Chapter 25: Whiteness
Hayley Wilson was not a happy camper of late. When she woke up one night without underwear when she was sure she had it before going to bed, she decided that the nightly excursions by her more destructive alter Serpentina needed to end. It wasn't so bad when she was being rude to other people, but now she could end up getting them both injured, ill, or worse.
But who could she talk to about such an extreme and disputed mental disorder? She liked Dr. Kerr, but she was still out on maternity leave until the summer. Dr. Houtz was weird enough to be helpful, but she was more of a criminal psychologist. Hayley wasn't really comfortable asking Dr. Lankford much of anything. But maybe there was one teacher she had who she was comfortable talking to.
Erica Dawkins was currently covering Dr. Kerr's classes. On top of proving herself knowledgeable enough to teach said classes without getting stuck or tripped up often, and skilled enough to teach while working on her master's thesis, Erica was very friendly and completely approachable. The fact that she was just as pretty as Hayley gave Hayley a sense of connection and commonality, plus Erica's smaller stature made her less intimidating.
"Um, Erica?"
She looked up with a smile and asked, "Hey, Hayley. What can I do for you?"
"Uh…" Hayley wasn't exactly sure how to begin. Every time she practiced putting the words together in her head, she thought they sounded crazy. Everybody else already thought she was crazy without putting words to it.
"Do you hear any of the rumors on campus?"
Erica shook her head. "I hear all kinds of things, but I always take them with a grain of salt. It's real easy for stories to mutate as they go from person to person. Why? What's on your mind?"
Hayley just nodded silently. She was hoping that Erica would come out and suggest she had multiple personalities, and she could just explain from there.
"Do you know much about mental disorders?"
"I've studied abnormal psychology and took a clinical class. Why?"
It was somewhat annoying the way Erica continued to dance around the subject as if she didn't already know what Hayley was driving at. Was she just trying to force Hayley to say it? If that's the case… "I think I might have multiple personalities."
"You think?" Erica repeated. She definitely heard that already. "What makes you think that?"
Hayley laughed with anxious laughter. "Mostly from the stories people tell. They claim I act differently every day; sometimes I'm bitchy and sometimes I'm normal. And not just the regular kind of bitchy; I mean like yelling at butterflies for fluttering. Apparently I called it a jackass and told it to get out of my garden."
"That qualifies as bitchy. But do you have any real symptoms of multiple personalities? I mean, acting odd is one thing, but everyone has off days."
"The descriptions I hear are way off. I try to be good-mannered and polite, but Serpentina is short-tempered and emotional."
"Serpentina?"
"Yeah. She's totally in-the-moment whereas I try to consider consequences. It sounds like she has a thing for Vic Rocks. I'm starting to worry about what she does while I'm sleeping."
Erica understood that concern. But she wasn't a trained clinician and so she was unwilling to agree with that diagnosis. She did recommend Hayley go see a trained psychiatrist, but Hayley wasn't wild about that idea. For one thing, psychiatrists are expensive.
"Well, Dr. Apple is pretty much a know-it-all with psychology. His doctoral degree is in social psychology, but he has a master's in clinical. He might be willing to offer some information for free. He'll definitely know more than I do."
And so Erica took Hayley to see Dr. Oscar Apple. His knowledge ranged the widest of all the professors, which is one reason no one liked taking his tests; he always included information that he deemed thoroughly important but everyone else figured was completely trivial. Some students even suggested his receding hairline was a result of his hair trying to get away from his boring, trivial knowledge.
Just as Erica suspected, Dr. Apple was happy to share his knowledge with Hayley, who suggested she might have multiple personality disorder.
"That's an old term," he started. "The clinical term now is Dissociative Identity Disorder. In essence, it is the existence of two or more distinct identities that alternate control over a single person's behavior. From your description, it sounds like you have at least three personalities: you seem to be the primary personality bearing the guilt, Serpentina almost seems as your unconscious desires, and this Pan you mention may be a more blissfully oblivious personality."
"There's a pattern?"
"Undoubtedly. DID generally reflects some failure in a person's integration of consciousness—sometimes memory and sometimes identity itself. The alternate personalities experience their own names, self-image, and behavioral patterns, but they are always linked. Once the link is understood, it may even be easy to predict the change of control, or even make the change at will."
