Reiji Akaba was no stranger to odd e-mails from random people. As the CEO of Leo Corporation, he had people constantly mailing him with some business proposition or crackpot idea that they wished to get his backing for. Obviously, most of them were automatically deleted by his spam filter, but some of them made it through. Normally, he would delete the random pieces of e-mail without opening them, but the subject line of this one caught Reiji's eye. Pendulum Card Development, it read. The Pendulum Card creation project was supposed to be top-secret; no outsider could possibly know of it. Despite the potential for malware, curiosity got the better of him, and he opened the e-mail.
Dear Reiji Akaba,
I have sample Pendulum Cards that your team can use to expedite the research and development of Pendulum. If you are interested, then let us meet tomorrow at 5:00 PM to discuss. As for how I knew you would be developing Pendulum? Simple deduction; Leo Corporation is the leader in the field of Dueling, thus, to maintain its position at the top, it would naturally want to capitalize on this new summoning method. There was no information leak.
Sincerely,
Joshua Cohen.
This opportunity was simply too good to be true. Nobody in possession of Pendulum would simply give their cards away for free. Letting this Joshua person into his office would no doubt result in a hostage situation or something similarly harmful. Yet once more, something about the e-mail intrigued Reiji. The name 'Joshua Cohen' was familiar. If he remembered correctly, Joshua had dueled his agent Shingo Sawatari after Sawatari had taken Joshua's pendulum deck and had beaten Sawatari while barely exerting any effort. Joshua did indeed own Pendulum Cards, which meant that there was a possibility that the e-mail could be taken at face value. But of course, Joshua obviously knew more than he was letting on. Nobody would just give away cards like that as an act of charity. Joshua wanted something from him specifically.
Reiji pulled up another tab and went over what data the system had of Joshua. To his surprise, it was extraordinarily sparse. Joshua had dueled five times and won all five, all within the span of few days. He was a student of You Show Duel School, the worst school in Maiami City, for some unfathomable reason. Any information on him from more than a few days ago simply did not exist. No birth records, no other school records, no duel records, nothing. While he could simply be a foreigner here for the upcoming championship, that was probably not the case.
To complicate matters further, there were rumors of Joshua founding his own dueling philosophy and attempting to teach it to others. This dueling philosophy was eerily similar to the little he had saw of the one preached by Academia, believing that only a small selection of cards were worth using and that duelists should only use the strongest decks. Yet the possibility of Joshua being an Academia agent was most likely nil. He used Pendulum, Xyz and Synchro summoning in a way that demonstrated mastery of the techniques, something that no one from Academia (save perhaps his father) would be able to do.
There was simply no clear solution. There was scant evidence to point in any direction, and Reiji Akaba was not one to jump to conclusions. He would simply have to meet Joshua in person, but not for a conversation in his office. No, he would duel Joshua to get a sense of the man's true character.
"I'm sure you know why we are gathered here today," I began, standing on a box in the warehouse where the study group I'd founded had gathered for the first time. More people had joined than I had expected. Apparently my proposition had been interesting for a large number of students from LDS and even other duel schools who wanted to get strong quickly. That was good, the more people, the better. I'd brought more than enough staples, purchased in bulk for cheap (because apparently people didn't see the value in running Torrential, Solemns, and other staple traps) for people to swap into their decks.
I was a little nervous, to be honest. I had TA'd calculus classes before, but that was teaching simple material a bunch of college students who could be trusted to behave themselves, not teenagers who probably believed themselves to be the biggest fish in the pond.
It'll be fine, I reminded myself. Teens are just like undergrads, just a little bit younger. They'll listen.
"Welcome to the first meeting of our study group," I continued. "Here, you will learn to duel in the most efficient and effective manner. You will master the top strategies and learn to create and use powerful decks. However, before we get to all that, we will need to begin with the fundamentals of dueling."
There were grumbles of discontent from the audience. I heard a few cries of "we already know how the game works" and "I know how to play".
