Honestly, dying isn't as bad as most people make it out to be. Yeah, at first, it sucks. There's a lot of pain. But eventually, it goes away.

If you'd ask me how I think I would die, I would've said something like old age or car crash. Not getting the car you're in struck by lightning. How the hell does that even happen?

The black void that surrounded me was a little on the cold side. I sat there floating, and my body was translucent. I could still move my arms and such, but there wasn't much to do.

I think I was there for thirty minutes before a bright light entered my eyes.

"The fuck?" I said aloud to no one in particular. "What's going on?"

I closed my eyes and covered it with my arms. Suddenly, everything got colder. I tried to open my eyes, but they wouldn't open. It felt like it was glued shut. While I kept trying, I heard some voices.

"Congratulations Ms. Zarcost. The babies seem to be completely healthy." A voice said.

Wait, babies? Shit. Am I a baby? Of course I am! How did this even happen?! I felt a hand go on my cheek, lightly rubbing it.

"Do you want to see your twin brother Zarc?" A female voice asked.

Zarc? The pro duelist turned dragon-monster Zarc. Oh fuck, I'm his brother. What did I do to deserve this god?

Wait, am I in the original dimension or standard?

"Here," The woman said and I heard her hand shift. "Look at your brother Zack."

I guess my name isn't too bad. Zack Zarcost. That's got a good ring to it.

A part of me was hoping this was a dream. But just me asking myself if it was a dream proved to me it wasn't. This was real.

And finally, my baby instincts kicked in and I started crying.


12 years later

I was disturbed from my peaceful sleeping with several pokes. I grumbled as I opened my eyes. A pair of golden eyes were looking down at me.

"Mom said to come down for breakfast and get ready for school." Zarc told me, poking me once more just for good measures.

"Ugh, alright." I replied before Zarc ran to the kitchen.

Turns out, I'm in Original Standard. I don't know how or why, but it just kinda happened. Zarc isn't evil either, which is a good thing. But then again, he was a good person until everyone wanted him to be more violent.

And that's not even the strangest thing. My parents somehow gave me ALL my cards that I owned from my previous life, except Link cards were effect monsters. Where did they even get it from?

Anytime I asked, they just said they bought it from the store in a clearance sale. The thing that confused me even more was that they looked like they were telling the truth. How the hell do you buy the Winged Dragon of Ra in a shop? Where did the normal effect Cyberse monsters even come from?

I did my morning routine in the bathroom, then started changing, before taking my deck out.

"Good morning Zack." Time Thief Redoer said.

"Good morning Redoer." I said, not taking my eyes off my cards. I swapped some cards in my deck and made some other changes. My other cards appeared in their spirit form all around me. A lot of them were begging for me to put them the the deck.

I chuckled. "Chill! I'll take you guys with me eventually. I'm just changing some spell cards."

They kept whining as I finalized my changes. When I finished, I closed the safe with all my cards and walked down to breakfast.

I was greeted with the aroma of bacon and eggs when I walked down the stairs. My mother was cooking food, and Zarc was eating.

"Good morning Zack." My mother said, bringing a plate of food to the table.

"Mmm, toast, bacon, and eggs." My stomach was rumbling and my mouth was watering.

"How was your sleep?" Mom asked, trying to start a conversation.

"Good." Both me and Zarc said.

"I thought of a cool combo I could pull off!" Zarc said, his eyes gleaming.

"One that'll let you actually win?" I asked, taking a spoonful of food.

"Hey! I win most of my games." He commented back.

"Not against me you don't."

"You just get lucky."

"I think you meant to say that I'm better." I said with a playful smile.

Our mom laughed. "I think that's enough boys. I'll be waiting in the car." She took her keys and began leaving.

Me and Zarc traded insults while I ate all my food at a face pace. When we finished, we both headed to the car and our mother drove us to school.


"Zack." A voice said. "Zack!"

I was taken out of my daydream by my teacher calling my name. "Huh?" I asked groggily. All the people in the class snickered.

The teacher sighed. "Please refrain from falling asleep in class."

"My bad sir." I replied in a sheepish voice.

He sighed. "Can you come up and solve this problem?"

I got up from my desk and grabbed a marker from the board. The problem was a simple one, finding the missing sides of a triangle given another triangle with similar angles.

I began writing on the board. I solved for the missing angles, proving the triangles were congruent. When I finished, I put the marker down and started walking to my desk.

"Now would anyone like to explain how he got his answer?" My teacher asked the class. I began zoning out again, dying of boredom. The teacher continued his lesson for the next thirty minutes until the bell rang.

