Yu-gi-oh

No Limits

Chapter 36- Celtic Guardian OTK

By

By Kevin Jones

"Do good in life Chase, always do good in life. We must be able to be more than the tragedies we face."

"Chase wake up, Chase wake up, Chase wake up!"

The day has started like any other. I've woken up to the sound of my new alarm clock and with my head still in the pillow I'm reaching over and… Damn it! I promised Vanessa I wouldn't hit him.

"Damon, it's 6 in the morning. I don't get up until 6: 30. I have been telling you this for 6 days now, yet you seem to lack the ability to remember what I'm saying."

"But you need to hear what I just found out."

"What?" I'm going to regret this.

"Today's breakfast special is French Toast!"

I'm never wrong. "Damon, they have French Toast, or something that looks like French toast, every Tuesday."

"Really, wow, this really is a rich kid's school."

"Well then why don't you go get cleaned up and head down there while you still can?"

"Don't you want to come?"

"I don't eat much for breakfast. You go ahead; I'll be there in a little while."

"OK, I'll save you some toast!" With that, he picks up his things and rushes out the door.

When he shuts the door I sit up and begin rubbing the back of my neck. As I do this, Steve walks over to me from Damon's side of the room and I begin to pet the back of his head with my free hand.

"You like him don't you?"

No answer, like I'm expecting one.

"I guess it's easy for you to like him seeing as you're mostly active at night, which is when Damon chooses to be his most annoying." Seriously, every night before bed he asks me what feels like a billion questions before he eventually just zonks out and begins snoring like a jet engine.

As I'm sure you can all tell I'm not happy about now living with 2 animals. I liked being alone, my last roommate drove me crazy and from the looks of it, Damon's going to make him seem like a gift from god. Well…maybe that's not completely true.

I deal with annoying people all day long but there's something different about Damon. Ever since he's been living here, I've been having dreams about my Dad. Why, I don't know.

My Dad was a good man, he taught me about courage, right, wrong, how to duel, and those things I will never forget but that's not what I'm dreaming about.

I don't normally remember my dreams and I don't have any pictures associated with these one's but every morning since Damon's shown up I've woken up remembering this one…I guess saying my Dad used to tell me.

You know what; I'm not going to think about this anymore today. As annoying as Damon is, he's not going away and as weird as these dreams are, I refuse to ever see a psychologist. Right now there is one problem in my life that I can actually deal with and I think I know how.

…

Damon love's his new life, he loves getting to live with his best friend and duelist mentor, he loves his new pet, he loves his room, he loves getting to eat food that isn't served because it's supposed to increase brain function, and he loves getting to be around his 3 main friends as well as some of the new friends he's made since starting at Dewint.

"Good morning Damon." On his first day at Dewint, both Chase and Vanessa warned Damon that a lot of the students at Dewint wouldn't open up to a new student for a while. For the most part, that's how things were but when Damon got to 8th period History, Damon made 2 new friends almost instantly.

"Good Morning Hiromu." Hiromu Sakurada is a young Asian boy with black hair that goes down the length of his neck. His brown eyes are the same color as his tie which, like the rest of his uniform, is perfectly clean and in perfect shape and symmetry.

"Have you seen Maria yet?" Maria is a 15 year old Spanish exchange student. She has long blond hair that goes down the length of her back with most of her forehead covered by her bangs. She has blue eyes and fair skin.

"Here she comes," as Hiromu says this, Maria angrily walks to an open desk next to the 2 boys and sits down. She now has her arms crossed, eyes closed and an angry look on her face.

"What's she doing?" As Damon says this, both he and Saji begin to stare at the young woman with confused looks on their faces.

"I think she's waiting for us to ask what's wrong."

"That or maybe she's constipated."

"I guess that's Possible. Better yet where's our teacher?"

"Do either of you have anything you'd like to say to me?"

"Good afternoon."

"Close but no cigar Damon."

"Oh I don't smoke."

"You know what," starts Hiromu, "I'm just going to go ahead and save us all a lot of time. Maria is something wrong?"