"Let me be clear," I continued. "I am not going to re-teach you how the cards work. I assume you already know what a field spell or continuous trap is. No, we will be covering the concepts that dictate decisions in deckbuilding and gameplay. Card advantage. Interaction. Consistency. Threat evaluation. Board building and board breaking. In addition, we will be covering all Extra Deck summoning methods, as well as Ritual Summoning and Pendulum Summoning."
Several students perked up of that, and murmurs of excitement propagated through the crowd.
"I see that I have piqued your interest. Then let us begin. Does anyone know what card advantage is?"
A few tentative hand were raised. I picked one at random. "Yes, you with the purple hair."
"It's... when your cards are better than your opponent, so you win?" the guy said, clearly unsure of himself.
"Incorrect, but good guess," I said. "That corresponds more to card quality. Card advantage is when you have access to more cards than your opponent. Now, can anyone guess why card advantage is important? Just shout it, we're in a small enough group."
"It lets you summon more monsters!" one guy yelled. "You know, because you have more cards."
"You can discard more cards to activate powerful effects!" a girl said.
"You're seeing aspects of the benefits card advantage provides, but the biggest one is this: Card advantage provides more options. It means that you'll have more answers than your opponent has threats, and vice versa. Now, let's go over some examples..."
Nearly ninety minutes later, I had finished my lecture on card advantage, interaction, and consistency. I was helping a few students make modifications and cuts to their decks, while the rest of the study group was dueling, not with duel disks, but on top of boxes that we had repurposed as makeshift tables. They had been skeptical at first when I'd told them not to duel with the damn hologram machines, but had acquiesced after I'd cited Rule Three and pointed out that having a better view of the board would allow them to consider their moves carefully.
I was also getting everyone in the habit of reading their opponent's cards, because that was something that needed to happen immediately. Too many times, both while watching the anime and just now, had I seen a character blindly attack into a low-attack monster.
"Cut Draining Shield for Torrential Tribute," I advised Kenji, the student I was currently working with. "Draining Shield is a -1 that only stops one attack and only activates in the battle phase, while Torrential Tribute allows you to cut off your opponent's plays."
Kenji swapped the cards, then looked up at me with a confused expression. "But Torrential Tribute doesn't give me life points like Draining Shield does."
"Remember, life is a resource that's nowhere near as valuable as cards. If there were a card that reduced your life to 1 in order to let you draw three cards, it would be the best card in the game," I said. Undoing the whole 'life is the most important thing' mentality that various duel schools had created was another annoying thing. "Keep looking for instances where you're playing suboptimal cards to preserve your life total instead of cards that let you take over the game."
"Got it, Joshua-sensei," Kenji said, returning to his deck.
I did a quick scan of the room to see if anyone needed immediate help or was idle. It appeared that Sawatari and his opponent (whose name I still did not know) had just finished their game, thus I made my way over to their 'table'.
"Ha! I, the great Super Neo Shingo Sawatari, am unbeatable!" Sawatari gloated. "Did you really think a weak deck like yours could stand a chance against mine? I—"
"Sawatari," I said firmly. "There will be no behavior like that in this study group."
"But he's weak," Sawatari said. "His deck is full of trash, it—"
"Let's duel, here and now," I said. "With the duel disks. Class, this is going to be a special lesson, so pause your duels for five minutes or so."
"Five minutes?!" Sawatari sputtered indignantly.
"Three minutes," I said. "Let's begin. You can choose to go first or second as you wish."
"I'll let you go first," the cocky LDS student said.
I nodded and drew my opening five, seeing Veiler, Cir, Scarm, Fire Lake, and Torrential in the opener. "Sawatari appears to be on a blind second strategy. I assume he's giving up the advantage of taking the first move in exchange for the ability to attack first, showing that he probably has an OTK strategy in mind. This also means that he'll have to play through more interaction, as I will be able to set up before he gets to play. This is the trade-off you make when you choose to go second," I explained. "Any questions?"
"What happens if Sawatari can't get a one-turn-kill?" one student asked.
"It depends on what he does, but if he exhausts too many resources I should be able to clean things up quite quickly," I said. "Even decks that can OTK will typically want to go first just so they can combo off through less interruptions." I then turned to face my opponent.
