AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAnd, here's the next one! I think you're gonna laugh your head off at this next duel. Just give one guess what duel I'm basing this one on. Just give me one guess. You'll most likely get it right. Review please!
While Jaylin was finding the Duel Giant to duel, Syrus had just finished hooking up his duel disk with the Duel Score Chip. Now, he was ready to duel anyone that came his way. He made sure to follow his brother's suggestion and not wear his Slifer Red uniform. The reason for this was because the Slifer Red Duelists were always the best duelists and many would usually try to find easy targets to duel against.
Syrus, instead, wore a white buttoned t-shirt and a pair of black jeans. He wondered if anyone would challenge him or accept a duel from him. He was willing to duel anyone as long as he/she gave it their best. Syrus wasn't looking for easy targets or anything. He'd even take a duel from someone from the same dorm as him.
"Aw, looks like I lost!" Syrus heard Jasmine, who was one of Alexis' friends, said. She then smiled. "I guess I'll try harder next time."
"No one can defeat the power of the Ape!" Jasmine's opponent, who looked like a guy in a gorilla costume, spoke loudly in a very deep King Kong voice. Syrus couldn't hold back a laugh from this guy. "Who dares to laugh at Kong the Mighty!?"
"S-Sorry," Syrus apologized, trying to stop laughing, but this was too much!
"You dare mock me!? How about I challenge you to a duel!?"
"Sure. I'll buy," Syrus replied, then turned on his duel disk. Him and the guy in the King Kong costume searched through the bottom of their decks. Syrus was to go first. They shuffled and drew five cards. Syrus drew his first card. "I summon Heliroid in attack mode, then place one card face-down. You're up!" A battle helicopter appeared on the field with a battle glare.
"I summon my Berserk Gorilla in attack mode!" Kong the Mighty declared as a huge gorilla with flaming eyes appeared on the field. "He attacks your Heliroid!" Berserk Gorilla shot a blast of fire from its mouth before...
"I reveal my trap Magic Cylinder!" Syrus declared as two pink cylinders appeared between Heliroid. The blast of fire entered through one cylinder, then entered out of the other and shot directly at Kong the Mighty, leaving him with 2000 life points remaining.
"Lucky shot! I place one card face-down and end my turn!"
"Okay!" Syrus smirked, drawing his next card. "I sacrifice Heliroid to bring out Satelliteroid!" Heliroid disappeared from the field and was replaced by a huge satellite with a face. "Satelliteroid to destroy your Berserk Gorilla!" Satelliteroid shot beams of light at Berserk Gorilla, blasting it from the field and leaving Kong the Mighty with 1900 life points remaining. "I end my turn!"
"I go!" Kong the Mighty declared, drawing his next card. He seemed to be a little nervous now, knowing that Syrus wasn't a weak duelist. "I summon Acrobat Monkey in attack mode!" A robotic white monkey appeared on the field in attack mode. "I then activate my face-down card, DNA Surgery! I declare beast to activate it!" Due to the effect of DNA Surgery, all the face-up monsters on the field became beast-type monsters. "Then, I activate a spell card from my hand, Wild Nature's Release!" Acrobat Monkey began charging up and its attack rose to 2800. "Acrobat Monkey destroys your Satelliteroid!" Acrobat Monkey jumped up in the air and tackled Satelliteroid, crashing it into pieces, and leaving Syrus with 3300 life points remaining. "I end!" Acrobat Monkey instantly burst from the field, due to the effect of Wild Nature's Release.
"My turn!" Syrus declared, drawing his next card. "I play A Classic Departure to bring back Heliroid to the field!" Heliroid appeared back onto the field. "Then, I summon Zwei Roid!" a flying machine with two rocket blasters on each side appeared on the field. "Since you have no monsters, my monsters attack you directly!" Heliroid shot bullets from its helicopter guns and Zwei Roid shot from its rocket blasters. The two vehicles shot Kong the Mighty directly, taking away the rest of his life points.
"Drat! I will get you next time, mighty one!" Kong the Mighty shouted with a deep voice.
"Just call me Syrus Truesdale."
"Are you Zane's brother of Slifer Red?"
"Yes."
"Very mighty you are! We shall meet again, Syrus Trusedale!"
"You do that," Syrus replied, then left, almost chuckling. His Duel Score Chip's number changed to 1/0.
"Hey Syrus, how's it going!?" Jaylin cried out, who just returned from her duel with the Duel Giant.
"Pretty good. I just defeated a guy in a monkey costume."
Jaylin laughed, then replied, "wow. And here I thought a guy covered in Obelisk Blue's laundry was weird."