"Well as you both know I don't like to complain so I'll make this short and simple. I hate that scum bag, that- that no good dirty rotten waste of space, Chase Rhodes!"

Everyone around seems to be ignoring the girl's rant, a sharp contrast to Damon who now looks confused. "How could you hate Chase, he likes the coolest, most awesome duelist ever."

"Here we go," as Hiromu say's this, Maria opens her eyes and, as if Damon just insulted her, snaps her head in his direction.

"That boy is a street rat and an anarchist. He has been nothing but rude and mean since day 1 to me."

"What did he do this time?" Hiromu's words may say one thing but his thoughts are saying "good lord what happened this time?"

"Well 2 periods ago I had gym with the future Ricers citizen. As I said during lunch today, I'm taking swimming this gym block, so is Chase. After the class did it stretches, Mr. Phelps noticed Chase was missing, even though he had been there when class started."

"Maybe, you should lower your voice."

"Hiromu don't interrupt me. When Phelps asked if anyone knew where he was, my eyes glanced over to the bleachers. There I could see the tip of Chase's weird black spiky hair peaking up from behind the front row of seats. I then volunteered to go get Mr. Trouble Maker. When I got there he was, sleeping in between the bleachers, still fully clothed by the way. I decided to wake him up softly by just tapping him on the shoulder. When I did this, instead of slowly waking up like a normal person, he jolts up, his head slams into my chin and I fall backwards right into the pool!"

"I think it was an accident," says Hiromu, even though he knows it's pointless.

"Yeah right, when I got out of the pool, everyone was laughing at me! Phelps then told Chase to go to the Headmasters office but I could tell he probably went back to his room to finish his mid-day nap!"

"Well…look on the Brightside!"

"What Hiromu, how could there be a possibly a Brightside to getting embarrassed, a sore chin and almost drowning?"

"Have you been listening to yourself, I've never seen you stay angry in English for so long."

"That's not-"

"You know, that's how Chase always wakes up. I keep asking him if he's having bad dreams but he won't tell me."

Maria's angry look has now been switched with a confused one. "How do you know how he wakes up?"

"Oh didn't I tell you guys? Chase is my roommate and best friend."

"Wait," Maria is confused, "how…or why…what could possibly possess you to call him your best friend?"

"Simple, we met at my old school where I was kind of a misfit, believe it or not, a lot of people used to think of me as a dummy. When we met, I challenged him to a duel and in that duel he showed me how I can become strong! Ever since that day, Chase has been my best friend and greatest teacher. You know Maria, you should duel Chase. Maybe if you 2 duel, you can learn to understand each other a bit better."

"I've dueled Chase before but he's never even so much as called me by name. Wait a second…what was he doing at your school in the first place? Actually why'd you transfer here or end up in the same room as him?"

"That's…a little hard to explain but anyways-"

"Quiet Damon," Maria's confused look is gone. Her face is growing a devilish smirk while an idea worms its way into the forefront of her brain. "You're right Damon. Chase and I should duel. Hiromu, are you in?"

…

"Oh my god," Vanessa sounds shocked. "Alana Thompson died!"

"Oh man," starts Toni, "wait…who's Alana Thompson?"

"I'm not sure…oh, it says here she was a reality TV star nick named- this has got to be a joke, it says her name was Honey Boo-Boo."

"Honey Boo-boo, sounds like Winnie the Pooh's retarded cousin."

"No it says here…that she did beauty pageants on some show called…Toddlers and Tiaras."

"OK, that just sounds like a pedophiles dream come true."

"Based on these pictures, that's for certain."

"What killed her?"

"Heart attack, oh man and she was only 33."

"How is that even possible?"

"Well seeing as in the final picture of her alive they've got in here, I'd say she probably had every weight related disease on the planet."

What you all just heard is something no man should here, teenage girls talking about things they read in magazines. This happens every Tuesday at Barnes & Noble for 2 reasons: 1, ever since the war, and for reasons I don't quite understand, all magazines release there new weekly issues on the same day and 2, nothing brings girls together like gossip. Now every week, Vanessa and Toni partake in this stupidity and every week they ask me, Kai, and now Damon, to go with them. Kai had to work, that's always his excuse, and Damon had plans with some friends he made at the school. This just leaves me, normally I just say no but this week…well…like I this morning, I have a problem to solve.