"Normal summon Scarm, special Cir since I control no spell/traps. Overlay for Dante, Dante effect, detach Scarm to mill three." I hit a Graff and two irrelevant cards in the mills. "Graff effect, special Scarm, set two, go to the end phase, and activate Scarm to add Tour Guide to hand. Pass."
"My turn, draw!" Sawatari proclaimed. "Since you control two or more spells or trap cards, I can special summon Escher the Frost Vassal from my hand."
"That seems to be Sawatari's payoff for his choice to go second," I said. "A 'Monarch' deck can have trouble amassing tribute fodder to get out their high-level monsters, so being able to get a monster on the field without committing to a normal summon is quite powerful."
"I activate the continuous spell Return of the Monarchs!" Sawatari said. "Now, I tribute Escher the Frost Vassal to summon Mobius the Frost Monarch! When Mobius is tribute summoned, I can destroy up two two spell or trap cards, and when I tribute summon, Return of the Monarchs lets me add another Monarch from my deck to my hand!"
"A small clarification here," I said. "Return of the Monarchs actually searches by statline, searching for either a 2400 ATK/1000 DEF or 2800 ATK/1000 DEF monster. This means that cards like Dark Armed Dragon can also be searched by it. Anyway, I'll activate Fire Lake of the Burning Abyss, sending Scarm and Dante from my field to the graveyard in order to target and destroy up to three cards you control, in this case, Mobius and Return."
"Dammit!" Sawatari snarled.
"In addition, since Return of the Monarchs is a continuous spell, since it is destroyed, its search will resolve without effect. On resolution, I'll activate Cir targeting Dante and then Dante targeting Cir, returning Dante to my field and Cir to my hand."
As the spray from the hologram animation of Torrential Tribute cleared, Dante was revealed to be sitting alive and well on the field. "As Scarm will be giving me another card during the end phase of this turn, this entire interaction was a net positive for me. I now have four cards with a fourth coming soon, while Sawatari only has three cards. The way Burning Abyss can create card advantage so easily while simultaneously interacting with the opponent grants the deck its incredible strength. Now, let's see if Sawatari can recover from this."
"Joshua-sensei really is strong," one student from the crowd said. "How do you beat this?"
"In due time, you'll learn to both use this deck and win against it," I said.
"I set two cards and end my turn," Sawatari declared.
"During your end phase, Scarm will add a copy of Rubic to my hand. Draw for turn, standby, main," I recited. My draw for turn was a copy of Libic. "Special Rubic and Libic by their own effects. Synchro for six, make Virgil. This will allow me to clear Sawatari's backrow before I attempt to get in for lethal."
"I won't let you!" Sawatari yelled. "I pay 1500 life points activate my trap card, Solemn Strike! The summon is negated and your monster is destroyed!"
I nodded. "And as Sawatari negated the summon, he prevented me from gaining advantage off of Virgil's grave effect or bringing it back with Cir later. If Sawatari had instead negated the effect, I would be in a much better position. Now, normal summon Tour Guide, Tour Guide effect, grab Graff from deck. Overlay for Dante, Dante effect detaching Graff to mill three and boost to 2500, Graff effect chain link one, Cagna chain link two. Graff special Calcab, Cagna search Fire Lake. Direct attack with Calcab, Dante, and the other Dante for lethal." I glanced at my watch. "Six minutes, not bad."
"I lost just as badly as last time," Sawatari groaned. "Why? I built my deck better this time!"
"There are several things we can learn from this duel," I said. "Firstly, going first grants a massive advantage. Second, not all cards within an archetype are worth running, and not all decks based around an archetype are created equally. Monarchs, for example, work better as a going-first deck focused around preventing your opponent from summoning from the Extra Deck and protecting their Tribute Summoned monsters instead of blinding second. Burning Abyss has a ritual monster that no build of the deck will use, because investing in it is simply not worth it. Keep that in mind when deckbuilding. Thirdly, building off of that, the less you allow your opponent to do, the better. You may have been told to let your opponent summon their 'ace monster' and then take it down. This, in general, is wrong. Give your opponents no room to breathe. Win quickly and efficiently while minimizing risk. Building your deck to lock your opponent out of the game is a valid strategy."
