Chapter 17: Imaginary or Real?

Bryan started receiving text messages about ten minutes before Howard was done with his work. He said they were definitely going to get some real Italian pizza and to be ready in the hotel lobby. Bryan and Matt were already dressed up—as in, back in the same polo shirt that Matt said was suffocating him just yesterday—and ready to go when Howard left the elevator. He led them a short distance away from the hotel to a spot called Mister Pizza. Luckily the waitress spoke English well enough for everyone to understand, and she provided translated menus.

Howard had ordered a pizza diavola, which ended up being the spiciest pepperoni pizza Bryan ever tasted. Matt joked that they probably should have ordered a regular pizza salamino instead. Bryan couldn't remember the name of the other pizza, but it was covered with chicken, sausage, and mushroom. The dough was so different from anything Bryan had every eaten back home. Maybe some of the expensive pizzerias could make crust this fluffy, but it was a whole other category from fast food pizza.

After the initial small talk about Italy and a few sightseeing locations they had each visited, Bryan asked, "When did you graduate from Duel Academy?"

"Last spring, actually," said Howard.

"Oh. Then you already knew we were freshmen. You would have remembered us with a student body of only a hundred-some people."

"Yeah-yeah. But I couldn't rule out the possibility that you're transfer students or something. I just never imagined first-years being invited to a tournament like this. And winning the first two rounds. I'm so impressed."

Matt said, "Let's hope the professors are impressed, too. It'd be nice to get some course credit or curry some kind of favor for performing well here." Bryan didn't reply because he wasn't sure how to. Was there any way for him to ride Matt's coattails and get some kind of recognition?

"Have either of you decided your concentrations yet?"

Briefly, Bryan had to think about it to remember what "concentration" meant in that context. "Oh, you mean the study focus for our academy certificates. I think I'm pretty much stuck with Competitive Dueling."

"That was my focus," said Howard. "You better build up some self-confidence pretty quickly or you'll be in for three years of non-stop anxiety."

Matt said, "Isn't that the point of school?"

"Funny. Are you also going for Competitive Dueling?"

"Not at all. I'm in the programming concentration. Or I will be."

"Are you sure? With how insane your duel skills are? Then again, technology developments are always underway. Certainly a lot of employment opportunities there."

Matt said, "That's pretty much the goal. I've been thinking about a 'winning formula'. I'd use machine learning and a whole bunch of data about duels so I can come up with a mathematical formula that can predict the outcome of any given duel."

Howard laughed. "That's awesome and ambitious. You should present it to Dr. West as a third-year research project. That way you would get course credit for working on it."

"We can do that?" asked Bryan. "Random research projects, I mean."

Howard clarified, "It can't just be any research at random. The project needs approval, which means it needs to be relevant. And potentially it either needs to be capable of contributing to the dueling world at large or else teaching you a really, really good lesson. Something broad like 'all the factors that determine who wins a duel' or specific like 'don't clone the god cards'."

Bryan flinched at that comment. But even though Matt didn't react physically, the fact that he stopped eating to make eye contact with Howard was a dramatic change that even Bryan noticed.

"You haven't heard that story?"

"Definitely not," said Bryan. "I'd remember a story about making duplicates of the strongest cards in existence. They didn't even mention that in the rules on orientation day." He looked to Matt for verification and received a slight head shake.

Howard said, "Yeah, yeah. You guys are hilarious. It's a shame I missed hanging out with you guys at school. You remind me of Justin, Dave, and Andy. Are they how you found out about the god cards?"

"Pretty much," said Bryan. "Dave's cousin already knew, and she took us over there. Then Justin and Matt became best friends…"

"And Bryan hit on Erica over and over again," added Matt.

"Right. Plus Dave and Andy have been basically tutoring me in deck speed and consistency. With help from Erica, too. And Lucy is generally optimistic when I need to hear encouraging words. We don't spend a lot of time with the others, but we see them plenty."

"If your performance in this tournament so far is any indicator, then you guys will fit right in with the Guardian Duelers when the time is right."

Matt shook his head. "The god cards don't appeal to me. Just… But I wouldn't mind living in a private dorm. And the only co-ed dorm, too."

"Yeah-yeah. There are definite perks. Like having the faculty play gatekeeper when it comes to area duels. I was always up for a challenge against anyone who had some good cards to ante up, but you wouldn't believe the number of challenge requests people send to the Guardians every single day. Every single student thinks they are good enough to take over ownership of a god card.

"Actually, depending on how well you do in this tournament, you might see a spike in challenge requests just for participating in an international tournament."

"Really?" asked Bryan. And it wasn't a happy response.

"Oh, yeah. Students get jealous, and there's two types of jealousy. Either they start respecting you because of your performance and then pay attention to how you perform in school, or they assume you were overrated and challenge you immediately to prove the whole tournament was a sham, at least in their minds."

Bryan's throat went dry, his heart skipped a few beats, and he felt light-headed. The last thing he needed was anyone back home challenging him out of jealousy. He wouldn't be able to stand against a string of area duels. And since Dr. Lankford hated Slifer students so much, he'd probably be all too happy to watch other students pick on Bryan. What was it they had told him about rejecting challenges? He wasn't sure of the exact words, but he assumed they were negative.

Howard asked, "You said you don't hang out, but you know Jadelyn Kincaid?"

"Of course."

"I'm the one who gave her The Wicked Avatar."

Bryan said, "Oh, shit! So you were one of the Guardians."

He nodded. "Yeah. Two years, almost. Lost it in a fantastic duel. Jade was one of the few people who ever stopped me from summoning The Wicked Avatar. And I won't claim I went easy on her or anything. She earned it."

Matt asked, "Why does that make a difference?"

Howard said, "The transition between Guardians is easier if the new duelist is able to win it." Bryan half-expected to hear about the mystical properties inherent within each card, but the explanation was much more mundane. "There are tons of objections if the newbie is granted the title by the staff."

"Why?" asked Bryan.

Matt groaned. "Justin already told us. It's because they don't publicize their grading criteria."

Howard said, "Yeah-yeah. They've got some method of deciding who the next most-qualified candidate is, but they don't tell anyone what it is. It doesn't always go to the people with the highest grades, either. Or the people with the highest win rates. So naturally people assume nepotism. It happened with Jonathan Session—uh, the guy who had The Wicked Avatar my freshman year. No one won it that year, so Ben inherited it, then I took it from him in my sophomore year. Anyway, Jade earned it, so no issue there."

"She seems plenty strong," Bryan agreed. "I saw her duel a few times this year. She's a badass with that card."

"Good to hear," said Howard. "As I recall, all of the current Guardian Duelers earned their cards for the first time ever."

Matt leaned in. "Now that sounds significant."

