"I'll open this Duel up, brat! Draw!" Chairo checked his opening six cards and smiled. "I Normal Summon Goblin Attack Force! Then, I'll Set two backrow and end my turn!"
Tatsumaki was happy. He was finally getting to Duel.
"Be careful, kid!" shouted Enzo from the sidelines. "Chairo's a much stronger Duelist than the rest of the gang! I've seen his deck firsthand, and he's got a lot of powerful cards in there!"
"Thanks, Enzo, but I'll be fine. I've already won this Duel. Draw!" Tatsumaki took a moment to think through the optimal play before making his move. "I'll discard Thunder Dragon to grab two more of it from my deck! Next, I'll Set a monster and end my turn!"
"No backrow? Alright, then. Draw! I Normal Summon D.D. Assailant, and it'll attack your Set Monster!"
"When my Magical Merchant is flipped up, I flip over cards from the top of my deck until I hit a Spell or Trap to add to my hand, and the rest will go to the Graveyard!"
Tatsumaki, in order, flipped over Gravekeeper's Spy, Sangan, DMOC, Tribe-Infecting Virus, Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, Gravekeeper's Spy, Jinzo, Sinister Serpent, and finally hit MST, adding it to his hand.
"Now, Goblin Attack Force attacks you directly! Next, I'll Set one more backrow and end my turn. I got first blood, kid. Try to keep up."
"First blood doesn't matter in a Duel, only last blood," retorted Tatsumaki.
Chairo: 8000 Life Points.
Tatsumaki: 5700 Life points.
"My turn! Draw! During my Standby Phase, Sinister Serpent returns from my Graveyard to my hand! Now, I activate Graceful Charity, drawing three cards and discarding my Serpent and one of my Thunder Dragons. Now, I'll Normal Summon Bazoo the Soul-Eater and activate its effect! I remove DMOC, Jinzo, and Zaborg in my Graveyard from play to increase Bazoo's Attack by 300 for each, bringing him up to 2500! Now, I remove Thunder Dragon and Sangan in my grave from play to Special Summon Chaos Sorcerer in Defense Position, and activate his effect to remove D.D. Assailant from play! Bazoo the Soul-Eater, attack Goblin Attack Force!"
"I activate the Trap, Sakuretsu Armor, to destroy your attacking monster!"
"Very well, then. I'll Set a backrow and end my turn."
"During the End Phase, I activate my Trap, Dust Tornado, to destroy the card you just Set!" exclaimed Chairo.
"In that case, I'll chain my MST to break your last Set card!"
"So, now we're both out of backrow tricks for now," remarked Chairo. "And now I know you play Royal Decree, so I'll have to be careful of that. My turn! Draw! I activate the Spell, Smashing Ground! The monster you control with the highest Defense is now destroyed, so say goodbye to your Chaos Sorcerer!"
"Not bad," said Tatsumaki in a mock compliment. "You brought down my Bazoo and my Sorcerer without much difficulty. Guess you're not as much of a loser as I thought"
"I'll show you who the real loser is! Since I know you like playing your chaos monsters, let's see how you like Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer! He'll attack you directly, and his effect will remove your Sinister Serpent and Chaos Sorcerer from play! Your move, brat!"
Chairo: 8000 Life Points.
Tatsumaki: 3900 Life Points.
"My turn! Draw! I activate Card Destruction, forcing both of us to discard our entire hands and draw the same number of cards!"
Chairo discarded and subsequently drew two cards, while Tatsumaki did so with four cards.
"Now, I Normal Summon Breaker the Magical Warrior! The Spell Counter he gets on Summon brings him up to 1900 Attack, and he'll destroy Goblin Attack Force! Then, I'll Set a backrow and end my turn!"
"Draw! I'll switch Kycoo to Defense and Set two backrow, and end my turn."
"My turn again, and I'm gonna go straight to my Battle Phase! Breaker will attack Kycoo! Next, I'll remove Gravekeeper's Spy and Thunder Dragon from my Graveyard, and call forth a second Chaos Sorcerer!"
"What?! You have two of them?!" exclaimed Chairo, unable to hide his shock. On the sidelines, Noroi glanced over at Emi, who was smiling.
"That's your copy of Chaos Sorcerer, isn't it?" he asked.
"Yep! You would never take it when I offered and I have no use for it, so I figured it'd be better off in his hands."
"Starting to regret not taking it now. Talk about the rich getting richer."
"That'll be the end of my turn," said Tatsumaki.
"Draw!" Chairo smirked. His deck seemed to always give him an answer to whatever problem he had. "I Summon Tribe-Infecting Virus! By discarding a card, I declare Spellcaster type, and all monsters of that type are destroyed, clearing your field for a direct attack! Your move, brat! Looks like all of mommy and daddy's money ain't enough to make you a match for me!"
Chairo: 8000 Life Points.
Tatsumaki: 2300 Life Points.
"I hate to admit it, but Chairo kinda has our boy on the back foot," remarked Enzo.
"True," admitted Emi. "But look at all the cards he's removed from play so far. All that setup is gonna pay off soon."
Enzo then remembered the Spell Card Tatsumaki had shown off in his Duels against Manda and Noroi.
"Dimension Fusion," said Noroi. "But it requires him to pay 2000 Life Points. He has to draw it right now, or it's useless."
"Well, between Magical Merchant, Graceful Charity, and Card Destruction, he's gone through a lot of his deck," said Enzo. "Assuming he has three copies of it in his deck, he's got decent odds of drawing it."
