Yu-Gi-Oh GX
The Maiden duellist
On that fateful day is was raining heavily and already close to dark. All people were inside to get out of the rain, all but one little girl, alone and crying where she stood in the street. The little girl was not even dressed for the weather, wearing a dress with doll shoes and a dog backpack weighing her down. She cried and cried but her cries were lost to the heavy rain, so no one heard her.
Then a young boy looked out of the window of his home and saw the girl crying in the rain, his eyes widened and he quickly ran from the window and to the front door, he threw it open and called out to her.
"Hey!" he called out. "Over here!"
The girl didn't hear at first but then turned to look at the boy. He motioned for her to come in but she was frozen where she stood. The boy couldn't just let her say out there, so he braved the weather and ran up to her.
"Mummy say people get sick if they stay out in the rain." He told the girl.
The girl said nothing and looked at him with confusion on her upset face.
"Come on, let's get inside."
The boy grabbed her hand and pulled her back to his house, she didn't react and allowed herself to be pulled, once inside the boy shut the door. The boy then put the girl in front of the heater and went to fetch some towels, when he got back she was still where he left her, she had stopped crying but still had a look of confusion. The boy handed her a towel and at first she did nothing, then she saw Jaden drying himself with his own towel and copied him.
"I'm Jaden." The boy introduced himself. "What's your name?"
The girl said nothing and continued to just look at him.
Jaden was un-phased by her silence.
"Okay. Where are your mummy and daddy?"
At this the girl finally gave a reaction, she started crying again.
Jaden panicked when she started crying. "Please don't cry. I'm sorry."
But she kept crying, so Jaden did the only thing he could think of, he gave her a hug.
The girl stopped crying and was surprised by the hug, but then she returned with a hug of her own.
After the hug Jaden switched the TV on and sat down in front of it with the girl, she watched the cartoon that was on at the moment in awe.
A couple of hours later Jaden's mother returned home and was surprised to find a girl sitting in front of the TV with her son.
"Jaden, who's this?" she asked.
"I don't know." Jaden told her with a shrug. "I just found her crying out in the rain. I tried asking her but she doesn't say anything."
The girl didn't look away from the TV, but she did let out a sneeze and a rattling cough. It was clear to Jaden's mother that the girl was sick, most likely from being out in the rain and staying in wet clothes.
"Jaden, please go run a bath for your new friend." She told her son.
"Okay." Jaden said, leaving the room to run a bath.
"Hello there." Jaden's mother said to the girl gently.
The girl finally turned to look at her, her eyes then lit up and she launched herself at the woman.
"Mommy!" she cried out and attached herself to the mother's waist.
"Okay." The woman said unsurely. "I'm not your mother, but if you tell me who your actual mother is I can get you back to her.
The girl shook her head wildly and only clung tighter. "Mommy." She said stubbornly.
Jaden's mother sighed but let it go for the moment. She then noticed the dog backpack and decided to look in it for any clues to the girl's identity, she was able to unzip up without any fuss from the girl and began pulling out the contents. There wasn't anything out of the usual for a young girl to have, a stuffed bunny in a ballet dress, a book of nursery rhymes, a small music box, a hand-knitted blanket, a card case of duel monsters cards, and a purse full of bits and bobs such as buttons and a thimble.
Jaden soon came back.
"Bath's ready." He told his mother.
"Thank you Jaden." She replied.
The little girl didn't put up any fuss about getting in the bath, though it did take a while to get her to detach from Jaden's mother, after the bath she was put into a spare pair of Jaden's pyjamas, and after getting both children to brush their teeth she sent them to Jaden's bed to sleep. The little girl refused to sleep without her bag of things with her, and when it was given back to her she took out and cuddled her bunny and took out and played her music box, the music box was made of wood with patterns carved into it and Jaden's mother could help but find the tune it played slightly creepy, but both the little girl and Jaden seemed to love it as they snuggled happily under the covers.
After leaving her child's room Jaden's mother stopped outside to listen in on the children.
"What's your name?" Jaden asked the little girl again.
"Akiko." The little girl answered in a whisper before falling asleep.
(10 years later)
"Excuse me! Coming through!" Yelled a girl.
People had just enough time to move out of the way before a girl on roller blades shot passed them.