Bryan made a face. "Why is that significant?"

Matt pointed at him. "Exactly. Why is that significant?"

Howard laughed in a way that signaled he no longer thought the conversation was serious. Or maybe that he was worried about being mocked. "It's just a coincidence. But if you're into astrology and shit like that, you might care that the god cards are supposedly connected to the Shadow Realm."

"Everyone knows that," said Bryan. Not that he believed in the Shadow Realm or in Yugi and Seto or any of the old legends. But everyone knew that old legend. The Shadow Realm was nothing new.

"No, I mean, like, when you own a god card, you start to notice things related to the rumors. Weird things, like having really, wildly vivid dreams or seeing ghosts roaming around campus. Sometimes it feels like something's watching you even when you're completely alone."

Bryan said, "Whoa. Spooky."

Matt looked more serious than he had through the whole meal. "What kind of ghosts?"

After a moment more, Howard bust out laughing. "I'm just messing with you. They're cards. Rare cards with a lot of rules, but nothing more than that."

The disappointment in Matt's face was intense. "Right…" At first Bryan thought Matt was thinking back to what that Melody lady had said about ghosts in the hotel. But then he remembered that Justin had admitted that owning Raviel, Lord of Phantasms felt heavy—presumably because of the responsibility, but maybe he had been hinting at the same feeling of supernatural unease.

Howard waved his hand. "Don't worry about it."

Unfortunately, Bryan had been drinking at that moment. He snorted mid-gulp, then fell into a choking fit as his soda burned all the way from his nose to his trachea. He regained enough control to blow his nose and clear out enough room to breathe again. "Don't make me laugh so hard while I'm drinking something fizzy," he said.

"What was so funny?" asked Howard.

"You told Matt not to worry about the god cards. That's his biggest on-campus obsession."

Matt flinched. "It's not an obsession."

"Fine. '24-hour hobby'," he said, using air quotes.

Howard finished another slice. "What are you so interested in? Trying to join the Guardian Duelers?"

From the look on Matt's face, you'd think Howard spat on him. "No, I don't care about that. I just love a good mystery. Come to think of it, maybe you can help. If you were a Guardian last year, you must know about when the god cards were stolen."

That was the first time Howard flinched. "Oh, yeah. That was a weird week."

"What happened?"

Howard shook his head. "We just all woke up one morning and our god cards were gone."

"Anything unusual happen around that time? Anyone new hanging around the Guardhouse? Any major changes to the Academy rules?"

"Nah. No one I ever saw. I think the last time the Guardhouse rules changed was ten years ago. Someone almost stole them before, but the other safeguards worked. We were told that someone will always try to steal them if we're not diligent. That's why the Guardhouse was set up in the first place and why background checks are part of the application process for Duel Academy."

Bryan stopped. "They did background checks?" Matt smacked himself in the forehead. That was a universal sign when Bryan didn't notice something that should have been obvious. "Never mind. Go on."

Matt had no trouble pretending Bryan hadn't said anything at all. "What did they tell you after the god cards reappeared?"

Howard shrugged again. "Something about them showing up in a faculty mailbox. No idea why, though."

"Guilty conscience, I'm sure," said Matt. The sarcasm was so heavy that no one on the second floor would ever hear those words.

Howard took a big swig from his drink and then sat back. "Some of us suspected clones at first—to throw us off the trail, right? They could sell the originals that way and we'd never notice. We assumed money was the motive and not power, anyway. Any attempt to use them in a duel would draw attention. Besides, Kaiba Corp probably deactivated the chips inside the cards so no one could ever use them. But a collector might be willing to pay a lot of money just to have genuine god cards, stolen straight from Duel Academy, even if they were only collectibles.

"Lots of variations on that theory abounded, too: mostly nonsense about how the real cards were locked away in some rich guy's vault somewhere—probably Andres Robles, the CEO of Kaiba Corp. Other versions go anywhere from Chancellor West having them hidden in his Boss deck to Desiree in the card shop keeping a secret safe with the real ones. Even one rumor claims the janitorial staff hid them years ago until they can find the right buyer and retire rich."

Bryan said, "That part sounds ridiculous. But even though cloning and selling the originals makes sense, I've seen those cards. I'm not one for superstitious stuff, but the current Guardians say there is some kind of magic within the cards. Even I felt a chill near them." Matt made a face at him. Bryan had hoped he would forget that Bryan had specifically claimed not to feel anything weird about them the first time he saw them.

"Wishful thinking, I'll bet," said Howard. "The CEO theory makes the most sense since he would be the only one with access to the Kaiba Corp card reader database and able to make sure the fakes still work on a Duel Disk. I highly doubt anyone else would be able to fake those cards so convincingly."

Matt looked uncomfortable. That look said something still wasn't right. Last year, he had described it like the puzzle pieces fit together, but only because the tab was a little bit smaller than the blank. There was still space left to fill, plus the picture didn't look quite right.

"Did the rumors about fake god cards exist before or after the god cards were stolen?"

"Long before. That rumor existed even before my first day at Duel Academy."

Now Matt finally smiled and polished off the rest of the pizza. He actually waited in silence until Bryan asked the question out loud. "What does that mean for the investigation?"

"It means the Guardian Duelers never had the real god cards to begin with. If they did, the faculty would have locked down the school until they were found. Which means the faculty just printed off new cards and handed them back out like everything was fixed. I'd bet it's not even the first time that ever happened."

Howard shifted in his seat and objected. "No way. I can't imagine it being that simple. There's something about the cards… When you hold one of them—and even more when you play it—they just have this weird, magical feeling around them. I know it sounds stupid, but it's like there's something living inside the card. The faculty couldn't just fake that by printing off a new picture."

Since Matt wasn't learning anything else from Howard, he felt free to be flippant once again. "Maybe you're right. Maybe the thief changed their mind and decided to give back the rarest and most powerful cards in the world without a payday."

Bryan chuckled, but more from shock than amusement. "Your idea is crazy and conspiratorial, and I agree with that last comment the most. Who could possibly have enough self-control and selflessness to return the god cards after stealing all of them without anyone knowing you did it? I certainly couldn't do it."

Howard groaned. "Yeah-yeah, I get it. Your theory works with the idea that the god cards were cloned at some point. But if that's really true, then where are the originals?"

"Some rich guy's vault," said Matt, calling back to the original theory. "In all seriousness, what you've done here is split the original investigation into two questions. The original question remains: Who stole the god cards from the Guardian Duelers? But now we have a second question: The stolen gods were fakes, and so where are the originals? I know it's not an insurance scam because no one officially reported them missing."

Another silence passed. This time, Howard didn't have anything else to add, and Matt wasn't looking for it. Bryan was the one who felt uncomfortable in silence. "You hear the rumor about Desiree and the chancellor?" Matt made a face, but Howard chuckled.