I took my backpack and began walking out to dueling period. My friend was waiting for me in the hallway.

"What's up guys?"

"Guess what?" Hikaru asked. "You're facing Dominick in the tournament today."

"Oh, sweet." I replied, yawning. We continued walking to the period.

"'Oh sweet?' He's the best duelist and that's your reaction?" He asked, flabbergasted.

"I thought you had more faith in me than that." I said in a hurt voice. "And I'm pretty sure Dominick is number three. Zarc and Ray are definitely better."

"Maybe, but there's still a big gap."

"That's because everyone else is just bad at the game." We got to the door of the class.

"Hey! We can't all be duel monster prodigies."

"Sucks to suck." I said, sticking my tongue out as we went into our dueling class. The classroom was almost empty, with Zarc talking to Ray, and a few other people chatting about.

Hikaru and I just kept talking about school and other things until more people came in and the bell rang.

The teacher walked up to the front and all heads turned towards him. "Alright class, as you may have heard, we're doing a tournament. Now, this will serve as your final and your ranking will determine your grade in this class."

A lot of heads turned nervously upon hearing that our grade is dependent on how good we do. If you ask me, that's a horrible way to grade a card game. But alas, I'm not the teacher.

"Now before we go outside to get started, does anyone have any questions?" No one raised their hands.

"Good, we'll head out now." The teacher said, leading us all out through the door. When we were walking out, everyone was jittery and talking about how they were going to fail the class.

When we reached the fields, the teacher had us line up in a line. "Alright, for the first round, we'll do Zack Zarcost vs Dominick Tanaka. Please step up."

I should probably explain Dominick's character. He was a typical school bully/tough kid. The jock who thinks he's better than everyone else. When I turned over to him, he had a smug smile on his face. He turned to his friends, pointed at me, and started laughing.

I've never tried in this class, but something just felt right about putting him in his place.

I took my place on the duel field. He still had the smug grin on his face. As soon as he took his place, he started tapping on his duel pad and mine lit up.

I opened the message app to see some of the worst trash talk ever.

[You might as well give up. 27-1]

He sent a picture of his profile, 27 wins and 1 loss, and a gold badge. I replied with my own message.

[Your win ratio is bigger than your ego?! Crazy! I thought it wasn't possible.]

Not the best, I know, but I couldn't think of something that fast. Also, I barely knew him. If this was a game lobby, things probably would've been different.

His face turned into an angry expression. "You're going to pay for that!"

I just smiled and didn't respond, making him angrier. Before he could talk, the teacher signaled for us to begin.

DUEL

Dominick: 4000

Zack: 4000

"Ladies first." I exclaimed. The class chuckled and Dominick's face turned red.

"To start, I'll activate Card Destruction! Hope you didn't have anything good because you have to discard your whole hand!" He said smugly. We both discarded our entire hand and drew five cards.

"Danger Mothman's effect activates from the graveyard." I told him as the ghost of my monster appeared. It gave a laugh. "We both draw a card, then discard a card."

"Brat." Dominick said as he drew and discarded. I was happy with the card I drew and discarded my card.

Dominick's grin returned. "I activate Dragon Shrine. I select a card from my deck to discard. I send Luster Dragon. Since it was a normal monster, I can also send Divine Dragon Lord Felgrand to the graveyard! Now, I activate Return of the Dragon Lords! I can summon the card onto the field!"

[Divine Dragon Lord Felgrand - Dragon/Effect - Level: 8 - Element: LIGHT - ATK: 2800/DEF: 2800]

"What do you think about that loser?" He asked, gloating.

"Wow, sending a card to the graveyard to revive it. What a revolutionary strategy." I deadpanned while clapping. All it did was fuel his anger. I saw Zarc shaking his head, looking amused.

"Well, my monster's effect activates! It gains 100 attack points for every level your monster has!" His monster roared as the counter increased.

[Divine Dragon Lord Felgrand ATK: 2800 + 100*4=3200]

"I end my turn with a facedown." Dominick said.

"My turn. Draw!" I announced. "I summon Time Thief Regulator to the field. Then, I activate it's effect. Since I control no other monsters, I can tribute it to summon two other monsters. Appear Time Thief Winder and Time Thief Bezel Ship!"

[Time Thief Winder - Psychic/Effect - Level: 4 - Element: DARK - ATK: 1800/DEF: 1300]

[Time Thief Bezel Ship - Machine/Effect - Level: 4 - Element: DARK - ATK: 1000/DEF: 2000]

"Those two monsters can't do anything against mine." Dominick said confidently.