"What are you doing over here? Why don't you go over there and do filthy things to Nes and Toni!"

OK…so how do I explain this one. Uhmmm, you see…do you guys remember about a week ago when Damon moved in? Now if you all remember correctly, Millay and I were talking about something that might have suggested that we, sort of, did some… R rated things together. Also that day, Debris Dragon came back; he had no memory of what happened that day in the sewers other than what I remember. Now the reason I didn't bring him up last time is because…well…I didn't realize that he saw Millay and I…alright I admit we had sex! I was miserable about getting a roommate and apparently Millay was feeling horny so we had hot, well maybe not hot because of a draft in my room, passionate sex on Damon's new mattress and Debris Dragon saw the whole thing. You'd expect he look away but he didn't. He watched in horror as 2 humans showed the end result of puberty. After we were done he disappeared and that was the last I saw of him that day.

"Debris Dragon, this has been going on a week, get over it." I wonder if this is what's it's like when a little kid walks in on their parents having sex.

"How can I just get over that, when I first got partnered up with you, you said there had to be boundaries, that, that being naked is something people are when there alone and that no one else is supposed to see you like that!"

"When I said boundaries, things like sex are what I was talking about. What we were doing is completely natural, it's how humans reproduce."

"What do I care about reproduction, I'm a spirit! Besides, why would you want to make a baby?"

OK, this is why I came to the bookstore. I have tried everything to shut him up, I tried saying sex is something we all do, turns out spirits don't have sex, or reproduce, or technically have gender. It even got to the point where I said if he'd forget about it, I'd by him Ice Cream. That's right; I tried use Ice Cream bribery on something that doesn't eat. When none of these ideas worked, I decided to turn to the professionals.

I checked the school library during lunch but there was nothing on child phycology. Then, after English, Vanessa once again offered if I wanted to join her and Toni to go to Barnes & Nobles on Magazine day. At first I said no but then I realized that there are enough magazines about phycology and child care to create a forest, which brings me to right now.

"Well what's your excuse now for the depravity I saw?"

How on earth does he know the word depravity? You know what, never mind. It's time to use what I've been reading for the past 20 minutes. "Listen Debris Dragon, what you saw Millay and I doing is called making love."

"But you 2 hate each other!"

Dam I forgot that article applies for normal people. Time for plan Birds and the bees. "Debris Dragon, when a woman and a man love each other very much-"…no wait the article said not to lie. "When an evil manipulative sociopath, is obsessed with controlling someone who's feeling distraught and confused, she uses her perfect 10 body to prey on the distraught young man to further her goal of controlling him. Because of his sadness he gives into temptation and lets his basic instincts run wild."

"So sex isn't about love, or pleasure or even fun, it's just control and who gives in first?"

"Sure," I know some of you are thinking this is wrong but give me a break, I can't even sit next to a girl in class without Debris Dragon going wild."

"I just have 1 question. According to that article you showed me a few days ago; the only parts of living organism's nesciarry for sex are the genitals. If that's true then why did she put her mouth around your Pe-"

"You know what why don't I ask a question. You comment on how beautiful you find Vanessa all the time and you do seem to pick out all the spots human men are attracted to like… her chest or her… but. This in theory means you are also somewhat attracted to human woman. So there for, shouldn't you at least somewhat find sex appealing just because of the part that involves a beautiful woman?"

"Think of it like this, humans find pugs cute right?"

"For the most part."

"You love the cute smushed in faces, the big black eyes, the cute curly tail and of course the toy like bodies, right?"

"Yeah," I'm afraid to know where this is going.

"Would you ever want to watch 2 pugs have sex?"

"Well no but…I guess…you know what let's try and move on with our lives." Damn it, I'm starting to understand the logic of a small ghost dragon.

"Chase is something bothering you?" Oh crap Vanessa's right behind me.