"That was seriously the Duel Giant?"
"Yep!"
"Pretty weird!"
"You're telling me! Say, how about we find out how many Reds we can dominate from the competition?" Jaylin challenged Syrus.
"You're on!"
Jaylin and Syrus raced together to the Slifer Red dorm area where the Slifer Red students were dueling each other, being that the other students didn't want to duel against these pros and the pros didn't want to duel against amateurs. Jaylin also decided to change into her duelist outfit before dueling against everyone. She wanted to be known for the Slifer Red uniform she wore, along with her father's old shirt from high school, the name tag being under the shirt this time. Jaylin also decided to wear a red clothed headband, her bangs still hanging on her forehead evenly and the rest of her straight brown hair laying not too far passed her shoulders.
After a few duels, Jaylin decided to work with Ronda on her dark powers. It was sunset and Ronda began punching a really thick tree as hard as she could, trying to focus on the dark energy of the tree to knock it over. Instead, she could only feel the pain from her knuckles.
"Yah!" Ronda complained.
"You can do it, Ronda!" Jaylin said cheerfully.
"How can you do this!?"
"It takes a lot of focus and concentration. This helps you focus on the dark energy and punching the life force of the tree into submission."
"But it hurts!"
"I know. Surviving a Shadow Game also includes pain tolerance. What you're feeling now is nothing compared to the pain you'll feel in a real Shadow Game."
"I know," Ronda replied, sighing and seeing the bruise on his knuckles. "Great. Do you ever get bruises like these?"
"Not really," Jaylin admitted, showing the dried blood under her fingernails, which made Ronda's jaw drop slightly. Then, Jaylin dug into her pocket and showed an injection and a bottle of Vitamin E. "My kind of training gets really nasty. When my father trained me, he trained me hard."
"From how you talk about your father, he sounds like a great man."
"He is. He's my hero," Jaylin said as Ronda smiled, then continued her training of trying to punch a tree down, using the dark matter inside the tree to weaken its strength.
Jaylin watched her friend practice and began remembering the clips of memories she remembered of meeting Yugi and being adopted by him. The daydream seemed so clear, as if Jaylin was seeing it from her little person's mind through every detail of the place. The bright white walls, toys scattered everywhere, and all the orphan boys and girls playing happily together in different groups with toys or games.
Jaylin was playing with her two best friends Katal and Kathle with blocks and building towers that they would all knock down. Katal and Kathle had short black hair that reached their shoulders. They both wore blue jeans and light pink shirts. Though, Katal's hair ribbon was green and Kathle's hair ribbon was red. Jaylin wore a black shirt and a hot pink dress with flowers sewn on, which matched the bright green tennis shoes.
"Okay boys and girls!" The Orphanage Teacher called out to the children as they faced her. "Today, we'll be having a special guest today. I want you all to be on your best behavior, while he visits today!" Jaylin's eyes lit up. Someone was visiting today!? Jaylin knew this could be her chance to be adopted, though kept it to herself. She put her two hands on the floor in front of her and prepared herself to make a dash. She was determined to be adopted.
Jaylin focused her eyes on the door, which was opened wide. A shadow began emerging, then showing an older man in a pair of khaki pants and a black hoody with sleeves slightly rolled halfway up his arms. What gained young Jaylin's attention was the spiky hair, soft violet eyes that also held such boldness, and the tall and mighty pose he held. Jaylin had heard of stories of princesses being saved by their knight in shining armor and, in her mind, that was her knight standing right in front of her. She always made stories of Yugi Moto, the king of games she watched on TV on every Duel Monsters tournament that was held every year, of how he would save her from different distresses like dragons, boogie men, ghosts, goblins, witches and she would live in the king's palace in the end. Her stories were going to come true!
Jaylin dashed in full speed, imagining herself in slow motion as she dashed passed the other children and they'd quickly look at her with jaws gaped and the wind brushing passed them from such speed. Jaylin wrapped her arms around Yugi's waist, which took the king of games by surprise.
"I knew you'd save me someday!" Jaylin cried aloud in joy.
"Oh dear, my apologies-" The Orphanage Teacher apologized with blush on her cheeks.
"No need," Yugi assured, putting one hand up, then using the other one to brush against Jaylin's hair. Jaylin looked up with the biggest grin on the planet.
"You're here to save me, aren't ya? I've made stories about how you defeated the big mean dragon with your Dark Magician and made me princess of the kingdom of the Spirit Monsters!" Jaylin said joyfully.
"Is that so?"
