Chapter 19: Imaginary Made Physical
When Matt awoke, he found himself in a small, sanitized room. Cupboards lined the wall to his right, and a curtain on the left divided his space from the rest of the room. "What the hell did Jack do to our room?" But as he asked the question, he remembered that he wasn't at Duel Academy. He was Italy, participating in a dueling tournament.
"Aw, shit." He was supposed to be in a tournament. He reached into his pocket to find the time—about forty minutes past duel time. He assumed that meant he was out of the tournament since there was no option to delay a duel just because someone was running late.
He ignored all the missed calls and text messages for now to take a look at the Denkard app. He just wanted to know who ended up winning. And apparently he did. According to the History page, he defeated Darcy Purves in a duel of OTK decks. He didn't remember doing that. Possibly he was a sleep walker? Or a sleep duelist?
The Denkard app also announced the next deck limitation already: There could be no duplicate cards between the Main Deck, Side Deck, and Extra Deck. Matt remembered a group of students playing that way for fun outside of class. They called it Highlander format because "there can be only one". Apparently they have those types of nerds in Italy, too. Matt was to be pitted against someone named Evelina Gallo in the semifinal round.
The curtain drew back so suddenly that Matt was blinded by the sudden inrush of light. "You're awake!" said a backlit body that was hard to see clearly while squinting. "And the swear words suggest you're feeling better."
As his vision adjusted to the light, Matt found the voice belonged to Melody. Except… was it Melody? She looked the same age as she had in the fitness center, but her hair was more silver than gray, plus she had it under control now—pulled into a smart ponytail instead of a frizzy bob. She wore a stethoscope around her neck, which suggested that the nutritionist also fancied herself a doctor? But even her voice was slightly thicker than before.
"Are you Melody?"
The woman laughed. "Normally I'd be offended, but your guess is actually pretty close. I'm Hilde. Melody is my twin sister."
"Oh. I guess that qualifies as 'close'. If it helps, you're the pretty one."
"Maybe I should check you for concussion," she said with a smirk. She gave Matt a quick physical exam plus a few questions to assess mental awareness, all of which Matt passed handily. "Seems like your inability to estimate people's ages is a preexisting condition."
"I can tell how old you are. I mean, within a few years. You're past the age where each new year changes much."
"You're such a charmer. No wonder Katerina is sweet on you," she said.
Matt looked around. "Oh, right. I was with her when I passed out. Is she okay?"
"Pretty rare situation when the person who passed out isn't in worse condition than everyone else," said Hilde. "In your case, it looks like you just suffered from overstimulation. My guess is that your brain took in a lot of information all at once. It couldn't figure out what to focus on first, so it just became stuck and then crashed."
"I see. They say the brain is similar to a computer. That comparison seems apt in this case." Matt paused as he tried to piece together everything that happened right before he passed out. "You're saying I was overstimulated by a tree?"
Hilde hesitated, looking toward the ceiling as if she were trying to figure out which tree limb Matt was out climbing now. "It's called the Spirit Tree, if that helps."
"It does not. Please explain."
She sighed. "The tree is supposed to symbolize the location that connects this world to the Spirit Realm, which is where it gets its name."
"The Spirit Realm is also called the Overworld?"
"Right, but no one calls it the Overtree, so we'll stick with Spirit Realm for consistency. Basically, the Spirit Realm and the Physical Realm are like parallel worlds that aren't allowed to touch. The Spirit Tree is the physical manifestation of the space between the worlds. In the Spirit Realm, it looks different, probably. Like a dragon tail or a cloud of dust or something. Who knows?"
"So you think that when I touched the tree, I was just… overcome with the weighty emotions of two worlds all at once?"
Hilde smirked. "No. Most likely, your spirit resonated with the Spirit Realm, and that gave you visions. Do you remember seeing anything before you passed out?"
"No." But as soon as Matt answered, he realized that was false. "Wait. Maybe something. I saw…" He thought about describing the people, but he couldn't remember what they looked like except that one was made of sunlight and one was all shadows. That sounded crazy. So did the part about two worlds colliding, except it fit with Hilde's story about parallel worlds.