"Not yet." I said, winking at Zarc. "When Time Thief Winder is summoned, I can add another Time Thief card to my hand. Now, with Level 4 Time Thief Winder and Bezel Ship, I build the overlay network! Appear! Rank 4! Raidraptor - Force Strix"

[Raidraptor - Force Strix - Winged Beast/Xyz/Effect - Rank: 4 - Element: DARK - ATK: 100/DEF: 2000]

"An Xyz summon, but a monster in defense mode. Are you scared?" Dominick taunted.

I ignored his remark. "Force Strix's effect activates. By using an overlay unit, I can add a Raidraptor to my hand. I add Raidraptor - Singing Lanius. I also activate its effect to special summon it to the field!"

[Raidraptor - Singing Lanius - Winged Beast/Effect - Level: 4 - Element: DARK - ATK: 100/DEF: 100]

"Time Thief Bezel Ship's effect activates. By detaching an overlay unit, I can special summon it back! Now I build the overlay network once again! Come forth! Rank 4! Raider's Knight!"

[Raider's Knight - Warrior/Xyz/Effect - Rank: 4 - Element: DARK - ATK: 2000/DEF: 0]

"Another weak monster." Dominick said. He turned to his goons, who started to laugh.

"I use an overlay unit to rank up Raider's Knight." The extra deck compartment opened and I took out the card. "I summon Rank 5 Arc Rebellion Xyz Dragon!"

[Arc Rebellion Xyz Dragon - Dragon/Xyz/Effect - Rank: 5 - Element: DARK - ATK: 3000/DEF: 2500]

Arc Rebellion roared as he entered the field. "That's still not enough." Dominick said.

"Not after this. By using an overlay unit, Arc Rebellion gains the attack of every monster on the field, and their effects get negated."

"What?!"

[Arc Rebellion Xyz Dragon ATK: 3000+3200+100=6300]

"Battle. Arc Rebellion attacks Felgrand." Arc Rebellion charged up and launched a lightning strike towards the monster.

[Dominick LP: 4000 - 900]

"I end my turn with a facedown."

"My turn, I draw." Dominick said angrily. His face gained a malicious look when he looked at his card. "I activate Polymerisation to fuse Buster Blader and Kidmodo Dragon! Appear! Level 8! Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman"

[Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman - Warrior/Fusion/Effect - Level: 8 - Element: LIGHT - ATK: 2800/DEF: 2500]

"My card now gains 1,000 attack and defense for every dragon on your field and graveyard! And that's not all. Your dragon switches to defense mode and you can't activate their effects!"

[Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman ATK: 2800+1000=3800]

"Now I activate my facedown, Call of the Haunted! I will bring back Felgrand!"

[Divine Dragon Lord Felgrand - Dragon/Effect - Level: 8 - Element: LIGHT - ATK: 2800/DEF: 2800]

[Divine Dragon Lord Felgrand ATK: 2800 + 100*4=3200]

"Battle! Buster Blader attacks Arc Rebellion!" His monster came to my dragon with a sword and slashed. A cloud of smoke appeared and my lifepoint counter dropped due to piercing damage.

[Zack LP: 4000 - 2700]

"Time Thief Regulator can summon himself from the graveyard when an Xyz monster is destroyed." I announced as it appeared, barking.

"That doesn't matter! Felgrand destroys Force Strix!" Another cloud of smoke appeared, but my lifepoints remained unaffected.

"I end my turn." He said smugly.

I sighed. "Honestly, I expected more."

"Says the person without any monsters."

I smirked. "My turn. Draw. To start, I activate Quick Launch to special summon a Rokket monster from my deck. I summon Rokket Caliber! Next, I summon Raider's Wing. Now I build the overlay network with my two monsters. I summon another Raidraptor - Force Strix!"

[Raidraptor - Force Strix - Winged Beast/Xyz/Effect - Rank: 4 - Element: DARK - ATK: 100/DEF: 2000]

"Now I activate Phantom Knights' Rank-Up-Magic Force." I said as I slammed the card into my duel disk. "By banishing 1 DARK monster from my graveyard, I can rank up Force Strix by one!"

The overlay network appeared once again as the purple light that was Force Strix entered. "Appear! Rank 5! Raidraptor - Blaze Falcon!"

[Raidraptor - Blaze Falcon - Winged Beast/Xyz/Effect - Rank: 5 - Element: DARK - ATK: 1000/DEF: 2000]

"Hmph, only 1000 attack points." Dominick said.