"Watch where you're going!" Someone shouted at her.
"Sorry!" The girl called back.
The girl in question had chocolate-brown hair that went to just past her shoulders and had random plats in it, her blue-green eyes searched for obstacles and people in her way. She wore white shirt, crop jeans and a red sleeveless jacket, she also wore protective gear and a shoulder bag banged against her side as she sped past other people. A pair of ear buds linked to a phone in her pocket played music into her ears.
"I am so going to be late." The girl complained as she quickly skated along the street. "Stupid bus breaking down. I should have just early, but no, I just had to watch that episode, and it wasn't even that good."
The girl continued to skate through the street until she reached a large building, at the front there were to adults at a table, she began panicking when she saw them about to pack up.
"Wait!" Someone shouted to the adults.
A boy dressed mostly in black with brown hair of two different shades and brown eyes was climbing over the fence near the adults.
"I'm no 'no show'." He said.
"Neither am I." The girl added as she reached the table, taking out her ear buds and turning off her music as she did so.
The girl then went over to the boy holding onto the fence for dear life and helped him over onto stable ground, the two then went to sign in with the adults.
"Jaden Yuki." The boy said, out of breath.
"Akiko Yuki." The girl said.
After signing in Jaden and Akiko went inside the building.
"Why are you late?" Jaden asked Akiko. "You hate being late."
"The bus broke down, so I had to skate the rest of the way here." Akiko explained. "I was lucky I had my skating gear with me, if I didn't I probably wouldn't have made it."
The two brunettes came to a stop once they reached the indoor stadium, Akiko found a seat next to a small blue haired boy with glasses while Jaden stayed standing. Jaden started talking to the boy about one of the duels taking place, Akiko listened absentmindedly while she removed her protective gear and roller blades, she pulled on some trainers from her bag to replace her roller blades and took a purple patterned bandana from her pocket and tied it to her head after removing her helmet to keep her hair back.
"Wow, that last guy really tore it up." Commented on a duel that had just finished.
"Yeah, Bastion Masawa. They say he got the highest score on the written exam of all of us applicants." Said the blue haired boy.
"Wow, I just barely passed." Jaden said.
"Well, if you bothered to do any reading." Akiko commented with a roll of her eyes.
While Akiko wasn't the smartest and certainly wasn't one of the highest scoring for the exam, she had a selective memory that remembered information that she found interesting, though how useful most of that information was debateable, and through this she managed to get 82% on her exam by simple watching educational videos and casually reading books about duelling.
"Yeah, me too." The small boy said to Jaden. "My name's Syrus by the way, nice to meet you. I kinda have a thing where I get test anxiety, I don't know how I won my match."
"I can sympathise with you there." Akiko said. "I have this thing where I'll get worked up when I can't understand a question, which will make it harder for me to understand the question, which will get me more worked up. You get the picture. Personally, I found that music is great for helping me keep a cool head."
"So, you're in!" Jaden gave a friendly slap to Syrus' back. "Congratulations. We'll be in as well as soon as we win our duels."
"Wait, neither of you have duelled yet?" Syrus asked.
"I would have if my bus hadn't broken down." Akiko griped.
"Nah." Jaden said.
"Then you might have a problem, I think this was supposed to be the last one."
Akiko face palmed and had to stop herself from swearing out loud, she also fought off the desire to hit someone.
But Jaden was ever the optimist.
"Don't worry, Aki." He told her. "We signed in, so we've got to duel at some point."
Akiko smiled at Jaden, glad for the reassurance.
A few minutes later the boy from the duel, Bastion, sat down in front of the three and took off his duel disk.
"Tight duel, Bastion." Jaden complimented him.
"Thank you." Said Bastion.
"From the looks of it you might just be the second best duellist here."
Akiko shook her head at Jaden's behaviour while Bastion and Syrus looked surprised.
"Jaden Yuki, please report to exam field 4." A voice came out of the speakers.
"I guess you were right; we weren't too late after all." Akiko said to Jaden.
"Go time. Wish me luck, guys." Jaden said, walking off to the exam field.
"Why? You always seem to have plenty of your own."
"Hey, wait." Bastion said. "If I'm the second best, who's first?"