"It looked like two planets colliding. A blue one and a white one. Almost like the Spirit Tree isn't doing its job of keeping two worlds apart."
"Really. Are you sure you're not already familiar with the Spirit Tree? Because this would be an interesting way to Punk me."
Matt made a face. "To 'Punk' you?"
"You've never been Punk'd? I thought that was something all Americans did. Practical jokes you play on other people?"
"I've never passed out as part of a practical joke. Wait…" Matt quickly cycled through a series of practical joke memories: bucket of water, eraser, newspaper, duct tape, Styrofoam peanuts, fake CDs, swapped DVDs, ghost phone numbers, fake cops, real cops, naked cops, fake appendix, fake kidneys, real appendix, candy-coated football, fake snake, real crate, a dog that was trained to flush the toilet, and Todd. "No, no passing out."
He looked at Hilde again, really taking in all the similarities and differences between her features and Melody's. "If Melody is your sister, then you must know the stories she tells."
"The Great Cataclysm," said Hilde.
Matt paused. "She never used that term. Katerina did, though. Melody said that spirits are supposed to return to the Overworld when people die, but too many narcissistic people die and refuse to join the Collective Consciousness. The imbalance is causing imaginary space to expand and the Collective Consciousness to shrink."
Hilde groaned. "I hate those metaphysical terms."
"Really? You're a doctor. I'd guess that you prefer whatever terms couch this kind of thinking in reality."
"On the contrary, I prefer terms that make it clear this is a story, not reality. The Spirit Realm is supposed to be like heaven, where souls come from. They are given living bodies to inhabit when they come here to the Physical Realm. When the body dies, the spirit returns to the Spirit Realm where it belongs. In the rare event that a spirit becomes so corrupt and degraded that it rejects the Spirit Realm, it just hangs out in the dark space between realms—the Shadow Realm."
Matt tried to hold his expression steady. Howard had talked about the Shadow Realm last night when they talked about the god cards… right before everyone was forced to play a god card in the tournament. If the Shadow Realm was really just the space in between Heaven and Earth, then maybe it had already started swelling out of balance ages ago.
"In my vision, the white world kept shrinking into the blue world, but there was a leak in the blue world that filled up a whole bunch of black space until everything disappeared. What happens if the Shadow Realm swells too large?"
Hilde shrugged. "What else would happen? Universal implosion. But that's just a story. I'll have to remind Melody not to scare the patrons with her nonsense."
"Right. Universal implosion is nonsense, but a tree transferring a bunch of images about the impending implosion to me through tactile communication is just science."
"Is that what I said?"
Matt frowned. "You are a difficult person to understand."
"That's how you know I'm a real doctor."
"You can see how a comment like that inspires doubt in her skills." Matt wasn't surprised to hear Bryan express concern over Hilde's rather lax bedside manner.
"How can you have doubts? She had a stethoscope, a pen light, and a jar full of tongue depressors." Matt intentionally listed things that a doctor should have but didn't prove doctoral status. In truth, he never looked for Hilde's medical degree or anything to be posted on the walls of her office, but every time he recalled part of his conversation with her, he wondered whether she were faking her credentials.
Bryan scoffed. "Oh. Well, you didn't mention the tongue depressors. Now I'm convinced." This was Bryan's way of trying to ignore what happened. He was still stressed out over having to duel on Matt's behalf, plus he kept worrying that Matt wasn't going to get better and would have to stay in Italy for a long time just to recover. Matt was less concerned by the thought of never going back home.
Dexter said, "I assure you Hilde has the requisite education and training to perform her duties as a general practitioner." Their escort had decided to remain close for the remainder of the tournament just in case Matt experienced another fainting spell.
When the crowd of people flooded into the ballroom, Matt knew Leona was on her way. Darcy Purves entered and resumed her seat toward the front of the room, no Duel Disk on her arm this time. When Howard Urizar popped in, he headed straight back to where Matt and Bryan sat.
"Hey, guys. I'm glad to hear you're alright," he said, looking at Matt.
Matt nodded. "Thanks. Turns out I was just overwhelmed. I might have a severe allergy to some of the plants in the courtyard. It was enough to paint me yellow from head to toe. They had to stick me with a needle so big you could see it from space. Or it was the type of needle they use in space. I was a little woozy, so my memory might not be reliable."
