kicked Kazuya in the gut leaving him with 425 life points. Cringing slightly after being attacked Kazuya stood up only to find the tiger doing the same thing leaving him with 25 life points. Looking at Tao whose tiger had just jumped back to him confused Kazuya was cut off before he could ask his question.
"Remember that my Chinese Spirits can attack you directly should I halve their attack," Tao explained. "I'll set one more card face-down and end my turn. Now who's at the disadvantage?"
Looking at his life points Kazuya's eyes widened and he smiled an interesting smile in the fact he wasn't hysterical nor did he find humor.
"Tao," he said. "This is the lowest amount of life points I've been at. I've never been forced into this kind of corner before and for some reason it feels good. Every duel I don't lose anything, not even a monster and here you are practically wiping the floor with me. Why does this feel so good?"
"Because you have that potential to not only lose, but like so many others you find it enjoyable to be a corner because it pushes you, makes you look like a person who's not afraid to admit he can lose. It proves that you're human, and that's a recognition everyone deserves," Tao explained.
"All right, my turn! And I'm going to attack your Chinese Spirit Niu with my Eclipse Falcon! Light and Shadow Break!" The falcon used the same attack as before and fired it at the ox hitting it but not destroying it. "What?"
"When Niu is attacked while in defense mode I can add the defense points of all my Chinese Spirits to his. You take no damage but if the defense points I can destroy one monster on the field," he said pointing to Shiron now being blasted by the reflected blast.
Kazuya looked pleased as he looked at a card in his hand and chuckled.
"Just like before I remove from play my Spiritual Windragon Shiron to summon from my hand Berserk Windragon Shiron (2300/1700) in attack mode," Kazuya said summoning another version of Shiron this time with a frenzied look on his eye. "Now by his effect I can special summon from my hand one of my wind monsters like my White Blizzard Owl (1300/0) who, when summoned, destroy a spell or trap card like your Balance Spectrum!" as the snow white owl took the field it swooped down and destroyed the card on Tao's field. "Now it's your turn."
"Just as things begin they must end; so this begins your end," Tao declared. "I activate my face-down card Balance Rewrite!" as with all his cards a five pointed star took the field. With this card neither player can attack during this turn and the next turn. And for the price to drop my life points to the same as yours and all the cards in my hand I destroy all the cards on the field."
Tao's life points dropped down to 25 much like Kazuya's did on his last turn. The star's pointed broke apart and feel down from the sky after shooting up towards it the points then glowed destroying everything and then left one point on each person's field.
"Now it's your turn. And given that this will be your final turn you'd make it count," Toa said.
Kazuya smiled, but off in the distance Destiny seemed to be in a state of panic.
"What is Tao? He's like a monster, more so than the ones who attacked him in the past. What does he want with that power? Does he really just want to be healed? Then why not have us help him? He's lying about something, and I won't rest until I find out what it is!"
"My draw and I remove from play my Berserk Windragon Shiron to summon my final card; Command Windragon Shiron (2500/2000)!" Kazuya declared summoning yet another version of Shiron this time with more full body armor. "Tao, if you can't stop me this turn, you've lost!"
The audience looked Tao who kept a stern look on his face. "Kazuya," he said. "I've survived more than I'd like to admit. I've seen things that people want to keep hidden. But most of all I've never lost. And neither have you, so someone's record will be broken, the question is who'll blink first," he said drawing his card. Keeping a solemn face and lowering his head he turned to Kazuya, "I'm sorry, Kazuya, but to move on I'm going to have to defeat you along the way. I remove from play Chinese Spirits Da Shu, Niu, Hu, and Tu to summon Chinese Spirit Long (2500/2000)!" he declared as he summoned a serpentine like dragon that was black on the top and white along the belly. "Unlike most cards of the Chinese Spirits he can't attack directly, but he does have this; for every light monster and dark monster in my graveyard he gains 100 attack points…" Tao lowered his head. "It's over; Long, Boundary Beam!"
The dragon charged up a beam in his mouth as his attack points grew to 2900 for each of the Yin and Yang monsters in Tao's graveyard. Kazuya smiled and said under his breath, "So I am human…" the beam blasted through the dragon and through to Kazuya who fell backwards as his life points dropped down to 0. Tao offered his hand and pulled Kazuya up.
"Sorry I had to ruin everything for you," he said bowing.
"Thank you for the best duel of my life!" Kazuya said as he fell back onto his back.
Tao smiled and walked past everyone and stopped next to Destiny.
"Next time, it's you…" he said walking away.
Destiny turned to him as he was walking away and tears began to produce from her eyes.
"I don't know if I can do this?"
Chapter seven complete. Again a shout-out to the person who sent me Kazuya, I'm definitely going to use him in later chapter should I find the time.
Next time; still worried about what Tao said to her Destiny goes into a state of depression and when she's challenged to an official duel by a strange duelist who only knows the bright side of life, who knows what'll happen. Next time; Look on the Bright Side: Zodiacs v. Cosmos.