Chapter 20:
"- and that's about it. I don't think you'll have any troubles with her if you have enough removal options and maybe some ways to manipulate your side of the field. You could go for denying her bringing out her ace in the first place, but I don't think it's worth it." Blake concluded his report about his duel against Alexis with some advice.
He stood in front of the same desk he first met Kami, with the same person on the chair behind it. Since she hadn't said anything yet, he added. "Want me to go over your deck?"
Kami looked at him in mock aghast. "You aren't saying my deck needs improvement, are you?" She waved him off with a smirk. "There's no need. I won't even need to adjust it after what you've told me. Though I appreciate the offer."
This was the first time they met after the events at the Abandoned Dorm and although subtle, there were changes in the way she acted. The most surprising was how friendly she was now. Before, she'd have surely talked down on him for even suggesting she might be anything but perfect, much less thank him for offering help. Now it sounded less condescending and more playful instead. While it gave her some charm, he was content with the change. His guardian did that just enough so it didn't bother him, and that was enough for him.
The sound of thunder had Kami jolt straight in her seat, before smoothly going for a stretch to hide her surprise. She'd gotten a bit jumpy, which showed earlier when he entered and moved the chair too. He guessed it was because she had been kidnapped and he couldn't fault her for that. He didn't speak up about it, something she seemed to appreciate if her eyes were anything to go by.
"This leaves us with the last topic on our agenda for today: What are we going to do about Doctor Crowler?" She asked as she rested her head on her hand cutely. "That whole fiasco happened because of his pettiness and I say we capitalize on it."
He simply nodded along. Luckily for them, Kami always had an active mic on her, which in this case recorded what Titan had said back then. It surely wasn't legal, but what did he care. "What do you think we can squeeze out of that clown?"
"I'd say we make him our permanent supporter. He'll speed up your promotion to Obelisk and be an additional vote we'll have for when we got our title." Kami explained. "That should be the most value he's to offer, but I'm open to suggestions."
'She's probably right about that …. Maybe I can get him off Jaden's back too … but he should come around during the whole Shadow Riders ordeal, so that would be a waste.' Blake thought to himself while leaning back in his chair. Honestly, he had no idea what else they could get from the man. This wasn't exactly his specialty; he was the muscle, not the brawn. "Nothing that comes to mind. Your plan sounds good." He shrugged before adding more with his usual sass. "As I'd expect from you."
She rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless. "Of course. I'll be dealing with the good Doctor tomorrow. What's left to get you where you need to be?"
"Princeton's getting fucked next. After that I should get my hands on the Kaiser." He stated bluntly without a care in the world. "I asked Alexis about how I'd get him to duel and she said he'd come around after I win against Chazz. Sounds like neither doubt I will, but that only speaks for them actually having a brain."
Kami wrinkled her nose at his choice of words but nodded. "If he acknowledges you enough to duel him then he'll most likely give you the title as well. I've heard some rumours about him preferring the Yuki boy, but everyone knows he couldn't care less about anything like that." She tilted her head and looked at him in interest as she asked. "What do you think your chances are of winning against Truesdale?"
"The younger? 100 percent." He snorted in response. "The older? Depends on how good my starting hand is, but its more than 50 percent for sure." Dealing with the Cyber Dragons required something to enable him setting up, so he'd have to adjust his ratios to guarantee that. The deck was OTK-focused, so he'd have to act quick and have the right responses to prevent getting one-shot. He needed to get the Cyber Dragons out of the picture, as any fusion Zane could make would just roll over his monsters, especially if it involved a Power Bond or Limiter Removal. "I'll try and pick up some additional cards at the shop, but I can comfortably say I'm more likely to win."
"You know, if anyone else told me that I'd laugh in their face." Kami replied in her usual smooth voice. "While I get that you're not in much need for more DP, or money, after Kaiba paid for our education, I hope I can convince you to keep working together with me."
"With you not for you?" He asked bemused. Getting steady support from her was something he was supposed to work for by any means necessary. If she said it like this then he wouldn't even need to somehow try to seduce her like Katherine told him to. Not that he doubted he couldn't somehow manage it, but the chances weren't exactly in his favour with someone like Kami. "Depends on what you can offer me, I guess."
"What, isn't it payment enough to spend your time with me?" She mused while smirking at him, one he returned right back at her.
"Not if its spend working. If you're offering more, however …" he replied in a low voice that saw the heiress blush and stammer at the same time.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. It's just hard to find competent people to work with, especially ones that are reliable."
