I got up early the next morning and headed to the local card shop, following directions that I had gotten the previous day when I had asked where I could obtain my own duel disk. Navigation of the walk posed no trouble, and I took advantage of the predawn quiet to organize my thoughts. Shit was going to hit the fan soon, what with the Fusion Dimension's invasion of Standard and all that. I had practically no chance of flying under the radar, after all, my use of Pendulum would almost certainly have attracted Reiji's interest. Still, having a backup deck that I could use in case my Zefra deck was taken or a poor choice for the situation would be good. I didn't want to be using Tearlament if I could avoid it.
The card shop was open 24-7 and currently staffed by a very bored-looking man who appeared to be in his mid-20s. After a short exchange, I got an older model of duel disk (that apparently didn't have some of the more convenient chain-tracking features the newer ones had) and a full Burning Abyss deck. Yes, apparently people here viewed BA as just 'a bunch of weak monsters that destroy themselves'. According to the man, one would have to be 'extremely committed' to use the deck, and given the aesthetic, most of the popular duelists passed it for something more palatable.
I didn't really care about that sort of thing. I just wanted something strong enough and serviceable. Nevertheless, the conversation had given me an insight into the culture around the game in this world. Whereas back at home, there was heavy focus on the strength of a deck, tuning and optimizing strategies, with nothing off-limits, here, it seemed that aesthetic and 'wow' factor reigned supreme, and people were expected to play with honor (given the seller's shock when I'd asked if they had any copies of Anti-Spell Fragrance for sale. Short answer, yes, and they didn't sell well.)
I had also taken the opportunity to make a few changes to my Zefra deck. Maxx "C" was legal here and Terraforming was unlimited, thus they, along with a few sideboard cards, found their way into the main to replace the Swordsoul package (which I wanted to use sparingly; its power level was just so much higher than other decks here).
Following my early-morning excursion, I decided not to return to the Hiiragi residence for breakfast, not wishing to make awkward conversation with people I barely knew, and feeling as though eating with them would be ruining what would normally be a nice breakfast between family. Skipping breakfast was not unusual for me, being a graduate student on a budget. I wandered the streets for a bit, appreciating the brisk air of early dawn, before I came across a familiar-looking person sitting on a bridge.
I'm not the best at recognizing people, but the distinctive tomato-like hair, combined with the way he wore his school uniform as a cape and the goggles covering his eyes, made it extremely likely that the person was Yuya. As I got closer, I noticed that he was watching his pendulum-pendant swing.
"Ah, hello," I said.
"Josh?" Yuya asked, turning to face me and removing his goggles. "What are you doing here?"
"I went for a walk," I answered. "What's on your mind?"
"Hm?"
"People usually don't stare at things while sitting on bridges," I said. "Thus, what sort of thoughts have lead to this anomalous behavior?"
"How are you able to Pendulum Summon?" Yuya demanded. "Where did you get your Pendulum Cards? How do you know it better than me?"
"Ah..." I said. I really should've seen this coming. I needed a backstory. "Well... my regular cards transformed into Pendulum Cards a little while ago. I'm not sure how. After that, I searched for anything relating to 'Pendulum Monsters', and your duel with Strong Ishijima came up. From there, I was able to reverse-engineer the technique with a bit of guesswork, before making my way here to meet you."
"Wait, so when my cards transformed, they might not have been the only ones?" Yuya questioned. "That means that any number of people could have some. Does that mean that everyone will be mastering Pendulum Summon soon?"
"I doubt it," I said. "People around here tend to have the idea that it's really hard to learn a new summoning method, and Pendulum is the most complicated one out there. Besides, I think you've been conclusively established as the inventor of the method by now, if that's what your concerned with."
That seemed to ease his worries somewhat. I suppose it was natural for him to be somewhat possessive of pendulum. I'd be annoyed if someone figured out a theorem at the same time I did and published theirs before me.
"I... when I first Pendulum Summoned, I thought that I'd become a stronger duelist. But seeing how much stronger you are than I am and the fact that you completely mastered it... I feel like I'm just back where I started." He pulled his goggles over his eyes again and turned away. "I wanted to teach people Entertainment Dueling and show that it's strong. But... am I really that weak?"