"That's dishonorable!" one student protested. "Why win when your opponent doesn't get a chance to play a single card? That's not strong, it's weak!"
"That's a bit of an exaggeration, but no, it's not 'dishonorable'," I said. "Almost every deck is capable of running cards that can be played before it's your turn, known as 'handtraps'. Cards like Effect Veiler and Maxx "C" allow you to disrupt someone setting up a lock or unbreakable board. You have to adjust your decks to be able to compete, that's true, but in doing so, your decks will get stronger overall. If there are no questions, you may all resume your duels."
As the rest of the study group sat back down at the 'tables' and got back to dueling, I turned to Sawatari.
"In this study group, I will not tolerate any personal insults to any members," I said. "Everyone is capable of growth, and your arrogant attitude is going to get you left in the dust as others improve while you, so confident in your skills, stay the same."
"I..." Sawatari began, glancing down. "I'm... sorry." He said those words as if he had never apologized before in his life, which, considering his character, might actually be true. "I still have a lot to learn."
"That you do," I said. "And I am willing to teach, so long as you don't insult my other students. Or anyone else, for that matter."
"So how do I do this lockdown combo you were talking about?" Sawatari asked.
I smiled. Teaching people degenerate combos was one of the few great joys in life. "The combo revolves around setting up the card Domain of the Monarchs..."
I checked my e-mail later that night. I wasn't expecting any response from Reiji, but it never hurt to see. Like playing through a board full of negates, you started throwing stuff until something stuck. It was likely that my e-mail had gotten cut in his spam-filter or he had simply not deemed it important. All was going according to plan, however. My army was growing, and I would no doubt me making contact with Reiji soon. I could afford to be patient here.
I stretched out on the guest room bed. It would be nice to get out of here as soon as possible. I appreciated the Hiiragi family's hospitality, but I hated the idea of being dependent on other people. Sawatari had provided a generous donation after my lesson, but my funds were still relatively low. Was there some way I could make a quick buck, preferably from dueling? It seemed as though that was the solution to everything.
More food for thought. Perhaps I could get Reiji to fund me instead, which wasn't exactly unlikely. Depending on exactly how things lined up, I had many options open to me. It was as though I had activated Kelbek's grave effect and was now waiting to see what my mills were like... and if there would be any Bystials in my way.
Tear Zero had really done a number on my brain.
The next day at You Show, class was interrupted as a tall, purple-haired woman barged into the classroom. Shuzo had been giving a lecture on Action Cards at the time, which I had been finding quite interesting, thus I was rather annoyed by the interruption. It took a few moments for me to recognize the woman as Himika Akaba, chairwoman of LDS. Why would she be visiting now? Sawatari wasn't going to go off and fake injury while accusing Yuya of attacking him.
"Good afternoon, Headmaster Hiiragi," Himika said. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything too important." An obvious insult under a polite façade.
"Not at all, miss..."
"Himika Akaba, chairwoman of LDS. You see, it has come to my attention that You Show Duel School is currently the lowest-performing Duel School in Maiami City."
"What are you implying?" Shuzo demanded. "If you came here to insult my school, then leave!"
"Despite it being the only school capable of teaching Pendulum Summon, You Show is still underperforming. I believe that this mediocre school shouldn't hoard this knowledge. I wish to purchase this school and integrate it into LDS, adding Pendulum Summon as the fourth pillar alongside Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz. Of course, all students currently enrolled here will be enrolled at LDS instead."
I see. The whole thing with Sawatari was just a front so they could get at Pendulum. That honestly made a lot of sense; Sawatari's father didn't actually hold that much power.
"I refuse," Shuzo said. "I can't allow my students, taught with firey passion, to be subjected to the rote instruction of LDS!"
"I'm afraid that isn't your decision to make," Himika said. "We can easily force your hand here. However, if you can prove to me that this school is competent, we may be willing to leave you alone. I propose a best two out of three match, three of your students against three of LDS' top Extra Deck summoning students. They are, of course, Youth-level, to provide an appropriate challenge."
"I accept your challenge!" Shuzo declared. "My students will have no trouble at all!"