He smiled and said, "All of this is academic, of course. Listening to my description of the disorder is not an official diagnosis. I still do not know for certain that you suffer from DID."
"Oh, I definitely suffer," Hayley disagreed. "I find myself waking up and feeling more tired than when I went to sleep, and there's always some embarrassing story involved about something that I don't remember happening."
"The disorder is often started by heavy trauma and abuse in childhood. Did you suffer any?"
"Not that I know of."
"Well, certainly there was some trauma involved. Although abuse usually indicates physical and emotional trauma, I suppose it's possible for the trauma to be entirely emotional. Psychoanalyst Carl Jung might have referred to such a moment as the nigredo, or a moment of trauma and despair that precedes personal development, although in your case, it may well have caused a split in development. I suppose that's bound to happen once in so many developmental stages, and women do tend experience DID more often than men with no joke about PMS intended." Hayley gave him a baffled look in response to the way he was just rambling on.
"Anyway, I can't make an official diagnosis without a few more tests. Are you willing to endure several laboratory tests to get at the truth, including MRI to rule out complex partial seizures, blood tests to rule out substance abuse, and psychological testing to rule out Dissociative Amnesia, Dissociative Fugue, Depersonalization Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Anxiety Disorders, Somatization Disorders, Personality Disorders, Schizophrenia, and other psychotic disorders?" He clicked his tongue a few times and commented, "Boy, that was a mouthful, wasn't it?"
"Yes," Hayley answered. "And yes. If it helps me get control, then I'll do anything."
With a great, big smile, Dr. Apple said, "Great! Let's get to it, shall we?"
"Knock, knock."
Naoto Kurotsuki looked up from his bed in the infirmary to see the first smiling face he'd seen in a while. The stress of the semester—plus the unofficial stress of challenging Nigredo—put excessive strain on Naoto and put him on bed rest for a large part of the semester. Dr. Nagell diagnosed him with angina pectoris, which was basically chest pain due to a lack of oxygen in the heart. With another week of rest and rehab, Naoto would be released, but with doctor-ordered limitations.
Now holding the rank of 1 on campus, Naoto wouldn't be able to go anywhere without being challenged to a duel, and Dr. Nagell made it clear with the professors that such stress could cause Naoto's symptoms to recur. Occasional duels would be acceptable, but constant high-stress situations were not; and with Naoto, no duel could be anything less than a full-effort game. Fortunately, he was able to accept the doctor's orders with humility now that he was Number 1, and he agreed to avoid the majority of duel requests.
But Mitsuro Itachu was one of Naoto's best friends. She visited him regularly, and was one of few students to do so without challenging him to a duel.
"How are you, Mr. Number 1?" she asked him. She always called him that.
"I feel better when you visit," he told her. "I watched the School Duel on Academy TV. Congratulations on your victory."
She smiled shyly. "Thanks. But you're about the only person to notice."
"That cannot be true. Everyone notices the winner of the School Duel."
"I wish I believed that," Mitsuro replied. "It feels like my duel was overshadowed by the stuff happening around campus, and the Spring duel is notorious for being lower key anyway; it's like Rocky beating Spider Rico."
"I do not know the reference."
Mitsuro smiled and waved it off. "Classic American movie series about a washed-up boxer who becomes world champ."
"You are not washed up," Naoto assured her. "You are ranked Number 6 at the most prestigious Duel Monsters institution in the world."
"Yeah. I just feel like if I'm not attacking anyone in the middle of the night and I don't have a doppelganger running around campus stealing cards, then no one cares about me. Did you know this School Duel had some of the lowest ratings in years? Ratings haven't been this low since TVs were in black and white."
"Now that must be an exaggeration," Naoto objected. Mitsuro admitted she was just going for effect. That's when Naoto offered his sage advice. "If you want to make a name for yourself, you must go out there and do it." In response to her baffled look, he further described, "Whether it is challenging the top duelist or finding Matt's doppelganger, do something people will notice. Half the people who see me here ask for a duel; the other half want to hear about Matt's doppelganger. They all want to hear how I defeated the man whose worm deck defeated Victor Rocks."