"No, I'm just fine. What would make you think something's wrong?"

"Well for starters, you've been standing in this corner since we got here, you seem to be talking to the wall and I just heard you say my name."

Oh shit, "did you hear what else I said?"

"No you mumbled most of what you were saying, which also started to worry me, then you said my name and so I decided to approach you slowly."

"I chose to stay back here," remarks Toni.

"How brave-"

"What are you reading?" Oh shit Vanessa is looking at one of the magazines I was holding.

"It's nothing just research for a project at school."

"What class are you taking that would possibly require you to research…wait a second you dog eared a page in a magazine that you then put back on the rack, that's just wrong. Wait a second why were you reading an article on explaining the birds and the bees?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Oh shit now Toni's looking at the same article as Vanessa. "Chase was reading about male and female relations and then he said your name, it doesn't take a PHD to know what's going on."

Oh shit, Toni maybe joking but Vanessa's face is starting to turn red…that being said I have a feeling my face isn't its normal color either.

"Chase," starts Vanessa, "what's going on here?"

"I…I…" I need a distraction.

"Hey guys sorry I'm late!" Oh, Damon's here…could I have a different distraction?

"Oh Damon," Vanessa sounds relieved, "you're here and not a moment too soon. Wait a second, Hiromu, what are you doing here?"

What the, standing next to Damon are 2 kids in Dewint uniforms. One of them is Asian and looks a little embarrassed. The other is a blond chick with a weird looking smile on her face.

"Oh, remember when I said I had made new friends at school?"

We all nod.

"Well Hiromu and Maria are the friends I was talking about and Chase, Maria has something she would like to say to you."

With that both Damon and…the Asian kid step behind Maria and as she begins to open her mouth, I begin to debate making a run for it.

"Chase Rhodes," oh shit she's doing a calm before the storm sort of voice. "For 5 years now you have been going Dewint Academy."

Oh shit, here we go again.

"In that time you have been rude and mean to everybody around you."

She better not be working for a crazy guy with psychic powers.

"Even people who have been nothing but nice to you!"

Ok this is starting to take a different turn, partially because everyone here besides the 6 of us are burying their faces in their books trying to pretend this crazy Spanish sounding girl isn't here. I should do the same.

"Damon is your roommate, and has been nothing but nice to you yet you constantly belittle and make fun of him."

"I have chosen to stay silent." Even Damon can tell this chick is crazy.

"If that isn't bad enough you have been mean to Hiromu for 5 years and it's about time you pay for that."

OK now I'm confused. "Who's Hiromu?"

"Are you kidding me?" Ok now she's even madder. "He's standing right next to me."

Suddenly she grabs the Asian kid by the arm and pushes him right in front of me. "When was I ever mean to you?"

"Actually," starts…Hiromu, "you've never been mean to me, you just have…never noticed I'm alive."

"Exactly, he's known you for years but you've never even noticed him."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Actually she's kind of right, we've had at least 1 class together since 6th grade. I was the guy in 5th period Earth Science today who put his homework on the board."

"Oh…" damn I really don't remember this guy. "What was the answer to number 3?"

"Never mind Homework, because right now we're going to give you a taste of your own medicine!"

"If you're going to give me medicine, might I suggest some aspirin because I'm starting to get a headache?"

"Enough Sarcasm, it's time to duel!"

"Duel, what's that going to do?"

"You should thank your roommate for this brilliant idea."

Figures Damon is responsible for causing me this irritation. Just like he caused this morning's irritation and he'll probably cause me irritation tonight as well. Which I think mean's Damon is basically a bad rash.

"I can explain," says the rash, "you see during gym today you accidently wacked Maria in the head when she went to go wake you up. When she told me and Hiromu this, I came up with the idea of you 2 dueling so you'd understand each other better. What do you think of that idea?"

"I think-"

"Chase, don't say anything bad. Damon's just trying to help."

I turn around towards Vanessa and say, "you cannot be ok with this?"

"About as ok as I am with anything else you do. Besides if this is what it takes to have 1 less person in the world who hates you, I say go for it."