"It's the effect that matters." I told him. "Battle. Since Blaze Falcon has an overlay unit, it can attack you directly."

"What?!" Dominick yelled out as my monster charged for the attack.

[Dominick LP: 900 - 0]

WINNER: ZACK ZARCOST

The monsters disappeared as our duel disk deactivated. People were whispering about the result, and his goons were flabbergasted.

I had a big smile on my face as I walked to Hikaru.

"Dude! That was awesome!"

"Thanks." I replied. I looked over to Zarc who gave me a thumbs-up. I nodded my head back.

"Dominick looks pissed." Hikaru said, moving my head.

"Oh my god, I need a picture of this." I took out my phone, zoomed in, and snapped a picture.

"Please send that to me."

"Only if you win your match." He punched me in the arm. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Some of us can't win all our matches."

Our banter continued as the rounds progressed. Before I knew it, the period ended. Dominick still had the angriest look I've ever seen, and he was looking at Zarc.


"Chillin' out with the crew in the schoolyard, Findin' trouble now, working too hard. Well back at class and they never taught us this. Some things you gotta learn hit or mi-"

"Zack, stop singing and make your move!" Ray yelled out.

"Yeesh, I'm just trying to have fun." I sighed. "Time Thief Redoer attacks Enchanted Fairy Artemis."

"Not so fast! I activate my tra-"

"Counter trap Time Thief Retrograde." I interrupted. "Negates your facedown and Redoer steals it as an overlay unit." The attack went through and as her lifepoints reached zero, the monsters faded.

I looked around at the other duels in the Dueling club. There were around twenty people in total, and all of us were preparing for a regional tournament coming up.

"Good job Zack." Ray said, walking towards me.

"You weren't so bad yourself." I replied. When I looked around, I noticed the absence of someone. "Have you seen Zarc?"

"No, I haven't." Ray responded. "I tried messaging him but he didn't respond."

My eyes widened when she said that. "How long ago?"

"When our classes ended." Ray said. "Why?"

"Shit." I cursed out. "Dominick was looking at Zarc after our duel. He's doing something." I pulled up a map of the school and located Zarc's last period.

Ray had a deer in headlights look. "Is he going to be okay?"

"Hopefully." I hesitantly said as I began running. "Tell security Zarc is missing!" I yelled out.

I started sprinting down the halls towards Zarc. Say what you will, but I spent the last 12 years of my life with the soon-to-be demon, so I had a special place in my heart for him.

I kept running down the halls before finally taking a right to his last class. There were some people lingering around, but I couldn't find Zarc. When I asked some of the people there, they didn't know where he was either.

I sighed in frustration and ran my fingers through my hair. I tried pulling out my deck to talk to Dark Rebellion, but he didn't show up, which meant he was with Zarc.

'Alright, time to take a different approach.' I thought to myself. Dominick is bullying him, so where can he bully him privately?

The bathroom.

But there would still be noises, so a bathroom in an area where there's little to no people. Since school was over, the best option was the one near the basketball courts.

With renewed energy, I ran to the bathrooms at the court. Sure enough, when I got there, I heard Dominick's laughter. I slammed the door open and walked in. I turned my head to the right and saw them standing in an opened stall.

Dominick was holding Zarc's deck on top of the toilet, and two of his goons were holding him down. The last one was holding his head.

"No! Please!" Zarc yelled out in tears.

"Zarc, you don't need to do this!" Dark Rebellion cried out.

"What the fuck is going on?!" I exclaimed. All heads turned towards me, and Dominick had a blood-curling smile.

"Well well well, look who decided to show up." Dominick said before laughing. "We didn't even need to corner him!"

His goons laughed and I walked into the cramped stall. A serious expression crept on my face. "Your issue is with me, not him."

"He was getting boring anyways." Dominick nodded his head towards his goons, and I grabbed Zarc's cards and handed it back to him.

"Thank you Zack!" His monsters cried out.

"Don't mention it." I whispered to his monsters. "Get out and wait for me."

"A-are you sure?" Zarc asked, shaking. "There's four of them and one of you!"

"I'm a solid 80% sure." I said, before ruffling his hair. "I'll be fine."

Zarc eyed me in apprehension as he hesitantly left the bathroom. I took a deep breath, remembering all the fights I'd gotten in my previous life. I turned to Dominick. "So are we doing this here?

"You better believe we are." Dominick said as his friends started to surround me. "I'm going to make you pay for humiliating me."