"Yeah-yeah. Everyone knows that rumor. She's actually married to Sarge."

"Who's Sarge?" asked Bryan.

"Sergeant Radican."

"Really? Wait, Radican? Is he related to Professor Roger Radican?"

Matt groaned again. "You never noticed they wear matching wedding bands?"

Howard just chuckled some more. "Same guy. He's a former cop who used to be on the Duel Academy security team before becoming a professor. Force of habit that me and a bunch of the older students still call him Sarge."

"Oh, I like that nickname. I'm taking that one back home with me."

By the time they returned to the hotel, Bryan was simultaneously ready to fall asleep and upset that he hadn't spent more time exploring the city. In the end, sleep won out, partly because he remembered that the Round 3 announcement was required to be in-person, which meant there was something big. And also because the fun stuff in the city was already shut down for the night.

Luckily he didn't think about Deck Limitations until after he fell asleep. Unfortunately, that meant dreaming about new rules that prevented Matt from putting together a tournament-legal deck in the next round. Except the person actually dueling was Bryan. And because this was already a nightmare, he was dueling while naked in public.

He barely held himself together through breakfast, which meant that Matt just kept stuffing Bryan full of food. Mostly brioche, cold cuts, and cheeses—adult-size Lunchables, quite honestly. But they were filling, and as Bryan started feeling full to the point of aching, he finally started to relax again.

Bryan rolled himself into the ballroom minutes before the announcement. The ballroom was twice as big since the dividers were taken down for the day, and twice as many chairs were set up. Only one duel stage was positioned at the front of the ballroom.

Leona Moxley wore a much bigger dress than she had the previous two days. Instead of form-fitting, she opted for a hoop skirt that made her lower half look five times as wide as her upper half. The top few layers were bunched up, the hem had a lot of dangling frills, and even her sleeves were poofy. Bryan was impressed that she could look perfect in both types of dress.

"Thank you for coming so early," she announced to everyone. "We are down to sixteen duelists. Before the day is over, we will be down to one. Before we begin Round 3, we are introducing a new way to duel that ensures the winner of each round is not accidentally selected by personal wealth and resources. You will still be subject to a new Limitation on your deck, yet you will also find this round releases you from many of your existing limits."

Demonstrating her point was more salient than explaining it would ever be. Her assistant Vidya stood beside her with a Duel Disk on her arm. It was the standard contemporary model available in any card shop. As Leona spoke, ushers walked around the ballroom handing out boxes to the final sixteen duelists. Matt's box contained a pile of glass card sleeves and a secure digital card no bigger than a US quarter. Bryan was vaguely familiar with their use, but he had never owned one. He had to listen carefully to Leona's explanation.

Leona said, "My friend Vidya will demonstrate how to use these devices. This SD card is imprinted with Denkard intellectual property. Install these into your Duel Disks to load a program exclusive to this tournament." She handed an SD card to Vidya, which the assistant slipped inside an access port near the Life Point counter. Bryan found a similar port on Matt's Duel Disk near the charging port.

"With these you will have access to the entire library of Yu-Gi-Oh! Gaming cards." The hush in the room was so sudden it was like a vacuum sucked out all the air. "You will be able to program whatever cards you want in your deck list to the SD card, and then you will install the deck list to your Duel Disk. And because you program the deck list, you are not limited by the physical cards you own. This technology is how we make sure your skill with dueling and deck building is what wins the remainder of this tournament, not your wallet." Bryan heard some grumbling throughout the crowd from the rich people, but most people were just as fascinated as he was by the prospect of building a deck out of all the cards ever created.

"Surely all of you now wonder how you can possibly play cards that you don't own. Where it is one thing to build a virtual deck list, it is quite another to hold such cards in your hand." To be honest, Bryan hadn't considered the discrepancy until she brought it up. Was the SD card just a way to set up a video game version of dueling for the rest of the tournament? Leona continued, "For this tournament alone, the blank holograph tiles in your tournament box will fill the gap." She held up a blank piece of glass. It was the same size as a playing card. As she held the card high and flipped it around, Bryan noticed that one side was blank while the back was gray with the Denkard logo on it, just like the glass card sleeves inside Matt's box. Basically, it looked like a blank version of a knockoff dueling card. When Bryan examined it closely, he realized it wasn't a sleeve at all but a card-sized tile.

"They are the same size and weight as regular playing cards, but the systematic interaction with the Duel Disk is different. A standard card contains a microchip that the Duel Disk reads to recognize the card's ID number in which is embedded the appearance, behavior, and effect for interaction with dueling technology. The chip in these special tiles connects through the Wi-Fi to the Duel Disk, which then reads the SD card to determine what card you would have drawn. The Duel Disk then transmits that card information into these holograph tiles, enabling you to view them as you would a real card. There is inherent lag that is not present in the drawing of physical cards, and you must be in range of the hotel Wi-Fi for it to work, but the effect is otherwise identical."

There was a rumbling from the crowd as many appeared to be confused. Bryan whispered, "Does this technology even exist?"

Matt said, "She's rich enough to own a casino-hotel and host a tournament where she makes up her own rules. Of course she has access to things we mere mortals don't have commercially available."

Bryan confessed, "I'm not sure I get it."

"Pretty straightforward," said Matt. He pointed to the SD card port on his Duel Disk. "This is your deck." He pointed to the holograph tiles. "These are your cards. They only work together, and judging by the safeguards that protect against cheating, I'm guessing the Wi-Fi for the hotel's duel system is programmed not to flag the additional transmissions."

Confusion plastered across Bryan's face.

Matt sighed. "Most duel systems monitor the Wi-Fi traffic between the cards and the placards, and then they alarm if any additional transmissions or gaps in time are detected. Usually that indicates cheating."

"Isn't that normally considered cheating?"

"Except that it's part of the tournament design. So it's okay."

Before Bryan could fully wrap his head around the mechanics of the game being explained to him, Leona captured everyone's attentions once more. "Please look again to Vidya for a demonstration. We programmed her SD card earlier, and her Duel Disk has a collection of forty holograph tiles where the Main Deck normally goes."

Vidya pulled one holograph tile from the Duel Disk the same way she would a real card. She held it high in the air, spinning it to ensure that everyone could see it was not a traditional card. Bryan just barely caught sight that the tile's face had some image on it. The video camera sent the image to the display walls of a glass card with a holographic image of a woman in blue.