Yuzu's fan made contact with Shuzo's head. "Dad, stop making statements you can't back up!"
"That's great to hear," Himika said, smiling. "Shall we begin? The students that I have selected are already here."
"Give us one day," I interjected before Shuzo could yell something like 'bring it on'. "It's entirely unreasonable to assume we are ready to face your students, who have no doubt been preparing for this, at this very moment. Surely the top students of LDS would have no issue dealing with opponents from the bottom school in Maiami city, no matter how much preparation time is given."
"Very well," Himika said. "I'll give you one day. Do not disappoint me, I'd hate to see such... promising students... get crushed."
As Himika exited, I turned to face the other You Show students. "We need to fine-tune you guys' decks," I said. "I don't care what reservations you have about this, but I don't want to see anyone lose. I'm also going to teach you Xyz summoning; it'll give your decks much-needed power."
"In one day?" Yuya questioned. "I don't think anyone's ever learned Xyz summoning in a single day."
"You learned Pendulum in an afternoon," I pointed out. "Xyz is arguably much simpler. Let's get started."
Nearly two hours later, I was quickly growing frustrated. Yuya was stubborn, and Yuzu even more so. Sora was little help, and no amount of short lectures on card advantage or optimal play seemed to be working.
"I don't understand why you can't just optimize your goddamn deck," I groaned. "Is it that hard to be playing three Monkeyboard, three Joker? Why not cut the excess Performapal monsters that do basically nothing and start running good cards?"
"I don't want to let my deck use its uniqueness!" Yuya protested. "This deck is for entertainment dueling! When I duel, I want to see people smile, like they did when they saw my father duel. I want to replicate his dueling style, and running the most perfect and consistent deck will not do that!"
"Let me explain what we're up against again," I responded. "A competent Synchro user can get rid of every card in your hand before you get a chance to make a move. The Fusion user can pull off a first-turn kill with a good hand. The Xyz user can set up interactive end boards loaded with disruption. To stand against that, you will need to be playing staples. A Performapal Kaleidoscorp isn't going to help you anywhere near as much as an Effect Veiler or Maxx 'C'! We're not dueling in front of a crowd, we're dueling to save this school!"
"I'm not going to compromise my principles just because they might be stronger," Yuya argued. "Even if it's not for a large audience, I want people to be smiling as I duel, not just nodding their heads as I win!"
"Oy vey," I groaned. "We're running out of time. You need to shape up your decks and we've gotten basically nowhere in the last few hours! At least let me show you what you could be doing!"
"What?" Yuya asked. "What do you mean, 'show me what you could be doing'?"
"I'll demonstrate an optimized Performapal decklist. Then you can have an objective comparison of the decks and decide what you actually like instead of repeating empty arguments about smiles over and over!"
"You know who you sound like?" Yuzu interjected. "Sawatari! 'Give me your deck.' 'Only play strong cards.' 'Weak trash is for trash duelists.' Listen to yourself!"
"Calm down, calm down," I said. "I want to save this school, just like you guys. I'm not asking you to change the way you duel entirely, I'm asking you to optimize your chances of winning. If our opponents are even half as good as I'm saying, your unoptimized piles won't do anything. That's just the way the game works."
"You're missing the point. We're not just winning against LDS, we're showing them that You Show's way is better. If we do your thing, we're just playing like we're in LDS anyway, which means they're ultimately right," Yuzu explained.
Finally, Sora spoke up. "I want to see how Teacher would play Yuya's deck! Teacher's Pendulum Summon is so cool, but Yuya's monsters are even more fun!"
"I guess... I could give it a try," Yuya relented. "Fine. You can show me how you think I should be playing. Then I'll tell you why it's boring, and we can move on."
Damn, did Sora get lessons on 'how to act like a non-refusable cute kid' in Academia? His acting was on point.
"Here's the list," I said, handing the sheet of paper I'd prepared to Yuya. "Let's meet back here in a bit."
I stood across from Yuzu on the Action Field which had just been activated. My upgraded version of Yuya's deck was complete, with the extra deck monsters added in by yours truly. I'd gone through the opening chant of the duel and was now preparing my opening move. My starting hand consisted of Lizardraw, Guitartle, Monkeyboard, Veiler, and Wavering Eyes, a very nice hand.
