A/N: I OWN NO PART YU GI OH 5DS! ALL RIGHTS GO TO THE CREATORS!
Chapter 28: The Sundown Duel
Era's POV
I slowly woke up in Yusei's hold again. I was still surprised at how calm and accepting he was to the idea that we were mates. I didn't want to lock him down like that. But I knew that it couldn't be changed, no matter how much I wish we could've been given the option for longer. We hadn't even told the others yet.
I used a phase through spell to get out of Yusei's hold without waking him up. He needed to rest with his infection from the Underworld Curse Gem.
I walked into the living room and noticed a note on his desk. I walked to it and unraveled the folds to read it.
"I have heard of you and your girlfriend's friendship with him, Yusei Fudo. I want you to take him away from this town, as he'll surely die here. Signed, Barbara," it read. On the very bottom was coordinates to a town called Crash Town.
'Kalin,' I thought. I turned to look towards where Yusei's room stood. 'I'll go help Kalin. Yusei doesn't need to come to this. After all, I need to protect him and his friends.' I hid the note so Yusei wouldn't come and walked out of the garage, changing into my angel form before taking to the air.
. . .
I flew through a desert area, using my power to help me pinpoint the coordinates. I suddenly felt some darkness from below me and I landed on a cliff and changed into my human form for safety.
I went to the edge of a cliff and saw two men chasing after what appeared to be three escaped prisoners with collars on their necks. But the prisoners had a lot of grief, remorse, fear, and guilt darkness within them. The two chasing them had fear, selfishness, loneliness, and guilt.
But even with these types of darkness within them, none of them had a demon, relieving me. One of the prisoners with the least darkness controlling his heart threw a pendent up to the cliff next to me. 'What's going on here?' I thought.
And the darkness in the chasers placed a card on their duel disks and a Taser function on the runaways' collars activated shocking them. I tensed as the prisoners collapsed.
"What're you doing?!" I called down to the two men.
They turned to me. "We're simply taking these men back to the mine," one replied.
"You seem like a duelist. Even though you're a girl, Crash Town might welcome you and you could get much work done," the second told me.
The two men then departed with the now-unconscious prisoners. I picked up the man's pendant and looked at it carefully.
'I didn't come here for work,' I thought. 'I came here to save Kalin. I should better head to the town to get an idea of what's happening here.'
I took off again as an angel and landed just outside of town, switching back into human form. I created a duel disk on my arm to fit in the best I could and not get any questioning. I didn't like the amount of darkness surrounding this place. I began to walk towards the town when three men dressed in the same outfits as the ones chasing the three before approached me.
"Hey, girlie," one created. "Get out your deck. It's time to duel."
"I only duel duelists," I responded.
The men surrounded me. "Insults like that will only get you to Hell quicker," one retorted.
I rolled my eyes in boredom confusing them a bit. But I still agreed, "Alright. If you want to duel…" I was cut off by a woman coming up.
"Stop right there," she called smacking a whip down. "Do I need to remind you? Dueling before sundown is violation of Crash Town's rules." She turned to me. "My name's Barbara. I was the one who wrote Yusei the letter but I'm guessing you came in his place?"
"Yep," I answered.
"Follow me," she instructed and I did so while the other duelists walked off. It was nearing sundown by the time we stopped and sat down on a cliff overlooking the town.
"So what exactly is going on here?" I asked.
"The time that the town's true troubles comes at sunset," she began to explain. We turned as two gangs entered the town from opposite directions. "The group with the red scarves is the Malcolm Ground, led by Malcolm. The other group is the Ramon Group, led by Radley."
"What's going to happen?" I asked.
"Just watch and see," Barbara told me.
"Sensei!" Malcolm called. A large man with a circular marker walked up.
"Who will I be teaching a lesson to?" the man asked.
"Everyone talks big before a duel starts, not knowing that those words will be there last," Radley told him. "How about my group's sensei?"
I looked to their side in the distance as someone played a harmonica. I went wide eyed to see Kalin walking up.
"This town's duel time is at sunset. By the time the sun finishes setting, one of the two duelists will vanish," Barbara told me.
"What do you mean by 'vanish'?" I asked.
"Watch," she replied as the residents of the surrounding building began to pour out to watch the duel.