When Vidya placed the tile on her Duel Disk, there was a slightly longer delay than usual, but the undeniable reactions of the hologram generator kicked in. The hologram took the form of a dark-haired woman no bigger or taller than the average humanoid monster card, adorned with a blue robe draped over her shoulders and a simple, golden tiara that shone as a halo on her skin. It was a card Bryan had never seen before. She held more allure than any human woman he'd ever met, yet there was something even more mysterious about her appearance—as if the mere image of the card did nothing to tap into its hidden effect. Despite Bryan's interest in taking that card with him up to his hotel room, Matt's gaze was even more fixed. It was a common trend among all the men in the room.

Leona held a light smirk as Vidya shut down her Duel Disk. "The demonstration may have helped to solidify the explanation for all of you. You have the option of programming your SD card on your own at one of the stations up along the back wall, or you may join our technical staff in five minutes to receive a full tutorial and assistance. As always, you will have one hour to assemble your deck for the next round."

Vidya said something to her inaudible to the rest of the ballroom, which prompted musical laughter to erupt from Leona. "Of course! Now that everyone has unlimited access for their decks, they need to know what the Limitation is for Round 3. And what better way to prove that every card is available to you?" With a signal, the display walls changed to list the text of the newest rule.

"Following all other deck-building standards: Your deck must feature a god card."

At first the room was dead. Quieter even than the hum of hologram projectors. One person said something, then another, and before long the entire room boomed with rumblings of confusion and bewilderment. The volume rose so quickly as everyone tried to be heard over the sounds of everyone else trying to be heard.

Bryan had to shout even though he was only inches away from Matt. "Did she say you have to use a god card?"

"Put your fingers in your ears and re-read the words," said Matt. "It just goes in my deck. There's no requirement to use it to win."

Even though he sat toward the front of the room with Darcy, Howard looked back and made eye contact with Bryan. Howard used to be a Guardian Dueler. He had the biggest advantage over literally everyone else in the hotel, and he wasn't even dueling.

Except… maybe Matt's advantage was the same? Bryan pulled out his phone and started texting the Guardians chat. Just a simple "yooo some duel disc magic means matt has to use a god card in this round".

A moment later, Matt made a face. "Think about the time zone, genius. No one in this group chat will wake up before I have to be ready to duel. And besides, who's going to understand whatever the hell it is you just said?"

So Bryan asked, "You have that eidetic memory, right? Did you memorize Justin's deck list?"

"No. I've never seen Justin's full deck. But here's something you should absolutely keep in mind: No good comes from hobbling together a brand new deck theme in just an hour."

"Isn't that the whole point of this tournament?"

Matt laughed. "The point is to limit your own deck. You have the option of changing things completely, sure, but the people who win are those who keep building a deck they know how to use."

"Still. Seems like a safe strategy to copy the deck of someone successful."

"No. Actually, that's dumb as shit. Do you even know how to run a Dark World deck? Can you tell me right now which Dark World monsters you can summon when you discard on your turn and which ones can only be summoned from your opponent's card effects?"

"Whoa, settle down. Obviously we'll do some research once we put the deck together."

"In an hour? Because even if Justin just happens to be pulling an all-nighter or otherwise waking up before three AM, I'd be left with only a few minutes—maybe—to memorize the deck list and figure out how to play. With a deck, you need to know exactly what you're looking for every time you search your deck or know exactly when to activate each of your traps to ensure you fuck over your opponent while helping yourself."

His intensity made Bryan shrink back. Even some of the people nearby in the ballroom were making faces because of his vulgar language. He had thought copying a successful deck was the best way to go, but Matt made it sound like it was a hard way to duel and a bad idea. "Okay, that's fine. You're the one dueling anyway. What do you prefer?"

Matt scoffed and walked out of the ballroom. Bryan wasn't sure how to interpret that except to follow him. By the time they reached the stairs next to the lobby, it was quiet enough for Matt to return to his usual, calm, speaking voice.

"The rules says we need a god card in the deck. She didn't say we have to use it or win with it. So instead of trying some crazy shit, I'm going to keep my best Dark Magician combos and throw in a god card. Even if luck is against me and the god card becomes a dead draw, my chance of winning is so much better with a deck I understand."

Those words made sense, but Bryan couldn't help feeling disappointed. "Where are we going, anyway?"

"The business center. We need a computer to download a deck into this SD card. Since we don't have one, and it's goddamn loud in that ballroom, I figure we'll head to the business center on the second floor."

Bryan wasn't even aware of the business center, although now he realized he had seen the word printed on one of the signs mapping out hotel landmarks. The business center was a small room with an open floor plan. A single desk had basic dividers set up between four computers, not dissimilar to the library cubicles, although the work spaces were smaller. Printers, copiers, fax machines, mailing envelopes, and other office supplies were visible, but they weren't needed for building a virtual deck… although Bryan did eye the paperclips, but that was for something else.

No one else was in the business center, probably because everyone else in the tournament was rich and had personal computers readily available to use in the privacy of their hotel rooms. He wondered how often anyone even used this place. It looked super-clean, but the whole building was clean, so that didn't tell him anything. A poster on the side of the cubicle provided instructions how to log in as guests. Each computer already had the Denkard Dueling app installed, so that was one less step.

"How difficult do you think this app will be?" asked Bryan. He grabbed a second chair and looked over Matt's shoulder as he logged in.

Matt had already inserted his SD card and watched the computer launch the Denkard Dueling app automatically. The load screen was a menu with the options New Deck, Edit Deck, and Settings. "It's a real puzzler."

Bryan laughed. "I believed you for a second."

He watched Matt click around the screen until an absolute wall of cards lined the screen. Every time the cursor hovered over an image, text popped up in a legible size with the card details. After a few minutes Bryan asked, "Are you finding any cool new cards to try out?"

Matt nodded. "I've never come across a copy of Soul Servant. Looks like that could help with draw power in a deck like mine. And I didn't realize there's a fusion card between Dark Magician and Red-Eyes."

"Really? Like a fusion between you and Kasumi?" Bryan amused himself with that comment.

But then Matt made it dirty. "I wouldn't mind fusing with Kasumi."

"I'll ignore that so I don't throw up. Which god card are you using?"

"I considered using something hosted in one of the other Duel Academies, like one of the Time Machine Gods or something. But it looks like Slifer the Sky Dragon will fit best in a Dark Magician deck. Fitting, too, since the legends say that was Yugi Mutou's first god card."

Shaking his head, Bryan asked, "Are you really basing your tournament performance on historical fiction?"

"Historical fact, probably, if that makes you feel any better about it."

Only two minutes later, Matt closed the app and popped the SD card out of the computer. "Done so quickly?" asked Bryan.

"Looks that way. Too bad we can't really playtest it, but odds are I'll survive. Unless I face Ash or Fasheng. Or Darcy. She might be the one to beat this round considering Howard is probably putting her deck together."