Howard looked unsure how to respond, which was pretty much what Matt was going for. "It's good you're still able to play."
"Actually, that's all because of this guy." Matt patted Bryan on the shoulder, causing his large friend to turn radish-red. "And to beat Darcy Purves? You'd think this guy belongs in a blue jacket."
"He'll get there," said Howard.
Bryan tried to pretend he wasn't blushing. "Where is Darcy? Did she leave?"
"No way. Her image is the only thing that matters, so she'd never leave a tournament early and risk looking like a sore loser. She's still right there up front, ready to comment all over social media about the final duels."
"You don't need to be up there with her?"
Howard shook his head. "I had to monitor her work email and her socials while she put herself in the dueling mindset before. Now she can handle all that on her own. I'll still have to help her with work stuff this evening, then we have a red-eye back home late tonight. Until then, I figured I'd visit with you guys."
"Oh! That reminds me," said Bryan. "That guy Vladimir stopped in the business center again while you were out."
Matt asked, "What did he want?"
"He wanted to offer us jobs." He looked super-excited, making Matt wonder whether Vlad had attached a number to the job.
"He's one of the bankers?" asked Howard. "It might feel like a lot of money for a high school student, but I doubt you'd actually get much dueling prestige from it. Personally, I'd hold out for an offer from one of the Big 5 dueling companies."
While Howard touted the benefits of Kaiba Corp and the comparable gaming companies, Matt had an opportunity to just sit and do nothing without thinking too hard about his health. In truth, he did feel fine already. A hundred percent. Except he wasn't sure what to do about the wandering spirits and the imaginary space-slash-Shadow Realm they live in. It would be so much easier to chalk it up as a legend if he weren't seeing those spirits all over the place.
Matt made a face at Dexter, but then he decided to go for it. "You've been here a while, right? You must know something about the Great Cataclysm."
With a knowing smile, Dexter said, "Your duel will begin soon. Perhaps I can answer your questions afterward."
As he strapped the Duel Disk to his arm and stood up, Matt took a deep breath. "Are you sure you're okay?" asked Bryan.
"Sometimes a deep breath is just the brain looking for more oxygen than in a regular breath. You should know as well as anyone how well it helps with stress, too."
Evelina Gallo was a local entrepreneur, or whatever the word was in Italian. She owned the lab that developed and built a lot of the duel technology used in the Denkard, including the Denkard Dueling app. Under normal circumstances, realizing that she helped to program literally every card would leave Matt feeling confrontational. If anyone in the tournament was set up to cheat, it was her. He stole a glance toward Leona Moxley, who retained her usual throne in the front row, and he realized it would be ridiculous for Evelina to cheat. Not only would Leona or her judges notice, the infraction would damage the reputation of her equipment. It could lead to losing whatever technology contract she had with the Denkard, which had to be worth even more than winning this tournament would be.
Of course, that line of thinking assumed that Evelina had to cheat to compete.
As soon as Matt drew his first cards, he realized Evelina might not have so much trouble defeating him after all. Every monster card in his hand was a Hero card, and all three were different Hero themes. Clearly when Bryan tried to help by preparing a deck, he hadn't thought about who would do the actual dueling. Or maybe he thought he'd have to duel in Matt's place again. Either way, he didn't seem to consider deck consistency.
He shot a disappointed glance in Bryan's direction, unable to see faces with the arena lights shining in his eyes. So Matt just sighed. He resigned himself to giving a much slower duel this time around as he stopped to read every card. He had to be sure he knew what effect he was asking for. Luckily Evelina went first and simply placed two cards face-down.
Matt: 5 cards, 8000 LP
Evelina: 3 cards, 8000 LP
Matt decided to read out loud as he played to make sure his thought process was sound. The act also came across as being friendly and helpful to his opponent, but he could deal with it if a handful of people thought he was a nice guy.
"I'll start with Destiny Draw. I discard Destiny Hero - Celestial and draw two new cards. I'll summon Vision Hero Vyon (4: 1000|1200)." He watched the holograms turn into a purple warrior that looked like… was that a flashlight for a head?