Mitsuro silently regarded the story. Kenny was one of her best friends and was the lead supervisor of the campus cadets; he told her that Matt was caught near the hot springs several times well after curfew, just sitting on the path and waiting like he expected someone specific to show up. What if that person was actually…?
Cary wasn't surprised to see employees of the hot springs leaving the area, but she was surprised to see someone walking back up the path. At first she thought it might be an extra security guard keeping an eye on the area to keep out any students who might try for private, after-hours visits. But as the figure got closer, she recognized Mitsuro's blue coat.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
Mitsuro looked from Cary to Matt and back. "I just thought I'd check up on Matt. I hear he's been caught here sleeping a number of times."
"For about a month now," Cary agreed. "He thinks he'll find his female look-alike out here. He's even more confused than the rest of us. He has no idea who these people are."
"I can only imagine how tough and stressful that is for him. It just surprises me how many other people care."
"Are you kidding? Three other people with Matt's skill at dueling? How can anyone at Duel Academy be uninterested in their origins?" Cary was certainly fascinated. Imagine the probability of Matt's being raised by as negligent a foster family as one can find outside of a kids' movie, separated from any twins or siblings, yet he becomes a master duelist very quickly, and so were those siblings who were raised by completely different families. That was as good a case for a genetic component to dueling as ever there was one.
"Are you looking for me?"
Cary turned quickly to see where the female voice came from. True to the rumors, the owner of the voice looked like Matt if he had breasts and white hair. She wore a white Duel Academy jacket, a color not offered in the clothing section of the bookstore, and black pants. She was slightly taller and thinner than Matt, but she had his same overall body mass. It was odd seeing the two of them so close together; it was really like comparing two pictures of the same person after one was modified.
"You must be that girl the Locklear twins described," Cary commented. "Are you Matt's sister?"
"I don't know Matt," Albedo replied. "I've heard his name, but I've never met him before." She looked down at Matt's sleeping visage. She looked surprised. "Is that him?" She tilted her head to the side and asked, "He looks a lot me, doesn't he?"
"That's an understatement. Who are you? Where did you come from?"
Albedo just shook her head and smiled. "I'm not really sure. I don't understand the process. All I know is that I'm either two months old or eight months old, depending on how you look at it."
"Two months old?" Mitsuro repeated incredulously. "And you look like that? Are you even human?"
"She's probably making it up," Cary suggested.
Albedo seemed hurt. "Why would I do that? And that seems like a silly lie to make. Why make a claim that is so outlandish unless it just has to be true?"
Cary wanted to be patient and find out exactly what this blonde girl's relationship was with Matt, but Mitsuro seemed to have a different agenda. She quickly accused, "You guys have been stealing cards from everyone on campus."
"I have never stolen a single card," Albedo replied defensively. "They were sacrifices to the Transmutation Circle that empowers me."
"What does that mean?" asked Cary.
"See if you can take mine!" Mitsuro challenged and held up her deck, completely ignoring Cary's request for information. Albedo responded in kind by raising her own Duel Disk. "Good," Mitsuro said with a grin. "When I beat you, you have to return all those cards you 'sacrificed.'" She added air quotes and an irritated voice when she spoke that last word.
"That was always the agreement," Albedo replied. "I have yet to be beaten." She drew her first cards and prepared to start the duel.
"Hang on," Cary argued. She stepped up assertively and forced her own Duel Disk to connect to the duel. "I'm in on this one, too, though I can't see what the friggin' hurry is." She shot Mitsuro a glare, but she was only paying attention to Matt's female doppelganger. For some reason unrealized to Cary, Mitsuro didn't care anything about Albedo's origins; she just wanted to duel.
When the three Duel Disks connected, Albedo started the duel.
"First I'll play Upstart Goblin." A green goblin in gaudy garb appeared on the field and offered 500 points apiece to Mitsuro and Cary in exchange for giving Albedo another draw. She shook her head when she saw the card. "Let's try Hand Destruction." A sprite with a round, yellow head and wearing silver samurai armor appeared on the field and slashed at all players' hands with a single swipe of his sword; each player discarded two cards and drew two new ones. "That's better. I'll play Final Countdown."