"Will that work? You just told me that copying someone else's deck doesn't guarantee a win unless you understand how to play the cards."

"Darcy a far-thinker and pretty intelligent. Howard talks about the deck for an hour and she probably memorizes every combo he knows. Or for all I know, she's ignoring Howard's experience and building her own deck. The former seems more likely, though. Why else bring a junior employee to a tournament like this?"

About that time, Vladimir stepped inside the business center. He skipped over the greeting. "Why are you in here?"

Matt had that look in his eye. "Isn't this our hotel room?"

"It's business center," said Vladimir as he pointed to the door.

"Huh." He looked at Bryan and said, "I told you our room didn't have see-through walls."

Vladimir said, "Maybe I come back later?"

"Did you need to use the room?" asked Bryan. "We're basically done with it." Only after he said that, he remembered that Vladimir had lost his last duel. That's why he didn't carry his Duel Disk with him anymore.

"No, no. I'm curious what this young prodigy would do with the new technology."

"Already finished putting my deck together," said Matt.

"So soon? Impressive. Just like with Blackjack. Which god card did you choose?"

"Yahweh." Even Bryan flinched as he tried to remember where he heard that name before. He was pretty sure it wasn't a dueling card.

Vladimir was stunned. "Isn't that the Christian god?"

Matt looked utterly confused. "No way!"

Oh, there it is. Just a really bad pun.

Bryan said, "Maybe it's best for the odds if Matt doesn't tell anyone what's in his deck."

"Clever," said Vlad. He produced a business card from his pocket and handed it to Matt. "If you win next round, let's chat. Maybe there's business opportunity for you."

No sarcastic reply to that. Matt was stunned to silence as Vladimir left the business center. Bryan asked, "That was unexpected. What kind of business opportunity do you think he means?"

Matt shook his head slowly. "I don't know."

"Are you considering it?"

"I need to know what it is first."

"But money interests you."

Matt made a face. "Looks who's talking. You don't gamble because you find money to be boring. Although since you aren't depressed yet, whoever you bet on is still in the tournament so far. Is it Darcy?"

Bryan looked at the computer to check the time. "We still have forty-five minutes. Can I use the app for a bit to explore all the Hero cards?"

Matt smirked. "Nice evasion." He handed over the SD card. "Knock yourself out." He pulled a chair to the corner of the room and leaned back in it so he was back on two legs, supported by the wall. He pulled out his phone, which was actually unusual for him.

"What are you doing?" asked Bryan.

"Ordering a hooker for the room."

"Dude, gross."

"Why? I'm not sharing."

"Ew, worse!"

"Just build your deck. But not really. Don't save over my deck."

Bryan was happy to pretend the hooker comment never happened. When he started browsing the app, he realized how truly vast the card variety was across the world. The app had more than 13,000 cards to choose from, including every god card he heard about during the School Duel Festival. It was honestly overwhelming. Maybe Matt was also overwhelmed and just scared to spend the whole hour browsing.

"You have access to all the cards that exist right now. Isn't it a shame not to take advantage of that?"

Maybe that was one comment too far. Matt sounded really mad when he sighed. He even put all four chair legs back on the floor. "Isn't it a shame to come to an international tournament, survive the first two rounds, and then lose immediately because you decided to use an unfamiliar deck?" Matt stopped and took a deep breath. "Stop and think about it for two seconds. When you play E - Emergency Call, do you know which Hero you want to grab?"

"I mean, it varies depending on the other cards I have… Yeah, I usually know when I play the card which Hero I need at the moment."

"That's because you know how the cards work together. You don't have to stop and think about whether a play works the way you think it will. You don't miss the timing because you know how your effects resolve. Dark World especially is a challenging archetype because of how the gameplay mechanics differ between discarding as an effect and discarding as a cost."

Bryan asked, "Does that make a difference?" He must have missed the class where they explained that.

With serendipitous timing, he felt his phone buzz. Lucy was the first of the Guardian Duelers to reply to his text. For whatever reason, she replied to him directly. Maybe she didn't want everyone to know that she was awake in the middle of the night.

"Lucy replied to my text. She says, quote, 'Make sure to use cards you know. Test all the other cards for fun. But tell me lots of stories when we get back to school.' She had the same advice you did."

Matt perked up. "Tell her that. And then also tell her we should hook up."

"What, you and me?"

"No! Not you and me. She and I should hook up. We're on the same wavelength. Tell her all that."

"Even the part where you and I are not going to hook up?"

"Goddammit, you're killing me. Just be my Flame Wingman for this one girl!"

Bryan laughed. "That's cute. But this is at least the third girl you needed my help with." And then he stopped to wonder whether helping Matt hook up with Lucy would break his agreement with Jack—the one where he promised not to get in Jack's way of wanting to hook up with Lucy. That train of thought led to feeling guilty, like he was making decisions about Lucy's life when he should just let her handle it herself. His mood fell and he was suddenly less enthused about looking through 13,000 cards.

The monster appeared on-stage with the sound of straining metal and the sound of oozing liquid. The gelatin looked metallic from this far away, especially because of the machinery it connected to. Reactor Slime (4: 500|500) was as much machine as monster. Two Slime Tokens (1: 500|500) spurted from the top of the reactor.

That was Darcy's only play for his first turn.

Matt was starting to see conspiracy theories all over this tournament. For one, it was a goddamn miracle that he was able to make it through two Deck Limitations with minimal change to his regular deck, despite the extreme dearth of cards in his possession. Today, it was only weird that the Limitation required a god card in the deck, and that exactly one person in the building had direct experience with them. But to see Darcy Purves in the very first duel of the round felt scripted—as if to say, "Let's all watch the way a god card is supposed to be played before all these amateurs get onstage."

Matt had hoped he would be the one to duel her. It was as close to dueling against one of the Guardian Duelers as was possible at this tournament. But unfortunately, she ended up dueling against some foreign oligarch named Radovan Vlasic, best known for his expansive collection of Yu-Gi-Oh! Gaming cards. He was one of those people who lost their major advantage when Leona added the deck-building apps to the tournament. And of course, no matter how expansive his collection was, he didn't own the god cards, so Darcy had the clear advantage.

Radovan summoned Photon Thrasher (4: 2100|0), one of those monsters that can be Special Summoned. She also placed a giant Cup Noodles on the field. It wasn't filled with Instant Ramen—it was Instant Fusion. At the cost of 1000 LP, Radovan summoned a dragon whose entire body comprised smoky fire: the Darkfire Dragon (4: 1500|1250).

Radovan overlaid his two monsters to summon Number 39: Utopia (4: 2500|2000), but then he immediately summoned Number S39: Utopia Prime (4: 2510|2000) on top of it, and covered even that one with Number S39: Utopia the Lightning (5: 2500|2000). By this point, the energy swarming the warrior had grown so powerful that his white armor was starting to look green. Finally, Radovan played Summoner Monk (4: 800|1600), a card Matt actually owned a copy of.