Before I could go into a fighting stance, one of his friends grabbed my wrists. I immediately pulled my arms towards me, taking him with it, and kneed him right in the groin. He instinctively released his hold on me. I hit him right in the gut before he fell down.

"What the?" One of his friends asked before all of them got serious and started to attack me. I stuck to the walls, constantly moving around to make it harder for all of them to attack me at once.

My constant movement led to them being in a line. The first one was getting closer, cornering me. His arms were up, one ready to parry an attack and one getting ready to attack. I let him get closer, and went in with an exaggerated left hook that was medium speed.

He moved his arm up to defend my exaggerated strike. But before he realized it, I kicked the right side of his body right where his liver is. He immediately collapsed from the pain.

"This guy's a fucking ninja!" One of his friends said in shock. After I took down his second friend, Dominick joined the group.

"Doesn't matter." Dominick said coldly. "Just rush him!"

I kicked the body of the person I just incapacitated towards them, slowing their rush down. While they went from a run to trying to stop, I moved forward towards someone on the right. The person tried to attack me, but I saw it coming and ducked. As his hands reached where I was, I punched him in the solar plexus, rotating my body with my strike to add more power.

As his friend fell, I moved back, leaving just Dominick and one of his friends.

I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins. I felt my blood flowing in my face. A 2v1, while hard, was way better than what I initially started with. But I was almost out of tricks.

The two started to advance towards me. Suddenly, they both went in for a strike. I turned my body to avoid the punches, but they kept attacking me with a flurry of attacks. I parried or dodged most of it, but a few made it through and my chest started hurting.

I had to try something drastic before I passed out.

I ran closer, straight into a strike by his friend. My chest tensed up as it collided, but at the same time, I went in with a right hook to his temple. After I hit him, I went with a roundhouse kick to the left side of his body and elbowed his jaw hard.

"AHHH!" The person yelled, falling to their knees. His hands were on his jaw and ribs."Fucker!"

And then there was one. Dominick. We both had focused expressions on our faces. But Dominick had a look of fear from watching all his friends fall.

Dominick started with fast jabs towards me. I was able to redirect them or just simply dodge. However, he started to increase the speed of attacks. He didn't give me enough time to make my own jabs and attacks.

I focused on dodging while waiting for him to tire out. I kept dodging for a minute before I realized that I would run out of energy before he did. I had to go aggressive.

He went in for another jab, and I moved my body. Swiftly, I brought up my hands and slammed them. His eyes narrowed as he began stumbling. I took this time and went in with a series of fast jabs. Dominick was now on the defensive, barely able to block the barrage of attacks. His ears were ringing and balance was off.

Eventually, it was too much for him and he fell down with everyone else. I was breathing heavily as I saw the scene around me. Three of them were down, clutching various parts of their bodies in pain. Two were straight up passed out.

I looked in the mirror and saw a bruise on my face and a bloody nose. I lifted up my shirt and saw that there was bruising around my ribs. My knuckles were also red. I pushed on the sink and splashed some water on my face before washing up with a paper towel.

After washing, I took out more paper towels and put it up to my nose to handle the bleeding. I walked out of the bathroom in a daze.

Zarc, who was sitting on the bench in the hall, began to walk up towards me.

"Are you okay?" He worriedly asked. "You look horrible."

"You should see the other guys." I slowly said. "They probably need the ambulance."

"W-what happened?" Zarc asked, supporting me to the benches.

"I clapped them up in a 5v1."

Zarc chuckled. "You're good enough to be making jokes."

"How else will I get the girls?" We shared a laugh before a silence followed. It was a silence that felt like hours, both of us left to our own thoughts.

"Thank you." Zarc said, breaking the silence.

"Heh, don't mention it. That's what brothers are for." I put my fist up and Zarc fistbumped me. I forgot that my knuckles were injured, and a jolt of pain went through my body. "This is hypocritical, but promise me that you won't ever resort to violence."

Zarc turned his head to face me, his face in a mixture of happiness and seriousness. He nodded his head.

I hope he will keep his promise. After all, if he doesn't, the world's gone. But then again, if he didn't, it wouldn't really matter because I'd be too dead to care.

Mine and Zarc's monsters appeared in their duel spirit form, surrounding us.

"You should've seen the fight!" Time Thief Winder said to Zarc's monsters. "He was like this, and did this …" He kept going on, acting out the fight.

I looked down and saw that his monsters were looking at me like I was their savior. I suppose I was, but it still felt weird to have monsters look at me like that.