Twenty flames sprouted from the ground and encompassed the field. "Each turn, the flames spread; when they all connect after twenty turns, the duel ends and I win. In the meantime, I'll set one monster and play Nightmare's Steelcage." A heavy, steel cage with spikes at every connecting node appeared on the field, specifically covering half of Cary's and Mitsuro's fields. (It couldn't surround them completely because the hologram projectors didn't go back that far.)
Cary 8000: Mitsuro 8000: Albedo 8000 – 2000 = 6000.
"I have Johnny Cash stuck in my head now," Cary commented. Her turn was simpler: "I'll summon Mist Valley Falcon (4/2000/1200)." Her monster was a man dressed in light, leather armor, with wings on his back and a claymore in his hand. "Tell me more about this using-cards-for-energy thing."
"No one cares," Mitsuro interrupted. She pulled her cards and slapped one down. "I'll summon Submarine Ohio-Class (4/1400/1200)." The body of a black submarine appeared on the ground as if surfacing from the dirt. A facedown card also appeared on her field. "Now let's see what you've got."
The steel cage trapping Cary and Mitsuro disappeared suddenly. Albedo admitted, "The downside to dueling two opponents is that Nightmare's Steelcage only lasts through two of your End Phases, and you've already had them." She just shrugged and said, "Oh well. I'll flip up my monster." Her field showed an image resembling a mummified, two-humped camel. "When Des Lacooda (3/500/600) flips, I get to draw a card." She looked at her card, and then the camel disappeared. "Once per turn, I get to flip my monster face down again. I'll also set another monster."
Cary tried to keep talking, but Mitsuro stubbornly requested they duel first and talk later. Mitsuro was eager to win a duel against one of Matt's family. "At least tell me where you came from," Cary requested of Albedo while she played her cards. She started by activating Dragon Canyon, which created tall cliffs on either side of the field; she discarded and used its effect to bring a Dragunity monster to her hand.
"I was born here," Albedo explained. "On this island."
"That doesn't make any sense," Cary repeated. "You said you are two months old. That's just not possible. Any chance you have amnesia?"
Mitsuro huffed, "Any chance you're going to continue this duel?" Cary grudgingly sent her Falcon away to summon Dragunity Arms Misteil (6/2100/1500), a yellow-scaled, bipedal dragon with one set of scaled wings and one set of feathered wings and armed with a large sword in hand. Using its own effect, Misteil equipped itself with Dragunity Corseca, a pink-scaled dragun with a long, thin snout—like a sword on its nose.
"You haven't always lived here," Cary deduced while she played her cards. "If you had, someone in the past two years would have mentioned your resemblance to Matt—especially if you are a talented enough duelist to defeat Duel Academy students. So where did you come from?" She had Misteil (2100) target the facedown Des Lacooda (600) and destroy it; Corseca's effect let Cary take another dragon card from her deck and put it in her hand.
"I've lived here my whole life," Albedo replied.
"Yeah, yeah. Both months," Mitsuro agreed impatiently. She had her submarine launch an attack—via a barrage of missiles—on Albedo's other monster, which turned out to be Marshmallon (3/300/500), a pink, gelatinous monster that absorbed the shock of the attack and remained on the field; one of the missiles, however, bounced back and burned Mitsuro.
"Sorry. When a facedown Marshmallon is attacked," Albedo explained, "you take 1000 points of damage."
"I know," Mitsuro commented. "I'll set another card and a monster."
Cary 8000: Mitsuro 8000 – 1000 = 7000: Albedo 6000.
Cary knew Mitsuro had to realize by now that Albedo's strategy was obviously one in which she stalled long enough for Final Countdown to take effect. Marshmallon was a pretty clear choice for such a strategy. That meant Mitsuro's typical strategy of counterattacking a powerful enemy wasn't going to work. Albedo was probably the worst opponent for Mitsuro to face.
"Now that you know my cards," Albedo said, "I'll protect myself a little longer with Swords of Revealing Light."