"Yep-yep! Everyone says I'm making it up, but I know you're gonna make me Princess of the Spirit Monsters, right?"
"Right," Yugi replied, not holding back a huge smile. He knelt down to Jaylin. "So, what's your name?"
"Lady Jaylin," Jaylin replied, taking a bow. "...your Excellency."
"Lady Jaylin. You will make an excellent princess."
"Really and truly!?"
"I believe it."
Jaylin wouldn't forget those words and always gained more excitement, wanting to be the first one to get to Yugi. Of course, Yugi got to play with the other kids, but Jaylin always got involved, unless she was sick. Of course, she made sure she was never sick, so she would see Yugi again. She once saw her knight in shining armor arriving when she was on the playground and was the first to see and run to him, fighting against anything that stood in her way to get to her knight. She wrapped her arms around his waist once more joyfully.
"Hey, it's you! You always seem to want a piece of me, huh?" Yugi asked, laughing.
"Of course! I'm your princess and you're the king! A princess is always protected by her king, right?" Jaylin asked as Yugi laughed.
"Princess of the Spirit Monsters. You don't miss a beat."
"My friends keep telling me that nobody here ever gets a new father, but then why would you be here every single day? You came to save me from the evil dragon and his witch from the Fortress of Evil!"
"Now, where do you get all of this stuff?"
"I made it! You wanna hear it?"
"Alright. I'll bite."
"A long time ago, there was an evil dragon and his mistress witch. The witch had the baby princess inside the Evil Fortress hidden. They couldn't stand the power of the Princess, being they never loved her. They locked her up in the Dungeon of Forever Light."
"Isn't light a good thing?"
"Nope. The Princess is always dark, so she can't stand the light. She loves the dark."
"Ah, I see."
"The princess couldn't escape, though she tried. Then, you came to save her from the evil dragon and his mistress, though they would not give in. They hid the princess away inside their Evil Fortress, guarded by the boogie man. You glared with envy and fought for the princess, that's me, slaying the dragon and defeating the evil witch. The Princess slew the boogie man of course, who tried to kill her, because she has the mysterious powers of darkness. You see, the witch cursed the princess with an evil power, which now controls the princess to killing anything that's in her path. You come to her right on time and break the curse with the power of true love. You took the curse upon yourself to stay with the princess forever and made me as your princess, since the princess is me... and we lived happily ever after. You like it? I made it up myself!"
"I love that story, but aren't you a bit young to be married to me?"
"What? No, that would make me the queen! A princess is the daughter of the king. That's how it always goes. Ariel was the princess and Trident was the king!"
"Oh!" Yugi replied, suddenly realizing what Jaylin was meaning and the hidden message behind it. He knelt down to the young girl. "Jaylin, I don't want to be the giver of disappointments, but your mother and father don't want to give you up. I can't adopt someone, who already belongs to someone else. That would be stealing."
"But you said you'd save me! You can't let the dragon and his witch mistress bewitch you like this! Please, don't let them bewitch you!" Jaylin cried, tears leaking from her eyes.
"Is the dragon and his witch your real mother and father?" Yugi asked in a quiet voice as Jaylin cried more tears. He held the young girl in his arms. "I'm so sorry."
"I love you, Daddy! Please save me!"
Yugi didn't know what he was going to do at this point. This girl had only known him for three days and already wanted him to be the young girl's father. Yugi wished he could save this poor girl, because... because... because he loved her too. This young girl he only met three days ago had already captured his heart and wasn't willing to let go. Would he really be willing to fight and protect Jaylin like in her stories?
"Jaylin, I can't," Yugi whispered.
"Yes, you can! I know you can! You're strong and brave!" Jaylin said with determination, then held Yugi with her arms around his neck. "Love conquers all right? Don't let the dragon and his witch take your princess away!" Her tears fell on Yugi's shirt. Yugi brushed her tears from her soft cheeks, then parted from her, trying to find some way of explaining that she could never be with her knight in shining armor.
"Jaylin... you... you can't always get... what you want," Yugi croaked in his voice.
"I believe in you," Jaylin said with a small innocent smile, wiping her own tears. "I will be waiting for you, my king. I knew I'd be yours from the day we first met. Don't give up on me. You can do it."
"I... I have to go now," Yugi said, getting up on his feet to return home. He reached to the door, then looked back at the small girl. The wind brushed against her soft brown hair and a hopeful smile appeared across her lips. She put so much faith in Yugi that even he couldn't bring to himself. 'Why? Why among every child here did she have to be the one to want me the most? That I want the most? I wish I could be her king.'