Evelina interrupted him. "I discard Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit." Matt knew that card. Its ability destroyed Vyon as punishment for activating a summoning effect.
But it didn't actually negate the effect. "Vyon's effect lets me move a Hero from the Main Deck to the Graveyard." He spent almost two minutes reviewing the options before sending Destiny Hero - Denier to the Graveyard. "Since I discarded Celestial earlier, Destiny Hero - Denier (3: 1100|600) summons itself from the Graveyard." This Hero looked like fan art of Yugi Mutou with an extra cape, a somehow stranger hair style, and a grappling chain that defies gravity. The chain swung out toward Matt and grabbed his deck. "Summoning Denier lets me pick any Destiny Hero from my deck and place it on top," which he did.
"Now I'll attack." The same chain that had just helped with the deck now lashed out at Evelina like a whip.
Matt said, "I'll set one card in the backfield and end my turn." It was only Crossout Designator—not something that protected him in battle. Mostly there as a bluff. Based on what he saw when he searched through the deck list Bryan had put together, he wasn't even sure why Bryan added it. There were very few cards in a Hero deck that any opponent was likely to play in this tournament.
Matt: 4 cards, 8000 LP
Evelina: 2 cards, 6900 LP
Upon reviewing her hand, Evelina appeared to be displeased. But it's not like Denier was a particularly powerful monster to overcome. "Madolche Butlerusk (4: 1500|800)," and a cartoonish butler appeared on the field. He poured a cup of tea that was apparently so hot that spilling it also destroyed Destiny Hero - Denier (1100).
And that was Evelina's entire turn.
Matt: 4 cards, 7600 LP
Evelina: 2 cards, 6900 LP
The cards in Matt's hand weren't a whole lot better. This whole rule about not allowing duplicates in a deck really slowed things down. He was blocked from using the fast-moving Hero combos out there. "I'll set one monster and end my turn."
Matt: 4 cards, 7600 LP
Evelina: 2 cards, 6900 LP
Another grimace and an unhappy look from Evelina. Her deck was not performing the way she wanted it to. "Another attack," she said. But the hot tea wasn't hot enough to damage Elemental Hero Shadow Mist (4: 1000|1500) when he was in defense mode. Evelina grunted and set one more monster on the field.
Matt: 4 cards, 7600 LP
Evelina: 2 cards, 6900 LP
Matt could hardly blame Evelina for struggling with a Madolche deck that didn't have any duplicates. Maybe she put together a lot of powerful combos in theory; she just couldn't get the cards in the right order. Luckily, Matt drew Evil Hero Adusted Gold, which would speed things up slightly.
"By discarding Adusted Gold, I can take Dark Calling from my deck to my hand." He stopped briefly to look through his Extra Deck. "And Dark Calling lets me combine Sinister Necrom with Neos to Fusion Summon Evil Hero Malicious Bane (8: 3000|3000)." The fusion visual itself was bizarre as a powerful hand rose from the ground and combined the energies of his two monsters. The result was a gigantic purple monster covered in points and sharp edges.
"I'll also play Miracle Fusion to combine Neos and Denier into Elemental Hero Sunrise (7: +2900|1200)." Sunrise had a few pointy bits of his own, but mostly he was just a large warrior covered in red armor and a billowing cape. "Sunrise increases everyone's attack power by 200 per element on the field: He's light, and Malicious Bane (+3400) is dark."
Sunrise's effect to grab another Miracle Fusion was useless since there was only one copy of that card in his deck. But Sunrise's second effect was nothing to sneeze at. In fact, if Matt could somehow make Malicious Bane attack twice… He searched again through his Graveyard to make sure he remembered the effect correctly.
"I'll banish Evil Hero Sinister Necrom from the Graveyard so that I can Special Summon Evil Hero Infernal Gainer (4: 1600|0) from the deck." Yet another sharp and pointy monster. Evil Heroes weren't nearly as colorful and creative as Elemental Heroes. They did have heavy-duty effects, though. "By banishing Infernal Gainer, Malicious Bane gains the ability to attack twice." And so he sacrificed the smaller demon in order to make the big one even more powerful.