"You know I wasn't joking about the ambulance right?" I said. Zarc just sighed as I took out my D-Pad and began to dial 911.

"Oh, I also need you to do something for me."


"Two concussions and three fractured ribs. What do you have to say for yourself?" The principal asked, taking his eyes off the computer screen. He faced me with an enraged face, furrowed eyebrows and a red face.

"I'd like to add that I think I also fractured a rib." I informed him.

"That's all you have to say for yourself?" He asked.

I just sighed. "What do you want me to say? I told you I went in there, saw them bullying Zarc and they wanted to fight me."

"You had a choice." The principal stated. "You could've walked away or just not have fought them."

The absurdity of his response took me by surprise. "What the fuck? You just wanted me to take the beating?"

"All I said was that you didn't have to fight back."

"And the only way I could've done that was to not fight back." I said, slightly raising my voice.

The principal sighed. "Well, this is what's going to happen. We have a zero tolerance violence policy, so you're going to be expelled."

"This is ridiculous!" I yelled out. "It was actually self defense!"

"And like I told you, you had a choice!" The principal yelled back, his temper flaring up.

"Why are you so mad that I fought back?!" I asked, taking advantage of the moment.

"Because my kid is in the hospital because of you!" He yelled out. It took him a few seconds before he realized what he said and regained his composure.

"Look, I'm sorry that whoever your son is, is in the hospital. But like I said, it was self defense." I said, emphasizing the last part.

"That's great, but I don't care. You're out of this school." He said.

"I was hoping to use this to get out of a suspension, but it'll still work." I just sighed and took out my duel pad. I opened up a folder and turned my duel pad to him.

"What's this?" He asked in an aggressive tone.

"That is a timestamped record of all the times Zarc has been attacked by Dominick and his band of merry men and descriptions of the incident. Now, if I get expelled, I'll go to the school board and show them this."

He scanned through all the entries. "This is obviously fake."

"That's a serious accusation. I hope you have proof." I said. "You can check the timestamp on when the file was made."

"You're one of the best in the computer class, you obviously know of a way to change the timestamp."

"Again, you have no proof." I said. "When the board sees this, not only is your itsy-bitsy child expelled with me, you're going to be forced to resign."

He just sat there for minutes, considering all his options.

"I also have video of the incident." I bluffed. "I think that the board will agree that Dominick started the fight."

The principal closed his eyes, carefully thinking about what he was going to do. He opened them a few seconds later. "You will not be expelled."

"Thank you." I said, nodding my head. I stood up and began walking out of the office.

"Just know that when you slip up, I'll be there, and I'll remember this."

"Yeesh, dramatic much." I said before leaving the room. I walked outside the office and to the front of school, where both Zarc and Ray were waiting for me.

"So?" Zarc asked, looking at me and waiting for my answer.

I paused with a sad look on my face. "There's good news and bad news."

They both had a worried expression. "What's the good news?"

"I'm not expelled or suspended, baby!" I said in an upbeat voice. They had a relieved look on their face.

Both Ray and Zarc punched me in the arm. "What was that for?"

"You know what it was for." Ray said.

"I'm hurt that you would do that to me." I told them. "Both physically and emotionally."

Ray raised her hand out. "No please! I was joking!"

"That's what I thought." She said triumphantly.

"So it worked?" Zarc asked. "He believed it?"

"No, he didn't, but he also didn't have a choice." I told Zarc. He gave a relieved breath.

The three of us began walking home and making small talk. We talked about school, dueling strategies, and matches. Eventually, Ray went into a different direction than the two of us, and we said goodbye.

When me and Zarc got home, I went into the pantry and pulled out some snacks and an ice pack from the freezer, and brought them to the kitchen.

"Want any?" I asked, holding the chip bag in front of him. He shook his head.

I took a chip from the bag and put it in my mouth. I took the ice pack and put it under my shirt. The coldness felt relieving for the pain in my chest. I ate another chip and looked up at Zarc, who had tears while looking at his deck.

"What's wrong?" I asked, my voice filled with concern.

"I" Zarc said shakily, taking a pause. "I almost lost them. They've been there for me, but I wasn't there for them."

I stared at him, formulating a response. "You do know this whole thing was my fault right?"

He shook his head. "It wawa Dominick's."

Zarc was right, but it wasn't what he needed to hear. "No, I embarrassed him in front of everyone, so it was my fault."

"But what matters is that you didn't lose them." I told Zarc. "If you tried to fight, you probably wouldn't have won, and they would've destroyed your monster for sure. So you did the best you could."