"Yuya," I began. "You're not weak. That's the wrong word to used. Inexperienced? Sure. Naive? Sure. But I'll tell you this: you and your deck have the potential to surpass basically anything. I think the only reason I'm stronger than you right now is because I'm more practiced with using my deck to its full potential. You know what I can't do? I can't make a duel interesting to watch! I can't Entertainment Duel like you can."
"Thanks, Josh," Yuya said, then he glanced at his watch. "Ah! I was supposed to meet up with Yuzu to walk to school by now!"
And so we made our way off to You Show at a quick pace.
"Most duelists tend to use summoning chants as a way to establish their unique dueling style. In addition, summoning chants build the anticipation for a duelist's ace monster," Shuzo lectured. I was attending my first class in 'practical dueling theory', which was... an experience, to say the least.
"Does everyone have a summoning chant for their ace monster?" Shuzo asked.
"Ace monster?" I questioned. "I... hold on for a minute. What exactly is an 'ace monster'?"
"The monster that ends duels the most; the most powerful monster in your deck!" Shuzo explained.
"You mean like Maxx 'C'?" I asked. "It's probably the strongest monster legal in the game." I think. I needed to check the banlist, because knowing how things are in this world, they probably had pre-errata CED legal.
"No! A monster that... when it comes out, it puts your opponent into a corner! One that fires up the audience because they know it's your strongest, your unique card!"
"Oh, like a 'boss monster'," I said. That concept was familiar. "I suppose there's Baronne, but—"
"Baronne de Fleur?" Shuzo said, cutting me off. "I saw that monster! It's truly a fiery one! What's your summoning chant for it?"
"Ah... Synchro for ten, make Baronne, response?"
"That's it?" he asked
"That's it," I confirmed.
"We'll work on that one," Shuzo commented. The man was far too nice, in my opinion. "Yuya?"
"Appear! Wondrous and beautiful dichromatic eyes! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"
"Excellent! Yuzu?"
"Enchanting melody echoing in the heavens. Awaken the sleeping virtuoso. Come forth! Level 8! Mozarta the Melodious Maestra!"
I suppressed a snort at the idea of basic Odd-Eyes or whatever that Melodious card was being boss monsters.
"As you can see," Shuzo began, "a summoning chant not only names the monster, but ties into the duelist's personal style."
This lecture went on for quite a bit longer. I pondered the idea of a 'personal style', which was another foreign concept. Back at home, most people played whatever the strongest deck they could afford was. Some people shifted more towards a combo or control playstyle, or based their deck choice off of aesthetic, but it wasn't common for people to run only one deck and make it part of themselves. Here, on the other hand, it was essentially expected that you would create a deck and stick with it, and cook that deck's aesthetic into your own performance.
This explained why there wasn't a well-developed metagame here. Researching and copying top decks, mashing together engines, running silver bullet tech cards, and eschewing archetype cards for better generic staples were all seen as disingenuous at best. Floodgates were also frowned upon, as preventing your opponent from playing made for very boring matches.
Well, if that was the case, I would simply have to 'play the heel', so to speak. Be the guy that the audience loves to hate. Then again, if I wanted to do anything like that, I'd have to ham it up a lot more than I was capable of.
I walked away from You Show with Yuya and Yuzu, with Yuzu admonishing Yuya for falling asleep in class and Yuya responding with something about 'comedic timing'. I tended to stay out of conversations when the participants seemed to know each other much better than they knew me, thus I walked alongside them, mostly occupied with my own thoughts. Three young kids who I couldn't be bothered to remember the names of joined us, asking to see Yuya's Pendulum Summon (as I had apparently garnered a reputation of being 'very boring' within a single day) when a blur of motion caught my eye. Thinking it was a bug of some sort, I swatted at it instinctively.
Three darts fell to the ground. Ah, that meant that Shingo 'Theater Kid' Sawatari was going to make his appearance.
"Tch. I was going for a perfect triple bullseye, but instead I got a zero," Sawatari said, right on cue.
"I thought I was swatting an annoying insect," I said. "Sorry."
"Ah, you must be Yuya Sakaki," Sawatari said, grabbing Yuya's hand before asking for permission. Rude. "I'm Shingo Sawatari, a top student of LDS. I wanted to introduce myself to the incredible duelist who beat Strong Ishijima!"
"Nice to meet you," Yuya said.