"Hah, ha!" Mitsuro laughed proudly. A barrage of torpedoes from a source underneath her submarine struck the Swords and destroyed them immediately. "I knew you'd try something like that, so I set up a Naval Assault trap to negate your Spell's effect."
Albedo just nodded acceptingly. "Okay. I'll set another card and end my turn."
"No monsters?" Cary noticed. But she didn't really care about the duel as much as figuring out who Albedo was and where she came from.
"Who are your parents?" Cary asked Albedo. When Mitsuro glared again, Cary discarded again to activate Dragon Canyon and draw a Dragunity monster to her hand. She summoned Dragunity Aklys (2/1000/800). The red dragon covered almost entirely with silver armor that ended in a blade over the dragon's head activated its own effect to summon another monster; Dragunity Arms Laevatein (8/2600/1200), an orange-scaled biped with prominent feathered wings and lesser scaled wings armed itself with a sword that had a hooked blade, but it also equipped Aklys on one arm and Dragunity Pilum—a green dragon whose black armor made its head resemble a screwdriver—on the other.
"I only have a father," Albedo claimed. "I don't even have a mother."
"You mean that metaphorically?"
Albedo shook her head. "Literally. My father created me without giving me a mother." She pointed to Matt and said, "His mother didn't want anything to do with me. I've never met her."
"Wait. You know who Matt's mother is?"
"Yeah. Who do you think our father was competing with when he created me?"
Even Mitsuro couldn't ignore the conversation going, but neither she nor Cary understood it. And she apparently wasn't as concerned with figuring out Matt's past as Cary was. She urged Cary to talk while dueling.
"Who is his mother?" Cary activated the effect of Pilum to cut Laevatein's (-1300) points in half for a direct attack; the orange dragon thrust its arm over Marshmallon, and the extended reach of the screwdriver-headed dragon enabled Laevatein to reach its target.
"I don't know her name," Albedo said as she activated Scrap-Iron Scarecrow, a metal scarecrow that blocked the attack from reaching Albedo directly. Cary had no other moves.
"Good," Mitsuro huffed. "I'll flip up my Assault Ship (4/1500/1200), and it summons two Assault Tokens (2/1000/1000) to the field." A large-deck ship, one that resembled an aircraft carrier, appeared on the field; two helicopters flew from the deck and hovered in the air. "I'll Tribute one of those Tokens to summon Destroyer Class – USS Guardian (6/2400/2500)." A long, sleek, blue-colored ship sailed onto the field with weapons at the ready. "By paying 1000 Life Points, USS Guardian can attack directly during this turn."
Suddenly a heavy sound wave burst through the air and forced Mitsuro past her Battle Phase. "Threatening Roar prevents you from declaring an attack this turn," Albedo said. Mitsuro clenched her fist and ended her turn.
Albedo drew and immediately let out a giggle. "Alright! I'll activate Transmutation Circle – Albedo!" A white ring surrounded the field outside of the ring of fire. "I have to remove a card from my deck from play, and you two each take one from your Extra Decks." Albedo removed Solemn Judgment, and Mitsuro huffed while she removed USS Liberation, her key trump card.
Cary removed Dragunity Knight – Gae Bulg, but she wasn't missing much because her deck was built to support her Extra Deck. She cared more about this Transmutation Circle; Albedo mentioned earlier that the Circle is what gave her power. Albedo summoned Cyber Valley—a metal serpent with empty eyes and studded with red gems—to end her turn.
"Tell me about that Transmutation Circle," Cary requested while she discarded again for Dragon Canyon's effect. "What were you saying about it earlier?"
As Cary summoned Dragunity Darkspear (3/1000/1000), a black dragon with a snout shaped like a broadsword blade, Albedo told her, "The Transmutation Circle takes the spirit energy hidden within players' rarest, most powerful cards and uses it to feed my growth. It's the way my father designed the Circles." Cary looked down at the field and noted all the lines within the circle, connecting the perimeter at five primary points. That design apparently meant something.
"How does it work?" Cary used Darkspear's effect to send Laevatein to the Graveyard in order to summon Dragunity Dux (4/+2300/1000), a man wearing armor shaped like a giant falcon. With Laevatein in the Graveyard, Aklys's effect activated to destroy Marshmallon.