"Ladies and gentleman!" I began, elicting an annoyed snort from Yuya. "Welcome to today's performance, my one-man show! To lead this act, we'll begin with setting Performapal Guitartle in the Pendulum Scale! But he isn't coming here alone, as we'll be activating Performapal Lizardraw in the other pendulum scale! This triggers Guitartle's effect: whenever a Performapal monster is activated in the other Pendulum Scale, I get to draw a card."
The card that was drawn was Maxx "C"; essentially an FTK anyone running a good deck, which was currently not the case. "Our first act is far from over, however! By shuffling Performapal Lizardraw into the deck, I get to draw a card! Now, joining us on the stage will be Performapal Monkeyboard, and once per turn, this spectacular simian can call out another Performapal from my deck! Take the stage, Performapal Skullcrobat Joker! And, of course, Guitartle will draw us another card!" Because of course Guitartle isn't one per turn, why the hell would anime cards ever be balanced?
"I normal summon Performapal Skullcrobat Joker and then activate his effect! From my deck to my hand comes another copy of Performapal Monkeyboard. Now, I think it's time for a bit of a change of scenery! I activate the quick-play spell Wavering Eyes, which destroyes all cards in all Pendulum Zones, then activates effects based on the number destroyed! As at least one Pendulum Card was destroyed, I get to inflict 500 damage to your life points, Yuzu! And since two Pendulum Cards were destroyed, I get to add another Pendulum Monster from my deck to my hand, specifically, the third Monkeyboard!"
"This is exciting!" Sora said. "There's so much stuff happening and it's still only the first turn!"
"But of course, our show is still far from complete! Come to the stage, my new actors! I set the Pendulum Scales with Performapal Monkeyboard and Performapal Odd-Eyes Dissolver, then activate the effect of Performapal Monkeyboard to add Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer from my deck to my hand!" Because why would Monkeyboard, one of the most powerful Pendulums ever printed, have a once per turn on it either?
"That's almost the same as earlier!" Yuya commented.
"Now, it's time for the main act, the part you've all been waiting for! Swing, pendulum of my soul! I Pendulum Summon Performapal Monkeyboard, Performapal Monkeyboard, Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer, and Performage Damage Juggler!"
"Now Joshua has five monsters on the field on his first turn!" Sora said. "This is so cool!"
I didn't actually need Pend Sorc for anything here, so I went ahead with the rest of my combo. "Now let us proceed to the last act of the turn! I overlay my two Performapal Monkeyboards! Warrior of blazing light! Come forth, Rank 6 Photon Strike Bouncer! Now, I build the Overlay Network with Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer, Performapal Skullcrobat Joker, and Performage Damage Juggler! Emerge, celestial warrior who pierces the darkness! Rank 4 Tellarknight Ptolomaeus! Tellarknight Ptolomaeus' effect activates! By detaching 3 Xyz Materials, I can Xyz summon one Xyz monster from my Extra Deck that is one rank higher, using Ptolomaeus as material! Come, mechanical dragon of evolution! Rank-up Xyz Change! Rank-5 Cyber Dragon Nova! Now, once per turn, I may Xyz summon Cyber Dragon Infinity using Cyber Dragon Nova as material! Be reborn, mechanical dragon of infinite potential! Rank-6 Cyber Dragon Infinity!"
"So many Xyz summons..." Yuya said. "Is this the highest level of dueling? This combo is dizzying!"
"It's so exciting!" Sora said. "Monsters appearing and disappearing at will! You never know what's going to come up next!"
"Thank you, thank you! Now, let us prepare for the next act. By banishing Performage Damage Juggler, I can add another Performage monster from my deck to my hand, in this case, Performage Hat Tricker. Finally, I activate the effect of Performapal Odd-Eyes Dissolver, fusion summoning materials from my hand or field as fusion materials! I fuse Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon in my hand with Performapal Lizardraw, also in my hand! Come, dichromatic dragon of the infinite vortex! Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon!"