Monk went into defense mode automatically, but Radovan's warrior went on the offensive. Radovan used Utopia the Lightning's effect to raise his attack power to 5000 before he zapped the Slime Reactor (500). But Darcy used Slime Reactor's effect to transform into a face-down card in the backfield. Actually, the monster went to the Graveyard and Darcy pulled a Trap Card from her deck to the field, but it was more fun that the holograms played it like the same monster took a new form. Utopia had to destroy a Slime Token (500) instead.

Darcy immediately activated her face-down Metal Reflect Slime (10: 0|3000), a large ball of liquid metal that seemed to be alive. Every time it breathed, it flexed spikes instead of muscles. She waited for Radovan to counter, but he was finished with his turn.

Darcy: 5 cards, 8000 LP

Radovan: 3 cards, 7000 LP

Without even looking at the card she drew, Darcy sent Metal Reflect Slime to the Graveyard so she could summon Egyptian God Slime (10: 3000|3000). The same ball of liquid metal reshaped itself into a gigantic, shiny version of Obelisk the Tormentor, the largest Egyptian God Card. Matt knew the shape. He even learned from digging through the Denkard card list that Egyptian God Slime counted as three Tributes so that Darcy could immediately summon The Wicked Avatar (10: +2600|+2600). It started as a black ball of energy but morphed into the shape of Radovan's Utopia.

Matt's brain started to tickle. He tried pressing his fingers to the side of his head, but no amount of pressure could reach the irritation that had suddenly set in.

At the same moment, Matt saw Ash Staotar stand up and leave the ballroom, pressing his fingers to his head in the same location that Matt had just done. Matt decided to follow him. Ash only made it to the hallway before he stopped and pulled out his phone. He leaned against the opposite wall as he spoke in a language Matt didn't recognize. Despite his hushed tones, every word sounded hateful and harsh… or he could have been whispering sweet nothings. It was really hard to tell without understanding the language.

When he ended the call, he looked right at Matt, who had failed to duck away in time. "Did you notice it, too?" he asked.

Matt asked, "Notice what?"

Ash nodded. "Never mind. Just feeling some discomfort in the air."

"Related to a god card?"

"Not directly, no."

When he didn't say anything else, Matt added, "I felt something weird in the air. Maybe it's all the ghosts walking around this hotel."

"Using discordant god cards in the same deck will only drive away the spirits," said Ash.

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"It removes them from the room, but it doesn't remove them from the imaginary space. The energy must be synchronized to make the spirits materialize in real space."

Matt stared blankly for a moment. "Of course. And why would we want to do that?"

Ash remained stoic. "It's the only way to eliminate them permanently." As he walked back toward the conference room, he said, "Your duel won't be long from now. I hope you continue your winning streak."

All Matt could think is, That guy creeps me out.

By the time Matt returned to his seat, Bryan hadn't even noticed he was missing. Apparently Darcy was really showing off Howard's god card knowledge. The Winged Dragon of Ra (10: 10,900|10,900) shone brightly on the field right beside The Wicked Avatar (10: 11,000|11,000), whose darkness was almost enough to engulf Ra's light. In a brilliant flash of light and darkness, both her monsters shattered every card Radovan had remaining on the field.

Darcy: 4 cards, 100 LP

Radovan: 2 cards, 0 LP

While Bryan stared in awe, Matt looked over to where Ash had sat down. How did he know that Darcy had two different god cards in her deck? And that they wouldn't be part of the same trio?

Ash was right about something else: Matt only had to wait through one more duel before it was his turn. What might have felt like a third tournament conspiracy was harder to stick with: No matter how much Bryan thought the tournament was rigged, Matt knew that, statistically speaking, it was only a matter of time before he faced one of the top-ranked duelists. If he didn't duel against Fasheng Qiu now, there were only three more rounds for it to happen.

For the first time, Matt felt a slight quaver in his wrist as he shook his opponent's hand. It was almost annoying how Fasheng just smiled like he was having the time of his life. "You use Dark Magician," he said. He spoke softly and with a heavy accent, which was why his sentences were short.

"I do," said Matt, keeping his sentences short so that he wouldn't give anything away about his personality or accidentally appear "likeable".

Fasheng said, "You find new cards with the deck app?"

"One or two. You?"

"Oh, yeah. Many. I like Dark Magician."

"Same."

"Okay. Good luck!" Even more annoying was how genuine his smile looked. None of that back-handed "Good luck because you'll need it"-type crap. Fasheng's expression clearly said "Good luck to you and good luck to me so we can have fun playing a lot of cards and without a string of dead draws". Seriously, his smile spoke volumes more than his voice did.

Fasheng received the first turn. "Um, Dark Magical Circle," he read as he played the card. So despite having access to all the cards, he stuck with Dark Magician cards, just like Matt did. Even if neither of them managed to play a god card, a clash of Dark Magicians should provide plenty of entertainment. Matt felt his nerves tightening in anticipation.

The next card was Magician's Salvation. Yet another runic circle appeared, but this time covering the entire field. Matt remembered that card: It let Fasheng pull Eternal Soul straight out of the deck and set it on the field. So he already had the Dark Magician trump card out and ready to play. But that wasn't enough: He also played Magician's Rod (3: 1600|100) and used its ability to take Soul Servant from the deck to his hand. He immediately activated it and moved Dark Magician to be the next card on top.

Interestingly, there was no longer a need to look through the deck or to shuffle the cards. The Denkard app and the glass tiles moved Dark Magician to the top of the deck. Every time Fasheng pulled a card to his hand, the app delayed the game for about five seconds as it shuffled the rest of his cards virtually.

Fasheng: 3 cards, 8000 LP

Matt: 5 cards, 8000 LP

Now it was Matt's turn, and his hand was filled with cards he had selected specifically for this round of the tournament.

"Um, 'Maxx C'," said Fasheng as he discarded a card from his hand. The field charged around his deck. For the rest of the turn, he'd be allowed to draw every time Matt special summoned a monster. Nicely played. A Dark Magician deck like Matt's relied on special summons, so naturally Fasheng would draw more than enough cards to make up for losing one.

Matt said, "I'll reveal a little bit. Here's Magician of Chaos." He literally only showed the card in his hand, which let him move any card mentioning "Dark Magician" to his hand, and he chose Magicians' Souls. To cover the cost, he placed The Revived Sky God on top of his deck from his hand.