It felt oddly … nice to be appreciated like that. Even if it was just her buttering him up so he'd stay an asset to her. He'd have to give it to her; she was really good at that. That didn't mean he would stop teasing her, though. "Reliability is an attractive trait, or so I've heard. By the way; has me playing knight in saving and carrying you away granted me a boon, oh great Umeno princess?" He worked hard to not laugh as he asked, but the look she had once he finished almost made him break.
It took her two times to start, the first most likely trying to tell him to not call her that, but it was clear she'd caught her off-guard as she couldn't hold her calm demeanour. "I might … think about a suitable reward during the coming holidays …" She coughed and pulled her walls up right after. "If you continue being on my side, that is."
"I'll look forward to it then."
"Hey Chazz, surely you got a minute?" Blake asked as he grabbed the shoulder of the person he addressed. Tweedle dee and tweedled dum, or whatever the fuck Chazz' cronies' names were, stopped and turned towards him, while Chazz just looked over his shoulder.
"What do you want?" He responded with his usual angry tone and looked at him annoyed.
"To duel you, of course. Why else would I even take my precious time to talk to you?" Blake snarked right back, causing Chazz to glower at him and brush the hand of his shoulder.
"And why should I use my precious time to waste it on someone like you?" Chazz threw it right back at him with a self-satisfied smirk.
Rolling his eyes, Blake crossed his arms in front of his chest and in turn smirked himself. "To win back whatever honour you have left? For someone that's supposed to be our grades best duelist in Obelisk, I haven't seen you duel much. And the few duels I know off, well …"
He hit the mark spot on, prompting Chazz to go off on him as his scowl deepened. "Pah! What do you know, I just don't waste my time with weaklings."
"Ah, but of course. That's why you lost to Jaden, because he's just better than you." He clapped his hands with a grin. "But since Jaden told me you're strong, after I beat him in a duel if you must know. The record of junior tournaments in Domino City seems to paint you as a good duelist, so I thought I'd see it for myself."
Chazz was visibly pissed by now, so much so that he didn't immediately retort. Instead, his lackies stepped forward and shoved Blake off. "You sure got some nerves talking like that, who do you think you are, huh?!" The one with glasses mocked and held him against the wall.
Not in the mood to deal with no-names, nor appreciating being touched like that, Blake grabbed him by the wrist and twisted it painfully, followed by sweeping away one leg from under him, letting him to fall to the ground with a grunt. "I should be the one asking you, worthless trash." He fixed the trio an unimpressed look. "Unlike you wastes of space, I'm the highest ranked duelist in our grade. You are just here because your families paid a lot of money so you could wear blue in the first place."
"You take that back!" Chazz shouted at him, his fists shacking from anger.
"Or what? You're gonna chicken out from dueling like you've been doing ever since coming to the academy? Don't make me laugh." Blake spat back. "I've been wiping the floor with people like you ever since the first day, so I guess it's understandable you're wetting your pants even thinking about facing me."
"That's it, you're going down! Get to the arena, punk!" Chazz retorted and stomped off towards the arena's, his cronies shuffling after him.
Satisfied with getting what he wanted, Blake clapped his hands together and stretched before turning around after he'd been tapped on the shoulder.
"You sure riled him up. Don't you think you could've done that a bit nicer?" Bastion asked, albeit looking just a tad amused.
"No way, that's exactly the kind of talk types like this need." Blake replied and they began walking to the arenas themselves. "And it's not like anything I said wasn't true."
"I guess that's true." Bastion nodded and gestured to the other students that witnessed their little exchange. "While I don't think the Obelisk students like you, it seems to me like you're getting quite a following with the other dorms."
He raised an eyebrow at his friend before looking over his shoulder. Behind them, a good number of Ra and Slifer students were almost eagerly following them, some looking at them and quickly turning away, while others were animatedly talking about how he'd given the Obelisks what they deserved. While he didn't care much about this, it could surely come in handy if he ever needed some support from his fellow students. Perhaps his idea to change the system favouring elitists money instead of real skill wasn't so unreachable after all. With him getting his title practically secured and Kami soon to follow, they should have enough power and money to bring up changes like that. If most of the student body and a few professors would support that …
A thought for another time, but definitely something he should talk with Kami about. He just had to make it juicy enough for her to agree to it.
They arrived at the arena and the seats all around them quickly filled as Chazz looked down on him from his elevated position in the arena with an angry look. Wanting to get this over as soon as possible, Blake wasted no time to get up in the arena himself.
"I see we've got quite the audience, good. Then everyone will know that you're nothing but lucky trash that doesn't know his place." Chazz proclaimed as he readied his duel disk with an unhealthy amount of confidence.