He was silent, but smiled after a while. "Thanks again, I needed that."

"You know what, I have a card for you." I said, running to my room. I located my safe, punched in the code, and looked through all my cards.

"You really don't need to!" Zarc yelled out from the kitchen.

"It's on me! I don't use it anyways!" I yelled back. I kept searching through until I found two copies of the card. I walked back to the kitchen.

"Here you go." I said, handing out the cards to him.

"Ghost Sister and Spooky Dogwood." Zarc read the name of the card out. He read the effect before his eyes widened. "This is a card?!"

"The effect isn't as good as you think." I told him. "But I think it fits well with your deck's playstyle."

Zarc put the cards into his deck and began shuffling. "Duel?" He asked.

I took out my deck with a smile. We placed it on the table and drew five cards.

DUEL

Zarc: 4000

Zack: 4000

"I summon Supreme King's Herald!" Zarc declared. "I activate it's effect to special summon Supreme King's Summoner from my hand. Then, Summoner's effect activates and I summon Supreme King Dragon Silverwurm!"

[Supreme King Dragon Silverwurm - Dragon/Tuner/Effect - Level: 4 - Element: DARK - ATK: 500/DEF: 300]

'Damn, if only I had Ash.' I thought. My deck only ran two hand traps and one copy each, simply due to the lack of need or fun for hand traps.

"I now activate Supreme King's Fusion! Since I control a 'Supreme King' monster, I can pay half my lifepoints to use cards from my Deck as material in addition to cards on my field. I fuse Silverwurm and Supreme King's Dragonling from my deck! I fusion summon Starving Venom Fusion Dragon"

[Zarc's LP: 4000 - 2000]

[Starving Venom Fusion Dragon - Dragon/Fusion/Effect - Level: 8 - Element: DARK - ATK: 2800/DEF: 2000]

"Now Supreme King's Dragonling effect activates. When it's sent to the graveyard, I gain lifepoints equal to the attack of all Level 4 or higher 'Supreme King' monsters!"

[Zarc's LP: 2000 - 7500]

"I end my turn with a facedown."

"Not bad, not bad." I said. "My turn. Draw!" I examined my card and formulated my plan.

"I set a card and activate it. The Phantom Knights of Shade Brigandine summons itself onto my field as a level 4 monster. Now, I summon Time Thief Bezel Ship. I overlay the two and summon Raidraptor - Force Strix."

[Raidraptor - Force Strix - Winged Beast/Xyz/Effect - Rank: 4 - Element: DARK - ATK: 100/DEF: 2000]

"I use an overlay unit to add Raidraptor - Singing Lanius to my hand and summon it. And then, from my graveyard, I activate Bezel Ship's effect. I detach an overlay unit and special summon it. Now, I overlay my two monsters again to summon another Force Strix."

[Raidraptor - Force Strix - Winged Beast/Xyz/Effect - Rank: 4 - Element: DARK - ATK: 100/DEF: 2000]

Zarc nodded his deck and checked his face-down card again.

"I use an overlay unit to add Raidraptor - Strangle Lanius to my hand and summon it." I placed the card down on the table. "And I normal summon Winder and activate its effect to add a 'Time Thief' card to my hand. Lastly, I overlay my two monsters to summon Time Thief Redoer."

[Time Thief Redoer - Psychic/Xyz/Effect - Rank: 4 - Element: DARK - ATK: 2400/DEF: 2000]

"Battle. Redoer attacks Herald!"

"I activate my trap, Supreme King's Defiance! Herald isn't destroyed and you take the battle damage!"

[Zack's LP: 4000 - 2800]

"I set a card and end my turn." Good thing I chose not to summon Arc Rebellion.

Zarc nodded. "I draw."

"Redoer's effect activates. It steals the top card from your deck and adds it as an overlay unit." I gave a mischievous grin as I took the top card from his deck and placed it under Redoer.

"I forgot about that effect." Zarc sheepishly said. "I activate Supreme King's Recall. I can reveal any num-"

"Counter trap, Time Thief Retrograde." I stated. "Negates your card and gives it to Redoer as an overlay unit."

"Heh, well played." Zarc said. "Battle, Starving Venom attacks Redoer."

"I activate Redoer's effect. By using a monster overlay unit, I banish it until the end phase." I said, moving it to the banished zone.

"Then Starving Venom attacks one of your Force Strix." The attack went through. "I end my turn."