"Here's my Dark Magical Circle." A runic circle appeared in front of him, mirroring the one Fasheng used. Matt looked at the top three cards from his deck. None was a Dark Magician, unfortunately, but at least he could put them back in a better order. "Now The True Name." An Egyptian cartouche appeared on the field. As Matt spoke the name "Timaeus the United Dragon", hieroglyphics appeared on the cartouche. Matt revealed the top card from his deck was indeed Timaeus the United Dragon, which moved to his hand.

More importantly, the hologram projectors sparked with fake—Matt hoped—electricity as Slifer the Sky Dragon (10: +5000|+5000) burst onto the field. Its serpentine body snaked around the field and its wingspan filled the room. Matt was glad the hologram projectors included space behind him so Slifer didn't block him from seeing everything else that happened.

Because Fasheng drew a card and then activated Eternal Soul. The monolith sprang from the ground and channeled the energy needed to pull Dark Magician (7: 2500|2100) out of Fasheng's hand and to the field in defense mode. Obviously Fasheng knew that defense mode was the only way to avoid Slifer's attack-reducing ability. Maybe Slifer had predator eyes and couldn't see monsters that stayed motionless or something.

Summoning Dark Magician activated the Dark Magical Circle. Matt expected Fasheng to go after Slifer, but that wouldn't work because Slifer was immune to spells. And maybe Fasheng knew that, too, because he chose to banish Matt's copy of Dark Magical Circle. Now Matt would be unable to use the same banishing effect when he finally summoned his own Dark Magician.

"I'll use Magicians' Souls," said Matt. It was a monster card, but its effect let him move Dark Magician from the deck to the Graveyard, discard Magicians' Souls from his hand, then summon that Dark Magician (7: 2500|2100) to the field. Fasheng drew another card.

Everyone probably expected Matt to do battle with Slifer (+4000) while it was still powerful, but Fasheng had two monsters on the field. Matt had watched Fasheng's other duels and knew not to let him have any breathing room. It was far more fun to discard Magician of Chaos so he could summon Timaeus the United Dragon (8: 2800|1800). He had only ever played Timaeus as a fusion card before, so it was fun to see the giant, emerald dragon stand on the field as a distinct entity. Fasheng earned one more card, and Slifer lost 2000 points, but now he had three monsters raring to go.

"Let's attack," said Matt. His Dark Magician (2500) wiped out Fasheng's Dark Magician (2100), then Timaeus (2800) smashed Magician's Rod (1600), and Slifer (2000) attacked Fasheng directly with a blast so bright the hologram projectors just flashed to avoid blinding anyone or giving them seizures.

"Finally, I'll put both these cards down and protect them by combining Dark Magician and Timaeus into Dark Magician the Dragon Knight (8: 3000|2500). This was the first time he combined his two monsters this way.

Unfortunately, Slifer could only stay on the field for one turn after special summoning, hence Matt's willingness to leave himself with no hand at the end of his turn.

Fasheng: 5 cards, 4800 LP

Matt: 0 cards, 8000 LP

After Fasheng drew to begin his turn, Matt activated his own Eternal Soul. The power of his monolith would protect his Dragon Knight from Fasheng's cards. He also moved Dark Magic Attack from his deck to his hand.

Fasheng just smiled. He probably realized how easily Matt would wipe away his support cards, but he was amused. "Prepa—Prep…" He stopped to read the card more slowly. "Preparation of Rites." Matt couldn't fault him for struggling. English was a terrible language with shit rules, and if you counted programming languages, Fasheng probably knew a dozen other languages where the rules were more straightforward.

His card established a ritual altar made of stone, which let Fasheng put the ritual monster called Illusion of Chaos into his hand.

Now that Fasheng's hand was full, Matt activated The Revived Sky God. As the sky began to darken and jolt with thunder again, Fasheng showed Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring in his hand. He discarded it, incorrectly thinking it would negate Matt's trap card. Too bad for him that particular trap couldn't be negated. Better yet, it summoned Slifer the Sky Dragon (10: +6000|+6000) back from the Graveyard and let both Matt and Fasheng draw until they held six cards. Fasheng wasn't supposed to draw any because his hand was full, but now he was able to draw one more after discarding Ash Blossom… so maybe that wasn't a misplay after all. Maybe he just wanted one more card.

Fasheng didn't seem bothered by Slifer's size or permanence. Smug people were never intimidated.

"Soul Servant," said Fasheng as he played a card that appeared to pull a whole army of spirits into the room. But these were just holograms, and they let Fasheng put Secrets of Dark Magic on top of his deck. He tapped the Graveyard controls on his Duel Disk and said, "Um, Soul Servant banish." Banishing it let Fasheng's Dark Magician draw a card even while it rested in the Graveyard.

I wonder what that card could be, Matt mused.

"Secrets," said Fasheng. Playing Secrets of Dark Magic let him summon Master of Chaos (8: 3000|2500) as if he had used Polymerization.

As soon as the monster hit the field, Slifer opened its second set of jaws—a slightly smaller set just above its primary mouth. As the counterattack built up, Master of Chaos pulled Dark Magician (7: 2500|2100) out of the Graveyard. Slifer's attack launched and reduced Master of Chaos (-1000) by 2000 points, but Fasheng played his cards with perfect timing to have Dark Magician slip right past the attack unscathed. Not because Slifer couldn't respond, but because Dark Magical Circle unleashed a wave of energy that banished Slifer from the field before it could attack Dark Magician.

Fasheng ran the back of his hand against his forehead. He tried to smile like he was having fun, but he couldn't hide the truth. Matt was sure Fasheng was just relieved that Slifer was gone. The programmer was getting cocky—he must have a good card in his hand.

That card was Magician's Rod (4: 1600|0), or maybe it was the copy of Magicians' Souls that he was able to draw because of the Rod's effect. It couldn't be the copy of Dark Magician (7: 2500|2100) that the Souls turned into. Big monster, sure, but not as big as Matt's monster.

And Eternal Soul protected his Dark Magician the Dragon Knight (3000) from the effect of Dark Magical Circle, meaning Matt was still defended by a powerful monster.

Then again, Magicians' Souls required two Spells to take effect. Fasheng discarded one card from his hand, but the other card was his Magician's Salvation Field Spell. When that left the field, Fasheng got to draw yet another card. And he wasn't a strong enough Poker player to hide his excitement.

"Ancient Chant," said Fasheng.

Well, that narrowed it down. The god card Fasheng selected was The Winged Dragon of Ra, and that spell card conveniently moved the god card straight into his hand. And it gave him one extra normal summon for the turn.

And he had three monsters on the field. Dark Magician, Magician's Rod, and Master of Chaos all disappeared into the golden light emitted by The Winged Dragon of Ra (10: 12,700|12,700).

Well, fuck, that's a lot of points.