"It's energy transference," Albedo answered vaguely. "The energy from the cards powers the circle. The energy then travels through the circle and straight into me. Sometimes, energy from the duelists also travels through the circle—if the duelist actually cares about the card, anyway." While Albedo spoke, Misteil moved to attack Cyber Valley, but Albedo removed the serpent from play in order to draw a card and end the battle phase.
Suddenly, energy from the Transmutation Circle sparked and created Marshmallon (500). "Oh, yeah. Sometimes, energy from the circle is used to revive a monster on my field."
Cary nodded. "I heard. I just wanted to figure out if there were any restrictions."
Albedo shook her head. "No. No matter how it's destroyed, the monster gets revived from the Graveyard."
"Nice waste of a play," Mitsuro suggested. "If you knew that would happen, you should have picked a different card to destroy." She drew her cards and slapped down "Upgrade boosts the power of my Destroyer Class ship and gives it 500 points. And when I remove it, it destroys your…"
"Don't press that button," Cary cautioned. "The Locklear twins also told me the Transmutation Circle can't be destroyed. You'll waste your Upgrade if you try it."
"Fine," Mitsuro agreed as she canceled her move on the Duel Disk and set up another. "Upgrade gives USS Guardian (+2900) extra points, and I'll aim all of them at you directly by paying another 1000 Life Points."
A rocket-powered scarecrow, composed of scrap metal built on a scythe shot past the field and intercepted all the missiles from Mitsuro's ship. "I'll discard Swift Scarecrow," Albedo said. "That negates the attack and ends the Battle Phase." And to finish the turn, Swift Scarecrow (1/0/0) reappeared on the field in defense mode.
Cary 8000: Mitsuro 7000 – 1000 = 6000: Albedo 6000.
Albedo set a card and ended her turn.
Cary drew and laughed nervously to herself. "This is so similar to the Shadow Realm last year. All this magic stuff… It's a frickin' wonder anybody still goes to this school." She summoned Dragunity Phalanx (2/500/1100), a blue dragon wearing gold armor, and its armor rang until it resonated perfectly with Dragunity Arms Misteil (6). When the two monsters merged, the result was Dragunity Knight – Barcha (8/+3200/1200), a winged man riding on the back of a powerful, blue dragon. The needled head of Brandistock, the screwdriver-shaped head of Pilum, the bladed head of Aklys, and the pronged armor of Phalanx all equipped to the Barcha's dragon body.
"This turn is a little complicated," Cary admitted. "Barcha gains 300 points for each equipped Dragunity monster. Pilum lets Barcha attack directly at half power, but Brandistock lets them attack twice per turn." As soon as Barcha flew over Marshmallon and pulled back its javelin, the Dragon Knight turned back to Cary's field. "What?"
Albedo smiled behind her Trap. "Scrubbed Raid lets me send Marshmallon to the Graveyard to end the Battle Phase." Her smile got bigger when Cary ended her turn and Marshmallon came back. "You see where this is going now?"
"I do," Mitsuro commented. "Luckily, I can still send Upgrade to the Graveyard to destroy that stupid Trap card." Her ship loaded its weapons again and fired. "That means that, once gain, USS Guardian (2400) can attack directly. And this time, you have nothing to stop me with." The missiles continued their trajectory for once and finally landed the first damage to Albedo that wasn't self-inflicted. "That should do nicely for now."
Cary 8000: Mitsuro 6000: Albedo 6000 – 2400 = 3600.
Albedo started with Pot of Greed, a green pot with a goofy face that provided her two new cards. "All defense is tough against the two of you," Albedo admitted, "but I think I have it figured out now. To start, this card is so powerful that you students aren't allowed to use it: Raigeki!" A bolt of lightning struck the field, and a series of equally powerful bolts struck all monsters on Cary's and Mitsuro's fields, destroying them all.
"How did that happen?" Mitsuro asked. "Cards like that are supposed to be forbidden, and even so, it only affects one opponent during a team duel."