Blake yawned back as he did the same. "Yeah, yeah. You're number thirty for that line, by the way. Let's just get this over with."
His opponent went first, already surprising him by just setting a monster and a backrow as opposed to his usual balls-to-the-walls playstyle. (Blake 4000 / Chazz 4000)
With no way to pop said backrow, Blake opted to spring the possible trap while setting himself up. "I summon Mystic Tomato, which'll go and attack your set monster." The bloated red fruit grinned (1400/1100) and chomped down on its target, which was revealed to be an angel.
"Ha! You destroyed my Shining Angel, which allows me to summon a Light monster from my deck, as long as it has 1500 or less attack points. And I summon Z-Metal Tank!" out of the golden portal the angels halo left behind fell a golden tank with light blue highlights, the mechanical eye in the middle of its body surveying the field (1500/1300).
'Would you look at that? He actually got floaters to get his Union monsters on the field.' Blake thought and set two cards before ending his turn.
But before Chazz drew, he flipped up his face-down. "And since you like to throw Trap cards around like the weakling you are I've got something that takes care of that for me. I activate Royal Decree! With it active, all other Trap card effects on the field are negated!" A castle wall erupted from the ground and surrounded the whole arena, a golden glow touching down on both their backrow zones.
'And another reason for why I should go away from relying on traps. Never thought Chazz to be the cautious type, though. But then again, he did integrate anti-fusion cards for his duel against Jaden.' Blake waved him to take his turn with a wave of his hand, biting at the inside of his cheek in annoyance. 'At least he'll need the right monsters to go around my monsters floating effect.'
"Ready to get steamrolled? I activate Frontline Base, which allows me to special summon one level 4 or lower Union monster from my hand!" Chazz gloated and a small walled fortress appeared on the field. Out if its gates came a set of mechanical blue jet engines with wings (1300/1500), while a yellow and green jet in form of a tiger with wings appeared normally at its side (1600/1800).
"By banishing my V-Tiger Jet and W-Wing Catapult I can special summon VW-Tiger Catapult from my Fusion deck!" The two machines combined in a flashy show accompanied by electricity sparking threw the arena to form the slightly stronger monster (2000/2100). "Z-Metal Tank, destroy his monster!"
'All that for such a garbage monster. It's effect won't even help you here. I really wish they would've made those better, but oh well. The ABC series will be great if it comes out.' Blake looked on as Chazz's tank shot down his monster for minimal damage (Blake 3900 / Chazz 4000), but since his opponent was so nice and put a Fusion monster in front of him, he decided to stop him right there. "Just like your Shining Angel, my Mystic Tomato allows me to summon a monster from my deck. I choose Fusion Devourer, so by all means attack it." The floating fruit was replaced by a floating head with tentacles, halting his opponents advances with its effect (1400/1200).
Chazz clicked his tongue and ended his turn, spouting some nonsense about 'proper dueling' or whatnot, not like Blake listened. Instead, he drew, drew some more after a Pot of Greed, and was given the means to end the duel in away an 'honourable duelist' shouldn't complain.
"Alright, lets finish this!" He announced loudly, much to their audiences' surprise and his opponent's disbelief. While that one ranted on about how he thought he could just end the duel other than surrendering, he simply played out his combo. "First, I tribute my monster to summon Caius the Shadow Monarch. He'll deal with your annoying trap." The prestigious fiend just waved towards the walls as it appeared, causing them to crumble into nothingness (2400/1000).
"With that gone I flip up my set card, Call of the Haunted, which brings back my Fusion Devourer to do his work." He continued casually, before a huge round rune appeared in front of his monarch and was subsequently absorbed by the monster, making it twice as big (4800/1000). "And with a little boost from Megamorph, Caius has more than enough points to crush you. Is that display of power more akin to your narrowminded opinion of how to duel?"
Instead of talking back, Chazz's hands formed into fists as he looked on in frustration how his monsters were dismantled. Caius went first to destroy his tank (Blake 3900 / Chazz 700), before the Devourer tore apart his Tiger Catapult. (Blake 3900 / Chazz 0) The shockwave created by the heavy impacts made him stumble to his knees, where he hit the ground in frustration.
"Man, you really showed me how much of a lucky loser I am. I'm so humbled." Blake said, dripping with sarcasm. "The best Obelisk Blue in our year for sure. You should really play something elses, like dragons. They'd fit you all too well." Not deigning him another look, he walked down the stairs of the arena as the audience behind him exploded into cheers, the pale-yellow uniform around his hip flapping in the wind as the doors opened and let in fresh air. With Chazz dealt with, only the Kaiser remained. And he knew just the right cards to get before dueling him.