"Your Pendulum Summon was amazing," Sawatari said. "What cards did you use for it again?"
"You mean Pendulum Cards?" Yuya asked.
"That's it, that's it. Only the chosen one could possibly use cards like that!"
I saw no reason to interject. After all, things worked out just fine in canon.
"Yuya, you were supposed to be showing the kids Pendulum Summon," Yuzu said.
"If you want to show Pendulum Summon, I have a much better place," Sawatari said. "I have LDS's center court reservered for five o'clock."
I filtered out the reactions and boring conversation as I concocted a plan. Sure, I could let the duel take place as in canon, but there was no guarantee that everyone would draw the same cards, and Yuya's deck was still extremely underpowered. Sawatari got him on the ropes quite easily, if I remembered canon correctly, and if he drew a better hand he could simply OTK.
Another good option was to let Sawatari take my pendulum deck temporarily (which I'd taken all the Swordsoul stuff out of) and then duel him myself with Burning Abyss. The more I thought about it, the more appealing the option was. Not only would I show that Pendulum wasn't unbeatable, the duel itself would most likely be easy, after all, piloting a proper pendulum deck without taking at least half an hour to read through the cards carefully and understand the lines was a surefire way to do absolutely nothing for an entire duel.
"Welcome to LDS," Sawatari said, sweeping out his arm as we entered the building. It was quite a nice place; reminding me of one of the more modern buildings used by the CS department back at home.
The kids, understandably, squealed in awe as we walked through the place.
"Leo Duel School, obviously owned by the Leo Corporation, is the industry leader in dueling education," Sawatari lectured as we walked through the halls.
"This facility is cutting-edge!" one of the kids said as we walked past a room full of people... drawing cards. Huh. Not exactly what I'd consider a valuable use of time.
"Indeed!" Sawatari said. "'The best schools, the best teachers, the best equipment' is our motto."
"It has everything that You Show doesn't have!" another kid commented. How tactless could some people be?
"I'm sorry my school is such a dump," Yuzu grumbled.
"Don't worry! The best part of your school is that it's cheap!" the third kid said. Aaand we have reache a new low in terms of tactlessnes.
"Look," Yuya said, reading off a poster. "They have courses on Synchro Summon and XYZ Summon, even Fusion Summon!"
"If you really wanted to learn that stuff, you could just ask me," I offered casually. "I wouldn't make you pay an arm and a leg for it."
"The center court is this way," Sawatari said, leading us down yet another hallway.
Several minutes later, we arrived at the Center Court, where three other students, Sawatari's goon squad, were waiting for us.
"They're also your fans," Sawatari explained to Yuya. "Could you show them the card you use for Pendulum Summoning?"
"I've got a whole deck full of pendulum cards," I offered, pulling out the deck box. "If Yuya's going to duel here, I think he should keep his deck intact."
The glint in Sawatari's eyes told me that he had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker. "You're Joshua Cohen, right?"
I nodded.
"A whole deck of pendulum cards," he said to himself, taking it from my hand and walking over to his goons.
"Awesome," Goon A said.
"I want them!" Goon B said.
"They're not yours," Sawatari said, holding the deckbox. Then he grinned. "They're mine."
"Oy vey," I groaned
"What the hell?" Yuya yelled.
"I like rare, strong cards," Sawatari explained. "I hate using weak cards, so that's why I'm taking these."
"That's the whole reason you dragged us here?" Yuzu snapped.
"Eh, now he'll probably want to duel us to show off how 'strong' these cards are," I predicted.
"Exactly!" Sawatari said. "You guys want to see it, right?"
"Of course!" Goon C said.
"I'll get back your deck, Josh," Yuya said, pulling out his duel disk.
"Don't bother," I said, holding out my arm to block him. "I brought a backup deck."
"But how are you going to beat pendulum?" Yuya asked.
"Do you seriously think Sawatari knows how to play that deck?" I responded. "It should be a piece of cake."
"Very well," Sawatari said, snapping his fingers. His goons grabbed Yuya, Yuzu, and the three kids, leaving just us standing across from each other. "Action Field on! Prison Tower of Darkville!"
The ground rumbled, and the You Show students were raised high up on a tower as a city formed around us.
"A princess must be imprisoned within a tower," Sawatari explained, as if that was a logical reason for his action.