Evelina sighed. She was quick to do the math. "I'll forfeit," she said.
Matt frowned. "Seriously?"
From the side of the stage, Ash Staotar called up, "Finish the battle." Evelina and Matt both looked at him. "It will be a spectacle for the viewers. The result is the same either way."
Another groan, this time paired with eye-rolling that put even Cary to shame. "Fine, do it," said Evelina.
Hesitantly, Matt said, "Okay." He triggered the attacks on his Duel Disk. "First, Malicious Bane (3400) attacks Madolche Butlerusk (1500). Then Sunrise activates his effect, which destroys one of your cards when another Hero attacks." Sunrise snuck under the surprise of the attack to blast Evelina's face-down monster, then Malicious Bane shredded Butlerusk. "Now Malicious Bane will attack again, directly this time."
Those giant claws tore through Evelina, yet somehow Matt caught sight of cards that weren't in play. Maybe a hologram glitch, or maybe they were spirits. But why would spirits be killed as part of Matt's attack?
"Will you continue?" asked the round judge.
Shaken from his daze, Matt said, "Yeah. Sunrise (2900) attacks for game." Sunrise unleashed a brilliant burst of solar energy. Matt stuggled to keep his eyes open through the attack. He only saw enough to think more spirits disappeared as the result of Sunrise attacking.
Matt: 1 card, 7600 LP
Evelina: 2 cards, 0 LP
After shaking hands and parting from Evelina, Matt approached Ash Staotar, who waited patiently beside the stage for his duel to begin. "You saw them, did you?" asked the older man.
"Saw who?"
"The spirits."
Matt paused a beat. "You see them, too."
"Of course. They're the reason I joined this tournament."
"What do you mean?"
"Spirits risk the stability of this realm. They're masses of energy that exist in imaginary space. The only way to counterattack is through channeling our own power into imaginary space."
Matt made a face. There was only one way to interpret what Ash was saying in this context. "Duels are a way to fight back against imaginary space. Because the holograms are visible in real space but use the energy from imaginary space?"
"Close. Imaginary space is a high-pressure system intended only to act as a conduit between real space and the Collective Consciousness. So much energy would be nearly impossible to move from a realm of low pressure into a realm of high pressure. Instead, hologram projectors create a physical phenomenon that forces entities in imaginary space to enter real space."
"And from real space, we can… eliminate them?"
Ash smirked. "Elimination is what's best for everyone." He was signaled to enter the stage, so Matt turned back to his seat.
Dexter stopped him almost immediately. "Are you alright?"
Matt was surprised by the question. "Why? What did Hilde say?"
But maybe Dexter wasn't concerned about Matt's health. His gaze was pointed to the stage, glaring at Ash. "Be wary of that man."
"Why?"
"He appears to know what's happening in the Spirit Realm and has chosen the most dangerous course of action."
"What do you mean?"
Dexter spoke as he led Matt to the back of the room. "The Spirit Realm is on the verge of implosion because an increasing number of spirits retain their individuality and reject the Collective Consciousness. The result is a decrease in the potency of energy within the Spirit Realm. By eliminating spirits, the total energy potency continues to decrease but without the option to restore it."
Frowning, Matt said, "Kind of like being poor. Your expenses are higher than your revenue, so you can buy less avocado toast, or you can set fire to a pile of money."
"A rather odd comparison, yet apt."
Before they reached their seats, it was obvious Bryan had been upright, going out of his mind during that whole duel. "Dude, you really are the next King of Games. I can't believe you figured out such badass combos with the cards I gave you! I mean, I barely knew what I was doing, but you made it look so easy. This tournament is making me think you could win with literally any deck."
Matt understood Bryan's enthusiasm, but he didn't share it. As far as the dueling went, Deck Limitations seemed to give everyone a hard time. Evelina's deck would no-doubt be faster if she used duplicates, and Darcy wouldn't have lost without the OTK requirement. Matt had been mostly lucky so far that his luck was measuring on the high end.
But more importantly, he couldn't be enthused about the tournament because he was still curious about the ghosts in the hotel. Despite Dexter's warning, he wanted to try talking to Ash again, maybe as soon as this duel ended.