"But we are not part of a team," Cary pointed out. "You made sure of that for some reason when I had to force my Duel Disk into the duel you started. Why were you in such a hurry, anyway? You've done everything but kick me out of this duel." Cary suddenly realized what Mitsuro's problem was. "Almost like you think that you have to be the one to win this duel to prove a point."
"I do not," Mitsuro argued defensively. "I just want to stop this chick from stealing anymore cards."
"That won't happen," Albedo assured her. "I'll play Swords of Revealing Light." Six shining swords composed of light slammed down on Cary's and Mitsuro's fields. "As long as these swords are in play, you can't attack."
Cary wasn't especially concerned with that, however. As she drew her card, she asked, "Who is your father?"
Suddenly Albedo blushed. It was certainly noticeable against her inordinately pale skin. "What? I can't tell you that. I can't betray my father."
"Why not?" Cary asked. "Tell me who he is." She pointed to Matt. "Tell him who it is! He really wants to know who his father is."
Albedo shook her head. "No, I can't. He'd be upset if I spoiled the surprise before he's ready. My brother is the real goal."
"Goal?" Cary repeated. "What do you mean by that?" Albedo started stammering to herself that she didn't mean to say anything and that she wouldn't say more.
"She'll tell you when I defeat her," Mitsuro tried to console Cary.
Cary just huffed. "Yeah. I'll just summon Debris Dragon (4/1000/2000), and his effect also brings Dragunity Tribus (1/500/300) from the Graveyard." Debris Dragon was a white dragon that looked like a hatchling Stardust Dragon, and Tribus was a winged man dressed in clothing to look like a large quail. Her hand consisted of Alector, Sovereign of Birds, D. Tribe, and Terraforming, leaving her with few real options. "I'll set one card and end my turn."
Mitsuro drew and hoped to pull together a major combo. She didn't have any big monsters, and even if she did, her only hope against Marshmallon was to use USS Guardian's direct attack ability. "I'll start with Salvage Yard to put a card from my Graveyard on top of my deck." A series of metal hooks and levers reached into the Graveyard and pulled up parts of a broken ship. "Now Pot of Greed lets me draw two cards from my deck." The same green pot with the goofy grin that resides in every duelist's deck appeared and gave Mitsuro two more cards. "And now, I'll summon Destroyer Class – USS Guardian (6/-1200/-1250) without a Tribute, even if its power gets cut."
"Swords of Revealing Light prevent direct attacks, too," Albedo reminded her.
"I know. That's why I'm playing Naval Protocol." The guns on her half-powered ship began firing directly into the Swords, disrupting the light and eliminating the effect. "It destroys one face-up Spell on the field. That means I can still attack directly with USS Guardian (1200). And maybe on my next turn, I can figure out how to finish you off completely."
Cary 8000: Mitsuro 6000 – 1000 = 5000: Albedo 3600 – 1200 = 2400.
"You won't get another turn," Albedo told her. She pointed to the ring of flames around the field; they were almost completely connected. Mitsuro knew every turn counted toward Final Countdown, except she forgot the turn it was activated still counted… Plus, she somewhat lost track between three players.
"I don't even need to do anything," Albedo claimed. "Between Marshmallon and my Scarecrow, you'd need a heavy direct attack to finish this duel. But I'll set a card, anyway."
Cary nodded. "I know. But if anyone can do it, I can." She saw the OTK badge on her jacket and remembered that she was one of the strongest duelists out there, and she could come back from this.
But when she touched her deck, she felt an odd warmth. It gave her a feeling of calm and strength, even though she'd never seen the card before.
"Weird," she uttered.
"What?" Mitsuro groaned.
"I've heard of this card once before, but it was never in my deck."
"So you forgot you put it in. Will it help?"
Cary grinned. "Oh, yeah. I'll play Chrysopoeia!" Suddenly the field was bathed in a golden light, and Marshmallon's body turned into the shape of Des Lacooda—that mummified, two-humped camel from Albedo's deck. "Apparently, this card enables me to declare the name of any monster, and if it exists in any deck or hand, that monster is sent to the Graveyard and one monster on the field adopts the same name, type, and attribute of that monster."
Albedo looked confused. "And? Marshmallon's effect is still in play even if his name changed."