Jaden smiled. "Yours truly." He pointed to himself. "It's what I'm best at."
Jaden then left for the exam field.
"Wow, he's so sure of himself. I wonder if he's really that good." Syrus said.
"He is." Akiko assured him. "He may not be the sharpest tool in the box, but he's the best duellist I know."
"Well, he's going to need to be good. Look who he's duelling." Bastion said.
Akiko looked to the exam field and did a double take when she saw Jaden's opponent.
"Is that a man or a woman?" She asked.
"That's Vellian Crowler, he's the head of Obelisk." Bastion told her.
"Really? 'Cause for a moment there I thought that he got lost on the way to the circus."
"Yes."
"Alright then, if you insist."
Crowler turned out to be an asshole, he was using his own deck rather one of the normal decks against Jaden and all throughout the duel he insulted the young teen, and Jaden somehow managed to remain oblivious to the fact that Crowler didn't want him passing and getting into Duel Academy. In the end Jaden one with his favourite fusion monster, Elemental Hero Flame Wingman.
"Well, that went about as well as I expected." Akiko said once the duel was over.
"All right! Yeah Jaden!" Syrus cheered.
'Nice, I could use a little compition' Bastion thought.
"I made it into the Academy!" Jaden cheered from the field. "I'm in! I'm in!"
"Akiko Yuki, please report to exam field 4." The voice came from the speakers again.
"That's me." Akiko said, jumping to her feet.
Akiko pulled a duel disk out of her bag and strapped it to her arm, she then took a deck of cards from the card case on her belt and loaded them into the card holder of her duel disk.
"Look after my things, will yah." She told Bastion and Syrus before leaving for the exam field.
Jaden and Akiko met each other halfway.
"You've got this." Jaden told her, high-fiving her as she passed him.
"Yep." Akiko said.
When Akiko reached the field she saw that she was up against Crowler too.
'Well, at least I know what I'm up against.' She thought.
"Aren't you a little young to be here?" Crowler asked rudely, obviously still pissed off after being beaten by Jaden.
Akiko unintentionally pouted, it had been a common misconception that she had had to put with for a while now, while she was at the average height for someone her age, her youthful face often had people believing she was younger than she was by a few years.
"I'm fifteen." Akiko said putting her hands on her hips.
"I'll believe that when I see some ID." Crowler commented. "But until then I suppose I can humour you with a duel. What's your name?"
"Akiko Yuki, sir, ma'am," Akiko was still confused as to how to address Crowler. "Whatever." She finally said with a shrug.
Around the stadium some laughed at Akiko's confusion while others couldn't help but find look of confusion on her face cute, like how a small child would look cute. Crowler, however, gritted his teeth in anger.
'How rude!' Crowler thought. 'Well, if I can't stop that slacker from coming to the academy, I can at least stop his rude sister.'
"Let's just get this over with." Crowler said aloud.
"Game on." Both of them said as they activated their duel disks, or in Crowlers case, duel vest.
{Crowler – 4000 LP}
{Akiko – 4000 LP}
"Ladies first." Akiko said as she drew a card.
Akiko looked at the cards in her hand, working out how she was going to play.
"I summon Pure Maiden in attack mode." She announced.
Once Akiko placed her chosen card on her duel disk the monster appeared on the field. It was a woman dressed in black with long black hair in pigtails and red eyes, on her back was a pair of large white wings and a katana was strapped to her side.
[Pure Maiden – (Light/Maiden) – LVL 4 – (1500/1300)]
Up in the stands a male and a female Obelisk students watched the duel.
"A Maiden card." Said the girl. "Those are rare cards and are only really useful when together, I hope she has more than that one."
"She'll need to, Crowler's probably going to take all of his anger of his previous defeat on her." Said the boy with a stoic look on his face.
"Harsh."
"I'll then lay down a face down and end my turn." Akiko said.
"Not bad, but none of your cards will be able to save you." Crowler said as he drew a card. "I play Pot of Greed and draw two cards."
Crowler grinned at what he had in his hand.
"I place two face downs and then play heavy storm."
'Not this move again.' Akiko thought, remember this move from Crowler's duel with Jaden. "If his duel against Jaden is anything to go by then he's going to summon Ancient Gear Golem again.'