The other duelist was a woman named Flora Tang. She was a financial auditor with a Korean tech company and had performed consistently in every round of the tournament. According to Bryan, she was only duelist to reach the Final 4 who started with lower odds of winning the tournament than Matt had.
Unfortunately for Flora, Ash received the first turn. He started with Pot of Duality, a two-sided urn: The green, goblinesque face let him look at three cards from his deck and keep one; the blue, stoic face made him shuffle the other cards back into the deck. His next card was Pot of Desires, another two-faced urn: The purple, orc-like face with the gems for teeth had Ash banish ten cards from his deck; in return, the goblin face let him draw two cards. He also played Into the Void. For now, he was able to draw one more card, but his Duel Disk shimmered with darkness while he continued his turn.
He summoned a monster called Darklord Nurse Reficule (4: 1400|600), basically a mummified fairy with scythe blades coming out her hair, wings, and ankles. He placed four cards behind her and ended his turn. The darkness covering his Duel Disk forced him to discard the last card in his hand.
Ash: 0 cards, 8000 LP
Flora: 5 cards, 8000 LP
To start her turn, Flora summoned Junk Converter (2: 400|200). From the name alone, it was clear Flora was about to summon some Synchro Monsters.
Before anything else could happen, Ash activated Tri-and-Guess. Guessing that she was about to Synchro Summon, Ash also guessed that Flora's Extra Deck had more Synchro Monsters than his did.
But before they could count, he also played Gift Card. Straight away, it was just a gift of 3000 Life Points to be given to Flora.
And he also activated The Paths of Destiny. This card was barely more complicated: Each player tossed a coin. Ash's coin landed on Tails, and he took 2000 points of damage. Flora's coin landed on Heads, so she was supposed to gain 2000 LP.
Flora couldn't count on "supposed to" like a normal duel. Ash's Darklord Nurse Reficule made sure of that. With that fairy monster on the field: Flora actually lost LP every time she was supposed to gain them. So she lost 2000 points from The Paths of Destiny. The Gift Card actually punished her by 3000 LP. And Tri-and-Guess ended up taking an extra 3000 points from whomever had the most Synchro Monsters.
Flora never had a chance to play more than just one card.
Ash: 0 cards, 6000 LP
Flora: 5 cards, 0 LP
Matt would have waited for Ash to come off the stage, but the crowd was on their feet and already moving around by the time the holograms shut down. Stupid business people constantly needing to be doing something, whether it was watching the tournament finals or making business calls and answering emails while mingling loudly.
"Dude!" Bryan was doing that thing where he clearly wanted to be up on his feet, bouncing around in giddy joy, but his mood was subdued because Matt was the one who should be excited and couldn't bring himself to act that way. So Bryan looked light but stayed seated.
"I was kinda hoping that Flora lady would find a way to beat Ash to the final duel, but then again, maybe it's better this way. Ash is already strong enough that you wouldn't want to duel someone even better than he is. It looks like he never stepped away from the OTK round. Luckily, you're also an OTK master."
"I'm not," said Matt.
"What?"
Matt said, "An OTK master. I'm not."
"But you were recruited to Team OTK."
"Haruki turned me down. Said I wasn't good enough yet."
"You told me—"
"I lied."
Bryan frowned. "Why?"
Matt scoffed, and it quickly shifted into a wry laugh. "I was embarrassed. I should be able to beat Haruki Yagawa in a duel. He just got lucky. But he didn't give me a second chance. Apparently he believes one duel was all he needed to see what kind of duelist I am. Can't imagine the irony if I had beat him. Would I suddenly be captain of Team OTK?"
Bryan was silent. Matt prepared himself for a lecture or a rant or some series of bitching about lying to his best friend. When Bryan finally spoke, he asked, "Why admit that now?"
"What?"
"Why bring that up now? You've kept that secret all semester. What happened right here and now that suddenly struck you with a crisis of conscience?"
"I just…" Matt stopped. If losing a duel to a senior was embarrassing, imagine how embarrassing this next confession would be. But Bryan deserved to hear it. "Ash is better than I am. I know you gambled a lot of money on me. You'll probably end up disappointed."