"It's my turn now. Draw! I activate Redoer's effect again to steal the top card of your deck." I said. "Now, I activate Rank-Up-Magic Soul Shave Force. I pay half my lifepoints to use the Force Strix in my graveyard and rank it up by 2. I summon Cyber Dragon Infinity"

[Cyber Dragon Infinity - Machine/Xyz/Effect - Rank: 6 - Element: LIGHT - ATK: 2100/DEF: 1600]

"I activate Infinity's effect. I steal Starving Venom as an overlay unit." I took Venom and placed it under. "Then, Infinity gains 200 attack for each material."

[Cyber Dragon Infinity ATK: 2100+200+200=2500]

"Redoer attacks Summoner, and Infinity attacks you directly."

[Zarc's LP: 4100]

"I end my turn."

"I draw." Zarc said. He looked at his cards before putting them back in the Deck. "I surrender. Nothing I can do."

WINNER: ZACK ZARCOST

I put my hand over the table. "Good game."

Zarc shook it and just sighed. "You got lucky with that Rank-Up."

"Keep telling yourself that." I added. We continued to banter for a bit before a knock was heard on the door. The two of us got up from the table and went to open it.

I thought that it was our parents, but I couldn't have been more wrong.

It was police officers.

My face dropped when I saw them.

"Are you the sons of Melinda and Michael Zarcost?"

"Yes we are." I said.

The police officer sighed. "I regret to inform you that they've been in an accident. They weren't able to pull through."

My shit day just got worse.

I didn't process everything else they said. The whole world was in a haze for me after receiving that news.

And Zarc.

Zarc broke down for what was the third time that day.

And that's when everything got real for me. I thought that this was a fantasy land. The land of Yu-Gi-Oh!, where nothing bad ever happens.

But this. This can't be part of a fantasy land.

No. This wasn't a show, where people didn't have serious problems. This was real life.

The life that I thought I had escaped.


Author's Note: This is my first ever attempt at writing anything fiction related, so sorry if it's garbage. This was inspired by Monster They Called Me by Ezras Hargrave.

Some card effects might change later for balancing. I'm not sure if I did Zarc's cards properly. Thank you for reading this!


CUSTOM CARDS

Supreme King's Herald:

MONSTER

LEVEL 4

DARK

SPELLCASTER/EFFECT

ATK / DEFENSE: 1200 / 800

Effect: If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 "Supreme King" monster from your hand, except "Supreme King's Herald". Once per turn, if a "Supreme King" monster you control is destroyed by battle or card effect: You can Special Summon this card from your GY.

Supreme King's Summoner:

MONSTER

LEVEL 4

DARK

SPELLCASTER/EFFECT

ATK / DEFENSE: 1500 / 1000

Effect: If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Supreme King" monster from your hand or Deck, except "Supreme King's Summoner". Once per turn, if a "Supreme King" monster you control is destroyed by battle or card effect: You can Special Summon this card from your GY.

Supreme King Dragon Silverwurm:

MONSTER

LEVEL 4

DARK

DRAGON/TUNER/EFFECT

ATK / DEFENSE: 500 / 300

Effect: Once per turn: You can target one monster that you control; change this card's level to a level up to that card's level. Once per turn, you can activate the following effect: Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck using monsters on your field as materials.

Supreme King's Dragonling:

MONSTER

LEVEL 3

DARK

DRAGON/TUNER/EFFECT

ATK / DEFENESE: 800 / 400

Effect: If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Supreme King" monster from your hand. Once per turn, if a "Supreme King" monster you control activates its effect: You can target 1 card on the field; destroy it. If this card is sent to the graveyard, you gain lifepoints equal to the original attack points of all Level 4 or higher "Supreme King" monsters on the field.

Supreme King's Fusion:

NORMAL SPELL

Effect: Fusion Summon 1 "Supreme King" Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using monsters from your hand or field as Fusion Materials. If you control a face-up "Supreme King" monster, you can also use monsters from your Deck as Fusion Materials by paying half of your lifepoints. You can only activate 1 "Supreme King's Fusion" per turn.

Supreme King's Recall:

QUICK-PLAY SPELL

Effect: Reveal any number of "Supreme King" cards in your hand. You can special summon "Supreme King" monster cards from the graveyard up to the number of cards revealed. Their effects are negated the turn they are summoned.

Supreme King's Defiance

NORMAL TRAP

Effect: When an opponent's monster declares an attack: Target 1 "Supreme King" monster you control; until the end of the Battle Phase, it cannot be destroyed by that battle, also your opponent takes any battle damage you would have taken from that battle instead.