"While I can't speak favourably of your attitude, I can't deny that you've got the skills of a great duelist."
Blake stood on one of the docks, the sun slowly setting behind him. Just a day after he finished up winning against all the big names in his year, he's approached by Zane to meet and duel him here. They even had a small audience consisting of his own dormmates, Alexis, and the Slifer trio. While Jaden looked ecstatic to see them duel, Syrus glared daggers at him. He'd heard in passing that he'd finally started trying to improve himself, which was likely the cause of Jaden's duel against Zane earlier this week. A shame he didn't get to see it, but he knew how it was supposed to look either way. He wondered what brought the sudden interest in improving up, however. Originally it was supposed to be training to not let Jaden down against the Paradox Brothers, but they weren't a factor here. He'd have to ask Jaden when he got the chance.
"But I don't condone behaviour like yours from a true duelist." Zane finished as he looked at him, his arms crossed.
"Might want to get a bit more specific with that, Kaiser." He laughed back. "What exactly do you think is the problem? Rilling up other students? Talking down on them because they have the resources but don't put in the effort to get good? Getting them to duel by any means necessary?"
Zane continued to stare at him, but his mimic made it clear he hit the nail on the head. So, he continued. "Well, that's rich coming from you. Haven't seen you try to discipline your fellow Obelisks, nor have they changed from being insufferable shitheads that like to bully everyone wearing a different colour. Whiny elitists are no duelists." He spat the last part in disgust.
"I see you have a lot of anger in you, but it's not the way of a duelist to let it out at their opponent. Duelists respect one another, pull each other up to become better, and-"
"Oh, shut the fuck up." Blake interrupted him with an annoyed sigh. Causing everyone to look at him with wide eyes. "Just because you're the highest ranked duelist in the academy doesn't mean you can preach and force your ideals on everyone else. If anything, you're a hypocrite."
Zane's face darkened just a bit at that. "What?"
Blake raised his voice as he stared him down. "You talk about not tolerating behaviour like mine. You're the shining example of a student at this academy and hold the highest rank and title amongst all. But what do you do with it? Like I said; all but the smallest minority of Obelisk students are pricks that spit on the respect you preach everyone to have. Even some of the Ra students laugh about the Slifers, yet you do nothing against that."
"Duelists are supposed to support each other and improve together? Haven't seen any sort of after-lessons help, tutoring, or club for anyone that's interested to be helped by their betters." He pointed directly at Syrus, causing the boy to look away. "Your own brother has been the fucking worst duelist ever since the year started. Shouldn't you, the big respectful Kaiser, make sure that isn't the case? No, you look down from your prestigious tower and dare lecture anyone that's not only a good duelist, but also trying to change this farce of an academy."
The others were silent, looking at their exchange with mixed expressions. To finish his rant up, he hit his upperclassman where it hurt. "Respect is earned, you know. Not bought. Just like Joey Wheeler had to earn the respect of Seto Kaiba during Battle City, that trash you call dormmates must earn theirs from me; their better. And you, Kaiser, seem to me like in dire need to do that as well."
The older boys' eyes widened in shock of the declaration, and Blake could see out of the corner of his eyes that everyone but Jaden had taken a step back from their exchange, Bastion even eyed him curiously.
He looked back at the older Truesdale with an eager look and a smirk. "So, is this the part where you tell me that you're not gonna duel me because I insulted your pride and ideals? Going back on the challenge you made would be against a duelists honour, though." Blake took immense pleasure seeing how Zane seemed to be fighting with himself, his eyes shut, his hands grasping his arms. "Or are you gonna show me that your way is indeed the right one, showing me my place with your superior dueling and respect and all that?"
When Zane opened his eyes, he glared at him, but readied himself to duel. "Your words might hold some truth between all your angry comments. It should fall onto me to discipline those that need it. And a spiteful first year that compares himself to one of the beset duelists in the world seems to be in need of just that."
Blake's smirk grew into a wide grin. "And here I expected you to stay on your high horse. How nice to see that things can indeed change." He readied himself as well, cracking his fingers eagerly. "Then let's get this party started."
And cut! I wonder what'll happen next time ~, but next chapter will take some additional time because I'll be on vacation for a week. Not much else to say, other than I hope you enjoyed the chapter and aren't mad for Blake to call out Zane like that. I think he's full of shit if you look at the academy as a whole, and considering Blake's stance on the Blues in general ... well, we'll have to see whose philosophy will prevail and what might be the consequences of that.
Already 20 chapters and over 30k views and I don't have no fancy speech planned, so instead I thank you for reading and hope you'll stay around!