"Ah, my Hidden Sanctuary!" Akiko cried out as her face down was destroyed along with Crowler's cards, which turned out to be two Statue of the Wicked as she suspected.
Two wicked tokens the appeared on Crowler's side of the field, but they didn't stay there for long.
"I sacrifice my two wicked tokens to summon my Ancient Gear Golem!" Crowler announced.
[Ancient Gear Golem – (Earth/Machine) – LVL 8 – (3000/3000)]
"Now, Golem, attack Pure Maiden. Mechanised mealie."
The huge steampunk robot brought its fist back to punch Pure Maiden.
"Pure Maiden, use your special effect!" Akiko shouted.
As the giant fist cam baring down Pure Maiden brought up her hands to protect herself and turned translucent. Golem's fist went straight through her and struck the ground instead, the force of the punch to the ground sent Akiko back slightly. When Golem went back to his original position Pure Maiden was still standing.
{Crowler – 4000 LP}
{Akiko – 2500 LP}
"What?" Crowler exclaimed.
Akiko smirked. "Seems like I need to clue you in about my Maiden, when Pure Maiden is attacked I can activate her special ability and take half the damage of a direct attack to keep her on the field. And since I would have lost the same amount of life points either way I decided to keep her around."
Crowler growled. "Your Maiden's effect won't keep her around forever. I end my turn."
"My draw. I play Sly Maiden in attack mode and lay down two face downs."
The monster that appeared on the field looked similar to Pure Maiden but with white hair to her waist and blue eyes, dressed in red and with fox ears and a tail. In her hand she carried a staff with a crystal at the top
[Sly Maiden – (Light/Maiden) – LVL 4 – (1700/1200)]
"I then end my turn." Akiko finished.
"Another Maiden." Syrus said. "But wait, why didn't she summon it in defence? Neither of her monsters stand a chance against Ancient Gear Golem."
"Because, Ancient Gear Golem can cause damage even when a monster is in defence, remember?" Bastion explained. "And since both monsters have higher attack than defence, it's best for her to keep them in attack mode."
"Another monster won't do any different." Crowler said as he drew a card for his turn. "And since you've so graciously supplied a monster that I doubt has the same effect as your Pure Maiden, it won't be sticking around when I destroy it. Ancient Gear Golem, attack Sly Maiden!"
"Go, Negate attack!" Akiko called, pressing a button on her duel disk that caused one of her face downs to rise.
A force field appeared in front of Sly Maiden, saving her from destruction
"And I'm not done yet." Crowler said. "I play Double attack, by discarding one monster card I get to attack again as long as the monster I choose has a lower level than the monster I discard. Since it has the lower attack points, this time I'll attack your Pure Maiden again."
Akiko gave an apologetic look to her Pure Maiden, she could save her monster with her special effect but she actually needed one of her monsters to go to the graveyard if she wanted a specific card from her deck. For a second Akiko thought she saw Pure Maiden give her an understanding smile before the monster was destroyed, so she just wrote it off as seeing things.
{Crowler – 4000 LP}
{Akiko – 1000 LP}
"I do hope you draw a good card, because next turn I'll take the rest of your life points." Crowler mocked as he ended his turn.
In another part of the stands a group of Obelisk boys watched the duel.
"She's sure taking a beating." One boy said.
"Good, that just means there will be one less weakling at the school." A boy with black hair said arrogantly.
"Pity," said another boy. "She looks kinda cute."
"Huh? Why didn't she use her Maiden's effect to save it?" Syrus asked. "It wouldn't have made a difference to her life points."
"My guess is her other facedown." Bastion theorised. "Most likely one activated by the destruction of a monster."
Bastion was right, as soon as Crowler ended his turn Akiko activated her other facedown.
"I activate Maiden's call." She said, the image on the card showing Pure Maiden defending a downed Sly Maiden. "When one of my Maiden's is destroyed in battle I can summon one of the same level from anywhere in my deck straight to the field. And I choose my Enchanting Maiden."
From her deck Akiko took a card and placed in on her duel disk, on her field a woman with short red hair and brown eyes, dressed in white and covered with red tribal tattoos appeared.