Now Bryan was quiet but from shock. The speechlessness was replaced by stammering, like his larynx suddenly inflamed too much to pass more sound than a few grunts.
"I know. It's stupid."
Apparently that healed Bryan's throat. "No. But it's really bizarre. I mean, I've never heard you be afraid of anybody."
Matt made a face. "I'm not afraid."
"You are though. It has seriously never mattered who you duel against; you always act like you're King of Games and the other person is a rookie who just picked up a deck. You've got a real shot at winning the championship for this tournament. This moment right here is the closest you've ever been to showing everyone you're as good as you say you are."
"Yes."
Bryan asked, "Is it because Ash is still the favorite?"
"Gambler's Fallacy," said Matt.
"What does that mean?"
"None of the other numbers matter right now. Any given duel has a fifty-fifty chance of either duelist winning."
Bryan grinned. "Doesn't that make you less scared?"
Matt frowned. "No. It makes me think that assumption is wrong." He turned his gaze up the ceiling—blank white, making it a good space to stare into while his thoughts rolled around his head. "If all other factors were the same, the chances would be fifty-fifty. But they aren't the same. Our experiences are different. Our decks are different. Probably our reading comprehension is different. Even our wrist strength is different. But still, someone else already thinks they have a formula to figure out who will win tournaments." He was quiet while his brain rolled through a few more ideas. Obviously the odds makers had some kind of skill in predicting winners, but they were wrong, too. A lot. So the true formula was still undiscovered.
"Where are you going with this?" asked Bryan.
Matt snapped out of his daze. "Just a random thought. I need to do some research on machine learning."
"Um…"
"Don't worry about it. What's my next Deck Limitation?"
Bryan said, "Now you sound more like yourself."
"They say confession is good for the soul, although I'm a bit curious whether dueling is bad for it." He told Bryan everything Ash said about dueling being a way to destroy spirits. "Everyone in this hotel is hyper-aware of spirits because they flock here to that Spirit Tree. If dueling is a way to destroy them, maybe this whole tournament is just a ritual to force them out of imaginary space and back into the Collective Consciousness."
"Okay?" said Bryan. "Assuming it's not all just local superstition." Of course he would still think that. He couldn't see the spirits.
"Hang on. You still can't see the spirits. So how can the hologram projectors be forcing them into real space but leaving them invisible?"
"Because they get absorbed by the dueling cards?"
Matt knew that Bryan was being facetious, but that comment felt like a Living Arrow straight to the truth.
The conversation dropped when Howard sat in the chair beside Bryan. "Hey guys. This is so exciting. I can't believe the two Duel Academy students made it to the finals. And they're Slifers!" He realized how that sounded and turned sheepish. "I don't mean to insult you. My freshman year was in Ra Yellow, then I jumped straight to Obelisk. You know the culture there."
"Racist against jacket colors," said Bryan.
"Jackets aren't a race," said Matt.
Bryan pondered that thought. "What's the word for prejudice by dorm placement?"
"Classism," said Dexter. "They treat you as a lesser social class because of arbitrary status symbols." Matt was surprised and mildly offended that Dexter chose that moment to chime in, but he was correct about the terminology.
Howard said, "I don't really think that."
Matt said, "It's hard to stop making elitist comments because you were systemically trained to think that way. Probably spent three years hearing how Slifers were worthless." From Howard's dejected expression, it was clear that was a true statement.
To lighten the mood, Bryan asked, "So what's up? You don't need to go help Darcy with something?"
"No. In fact, she actually has a break right now, so she specifically told me to leave her alone while she takes advantage of the hot tub on the roof."
Bryan asked, "There's a hot tub on the roof?"
Matt asked, "You didn't see the pool from our window?"
"Well, yeah, but not the hot tub. That sounds like something we should totally go do after the finals. Go relax after a stressful duel."
"You're not interested in going now to join Darcy?" Matt smirked.
Bryan pondered again, tilting his head from side to side like he was trying to imagine it. "I mean, I wouldn't say no… But I wouldn't go out of my way for it. She's a little bit scary."
"So was Amber. You like scary women." But Matt regretted saying that. Scary women weren't good for Bryan, even if he found them attractive.