"Just so you know," I said as I activated my duel disk. "You have precisely zero chance of winning this duel. Last opportunity to hand over my deck and spare yourself the humiliation."
"Hah!" Sawatari scoffed. "With these strong cards, I'm practically invincible! I'm not going to lose to some 'backup deck'!"
"Duelists locked in battle!" he began the chant.
"Let's just skip the chant, okay?" I said. "I really just want to get this over with. I'll go first, if that's all right with you?"
"First, second, doesn't matter," Sawatari said. "You'll still lose either way."
I glanced at my opening five, considering my options. I had Tour Guide, Cir, Solemn Strike, Maxx "C", and Veiler in hand. Not a lot of options, to be honest
"Normal Tour Guide, Tour Guide effect, special Graff from deck. Overlay Graff and Tour Guide for Dante," I began.
"An Xyz summon?!" Sawatari said. "I thought that only LDS Extra Deck Course students knew that!"
"I did say earlier that I know the various Extra Deck summoning methods," I said. "Dante effect, detach Graff and mill three." I frowned as three trap cards, including Torrential Tribute, went to the graveyard. Not a great start so far. "Graff effect, special Scarm from deck. Special Cir from hand with its effect, overlay Scarm and Cir for Dante. Dante effect, detach Scarm, mill three more." Once again, my mills consisted of traps and handtraps.
"Set one, go to end step, Scarm effect to search Tour Guide. Pass."
"My turn," Sawatari said. "Draw!"
"I set the Pendulum Scales with Scale Seven Zefraniu, Secret of the Yang Zing and Scale One Spritiual Beast Tamer Zefraxi, Treasure of the Yang Zing." Sawatari then paused before continuing. "Pendulum Summon! Level Three Spritiual Beast Tamer Zefrawendi, Level Four Satellarknight Zefraxciton, and Level Four Satellarknight Zefrathuban!"
"No way! He mastered it instantly!" Yuya said.
"You just made around two massive misplays," I said. "Never, never scale Zefraniu unless you have another copy in hand, you want to Pendulum Summon that card. Second, you failed to play around my backrow when you know I play cards like Torrential Tribute. Case in point: I pay 1500 LP in order to activate Solemn Strike to negate the Pendulum Summon."
[Josh's LP: 4000 - 2500]
"No..." Sawatari said.
"Any idiot can set pendulum scales and summon a bunch of monsters," I said. "But playing the deck effectively and playing around interaction is what takes skill. A monkey can be taught to Pendulum Summon, but only a true duelist can use it to its full potential. By way, the correct line of play would have been to scale Zefraxi, normal Zefraxciton, use its effect to force out my backrow and destroy Zefraxi, then scale Zefrathuban and Zeframpilica and pendulum summon Zefraxi and Zefraniu." Of course, Veiler would've stopped that line, but given what I knew of his hand, that was probably optimal.
I then promptly cringed at my speech. This world's anime-ness was rubbing off on me.
"Do you usually correct your opponent during a duel?" Sawatari demanded.
"Typically after," I responded. "I suppose I was a bit hasty; I could have waited a minute."
"A minute? Are you telling me you can win next turn?"
"Yes," I said.
"I set one card and end my turn," Sawatari said. "All you have are two defensive monsters! You can't possibly win from here!"
Come to think of it, I'd never demonstrated that Dante's mill effect also boosted his attack. I probably should've mentioned that.
The backrow was either something like Zefra War or Imperm, neither of which was much of an issue (the deck wasn't currently running TCBOO). I had a guaranteed OTK this turn, regardless of my draw.
My draw was a copy of Torrential Tribute, which was nice, but not needed at this point. "Normal summon Tour Guide, Tour Guide special Calcab, overlay for Dante. Dante detach Calcab, mill three, gain 1500, Calcab effect, banish the backrow. I'll switch both of my other Dantes to attack and get in for lethal," I said, not giving Sawatari the time to run off and find a bullshit Action Card.
As Sawatari's life points dropped to zero, the Action Field dissipated, putting the other You Show students back on solid ground.
"That was amazing!" one of the kids congratulated me.
"Sure, thanks," I dismissed him, walking over to Sawatari. "Would you mind handing me my deck back? I would hate for things to escalate to physical violence."
Sawatari gritted his teeth. "What makes you think that you deserve to have such a deck?"