"Fusion from pendulum..." Sora said. "I didn't know that was possible. This is amazing!"
"I set one card and end my turn," I said, as if I'd just normal summoned a guy and passed instead of doing the diet version of full PePe combo.
"My turn, draw!" Yuzu proclaimed. "I activate First Movement Solo to summon a Melodious monster from my deck!"
"Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon's effect activates! By shuffling one Pendulum monster from my Extra Deck into my Deck, the activation is negated and your monster is destroyed! I'll put back Performapal Lizardraw here."
"Tch... I summon Aria the Melodious Diva, and since I control a 'Melodious' monster, I can special summon Sonata the Melodious Diva from my hand! Now, I activate the spell card Double Summon, giving me an extra summon this turn! Enchanting melody echoing in the heavens. Awaken the sleeping virtuoso. Come forth! Level 8! Mozarta the Melodious Maestra! I activate Mozarta's effect, which lets me summon one level four or lower Melodious monster from my hand!"
"In this moment, Cyber Dragon Infinity's effect activates! By detaching one Xyz material from it, the activation is negated and your monster is destroyed!"
"No!" Yuzu said. "My ace monster! I set one card and end my turn."
"Draw for turn, standby, main," I said. "It looks like it's time to finish this show! Battle Phase! Photon Strike Bounzer attacks you directly!"
"I activate my trap card, Call of the Haunted!" Yuzu declared. "It—"
"Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon's effect! The activation is negated and your card is destroyed!"
The attack of Photon Strike Bounzer connected. "Now, Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon! Finish this duel!"
"Action spell—" Yuzu began, before I cut her off.
"Cyber Dragon Infinity's effect! I detach one material to negate the activation and destroy the card!" Odd-Eyes' attack went through, and the action field around us dissipated as Yuzu's LP dropped to zero.
"Good game," I said, extending my hand.
"Good game?!" Yuzu spat. "Not a single card I used resolved! I barely played!"
"This is the highest level of play," I said. "If you'd had a handtrap like Effect Veiler, you could've stopped part of my combo. If you were running a better deck, you could've potentially played through a bit more. I probably still would've won, but you would've had a fighting chance."
"That was so hot-blooded!" Shuzo exclaimed. "I could barely follow all your moves, but it was so exciting! Seeing everything come together, appearing and disappearing... it's incredible! That level of skill puts fire in my veins!"
"You see, Yuya?" I called. "This is what you could be doing if you followed my path."
"I can't do that," Yuya said, looking down. "It's powerful, but... I don't want to play Duel Monsters if I'm the only one playing. I want my opponent to be having fun and smiling too, laughing along with me as we duel!"
I could relate, somewhat. I'd shown Yuya a tier zero deck, one that was the second-strongest deck ever printed (after Tearlament, of course). This specific deck put up a classic multi-negate board that was designed to lock the opponent out of the game and then OTK on the next turn. The deck had so many searchers that almost every hand would be combo, and I didn't even think I'd been playing optimally.
"I don't like to duel to fight," Yuya said. "It's supposed to be to spread joy and make friends. But... if I really need to duel like this to fend off LDS... do I really have a choice?"
Inwardly, I felt terrible for what I was about to do. It was like telling a kid that Santa wasn't real. However, I didn't really have a choice here. I needed everyone to be as strong as possible to win against Academia.
"You're correct, Yuya. You don't have a choice."
Author's Note: I was not expecting this chapter to get this long. Parts of it kind of just wrote itself, and I'm quite happy with how certain scenes turned out.
I've had a couple of plot-bunnies sitting in the back of my mind for a while now. They are as follows:
-Albaz ends up in the Fusion Dimension, takes Super Poly and fuses with Yuri. Features the various Abyss archetypes (Branded, Despia, Swordsoul, Dogmatika, Therions)
-Yet another 'link fic': Yuya discovers Link Summoning instead of Pendulum Summoning. Features the Starfrost archetypes (Scareclaw, Tearlament, Kashtira, Manadrome) as the Yu-boys' main archetypes.
If you have any opinions on these ideas or on the chapter or fic as a whole, please leave a review! I'd love to hear your thoughts.