Tatsumaki held two fingers over the top of his deck, mentally calculating his chances. Naturally, every single card in his deck had long since been committed to memory, and given the cards he'd seen thus far, there were fourteen cards left in his deck, four of which would immediately get him out of the situation. He also had Pot of Greed, which would give him two more chances at one of the four cards. There was also his Set card, which could help if he didn't find one of them. Even though he was certainly at a disadvantage, he was nowhere near out of options. He slowed his breathing and drew his card. Heavy Storm. Not one of the reversal cards he'd wanted. Oh well, it could still clear away the two Set cards on Chairo's field that had been worrying him.
"First, I'll activate my Set card, Lightning Vortex! I'll discard a card to destroy your Virus! Next, I'll activate Heavy Storm to wipe out your backrow! After that, I'll Set a monster and end my turn."
Chairo drew his card. "I activate Pot of Greed to draw two more cards! Now I remove the Goblin Attack Force in my Graveyard from play to Special Summon Gigantes and attack your Set monster!"
"Magician of Faith's Flip Effect will allow me to retrieve a Spell from my Graveyard! I'll go with Graceful Charity!"
"Sure, draw more cards! I've still got this Duel in my hands! I end my turn!"
Thirteen cards left. Tatsumaki drew for turn. Another Magician of Faith. Not ideal, but workable.
"I activate Graceful Charity to draw three cards and discard two!"
Tatsumaki drew his cards, checking each one as he went. On the sidelines, the Breakers held their breath, watching intently. This would decide it all.
First card, Giant Trunade. Dead card.
Second card, Delinquent Duo. Also dead.
Third card. Tatsumaki smiled. There it was.
"I discard Giant Trunade and Delinquent Duo. Next, I activate the Spell Card, Dimension Fusion!"
Enzo, Emi, Noroi, and the rest of the Breakers cheered. Chairo had no defense against this.
"I pay 2000 Life Points, and we both Special Summon as many removed from play monsters as possible!"
Tatsumaki got all his biggest threats back in one fell swoop: DMOC, Jinzo, Zaborg, Chaos Sorcerer, and Thunder Dragon all came to his field in Attack Position. Chairo, meanwhile, only got a D.D. Assailant.
"Next, DMOC's effect triggers! When he's Summoned, I get another Spell Card back from my Grave! I'll add and activate Lightning Vortex, discarding my Magician of Faith to destroy all your face-up monsters, clearing your field for mine to all attack you and end this Duel!"
Chairo: 0 Life Points.
Tatsumaki: 300 Life Points.
It was over. The Dustshoot Gang had been completely eradicated.
"You…" seethed Chairo. "You son of a bitch. You think you can humiliate me and wipe out my gang and get away with it! I'll kill you! I'LL KILL YOU!" Chairo charged at Tatsumaki, who responded by pulling his knife again, preparing to defend himself, but Enzo, Manda, and Kiri stepped in between them, and together they beat down Chairo, stripping him of his deck and Duel Disk.
"Sorry, Chairo, but your outfit is done for, and all your territory is now Breakers turf!" said Enzo excitedly. "I've been waiting for this day for so long!"
"Big talk for someone who let a teenager fight his battles for him," said Chairo weakly. "You weren't even man enough to take me on yourself."
"Says the guy who actually lost to said teenager," retorted Enzo. "Kiri, Manda, get him out of here."
"Roger that!" said Manda as he and Kiri did as ordered, grabbing a leg each and dragging him off to throw into a nearby ditch.
"Well, kid," began Enzo, turning towards Tatsumaki. "I gotta admit, I had my doubts about your plan, but it all worked out. Good job."
"I knew it would work out. There was no way the Dustshoots could take us on after how much work we put into our decks last night."
"Now, there's only one thing left to do," said Enzo, turning his back and walking to the spot Chairo had occupied during the Duel.
"What's that?" asked Tatsumaki nervously. He had a bad feeling about where this was going.
"Tatsumaki, I appreciate everything you've done for us in the past few days, and we couldn't have taken down the Dustshoot Gang today without your help. That being said, as the leader of the Breakers, I can't stand by and allow you to take my position. At the rate this is going, the gang will come to think of you as the leader instead of me."
"Enzo, it was never my intention to take your place as the leader," explained Tatsumaki. "I don't even want to be the leader! I have a plan to take us all to the big leagues, and nowhere in that plan am I meant to usurp your position!"
"Whether or not it's your intention to take the title of leader is irrelevant," countered Enzo. "The fact is, if we keep going along with this plan of yours and following your suggestion, that makes you the leader by default whether you want it or not. My pride as a man and as the current leader of the Breakers demands that I settle this now, before it can get out of hand, but simply kicking you out would be the coward's solution. So, Tatsumaki Yaku, I challenge you to a Duel, and the loser must leave the Breakers forever."
"Enzo, please! We just scored a huge win! This isn't the time for infighting!"
"I realize that, but I'm afraid my mind is made up. This has to happen."
Emi stepped forward, putting her hand on Tatsumaki's shoulder. "You don't have to accept this challenge, you know. We can just go back home and celebrate."
Tatsumaki sighed. "No, you're wrong. I have to settle this here and now. If I don't, then Enzo's resentment will just keep building up until it reaches a boiling point, and then the fallout from it will be even worse. It's better to nip this in the bud right now. Even though I don't want us to resort to infighting, and even though I really don't want to be the leader, I accept your challenge, Enzo."