"Let's see," I said. "I beat you while you were using it. I know the combo lines better than you do. I spend my hard-earned money on it. I put time and effort into constructing the deck. Shall I go on?"
"Get them-" Sawatari began, before being cut short when a blur impacted his forehead, knocking him out. His three goons shortly followed suit, before a short blue-haired kid popped up in front of me.
"Those guys were so uncool," he said, as if they were wearing an unflattering shirt instead of having been knocked out by... was that a lollipop stick?
"You did this?" Yuya asked, gesturing to the the downed LDS students.
The kid, seemingly having ADHD, ignored the question and turned to me. "You were amazing!" he said. "Your Xyz summoning was kind of boring, but the way you know Pendulum is so cool! I was going to be an LDS student, but I think I'll be your student instead."
"And you are?" I asked.
"Sora Shiunin, teacher!" he responded.
"Sure, you can be my student or something," I said. From what I remembered of the anime, he was a spy from the fusion dimension, which meant this might be a mistake. On the other hand, I had precisely zero energy to reason with clingy, annoying kids, even if they were just acting. Currently, I was tired and hungry, which meant that laziness won over reason.
That would turn out to be a bit of a mistake later on.
After a scolding from Yuzu for skipping breakfast and lunch and an explanation that I wouldn't be seen as an interloper, Yuzu forcibly dragged me to dinner with her and Shuzo, despite my protests that I was fine and I was used to skipping meals anyway. Conversation was lighthearted, but took a turn south when the topic of my duel with Sawatari was brought up.
"Do you think you're above my teachings?!" Shuzo demanded. "I said in class today that every successful duelist has stuck to one deck and developed a personal style!"
"With all due respect, Shuzo-sensei," I said, "it isn't that I exactly disregarded your lecture today. It's just... where I come from, we have a very different philosophy when it comes to dueling."
"Which is?" Shuzo asked.
"Win at all costs, without cheating, of course. Build the best deck, copy it if you need to. No cards are off-limits, except those that are banned."
"That's barbaric!" Yuzu said. "It's almost as bad as Sawatari!"
"Not exactly," I defended. "Stealing cards isn't allowed. Look, do you guys even have a 'strongest deck' here?"
"Well, no," Shuzo said. "There are a lot of cards that are strong, but everyone wants to build their own, unique deck. But still! You have to give the audience something to attach themselves to with your style!"
"I'm still learning," I protested. "Old habits die hard, okay? And besides, I built my backup deck before your lesson."
"Just stick with one deck from now on," Shuzo said.
I nodded, and the rest of the meal continued in tense silence.
Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who left a review on the first chapter! I was not expecting the story to get such a positive reception! In this chapter, I've attempted to explore the culture surrounding dueling in the Arc-V world to give a logical reason why we don't just see everyone play BA or Gem-Knight FTK or D/D/D or whatever at the start of the story. This also forms the basis for the 'culture clash' theme that I plan to continue expanding on through the fic.
I think with respect to the matter of pairings, I'll keep things gen for now. If such things develop organically over the course of the story I might write something in, but it will never become the main focus of the fic.
Review responses:
Ragnerock: I hope that this chapter has addressed some of your concerns concerning characterization. I think you were definitely right that I missed the mark in the first chapter with Yuya's reaction.
Romadrox8975: Josh is arrogant when it comes to dueling and also has a tendency to go with the flow when it comes to major decisions. He's also rather socially inept. I believe that it should be possible to read this characterization from this chapter, but that's an aspect of my writing I'm still working on.
Williamsdrakion: I agree with your assessment of the SI. He's definitely quite tired. Yu-boys x Bracelet Girls may emerge over the course of the story, we'll just have to see how the characters develop. I have a general plotline, but sometimes the characters like to take the reins.
Peter Kim: I don't plan to have the SI use Monarchs. They're an okay deck, but not as strong as you're thinking. Not only are they a brickfest, playing a floodgate deck into a diverse meta where a number of decks simply don't care about the floodgates you're putting up isn't great. I also just don't like the playstyle, but I do plan to have someone else use them one of their decks.
Guest: I do plan to have the anime characters get more competitive. Keeping characters' abilities static is boring, and this fic isn't meant to be a power fantasy. As for Yuya's dueling philosophy... that's something I plan to explore in more depth over the course of the story.