"But what about the rest of the people here, we can't just start a duel right here."

"It's a bookstore," starts Toni, "I think the 9 other people here would love to see some duel action."

"You're not helping."

"Oh she's helping alright. She's helping me ensure that we kick your butt!"

"We, what do you mean by we?" I have a bad feeling about this.

"It's very simple; I have designed the perfect tag duel strategy for me and Hiromu to use. I've decided to combine getting revenge on you and testing this strategy out."

"I swear this was all her idea," says…Hiromu.

"And how does dueling me get you your revenge?"

"With an ego like yours, being beat by people you consider to be nobody's is bound to make you want to crawl into a deep hole for a few years."

"That-…" damn that actually make's sense. "OK, let's get this over with.

Chase

"Alright Chase, since it's 2 on 1, pick your handy cap," says a confident Maria.

"I don't need a handy cap."

"Are you sure?" Hiromu definitely seems more confused than excited about the situation.

"Positive, I just need the first turn."

"You've already got a plan," says Debris Dragon.

"Just watch, I draw! Next I summon Elemental HERO Wildheart, in attack mode!" (ATK: 1500/DEF: 1600)

"That's strange," start's Damon, "Wouldn't it make more sense to set Wildheart instead, I mean he's got higher defense so if it were me I'd use him for defense since he can't attack on the first turn."

"Watch and learn Damon but for now I'm going to end my turn!"

Maria

"My draw, hah, your tattooed wild man may look tough but he can't stop my genius moves! I set 3 cards face down and end my turn!"

Hiromu

"OK now I'm confused," starts Toni, "why would she just set 2 cards? Even if you only draw trap cards, it's best not to set too many cards in case your opponent has a Heavy Storm waiting."

"Oh you'll see why Ms.- Who are you?"

"Oh, I'm Toni."

"Oh it's a pleasure to meet you Toni."

"It's definitely been interesting meeting you."

"Yes well, if Hiromu has the right hand, then we're all in for an interesting treat. Isn't that right Hiromu?"

"What," for the past 5 minutes, Hiromu has been looking at his cards like they're written in Chinese.

"Do you have a good hand?"

"Uhm…I think so."

"Well is the plan going to work?"

"I…think so."

"What do you mean you think so? Do you have the right card in your hand or don't you?"

"No but I haven't drawn yet."

"Then draw," seriously this is so dumb Wildheart looks like he wants to take a nap.

"I draw."

"Well did you draw it?"

"I think so."

"Oh just play it!" This may be my most irritating duel yet.

"Right then, I summon Celtic Guardian!" (ATK: 1400/DEF: 1200)

"That's old!" Remarks Damon and he's right. Celtic Guardian goes back to the very beginning of this game. He even looks old with his green body armor over his…Lord of the Ring's inspired clothing underneath.

"Now behold, I play the trap," here she goes, "Torrential Tribute! Now every monster on the field is destroyed!"

A big wave covers the field, engulfing Celtic Guardian and Wildheart.

"Next I activate Call of the Haunted, allowing me to special summon 1 Monster from my graveyard and since me and Hiromu share 1 side of the field I can summon Celtic Guardian."

"And I can attack with him, right?"

"Yes Hiromu, you can attack with him but not before I play Inferno Reckless Summon! Now because a monster with 1500 ATK or less has just entered the battlefield, we now get to summon 2 more from the deck!"

"Uh right, so I summon 2 more, which means next I'm supposed to attack right?"

"Yes Hiromu," she's getting fired up, "attack him with 3 monsters that on their own seem week but together are enough to win this duel!"

"Right- Celtic Guardian's all 3 of you attack!"

"It's an interesting concept you guys created but it isn't going to work."

Before Hiromu can say anything, Wildheart's sword slashes through 1 of the Guardians and uses his sword to block the other 2. (4000-3900)

"What the heck!?" Arian race girl is angry.

"In a tag duel, more often than not, 1 player controls the monsters and the other, the spell and traps. Since you said you made this strategy it meant you'd be using the key cards and since you seem to think you're very smart your key cards were most likely strategy cards which means spells and traps. Enter Wildheart, his special ability makes him unaffected by traps so I knew he could help protect me from whatever you had in store."