[Enchanting Maiden – (Light/Maiden) – LVL 4 – (1600/1100)]
The female Obelisk whistled. "Another Maiden. If she's relying on those cards this much, then I'm willing to bet she's got her entire deck based around them. It must have taken her some time and quite a bit of money to put a Maiden deck together.
"Or she was just lucky enough to get the cards in the packs she bought." Said the boy next to her.
Akiko drew her card.
"I play pot of greed and draw two cards." She said, she drew her two cards and then smirked when she saw what she had. "This duel is over. I play monster reborn to bring back my Sly Maiden.
Sly Maiden once again appeared on the field next to the two other Maidens.
[Sly Maiden – (Light/Maiden) – LVL 4 – (1700/1200)]
"So what, none of your Maidens can…Wait!" Crowler came to a realisation.
"That's right, fusion." Akiko showed of the polymerisation card in her hand and Crowler groaned. "But before that I play Power of three."
Akiko played a spell card that had Sly Maiden, Pure Maiden and Enchanting Maiden on the picture.
"When Pure, Sly and Enchanting Maiden are on the field together I can destroy any card without setting off any card effects." Akiko explained. "And guess who I choose."
Crowler gasped as the three Maidens on the field created an energy orb together and fired it at Ancient Gear Golem, destroying the monster.
"No, my Golem."
Akiko smirked. "Now, I play polymerisation to fuse my three Maidens together to form…"
A vortex appeared above the three Maidens and they jumped into it, on the other side a woman emerged with red eyes and wearing a white dress and cowl, red gloves and sash and a golden headband emerged carrying a sword, she landed in attack mode on the field.
"Maiden of the Goddess. In attack mode.
[Maiden of the Goddess – (Light/Maiden/Fusion) – LVL 8 – (?/?)]
"No points?" Crowler questioned when he saw the monster's stats.
"Not yet." Akiko grinned. "My Maiden's effect will fix that though. For every Maiden in the graveyard she gains 1000 attack and defence points, and since it took three Maidens to make her that's 3000 attack and defence points."
[Maiden of the Goddess – (Light/Maiden/Fusion) – LVL 8 – (3000/3000)]
"Now, Maiden of the Goddess, attack him directly with Holy sword!"
Maiden of the Goddess jumped at Crowler and used her sword to slice at him.
{Crowler – 1000 LP}
{Akiko – 1000 LP}
"Akiko levelled the score!" Syrus cheered.
"And is about to win." Jaden added.
"It's not over yet." Akiko said. "If you recall, I still have my normal summon left, and if I have a monster with 1000 or more attack points then you're finished. And guess what I just so happen to have in my hand. I summon Crystal Maiden in attack mode!"
On the field, crystals sprouted from the ground and a figure burst out of them, it was a woman made entirely out of blue crystal and with glowing yellow eyes.
[Crystal Maiden – (Earth/Maiden) – LVL 4 – (1000/2000)]
"Diamond storm!" Akiko ordered.
Crystal Maiden stretched out one of her arms and diamonds shot out of her hands, hitting Crowler and making him cry out as if he were really being hit.
{Crowler – 0 LP}
{Akiko – 1000 LP}
"Yeah, that's my sister!" Jaden cheered.
On the field Maiden of the Goddess and Crystal Maiden disappeared and Akiko put all of her deck back in its card case, she then left the field.
"I knew you could do it." Jaden told his sister as she reached where he, Bastion and Syrus were sitting.
"You were amazing." Syrus complimented. "You took out all of his life points in one turn."
Akiko blushed at the praise. "Thanks."
Akiko sat down and took off her trainers to replace them with her roller blades and put her protective gear back on
"I must admit, I'm impressed." Bastion said. "It looked like he had you cornered, but you had it planned all along didn't you?"
"Not at all." Akiko said, with a grin, hiding that she did have it planned as soon as she saw Sly Maiden and Pure Maiden in her hand on her first turn.
Akiko then stood up and skated her way out of the building.
"See you at the academy!" She called behind her.
"Akiko, wait up!" Jaden called, chasing after his sister.
Almost all the cards Akiko used were made by me, if you go to YU-GI-OH! Card maker and look up the Maiden deck you should find the cards I've made so far, though most of them will be without images. I'm under the same name of Shamira.