Across the room, Matt noticed movement. As Ra's light hit certain people, they seemed to be invigorated. Several of them looked around as if seeing the world for the first time. A few even became rowdy and rushed out of the ballroom in a clamber. All because of this god card? Or had it happened with Slifer, too, and Matt wasn't paying attention?

Fasheng asked, "This was a good game, yeah?"

"Kinda wish you hadn't killed Slifer so quickly," said Matt.

He chuckled. Matt wondered whether he really understood or if he was just continuing the jocularity. "Um, attack."

There was absolutely nothing to do anymore. If Fasheng had let Ra stay at only 8000 points, then Matt could have endured the attack. But he paid all of his remaining Life Points to pump up that dragon beyond reasonable limits. Even as a Dragon Knight, the Dark Magician couldn't measure up to that. And Matt had no set cards to play.

The only way to survive was with a Kuriboh.

On a whim, Matt had considered the possibility that all the effect-negating powers of the various god cards would affect his ability to defend himself, and so he had channeled the legendary Yugi Mutou and added Kuriboh to his deck. By discarding it from his hand, he negated all Battle Damage for the rest of the turn, meaning even his Dark Magician would survive one more round.

Among the holograms, one little ball of living fluff multiplied into dozens of them so they could absorb the entirety of Ra's energy. It did nothing to reduce the threat on the field, but Matt knew that even the god cards weren't unbeatable. After all, he'd lost Slifer twice this duel.

Fasheng was losing his mind with laughter. He spouted a whole bunch of nonsense in another language before he said, "Your skill is great!" He couldn't even hold it together long enough to place his other card face-down.

Fasheng: 4 cards, 100 LP

Matt: 5 cards, 8000 LP

As soon as Matt drew, Fasheng activated his card Loss Time. That son of a bitch made it so his Life Points became Matt's points minus 1000. Matt was feeling frustrated with how hard Fasheng kept flailing about. Slifer was the first insult, but now he was recovering Life Points while Ra still remained untouchable.

Almost.

"I'll use Eternal Soul to revive Dark Magician (2500). And then he'll sweep the field with Dark Magic Attack." The Dark Magician unloaded all of his magical energy into Fasheng's backfield. It cracked and shattered Fasheng's copy of Eternal Soul, and he couldn't afford that. Rupturing the monolith caused all the energy on Fasheng's field to go haywire and remove every monster under his control… even Ra.

"Say hi to Slifer," said Matt. But more importantly, he had one more card to play: "Bond Between Teacher and Student summons a Dark Magician Girl (6: 2000|1700) from my deck to the field to join her teacher for one final attack." Dark Magician (2500), Dark Magician Girl (2000), and Dark Magician the Dragon Knight (3000) combined their magic into a blast even more powerful than the energy Fasheng had stolen from Matt.

Fasheng: 4 cards, 0 LP

Matt: 4 cards, 8000 LP

Somehow Fasheng still managed to keep a smile on his face. As he shook Matt's hand, he said, "When you used, uh, Kuriboh?" He shook his head. "I knew you'd win."

"You put up a hell of a fight," said Matt. "If we were scored by finesse like in boxing, I bet you'd score higher."

"I don't know much boxing."

"It's not important. It was a pleasure dueling you." But even more of a pleasure to win, Matt thought to himself.

When Matt sat down, Bryan looked like he'd been sweating enough to lose ten pounds. "Dude, that was so stressful to watch."

"Why? Tell me, seriously, what's the worst thing that happens in one of these duels?"

Bryan scoffed and spent thirty seconds speechlessly trying to find a way to start his reply. "Uh— Obv— It— You'd lose!"

"So?"

"Then you'd be out of the tournament!"

"And then what happens?"

"We go home empty-handed."

"No, we go home with memories of a trip to Italy. And I learn a little bit about how much harder it is to duel when I can't build my deck the way I want to."

Bryan calmed himself and narrowed his eyes at Matt. "You really wouldn't mind losing?"

Matt's turn to scoff. "Of course I mind. Doesn't make it the end of the world, though. Some situations are okay to lose." He waited a beat and then smirked. "Just not this one."

He pointed. "There it is." He sounded more comfortable to hear Matt's unflinching confidence instead of his stoic pragmatism. "So you actually beat Fasheng Qiu. That's huge!"

"What does that do to the odds?"

"I hadn't even checked yet. No doubt your result will shake things up. I'm pretty sure Darcy is also moving up the favorites list. But don't forget that Ash Staotar was considered the favorite from the beginning, and he's still in it."

"In it" he was. If Matt thought Darcy proved herself to be a master of god cards for how quickly she played The Wicked Avatar, then Ash proved himself to be a… god?… of playing god cards. He played Chaos Summoning Beast (1: 0|0) and immediately transformed all of its demonic energy into Uria, Lord of Searing Flames (10: 0|0). On the first turn! The massive dragon looked like Slifer in so many ways, except it derived strength from fire instead of lightning.

By banishing Chaos Summoning Beast, Ash took Fallen Paradise into his hand and promptly played it. Now his Uria was even less susceptible to attack than any other god card played during the tournament.

Bryan said, "Goddamn. That man knows exactly what he's doing."

But Matt's attention was drawn to the renewed energy he witnessed in the spectators who seemed almost lost. When Uria (+5000) attacked, Matt watched many of the people disappeared and turned to ash. That finally convinced him that some bodies wandering around the hotel really were ghosts—spirits. He thought about what Melody had said about spirits being held to real space only when they had a body.

"Something wrong?" asked Bryan.

"Do you think a spirit in imaginary space could be anchored to a card?"

"What?"

Matt sighed. "Our spirits are anchored to our bodies until we die, supposedly. After we die, they disconnect and float into imagine space or whatever until they find the Collective Consciousness and become one with the universe again. But in that transition period, is it possible to anchor those spirit back to the physical world by attaching them to a card?"

Bryan looked like he'd been asked a question about the hierarchical linear modeling. "I'm absolutely not the right person to ask."

Matt nodded. "No, I guess not."

I don't remember making this one so long. I remember the decision to pit Matt against Fasheng, and I remember how difficult it was to come up with a duel where both players actually summoned their god cards and Matt still managed to win, but there was so much buildup about Howard being a former Guardian that not having Darcy summon a god card would generate narrative blue balls. Howard's history was also why I decided Matt shouldn't duel against Darcy in this round: to make it clear that Howard's knowledge assures Darcy's victory.

After all that, Ash's duel had to be quick: The chapter was already too long, plus his quick win reminds you how powerful he is with these cards.

I've noticed a few new story follows. I'm pleased that a few more people appreciate what I'm writing. Thanks to everyone who sends a message, follows me or my story, and leaves any kind of comment. This is the fuel that spurs me onward!