'If when they lose they become prisoners in those mines I heard about, how could anyone watch this happily or be okay with it?' I thought thinking on the reasoning for Barbara's term of "vanish".
I looked as two men dressed as undertakers came up, riding a horse-drawn carriage. Both Kalin and Sensei reached for the duel disks, which resembled a Colt revolver in my opinion, as the crowd yelled, "Duel!"
Kalin activated his first. Barbara began to explain to me, "Whoever draws their duel disk and hand first will take the first turn."
Kalin drew his card. "I summon Infernity Mirage (Attack 0/ Defense 0) and set one card face down," he declared. He didn't sound confident or have any emotion other then defeat. And defeat was the only sound in his voice.
"Kalin seems different," I said. "His drive to duel doesn't seem there anymore."
"Kalin came to this town looking for a place to die," Barbara told me, and that shocked me. She pointed to the mountain. "In that mountain is a mineral called dyne. It's used in the construction of duel runners. People rushed to the town to make money from mining dyne. Malcolm and Radley were in charge of the mining operation. They eventually started to use dueling to gather more miners. If one wins duels here, they stand to make much money. But the losers are sent to the mountain. Many great duelists were tempted by the riches and ended up in the mines after losing."
"That sounds wrong on all levels," I stated. I looked at Radley and Malcolm. 'They don't have a demon in them yet. But I wouldn't doubt they're under the influence of greed and fear into one. With all this darkness, it won't be long before demons get the smell of it and start taking down this town,' I thought. 'I can't let that happen.'
Barbara then said, taking me out of my thoughts, "I know it does sometimes. But it's the way things are now. I don't think it'll ever change."
"Everything has the ability to change to the light. No matter how dim the chance may seem," I responded.
"How sure are you of that?" she asked me.
"One hundred percent," I answered bluntly. She stared at me for a moment before we returned to the duel.
"I summon Illegal Keeper (Attack 1300/ Defense 1300) in attack mode," Malcolm's Sensei declared. "I activate Card Destruction!"
"I activate my face down, Full Salvo! This sends my hand to the graveyard and inflicts 200 points of damage to you for each card sent," Kalin defended and Sensei's life points dropped to 3200.
"Kalin's ultimate strength is when he has no hand," I stated. "That sensei should be ready for anything."
"I activate the effect of Infernity Mirage! By tributing it, I can special summon two Infernity monsters from my graveyard," Kalin fought. "So I summon Infernity Archfiend (Attack 1800/ Defense 1200) and Infernity Destroyer (Attack 2300/ Defense 1000) in attack mode."
"I end my turn," Sensei finished.
Kalin drew his card. "I activate Infernity Burst! This inflicts 800 points of damage at you for each Infernity monster I control," he declared and Sensei's life points dropped to 1600. "Infernity Destroy, attack Illegal Keeper!" The attack destroyed his opponent's monster and dropped the other to 600 life points. "And now since Infernity Destroyer destroyed you monster and sent it to the graveyard while I have no cards in my hand, I can activate its effect to send 1600 points of damage at you." The attack hit and won Kalin the duel.
I watched as Malcolm's sensei tried to run, but the undertakers lassoed Kalin's fleeing opponent. I had to force myself not to budge and try to protect the man. As much as I wanted to, I knew it wouldn't be a good idea yet.
'I'll save all the miners,' I thought as they stuff the large man into a casket in the back of the wagon and took him to the mountains.
I then realized something. "Those three prisoners I saw earlier were running from the mines," I muttered.
"Kalin is trying to kill himself using this town," Barbara stated.
"Then why doesn't Kalin just lose on purpose?" I asked.
"I don't know the answer for that," she replied.
"That's Kalin's fiftieth win in a row," Radley stated.
"You'll both be going to the mountains next time," Malcolm told Radley. Both groups left.
I walked into town as Kalin began his trek away from me, not noticing I was there. "Kalin," I called and he stopped. He looked at me over his shoulder. "You don't need to punish yourself for anything."
"Yes I do," he responded and walked off again leaving me to sigh.
Barbara walked up. "Why don't you try to talk to him through a duel?" she suggested. "But you'll have to join Malcolm's group to do so."
I looked down to think about my options. I then looked up at her. "Alright, fine," I agreed. "Where can I find Malcolm?"
"He's at his villa," she responded. "I'll show you."
I nodded and followed her.