"For now. But you see, when you have two monsters with the same attribute on the field, such as Des Lacooda (Earth) and Swift Scarecrow (Earth), I have the capacity to summon Alector, Sovereign of Birds (6/2400/2000)." The monster that appeared on the field was a man with red wings armed in shiny, silver armor; the wind gusted around him as if bending to his whim. "Next? Alector's ability negates the effect of a card on the field, like your Marshmallon. Now it can be destroyed."
"You'd better have another monster if you want to declare enough attacks for that," Mitsuro pointed out.
"I don't. All I've got is Terraforming. But I don't need it. You see, even I get a dead draw every now and then, and I'm betting Albedo does, too. It may not seem like a dead draw, but no card is useful in every single situation, is that right? That's why I'm betting on this strike right here:
"I'll activate D. Tribe to turn Alector into a dragon-type monster for this turn." Her armored man's wings turned heavy and scaly while retaining the same basic shape. "And by tuning Alector (6) with Debris Dragon (4), I can summon Trident Dragion (10/3000/2800)!" When the resonating monsters faded, they left behind a powerful dragon with red scales, three heads, and a wingspan the length of the field.
"That's a strong dragon," Albedo admitted.
"And stubborn, too," Cary agreed. The dragon bit into Dragunity Tribus and Dragon Canyon. "By destroying two cards on my field, Trident Dragion gains an additional two attacks during the Battle Phase this turn. So let's see… You have two monsters, Marshmallon's effect is negated, and I have three attacks from a colossal dragon. I like those odds." Her dragon took a deep breath and began to spew fire from each head. Marshmallon and Swift Scarecrow intercepted two of the flames, but the third continued straight past them and collided with Albedo.
Cary 8000: Mitsuro 5000: Albedo 2400 – 3000 = 0.
The flames surrounding the field faded, but the light of the Transmutation Circle grew brighter until it blinded both Cary and Mitsuro. Cary wanted to see exactly what happened when the circle's energy circulated so thoroughly, but she couldn't keep her eyes open. She felt the heat and intensity from the Transmutation Circle grow all around her for almost thirty seconds.
The energy ceased its circulation and the circle faded, and when Cary looked up, her opponent was gone; Albedo disappeared.
"What happened?" Mitsuro asked. "What was that light?"
Cary just shook her head. "I don't know. Some kind of energy transfer." As she wondered what happened to Albedo during that flow, she looked down at Matt, who was still sleeping awkwardly on the ground. "I'm sorry. She wouldn't tell me who your father is." As she uttered those words, she realized, "But he does live on this island."
Albedo's last card was My Body As A Shield. Like Cary said, it was potentially helpful, but not in that specific situation. The surging energy from the Transmutation Circle also shut down the Duel Disks, which is why Cary and Mitsuro weren't required to duel one another to finish it... but they probably would have just shut down the duel, anyway at that point.
I forgot to mention last week that I was successful in my NaNoWriMo debut. I made it to 60,000 words; the real trouble was finishing the story before the deadline. Maybe one day that story will make it into a real novel...
Anyway, just four more chapters until the arc ends. Good thing, too, because I'm having a hard time coming up with things for the opponents to say without giving too much of the ending away. A new opponent makes his appearance next week to face another of Matt's rivals, and Lucy gets called out alone in the middle of the night. I wonder who it is?
Credits:
Darius Mantzios...tiramisu19
Jason Maxim...Maxim and Knight
Nathan Zislaw...Mavrik Zero
Hillary Delaney...Nodqfan144
Lili Von...Happy2BMe
Carter Jade...Jaden2010
Mitsuro Itachu...Titanic X
Sean Bivins...DarkVestroia2
Naoto Kurotsuki...Kurotsuki Haru
Hayley Wilson...TeamRocketDiva
Maikeru Stone...onyxshade7
Victor Rocks & Abel Shinzou...Iron-Arm-V
Alister Kazama & Jessica Parks...ZaneKazama001
Synthia Spencer...Madly Chessur
Leila & Linear Lockhart...Windraider
Romulus Malligan...Maximus1
Logan Wilson...MercWithTheMouth13
Everyone else so far...YamiRuss