"Hmmm," she seems to be getting mad. "Por qué idiota! Tuvimos el plan perfecto para llegar a ser como el resto de nosotros, pero no sólo hay que ser terco no usted!"

"Oh dear she's yelling in Spanish. I better end my turn."

Chase

"Right, time to end this insanity, so I draw and next I play the spell card Polymerization, which lets me fuse the Wildheart on my field with the Elemental HERO Bladedge in my hand in order to fusion summon, Elemental HERO Wildedge! (ATK: 2600/DEF: 2300) Now if you think Wildheart was cool, then let me show you what happens when you give him gold armor! Go Wildedge, attack his Celtic Guardian."

Wildedge raises his sword and goes after the tall elf. When the 2 swords clash, the elf falls and vanishes. (3900-2700)

"Now Wildedge's ability activates, since he attacked 1 of your monsters he can attack the other 1!"

Wildedge fires a dagger from his mechanical arm at Celtic Guardian and the other guardian falls. (2700-1500)

"You have destroyed our Guardians but we still have life points let!"

"I think you mean left and not for long because next I activate the quick-play De-Fusion! Now I get to return Wildedge to my extra deck and special summon Wildheart and Bladedge! (ATK: 2600/DEF: 1800) Now Bladedge end this, slice and dice attack!" Bladedge, flies towards the 2 stooges and slashes through them with both blades.

Winner: Chase Loser: Hiromu and Maria

"Chase," starts Vanessa, "you just won without losing a single life point."

"I never doubted my deck for a second."

…

"So basically it sounds like there are 3 kinds of relationships that can involve sex."

It's about 11 pm and I was testing a non sex related theory I read about in the bookstore-…that may or may not have come out wrong. Anyways, this 1 article stated that if you take a nice long hot shower before bed you'll sleep better and hopefully if I sleep better, I won't dream about my Dad again.

"The first is a loving relationship, like in that cheesy Twilight movie."

Apparently Debris Dragon has just now rationalized sex. Hopefully if I bear this, it will be the last time I have to hear about sex from a ghost.

"The second is in a relationship where one person wants to control the other person like in you and Millay's relationship."

Well he's not wrong.

"And the third is in an opposites attract relationship like Hiromu and Maria's or you and Vanessa-"

"Wait a second, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, Maria seems assertive and Hiromu seems passive-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, what about me and Vanessa?"

"Well, your mean, she's nice, she seems to be attracted to you and you seem to be attracted to her."

"No I'm not and neither is she!"

"Then why is your face turning red?"

"Shut-"

"Something wrong?" I snap forward and see…damn it, what is this guy's name?

"No, just couldn't sleep so I thought I'd take a hot shower."

"Oh same-well I'm going to do that now…listen I'm sorry about the way Maria was today. I swear she just thought she was trying to help."

"Whatever I'm used to crazy girls screaming at me, but can I ask a question?"

"Yeah sure whatever you want."

"Neither of you seem to be duelists by nature so why'd she create such a crazy deck?"

"Oh, well you see on December 1st there's going to be a big tag duel tournament at Madison Square Garden and the host is some Spanish singer that Maria likes."

"Ah, that seems… dumb."

"Yeah well, when she sets her mind to something there's no stopping her."

"I've seen that before."

"Yes well, good night then."

"Night."

As we go our separate ways I try to forget everything Debris Dragon had to say and just hope I don't dream about my Dad.

…

I'm in a dark place, I can't see anything and it's really cold but for some reason, I can hear a voice…the voice sounds like it's saying… "Do good in life Chase, always do good in life. We must be able to be more than the tragedies we face."

Next Time: Homeless

Vanessa takes a deep breath and scurries over towards the bench her friend is sitting at.

"Hey Chase, sorry I'm late."

With that, Chase turns his head towards her and does something Vanessa has never seen him do before; smile.

"Good you made it, for a second I thought you weren't going to show."

"Well you did just out of the blue this morning ask me out."