He shrugged. "Maybe if you didn't have to prepare another deck."
Howard said, "That's right. You and your second need to get your deck as ready as possible. You're up against the strongest duelist I've ever seen. You'll want to spend that whole hour playtesting your deck to make sure it's as good as you can get it."
He pointed to Bryan. "Make sure you listen to this guy. Clearly he knows how to find all the loopholes. Like forcing us to use an OTK strategy is somehow about limiting the deck?"
"What is your deck if not a pile of strategy?" asked Matt. He never stopped for a moment to think about how changing the rules wouldn't also change your deck.
Howard rephrased his concerns. "It's a bit of stretch to say an OTK Deck is a specific Limitation. It does force you to build your deck with limited cards. But I have to say that the part where you can only win using an OTK strategy, and nothing else matters, is a little strange. Trust me, I'm happy for you, but I can't believe they let you move to the next round after you lost all your Life Points in that duel." He was clearly still butt-hurt about his partner losing to a technicality.
But even though Bryan looked guilty, Matt looked giddy. "That was actually perfect. Like, literally the most perfect thing I've ever seen in my life. Bryan took the special rules for the tournament and just hurled them at his opponent like a leather glove in medieval times. Then he used all the weaknesses of your wannabe god monster to demonstrate a backup one-turn-kill strategy, like a boss."
It was obvious Bryan was not used to being called a "boss" from the way his cheeks turned pink. He practically shrank three sizes trying to hide from the conversation, both the insulting and praising parts.
Bryan tried not to sound excited when he said, "I was worried at first. That Beelzeus monster was the scariest monster I've ever faced."
"He looked like Typhon with gorgon hair," said Matt. But both Bryan and Howard looked clueless. Matt's excitement dwindled. "Typhon, the father of all monsters? In some artist renditions, he looked like a monster with a body made of multiple snakes. Never mind. I'll use a more modern comparison: Beelzeus looked like a haunter with gorgon hair, like snakes."
"Like Medusa?" asked Bryan.
He nodded. "One of the gorgons, yes."
Howard asked, "Haunter the pokémon?"
Matt closed his eyes and groaned. And right then, he realized something that was missing from the tournament. He looked around the ballroom and found Ash to be missing. So was Leona, but her assistant was still standing at the stage, writing something in one of her may notebooks.
He hurried up to the front of the room. "Vidya! I have a question for you."
"Ms. Moxley will return to announce your final Deck Limitation in five more minutes," she said.
"Not that. Who is Ash Staotar's second for this tournament?"
Vidya looked at him with piercing eyes, even though she kept smiling. He seriously stopped breathing for a second, like he had been punched in the stomach. "I can't divulge personal information about other participants to you."
"Names aren't important. Can you at least confirm whether he has an adjunct?"
Vidya paused as if considering all the rules and ramifications of answering the question. Finally she said, "No, he doesn't."
"So despite the registration rules, he refused to bring an adjunct?"
"Ash Staotar was adamant that it would be dishonest to have anyone duel on his behalf. If he fell ill or had timing issues, he was prepared to be disqualified. He even accepted the risk of— He decided one duelist was all he needed. So far, he appears to be correct."
"Ouch," said Matt. "Thanks. That's all I needed to know for now." Actually, it was a bit more than he expected. He now knew for sure that Ash didn't have a second person helping him set up his deck, but he also learned there was some other role for the adjuncts to play.
Did you know that the word "dimension" is defined as "a measurable extent of some kind"? Whenever I bring up different dimensions, I don't treat it in the way that The Shadow Realm is a whole other world or some alternate reality; it's the same world but viewed differently, as if it were another plane of existence where the ability to measure physics isn't quite the same.
National Novel Writing Month is coming up. I was going to skip this year because my current writing goals don't align with NaNoWriMo, but I'm not considering using it as a motivation to eke out the next arc of this story. That doesn't mean the story would be ready by December—my first drafts are nowhere near that good. But it does mean that if anyone is interested in throwing a new character into the story, now is the time to submit. When I've written and finalized the story for Arc 3, I won't be able to add more characters until the Arc 4 starts. Details in my profile.
